Tag Archives: Broc Sweeney

Thrifty Newcastle 500 2023

March 26, 2023 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the World!

On the weekend of March 10 – 12 was the Thrifty Newcastle 500.

There was excitement in the air as it was the first round of the 2023 season and the first return to Newcastle’s street circuit since 2019 (Grrrr covid be gone!).

Fuelling the excitement were two major changes in V8 Supercars. The first being the start of the Gen 3 build standards for competing cars.

The second was the introduction of Camaros which replaces the Holden Commodore that is no longer manufactured. The old Aussie question, “Are you a Holden or Ford man?” will fade and be replaced with “Mustang or Camaro?”. RIP Holden. You will not be forgotten.

The event also marked important milestones for some drivers. Tim Slade had his 400^th race start. Will Davison had his 500^th and for Mark Winterbottom it was his 555^th in Supercars. Quite an achievement for all of them. Well done!

In the pre-race sessions of this event:

Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 3
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout

In Race 1 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.

At the start of race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 95 laps. Shortly after there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and Bryce Fullwood further back in the pack.

By the end of lap 1 Brodie Kostecki had half a second lead over Cameron Waters.

Things went smoothly for about the first 10 laps. Then Anton de Pasquale got turned around by Todd Hazelwood on the approach to Zara Street. Anton de Pasquale’s car spun off the track and was lucky to nudge the tyre wall only slightly. However, it did drop him 8 places to the very back of the pack.

On lap 14 Brodie Kostecki still in control of the race made a mistake which allowed Cameron Waters and Broc Feeney to close in and challenge him for the lead. Kostecki had to work hard to regain the gap he had.

Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen made up 2 spots. He went from 6^th to 4^th place and seemed to be waiting to make his move.

He finally managed to get past his teammate Broc Feeney in 3^rd place but then had a hard time taking on Cameron Waters for 2^nd. This activity allowed Brodie Kostecki to extend his lead out to 1.1 seconds.

The first car to pit was Bryce Fullwood on lap 16 to remove the right rear mud guard flapping loosely after his earlier contact with Mark Winterbottom.

Then Will Brown pitted from 11^th position.

On lap 22 James Courtney pitted. A few laps later Chaz Mostert also did.

Cameron Waters pitted on lap 31 to get out from behind the leader Brodie Kostecki. He could see it was a battle that was going nowhere.

Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted on lap 31 from 2^nd place. He maintained the same position when he returned to the track. He also still had Cameron Waters and Broc Feeney behind him.

Soon after Tim Slade pitted. The team couldn’t get the right front tyre off his car for quite a while. It completely destroyed his race time and position.

Pretty soon Shane Van Gisbergen was at the front of the field. He had loaded his car with less fuel at his pit stop making him lighter and faster. Now Red Bull Ampol Racing held 1st place by Shane Van Gisbergen and 3^rd place by his teammate, Broc Feeney.

It took a while but Shane Van Gisbergen managed to build a 5 second lead over Cameron Waters in 2^nd place.

Nick Percat came into the pits and headed straight into the garage. His brakes were failing even with his foot pushing it all the way to the floor. OMG! That is not what anyone would want.

David Reynolds in car 26 had no comms back to the pits. It meant the Grove Racing team had to use an old fashion pit board to communicate with him.

Towards the end Broc Feeney managed to move up to 2^nd place. With Shane Van Gisbergen leading the way, they crossed the finish line in a spectacular fashion earning a 1^st and 2^nd.

After such a great performance by the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team a protest was made by both Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United. They claimed the 2 winners had dry ice fed into their cool suit system from the wrong side of the car during the race. The regulation to perform this from the passenger side is mostly for safety reasons and in no way gave advantage to the drivers, but rules are rules.

After an overnight review it was announced on Sunday morning the two drivers were disqualified. Regardless of appeals from Red Bull Ampol Racing the verdict was upheld. It must have been a terrible blow for the team with new podium results naming Cameron Waters in 1^st, Chaz Mostert 2^nd and Brodie Kostecki 3^rd.

Results for Race 1:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Coke a Cola Racing powered by Erebus

In the shootout for Race 2, James Courtney made it turn 7 before hitting the wall hard. His car suffered substantial damage. It was so bad they weren’t able to repair it in time for the grid line up.

In Race 2 David Reynolds started on pole position with Chaz Mostert alongside him.

As they took off Chaz Mostert got the jump and led up What Street for the first of 95 laps.

Further back Declan Fraser stalled and didn’t make it off the grid. Macauley Jones who was right behind ploughed straight into him. The red flag was brought out immediately and all other drivers had to leave the track while the mess was cleaned up. Macauley Jones was able to get going again but Declan Fraser’s car was towed away and would not return to the race.

The restart was on lap 5. Chaz Mostert was in the lead and setting the pace. Behind him was David Reynolds and Cameron Waters so it was all Fords running 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.

Shane Van Gisbergen was in 5^th place and wasn’t taking the goodness out of the tyres too early. He was being a cork in the bottle holding the other cars back..

Tim Slade tried putting in a challenge for Shane Van Gisbergen’s position but he just couldn’t find the right spot to make his move.

There was noticeable damage on the back of Will Davison’s Ford Mustang. I’m not sure where it came from but he was able to continue and wait until his first pit stop for repairs.

The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 11.

On lap 12 Scott Pye and Nick Percat came into the pits together to get out of the traffic.

Broc Feeney came in on lap 15 from 12^th place. He was followed by Will Davison.

Matt Payne and Thomas Randle came in on lap 16.

By this stage Chaz Mostert was still going hard up the front. He had already built a 2.8 second lead over David Reynolds in 2^nd place.

Coming down the hill out of turn 3 on lap 20, Mostert had a moment where he looked almost out of control. His experience shined and he continued.

On lap 24 he was the first out of the leading pack to take his pit stop while everybody else was still making up there minds as when to come in. This handed the lead over to David Reynolds.

As Mark Winterbottom was exiting the pit lane he came on radio and said he had lost 80% of his power steering. Having just pitted he chose to press on.

In the middle of the race while chasing his former teammate Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters hit the wall coming out of turn 8 which tweaked the steering of car 6. He made it around the track one more time before being forced to come in for repairs. This ultimately cost him any chance of a podium finish.

As they came closer towards the end of the race and the second round of pit stops, Chaz Mostert had a 10.9 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was now in second place.

Thomas Randle gave Todd Hazelwood a bump at turn 9 pushing him off the track into the tyre barrier. It took a few seconds but Hazelwood managed to extract himself and resume racing. Had the safety car been needed at this stage of the race it may have had an influence on its outcome.

In the last few laps Shane Van Gisbergen had amazingly closed the 10+ second gap of leader Chaz Mostert.

Contact was made between the two leading drivers as Shane Van Gisbergen attempted to make a pass. It was incident was considered fair play and no action was taken by race control or the stewards.

Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to make up for being disqualified in Race 1. He was obviously putting in a great effort. It paid off and he finally took the race lead off Chaz Mostert. Once he had the lead he was able to hold it all the way to the checkered flag.

Shane Van Gisbergen claimed his 76^th career win in Supercars. Congratulations!

Result for Race 2

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

The next event is Round 2, the Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint. This is held as a support category to the F1 Australian Grand Prix starting March 30^th. I cant wait and hope you all will join me.

Supercars

Valo Adelaide 500 2022

January 19, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of December 1 – 4, 2022 was the V8-Supercars season finale, The Valo Adelaide 500.

The event was held on the Adelaide Street Circuit, a 3.2km track with 14 turns and is made up of two 78 lap races (250kms each).

The circuit was first opened on the 31^st October, 1985 for the F1 Australian Grand Prix. A few years later in 1999 the races became an official round of the Supercars Championship.

This year’s event marked a special milestone in the hearts of many Australians. It was the last race ever for the iconic Holden brand. In 2020 General Motors announced the retirement of the Holden brand name and 2022 was the last year of its manufacture. Supercars teams will now replace the Holdens with the Cheverolet Camaro. Australian motorsports will never be the same.

In the four day event the pre-race sessions results were:

Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Chaz Mostert was fastest Practice 3 and in Qualifying for Race 33
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Shootout for Race 33

For Race 33 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Scott Pye alongside him. The big surprise was the champion elect, Shane Van Gisbergen starting in 25^th place after a bad wide turn in qualifying and running out of time to have another attempt.

At the start Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 while Scott Pye had to tuck in behind.

At turn 7 James Golding made a mistake which allowed Chaz Mostert to get up the inside of him at turn 9 to take 6^th place.

As the field completed lap 1 Cameron Waters had the lead and was 0.9 second ahead of Scott Pye. Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 4 spots to be in 21^st place.

Shane Van Gisbergen was soon on the charge. In the second lap he first passed Mark Winterbottom, then Broc Feeney and Bryce Fullwood.

Further ahead, Will Davison got up the inside of Will Brown to move into 13^th.

Bryce Fullwood ran wide on the exit of turn 4 which allowed Broc Feeney and Mark Winterbottom to overtake.

Pretty soon Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 9 spots up to 16^th position. He was still 11.6 seconds off the lead.

Will Davison passed Brodie Kostecki to move into 12^th. The tightly packed group meant engine temperatures were rising and they would have to make attempts to get clean air as soon as possible.

The first car to pit was Nick Percat on lap 6 to get out of the traffic and help keep his engine temperature under control.

At turn 11 Jack Smith went off the track through his own error but it didn’t cause any incident.

On lap 7 James Golding in car 31 had power steering dramas after hitting the wall, so had to immediately head to the pits.

Up the front Anton de Pasquale and James Courtney were in a battle for 3^rd and 4^th.

I was amazed at Shane Van Gisbergen who was now up 13 places from the start.

Broc Feeney was the first of the 2 Red Bull cars to pit on lap 11 so that Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack.

Will Davison was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 13.

On return to the track he locked the right front wheels and race engineer Richard Harris asked him to return to the pits to check for flat spots on his tyres.

Shane Van Gisbergen put in an aggressive effort and was now battling with Lee Holdsworth for 7^th position. Yes folks, I do not lie! Shane Van Gisbergen had started 25^th on the grid and was now in 8^th place going hard.

When Anton de Pasquale came in, he overshot the mark. The crew managed it well, but it was less than perfect especially when you are one of the front runners.

A few laps later Broc Feeney went off the road at turn 11 and hit the tyre wall. It could have spelled disaster, but he managed the recovery well and was able to continue.

Chaz Mostert pitted from 3^rd place and came back out in 10^th.

Cameron Waters pitted from the lead and came back out with clear air.

In the middle of the race the safety car was deployed because Jack le Brocq was in the wall. The rest of the field took the opportunity to come in and fuel up.

After the race went back to ‘green’, Chaz Mostert made wheel to wheel contact with Shane Van Gisbergen but it didn’t result in any significant damage.

With 32 laps to go Thomas Randle and Todd Hazelwood were the first two drivers to complete their second and final pit stop.

Will Davison pitted a few laps later, lap 49.

On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen went off the track at turn 11 and buried the front end in the tyre wall. Race control deployed the safety car. He managed to get the car out but had reasonable damage requiring repair.

On the restart Chaz Mostert was the leader of the race followed by Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat.

At turn 5 Cameron Waters tried to get up the inside of Todd Hazelwood. It didn’t work but it sent Hazelwood into the wall. Will Brown was so close he couldn’t avoid following him into the wall, so it was less than a lap after restart that another safety car came back out on the track. Shortly after Cameron Waters was issued a drive through penalty for being the cause of the mayhem.

On the restart with 22 laps to go Andre Heimgartner tried to go around the race leader Chaz Mostert but failed and lost ground. On the exit of turn 6 he made another mistake which allowed Nick Percat to take 2^nd place off him. Walkinshaw Andretti United now had the 2 front places in the running.

With 17 laps to go Bryce Fullwood had to serve a pit lane penalty for making contact with Scott Pye earlier. It ultimately put him out of the running for a place on the podium.

With 16 laps to go Chaz Mostert’s lead was 2.5 seconds over Nick Percat in 2^nd place.

With 8 laps to go James Courtney was given a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits and was out of lives. Race control issued him with previous warnings and now gave him a drive through penalty.

In the end, on the final lap Chaz Mostert finished 1.9 seconds ahead of his teammate Nick Percat. It was a spectacular finish for Chaz Mostert, earning him his 21^st career win and his 5^th race win of 2022. It was also a welcome finish for Walkinshaw Andretti United having a 1^st and 2^nd place.

Results for Race 33

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

2^nd Nick Percat – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing

In Race 34 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position and alongside him was his teammate, Will Davison.

As they took off Anton de Pasquale led into turns 1 and 2.

Back in the pack there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and James Golding. They both went off the track. Golding had to wait for all the cars to pass before he could re-enter putting him at the back of the pack.

There was only 0.373 seconds between Anton de Pasquale in first place and Will Davison in second. They were closely followed by champion Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.

Cameron Waters was able to pass his former teammate, Chaz Mostert for 5^th place.

On lap 3 Scott Pye ran extremely wide at the final corner and Anton de Pasquale hit the tyre bundle at turns 1 and 2 of the next lap putting some damage on his car.

Jack Le Brocq’s car had smoke coming out of the back due to an oil leak. Officials issued him a mechanical black flag and he had to come into the pits right away.

Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to pit on lap 11 so teammate Shane Van Gisbergen wouldn’t have to double stack.

On lap 14 Anton de Pasquale was still in control of the race. Will Davison pitted to avoid a challenge from Broc Feeney who had just done the fastest lap of the race so far.

Todd Hazelwood had a massive slide between turns 13 and 14, while Will Davison got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

On lap 18 Jake Kostecki hit the wall exiting turn 8 and the left rear wheel departed car 56. The safety car was deployed for the first time in the final race of the year.

On the restart with 58 laps to go Will Davison was leading the race with Broc Feeney and Anton de Pasquale close behind.

Yet again at turn 8, Brodie Kostecki hit the wall and put a bruise on car 99.

On the next lap David Reynolds got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits at turn 2.

Meanwhile back up the front Will Davison was under pressure from Broc Feeney in 2^nd place. Will Davison made a mistake at the turn 9 hairpin that allowed Broc Feeney to take the race lead.

In the middle of the race Broc Feeney was still the leader and looking confident. From that point he did a fantastic job of holding out against the winner of the previous race at this event, Chaz Mostert.

Chaz Mostert kept the pressure on but in the final laps Broc Feeney managed to create some space between the two. It was only about 1 second but enough to let Feeney concentrate on driving rather than defending.

Broc Feeney kept the more experienced Chaz Mostert at bay and crossed the finish line with 0.9644 of a second lead. It was just under another long 8.5 seconds before Anton de Pasquale followed in 3^rd place.

Broc Feeney and the team were ecstatic to claim his first win in his rookie year. It also seemed a fitting climax as the Holden brand name’s final race ever in Supercars.

A special congratulations to Broc Feeney on a great finish to your rookie year and your teammate, Shane Van Gisbergen who is now officially a 3 time Supercars champion.

Also, I would like to send out congratulations to Lee Holdsworth on his retirement race. You have been an absolute stalwart of the sport for two decades. Thanks for the brilliant memories and best of luck for the future. You will be missed.

Results for Race 34

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team

The next events are the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour, February 3^rd to 5^th 2023. Then the Supercars season begins on March 10 with the Thrifty Newcastle 500. I can’t wait and hope you will join me then.

Supercars

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2022

December 30, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 28 – 30 October 2022 was the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

This year marks the 19^thtime that the Supercars Championship has raced for points on the Surfers Paradise Gold Coast circuit. The first paying round was in 2002.Prior to 2002 there were non-championship events held as part of the annual Gold Coast Indy. In 1994, 1996 and 2001 they were run as single driver events in 2 races. In 2010 the event was run in a 2 race by 300km format with co-drivers. Since then, the format had been changed to become a single driver 2 race event of 250km each.

The weekend marked a milestone for Triple Eight Race Engineering with their 600^th Supercars race. Their debut was back in 2003 at the Sandown 500. They are the 5^th team in ATCC-Supercars history to surpass that milestone.

The weekend was also Mark Winterbottom’s 50^th round start with Team 18. He made his first start for the team at the 2019 Adelaide 500. Winterbottom currently has a finishing record on the Gold Coast of 35 finishes from 35 starts.

This event was kicked off on the Friday. The results in the pre-race sessions had no big surprises with results as follows:

Will Davison was fastest in Practice 1
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 2
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in the Qualifying
David Reynolds was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout

In Race 31 David Reynolds started on pole position. Alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen.

At the start of the race David Reynolds got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. Shane Van Gisbergen was immediately on the attack, but he wasn’t far enough up to command track position and had to tuck in behind.

The cars behind the two leaders were Cameron Waters, Chaz Mostert and Anton de Pasquale. These front running drivers quickly began to pull away from the rest of the pack.

Further back Mark Winterbottom had gained 4 spots to move up to 9^th position on the opening lap.

The gap between David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen was 0.225 seconds. Shane Van Gisbergen was right on David Reynold’s bumper. At the final turn of the first lap Shane Van Gisbergen had a moment and lost ground, so for now Reynolds was able to retain the lead.

The first 2 cars to pit in this race were Will Davison and James Courtney on lap 9. When they came back out they were in 24^th and 25^th. Will Davison’s pit was not as smooth as it should have been. The right front rattle gun got jammed and those few seconds delay meant James Courtney was able to jump him on exit.

By lap 16 David Reynolds had reported his steering wheel was loose. Not something you want when travelling about 250kph. It slowed him down and Shane Van Gisbergen was able to take the lead at turn 4. Once in the lead, David Reynolds was no longer able to keep up with him.

Further back in the pack Lee Holdsworth was putting pressure on Broc Feeney in a battle for 10^th and 11^th position.

David Reynolds pitted on lap 25. The team looked at the steering wheel problem but weren’t able to immediately repair it. Jake Kostecki also followed him in.

On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen pitted and so did Todd Hazelwood.

After hitting the wall earlier, Bryce Fullwood’s passenger door kept coming open. He was issued a mechanical black flag and was forced to pit immediately.

Will Brown was in the garage due to ripping the under body out of car 9 when he went through the beach chicane.

On lap 31 Andre Heimgartner was in pit lane with smoke coming out of the back of car. It was not good news and car 8 never made it back out to the track.

Mark Winterbottom got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

In the middle of the race David Reynolds was still complaining about the loose steering wheel in car 26. He came in for his second pit stop. The team were ready to do a full steering wheel change. As it turned out they just had to tighten the steering wheel bolt. Oops!

When David Reynolds got back out on the track he was in the mix of the main pack and had to try returning to his former lead. In desperation he requested a blue flag from race control because he felt that Will Davison was holding him up. Before officials could respond Reynolds found space to make the pass. He had no time to waste.

David Reynolds needed to close the 4.8 seconds lead that Shane Van Gisbergen had.

Cameron Waters was still in 3^rd place. He made a mistake going into turn 2. He clobbered the tyre wall and spun around. His error lost him several places. It was an unfortunate mistake so late in the race.

Fatigue started to show. Nick Percat and Tim Slade received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits at turn 2.

Once past the critical lap, drivers and teams were able to pit for fuel and tyres to get to the end of the race.

On lap 56 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted for his last stop with a 54.705 second lead over Lee Holdsworth. With such an incredible lead he returned to the track still in first place.

From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen had complete dominance on the track with an 11.362 second lead over David Reynolds. It was then another 13.488 seconds back to Chaz Mostert.

While the drivers battled for position in the top 10 it seemed that it was impossible to close the gap on Gisbergen.

With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney managed to displace Lee Holdsworth for 15^th position coming out of turn 4.

Cameron Waters also finally cleared Anton de Pasquale for 5^th position.

With 7 laps to go the battle between David Reynolds and Chaz Mostert had allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to open the gap to 15.2 seconds.

Chaz Mostert’s plan to attack David Reynolds for 2^nd place was interrupted and instead had to defend from Will Davison in 3rd.

With 2 laps to go Will Davison was less than a car length behind Chaz Mostert.

By the final lap Shane Van Gisbergen had gained another 2 seconds over the rest of the field.

Without fault Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 17.344 seconds clear of David Reynolds. Chaz Mostert managed to come 3^rd with Will Davison pushing hard a mere .3184 seconds behind.

For Shane Van Gisbergen it was a spectacular way to earn his 20^th win for the 2022 season. It also gave him enough points on the leader board to be declared champion elect for the 3^rd time in his career. He now ties with other legends of the track such as Craig Lowndes.

Congratulations!

Results for Race 31

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

For Race 32 Shane Van Gisbergen had earned pole position. It was his 45^th career pole. Alongside him on the grid was Will Davison.

As they took off from the start line, the two front runners were neck in neck. At the first bend of turn 1 Shane Van Gisbergen forced Will Davison over the chicane. Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters who were right behind Davison were also forced to cut across the track perimeter.

Surprisingly Will Davison came out the other side of the closely knit turns 1,2 and 3 in the lead. Shane Van Gisbergen was told by his team to redress for his error. He slowed up before turn 4 to give Davison the space needed and avoid a penalty.

The field was tightly packed and challenges for position were happening left right and centre.

As the pack commenced lap 2 Will Davison had a 1 second lead.

After his continual efforts Brodie Kostecki finally got by Scott Pye for 5^th place. Behind them were David Reynolds had Thomas Randle battling for positions 7 and 8.

It took a while but the cars further back in the pack began to settle into their own pace. They knew there was a long way to go and no need to make desperate moves in the early stages.

On approach to turn 11 of lap 4 James Golding crashed through the tyre barrier. The cars right behind were not prepared and smashed straight into him. Eight cars were involved including Macauley Jones whose car caught on fire. In a show of good sportsmanship, other drivers immediately came to assist. It was mayhem and the first safety car was deployed with the red flag shown shortly after.

Broc Feeney was another driver who suffered significant damage. His car was taken to the garage and it wasn’t certain if he would re-join the race.

The race resumed after the clean-up. Will Davison and Shane Van Gisbergen had a pretty hefty gap over Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.

Anton de Pasquale had damage on the rear bumper due to the contact on lap 1. The Dick Johnson Racing Team made him come in on lap 9.

Scott Pye and Jake Kostecki were the next to take pit stops on lap 10.

On lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen took the lead off Will Davison down at turn 11. Chaz Mostert was only 0.257 seconds behind them and was immediately putting Will Davison under further pressure in 2^nd place.

Behind Chaz Mostert was Cameron Waters followed by Brodie Kostecki in 5^th being pressured by David Reynolds.

Mark Winterbottom had gained 5 positions into 7^th place but was now struggling. No matter what he did he couldn’t get past David Reynolds in car 26.

By lap 17 Shane Van Gisbergen had a 2.5 second margin over Will Davison.

Mark Winterbottom was the first of the front runners to pit. No one else followed him in.

By this stage the Red Bull Ampol Racing team declared car 88 would not be returning to the track after its involvement in the lap 4 pile up. Broc Feeney had to watch the rest of the race from the garage.

Todd Hazelwood was another driver who had to watch the rest of the race from garage for the same reason.

James Courtney who was also involved in the lap 4 melee, was getting back in his car to re-join the race. The front of car was all fixed but the back was looking like a scene out of Mad Max.

Due the delays, race control announced a time certain finish of 16:38 + 1 lap and the CPS (compulsory pit stops) requirements would remain unchanged.

On lap 22 Jake Kostecki had to step aside for the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen who had worked up a 4.2 second lead over Will Davison.

On lap 26 Will Davison had to try a new tactic for attack on the leader and came in for his first pit stop to try get advantage that way. Brodie Kostecki also pitted.

On lap 29 Shane Van Gisbergen came in with a 10.520 second lead over 2^nd place Cameron Waters.

When Shane Van Gisbergen returned to the track, he was in 6^th place with drivers in front yet to pit.

Cameron Waters who was left with the lead pitted on lap 30. This handed over the lead to David Reynolds.

At this stage there were 3 cars yet to take their first pit stops.

In the middle of the race Mark Winterbottom gave Brodie Kostecki a hit coming out of turn 4. He decided to redress to avoid a penalty from race control.

On lap 42 Jake Kostecki was ready to re-join the race after being in the garage for major repair works after a lost argument with a barrier wall.

Chaz Mostert who inherited the lead when David Reynolds pitted, was called in for his first pit stop. Shane Van Gisbergen was now back at the front of the pack.

By lap 57 all the drivers had done their 2^nd stops so it was an even playing field to the end. Shane Van Gisbergen had a 4.3 second lead over Chaz Mostert. It was another 2.018 seconds back to Will Davison in 3^rd.

By lap 64 Shane Van Gisbergen had increased his lead over Chaz Mostert to 5.7 seconds, while Chaz Mostert increased his lead over Will Davison to 3.5 seconds.

On lap 71 Thomas Randle broke down and parked on the left hand side near pit entry. The safety car was deployed under the yellow flag. The cars had to remain in formation behind the safety car. This meant any leading gaps were lost for the front runners.

On the restart Shane Van Gisbergen just pulled away. He really wanted to recreate his lead over the pack.

With 2 laps to go, Will Brown put Scott Pye in the wall at turn 13. It caused Scott Pye to drop 8 places to 13^thand increased his worries of having a time penalty that would be added to his race time. Will Brown also received no advantage from the move. He received a 15 second time penalty to be added at the end.

Shane Van Gisbergen showed what he could do. Within those few remaining laps after the safety car he managed to cross the finish line 2.1 seconds over Chaz Mostert. It was then another 1.3 seconds back to Will Davison followed by David Reynolds.

To top off the race weekend for Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2 out of 2 wins and being announced as champion elect, the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team were declared winners of the Teams Championship for the year. Congratulations. Well done!

Results for Race 32

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing Team

The next event is the final one for the 2022 Supercars season, the Valo Adelaide 500 on the 1^st– 4^th December 2022.

Supercars

Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint 2022

September 9, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 19^th to the 21^st of August 2022 was the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint.

This will mark the 52^nd event held at Sandown in ATCC – Supercars history. No venue has hosted more rounds than the Melbourne circuit. Its championship race history includes both endurance and sprint events. This weekend’s races will be the 80^th, 81^st and 82^nd championship races to be held at the circuit.

In the opening race Lee Holdsworth will reach a career milestone, his 500^th Supercars race start. The defending Bathurst co-champion will be just the 11^th driver to achieve the feat, but the first to do so at the same venue as his first career race start. Lee Holdsworth made his Supercars debut at the 2004 Sandown 500. The Friday event will mark the 15^th anniversary of the Penrite Racing’s drivers first championship race win at Oran Park in 2007.

Lee Holdsworth has announced his retirement from fulltime Supercars Racing at the end of this season. Congratulations Lee, best of luck for the future.

The weekend kicked off on Friday with the usual practice and qualifying sessions without any surprising results.

Will Davison was fastest Practice 1.
Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2 for co-drivers only.
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3.
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying.

In race 24 Will Davison started on pole position with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen went straight to the inside covering any challenge from Will Brown right behind him. Anton de Pasquale was also making his challenge against Will Brown, but he too couldn’t make the pass.

The cars further back in the pack were settling into their race pace while the leaders were pulling away.

Will Davison had a margin of 0.985 seconds over the defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen.

Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with Andre Heimgartner for positions 8^th and 9^th. As they approached turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Andre Heimgartner gave Broc Feeney a bump and turned him around. Broc Feeney went from 8^th down to 25^th position. He had lost 15 spots. The incident immediately went into investigation. After a short while Andre Heimgartner was issued a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.

As they crossed the line to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.720 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.647 seconds back to Will Brown in 3^rd place.

James Courtney had gained one place and was up to 6^th position.

Mark Winterbottom tried to get up the inside of James Courtney, but he didn’t let the pass happen.

Will Davison couldn’t increase his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was sticking to him like glue.

The front of the field was tightly packed. Through lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen was making it impossible for leader Will Davison to make any headway and kept the gap to about half a second. It was another 0.7 seconds back to Will Brown still in 3^rd place with Anton de Pasquale just 0.8 seconds back. Thomas Randle was right behind and putting pressure on Anton de Pasquale.

A little further back in the pack, Brodie Kostecki was close in behind Andre Heimgartner. Cameron Waters had gained 2 places up to 10^th and Chaz Mostert had moved up 1 spot into 12^th.

Shane Van Gisbergen was still on the tail of leader Will Davison, ensuring the gap didn’t get to more than 1 second.

By lap 5 Brodie Kostecki had gained 6 positions to move into 8^th place. His next target was 2015 Supercars Champion Mark Winterbottom.

Nick Percat had gained 5 places to move into 16^th position right behind Lee Holdsworth, who had gained 3 places and was in 15^th.

There were no changes at the tightly packed front of the field. Will Davison was still in the lead followed by Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Brown, Anton de Pasquale and Thomas Randle. Will Davison never being able to break past the 1 second lead.

On lap 6 Cameron Waters did the fastest lap of the race in 108.659 seconds but was still 6.3 seconds off the lead.

The first car to pit was Scott Pye in car 20 on lap 9. When he re-joined, he came back out in 22^nd place.

On lap 10 Andre Heimgartner came into the pits and once done had to serve the 15 second penalty issued earlier. When he re-joined it was in 25^th position.

On lap 11 David Reynolds broke the fastest lap time at 108.474 seconds.

It was only on lap 13 that Will Davison managed to break past the 1 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.

Anton de Pasquale had dropped back from the top 5 to 9^th place and came into the pits at the same time as James Courtney.

In the middle of the race more of the front runners, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown came into for their pit stops. They came back out into 15^th and 16^th position.

At this point there was 14 cars still yet to pit.

Shortly after, Will Davison and Thomas Randle pitted from 1^st and 2^nd place.

On lap 19 as Will Davison and Thomas Randle were exiting the pits, Chaz Mostert was entering for his 1 and only compulsory pit stop. Will Davison re-joined as the affective lead of the race followed by Shane Van Gisbergen. and

There were still 11 cars yet to pit.

On lap 20 Thomas Randle got a bad sportsmanship flag for careless driving. A bad sportsmanship flag is only warning to tell the driver that he is running out of lives.

Then on lap 22, Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

On lap 23 Cameron Waters, Broc Feeney and Macauley Jones pitted, leaving Lee Holdsworth as the last car to pit.

Cameron Waters and Macauley Jones re-joined in 8^th and 9^th position.

With 12 laps to go Will Davison was finally making headway and had increased his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen to 3+ seconds. It was only 0.531 seconds back to Anton de Pasquale.

Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 24. On the way back out his car stalled which cost a lot of time and he dropped to 24^th position.

By lap 25 Will Davison resumed the physical lead of the race and now 3.8 seconds ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale.

Back in the pack cars in positions 14 to 17 were pretty vigorously battling. I thought Chris Pither was going to make contact with Nick Percat but didn’t. At one stage I thought they were all going to go off the track but somehow, they all stayed on.

On lap 28 Cameron Waters in car 6 also got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Chris Pither was dropping down the order quickly because of a delaminating tyre.

With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney was still fighting and got up the inside of Tim Slade for 16^th position.

By lap 29 Will Davison had squeezed almost another second onto his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was now 4.765 seconds.

On lap 30 Will Davison broke past the 5 second mark on his lead.

With a clear track and not having to worry about defending his position he kept increasing his lead. In the end Will Davison absolutely dominated the race crossing the line 8.4 seconds clear of Shane Van Gisbergen, followed by Anton de Pasquale.

This was Will Davison’s 21^st career victory in Supercars. Congratulations and happy 21^st!

Results for Race 24:

1^st Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

3^rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing.

In race 25 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Cameron Waters.

Will Davison started 11^th on the grid due to an electrical problem during qualifying. There was no fire but a lot of smoke that filled the cabin of the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang. Will Davison had to pull into the pits and get out of the car. Amazingly they got back out on the track before the end of qualifying and even with this interruption they managed to get a place just outside the top 10.

Chaz Mostert had problems of his own. Engine issues had Walkinshaw Andretti United stumped. Just prior the race they decided to do an engine change! To my amazement they managed this in 8 minutes. Can you imagine dropping your car off at the mechanic and having an engine change in under 10 minutes! I don’t think so.

As they took off from the start line Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and Chaz Mostert stuck right behind him. Broc Feeney who started in 4^th had a good run but was blocked in and had nowhere to go.

As Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps, Cameron Waters was 1 back and 1 wide to Chaz Mostert.

Jack le Brocq went off the track between turns 2 and 3. As he was re-joining he made contact with another car. Unfortunately, it was his own teammate, Todd Hazelwood. The impact broke the left side steering arm of car 34 driven by Jack le Brocq. Todd Hazelwood in car 35 also had damage. He dropped back to 25^th place and car 34 dropped 10 places to 24^th. They bath limped around the track to make it back to the pits so were the first car in.

Within the first half lap Will Davison had gained 3 spots up to 8^th place.

On lap 2 the front runners were still tightly packed. Chaz Mostert was only 0.250 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.416 back to Broc Feeney in 3^rd place.

At turn 7 James Courtney went straight ahead over the top of the curb leaving the track. He recovered quickly enough to block an effort from Tim Slade trying to get up the inside of him so managed to hold onto his position in 14^th.

Chaz Mostert’s attack on Shane Van Gisbergen was blocked and the leader was even able to edge further ahead a little to 0.499 seconds.

Broc Feeney was right behind Chaz Mostert putting in an effort to take his place in 2^nd.

On lap 5 Cameron Waters and Will Davison made contact. After starting on the front row in 2^nd position Cameron Waters had dropped 5 places from 2^nd down to 7^th position.

As the pack was approaching the end of the back straight, Andre Heimgartner made contact with Scott Pye. As a result Andre Heimgartner went straight ahead at turn 7 leaving Scott Pye and Cameron Waters in a messy battle still on track.

On lap 6 Lee Holdsworth was back in the pack. He was getting held up so pitted to try and get some clear track. No one else followed him into the pits.

The leaders were still bunched closely and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to only just get ahead of Chaz Mostert by 1.1 seconds. Chaz Mostert was tailed by Broc Feeney by a mere 0.563 seconds.

James Golding was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 7. He dropped all the way down to 21^st position on his return to the track.

Thomas Randle also pitted on the same lap.

By lap 8 Shane Van Gisbergen could only manage to extend his lead to 1.7 seconds over Chaz Mostert.

Further back in the pack, Mark Winterbottom was putting pressure on Andre Heimgartner for 9^th position.

They both pitted on the next lap and re-joined the race in 17^th and 18^th position.

At this point there were 16 cars yet to pit.

On lap 10 David Reynolds made contact with Cameron Waters on the exit of turn 1 and again on the exit of turns 2 and 3. Cameron Waters then copped another whack, this time from Brodie Kostecki in car 99.

By lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen had increase his lead to 2.255 seconds over Chaz Mostert. Chaz Mostert had also finally shaken Broc Feeney off his tail and had a gap of 4.223 seconds.

On lap 13 Will Davison pitted but on leaving the crewman still had the rattle gun on the wheel. It didn’t cause any accident but the team was issued a pit lane infringement.

Getting close to the halfway mark of the race on lap 14, two of the front runners came into pit; Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney. They were fast stops and they came back out in 9^th and 10^th position.

Jack Smith in car 4 got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding the track limits.

On lap 21 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted with a + 14.8 second lead over Cameron Waters who had assumed 2^nd place.

Towards the end of the race there were only 3 cars to pit, Tim Slade, Nick Percat and Bryce Fullwood. Once they pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race once again.

From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen was in control. He had 3.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert and it was another 7.7 seconds back to David Reynolds.

As the race got close to the finish, Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away. He just could not be caught. It was faultless driving and he crossed the line 7.5 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Chaz Mostert in 2^nd place was followed 4+ seconds by Will Brown.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 15^th win out of 25 races this season. That is 60% of the time he has been on the top step of the podium. That is the stuff legends are made of!

Results for Race 25:

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

3^rd Will Brown – Boost Mobile Racing.

In Race 26 Will Davison started on pole position with the defending Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

As they took off at the start Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps.

Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to go around the outside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the ground and had to tuck back in behind.

The gap that the leaders had on the on rest of the field was huge.

At turn 3 four cars made contact and spun around to face the wrong way. The drivers involved were Jake Kostecki, Chris Pither, Macauley Jones and Todd Hazelwood. The drivers all got the cars moving again so there was no need for a lap 1 safety car to be deployed. The incident went into investigation but Motorsport Australia took no further action.

On lap 2 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge looking for the lead of the race which he got at the second last corner.

Will Davison’s teammate Anton de Pasquale made contact with him and as a result Pasquale’s two front wheels were in the air. He had to come straight into the pits to have the damage on car 11 looked at. While in the pits he had dropped all the way down to 23^rd position.

Will Davison also had damage on the front left corner of car 17. The guard was rubbing on the tyre, but he didn’t want to lose 2^nd place so didn’t pit. The gap between Shane Van Gisbergen in 1^st and Will Davison in 2^nd was only 0.141 seconds.

Due to damage caused by the incident on lap 1, Todd Hazelwood had to also pit at the same time as Anton de Pasquale.

During lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen made a mistake coming out of turn 4. Will Davison tried to take advantage and regain the lead but Gisbergen recovered quickly and fended off the attack.

Behind the two leaders, Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Cameron Waters for 4^th position. Chaz Mostert was unaffected in 3^rd place.

On lap 6 Will Davison was proving a headache to Shane Van Gisbergen and had done the fastest lap of the race so far 109.365.

Chris Pither who was involved in the 4-car accident on lap 1 finally had to pit for rear tyres and bonnet repair on car 22.

Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner also pitted on this lap.

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen pitted. On the re-join to the race he only dropped to 8^th position.

Shane Van Gisbergen had Chaz Mostert right behind him in 9^th but in effect they were battling for 1^st and 2^ndwith the 7 cars ahead still yet to pit. Broc Feeney was behind them in 3^rd but was 38 seconds further back.

On lap 20 Cameron Waters and Will Brown pitted from 4^th and 5^th.

Andre Heimgartner left the track at turn 7. He was issued a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

On lap 23 Will Davison who was in the lead had to pit. Now Lee Holdsworth was the only one left to do so. Once that happened Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race.

When Will Davison re-joined the race it wasn’t long before he returned to 2^nd place just 2.2 seconds from Shane Van Gisbergen.

Within the last 10 laps Chaz Mostert was under pressure from his ex-teammate Cameron Waters. Right behind them was Broc Feeney trying to look for a gap to make his move.

Mark Winterbottom was further back and he got a bad sportsman flag for exceeding track limits.

Tim Slade had gained 5 spots and was now up to 7^th position.

For 2 laps in a row Chaz Mostert was under attack from Cameron Waters trying to earn 3^rd place. Chaz Mostert was able to hold him off.

Will Davison was desperate to catch Shane Van Gisbergen and did the fastest lap of the race 108.613 seconds.

Heading down into turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Cameron Waters locked up the front right brakes and went off the track. He came back on in 10^th position. It gave Broc Feeney the opportunity he was looking for and he moved up to 4^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Will Davison. It was another 6.6 seconds back to Chaz Mostert then only another 0.605 seconds back to Broc Feeney.

On lap 33 Broc Feeney finally passed Chaz Mostert for 3^rd position.

Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead but only just. He crossed the line a mere 0.4611 seconds ahead of Will Davison.

Broc Feeney crossed the line 11.3437 seconds later in 3^rd place.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2^nd win for the weekend, earning him a commanding 500 points lead over Cameron Waters in the Driver’s championship for the season. It was also his 70^th career win in Supercars. This is the stuff legends are made of. Congratulations Shane!

Results for Race 26

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

2^nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.

3^rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

The next event is the ITM Auckland Supersprint September 9^th to the 11^th.

Supercars

OTR Supersprint 2022

August 19, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of July 30-31, 2022 was the OTR Supersprint.

Ford Mustang drivers have dominated in the recent past at The Bend Motorsport Park. They’ve taken the last seven race wins at the South Australian circuit, as well as the last eight pole positions.

The Bend marks the 100^th Supercars Championship round start for Monster Mustang driver Cameron Waters. This weekend is also his 95^th round with Tickford Racing. He made his first appearance for the team when it was known as Prodrive Racing Australia at the 2015 Sandown 500.

In the pre-race sessions:

Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Zac Best was fastest in Qualifying for Race 21
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying for Race 22 and 23

In Race 21 Zac Best scored his maiden pole position in the Supercars championship. It must have been exciting for him and his team Tickford Racing, but it must have been a baptism of fire having series leader Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

At the start of the race Zac Best got the jump and led into turn 1. Cameron Waters got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen and now had to challenge his teammate Zac Best in car 78 who was in front by a mere 0.213 seconds.

The cars further back in the pack were battling for positions inside the top 10. As the field made the approach down to turn 6 Chaz Mostert was putting the pressure on Shane Van Gisbergen for 3^rd place. David Reynolds was putting the pressure on Anton de Pasquale for 6^th place. Nick Percat was trying to pass his ex-race car from his days with Brad Jones Racing being driven Andre Heimgartner.

Zac Best was under investigation for jumping the race start. In the end the officials decided not to take any further action so there was no penalty.

Nick Percat passed Andre Heimgartner and now was trying to go around the outside of Broc Feeney. He made an attempt on the approach down to turn 10 but he couldn’t get the job done.

Andre Heimgartner got up the inside of Broc Feeney for 9^th position right at the end of lap 1.

On lap 2 David Reynolds ran wide on the exit of turn 5 and made contact with Will Brown at 210kms p/h an hour. Will Brown had the racing line for turn 6 and kept in front. Just behind the pair was Andre Heimgartner. He had gained 5 spots up to 9^th position.

Zac Best still had the lead and was 1.4 seconds ahead of his teammate Cameron Waters. Shane Van Gisberen followed just 0.683 seconds behind.

Once again David Reynolds was battling with Will Brown. Again he was trying to go around the outside of him but he was on the wrong side on the approach to turn 17 giving Will Brown the racing line for the final corner. Andre Heimgartner was also in the mix.

Broc Feeney was right behind Andre Heimgartner.

Thomas Randle was trying to get passed Brodie Kostecki for 11^th place but he wasn’t able to get the job done.

The first cars to pit on lap 6 were Will Davison, Will Brown, Jake Kostecki and Tim Slade.

Soon after, Will Brown in car 9 was under investigation for an unsafe pit release. He was issued a 15 second penalty.

Car 56 driven by Jake Kostecki had to serve a drive thru penalty for breaching the pit lane speed.

At the start of lap 7 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Cameron Waters for 2^nd place with Zak Best still ahead.

By lap 8 Zac Best was still the race leader but was under serious pressure from Shane Van Gisbergen.

On lap 9 Zac Best made a mistake by locking a brake and ran wide. Shane Van Gisbergen tried to take the opportunity but couldn’t make the pass.

On lap 10 Shane Van Gisbergen makes another attempt to pass but again wasn’t able to.

His third attempt was on lap 11 and he finally got the job done.

I was amazed that Zac Best lead the opening stages because he is a rookie and had not turned a lap of the Taliem Bend circuit. I thought it was very impressive.

Cameron Waters was the first of the front runners to pit and it put Chaz Mostert up to 3^rd position.

As Cameron Waters re-joined the race Will Davison passed him going into turn 1. Anton de Pasquale wanted to follow but couldn’t make it and gave Cameron Waters a nudge from behind.

As the race reached the halfway mark (lap 12) Thomas Randle, Nick Percat and Mark Winterbottom took their pitstops. There were still 11 cars to pit. Shane Van Gisbergen also didn’t pit. He decided to stay out and make the most of the track position and the 1.9 second lead that he had.

Zac Best pitted on lap 13 while Shane Van Gisbergen kept going. I was thinking, will he ever pit?

The cars that hadn’t done so earlier started to peel off into the pits for their 1 and only mandatory stop.

As Cameron Waters was approaching turn 1 he locked up the left front. Shortly after he lost his 6^th position to ex Tickford teammate, Chaz Mostert.

Shane Van Gisbergen now had a 16.5 second lead over Lee Holdsworth.

Lee Holdsworth and Macauley Jones pitted leaving Shane Van Gisbergen the last car that had not stopped.

Shane Van Gisbergen had an incredible 37.987 second lead over Will Davison. It was then another 45.192 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3rd.

Finally, Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 20 for 2 rear tyres. When he re-joined the race he assumed the lead with only 4 laps to go.

For the last 2 laps Chaz Mostert was the fastest car. He closed the massive gap to Will Davison down to only 2.8 seconds. Will Davison was only 1.9 seconds behind the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen.

In a last-minute effort David Reynolds got up the inside of Anton de Pasquale.

With 1 lap to go Shane Van Gisbergen was still holding a 1.4 second lead over Will Davison and was cruising to the finish line.

In the end he crossed the line 2.2 seconds clear of Will Davison and Chaz Mostert.

It was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 12^th win for 2022.

Results for Race 21

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

2^nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.

3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

In Race 22 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was Thomas Randle.

Thomas Randle stalled on the take-off from the grid. Apparently, a clutch failure. Andre Heimgartner was right behind him and had nowhere to move. He crashed full force into the back of Thomas Randle, the impact estimated at 8 Gs. Both cars were a mess. In the mayhem Nick Percat also ended up in the pit lane wall. The race was red flagged on the grid with all 24 laps to go.

The three cars had to be moved off the track to the pits for repairs, but none were able to return for the restart. The damage to the first 2 cars was so severe that after looking at them it appeared they would never race again. Heimgartner and Randle were both taken to the hospital as precaution. Both were complaining of chest pain and Randle of heel pain.

On the restart James Courtney and Chaz Mostert both got fantastic starts. After a brief challenge by James Courtney Chaz Mostert led into turns 1 and 2. He had gained 5 places to take that lead before the first turn. Chaz Mostert had a ¾ second lead over James Courtney.

James Courtney had gained 2 places to be in 2^nd followed by Anton de Pasquale.

Shane Van Gisbergen was 1 back and 1 wide in 4^th position.

Cameron Waters who was on pole for the restart had dropped to 5^th.

Will Davison got spun around and ended up at the back of the pack.

Macauley Jones made contact with Scott Pye on the exit of the 2^nd last corner causing Scott Pye to run wide.

Shane Van Gisbergen was complaining over the comms radio that his tyres’ pressures were very low.

The first car to pit in this race was James Golding in car 31 on lap 5. Will Brown, James Courtney, Anton de Pasquale, Bryce Fullwood, Scott Pye, Chris Pither and Lee Holdsworth also came in. So that’s eight cars in total in the pits area.

When Lee Holdsworth was exiting his pit bay, he made contact with Scott Pye’s left hand side door. Scott Pye said to his team, “what the hell were they thinking releasing him like that!”, they hit quite hard. Lee Holdsworth got a 15 second penalty for the unsafe pit release.

Later on in interview, David Cauchi said it was caused by a communication problem between the car controller and himself.

At this point in the race Chaz Mostert was still the leader by 1.1 seconds over the defending Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen. It was another 1.3 seconds back to Cameron Waters in 3^rd place.

On lap 7 four more cars came into pit; Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, Mark Winterbottom and Macauley Jones.

When Chaz Mostert came into pit it left Shane Van Gisbergen in the lead, 1.4 seconds over Cameron Waters. It was another 4.6 seconds between 2^nd and 3^rd place. It was an indicator that the leaders were making a big break away from the rest of the pack.

With the lead and clean air Shane Van Gisbergen did the fastest first 2 sectors of the circuit. The gap from Shane Van Gisbergen back to Chaz Mostert was now 38.6 seconds. It takes about 38 seconds to get off the racetrack and come into the pits for 2 tyres and re – join the track. That means Gisbergen who hadn’t pitted yet was not really that far ahead.

Broc Feeney in 15^th position was being challenged by Will Brown.

At this point in the race there were 9 cars yet to pit.

In the middle of the race Cameron Waters came in along with Jordan Boys.

When Brodie Kostecki was leaving the pit bay after coming in on lap 14, the pit gantry looked like it was going to topple over due to the hydraulic rattle gun still being attached to the rear wheel. The team was issued a penalty for the pit stop infringement.

Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and now had a 8.1 second lead over David Reynolds.

Shortly after David Reynolds and Will Davison pitted.

On lap 16 only 2 laps after his pit stop, Brodie Kostecki went off the track onto the grass. When he drove back onto the track he was moving slowly and it could be seen his left front tyre had been shredded. He had to return to the pits. It was poor timing because up until then he had been one of the front runners.

Shane Van Gisbergen had a 41+ second lead over Chaz Mostert before he came in to pit on lap 16. This big lead allowed him to re–join the race in position 1 with a 1.498 second lead.

Due to the delays at the start of the race and being ‘time certain’ the total laps were reduced from 24 to 18.

It was now truly a race to the finish. Shane Van Gisbergen with cold rear tyres had to hold off Chaz Mostert’s Commodore.

Once again, the series leader and defending champion drove like a demon.

It was the last lap and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to not only increase his lead over Chaz Mostert to 2.5736 seconds but he clocked the fasted lap time of the race.

Not that he needed it but the drive who does the fastest lap is awarded 5 bonus points. This year Gisbergen has earned 105 bonus points for the fastest lap. Incredible!

Chaz Mostert was followed across the line by James Courtney, Cameron Waters, Anton de Pasquale and Broc Feeney.

Results for Race 22

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

3^rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing.

In Race 23 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Anton de Pasquale alongside him.

Before the race started the rain that threatened through the weekend finally came and it came in buckets. The teams had to change to ‘wet’ tyres .

The field did 2 laps under safety car and the race started on lap 3.

At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turn 1 while cars behind were virtually hidden by the tyre spray mist coming off the cars up front. Drivers in the pack were struggling to see where they were going.

With the poor visibility I thought that cars would have gone off the track at turn 1 but somehow, they didn’t.

The tightly packed leaders were Cameron Waters, Anton de Pasquale, Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney. Each car was nose to tail.

James Courtney was keeping up with the leaders and back in the pack Brodie Kostecki gained 1 spot up to 12^th passing Lee Holdsworth.

Cameron Waters made a mistake due to the wet track and lost the race lead to Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen went on the attack trying to get passed Cameron Waters and close down the gap to the new race leader Anton de Pasquale.

While Anton de Pasquale was under attack from both Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney, Cameron Waters re-gained the race lead.

As the pack came down to the final corner there was yet again a change in the lead and the 2 times Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen was up front. It was only moments before Cameron Waters took the race lead back. Shane Van Gisbergen dropped 5 spots from 2^nd to 8^th but soon enough was back up to 2^nd with 0.343 second gap to leader Cameron Waters.

Over the radio comms Shane Van Gisbergen said to his engineer Andrew Edwards he couldn’t see anything in the rear view mirror and didn’t know where Broc Feeney was but would let him go if need be.

As the leaders were pulling away from the pack, James Courtney and Chaz Mostert were battling for 6^th and 7^th.

Bryce Fullwood had a lot of damage on the left side of car 14 which wouldn’t have been helping the Aerodynamics on the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore.

On lap 6 Broc Feeney went off the track at turn 6. Chaz Mostert gave Will Davison a tap causing him to spin around into the dirt.

Both the Matt Stone Racing cars of Jack le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood made contact with each other at turn 6 and both had a lot of damage. Todd Hazelwood apologised over the radio for taking out his own teammate.

The first car to pit was rookie Zac Best on lap 7. When he came in he was down in 25^th position.

The wet weather was causing mayhem. Jordan Boys went off the track between turns 14 and 15 and Jack le Brocq went off the track again.

Chaz Mostert in car 25 got a 15 second penalty for a driving infringement that had to be served after his pit stop.

On lap 8 Chaz Mostert was the first car from the leading group to take his pit stop.

Finally Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off the pole sitter Cameron Waters and then didn’t look back.

In the middle of the race Jake Kostecki was in the garage because of a problem with his car.

Nick Percat went off the track and David Reynolds had lots of damage as a result of contact with James Golding.

Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away in the lead. In the last few laps he actually passed Todd Hazelwood at the back of the pack.

Although it seems late in the race, Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 23 of the 24 laps.

On return to the track he was still in the lead and keeping ahead between 6 and 9+ seconds.

The front of the field was spread out giving the drivers plenty of space to move on the track but Shane Van Gisbergen was uncatchable.

Without fault he crossed the finish line 8.7109 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters. Brodie Kostecki in third place was a further 8.5198 seconds behind.

It was a wet but spectacular finish for the champion Shane Van Gisbergen taking 3 wins of 3 races at this event.

This brings the total Drivers Championship points to 2196 for Shane Van Gisbergen. That is 393 points clear of Cameron Waters.

Results for Race 23

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Boost Mobile Racing.

The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint August 19^th to the 21^st 2022.

Supercars

Merlin Darwin Triple Crown 2022

July 4, 2022 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 17^th to 19^th of June 2022 was the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

This year’s event at Darwin will be the 26^th time that the Supercars championship has held a round at the Hidden Valley Raceway. A total of 67 races have been held since the event debuted on the calendar in 1998.

The event is made up of 3 races, 38 laps each. Thus the name, ‘Triple Crown’.

New Zealanders have dominated the winners list in the recent history of Hidden Valley, winning 12 of the past 16 races. Current Supercars Championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen has won 3 races in that time, while Scott McLaughlin has won 8 races and his teammate Fabian Coulthard won 1.

Shell V-Power Racing Team driver Will Davison started his 500^th race on Saturday at Darwin. He has become just the 10^th active driver to achieve this feat. What a milestone! Congratulations!

Shane Van Gisbergen just returned from France after his debut performance in the Le Mans 24 Hours aboard a Ferrari. So, while everyone else had a 3 week break before this event, he was working extra hard and getting jetlagged.

In the pre-race sessions

Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Will Davison was fastest Armour All Qualifying.

In Race 16 Will Davison started on pole position for the 24^th time in his Supercars career. Alongside him was his teammate, Anton de Pasquale.

At the start of the race the 2 Shell V-Power Racing drivers got off the line quite evenly.

Andre Heimgartner gave Will Davison a bump going down the main straight, but nothing came of it. Then at turn 1, Anton de Pasquale went around the outside of Will Davison to take the lead.

Further back in the pack Macauley Jones went off the track at turn 1 onto the grass.

At turn 5 the two leaders, Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale made contact but Anton de Pasquale kept the lead.

Will Brown made contact with Chris Pither. Will Brown kept driving but he knew there was something wrong with the car.

Jack Smith went off the track on the way out of turn 6.

Jake Kostecki ran wide on the exit of the last turn. David Reynolds got spun around by Bryce Fullwood at the same corner a lap later. David Reynolds car was damaged and it was revealed later had a broken left rear toe link.

On lap 3 Cameron Waters ran wide on the exit of turn 5 but sustained no damage and was still in the race.

Will Brown was losing pace and was the first to come into the pits on lap 4. The incident with Chris Pither in lap1 had earned his car a broken the left front steering arm.

Chris Pither’s cool suit had failed early in the race and the Darwin heat which turned his a cool suit into a hot suit! He kept going and waited for a strategic time to pit and worry about cool suit then.

Jack Smith was the next to pit on lap 6.

No one else followed Broc Feeney into the pits on lap 8. When he re-joined, he had no cars in front or behind him. It was perfect timing.

The cars further back in the pack also began thinking about pitting to get clear track.

The race leaders were still Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison. Will Davison was under pressure from the cars behind which were; Andre Heimgartner, Shane Van Gisbergen, Chaz Mostert, Mark Winterbottom, Bryce Fullwood, Jake Kostecki, Scott Pye and Cameron Waters.

On lap 10 Chaz Mostert was closing in on Andre Heimgartner for 4^th position.

Lap 11 revealed the position changes further back in the pack. Chris Pither had dropped 4 spots from his starting position and was now 15^th.Lee Holdsworth had moved from a start in 26^th and was now 17^th.

James Courtney had gained 7 spots and was in 12^th. Brodie Kostecki was up 2 spots, Jack Le Brocq gained 4, Nick Percat was in 14^th, he had gained 7 places.

Tim Slade tried to go around the outside of Garry Jacobson and did it.

Bryce Fulwood pitted on lap 16 but then had to serve a 15 second penalty for turning David Reynolds around in the early stages of this race.

In the middle of the race, lap 19 of38 there were 13 cars out of 27 yet to pit. It was an unusual situation. Most would normally pit by now.

Will Davison peeled off to the pits on lap 20, followed by the other leader Anton de Pasquale on lap 21. Shane Van Gisbergen stayed out until lap 23. He had 18.601 second lead over Tim Slade.

Shane Van Gisbergen re- joined the race in 10^th place.

On lap 24 the leaders were Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and Thomas Randle who were the last three yet to pit. They were shadowed by Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison in 4^th and 5^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen made a charge on lap 25, first taking Scott Pye and then Broc Feeney on the same lap. He was now in 6^th place.

Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 25 leaving Thomas Randle in the lead but still yet to pit. He finally came in on lap 26 put the effective leaders back at the front; Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison were followed by Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner and Shane Van Gisbergen in 5^th.

The track was well spread but time was running out.

Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to shake things up. On lap 29 he passed Andre Heimgartner to take 4^th place. He also did the fastest lap of the race, timed at 1m 07.223s and earning 5 bonus points for the championship ladder.

He was still not satisfied and wanted a place on the podium. He was now chasing down one of the fastest drivers on the track, Chaz Mostert. Between laps 29 and 32 he reduced the gap from 3.227seconds to under 1 second.

On lap 33 Shane Van Gisbergen made his move takes 3^rd place from Chaz Mostert.

Anton de Pasquale still held the lead of 1.5+ seconds over Will Davison and does not make a single mistake.

Shane Van Gisbergen was not just happy making it to the podium and now wants 2^nd place from Will Davison. He relentlessly chases him and between laps 33 and 36 manages to squeeze the gap down from 1.5 to .2 seconds.

Shane Van Gisbergen was right on his tail but loses rear grip. The gap increased .5 seconds. It was a lost opportunity and there were only 2 laps remaining.

Will Davison was too worried about Shane Van Gisbergen on his tail to make any ground on Anton de Pasquale in the lead.

Anton de Pasquale crossed the line for his first win of 2022. Will Davison was next followed by Shane Van Gisbergen right on his bumper. There was a reasonable gap to Chaz Mostert and Andre Heimgartner in 4^th and 5^th.

Results for race 16

1^st Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team.

2^nd Will Davison – Shell V Power Racing Team.

3^rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.

In Race 17 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was David Reynolds.

At the start of the race Cameron Waters was neck and neck with David Reynolds up to turn 1 where he got the lead. Somehow Will Davison squeezed through at the turn to take 2^nd place from David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen was right behind the 3 leading drivers.

As the pack came through turn 6 Thomas Randle and Scott Pye spun uncontrollably off the track. There were about 4 or 5 cars involved and it seemed like mayhem. James Courtney’s smashed up car was stranded and unable to move from the middle of the road. The safety car was deployed but pretty quickly the officials red flagged the race so the track could be cleared.

James Courtney’s car was such a mess that it was obvious he would not be coming back out to finish the race. It was even doubtful that he would compete in the next race the same afternoon.

When the race restarted at the end of lap 4, Shane Van Gisbergen immediately went on the attack but failed to get 3^rd place from David Reynolds.

The cars soon settled into race pace but the leaders were pulling away from the rest of the pack.

On lap 7 Will Brown drove the fastest lap of the race whilst in 20^th position.

Thomas Randle who was involved in the lap 1 melee of spinning cars came into pit with related damage. He wouldn’t be coming back out on the track for the rest of the race.

Brodie Kostecki was the next to pit on lap 8. Soon others began to pit as well.

After pitting, Broc Feeney rejoined the race and crossed right in front of Brodie Kostecki coming down the straight. It must of shocked Broc Feeney quite a bit because at the coming turn he left the track onto the grass. It could have been a loss of grip from fresh cold tyres but I think it was a crack in focus.

Shane Van Gisbergen had maintained 4^th position all this time but couldn’t manage to get closer to the top 3 drivers. On lap 18 he changed strategy and came into the pits.

The 3 leaders soon followed suit and came in as well.

Chaz Mostert in 5^th place came in on lap 21.

Now every car had taken the mandatory pit stop (excepting the 2 cars of Pye and Courtney who were out of the race). The leaders were now David Reynolds, Anton de Pasquale and Bryce Fullwood.

The Darwin temperature had risen and cars were taking a second pit stop.

On lap 23 David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale left the lead and took their second stops.

By lap 25 things had evened out and the leaders had resumed their places; Cameron Waters, Will Davison, Shane Van Gisbergen and then Anton de Pasquale.

The order of the leading drivers stayed the same. The only important change was that David Reynolds was inching towards the front again. With 7 laps to go he moved into 5^th place behind Anton de Pasquale.

The 3 leaders were not giving their podium places up and stayed in their formation. Cameron Waters crossed the line first. Will Davison was next, followed by Shane Van Gisbergen.

Results for Race 17:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

2^nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.

3^rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

In race 18 Will Davison started on pole position alongside him was Anton de Pasquale.

At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump off the line and led into turn 1 from his teammate Will Davison Scott Pye started the final race from the pit lane due to the damage sustained at the start of race 17.

During the early stages the 2 Dick Johnson Racing cars were running 1^st and 2^ndthe rest of the field were trying to keep up with the leaders.

I was amazed that Anton de Pasquale took the lead in to turn 1 but the other drivers didn’t want them to win.

When the pitstops got underway while leaders stayed out longer while the drivers pitted first.

The race leaders early on were Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison.

In the middle of the stops were complete and Anton de Pasquale was still in the lead of the race.

After the restart Chaz Mostert took the lead of the race while Shane Van Gisbergen wanted to get onto the podium but as a result of the contact he finished 21^st and now has now got a 214 lead over Anton de Pasquale.

On lap 25 of 38 Garry Jacobson and Zac Best hit wheel to wheel on the approach up to turn 6, and as a result of the contact the left front wheel was broken and as result the BP Ultimate safety car was deployed to remove Zac Best’s car 78, as a result of deployment of the safety car it smashed Chaz Mostert because the lead he had was gone. Before the Safety car Shane Van Gisbergen was in 4^th position he only had Will Davison Anton de Pasquale and Chaz Mostert to pass for the win.

On the restart with 9 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was getting the benefit of the draft from the back of Will Davison’s car on approach to turn 1 Shane Van Gisbergen pushed him wide on the exit of turn 1, meanwhile Shane Van Gisbergen dropped 2 spots into 6^th position with 8 laps to go due to power steering failure. Then with 6 laps to go Chaz Mostert was under huge pressure from Anton de Pasquale for race lead and race win, but he held on what an amazing drive Shane Van Gisbergen got a 15 second penalty for a driving infringement and as a result he finished 21^st. Garry Jacobson got a pit lane drive thru penalty for a driving infringement with 7 laps to go Also car 99 driven by Brodie Kostecki had a pit lane penalty for a safety car restart breach.

In the end Chaz Mostert was the winner of race 18.

Results for race 18

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

2^nd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team.

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

The next event is the NTI Townville 500 July 8^th to the 10^th 2022.

Garry Jacobson has left Premier Hire Racing and Zane Godard for Townsville.

Supercars

Pizza Hut Winton Supersprint 2022

June 13, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 21^st to 22^nd of May 2022 was the Winton Supersprint.

This year marks the 33^rd time that the Australian Touring Car Championship – Supercars Championship has visited Winton Motor Raceway. The first round was held here in 1985 and since then the only years the championship didn’t visit the venue were 1987, 1996 and 2005. Covid 19 also impacted this event in 2020 and 2021.

A pair of teams reached significant milestones at Winton. Team 18 and Erebus Motorsport both made their 300^th championship starts in race 2. Both debuted at the Adelaide 500 in 2013. Erebus originally entered the series running a 3 car Mercedes AMG team.

The second race will also be Jack Le Broc’s 150^th Supercars Championship start.

Matt Cook marked his first event as Team Principal at Premier Hire Racing (ex Team Sydney). He has come directly from 888 Race Engineering and the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team where he was the chief mechanic.

The event got started on the Saturday morning. In the pre-race sessions:

Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Shane Van Gisbergen was also fastest in Armour All Qualifying for Race 13.

In Race 13 Shane Van Gisbergen earned his maiden pole position at Winton Motor Raceway. It was his 41^st career pole! Alongside him was Cameron Waters.

At the start of the 36 lap race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. Will Brown got an amazing start from the 2^nd row of the grid. I thought he was going to take the lead into turn 1 but he couldn’t make it around Shane Van Gisbergen.

Jake Kostecki ran wide onto the dirt at the exit of turn 3 but he kept his momentum only losing two spots.

Mark Winterbottom was slowing on the exit of turn 4 because of an electrical problem. His car completely stopped. It took valuable time to restart. When he got back up to speed he was in 27^th position and 10 seconds behind Garry Jacobson in the next car.

Shane Van Gisbergen was in 2^nd place to Cameron Waters. Will Brown just behind Shane Van Gisbergen took a massive slide but somehow managed to stay on track and not let anyone through. He had some of the fastest drivers right behind him, so it was an impressive feat. Right on his tail were Chaz Mostert, Lee Holdsworth, Anton de Pasquale, David Reynolds and Scott pye.

Soon after Anton de Pasquale reported his car was handling loosely in the rear. He started dropping down the order ending up in 9^th position. Pretty quickly he realised he would have to pit.

Cameron Waters was still in the lead and had a ¾ second gap over Shane Van Gisbergen. He managed the fastest time of the race in sectors 1 and 3.

On lap 6 Nick Percat and James Courtney in 19^th and 20^th position were the first 2 cars to pit and were in desperate need of clean air. Both teams did rear tyres only.

Thomas Randle came in to get away from the two Penrite Racing cars right behind him as they battled for positions 5^th and 6^th.

Garry Jacobson pitted on lap 8 to also get out of the way of their fierce battle.

There was only 3 seconds separating the top 5 cars, so the front of the pack was quite tense. Shane Van Gisbergen was only 0.685 seconds behind Cam Waters in the lead.

Cameron Waters had damage to the back of his car from being shunted.

Shane Van Gisbergen reported to his engineer Andrew Edwards, that there was fuel coming out the back of Cameron Waters’ car. Later, Garth Tander went into the Tickford Racing garage to interview team owner, Tim Edwards. When asked about the fuel leak his response was, ‘I don’t think Shane was telling the truth’. LOL. Very cheeky Mr SVG.

Jayden Ojeda and Chris Pither came in on lap 9 for rears only.

Broc Feeney came in on lap 12 to ensure that Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack when he wanted to pit. Feeney re-joined the race in 21^st position.

Walkinshaw Andretti United brought Chaz Mostert in on lap 13 to cover off the threat from Grove Racing’s David Reynolds who was hot on his tail. They did a 3.8 second stop and Chaz Mostert re-joined the race in 20^th position with plenty of empty track in front and behind. He was 10.145 seconds behind from leader Cameron Waters. Broc Feeney in 21^st place was 44+ seconds behind the leader.

By the middle of the race all the drivers had completed their mandatory pit stops and Cameron Waters was back in the lead!

Shane Van Gisbergen spent the rest of the race trying to find a way around Cameron Waters but just couldn’t manage it. Cameron Waters defensive driving had him stumped.

Just before the final corner heading to the finish line the two made contact. Shane Van Gisbergen’s front right took a massive hit and it broke the steering arm. The car was still running and magically he was able to make the last bend and follow Cam Waters to the finish line. (How do you make a turn with a broken steering arm? – Only ‘SVG the Magician’ knows that secret.)

Its standard practice to drive cars (with all their advertising livery) to the podium to accept trophies. On this occasion Shane Van Gisbergen got to the podium in a golf cart. LOL.

All round this was a fantastic race to start the weekend.

Results for Race 13:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

In Race 14 Cameron Waters started on pole position alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen.

At the start of the race Cameron Waters led into turns 1 and 2.

Reynolds in 3^rd place tried to get up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen at turn 3. The attempt failed and left him wide on the track. Chaz Mostert took the opportunity and moved up into 3^rd. Reynolds teammate Lee Holdworth was right behind and allowed him back into the racing line at position 4.

When Jayden Ojeda went off the track at turn 4 with assistance from Jordan Boys and then re-joined in 27^th position.

Brodie Kostecki got tagged by Broc Feeney in between turns 6 and 7 in the opening lap congestion.

At turn 9 Will Davison was pushed wide onto the dirt by Le Brocq on the inside. He had Courtney right on his tail so he could break suddenly. With both left wheels out on the dirt he managed to keep a straight line and get back on track.

Davison paid back Jack Le Brocq giving him a nudge at turn 10 forcing his right wheels off track onto the dirt. Will Davison and James Courtney both passed Jack Le Brocq and seconds later he was passed again by Thomas Randle.

Thomas Randle ran wide between turns 11 and 12 and he caught a little bit of dirt as well.

At the front of the race Cameron Waters was still the leader with a .6 of a second gap ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen.

The drivers behind Shane Van Gisbergen were Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds, Lee Holdsworth, Andre Heimgartner, Will Brown, Mark Winterbottom, Anton de Pasquale, Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney.

By lap 3 David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth were still in 4^th and 5^th with Andre Heimgartner close behind in 6^th position.

By lap 5 the gap between Cameron Waters and Shane Van Gisbergen in 1^st and 2^nd hadn’t changed much, ¾ of a second.

Engineer, Adam de Borre asked Chaz Mostert to find some fresh air for the engine. Things were obviously heating up. He couldn’t take it easy with David Reynolds on his tail putting the pressure on.

Will Brown was the first car to pit in this race, followed by James Courtney and Thomas Randle. Thomas Randle’s stop was exceptional, timed at 4 seconds.

On exiting the pits Will Brown made contact with Thomas Randle. They couldn’t hold everyone so pressed on.

The next 2 cars to pit were Scott Pye and Jack Le Brocq. Soon after it was Maculey Jones.

Mark Winterbottom pitted on lap 14 in 5.02 seconds. Surprisingly, at this stage there were 17 cars yet to pit.

Scott Pye slowed on the track between turns 5 and 6. Once again his engineer Richard Hollway declared another power steering problem. A problem that has plagued the team since round 1, race 1.

Chaz Mostert pitted on lap 15 and re-joined in 18^th position with 16 cars yet to pit.

Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 16. Cameron Waters also pitted on the same lap.

On lap 17 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Cameron Waters to take the affective lead of the race (taking into consideration there were still 13 cars yet to pit).

Shane Van Gisbergen’s driving was faultless and Cameron Waters couldn’t keep up. Gisbergen kept inching away. He crossed the finish line 5+ seconds ahead of Cameron Waters, followed by David Reynolds a further 3+ seconds later.

The defending Supercars Champion, Shane Van Gisbergen now leads the championship by 281 points.

Results for Race 14:

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

In race 15 it was the two stars of the weekend at the front of the grid. Cameron Waters was on pole with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

At the start of the race Cameron Waters once again got the jump off the line and led into turn 1 and 2. Andre Heimgartner moved up to 2^nd dropping Shane Van Gisbergen back to 3^rd.

David Reynolds got the best start from the front group of cars moving up 2 spots almost immediately. Shane Van Gisbergen was lucky to not to lose another spot to David Reynolds as he almost got up the inside at turn 3.

Lee Holdsworth got up the inside of Broc Feeney for position 10 between turns 5 and 6.

Meanwhile the cars back in the field were settling down into their race pace.

The front and the back of Jack Smith’s car had been damaged. He was struggling to see the apex of the corners because of the smashed up bonnet. He managed to get around the track but had to pit at the end of lap 1.

Tim Slade had smoke coming of the back of the Cool Drive Ford Mustang. Even after pitting the car was still giving off smoke for the next few laps.

Macauley Jones got down the inside of Todd Hazelwood and Scott Pye followed him. Jack le Brocq was sliding on the way out of the final corner, turn 12.

In the opening lap Cameron Waters drove the best lap time of the race. It clocked in at 1min 25.8s and gave him the 0.609 second lead over Andre Heimgartner.

After lap 1 there was a lot movement in the top 10 cars.

Jack Smith re-joined in 27^th position after pitting on lap 1. He was getting out of the way of the cars following because he was already a lap down.

Andre Heimgartner kept up the pressure on leader, Cameron Waters. David Reynolds was doing the same thing to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3^rd place. The gap between the top 3 cars was 2 seconds.

The leaders were pulling away from the cars back in the pack. From David Reynolds back to Broc Feeney there was a lot of congestion, so the pack were starting to think about pitting to get clear track.

David Reynolds kept right up with Shane Van Gisbergen through a number of laps without losing any ground whatsoever. It was the tiniest gap of only 0.254 seconds.

By the middle of the race all the pitstops were complete and Cameron Waters was back in the lead. He was looking good to win 2 out of the 3 races for the weekend.

Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to finally take back 2^nd position from Andre Heimgartner. His speed and defensive driving made it impossible for Heimgartner to challenge him. They held their places to the finish line; Cameron Waters followed by Shane Van Gisbergen then Andre Heimgartner.

So once again it was Waters and Gisbergen who swapped 1^st and 2^nd places in all 3 races on the weekend.

Results for Race 15:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.
2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.
3^rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.

The next event is the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on the 17^th to 19^th of June 2022. Super, I cant wait!

Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour 2022

June 3, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 13^th to the 15^th of May 2022 was the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

The Bathurst 12 hour is a time race independent of laps.

It is also a GT not a Supercars race, so the results don’t affect the Supercars series.

There were plenty of drivers from the Supercars paddock that competed, like; Lee Holdsworth, Broc Feeney, David Reynolds, Cameron Waters, Shane Van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes, Alex Davison, Chaz Mostert, Will Brown and Jack Perkins.

Some of the more well-known internationals that competed included; Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, Kelvin van der Linde, Marcus Winklehock and Prince Jefri Ibrahim.

I was keeping my eye on Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, Shane Van Gisbergen, Lee Holdsworth, Dean Fiore, Craig Lowndes, Cameron Waters and Grant Denyer.

Normally this event is run in February but due to Covid messing with things, it was re-scheduled for May.

Also, it usually starts between 6am and 6:15am (during daylight savings). Marketing determined it best to have the race finish during TV peak-time for better ratings. This meant an earlier start of 5:15am, so the first 90 minutes of the race were in the early morning dark.

The first 90 minutes were in the dark before sunrise.

Before the race started the fog had descended on Mount Panorama.

Chaz Mostert earned himself pole position. He was teamed with Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross in car 65, an Audi from Melbourne Performance Centre. I wasn’t surprised that Chaz Mostert started behind the wheel because of his experience at this venue in the Supercars Series.

South African, Kelvin van der Linde was alongside pole.

Broc Feeney, the Red Bull Ampol Racing rookie started the 888 Mercedes from 5^th position. In his Bathurst 12 Hour debut this was a big assignment, but no doubt because the team have faith in him.

There were only 20 cars on the grid this year compared to the normal 30 or 40 cars. The reduction was of limited international competitors due to COVID.

A rolling start behind the safety car is the norm for the Bathurst 12 Hour, I guess to reduce the risks of a standing start in the dark. It was also a good choice considering this year’s foggy conditions.

When the safety car peeled off, the start of the race was absolutely spectacular. The drivers in the top 10 held their positions with Mostert and Linde being the pace setters.

The safety car came out more than once due to the foggy conditions. The visibility was so poor that even the drivers were making comments. Typical of Bathurst, the fog turned to rain, then fogged up again and then rained again.

Before the sun came up, Zane Morse in car 52 tagged the wall at the top of the hill forcing a safety car. The Wheels/FX Racing PNG Marc II V8 was the first car to leave the track.

Two hours into the race Dale Wood in car 50 was the next victim of The Mountain.

About halfway through car 95 was pulled from the race with engine problems.

Car 45 hit the wall exiting The Dipper and required immediate repairs. When it rejoined the race they suffered another hit taking it out of the race for good.

I am not superstitious but I note that the above cars mentioned all have the number 5 in their car numbers; 52, 50, 95 and 45. Coincidence?

Of all the things that happened to the cars in such a gruelling race, it was the pole sitter car 65 that had my eyes wide open in disbelief. The car had stopped on Mountain Straight. To rectify the issues, you wont believe this….. They literally pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart and then … they were off and away! LOL!

The weather played havoc through the day. There were multiple occasions that the safety cars were deployed, and other cars were pulled from the track to sit out the rest of the race.

It was the team of Jules Gounon, Martin Konrad, Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz who crossed the line first with an 8.7 second lead. They were in car 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG. (note another 5 in the car number).

The Craft Bamboo Mercedes, car 91 was the next across the line. Daniel Juncedella, Kevin Tse and Maro Engel put in an incredible challenge to the leader in the last 2 hours of the race. It really was an intense extended battle to the finish line.

The third car to come across the line was also a Mercedes AMG, giving Merc a 1,2 & 3 on the podium. This was the 888 car from my favoured team Triple Eight Race Engineering, driven by Supercars defending champ Shane Van Gisbergen, Broc Feeney and Prince Jefri Ibrahim.

It was an incredible race and im already looking forward to its return next year. Good thing is it is expected to run in its usual schedule of February, so I don’t have to wait a full year!!!!

Supercars

Repco Bathurst 1000 2021

December 13, 2021 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the week from November 30^th to December 5^th, 2021 was the 61^st running of The Bathurst 1000. It was the final race for the year and the biggest race of the year. The Bathurst 1000 is not only known in Australia but considered internationally as one of the toughest races in the category.

The new sponsor for the great race was Repco who have claimed the naming rights over previous year’s sponsors, Supercheap Auto.

Usually the race includes international drivers but due to COVID-19 restrictions no overseas contestants were able or willing to come to Australia. Some notable drivers absent included, Greg Murphy and Richard Stanaway who were supposed to team up in a Boost Mobile Commodore and run with Murphy’s old number, car 51.

I’m also assuming it was to the relief of some local drivers that Scott McLaughlin wasn’t able to make it from the U.S., due to commitments in his Indy Cars maiden year.

It was also an emotionally filled last event for Roland Dane, Triple Eight Race Engineering founding member and team principal since 2003. His retirement from the position is opening the door to team driver and 7 time champion, Jamie Whincup. Jamie Whincup has now retired from full time racing after 20 years to take on this new role.

In honour of his achievements, Jamie Whincup was inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame.

The Bathurst 1000 event is so huge that the preliminary sessions start taking place 5 days before the main event!

The results for the pre-race sessions were a mixed bag of this season’s fastest drivers. The only surprise were the following drivers weren’t in the mix; Season Champion Shane Van Gisbergen, highly accomplished long term driver Jamie Whincup and Anton de Pasquale (who has shown amazing speed and form in the last 4 events).

The pre-session results were as follows:

Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 1
Lee Holdsworth was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 4
Will Brown was fastest in Armour All Qualifying
Lee Holdsworth was fastest in Practice 5
Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 6
Brocq Feeney and Russell Ingall was fastest in the Warm Up

Finally the Sunday came and the 25 cars took their places on the grid just before 12:15pm.

Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth (car 25) started on pole position. Anton de Pasquale and Tony Dalberto (car 11) were in P2 alongside them.

It was the co-drivers behind the wheel of both cars, Lee Holdsworth and Tony Dalberto.

In fact most of the co-drivers started the race except for Tim Slade and Mark Winterbottom.

I thought given that it was Jamie Whincup’s last race, he would have started behind the wheel but it was his co-driver & 7 times Bathurst winner, Craig Lowndes.

As they took off from the start line, Tony Dalberto to my surprise led into turn 1 from his position 2 on the grid. He held the lead until ‘The Chase’ then Lee Holdsworth assumed the lead. He had .8 second lead and quickly had 1.1 second lead. Car 25 was a jet.

In that first lap the usual leap-frog of positions occurred. Garth Tander gained 3 spots and Craig Lowndes lost 2 after starting 5^th and 11^th on the grid respectively.

As they entered lap 2 the drivers settled down and had their first flying lap. Lee Holdsworth in car 25 was going so fast Garth Tander now in second place, had no chance in catching him.

By lap 3 car 20 driven by Scott Pye and co-driver James Golding came in early because of a mechanical drama. Scott Pye didn’t know what the problem was and the stop took up valuable time. When car 20 came back on track they were 1 lap down.

On lap 16 Craig Lowndes was a little bit sideways but recovered easily. In the next lap he took the opportunity to hand over to Jamie Whincup. The timing was perfect, as Whincup left the pitlane he had clear track in front of him.

It wasn’t until lap 17 that the first safety car was deployed because Thomas Randle in car 44 was buried in the sand at turn 1.

While all the pit-stops were happening car 25 was still the pace setter. The cars behind seemed to still have no chance to catch the pole sitting car.

On lap 29 car 9 driven by Jack Perkins had a power steering failure going across the top of the mountain. Smoke was pouring out the back of the car and cars behind had to slow down to keep out of the hazardous haze. Car 9 headed straight for the pits.

On lap 49 Chaz Mostert was still leading the race but suddenly started slowing on Conrod Straight. Commentator, Mark Skaife thought it was a mechanical drama but after the unscheduled pit stop it was revealed to simply be a flat tyre. It was a cruel blow that dropped him down from 1^st to 12^th.

It was now Cam Waters (#6), Brodi Kostecki (#99) and Shane Van Gisbergen (#888) in the top 3 positions with a 16+ seconds lead over Anton de Pasquale (#11) in 4^th place.

After a few laps Brodi Kostecki went into the pits leaving the top 3 positions to Waters, Gisbergen and Whincup.

Further back in the pack Dean Fiore (co-driver to Tod Hazelwood, #14) returned to the pits with warped rear brakes plus an existing muffler problem that they decided not to fix. So they had issues on the throttle issue and on the brakes.

On lap 57 Cam Waters also headed to the pits. It was now Champion Elect Shane Van Gisbergen at the front with teammate Jamie Whincup right behind him in position 2. Whincup had gained 9 places.

Meanwhile Mostert was making way through the mayhem and was at 6^th position fighting for his comeback.

By lap 61 Whincup headed in to the pits to hand over to Craig Lowndes. Mostert had amazingly worked his way through the pack and now in 2^nd place to Gisbergen albeit roughly 35 seconds behind.

On lap 64 it was time for Shane Van Gisbergen to head to the pits. Mostert in car 25 was back in the lead!

On lap 105 Holdsworth who had a 39+ second lead headed to the pits. It was then that the 2^nd safety car was deployed. It wasn’t due to any great pile up or accident but because an Echidna was on the track! I can only assume that it could sense the ground vibrations from the rumbling V8s and thought it was ants burrowing and there was a big feast to be had. If it were truly ants, all I can say is they would be damned BIG ants! (What was the echidna thinking?)

Once the Australian Native left the track the safety car peeled off and the race went back to green with 52 laps to go.

Holdsworth had handed over #25 to Chaz Mostert just as the race went yellow. So on the return to green it was Gisbergen, Mostert and Whincup in the the top 3 places but the leading gaps had closed up.

Gisbergen (#888) was racing for the team and slowed down enough to make Mostert (#25) attempt a pass but that would leave him wide and Whincup could gain a spot. A very clever tactic.

Soon enough Mostert lost his patience and tried his luck. It was bad timing considering the upcoming turns. Whincup managed to slip in while Mostert was wide. Then Mosterts poor positioning allowed Anton de Pasquale to pass him.

Mostert fought back and passed Anton de Pasquale at turn 1 on the next lap.

It was lap 114 of 161 and the competition was so fierce. The Triple Eight drivers in the lead, Gisbergen and Whincup both did their fastest lap of the race with Chaz Mostert hot on their tail.

It was then that car 35 driven by Jayden Ojeda (Zane Goddard) hit the wall and the 3^rd safety car for the race was deployed. All drivers headed to the pits.

On exit it was busier than a Woolworths parking lot on Saturday morning. Brodi Kostecki squeezed in ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen. Will Davison tried the same thing but coming in from the left wasn’t seen by Jamie Whincup and they made contact. As a result Davison received a 5 second pit lane penalty that he had to serve in his next and last pit stop.

When the race went back to green the fierce driving returned lead by Reynolds (#26), Mostert(#25) and Gisbergen (#888).

On lap 121 the second Matt Stone Racing car #34, Jake & Kurt Kostecki hit the tyre barrier at Forest Elbow (didnt hit a funny bone) bringing out the 4^th safety car of the day. The car looked pretty messed up. Somehow Jake Kostecki managed to reverse the car out of the barrier and make it back to the pits unassisted.

With 22 laps remaining Anton de Pasquale came to a halt midway through ‘The Cutting’. He couldn’t get the gears to engage and the race returned to Yellow for the 5^th time.

The lead was now in the hands of Mostert, Gisbergen and Waters. Whincup had dropped to 5^th place.

On lap 144 (19 laps remaining) newcomer Brocq Feeney left the track at turn 10 and ended up in the sand pit with a right front wheel bent at an unholy angle. The 6^th safety car was sent out. With such little time left ‘The Enforcer and the Kid’ would not be returning to the track. (Russel Ingall’s nickname is The Enforcer).

The race went back to green with 16 laps to go. It was now on to the finish line for young and old with all the gaps closed up due to the safety car.

Between the last 16 laps and 10 laps remaining Mostert had worked up a 2.654 second lead over the defending Bathurst Champion Shane Van Gisbergen.

Mostert was only managing to gain a few 10ths of a second on each lap.

With 7 laps to go Mostert had a 4.599 second lead over SVG. It was then that Mostert got his lucky break. Shane Van Gisbergen started slow. It was the worst possible timing to get a flat tyre on the front right. By the time he reached the pits he had dropped from 2^nd place to 18^th while the others managed to clock up another 2 laps. They were at lap 156 of 161. SVG must have been devastated to be taken from a sure podium finish to the back of the pack. Credit to him, they changed the tyre and he headed back out to complete the race.

With SVG out of the way Mostert had a 5+ second lead over Cam Waters #6 and Brodi Kostecki #99 a further 3.4+ seconds back. Mostert in his jet of a car was driving flawlessy.

Whincup in 4^th place was fighting for a podium finish in his last race as a full-time driver. The pace was so demonic he just couldn’t make any gain on Kostecki. IN fact in those last laps the split remained almost static the whole time.

On the last lap Mostert’s lead enable him to drive at a slower pace ensuring there were no last second mistakes. He comfortbly crossed the finish line to the cheers of the crowd.

This was Mostert’s second Bathurst win since his last in 2014 and 10 years since the team Walkinshaw Andretti United had their last Bathurst Win. Co-driver Lee Holdsworth looked like he was going to puke as he scored his first Bathurst after 18 attempts in The Big Race.

Results for race 31

1^st Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

2^nd Cameron Waters and James Moffatt – Tickford Racing.

3^rd Brodie Kostecki and David Russell – Erebus Motorsport.

4^th Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

Congratulations to Jamie Whincup on everything you have achieved during your amazing Supercars career, you should be so proud of yourself, best of luck for the future.

The next event is the Repco Newcastle 500 March 4^th to 6^th 2022.

William's Perfect Ride

Tag Archives: Broc Sweeney

Thrifty Newcastle 500 2023

Like this:

Valo Adelaide 500 2022

Like this:

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2022

Like this:

Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint 2022

Like this:

OTR Supersprint 2022

Like this:

Merlin Darwin Triple Crown 2022

Like this:

Pizza Hut Winton Supersprint 2022

Like this:

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour 2022

Like this:

Repco Bathurst 1000 2021

Like this:

Live it – Breathe it – Dream it – Drive it