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Drivers

Scott McLaughlin leaves Supercars for Indycars

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Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

The reason why I am doing this post is because it is the end of the 2020 season and the Season Champion, Scott McLaughlin announced his departure from Australian Supercars for an opportunity in the U.S. To drive in the IndyCars series for Team Penske.

I want to highlight Scott McLaughlin’s amazing career in Australian Supercars. He is an amazing talent the likes of which we won’t see again for a long time.

Scott McLaughlin was born on the 10th of June, 1993 in New Zealand.

Scott McLaughlin started driving karts when he was 6 years old and started racing when he was 7 years old. Soon he was representing New Zealand in competitions overseas.

At the age of 9 he and his family moved to Australia.

In 2010 at the tender age of 16 years old he became the youngest driver ever in V8 Supercars, racing for Stone Brothers Racing in the Dunlop Super2 Series.

His hard work soon paid off. Early in 2011 he hit another high point at the age of 17 becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race in the NZ Touring Car Series championship.

In 2012 it all came together. He became the NZ Super Tourers Series champion. He also competed in the Dunlop V8 Supercars series and took the title for that as well.

Scott McLaughlin also made his debut at Sandown and Bathurst as co-driver to Jonathon Webb.

After he won that he got called up from Garry Rogers to replace Alex Premat in the Sydney 500. Alex Premat was unable to race due to heat exhaustion from racing the day before.

In 2013 Scott McLaughlin became full time driver in the V8 Supercars Championship Series.

In that same year he won 2 races at Pukekohe Park Raceway, New Zealand (race 6) and the again at Queensland Raceway (race 22).

From 2014 to 2016 Scott McLaughlin continued to drive in the Garry Rogers team, now going by the name ‘Volvo Polestar Racing.

In 2017 he switched to Dick Jonson Racing (DJR) and was teamed up with another excellent driver, Fabian Coulthard. It was a good match. McLaughlin in his Falcon proved to be fast. So fast he earned 16 pole positions for the season (now that is a lot – something like 50% of the races).

He even proved to be stiff competition to legend Jamie Whincup. Whincup had won the series championship in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

In the last race of the season the Newcastle 500, Whincup was leading the championship going in. In the first race Whincup crashed out and Scott McLaughlin won. McLaughlin was now leading the point score for the championship. Things were very tense. It all came down to the last race.

McLaughlin made quite a few mistakes in that race probably due to nerves and was penalised. Whincup’s experience kept him cool and steady throughout. He won the race but had only beaten McLaughlin by 21 points.

In 2018 he won his first championship. 2019 he took his 2nd championship as well as his first Bathurst 1000 trophy.

2020 he again dominated the series and took his 3rd championship. Driving a Mustang, he earned 15 Pole positions out of 27 races. He had 21 Podium finishes. 13 of them were wins. Now that is crazy!

Now he has moved to the U.S. to compete in the 2021 Indycars series as a full time driver for Team Penske. The contract has him locked in for 1 ½  years.

He has achieved so much and is still only 27 years old!!!!

From me and I am sure a great many others, we wish you the best of luck for the future Scott McLaughlin. You will be missed by everyone in the Supercars community.

Below I have some further stats on Scott McLaughlin’s career and other drivers he has been associated with.

His co-drivers were:

  • 2013 Jack Perkins car 33.
  • 2014 – 2015 Alex Premat, car 33.
  • 2016 David Wall, car 33.
  • 2017 – 2019 Alex Premat, car 17.
  • 2020 Tim Slade, car 17.

Scott McLaughlin has been in the Supercars for 9 years:

  • Had 252 races
  • Won 56
  • 76 poles
  • Driven 14,230 laps
  • And was leading for 2,362 laps

Supercars in Australia for season 2021.

Post Race Report, Supercars

Rabble Club Sandown 500 2018 Supercars

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Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 14th to the 16th of September, 2018 was the Rabble Club Sandown 500.

The preliminaries to the race were almost as exciting as the main event.

In the co-drivers only session which was Practice 1, Paul Dumbrell clocked the fastest time.

Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2.

Chaz Mostert had some really bad luck in Practice 2. He spun off track in his 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Falcon smashing the rear end into the fence.

James Courtney and Jack Perkins started at the back of the grid due to James Courtney having a huge crash on lap 3 of Race For the Grid 2 (Qualifying).

Erebus owner, Betty Klimenko wasn’t at Sandown on the weekend because she was sick with the flu. David Reynolds claiming pole position must have made her feel at least a little bit better as she watched the race from home.

During the 20 minute warm up, the teams were practicing brake rotor change which will be compulsory at Bathurst in 3 weeks’ time. This new requirement for the Bathurst race is being introduced to improve safety. Yes, I know brakes are important but could it introduce other risks to the race. I am still in two minds about it.

Finally at 1:20pm on Sunday The Sandown 500 started.

David Reynolds and Luke Youlden (Erebus) started on pole position. Alongside them were Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell (Triple 8).

As usual most of the co-drivers took the driver’s seat at the start of the race, except James Courtney because of their poor qualifying position. This is the norm in team strategies allowing the seasoned pros to later make up for any mishaps.

The co-drivers have to do a minimum of 54 laps before the main driver can get into the cars.

When the lights turned green to start the 161-lap race Luke Youlden bogged it down, which allowed Paul Dumbrell to take the race lead.

Chris Pither, co-driver with Garth Tander started in car 33 at 9th position on the grid but on lap 1 he was in the fence which put him at the back of the pack. (They eventually recovered finishing 9th which isn’t a bad effort at all)

Dean Canto Co-driver for Mark Winterbottom in the Tickford Racing team made contact with Luke Youlden. I thought there going steering damage as a result but remarkably somehow there wasn’t.

The first Vodafone Safety Car was deployed for Dean Fiore after he contacted the barrier on the exit of turn 4.  Then with the right front wheel wobbling all over the place he limped the Nissan Altama back to the pits

The 3 Triple 8 cars were running 1st, 2nd and 3rd for most of the race, all bar pit stops.

In the middle of race Jason Bright caused the second incident for the Vodafone Safety Car to be deployed because he bogged his car in the sand trap at turn 9 in a really dangerous spot.

Towards the end of the race I thought Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards were going to finish 2nd behind Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell in car 1.

Regardless, no one could catch or upset the 1, 2, 3 of the 3 Triple 8 cars lead. ‘Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner’ as quoted by Jeromy Moore in a race a few years back.

The funniest parts of the weekend was when commentator Chad Neylon was betting on who was going to win the Sandown 500 by using a horse racing tote. My first thought was, Chad this is not Horse Racing. At that point Scott Mclaughlin with Alex Premat were the Favourites to win.

Then on Supercars Trackside, Mark Larkham was trying to explain what the teams will have to do at Bathurst for the brake rotor change. By mishap the burning hot rotor fell off the car onto his foot. Mark Larkham exclaimed on national TV ‘Oh Shit!’. Too funny but glad he wasn’t hurt.

Result for 2018 Rabble Club Sandown 500

1st car 1 Jamie Whincup & Paul Dumbrell – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
2nd car 97 Shane Van Gisbergen & Earl Bamber – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
3rd car 888 Craig Lowndes & Steven Richards- Autobarn Lowndes Racing.

Now that Sandown has been run there are only 4 events left in the 2018 Supercars Championship.

Up next is the biggest event of the year, The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on the 4th to the 7th of October 2018.

To keep us all up to date on the event the Bathurst Channel launches on Monday the 1st of October 2018 and finishes on 7th of October 2018.  It should be a lot of fun.

Will Triple 8 Dominate at Bathurst like they did at Sandown with a 1, 2, 3 finish?

If you have any thoughts or opinion on how the weekend and the race panned out please feel free to let me know via my Facebook Fan page.

https://www.facebook.com/williamsperfectride/?ref=bookmarks

Drivers

Todd Kelly Retires from fulltime V8 Supercars racing

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Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

The reason why I am writing this article is because Todd Kelly has now retired from fulltime V8 Supercars racing after a 20+ year career. He has had outstanding success and given a great deal to the sport so I wanted to say thanks by summarising his career.

Todd Kelly was born on the 9th of October 1979.

He started racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship way back in 1996 to 1998 before joining The Shell Championship Series (aka the V8 Supercars Championship) in 1999.

He stayed with the Holden Young Lions in 1999 before moving to the Holden Racing for Enduro races in 2000 which were at the Queensland 500 and FAI 1000 at Mount Panorama Bathurst New South Wales.

Then in 2001 he joined the Kmart Racing Team and he stayed through 2002.

From 2003 to 2007 was with the Holden Racing Team to be teammates with Mark Skaife.

He spent the following year, 2008 with Jack Daniel’s Racing – Perkins Engineering before Tod and his brother, Rick Kelly started their own race team in 2009 called Kelly Brothers Racing.

Todd and Rick share a passion for racing so starting their own team made sense. However no one could ever say there was no sibling rivalry. When it came to racing, brother or not they were very competitive.

Unfortunately Todd Kelly’s competitive nature means he was going to be in the thick of it resulting in some bad incidents:

·       Barbagallo 2009 in race 24 he crashed on lap 40 of 84
·      Sydney Olympic Park 2011 in race 28 he crashed on lap 47 of 74
·       Albert park 2005 in race 2 he crashed on lap 1

Some of his career highs (and a few lows) include:

·       1st Bathurst 2005
·       1st Clipsal 500 2007
·       2nd Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 2006

·       1st Symmons Plains 2008

·       DNF 2015 race 2

·       DNF 2013 Clipsal 500 race 2

·       DNF Race 1 1999 Eastern Creek New South Wales.

·       1st Shanghai 2005

·       1st Bahrain 2006

He has had

·       1 Bathurst win

·       19 race wins

·       Competed in a total of 546 races

All done within his 20 years of fulltime driving. They are impressive statistics.

Engineers he has worked with include Dillan Tallibarni  and Matthew Crawford.

The following list shows he has also been co-driver to some other great names in the sport:

·       Mark Skaife 2005

·       Rick Kelly 2006

·       Greg Murphy 2001

·       Nathan Pretty 2000

·       John Falkner 1998

·       Mark Noske 1999

·       Shane Price 2008

·       2009 Rick was Todd Kelly’s co driver

·       2010 Dale Wood was Todd Kelly’s co driver.

·       David Russell 2013

·       2014 Alex Buncombe was Todd Kelly’s co driver

·       In the 2003 Bathurst 24-hour co drivers in car 05 were Peter Brock, Jason Bright, Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy.

Thanks for the Entertainment over the years Todd Kelly.  Best of luck with the next chapter in your life.

.

Drivers

Jason Bright Annuces his Retirement from fulltime V8 Supercars Racing

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HI to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

Towards the end of the 2017 racing season Jason Bright announced his retirement from full time racing.

In this article we look back at a magnificent career spanning 2 decades.

Jason Bright was born on the 3rd of March 1973 In Moe, Victoria.

At the age of 15 he started racing Go Karts and immediately won championships.

In 1992 Bright raced Go Karts doubling up efforts with his entry to the Victorian Formula Ford Championship.

The following year saw him in the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

He was winning races and championships left right and centre.

Jason started full time touring car driver in 1998. The only year that Jason didn’t race in fulltime was 2000 because he was racing in Indy Lights. He has racked up a phenomenal 572 starts in V8 Supercars races.

In that first 2 years of racing under the Stone Brothers Racing Team he did extremely well and with co-driver Steven Richards won the Bathurst Classic.

The year 2000 was big for Bright. His ended his contract with Stone Brothers Racing and joined Dick Johnson Racing but also entered the Indy Lights, Champcar World Series, Shell Championship Series and the American Le Mans Series.

From 2001 onwards he held 2 year contracts following each other with Holden Racing Team, Paul Weel Racing and Ford Performance Racing(FPR). I am sure one of his career highlights was 2003 in the Bathurst 24 Hour, co-driving with Peter Brock, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly. With a team like that of course they came in first.

Jason Bright does like to keep busy because in the meantime (2005) he established his own V8 Supercars team, Britek Motorsports with Fujitsu Racing as their main sponsor. He was so busy (and under contract) that he didn’t even have time to race in his own team until 2 years later. So for 2007 – 2009 Jason got to race in his own team. For a number of reasons Britek Motorsports was absorbed into Brad Jones Racing in 2009. He then joined Brad Jones Racing for the 2010 season and stayed with them until 2016.

He signed up with Prodrive racing Australia in 2017 when he felt it was time to hang the helmet up fulltime. He has confirmed he will be doing the Enduro races in 2018.

There are way too many career highlights and statistics to list but here are a selected few thrown in with a few lows:

·       1998 Bathurst Winner
·       1999 Darwin Round Winner.
·       2001 Clipsal winner.
·       Winton 1st 2002
·       Barbagallo 1st 2002
·       Best championship finish was back in 2002
·       1st 2003 Albert park race 1
·       2006 Sandown winner.
·       2005 Jason Bright started his own race team, Britek Motorsports
·       DNF’S Bathurst 2006 2007
·       Abu Dhabi 2nd 2011 race 2

·       1st Barbagallo 2011
·       2014 he had a bad crash
·       Started a total of 17 races in pole position two of which were 2011 at Barbagallo raceway and 2009 at Phillip island
·       20 race wins and 88 podium finishes
·       Competed in 572 V8 Supercars Championship races 

Some of his co-drivers have been:

·       Mark Winterbottom
·       Mark Skaife
·       Thomas Mazera
·       Paul Weel
·       David Brabham
·       Adam Macrow
·       Matt Halliday
·       Andrew Jones
·       Garry Jacobson

Jason Bright’s co drivers for the 1997 Primus 1000 classic was Allan Jones and Scott Preutt. They were driving car number 9.

 Jason Bright also raced at the Le man 24 hours back in 2013.

To have a 20 year career is just fantastic in the sport of racing and to have such phenomenal career is even more unusual.

Well-Done Jason Bright! Enjoy your retirement from full time racing (knew you couldn’t go cold turkey and will be glad to see you in the Enduro races).

Enjoy your next chapter in your life what ever that may hold.