Auto Action #1831

TONY QUINN TO QUINNFINITY AND BEYOND

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GAME ON!

SUPERCARS’ NEW SEASON – THE BATTLE FOR THE TITLE STARTS NOW!

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SANDOWN AT 60 YEARS PLUS FABULOUS FAST RACING TO THE END

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GAME ON IN SYDNEY WILD WEATHER, CRAZY RACING, BATTLES AT THE FRONT

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By Paul Gover, News Editor IT’S TAKEN a long time but Chaz Mostert is finally leading the Supercars championship.

A win and a third at Sydney Motorsport Park means he is wearing an orange number for the first time on his WAU Commodore, but he still knows who he has to watch.

“The same guy that won last year is still the same guy to beat this year,” Mostert says of Shane van Gisbergen.

“He was a lap down and he still gets back to sixth. He just doesn’t have a bad day, even when it looks like a bad day.”

SvG is only third in the standings after the season opener, also behind Anton De Pasquale in the Shell Mustang and, after winning the opener on Saturday night, he managed to ‘magic’ that sixth-place finish on Sunday after a massive mistake in qualifying.

“How did I do that? I honestly don’t know.

And there are people here who would kill for a sixth,” says van Gisbergen, admitting to Auto Action that even he was surprised by his result.

The take-out from SMP is not clear, although De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki each bagged a pole position and delivered solid results.

Nick Percat was quick in the second WAU Commodore, Andre Heimgartner relished the change to Brad Jones Racing, David Reynolds looked – and drove – more like his old self, and even James Courtney showed some speed alongside Cam Waters at Tickford.

Broc Feeney got monstered on Saturday but returned serve in a couple of stoushes on Sunday, and proved he deserves a spot at The Bulls with a pair of Top 10 qualifying runs followed by ninth and 11th at the flag.

He even led a couple of laps during the mid-race melee on Sunday.

“The results weren’t what I wanted, but I was still running up the front and battling for the lead in a Supercars race,” he says.

But all the focus was on Mostert on Sunday afternoon at SMP, and not just because of his wild teal hair.

“We’re just building. We want to build momentum; not worry about the pressure,” Mostert says after his win.

“Good things are happening. I’ve really enjoyed this weekend.”

How did he do it? Is it just a repeat of the

fast-car form from Bathurst in December?

“Strategy worked good. Car was quick,” he says.

“I still think we’ve still got some things we have to work on. Nailing qualifying is still hard.

“The conditions ended up coming our way. We’ve still got some deficit to find in qualifying.”

He is clearly pumped to be leading the series, but wants to enjoy it.

“I don’t really feel the pressure – I’m a goofy larrikin behind the scenes.”

“What a cool weekend. I never thought I would have an orange number on my car. It’s just cool to tick that box off my list.”

He also reports a good start with Percat as his new team mate.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with him as a team mate. He’s forced me to lift. We’re a different team now.

With the first round done, De Pasquale is not getting excited.

“It doesn’t mean too much now. Only 12 rounds to go,” he says.

“Right now you can’t disregard anybody in

this championship. Brodie led. Chaz led. It’s a fight with everyone.

“But any time you get two podiums on a weekend is pretty good.”

For Kostecki, the first pole position was a landmark but he – like his team mate Will Brown – is looking for more.

“I think we’ve got all the right tools in the toolbox. It’s just a question of whether we pull them out of the box,” he says.

Looking ahead, Mostert refuses to get ahead of himself.

“I don’t want to go talking about the year ahead. I never thought I’d see the day when the colour of my number would change,” he says.

“I’m just looking forward to the next round.

But is this his best shot at a Supercars championship?

“I feel like every year in this championship the competition is so intense.

“I feel like I’m driving the best I ever have. I just have to get better.”

“In my prime? I’m not sure. I feel like I’m driving the best I ever have. I just have to get better.”

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WAU EVOLUTION REAPING REWARDS

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GROVE FIGHTS T8 OVER ENGINEERING ACE

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THE FIRST BIG SUPERCARS BATTLE OF SEASON 2022 IS NOT BEING FOUGHT ON THE TRACK ...

By Paul Gover, News Editor TRIPLE EIGHT and Grove Racing are shaping up in a legal battle over engineering ace David Cauchi.

The tug-of-love over Cauchi could easily end in a Supreme Court legal action and six-figure lawyers’ bills.

The technical chief who guided Shane van Gisbergen to last year’s Supercars crown has been caught in a convoluted dispute over the terms of his departure from T8 and his arrival at Grove.

Cauchi served six months of ’notice’ before leaving the T8 headquarters in Banyo, but was then supposed to serve another half-year of ‘gardening’ leave to prevent an early arrival to restructure and revitalise the former Kelly Racing operation.

But Grove Racing says Cauchi was not being paid to ‘garden’ and snapped him up, firstly to engineer the Porsche that the Grove team raced to sixth place in the recent Dubai 24-Hours with Stephen and Brenton Grove joined by Anton De Pasquale.

When there was no reaction from T8

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to that development, Grove went ahead with its plan to install Cauchi as its Team Principal from the Supercars pre-season test at Winton and then the season opener at Sydney Motorsport Park.

But, just two hours before the first Supercars practice session, T8 made its first public statement by revealing it was taking legal action against Cauchi.

“Triple Eight Race Engineering is of the view that David Cauchi is in breach of his ongoing contractual obligations to the Team. Triple Eight has instructed its lawyers to take immediate steps to protect the Team’s legitimate business interests,” the team says in a press release.

There is no mention of anything else, not even previous approaches to Grove Racing – nor Cauchi – about the situation.

And it’s not the first time there has been a dispute with a departing T8 crew member, as both Adrian Burgess and Campbell Little – who now work in the technical department at Supercars – have both reported a messy end to their time with the Banyo bunch.

The Grove empire is a vast public company with thousands of employees and experienced lawyers who specialise in employment and contract law, so it did not take long for the team to respond.

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Crucially, too, team owner Stephen Grove says he will back Cauchi and protect his interests through any legal action.

“No legitimate case has been outlined against him. The team will provide any support required to Cauchi in this personal matter,” Grove Racing says in its official response to the Triple Eight release.

“Cauchi served his full notice period with Triple Eight until January 6, 2022, and joined Penrite Racing, in a completely different role, after that time.”

Grove is making little comment about the dispute, but could not resist a jab at Triple Eight.

“For a team that’s enjoyed so much success for so long it’s rather interesting timing to be focussing on taking this action on the first day of the season. We’ve done everything above board in acquiring David (Cauchi),” he says.

“We’re focused on continuing to build our team and doing our fighting on the track, with David as a valued member of our squad. There’s bigger issues for people to worry about in the world right now than an attempt by Triple Eight to try to stop a man from earning an income for him and his family for six months.”

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United’s recent success is the product of a project spanning several years, according to Team Owner Ryan Walkinshaw.

Chaz Mostert took advantage of his favoured wet conditions to win the second race of the Supercars Championship opener after finishing on the podium in Race 1, completing a strong weekend for the Victorian team despite the struggles of teammate Nick Percat.

A win in the 2021 Bathurst 1000 had people sitting up and taking notice of WAU, but Ryan Walkinshaw believes Mostert’s win at Sydney Motorsport Park says just as much about the team’s improvement.

“Coming to a track like this is a bit of a bogey track. Last year in the four events here we were pretty hit or miss, probably more misses than hits,” Walkinshaw said.

“We came into this weekend hoping we could get both cars in the top 10 – we would be happy with that.

“Coming here and being relatively consistent all the way through practice sessions and qualifying, coming away with a win today and a podium yesterday is really, really exciting.

“So yeah, it’s a long season ahead ... not going to get too excited. But it’s nice to be in this position, particularly after this event.”

Mostert now sits atop the Supercars Championship standings for the first time in his career, which is a testament to the efforts of his whole team over a sustained period in the eyes of Walkinshaw.

“We’ve been working pretty hard in the last few years, building up and we’ve always felt that we could do more,” Walkinshaw said.

“You’ve got to show people that you’re doing something and get a couple of good people in to show that you’ve improved and that gives other people down pitlane a little bit of confidence that maybe they want to go and join this team.

“We went and got Chaz in, Adam Deborre, ‘Shippy’ (Andrew McPherson), Geoff (Slater) over the last few years.

“It’s been a lot of work and it’s just great to see these guys getting rewards.

“It’s been a journey and hopefully it’s not finished.”

WAU will look to maintain its momentum into the second round of the season, which will be held in Tasmania at the end of the month.

A quick turnaround in results for Percat will be a focus for the team – he currently sits 11th in the standings. Josh Nevett

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KOSTECKI: I CAN FIGHT FOR THE TITLE EREBUS MOTORSPORT up-and comer Brodie Kostecki believes he has all the resources to fight for the title as early as this year after finishing second in Race 2 of the Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Kostecki backed up a fifth-place finish on Saturday with his fourth career podium on Sunday, propelling himself to fourth in the standings at the conclusion of the first round.

The 24-year-old sits just 30 points behind series leader Chaz Mostert and led that man

for much of Sunday’s encounter.

Kostecki was the quickest man on track early and led for 37 laps before the second safety car period.

He may have been outpaced by wet weather specialist Mostert in the end but speaking post-race Kostecki was embracing suggestions that he is a title threat.

“I’d like to think so (a title contender),” Kostecki said.

“I think we have all the tools there for us now.

“The cars have been really good since we were here last year. The car was unreal in the dry and Chaz was a bit better than us in the wet.

“We’ve come back here and sorted out a few troubles we were having in the wet.

“I’m glad we’ve sorted that out and it will be really interesting to see how we go at Tassie.

“I’m just happy to finish both races, have two clean cars and to have pace is always good.”

A podium finish at Bathurst after a strong run at Sydney in 2021 had drivers on notice,

but now they will be paying extra attention to Kostecki who is one half of the rising Erebus squad alongside Will Brown.

“I see 25 cars as a threat to the championship, you can’t disregard anyone.

Brodie is as big a threat as anyone,” Mostert said.

Joining Kostecki among the frontrunners, Brown sits seventh in the championship after SMP, placing Erebus as one of the leading squads at this early point in the season.

Josh Nevett

WEBB NOT DONE WITH RACING JUST YET

By Paul Gover, News Editor The motorsport bug still has its talons sunk deeply into Jono Webb.

Despite selling Team Sydney at the end of last year he was one of the early arrivals at Sydney Motorsport Park for the start of the ‘touring car’ championship.

The difference is that he is driving in the Toyota 86 Championship.

Webb will also be back in action at the historic meeting at Phillip Island, where he will be driving his father Steve’s ex-Colin Bond Ford Sierra RS500.

“I grew up around racing. It’s part of me. As long as I can remember, dad had race-cars and we were watching racing on TV or I was being dragged around to meetings,” Webb tells Auto Action. ““I started in Nations Cup in a Porsche at the grand prix meeting. I don’t think you can shake it.”

Webb looks fit and happy at SMP

and reports he is working on his next project, a new house on the Gold Coast.

“The stress-free Christmas was good. It’s been great to have a break.

We had 11 years with Tekno.”

The former Tekno race team base, alongside the M1 freeway to Brisbane, is now leased and devoid

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of anything from the Team Sydney days.

But his two youngsters, 8-yearold Judd and 4-year-old Riyo, are showing signs that they have caught the motorsport bug.

“The older one is doing a bit of go-karting with (Michael) Patrizi and the younger one is showing some

interest. But it’s only for fun.

“Patrizi has two girls so I’ve told him my boys can help out.”

Although he is down-scaling his motorsport involvement, 38-yearold Webb is happy with his 86 and historic commitments.

“I usually do at least one of the 86 meetings a year. I’ve done them for

six or seven years. It’s fun,” he says.

“The first time was at Homebush.

It always feels like a family with Neal Latest and his crew. It’s always one of the most enjoyable race meetings I do all year.”

At Phillip Island, he will have his first races in the family’s Group A Sierra, as Steve Webb rolls out his gorgeous Elfin 360 after a recent update.

“The Elfin has just had a bit of a birthday,” he says.

“My dad wouldn’t let the Sierra go until now but I got him in a good mood at Christmas. So he’s letting me have a go.”

FORMER BATHURST 1000 winner Jonathan Webb will drive the ex-Colin Bond Caltex sponsored Sierra at the Phillip Island Classic this weekend.

Webb is one of several big names that will attend the event. Other legendary names that will cut laps include Larry Perkins and John Bowe. Dan McCarthy

WATERS DISSAPOINTED WITH ROUND 1 CAMERON WATERS and Tickford Racing expected more from the opening round of Supercars Championship season.

Heading into the season opener Cameron Waters was being spoken about as a title contender and, although the team played down its chances heading into SMP, they admitted they expected more.

On Saturday, Waters finished 11th. After qualifying outside of the top 20, in 22nd position, he recovered to finish fourth in the second race, but admitted he was expecting more.

“That’s Sunday done and dusted – we ended up fourth, which we’re super happy with after yesterday,” he confessed.

“We were really competitive in qualifying in mixed conditions, the shootout was really good, and the car was a lot better in dry racing, so we definitely moved forward.

“We still have a bit of work to do as a team. We should’ve been better than we were this weekend, but we’ll bounce back in Tassie.”

The fast and flowing Sydney circuit has been a bogey track for the Victorian Ford team for a number of years, recently highlighted when the Supercars completed four back-to-back rounds at the venue late last year.

Across the four rounds and 10 races held at the venue last year Waters scored just one top five finish, but the team thought they found a direction coming into this weekend.

Waters’ engineer Sam Potter felt they certainly found a setup on Sunday, but it was a case of too little too late.

“We obviously had our struggles last year

and we thought we had found a bit of a direction,” Potter said.

“The weather didn’t really help us figure out whether we’d actually made gains or not. But today’s (Sunday) performance, I mean, the weather probably played a little bit into it, but Cam’s a lot happier.”

James Courtney was the only other driver to sneak into the top 10, with a 10th place finish on Saturday – he is the second best

placed Tickford Racing driver in the title after Round 1, 12th in the standings.

Potter explained that it is understeer that Tickford are hampered by at SMP and the usual cures simply don’t work.

“Really we just struggle with understeer and no matter what we seem to tune it with, tools that we usually use at other tracks, it just hasn’t really translated here,” he said.

“We end up using those same tools and

making it worse to be honest. I think we just overshot ... we’ve sort of come back a bit today and found a happier spot ... it’s very, very on the edge, I guess.”

Waters leaves SMP 87 points behind championship leader Mostert. The good news is the Ford team is strong at the upcoming tracks, Symmons Plains and Albert Park and will be looking to close that margin back down. Dan McCarthy

SMP’S POST-RACE DERBY ...

AFTER THE chequered flag was thrown on Sunday evening, Supercars drivers appeared to lose the plot with three drivers damaging their cars significantly on the in lap!

Title contender Anton de Pasquale crashed exiting the final corner – the Dick Johnson Racing driver had finished third, but made a bit of a fool of himself when he hit the concrete after a failed drift attempt while following Brodie Kostecki.

In the post-race press conference, De Pasquale shrugged off the incident: “I was just having a bit of fun,” he said. “Just a little bit of paint on the outside (caught me out), but yeah obviously I’ll say sorry, buy them (the crew) a couple beers and carry on.

“Me and Brodie (Kostecki) had a sick drift. It’s all good, we were just putting on a cool show ...”

Incredibly this was not the only incident. Todd Hazelwood and Mark Winterbottom collided heavily at Turn 1 just metres after the finish line.

In the final stages of the race former champion Winterbottom held off ex-Super2 Series winner Hazelwood by 0.12s at the line.

However, the cars would go just

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300m further when the pair made heavy contact and both found themselves beached in the gravel trap.

Hazelwood explained his side of the story, stating that he lost control of his ZB Commodore causing him to clumsily crash into the side of Winterbottom.

“I just aquaplaned across the

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straight,” Hazelwood recalled. “I had a decent run off the final corner onto the front straight.

“Frosty and I went side by side and he squeezed me right up against the wall, which I have no problems with, that’s hard racing.

But then I just hit a puddle, hit a white line and I basically spun out from the start finish line all the way

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to Turn 1 ... I was locked up and just a passenger.”

The South Australian related it to something you would see in NASCAR with multiple drivers crashing over the start and finish line.

“It was either wreckers or chequers I guess if you call it full NASCAR style,” he said.

“Obviously I ran up to Mark’s car just to apologise and obviously he was very animated as I probably would be in his shoes. I just wanted to go up and apologise.”

Unsurprisingly Winterbottom had a very different take on the incident, describing Hazelwood’s driving as ‘dumb.’

“What do you do when someone does something dumb and then they come up and say sorry?

They’re looking at you ... what do you do? Winterbottom asked.

“That’s the biggest crash I’ve had in my career – after the flag!

I can’t believe it, I actually can’t believe it.

“He’s hit me at 240kp/h in the back at Turn 1 which is about 200300 metres after the flag. What do you say? I don’t know what to say.”

Team 18 team owner Charlie Schwerkolt also said that Hazelwood could have avoided the accident.

“Bit of a rough end for poor old ‘Frosty’ (Winterbottom) over the finish line, Todd did a silly thing and didn’t back off I think and decided to take him out after the line,” Schwerkolt said.

Dan McCarthy

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STOP / GO

TICKFORD RACING has locked in its co-drivers for the 2022 Bathurst 1000, newcomers Zane Goddard and Kurt Kostecki joining Zak Best and James Moffat in the team’s four-car line up. Goddard is without a drive in the upcoming Supercars Championship but made 45 appearances between 2020-2021 with Matt Stone Racing. Kostecki, who is the older brother of #56 Tickford driver Jake, started 9 races last year as a Walkinshaw Andretti United Wildcard with a best race finish of sixth in Darwin. JN

TRIPLE EIGHT has announced that it will return to the GT World Challenge Asia Series which returns for the first time since its COVID-19 enforced shut down. This year Prince Jefri Ibrahim’s brother Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim will team up with Jazeman Jaafar in the #888 Mercedes-AMG to contest the full campaign. The series will kick off at Sepang International Circuit in May. DM

THE WALKINSHAW Automotive Group has announced that it will enter the 2022 Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC), through its subsidiary company, Walkinshaw Performance. Walkinshaw has named two drivers, one driver is well known to Supercars fans, six-time Bathurst 1000 podium finisher Warren Luff, while the other driver will be David Kermond. Luff will pilot a VW W580X Amarok in the Production 4WD class, Kermond will drive a ZR2 Colorado in the 2WD Performance class. DM

SUPERCARS’ OFFICIAL vehicles will again be provided

by Ford Australia for the 2022 Championship season.

The Ford Mustang GT, Ford Focus ST, Ford Fiesta ST and Ford Ranger Raptor make up the range of cars, which will all sport a BP Ultimate livery. Ford will be moving to the freshly unveiled Next-Generation Ranger Raptor as Supercars’ Official Recovery Vehicle in mid-2022, while the Ford Focus ST Medical Car will be upgraded to the updated 2022 model in Q2. JN

AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT icon Colin Bond has celebrated his 80th birthday. There is not a lot that Bond did not accomplish over his three-decade long motorsport career in Australia, winning the Australian Rally Championship three times, Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst 500. In fact, Bond is the only person to have won both the ATCC and ARC, a testament to his versatility. Bond was inducted in the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2002. JN

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DRIVERS SPLIT ON 300KM FORMAT THE 2022 Supercars Championship kicked off with a pair of long haul 300km races at Sydney Motorsport Park and some of the best performers were split on whether the format was a hit.

Generally, the season kicks off with 250km affairs but scheduling this time around saw the teams and drivers take on 77-lap, 2-hour challenges Despite winning the first encounter comfortably, Shane van Gisbergen did not believe the extended distance produced better racing.

“It’s always intriguing but I like racing people, even if it’s on different tyres, you can battle more, like the first stint with Andre Heimgartner,” van Gisbergen said.

“He was quicker, but he was still managing and trying to come through – that kind of stuff is interesting.

“But from lap 20 I never raced another car equally. You give us a softer tyre, we just drive slower.

“I felt like my lap times were quicker on the soft at the end of the race.

You have a softer tyre, but you just manage it.”

On the other hand, race runnerup Anton De Pasquale enjoyed the experience, suggesting that longer races were an interesting test of strategy. “ The longer races are quite cool, I think we all enjoy it,” De Pasquale said.

“We haven’t done many fuel races for the last couple years. It’d be cool to sneak that in little bit more.

“Looking outside, the race probably went a little too short because it would’ve been cool if we had the rain with about 10 to go.”

After rounding out the podium for

Walkinshaw Andretti United from eighth on the starting grid, Chaz Mostert was most enthusiastic about the longer distance races.

“I quite like the longer races, always have – I think it’s good where we have at least a double stop race,” Mostert explained. “ There’s more you can do with strategy – it’s cool to see all the guys on guns and refuelling and all that kind of stuff.

“I personally love the longer races for strategy – I’ve always loved us having three enduro events.

“Shane did a three-stop which was pretty unique.”

The Bathurst 1000 is the foremost endurance race on the Supercars calendar, while the double extended race format is set to be employed next at Townsville in July.

Josh Nevett

MIXED FEELINGS FOR FEENEY

Image: Motorsport Images TRIPLE EIGHT Race Engineering Supercars rookie Broc Feeney has conceded he has ‘a long way to go’ to challenge the top contenders despite a promising start to his maiden campaign.

The 19-year-old has been the talk of the town since signing on to replace Jamie Whincup, carrying the weight of expectation that comes with stepping into the most prized seat in Supercar racing.

After hanging around the top 10 at the start of his debut round, including Race 1, Feeney demonstrated his talent in the wet on Sunday to qualify fourth and retain that spot on the grid in the shootout.

Feeney followed up his quick laps with a strong first stint in Race 2, running P2 after a duel with Brodie Kostecki.

As conditions worsened Feeney dropped back in the field to come home 11th, leaving him with mixed feelings at the end of the weekend.

“The whole event has been good for us.

The results weren’t what I wanted, but I was still running up the front and battling for the lead in a Supercars race,” Feeney said.

“It was a good first race. We had a great strategy and I felt like I got the most out of what I could for the first race, overall, I was happy with how it all went.

“It was cool to get into the shootout twice this weekend. It was certainly a goal of mine to get into both shootouts, and to get onto the second row for the second race was really good.

“There are positives to take out of it but there’s certainly a long way to go.

“I’m glad the first one is out of the way, even though everyone says that, but now I have a bit more of an understanding of what it’s like.”

Reflecting on the experience as a whole, it was clear that Feeney revelled in his first taste of the main game as a full-time driver.

“The driver introductions and people cheering my name in the crowds was pretty cool, then banging doors with the other drivers on track was a lot of fun.”

Feeney will head into the second round in Tasmania as the top ranked 2022 grid addition, sitting 10th in the standings.

Josh Nevett

PREMIAIR PRACTICE POSITIVITY THE PREMIAIR Racing duo of Chris Pither and Garry Jacobson are taking the positives out of a weekend of mixed fortunes at Sydney Motorsport Park.

On Supercars Championship debut, the newly branded PremiAir Racing team achieved its best result in Race 1 with Jacobson finishing 18th, however the most promising signs came from Pither’s Coca Cola car which showed strong pace in Race 2.

Pither qualified 13th before moving up to 10th on Super Soft tyres, overtaking Will Davison in the process.

His progress was short-lived though, as failed weather predictions saw the 35-yearold slip to 20th by the conclusion of the race.

Nevertheless, Pither was looking on the bright side.

“I felt much better hopping out of the car on Sunday then I did on Saturday with the ergonomics of the car.

“I think our race pace was much better – although we didn’t convert the result we wanted, there were some positive signs on track.

“I made up a few places on lap one which was good. Then unfortunately the rain didn’t come when we predicted it was going to, so we just didn’t have the right tyre at the right time due to tricky weather conditions.

“Ultimately, there was a lot of good things to take out of Sunday, even though I was a little out of sync we had much better

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competitive pace, and I could run with a few of the guys that were running at the front.

“We just need to continue making big gains each round.”

Jacobson was unable to follow up his steady start in Race 2, technical gremlins in the Subway machine forcing the first DNF of his Supercars career.

However, in keeping with the theme of the weekend, the 30-year-old remained positive.

“In terms of our performance on Saturday, that was probably our highlight for the weekend. After the rain we were in the top five quickest on the track,” Jacobson said.

“It probably just wasn’t our day on Sunday as we had a cool suit failure, some power

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steering issues and an alarm that came on alerting me of no oil pressure so the natural response to that is to turn the engine off.

“Obviously, there’s some things that we need to fix from my end with the car, but we’ll get rid of all the teething issues before Tassie.”

PremiAir Racing has been forced to build its Supercar program from the ground up in quick time – so quickly in fact that the team was unable to schedule a full-length test before the season opener.

The team now has a couple of weeks to make gains before Round 2 in Tasmania.

Pither and Jacobson sit 22nd and 25th, respectively, after the first round of the championship. Josh Nevett

BROWN SHARES HIS LOVE

By Paul Gover, news editor Will Brown is looking to ‘put something back in’ as he shares some of his success with Toyota 86 pace-setter Zach Bates.

The Erebus racer has decided to invest his time and money in another youngster, to give Bates what he had originally been missing in his own motorsport.

That means everything from cash to coaching and, perhaps, a Supercars test with Erebus at the end of the year.

Bates had a meteoric rise through season 2021 but, without big bucks to move up, is repeating in the 86 championship this year. He has recently had a quiet run in a Carrera Cup car, and his uncle Nicholas is promising some Trans Am time in a car he has recently purchased, but there is no firm plan to move up the motorsport ladder.

So it’s good that the Canberra youngster caught Brown’s attention when he broke his record for 86 victories, as Bates got nine in 2021 to seven by Brown in 2016.

He has slapped Will Brown Motorsport stickers on the sides of Bates’ Toyota 86 and also brought one of his personal sponsors, KMC Wheels, into the mix.

“I’m trying to help him as much as I can.

I though I should give back,” Brown tells Auto Action.

The response from the youngster is obvious.

“It’s great for me. We have been struggling to know what to do,” says Bates.

Brown says he is not about to start a junior academy, or become distracted from his job in the main game, but has extra capacity and wants to help.

“Zach did a great job last year. He beat my record in 86s, so he must be pretty good.

“If I can help, I will. I was in a position to do something, so I decided to help.”

Brown says his Erebus team mate, Brodie Kostecki, is also helping a youngster, Kai Allen.

“We both got a bit of a boost along the way.”

The pair were also polished through their involvement with Paul Morris and his Norwell facility on the Gold Coast, which has become a hotbed of young talent.

According to Brown, the deal with Bates is a loose arrangement but with plenty of opportunity.

“It gives him a lot more connections. It puts him on the radar at little bit more.

Now he can come to us if he needs advice or a bit of help.”

That help is likely to extend to a taste of Supercars, although not necessarily with Erebus but through Brown’s connections with junior teams.

“Hopefully at the end of this year he can jump into a Super2 or Super3 car. We’ll see.”

And Brown says Bates is not the end of his involvement.

“I’m behind the scenes with things and I’d like to do more with other kids in the future,” he says.

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MAZEPIN OUT OF F1 AS RUSSIAN GP GETS CANCELLED FORMULA ONE has taken the unprecedented decision to terminate a long-term contract with a Grand Prix promoter when it was announced in a statement last Thursday that the Commercial Rights’ Holder”can confirm it has terminated its contract with the Russian Grand Prix promoter, meaning Russia will not have a race in the future.”

This means the proposed change of venue from Sochi to Igora drive, north of Saint Petersburg, planned from 2023 will no longer happen as Russia has been permanently shut out of the Formula One calendar after just seven editions of its race in Sochi.

Less than two days later, it was Haas F1 team’s turn to issue a statement that read the team, “has elected to terminate with immediate effect the title partnership of Uralkali and the driver contract of Nikita Mazepin. As with the rest of the Formula 1 community, the team is shocked and saddened by the invasion of Ukraine and wishes for a swift and peaceful end to the conflict.”

The close links of Dmitry Mazepin, Nikita’s father and his petrochemical company to Vladimir Putin made it impossible for Haas to continue to work with the Russian billionaire and without the sponsorship deal there was no desire to keep the young Russian in the team – even in the unlikely case he would have accepted to sign the declaration the FIA has imposed on Russian and Belarusian drivers willing to continue their international career, as that would involve condemning Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.

Mazepin, for his side, publish on his social media that, ““I am very disappointed to hear that my F1 contract has been terminated,” he wrote. “While I understand the difficulties, the ruling from the FIA plus my ongoing willingness to accept the conditions proposed in order to continue were completely ignored and no process was followed in this unilateral step.

Images: Motorsport Images

To those who have tried to understand, my eternal thanks. I have treasured my time in F1 and genuinely hope we can all be together again in the better times. I will have more to say in the coming days.”

The name of Mazepin’s replacement was expected to be known just a couple of days before testing was due to start in Bahrain (today). Gunther Steiner had previously stated that, “should Nikita be unable to continue with us it will be Pietro Fittipaldi that will get the first call, because he’s our reserve driver, he’s been with us for three years now and he’s prepared to jump into the car.” But there are other possibilities for the American team, as Ferrari could push to give Antonio Giovinazzi a second chance in Formula One; Alpine is believed to want to put reserve driver Oscar Piastri in the car; and Red Bull-backed Jehan Duravala also seems to be in the frame with important sponsorship coming from India.

As for Nico Hulkenberg, who was briefly mentioned in connection with the seat, his lack of financing could undermine his chances but the final decision will likely be taken as AA goes to press, so check our website for the latest developments of this story.

Luis Vasconcelos

RUSSIA AFFECTS MOTORSPORT WORLDWIDE IT IS not only the Formula 1 teams and drivers who are being affected by the Ukraine and Russia situation – other disciplines have also been caught up in the mess, including a couple of Australians.

Both James Allen and Alex Peroni were set to compete with Russian team G-Drive Racing by Algarve.

Former Formula 3 podium finisher Peroni was set to race for the team in the European Le Mans Series, while Allen was set to race in both the ELMS and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Several days ago the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) banned Russia and Belarus teams from competing in all international events.

Russian and Belarus drivers and officials are allowed to enter races as neutrals, under the FIA flag, not representing their countries, however this does not help out the Aussies.

It was understood that the team may be seeking to have the entries run under the Algarve Pro Racing banner.

However as Auto Action went to print G-Drive Racing boss and driver Roman Rusinov refused to sign the declaration and pulled the team out of the WEC. “Today, I, a pilot of the Russian team G-Drive Racing, refused to accept the discriminatory conditions of the FIA. The goal of every athlete is to hear their national anthem on a podium,” he said on Instagram.

“For 10 years of international experience, our team has done this multiple times. We were raising the Russian flag, we heard and sang the Russian anthem.

“For the sake of my fans, for the sake of my partners and sporting honor, I will not put my signature under this document. It’s better not to drive at all.

“It is a pity that these guys will remain without competing for GDR. Now we are already considering different

Image: MTR Images

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options for motorsport development projects in our country.

“I sincerely hope we can get back to international racing once we get back to sportsmanship and equal playing for all participants.”

SMP Racing is another Russian owned team in the sportscar championship that will be affected.

Motorsport UK has banned all Russian drivers from competing in Britain and has asked other nations to follow suit.

“The entire Motorsport UK community condemns the acts of war by Russia and Belarus in Ukraine and expresses its solidarity and support towards all those affected by the ongoing conflict,” said Motorsport UK chair David Richards.

“This is a time for the international motorsport community to act and show support for the people of Ukraine and our colleagues at the Federation Automobile d’Ukraine.”

Auto Action contacted Motorsport Australia regarding the situation and received a brief statement.

“The matter is under review in consultation with federal authorities and the AGPC (Australian Grand Prix Corporation),” it read.

Aside from teams and drivers, Russian and Belarusian FIA Members have been told to step aside temporarily from their roles and responsibilities.

Dan McCarthy

MCLAUGHLIN OPTIMISTIC FOR TITLE FIGHT INDYCAR RACE winner Scott McLaughlin believes that there is no reason why he and Team Penske won’t be in the title fight come season’s end.

McLaughlin drove a faultless race on the streets of St. Petersburg, holding off the charge of reigning champion Alex Palou to take his maiden IndyCar Series race victory.

Last year, the Team Penske machines struggled for consistency and in the end it cost all four drivers a shot at the title, but the Aussie is optimistic about 2022.

“I think if we keep doing our thing we could be right there at the end for sure,” he said in a press conference attended

by Auto Action.

“But it’s going to take a lot, I’m not kidding myself – I know that potentially if we have a bad qualifying we could find ourselves 20th.

“I’m addicted to it (winning) and I’ll work even harder to make sure that we are even stronger at the next few events.

“It’s consistency that is going to be key for this championship. I think we’ve got a great car and a great team to be consistent, and consistent enough to challenge but that comes from me working hard.

“I’ll keep working and see what we’ve got come the end of the year.

“It’s only one race so far and I’ve got to make sure that I’m

strong like this every round – that will be the difference.

“Last year a seventh position was the average race result for the winner of the championship and I’m sure it’s going to be even better for this year.

“If we can be around that average, we know we’re going to be there or thereabouts and that’s our goal. So consistency is key and we’ll keep working on that.”

Last year the New Zealander felt that his weak discipline was street circuits – until Long Beach, when he found a setup tweak which made him feel a lot more comfortable.

“Street circuits were tough for me last year,” he recalled.

“But I found something towards the end of the year at Long Beach, just setup, and I was able to work on that over the off season and come back with a really strong car at St. Pete.

“It’s actually something that’s a little bit different to what my teammates run, and it brings me a bit more back to my Supercar roots and how I like to drive the car. It certainly felt good.

“I felt just as strong at Long Beach (last year) as I did here

this weekend, maybe a little bit less. But I just didn’t put it together there.

“I knew I was capable and we just were able to work on that side of things over the whole off season.

“I can’t really say what it is. But it’s something that has come from the Supercars days and I’m excited to extract it a bit more at road courses too.

“But look, it definitely instills some confidence in the whole squad that when we get a car that’s raceable, that’s good enough to win the race, we can do it and that’s what makes me really proud.” Dan McCarthy

TEAM PENSKE DRIVERS DISAGREE ABOUT FLAGS

WILL POWER has pleaded with IndyCar officials and stewards to look into the championships blue and yellow flag rules after finishing on the podium in the season opening round on the streets of St. Petersburg, while Scott McLaughlin is just going to get on with it.

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The Team Penske driver (pictured) was observant in the closing laps of the race, looking ahead to his race-leading teammate Scott McLaughlin who was held up by several back markers.

One of them was Jimmie Johnson, Chip Ganassi Racing driver and teammate to

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reigning champion Alex Palou who was hunting down McLaughlin in the closing laps.

“We keep telling IndyCar and they just keep making changes, oh no, they don’t sorry, I forgot,” he said sarcastically.

“I’ve been on about this for 10 years and when every driver in the drivers meeting except one person says we need a blue flag rule. Why isn’t there one?”

Power confirmed that Johnson also failed to get out of his way when he caught him a couple of laps later.

The Australian explained that, with 17 years of IndyCar experience under his belt and with the driving quality in the field, things can be done to fix this.

“You try to tell them I’ve got a great idea, it’s called blue flags when someone’s a lap down,” Power continued. “They’re racing the leader that’s battling for a win.

“I never say much on the radio, but I just said I said ‘Oh, Jimmie looks like he’s trying to get a bit of coverage here’. ... just had a bit of a bit of fun with it.

“It was a good battle between him and I hope the TV gets that sponsor for him.”

Race winner McLaughlin disagreed with his Team Penske teammate, saying tat, in his view, the rules are the rules – you just have to roll with the punches.

“We could have controlled the race a little bit better if it wasn’t for a couple of the backmarkers,” McLaughlin said in a press conference which included AA. “But at the end of the day, those are the rules – they are well within their right to do what they were doing and hold their position, hold their ground.

“I guess the last one, Devlin (DeFrancesco), I was a bit surprised because it’s two laps to go, he was a long way off the guys in front of him ... I thought maybe he might just let me and Alex go.

“But he’s well within his rights, like I said, to stay there. That’s the rule in IndyCar, unless you’re a lap down on the whole field, you don’t have to get out of the way, and that’s different to how they run it anywhere else.

“But, it’s been like this for a very long time in IndyCar; I’m not going to chirp up about it – everyone’s had to deal with it over time.”

Dan McCarthy

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STOP / GO

JOHN BOWE will return to Ford equipment for this year’s edition of the Bathurst 6 Hour, driving a Ranger Liftingbacked FG Falcon GT. The 67-year-old veteran racer will partner with the car’s regular steerer Aaron McGill for the April 15-17 event, which has attracted 70 entries. Bowe has found himself in Holden entries in his last few 6 Hour starts but this time he will steer one of the last production GT Falcon’s to compete in a national motorsport event. JN

THE AUSTRALIAN Top Fuel Championship has announced a final revised calendar for Season One after an interrupted start to the campaign. Sydney hosted the first round back in January, but the series has been shrouded in uncertainty since. However, the recently announced opening of the West Australian border has opened the door for an event to be held at Perth Motorplex from April 8-9, scheduled as the third round after a visit to Sunset Strip Raceway in March. JN

THE GRAND Opening of the new Eastern Creek Speedway scheduled has been postponed due to unprecedented rainfall in Sydney. The newly constructed replacement for Sydney Speedway was set to open in January, but construction delays and now a weather enforced postponement will not see the venue host speedway action until March 12. Situated near Sydney Dragway and Sydney Motorsport Park, the new Eastern Creek Speedway will stage approximately 35 speedway events per season commencing in September and concluding in June each year. JN

FORMER GT racer Ryan How is looking to return to motorsport this year and S5000 looks likely to be his next challenge after a successful test day at Winton Raceway last week. How made waves as a teenager in the Trophy class of the then-Australian GT Championship (now GT World Challenge Australia), taking victory in the first six races of 2019. Now the 20-year-old is targeting an S5000 berth later this year after completing a test program in Tim Macrow Racing’s UCS Group #23 car. JN

FOURTH-GENERATION racer James Simpson will join the Trans Am Series grid at Mount Panorama.

Simpson, who has plied his trade in the Queensland Excel Series over the last three years, has gotten his hands on a brand-new Dodge Challenger and will debut at the third round in April. Behind him is a wealth of experience – Simpson’s father Michael raced in V8 Supercars and a number of other categories, grandfather Ian won numerous titles in Formula Vee, while great grandfather Cyril was a motorcycle racer. JN

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HERNE SOLID FOUNDATIONS NATHAN HERNE was content coming away from Sydney Motorsport Park second in the standings after making the change from Dream Racing to Garry Rogers Motorsport.

Despite now racing for the Bathurst 1000 winning team in a Ford Mustang, a machine that is setup completely differently to the Dodge Challenger that he used to race.

Herne said that, although he has changed from Dodge to Ford, the change is in setup not the car model.

“There’s no real difference between the makes and models in Trans Am; they are a silhouette car so Dodge, Camaro and Mustang are all the same,” he told Auto Action.

“But there’s a lot of difference between GRM and Dream Racing Australia in the car set up. The car is just completely the opposite of what I’ve been used to.

“This handles a lot like a Supercar – it likes to turn in real hard, it gets straight to the corner, but it doesn’t like to accelerate out.

“It’s built around Owen Kelly and Marcos Ambrose – they’ve built the set-up from the ground up, so it’s a bit different for me coming into someone else’s setup from where I’ve come from.

“It’s something I’ve got to get used to, but we’re working towards it – we’ve got good pace in the car.

“We’ve learned a lot this weekend and so have I from being around all these experienced heads.”

As a result of the radical difference in setup, Herne was pleased to come out of the round second in the standings.

Herne expressed surprise at how much the quality of the field has risen over the off season and is sure that consistency will win the title in 2022.

“You just have to look at the qualifying pace – if I qualified 0.02 seconds slower, I would have been back three spots. Last year .02 of a second slower I would have been dead safe,” he recalled.

“It’s great to see, we’re starting to get to that point, now in Trans Am; we’re starting to max out our cars.”

“We’ll find during this year it’s definitely going to be consistency that wins the championship.

“There are so many guys at that the front at the moment that can win, it’s just going to be damage control with points and making sure you finish at the front every weekend.

“I’ve learned the hard way that

championships aren’t won first weekend. I’m big enough and ugly enough to deal with that.

“I always want to go out there and win, and I’m frustrated when I don’t, but I think I can walk out with a smile now thinking I got good Image: ARG/Kalisz championship points and if I’m disappointed with a third place, we’re going pretty well and looking good for the championship for this year.” Dan McCarthy

HERNE TO RUN SELECTED S5000 ROUNDS GARRY ROGERS Motorsport team owner Barry Rogers has confirmed to Auto Action that Herne will run in selected rounds of S5000, and is likely to contest the full Tasman Series at the end of the year.

“We will also be running Nathan Herne and potentially a couple of others in selected S5000 Championship races,” Rogers told AA “From Nathan’s point of view, those races that don’t clash with his Trans Am racing.

“The obvious ones are the Grand Prix, Darwin and Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast event is part of the Tasman Series, so most likely he will run through the whole Tasman Series, although one of those races will clash with Trans Am, but it’s a non-championship round.” Dan McCarthy

SCHEDULE SET FOR SHANNONS OPENER THE SCHEDULE is set for the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships at Phillip Island, with a packed weekend of racing in store.

Three full days of motorsport will commence the Shannons season from March 18-20 with on-track action from seven categories set to feature – the TCR Australia Series, Trans Am Series, GT World Challenge Australia, S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, Radical Australia Cup, Formula Ford and National Sports Sedan Series.

Josh Buchan will enter the weekend as the TCR leader, however he will face stiff competition from a host of drivers including Fabian Coulthard who has extended his deal with Stan to include the upcoming round.

Michael Clemente will make his return to the category after missing Race Tasmania with Carl Cox Motorsport backing.

There will be two practice sessions on Friday for the TCR machines, before qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday at 4:10pm AEDT. Two further 16-lap races will be held on Sunday at 1:05pm and 4:10pm, respectively.

A pair of Tim’s, Brook and Macrow, journey to Phillip Island heading the Trans Am and S5000 categories, respectively.

Trans Am and its big V8 bruisers will get their chance to race at 2:55pm on Saturday after getting acquainted with the seaside circuit on Friday.

A pair of 13-lap races awaits Trans Am on Sunday, at 11:20am and 2:55pm respectively.

Image: MTR Images

Image: ARG/Kalisz The S5000 open wheelers have been afforded similar practice conditions on Friday but will take on two 15-lap races on Saturday, at 12pm and 3:30pm.

One full day later, S5000s will take to the track for their final encounter at 3:30pm on Sunday.

GT World Challenge Australia competitors will be taking to the track for the first time this season.

SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Patel will be in attendance for the GT opener, which will see new specification Audi’s debut in the series and Triple Eight Race Engineering return with Shane van Gisbergen behind the wheel.

The GTs will practice and qualify on Friday, completing a pair of one-hour

races at 1:45pm on Saturday and the same time on Sunday.

Formula Ford has a trio of 10-lap races, two on Saturday and a final clash on Sunday.

The Radicals will also race three times – one 14-lap race on Saturday before two races totally 44 laps on Sunday.

Three 11-lap races are set for Sports Sedans with the same split across the days.

In between the competitive action the track will remain active – Safety Car rides and Hot Wheels stunt shows are scheduled across the three days.

Stan Sport will cover the event live and on-demand from 11:20am on both Saturday March 19 and Sunday March 20.

Josh Nevett

NATIONALS RECOVERIES TO GET A BOOST THE RACE to keep the Motorsport Australia Championship on track will soon see a Supercars-style, permanent recovery team dispatched to the ARG/MA-run national championship series.

It follows recent criticism over long delays to recover damaged and abandoned cars, leading to excessive Safety Car periods and a series of Red Flag stoppages at national events.

Support will come from a global manufacturer soon to be confirmed but believed to be Nissan, supplying a ‘Nissan Navara Warrior.’

Motorsport Australia is about to announce a permanent recovery vehicle package that includes a permanent, professional and welltrained team of experts.

The fully-equipped vehicle will travel to all major Motorsport Australia Nationals events and will be set up similar to the Ford Ranger Raptor which is a permanent presence at Supercars championship events.

The Raptor was the spearhead of a plan to speed up the process of recovering vehicles and dramatically reducing the time that the Supercars contenders spend behind the Safety Car. The Ford workhorse and its permanent crew are used as a high-impact and highlyeffective recovery team that is deployed quickly once the field is under the control of the Safety Car with a mission to recover race cars that have stopped on course or have ended up in a gravel trap or runoff area.

A similar approach is used in other high-

profile international championships, including IndyCar in the USA. The new development comes as good news following the controversial comments by Auto Action’s regular columnist, Luke West, in his Revved Up column in our last issue.

West highlighted the shortcomings of the recent Race Tasmania event where a string of SpeedSeries events were declared early because slow clean-up work did not allow the completion of the scheduled number of racing laps.

While West believes the Australian Racing Group categories have huge growth potential, thanks to their market relevance popularity with race fans, he highlighted the shortcomings at Race Tasmania as a viewer of the impressive new Stan broadcast package.

His first target was the lacklustre standard of driving that led to a big string of incidents at Symmons Plains, following a similarly disappointing effort by the supporting classes at the Bathurst 1000 last December.

In addition to the Safety Car interventions, he highlighted the troubled recovery efforts as many people watching on Stan and Nine Gem saw more action by the recovery team as they attempted to drag cars off the track with antiquated equipment rather than viewing the headline races. While Auto Action applauds the many hundreds of volunteers around the county, without who there would be no racing, it is an important initiative by MA to help speed up recoveries and keep racing going.

Bruce Williams

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GODDARD TO RACE S5000 IT HAS been announced that Supercars pilot Zane Goddard will race in the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship for at least the next two rounds.

The Tickford Racing driver will make his debut in the Gold Star Championship racing for the frontrunning South Australian squad, Team BRM. Goddard will jump behind the wheel of the Form 700 / ALABAR-backed entry driven by Supercars Championship driver Tim Slade in the opening round of the season.

Goddard will race in at least the next two rounds, the Motorsport Australia Championship round at Phillip Island next weekend and the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next month.

The 22-year-old Queenslander previously raced for the team in an exhibition S5000 Championship round back in 2019 at The Bend Motorsport Park, the track at which he tested the car last Thursday.

“It’s great to be back with the team and I’m really looking forward to racing in S5000,” Goddard said.

“I really enjoyed driving the car and getting up to speed with it at the test – It’s exciting to drive and you can see why so many people enjoy them.

“This is a great chance to compete against a very competitive field and at two of the best circuits around.

“Phillip Island in these cars will be incredible and the Grand Prix is such a great

event, I can’t wait to race there in S5000.”

Last year Goddard finished 19th in the Supercars Championship in debut season with Matt Stone Racing, however failed to secure a full-time drive for 2022.

Prior to his Supercars career, Goddard forged a successful open wheel career where he contested the competitive Formula Renault Eurocup and British F4 before returning home to race in Super2.

Prior to that Goddard was a race winner in the Australian Formula 4 Championship where he raced with Team BRM. “We’re excited to have Zane jump into our second Form 700 / ALABAR entry for Phillip Island and the Grand Prix,” said Team BRM Team Principal Mark Rundle.

“We’ve known Zane since 2015 when he joined our first year in Formula 4 and we’ve always known how quick he is.

“It’s been great to see how he’s evolved as a driver thanks to his time in Europe and more recently in Supercars since he last raced for us.

“As you would expect he adapted quickly to the car and was right on the pace in our test last week so there’s no doubt in our minds that he will be right on the pace when we get to Phillip Island and the Grand Prix - he will be a contender for sure.”

All the S5000 action at Phillip Island will be broadcast live, exclusive and ad-break free and on Stan Sport. Dan McCarthy

NGATOA – LOOKING AHEAD POSITIVELY KIWI KALEB Ngatoa has put a dsappointing round at Symmons Plains behind him after a difficult race weekend on the Apple Isle.

Ngatoa kept the car out of harm’s way all weekend and as a result came out of the opening round in sixth position, 53 points away from the championship leader Tim Macrow.

The former Toyota Gazoo Racing Series runner-up admitted at Symmons Plains he felt lost, unable to find a feeling at a circuit at which he had never raced.

Ngatoa explained that it was very different to any circuit that he had ever raced at previously – a real stop-start track.

“We were playing around a lot, I had a few troubles on the test day with gear changes and stuff like that, so I didn’t get a lot of clean runs there,” he said.

“The first time on the track I was just learning that and then with

the car setup, I think, Igot myself a little bit lost.

“I’m not getting a lot of feedback out of it, but I spent a lot of time working with the engineer,” he said at the time.

Image: MTR Images

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The two-time S5000 race winner believes that the cars moved forward during the two round Tasman Series which he did not take part in late last year.

Nevertheless, he remains

“Obviously, a lot of these guys are from Australia, so they’ve been doing testing over the over the break, they’ve been in the cars a lot more. I think it’ll come just come, I don’t want to rush things.

“It’s a big learning curve, there’s lots of competitive drivers there this year.

“I think we’ve got the pace, we just need to focus on the small things to improve everywhere we can, learn as much as we can and then by the end of the year, we should be there..

“I want to be there at the top Image: ARG/Kalisz end for the championship, but we’ll just wait and see.” optimistic of fighting up the front Reports from a Team BRM test of the championship. day last week suggest the young “I feel like the cars have moved Kiwi has indeed ‘got it sorted’ forward, they feel similar, but I and should be a contender at PI think the category has moved next week ... forward a lot,” he said.

Dan McCarthy

CLEMENTE TARGETS PODIUM ON RETURN AFTER MISSING the opening round of the season, Michael Clemente believes he can challenge for podiums when he returns to the TCR Australia Series at Phillip Island.

Racing a privately run Honda Civic Type R machine, Clemente scored two top 10 finishes at the venue last year.

Clemente has not raced at all since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out nationwide in the back half of last year.

The Victorian reflected on last year, when Phillip Island proved to be the Hondas only competitive round. He thus wants to fight for a podium first round back.

“I haven’t raced since May last year, which was the last round that we did last year,” he recalled.

“It’s been ages since I’ve raced a car – I only drove it last week for the first time since.

It’s been a long waiting game, but we’re prepared and really keen to get back out there.

“Honestly, we’re really, really pushing for a podium, knowing that the Hondas were originally quick there; we’re really hoping that we have a really competitive car and are able to stick it to the front of the front of the pack.

“We’ve done our learning curve and now this year we really want to be a front running and competitive car all around.”

The Victorian was asked if it was bittersweet watching fellow Honda privateer Zac Soutar win a race in the opening round from the couch.

“You could say that,” he chuckled. “We were stoked for Zac. We’re pretty close and we generally share garages when we race TCR so we were barracking for Zac all weekend,

and it was really, really good to see him up the front end and get that win.

“It was hard sitting down and watching it on TV – it was pretty hard to swallow – it just made me hungrier ... I know what I want.

As one round has already been completed, realistically Clemente is out of the title fight, he sees the remainder of the year as a building season before challenging for the

title in 2023.

“We’ve got a really good team behind us and we’re working really, really hard, 24/7 to try and make it work, we’re gonna take it round by round, we’re really hoping to do the whole year, be competitive and get some really good results,” he said.

Clemente admitted it is unlikely he will have the Honda upgrades used to good effect

by Tony D’Alberto and Soutar at Symmons Plains.

“At the moment we won’t – we’re hoping to, but we’re probably not going to get it done for the first round, just purely off budget,” Clemente expressed.

“We’re hoping it doesn’t affect us too much and we can still have a strong car.”

Dan McCarthy

SWEENY RAISES THE BAR TCR AUSTRALIA Series newcomer Bailey Sweeny surprised everyone including himself with a podium race finish at Symmons Plains, and he has now promised that there is more to come.

The HMO Customer Racing rookie managed second place in the reverse grid encounter at Race Tasmania, pipped only by Peugeot driver Jordan Cox. Fresh out of Toyota 86 Series racing, Sweeny admitted he was shocked to score a podium so quickly in a category which includes the likes of Will Brown and Fabian Coulthard.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting to pick up that result, it was nice,” Sweeny told Auto Action.

“I was expecting to hold position rather than move forward.

“The race was pure excitement, the most fun I’ve ever had in a car. To run a TCR race at the front, you can’t get much better than that.”

Sweeny had mixed fortunes over the rest of his debut round, concluding the weekend with a disappointing DNF after beaching his Hyundai i30N TCR on the final lap.

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Heading into his second appearance at the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships round at Phillip Island 11th in the standings, the 19-year-old was looking forward to building on his promising start with loftier revised goals.

“The pace was there all weekend so I’ve just got to put the rest together which I’m sure will come in the coming round,” Sweeny said.

“Being double points in the last race, definitely a disappointing result getting a DNF. It left a bit of a sour taste at the end of the weekend but overall, it was a very positive weekend.

“The expectation has definitely changed after the first round, it was top 10s but I’ll probably be aiming for top five’s and podiums from now on.

“Symmons Plains wasn’t expected to be a good track for the Hyundai. To get pole and each car on the podium was a good weekend for the team on a track that might not have been the best one for us.

“The car is expected to be better at Phillip Island so I’m keen to see what we can do there.” Josh Nevett

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FIFE WANTS S5000 RETURN AFTER TASTING S5000 Championship success, Josh Fife wants to return to the series at Phillip Island with the 88Racing team.

The former Super2 Series full-timer’s deal to race in S5000 came together late, however the Canberra-born driver delivered on debut, winning the inverted grid race and finishing on the podium in the Feature Race in Tasmania.

Before Auto Action even finished the question an enthusiastic Fife expressed his delight and want to race S5000s again.

“Yeah, I love to return, hopefully we’ll get a deal sorted soon,” he said to AA. “I love these cars. They’re a really cool car to drive and the competition is very tough as well, and yeah, I’ll hopefully do some more rounds in the near future!”

Fife did not secure a drive in the secondtier Super2 Series for the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Notably in 2019 Fife jumped straight from karts into a Brad Jones Racing prepared Super3 Series machine, and prior to the preseason test at Symmons Plains had never driven an open-wheeler.

However, he took to it like a duck to water, exceeding his expectations and target coming

into the round.

“I wasn’t expecting a race win,” Fife admitted.

“I was trying to get a podium but we got a race win as well, I didn’t expect a race win ... it was a great weekend.

“My first weekend in open-wheeler, I’d never driven an open-wheeler before and my first time in these cars as well, to be half a second off in qualifying was not too bad, I guess.

“To get my first race win in S5000 was really cool and then to top it off with a third in the feature ...

“It was cool to mix it up with some really good drivers like James Golding, Tim Slade and Joey Mawson. To mix it with them and get a race win and podium, yeah, it feels pretty good.”

Fife believes that the category has all the right ingredients; it just needs a few more cars on the grid.

“Obviously the category is growing and I think with more cars on the grid it’ll be really cool,” he explained.

“It seems like all the teams are very close which is a good thing and the competition’s also very close, that’s good, and it attracts more people to it when everyone’s so close together.” Dan McCarthy

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WORLD TIME ATTACK IS BACK THE WORLD Time Attack Challenge will return to Sydney Motorsport Park from April 1-2 after a two-year hiatus, featuring a strong talent pool of local competitors.

The international event, featuring the best time attack teams from across the globe, was cancelled in 2020 and postponed in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic but has been given the green light in 2022.

Ongoing travel difficulties dictate that the field will be made up of nearly exclusively

local teams this year.

That will not impact the calibre of competition though, as Australian teams have won the Pro class every year since 2011.

The main competitors for the top prize this time around will be Supercars Championship driver and two-time victor Tim Slade in the ‘Hammerhead’ S13, Barton Mawer in a Porsche 968 and TCR Australia Series driver Brad Shiels in the Tilton Racing Mitsubishi Evo.

The World Time Attack Challenge event is not just a race against the clock though, it is also a celebration of motoring akin to a modified car motor show.

Eastern Creek will host a tuner car speed test, the biggest drift event in the country and an outdoor car show, providing entertainment for a diverse crowd.

Event Director Alain Sihaphone was excited to welcome everyone back to Sydney for this year’s edition of the WTAC.

“A lot of people are looking forward to getting back out there this year and having some sort of normality again,” Sihaphone said.

“This year we’re running the Time Attack portion of our event into the night under the new lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“We’re pretty oversubscribed in most categories – there are about 110 entries.

Josh Nevett

SHAKE UP FOR NATIONAL SPORTS SEDANS A REVITALISED field of top drivers and healthy machines is set to take to the grid for the opening round of the National Sports Sedans series as part of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships event at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

The Sports Sedans will race alongside national Australian Racing Group (ARG) categories including the TCR Australia Series, Trans Am Series and S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship over three days from March 18-20.

More than 20 purpose built machines are expected to contest the first round, including familiar frontrunners and new faces.

Steve Tamasi and Jordan Caruso will reignite their entertaining rivalry from the 2021 edition of Island Magic, while newcomers Daniel Crompton and Alex Williams will look to fight at the front.

Crompton will be driving his father Phil’s Ford Mustang, while Williams has entered a reengineered Mazda RX-8 which has performed well at the Island before.

Rumours are also circling that Brad Jones Racing Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner could return in Mark Duggan’s Aston Martin, after he took part in the first round last year.

Entries have come from all over the country, Queensland and New South Wales with five and four representatives, respectively.

Category Administrator and competitor Michael Robinson was excited to kick off the new season with a bang.

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“It’s probably the most impressive start we’ve had for a long time as far as the level of interest, they’re all national level competitors,” Robinson told Auto Action.

“I think Jordan Caruso, who has a new livery, will have a fair battle with Alex Williams, Tomasi,and Crompton at the front.

Just as exciting as the title battle will be the sight of fresh metal on the grid.

“We’ve got a number of new guys,” Robinson said.

“Ash Jarvis will enter in the Colin Smith Holden Monaro from Queensland. He’s a TA2 driver.

“Scott Cameron is a new guy from Sydney, he campaigned a little bit in the New South Wales state series and will be in a Commodore.

“Tim Tritton from Queensland has bought the ex-Derek van Zelm Honda Prelude, a famous car over a number of years, he’s had a fair bit of work done to that.

“Rick Newman has a Falcon sports sedan which is quick, and Kevin Stoopman has bought a new car for his first time in the Nationals series, he’s quite a well-known ex HQ racer.

“Another one joining us is Anthony Cox in a Saab that’s been a front running car.”

Three 11-lap races are set for Sports Sedans over the weekend, providing ample opportunity for drivers to earn a serious points haul.

The category joins Formula Ford and the Radical Australia Cup on the ARG support card. Josh Nevett

THE BEND SET FOR SUPERKARTS OPENER A HUGE total of 80 karts are locked in for the first round of the 2022 Australian Superkart Championship, which will take place at The Bend Motorsport Park next weekend.

All six classes – 125cc Gearbox, 125cc Max Heavy and 125 Max Light, 125cc Stock Honda, 250cc International and 250cc National – will run on the same card for the first time at Tailem Bend’s Australian Superkart Classic, while South Australian Saloon Cars will headline the support categories.

“It’s the first time all Superkart classes have run on the same event,” Superkart spokesperson Scott Williams said.

“Every mainland state is represented. So, there’s interest from all over Australia, – 125cc gearbox has the most entries with 26.”

In the top tier 250cc International division, Ilya Harpas will enter The Bend as the hot favourite of the 13 entries after claiming four consecutive championships.

Jordan Ford will be the main threat, the 2016 champion buoyed by holding the Tailem Bend lap record which he set last year.

Reigning National Festival winner Tim

Clarke will also fancy his chances after beating allcomers in the feeder classes – as will former champions Gary Pergararo and Russell Jamieson, who have experience and historical success on their side.

In the second tier 125cc class, Erebus Motorsport mechanic Bradley Tremain will be a frontrunner after taking a win last year.

Every class will get plenty of track time over the three-day event from March 11-13, taking part in practice sessions on the Friday before a further practice and qualifying on Saturday.

Race 1 for each class will be held on Saturday afternoon, preparing drivers for an action-packed Sunday when 18 races will light up the track, meaning a total of four races per class.

The top spec Superkarts are capable of 250km/h and lap faster than V8 Supercars at circuits like Phillip Island, Silverstone (England) and LeMans (France).

The Australian Superkart Championship will run over two rounds this year, the second of which will be the National Festival of Superkarts at Phillip Island in August.

Josh Nevett

HOW TO GET BACKSIDES TRACKSIDE Image:

AA’S LONG-TIME COLUMNIST PONDERS HOW RACE WILL REBUILD SYDNEY’S TRACKSIDE FANBASE.

KARMA IS a bitch sometimes. And that snarling mongrel bit Supercars squarely on the fleshy part of its arse last weekend.

Back in November, Supercars teams treated paying punters at ‘SMP4’ with distain in deciding not to race in the wet. Key team figures – at that point still the sport’s powerbrokers – suggested conditions were too dangerous to continue that day. Their real reason, of course, was a reluctance to risk machinery a week out from the Bathurst 1000 season-finale.

While there was some merit in that thinking, it had at least one major flaw: pissing off trackside spectators who waited all day for a main, climactic race that never happened.

Yes, refunds were given, although that didn’t include reimbursement for food and travel expenses, nor return an afternoon of their lives they will never get back. Pulling the pin also inadvertently signalled to the Sydney fanbase – a group

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with Luke West

REVVED UP Supercars has managed to alienate over the years – that future wet races at Eastern Creek might be similarly abandoned.

Lo-and-behold, three short months after that debacle, Supercars holds its season-opener at SMP amid the wettest month in old Sydney town in ages.

Unsurprisingly, local fans went MIA last weekend. And who can blame them. Being a Sydneysider myself, I know many fellow fans who opted out of attending when they first saw the weekend’s weather forecast. While memories of November’s abandonment were not the sole turn-off, they certainly played on the mind...

Funnily enough, it turns out that Supercars CAN safely race in the wet at the Creek. It’s now clear that teams were jumping at shadows back at ‘SMP4’. The rain was far heavier during Race 2 last Sunday than it ever was in November and Supercars put on a very entertaining 300km show.

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It’s just a pity that so few fans were trackside to witness it.

A penny for the thoughts of new Supercars supremo Barclay Nettlefold as he stood on the grid pre-race and pondered the number of vacant seats in SMP’s grandstand at his RACE group’s first championship opener? He should search out a YouTube or DVD vision of the bumper turnout at 2003’s season-finale at the same venue and start asking questions as to where all the trackside fans have gone. I can’t wait to hear the plans of Supercars’ new management to get backsides trackside.

Without big in-person attendances, RACE is going to struggle to earn good coin through track sanctioning fees and teams will take a hit to their merchandise income. Plus, how will Supercars hook the next generation of fans if families are not exposed to the category’s visceral appeal live?

I sat on the hill at Oran Park between 1982 and 2008 at the

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annual ATCC/V8 Supercars round.

Each year a 20,000-plus crowd added greatly to the atmosphere, spectacle and sense of occasion.

Those folk (and modern-day families like them) have drifted away from attending Supercars events since the south-western Sydney circuit’s demise. I believe it’s due to a series of poor spectating experiences over the last decade or so, particularly at Homebush, culminating at SMP4 late last year.

While Nettlefold and his RACE colleagues have a big job enticing them back, at least the base Supercars product is good, with the bonus of sexier-looking Gen3 cars on the horizon and a fresh start in the post-COVID world.

The 2022 field sports a noticeable boost (pun not intended) in sponsorship investment from bluechip sponsors, Optus’s increased investment being a good example.

Hopefully we’ll see some fun trackside activations return to add to the fan experience at events.

I’m also gaining a new appreciation for the high level of driving standards within the Supercars main game. Well, before the chequered flag flew last Sunday at least...

HAVING WITNESSED – and criticised last issue – the poor

driver standards within the ARG category ranks at Symmons Plains (and they weren’t much better in Supercars’ support series in Sydney, albeit drivers faced tougher conditions), we should dip our lids to the skills on offer at the elite level in this country. Saturday’s race, while not as entertaining as Sunday’s, saw drivers racing for sheep stations in difficult conditions without the need for the Safety Car. It was so refreshing.

Scott McLaughlin’s recent success in IndyCar, where the driving standards are seriously good, also reflects positively on his former category. Positioning the drivers as possessing skills beyond those of mere mortals is one of the many trump cards Supercars can play in the RACE era.

Finally, I was pleased to read on AA’s website that Motorsport Australia will soon have a Supercars-style, permanent recovery team for its second-tier national championship events. I’m sure this was in the works before I got fired up about excessive and long Safety Car periods last issue, so it’s great to see that the authorities were cognisant of the long delays to recover damaged and stranded cars. Minimising these can only improve the fan experience.

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WILLIAMS TARGETS BAHRAIN POINTS FINISHES WEST AUSTRALIAN CALAN WILLIAMS IS TARGETING TWO POINTS FINISHES IN HIS MAIDEN FIA FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND AT BAHRAIN.

IN 2022 Calan Williams has made the step up after two seasons in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Last year he scored a podium finish at Circuit Paul Ricard in France and went onto finish 19th in the title race. However, he caught the attention of Trident MotorSport, and in the off season inked a deal to race with the F3 Teams’ champions to race in F2.

Williams had a productive test at the Bahrain International Circuit last week,

notably finishing as the second fastest driver on Day 1.

The opening round takes place in Bahrain and Williams has targeted a point scoring finish in both of the weekend’s encounters.

“I think at the first round, realistically, I can definitely score points,” Williams said to Auto Action.

“If I could score points in both races at Bahrain, I’d be really happy.

“If I score points in one race, I’d be happy and if I don’t score points, I’d not be happy – but it’d not be the end of the world because this year that’s not my main focus, it’s my secondary focus.

“It’s mostly about development, so for me this year, I have to learn as much about the car as possible because this is quite a big step.

“Obviously I’m going to perform as strongly as I can – perhaps my goals will change and by the end of the year I’ll be trying to get podiums every race.

“It depends purely on how quickly I progress with this car, so we’ll see, but if I score points in both races in Bahrain, I’ll be very happy!”

Despite Trident’s success in the third-tier (F3) championship they are yet to win a race in FIA Formula 2 – however last year Bent Viscaal came close with two second place finishes.

Williams believes it will not be long before the Italian team tastes success in F2.

“The team is very, very professional, very structured,” Williams explained.

“Obviously, they won the Formula 3 teams championship last year and that same infrastructure is also within their Formula 2 team.

“I think it’s a really good indicator of what can be achieved with them.

“Something that’s also really good is that the team manager Giacomo Ricci actually used to race in GP2 himself, so he has a lot of experience as well and a lot of the way the team works builds upon his experience.

“It’s a team built on actual experience in the series and I think that’s a really strong attribute to have within a team and that’s one reason I’m so excited to work with them.”

Dan McCarthy

WHO CAN FOLLOW PIASTRI?

THE OTHER Aussie in F2 this year is Jack Doohan (above) who finished as runner-up in F3 last year and is a real contender for the title with UNI Virtuosi.

Doohan contested the final two rounds of F2 in 2021 with Campos and turned heads.

He finished in the top five in just his second race and at Abu Dhabi qualified second on the grid. For 2022 he has switched to the front-running UNI Virtuosi squad.

In the last several seasons Guanyu Zhou, Callum Ilott and Luca Ghiotto have all taken wins with the team – in fact since joining the series in 2019 the outfit has always finished as the Teams Championship runner-up.

The Formula 2 Championship is quite open this year, however AA sees three obvious candidates for the title outside of Doohan.

Reigning Formula 3 champion Denis Hauger moves straight into the recently dominant Prema Racing squad and will be expected to deliver consistent race wins n the red Italian machines.

New Zealander Liam Lawson was mightily quick throughout testing and moves to Carlin, a team which has fought for the title with Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda and, more recently, Dan Ticktum.

Another major threat is Theo Pourchaire.

The Sauber junior is just 18-years-old and last year won the feature race at Monaco and went on to finish fifth in the title.

With another year with ART Grand Prix (the team with which George Russell and Nyck De Vries won the title), it is hard to look past this Frenchman as a title contender.

Dan McCarthy

Images: Motorsport Images

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ANZAC DAY IN ST. PETERSBURG AUSSIES AND KIWIS DOMINATE INDYCAR OPENER

While Aussie Will Power joined ‘our’ Kiwi Scott McLaughlin on the Indycar podium (centre), Matt Brabham (left and bottom of page) took a maximum in winning the IndyLights race after yet another Aussie, Hunter McElrea, went out while leading.

Images: Motorsport Images

By Paul Gover, News Editor SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN led a very different Anzac Day parade on the streets of St. Petersburg in Florida.

He took the flag for his first IndyCar win and his success was repeated by comeback kid, Matt Brabham, in the Indy Lights supporting race.

It was a landmark event for McLaughlin, whose passport shows him as a Kiwi but whose successes in Supercars make him - like Russell Crowe and many others - an adopted Aussie.

In the main event, true blue Will Power added another podium to his IndyCar resume when he finished third, with Kiwi Scott Dixon a solid eighth under Kiwi colours.

Back in Indy Lights, Hunter McElrea - of Kiwi parentage but actually born in the US, and raised on the Gold Coast by his Porsche team boss father Andy - took pole position but threw away a win when he crashed out of the lead.

“It’s all about going back to what I know. I knew I could do it. It’s all about belief,” says McLaughlin.

“To anyone out there, you can do whatever you want. You just have to have belief in yourself and get it done.”

His trademark style from Supercars, where he preferred to qualify on pole, grab the lead and ignore anyone behind, was on display for the first time in IndyCar racing.

“I had a great start, got into it, got into a rhythm, and away we went,” McLaughlin says.

His win has cemented his standing at Team Penske, where the team has been trimmed to three cars after the departure of Simon Pagenaud, and Roger ’The Captain’ Penske was one of the first to hug him in pitlane.

“He was the one who calmed me down last year. He’s the one who said that it’s a long story and not a short one. To pay back that faith and prove the trust he put in me is a very proud moment,” McLaughlin says of Penske.

But a lot more work went into the win, from giant off-season hours on the simulator to a

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series of golfing strategy meetings with his new engineer, Ben Bretzman.

McLaughlin looked confident from the start of the IndyCar weekend and reported his own feelings.

“I knew I could do it. Last night I had a great sleep because I just said to myself ‘You know, I’ve done this before, I just did it with a roof on my head’,” says McLaughlin.

“It was just a phenomenal weekend.

Perseverance; you just don’t give up, you don’t doubt yourself.”

Power also persevered through a race where he was on the wrong strategy, and an early caution period, after qualifying second for a Team Penske front-row lockout.

“I was really happy with third. Just a good solid day,” he says.

Dixon was also on the three-stop strategy and also paid the price.

“Definitely a rough day. Not sure why we went with the strategy that we did; it kind of put us in a big hole.

“The car felt really good. So, definitely a bummer and not where the car should have finished,” says Dixon.

In the Indy Lights encounter, Hunter McElrea looked odds-on for victory after taking pole position and the early lead before his crash.

“No words really for how gutted I am,” he says.

“I want to say sorry to all my backers,

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investors, sponsors and Andretti Autosport for not rewarding them with a win.

“Dominated all weekend, and the race was no different till I made a mistake behind lapped traffic that was just silly. Ended up crashing into the fence, race over.

“Although I didn’t get the result, I’m happy to show my speed in my debut, and many positives to take. Looking forward to the bounce back!”

But his misfortune worked for Matt Brabham, although his Andretti Autosport team mate needed a late break to do a ‘Bradberry’.

He was second when the race leader, Christian Rasmussen, ran out of fuel.

Ironically, Rasmussen - like McElrea and Brabham - was part of the Andretti Autosport team.

The win was the first Indy Lights victory for Brabham since May 9, 2014, when he scored at Indianapolis.

The break of 2851 days helped put more shine on his success.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m speechless. I’m pretty emotional“, Brabham, who celebrated with his father Geoff, says.

“I just got lucky. I was pushing. I was doing everything I could.

“I tagged the wall a few times, probably more than I should have. I’m just very lucky, and I’m so happy. I knew I was going to finish. It was just if I stuck it in the wall.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN will be an IndyCar champion.

The only question is how long it will take him to claim the crown.

ScottyMac proved at St. Pete that he has everything he needs, from one-lap speed to composure under pressure.

His win in St. Petersburg looked like so, so many of his successes in Supercars.

He rolled out of the pits with a quick car and a confident team, was fastest through practice, then converted for pole position.

In the race, he was calm and confident. Through the final laps he refused to be threatened or unsettled, even though it was reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou right behind him.

McLaughlin’s only big weakness last year was qualifying speed and he has now found it.

Analysing the St. Pete weekend there is an interesting parallel.

Alex Palou won the first race of his second season, at St. Petersburg, then raced on to become the 2021 IndyCar champion.

Scott McLaughlin has won the first race of his second season, at St. Petersburg . . . Paul Gover

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MCLAUGHLIN THANKFUL OF TEAM OWNER SUPPORT AFTER TAKING his maiden IndyCar race victory, Scott McLaughlin thanked Team Penske owners Roger Penske and Tim Cindric for showing continued faith in him throughout his rookie season.

Going into IndyCar as the reigning three-time Supercars champion, McLaughlin was used to competing at the front of the field.

Despite collecting a podium finish it was a tough debut season for McLaughlin in America’s premier open-wheel series, admitting at times Cindric and Penske got behind him and lifted him back up.

They were the first to congratulate him on the victory as soon as he picked himself up off the floor after failing to land the jump from his car.

“They were both super stoked for me, they both just gave me a massive hug,” McLaughlin said in a press conference which included Auto Action.

“I said to TC, ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t,’ and I just thanked them.

“TC and Roger, they both sat me down (last year) and said look, we’re here for a long time, not a short time. When I was beating myself up last year, they were consistently just telling me, don’t worry about things, just focus on yourself, keep working at it, it’ll come.

“When you have that faith from the top of everything, it’s a very cool thing as a race driver, I think that’s why the culture here is so good.

“I’m super proud of what we’ve achieved so far, but it’s a belief now that we can do it and we’ve shown and we’ve proven it, so now, hopefully we can just have that confidence everywhere and just build bigger and bigger.”

The New Zealander is now being spoken about in America and around the world as an IndyCar title contender.

“It’s pretty wild because I was under the radar a little bit there for a while, which I was completely fine with and I’m fine to continue being the underdog,” he said.

“But it’s not going to stop me working, we’ve got to keep working hard as a team, it’s only one race and I’ve got to make sure that I’m strong like this every round, that will be the difference.

“Last year a seventh position was the average race result for the winner of the championship and I’m sure it’s going to be even better for this year.

“If we can be around that average, we know we’re going to be there or thereabouts and that’s our goal, consistency is key, we’ll just keep our heads down.

McLaughlin was incredibly strong on the ovals last year, with his best finish, a second at Texas Motor Speedway, the track which hosts the next round of the series.

“We know we have a good car there and we’ve been working really hard as a team for the ovals this year,” he expressed.

“I like the track, but it’s so competitive out there, I need to make sure I nail my qualifying laps so we can start up the front or be there or thereabouts.

“It’s certainly very tight, in qualifying, one mistake, you find yourself four or five positions further back from where you wanted to.

“So excited to go back to Texas, excited to have another crack there, especially with the test day before to see where I’m at with it and see what we got.” Dan McCarthy

HORNER: MERCEDES BULLYING BEHIND MASI’S DEMISE RED BULL boss Christian Horner has accused Mercedes of ‘bullying’, which he says contributed to Australian Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi’s removal.

Masi was replaced as Race Director after instructing several lapped cars to unlap themselves during the 2021 season finale at Abu Dhabi, just seconds before the race resumed for a one lap sprint to the finish.

After the on-track order was reshuffled Red Bull driver Max Verstappen surged to race victory and the championship, prompting widespread backlash over the handling of the situation which had a direct impact on the outcome of the championship.

One of the most vocal parties on the issue has been Mercedes, the team most adversely impacted by the controversy, levelling its criticism at Masi since the Abu Dhabi race.

Horner’s comments are the latest in the debate over the 2021 championship which continues to rage on approaching the new season.

“Michael Masi didn’t break the rules. He applied them in a way that hadn’t been done previously by leaving two lap cars at the back of the field, but that was the only variance of what’s been normal practice,” Horner said in a BBC interview.

“Was it right to fire him based on pressure that was placed on him from a rival team? That for me was wrong.

“That’s tantamount to bullying. It’s passively aggressive.”

Masi has been replaced by WEC’s Race Director Eduardo Freitas and his DTM counterpart Niels Wittich, who will rotate in the role during the 2022 F1 season.

Horner conceded that the Aussie had made errors during his Race Director

tenure but believed that criticism towards him had crossed the line.

“Yes, Michael did make mistakes and it was frustrating, but you have to look at the role that he was in and the tools that he had at his disposal,” Horner said.

“You can’t just place the blame on Michael. It’s unfair to do that.

“We were on the receiving end of many of Michael’s errors but he is in a highpressure role in a high-pressure sport.

“That’s why I spoke up for Michael because I felt that he had not had any support. He had not had any backing. That he’d been hung out to dry and that there was this concerted campaign that was very passive-aggressively focused against him.

“I will always stand up for someone who is being bullied. Bullying is not acceptable” The 2022 Formula 1 season gets underway in Bahrain from March 18-20.

FITTIPALDI TO TEST FOR HAAS IN BAHRAIN HAAS F1 has confirmed that Pietro Fittipaldi will run in its second machine during the preseason Bahrain test later this week.

The grandson of two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, Pietro is the Haas F1 reserve driver and will take part in the final pre-season test.

Fittipaldi has previously raced in Formula 1 when he replaced an injured Romain Grosjean in the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2020.

The Brazilian will fill the role while the team decides who will replace ousted Russian driver Nikita Mazepin.

Mazepin and the team’s Russian sponsor Uralkali both had their contracts terminated with immediate effect following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking about the situation to Associated Press Gene Haas, Haas F1 owner announced that Fittipaldi will jump behind the wheel at the test.

“Pietro will definitely be in it, that’s what he’s for, he’s the test driver,” he confirmed.

As for the race seat, well the decision on that is not too far away either.

“We’re in the process of looking at several candidates, we’ll see who is available and what we have to deal with, but we’ll have somebody

by Wednesday,” Haas was quoted as saying.

Many drivers have already been linked with the seat outside of Fittipaldi.

One name that keeps popping up is Australian Oscar Piastri, the reigning Formula 2 champion is an Alpine Academy driver, however if the manufacturer is willing to chip in some money to Haas he is a contender for the seat.

Other names listed include former Alfa Romeo driver and Ferrari test driver Antonio Giovinazzi and Red Bull junior and current Formula 2 driver Jehan Daruvala.

Haas spoke about the reasons for dropping the Russian sponsorship and the financial situation it now finds itself in.

“There was a lot of intense criticism about the Ukrainian invasion and it was just getting overwhelming,” he said. “We can’t deal with all that, our other sponsors can’t deal with all that.

“Haas has always been the major, primary sponsor, I don’t know why people said it became a Russian team. Haas Automation was always on the car.

“We’re good. We’re fine. We’d like more money, of course, but we’re fine,” he said. “This just gives us a bigger negative number.”

Dan McCarthy

IMOLA SIGNS MULTI-YEAR F1 DEAL

FORMULA 1 has announced a long-term deal with the legendary Enzo e Dino Ferrari International Circuit in Imola, which will host a Grand Prix until 2025.

Imola was reintroduced to the calendar in 2020 as a ‘one off’ race as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of many F1 rounds worldwide.

It returned again in 2021 as a substitute and has now secured a permanent spot back on the Formula 1 calendar until 2025.

Ironically Imola first hosted the Italian Grand Prix in 1980 as a ‘one off’ replacement for Monza (which was being upgraded), and subsequently held Formula 1 races from 1981-2006 under the title of the San Marino Grand Prix.

Formula 1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali is thrilled that Italy will host not one, but two races in the coming years.

“I am delighted that we will be continuing our excellent partnership with Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix until 2025,” he said.

“The circuit is iconic and has been part of the history of our sport and they have done an incredible job of hosting two races during the pandemic.

“It is a proud moment for our Italian fans to host two races and

for all our fans around the world to see this fantastic circuit on the calendar for the future.

“I want to thank everyone involved in making this happen and the work of the Emilia-Romagna Region.

“In particular the President of the Automobile Club of Italy, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, President of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the City of Imola.

“We are all looking forward to being back in Imola in April to thrill our fans.”

President of the Automobile Club of Italy, Angelo Sticchi Damiani was delighted to announce the news as it is such a popular track for drivers and fans alike.

“Today’s agreement ratifies the presence of the Formula 1 Rolex Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia Romagna at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit in Imola until 2025,” he said.

“Imola, its great history and the strong tie of its territory to the world of engines deserved this recognition.

“This is not only a great success for sport in Italy but also a great enrichment for the top international motorsport series that has confirmed in its calendar for several years one of the most difficult races, but also the greatest, and the one that’s mostly loved by both drivers

and teams.

“Of course, the long negotiations carried out by the Automobile Club of Italy managed to achieve the desired goal thanks to the important support received from various local authorities.

“Among all, I would like to underline the enthusiastic work of the Emilia Romagna Region and its President Stefano Bonaccini.” Dan McCarthy

GARDNER WANTED MORE DESPITE BEING the best placed rookie and scoring a point on debut in MotoGP, Australian Remy Gardner admitted that he expected more.

Reigning Moto2 champion Gardner rode well under lights in Qatar to finish 15th and score a point on his MotoGP debut, holding off Darryn Binder by just 0.012s.

The KTM rider however said he expected more from the race itself after showing strong and consistent pace in practice.

“I mean we struggled a little bit all weekend, probably expected a little bit more from the race after seeing our rhythm and pace over the weekend,” Gardner said after the race.

“But in the end, it’s still one point and I can’t be too upset. It’s the first race out of the way in MotoGP, that’s for sure.”

Early in the race Gardner was able to keep up with former Qatar race winners Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso,

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however a battle with Darryn Binder saw the group ahead pull away.

“We need to work and build on that (first race), but I did what I had to do today, which was finish and learn from the other guys, which was cool,” he said.

“There was one point where I was behind Dovi and Maverick and I felt not too bad, like I could go with them, but I had Darren just in the middle all the time riding a bit erraticly and I couldn’t find a place to get around him.

“I got around him, but then he just dived bombed me and unfortunately kind of broke the gap to Dovi and Maverick.

“But at that point, I felt like I could probablyn go there and keep that rhythm for at least a while. So at that point, I didn’t feel too bad.”

Gardner is already looking further up the field at factory KTM rider Brad Binder who finished second, 0.6s behind race winner

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Enea Bastianini.

Gardner hopes that the satellite Tech 3 KTM team can make steps between now and Round 2.

“We definitely need to improve, as we see Brad got second today, so we need to

find a way to be able to ride the bikes like they do, so a lot to work on and hopefully we can make another step in Indonesia,” he concluded. Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

SVG GETTING TO GRIPS WITH SKODA

SHANE VAN Gisbergen is gearing up for his debut in the Australian Rally Championship, contesting the pre-season test ahead of the Netier National Capital Rally next month.

The reigning Supercars champion jumped behind the wheel of his Skoda Fabia R5 alongside co-driver Glen Weston in the Kowen Forest, with rainy conditions greeting the drivers.

There was no official timing throughout the day, but drivers were visably pushing the limits throughout the test.

Van Gisbergen was keen to get plenty of testing time under his belt and expressed he still has a lot to learn particually over the jumps.

“It’s been pretty difficult, but the car did nothing wrong, it’s much better than the driver,” van Gisbergen said.

“There are some big jumps out there, but I am just learning what the car can take and how it feels. Now I know the roads so I have to start again to learn the pace notes.

“Sitting in (the Skoda Fabia R5), it’s pretty basic but it’s so refined. It’s a proper race

car. It does everything you want and it’s well set up.

“We haven’t changed anything – just going up and down on tyre pressures so I can feel what the difference of that is but really I am just learning. If you’re not committed, it punishes you so I have had to get into it.”

As well as SVG, the most recent Australian Rally Championship winners Harry Bates and John McCarthy were at the test in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris AP4, alongside teammates Lewis Bates

and Anthony McLoughlin.

After two interrupted season, Harry Bates is very much looking forward to 2022, a season that is highly anticipated.

“We had a really good day and it was great to get some wet running in. We haven’t really ever had to put a wet setup on in this car, so it was good opportunity to do that. Also, how to see how the Hoosier tyre performed in the wet, which performed well,” Bates said.

“We had to make a few changes throughout the day but I’m very happy with

MIES RETURNS FOR PHILLIP ISLAND AUDI SPORT factory driver Christopher Mies will return to Australia to take part in the opening round of the GT World Challenge Australia at Phillip Island.

The international GT ace will once again partner Yasser Shahin after the pair successfully teamed up, winning both hour-long races at Bathurst late last year to secure the championship title.

Mies’ return to Australia also coincides with the debut of the recently upgraded Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II featuring improved aerodynamics, a new intake system, four-way adjustable dampers, new functionalities in the traction control system and upgraded climate control for driver comfort.

“Yes, I am quite excited,” said Mies.

“Phillip Island has always

been a good place for us and the new car should be even better at those types of race track.

“We had a successful and great start to our partnership at Bathurst. Yasser is one of the fastest guys I have met and very eager to become even better. He almost works harder on data and video than I do, which shows me his dedication.

“Obviously, I’ve driven the new Gen2 a lot in testing but this will be the first official race for me with the car. I am sure we still have to fine tune it during the weekend but no question that we will find a good balance for the first meeting.

“Excited to see how it goes competing against the other brands.

“Yes of course [I’d like to come back and do some rounds]. I always like to come to Australia and when the chance came up, I was the first to say yes. We need to see how the calendar works out but for the moment

SRO BOSS TO ATTEND AUSTRALIAN GT OPENER

how everything performed.

“I think there is no doubting that we’re going into to this year with stiffer competition than previous years and that excites me. I encourage all competition and it drives me to do better.

“Can’t wait to get on the first stage on the National Capital Rally.”

There was strong representation amongst all classes at the test, with competitors from the ARC Production Cup, ARC 2WD Cup, Junior Cup and the Classic Cup. Dan McCarthy

OPENER I’m in for three rounds.

“If there’s a chance to do more, I’ll do it!”

Mies recently completed the pre-season tests for the GT World Challenge Europe season where he will contest the series in the latest specification Audi for Sainteloc Racing, but Phillip Island will mark his first race experience in the upgraded model.

Shahin has already started his title defence, having tested at The Bend Motorsport Park last week and will partner with Mies for at least three rounds.

More than 20 entries will contest the opening round of GT World Challenge Australia at Phillip Island on March 18-20.

The GT World Challenge Australia Series will be supported by an impressive array of racing categories, including the TCR Australia Series, Trans Am Series, the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and plenty more.

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STEPHANE RATEL, the founder and CEO of the SRO Motorsports Group, will attend the opening round of GT World Challenge Australia at Phillip Island.

The Phillip Island event, to be held on March 18-20, marks the start of the second year of the GT World Challenge franchise in Australia.

Ratel founded the SRO Motorsports Group in 1995 and has since become the world leader in GT promotion.

Inaugurating the GT3 regulations in 2006, Ratel holds interests through its GT World Challenge moniker in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.

Outside of this, SRO controls the global Intercontinental GT Challenge, featuring the Bathurst 12 Hour, 24 Hours of Spa, Indianapolis 8 Hours, Suzuka 10 Hours and the Kyalami 9 Hour, while the SRO Motorsports Group also has the FIA Motorsport Games under its portfolio.

Phillip Island marks the first time Ratel will have attended a GT World Challenge Australia round, though he previously experienced local GT racing, visiting previous events in New Zealand as well as the Bathurst 12 Hour on multiple occasions.

“It was really an honour for SRO to be named co-organiser of Australian GT under the GT World Challenge Australia banner,” said Ratel.

“We saw promising grids throughout 2021, even with interstate travel restrictions, and for this I have to thank our Australian partners at ARG. Overall I think we can be pleased with the early results, especially given the circumstances.”

“I am absolutely looking forward to attending. It will be a pleasure to finally meet the teams and the staff on the ground, which is something that I would have done much sooner had travel restrictions not been in place. The event also opens our

global GT World Challenge season, which this year totals 29 rounds on four continents.

“Phillip Island is a wonderful circuit with a lot of history and I really believe in the potential of GT World Challenge Australia, so it will be great to experience it in person.”

GT World Challenge Australia Category Manager Ken Collier was looking forward to welcoming Ratel to Australian shores.

“It’s fantastic to have Stephane come to Phillip Island for the opening round of the GT World Challenge Australia for 2022,” said Collier.

“The Australian Racing Group is proud of its association with the SRO Motorsports Group. They are the world leaders in international GT racing, and to have such a strong connection to Stephane and his team is great for our competitors and our teams.

“We are looking forward to releasing a very strong and competitive field of GT cars for our first round. There are lots of different makes, returning drivers, new drivers and very professional teams. It’s going to be a great year.”

The first round of GT World Challenge will be part of the opening Motorsport Australia Championships event of the season at Phillip Island from March 18-20.

Josh Nevett

LIAM MCADAM REVEALS NEW LIVERY TCR AUSTRALIA privateer Liam McAdam has unveiled a new livery which will remain on his Audi RS3 LMS TCR for the rest of the season.

The bright orange Audi will stand out amongst the field when he next hits the track at Phillip Island for the second round of the TCR Australia Series next weekend.

This is McAdam’s first full-time season in the TCR Australia Series after running in selected rounds in 2019 and 2021.

Despite competing in several rounds, McAdam has not raced a TCR machine at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

In the opening round of the season at Symmons Plains he recorded a best race result of ninth in the final race and sits just outside of the top 10 in the standings.

The bright orange livery reflects the support of new sponsor Forza Performance Brakes which features prominently on each side of the car.

The indigenous inspired livery McAdam debuted at the Easter Bathurst has been removed.

McAdam himself completed the finishing touches on the livery before jumping behind the wheel at ‘The Island’ for testing.

The second round of the TCR Australia Series will be part of the opening Motorsport Australia Championships event at Phillip Island on March 18-20 and can be viewed live and exclusively on Stan Sport.

Dan McCarthy

PADDON ANNOUNCES WRC2 PROGRAM NEW ZEALANDER Hayden Paddon has announced a two-year WRC2 program in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 machine.

The 2016 Rally Argentina WRC winner has been out of the top-tier since 2018 when he finished on the podium at Rally Australia.

He was scheduled to make a comeback in Finland in 2019, however a crash pre-event ruled him out of the rally before bushfires cancelled Rally Australia.

The now 34-year-old has announced a partial 2022 WRC2 program, before a full assault in 2023.

Paddon will compete in his own Hyundai i20 N Rally2 machine alongside his long-time codriver John Kennard.

“We are delighted to work with Hyundai New Zealand as we embark on a two-year WRC2 campaign with the new Hyundai i20N Rally2 car,” expressed Paddon.

“This year we have planned a campaign which allows us to get up to speed with the awesome i20N Rally2 car, the car’s development and team development, before undertaking a full seven-round campaign

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in 2023 with the sole goal of winning that championship title.”

The Kiwi has confirmed a minimum of three rounds this year, Rally Estonia from July 14-17 and Rally Finland August 4-7 before returning home event, Rally Zealand which is set to occur from September 29 – October 2).

Rally Estonia will mark the first time the 34-year-old has competed in a WRC event since Wales Rally GB 2019 when he raced for M-Sport in the second-tier.

“We have been trying so hard over the past two years to get back to the WRC,” he recalled.

“It’s been tough with everything going on in the world. Together with Hyundai New Zealand we decided to take matters into our own hands, and launch a Kiwi team to take on the WRC2.

“I am really excited about doing this campaign with our own

team. Of course, it’s going to be challenging but we have a clear target for this two-year programme and we will be putting our best foot forward to try and achieve that.”

Paddon is very much looking forward to competing in front of his home crowd in New Zealand to end the year, the last Rally New Zealand occurred in 2012.

“I can’t wait to compete on the awesome roads of Rally New Zealand again and show what the Rally2 car is capable of.”

Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

DAVIES JOINS EXPANDED VERSA S5000 LINEUP FORMER SUPERCARS racer Shae Davies has signed on with new outfit Versa Motorsport in S5000 for the remainder of 2022.

Davies will drive in both the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and Tasman Series as the squads second entry, joining youngster Cooper Webster.

Founded at the end of the 2021 season, Versa has found its feet quickly with Webster sitting second in the championship after the first round at Race Tasmania.

Webster qualified fourth at Symmons Plains before finishing second behind winner Tim Macrow in the Feature Race.

Davies joins Versa Motorsport having raced in Supercars, GT World Challenge Europe and Carrera Cup, as well as being a former Super3 Series winner..

He has most recently plied his trade in the Stadium SuperTrucks series.

The 32-year-old will look to channel his open wheeler experience from Australian Formula Ford and US F1600 into the S5000 campaign.

“I’m very pleased to be joining a new, fresh faced and professional team such as Versa in S5000 this season,” Davies said.

“In such a short time they have produced some stellar results and I can’t wait to become a part of the operation & hopefully push the team even further to the front with my teammate, Cooper.

“S5000 is a category I have had my eyes on since it’s inception and the desire to get behind the wheel of one of these weapons has been strong.

“I don’t underestimate the challenge ahead, big power and aero is an exciting prospect. I hope my experience with Supercars and GTs puts me in good stead to get up to speed

quickly.

“Very excited to get underway at Phillip Island, a circuit I enjoy immensely in a weeks’ time.”

Versa Motorsport boss Toby Pope was thrilled to welcome Davies to the team.

“We are very excited to have Shae join the Versa Motorsport Team,” Pope said.

“Being such a highly experienced and successful driver locally and offshore, we can’t wait to start working with Shae and are focused on building together for the rest of season.”

Davies will join teammate Webster and the Versa team for the second round of the 2022 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship for the Motorsport Australia Gold Star at Phillip Island next weekend.

All three races will be broadcast live and ad-break free on Stan Sport. Josh Nevett

NEW F1 SAFETY CAR GOES WITHOUT LIGHTBAR MERCEDES-AMG HAS taken the covers off its new emergency vehicles for the 2022 Formula 1 season, unveiling a Safety Car that does away with the traditional roof-mounted lightbar.

The 2022 Safety Car will be the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, replacing 2021’s Mercedes-AMG GT R, modified for special use on F1 circuits around the globe.

The GT Black Series produces 544kW and accelerates to 100km/h in 3.2s, with a top speed of over 320km/h.

In place of a roof-mounted lightbar, the new Safety Car is fitted with light signalling in the windscreen and rearfacing lights in the rear spoiler.

The AMG Medical Car is the brand-new Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4MATIC+, replacing the C63 S AMG Estate.

The four-wheel-drive Medical Car is equipped to transport three medics and their lifesaving gear.

Just as quick to 100km/h as the Safety Car, the Medical Car can also reach speeds of over 310km/h.

Both cars will debut at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix from March 18-20.

Bernd Maylander, who has been driving the official FIA Formula 1 Safety Car since 2000, was impressed by the performance of the new machine.

“I’ve already had the chance to test this amazing vehicle many times and I’m simply blown away by how close it is to a thoroughbred race car,” Maylander said.

“It really is a major step compared to last year’s GT R – which was already at an extremely high level. To have a workplace like this in the name of safety is a dream come true.”

Aston Martin will also supply emergency cars in 2022, its Vantage Safety Car and DBX Medical Car taking the reins for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

“It is a continuing source of pride for myself and the whole company to see our cars playing a crucial role in Formula 1,” Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers said.

Josh Nevett

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RED BULL LIVERY FOR SVG RALLY DEBUT THE COVERS have come off the Red Bull Skoda Fabia R5 that Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen will drive at the National Capital Rally in April.

Shortly to take part in the opening round of the Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC), van Gisbergen has revealed the look for his Australian rally debut.

The Race Torque-prepared Skoda Fabia R5 was scheduled for its first taste of rally action on Tuesday, with van Gisbergen taking part in the ARC’s pre-season test day in Canberra.

The reigning Supercars Champion is excited to get behind the wheel of the top-spec rally car, sitting alongside experienced co-driver Glenn Weston.

“The livery looks amazing and the car is ready to go so I can’t wait to get behind the wheel at the pre-season test day in Canberra on Tuesday,” van Gisbergen said as AA closed for press..

“The test day will be one that is particularly important for me, and I will take every opportunity to learn the car and the Canberra roads. It will also be a great opportunity to work alongside Glenn who has a lot of experience in the Australian Championship and in Canberra.

“I can’t wait to get out there as we prepare for the National Capital Rally in April.”

Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport & Commercial Operations Michael Smith said having van Gisbergen compete in the ARC had already generated plenty of interest.

“The Motorsport Australia Rally Championship is in great shape ahead of what will be a massive 2022 across seven rounds,” Smith said.

“With Shane competing in round one, we can certainly expect plenty of attention to be focused on Canberra both during and in the lead up to

this event which is a positive for all competitors, ARC partners and most importantly, rally fans.

“In speaking to competitors, we know they are excited too and it will no doubt give crews an extra bit of motivation to perform strongly in Canberra.

“I think everyone would agree the car looks amazing and we are pleased to be welcoming Shane to the ARC in 2022.”

The opening round of the ARC, the National Capital Rally, will be held from April 1-3.

Josh Nevett

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KICKING THE REFEREE WHY MICHAEL MASI IS THE SCAPEGOAT FOR THE FIA’S BIG BLUNDERS IMAGINE THE grand final of your favourite footy championship.

Imagine there is less than one minute to go and one of the players goes down with an injury, forcing a stoppage.

At this point, the coaches from the rival contenders for the title start harassing the lead official over a live radio link. It’s all being broadcast live, three views and up close, to millions at home.

They are screaming and yelling, each demanding that their point of view gets precedence when the game resumes.

Then one team moves a key player into position and, with no time left on the clock and no chance for the opposition to react, they score a winning point.

Does it sound familiar?

It’s the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, except the situation at the Formula One decider could never have happened in the football world.

Coaches are not allowed to talk to officials. There is no live broadcast

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE of any of the private conversations between players and officials.

Football referees (or umpires) do not act alone; even in soccer there are officials on the sidelines.

Almost every football code also has an ‘off-field’ official in a bunker to rule on contentious events.

Yet there was Michael Masi, alone in the F1 firing line . . .

Up front, it needs to be said that Masi made a mistake - some people say two - in his application of the Formula One regulations at last year’s final race.

But should he have been sacked?

In this woke world, where was the support and the counselling for someone who became a worldwide

target for anyone with an F1 gripe?

Cyber bullying was rife, and the British motorsport press – many of them fans of Lewis Hamilton – sided entirely with the losing team.

The FIA president, Jean Todt, walked away and left the problem to his successor, Mohammed Bin Sulayem.

An investigation was promised, and completed, but the full report is not yet public.

Instead, Masi was singled out and punished.

But look at the rest of the announcements by the new FIA boss and it’s easy to see that the system was flawed.

There will now be two Race

Image: Motorsport Images

Directors on rotation for season 2022, a remote ‘adjudication’ crew, a new staff appointment to cover the track safety responsibilities that Masi had, and 73-year-old Herbie Blash is being brought back as a ‘special advisor.’

It’s hard to know the exact number, but it appears that six people – at least – will be doing Masi’s job.

Crucially, the television-friendly decision to allow live broadcasting of communications to Race Control – and access by team bosses like Toto Wolff and Christian Horner – has been reversed.

Masi has been offered another senior role at the FIA, but it’s hard to see him continuing. Perhaps he will come home to Australia, where he has worked successfully with Mark Skaife and was once being groomed to become the Race Director in Supercars.

Did Masi make a mistake? Yes. Did the punishment fit his crime?

Absolutely not.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN’S first IndyCar win looked like a singleseater re-run of his many victories in Supercars.

He was quickest in practice, he qualified on pole position, he was calm and cool, then he resisted a final charge by reigning champion Alex Palou on the streets of St. Petersburg.

McLaughlin is already being talked-up as a championship contender in the USA in only his second season of IndyCar racing.

He could easily do the job.

Scotty Mac has sharpened his Supercars tools and is working well in a re-shaped and slimmeddown Team Penske outfit that also brought Will Power home to third in St.Pete.

Roger Penske, ’The Captain’, was one of the first to congratulate his new protege after the win but there are a lot of people in Australia – including me – who celebrated the win and will be cheering for him through early mornings in season 2022.

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Bruce Williams bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bruce Williams DEPUTY EDITOR NEWS EDITOR

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FORMULA 1 Luis Vasconelos US CORRESPONDENT Mike Brudenell

THE WAIT is nearly over, soon racing will start again, and everything will be put into perspective ... if not completely forgotten. The controversial 2021 season finale; Hamilton’s long silence; the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix; Nikita Mazepin’s future; and the FIA’s feeble response to the invasion of Ukraine ... all that will be put behind our backs as the focus will be back on lap times, longrun pace and wheel-to-wheel fighting – and what a relief that will be.

It is true, this is the shortest winter break in recent times, but there’s so much to look forward to going into the 2022 Formula One World Championship.

First of all, we’ll have the new cars, conceived to allow closer racing and to have a more modern look that will appeal to the younger generations.

As a consequence of this massive change in the Technical Regulations, there’s the exciting prospect of new teams joining Red Bull and Mercedes at the front of the field, especially after Ferrari and McLaren showed promising pace in the first test session of the year, in Barcelona.

Then, of course, the prospect of another great battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen is an exciting one, both men highly motivated to prove they are the best. Given

with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER the tension that was built up last season between them, count on both being pretty fired-up from the word go. Hopefully, they won’t be alone at the front of the field, as new Mercedes boy George Russell, plus the McLaren and the Ferrari drivers are likely to give them a good run for their money.

With new regulations also comes new opportunities for underdogs to get their day of glory and that’s what the other six teams that compete in Formula One will be hoping for. Each one of them has strengths that will come into play sometime during the season, as the opportunity for upsets is bigger when things are changing in the sport.

Nothing will change more than the race management overseen by the FIA. The introduction of a VAR-like system is intriguing – a good step for the sport if decisions are quick and consistent – while the rotation between Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas as Race Director on site has a lot of potential to lead to unnecessary

controversies ... I just hope that in eight months from now I will have been proven wrong.

There is also a lot of excitement about some circuits and for two main reasons: some, like Melbourne, Jeddah and Spa-Francorchamps, have incorporated extensive modifications, particularly the Albert Park track, that should make the racing better and safer. Others, particularly Singapore’s Marina Bay Circuit and Japan’s Suzuka, return to the calendar after two consecutive cancellations caused by the pandemic, and all drivers are raring to go and race there again – particularly Suzuka, one of the favorite circuits of almost all of them. And how beautiful to watch and hard to drive with the new ground-effect cars will not only be Suzuka, but also Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Zandvoort, Monza or the highly modified Albert Park?

The FIA’s new style of management will also be under scrutiny, with the election of Mohammed Ben Sulayem as

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE? Latest news from Australia and around the world, Formula 1 Bahrain, Under The Skin-Porsche 992 911 GT3 Cup Car (yes this time), Motorsport Australia Championships-Philip Isalnd, Island Classic Historics, Young Gun Bailey Sweeny

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president, last December, putting an end to 12 years of Jean Todt’s leadership. It’s so rare to have a change of presidency in the FIA – the Emirati is only the fourth FIA president in the 35 seasons I’ve been covering Formula One – that it always brings some changes in style of dealing with the sport. Will he be as distant and permissive as Todt was or as intrusive and dictatorial as Balestre and Mosley were? Could Ben Sulayem find the right balance that eluded his predecessors – not that they were even trying to get it, of course? How will he get on with the tremendous power the Frenchman let the commercial side of the sport take?

As I’m about to fly off to Bahrain for three days of testing and then the first Grand Prix of the 2022 Formula One World Championship, there are a lot of questions I’m asking myself and for which I’ll only start getting the answers by the evening of March 20, when the red lights go out at the Sakhir circuit.

And that’s the most exciting part of it all; seeing who’s quickest, who’s better on the tyres, who has a very competitive car from the first race and who has work to do to catch up during a very punishing season. Ah yes, racing will be doing the talking – everything else will just be background noise that we’ll be happy to ignore.

PHOTOGRAPHERS AUSTRALIA Daniel Kalsz, Mark Horsburgh, Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde, Richard Hathaway, MTR Images, Bruce Moxon, Ray Ritter, autopics.com.au INTERNATIONAL Motorsport Images ADVERTISING MANAGER Bruce Williams All Advertising inquiries bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

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FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

STOP / GO

MERCEDES ENDED pre-season Formula 1 testing in Barcelona on top, Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest time of the week during an interrupted day of on-track running that featured five red flags in the morning session. Mercedes were 1-2 on the final day, with new recruit George Russell 0.095s behind his teammate.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were third and fourth ahead of Sebastian Vettel. RV

Images: Motorsport Images

KEEP UP TO-DATE WITH ALL THE LATEST F1 NEWS SCAN HERE

ALFA ROMEO F1 Team has finally revealed its colours for 2022. The livery, a product designed and developed

by Alfa Romeo’s famous Centro Stile, is a subtle nod to the brand’s past, recalling historical designs from the heritage of both Alfa Romeo and Sauber Motorsport. Title partners, Alfa Romeo and ORLEN, feature prominently on the C42 which will be driven by new recruits, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. RV

REIGNING FORMULA 1 Champion Max Verstappen will be a Red Bull Racing driver until at least the end of 2028 after signing a long-term five-year contract extension. Verstappen has made the end-of-year podium with the squad three times now since joining in 2016 and a maiden title was enough for Red Bull to extend the 24-year-old’s deal beyond its expiry at the end of next season. JN

GENERAL ADMISSION (Sunday Park Pass) tickets for race day at this year’s Australian Grand Prix have sold out. The return of Formula 1 action to Melbourne has seen a huge demand for tickets for the event, with a Sunday crowd somewhere between 120,000 – 130,000 patrons expected once grandstands and corporate facilities numbers are finalised. It’s expected that Saturday’s crowd will also exceed 100,000 with a record crowd for the Australian Grand Prix on the cards. RV

ASTON MARTIN is weighing up the possibility of developing its own Formula 1 power unit for 2026 to coincide with revised engine regulations. The team currently utilises a Mercedes unit, as well as its gearbox and rear suspension, but Aston Martin Technical Director Andrew Green has hinted that a shift to engine independence may be on the cards.

“I think going forward with our ambitions, we’re definitely investigating our power unit supply in the long-term,” Green said at the launch of the AMR22. JN

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TEAMS SPLIT ON ANDRETTI GLOBAL’S F1 ENTRY

THERE’S A clear split in the F1 paddock regarding the proposed entry of Andretti Global into Formula One by 2024, after Michael Andretti confirmed his intentions a couple of days after his father, the legendary Mario Andretti, made the announcement on Twitter.

While the midfield teams, like McLaren and Alpine, are completely open to welcome an all-American team into the sport, Mercedes and Red Bull expressed serious reserves about the plan, Toto Wolff going as far as warning Andretti that, “you need to have one billion dollars to invest up front to have any chance of competing at this level.”

The Mercedes Team Principal seemed quite sceptical about the plan and the need for more than 10 teams to be racing in Formula One: “Andretti is a name, that’s for sure; the American market is important, but every team joining needs to be credible. It’s not only by paying a $200m entry fee but it needs to demonstrate, in my opinion, what it can

do for the other teams, F1 and the FIA. Only then, the sport will grow. We are the absolute pinnacle, it is the Champions League, or the NFL, and redistributing franchises on the go, that’s not how it should be and not the intention of F1 or the FIA either. But, if there is a real brand coming in, with good people, necessary funding – not only the $200m but you need probably around a billion if you want to play in this club straight from the getgo, then, why not?”

For once in total agreement with his bitter rival, Christian Horner added that, “I think it’s great there’s the interest from people wanting to enter Formula 1, and the Andretti name is certainly a powerful name in motorsport, and of course they’re not the only ones making noises about coming on, but there is a clear criteria through the Concorde Agreement that has to be met and approved. I’m sure they’re engaged in that process, and that agreement is there to protect the 10 incumbents and not to dilute that, so

Michael Andretti appears to have significant backing for his F1 plans – but is surprised at the level of negative response from F1’s ‘top’ teams.

Images: Motorsport Images

obviously that would need to be carefully looked at.”

In contrast with the top teams’ view, McLaren and Alpine openly stated they’d welcome Andretti into Formula One. Andrea Seidl explained that, “from our side, we definitely would welcome the Andretti team, the Andretti name – a US team, would help to grow the sport further in the US, and open up simply more possibilities again to get young drivers in.

The more teams we have, and in the end the earlier we can get to 12 teams would help drive the franchise value higher for us teams; so, absolutely open for it, would love to compete with them.”

As for Alpine, Laurent Rossi also showed his enthusiasm for the plan: “I welcome it. I think Andretti could have that potential, the US aspect of it is important for Formula One, and I think it would be nice – it would spice things up on track as well, which is good. It’s better to move the hierarchy again over time a bit.”

FERRARI DRIVERS QUIETLY CONFIDENT FERRARI LEFT Barcelona in high spirits, after being the team that completed the most laps during the three days of the test, turning in competitive lap times right from the start of the session.

With Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz never using the two softest compounds Pirelli has in its range, both men ended up behind drivers who used the C4 and C5 tyres,– but other teams noted that with corrections for tyre compounds and fuel, it was the Monegasque who set the best lap of the weekend. Leclerc’s best time of 1m19,689s was achieved on the first of a 17lap run, when he had at least 35 kilos of fuel on board his F1-75 and running with the C3 compound that Pirelli reckons is 1.2s slower than the C5 around the Spanish circuit.

No wonder, then, Leclerc was feeling confident at the end of the test.

“I’m feeling reasonably good, we’ve done all the tests we wanted to do, which is the

most important thing – as much mileage as we could – and we did it without major problems, so it’s a positive first test for this and in terms of performance, nothing to say for now.”

Asked how the ambiance inside the team was,after this test, the Monegasque admitted that, “we are quite happy that things have gone smoothly, but. on the other hand, I think we are working harder than ever to just keep our heads down.

“Of course it is nice to see you are P1 at the end of any day, but that doesn’t mean anything and everyone is aware of this. We are not really focusing on the performance at all; we are just focusing on ourselves, again to try as many things as possible, to try and understand where is the 100% of this car, and that’s it. Now we are already focused on Bahrain.

Team mate Carlos Sainz was also cautious on his appraisal of the situation,

explaining that, “yes, it’s been a good start in terms of reliability. We’ve managed to complete one day and a half of testing each without pretty much any single issue, which is an encouraging start for us. “ This is what we’re here for in Barcelona.

Unfortunately for you guys, it’s not very exciting because we are nowhere near to the limit of the car or finding where the performances is, but we’re doing laps, and we’re completing them nicely.”

But it was when he was asked to send a message to the Ferrari fans that the Spaniard got closer to letting on how confident the team is after these three days of testing: “They can be happy that the team has done a reliable car so far, and that they give us time to go and search for performance, because we are nowhere near there yet.

Be patient, good things will come to those who wait.”

CHINA IN SURPRISE BID TO GET 2022 RACE CHINA HAS surprised even Stefano Domenicali by signalling its availability to host a Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit on September 25, replacing the now cancelled race in Sochi.

Not only have the promoters, represented

by Juss Event Management, contacted the Formula One Group to open the doors of its track to Formula One later this year, they’ve come up with a financial offer that matches what Qatar is willing to pay for the race, with the added advantage of bringing China back to Formula One when there is a Chinese driver on the grid – Guanyu Zhou will make his Grand Prix debut in three weeks’ time in Bahrain.

With a contract to host a Formula One race until the end of 2025, China was the first country to cancel its race back in 2020, did the same last year, and wasn’t even on this year’s provisional calendar as the country is still closed to foreigners more than two years after the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, that started the worldwide pandemic.

That’s why there are some doubts about the feasibility of having the 3000+ people that are necessary to get a Grand Prix up and running in and out of Shanghai in just five days. The recent experience of the Winter Olympics in Beijing showed those attending the event were submitted to draconian health and safety measures that are simply not possible to implement in Formula One. While the local promoters, Formula One and all the big companies involved in the

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Could F1 be headed back to China while the country is still dealing with its own Covid fallout? Unlikely. sport, as well as Zhou’s powerful backers, would love to have a race in Shanghai in late September, the local sanitary authorities are very unlikely to give the go-ahead to this plan as the country’s only solution to any small outbreak of COVID-19 in the last two years has been simply locking down entire cities for two weeks, something that would be a mammoth task in a metropolis with nearly 28 million inhabitants.

For now, the negotiations between Shanghai’s promoters and Formula One are in their early stages but the Chinese race has the added attraction of being

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geographically suited to host a race the week before the Singapore Grand Prix, as it’s just 5h30m away from the island-country, so all Formula One material could be in the Marina Bay Circuit by Monday night – even earlier than if the Russian Grand Prix had stayed in the calendar and everyone would have had to fly from Sochi to Singapore.

With this approach to Formula One, China joins a growing list of countries open to replacing Russia in the calendar, as Portugal, Turkey, Qatar and Malaysia have also signalled their availability to Stefano Domenicali.

VERSTAPPEN’S NEW DEAL LEAVES MERCEDES WITH FEW OPTIONS

MAX VERSTAPPEN’S reported new deal with Red Bull, that will see the Dutch driver earn up to Euro50m per year until the end of 2027 or 2028 (according to daily newspaper De Telegraaf,) means the chances of the World Champion ever racing for Mercedes are next to none.

With seven-times World Champion Lewis Hamilton likely to be on his last contract in Formula One, Mercedes has to hope George Russell is ready to pick up the mantle and take the battle to Verstappen and Red Bull after his veteran team mate retires, possibly at the end of 2023. But knowing Mercedes is on the lookout for another young gun to fight for titles, Ferrari and McLaren have already taken steps to secure their youngsters against offers Wolff would be potentially be making them.

At Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc secure until the end of 2024, the high priority now is to extend Carlos Sainz’s contract for another two or three years, to get him out of Mercedes’ radar for as long as possible, given the Italians have now realised they hired a driver with even more potential than they initially thought.

McLaren has also reacted quickly and extended Lando Norris’ contract until the end of 2025, while Daniel Ricciardo will be fighting to save his seat for next year, after being often outpaced by the youngster last year. The Australian is not really an option for Mercedes as Hamilton’s replacement, unless Russell shows in the next couple of seasons that he’s capable of beating Verstappen on equal terms and that Wolff decides he just wants a reliable number two driver next to him.

The Austrian has, in fact, very few options, a consequence of Mercedes failing to invest in young drivers in the last few years. The only drivers close to Formula One in the German’s folder are Nyck de Vries, who missed his chance to get to Formula One this year and sees his future in Formula E and the WEC, and Fredrik Vesti, who has yet to show Formula One potential in Formula 2.

Alpine is where the best young talent seems to be, led by Oscar Piastri but now reinforced

by Jack Doohan, who left the Red Bull program to join the French squad, and backed up by the very impressive but inconsistent Victor Martins.

Red Bull’s best hope in the junior formulae is Dennis Hauger, while Alfa Romeo has Theo Pourchaire in its folder and Williams may have made a very inspired move in hiring Logan Sargeant – who gave Piastri a real run for his money when they were teamed up in Formula 3, back in 2020.

Even if Gasly and Albon are dropped

by Red Bull, Wolff wouldn’t see them as proper challengers for Verstappen, after they were both comprehensively beaten by the Dutchman at Red Bull.

As for other drivers, could Alonso be tempted to extend his Formula One career beyond the age of 42? And would he still be competitive in two years time? That could, effectively, be Wolff’s best choice – but the fact he’d have to look for a driver even older than Hamilton to put pressure on Verstappen shows how weak the Austrian’s hand is right now when it comes to the drivers’ market card game.

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2022 Formula 1 World Championship Preview

IS THERE ROOM FOR MORE THAN TWO AT THE TOP? MAX VERSTAPPEN AND LEWIS HAMILTON WILL START THE FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AS FAVORITES TO WIN THE TITLE, BUT THEY BOTH KNOW THERE WILL BE MORE COMPETITION AT THE TOP OF THE FIELD THAN IN THE THRILLING 2021 SEASON, WHICH WAS DOMINATED BY THE TWO MEN AND SETTLED WITH LESS THAN HALF A LAP TO GO. OUR FORMULA 1 EXPERT, LUIS VASCONCELOS DOES A DEEP DIVE INTO THE DETAILS AHEAD OF THE SEASON START. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE to underestimate Mercedes and Red Bull’s ability to come flying out of the blocks and the fact that both teams will take heavily modified cars to Bahrain, particularly on the aerodynamic front, after validating their basic mechanical package in the three days of testing in Barcelona, just shows the might of both organisations.

But the new technical regulations have given other teams, most notably Ferrari and McLaren, the best opportunity since 2014 to join the fight for Grand Prix wins and the World Championship.

On the basis of what was seen in the Circuit de Catalunya, the gap between the two top teams and their closer rivals is not as big as it used to be, so the chances of an early upset are real and, of course, exciting for the sport.

Others, like Aston Martin, Alpine and AlphaTauri have work to do before they catch up, but the 2022-spec cars will be subjected to so much development this year, that things will change quickly, from one race to the next, depending on who makes the bigger steps with every new development package they’ll bring to the races.

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How will the relationship between Merc duo Hamilton and Russell develp?

On the drivers’ front, Verstappen and Hamilton will resume their battle and they’re both pretty fired up. The Dutchman wants to prove he doesn’t need external factors or a stroke of luck to beat his rival at the end of the season; the Mercedes driver is determined to avenge what he feels was the injustice

perpetrated against him in Abu Dhabi and win that eighth world title that will give him the undisputed title of greatest driver of all time.

A calmer, more mature Verstappen will be hard to beat, of course, but Hamilton’s inner fire seems to be burning stronger than ever and the fight between the two super talents

All Images: Motorsport Images will raise the bar higher. They won’t, however, be alone at the front of the field, for there’s a good bunch of young guns ready to join the fight and prove they’re as good or better than the two man who dominated the last season.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will make the most of Ferrari’s new-found speed and the

With Oscar Piastri waiting in the wings, the pressure will be on Fernando Alonso to perform.

RULE CHANGES TO AVOID NEW FIASCOS

Defence of Verstappen’s world championship will depend upon the relative performance of the Red Bull (left) and Mercedes.

From top team to ... not top team: a challenging 2022 awaits Valtteri Bottas ...

IF THE on-track battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021 was tremendously exciting, with the title being decided with less than half a lap to go in the last race of the season, last year’s championship was marred by two tremendously controversial incidents that had a direct effect on the final result of the Drivers’ Championship.

The first was allowing the Belgian Grand Prix to count as a race, after the cars did just two slow laps behind the Safety Car before peeling into the pits, as terrible weather conditions made it impossible for any motor race to be held safety in the very fast circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. While the spectators got soaked for hours, waiting for the cars to leave the pits, the Race Direction decided to officially start the race and then put out the red flag after two laps, bringing the event to an inglorious end.

Not only were the paying fans deprived

THE FULL POINTS’ TABLES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Less than 25% – At least 2 laps but less than 25% race distance Less than 50% – At least 25% but less than 50% race distance Less than 75% – At least 50% but less than 75% race distance FULL POINTS - More than 75% race distance Pos. Less than 25% Less than 50% 1st 6pts 13pts 2nd 4pts 10pts 3rd 3pts 8pts 4th 2pts 6pts 5th 1pt 5pts 6th 4pts 7th 3pts 8th 2pts 9th 1pt 10th

British Young Guns – Norris (left) and Russell – will challenge Sir Lewis for fan support ...

Monegasque comes into 2022 with the added motivation of proving his defeat at the hands of the Spaniard last year was just a glitch on his sterling career. His speed, particularly in qualifying, and his race craft are second to none, but he needs to bide his time on occasions and that’s something he has to learn from Sainz.

The Spaniard is not as spectacular and fiery as his team mate, but has speed and

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consistency in abundance and that’s a combination that wins titles ...

Then, of course, there are the two biggest British hopes to pick up the mantle once Hamilton retires: his new team-mate George Russell and last year’s greatest revelation, Lando Norris. The new Mercedes man has a massive task ahead of him, as he goes head-to-head with a tremendously motivated Hamilton but, unlike Bottas in the last five

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of a show – and given a very poor compensation package – the decision to hand half points to the top 10 incensed everyone as no race had effectively been held and the race “classification” was thus the same as in qualifying, the Sunday slow procession being a farce.

The revised Sporting Regulations stipulate that if less than two laps are run without the Safety Car on track, no points will be awarded at the end of a Grand Prix and then introduce three different points systems, based on how much of a scheduled race distance is effectively completed. Therefore, as below, a win may be worth only six points, for races that run for more than two laps but less than 25% of the expected race distance, 13 for races that finished before the halfway mark and 19 if the winner has completed more than half the full distance but less than 75% it.

Less than 75% 19pts 14pts 12pts 9pts 8pts 6pts 5pts 3pts 2pts 1pt

More than 75% 25pts 18pts 15pts 12pts 10pts 8pts 6pts 4pts 2pts 1pt

Another important change in the points’ system is that the top eight finishers of the Sprint Races – of which we’ll have three this year, in Imola, the Red Bull Ring and Interlagos – will get points, while in the three Sprint Races held last year, only the top three received points (three for the winner, two for second placed and one for third). Now, the winner of those short races will get eight points, the second will get seven and so on, until the man finishing in P8 gets the final point. And, responding to the driver’s outcry, the official pole position will be awarded to the fastest driver in Friday’s qualifying session, while in the three Sprint events of last year that official title wrongly fell to the winner of the Sprint Race.

As for the other big controversy of last season, the way the Race Director re-started the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for just the last lap with not all the lapped cars released beforehand and without waiting – as the rules stipulate – for one extra lap to call the Safety Car into the pits, the new Sporting Regulations now indicate that from the moment the “Lapped Cars may overtake” message is published, then the Safety Car will have to return to the pits at the end of the following lap, without waiting for all of them to regain the lost lap and line up behind the leading bunch.

This will accelerate the process of re-starting the races – but it is also clear than it remains mandatory for all lapped cars to be allowed to pass the Safety Car and not just those between first and second, as it was the case in Abu Dhabi – a decision that ended up costing Michael Masi his job as Race Director. As for the rest, regarding the Safety Car and the Virtual Safety Car regulations, drivers are still limited to 60 per cent of their previous best speed in every mini-sector of the track and overtaking remains forbidden.

The rest of the Sporting Regulations remains largely unchanged but with two different men rotating in the role of Race Director this year – former WEC man Eduardo Freitas and the DTM main official, Niels Wittach. Their interpretation of any incident will be under severe scrutiny, as it’s impossible that the two men will have exactly the same background and approach, and therefore, consistency in judging incidents and in the application of penalties will be almost impossible to achieve.

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2022 Formula 1 World Championship Preview

The first F1 ‘shakedown’ test at Barcelona suggests rumours that Ferrari have made a solid step forwards may be correct ...

F1 2022 Calendar

Herbie Blash (left, with Zak Brown) retuns to F1 as Race Director ‘advisor’.

Rd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Country Bahrain Grand Prix Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Miami Grand Prix Spanish Grand Prix Monaco Grand Prix Azerbaijan Grand Prix Canadian Grand Prix British Grand Prix Austrian Grand Prix French Grand Prix Hungarian Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix Dutch Grand Prix Italian Grand Prix Singapore Grand Prix Japanese Grand Prix United States Grand Prix Mexico City Grand Prix São Paulo Grand Prix Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Circuit Bahrain International Circuit Jeddah Corniche Circuit Albert Park Circuit Imola Miami International Autodrome Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit de Monaco Baku City Circuit Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Silverstone Red Bull Ring Circuit Paul Ricard Hungaroring Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Circuit Zandvoort Monza Circuit Marina Bay Street Circuit Suzuka International Racing Course Circuit of the Americas Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Interlagos Circuit Yas Marina Circuit

Changes to the Albert Park layout are designed to improve passing/racing. seasons, has some key elements of the team on his side, as they believe he’s the future leader of Mercedes. They will be on his side if things get tense with Hamilton and that could be a massive help for the young Brit. Massively impressive in qualifying, Russell will need to raise his game in the races to beat Hamilton in what will be a fascinating battle to watch.

At McLaren, the inner battle will also be crucial for both drivers’ future. Lando Norris, strong with a new long-term contract in his pocket, will want to prove he’s the team

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leader and take the fight to the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen, to finally win his first Grand Prix. Across the garage, Daniel Ricciardo needs to wipe out from the collective memory most of his 2021 season and show he’s as quick as he was when he beat a Vettel at the top of his game and outscored Verstappen in the first two years they were teamed up at Red Bull. And back at the Austrian team, Sérgio Pérez will be doing his best to get out of Verstappen’s shadow, something very few believe he’ll be able to do.

Behind this lot, you’ll have two former champions trying to return to their best days, but while Fernando Alonso’s motivation doesn’t seem to waiver, no matter how his car performs, Sebastian Vettel no longer seems to have the heart to go to the limit if he’s in no position to score good points. But should Aston Martin provide him with a reasonably competitive car there’s no doubt he’ll be up there, while Alonso may start the year on the backfoot if Alpine doesn’t solve the A522’s issues quickly – but will be always great to

Date March 20 March 27 April 10 April 24 May 8 May 22 May 29 June 12 June 19 July 3 July 10 July 24 July 31 August 28 September 4 September 11 October 2 October 9 October 23 October 30 November 13 November 20

watch on-track and to hear off the track!

Tha AlphaTauri duo also has a lot to prove, Gasly chasing a return to Red Bull, Tsunoda to confirm he deserves a Formula One seat, while at Williams it will be returnee Alex Albon doing all he can to prove he’s the one who deserves a return to the Milton Keynes-based team and Nicholas Latifi doing his all to prove he deserves another season on the grid.

Dropping to the back of the field, Valtteri Bottas will be determined to prove he can lead a team and bring it up the grid, while team mate Guanuy Zhou has the difficult task of proving he’s more than a pay-driver against a man who beat Hamilton in qualifying every three or four races during the last five years. With them back there will be the Haas duo, including the unfortunate Mazepin’s replacement (yet to be named), hoping to get in the mix after a very difficult and frustrating 2021.

New cars, new rules, heavily modified tracks, new battles – it’s all new in the 2022 Formula One World Championship and everybody is raring to go right from the start of the First Free Practice Session for the Bahrain Grand Prix next March 18th. Bring it on!

NEW LOOK FOR BETTER RACING THIS YEAR’S Formula One cars are visually quite different from the ones that raced in the last seven seasons, under the previous Technical Regulations. To make them more appealing to the new generation of fans, while improving the racing, were the two main goals established by the new management of the Formula One group, following the departure or Bernie Ecclestone.

The FIA was happy to hand the writing of the new rules to the commercial rights’ holder, knowing that Managing Director Ross Brawn, assisted by his former Benetton pal Pat Symonds, and a good group of experienced engineers, had the know-how to come up with a concept that would improve the racing.

Over the years, drivers had increasingly complained about the impossibility of following another car in the faster corners, as the turbulence generated in their wake would seriously compromise the following car’s aerodynamic efficiency. So a completely new set of regulations was written, tested in CFD and wind tunnels, showing a marked improvement on the chances of cars running close together – but the proof is in the pudding and it will only be during the Bahrain Grand Prix that we’ll find out if these new-look cars achieve the goals set by the regulator.

In summary, here’s what changes in the regulations should achieve, starting with the changes introduced in the aerodynamic concept of the cars: A ground-effect floor, with two long tunnels in place of the previous flat floor, will ensure a greater proportion of the car’s total downforce is generated from the underbody, helping create a much cleaner wake and an aero platform less sensitive to wake.

Upwash of air from the floor is designed to be much higher, allowing it more time to dissipate its energy before falling upon the car behind.

Simplified front wing and endplate. Not standardised but highly prescriptive, with a four-element wing attached directly to the nose, transitioning into a much-simplified single-piece endplate. It will be far less sensitive to wake than current designs.

A prescriptively-shaped rear wing with an incut wrap-round connection between main profile and lower beam wing, which effectively banishes the rear wing endplates and the strong vortices they shed.

• • • •

OTHER SIGNIFICANT REGULATIONS In order to reduce costs, teams have been encouraged to buy certain parts from the bigger teams, but Formula One components are now divided into a group of five different designations as part of a push to allow cost savings when it comes to parts not deemed to be performance differentiators:

•

Listed parts remain the components a team must design and own the IP to. This includes the monocoque and the any nonprescribed aero surfaces.

Standard supply components are ones that are designed and manufactured by a designated supplier. This includes parts such as the fuel pump and tyre pressure sensors.

Transferrable parts are those that can be supplied from one team to another – for example the gearbox and hydraulics systems.

Prescribed parts are those that the teams build themselves, but to a set specification.

Open-source parts are free for teams to design to their own specification. However, the full design details must be made available to all other teams.

• Mick Schumacher is consigned to another tail-ender season – with a new team-mate ...

• • •

Will the young guns at AlphaTauri continue to be strong mid field contenders? Gasly wants his seat back at Redbull and will push hard if the car delivers.

• •

Bargeboards are outlawed.

Flush wheel covers standardised to banish using the wheel/axle to create downforce-inducing airflows.

Front wheel deflector to limit ‘outwash’ of airflow.

Although the bodywork geometry of the car and engine cover will still differ from team to team, they will be defined within quite tight templates which seek to create as clean and unsensitive airflow as possible.

Limits placed upon brake duct shaping for downforce creation.

The combined effect showed in simulation that the following car retains 86% of its maximum downforce when one car-length behind the car in front under the new rules, compared to the 2021 car’s 55%.

Another visual change has to do with the size of the wheels and tyres, now in line with what performance road cars have been using for more than a decade:

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• •

•

The switch to 18-inch wheelrims from the current 13 inches means new low-profile Pirelli tyres. The intention is for these to be less temperature-sensitive and allow drivers to push hard throughout stints while still having a performance drop-off to make strategy interesting.

The way the suspension is attached to the wheels has been simplified, with the extended mounting points pioneered by Mercedes and what was Toro Rosso that have since become de-rigeur, outlawed. This means the suspension must now be attached directly to the wheelhub.

Hydraulic suspension is outlawed, meaning only the springs and dampers can control the stiffness.

Inerters attached to the suspension are banned.

A standard tyre pressure sensor will be used to monitor the running conditions of tyres.

•

ENGINE REGULATIONS Finally, on the engine side, there were very few modifications, but one of them has reduced the amount of power delivered and will start to contribute to the sport becoming more ‘sustainable’: The 1.6-litre V6 turbo engine rules remain largely the same, but the design of the power units will be homologated at the start of the season and be frozen up to the end of at least 2025.

At least 10% of the fuel must comprise “advanced sustainable ethanol” (E10)

• •

• • •

McLaren: high hopes that the 2022 car (below) will put Norris and Ricciardo in the main contest more regularly. Similarly (above) with Ferrari – have the reds found a little tech gain with the 2022 cars?

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TO QUINNFINITY AND BEYOND

TONY QUINN GETS SHIT DONE. SUCCESSFUL IN BUSINESSES, TQ IS ABLE TO IMMERSE HIMSELF IN HIS PASSION – MOTORSPORT. FROM PAST AND CURRENT CATEGORY OWNERSHIP TO BUILD AND ACQUISITION OF RACE TRACKS AND NOW PART TEAM OWNERSHIP AND DRIVER SUPPORT, HE’S IN IT UP TO HIS NECK ...

By Paul Gover HE COULD sit at home on the Gold Coast on his giant pile of money, like the Richie Rich of motorsport, but he is far too driven to take his foot off the gas.

Right now, he is driving Queensland Raceway into the future while also enjoying Targa rallies and planning some high-profile GT races and a hit-out in the Carrera Cup. There is also his stake in Triple Eight Race Engineering, and his backing of Liam Lawson in FIA Formula 2, three racetracks in New Zealand, and his collection of gorgeous race and rally toys including a Formula One car that was raced by Michael Schumacher.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg and the public face of a seriously successful business empire.

There is far more happening behind the scenes, from his various investments to his work to provide a genuine legacy at the end of his life for kids who are doing things tough.

Quinn, now 65 but with the energy of a 25-year-old, has already taken care of his own family and believes it’s important for him to make a difference with the youth of Australia and New Zealand. Although born and bred in Scotland, New Zealand was good to him and provided the springboard into Australia, and he sees he can make more of a difference across the Tasman.

“I need to live a good life for the next 20 years. And with good people,” Quinn tells Auto Action.

“I have a definite aversion to arseholes. I’ve dealt with a few in my life, and I don’t need to do that again.”

It’s a tough-love philosophy that has worked incredibly well for Quinn, from the early days when he gave up the chance for a university career in architecture to help his father in the rough-and-rugged world of pet food in Scotland.

Want an example? How about cutting up a cow carcass on a farm so it would fit into a car to be driven back to the pet food factory?

If you need more proof, Quinn’s book ‘Zero to 60’ has it all. There is his life in a caravan in the bitter cold of Scotland, where the weekly bath was done in one of the processing vats in the factory, through to his canny decisions in business.

There was also his grandfather, who was a member of the IRA, in a life story that has plenty of entertainment and excitement.

“I was very clever at school. Honestly.

I never did homework because I was chasing girls. I didn’t need to do homework.”

“My dad paid me 20 quid a week to work in the factory. I thought, ‘Fuck, that’s good’, so I never went back to school”.

There is about to be a second book, covering the past five years and a look into the future, with Quinn’s signature warts-andold story telling and plenty of swearing.

The language is blunt and fruity when he arrives for a catch-up, wearing a purple golf shirt – purple is his favourite colour – with a logo for Queensland Raceway.

Somewhere at his newest track is one very special sign, Quinnsland Raceway, that’s a gag, a challenge to spot, and a reminder that one of his earliest businesses was in sign-writing.

“I’m a branded kind of guy.

Wherever I go, whatever I do, I live and breathe the business,” he says.

Look around his office, set high on the Gold Coast with a great view out to the ocean, and there is one thing that stands out.

It’s Buzz Lightyear, from the Toy Story franchise. Quinn has a large-scale model of his unlikely hero and it’s no coincidence that the name of his company, Quinnfinity, is a play on the ’To Infinity and Beyond’

One of the most recent investments has been a share in triple Eight Engineering, alongside Jamie Whincup, the retiring Roland Dane, and daughter Jess Dane.

main man is Buzz Lightyear. “ “My is my favourite character. If ” He I came back as a character it would be him ...”

A few years back, Quinn raced in, and owned, the GT category.

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Images: Motorsport Images/Mark Horsburgh/Paul Gover/Other Side Productions/ARG/AA Archives

punchline used by Lightyear.

“My main man is Buzz Lightyear. He is my favourite character. If I came back as a character it would be him,” says Quinn.

“He’s here, he’s at home, he’s everywhere.

He is my hero.

“He’s like my buddy. When I wonder what’s happening today, I hit a button on Buzz and he gives me an answer. He’s always upbeat, always keen.

“Call me mental, I don’t know. Kids have teddy bears and I’ve got Buzz Lightyear. I’ve got Kate (his partner) as well, but it’s Buzz for me.”

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Rewind on the Quinn story and he talks about his parents, and his sisters and his brother, his own children and his former wife Christina. Things have not gone well in some ways and he regrets the breakdown of his 38year marriage.

“For no obvious reason we separated about six years ago. Just generally drifting apart. The businesses had been sold; there was a bit of money sloshing around,” he says.

He really misses his son Klark, who was his racing buddy for many years.

“When Klark was racing GTs I was more interested in where he finished. It was great to race with your son, but you were quite proud when he beat you. It’s not a sad moment, it’s a real proud moment.”

These days he has a good looking younger partner, but she is as tough as him with a great sense of humour.

“I’ve been with Kate for five years. She’s lovely. She looks after me,” he says.

Looking at his business life, Quinn describes himself as “a conservative entrepreneur.”

That means he starts businesses, he buys businesses, and he rebuilds businesses. If they are good he always keeps a small stake to share any future success.

He is best known for his success with VIP Pet Foods, but there was also the turnaround at Darrell Lea chocolates, two deals that netted him an estimated $500 million.

“I’ve been in business all my life. I’ve only worked for a couple of people. I like to take a chance, take a risk, but it needs to be a conservative risk.

“I’ve set up many, many more businesses than people know. There would have been another 12 companies I’ve set up. And I cannot think of one of them that has not been successful. There is not one business that I’ve failed at.”

His only real failure was his marriage, something that still hurts.

“What I thought was rock-solid wasn’t. I considered that a failure. And a pretty major failure. And I still consider it a failure.”

What’s all this got to do with motor racing?

It’s been Quinn’s passion since he first tried Formula Ford in Scotland, including lining up against future

Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever when they were kids.

Once he made some money, he decided to splash on racing. And he is good. Not world championship good, but there are plenty of trophies in his office and he has never disgraced himself in anything from Aussie Racing Cars to his F1 racer.

He scored plenty of wins, including in the 24-Hour GT contest in Dubai, and has raced at many of the classic tracks including the Nurburgring.

“I love it. Motorsport has been good for me and a lot of my friends are in motorsport.

“The people who compete, at whatever level, are witty people. And they always have a reason or an answer.

“The drivers in every element, racing or Targa or rallying, are all good people. And the teams, the engineers, are a totally different group of people, far better in deciding what’s bullshit.”

What about Quinn?

“I used to think I was better than I actually was. Like most of us.

“A good friend of mine, Jim Richards, I believe was much better than me, but we were both of the same era. JR could have travelled anywhere in the world and been #1 touring car driver. Shane Van Gisbergen is the modern version of Jim Richards.

“I’m not bad at Targas. All the young guys want to beat Quinny. I’m seen as the fucking annoying benchmark. If you cannot beat Quinny then it’s not a career option for you in motorsport. Most recently I finished third in a Targa.”

But he has the Cup car and will be doing more high-level events, partly because of his investment in Triple Eight.

“The reason I have the car for this year is twofold: I want to spend a bit more time at the tracks with the V8 guys and also, through my foundation academy in New Zealand, it gives perhaps an opportunity for a young Kiwi to come over and do it here.”

His daily drivers are a pick-up and a Tesla, but his favourite cars is his Aston Martin DB9 RS.

The historic Lakeside circuit is one that has – to date – eluded the man who owns four tracks between here and NZ.

Targa Great Barrier Reef is one of the many Targas entered.

“ ”

“The Covid thing has made me realise that I’ve seen all the world I need to see. In my next 20 years it will be New Zealand and Australia.”

Hampton Downs, South of Auckland, is part of the Quinn NZ portfolio – here hosting the NZ Grand Prix (for TRS cars).

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The Quinn favourite – Aston Martin – at Phillip Island.

“It was such a cool car to drive. I liked it a lot. I had the lap record at Bathurst and the grand prix.”

He is sick of answering questions about why he built Highlands Park in New Zealand, even though it opened the way for the takeovers at Hampton Downs, Taupo and now QR. “I really just built Highlands as a sandpit.

Highlands is unique. And the next one was Hampton Downs, which was much more industrial, like a racetrack should be.

We joined Taupo on this year, which has completed the circle in NZ. It’s sorted.

“And the Popeye legacy, when I’m dead and gone, will ensure the tracks continue on with a purpose for decades after I’m gone.”

Quinn has owned a number of racing series, from Aussie racers to Carrera Cup, but always leaves the running to people who know what they’re doing.

In the case of Queensland Raceway, he is hands-on with everything. That means the signage, the track planning and the day-today operations.

The hardest thing, he reports, was getting ownership from John Tetley. And the original plan had been to have both QR and Lakeside, a deal that failed when Tetley decided to keep Lakeside.

“A racing circuit is like a farm and a herd.

Some people milk the cows until they are dry.

A good farm is a proud thing.

“I could see that QR, with a little bit of effort and loving, could be a good thing. But it’s fucking difficult to get it right.

“I could see it was in the right place and perhaps the right time for me to try and save it.”

He’s not focussed on getting Supercars back to the track, or making a giant business complex, or even delivering the giant track extension that was once promised for QR. Instead, it’s about fixing the toilets, replacing the catering, painting the control tower and building a modern pit complex in place of old steel carports.

“I’m stating that by June this year most of the improvements will be complete. The only thing that will be done after June this year will be a little bit of track extension,” Quinn says.

“The designs are already in motion. There is no way you can extend QR easily, but we can make it a little bit more interesting for motorbikes and not-so-fast cars.”

On the Triple Eight front, he is clear about why he got involved with Roland Dane’s outfit - even with the boss heading for ‘retirement’.

“It’s fairly simple. I’ve obviously been connected to the V8 circuit since Tony

Cochrane’s days and seen it prosper as the only circus in town. I had GTs for a while, but it’s not V8s.

“I wanted to expand my exposure to the commercial side of racing. In New Zealand I’m doing it with the circuits and looking after young kids coming up.

“I asked around to see if there were any teams looking for investment and I was surprised by Triple Eight. It seemed like Battlestar enterprise going on, but it made perfect sense.

“The bit that really interested me was that they had recognised their engineering situation needed to be expanded. We can take on Government contracts for precise engineering and lots of other stuff. You put the Triple Eight band onto anything, a scooter or a Formula Ford, and it’s a good head start.

I think the brand is brilliant.

“I think you will see in the next couple of

years a lot of focus on the engineering side of the business. That will be the focus of Roland and myself. The race team can be Jamie and we’ll brach out into the engineering thing.”

So there he is, still learning and still pushing.

He has no plans to slow down, and definitely not to stop.

“If I have a day off – if you call it that – once you’ve been to Bunnings and Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, what else is there to do?

“My dad died at 83 and probably worked until he was 80.”

But Quinn does admit that Covid, and other changes in the world, have changed his attitude to overseas travel.

“The Covid thing has made me realise that I’ve seen all the world I need to see. In my next 20 years it will be New Zealand and Australia. That it will be it for me. That’s enough.

“But maybe even be a private jet going backwards and forwards,” he laughs.

What’s next for Quinn? Another book, of course.

“There are a thousand stories in my life. I’m actually writing a second book.”

And, as he continues to race and rally himself, there is a new focus on a thirdgeneration Quinn racer.

“Now I’ve got my grandson, Ryder. It’s in his blood or something,” he begins.

“I told him to do Formula Ford in Queensland. I said if he won the championship we would continue on. If he didn’t, then we would re-assess.

“So he’s won it. And he’s the captain at his school.

“It looks like we’re carrying on in motorsport. His ambition is to be a Porsche factory driver.”

Wearing out his own asphalt! Tony in the lead during a state race event at Queensland Raceway.

Latest circuit acquisition, Queensland Raceway – undergoing a facility tidy-up before possible extension.

Winner, winner. Tony joined Triple Eight’s Shane Van Gizbergen on the podium last Saturday at SMP!

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BIG BAD SANDOWN

AN ENDANGERED SPECIES AT 60 Victoria’s capital of motor racing turns 60 on March 11/12. Superb, fast Sandown hosted all the greats, with triumph and a little tragedy along the way. With property developer’s Sword of Damocles poised, MARK BISSET plots the twists and turns of a competitor and spectator favourite.

HORSES AND horsepower have gone handin-glove at Sandown for over a century – of all our racing-cathedrals, Sandown’s competition DNA goes back the furthest.

Wealthy Brighton publican William Cullen established his 275-acre Oakleigh Park in 1888 for horse racing. Sandown’s current site was posh, with two grandstands, stables, saddling paddocks, plenty of flowers and green grass.

The Commercial Travellers Association, holding their annual picnic at Sandown Park on March 12, 1904, with attendees, all frocked-up in their Sunday best, witnessed the first car races in Victoria organised by the Automobile Club of Victoria.

James R Crooke, great grandfather of 1986 Australian F2 Champion, Jon Crooke, won the first event, a 1½ mile voiturette handicap atop a 4.5hp Locomobile steam car. The ‘steam-cars’ which followed many decades hence were usually suffering undue levels of mechanical stress.

HORSES FOR COURSES

State Government rationalisation of thoroughbred racing in 1931 resulted in Sandown’s closure, along with several other

Sandown Park’s first big race, the 1962 international. Front row, #3 John Surtees, and #10 Bruce McLaren both in Cooper T53s and Jack Brabham Cooper, T55, all 2.7-Climax FPF powered

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Above: Paradise!

Sandown pits and pit straight in the track’s original guise. Right: Peter Brock’s VC Torana XU1, fourth in the 1970 Sandown 250.

Images: Motorsport Images, autopics.com. au, Robert Davies, AN1 Images/AA Archives Jim Clark and his 1968 AGP cup – his last GP win

1966 Sandown Park Cup Tasman round. Jim Clark, Lotus 39 Climax, Jackie Stewart BRM P261 (winner) and Jack Brabham Brabham BT19 Repco V8 – the Australian debut of the engine design which won that year’s World Championship. metropolitan courses, but with post-war growth to Melbourne’s south, Springvale Council approved construction of a new horse racing facility on the site in 1959.

Cooper Climax racer, Jon Leighton extolled the profitability of motor racing to his father, Stanley Leighton. Leighton Construction pitched and won the contract to build Sandown’s grandstand, then did a deal with the Victorian Amateur Turf Club (VATC) to waive their fees (to design and construct the now heritage listed building) on the basis that a racetrack be incorporated within the facility.

Sandown Park Motor Sport opened for business on 11/12 March 1962; the thoroughbreds followed in 1965.

A huge crowd watched Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham battle out the 60-lap Sandown

“ ”

“Then John Youl came over the bridge in his T51 – upside down.

He landed on the wire fence ... ”

Park International in scorching Melbourne heat, aboard Lotus 21 Climax and Cooper T55 Climax respectively. Brabham prevailed, from John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Chuck Daigh, Moss and Jim Clark.

Bill Patterson was seventh – other local quicks included Lex Davison, Doug Whiteford, Bib Stillwell, and John Youl. Later sports-sedan ace, Bryan Thomson raced a Cooper T51 Climax and is the sole-survivor.

“We were new boys; I bought the Cooper in

’61 and only raced it a few times. It wasn’t about competing or winning – just being on the same grid as these icons was mind-spinning.

“We had oil pressure problems all weekend, which turned out to be a cracked block. But we presented as country boys did! I was going ok, then got lapped by Davison, Stillwell and Salvadori at The Causeway – zoom-zoomzoom!

“Try harder I thought! I did, but then understeered off and gently clipped the

Causeway wall. I damaged the suspension but got the car under the Dunlop Bridge to a safer place, then jumped out.

“Then John Youl came over the bridge in his T51 – upside down! He landed on the wire fence between the two cars. I was sure he had a broken back, but he got up and walked away” – from what was the first of Sandown’s many Big Ones.

Great racing put Sandown on the map while voluptuous actress Jill St John put Sandown on the social pages. Her husband, Lance Reventlow, an heir to the Woolworths fortune, ran a Scarab Buick V8 for American F1 driver Chuck Daigh – he was fourth.

Melburnians flocked to the place, 30 km to the city’s south. Access was great and noise wasn’t a problem, with few houses close by, factories, and a huge cemetery to the north.

Victorian racing had a new capital. Sandown and soon to be opened Warwick Farm and Lakeside provided quality international venues for the Tasman Cup which soon followed.

EARLY AGP AND ATCC SUCCESS Sandown’s first Australian Grand Prix was the 1964 100-miler won by ‘Our-Jack’ in one of his own cars, a Brabham BT7A Climax.

The winning Roberto Businello/Ralph Sach Alfa Ti Super during the 1964 Sandown 6-Hour.

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The Tasman Cup and later Rothmans Series summer internationals were key Sandown events. Every World Champion from 1959 to 1971 competed here in a magic-decade of racing which makes old-fans misty-eyed; Brabham, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Clark, Surtees, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt.

Touring Car racing was on the march in the early sixties. Sandown’s first 6-hour enduro (the length varied over the years), held in November 1964, was won by the Roberto Businello/Ralph Sach Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Super.

Youthful Canadian, Allan Moffat, co-driven by Jon Leighton, could have won it in his justacquired ex-works Lotus Cortina, but for an ‘off’ ... however the day is renowned for Davison’s near-swim in the Sandown Dam after brakefailure in his monstrous Ford Galaxie Coupe. A huge crash left the beast’s nose teetering above murky, brown waters.

A Who’s-Who of drivers included Kevin Bartlett, Bill Brown, Brian Foley, Alan Hamilton, Bob Jane, Peter Manton, Spencer Martin, Frank Matich, Bruce McPhee, Brian Muir, Brian Sampson, and Doug Whiteford.

Visiting internationals were Rauno Aaltonen, Paddy Hopkirk, John Fitzpatrick, Timo Makinen, Jim Palmer, Jackie Stewart, and Rodger Ward.

Sandown’s long straights suited Ford’s Mustang. Norm Beechey and Bob Jane’s cars faced off in Springvale’s first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) race in April 1965.

Stormin’ Norm won comfortably from Pete Geoghegan’s Lotus Cortina, Muir’s Holden EH S4, and Moffat’s Lotus Cortina.

The die was cast for the next few years; Geoghegan, Jane, and later Moffat’s Mustangs thrilled Sandown spectators until the mid-1970s.

Allan’s sensual, flaming-red Kar-Kraft Trans-Am 302 debuted at Sandown in May 1969.

Allan Moffat– Sandown 1969 ...

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Lex Davison’s Big Bertha Ford Galaxie during the first Sandown 6-Hour in 1964.

The Hi-Po parts-bins of Ford and GM US were raided for our own Bathurst performance cars commencing with Ford’s ‘67 XR Falcon GT. Sandown’s touring car roster comprised an ATCC round (from 1970) in the first half-year and an enduro in September. Form at the latter was indicative of Great Race pace, manufacturers traditionally rolled out new cars, or freshly homologated trick-bits in time for Sandown which made it compelling spectating.

LIGHT CAR CLUB OF AUSTRALIA

The Light Car Club of Australia’s heritage dated back to the organisation of the first Phillip Island Australian Grands Prix, from 1928-1935.

The club ran Sandown from 1966, when Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261 V8 won the Sandown Park Cup, the feature race of the LCCA’s first February meeting.

Memorable events include Jim Clark’s thrilling 1968 Australian Grand Prix win aboard a Lotus 49 Ford by one-tenth of a second from Chris Amon’s howling-V6 Ferrari 246T. The brilliant Scot, winner of three Tasman Cups, died at Hockenheim only months later.

That September, Holden rolled out their mighty Monaro 327GTS coupes. The crowd thrilled to the sight of two of the General’s finest up front of the Sandown 3-Hour.

Tony Roberts/Bob Watson won from the Alan Jones/Clive Millis entry, the Jones boy left for Europe shortly thereafter and did rather well.

Beechey’s 1970 Sandown win was the second of three victories which won him the ATCC aboard an HT Monaro GTS350 built up the road in Dandenong. The crowd roared long-and-hard that day for a hometown boy in a hometown car!

Moffat bagged three Sandown ATCC wins on the trot from 1972-75 aboard Trans-Am, HO Phase 3 and XB GT Coupe,

Top: John French and Allan Moffat (winner) Ford Falcon GTHO Ph2, Sandown 250 1970.

Above: The John McCormack and Garrie Cooper Ansett Team Elfin, MR5 Repco F5000s at Dandenong Road in 1972.

Below: Norm Beechey’s Chev Impala leads Bob Jane’s Jag Mk2 out of Peters in 1962.

Bottom: 1969 pit straight sportscar action.

Bevan Gibson in Bob Jane’s Elfin 400 with Frank Matich’s SR4 steam-roller in behind.

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“ ” Supercars pile into Dandenong Road corner, with the modified run off in the background, 2021.

May The Saints Be Praised! John Walker’s lucky escape. He walked away. Lap one, Sandown Tasman 1975, F5000 Lola T332 Repco.

Image: Robert Davies

but his Sandown sweet spot commenced with back-to-back enduro wins in works HOs – as the homologation war hotted-up between Ford, GMH and Chrysler Valiant – in 1969-70.

It took Peter Brock until 1984 (Commodore VH) to win a Sandown ATCC round, but his enduro run commenced with a win in an HDT XU-1 in 1973. Then followed an incredible seven wins in a row from 1975 to 1981 aboard Holden Torana L34 and A9X, and Commodore VCs. The LCCA mixed things up in ongoing quests for bums-on-seats. Mid 1970s enduro rounds morphed into Two-Plus-Four meetings, a mix of touring cars, motor bikes and historic events.

In elite single-seaters, F5000 replaced more sophisticated 2.5-litre Tasman Formula cars from 1971 (having co-existed in 1970). Kiwi ace Graeme McRae had the same affinity with

Sandown’s open spaces as Brock, winning AGPs in 1972-73 and 1978 aboard self-built McRae Chevs.

Few remember McRae’s AGP and Brock’s Hang Ten 400 wins that September 1978 day because Sandown was filled to the rafters with fans watching five-times F1 World Champion, Juan-Manuel Fangio, demonstrate a straighteight Mercedes Benz W196 he raced in 1954-55.

The sight of the 67-year-old ace kicking the Silver Arrows sideways for lap after lap in third gear through Shell Corner was an unforgettable, spectacular sight. It was a promotional coup for the LCCA at the height of its powers.

Sandown’s sporting success was incredible, but the Light Car Club business was a marginal proposition.

Above: Fabulous Fangio. Mercedes W196, Dandy Road 1978.

Right: Brock (winner) from Johnson during the 1981 Sandown 400K, Group C Holden Commodore VC and Ford Falcon XD with a typical big crowd in attendance.

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“The sight of the 67 year-old ace kicking the Silver Arrows sideways was ... unforgettable.”

Sandown surpluses cross-subsidised other activities including its Queens Road, St Kilda bar and restaurant. Race meeting success often suffered due to Melbourne’s capricious weather, while driver’s appearance fees rendered summer internationals break-even propositions.

By the mid-1970s, Springvale locals grumbled about noise. Its remediation was expensive, so too were repairs to the Back Straight bridge. It always seemed that a financial step-and-a-bitforward, was matched by one back.

Alf Costanzo sizzled around the original circuit in 59.6 seconds aboard Porsche Cars Australia’s McLaren M26 Chev in 1981 to set the lap record. This ex-James Hunt F1 car, converted to ground-effects was the world’s fastest F5000.

It was a stunning lap in a machine which was never fully sorted …

Formula Pacific replaced F5000 as Australia’s National F1 and successful Gold Star Sandown winners included John Bowe and Graham Watson in Ralt RT4s, Alf Costanzo, Tiga FA81 and Peter Macrow, Cheetah Mk8.

By the early 1980s, Sandown needed serious investment to comply with FIA safety requirements. Chasing an F1 race, the club embarked on circuit extensions from 3.1 to 3.878km (minimum for F1 3.5km) via the addition of a twiddly infield section and safety changes at the track’s south end.

A change in State government from Liberal to Labour administration resulted in $2m promised (but not contracted) for the upgrade being unpaid. The LCCA was in dire-financialstraights but managed, just, by selling its former club building in Brunswick Street Fitzroy to plug the cashflow hole.

Bernie Ecclestone was only interested in an AGP around Sydney’s streets until sweet-talkin’ Vern Schuppan and Premier John Bannon convinced him of Adelaide’s TV optics, so South Australia got-the-gig.

Undeterred, the LCCA secured a World Endurance Championship round in October 1984 – what a stunning spectacle that race of 29 Group C Le Mans prototypes was!

The Stefan Bellof/Derek Bell Rothmans Porsche 956 won. Local interest was provided

by Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Vern Schuppan, Colin Bond, Alf Costanzo, Dick Johnson, Allan Grice, Ron Harrop, Andrew Miedecke, Jim Richards, Tony Longhurst, Peter Janson, Lucio Cesario and more.

The race was huge. So was the commercial disaster. A legal squabble about noise threatened the race and frightened-off the preferred telecaster, promotion of cars the average punter knew little about was poor, and a State Election was held that day. Spectators didn’t come, a huge loss ensued ... but despite that, the club survived.

The Group A era provided variety in Sandown ATCC and enduro wins. From 1985 to 1989 the enduro victors were Peter Brock’s VK Commodore, Nissan Skyline DR30s of George Fury and Glenn Seton, and Dick Johnson’s Ford Sierra RS500s.

Then, in an extraordinary act of management incompetence, the LCCA, led by President, exracer, and Jaguar dealer James Smith, grabbed another WEC round in 1988.

Again, the sporting spectacle, headlined by two works Jaguar XJR V12s and Sauber Mercedes C9 V8-turbos was stunning ... the sound of the howling Jag V12s is still in my head.

Within months of the winning Jean-Louis Schlesser/Jochen Mass Mercedes taking the chequered flag, the LCCA was on its knees, and with it, so was Sandown.

Poorly promoted again, the killer was that only $100k of $500k ‘planned sponsorship’ was paid by Jaguar Rover Australia and Lucas Service Australia, doubtless because $500k had

The Sandown 500 has, until recent Covidaffected years, been a feature of the annual Sandown menu, now a sprint race (Top).

Above: The 1984 Sandown 1000 – an amazing spectacle, but a financial disaster for the Light Car Club.

Above right: Glenn Seton leads the winning Geoff Brabham/David Parsons Ford Falcon EB at Dandy Road during the 1993 Sandown 500K Right: Spectator track walk crowds around a pair of Triple Eight Racing Commodores 2012. not been contracted. In addition, the ABC’s international TV deal involved no payment to the club.

THE DAVISON ERA

The LCCA was Melbourne’s blueblood car-club. Generations of corporate titans competed in a vast array of Victorian events; they ran a 60-year-old club which was the envy of most in the world. Jon Davison, in Sandown’s hour-of-need was the blueblood who stepped up to the plate.

More invested than most in Sandown – his father, Lex, died in the infield after a heart attack at the wheel of his Brabham Climax in February 1965 – ‘Davo’ secured future race rights with the dying LCCA and Sandown’s landlord, the VATC. “My brothers and I were thrilled to be a part of that ’62 meeting. Dad ran the Aston

Martin DBR4 – great car but off the pace of the newer Coopers. A quick track, the place had a charismatic setting and that fantastic grandstand.

“I first raced there in an F3 Brabham in 1969.

I had some good runs in the Lola T332 Chev F5000, led the ’77 Gold Star round and raced well in the ’79 Rothmans until the throttle jammed.

“I advanced the LCCA $150K to pay Sandown’s outstanding rent when they were stuffed. The club then shafted me in relation to the terms of that advance. I litigated in the Supreme Court and won. I ran Sandown from November 1990.”

Despite inhabiting shark-infested waters Jon ran the facility with innovation – his Easternats, Ford Tickford and Channel 10 deals are examples – success and profitability until 2007.

In 1989 Davo dumped the International Circuit in favour of the 13-turn course we all know and love. This reinstated the challenging Rise at the

top of the Back Straight and following open leftright, angel-ride downhill into Dandenong Road.

“I raced the Veskanda, Sierra, Nissan and Ralt RT4 around the international circuit; the infield section was no good, too tight and fiddly,” John Bowe recalled to Auto Action.

“It was great when I visited with Dad as a kid from Tassie during the Tasman Series – the grandstand, grass, flowers and the rest. It was impressive compared with Symmons and its corrugated iron dunnies!

“I won my first race there, on the old circuit, in my F2 Elfin 792 Golf in 1979. Garrie’s (Cooper) engine split a bore in practice. Bob Mills, Garrie and Dad pulled the engine out, bored and sleeved it at Motor Improvements, and then I won the race on Sunday!

“I’ve always loved the place and its fast corners. I’ve had my share of wins too. I spun my Ralt RT4 about 50-times having convinced myself I could do the Causeway flat one time.

Another moment was a high-speed dive to the left of the track going over Rothmans Rise at about 220kph in Garrie’s Elfin MR9 Chev when a rear-rocker bent ... that was a lucky one.”

With the growth of 5-litre V8s and V8 Supercars from 1997, Commodores driven by Mark Skaife, Larry Perkins and Craig Lowndes won ATCC rounds from 1994-1996. Falcons reigned supreme in the enduros from 1993 to 1995; Geoff Brabham/David Parsons won in a Glenn Seton Falcon EB in ’93 and Dick Johnson/John Bowe in 1994-95.

Commodores then won the Sandown 500 from 1996-1998; Craig Lowndes/Greg Murphy in ’96-7, and Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall in ’98. Mark Skaife won the sprint round at Sandown in 1999 aboard an HRT Commodore, and Paul Radisich in a DJR Falcon AU the following year.

Supercars returned for the longer format 500 in 2003 when the Skaife/Kelly VY Commodore won. In 2004 Falcon BAs took four wins in a row from 2004-2007, with Craig Lowndes a member of the winning crew twice.

Jamie Whincup is the winningest driver recently – he paired with Paul Dumbrell to victories in Triple Eight Commodore VF and ZBs in 2013-14 and 2018, and in 2019 with Craig Lowndes.

Big open wheelers returned to Sandown in September 2019 with S5000’s first ever race.

13 Ligier JS3-based S5000 chassis powered by 560bhp 5.2-litre Ford Coyote V8s took to the grid, including one driven by former F1 star Rubens Barrichello. Dual Gold Star champion Tim Macrow took a fitting qualifying race win that weekend, having done most of the prototype’s testing.

Melbourne’s population was 1.95 million when Jack Brabham took Sandown’s chequered flag in 1962, It’s 5.15 million now. Back then Springvale was unattractive as a home, filled as it was with manufacturing businesses.

Now it’s now urban and ‘closer’ to the CBD given decades of road and rail improvements; Sandown’s 275 acres is highly prized. The owner, the Melbourne Racing Club has managed motor racing in-house since 2007, but it’s only a matter of time until the planets are aligned for a 7,500-home white-shoe feeding frenzy.

Treasure your Sandown racing and spectating folks, it’s been an unbelievable 60-year ride, but the carnival is nearly over.

Reference credit: ‘Phillip Island to Fangio: History of the Light Car Club of Australia’ by Bob Watson

The old one-two from Brocky and John Harvey, 1979 Sandown 400K. HDT Holden Torana A9X.

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MEL’S RACING DIARYPart 2

MEL’S EXCEL ON TRACK THEN STRIPPED BARE

THE HYUNDAI EXCEL RACING SEASON IN QLD IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING, AND MELINDA PRICE IS BACK WITH THE SECOND INSTALMENT OF HER ‘RETURN TO RACING DIARY’ AFTER HITTING THE TRACK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER NEARLY RACE-READY MACHINE

PART 2 of the journey begins with my long (seems like forever) awaited opportunity to drive my own race car for the very first time. I feel a huge sense of pride and independence as I tow my very own race car for the first time. Finally, driver coach Josh Hunt and I are off to Queensland Raceway.

I’m glad the car park is nearly empty as we arrive – reversing a trailer is one of the many skills I still need to master. ‘The buggy’ is in the shed and ready for its’ first shakedown.

By the time I get out on track, filled with excitement, to begin the bonding experience between my car and I, the heavens have opened and it’s raining … Josh and I get one session in each before torrential rain pours down on QR and the track is closed. The buggy is packed back up onto the trailer in the pouring rain and, in a huge anticlimax, we drive home drenched. On the bright side, 10 laps were completed, and nothing fell off … so far so good.

The following week there is a test day at Morgan Park, a track I’ve never driven on, and one I need to learn well as its where many of the rounds in the 2022 championship will be held. It’s a 3-hour drive from the Gold Coast

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and I’m super keen not to miss a second on track after last week, so full of excitement we load up early and decide to head there the night before.

Up bright and early the next morning, I’m the first one there … one by one the other race cars begin to arrive, and the vast majority of them my fellow Excel competitors!

The Queensland series is arguably one of the most competitive in the country, and

many of the big players from the recent years are here. Well at least by the end of the day we should have some idea where we stand in terms of pace!

Josh is the first to hit the track in ‘The Buggy’, as always setting an outstanding lap time to which I spend the rest of the day aspiring to match, and also providing valuable technical feedback on the car to set me off in the right direction.

Let’s note that, at this stage, the buggy is pretty much as I picked it up… it doesn’t have the new control Supashock suspension it needs for 2022, just an old and tired set of XYZ’s; it doesn’t have the brake pads I’ll be racing on in 2022; the engine is an unknown, and the tyres are unbuffed and over three years old … so let’s find out what the starting point is compared to the guns!

I spent my first session learning track and car and just soaking it all in and was clearly far too conservative given the difference in lap times between me and the rest ... it’s been a long time since I raced (a car) in a super competitive environment, and I’m sure I have a motherly sense of protection about driving my own car as well (financially driven in the most part I’m sure by the cost to fix it if something goes wrong). However, this is a super competitive category, with the young guns of today aspiring to make it to Supercars or overseas – and I need to pull my finger out quick smart!

As the day goes by, I start to get my head around this fantastic and challenging track and settle into the drivers’ seat. It’s obvious from the data that you really need to push

Out with the old and in with the new (driver excluded) ... While the old tired engine is clear of the engine bay, Mel took the opportunity to give things a tidy up.

It’s a hands-on racing experience this time around for Melinda Price as ‘The Buggy’ receives its race-ready transformation…

Body deadner begone! Removal of the body deadner makes for some weight saving but it’s hell on a girl’s nails!

Thanks to Woody at FATAZ Competition Engines, ‘The Buggy’ has a new powerplant.

New wheels are nice – a big thanks to Grant at Trans Am Engineering. Fitting the new lightweight dash was a big job but worth while – it all adds up in the end.

these cars hard to get the most out of them, and my lap times are improving every session. As the chequered flag drops on my first proper test day, it’s deemed a huge success and we are all super excited about the performance of the car and the engine, considering the whole package is as I bought it.

Now that we have a benchmark and know some of the strengths and weaknesses of the car, on the drive home we begin to compile the (long) list of things we now need to do to the car to turn it into a weapon.

There is control suspension for 2022, so it’s out with the XYZ’s and in with the new Supashocks to start with. The brakes also need a refresh and the correct race pads need to be ordered.

The car tips the scales a bit on the heavy side, so weight reduction is the next project.

I’ve already taken the sound deadener out from inside the car, which has left the interior looking no good and we can’t have that, so off I go to colour match the paint and respray the inside of the car again to bring it up to scratch.

To reduce the weight of the car further a new fibreglass lightweight dash is available, which means that the old heavier dash can be removed, along with the heating and cooling systems which account for a lot of weight – so I order one of those which should arrive in a couple of weeks.

As exciting as all of this is, every call I make seems to cost me hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, and I’m freaking out as I watch my (to date) tiny race budget dwindle away. I’m always on the hunt in the background for new sponsors and, since Castrol signed up, some more partners have come onboard including King Springs. I’ve known Mark (King) since the 90s when we were both racing in GTP, and as an advocate for females in motorsport, he was happy to offer some support. A big thankyou is also deserved by another long-term friend in Bruce Williams, for the opportunity to share my adventure with you through this fabulous magazine.

Meanwhile … the new engine is ready and waiting to go in at Fataz Competition Engines, so the buggy heads up there for the next piece of the puzzle. This is where the buggy will live for the next few weeks while the new engine goes in, and we prepare the car for the arrival of the new lightweight dash.

The old dash is out after much hard work, along with all the associated extra weight in heating and cooling etc. The windscreen has also been removed and we eagerly await the arrival of the new dash which is enroute from Far North Queensland.

Good intentions and planning can’t stop the problems of the real world sometimes (outside of motorsport) impacting on my racing plans. There had been a delay in being able to pick the car up initially due to lockdown in Melbourne, and then I couldn’t get it across the border to Queensland due to Covid border restrictions for a while, and now the next bump in the road is about to present itself.

What seems to be a universal problem for most businesses these days – freight. The new dash left over 10 days ago and hasn’t made an appearance yet. I finally manage to track it down with the (massively short-staffed due to Covid) freight company and end up driving to Brisbane to pick it up myself – but this has delayed the whole project by weeks.

Anyway, we press on, and the dash was finally installed.

One job is finished and next box to tick is to fit the Fataz engine, along with a multitude of associated new components including a radiator, starter motor, hoses and, thanks to Bryan at Exhaust Innovations, I have a whole new exhaust system.

After some finishing touches, we can head to the track for some much-needed testing with all the new bits – that’s if we can find a racetrack in Queensland that isn’t under water at the moment following the devastating Queensland floods of the last week.

It’s now March, the first race is in just over 3 weeks, and I haven’t driven the car yet with all the new bits ... the pressure is starting to build!

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Rd. 01 Indy Car - St Petersburg

MCLAUGHLIN TAKES MAIDEN INDYCAR WIN Images: Motorsport Images

Report: Dan McCarthy SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN (pictured above, right) has scored his maiden race victory, emphatically converting pole position into victory in the opening round of the 2022 IndyCar Series on the legendary streets of St. Petersburg.

What made the win even more impressive is that he did not crack under pressure, holding reigning champion Alex Palou at bay for the final 13 laps.

Over those laps he had to navigate lapped traffic, including Palou’s Chip Ganassi teammate Jimmie Johnson, but kept his head and took the win by just 0.509s.

“Thank you to Roger Penske, everyone,” McLaughlin said. “Yeah, DEX Imaging jumping on board, trusting me, and then Roger Penske and Tim Cindric giving me the opportunity to come here.

“I miss my Mom and Dad dearly and my family. Wish you guys were here. What a day.”

In taking the win, McLaughlin became the second consecutive driver to earn his maiden series victory in the season opener.

Last year it was Palou at Barber Motorsports Park and the Spaniard would go onto win the title, showcasing incredible consistency.

McLaughlin’s lead with 20 remaining was 2s but it was eaten up within a lap when McLaughlin was held up by Palou’s teammate Jimmie Johnson – the margin slashed to 0.625s and the race was very much on.

It was an intense and high quality battle to the line, the gap between the two lead cars ranging from three-tenths to eighttenths of a second right the way to the chequered flag.

“Oh, man, it was crazy,” McLaughlin said of Palou’s pressure. “Really struggled those last couple laps just to keep my head and

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then save the fuel and all that sort of stuff.

“But we did it. Chevy gave us the fuel mileage. Drivability this weekend has been a change, and to win at DEX Imaging’s home race is unreal. Oh, my God, I’m just ... love you Australia, New Zealand, miss you guys. Thinking of everyone in the Queensland floods at the moment.”

McLaughlin made a solid start holding off an attack from Andretti Autosports Colton Herta at Turn 2 and from that moment settled into his own rhythm.

The only hiccups in McLaughlin’s day came post-race – the Kiwi first fell over jumping from his Team Penske machine and, while being interviewed, burned his backside on the roasting hot exhaust!

Palou was still pleased to come home in second position after starting from 10th on the grid. The Spaniard had great car speed early and made fast and decisive moves to get himself into podium contention at the halfway stage of the 100-lap encounter.

That relentless pace saw him catch McLaughlin but he was unable to get by.

Australian Will Power (right) rounded out the podium after starting from second position alongside his Team Penske teammate – however on the harder tyre at the start, his car burst into wheelspin.

As a result, Power found himself in fourth at the exit of Turn 2 behind Herta and Rinus VeeKay. Power made light work of VeeKay a number of laps later and remained in touching distance of Herta Power’s alternate tyre strategy took a blow when a Safety Car was called when rookie David Malukas hit the wall at highspeed around Turn 3 on lap 25.

Under the Safety Car all two-stoppers pitted, with Power coming out millimetres behind McLaughlin.

STANDINGS: 1 ​McLaughlin​ 54 2​ Alex Palou​ 41 3​ Will Power ​36 4​ Colton Herta​ 32 5​ Romain Grosjean​ 30 6​ Rinus VeeKay ​29 7​ Graham Rahal​ 26 8 ​Scott Dixon​ 25 9 ​Marcus Ericsson​ 22 10 ​Takuma Sato​ 20 In the end Power came home only 2.461s behind his winning teammate McLaughlin.

Behind Power was a 10s gap to Herta who faded late on and finished fourth, ahead of his new teammate, former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean, VeeKay and Graham Rahal.

It was an intriguing strategic race with some drivers electing to make two stops, others three, in a race that required one Safety Car, an all-time low in the legendary street race.

The lack of Safety Cars did not benefit the three stoppers of which New Zealander Scott Dixon was one – the six-

time champion was the best of the extra stoppers in eighth.

Two former F1 drivers, Marcus Ericsson and Takuma Sato, rounded out the top 10.

Christian Lundgaard was 11th ahead of 2021 title challenger Pato O’Ward who drove an impressive first stint to no avail.

Next came Jack Harvey, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud highlighting the quality in IndyCar this year.

O’Ward was not the only 2021 contender outside of the top 10. Notably, while both his other Team Penske teammates were on the podium, the three-stopping Josef Newgarden ended up in 16th place.

GAMBLE PAYS OFF IN LAS VEGAS

Images: Motorsport Images Report: Josh Nevett ALEX BOWMAN took his first win of the NASCAR Cup Series season and the seventh of his career in dramatic fashion, surging to victory in a two-lap overtime sprint at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver led at the end of Stage 1 and for 16 of the 274 laps but most importantly he was in first position at the chequered flag, beating out teammate Kyle Larson and his #5 Hendrick Chevrolet by 0.178s.

Bowman was full of praise for his team, the squad benefiting from making the gutsy decision to take just two new tyres during the final caution, emerging in the front pack for the final restart.

The strategic move allowed Bowman to battle Larson, who was aiming for a second straight win, for ascendency, the pair holding off the rest of the field before the former pulled ahead to claim a narrow victory.

Kyle Busch was in the hunt, having led 40 of 45 laps before the race-defining caution, but the decision to fit four new tyres to his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota proved costly.

He was left fourth in the order for the sprint, unable to make a pass as he finished in that position.

“I just can’t thank Chevrolet and everybody from Hendrick Motorsports enough,” Bowman said post-race.

“This thing was so fast all day, I just never really had the track position we needed to show it.

“Man, what a call by Greg Ives and the guys to take two tyres there, it obviously paid off.

“Racing Kyle is always fun. I’ve been able to race the guy for a couple wins and we’ve always raced each other super clean and super respectfully.

“I just can’t say enough about my guys –

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it’s been an awful start to the year. So, to come out here and get a win on the last restart like that is pretty special.”

Ross Chastain completed the podium after leading for a career-high 83 laps, also making team history by giving Trackhouse Racing its first stage win after besting Stage 2.

“It’s a dream come true,” Chastain said.

“This is what all the work is for. This is why we train and what we try to build our whole lives and careers, to have race cars like that. … I couldn’t be prouder of Trackhouse.”

It was a tough weekend for fourth finisher Busch (pictured lower right, heading Martin Truex Jnr), who crashed out of Saturday practice and started from the back of the 37-car grid.

He then had to recover from an incident with Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric and Justin Haley, which saw him partially spin.

The closing stages brought further ill fortune – Busch led until the race was extended by seven laps due to a clash between Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace.

That incident was one of several throughout the encounter, 12 caution periods permeating the third race of the year.

William Byron was fifth after fighting at the front in Stage 1. Aric Almirola, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10.

The latter led 32 laps but had to recover from a Stage 2 spin to place 10th.

With three rounds in the book Larson leads the points standings ahead of Truex, while Bowman has moved up to eighth with his triumph.

The next race in the Cup Series will be held at Phoenix Raceway next weekend, completing a three-race tour of the southwestern states to start the new season.

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Rd. 02 World Rally Championship

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON Images: Red Bull Content Pool

REPORT: Josh Nevett RISING WORLD Rally Championship star Kalle Rovanpera (pictured above and below right with co-driver Jonne Halttunen) has clinched his third career win, taking out Rally Sweden to top the standings after two rounds.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT driver won by 22s from runner-up Thierry Neuville (right) after his closest challenger and teammate Elfyn Evans crashed out on the final day.

Esapekka Lappi rounded out the podium places in his first start with Toyota Gazoo Racing since 2018, a further 8.6s behind.

By winning the Rally Sweden event, Rovanpera has followed in the footsteps of his father Hari who triumphed at the same location in 2001.

“It feels very good to win here in Sweden, it was a really nice fight the whole weekend,” Rovanpera said.

“It was a bit of a pity that Elfyn went out this morning because it was a great fight, but otherwise it’s a very good result for the team.

“I struggled a bit in the first rally with this car in Monte Carlo, but now I felt much more confident over the whole weekend with the car.”

The rally began in competitive fashion, five drivers earning the lead at some point throughout the opening day.

Rovanpera duked it out with fellow youngster Oliver Solberg on the opening morning to hold a slight ascendency, after Ott Tanak and Lappi spent time at the top of the timesheets.

The Finn would fall to second by the close of the day though, as Neuville shot to the front.

Neuville was fifth with two of the seven special stages remaining, but he only got quicker as darkness fell, leapfrogging the field by the day’s conclusion.

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Rovanpera, Evans and Lappi completed a closely matched leading four, separated by just 8.8s.

Two key players were eliminated on the opening day, Tanak and Craig Breen.

The former was forced out of the running after an impact triggered the warning system on his car’s hybrid unit, a situation which requires the car to be retired as a safety precaution under new Rally1 hybrid regulations.

Breen, who was chasing a fifth consecutive WRC podium, hit a snowbank and spun during the second stage after being distracted by a washer jet on his M-Sport Ford machine, ruling him out of contention.

From the second day onwards, it was Rovanpera’s rally, the young Finn regaining the lead and extending it to 8.3s over Evans by the close of the day before a penalty saw advantage balloon to 18.3s.

Rovanpera relegated overnight leader Neuville in the opening stage, building a lead before Evans fought back to close the gap.

Evans got as close as 1s off the lead but fell back again in the final stages and was dealt a significant blow when he received a 10s penalty for not following the defined rally route.

The Welshman rounded the final corner and ploughed through a snowbank at the finishing line, rolling to the stop line on a road parallel to the official route, subsequently copping the penalty.

Neuville was third with a day to run, 21.7s off the lead.

The final day became a comfortable run to the line for Rovanpera as things only got worse for Evans.

The latter crashed into another snowbank as he desperately

tried to make up ground, damaging the front end of his car beyond repair.

Neuville inherited second ahead of Lappi at the line, while Takamoto Katsuta was fourth in his GR Yaris, 1m 48s off the pace.

Gus Greensmith recovered from early challenges to finish fifth in his Ford Puma.

Solberg encountered throttle problems which dropped him to sixth.

Andreas Mikkelsen went back-to-back in

WRC2, finishing seventh overall and first in class to extend his championship lead.

As a result of Lappi’s sublime return and Rovanpera’s win, Toyota now hold top spot in the manufacturers’ championship, 24 points ahead of M-Sport Ford.

Points: Rovanpera 46, Neuville 32, Loeb 27, Greensmith 20, Ogier 19

MOTOGP ROUND 1 - LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT

THE BEAST’S FIRST MOTOGP WIN Images: Red Bull Content Pool / Motorsport Images Report: Dan McCarthy ENEA BASTIANINI on a 2021 spec Ducati claimed an emotional maiden win for the Gresini Racing team in the opening round of the MotoGP season in Qatar.

The win came just over 12 months after the tragic passing of team founder and owner Fausto Gresini with COVID-19, and was the first time that Gresini Racing had raced as a privateer team since 2014 when it became the factory Aprilia operation.

It was a podium that would have had long odds with Bastianini ‘The Beast’ taking his first win from factory KTM rider Brad Binder by just 0.3s, with factory Honda rider Pol Espargaro completing the podium.

It was a dramatic evening as many of last year’s title contenders either finished well down the order or not at all.

Australian Jack Miller was one of those non-finishers – on lap 7 he pulled into the pits and retired from the race with a mechanical issue..

The other Aussie, Remy Gardner, on his MotoGP debut, stayed out of trouble and finished an excellent 15th to secure a point for the Tech 3 KTM team, piping Darryn Binder to the line by 0.012s.

The Ducatis, despite their famous holeshot device, were slow off the line, pole sitter Jorge Martin dropped spots, while both the factory Ducati riders Miller and Francesco Bagnaia fell outside the top 10.

In fact, it was an initial Honda 1-2, with Marc Marquez leading briefly before Espargaro took over. Binder sat in third with Bastianini in fourth.

The next several laps saw several riders jockeying for position, trying to creep forwards as the laps ticked by.

On Lap 6 Marquez ran wide and allowed Brad Binder into P2, and on the following lap Bastianini on the powerful Ducati also surged by the eight-time champion. Just behind them, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Suzuki’s Joan Mir scrapped for fifth.

With Miller pulling into the lane, Ducati’s day soon got even worse as,

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in a bid to keep with the lead group, Bagnaia made a move on pole sitter Martin at Turn 1 on lap 12. Bagnaia, however, lost the front and fell, bowling his brand mate out of the race also.

Both riders were okay, but Bastianini was now the sole Ducati representative still in the fight.

With 10 laps remaining, Pol Espargaro led Binder by 1s, however the South African was demoted by Bastianini into Turn 1.

The Italian then started to eat into Pol Espargaro’s lead. At the beginning of lap 17 of 22 the margin was just 0.6s, and just 0.189s the following lap as Bastianini set the fastest lap of the race.

With four laps remaining, Bastianini blasted past on the pit straight to take the lead.

Espargaro, trying to hang on to the tail of Bastianini went in far to hot at Turn 1 and relinquished second to Binder – in a handful of seconds he’d gone from leading to third.

In the closing laps of the race, Binder started to edge closer to Bastianini, but it was a case of too little, too late.

Bastianini is now a MotoGP race winner in just his second season – flying the flag for Ducati, he won the race by 0.6s from Binder.

“My feelings are incredible right now,” Bastianini said after the race. “I pushed

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hard from the start, but the most important thing was to save the tyre for the end of the race.

“It’s hard to express my feelings now, but I want to dedicate the win to Fausto because he gave me incredible motivation from above.

“This is a fantastic result for the whole team: we’re all in tears right now. I’m also very happy for my family at home, so a big thank you goes to everyone who made this possible.”

Aleix Espargaro overtook Marquez on lap 18 and had his eyes on brother Pol for the final step on the podium.

However, the factory Honda man held on to take his second podium with the brand with brother Aleix finishing only 0.8s further back.

Marquez’s first race at Qatar since 2019

yielded a solid fifth – after dominating the early stages of the weekend the two Suzukis finished a lonely sixth and seventh, with 2020 champion Mir leading home teammate Alex Rins.

Reigning champion Fabio Quartararo had a day to forget. He looked set to finish eighth, however Ducati power saw him pipped at the line by Johann Zarco.

Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top 10 ahead of Franco Morbidelli, Maverick Vinales, Luca Marini, and Andrea Dovizioso. Gardner was the best rookie ahead of Darryn Binder. Fabio Di Giannantonio and Raul Fernandez were the only other finishers.

Standings: Bastianini 25, Brad Binder 20, Pol Espargaro 16, Aleix Espargaro 13, Marc Marquez 11, Mir 10, Rins 9, Zarco 8, Quartararo 7, Nakagami 6 Brad Binder finished within a second of the race winner on his factory KTM

Remy Gardner, on MotoGP debut, heads Giannantonio (49) and Fernandez (25) en route to a points finish.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 01 Sydney Motorsport Park

WET AND VERY WILD THE OPENING ROUND OF THE 2022 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP AT SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK SHOWED THAT SHANE VAN GISBERGEN MIGHT NOT HAVE THINGS ALL HIS OWN WAY IN 2022, WITH MANY DRIVERS CHOMPING AT HIS HEELS Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images & Ross Gibb Photography, COVER IMAGE: Riccardo Benvenuti ALTHOUGH THE season did not kick off on the streets of Adelaide, Newcastle or even Bathurst, the weather in New South Wales made for an incredibly challenging opening round of the Supercars Championship season at SMP. While Mostert and van Gisbergen took wins, the latter proved he was not indestructible by making several unforced errors on Sunday.

Anton De Pasquale had another solid round at Sydney Motorsport Park, while his fellow Ford Driver Cameron Waters was forced to limit the damage.

Both Erebus Motorsport youngsters showed that they have made another step forward this year.

The season commenced with two 300km races, the longest ever seen in the opening round of the season and also contained the newly re-constructed supersoft tyre.

PRACTICE – LITTLE LEARNT IT WAS almost impossible to take anything from the two practice sessions on the opening day of action at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Practice 1 was wet to start with but dried out as the session went on. However due to the heavy rain in the region, rivers of water flowed across the track in multiple corners.

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Practice 2 brought no further rain, however the final complex of corners on the track was very wet and meant the final sector was more like a skidpan.

Everyone except Jake Kostecki and Mark Winterbottom went quicker in Practice 2 with Mostert ending the day at the top of the combined practice timesheets.

Second was Waters, ahead of Will Brown, Scott Pye, David Reynolds, van Gisbergen, Will Davison and De Pasquale. Drivers found if they ran onto the grass, it was near impossible to return without getting bogged.

QUALIFYING, RACE 1 – DE PASQUALE AGAIN AT SMP DE PASQUALE prevailed in the first qualifying and Top 10 Shootout of the year,

You gotta smile, even if it’s wet, humid and just plain tricky ...

not for the first time at SMP. The DJR driver eclipsed reigning champion van Gisbergen by a margin of 0.190s to take the pole.

Tim Slade set the eighth fastest time to get into the Shootout, however a great lap time in the Shootout saw him start from third in the sole Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang.

In his first event with Brad Jones Racing, Andre Heimgartner qualified in fourth, only 0.005s off the time set by Slade.

Brown qualified in fifth ahead of fellow Will, Will Davison.

Davison was on par with van Gisbergen’s time when he locked up into Turn 8, ran wide and lost 0.4s.

Just 0.024s further back was Brodie Kostecki, ahead of a frustrated Mostert, Grove

Racing driver Reynolds and Triple Eight Race Engineering rookie Broc Feeney who impressively made the top 10.

Notably missing out on a spot in the Top 10 Shootout was Cam Waters – the two-time Bathurst 1000 runner-up qualified down in 22nd position.

All three of his Tickford Racing teammates were also outside of the 10 – James Courtney 15th, rookie Thomas Randle 19th, while Jake Kostecki had a session to forget starting last after impeding Heimgartner.

New WAU recruit Nick Percat did not start the season as he planned, qualifying 14th.

RACE 1 – T8 AND SVG WORK WONDERS WITH RAIN expected at some point in the first 300km it was a drive into the unknown,

After all the pre-series hype, Broc Feeney delivered on his rookie debut.

Right: ADP in relax mode on the grid ...

Middle: Saturday was a disaster for Tickford, but Cam Waters got sorted for Sunday and registered a fine fourth.

Bottom left: Brodie K – one happy, happy pole man.

Bottom Right: Three-stop strategy took ‘youknow-who’ to an opening race win.

and so drivers and teams came up with a whole range of different strategies based around the supersoft tyre, which many teams had never even driven on.

At the start of the race De Pasquale and van Gisbergen made a very even jump on the front row with the Ford driver just holding his lead into Turn 1.

Behind, Slade and Heimgartner on row 2 made poor starts and immediately fell behind both Brown and Davison.

Heimgartner and Reynolds were the only frontrunners in the opening stanza to start on the supersofts and it paid early dividends.

Heimgartner quickly moved up to second by lap 4 and took the lead at the end of lap 8 on the pit straight before extending the lead.

At the end of lap 16, Heimgartner led by 3.8s from De Pasquale, with van Gisbergen a further 2s back.

On lap 20, both van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki pitted – it was either a very early stop or a three-stop strategy. It turned out to be the latter for both.

SVG took on only a small amount of fuel in the stop, as did his teammate Feeney, which meant that they sat 1-2 and well clear of traffic when everyone had completed their first stops.

It gave them clear track position to put in fast and consistent laps and both benefitted immensely from it.

Brown, now on the supersofts, sat in third ahead of Reynolds and Heimgartner, with De Pasquale and Kostecki now also on the supersofts.

It took just a couple of laps for Brown, Heimgartner and ADP to overhaul Feeney. As for Reynolds, it was not long before he was forced to retire, a gearbox issue ending his day prematurely.

On lap 40 De Pasquale began to harass Brown for second and eventually made his way by – it was at this time that SVG made his second stop and fitted the supersoft tyres.

On lap 44 Brown pitted and was followed by Mostert on lap 48, Heimgartner and Davison on lap 49 and De Pasquale on lap 52.

It was clear that van Gisbergen could not make it to the end and would have to pit once more – he did so with 15 laps remaining after extending his lead to 38s.

When he emerged it was Brown who was back in the lead after using the undercut to great effect.

De Pasquale was 3.4s back, with SVG only 8.6s behind race leader Brown in third.

Davison, Mostert, Heimgartner and Kostecki were next.

In just three laps De Pasquale had caught Brown and was now harassing the Erebus driver.

Brown defended a couple of times, costing both he and De Pasquale time, time they could not afford.

When De Pasquale did make his way up the inside at Turn 5 nearly a lap after catching Brown, van Gisbergen was only 1.5s back.

SVG breezed around the outside of Brown at Turn 8 and overtook ADP as they came onto the pit straight.

He had made his way back to the front, and there were still 10 laps remaining.

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With older tyres Brown continued to plummet down the pack, while Mostert on the supersofts charged forward.

By the end of the race van Gisbergen had pulled out a margin of 19.557s over De Pasquale who did not put a foot wrong on the two-stop strategy.

On the supersofts, Mostert climbed onto the final step of the podium ahead of Davison and Kostecki.

Like his teammate Mostert, Percat ended the race on the supersoft tyres – he sat outside of the top 10 for much of the race, but surged through the pack to finish sixth.

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Brown fell to seventh, just ahead of Slade, Feeney and Courtney, while Waters was 11th.

Heimgartner looked set to finish eighth, but was forced to pit for fuel with one lap remaining – he crossed the line 14th.

QUALIFYING, RACE 2 – BRODIE BAGS MAIDEN SUPERCARS POLE IT WAS not easy, however Brodie Kostecki scored his first career pole position in treacherous conditions. Weather played a massive role in determining the grid – both the initial 15-minute session and the Top 10 Shootout were affected by rain.

In the Shootout, rain increased as the session went on, with the final two drivers copping by far the worst of the weather.

De Pasquale was one of those - however he slid the car through every turn magnificently, to qualify only 0.1s off Kostecki’s time, into p2.

Waters turned around a difficult day on Saturday to qualify third. Feeney qualified fourth ahead of Davison and Veteran Mark Winterbottom.

Mostert was fastest in the first session, but as a result copped the worst of the rain in the shootout, and could qualify no higher than seventh on the grid.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 01 Sydney Motorsport Park

A challenging full-time debut for Thomas Randle – but (right) caption competiton material from the perennially smiling Mr Brown ...

PITSTOP

WHEN CHAZ Mostert decided to dye his hair – again – it was not a simple job for SMP. He wanted to match the signature Teal colour of the Optus logo used by his major sponsor at WAU, and that meant getting the exact pantone colour for the job.

“Every time I dye my hair a crazy colour we seem to go well,” Mostert says.

Courtney, Bryce Fullwood and Todd Hazelwood, who had his lap-time invalidated, rounded out the top 10.

The initial qualifying session itself was wet, but dried over its 15-minute duration, meaning that the last laps would be crucial.

Saturday’s race winner van Gisbergen ran wide at Turn 5 and triggered the kerb invalidating his final lap, – he would start from 21st place!

Other surprises ending up outside of the top 20 were Erebus Motorsports’ Brown and BRT driver Slade who both left the change to slicks far too late and paid a hefty price.

Percat had an off at the final turn and got stuck in the grass – he ended the session in last position.

RACE 2 - MOSTERT VICTORIOUS MOSTERT WON the Sunday race, dealing with the mixed conditions best to take the win by 2.7s – which sees him lead the championship for the first time in his career.

At the start of the race, pole sitter Kostecki elected to run supersofts, expecting rain late on, while alongside him De Pasquale went for the standard softs.

It was De Pasquale who made a lighting start to take the lead, something he would hold for just two laps before both Kostecki and Feeney flew by.

Rookie Feeney was fast early and was all over the tail of Kostecki even drawing alongside around Turn 2 on lap 5.

While his teammate was fighting for the lead on lap 7, van Gisbergen speared off the road at the final turn as rain began to fall.

BROC FEENEY had a special paintjob on his first main game helmet.

It was even painted in France by the same artisan who does helmets for Toby Price.

“Can you work it out?,” asks B-Feen as he points to the artwork on the back of the lid.

“Man landed on the moon. Now I’ve landed in Supercars,” he says ...

THE NEW chairman of Supercars, Barclay Nettlefold, made a high-profile visit to SMP after maintaining a low-key presence at racetracks in the latter stages of 2022.

The boss of the SAFE consortium is taking a hands-on approach to the championship and is keen to hear the views of all stakeholders in Supercars.

At different times he was spotted talking to Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt and listening to fiery Boost boss Peter Adderton.

ANTON DE PASQUALE was lucky to escape a Stewards’ sanction after crashing on the cool-down lap following the second Supercars heat in Sydney.

He and race winner Chaz Mostert did a lap of drifting after the chequered flag but De Pasquale came unstuck at the final corner.

“I got a bit wide on the exit kerb, ran out of lock and got onto the grass,” he tells Brodie Kostecki after the presentation.

It was his second muddy run of the weekend, following a high-speed lose from Turn 1 in early practice, but lucky there was only minor damage to the left-hand side of his Shell Mustang.

STEPHEN GROVE and Ryan Walkinshaw are the team representatives on the new board of Supercars.

But, unlike previous times when team owners had a significant stake in the championship and a huge amount of control, the new composition of the board means they will only serve as observers.

So Grove and Walkinshaw have no voting rights on Supercars’ decisions.

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Sometimes, Le Things all go wrong. Jack Le Brocq could have done without this one ...

Heimgartner showed promising pace in the BJR car, in among the stars in the dry.

The reigning champion was lucky to get back on the track and immediately elected to pit and fit wets, a rash decision that would soon backfire.

Now on wets, he, like several others, was consistently two seconds a lap slower than the slick runners and was soon lapped by the leaders Kostecki, Feeney, De Pasquale and Mostert who sat in line astern.

At the end of lap 14 van Gisbergen admitted defeat, re-fitted his still warm slicks and rejoined a lap and a half behind the leaders.

De Pasquale was the first of the frontrunners to blink and fit the supersofts; Kostecki, Mostert and Feeney pitted on consecutive laps. SVG pitted again at the end of lap 30 to put on the supersofts and began his march back forward.

Jake Kostecki spun and stalled at the final turn and could not get the car restarted – this along with Garry Jacobson stopping at the same time caused the first Safety Car of the season.

Everyone pitted except for Brown who missed the call to enter the lane – although he now led the race back to green.

The field shook itself into order after several laps. On lap 46 Kostecki led ADP who was right on his bumper, while Davison overtook Brown for third place into Turn 6 just moments before the Safety Car was called once more.

Percat ended up stuck in the grass on the exit of Turn 7 after contact with Scott Pye. Again, almost everyone pitted. Notably, Davison was forced to stack, ruining his race, while on the other end of the spectrum, van Gisbergen was able to get back on the lead lap albeit in 18th.

Winterbottom and Team 18 had an encouraging weekend, but it ended bizarrely.

Courtney and Lee Holdsworth were now 1-2 but had one more stop to make, behind them it was Kostecki, De Pasquale and Mostert who now had the supersofts.

As soon as the race restarted Mostert had made his way by De Pasquale before even getting to Turn 1 and set after Kostecki.

It did not take him long to take the lead after a strong exit from T6, he swung up the inside into Corporate Hill on lap 52.

Behind, Heimgartner briefly got by De Pasquale, however contact during the move damaged the New Zealander’s BJR Commodore.

On lap 61 the promised rain began to lash onto the circuit. On the supersofts, Mostert was 1s a lap faster than the field and soon built up a comfortable buffer.

At the end of lap 64 Kostecki pitted and was followed a lap later by Mostert and De Pasquale.

Matt Stone Racing and Jack Le Brocq took a gamble to stay on slicks – in the end he QUALIFYING RACE 01 Pos Driver 1 Anton De Pasquale 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Tim Slade 4 Andre Heimgartner 5 William Brown 6 Will Davison 7 Brodie Kostecki 8 Chaz Mostert 9 David Reynolds 10 Broc Feeney 11 Bryce Fullwood 12 Scott Pye 13 Mark Winterbottom 14 Nick Percat 15 James Courtney 16 Jack Le Brocq 17 Todd Hazelwood 18 Jack Smith 19 Thomas Randle 20 Garry Jacobson 21 Macauley Jones 22 Cameron Waters 23 Lee Holdsworth 24 Jake Kostecki 25 Chris Pither

was losing five seconds a lap, however it still looked on for a top 10 finish.

Unfortunately, the rain increased and just moments after losing the lead, Le Brocq slid off the road, bringing out a third Safety Car. With three to go, the race resumed, leader Mostert taking off into the distance to record the win.

Despite his best efforts in the closing laps, De Pasquale could not get back by Kostecki and had to settle for third. Behind, Tickford’s Waters finished a quiet fourth ahead of Heimgartner.

Incredibly van Gisbergen came from a lap and a half back to finish in sixth, only 7.8s behind the race winner.

Davison never really recovered from the double stack and finished seventh ahead Brown, Reynolds and Slade.

Feeney was 11th ahead of Winterbottom and Hazelwood, who collided with each other after the chequered flag and got beached in the Turn 1 gravel in what was a bizarre end to the weekend.

RESULTS RACE 01 77LAPS (300KMS) Time 1:29.3599 0:00.1905 0:00.5876 0:00.5924 0:00.6497 0:00.6948 0:00.7181 0:00.7223 0:01.0343 0:01.3698 0:00.8781 0:00.8842 0:00.8862 0:01.0094 0:01.0937 0:01.1593 0:01.1744 0:01.2360 0:01.2476 0:01.2959 0:01.3036 0:01.3613 0:01.4680 0:01.6858 0:02.0758

Pos Drivers 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Anton De Pasquale 3 Chaz Mostert 4 Will Davison 5 Brodie Kostecki 6 Nick Percat 7 William Brown 8 Tim Slade 9 Broc Feeney 10 James Courtney 11 Cameron Waters 12 Bryce Fullwood 13 Jack Le Brocq 14 Andre Heimgartner 15 Todd Hazelwood 16 Mark Winterbottom 17 Jack Smith 18 Garry Jacobson 19 Jake Kostecki 20 Thomas Randle 21 Lee Holdsworth 22 Macauley Jones 23 Chris Pither 24 David Reynolds NC Scott Pye

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Laps 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 76 64 32

QUALIFYING RACE 02 (WET) Race time 02:03:01.4868 02:03:21.0443 02:03:32.5393 02:03:38.9871 02:03:40.2928 02:03:40.8796 02:03:42.5996 02:03:52.2769 02:03:53.9638 02:03:56.0099 02:04:04.6353 02:04:16.5575 02:04:23.1168 02:04:28.5317 02:04:38.2980 02:03:11.9092 02:03:14.2218 02:03:14.2396 02:03:26.9955 02:03:37.7442 02:03:47.0551 02:03:59.5895 02:04:03.4039 02:03:03.6587 01:29:00.3463

s1 t1 s5 s2 s2 s8 t2 t5 s1 s5 s11 t1 s3 t10 s2 t3 s1 s2 s5 t1 s2 t1 s2 t15 t13

Pos Driver Time 1 Brodie Kostecki 1:39.5216*W 2 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.1072 3 Cameron Waters 0:00.3213 4 Broc Feeney 0:00.5872 5 Will Davison 0:00.9088 6 Mark Winterbottom 0:01.0673 7 Chaz Mostert 0:01.2794 8 James Courtney 0:01.4219 9 Bryce Fullwood 0:01.8544 10 Todd Hazelwood 11 Lee Holdsworth 0:01.3645 12 Andre Heimgartner 0:01.4002 13 Chris Pither 0:01.7450 14 Scott Pye 0:01.7617 15 David Reynolds 0:02.2579 16 Jake Kostecki 0:02.2695 17 Garry Jacobson 0:02.4123 18 Jack Le Brocq 0:02.4869 19 Macauley Jones 0:02.4951 20 Thomas Randle 0:02.5280 21 Shane van Gisbergen 0:02.5736 22 Jack Smith 0:03.0306 23 William Brown 0:03.5343 24 Tim Slade 0:03.6695 25 Nick Percat 0:04.7137

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Chaz now gets the pink number plate – maybe he’ll dye his hair to match!

RESULTS RACE 02 77LAPS (300KMS) Pos Drivers 1 Chaz Mostert 2 Brodie Kostecki 3 Anton De Pasquale 4 Cameron Waters 5 Andre Heimgartner 6 Shane van Gisbergen 7 Will Davison 8 William Brown 9 David Reynolds 10 Tim Slade 11 Broc Feeney 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 Todd Hazelwood 14 Thomas Randle 15 Scott Pye 16 Lee Holdsworth 17 James Courtney 18 Jack Smith 19 Bryce Fullwood 20 Chris Pither 21 Macauley Jones 22 Jack Le Brocq 23 Nick Percat 24 Jake Kostecki NC Garry Jacobson

Laps 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 76 76 76 75 74 69 68 29

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 02 Race time 02:15:28.2868 02:15:31.0531 02:15:32.7204 02:15:33.2606 02:15:35.1336 02:15:36.1596 02:15:37.6335 02:15:38.0925 02:15:39.0601 02:15:39.8667 02:15:40.2464 02:15:42.8888 02:15:43.0026 02:15:44.0154 02:15:45.0067 02:15:45.5733 02:15:46.2751 02:15:49.6824 02:16:08.5906 02:16:09.2168 02:16:20.2159 02:16:46.7823 02:16:19.4760 02:16:15.6680 49:04.1001

s6 t1 t1 t1 s7 s15 t2 s15 s6 s14 t7 t6 t3 s6 t1 t5 t9 t4 t10 t7 t2 t4 s2 t8 t8

Pos Driver Points 1 Chaz Mostert 279 2 Anton DePasquale 267 3 Shane van Gisbergen 252 4 Brodie Kostecki 249 5 Will Davison 216 6 Cameron Waters 192 7 William Brown 186 8 Andre Heimgartner 174 9 Tim Slade 168 10 Broc Feeney 156 11 Nick Percat 138 12 James Courtney 132 13 Mark Winterbottom 126 14 Todd Hazelwood 126 15 Bryce Fullwood 117 16 David Reynolds 117 17 Thomas Randle 108 18 Jack Le Brocq 105 19 Jack Smith 105 20 Lee Holdsworth 99 21 Jake Kostecki 81 22 Chris Pither 81 23 Macauley Jones 81 24 Scott Pye 60 25 Garry Jacobson 51

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NO LONGER SECOND BEST

Image: Insyde Media

AFTER FINISHING runner-up in the 2021 Super2 Series, Zak Best (pictured above) emerged from the first round of the new season on top after two carnage laden encounters at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Best avoided the chaos and expertly managed difficult track conditions to win Race 2, after finishing second in Race 1 behind maiden race winner Jaylyn Robotham.

Matthew Payne was the other standout performer, bringing home his Grove Racing Nissan Altima fourth and second in the two races to be the round runner-up.

The Kiwi was the best qualifier on Saturday, setting a 1m 32.671s to top the timesheets ahead of Matt White Motorsport man Tyler Everingham.

Neither of those steerers would win Race 1 though, as Robotham caused a massive upset.

The season opener began in dramatic fashion, Eggleston Motorsport’s Matt McLean stalling off the line as Tyler Everingham flew into the lead.

After securing pole, Payne fell back into

third as Best took his chance to gain a position.

The first Safety Car of the season was activated without a lap completed, Elly Morrow requiring a tow after copping a nudge into the grass from Angelo Mouzouris.

Everingham maintained his ascendency after the restart on lap 4 but a second Safety Car was imminent, Super3 driver Masterton spinning onto the grass at the exit of Turn 1 on lap 6.

The second delay was completed by lap 9, when disaster would strike the leading Everingham. It turned out he had suffered a deflating tyre, which knocked him out of the running.

Image Racing driver Robotham capitalised on the misfortune of Everingham, entering a fight for front spot with Best and Payne before emerging with the lead.

He extended his advantage from there, comfortably taking victory over Best and rookie Thomas Maxwell, who scored a podium position on debut with Matt White Motorsport.

Payne was fourth ahead of Aaron Seton in his #30 Holden Commodore.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Declan Fraser and Cameron Hill were sixth and seventh.

Zane Morse, Cameron Crick and Matthew Chahda rounded out the top 10. Nash Morris was unclassified in his Super2 debut.

Race 2 followed a similar trajectory to the first, the stop-start affair won by Best as he crossed the line second only to the Safety Car. Fraser and Mouzouris started off the front row, but it mattered little as early carnage ensued.

Several Super3 runners were involved in a tangle on the grid leaving a trail of destruction, while Mouzouris approached Turn 2 too quickly, tagging the back of Hill sending him into a spin.

The incidents required a Safety Car, the two Super2 cars involved heading to the pits.

For Mouzouris, it was day over, while Hill managed to get his car back on track.

Racing resumed on lap 5, Fraser leading from Best before the lead changed hands.

Meanwhile, Everingham battled with McLean for fifth as the latter’s rear bumper hung by a thread.

Crick and Morse were the next drivers to tangle, taking an excursion off the track on lap 8 which saw Crick become bogged in the grass, forcing yet another Safety Car. The restart on lap 11 did not last long – Ryal Harris lost control at the outside of Turn 4 over the grass, spitting out onto the road and into a helpless Morris, taking out his left side.

The chequered flag was waved during this third Safety Car period, confirming a race and round win for Best.

Payne and Fraser claimed podium positions in second and third, respectively.

Maxwell was fourth, while Everingham came home fifth. Robotham and Seton were sixth and seventh, while Chahda was eighth.

Jay Hanson and Hill both made the top 10 to complete their debut Super2 rounds.

Josh Nevett Points: Best 288, Payne 258, Robotham 252, Maxwell 249, Fraser 231

TEEN STARS ON SUPER3 DEBUT KAI ALLEN (pictured right) marked his Super3 Series debut with a round win that did not come easily.

The 16-year-old Eggleston Motorsport driver split the wins with Brad Vaughan, who was his closest rival throughout the opening weekend.

Vaughan got a quick start, winning Race 1 in his Ford Falcon from Allen and Blake Fardell.

Allen was able to bounce back in Race 2, finishing first in class after qualifying fifth outright despite stalling on the

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starting grid. The teenager composed himself to finish one spot ahead of Vaughan, while Hislop rounded out the Super3 podium.

Several drivers were involved in a start line circus, Tony Auddino, James Masterton and Paul Boschert all wiping each other out of the race.

The latter was particularly devastated, ruing the incident that was down to no fault of his own. Josh Nevett Points: Allen 288, Vaughan 288, Hislop 249, Fardell 249, Pollicina 222

Image: Ross Gibb

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GIBBONS GRABS 86 TRIFECTA

Images: Insyde Media ON HIS home track, Lachlan Gibbons won his first race in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series at Sydney Motorsport Park. He then followed that up with two more victories to clean sweep the weekend. In each outing he beat Zach Bates and Jarrod Hughes – a first for the series to have a common top three.

After he qualified on pole, Gibbons (pictured) immediately skipped away to a solid 1.5s lead as Jarrod Hughes had second place until passed by Bates at Turn 6. Toyota guest driver Warren Luff was behind them until overtaken by Stewart. Then followed Bailey Sweeny, Harrison Gray and Hayden Jackson.

On the second lap Rylan Gray spun at Turn 2 before Ryan Hadden went off at Turn 1 which brought out the Safety Car. There was

a one-lap flyer to the flag where the top seven remained the same. Eighth changed with Ryan Casha passing Jackson. Marcus LaDelle followed, ahead of David Schulz and Andrew Shah.

The teams turned up early Sunday morning to find their pit area flooded from an overnight deluge. The water abated, and the rain stopped ahead of the next two races, albeit on a wet track.

Race 2 had three laps behind the Safety Car before it was under way. On the out-lap, Alex Hadden had spun out of Turn 7, but was able to continue – Luke Pink was not so lucky as he hit the concrete wall.

Gibbons led when the racing was under way, ahead of Bates, Stewart, Luff, Sweeny and

Hughes, and continued to do when the Safety Car was out again. Jayden Wanzek had been turned around at Turn 5 before Casha and LaDelle went off in unison deep on the outside of Turn 2. But the big drama was Rylan Gray who came unglued after Turn 7, came through Turn 8 and collected Alex Hayden.

With the chequered flag, Stewart was ahead of Bates but repositioned to third. Several other similar changes were handed out while Jonathan Webb, the second guest driver, copped a 5s infringement which put him back four spots. Schulz placed eighth ahead of Andrew Shah and Campbell Logan with Sam Christison, Emerson Harvey and Clay Richards just outside the 10.

Bates beat Gibbons off the line in Race Three

but a rare error at Turn 4 allowed Gibbons to take the lead. Sweeney had third in front of Stewart, Schulz and Hughes. Luff had a poor start due to trouble with the hand brake and was 11th at the end of the first tour, during which Ben Gomersall was turned around and Michael Sherwell had a moment at Turn 4.

On the last lap, Bates looked to take Gibbons, but the wet track and single tractable dry line meant he couldn’t complete the moves at Turns 6 and 11. Stewart passed and held off Sweeny who was clear of Schulz, Hughes and Luff, just missed displacing Gray as they crossed the line. The latter was relegated post-race to 12th behind Harvey, Logan, Christison and Rossi Johnson.

Garry O’Brien

ROOKIES RUN RIOT IN SERIES OPENER NEWCOMERS TO the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars finished first and second at the series opener with Tom Hayman (pictured) and Cody Brewczynski both two-race winners.

The former took the round honours while the seasoned Kodi Garland was third overall.

After he topped qualifying, Brewczynski won the first race. He steered his Mustangbodied racer home over fellow Mustang driver Hayman. Garland (Mustang) made the best start from the second row and snatched the early lead, ahead of Brewczynski while Josh Anderson (Mustang) led Hayman until Turn 9.

Garland led the first three laps before Brewczynski took over. Shortly afterwards Hayman also displaced the former race leader and closed on Brewczynski but was never close enough for a challenge. Anderson maintained his fourth despite a 5.0s penalty for a start infringement.

Behind the leading four, Ryan Reynolds (Mustang) was fifth ahead of Ryder Quinn (Euro GT), and Reece Chapman (Mustang). John Steffensen (Mustang) held eighth initially until passed by Craig Woods (Mustang) who warded off Matt Forbes-Wilson (Camaro). Steffensen ultimately finished 11th behind Courtney Prince (Mustang).

Brewczynski stalled at the start of the second race and Hayman took an all-the-way and comprehensive victory.

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Garland jumped to second and withstood the challenge from Anderson. Quinn was fourth until passed by Woods on lap four and was then caught up in a dice where he finished behind Reynolds and teammate Brewczynski, but ahead of Anthony Di Mauro (Camaro) and Chapman.

Matt Gooding (Camaro) finished 10th and would start the race three reverse top 10 from the pole position. From 10th Hayman came through to win. Brewczynski pushed through to the front but a slight error at Turn 4 on the final lap, relegated him to second as Hayman passed him.

A good start had Woods second and he passed initial leader Chapman to hold the front running for three laps. He ultimately finished third ahead of Anderson and Garland who was better placed until a spin at Turn 8. Chapman was sixth in front of Reynolds, Prince, Quinn and Di Mauro who recovered from a first lap spin for his 11th.

The wet track for the final did not faze Brewczynski and Hayman as they diced throughout. Off the start, Brewczynski hit the front ahead of Hayman. Anderson was next, ahead of Garland. Back in the pack it was three abreast between Woods, Quinn and Reynolds and the squeeze into Turn 2 sent Woods around.

On lap 2 Reynolds had a hairy moment on the outside of Turn 1, while Anderson went off on the inside and parked against the wall. The raced remained green and Hayman snuck into the lead briefly.

Several laps later Hayman again hit the front, but only for a lap before Brewczynski re-gathered to beat him. Garland was third but a start infringement penalty pushed him behind Reynolds. Ward climbed from eighth early to finish fourth after he passed Chapman late in the race. Quinn was next ahead of Di Mauro who overtook Denis Butler (Euro GT) on the final lap. Garry O’Brien

STRAIGHT TO THE TOP

George Miedecke’s Chev Camaro heads Ryan Hansford’s Torana in damp conditions.

Below: Hansford, Miedecke and Bowe, nose-to-tail through Turn 1 ...

All images: Jack Martin/ARG ‘JB’ fought from the back to the front to win the reverse-grid Trophy Race in impressive style.

Bowe also took out Race 1

It’s the Tilley Show – Cameron’s Valiant Pacer leads Jamie’s Mustang.

GEORGE MIEDECKE began his first full-time Touring Car Masters season with a bang, taking out the round honours at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The Whiteline Racing driver dominated the second points scoring race on a wet track to steal round honours from six-time TCM champion John Bowe, who won both the Trophy Race and Race 1.

Four races were originally scheduled for the weekend but torrential rain in Sydney on Saturday night reduced the round to three races, which fell right into Miedecke’s hands.

Bowe started the round in fine style,

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winning the reverse-grid Trophy Race from the back of the grid in an impressive display.

The reigning TCM champion was flawless in surging through the field, up 10 spots in no time before battling his way into the lead on the last lap by passing Jamie Tilley at Turn 4 in his Holden Torana A9X. Tilley was another big winner of the race, moving up nine spots from the start himself to finish second.

Miedecke claimed the final podium place on the final lap in his Chevrolet Camaro.

Marcus Zukanovic was fourth ahead of Cam Mason, who took advantage of the

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reverse grid format to lead from the outset before surrendering his spot by the end of the first lap.

After also having his share of the lead early in the race, Jim Pollicina was sixth.

Cameron Tilley was seventh in his #60 Valiant Pacer.

Regular frontrunners Steve Johnson and Ryan Hansford were eighth and ninth, respectively.

Andrew Fisher secured a top 10 spot in his Ford Falcon XY GT HO. It was that man Hansford and the Trophy Race winner who started off the front row for Race 1, Bowe getting the last laugh to win a second consecutive encounter.

Hansford finished second and Miedecke rounded out the podium.

The contenders went four-wide into the first corner, fighting for front position which was held by Hansford.

Johnson and Miedecke provided the immediate challenge but as the race settled into a rhythm Bowe displayed his trademark pace.

Miedecke enjoyed a period in the lead but Bowe found a way through on lap 9.

Following the podium getters to the line were Johnson, with Cameron Tilley and Zukanovic coming home fifth and sixth in

their Ford Falcon XD and Ford Mustang, respectively.

Jamie Tilley and Mason were seventh and eighth in their Ford Mustangs.

Fisher and Mark King also made it into the top 10.

After his strong performance in the Trophy Race, Pollicina was nowhere near it after an assisted spin on lap 1.

A deluge in Sydney overnight saw the scheduled Race 2 canned, Race 3 taking on extra significance as the final race of the weekend.

Miedecke seized the opportunity on a wet track, winning comfortably as polesitter Bowe struggled in the difficult conditions with low tyre pressures.

The former got the jump from a rolling start to lead early and did not surrender his lead thereafter, earning himself the round victory as Bowe fell to finish sixth.

Hansford also leapfrogged Bowe in the standings with a second-place finish, while Johnson was back among the leaders in the final race, claiming the final spot on the podium.

Zukanovic and Jamie Tilley were the other drivers to finish ahead of Bowe in Race 2.

Mason, Cameron Tilley, Pollicina and Fisher rounded out the top 10.

TCM will now have an extended break until the end of May, when the series returns to SMP for its second round at the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships. Josh Nevett Points: Miedecke 136, Hansford 128, Bowe 122, Johnson 120, Zukanovic 110

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NATIONALS WRAP

VIC STATE BACK IN BUSINESS Images: Revved Photography ROUND 1 OF the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championship started with a bang at Sandown International Raceway with quality and quantity in each of the 11 categories.

FORMULA FORD THE OPENING round of the VSCRC Formula Ford Series also play host to the first round of the national championship. A field of well over 30 cars hit the track and it was inevitable there would be some Safety Cars. Only two green laps were completed in the opening race, after two separate incidents, Race 2 finished behind the Safety Car. Jordyn Sinni won the opening two encounters with relative ease, however the third and final encounter was a classic Formula Ford duel, containing half a dozen cars (pictured above). At one stage Sinni was pushed back to fifth place as Cody Donald and Matthew Hillyer looked like the men that would come out on top. In the end Donald prevailed, Sinni recovered to finish second and win the round, while Clay Richards was nipped by Hillyer at the final turn.

HYUNDAI EXCELS HUGO SIMPSON (pictured, right) driving for Ben Grice, took victory in two of the three Excel races to win the round ahead of Arron Hindle and Harry Tomkins. The Excel action was heavily interrupted by red flags and Safety Cars over the weekend with only the final race going the full distance. Race 1 was called after 4 laps when debutant Abby Wingett rolled spectacularly at Turn 1 – it was a race in which Ethan Grigg-Gault converted pole to victory. Race 2 suffered a similar fate after Mason Kelly and Conner McLeod made contact at the notorious Turn 6. McLeod was stranded on the apex of Turn 7 and it resulted in a red flag. Grigg-Gault was handed a postrace penalty of five seconds, dropping him to 11th and handing the win to Simpson. Race 3 was a lot cleaner and saw an intense fight for the win – in the end it was Simpson who prevailed from Hindle and Tomkins.

SPORTS SEDANS ALL WEEKEND long it was a tale of two in Sports Sedans, with Dean Camm in his Chevrolet Corvette fighting tooth and nail against Tony Groves (pictured above right) in his MARC Mazda 3.

In Race 1 Camm led the opening lap,

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NATIONALS WRAP with Garry O’Brien

however at Dandenong Road on lap 2 Groves hit the back of him (unintentionally) and took the lead, but not for long. With cosmetic damage on the bonnet affecting the aerodynamics on the Mazda he was a sitting duck on the back straight as the Corvette of Camm sailed by. In Race 2 it was Camm who came out on top once again – however his weekend would come undone in Race 3.

Groves took the lead after an early race Safety Car period; Camm tried to keep up but spun at Turn 4. He could only recover to eighth and therefore it was Groves who took the round honours from the consistent John Ippolito and then the disappointed Camm.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION IT WAS a weekend for The General in Improved Production with Holdens dominating proceedings. It was a Monaro, with reigning champion Adam Poole, that took pole and won all three races – however he made life difficult for himself in the second encounter, firing off the road at Turn 1. He fell to third position behind Luke Grech-Cumbo and Jarrod Tonks but with a large portion of the race remaining made his way back to the front of the field. He dominated the final 10 lap encounter, winning by 20s from Luke GrechCumbo and blue oval driver Craig Piergrosse – this is the way they finished the round also.

HQS THE HQS turned back the clock at Sandown with three enthralling races. The first was won by Andrew McLeod and the second by Perry Bekkers. The final race of the weekend was a classic with seven cars running line astern throughout. On the last lap Bekkers, attempting to take the lead, ran through the gravel at Dandenong Road and fell to fourth.

However, at the final corner, the top three fought amongst themselves, all ran wide and allowed Bekkers back through to take the win, the top three separated by just 0.14s.

SALOON CARS SHAWN JAMIESON showed the Saloon Car field a clean pair of heels, by taking pole position and winning all three races by well over 5s. Ford Falcon driver Daniel Johnson finished on the podium in each racee and thus finished second for the round with Mark Sutherland rounding out the podium.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS AND BMW E30S THE HISTORIC Touring Cars and BMW E30s shared the track at Sandown. In the Historic Touring Cars it was Darren Collins in his Chevrolet Camaro who prevailed after winning two of the races. A win a second and a third was enough for Trevor Talbot to secure second ahead of Andrew Lane. In the E30s Alex Jory won all three races from Geoffrey Bowles.

MG & INVITED BRITISH SPORTS CARS PHIL CHESTER won the first two races of the weekend but was plagued with a couple

of mechanical issues and as a result elected to sit out the final race. Robin Bailey, who finished second in the first two races, took the 10-lap race and with it the round. Keith Ondarchie was next from Michael Trathen.

FORMULA VEES REIGNING SERIES winner Reef McCarthy and Jake Rowe shared a win and a second apiece heading into the decider.

On lap 9 heading around Turn 1, third-placed man Heath Collinson’s right-rear-wheel parted company.

With less than two laps remaining, the red flag was thrown and results went back a lap handing McCarthy the race and round victory from Rowe, it also meant that Collinson held third.

PORSCHE 944S IN THE 944s it was a tale of two men – Cameron Beller and James Westaway – at the head of the field. After a hard-fought battle in Race 1 it looked as through Westaway was going to win, but he lost his exhaust on the final lap and finished in second. He recovered to win both the second and third races and therefore the round.

SPORTS CARS NOBODY COULD touch the Sin R1 driven by Benjamin Schoots throughout the weekend. He won both the sprint and main race convincingly.

Jamie Lovett’s third place in the feature saw him secure second for the round,ahead of Christian Fitzgerald who finished second in the feature Dan McCarthy.

AN ENDURO FOR STARTERS MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA’S NSW Championships began at Wakefield Park on February 26-27, headed by an optional two-driver one-hour endurance race.

PRODUCTION TOURING JIMMY VERNON (pictured below) won the 51-lap event in his Class A1 Mitsubishi EVO X. Early race leader Dimitri Agathos (A1 Subaru Impreza WRX STi) was second, 0.5s in front Harrison Cooper (EVO X).

Anthony Soole and Adam Burgess topped the respective Driver A and B Qualifying in their X BMW M4.

Soole was second behind Agathos in the first sprint where the car lost boost.

After Agathos led, Cooper, B sprint winner Simon Hodges (M4), Matt Holt (A2 HSV Clubsport) and Adam Gosling (B1 Honda Civic Type R) had turns leading the enduro.

With stops completed, Cooper led until fuel surge dropped him to third.

Hodges placed fourth and Holt was fifth until a wheel broke 3mins from the end. That elevated Gosling, Matt Boylan/Lachlan Gibbons (EVO X), and Alex and Dieter Holzl (BMW 1M).

FORMULA VEES RACE 1 started with Simon Pace (Checkmate) ahead of Daniel Reynolds (Sabre), John McDonald and Aaron Pace in Jacers. Then Johnson shed a wheel, Reynolds took the lead and held off Simon Pace. Craig Spark (Jacer) ensued in front of Aaron Pace and Curtis Porter (Jacer).

Simon Pace had a gap early in race two but in the end, he was third behind Aaron Pace and Reynolds and ahead of Porter, Hayden Crossland (Jacer) and Sparke. The last race went to Simon Pace who held off Reynolds and Aaron Pace.

Porter was fourth from William Pym (Jacer), Geoff Bennett (Jacer) and Mathew Pearce (Jacer). Stephen Butcher (Stinger) was the best in 1200s.

HQ HOLDENS NINTH AFTER one lap, Matt Barker forged through to pip David Proglio by 0.09s in Race 1. John Baxter had a coil wire come adrift and then Jason Molle led until relegated by Proglio and Barker. Chris Molle finished

fourth in front of Glenn Deering.

Stuck in first gear on the out lap, Barker started Race 2 from the back.

Proglio led until Jason Molle made his lead challenge work. Barker stormed to third ahead of Shaun Boland, David Allan and Baxter.

The final race had a Safety Car when Darren Parker was turned around. Proglio led early, then conceded to Jason Molle. Barker took second and hounded Molle until he and Baxter went past.

Molle held third from Luke Harrison, Proglio and Chris Molle.

SPORTS SEDANS WITHOUT THE dramas of several, Birol Cetin (Chev Camaro) won the round. Willem Fercher (Toyota 86/Chev) had an input shaft fail in practice and Brad Shiels (Fiat 124/ rotary turbo) was out of qualifying with engine dramas.

Race 1 lost Steven Lacey (Camaro, fuel leak) Mark Duggan (Aston Martin/Chev, throttle sensor), and Chris Jackson (Calibra/Chev, puncture from a lapped car). It left Cetin the winner ahead of Dan Nolan (Mazda RX7), Nick Mantikos (MARC II Mustang) and Glenn Pro (Toyota Supra).

Cetin and Nolan were first and second in Race 2 as Mantikos fended off Duggan for third. Lacey made it to third before a puncture. In the last Lacey won ahead of Cetin, Mantikos, Nolan and Pro. Duggan retired with a dead alternator.

SUPERSPORTS A ONE-POINT round win went to Darren Barlow (Stohr) over Peter White (Radical SR8) with third to Aaron Lee (West WR1000).

White led throughout Race 1. Ryan Godfrey’s Wolf Tornado was second before sidelined with an engine

woe. Steve Roberts (SR8) spun at Turn 2 which allowed Barlow to take second. Lee was third from Radical SR3 drivers Kostinken Pohorukov, Stephen Champion and Mark Brame.

The second race was stopped when Greg Kenny (SR3) spun and was hit

by Warwick Morris (SR3). White led at the restart, however couldn’t hold off Barlow. Lee was next from Roberts, Pohorukov and Brame. Alex Kenny (Juno) put spark plug problems aside to charge from the rear and pass Barlow on the last lap for Race 3 victory. Lee was third ahead of White who spun earlier, Roberts, Brame and Brad Neilson (SR3).

FORMULA CARS NATHAN GOTCH (Dallara F307) dominated in the three races. Adam Gotch (Mygale F4) was second twice and third in the other as Greg Muddle (F399) was third for the weekend. First race pole sitter Rob Rowe (F307) held third until he spun out. He placed seventh in Race 2 and fourth in the last.

Doug Barry (Reynard) chalked up two fourths before a broken gear selector put him out. Lawrence Katsidis (F304) had three fifths, twice ahead of Rodney Baker (F301) who finished with a broken wing in the second, and once ahead of Glenn Lynch (F397).

Image: Maximum Action Photography

SUPERKARTS THREE WINS went to Lee Vella with Paul Campbell the other winner.

Fellow 125cc Gearbox pilot Sam Zavaglia (Stockman) finished with three seconds while Mark Robin was next best. Of the non-gearbox karts, Stuart Robertson scored first before Mark Vickers (Woodgate) headed the next three races.

Garry O’Brien

Gotch & Gotch Ltd lead the Formula Cars pack ...

Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

Image: Maximum Action Photography:

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Images: Mick Oliver

TWILIGHT START AT WANNEROO

THE SEASON IN THE WEST BEGAN WITH A TWO-DAYER AT WANNEROO ON FEBRUARY 26-27. SATURDAY WENT INTO THE TWILIGHT WITH SEVERAL CATEGORIES, WHILE THE REST PLAYED ON SUNDAY. In the 1200s, Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) led all the way for the first race win. April Welsh (Jacer) made up many places and took second ahead of Myles Lockett (Ajay). Scarey led the second outing early before he pulled off with electrical problems. Welsh led, only to surrender to Callum Lamont (Polar) who won as Lockett held third. Lamont led Race 3 followed by Welsh and Campbell. Scarey grabbed the lead after Lockett retired and won from Welsh and Lockett.

Mitic and Kluck hard at it in Street Cars ...

HQ HOLDENS IN A small turnout, Denis Russell took the first win narrowly from Ryan Davis and Todd Forknall. Davis won the second from Forknall and Phil Breen before Russell scored the last in the same manner as the first.

Doesn’t matter where you are, Hyundai Excels provide close action ...

STREET CARS/IMPROVED PRODUCTION RACE 1 saw Paul Kluck (Nissan Skyline R32) get the jump only to lose the lead to Shawn Mulquiney (Skyline R33) who won from Kluck with Drew Watkins (Nissan 180SX).

Mulquiney didn’t show for the next two races which saw Kluck win Race 2 from Watkins and Allan Hastie (Nissan Pulsar) and Race 3 from Hastie.

In Improved Production, Nik Mitic (BMW E34 M3) won from Michael Sciorio (Subaru Impreza STi) and John Callegari (Holden Commodore).

Sciorio get the jump in Race 2, but Mitic came back, took the lead and triumphed over Callegari and Sciorio. It was a repeat scenario in the third before Callegari slowly closed on Sciorio managed to take second.

SPORTS CARS/SPORTS SEDANS IN HIS Audi LMS Evo, Arthur Abrahams (pictured, top) dominated. In the first he won clear of Daniel Gonzalez (Audi) with Tim Wolfe (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) third. Brettt

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Niall (TA2 Camaro) was next ahead of Andy Tudor (Porsche) and Anthony Gard (Ginetta G50). Ryan Humfrey (Falcon/Chev) finished laps down after he pitted for attention on the warm up lap. Race 2 saw Abrahams lead throughout. Gonzalez retired early before Humfrey finished second from Wolfe, Niall and Gard.

FORMULA VEES RACE 1 set the scene for the day’s racing in the 1600s with David Caisley (Jacer) leading with Danny Cerro (Sabre) on his tailpipe.

Franz Esterbauer (Jacer) moved up through from a low grid position to close on the leaders. Caisley held onto take the win from Cerro and Esterbauer.

The next race saw Caisley and Esterbauer open a small gap and head Cerro and McKenzie Matthews (Jacer) to the flag. In Race 3 Esterbauer led at times, but Caisley was leading when it mattered as Matthews gained the upper hand over Cerro for third.

EXCELS IN THE first outing Brett Sherriff held the lead all race long. Robert Landsmeer moved into second early and held on to the finish.

Harrison Douglas and Jake Passaris, who were relegated to rear at the start, moved through to take third and fourth.

Race 2 saw Sherriff as the early leader until Douglas moved into the lead and held them off to the finish. Sherriff had to settle for second with Landsmeer third. Sherriff again took the front running in the last. Again Douglas was able to get by, but not for long as Sherriff repassed him and won from Douglas, Landsmeer and Jack Clohessy.

FSR ELLIOTT SCHUTTE held out the fastcharging Adam Lisle to take the first race win with Brad Russell third in a Radicaldominated field. Lisle turned the table on Schutte in the second with Burns third in the lone Phoenix F1K. Race 3 promised another engrossing tussle until Lisle lost it at Turn 7 on lap one. Schutte went on to take the win from Burns and Joseph Bergic.

SALOONS CARS IN THE PRO class, Ford Falcon drivers took the wins. Robert Marcon and Mason Harvey

were able to edge away in Race 1 and battled until Harvey made a successful move at Turn 7 on the final lap and was through. Marcon went wide, and Grant Johnson (Holden Commodore) who had been gradually catching them, nabbed second while Rick Gill (Falcon) was also through.

In Race 2, Johnson led until ultimately passed by Marcon. Harvey retired and Chase Hoy (Commodore) moved to third but he and Vince Ciallella (Commodore) copped penalties and Brock Ralph (Commodore) benefitted. In Race 3 Marcon beat Johnson by a narrow with Hoy third.

In PRO-AM for the older models, Race 1 went to Michael Koberstein (Commodore) from Falcon drivers Neil Streetfield and Shane Eather. Garry Hills (Commodore) led home the red flag interrupted second race before a 30s penalty was dished out. Koberstein was the winner from Nicholas Lorkin and Warren Ellis in Holdens. Race 3 went to Koberstein from Lorkin and Hills.

FREE FORMULA IN HIS first race in a Ralt RT4, Daniel Gates won two out of two but didn’t start the last. In Race 1 he led Terry Nielsen (RT4) and Simon Alderson (Van Diemen FF2000). Nielsen retired from Race 2 where Alderson was second from Craig Thompson (Van Diemen RF82). In the last it was Alderson from William Norman (Ralt RT4) and Thompson.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS IT WAS a three-peat for Clinton Rayner (Chev Camaro) who opened up opened a massive gap on the rest in Race 1. Graeme Woolhouse (Ford Mustang) and Greg Barr (Holden Torana XU-1) fought out the minors where the latter won out until penalised for a jumped start which elevated Woolhouse and John Bondi (Holden Monaro).

Rayner repeated the exercise in Race 2 ahead Woolhouse and a hard-fought tussle Bondi and Barr which was resolved when Bondi retired. Rayner won the third in the same way. Woolhouse again led Barr until mid-race when he retired, and Stuart Young (Torana) was third. Mick Oliver

300 THROWS UP SURPRISE THE SIXTEENTH Wakefield 300 produced a stunning win for Daniel Kapetanovic and Adam Thompson (right) in their Class B BMW 328i on February 20. The duo started 16th on the grid, took the lead on lap 80 of the 137 duration, executed their mandatory 5m pitstop later than anyone, and won by 32.1s.

Second went to Lloyd Godfrey and Josh Buchan (Class A Honda Integra).

They looked to run down the leader until slowed by a broken trailing arm and a rear brake failure. Third were Zac and David Raddatz who were lucky to continue after their Class B Mazda MX5 spun on oil left when Pawel Faber’s engine blew. The MX5 suffered rear end damage when it collided with the stranded Class A Honda Civic.

Raddatz was able to pit to make repairs.

The pacesetter was the Benny and Jimmy Tran Integra which led until their first pitstop. But at the second stop (2.5min for Class A) the manual re-fuel pump failed, and they had to borrow one. They fought back to second before a broken gearbox.

Fourth were Anthony Soole and Adam Burgess (Class A BMW M4). They finished ahead of Class C rivals Charlie Viola and Ben Hanrahan (Class C Integra) and Jamie Martin and Mike Kelsey (MX5).

Next were two team Toyota 86s with Aaren Russell and Liam Ferry just over 20s ahead of Drew and Wayne Russell. Ninth went to Tony and Troy Heasly (Holden Commodore) ahead of David Johnson and Martyn Voormeulen (MX5).

PULSARS THE BIG 36-car entry was headed by Josh Craig who topped qualifying and won all four races with Harry Inwood a close second in each.

In Race 1 Ben Sheedy maintained third ahead of Dimitri Agathos while Beau Pronesti lost out Gavan Reynolds, Dan Smith and Jamie Craig. Sheedy was second in the next from Smith, Reynolds and Agathos who lost spots on the final lap with gearbox issues.

While Josh Craig continued to soak up the Inwood pressure in Race 3, Smith jumped Sheedy and place third. Reynolds passed Sheedy on the second lap but dropped away later as Jamie Craig filled fifth in front of Pronesti and Shane Tate.

Smith also took third in the last. Jamie Craig was next from Will Foot, Greg Dufficy and Sheedy while Reynolds was an early melee casualty Turn 2, and Tate went out with a broken throttle linkage.

LEGEND CARS WITH FOUR wins, Lachlan Ward took the overall honours ahead of Josh Hourigan and Shane Tate. In each, Ward had his work cut out as Brendon Hourigan challenged and led him on several occasions.

Race 3 was a race where Josh Hourigan managed to hold off the two for a win.

Brendon Hourigan looked assured of second overall until his car expired in the final. Josh Hourigan finished second overall with Shane Tate the best of the rest.

ALFA VELOCE BEATEN IN the first race, Michael Musumeci (Alfa Romeo GT) won the next three. He lost the first to Robert Seritti (GTV6) and Graham Gulson (Guilia Sprint) after he led initially.

In the second outing, Musumeci beat Seritti while Gulson was third clear of Alfio

Musumeci (GTV). It was close between Michael Musumeci and Seritti in Race 3 with the former ahead by 0.5s. Alfio Musumeci was third across the line before a 30s penalty relegated him behind Gulson.

The Musumecis were first and second in the last with Seritti clear of Gulson.

CLUBMANS WINS WERE going with Chris Barry (PRB Composite) until he dropped out of the last. That gave the third race and the overall result to Stuart Shirvington (PRB Birkin S3). They each had the lead in race one before Barry prevailed. Ron Hammond (Debron RH75) was third. Race 2 ended behind the Safety Car with Barry ahead of Shirvington Graham Robertson (Locost) third. Behind Shirvington in the last came Hammond and Don Collyer (Caterham 7).

Garry O’Brien

THE VICTORIAN STATE RACE SERIES ROUND 2 - WINTON

MARCH 26-27

Presented by the Victorian State Race Series • Formula Ford • Formula Vee • Historic Touring Cars • HQ Holden • Hyundai Excel • Improved Production

Fantastic entries across many categories including the first round of the Formula Ford Nationals.

• BMW E30 • MG / Invited British Sport Cars • Porsche 944 Challenge • Saloon Cars • Sports Cars • Sports Sedan

Spectators will be well catered for with access to the paddock.

As per the Government regulations everyone entering the venue must be able to prove their double vaccination status.

• Round 3 Phillip Island May 14-15 • Round 4 Sandown August 12-14 • Round 5 Phillip Island September 23-25

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NATIONALS WRAP

Image: Kevin Wilson

ACKLAND PIPS MAHON AT BRYANT PARK BRYANT PARK, the venue for the second round of the Eziup & Go Victorian Hillclimb Championship, on February 19, produced a close result with Greg Ackland (pictured) beating the reigning champion by 0.07s on the clockwise layout.

After he missed the first round, and at the helm of his turbocharged Kawasaki powered

Ninja GA81 Formula Libre up to 2.0 litre, Ackland produced a 47.06s on his first run. Despite his best effort of 47.13s on his third run, first round winner David Mahon (F/L up to 1.3 litre Dallara/ Hayabusa) could not better the benchmark.

Third, and second in class, to Mahon was Alan Foley in his R.Foley with a 49.41s, 2.35s off the fastest time. Mike Barker (Hayward 06)

was next ahead of Ewen Moile (Ramblebee Mk8) and Wim Janssen (Wimp 003).

Behind the Formula Libres in seventh spot was Mirko Grbic in his Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO. He ran a 52.57 on his final run and broke his own class lap record set in 2018.

More noteworthy was that the time is a new tin top record. It was previously held by Kevin

Mackrell in his Chev V8 4WD Datsun 260Z set in 2010 and Grbic topped it by 0.17s.

The next two cars of the 36 that competed were from Clubman Sports up to 1.6 litre, where Colin Newitt (Locost) had 0.5s over Steven Buffinton (Westfield Clubman) while 10th place went to David Casey in his F/L Casey CR1. Garry O’Brien

TWILIGHT START TO SEASON FOR SA A PRECURSOR to the state championship opener later this month was the Sporting Car Club of South Australia’s Twilight Trophy Meeting at Mallala Motorsport Park on February 19. It featured three race categories, Supersprint sessions and the return of SA Time Attack.

In his Elfin 400, Mark Goldsmith passed Blake Miller (Elfin 640B) on the last lap to take out Race 1. Third went to Michael Clarke (Farrell FAB1) just in front of Formula Vee driver Adam Newton (Sabre 02). After Goldsmith led Race 2 early, Miller went on pass him and win while Newton beat Clarke for third.

Miller continued his winning form through Races 3 and 4, where Goldsmith was again second in Race 3 before the engine let go in the last, deposited a lot of oil and brought out the Safety Car. Clarke finished behind Newton in the third encounter but beat him for second in the last.

In Historic Touring Cars, Josh Axford took the overall honours with three wins and a

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Axford (Escort) leads Burton (Falcon) in Historic Touring Cars. Image: John Lemm second in his Ford Escort Twin Cam. Kym Burton (Ford Falcon XY GT) won the first race ahead of Axford and the Mazda RX2 pair of Kirk and Geoff Davis.

Burton led race two when the Ford dumped coolant and spun at Turn 1 which resulted in a Safety Car. Behind Axford, Kirk Davis was second in front of Richard

Harris (Morris Cooper S) and Geoff Davis.

In Races 3 and 4 it was Axford, Kirk and Geoff Davis, then Harris. Burton made it back for the last but overheating put him out.

The third category was a combination of sedans, where James Jaeschke was unbeaten in his Holden Commodore VY Saloon Car. Joel Johnson (Hyundai Excel) finished second in the four races as Anthony Whitehair was third in the first before Cruz Frost (Excel) was too good for the HQ Holden driver in the others.

Fastest in the Supersprints was Matt Firth (Datsun 240Z) who topped the times ahead of Sam Young (Nissan 350 GT). There were four classes of Time Attack with quickest overall being the Invited Ian Wilson (TVR Tuscan). Second and Open class winner was Dan Day (Subaru Impreza WRX STi), Clubsport went to Zexuan Gong (Mitsubishi Lancer), Jordan Rohrlach (WRXi won Club R, and Ben Rohrlach (Volkswagen Golf R) scored Street. Garry O’Brien

A CLIMBING BREAKTHROUGH DARREN ANDERSON (pictured) ended a 30-year drought on his home course on February 19, when he won the first round of the Tasmanian Hillclimb Cup, the Must Love Cars Highclere Hillclimb.

Driving his Mazda RX-7, Anderson posted his fastest time of the day on his sixth and final run to take the victory and series lead. It was a Mazda quinella as well, with reigning series champion Nathan Oliver (Mazda RX8), the second fastest, 0.21s slower than Anderson on his fifth run.

In a tight battle at the top, veteran Igor Van Gerwen claimed third outright, only 0.18 secs behind Oliver in his Toyota Celica GT Four, with his quickest pass on run four. Tyler Page (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti), who was expected to challenge, struggled with engine issues early and was forced to retire before the second run.

Gerwen won class F (AWD vehicles). In his Nissan 200SX Brad van der Drift was the fastest in Class D (3.0-4.5 litres), with a solid eighth outright. Meanwhile veteran Adrian Hodgetts in his ageing Datsun 240Z, put his 30-plus years hillcliming at Highclere knowledge to good use, and took out Class C (2.0-3.0 litres) and finished an impressive 12th overall.

Tim Bonefin (Honda Integra Type R), arguably the most improved driver in hillclimb last year, was finally rewarded with an elusive win in Class B (1.6-2.0 litres).

He dominated his class by almost 3.0s and finished Image: DMAC Photography 17th outright. In Class A (under 1.6 litres) Shane capacity field of 37 starters.

Hawley scored the win in only his Anderson’s outright win also gave second hillclimb, in a deceptively quick him Class E honours for cars with Toyota Corolla and was classified 27th engines over 4.5 litres, while Van outright. Martin Agatyn

The event, staged by the North West Car Club, which was also the opening round of the club’s Monsons Transport Black Tack Series, attracted a near-

WA RALLYSPRINT SET FOR CLOSE FINISH THE POINTS are tight in the Shannons Targa Rallysprint after round four at the Perth Motorplex on February 24 where Steve Jones and Jacob Zurzolo (pictured) were the fastest overall in their Mitsubishi EVO X. Staged on the clockwise 3.38km course, their four-run accumulation time was 8mins 56.69s which was well less, than the second placed EVO X shared by David Heaton and Caleb Ash. Third place for the second round in a row were Paul and Katie Oxley (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) and that moved them to second in the points, only two behind the leaders.

Their time was just 0.7s ahead of Mark Cirillo and Bryce Moore (Porsche GT3 RS)

and points leaders Matt James-Wallace and Ben Tuck in their Nissan Skyline GTR R32.

Sixth of the 74 entries were Jurgen and Helen Lunsmann (Tesla Model 3P+) in front of Will White and Matt Thompson (Nissan GTR Nismo), third in the points Matt Palmer and Geoff Weir (EVO 7), Dan Gonzalez and Tim Miles (Porsche 911 GT3, and James Lister and Steph Esterbauer (WRX).

In Targa Cup, the Lunsmanns hold a three-point advantage over Cirillo with Chris Caruso (Dodge Viper ACR) among the drivers, and lead the navigators ahead of Alex Butler and Thompson with one round to go. Garry O’Brien

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SPEEDWAY NEWS

Images: Richard Hathaway and James Cochrane.

KENDRICK CLAIMS WIN #8 THE PERTH Motorplex fired into action with the running of The Mr Sprintcar Alf Barbagallo 77, a race created to honour the 6-time Western Australian Champion and the inaugural round winner of World Series Sprintcars at the Claremont Speedway in 1987.

With 20 Sprintcars assembled in the pit area, 19 of them had their targets set firmly on Jason Kendrick, who to this point had won an impressive seven rounds as they entered the 13th round of the 2021-22 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series.

The marathon 35-lap main event would see Dayne Kingshott claim Pole Position, continuing his strong run after setting the quickest time in Time Trials and the Pole Shootout. Alongside was Daniel Harding.

As the lights blazed green Kingshott led but, further back in the field, all hell broke loose when Trent Pigdon tagged the rear of the Kendrick entry, sling shotting the W19 violently into the wall (pictured right), and bouncing across the W26 entry of James Ingliss before coming to a stop on the back straight. Trent was assessed by the medical crew before being taken to hospital with a fractured right shoulder and possibly concussion. Ingliss had his car repaired during the stoppage and was able to take the complete restart.

Again, Kingshott charged from the front.

Harding settled in behind, while the mover was Callum Williamson, launching from sixth to third. Kendrick had also started his journey forward from eighth. With just six laps down the leaders began picking off the first of the lapped traffic, Rod Howe the first car to go down a lap.

Williamson moved to second and Harding remained in striking distance. With 20 to go Williamson had a crack for the lead, showing his nose exiting Turn 4 – however Kingshott

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SPEEDWAY NEWS with Paris Charles held sway even when confronted by the spinning Ryan Lancaster. Thankfully Lancaster was able to regather and continue without hindering the leader – however Harding would divert his line, brushing the Turn 2 wall, allowing Kendrick into third.

Kingshott stretched his lead and looked to be in command until he reached the back of slower traffic. With eight to go, he tried to negotiate his way through, only to tangle with Jaydee Dack and come to a stop. Dack would retire while Kingshott managed to re-join from the rear with a wounded car.

Williamson led the Indian file restart, but Kendrick would swoop to the front and Harding followed him through to second.

Williamson then had his hands full as Brad Maiolo and Taylor Milling entered the fray.

Kendrick powered home to record his eighth feature victory of the season followed to the line by Harding and Milling. Maiolo was fourth from Kris Coyle, Williamson, Inglis, Shaun Bradford, Mitchell Wormall, Jason Pryde, Lancaster, Trevor Jolly, AJ Nash, and Kingshott, while Howe rounded out the field. In addition to Pigden and Dack, Jarrin Bielby, Matthew Cross and David Priolo in the Alf Barbagallo tribute car did not travel the journey.

Heat wins went to Kendrick and Bradford.

The Mid Track Dash to Pryde and the Back Pack Dash claimed by Coyle.

Tim Boujos made his mark on the Limited Sprintcars, taking the 15-lap feature, Craig Bottrell and Trystan Caley rounding out the podium. Kaiden Manders proved to be the fastest amongst a strong field of Speedcars – following him to the finish in The Pool Shop Group feature was Keenan Fleming and Tom Payet. Daran Humfrey found himself the meat in an Iwanow Sandwich as Blake claimed the win while the reigning WA champion in Matt was third in the 15-lap

Wingless Sprint main event.

Brent Vosbergen proved unstoppable, leading the entire 30-lap journey for the Late Models.

Joe Chalmers snared second after a thrilling battle with Jay Cardy who completed the podium. Jamie Oldfield, Michael Holmes, Jason Oldfield, Freddy Kinsella, Veronica McCann, Luke Halliday, Warren Minshull, Damian Hudson, Pat Van Brakel and Shaun Cubbage rounded out the finishers while failing to travel the journey was Nathan Richards, Warren Oldfield, Kodee Brown and Peter Mewett.

Chalmers, Vosbergen, McCann and Holmes claimed the heats.

HOT HARPER RISES TO THE FIREBALL CHALLENGE THE SUPER Sedan Fireball Derby has long been regarded as a prestigious race in the staple of the South Australian Super Sedan scene but has been in hiatus over the last few seasons after the closure of Adelaide Motorsport Park at the end of the 2018 season. The South Australian Super Sedan Club has worked diligently to reintroduce the event and was able to do so recently at the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway, rebranded as the Super Sedan Fire Ball Challenge.

Despite the name change and reducing the feature race from 40 to 30 laps, the event was well supported with competitors coming from far and wide. With the field divided into two groups for the six heat races, Tasmanian Callum Harper would claim pole position for the feature after remaining undefeated in his three heat races while Mick Nicola Jr, Kym Jury and Mitchell Rigney would also claim single 10lap heat wins.

Sharing the front row with Harper was the reigning South Australian champion in Nicola Jr; the second row consisted of Tyson Moon and Jamie Collins, before the first of the South Aussies, in Kym Jury, would start from fifth position.

At the drop of the green, Nicola Jr would pounce to lead as the rest of the field hustled for position. Moon and Collins touched in Turn 4, relegating Collins to fifth as Paul Blenkiron swooped into fourth.

Blenkiron’s run would soon start to unravel and on lap 10 he would retire the S22 Penrite Dominator to the infield as the lead duo negotiated their way past the first of the

slower traffic in Danny Smith.

The race proved frantic at the front as the lead duo negotiated further lapped traffic and, around the halfway mark, Harper would have his first crack at taking charge as Nicola Jr was hampered by Neville Nitschke.

Nicola would continue to lead but, on the next lap, Harper would slide by to take the lead. Nicola battled back, at times getting up alongside of Harper ,but was unsuccessful in his quest to regain the lead. From this point forward Harper would take control of the race until the yellow lights would blaze when Mitchell Rigney spun in turn two.

With the field stacked in Indian file, Harper would make the most of the clear track ahead and go on to find the fastest way to cover the remaining eight laps on his way to greeting the chequered flag and keeping his undefeated streak for evening in perfect shape aboard the Wyllie Tyles/Melbourne Performance Centre T22 Bandit.

Nicola Jr held on for second with New South Welshman Tyson Moon having a lonely run for the most part as he crossed the line to round off the podium. Collins and Jury would finish as they started the journey, in fourth and fifth respectively, while the lapped cars of Nitschke, Rigney and Smith would round out the finishers. Shane Lambe was a late retiree, joining Blenkiron on the infield while Victorian Ash Bergmeier and local racer Sarah Pope failed to start the feature race after suffering mechanical issues in the earlier heat races.

The main support class on the evening was the V6 Sprints, who were present for the running of the South Australian

Nick Hall – SA V6 Sprint Champion.

Championship. After the two heats were run and done, Damien Eve and Nick Hall shared maximum points to line up on the front row for the 20-lap feature race – Eve would be awarded the prime position after claiming the top six pole shuffle.

At the drop of the green, Eve made the best of his inside starting position to lead the field away, while further back in the field trouble soon presented for Toby McCarthy and John Pfeiler who would both retire on the opening lap. On the third lap, Hall pounced under Eve and took control of the race to go on and successfully defend his state mantle over Eve. Joining the duo on the podium was Chris Quinton. Darryl Barkla, Renee Pfeiler and Kym Simon rounded off the top half dozen.

Whyalla’s Jordan Grillett failed to go the distance – after spinning twice in the race, he was sent to the infield by the Chief Steward, while the luckless John Mackenzie failed to start the feature after succumbing

to mechanical issues in the second heat.

In the other feature events, Rhys Heinrich stood the tallest over 35 other Wingless Sprint competitors. The runner-up position went to the reigning South Australian Champion, Tyson Martin and Jack McCarthy was third.

A trio of Victorians filled the Speedcar podium, Nick Parker leading home Andy Pearce and Matt Jackson. Brendan Zadow, Angus Hollis and Dean Cottrell proved the best of the Formula 500 division.

The AMCA Nationals made a welcomed return, and it was Jake Armstrong, Darren ‘Plugga’ McCarthy and John Stumann sharing the winner’s circle. The experienced Craig Buchannan drove his BBS Bin Commodore to Victory Lane in the Street Stocks followed Drew Flatman and Aaron Tyler. Aaron Tranter was the strongest in the Junior Sedan feature; rounding off the podium was Ky McEwin and Lucas Warnett.

Tasmanian Callum Harper (Super Sedans) Images: Ray Ritter.

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SPEEDWAY NEWS RACIN’ IN THE BASIN – COUNTRY SPEEDWAY AT ITS VERY BEST IF THERE was ever a home for Australian grassroots Speedway racing it would, without doubt, be the Daylesford Speedway. The Victorian country venue is best described as one of the most unique and true-blue Aussie clubs, neatly nestled at the bottom of a winding basin road with towering gum trees lining the perimeter of the boundary. The track fence is calved out of the dirt, with vegetation surrounding the track, and spectators park their cars down the back straight and around the top end of the track, looking down on the close-up action.

The exciting Crash N’ Bash class headlined a huge two day extravaganza of multiple Speedway Sedan classes that included Crash & Bash Mens, Crash & Bash Womens, Modified Sedans, Daylesford Juniors, Street Stocks, Daylesford Ladies, VSC Standard Saloons, VSC 1200 Junior Sedans and the grand Ace of Spades classic Speedway Rods of yesteryear, turning back the hands of time as they threw the dirt into the air.

With 23 competitors nominated in the open Crash N’ Bash, the drivers and their fearless passengers smashed their way through the added dogleg section of the track.

While the section provided plenty of excitement the racing was marred by a serious crash on the Saturday when Richard Lewandowski barrel-rolled the Pakenham Radiators supported 422 Falcon down the front straight after hitting the wall coming out of the corner, leaving him with a cracked

The Crash & Bash Men’s field launch into action. Image: Paris Charles Scapula bone and his passenger Kayla Taranto seriously injured with three breaks in her arm. We are glad to report at time of writing that both are comfortable and on the road to recovery.

The feature race provided many thrills and spills and race leaders along the journey. Mark Hebblethwaite was the early race leader until being black flagged on the sixth lap when the bonnet was dislodged from his Falcon.

Bradley Trainor was next to lead, but his reign at the front would soon end after suffering with a flat right tyre, second-placed

runner Daniel Kettels also retiring with a broken tie rod end. Jarrod Hughes inherited the lead from this point and remained at the pointy end to greet the chequered flag over Steve Mitchell, Clint Robinson, and Leon Argent, with Jaydan Taylor rounding out the top five finishers.

The Crash & Bash Women proved every bit as exciting, as they scrapped over every inch of the journey to the finish line. Kath HouseGeorge claimed the victory; rounding out the top five was Laura Crane, Danni Marshall, Taylah Hughes and Nikki Sonnet.

The Victorian Speedway Council Standard Saloons final was claimed by Tim Hutchinson with Dean Pederson making it a Daylesford one-two at the finish. Bailey Sinclair, Rick Stowe and Andrew Cormack completed the top five.

Arthur Hutchinson proved to be the standout of the 11 competitors in the VSC Junior 1200cc field, going undefeated over the weekend to claim all the heats and the Bunyip Motors supported feature. Bryce Leek pressed him over the journey but would have to settle for second with Riley Taylor in third, Xander Baxter and Ella Sheedy filling the top five positions.

The Street Stocks feature went to Jhon Baker in the Falcon, from Chris Hay, the experienced Des Robinson third, with Stephen Brook, and Dylan Reeves rounding out the first five home.

Daylesford Drivers Association classes were all in action for the weekend. Luke Humphrey claimed the win from Kakoschke boys in Reece and Coby, Ricky-Lee Basten and Jayden Humphrey in the Modifieds. Katie Meyer is the Queen of the scene in the Ladies Sedans class, backing her previous meeting’s results with another victory; filling the top five were Richelle Jenner, Charmaine Bryans, Marlena Argent and Chloe Graham.

Bailey Kakoschke looks set for a bright future after claiming the Daylesford Juniors feature; the next four to cross the line were Rhys Meakins, Charlee Baker, Peyton Edwards-Daly and Peppa Bannon.

Paris Charles

AJ = A1 x 3 THE NYORA Raceway played host to the 2022 R&K Alignments and Exhausts presented Australian Lightning Sprint title. The 40th running of this prestigious event had 17 competitors converging on the small Victorian town, with teams representing Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Defending champion AJ McTaggart went into the event as the red hot favourite, having gone back-toback and shooting for a three-peat over a four year period with a Covid affected season in between. True to form, AJ topped the timing sheets, posting a 14.116 in qualifying and after the heats were run, he would

sit on Pole Position for the 25-lap featured event alongside 16-year-old sensation Harley Graham.

From the drop of the green, AJ would lead the entire journey to claim his third Australian A1 crown. Sharing the podium was Queensland’s Keith Blatch, who successfully passed Graham on the final lap for the runner-up position. Jordan Binskin and Victorian Michael Conway rounded out the top five. Matt Reed, Pete Styles, Scott Moir, Andrew Burleigh and Andrew Kimm finished on the lead lap with Maureen Sell the last to greet the chequered flag – Kyle Thomas, Ally Moore and Scott Withers all retirees.

Former national Champion Scott Withers won the opening 10-lap heat race while the remainder were shared by Harley Graham, Pete Styles, Danny Stone, Blatch and McTaggart. Paris Charles

SA Champion Angel Karousis. Image: Ray Ritter

Australia #1 AJ McTaggart.

Image: Louise Norman-Napier

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KAROUSIS CLAIMS BACKTO-BACK SA TITLES ANGELO KAROUSIS commanded a flag-to-flag victory to claim the 2022 South Australian Formula 500 Title at Waikerie’s Sunline Speedway; rounding the podium was Richard Schmidt, Nathan O’Shea and Brendan Zadow. Pole-sitter Ben Cooper rode out a nasty crash while holding down second place when a steering component failed going down the front straight. Michael Wise, Dean Cottrell, Ryan Harry and Simon Reichelt completed the finishers.

Heat winners were Reichelt, Schmidt and Zadow. Paris Charles

Images: Motorsport Images

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6. How many English drivers are on the grid this year?

7. Singapore returns to the calendar in 2022; who was the last driver to win at the venue in 2019? (surname) 9. George Russell joins Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this season – how many F1 podiums has he scored to date?

10. What number car will Guanyu Zhou race with?

12. What number car does Charles Leclerc race?

16. Honda pulled out the sport at the end of 2021, but how many teams will run its engine this year?

18. What country will host the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship?

22. In what country will the final round of the Formula 1 season take place?

23. Who is the Thai driver in the middle image above? (surname) 25. Pre-season testing occurred in two countries. Bahrain was one; where did the other three-day test take place?

26. Australian Oscar Piastri is the reserve driver of which Formula 1 team?

27. Who was the sole first-time Formula 1 race winner last year? (surname) 28. Who will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2022? (surname)

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10. The 2022 Formula 1 season will be the longest in history, how many rounds are scheduled?

11. What number will Max Verstappen run on his Red Bull in 2022?

13. How many French F1 drivers are there in 2022?

14. Who is the only rookie on the grid this year? (surname) 15. The Australian Grand Prix returns in 2022; what round number is the event?

17. Alex Albon returns this year – with which team will he drive?

19. Valtteri Bottas has moved from Mercedes to what F1 team in 2022?

20. How many F1 Drivers’ World Championships have been won collectively on the grid this year?

21. In what country will the opening Formula 1 round take place in 2022?

24. How many teams are in Formula 1 this year?

26. The BWT-sponsored car (pictured above) is fielded by which team?

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9. George Russell in shot C joins Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this season, how many F1 podiums has he scored to date?

10. What number car will Guanyu Zhou race with?

12. What number car does Charles Leclerc race?

16. Honda pulled out the sport at the end of 2021, but how many teams will run its engine this year?

18. What country will host the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship?

22. In what country will the final round of the Formula 1 season take place?

23. Who is the Thai driver in shot in photo B? (surname) 25. Pre-season testing occurred in two countries, Bahrain was one, where did the other three-day test take place?

26. Australian Oscar Piastri is the reserve driver of which Formula 1 team?

27. Who was the sole first-time Formula 1 race winner last year? (surname) 28. Who will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2022? (surname)

1972: GRAHAM McRAE won the 1971/72 Tasman Series after taking victory at Sandown Park, but suffered an engine failure the following week in Adelaide. The race in Adelaide will be remembered as the event at which Frank Gardner announced his retirement from open-wheel racing. John Goss won the Tasman Touring Car Championship, finishing second behind Allan Moffat.

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be held?

4. How many F1 drivers have won F1 races from the current grid?

5. With Kimi Raikkonen retiring at the end of last season, who is the most experienced driver on the grid? (surname) 8. How many races has Max Verstappen won in his F1 career to date?

10. The 2022 Formula 1 season will be the longest in history, how many rounds are scheduled to run?

11. What number will Max Verstappen run on his Red Bull in 2022?

13. How many French F1 drivers are there in 2022?

14. Who is the only rookie on the grid this year? (surname) 15. The Australian Grand Prix returns in 2022, what round number is the event?

17. Alex Albon returns this year, with which team will he drive?

19. Valtteri Bottas has moved from Mercedes to what F1 team in 2022?

20. How many F1 Drivers’ World Championships have been won collectively on the grid this year?

21. In what country will the opening Formula 1 round take place in 2022?

24. How many teams are in Formula 1 this year?

26. The car is shot A is fielded by which team?

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1982: PETER BROCK won the Australian Touring Car round at Symmons Plains and in doing so took the championship lead from his rival Dick Johnson – however the Holden Dealer Team Commodore was under investigation from the stewards. At Calder the infamous ‘Brock Heads’ had been fitted, delivering more power, so the car came under scrutiny at Symmons Plains.

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1992: THE AUSTRALIAN Touring Car Championship event at Amaroo in 1992 was marred by sound. Incredibly, across multiple categories, cars were disqualified for exceeding the maximum allowable noise limits for the circuit. Tony Longhurst, John Blanchard and Des Wall were all disqualified and furious about the decision. The ATCC round itself, was dominated by the Nissan Skylines.

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2002: THE 2002 Australian Grand Prix will go down as one of the most famous held at Albert Park – firstly, for the aerial first corner crash when Ralf Schumacher rode up the back of Rubens Barrichello. However, it was Australia’s Mark Webber on debut who stole the show.

Driving for Minardi, he did not put a foot wrong, finishing fifth and was given permission to stand on the podium. alongside Paul Stoddart.

2012: IN 2012 rumours were beginning to flow around the paddock that the then reigning champion Jamie Whincup may have been headed to NASCAR in 2013. This however did not come to fruition. Whincup not only won the 2012 title, but would claim a further three beyond that. It was also understood that the 250km races in Adelaide races would be held at night in a bid to retain its season opening status.

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IN THE GARAGE

MORE BANG FOR THE BRZ BUCK MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE SECOND-GENERATION SUBARU

A COMEBACK Countach has renewed and revitalised the poster car of the 1980s.

Lamborghini has done the job to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ever Countach prototype, back in 1971.

The all-new Countach is called the LPI 800-4 and it is expected to star once again with a new generation of fans.

Lamborghini has given no details of pricing, instead concentrating on the output of the 6.5-litre V12 engine and the 48-volt hybrid package that adds extra kick but also makes the car clean enough for low-emission cities in Europe.

The output is a total of 607 kiloWatts, or 814 horsepower, with the combustion engine donating 580 to the party.

Only 112 cars are being built, a tie-up to the LP 112 project name for the original Countach, and every one has already been sold, with deliveries expected to start soon.

THE MAN who gave the world the McLaren F1 has done it again.

Gordon Murray, who also starred as a grand prix car designer with Brabham and McLaren, has created a sellout 21st century supercar called the T.33 It follows the T.50 and a competition T.50 called the Senna with, at its heart, a super-special screaming V12 engine from Cosworth.

The T.33 from Gordon Murray Automotive is already a sellout, despite a price-tag of more than $2.5 million and no deliveries until 2024, with all 100 cars pre-sold.

It is described by Murray as “the world’s most accomplished allround two-seater V12 supercar”.

AFTER ENDLESS talk about the return of the Mitsubishi Evo, the company has finally given the world a taste of the future.

But it’s nothing like the Lancer Evo of the past.

Instead, the SUV takeover has claimed the future of Ralliart.

So the big unveiling of the new performance hero car is built around the latest Outlander.

The Vision Ralliart Concept is promised with “elevated acceleration, cornering and braking in all road and weather conditions”.

But it’s still an Outlander under the skin, despite extra power from its combustion engine and boosted battery capacity, along with bolder body bits and 22-inch alloys.

So don’t expect any return to the World Rally Championship, although fans of go-faster cars with the three-diamonds badge on the nose are promised that the Ralliart DNA will be used “in future development of Mitsubishi vehicles”.

64 I www.autoaction.com.au

IF YOU want some driving fun and, but you don’t want to bust the budget, the second-generation Subaru BRZ could be right on the money.

There are small but worthwhile improvements to a car that was an instant hit, as the BRZ and its Toyota twin the 86, from the moment the flag dropped.

Best is the addition of some worthwhile extra torque, as well as a tauter chassis, which combine to make the BRZ into the sweetest and most responsible little funster I’ve driven in a long time.

It’s not a Porsche, but for the money it’s tough to toss.

The first shipment of BRZs is already sold, all 500 of them, and there is a waiting list for later in the year.

But it could still be quicker and easier to get a $38,990 BRZ, or the most-popular S model at $40,190 with things like suede seats, than join the queue for the next 86. Lots of people also prefer the styling of the BRZ, and there is something about the deep blue paintwork.

Even so, the BRZ is no WRX. There is no turbo boost out of corners and the engine note is – being very generous – underwhelming. My son, 12, thinks it’s awful.

But that’s about it for complaints.

The update to the BRZ has brought the mechanical improvements but also a bigger, and much needed, infotainment screen and even a folding lid – with a leather top in the BRZ S test car – for the centre console.

There is even a full-sized alloy spare in the boot. And that’s unlikely to come in the 86.

From the get-go, the new BRZ gets going with more urgency. It’s picked up an extra 22 kiloWatts, which is a

worthwhile boost in a 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated car that peaks at 174, but it’s the torque that transforms the car.

The original BRZ – and the 86 – was flat and dull in a straight-line sprint, with a noticeable lack of urge around 3000 revs, but it’s picked up a huge 37 Newton-metres – taking the total to 249 – and that means you’re not left waiting and wondering.

It also makes the minor gears in the six-speed manual, with a slightly slicker shift, more accessible and enjoyable. You can easily punch out of corners without having to downshift to get something stirring in the engine room.

The rest of the BRZ package is much as I remember, with baby back seats (for babies and bags), worthwhile boot space, really comfy seats with good support, and a nice leatherwrapped wheel.

The cabin still looks cheap when you start to investigate, with too much nasty hard plastic, but that’s a minor thing in a car like this.

There are cheaper sports cars, with the next-gen 86 expected to re-set the bar in September, and lots of sports cars that cost much, much more.

But, for what it is and what it does, the BRZ is a winner. R&T

FAST FACTS SUBARU BRZ

Price: Power: Transmission: Position: We like: Not so much: THE TICK: Score:

from $38,990 174kW/249Nm 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive sports car driving enjoyment, value uninspiring engine sound Betcha 8.5./10

ROAD & TRACK

SPARKY NEW-AGE AUDI ELECTRIC INJECTION FOR GOOD LOOKING NEW COUPE

By PAUL GOVER THE NEW-AGE RS focus at Audi has begun with its new high-performance battery flagship, the RS e-tron GT. The electric headliner is a stunner, with great looks and headline performance, from a 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.3 seconds to a range of 488 kilometres.

A pair of e-tron GT models have just been set for Australia, with first deliveries in September ... but they are not cheap.

The ‘basic’ GT starts at $181,700 and the RS package bumps that to $249,700.

The two models have a similar all-wheel drive mechanical package with twin electric motors, and a two-speed rear gear-set, as well as an 800-volt electrical architecture that promises fast charging which will add 100 kilometres of range in just five minutes.

They come with six years of free scheduled servicing and roadside assistance, as well as unlimited charging on the Chargefox network for six years.

“The e-tron GT is what the performance car of the future looks like. This is an Audi unlike any that have gone before it,” ” says Paul Sansom, director of Audi Australia.

But it is very much like the Porsche Taycan, as the e-tron GT has a technical package

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that’s scooped from the same ’toolbox’ – called the J1 architecture – as the Porsche.

Audi, though, has focussed most of its attention on the styling, distancing its newcomers from the Porsche and upcoming models from other members of the Volkswagen Group – think Bentley and Lamborghini – that will dig through the same toolbox.

So it’s a four-door car that is a gorgeous coupe, with 20 or 23-inch alloys, a long wheelbase and wide track, “We haven’t put technology into the car for the sake of technology. It’s cutting-edge technology right now, but an indication of where we’re going in the future,” says Audi Australia’s product manager, Peter Strudwicke.

Audi already has two all-electric SUVs on sale in Australia, the e-tron and e-tron Sportback, and they also have a design focus despite their considerable heft.

Right now, the e-tron GT fills the gap left by the outgoing R8 supercar at the top end of the Audi action, although there is every indication that there will eventually be an electric successor to the R8.

For now, the e-tron focus is on grabbing attention and netting cashed-up early green adopters.

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Audi Australia is not talking numbers, but the first arrivals are all sold and the waiting list stretches into 2023.

Away from the electric action, the newcomers have a drag co-efficient of just 0.24 with a flat bottom, roll on three-chamber air suspension, and have active matrix LED headlamps with laser high beam on the RS. Inside, there is Audi’s usual sumptuous leather trim, as well as giant LCD instrument and infotainment screens, sports seats,

16-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound, and all the rest.

An optional carbon fibre roof is available on the RS. Audi has also tried to inject some of the aural involvement missing from electric cars, touting “an authentically and finely nuanced impression of the work performed by the electric drive system” on the RS that’s delivered outside the car and inside the cabin.

R&T

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ROAD & TRACK

RAPTOR

RE-SET TO

RAMPAGE FORD’S MONSTER TRUCK IS NEW AGAIN WITH GIANT POWER BOOST

By Paul Gover THE TOUGH truck that Aussies have been waiting to see, the second-generation Ford Ranger Raptor, has just been unleashed.

It’s still six months away from showrooms and the off-road battlefield, but everything points to a continued reign at the top of the pick-up pile.

Ford has gone all-out and all-in for the new Raptor, which sits – again – at the top of a new Australian-developed Ranger line-up and wears the Ford Performance tag.

There is no detail yet on pricing (although it’s likely to be higher than the $79,390 of the outgoing model), or the performance figures or exact delivery date.

But Ford Australia is keen to emphasise the radical engine change to a 3-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 that makes 292 kiloWatts with 583 Newton-metres of torque.

It means close to twice the power for the new Raptor, which has a 10-speed automatic gearbox and a new full-time four-wheel drive system that has seven driving modes - which tweak the traction control, exhaust, throttle pickup, steering heft, instrument cluster design, and shift points – headlined by the Baja setting. The transmission has an electronically-controlled, on-demand, two-speed transfer case and locking differentials both front and rear.

“We knew that customers would expect improved performance with the next-gen Ranger Raptor, but I’m not sure they’re really expecting the enormous leap we’ve made. I think the raw performance is going to blow them away,” says the head of the Raptor program, Dave Burn.

“It’s significantly faster, looks incredible, is packed with new features, and it’s the toughest Ranger we’ve ever made.”

He talks about quicker lap times at Ford’s 10-kilometre off-road test track at You Yangs outside Melbourne, as well as straight-line spark that matches a hot hatch.

The regular Ranger continues as a body-on-frame pick-up, not an old-style Aussie ute, and the Raptor gets major tweaks including wider tracks and its signature Fox shock absorbers. There are reinforced front shock towers, new frame mounts for the jounce bumpers, and more reinforcement in the C-pillar and tub.

The shocks, which continue to be built in the USA and shipped to the Ranger factory in Thailand, have new Teflon-infused oil, can be stiffened to prevent squat on acceleration, and are linked to the drive modes.

Inside, Ford talks about more support in the front seats, magnesium shift paddles, and a 12-inch portrait-style – think Tesla – centre infotainment screen. And ambient cabin lighting, a wireless charging pad, smartphone integration and Band & Olufsen sound.

But the Raptor only has a 2.5-tonne towing limit – where the class leaders haul 3.5 tonnes – as Ford puts all its emphasis on the monster truck appeal that comes with Baja-style off-road performance credentials. R&T

A fairly basic ladder chassis (above) has all sorts of goodies at each corner ...

Left: three-litres of twin turbo V6 provides 292kW of grunt.

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