Issue 3

velocity

issue 3 - DECEMBER 2014

motorsport magazine

devil racer

exclusive: marussia’s final interview

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Porsche racked up another podium in Bahrain, again beating big borthers Audi.

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tassie devil returns

marussia: The final interview

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The writing had been on the wall for some time at Marussia before it eventually folded.

During its final days the teams Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon spoke with Mat Coch about the troubles facing teams at the back end of the Formula One grid.

eggleston motorsport

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With two V8 championships to its name, Eggleston Motorsport has tasted more champagne than most in 2014. Team owner Rachel Wagg spoke with us about the challenges of running the team, and its plans for the future.

travel guide: bathurst 12hr

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Popularity in Australia’s premier endurance event has grown in recent years, with fans looking to make the journey to Mount Panorama from across the country. To help them, our first travel guide gives tips on how to get to the circuit, where to stay and what to see while there.

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The regulars

Editorial Editor Mat Coch

mat coch

The success of Jamie Whincup has been polarising. Mat Coch wades into the debate, suggesting that whatever we may thing of Whincup, there is no denying his acheivements.

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Mike Lawrence

Things were simpler in the 1960s. Mike Lawrence looks at how the ultra-fast rear engined Cooper T53 conquerer came into being - at almost record pace.

nuts & bolts

V8 Supercars Phillip Island

FORMULA ONE Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Brazilian Grand Prix

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Social Media

@VelocityEmag

facebook.com/ velocitymagazine

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FORMULA E Putrajaya

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NASCAR Monthly Wrap

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IMPROVED PRODUCTION National Title

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WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Bahrain 6Hrs Brazil 6Hrs

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WRC Great Britain

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Production Publisher Grand Prix Media

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moto gp Valencia

AUSTRALIAN GT Highland 101

Editorial Contacts Telephone 0414 197 588 Website www.velocityemag.com Email editor@velocityemag.com

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Acknowledgements Drew Beacham, Richard Craill, Jessica Dane, Roland Dane, Dewi Jones, Gareth Jones, Mike Lawrence, Graeme Lowdon, Lachlan Mansell, Rene Martens, Josh Marton, Daniel Pauperis, Dean Perkins, Caroline Reid, Dale Rodgers, Greg Ross, Eli Solomon, Christian Sylt, Rachael Wagg.

Copyright All rights are reserved to Grand Prix Media and associated entities.

Reproduction in whole or in part of any photograph, text or illustration without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

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Judging G

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Greatness S

upport for a team or driver is very much an individual thing. Everyone has their reasons for picking their favourite – family support, an interaction at the track, and so on.

What’s interesting though is the one-eyed nature of that support. Where in other sports fans can recognise the talents of others, even if it is through gritted teeth, that concept doesn’t carry over into motorsport. If it’s not your favourite who is winning there is generally a reason; the parity isn’t right, or the other team has a bigger budget. Acknowledging that another driver might be better is simply not the done thing.

That makes forming any objective ranking of a driver’s true talents difficult as even the usual measure, the statistics, are debated vigorously.

Shortly after the Phillip Island 400 we asked on Facebook whether Jamie Whincup was the best touring car driver Australian has produced. The response was fascinating as it highlighted the

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divisive nature of the way motorsport’s competitors are viewed.

Statistically speaking, Jamie Whincup is the most successful touring car driver Australia has seen. He has six championships which is unmatched, but does that make him the greatest of all? His record of results is phenomenal but many argue that they should be since he’s always had the best equipment.

There is also the argument that says if he’s really that good why hasn’t he tested himself in a different series, or even a different team?

V8 Supercars is the pinnacle of motorsport within Australia, and the competition is world class with drivers who’ve raced successfully in Europe or America. It speaks volumes of anyone who succeeds, and that includes Whincup, whose title victories prove he has an abundance of talent.

The question really is where does he stand among the greats, and that will be debated for decades.

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lowl

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Mike Lawrence reaclls how the Cooper T53 wen

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n 1960, Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren, dominated F1 with the Cooper T53 ‘Lowline’. In early February, the team had competed in the Argentine GP and had been stunned by the speed of Innes Ireland in the Lotus 18, Colin Chapman’s first mid-engined design.

On the way home to England, John Cooper, Jack and Bruce realised that they had to do something. An obstacle was Charles Cooper, John’s father, who was opposed to change so the new car was kept secret.

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Jack sent an airmail letter to Ron Tauranac in Australia and Ron replied with the parameters of the suspension they should use. Ron did not design the suspension, he gave the team guidance. It was not the first time that Cooper had benefited by correspondence between Jack and Ron. Time was tight. In the workshop, John, Jack, Bruce, and Owen Maddock, Cooper’s draughtsman, hauled out an engine, transmission, a seat and steel tubes and started to formulate the car on the workshop floor. A step forward from

pervious Cooper designs was that the T53 was to use straight tubes and a properly triangulated spaceframe. All previous Coopers had used curved tubing and were best described as ‘multi-tubular’.

Some Coopers did start with chalk marks on the floor, but Owen Maddock did make proper blueprints. Owen, who designed the first McLaren, played sousaphone with a well-known trod jazz band. A story is that he could make love only to Sidney Bechet, as he was still living at home and a Bechet record lasted longest.

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nt from shop floor to world stage The Argentine GP was on 6th February, the Lowline made its debut at the International Trophy, Silverstone, on 14th May, a race which attracted all the works teams, including Ferrari. An entirely new car had been designed, and made, in less than 13 weeks.

Everything was new, including the bodywork.

Cooper had sorted out the aerodynamics by ‘eye experience’ and there was no reason to change it. At Silverstone Innes Ireland won for Lotus, with Brabham second.

Moss won in a private Lotus at Monaco,

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then in practice for Spa there was a breakage on the rear suspension of his car which left him, among other injuries, with two broken legs.

Moss was out for a while and Jack went on to five straight wins. At the Portuguese GP at Oporto, Brabham lost time when his car was caught in tramlines which carried him away from the circuit. He and Bruce were 1-2 in the World Championship.

Of course the season was affected by Stirling’s crash, but he was in a Lotus while Coopers didn’t break.

Meanwhile Jack had

plans to set up his own team. He and John Cooper were close so John was kept informed.

The problem was Charlie Cooper, who was too set in his ways.

Early in 1961, Ron Tauranac arrived in England and took digs in the same street in Surbiton as the Cooper Garage.

He and Jack were to be partners in Motor Racing Developments whose cars were mainly called ‘Brabhams’.

That is another story, but his first job was to fit a 1220cc Coventry Climax FWE engine to a Triumph Herald and about a hundred were made. John Cooper had rather more success with the Mini Cooper, also launched in 1961.

British F1 constructors and race organisers, miffed at the new 1.5-litre F1 launched the InterContinental Formula for cars up to 3-litres. Even though Lotus could field Jim Clark, every race was won by either Moss or Brabham in a Cooper T53 ‘Lowline’. As a privateer, with Rob Walker, Stirling had the choice of chassis. He used a Lotus for F1, but for the power formula, he used a Cooper Lowline, a car designed on the workshop floor.

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Mikko Hirvonen had one last splash before retiring from the WRC.

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$29m

rear wing

$5.8m end plate

Formula One

$29m airbox

$29m sidepod

The cost of Formula One T

he plight of the smaller teams is critical to the future of Formula One. Over the years an ever increasing gulf has

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developed between those at the top end of the sport, and those at the bottom end of the pit lane.

The cost of competing

in Formula One has also steadily increased.

Red Bull spent nearly $360million on its way to the 2013 world championship. Conversely

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$5.8m mirror

$11m

monocoque

Caterham, which is on the verge of collapse and only reached Abu Dhabi courtesy of a crowd funding campaign, spent just $75million.

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$2.3m

nose cone

$5.8m

front wing

Teams have two main sources of income; sponsorship and prize money. Over the years sponsorship has progressed beyond the

simple ‘stickers on cars’ as companies now look for business to business opportunities, but a tightening in the economy has made attracting u

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investors more and more difficult. Of course those who receive the bulk of television coverage, and that is typically those at the front, are best able to attract and retain sponsors, making the task for tail enders rather more difficult and typically sign deals for a fraction of the value of the bigger teams.

Along with sponsorship, teams also receive prize money from Formula One Management based on

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the constructors’ championship results. But this too heavily favours those at the front, most of which have the added advantage of being owned by benevolent billionaires or manufacturers with a vested interest in ensuring their team is competitive.

With no spending limit teams will and do spend every penny they receive with wild abandon. Once fundamental costs have been accounted for

Formula One

teams pump whatever is left into development of their car in the pursuit of performance. With a gulf of nearly $300m between Red Bull and Caterham it’s no wonder those at the back are rooted there. That gulf however has driven the sport to a point where it must urgently address the situation.

With the collapse of Marussia and the likely demise of Caterham it places the likes of

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Sauber, Lotus and Force India at risk while leaving the grid at just 18 cars next season.

But there is no easy solution as the sports commercial interests are complex. Where previously teams were bound to the sport by the secretive Concorde Agreement, that has been replaced with individual contracts between each team and the commercial rights holder (whom Bernie Ecclestone represents).

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Those agreements mean it is not as simple as the commercial rights holder giving the smaller teams a hand-out as it contravenes clauses which state each team must be treated equitably. Due to the sports complex rules any financial changes require universal agreement, and in a sport where money equates to a competitive advantage there is no incentive for the more successful teams to agree.

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Even still, that doesn’t seem to solve the core problem which is that the sport is fundamentally too expensive.

Giving the smaller teams more money will perhaps close the gap in budgets temporarily but soon the leading teams will inject more money courtesy of their owners to re-establish their superiority, driving up costs ever more. All that seems to do is perpetuate the problem.

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hen Marcos Ambrose left Australia in 2006 John Howard was Prime Minister and we were comfortably the best cricket team in

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the world. Since then we’ve had three different Prime Ministeres, been thrashed in the Ashes by the English at home and abroad while Holden has produced

v8 supercars

two new model Commodores and Ford three new Falcons.

The motorsport landscape has changed too.

The red versus blue battle that had dominated

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v8 supercars

l i v de racer return of the

Australia’s premier class of racing has given way to an influx of new manufacturers in a move that appears to foreshadow the end of the eight cylinder era.

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There has also been a changing of the guard at the top end of the V8 Supercars grid. Ambrose was beaten to the 2005 championship by Russell Ingall, though his place

at the top of the table has long since been taken by the likes of Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom, neither of whom had won a race before Amrbose departure u

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Image: Dewi Jones

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v8 supercars to the US. And that’s sparked one of the great unanswered questions. By Ambrose’s his own admission he was an A-level driver when he left, but is that still the case?

For the thick end of the last decade Ambrose has done little in the way of circuit racing. Of his more than 300 NASCAR starts (across Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series) by far most have been on a ovals – short tracks, speedways and superspeedways.

Throughout his time in the US though Ambrose remained competitive on road courses, winning six times at Watkins Glen and establishing himself as one of the premier exponents of turning right, but he’s had comparatively little experience at circuit racing since leving our shores.

That is what makes his appearance at Homebush this month so important; it is a free hit if you will ahead of a full campaign next season.

For Ambrose the weekend will be one of learning and familiarisation. A ferocious competitor, just ask Greg Murphy or Mark Skaife, the style of racing in the US is far different.

In recent years contact has become increasingly u

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frowned upon in V8 Supercars as the sport clamps down on its driving standards, a far cry from NASCAR where grudges are carried and settled on track and, sometimes, in the pitlane.

How Ambrose adapts will be a key indicator into his early ability

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to compete. As Robert Dahlgren proved this season raw pace alone is not enough, the ability to mix it in the mid-pack is a critical component when it comes to challenging for race wins.

Dahlgren’s season at Volvo perhaps stands as a good example. While

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the Swede has had the pace, those inside the team have suggested he’s got better raw pace than McLaughlin, he’s been ill at ease when it comes to running door to door in the midfield in a series where there is little separating the front of the grid from the back.

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Image: Dewi Jones

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To help ease his way back into the series Ambrose got behind the wheel of his Falcon at a ride day at Lakeside in mid-November, his first taste of a V8 Supercar in almost a decade. The focus was on coming to grips with the car before moving to Queensland

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Raceway where focus shifted from getting to grips with the car to integrating Ambrose into the Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske squad.

QR is a circuit Ambrose knows well from his time with Stone Brothers Racing prior to his move to the States but it shares

little in common with the tight and narrow Homebush circuit, which has typically thrown up more than its fair share of drama. For any incoming driver, even a returning champion, it makes for a difficult baptism with no room for error.

Ambrose though has u

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v8 supercars

Image: Dewi Jones

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form. When he made his V8 Supercar debut he’d just returned from Europe, where he’d won the British Formula Ford championship and competed in British and French Formula 3. He had little experience in the bump and grind that is touring cars and yet he was able to claim pole in his first race ahead of claiming rookie of the year honours.

His return from NASCAR could therefore be viewed in a similar vein. He has pedigree in that he’s been competitive in every type of car he’s raced, so the transition from NASCAR to the latest

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style of V8 Supercar is not insurmountable. Further, he’s demonstrated his ability to adapt to different styles of racing, so despite the thick end of a decade in NASCAR a return to circuit racing should not prove insurmountable.

Whatever happens, Ambrose’s return is good news for V8 Supercars, and comes at a time where it could use a positive headline to divert attention from some of the other news stories, including confirmation of Ford’s decision to withdraw factory from the category at the end of 2014.

It also fits with the sports international ambitions, helping grow interest in the United States where Ambrose was a respected and popular driver.

Just what we can expect from Ambrose at Homebush is unclear. It’s unlikely he’ll challenge the likes of Jamie Whincup but it will give him a measure of the competition he’ll face next season. It’s a free opportunity to gain experience and familiarise himself with V8 Supercars, while all the attention does the Dick Johnson Racing/ Team Penske hook up no harm at all.

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it doesn’t have to be like this!

formula one

Just days before its collapse, mat coch caught up with Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon to discuss the problems facing the smaller teams.

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ormula One is at a crossroads.

Caught somewhere between a sport and entertainment, it is fighting to reinvent itself as not only the commercial landscape changes, but also in light of increased competition for our free time.

For teams, that means life has never been harder. They are forced to compete in a world

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where finding sponsorship is ever more difficult, all the while trying to sell a sport with dwindling viewers.

Nowhere is that more difficult than the bottom end of the pitlane, among Caterham and Marussia. Though they go racing week in and week out they rarely receive television time, save for when being lapped by the leaders,

making the job of securing sponsors ever more difficult. Their plight was highlighted by the fact they both missed the United States and Brazilian Grands Prix as they went into administration – one step removed from complete collapse.

There is an argument that Formula One is a meritocracy, a microcosm of the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. u

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Those who do the best job achieve the best results, while those who don’t will struggle, and that has been the case in Formula One since day dot.

“All industries move on,” argues Marussia’s Graeme Lowdon. “I’m sure people who talk to their sponsors, they’ll

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see that the industry their sponsors are working on are not insulated from change and are not insulated from enormous changes in the world.

“My view is if our sponsors industries are not immune to navigating through things like this then Formula One should be no different,”

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he continues. “It’s no excuse to come out with the dinosaur that companies have always failed.

Well, guess what? Maybe there’s a reason for that and maybe instead of just observing it we should work out why.

“Don’t get me wrong, if things are badly run or if the right platform isn’t

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there then absolutely companies come and go, that’s completely normal.

But if there are willing, knowledgeable investors going into a proposition with capable people there’s no reason why an industry should make life more difficult because we would argue the end result, which is diversity

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and unpredictable nature of that, is fundamental to why sport is so valuable.

That’s what the industry should be trying to promote because an industry that’s growing is quite clearly going to be better for everybody involved, not just the small teams.”

Marussia’s life has been one of constant struggle.

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It joined Formula One in 2010 under cost cap rules, which were overturned before the season started. Just over a year into its existence it parted ways with its design team, bringing it in house at the teams Banbury factory.

In Monaco this year, the team looked to have u

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column / News / Feature / Report turned a corner when Jules Bianchi scored the squad’s first points, but while that was a highlight the team’s life has not got any easier.

“Everyone loves their racing, absolutely loves it,” Lowdon says. “To get a result, albeit we finishing 8th on the road, I know it was 9th but we’ll claim it, it provides a boost.

“We got so many mechanics and engineers and management as well from other teams who came past and just said a couple of words of congratulations to the lads and it meant an awful lot to the guys because you can toil away at this game and put in as much effort as the guys who are winning and I think everybody knows that.

“We want to move forward, we want to contribute, we want to be in the pack but more than anything else we want to race.”

The squad’s ability to race is hampered however by the commercial realities of the sport.

During the season the team quietly split from the Russian supercar company whose name it bears, while its car remains a largely blank canvas in terms of sponsorship. All the while it’s

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forced to spend money on development, travel, not to mention incredibly expensive engines. With such high ongoing costs and a difficult commercial environment, Marussia’s future has been perennially uncertain, and the current uncertainty surrounding the sport not helping its cause or F1 itselt.

“We want the best guys in the world but the best guys might look and it and go you know what, I think I’ll go into aerospace or I’ll go into the defence industry or whatever because at least that looks more stable.

And we don’t want that.

We want the best of the best in this industry.

“People forget Toyota pulled out,” he adds.

“Honda pulled out, BMW pulled out, and they pulled out when they were carrying a huge number of employees.

“But I think whether it’s a BMW or a Toyota pulling out, or whether it’s a HRT pulling out, none of that’s good for stability and it will make people reluctant to look for a career in Formula One.” To keep its appeal to the brightest engineers and designers, Formula One must also remain appealing to fans. It’s proved a difficult task, with increasedu

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The high price of failure

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he collapse of Marussia during the build up to the Brazilian Grand Prix means it forfeits more than $40million worth of prize money earned over the course of the 2015 season.

Under the Concorde Agreement, teams receive 47.5 per cent of Formula One’s profits as prize money; in 2013 that was worth around $739million.

It’s distrubuted via two means, called Column

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1 and Column 2, with the money split equally between the two. Each then pays that money to teams based on slightly different criteria.

Column 1 pays out one tenth to each team which finishes in the Top 10 for two seasons in three; in 2013 each of the Top 10 teams received about $37m.

Column 2 is paid out on a sliding scale based on Constructors Championship position at the end

of the season, with tenth last year worth just over $4.25m.

Marussia therefore would have received about $42m in prize money this year courtesy of finishing tenth in the constructors standings for the last two years.

That’s about half its annual operating budget but, as the team was unable to complete the season, it instead forfeits every penny of that money.

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competition for fans time, not helped by uncertainty surrounding the sports future and some unpopular rule changes in recent seasons. Viewing numbers are declining.

“The one thing that nobody actually has anymore is time, so that’s the fundamental thing that changes everything,” agrees Lowdon. “As an industry I think Formula One just has to adapt and I think we have a responsibility there because as I’ve said before the biggest, most

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valuable asset is the fan base.

“That’s not owned by the teams, the sport, the commercial rights, that’s owned by the fans at the end of the day,” he adds. “They ultimately are the providers of the raw energy into the whole sport. If they don’t buy the products of the sponsors or they don’t get engaged in what’s going on or they don’t buy the tickets from the promoters then it all stops.

“To say Formula One

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doesn’t understand its fans, I think that’s a bit too simplistic. The main thing is that there needs to be mechanisms to understand them, so a dialogue with the fans so that people don’t just sort of think ‘I think the fans want this’. Well, really? How do you know? That whole area of fan engagement is so important.

“I get really depressed when I hear ‘well there’s always been this or there’s always been that,’ but that’s only an

observation of history, it’s not a strategy for growth and I think the focus of the decision makers has to be a strategy for growth and not simply an observation of the past.”

But sadly, that is where Marussia is now resigned to. After being put into Administration its workforce was made redundant in the lead up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the team another victim of the brutal commercialisation of motorsport, and its apparent lack of direction.

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developing winners Eggleston Motorsport team boss Rachael Wagg spoke with Velocity about its most successful year to date.

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here’s an argument to suggest Eggleston Motorsport is the most successful V8 team in the country. At Bathurst, Paul Dumbrell wrapped up the Dunlop Development Series with a round to spare while a step down the ladder Justin Ruggier tasted success in the Kumho V8 Touring Car championship.

“It’s a nice title,” team co-owner Rachael Wagg laughs. “I guess I’ll take it!

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“We have the mentality that if we’re going to do anything we do it properly or we don’t do it at all.”

The squad has a fleet of ex-race winning V8 Supercars, from Rick Kelly’s championship winning car to a trio of ex-Triple Eight Commodores, including the Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife Bathurst winner.

But such pedigree makes for a delicate balancing act for Eggleston, which is a business as much as a racing team. It

means striking a balance between finding budget and performance from all areas of the team, including its drivers.

“We are very mindful that we, as a team, have a reputation to uphold,” explains Wagg. “We have cars that should be at the front of the field, and that’s where we need them to be.

“Whilst some people may come to us and have the budget that’s not solely the only criteria that we work from,” she adds. “We need to

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make sure that any drivers that drive for us are going to represent our team and our equipment in the best possible way.”

Eggleston’s reputation is, in part, a reflection of Triple Eights Wagg reasons, with Eggleston in many ways T8’s unofficial development team.

“They built the equipment so they want it to look good on track. It’s good for their business for their cars to be doing well,” Wagg says.

“We’re all going out

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there to achieve the same thing which is ultimately to win races.

Because they’re no longer racing in the Dunlop series they see us as the go-to team for anybody really looking to get into the Dunlop Series.”

“Eggleston Motorsport is a very professional outfit,” adds Triple Eight boss Roland Dane.

“Unlike many motorsports operations, they always honour their commitments. We enjoy the relationship and working closely with Rachael and

Ben [Eggleston].”

Concern for that reputation doesn’t prevent the squad taking calculated risks. While there was little doubt with Dumbrell at the wheel of the squad’s Dunlop Series car, the inexperienced Ruggier, who’d never sat in anything like a V8 Supercar let alone raced one, was a gamble.

“I didn’t know that much about him to be completely honest,” admits Wagg when asked about her first impressions. “I was more than happy to u

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column / News / Feature / Report talk with him, meet him and it went from there!

“We were doing the Kuhmo series to win the championship, that was the main aim, but to have a complete rookie and somebody who hadn’t even sat in the car let alone tested it, or driven a car with a sequential gearbox or anything similar… To get in at the first round at Mallala and be as competitive as he was, it was a huge surprise.”

While competitive, championship rival Ryan Simpson had Ruggier’s measure for the first half of the season. The turning point came at Phillip Island, where Cam McConville was drafted in to drive Eggleston’s second Kumho car. In truth it was a marketing ploy from the team to show off its newly completed ex-HRT Commodore, but it proved to give Ruggier the confidence boost he needed to race with Simpson.

“Realistically for Justin just being able to watch the footage out of Cam’s car to see what lines he took on the track is where his time came from,” Wagg explains.

“He came out after watching that and went six tenths faster in the next session. That alone just gave him that extra u

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edge.

“That round was the first time that he genuinely beat Ryan Simpson on pure pace. That was a big thing for his confidence as well, it proved that he could do it, and from there on he excelled.”

Pairing an experienced head like McConville alongside the rookie Ruggier was a model the team adopted from its Dunlop programme, where it tries to have an experienced lead in an effort to accelerate the development of their other drivers. That development programme takes drivers to the V8 Supercars doorstep, but for

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now that’s where it ends for Eggleston. “[We want to] bring drivers in either young or inexperienced guys who want to make a career of V8 Supercars; teach them in the Kumho series, get them used to how to drive a V8, how they work all the characteristics and then bring them up through the Dunlop Series and prepare them for the main series. That was the idea.

“I think Justin is a fitting example of exactly what we were trying to achieve.”

While there are no plans to make a full time step up into the main game,

though one should never say never.

“Before we undertake and do something like that we would look at doing the Pirtek Enduro Cup or a wildcard event or something along those lines certainly before we did a full main series campaign,” Wagg suggests.

“We are very mindful that it’s a huge step and a huge investment, and we’ve obviously only recently made a pretty huge investment doing what we’re doing, so we need to make sure that anything we do now and in the future is obviously in the best interests of everybody involved.”

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jamie w

t was an arm wrestle for the headlines at Phillip Island as Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup both laid a claim to have their name in lights.

McLaughlin claimed two race wins in a round which solidified

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V8 supercars

his growing reputation as a star of the future.

He held his nerve in a tense opening race while applied pressure throughout the final before snaring an unlikely victory.

Whincup emerged victorious in the second race

after trailing McLaughlin and teammate Lowndes home in the opening race, the victory enough to mathematically crown him champion for the sixth time. Though not yet official, Whincup’s performance singled him out as the most

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V8 supercars

wins cup successful touring car driver in Australian motorsport history, even if his exact place within the pantheon remains fiercely debated.

A clean start from pole sitter Scott McLaughlin saw him move into the lead from the off in the

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opening racing, holding it throughout the 23 lap journey to record his third win of the season.

However, more important than the win was that he’d done so in the face of intense pressure from Craig Lowndes, the man whose mantle he looks

set to steal as the babyfaced assassin. Behind them was Whincup, who for a time looked as though he might join the party but never did. It mattered little since he’d comprehensively beaten Mark Winterbottom, who’d fallen off the track early u

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column / News / Feature / Report after losing the back end of his Falcon at turn one.

For Whincup that meant he’d extended his championship lead, placing him on the precipice of a sixth title.

Though Winterbottom had gathered it back up following his excursion, grass blocked his radiation and forced him to stop to address rising temperatures. It dropped him to the back of the field while in third Whincup came under late race pressure from Garth Tander.

Gold Coast winner Shane Van Gisbergen had an opening race to forget. Contact with Fabian Coulthard in qualifying ruled him out for both sessions, placing the Commodore driver at the back of the grid for both Saturday’s races.

Warming his tyres as the field exited the pits, Coulthard swerved into the path of Van Gisbergen, damaging both cars enough to rule them out of qualifying on Saturday while officials elected to penalise Coulthard 25 points for his part in the incident.

Van Gisbergen’s day hardly improved. Unable to make progress through the field with an ill-handling car he then tagged Dale Wood for which he was slapped with a

40

V8 supercars

drive-through penalty.

He’d earlier made contact with James Moffat and was perhaps lucky not to have been adjudged at fault for that incident.

Intense pressure from Lowndes in the closing stages threatened to unsettle McLaughlin.

Sharing similar driving styles while separated by a few tenths and 19 years there was an air of a passing of the baton.

Lowndes, the Smiling Assassin, was unable to fluster the 21-year-old who held on to claim perhaps his most impressive win to date.

Like McLaughlin had in the opening race, Whincup converted pole position to victory in the second race, leading home teammate Lowndes in a Red Bull 1-2 that effectively wrapped up Whincup’s sixth consecutive championship win.

Winterbottom joined Whincup on the front row, and initially got the jump over the Holden driver before Whincup muscled his way by on the fourth lap as the pair entered the Southern Loop. A lap later Lowndes was through for second at the Honda.

Back in the pack the racing was rather more frenetic. Todd Kelly and Tander went door to door around the Hayshed early u

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VELOCITY

V8 supercars

41

column / News / Feature / Report

on while a clash between Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth at MG saw Slade forced into the pits with steering damage.

The story of the race however was Whincup, who in essence sealed

race 1 result P

42

Driver

V8 supercars

the 2014 championship when he crossed the line for the 23rd and final time as victor. With Winterbottom third it effectively handed Whincup the championship, courtesy of a 451

team

time

1

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

36:00.097

2

Craig Lowndes

Red Bull Racing

+ 0.376

3

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

+ 0.924

4

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

+ 1.414

5

Michael Caruso

Norton Hornets

+ 5.090

6

Jason Bright

Team BOC

+ 11.915

7

David Reynolds

Bottle-O Racing

+ 12.353

8

Todd Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 14.289

9

Scott Pye

Wilson Security Racing

+ 14.503

10

Rick Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 15.138

point advantage with just 450 points remaining in the final four races of the season. Barring penalty points, Whincup was untouchable.

For Whincup, the final race was simply a matter of cruise and collect.

There was nothing to gain or lose, making fourth place after 45 laps perfectly acceptable.

Adding to his ever improving resume was Scott McLaughlin, who pressured Tander for much of the second half of the race before snaring an unlikely win just metres from the line as the HRT ran dry coming onto the front straight to

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column / News / Feature / Report take the flag.

Tander had jumped McLaughlin during the pit stop cycle after muscling by Whincup at turn four. Having started from pole Whincup faced an aggressive McLaughlin as the pair headed into the first turn side by side, before the Volvo driver gained the upperhand.

Nine cars chose to pit at the end of the first lap, James Courtney and the lowly Lowndes included. A poor qualifying position had seen the Red Bull driver start just seventeenth, with the team hoping by stopping him early he could make ground during the pit

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race 2 result P

Driver

V8 supercars team

time

1

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

35:54.151

2

Craig Lowndes

Red Bull Racing

+ 3.594

3

Mark Winterbottom

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

+ 6.375

4

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

+ 7.399

5

Todd Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 13.130

6

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

+ 13.572

7

Michael Caruso

Norton Hornets

+ 13.911

8

Rick Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 14.621

9

Chaz Mostert

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

+ 15.247

10

Nick Percat

Walkinshaw Racing

+ 18.558

cycle.

Teammate Whincup stopped on lap eight, trailing second placed Tander in for the first of two stops. Leader McLaughlin was in the next time by, emerging

second, where he would remain until the final dash to the line.

Lowndes did his best to work his way forward, passing both Nick Percat and Todd Kelly down the front straight u

43

column / News / Feature / Report

after slingshotting off the final turn. He’d fallen to 20th on the opening lap before climbing to tenth in the closing stages, unable to do anything about the in-form Michael Caruso.

A power steering failure for David Wall ended his race when he skated through the gravel coming onto the front straight. Though there was no real harm done, and Wall was able to limp the Falcon back to the pits, the safety car was sent out to control the field, which as one took the opportunity to make a final stop.

44

Whincup lost a spot to Winterbottom in the process while Lowndes lost out after being forced to queue behind his teammate. Moffat too was forced to wait for service, stopping in the lane and causing a traffic jam behind. Stable mate David Reynolds was handed a penalty after an unsafe release in the melee as he left Jason Bright nowhere to go, dropping him to last but one on the road – a position he wouldn’t improve on.

Tyre life was a concern for many as the high wear Phillip Island

V8 supercars

circuit and saw a somewhat conservative second half the race as drivers looked to consolidate and conserve their package to reach the end; a 29 lap final stint not to be sneezed at.

There were concerns too over fuel, with a number of drivers told to conserve to reach the finish.

One of those who was marginal was race leader Tander, who looked to have the race won when McLaughlin had a moment with two laps to go. It gave Tander, who had been under intense pressure from the Race 1 winner, a breather.

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column / News / Feature / Report

It wasn’t enough. By the end of the final lap McLaughlin was back on his tail, but with good drive out of MG Tander seemed to have the race won. Then, within sight

race 3 result P

Driver

V8 supercars

of the line and with his HRT mechanics on the wall pumping their fists in celebration, he ran out of fuel. McLaughlin surged by to take an unlikely victory as Tander rolled

team

time

1

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

1:13:59.692

2

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

3

Mark Winterbottom

4

across the line to second. Winterbottom was a distant third, Whincup fourth followed by Van Gisbergen and a strong performance from Will Davidson in the Erebus.

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Jamie Whincup

+ 0.452

2

Mark Winterbottom

2642

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

+ 5.044

3

Craig Lowndes

2547

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

+ 5.396

4

S Van Gisbergen

2508

5

Shane Van Gisbergen

TEKNO V.I.P Petfoods

+ 13.000

5

Scott McLaughlin

2295

6

Will Davison

Erebus Motorsport

+ 16.366

6

Fabian Coulthard

2280

7

Jason Bright

Team BOC

+ 20.046

7

Chaz Mostert

2273

8

Nick Percat

Walkinshaw Racing

+ 20.400

8

James Courtney

2265

9

Michael Caruso

Norton Hornets

+ 21.309

9

Garth Tander

2064

10

Craig Lowndes

Red Bull Racing

+ 22.319

10

Michael Caruso

1875

VELOCITY

3094

45

column / News / Feature / Report

V8 supercars

dazza does it

A

dding another three wins to his name, Trent Young claimed the final round of the Aussie Race Cars championship at Phillip Island.

After taking pole by less than a tenth of a second, James Duckworth held on by an even narrower margin to win the opening race ahead of Young.

Just two hundredths separated the two after eight laps with out-going champ Maurice Masini 3.5 seconds further back.

Young took the lead early in the second race with Duckworth pushed back to second before being forced out on the final lap. That promoted Masini into second with championship contender Brendon Pingel third.

46

Heading into the weekend Pingel was locked in a tense points battle with Darren Chamberlain.

After finishing fifth in the opening race ahead of Chamberlain in seventh, Pingel further closed the points difference in the second race with Chamberlain just fifth.

Ensuring the title went down to the wire, Pingel again finished on the podium in the third race.

Young was again victorious, this time with Rhett Noonan second while Chamberlain could manage no better than tenth.

Chamberlain recovered to sixth in the final race, one place behind Pingel who himself narrowly missed out on fourth to Masini. Young and Noonan ran side by side

for half of the opening lap, which predicated a slipstreaming battle for the lead, with Abela and Pingel making a four-way dice for the lead.

Pingel spun out of contention on the final lap.

Too eager on the throttle exiting Honda it left Young to win by just two hundredths of a second over Abela in a drag race to the line with Noonan rounding out the podium.

Pingel’s final lap mistake didn’t lose him the championship, though it did him no favours. While he’d finished ahead of Chamberlain all weekend he still fell seven points short as Chamberlain hung on, with Peter Carr ten points further back in third.

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column / News / Feature / Report

V8 supercars

touring cars master

A

n engine failure for Jim Richards on Friday all but handed the Touring Car Masters Championship to John Bowe in the final round at Phillip Island.

After claiming pole position in qualifying, Bowe raced to a four second lead in the opening race while Greg Crick found a way by Jason Gomersall to take second with Andrew Miedecke third.

Gomersall fell down the order when he spun

VELOCITY

at the first turn midway through the race, bruising both ends of his Torana before finishing 18th.

Starting ninth in the reverse grid race, Bowe charged to the front before a side by side duel with Miedecke – the pair separated by just half a tenth as they flashed across the line. Tony Karanfilovski was a third with Crick only capable of fourth, three tenths behind the Mustang.

Bowe and Meidecke

picked up where they left off in the final race, running door to door for long periods, the Camaro driver once again getting the better of the former Bathurst winner by a comparatively comfortable half second. Crick climbed to third over Keith Kassulke.

With the absence of Richards, Bowe was able to reclaim the championship. Mark King won the ProAm class while Chris Stilwell clinched the ProSports crown.

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column / News / Feature / Report

Formula One

world champ

F

or the second time in his career, Lewis Hamilton has been crowned world champion after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A near perfect start was followed by a commanding performance at the head of the race while title rival and teammate Nico Rosberg suffered engine problems, ending his hopes of championship

48

success.

Hamilton had been comprehensively beaten in qualifying when Rosberg went four tenths faster to claim pole, only for Hamilton to have what he described as the best start of his career. It left Rosberg to fend off the Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas while Hamilton opened over a second lead on the first lap.

From there Hamilton was able to dictate the pace. Maintaining around a two second advantage over Rosberg he was able to pit and resume in the lead following the first round of pitstops.

Needing to simply finish directly behind Rosberg to claim the title, Hamilton was in the box seat throughout the first half of the race until an engine problem on the

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second Mercedes all but sealed the championship.

On lap 25 Rosberg dropped back four seconds before complaining of a loss of power to his team. A failed energy recovery system was the culprit, robbing him of some 160bhp and putting extra stress on the under-powered rear brakes. Two laps later Massa swept by for second place, dealing

VELOCITY

Rosberg’s title hopes another blow.

Massa was on a charge.

Lapping some two seconds faster than Hamilton ahead he inherited top spot when the lead Mercedes dived for the pits on lap 32. Massa was in the following lap and continued his quest, prompting Hamilton to confess to his team that he was not racing the Brazilian any longer.

Formula One

With a championship on the line, Hamilton was simply not willing to risk his car in a wheelto-wheel battle with the Williams driver. There was still a bit to do for Massa to take the lead.

His second stop had dropped him back into second place and while he was lapping faster than the Mercedes he had the better part of 20 seconds to close. u

49

column / News / Feature / Report

Rosberg’s woes increased on lap 41 when he ran wide at the first turn allowing Jenson Button through into seventh. Radio messages between he and the team revealed the car had switched off, and whilst it had restarted he was now battling an inconsistent brake pedal.

It mattered little though as he continued to plummet down the order – Hamilton was world champion.

Late in the race the team called him into the pits to retire, his pace now worse than Caterham debutant Will Stevens. To his credit, Rosberg requested he be allowed to finish the

50

race, and see the chequered flag after a season in which he came within touching distance of the world championship.

Instead that honour went to teammate and childhood friend Hamilton, who measured his performance to stay ahead of Massa. Bottas was third, racing his way onto the podium after an early squabble with Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, marking Williams’ first double podium finish in a decade.

In fourth place was Daniel Ricciardo, who charged from the pitlane after being excluded from qualifying when Red Bull was found to be running

Formula One

illegally flexible wings.

Making his performance particularly impressive was the fact he beat teammate Vettel by some 25 seconds despite the pair having both lined up at pit exit as the field poured into the opening turn.

Vettel was beaten home by both Force India’s, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez driving strong races to hand the Silverstone based squad good points at the end of the season. It had been a comparatively dry spell to that point, especially for Hulkenberg who had struggled since taking Perez off at Hungary mid-season.

After starring in

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column / News / Feature / Report

qualifying, Daniil Kvyat was forced out with an electrical problem after just 14 laps while teammate Vergne was unable to keep his Toro Rosso in the points despite an brief but intense battle with Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso scored

race result P

Driver

Formula One

points in his final Ferrari outing in ninth while Kimi Raikkonen finished just two seconds further back in tenth spot.

Sauber’s dismal season finally ended, both Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez out of the points again as the curtain

team

time

1

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

1:39:02.619

2

Felipe Massa

Williams

3

Valtteri Bottas

4

finally fell on the Swiss squad’s worst season in its 21 year history. The squad failed to score a single point and officially finished tenth in the championship, though the demise of Marussia effectively promotes it to ninth. It will be no consolation to Peter Sauber.

Mercedes dominated the year, scoring 701 points to Red Bull’s 405. The biggest improvers were Williams, whose 320 points saw them comfortably finish third in the constructors championship having been ninth this time last season.

McLaren also held off Force India though were beaten by a lacklustre Ferrari team while Lotus fell from fourth with 315 points in 2013 to eighth with just 10 this time around.

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Lewis Hamilton

+ 2.576

2

Nico Rosberg

317

Williams

+ 28.880

3

Daniel Ricciardo

238

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull

+ 37.237

4

Valtteri Bottas

186

5

Jenson Button

McLaren

+ 1:00.334

5

Sebastian Vettel

167

6

Nico Hulkenberg

Force India

+ 1:02.148

6

Fernando Alonso

161

7

Sergio Perez

Force India

+ 1:11.060

7

Felipe Massa

134

8

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull

+ 1:12.045

8

Jenson Button

126

9

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

+ 1:25.813

9

Nico Hulkenberg

96

10

Kimi Raikkonen

Ferrari

+ 1:27.820

10

Sergio Perez

59

VELOCITY

384

51

column / News / Feature / Report

to the

Formula One

wire J

ust 17 points separated Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton heading into the final race of the season after Rosberg beat his Mercedes teammate to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Rosberg had been the pace setter throughout the weekend, though his chances were helped by a mid-race spin from Hamilton from which his race never fully recovered.

Starting from pole,

52

Rosberg headed Hamilton into the first turn as further back Sebastian Vettel got away slowly to drop to the back end of the top ten at the opening turn. It was an even getaway for the Williams duo on the second row of the grid, Valtteri Bottas ahead of Felipe Massa.

The newly resurfaced Interlagos circuit had seen Pirelli bring a softer compound of rubber than usual, forcing teams into a three stop

strategy with the soft tyre good enough for just half a dozen laps and the medium for few more than 20.

Most had started on the soft tyre, and all in the top 10 following qualifying, with Massa the first to make the change on lap six. He was followed on the next lap

by Bottas, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel.

By stopping a lap earlier, Massa was able to get the better of his

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column / News / Feature / Report

teammate to claim third spot by some distance courtesy of the undercut.

It was a strategy Rosberg tried on his teammate Hamilton.

Heading for the pits on lap eight, Hamilton was in the next time by but had done enough to maintain the status quo at the front; though he’d not gained anything, he’d not lost anything in the undercut either.

The surprise package was Jenson Button, who

VELOCITY

was able to keep pace with the Williams pair in the first part of the race. Hulkenberg too shone, the German the first to start the race on the medium compound tyre putting him out of sequence with those around him, the Force India driver eventually stopping surprisingly early on lap 17. It was ten laps short of when he needed to stop in order to make best use of the strategy, though with

Formula One

blistering a significant problem for most drivers his team pulled him in early as he began to struggle for pace.

Romain Grosjean was rather more gentle on his tyres, eking them out to lap 26 before stopping for the first time as Vettel took service at his second stop. Massa stopped from third on lap 27, serving a five second stop-go penalty at the same time after he was caught speeding in the u

53

column / News / Feature / Report

pit lane at his first stop.

That promoted Bottas to third, though there was drama at his stop as a problem with the seatbelts caused a significant delay, allowing Kevin Magnussen to find a way through.

When Rosberg stopped on lap 28 it released Hamilton, who had been bottled up behind his teammate. A new fastest lap of the race followed as he pushed hard to both counter the undercut and gain track position.

At the end of the back straight his efforts came undone however as he lost the rear of the car under braking, sliding off into the tarmac run off area that would have

54

once ended his race.

As it was he conceded seven seconds to his championship rival.

Suspension failure for Daniel Ricciardo ended his race after 39 laps.

Under braking for turn one an upright appeared to fail, the Australian reporting a suspected brake failure to his team before nursing the car back to the pits where it was retired.

Following his spin, Hamilton played catch up throughout the middle part of the race. Eroding the gap between himself and the lead he had closed to within two seconds by the time the final round of stops arrived at lap 51. By lap

Formula One

60 the pair were running nose to tail, though even with the help of DRS there was no way by for Hamilton who seemed to lack traction onto the long front straight.

Kimi Raikkonen’s best race of the season was beginning to fade in the closing laps. Having opted for a two stop strategy his aged tyres were not giving up the grip of those on Fernando Alonso’s car, the Ferrari pair engaging in a wheel to wheel battle for several laps, albeit over sixth and seventh.

The battle however was important as it showed there were no team orders at the Maranello squad – where once

VELOCITY

column / News / Feature / Report

Alonso would have been waved through, now Raikkonen on old rubber was providing staunch defence to his advances.

It was the most obvious sign so far that the love affair between Alonso and Ferrari has ended, more so since had he

race result P

Driver

Formula One

been released there was a chance he could have caught Vettel and Button ahead to finish fourth.

Hamilton’s charge finally petered out in the closing laps, though he still finished within half a second of teammate Rosberg with Massa a crowd

team

time

1

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

1:30:02.555

2

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

3

Felipe Massa

4

pleasing third.

A late stop for soft tyres for Hulkenberg saw him drift back to eighth, just two tenths behind Raikkonen, with Bottas recovering to take the final point behind Magnussen.

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Lewis Hamilton

+ 1.457

2

Nico Rosberg

317

Williams

+ 41.031

3

Daniel Ricciardo

214

Jenson Button

McLaren

+ 48.658

4

Sebastian Vettel

159

5

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull

+ 51.420

5

Fernando Alonso

157

6

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

+ 1:01.906

6

Valtteri Bottas

156

7

Kimi Raikkonen

Ferrari

+ 1:03.730

7

Jenson Button

106

8

Nico Hulkenberg

Force India

+ 1:03.934

8

Felipe Massa

98

9

Kevin Magnussen

McLaren

+ 1:10.085

9

Nico Hulkenberg

80

10

Valtteri Bottas

Williams

+ 1 Lap

10

Kevin Magnussen

55

VELOCITY

334

55

column / News / Feature / Report

motoGP

lucky 13

Marquez’s thirteenth win of the year breaks Mick Doohan’s record of twelve in 1997.

H

e did it easily in the end, though for a time it looked like a 13th win of the year was beyond Marc Marquez.

Working his way into third after starting on the second row of the grid, he seemed unable to match the place of Valentino Rossi in second, who in turn could only watch as Andrea Iannone opened a sizeable lead in the early stages.

Marquez appeared unsettled in the conditions as light rain began to fall on the second lap, with

56

officials allowing riders to change bikes should they choose. None did, and conditions improved allowing both Rossi and Marquez the confidence to close on leader Iannone.

A sequence of fastest laps for Marquez moved him onto the rear wheel of Rossi’s Yamaha as the pair in turn

closed on the leader.

Once with the front of the race, Marquez soon took control as he scythed by Rossi and Iannone to take the lead, immediately opening a small but comfortable gap.

The Ducati rider proved rather more difficult for Rossi to pass, as Dani Pedrosa closed in to create a loose group of four at the front. Inevitably, Iannone fell behind Rossi before Pedrosa too made short work of the Italian, who fell from the lead to fourth in just three laps.

His drop in pace coincided with again

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worsening conditions, Iannone being caught out with a trip across the gravel dropping him to seventh in proceedings.

It also tempted him into pitlane, where he was joined by Jorge Lorenzo, for a change to the wet weather bike.

It proved a disastrous move. Though laptimes had slowed by some five seconds the circuit was still too dry for wet tyres, with both Lorenzo and Iannone conceding as much as 11 seconds

VELOCITY

a lap. Though Iannone carried on to the finish, the early race leader was classified last.

During the worst of the conditions Rossi closed to gap to Marquez to just over a second, though as the rain passed the Spaniard’s pace returned as he dominated the second half of the

motoGP

race. In third, Pedrosa fell well off the back of the leading duo while the only battle on track was between the Ducati riders of Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow for fourth and fifth.

The final margin of victory was 3.5 seconds, though Marquez stood on the pegs and celebrated his recordbeating 13th win of the year well before the line.

Second place for Rossi was enough to confirm himself as second in the world championship while Pedrosa was a distant third.

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column / News / Feature / Report

world endurance championship

The rising T

oyota raced to another World Endurance Championship race victory at the 6Hrs of Bahrain, and in doing so closed out the drivers world championship for Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi.

Heading into the weekend the Audi of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Fassley and Marcel Fassler needed to finish no lower than second to keep the championship alive, though with the German squad once again off the

58

pace their title ambitions came to naught.

That meant, even with a mid-race alternator failure that cost them 17 laps in the pits, Davidson and Buemi won the world championship courtesy of an unassailable lead with one round of the championship remaining in Brazil.

Toyota had lost out at the start of the race, only retaking the lead after seven laps before a safety car at the 30 minute mark regrouped the pack. With a splash

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column / News / Feature / Report

g sun and dash stop expected at the end of the race Toyota split its cars, pitting the #7 while leaving the Davidson and Buemi car out front.

They struck problems in the second hour where they dropped half an hour as the team replaced the alternator, promoting the two Porsche 919s onto the podium.

The Davidson car did rejoin the race, though someway down the order and towards the end provided little more than

VELOCITY

photo opportunities for the team as it circulated in the shadow of the race leader.

Audi’s small fuel tank proved a significant handicap once again, with each of its cars forced to spend more time in pitlane than the Toyotas.

With tight fuel regulations and an increased focus on hybrid technology the Audi has been found wanting throughout much of the year due to its choice to run a hybrid turbo diesel, with some suggestions 2015 will be

world endurance championship

the cars swan song, if not before.

2014 could therefore prove to be a landmark year in Endurance racing, where the baton which Audi has carried for so long is passed on to another manufacturer.

Though the constructors championship remains open heading into the final round in Brazil, Audi already seems resigned to defeat there too – the sun seemingly setting on the German marque’s long domination of endurance racing.

59

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world endurance championship

Porsche’s new generation

T

he season ending 6 Hours of Sao Paulo was a bitter sweet race for Porsche, which claimed its first endurance prototype victory in 25 years and witnessed a race ending crash for mark Webber.

Webber had claimed pole ahead of the race and was in a strong

60

position as the race moved into its final stages before crashing out at the final corner.

Webber’s car came to rest near pit entry, the rear torn asunder after colliding with the outside wall and the Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni.

A car failure was suspected after Cressoni told

his team Webber’s car had been out of control before colliding with him on an otherwise simple flat-out part of the track, forcing the pair into the wall and out of the race.

Both were taken to hospital, Cressoni released the following morning while Webber was held in for longer observation,

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column / News / Feature / Report

though complained of nothing more than a headache.

It overshadowed the final part of the race, which completed under safety car with the sister Porsche 919 heading the pack, driven by Neel Jani.

The Jani car had been second until Sebastien

VELOCITY

Buemi stopped his Toyota from the lead, rejoining 17 seconds adrift of the Porsche and was making strong progress towards the lead as the safety car emerged for the Webber crash.

The Buemi car had been the fastest throughout the race, even following a spin after

world endurance championship

the #70 Porsche made contact.

In third was the Audi of Tom Kristensen, who had announced his retirement from the sport in the week leading up to the event. It meant the three LMP1 manufacturers were represented on the podium with Toyota constructors champions.

61

bird flies column / News / Feature / Report

V

irgin Racing’s Sam Bird dominated the second round of the Formula E championship in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Bird made his intentions clear early with a look inside Oriol Servia at turn one before finally moving into the lead soon after the first safety car.

Addressing the problems from the opening race, gone was the comically

62

slow formation lap. It had served no purpose in China as cars circulated as slowly as possible to conserve their battery power – too slow to generate heat in either tyres or brakes. Instead they simply moved forward two rows of the grid before the lights went out and signalled the start of the race.

Bird made the best getaway before Servia moved across to defend

formula e

the inside line in the run down to the first turn, while down the order Daniel Abt failed to get off the line initially, before joining the race well down.

A spin from Katherine Legge on the opening lap proceeded a spin from Australian Matthew Brabham, who made his Formula E debut for Andretti Racing. A tight hairpin caught Brabham out, losing the rear end

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column / News / Feature / Report

under braking and spinning him in front of half the field and tagging Nick Heidfeld in the process.

Between Brabham and Legge, the safety car was sent out as each got going once again.

When the safety car released the field three laps later, Bird again launched an attack on Servia for the lead.

Eventually wrong footed, Servia was unable to defend Bird’s advances,

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the Brit finding a way through at turn four before Jarno Trulli also made short work of the former Champcar racer.

The aggressive Franck Montagny was also in the thick of things, finding the luckless Heidfeld who was pushed into the wall and out of the race.

With his wheels splayed and buried in the barrier the safety car was immediately sent back out.

Daniel Abt, who was

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still well down the order courtesy of his poor start, headed to the lane, leaving him 21 laps to run with his second car in a strategy which would give him track position midrace but no pace at the end.

A perfect restart from Bird caught Trulli sleeping, opening a sizeable lead by the time the field crossed the line to recommence racing.

Montagny was again in u

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column / News / Feature / Report the wars, this time running into Bruno Senna, damaging his front wing in the process.

After 13 laps Lucas Di Grassi, who had started at the rear of the grid after he’d been judged to have used too much power during qualifying, had charged his way up to ninth while out front Bird opened a comfortable lead over Trulli, who had reinvented the Trulli Train.

Bird finally stopped on lap 19, a lap after most, relinquishing the lead to Abt who had gained enormously thanks to his early stop. However, with nine laps already on his second car the German was unable to run at the pace of those chasing him. Realising his predicament, Abt waved Bird through when he was finally caught on lap 27.

The Trulli Train was finally broken when the Italian was handed a drive through penalty for an energy infringement, while Montagny was slapped with the pit lane speeding violation and forced to tour the pitlane again too.

Things got worse for Trulli soon after when he made contact with Nelson Piquet Jnr heading into the first turn. Squeezing him into the wall under braking, the pair made

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contact which broke Piquet’s steering and would see Trulli retire a handful of laps later.

Crashing out of fourth, Senna was a final lap retirement when he lost the rear of the car on a bump, while Brabham also retired in spectacular fashion almost within sight of the flag.

Through the carnage, though mostly ahead of it, Brid triumphed

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with ease. At times he had lapped three seconds faster than the rest of the field while first round winner Di Grassi maintained his points advantage with a strong second place. Former Toro Rosso Formula One driver Sebastien Buemi was third having also charged from the rear of the grid with Nico Prost, the villain of China, fourth.

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race result P

Driver

team

formula e

time

1

Sam Bird

Virgin Racing

51:11.979

2

Lucas Di Grassi

Audi Sport ABT

3

Sebastien Buemi

4

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Lucas Di Grassi

+ 4.175

2

Sam Bird

40

e.dams-Renault

+ 5.739

3

Franck Montangy

18

Nico Prost

e.dams-Renault

+ 9.552

4

Nico Prost

18

5

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Dragon Racing

+ 13.722

5

Jerome D’Ambrosio

18

6

Karun Chandhok

Mahindra Racing

+ 17.158

6

Karun Chandhok

18

7

Oriol Servia

Dragon Racing

+ 18.621

7

Sebastien Buemi

15

8

Antonio Felix da Costa

Amlin Aguri

+ 19.926

8

Charles Pic

12

9

Jaimie Alguersuari

Virgin Racing

+ 20.053

9

Oriol Servia

12

10

Daniel Abt

Audi Sport ABT

+ 45.663

10

Nelson Piquet Jnr

4

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world rally championship

Ogier ends y

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world rally championship

year in style N

ewly crowned World Champion Sebastian Ogier has ended his season on a high after claiming victory at the Wales Rally Great Britain. It marked the Frenchman’s eighth success at the event, the Volkswagen driver dominating the rally from start to finish.

Teammate Jari-Matti Latvala had fronted an early challenge, only to slide off the road and into a ditch on Saturday’s opening stage. It cost him three minutes, plunging him down the order and handing Ogier a 70 second lead over a three-way battle between Kris Meeke, Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Ostberg.

Ostberg was the first to blink when he was handed a 10 second penalty for checking into service late. That left Meeke and Hirvonen

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to continue their battle throughout the day until Meeke fell off the road on Sunday morning, damaging two tyres in the process.

It halted Meeke’s podium charge, the Citroen driver eventually finishing the rally in just sixth place, leaving Hirvonen to take an unchallenged second place in what was his final rally before retirement.

With Meeke out of the picture Ostberg also recovered to a podium position following his early transgression.

Once Latvala was out of contention, Ogier controlled the pace at the front of the rally - driving to maintain and protect his lead without taking risks. He held off Hirvonen by almost 38 seconds, who was 26 seconds better than Ostberg.

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nascar

chasing harvick

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nascar

rival

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n his first season racing for Stewart/ Haas, Kevin Harvick has claimed his maiden NASCAR Sprint Cup title. Having been convinced by Tony Stewart to jump ship from Richard Childress Racing, ‘Smoke’ celebrated his team’s success despite not winning a race all season for the first time this millennium.

Harvick lived up to his nickname of ‘The Finished’ by charging through the pack following a series of late caution periods to win the race ahead of Chase

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Ryan Newman.

Jeff Gordon had dominated the race early. The veteran, who’d been knocked out of the hunt for another title at the previous race in Phoenix by Harvick, claimed pole before leading 161 of the 167 lap encounter. His charge however would fade late in the race, drifting back to 10th as Harvick and Newman pushed forward.

The turning point was a caution with 20 laps remaining, giving teams a critical strategy call.

Denny Hamlin’s crew elected to leave him on track to gain track position, which saw him second at the restart with 15 laps remaining, while

Harvick, Newman and Joey Logano stopped for tyres.

All four Chase contenders had run inside the top ten for much of the event, which started in the evening sun before finishing under lights.

Harvick’s pace had seemed to fade early, though returned after his final stop.

He took the restart with 15 laps remaining in 12th, while a poor stop for Joey Logano, courtesy of a jack problem, all but ended his Chase hopes by seeing him rejoin the race well down the order.

Working their way forward, both Newman and Harvick hit the lead in the closing stages, Harvick holding out by little more than a car length to seal his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup title. u

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Highland Hero

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H

olding his nerve to win both races at round six of the Australian GT championship, Richard Muscat claimed clinched his maiden series title at Highlands Motorsport Park.

Muscat held a 32-point advantage over championship rival Tony Quinn heading into the final round of the season as the series made the trip across the ditch to New Zealand for the finale.

Muscat headed the field in the opening race, opening an

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early lead after fending off the advances of Quinn into the first chicane. From there the Mercedes driver opened an 18 second lead before his compulsory pit stop while Quinn was forced to hold off Stephen Richards, John Bowe and Jono Lester in the battle for second spot.

Further back Shane Van Gisbergen had charged through the field after starting at the back. Mechanical problems befell his McLaren on Friday, though he accounted for half u

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column / News / Feature / Report the field in the opening lap alone.

Quinn handed the car to Garth Tander at the stops, the V8 Supercar regular setting off in pursuit of Muscat ahead. His charge however would be cut short when the safety car was deployed for Keith Kassulke, who’d suffered brake failure and crashed heavily.

With the field neutralised and time running short, officials elected to call the event after 37 minutes, with Muscat leading over Bowe and Tander who’d dropped to third during the pit stop cycle.

Dean Koutsoumidis won the Trophy class ahead of Inky Tulloch’s Camaro with local Simon Ellingham third.

Ben Foessel’s win in the Challenge class was enough to give him backto-back championships after Brendan Cook was pitched into the fence while Mark Griffith got the better of Tony Martin in the GT Sports class.

Muscat was unable to repeat his start from race one, losing the lead to Tander as they poured into the first chicane, he then opened a five second lead heading into the compulsory pit stops.

It could have been more, but the safety car was an early visitor when a mechanical failure pitched

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Ross Lilley’s Lamborghini into the gravel.

With Tander clear at the front, Muscat battled Bowe and Lester during the early stages before Bowe’s charge faded ahead of the pit stops – the Ferrari driver coming under attack from Craig Lowndes who was behind the wheel of Tulloch’s

Camaro.

Tander’s five second lead should have translated to a nine second advantage thanks to a shorter compulsory pit stop as a result of finishing third in the opening race, though two aggressive laps from Muscat instead saw the gap reduce to almost nothing.

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The Aston Martin continued lead after the stops, now with Quinn behind the wheel, as Muscat continued to attack. He fired a move up the inside of Quinn at the exit of the bridge, which would prove a timely move as the safety car soon emerged when Lester tagged a Porsche

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at the Southern Loop, spinning himself out of the race.

When the safety car released the field Muscat opened a three second lead to win over Quinn with Bowe in third.

Rod Salmon’s Audi had gone into limp mode as the water temperature climbed though second

in the Trophy class was still enough for him to secure the championship victory. Foessel again won the Challenge class race while Griffith took an unrivalled GT Sports win when Tony Martin was forced off the circuit early on.

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Image: Race Shots

back-to-back

M

att Stubbs has defended his Australian Title after an intense 10 lap finale at Phillip Island at the head of a 57 car Formula Vee field.

Starting from fifth position after the qualifying heats, Stubbs timed his final run to the lead perfectly to win by six hundreths of a second from James Dean, with third placed Daniel Stein just half a second further back. So was the closeness of the lead battle, Simon Pace in tenth was just 1.6 seconds behind Stubbs as they crossed the line for the final time.

New South Welshman

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Michael Kinsella had looked an early favourite with heat wins early on, continuing his fine form from the Formula Vee Australia Seires. However, his hopes faded in the final, the Jacer driver capable of just fifteenth in the end.

Newly crowned Formula Vee Australia Series champion Tim Brook also faced a difficult final.

Starting third, the factory Jacer driver was crowed for space as the pack begun its final lap.

Interlocking wheels, the front of his car was sent skyward, forcing him onto the brakes to regain control and dropping him too

far back to be in genuine contention.

It left Stubbs to continue battling with Dean and Stein, all of whom lead the race at various stages, as did Mitch Quiddington, before Stubbs timed his run to the flag to perfection.

Mat Pearce was successful in the 1200cc class, dominating the race with finish some 20 seconds ahead of the second placed battle between Austin Pearson with Liam Caplice third, the pair separated by just one hundredth of a second at the finish.

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Image: Race Shots

randle’s nail-biter

T

homas Randle has emerged victorious following a nail-biting finale to the Australian Formula Ford Series at Phillip Island, in what equated to a dash for the championship in the final race.

Randle headed into the weekend trailing James Golding in the championship before drawing level on points heading into the final race of the season.

Golding had a tough weekend. A tangle early in the opening race saw him drop to the rear of the field, putting him on the back foot early and though he was able to climb back up the order to 15th, Jordan Lloyd

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and Randle had escaped at front to claim the top two spots.

It turned the championship fight into a three-way tussle with Randle moving to within four points of the championship lead and Lloyd just six points further back with two races remaining.

Lloyd again won in race two as Golding worked his way back towards the front, Lloyd and Randle breaking clear again in their own private duel for the lead. The result created a do-or-die final race with the leading trio split by just two points.

This time Rowe and Golding escaped into an early lead as Lloyd

and Randle were caught squabbling among themselves, only for Golding to spin at the Southern Loop, dropping down the order and out of championship contention.

Rowe also fell back into the clutches of the Randle/Lloyd battle, though was able to hold on to his advantage to win narrowly ahead of Randle and Lloyd.

For Randle, second place was enough to hand him the championship. With Golding only capable of sixth at the flag Lloyd claimed second in the title race demoting Golding, the points leader heading into the weekend, to third.

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Pipped at the post Image: Rensmart Photography

A

dramatic final lap pass sealed victory in the Winton 300 for Nathan Jess and Matthew Thompson in the final round of the Australian Endurance Championship.

Heading into the final lap of the 100 lap race, Jess sat second before moving underneath Michael Caine and the first corner to take the lead, dropping to third by the end of the lap as the Shane Otten and David Raddtaz car also found a way through.

Defending event winners Rob Hay and Nick

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Cancain had led the race early before an engine map issue ruled them out at two thirds distance. Raddtaz too struck problems when he was called into the pits for an oil leak soon after a late race safety car had bunched up the field ahead of a sprint to the finish.

Adding another trophy to his burgeoning cabinet, recently crowned V8 Touring Car champ Justin Ruggier also clinched the Australian Endurance Championship to win his second title in as many weeks. He and co-drivers

Mark Mackay and Ray Vandersee raced to sixth place overall, though it proved enough to give Ruggier and Mackay the championship win.

Adam Dodd and Terry Nightingale won the B-Main, backing up their form from the Wakefield Park 300 earlier in the year to finish ahead of Peter Lacey and Nick Leontsinis in a race that featured a door to door battle between the leading duo for much of the first half of the race.

Tony Ross and Paul Chapman completed the podium.

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Ledger’s double

K

the weekend.

It was that pressure from Ledger which ultimately proved too much for Hislop, who made two mistakes ruled which ultaimtely took him out of the running.

The first mistake was a jump start, which triggered his second, race ending, mistake.

“I thought it would be a 10 second penalty so I was really pushing to get as big a lead as possible,” he explained after the race, “but it was only a 5 second one, and I

just pushed too hard.”

He then spun at the top of the hill, allowing Ledger through into the lead and ended his tilt at the title when his car became beached.

It left Ledger out front to claim his second title, having won it previously in 2010, ahead of South Australian Mark Ruta, who had climbed from 20th to beat Matt Cherry to the line. Aaron Lawrence was fourth, well ahead of the battle for fifth between Chris Brown and Kerry Wade.

Image: Mat Coch

evin Ledger eased his way to victory in the Over 2 Litre Improved Production Nationals at Wakefield Park, claiming the winner-takes-all final with ease after Ray Hislop spun off early on.

Ledger started the final from second spot after Hislop dominated the qualifying races, scoring enough points to take pole in his V8 Falcon.

Hislop had looked strongest throughout though Ledger loitered, keeping him honest throughout

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Image: Mat Coch

civic pride

A

ndrew Tendli proved the class of the Under 2 Litre Improved Production field as he claimed his first National’s win.

Tendli was pushed hard throughout the final by fellow ACT racer Daniel Burton while Graeme Cox made it an allHonda podium.

Burton gained the advantage at the start before Tendli found a way by on lap two, holding out against his rival by little more than 4.5

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seconds after 23 laps.

The duo were well clear of an intense battle for third between Cox and reigning title holder Bob Jowett. Throughout the early part of the race it was Jowett who held the upper hard until Cox snuck through into third on lap 19. A determined Jowett however immediately fought back, retaking the spot on the following lap before losing it again on lap 21.

At the end they were separated by just two

tenths of a second, some eight seconds down on Burton in second spot and more than 20 seconds clear of Simon O’dell-Fontana, the first interstate entry, in fifth place.

But, out front none could stay with Tendli and Burton, who extended their lead despite the intervention of the safety car midway through in a race that saw just 19 of the 28 starters make the difference in blisteringly hot conditions.

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race travel

Bathurst Destination Guide

Travellers guide to the Bathurst 12 Hour

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t’s quickly solidified itself on the international motorsport calendar; the Bathurst 12 Hour now stands shoulder to shoulder with race across Europe including the Nurburgring 24 Hour. It attracts some of the fastest sports cars in Australia, and more from overseas, while its growing reputation has seen

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race travel the events popularity skyrocket.

Bathurst is about 200km west of Sydney, the easiest way to get there is to make the three hour journey by car, heading out via the M4 towards the Blue Mountains.

It’s worth a stop at Katoomba, where you can soak in the view at the Three Sisters, or check out the the u

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column / News / Feature / Report Leuralla Toy and Railway Museum, which claims to have the largest toy collection in the southern hemisphere. If you’re willing to venture a little further off the beaten path you can also turn off the road to Bathurst just after the village of Hartley and check out the Jenolan Caves.

Once in Bathurst the choice of accommodation is vast – from rooms in pubs to more luxurious rooms at the Rydges hotel, sat just outside Murray’s Corner on the circuit itself.

But although the circuit is close to the town itself, those looking to enjoy the nightlife would be better served staying in town and driving to the circuit each day.

Parking is plentiful and easy, and accommodation away from the track opens dining and entertainment opportunities

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race travel

which are limited when staying onsite, though those partial to camping could create their own entertainment while staying at thet track itself.

Viewing around the Mount Panorama circuit is varied and easy. From the bottom of the mountain fans can watch over the pitlane from a mound on the front straight, or wander into the paddock and check out the teams from the rear of the garages.

From the bottom you can jump in the car and drive to the top along a narrow bitumen road parralel to Mountain Straight and watch the racing from Sulman Park.

Or, drive a little further around and check out the action from Skyline where you can watch cars begin their descent.

Inside the circuit there is heaps to do; demonstrations on the concourse

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outside the start/finish line, and drivers signing sessions within the paddock, along with all the support categories on show as they prepare for their own races across the weekend.

Couple with the sights and sounds of Sydney, which can be sampled

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race travel

at the beginning or end of the trip, and a few stops along the way to break up the drive out to Bathurst. It makes it easy to turn the Bathurst 12 Hour race into a week long escape, highlighted by one of the best endurance races in the world.

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Snow-capped peaks overlook the Australian GT Highlands 101.

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coming attractions DECEMBER 6 & 7 V8 SUPERCARS Sydney Olympic Park DECEMBER 13 FORMULA E Uruguay

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