V8 SILLY SEASON WHO’S GOING WHERE IN 2020? .COM.AU
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LAZARUS LARRY
Perkins’ greatest drive
Issue #1763
13 June to 26 June , 2019
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“THE PROGRAM’S MAIN OBJECTIVE IS TO GIVE STUDENTS A START IN THE MOTOR SPORT INDUSTRY” That’s not to say that Motorsport Training Australia don’t need more support from within the industry, whether it be supplying parts or dropping race cars into the TAFE workshop or providing placement, it all goes to helping the growth of the course. “We’d like more support [from the industry], we’re trying to do a lot of things with car manufacturers to bring it on,” Crisp said. “We’re always after resources, especially parts that are broken. We like the old, worn out stuff so we can teach students that this what happens, this is how it broke.
“If teams have resources, we’re willing to take them and work hand in hand with each other.” BJR have been of major help due to its geographical proximity to the Wodonga TAFE. Then there are the occurrences like one prior to Winton, where Peters Motorsport dropped off its three SuperUtes for the TAFE students to work on. “Rod [Dawson of Peters Motorsport] rang me up to ask if he could borrow a couple of students, but I said ‘No’ you can have the whole workshop, you can bring the cars in and put them up on the hoists,” Rissmann
The course not only covers mechanical aspects,but also composites (above), fabrication and welding.
recalled. “It turned into a whole day, we fixed the gearboxes on them and completed the set-up. He was wrapped, we got a few photos, then the students cleaned and prepped the cars for the race meet. That sort of industry support we love. “With BJR being so local, they give us a lot of work placement in that part of it,” McDonald added. “It’s a little bit difficult when you have teams interstate, it’s hard for them to contribute or give spots to us. Talking to Dawson, he saw a student during the week that asked the right questions, and the team is now willing to take him away to race meetings.” The example McDonald provided is a perfect summation of how the course works and the placement not only provides a real-world experience for the student, but enables contacts to be made to get their nose into the motor sport industry, which may not Aidan Sinclair (right) is one of three former graduates working DJR Team Penske.
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happen otherwise. The teachers realise that budgets are becoming increasingly small in motor sport, so they have set up placements at a minimal cost to teams and students alike. The facilities in the TAFE workshop are top class featuring seven hoists, a four-wheel dyno, spring-rater, the associated lathes, and up-to-date CAD programs. Among the Course vehicle fleet is a Van Diemen Formula Ford, the prototype T1 Ford BA Falcon V8 Supercar, the Hyundai Veloster Tarmac Rally car and an Improved Production Ford Falcon Ute. And not only has the Wodonga TAFE got an immense workshop but also its own 1.6km test track, which can be utilised by teams with students being provided as pit crew. “We can send students out, give them runs in vehicles out on track, which has been a huge thing for us,” Crisp explained. “As well as motor sport, we have our own MTA, CAMS accredited car
PEDAL DOWN. PERFORMANCE UP.
Students such as Taf Sanya experienced a hectic weekend helping out Touring Car Masters team Whiteline Racing.
It’s not just the boys who enroll, Rachelle Tilley comes from a racing family and is a current pupil.
club. The students run that with Steve, that’s another huge thing. so a lot of the study in the course we don’t try and substitute, we try and do the real thing. It’s another good opportunity for our students and a chance to form a relationship with a team. In the end everyone wins.” The support from the Wodonga TAFE is also significant by giving the course the ability to teach all areas of race car construction. “Each department of TAFE works together to allow the whole motor sport part to come into it,” lauded McDonald. “It’s not just the Motorsport Training Australia sector, it’s all the other departments of the TAFE that allow us to teach all the elements of building a race car.” Reflecting on their time as teachers, McDonald and Crisp particularly are proud of how far the course has come, the opportunities the program has given many young people, and how far they’ve risen up the ranks. “You remember back when the students first started, how green they were, then a few years later you look at how far in the
industry they have gone,” said McDonald. “You look at that and say, ‘Well, they’ve done all the hard work,’ we’ve just helped them start that journey. “Once they leave us, they might go into Supercars or somewhere else, it’s amazing to see where a student ends up and progresses through the teams,” Crisp added. Chances are the next generation of Supercars, mechanics, engineers, livery designers and fabricators are within the 24 students currently undertaking study. It’s a chance to follow in the footsteps of previous students like Tim Pattinson, who has graced the front cover of Auto Action through his livery designs, and doubleBathurst winning #1 race mechanic Ethan Burns at Tickford. Despite the dissolution of the Bathurst TAFE crew a few years ago, the connection between students and Australia’s top motor sport teams is still strong thanks to Wodonga TAFE with its Motorsport Training Australia program. It is a connection that continues to assist the next generation into motor sport careers in what is a highly-respected program within the Australian motor sport community.
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s w e n Y A SPEEDW
FAIRYTALE FINISH FOR LACK
Image: Ray Ritter
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN Steven Gartner added the Northern Territory Street Stock Championship to his winning season. He took the chequered flag ahead of Victorian Brad McClure and defending NT champion Jason Duell at Darwin’s Northline Speedway. Gartner’s win adds to his SA title and after 30 laps was happy with his recent success. “We came away with the ultimate result. The car was happy, the driver was happy and everything fell into place.” Rock Solid Pics MATImage: PASCOE has become the first driver in 22 years to win three consecutive Queensland Super Sedan Title. The victory at the Bundaberg Motorplex ahead of Sean Black and Darren Kane adds to Pascoe’s superb season. He also grabbed major wins in the Australian title, Goulburn 5000, Lismore Speedway’s 50th Anniversary race, and the GP53. This most recent win was his 10th main event victory of the season and Pascoe took the podium in 19 of 21 starts in the 2018/2019 season. Image: Geoff Rounds
THE SDAV Hot Rods once again paid tribute to one of the past legends of the class with the annual Ray Welsh Memorial at Rushworth Speedway. Just six laps into the 25-lap final Shannon Meakins in his very cool Spidermanthemed car headed the field and went on to an impressive 10 second victory from Phil Jenkins, Kali Hovey and Russell Hovey in fourth. THE 3500 kilometre trip from Coffs Harbour to Kalgoorlie International Speedway was well worth it for Chris Corbett, netting him his first ever title victory - the Western Australian V8 Dirt Modified Championship. Driving for Marley Weller of NSW, Corbett, 21, used his pole position to advantage and was pretty much untroubled over the 25-lap journey and finally grabbed his maiden feature win after a number of podium placings in the national, Queensland and South Australian titles. “It feels absolutely amazing to finally break our habit of finishing third in title events and come away with the win,” Corbett said. DESPITE NOT finishing the final round Rusty Whittaker has clinched the Polar Ice Midget Track Championship. Scott Farmer scored an emphatic race win over Brock Dean and Callum Walker, while Whittaker bowed out of the feature race after just one lap with a flat tyre at Archerfield Speedway. Also on the same night, Liam Williams emerged the overall winner in the Jettco Formula 500 Jackpot, while Wayne Corbett ended his 20-plus years of Compact Speedcar racing with a feature win in his final ever race.
Image: Renee Leggo
DECLAN BROWNSEY has embarked on his third trip over to America to race. The Queenslander and regular Auto Action snapper will compete in 14 nights of racing mainly in Illinois where he will run a UMP Modified in the Hell Tour. “I’ve been looking forward to it since I got back from my last trip. America for dirt racers is the closest thing to heaven on earth we can get to.”
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IT COULD not have been scripted any better with a fairytale finish to the career of Queensland Speedway driver Peter Lack. In his final race, Lack drew the curtain on his Sprintcar career with a stirring win in the 17th and final round of the Sprintcars Queensland series at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway. Starting the 30-lap feature from position eight, Lack worked his way forward before a last lap pass on current Australian champion and Series winner Andrew Scheuerle to clinch the win, with Allan Woods in third spot ahead of Michael Saller, Brent Kratzmann and Kristy Bonsey surging to sixth after starting 11th. Lack, 47, from Toowoomba is also a former multiple national sedan champion and will maintain his position as Manager at GW Racing with friends Graham, Wendy and Laurie Erhart in a work and racing association that dates back to 1996. “I’m not stepping away from Speedway and motor racing, I’m just leaving the race-driving part. This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly and not something I decided overnight. It’s a tough decision but it’s the right one,” Lack said. The Ultimate Sprintcar Championship and Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway will miss the happy go lucky and affable throttle stomper as a racer but continue to enjoy his presence as a principal at GW Racing. Lack was a multiple Australian Modified Sedan champion and spent time in Speedcars before racing Sprintcars.
Image: 44Photography
He was the second only Queenslander to do so in winning a World Series Sprintcars round at Kalgoorlie Speedway in West Australia in 2007, he won the Tri-Series Shootout at Maryborough in Queensland in 2010, and in 2015 he was the inaugural winner of the Will Power 500 at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway. “After 18 years racing, well, it’s been absolutely fantastic. It’s great to go out on a high that’s for sure,” Lack said. “It’s a fairytale finish that’s for sure. Tonight was great. It’s just been really good racing here in Queensland and around Australia. It’s (Archerfield) been a voodoo track for us but we’ve gone out on a big high. We’ve just stopped driving but I’ll still be around.”
The 2019/20 Archerfield season kicks off its 27-race meeting schedule with the Sprintcar track championship again over 17 rounds from October 5, and will conclude with the series Grand Final on May 30, 2020. Two rounds of the World Series Sprintcars Championship on January 4 and the following weekend on Jan 10 &11 featuring the WSS Australian Sprintcar Open, are also locked in. World of Outlaws superstar Donny Schatz will again race exclusively at Archerfield over the Christmas/New Year period, contesting six nights of racing and chasing a 10th Open victory.
MCCULLAGH’S SUPER SRA COREY MCCULLAGH has again shown steady consistency and been crowned the 2018-19 Sprintcar Racing Association champion. The 2018 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic winner pocketed $10,000 for his efforts driving the Domain Ramsay-owned #71 car. Just 54 points behind in second was Bobby Daly, who was awarded the Most Improved Driver and in third place was Brayden Parr. The SRA season overall aggregate pointscore championship went to Jamie Veal from McCullagh and James McFadden. This award is based on points for all the events during the season for Victorian registered drivers only. Other award winners were Terry Rankin (Best Presented), Troy Hose (Rookie of the Year), Matthew Reed and Michael Tancredi (360ci aggregate), Rhys Baxter and Mark Carlin (President’s Award). For the second straight year his fellow competitors judged Charles Hunter as the Driver’s Driver for the past season. SRA President Ian Vale released dates for the 2019/20 12-round season, which will begin at Heartland Raceway, Moama on October 19 and conclude at Avalon Raceway on March 12, 2020. SHAUN WALSH scooped the pool winning the Simpson
Image: Geoff Rounds
Speedway racing aggregate and also topped the Super Rods tally from Ewan McKenzie and Neville Gange, who also grabbed the Most Improved driver award. Other aggregate winners at Simpson were Tyler Maggs (Junior F500s), Luke Weel (Wingless Sprints) and Josh Buckingham (Formula 500s). Walsh was again successful at Laang Speedway’s end of season awards winning the Driver of the Year while Darcy Micallef came out on top in the F500s ahead of brothers Dion and Chris Bellman.
WILLIAMS USA MISSION AUSTRALIA WILL be well represented at the fifth annual California Speedweek, with multiple Australian Formula 500 champion Liam Williams set to compete against the world’s best micro Speedway racers. The star Queensland driver will run double-duty competing at Dixon, Delta, Keller and Lemoore Speedways from June 25 against 121 entries for $60,000 in total prizemoney. Williams will have Victorian small engine guru and former champion racer Stephen Bell accompany him for the duration. “This is our second trip there for Speedweek, but our fourth over in the last 18 months; we also raced at the last two Tulsa shootouts,” Williams told Auto Action just prior to jetting out. “This year I’m racing both wing and non wing micros. It’s a big event and thanks to Pace
chassis, as well as Belly at Jettco for supplying us a new motor, who is also coming over with us to help.” Williams, who relinquished his Australian F500 championship earlier this year, is keen to improve on his 2018 efforts at the tough Speedweek. “We finished eighth in the Image: 44 Photography point standings last year from 50 cars, so that was good. We Australian flag at the event with New South Wales finished in the top nine every competitor Ethan Eyears from Lismore making feature last year and my best finish was fifth. his series debut and Australian-born brothers If we can do the same this year that would be Tommy and Danny Carroll from Roseville in awesome.” California also among the field. Williams won’t be the only driver flying the
p ra w S L A NATION
n compiled by garry o’brie
Image: Ian Colley
Image: Roger Townley
AMOS NETS SECOND QLD TITLE MGCC HANGS ONTO LEAD A FINAL run of 35.99s secured Dean Amos the Eureka Landscape CAMS Queensland Hillclimb Championship at Mt Cotton on June 2. It is the second year in a row that the New South Welshman and his 485kW (650hp) Indycar-based McLaren-Nicholson V8powered English-built Gould GR55B has taken the state title, and like last year, denied local and fellow Formula Libre over 2.0-litre class rival Dean Tighe. Tighe (Dallara/Judd 4.0-litre V8) was second fastest on the first run with a personal best and went quicker on his second with a 36.24s. But as the case has been for the previous four years, Tighe finished second, albeit he was the fastest local each time. Victorian Brett Hayward was quickest on run one in his Hayward HE014/Hayabusa and had potentially more to come. However he crashed on his way to the finish line on the third attempt. He did maintain third
overall and won the Formula Libre under 2.0-litre class. Michael Von Rappard (Dallara F392/ supercharged Hayabusa) finished fourth outright ahead of Edward McCane (turbocharged DJ Racecars Firehawk), whose day also ended early with an accident on the second loop exit. Winner of the under Formula Libre under 1.3-litre class was Jim Milliner (OMS 2000M) with sixth outright ahead of Brett Bull (turbo Van Diemen RF03K), the seventh to get into the under 40s club on the day, Ron Hay (Synergy Dallara), Warwick Hutchinson (turbo OMS 28 RPV03) and 10th placed Steven Woodbridge (Dallara F304). Best of the tin tops was 16th placed Ross Mackay in his Ford Escort Mk1 U2L sports sedan, while Gary Ford (Group U Escort), Philip Dalton (Road Registered U2L Honda Integra) and Ferris Lee (BMW 316 PRC Rally Car) each broke class records. GOB
COMPETITION WAS closer in round two of the three-round Victorian Interclub Hillclimb Challenge at Rob Roy on May 19, where the host MG Car Club of Victoria held onto its points lead. That was despite not taking any class wins but again it was because the MGCC had more entries than any other club, scoring a point for each. Adrian Azzopardi (MG Midget) notched up a class third as did Paul Slawinski (MGB), while Marjorie Halford (MG TF160) took a fourth place. The fastest time of the day went to Daniel Leitner (Subaru Impreza WRX), representing the MX5 Club. He also picked up a class victory with a 22.81s run, a great effort which put his club into fifth place. Col Hunter (WRX) finished second in class and second outright for the Gippsland Car Club which had only four entries, so lost out on entry points. But
three of those entries scored well with Russ Mead (Anglia 105E) netting a class first and Jeremy Booth did the same in his surprisingly quick Suzuki Cappuccino, finishing 10th outright. Booth’s wife Laura, who shared the car, took the fastest female award but missed out on place points. The Renault Car Club did answer the call at this round, fielding 10 entrants with Joel Bryer (Renault Clio RS) taking a second place while David Bertuch (Alpine Renault) was fourth. Third in the over 3.0-litre class went to Jack Allisey (Renault Megane), helping move the RCCV into third place. The VHRR dropped to fifth as its usual great support disappeared with just Mike Barker (Elfin Clubman) and Philip Gray (WRX) present. But they acquitted themselves well with the former taking a win, while Gray who usually drives a flathead Ford, grabbed a fourth place. Garry Hill
SUTCLIFFE LEADS THE WAY ROUND 2 of the Warwick District Sporting Car Club C Series Super Sprints started with a frost and the aroma of campfires being stoked up, to generate some warmth. The usual seven runs were completed over the weekend, with each consisting of four laps of the D Circuit, a quick flowing layout that provided no shortage of action during the event. There were no major incidents and the event ran smoothly, although a few had various issues that led to early retirements. Sunday afternoon had rain settle in, causing slippery conditions especially through the not so commonly used flip flops, which caught a few unaware. It was fantastic to once again see the juniors on track, demonstrating the amount each had improved with their driving and confidence since the last round. Phil Sutcliffe holds a slender
As usual, variety was on show at the sprints with (clockwise from left) Mick Ineson, David Gordon and Peter Endacott all pushing hard over the event. 12-point lead in the C Series standings from Peter Endacott. Once again the WDSCC would like to thank all the volunteers and staff who helped make this event so great. Volunteers are always welcome and what better way to get up close and personal with the all the action? The A series will be back again on June 15-16 for round 3. Spectator entry for all the super sprints is free for a fantastic action packed weekend with a large variety of different cars competing.
CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE Phil Sutcliffe 88 Peter Endacott 76 Gerry White 72 Nick Ashwin 71 Brad Stehr 66 Gavin Taylor 63 Ben VaWegen 26 Nick Tomkinson 60 Daryl Watson 59 Jason O’Mara 54
Proudly presented by Warwick District Sporting Car Club Inc for more information visit www.morganparkraceway.com.au
Next Round: Round 3 A Series June 15-16 AutoAction
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