Tag Archives: Mark Dutton

Supercars

Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 2023

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Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

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

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

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

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

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

In the pre-Race sessions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After this it was a sprint to the checkered flag.

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

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

Results for Race 10:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results for Race 11:

1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing

2nd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport

3rd Will Brown – Erebus Motorsport

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another spectacular finish for Erebus to end the weekend.

Results for Race 12:

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

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

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

Looking forward to it already!

Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour 2019

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Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend 1st to the 3rd of the February, 2019 was the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour which is a pre-season race before the Supercars Championship starts.

This is an international endurance race for GT and production cars, not V8 Supercars but there were so many drivers from the Supercars Championship in the race I include it in my reviews.

The title ‘Bathurst 12 Hour’ is true to its name. It is a time based race of 12 hours and disregards the number of laps performed.

In order to do the 12 hours in one hit the race started at 5:45am when it was still dark.

Englishman, Jake Dennis driving the Aston Martin was originally supposed to start in pole position but had been docked 2 grid spots for speeding in the pit lane. Then due a technical infringement by the team the Aston Martin started in 12th spot.

Car #999, the Mercedes Benz driven by Maximilian Buhk started in pole position; alongside him was the Mercedes Benz #77 driven by Luca Stolz.

V8 Supercars star, Shane Van Gisbergen started 19th on the grid after not making the top ten shootout on Saturday afternoon.

When the Mercedes Benz safety car took off for the warm up lap the 12-hour clock started for the race. After the first lap the race gets underway with a rolling start (not a standing start).

During the opening laps everybody was trying to keep their cars nice and straight as they knew it was a long race.

The two AMG Mercedes, cars #999 and #77 maintained their 1st and 2nd places.

In this early stage Shane Van Gisbergen made up 4 positions going from 19th to 15th. An excellent start but there was a long way to go.

It wasn’t long after that the carnage started.

On lap 6 while still early and quite dark car #71 ended up going down the escape road, an error not often seen.

Car #27, the Ferrari driven by Nick Percat got spun around at Forest Elbow after getting involved with the lapped car, MARC Focus V8 driven by Dutchman, Mathijs Bakker.  Later, Percat laid claim that this was an incident that couldn’t be helped and a result of multi-class racing. Bakker was not so diplomatic and did not hold back to vehemently blame Percat. The repair time cost percat at least 25 laps.

The 888 Vodafone Mercedes had a drama with the brakes. After Shane Van Gisbergen had to pit to try and have it repaired the team could not find the issue. Shane Van Gisbergen had to return to the track he was not happy. Little did he know how this was going to affect all the drivers.

Martin Tomczyk was battling with Craig Lowndes and nearly took his BMW into the wall on the right-hand side.

James Winslow received a lot of damage to the rear of his car and had parts flapping around which meant he had to pit to get them removed, otherwise risk receiving a mechanical black flag.

Garth Tander in car #22 had an accident by running into the back of #19 driven by Danish Kristina Neilson. He had to limp his Audi back to the pits and was soon declared out of the race.

When the accidents started, I thought these are going be expensive repair jobs.

On the race broadcast Chad Neylon, pit reporter for fox/10 used a giant touch screen to explain how he believed the strategies would unfold. It was a great insight.

Mark Dutton, racing engineer and current manager of Triple 8 was the Car Controller for the day, which was cool to see.

Shane Van Gisbergen ran wide at turn 1 due to sitting on the left-hand side of the car and lost the positions he had previously made.

When the sun started to rise the race was still under green. The cars that started further back in the pack now tried to make their move to get inside the top ten.

Braking problems continued to bother the three drivers of the 888 Vodafone Mercedes. The crew were unable to repair the issue and drivers were required to use both feet to apply the brakes. I am sure this did not help their driving form. At the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen literally rolled out of the car onto the ground in exhaustion.

The funniest part of the weekend was when Chad Neylon gave David Reynolds a lift in the AMG Mercedes Benz Safety Car to the race track. Neylon’s driving caused Reynolds to spill his coffee. Chad Neylon said ‘Lesson learnt, don’t drive to the track in the AMG Safety Car’. Reynolds response was “you’re a bad driver”. LOL

Jamie Whincup was given a Drive Through Penalty for passing the AMG Safety Car. Somehow  Roland Dane (triple 8 Owner) flexed his muscles of influence because he got the stewards and officials to negate the penalty.

The last time Jamie Whincup got a Drive Through Penalty was 2015 in the Bathurst 1000 but never in the Bathurst 12 hours.

Towards the end of the of the race Matt Campbell was leading with 2nd and 3rd chasing him down for the win, while  Shane Van Gisbergen was on an almighty charge to try to get on the Bathurst 12-hour podium but the top three were not giving up their positions.

38 cars started the race. By the end of the 12 hours of true endurance racing 15 cars had received DNFs. It’s a damned tough race.

 

Results for the 2019 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hours

1st Matt Campbell – Car 912, Porsche 911 GT3-R for Earl Bamber Motorsport
2nd Jake Dennis –  Car 62, Aston Martin Vantage  for R Motorsport
3rd Raffaele Marcello – Car 999, Mercedes AMG for Mercedes AMG Team GruppeM Racing
4th Shane Van Gisbergen – Car 888, Mercedes AMG Team Vodafone.

The next event is the first race of the V8 Supercars Season, The Superloop Adelaide 500 from the 28th of February to the 3rd of March 2019.

Post Race Report, V8 Supercars

Perth Supersprint 2017 Western Australia

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Perth SuperSprint 2017

Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 5th to the 7th of May 2017 was the Perth Super Sprint at Barbagallo Raceway.

In the 2nd run of qualifying Shane Van Gisbergen nearly hit the wall at a top speed of 255km/h. It could have been catastrophic and put everyone on edge.

Mark Dutton, the team manager later stated he would like see qualifying be done via a ‘go point’. He felt such a close call was an obvious example of how dangerous it is for drivers qualifying (hot lap) to be dealing with drivers warming up on track (I must say that I do agree with him).

Regardless of this hair raising moment the racing this weekend was excellent. Scott McLaughlin held race 7 in the palm of his hand and then (spoiler alert) took out race 8 as well, an almost unimaginable feat.

So here is the run-down on how it happened.

In race 7 Fabian Coulthard was on pole position and alongside him was Scott McLaughlin.

On lap 1 of 50 Scott McLaughlin got the jump on his team mate, Fabian Coulthard in a fantastic launch.  It was a pretty clean start no one ended off the race track.

It was those two cars that dominated. Except for a few moments the other cars didn’t see the two for the rest of the race.

Fabian Coulthard tried passing to take the lead and pit priority but Scott McLaughlin held on to the number one position. 

On lap 3 Chaz Mostert who started in position 5 was now in position 3 following the two Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske cars at the lead.

During the opening stages Craig Lowndes was doing well.

Alex Rullo was also doing well for his first race on his home turf.

Garth Tander was also on home turf showing his best form to impress his local crowd.

Simona de Silvestro was following her two team owners, the Kelly brothers out on track, getting some good pointers and experience.

James Courtney was outside the top 10 and just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t up near the leaders.

On lap 10 Fabian Coulthard’s race engineer, Phil Keed told him, if you get held up by Scott McLaughlin come in so that you re-join in clear air but that’s only if you’re getting held up.

On laps 16 & 17 the telecast crossed over to Mark Dutton (Red Bull Team Manager) and then Mark Skaife (Foxsports Commentator) and you could just see by their expressions how much they were enjoying the race.

By lap 24 the drivers had completed their 1st round of pit stops.

On lap 25 Scott McLaughlin was still holding the lead and looking strong.

It must have felt pretty good for him as he continually gained more lead on the chasing cars.

The Red Bull team seemed surprised and unsure of what to do about the two DJR cars up ahead that were getting further and further away. First, Shane Van Gisbergen gave chase but with little result.  He then swapped his 3rd position with Jamie Whincup in 4th.  I’m not sure but, it looked as though the strategy was for one to give chase and the other to hold off cars from behind. That way they would be sure to get Red Bull a spot on the podium.

It did pay off in the end with Jamie Whincup coming in at 3rd. However, Scott McLaughlan and Fabian Coulthard were just too good on the day; coming in at 1st and 2nd place respectively and Jamie Whincup over 7 seconds behind at 3rd. It was a spectacular finish for the DJR Team.

Results for Race 7

1st Scott McLaughlin – Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske.
2nd Fabian Coulthard – Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske.
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

In race 8 Scott McLaughlin started in pole position with Chaz Mostert alongside him.

On lap 1 of the 83 lap race, Scott McLaughlin got the jump on Chaz Mostert. Chaz Mostert tried to go around the outside but it didn’t work so before the turns he quickly tucked in behind Scott McLaughlin.

On lap 2 Craig Lowndes was displaying his talents and coming through the field well.

In lap 7 Scott Pye saw the opportunity to put some pressure on James Courtney and tried passing him but he couldn’t get it done cleanly.

On lap 9 Todd Kelly was in front of Rick Kelly both pushing hard in their usual sibling rivalry.

By this stage Chaz Mostert dropped back in the pack from his 2nd position at the start. It didn’t seem to be going his way and Mark Winterbottom made it look easy to get a clean pass of Chaz Mostert to take 7th position.

On lap 14 Craig Lowndes came in for his next stop before he got trapped out on the track. His drive after that stop was cool.

On lap 15 Fabian Coulthard tried to pass Scott McLaughlin but it was the same as race 7, Scott McLaughlin was having his day and held tight to his position.

On lap 17 Todd Kelly came in because he was getting held up by the cars in front of him which wasn’t ideal in terms of track position and strategy.

On lap 18 Cameron Waters was handling the pressure from David Reynolds reasonable well.

In the middle of the race Jamie Whincup pitted to try to get track position. This did work for a while but soon after Scott McLaughlin took the lead of the again.

Chaz Mostert seemed to be going crazy as he tried to make his way up through the pack. It was like the stressed guy having to go into the office on a Sunday, appearing frustrated at not being able to make his way past the ‘Sunday Drivers’ fast enough. His pit stop strategies paid off ( his first at lap 21) and he was soon on his way to the podium pack (singing ‘Day-o, Day – ay – ay –ay –O!).

The leaders began moving further and further from the rest of the pack. It soon became obvious no one was going to catch them.

Scott McLaughlin held tight to his leading spot and came across the line first (a second race win for the weekend. It really was his day.

He was then followed by Chaz Mostert across the line and once again for this weekend, Jamie Whincup in third.

Results for Race 8

1st Scott McLaughlin – Dick Johnson racing Team Penske.
2nd Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing Team.
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

The next event after Perth Western Australia was the Winton Supersprint on the 19th to the 21st of May 2017. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Race Report, V8 Supercars

WD 40 Phillip Island 500 21st to the 23rd of April 2017

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Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend of the 21st to the 23rd of April 2017 was the WD-40 Phillip Island 500.

It was a fantastic weekend for many reasons, the main being that my Dad & I were actually there.

I am wheelchair bound with Cerebral Palsy and a long list of other issues, so getting to the races is not as simple as purchasing a ticket and booking a room. All sorts of things need to be considered and organised (it becomes damn expensive having to cater for a wheelchair!). In addition, I need someone to accompany me for support needs. So who better than my own dad to come with me? There is no one better to go to a sporting event with than your own father. He will never know how much I appreciate him not just for taking me, but also for spending the time with me and having a blast.

As you can see this was a special weekend for me and I’m really happy to share this experience, personal photos and videos with my readers.

Dad picked up the wheelchair accessible KIA rental from Freedom Motors Australia in St Marys (suburb of greater Sydney area) on the Tuesday. A big “Hello” to their fabulous sales manager, Carolyn Hurst. Thank you for such great, friendly service.

We left on the Wednesday to head down to Victoria ahead of the weekends racing. By mid-afternoon we crossed the border from New South Wales into Victoria and checked into The Comfort Inn Benalla (north east Victoria). There was a mix up with our bookings (due to on-line booking agency) but the operators Di and Brian Hogg, were so friendly and considerate they made sure we got a suitable room without any hassle. It is appreciated that they went out of their way but made it seem effortless and welcoming.

On Thursday morning we headed down to Phillip Island. We stayed at the Coachman Motel Phillip Island operated by a beautiful friendly couple Bill and Monica that also made us feel welcome. If you like a nice garden this is the place to stay. We rested up and got prepared for going out to the track the next day.

When we got to the track on Friday it was raining, so we had to go undercover until it stopped. We then went into “The Paddock” to see which drivers we could catch to get photos with. There was a Triple 8 autograph session but we didn’t know at what time, so we just stayed around the V8 pit paddock and tried to catch up with as many drivers as we could from both the V8 Supercars Championship series and the Dunlop Super 2 series.

I got photos with many of my favourites; Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Mark Dutton, Roland Dane, Jess Surrey Dane, Tim Schenken, Garry Rogers, Nick Percat, Brad Jones, Chaz Mostert, Cameron McConville, Paul Dumbrell, Dale Wood, David Reynolds,  Betty Klimenko, Simona De Silvestro and Doctor Carl Le (the official Supersprint medical delegate).

You can see these photos on my fan page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1321664561282386.1073741847.554033848045465&type=1&l=f15b1bc9fd

Dad and I also got grid passes from the Red Bull Holden Racing team.  It was great and we got more photos out on the grid. Then dad and I returned to the pits to watch the race at the back of the Team Vortex garage.

Interesting to note, on Friday at the end of Practice 1 Craig Lowndes had a tyre blowout spearing him into the wall. His car had so much damage he wasn’t able to go out on track for Practice 2. Team Vortex did an all-nighter repairing the car for Saturdays qualifying and race.

Race 5 was 57 laps covering some 250Kms.

The Phillip Island track is known to be a fast track. What I did notice is the number of drive-through penalties received by drivers mostly caused by higher speeds coming around the track and crossing the safety line at the pit entry. Drivers receive a penalty if they cross over the pit line on the track which is to be kept clear for safe entry.

Early on in the race the drivers that got drive-through penalties were Scott McLaughlin Chaz Mostert, Will Davison, Shane Van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard, Mark Winterbottom, Tim Slade, Tim Blanchard, Nick Percat, Scott Pye, James Courtney and Simona de Silvestro. There wasn’t consistency in upkeeping the rule so there were a lot of drivers that didn’t get pinged for crossing the pit entry line.

Also there were a high number of tyre blowouts. Thirteen (13) in total. This is unusually high and caused teams concerns about the new regulation Dunlop supersoft tyres being used this season.

Scott McLaughlin started on pole position. Alongside him was Fabian Coulthard.

On lap 1 Scott McLaughlin got the jump on his teammate Fabian Coulthard. Mark Winterbottom was up to 2nd spot by turn 1. Then Fabian Coulthard got that spot back on the exit of turn 4. Shane Van Gisbergen was keeping up with the leaders. He wanted his presence felt even though it was early on in the race. Fabian Coulthard pushed hard to get his 2nd spot back off Mark Winterbottom down at MG corner.

On lap 2 there were a couple of drivers that came into the pits early to avoid the double stacking. For some drivers this paid off.

In the early stages of lap 3 Chaz Mostert was holding 3rd position.

Taz Douglas’ car ran over something on the track and got a puncture causing him to make a spectacular exit off the track, leaving rubber and debris everywhere along the main straight.

On lap 5 Michael Caruso moved up within the top 10 positions.

On lap 7 Scott McLaughlin was still the race leader and he would have got pit priority if the safety car came out onto the track, but it didn’t until later on in the race.

On lap 8 Cameron Waters stayed out on the track to avoid a double stack with Mark Winterbottom. Even though they are not on the same team they share the same pit bay.

On lap 9 Jason Bright was getting held up on the track by his teammates, Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert, so he decided to pit and get a clear race track to re-join on.

On lap 10 Garth Tander was running up front with the leaders so he stayed out on track longer while the going was good. His teammate, James Moffatt was back in the pack so he chose to take the opportunity to pit.

On lap 11 internal footage of Shane Van Gisbergen’s car showed him changing down with just a flick of the wrist. It was done with such proficiency as if it was nothing. It was a very cool thing to see.

On lap 13 Scott McLaughlin was still leading the race until he pitted for tyres and fuel then when he went to re-join the track he saw the red light on due to the Vodafone safety car going passed the pit exit. Scott McLaughlin got a pit lane penalty was because he wasn’t far enough over before he turned in to his pit bay.

On lap 14 Cameron Waters nearly got a punctured tyre due to the fast nature of the Phillip Island circuit. But he eased off and just got away with it.

On lap 15 when the Vodafone safety car came out nearly everyone up the front decided to stay out longer to keep their track position. This seems the right thing to do if there were more than 2 cars up at the pointy end of the field otherwise known as sharp end.

On lap 16 Rick Kelly pitted before the other 3 cars in his team. This was a good strategy call to avoid the ugly double stacking that the teams and drivers hate doing.

On lap 19 Jason Bright was pushing hard to get up into the top 5.

On lap 20 David Reynolds was on the charge trying to stay up with the leaders.

On lap 21 Shane Van Gisbergen was running well trying to get in front of Jamie Whincup but he wasn’t able to.

On lap 22 Fabian Coulthard was pushing hard after having to serve a pit lane penalty for not stopping when the red light was on at the pit lane exit. He admitted to his mistake but that didn’t make him any happier.

On lap 23 Simona De Silvestro was putting pressure on Todd Kelly to pass him at turn 4. Mark Winterbottom was putting pressure on Cameron Waters to get pit priority.

On lap 26 James Courtney was trying to pass Scott Pye to get inside the top 10 to get pit priority for the 2nd round of pit stops.

On lap 27 the drivers were adjusting their anti-roll bars. I assume this was to reduce the chance of tyre blowouts as there had been so many by this stage.

On lap 29 all the drivers were getting their cars ready for the race to the checkered flag.

From that point on it seemed that one could catch the front 3 cars (Craig Lowndes, Fabian Coulthardt, Jamie Whincup) and there seemed that the number of tyre blowouts also changed driver tactics so the chance of a great catch up didn’t look to be on the cards.

In the last 5 laps Craig Lowndes was leading the race. Even though he crossed the finish line first, the 15 second pit lane penalty he received meant he ultimately finished 12th. It must have been a hard pill to swallow considering if he kept the race win it would be his first race win for 2017 with team Vortex and his career tally would have gone up to 106 wins.

Nevertheless, Fabian Coulthard took race win followed by Jamie Whincup, then Garth Tander.

Results for race 5.

1st Fabain Coulthard  –  Shell V Power Racing Team.  Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske.
2nd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
3rd Garth Tander – Garry Rogers Motorsport.

In race 6 Scott McLaughlin started on pole position alongside him was Fabian Coulthard

On lap 1 of 57 Fabian Coulthard got the jump on Scott McLaughlin. The cars further back in the pack were trying to find clear space.

On lap 2 most of the cars came in to the pit lane, all bar the race leaders.

On lap 3 Will Davison hit the wall coming out of turn 2. The car was damaged but he managed to get it back to the garage. When he emerged from the garage later, he did not look happy at all.

On lap 4 Chaz Mostert was running in 4th which the Supercheap Auto racing team would have been happy with.

Rick Kelly pitted before the rest of the Nissan team.

On lap 5 Jamie Whincup was running in the top 5. Cameron Waters wanted to get passed his teammate Mark Winterbottom to get to the pit box first.

On lap 6 Simona De Silvestro just outside the top 10 was keeping the Nissan Motorsport team happy.

Lap 7 was when the tyre blowouts started happening again. Overall there weren’t as many as in race 5 the previous day. It must have helped that most teams reduced tyre pressure on cars, even though it does affect handling.

On lap 8 Fabian Coulthard came in to the pits before Scott McLaughlin.

On lap 10 Garth Tander made his first pit stop which helped get him out of the traffic and get fresh air for the engine so it didnt get too hot. On the next lap, James Moffatt was in the same situation.

On lap 12 Tim Slade tried to pass his teammate Nick Percat but wasn’t  able to get far enough up to make the move stick.

On lap 13 James Courtney came in to pits so that Scott Pye didn’t have to wait later on.

On lap 16 Scott Pye followed James Courtney into the pits and double stacked when the safety car came out. Im sure there was strategy from the team on this choice.

On lap 17 Jamie Whincup was up near the front which he and the team were happy with.

On lap 18 Mark Winterbottom was back on the track after his first pit.

On lap 19 Cameron Waters wanted to be strong during the race which he was.

On lap 20 Chaz Mostert was near the race leaders. His parents, Anne and Eddy Mostert looked proud as the watched the race from the side lines.

On lap 25 the safety car returned to the track to clear up spent rubber. Not moments later, on the next lap Nick Percat had a tyre blowout on the front right hand side of the car. He had to limp straight into the pits.

On lap 27 Todd Kelly and Rick Kelly were battling for positions 11 and 12 in their usual display of sibling rivalry.

The triple 8 Team’s luck had run out. Where in the previous day’s race they didn’t have a single tyre blowout, in this race all 3 cars had blowouts.

I’m sure that the Teams’ big question is ,why? Kevin Fitzsimmons is the Motorsport Manager for Dunlop. He had a lot of to do to find out what would have caused the tyres to blow.

It was lap 41 when Chaz Mostert took the lead. From that point on no one could catch him. Mark Winterbottom tried but Chaz Mostert was in great form and crossed the finish line so forcefully it was as though he had a higher purpose.

Andrew Roberts was down at Phillip Island which was good because Dad and I hadn’t seen him in a while.

My personal experience at Phillip Island for the weekend of racing was memorable. I had a ball with dad.

Results for race 6.

1st Chaz Mostert – Prodrive Racing Australia. Supercheap Auto Racing.
2nd Mark Winterbottom – Bottle O Racing Team Prodrive Racing Australia.
3rd David Reynolds – Erebus Motorsport.

The next event is the Perth Supersprint on the 5th to the 7th of May 2017.

http://www.freedommotorsaustralia.com.au/

http://www.comfortinnbenalla.com.au/

http://www.coachmanmotel.com.au/

Pre Race Report, V8 Supercars

Townsville QLD – Pre-Race Report

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Hi to all you V8 Supercar fans around the world.

This weekend is the Castrol Edge Townsville 400. Let’s take a look back at what happened in Townsville 12 months ago, in race 20 James Courtney started on pole position along was Garth Tander. Garth got a bump from Craig Lowndes, as a result Scott McLaughlin took the race lead. On lap 1 Chaz Mostert was spun around at turn 7 by the Jack Daniel’s Racing Nissan Altama. Craig then got spun around by Will Davison. Who will win the Castrol edge gold coast 400 this weekend?

History of the Townsville event, the first event was back in 2009 the winners back then were Jamie Whincup and James Courtney respectively. The pole position winners in the recent years have been 2009 Lee Holdsworth and James Courtney.

Best of luck everybody for weekend this week is races 16 and 17, 70 laps each. Can Craig get the Championship lead back off Frosty this week? Also can Craig Lowndes get his 101st this week? Can Jamie climb his way back towards top of the ladder?

The telecast will be on channel 10 channel 110 and Foxsports 5 Channel 506, enjoy the telecast this weekend. Watching the telecast on Foxsports you will have every practice session, qualifying and race.

Mark Dutton will be returning to his former position as Jamie’s race engineer, due to David Cauchi stepping aside. That means Roland Dane will be the team manager this weekend. The last time Mark was Jamie’s race engineer was 2013. 200 kilometres for each race on Saturday and Sunday. Marcos Ambrose won’t be driving at all this weekend. Scott Mclaughlin has been having engine dramas will that continue? Have GRM solved the issues.

Results from Townsville 2014. For race 20,

1st – Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd – Scott Mclaughlin – Volvo Polstar racing.
3rd – Garth Tander – SP Tools holden racing team.

Results for race 21

1st – Garth Tander – SP Tools Holden Racing team.
2nd – James Courtney – SP Tools Holden Racing Team.
3rd – Nick Percat – Heavy Haulage Australia Racing.

https://youtu.be/r74MgOgjhoU