Tag Archives: James Courtney

Repco Bathurst 1000 2024

November 24, 2024 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercar fans around the world!

The weekend of October 10th–13th hosted the Repco Bathurst 1000, which was Round 10 of the 2024 Supercars Championship and the 64th running of the legendary Bathurst endurance race.

The Bathurst race circuit, known as Mount Panorama, first opened on March 17, 1938. The race itself originated in 1960 as the Armstrong 500, a 500 mile race held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. In 1963, the event moved to Bathurst, where it retained the 500 mile distance until 1973 when it went metric and was extended to a 1000 kilometre race.

1000 is the most iconic race of the year in Australia and is internationally recognised as a tough and gruelling race on an extremely difficult track.

Over the years, the Bathurst 1000 has been the stage for many remarkable moments in motorsport history. Some of the most notable include:

Peter Brock (Brocky) was also nicknamed “King of the Mountain”. Between 1972 and 1987 (a period of 15 years) he won the Bathurst 1000 nine times. His win in 1979 was by a phenomenal 6 laps ahead of other competitors. On the final lap anyone would think he would play it safe. Instead, he broke the fastest recorded time in history.

Peter Brock – Wins 1979 Bathurst 100 by 6 laps. Who would have thought being quick would make you popular with the girls. Sign of the times.

2003: Greg Murphy astounded everyone in the top 10 shootout before the race. He clocked such a phenomenal lap time it has gone down in history as the “Lap of the Gods”.

Lap of the Gods 2003. You don’t have to be a motor sports fan to enjoy this.

2005: Marcos Ambrose was the season champion for 2003 and 2004. He was well on his way to making it three in a row. On lap 145, he and Greg Murphy were in the top 10 at the front of the pack. They made contact at The Cutting and Ambrose was taken out of the race. He earned no points for the championship. It not only ruined his chances of a Bathurst win (after 145 of 161 laps) but took him of the season running.
2006: Paul Radisich crashed coming out of The Chase. His car was demolished, and he suffered injuries so bad he was unable to compete for the rest of the season.
2008: Paul Radisich as co-driver to Rick Kelly locked up the front wheels at maximum speed smashing into a barrier of the upcoming turn. The impact was so intense, just watching it will give you whiplash. The car was out of the race.
2010: On the first lap, competition was so fierce Fabian Coulthard left the track at max speed on Conrod Straight. He hit the sand trap, slid sideways and the car went into a 6 barrel roll. Needless to say, he missed the next 160 laps.

Honestly, there are dozens more examples of moments in the Bathurst 1000 that have gone down in history.

This year’s Bathurst 1000 was also a special milestone for several drivers. Craig Lowndes marked his 31st appearance, Warren Luff his 24th, Will Davison his 21st, James Courtney and Jack Perkins both celebrated their 19th Bathurst 1000.

The hype around “The Big Race” starts well before the actual Sunday of the race itself. They even have a dedicated “Bathurst channel” starting a week in advance. The preliminary sessions started on the Thursday and went until the race on Sunday.

Pre-Race Session fastest times:

Practice 1: Matt Payne.
Practice 2: Jamie Whincup in the co-driver session.
Practice 3: Broc Feeney.
Practice 4: Brodie Kostecki.
Qualifying: Matt Payne.
Practice 5: Cooper Murray in the co-driver session.
Practice 6: Broc Feeney.
Top Ten Shootout: Brodie Kostecki earning him Pole Position on the grid.
Warmup: Will Brown and co-driver Scott Pye shared the fastest lap.

Race 20

The 2023 champion Brodie Kostecki positioned himself in the number 1 grid spot. After last year’s brilliant performance, he has had a woeful time this season, so it was great to see him up front and ready to take on “The Big Race”.

Cameron Waters pulled up alongside him on the front row. Just behind them was Broc Feeney in Position 3 (P3) and Richie Stanaway in P4.

The moment finally came, and they were off for the gruelling 161 laps. Kostecki was out front from the moment they waved the green flag but it was Broc Feeney who had a blistering start and was close behind.

Richie Stanaway passed Feeney and by the time they reached “The Chase” was putting in a challenge to Kostecki for the lead.

Even with 160 laps and hours to go, all drivers were putting in 100%.

By Lap 2, the young Broc Feeney in his 3^rd Bathurst 1000 attempt as a main driver had passed Stanaway to take second place, 1.2 seconds behind leader Kostecki.

The front group were beginning to spread out. Stanaway was just 1.1 seconds behind in third, followed by Cameron Waters 2.7 seconds adrift, and Will Brown 3.4 seconds back.

A few laps later at the rear of the group Matt Chada went off track with an impressive half-spin and ended up in the sand trap. He was able to recover without a safety car intervening.

Will Davison was the first car to pit on Lap 17 and handed over to co-driver Kai Allen for his first stint at Bathurst. Kai Allen along with Cooper Murray will be moving up from the Super-2s category to become full time V8-Supercars drivers in 2025. It must have been a moment for both of them to achieve this goal.

As Cameron Waters started lap 23 he made a mistake at Turn 1, going straight ahead off the track and losing the number 3 spot to Will Brown. He rejoined the race in 10th place.

Kostecki continued to show fine form like that of his 2023 championship win. On lap 25 he did the fastest lap of the race recorded so far.

A few laps later Chaz Mostert attempted an inside pass on Brad Vaughn at Forest Elbow (turn 18). They made contact causing significant damage to the front end of Vaughn’s car. His spoiler was left abandoned on the track with other car debris. I was surprised he was able to continue without pitting. Even so, there had been no safety car deployment so far.

Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney both pitted on lap 28 from their 1^st and 2^nd spots. Will Brown briefly minded the lead as the pit stops cycled through.

While Feeney handed over the wheel to co-driver Jamie Whincup, a fuel hose issue in the Red Bull Ampol Racing pit stall cost them valuable time (around 3 seconds).

Todd Hazelwood took the wheel from Kostecki, emerging from the pits with a 6.6 second lead over Jamie Whincup.

Meanwhile, Lee Holdsworth and Dale Wood were engaged in a fierce battle for 4th and 5^th. Holdsworth’s poor positioning coming up to a turn and his own driving error had him go straight ahead and leave the track. Surprisingly it worked to his advantage as he cut the corners and re-entered the track in 3rd place. He wasn’t penalised for his short cut but normally it’s a “no no”.

Garth Tander experienced a massive lockup at the final corner of the lap and dropped back to 14th place.

Todd Hazelwood continued to lead but Jamie Whincup had closed the gap to 3.8 seconds. Due to pit stop cycling Scott Pye in 3^rd was a further 11.028 seconds behind.

There was also plenty of action in the main pack. Cooper Murray was having an impressive drive climbing six places into 12th. Declan Fraser moved up to 5th after passing Lee Holdsworth.

Unfortunately, a Brad Jones Racing crewman had a fumble with the garage fuel pump hose connection whilst filling car 8 for driver Declan Fraser. They were only able to take on 20 litres of fuel and were forced into an unscheduled pitstop shortly after. 20litres instead roughly 120 litres put them at a major disadvantage while in a competitive position.

By the middle stages of the race Brodie Kostecki was on fire, extending his lead to a commanding 14.175 seconds over Jamie Whincup.

When it came time for Jamie Whincup to give back the driving seat to Broc Feeney, Feeeny looked like he might have enough pace to challenge for the lead, but the gap was too big to close.

Much loved legend Craig Lowndes was in 5th, having gained an astonishing 13 positions.

On lap 132 of 161Matt Payne had a gear downshift issue as he zig zagged up “The Mountain” through The Cutting. At such high speed he was unable to make the upcoming turn and went straight ahead into the concrete barrier wall.

After being on the track for more than 5 hours and coming close to the end of the race, it must have been a huge disappointment to Matt Payne and co-driver Garth Tander to see their car demolished and out of the race.

The race went to “Yellow” and the first safety car of the day was deployed while the car wreck was removed.

I must say it is so unusual for them to get this far into the race without a safety car deployment. It might have had to do with the good weather instead of the usual wet weather and sudden storms the Bathurst area can be prone to.

While under “Yellow” drivers have to stay in formation behind the safety car, limited to 80Kmph. All the gaps are closed up. Brodie Kostecki’s 10 + second lead up the front was lost. It was going to make the last laps extremely exciting.

The Big Race got back underway. Broc Feeney was now in a much better position to challenge the lead. Brodie Kostecki who had the number 1 spot almost the entire race was having none of that and defended with exceptional driving. There was simply no room at any stage for Feeney to get past him.

They were both driving like demons. The rest of the pack were falling further behind. Pretty soon the two leaders had created 10 + second gap over them.

In the final laps Brodie Kostecki held strong. Broc Feeney was no slouch either and kept on his tail, but still had no opportunity to pass. Not a single mistake was made by either driver as they charged to the end.

The crowd went absolutely insane, cheering Kostecki on as he crossed the finish line 1.3 seconds ahead of Broc Feeney. It is only the 4^th time in the history of the Bathurst 1000 that the pole sitter finished first.

Will Brown was leading the rest of the pack, finishing 13.640 seconds behind in third.

What a spectacular finish to the biggest race of the year.

Race 20 Final Results:

1^st Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing

3^rd Will Brown and Scott Pye – Red Bull Ampol Racing

With their 2nd and 3rd place finishes, Red Bull Ampol Racing secured the 2024 Teams Championship even with 2 events remaining. Broc Feeney moved back to 2nd place in the Drivers Championship, 204 points behind teammate Will Brown who remains the series leader. Chaz Mostert is in 3rd place, 222 points off the lead.

With just two events remaining in the 2024 Supercars Championship – the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on October 25–27 and the final round on November 14–17

The Valo Adelaide 500, the battle for the title is heating up. I hope you can join me for the final two rounds of an incredible season!

Supercars

Panasonic air conditioning Sydney Supernight 2024

August 22, 2024 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of July 19 – 21 2024 the Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney Supernight was held. It was round 7 of the 2024 Supercars Championship.

The event was held at Sydney Motorsport Park formerly known as Eastern Creek Raceway.

Sydney Motorsport Park was first opened on the 10 November 1990 however, the main event came along in 1992 when the V8 supercars made their first appearance at the circuit. The venue has been host to events such as motorcycle racing, A1 Grand Prix, Touring cars and Muscle Car Masters.

Just 2 days before this year’s event on July 17^th 2024, James Courtney announced that he will be retiring from fulltime Supercars racing at the end of season 2025. He is now 44 years old and has been a full time driver since 2006. If he completes next season he will reach the 20 year milestone in Supercars. That is quite an achievement.

The pre-race sessions started on the Friday. Results were as follows:

Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 1
Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout

In Race 15 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Thomas Randle alongside him.

As they took off Thomas Randle got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 51 laps.

As the pack got to turn 2 there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and Macauley Jones. Winterbottom’s car suffered damage and he had to head straight for the pits. Macauley Jones was just a victim in the process but he did manage to keep going.

The top 3 cars were reasonably close to each other. Chaz Mostert started to apply the pressure on his former teammate Cameron Waters in a bid for second place.

It wasn’t long before Chaz Mostert found his opportunity and before turn 7 passed Cameron Waters. Chaz Mostert was now in second but was still 2.079 seconds behind race leader Thomas Randle.

On lap 13 Brodie Kostecki was the first to take his pit stop from 24^th place.

As they reached into the 20 something laps Thomas Randle pitted from the lead, followed by Chaz Mostert and then Broc Feeney. While Randle pitted it was Cameron Waters who assumed the lead.

In the middle of the race there were 4 cars yet to still pit. Once they did Chaz Mostert took the race lead. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Anton de Pasquale in third place.

Will Davison showed how eager he was and did the fastest lap of the race, 131.505 seconds.

Chaz Mostert’s experience showed as he defended the lead throughout the rest of the race.

Although he couldn’t fully break away from the pack, Chaz Mostert still managed to cross the finish line 2.6 seconds ahead of Matt Payne. A further 4.5 seconds later Thomas Randle came in to take 3^rd place.

Results for Race 15

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2^nd Matt Payne – Grove Racing
3^rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing

In Race 16 Will Davison started on pole position. Alongside him was Chaz Mostert.

As they took off Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 51 laps. At turn 4 Will Davison ran wide giving Chaz Mostert the opportunity to pounce and get to the front of the field.

At turn 8 Broc Feeney ran extremely wide causing him to drop all the way down to 23^rd place. It just didn’t seem to be his weekend.

On the next lap at turn 2 David Reynolds got up the inside of Matt Payne to enter the top 10 spots.

It didn’t last long, and Matt Payne re-took 10^th place back.

The positions up front had not changed except for Will Brown who made up 1 spot to hold 4^th place.

Chaz Mostert had extended his lead out to 2.3 seconds over Will Davison in P2. Matt Payne unbelievably got into 7^th spot and stayed side by side to Anton de Pasquale down the entire straight.

David Reynolds got into a bind and was trying to avoid leaving the track. Unfortunately, he made contact with Ryan Wood. Brodie Kostecki was behind the two and had no chance to avoid giving David Reynolds a helping bump off the track. What a mess, Kostecki and Reynolds were now at the back of the pack. Ryan Wood fell back to 13^th place (unlucky).

The first car to pit in this race was Broc Feeney. He returned to the track in 25^th place.

Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale pitted on lap 25.

There were still 3 cars yet to pit. Once they took their mandatory stops, Chaz Mostert assumed the lead.

Once again Chaz held his place and even clocked the fastest lap of the race,131.302 seconds.

With 9 laps to go car 26 Ritchie Stanaway had a clutch issue causing his wheels to spin whilst hoisted on the air-jacks in the pits. They tried to resolve the issue but in the end chose to send him back out to finish the race and earn the points. A much better option than a DNF (Did Not Finish).

Chaz Mostert kept edging away from the rest of the pack and the front runners became more spread out. Mostert took advantage of the clear track and crossed the finish line 8.3 seconds clear of Cameron Waters in second place. It was another 8.9 seconds back to Will Brown in 3^rd place.

It was great weekend for the Walkinshaw Andretti United team and their driver Chaz Mostert winning 2 out of 2 races this weekend. It was his third win in the 2024 Supercars season.

A look at the Driver’s Championship points after this event shows Will Brown still holds the number 1 spot. He leads by 105 points over Chaz Mostert in 2nd. Broc Feeney’s bad weekend moved him down a spot from 2^nd to 3^rd. Things are getting mighty interesting!

On the Team’s Championship scoreboard Red Bull Ampol Racing still lead by 805 points over Walkinshaw Andretti United.

Results for Race 16

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
3^rd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing

The next event is the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 16 – 18 August 2024.

Supercars

NTI Townsville 500 2024

July 14, 2024 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 5^th – 7^th July 2024 was round 6 of the 2024 Supercars championship, the NTI Townsville 500.

The event was held in Townsville, North Queensland.

Supercars have been racing in Townsville for 16, years since the street circuit was first opened in 2009. The circuit is 2.8km long with 13 turns.

In that very first event of 2009, Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander shared the pole positions and Jamie Whincup and Jamess Courtney shared the race wins.

Townsville displayed its typical weather pattern on the Saturday of this year’s event, bloody hot with an afternoon storm but on the Sunday it managed to stay dry.

In the pre-race sessions

Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 1
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 2
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying
Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout

In Race 13 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Chaz Mostert alongside him.

Cameron Waters got the jump off the start line and led into turn 1 for the first of 88 laps, a total of 250kms.

Thomas Randle got up the inside of Will Davison at turn 3 for 3^rd place but back in the pack there was chaos. As the rest of the cars got to turn 3 Nick Percat, Brodie Kostecki and Anton de Pasquale made contact heavily. As they bounced around the track there was a big risk of other cars hitting them from behind. As Jaxon Evans came through, he joined the chaos and was also turned around. Will Brown who started 13^th on the grid was in the danger zone of being caught up but somehow, he managed to stay out of trouble.

The first 3 cars in the incident, Percat, Kostecki and Pasquale had to all head into the pits due to damage. Race officials investigated the incident but found no-one to at fault, so no penalties were issued.

By lap 2 the positions had changed significantly. James Courtney had gained 6 places moving up to 11^th. Will Brown gained 1 place up to 12^th and David Reynolds was up 8 spots in 13^th place.

The leading 5 cars were reasonably close to each other. Chaz Mostert was right behind his former teammate Cameron Waters by only 0.682 seconds.

The first car to pit by choice was Aaron Love on lap 19. He came back on the circuit in 21^st place.

A few laps later Chaz Mostert was the first of the leaders to pit. There were 9 cars still yet to take their stops. Once they did, they would be out of the way and Chaz Mostert would be able to resume his face-to-face battle for the lead with Cameron Waters.

When Cameron Waters pitted on lap 28 he had a 7.7 second lead over Will Davison in 2^nd place.

By the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was given the space by Cameron Waters to pass and now had the number 1 spot with 1.8 seconds lead.

Chaz Mostert kept the lead and with 15 laps to go was followed by Thomas Randle and then Cameron Waters.

Further back in the pack Will Brown had gained an amazing 7 spots into 6^th place and now behind Jack Le Brocq in 5^th.

With 11 laps remaining the rain started to bucket down and drivers were struggling to keep the cars on the track. As suddenly as it had started, the rain passed. Although the track was still wet, I am sure the drivers were thankful.

Cameron Waters wasted no time. Soon enough he passed his teammate Thomas Randle to be in 2nd place.

Thomas Randle lost his momentum and dropped back a few places. Will Brown made contact with him on the approach to turn 3 but somehow both cars stayed away from the wall.

Cameron Waters was now challenging Chaz Mostert. Waters wouldn’t let up. Chaz Mostert must have felt he wasn’t able to defend the number 1 spot without high risk. Instead of possibly endangering his car and losing a podium finish he seemed to let Cameron Waters pass easily.

Cameron Waters edged ahead in the last laps and finally crossed the line with a 1.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert. Then there was another 4.6 seconds back to Will Brown who managed to move up into 3^rdplace for the finish. It was a spectacular result.

Results for Race 13

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3^rd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing

On the Sunday of the 3 day event Jack le Brocq started on pole position for Race 14. Alongside him was Cameron Waters.

As they took off Cameron Waters once again led into turn 1 for the first of 88 laps.

The polesitter, Jack le Brocq did not get an ideal start and dropped back to 4th.

Thomas Randle was now in 2^nd place and James Courtney was in 3^rd.

This year’s championship leader Will Brown missed the Top 10 Shootouts in both races of the event. He qualified 17^th on the grid. To add to his woes, David Reynolds hit him from behind in lap 1 sending him into the concrete barrier wall and seriously damaged his car. Will Brown now had to head straight to the pits and returned to the race in 24^th, last place. It scrapped all his hopes of protecting his championship lead.

Will Brown’s teammate Broc Feeney (who happens to be 2^nd on the championship ladder) was having problems of his own. On this first lap he had dropped from 6^th place on the grid back to 13^th.

Chaz Mostert who had started 8^th on the grid managed to get by Matt Payne for 6^th place. He wasted no time and went on the charge. Soon he was in 4^th place just behind the leaders. By the end of the 1^st lap he was in 3^rd.

Within the next few laps Chaz Mostert passed Thomas Randle for second place.

The first car to pit aside from Will Brown at the race start, was Matt Payne on lap 20. He was in 3^rd place but unable to challenge the 2 cars ahead. The team strategised to come in now and be better able to make ground with fresh tyres.

By the middle of the race Jack le Brocq who had a terrible start from his pole position was now out the front and leading. Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert were right behind him.

Matt Payne’s pitting strategy paid off. In the second half of the race he managed to squeeze passed and take the lead. With 7 laps to go he had a 9.2 second lead over Cameron Waters in 2^nd place with Chaz Mostert not far behind.

Waters and Mostert chased Matt Payne for all their experience was worth. The cars began to spread out. However, Matt Payne was just too fast and crossed the finish line 6.057 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters.

Mostert had slipped a little but came in 3^rd place 7.6 seconds later.

It was an unexpected finish especially after this year’s dominance of Will Brown and Broc Feeney up until now.

Results for Race 14

1^st Matt Payne – Grove Racing
2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

Regardless of a bad weekend for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team, Will Brown still leads the championship but only by 78 points over Broc Feeney.

The next event is the Panasonic Sydney Supernight July 19 – 21.

I hope you will join me. Until then keep those engines revving!

Supercars

Thrifty Bathurst 500 2024

March 8, 2024 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 23 – 25 Feb was the Thrifty Bathurst 500.

It was Round 1 of the V8-Supercars 2024 season.

The event consisted of 2 practice sessions, a qualifying session (1 for each of the 2 races) to determine the entries to the top 10 shootout for grid position and finally 2 races of 40 laps / 250km each.

Last season ended with Erebus taking the teams trophy and Erebus driver Brodie Kostecki taking the drivers’ trophy. Will Brown who was Brodie Kostecki’s teammate took 4^th place.

It seems this year the drivers from Erebus have abandoned ship. Will Brown is now driving for Red Bull Ampol Racing alongside Broc Feeney after the exit of legend, Shane Van Gisbergen.

Will Brown has joined Red Bull Ampol Racing

On the 30 January 2024 Brodie Kostecki had a massive falling out with Erebus Motorsports’ boss Barry Ryan and left the team. It must have been serious because now the champion has been left without a seat in this years’ competition. Barry Ryan, team owner Betty Klimenko and Brodie Kostecki have all been very tight lipped about what happened to cause the rift.

This first event of the year started on the Friday with 2 practice sessions. The weather was cloudy with consistent rain. Not a surprise at Bathurst which is known for its extreme weather patterns.

Results from the pre-race sessions are as follows:

Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 1
Will Brown was fastest in Practice 2
Broc Feeney was fastest in Qualifying for both Race 1 & 2
Will Brown was fastest in Race 1 Top Ten Shootout
Broc Feeney was the fastest in Race 2 Top Ten Shootout

On the grid for Race 1 Will Brown started in pole position with teammate Broc Feeney alongside him.

Will Brown got the jump on his teammate off the starting line and led into turn 1 for the first of 40 laps. Chaz Mostert got a ripper of a start from 3^rd on the grid and was close behind the two leaders.

Rookie, Ryan Wood went off the track at turn 1 with a helping hand from Tim Slade. The safety car was deployed and the car was towed off the track. I am sure it was not how Ryan Wood envisioned his first race as a rookie.

Race Control looked at the incident and decided to take no penalising action against Wood or Slade.

The restart was on lap 3. Will Brown still had the race lead followed by Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert and Cameron Hill.

The first 2 cars to pit were Anton de Pasquale and Matt Payne on lap 6. They re-joined one spot from the back of the pack, 22^nd and 23^rd.

Broc Feeney was tailing leader Will Brown by only 0.934 seconds. On lap 11 he then did the fastest time recorded in this race (208.332 seconds).

Will Brown was the first of the two Red Bull cars to pit to ensure there would be no double stacking at the garage with teammate Broc Feeney. This handed Broc Feeney the lead.

In the middle of the race Nick Percat had the lead. Once he pitted Broc Feeney took back lead control with Will Brown behind him.

Aaron Love hit the wall coming out of The Cutting and damaged the right rear corner of car 3. It was quite a significant hit and he had to limp back to the pits. There was no need to deploy the safety car and later he did manage to return to the race.

Towards the end of the race Broc Feeney and Will Brown were the effective leaders with the 2 cars of Nick Percat and Cameron Waters ahead of them but still yet to pit. Once they pitted the 2 Red Bull cars assumed 1^st and 2^nd place on the track.

With 9 laps remaining Broc Feeney was still in the lead by 0.871seconds over Will Brown.

On lap 33 Chaz Mostert clocked the fastest lap of the race at 208.113 seconds. This adds 5 point to Mostert’s scoreboard tally.

The competition began to get wild.

On lap 34 the front left wheel came off Cameron Waters Monster Energy Ford Mustang and it went rolling down the track to turn 2. The race went under FCY (Full Course Yellow) to remove the wheel.

With 5 laps to go James Golding went off at The Chase. When he came back on he was alongside his teammate, Tim Slade.

With 2 laps to go Aaron Love hit the wall at The Cutting again! This time the Safety Car had to be deployed to remove the car from the track. He and Ryan Wood were the only two DNFs in the race.

As a result of the deployed Safety Car the race finished under Safety Car conditions. The finish was therefor quite unexciting compared to the action leading up to it.

Broc Feeney came across the line first, followed by Will Brown and then Chaz Mostert.

Results for Race 1:

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

In Race 2 Broc Feeney started on pole position, alongside him was Chaz Mostert.

As they took off Chaz Mostert got the jump and led into turn 1.

Meanwhile back in the pack Cameron Hill and Macauley Jones became entangled and spun both cars. They were able to continue but were now at the back of the pack.

Broc Feeney tried to get up the inside James Golding at The Chase. He made contact with Golding and was issued a 5 second time penalty for the driving infringement.

Will Brown had gone up to second place. He was only 0.385 seconds off Chaz Mostert in the lead. Pole sitter Broc Feeney had dropped back to 3^rd place.

Matt Payne was the first driver to take his car into the pits on lap 6.

Ryan Wood also went into the garage to rectify a damaged right front steering sustained on the opening lap.

Aaron Love hit the wall approaching the Reid Park section of the track.

Up the front the top 3 cars were reasonably close to each other.

Broc Feeney was asking whether he can pass Will Brown in attempt to make up for the 5 second time penalty he received earlier. He was given the go ahead but just couldn’t find the space on track to execute the pass.

He then decided to take the first of his 2 mandatory pitstops and also get his 5 second penalty out of the way.

In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was still the leader by 5.2 seconds over Will Brown, who was then followed by Broc Feeney. Thomas Randle and David Reynolds were battling for 4^th and 5^th place.

Towards the end of the race only Todd Hazelwood and Andre Heimgartner were still yet to take their second pit stop. Once they did, Will Brown who had overtaken Chaz Mostert would assume the race lead.

In the final 5 laps the top 3 positions were unchanged and stayed that way to the finish.

Will Brown crossed the line with a 1.6 second lead on Chaz Mostert. Then it was 1.4 seconds back to Broc Feeney.

It was a good race and a lot of fun watching it.

Results for Race 2:

1^st Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

After the first of event of the season Will Brown is the series leader by 9 points over Broc Feeney.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing team are in the lead of the teams championship by 201 points over Grove Racing.

The next event in the Supercars series is as a support category at the Rolex Australian F1 Grand Prix at Albert Park on March 21 to 24 2024.

I hope you will all join me.

Supercars

Valo Adelaide 500 2023

December 17, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The event started on Thursday with a wet Practice 1.

The pre-race sessions results are as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Broc Feeney passed James Courtney for 8^th place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They were both on fire screaming ahead of the pack.

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

Results for Race 27

1^st Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing.

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 28:

1^st Matt Payne – Grove Racing.

2^nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

3^rd David Reynolds – Grove Racing.

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

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

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

Supercars

Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint 2023

April 21, 2023 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of Mar 30 – Apr 2^nd was the Beaurepairs Melbourne Supersprint. It was round 2 of the 2023 Supercars Championship and held at Albert Park in Melbourne Victoria.

The event was a support category of the Rolex Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The Albert Park circuit is 5.3km with 14 turns. Supercars has been there every year all but 2007, 2020 and 2021.

The weekend represented big milestones for some drivers.

Chaz Mostert started his 300^th race in Supercars.

In the second race Mark Winterbottom started in his 595th race. It is a track that he seems to favour having previously won 7 races at the venue, a win count that he shares with Shane Van Gisbergen.

Macauley Jones also hit his 150^th race start on the Sunday of the weekend.

Congratulations!

With this in mind, plus the first time that the Gen 3 cars race at this track and it being part of the Australian F1 Grand Prix, it was set to be an exciting weekend.

In the pre- race sessions

Mark Winterbottom was Fastest in Practice 1 Tim Slade and Shane Van Gisbergen both caused red flags because they both went into the wall at turn 5 or turn 7.
Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 2
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying.

The first of the four sprint races started on the Thursday of this event. It was Race 3 of the season with Anton de Pasquale on pole position Brodie Kostecki alongside him.

At the start of the race Anton de Pasquale got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 19 laps. Brodie Kostecki was trying his best to take the lead and gave Anton de Pasquale a nudge at turn 5. Brodie Kostecki had to pull back and it allowed Shane Van Gisbergen to displace him.

Chaz Mostert was part of the front running pack but lost a spot when Jack le Brocq made an impressive pass at turn 3.

By the end of the first lap Bryce Fullwood gained 6 spots. After starting from 23^rd on the grid he was up to 18th. If he kept this up he would be a threat to the leaders.

lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen found the space to make his move and took the race lead off Anton de Pasquale. From that point on, he was able to control proceedings from the lead.

The first car to pit in this race was Cameron Hill from the back of the field on lap 9.

There were challenges for position happening everywhere. Drivers had to be aggressive in such a short race.

Cameron Waters was trying to pass Brodie Kostecki and Chaz Mostert was putting pressure on Cam Waters in a battle for 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th place.

Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with James Courtney for 8^th position.

Anton de Pasquale was right on the tail of race leader Shane Van Gisbergen.

At one point Cameron Waters ran extremely wide exiting turn 10 which dropped him down to 6^th place.

It allowed Will Brown to get in the mix, but Chaz Mostert got the better of him and was again challenging Brodie Kostecki for 3^rd place.

With the continual attacks, James Courtney and Broc Feeney also became part of the challenge for those positions. In an instant Jack le Brocq was running 9^th position.

The gap between 1^st and 2^nd was 1.2 seconds with about 1.3 seconds back to 3^rd.

Both Will Davison and Andre Heimgartner came into the pits to make their stop and rejoined the race in 22^nd and 23^rd place.

James Golding and David Reynolds pitted on lap 10. There were still 19 cars yet to pit. Everyone was reluctant to relinquish track position.

With 8 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Anton de Pasquale. Brodie Kostecki closed the gap in 3^rd position to 0.847 seconds.

Mark Winterbottom had no radio and Team 18 had to use a pit board to communicate with him.

Once the front runners took their pit stops, Shane Van Gisbergen was back in the lead.

With 4 laps to go Brodie Kostecki got past Anton de Pasquale for 2^nd place while the leader Shane Van Gisbergen was in cruise mode. There were 16 cars who had not yet pitted so the pits it was going to be very busy in that area for the remaining laps.

With 3 laps to go Shane Van Gisbergen had edged out a 2.6 second lead over Brodie Kostecki.

On the final lap Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.5 second lead over Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown. They were closing in on him incredibly quickly. All he had to do was hang in there, defend his lead and not make any mistakes.

Brodie Kostecki was making a massive effort to catch the leader but there just wasn’t enough time. Shane Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line with only a 0.3909 of a second lead over Brodie Kostecki. Will Brown crossed the line third 1.5616 seconds later.

Results for Race 3:

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

3^rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

Race 4 started late due to a crash in the Formula 3000. All the races on the weekend were time certain being a support category to the Australian F1 Grand Prix. It was almost assured they would not complete all 15 laps, but they didn’t know how many laps they would get. Drivers would have to be very aggressive to gain and keep position given the time limit.

Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position with Will Brown alongside him.

At the start of the race Will Brown got the jump and led into turn 1. Meanwhile further back in the pack David Reynolds got turned around at the first corner by Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom. His car ended up off the track and trapped in the sand. The safety car was deployed and the race was under yellow flag conditions. As they followed the safety car around the track in formation, Nick Percat caught fire on the left front of his Ford Mustang. He managed to get back to the pits independently but couldn’t re-join the race.

It took until lap 4 for the race to return to green and recommence. Shane Van Gisbergen immediately tried to go around the outside of Will Brown in the lead. He couldn’t make the move stick and as a result of the madness up front Shane Van Gisbergen dropped from 3^rd down to 6^th.

The first of the drivers to pit in this race were Will Brown, Will Davison, Jack le Brocq, Andre Heimgartner, Matt Payne and Scott Pye.

Soon after his pit stop Jack le Brocq hit the wall damaging the left front corner. He couldn’t move and the race went under ‘yellow’ while he was retrieved, and the wall repaired. He would become another driver in this race to not return to the track.

In the end the race finished on lap 8 behind the safety car while they were still repairing the wall.

It was unfortunate to finish this way but couldn’t be helped. In formation behind the safety car they crossed the finish line; Brodie Kostecki with his first career win, James Courtney and Shane Van Gisbergen.

Post race finish, James Courtney was issued a penalty for an unsafe release in the pits. Unfortunately it pushed him back to 22^nd place on the recorded results. The drivers between 3^rd and 22^nd were elevated 1 spot. For the two Red Bull Ampol Racing cars it was an unexpected podium finish with Shane Van Gisbergen bumped up to 2^nd and Broc Feeney to 3^rd.

Results for Race 4:

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

3^rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

In Race 5 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position alongside him was Will Brown.

At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 followed by Will Brown. The cars further back in the pack were battling for ascendancy. At turn 5 James Golding made contact with Mark Winterbottom and pushed him into the wall. Winterbottom received damage on the left hand side and headed to the pits. He was the first car to receive an NC (not Complete).

Before the end of the lap James Courtney’s car caught fire. He managed to get back to the pits independently but would not return to this race or the last race for the weekend. He was the second car to receive an NC.

On the second lap Anton de Pasquale got turned around by Matt Payne. James Courtney became collateral damage of the incident. The safety car was deployed and the pit lane closed. Pasquale and Courtney became the two other cars to leave the track and receive an NC.

On the restart Brodie Kostecki was still in the lead followed by Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood. Meanwhile Shane Van Gisbergen passed Andre Heimgartner to take 6^th position.

In the middle of the race authorities issued Matt Payne a Pit Lane Drive Thru Penalty for the incident he caused in lap 1 with Mark Winterbottom.

Towards the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen had moved up to 5^th position and now had Will Davison in front of him.

James Golding got turned around by Chaz Mostert when they were 3 wide coming out of turn 3. Luckily, they both continued in the race.

After Brodie Kostecki took his pitstop he resumed the lead of the race.

With only a couple of laps to go, Brodie Kostecki held his lead and crossed the line first. He was followed by Will Davison, Bryce Fullwood, Shane Van Gisbergen and then Will Brown.

Post race finish both Will Davison and Bryce Fullwood received 15 second penalties for an unsafe pit release. It was the second time at this event that post race penalties were issued altering the podium results. Once the time penalties were applied, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown were bumped up two places so the recorded results now showed them as 2^nd and 3^rd place on the podium.

Results for Race 5:

1^st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

3^rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

In only his second year as a full time driver Broc Feeney earned himself his maiden pole position for Race 6. Alongside him was Chaz Mostert.

As they took off Broc Feeney surprisingly got the jump over the far more experienced Chaz Mostert. It took until turn 5 before Mostert could make his move for the race lead. Almost immediately after Will Brown also passed Broc Feeney dropping the pole sitter back to 3^rd.

Broc Feeney and his team felt this was the best time to try and get some clean air out of the traffic. He was the first car to pit along with almost half the pack at the end of lap 1, including; Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Brodie Kostecki, Cameron Waters, Nick Percat, Anton de Pasquale, Declan Fraser and Macauley Jones.

On return to the track Bryce Fullwood almost hit the wall on the exit of turn 10. Somehow he managed to avoid the collision and it seemed like a miracle escape.

Shortly after Anton de Pasquale was given a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release.

Will Brown managed to take the race lead off Chaz Mostert but immediately under the pressure made a driving error and spun around. It cost him dearly and dropped back to 20^th position. He then realised he had a steering issue and head to the garage.

In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was still in the lead, followed by Bryce Fullwood and Will Davison.

With 6 laps to go Chaz Mostert’s tyres were starting to blister. It took his edge away and Bryce Fullwood got by him.

At this point in the race the top 9 cars were still yet to take the mandatory pit stop. Once they did there was another change to the lead, Broc Feeney was back up front.

On lap 12 Cameron Hill bumped the fence between turns 9 and 10 and damaged the left side of his car. He headed for the pits but with only 1 lap to go he didn’t make it back onto the track. He became the only car in this race to receive an NC.

Broc Feeney kept his lead. He crossed the finish line with just under a second gap over Andre Heimgartner, followed by Brodie Kostecki a further 1+ seconds later.

Bryce Fullwood came in 4^th but post race copped a 15 second time penalty for an unsafe pit release. It pushed him down the recorded results as 18^th place.

For Broc Feeney this was his first win for 2023 and second career win. Things seem to be moving fast for this rising star. Can’t wait to see things as they unfold for him.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 02: (EDITORS NOTE: A polarizing filter was used for this image.) Broc Feeney driver of the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during race 4 of the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400, part of the 2023 Supercars Championship Series at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on April 02, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

Results for Race 6:

1^st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

When handing out the trophies for Race 6, Broc Feeney selected his father, Paul to collect the team trophy on behalf of the Red Bull Ampol Racing. A nice way of honouring his family support.

After the points were tallied for the event, Brodie Kostecki became the recipient of the Larry Perkins Trophy for 2023. He also became the new championship leader by 32 points over Chaz Mostert.

Shane Van Gisbergen is 3^rd, only 86 points behind the number 1 spot on the ladder.

The next event is the Bosch Power Tools Supersprint on April 28^th – 30^th, 2023.

Supercars

Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 2022

December 30, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations!

Results for Race 31

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd David Reynolds – Grove Racing

3^rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 32

1^st Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

3^rd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing Team

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

Supercars

Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint 2022

September 9, 2022 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 19^th to the 21^st of August 2022 was the Penrite Oil Sandown Supersprint.

This will mark the 52^nd event held at Sandown in ATCC – Supercars history. No venue has hosted more rounds than the Melbourne circuit. Its championship race history includes both endurance and sprint events. This weekend’s races will be the 80^th, 81^st and 82^nd championship races to be held at the circuit.

In the opening race Lee Holdsworth will reach a career milestone, his 500^th Supercars race start. The defending Bathurst co-champion will be just the 11^th driver to achieve the feat, but the first to do so at the same venue as his first career race start. Lee Holdsworth made his Supercars debut at the 2004 Sandown 500. The Friday event will mark the 15^th anniversary of the Penrite Racing’s drivers first championship race win at Oran Park in 2007.

Lee Holdsworth has announced his retirement from fulltime Supercars Racing at the end of this season. Congratulations Lee, best of luck for the future.

The weekend kicked off on Friday with the usual practice and qualifying sessions without any surprising results.

Will Davison was fastest Practice 1.
Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2 for co-drivers only.
Cameron Waters was fastest in Practice 3.
Will Davison was fastest in Qualifying.

In race 24 Will Davison started on pole position with Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

At the start of the race Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen went straight to the inside covering any challenge from Will Brown right behind him. Anton de Pasquale was also making his challenge against Will Brown, but he too couldn’t make the pass.

The cars further back in the pack were settling into their race pace while the leaders were pulling away.

Will Davison had a margin of 0.985 seconds over the defending champion Shane Van Gisbergen.

Meanwhile, Broc Feeney was battling with Andre Heimgartner for positions 8^th and 9^th. As they approached turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Andre Heimgartner gave Broc Feeney a bump and turned him around. Broc Feeney went from 8^th down to 25^th position. He had lost 15 spots. The incident immediately went into investigation. After a short while Andre Heimgartner was issued a 15 second time penalty for the driving infringement.

As they crossed the line to commence lap 2 Will Davison only had a 0.720 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.647 seconds back to Will Brown in 3^rd place.

James Courtney had gained one place and was up to 6^th position.

Mark Winterbottom tried to get up the inside of James Courtney, but he didn’t let the pass happen.

Will Davison couldn’t increase his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen who was sticking to him like glue.

The front of the field was tightly packed. Through lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen was making it impossible for leader Will Davison to make any headway and kept the gap to about half a second. It was another 0.7 seconds back to Will Brown still in 3^rd place with Anton de Pasquale just 0.8 seconds back. Thomas Randle was right behind and putting pressure on Anton de Pasquale.

A little further back in the pack, Brodie Kostecki was close in behind Andre Heimgartner. Cameron Waters had gained 2 places up to 10^th and Chaz Mostert had moved up 1 spot into 12^th.

Shane Van Gisbergen was still on the tail of leader Will Davison, ensuring the gap didn’t get to more than 1 second.

By lap 5 Brodie Kostecki had gained 6 positions to move into 8^th place. His next target was 2015 Supercars Champion Mark Winterbottom.

Nick Percat had gained 5 places to move into 16^th position right behind Lee Holdsworth, who had gained 3 places and was in 15^th.

There were no changes at the tightly packed front of the field. Will Davison was still in the lead followed by Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Brown, Anton de Pasquale and Thomas Randle. Will Davison never being able to break past the 1 second lead.

On lap 6 Cameron Waters did the fastest lap of the race in 108.659 seconds but was still 6.3 seconds off the lead.

The first car to pit was Scott Pye in car 20 on lap 9. When he re-joined, he came back out in 22^nd place.

On lap 10 Andre Heimgartner came into the pits and once done had to serve the 15 second penalty issued earlier. When he re-joined it was in 25^th position.

On lap 11 David Reynolds broke the fastest lap time at 108.474 seconds.

It was only on lap 13 that Will Davison managed to break past the 1 second lead over Shane Van Gisbergen.

Anton de Pasquale had dropped back from the top 5 to 9^th place and came into the pits at the same time as James Courtney.

In the middle of the race more of the front runners, Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Brown came into for their pit stops. They came back out into 15^th and 16^th position.

At this point there was 14 cars still yet to pit.

Shortly after, Will Davison and Thomas Randle pitted from 1^st and 2^nd place.

On lap 19 as Will Davison and Thomas Randle were exiting the pits, Chaz Mostert was entering for his 1 and only compulsory pit stop. Will Davison re-joined as the affective lead of the race followed by Shane Van Gisbergen. and

There were still 11 cars yet to pit.

On lap 20 Thomas Randle got a bad sportsmanship flag for careless driving. A bad sportsmanship flag is only warning to tell the driver that he is running out of lives.

Then on lap 22, Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

On lap 23 Cameron Waters, Broc Feeney and Macauley Jones pitted, leaving Lee Holdsworth as the last car to pit.

Cameron Waters and Macauley Jones re-joined in 8^th and 9^th position.

With 12 laps to go Will Davison was finally making headway and had increased his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen to 3+ seconds. It was only 0.531 seconds back to Anton de Pasquale.

Lee Holdsworth pitted on lap 24. On the way back out his car stalled which cost a lot of time and he dropped to 24^th position.

By lap 25 Will Davison resumed the physical lead of the race and now 3.8 seconds ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale.

Back in the pack cars in positions 14 to 17 were pretty vigorously battling. I thought Chris Pither was going to make contact with Nick Percat but didn’t. At one stage I thought they were all going to go off the track but somehow, they all stayed on.

On lap 28 Cameron Waters in car 6 also got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Chris Pither was dropping down the order quickly because of a delaminating tyre.

With 10 laps to go Broc Feeney was still fighting and got up the inside of Tim Slade for 16^th position.

By lap 29 Will Davison had squeezed almost another second onto his lead over Shane Van Gisbergen. It was now 4.765 seconds.

On lap 30 Will Davison broke past the 5 second mark on his lead.

With a clear track and not having to worry about defending his position he kept increasing his lead. In the end Will Davison absolutely dominated the race crossing the line 8.4 seconds clear of Shane Van Gisbergen, followed by Anton de Pasquale.

This was Will Davison’s 21^st career victory in Supercars. Congratulations and happy 21^st!

Results for Race 24:

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

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

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

In race 25 Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position and alongside him was Cameron Waters.

Will Davison started 11^th on the grid due to an electrical problem during qualifying. There was no fire but a lot of smoke that filled the cabin of the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang. Will Davison had to pull into the pits and get out of the car. Amazingly they got back out on the track before the end of qualifying and even with this interruption they managed to get a place just outside the top 10.

Chaz Mostert had problems of his own. Engine issues had Walkinshaw Andretti United stumped. Just prior the race they decided to do an engine change! To my amazement they managed this in 8 minutes. Can you imagine dropping your car off at the mechanic and having an engine change in under 10 minutes! I don’t think so.

As they took off from the start line Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and Chaz Mostert stuck right behind him. Broc Feeney who started in 4^th had a good run but was blocked in and had nowhere to go.

As Shane Van Gisbergen led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps, Cameron Waters was 1 back and 1 wide to Chaz Mostert.

Jack le Brocq went off the track between turns 2 and 3. As he was re-joining he made contact with another car. Unfortunately, it was his own teammate, Todd Hazelwood. The impact broke the left side steering arm of car 34 driven by Jack le Brocq. Todd Hazelwood in car 35 also had damage. He dropped back to 25^th place and car 34 dropped 10 places to 24^th. They bath limped around the track to make it back to the pits so were the first car in.

Within the first half lap Will Davison had gained 3 spots up to 8^th place.

On lap 2 the front runners were still tightly packed. Chaz Mostert was only 0.250 seconds behind Shane Van Gisbergen. It was then only 0.416 back to Broc Feeney in 3^rd place.

At turn 7 James Courtney went straight ahead over the top of the curb leaving the track. He recovered quickly enough to block an effort from Tim Slade trying to get up the inside of him so managed to hold onto his position in 14^th.

Chaz Mostert’s attack on Shane Van Gisbergen was blocked and the leader was even able to edge further ahead a little to 0.499 seconds.

Broc Feeney was right behind Chaz Mostert putting in an effort to take his place in 2^nd.

On lap 5 Cameron Waters and Will Davison made contact. After starting on the front row in 2^nd position Cameron Waters had dropped 5 places from 2^nd down to 7^th position.

As the pack was approaching the end of the back straight, Andre Heimgartner made contact with Scott Pye. As a result Andre Heimgartner went straight ahead at turn 7 leaving Scott Pye and Cameron Waters in a messy battle still on track.

On lap 6 Lee Holdsworth was back in the pack. He was getting held up so pitted to try and get some clear track. No one else followed him into the pits.

The leaders were still bunched closely and Shane Van Gisbergen managed to only just get ahead of Chaz Mostert by 1.1 seconds. Chaz Mostert was tailed by Broc Feeney by a mere 0.563 seconds.

James Golding was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 7. He dropped all the way down to 21^st position on his return to the track.

Thomas Randle also pitted on the same lap.

By lap 8 Shane Van Gisbergen could only manage to extend his lead to 1.7 seconds over Chaz Mostert.

Further back in the pack, Mark Winterbottom was putting pressure on Andre Heimgartner for 9^th position.

They both pitted on the next lap and re-joined the race in 17^th and 18^th position.

At this point there were 16 cars yet to pit.

On lap 10 David Reynolds made contact with Cameron Waters on the exit of turn 1 and again on the exit of turns 2 and 3. Cameron Waters then copped another whack, this time from Brodie Kostecki in car 99.

By lap 11 Shane Van Gisbergen had increase his lead to 2.255 seconds over Chaz Mostert. Chaz Mostert had also finally shaken Broc Feeney off his tail and had a gap of 4.223 seconds.

On lap 13 Will Davison pitted but on leaving the crewman still had the rattle gun on the wheel. It didn’t cause any accident but the team was issued a pit lane infringement.

Getting close to the halfway mark of the race on lap 14, two of the front runners came into pit; Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney. They were fast stops and they came back out in 9^th and 10^th position.

Jack Smith in car 4 got a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding the track limits.

On lap 21 Shane Van Gisbergen pitted with a + 14.8 second lead over Cameron Waters who had assumed 2^nd place.

Towards the end of the race there were only 3 cars to pit, Tim Slade, Nick Percat and Bryce Fullwood. Once they pitted Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race once again.

From that point on Shane Van Gisbergen was in control. He had 3.8 second lead over Chaz Mostert and it was another 7.7 seconds back to David Reynolds.

As the race got close to the finish, Shane Van Gisbergen kept edging away. He just could not be caught. It was faultless driving and he crossed the line 7.5 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Chaz Mostert in 2^nd place was followed 4+ seconds by Will Brown.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 15^th win out of 25 races this season. That is 60% of the time he has been on the top step of the podium. That is the stuff legends are made of!

Results for Race 25:

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

2^nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

3^rd Will Brown – Boost Mobile Racing.

In Race 26 Will Davison started on pole position with the defending Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen alongside him.

As they took off at the start Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 36 laps.

Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to go around the outside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the ground and had to tuck back in behind.

The gap that the leaders had on the on rest of the field was huge.

At turn 3 four cars made contact and spun around to face the wrong way. The drivers involved were Jake Kostecki, Chris Pither, Macauley Jones and Todd Hazelwood. The drivers all got the cars moving again so there was no need for a lap 1 safety car to be deployed. The incident went into investigation but Motorsport Australia took no further action.

On lap 2 Shane Van Gisbergen was on the charge looking for the lead of the race which he got at the second last corner.

Will Davison’s teammate Anton de Pasquale made contact with him and as a result Pasquale’s two front wheels were in the air. He had to come straight into the pits to have the damage on car 11 looked at. While in the pits he had dropped all the way down to 23^rd position.

Will Davison also had damage on the front left corner of car 17. The guard was rubbing on the tyre, but he didn’t want to lose 2^nd place so didn’t pit. The gap between Shane Van Gisbergen in 1^st and Will Davison in 2^nd was only 0.141 seconds.

Due to damage caused by the incident on lap 1, Todd Hazelwood had to also pit at the same time as Anton de Pasquale.

During lap 3 Shane Van Gisbergen made a mistake coming out of turn 4. Will Davison tried to take advantage and regain the lead but Gisbergen recovered quickly and fended off the attack.

Behind the two leaders, Broc Feeney was putting pressure on Cameron Waters for 4^th position. Chaz Mostert was unaffected in 3^rd place.

On lap 6 Will Davison was proving a headache to Shane Van Gisbergen and had done the fastest lap of the race so far 109.365.

Chris Pither who was involved in the 4-car accident on lap 1 finally had to pit for rear tyres and bonnet repair on car 22.

Jack le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner also pitted on this lap.

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen pitted. On the re-join to the race he only dropped to 8^th position.

Shane Van Gisbergen had Chaz Mostert right behind him in 9^th but in effect they were battling for 1^st and 2^ndwith the 7 cars ahead still yet to pit. Broc Feeney was behind them in 3^rd but was 38 seconds further back.

On lap 20 Cameron Waters and Will Brown pitted from 4^th and 5^th.

Andre Heimgartner left the track at turn 7. He was issued a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

On lap 23 Will Davison who was in the lead had to pit. Now Lee Holdsworth was the only one left to do so. Once that happened Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead of the race.

When Will Davison re-joined the race it wasn’t long before he returned to 2^nd place just 2.2 seconds from Shane Van Gisbergen.

Within the last 10 laps Chaz Mostert was under pressure from his ex-teammate Cameron Waters. Right behind them was Broc Feeney trying to look for a gap to make his move.

Mark Winterbottom was further back and he got a bad sportsman flag for exceeding track limits.

Tim Slade had gained 5 spots and was now up to 7^th position.

For 2 laps in a row Chaz Mostert was under attack from Cameron Waters trying to earn 3^rd place. Chaz Mostert was able to hold him off.

Will Davison was desperate to catch Shane Van Gisbergen and did the fastest lap of the race 108.613 seconds.

Heading down into turn 9 on Dandenong Road, Cameron Waters locked up the front right brakes and went off the track. He came back on in 10^th position. It gave Broc Feeney the opportunity he was looking for and he moved up to 4^th place.

Shane Van Gisbergen had a 1.3 second lead over Will Davison. It was another 6.6 seconds back to Chaz Mostert then only another 0.605 seconds back to Broc Feeney.

On lap 33 Broc Feeney finally passed Chaz Mostert for 3^rd position.

Shane Van Gisbergen held his lead but only just. He crossed the line a mere 0.4611 seconds ahead of Will Davison.

Broc Feeney crossed the line 11.3437 seconds later in 3^rd place.

This was Shane Van Gisbergen’s 2^nd win for the weekend, earning him a commanding 500 points lead over Cameron Waters in the Driver’s championship for the season. It was also his 70^th career win in Supercars. This is the stuff legends are made of. Congratulations Shane!

Results for Race 26

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

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

3^rd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

The next event is the ITM Auckland Supersprint September 9^th to the 11^th.

Supercars

Bunnings trade sydney supernight 2021

November 5, 2021 admin Leave a comment

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On Friday the 29^th to the 31^th of October, 2021 was the Bunnings Trade Sydney Supernight.

This was the first of four back to back events scheduled for the Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek Raceway). This was made possible due to the removal of many COVID-19 restricts being lifted in NSW.

However, commentator Mark Larkham (one of my favourites) was not at the track because of boarder restrictions in Queensland. So he was stranded with the banana benders for this event.

Mark Winterbottom hit a milestone. This was his 550^th Supercars race.

Heading into the event the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team were at the top of the Teams Ladder. The team’s 2 drivers also are at the top of the Championship; Shane Van Gisbergen with a solid lead at the top of the ladder followed by teammate, Jamie Whincup in second place.

In the pre-race sessions Anton de Pasquale dominated with amazing results:

Fastest in Practice 1
Fastest in Practice 2
Fastest in the Armour All Qualifying
and the Armour All Top Ten Shootout
He also started in Pole Position for all 3 races at this event.

In race 20 Anton de Pasquale started on pole position. Alongside him was Will Brown.

As the race got underway Will Brown was giving the pole sitter something to think about. He duelled with Anton de Pasquale into turn 1 and then again at turn 2. However, Anton de Pasquale held place and Will Brown had to tuck back in behind him.

At the back of the pack Jack Smith in position 19 stalled car 4 off the start line and immediately dropped back to 24^th, last place.

Jamie Whincup also had a poor start and dropped to 9^th off after starting 8^th.

On the exit of turn 3 Will Davison was on the outside, ran wide and did some lawn mowing on the grass dropping a few places on the first lap.

Shane Van Gisbergen made up 3 spots on the first lap to run 3^rd.

Shortly after Anton de Pasquale slid out and lost some time allowing Will Brown to catch up, sitting right on his tail.

Chaz Mostert was battling with Will Davison for positions 6 and 7.

David Reynolds came in early because he was getting held up.

Fabian Coulthard and Andre Heimgartner both started the race in the middle of the pack and also chose to pit early to get some clear track.

The leaders decided to stay out to keep track position.

On lap 16 Anton de Pasquale in position 1 and Will Brown came in at the same time. Will Brown’s luck changed and his stop was delayed because the right rear wheel nut came lose. He lost so much time he rejoined the race in 21^st place.

In the middle of the race James Courtney in car 44 got a bad sportsmanship flag for track limits at turn 5.

Meanwhile Jamie Whincup was trying to get further up the order but just couldn’t find the space.

In the closing laps Shane Van Gisbergen in second place was giving Anton de Pasquale a very hard time. I would imagine that it would have been quite daunting for Anton de Pasquale to have the series leader right in your face, but credit to him he held his nerve and managed to cross the line first. It was a spectacular finish.

Results for Race 20:

1^st Anton de Pasquale – Dick Johnson Racing.

2^nd Shane Van Gisbergen – Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.

3^rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsort.

In race 21 yet again Anton de Pasquale started on pole position. This time alongside him was teammate Will Davison.

Anton de Pasquale stalled on the start line and dropped back through the field at a rate of knots.

Will Davison took the lead into turn 1 and the cars further back in the pack settled into their race rhythm.

Anton de Pasquale was caught back in 7^th place. I was surprised at his poor start considering how he had dominated the weekend so far.

Up until the first pit stop I thought Will Davison was going win his first race since Bathurst 2016, but that didn’t happen.

He had Shane Van Gisbergen on his tail and they came in to the pits at the same time. Shane Van Gisbergen did a 3 tyre change and Will Davison did 4 tyres. Will Davison’s dash was blank and they had to recycle through the electricals so he was stationary a lot longer than he would have liked.

As a result, Shane Van Gisbergen re-joined the race in the lead.

From that point on Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale were on the attack and putting pressure on the leader.

Shane Van Gisbergen is no rookie and didn’t crack under the pressure. He simply just increased his lead and crossed the finish line 2+ seconds over his rivals. This was his 12^th win for 2021.

Anton de Pasquale had bad luck in this race. Although he finished 3^rd it was soon revealed in his pit stop the team put the wrong tyres on. They belonged to his teammate , Will Davison so Poor Pasquale was disqualified after the race finish.

Results for Race 21:

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

2^nd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing.

3^rd Nick Percat – Brad Jones Racing.

For the third time in three races on the weekend, Anton de Pasquale started on pole position. Alongside him was rookie, Will Brown.

As Race 22 got underway Anton de Pasquale led into turn 1 with Will Brown close behind. The cars further back in the pack soon settled into their race pace.

Shortly after Shane Van Gisbergen jumped the goat, Jamie Whincup.

Andre Heimgartner was back in the pack getting held up so he choose to get out of the traffic and pit early.

Before the pit stops started I thought at one stage Will Brown was going to take the lead. But Anton de Pasquale was having a great weekend and not about to let the rookie take his number one spot.

Shane Van Gisbergen kept his lead over teammate Jamie Whincup and it was only mid race when he made a mistake that Whincup could reclaim his 3^rd place.

Nearing the end of the race Will Brown once again challenging for the lead but that didn’t happen and Anton de Pasqale won.

It was an incredible performance by Anton de Pasquale. He started on pole position for all 3 races and won 2 out of 3. That is not bad going. Congrats Anton!

Results for Race 22

1^st Anton de Pasquale – Dick Johnson Racing.

2^nd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport.

3^rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing.

It was great fun to watch and I’m already looking forward to next weekend: Same place, Same time for the Armor All Sydney Supernight.

Supercars

Merlin Triple Crown 2021

June 28, 2021 admin 2 Comments

Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of June 18 to 20, 2021 was the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.

It was an exciting weekend that I had been looking forward to. Not just because Hidden Valley is a fast track but also the last event at Winton was cancelled due to COVID lockdowns. So it’s been a while since the last race.

Neil Crompton was not in Darwin last weekend because he was recovering from prostate cancer surgery. Crompo, we are all praying for you and wish you a speedy recovery.

In other news, Chaz Mostert has signed a new multi year deal with Walkinshaw Andretti United until the end of 2023. This puts an end to the speculations that he may be replacing Jamie Whincup in 2022 at the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team alongside Shane Van Gisbergen.

Also last weekend it was confirmed that Thomas Randle will make his full-time debut in 2022 with Tickford Racing under a 4^th Rec – Racing Entitlements Contract.

The weekend’s event was underway as scheduled. In the pre-race sessions it was a mix of results:

Nick Percat was fastest in Practice 1
Jamie Whincup was fastest in Practice 2
Anton de Pasquale was fastest in Qualifying for race 12.

In race 12 Anton De Pasquale started on pole position with Mark Winterbottom alongside him.

As the race got underway things immediately went wrong and by turn 1 there was a 6 car pileup.

Mark Winterbottom lost power and went wide to avoid being a hinderance. Shane Van Gisbergen managed to sweep down the inside of Anton de Pasquale to take the lead. Anton de Pasquale turned in tight clipping Shane Van Gisbergen’s back wheel. It slowed Pasquale, changing his driving line and Scott Pye ended up in his behind spinning him round. As this brought them to a halt in the middle of the turn, others came to join the ‘pile up party’; Including Todd Hazelwod, Jack Smith, Fabian Couthard, Garry Jacobson. It was utter mayhem and the safety car had to be deployed to clean up the mess. Garry Jackobson was the only one able to continue the race. The others were out with NC (Not Complete).

When the race went back to green Shane Van Gisbergen was leading the race.

Jamie Whincup came in early to find some clear air and not get caught up in traffic. The leaders stayed out until lap 5.

Will Davison was the remaining Dick Johnson Racing car after the retirement of car 11 driven by Anton de Pasquale. De Pasquale’s car looked such a mess I was thinking that they wouldn’t be able to repair car overnight, but somehow they did.

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen’s was on target for another race win in 2021 but it was a day of mishaps. When he came in for the pit stop the team couldn’t get the wheel nut undone, so instead of the stop being a 3 or 4 seconds it ended up being a 30 seconds. They delay cost him the race lead and win. After looking so strong he finished in 13^th position.

The race lead was now in the hands of Cheeky Chaz Mostert. His experience and great driving made it impossible for anyone else to catch him before he crossed the finish line first.

Results for Race 12

1^st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

2^nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

3^rd Nick Percat – Brad Jones Racing

In race 13 Will Davison started on pole position. Alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen. The last time Will Davison started on pole position was 2014 at Homebush Sydney Olympic park.

David Reynolds qualified 21^st for race 13 which he wasn’t happy with because he wanted to be further up but it didn’t work out.

At the start of the race Shane Van Gisbergen got the jump and led into turn 1. The cars further back in the pack came in early to get track position.

Nick Percat who qualified to start in 10 position wanted to repeat his podium finish achieved on Saturday. His driving throughout the race was more aggressive than usual but his experience means he knows what he is doing and poses less risk than most. Unfortunately for him it was a tough race and only managed to gain one place by the finish.

The Red Bull cars which qualified well, Shane Van Gisbergen started 2^nd and Jamie Whincup started 6^th on the grid, stayed out longer because they had track position. It paid off for both of them.

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was back at the front. Soon after his teammate, Jamie Whincup had moved up from 6^th to 3^rd. Will Davison was holding onto 2^nd position and was proving a tough nut to crack for Jamie Whincup to make the result 1^st and 2^nd for Triple 888 Racing..

The three drivers kept their position and proved impossible for anyone else to catch them. They also finished the race in that order; Shane Van Gisbergen, Will Davison and Jamie Whincup.

Results for Race 13

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

2^nd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing

3^rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing Team

4^th Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

In race 14, the third and final race for the weekend it was again Will Davison whi started on pole position. Alongside him was Shane Van Gisbergen.

Shane van Gisbergen went around the outside at turn 1 and in the process kept the lead which I wasn’t surprised with at all.

The cars further back in the pack came in to get track position and stay out of the hot air from the cars in front of them.

As the pit stops started taking place the leaders stayed to keep their positions.

Jamie Whincup was happy about having a good performance in Darwin with a 2^nd and 3^rd finish in the previous races..

In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was the leader of and looking like winning the race comfortably.

The series season leader Shane Van Gisbergen showed why he was the series champ to date and drove faultlessly to the finish line with more than a two second lead over Will Davison and Jamie Whincup in thrid. Shane Van Gisbergen now leads the championship by 221 points.

Results for Race 14

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

2^nd Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing

3^rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Ampol Racing Team

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The next event is the NTI Townsville 500 on the 9^th to the 11^th of July 2021.

William's Perfect Ride

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