VOLUME 4 - ISSUE 10
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12th JUNE 2014
CASTROL-BACKED VW WINS RALLY ITALY Castrol-backed Volkswagen extended its lead in all three competitions within the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in Sardinia. Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F) claimed their fourth win of the season in extremely tough conditions at the Rally Italy. Volkswagen thus remains unbeaten in 2014 and has increased its winning run to ten victories in a row. “Respect to the entire team, and congratulations to Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia,” said Jost Capito, Volkswagen Motorsport Director “They not only repeated last year’s victory here in Italy, but also ensured that Volkswagen will lead all three competitions in the World Rally Championship at the halfway point of the
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season. Behind this success lies a lot of hard work put in by the entire team onsite, in Wolfsburg and in Hannover.” There was an encouraging performance from M-Sport World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans as Rally Italia Sardegna came to a close. Finishing in a strong fifth place, the Welshman was propelled up the drivers’ standings from eighth to sixth.
Volkswagen team-mates Ogier/Ingrassia for stage wins, fractions of a second, and the overall lead before a puncture cost the Finnish pair the lead and saw them drop back into third place.
The third duo in the Volkswagen Polo R WRC also impressed with a strong and mature display: Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (N/N) ended the sixth rally of the season in fourth place.
“There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend. We showed good speed at times and we’ve managed to run a clean event with no mistakes and no dramas at all,” said Evans. “The car has been absolutely perfect all weekend, so all in all a very productive weekend.” For long periods of the rally, fans were treated to one of the most thrilling duels of the season: Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN) were for a long time embroiled in a two-car battle with their
Rally Italia Sardegna : Final Results
2014 FIA DRIVERS´ STANDINGS
Pos
Driver
Team/Car
Time/Gap
POS
DRIVER
TOTAL
1
Sebastien Ogier
Volkswagen
4:02:37.8
1
Sebastien Ogier
138
2
Mads Ostberg
Citroen
+1:23.1
2
Jari-Matti Latvala
105
3
Jari-Matti Latvala
Volkswagen
+1:32.8
3
Mads Ostberg
66
4
Andreas Mikkelsen
Volkswagen
+2:39.3
4
Andreas Mikkelsen
63
5
Elfyn Evans
M-Sport Ford
+4:41.8
5
Mikko Hirvonen
40
6
Martin Prokop
Czech Ford
+6:05.3
6
Elfyn Evans
36
7
Henning Solberg
Solberg Ford
+7:5.8
7
Kris Meeke
32
8
Robert Kubica
M-Sport Ford
+12:19.0
8
Thierry Neuville
31
9
Lorenzo Bertelli
FWRT Ford
+15:22.1 *
9
Martin Prokop
30
10
Khalid Al Qassimi
Citroen
+16:49.3
10
Henning Solberg
22
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PODIUM RESULTS FOR CASTROL HONDA WTCC IN MOSCOW Castrol Honda Civic drivers made podium appearances in both FIA World Touring Car Championship races at the Moscow Raceway in Russia.
Of the other Hondas, Norbert Micheliz finished P9 after a tough battle with Tom Coronel, while Mehdi Bennani crossed the line in P11.
Race 1:
Race 2:
Gabriele Tarquini secured an impressive second place result for race one at Moscow Raceway. Tarquini started well and defended strongly from Sebastien Loeb, who finished P3, just 0.25s behind.
The reversed grid for Race 2 saw Michelisz and Bennani on row 2 with Monteiro on row 4 and Tarquini on row 5.
Up ahead, pole-sitter Jose Maria Lopez took the win in the 16 lap race by 3.17 seconds. Unfortunately, Tarquini’s Castrol Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro went wide early on, moving him down to P7, a position he maintained until the end of the race.
Michelisz moved into second on lap 2 with Bennani 4th and already Monteiro and Tarquini up to 5th and 6th positions. The race leader was given a drive through penalty for a grid infringement leaving Michelisz under pressure from eventual winner MA Qing Hua. Tarquini’s race ended on lap 6 with steering damage and Tiago also stopped
on lap11 with electrical gremlins. Michelisz lost places when he ran wide on lap 14 but Mehdi held off Coronel to take a well-deserved third place overall in the Proteam Racing Honda. 2014 WTCC Standings POS
DRIVER
POINTS
1
José María López
209
2
Yvan Muller
168
3
Sébastien Loeb
161
4
Tiago Monteiro
105
5
Gabriele Tarquini
96
6
Tom Coronel
74
7
Tom Chilton
73
8
Gianni Morbidelli
64
9
Norbert Michelisz
62
10
Mehdi Bennani
51
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CASTROL-BACKED PRO DUCT RACING GO BACK-2-BACK IN GREAT SOUTHERN 4HR Glenn Seton and Bob Pearson have successfully defended their 2013 Great Southern Four Hour victory, taking a repeat win in style at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit during the Australian Manufacturers Championship enduro. The Castrol-backed Pro Duct Racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X led for a bulk of the race and survived a late-race safety car to take their second Phillip Island victory ahead of the Beric Lynton / Tim Leahey Alphera Financial Services BMW 1M and the class B-winning Iain and Grant Sherrin Sherrin Rentals BMW 135i. During qualifying the rain was patchy and the pair qualified third for the event. Seton and Pearson got off to a good start before setting into race strategy which, as the race went on, gave them a lead of 1min 20 sec until a safety car
towards the end cut the lead back down to 10 seconds. Seton was held up by lapped traffic in the closing stages but never really looked like missing the victory in the closing stages. The ProDuct Mitsubishi completed 121 laps and a total of 539km en route to victory.
personnel change in the team and it’s been great, I have really enjoyed my time with the team this year and being a part of this win today.”
“I am very happy naturally, this is back to back for us because we won here last year,” said Seton. “The car is pretty strong around here, I have to say thanks to Bob for the effort he has put in more than anything, he has put a lot into this and a lot into production cars over the year and he still supports it which is fantastic. “Also to the guys in the crew and the team, there has been a little bit of
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HOT WHEELS DRIFT UTES - SHREDDING TYRES, NOT ENGINES You may have seen the Hot Wheels Stuntz Inc drift utes out on the track and entertaining fans over the past few years during V8 Supercar rounds, at Powercruise events across the country and at other unique venues like the Nitro Outlaw drag championship, to name just a few. Castrol’s valued high performance workshop customer, Kent Dalton from Hi Torque Performance, tunes these super mean Hot Wheels Stuntz Inc Team drift utes.
Kent and his nitrous-boosted Holden ute feature in our latest Castrol EDGE communications campaign, showcasing key opinion leaders and their vehicles. Founder of Stuntz Inc, Matt Mingay, says he has faith in Castrol EDGE, because it stands up under intense engine heat and pressure, even from cold start-up. “We go out there on the track just all guns blazing from the get-go. We get a brand new set of tyres chucked on each
time…we turn key, start-up cold and hold the things flat.” It’s no surprise that under these extreme conditions, the boys choose to use Castrol EDGE. The utes go through a set of tyres in under 10 minutes! Matt Mingay, also chooses to use Castrol products in his stunt Harley, also featured in this clip. Check out the boys in action buy clicking this page
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SECOND WIN OF THE SEASON FOR WITTMANN AND CASTROL-OILED BMW Castrol-backed BMW driver Marco Wittmann celebrated his second win of the year at the third race of the 2014 DTM season in Budapest. The BMW Team RMG driver took full advantage of his pole position in the Ice-Watch BMW M4 DTM to comfortably lead the race from start to finish. After 41 laps of the Hungaroring, Wittmann came home 6.615 seconds ahead of Miguel Molina in a Castroloiled Audi. In the process the 24-yearold has regained the lead in the Drivers’ Championship with a 19 point advantage ahead of his home race at the Norisring at the end of June. The victory was BMW Motorsport’s 61st in the history of the DTM, and the second with the new BMW M4 DTM. This was also the second win in the DTM for BMW Team RMG and its boss Stefan Reinhold. Bruno Spengler produced a successful fightback in the
BMW Bank M4 DTM to cross the finish line in third place and claim his first podium of the season. Spengler had started the race from ninth on the grid and on standard tyres,
and could initially do nothing to stop all the cars on the faster option tyres from passing him. However, when the 2012 DTM champion had changed onto the softer compound, he promptly set about charging through the field on his way to
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third place and a richly-deserved spot on the podium. The two DTM rookies in the squad of BMW Motorsport drivers scored their first points of the season: like Spengler, Maxime Martin fought back impressively to finish sixth in the SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM. António Félix da Costa came home eighth in the Red Bull BMW M4 DTM. Timo Glock, his team-mate at BMW Team MTEK, suffered a disappointing end after what had been an impressive display at the Hungaroring with a puncture.
“That was a very intense race against a great backdrop, in which Marco Wittmann once again put on an absolutely outstanding display,” said Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director). “He dominated the race right from the start and stayed clear of trouble at all times. Marco is incredibly strong this season and it is a joy to watch him from the pit wall. His second win of the season in only the third race, and the lead in the Drivers’ Championship – long may this continue. Behind him it was very exciting right to the end, particularly in the battle for third place, due to the different tyre strategies. “In the end the strategy employed by Bruno Spengler, who produced some great overtaking manoeuvres at the end of the race, and Maxime Martin paid off. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of António Félix da Costa and Timo
Glock. Despite this, congratulations to both our rookies on their first points in the DTM. Four cars in the top ten meant we scored some important points in the Manufacturers’ Championship. It was a great weekend, and we felt right at home here in Hungary.”
2014 DTM Championship POS
DRIVER
POINTS
1
Marco Wittmann
50
2
Mike Rockenfeller
31
3
Edoardo Mortara
27
4
Miguel Molina
26
5
Adrien Tambay
26
6
Christian Vietoris
25
7
Bruno Spengler
23
8
Mattias Ekström
20
9
Augusto Farfus Jr.
14
10
Paul Di Resta
12
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LINDBOM PRIMED FOR KARTING GUEST APPEARANCE Dual Castrol EDGE CIK Stars of Karting Champion Kristian Lindbom will make a guest appearance at the top level of karting at the Hume International Raceway from June 14-15. Lindbom, who has competed in the Dunlop V8 Series over the past few years, will line
up in the highly-competitive KZ2 class at Round 3 of the 2014 Championship at Puckapunyal, Victoria. After winning backto-back junior Championships in 2003 and 2004, Lindbom ventured into the Formula Ford, Formula 3 and eventually the Dunlop V8 Supercars Series ranks over the past decade.
Lindbom is equal fifth on the all-time winners list but is under no illusions about the competitiveness of the Championship. Lindbom will be campaigning an Energy kart owned by Walkinshaw Racing V8 full-timer Nick Percat on the circuit that Lindbom won the 2004 National Championship in the Junior Clubman class. “Nick and I have spent a fair bit of time together at the kart track over the past few years since he got his kart. Until now he’s been doing most of the driving but with his commitments full-time in the V8 Championship this year with Walkinshaw Racing he was unable to race, so he asked me if I wanted to have a crack,” said Lindbom. “It’s a great opportunity to race in one of the most challenging machines that I’ve ever driven against some very tough competition.
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“I’ve always kept an eye on karting while I‘ve been racing other forms of motorsport, the talent that is around in the Stars of Karting these days is incredible and I hope that I can get out there and be competitive. I haven’t raced at this level for almost a decade now but one thing I do have in my favour is that I know the Puckapunyal track layout – but things will be a lot faster than I remember them given I’ll be doing about 40 km/h faster than I was in a junior kart.” Lindbom is one of 24 drivers to be lining up in the KZ2 class at the event that currently has reigning champion Joey Hanssen leading the chase for the John Pizarro Perpetual trophy. After a coming together with Hanssen in the final at the previous round, second placed David Sera will be out to topple his rival at Puckapunyal on a circuit that he has enjoyed significant success at during his successful career. In the KF2 class, the racing will be just as intense with Bundaberg driver Troy Loeskow holding a slender four-point lead in the Championship standings
over reigning champion Matthew Waters entering the mid-point of the five-event calendar. Darwin driver Bryce Fullwood also holds a slender lead in the KF3 points standings with Round One winner Jayden Ojeda six points adrift in second place. Practice will be held on June
13 ahead of the qualifying heats from 8:30am on June 14. The finals will be contested from 8:30am on June 15. Entry for spectators is free. All of the action from the finals on June 15 will be streamed live and exclusive on Speedcafe.com.
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