Issue 7

velocity

issue Issue77- -april April2015 2015

motorsport magazine

williams back from the brink

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

the real deal

why shane van gisbergen will win at triple 8

world rx

inside the hottest new series

ALEX KELSEY

and the insane mc2 rally car

There were plenty of sparks on and off the track at the Australian GP.

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svg: the real deal

williams revival

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What’s going on at Williams? Two years ago it looked as though it might go the way of Brabham or Lotus (the real one), but now it’s knocking on the door most weekends.

Mat Coch looks at the revolution at Williams and how it refound its mojo.

world rx

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It’s fast, it’s brutal and it’s taking the motorsport world by storm. Rallycross may have been around for more than 30 years but it’s never been as popular as it is now. We check out why the category is growing so rapidly.

alex kelsey

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From his mind, to the rally stages of New Zealand, Alex Kelsey’s MC2 is a monster of a machine. With French racing pedigree the compact machine boasts a better power-to-weight ration than a WRC car. We sent Dewi Jones to find out more.

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The regulars

Editorial Editor Mat Coch

mat coch

Embroiled in controversy, Mat believes the mess that surrounded Sauber at the start of the Formula One season will prove important in the years ahead.

Photographer John Morris

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Mike Lawrence

Brabham won the 1967 championship with a crew that could be counted on one hand where today teams employ hundreds. Mike looks at the then and now.

nuts & bolts

V8 SUPERCARS Symmons Plains Albert Park

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MOTOGP Qatar

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FORMULA ONE Malaysian Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix

Social Media

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NASCAR Monthly Wrap

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WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Rally Mexico

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INDYCAR St Petersburgh

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STATE RACING Queensland

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Production Publisher Grand Prix Media

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

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facebook.com/ velocitymagazine Acknowledgements Richard Craill, Jess Dane, Roland Dane, Steve Hallam, Dewi Jones, Iwan Jones, Alex Kelsey, Chris Lambden, Mike Lawrence, Georgia Lewis, John Morris, Daniel Pauperis, Caroline Reid, Keith Sutton, Christian Sylt, Shane Van Gisbergen.

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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column / News / Feature / Report OPinion

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Mat Coch

hat Giedo van der Garde did ahead of the Australian Grand Prix was perhaps the most noble thing I’ve seen in motorsport. Yes, okay it was fuelled by self interests and a large sum of money but the legacy it will leave is important.

Van der Garde had a contract with Sauber to drive in 2015. He brought with him funding, which the team will have accepted with open pockets. The problem was other drivers had more money, and were willing to pay it upfront, and so the Dutchman was dumped. Such are the harsh realities in Formula One; as Mike Lawrence has often written, always follow the money.

The basics of the Sauber story all happened towards the end of 2014.

Things quietly bubbled away below the surface until the days leading up to the Australian Grand Prix when van der Garde took Sauber to court.

Where he won. Twice.

That though is largely irrelevant, the fact is van der Garde stood up to

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An important prec the team. It’s the first time I can think of where a driver has legally challenged a a team.

For years drivers have been bullied, scared of rocking the boat and being tipped out. There

are scraps of drivers littering the sides of race tracks around the world who have simply been played as a card in a bigger game of motorsport poker. Perhaps a prospective driver with

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cedent the right sized wallet would get a test, or a pair of overalls and branded a development driver before being cut loose when the money died up.

Van der Garde’s case

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has made him unemployable. No right minded team principal would hire him after taking Sauber to court, though one suspects that doesn’t bother him too much. What mattered was the principle.

Geido has made teams think very carefully about the contracts they sign and how they go about ending them, and in years to come drivers can thanks Geido for that small justuce.

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mike lawrence

photograph in a magazine caught my eye. It was taken in 1967 and showed the entire Brabham team which had just delivered back-to-back driver and constructor World Championships.

There was Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme, the drivers. There was Ron Tauranac, Jack’s partner, and the Chief Designer of Brabham cars together with Mike Hillman. Mike, who went on to be Vice President in charge of Product Development at Harley Davison once modestly told me, ‘For seven years, I was Ron’s pencil.’

Next to Mike was John Judd who was number two to Phil Irving on the design of the Repco engine. Irving had made his name designing engines for Vincent HRD motorcycles and he was absent since he was a freelance. John Judd, however, had been retained and Jack Brabham set him up in Engine Developments

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which eventually became known as Judd when Jack bowed out. Judd has made major league engines on its own behalf and also for the like of Honda and Yamaha.

So far I have mentioned five people, which is half of the total for there were also five mechanics. Get this, five mechanics to run a team that won F1 championships. Among them were Nick Goozee, who went on to run Penske’s UK branch, the branch which designed and built Roger Penske’s Indycars. There is also Neil Trundle and Ron Dennis, who went on to found Rondel Racing (and built an F1 car). On his own, Ron took over, and expanded McLaren, and Neil designed the first McLaren factory in Woking.

My apologies to the two guys in the picture whose names I do not know. The point is that there are only ten men in the photo, including the drivers.

Before the 2015 Australian GP a dispute involving Sauber and a driver was heard in a Melbourne court. Sauber argued that if it kept its promise to Giedo van der Garde, such are the complicated finances in

Image: Phipps/Suttons

now and t F1 today, it would put more than 300 jobs at risk and Sauber is not a big money team.

Brabham won its championships before commercial sponsorship though there was trade support from oil and tyre companies and teams negotiated appearance money. Jack and Denny supplemented their incomes through competing in other categories, something a modern F1 driver is rarely allowed to do, Like many teams, Sauber depends on the

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then... money drivers can bring from sponsors and it appears van der Garde could not stump up enough. A handful of top drivers are paid big money, many have to find the sponsorship to pay their own wages.

I do not want to make some cheap point about numbers of employees.

Consider aviation, during WWII the RAF laid down a list of specifications and commissioned the American company, North American, to meet its requirements. From first mark of a pencil to first

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flight took just 109 days and the plane was the P51 Mustang, one of the greatest fighter aircraft ever.

Aircraft are considerably more complicated today and so are Formula One cars; it is not possible to do a simple now and then comparison. There were only two Wright brothers, but you would not board a plane designed by two guys in a shed.

A current F1 car undergoes continuous development. The design staff is typically more

than a hundred strong.

It suggests modifications and new parts have to be made and tested, often in a wind tunnel.

Teams operate computing systems beyond the imagination of most of us and no F1 car is the same at the end of the season as it was at the beginning.

For those who love the simplicity of yesteryear, there is Historic racing, but the sport is not either/or and we can enjoy the best of the past with the best of the present.

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Craig Lowndes spins out of the final race of the Australian GP weekend.

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formula one

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formula one

back from the brink

from the back of the grid to potential winners, mat coch looks at the return to form of one of the sports greatest names

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t the culmination of the 2013 Formula One season Williams had managed just five points. It was the worst season in the once glorious teams long history; the world championships of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve were but a

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distant memory. Not only was it struggling on track but it was feeling the pinch of it too.

Its cars were bereft of sponsors, only Pastor Maldonado’s backing keeping the team alive.

In 2011 the team was floated on Frankfurt’s junior stock exchange. It was a bold move which

formula one

laid the teams finances on the table for the world to see. It was also the beginning of Williams’ return to glory, according to deputy team boss Claire Williams.

“I was always quite doubtful about floating the business,” she revealed recently. “I was thinking ‘how will this

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actually work after years of Frank and Patrick?’

Actually it works so much better for us because Formula One doesn’t necessarily have that transparency across the board.”

If floating the team gave it the transparecy it needed in the business world it was signing

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a deal with Mercedes that gave it the edge on track. In 2014 the Mercedes engine was the one to have, while a fundamentally good car allowed Williams to enjoy its best season since 2003. There were nine podiums throughout the season, and in Austria the squad locked out the

formula one

front row.

“When I arrived at Williams, I spent the first period of time just watching,” explained technical director Pat Symonds. “I could feel the panic in this team. They felt that everything would work out fine if they could screw enough new parts onto the car. Which is

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column / News / Feature / Report obviously not the case.”

Symonds joined the team in July 2013 from Marussia, where he’d been employed as a consultant. It was his first job back in Formula One following his part in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix controversy, before which he’d worked with Benetton and then Renault during their championship winning campaigns.

“When people talk of a ‘miracle’, I say that it is just honest and logical engineering,” Symonds reasons.

“The good news for Williams is the quality of the people. They knew how to do it, just not what they should be doing. This has made my job easy. We have not flooded the company with highly paid celebrity designers, but fixed weaknesses here and there or strengthened some departments. We have managed to get more from the people who were already here.

“It was incredible. When I arrived, there was no confidence in the team.

That is why they had all the panic reactions.”

The transformation has seen the team emerge as one of three contenders behind Mercedes, with many observers believe it’s a matter of

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formula one

time before the Grove squad wins another race.

“In winter testing the car was reliable, the whole way,” said Valtteri Bottas, the man team founder Frank Williams believes to be a future world champion. “The car is feeling good.”

There are positive signs off track too. Ahead of the 2014 season a deal was signed with Martini and has since secured more backing worth an estimated $70million. It’s given the team comfort that it isn’t living hand to mouth, nor the need to rely on pay drivers to top up its budget. Coupled with Symond’s leadership and the Mercedes engine, Williams has begun to look like the team which dominated the 1990s.

But there is still ground to be made up, most notably to the Mercedes factory team which dominated 2014 and has shown every sign of repeating that feat in 2015.

“I think it’s purely aerodynamics,” suggests Bottas as the reason Williams trails Mercedes.

“They have more downforce than us meaning they can do the corners in higher speeds. We are still quick in a straight line but that is our area that we improved from

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last year, and we’re going to keep pushing on that.”

“I call this year a consolidation year because what’s really important after a season like ‘14, where we really did tip things on their head and got it all working, we need to make sure we keep it like that,” explained Symonds.

“It was so important

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last year to just get a few points every race, just keep momentum. I feel we can now recover well from any situation. So if we do take a slightly risky strategy and it doesn’t come off we’ll still be OK, it won’t be a disaster. I have very firm rules of how I do risk assessment so I think we’ll be OK and if we have potential in the car

formula one

we’ll certainly do what we can to challenge.

“In terms of racing I’m really pleased with the way the race team grew with time. There’s still a bit of a need to convince them they’re winners, and that’s a very important attitude. If you don’t go into a race thinking you can win you don’t win, simple as that.”

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v8 supercars

real deal

shane van gisbergen

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Following his move to Triple 8 for 2016, Mat Coch caught up with the Shane Van Gisbergen and his new boss to find out why he’s the man of the moment.

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his time next year he’ll be the third prong on the Triple 8 trident, the youngest of a triumvirate of drivers and the one trusted to drive the future of the all-conquering Red Bull Racing juggernaut. Shane Van Gisbergen’s future is very, very bright.

Since debuting in V8 Supercars as a teenager, Van Gisbergen has gradually worked his way forward to become the man many tip as the sports next big thing.

He’s already emerged as a race winner and championship contender.

He makes very few mistakes while capitalising on the opportunities he has been afforded.

What he has achieved with the single-car Tekno team is remarkable; in many instances being the fastest Triple 8 built car on track. Making the most of his equipment and opportunities is, to Van Gisbergen, the most important thing. He doesn’t covet success in traditional terms, he sees success as continual self-improvement.

“As long as you go out and you’re prepared the best you can and get the best result and you’ve done the best you can then you’re happy,” he reasons.

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Of course the next logical step is championship success. He’s won races, had pole positions and proved he’s the best driver on the grid in wet conditions. Combined, those feats build into a championship assault.

“I guess so,” comes the response when asked if the championship is his target this year. “But you can kind of put expectations on yourself and go

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backwards, which I’ve kind of done in the past.”

Since joining Tekno at the beginning of the 2013 season Van Gisbergen has been gradually chipping away, refining himself and the car to the point where he is now a consistent threat at the head of a race.

Stability has been the key, he says, pointing at the fact he’s had the same car throughout his

v8 supercars

tenure.

“Especially the last half of last year we just got better at all the different types of tracks as well,” he explains. “Whereas we used to only be good on street circuits and mediocre on the rest we improved it all. We’ve just got to try and keep it going.”

His growing maturity caught the eye of Roland Dane who sees the

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young Kiwi as heir-apparent to Craig Lowndes’ throne.

“The guy is exceptionally talented,” Dane enthused.

“He’s the real deal.

“He’s got very natural seat of the pants talent in a Craig sort of style, but he’s also refined it over the last couple of years especially.”

Van Gisbergen’s decision to move to Triple 8 for 2016 came as a

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surprise when it was announced in the week following Clipsal. The 25-year-old seemed at home at Tekno, comfortable in a smaller team and more than capable of stringing together strong results. Dane however suggests it was never a relationship that was going to last as some of the bigger, better funded teams came knocking. Triple 8 was

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simply the first.

“We wanted to take a step. Jamie [Whincup] is 8 years or so younger than Craig, we wanted to take another step of similar size for a future driver,” explained the Red Bull boss. “[Shane] fits the bill in all sorts of ways that we want in the extent that we didn’t look at anyone else and just asked him if he wanted to do it

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and he said yes. It was very easy thing to put together.”

The move will likely curtail at least some of Van Gisbergen’s extracurricular activities. A passionate racer, one of the qualities that endeared him to Dane, he has deep desires to continue racing in categories as diverse as Formula Drift and GT3 racing in Europe or the

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States. He took part in the Daytona 24hrs this year, and eyes a start at Le Mans in future too - a recent deal with the factory McLaren team taking him a step closer to realising that.

It remains to be seen whether The Giz finds Triple 8 and the commitments it places on its drivers constricting. There is no doubt he’s got the pace in the car but it

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remains no secret that he is less enthused by the media attention and responsibilities. Managing those, for Triple 8, will be the key to his success. If it can keep Van Gisbergen happy that there is little doubt that the Red Bull squad will have three of the fastest drivers on the 2016 V8 Supercars grid.

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racing reality from the minds of television producers to global phenomenon. rallycross is taking off.

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ew positives have ever come from reality television.

It’s given us a neverending conveyer belt of cookie-cut pop stars and bored us senseless with the mind numbing inaneness that was Big Brother, but there is one saving grave. Rallycross.

If touring car racing and rallying were ever to

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come together, rallycross would be its offspring.

Fast, frenetic and packed full of door banging action, it’s an intense form of motor racing that is growing in popularity thanks to the initiation of the World RX. Rallycross can trace its roots back to the late 1960s when the World of Sports television

programme pitted two rally drivers against one another around a combined tar and dirt track at Lydden Circuit in the UK. Another, demonstration event soon followed, and two more thereafter before by September 1968 the first Rallycross Championship was held.

It wasn’t long before it caught on at other

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video: 2014 Highlights

circuits, while the Dutch quickly developed their own version.

Australia saw its first rallycross event in 1969 in Leppington, on the outskirts of Sydney, with Catalina Park and Calder Park both hosting events during the 1970s. A frequent competitor was a young Peter Brock who competed as part of the

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Holden Dealer Team for Harry Firth, though the only Australian Rallycross Championship was won

by Larry Perkins at the wheel of a Volkswagen Beetle in 1979. By the 1980s rally cross had faded from the Australian motorsport scene.

It was only in 2010, when rallycross was added to X GAMES 16,

that America became interested in the sport.

With Tanner Foust, Ken Block and former world rally champion Marcus Gronholm taking part interest in the series grew stateside, planting the seeds for future growth.

In Europe the 40th anniversary of the European Rallycross Championship

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in 2013 saw the series given a makeover and rebranded RX before promoters expanded it to a world championship in 2014.

Boasting rally cars on steroids, a World RX Supercar can accelerate from 0-60mph in less than two seconds, figures that leave event the most exotic of production

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supercars red faced. With no driver aids allowed, and in the region of 600bhp under their right foot, drivers are kept busy.

At a Wrold RX event qualifying heats lead into semi finals and a final.

Each driver takes to the track for four qualifying heats, scoring points based on their finishing

position. Those dictate the 12 drivers who progress to the semi finals, with the fastest three cars from each race graduating to the final proper.

Spread across three continents the series generated close racing and unpredictable outcomes thanks to the joker lap - a seperate seciton of

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track all drivers have to use once a lap. With jumps and hairpins too it ensured plenty of chaosand some expensive repairs bills for the $500,0000 supercars.

The inaugural season attracted a host of well known identities such as former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, rally drivers

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Ken Block and Tanner Foust and Indycar driver Patrick Carpantier. They were headlined by former world rally champion Petter Solberg, who won the inaugural season in his Citroen DS3.

The series returns for 2015, kicking off later this month with the opening round of the 2016 season tipped to be held

in Melbourne next February - an event likely to mark the end of the reincarnated Australian Rallycross championship.

Set to be announced later this month, it’s expected Australia will have a seven round series starting later this year. With rallycross popular globally, it stands to be a raging success.

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giant killer

he’s created one of the most unique rally cars in the world. iwan jones caught up with alex kelsey to discuss his monumental mc2.

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n o i t c a n i 2 C v i d eo: M

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or two years Alex Kelsey toiled in his barn, determined to build the mother, father and estranged cousin of all rally cars.

What he came up with is more powerful than the Volkswagen Polo campaigned by world rally champio Sebastien Ogier, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Kelsey began rallying while still on his learners

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license at age 15, following a junior career in karting, and won his first round of the New Zealand Rally Championship at age 19. He built his first rally car, a Subaru, while at high school before soon deciding he needed something more.

“It got a bit boring and I felt like it was time for a change.”

The change came in the form of his Formula

One sounding machine dubbed the Mad Creation 2, a Peugeot 207 shell with some heavily fettered innards.

“The World Series Renault 3.5 had just changed from the V6 engine that is in my car to a V8, so there was 40 of these engines and I found where they’d gone and made an offer. It is an awesome engine for the car.

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“It took me six months to do the design work before we even started on Solid Works, a 3D design software program, and then I could start getting all the certifications to make it road legal.”

Kelsey, who built the car in his his family’s Coromandel barn, said it even has an Australian connection.

“I then built a steel table

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and then I got the road car from the wreckers in Brisbane and got to work building the rally car from scratch.”

Such a mammoth project was too much for Kelsey alone, with friends drafted in to help in some of the more difficult aspects of the build.

“A friend of mine called Dan Slater he helped me build the chassis and helped with fabrication,

that was a two man job. Another friend of mine called Bryan Hayton, we crafted the body and did the carbon work together.”

The result is a car that can accelerate to 200km/h in just seven seconds, and boasts a better power-to-weight ratio than a factory built WRC car.

“It features a SADEV gear box made in

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France, a home-made pedal shifter, a diff in the front, a diff in the back.

[It] works really well.

“I also made my own shock absorbers.”

Kelsey also shared his thoughts on driving the car.

“It is quite amazing to drive,” he smiled. “You can’t really describe it in words, it is awesome.

“It has heaps of power and it is so well-balanced all the weight is right in the center of the car on the floor.

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“The biggest highlight for me has been completing this car and putting it into gear for the first time and driving it out of the barn, it was pretty awesome.

“It was a huge project, it was two years in total and it is nice to have a life back!”

While Kelsey is glad to be taking part in the NZRC, he is uncertain about his WRC aspirations.

“Im not so sure, at the end of the day it is my

hobby and at that level I don’t think I would get enough enjoyment as much as I do with the rallies around here with my friends and family.

“I’m quite happy doing what I’m doing.”

As well as the New Zealand Rally Championship, Kelsey plans on returning to Australian shores later in the year for the World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park.

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lowndes rules apple isl

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here was something in the water at Red Bull in Tasmania, particularly that of Craig Lowndes as the team dominated the weekend. Unusually it was Lowndes who was the key protagonist, in recent years it has generally been Jamie Whincup who has hogged the headlines,

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but Lowndes had a weekend at Symmons Plains like Mark Winterbottom had in Albert Park.

There was one mistake, tagging David Reynolds at the start of the third race, which really blotted his copy book. It was an unnecessary move, especially so at the beginning of a long race when

Lowndes has shown across the weekend that he had the fastest car.

There would have been other opportunities to find a way through, be that strategy or overtaking on track. The race could not be won at the first corner but, as Lowndes showed, it could certainly be lost.

His recovery drive was solid, but the fact of the

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matter is the car was better than fifth. He was some 23 seconds adrift of Whincup on Sunday afternoon, about the time it took to trundle down pit lane. Add in the time lost in traffic and Lowndes should have won.

That Reynolds was at the front to be involved in the clash is positive

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news for the Ford team.

It follows on from the non-championship round in Melbourne where Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert held a monopoly on the front two places.

The FG X has been well received, and it’s clear why with even Andre Heimgartner inside the top ten. The 19-yearold made his debut at

Symmons Plains but was immediately on the pace, which was an endorsement not just of the improvements in the FG X but also of Heimgartner’s potential.

More was expected from Scott McLaughlin and the whole GRM outfit.

Disappointing in Clipsal and Albert Park it was again less than sparkling

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in Tasmania. McLaughlin qualified poorly for the opening race and while things improved from there the squad is some way off even where it finished the 2014 season.

There are technical gremlins beginning to creep in, something most would have expected to happen last year rather than this, which are hurting the team and denting its confidence. The swagger the squad had is absent, and the frustrations understandably growing.

The weekend was a positive one for DJR Team Penske. While the results weren’t forth coming there were gains to be made by having Scott Pye in the car. Running at the bottom end of the top 20, as near as makes no difference to where Marcos Ambrose had been running in his races, it suggests the limitation is the car and not the driver. Strangely that will be positive news as it allows the team to focus on finding and resolving those problems and furthermore gives the team confidence in its drivers. Symmons Plains was the start of something for Penske, it’s now a case of watching it develop as the year unfolds.

Read the full race reports on our website.

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johnson masters symmons

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teven Johnson completed a clean sweep at Symmons Plains, claiming three victories, pole position and the lap record as he filled in for John Bowe.

On debut in the category, Johnson broke free of the chasing pack in the early stages the opening two races, lowering the lap record with a 56.82s in the first race.

The only hairy moment for the ex-V8 Supercar pilot occurred on the opening lap of race one, where Gavin Bullas almost took out both front-running Mustangs

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on cold brakes at turn four.

After taking second place in the opening race, Bullas suffered a mechanical issue mid-way through race two. The Victorian had been Johnson’s closest competitor.

Following an engine change on Saturday morning, championshipleader Andrew Miedecke started at the back of the pack in both races, picking his way through the field in the afternoon race after failing to finish the first heat with a distributor issue.

Johnson once again

hit turn one first on the opening lap of race three however ‘Mustang Sally’ was far from unchallenged as Greg Crick fought tooth and nail to put his Chrysler Charger in front.

Crick however was to be denied a popular victory in front of his home fans by just three tenths of a second. Cameron Tilley continued to impress in his head-turning Valiant Pacer – the New South Welshman seeing the chequered flag in third place to record his best result of the weekend.

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gowans the distance

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dam Gowans claimed the round win as Aussie Race Cars headed to Symmons Plains for round two of their championship.

The top five cars managed to pull away from the rest of the field in the opening race, Adam Uebergang, Gowans, Adrian Flack, Darren Chamberlin and Brendon Pingel climbing over each other with Uebergang and Gowans swapping the top spot multiple times over the course of the race. The final lap saw first place swap a couple times with Uebergang winning from Gowan’s by less than a tenth of a second.

Gowans romped away

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to win race two with an impressive gap to second placed Uebergang, who had to battle for second place from Chamberlin, Pingel and Flack with the foursome swapping positions lap after lap, Tony Quinn latched onto the group too, to finish up sixth.

A full reverse grid and handicapped event for race three made it tough for the front runners.

The eventual race winner was Ryan Cochran after a great battle with Kent Quinn, the weekend Cochran’s first in an Aussie Racing Car. Heading into the last race it left Gowans is on 148 Points with both Chamberlin and Uebergang on 145.

WA driver Greg Miskiewicz had a tough race after dicing with John Reynolds and Sean Rose which saw Miskiewicz’s bonnet smashed and lifting off the car towards the end of the race. Ben Walsh continued his good form in just his second ARC round to finish race four in sixth, one spot behind team mate Flack.

However, Gowans stamped his authority on the Symmons Plains round with a final victory, confirming his round win.

Uebergang and Chamberlin were second and third respectively, the trio finishing the round in that order.

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V8 supercars

perfect weekend for fro

F

ord fans rejoice.

The new FG X is a winner. Not only that, but it shows every sign of giving the blue oval a realistic chance of mixing it at the front of the V8 Supercar pack following a weekend

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of utter domination in Albert Park.

After the opening round of the season it looked as though it would be more of the same for the Ford teams; good on ocassion but ultimately lacking just that

final one percent verus when pit against Holden rivals. The aero tweaks made over the off-season though, and the new body, seem to have solved that.

Reassuring though is that Shane Van

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V8 supercars

osty

Gisbergen was there or thereabouts. The Ford’s where quick but not to the point where it will be a cakewalk. Whoever wins in 2015, be that a race, a round or the championship, will have earned it. The parity

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level among the different manufacturers looks now better than it ever has.

The difference will be how each different car adapts to each circuit and how each driver and engineer responds.

The difference between

getting it right and getting it wrong is incredibly small. There are big rewards should team hit the sweet spot, but fail to hit that target and it could be a frustrating weekend in the midfield.

While Ford clearly

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V8 supercars made a step there is still something lacking at Nissan. We know the Altima has pace, that was demonstrated both at the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park and again at Clipsal, and we know the drivers can steer the things pretty well, it’s just not rolling that together week-in, week-out. It’s a confidence thing as much as anything else, and self belief that the team is able of running at the front. That is something which is incredibly difficult to nurture, even the likes of Garry Rogers Motorsport and Tekno aren’t there just yet, but once they begin believing they can run at the front and win races the Nissan’s will become a stronger force. There is no strong technical reason as to why they’re not there now.

The non-championship Australian GP round gave us good insight, a glimpse into the coming year. The Ford’s are quick, but so too are the Holden’s. On their day the Volvo’s remain competitive and the Nissan camp just needs a little luck and confidence to take that final step forward.

Check out the full reports on the Velocity website.

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Image: Suttons

vettel gallops

Image: Suttons

ebastian Vettel’s victory in Malaysia has injected some enthusiasm into a season many had feared would be a Mercedes cakewalk.

Ferrari’s success in Malaysia was unexpected but not unwelcome. It owed a great deal to the change in mentality that has been apparent at the team since the winter break, a sense of confidence and optimism that was absent throughout 2014.

Much of that confidence is a result of the fact this years Ferrari is strong.

It’s not as strong as the Mercedes, it certainly lacks downforce in comparison to the German car, but it is light on its tyres and that opens a raft of strategy options.

Come China it could prove a problem, but certainly at the warmer races we can expect to see both Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen at the front.

The Finn would, by rights, have been in amongst the Mercedes in Malaysia but for a puncture on the opening lap.

That he charged through the field to fourth, largely unnoticed, is a ringing endorsement of the red car.

It also casts somewhat of a shadow on Williams.

The team most thought

Formula One

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would be second best has fallen well and truly into third spot. Qualifying was costly in Malaysia but one would have thought Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas would be rather more competitive in the race. Instead they filled a void between the leaders and the midfield; without the pace of Ferrari or Mercedes but too fast for Toro Rosso.

Toro Rosso was too fast for Red Bull, which was rather embarrassing. With the same engine the

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difference between the two cars comes down to drivers and chassis. The chassis is good but so too are its young pilots, Max Verstappen in particular. Inexperienced he may be but on Saturday showed maturity beyond his years to qualify faster than Massa’s wise old head. In the race he when wheel to wheel, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say shoulder to shoulder, with Daniel Ricciardo. He raced hard, he raced fair and he

gained the advantage. In just his second race Verstappen has done a lot to justify his promotion to Formula One at 17 years old, and with Daniil Kvyat yet to fire at the senior team he is already making a case for promotion next year.

The question is whether he wants to. The Red Bull team is a shambles at the moment. The hierarchy there is pointing fingers rather than solving problems and has unsettled what was

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Image: Suttons

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the dominant team for half a decade. Sure, the Renault engine isn’t as crisp as the Mercedes but the simple fact that Toro Rosso is able to beat it on track more than suggests the chassis isn’t up to muster.

The Red Bull is no better than average, at best.

Turning that around midseason will be difficult.

There is input required from Renault but there is work to be done on all fronts. While we all know Ricciardo’s abilities

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he has failed to impress so far. That isn’t to say he’s been below par just that he hasn’t yet put in the sort of drive that raised eyebrows like he did in 2014. Still, he’s faring better than Kvyat who in Malaysia beat his team leader by seconds despite the fact the Russian had a perfectly functional Red Bull versus Ricciardo’s wounded car (he was nursing brake issues and front wing damage). Kvyat has to step up or step out.

McLaren’s Malaysian Grand Prix promised more than Melbourne had two weeks prior. During practice there were signs the team was competitive, and suggestions at least one of its cars might make it out of the first phase of qualifying.

In the end both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, with three world championships between them, were just 17th and 18th on the grid. Neither saw the finish.

The only car slower

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Image: Suttons

than the McLaren’s were the Manor’s of Roberto Mehri and Will Stevens.

Having sat out the Australian Grand Prix, much to the annoyance of Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, both cars made it on track in Sepang. They weren’t fast but nobody expected them to be, the important thing was that they were there. Over the weekend both set times fast enough to see them through to the race within the 107% rule, though a fuel problem coupled with a general lack of spares ruled Will Stevens out for both. Mehri then was the only Manor to race, stewards turning a blind eye to the fact his best time was 107.4% of Lewis Hamilton’s best in the first phase. As the year wears on things will improve, there is plenty of money coming into the team through prize money from last year for which it is entitled to again this year. Once these early hurdles have been overcome it would not be a surprise to see them genuinely worrying McLaren at the back of the grid.

Check out the Velocity website for full blow by blow qualifying and race reports.

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Formula One

formula mercedes

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he race was over at the first corner.

The Mercedes pair had, as most feared, cleared out into a comfortable lead in which they were never challenged, Lewis Hamilton heading Nico Rosberg.

Throughout the weekend the Mercedes duo had dominated. From opening practice the question became which

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of the Mercedes drivers would win, with more attention spent on who would finish third. Smart money went on Williams, though a resurgent Ferrari proved more than a match following a winter of sackings and soul searching. The Prancing Horse is a contender, at least at this early stage, with Sebastian Vettel looking to have done a

number over his former team.

That’s because Red Bull was nowhere. From dominating the sport just two seasons ago to struggling to have Daniel Ricciardo in the top ten in qualifying is a fall from grace of Williams proportions.

Daniil Kvyat didn’t even make the grid, Ricciardo no doubt wishing the same fate had befallen

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him after a dismal race in which the car showed no pace at all.

Much of the fault lies with Renault, the French manufacturer producing an intensely difficult engine to drive. Both Renault-shod teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, complained bitterly of drivability concerns, describing the throttle response like a switch.

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The car might be good but the engine map Renault has provided is not. Over the winter it hasn’t stood still so much as gone backwards.

Ferrari by contrast has emerged as a possible contender. The power unit is clearly good, both the factory team and Sauber showed strongly which bodes well for the season ahead.

Formula One

Sauber’s performance was startling when contrasted against a dismal 2014. It’s more impressive given the team sat out opening practice while Felipe Nasr’s fifth marks the best result for a rookie on debut for the team. The previous best had been Kimi Raikkonen, who was sixth at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.

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Formula One

But where Sauber had moved forward McLaren had gone backwards.

The Honda engine was a dud in pre-season testing and so it proved in the opening race too. Down on power both Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen slowly circulated the Albert Park circuit, doing little more than making up the numbers.

Magnussen didn’t even make the start while last reports had Button about due to start his final lap on the Tuesday following the race. Honda dialled down the power in an effort to make the flag, and while it got Button there, eventually, it was a strategy that failed miserably for Magnussen who leapt clear of his smoking time bomb on the out-lap to the grid.

Still, at least they made the grid. Manor didn’t trouble the time keepers all weekend since they failed to emerge from the garage. Software issues plagued their cars, so they claimed, while cynics suggested they’d turned up solely to fulfil contractual obligations.

Each team can miss three races per contract, and given it missed three at the end of 2014 missing another will be the death of the team.

As for the race, Ferrari beat Williams on strategy

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Formula One

while Mercedes beat them all into oblivion.

Hamilton and Rosberg were never troubled, and while Rosberg made vague advances towards the lead it was clear that Hamilton had him covered at every step.

Vettel and Raikkonen showed the promise of the new Ferrari, Raikkonen in particular showing it has pace as he raced back from a poor opening pit stop.

Williams was, if anything, disappointing. Out manoeuvred at the pit stops Massa trailed Vettel for the remainder of the race, seemingly unable to do anything about the German. More was expected from the Grove squad, or perhaps it was that less was expected from the red team.

All though will be concerned about the advantage Mercedes has. Far from closing the gap over the winter break if anything it has widened. Anyone hoping the unfreezing of engines would bring the field closer together was sadly mistaken. Mercedes, both the car and the engine, remains the class of the field. With margin.

Read our full race report with results on the Velocity Magazine website.

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E

ven after two decades at the top end of world motorcycle racing, Valentino Rossi still has what it takes to mix it with the best of them.

Victory in Qatar at the season opening MotoGP race was his 83rd in the premier class, fending off Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo and two impressively fast Ducati’s.

This season looks to be somewhat of a watershed for the Italian marque, its showing in Losail suggesting both Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso will be factors towards the front. The problem for the likes of Yamaha and Honda will be combatting the brutal top speed the Ducati has, in Qatar both Iannone and Dovizioso could easily overtake on the straights while their pace was such that those in the slipstream were doing well just to stay there.

Their Achilles heel last season was always tyre wear; fast in the first phase of the race they would invariable drop back but that appears to be a thing of the past.

Now, caught in combat with a Ducati in the closing stages on any circuit with a long run to the line is a perilous position.

That Yamaha was at

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motoGP

the doctor is i

the front of the race is encouraging. Most tipped the season to be a squabble between Honda and Ducati but the fact Yamaha was there sets up a tantalising three way struggle for the season. Lorenzo was on song and led for a good portion of the race while

even at 36-years-old Valentino showed he’s more than capable of wrestling with the younger generation.

Reigning world champion Marc Marquez heads that coming wave of new riders, of which Australia’s Jack Miller is a member. Marquez was

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motoGP

in

lucky to finish the Qatar race. He was lucky to see turn two after being bumped in the opening turn and being forced to take to the escape road.

He was plum last within a few hundred metres of the start, though quickly carved his way through the field. He made solid

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progress until he encountered teammate Dani Pedrosa where his race more or less stalled.

Though he was fifth at the finish there is strong pace in the Honda, far more than the result showed and far more than Pedrosa, who had an incident free race,

demonstrated.

There’s little doubt the Honda remains the pick of the litter, though Ducati has certainly made great strides forwards.

The real question is whether Yamaha’s pace in Qatar was for one night only.

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formula e

prost cool in miami heat I

f Formule E is to be taken seriously it needs to address the Mickey Mouse half measures it employs.

One could forgive it in the first race or two, but with three months between the previous race and the latest in

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Miami no serious championship should ever emply permanent yellow flags around one part of the circuit. It says it wasn’t designed properly, slapped together in a rush without thought.

That was the weakness of Formula E’s first

foray into the United States; the Miami circuit produced processional racing around a circuit made up of unimaginative 90 degree corners.

The location of the pits was a problem or, more specifically, the pit exit which narrowed down the

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formula e

video: race Highlights

at exit to Turn 7, or Turn 1 depending if you wanted to count corners from the start or finish location (another ridiculous state of affairs).

At least the cars held up, unlike last time out when rear suspension failures eliminated key

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runners. The strength of the suspension has been a problem since the opening race of the seaon in China, but over the break it looks to have been addressed.

That or the bumpy Miami circuit was not as hard on cars as it appeared,

only Bruno Senna falling victim to a parts failure.

As the young series finds its feet the tempo of its races has become clear. Divided basically in four, the first and third quarters are largely processional as drivers save power in their cars. In

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formula e

the final laps ahead of the pitstop those with more power to use will begin to make their moves while the same is true towards the end of the race. For the other half of the race, and this was most certainly true in Miami, the cars do little more than follow one another. Thankfully the aerodynamics are such that they can follow each other closely to at least give the illusion of racing.

The best example of that was Scott Speed.

Starting in the pack he saved energy throughout the race, had a good pitstop - an area all teams need to improve - to emerge in the top half dozen. He then saved more power with which he was able to race his way to second and, given another lap, would likely have challenged for the lead.

What was important about Speed’s race though was not his result so much as the fact that it was his first race. He’s been out of single seaters for some time yet his ability to compete at the front of the pack suggests the cars are accessible and reward driver skill.

Check out the full race report and video highlights on our website.

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world rally championship

ogier’s triple jump V

olkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier made it a third straight rally victory, putting in a near perfect performance to claim Rally Mexico.

The Frenchman was downcast heading into the event, believing an unfavourable starting

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position meant victory was out of reach, though he moved into the lead within 6km of the rally start, going on to win 10 stages in total.

His final margin of victory was 1:18.8s, extending his lead at the top of the championship to 34 points. His haul

in Mexico also included three bonus points courtesy of the Power Stage, which ended the rally.

While Ogier sailed with unflappable consistency through the stages, the attrition rate in his wake was high.

Ott Tänak rolled his Ford Fiesta into a

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world rally championship

video: ott tanak crash

lake (check out the video here), but it was retrieved after almost 10 hours submerged, repaired and rejoined to finish the rally.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Robert Kubica (Ford) rolled, Kris Meeke (Citroen) hit a bank, Jari-Matti Latvala

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(Volkswagen) and New Zealander Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) damaged suspensions and Lorenzo Bertelli and Robeto Guerra crashed.

Despite Ogier’s championship position committing him to opening the roads on Friday and sweeping slippery

surface gravel, his selection of two soft-compound tyres in unusually cold conditions proved decisive.

He smashed his rivals in the 44km El Chocolate test to build a lead.

Once Neuville rolled and Latvala retired on Saturday, Ogier cruised home.

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nascar

hats off to harvick

M

artinsville was one race too far for Kevin Harvick, if one can accept an eighth place finish in NASCAR as not up to snuff. Up to that weekend the reigning champ had notched up eight consecutive top two finishes in one of the most competitive motorsport series in the planet.

He started March off with a win in Las Vegas,

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leading 142 laps as he dominated the event.

He led home a Chevy 1-2-3 but that was largely beside the point. Not satisfied there though he went on to Phoenix which will have to change its name to Kevin Harvick Speedway as he wrapped up his fourth consecutive win at the venue and his seventh in total. He’s the winningest driver in the circuit’s

history and just for good measure claimed pole for the race too. Next time out he was forced to play runner up to Brad Keselowski and take second place, but it capped off an impressive eight race streak which saw him in the top two places. The record is 11 straight races, held by Richard Petty, Harvick’s eight race streak stands fifth on that list.

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March also marked the return of Kurt Busch, who had been suspended following a domestic violence case going through the American legal system. When he was cleared to drive he immediately showed his worth by scoring fourth place at Pheonix and third next time out at the Auto Club Speedway.

Martin Truex Jnr also enjoyed an impressive

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month, extending a streak of top-ten finishes to six at Martinsville. For a small team it’s a big result and sees him as an outside contender for a berth in the season ending Chase.

By contrast Tony Stewart is struggling. In fact, he’s more than struggling, he’s in the worst form of his career. Martinsville marked the first time he’d finished better

nascar

than 30th in four races, and even then he was only capable of 20th spot. The veteran hasn’t won a race since 2013, all the while teammate Harvick is regularly chalking them up. Stewart’s head doesn’t seem to be in the game at the moment, though with a driver of his pedigree one feels it’ll only take a single race and that will turn around.

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indycar

penske vs indycar

I

f you weren’t driving a Penske in St Petersburg you were simply making up the numbers as the Captain’s team took home four of the top five places, headed by JuanPablo Montoya and Will Power.

The key moment of the race was the final round of pit stops where

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Montoya gained the upper hand. Up to that stage Power had dominated the race, leading all but a handful of laps, but a slow stop cost the Australian the lead. He returned to track some three seconds behind his teammate, and while he had a nibble in the closing stages all he was able to do was damage

his front wing.

On that front he wasn’t alone, almost half the field damaging their front wings in what was the debut for Indycar’s new aero kit. Both Honda and Chevrolet were charged with providing a new front and rear wing to the teams they supplied engines to, which led to the creation of

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indycar

video: race highlights

the ugliest open wheel race series in the world.

What’s more the move has not only made the cars unattractive but it’s also hurt the racing, with the aerodynamic advances creating greater turbulence and making it difficult for one car to follow another.

Rather predictably then it was a processional

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race with little in the way of action. What there was typically ended in rather amateur clashes and broken front wongs.

Broken wings were the norm, and at $18,000 a pop it’s difficult to understand the rationale behind their rather pointless introduction.

That may change when the series reaches more

traditional race tracks and drivers have had more time to learn where the corners of their cars are, but that seems unlikely.

As a series Indycar has taken a step backwards in 2015.

Read the full report and check out the video highlights on the Velocity website.

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world superbike championshiP

ontinuing his fine form from the opening round of the championship in Phillip Island, Kawasaki’s new recruit Jonathan Rea dominated the inaugural Thailand round of the World Superbike Championship at the Chang International Circuit.

The British rider was the class of the field through the weekend, claiming pole before riding into the distance to claim both race wins with depressing ease.

When compared against the efforts of teammate Tom Sykes, the reigning champ, he was on a different level in both races, well ahead even of Leon Haslam’s Aprilia.

Throughout the opening round of the season it was nip and tuck between Haslam and Rea, and while Haslam remained at the front end of the field throughout both races he was never able to stay with the impressive pace of the Kawasaki.

The event turned out to be Troy Bayliss’ swan song, the veteran confirming after the weekend that his comeback to World Superbike racing had come to an end following a two-event stint at Ducati. The former champ had recorded a

he recorded a sixth place finish in the opening race, improving to fifth for the second race.

The true revelation though was Jordi Torres, the man many in the paddock call the Spanish

C

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untouchable

top ten finish, though never really appeared completely comfortable on the bike.

Alex Lowes showed strong pace at times, suggesting he is a name to watch for the future as

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world superbike championshiP

Elvis. Fourth in both races the former Moto2 rider has showed strong promise in his first two World Superbike outings. He was fourth in the opening race of the season though failed to

In the championship Rea leads, having won three of the four races so far, while Haslam stands as his nearest rival. It’s then Tom Sykes who trails his teammate by 45 points after just two rounds.

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finish at the second time of asking in Australia, while hanging just off the podium in Thailand behind some of the leading names on the grid bodes well for his future in the category.

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shannons nationals

consistency key for spencer

J

ake Spencer claimed the opening round of the Australian Formula Ford series despite failing to win a race at Sandown Park.

Recording a third place in the opening race, Spencer stepped up to claim two second places on Sunday to take the overall round, and with it the championship lead.

Hamish Hardeman scored pole position in the opening race, backing it up with a strong victory in the 10-lap encounter ahead of teammate

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Christian Morina and Spencer.

Morina won race two, edging out Spencer, race one winner Hardeman, Cameron Hill and Mitch Martin in a classic slipstreaming battle down Sandown’s long straights.

Hill then won the third race in style, becoming the first privateer team to win a national Formula Ford race in more than a decade.

A last lap pass set up Ricky Capo for his maiden victory in Formula 3, scything pass Jon Collins on the final lap to

score his debut victory in the category.

Capo went on to turn the race victory into the round win when Collins struck trouble in the final race of the weekend.

Leading the 18-lap exchange, Collins slowed coming out of the Dandenong Road corner, allowing Capo to pounce and grab a race lead he’d never lose. Richard Legge claimed second while Collins eventually recovered, charging back to claim third at the finish.

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shannons nationals

perkins dominates

F

ormer V8 Supercar driver Jack Perkins dominated the opening round of the V8 Touring Car Series, the Holden Racing Team enduro driver claiming pole and three victories over the weekend.

Perkins led home teammate Liam McAdam for an Eggleston Motorsport 1-2 in the opening race ahead of Matt Palmer and Jim Pollicina to give the defending champions a perfect start to the 2015 campaign.

A red flag halted race

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two on the last lap after Queensland privateer Lyle Kearns crashed at Dandenong Road Corner.

With results backdated one lap Perkins was declared victor from former series runner-up Pollicina and McAdam.

An 18-lap race completed the weekend and again the safety car made an appearance after Sydney racer Steve Briffa was stranded in the sand at Dandenong Road Corner.

Perkins was unchallenged when racing

resumed and led home McAdam, former series champ Chris Smerdon.

Travis Lindorff and Gavid Ross split the honours in the opening two Super Six Touring Car Series races. Lindorff won race one and Ross the second, Garry Hills splitting the pair in race two to take second spot.

In the final race Lindorff and Ross ran nose to tail, Lindorff grabbing the advantage by less than a second after a tense race. Harry Phelan claimed third.

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shannons nationals

father and son success

F

ather and son duo Rob and Shane Marshall defended their AMChamp Sandown 3 hour Classic title at Sandown, outplaying and outlasting their rivals to score a comfortable one-lap victory.

The pair were pressured for much of the race by the BMW 1M of Beric Lynton and Craig Baird, though a late-race stop from Baird to clear debris from the radiator grille dropped them a lap behind the winners in the

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final results.

Tony Alford and Peter Leemhuis finished third – a car lucky to make the start of the race after enduring significant repairs following a hefty practice crash on Friday.

Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas took Class C by one lap over the brandnew Ford Falcon FG-X driven by George Karadimas and Geoff Russell.

Class D was won by the Grant Phillips / Andrew Turpie Toyota 86.

An overheating car cost Darrren Hossack the

opening Sports Sedan race of the weekend, Thomas Randle inheriting the place over Tony Ricciardello and Kerry Baily.

Ricciardello went on to win the round after a tight battle with the recovering Hossack before the Audi driver was forced out of the final race with a tyre problem. Ricciardello had earlier won race two ahead of Hossack and Randle while Steven Tamasi was second in the third race ahead of Randle.

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shannons nationals

simpson’s winning debut

F

ormer Formula Ford driver Ryan Simpson made a winning debut in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Sandown, claiming an outright win at his first attempt.

Simpson pulled away from the pack early in the opening race, having started from pole, to dominate the race. Geoff Emery trailed in second, the first Elite Class driver home, with Jon McCorkindale in third.

Third in race two, Simpson had run as low as 12th after running wide at the opening turn. It opened the door for

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Emery to claim the win ahead of McCorkindale before Simpson reclaimed top spot in the final race of the weekend. McCorkindale was 1.4s back in second at the end of the 12 lap encounter with Jon Goodacre third.

The opening round of the Radical Australia Cup was clamied by Greg Smith and co-driver Karl Reindler, with Smith emerging victorious from his sprint race before combining with the former V8 Supercar driver to win the 40-minute fetaure event.

The pair won by almost 40 seconds, with Reindler

setting a new Radical lap record around Sandown, taking a second out of the benchmark set by Tim Berryman earlier in the day.

Berryman had claimed the opening race ahead of Neale Muston and Andrew McInnes before Reindler opened his account in the second race. He was trailed home by Berryman and Muston before combining with Smith to take out the final race.

McInnes improved to second while Muston rounded out the podium.

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queensland

champ leaves field beggi

Image: Dewi Jones

With Iwan Jones

D

efending series champion Gary Beggs began his 2015 Queensland Saloon Car Series campaign in the best way possible with two victories and a second at the CAMS State Championship at Morgan Park Raceway.

Beggs started where he left of in 2014 with pole position, setting the pace

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ahead of Ashley Jarvis and Coleby Cowham.

Beggs went on to win race one, but it didn’t come easy for him after dicing with Jarvis for the lead in the early laps of the race, before reclaiming the top spot and sealing the first race win of the year, with Lindsay Kearns completing the podium.

Ashley Jarvis took an early lead after the rolling start in race two and claimed his first race win in the series, six seconds ahead of Beggs and Cowham.

Beggs won the final race of the weekend, ahead of Ashley Jarvis, who impressed in his first ever weekend with the series, and Kearns.

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queensland

ing

Gavin Sparkes headed Steven McFadden and Wayne Udy in the opening Sports Car event of the weekend, holding on to take the second race with Roger Hill demoting Udy to fourth. Sparkes, McFadden and Hill were the podium winners again in the third race.

Dominating in Formula Ford, John English won

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by a lap over second placed James Corbet with Jimmy Bailey third, though Corbet kept English in sight during the second race which saw Dylan Fahey third and Bailey retire. Fahey took the win in the final race of the weekend over Bevan Carrick and Tony Chapman, both Bailey and Corbet failing to see

the finish.

Other winners included Craig Sharples and Nick Rangeley in the Geminis, Chris Donnelley in the Hyundai X3s and Shane Hart in Sports Sedans.

Kyle Organ-Moore took the honours in all three Improved Production races while Paul Manteit dominated in Formula Vee.

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Massive air from Sebastien Ogier on his way to victory in Rally Mexico.

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coming attractions APRIL 3 - 5 BATHURST MOTOR FESTIVAL Bathurst

WORLD ENDURANCE C’SHIP 6 Hours of Silverstone

APRIL 4 FORMULA E Long Beach

MOTOGP Grand Prix of the Americas WORLD SUPERBIKES Aragon

APRIL 9 - 12 FORMULA ONE Chinese Grand Prix

APRIL 16 - 19 FORMULA ONE Bahrain Grand Prix

APRIL 10 - 12 AUSTRALIAN OFF ROAD C’SHIP Mildura

APRIL 18 & 19 SHANNONS NATIONALS Mallala

APRIL 11 & 12 NSW STATE CHAMPIONSHIP Wakefield Park

VICTORIAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIP Phillip Island

APRIL 11 NASCAR Texas Motor Speedway APRIL 12 INDYCAR Grand Prix of Louisiana

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APRIL 19 INDYCAR Grand Prix of Long Beach NASCAR Bristol

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MOTOGP Grand Prix of Argentina WORLD SUPERBIKES Assen APRIL 23 - 26 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Rally Argentina APRIL 26 - 26 WORLD RX Portugal APRIL 25 NASCAR Richmond APRIL 26 INDYCAR Grand Prix of Alabama APRIL 27 - MAY 2 TARGA TASMANIA Tasmania

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MAY 1 - 3 V8 SUPERCARS Barbagello MAY 2 & 3 NSW STATE CHAMPIONSHIP Sydney Motorsport Park MAY 2 WORLD ENDURANCE C’SHIP 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps MAY 3 DRAG RACING Sydney Dragway MOTO GP Grand Prix of Spain NASCAR Kansas Speedway

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