Auto Action #1905

PIASTRI I CAN BECOME WORLD CHAMPION

SUPERCARS

SVG CAUGHT IN SOMEONE ELSE’S DRAMA WILLIAM BYRON GOES

WILLIAM BYRON has achieved a rare back-to-back victory in the 2025 Daytona 500, taking out the world’s richest motor race after late-race trouble wiped out Denny Hamlin and Austin Cindric who, between them, looked to have the race under control on the final lap.

The race was brought an hour forward to allow for the possible impact of rain, but it was then delayed nearly half an hour by President Donald Trump’s appearance. Rain then hit nine laps into the race which went into pause mode for more than two hours before another brief shower halted proceedings.

Shane van Gisbergen briefly led the race before encountering trouble in the second stage. He says he has no idea what happened in the incident that dashed his Daytona 500 chances.

He made the chequered flag in 33rd spot, several laps behind race winner William Byron after getting caught up in an incident during Stage 2. He started the race off the back of the grid after switching to a spare chassis after a crash during the Duel at Daytona on Thursday night – and was making good progress.

“Not much to say, I don’t really know what happened yet,” he told Auto Action straight after the race.

“It was good in the first stage; I learnt a lot. Ran up the front when I wasn’t fuel saving, which is promising. I made one bad lane choice,” he added, saying that was when he briefly got his nose in the lead.

“I chose the wrong guy, I chose a Toyota who was fuel saving and I just didn’t get a push. As soon as I did it, I knew I should have gone to the middle,

or the high line.”

He said his car was so badly damaged it was four seconds off the pace.

“There’s a good saying in this series – ‘try again next week before rejecting the idea of good signs.’ I don’t think like that; I’m still processing what happened.”

Byron’s victory makes him the youngest of five drivers to win consecutive Daytona 500s, and he has kicked off the championship season in style. He also took home a winner’s purse estimate to be near US$3 million.

“You can’t underestimate the amount of preparation and teamwork that we had throughout the week,” the young Hendrick Racing star said.

“We had an awesome car today. We didn’t have the track position to show it, the way the fuel savings and strategy worked out.

“Last year was kind of the opposite. We were always up front, and this year just wasn’t that way.

“I felt like, for us, we were trying to stay positive, and I felt like each restart there at the end we were still optimistic about our chances to get forward.

“Yeah ... obviously it worked out in a fortunate way for us, but it’s not all luck to win twice in a row. It’s a lot of

teamwork and a lot of talking with my spotter and us three working together and making the most of it.”

“Definitely fortunate but definitely a lot of teamwork.”

The second round of the 2025 NASCAR Championship will be run on Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend.

Andrew

Clarke Full coverage – pages 74-77

FORD CHIEF SAYS T8 DEAL WAS EASY, LOOKING FORWARD

MARK RUSHBROOK SAYS THE DEAL WITH TRIPLE EIGHT RACE ENGINEERING MADE SO MUCH SENSE THAT IT WAS EASY. HE SAYS IT WAS MORE ABOUT THE POSITIVES OF THE FUTURE THAN THE NEGATIVES OF THE PAST. IN DAYTONA FRO THE 500, HE SPOKE WITH ANDREW CLARKE ABOUT STEALING THE BIGGEST AND BEST FROM CHEVROLET ...

WHY WOULDN’T you? If you were a manufacturer and in one of your semi-regular chats with the biggest and the most successful team in the

turned from coffee to coup, why wouldn’t you embrace the idea?

That is pretty much how it went down and, after the conversation

championship-calibre team like Triple Eight, it’s an easy decision to talk to them about the opportunity.

ADC: Really? Championship calibre –it’s more than that ...

Mark: True, with Ford, then Holden and Chevy. That’s a conversation you don’t say no to. You take the conversation, and it was very quickly clear that we’re like-minded and that we could be good partners in the first 20 minutes of the discussion. It all moved very quickly to a contract, to the announcement. I already feel it’s weird that they’re going to be still racing a Chevy this year. I already feel like they’re part of the family, and we’re already planning everything for 2026.

ADC: If we roll back a couple of years when Gen 3 first came out, there were some pretty acrimonious words coming out at the time. I mean, you were completely unhappy… Mark: I was.

ADC: But there were words said from both sides. Did you have to throw out any olive branches?

Mark: No, I think any racing series, is a very intense environment – not just on the track racing, but what was happening off the track as well. At the time, Supercars’ technical processes weren’t where they needed to be for parity, which is what I was vocal about. I wasn’t vocal against Chevy, Triple Eight, or Jamie Whincup. My issue leading up to the introduction of the Gen3 car and the start of racing the Gen3 car, was with the parity process – or lack of process. It was never personal with Triple Eight. It wasn’t an issue once we talked about partnering together because I think they understood the same thing—that my issue was with Supercars.

And all credit to Supercars, they’re in a good place now, now that they’ve got Tim Edwards there and Perry Kapper there, and everything

Whincup and Rushbrook – an easy deal ...

they’ve done to improve their technical depth and the commitment when they brought the cars to Windshear in North Carolina and had an actual process and got the cars to parity and similar with the engine going to the AVL dyno.

This series is now in a good place, and it’s great that Toyota is coming.

ADC: There were a few barbs thrown your way about whingeing and sooking and all those kinds of things, but I suppose that’s the territory, isn’t it?

Mark: I’m sure – I read some of those, but I’m thick-skinned. I knew what needed to happen at Supercars and I had no issue calling them out on it.

If someone calls me a whinger because I’m holding them to the same standard we do every other race series, OK, call me that, I don’t care. But Supercars responded and now they’re in a better place.

ADC: What does changing a homologation team mean to Ford?

Mark: While we have a carryover car, it doesn’t mean much. So, very transparently, we’re still in that process with Supercars of how we transition from DJR as our HT to Triple Eight as our HT.

Because we need DJR to continue as an HT related to anything for 2025, it would be inappropriate to have Triple Eight running a Chevy representing Ford for 2025 racing. So DJR needs to continue doing that for 2025, but anything related to 2026, Triple Eight will represent us.

ADC: Did you get Gen3 wrong to start with?

Mark: For the Gen 3 Supercars, it was the system – 100%. It was the system.

ADC: Did DJR fail? Did they let you down?

Mark: No, I don’t think they failed. I think it was the system. DJR is a great team. At our launch event, Edsel Ford presented Dick with the Spirit of Ford Award. That’s a special award, and we only give it out when it’s deserved and earned. And Dick deserved it, earned it, and we love him. We believe we’ve got a long, strong future with DJR. They can and will win races.

I don’t know that they failed as the homologation team – again, because I think it was the process that failed. But because of that process being broken, it distracted DJR from their own racing effort.

I think part of the benefit of this change is that it frees DJR up to focus on their racing. They’ve made a lot of great moves for 2025 with Brodie coming in and race engineers and a reset on lots of different things.

because, again, back to the processes and chasing changes; that we were limited on how we could make those changes, I think, is what got us into that situation.

But we got out of it, worked through it well, and I think we’re in a good place.

ADC: This is all about the future for Ford Performance in Australia ... Mark: Yeah, we’re committed. We’ve got a strong engineering as a company. We’re committed to the country from a workforce perspective, from a vehicle perspective. In Ford Performance, where we race all over the world, we’re in a lot of regional series and we’re in a lot of global series.

The opportunity that we have in Australia with Supercars, especially with Toyota coming, is fantastic. We look forward to that competition. But now that we also have GT3 cars and GT4 cars and Dark Horse Rs and we want to own off-road racing.

ADC: How enticing was Triple Eight’s multi-modal engineering concept to you?

I expect that DJR will be in contention in winning races this year and, for sure, next year.

ADC: What about the engines? It started out with Herrod’s and went to DJR’s Motorsport Powertrains. Now it’s going to Kenny Mac.

Mark: More to come on that. That full path, what I will say today, is less clear. Just in terms of how all that gets managed.

ADC: But it’s not such a bad thing having the same people building engines for both cars, is it?

Mark: TBD if that’s going to happen, quite honestly. From our perspective, it would be good. These are productionbased engines, we don’t have any IP to lose.

ADC: What about the engine failures last year after Sandown? How embarrassing was that, and did that have any impact on where you ended up?

Mark: I’ll answer the latter part first. It had no impact. In terms of the failures themselves, part of that is

Mark: I would say it made it more interesting. We would have done the deal anyway if it was only about Supercars, and the agreement at this point is only about Supercars – but with the shared vision that we can do so much more together, we will do more with them.

ADC: You had Jamie on stage with Christian Horner; is that a symbol of how important it is to you?

Mark: It is. And in the sense that when we struck the deal with Red Bull for F1 two and a half years ago, it was for Formula One, but also with the shared vision that we would be Red Bull Ford in as many places as we could be. We already were Red Bull Ford in WRC. We’ve now become Red Bull Ford in Dakar with a partnership there. We’ve done a lot of Red Bull Ford stuff with our demonstrators, like on the side of our super van. So having Red Bull Ford in Australian Supercars is important for that market, but also for the global Red Bull Ford relationship. When we decided to announce it at that launch event, knowing that we would have Red Bull F1 with Christian there and Jamie there-that was, for sure, like a picture moment to have them together in the same place as part of our programs.

Jamie Whincup was in illustrious company at the recent 2025 Ford Motorsport season launch in Charlotte.

Left to right: Will Ford – General manager, Ford Performance; Jim Farley – President and CEO, Ford Motor Company; Bill Ford – Chairman, Ford Motor Company; Mark Rushbrook –Global Director, Ford Performance; Christian Horner – CEO and Team Principal, Red Bull Racing.

Ford have already enjoyed success with the Mustang in 2025 with the Mustang GT3 taking out the GTD Pro class at the recent Daytona 24 Hours race.

DRIVERS ENJOY FIRST LAPS

FOR MANY, Wednesday’s test won’t be the first laps for drivers at their new teams with many, headlined by DJR’s Brodie Kostecki, undertaking a number of shakedowns last week.

Last Thursday was a busy day for Supercars shakedowns around the country led by Kostecki, who enjoyed his long-awaited first laps in his #38 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang.

He joined team-mate Will Davison as they completed a 60km shakedown for their respective new Mustang chassis.

Kostecki said everything went to plan.

“It was a great first day in the Shell V-Power Mustang and great to get my first laps,” he said.

“The crew did a fantastic job and the car ran flawlessly.

“It was all about doing the laps and making sure we don’t have any issues going into next week

“Very excited to finally get to the first race meeting.

“It was great paring with Will Davison. He has a wealth of

knowledge and it was great seeing him jump aboard the car and coming out with a huge smile.

“We will go back to the workshop tomorrow and have a debrief.”

Down at Winton, Anton De Pasquale got some more seat time at his new home, Team 18.

The former DJR driver got to get his first taste of the Camaro at four Supercars-controlled tests at the Bathurst 12 Hour weekend.

But he got a much better taste at Winton where he enjoyed the shakedown of his new #18 chassis.

“It’s ran faultlessly, it rolled out of the truck feeling really good straight away. The whole team did an amazing job with the build,” de Pasquale said.

“It was a productive day; we went through a few things and worked through my first day with the team at the racetrack.

“It’s pretty exciting, everything ran really good, so I’m looking forward to getting to Sydney next week.”

This comes a day after Andre Heimgartner cut some laps in

another new chassis, the #8 Camaro at Brad Jones Racing. He joined a host of Super2 drivers at Winton on Wednesday. DJR was not the only team in action at QR with Matt Stone Racing also cutting laps last week as Cameron Hill got the chance to drive the new MSR-006 for 60km and, like DJR, everything went to plan as he starts his relationaship with new engineer Caleb Mustsaerts.

“It was a very good day, as far as shakedowns go — we got out on time at the very start of the day,” said Hill.

“I think the worst part of our day was just one of our wheel speed sensors; other than that it was a full ground-up build and the car ran faultlessly.

“That’s a massive credit to the boys in the shop.”

Thomas Miles

REYNOLDS BOUYED BY NEW TYRE

IN ADDITION to new formats –Finals – the 2025 Supercars season offers a lot of new variables, but David Reynolds believes the new tyres will be the biggest challenge.

Two new tyre compounds will be in use across 2025 that have been developed and tested extensively recently in the hope of producing better racing.

Whilst only the Soft tyre will be on show in Sydney, there will be six rounds where both the Soft and Super Soft will be used on the same weekend.

Reynolds feels the new compound is the key to success in 2025, with teams that unlocks the secrets first to have a big advantage.

However, it is a challenge that excites the 39-year-old.

“The new tyres are so different to drive on and set the car up. Everyone will be searching for grip, so it is going

to be fun,” Reynolds told Auto Action.

“It won’t be until Perth maybe when we know whose car is good.

“We will learn a lot this year from the new tyre and I am glad the category has done something different because I have not felt a car like this in my lifetime so it will be interesting.

“If we can learn the tyre the fastest

and understand it we can have the best attack on the championship.”

Whilst Reynolds is an incumbent at Team 18, there is a new engineering line up and team-mate in Anton De Pasquale, whom he partnered with at Erebus from 2018-2020.

The 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner feels there is a positive feeling at Mount Waverley and he is determined to

make the most of 2025 after 2024 being a ‘nearly’ year.

“It feels like a new start, new team this year,” he said.

“Obviously there is Anton coming but also some engineers and the new building, which encompasses all of that together.

“There is a new vibe and energy around so hopefully that equates to performance.

“That is just a small part because it comes down to a lot of hard work on and off the track.

“Last year, we started out really good and then fell by the wayside a bit and got lost in set-up.

“But towards the end of the year we came back quite strongly and had a really fast car but did not capitalise on it through a few mistakes.

“That is all in the past now and it will be completely different this year.”

Thomas Miles

ing JONES CHASING SUPERCARS DREAM

PROLIFIC PORSCHE champion

Harri Jones has begun the journey to fulfilling his Supercars dream by scoring a co-drive with Team 18.

The two-time Porsche Carrera Cup Australia champion and Porsche Supercup competitor is a surprise addition to an all new co-driver pairing for Team 18 along with the experienced Lee Holdsworth.

Jones is still only 25 but already has two national Carrera Cup titles to his name, plus an impressive Supercup campaign in 2023 when he fell just short of Rookie Cup honours racing against the best in Europe at F1 events.

Despite having an option to stay in Europe, last year he returned home and dominated the Carrera Cup once again, winning 12 of the 24 races.

But despite being a Porsche star, Jones always had his heart set on Supercars and admits he is hoping to use the co-drive as a springboard to a full-time seat in 2026.

“It is a dream come true to co drive with Team 18,” Jones told Auto Action at Team 18’s season launch.

“As an Australian Bathurst and the

enduros are like Christmas so to know this year I will be lining up on the grid is amazing.

“It will be a massive learning year, being a sponge to soak up as much information as I can about Supercars.

“I have had an awesome career in Porsches, with some great success at home and abroad, but now I am excited for a new challenge in Supercars.

“The ultimate goal is to be a fulltime driver.

“I have raced overseas and seen what it is like around the world and I feel Supercars is one of the best categories worldwide. It would be a dream come true.

“This year there is a lot to learn and I will take this opportunity with both hands and see how far we can go.”

The chance to race Supercars started through a connection with current Team 18 team principal Adrian Burgess.

Conversations led to the chance to drive the #18 Camaro at an

evaluation day at The Bend in December.

Jones admitted he felt at home in the Chevrolet and believes it won’t be too hard to break from his Porsche habits.

“They are different cars and my expertise has been Porsches in recent years, but I have raced many different cars and all the techniques you need in Supercars I have experienced in the past,” he said.

“I did feel comfortable straight away in the Camaro but you are never fully comfortable because then you are not learning.

“There are simple things, from left foot to right foot braking, (but) I used to do right-foot braking so it comes back like riding a bike.

“By the time Tailem Bend comes around we will be right where we need to be.”

In addition to Supercars, Jones will stay race fit by looking to continue to build his Carrera Cup record as he chases a third Australian title and first with his own Jones Motorsport operation.

Thomas Miles

BRABHAM INSPIRED SPRINT CUP TROPHY REVEALED

FOR THE first time in Supercars, a Sprint Cup will be on the line in 2025 and the successful first driver that wins the new ‘Minor Premiership’ will lift a Sir Jack Brabham-inspired prize.

In the new era of Finals Supercars, drivers will be competing for the Sprint Cup across the first eight rounds of the season.

The driver with the most points across the 25 races from the season opener at Sydney this weekend to August’s Ipswich Super 400 at Queensland Raceway will not only secure a Finals ticket, but also claim the Sprint Cup.

The prize they will receive will be a trophy trophy modelled directly off the BT19 steering wheel, which Brabham drove to the 1966 Formula 1 World Championship.

WAU star Chaz Mostert has labelled the new Sprint Cup as the ‘minor

premiership’ of Supercars.

“This is the one they want to win and a fair few other ones as well, so Supercars has changed a bit this year and it will be really cool having a Finals series and the enduro element as well,”

Mostert said.

“Also having an eight round Sprint Cup is basically like a minor premiership, kind-of like NRL, which is awesome to race for top honours heading into enduros.

“It will be cool to hopefully be the first to have this honour.”

“This year there is a lot to race for and it all starts with the Sprint Cup. It would be awesome to win that and we will have a crack,” Tickford’s Cameron Waters said.

“It will be really exciting and there is a lot to race for in all different phases through the year so it should be a lot of fun.”

In addition to the Sprint Cup, the season transitions to endurance mode where the Enduro Cup will return for the first time since 2019 ahead of the new three-round Finals Series.

The Sprint Cup will be made up of rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park, Albert Park, Taupo, Symmons Plains, Wanneroo, Hidden Valley, Townsville and Ipswich.

Thomas Miles

The Sprint Cup – courtesy of Repco ... Image: MARK HORSBURGH

Holdsworth and Jones – an all-new enduro co-driver lineup for Team 18.

CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE – BOTH

AS McLAREN UNVEILED ITS 2025 F1 CHALLENGER, OSCAR PIASTRI SAT DOWN WITH INVITED (MAINLY

Q: How’s your winter been? How have things been going?

OP: It’s been a great winter because it’s been a summer for me. I went back home for about a month, which is probably the longest trip I’ve had back since I left home about 10 years ago. Got to see the tennis and cricket. It was a nice off-season, a nice little stint away from race cars. Feeling refreshed and ready to go again.

Q: It’s the first time in your F1 career that Melbourne will open the season. How are you feeling about that, given all the extra pressure you will have there, but also the chance that you might do extremely well? And how good an indicator is Melbourne for how you might do over the course of

McLaren carefully controlled photographer access to its brand new 2025 car – in ‘disguise’ livery – so no details, especially of the rear of the car, could be recorded. Even the shakedown day race suits were plain black! ... Images: McLAREN F1

the season, even with Mercedes dominating, Ferrari often winning that race? What is the track like for indication of that?

OP: I’m very excited to have it as the opener. Growing up as a kid, that’s how I remember Melbourne.

that would have been pretty full-on.

For me, I’m very excited to go there as the opener. I know the Australian fans are definitely going to be keen as well to see who’s going to have what at the first race.

Melbourne is probably more

We are starting with a clean slate – and I do think that I can become World Champion this year.” “ ”

I’m sure for most people in the room, that’s how we remember it in those years.

I’m very excited to have it back as round one.

I’m probably glad it wasn’t the opener in my rookie season, because

representative than Bahrain is as an opening circuit – certainly for us in the last few years. Bahrain has not been our strongest circuit, but Melbourne has often worked quite well for us –it’s got a little bit of everything.

The tarmac, I would say, is a surface

that’s quite common through the rest of the season. It’s quite fresh, quite smooth, whereas Bahrain is obviously very old now and rough.

I think that is probably a better indicator but, as the layout goes, these cars are so sensitive to everything, that pretty much every track feels different to each other now. You can’t group them into similar characteristics that well any more.

Q: In terms of your own driving, what do you think is key to delivering the consistency needed to fight for the championship? Last year your peaks were amazing, but there were weekends where things didn’t click. Is there a consistent explanation for those weekends or are there areas that

BOTH STARTING FROM ZERO

MEDIA FOR A CHAT. HE’S APPROACHING THE NEW SEASON WITH CALM CONFIDENCE …

you feel you need to make a step?

OP: I think definitely there were a couple of weekends where I wasn’t as strong as I wanted to be – it’s building up the resilience to be able to adapt a bit quicker in the weekends.

I said at the end of last season, qualifying is something I wanted to work on, but I think going through a lot of the details and things, it’s not just qualifying better. There’s some specifics that, if I can improve on those, it’ll make everything better. Then you get the confidence and everything naturally helps itself.

Ultimately that’s going to be an important thing this season, putting

your best foot forward every weekend, because there’s going to be weekends where you’re not the quickest – it’s how you can still make the most of those weekends where you’re not on top.

Q: You said earlier you were looking at where you discussed things you didn’t do so well or the team didn’t do so well. Can you just let us know what areas you would like to see the team improve in and also what you anticipate how the team will handle it if you and Lando end up going head-tohead for championships?

OP: I think it was evident in the middle part of last season. Here, Silverstone, was a good example where I think we still had some room to improve as a team and some of our decisionmaking; and just experience in being back at the front and not being able to rely on other people, and making our decisions based off other teams. But by the end of the season we made a lot of progress on that and I think we were in a really strong place with that.

In terms of managing myself and Lando, obviously our target as a team and as drivers is to have every weekend be an easy 1-2 and make sure that we then fight for that!

We’re all starting on zero points and I want to win the World Championship this year – and hopefully we have a car that’s capable of doing that from the start.

We’ve shown time and time again that we can race each other hard but cleanly – and as long as we’re not taking points off of the team then that’s how we’re going to go racing.

We are starting with a clean slate – and I do think that I can become World Champion this year.

Twelve months ago I was going into the season still with some weaknesses that I wasn’t particularly confident with, but I think that through last season I addressed them. It’s now just about addressing them every weekend and making sure that I’m putting my best foot forward every weekend and that is what is going to be the difference.

I’m definitely not the finished product, but I don’t think anyone necessarily is. I think if we can work on some of the things that we’ve set out to do in this off-season then I’ll have a lot of tools to be able to try and make that happen.

Q: Are you confident the rules of engagement between yourself and Lando will be crystal clear going into the season or will there be

occasions, particularly if you’re fighting Max towards the end, where it’s going to be a case-bycase, race-by-race basis?

OP: I think they’re crystal clear going into the start of the season. Like I’ve said, we’re both starting on zero. There’s every opportunity for either one of us to go and win races.

Of course, if there becomes a points difference in either direction towards the end of the season and we need our team-mate’s help then we’ll try and help each other out.

But that’s still going to be a long, long way away and hopefully never comes to fruition, because I think, for either one of us … we want to win because we’ve been able to put in the performances ourselves.

Q: How much of a handicap is it when you’re up against a team like Red Bull where it’s quite clearly based around one driver? You’re going to be taking points off Lando and the other way around too – is that going to be a problem?

OP: It is obviously a different dynamic. I think Liam will do a good job.

Obviously, Max has been established and we know how strong he is, but I think there’s other advantages that come with having a strong team-mate, in terms of being able to learn from one another – that is a very big help for both of us in trying to become faster.

But yes, that obviously has its downsides in some situations as well.

In my opinion, I think it outweighs that and, naturally, if you become world champion, you’re going to be worthy no matter who your teammate is.

But yes, potentially, in terms of not taking points off each other that is a bit easier for Max. But I don’t know … Liam could come out and surprise us all. I know how strong Liam is as I raced against him for a number of years …

Oscar enjoyed some success in 2024 and believes there’s more to come in 2025.

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

EREBUS EMBRACES

EREBUS MOTORSPORT HAS ONCE AGAIN EMBRACED YOUTH, AS THE 2025 SEASON OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROMOTE TALENT FROM WITHIN ITS OWN RANKS AND THE EREBUS ACADEMY, WHILE ALSO SECURING COOPER MURRAY FOR A SHOT AT THE MAIN GAME. BRUCE WILLIAMS ATTENDED THE SEASON LAUNCH ...

THERE WAS A sense of déjà vu surrounding the Erebus season launch as it gears up for a new season with a refreshed look and feel, following some significant changes in the off-season.

However, it feels much more settled than it did this time last year.

Personnel changes have occurred in both the workshop and the driver’s seat. Brodie Kostecki’s departure from the team with engineer George Commins made headlines, and team principal Brad Tremain’s (aka B1) exit for an IndyCar opportunity were the major talking points.

There are three new drivers: Cooper Murray, who will drive car #99 full-time, and Super2 drivers Jobe Stewart and Jarrod Hughes for the endurance races. The deck chairs have also been shuffled, with promotions to young engineers and mechanics, which team CEO Barry Ryan says is just the ‘Erebus way.’

On the sponsors’ side of the fence, Tyrepower returns as a season-long partner on the #9 Camaro of Jack Le Brocq, while Chiko will back for select rounds on the Camaro of rookie Cooper Murray, including a crack at back-to-back Bathurst titles.

CEO Barry Ryan says you need to adapt to change in motorsport. If your staff is poached, it just means you’ve done a good job. So, you reset and find the next talent on the track and in the workshop.

He feels they are entering the season in good shape after winning at Bathurst and the Gold Coast.

“The cars are strong, and the team is strong. It’s going to be interesting because we’ve got a lot of confidence in our cars and our team, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in the drivers,” he said from the team’s season launch at Young Timers Garage.

“Losing Brodie was always going to be a big thing. He was a champion and a Bathurst winner for us. After four years, he’s done his apprenticeship, and he’s moving on to try something else. As with everybody else that leaves the team, I say it opens doors for others – but our door is always open if they want to return in a couple of years.

“We’ve got one common driver, Jack – that’s good,” Ryan said. “He’s fired up. He’s the most prepared and excited I’ve seen him, and I’ve known him for a long time.

“We’ll see a lot out of Jack this year. “Having Cooper do Adelaide last year was obviously a good leg up. He’s ready to go. I can see he’s ready to win. It’s awesome to see he’s got the confidence – and that’s what you need. I’m glad we’re giving him an opportunity because I rate him as the young driver to have this year.

“Jobe and Jarrod are not far behind. We’ve got a lot sitting there ready to go,and, hopefully, we can get these boys an opportunity in the coming years. Whether it’s with us or another team, it doesn’t really matter to Betty or me. We like seeing them get the opportunity.

“The core of the workshop crew hasn’t really changed that much. B1, we’re proud that he’s going to America, and he’s going to be in his dream job in IndyCar, so that’s great for B1. This is B2’s (Brad Packham) ninth season, so he’s stepping up to team manager.

“Kieran’s been with us for a couple of years, and he’s crew chief. We’ve still got some young guys that have come up through as mechanics, and we’ve got a couple of fresh ones and a couple of new army people, which is exciting.

“It’s good. We’ve been doing pit stops for the last three weeks, sometimes twice daily, so we’re well prepared in the workshop. Although we’ve lost some key people, we’ve still got a lot of experience and kept some really good ones too.”

Terry Wyhoon’s Image Racing will run the two endurance drivers in Super2 for the 2025 season along with Erebus Academy driver Max Geoghegan, who Ryan sees as another rising star to mentor.

JACK LE BROCQ – LEAD DRIVER #9

“I’M KEEN to get stuck into it. I think it’s going to be a solid year. Having Tyrepower locked in for the year for car #9 is awesome.

“Our team at Erebus has been doing an awesome job, prepped some good race cars. We’re coming off a positive end to 2024 and had some really good speed. So, as long as we get on top of this new tyre quickly, I think we’ll be in for a good run.

“It’s been very, very positive around here. The guys are doing an awesome job in the workshop. Everyone’s having a good time.

Team Erebus – rejuvenated and ready to go ...

YOUTH FOR 2025

“They’re very well prepared too. They’ve been out there practising a lot of pit stops, getting right into it.

“Having Cooper is great too – he’s come in with plenty of enthusiasm and ready to fire. I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes and working alongside him.

“I think we can push towards the top five for sure. I think that’s very achievable. Last year, I thought we were probably in a pretty good spot to be able to do that. We had a few things that did not go our way.

“From my point, I just need to get my elbows out a bit more. I’m going to be pushing pretty hard on that this year, making sure I stand my ground a bit more and get those results we deserve.

“We know the car speed’s there. We’ve just got to execute and put it all together. I’m looking forward to working with Baz and the rest of the guys, and we’ll make it happen.”

COOPER MURRAY – LEAD DRIVER #99

“I’M EXCITED and ready to go. It’s been a long time waiting. So, get the covers off today, and then we crack down and get into business.

“Learning the cars won’t be too hard, especially with Adelaide last year. That was a real positive and a bonus to get those extra laps. But for us, my engineer Wayne and the team, it will be about understanding this new tyre as much as possible.

“We’ll be the first team to do a full test on it at my rookie test day, so I hope that is a little advantage for us before we get to Sydney

“If you ask me, I reckon the youth are the future and Kai (new Grove Racing driver Kai Allen) and I proved that last year. It showed that people need to trust the young talent coming up through Super2. They’re not slow, and they know how to drive a car fast.

“I love racing in the category with all the people around. It’s tough, hard racing, and that’s what I like.”

JOBE STEWART – CODRIVER #9

“IT IS exciting to finally step up to the main game in the endurance races

with Erebus. It feels like it’s been a long time coming because I’ve been with them in the Academy for so long, and Barry and Betty have been behind me for so long.

“I’ll still have Jack Le Brocq to learn off, but joining Cooper is good because we’ll get to progress and learn together because I’ve been racing him the past couple years, and I love how he drives. He’s pretty aggressive, like me, so I think we’ll make a great pairing.

“We’ve seen in the previous years some of the young drivers that have come through Erebus – like Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki – have ended up as champions. At Erebus, it’s just what they do; they love giving their young drivers a crack and, so far, it’s worked

The

team

that’s not trying to make friends or look after sponsors!

It’s hard and it’s fast and sometimes it’s a bit rough, but we call it how we see it and pull no punches.

Plenty of analysis and lots of opinion from some of the most experienced motorsport media people in the business - Bruce Williams, Andrew Clarke and Melinda Price.

out for them, and it’s good for me and Jarrod.

“Having this locked way takes some pressure off. Most of the Super2 grid would be trying to get a co-drive throughout the year and trying to impress. You try not to let it change the way you drive and try to get results, but it is bit of a weight off the shoulders to know that that’s out of the way, and I can focus on race-by-race in Super2 until we get to the Enduros.”

JARROD HUGHES – CODRIVER #9

“IT’S GOING to be busy this year, but it’s going to be good. Getting the enduro drive with Erebus and Jack is unreal.

“For Erebus to have the sort of faith in me to be able to do this just after oneyear racing Supercars is awesome, and I can’t thank them enough.

“But it will be good to get more seat time in the Super2 car again. I can have another dip at that, try and go even harder.

“Last year was, I shouldn’t say it, safe play, but it was more we just wanted to make it to the end.

“My goal was the top six, and we got fourth. So, this year we’re going to have a crack.

“Then we’re doing GT4 and TA2 racing as well. We’ve got stuff going on everywhere but lots of seat time. Hopefully, we’ll be straight onto it when I hop in at the enduros.”

The Erebus Fountain of Youth – Le Brocq is joined by Stewart, Hughes and Murray ...

PADDON COMMITS TO ARC

THE AUSTRALIAN Rally Championship is to be boosted by the arrival of Kiwi WRC rally winner Hayden Paddon.

Paddon has already made a number of appearances down under, but 2025 will be his first full campaign – the Bates brothers will have a fierce new rival.

Racing under his Paddon Racing Group, the 37-year-old will steer a Hyundai i20N Rally2 at all six rounds.

Paddon has almost a decade’s worth of WRC experience, highlighted by becoming the only New Zealander to win a rally on the biggest stage, the 2016 Rally Argentina.

In addition to annually competing in the Rally Australia WRC round, he also made an ARC start in 2019 that formed part of his successful APRC Pacific Cup pursuit.

Having also returned in 2022 Paddon is looking forward to a full

season in Australia.

“I’m really excited to finally put together a campaign for the Australian Rally Championship,” said Paddon.

“It’s something we have been trying to make happen for a couple

of years. It’s a championship that we have not yet tried our hand at, and the level of competition and events was something that has been an appeal while watching from the other side of the Tasman.

“We are under no illusions that

it will be a tough challenge - up against some very fast competition on unfamiliar events/terrain.

“But we will treat it like any other rally or championships that we compete in – and know we have the best team with PRG and a strong package with the Hyundai i20N Rally2 to give it our best shot.

“It is a bit special to compete in Australia, especially after the many years of success that Possum Bourne had there and watching that as a kid. To now take our own Kiwi team across the ditch and rejuvenate that trans-Tasman rivalry is going to be an exciting and fun challenge.

“We know from previous times we have competed in Australia that everyone is very welcoming which adds to the experience.”

The 2025 ARC season begins in Canberra on March 21-23.

Thomas Miles

TCR SWAPS NZ FOR ONE RACEWAY

THE 2025 TCR Australia season will not begin in New Zealand as originally planned, with One Raceway now being added to the series.

Originally the Supercars round at Taupo in New Zealand was slated to kick off a new-look TCR Australia calendar, season will now remain on home shores, although the final round is yet to be confirmed, with the Macau Grand Prix a possibility.

With Taupo being dropped, the season will now not begin until almost halfway through the year, in June, alongside the Supercars at WA’s Wanneroo Raceway.

A fortnight later, TCRs will take on One Raceway for the first time as Round 2 takes centre stage at a Motorsport Australia Trophy Tour round at what was formally known as Wakefield Park.

Whilst Taupo has been removed and One Raceway added, the remainder of the calendar is untouched. Winton stays as Round 3 in August before the World Tour arrives at The Bend in September,

while the season finale also featuring the international series is still to be confirmed.

Whilst not touching on why New Zealand was dropped, TCR Australia Series Director David Sonenscher said he is looking forward to the category heading to One Raceway for the first time. It will be a big moment for the revitalised track brought to life by Steve Shelley, which has hosted Australian SuperBikes and Hi-Tec Oils Super Series since reopening:

“We are proud to bring the TCR Australia Series to One Raceway,” said Sonenscher. The circuit has recently been upgraded and deserves to host high-level Australian motorsport

“We look forward to working with Steve Shelley, Troy Williams and their team to deliver a successful event.

“Importantly, the addition of One Raceway to the calendar ensures TCR will race in New South Wales –the home state for a number of our competitors and their supporters.”

Thomas Miles

2025 TCR AUSTRALIA SERIES CALENDAR

Round 1: Perth Super 440 – June 6-8 (Supercars)

Round 2: One Raceway - June 27-29 (Motorsport Australia Trophy Tour)

Round 3: Race Winton – August 22-24 (ARG)

Round 4: The Bend 500 – September 12-14 (Kumho FIA TCR World Tour, Supercars)

Round 5: TBA – November (Kumho FIA TCR World Tour)

SUPER2 CHALLENGERS

IN ADDITION to the Supercars, the shaken-up field of the stars of tomorrow hope to shine in Sydney for the opening round of Super2.

With some graduating to Supercars and others changing teams, the possibilities are endless ahead of the development category’s 25th anniversary season.

Following the demise of Super3, all 23 drivers have been thrown into the one single class for the first time since 2018.

There are nine rookies being added to the mix, while many rising stars have made some big switches.

Most notable is reigning champion Zach Bates, who has taken the #1 from Walkinshaw Andretti United to Eggleston Motorsport.

After Kai Allen just fell short last year, his replacement, Bates, hopes to become the first driver ever to take back-to-back Super2 crowns. He is the spearhead of a growing five-car Eggleston formation that also

includes last ever Super3 champion, Cody Burcher, who makes the step up.

Bradi Owen is coming from Toyotas, while Elliott Cleary has jumped from BJR and Jordyn Sinni remains.

Determined to take charge as the incumbent at WAU will be Campbell Logan as highly rated academy driver Matt Hillyer replaces Bates in the #25.

All eyes will be on Triple Eight as it returns to the series for the first time since crowning Declan Fraser champion in 2022.

Leading the team into a new era will be Carrera Cup star Jackson Walls and Ben Gomersall.

Image Racing will also be a team to watch having been ultra consistent last year.

Promising rookies Jarrod Hughes and Jobe Stewart will be chasing titles in their sophomore seasons as they prepare for co-drives, while joining them will be late-blooming rookie Max Geoghegan.

One of the standouts from last year was the rise of Kelly Racing and although Aaron Cameron has left, in his place comes Cameron McLeod. Other teams to watch will be Tickford, led by Rylan Gray, with Nash Morris joining the team and BRT which is bringing Bailey Sweeny back to the spotlight.

A notable omission is Matt Chahda Motorsport, which has been a staple of Super2 for ages.

Super2 last raced at SMP in 2022 – two 40 minute races will set the scene for an unpredictable season.

Thomas Miles

TICKFORD WILDCARD DUO CONFIRMED

SUPER2 YOUNGSTERS

Rylan Gray and Lochie Dalton will drive a third Tickford Mustang across four events during the 2025 Supercars Championship.

Tickford will expand to a three-car operation at the Perth, Darwin, Bend and Bathurst meetings this year as it gives two Super2 drivers a chance to shine.

Having made his debut in a wildcard at Sydney, Dalton will get another opportunity at the Perth SuperSprint. At the next round the third Tickford Mustang will return, but with a different driver behind the wheel, with impressive teenager Gray getting his first taste of Supercars. Despite being only 19, he already has one Super2 season under his belt and finished seventh, with two podiums.

The two youngsters will then join forces come the enduros at The Bend and Bathurst where neither have experience in the main game. Gray is excited to take on Supercars for the first time.

“I’m stoked to be stepping up into the main game and to be teaming up with Lochie for the enduros,” Gray said.

“We’ve got a great relationship, and I’m looking forward to sharing the seat with him.

“It’s a massive opportunity, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

(R)

Cody Burcher (R) Eggleston Commodore ZB

(R) Eggleston Commodore ZB

In his two Supercars starts at Sydney last year, Dalton finished 22nd and 24th.

He is looking forward to the chance of building on that experience.

“I’m keen for another crack at the main game, kicking things off in Perth before teaming up with Rylan for the enduro season,” Dalton said.

“I can’t thank the team enough for giving me and my little mate a shot in the big leagues.

“It’s going to be a huge challenge, but I’m ready to take it on.” Thomas Miles

SUPER2 ENTRY LIST

Triple Eight returns to the development series for the first time in three years.

TRANS AM OPENER TO HIT THE LIMITER FOR BIG 2025

ANOTHER YEAR kicks off a huge season of the national Trico Trans Am series, with a seven-round season set to begin with ARG’s Hi-Tec Oils Race Tasmania on March 22-23.

Over 30 Trans Am machines are expected on the grid for Symmons Plains, with trips to Bathurst, Hidden Valley, Winton, The Bend, Mallala, and the Adelaide Street Circuit Grand Final to follow.

With Hi-Tec Oils also coming on board as a car sponsor and selected event sponsor, as well as the addition of the extra event at Mallala – The HiTec Oils Mallala Homecoming – it’s a real boon for SA fans, with the last three rounds to be fought out in the fan-heavy motorsport state.

With more exciting driver announcements to come, James Golding and James Moffat are returning, with Todd Hazelwood also coming back to defend his title for TFH after the former Supercars fulltimer stormed home to take the series over GRM’s Moffat, with Jordan Boys, Golding and Nathan Herne in tow.

Auto Action spoke with GRM’s Barry Rogers ahead of the series opener, who’s primed for the season ahead, speaking about some of things that make the category so good.

“One of the things I love about Trans Am, is that you can have a driver that’s taking it easy on his equipment and tyres throughout the race, then drive through to take it,” Rogers said.

“Because it’s not a Supercars-type brake – it’s all drivers management to save something for the end if they need to.

“The sponsors love Trans Am – it’s a category that doesn’t have to try too hard to attract the good drivers ... and it’s bloody good racing!

“That’s what people want – they want to be entertained, and it provides really good entertainment.”

“In terms of the Race Tasmania opener, there’s also a qualifying Shootout for the first time at Symmons Plains to go along with four races, giving a great category spectator bang-for-your-buck at $30 dollars a day, and $50 for the whole weekend.

“With the quality of the field going to Tasmania, and the likes of Hazelwood and Moffat who went to the final race of the championship

going at it, it doesn’t get any better.

“From a personal point of view, we’re pretty keen to try and get back in front. It’s a massive credit that the TFH crew did a tremendous job to come in their first year and really show the way to teams like us … As much as you want to win it yourself, I was quite pleased to see their investment pay off. It was well deserved.”

From the point of view of why Trans Am is so attractive to quality competitors and teams, Barry spelt out the positives:

“Even when you crash these cars they aren’t expensive to fix. And maintenance wise, they are the sort of thing you can manage on the back of a trailer yourself, with the series an attractive option for the classic Aussie family-owned team.”

The GRM machines, will be running

LARSON SAYS HE’LL BE BACK IN

KYLE LARSON is eyeing off some more racing in Australia later this. He spoke with ANDREW CLARKE.

AFTER WINNING his first Big Gator at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida last weekend, Kyle Larson told Auto Action he is expecting some summer action in Australia later this year.

This could include the Adelaide 500 and some speedway action again.

“Perth was a lot of fun,” Larson said of the High Limits races held there between Christmas and New Year. “It was great to finally get there; I’ve

wanted to go for the last few years.”

“It was great that we could promote a race there with the High Limit International Series. The facility and the staff at Perth were brilliant as well. The crowd was incredible. Definitely one of the best places to race in the world.

“I was happy to get to go there, and hopefully, the schedule lines up so I can return later this year.”

He said the Adelaide 500, which falls outside the NASCAR season, would be good to add to his schedule.

“Potentially, I would love to be a part of that event from the Supercar side of it, and also, the Sprintcar race in the city would be pretty neat. The racetrack was really exciting, and the racing was really good. I just like being a part of big events and would like to do it.

“It’s bigger than a lot of NASCAR races, and I’ve heard that it’s their most fun event too. It would just be really cool to go there and check it out.”

For AA’s report on the World of Outlaws at Volusia, see Page 70

with the much more reliable Holinger gearbox this season, with the previous box being an ongoing issue for getting through a race.

“All our cars are going with the Hollinger box this year. When you talk about improving performance ... well if you finish a race, that’s performance!” Barry said.

“Whether it was straight out failures or jamming in two gears, it all limited your ability to finish a race. We’re lucky in Australia to have that option with that cost and quality with a company that goes out all around the world.”

Stay tuned to Auto Action for all the coming Trans Am news on team and driver announcements, with Race Tasmania to also have a bit of TA2/ Trans Am pilot crossovers for the opener and beyond.

TW Neal

AUSTRALIA

Hazelwood leads Moffat in the 2024 Adelaide decider. Image: PETER NORTON

BRYAN THOMSON

BRYAN THOMSON – ‘THOMMO’ TO ONE AND ALL – A MUCH RESPECTED AUSTRALIAN DRIVER/ ENGINEER OF THE 1950s-1990s DIED AFTER A SHORT BATTLE WITH STOMACH CANCER, AGED 90, IN THE EARLY HOURS OF WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2025. AUTO ACTION’S MARK BISSET LOOKS BACK FONDLY AT SOME OF THOMSON’S MOTORSPORT ACHIEVEMENTS.

BORN IN Rochester, Victoria, on January 17, 1935 Thomson lived most of his life in Shepparton, building successful car and truck sales and service businesses in Shepp and Wodonga.

He first started competing in grasstrack racing on ‘bikes, at Lemnos, in 1953 before making his car debut in an Austin Healey 100-4 at the Barjarg dirt circuit not far from Benalla, in 1959. Things got more serious with the purchase of the ex-Lou Molina supercharged Molina Monza Holden Special sports car with which Thommo won a reputed 20 races from 57 starts in 1960-61.

Having mastered that very fast machine, and by then contracted to BP, Bryan upped the ante again by

purchasing a Grand Prix Cooper T51 Coventry Climax from Bib Stillwell in 1961.

Fitted with an early spec 2.4-litre engine, rather than the Ducks-Guts 2.5s of the front-runners, Thomson showed another aspect of his capabilities by supercharging the engine, together with his team – not something that had been done

Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Ron Flockhart and Roy Salvadori.

This little-discussed part of Thommo’s career yielded 20 wins from 53 starts and eighth in the 1962 Gold Star, the Australian Driver’s Championship.

While the wins were mainly accumulated on the country circuits,

behind Greg Cusack; the Victorian Trophy at Calder, where he was third behind Stillwell and Lex Davison; and fifth place in the Victorian Road Race Championships at Calder. Finally, he was fourth in the ’63 Victorian Trophy, again at Calder.

By mid-1963, the Cooper was getting long in the tooth compared with the latest offerings from Cooper, Lotus and Brabham so Bryan had Garrie Cooper build him a special Elfin Mallala sports car that incorporated much of the running gear of the Cooper. Delivered in November 1963, he soon took 10 victories from 26 starts and was clocked at 142mph down Conrod Straight at Mount Panorama.

In this period Bryan also started racing tourers: an NSU Prinz at

Bryan ‘Thommo’ Thomson ... raced many varied cars. Above: The Mustang (Lakeside, 1966). Image: AUTOPICS.COM.AU-JOHN STANLEY.

Right: Not raced, but something enjoyed – the Elfin MS8. Image: MARK BISSET

Bathurst in 1964 for a DNF, a Morris Cooper S and a Jaguar E-Type. Thommo’s career took a permanent turn in that direction when Norm Beechey tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘GM want to help me to buy and run one of their cars – why don’t you buy my Mustang?” (the ’65 ATCC winner).

Ever the adventurers, Bryan and his wife Loel sold their Shepparton truck business and took off for the UK where they did 30 meetings in 28 weeks aboard the Mustang in 1967.

Thommo raced against many of the touring car greats including Vic Elford, Frank Gardner, Brian Muir, John Fitzpatrick, Jackie Oliver and Jacky Ickx in several British Saloon Car Championship rounds

Highlights of the year included sixth place in the Oulton Park International Gold Cup meeting, and sharing British racer Tom Lynch’s Chev Camaro in the iconic Spa 24-hour race, where the pair didn’t finish after engine failure.

Back at home in 1968, the Mustang was sold to Don Elliott. Thomson then bought a Chev Camaro 396 which was prepared by Graham ‘Tubby’ Ritter and a very young Peter Fowler.

Racing from 1968-1971, the team bagged eight wins from 16 starts. Thomson’s co-conspirator, Fowler, recalls his great friend and boss with vast amounts of affection and respect “He was a hard task-master, competitive in every sphere of his life and with a great value set. I was selling and repairing Alfas and Fiats, then later Toyota commercials by day, and working on the racing car at night.

‘I had to run that part of the business from about 1970, accounting and reporting to him at the end of each month. All that he taught me about discipline, getting on with it and doing things properly set me up for the rest of my life.”

With Sports Sedans growing in popularity, and wanting more of the latitude in the rules allowed with Improved Touring, the Holden Torana LJ Sports Sedan that followed was another example of Thomson and Fowler’s clever thinking.

The light, 5-litre Chev-powered machine put its power down very well via a Jaguar independent rear suspension set-up and took its share of scalps as Sports Sedans became increasingly part of the main-game.

Thommo won 18 races from 48 starts including celebrated victories over Peter Brock in the HDT LJ Torana Repco-Holden, ‘The Beast,’ at Sandown and a Toby Lee series round at Oran Park in 1973.

Along the way, Thommo had plenty of Bathurst 500/1000 starts, and DNFs! His best result was ninth outright in a Torana L34 shared with John Pollard; his last start was in 1990 when he co-drove Garry Willmington’s Toyota Supra Turbo to 20th place.

With the Sports Sedan competition getting much stronger as prize-purses grew, Thomson and Fowler conceived, designed and built one of Australia’s most iconic racing sedans – their midengined ‘Volksrolet’ – throughout 1973. A marriage of VW Type 3 Fastback body shell and McLaren M10B Chev F5000 open-wheeler mechanicals: fuel injected 5-litre Chev, Hewland DG300 five-speed gearbox, suspension and brakes, the car blew the minds of the Calder crowd upon its debut in January 1974.

In 1976 Frank Gardner first raced his superb but category-rooting Chev Corvair V8 which did everything the Volksrolet did, but so much better … But, in that 1974-75 period, the mix of Volksy, John McCormack’s front-midengined Valiant Charger RepcoHolden, Bob Jane’s GTS350 Monaro, Gardner’s Torana Chev, Allan Moffat and Jim Richards’ Mustangs, Moffat’s Capri RS3100, John Goss’ XA Hardtop and a gaggle of Porsches provided the best racing in Australia. Full stop. Thommo’s VW won 16 times in 37 starts and was runner up in the Marlboro $100,000 at Calder in both years.

Beyond the scope of this obituary are the SOHC, four-valve heads Fowler

and Thomson developed for the VW’s Chev engines … they weren’t lacking in ideas!

At the end of 1975 Bryan and Loel bought an extraordinary Italianate mansion named Noorilim – the race car and equipment were sold to help fund the purchase.

Built in 1879, the Thomsons restored the 64-hectare property nestled on the Goulburn River at Murchison where it housed Bryan’s collection of cars and bikes and Loel’s extremely important collection of vintage textiles and couture.

Some years later, Fowler got the twitches and built a Mercedes Benz 450SLC Sports Sedan that was raced initially by John Bowe then Brad Jones. Then Bryan got back involved with Peter, racing the Mercedes in 1984, then won the 1985 Australian GT Championship using the Benz and the ex-Bob Jane Chevrolet Monza. Thommo won four of the six rounds, while Kevin Bartlett won other two in Paul Halstead’s De Tomaso Pantera. By 1999, the Thomsons had sold-up in the country and moved their collections into a large factory alongside the Yarra in Bulleen. Fate played its part when that property was compulsorily acquired by the Victorian Government for Melbourne’s North East Link, a road project that will be completed one day ....

So, it was then off to bayside Mount Eliza, with Bryan selling his large collection of ‘bikes and cars a few years ago, while Loel donated her collectibles to the Shepparton Museum.

Thommo’s connection to highperformance machines continued though. He bought the first of the Mike Simcoe designed Elfin MS8 Streamliner Chevs and was a familiar figure on Mornington Peninsula roads with the fearsome machine.

The local boyos were very much aware of ‘the old bugger in the red Elfin!’ I spoke to Thommo, and took the shot of he and the Elfin at a car club gathering at Alan Hamilton’s Dromana winery in April 2022.

These words only skim the surface of Thomson’s race and business career. He was a beloved figure in both communities, known for his dedication and passion for the sport and the gentle manner in which he conducted himself which was at odds with his hard-charging style on-track!

Mark Bisset

The real man’s Sports Sedan – ‘Volksrolet’ the Chev-powered Volkswagen. Really! ... Seen here at Sandown in battle with his arch rival of the time Bob Jane in his HQ Monaro Sports Sedan.

Hurling the 2.4 litre ‘Supercharged’ Cooper up the hill at the Australian Hillclimb Championship – Silverdale, 1972. Image: AUTOPICS.COM.AU/PETER WILSON

VALE: HOLDEN MOTORSPORT ‘BAG-MAN’ JOE FELICE

FORMER LONG-TIME Holden executive, motorsport manager and motorsport enthusiast, Joe Felice has died.

Felice was a marketing executive at Holden during the brand’s golden era and was Holden’s motorsport representative from 1969 to ‘79. Born in Malta, Felice was raised in Melbourne and trained as an automotive engineer. Following his recruitment by General Motors

Holden he had stints in the US, attending university in Michigan to learn more automotive skills, as was the company’s policy at the time.

Felice worked under Holden’s Director of Sales, the legendary John Bagshaw, who was regarded as a ‘mover and shaker’ at Holden.

Bagshaw was responsible for establishing the Holden Dealer Team and invigorating the Holden brand with hero cars such as HQ

SS, GTS models, Torana GTR XU-1 and SLR 5000.

Regarded as Bagshaw’s ‘Mr. Fixit’ man-on-the-ground, Felice was the conduit between Holden and the various race teams running Holden products, including the Holden Dealer Team (HDT).

During the ‘Cloak and Dagger’ era of Holden’s racing program, Felice managed Fishermans Bend’s ‘under the counter racing slush-fund’ which

was the way Holden was able to fund a clandestine circuit racing program. GM headquarters in the US had banned any form of direct motorsport involvement and the ‘slush fund’ provided the resources for ‘any form of circuit racing’ that it was not supposed to be a part of. Some of this was in the form of ‘advertising money’ supplied via Holden’s advertising agency.

Felice was heavily involved during the Group C era which required

Joe Felice seen here with one of his ‘lead privateers’ – the Captain, Peter Janson – who delivered great results for the General across several seasons, including two Bathurst podiums in the A9X – third in 1977 and second behind Peter Brock in 1979.

Image: IAN SMITH AUTOPIX

MOTORSPORT

‘homologation’ of a minimum number of road going variants of cars that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Manufacturers Championship and the Bathurst 500/1000.

Along with several others, Felice was a key member of the team that successfully developed the Torana SL/R 5000, L34 and finally the A9X after the cancellation of the then-secret Torana XU-1 V8 as a consequence of

“But the SL/R 5000 was only ever an interim car. We knew it wasn’t good enough.

“It was only a road car initially. It was an interim move from XU-1 over to a V8.”

After the release of the SL/R 5000 Torana, Holden set about homologating the stronger L34 in time for the Bathurst 1000 in 1974. Felice recalled that it was a tough task getting the upgrades past the engineering department at Holden. He had to overcome a change of engineering management when American GM engineer George Roberts took over the role at Holden.

“Roberts was anti-racing and wouldn’t even approve rear disc brakes for the L34. It also had the small-banjo diff, which was designed for the FJ and it had shitty little axles,” Felice told Auto Action Felice revealed he used smoke and mirrors on the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS, now Motorsport Australia) to accept the A9X as a variant of the troublesome L34.

“We couldn’t fix all those problems until the A9X.” he said.

the ‘Supercars Scare’.

Talking to Action Action several years ago Felice explained: “The plan was always to replace the XU-1 with an SL/R 5000.

“To be honest, I pulled a swifty with CAMS. I homologated it as an evolution of the L34, which meant we could just put a standard 308 engine in the nearly 500 road-going A9Xs but we could use the L34 engine for racing. It was a much better car altogether.”

The A9X’s racing record in ‘78/’79 justified the big change.

“When you look at its results, it was

the best Torana ever in racing,” he said.

According to Felice, the hatchback version of the Torana SS A9X was preferred because HDT boss Harry Firth “found he could fit bigger rear tyres”.

The new A9X was rushed through the homologation process and won first time out at the 1977 Sandown 500, with Peter Brock winning in his privateer A9X hatchback.

Despite the early success, the new weapon failed at Bathurst in 1977, a race dominated by Allan Moffat and his Ford Dealer Team Falcons, resulting in the famous 1-2 across the finish line. The first Holden Torana home was the privateer entry of Peter Janson and Larry Perkins.

However, in 1978-79, with the Holden Dealer Team now under John Sheppard’s management, and with Brock driving – backed up by John Harvey, and with strong performances from privateer racers like Bob Morris, Alan Grice, Garry Rogers and Janson –the A9X dominated, winning Bathurst and the Australian Touring Car Championships.

With the A9X, Felice and his team had refined the L34, addressing its engine, drivetrain, and suspension issues, making it one of Australia’s most revered and collectable cars ever built.

Felice moved from Holdens Head Office in 1979 and took up a position as a Holden District Manager in South Australia.

Over the past few years Felice had been living in a low-care nursing home in Adelaide. He was still interested in the sport – and a regular member of a lunch group of motorsport people. Felice is survived by his sons Brent and Christian, and his grandchildren. Auto Action passes on its thoughts and best wishes to Joe’s family and friends. Bruce Williams.

Colin Bond in the recently-developed HDT SL/R5000 L34 on his way to victory in the 1974 Philip Island 500Km, the final round of the Manufacturers Championship. Peter Brock won the ATCC using both the XU1 and SL/R5000, with Holden taking the ManChamps with 65 points from Ford’s 59 points. Image: AUTO ACTION ARCHIVES

BELOW: Joe was interviewed at The Sporting Car Club of South Australia on 3 May 2023 and it makes for interesting viewing.

FURTHER ADDITIONS FOR ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

COME MARCH 8-9, South Australia will be buzzing with the 2025 Adelaide Motorsport Festival, with further additions having been announced to an already packed line-up.

It’s a motorsport lover’s paradise at the Parklands with the addition of the Can-Am, Hypercar, Le Mans, and NASCAR on-track and display categories.

With non-stop action – including three Formula 1 sessions a day –Group A and V8 Supercar touring cars on track together, as well as a ‘Ten of the Best Shootout’ that sees a selection of Sports cars and Hypercars on track together, this years AMF is growing by the day.

In some recent news, there’s the showcasing of Zero Petroleum’s revolutionary synthetic fuel for the industry gear-heads, an on-track appearance from former F1 driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Stefan Johansson, rare track-day Hypercars in the shape of the Pagani Zonda R and Pagani Huayra R, a Jaguar F1 machine, an ultra-rare Bugatti Bolide, and two iconic Bathurst cars from the Group A and C eras.

The new synthetic Zero Petroleum

fuel will power the Rodin FZED and Honda CB1100R motorbike.

Beginning with just air and water, every molecule of Zero’s fuel is engineered from scratch, allowing incredible levels of precision and configurability for any existing engine.

As for Johansson (a 79 F1 race starter), he’ll pilot the Mazda 767B, the forerunner to the Le Manswinning 787B, in select sessions. It has a quad-rotor 2.6-litre rotary

engine producing 630 horsepower at 9000rpm, with only three ever built.

The Pagani machines to be included in the Hypercar category include the six-litre naturallyaspirated V12 Zonda R, a 750 horsepower track-only beast with only 15 created – and they’ll run alongside the Aston Martin Vulcan and Brabham BT62.

There’s also the Jaguar R2, with its 3-litre V10 naturally-aspirated Cosworth engine, producing over

800bhp at 18,000rpm, as well as the 8-litre quad-turbocharged W16 engined Bugatti Bolide (again for the Hypercar field).

As for the Bathurst additions, there’s a Dick Johnson Racing Ford Sierra RS500 and Holden Dealer Team Holden VK Commodore, with the former motoring on through to the end of the Group A era, and the VK/ ‘Last of the Big Bangers’ which will be warmly recalled at the Ultimate of the Group C beasts.

COMMODORES TO LEAD TOURING CAR CHARGE

THERE WILL once again be a wide range of Group C and A Touring Cars doing battle at the 2025 VHRR Island Classic.

Fan favourite Holdens and Fords, plus more that went racing around the Mountain and Australia in the 80s and 90s will be a focal point of the celebrated Victorian Historic Racing Register event.

All-up there are around 360 entries heading to the March 7-9 event. In a special treat for fans, 1986 and 1990 Bathurst winner Allan Grice will be at the Island and so will his iconic STP Commodore.

The man who won the 2016 Bathurst 1000, Jonathan Webb, will also drive his own Sierra, which was

once

“There are about 25 a few

and a heap of Commodores and BMWs.

“I think Webb will be very quick and the Sierras will fight it out

“Ed Singleton is bringing two cars; and the STP car will be driven by Ben Grice with Les Small looking after it, which is great.

“Singleton will also drive Grice’s 100 miles-an-hour car which has just been restored.

“The spectacle will be seeing these great cars racing and we are very pleased with the entries we have got – given it is pretty tough times.”

For more information on the event and ticket sales visit the VHRR web site www.vhrr.com.au Thomas Miles

steered by Colin Bond.

Sierras

Jaguar joins the F1 line-up ...

Touring car greats do battle at the Island Classic and that’s the Grice STP Commodore

DES WALL CORVETTE A CHANCE FOR ROUND 1

WITH THE National Sports Sedans gearing up for Round 1 at SMP on March 21-13, it brings the perpetual Des Wall Cup to the beginning of the season, honouring the late category stalwart, Des Wall.

As reported by Auto Action back in September, there is still a chance that the 6-litre Chevrolet Corvette GTS that Des drove to the title in 2009 will be on the grid, with his son David – former Carrera Cup champion and Wall Racing team owner – telling us that it’s a 50/50 chance of making the track for the first time since 2016.

David was working on the Corvette when AA called and he gave an insight into where things stand, and what it means to the family for the series to honour his late father’s memory.

“It’s amazing what the series has done to honour the old boy by putting his name on a trophy every year and giving everybody a crack at trying to win it,” Wall told AA

“The idea originated from John Gourlay and Michael Robinson, and they’ve been good enough and involved enough to put on the namesake trophy since we lost him in 2012.

“We had a crack at getting the trophy, which was the last time I drove it – at Sandown in 2016 –and we fell just short, in second place.

“The idea is try and go and get the trophy ourselves at some stage – whether we can do that this year or not, we’ll see.”

And in terms of how the 6-litre beast will hold up against the current Sports Sedans machines … “We went up against the Gourlay Audi with

Jack Perkins in it at Sandown, and we were thereabouts with pace, so I hope to be able to run well, but we won’t know until we get going.

“There’s some cars there at the minute with innovations that we can’t have. Our car runs with a carburetor, no paddle shift, or traction control, which the others will generally have … but it does have a six-speed sequential in it now. It was a H-pattern five speed when dad ran it so, like all Sports Sedans, it has evolved. We’ll go as fast as we can with what we’ve got.”

If not Round 1, there are plans to run it at other rounds, with time considerations:

“I’m waiting for some parts and a few things are out of my control in that respect. Still trying for Round 1 and I’m doing what I can. We’ll know by about a week out I feel.

“There’s a lot of people that are hopeful it shows up, so we’ll give it our best. The plan is obviously to have the car and the whole family there.”

Last season saw the trophy go to eventual series champion Peter Ingram in his Mazda RX7, taking it over the Calibra of round winner Steve Tamasi.

Along with the state entries, the grid for the SMP opener is expected to be around 20-25, a number that will grow with new machines over the course of the season.

It’s also the first chance for fans to see the new Gourlay Audi, years and thousands of hours in the making from the master engineer and his team, which will be driven by 17-year old Cadel Ambrose.

TW Neal

Des Wall, much-loved Sports Sedan racer, at speed in the Corvette GTS. Son David hopes the car will be ready for the opening round, allowing him to have a crack at the trophy bearing his father’s name ...

DUGGAN FAMILY DEEPEN TCM TIES

INTEREST HAS been building ahead of 2025 Touring Car Masters series kick-off at next week’s Supercar Sydney 500 round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The TCM series will begin the year with backing from the Duggan Family Hotels (DFH) group, who have also invested in a TCM car of their own for the 2025 season.

The Duggan family have stepped up their involvement, with increased sponsorship via Duggan Family Hotels and a big on-track presence with the purchasing of last year’s championship winning VB Commodore, which was driven by Adam Garwood.

DFH will continue the support of the #85 Whitleine RacingChevrolet Camaro RS driven by Scott Cameron who raced for the team in 2024. As a third overall car for the Duggan Family Racing team, this year the rebranded TCM Commodore will hit the track with Carlton United Breweries (CUB) as its main sponsor, and 20-year-old Jude Bargwanna as its pilot.

Both TCM machines were unveiled at the family owned DFH Pendle Inn Hotel, alongside the Vic Bitter sponsored Aston MartinSports Sedan of Mark Duggan, and the Cameron Camaro.

Auto Action spoke with the racing team manager Ellie Duggan, as well as Jude ahead of a huge Round 1 at SMP where Duggan Family Hotels be the round naming sponsor in its hometown race.

“Last year we started paying a lot more attention to TCM. We were very interested and impressed by its growth in 2024, and with five Supercar rounds we just knew that was the direction we wanted to put Duggan Family Racing into,” Ellie told AA.

“We’re so excited to be blending in with TCM, we really like everyone involved in the category, so we’re really charging into it. It’s such a big crowd-pleaser, and our intention is to add to the category in any way we possibly can.”

“We looked at multiple cars last year and the series winning

Commodore was very appealing, so we struck a deal and the car was delivered in pristine condition.

“I very quickly got onto our major sponsor for my dad’s Aston Martin and they were impressed with our direction, which then got us a big Carlton brand.

“And after being introduced to Jude to through our engine builder Peter Wallace, we spent some time with him and his family at the Bathurst 12 Hour, and we were incredibly impressed with his professionalism.” Duggan told AA.

There will also be a corporate event at the weekend involving the Pendle Inn Hotel V8 Supercar Club members, a 450-member strong club that operates out of the DFH run venue 10 minutes from SMP.

The V8 Club also has pride of place on the Commodore and Camaro livery.

Bargwanna is equally excited to be stepping into TCM in a titlewinning machine.

“It doesn’t get much better than jumping into a championship-

winning car and with such a great crew. It wasn’t an opportunity you could pass up, with the Duggan’s and with the backing of a big CUB brand.” the 2023 Australian V8 Touring Cars Series champion said.

“Growing up as kids we were always around historic race cars –our family legacy started with my grandfather racing a Torana.

“We tested on Tuesday last week, so it was good to get comfy in the car after having not driven that much last year. It was definitely a wild beast. There’s a lot of horsepower and not a lot of tyre grip. It was great to put it on the edge with a qualifying simulation run.” Bargwanna said.

“It’s a great category with passionate fans so I feel very privileged to do it with such amazing support.

“For me, coming back to the national level in a fun family atmosphere that still takes its racing very seriously is a very pretty cool feeling.” He concluded.

TW Neal

Jude Bargwanna will join the TCM field in the Carlton Zero backed ex-Garwood VB Commodore .

GILL MAKES AUSSIE HISTORY IN SWEDEN

AUSSIE PAIR TAYLOR GILL AND DAN BRKIC HAVE DRIVEN TO A HISTORIC VICTORY AT WRC SWEDEN, TAKING OUT THE WRC3 AND JUNIOR WRC

CLASSES IN A STELLAR START TO A

HIGHLY

PRESSURISED YEAR. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

THE FAMOUS ‘Rally Gods’ smiled on Taylor Gill’s #56 Ford Fiesta R3 at the FIA World Rally Championship’s dedicated ice-and-snow round in Sweden at the weekend, with the Newcastle born driver scooping up two class wins.

As part of the FIA Rally Star program, Gill and his co-driver Brkic were entering their second WRC Rally Sweden event and, although it was their second attempt, they could still be considered novices (re: time spent)

in the specific conditions compared to the competitors that they managed to top.

The pair not only took the WRC3 and Junior WRC win, but managed to finish an incredible 18th outright, finishing above no-less than 10 WRC2 entrants. At the end of the day it took others to falter from the respective leads, but in the rally world you make your own luck by surviving what’s thrown at you and being ready to pounce, and that’s exactly what happened with a near

faultless performance.

In the Junior stakes, Gill topped Swedish local Mille Johansson whose Saturday error opened the door, whilst in the WRC3 battle, mechanical issues to Leevi Lassila’s Renault Clio Rally3 allowed the third tier victory to be clinched.

However, Gill was never far behind Lassila, and had moved to the top of the WRC3 tree by the penultimate SS17 round, whilst he entered Sunday’s three stage Junior

showdown with a 1min 11.4second lead over rival Johansson.

It was on the Saturday during SS11 that Gill took the lead after being 54 seconds behind after cementing second place throughout, with the Swede burying his Fiesta in a snowbank.

And whilst the Swedish youngster and 2024 Junior ERC champ will still claim the outright Junior championship lead owing to weight of Stage wins (12 to Gill’s two), more familiar gravel

In one of the toughest rallies in the WRC, Aussie Taylor Gill and co-driver Dan Brkic have taken a superb ‘double’ ... AA’s images capture the tension of a rally where the slightest misjudgement can spell retirement ...

conditions ahead put Gill in a strong position going forward.

To put the Aussie’s drive into perspective, his blistering SS9 win over the 15.6km Vannas run, was fast enough to also give him an outright WRC3 stage win, something which Johansson failed to achieve.

In the end, it was a 22.8-second win over Johansson, as the Aussie pair added Sweden to their historic win at Rally Estonia in 2024.

“To win the first round of the year is amazing and it sets off the momentum in the right direction for the long year ahead,” Gill said.

“We set our expectations high this weekend, but winning the opening round of the year is better than we could ask for ...

“Conditions were fantastic throughout the weekend and Dan (Brkic) and the

FIA Rally Star team did an awesome job and were on-song all rally. It was a pleasure to drive on these stages. Snow driving is not so bad!

“As soon as Mille (Johansson) had his issue, we understood the task at hand and measured our driving to ensure we could take this victory,” Gill added.

“Any win in the WRC is hard-fought and this is no different, so we’re rapt! Mille is a great driver and we’re going to have to be on top of our game to beat him all year. Sweden is his home rally, but we know he’s going to be just as fast in the upcoming rounds.”

To put Gill and Brkic’s future hopes into perspective, they are needing to win this year’s title to ensure that their FIA Rally Star funding goes into another season, which would allow them to compete at select

WRC2 rounds in 2026.

As Gill told Auto Action in 2024, it’s a right-place-right-time thing for the Rally Star program, with over 6,700 initial candidates whittled down to a fully-funded six drivers.

Prior to his Rally Sweden debut in 2024, Gill had this to say, which puts his achievement into perspective:

“To be honest, three to four years ago I’d have never thought to have the opportunity to compete in Europe, let alone live there and to be in such a well-promoted and funded program to be really doing it properly.

“I remember being about 15 and researching the WRC Junior Championship when I was in school, so to think I’ll be on that start line in Sweden next year is just amazing.”

Fast forward to 2025 and he can now claim to be a multi-class winner of one of the WRC’s toughest rallies.

After six rallies in the Junior WRC, Gill and Brkic’s record now reads two wins and a podium – which, if it wasn’t for

being on the wrong side of the ‘Rally Gods’ mechanically in ’24, could so easily have been a title-winning year.

But with more experience under their belts, including the fact that they won’t be entering the only dedicated asphalt round with no experience on the surface, as they did last year, a better understanding of both machine and surface challenges hold them in good stead for the remaining four rounds.

“We know this is a ‘make or break’ year for us, so we’re working harder than ever to get the results we need,” Gill continued.

“A win and 27 points to our championship tally is a reward for our efforts thus far, but there’s so much more to achieve.”

The next challenge has them heading for another iconic WRC event – the Rallye De Portugal – on May 15-18 in Matosinhos, a municipality of Porto in the country’s north. After that, the conditions will remain familiar for the #56 team as they head for Greece in June, then to Finland as defending Junior champions in July/August.

The junior leg of the WRC then ends with its debut at the unique tri-county asphalt round across Germany/Austria/Czechia in October, with double points on offer in what could very well be a winnertake-all scenario.

BROWN BUILDS MORE HISTORY

WILL BROWN has further engraved his name in history by becoming the first Australian to win the New Zealand Grand Prix in 50 years.

Brown drove to glory in a dramatic 69th Running of the New Zealand Grand Prix that was the big prize of the final round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

The Supercars champion was a star guest driving for the Giles Motorsport squad and stole the show at Highlands Park.

Coming up against a number of youngsters who are looking to forge a career on the open wheel pathway to Formula 1, it was the Triple Eight driver that came up trumps.

Brown emerged victorious, but only just, with local Kiwi hope Zach Scoular and promising Red Bull Academy Brit, Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship champion Arvid Lindblad right behind.

Brown has already achieved a lot, beating the best Supercars had to offer last year, but his latest success further grows his legacy.

The win saw him join some of the biggest names in F1 and Supercars on the New Zealand Grand Prix trophy.

Australia’s only multiple Formula 1 world champion Jack Brabham, plus other world champions John Surtees, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Keke Rosberg have all won the race.

Recent F1 stars Liam Lawson, Lando Norris and Lance Stroll have also tasted success.

But Brown has ended a big drought for Australia, given Warwick Brown was the last to cross the Tasman and deny the locals, back in 1975.

They are part of an exclusive club with only Stan Jones, Brabham, Frank Matich, Frank Gardner and John McCormack the other Aussies to do it.

Whilst there are few Australians, plenty of kiwi Supercars stars who have followed in Brown’s footsteps – from Paul Radisich, Craig Barid, Greg Murphy, Simon Wills, Fabian

Coulthard, Daniel Gaunt and most recently the man he replaced at Triple Eight, Shane van Gisbergen.

The New Zealand Grand Prix started life as a focal point of the Tasman Series featuring bespoke 2.5 litre cars, then Formula 5000s, but has since been contested by a number of other categopries, from Formula Holden, Ford and Pacific and Toyota since 2006.

But it still remains as prestigious as ever, being one of just two races worldwide to carry the Grand Prix name outside of Formula 1 (with Macau. the other).

Post-race there was not too much time for sentimentality as Brown was simply exhausted by keeping himself in the lead.

“I was nervous about the start and I knew if I could beat Broc away off the line I had a chance to get ahead

and control the race,” Brown said.

“I was rooted. The first 10 laps were really hard and I was quite stressed in the car trying not to make mistakes.

“I had a few loose moments and I had to calm down, breath and get it back together.

“After that I pushed on and we started to set some really fast laps.

“Zac was super-fast and always there. But it was a cool race. When I saw the Safety Car come out I knew I had to build a bigger gap.

“I’ve loved racing in the open wheelers and the NZ fans have been great.”

NextGen New Zealand Championship CEO Josie Spillane closely watched the action and believed Brown’s performance was ‘up there.’

“The level of competition this year

has been remarkable, with drivers pushing each other to new heights. We are seeing the future unfold before our eyes, and it’s incredibly exciting.

“To win the NZ Grand Prix is to join a list of legends, and Will delivered a performance worthy of that legacy. He showed immense skill, composure, and racecraft to take the victory, and we couldn’t be more thrilled for him.

“Also, a huge congratulations to Arvid on an outstanding campaign and a well-deserved Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship title. He has shown incredible skill, consistency, and determination throughout the season, and this title is a testament to his hard work.”

Thomas Miles

Coverage: page 66/67

There’s a few famous names on that trophy ... Image: TAYLER BURKE

IS INDYCAR STARING INTO THE ENGINE ABYSS?

WAYNE WEBSTER is a long-standing motoring/ motorsport journalist with a quick wit, who never fails to call a spade a spade… The simple fact is, he has an enquiring mind, and he knows his stuff when it comes to the motorsport scene. In this case, he examines the potential loss of Honda as an engine supplier to the IndyCar series…

LIKE INCREASINGLY desperate parents searching for a child lost in the wilderness, the corner office guys at the IndyCar head office in the

with Wayne Webster OPINION

US are feverishly scouring the globe for a vehicle manufacturer willing to join the series as an engine supplier from 2027. With only two years to go before the introduction of an all-new car and a host of regulation changes in America’s premier openwheeler category, IndyCar is speaking to any and all OEM companies who will

answer the phone to try and coax a third or, dare to dream, even a fourth, engine supplier into the series.

Despite being arguably one of, if not the most competitive racing series in the world, IndyCar is facing a powerplant crisis. Currently, IndyCar has two engine suppliers, Chevrolet and Honda.

In 2025, they will share the load almost equally, powering the 27 regularseason entries. Both companies have contracts that expire at the end of the ‘26 season. But unless a new, third manufacturer can be brought into the engine fold to help share the load, IndyCar may find itself with just one and in a world of pain.

Hence, the nervous looks and sweaty upper lips of those with the big offices at the IndyCar HQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, rather appropriately.

Honda, which manufactures IndyCar

engines through its Honda Racing US subsidiary (formerly HPD), is unhappy with its current situation, openly expressing that it’s not receiving the value for its investment in the category.

The very real threat, and the US arm of the Japanese company has made this plainly clear, is that unless another company joins in the fun and lifts the burden that Honda and Chev currently carry, the big H brand will walk away when its contract expires.

For Penske Entertainment (the owner of the IndyCar series) CEO Mark Miles,

Chip Ganassi Racing has won five of the last seven IndyCar crowns for Honda – but wants to spread gthe financial load to a third (new) engine supplier ...

this must be very much a ‘my anxiety is running down the back of my legs’ moment and the reason he has been talking with all and sundry in the hunt for some new engine blood.

According to Miles, there has been “serious interest on the part of prospective newcomers that are paying close attention and doing all you’d expect them to do to understand the costs and their ability to be competitive.”

It is believed that companies currently discussing IndyCar include Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, and, although this may be a practical joke, Lamborghini. But just how has IndyCar found itself in what, really, is quite an embarrassing situation and why is Honda more than just a little pissed off?

Well, as is usually the case, it all boils down to money. It’s all about return on investment (ROI), and

Indycar introduced a standardised MGU in mid-2024, to bring IndyCar into the hybrid era, fitted as above with the Honda, within the bell-housing – but is looking at an all-new engine for 2027. Image: IndyCar

current pair’s spending. Both have said their preference would be to supply only 8-10 cars per year, the former being the better option.

Just to complicate matters, IndyCar would love to have an all-new engine for 2027 when it introduces Dallara’s nextgeneration chassis wearing, hopefully, a radically new aero package that will make the USbased racers eye-poppers.

participation in the booming IMSA category with the Acurabadged LMDh racers and, maybe, just maybe, also move the brand into the WEC.

Of course, there is a doomsday plan sitting in the bottom drawer in Mark Miles’ desk, but it really is a last resort option.

Honda believes it’s copping the rough end of the pineapple.

Both Honda and Chev lease their engines to the teams at a cost of around $2.4 million per car a year. The two suppliers allocate five engines to each car for the season and rotate them regularly for servicing and rebuilds. However, leaked figures from Honda, probably deliberately, indicate that each car supply costs the company $3.3 million. You do the maths!

Basically, that indicates that supplying its 13-car fleet in 2025, not including the one-off Indy 500 runners, will leave the company almost $12 million in the red. And Honda believes that $12 million isn’t justified by the recognition it receives and may be better off just plonking that big wad of cash into traditional advertising.

But a third manufacturer could save the day, helping to share the load and, obviously, reducing the

This would mean ditching the 2.2-litre V6 twin-turbo units currently in use. Producing around 560kW of power (recently boosted by the introduction of the electric MGU, which adds something like 90kW), the ‘power units’ have done sterling service to the category since way back in 2012.

Introducing a new powerplant, the preferred option being a slightly larger 2.4 litre twin turbo V6, would cost both Chevrolet and Honda tens of millions of dollars in research and development, testing and time. And, in engine development terms, time is the enemy, and 2027 really, in the big scheme of things, isn’t all that far away.

So, let’s get to the worst-case scenario, which is if IndyCar can’t entice a third manufacturer into the series and Honda throws up its corporate hands, takes its bat and ball, and goes home.

The company as Honda or Acura, could quite easily up its

Chevrolet’s current IndyCar engine is made by engineering powerhouse Ilmor Engineering, which boasts manufacturing bases in both the US and UK.

Ilmor, rather conveniently, was co-founded and is co-owned by billionaire Roger Penske, who also owns, among a vast portfolio of big stuff, the IndyCar series itself and the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The company could, with some significant investment and expansion, supply a spec engine for the entire IndyCar field and fence-sitting manufacturers could be invited in, at a cost, to simply badge the engines for the teams of their choosing and avoid all that pesky expense of R&D and having a factory to make the damn things.

Hardly the preferred option when all is said and done, but in the end, something is better than nothing – because having an all-new car for 2027, no matter how sexy it looks, would be pretty pathetic without something to make it go.

ABU DHABI AWAITS FOR DAKAR HERO

DANIEL “CHUCKY” Sanders is in a rare spot with health and fitness compared to his previous seasons, as evidenced by his dominant victory at the 2025 Dakar Rally with KTM.

Sanders delivered the besieged KTM an unprecedented 20th Dakar, and delivered himself a victory in the legendary race that always looked like it was coming if he could get himself free of injury.

As it currently stands, Sanders will enter the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on February 21-27 on a valuable 38 points, an eight point lead from Honda’s Spanish ace Tosha Schareina, and 14 points over Adrien Van Beveren.

And in joining Toby Price and Australia’s only other Dakar winner, he’s hoping to also join him as the only other Aussie in taking a world title.

Auto Action caught up with Chucky from his family’s Apple farm (Sanders Apples - H&LM Sanders)

in Three Bridges, Victoria, and spoke about what lies ahead, KTM, and his good bill of health – worth its weight in apples for any Rally-Raid contender.

“The last two weeks it’s been invaluable to kick back, eat some apples off the tree, celebrate with friends and family and get back to home life,” Sanders said.

“Now it’s time to switch back on and get back into it … a bit of change from clearing damn walls and banks and getting on the machinery. I like making the driveways good for the apple trailers and tractors …t he older generation farmers like to run things into the ground,” Chucky quipped, “so I like to get in and clean up.”

One thing that boded well for Sanders in approaching this year’s Dakar was a clean bill of health.

He took a fantastic win in Morocco for the last round of 2024, putting a bad femur break behind him and returning in the best way possible.

That good health was vital in setting him up between events, and creating a launching pad postDakar.

“Hopefully we’ve got some good stuff coming – after Abu Dhabi we’ve got South Africa in May, then Portugal and Morocco.

“I’m pretty good with knowing my body now. After the elbow and the femur, I have had a really clean run with injury. I’ve been able to spend time on training at home and I’ve kept improving with the bike.

“We had a small test at the end of November to improve the suspension and, importantly, I came out fully fit, healthy and ready to race for this season.”

the Red Bull KTM Factory team, they are stubbornly backing him in for a tilt at the title.

“It was a special win for them. We went in with fewer riders, and they’ve been trying to save budget. But at the same time they’ve got all their faith in me, and that result was super important.

“For that to be the first event of the year, it put the foot on the ground for them. I knew the pressure was there and I knew I had to perform. The bike was good, I was good, and it was just time to win that race.

“I felt I’d already left three Dakar wins on the table, and even if they weren’t in this financial situation, the pressure was all on me. I was the favourite and I had to win it.

“We’re fully in for this season, and it’s going to be good.”

Stay tuned for Auto Action’s feature interview with Sanders in our new Premium monthly magazine, where we delve inside Chucky’s Dakarwinning experience. TW Neal

Sanders – fit, rested, and ready to go again ... Image: RED BULL PHOTO POOL

2025 – THE YEAR OF THE YOUNG STARS?

CRICKET’S OVER, the Bathurst 12 Hours is done, and all the talk is about hamstrings and groin injuries … yes, Footy is back and that also means one thing –motorsport is about to kick off seriously.

With Australia the only country in the world which chooses to run its motorsport season across winter, and thus within the calendar year, it means that both big shows that interest us Colonials most – Supercars locally, and F1 internationally – are going through PR launches right now and are close to kick-off.

Domestically, the Supercars show faces perhaps its biggest change in decades, with the move to a NASCARstyle Finals system.

How that will all pan out remains to be seen way down the track, in November but, in the meantime, it does mean that, for those you’d classify as serious championship contenders, the opening races of the year don’t quite carry the weight they used to.

The early-season DNF that might have permanently cruelled someone’s title chances previously is going to be a modest road-hump in 2025 for the hot-shots. It’s just a matter of staying in the ball-park and being top 10 in the points chart after Bathurst, when it gets serious. If you’ve been struggling or dropped a round or two, a Bathurst win will get you back in the game. Will that bring forth a bit more of a devil-may-care contest in the early part of the season as teams work on chasing pace? Guess we’ll see.

People are fond of predictions at this time of the year. Who’s gonna win

CALL

the title? Certainly the Finals format adds a massive dose of uncertainty, with that final weekend in Adelaide, but on form – and despite the behind-the-scenes ‘GM Homologation’ handover squabble (who was it who predicted an early change?) –you still win if you beat Triple Eight. But, as Bathurst last year showed, it can be done.

I’m actually interested in how the new faces go. It’s taken a while, but several teams are now understanding that there’s a generation of new, ready-to-go, fast, mentallyprepared drivers who aren’t intimidated by the big names. One contest that will be fascinating will be that between Erebus, with its one experienced/one brand-new driver line-up and DJR, having

grabbed not only Erebus star driver Kostecki, but a couple of his key Erebus engineering brains-trust as well, not to mention a couple of Erebusspec chassis.

I think the wildcard Bathurst performance of Erebus’ 2025 young talent, Cooper Murray – both in pace and persistence – was overlooked by some in the midst of the car’s late-race drive-through penalty and thus final result, and I look forward to seeing how quickly he settles in at Erebus, and where on the grid he ends up compared with DJR’s experienced new ‘exErebus’ face, Kostecki. It’ll be an interesting side-show …

AND THEN, Formula 1 follows on in three weeks’ time. Frankly, it’s F1 and the

anticipation surrounding how ‘our man’ Oscar will go that’ll put F1 at the top of my ‘mustwatch’ list this year.

On top of that, there’s no reason why the four-team contest at the front from last year shouldn’t continue into this year. But make the most of it folks, because the massive formula change coming in 2026 is quite likely to take us back to the predictable 2014 to 2020 years – when Mercedes cruised around at the front and reaped seven titles thanks to a brilliant engine design that the rest took forever to catch up with.

There’s every chance that someone will ‘get it right’ big-time first-up with the new ‘more electric’ specs coming for 2026 and dominate.

In the meantime, though, 2025 promises a serious contest and the fascination of how Piastri will go (and indeed, for our Kiwi friends, how Liam Lawson will stack up against the world champ –I for one also believe Liam will surprise …).

There are those out there (did someone say social media?) who will pooh-pooh Oscar’s quiet confidence and his considered statement (see Silverstone chat, page 4/5) that, if McLaren maintains its technical effort, “I do think that I can become World Champion this year.”

But remember, this is coming from a young man from an elite club – who won both F3 and F2 in his rookie years and has already taken home a couple of top-step trophies.

Read how he has, systematically, worked on what he sees as his shortcomings. No ego, just honest self-analysis.

For me, he has all the ingredients – let’s hope he has that vital little extra dose of luck.

The British media will of course be fascinated with how he and his team-mate will stack up.

Lando, Lando … good qualifier, but … I’m struggling to recall when he actually managed to pass Max on-track last year. That’s his weak spot.

And sorry, sharing a ride in Max’s latest jet from Monaco to the races (“we’re mates”) just allows the Dutchman to maintain that slightly disdainful on-track superior attitude to ‘his mate’ …

All this ... Max himself, Liam’s big challenge, Lewis in a Ferrari (apparently a brandnew design too), and ‘The Kid,’ Kimi Antonelli, who Mercedes believe is the next big thing, making George’s life difficult ... adds up to a fascinating set of F1 ingredients.

F1 fans can look forward to one hell of a year. Go Oscar.

with Chris Lambden CL ON

Two young pilots to watch in 2025 – in wildly different championships ... Cooper Murray (left) and Oscar Piastri ...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Email: editor@autoaction.com.au

Postal: Suite 4/156 Drummond Street. Oakleigh Victoria 3166

“Australian company supports Williams F1” – That news came out of the blue!

CORPORATES, MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELVES ON THE WORLD STAGE

HEY, GREAT to see a couple of Australian companies have got involved with Formula 1 teams.

Saw the name Atlassian on the new Williams car and Sauber had Stake or Kick Stake or something on it last year and maybe it will again this year.

Don’t even know what these companies do. Just see they’re Australian. It must be costing them a pretty packet to sponsor F1 teams, but good on ‘em.

Just makes me wonder how this has come about, especially when Australian drivers racing overseas don’t ever seem to have got corporate support from back home?

Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo were lucky that they got in with big teams early on and didn’t need to bring sponsorship with them.

But Mark Webber really had to struggle early without any big help from any Australian company that I know of. Yellow Pages and Qantas seemed to give him a bit of help, but doubt it was massive.

Luckily he had good old Paul Stoddart to get the wheels turning for him in F1 and he kicked on from that opportunity with the Minardi team.

Just hope that now a couple of Oz companies are jumping into F1 with teams that they or others might start to see benefits in backing some of our young driving talent.

We’ve always had guys brave enough to give it a shot overseas and many have only failed to go on to big things because of a lack of money in our very expensive sport.

Come on corporates, give our talent the support it deserves.

Drew Horton Belconnen,

ACT

Editor’s note: good spotting Drew, Atlassian Corporation is an Australian software company that specializes in collaboration tools designed primarily for software development and project management and one of the owners is Australian businessman Michael CannonBrookes, which is interesting given his interest in environmental issues.

SUPERCARS AT SNAIL’S PACE – DON’T DO IT SUPERCARS DRIVING over the Harbour Bridge at snail’s pace to launch the 2025 championship?

Saw it on the TV news and a couple of the drivers were interviewed, but they had nothing exciting to say.

Totally underwhelming way to kick off the season. Wasn’t there going to be a whole lot of exciting new marketing and promotion of Supercars

when the ownership of the series changed hands a couple of years ago? Who are the owners anyway?

They’re faceless.

Laurie O’Brien Wollongong, NSW

LET’S BACK JACK TO THE HILT I’M STILL feeling uneasy about Jack Doohan’s career with Alpine.

Know Jack will have a lot of support when he takes to the track in his home Grand Prix in Melbourne next month.

But how are we going to get the message through to that Flavio Briatore that our guy deserves a proper chance in F1, not to be undermined by him trying to engineer the kid from Argentina into his seat in no time?

Hopefully Jack’s performance in the car will make him indispensable.

Patrick Johnstone Chelmer, Queensland

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

THE FORMULA 1 ‘launch season’ is upon us, with teams doing their best to conceal the technical secrets of their new cars, as camouflaged liveries and cleverly planned official photos and footage are now common practice when new cars are unveiled.

This means that only when all 10 new cars hit track at 9am Bahrain time next Wednesday, February 24, will we actually be able to see in detail what each team has done to improve on their 2024 challenger.

For most of last year it was common belief in the paddock that, with the Technical Regulations remaining largely stable for 2025, last season’s

with Luis Vasconcelos

form book would remain unchanged and every team would be putting all their efforts into the design and development of the brandnew cars required for 2026.

Then, of course, came the drivers’ market revolution that sees only McLaren and Aston Martin start the championship with the same line-up they had in 2024. That alone, would have been enough to change the status quo, as there’s plenty of new

internal battles starting and the way the new pairings work will be decisive for their team’s success.

Also, earlier in 2024, when everyone was predicting another Red Bull and Max Verstappen walkover in 2025, the Austrian team was winning races comfortably, Adrian Newey was still leading its Technical Department and even the turmoil caused by the scandal involving Christian Horner didn’t seem enough

to derail that perfectly oiled machine.

But as we saw through last (European) summer, not everything was perfect with the car, the team and its new structure, and McLaren first, followed by Ferrari and Mercedes, were all able to beat Verstappen on pure pace.

That opened their appetite for more success in 2025 rather than waiting for a blank sheet of paper to allow them to beat Red Bull, so those three teams have gone for a very aggressive development of the cars that finished 2024 – but until Saturday evening in Bahrain, we won’t know which one of them has made the biggest leap forward and will start this season from the front.

The new line-ups also provide for a lot of anticipation. How will Liam Lawson fare against Max Verstappen? Can Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton work well together or will they end up focusing on their own battle? How quickly will Kimi Antonelli get up to speed and will he be consistent enough to threaten George Russell’s status within Mercedes?

But let’s not forget that while McLaren heads into its third season with the same line-up, Norris’ seniority inside the team – obvious for the entire 2023 championship but progressively diluted last year – is no longer a given and Oscar Piastri has made it already clear he’s out to be World Champion this season!

It’s the same for the teams – all drivers hoping to fight for the title need to strike early in 2025 to get the full support they need.

For the teams, there will

be an early push to get as many upgrades as possible for their cars out ASAP, with quite a few new parts expected in race three, in Japan, and bigger changes scheduled for the Miami Grand Prix, race six.

Then, once less flexible front wings will become necessary from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards, a key decision will have to be made by all Team Principals and Technical Directors: if you’re in with a shout of winning the title, you’ll need to keep developing your 2025 car; if you’re not, abandon all plans to get new parts out and put everyone at work on the design and development of next year’s car.

For the drivers, the situation is the same. Verstappen and Russell start 2025 with the advantage of being established in their own teams and having rookies as team-mates, so gaining an early lead will secure them Number One status for the rest of the year.

Leclerc is also established inside Ferrari but new team-mate Lewis Hamilton has enough experience and motivation to be quick from the get-go, so their early season battle will be fascinating to watch. And down at McLaren, Piastri must outscore Norris right from Melbourne to erase the memories of the final races of 2024 and show his team that he too can be a title contender.

That’s why the first six Grands Prix of 2025 will be like a mini championship, with whoever gets out of Miami in a strong position having half the work done to get to the titles in Abu Dhabi.

Now, that’s pressure! …

One of the more fascinating relationships in 2025 will be between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc –and the team principal who put it all together, Frédéric Vasseur … Image: SCUDERIA FERRARI

STELLA PROMISES AGGRESSIVE McLAREN DEVELOPMENT …

McLAREN IS the first team to have shown its 2025 contender, with the MCL39 hitting the ground at Silverstone last Thursday in a papaya/ black ‘disguise’ livery – and Team Principal Andrea Stella is making it clear his team won’t compromise its development in favor of putting all the resources into next year’s brand-new 2026 car.

In fact, the Italian engineer promises an “aggressive development path” for this car, with the first big upgrade expected for the Miami Grand Prix, the sixth race of the coming season.

Stella assured everyone that “the car we see today for this promotional event is pretty substantially the one that we will see during the Bahrain test,” before explaining that “we have not changed the approach or the rate of development with a front-loading of our developments. We have just tried to go as fast as possible in terms of developing the car, which means that there will be some updates

during the early races of the season.”

With the teams tending to incorporate all their upgrades in the new cars in the first couple of months of the season, then throwing all their resources into the design and development of next year’s car, Stella assured that his team’s strategy “would have been the same, even without the 2026 changes of regulations looming ahead.”

That’s because, from the Italian’s point of view “we are very aware that last season the margins we had from a performance point of view mean that we needed to be aggressive with the car to try and cash in as much performance as possible.”

He then added that, “those margins were so small that, considering the development that other teams would have had, if we had not gone as fast as possible in terms of development, we might very quickly lose any advantage that we had. And with four teams that at any single weekend

were in condition to win the race, it’s very easy to fall from being pole position to being P8 on the grid! So definitely we kept full gas in terms of development, and we will see if we have been able to develop more than our competitors from the 2024 to the 2025 car.”

As for the focus of that development, Stella was very clear that 2025 is still a race to find downforce rather than compromise it to get a better mechanical efficiency.

The McLaren Team Principal made it clear that “in terms of improving the car, in addition to downforce and aerodynamic efficiency – which in reality is by far the most important target that you have –is what we have tried to achieve with this new car and is in many areas innovative.”

But the Italian added that “we tried to raise the bar in many areas, including the fundamental layout – something that definitely we evaluated carefully, because the

MCL38 was already a competitive car – so we needed to consider how much we wanted to innovate.

“Ultimately, we went for a relatively challenging approach in terms of how much of innovation is in this car. This is predominantly to gain aerodynamic efficiency, to allow our colleagues in aerodynamics to have volumes to use for their geometries.

“At he same time, we still wanted to make some improvements in terms of interaction with the tyres, and especially what you can do to improve what is long-run pace. They fundamentally are the two areas. And, in a telling summary of the priorities in modern F1 cars, he concluded that “obviously, there’s some tuning on the suspension as well, in terms of mechanical grip, but nowadays, the suspensions pretty much tend to serve aerodynamics.”

McLaren is scheduled to unveil its full 2025 livery later today (Tuesday).

The car in which Australian Oscar Piastri will challenge for a world championship in 2025 was given a shakedown last week at Silverstone. Team Principal Andrea Stella has committed to the same frenetic pace of development that turned McLaren’s 2024 car into a winner ... Image: McLAREN

… AND SECURES PRODROMOU CONTRACT EXTENSION

McLAREN HAS moved quickly to secure the long-term services of Peter Prodromou, its Technical Director, Aerodynamics, making sure the leadership group that has been responsible for the team’s amazing progress remains stable.

The new, multi-year extension of his contract was announced last week, pre-empting any attempt from rival teams to try and secure the services of this highly-rated aerodynamicist.

Ten months ago, just days before the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren changed the way its technical structure was organized, with the departure of Technical Director David Sanchez opening the door to a threeprong leadership that includes Prodromou, Rob Marshall and Neil Houldey. The Frenchman had been hired from Ferrari and arrived in Woking to take the role of Technical Director but, having served a lengthy ‘gardening leave’ found a different situation to the one he had signed for.

In the meantime, Rob Marshall had arrived from Red Bull and made a massive impression on everyone at McLaren, the veteran engineer

being highly creative and energetic, as well as being adept at getting his hands dirty and physically working on the cars alongside the mechanics when he felt things needed to be changed.

Marshall, Prodromou and Houldey had found a way to work together in perfect harmony when Sanchez arrived, so the former Ferrari man wasn’t able to operate the way in which he thrives – as clear leader of the technical department – and, after less than three months of the job, he agreed to move out, joining Alpine soon after.

That allowed McLaren to put Andrea Stella’s vision in place, with three Technical Directors leading different areas of the design and development of the car. Marshall was put in charge of design, Prodromou leading the aerodynamics and Houldey in charge of engineering.

With Marshall still in the early part of his long-term contract with McLaren and Houldey not even dreaming of going anywhere (he’s been with the team since 2006), Prodromou was attracting approaches from other top teams and, with his current contract

expiring before the end of this year, it was the right time to offer him a new, improved deal, that will see this triumvirate remain together until at least the end of 2028, securing the much needed stability at the top of McLaren’s technical structure.

Team Principal Andrea Stella hasn’t hidden his pleasure at the confirmation, saying that

“the cultural, organisational and technical leadership Peter has brought has been invaluable and he has been a key architect of the team’s performance turnaround, on and off the track, securing the team’s ninth FIA Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship in 2024 – the journey we have been on together as a team, we could not have done without Peter.”

F1 RACE DIRECTOR GETS PERMANENT DEPUTY

DUTCH OFFICIAL Claire Dubbelman has been appointed Formula 1’s Deputy Director on a permanent basis and will be backing up the recently promoted Rui Marques in his first full season as Formula 1 Race Director. The announcement reinstates the system president Ben Sulayem had put in place at the start of 2024, before Neils Wittich’s unexpected departure from his position of Race Director just before the final three rounds of the season. Dubbelman is now in her ninth season with the FIA, having moved up through the ranks, and is the first product of the Fédération’s High

Performance Plan to reach a top position in Formula 1. She previously held a championship manager role –where she helped oversee a total of 26 series including F2 and F3 – and also assisted in the deputy race director role in different categories.

In a recent interview for the Women in Motorsport forum, organised by the FIA, the Dutch official explained that the pressure of top jobs doesn’t get to her, stating that “you need to learn to grow thick skin. The sport exists by the grace of the fans, drivers and competitors. We value their input and we’ll always take that into

account when possible.

“So, if a fan, driver or a team doesn’t agree, I listen to them first. I like to explain to them why we decide certain things. When someone makes a good point, we’re not shy to take that on board and review with an eye on the future.”

The reason she believes in herself is that “I’ve always had the attitude: I work too hard to let anyone else get in my way. I’ve always worked 60-80 hours a week and I won’t let all of that work go to waste because someone puts me in a difficult position by not respecting me.”

WHY IS ECCLESTONE SLAMMING HAMILTON?

BERNIE ECCLESTONE used to enjoy a close relationship with Lewis Hamilton during the final years of the British driver’s time with McLaren.

But recently, following his move to Ferrari, Ecclestone has gone public with a view that Hamilton has lost motivation to win further F1 titles:

“I have my theory about this. It’s not the age with drivers, it’s how long they have been doing the same thing,” Ecclestone told The Telegraph.

“I have thought with Lewis, ‘He’s getting tired. He has lost motivation.’

“If he had never won a world championship, it might be different, because then there would be an incentive to win one. But he has won seven.”

After his relationship with his father Anthony deteriorated and led to the two stopping working together at the end of 2010, Hamilton often asked Ecclestone for advice, the two having a high profile meeting in Shanghai’s paddock during the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, when the driver was questioning his future with McLaren after three successive frustrating years.

Even after Hamilton moved

to Mercedes and established himself there, with his relationship with Toto Wolff growing beyond a boss-driver one, Ecclestone was still advising him on how to negotiate his contracts … so it’s fair to say they trusted each other and spent quite a bit of time together.

However, the recent doubts Ecclestone has cast over Lewis’ inate ability, his commitment to Formula 1 and his chances of success with Ferrari indicate that close relationship is no more,

the 94-year old being extremely critical of the seven-time World Champion on almost all accounts. So, where did it go wrong? It started when Ecclestone was ousted as Formula 1 supremo following Liberty Media’s takeover of the sport. The man who made Grand Prix racing a global show was expecting support from all the people he’d helped, but found himself surplus to requirements on the few occasions he attended Formula 1 races. Hamilton never sought Ecclestone’s advice any

more; there were no more calls or texts between the two; and the former team owner resented that. Then came Hamilton’s decision to embrace causes like Black Lives Matter, LBGTQ rights, inclusivity and so on – and that really put a big ditch between Ecclestone and the driver. A conservative, even by 1950’s standards, the 94-year old has no time for causes like that and resents people using the forum he made so big to promote their ideas.

The final straw seems to have been Hamilton’s insistence in showing up at the circuits with outfits designed by young talent, rather than in team gear and that really rubbed Ecclestone the wrong way.

The veteran has long believed that impecable white shirts and black trousers are a gentleman’s appropriate outfit, when racing gear or uniforms are not appropriate, so to see the biggest name in the sport wearing some pretty eye-catching outfits has really upset Ecclestone, the generational and cultural divide between Hamilton and himself souring what was, up to 10 years ago, a relatively close relationship.

Image: PACE IMAGES

PIRELLI HAPPY WITH FRUITFUL JEREZ TEST

PIRELLI HAS concluded another twoday test session for the development of the tyres that will be used next year, under the new Technical Regulations, making the most out of good weather conditions that graced Jerez de la Frontera recently.

Under 2026 rules, tyres will maintain their diameter at 18 inches but will be narrower than the ones in use this year, being cut by 25mm for the fronts and 30mm at the rear.

This test followed on from those

at Le Castellet and Barcelona and was focused on a comparison of several different constructions and compounds. Pirelli worked on the development of the C2, C3 and C4 tyres, with another 248 laps, almost four race distances, being added to the work done by Pato O’Ward, for McLaren, and Pierre Gasly, for Alpine.

On the final day of testing, Jack Doohan drove the modified A523 Alpine (to simulate the levels of downforce its expected next year’s

cars will generate), while Mercedes went down to Jerez de la Frontera for just one day of running, George Russell being at the wheel of a modified W15.

The British driver was the busiest of the duo, completing 135 laps with a best time of 1m17.976s, while the young Australian driver was able to reach 1m17.255s in the best of the 113 laps he completed.

While the teams’ focus is now firmly set on the initial runs of their 2025

machinery, Pirelli still has another test session planned for the 2026 development program,

Bernie was once a key Hamilton adviser ... but their relationship has dimmed ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

LINDBLAD FORCED TO WAIT FOR SUPER LICENCE

RED BULL protégé, and newlycrowned Oceania Formula Regional 2025 champion, Arvid Lindblad has secured enough points to be granted a Super License but the Swedish sensation will have to wait another six months to finally get his hands on the document that allows drivers to race in Formula 1.

That’s because under the new regulations introduced after Max Verstappen did most of his first Grand Prix season when he was just 17 years old, the FIA decided to make it mandatory for drivers to be at least 18 years old before they could take part in Formula 1 races.

Lindblad secured the points he needs to reach the magic 40 required for a Super Licence by winning the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, formerly known as Toyota Racing Series, against relatively modest competition, in NZ recently – but must wait six months to actually acquire the Super Licence … Born on August 8, 2007, in the United Kingdom, Lindblad is the son

of a Swedish man, and a mother of Indian heritage who has chosen to race with a British Licence. Since a very early age and, while still in karting, he was taken into the Red Bull Young Drivers’ program and has followed the traditional method preferred by Helmut Marko. After one and a half seasons in Formula 4 the British-Swede driver graduated to Formula Regional for the winter series run in the Middle East, going straight to the European Formula 3 championship one month later. And after just one season in this category, with four wins taking him to fourth place in the final standings, Lindblad will race in Formula 2 this year, with Campos Racing, alongside the more experienced Red Bull protégé Pepe Marti.

With Racing Bulls having a dedicated test team set to run with two-year-old cars, Lindblad will join Hadjar and Iwasa in a series of testing days at Imola, Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring, before making his first official FP1 outing, possibly in the Mexican Grand Prix

later in the year.

With Ayumi Iwasa being the official reserve driver for Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda being Red Bull’s preferred back-up driver, Lindblad is right behind the young Japanese in the pecking order and should be on track for at least two FP1 sessions towards the end of the season, in

preparation for a full Grand Prix deal for 2026.

At Red Bull it is widely expected Tsunoda and Iwasa will follow Honda once the partnership with the Milton Keynes-based teams comes to an end, opening the doors for Lindblad to join Isack Hadjar on the F1 grid at Racing Bulls for next year.

CADILLAC’S PU FACTORY PLANS REVEALED

CADILLAC’S PLANS to enter Formula 1 as an engine manufacturer as well as running its own race team are going ahead, with plans being revealed to erect a purposebuilt factory for the design and development of its own Power Units. Planning permission for the construction of the structure is currently under discussion with the local council of the City of Concord, in the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina, with General Motors’ budget for the project to be in the region of US$150 million (A$240m).

The plan shows the new factory will have around 190,000 square metres and will be built next to NASCAR team Hendricks Motorsport’s facility in land that belongs to that team – a long-established NASCAR partner of

General Motors, currently using the Chevrolet brand after years of running Pontiac and even Oldsmobile models.

According to the local council

agenda, Cadillac’s investment in the project is evenly split between the construction of the building and the cost of the equipment that will be

Image: PACE IMAGES

installed there and the goal is to have its own Formula 1 Power Units up and running for the start of the 2028 World Championship.

In that document, it is also revealed that Cadillac expects to add up to 350 jobs to the local area – always an important element of any project that requires the approval of local authorities. However, it has to be pointed out that number is relatively low compared to the amount of people Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi and Red Bull are currently employing in their Power Unit plants – which could be seen as a sign that General Motors is underestimating the amount of resources and man-power required to design, build and develop a complex Formula 1 Power Unit.

ALL-CHANGE IN FORMAT AS 2026 LOOMS ...

THE THIRD YEAR OF GEN3, WITH ITS ALL-NEW ‘FINALS’ FORMAT, LOOMS AS ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL BEFORE A HOST OF TEAM CHANGES NEXT YEAR HERALD A WHOLE NEW ERA. ANDREW CLARKE EXAMINES

WHAT THE 2025 SEASON MIGHT HOLD ...

TOO MUCH has been spoken about Supercars racing in 2026 before 2025 has even started, and while that fascinating raft of changes will be truly significant, it doesn’t matter for the 13 rounds in front of us between now and November when it all wraps up at the Grand Final in Adelaide.

Let’s start with the most obvious discussion point: the new Finals system created by the once cranky but now ever-happy Tim Edwards.

In his first year effectively running the competition side of the sport after decades in team-land, he has initiated the single biggest change in the history of motorsport championships in this country.

Since we started racing for points, an accumulation of those at a greater rate than anyone else has landed the Supercars Championship, AKA the Australian Touring Car Championship, for the record books.

How does it work? Up to Bathurst, the points matter. The first drivers to qualify for the finals are the winners of the Sprint Cup (the points leader prior to The Bend) and the Enduro Cup (the lead driver with the most points over the two endurance races) – the remainder will be made up from the next highest points scorers at the end of Bathurst.

So, if there is one winner of the Enduro and Sprint Cups, then the drivers from

If there are different winners, then the eight other highest point scorers get a run. The points for all are then re-set at 3000, and the winners will be awarded bonus points based on their existing championship position on a sliding scale of 150-120-96-78-66-5748-39-30-21 for the start of the Gold Coast weekend.

Any driver in the finals who wins a race on the Gold Coast automatically advances to the second round of the

Supercars teams and drivers are set to take a very different pathway in 2025 to decide who will take the trophy currently residing in Will Brown’s cabinet ...

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

finals; otherwise, the process is based on points, and the more points you earn, the better chance for you to advance. If no driver in the finals wins, the top seven go through, and that number is reduced for each winner.

For Sandown, the points are reset to 4000 for the seven qualifying drivers, and the same bonus system of points applies. Again, if any of the finalists wins one of the 250km races, they are through to the Grand Final, and the remainder are plucked from the points to make up the final four.

The Adelaide 500 now has three races (which is really the Adelaide 600) with a 100km sprint race added on Friday. The points are reset to 5000 now, and the bonus points are awarded 50-30-15-0. The Supercars champion is the driver with the most points on the weekend.

It is not quite a first-to-the-flag winner like NASCAR, but we’ll see how it goes. It may see a points accumulation race on Sunday rather than a blast to the flag – but we’ll wait to judge until after it has happened. So, that is the championship in a slightly complex nutshell. Now to the other changes.

We’re really looking forward to the new Dunlop tyre, which should allow the drivers to race hard from the time it is bolted to the car. Unlike in previous seasons, when they tiptoed around the first few laps and ran to a number, this one change alone could have a bigger impact on racing than anything else we have seen in the Supercars era.

Brodie Kostecki heads the list of four driver changes, jumping the great divide from Chev to Ford and he will spearhead what looks like a revitalised Dick Johnson Racing with Will Davison. Under the guidance of David Noble, the broom has been sent through the eponymous squad, and the engineering line-up will look very different.

Only time will tell whether it takes them back to the top. The Gen3 era has not been kind and, like Ferrari in F1, our sport needs a strong DJR for prosperity.

It certainly has the driving talent to win. Kostecki is clearly one of the best racers we have seen in a while. He

everything he needs to make the grade, including a gun teammate – Matt Payne – as a comparison, but it is a young driver line-up that may sometimes frustrate as they keep learning.

understands the machinery, and his racecraft is right up there and getting better with every year. Davison is more than a second fiddle to the 2023 champion; he may not have a series title, but he has Bathurst wins and plenty of good numbers in the sprint series.

If DJR is going to find its way back to the top, this line-up is as good as any to do it.

Anton De Pasquale is the other big name to move, shuffling out of DJR and moving closer to home with Team 18 down in Melbourne. De Pasquale showed, at times, the speed we all know he has, but he struggled with DJR, which is perhaps not his fault. The move to Melbourne will be interesting. Each year, Team 18 seems to resource up, and this year is no different, with a new workshop. But Team 18 is not DJR in terms of the haves and have-nots, but then ‘having’ didn’t help Anton that much.

Expect him to come out to prove something to the people that wouldn’t commit to him.

Richie Stanaway has also departed Grove Racing for PremiAir, and the Peter Xiberras and Ludo Lacroix-led squad is backing itself to get the best out of this undoubted talent more often than others in the past.

If you can race like this bloke does in the wet, you know he can drive. Now it is just about seeing more in the dry. Patience is required, but it is worth the gamble.

We have two rookies this year, too, Kai Allen and Cooper Murray.

Allen has joined Grove Racing after two strong years in Super2 and some co-driving with DJR. He will have

Murray is stepping into the hot seat at Erebus, replacing Kostecki, who won a championship and Bathurst in the #99 car. No one is expecting him to quite do that this year, but after his drive at Bathurst last year, plenty is expected of him.

Rookies in this class can take three to four years to be fully up to speed, and the teams know that – now it is time for the fans to grasp it too. At times, both Allen and Murray will look like world beaters, but other times, they might look all at sea. Both teams have a proven capacity to work with rookies, so they’ll be managed well.

The only other thing to note is the return of The Bend and Queensland Raceway to the calendar.

The Bend has replaced Sandown as the pre-Bathurst endurance race. Although Sandown had previously hosted the Sandown 500 during September, that is no longer the case. And nor is the race weekend dubbed ‘The Sandown 500’ the Sandown 500 – and the fans won’t be fooled. It could backfire, but it might also turn out to be a winner.

As for Queensland Raceway, it is a welcome return even if it is the most boring track these cars race on. Tony Quinn has put in a power of work to turn the venue into a rival for his New Zealand tracks, and he hasn’t finished yet either.

It should pull a huge crowd, so let’s hope the roads have been upgraded.

As we teased at the start, this season is a precursor to significant changes (ie Toyota, T8 switch) coming in 2026. But it also features the fight for the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship Series, which is enough to make us pay attention.

We can’t wait to see how Kostecki does at DJR and are equally eager for the Finals.

After the Finals qualifying process, it’ll all be decided at the Adelaide 500 – or 600? Right: Queensland Raceway returns – here Scott McLaughlin heads for victory there, in 2019 ... Inages: MARK HORSBURGH

DRIVER RATINGS

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED

25 CHAZ MOSTERT – FORD

Mostert is arguably at the top of his game as one of the quickest drivers in the field. It all comes down to the team now and whether Walkinshaw Andretti United can pull it all together in its last year with Ford. AUTO ACTION RANKING

TRIPLE EIGHT RACE ENGINEERING

1 WILL BROWN – CHEVROLET

The 2024 champion rightly holds the high spot in the rankings. He’s with the best team in the country, and last year, he really rose to the occasion when it mattered. His performance in Adelaide was something else entirely.

GROVE RACING

19 MATTHEW PAYNE – FORD

Another young driver is growing rapidly. He won his first race at the end of his debut season and is now a front-runner at most tracks. The team let him down a couple of times last year, but it’s improving and only needs to get it right towards the end of the season.

AUTO ACTION RANKING #5

TICKFORD RACING

6 CAMERON WATERS – FORD

His team has occasionally let him down, but he’s quick. A two-car Tickford is very different from the four-car team it once was. The Finals format seems built for him.

TRIPLE EIGHT RACE ENGINEERING

88 BROC FEENEY – CHEVROLET

Feeney has been a contender since he started in the main game. He’ll be the same this year; he just needs a bit more luck to go his way. It’s also easy to forget that he has fewer than 100 starts to his name, so he is still growing as a racer. AUTO ACTION RANKING #4

DICK JOHNSON RACING

11 BRODIE KOSTECKI – FORD

He’s undoubtedly one of the best racers in the field, having jumped from his Bathurst and championship-winning team to a rebuilding DJR. We believe what the team is doing will work, but it may take until the second half of the season to see the best from him. Hello, Finals!

AUTO ACTION RANKING #6

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

HOW TO assess individual drivers’ potential going into what will be a very different Supercars Championship? AA’s ratings are

created from a mathematical formula dropped over the top of the gut feel of our team, rating a driver’s racing and qualifying

TICKFORD RACING

55 THOMAS RANDLE – FORD

Last season was a bit of a breakthrough for Randle, and all he needs now is that elusive win to trigger the next phase. He’ll continue to evolve as the season unfolds and will be a contender in the Finals. AUTO ACTION

ability with a multiplier we call ‘X-Factor’, which is the ability to do something extra special at times. Then we rate the cars, as

BRAD JONES RACING

8 ANDRE HEIMGARTNER – CHEVROLET

On his day, Heimgartner borders on brilliance and his win in the rain at Taupo is a prime example. However, the team often seems to miss the mark. We believe he’ll make the Finals, and then the door will be open for BJR to offer him something special.

DICK JOHNSON RACING

17 WILL DAVISON – FORD

As a veteran of the sport, Davison still possesses the speed to win races on his day. Similar to Kostecki, the challenge lies with the rebuilding team and whether it can come together quickly enough to secure him a spot in the Finals.

AUTO ACTION RANKING #9

71.3

34

AUTO ACTION RANKING #11 70.0

built, and the team’s ability to make the right calls. It all heads to an Excel spreadsheet and out pops the numbers ...

MATT STONE RACING

NICK PERCAT – CHEVROLET

The surprise packet of last season, Percat’s return to form, was stunning, and we see him well rewarded in our ratings. A racer with a team full of racers is a good combination. Again, another that will benefit from the Finals system.

PREMIAIR RACING

31 JAMES GOLDING – CHEVROLET

Last season, he took a pole and secured a podium at the Sandown 500 with a team that Gen3 is meant to transform into a race winner. PremiAir appears to be improving with each outing, and now it’s up to Golding to achieve greater consistency.

ACTION RANKING #10

TEAM 18

20 DAVID REYNOLDS – CHEVROLET

Reynolds has come close to the Championship a couple of times, and you get the sense that the Finals are meant for quality drivers in smaller teams. He has a chance for a win or two, but the team needs to keep him in the top 10 to stay in the running.

AUTO ACTION RANKING #12 69.4

TEAM 18

18 ANTON DE PASQUALE

– CHEVROLET

The switch of teams for De Pasquale couldn’t have come at a better time. He has seemed adrift in the Gen3 era despite winning Ford’s first race in the new cars, and a new team might be just what he needs to shake off the malaise.

PREMIAIR RACING

23 RICHIE STANAWAY – CHEVROLET

We know Stanaway can run at the front; his wet weather form is always outstanding. However, last year’s return to the main game wasn’t what he or Grove expected. Now he’s moved to PremiAir, where they believe they can extract his best more consistently. It’s a last-chance season for the Bathurst winner.

MATT STONE RACING

35 CAMERON HILL – CHEVROLET

Hill is around the mark. Now, entering his third season, there are no excuses. He needs to at least run with Percat and start clocking some better times in qualifying. This is probably a make-or-break season for him.

9 JACK LE BROCQ – CHEVROLET

Le Brocq has no excuses left. He’s experienced enough to maximise his potential, and he’s now a definite team leader, but can Erebus deliver after several off-season changes?

2 RYAN WOOD – FORD

Last year was a very public learning season for the young Kiwi. His dual DNFs to start the season made it tough from the get-go, but we saw at times the speed that WAU has embraced. If he can knock off the rough edges, let’s see how often he can run alongside Mostert.

99 COOPER MURRAY – CHEVROLET

The young main game rookie was impressive at Bathurst last year, and if we see more of that, he will regularly finish in the top five. Qualifying is always a challenge for newcomers, so that’s what we’ll be keeping an eye on. The new tyre will likely benefit the rookies.

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

BLANCHARD RACING TEAM

7 JAMES COURTNEY

– FORD

We know Courtney can race with the best, but his best days are behind him. The 2010 champion had a tough 2024, and Blanchards will need to enhance what they provide him at each round, or his career will fade away without a sound.

BRAD JONES RACING

14 BRYCE FULLWOOD – CHEVROLET

At times, the Darwinian has looked good in the Gen3 era, but then he drops off. Both he and the team need to improve that consistency, and maybe he’ll add to his lone podium.

3 AARON LOVE – FORD

Love has been the subject of much speculation during the off-season, but he didn’t have his arse handed to him by Courtney in the same car and team, so the 2024 performance can’t be blamed solely on him. However, he’ll need some good results early on, or he might not make it through the season. AUTO ACTION RANKING #23 42.6

26 KAI ALLEN – FORD

A highly credentialed rookie, he’ll have his work cut out for him at Grove Racing. Having two young drivers in one team may present challenges at times, but there’s no real pressure on Allen as he adjusts to the main game after dominating Super2.

4

JAXON EVANS – CHEVROLET

His first season was OK, but we think he has a little more to give. The question is whether BJR can give him the car to climb up the order, and the jury is out on that.

96 MACAULEY JONES – CHEVROLET

Jones has been a main game driver long enough now not to sit at the bottom of the ratings again. We want to see more of the sessions where he runs inside the top 10 rather than in the bottom four. He’s got to get more consistent at qualifying to get out of the muck.

AUTO ACTION RANKING #24

40.3

GROVE RACING

BRAD JONES RACING

BLANCHARD RACING TEAM

BRAD JONES RACING

COMING OF AGE

EREBUS’ LATEST NEW RECRUIT COOPER MURRAY ALREADY FEELS LIKE HE BELONGS – AND HE EXPLAINED WHY TO THOMAS MILES AHEAD OF HIS ROOKIE SEASON …

COOPER MURRAY might be a rookie on the 2025 Supercars grid, but with six starts already under his belt, he does not feel like one.

At the age of 23, Murray has lots of racing under his belt and gained a lot of Supercars miles in 2024 alone.

He made his debut on his own in the Supercheap Auto wildcard at Darwin where he turned a lot of heads by

breaking into the Top 10 Shootout. Then he teamed up with Craig Lowndes to soar from 18th to fifth at the Sandown 500 before topping a (co-driver) practice session and running as high as fifth at one stage in the Bathurst 1000.

To round out a busy year that also contained plenty of Super2 action, Murray was handed an unexpected

solo debut on the Thursday evening of the season ending Adelaide 500 when Jack Le Brocq’s first child arrived!

Despite the limited build-up, he performed admirably at the brutal street circuit, qualifying as high as 13th and not being afraid to race against the big boys.

These experiences leave Murray ready for the big stage and he has no fear.

“I don’t really feel like a rookie to be honest,” Murray told Auto Action

“Ever since I came in at Darwin it has felt where I belonged and was so much more comfortable racing Supercars than Super2.

“I felt more at home straight

Murray (left) with his 2025 machine. Right (top to bottom): Darwin was his wildcard solo debut; #99 for 2025. Below: Adelaide provided a surprise Erebus debut. Far right: With the new boss at the new team – Cooper is already well settled-in at Erebus ...

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

away and every time I have stepped into the Supercar I have been at one with the Gen3 especially, which suits my driving style.

not feel out of depth. I know my capabilities and that I have got what it takes.

“I know the competition and watched it for years; know what each driver is like – and its good hard racing.”

A lot of the confidence can be traced back to his instant liking of the Gen3 Camaro, with Craig Lowndes quickly being impressed by the youngster.

“The Super2 is a lot more of an engineer’s car and is more like a GT3 to be honest,” Murray explained.

“When it was in the main game it was always the big engineering teams up the front.

“When you have a little Super2 squad, with not many engineers, it is hard to extract the best out of it.

“When I jumped into the Gen3, I noticed straight away it was more of a driver’s car, where you can put more input into how the car reacts and handles.

“It just really suits me with a lot less aero and more on-edge, so you have to think ahead and make sure you don’t burn the tyre quickly.

“You always need to be two steps ahead in the Gen3 which is what I love about it.”

But the former Porsche Carrera Cup driver revealed that quiet period was actually key to the Erebus drive, having been speedy for Eggleston Motorsport in Super2 since.

“When I had the year off I was sort-of lost about what I was going to do with my career at that point and Barry (Ryan) gave me a call to drive the ‘Mercodore’ in a ‘young gun’ day,” Murray recalled.

“He gave me a drive for about 10 or so laps and I hooked straight into it despite not being in a car for so long.

“I fell in love with the Supercar and racing again, and that is when I put my foot down and worked as hard as I could to get into Super2 the next year.

“Europe and Porsche were out of the picture, so Supercars was the only opportunity left to become a professional racing driver. They were hard times, but it has all worked out well thankfully.”

Following stints in Super2 and the Triple Eight wildcard, all within two years, Murray felt ready to be thrown into the deep end at Adelaide as Le Brocq’s last-minute substitute.

Despite never having driven for Erebus before, he battled hard and feels it was the perfect platform to springboard into 2025.

“When I got into the car it was just about adjusting to little minor things like brake packages and ergonomics across the first practice session

“We struggled a bit with the base of the car, especially in qualifying trim, but on both days I was on for times that would put me into the 10.

“So there was a lot of potential there, but it was just not shown to be the potential it could have been.

“On Saturday we were up five or six positions before I was sent

into someone’s rear which ruined my front bar and then, Sunday, I was up to eighth before a nice little love tap from Cam (Waters).

“Despite the spin on Sunday, over the last stint we were the secondfastest car apart from Brodie, which gives us a great base.”

Not only does it give him confidence for Sydney, but the fearless Murray even has a few scores to settle with some of the biggest names on the grid.

“He (Waters) gave me a little touch at Sandown and Adelaide and I am sure if I did it to him he would be giving it back to me. That is just how you play the game in Supercars,” he said.

“You are not out there to make friends so, if someone gives you a nudge, they are owed one back.

“I think that is how you gain a bit of respect in the category as well, so I am just looking forward to trying to establish myself as a driver that can be around the top 10.”

Looking ahead to his big year, Murray believes understanding the new tyres could be key as he eyes the potential of battling for a finals berth.

“The announcement was back in August, so I have had a lot of time to prepare,” he said.

“I have been spending a couple of days at the workshop every week getting comfortable with the team and doing a lot of sim prep to make sure we come out strong and understand the new tyres as much as we can.

“That is going to be one of the biggest factors of this new season –which teams and drivers can get on top of the new tyres.

“There are so many more variables and opportunities and with the finals all it takes is having a good Endurance season and you have booked yourself a spot.

“And if you just stay out of trouble you are around the 10-15 mark anyway.

“We (Kai Allen and Cooper) pushed each other really hard at Egglestons and to the max. We were always back and forth to push each other which progressed us and the team.

“Now we are opposition and it should be fun.

“I have a great chance with Erebus to get some good results in both the sprints and the enduros if we work hard enough.”

TEENAGE DREAM

KAI ALLEN HAS SEEMED DESTINED FOR SUPERCARS FOR A LONG TIME AND 2025 WILL BE THE YEAR WHERE HE LIVES HIS DREAM OF BEING A FULL-TIME STAR … THOMAS MILES CAUGHT UP WITH THE BLUE LAKE BOY AHEAD OF HIS MUCH-ANTICIPATED ROOKIE SEASON ...

REACHING THE main game has always been Allen’s goal, ever since he started karting aged eight.

After winning 12 state titles and the national crown in karts, he progressed through Excels and Toyotas before being an instant winner in the Dunlop Series,

Supercars debut at Bathurst with DJR, which led to the chance to drive the #17 last year and a sudden solo race in Adelaide.

After a number of small tastes, Allen, 19, takes the step up with Grove Racing, alongside Matt Payne, ensuring the Ford squad fields the youngest line-up since Perkins Engineering in 2007.

Whilst some look for breaks during the off season, Allen was all in, revving with excitement for his big rookie campaign.

He has been visiting the workshop regularly, training in the gym and working hard on the simulator, in addition to making his own dirt track at home in Mount Gambier.

“I have been completely head down, preparing as much as I can because the challenge this year is obviously

going to be quite enormous,” he said.

“I have been training six days a week and trying to drive something every day. Even if it is a simulator, my Torana, go kart or dirt kart.

“I have worked my whole life towards this. I have had a taste the last few years, but to be a main driver is a dream.

“Little things like seeing my suit and the truck with my name on it is just so cool. It has not sunk in and probably won’t hit me until those first laps at Sydney.

“I am not trying to leave any stone unturned and trying to go as high as I can.”

Grove Racing appears to be a strong environment to start Supercars for Allen.

Not only is he within a growing and ambitious team, but alongside him is

a team-mate, who was in the same position just two years earlier and, by the end of his rookie season, was a winner.

Payne provides the perfect case study for Allen and the pair already have a connection and know the key will be building a strong team that could be set up for long term success.

“Having Matt as my teammate is great. We played golf the other day together and he is fun to work with,” Allen said.

“We can bond on different things and hang out which you can’t really do with an older driver so that will allow us to work really close.

“It will be important to build a bond, especially within the team and build something around us.

“That is what I found in Super2 –building that relationship with the

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

Egglestons helped when it came to the crunch.

“When you are all backing each other, you will have a better chance.

“Working with Allistar (McVean) has been great with all of his experience and learning off so many drivers over the years, so he will be a great mentor as well as an engineer.

“I have found my place at Grove Racing.”

Of course Allen is no stranger to Supercars, with four starts already under his belt and, importantly, all in Mustangs.

The first was as a raw teenager sharing a DJR wildcard with Simona de Silvestro and outshining his more experienced co-driver.

Last year he stepped up to the famous #17 with Will Davison in the enduros, but they had two tough races.

A surprise and frantic full-time debut arrived in the final race of the season on home soil in Adelaide due to Richie Stanaway’s concussion and he showed promise, qualifying 19th before

some battle scars hurt his chances.

Although he will be the youngest on the grid, it means the 2023 Super2 champion does not feel like he is being thrown into the deep end.

“It is so handy having the experiences and fresh races in the Mustang I had last year. All of those little things count,” he said.

“Especially doing a full solo sprint race in Adelaide, one of the toughest tracks.

“Qualifying was tricky because I only had two laps to figure out what the car was doing.

“We showed a lot of potential and

felt quite comfortable through the middle of the race, but had to fix some damage we got from earlier in the race.

“We did not get to show our maximum, so I learnt a lot there and also working with Will at DJR.

“That race was in the car I will be driving this year so that helped out a lot for ergonomics and learning the car, pit stops and debriefs.

“It has helped me take in as much as I can.”

Being the first full-time Supercars driver to be born in Mount Gambier, Allen already has a lot of supporters behind him.

Not only will many be watching from the Blue Lake City, but he also has a number of local backers.

He also has the chance to pick up many more fans around Australia with a number of records in his sights.

If Allen adapts to Supercars as quickly as he did to Super2 and Super3, he has the chance to break more ‘youngest’ records.

If he drives to victory lane in any of the first three rounds at Sydney, Albert Park and Taupo, Allen will become the youngest ever to win a Supercars race, eclipsing Scott

McLaughlin’s mark at 19y10m3d set at Pukekohe in 2013.

The Grove Racing driver has a bit more time up his sleeve in terms of becoming the youngest pole-sitter with any round across the entire 2025 season enough to beat Broc Feeney’s record set at Albert Park in 2023.

Although admitting these feats would be nice, they are far from Allen’s mind.

Whilst he feels he performs at his best under the microscope, he feels the ultra tight and competitive qualifying sessions will be the hardest areas of improvement as he settles into life as a Supercars driver.

“I am not worrying about wins at this stage but it would be pretty cool – I already have a couple of records like that,” Allen said.

“If I knuckle down and do the right things, that could be a possibility but it will be super-hard.

“At this stage I’ll just do the best I can and see what happens.

“I always thrive on pressure and love getting thrown into the deep end. It makes me lift as a person and I think that is going to help leading into the first race.

“Qualifying will be tough. You see the margins last year – they were super-close.

“Limiting my mistakes and not trying too hard will be the key.

“Last year I struggled a bit in qualifying which made me overdrive a bit.

“The main thing is just making sure I am consistent and not driving the car over the limit and hurting the tyre.

“I will put a lot of pressure on myself leading into Sydney and hopefully I can back my ability and bring a good result home.”

Kai Allen makes up what will be the youngest line-up in Supercars racing since Shane Price and Jack Perkins in 2007 ...

The youngest driver on the grid joins a team full of growing potential. Below: Taking over Richie Stanaway’s car at short notice in Adelaide was a great ‘early-learning’ exercise. Middle: Showing the way in Super 2 (Image: Ross Gibb). Lower: At DJR with Will Davison. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

Crick already has Bathurst experience from his 2024 co-drive with Cam Hill.

CRICK WILDCARD A LONG TIME COMING

CAMERON CRICK will return to the Supercars grid, but this time he will be all on his own, driving a Matt Stone Racing wildcard.

There will be no more fitting location for Crick’s solo Supercars debut either, having been a bornand-bred Sydney boy.

Not only will the #35 Camaro appear at the season opener, it will also be part of a three-car attack at both The Bend and Bathurst enduros.

Crick has already had a taste of the top level, having partnered close friend Cameron Hill at both 2024 enduros and secured consecutive top 10 finishes.

“I have dreamed about doing this for as long as I can remember,” he told Auto Action.

“Last year was amazing being a codriver and finishing 10th at Bathurst – I get along really well with the crew and I am grateful this opportunity presented itself.

“Sydney is perfect for me being my home race where 70 percent of my sponsors are.

“Going from a co driver into a main driver is very exciting

“I find myself asking ‘am I really a part of this?’

“It will be a massive step with the competition being crazy competitive, but I feel like being my home track and a team that has some really good form we have the potential to do pretty well.

“You could call it right place, right time – and hopefully I can make the most of it.”

For a journeyman like Crick, who has raced Super2, SuperUtes, Toyota 86s and Porsches, he admits the dream of starting his own Supercars race appeared distant at times.

But the path is not one the secondgeneration driver would change.

“There is no doubt that when I was struggling to even find the budget to finish a Super2 season I did not think I would ever be in this position,” Crick said.

“I have persevered and built more knowledge on the sponsorship side and it’s very lucky I have. A big pool of people are invested in what I do.

“I feel that in all the different racing and categories I have done over time, I have built more confidence in my driving.

“I have never been able to purely focus on just the driving because I have always had to worry about the

money, but I would not have it any other way because of everything I have learnt along the way.”

In addition to his two enduro starts, Crick can also lean on his confidence in Gen3 machinery, having enjoyed the Camaro as soon as he jumped in last year, as he comes from a background of low aero cars.

He will also be driving a successful chassis, the one which has claimed all three of MSR’s victories to date.

Crick is refusing to set any goals for his Sydney solo debut, but hopes to spring a surprise.

“I am going there with an open mind,” he said.

“With me knowing the track so well I would love to spice it up a bit in qualifying and be in the mix with some of the regulars, which could happen.

“I feel like we could surprise some people.”

For MSR, it has been a long time coming, as team owner Matt Stone explains.

“A few years ago during the pandemic we looked at expanding to a three-car team but there was not a licence and we decided that was not the right direction for us,” he said.

“But we have always had interest in doing more.

“For the last two years we have focused on getting our two-car team on track and are really happy with the progress.

“We talked about a wildcard last year, but we did not have the resources to do it properly and did not want to compromise our main

2025 SEASON PREVIEW

2025 SUPERCARS CALENDAR AND FORMATS

SPRINT CUP

Round 1: Sydney 500 - February 21-23

RACE DISTANCE TYRES

Race 1 100km Soft

Race 2 200km Soft

Race 3 200km Soft

Round 2: Melbourne SuperSprint - March 13-16

Race 4 105km Soft

Race 5 105km Soft

Race 6 105km Soft

Race 7 80km Soft

Round 3: Taupo Super440 - April 11-13

Race 8 120km Soft

Race 9 120km Super Soft

Race 10 200km Soft

Round 4: Tasmania Super440 - May 9-11

Race 11 120km Super Soft

Race 12 120km Soft

Race 13 200km Super Soft

Round 5: Perth Super440 - June 6-8

Race 14 120km Soft

Race 15 120km Super Soft

Race 16 200km Soft

Round 6: Darwin Triple Crown - June 20-22

Race 17 120km Soft

Race 18 120km Super Soft

Race 19 200km Soft

Round 7: Townsville 500 - July 11-13

RACE DISTANCE TYRES

Race 20 100km Soft

Race 21 200km Soft

Race 22 200km Soft

Round 8: Ipswich Super440 - August 8-10

Race 23 120km Soft

Race 24 120km Super Soft

Race 25 200km Soft

ENDURO CUP

Round 9: Bend 500 - September 12-14

Race 26 500km Soft

Round 10: Bathurst 1000 - October 9-12 Race 27 1000km Soft

Round 11: Gold Coast 500 - October 24-26 Race 28 250km

Round 12: Sandown 500 - November 14-16

Race 30 250km Super Soft Race 31 250km

Round 13: Adelaide Grand Final - November 27-30

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONS

Sydney offers both day and night (above) Supercars spectacle ...

This is who everyone has to beat ... 2024 Drivers Championship winners Penske Porsche. Image: LAT

WEC 2025: PURIST PARADISE IN THE MAKING

WITH THE QATAR 1812 KM APPROACHING, THE 2025 FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP ENTERS ANOTHER HUGE YEAR WITH ANOTHER NEW HYPERCAR MANUFACTURER JOINING IN ON THE SPORTSCAR RENAISSANCE. TIMOTHY W NEAL LOOKS AHEAD…

FOR THE past two WEC seasons, the LMH/LMDh Hypercar rule-set revolution has not failed to disappoint, rejuvenating the pinnacle of sportscar racing with a much needed injection of new manufacturers with spectacular machines.

The FIA and ACO (Automobile Club

de l’Ouest) has got everything right, and that will again be the case as the screaming V12 engine returns via the new LMH Aston Martin Valkyrie, which will also be followed by an LMDh Hyundai Genesis team in 2026, and a Ford LMDh in 2027; Honda/Acura and McLaren also providing plenty of

suggestive glances at the WEC also. There’s been few motorsport categories in recent memory where the future is just as exciting as its present, and with its centrepiece race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans – also rejuvenated as a result, there’s no doubting the awesome relevance of 2025.

Last year saw the Toyota GR team get reeled in by Porsche Penske in the drivers championship, whilst the Hypercar-trendsetting Japanese squad retained the manufacturers title with its GR010.

Porsche’s triumph was an important one, as it highlighted the “time needed”

factor after all the incoming manufacturers – Ferrari/Alpine/ BMW/Cadillac/Peugeot – were up against a Toyota team that had an extra few seasons with its GR010 to prepare for the onslaught.

And let’s not forget Ferrari, whose return to the top tier after a 50-year absence yielded an historic Le Mans win in 2023, only for it to go back-to-back in 2024. Ask any of the drivers or teams which they’d rather win: the title or Le Mans? The answer is generally the latter!

Whilst the grid has also in a sense grown smaller with the Lamborghini SC63 taking a season out to focus on IMSA, and minnowmaker Isotta Fraschini pulling the pin for now, the FIA’s new ‘two-car per factory team’ entry rule means the Hypercar grid will stand at 18 entries, which includes the two customer Ferrari (AF Corse) and Porsche (Proton) entries: Both marquees had a win apiece with customer cars in ’24.

Alongside the 18 LMGT3 cars, that makes a 36 car grid for 2025, spread over 13 major manufacturers.

All up, that’s Aston Martin, Alpine, BMW, Corvette, Cadillac, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG, McLaren, Porsche, Peugeot, and Toyota.

Here’s Auto Action’s lay of the land for the 2025 WEC season …

THE V12 SONG RETURNS

IT’S BEEN 66 years since Aston Martin lifted the trophy at Le Mans. Can they do it on their return to the top flight? Ferrari did. And the AM THOR team will have three rounds to see where they stand.

The Valkyrie is a different beast to the other V6 and V8 LMH or LMDh machines. For one, it’s the first entry to be developed from a road-going car, but the 11,000rpm and 1,000bhp+ capabilities of its naturally-aspirated turbocharged 6.5L V12 Cosworth will be tamed at 680bhp as per category rules.

It’s also a non-hybrid machine in regards to its on-track power source, though it has elements of a hybrid

powertrain, and will pull out of the pits on electricity – other than that, it’s all V12, running on a lean-burn version of the Cosworth

It also has Adrian Newey’s fingerprints all over its bodywork, as he had a hand in its design before he even joined the F1 AM garage. Its global test program has covered 15,000km, and its aptly named #007 machine is piloted by the all-English crew of Ross Gunn, Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell as its third driver. Gunn & Gamble … it already has the sound of corks popping somewhere down the line! Plus, it’ll rival Cadillac for the best sounding of the lot.

CAN PORSCHE PENSKE GET BETTER?

ACROSS THE board, Porsche and Penske experienced one of motorsports great seasons in’24, winning almost everything, everywhere and anywhere. And despite taking the Drivers title with its #6 entry, the 963 lacked only one thing compared to its rivals … about 1kph on the straights.

That certainly hurts at De La Sarthe, (with two straight years without a podium despite big representation) but the machine’s durability is outstanding, and the team’s ability to get its 963s consistently to the chequered flags were key. They thought of using one of their five LMDh lifespan evo jokers on a new crankshaft last year, designed to reduce vibration, but opted against mucking with a good thing.

They will trigger a second evo joker however – with FIA/ACO approval –with changes to mounting points and some hardware giving a wider range of adjustability for the engineers to utilise.

If Porsche can pull it together for Le Mans this year, they’ll be going for a 20th outright in the world’s most famous race.

ALPINE, BMW, CADILLAC, FERRARI, PEUGEOT, AND TOYOTA … THE RUNDOWN

Only powerhouse teams Toyota and Ferrari took wins amongst this lot last year, with Ferrari’s customer team also getting one on the board in Austin.

But in terms of podium visits, only Alpine, BMW and Peugeot cracked the big three … will that change in ’25, and which team might stir the pot?

Toyota still took three wins on their way to the Manufacturers title in ’24, and was only 14 seconds away from denying Ferrari a double at Le Mans. Teams are catching them, but they’re still a dominant force. An admittedly sloppy start at the Qatar 1812 km last season cost them in the the long run for the Drivers title, with four-time champion Sebastien Buemi saying as much:

“We’ve analysed all the mistakes we made and all the things we needed to work on, and hopefully we can prove from the beginning that we’re strong. Qatar wasn’t a good race for us, so we definitely want to start this season in a better way.”

Look out, the Valkyrie is coming ... Above: JOTA is switching from Porsche to Cadillac ...

The #50 499 Ferrari was in the running for the title last year, but it won Le Mans instead … case in point. Can they do a third?

In Ferrari’s own words, they missed out on more last year. They considered themselves ‘moral victors’ of the Spa 6 Hours, with a very late red seeing them lose a huge lead –then the race – and they embarrassingly stuffed their tyre strategy at home in Imola after starting 1-2-3.

In hindsight, they could have won the Drivers and challenged for the Manufacturers, so if it all pulls together …

Cadillac is an interesting one. Team Jota has taken the reins after a great two seasons as a Porsche customer team, even winning on the weekend of Ferrari’s ‘moral victory.’

The single V-Series R entry was disappointing under Chip Ganassi last year after a highly promising 2023 but now, with two machines run by Jota, the added data and a great line-up that includes Jenson Button, expect them to bother the podium, and be a stick in the mud for the remaining teams.

Alpine showed it had the straight-line speed last year, and its A424 capitalised on that promise in Japan in a clear upward trajectory for a breakthrough podium. For Mick Schumacher’s pilot pairing they’ve pinched Makowiecki from Porsche in a coupe, as well as excellent GT racer Jules Gounon for

the other car. After taking fourth place in the Manufacturers, getting on top of their reliability this year should earn them more podiums.

The Peugeot 9X8 looked pretty different in ’24 when the French marque decided that the car could have a rear wing and they wouldn’t try to reinvent Hypercar aerodynamics. Just like driving a Peugeot on the road, all that thing did was to spend several years breaking down whilst only showing any good signs in the wet … but things are turning.

If it wasn’t for running out of fuel at Qatar last year, it may have finished with two podiums to go with a great finish at Bahrain in the finale, and climbed higher than an improved sixth in the Manufacturers. In the stakes of French pride, it would be a fair effort to catch Alpine.

Last but not least. Is BMW a sleeping giant?

In its sophomore WEC year, it will have Kevin Magnussen at the wheel of one of its BMW M Hybrid V8s and, like the other upcoming incumbents, finished with promise in ’24, particularly with its second place in Japan.

WRT Co-CEO, Vincent Vosse said that: “We were able to improve consistently, step-by-step, although progress is never fast enough when you are in this business.

“We tasted frustration at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but when you compete,

you know that it’s part of the game. It was encouraging to see that in the last three rounds of the season, we were starting to be where we wanted to be, as underlined by the podium finish at Fuji.

“We laid a good basis for 2025, and though we know that there is a lot of work to do, the competition is also working...”

RULES AND REG CHANGES

ALTHOUGH THESE new rules and regs aren’t specifically new, they do come into effect from this season on.

With plenty of new interest for manufacturers to join, the current rule-set homologation period for the current Hypercar category has been extended for a further two seasons, until 2029, which also means teams are also afforded two ‘evo joker cards’ over those extended years.

And the two-car rule for factory teams also kicks off. This in effect (although it was always going to happen with the big marques coming) means that for now, the minnow in WEC is a thing of the past, ie, Glickenhaus, Vanwall, and more recently, Isotta Fraschini. Also, only two nominated machines per factory can score points.

Other regs and alterations include LED numbers, which will also be displayed on the side of the machine for viewing ease, and for a driver to score points from a round, their

Ferrari took out the big one – Le Mans – for the second consecutive time, in 2024.

Below: Ford’s Mustang and (bottom) the BMW squad will be GT3 contenders. Images: LAT

minimum time has been cut from 60 to 45 minutes.

Qualifying has also been tweaked for the Hypercars at Le Mans, with the top 15 going through to the H1 session, where the top 10 then go through to H2 for a shootout.

All categories will also enjoy their own track time for qualifying.

Watching the Hypercars pushing hard around De La Sarthe with space to burn, purists will love this new format.

LMGT3 – A GIANT RETURNS; ANOTHER TAKES A HIATUS

NO SURPRISE that a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) team (Manthey PureRxcing) took out the title last season. What didn’t Porsche win!

But what is surprising is that Stuttgart giants Mercedes AMG haven’t competed in the WEC since 1999. But that changes this season with a two car AMG GT3 Evo team run by Iron Lynx, who made the switch from an absent Lamborghini.

Not only have the Italian manufacturers pulled the pin on its WEC Hypercar program over the

two-car mandate, but also its LMGT3 Huracan … but with development of the Temerario GT3 well under way, expect the Bolognese to return in ’26.

Big smoky this season is Ford, after its Mustang GT3 had a Daytona breakthrough and, although the Proton run team only took one podium last year, there’s every chance that changes in a big way in its sophomore year.

Popular crowd-drawer Valentino Rossi has also confirmed his continuance in the WRT BMW squad, whilst Yasser Shahin will be the only full-time Aussie on the WEC grid, for Manthey EMA after a strong season, with back-to-back wins – the Spa 6 Hour and an historic Le Mans win –finishing third in the championship. Matt Campbell will be the only other present (currently/with LMP2 Le Mans drivers expected), as the Porsche Factory star returns to the WEC team for Le Mans.

The Qatar 1812 km kicks off on February 28, with no changes having been made to the calendar from 2024.

Toyota continues to be an outright challenger – here leading into Turn 1 at Bahrain last year. Image: LAT

2025 CALENDAR

GOODYER GOES BACK-TO-BACK AT BARBAGALLOS

TASMANIAN SPRINTCAR star

Jock Goodyer (right) has claimed his second straight win at the Barbagallo Australian Mr Sprintcar Nationals at the Perth Motorplex in a tough and sweltering stop-start affair.

With McFadden claiming Night 1 and also challenging for the feature A-Main on the Saturday, as well as Callum Williamson shutting the Maddington Toyota title gap to Dyane Kingshott, it was an eventful weekend that culminated in the big 28-entry finale.

The 35-lap A-Main with the big $40,077 (the $77 a nod to Barbagallo’s race number of 7) purse which pays tribute to WA sprintcar legend Alf Barbagallo, wrapped up a huge weekend for the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series, with rounds 15 and 16 under the belt.

Night 1 proved to be a remainder that of the immense form McFadden and Brady Motorsport are in.

McFadden’s win was his first with the A1 sticker on the Brady Motorsport entry, fresh from winning the Australian Sprintcar Championship in South Australia last week - and after winning the Warrnambool Classic in Victoria the previous week.

He started on the outside of pole sitter Kaiden Manders, who led the first 16 laps.

But McFadden struck a telling blow on lap 17 – and after that was never headed in the run to the chequer despite a late restart.

It was a clean race, going green all the way until the penultimate lap when Kerry Madsen had a flat tyre.

Daniel Harding and Manders completed the top three, while Goodyer was down in 11th.

Whilst Night 1 saw James McFadden continue his summer of dominance, this year’s Classic winner couldn’t stop Goodyer from salvaging what he admits has been a tough season.

The former Australian champion held off McFadden and veteran

MADSEN MADNESS

KERRY MADSEN (pictured) reigned supreme in the Midweek Mayhem event at Perth Motorplex, which doubled as round 17 of the 2024/25 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series.

The Wednesday night meeting on February 13 was a dramatic 30-lap feature where Madsen overcame some challengers from Lockie McHugh and Kaiden Manders.

The action started instantly as Luke Oldfield, Jock Goodyer, Harrison Peet and a few others were forced to take

evasive action on the first trip through Pits Bend.

As McHugh took an early lead, Daniel Harding’s show ended early after contact with kiwi Michael Pickens.

Another caution interrupted proceedings with 12 laps to go when Myles Bolger had a spin.

At the restart McHugh led the field from Madsen and Newton, while McFadden completed his charge from 24th into the top 10. But as the racing unfolded Madsen was on the attack as he and McHugh traded blows.

Kerry Madsen after starting from P3, finding the front of the field after a few laps before settling into the battle with constant threats from behind.

After losing the lead once more, Goodyer found the speed over the final nine laps. But in a race that lasted for over 50 minutes in regards to time spent in the cars owing to restarts, it was a tough night to be in a Sprintcar.

“We were able to put a night together and just got in front and managed to air it out,” Goodyer said.

“I wanted it over … It was bloody hot, and there were 28 cars to contend with … I was just hoping

for some green flag laps, but it was definitely challenging with all the yellows and reds to be sitting in the car for so long.

“For the season, this win tops it … it’s up there for one of the top wins of my career.”

In terms of the title race, defending champion Dayne Kingshott had a 95-point buffer after Round 14, but a consistent weekend for his main challenger Callum Williamson saw him shut that gap with a pair of P5s. With Kingshott finding the going tough this weekend despite a charge up the field in the first feature, that gap was reduced to 62 points.

Tim W Neal

In the end Madsen won the battle and set sail to glory.

Newton sat third, watching their contest unfold, but he did not hold that position for long as he dropped out with mechanical issues with just a

handful of laps remaining. Madsen won the sprint home ahead of McHugh and Manders, while McFadden impressively rose 20 spots to fourth.

Thomas Miles

Image: PACE IMAGES

Image: RICHARD HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Image: RICHARD HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHY

GOODYER DOES IT AGAIN

JOCK GOODYER (right) flew to a stunning victory in the Krikke Boys Shootout, despite having a spin in the decider, at Perth Motorplex.

Goodyer kept his hot streak going by taking Saturday night’s feature ahead of Kerry Madsen and Dayne Kingshott in Round 18 of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series Championship.

It is the latest success in a purple patch for Goodyer out west, having also won Barbagallo Mr Sprintcar Nationals at the same venue seven days prior.

The former Australian champion started on the outside of current Australian champion James McFadden on the front row and after getting the initial jump, surrendered the lead only a few laps in.

Kerry Madsen eventually jumped both of them to control the first half of the race.

Goodyer got himself in position to fight back in the second half of the race and made an attack with 17 laps to go.

However, he made contact with Madsen, which saw the Tasmanian sent into a spin.

It appeared to be the move that lost the race for Goodyer, but fortunately a red flag arrived in the immediate aftermath as Michael Keen went on a wild ride and Brad Maiolo spun out after having nowhere to go.

At the stoppage, several drivers

changed right rear tyres and went to the rear of the field – but as this was happening, officials shortened the race from 35 to 30 laps due to time issues.

Madsen resumed in the lead and controlled the field initially, but Goodyer was determined to make up for his mistake and hunt him down.

With five laps to go the #T22 had the veteran in its sights and snatched the lead.

The big move was well timed as it arrived moments before the final caution, which set up a four-lap sprint to the flag.

Goodyer held on to an impressive win with Kingshott making a late run to third from sixth on the grid.

McFadden was fourth as Ryan Lancaster drove well to get into the top five.

Goodyear started the show by being quickest in his qualifying group, before moving from fourth to second in his heat race and from p2 to a win in the B-Dash.

Madsen was third quickest in his qualifying session before moving from p2 for a win in his heat race, before finishing second in the A-Dash.

Kingshott was second in his qualifying group but failed to progress in either his heat race or dash.

McFadden set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time in a gruelling hot lap and qualifying

session that saw a handful of cars damaged.

Tim King was the first victim when his right rear wheel broke away, before Myles Bolger clouted the fence in a similar spot.

Dylan Menz, Brad Maiolo, Aaron Chircop and Daniel Harding all suffered damage in their qualifying runs.

New Zealand’s Michael Pickens, when running 10th, cut a left rear tyre with only nine laps completed but he was able to change it in the work areas.

Jason Kendrick backed his car into the infield safety barrier after battling for a position deep in the back, ending his night.

Thomas Miles

WILLIAMSON WINS NIGHT ONE OF THE KRIKKE BOYS SHOOTOUT

CALLUM WILLIAMSON (pictured) led from start to finish to take Night 1 of the Total Tools Krikke Boys Shootout at the Perth Motorplex. Williamson was never headed once he had been promoted to the front row after Lachlan McHugh developed mechanical issues while forming up.

Newly crowned Australian champion James McFadden fought from a low starting position to second, and Kerry Madsen charged to third. It was a big recovery from the

Australian champion who started from position nine after the team was forced to change the driveline after the B-Dash. McFadden had won his first heat race.

Madsen came from position 13 for the final podium placing, backing up his win at the same venue on Wednesday night.

Williamson set the pace by being quickest in his qualifying group, taking second in his heat race, and finishing second in the A-Dash.

Despite early cautions and a

strong challenge from McFadden and Madsen, he maintained his lead throughout the 30-lap finale. Notable performances included Marcus Dumesny finishing fourth from p8, Dayne Kingshott fifth from p5, and Kaiden Manders charging to sixth from p19. Mick Saller, Jock Goodyer, Taylor Milling, Jason Pryde, and Daniel Harding rounded out the top 10.

Earlier in the night Milling set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time. Bruce Williams

Image: PACE IMAGES

Image: JOSH COCHRANE

Image: JOSH COCHRANE

BRITTEN GETS SEVENTH STATE TITLE

KEVIN BRITTEN (right) further strengthened his reputation by winning a seventh Queensland V8 Dirt Modified Title at Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec-Oils Speedway.

Britten had to come through the field from ninth in his #34 Hession’s Auto Parts machine, holding off Zac MacDonald and Chris Corbett to get it done after 30 hard fought laps on the Queensland dirt.

“Started off ninth in the feature and got off to a great start by getting to ixth after the first lap,” Britten reported.

“Continued moving through the field, moving into irst on lap eight. Holding on until the end of the race, reclaiming the Queensland title for the seventh time.

“Special mention to Ray Edwards for getting the carby serviced and working as good as new again.”

Britten charged from ninth to sixth with a fast start and he soon found himself racing three-wide.

This aggressive move allowed him to surge into second ahead of Clark as Corbett enjoyed a two car-length lead.

But things were about to change as Britten came roaring up the high line, levelled up with Corbett and then snatched the lead.

Clark soon snuck into second after making contact with MacDonald on the way past as the

laps start to wind down.

Deep in traffic Britten was superb running the high line, dropping to the bottom to maintain his lead.

The fight for the podium involved MacDonald and Clark going sideby-side before Corbett entered the equation.

Corbett ended up snatching third at the death with MacDonald in second.

Late Models saw Ben Nicastri take the victory over Carter Armstrong and Nathan Battersby.

In Formula 500 Juniors Lully Whell lead the opening stages as Harry Lumsden tried to squeeze past Zack Hilder.

However, the move was not successful as Lumsden hit the wall and the impact broke the front end.

From the restart Whell led them away as Hilder looked for a way around the outside and couldn’t make it work.

But Hilder was able to get past, with a smart move on the inside sealing the victory.

This left Whell to settle for second as Cooper Dawson snared third.

In the Seniors, Toowoomba’s Bailey Leeson was the one to chase but the Current Australian Champion  Liam Williams was intent on closing the gap.

Soon the pressure became too much as Leeson spun at Turn 1, which gifted the lead to Williams and he took the win over Bryce McGregor and Jac Laneyrie.

The Production Sedan drivers were battling for the Moore Trailers

Championship Series Grand Final. It was an intense battle across 20 laps but in the end Billy MacDonald took the victory over Brodie Hollyman and Madision Harkin. Second place was enough for Hollyman to win the overall points battle by 10 over Kaine Richters. The Compact Speedcars feature went to Dion Wilson from Andrew Parks and Matt O’Neil.  While in the Street Stocks first feature went to Darren Ciesiolka from Riley Hutchison and Travis Hutchison.  Second feature going to Travis Hutchison,  Luke Wilkinson and Darren Ciesiolka.

Speedway returns to Toowoomba  on February 22 for Ultimate Pink Night.

Thomas Miles

NSW CHAMPIONSHIP EXCITEMENT BUILDS

THE INAUGURAL NSW 360-LS Sprintcar Championship at Castrol Lismore Speedway might be just

three weeks away, but there is plenty of excitement with a wide open field of competitors from the host state of NSW, as well as Queensland, primed to battle it out for glory.

Set to be held on the Saturday night of March 1, the event will play support to the Hoedown at the Showground event for the 410 Sprintcars, is hoping to attract over 20 of the country’s best 360-LS Sprintcars to the 400-metre Castrol Lismore Speedway track.

There is a host of locals in the form of NSW Championship favourites in youngsters Jacob Jolley (pictured), Ryley Smith and Jack Walker.

There will be a host of interstate invaders from north of the border.

Heading the list of potential Queensland challengers are Kye Jensen, Dan Murray, Dan Moes, John Magro and Libby Vanderreyden.

There is no doubt that the very

first running of NSW Championship for the 360-LS Sprintcars will be an event to remember, and picking a firm winner from the pack is going to certainly be no easy feat. Apart from the 410 Sprintcars with their Hoedown at the Showground event, sharing the bill with the NSW 360-LS Sprintcar Championship are going to be the Production Sedan and Junior Sedan classes.

Daniel Powell

Image: PACE IMAGES

Image: ANDY TICEHURST MEDIA

Image: SHAQ’S SPEEDWAY PICS

RODRIGUEZ CROWNED CHAMPION

ASTON RODRIGUEZ (pictured)

snatched a state title from an Aussie champion, while a golden jacket was also on offer in the latest event at Nyora Raceway.

Also on the night, Nyora’s very own Ebony Hobson would win the latest Eastern Series Wingless Sprints round of racing, Cody Malley won the Junior Formula 500s, Chris Nankiville won the Open Outlaw Karts and Kade Foster was victorious in the Outlaw Box Stocks.

Rodriguez won the first of six qualifying Compact Speedcars races whilst the wins were shared from there by Caleb Mills, Joe Lostitch, Mitch Whiting and Bree.

A 25-lap title decider had its thrills and spills, the biggest being Byron Smith from New South Wales coming undone, but Rodriguez would cross the finish line over a second in front of Whiting and Trevor Perry.

Rowdy Andreatta who began racing as a Nyora Junior Sedan competitor jumped into senior Formula 500 racing for the first time, having spent a couple of seasons as a Junior 500 racer, and started with a bang by winning the first of four qualifiers.

Tyler Maggs, Mat Turner and Jackson McLean shared the rest of the victories in the Golden Jacket Showdown but come feature time

it would be Chad Bell storming to victory lane.

This left McLean, Turner, Bailey Stephens and Maggs to settle for the minor spots.

Last start Nyora Raceway Junior Formula 500 winner Hugo Chivell started his night of racing with a first up heat win before Cody Malley, Rusty Ponting and Cruz Farrell joined him.

Malley then continued his run of strong results in recent weeks by securing the feature race victory ahead of Ponting, Chivell, Cruz Farrell and Zac Stevens.

National Sprintcar racer Todd Moule started a rare weekend in Wingless Sprint competition by winning the first of six heat races in the latest Eastern Wingless Sprint Series.

He was the first of six different winners with Tyler O’Leary, Clyde Ebony Hobson, Peter Logue, Thomas McDonald and Aron Lawrence joining him.

Hobson, who learnt who racecraft watching her father Lloyd at Nyora compete in Dirt Modifieds before the family invested in some Speedway Karts for herself and her brother to go racing, would win the feature event by less than half a second, just ahead of Ricky McCubbin and Logue.

The Outlaw Karts returned but things didn’t go as planned. Chris Nankiville once again claimed a victory when he beat Ryan Murcott while in Outlaw Junior Box Stocks Kade Foster clean swept proceedings.

Dean Thompson

BARROW BRILLIANT

A SOLID crowd arrived at Redline Raceway on Mount Buninyong to see the EZ Print Victorian Modified Promotional Association State Series and Super Rod Association Western Cup Series.

With six different heat winners and four of them decided by less than a second, it was anyone’s guess as to who would prevail.

The feature race was an absolute cracker, but despite being challenged throughout the race, Barrow (pictured) went on to take the victory from Tasmanian star Jakobe Jetson.

The popular Super Rods were also in action for the second round of the Western Cup Series.

Jamie May and Shaun Walsh began at the front of the field with Walsh winning the drag race into turn one and onto the backstraight, whilst May dropped back a little.

Coad made the most of the gap opening up and set about the chase, but Walsh hit his marks lap after lap to score victory.

Sports Sedan drivers were having their last hit out before

the state title at Redline in March and Rhys Meakins won all three of his heat races but Jamie Lock was also on the pace.

Lock the defending Victorian champion this season then went on to put his challengers on notice by securing the victory despite being pushed all the way by Tyler Brown who had an outstanding night.

Redline Raceway’s next event is with the Sports Sedan Victorian title, Compact Speedcars, AMCA Nationals and Standard Saloons.

Dean Thompson

WEATHER ALLOWS FOR RACING AT DROUIN

THE WEATHER held to ensure racing was possible at Drouin Speedway where many drivers performed.

In the Open Standard Saloons feature event Kacey Ingram led the opening three laps of 25 before Jack Yeomans assumed control of the race.

He ended proved too good moving out to big leads before being wound back by caution after an initial 12 lap green flag period.

Ingram claimed second in front of Owen Cecil.

Brad Warren clean swept the action in Sports Sedans for the Gippsland Cup winning three heat races along the way and entertaining the crowd with his no braking, full gas, sideways slides through turns three and four in particular.

In the feature event Warren led to the finish ahead of Russell Smith and Steve Sharam.

Wingless Sprints made their second appearance at Drouin for the season.

In the final Thomas McDonald (pictured) won the start, beating heats dominator Dillon Siely to Turn 1 and leading him for the first eight laps.

Siely’s attempt to steal the race ended early as he headed to the infield with mechanical issues.

McDonald then got the better of Todd Moule for the rest of 25-lap final with Samantha Millar finishing in third.

With a Victorian title looming, the Junior Standard Saloons competitors were keen for valuable seat time.

Chase Ingram had the better of brother Liam and Chase Doherty, visiting driver William Hickey and Charli Perkins as the top three drivers lapped the field.

The next event at Drouin is on April 12th where it will be Crash and Bash Ladies for their Victorian title, Open Crash and Bash for points event, Open Standard Saloons, Junior Standard Saloons and Junior 1200cc Sedans.

Dean Thompson

Image: NAPIER PHOTOGRAPHY - LOUISE NORMAN

Image: IMAGEWORKX PHOTOGRAPHY STEVE MITCHELL

Image: DEAN MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY

MRA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GETS UNDERWAY AT A HOT SMP

THE 2025 MRA State Championship returned to Sydney Motorsport Park on a hot and steamy day to kick off the motorsport year.

RICCARDO BENVENUTI reported and photographed the event for Auto Action.

SUPER TT

THE COMBINED Super TT/ Extreme TT event was the star of the show with a total of 41 cars entered. The BYP entry of the Tran boys showed some early speed by claiming pole position from Barry Kelleher.

The first race was a sprint with Kelleher winning comfortably after the Tran car ran into mechanical troubles. Ben Sheedy was second in an Improved Production Commodore and Leigh Burges was third driving a BMW M2.

The One-hour enduro was a hard-fought affair; The Tran Honda claimed an early lead from Burges. Todd Herring in his fast Mazda MX5 was making his way through the field and became the leader’s biggest threat. Multiple Safety Cars throughout the race compressed the field, keeping the race interesting. Herring momentarily claimed the

lead during the pit stop phases. However, eventually it was the Tran car coming up trumps.

Herring came second from another BYP Honda driven by T. Vucicevic/B.

Pupovac

ALFA ROMEO RACING / E36 RACE SERIES

SIMON GREIRSON won two races outright and came second in the other race in the combined Alfa

Romeo BMW E36 series. David Capraro was his only challenger in the Alfa Mito. Alfio Musumeci and Ewan Jones squabbled for the minor places. Rob Boaden was the class of the BMW E36 race series, closely followed by Otis Craven-Sands.

EXCELS

THE EXCELS returned to form with a solid 23 car field. Billy Brittain dominated the day with two wins and a second place.

Race 1, Brittain won from Ayce Buckley and Connor Cooper. The second race was a near repeat with Cooper second and Tyler Collins third.

The final race was concluded

after a hard-fought battle between Cooper and Brittain, with the former winning. Wayne Jones beat Collins and Moniquie Sciberras to claim third.

MX5

JOHN FRASER dominated the meet, claiming pole and two race wins. Jett Herring showed his speed by winning the first race from Fraser, Robert Giovenco was third. Fraser controlled the field in race two, but Giovenco kept him honest till the flag, with Stuart McFayden finishing third.

The final race was dominated by Fraser – Jett Herring finished second and McFayden outgunned Andrew Boydell to claim third.

CLUBMAN

IN THE Clubman Championship, Stuart Shirvington showed great speed by claiming pole and winning all three races. In Race 1 Graham Robertson kept Shervington honest and raced him all the way to the flag. In the following races Robertson was a distant second.

Russel Butler finished third in all three races.

Image: PACE IMAGES

The BYP Racing Honda Integra was hard to beat in the Super TT category.

Billy Brittain was dominant in the Hyundai Excel racing.

David Capraro in his Alfa Romeo Mito QV is chased by Simon Greirson in the Alfa Romeo Alfetta.

ONE FOR THE AGED

THE HISTORIC Sports and Racing Car Association ran its first race meeting at the revamped and renamed One Raceway over the weekend of February 1-2. High temperatures led to a few overheating issues, but over 200 entries were on hand. BRUCE MOXON covered the meeting for Auto Action.

FORMULA VEE

THIS MEETING celebrated 60 years of the Volkswagen-based racers being in Australia. About 1/3 of the entries were Vees, historic, modern and a regularity field. Many Vee racers of the past were on hand for the celebration, some even taking the wheel, including Gary Quartly and Graham Engel.

David Cutts (Spectre) and Matt Pearce (Rennmax) renewed their on-track rivalry, with clean and hard racing for the lead of all four Historic Vee events. Tony Paynter (Stag) had taken pole and won the opener but a spin dropped him down the field in the second race. Behind Paynter in the first race were Cutts and Pearce. Cutts took the last three, even with a gear-selection problem meaning he had to start every race in second gear. Race 2 was Cutts, Pearce and Victorian Max Bonney (Elfin); Race 3 Cutts, Paynter and Pearce; and the final Cutts, Pearce and Paynter.

THE MODERN Vees had a good entry. Daniel Reynolds looked like he was on the way to a cleansweep in his Checkmate, before a mechanical failure in the last race.

Behind Reynolds in the opener were Simon Pace (Checkmate) and Angus McDonald (Jacer). In the second, it was Reynolds, Pace and Matt Pearce, this time in a Jacer.

Race 3 was Reynolds, Pearce and Pace. In the final, Reynolds didn’t trouble the lap-scorers, leaving Pearce to take a very narrow win from Corey Ogden (Corsica) and Craig Sparke’s Jacer.

FORMULA FORD.

GARRY WATSON (Mawer) and Harrison Cooper (Van Diemen) took two race wins each. Regular frontrunner Bruce Connelly had a troubled meeting with electrical troubles, removing him from contention. Watson took the first race from Andrew Taite and Cameron Walters in Van Diemens. In the second race it was Cooper from Watson and Taite. The third race had the same top three, with Connelly coming from rear-of-grid to fourth. The final race went to Watson, from Taite, Walters and Connelly.

GROUP S

PRODUCTION SPORTS cars had a good and varied entry. Chris Jackson (De Tomaso Pantera) took a pair of wins, besting Wayne Seabrook’s Porsche 911. Jackson took the first race from Seabrook and Doug Barbour in 911s. Seabrook took the next race from Jackson and Simon Myer in his giant-killing MG Midget with Barbour next. Seabrook took the third race from Jackson and Barbour, before parking the car for the last race, which went to Jackson, from Terry Lawlor’s Shelby GT350 and Barbour, from Myer.

GROUP L, M, O, P

A MIXED field of pre-1970 cars with lots of variety and some

very interesting cars. Travis Clark dominated in his Rennmax-Ford Formula 2 car, winning all four races. David Kent drove his Brabham to four second places, with Laurie Bennett taking the first three thirds in his Elfin 600. Peter Strauss took his 1964 Brabham to the final third place. Best of the pre-1960 cars was David Reid in the Faux Pas Special, with the Cooper of Peter Fagan putting up a good fight for that honour.

GROUP N

TOURING CARS had to take a back seat this time around, but they still put on a show. Brad Tilley drove his Mustang to four wins. A red flag in qualifying meant several drivers didn’t get a lap, which mixed up the grid and gave some entertainment. Tilley had no such problem, winning from pole with David Noakes (Escort) next in the first race, from Mark Lenstra (Escort).

Race 2 went to Tilley from Andrew Girvan’s Torana XU-1 and Mark Lenstra. Tom Tweedie had started last in his Mini and finished 10th after a strong drive.

Race 3 and Tilley was again top of the tree, from the Escorts of Noakes and Lenstra. Next were the battling Minis of Jason Humble, giving his Mazda RX-2 a break, Paul Battersby and Tweedie, with Mark Johnson’s Mustang getting in the middle. Tilley took the last race from Noakes and Girvan with Tweedie next.

Malcolm Boyd took two of the ‘slicks and wings’ races in his Elfin.

Mini action – Humble, Battersby and Tweedie provided the entertainment. Below: Cutts leads Pearson in the Historic Vee contest. Images: BRUCE MOXON

CELEBRATING ATCC HISTORY

GNOO BLAS was the place to be last weekend as its annual Classic soared to new heights.

The 2025 Gnoo Blas Classic exceeded all expectations, with upwards of 800 vehicles and 10,000 visitors heading to Sir Jack Brabham Park in Orange.

The 27th edition of the classic car show celebrated 65 years since the first Australian Touring Car Championship race at the Gnoo Blas racing circuit in 1960, won by David McKay’s Jaguar Mark 1.

Whilst the 3.75m circuit is no more, its soul was still strong as not only was there a huge display of

and

the sun, but visitors were taken on tours of the historic circuit.

In attendance was 1969 Bathurst 500 winner Colin Bond, plus veteran journalists Ray Berghouse and Will Hagon, who added further insights to the event.

The cars were not just idle in the park either with a big parade taking place on the main street, and dinners to attend.

With so much going on, it was a success on every measure for the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club according to secretary Bob Nash.

classic vehicles, motorbikes, trucks, even boats

caravans shining in

Aerial view of the Gnoo Blas gathering ... The event included dispalys of cars and bikes covering the history of the longclosed circuit, including (above right) Peter Brock’s first Bathurst car – the Monaro GTS 350. Images: SAM RILEY/SSR MEDIA

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. Send your information, images and contact details to team@autoaction.com.au or give

that was listed as number 0 because it was the prototype, beside the assembly line, when they were producing it

“All of the comments we have had are very positive with people saying they have already booked their accomodation for next year.”

Given the anniversary, a big part of the event was tapping into the track’s rich history.

“We are all about preserving the history of motor cars in Australia and of course this year we celebrated 65 years of touring cars, which began here in 1960.

“We actually reproduced the exact program from 1960 and there were copies on every table.

“A local bus company allowed people to drive around the track and hear about the different corners and how drivers came unstuck.

“It was a huge success on all fronts with over 100 vehicles. We called it ‘Auto Alley’ with Mercedes Benzes, beautiful MGs, Toyotas, Fords. Where else could you come and see vehicles from the early 1900s?

“There were so many unique cars, including one that started as a Ford and has been now turned into what they call a sled.

“We also had a LJ GTR Torana

“It highlights the significant of this race track where in 1955 they recorded the first 100mph average lap.

“It has a huge history and that is why this event will always be held at Sir Jack Brabham Park.”

Being the 27th running, the event has grown a long way from the humble beginnings of the first event.

“Our car club was started by a man by the name of Dennis Gregory almost 30 years ago,” Nash explained.

“In those days we had 20-30 cars and members and it has just exponentially grown each year.

“We left it to him, but since his death a new committee has arrived and have taken it to beyond what he could ever have dreamed.

“Last year we had around 630 vehicles and this year about 850.

“It is the largest classic car show in regional Australia and we are just trying to make the system better and better.”

Dates for the 2026 Gnoo Blas Classic are already locked in with February 6-8 set to stage the 28th edition.

More information can be found on the Gnoo Blass Classic Car Club website or by emailing gnooblasclassiccarclub@gmail. com

Thomas Miles

BACK IN ACTION

THE VICTORIAN State Race Series roared back into action last weekend with the new 2025 season kicking off at Sandown.

Competitors across eight different categories were greeted with the challenge of mixed conditions at the historic Melbourne circuit.

SPORTS SEDANS

AS ALWAYS Sports Sedans were a highlight and Cadel Ambrose proved he will be one to watch in the new Audi A4.

Ambrose won a hotly contested Sports Sedans round where 10 points covered the top four drivers.

Despite taking pole by four-tenths, he started on the back foot as John Ippolito claimed the opening race in his HSV Clubsport, while Brett Dickie, Dean Camm and Jim Pollicina all finished ahead of the #3 Audi, which suffered a 15s penalty.

However, Ambrose found the perfect response, winning both of the final two races to steal the round win in the closing stages.

Consistent top three finishes was not quite enough for Camm as he fell two points short as Dickie’s Honda was third.

HYUNDAI EXCEL

IF THAT was not enough Ambrose also competed and led in the Hyundai Excels.

Ambrose pulled 4s on the pack in the opener as Emily Jones edged out Rio Campbell.

He proved even more dominant in the feature, pulling 7s ahead of William Twining.

Ambrose had more competition in the finale, but still pulled off the clean sweep as Jones won a thrilling fight for second.

SPORTS CARS

THERE WAS only one car to have in Sports Cars and that was a Porsche,

with the brand filling the top seven positions.

However, one driver was a cut above the rest with Kamal Mrad winning all three races and sweeping the round. Best of the rest on each occasion was Daniel Quimby.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS/HQ

THERE WAS little in it in the battle for Holden HQ honours with just two points separating the closely matched Steve Banks and Andrew Magilton. Although Magilton prevailed in the third race where extra points were on offer, Banks’ victories in the first and last races were enough to edge in front.

Critically, third-placed Warren Trewin split the rivals in the final race which proved decisive.

Meanwhile, it was one way traffic in Historic Touring Cars with Brent Trengove winning all three races and leading a Camaro 1-2 from Geoff Munday.

MG BRITISH AND INVITED

THE CONTEST for MG and Invited British honours was closely fought with one driver taking two wins, yet not being in the battle for overall honours.

That was tightly fought between Simon Elliott, Michael Trathen and Richard Milligan.

The high ground was initially held by Phillip Chester as he dominated race 1 by 12s over Trahten and Elliott. However, Chester suffered a costly

DNF in Race 2 which ended his overall hopes despite being back in victory lane in the finale.

Instead, Milligan surged to glory in a hard fought feature by 3s over Keith Ondarchie.

But a second place finish in the final race was enough for Elliott to steal the round win.

FORMULA VEE

A SOLID field of 20 Formula Vees went racing and put on a decent show for overall honours.

Andre Curin bolted out of the gates, sprinting to victory in each of the first two races.

However, his run was halted come the finale where Rocco Spinley took control.

Fortunately for Curin second place was still enough to comfortably wrap up the round as his nearest rivals could not capitalise.

FORMULA FORD

WITH EACH race producing a different winner in each class, Formula Ford was one of the most competitive contests all weekend.

Across the two classes there were six different winners throughout the weekend.

In the faster Duratec, Lachlan Evennett started ominously by taking out the opener ahead of Jamie Rowe and Seth Burchartz, who were evenly split by a second.

Next up was the feature and that lived up to expectations.

Jarrod Hurst and Rowe wrestled for victory throughout the 11-lap encounter and in the end just two tenths was the difference at the chequered flag.

Hurst had enough legs to steal the lead and seal the win inside the final four laps.

This meant a number of drivers were in contention come the final race and Rowe rose to the occasion, winning it by 2s.

It ended up being a winner-takesall affair with Rowe wrapping up the round with that victory.

The Kent class was even more competitive as the first race was decided by less than a second with Craig Arnold beating Peter Fitzgerald. With final race winner Andrew Torti not finishing the opener, the round was effective decided in the feature race where Richard Davison used his experience to prevail once again.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

IMPROVED PRODUCTION was one for the Holden fans as the ‘General’ filled the top eight positions.

Kaide Lehmann started strongly by winning the opener, but could not replicate the pace for the remainder of the weekend.

The rest of the round was all about Luke Grech-Cumbo as he went back to back to be the undisputed winner ahead of the consistent Ian McLennan.

PORSCHE 944 CHALLENGE

CAMERON BELLER proved why he had the #1 on his door by dominating the opening round.

Beller won all three races, leaving Adam Brewer to settle for second best ahead of Mark Verdino.

Thomas Miles

Winner Beller, Westaway and Brewer – three Porsches-wide into Turn 1 ... Right: Luke Grech-Cumbo took out Improved Production; Richard Davison’s consistency won (Kent) Formula Ford. Images: REBECCA HIND/REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

Ambrose leads Cam _ Sports Sedans ...

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SPRINTING AT SYMMONS

RACING ALSO returned to Symmons Plains Raceway last weekend as the 2025 Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championship fired up.

As always, the Excels were battling door-to-door for victory with some close contests. Despite some races being decided by less than a second, Jackson Shaw used his expertise to prevail in all four races.

The intensity was high in Sports and Racing straight away, with just 0.11s the difference in the opening race as Matthew Roberts

edged clear of Joshua Peacock.

Nathan Lovell then inserted himself in the fight in Race 2 and prevailed by an equally tight margin.

Roberts then hit back before it all became about Peacock, who dominated the final two races.

There was no catching Matthew Grace in Improved Production with his Nissan 200SX going almost 2s faster per lap.

Grace dominated all five sprints with four of the victories completed by more than 10s, while Andrew Colquhoun was

NEW SEASON BEGINS

SYDNEY MOTORSPORT Park

played host to the opening round of the new 2025 season for the Australian Commodore Series.

Despite the threat of rain earlier in the week, race day brought clear skies, which paved the way for the showpiece one-hour Enduro race.

Unfortunately, series founder Tony Virag had to withdraw at the last minute due to an issue with his HSV GTS.

Having missed the previous round because of a health concern,

the competitors had Virag in their thoughts.

After qualifying, the cars lined up for the sprint race, where all drivers completed the race without incident, except for last round winner Glen Wilson, who encountered brake issues and was forced to retire.

The Enduro race saw all cars take the start, but an early safety car period interrupted proceedings.

However, that was followed by smooth racing, but Wilson was again not one of them as his mechanical

best of the rest in the feature.

There was a small field of five cars for Formula Vees and Noel Clark held sway, winning four of the races.

However, Michael Vaughan did enjoy his one moment in the sun with a thrilling win.

There was the same number of cars in HQ Holdens where Anthony Viney claimed a tense opening race by less than a second.

Although the margins remained tight, including a one-tenth win, Vineny step the first four races.

However, his hopes of a perfect weekend ended with a DNF in the feature where Samuel Percy claimed an unforgettable Ian Beechey Memorial race where the top three were covered by 0.17s.

Sports GT A, B and C saw a wide variety of cars take part and leading the way was Richard Manning’s Commodore.

But as the weekend progressed Stephen Noble became the man to beat and dominated the remainder of proceedings in his Nissan 350z.

A small, but roaring field of Sports Sedans took on Symmons Plains with Ben Purtell and Alexander Williams wrestling at the front of the field.

Purtell dominated the first two races but neither he or Purtell could make it across the entirety of the weekend.

As a result only three cars took part in the double points finale which John Douglas won in a Gemini.

Thomas Miles

problems resurfaced, leading to another retirement.

Scott Sullivan also had to retire due to steering issues.

In the end Christian Millett, Matt Holt and Anthony Barbara emerged

as the respective round class winners. Leading the way was Holt, who won the Enduro race (pictured).

The next Australian Commodore Series round is at One Raceway in April. Thomas Miles

Image: PACE IMAGES

Jackson Shaw vs Jeremy Bennett in Excels. Right: Ben Purtell’s Nissan was fast but struck mechanical problems. Images:DMAC PHOTOGRAPHY

BROWN BREAKS NZ GP DROUGHT

WILL BROWN overcame all the openwheel experts to add the prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix victory to his growing list of career success.

Brown won the 69th edition of the New Zealand Grand Prix with a nice drive, fending off local hope Zack Scoular and series champion Arvid Lindblad, who took the opportunity to run the #1 – on the series spare car, after his regular mount was damaged in a crash in the earlier heat.

Having won the Supercars Championship last year, it further grows Brown’s building resume.

It was a historic result as well, given the last Australian to cross the Tasman and win the race was Warwick Brown, 50 years ago, in 1975.

After 14 races and five rounds, the big prize was on the line in the finale with the third and final race of the weekend at Highlands Motorsport Park.

A 27-lap dash around the 4.01km

circuit decided the prize and a good race was in store with the predicted rain staying away.

It was an all-Triple Eight front row with Brown and final round guest Broc Feeney heading the field after the latter shocked the paddock by snatching pole in his first drive with these cars.

At lights out it was Brown who made the best getaway as Feeney struggled to light it up and slipped behind Scoular.

Another driver who did not get an ideal launch was Lindblad, who settled into fifth ahead of Aussie Patrick Heuzenroeder.

Feeney soon found himself down in fourth as Rashid flew around the outside of the Supercars star at the end of the opening lap at the daunting final turn.

Only one green flag lap was possible due to a spinning Enzo Yeh, who also collected James Lawley.

At the restart Brown and Scoular

Will became the second ‘Brown’ and first Aussie in 50 years to snatch the NZGP trophy. Images: TAYLOR BURKE/BRUCE JENKINS / TOYOTA GAZOO RACING NZ

Brown Giles Motorsport AUS

Scoular mtec Motorsport NZL

Lindblad M2 Competition GBR

Shawn Rashid mtec Motorsport USA

Michael Shin M2 Competition KOR

Feeney mtec Motorsport AUS

Bowling Kiwi Motorsport USA

Johnson M2 Competition USA

Sebastian Manson M2 Competition NZL

Crosbie Giles Motorsport NZL

shot away as Lindblad started making moves, and attacked Feeney.

It was the start of an interesting battle as Lindblad had a big look on lap eight, but Feeney shut it down.

The Supercars star responded by attacking Rashid but every time he did, it brought Lindblad within attacking range. Heuzenroeder was already on the back foot due to a three-place grid penalty for his involvement in a Race 2 incident, but his pursuit of victory was over on lap nine.

He was the forced to pit and retire with damage to his rear suspension after light contact with the wall.

This elevated Michael Shin to sixth as Brown switched his lead to three quarters of a second by the second half of the race as the battle remained intense.

After 15 laps of trying Feeney finally

found a way past Rashid, who was seemingly hampered by a loose panel on the front of his FT60.

As a result, Lindblad was quickly on his tail, but soon Feeney’s good work was undone by a costly mistake at the Forest Hairpin where he dropped behind Rashid, Lindblad and Shin.

This marked the start of Lindblad’s launch to challenge for victory inside the final 10 laps.

He finally passed Rashid on lap 17 and that put him up to third but five seconds down on Scoular, who remained hot on Brown’s tail.

Eventually the tense tug of war proved too much for Scoular as Brown pulled 1.3s clear with just seven laps to go.

Lindblad responded and hustled his car to set the fastest lap and piled on the pressure.

But Scoular responded, posting a string of fastest laps to claw his way back towards Brown and set up a tense run to the flag.

Little separated them on the final lap but, despite leading the way throughout, Brown had enough in the tank to hold on from Giles Motorsport.

“I was nervous about the start and I knew if I could beat Broc away off the line I had a chance to get ahead and control the race,” Brown said.

“I was rooted. The first 10 laps were really hard and I was quite stressed in the car trying not to make mistakes. I had a few loose moments and I had to calm down, breath, and get it back together. After that I pushed on and we started to set some really fast laps.

“Zack was super-fast and always there. But it was a cool race. When I saw the Safety Car come out I knew I had to build a bigger gap.

“I’ve loved racing in the open wheelers and the NZ fans have been great.”

Earlier in the weekend another

Australian, Heuzenroeder, stole the show.

He got a stellar start in Race 1 to shoot to the lead ahead of Lindblad.

Despite having the champion hot on his heels, the Aussie was never seriously challenged and dominated.

Heuzenroeder flew to a commanding 6.6s win, which was a special way to finish his first trip to New Zealand and seal fourth in the championship.

Whilst he could not claim the race win, second place was enough for Lindblad to secure the title.

It was mission accomplished for the 17 year-old Brit, who secured the 18 Super Licence points that Red Bull driver supremo Dr Helmut Marko had requested of him and the pathway is clear should he need to be deployed in F1 during 2025. He receivied the Chris Amon Trophy as champion.

“I’m definitely relieved,” he said.

“I knew after Teretonga I was in a very good position and effectively had one hand on the trophy, so it was more about finishing the races here and I’m very glad to have it wrapped up today.”

American Nikita Johnson avoided a chaotic start to claim the second race, that saw a number of big names out.

There was chaos at the first corner after the first three drivers – Johnson, Nicholas Monteiro and Shawn Rashid, arrived almost side-by-side.

Behind them, Saturday winner Patrick Heuzenroeder, Michael Shin and Lindblad all arrived side-by-side too, and there simply wasn’t enough room for them all. Shin, in the middle, made contact with both Patrick on his left, Arvid on his right and Matias Zagaezta behind was also caught up in the mess.

Lindblad went into the tyre barriers heavily and Heuzenroeder and Shin both sustained suspension damage which put them out on the spot.

Multiple cars headed off track to avoid contact and most made it through unscathed, with the exception of Giles Motorsport’s Brown who damaged another nose and had to head to the pits for repair as the Safety Car came out.

Thankfully the restart was clean and Johnson put the foot down to storm to victory in an all American podium with Brazilian Nicholas Monteiro second and USA’s Shawn Rashid third.

“I’m sorry for what happened to Patrick as he was also a strong contender for second in the championship but it’s great to take the win and have a small points margin over Zack heading into the Grand Prix,” Johnson said.

Feeney stunned by taking pole, but a bad start cruelled his chances. Right: Aussie Heuzenroeder took a great Race 1 win. Below: The series Champ ...

Sunday morning first corner chaos meant a lot of work for some crews before the main event.

FIGHTING HIGH

NOT ONLY was the New Zealand Grand Prix on the line at Highlands, but also lots of pride with a number of support categories on show.

THE TOYOTA GR series run of unique race winners in the inaugural Bridgestone GR86 Championship was broken by Josh Bethune, who controlled the field at Highlands.

Bethune won two of the three races across the weekend to put him in contention for the title.

However, despite the success, championship leader Hayden Bakkerus extended his advantage by being consistent enough to take the round.

The action was on from the moment lights went out as Hugo Allan and Bakkerus went side-by-side down to the first corner where the former got his nose in front.

Although Bakkerus was never far behind for the entire eight lap race, there was nothing he could do about Allan, who stretched his lead from the field and didn’t put a foot wrong.

“It’s nice to take that first proper win. It’s such a complicated racetrack that it’s nice to know we have some good

speed here,” said Allan afterwards, the winning margin over Bakkerus just two seconds.

“You have to get everything right and we seem to be doing that at the moment. It is very satisfying to be back where we belong, especially after a bad round last weekend at Teretonga. It’s fair to say though, I always look forward to a round at Highlands.

“Hayden wasn’t going to back out at the start, and neither was I. It was cool heading into Turn 1. We bumped doors a bit but it was very fair racing.”

Bethune had threatened to win all year but his breakthrough finally arrived at Highlands in Race 2.

He did it in fine style as well, dominating the sprint and emerging home 6s clear of Zach Blincoe.

Whilst it was a comfortable drive for the #32, there was big drama in the battle for second place.

On a frantic last lap there was heartbreak for Simon Hunter who retired from second place when he ran out of fuel.

This ensured Blincoe could pick up

the pieces and finish second best.

“It’s great to win,” Bethune said. “We’ve been working hard all season and we have been consistently fast, but we just haven’t managed to get to the top. Once I was ahead it was uncontested. I’m pumped with the margin of victory too. We’ve got a very quick car now.”

Starting the finale from pole, Bethune quickly established a gap over his rivals and did not look back in the 12-lap affair.

Bakkerus and Allan also enjoyed comfortable drives to their podium places.

THE SECOND round of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship saw Blake Dowdall build his advantage. Dowdall was close to perfect, winning two of the three races before finishing fourth.

These results helped the Palmerston North teenager build a 38-point lead over Christchurch’s Will Neale, while Australian Lincoln Taylor is third after a special performance.

Dowdall headed into the weekend with a strong advantage of 24 points

Image: PACE IMAGES

after the opening round and carried on that momentum into the opening race by taking pole.

The race was a closely fought affair but Dowdall kept Taylor at Bay with Neale, Izaac Fletcher, Jacob Begg and Dylan Grant making up the minor places.

Aussie rookie Taylor then stole the show by getting a grand start and hitting the lead in Race 2.

He held the lead all the way home, but he was not able to enjoy the taste of victory.

Taylor was hit with a 5s penalty for exceeding track limits which dropped him to fourth.

As a result Dowdall carried on his control of the category and inherited the win ahead of Penrose and Neale with a resurgent Dylan Petch taking fifth ahead of Grant.

Taylor was not the only one to be hit with track limit penalties as number of competitors across all classes at the meeting throughout the weekend were caught out, particularly at Turn 10.

The final 20-minute heat proved to be the most competitive.

Determined to bounce back from the disappointment of the previous race, Taylor got another good start to take control ahead of Penrose.

Unfortunately for Penrose, he dropped out of contention after nudging the wall on the start/finish straight and then retired with an engine misfire.

This brought Dowdall into second, but he was the next to suffer a tracklimits penalty.

Sitting third on track, Neale looked dangerous and his car set-up came to the fore in the final third of the race.

This propelled him past Dowdall and Taylor and into the lead with just three laps to go and he did not look back.

Grant also made some late moves to snare second from Taylor, but there was more pain coming for the Australian in the shape of a similar time penalty for not giving racing room which dropped him to third and promoted Grant into second place.

Dowdall was not getting ahead of himself post race.

“Close to a clean sweep so to come away with the result from a solid weekend is great,” commented Dowdall.

“It’s about winning the war and not the battle.”

Nearest rival Neale was pleased to have a consistent weekend and end up second best.

“Absolutely wrapped after such a hard weekend,” commented Neale.

“We haven’t been on the pace and found it hard to be in the front pack.

“We made a couple of changes for Race 3 and it was perfectly in the window.

“The car was mint and came on

when we wanted, and I was in the zone.  I can’t thank Dad and the team enough.”

Formula Ford NZ carries on with the penultimate round at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park 21-23 March.

The meeting was also the finale of the 2024/25 Yokohama South Island Formula Ford Championship that was wrapped up by Will Neale.

Neale was a model of consistency, recording only one retirement across the 17 races and emerge a comfortable 283 points clear of Dylan Grant.

“Very happy to wrap up the South Island title,” commented Neale.  “At times we didn’t have the pace of the others, but we were able to maximise our results.

“Absolutely rapt after such a hard weekend.

“We haven’t been on the pace and found it hard to be in the front pack.

“We made a couple of changes for Race 3, and it was perfectly in the window.  The car was mint and came on when we wanted, and I was in the zone.”

THE SUMMERSET GT New Zealand Championship began with a one-hour race on Saturday, won by junior-pro competitor Marco Giltrap in a Porsche 992. The Open Class podium featured Rick Armstrong (Porsche 992), Luke Manson (Porsche 992), and Joel Giddy (Mercedes-AMG GT2), with Armstrong reclaiming the championship lead.

Giltrap continued his winning ways in Sunday’s first 30-minute race, while Armstrong claimed the Open Class victory from Giddy and Manson.

A round sweep followed for Giltrap, who led Armstrong, Manson, and

Giddy home on Sunday afternoon.

In the GT4 class, leader William Exton triumphed in Race 1 in a McLaren Artura, edging out the Toyota Supra GT4 Evos of Ayrton Hodson and the Kaleb Ngatoa-Allan Sargeant duo.

Hodson, who is set to compete in Super2 in 2025, edged out Exton for Race 2 victory, with James Sax rounding out the podium in a Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Exton was back to winning ways in Race 3, heading the Supra of Sargeant and Ngatoa and the Mercedes of Sax.

WILL KITCHING continued his strong start to the season in the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing National Series, winning all three races.

He finished ahead of Mac Templeton and Stuart Lawton in the opener, Dalan Price and Matthew Dodd in Race 2, and Lawton and James Black in the finale.

Over two dozen Porsches competed across five Pirelli Porsche Race Series classes. Race 1 overall saw Garry Derrick take victory in a Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup, followed by Vin Schelp in a 997 Cup S and Brian Scott in a 991.2 Cup. Derrick repeated his success in Race 2, leading Daniel Angus and Brian Scott.

Scott won a dramatic 30-minute finale from the 944 S2 of Daniel Gross and the Boxster 2.5 of Jacob Bellamy. Of the Boxsters, Steven Fang won both Race 1 and Race 2 ahead of Iain Hill and Chris Taylor.

Bellamy’s overall podium in the final outing saw him as the first Boxster home ahead of Fang and Chris Taylor.

Josh Bethune took a pair of GR86 race wins, as did Blake Dowdall in Formula Ford (right). Below left: Will Neale is the new South Island FFord champ. Below: Scenic Highlands and a crowd of Toyotas ... Images: BRUCE JENKINS/ GEOFF RIDDER/TERRY MARSHALL

LARSON WINS OUTLAWS SEASON OPENER

KYLE LARSON HAS WON TWO OF THE FOUR OPENING NIGHTS OF THE 2025 WORLD OF OUTLAWS SERIES AT VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK. ANDREW CLARKE WAS THERE TO SEE IT FIRST HAND ...

VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY Park is dubbed the fastest half-mile speedway oval in the world and, with four nights to open the 2025 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, all that speed was on show as NASCAR stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell battled with Outlaws specialists like Logan Schuchart, David Gravel and rising start Buddy Kofoid.

Larson left Volusia Raceway Park with a collection of ‘Little Gators’ (for feature race wins, including his first ever at Volusia) and his first-ever ‘Big Gator’ (for topping the points over four nights) as the mini-series point champion, after besting Schuchart and defending series champion Gravel in the 30-lap feature, the longest race of the week.

Although the added five laps didn’t seem to make much of a difference, the timing of the World of Outlaws feature after the 30-lap UMP modified – that seemed to take forever with constant yellow flags and a red flag – finale posed its challenges, leaving

a black track for the Outlaws, who finished the race with bald tyres.

Dash winner Tyler Courtney and Gravel led the field to green, with Gravel using the outside line to take the lead off Turn 2. Courtney fell into second while Larson, starting fourth, quickly moved into third. However, that didn’t last long, as Larson made a swift pass on Courtney for a second just a lap later.

A scramble behind the leaders saw Bill Balog roll his car exiting Turn 4, badly damaging it. Balog was reported to be alert and conscious and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. Another lengthy delay dragged the racing well past 11 pm. On the restart, Gravel briefly regained the lead, but Larson wasn’t far behind. After pressuring Gravel for a few laps, Larson powered ahead on

lap five, claiming his second win in as many nights.

From the minute Auto Action arrived at the track on Friday, Larson looked in a class of his own, but there’s no such thing as a cruise in Sprintcar racing. On Friday, fellow NASCAR driver Christopher Bell pushed him, but engine problems on Saturday relegated the Toyota driver to the role of spectator.

Image: PACE IMAGES

On Saturday, it was first Gravel and then Schuchart, the latter using lapped traffic, to draw up to the rear of Larson, who always seemed to have enough when he needed it. The cautions landed at the right time for the driver Auto Action has rated the best allaround racer in the world.

A final caution on lap 21 provided a final reprieve and, despite being challenged, he won the night and the weekend.

“I could hear Logan back there, but the caution helped me,” Larson explained of the yellow nine laps from home. “I’m just glad to finally get one

of the Big Gators to go with the small ones.

“I was just nervous that with Logan behind me, if I slowed my pace down too much, I was going to open my corner up. I made a couple of mistakes there late, but I was able to shut the door and commit to the bottom.

“I really wanted to control the race. I wasn’t sure if it was going to take rubber, but I thought it might. I was trying to

manage the tyres and not get them hot early. It is just a couple of months from my win in Australia, and I finally won in Volusia. And hopefully, next week, I can finally check off the Daytona 500.”

Schuchart, while content with his second-place finish, reflected, “I was hoping he’d make a mistake in traffic, but it didn’t happen. Still, two podiums this week is a good result.”

Gravel, who led early, expressed some frustration with his third-place finish. “The track took rubber, and the tyres were bald, but everyone was in the same boat,” he said. “I just couldn’t figure out where to go when I was leading, and that hurt me.”

SUCCESSFUL WEEKEND

Volusia was packed to the gills for the opening round of the series, and Nick Graziano, Senior Manager, PR & Editorial Content for World Racing Group, which runs the series and also owns Volusia, said they were happy with the weekend and the crowd for the now regular-season opener.

For the Series, no points are allocated on the first night, but all four count towards the Big Gator.

There are 90 races scheduled for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, and 14 drivers will contest all of them.

“This year, we’ve got 90 races scheduled, and they’ll be racing across the country after Volusia,” he explained. “After tonight, they’re going to have a couple of weeks off, and then they’ll be back here for two nights during the Big Bike Week Daytona event.

“Then after that, they start hitting the road. They’ll go to Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and then start a whole around-the-country trek.

“If you kind of map it out on a map, there’s a kind-of sequence to it. You start south and go back up the Midwest, kind-of do a loop over to the Northeast and back down again. Then later in season, they’ll go to California in September, then come back around.

“We end at the dirt track at Charlotte for the World Finals event.”

While he said it was great having drivers like Larson and Bell, the series has its own superstars and may even have an Aussie or two in the middle of the year.

“I think the cool thing that you’ll see with the Word of Outlaws is a lot of these guys are becoming bigger names, and fans are knowing their names. David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, Carson Macedo – they’ve got the biggest names.

“That’s why every driver you can go interview, every single one of them, will say, “This is why we want to be here. These are the best of the best.””

He said that with the crossover of the Australian season, it will take a few weeks before he knows if any Australians will front up this year. Australian drivers like James McFadden, Scott Bogucki, Brooke Tatnell, Jessie Attard, Jamie Veal, Lachy McDonough, Brock Hallett, Callum Williamson, Ryan Newton and Todd Moule were among the 384 drivers to score points last year, and we are aware of at least three drivers trying to put together deals to run on the biggest Sprintcar show on the planet.

“You always expect some of the American drivers to go over there, and some of the Australian drivers come over here. Obviously, there are no Australians full-time with us this year. I know we’ve had James McFadden before, but you never know.

“There’s a lot that go back and forth, and you never know who the next guy will be.”

Frantic heat action from Volusia. Image: TRENT GOWER. Below left: Christopher Bell had engine problems ... big ones. Below: Packed house and plenty of merch ... Images: ANDREW CLARKE

And the winner is ... who else but Kyle Larson. Image: TRENT GOWER

Burnin’ up the rears ... Bell vs Larson. Image: TRENT GOWER

EVANS AND THE SWEDISH ICE-BREAKER

WELSH RALLY DRIVER ELFYN EVANS LAID DOWN A MARKER AT RALLY SWEDEN IN A TIGHT AFFAIR IN THE ICE AND SNOW, WITH TOYOTA TEAM-MATE TAKAMOTO KATSUTA PUSHING HIM TO THE WIRE. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

THE FIA World Rally Championship conditions are ripe in 2025 for it to be the year of the Welshman, as Elfyn Evans captured his second WRC win at Rally Sweden as part of a thrilling Toyota one-two.

Alongside co-driver Scott Martin, the slender victory gives the #33 TGR team a nice early season buffer to work with heading into Round 3 in Kenya, with the Japanese marque occupying the top-three in the standings.

Evans had to fight tooth-and-nail in the WRC’s unique and pacy iceand-snow round, with team-mate Takamoto Katsuta eyeing off his maiden WRC win and throwing it down to fall short by just 3.8 seconds, with the biggest margin of the 18

Stage weekend being just eight seconds.

The times across the top-five were narrow across the whole 300km, as defending champion Thierry Neuville also scraped in for the final podium spot over Hyundai teammate Ott Tanak, whilst Kalle Rovanpera also

remained a threat all weekend.

Since Neuville took his maiden title in 2024, it left Evans in the unwanted position of taking over as the WRC’s perennial bridesmaid, having now been runner-up in the championship for four of the last five years.

But that could all change this season

Image: PACE IMAGES

as Toyota juggles Sebastien Ogier (Monte-Carlo winner) as a prolific part-time winner, and Rovanpera continues to rediscover his feet after a semi-sabbatical campaign in 2024.

At 36-years old, and 10 career wins to his name, his sixth year with Toyota could be the ice-breaker.

“It’s been an amazing weekend. We led for a lot of the rally but the margins were always tight and it was never really comfortable,” said Evans, who had to wrestled the lead back in the penultimate stage.

“This morning I got caught napping a bit in the first stage by Taka (Katsuta), who really made me fight for it, and thankfully we managed to turn it around and unlock good pace on the next stage.

Could the eternal bridesmaid be headed for the altar?

Two wins in a row sees Elfyn Evans with a decent early points lead. Below: Neuville – flying to a podium ...

“I’m very happy with the end result and to have won the Power Stage as well. It’s been a very good start to the season for us and we couldn’t really have dreamed of much better. Usually after a good Rallye Monte-Carlo it’s hard to score well in Sweden but the good conditions gave us a chance and I feel we made the most of it.”

For Katsuta, it also appears that the 31 year-old is finally emerging as the driver that Toyota has patiently nurtured. He now appears to be largely free of pressured errors that have brought him unstuck over the years and a win could be just around the corner.

“It’s been a really nice fight with Elfyn and with the Hyundai drivers not far behind us as well,” Katsuta said. “It’s been a really intense battle for the whole rally and there was some pressure throughout but I enjoyed it a lot.

“Next time I will be ready to push more to try and take that victory. I was able to manage the speed through the whole weekend and this is giving me more confidence for the future and a good feeling for Kenya.”

There was also an historic victory on the Aussie front, as Newcastle’s Taylor Gill and compatriot co-driver Dan Brkic stormed to victory in not only the Junior WRC, but also WRC3.

It was the pair’s second win in the Junior category after capturing Estonia last season, and a vital win for Round 1 of the Juniors as they chase an FIAsponsored WRC2 campaign in 2025 (see page 24 for full report).

AS IT HAPPENED…

RALLY SWEDEN kicked off with a 5.1km high-speed blast under the lights near the service park in Umea, and in setting the mood for the rest of the rally there was little separating the field with Evans taking a half-second advantage over Rovanpera and Tanak ahead of Friday’s 124km, seven stage outing.

The second day saw just a 9.1sec gap across the top five in the pure snow, as Evans and Katsuta traded times with the Japanese driver briefly finding the lead in SS5.

Fourmaux looked formidable early, taking SS3/4, Whilst Neuville conquered oversteer to fight back into the fifth spot by day’s end.

But it was Evans to hold the lead by a slim 0.6sec from Katsuta, with Tanak 1.3s and Fourmaux 7.9s in arrears over Neuville. Rovanpera too would have been in the mix but for an overshoot in SS5.

In the best of the rest, Martin Sesks was impressive at times to register two top-three stage times in the third Ford Puma to sit seventh behind Neuville, whilst M-Sport’s Irish newcomer

settled into eighth despite an ‘off’ in SS5.

TGR part-timer Sami Pajari showed glimpses of the break-neck speed he’s known for, fighting back after dislodging a tyre on a snowbank for ninth, whilst Grégoire Munster made it an all Rally1 top-10.

Saturday’s penultimate 101.9km would see seven more high-speed stages, and another tightly packed top five split by 10.1 seconds.

The knife-edge time splits continued to set up a mouth-watering Sunday, as Evans would make it three-straight sleeps as the rally leader.

Again, it was Katsuta who kept the pressure on despite overshooting at the SS12 junction. Whilst that briefly gave Evans an eight second buffer, the Japanese driver hit back, slicing off six seconds over SS14, to end the day just 3.0sec back after the 15th stanza.

Neuville took advantage of an i20N coolant leak to leap team-mate Tanak, whilst his three stage wins also put him over Rovanpera to be in the hunt for the final day, just 3.3 seconds back, in third.

Unfortunately for Fourmaux, he came unstuck several times, firstly due to a loose helmet strap at a stage beginning, then a day-ending ‘off’ into a snowbank, all over three stages with a stage win in between.

With a thrilling Sunday set up, it would all come down to 70km over three stages.

Katsuta came out of the blocks with serious intent with 7.6 seconds turnaround to lead Evans by 4.5sec,

with Neuville also closing the gap on Evans to 4.4sec in third.

But the Welshman then responded over the second run of the 29km Vastervik leg to regain a 3.7sec lead that would prove difficult to flip with the deepening ruts in the 8.6km Power Stage finale.

Whilst the times were traded at the top and Katsuta threw the kitchen sink at it, Evans’ last run saw him take SS18 by 0.2 seconds to bank a maximum 35 points, with Katsuta and Neuville filling the podium, followed by Tanak, Rovanpera, Sesks, Pajari, and Munster.

Ollie Solberg was unstoppable on home turf with a third straight WRC2 win in Sweden, taking a 42.5sec margin over Roope Korhonen to complete the top-10 and to give Toyota a double onetwo in the top-tiers.

And yes, Aussie Taylor Gill and codriver Dan Brkic sensationally topped the WRC3 standings on his way to a Junior WRC victory

The WRC next heads to the visually iconic Rally Kenya on March 2024 for the first gravel rally of the season, with its erratic weather and rocky, eroding tracks, offering up one of the championships most challenging calendar dates.

WRC STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 2

Katsuta provided the greatest challenge, but had to settle for second.

Aussie Taylor Gill – superb!

Solberg took his third ‘home’ WRC2 win.

BYRON STEALS LAST-LAP DAYTONA GLORY

DESPITE TAKING THE WHITE FLAG DOWN IN NINTH PLACE, FATE FOUND A WAY FOR WILLIAM BYRON TO BECOME THE MOST UNLIKELY BACK-TOBACK DAYTONA 500 WINNER … THOMAS MILES REPORTS

BYRON HAD already written his name onto the Harley J Earl Trophy, last year, but not even the most optimistic Hendrick Motorsports fan could have predicted a follow-up success in 2025.

Ford had been fast all day and the #24 was down in ninth at the start of the final lap – however, few could have predicted the drama that was about to unfold.

Penske’s Austin Cindric and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin were side-by-side leading the field and battling for victory until they started the second half of the 201st and final lap after the race had already been sent into Overtime.

Contact from Cole Custer sent Hamlin spinning in front of the field, taking many with him ... and emerging from the tyre smoke in the lead was Byron, who led Tyler Reddick and returning guest Jimmie Johnson home in a crazy conclusion to a crashaffected race.

Following a long rain delay and a presidential visit, three big incidents in the final 15 laps, led by the terrifying

sight of Ryan Preece taking flight, took the race into Overtime.

When Byron crossed the finish line, 0.113 seconds ahead of Reddick, he became the first driver since Hamlin in 2019 and 2020 to win the Great American Race in consecutive years and further build the #24 legend.

“Just obviously fortunate that it worked out in our favour. But just really proud of this team.

“Worked super hard all week and had an amazing car. Just had a really hard time with the fuel saving and kind of staying towards the front.

PACE IMAGES

“Crazy. I can’t honestly believe that. But we’re here. So proud of it.”

Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen started promisingly, fighting around the top 10 in the opening stages, but ultimately finished a distant 33rd, eight laps down after his race was undone by a big crash at the start of Stage 2.

QUALIFYING

“Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” Byron said after climbing from his car. I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom,and I was honestly going to go third (top) lane regardless, because I was probably sixth coming down the back.

TOYOTA MADE headlines in qualifying when Chase Briscoe gave the Japanese brand its first Daytona 500 pole on its 19th attempt.

Briscoe took pole with a 49.249s/182.745mph lap, the fastest pole time since 2021.

The new Joe Gibbs Racing driver eclipsed Austin Cindric by just 0.076s as he was the only non-Ford in the top five.

Image:

“It’s hard to do anything for the first time with Toyota, so to be able to do it in my first race is super cool, super special. It means a lot to Toyota,” he said.

“Unbelievable way to start off the year.

“Man, to think I’m going to start on the front row or on the pole of the great American race with ultimately the great American brand of Bass Pro Shops is unbelievable.

“Can’t thank Coach Gibbs enough, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organisation.

“The whole off-season everybody kept telling me the focus was trying to qualify better at Superspeedways.

“That’s something I really struggled at last year.

“For them to be able to come here after qualifying 25th average last year, to come here and have three cars in the top 10, to have one on the pole, is just a testament to everybody there, the amount of effort and prep work they put in.

“For our 19 group to come here and

sit on the pole at the biggest race of the year is pretty special.”

Meanwhile, critically, returning guests Martin Truex Jr and Johnson were fast enough to earn their way into the big race.

DUELS

AFTER

QUALIFYING the now tradition of setting the Daytona 500 grid with a pair of Duels carried on and it produced plenty of action.

Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric were victorious despite the latter crossing the finish line in second.

The first Duel was a slow starter, with yellow flags twice early in the race before Wallace won the drafting duel to the flag from Byron and Ty Dillon – who tagged the wall on the closing lap.

The win for Wallace broke a two-year winless streak and left him as the driver in the Cup Series with the best finishing average at the track.

“I didn’t know whether to stop on the front stretch ... where to go to victory lane,” Wallace said.

with a lap to go, then, up

“Two years hiatus, you lose memory a lot really quick.

“To finally get a Duel win – I hope it’s the right stepping stone for accomplishing Sunday.”

The second Duel took a while to warm up to the bump and grind of the opening Duel, and it was perhaps

fitting that the win to Cindric surprised most.

Cindric and Jones went side-byside all the way to the line with Jones appearing to take the chequered flag first and even celebrating.

But due to the caution being waved just seconds earlier due to a wreck

DAYTONA 500 • NASCAR

Ninth

front, shit happened ... and William Byron won his second ‘500’ ... Below: Ryan Preece had a frightning crash when air got under his car. Opposite: The Daytona 500 is a big, big deal ... Images: NASCAR/CHEVROLT/SUPPLIED

deeper in the pack that claimed van Gisbergen, NASCAR officials went through the footage and adjudged Cindric to be in front at the time of the deciding yellow.

Justin Allgaier and Corey LaJoie made the starting grid for the 500 by being the highest-placed open drivers in each race.

“I knew it was going to be super close at the line,” Cindric said.

“Obviously it was, but, yeah, then to have the poor guy go to the start/ finish line and celebrate and all that.

But, yeah, at the end of the day it’s a swing of one point.

“It doesn’t change his starting position, doesn’t change mine. You know, happy I was able to race that one out and see what my car had for Sunday.”

RACE DAY

THE STAGE was set for another unforgettable Great American Race with a sell-out crowd of 101,500 people stacking the stands.

Despite all the anticipation that included a Presidential lap, rain damped proceedings.

Only 11 laps were possible before a near four-hour rain delay that saw the rest of the race take place under floodlights.

The relentless nose-to-tail contact saw Ross Chastain fire hard into Helio Castroneves, while Briscoe, Jon Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Riley Herbst, Martin Truex Jr and Jimmie Johnson were also caught in the drama.

Whilst emerging unscathed from the crash, Logano spent a long time on pit road fixing the issue and fell to the back of the pack.

However, the #22 utilised the free pass and car pass to claw back to the front of the field by stage end.

With three lanes in operation, Cindric, Preece and Bowman wrestled for the lead across the second stage once there was an extended green flag run and it was the #60 RFK Mustang that got its nose ahead by the halfway mark.

As the pack sprinted towards the completion of the second stage, Cindric took control and Blaney made it a Penske 1-2 with an impressive slingshot past Elliott with the side draft coming out of Turn 2.

Incredibly Logano completed his charge all the way to the top six come the final 10 laps of the stage.

It was a long wait for the 67th Daytona 500 to fire up, but eventually it was worth it.

At the time of the stoppage, Austin Cindric had edged his way into the lead ahead of Ty Dillon and pole sitter Chase Briscoe, who had led the most laps before the interruption, while van Gisbergen worked his way into the top 15.

Fans were greeted with a long green flag run where Joey Logano showed the speed of his #22, dominating ahead of Brad Keselowski.

The entire stage almost ran all green, but ended under caution after a crash on lap 63.

A hit from behind saw Denny Hamlin get out of shape on the inside lane and check up off the apron.

This set off a chain reaction that involved Zane Smith, Josh Berry and Austin Cindric.

Smith and Berry suffered major front end damage

Despite having looked ominous early, Logano’s hopes took a major blow when he suffered throttle body dramas and fell to the back of the pack at the start of the second stage. With the #22 struggling to get going, the entire outside line stacked up behind which set off a chain reaction at Turn 2

The Penske power was on full display at the end of Stage 2 with Cindric and Blaney leading the pack side-by-side towards the chequered flag.

A push from Elliott ended up allowing Blaney to snatch it.

With intensity rising at the start of the final stage, Blaney had company with Wallace making a challenge up high.

The #12 Ford and #23 Toyota spent lap after lap side-by-side before Byron made a challenge down low to make it three wide with 50 to go.

As the race continued at a hot pace, a predicament of when to make the final fuel stops surfaced.

But this was soon not an issue as, with 38 laps to go, the yellows returned due to debris, which provided the field a perfect window to complete their final fuel stops.

At the restart Wallace and Cindric resumed their battle and the Toyota won convincingly with a nice push from Byron.

However, pushing Penske teammates soon prevailed on the low line with Cindric and Blaney taking charge.

It was not until Lap 185 where the high lane led by La Joie finally fought back and it did not take long for chaos to unfold.

Below: Shane van Gisbergen (#88) was right there in the early running, but – as can happen at Daytona – was an innocent victim of someone else’s mistake ... Left: Logarno leads a typical three-wide pack.

Above (top to bottom): Who’d have thought ... the legendary Jimmie Johnson finished third; Bubba Wallace won The First Duel; Victory Lane for a stunned William Byron ...

Coming out of Turn 2, Stenhouse cut across Logano, which sent the #47 spinning into third placed Blaney below.

With the clash taking place at the very front of the pack, many had nowhere to go with Logano going head-on into the outside wall, while #4 and Elliott suffered heavy damage.

As they pin-balled up high, Kyle Busch, who was sixth, got punted to the infield.

latter sent Bell hard into the back straight fence.

The unlucky car that took the rebound from the bruised Bell was Preece, who then took off.

The front of the #60 Mustang lifted and, nose-high, ran airborne alongside Jones before the RFK Racing machine finally flipped over.

For the second time in as many Daytona races, Preece found himself tumbling and landing heavily on his roof.

I am lucky to walk away, but we are getting really close to someone not being able to ... “ ”

Having been at the source of the incident, Logano was one of the most deeply impacted with heavy right front damage and he struggled to make it back to the pits. Racing resumed with just eight laps to go and, whilst La Joie initially led up high, Penske power once again prevailed with Cindric taking charge.

But halfway up the back straight on Lap 193 Toyota team-mates Hamlin and Bell teamed up to snatch the lead up high.

Hamlin then swooped back down to lead both the race and the bottom train ahead of Cindric.

Suddenly it was a Joe Gibbs Racing formation at the front of the field with Bell and Hamlin side-byside with only five laps to go.

Although the Toyotas had track position it was clear the #20 was not comfortable leading the high lane with Bell bouncing around.

Eventually the pressure from Cole Custer became too much and the

By the time the #60 was back the right way up, it went rearwards into the outside wall in another sickening impact before finally coming to rest at Turn 3 where roof flaps eventually deployed. In addition to Preece, Larson, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace were also involved.

Preece was thankful to simply walk away.

“When the car took off like that and it got real quiet all I thought about was my daughter ... so I am lucky to walk away, but we are getting really close to someone not being able to,” Preece said.

“I am very grateful. But that sucks. This thing was fast, so it is frustrating when you end your day like this.”

This sent the race into Overtime with Hamlin and CIndric side by side.

The #11 got the better restart but it did not work as Custer gave Cindric a push to the lead through Turn 2.

As they took the white flag Cindric made a bold move to shut down Hamlin down low and it worked just, but it saw Riley Herbst fire to the infield, but he somehow saved it.

The titanic tussle for the lead carried on down the back straight, but it all exploded amid the desperation for Daytona 500 glory.

The top four of Cindric, Hamlin, Custer and Briscoe all came together.

The contact sent Hamlin spinning from the lead across the track, bringing Custer with him and into Bowman up high with many others left with nowhere to go.

The only members of the top 10 to sneak clear of the chaos in the high lane were Byron and Reddick, who drove to glory.

“I measured up the #2 (Cindric), and got a run on him,” Hamlin said. “I stayed with him long enough where I could kind of control which side I wanted to pass him on, and then we had pulled away from the pack slightly, so I knew a run was going to come.

“The 41 (Custer) had a run, and I chose not to block him because these races, you have to live to make it off of Turn 4, and we just didn’t.”

Whilst Hendrick Motorsports celebrated becoming the first team to 10 Daytona 500 wins, their former star Johnson also had plenty of reasons to smile. Now an owner of Legacy Motor Club, Johnson was a guest star at age 49 and rose from 15th to third on the final lap, his best result since 2020 at Dover.

The field has a week to recover before fronting up at Atlanta this weekend. DAYTONA

2025 DAYTONA 500 RESULTS

1. (5)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 201.

2. (11)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 201.

3. (40)  Jimmie Johnson, Toyota, 201.

4. (1)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 201.

5. (18)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 201.

6. (38)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 201.

7. (16)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 201.

8. (2)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 201.

9. (19)  Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 201.

10. (6)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 201.

11. (25)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 201.

12. (4)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 201.

13. (36)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 201.

14. (7)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 201.

15. (17)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 201.

16. (23)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 201.

17. (24)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 201.

18. (31)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 201.

19. (35)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 201.

20. (22)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 201.

21. (30)  Cole Custer, Ford, 201.

22. (12)  Corey LaJoie, Ford, 201.

23. (15)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 201.

24. (8)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 201.

25. (28)  Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 200.

26. (34)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200.

27. (14)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 199.

28. (32)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 198.

29. (3)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 197.

30. (33)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, Fuel Pressure, 196.

31. (20)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 195.

32. (27)  Ryan Preece, Ford, Accident, 195.

33. (26)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 193.

34. (21)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 186.

35. (10)  Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 185.

36. (37)  Zane Smith, Ford, Accident, 108.

37. (29)  Josh Berry, Ford, Accident, 105.

38. (39)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, Accident, 71.

39. (41)  Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, Accident, 70.

40. (9)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 70.

41. (13)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Engine, 42.

2015 - INSIDE THE AMBROSE AND DJR PARTNERSHIP

DICK JOHNSON and Marcos Ambrose are kindred spirits, both being faces of adoring Ford fans and understanding the expectation and the motivation that can provide.

The pair spoke to Auto Action in an exclusive interview ahead of their muchhyped start to life with Team Penske in 2015.

“My first recollection of Dick was back in the Sierra days and they were winning a lot of races. He came to Launceston and did some autograph signings and I was trying to find some old tyres I could get signed,” Ambrose recalled.

“We thought it was a hoax,” Johnson answered when asked about how the Penske deal came together.

“Why wouldn’t you? When someone picks up the phone and says ‘its Roger Penske’ you have got to say ‘who is this tosser?’

“Roger always wanted to partner with someone and from what they have said,

1975

THERE WAS no shortage of action when the International Tasman Championship final took place at Sandown.

Incredibly the top three drivers entered the finale level on points, making it a one-round shootout – and it delivered.

It eventually went to Warwick Brown as he became the first Australian to win the Tasman since it started in 1974, but it was far from easy.

He led all the way to lap 50 in the 52-lap affair, only to start running out of fuel and he was forced to make a splash and dash.

The five-gallon stop saw him drop to sixth, which was enough to hold on by a solitary point with rival Johnnie Walker having a horrific crash.

they had a pretty good look at everyone and we were the only one they really wanted to partner with.

“Midway through last year (2014) there was no deal but he had people on the ground observing how we worked and what it was all about. They had to understand things are different here and there have been adjustments on both sides.”

“I really enjoy challenges and this one is certainly a good challenge,” Ambrose said about building the team.

“It is not the same as what NASCAR was or my first time around with the Stone brothers.

“For me in my career right now I want to help Dick get this team to where he wants it to go, and Roger.

“Success along the way will be a bonus and whether I am the man for it, time will tell.

“But I’m certainly looking forward to playing my part in it.”

1985

JIM RICHARDS and BMW made their intentions clear by blitzing the opening round of the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Richards controlled the February 10 meeting at Winton from start to finish and led a JPS BMW 1-2 with Neville Crichton following him home.

Dick Johnson was the hard luck story, running second for the majority of the race, only for the Greens-Tuf Mustang to overheat in the closing stages.

Before the race Peter Brock revealed his new Mobil colours at the HDT and he not only made his ATCC hopes, but also international Group A intentions clear.

1995

BRAD JONES was the rookie taking the Australian NASCAR world by storm, building his lead with a fine victory at the Thunderdome.

Jones did not take control until the final sprint to the flag where he displaced polesitter George Elliott and Kim Jane.

Peter Brock was again back in the news, discussing his future. Having just turned 50, Brock believed his future would be less V8s and more “events” beyond ATCC.

Meanwhile, Mark Skaife was still racing to be fit following his heavy crash at Sydney.

Steven Richards confirmed he had a GRMAlfa on the way for the 2L Super Tourers.

2005

THERE WERE moves at the top of the Holden Racing Team with Tom Walkinshaw close to securing a power-sharing arrangement with Mark Skaife.

The early reports indicated Walkinshaw had reached an agreement to regain control of the team that he sold two years earlier with Skaife relinquishing just short of 50 percent.

A street-race around the streets of Sydney Olympic Park was back on the agenda with AVESCO boss Tony Cochrane putting the idea out there.

The Daytona 500 went down to the wire with Jeff Gordon edging ahead of Kurt Busch to take a famous win for the #24.

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