inpitlane.com | Archive | Australia/NZ News

PORSCHES ON TOP IN ADELAIDE GT OPENER

12. March 2010

Porsches have dominated the opening day's practice session of the first round of the Australian GT championship on the streets of Adelaide. Canberra driver James Koundouris in his Porsche 997 GT3 outpaced defending champion David Wall and Victorian Max Twigg to lead a big field of 31 GT cars. Tony Quinn in the controversial Mosler MT900 was the only car to challenge the Porsches which featured in five of the first six places. High profile Lamborghini driver Peter Hackett had to play second fiddle in the battle of the Gallardo's to local driver Andrew Taplin. Former GT champion Mark Eddy debuted his new Audi R8 LMS in 11th spot just ahead of the battling Dodge Viper pair of Greg Crick and Ross Lilley.

GT1 WORLD TITLE’S GOLD COAST DISAPPOINTMENT

8. March 2010

FIA GT1 World Championship promoter Stephane Ratel has expressed his disappointment at not gaining a berth on the Gold Coast Street Race card. Speaking on Tuesday night's edition of the C31 Melbourne television show "In Pit Lane" Mr Ratel said that Australia had always been an important part in his plans for the World Championship and he was disappointed that his proposal to be a part of the Gold Coast event had been refused. " We had a big ambition to launch the Championship on all five continents." he said. "I visited Australia twice in the last couple of years... I had a lot of hopes that something would come together and the last one was to join Surfers Paradise, but as you know... they finally decided to do V8's (V8 Supercars) only." Mr Ratel believes that the new World Championship would have been a considerable asset to the event bringing International glamour, media attention and corporate support to the race. "I personally think that we are an excellent fit for any big event in Australia." he said.

CAMS CEO RESIGNS

25. February 2010

The CAMS ( Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) Board have announced the resignation of CEO, Graham Fountain, effective 1 April 2010. Mr Fountain, who came to the Confederation from the Victorian Country Fire Authority, has filled the CEO position for almost three years. According to the statement Mr Fountain is leaving CAMS to fill another CEO position to be announced this afternoon. In making the announcement CAMS President Andrew Papadopoulos said: “I would like to publicly acknowledge the significant contribution Graham has made to CAMS during his tenure and on behalf of the Board wish him every success in his new role.

WHINCUP TAKES ROUND ONE FOR HOLDEN

20. February 2010

Defending Champion Jamie Whincup showed the switch to Holden from Ford has had little effect on Triple Eight's dominance of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship with a win in the opening round at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. In front of empty grandstands Whincup dominated the 43 lap race to lead home team mate Craig Lowndes and take an early lead in the defence of his Championship. "It's been a great day, we has a great strategy and it's really cool under these lights." said Whincup. Mark Winterbottom was the first of the Fords in third place overcoming a 10 second penalty after he failed to line up properly at the start of the race. Dick Johnson Racing's James Courtney finished fourth just ahead of Gary Rogers Motorsport driver Lee Holdsworth in the Commodore.

AUSSIES ON TOP IN FUNNY CAR DUEL

17. January 2010

A record breaking 320mph/513kmh pass by Australian Damien Harris, was the highlight as Australia came out on top of the USA vs AUS Nitro Funny Car Challenge at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway. Harris saved the best till last with the new speed record being set in very last run of Nitro Funny Car for the night, which also saw the West Australian alongside Queenslander Ricky Steffens set the quickest Nitro Funny Car side-by side-pass for Australia as well. Harris’ 320.66mph at 4.868 second effort combined with Steffens’ 5.164s pass – a new personal best for the driver – to better the previous side-by side-mark (also featuring Harris alongside fellow West Australian Mark Sheehan in Perth on Boxing Day) by seven one thousandths of a second. “The speed record hasn’t really sunk in as yet to be honest, the guys came on the radio to tell me what had happened while I was slowing down and I was concentrating on the car and things, and it just hasn’t sunk in,” said Harris, who also won the first round on January 2.

BRISCOE TOPS WEBBER IN WORLD DRIVER “RANKINGS”

14. January 2010

Indy Racing League driver Ryan Briscoe has topped Formula One star Mark Webber and 2009 Le Mans and ALMS winner David Brabham to be the top ranked Australian driver in a new world driver ranking system. The Castrol Driver Ranking System claims to fairly compare drivers across a number of different race series and styles. The rankings analyse performances over 50 major National and International racing series, points are awarded based on a bewildering formula based on results from qualifying, racing and fastest laps. Events and series are also given a rating based on the number of rounds and the "importance" of the event or series. The rankings were revealed at the Autosport International Show in Great Britain by former F1 driver David Coulthard.

ANOTHER POM TAKING OUR JOBS

13. January 2010

Former Director of Motorsport at Ford and current Bahrain International Circuit CEO Martin Whitaker, is the new CEO of V8 Supercars Australia. The appointment of the highly respected sports administrator will be seen as a major boost in the profile and credibility of the category in the International motorsport scene. Making the announcement V8 Supercars Australia Chairman Tony Cochrane said that Whitaker's signing "is an outstanding testimony to the size and quality of our business and our sport." “Martin will join an excellent management team and help build the sport throughout Australia, the Pacific, Asia and the Indian sub continents.” he said.

WILLIAMS WINS LADY WIGRAM TROPHY

10. January 2010

Auckland driver Roger Williams (Lola T332) is the latest in a long and distinguished line of Lady Wigram Trophy holders after winning an incident-packed Christchurch Casino Lady Wigram trophy feature race at the second round of the 2009/10 MSC NZ Formula 5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series races at Christchurch's Ruapuna Park. Three-time Lady Wigram Trophy winner Ken Smith (Lola T430) from Auckland and 2007/08 MSC series champion, local man Chris Hyde (McRae GM1), were joint favourites to win this year's 16-lap Lady Wigram Trophy feature race at the 2010 Christchurch Casino Lady Wigram trophy meeting - but both struck problems. Smith - who joined race two winner Hyde on the front row of the grid for the final - was swamped at the start when he missed a gearchange, got caught up in a first lap clash between Lola T332 drivers Sefton Gibb and Tony Richards, and was finally forced out by a broken front right hand balljoint. Hyde meanwhile, was slowed and finally stopped by a battery problem. After two relatively uneventful sprint races on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning the Lady Wigram Trophy feature was real thrill-a-minute stuff with Hyde getting the initial jump on quickest weekend qualifier and race one winner Steve Ross (McRae GM1) with eventual race winner Williams slotting into third place in front of former series champion Ian Clements (Lola T332) then a gap to Australian driver Aaron Lewis (Matich A50), Tony Richards (Lola T332) and Aaron Burson (McRae GM1).

QUEENSLAND RACEWAY LOSE V8 SUPERCARS

7. January 2010

There will be no V8 Supercar round at Queensland raceway in 2010. In a media release issued yesterday (Wednesday January 6) Queensland Raceway management announced that the track had been unable to broker a deal with V8 Supercars Australia to keep the event at the Ipswich circuit. "For three months we have tried to find common ground with the management of V8 Supercars to no avail. We had agreed to accept their price but it was their inability to accept the rights of the Queensland Raceways Passholders and to accept responsibility for damage to our track whilst they are running the event, which became the deal breakers." said Queensland Raceway CEO John Tetley. In spite of the loss of the tracks biggest annual event Mr Tetley was up beat about the tracks future announcing several new events for 2010. One of these is a Bike Week Carnival to be held over the Easter break. He also flagged the terrifying possibility of a new, permanent track based national series, which is being promulgated by the circuits over the next three months. Can anybody say PowerTour. or AMRS or... The loss of the Queensland round will probably have little effect on V8 Supercars who already have two major taxpayer supported races in the state at Townsville and the Gold Coast. Although if Mr Tetley felt the need to ban the category from his circuit all together, then that could make life interesting for Queensland based team looking for testing opportunities. But that's not likely to happen.

BUNDY RACING PAINTS IT BLACK

7. January 2010

The 2010 V8 Supercar launch season has officially kicked off as Bundaberg Red Racing unveiled its 2010 livery and new team drivers Fabian Coulthard and Andrew Thompson. With the technical ennui of V8 Supercars, a change of paint scheme is considered pretty big news and the excitement of the assembled media was palpable as the covers came off the newly painted car. Grown men gasped and women swooned as the car emerged from under the sheets. "There's a lot more black' said one V8 Supercar hack desperately trying to recover from the surprise, "No one expected that!" said another. "Call the editor! Hold the Front Page!" said yet another, despite the fact that he works in television. As the shock of the new spread across inner Melbourne like a tsunami, medical staff were placed on high alert as Victorian Premier John Brumby called for calm. "I'd like to think that in this day and age that we as a society have grown enough to be able to handle this sort of thing." said Mr Brumby. "I'm just so very proud that today's launch has taken place here in Melbourne, the sporting and cultural capital of the world and way better than Sydney which just sucks puss big time." Bundaberg Red Racing lead driver Fabian Coulthard told the recovering media that he was confident that the challenge of the extra black would not pose a problem.