Issue 4

velocity

issue 4 - January 2015

motorsport magazine

jamie whincup

behind mask the

collision course

SUPERCARS THREAT TO AUSTRALIAN GT

formula one: hamilton’s coming of age

column / News / Feature / Report

Out of the abyss. Conditions at Sydney Motorsport Park looked like the start of the apocolypse.

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whincup unmasked

coming of age

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We saw a different Lewis Hamilton in 2014, which led to what Mat Coch argues was his finest season to date. Find out how the Mercedes driver stepped it up a gear in season 2014, and why he shone more brightly than teammate Nico Rosberg.

collision course

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What happens when Australia’s premier racing category looks to buy one of the fastest growing and most popular series? We look at why V8 Supercars would want the Australian GT Championship, and what it might do with it.

travel guide: clipsal 500

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There’s a festival every other week in Adelaide, but the biggest and best of the year is the Clipsal 500. We look at where to stay, what to do and what you can expect from one of the blockbuster events of the year.

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stoffel vandoorne

He’s the next McLaren protege, but Stoffel Vandoorne reveals to Mat Coch that despite his place at the Woking squad there are not guarantees he’ll ever race in Formula One.

The regulars

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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

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V8 SUPERCARS Sydney 500

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FORMULA E Punta Del Este

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Tasman revival Great Britain

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v8 supports Development Series V8 Utes

race of champions Barbados

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Photographer John Morris Editorial Contacts Telephone 0414 197 588 Website www.velocityemag.com Email editor@velocityemag.com Production Publisher Grand Prix Media Social Media

@VelocityEmag

Forget the Boxing Day test suggests Mike Lawrence, Brands Hatch was the place to be on the day after Christmas as the stars of motorsport turned out.

nuts & bolts

Editorial Editor Mat Coch

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facebook.com/ velocitymagazine Acknowledgements James Allen, Lisa Bachmayer, Matt Bishop, Jess Dane, Craig Dontas, Cole Hitchcock, Mike Lawrence, Liam Meeghan, John Morris, Jasmine Mulhern, Phoebe O’Sullivan, Dean Perkins, Craig Revell, Stoffel Vandoorne, Jamie Whincup, Tom Worsley.

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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V8 Supercars future looks a lot like its past, says Mat Coch

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he first event on track over the Sydney 500 at Olympic Park was a practice session for Heritage Touring Cars. These are cars whose top-flight lives are behind them but have found a new lease of life, and are still engaged in active competition.

The cars are as diverse as their vintage; from Ford Sierras and Falcons to Jaguars, Nissans and more. Together they represent an era

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of Australian touring car racing that is now the better part of three decades old.

More than that, they represent the future.

Ahead of the season finale V8 Supercars made a string of announcements regarding the sports future. Most were unpopular, since nobody seems to like change.

The most obvious is a move away from the V8 Supercars name as the sport rebrands itself in line with the direction the

motoring industry is moving. Get used to hearing it called Supercars in future.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg, beneath which sat a raft of technical changes which will transform the sport from the lumpy V8 melee it’s been for the last two decades into something more akin to the diversity shown among the Heritage Touring Cars.

The necessity for four doors will disappear. So long as the original car had four useable seats

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that’ll do just fine, opening the door for the likes of the Ford Mustang, if someone other than Ford wanted to homologate it.

Even more controversially is the engine formula changes. The days of thumping great V8s will soon be gone, with smaller capacity turbo charged engines allowed in, provided they meet the parity requirements.

The changes may have been unpopular but make sense. Few of us today buy a V8 engined car,

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and there is growing pressure from environmental bodies globally on car makers to look at building smaller capacity engines. That is where the future is, not in producing ever more belligerent oil burners.

Other manufacturers also want to push their brand, and aside from Ford and Holden none have really fit into the V8 Supercar brand up to this point.

These changes throw open the door to the likes of Lexus, should it finally decide to take

the plunge. It could also attract other manufacturers, not to mention sponsors who would be more inclined to get involved in a sport which is more relevant to their business.

Many of these changes will be introduced gradually, others somewhat more suddenly. However they come into force at board level the plan from V8 Supercars will now turn to implementings its decisions. One thing is for sure, the V8 Supercar is history.

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anta used to visit Brands Hatch on Boxing Day and behind the whiskers there was usually a famous face. The first Boxing Day Brands was held in 1955 and it began as a gimmick, there was otherwise no circuit racing in Britain between late September and late March.

Soon the meeting became important when racing car shows began to be held a few days later. These were modest affairs, but the idea that motor racing could be an industry was novel.

The growing number of competition car constructors used to launch their new models in time for Brands Hatch and then the racing car show.

Makers had to consider not only the home market but SCCA racing in America which operated to the same seasonal calendar. It became usual for racing mechanics, and some drivers, to spend the winter working for constructors and subcontractors in the ‘Build Season’.

In 1959, Britain’s first properly supported Formula Junior race was held on Boxing Day. Formula Junior had first been run in Italy in 1958 and had been a huge

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Boxing Day Brands

Mike Lawrence recalls when Christmas was just a little different success. Small Italian constructors had long experience of making sports cars using tuned Fiat engines so it was easy to make singleseater versions. The successful marques made machines that looked like scaled down Grand Prix cars, which was an added attraction since front-engined F1 cars won most races in 1958.

In 1959, Formula Junior was declared an international category and it replaced the old 500cc Formula Three which was anyway dying on its feet. It called for modified production engines (5,000 units) and was a capacity/weight formula with

four options. Eventually everyone chose the highest minimum weight and 1100cc.

Junior was the first FIA formula with a safety stipulation, cars had to have a roll hoop. Since its strength was not specified and seat belts were years away, the rule was useless.

Boxing Day Brands, 1959, a ten lap (14 mile) race for FJ cars which took on great significance in retrospect. It was Jim Clark’s first single-seater race and he drove a Gemini without distinction. Elva was the first to make FJ cars in series and had seen merit in the three-cylinder,

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two-stroke, DKW engine which some German tuners had taken to a high state.

Lola had the Mk 2, its first single-seater. Like the Gemini and Elvas, it was front-engined. This was a design constraint imposed because of the scarcity of suitable gearboxes for mid-engined cars.

Cooper used a tuned BMC engine. John Cooper had long been a friend of Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini which had been launched in 1959. This gave Cooper an introduction to BMC apart from the fact that Cooper had just won the World Championship.

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Incidentally, the idea of what became the Mini Cooper was already forming in John’s mind.

Lotus had the 18, the marque’s first midengined car which was also made in F1 and F2 versions. It had been finished in a rush and not tested so the suspension settings were wrong. A racing engine, balanced and polished, which was based on the new Ford 105E ‘Anglia’ unit, blew its top and so the addons were transferred to a standard Ford engine.

It was an inauspicious debut for the Lotus 18 and a new company called Cosworth.

Peter Arundell won

in an Elva-DKW with Peter Ashdown, LolaFord, second, the Lola reckoned to be the best handling car in the field.

Elva and Lola sold cars on the result, but neither achieved much in 1960.

The rear-engine revolution had arrived.

Lotus-Ford and CooperBMC dominated to such an extent that they wiped out the embryo motor racing industries everywhere else. Across Europe there were guys in sheds with dreams and some names. like Stanguellini, retain resonance. That 1960 season of Formula Junior is why England is home to most Formula One teams.

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Wheel-lifting action in the Stadium Super Trucks at Race of Champions.

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Formula One

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formula one

jamie whincup

unmasked

Fame, travel and why he can’t spell.

Jamie Whincup chats to Velocity about life away from motorsport

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e may be Australia’s most successful touring car driver, but to Jamie Whincup he’s just an average Joe. He cuts an unusual figure in the paddock, an area dominated by alpha-males, filled with extroverted self-promoters, in contrast to Whincup who is almost embarrassed by the attention he receives.

Indeed fame itself doesn’t sit well on Whincup’s shoulders, and that seems at least partly down the fact that he

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just doesn’t seem to understand why everyone is so interested in what he’s doing.

“The recognition thing, it’s all part and parcel of the job,” he explains when he sat down with Velocity.

“My job and my hobby and the sport I’m involved in is highly publicised, so everyone knows exactly what I’m doing,” he adds. “It can be a hindrance at times when actually trying to get from A to B as quick as you can or you’re in a bit of a hurry.”

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That does not mean he is ungrateful for the support, he simply sees himself as a regular guy with a slightly irregular job, hardly deserving of the adulation he receives.

Constantly busy, he rarely has time to read the newspaper or watch

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television, so much of the coverage surrounding his success passes him by.

To many though he’s difficult and uninterested in the fans, an ungrateful reclusive. It’s something he’s well aware of.

“People say that I do

Formula One

keep my private life to myself. I don’t really, I don’t actively try to do that, it’s just not that interesting,” he laughs.

It says much about Whincup as a person.

He’s a family man and, left to his own devices, would much rather spend

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his time tinkering with his jet ski, laying on the beach, or even kicking the footy with mates, many of whom he’s had since his karting days.

“I get so deprived of family time during the year because I’m working so hard, generally at

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race tracks, so I certainly try and make up for that and get the balance back.

“I hate travel,” he smiles. “I hate living out of a bag, but that’s all part of the job. Not all parts of the job are glitz and glamour.

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“I get to drive a fast race car, I love the competition, but the travel is certainly not the appealing bit!”

He views his Gold Coast home as a sanctuary. It backs onto a river with bi-fold doors which, according to Whincup,

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column / News / Feature / Report are perennially open, perfect for a man who craves the great outdoors but enjoys the simple pleaseure of being at home.

“Getting up and eating cereal out of my own cereal packet, getting my bottle of milk out of the fridge is something I really enjoy,” he reveals.

“I’ve got a nice little base that I work hard to make sure everything’s there.”

“I hate gyms, I hate being inside,” he says with a smile. “I love my motorbikes, jet skis, jet boats and all that sort of thing. That’s what I spend all my spare time doing, just flying around the water or a race track.

“Every month I’m at least down the cricket nets once, I’m kicking the footy, having a hit at tennis, I’m always doing something - having a swing of golf, just making sure that in all sports I’ve got this adequate level because I hate being a hack at anything.”

He’s a little more than adequate behind the wheel, but becomming Australia’s most successful touring car driver was never the game plan.

“When I was racing karts I thought I was going to race karts for the rest of my life,” he admits. “I didn’t even

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think about what the future holds. I never had this grand plan that I was going to be a racing car driver; I was just going to race a gokart. Then it moved on to Formula Ford and I thought this is alright, this is what I’ll do now forever. Then I moved to V8s and this is what I’m going to do now forever, but who knows what the future holds!”

His early career was not without sacrifice, and by Whincup’s own admission his education suffered as a result.

“I had quite a lot of days off school, and then it’s hard to catch back up again,” he confesses.

“I missed my school formal, debutant, all the major schooling events.

I never went on school camps because there was always a race meeting coming up that weekend. So I was a little bit out of the loop there.

“My English is pretty terrible,” he laughs. “Every now and then I’ve got to write an important letter or email to someone and it takes me twice as long as it probably should, but that’s all part of the gig.

“Motorsport needs a fair bit of mathematical calculation, so the mathematics is on track but I wish I had paid a

v8 supercars

Image: Race Shots

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little bit more attention at school to sort my spelling out!”

Despite having never planned on a career in the sport, there is nothing else Whincup can imagine doing.

“I’ve got no idea,” he laughs when asked what he might have done if not found a career in motorsport.

“Who knows! If my father didn’t buy me a go-kart when I was 7 years old, who knows what I’d be doing.

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“I’m the type of person that has an interest in something and just absolutely belts it until it’s dead and then I’ll move on to the next thing. I just get really hooked up in one particular thing and take it all the way to the limit and move along to the next thing.”

It leaves Whincup as an enigma, almost an accidental hero. Reserved, withdrawn and shy, he’s an outdoors family man willing to make sacrifices to achieve his target. For

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the moment that is success in V8 Supercars, though he’s careful not to target championships rather than maximising his and the teams potential.

One gets the impression however that there will come a time where he’s finished with V8 Supercars and retires to the quiet life on the river, the question is really just how much success he’ll enjoy before then.

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coming of age column / News / Feature / Report

v8 supercars

why Lewis Hamilton has never been better

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ewis Hamilton came of age in 2014. He dominated the second half of the season, chased down and caught teammate Nico Rosberg in the points standings and won his second world championship. It was a composed and mature season, one which was far more impressive than his first title winning campaign in 2008.

Truth be told, Hamilton made a meal of his 2008 championship year.

It should have never

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reached the final race of the year, and it certainly should never have run until the penultimate corner of the final lap when fortune favoured Hamilton over Felipe Massa.

It followed on from his rookie season where, despite having the car and the pace, and just quietly the measure of Fernando Alonso, he was unable to close out the championship which was stolen from under his nose by Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton has a history of being unable

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column / News / Feature / Report to seal the deal in the way his talent should have allowed. Blindingly fast, probably the fastest driver in Formula One, Hamilton had struggled to string a season together.

In 2014 that all changed.

If it weren’t for unreliability he would have won, perhaps not at a canter but certainly more easily than he did.

“2007 was a very bad experience,” Hamilton recalled. “Obviously losing the championship I fell to a low that I couldn’t control and 2008 came back, fighting in the championship, Felipe won the race, won the championship for a second and then obviously what happened in the last corner, I got it back and for me I’d lost it, won it, lost it and, whilst it was a great experience, my emotions were shot. I don’t know, that year, I was just immature. I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now.”

Monaco Mischief In qualifying for Monaco Hamilton looked set for pole position in the dying moments of the session.

Running behind teammate Nico Rosberg he held all the cards, and looked to have the pace, until Rosberg missed his

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v8 supercars braking marker and run up the escape road at Mirabeau.

It was a turning point, a moment which changed the momentum and the feeling of the season.

There had been one earlier in the year, when Hamilton and Rosberg went toe-to-toe in Bahrain, but up til Monaco it had been in the Englishman’s favour.

The incident saw Hamilton drop his head. He was on target to take pole, “I was up by a couple of tenths,” he claimed.

By Sunday afternoon Hamilton had pushed the memory of qualifying from his mind and focussed his energies on beating his teammate.

Though he wasn’t able to it was the first sign that, mentally, Hamilton was at the top of his game.

Further evidence came at the Belgian Grand Prix and, more specifically, the Italian Grand Prix. At Spa-Francorchamps, Mercedes threw away victory on the second lap when its two drivers came together. At Les Combes the duo scrapped, though Rosberg refused to give up track position without a fight. Inevitably the pair touched, breaking Rosberg’s front wing and puncturing Hamilton’s left rear tyre. Much was

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made of it, the tension within the Mercedes camp noticeably increasing while media interest kicked up another gear.

If Monaco was a turning point, the Italian Grand Prix was where Lewis Hamilton showed his new resolve, demonstrating a new ability to compartmentalise whatever

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distractions were going on around him. It was Rosberg who made the mistakes, allowing Hamilton into the lead and handing him victory on a silver platter.

From Italy to the season ending race in Abu Dhabi he would be beaten just once, and that came in Brazil when

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the championship was within touching distance.

Between Monaco and Abu Dhabi, an all-new Lewis Hamilton emerged, one who was a more complete driver and person. “There’s so much pressure from around you, you’re just trying to ignore it, trying to keep

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your eye on the ball,” Hamilton said after taking the world championship.

“Normally you go in [to a race with] butterflies in the stomach, a bit nervous,” he explained.

“Today I was going into the race thinking ‘I feel extremely calm’, which is really weird.

“I said coming into this

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weekend that I wouldn’t change the season, the way it’s gone, for anything really because I’ve learnt a lot. If anything, I felt very, very strong with the way I came out of the good and the bad.

Obviously coming to the last race, knowing it’s double points, which… jeez… do you think it was

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a good idea? Didn’t feel like a good idea when we came into it.

“It’s been so intense between us all year long,” Hamilton added with regards to his relationship with teammate Rosberg. “There’s been good moments and bad moments.

“Without a doubt we’ve

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had a friendship or a relationship that we built a long, long, long time ago, so that will always be there,” he claimed.

“He was a very, very fierce competitor this year, he did an exceptional job.

“Perhaps things naturally will ease up a little now.

He was graceful enough to come up to me and see me after, which I really appreciated. It was really big of him to be able to do that. It’s very,

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very tough, I know what it’s like losing a championship so, for sure, we’ll keep working at it.”

One of Hamilton’s greatest hurdles has often been himself. An emotional guy who very much wears his heart on his sleeve, the various trials and tribulations in his private and professional life have always had an noticeable impact on his on-track performance.

In 2014 there appeared to be no such foibles

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in Hamilton’s approach.

While there were PR gaffs which raised it had little to no impact on his performance on Sunday afternoons. It was an all-new approach and a far stronger Lewis Hamilton. It brushes aside memories and the question marks of his 2008 championship campaign, and switch from McLaren, aside - just as one suspects he might do with his opposition in 2015.

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collision cou Could V8 Supercars be about to wage war on the Australian GT Championship?

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s Australian motorsport on a collision course? That was the question quietly doing the rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park as V8 Supercars touched down for its last event of the season.

Negotiations are understood to be ongoing between V8 Supercars and the Australian GT Championship as the country’s premier class looks to take control of the sports car series.

It’s a potentially explosive deal that could have far reaching implications throughout the top end of Australian motorsport.

The Australian GT Championship is owned

by VIP Pet Foods boss Tony Quinn. He bought the series from Rachael Wagg for a song in 2012 while continuing to race his Aston Martin with some success. He was second in the championship this year, but has come under scrutiny from some in the paddock who allege he may be favouring himself in his running of the series.

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column / News / Feature / Report From a V8 Supercar standpoint a move to buy the Australian GT Championship makes a great deal of sense. James Warburton, V8 Supercars CEO, has openly stated he is keen to gain more control of its supporting cast, and there is no better way to do so than to own them. It makes contracts far easier to manage and, according to the V8 Supercars top brass, would help ensure a better show for the paying public.

Of course it’s also a good way to hedge ones bets. With Ford having confirmed its intention to withdraw factory support, and the high probability of Holden following suit in the not too distant future, V8 Supercars would be well advised to protect itself at the top of the motorsport tree in this country.

In the week leading up to the Sydney 500 the sport made a number of announcements regarding its future, many of which cut a nerve with the viewing public. In the years to come the V8 branding will be dropped and the series transformed into simply ‘Supercars’, a move which better aligns the brand with its future.

There is precedence with a leading series

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owning a ‘lesser’ one.

Dorna owns most world championship level motorcycle racing, beginning with MotoGPs commercial rights in 1992. Towards the end of 2012 it obtained the commercial rights to the Superbike World Championship, giving Dorna ownership of the worlds two leading motorcycle categories.

Dorna’s presence in MotoGP and Superbikes has been positive. Both series are thriving but there is no disputing the pecking order; MotoGP is the premier class with Superbikes one step down the ladder. The Superbike World Championship is no threat to MotoGP, Dorna has made certain of that.

V8 Supercars could do something similar with the Australian GT Championship. V8 Supercars could gain the control it seeks over one of the leading support series in the country as well as keeping tabs on its growth and development.

But the key difference between Australian GT and World Superbikes is the competitors. Where World Superbikes is a professional sport Australian GT, for the most part, is filled with gentleman racers. While there are some professionally

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run teams on the whole it’s comprised of individuals who decide when or where to race. Their reaction to a V8 Supercar ownership would be critical to the category’s survival.

An extension of that is the Bathurst 12-Hour, a race which has had more than its fair share of

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headlines this year courtesy of the test-day date clash.

The Bathurst 12-Hour is not part of the Australian GT Championship but does attract its competitors thanks to the popular GT3 regulations which allow their cars to enter. In recent years the 12-Hour has gone from

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strength to strength and in many ways could be viewed as a potential rival to V8 Supercars if allowed to continue growing unchecked.

Whether V8 Supercars would allow Australian GT competitors to continue to take part, or if it would restrict them to only sanctioned events,

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is the critical point. The success of Australian GT is entirely dependant on its competitors, so whatever the ownership structure may be - V8 Supercars, Tony Quinn or something completely different, it must be managed.

Should V8 Supercars purchase the series

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there is no reason either need to suffer. Australian GT could be used as a feeder series of sorts, a World Superbike analogue for the V8 Supercars franchises. It takes away a potential rival in the market place while opening doors for the V8 Supercars upper ranks should decisions

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taken now not play out as they’d foreseen.

It could provide a useful safety net for the sport and a platform from which it can grow.

It could be good for the Australian GT Championship, but that depends entirely on what V8 Supercars motives are.

Only time will tell.

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knocking on the door

what does it take to reach formula one? mat coch spoke with mclaren’s reserve driver stoffel vandoorne.

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limbing the motorsport ladder to Formula One is a precarious task. Hopefuls first and foremost must have the talent and ability, but there are financial and logistical hurdles, among others, thrown in their path just to complicate matters.

It’s why development programmes are so important to youngsters.

Not only does it relieve the financial and logistical pressures it’s also an endorsement that a top flight organisation has the faith in your ability to compete at a world class level.

Most top level teams

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have their own systems.

Red Bull’s is perhaps the most famous, and most brutal, but Ferrari and McLaren also have programmes in place. Jules Bianchi was a product of the Ferrari academy, while Lewis Hamilton was a graduate of McLaren’s system.

The principal behind each however is the same – to identify talented young drivers

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and groom them into potential grand prix winners. Red Bull has demonstrated that well with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, while the promotion of Daniil Kvyat shows its faith in the programme, but one could argue McLaren’s is rather more successful.

On one side of the Red Bull equation you have the race winners, Vettel and Ricciardo, but the other side of the ledger

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is a litany of talented youngsters who were dumped without a second thought. Christian Klien was the first, then Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed, Sebastian Bourdais, Jaimie Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and now Jean-Eric Vergne.

At McLaren meanwhile just two drivers have graduated; Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen.

Stoffel Vandoorne is the programmes next

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graduate in waiting.

A 22-year-old Belgian, Vandoorne was picked up by the team in 2013 following a strong career in karting. Introduced to McLaren’s head of communications by Alex Wurz, Vandoorne was subsequently was taken under the wing of Sam Michael and Martin Whitmarsh and was promoted to reserve driver in 2014, a position he’ll hand back to Magnussen for 2015.

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As reserve driver, Vandoorne’s role was more than just being on hand should one of the race drivers fall ill.

“I do a lot of work in the simulator,” Vandoorne begins. “I also prepare the start setups for the weekend. So it’s helpful to get drivers in the simulator to get the start setup for the weekend.”

The youngster is also involved in technical debriefs, though remains

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a silent observer for much of the discussion. It provides him with good experience he reasons, as the way a Formula One team works is markedly different to any feeder series, and according to Vandoorne that is the big difference.

“The actual driving is pretty similar,” he explains. “All the talented drivers, they can drive a Formula One car, “It’s just a few more

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buttons on the steering wheel that you have to adjust but you get fairly quickly used to that.

“In a GP2 team you’re working with 10 people, you can have a really close relationship with everybody,” he adds. “In a Formula One team there’s 600 people behind you, it’s a whole different way of working.

“In GP2 we’re all sitting together and really chatting face to face whilst

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column / News / Feature / Report here in a Formula One team we’re over the radio, there is a couple of hundred people listening at the factory as well.”

Vandoorne is highly thought of at McLaren.

When he joined the squad he began producing technical reports from all his races, without being asked, a practice which has endeared him to engineering staff.

“It’s just to make sure that you’re fully focussed on the job,” he says, playing down his unique approach.

“You want to let them know what was wrong with the car so they can have a think about that.

I give my opinions about everything and then we just discuss it through there.

“It’s always nice to send your reports when you’ve won a race, but you have to in the bad races as well. I think it’s even more important during the bad races just to keep everybody motivated in the team.”

Vandoorne can produce those reports because of a strong enducation.

Most youngs drivers are forced to sacrifice their education in pursuit of motor racing, but Vandoorne was adament that he complete his as best he could.

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“During my karting days I was quite a lot out of school because for a karting race we had to leave on the Tuesday or Wednesday.

“I would say to everybody to keep going to school because you have to learn something because doing only karting and only doing racing, it’s not a guarantee you’re ever going to get there,” Vandoorne reasons.

“I went to school until I was 18 and then I stopped for racing,” he adds. “I was good at school actually!”

Vandoorne’s point on education is important, as even though he sits on the reserves bench at McLaren even now there are no guarnatees he’ll ever race at the top level. He has a contract with the squad and continues competing in GP2, but timing as much as talent will decide his future from this point on.

The arrival of Fernando Alonso and demotion of Magnussen has pushed Vandoorne, fast approaching his 23rd birthday, down the pecking order. Logic suggests when Alonso or Button move on it will be Magnussen who is promoted back to a race seat, meaning Vandoorne could be into his late 20s

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by the time McLaren has a race seat on offer. By then he will no longer be the hot young driver he is now, just ask Alex Rossi, no matter what success he gains in the junior formulae.

The collapse of Marussia, which had a technical relationship with McLaren, closed another door. A number of development programmes have placed aspiring drivers with lesser teams

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to boost their experience – Daniel Ricciardo spent time at HRT before Toro Rosso, while Bianchi was placed at Marussia as he was being guided towards a Ferrari seat.

“At the moment I don’t know,” shrugs Vandoorne when asked what his future looks like.

“There’s no guarantees in motorsport. It’s the same for everybody.

“My management is talking with McLaren about

formula one

opportunities,” he adds.

“It’s an ongoing discussion at the moment and we’ll see what comes out of it.

“I’m contracted to McLaren, and I’m very happy here,” he adds.

“They’ve supported me really well in my junior career and hopefully they’ll be able to get me into Formula One!”

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V8 supercars

red flag to a

T

wo wins for Jamie Whincup saw the 2014 champ round the year out in style, though red flags in the final two races of the year saw it end on a slightly sour note. Storms had been expected throughout the

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weekend, the Sydney weather having been hot and humid before turning into thunderstorms in the afternoon for the week leading up to the event, and they duly arrived.

Qualifying was dry, with Will Davison taking a

surprise pole when the red flag was shown for Craig Lowndes and Marcos Ambrose, the pair having found the wall on the outside of turn five.

While Ambrose was able to get back out, Lowdes’ session was over.

The red flag came

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column / News / Feature / Report

V8 supercars

a bull

at the wrong time for the HRT pair of Garth Tander and James Courtney, the pair just seconds away from improving their times as the red flag was shown.

Instead they were well down the order when the opening race got under

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way.

A good start from Whincup saw him move into the lead from the start only to lose out to Tim Slade in the opening round of stops.

Mark Winterbottom’s hopes for second place in the championship

took a knock when he crashed out early. Unable to slow the car into the first turn, the Falcon became trapped under the tyre barrier on lap 11, drawing the safety car and providing Slade his opportunity to take the lead. A second safety

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column / News / Feature / Report car was called when Todd Kelly found the same barrier as Winterbottom, tagging Scott Pye as he recovered.

Whincup found a way back to the lead on lap 26, demoting Slade to second with David Reynolds third.

The Red Bull driver backed up his opening race success with victory in the second as heavy rain forced officials to show the red flag.

Rain and dark clouds turned what should have been an afternoon race into a twilight event, with headlights blazing as conditions deteriorated.

Scheduled for 30, the race was called after just 18 laps, moments after much of the field elected to stop for tyres.

Whincup moved into the lead at the start, beating polesitter Jason Bright to the first corner after slipstreaming Shane Van Gisbergen off the line. For the most part that was the race as it was suspended due to weather before the field pottered around behind the safety car for a handful of laps before time eventually ran out.

Conditions improved overnight, with drivers again qualifying in the dry ahead of the final race which saw Shane Van Gisbergen quickest

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race 1 result P

Driver

V8 supercars team

time

1

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

1:01:50.638

2

Tim Slade

Supercheap Auto

+ 3.109

3

David Reynolds

Bottle-O Racing

+ 5.469

4

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

+ 9.448

5

Rick Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 10.605

6

Shane Van Gisbergen

Tekno VIP Petfoods

+ 11.822

7

David Wall

Wilson Security Racing

+ 16.478

8

Fabian Coulthard

Lockwood Racing

+ 17.358

9

Jason Bright

Team BOC

+ 18.423

10

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

+ 19.507

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V8 supercars

race 2 result P

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Driver

team

time

1

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

1:05:51.198

2

Shane Van Gisbergen

Tekno VIP Petfoods

+ 0.782

3

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

+ 1.325

4

Jason Bright

Team BOC

+ 2.009

5

Mark Winterbottom

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

+ 2.827

6

James Courtney

Holden Racing Team

+ 3.699

7

Tim Slade

Supercheap Auto

+ 4.103

8

Michael Caruso

Norton Hornets

+ 4.567

9

Scott Pye

Wilson Security Racing

+ 7.232

10

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

+ 8.429

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heading into the Top 10 Shootout. It was Scott McLaughlin though who was fastest following the one-lap hit out while both Whincup and Reynolds skipped the first chicane and had their times wiped as a result.

McLaughlin’s pole was his tenth of the season, the most of any driver,

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and meant for the first time in a generation Ford failed to qualify fastest at any point throughout the campaign.

Van Gisbergen though wasn’t to be denied, surging into the lead early in the race before Garth Tander used strategy to scramble past in the final round of pit

V8 supercars

stops.

As rain again began to fall Van Gisbergen, like most of the field, opted for a reasonably conservative strategy and stopped early whereas Tander, who had run second despite leading in the opening two laps, stayed out for another two laps. Conditions were

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borderline, but proved still dry on most of the circuit for slick tyres.

His change was timed perfectly, emerging from the pits in the lead. Van Gisbergen was in no mood to play second fiddle however, and began attacking the back of the HRT driver. Under pressure, Tander finally made

race 3 result P

Driver

V8 supercars

a mistake, skating into the escape road at turn ten just as the safety car boards were shown, gifting Van Gisbergen the lead and, as it would transpire, the race.

As they had on Saturday afternoon, officials hung the red flag before eventually abandoning the race as lightning

team

time

1

Shane Van Gisbergen

Tekno VIP Petfoods

1:14:50.042

2

Garth Tander

Holden Racing Team

3

James Courtney

4

splintered the sky, cutting the television broadcast and forcing spectators to run for cover.

The end of the season then was rather anticlimactic, though all agreed it was the only option available to organisers as conditions went from bad to simply dangerous.

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Jamie Whincup

+ 1.816

2

S Van Gisbergen

2781

Holden Racing Team

+ 5.288

3

Mark Winterbottom

2768

Jamie Whincup

Red Bull Racing

+ 6.246

4

Craig Lowndes

2659

5

Chaz Mostert

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

+ 7.598

5

Scott McLaughlin

2509

6

Tim Slade

Supercheap Auto

+ 9.273

6

James Courtney

2489

7

Rick Kelly

Jack Daniel’s Racing

+ 10.614

7

Chaz Mostert

2451

8

Scott McLaughlin

Valvoline Racing GRM

+ 12.090

8

Fabian Coulthard

2443

9

Jason Bright

Team BOC

+ 12.803

9

Garth Tander

2289

10

Will Davison

Erebus Motorsport

+ 13.700

10

Michael Caruso

1939

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3364

47

column / News / Feature / Report

V8 supercars

smoke on the water

T

hrough two carnage filled races, Cameron Walters emerged the best of the Dunlop Series drivers as in the final round of the season at Sydney Olympic Park.

By racing ahead of the melee, Waters kept his nose clean to win the second race of the weekend, missing out on the first race when newly crowned champion Paul Dumbrell took the spoils.

A start line crash in the opening race saw Brett Hobson fire into the pit wall as the pack bunched courtesy of a slow starting Ash Walsh.

Walsh recovered however and menaced Dumbrell early while a strong start from Aaren Russell saw the Novacastrian driver rise to

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third.

But for Walsh, who had ended the opening lap in 13th, was handed a pit lane penalty mid-race after contact with Ant Pedersen. Formula Ford graduate James Golding also had contact, as did Garry Jacobson in the third Eggleston car.

Out front positions remained static, with Dumbrell winning over Waters and Russell third.

That would be as good as Dumbrell’s weekend got, the former Bathurst winner spun out of contention in the second race at the first turn.

A slow start from Andre Heimgartner saw the Kiwi get into the back of Dumbrell as the field poured into the first turn, spinning Dumbrell who was then tagged by the

unsighted Golding.

The incident moved Russell into second behind Waters and also led to the safety car being called. Soon after the restart Taz Douglas found the wall, with help from Walsh, before Petersen collected the rear of Douglas’ stricken car. Within four laps two of Eggleston’s cars had been eliminated.

The trifecta was complete with just one lap remaining when Jacobson also found the wall while Waters held on to win ahead of Russell and Andrew Jones. A pit lane penalty for Walsh, thanks to his part in the Douglas incident, saw him drop to 11th by the finish, which also dropped him behind Waters in the championship standings.

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V8 supercars

walton waltzes to title

K

ris Walton claimed his first ever V8 Utes Series Championship after a lights-to-flag victory at the season ending Sydney 500.

Needing just two points heading into the second race of the weekend, Walton lead every lap from the start before being handed a five second penalty for a jump start post-race.

It demoted the points leader from first to sixth, promoting Elliot Barbour to the win, though still proved enough for

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Walton to claim the championship.

He’d thrown away an opportunity the previous day. A feisty opening lap saw Walton just 13th after qualifying second fastest, recovering to seventh, only to drop back to 10th by the flag after getting caught up at the penultimate corner.

Avoiding the carnage, Ryal Harris won ahead of Rhys McNally with Ryan Hansford third.

Behind Barbour was Michael Almond in the second race with Andrew Fisher third before Harris

backed up his opening race performance with another victory in the third. McNally was second again while Barbour dropped to third.

Ryan Simpson performed a clean sweep of the three V8 Touring Car races, the Falcon driver holding out former development series racer Drew Russell in the opening race with Matt Chahda third. Russell was also second in both races two and three while Tony Evangelou pipped Chahda to third in race two.

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column / News / Feature / Report

formula e

Buemi charges thr S

ebastien Buemi claimed victory at the third round of the Formula E championship at Punta Del Este, Uruguay.

The Swiss driver was engaged in a battle for the lead with fellow-Toro Rosso refugee Jean-Eric Vergne, who was making his debut in the series, before crashing out with two laps remaining, handing the win to Buemi.

Vergne had started on pole, though a poor start, caused by starting from the dirty side of the track, saw him drop behind Nelson Piquet Jnr. A tight tussle then ensued as Vergne swarmed the back of Piquet’s car, though around the twisty street circuit was unable to find a way through.

The change eventually happened on lap 13 only for Vergne to dive into the pits for a change of car soon after. Shortly after his return to track the safety car emerged when Stephane Sarrazin crashed out after hitting

50

the kerbs at the back chicane.

Misfortune for Vergne proved a stroke of luck for Bruno Senna, who’d clouted the wall while avoiding the Sarrazin incident and damaged the rear suspension.

Senna limped the car back to the pit lane, swapped to his secon car and rejoined the race.

With Vergne limited to safety car speeds, and having completed his stop under green flag conditions, it gave the rest of the field the advantage.

Nick Heidfeld emerging in the lead with Buemi second, demoting Vergne to third.

Heidfeld’s time out front would be short, the German penalised for spending too little time in the pits. It promoted Buemi into the lead with Vergne second, while a fast recovering Piquet moved into third.

Further back Matthew Brabham was making

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rough

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formula e

51

column / News / Feature / Report

strong progress. After starting 20th he’d moved up to 15th by lap 6 and ran inside the top 10 in the closing stages when he spun out at the same point as Sarrazin had earlier. It ended a strong race for the Andretti driver, and drew the safety car for the second time.

Any concerns drivers had over power conservation were thrown out of

52

the window, a relief for Vergne who’d used far more power than those around him. It made for a straight two-lap dash to the finish while Vergne had the advantage of the FanBoost, which he used at the restart in an effort to attack Buemi for the lead.

The pair ran off at the first chicane, maintaining their position at the head of the race. Vergne

formula e

looked set to seize the lead further around the lap before a suspension failure ended his charge a lap and a half from home.

It gave Buemi the upper hand, and though Piquet closed the gap he was unable to close enough to attack before the flag while championship leader Lucas Di Grassi, quietly climbed through the field, in third place.

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race result P

Driver

team

formula e

time

1

Sebastien Buemi

e.dams-Renault

49:08.990

2

Nelson Piquet Jnr

China Racing

3

Lucas Di Grassi

4

Championship P

Driver

Pts

1

Lucas Di Grassi

+ 0.732

2

Sebastien Buemi

40

Audi Sport ABT

+ 2.365

3

Sam Bird

40

Jarno Trulli

Trulli

+ 4.163

4

Nicolas Prost

24

5

Jamie Alguersuari

Virgin Racing

+ 4.698

5

Nelson Piquet Jnr

22

6

Bruno Senna

Mahindra Racing

+ 5.197

6

Jerome d’Ambrosio

22

7

Nicolas Prost

e.dams-Renault

+ 6.514

7

Franck Montagny

18

8

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Dragon Racing

+ 7.567

8

Karun Chandhok

18

9

Oriol Servia

Dragon Racing

+ 8.646

9

Jamie Alguersuari

14

10

Nick Heidfeld

Venturi

+ 10.563

10

Oriol Servia

14

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Champion of Ch race of champions

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hampions T

he form driver of the weekend, David Coulthard became Champion of Champions after defeating Mercedes F1 reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein in the Race of Champions final. It was the second time Coulthard had reached the final, having lost out to Sebastian Loeb at

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Wembley in 2008.

Coulthard, a 13-time Formula One Grand Prix winner, easily won the opening heat at the wheel of a KTM X-Bow before lining up against Wherlein in an Ariel Atom for the second heat. Coulthard again had the advantage though Wehrlein pushed hard on the final

55

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lap to draw level at the penultimate turn, only to have a wild slide and lose momentum. Playing catch up heading into the final corner the German pushed too hard again, understeering into the gravel to hand Coulthard his first Champion of Champions title.

Jamie Whincup had reached the semi-final stages, though lost out to

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Coulthard while Australia’s other representative, Mick Doohan, failed to progress from the group stages. Reigning champion Romain Grosjean was also knocked out in the group stages.

A day earlier Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg won the Nations Cup after defeating Team GBs Coulthard and Susie Wolff.

The Nordic pair progressed to the final with four wins in the group stage though Romain Grosjean pushed Solberg hard in the semis to force a deciding heat.

Kristensen though had the Frenchman covered to progress to the final.

Team Australia, represented by Doohan and Whincup, were eliminated in the group stages with

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just one point. Doohan failed to trouble the scorers in his three races while Whincup salvaged a single point by beating Team Barbados’ Rhett Watson by 2.8s in an Ariel Atom.

Barbados was a surprise package as Dane Skeete and Watson made it through to the semi-finals where they met Team GB. Skeete held off Wolff

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in the opening heat in an Audi R8 before Coulthard beat Watson in the second to set up a decider, Coulthard holding on over Skeete after the local spun at the first turn heading into the second lap.

Wolff lost again in the first final, Kristensen winning by more than four seconds. Coulthard then provided the upset of the

event by beating Solberg, the reigning World RallyX world champion, at the wheel of a RallyX VW Polo. It set up a winnertakes-all finale between Coulthard and Kristensen in Ariel Atom, with Coulthard ahead heading into the final turn before finding the gravel. It left Kristensen to cruise to an unopposed win for Team Nordic.

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Tweedie bounces b

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back

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F

ormer Australian Formula 3 driver Tom Tweedie has claimed two wins in the second Australian round of the MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Revival Series at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Tweedie bounced back from a suspension failure in qualifying that ended his day at turn one, racing back through the field on Sunday morning to win before backing up the feat in the afternoon race.

New Zealander Clark Proctor won the opening race at a canter, cruising away from Steve Ross and Paul Zazryn.

With his Chevron repaired ahead of Sunday’s races, Tweedie charged from the rear of the grid to sit fifth at the end of the opening lap.

He then picked off a car a lap as he claimed the lead on lap six, going on to open a clear lead over Proctor who was second ahead of Zazryn third.

Rain delayed the start of the final race of the weekend, Tweedie again heading the field on the wet track once racing got underway. Proctor and Zazryn again made up the podium, Tweedie the better part of a lap ahead by the chequered flag.

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world endurance championship

Adelaide Destination Guide

From the Clipsal 500 to Barossa Valley

T

here are few things Adelaide does better than party. Indeed, there are few paces better at partying than Adelaide, and that means it’s a great place for a motor race.

The City of Churches

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has come alive every year since 1985 when it first hosted the Australian Grand Prix, and since then has built a reputation for putting on world class events with an unrivalled atmosphere. There are few circuits around

the world that boast the atmosphere Adelaide does during the Clipsal 500.

Adelaide is little more than a big small town.

It’s something locals are proud of as it retains the character of a city much

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smaller than it is. There are wide open streets throughout the city, around which the suburbs sprawl both north and south, both of which contain world renowned wine regions, with the eastern edge hemmed in by the

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hills.

The circuit itself sits on the eastern edge of the city, winding through the parklands which surround the South Australian capital, a kilometre of which is in Victoria Park racecourse. It’s an easy walk

world endurance championship

from the centre of town, meaning fans stay in the city can wander to the circuit each day or those staying further our can catch public transport – the tram from Glenelg is popular among the locals while Adelaide train

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station on North Terrace is about a kilometre from the track.

For most visitors from interstate, or even overseas, there would be no need to even get a hire car. Transport from the airport to the city is easy with much of the entertainment within the square mile CBD. Aside from the race the Barossa Valley, famous for its red wines, is an hour north with tour companies offering an array

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of options to sample South Australia’s finest.

It’s the easiest way to see the region, with the vineyards often a god distance apart, while allowing one to sample the produce.

Those wanting to stay in the Barossa could try Nuriootpa, Tanunda or Angaston, while Gawler is just a stone’s throw south of the valley itself.

There are some world class restaurants in the surrounding area.

formula e

South of Adelaide is the McLaren Vale, little more than an hour out of the city and about half way to Victor Harbour, a popular sea-side town with a relaxed café lifestyle. Both can be easily reached by car, or again there are tours available should one prefer to take the load off.

A little farther afield is Kangaroo Island, about 100km south of Adelaide just off the tip of Cape Jervis where a ferry can

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formula e

take passengers across.

Some 150km long and 90km wide visitors can enjoy the sites of Seal Bay or the Flinders Chase National Park. A car is the best way to get around the island, spending a few days to take in the sights of Kingscote, the island’s biggest town, and other townships.

From the Clipsal 500 to wine country, Adelaide has heaps to do, and it’s all on your doorstep.

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We saw a new Lewis Hamilton in 2014, turning a weakness into a strength.

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coming attractions JANUARY 10 FORMULA E Argentina JANUARY 16 & 17 SPEEDWAY Scott Darley Challenge JANUARY 22 - 25 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Monte Carlo Rally JANUARY 23 - 25 SPEEDWAY Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic

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