Tag Archives: Chad Neylon

NTI Townsville 500 2023

July 21, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of July 7 – 9, 2023 was the NTI Townsville 500.

The track is a 2.8km street circuit with 13 turns.

This year’s event is round 6 of 12 in the 2023 Supercars season and will consist of 2 races of 88 laps each.

The Townsville street circuit was first opened in 2009 and was the first time Supercars held an event there. Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander shared the first two pole positions back on that weekend in 2009. Jamie Whincup and James Courtney shared race 11 and 12 wins in the season.

Jamie Whincup has the all-time winning record in Townsville with 12 race wins.

This year marked a special milestone for Shane Van Gisbergen. Race 17 was his 500th race start in Supercars. Congratulations SVG!

The results for the pre-race sessions that started the weekend were as follows:

Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
- Jack le Brocq was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Will Brown was fastest in the top 10 shootout

In Race 16 Will Brown started on pole position with David Reynolds alongside him.

Will Brown got the jump off the start line into turns 1 and 2 for the first of the 88 laps.

On approach to turn 2 Shane Van Gisbergen attempted a bold move for the lead from his start on the grid second row. It was tight and there was chaos between the top 4 cars. The move failed and Cameron Waters who started 3^rd on the grid popped out of turn 2 in the lead.

Shane was in 2^nd place but at turn 4 his 20 year old teammate, Broc Feeney managed to get around the outside.

At turn 8 Shane Van Gisbergen and Jack le Brocq made contact. It cost them both dearly and Shane Van Gisbergen dropped back to 14^th place.

Cameron Waters still had the lead, followed by Broc Feeney and then Chaz Mostert who had gained 6 spots to move into 3rd place.

Shane Van Gisbergen took his bad luck on the chin and immediately got to work. Within a couple of laps he passed James Courtney, then Jack Le Brocq, Will Davison and Bryce Fulwood. He was in 14^th but now in 8^th place.

Mark Winterbottom and Nick Percat made contact spinning them both around and dropping them down to 24^th and 25^th place.

It was later on lap 11 that the officials issued Mark Winterbottom a 15 second time penalty for his fault in making contact with Nick Percat.

The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 20 from 14^th place.

On lap 21 David Reynolds moved into 4^th place after squeezing up the inside of Chaz Mostert.

Instead of trying to go on the attack Chaz Mostert chose to take his pit stop. When he came back out on track he was in 23^rd place.

Meanwhile Cameron Waters was controlling proceedings at the front of the pack with a 12 second lead over Will Brown in 2^nd place.

Will Brown chased him down and on lap 23 amazingly closed the gap and then took the lead off Cameron Waters. Broc Feeney was 3.7 seconds behind in 3^rd place.

Broc Feeney was the first of the Red Bull cars to pit to avoid double stacking with Shane Van Gisbergen. He returned to the track in 15^th.

Brodie Kostecki ran into problems and couldn’t use second gear, so for the rest of the race was using third gear.

The two leaders Will Brown and Cameron Waters pitted on the same lap. This left Shane Van Gisbergen in control of the race. Cameron Waters came back out with fresh tyres in front of James Courtney in 12^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.7 seconds lead over David Reynolds. He kept the lead until he pitted on lap 35. When he came back out he was in 11^th place. The number 1 spot was now in Chaz Mostert’s hands.

Behind Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds got up the inside of Broc Feeney for 3^rd place.

In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert had worked up a 14.4 second lead over Will Brown but had to make his second pit stop lap 42. It was Will Brown’s turn to control the race.

Anton de Pasquale stopped on the pit entry due to an electrical problem. The motor just turned itself off. He made it to the garage but couldn’t rejoin the race. He had to sit the remainder of the race and received a DNF.

On lap 69 Todd Hazelwood’s car pulled up on the side of the track after the left rear had sparks coming out. The safety car was deployed to remove the car.

The restart was on lap 73 and Will Brown was leading over Broc Feeney, Cameron Waters and Andre Heimgartner.

As the end of the race drew closer Chaz Mostert had worked his way from 11^th and took 4^th place from Andre Heimgartner.

Meanwhile Broc Feeney was only 1.9 seconds off the lead. He tried his best to catch Will Brown but he was just too fast.

Although Will Brown was in the lead he was not driving defensively. Instead, he went on the attack edging ahead to cross the finish line 3.3 seconds over Broc Feeney. It was another 5.4 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3^rd and another 11.631 seconds back to Shane Van Gisbergen in 4^th place.

Results for Race 16

1^st Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport
2^nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

In Race 17 Cameron Waters started on pole position, alongside him was Jack le Brocq.

Shane Van Gisbergen started 25^th on grid due to getting held up in Qualifying. He didn’t get to the start line in time to perform his final qualifying lap so was sent to the back of the pack.

As they took off Cameron Waters got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Jack le Brocq.

Further back in the field there was a lot of movement. James Courtney had gained 5 places on the opening lap moving into 12^th.

Shane Van Gisbergen spun around after making contact with Declan Fraser. Already in last place Shane Van Gisbergen was now a further 6.5 seconds behind. The officials reviewed the incident and deemed it ‘an incident that required no further action’ so no penalty was issued.

After the second lap Chaz Mostert had steering issues probably as a result of hitting the wall in the Top 10 Shootout. He headed to the garage and soon found out the damage was worse than first thought. With only 2 minutes and 40 seconds of recorded track time, he wasn’t able to rejoin the race and received a Not Complete (NC).

The first car to pit in this race was Anton de Pasquale on lap 15. He returned to the track in 24^th place.

Broc Feeney took his stop on lap 19 to return to the track in 23^rd place.

Tim Slade was in the garage for an extended period with a steering rack and cooler failure. He returned to the race but had an impossible task to make up the lost laps.

James Courtney pitted on lap 22 along with race leader Cameron Waters.

On lap 36 the safety car was deployed. Cameron Hill’s car appeared to be falling apart at the seams. He left a huge sheet of metal from the car’s undercarriage behind on the track. A very odd sight.

At the same time Todd Hazelwood was having problems of his own. Sparks were flying from the car’s left rear. After pulling in for repairs it turns out he was the second driver unable to return to the track and receive an NC for the race.

The restart was on lap 39 with Will Brown as the race leader followed by Bryce Fullwood and Will Davison.

Soon after Will Brown took his pit stop. Anton de Pasquale who had not pitted yet was now up front and had a 2.9 second lead over Bryce Fullwood.

Shane Van Gisbergen made a pass on Jack le Brocq look easy and moved into 5th place. He had started 25^th on the grid and was now in the top 5 runners. SVG is a legend!

Anton de Pasquale demonstrated why he has a reputation for speed. He kept edging ahead and by the time he pitted the lead was so great he returned to the track and was still in first place.

Anton de Pasquale kept his commanding lead and crossed the line 5.0692 seconds ahead of this year’s favourite, Brodie Kostecki. Andre Heimgartner in 3^rd place crossed the line 6.4322 seconds later.

It was another race with front runners fairly spread out. It was spectacular performance to watch.

Results for Race 17

1^st Anton de Pasquale – Shell V-Power Racing Team
2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
3^rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing

Will Brown still leads the championship but only by 7 points over Brodie Kostecki. Broc Feeney is 26 points behind in 3^rd place.

The next event is the Beaurepairs Sydney Supernight on 28 – 30 of July 2023.

Hope you will all join me then.

Supercars

Betr Darwin Triple Crown 2023

June 30, 2023 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was fantastic to see!

Results for Race 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

Otherwise, the opening stages were relatively clean.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 15

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

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

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

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

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

Supercars

Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 2023

June 2, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

In the pre-Race sessions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After this it was a sprint to the checkered flag.

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

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

Results for Race 10:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 11:

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another spectacular finish for Erebus to end the weekend.

Results for Race 12:

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

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

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

Looking forward to it already!

Supercars

Bosch Power Tools Perth Supersprint 2023

May 19, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 7:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations Broc.

Results for Race 9:

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

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

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

Supercars, 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

ITM Auckland Supersprint 2022

September 23, 2022 admin 1 Comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 9^th – 11^th of September 2022 was the ITM Auckland Supersprint at Pukekeohe Park Raceway in New Zealand.

This year marks the 15th and final time that the Repco Supercars championship will visit Pukekohe. The circuit will sadly shut down in early 2023, a year that marks the venue’s 70th anniversary.

This weekend is the 20th time that a round has been held in New Zealand since the first at Pukekohe in 2001. From 2008 to 2012 events were held on a street circuit in Hamilton. They then returned to Pukekohe.

This year marks the eighth time that drivers will compete for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy since it was first introduced in 2013. Only two drivers have won the trophy more than once. Jamie Whincup in 2015 and 2017 and Shane Van Gisbergen in 2016 and 2019.

Two teams will register milestones in the opening race of the Auckland Supersprint. Brad Jones Racing will make its 700th ATCC / Supercars Championship race start since its debut in the 2000 season at Phillip Island.

The same race will also be Matt Stone Racing’s 150th start since their first entry as a wildcard at Queensland Raceway in 2017.

In the weekend’s pre-race sessions:

Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Practice 1
Will Davison was fastest in Practice 2
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 27 Cameron Waters started on pole position and alongside him was Will Davison.

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 41 laps.

Cameron Waters went from 1^st to 3^rd place heading into the opening corner. Anton de Pasquale went up into 2^nd place following Will Davison into turn 1.

Meanwhile the cars further back in the field were 4 wide. In the mayhem there was contact between Tim Slade and James Courtney. Tim Slade was very lucky not to hit the inside fence and recovered reasonably quickly. I was thinking, Wow! What a save. How he got out of that one I have no idea.

James Courtney also suffered from the impact. His car had smoke coming from the right rear. Soon after on that first lap, he ran off the track at the hairpin turn dropping him 5 places down to 15^th.

After Race Control reviewed the incident no further action was taken.

The cars further back in the pack were dicing for positions.

Cameron Waters got up the inside of his former teammate Chaz Mostert.

As the field came onto the main straight to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.716 second lead over his teammate Anton de Pasquale.

Cameron Waters was back up in 3^rd place, Andre Heimgartner was in 4^th ahead of Chaz Mostert. Scott Pye was in 6^th followed by Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.

Tim Slade hit the pits to have the damage from the earlier impact attended to. As a result, he re-joined the race down in 25^th position.

Tim Slade could tell there was still a problem with the car. At turn 4 he left the track after hitting the wall. He kept going but by lap 5 was back in the pits for more repairs.

Will Brown also hit the exit of turn 4 but he somehow got away without putting any damage on his car.

Broc Feeney in 8^th position pitted on lap 6 so Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t have to double stack behind him in case the safety car came out.

On lap 7 Brodie Kostecki, Jake Kostecki, Bryce Fullwood and James Courtney pitted so the garage area was busy.

When Jake Kostecki left his garage, travelling to the pit exit his left rear tyre came off! The crew must have forgotten to tighten the wheel nut. He pulled over to the side in order to not block the exit. Somehow the crew were able to refit the tyre on the spot and he rejoined the race. That is not something you see every day!

The incident went into investigation. The team were issued a time penalty for the ‘pit stop infringement’.

On lap 10 Jack le Brocq was in the garage with a power steering issue. He had started this race in 19^th position but now dropped all the way down to 23^rd.

The leaders were still pressing on out front.

Will Davison had a 1.8 second lead over Anton de Pasquale then it was another 3 ¼ seconds back to Cameron Waters.

Shane Van Gisbergen passed Bryce Fullwood at turn 8. His next target was Chaz Mostert in 4^th place.

Bryce Fullwood was slowing because of steering issues and went straight to the pits. The time taken for the repair put him a full lap behind.

Scott Pye also pitted along with Bryce Fullwood.

In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert came in to find clear track. There were still 10 cars yet to pit. Most of them were front runners.

On the next lap Cameron Waters, Andre Heimgartner and James Golding took their pit stops.

With 13 laps to go Lee Holdsworth came in as the last car to pit. After this happened Will Davison assumed the lead of the race once more.

At the back end of the race, Macauley Jones’ car came to a stop. He pulled off the track and the safety car was deployed with 12 laps remaining.

In the closing laps Andre Heimgartner knew he was in for a win, but Will Davison wasn’t going to let him through without a battle.

With 5 laps to go Will Davison started to edge ahead of his contenders. Lap by lap he increased his lead.

It was great driving! By the time Will Davison crossed the line he was 8.6 seconds clear of Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Waters. An incredible finish.

Results for Race 27:

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

2^nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

In Race 28 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with his teammate Broc Feeney alongside him.

As they took off Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and led into turn 1. Will Davison tried to go around the outside of him but couldn’t do it.

Anton de Pasquale was turned around by Brodie Kostecki. Anton de Pasquale’s car suffered a lot of damage. After review CAMS Race Control decided not to take any further action on either driver. Pasquale was unable to re-join the race.

On the exit of turn 8 Mark Winterbottom gave Will Brown a nudge into the pit entry wall. Will Browns car was jammed and had extensive damage. The pit wall had been moved by the impact and Brown himself had to exit the car via the passenger’s side. The safety car was brought out and the race was stopped with 39 laps to go. Brown’s car was removed and he was unable to return to this or the next race, the final ever race at Pukekohe Park Raceway.

Mark Winterbottom was later issued a pit lane penalty for his involvement.

The restart re-commenced under safety car for a few laps then got going on lap 6. Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 with Will Davison 0.301 seconds behind. They were followed by Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney.

Cars 5 and 55 of Thomas Randle and James Courtney were soon under investigation for gaining an advantage at the turn 5 chicane. Both got a 5 second time penalty.

Broc Feeney ran wide on the exit of turn 11 and as a result he dropped down 7 spots to 9^th position.

Will Davison was putting the pressure on the race leader Shane Van Gisbergen. He made a very bold move and tried to go around the outside of him. It failed and actually cost 2 places allowing Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters to get ahead.

Shane Van Gisbergen had a slender lead over Chaz Mostert of just 0.558 seconds then it was another 1.1 second back to Cameron Waters.

The first car to pit in this race was Broc Feeney in 10^th place on lap 10.

Also, on lap 10 Tim Slade got spun around at the hairpin turn 8 by Thomas Randle.

It was not the end of the high speed contact. Later on lap 15, Car 35 driven by Todd Hazelwood got a 5 second penalty for contact with another car.

As the race was approaching the halfway mark front runner Cameron Waters pitted.

On lap 18 Chaz Mostert and Will Davison also pitted.

On the following lap Shane Van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner pitted together.

When they returned to the track after their stops, Chaz Mostert was on the attack putting pressure on Shane Van Gisbergen for the lead.

Shane Van Gisbergen held off Chaz Mostert. Credit to Mostert, he never gave up.

With another race to run that day this race was time certain. The delays caused at the start meant this race was cut short by 5 laps.

Shane Van Gisbergen kept up his defence and crossed the finish line on lap 36, ahead of Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.

Results for Race 28

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

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

In Race 29 Will Davison started on pole position alongside him was Cameron Waters

As they took off Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 followed by Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale.

At turn 1 Todd Hazelwood and James Courtney made contact. Todd Hazelwood’s car was still mobile but badly damaged. James Courtney hit the wall on the exit of turn 1 and his car jammed into the barrier. The driver’s side door was so mangled and distorted he had to get out the passenger’s side. The safety car was deployed and the race went into ‘Yellow’ (i.e. they kept driving the circuit at a slow pace behind the safety car).

Hazelwood went straight to the pits for repairs, but James Courtney’s car had to be physically moved off the track. The damage was so severe he would not return to the race and received an N.C. (not complete).

Later on Brodie Kostecki, Jack Le Brocq and Thomas Randle all received 15 second time penalties for breaching yellow flag procedure.

The restart of the race was on lap 12. Will Davison started pulling away from the pack as soon as the safety car left the track and the race went back to ‘green’.

The first cars choosing to pit in this race were Nick Percat, Jack le Brocq, Bryce Fullwood, Lee Holdsworth and Jack Smith.

The series leader, Shane Van Gisbergen was still back in 8^th position. He finally got passed David Reynolds but now had to contend with another seasoned driver, Scott Pye ahead of him.

Scott Pye and Thomas Randle were the next drivers to pit.

Broc Feeney who was in 4^th position came in on lap 18.

In the middle of the race Anton de Pasquale and Andre Heimgartner came in. This was the second time at this event their pit stops were in unison. Andre Heimgartner’s stop was 2.8 seconds so once again he beat Anton de Pasquale back to the track.

After Will Davison pitted and re-joined the race he started to slow down. It was revealed that the car was dropped while the rattle gun was still attached to the left rear wheel. He only managed to get around the circuit once before having to come back in for repair. The team were penalised for the unsafe pit release.

While this was happening Cameron Waters had the race lead. Shane Van Gisbergen, Andre Heimgartner and Chaz Mostert were just behind.

From that point on, the closing laps became tensely dramatic.

On lap 30 of 41, Shane Van Gisbergen earned an extra 5 bonus points towards his championship total by doing the fastest lap of the race, 103.028 seconds.

When the last 2 cars of David Reynolds and Macauley Jones pitted, Cameron Waters assumed the lead.

Cameron Waters made an error and locked up at turn 5. This allowed Andre Heimgartner and Shane Van Gisbergen to close the gap.

On lap 31 Shane Van Gisbergen got down the inside of Andre Heimgartner for 2^nd position. Only Cameron Waters stood in his way of another race win. Shane Van Gisbergen was only 0.858 seconds behind Cameron Waters.

With 10 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen was closing the gap down to leader big time he was coming.

On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen had closed the gap slightly 0.8 of a second to 0.67 seconds. He was right on the tail of Cameron Waters.

Cameron Waters was not going to give up without a challenge. Lap after lap he managed to hold off Gisbergen. Right behind them was Andre Heimgartner in 3^rd place ready to pounce at the first mistake.

On lap 34 Cameron Waters made another mistake coming out of the turn 8 hairpin. Somehow he managed to keep Shane Van Gisbergen’s attack at bay.

With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen attack finally paid off. He took the lead off Cameron Waters. Cameron Waters was defiant and fought hard chasing the new leader. Shane Van Gisbergen couldn’t get away from him. The threat was real, and he had to put up all his defences. Andre Heimgartner was also right behind waiting for any opportunity.

Cameron Waters was like glue, but Shane Van Gisbergen managed to stay ahead. In the last lap he made a huge effort to create a bigger gap and reduce the threat.

Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the line 1.116 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters to earn his 18^th win for the 2022 season. Andre Heimgartner was a mere 0.5105 seconds behind Waters to earn 3^rd place.

Shane Van Gisbergen currently holds a 525 point lead over Cameron Waters and is on target to become the 2022 Supercars champion.

In an interview afterwards, Cameron Waters stated his disappointment but felt it was only fitting that Shane Van Gisbergen, a New Zealander won the last and final race at Pukekohe Park Raceway.

It was a nice farewell to the venue having the 2 kiwis, Gisbergen and Heimgartner on the podium.

Goodbye Pukekohe Park Raceway. Thanks for the memories!

Results for Race 29

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

2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

3^rd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing.

The next event is the Repco Bathurst 1000 October 6^th to the 9^th 2022.

The Bathurst 1000 channel starts on Monday the 3^rd of October on Fox Sports 503 at 6am.

Supercars

Merlin Darwin Triple Crown 2022

July 4, 2022 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the pre-race sessions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack Smith was the next to pit on lap 6.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The track was well spread but time was running out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for race 16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 17:

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for race 18

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

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

3^rd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

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

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

Supercars

Pizza Hut Winton Supersprint 2022

June 13, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 13:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 14:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 15:

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

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

Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour 2022

June 3, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first 90 minutes were in the dark before sunrise.

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

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

South African, Kelvin van der Linde was alongside pole.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supercars

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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