Tag Archives: Cameron Waters

Valo Adelaide 500 2023

December 17, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 23 – 26 November 2023 was the Valo Adelaide 500.

The Adelaide street circuit was first opened in 1985 and hosted the F1 Australian Grand Prix until 1995. The street circuit came back into use in 1999 when Supercars moved their events from the Mallala Motorsport Park.

Jason Bright took the very first pole position at this venue. Craig Lowndes started the leg 1 from 3^rd on the grid and won the opening race. The next day he was sent to the back of the field and still came through to win leg 2. It was the stuff that legends are made of.

This year’s Adelaide 500 was the 12^th and final round of the 2023 Supercars Championship.

As one of the longer events on the calendar made up of 2 races of 250km each, it was always going to be a tough event. To add to the tension it was also the decider for the Driver’s Championship.

The defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen was trailing Brodie Kostecki in the number 1 spot by 131 points. A win in both races would total 300 points so the championship was still up for grabs. Shane Van Gisbergen is heading to the U.S. at the end of the season to try his hand at NASCAR so it could very well also be his final farewell to Supercars.

The points gap from 3^rd place onwards was too great to contend for 1^st or 2^nd place. However, the points were close enough between 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th for there to be a change on the final scoreboard for Will Brown, Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert.

The Final Event and the Final Decider! A setting for nail biting stuff!

The event started on Thursday with a wet Practice 1.

The pre-race sessions results are as follows:

Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
Thomas Randle was Fastest in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
Brodie Kostecki was also fastest in the top 10 Shootout.

For Race 27 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position which was his 9^th pole for the year. David Reynolds was alongside him on the front row of the starting grid.

At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for first of 78 laps.

As the pack rounded turn 4 Will Brown tried passing Anton de Pasquale. Shane Van Gisbergen also tried following Will Brown to jump up in position. However, Anton de Pasquale made contact with Will Brown and then from behind Shane Van Gisbergen made contact with Will Brown. Brown’s car came to stop almost immediately. Shane Van Gisbergen was able to get back to the pits but it was soon evident that he wouldn’t be returning to the track. Not only was it all over for this race but also his ability to contend for the championship title. Such bad luck.

The safety car was deployed. It was only the opening lap and things were very messed up for Will Brown and Shane Van Gisbergen.

Later, after reviewing the incident the officials took no further action and no penalty was issued to any of the three cars involved.

Matt Payne and Cameron Hill were in the pits because of damage they received after the start.

The restart was on lap 6 and Brodie Kostecki was still in control of the race, followed by David Reynolds and Thomas Randle in 3^rd place.

Broc Feeney passed James Courtney for 8^th place.

On lap 15 David Reynolds took the lead off Brodie Kostecki with some incredible manoeuvring through turns 8 and 9.

The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 16.

Broc Feeney was next to pit on lap 19. When he re-joined the race he was in 20^th place with clear track ahead.

Up front it started getting busy. Thomas Randle moved up to 2^nd place dropping Brodie Kostecki back to 3rd place.

Cameron Waters in 4^th place was 3 + seconds behind. The front of the pack were beginning to spread out.

Soon after, Thomas Randle pitted from second place handing over the spot to Cameron Waters.

Thomas Randle came out of the pits and was like a rocket. Within a few laps he managed to move up through the pack and regain 2^nd place.

Cameron Waters wasn’t happy to give back the second spot to Thomas Randle and found the opportunity to pass him. Once again, the order of the top 3 cars changed.

In the middle of the race Cameron Waters was still holding second place right on the rear bumper of David Reynolds in the lead. He found his opportunity and with precision driving made the pass to get the number one spot.

Further back in the pack, Todd Hazelwood received a 5 second time penalty for contact with another car.

David Reynolds never gave up the fight to regain 1^st place. With 17 laps to go he did the fastest lap of the race, 119.957 seconds. Unfortunately, it didn’t give him what he wanted. He was also under pressure from Thomas Randle in 3^rd place. The front 3 cars were once again tight and left no room for error.

Cameron Waters stayed strong and held the lead using his experience to fend off the two drivers right on his tail.

Soon Cameron Water and David Reynolds edged away from Thomas Randle still holding 3^rd place.

They were both on fire screaming ahead of the pack.

They crossed the finish line 0.67 seconds apart and way ahead of the others. Thomas Randle came in 14.353 seconds later to earn 3^rd place. It was an incredible finish for an intense race.

Results for Race 27

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

3^rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing & Tradie Racing.

In Race 28 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position for the 10^th time this season. This is an incredible feat and he was given the Armor All Pole Award for year along with $10,000. Next to him on the front row of the grid was Matt Payne.

As they took off Matt Payne got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 78 laps. As much as Brodie Kostecki tried he was not able to pass Matt Payne.

Further back Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to pass Anton de Pasquale but also wasn’t able to execute a pass. It wasn’t until a few laps later that he got into his stride.

On lap 2 Broc Feeney was able to get up the inside of Cameron Waters for 4^th place.

David Reynolds made his move on lap 3 to pass Todd Hazelwood for 9^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen was now moving through the pack and had now passed Anton de Pasquale, Will Davison and Will Brown for 11^th place.

On lap 6 Nick Percat made contact with Jack le Brocq who went off the track and into the tyre-wall at the final turn. Surprisingly, he managed to get himself out and the safety car did not have to be deployed.

After investigation the incident the officials took no further action against either driver.

By lap 10 Matt Payne had a 1.2 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.

Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Chaz Mostert for 3^rd place. He managed to get by at turn 6.

Shane Van Gisbergen showed how eager he was to make up for the NC (Not Complete) he received in the first race at this event. He did the fastest lap of the race, 120.735 seconds.

On lap 11 Chaz Mostert was desperately trying to get 3^rd place back from Broc Feeney. In his attempt Chaz Mostert made contact with him and did manage to pass. It was a messy attack and Chaz Mostert was later issued a 5 second time penalty.

Shane Van Gisbergen was the first of the Red Bull cars to take a pit-stop.

In the pit area Macauley Jones was spun around by Tim Slade who was coming out of his garage.

In the middle of the race Matt Payne was still in control with a 4.8 second lead over Broc Feeney flowed by David Reynolds in 3^rd.

As the race continued Matt Payne kept edging ahead. Towards the end of the race, he had a 7.5 second lead over Broc Feeney and was on target to claim his maiden win with Penrite Racing.

Noone seemed able to make ground on the rookie Matt Payne. In fact he managed to edge further ahead of the competitors.

He crossed the line with a 8.548 second lead over Broc Feeney. David Reynolds come in 3^rd a few seconds later.

It was a spectacular and solid win for Matt Payne. Congratulations!

Results for Race 28:

1^st Matt Payne – Grove Racing.

2^nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

A massive congratulations to Erebus Motorsport and Brodie Kostecki. Well done!

This was the final race for the 2023 season. The next event will be the Bathurst Superfest on the 16^th to the 25^th of February 2024.

It’s with a sense of sadness that we say farewell to Shane Van Gisbergen. Well done on everything you have achieved in Supercars and best of luck for your new adventures in Nascar. Go get em!

Supercars

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

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

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, V8 Supercars

Thrifty Newcastle 500 2023

March 26, 2023 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the World!

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

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

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

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

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

In the pre-race sessions of this event:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then Will Brown pitted from 11^th position.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 1:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matt Payne and Thomas Randle came in on lap 16.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Result for Race 2

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

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

Supercars

Valo Adelaide 500 2022

January 19, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will Davison pitted a few laps later, lap 49.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 33

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

2^nd Nick Percat – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd James Courtney – Tickford Racing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 34

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

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

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

Supercars

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2022

December 30, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations!

Results for Race 31

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 32

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing Team

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

Supercars

Pizza Hut Winton Supersprint 2022

June 13, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 13:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 14:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 15:

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

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

Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour 2022

June 3, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first 90 minutes were in the dark before sunrise.

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

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

South African, Kelvin van der Linde was alongside pole.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supercars

Bunnings Trade Perth Supernight

May 19, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of April 30^th to May 1^st was the Bunnings Trade Perth Supernight.

This year is the 43^rd time that the Australian Touring Car / Supercars Championship have visited Barbagallo Raceway in Perth Wanneroo, Western Australia.

The first round was held back in 1973 but since 1978 this track has hosted a round every year except for 2020. The Saturday of the Perth Supernight will be the 90^th championship race at this circuit, tying it with Symmons Plains Raceway.

Barbagallo now holds the record as the circuit to have hosted the most races in the history of Australian Touring Car Championship / Supercars Championship.

The second race of the weekend marked the 200^th Supercars race for Cameron Waters. Waters is yet to record a win in the west. His best finish was 3^rd in 2019 and a pole position in 2016.

Defending champion, Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position in 2018 but has also never won a race at Barbagallo.

Barry Ryan from Boost Mobile Racing Erebus Motorsport used this weekend to announce that Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway will return for the Bathurst 1000 as a wild card entry.

Perth Supernight started on the Saturday with the pre-race sessions. The results were:

Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 1
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 2
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying and started on pole for the first race.

In race 10 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position, alongside him was Cameron Waters.

Shane Van Gisbergen started 3^rd, Chaz Mostert started 23^rd and Nick Percat started 25^th. As some of the fastest drivers this year their poor grid spots were due to getting held up by cars in front of them during Qualifying.

At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 46 laps. Cameron Waters was right behind him.

Mark Winterbottom got a great start, but he had nowhere to go.

Shane Van Gisbergen also had nowhere to go and had to stay in 3^rd position.

Further back in the pack the cars were 3 wide heading into turn 1. Thomas Randle got up the inside of Will Brown for positions 9^th and 10^th. Behind them were Todd Hazelwood and Will Davison battling for positions 11^th and 12^th. Lee Holdsworth had gained 3 positions to move to 21^st.

Meanwhile with a little help from Bryce Fulwood, Chris Pither spun at turn 1 and went to the back of the pack. Later, Bryce Fulwood was issued 15 second penalty for his actions.

Before the first lap was over Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to pass Cameron Waters to move into 2^nd place behind the race leader, Anton de Pasquale.

As the race moved on, the cars further back in the pack started to pit for clear track.

Jack Le Brocq was the first to pit on lap 8.

Will Brown had a miscommunication with car controller, Barry Ryan. He was told to come in but then to ‘push on’. He misheard and headed for the pits. The crew were not ready at all. Barry Ryan was not happy.

Cameron Waters pitted on lap 18 for rears tyres only.

One lap later Anton de Pasquale came in for 2 tyres.

On lap 21 Bryce Fullwood got another penalty. This time a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Amazingly Shane Van Gisbergen pitted on lap 32. It’s a long way to go on one set of tyres. There was only 1 car yet to pit, Lee Holdsworth.

Shane Van Gisbergen came back out into position 4. He had Lee Holdsworth, Anton de Pasquale and Cameron Waters in front.

Lee Holdsworth finally pitted on lap 34. It put Anton de Pasquale back in the lead followed by Cameron Waters and Shane Van Gisbergen. The gap across the top 3 cars was about 2 ½ seconds.

Bryce Fulwood was in the garage due to a transaxle failure and problems with 4^th gear.

On lap 39 Scott Pye got a bad sportsmanship warning flag for exceeding track limits at turn 7. Will Brown got the same.

Shane Van Gisbergen got up the inside of Cameron Waters. He was only 2.4 seconds behind the race leader Anton de Pasquale.

Then the gap went down to 1.254 seconds.

Nick Percat in car 2 was the next to be given a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

The gap was 1 second between 1^st and 2^nd. With 5 and half laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen closed the gap to 0.493.

With 5 laps to go, Shane Van Gisbergen was right on the back of Anton de Pasquale.

With 4 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen took the race lead. Anton de Pasquale had no opportunity to re-pass him.

Shane Van Gisbergen kept increasing his lead. With 2 laps remaining he had built it to 1.563 seconds.

By the time he crossed the finish line he was 2.161 ahead of Anton de Pasquale. An incredible feat.

Shane Van Gisbergen had finally broken his winless streak at Barbagallo Raceway. It also chalked up Holden’s 600^th race win.

Nick Percat had moved up 5 places from 25^th to 20^th. His teammate, Chaz Mostert moved up 1 place and finished in

22^nd.

Results for Race 10:

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.

In Race 11 Will Davison started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.

Mark Winterbottom started 22^nd on the grid after being issued a 5-spot penalty for impeding Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney during Qualifying. Defending champion, Shane Van Gisbergen started in 11^th position.

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

The cars further back in the pack were battling for positions. Thomas Randle made contact with Lee Holdsworth, putting him into the wall between turns 2 and 3 then coming to a stop on the grass. His front left corner was damaged big time but he managed to limp the car back to the pits. Surprisingly he later managed to re-join the race but was a few laps down.

As the pack came down to the final turn Cameron Waters had a 3/4 second lead over Will Davison.

As they came onto the main straight to begin lap 2 there was contact between Scott Pye and Jack le Broc. Scott Pye hit the barrier walls so hard they actually came apart. He managed to get out of the car unassisted, but the car was a complete wreck and wouldn’t compete for the rest of the weekend.

The safety car was deployed to remove the wreck. Then James Taylor who is the race director, came on the radio and told all of the teams that the race was being suspended due to where Scott Pye’s car was positioned. When the red flag was called there was 43 laps to go. While they repaired the barrier walls the race was delayed for 40 minutes.

Team 18 owner, Charlie Schwerkolt said that Jack le Broc could have backed off to avoid the contact. He must have been annoyed that his car was a wreck.

When the race got restarted Cameron Waters was in the lead followed by Will Davison and Brodie Kostecki.

The cars further back in the pack pitted early because they were getting held up by other drivers in front of them.

Cameron Waters and Will Davison stayed out longer because they had track position.

Anton de Pasquale soon took Brodie Kostecki’s 3^rd place.

I was amazed at how long Cameron Waters held onto the race lead for.

Around the middle of the race Will Davison had got down the inside of Cameron Waters to take the lead. They were virtually neck and neck. At turn 7 Cameron Waters went very wide out of track limits and dive-bombed Will Davison to regain the lead. Davison was furious at his risky move. He came on the radio to his engineer Richard Harris and said, ‘He can’t do this!’.

Later, after the officials had time to review the incident Cameron Waters got a 5 second penalty for an unsafe re-entry onto the track.

Cameron Waters may have been upset by this, but he held his focus and lead to the end of the race. Although he crossed the line first the penalty was applied after the finish. It knocked him off the podium into 4^th place.

In the end Will Davison got his first race win for Dick Johnson Racing since 2008. He was followed by Anton de Pasquale and Andre Heimgartner.

The result was an unexpected bonus for Shell V-Power Racing Team, earning them a 1^st and 2^nd.

Results for Race 11:

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

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

3^rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.

4^th Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

In race 12 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with Will Davison next to him.

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump from 2^nd position on the grid and led into turn 1.

Also, David Reynolds was in 2^nd place by turn 1, dropping the pole sitter Shane Van Gisbergen back to 3^rd. I was amazed that Shane Van Gisbergen dropped from 1^st to 3^rd and David Reynolds went up from 4^th to 2^nd.

The cars further back in the pack settled down into their race pace.

Thomas Randle was spun around on the run down to turn 6 and car 34 of Jack le Brocq from Matt Stone Racing had a big slide.

Jake Kostecki got up the inside of Andre Heimgartner at turn 6. David Reynolds locked up on the run into turn 6 which allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to pass him at turn 7 and move up to 2^nd place. The gap between Will Davison and Shane Van Gisbergen was 1.4 seconds.

Shane Van Gisbergen was so focused on driving he needed a reminder from his race engineer, Andrew Edwards to turn on his helmet fan.

Shane Van Gisbergen had Anton de Pasquale behind him, followed by Will Brown and James Courtney, running 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th.

Garry Jacobson and Chris Pither were side by side in an all-out battle to move into the top 10.

There was a lot of biff and barge going on all the way through the pack.

At this stage the gap between 1^st and 2^nd was 1.5 seconds.

The cars further in the pack pitted early while the race leaders stayed out longer.

When the pitstops started the lead was changing left, right and centre.

Soon Anton de Pasquale had dropped 3 places into 6^th.

In the middle of the race James Courtney was the race leader because he had not pitted at this stage. Shane Van Gisbergen was unaware that Courtney had not pitted and was leading the race. Gisbergen was on the lookout for Will Davison as the assumed leader.

With only a few laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was on the attack and took the lead from James Courtney. Courtney just couldn’t keep up and fell back to take second place as Gisbergen raced to the finish line.

Results for Race 12:

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

2^nd James Courtney – Tickford Racing.

3^rd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team.

The next Supercars event is the Winton Supersprint on the 21^st and 22^nd of May but, before that there will be the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour, a GT race.

William's Perfect Ride

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