VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 9
it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au
15th MAY 2013
TEAM EDGE RACE REPORT - V8 Supercars: Chill Perth 360 SATURDAY Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR driver Mark Winterbottom has finished on the podium for Race 10 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Chill Perth 360. Craig Lowndes took his 91st career Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship race victory, drawing clear of Mark Skaife on the all-time win tally in the process. Lowndes followed team-mate Jamie Whincup during the first leg, before making what would prove to be the winning move two laps into the second leg. Whincup held on for second ahead of Winterbottom, whose FPR Falcon looked after its tyres superbly in both legs. Jason Bright was fourth ahead of Castrol-backed FPR driver Alex Davison, Alexandre Premat,
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David Reynolds (Castrol FPR), James Courtney, Shane van Gisbergen and James Moffat (Castrol-backed Nissan Motorsport). Castrol-backed FPR driver Will Davison had a tyre failure of his own in the first leg, but managed to recover to 14th by the end of Leg 2 – one place ahead of standout rookie Chaz Mostert. SUNDAY Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR claimed an important haul of points at the Chill Perth 360 over the weekend. Drivers Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom were third and fourth respectively for the weekend with Davison continuing his strong championship push as he lies in second overall. Craig Lowndes won an emotional Race 10 with Jamie Whincup securing victory in both of Sunday’s races.
“It was a bit of a frustrating day especially the first race given I qualified on the front row,” said Davison. “I lost out a little in the pit stop cycle with track position but the weekend was by no means a disaster. The car was much better in the second race today but I got stuck behind Jason Bright at the end and couldn’t get by. Overall solid points and I’m looking forward to Texas.” Castrol-backed Nissan Motorsport’s James Moffat produced another two top-10 finishes at Barbagallo Raceway on Sunday, giving him a perfect score of top-10 results at the West Australian circuit over the weekend. “It has been a good weekend. To come away with three top 10s has made for a really solid event,” Moffat said. The car was very good in all the races It’s a great race car, and we know where
our weaknesses are, and the team is working as hard and as fast as they can to improve them.� Starting 27th for Race 11 as a result of a grid penalty, Castrol EDGE-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall battled his way through traffic in the early stages before drivers started to pit around half race distance for fresh Dunlop soft compound tyres. The SCAR team chose to leave Ingall on track for a longer opening stint as he benefited from fresher tyres than his nearest rivals, and was able to overtake a number of cars over the remaining 16 laps to take the chequered flag in 21st. Race 12 however fared worse off when Ingall pushed David Wall for an overtaking opportunity and attempted a passing move into Turn 6; Wall closed the door and both drivers ended the
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race in the sand trap after 27 laps. History will be made in the next event of the V8 Supercars Championship when the 28 cars head to Austin, Texas, for the Austin 400 at the Circuit of the Americas venue in two weeks time. It will be the first V8 Supercars race in North America.
2013 V8 Supercars standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Jamie Whincup
958
2
Will Davison
893
3
Craig Lowndes
843
4
Jason Bright
797
5
Shane Van Gisbergen
720
6
Fabian Coulthard
712
7
Garth Tander
689
8
James Courtney
674
9
Mark Winterbottom
666
10
Scott McLaughlin
589
11
Jonathon Webb
558
12
Alex Davison
523
13
James Moffat
513
14
David Reynolds
486
15
Russell Ingall
473
16
Rick Kelly
468
17
Alexandre Premat
451
18
Tony D’Alberto
428
19
Dean Fiore
415
20
Lee Holdsworth
374
21
David Wall
338
22
Michael Caruso
336
23
Tim Blanchard
328
24
Tim Slade
310
25
Scott Pye
274
26
Todd Kelly
245
27
Maro Engel
197
28
Jonny Reid
149
29
Chaz Mostert
132
V8 PREDICTOR: Dark Knight Racing dominates Perth round Round four of the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship has been run and won, and while most people will consider Jamie Whincup the leader of the title, there’s another competitor who has taken an early lead, with a record breaking performance. Top honours in the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor currently sit with with “Dark Knight Racing” who holds a six point advantage over “The dazlers” in the overall standings. More impressive, however, is “Dark Knight Racing’s” whopping 82 points and 71% prediction accuracy for Round 4 (Chill Perth 360). The impressive tally is an all-time V8 Predictor round record. For that “Dark Knight Racing” wins an awesome merchandise pack including
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Castrol Racing and Speedcafe t-shirts, hoodies, retro caps, bar runners, The Annual season review book and plenty more goodies. Its never too late to sign-up for the V8 Predictor with great round-by-round prizes on offer as well as the major prize. CLICK HERE to see how you fared in rounds two and three, or register and play for awesome event prizes. Castrol EDGE’s four experts for the inaugural Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor – Russell Ingall (V8 Supercars champion), Oliver Gavin (2012 American Le Mans Series GT Champion), James O’Connor (Wallabies rugby superstar) and the Speedcafe.com team – have seen a shuffle in standings after the Chill Perth 360.
From third on the leaderboard after the New Zealand round, the Speedcafe. com Team have rocked back up to the top with 40 points and a 35% accuracy rate. We are trailed by Oliver Gavin who sits some 14 points behind. James O’Connor sits in third on 92 points while Russell Ingall has some catching up to do as he trails the international rugby star on just 67 points in fourth. Using the same software as the popular ‘Grand Prix Predictor’ that international website Autosport. com uses for its Formula 1 tipping competition, V8 Supercars can now put their knowledge to the test with the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor in 2013.
Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor – Leaderboard Rank
Team Name
Points
1
Dark Knight Racing
175
2
The dazlers
169
3
Team Maverick
160
4
purplesp8y
159
5
BuzinR33
158
6
TEAM RED BULL
158
7
Cropduster Racing
158
8
Rampage Motorsport
158
9
Schultzys 500
157
10
Dazzatron
154
11
Drive4SafetyDrive4Growth
154
12
DaveTE50
154
13
nickellen.24
152
14
Corn on the Cob Racing
151
15
Kiwichik racing
151
16
Solid Machine
150
17
RBR888
150
18
Dazza
150
19
JBM_22
149
20
Holden 1 2 3
148
Experts Leaderboard
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Rank
Team Name
Points
1
Speedcafe.com Team
116
2
Oliver Gavin
102
3
James O’Connor
92
4
Russell Ingall
67
Special liveries for FPR and The Enforcer in Texas Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR has been officially adopted by Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for V8 Supercars’ American debut next weekend at the Texas 400. Castrol ambassador Russell Ingall has unveiled a special commemorative livery for next weekend’s Austin 400 in Texas. The NASCAR-style scheme promotes America’s Stanley Hand Tools and pays tribute to Russell’s former team mate and V8 champion Marcos Ambrose, the first Aussie to win a NASCAR race. FPR has partnered with the Austin CVB for the event at the Circuit of the Americas and the cars of Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom will both carry the official logo and tagline of Live Music Capital of the World. Austin CVB Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Julie Chase is excited to be working with Ford’s Pepsi Max Crew. “Austin, known as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World,’ is home to countless music venues and musicians. Now the
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world will see us as a premier sporting location with the arrival of the Pepsi Max Crew and V8 Supercars Championship.” PepsiCo Beverages Australia Brand Manager, Adam Burling is hopeful this partnership will continue to grow in coming years and that American fans get behind the Pepsi Max Crew at both international and domestic rounds of the championship. “We can’t wait to unleash the Pepsi Max Crew Fords on Austin and we know that once fans see, hear and feel the V8 Supercars in Texas, they’ll love them as much as we do and we want it to be the Pepsi Max Crew they choose to support.” Burling said. Pepsi Max Crew Team Principal Tim Edwards thinks it’s a great opportunity to get new race fans supporting the new look race team for 2013. “This is the event for American fans to find their team and decide who their allegiance lies with and what better
way to do it than giving them a team to really support,” Edwards said. “As the factory Ford team the US is somewhat home turf. Our ties with America are only strengthened by our partnership with Pepsi Max so when you add our association with Austin CVB we are the automatic choice for a home team for local fans.” The Texas 400 will feature four 100kilometre races using a shorter version of the full Grand Prix layout.
TV Times - Texas SYD/MEL/BRIS
7 Mate SUNDAY 19TH MAY
V8 Supercars QUAL x2
0500 - 0600
V8 Supercars RACE
0600 - 0745
V8 Supercars RACE
0745 - 0900 MONDAY 20TH MAY
V8 Supercars QUAL x2
0500 - 0600
V8 Supercars RACE
0600 - 0745
V8 Supercars RACE
0745 - 0900
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Castrol-backed Volkswagen Motorsport continue WRC pod
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C
astrol-backed Volkswagen Motorsport enjoyed yet another successful World Rally Championship outing with both cars on the podium at Rally Argentina. Sebastien Loeb took what is expected to be his final gravel World Rally Championship win with victory at Rally Argentina. The reigning nine-time world champion finished 55 seconds ahead of VW driver Sebastien Ogier, who had won the previous three events. Ogier dominated the early part of the four-day, 14-stage event, winning five of the first six stages in his Volkswagen Polo R. But he could not break Loeb, and when he went off the road for almost 40 seconds yesterday morning, Loeb transformed a 17 second deficit into a lead. After puncturing a front left tyre on the next stage, Ogier was happy to throttle back, content in the knowledge that Loeb’s programme means he cannot be a contender for a 10th drivers’ title.
dium form
“It’s a good result for us,” said Ogier. “We had a lot of problems this weekend but we’re happy to be at the end. We’re still in a learning year and at the moment, after five events, it’s going well so I want to thank the team for all the work they’ve done. We had a few problems, even in the morning, and I finished the rally with a car not so good, but still I managed to push and get extra points in the Power Stage,” added Ogier, who leads the drivers’ standings by 54 points. Teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finished third in another Polo R after a fierce final day tussle with Castrol EDGE-backed Qatar M-Sport driver Evgeny Novikov. The Finn dropped almost two minutes yesterday with a puncture and started today 8.2 seconds behind the Russian’s Ford Fiesta RS. Latvala won all four stages, including the bonus pointpaying Power Stage, and his podium was secured when Novikov spun early in the final stage.
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“To be honest, I think that it was all over after the third stage today [SS13]. We were pushing hard, but Jari-Matti [Latvala] took a lot of time out of us and we understood then that we should let the podium go and concentrate on getting to the end of the event,” said Novikov. “I backed off in the Power Stage [SS14] and maybe because of that I lost a bit of concentration and had a spin in the stage – not because we were pushing; because I slowed down too much. But it was never our plan to fight on that stage so it wasn’t too much of a drama. Of course it would have been nice to have come away with a podium, but fourth place is still a very good result for us on this rally. I think it was the best we could do today, and I want to thank Jari-Matti for the fight – I really enjoyed it and I’m sure everybody else did too!” Castrol-backed Qatar teammates Thierry Neuville and Mads Østberg were fifth and seventh respectively. Round 6 of the WRC takes crews to Loutraki for the Acropolis Rally Greece - May 30.
2013 WRC Drivers Championship Pos
Driver
Points
1.
Sebastien Ogier
122
2.
Sebastien Loeb
68
3.
Mikko Hirvonen
57
4.
Jari-Matti Latvala
49
5.
Mads Ostberg
38
6.
Thierry Neuville
35
7.
Dani Sordo
29
8.
Evgeny Novikov
27
9.
Martin Prokop
21
10.
Nasser Al-Attiyah
20
Mixed results for Castrol Honda WTCC team in Hungary The Castrol Honda World Touring Car team endured a mixed weekend of racing in Hungary with Gabriele Tarquini claiming yet another podium finish in Race 1 at the Hungaroring. Race 1 saw Honda’s Norbert Michelisz take a strong second place just 0.6s behind race winner Yvan Muller. Tarquini took another podium, some 10 seconds behind, ahead of a fascinating race between Huff, Bennani and Coronel. Unfortunately teammate Tiago Monteiro was pushed wide on lap 1 and went out early with a puncture. Race 2 was a difficult on for the Castrol Honda team with Tarquini suffering a huge crash on lap 1, while Monteiro had to fight from the back of the grid after his Race 1 exit. Despite the DNF, Tarquini still
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remains second overall in the WTCC standings. Tarquini is thankfully OK, but his accident brought out the safety car, and the race was shortened to just 14 laps. Monteiro fought his way up to a creditable 13th with the top five going
to Huff, Bennani, MacDowall, Nash and championship leader Muller. 2013 WTCC Championship standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Yvan Muller
160
2
Gabriele Tarquini
114
3
Robert Huff
68
4
Tom Chilton
67
5
James Nash
65
6
Tom Coronel
64
7
Michel NykjĂŚr
60
8
Alex MacDowall
53
9
Pepe Oriola
49
10
Norbert Michelisz
48
11
Tiago Monteiro
48
Castrol EDGE BMW takes early DTM lead It was a fantastic start to the 2013 DTM season for BMW Motorsport with Augusto Farfus winning the opening race in Hockenheim at the wheel of the Castrol EDGE BMW M3 DTM. This was the BMW Team RBM driver’s second DTM victory, following his triumph in Valencia in 2012. An incredibly strategic drive saw Castrol-backed BMW Team Schnitzer’s Dirk Werner fight back brilliantly from 20th on the grid to finish runner-up in the SAMSUNG BMW M3 DTM. In doing so, he completed the first one-two for BMW since the Bavarian manufacturer returned to the DTM in 2012. This is the 16th time in the history of the DTM that two BMW drivers have followed each other over the finish line in first and second.
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“That was a really awesome start to the season,” said Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport Director. “I must pay a huge compliment to everyone in the team – particularly to Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner, of course, who presented us with our first one-two since we returned to the DTM. Augusto did not make a single mistake, and BMW Team RBM got its strategy spot on. The same can be said of BMW Team Schnitzer, who helped Dirk climb from 20th to a remarkable second. His fightback was simply fantastic.” Round 2 takes crew to England this weekend as the DTM series hits Brands Hatch for another action-packed event.
2013 DTM Championship standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Augusto Farfus Jr.
25
2
Dirk Werner
18
3
Christian Vietoris
15
4
Gary Paffett
12
5
Bruno Spengler
10
6
Timo Scheider
8
7
Joey Hand
6
8
Mike Rockenfeller
4
9
Marco Wittmann
2
10
Roberto Merhi
1
Positive result for Castrol-backed Honda in Jerez Both Castrol-backed GO&FUN Honda riders have fared well at the first European round of the 2013 MotoGP in Jerez, Spain. Alvaro Bautista came home in a solid sixth place with Australia’s Byran Staring securing his best career result in 16th aboard the CRT Honda. The Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez saw hot and punishing conditions, especially for the tyres, with all riders having to focus not only on racing their rivals, but also trying to stay smooth, to avoid running out of grip in the closing laps. Dani Pedrosa managed it best, able to run a fast but smooth pace, riding alone and taking his first victory of the year with a dominant display ahead of Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo. Bautista struggled with tyre wear, but after a mediocre start
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he was still able to catch up with the second group of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow to join the battle for fourth. He managed to get past Crutchlow mid-race to take over fifth place, but then started to lose out again, trailing the Brit by just over two seconds over the line.
“That was a long and hard race because of the heat, which made it tough on the tyres. I didn’t get the best start and lost two positions, which I was able to make up although it was when I closed down on the group ahead of me that we started to struggle for grip,” said Bautista. “It is basically the same problem we have been having all weekend, but I also started to have some problems with the front, which wasn’t allowing me to get on the gas
as I wanted. Anyway, we gave 100 percent and it’s a positive result that gives us something to build on in the test tomorrow. I want to thank the team and sponsors for their continued support.” Grand Prix rookie and Staring (Castrolbacked GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) was just seven tenths of a second away from scoring a first point, finishing 16th after holding his own in a strong CRT battle aboard his CBR1000RR-powered machine. The Aussie was at the back of a tight fourstrong group, but gained two places in the last lap for his best finish yet. “It goes without saying that I am happy with my best result so far in MotoGP,” said Staring. “At the start of the race I
was struggling a bit but then I got into my rhythm and found the confidence to push. I am still gaining experience in this class and I think we are on the right track to start making big improvements.It’s a shame to miss out on the points but I am determined to get there soon and I am sure that with the help of the team, who continue to offer great support, we will do it soon.” After a day of testing at Jerez, the MotoGP World Championship moves on to Le Mans in France this weekend, as the European season gathers momentum. 2013 MotoGP standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Marc Márquez
61
2
Daniel Pedrosa
58
3
Jorge Lorenzo
57
4
Valentino Rossi
43
5
Cal Crutchlow
35
6
Alvaro Bautista
28
7
Andrea Dovizioso
26
8
Nicky Hayden
24
9
Aleix Espargaró
17
10
Andrea Iannone
13
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Castrol-backed BMW Mo Castrol-backed BMW Motorrad rider Marco Melandri secured his first win of the World Superbike season after edging Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty in a sensational three-way scrap at Monza. The Italian had to work hard for the victory on home soil, taking the chequered flag by a tenth of a second from Sykes and Laverty, after a titanic tussle that saw him enter the final lap in third place. The Castrol-backed Pata Honda World Superbike team endured a difficult fourth-round event at the Autodromo Nationale di Monza with only a handful of points to show after some positive development steps with the CBR1000RR Fireblade. In race one at the historic 5.777km circuit just north of Milan, Jonathan Rea enjoyed a superb start from the second row of the grid but, on the second lap, a missed gear on the exit of Monza’s infamous first chicane dropped him down the order. In a bid to get back on
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terms, the 26-year-old from Northern Ireland ran on at the same corner eight laps later and clipped a safety bale, for which he was awarded a penalty and ordered to drop two places. Rea made those two places back over the last three laps to finish eighth at the flag. In race two, clutch problems forced his retirement early in the race as his stand-in team-mate, Kosuke Akiyoshi, who earlier finished 14th in race one, crashed out unhurt at turn eight. “It’s been a tough day and I don’t feel like we got what we deserved today,” said Rea. “It was clear I had pace all weekend but, unfortunately, in a race situation, while I had pace by myself, when I tried to capitalise on my strengths in the race, I couldn’t run the same corner speed. But, we move on to Donington – I’ll try and keep my head up and remain positive like the rest of the guys and hopefully come back stronger.”
In the World Supersport race Lorenzo Zanetti took his debut podium for the Castrol-backed Pata Honda team. However, his team-mate Michael van der Mark was left with a broken foot following a crash-strewn afternoon.
2013 SBK Championship Standings Cla
Rider
Points
1
Sylvain Guintoli
137
2
Eugene Laverty
124
3
Tom Sykes
119
4
Marco Melandri
96
5
Chaz Davies
94
6
Loris Baz
75
7
Michel Fabrizio
74
8
Jonathan Rea
71
9
Davide Giugliano
49
10
Leon Camier
46
otorrad wins at Monza
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Castrol EDGE-backed Audi finish 1-2-3 in WEC round at Spa Castrol EDGE-backed Audi Motorsport enjoyed a flawless second race weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Spa. The team finished with a clean sweep of the podium with victory going to the trio of Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Treluyer (CH/D/F), who are now leading the FIA WEC standings. With positions one, two and three in qualifying and the race, the three Audi hybrid sports cars achieved the best possible result. “A tremendous weekend!” Fässler exclaimed. “After our puncture we had to recover as much time as possible. Everybody gave everything. The guys in the pits did a fantastic job too. That was a super nice day for all of us.” In the competition of the hybrid vehicles, Audi celebrated with victory against Toyota for the second time in succession this year. In the season opener at Silverstone, the race cars from Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm managed a one-two win three weeks ago. On the way to their first WEC victory of the season, the World Champions Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer delivered a strong performance crossing the finish line with an advantage of 1m
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05s after having suffered misfortune on the roller-coaster in the Ardennes at the beginning of the race. The Silverstone winners Loïc Duval/ Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish (F/DK/ GB) achieved second place. In the standings, the French-Danish-Scottish duo is trailing their fellow drivers in car number 1, who are taking an additional point home for having posted the best qualifying time in Belgium, by only one point. A remarkable performance was achieved by Marc Gené/Lucas di Grassi/ Oliver Jarvis (E/BR/GB). They shared the number 3 hybrid sports car, which has already been aerodynamically optimised for the upcoming run at Le Mans. With that, the car was not the optimum solution for the 7.004-kilometer circuit in the Ardennes but Audi was able to gain valuable findings from the data of both vehicle types. The result in Belgium marked an amazing fourth endurance race victory for the brand this year. The success of the Audi R8 GRAND-AM in the GT class at the Daytona 24 Hours and victory at the Sebring 12 Hours with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro were followed
by the two WEC wins. The next stop on the calendar will be Le Mans on June 9 when Audi Sport Team Joest is going to prepare for the Le Mans 24 Hours on the official test day. On June 22 and 23, Audi will aim to achieve its twelfth victory at the classic endurance race.
2013 FIA WEC standings Pos
Driver
Nats
Points
1
LOTTERER A.
DEU
44
1
TRÉLUYER B.
FRA
44
1
FÄSSLER M.
CHE
44
2
MCNISH A.
GBR
43
2
DUVAL L.
FRA
43
2
KRISTENSEN T.
DNK
43
3
DAVIDSON A.
GBR
27
3
BUEMI S.
CHE
27
3
SARRAZIN S.
FRA
27
4
JANI N.
CHE
20
4
HEIDFELD N.
DEU
20
4
PROST N.
FRA
20
5
BELICCHI A.
ITA
16
5
CHENG C.
CHN
16
5
BECHE M.
CHE
16
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Tough test for Castrolbacked Team Bray Racing at Nitro Champs Tyre shake and mechanical issues saw Castrol EDGE-backed Team Bray Racing’s Victor and Ben Bray endure a ‘tough day at the office’ during the weekend’s Top Doorslammer racing at Sydney Dragway’s Nitro Champs. Victor opened his campaign with a promising five second pass (5.967 seconds at 233.96 miles per hour) before his second qualifying attempt (6.295s at 185mph) became expensive indeed when an intake rocker broke late in the run, causing significant damage to the engine. The sixtime ANDRA Top Doorslammer champion decided to sit out the third qualifying
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session, instead giving his team more time to concentrate on repairing the car ready for race day. “I was sure our five second result from earlier in the day would keep me in the race field and indeed it did, seeing us line up against local West Aussie Murray O’Connor come race day,” said Victor. “Both of us suffered from tyre shake off the line, but unfortunately for me O’Connor was able to recover more quickly and beat me to the finish line. While Team Bray Racing might not have had the best of weekends, I was really
happy to see my friend Peter Kapiris reset the national record during qualifying to 5.792 seconds – congratulations Peter! And as always, big thanks have to go to our crew who work so hard on both of our cars, it might not have gone our way this weekend but that’s just racing!” Victor’s son Ben also endured some tough times in Sydney, with the blower belt coming off and damaging the motor front seal of his Sidchrome Top Doorslammer at the 1000ft mark of his first qualifying run (6.052s at 243.33mph). The crew worked tirelessly to ensure
Ben and his machine were ready for the second session, where tyre shake intervened for a 6.334 second result. His third attempt of the day saw a best effort of 6.022 seconds, which was unfortunately not enough to make the highly competitive race day field.
some more testing in the coming weeks, after we take it back to the workshop and put it on the scales. The Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway are now just weeks away, and we are certainly looking forward to throwing everything we have as a team at that event.”
“It was a pretty hard day at Sydney Dragway for us for sure, but it wasn’t all bad – we made some good progress on battling the tyre shake issues and also the problems we have been having with the car turning right which has been bothering us for some time,” said Ben. “We have plans in place now to take my car out for
The semi-finals saw O’Connor and John Zappia face off, they both left before the starter activated the tree for a ‘no winner’ result. After defeating Peter Kapiris in the other semi-final, Mark Belleri went on to win the Top Doorslammer final with a solo ‘accepting of the tree’ following engine damage incurred during his semi-final win
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(solo pass due to ‘no winner’ in the other semi-final). In other racing, while Michael Baghdadi tried his best at the weekend to regain his Australian four cylinder record in the sport compact class, Ben’s Nissan Altima record – set at the Willowbank Raceway just weeks ago – still remains in place. The next round of the ANDRA Drag Racing Championship’s will be the Fuchs Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway on the June Holiday weekend.
Molly Taylor to contest Scouts Rally SA with Castrol-backed Innate Motorsport European-based Australian rally driver Molly Taylor will make a surprise appearance at the Scouts Rally SA from 24-26 May for the Castrol EDGEbacked Ford Innate Motorsport Team. Fresh from competing in the Rally Acores, a round of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and ready to race at Rally Tour de Corse, held on the French island of Corsica, Taylor will fly into Adelaide on Monday 20 May with regular co-driver Seb Marshall. “I absolutely love Scouts Rally South Australia and am very excited to have the opportunity to compete,” said Taylor. “I have always wanted to come back and drive in Australia but needed to concentrate all my efforts in Europe.
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However this year, Adrian and the guys at Innate have made the car available and they thought it would be a good idea to do the Scouts Rally to allow the team and I to work together before the Australian round of the WRC.” Taylor is very comfortable in the Ford Fiesta R2, having competed against the best young drivers in the world in the 2011 WRC Academy, all equipped with identical Ford Fiesta R2s. In 2012 she switched to her current mount, a Citroen DS3 R3 and is contesting eight rounds of the ERC this year with Italian based United Business. Adrian Coppin from Ford Innate Motorsport is looking forward to pairing up with Taylor in the latest ARC round
“I am looking forward to having Molly on the team as she has a huge amount of experience in the Ford Fiesta R2 and we are hoping to capitalise on this experience at the Scouts event as we work towards Rally Australia.” Coppin said. “Having two cars running is a great result for Ford.” Taylor will re-join the Ford Innate Motorsport later in the year to drive one of the team’s cars in the Australian round of the WRC at Coffs Harbour from 12-15 September alongside regular driver Adrian Coppin in a serious attempt by the team to win the WRC 3 class.
Castrol-backed ‘Team Yellow’ triumph in Targa Since Castrol won the Yellow Cabs (Logan City) business in mid-2011 ‘Team Yellow’ have been racing on full synthetic engine, gearbox and differential oils in their two, 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z06s in the Australian Targa Championship. Neill Ford is the Managing Director of the entire business and both Neill, his son Danny and Danny’s wife Nathalie Ford all race in the Australian Targa Championship. The team recently completed a successful race meet in Tasmania where they finished second at the Targa Tasmania event to sit third in the Showroom Sports points table. Danny Ford is the Fleet Operations Manager for Yellow Cabs Brisbane, Logan City, Ipswich and Toowoomba and a keen Tarmac racer.
STRENGTH TO PERFORM
“We finished second in the race at Targa and are now third in the Championship,” said Danny. “Thank you to our wonderful sponsors Castrol and Teng Tools for your support and assistance and thank you to our amazing crew for keeping the car going to the end.” Danny’s race team has been using
Castrol since we gained the Yellow Cabs business in 2011 and have been strengthened by the partnership, performing strongly in this year’s Targa events. The Yellow Cabs business started off with just a Logan-based workshop only but soon grew to Brisbane City (Woolloongabba), then Ipswich and Toowoomba.
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CASTROL LOCATOR
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