V8 Supercar

V8 Supercars in America for Austin 400

Australian V8 Supercars

Published on: http://www.fiascosports.com

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The Australian V8 Supercar series hit America for the first time ever over the weekend, racing at the internationally re-known circuit in Austin Texas.

Red Bull Racing’s Jamie Whincup dominated over the two days racing, taking three out of the four race victories; with Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard taking out the win in the third race.

The three-day event attracted over 68,000 spectators and used the infamous four-race layout, with two qualifying sessions for each day of racing and a one-hour break between the two 100km races on the Saturday and Sunday.

The first qualifying session for race 13 in the championship saw Fabian Coulthard take pole, with Jamie Whincup starting from first for race 14.

The first race at the Austin circuit was a testament to the circuit’s special features, with long and steep straights and sweeping corners, the track’s design made it difficult to overtake during the racing. Whincup although gained the lead early, taking the jump at the start from pole-sitter Coulthard. Craig Lowndes then made a pass on Coulthard on lap 7 to take second place.

The first race saw Whincup and Lowndes make it 1-2 for Red Bull, with Fabian Coulthard rounding out the top three on the podium.

After a win in the first race at Austin, Jamie Whincup started from pole position alongside his Red Bull teammate Lowndes. The pair drove away from the rest of the field, with Fabian Coulthard guarding his third position to Tekno Autosport’s pair Jonathon Webb and Shane van Gisbergen.

After securing two races wins the day prior, Whincup once again topped the charts in qualifying to take pole position for both Sunday races.

Race 15 of the championship saw Jamie Whincup fall back at the start, as he struggled with the handling of his VF Holden Commodore. Mark Winterbottom then made a pass on Whincup for the lead, but lost a considerable amount of time during his pit stop. This then saw Coulthard take the race lead and eventually cross the chequered in first position.

The third race for the Austin round saw Fabian Coulthard break Red Bull Racing’s winning streak, with Lowndes in second and Whincup rounding out the top three.

Race 16 of the V8 Supercar calendar was the fourth and final race for the weekend. Whincup started from pole after qualifying first prior, getting a great jump on previous race winner Coulthard.

A racing incident occurred between Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison and young-gun Scott McLaughlin, with Davison slamming the rear of McLaughlin’s Holden. Davison was out of the race, with the team at Gary Rogers Motorsport able to get McLaughlin back on the circuit.

The final race of the weekend at Austin Texas saw Whincup take the victory, alongside Fabian Coulthard. Shane van Gisbergen raced hard to finish in third, with Garth Tander from Holden Racing Team rounding out the top four.

This victory saw Whincup take his third win for the weekend and seventh race win for the season.

Jamie Whincup has now extended his championship lead by 142 points to his teammate Craig Lowndes. After not finishing the final race, Will Davison moved down to third in the championship.

Stoner in Australia? Bloody Oath

Australian V8 Supercars, MotoGP, Spultured

Published on http://www.spultured.com

Casey Stoner in V8 Supercars

I remember it was about this time last year, when the media was talking about Casey Stoner retiring and how much it was going to hurt the MotoGP category. Everyone had their opinion about why Stoner should stay, how useless he was going to be in a V8 Supercar and how Honda would not be able to find a replacement for the Australian world champion.

Well look who’s laughing now.

If anything, the 27-year-old made his best decision of a lifetime. I mean, he has a family now and with the recent death of Marco Simoncelli, it’s definitely safer to be on four wheels than two.

And not even that, Stoner made way for a true star in the making. Marc Màrquez who is only 20 years old, a few weeks ago became the youngest ever rider to win a MotoGP race. Incredible! Màrquez also finished second at the Spanish Grand Prix to his teammate Dani Pedrosa from Repsol Honda. If anything the team is on better form than what they were this time last year, with the team not even barely damaged with the loss of world champion Stoner. Now whoever said Stoner was “irreplaceable” was clearly not thinking about the future.

Even though Casey Stoner is only racing in the Dunlop Development Series (category below V8 Supercars) he has been working with arguably the best V8 team in the main game (RedBull Racing Australia – Triple 8 Race Engineering) and is now an official representative for Holden Australia. Not only is Casey’s credibility growing, he’s now getting a lot more media attention. The MotoGP champ has only raced two championship rounds this year so it is still early days to determine whether he is good enough for the main game next year, but the team I’m sure will focus on Casey’s early development in the Holden VE Commodore and will see out the rest of the season in the development series.

Unfortunately with MotoGP being apart motorsport, it receives minimal media attention, either in print or broadcast journalism as of course, it isn’t as popular as the AFL, NRL etc. Not only has Casey Stoner grabbed the media, he’s also promoted the Dunlop Development Series, which for years has been underrated, with no coverage what-so-ever. Only problem here is that the only person who gets coverage in the series is Casey and the focus has been stolen from the young kids winning the races in the series.

Stoner I don’t believe has the amount of race craft at the moment on four wheels as some of the younger drivers in the development field, so he will have to test like crazy with his team from Triple 8 Race Engineering. Not only is the MotoGP with the best team, he also can receive some of the best V8 mentoring from current V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup and also newly crowned all-time-best V8 driver Craig Lowndes. I mean Stoner has some of the best help on offer, so by the end of this year’s development series Stoner should be on the money.

I know Casey Stoner has a massive fan base from many Australians – on the other hand there are also many Australians who dislike Stoner and would rather someone like Valentino Rossi win races. It is a massive culture change for Stoner to come back and live in Australia so I believe we should all stop bagging him and support the Aussie who wants to race over here. Yes, he has a long way to go, but he’s only raced at Clipsal and Barbagallo. There is plenty more tracks for Stoner to prove himself to the V8 field and I can tell you, it will be one interesting year with the MotoGP champ in V8s.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t end up like Wayne Gardner…

Photo by Dirk Klynsmith

75 Years Of The Bathurst Motor Festival

Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship, Spultured

Published on: http://www.spultured.com

Photo by Dirk Klynsmith

Bathurst Motor Festival, Photo by Dirk Klynsmith

Over the Easter long weekend, Bathurst celebrated it’s 75th year celebration of the Bathurst Motor Festival, held at the historic Mount Panorama raceway.The circuit was first opened in 1938 in conjunction with the Australian Grand Prix. Since that date, the festival has been in operation throughout the Easter long weekend, making Mount Panorama the oldest motor racing circuit in Australia, also amongst one of the oldest tracks in the world.

But history aside, everyone knows how iconic this Bathurst circuit is. This year the turnout for the event was huge, with categories including Formula 3, Formula Vee, Group N Historic Touring Cars, NSW Production Touring Cars, Production Sports Cars, Porsche Club of NSW and NSW Road Racing Club

Of course, the racing for the weekend was the highlight, with all types of weather coming to and from the circuit and drivers turning on the racing for all the fans.

The Mount Panorama circuit opened on Friday, with practice scheduled for all the teams and drivers entered in the event.

Saturday saw the first of qualifying and racing, with the Formula 3 cars breaking the qualifying lap record, a lap time of 2:03:239 set by Nathan Morcom. To put things into perspective, the fastest V8 Supercar lap around Bathurst was set by Craig Lowndes in 2010, with a lap time of 2:06.801!

With lap record pace being set around the circuit, every driver and team in the paddock thought it was their turn to break the race records on Sunday.

The Bathurst weather thought otherwise, as the track was declared wet on Sunday.

This meant trouble, with some fields reaching more than 55 drivers and on a circuit so steep and twisty, some drivers unfortunately found the wall. Luckily enough, everyone who did crash in the racing was a-okay.

Over 10,000 attended the event; with the festival being a huge success with fantastic racing put on by all the drivers.

Full race results can be found at Natsoft.com.