Tag Archives: Brodie Kostecki

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2023

December 7, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of 27 – 29 October 2023 was the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

It was round 11 of the 12 rounds in the 2023 Supercars Championship.

The Gold Coast race at Surfers Paradise is a street circuit which was first opened in 1991. The challenging 4.47 km circuit alongside a strip of beaches has several fast sections and four chicanes.

From 1991 to 2008 the Gold Coast Indy 300 was an annual open-wheel motor race event. In the early days Supercars were there as a support category but from 2002 through to present it has been a round of the Supercars Championship. This year was the 21^st event at the venue that has held 44 V8 Supercars races to date.

As expected, it was perfect Queensland weather excepting a small shower on the first practice day. In the pre-race sessions:

Scott Pye was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top 10 Shootout

In Race 25 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Matt Payne alongside him.

As they took off Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps that makes up the 250km race. Matt Payne was right on his tail.

After starting 3^rd on the grid Shane Van Gisbergen dropped to 5^th before the first turn.

As Thomas Randle got to the first turn he took a shortcut across the chicanes. The officials spotted it but took no further action.

As Tim Slade got to the first turn another car made contact and spun him around. The safety car was deployed to slow drivers while he extracted himself from the dangerous position at the turn.

Brodie Kostecki was on the charge. He started 10^th on the grid because his shootout lap was disallowed for going out of bounds. Now he had jumped to 7^th place.

Within a few laps Chaz Mostert passed Thomas Randle to get up to 3^rd place and was only 0.672 seconds behind Matt Payne.

The first car to pit was Broc Feeney on lap 9, along with Anton de Pasquale. They returned to clear track in 24^th and 25^th place.

Thomas Randle got by Chaz Mostert for 3^rd spot.

It then seemed like the drivers were struggling with the high speed track. First Matt Payne received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Soon after both Chaz Mostert and Will Brown received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.

Then it was Todd Hazelwood’s turn to receive a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.

Shane Van Gisbergen overtook Chaz Mostert for 4^th position and was only 2.3 seconds behind Thomas Randle in 3^rd place and only 4 seconds off the race lead.

Jack le Brocq alerted the team he was leaking fuel and went into the garage.

Brodie Kostecki was now in 5^th place right behind Shane Van Gisbergen in their personal title battle for this year’s championship.

Cameron Waters pitted early and came back out in 8^th place. When the top 7 cars took their pit stops he would resume the lead.

On lap 28 Shane Van Gisbergen took the number 1 spot off Matt Payne.

A few laps later Shane Van Gisbergen pitted and Brodie Kostecki followed him in. They came back out in 5^th and 7^th place.

In the middle of the race Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to take his final pitstop. Meanwhile his teammate, Shane Van Gisbergen did the fastest lap of the race and was 6.1 seconds away from the lead.

Further ahead, David Reynolds was battling with Thomas Randle for 2^nd and 3^rd place.

Towards the end of the race with only 11 laps to go Cameron Waters was 1.4 seconds ahead of David Reynolds. It was another 2 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 3^rd place.

Chaz Mostert once again exceeded track limits. This time he received a 5 second time penalty.

With 10 laps to go Cameron Waters still had the lead over David Reynolds but Shane Van Gisbergen had closed the gap to only 0.315 seconds.

Soon Shane Van Gisbergen took over David Reynolds. The gap to Cameron Waters in 1^st was just 0.362 seconds.

With only a few laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen was desperately looking for an opportunity to overtake for the lead and win. However, Cameron Waters is a seasoned driver. He kept his cool and defended the number 1 spot. Shane Van Gisbergen kept on his tail to the end of the race.

As they crossed the finish line there was only 0.194 seconds between them. It was a spectacular tight finish.

Results for Race 25:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

In Race 26 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 8^th time this year. Alongside him was David Reynolds.

As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 85 laps.

At turn 4 Tim Slade, James Courtney, Jack Smith and Macfauley Jones made contact and cars were spinning out of control in every direction. The cars back in the pack had to drive over the top of the first chicanes to avoid adding to the pileup. All four cars had come to a stop in this dangerous part of the track. The first safety car was deployed while the stranded cars were rescued.

The track was cleared by lap 8. However, it is the lead driver who gets to make the call for when the race goes back to green. Brodie Kostecki was waiting for the right moment to give the green light signal but the other drivers became impatient and started racing too soon. Confusion followed but the race still continued. It took a while for the officials to review, and it was only later that the offending drivers were penalised.

The first two cars to pit were Jack le Brocq and Will Davison on lap 9.

David Reynolds was challenging Brodie Kostecki for the lead and putting him under pressure. He was right on his tail and constantly on the attack.

Further back Shane Van Gisbergen got by Anton de Pasquale for 9^th place. His next target was Cameron Waters in 8^th place.

Brodie Kostecki held the lead until he pitted on lap 28. This relinquished the number 1 spot to David Reynolds. When Brodie Kostecki returned to the race he was in 12^th place.

As the other drivers began to take their pit stops Brodie Kostecki moved up and eventually had the lead again.

Once again David Reynolds was right on his tail.

Towards the end of the race David Reynolds finally took advantage of a weak spot in the leader, Brodie Kostecki’s defence and passed him. I believe Brodie Kostecki didn’t aggressively defend the move at the risk of being knocked out of the race. All he had to do was get a podium finish ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen to protect his position in the season championship.

Cameron Waters was in 3^rd place but was a few seconds behind and didn’t pose an immediate challenge to Brodie Kostecki.

With 7 laps to go James Golding had a massive shunt from behind and spun around landing in the tyre barrier. He almost collected Scott Pye in the process. They did make contact but luckily it seemed pretty light.

Shortly after Scott Pye’s car readings showed a big problem. He had to pull over immediately and the safety car was once again deployed.

When the race went back to green there was only 5 laps remaining. David Reynolds still had the lead over Brodie Kostecki, followed by Cameron Waters.

Brodie Kostecki was always close behind and a constant threat. At times there was less than 0.3 of a second between them. David Reynolds is a tough and seasoned driver. He never showed signs of cracking and at no time gave any opportunities away to his challengers.

In the end David Reynolds crossed the line 0.189 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki.

It was Reynold’s first race win since 2018 in what was probably the most exciting race of the year.

Congratulations to David Reynolds and his team, Grove Racing.

Results for Race 26:

1^st David Reynolds – Grove Racing

2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

With 1 event made up of 2 races remaining, Brodie Kostecki leads over Shane Van Gisbergen by 131 points. Will Brown is 3^rd and trails by 495 points, Broc Feeney is 504 points behind and Chaz Mostert is 640 points.

The grand finale event for the year will be the Valo Adelaide 500, 23 – 26 November 2023.

Hope you can join me.

Supercars, V8 Supercars

Repco Bathurst 1000 2023

October 27, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of 5-8 October 2023 was the Repco Bathurst 1000. It was round 10 of the 2023 Supercars Championship.

Mount Panorama was first opened on March 17, 1938. The track is actually a street circuit so outside of race dates it is a public road. Yes! That is the answer to your question, “Can I actually drive around the Bathurst track?” just remember it is a 60 zone.

The first event held at Mount Panorama was a motorcycle race on the 16th of April 1938, the Australian Tourist Trophy. Two days later the Australian Grand Prix took place (a motor car race).

Before becoming known as The Bathurst 1000 the race was called the Armstrong 500. The first few years it ran at Phillip Island and was then moved to Bathurst in 1963. In those days it was a 500 mile race (approx. 804Km) and was done with only a single driver. A few years after Australia changed to metric measurements the race was increased to 1000kms.

It has become the most well-known race in Australia and is also internationally revered. It’s the race that stops the nation and creates legends.

The legend of the King of the Mountain, Peter Brock was earned through this event. Peter Brock won his first Bathurst in 1972 in the days without a co-driver. He then went on to win again in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987. No other driver has beaten his record of 9 Bathurst 1000 wins.

This year was the 60th running of the Repco Bathurst 1000. An incredible milestone for any race event.

This year the event kicked off under almost perfect weather conditions. A surprise to all as Bathurst is known for some pretty challenging conditions at this time of the year.

The pre-race sessions kicked off on the Thursday and went through to Sunday morning. The results were:

Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
David Russell was fastest in Practice 2
David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 3
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 4
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Richie Stanaway was fastest in Practice 5
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 6
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in the Shootout
Brodie Kostecki and co-driver David Russell were fastest in the warm up

In Race 24 Brodie Kostecki earned pole position but his co-driver David Russell was behind the wheel of car 99 for the start. Alongside them was co-driver Jamie Whincup after main driver Broc Feeney scored second place on the front row of the grid. There were 16 out of 28 co-drivers who started the race behind the wheel. So, it was quite a common strategy.

As the lights went green, they took off and Jamie Whincup led into turn 1 for the first of 161 laps. Pole sitter David Russell was right under his rear wing only 0.174 seconds behind.

The cars further back in the pack were dicing for places outside the top 10.

Early on Will Brown had gained 5 places up to 12^th. James Golding had gained 1 spot after starting 4th on the grid.

Jamie Whincup had a hard time getting some space between himself and David Russell in 2^nd place. By lap 4 Jamie Whincup managed to increase his lead to only 0.498 seconds. It was another 1 second back to James Golding in 3rd.

On lap 5 James Courtney ran wide on the exit to the final corner but didn’t lose any places.

Thomas Randle got up the inside of Lee Holdsworth exiting Forest Elbow for 10^th place.

Jamie Whincup had managed to increase his lead to around 1 second over David Russell.

Richie Stanaway finally got up the inside of Garth Tander to move into 5^th place. His next target was Cameron Waters sitting in 4^th position.

The first car to pit in this race was car 96 of Macauley Jones and Jordan Boys on lap 10.

Between lap 4 and 10 Jamie Whincup managed to extend his lead 1.525 seconds over David Russell.

Further back Will Brown was on the charge. He was up 10 spots after starting 17^th on the grid. He now smoothly passed Garth Tander moving into 6^th place and was only 2.8 seconds away from the lead.

On lap 17 Craig Lowndes started slowing down due to a broken gear lever mount and was forced to pit.

James Golding in 3^rd was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 18.

Car 3 driven by Todd Hazelwood and Tim Blanchard pitted on lap 21. Soon after they were investigated for a pit stop infringement and issued a 15 second time penalty to be served on their next stop. Although disappointing it was still early in the race. They had another 5 hours to catch up.

On lap 24 Dean Fiore co-driver to Bryce Fullwood made contact with Simona de Silvestro at The Chase. Simona de Silvestro who returned from her homeland, Switzerland especially for this race was pushed off the road onto the grass. There was no damage to speak of and she re-joined the race easily. Race officials took no further action on the incident.

Kevin Estre (co-driver to Matt Payne) had a big lockup at turn 1 and ended up in the sand trap. He couldn’t get out on his own and the first safety car was deployed so the recovery vehicle could assist.

While the Yellow flag was out (indicating drivers to slow down and stay in formation behind the safety car) all drivers except 2 took the opportunity to pit.

David Reynolds was under investigation for jumping ahead in the safety car line. He was later issued a pit lane drive thru penalty. That didn’t go down too well and David Reynolds started to argue the case when told by his race engineer Alistair McVean. After the restart he was reluctant to give back 3^rd place to Broc Feeney and even refused to take the drive thru penalty on the next lap. Race Director James Taylor had to warn him that he still did have to take it.

The restart which was on lap 30 saw Shane Van Gisbergen immediately took the race lead off Dylan O’Keeffe (co-driver to James Golding).

Broc Feeney was in 3^rd place (after Reynolds let him pass) and then managed to get by Dylan O’Keeffe for 2^nd place.

The 2 Red Bull cars were now running 1^st and 2^nd on the track, followed by O’Keeffe and then Reynolds.

Bryce Fullwood made contact and pushed Aaron Love off the track at The Chase. Bryce Fullwood was later issued a penalty for his actions.

On lap 39 Scott Pye made contact with Dale Wood who then went off track into the gravel trap. The safety car was sent out while Dale Wood’s car was pulled out and luckily able to return straight to the race.

When they restarted Mark Winterbottom was out front followed by Fabian Coulthard and Brodie Kostecki.

Meanwhile car 6 driven by James Moffat was under investigation for an unsafe pit release. It was later on lap 43 when he was issued a 5 second time penalty.

Brodie Kostecki soon passed Fabian Coulthard to take 2^nd position.

Then Richie Stanaway got up the inside of Declan Fraser for 4^th place. His next target was Fabian Coulthard in 3^rd place. It wasn’t long after that Richie Stanaway made his move pushing Fabian Coulthard down another spot to 4^th.

The 2 Brad Jones Racing cars with Jack Smith and Macauley Jones in the driver’s seat made contact with each other at The Chase. They both went off the track and both had minor damage that required a visit to the pits ASAP.

Not long after Macauley Jones received a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.

On lap 71 Dean Fiore co-driver to Bryce Fullwood was under investigation for a pit lane infringement and was issued a time penalty.

James Moffat hit the wall coming out of The Dipper and came to a stop in a dangerous part of the track. Officials thought he would not be able to get out of the predicament on his own and sent out the 3^rd safety car of the race. Before help could arrive, James Moffat was able to get going again. Unfortunately, it was only to get back to the pits in his smashed up car to then find out he would not be returning to the race.

Car 888 driven by Craig Lowndes had to serve a pit lane penalty after he turned off the ‘pit limiter’ to early while in the pit lane.

Richie Stanway clocked the best lap time of the race on lap 92. He had also moved up to 2^nd place after passing Tony Dalberto.

Jamie Whincup rounded up Garth Tander which took him from 5^th up to 4^th place. “The Goat” was now only 7.9 seconds away from the lead. He then pitted on lap 93 to hand the wheel over to Broc Feeney who would race all the to the end.

Richie Stanaway pitted soon after on lap 97 from the number 1 position and Shane Van Gisbergen took the driver’s seat for the final stage of the race.

Once these two Red Bull Ampol Racing Team cars came out of the pits, Shane Van Gisbergen returned to the number 1 spot with his team mate Broc Feeney not far behind.

On lap 137 of 161 (25 laps remaining) Broc Feeney was slowing due to a gearbox issue stopping him from changing gears. He slipped from 2^nd to 3^rd allowing Brodie Kostecki to pass him. Broc Feeney had to head to the pits. It was unlucky timing being so close to the end of the race.

The team were able to repair the issue, but Broc returned to the track in 24^th position. Unfortunate for him to go from a podium contender to the back of the pack.

It was later revealed that all 3 of the 888 Engineering cars had the same issue (the 2 cars of Gisbergen and Feeney driving for Red Bull Ampol Racing and also the Craig Lowndes/ Zane Goddard duo driving under the Super Cheap Auto banner. It’s surprising any of them finished.

With 18 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was still out front with a good lead of 15.010 seconds over Brodie Kostecki.

In the last laps Shane Van Gisbergen controlled the race and was too far ahead for Brodie Kostecki to challenge him for the win.

It was incredible to watch as Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging ahead to finally cross the line with a 19.9 seconds lead over Brodie Kostecki.

Shane Van Gisbergen is now a 3-time winner of the Bathurst 1000.

It puts him in striking distance of the season leader Brodie Kostecki for the remaining two events. Can he now become a 4-time Supercars Champion before he heads to the US in 2024? Its going to be fun finding out.

Results for Race 24

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Brodie Kostecki and David Russell – Erebus Motorsport

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

Out of the 28 starters only 24 cars finished the race. 4 cars got a DNF.

Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 131 points over Shane Van Gisbergen. With 2 events to go (4 races) in the 2023 championship it is going be an exciting finish to the year,

The next event is the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on the 27^th – 29^th October 2023.

I hope you will join me.

Supercars

OTR Supersprint the Bend 2023

September 1, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 19 – 20 of August 2023 was the OTR Supersprint at The Bend.

The Tailem Bend racetrack was first opened in 2017 and is the youngest circuit in Australia. The Bend Motorsports Park is also known by its sponsorship name Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.

The Bend first hosted a V8-Supercars championship round in 2018 and has staged Supercars racing ever since. This includes two rounds during the Covid affected 2020 season.

This year’s round 8, the OTR Supersprint at “The Bend” was a significant round in the history books of the Australian Touring Car Championship – Supercars Championship. It was the 600th round of the championship since starting 63 years ago in 1960.

In the pre-race sessions for this years’ event:

Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 1
Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 20 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position and alongside him was Thomas Randle.

At the start of the race Thomas Randle got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of the quick 20 laps.

As the rest of the pack came through turn 1 Jack Le Brocq made contact with Will Brown and chaos broke loose. Will Brown was spun around and tightly packed cars behind were going in all directions to avoid colliding with him. Some we simply unlucky, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill ploughed straight into him. Somehow Mark Winterbottom who was directly behind them missed the carnage.

The safety car was immediately despatched to clean up the mess. The three cars of Will Brown, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill were removed from the track unable to return and received a Not Complete (NC).

The officials had a look at the incident and decided to take no further action so no one was penalised.

The restart was on lap 5 and it was the cars outside of the top 10 that were dicing for position.

The first cars to pit were Broc Feeney, James Courtney, Bryce Fullwood and Jack le Brocq on lap 6.

The leaders stayed out to maintain their track position while the going was good.

Brodie Kostecki passed Chaz Mostert for 2^nd place. He was now only 0.588 seconds off the race lead, Thomas Randle.

In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner pitted from 10^th place. No one else followed him into the pits.

Brodie Kostecki soon found the opportunity and passed Thomas Randle for the lead. Thomas Randle and Chaz Moster knew it was a losing battle to try and chase the championship leader and all three pitted on lap 12. Macauley Jones also came in. There were now only 6 drivers yet to pit.

With 9 laps remaining the challenge was now on. Once the 6 cars ahead pitted Brodie Kostecki assumed the lead of the race with Thomas Randle and Chaz Mostert right behind him.

With 8 laps to go Cameron Waters, Shane Van Gisbergen and Nick Percat all pitted, only leaving 3 cars to pit.

The top three drivers kept their positions until the final laps when Chaz Mostert was able to pass Thomas Randle for 2^nd place.

Even though the front runners were reasonably close together, on the last lap no one could catch Brodie Kostecki.

He crossed the line 1.71 seconds ahead of Chaz Mostert. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Cameron Waters.

Results for Race 20

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing

In Race 21 Thomas Randle started on pole position for the first time since starting his full time Supercars career in 2022.

Brodie Kostecki started next to pole and led off the start line into turn 1 for the first of 20 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen who started 4^th on the grid immediately moved up to 3^rd place.

Meanwhile the cars further back in the pack were battling for places outside the top 10.

Inside the top 10 Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq all got spun around at turn 6 which put them back in the running order. They dropped down to 22^nd, 24^th and 25^th place.

Race control investigated the incident and not long after issued Jack le Brocq with a drive thru penalty for the driving infringement that was the cause.

The first car to pit in this race was Mark Winterbottom on lap 3. He started 24^th on the grid and was probably just wanted to get out of the traffic.

Brodie Kostecki did the fastest lap of the race 152.106 seconds on lap 5.

Chaz Mostert was behind Thomas Randle and 2.8 seconds off the lead.

Nick Percat, Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones all pitted on the same lap.

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in 4^th place but running was 36 seconds off Brodie Kostecki’s lead.

While still commanding the number 1 spot, Brodie Kostecki was the first of the front runners to pit with 8 cars still yet to take their stops. 6 of these were the top 6 cars so when they did pit it would allow Brodie Kostecki to resume his lead.

Towards the end of the race no one else was able to chase down the leaders.

Brodie Kostecki was still in 1^st place followed by Thomas Randle, Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen.

The series leader Brodie Kostecki seemed untouchable. He crossed the line 1.0866 seconds clear of Thomas Randle. Chaz Mostert was 1.06342 seconds further back in 3^rd place.

For Brodie Kostecki it was his 2^nd win for the weekend. Also Thomas Randle had his second podium finish. A great result for both of them.

Results for Race 21

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing

3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

In Race 22 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.

As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Nick Percat made a blinder of a start and was in 2^nd place by turn 1.

After passing Nick Percat, Cameron Waters got up inside of Thomas Randle at turn 6 and managed to make the move stick.

Cameron Waters was now in second place hunting down the race leader Brodie Kostecki who only had a 0.574 second lead.

The cars behind were battling for pit priority.

Just behind those front runners Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to get up the inside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the move stick.

That was when Will Davison did the fastest lap of the race, 152.502 seconds.

Within a few laps Brodie Kostecki had a 1.3 second lead over Cameron Waters. I was amazed at the pace that he had.

The first car to pit was Bryce Fullwood on lap 5. He came in way too quick and hit the dirt by the pit lane entry. He recovered quite easily but after review by race control it was deemed a driving infringement and he was issued a 15 second time penalty.

It wasn’t long before the drivers back in the pack also pitted to get out of the traffic.

Todd Hazelwood got up the inside of David Reynolds between turns 2 and 3.

On lap 9 Nick Percat was the first of the front runners to take his mandatory pit stop.

Thomas Randle also pitted from 5^th place. When he come back out he was in 12^th.

There were 11 cars still yet to pit.

On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen took his pit stop. On departure the right rear wheel gun was still in place. A very dangerous mistake to make and as a result of this 888 were docked 30 teams championship points post-race.

There were only 2 cars remaining to pit, Brodie Kostecki and Mark Winterbottom.

Chaz Mostert hit the unlucky lap number 13 making contact with another driver and received a bad sportsmanship flag.

The front runners kept their position but Brodie Kostecki had to defend the number 1 spot from Cameron Waters constant threat. The others were a little further back so it was really between those 2 drivers.

On the last lap Broc Feeney who had managed to stay in the top 10 was helped off the track by David Reynolds. It was so unfortunate for the young driver as he dropped down to 24^th place.

Brodie Kostecki managed to hold off Cameron Waters all the way to the checkered flag. He crossed the line with only a 0.946 second margin. It was another 6+ seconds before Thomas Randle crossed the line in 3^rd place.

Brodie Kostecki must have felt it was a magic weekend getting 3 of 3 wins. Thomas Randle was another driver that must have been pretty happy earning a 3^rd, 2^nd and then another 3^rd place.

Results for Race 22

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing

3^rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing

Brodie Kostecki still leads the drivers championship by 137 over Shane Van Gisbergen in 2^nd place Broc Feeney is still in 3^rd place he is only 228 points off the lead of the championship.

Will Brown is in 4^th 258 points behind the series leader Brodie Kostecki.

Chaz Mostert is 5^th 313 points off the series lead.

The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on the 15 – 17 of September 2023.

There are 4 events remaining 1200 points still up for grabs.

Sandown and Bathurst are 300 points each for the winners.

Supercars

Beaurepaires Sydney Supernight 2023

August 19, 2023 admin 1 Comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of 29 – 30 July 2023 was the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight, the 7^th round of this year’s Supercars championship.

The event was held at Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales.

Originally named Eastern Creek Raceway, the New South Wales state government approved its development back in 1988 and opened on the 10th of November, 1990. The first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) race was held in 1993. The ATCC was the previous title before being renamed V8 Supercars in 1997).

This event was a special occasion for me, aside from being in my home town of Sydney it was the first time I have been able to get to any track since 2017. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to finally have wheelchair accessible transport (thanks Dad) and the general threat of COVID gone. It was great to be back!

The event started on the Saturday but I managed to get there for only the Sunday.

In the pre-race sessions:

Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1
Shane Van Gisbergen was also fastest in Practice 2
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 18 Andre Heimgartner started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.

At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown went into turn 1 in 1^st and 2^nd place. The pole sitter Andre Heimgartner had dropped from 1^st to 5^th place after a bad start off the line.

Cameron Hill made a blinder of a start. He had made up 4 spots after starting 8^th on the grid.

The cars further back in the pack were dicing for positions outside the top 10 while the leading cars held their positions.

The 2 Erebus Camaros were out in front and controlling proceedings early on.

Brodie Kostecki had half a second lead over Will Brown by lap 2.

Shane Van Gisbergen was also making way and gained 2 spots after starting in 20^th on the grid.

Jack le Brocq in 5^th place was soon under assault from Andre Heimgartner after he lost his pole position. However, instead of gaining a spot he lost his own spot to James Golding who snuck by him.

The leaders were comfortable out front while the cars behind were chasing them. This was probably the cause of Jack Smith in car 4 receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

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

James Golding was again on the move and got up the inside of Cameron Hill at turn 2 for 5^th place.

Chaz Mostert also tried to go around the outside of Cameron Hill, but he couldn’t make the move stick.

Cameron Hill was being a cork in the bottle he was holding up the cars behind him.

After Anton de Pasquale completed his pitstop he came back out in 25^th position.

A lap later Chaz Mostert finally got past Cameron Hill at turn 1 and Will Davison got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 8^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen then got up the inside of Scott Pye to move into 12^th place. The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 8 places since the start.

By lap 13 Scott Pye had dropped back to 22^nd position and chose to make his first pit stop and rethink strategy.

Cameron Hill pitted on lap 14 along with James Courtney and Thomas Randle.

By lap 17 of 51 the top 13 cars were still yet to take their stops.

Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit followed by Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq.

Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted a lap later, lap 18.

Soon after Todd Hazelwood and James Courtney received bad sportsmanship flags for exceeding track limits.

It wasn’t over for Todd Hazelwood. He received a pit lane drive thru penalty for a refuelling breach on his first stop.

In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner had assumed the race lead while frontrunners were pitting. Soon he went into the pits handing the lead over to Brodie Kostecki who was followed by Cameron Waters and Will Brown in 3^rd place.

On lap 32 David Reynolds went off the track between turns 9 and 10. He hit the wall and the stricken Ford Mustang wouldn’t move. The Safety car was deployed while they removed car #26.

The race restarted on lap 39. Chaz Mostert soon made a pass of Jack le Brocq to move into 4^th place and only 0.748 seconds behind Will Brown in 3^rd.

Shane Van Gisbergen was up to 6^th place and looking for further gains. As the race got closer to the finish he was on the charge and managed to pass Jack le Brocq. Shane Van Gisbergen was now only 1.144 seconds from the back of the podium.

On lap 42 Shane Van Gisbergen showed just how much he wanted that podium finish and did the fastest lap of the race, 130.064.

By the final 10 laps the top 5 places had not changed but quite spread out. Brodie Kostecki had a good lead and was on target for his first win since the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.

On lap 44 Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

James Golding managed to go around the outside of James Courtney at turn 8 with 7 laps to go.

With 2 laps to go Chaz Mostert was up 7 places after starting 9^th on the grid. Shane Van Gisbergen was behind in 3^rd having moved up from a start of 20^th on the grid.

However, the gaps between the top 3 couldn’t be closed. In the end Brodie Kostecki crossed the finish line with a 7 second margin over Chaz Mostert. Shane Van Gisbergen was a further 10.479 seconds behind.

A post race penalty was issued to Shane Van Gisbergen for contact with Will Brown so unfortunately Shane was recorded in 7^th place on the final results. Will Brown inherited the podium finish in 3^rd. Credit is still owed to Shane Van Gisbergen for a phenomenal drive.

Results for Race 18

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3^rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Qualifying for Race 19 and earned pole position bringing his career pole total to 48. I would love for him to get another 2 more and reach a half century before he leaves Supercars at the end of this season.

Andre Heimgartner sat alongside Shane Van Gisbergen on the starting grid.

As they took off Andre Heimgartner got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney were in 2^nd and 3^rd.

Will Brown and David Reynolds made contact and left the track. As they rejoined they were now in 24^th and 25^thplace. Race control immediately put the incident under investigation. It took a while but they declared no penalties would be issued.

Shane Van Gisbergen was soon closing in on the back of the leader Andre Heimgartner. Broc Feeney in 3^rd was followed by Brodie Kostecki.

Chaz Mostert had moved up 5 places into 11^th after starting 16^th on the grid.

On the second lap James Golding and Thomas Randle made contact. Although they kept going the officials were investigating the incident and later issued time penalties to both drivers.

On lap 4 Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off Andre Heimgartner at turn 6.

Just to make a statement, Shane Van Gisbergen then did the fastest lap of the race 131.993.

The first car to pit was Broc Feeney from 4^th place on lap 16. When he came back out he was in 24^th place.

The front runners were tightly packed. Shane Van Gisbergen was still the leader with a 1 second gap over Andre Heimgartner. Then it was only 0.968 of a second back to Brodie Kostecki.

Further back in the running Declan Fraser received a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Then Will Brown and Macauley Jones received a bad sportsmanship flag for the same reason.

By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was in a commanding position with a 6.7 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. The front runners were yet to pit. Andre Heimgartner was the first to make his stop from 2^nd place.

Shane Van Gisbergen took his stop towards the end of the race and returned to the track in 7^th place. He must have known he was in great shape because the 6 cars in front still had to take their pit stops so he would naturally assume the lead when they did.

One by one they peeled off the track for the mandatory pit stop leaving Shane Van Gisbergen back in the number 1 spot with a 3 second lead over Andre Heimgartner. It was then 1.4 seconds back to Broc Feeney in 3^rd place.

As the race was coming to its conclusion Shane Van Gisbergen was showing his authority and seemed uncatchable as he edged ahead.

After his incident on lap 2 Thomas Randle was in trouble again but this time only receiving a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

James Courtney was next in line for a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

In a surprise on the last lap Anton de Pasquale passed Broc Feeney for 3^rd place. Broc Feeney had no time to make it up. Anton de Pasquale took the podium finish in 3^rd. Andre Heimgartner had finished 10.4 seconds earlier in 2^nd place with Shane Van Gisbergen taking the chequered flag 5.5 clear of him.

It was a spectacular finish for SVG and I’m so glad I was at the track on that day!

Results for Race 19

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2^nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
3^rd Anton de Pasquale – Shell V Power Racing Team

Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 41 points over his teammate Will Brown. Shane Van Gisbergen is only 54 points off the championship lead and Broc Feeney is 4^th with 57 points off the championship lead. With 5 events remaining the championship title could be any of these great drivers.

The next event is the OTR Supersprint at the Bend on 18 – 20 August 2023.

Supercars

Betr Darwin Triple Crown 2023

June 30, 2023 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 16- 18 of June was the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.

Being in the Northern Territory the weather for this event is always hot and sunny with temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees ambient, which makes the in-car temperatures 40 degrees plus. The Triple Crown is always held in the middle of winter because any other time of the year would be way too hot putting the drivers at risk.

The opening date of the Hidden Valley Raceway was 1986 but Supercars didn’t venture north until 1998.

The track is 2.8km with 14 turns and the event is made up of three races (thus, the name “Triple Crown”) of 35 laps each.

Fox Sports presenter, Riana Crehan was absent from her usual role on this weekend because she and husband Will Davison are expecting the birth of their first child (any minute).

Hidden Valley Raceway always makes me think of this freaky fact; It was here that Craig Lowndes won his 100^th race back in 2015 on his team Triple Eight on their 888^th race in his car which was numbered 888.

The event kicked off according to schedule and the results of the pre-race sessions follow:

Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 13 Cameron Waters started on pole position for the first time this year and the 20^th time in his career. Alongside him in the number 2 position was Broc Feeney.

At the start of the race Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Mark Winterbottom who started 3^rd on the grid moved up to 2^nd place when Broc Feeney ran wide at turn 1.

The opening stages were fairly chaotic because everybody was trying make gains from back in the field.

Jack le Brocq also ran wide on approach to turn 1 and dropped all the way down to 12^th place.

Declan Fraser went into the garage on the opening lap after he sustained damage in the mayhem.

James Courtney got turned around by Andre Heimgartner at turn 14 on lap 2, sending him to the back of the pack.

Shortly after David Reynolds had a big lockup at turn 1 and went off the track. He hit the pits on lap 3 to change the front left tyre.

While the drivers behind were battling for places inside the top 10, Cameron Waters was out front leading the race until lap 5. When he was coming down the main straight he came over the radio to his team and said “My car is on fire!”. His race engineer Sam Potter ordered him, “get out mate!” so Waters pulled over and jumped from the driver’s seat. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the Fire Marshall and put the flames out himself!

The lead was now in the hands of the sport veteran, Mark Winterbottom.

The safety car was deployed to remove Cameron Waters Monster Energy ‘Flaming’ Ford Mustang from the tack.

Meanwhile, the majority of the field chose to take their pit stops while the safety car was out. The pit lane was extremely busy.

Restart was on lap 11 and soon enough the cars back in the pack were jostling for positions again, while the leaders maintained track position.

Jack Smith went off the track at turn 1. Scott Pye made connection with someone or something and had torn the right rear wheel guard. The tyre was now rubbing on the dangling piece of guard. His team instructed him to keep going and they’ll let him know if it gets dangerous.

On Lap 16 the safety car was deployed for the second time due to a grass fire.

It took a few laps under the safety car before the race went back to green.

As the cars returned to their battle Chaz Mostert was able to take advantage and gained 3 spots moving up to 8^th place.

The leaders kept in place but Mark Winterbottom was under huge pressure from Broc Feeney only 0.449 seconds behind. Will Davison in 3^rd place was over a second behind Feeney.

Broc Feeney pushed hard but in the end, Mark Winterbottom was able to prevail and win the opening race at Darwin.

This has broken a 7 year winless streak for Mark Winterbottom. His last win was Perth 2016.

It was fantastic to see!

Results for Race 13

1^st Mark Winterbottom – Team 18
2^nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Racing
3^rd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team

In Race 14 Broc Feeney earned pole position. Alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.

Generated by pixel @ 2023-06-18T23:36:11.103002

Broc Feeney got the jump off the start and led into turn 1 for the first of 35 laps. Meanwhile, Shane Van Gisbergen gained 1 spot and moved into 3^rd place.

Matt Payne and Declan Fraser made contact and went off the track at turn 7. It dropped them back to 25^th and 26^th place.

Both cars headed to the pits for repairs. Not long after Matt Payne was able to rejoin the race but Declan Fraser was not so lucky. It took a while for his car to be repaired losing several laps.

Otherwise, the opening stages were relatively clean.

The first car to take an unforced pit was Jack Smith on lap 5.

Around this stage of the race Brodie Kostecki had lost 2 spots from his starting position of 4^th. Jack le Brocq went off the track at turn 7 losing a number of places. At the front end Broc Feeney had carved a 1.225 second lead over Andre Heimgartner with Shane Van Gisbergen in pursuit.

Scott Pye pitted on lap 9 from 12^th place.

James Golding was battling with Brodie Kostecki for positions 5^th and 6^th and they put on a great show.

Will Brown was the first of the front runners to pit along with Macauley Jones.

In the middle of the race Nick Percat pitted from 14^th position. When he came back out he was in 20^th place.

The leading three drivers stayed locked in and edged away from the rest of the pack.

After David Reynolds took his pit stop he was issued a 5 second time penalty for a pit lane merging breach.

Broc Feeney was the first of the two Red Bull cars to take the mandatory stop on lap 20. He returned to the track in 4^th place. There was a strategy in this. Andre Heimgartner had already pitted and was now out of the leading three cars. Shane Van Gisbergen who was in second place now received the lead from teammate Feeney. Also, the leading 3 cars were yet to pit; Shane Van Gisbergen, Bryce Fullwood and Cameron Waters. Once they did Broc Feeney would automatically resume the lead.

On lap 29 Will Davison had gone into the garage with a bent right front steering arm. This took him out of the top 10.

Broc Feeney resumed the lead and soon had a 2 second gap over Shane Van Gisbergen in second place.

With 3 laps to go Broc Feeney would have felt he had the race win in the bag.

Broc Feeney drove faultlessly the remaining laps and crossed the line 1.4 seconds ahead of his illustrious teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. Andre Heimgartner followed another 1.8 seconds later to take 3^rd place.

A great one / two finish for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.

Results for Race 14

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3^rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing

In Race 15 Jack le Brocq started on pole position and once again alongside him was Andre Heimgartner.

As they took off Jack le Brocq led the field through turn 1 for the first of 35 laps.

Scott Pye was hit from behind and had pretty substantial damage on the right rear corner. Brodie Kostecki also had issues on the first lap, receiving steering damage on the right side.

Todd Hazelwood put in a challenge to Shane Van Gisbergen for 8 place but he couldn’t get the pass executed for a while. It wasn’t long before Shane Van Gisbergen took back 8^th.

After repairs to the steering arm Brodie Kostecki re-joined the race but was 3 laps down and running last.

Scott Pye also had to take his pit early to remove flapping rear bumper for the second time that weekend. He returned to the track in 25^th place.

David Reynolds came into the pits for his compulsory stop on lap 10.

In the middle of the race Declan Fraser made connection with another competitor and received a 15 second time penalty

Broc Feeney and Will Brown running 3^rd and 4th pitted at the same time on lap 17.

The race leaders Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner took their pit stops on the next lap.

Towards the end of the race Matt Payne got turned around by Jack Smith at turn 6 sending him to the back of the pack.

With three laps to go Jack le Brocq had managed to hold the number one spot and carve a 1.8 second lead over Andre Heimgartner in 2^nd place. They were both well ahead of the rest of the pack.

Heimgartner pushed hard to close the gap but at no stage seemed a threat to le Brocq.

Jack le Brocq crossed the line 1.3 seconds clear of Andre Heimgartner. It was a further 8.4 seconds before Broc Feeney crossed the line to come in 3^rd.

It was a spectacular finish especially for the young Broc Feeney who managed a podium place in all three races of the Darwin Triple Crown; 2^nd,1^st and then 3^rd. It earned him a win for the entire round.

Results for Race 15

1^st Jack le Brocq – Matt Stone Racing
2^nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
3^rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship but only by 59 points over his teammate Will Brown and 91 points over Broc Feeney.

It still keeps Erebus in the lead of the teams championship by 222 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.

There are 7 events remaining in the 2023 Supercars championship season.

The next event is the NTI Townsville 500 starting on July 7^th 2023. I just can’t wait!!!!!

Supercars

Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 2023

June 2, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of May 20 – 21, 2023 was the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint held at the Symmons Plain Raceway.

The raceway was first opened in March 1960. After the closure of the Longford Road circuit Symmons Plains quickly established its own reputation as Tasmania’s home of Motor Racing. The track is 2.4 km with 7 turns and must be one of the shorter tracks used in the Supercars Championship.

The Tasmania Supersprint was round 4 of the championship. Brodie Kostecki came into the round with a 100 point lead over Chaz Mostert in 2^nd place.

It is the 50^th time that the Supercars have visited. The track seems to be favoured by Triple Eight. They have won 25 out of the last 36 races in Tasmania.

Both Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat had milestones. It was Andre Heimgartner’s 100^th round start in Supercars and Nick Percat started his 300^th race in Supercars.

In the pre-Race sessions:

Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 1
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Practice 2
Will Brown was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 10 Will Brown started on pole position with Jack le Brocq alongside him.

At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean until James Courtney went into the wall at turn 6.

Coming out of turn 4 on the following lap Cameron Waters made contact with Brodie Kostecki which put him in the wall. Then Broc Feeney made contact with Chaz Mostert spinning him around. Scott Pye gave Broc Feeney a nudge and put damage on car 88 but he was able to keep going.

The result of the chaos had Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki heading to the pits for repairs. As it turned out Chaz Mostert was not able to re-join the race.

James Courtney was another casualty from the turn 4 incident. A few laps later he went into the garage to replace a bent steering arm.

Will Brown was still leading with 1.8 seconds over Cameron Waters.

Shane Van Gisbergen was up 3 places from his grid start position and now in 6^th.

It wasn’t long before Cameron Waters showed how much he wanted the win. He did the fastest lap of the race clocking in at 51.67 seconds.

Shane Van Gisbergen also showed his desire for a podium finish and got up the inside of Cameron Hill for 4^th position.

The first car to pit in this race was Scott Pye on lap 14. He came in from 21^st position and returned to the track in 22^nd.

Mid-field Will Davison got up the inside of David Reynolds exchanging 15^th and 16^th place.

In the middle of the race James Golding pitted and David Reynolds followed him in. Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Waters then pitted from 3^rd and 4^th position.

Race leader, Will Brown made his pit stop on lap 23. He returned to the track in 5^th place giving Shane Van Gisbergen the number 1 spot. At this stage there were still 8 cars to pit.

Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 27 from the lead of the race.

After Jack Smith took his pit stop he was investigated for an infringement. He was issued a 15 second time penalty post-race finish.

Now there were only 3 cars yet to pit; Todd Hazelwood, Matt Payne and Broc Feeney. Once they did Will Brown assumed the lead of the race.

Towards the end of the race Will Brown was still in the lead with 1.3 seconds over Andre Heimgartner. It was another 1.1 seconds back to Cameron Waters in 3^rd.

Once Todd Hazelwood had pitted on lap 30 he re-joined in 15^th place.

After this it was a sprint to the checkered flag.

Shane Van Gisbergen was in 4^th position with fresher tyres for the sprint to the finish line but he was 8.2 seconds off the lead and 5.8 seconds away from Cameron Waters in 3^rd place.

In the final Will Brown was still holding the lead over Andre Heimgartner. Shane Van Gisbergen was obviously not satisfied with 4^th and managed to finally get past Cameron Waters to steal 3^rd place.

Results for Race 10:

1^st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
2^nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
3^rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

In Race 11 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position, alongside him was Broc Feeney.

At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki pushed Broc Feeney wide at turn. Will Brown used the opportunity to go up to 2^nd place while Broc Feeney was displaced back to 4^th.

The opening lap was relatively clean until turn 6 when Shane Van Gisbergen went into tyre wall after a bump from David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen managed to get the car out but had to head straight to the pits. The damage was worse than first thought. The damage would take so much time to repair he wasn’t able to return to the race. Luckily he was able to participate in the final race of the weekend.

Shortly after Will Brown took the lead off his teammate Brodie Kostecki.

The top 5 cars were packed close to each other and anything could happen to change the results.

Aggressions seemed to be increasing and Declan Fraser received a 15 second time penalty for a driving infringement.

Meanwhile, Will Davison clocked the fastest lap at 52.011 seconds.

The first car to pit (aside from Shane Van Gisbergen) was Mark Winterbottom on lap 13. Noone else followed him in.

By the middle of the race the top 13 cars had still not visited pits. It seemed they all were afraid to give up their positions.

Once Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown had pitted there was a 35 second gap between the two.

Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney was in the lead with 0.721 seconds over the championship leader Brodie Kostecki. It was a further 1.4 seconds back to Will Brown in 3^rd.

In the final laps the gap between the top 3 cars became even tighter.

Broc Feeney was looking solid out front even though they were right on his tail. The drivers behind were really battling for the minor places.

On the last lap Broc Feeney was in cruise mode with a confident lead of 2 seconds.

He kept his hard-earned lead to finish line ahead of Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.

As he crossed the line Broc Feeney announced over the radio, “Team Sunday is back!”.

Results for Race 11:

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

In Race 12 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.

As they took off Will Brown got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 42 laps. Andre Heimgartner went off the track at turn 1 and so did Anton de Pasquale.

While the 2 Erebus Camaro’s were commanding proceedings everybody else was trying to play catch up. Further back in the field the 2 Penrite Racing cars were battling for positions outside the top 10 in 14^th and 16^thplace.

At the second last corner Declan Fraser got turned around by Jack Smith.

Things went smoothly until lap 9 when Andre Heimgartner gave James Courtney a bump and they both went off into the gravel.

On lap 10 Broc Feeney managed to get up the inside of Jack le Brocq for 3^rd place. Will Brown and his teammate Brodie Kostecki were still holding the number 1 and 2 spots.

The first car to pit in this race was Nick Percat on lap 12 from the back of the pack and had a loose brake pedal as a secondary issue. Shane Van Gisbergen also pitted. He was in 18^th and when he came back out on the track was in 23^rd place.

By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had worked his way up through the field and was able to take 11^th place from Jack le Brocq. At this stage there were 9 cars yet to take their stops.

Will Brown pitted on lap 24 which left Broc Feeney in control of the race.

Towards the end of the race Will Brown had a 5.5 second lead over Broc Feeney. It was only 0.633 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen who had now worked his way into 3^rd place.

Matt Payne’s car had suffered damage earlier and the tyre was rubbing on the front bumper. It was too close to the end of the race so he kept going to the finish line.

At the front of the pack Will Brown still kept his lead and finished with a 4 second gap over Broc Feeney and Brodie Kostecki.

Another spectacular finish for Erebus to end the weekend.

Results for Race 12:

1^st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
2^nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

Brodie Kostecki still leads the championship by 87 points over Will Brown. Erebus are also leading the teams’ championship by 276 points over the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.

There are only 8 rounds to go in the 2023 Supercars season. The next event is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 16^th to 18^th 2023.

Looking forward to it already!

Supercars

Bosch Power Tools Perth Supersprint 2023

May 19, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of Apr 28 – 30 was 3^rd Supercars Championship round, the Bosch Powertools Perth Supersprint at Barbagallo Raceway.

This track is a 2.4 km circuit with 7 turns. It was built by the Western Australia Sporting Car Club and called Wanneroo Raceway. The first race was in March 1969.

In 1992 a well-known race personality, Alf Barbagallo funded an extension to the track and the circuit was renamed to “Barbagallo Raceway”.

It was then renamed back to Wanneroo Raceway in 2020 but for naming rights reasons will be known as CARCO.com.au Raceway from August 2022 to November 2025.

Barbagallo Raceway is the name I grew up with and still refer to it as such. Wanneroo Raceway is a name I can get used to, but CARCO.com.au Raceway is just plain old strange.

The weekend marked milestones for both Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom. Davison started his 500^th race and Winterbottom had his 600^th race in Supercars.

The weekend got underway with only one practice followed by the first qualifying session. David Reynolds was fastest in Practice 1 and Shane Van Gisbergen earned pole position in Qualifying.

As drivers positioned themselves on the grid for Race 7, Brodie Kostecki was alongside pole sitter Shane Van Gisbergen.

At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Will Davison did a dive bomb trying to get up the inside of Thomas Randle but he couldn’t make move stick.

The leaders started pulling away and Jack le Brocq was the only one able to keep up. It created a gap between the frontrunners and the rest of the pack.

Nick Percat in 20^th place was the first car to pit on lap 8. He returned to the track in 25^th (last) place.

James Courtney had dropped 2 places and Will Brown had gained + 4 places.

James Courtney was being held up by Will Davison in battle with Thomas Randle.

Tim Slade was the first of the Nulon cars to pit. When he came back out he was in 24^th position.

Tickford Racing had allowed Will Davison to drive through their pit bay but caused a panic when he almost made contact with James Courtney.

Back on the track Will Brown got up the inside of Macauley Jones on lap 16 for 14^thplace.

At turn 1 on the next lap Cameron Waters got up the inside of Macauley Jones.

Brodie Kostecki pitted on lap 18 which gave the lead of the race to Shane Van Gisbergen. After a 3.2 second stop he re-joined the race in 19^th place.

In the middle of the race David Reynolds did the fastest lap of the race 55.946 seconds and earned him the 5 bonus points.

Shane Van Gisbergen still had the lead with a 2.4 second break over Jack le Brocq. The gap back to David Reynolds in 3^rd place was 25 seconds.

As Cameron Waters was heading to the pit lane he got turned around by Andre Heimgartner. It ruined Cameron’s chances of a decent finish. Andre Heimgartner received a post-race time penalty also ruining his chances.

Towards the end of the race when every car had taken their mandatory pit stop, Brodie Kostecki resumed his lead.

With 2 laps to go Brodie Kostecki was blocking Shane Van Gisbergen’s attempt to pass. Kostecki was issued a bad sportsmanship flag and Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead off him.

Shane Van Gisbergen had to fight hard but kept the lead crossing the finish line 0.594 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was only 0.953 seconds back to David Reynolds in 3rd.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 3^rd race win at Barbagallo (Waneroo or CARCO.com.au raceway or whatever the hell you want to call it!). It also brings his career tally to 78 wins.

Results for Race 7:

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

In Race 8 Will Brown started on pole position and alongside him was David Reynolds.

At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1 while David Reynolds had to tuck back in behind.

After starting 4^th on the grid Brodie Kostecki managed to pass David Reynolds at turn 7 to go into 2^nd place. He was still 1.3 seconds away from his teammate and leader, Will Brown.

Anton de Pasquale also passed David Reynolds at turn 7 for 3^rd place. David Reynolds must have lost his focus and ran wide catching the edge of the sand trap coming out of turn 7. It dropped him back to 11^th position.

James Courtney then passed Anton de Pasquale for 3^rd position and was 2.5 seconds behind the two leaders.

Matt Payne had gained 2 places to be up in 6^th position, while Cameron Waters got up the inside of Todd Hazelwood for 9^th.

Anton de Pasquale received a 15 second driving infringement time penalty for nudging another car.

The first car to pit was Cameron Hill in last place with a with a gear shift problem. The team put the go jacks under the rear of car 35 and went in to sort out the dramas.

Will Brown still had the lead with a 1.2 second gap over teammate Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown proved himself a real competitor and did the fastest lap of the race 55.956 seconds. This earned him the 5 bonus points for the race and championship leader board.

In the middle of the race Brodie Kostecki in 2^nd place took his pit stop to avoid double stacking with his teammate Will Brown who was in the lead.

With 13 laps to go the two Erebus cars were back in the lead of the race. It was a dominant display with no threat from behind.

They had the race under complete control and kept their lead all the way to the finish.

Will Brown crossed the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki. It was a further gap of 3.5 seconds back to James Courtney in 3^rd place.

Results for Race 8

1^st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3^rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing

In Race 9 Broc Feeney, the young and upcoming star of Red Bull Ampol Racing started on pole position. Alongside him was Brodie Kostecki.

Broc Feeney got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 42 laps. The opening lap was relatively clean except for Jack le Brocq spinning Declan Fraser around at turn 7. Le Brocq was later issued a 15 second time penalty to be served at his mandatory pit stop.

Broc Feeney had a 3/4 second lead over Brodie Kostecki with David Reynolds staying competitive in 3^rd.

Will Brown then seemed to come out of nowhere jumping over Brodie Kostecki and David Reynolds to take 2^nd place.

The back of the field also had interesting action. Shane Van Gisbergen gained 2 places from his start in 21^st position up to 19^th.

Chaz Mostert got up the inside of his ex-teammate Cameron Waters for 8^th place.

Will Brown for the second time this weekend recorded the fastest lap, 55.718 seconds.

Matt Payne was first passed by Anton de Pasquale and then Shane Van Gisbergen. Gisbergen was now in 18^th place.

The first car to pit was Tim Slade in 5^th position on lap 12. He returned the track in 17^th place.

In the middle of the race both Will Davison and Brodie Kostecki pitted together from 11^th and 12^th place.

Towards the end of the end of the race Broc Feeney had a 12.7 second lead over Chaz Mostert and 4 cars were still yet to take their pit stop.

Broc Feeney wowed the crowd. He held the lead all the way to the checkered flag to claim his 3^rd career win 6.4 seconds clear of Will Brown. Truly an amazing finish.

Congratulations Broc.

Results for Race 9:

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

Brodie Kostecki has extended his championship lead to 100 points and also takes his team Erebus to the top of the Teams Championship.

The next event is the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 19 – 21 of May 2023.

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

NTI Townsville 500 2022

July 29, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 8^th to the 10^th July 2022 was the NTI Townsville 500.

This track, the Reed Park Street Circuit first opened on the 10^th of July 2009. It is 2.8kms with 13 turns.

This year’s event is the halfway mark of the season and will consist of 2 races, 88 laps each.

Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing and Tickford Racing have proven to be the dominate teams in Townsville. Between them they have won the last 22 races dating back to the 2014 event.

Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup’s record of 12 Townsville wins has a new challenger in Shane Van Gisbergen. The Kiwi has won 8 races in Townsville. Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert is still chasing his first win in Townsville. So, there was an incentive for some great driving.

In the pre-race sessions:

Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout

In Race 19 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Will Davison.

At the start of the race Will Davison delivered a spectacular take-off and led into turns 1 and 2 while the cars behind were 3 wide.

Before the rest of the pack reached turn 1, James Courtney made contact with James Golding putting him into the wall. The officials reviewed the incident and later issued James Courtney a 15 second penalty.

Broc Feeney hit the wall in between turns 1 and 2 after contact with Jack Le Brocq.

Tim Slade started on the Super Soft tyres and was putting them to use straight away. He made 3 spots by the time they got to turn 3 and was in 6^th position. He placed himself on the inside with Andre Heimgartner right in front of him.

Shane Van Gisbergen was lucky to stay in front of Cameron Waters who was aggressively attempting to move up places.

While there was battling for positions 2, 3, 4 and 5 Will Davison had a 1.2 second lead. Straight away he could take the pressure off himself and had plenty of flexibility for strategy but he still had Shane Van Gisbergen on his tail.

James Courtney and James Golding were 21^st and 25^thafter they had made contact at the start of the race.

Tim Slade found another gap and got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 4^th position. His next target was Cameron Waters in 3^rd place just 0.514 seconds ahead.

The cars further back in the pack were bumping and duelling through those first laps.

Soon Tim Slade had got passed Cameron Waters for 3^rd position and had his sights firmly set on defending Supercars champion, Shane Van Gisbergen in 2^nd place. Shane Van Gisbergen was 1.5 seconds adrift of the leader Will Davison.

At turn 10 on lap 2 Tim Slade managed the pass and was now in 2^nd position.

I was amazed at how fast Tim Slade was moving up the order from his starting spot of 9^th. Wow! I was thinking if he keeps going the way he is, he will get the lead of the race.

At the end of lap 2 James Golding was in the garage due to the contact with James Courtney at the start.

On lap 8 David Reynolds got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen taking 3^rd position and dropping the series leader into 4^th.

Tim Slade who was driving faultlessly and made his move successfully from 2^nd to 1st. The race had a new leader.

On lap 9 David Reynolds clocked the fastest lap of the race, 1min 14.310s. It must have had something to do with having Shane Van Gisbergen right on his tail. The gaps at the front of the field were getting tighter.

Tim Slade’s great driving form continued and as the laps went by and he increased the lead to 5.6 seconds. David Reynolds had taken 2^nd place from Will Davison and then Shane Van Gisbergen took 3^rd place from him.

When David Reynolds pitted on lap 28, Tim Slade had a 13.541 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.

On lap 29 Cameron Waters and Bryce Fullwood came into the pits.

At lap 31 Shane Van Gisbergen finally had to pit. The Red Bull Ampol Racing Team filled his car with 101 litres of fuel as a strategy to shorten his 2^nd pit stop.

In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner was battling with Shane Van Gisbergen for 5^th and 6^th position. By the final turn on lap 44 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Andre Heimgartner taking 5^th place.

There was stiff competition from drivers to get into the top ten. Thomas Randle moved up to 11^th pushing Bryce Fullwood back to 12^th. Tony Woodward, Andre Heimgartner’s race engineer said to him over the comms, “We are pulling in Chaz Mostert half a second a lap. Keep it up.”

Chaz Mostert was first to take the 2nd mandatory stop on lap 53.

By lap 55 Will Davison was back up the front and putting pressure on Tim Slade for the lead. Will Davison chose to not fight for the lead and pitted on lap 56.

Tim Slade pitted a couple of laps later on lap 59. Once he pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the race lead. Tim Slade had led the race for 30 laps. Quite incredible considering he started in 9^th place.

Townsville was typically warm and by this time of the day it was incredibly hot inside the cars. When Brodie Kostecki came in the team pulled out the driver’s side window to help cool the driver down who claimed his feet were burning up.

With 26 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a +26.369 second lead over Bryce Fullwood. On the next lap the leader pitted.

On lap 69 Mark Winterbottom was in the garage with the bonnet up and mechanics looking for the cause of his issue, a power steering failure.

At this stage the 3 leading drivers were Will Davison, Chaz Mostert 5.1 seconds behind, then a further 9.4 seconds to Shane Van Gisbergen.

From about lap 72 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge. He needed to find 4 seconds to get to the back of Chaz Mostert in car 25.

With 15 laps to go he closed the gap by approximately 3 seconds. Within a further 3 laps Shane Van Gisbergen was only 1.3 seconds behind and closing.

On Lap 76 Shane Van Gisbergen passed Chaz Mostert for 2^nd place. Now he had to smash the 7.7 seconds gap between himself and Will Davison.

Shane Van Gisbergen was hard at it and on the next lap knocked a further 1 second off the gap. He was flying towards the lead of the race. With 11 laps to go the gap was 6.7 seconds and the defending series champion was getting closer and closer to the back of car 17 of Will Davison.

On Lap 78 (10 laps to go) Shane Van Gisbergen had worked the gap down to + 5.9 seconds.

Will Davison momentarily lost concentration and nearly hit the wall. He came within an inch of having damage.

With 9 laps to go Will Davison was coming up to the lapped David Reynolds. Reynolds stepped aside to let Will Davison press on.

With 8 laps remaining the gap was down to 3.7 seconds between Will Davison and Shane Van Gisbergen. Just behind the two leaders Andre Heimgartner was battling with Chaz Mostert for 3^rd place.

With 7 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was closing fast and was only 2.2 seconds behind. By the next lap the gap was 1.9 seconds, then it was 1.7 seconds.

With 4 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen finally got passed Will Davison and took the race lead.

With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had position 1 locked away but the battle for 3^rd and 4^th were far from over. With 2 laps left Andre Heimgartner was in 3^rd until Cameron Waters passed him at the final turn.

Shane Van Gisbergen used the remaining laps to secure his win. He kept inching away from Will Davison.

Shane Van Gisbergen held his good form and crossed the finish line 4.9 seconds clear of Will Davison.

Cameron Waters also held his position and came in 3^rd.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 9^th win for the season. It also put him 1 win closer to Jamie Whincup’s record of 12 wins at Townsville.

It was a spectacular finish for him.

Results for Race 19:

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

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

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

In Race 20 Cameron Waters started on pole position. Will Davison had qualified 2^nd but was issued a 1 grid spot penalty for impeding James Courtney during the qualifying session. So, it was Anton de Pasquale alongside pole and Will Davison starting 3^rd on the grid.

At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2.

On the exit of turn 3 Will Davison made contact with Scott Pye. Although Will Davison went off the track, he was able to continue but had lost 21 spots all the way down to 24^th position. Scott Pye was left stranded in the middle of the track. The rest of the cars following behind somehow all missed him. The safety car was deployed to remove Scott Pye’s car and he wasn’t able to return to the race. He was the only NC (Not Complete) for the race. I feel sorry for Team 18, Scott Pye and owner, Charlie Schwerkolt. Pye has had so much bad luck this season.

The restart was on lap 4 and Cameron Waters tried to get up the inside of Anton de Pasquale but he wasn’t able to get the job done. Anton de Pasquale held onto the race lead even though it was only by 0.439 seconds.

Shane Van Gisbergen was under pressure from James Courtney in 3^rd and 4^th place.

Thomas Randle got up the inside of Chaz Mostert moving the rookie into 5^th place, up 5 from his grid starting position.

Thomas Randle was now putting pressure on his teammate, James Courtney for 4^th position. Soon enough he got down the inside of him at turn 2.

Now Randle faced the seemingly impossible task of challenging the series leader Shane Van Gisbergen for 3^rd. The rookie was on fire and a few laps later at turn 11 got up the inside of Shane Van Gisbergen. That’s pretty incredible!

Thomas Randle was now only 1.6 seconds behind his teammate Cameron Waters in 2^nd, with Anton de Pasquale still in the lead by 0.8 seconds.

The rookie continued to impress all viewers. A few laps later he got passed his teammate Cameron Waters for 2^nd place. Everybody seemed to be asking, “Was he going to pull off the impossible and take the race lead from Anton de Pasquale?”.

On lap 8 Thomas Randle did do the impossible and took the lead. It must have been an incredible moment for the rookie and his team.

Further back in the pack Mark Winterbottom was assisted off the track onto the grass by Jake Kostecki. Mark Winterbottom didn’t suffer any damage and was able to continue minus a few places.

Shane Van Gisbergen got passed Cameron Waters for 3^rd place putting him 2.2 seconds behind Anton de Pasquale.

All of this had happened before they reached lap 12.

Tim Slade was the first driver to pit on lap 22. The first of the front runners to pit was Cameron Waters on lap 26. Then Will Davison following him lap 28.

On lap 29 Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney also came into the pits.

By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had the lead and a 3.3 second gap over Anton de Pasquale. They were followed by Cameron Waters and then Chaz Mostert.

After pitting Thomas Randle was under pressure from his teammate James Courtney for positions 5. Tim Slade was battling with Andre Heimgartner right behind them for 7^th and 8^th.

At lap 47 Shane Van Gisbergen was showing what I think were signs of fatigue, changing gear with his right hand and using his left foot on the throttle to give his right foot a break.

Will Davison was mid field in 15^th position looking for a way to get back into the top 10.

Jake Kostecki was the first car to take his 2^nd pit stop on lap 52.

Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in the lead and looking like making it 2 from 2 for the weekend.

In the last few laps Anton de Pasquale was right on his tail. He has been one of the fastest drivers this year and was proving to be a real threat to Shane Van Gisbergen’s lead. Any mistake would be taken advantage of by Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen could not shake him.

They also had to navigate around some lapped cars which wouldn’t make things easier.

In the last lap Anton de Pasquale was like Shane Van Gisbergen’s shadow. There were literally only centimetres between the two cars. Shane Van Gisbergen went out wide on approach to the last turn before the final straight to the checkered flag. As he swept through the turn Anton de Pasquale tried to make a pass on the inside but timed it all wrong, colliding with with the back of the leader’s car and spinning him to face the oncoming traffic.

After letting 2 lapped cars pass, Shane Van Gisbergen took off like a shot from a complete standstill. Anton de Pasquale who was up ahead had slowed down to ‘redress’ (that is to give back to position after an unfair pass). Shane Van Gisbergen was almost up to full speed. With less than 100m to the finish line he suddenly slowed down to pull in behind Anton de Pasquale as they crossed the finish line.

By not accepting the offer of ‘redress’ it forced a penalty onto Anton de Pasquale. He was issued a 5 second penalty after the finish line but it wasn’t enough to take him off the podium. The next closest car was Cameron Waters 13+ seconds later.

It was an unusual finish but gave Shane Van Gisbergen a second win for the weekend.

Results for Race 20

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

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

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

The next event is the OTR Supersprint on the 30^th and 31^st of July 2022.

Supercars

Beaurepairs Melbourne 400 2022

April 25, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 7^th to the 10^th of April 2022 was the Beaurepairs Melbourne 400.

This year marks the 25^th time that the Supercars have competed at Albert Park. This is including an appearance at the 2020 event which was abandoned due to Covid 19. The event was cancelled at the 11^th hour.

Albert Park is one of the longer circuits in Australia at 5.3km with 14 corners. This event was made up of 4 races, 20 laps each.

The first race of the event marked James Courtney’s 500^th start. Wow! Congratulations, what an incredible achievement.

The Formula 1 cars were the main attraction for the weekend so, as support category the Supercars used the secondary pit lane.

Before the racing got underway, F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez had a spin in Thomas Randle and Broc Feeney’s Supercars around the track. I’m sure it was quite an experience for them.

In the pre-race sessions:

Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 1.
Rookie, Broc Feeney crashed at turn 5 causing a red flag.
Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 2.
Garry Jacobson hit the wall at turn 5 in Practice 2. The impact was so much that another red flag was used so they could move wall back into place.
David Reynolds was fastest in Qualifying for Race 6.
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying for Race 7.
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying for Race 8.
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying for Race 9.

In Race 6 David Reynolds started on pole position for the 18^th time in his Supercars career. Alongside him was Anton de Pasquale.

Championship leader, Shane Van Gisbergen started in 23^rd position at the back of the pack. This was because during Qualifying he got a curb infringement. His lap was disallowed. He came back in to put another set of tyres on. Meanwhile the session was red flagged and he didn’t get back on track to record a lap time.

David Reynolds had a perfect start off the grid and led into the first corner.

Shane Van Gisbergen immediately started charging through the field. Before the first lap was complete, he had gone from 23^rd to 19^th.

Coming onto the main straight to commence lap 2 the cars were 3 wide but Shane Van Gisbergen was still able to move up three places to 16^th by the time they hit turn 1.

The cars up ahead were warned by their engineers that Shane Van Gisbergen was on THE CHARGE!

David Reynolds still had the lead and was holding off Chaz Mostert and Anton de Pasquale.

Garry Jacobson got up the inside of Will Brown and his next car to pass was Will’s teammate Brodie Kostecki.

By lap 3 David Reynolds’ soft tyres began to wear down and his car started sliding. He lost the lead to Chaz Mostert.

Nick Percat also passed David Reynolds dropping him from 2^nd to 3^rd. It put Walkinshaw Andretti United 1 and 2 on the track.

Lee Holdsworth was in the middle of the field. The team called him into the pits on lap 6 so they didn’t risk his teammate David Reynolds double stacking behind him.

Jack le Brocq (#34) also came in on lap 6 to have the power steering arm looked at.

On lap7 David Reynolds pitted due to blistering tyres. As he peeled off into the pits he was dropping down the order. Race leader, Chaz Mostert also followed him in.

Meanwhile the 2 times Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen had gained 17 positions and was now placed 6^th. I was amazed! This is no easy feat in a mere 7 laps of a 20 lap race.

When Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds rejoined the race, they were in positions 9^th and 10^th. At this point the leaders were Nick Percat and Macauley Jones.

On lap 8 at the exit of turn 3 Andre Heimgartner ran straight off the track taking James Courtney with him. Andre Heimgartner was warned with a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Shane Van Gisbergen had made it all the way up to 4^th position before coming in on lap 9 for his one and only pitstop. When he rejoined he was behind Nick Percat and in position 17 with only 4 cars yet to make their stops.

A few laps later all the pitstops were completed and Chaz Mostert was back in the lead followed by David Reynolds and Will Davison. Shane Van Gisbergen made his way up to 5^th place.

With clean air Chaz Mostert kept edging further ahead. He was incredibly fast and drove faultlessly. It was soon apparent that he was uncatchable. All he had to do was just hang in there.

With four laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen passed Nick Percat and Will Davison almost at the same time to put him in 3^rd place. It was just incredible. He yelled over the radio comms ‘This is f-ing awesome!’. That really cracked me up.

To play it safe Chaz pulled back on the aggressive driving knowing he had a good lead. In the last few hundred meters he zig zagged to the finish line out of pure joy (That’s why I call him Cheeky Chaz). His next rival was David Reynolds 7.6839 second later followed by Shane Van Gisbergen who had started in 23^rd place and finished 3^rd. Now that is incredible racing!

Result for Race 6

1^st Chaz Mostert – Mobil 1 Optus Racing.

2^nd David Reynolds – Penrite Racing.

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

In Race 7 Will Davison started on pole position. Alongside him was David Reynolds. Shane Van Gisbergen started 3^rd.

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump off the line and led into turn 1.

David Reynolds had a bad start and Shane Van Gisbergen immediately took the opportunity and moved into 2^nd place.

Broc Feeney hit the wall on the exit of turn 1 after help from Brodie Kostecki.

At this stage Will Davison was looking strong. I was thinking that he may win might win his first race for Dick Johnson Racing and his first race win since Bathurst in 2016.

A few laps later the cars back in the pack pitted early for clear track.

On lap 5 Andre Heimgartner got turned around by Will Brown. Heimgarter’s car was wedged in the wall. The safety car was deployed to tow it back to the pits. He wasn’t able to rejoin the race and received an NC (Not complete).

Shane Van Gisbergen now had the lead.

When Anton de Pasquale came into the pits he was in 3^rd place. He couldn’t get car 11 re-fired and was sitting there for what seemed an eternity. As a result, he came back onto the track in 20^th position.

By the middle of the race all pitstops were completed. Shane Van Gisbergen was back in the lead.

Broc Feeney (#88) was called into the pits with a front left tyre losing pressure. The Red Bull Ampol Racing team only changed the one tyre and he was back out on the track.

Also, on lap 10 Cameron Waters tagged Will Davison at turn 3 spinning him off into the gravel trap. For the second time, the safety car was deployed. Waters was issued a drive through penalty for his actions.

At this stage Shane Van Gisbergen was looking good for another win. David Reynolds was in 2^nd, James Courtney in 3^rd and Chaz Mostert 4^th.

Cameron Waters served his drive through penalty with 7 laps to go. It dropped him all the way down to 22^nd position.

On lap 14 Tim Slade got down the inside of Garry Jacobson for position number 8. He then passed Todd Hazelwood for 7^th position.

Garry Jacobson got up the inside of Nick Percat in battle for 9^th and 10^thplace.

With 5 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.6 second lead over David Reynolds, with James Courtney 1.1 seconds behind that. Chaz Mostert was in 4^th position.

The races were ‘time certain’. Due to the 2 safety car deployments the race was looking to go overtime. On lap 18 the officials called time + 1 lap (cutting out the 20^th lap).

On the last lap Shane Van Gisbergen did his best lap time of the race and increased his lead to 2 seconds.

Mostert was desperate to get on the podium. It was the last lap and he was pushing hard on James Courtney. As they reached the last corner before the home straight they locked horns and James Courtney spun around. Mostert kept going but Lee Holdsworth had taken him over so Mostert was back in 4^th where he started.

There was no time for Mostert to make up the lost time.

Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the line 2+ seconds ahead of David Reynolds. They followed by a lucky Lee Holdsworth and then Chaz Mostert in fourth place. It was a dramatic last-minute finish.

James Courtney was so unfortunate and finished in 22^nd place.

Results for Race 7

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

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

3^rd Lee Holdsworth – Grove Racing.

In Race 8 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position alongside him was his teammate, Will Davison.

Shane Van Gisbergen and David Reynolds were 3^rd and 4^th on the grid.

At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale led into turn 1 for the first of 20 laps. Will Davison was right behind him. David Reynolds hanging onto 3^rd position followed by Shane Van Gisbergen.

Scott Pye went off the track at turn 1 on lap 1

The cars further back in the pack were going off the track left, right and centre. At turn 2 Percat, Hazelwood, Brodie Kostecki, Holdsworth, Jones, Heimgartner and Randle all came off the track but managed to recover.

Scott Pye left the track skiing across the sand trap but he also managed to recover.

It was amazing that the entire field got through turns 1 and 2.

However, on lap 2 Scott Pye came into the pits with a puncture on the front right.

The race leader soon settled into his race pace with a ¾ second lead. There was active battling for positions 2, 3 and 4.

Between turns 9 and 10 on lap 2 Bryce Fulwood went very wide but surprisingly managed a quick return to the track.

By lap 3 Cameron Waters was in the pits changing tyres and dropped all the way down to 22^nd position.

The top 4 places were unchanged; Anton de Pasquale, Will Davison, David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen.

On lap 4 Anton de Pasquale locked up leaving the track at turn 1. It knocked him back from 1^st to 3^rd. Will Davison was the new race leader, with David Reynolds in 2^nd place. For Anton de Pasquale who is second on the championship ladder it was a serious blunder.

When Tim Slade and Chaz Mostert came in for their stops he gave the back of Tim Slade’s car a wallop. It was a surprise but not serious and didn’t escalate.

On lap 5 Will Davison was the next to pit, handing over the lead to David Reynolds. Anton de Pasquale was still 2^nd, Shane Van Gisbergen was 3^rd and his teammate, Broc Feeney was in 4^th (only + 2.601 seconds behind). Soon Anton de Pasquale pitted but the top 14 cars were still yet to pit.

By lap 6 Shane Van Gisbergen had taken the race lead off David Reynolds which then gave Shane Van Gisbergen clear track.

Broc Feeney had dropped to 8^th place. Then Mark Winterbottom got down the inside of him to take another spot from him.

By the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was back in the lead after pitting.

Shane Van Gisbergen never looked back. He held his lead and increased the gap to 5.6473 seconds by the time he crossed the finish line. Next was Will Davison, David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale all spread a few seconds apart.

This win for Shane Van Gisbergen also means he has outdone Russell Ingall’s record of 8 race wins at Albert Park. Ingall set this record back in 2003 (19years ago). Im sure it’s quite an honour for Gisbergen.

Results for Race 8

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

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

3^rd David Reynolds – Penrite Racing.

In race 9 Will Davison started on pole position. Alongside him was teammate Anton de Pasquale. Chaz Mostert started 3^rd. The hero of the weekend, Shane Van Gisbergen 6^th on the grid.

Generated by pixel @ 2022-04-10T23:50:02.030284

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump on his teammate going into turn 1. I was amazed, it was such a perfect start.

However, Jack Smith didn’t have the same launch. He stalled car 4 on the start line and was unable to get it started. The safety car was deployed for it to be removed from the track. Jack Smith Received an NC (Not Complete) without even starting the race!

Shane Van Gisbergen tried to go around the outside of Cameron Waters at turn 3 but it didn’t work.

The cars back in the pack were battling for positions early on. There was quite a lot of movement. About 12 cars shuffled positions with some moving as much as 10 places.

Some others moved up but then moved back, like Tim Slade who got down the inside of Brodie Kostecki at turn 4. Brodie Kostecki then got him back at turn 5.

While the race leaders were staying out because they had track position the others soon started pitting.

I was surprised that leader Will Davison pitted on lap 5. Mostert was in 2^nd place and now had the lead. It was only brief. Shane Van Gisbergen took him over moment later.

David Reynolds was keeping out of trouble early on but he was in position 10. He then hit the wall on lap 6 and had to pit. The car couldn’t be repaired and he had to retire from the race.

In the middle of the race all driver pitstops were in the process of being completed. It was now even racing to the finish.

On lap 11 Thomas Randle also suffered the same fate as Reynolds and Smith. He was the 3^rd driver forced to retire from the race.

Towards the end of the race Chaz Mostert had the lead again. He had Shane Van Gisbergen putting pressure on him and it looked to be a strong challenge. There were only a few laps remaining.

Shane Van Gisbergen was pushing hard. On lap 18 (2 lap to go) Shane Van Gisbergen’s car gave in under the strain. The front tyre blew out and he was forced into the pits. He must have been extremely disappointed as he is fast enough even to challenge the super-fast Chaz Mostert. It would have meant 3 out 4 wins for the weekend.

Chaz Mostert now had a clear run to the finish line. It earned his second win at the event.

In 2^nd place Will Davison followed 5.2 seconds later, with Anton de Pasquale another 1.66 seconds behind. It was an incredible finish to the weekend.

Results for Race 9

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

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

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

The Bathurst 6 Hour was the next event of interest on the calendar. It is always run on the Easter long weekend. It is not part of the Supercars series but is a production car event. Shane Van Gisbergen was meant to defend the title but was unable to due to COVID. Nick Percat sat in for him.

Let’s hope that SVG is on the mend and in good health for the next Supercars event; The Bunnings Trade Perth Supernight on the 30^th of April to the 1^st of May.

if you enjoyed reading this article you might like to checkout my William’s Perfect Ride | Facebook

Williams Perfect Ride – YouTube

William’s Perfect Ride | Live it – Breathe it – Dream it – Drive it (williamsperfectride.com)

William's Perfect Ride

Tag Archives: Brodie Kostecki

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2023

Like this:

Repco Bathurst 1000 2023

Like this:

OTR Supersprint the Bend 2023

Like this:

Beaurepaires Sydney Supernight 2023

Like this:

Betr Darwin Triple Crown 2023

Like this:

Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 2023

Like this:

Bosch Power Tools Perth Supersprint 2023

Like this:

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2022

Like this:

NTI Townsville 500 2022

Like this:

Beaurepairs Melbourne 400 2022

Like this:

Live it – Breathe it – Dream it – Drive it