VOLUME 4 - ISSUE 17
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18th SEPTEMBER 2014
MIXED RESULTS FOR CASTROL CREWS AT SANDOWN 500 It was a mixed bag of results for Castrol-oiled V8 Supercars crews with Ford Pepsi Max Crew securing two cars in the top-10. Chaz Mostert drove his most impressive endurance race stint yet to come from a lap down to seventh. Co-driver Paul Morris put in an error-free first stint only to lose time in his first stop due to an issue with the right-front wheel. Despite the delay he maintained a solid pace before handing over to Mostert around one-third distance.
The four-car Castrol-oiled Nissan Motorsport V8 Supercars team endured a day of ups and down during the Sandown 500. The Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima of Rick Kelly and David Russell finished the best of the four-car team, crossing the line in 13th place.
The #36 Norton Nissan entry of Michael Caruso and Dean Fiore finished in 18th place, a lap off the leaders, after the car was handed a drive through penalty for spinning its wheels during the pit stop. Todd Kelly and international driver Alex Buncombe drove a controlled race, but
From there the rising star used raw pace and smart strategy around safety cars to finish well inside the top 10. Mark Winterbottom and Steve Owen endured a tougher day as they battled an illhandling car to finish 10th. An innocent spin for Owen lost some ground during his stint but Winterbottom believed his ultimate finishing position would be little different.
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factors out of their hands left them to finish a disappointing 20th. The James Moffat/Taz Douglas entry was out of the race after just 10 laps when a dry break fuel filler malfunctioned. After a large fuel spill in pit lane, the team decided to retire the car. Supercheap Auto Racing’s Tim Slade and Tony D’Alberto brought home 138 valuable points with 12th place the safety car affected race, despite Slade’s cool suit failing during his stint. The next event of the V8 Supercars Championship heads to Mount Panorama for the world-famous Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 9-12.
Championship Points POS
DRIVER
POINTS
1
Jamie Whincup
2325
2
Craig Lowndes
2052
3
Mark Winterbottom
2046
4
Shane Van Gisbergen
1982
5
James Courtney
1964
6
Fabian Coulthard
1856
7
Chaz Mostert
1694
8
Scott McLaughlin
1677
9
Garth Tander
1662
10
David Reynolds
1402
11
Jason Bright
1329
12
Michael Caruso
1328
13
Scott Pye
1323
14
Will Davison
1302
15
Rick Kelly
1268
16
Nick Percat
1236
17
Russell Ingall
1188
18
James Moffat
1187
19
Lee Holdsworth
1117
20
David Wall
1094
21
Tim Slade
1074
22
Dale Wood
936
23
Jack Perkins
905
24
Todd Kelly
839
25
Robert Dahlgren
663
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CASTROL-BACKED VW WIN WRC MANUFACTURERS CROWN Castrol-backed VW driver Sebastien Ogier boosted his World Rally Championship title defence as he fended off a charging Jari-Matti Latvala on the final day to win Coates Hire Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour.
Citroen’s Kris Meeke ended the rally in fourth although he had been running in the podium places for the majority of the event. However, a one minute penalty issued on Saturday night for corner cutting in Stage 10 dashed his rostrum
hopes. Ogier claimed 10 stage wins but he was far from dominant with Meeke and team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala all enjoying spells in the lead over the three days.
The result sees the Castrol EDGE-oiled Volkswagen Motorsport squad secure the 2014 WRC Manufacturers crown after what has been another dominant year for the German marque in rallying. The Volkswagen driver was unable to relax on the final six stages of the rally with team-mate Latvala applying pressure on the Frenchman, but Ogier kept his cool to win the event for the second year in succession. Latvala trailed his stablemate by just 6.8 seconds after 309km of challenging stages, while Andreas Mikkelsen completed a Volkswagen podium lockout in third.
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An inspired tyre choice for the second run of stages on Saturday provided the platform for victory as Ogier reclaimed the lead for a second time during SS11, before an impressive measured drive in the final stages. Mikko Hirvonen finished fifth for M-Sport Ford while Kiwi Hayden Paddon battled hard to come home in sixth for Hyundai, his career best finish in the WRC.
Coates Hire Rally Australia Results Pos
Driver
Team
Time
Gap
1
Sebastien Ogier
Volkswagen
2:53:18.0s
2
Jari-Matti Latvala
Volkswagen
2:53:24.8s
+6.8s
3
Andreas Mikkelsen
Volkswagen
2:54:36.0s
+1:18.0s
4
Kris Meeke
Citroen
2:55:02.0s
+1:44.0s
Australia’s Chris Atkinson brought his Hyundai i20 WRC home in 10th in what has been challenging home rally for the former Subaru works driver. Ogier has extended his championship lead over Latvala to 50 points.
5
Mikko Hirvonen
M-Sport Ford
2:55:11.6s
+1:53.6s
6
Hayden Paddon
Hyundai
2:56:14.2s
+2:56.2s
7
Thierry Neuville
Hyundai
2:57:46.2s
+4:28.2s
8
Elfyn Evans
M-Sport Ford
2:58:28.0s
+5:10.0s
Ott Tanak escaped injury after a huge side impact in his WRC2 car on the 10.86km Bucca SS19. WRC2 was taken out by Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini, beating Jari Ketomaa.
9
Robert Kubica
M-Sport Ford
2:59:57.8s
+6:39.8s
10
Chris Atkinson
Hyundai
3:02:47.4s
+9:29.4s
2014 WRC drivers’ standings POS
DRIVER
POINTS
1
Sebastien Ogier
214
2
Jari-Matti Latvala
164
3
Andreas Mikkelsen
125
4
Mikko Hirvonen
83
5
Thierry Nueville
80
6
Mads Ostberg
74
7
Kris Meeke
67
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ONE RECORD ALREADY IN THE BAG FOR BLOODHOUND TEAM! One aim of the Castrol-backed Bloodhound SSC project (aside from breaking the land speed record) is to excite and inspire, and it looks like that’s happening already. A life-size replica of the rocket and jetpowered car has scooped a Guinness World Record for being the World’s Largest K’NEX Structure. Assembled by Bloodhound fans and a team from Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI), the 13-metre-long replica took two months and nearly 140,000 K’NEX pieces to build, beating the previous record held by a T-Rex located in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
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CASTROL-BACKED BMW DRIVER WITTMANN SECURES DTM CROWN Castrol-oiled BMW driver Marco Wittmann claimed his maiden DTM title with two races to spare at the Lausitzring in a meeting which also saw Pascal Wehrlein record a maiden victory in the series. Wittmann, who has undoubtedly been the star driver of the season with four victories, was able to produce a measured drive safe in the knowledge a solid points finish would earn him the title. “I am still completely overwhelmed, and it is difficult to put the feelings going through my head into words. I am simply overjoyed,” said Wittmann. “I obviously knew that I could wrap things up here at the Lausitzring, but when I crossed the
finish line and my dream became reality, my emotions were all over the place.
position into an healthy lead early on in wet conditions.
“I am very grateful to BMW Motorsport and BMW Team RMG. Everyone did everything in their power to ensure that we were successful. My goal at the start of the season was to get my first race win in the DTM. Now I am DTM champion – that is absolutely awesome.”
There proved to be no stopping the 19-year-old Mercedes driver as he went on to record his maiden victory from fellow Mercedes runner Christian Vietoris. Timo Scheider claimed the final place on the podium for Phoenix Audi.
In the end, the BMW driver came home in sixth place which was enough to secure the 2014 title with visits to Zandvoort and Hockenheim remaining. While Wittmann celebrated his deserved championship success, Wehrlein dominated the race at Lausitzring as he converted his pole
“Now that we have won the Drivers’ Championship, our goal is to win the Team and Manufacturers’ titles with BMW Team RMG and BMW. That would be the icing on the cake. Other than that, I just want to enjoy the races in Zandvoort and Hockenheim – and, if possible, celebrate a bit more success.” Wittman added.
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2014 DTM Standings Pos
Driver
Pts
1
Marco Wittmann
128
2
Christian Vietoris
59
3
Mattias Ekstrรถm
56
4
Edoardo Mortara
56
5
Mike Rockenfeller
54
6
Bruno Spengler
42
7
Pascal Wehrlein
40
8
Maxime Martin
39
9
Augusto Farfus Jr.
39
10
Robert Wickens
37
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CASTROL-BACKED PATA HONDA DELIVERS STRONG SUPERBIKE RESULTS IN SPAIN Castrol-backed Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea took his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to fourth and fifth place finishes in today’s two 10thround World Superbike championship races at Jerez in Spain, retaining his third place in the series with just two rounds to go. The two races were won by Italian Marco Melandri, with French rider Sylvain Guintoli taking two second places and series leader Tom Sykes scoring a third in race two but seeing his championship lead reduced. I’m really happy with today because it was hard to have high expectations last night, knowing we had to make a big change,” said Rea.
“But when we reverted to the previous spec engine and made some changes to the front of the bike I was able to ride the way I like without having to change my style too much. “Starting from tenth on the grid really didn’t help me to use the tyre to its full potential and gain lap times at the beginning; but in the end my pace was really, really strong in both races. We can take a lot of positives but, to be honest, we were chasing our tails a little earlier in the weekend.” Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished seventh and eighth in the two 20-lap outings which were run in cooler, more overcast conditions than the earlier practice and qualifying
sessions at the 4.423km Jerez circuit. In race one I had a terrible start and struggled a bit. When we got to half race distance I think I went the wrong way with the buttons and made hard work for myself in the second half of the race,” said Haslam. “We knew this round would be tough but we’ve come away with two top eights and, even though I would prefer to fight with the next group, I enjoyed a battle so, all-in-all not too bad.” Following the cancellation of the Moscow round, the World Superbike championship will reconvene in one month’s time for round 11 at the French circuit of Magny-Cours.
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2014 WSBK standings 1
Tom Sykes
352 pts
KAWASAKI
2
Sylvain Guintoli
321 pts
APRILIA
3
Jonathan Rea
285 pts
HONDA
4
Marco Melandri
267 pts
APRILIA
5
Loris Baz
262 pts
KAWASAKI
6
Chaz Davies
188 pts
DUCATI
7
Eugene Laverty
154 pts
SUZUKI
8
Davide Guigliano
153 pts
DUCATI
9
Toni Elias
151 pts
APRILIA
10
Leon Haslam
150 pts
HONDA
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TITLE GLORY FOR CASTROL-BACKED MAGIC MICHAEL Michael van der Mark clinched the World Supersport title in Jerez, Spain, last weekend on his Castrol Power1lubricated Pata Honda. The 21-year-old cruised home in first position after taking the lead with just two laps remaining. There are still rounds to go in the championship, but the young Dutchman’s 76-point lead means he cannot be caught and the title is his. “The team has done an amazing job,” the Dutchman said. “This year they gave me an incredible CBR to ride with an amazing set-up.”
Since crashing out of round one in Australia back in February, the 21-yearold Dutch rider has finished no lower than second in the subsequent eight races, taking five victories along the way. Shortly after his triumph last Sunday, Michael talked on camera about his world championship season, about his Pata Honda CBR600RR and about how it feels to be Holland’s first solo motorcycling world champion for 40 years.
2 November at Losail, Qatar) so further victories for Michael are still possible. However, with the cancellation of two rounds this season, Michael will not be able to match the record eight World Supersport victories or points-haul of 276 recorded in the 2007 season by Hannspree Ten Kate Hondarider Kenan Sofuoglu.
Of course, two rounds remain in the 2014 World Supersport championship (5 October at Magny-Cours in France and
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Championship Standings 1
Michael van der Mark
185 pts
Pata Honda World Supersport Team
2
Florian Marino
109 pts
Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
3
Jules Cluzel
107 pts
MV Agusta RC
4
Lorenzo Zanetti
90 pts
Pata Honda World Supersport Team
5
Kev Coghlan
88 pts
DMC PanavtoYamaha
6
Patrick Jacobson
87 pts
Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
7
Kenan Sofuoglu
86 pts
MAHI Racing Team India
8
Roberto Rolfo
71 pts
Team GO Eleven
9
Raffaele De Rosa
67 pts
Core PTR Honda
10
Jack Kennedy
56 pts
CIA Insurance Honda
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