Monthly Archives: April 2014

Post Race Report, V8 Supercars

Symmons Plains Tasmania Post Race 2014

1 Comment

Craig Lowndes Tas

Hi guys and girls the Tyrepower Tasmania 400.

While Dad and I were not there, here is a brief rundown of what happened in the 3 races over the weekend of 28th – 30th March 2014

In race 4, in what is happening more often than not we had Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes start on the front row.

Craig got the jump off the start line, David Reynolds and Russell Ingall were racing together in car 55 and 23. Mark Winterbottom was battling with the Bottle-O-car.

In the middle of the race Todd Kelly’s right front tyre was wobbling due to contact with Jack Perkins. Rick Kelly ran wide at the turn 4 hairpin, Russell Ingall started to fight back after a slow start from the second row, behind Jamie and Craig. Mark Winterbottom and David Reynolds were racing side by side down the back straight to turns 6 and 7. Todd Kellys Jack Daniels ended parking his Nissan Altama. Towards the end of the 4th race Jamie was trying to get down the inside of his teammate in-between turns 6 and 7. In the end Jamie managed to hold on to get his 78th race win in his V8 Supercars career and his 10th win at Symons plains raceway.

Results for race 4

1st Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd James Courtney – Holden Racing Team.
3rd Mark Winterbottom – Pepsi Max crew.

In race 5 Jamie Whincup started from pole position alongside him was Mark Winterbottom due to Craig Lowndes being sent to the back of the pack due to a Technical infringement, on lap 1 Will Davison locked up his rear brakes as a result he went into the sand trap at turn 4. On the restart Todd Kelly passed before the control and he ended up getting penalized for that. As a result of Nick Percat and Russell Ingall coming together, Craig passed them with ease.

In the middle of the race Craig was chasing down Scott McLaughlin, for 4th spot. But wasn’t able to do it, in the end Jamie made it 2 starts from 2 wins. Triple 8 Race Engineering/Red Bull Racing Australia, dominated event 2 of 2014, there are 38 races in all.

Results for race 5

1st Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Mark Winterbottom – Pepsi Max Crew. FPR.
3rd Fabain Coulthard – Lockwood racing.

 

In race 6, yet again we see the Red Bull Racing Australia duo Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup start on the front row of the grid. Craig got the jump off the line and led the field through turns 1 and 2 for the 1st of 84 laps. Robert Dahlgren in the Volvo stalled off the line and that meant he was last at the start.

Jamie pitted early so that the 2 Red Bull cars didn’t have to double stack in the pits, Scott McLaughlin passed Will Davison and James Courtney down at the turn 4 hairpin. When Craig came for his 1st compulsory pit stop for 4 fresh tyres and refuel. But when he re-joined the race he made a slight mistake by going off the racetrack on the pit exit. Tim Slade re-joined in front of David Wall. When the Volvo S60 had completed its compulsory pit stop, he re-joined in front of car 1 but Jamie managed to pass him on the outside at the turn 4 hairpin.

In the middle of the race Fabain Coulthard and Dale Wood both made a pit stop, at the same time, Jamie Whincup ran wide on exit of turn 7 and when Jamie entered the pits for his 2nd pit stop for another set of tyres and last load of fuel to get him to the checkered flag. When James Courtney re-joined the circuit he nearly hit Scott McLaughlin, but somehow he managed to avoid contact.

Craig Lowndes was in the pits with no one around him for his last load of fuel, and a fresh set of Dunlop tyres. Dale Wood went straight ahead into the sand trap in between turns 1 and 2.

Towards the end of the race, Fabain put the pressure on Will Davison for 3rd spot, in the end neither of them could not catch the top three places. Craig Lowndes went on to claim his 96th race win. In his stellar V8 career, and 7th race win at Symmons Plains.

Results for race 6

1st Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull racing Australia.
3rd James Courtney – Holden Racing team.

Pre Race Report, V8 Supercars

Symmons Plains Tasmania Pre Race 2014

Leave a comment

Hi Guys and Gals of the V8 community…

Last year Dad and I attended this race and had a great time, unfortunately this year we didn’t get the opportunity, so lets have a look back at 2013.

While waiting to board our plane in Sydney, you will never guess who we came across, OK I’ll tell you, the whole Red Bull Australia team including Roland Dane and the management team. As I was sitting there waiting to board the plane, all I could do is watch in amazement as they chatted and laughed with each other, I so wanted to go over and talk to them, but Dad said their would be plenty of time for that latter. After boarding the plane, I noticed they had followed me in. What a great bunch of blokes…

On the weekend of the 5 to 7 of April 2013 was the Microsoft Office 365.
In race 3 Jamie Whincup started on pole position alongside him was Fabain Coulthard. On lap 1 Jamie got the jump off the line and beat Fabain into the turn 1 and 2. Fabain was shadowing Jamie for the 1st the part of race 3 towards the end of lap 1 Craig got bumped off the track in between turns 6 and 7 at the start of lap 2 he then got spun around by Russell Ingall who making his 221st race start. While Craig was in the pits he spun his left rear wheel. Under safety car conditions which would normally cause a pitlane drive thru penalty.
Also during the course of lap 1 Shane Van Gisbergen didn’t want to feather the throttle and Craig got passed him. A Safety car was deployed on lap 3 due to one of the Erbus E63 Mercedes Benz running wide in-between turns 2 and 3. In the middle of the race there was a halftime break of just 15 minutes and then on the restart, it was a double file rolling restart meaning that everybody had to be alongside each other for the restart. Craig started in position number 28 for part 2 of race 3. When the green flag was waved by Damien White, Jamie Was still in the lead of the race, but after the restart Fabain then took over the race lead, and held it until the end of the 50 lap race. Jamie Whincup now leads the Championship by 51 points.

Results for race 3

1st Fabain Coulthard – Brad Jones Racing
2nd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia,
3rd Mark Winterbottom – Pepsi Max crew FPR.

In race 4 the 2 teammates Jason Bright and Fabain Coulthard started on the front of the grid. Jason Bright got the jump on his teammate Fabain Coulthard during lap 1 Garth Tander passed Fabain to move into 2nd spot.
On lap 2 David Reynolds hit the wall on the run out of the hairpin turn 4. This caused a safety car, and as a resulted in left front corner of car 55 was just completely ruined. On the restart Jason Bright was still leading from Garth Tander and then everyone just settled down. There were no pit stops unless a car had some damage or a flat tyre. In the middle of the race Craig Lowndes had lost 2 spot to Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney, towards the end of the race James was putting a huge amount of pressure on Mark James and Scott McLaughlin made contact with each other.

Results for race 4

1st Jason Bright – Team Boc
2nd Fabain Coulthard – Lockwood Racing
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia

In race 5 Mark Winterbottom started on pole position alongside him was Fabain Coulthard. Mark Winterbottom got the jump into turn 1 from Fabain Coulthard on lap 1. Mark held the race lead through the 1st lap and Fabain was behind until the middle of the race. On lap 2 Scott McLaughlin was sideways on entry to the pit straight, then all the cars were trying to make space for each other, there was a safety car deployed on lap 5 due to debris on the entry to the pit straight. David Reynolds was given a mechanical black flag under the safety car because he had his right front guard dangling. Russell Ingall came into the pits on lap 10 due to a flat tyre. In the middle of the race Alex Davison was battling away with Lee Holdsworth towards the end of the final race Scott Pye had a massive accident, on the restart Mark Winterbottom made a mistake by running wide at turn 4, this allowed Fabain Coulthard to go passed to get the race win.

Results for race 5

1st Fabain Coulthard – Lockwood Racing
2nd Mark Winterbottom – Pepsi Max Crew
3rd James Courtney- Toll Holden Racing Team

The 60 60 supersprint 1st came into the V8 Supercars championship in Tasmania then in Perth WA. Mark Larkham said he enjoyed watching the double file restart. Because it was something he had never ever seen in V8 Supercars racing before this year.

 

Post Race Report

Adelaide Clipsal 500 2014

Leave a comment

Hi Guys and Girls on the 27th February to the 2nd of March 2014 was the Clipsal 500.

In race 1 Red Bull Racing Australia’s Jamie Whincup started on pole position alongside him was his teammate Craig Lowndes.  Craig got the jump into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 39 laps. Also on lap 1 Chaz Mostert went into the wall at turn 5, due to an oil leaking from the rear of car 6.

Tim Slade was trying to pass the Rick Kelly, towards the end of the opening lap, Shane Van Gisbergen was ahead of Mark Winterbottom in 3rd spot. On lap 2 the race leaders had to be careful due to the oil that Chaz had left behind in-between turns 4 and 5. Chaz’s car ended up in the pit garage to fix the oil leak issues, and the sister car of David Reynolds also pitted due to damage on the front right hand corner, from hitting the wall at turn 11. Scott Pye ran wide down at turn 9 due to a locked brake on the front left corner. On lap 3 Lee Holdsworth had David Wall and James Moffat. Jason Bright ended up being passed by Russell Ingall. Garth Tander passed the DJR car, for position 12.

On lap 4 Jamie was the first car to make his pitstop for tyres and fuel, so that his teammate didn’t have to double stack, the 2nd car was Garry Rogers motorsport Volvo Polestar racing, car 34 driven by Robert Dahlgren. On lap 5 David was in the garage getting checked over by the doctor after a hard hit at turn 11. On lap 6 James Courtney was chasing Mark Winterbottom, through turns 1, 2 and 3. Todd Kelly was asked to enter pit lane in car 7 on lap 7, cars 7, 21 and 16 pitted on the same lap. James Courtney, also Scott McLaughlin pitted together.  On the pit exit Todd got passed Scott as he was re-joining the racetrack.

The Pepsi Max crew FPR team did Mark’s pitstop on lap 9, James Moffat had to serve a pit lane penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit which is 40 klms/hour. Car 97 peeled off on lap 13 for his compulsory pitstop. Craig pitted on lap 14, for 2 tyres and fuel. Craig said ‘what the heck happened there’, and his race engineer Jeromy Moore said sorry to Craig about the pitstop issue with the right rear wheel.

In the middle of the race Shane was following Craig for the effectively 2nd and 3rd positions. Towards the end of the race cars 22, 47 and 2 are all were battling for 10th 11th and 12th spots. Tim nearly hit the wall on the left hand side.

Nick Percat made contact with Michael Caruso. In the end Nick ended up in the garage. Craig caught the grass on approach to turn 14. Rick was under pressure from Scott, in the end Jamie ended the first race of the season on the top spot of the podium and he claimed his 8th win at Clipsal and race win number 74.

Results for race 1

1st Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Team VIP – Tekno Autosports.

 

In race 2 Craig Lowndes started on pole position alongside him was Scott McLaughlin, Craig got the jump into the turns 1, 2 and 3 chicane. On lap 1 Lee Holdsworth tried to get passed the Pepsi Max Crew Ford. When James passed the FPR car, he started to chase Lee Holdsworth. Meanwhile Nick Percat and Garth Tander made contact at turn 9. On lap 2 Craig got a kerb strike Neil Crompton said that Craig burning a kerb hop after lap 1 was not good. Jamie managed to get passed Scott McLaughlin, for 2nd spot. On lap 3 Jason Bright tried to a make a move down the main straight. Mark Beretta was right at the last corner, turn 14. On lap 4 Jason Bright tried get down the inside of the Volvo at turn 9. On lap 5 Scott was complaining about the over steer to his race engineer Richard Hallway. The first car to make to a pit was Robert Dahlgren. Robert stalled on exit of the pits Matt White was talking to Robert and he said to him ‘I bet it is not 30 degrees where you come from on the east coast of Sweden’, he replied ‘yeah minus’.  In the middle of the race James Courtney nearly lost the passenger’s side door on approach to turn 4. Towards the end of the race, Scott and Jamie were battling for 2nd and 3rd.

Results for race 2

1st Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Scott Maclaughlin – Volvo Polstar racing GRM.
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.

In race 3, Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position alongside him was the 5 times V8 Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup. Jamie got the jump and led the field into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 78 laps. Rick Kelly made contact with the tyre bundle at turn 1. As a result of the guard rubbing on the front left tyre, there was smoke pouring out of the left hand side of his car. On lap 2 David Reynolds pitted early for fuel. On lap 3 Todd Kelly had no throttle meaning the car running only on idol due to a broken throttle cable.

Shane tried to pass Jamie at turn 9, but wasn’t able to make the move stick. On lap 4 the first 3 cars to pit were Craig Lowndes, Chaz Mostert and Fabain Coulthard. On lap 5 Car 7 was limping back to the pits. On lap 6 James Courtney made his first compulsory pitstop. On lap 7 Nick Percat came in for tyres and fuel. On lap 8 the Volvo 560 got through on Tim Slade, at turn 9. Micheal Caruso got a black flag for speeding in the pitlane. Will Davison went into the wall at turn 8 on lap 10, as a result a safety car was deployed, that meant that cars 1 and 2 could make their compulsory pitstops.

At the restart on lap 14, Jason Bright ended up rolling his car at turn 1, the cars that were involved were cars 8 Jason Bright, 6 Chaz Mostert, 16 Scott Pye, and 4 Lee Holdsworth. The 2nd safety car was deployed due to this crash.

On the 2nd restart on lap 19, cars 15 and 97 got drive thru penalties for not maintaining the speed after the restart, Mark went into the tyres between turns 6 and 7. When Rick took his pit lane penalty that left cars 1 and 888, to start the next lap in positions 1 and 2.

In the middle of the race Craig came in for his last pit stop and

towards the end of the race Jamie got a pit lane drive thru penalty for the car controller touching his car as Jamie was trying to save his day he made contact at turn 9 with Michael Caruso. In the end James Courtney won race 3.

Results Race 3

1st James Courtney – Holden Racing Team
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen –Techno Auto Sports

The next event is the Tasmania 400 on the 28th to the 30th of March 2014 races 4, 5 and 6. Craig Lowndes currently leads the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship series points standing by 282 points over 2nd placed Fabain Coulthard.

Trivia

Tekno Auto Sports, VIP Petfoods, Lucas Dumbrell motorsport and HHA Racing have only got one car in this year’s Championship. Mark Larkham has a new inferred camera which he uses for checking out the temperatures on both the front and rear brake routes and pads.

The last time that Tim drove for Supercheap Auto Racing before this year was 2009.