Velocity Issue 10

VELOCITY

ISSUE 10 - JULY 2015

MOTORSPORT MAGAZINE

FORMULA ONE: BRUNDLE’S LOST OPPORTUNITY

FORMULA 4: INSIDE THE CONTROVERSIAL NEW SERIES

WHO’S THE BOSS? RICK KELLY OPENS UP ON LIFE AS A TEAM BOSS

Image: Rhys Vandersyde

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

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THE BOSS

He’s one of the fastest men on track, a V8 Supercars champion, but is competitive outside the car. We caught up with Rick Kelly to chat about life as a V8 Supercars team boss.

THE BIRTH OF FORMULA 4

Australia’s newest racing series roars into life this month as Formula 4 takes to the track for its first ever round. But it’s birth has not been smooth sailing. We delve inside the controversial new category.

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SPA ‘92: TURNING POINT A circuit that always produces classic racing, in 1992 Spa-Francorchamps played host to a race that became a turning point in Formula One history.

It will be rememberred as Michael Schumacher’s debut win, but instead it could so easily have been Martin Brundle’s day.

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VELOCITY

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

THE REGULARS

EDITORIAL

MAT COCH

The future of motorsport is under the spotlight at the moment, reckons Mat as he takes a look at why everything seems to be happening all at once.

MIKE LAWRENCE

Editor Mat Coch Photographer John Morris

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Word of the strife facing Formula Ford has reached Mike Lawrence, who recalls just why the series got it start - and how it gave a start to so many.

NUTS & BOLTS V8 SUPERCARS 46 Hidden Valley FORMULA ONE 54 British Grand Prix Austrian Grand Prix Canadian Grand Prix WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP 72 24Hrs of Le Mans FORMULA E 78 London ePrix MOTOGP 84 Assen TT Grand Prix of Catalunya WORLD SUPERBIKES 90 San Marino Portugal WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 94 Rally Poland Rally Italy INDYCAR 98 Fontana Toronto Texas SHANNONS NATIONALS 104

VELOCITY

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EDITORIAL CONTACTS Telephone 0414 197 588 Website www.vmag.com.au Email editor@velocityemag.com PRODUCTION Publisher Grand Prix Media SOCIAL MEDIA

@VelocityEmag

facebook.com/ velocitymagazine ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Richard Craill, Russell Ingall, Rick Kelly, Mike Lawrence, Lachlan Mansell, Cam McConville, Leith Mulligan, Dean Perkins, Grant Rowley, Pete Schmidt, Robyn Schmidt, Bill Sgubin, John Van Leeuwen, Rhys Vandersyde, Mark Walker 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 / FEATURE / REPORT

GOOD GOVERNANCE

OPINION

T

MAT COCH

here is a lot of talk lately about the future. The future of the World Endurance Championship, which is bright, the future of the V8 Supercars Championship, which looks okay, the future of MotoGP, which looks sensible, and the future of Formula One, which 6

is quite simply petrifying. In these pages there is also a look at the future of Formula Ford and the all-new Formula 4.

So why is it that everyone is looking at firming up their plans at the same time?

Coming out of the global financial crisis, economies around the world have recovered and are, for the most part, stable. They’ve been that way for some time and that’s given categories the ability to put longer term plans in

place with a degree of security. During the GFC it was a case of waiting to see how the dice fell before making a bet because things were so unpredictable, so three or five year plans were made. Fast forward that time and you’re at about now. So it makes sense all these major series are beginning to look beyond the end of their nose.

That’s a positive thing because it means there’s confidence in the sport among the organisers of all sorts of different VELOCITY

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

categories. Except Formula One, of course.

But everything is always except Formula One. Throughout my time traipsing around the world following it the one thing that has become brutally apparent more than anything else is its complete ignorance of anything happening outside the sport. If you listen to team bosses Formula One is the greatest, most important thing in the world. But it’s not.

Not even close.

MotoGP has VELOCITY

announced plans to cap costs for customer bikes. It’s still not cheap at $3.2million but everyone knows going in what it’s going to cost, and the big teams know their responsibilities.

Meanwhile on the planet known as the F1 Paddock they can’t decide what sort of water to have at their meetings. Still or sparking? Tap or bottled?

These are crucial decisions, I’m sure you’ll agree.

It’s no wonder the strong championships

around the world are rather more like dictatorships than the committee driven mess Formula One has become. Of course the governance is great, no single decision can be pinned on an individual.

But, much like trying to get planning permission to build a verandah out the back, the red tape that is generated means there isn’t actually anything to govern. Instead people meet and dicuss as things that matter spin out of control.

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COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

BRIGHT IDEAS AND A SHED

OPINION

MIKE LAWRENCE The editor has told me about the demotion of Formula Ford 1600 in Australia and its replacement by Formula 4. It would be wrong of me to comment on another country’s decision, formulae come and go as conditions demand. Formula 5000 8

was once a breath of fresh air, as was various form of Formula Atlantic and then there were the years of Can-Am. Formula Ford has been going since 1967 and is among the longest-running in history. When it started, karting had not become huge and a simple single-seater formula was what was required. Now it makes sense of an entry formula to feature wings and slicks since kart racers are used to racing tyres.

Where I differ from the FIA is the demand for a standard chassis.

The reason is to limit costs, but I have yet to discover a motor racing formula which does that because everyone looks for an advantage.

When FF1600 was launched there was an upper price limit of one thousand pounds. Lotus dusted off an old Formula Junior spaceframe design, called it the T51, and offered it for 995 pounds, including a Don Parker trailer, and VELOCITY

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

you could buy it on hire purchase.

The first thing you had to do was to get the engine blue-printed, balanced and polished by an engine preparation shop. Originally a set of tyres was supposed to last a season, then some drivers discovered they worked best when part worn so they bought new tyres and buffed them down.

That’s motor racing.

There has never been a set of rules without a loophole and the VELOCITY

more tightly a series is regulated, the more expensive the discovery and exploitation of the loopholes become.

FF1600 was open to any constructor and established marques like Chevron, Lola, Lotus and March all made cars. For a time, Royale did well, but then its designer was Rory Byrne, later of Benetton and Ferrari. A London taxi driver called Ronnie Grant bought a Lola FF2000 car and paid a couple of junior Lola employees to prepare it for him. They were John Barnard and Patrick Head.

In 1973, an ambitious youngster decided that he could not afford a leading chassis so made his own. He won first time out and attracted a buyer. His name was Adrian Reynard.

So many famous marques began with someone building a car on a shed, in the case of Len Terry and Ron Tauranac, in a spare bedroom. There are still formulae for special builders, but they are no longer of the mainstream. It is hard to see how the modern equivalent of Chevron, Cooper, Lister, Lola, Lotus, Reynard or Tojeiro could emerge, to

say nothing of smaller outfits which enjoyed moments of success.

There were about a dozen small Italian makers known affectionately as the ‘Etceterini’.

Today you have to be established before you are allowed to apply to supply cars to many formulae. How do you become established?

That’s the trick question.

There is an element of dreaming in every sport, it is scoring the century or the winning goal. At one time a smart guy could dream of making successful racing cars, the dream was part of racing. You had men like Ron Tauranac and Colin Chapman who won World Championships having worked to that position by first making home-made cars.

The last guy to achieve success from a shed was Adrian Reynard, more than forty years ago. Others tried after him but failed to get as far. The point is that they were allowed to try and Formula Ford was a starting point for designers as well as constructors.

I think motor racing lost a lot when it excluded the guy with bright ideas, a welding torch and a shed.

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RICK KELLY

FASTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE BOSS

He’s not your typical driver. For former series champ Rick Kelly the challenge of competiting at the pinncale of Australian motorsport simply wasn’t enough.

Kelly burst onto the scenes as a teenager before winning his V8 Supercars crown in his early 20s. Now, almost 15 years on from his debut for the Holden Young Lions, he is one of the most influential men in the paddock in his role as head of Nissan Motorsport.

the commercial side of his team while brother Todd manages the racing side of things.

“It’s a little different to the norm, for sure,” he laughs about his dual-role as both driver and team boss.

Kelly’s business experience came out of racing in the early part of his career.

Together with Todd they ran a passenger ride business, for a time operating as the official HSV and HRT ride programmes before selling them back to Holden.

He commands a workforce of more than 50 staff, preparing four cars. He’s hands-on, responsible for 14

“I’m putting proposals together, pitching to businessess and then - more importantly - serviving the sponsors and business partners that we do have.”

“But it wasn’t until we’d gained a lot of experience in V8s that we decided to move into team ownership,” he explains.

In 2009 Kelly left the Holden Racing Team to set up his own squad; 16

Kelly Racing was born. It was a tough period. The results did not immediately come. His best finsih was second at Phillip Island and the team finished 13th in the championship - the last of the two-car operations. Steadily the team made progress before switching

to Nissan for 2012 which set the team back somewhat. Kelly though believes his team is moving forward, demonstrated by the fact he took pole position in Darwin and scored a podium result.

“It’s just a great reward for the guys

and girls that have put in so much effort back here at the race team and the travel crew as well to get our platform to be as close to the front as we can get,” he says. “To grab some results like that and have trophies and pole positions is very exciting - success 17

breeds success.

“If you look at our race team, we started it ourselves in 2009 and by 2011 we had got to the point where we’d got a couple of poles in that year, a few race wins and finished sixth in the championship. We stepped back in results in 2012 and 2013 whilst we built an all-new platform and brought Nissan into the category.

“Now we’re back on that trajectory of heading towards success. 2013 was tough, 2014 was better and 2015 where we’re proving that we’re on our way. That’s exciting for us and all the team.”

Outside of the car, Kelly is continuing to push the team forward commercially. It’s an extension from his early days in the sport, where he acted as his own manager, and is something he says he enjoys almost as much as driving.

“I love the strategy behind going

out and negotiating and coming up with aplatform that will work well for different companies and business, implementing and measuring them and improving them in the future,” he explains.

“It’s a lot like racing from that point of view. It’s working out how to acheive success for oursevles and our business partners and then going out and implementing that plan.

“Each of those big companies have their goals and expectations from their relationship and all that is set out very early on in the peice and then we go to work on delivery on those expectations.

“It’s a pretty simple format, it’s just a case of coming up with great ideas to attract them to our business and then being able to over deliver them on those key things.

“Motorsport has changed a lot as well as to what those outcomes are.

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“In the past it used to be just branding on the race car and its really developed into so much more than that. One of the things we really pride ourselves on as a race team is coming up with really big, new and unique ideas to pitch to those people.

Using racing, basically we’re just using V8 Supercars as a tool to deliver on the commerical outcomes that they require.

The self-made businessman has grown quite an empire, displaying the sort of acumen that belies his lack of formal business training. It leaves little time for himself, but that’s a trade-off he’s happy to make.

“You only have to just look on the social platforms of a lot of the other drivers to see what they do during the day. They keep fit, they do their job very well and then they do have a lot of spare time where they’re doing whatever they please.

“We’re still holding up our end of the deal on the driving and all the other time is spent on the team, which of course is just as big a priority for us,” he adds.

“We have very big expectations of what we want to acheive by having our very own team and we’re very dedicated to making sure that happens. We dedicate every minute of every hour to make sure that we’re successful.

“We’ve learned a lot from doing it; people skills, business management, so many different areas. We’ve had some tough times, some great times. You just learn so much.

Todd and I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

Progress for the team continues. While motivated by results like Darwin there are plans in the pipelines which Kelly hopes will continue to drive the team forward and motivate his staff. He’s cautious not to oversell it however - under-promising 20

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in the hope his squad can over-deliver.

“We’ve got great plans on the development side of things, but so has everyone else,” he warns.

“The other teams aren’t stopping their development but for sure we’re obviously very familiar with our weaknesses and we’ve invested every resource that we can get our hands on to make sure that we fix those.

“When we do manage to do that, and obviously what we’re speaking of largeley is getting the engine to its

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absolute full capability, then success should be a little bit easier for us, that’s for sure because it’s a very close field now within V8s.

“If you have a weakness anywhere it’s very hard to have that sort of advantage in any other area to make up for that. I guess that’s what we’re feeling at the moment.

“It’s good that while we’re still waiting on some of these key development items it’s great for us to be getting podiums. It’s a great sign that we have done a good job in those other areas.”

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FINAL CHANCE

In one, fleeting moment Martin Brundle passed up the opportunity to win his first grand prix. Little did he know it would also be his last chance at F1 glory.

Image: Sutton’s

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single lap changed the course of Formula One history. While the record books show it crowned the man who would become its king, what they fail to show is the final hurrah of one of the sports nearly-men.

Martin Brundle never won a grand prix. He came close a number of times, but the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix was his last real opportunity to stand on the top step of a Formula One podium. The Englishman, then driving for Benetton, certainly had his opportunity but a conservative approach meant he watched his young team-mate race into the distance - and his first grand prix win - instead of doing it himself.

Having dominated the season to that point, the all-conquering Williams duo of Riccardo Patrese and Nigel Mansell weren’t able to use their car advantage in trick y mixed conditions.

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Image: Sutton’s

Starting dry threatening clouds soon closed in, sending most of the front runners to the pits for a set of wet tyres.

The exception was Ayrton Senna, who braved it out to take the lead. But the Brazilian’s time at the front was short lived as Mansell soon cruised up to the back of the McLaren before sweeping by at Blanchimont.

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Mansell headed a quartet of cars; followed closely by Patrese, who’d led briefly after stopping for wet tyres a lap earlier than Mansell, ahead of the two Benetton’s of Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle.

On the better rubber, all four soon went by the hapless Senna who quickly dropped back. With his gamble

having clearly backfired he too finally stopped, by which time his hopes of a strong result had long disappeared.

Ironically, shortly after Senna stopped for wet tyres conditions began to turn once again and a dry line formed. Ligier’s Thierry Boutsen was the first to switch back to slick tyres, and prompty put his car in the fence at Stavelot. The

Belgian’s decision proved to be just a lap - two minutes - premature.

“The rian had stopped and the track was strarting to dry,” Martin Brundle recalls. “As we came to the first part of Stavelot, Michael ran wide and I passed him. Until that point, I made my mind up to stop for slick tyres at the end of the lap.”

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With a low front wing damage when running off track was almost a certainty, so Brundle assumed Schumacher’s car would be damaged. That thought was backed up by the fact the German had quickly dropped off the back of Brundle’s car as he powered through Blanchimont. It prompted a change of mind that robbed him of the grand prix win.

“We swept through the Bus Stop with the two Williams just ahead of me and I could see they weren’t stopping as they passed the pit entry.

“Also, the track seemed a little wetter at this point. I began to wonder if it was perhaps too soon for slicks.”

Having second guessed himself, Brundle stayed out while behind him Schumacher dived for the lane. His car unscathed after his excursion the Benetton team, which had expected Brundle, 28

Image: Sutton’s

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Image: Sutton’s

fitted Schumacher with the tyres that would have gone on the Englishman’s car. From that moment on the race was lost.

three of us. I eneded up side-by-side with Patrese as I came out of the pits and he just beat me into Eau Rouge. I was back in fourth place again.”

“Michael rejoined and started to do quick sector times on slicks. I came in at the end of the next lap, the Williams pair doing likewise on successive laps,” Brundle tells.

The drying conditions had seen Brundle set the fastest lap. Conditions had turned and while Boutsen had been too keen to make the change, Brundle had played it too safe.

“But crucially, Michael’s pace had been such that he managed to leapfrog all

Senna too had stopped for dry tyres and promptly went fastest. By the time

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Brundle stopped - which was slowed as he overshot his marks - Schumacher had swept by.

At just 23 years old, Schumacher showed himself to have a wise head on young shoulders.

Schuamcher ’s mistake created an opportunity. By seeing the condition of Brundle’s tyres he took a gamble at the same time as his more experienced team-mate opted for a more conservative approach.

“Michael had noted the state of my rear tyres as he followed me just before the stop. He could see how bad they were and knew he should take the waiting slicks.”

But the win wasn’t in the bag just yet.

Schumacher may have held a commanding lead - the first time he’d led a grand prix - but Mansell was closing in at an alarming rate of knots. From 31

Image: Sutton’s

nearly ten seconds the lead was cut to just three in a handful of laps as it looked inevitable that the Benetton driver would give up top spot.

Then, almost in sight of the line, Mansell’s Renault engine began sounding rough. He dropped back, slowly at first before heamorrhaging time to give Schumacher victory by more than half a minute.

Quotes from Martin Brundle: Working the Wheel

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Brundle raced home fourth, 46 seconds after his young team-mate in what would be his last serious chance at grand prix glory. Schumacher meanwhile would win 90 more grands prix as he established himself as the benchmark in the sport for a generation to come. He was never too proud however to acknowledge that, but for that mistake in Belgium and the chance to see Brundle’s tyres, that first win may have never come at all.

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formul MAT COCH TAKES AN INSIDE LOOK AT AUSTRALIA’S CONTROVERSIAL NEW RACING SERIES

la four

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t a crossroads, Australian motorsports stood with a decision to make. The stakes were high. More so than was realised. Down either road lay a distinctly different version of motor racing in this country.

For more than a decade CAMS, the controlling body of motorsport in Australia, had travelled a relatively straight path. It had rounded the corner from the last fork - when the future of Formula Vee and HQ Racing was cast in doubt - and been simply going through the motions of keeping the sport ticking over.

Then the FIA decided a change was needed. The world governing body which CAMS is affiliated with as the ‘authorie sportive nationale’ for Australia - decreed that a more defined ladder to Formula One was required. What was once a clear path had become muddied with rival series diluting the talent pool.

Action was needed, it declared, and charged former Formula One winner Gerhard Berger with shaping the future of open-wheel racing across the globe.

Berger’s vision set in motion the events that would not only see CAMS stand at that crossroads, but decide which road to follow.

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Image: Race Shots

On paper, Berger’s vision was logical and offered clarity. A pyramid structure beginning in each country would filter into a regional series before a global category one step down from Formula One. In theory it provides a clear, structured pathway for aspiring drivers. In reality it has shaken motorsport in Australia to the core.

At its foundation, Berger’s pyramid 38

began with a new global series; Formula 4. An entry level wings and slicks category, regulations dictate that it runs a single homologated chassis - in Australia built by French company Mygale - with the same engine, drivetrain and tyre package in every championship globally.

As CAMS obediently followed the instructions of th FIA it was left with an

awkward dilemma; Australia already had an entry level open-wheel series in Formula Ford.

Great strides had been made in recent years to reduce the cost of competing in Formula Ford. Dropping from the V8 Supercars support bill had dramatically cut entry fees while teams had also enjoyed cheaper travel and accommodation costs courtesy of

booking hotels outside of peak periods. It is still far from cheap - $140,000 should set you up in a competitive car for a single season - but in motorsport nothing is.

As a concept, Formula Ford stood as a direct competitor to Formula 4.

CAMS commissioned a review of all racing activities in Australia. It formed 39

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a committee which included Bathurst winner Paul Dumbrell and former V8 Supercar driver turned CAMS Motorsport Development Manager Cam McConville.

Coincidentally, McConville would also be category manager for the all-new Formula 4 series leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of some.

The aim of the review was, publicly, to simplify the landscape of Australian motorsport. Within the Formula Ford ranks it was viewed as a witch hunt.

As a direct competitor to Formula 4 there was no way Formula Ford could be allowed to prosper. CAMS had invested heavily importing Formula 4 cars and could not afford to risk it failing. Insiders within the Formula Ford world cried foul, but their protestations went unheeded.

The CAMS review, which was published late last month, unsurprisingly pointed a finger at Formula Ford. It was told it was no longer in the best interests of Australian motorsport and that it’s national championship would not be endorsed beyond the current season.

Meanwhile Formula 4, an entry level category, was awarded a championship in CAMS highest tier - on par with V8 Supercars and the Australian GT Series.

Eyebrows were raised.

The review set many chins wagging, and Formula Ford scrambing as it looks to safeguard its future - away from CAMS is need be. The governing body in Australia has chosed which fork in the road to head.

In CAMS bright new dawn is the prospect of a new series, one that could set young Australian drivers on a more clearly defined path to Formula One. But with such a troubled birth, one that has come at the expense of Formula Ford, it 41

will take time for the category to firstly build confidence back in competitors, whose faith has been severely shaken by the review’s findings. Formula 4 also needs to build the credibility it needs to prosper, with rewards such as a V8 Supercar test helping no end.

Much of the criticism around Formula 4 comes due to the fact that it is not demonstrably faster than Formula Ford. The series is also more expensive, by some $30,000 a year.

To help sweeten the deal there are incentives.

The championship winner, who isn’t welcome back the next year, is offered $250,000 towards competing internationally. That compares favourably to Formula Ford, whose Road to Indy programme only offers a test in the United States.

There are catches though. For the full prize fund to be award there is a minimum number of drivers who must compete, and on current entry levels the award won’t be paid out at all.

Growth of the series is now a priority. Having invested heavily Formula 4 desperately 42

Image: Race Shots

43

needs to attract a stream of young drivers fresh from karting - or willing to jump the fence from Formula Ford - else CAMS will be forced to continue subsiding it at the cost of its members.

Financially, the series should prove profitable, even allowing for the $250,0 0 0 scholarship, but that is entirely dependant on whether the series catch on.

The future of Formula Ford is now equally uncertain. There’s no doubt it will continue as a series, it has too

much momentum to be halted by CAMS’ announcement, the question is now what that future looks like. The next three years are critical as it fights Formula 4 for drivers fresh out of karting. It will no longer have the prestige and its winners don’t receive the same perks but it is cheaper and is a well established benchmark in Australian motorsport.

How each series promotes itself, and what talent they can attract, will ultimately determine whether the path CAMS has chosen was the right one.

SIDE BY SIDE Formula 4

Formula Ford

Engine

1.6 Litre Turbo

1.6 Litre Ford Fiesta

Horsepower

160bhp

125bhp

Aero

Adjustable Front & Rear Wing

None

Gearbox

6-Speed Sequential

4-Speed H Pattern

Suspension

Double Wishbone Pushrod

Double Wishbone Pushrod

Length

3350mm

3600mm

Width

1750mm

1850mm

Height

950mm

900mm

Weight

570kg

495kg

Tyres

Slick Hancook Racing Tyres

Grooved Avon Racing Tyres

Cost

$170,000

$140,000

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Book covers not contractual

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

V8 SUPERCARS

DARWIN SUPERSPRINT

CENTURIAN

Image: Rhys Vandersyde

H

idden Valley proved an important round in the V8 Supercars championship for two reasons.

The most obvious is the fact Craig Lowndes became the first man to notch up 100 wins but it was also important because it confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that Ford will be a mainstay in the championship battle.

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Lowndes’ win owed as much to luck as skill, but the Red Bull driver was there when it mattered and that’s all that counts. In a weekend that saw most every car embroiled in contact at some point, Lowndes avoided the carnage to cruise to victory on Saturday afternoon.

He was helped by reargunner Tim Slade who didn’t quite have the

pace of the Red Bull but was fast enough to hold race one winner Chaz Mostert at bay, making Lowndes’ life far simpler.

That the crowd stood and applauded during the final lap was recognition of Lowndes’ accomplishment, and the esteem in which he is held by motor racing fans regardless of which colour hat they wear.

VELOCITY

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They witnessed one of the greats of the sport chalk up a magnificent record, and they are to be applauded for their reaction as much as Craig Lowndes is for his accomplishment.

The win was a blip on the radar though. the first non-Ford win since Barbagallo, and it wasn’t because Ford didn’t have the pace, it most certainly did, VELOCITY

V8 SUPERCARS

events in the second race simply didn’t fall in its favour. Still, third placed for Mostert meant it was well represented.

Throughout the weekend Mostert showed no sign of nerves following the crash which had cost him victory in Winton. His pace was white hot and if anything he was smoother and more composed than before.

The hard lesson seems only to have made the reigning Bathurst champion stronger, and as others encounter penalties he is swiftly moving into championship contention.

We’ve previously written him out of that story. Fast but in inexperienced and inconsistent we believed it would be Mark Winterbottom who would be the appple of 47

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

Ford’s eye, but as the season carries on Mostert is becoming an ever stonger threat.

His secret is his qualifying pace. Winterbottom has said the job is far easier when qualifying towards the front but has often been forced to play second fiddle over a single lap to his young team-mate. Though he consistently picked up good points at Hidden Valley he lost ground to Mostert.

The swing in favour of Mostert has come at the cost of Jamie Whincup.

Embroiled in multiple incidents across the weekend his round was best summed up by a third stop in Sunday afternoon’s race when he suffered a puncture.

Both he and Red Bull are having to resort to strategy and guile to overcome the electric pace of the Falcons.

Another championship this year is looking ever more unliklely with each passing round.

Whincup sits just eighth, almost 300 points adrift of Mark Winterbottom. Though he’s had two race wins the season his results since Symmons Plains have been inconsistent - just three top ten finishes in nine races, and just one of those in the top five (second at 48

V8 SUPERCARS

Image: Rhys Vandersyde

Barbagallo).

It’s inconsistency that’s hurting Fabian Coulthard too. He was the innocent victim of two separate first corner clashes in Darwin, each time having started on the front row. Without those there would have been a very healthy swag of points but

instead he recorded just a fifteenth on Saturday to go with his race one retirement before climbing the podium on Sunday.

Realistically third was all he was ever going to get from the race, the Ford’s of David Reynolds and Mostert had been fast all weekend VELOCITY

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and looked to be held up behind Coulthard in the early stages of Sunday’s final race. A mistake was therefore inevitable.

Coulthard sits third in the championship, 150 points down on Winterbottom. Things should be much closer but that inability to convert solid VELOCITY

V8 SUPERCARS

qualifying positions into race results has hurt the BJR driver - through no fault of his own in Darwin it must be said.

Winterbottom remains in control. He was quick but not a race winner at Hidden Valley. Three races inside the top ten ensured a hefty helping of points to see him

just edge away from Lowndes in second.

Mostert though is closing fast. His Winton misdemeanour aside he’s not finished below fourth since Symmons Plains and is showing sings that he’s maturing much faster than initially thought. He is a title threat.

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COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

V8 SUPERCARS

BLAST FROM THE PAST TOURING CAR MASTERS

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ohnson and Bowe dominated the Touring Car Masters at Darwin, reigniting memories of the recent past when their names dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Stephen Johnson won two of the three races, maintaining his 50

perfect round record in the series while John Bowe continued his fine form at the wheel of a Holden.

The pair had started from the front row, the first Johnson-Bowe front row since Lakeside in 1998, an effort made all the more impressive given Bowe’s Torana

was lumbered with additional weight since Winton.

It was Johnson however who got the advantage in the opening race, beating Bowe off the line. Bowe faught back mid-way through the race only for Johnson to retake top spot and hold it to the flag.

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Towards the end George Miedecke and Jim Richards closed to make it a front four, Midecke finishing just two tenths behind Bowe with Richards a second further back.

Johnson went on to win the second race over Miedecke, who got the better of Bowe in VELOCITY

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the ten lap encounter with Richards again not far back in fourth.

Bowe ruined Johnson’s perfect TCM record by taking the final win of the weekend, the pair swapping the lead no fewer than three times before drag racing to the line.

Miedecke hung on for

third, and in doing so claimed the championship lead. Richards sits second in the championship while former points leader Gavin Bullas suffered overheating issues which saw him finish pointless on Sunday.

Having missed Symmons Plains, Bowe has climbed back to sixth.

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PITHER TAKES NO PITY V8 UTES

Image: Rhys Vandersyde

F

ormer series champ Chris Pither took out the Hidden Valley round of the V8 Utes series following his cameo appearance in Darwin.

The 2011 champ won the opening race having started on the front row before winning a sprint to the line in the final race of the weekend in one of the closest finishes in the championship’s history.

Ryal Harris led the opening race early following a first corner collision that accounted 52

for David Sieders, Nathan Pretty and Craig Dontas. Pither though kept close company, harrying the back of Harris’ ute before finding a way through at turn five. Kris Walton completed the top three.

A reverse grid for race two saw Gerard McLeod storm into a comfortable lead after starting in second place. It was McLeod’s first ever Ute series win, after three years of effort, and came comfortably ahead of Jeremy Gray and Adam Marjoram.

He then went close to winning a second in the final race, leading throughout before being pipped at the post

by Pither. The two had run in close proximity, Pither having climbed from sixth, his cause aided by a mid-race safety car. With better drive out of the final corner, Pither drew alongside McLeoad in the run to the line, the race two winner just running out of legs to finish second by 0.015s.

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MORRIS DANCE AUSSIE RACING CARS

Image: Rhys Vandersyde

A

penalty cost Paul Morris victory in both the final race of the weekend, and the overall Aussie Racing Cars round at Hidden Valley.

Instead Adam Uebergang, with whom Morris had scrapped for most of the weekend, took the honours after an intense weekend of racing.

Uebergang won the opening race of the weekend following a wheel to wheel tussle with Morris while Tim Macrow finished third.

The leading duo had changed places continually throughout the race, VELOCITY

setting the tempo for the weekend to follow.

They were at it again in race two after passing early leader Macrow before Uebergang went into the final corner too fast, opening the door for Morris to claim the lead. Brendan Pingel rounded out the podium.

A full reverse grid for the third race, with ten second intervals for each group of cars, saw Craig Thompson start on pole before Kent Quinn came through to claim victory. Grant Ludbey was second while Morris managed to climb to

fourth.

The Bathurst winner then crossed the line first in the final race of the weekend, only to have a 27 second penalty added after jumping a safety car restart.

Macrow spun early on, and with his car stranded the safety car was called. Morris was too impatient at the restart though, jumping before leader Pingel did.

It was a move that cost Morris both the race and the round, leaving Pingel to take the flag over Uebergang and James Abela.

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BRITISH GRAND PRIX

SILVERSTONE STUNNER

by Robyn Schmidt

Image: Sutton’s

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he British Grand Prix had all the elements it needed to make a thrilling race for the sell-out crowd in attendance at the Silverstone circuit and it delivered all it promised. Overtaking battles, strategy, accidents and rain kept viewers and track side fans on the edges of their seats from start to finish.

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Right from the start when Felipe Massa shot into the lead from third, a very similar start to the GP2 race that was held earlier in the day, down the middle between the Mercedes duo to lead the event for the first 18 laps.

His Williams teammate, Valtteri Bottas wanted desperately to get past and take over the lead, however team orders

kept the Finn in second place until Massa’s stop. When he had the opportunity to get past, he was told not to and when the news finally came that he was free to pass, sadly the opportunity to do so was gone.

In reality, the issue of those team orders threw away the chance for Williams to get a lot more out of their home race than they ended up VELOCITY

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Image: Sutton’s

with as a podium finish for one or both of them was definitely on the cards.

Sadly the rain that came later in the race threw the Grove based squad’s hopes into disarray as both drivers struggled to stay on the slippery English track.

Then when they did come in to don intermediate tyres to cope with the conditions, they VELOCITY

were forced to stack and it was at this point their hopes of a top three finish slipped through their fingers and landed in Ferrari’s lap.

“In some ways it was an incredibly frustrating race, and others it was very pleasing,” Bottas said. “Both cars had great starts and we raced the Mercedes with genuine pace, but when the rain came I

really struggled with the intermediate tyre.

I was allowed to race Felipe, but it was hard to get through, and I didn’t want to make any mistakes.”

One thing the weekend did show however is that Williams have the pace at particular venues, those with high speed corners and long straights like Silverstone, and there are a 55

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few more of them coming up, including Spa Francorchamps and even the next round at the Hungaroring. Felipe Massa, buoyed by their performance in the dry, is eager for the next round.

“This is what is in my head after this race!” he said on his Facebook page. “A lot of struggle and a great performance!! Sorry that the result was not what should have been.

This is the picture that stays on my mind from last weekend!! Great race, great performance and great fight. Unfortunately the result was not the right one we deserved... Now let’s go for the next race and fight even more!”

For Mercedes, it was another one two finish with Lewis Hamilton picking up his form from the Austrian event to stand on the top step of the rostrum once again, his fifth of the season to date and the 38th of his career. This enabled him to pull his lead back out to 17 points ahead of his teammate. However, on lap 43 of the GP, it looked as if the win was going to slip through his fingers yet again when Rosberg was rapidly catching up to him, cutting several precious seconds off his lead 56

FORMULA ONE

time while Hamilton struggled for grip.

More rain was coming, and while he stayed out on slicks through the first wet period, this time he decided to duck into the pits and switch to inters, something Rosberg thought was the wrong call at the time, only to be proven otherwise seconds later when the rain came down a lot harder. Rosberg was then forced to slow somewhat to make sure he made it back to the pits for wets on the next lap and by the end of it, he was ten seconds behind once again and finished second to his team-mate.

“The race obviously got off to a bad start but the guys did a great job with the first stop to turn it around,” Hamilton said. “Then, when the rain came, it was really tough out there in a different way. As the one in front it was so hard to judge where to push and my front tyres went so cold. I think that’s the best pit call I’ve ever made to come in at that time. From there it was just bringing it home.”

As for Ferrari, it looked as if Williams had left them for dead, especially after Vettel dropped back at the start and Raikkonen

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came in for intermediate tyres when the first rain shower hit. Because it wasn’t wet enough to make that switch, Kimi burned through the rubber too fast and lost time as a result. Meanwhile, Vettel made the same call as Hamilton on the same lap, and emerged ahead of the Williams duo and into third and final podium 58

place on offer, vindicating the teams hard work all weekend and proving that they were still the second best team on the grid at the halfway point of 2015.

“I had a really bad start, I nearly didn’t get off the line and lost positions,” Vettel said.

“At the restart I made up a position, but I lost two as a consequence.

It didn’t seem to come together at this point, a bit like the whole weekend for us, but then we were able to turn it around. We recovered through strategy, mostly by being very aggressive. I was in touch with the team all the time, it was not easy to take the right decision with the weather. But we did a great call to pit just in VELOCITY

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FORMULA ONE

Image: Sutton’s

Image: Sutton’s

the perfect lap, made up a lot of ground and finished on the podium.”

By the time the champagne had stopped flowing and the grandstands were all empty, Formula One was back in the good books with everyone. This one race had proven to many that talks of a crisis in the sport were incorrect, how could there be VELOCITY

a crisis when a packed out crowd had just witnessed some incredible action on track? Even McLaren, who have struggled all season, scored a point when Fernando Alonso came home in tenth place.

Only thirteen drivers got to cross the finish line and his teammate, Jenson Button, was king hit into retirement by the

Spaniard on the opening lap. Lotus also had an issue when their two drivers collided while Red Bull continued to struggle with engine reliability.

All in all, a thrilling race now leaves us eager for the next round, Hungary, despite its reputation as one of the dullest rounds of the season.

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AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX

ROSBERG CLOSES IN

by Robyn Schmidt

Image: Sutton’s

D

espite claiming the 45th pole position of his Formula One career on the A1 Ring, championship leader Lewis Hamilton seemed to be a little off.

With team-mate Nico Rosberg going off at the final turn of his last qualifying run, it was believed that the young German would have 60

taken the position rather than Hamilton if not for that minor error and if the race was anything to go by, he would have.

Rosberg had so much more pace than Hamilton and quickly took the lead of the race from him and never looked back. It didn’t help that Hamilton suffered wheel spin off the start, allowing the much faster

Rosberg to slip into the lead.

“I didn’t have the best start. I had a problem with the revs in that, when I came off the throttle, the revs stayed up. So, when I dropped the clutch, I had too much wheel spin and lost ground,” Hamilton explained.

While Hamilton was right on the edge, just VELOCITY

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like Rosberg, the reigning world champion didn’t have an answer for the leading pace and seemed to settle into second place and the eighteen points it would provide. After the race it was discovered that the two drivers had different clutch set ups.

Hamilton had switched back to the 2014 set up while Rosberg had VELOCITY

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opted to remain with the 2015 version but for this event, Rosberg had reverted to the 2014 version as well.

What made things even worse for Hamilton was that after his pit stop he crossed the white line on pit exit resulting in a five second time penalty. Struggling to catch Rosberg as it was, the Brit then knew that

he had another five seconds to make up and knew that he had a tough fight to do so.

After that he could do little more than make sure he was more than five seconds ahead of third placed man, Felipe Massa.

“He looked to have a snap oversteer as he left the pit lane and put two wheels over the line,” 61

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explained Toto Wolf.

“From there, he just brought the car home and managed the gap to Felipe behind.”

In the closing stages a radio message from Rosberg hinted that the German’s win could be in danger as he complained of a vibration issue with the front tyres. Thankfully for him 62

the issue didn’t turn into a full blown problem and he crossed the line almost four seconds ahead to slice the gap to Hamilton by seven hard fought for points.

“I had a good start and went into turn one in the lead, which was very important as I knew from past races this year that it’s very

difficult to overtake the same car on track,” he said afterwards. “After I passed Lewis I was able to control the lead quite comfortably. Towards the end I felt some vibrations on the right front tyre but I was able to manage it to the flag.”

Meanwhile, McLaren’s woes continued after both drivers were forced VELOCITY

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Image: Sutton’s

to retire after just 8 laps. As if it wasn’t bad enough that both drivers had been handed 25 place grid drops for engine changes, Fernando Alonso proved the dangers in starting so far back when he ran into the twitchy Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen on the first lap.

The McLaren actually VELOCITY

mounted the Ferrari and thankfully both drivers walked away unscathed.

Then, the second McLaren of Jenson Button had an intake system sensor failure and was forced to retire just a few laps later.

“Murphy’s Law famously states ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’; as far

as McLaren-Honda is concerned this weekend, we proved it 100 per cent correct,” said a disappointed Eric Boullier. “These are difficult days for all at McLarenHonda, in Woking as well as in Sakura, but we won’t let our heads drop. Okay, I admit it, the going is getting tough; but, guess what, 63

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when the going gets tough, the tough get going; well, we’re tough, and we’ll get going; just you wait and see.”

With only one Ferrari finishing, Sebastian Vettel, who dropped out of the top three after a botched pit stop saw the Williams of Massa drive past into the final podium place, the Maranello based squad have admitted that while they may have caught up to Mercedes a little bit, it is not enough.

“I think it was a lot closer than we have been in the past but surely we were hoping to be closer to put some pressure on,” Vettel said after the race. “Especially the opening laps were very impressive from their side; they were more than threetenths quicker per lap.

“Overall, I think we were closer the whole weekend, but unfortunately not yet close enough to really put pressure on.”

Red Bull had another poor showing with Daniel Ricciardo starting 18th after the team opted to change his engine as well as a pit stop penalty, but fought gallantly to finish the event in tenth place.

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CANADIAN GRAND PRIX

PROCESSION Image: Sutton’s

W

ithout a safety car intervention, the Canadian Grand Prix proved to be rather dull.

It’s unusual as typically the Gilles Villeneuve circuit produces dramatic entertaining racing, but this time around it was a Mercedes benefit 66

with little in the way of action.

If it wasn’t for the fact Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa started so far out of position the race wouldn’t have been even worth watching.

The pair provided much of the entertainment as they carved their way

through the field in the early laps, while Ferrari made a confusing strategy call which meant we got to see Vettel do it all over again soon after.

Vettel pitted after just seven laps. He’d worked his way up to 13th prior to that point and was tucked up beneath VELOCITY

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Massa’s rear wing. Both were making steady progress. As it was still early in the race gaps had not yet opened behind to drop Vettel into, in fact his stop dropped him to last, but such was his pace that he caught the field before it stopped. Vettel, VELOCITY

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having worked his way forward from the back row of the grid, was forced to do it all again.

The strategy cost him time and put his car at risk.

Conversely, Massa opted for a more traditional strategy, running longer than Vettel in the

opening stint before making his one and only stop around half distance. He ultimately lost out to the Ferrari, but that was always likely to happen given the Prancing Horses had shown themselves to be competitive throughout the weekend - more 67

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competitive than the Williams.

They weren’t as competitive as the Mercedes though, the pair opening more than a 40 second advantage over Valtteri Bottas by the finish. That was somewhat artificial given Kimi Raikkonen spun on his outlap and dropped time, but even still Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would likely have enjoyed a 30 second advantage. Give or take, that’s half a second a lap, every lap, for the entire grand prix.

As advantages go that’s significant as it gave the silver cars margin to manage fuel, tyres and most importantly brakes.

Elsewhere Lotus had an important double points finish thanks to Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean both seeing the flag. Grosjean should perhaps have been one spot further up had it not been for silly contact with Will Stevens, but as it was the team scored valuable points. It was Maldonado’s best finish for Lotus, and only his third points finish in almost 50 races.

Lotus now has 21 points in the constructors championship, just two more than Force India despite having a VELOCITY

significantly faster car.

Lotus has under performed significantly in the season to date while Force India has been quietly chipping away and taking the opportunities presented.

Sauber has fallen back of late but it too is in that mix making Lotus’ plight ever more important since it clearly has the fastest car of the trio. Force India has a new car coming for the British Grand Prix, at which point we can expect Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to pose more of a threat to the bottom end of the points paying positions. That means greater competition for Lotus and, on current evidence, we can expect Grosjean and Maldonado to lose that private battle.

At McLaren there isn’t so much a private battle as a public war. It continues to put on a brave face but cracks are appearing. Alonso cried enough over the radio while the Honda engine has proved not only slow and unreliable but incredibly thirsty too.

McLaren asked both its drivers to save fuel from a surprisingly early stage of the Canadian Grand Prix. Officially Alonso and Jenson Button retired with exhaust 69

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problems, though how accurate that reason is remains to be seen. Jack Brabham once retired with a gear linkage problem after unscrewing the gear knob in his Brabham, meanwhile 70

the Honda enigne had been lunched, but it saved Japanese blushes.

There are similar concerns growing at Red Bull too as its drivers become increasingly

critical of the car as well as the engine.

Daniel Ricciardo has been particularly vocal, stating what many already know to be true in that there are fundamental issues VELOCITY

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with the car as much as the engine. Ricciardo struggled throughout the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, finishing out of the points not because he struck issues but simply VELOCITY

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because he was slow.

Daniil Kvyat in the sister car was hardly any faster while the two Toro Rosso’s again weren’t far away. With the same engine logic dictates the similarity between Toro

Rosso and Red Bull is a result of the chassis.

Christian Horner can dress it up however he likes but Red Bull has produced a dud, it really is that simple.

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WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

24 HOURS OF LE MANS

FULL MARQUES

Image: Sutton’s

I

t was a near perfect performance from Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ironically its victory was not even with one of the two full-time entries in the World Endurance Championship, but a third car filled with race debutants. Among them was Nico Hulkenberg, the first active Formula One 72

driver to win Le Mans since Bertand Gachot and Johnny Herbert won with Mazda in 1991 but special mention should be made of Nick Tandy.

It was arguably the Englishman’s stint in the wee hours of Sunday morning that solidified the #19 car’s chances of victory. It had been driven well to remain

in contention up to that point, but Tandy’s stint extended its small margin over the leading Audi out to the point it held a pitstop in its pocket. It was the stint that broke Audi, though that wouldn’t become evident until many hours later.

The #19 car found itself in a position to win the race after Brendan VELOCITY

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Hartley was handed a one minute penalty for having passed a backmarker in a slow zone.

The equivilent of a yellow flag zone, but speed limited for the first time, it was an unecessary driver mistake from the New Zealander. Mark Webber had taken the wheel by the time the penalty was dished out, but with few safety car VELOCITY

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periods to bunch up the field it saw the early race leaders drop to fourth and the tail end of the lead lap.

To that point the lead battle had been incredibly tense for the overall race win. Porsche had raced into the lead at the start with the #17 car heading the pack, followed by Andre Lotterer’s Audi. An early

hybrid problem in the second Porsche saw the #18 car fall back from the first hour while Loic Duval was lucky not to retire the second Audi in the wall soon after.

Duval was caught by a gaggle of slow moving GT cars, which had responded to a slow zone. By the time Duval arrived the zone had been cleared, but the 73

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slow moving GT cars had yet to respond and fanned out across the circuit. An unsighted Duval had nowhere to go and skated into the wall, lucky to do no more than damage the nose of the car. Repairs were swift, but cost a lap, while the safety car controlled the field for 40 minutes as workers set about repairing the hole the Audi had punched in the barrier.

It was one of just two heavy incidents throughout the race, the other for the last placed Aston Martin on Sunday morning. Having just been lapped by the #19 Porsche, Roald Goethe hit the barrier head on at the exit to the Porsche Curves. Though taken to the medical centre in an ambulance, and taking some time to climb from the car, Goethe was lucky to escape what was a crunching impact.

Tracy Krohne proved a race long nuisance.

The LMP2 runner spent as much time recoverring from a spin as he did racing in what must surely go down as one of the worst Le Mans performances for a driver on record.

At the other end of the LMP2 field there were stirring drives from Oliver Turvey and Mitch 74

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Evans who combined to drag the JOTA Sport entry back onto the podium. The car had suffered an early electrical gremlin which impacted the gearbox, costing the squad a number of laps.

But as the race wore on both Evans and Turvey set a blistering pace to catch the class leaders by as much as six seconds a lap at times.

GTE-Pro enjoyed one of the finest lead battles in living memory. From the outset the leading Corvette and Aston Martin were rarely seperated by more than a few seconds, extending to almost a minute at most. They ran like that for much of the race until a routine brake change for the Aston saw its race end in the gravel trap at the first Mulsanne Chicane. The crash not only eliminated the top GTE-Pro contender but also accounted for the LMP2 leader as the pair tangled, eliminating both from contention.

It meant the AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni leapt from third to first in the space of a lap in GTE-Pro but as the race wore on the Corvette of Oliver Gavin rounded it up to reclaim top spot.

It proved a tough year for Japanese entries

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with neither Toyota nor Nissan producing anything like front running pace. Toyota has already shown itself to have been left behind by both Audi at Porsche at the top of LMP1 and at Le Mans proved nowhere 76

near competitive. As the race counts towards the World Endurance Championship the squad was forced to carry on, in the knowledge it was just third best behind three Porsches and three Audis.

Nissan’s problems were rather more severe.

Rather than delaying its programme so its GT-R LMS was ready, Nissan entered with a car well below par. It was only front wheel drive, for a start, and VELOCITY

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lugged around heavy hybrid technology which wasn’t working. It’s pace was terrible and reliability nowhere near good enough. It was not the performance of a world class automobile manufacturer, and while VELOCITY

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it claims to be a long term project the simple fact is trundling around with LMP2 cars was not how it foresaw its Le Mans return. There is much to be done at Nissan as currently its performance failed to

give even a glipse of the potential it says the car has. Really, Nissan should have stayed home.

Read the full 24 Hours of Le Mans report on the Velocity website.

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FORMULA E

LONDON EPRIX

TITLE T

he inaugural season of Formula E had its positives and negatives. On the whole though it must be said that the series achieved what it set out to, and should be considered a success.

The racing was close, the results typically unpredictable and the 78

championship went to the wire. It fulfilled everything required to make it an entertaining series.

Of course there is no hiding from the fact that the cars are slow, and the lack of noise takes some getting used to.

There is also the poor choice of circuits, in

evidence again in the final round in London, and the fact drivers change cars halfway through the race.

But these are all things that can be solved.

Some of the circuits were excellent, Battersea Park in London was not one of them.

Television cameras did VELOCITY

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their best to add drama to the action, using low cameras zoomed well in on the cars and microphones picking up the transmission noise.

Nelson Piquet was also a deserving champion.

He’d proved throughout the season that he was best at saving energy, a key compnent of VELOCITY

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Formula E racing, and so it was fitting that the title should go to the Brazilian.

Sebastien Buemi just lost out, and that is important. Not because he didn’t win but because he took the championship to the very last race. Had Piquet dominated the

series would have been written about more critically. Instead it remained a contest until the final race, with even Lucas Di Grassi in the championship hunt.

Of course that’s always likely to happen with a comparatively short championship, but on the strength of its 79

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inaugural season that will likely expand.

Adelaide is reportedly in discussions, among other venues.

That’s a positive. It might mean the sport never returns to Miami, and that would be particularly positive as it was easily the worst circuit of the year and produced the dullest racing. Good racing has to remain the focus in the early seasons.

Next season Citroen enters the series, and that must be seen as a positive. Renault and Audi are already there and while the trackside signage was almost non-existent by the end of the season there were plenty more stickers on cars suggesting sponsorship dollars were flowing more readily in London than Beijing.

There are lots of things still to be done by organisers but, after its first season, Formula E has done everything it needed to. The right man won the championship, the racing was entertaining and it got the world talking about electric racing cars.

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MOSCOW EPRIX

PEERLESS PIQUET

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hort of Miami, Moscow produced one of the least exciting Formula E races of the year. Wide and bumpy the circuit which skirted around the edges of the Kremlin just failed to deliver.

Two tight hairpins at the end of the lap didn’t produce the opportunities under brakes one would have expected and the chicane at the top of the circuit was far too easy to defend into.

The racing was processional as a result.

It probably would have been that way whatever the case at the front.

Nelson Piquet was in the sort of form that saw him dominate in Long Beach, and simply drove away in the early stages. Regarded as the man best able to manage his power, Piquet pushed his car hard in the early stages to open an advantage before switching cars a lap earlier than his rivals.

From there it was a case of managing things to the end, the race all but won.

The e.DAMS team lost any hope it had at the pit stops. With a minimum time dictated to ensure teams have sufficient opportunity to strap drivers into their second car, Alain Prost’s team made a dogs VELOCITY

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breakfast of it. They mistakenly held Nico Prost and Sebastien Buemi in the pits for 68 seconds, ten seconds longer than the minimum time. It was an embarrassing operational error which cost both its drivers on track. Buemi recovered to a degree, but Prost was classied among the also-rans. Buemi ultiamtely finished third but was stripped of the spot post race when he was deemed to have had an unsafe release from the pits. He also lost the fastest lap when it was found he’d cut the chicane, meaning the Swiss driver left Moscow only with the duty-free bottles of vodka the picked up to drown his sorrows.

For a time Jarno Trulli provided some interest.

The former F1 driver displayed his defensive driving abilities and willingness to blatantly cheat as he scrapped with Loic Duval. With frustrations building contact was inevitable, Trulli losing his rear wing as Duval tagged the back of his car, opening the door for Nick Heidfeld to pass them both.

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MOTOGP

ASSEN TT

TT THRILLER

by Pete Schmidt

T

he Dutch MotoGP at Assen is the only surviving event from the inaugural 1949 grand prix season, and the 2015 event was to be the very last to be held on a Saturday afternoon.

Heading into the weekend, the nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi was on top of the championship standings by only a solitary point – ahead of his teammate and winner of the 84

four previous rounds, and leader of a recordsetting 103 successive laps, Jorge Lorenzo.

With Rossi starting from pole, and Lorenzo starting from all the way back on the third row of the grid, it seemed like a no-brainer that Rossi would finish this round ahead of his team-mate.

The wildcard in the Netherlands, however, was Marc Marquez, starting from third.

The reigning World

Champion has had a shocking season so far to say the least. For the first time in his entire professional racing career, he has crashed out of two rounds in succession. Marquez was barely scraping ahead of Bradley Smith for fifth place in the championship and was 69 points behind the championship leader.

He could feel his title slipping through his fingertips and knew that VELOCITY

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he had to pull out all the stops to attempt a victory here in Assen.

For the weekend in Assen, Marquez had opted to replace the chassis on his 2015 Honda RC213V-RS with his Championship-winning chassis from 2014.

Having briefly tested the 2014 chassis with 2015 components in Barcelona, the Spaniard decided this was the best way for him to go.

“The feeling (with the VELOCITY

MOTOGP

2014 chassis) was moreor-less what I had last year. I was able to do more mistakes and less risk. With this year’s (2015 chassis) we are able to be really fast over one lap, but during the race it is so difficult to be consistent and just one small mistake and you crash.”

With the World Champion feeling like he is able to take more risks on the track, we were surely in for a treat. Had

Marc Marquez returned to form? Or did more risk mean more danger for himself and his colleagues on the track?

By the end of the first lap, Lorenzo had broken through the field to go from eighth to fighting for the win behind Rossi and Marquez. But it was not to be, as Rossi and Marquez quickly separated from the herd, putting a complete second between Marquez and Lorenzo by the end 85

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

of the fifth lap. Lorenzo was to eventually concede to a lonely third place finish, while all the excitement was taking place in front of him.

Marquez was never more than half a second behind the race leader, and was finally able to get the better of the Italian on the 20th lap. Lorenzo was seven seconds behind the two race leaders and was no threat to them, and they were left to battle it out mano a mano.

86

MOTOGP

The seasoned veteran and the young challenger, two very talented and intelligent riders, battling for the victory.

Rossi stayed hot on the heels of the young Spaniard, taking his time and weighing up every option. Peeking in at every corner, Rossi sat in wait until the time was absolutely perfect before snatching the lead back from Marquez on lap 24.

Never one to take

defeat lying down, Marquez was determined to get this victory back from Rossi, to make up for his two consecutive DNFs, and to prove to himself and the world that he is simply better than the legend that is Valentino Rossi. It all came down to the very last corner of the very last lap.

The roar of the crowd was deafening; every man, woman and child was on the edge of their seat.

VELOCITY

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We were reminded of the 2005 season opener in Jerez, when Rossi crept up the inside of Sete Gibernau, made contact, and forced him into the gravel trap.

Only this time, the roles were reversed.

Rossi had the racing line, and the lead, with Marquez right behind him. An attempt to go around him seemed futile, but Marquez had to take the risk. He came up on the outside, and clipped the shoulder VELOCITY

MOTOGP

of the nine-time World Champion. A feeling of panic sets over both the Yamaha and Honda garages as they brace for the worst – both men are about to go down.

But no. Rossi’s guardian angel was working overtime this weekend as he miraculously stayed upright, riding straight across the corner and finding his way back onto the main straight. With a peek over his shoulder as

if to say, “Haha, I beat you!” Rossi made it across the finish line in first place, with Marquez slowly creeping along behind him more than a second later.

Thirteen seconds down the road, Jorge Lorenzo crossed the line, completely unaware of the excitement that had unfolded in front of him, to take out third spot on the adrenaline-filled podium.

87

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MOTOGP

GRAND PRIX OF CATALUNYA

LORENZO LEADS THE WAY O

n lap twelve of the Catalan MotoGP, Jorge Lorenzo became the most dominant rider in MotoGP history, breaking Casey Stoner’s record for the most consecutive laps led.

Aleiz Espargaro has start on pole but such is the lack of power in the Suzuki that by the first turn he’d dropped 88

to ninth. Lorenzo meanwhile had already assumed his position at the head of the pack, with Marc Marquez in hot pursuit.

The lead battle never materialised. Lorenzo set a blistering pace that proved too much for Marquez as the Honda rider missed his braking marker early on and fell out of the race. It was

his third fall of the season, another unforced error from the man who looks nothing like the one who has dominated MotoGP for the last two years.

The hot conditions saw a number of other casulaties early on. Cal Crutchlow’s race lasted all of four corners after he was elbowed aside

by Aleiz Espargaro on VELOCITY

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the opening lap while Bradley Smith also fell off the road. Andrea Dovizioso’s day came to an end when he lost the front of his Ducati at turn four while running in third place.

Through the chaos Dani Pedrosa worked his way into third, easily passing Espargaro’s sluggish Suzuki, to give Honda something to VELOCITY

MOTOGP

cheer about. It needs something as Marquez lack of form makes defending his championship title now all but impossible.

Yamaha by contrast has a difficult situation on its hands with Valentino Rossi, who finished second, just a single point ahead of the man who has won four MotoGPs in a row.

Since the championship returned to Europe Lorenzo has been unstoppable. After having critical words said of him early in the season the Spaniard has all the momentum as the championship moves into mid-season. Rossi remains competitive, exceptionally so, but none can match Lorenzo in this form.

89

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

WORLD SUPERBIKES

RIVIERA DI RIMINI

CHAMPION ELECT W

ith five rounds of the World Superbike Championship left it seems only disaster can prevent Jonathan Rea from taking the title.

The dominant Kawasaki rider has finished on the podium in every race this year, and never lower than the second 90

step. He’s the in-form rider on the bike of the moment. He holds a 130-point advantage over his own teammate in second, clear evidence of the sheer destruction he has left in his wake this season.

There have been moments where he’s been less than perfect.

He was made to work hard for his second place in the first race at Misano while Tom Sykes cleared out at the front, but at no point has he made a serious riding mistake. He gambled on an alternate compound tyre, and that didn’t pay off, but still he managed second.

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Rea has also remained unrattled under pressure. At Donnington he let Sykes go rather than becoming embroiled in a potentially race ending squabble, and in the opening race at Misano he fended off Chaz Davies in the closing stages.

Then there have been VELOCITY

WORLD SUPERBIKES

times when he’s showed his fight. In the second race he had to fight back to the lead having made a mistake early. But his hunger was such that he was able to recompose and catch back the second or so he’d lost.

Rea has shown himself to be intelligent and calculated on the bike,

capable of stringing a championship campaign together and learning from decisions which were less than perfect.

Ten races remain in the season - split over five rounds. Rea could sit out half of them and still lead the championship.

Such has been his utter domination in 2015.

91

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WORLD SUPERBIKES

PORTUGAL

UNBEATABLE J

onathan Rea is single-handedly making this years World Superbike Championship rather dull.

When Kawasaki signed him to they knew they’d secured the services of one the sport’s top men.

What it didn’t realise is the sort of domination it would usher in. One thing is guaranteed; 92

nobody at Kawasaki is upset about that in the slightest.

Well, almost nobody.

Tomy Sykes probably has something to say about it given last years undisputed team leader has been forced to play second fiddle to Rea all season. There was a glimmer of hope at Donington when the Brit

won both races, but that was merely a blip on the radar.

The only real positive is that, as the season has worn on, Sykes has closed the gap to Rea to at least make it somewhat interesting at the front. Neither Ducati nor Aprilia are capable of staying with the Kawasaki over a race distance VELOCITY

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and while the Honda is improving it’s still a long way off fighting routinely even over the scraps.

Victory in the second race in Portugal gave Rea the record for the most dominant start to a World Superbike season on record. He’s still not finished below second in a race all year VELOCITY

WORLD SUPERBIKES

and his nearest rival is so far back Rea could take a couple of rounds off and still had the championship when he got back.

What Rea has delivered is a near perfect performance all season and his position at the top of the points table is therefore warranted.

In Portugal he battled

with and got the better of Sykes before simply riding into the distance in the second race. He was the complete package at a time when those around him have been inconsistent. That’s enabled Rea to build a strong championship advantage that nobody will beat this season.

93

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WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

FIVE STAR OGIER RALLY OF POLAND

Image: Sutton’s

A

fifth win of the season saw Sebastian Ogier continue to extend his championship advantage following Rally Poland.

The VW driver headed another 1-2 for the 94

German marque with Andreas Mikkelsen in second. It could have been a 1-2-3 had JariMatti Latvala not hit a tree and lost third place to Ott Tanak.

Ogier proved fastest throughout, despite

Tanak and Mikkelsen both having spells in the lead on the opening day before Ogier took control on Friday afternoon.

Mikkselsen remained in touching distance before Ogier finally broke free on the final VELOCITY

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WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Image: Sutton’s

Image: Sutton’s

day to win by almost 12 seconds.

Latvala held a narrow advantage over Tanak heading into the power stage before running off the road and hitting a tree. Though he resumed the rally he VELOCITY

was later penalised 40 seconds for checking into service late, dropping him to fifth in the final standings.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville rolled on the penultimate stage, dragging his battle scarred

car to sixth place.

Ogier now commands the championship race with 161 points to teammate Mikkelson’s 83.

Ostberg likes thrd with Latvala fourth, just three points off Ostberg.

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WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

PADDON SPINS OUT RALLY OF ITALY

Image: Sutton’s

S

ebastien Ogier may have won the Rally of Italy, but the star of the event was Hayden Paddon.

After the surprise stage win in the opening super spectial stage by privateer Martin Prokop, Paddon headed proceedings throughout Friday. The New Zealander won three of four stages to hold 96

a 23 second lead over Jari-Matti Latvala after the opening day, and extended his lead on Saturday morning over the improving Ogier.

But a spin on SS17 cost Paddon the lead, dropping the Hyundai to second before he hit a rock on the next stage.

He limped the car back to service where it was repaired, but his time at

the head of the rally was over.

Latvala’s rally was dealt a blow when he suffered two punctures and hit a rock, damaging the suspension in his Volkswagen and seeing him manage just sixth at the finish despite winning seven stages throughout the rally - the same number as Ogier.

Ott Tanak had sat third VELOCITY

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WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Image: Sutton’s

Image: Sutton’s

on Saturday afternoon before transmission problems ended his rally, promoting Mads Ostberg into the final podium position. But he too suffered a set back, after he went off on the opening stage on Sunday. He’d enjoyed a 30 second lead over fourth placed Thierry Neuville when an ear plug fell out, distracting Ostberg VELOCITY

enough to see him run wide. The mistake damaged the suspension and brakes on his car, and ultimtaely cost him third place.

Other retirements saw Kris Meeke end the rally with suspension problems while Robert Kubica crashed out. Though the Polish driver was able to rejoin under Rally 2 rules a

gearbox problem ended his effort.

Ogier was unforgiving, winning the rally and taking three points from the Power Stage to leave Sardinia with maximum points to extend his championship lead to 66 points over Ostberg.

97

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INDYCAR

A STEP TOO FAR FONTANA

T

hat Graham Rahal won his first race on an oval, and his first in more than one hundred Indycar starts, really didn’t seem to matter after Fontana.

The second 500 mile oval race of the season – the first being Indianapolis – was a 98

frightening event to watch. For 250 laps almost the full pack circulated in close proximity, which might sound thrilling until one realises the speed they’re going; more than 330kph.

Post-race the drivers were united in their disdain for the pack

style of racing. Seen at the first oval of the season it was hoped Indycar would make changes in the interests of safety. They did not. Indeed, the Indycar top brass instead came out with thinly veiled threats about people criticising Indycar. It was disgraceful that drivers, VELOCITY

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speaking out about their safety, should have the organising body attempt to silence them by threatening sanctions.

There was simply no hiding from the fact that the racing had stepped over the line from thrilling to dangerous. One need only look at the accidents of Will Power VELOCITY

INDYCAR

and Ryan Briscoe for evidence of that. Both were instigated by light contact unsettling the cars.

Briscoe’s crash was especially frightening, his car catching air before digging into the turf. Luckily he escaped uninjured, but it stands an ominous warning of

what could happen if racing is left unchecked.

For what it’s worth, Juan-Pablo Montoya continues to head the championship, extending his advantage thanks to Power’s retirement while Rahal has climbed to fourth behind Scott Dixon.

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INDYCAR

TORONTO TREAT TORONTO

W

hen Will Power opened a five second lead and the race ran green for the first third, you’d have been forgiven for expecting much of the same from Indycar in Toronto.

The wet streets forced officials hand, bringing the race start forward and having it begin in single file. It was probably a smart move given 100

the apex of turn one changed from asphalt to concrete and back.

But when the circuit began to dry it became a question of taking a gamble. Out front and comfortably so there was no need for Power to be among the first to stop, he could afford to watch as others made the change to slick tyres before reacting. Marco Andretti, as he was in

Detroit, was the frist to chance his hand and soon showed a clean pair of heels once his tyres came up to temperature. A cascade of drivers soon followed.

Having run second for the first part of the race, Simon Pagenaud found himself far more competitive against Power on a dry track. He closed the gap and challenged for the lead at one point, VELOCITY

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but never found a way through.

A drying track was only half the story as while that had shaken up the order down the field it had done nothing to the front of the pack. Two quick cautions changed that however, falling just after the pit window had opened.

It meant the likes of Josef Newgarden, Luca Fillipi and Carlos Munoz VELOCITY

INDYCAR

cycled through to the front after stopping a lap before the yellow came out. While the rest of the field took service behing the pace car they moved to the head of the pack. For Newgarden, he’d remain there for the remainder of the race.

Others, like Helio Castroneves, tried gambling late in the race. Running long in the middle

to try and open a gap large enough to drop him back into the race at the head of the pack.

It almost worked, he emerged from the pits in second but on cold tyres was no match for Filippi who ensured CFH Racing an unexpected 1-2 finish in one of the most entertaining and strategically enthralling Indycar races of the season.

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INDYCAR

USE THE DOWNFORCE TEXAS

W

hen the Indycar Series reached Texas it marked the first time teams had visited a high banked oval since the introduction of revised aero packages at the start of the year.

Engine suppliers Honda and Chevrolet were charged with developing new kits for their teams, devising 102

a series of packages aimed at street courses, speedways and of course Indianapolis.

Opinions on how to approach the race were therefore split, with teams having limited data to refer. There were two schools of thought; dial out the downforce and run fast but twitchy or go for a higher downforce setup that would

be slower over a single lap but easier on tyres.

For those at the front the choice was fairly simple. With a clear track to look at it made sense to knock off the downforce in an attempt to sprint clear. Those further back would have to run more wing so they had the grip to race through traffic.

The problem for those VELOCITY

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at the front was that their tyres would beging to give up midway through their stint, and the early pace they had would disappear. They’d be faster than those with higher downforce for half a stint before struggling later on. It was the setup to run if the race was heavily impacted by caution periods, but for long VELOCITY

INDYCAR

runs it was less than ideal.

And that’s the way the race panned out. There were few interruptions and those with slightly more downforce gradually rose to the top.

Though the setups were tweaked here and there throughout the race the die was cast from the fall of the green flag.

As such it looked easy

for Scott Dixon, leading more than a third of the race with an average speed of over 300kph.

Second was Dixon’s Ganassi team-mate Tony Kanaan while Marco Andretti finished third.

Juan-Pablo Montoya extended his points advantage over Penske team-mate Will Power with fourth.

103

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

PORSCHE GT3 CUP

ABELA’S MAIDEN WIN

J

ames Abela won the opening GT3 Cup Challenge race, the 30-lap Jim Richards enduro trophy encounter at Sydney Motorsport Park after Dylan O’Keefe was handed a five-second penalty for rolling at the start.

It relegated O’Keefe to fourth at the finish and handed Abela his first race win in his rookie season after battling his way by Jon McCorkindale three laps from the finish.

Early race leader Ryan Simpson failed 104

to finish after tangling with a lapped runner on lap 17, breaking his left-front suspension following contact at the high-speed left hander around Corporate Hill.

Simpson’s retirement elevated Geoff Emery to third at the end, with O’Keefe fourth and Dave Ryan a career-best fifth.

McCorkindale ultimately won the round after winning the second race and trailing Simpson home in the final.

Having started from the back of the pack, Simpson charged to second

place on Sunday morning before going one better in the afternoon to win by ten seconds.

Abela – who finished fourth and third in the two Sunday races, respectively – and Geoff Emery completed the overall podium, Emery winning the Elite class for the weekend.

Title contender O’Keefe failed to finish race two with suspension issues before charging through from last to sixth in the final race to salvage championship points.

VELOCITY

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

FORMULA FORD & SUPERKARTS

HILL ON THE RISE

C

ameron Hill recorded his second consecutive Australian Formula Ford Series round win at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Hill claimed pole before Jake Spencer headed home a nine car gaggle that was covered by less than a second in the opening race. Hill clung on for second while Christian Morina edged out Mitch Martin for third.

Three wins then VELOCITY

followed for Hill, who dominated proceedings - his second such performance in as many rounds.

Hill was rarely challenged across the three races and scored 61 points for three wins and a pole, and set a new lap record in race one – lowering the benchmark to 1m34.5519s.

Luis Leeds and Christian Morina ended the weekend tied for second on points while Thomas

Maxwell just missed the podium.

Anton Stevens won two of the four Superkart races for the weekend after the opener was won by Warren McIlveen. Russell Jamieson narrowly held on over McIlveen in the final to win with Gary Pegoraro third.

Jordan Ford won all four races to take the 25N class for the weekend with Mark Robin dominating the 125 class.

105

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

FORMULA 3

JONNY BE QUICK

T

he season-long championship battle between Jon Collins and Ricky Capo continued at Sydney Motorsport Park, with both drivers tasting victory. Collins won two races on Sunday after Capo held out in weekend’s opener.

Collins fluffed the start in race one, handing the advantage to Capo and dropping to last.

It followed from an aborted start when Capo jumped early, dragging 106

half the 12-car field with him. Collins recovered to third by the flag, claiming fastest lap in the process but losing the championship lead to Capo.

Collins rebounded, leading every lap in race three, helped by National class racer Dennie Rumble, who rocketed from the third row of the grid to second place on the opening lap – delaying Capo’s chase of pole man Collins.

Capo chased hard once he was clear of the pack but couldn’t close to more than a second of the race leader, ultimately settling for second place.

It was Collins’ second win of the day as he’d already won the sprint race held earlier in the morning.

Roland Legge finished a quiet third in his return for R-Tek Motorsport whilst Luke Spalding won the Formula 3 National Class.

VELOCITY

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

SUPER SIX TOURING CARS

GRICE TRIPLES

B

en Grice smashed the Super Six Touring Car field to record his first win of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The Queenslander qualified on pole before driving away from defending champion Gavin Ross and twotime champion Simon Tabinor to win – breaking the lap record in the process.

Ross and Tabinor battled throughout for second, crossing the line side-by-side, Ross VELOCITY

gaining the advantage until a post-race fivesecond penalty handed the advantage back to Tabinor.

Grice went on to record another two wins to clean sweep the weekend, breaking his own lap record in race two.

Even two slow starts couldn’t hold Grice back as he worked his way to the front, leaving Ross second overall but still enough for Ross to extend his series lead thanks to a race three non-finish by Tabinor.

Ashley Jarvis was the main beneficiary, scoring a round podium finish thanks to a trio of consistent results.

Fellow Falcon driver Lindsay Kearns finished fourth with Glen Postlethwaite completing the top five.

Ross now holds a commanding lead at the top of the super six standings, Harley Phelan 83 points behind the defending champion.

107

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

PORSCHE GT3 CUP

SIMPSON TAKES TROPHY

R

yan Simpson broke clear of the chasing pack to win all three Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge wins at Winton.

The former V8 Touring Car driver simply drove clear of the chasing pack in the opening race while avoiding the carnage at turn one in 108

the final to dominate the round.

After starting on pole, Simpson stormed into an early lead as a massive battle for second position involving Geoff Emery, Dylan O’Keefe and Jon McCorkindale.

Emery moved up from fourth on the grid to sit second but came

under pressure from both McCorkindale and O’Keefe before McCorkindale claimed second place by lap eight.

Out front, Simpson had opened a comfortable lead of more than six seconds before McCorkindale set about reducing the margin, breaking the lap record VELOCITY

COLUMN / FEATURE / REPORT

in his pursuit. His charge fell just short however, closing to 1.2 seconds behind Simpson before settling for second place. O’Keefe clung on to third while James Abela recovered from a late spin to finish fourth. Emery dropped to sixth behind John Karytinos.

VELOCITY

SHANNONS NATIONALS

A new lap record in race two saw Simpson cruise to victory six seconds ahead of McCorkindale with O’Keefe in third before the rookie went on to claim third in the final race of the weekend.

The 17 year old had battled with McCorkindale in race two before

avoiding the first corner carnage at the start of the final race to move up to second behind Simpson. McCorkindale wasn’t so fortunate, failing to finish race three leaving John Goodacre to take third place and victory in the Elite class.

109

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

FORMULA FORD & FORMULA 3

TITLE FIGHT HEATS UP

T

hree wins across the weekend saw Cameron Hill take the Formula Ford round at Winton, and with it the lead in the points standings.

Hill claimed a lights to flag victory in the opening race of the weekend, racing away from pole to win by almost five seconds over the 110

second placed battle between Jake Spencer and Thomas Maxwell.

Christian Morina had started alongside Hill on the front row but fell to seventh by the flag after being spun around at turn ten with two laps to go.

Hill then went on to dominate proceedings on Sunday, his

narrowest margin of victory more than three seconds. Luis Leeds was second on both instances, bouncing back from fifth in the opening race to take second overall for the round. A hat-trick of third palces for Maxwell gave him third place.

The points leader heading into the weekend, VELOCITY

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Morina had a torried time of it. He finished just 16th in race two after a mid-race pit stop while he could climb only to seventh in the final race of the weekend.

In Formula 3, Jon Collins headed the championship following Winton after taking all three wins across the VELOCITY

SHANNONS NATIONALS

weekend.

The two horse race was decided each time by mistakes from Ricky Capo, giving Collins the impetus to take victory.

Capo crossed the line first in race two but was pinged for rolling at the start. Handed a five second penalty it dropped him to second before Collins raced into a

sizeable lead in the final race of the weekend.

Even a late race safety car which bunched six car field wasn’t enough to see Capo retake top spot.

Shane Ryding finished third across the weekend while Luke Spalding was the first of two National class cars.

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

V8 & SUPER SIX TOURING CARS

RECORD BREAKER

A

lex Rullo is officially the youngest ever touring car winner in Australian motorsport history.

At just 14-years-old, Rullo won race three on the V8 Touring Car Series round at Winton, a result which proved enough to hand the Perth youngster the round victory.

Rullo had played second fiddle to Liam McAdam in Saturday’s opening race and again in race two on Sunday morning but moved up to the stop spot when McAdam struck trouble.

It left the Falcon driver 112

out front with a three second lead over Tony Evangelou in second and Steve Briffa in third place.

Briffa recorded a trio of third-place finishes in the three races netting him second overall for the round.

Rullo’s win also ensured an early start to birthday celebrations as the youngster turned 15 the day after the race.

Simon Tabinor backed up his Saturday victory with another win in race two of the Australian Super Six Touring Car Series.

The former double series champion

enjoyed an untroubled drive to victory in the 30 lap mini-enduro. After stopping early on lap seven, Tabinor worked his way back to the front as the remainder of the field stopped. In second place was last year’s winner Gavin Ross with Harley Phelan in third making it another Holden 1-2-3. The fastest Ford was Ahsley Jarvis, who finished fourth.

The tough start to Ben Grice’s season continued, another mechanical problem on the formation lap forced him out of the race before it began.

VELOCITY

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SHANNONS NATIONALS

IROC CHALLENGE & SPORTS RACER

LITTLE VICTORY

R

ohan Little won the inugural round of the IROC Challenge series for classic Porsche’s, but not before seeing off challenges from Sven Burchartz and Greg Keene.

The top three were often joined by Greaeme Cook and Rory O’Neill to make a combative race at the top of the order, Little holding on for the first two races with Burchartz winning the finale.

VELOCITY

Keene scored a trio of third place results in his 911.

O’Neill and Graeme Cook tied for fourth overall while Rob Black was forced to withdraw following a race one DNF for a broken clutch.

Two wins from Aaron Steer gave the West driver the upper hand in the Australian Sports Racer Series.

Mark Laucke began the weekend with a break-through win on Saturday before Steer

claimed both Sunday races.

The race one winner struggled with a poor start before spinning in race two. It left Steer to take out the race with Jonathan Stoeckel second. Laucke regrouped to follow Steer home in the final race after moving from fourth to second in a single corner, relegating Jason Makris and Stoeckel in the process.

113

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