VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 23
IT’S OUR BEST OIL YET... WWW.CASTROLEDGE.COM.AU
27th NOVEMBER 2013
TEAM EDGE EVENT REPORT: V8 SUPERCARS - PHILLIP ISLAND 360 After an exciting penultimate round of the V8 Supercars Championship at Phillip Island Castrol-backed teams now head to Sydney with two drivers still in the hunt for Championship glory. Castrol-backed Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom remains firmly in the championship battle heading to the season-ending Sydney 500 after a second place at Phillip Island over the weekend. Starting from pole he slipped to third early before re-passing fellow title contender Craig Lowndes and finishing a close second. Team-mate Will Davison did not enjoy the weekend he expected and while he
STRENGTH TO PERFORM
final race at Phillip Island. Nortonbacked driver James Moffat took a fine seventh place finish in Sunday’s second race, one place ahead of Jack Daniel’s Racing team-mate Rick Kelly. The results come after Michael Caruso’s 10th place finish on Saturday, making it three top 10s for the Nissan team at the 4.445km Victorian circuit. Race 32 was won by Garth Tander with Lowndes taking our Race 33 and Whincup Race 34. The final event of the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship will be held at Sydney’s Olympic Park on December 6-9.
2013 V8 Supercars Championship standings
gained five and four places respectively in the two Sunday races, his points deficit to leader Jamie Whincup is 223 with only 300 on offer at the Sydney Olympic Park finale. Castrol EDGE-backed Supercheap Auto Racing V8 Champion Russell Ingall produced some fine overtaking moves in Races 33 and 34 of the V8 Supercars Championship, only for his progress to come to a grinding halt due to a collision in Race 34.
STRENGTH TO PERFORM
After qualifying 21st and 20th for the day’s pair of 100km races, Ingall reinforced his reputation for blinding starts and sharp race-craft. In Race 33, he climbed to 18th after the first two laps and steered clear of some mid-field contact to improve to 15th by race end. After a hectic weekend of racing, Castrol-backed Nissan Motorsport secured a double top 10 result in the
Pos
Driver
Points
1
Jamie Whincup
2815
2
Craig Lowndes
2795
3
Mark Winterbottom
2691
4
Will Davison
2592
5
Fabian Coulthard
2393
6
Garth Tander
2259
7
Shane Van Gisbergen
2254
8
Jason Bright
2123
9
James Courtney
1909
10
David Reynolds
1866
11
Scott McLaughlin
1865
12
Jonathon Webb
1727
13
Alex Davison
1653
14
Rick Kelly
1619
15
Russell Ingall
1439
16
James Moffat
1403
17
Chaz Mostert
1394
18
Tony D’Alberto
1361
19
Lee Holdsworth
1259
20
Alexandre Premat
1253
21
David Wall
1250
22
Tim Slade
1136
23
Dean Fiore
1115
24
Michael Caruso
1089
25
Tim Blanchard
1080
26
Scott Pye
1049
27
Todd Kelly
1007
28
Maro Engel
893
V8 PREDICTOR: WHINCUP TAKES ISLAND WIN Jamie Whincup and Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor num nuts racing were the most successful competitors at the Sargent Security Phillip Island 360 outscoring all their rivals for the weekend. In the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor overall standings Acc-sell-or-ators remains on top with a 15 point advantage over Kiwichik racing with Clearly No Way rounding out the top-three. The weekly prize winner for Round 13 of the V8 Supercar Championship at Phillip Island wins a fantastic Castrol EDGE Racing prize pack filled with plenty of merchandise goodies.
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Among the Experts, Russell Ingall took out the round for a second week running, amassing 44 points with Oliver Gavin in second. The effort means that the Gavin has now reclaimed the lead of the Expert standings by five points the Speedcafe. com Team. Not far behind is the 2005 V8 Supercar Champion Russell Ingall on a total of 230 season prediction points.
With the silly season fast approaching, it’s not too late to join in on the action. There is still one event left in the V8 Supercar Championship series with an awesome ‘bonus’ prize on offer. As well as the Castrol merchandise packs and the fantastic major prize of the ultimate Castrol EDGE V8 experience which is a trip for two to the 2014 Clipsal 500 – including a hot lap of the track.
Global leaderboard RANK
TEAM NAME
POINTS
1
Acc-sell-or-ators
480
2
Kiwichik racing
475
3
Clearly No Way
451
4
RHFF46
449
5
Raid Photography
448
6
Kartsim Racing (Net Virtue)
443
7
BlueOvalRulz
443
8
Hispania Racing Team
443
9
paradice
442
10
Tigerjones
440
11
Peckstar
440
12
Team Philthy
436
13
DaveTE50
435
14
Scalextric V8
434
15
pommie v8s
432
16
Dark Knight Racing
432
17
xr5
432
18
jackierlaw
431
19
JBM_22
430
20
The dazlers
429
Expert leaderboard
STRENGTH TO PERFORM
RANK
TEAM NAME
POINTS
1
Oliver Gavin
384
2
Speedcafe.com Team
379
3
Russell Ingall
230
CASTROL EDGE-BACKED VOLKSWAGEN DOMINATES WALES RALLY GB Sebastien Ogier has closed-out a dominant debut WRC season with Castrol EDGE-backed Volkswagen Motorsport, taking victory on the final round of the championship, Wales Rally GB. It was the ninth win of the year for the Frenchman who underlined his world championship and manufacturers’ title aboard the Polo R. Ogier took the lead in Wales on Thursday’s opening stage and controlled his pace perfectly, fending off a sustained attack from two-time GB winner and team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala on the slippery forest roads of mid and north-Wales. “I’m so happy, and big thanks to the team once again - the car was perfect,” said Ogier. “I came here knowing this rally was not the best for me in the past, and even with that we managed
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to win a battle with a team-mate who feels at home here. It was another great victory for us and the end of a perfect season. It’s going to be a hard challenge to do better next year...” Latvala finished as runner up, 21.8sec behind Ogier in Volkswagen’s second Polo R. The Finn had an inconsistent rally that featured stage winning highs as well as frustrating lows when he couldn’t find a confident feeling at the wheel. Castrol-backed M-Sport driver Thierry Neuville was third, 1m 02.7s further back, to round off a remarkable season with the Qatar World Rally Team and, more importantly, secure second spot in the WRC drivers’ championship. Australia’s Molly Taylor enjoyed a solid run throughout the WRC event to finish 20th overall.
Drivers’ Championship Standings Pos
Driver
Points
1.
S. OGIER
290
2.
T. NEUVILLE
176
3.
J. LATVALA
162
4.
M. HIRVONEN
126
5.
D. SORDO
123
6.
M. OSTBERG
102
7.
E. NOVIKOV
69
8.
S. LOEB
68
9.
M. PROKOP
63
10.
A. MIKKELSEN
50
Manufacturers’ Championship Standings
STRENGTH TO PERFORM
Pos
Team
Points
1.
Volkswagen Motorsport
425
2.
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
280
3.
Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team
190
4.
Qatar World Rally Team
184
5.
Jipocar Czech National Team
65
6.
Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team
63
7.
Volkswagen Motorsport 2
50
8.
Lotos WRC Team
20
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CASTROL CONTINUES SUPPORT OF NORTON RACING LIGHTNING SPRINT TEAM IN 2014 Castrol is proud to announce its continued support of the Norton Racing Lightning Sprint Team in 2014. Team driver Tony Norton currently sits fourth in the 2013/2014 Qlsra Club Championship as the series heads towards a busy summer of racing.
“Castrol is a name etched in motorsport, and I am fortunate to have their backing for all of my lubrication needs,” said Norton. “The professionalism of Castrol is well known as is the quality of their products; the local rep even paid a visit to my house to drop off some crew shirts last season.”
As CFO for one of Castrol’s largest Qld based transport fleet customers Norton is extremely excited at the continued business partnership with Castrol.
Lightning Sprints is a national class of open wheeled, winged Speedway race cars that, in terms of speed, are second only to full blown V8 powered Sprintcars.
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The class attracts a combination of youth and experience, creating some very exciting racing. Castrol is looking forward to following Norton as the 2013/2014 Qlsra Club Championship fires-up for another fantastic summer of racing.
CASTROL HONDA CAP OFF 2013 WTCC SEASON IN STYLE AT MACAU STRENGTH TO PERFORM
T
he Castrol Honda FIA WTCC team have capped of a fantastic debut year in with a podium finish and it’s star driver Gabriele Tarquini second in the drivers’ championship after the closing round in Macau. Tiago Monteiro collected his fifth podium appearance of the season when he finished second in Race 1 in the FIA World Touring Car Championship finale in Macau. Right from the start the Portuguese star was under intense pressure but drove superbly to keep all challengers behind the number 18 Castrol Honda for the full nine laps to finish just a car’s length ahead of his nearest rival. Race 2 was packed full of incident, and it proved to be a mixed outing for Castrol Honda, which saw Monteiro retire after contact from Yvan Muller, while Tarquini fought his way up to P9 and into the points from the pit lane. A fabulous drive from Tarquini, and fine work by the team to get his Civic ready for Race 2. There was real drama from the start, with a huge pile-up on the first corner as the field went three abreast, which sadly saw Norbert Michelisz make contact with Tom Chilton, while Bennani, Boardman, Calko, D’Aste, Kozlovskiy and Valente were also involved. With the track
blocked, the race was red flagged, for a restart under the safety car, with the race extended to 10 laps. After the restart, there was more drama when Monteiro was tagged by Muller and was forced to retire, finishing P9 in the championship. Shortly after, Tom Chilton appeared to lose drive, and was tagged by De Jesus. Under the resultant safety car, six laps in, several cars then became involved in a second pile-up at the spot Chilton came to a halt, causing further retirements. It was decided to restart the race once more, again under the safety car, with the race now extended to 11 laps.
In the meantime, Tarquini had made his way up from the back of the grid to P15 before taking a drive through penalty. After the restart, he fought his way up to P9, while up front Rob Huff took the win after passing Coronel on lap 9. For Tarquini, securing the overall second place in the Championship is another milestone in his illustrious career which includes his World Championship in 2009. “I really wanted to be in race 1 as I was starting from the second row and could have been challenging for the victory. However getting more points after all the drama has proved valuable. It has been a very rewarding year and the Honda is now really competitive. We start a new era with the new regulations for 2014 so that will be a new challenge for the team.” Results WTCC Macau Race 1 1 Yvan Muller - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 2 Tiago Monteiro - Honda Civic WTCC 3 Rob Huff - SEAT Leon WTCC 4 Norbert Michelisz - Honda Civic WTCC 5 Alex Macdowall - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Results WTCC Macau Race 2 1 Rob Huff - SEAT Leon WTCC 2 Pepe Oriola - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 3 Tom Coronel - BMW 320TC 4 James Nash - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 5 Alex Macdowall - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 9 Gabriele Tarquini - Honda Civic WTCC
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CASTROL-BACKED TEAM LEGACY SECURE TWO PODIUMS AT TARGA HIGH COUNTRY The 1972 Datsun 240z of the Castrolbacked Team Legacy has again proved its position as one of Australia’s fastest Classic Tarmac Rally cars with two podiums at Targa High Country. Targa High Country, run in Victoria’s picturesque High Country during 8-10 Nov, saw 160 Tarmac Rally cars from across Australia battle out for honours in ten categories. The event began with a Friday twilight prologue through the streets of Mansfield where the teams 240z had bragging rights by securing the quickest time for any classic car. For the majority of the evening the car was sitting as the quickest car in the field of 160 to eventually finish 15th a mere .5 of a second slower than the ex touring car driver Jim Richards in his GT2R Porsche. Driver Matt Cardinaels was delighted with the result and stated that the field is made up of 100 cars manufactured after 1986 and combined with the 60 cars prior to this date making up classics people can see that the car is something special to finish 15th outright.
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The team was placed 4th in classic outright at the completion of the Saturdays eight stages with snow encountered on the final 2 Km’s up Mt Buller. Matt said that he was very hesitant in those conditions and with the demise of Greg Garwood in his A9X on the way up proved that the strategy of being consistent to last was to pay off.
Final Results as follows
The team had a better day Sunday with the more suited dry weather and if not for the blistering speed of ex-touring car driver Andrew Miedecke some stages wins would have been achieved but having to settle for second against such competition isn’t too hard to take.
LATE CLASSIC HANDICAP
With a new engine for the event the car was its fastest up Mt Buller in its brief 3 year history at the event. The teams driver Matt commented that the cars enduring main sponsors of HM Gem Engines, Castrol, Kumho Disc Brakes Australia, Nason Engine Parts and Award Accounting was key to the cars success in a budget tight team and the journey thus far would not have been possible without their great support.
CLASSIC OUTRIGHT
1. Matthew Cardinaels / Jason Page, 1972 Datsun 240Z 2. Paul Stuart / Mike Herrod, 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, +1m43s 3. Craig Haysman / Neil Branum, 1981 Triumph TR7 V8, +1m57s
1. Andrew Miedecke / Daniell Wilson, 1970 Ford Capri Perana 2. Craig Haysman / Neil Branum, 1981 Triumph TR7 V8, +12s 3. Matthew Cardinaels / Jason Page, 1972 Datsun 240Z, +2m33s 4. Roger Paterson / Richard Geue, 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, +4m52s 5. Peter Ullrich / Sari Ullrich, 1963 Jensen CV8, +6m00s
BRITTANY FORCE WINS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD Castrol EDGE Top Fuel drag racer Brittany Force has been recognised as the 2013 NHRA Rookie of the Year. The second youngest daughter of 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion and team owner John Force continued the John Force Racing tradition becoming the fifth team driver to win the prestigious award, which last season was won by sister Courtney “I am so excited to win this award. The rookie class this year was very competitive and I have to thank the Auto Club for sponsoring this great award,” said Force. “This year was definitely a learning experience and I learned so much from my crew chiefs Dean Antonelli, Eric Lane and John Medlen. This was a brand new team in a brand new category for John Force Racing. “It was an uphill battle but we improved all season and making it to the semifinals and running two career best
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elapsed times at the Auto Club NHRA Finals this weekend ended our season on a positive note.” The former Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster racer qualified in 22 of 24 events during the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, qualified in the top half of the Top Fuel field five times, and won ten rounds of racing. She was the lone rookie to compete in the 2nd Traxxas Shootout qualifying as the fan vote and lottery winner in Top Fuel. “Brittany Force is so deserving of this award and on behalf of everyone at Castrol and especially the Castrol EDGE brand we want to say congratulations,” said Lori Anne Gola, Castrol, Sports Marketing, Sponsor Relations, and Promotions. “Brittany’s performance on the track her rookie season in a new class was a learning process but she showed how important it is to be Driven Stronger as she improved every race.
Her poise and charm with the media were tremendous and we know she has a growing fan base that followed her all season long.” Force is the fifth JFR driver to win this coveted award and its $20,000 payday. Eventual 2009 NHRA Funny Car champion Robert Hight won in 2005, followed by eventual two-time U.S. Nationals winner Ashley Force Hood (2007), Mike Neff (2008) a 10-time NHRA Funny Car national event winner and Courtney Force (2012), who went on to win twice in 2013.
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