Aussie Ambrose Hit with 25k Fine

Australian V8 Supercars, NASCAR, Spultured

Our Tassie Devil driver Marcos Ambrose, currently racing on circles in NASCAR, has been fined $25,000 for punching fellow driver Casey Mears after a massive stock-car style crash in Richmond, Virginia.

Not only was Mears suffering from a black eye, he was also hit with a 15k fine after pushing and riling-up the Aussie, enticing Ambrose to crack Mears in the face.

Mears said in an interview though that’s its all good with Ambrose, but that he’ll never forget being punched in the face.

Ambrose still managed to finish the race in 18th, alongside Mears in 19th place.

Both drivers have been put on probation until May 28, with neither drivers suffering suspension for the post-race incident.

Ambrose, a former V8 Supercar champion, is known for his fiery attitude at the racetrack after having a similar altercation with New Zealand driver Greg Murphy at the Bathurst 1000 in 2005.

In 2012 Ambrose was asked if he had any regrets in his career and said, “anything I regret? Yeah. There was this guy in Australia – and I regret I didn’t punch him.”

Greg Murphy was also fiery and when he saw the footage of his old rival smashing a guy in the face in America, Murphs didn’t think he had it in him.

“Maybe he saw a picture of my head on Casey Mears’ shoulders. Who knows?”

The Talladega event (Talladega nights? Yep, we all though it) is this weekend; let’s see if Ambrose and Mears can shake and bake it out.

Check out Ambrose getting a hook-in on Mears:

Jason Richards Memorial win goes to Winterbottom

Australian V8 Supercars, Fiasco Sports

Mark Winterbottom has claimed the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy after beating Scott McLaughlin to the finish line in Race 13 of the V8 Championship.

Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom became the second winner of the prestigious Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, after taking two race wins at Pukekohe Raceway for the fourth round of the V8 Supercars Championship.

Winterbottom defeated young-gun Scott McLaughlin, overtaking McLaughlin in pit-lane to win Race 13 of the championship.

Chaz Mostert also gained his first podium with Ford Performance Racing, finishing in third place with his new team.

Despite McLaughlin taking two pole positions over the weekend, he was unable to grab a win in front of his home New Zealand crowd like last year.

Front-row starter Tim Slade qualified second for Race 13, but due to a clutch failure the Supercheap Auto Commodore only managed 21st.

Craig Lowndes‘ championship also took a beating, with the Red Bull racer only finishing in 20th position.

Shane van Gisbergen fell shy of another podium finish in front of his home finishing fourth, with Michael Caruso, Jason Bright, Will Davison, Rick Kelly and V8 Champion Jamie Whincup rounding out the top ten.

Winterbottom was also able to grab the championship lead after Saturday’s race results, with the number 5 Falcon driver currently in first to Craig Lowndes by 107 points, with Fabian Coulthard third and Holden Racing’s James Courtney fourth.

“What an awesome race, the car was really good,” Winterbottom said.

“I had a bit of a bodgy start and trucked on through…

“A 100 point lead, that’s cool! I wanted to lead going out, not just halfway through.

“I feel honoured to win [the JR trophy].”

The next round of the V8 Supercars Championship will see the drivers head to Barbagallo for the Perth 400, on the 16-18 May.

Race 13 results

Position	Car	Driver	Team	Car
1	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG
2	33	Scott McLaughlin	Valvoline Racing GRM	Volvo S60
3	6	Chaz Mostert	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG
4	97	Shane Van Gisbergen	Team Tekno VIP Petfoods	Holden Commodore VF
5	36	Michael Caruso	Norton Hornets	Nissan Altima
6	8	Jason Bright	Team BOC	Holden Commodore VF
7	9	Will Davison	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG
8	15	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Nissan Altima
9	14	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing	Holden Commodore VF
10	1	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF
11	222	Nick Percat	Walkinshaw Racing	Holden Commodore VF
12	2	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF
13	16	Scott Pye	Wilson Security Racing	Ford Falcon FG
14	22	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF
15	4	Lee Holdsworth	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG
16	360	James Moffat	Norton Hornets	Nissan Altima
17	55	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team	Ford Falcon FG
18	18	Jack Perkins	Team JELD-WEN	Ford Falcon FG
19	23	Russell Ingall	Repair Management Aust Racing	Holden Commodore VF
20	888	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF
21	47	Tim Slade	Supercheap Auto Racing	Holden Commodore VF
22	21	Dale Wood	Team Advam/GB	Holden Commodore VF
23	34	Robert Dahlgren	Valvoline Racing GRM	Volvo S60
24	7	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Nissan Altima

By Loren Hazelwood @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/jason-richards-memorial-win-goes-to-winterbottom/#sthash.AhRGTwFW.dpuf

Hamilton takes hat-trick win in China

Fiasco Sports, Formula 1

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his third consecutive race victory, finishing first at the Chinese Grand Prix.

British driver Lewis Hamilton has broken a personal racing record, winning three consecutive rounds in the Formula 1 Drivers Championship.

Hamilton lead from pole, taking the chequered flag at the Shanghai circuit, finishing ahead of his German teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton drove away from the start, racing his own race ahead of the rest.

Rosberg endured telemetry dramas throughout the entire Grand Prix, forcing the German to report the data from his steering wheel to the data engineers, costing Rosberg at the very beginning of the race.

Red Bull Racing were unable to catch Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard able to race his #14 Ferrari to third, despite clashing with former teammate Felipe Massa at the start of the race.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo fell shy of his first podium finish in Formula 1, crossing the line only 1.2s behind Alonso, despite starting the race on the front row.

Ricciardo and German teammate Sebastian Vettel battled mid-race, with Vettel being told by team principle Christian Horner to surrender his position to Ricciardo because the Australian was faster.

Vettel quoted, “tough luck” on the radio communications and let Ricciardo race Vettel for fourth position.

Vettel was outshone by his new Australian teammate, finishing behind the Red Bull rookie in fifth place.

Both Force India drivers scored points, Nico Hulkenberg racing his way to the end to defeat Williams driver Valtteri Bottas for sixth and Sergio Perez falling seconds shy from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari to finish ninth.

Rookie Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kyvat finished tenth, the 19-year-old consistently scoring points.

McLaren failed to make it into the points, Jenson Button finishing 11th and Kevin Magnussen crossing the line 13th.

Rosberg still leads the Formula 1 Drivers Championship, Hamilton close behind in second.

Mercedes extend their comprehensive lead in the Constructors Championship.

Round 5 of the Formula 1 World Championship will be hosted in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix on 11 May.

Chinese Grand Prix Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1h36m52.810s
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+18.686s
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+25.765s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	+26.978s
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	+51.012s
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	+57.581s
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	+58.145s
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+1m23.990s
9	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	+1m26.489s
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	+1 lap
11	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	+1 lap
13	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
14	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	+1 lap
15	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	+1 lap
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	+1 lap
17	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	+1 lap
18	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	+1 lap
19	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	+2 laps
20	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	+2 laps
RET	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	27 laps
RET	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	4 laps

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/hamilton-takes-hat-trick-win-in-china/#sthash.7Gj9w88L.dpuf

Australia v Vettel

Formula 1, The Australia Times

Published on The Australia Times Issue 3

Sebastian Vettel. Source: Wikimedia Commons

By Loren Hazelwood @LorenHazelwood

Sebastian Vettel. A name well-known in Australian households for being the German that caused fans to yell at their TV sets every time he was near or in front of our Australian Mark Webber.

He’s won world championship after world championship, and the more he won, the more frustrated Australian fans have become, saying, “Why can’t Webber achieve the same results?”

Well, this year should be completely different for our Aussie fans.

With Webber now retired and racing for Porsche, young-pup Daniel Ricciardo has graduated from his team at Torro Rosso, joining the German at the top of Formula 1. And to most people’s surprise (Vettel’s in particular), the young Aussie has outperformed his teammate on numerous occasions this season.

With the new generation of Australian racing overseas, Ricciardo has built respect with his new teammate, managing to outshine his world champion colleague.

In three out of four races this year, Ricciardo has blitzed Vettel in qualifying, and has also finished races in front of the German, causing a bit of tension in the pit paddock at Red Bull.

At the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Vettel was in front of Ricciardo, with both running different tyre strategies. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner immediately went on the radio to Vettel sending him a team order to let through our Aussie racer.

Vettel’s reply was simply, “Tough love.”

Ricciardo then raced Vettel passing him into Turn 1, enabling Ricciardo to finish fourth, with Vettel fifth overall.

Although Vettel is currently in front of Ricciardo in the Drivers’ Championship, this won’t stop Ricciardo over-achieving at his new squad.

With the new 1.6-litre turbo-charged power trains, this season of Formula 1 has been nothing but completely unpredictable.

We thought we’d see many surprises, but would never predict seeing an Australian finally stand on the podium in Melbourne only to later be stripped of second place due to a fuel system failure.

Everyone could see from the Australian Grand Prix that Ricciardo had pace, and that he knew how to drive these innovative cars.

With a year that has so far been dominated by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton taking the last three race victories, it’s easy to say that Red Bull seem not to have the pace and straight-line speed they had over the last four years.

Vettel has been struggling with the new car technology, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Ricciardo passed the world champion in the Drivers’ Championship.

Australia only has two Formula 1 World Champions including Alan Jones and Sir Jack Brabham. Webber was extremely close but was outshone by Vettel; can our Ricciardo defeat the German and make it three drivers to take the momentous championship? Only time will tell…

Are broadcasting rights killing motorsport?

Australian V8 Supercars, Fiasco Sports, Film and TV, Formula 1, MotoGP

With media deals happening in every category for 2015, are these new pay-TV deals pushing fans away from the sport?

With a sport that costs a lot of money to run with the fancy bodywork, complicated engineering and the drivers that are paid by the millions, there is also the media side of racing that costs channels millions each year, resulting in major series of motorsport no longer available free-to-air.

MotoGP is one category with a faint future on free-to-air, with fans purchasing a Foxtel sports package to watch their favourite rider or constructor win the world championship.

Network Ten are currently in their final year of televising the MotoGP, but will only retain full live coverage of the MotoGP until the end of 2014. Fox Sports are broadcasting every Moto2, Moto3 and MotoGP practice, qualifying and races live in 2014.

Another broadcasting amend includes the new contract in V8 Supercars, with Seven losing the rights to Network Ten, Foxtel and Fox Sports, with only six of the races in the 2015 championship to be available on free-to-air channels.

Former TEN CEO and current CEO of V8 Supercars James Warburton signed the new broadcasting rights deal, including a $241 million media deal with Foxtel, Fox Sports and Network Ten for all media rights including $196 million cash and $45 million of advertising, making this deal the biggest in V8 Supercars history.

The new deal means that only the Adelaide, Townsville, Sandown, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Sydney V8 rounds will only be shown free-to-air.

“This is a tremendous and significant deal for our sport,” Mr Warburton said.

“It is a great boost to our amazing race teams and fans and will lead to unprecedented coverage on multiple platforms for our sport, never before seen on such a scale.”

Formula 1 is set to stay on free-to-air with the coverage supported by Network Ten, the only major motorsport category worldwide not under the Fox banner in 2015.

Currently on free-to-air channels in Australia, only the Formula 1 and V8 Supercars are shown live to racing fans.

Other categories shown within free-to-air are broadcasted a week or so later, including ONE HD’s coverage of the World Series Sprintcars, Australian Rally Championship and NASCAR.

Fans have expressed concern about the new broadcasting rights, stating it is another expense they cannot afford.

After interviewing fans at Winton Raceway during the V8 Supercar event at the Winton 400, most said they were outraged and disappointed about spending money every month to watch motorsport.

Nothing yet has been confirmed towards the coverage for motorsport after 2015.

By Loren Hazelwood. @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/are-broadcasting-rights-killing-motorsport/#sthash.W2qBiesK.dpuf

Hazelwood Gains Championhip Momentum in Competitive Dunlop Series Round 2

Dunlop Development Series, Todd Hazelwood Racing

Todd racing at Winton. Photo: Belinda Douglas

TODD Hazelwood has once again outperformed with his rookie status, finishing Race 2 of the Dunlop Series in 11^th place out of 30 highly experienced racers at Winton Raceway.

With only making his fourth Dunlop Series start, the teenager drove his way through the field from a position 15 grid spot, gaining a strong advantage after the safety car restart avoiding the carnage, gaining the 18-year-old a 12^th place finish overall for the round.

“Race two was action packed, the start was nose to tail and there was cars going everywhere, I was very lucky to survive lap one and not get turned around,” Hazelwood said.

“The safety car restart was crazy, I could see a couple of cars starting to hit the brakes hard in front of me and it was just a chain of cars running into each other, and I was fortunate to somehow miss the chaos and avoid damage.

“I’m very pleased with finishing 11th in Race 2 and 12th for the round.

“Both the team and myself worked hard all weekend and this is a great reward for my sponsors and supporters knowing that we are forever improving and getting closer and closer to the front of the 30 car field.”

Hazelwood is currently sitting outside the top ten of the Dunlop Series Championship on 288 points in 11^th position out of 34 drivers.

“It’s a great feeling knowing we are 11th in the championship in just my second race meeting in a V8 Supercar,” Hazelwood said.

“There is some very experienced drivers both in front and behind me, so we have to be pleased with our current position.”

Round 3 of the Dunlop Development Series Championship will be held at Barbagallo Raceway for the Perth 400 in conjunction with the V8 Supercars, May 15-18.

Top 15 Finish for Race 1 at Winton Raceway

Dunlop Development Series, Todd Hazelwood Racing

Todd Hazelwood in the pits ready for Qualifying 1

AFTER a strong practice session yesterday, Todd Hazelwood raced his way to position 15 in Race 1 showing promising pace for tomorrow’s final race at Round 2 of the Dunlop Series Championship at Winton Raceway.

The South Australian showed strong pace from the beginning of the day, finishing qualifying in position 13 with a lap time of 1:24.5447.

Race 1 saw Hazelwood three-wide on the outside of Turn 1 during the opening lap, falling back a few positions after being pushed wide, coming out in 20^th position.

The 18-year-old pressed on, charging his way back through the field to finish an impressive 15^th place over the 25-lap distance.

“After a good qualifying session this morning we were feeling confident we could produce a top-ten result in Race 1,” Hazelwood said.

“It was promising to know that we had good car speed throughout the race it was just a shame to get caught out on the outside at the start which hurt us with track position on the opening lap.

“Although 15^th isn’t the place we want to be, I am forever improving and I’m understanding the car better every time I get behind the wheel.

“It’s important during my learning stages to gain as many championship points as possible and set ourselves up for a strong placing in the championship at the end of the year.”

The teenager will hit the circuit for the final race tomorrow, with his starting position for Race 2 based on his finishing position for Race 1.

Hazelwood is currently sitting outside the top ten of the Dunlop Series Championship on 216 points in 12^th position.

Race 2 will start at 1:15pm AEST and the lap times can be viewed live through www.natsoft.com.au.

Winton 400

Sunday (6 April)
13:15: Race 2 (25 laps)

Holdsworth holds the silverware for maiden Erebus win

Australian V8 Supercars, Fiasco Sports

Lee Holdsworth has stolen the show at Winton Raceway, claiming Erebus Motorsport’s first maiden win in Race 2, with Fabian Coulthard scoring the Race 1 victory.

After a long year of engine development and no sponsorship, the team at Erebus Motorsport have finally claimed a well-deserved win with Lee Holdsworth taking the top-step on the podium in a thrilling Race 2.

Fabian Coulthard took the Race 1 victory, and battled with Holdsworth throughout the entire race, with his tyres starting to fade away with six-laps to go.

Holdsworth passed Coulthard with three laps to go, Coulthard just making his way onto the podium after Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom passed Coulthard with one lap to spare.

It was a hard day at the office for Volvo favourite Scott McLaughlin, who failed to finish Race 1 due to mechanical failure, and finish at the rear of the pack in Race 2, despite leading one quarter of the 100km race.

Another record was broken for rookie driver Dale Wood, who claimed his first podium finish in the V8 Supercars series finishing third for Race 1.

The first race at Winton Raceway endured no drama until McLaughlin stopped on the middle of the enfield, with the safety car being introduced into the race.

After the first safety car, drama unfolded with young gun Chaz Mostert being forced wide on the exit of turn one, spinning and involving both Tim Slade and James Courtney in the incident.

Another incident was caused at turn six on the same lap, involving Nick Percat and David Reynolds.

The two incidents caused another safety car, which later saw Todd Kelly endure engine dramas, causing a yellow flag.

Coulthard took the chequered first after a safety car filled race, closely followed by Shane van Gisbergen and Wood taking his maiden podium in third.

Race 2 was a sprint to the finish, with the 100km race safety car free.

McLaughlin got the jump on Coulthard at the start of the race, with Holdsworth following closely behind the front duo.

The S60 Volvo of McLaughlin’s was forced to pit early on in the race, with McLaughlin giving his lead to Coulthard.

It was a sprint to the finish line and a true testament to had the best tyre strategy, with Holdsworth making the jump on Coulthard with few laps to spare.

Holdsworth took the Race 2 victory, with Winterbottom second, Coulthard third and David Reynolds following close by rounding out the top four.

Race 3 will feature a 200km format to complete the Winton 400.

Written by Loren Hazelwood. @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/holdsworth-holds-the-silverware-for-maiden-erebus-win/#sthash.j9oBipfs.dpuf