HOLDEN WIN BATHURST AGAIN

Holden Racing Team drivers Garth Tander and rookie Nick Percat have taken a thrilling win in the 2011 Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama. Tander held off the challenge of a fast finishing Craig Lowndes to win by less than a second. With only one lap remaining Lowndes, last years race winner, was right on the tail of [...]

TANDER QUICKEST ON THE MOUNTAIN AS HOLDWORTH IS PENALISED

Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander has set the pace for this weekend's Bathurst 1000 with fastest time in Friday's final Qualifying session. Tander will be the final runner in Saturday's single flying lap shootout for the top ten after taking his HRT Commodore around the Mountain in 2:07:664. Mark Winterbottom gave Ford fans hope by setting the day's second quickest time with a 2:07:718. The 2010 pole sitter knows that while there is great prestige and some handy prize money for pole, it counts for little come Sunday. "I'd love to be on pole position and it is a big thing, so we'll try and put it on pole and try and lead the race on Sunday and see how we go." Series leader Jamie Whincup placed his car third after hard work from his crew after he put the car into the wall in morning practice. Fourth place went to David Reynolds setting the time on the final lap of qualifying. "I threw it on the line, chucked it down the hill, stomped out of it on Conrod and ended up P4." said an emotional Reynolds.

RAIN DAMPENS BATHURST PRACTICE

Thursday's practice session at a wet Mount Panorama has been cancelled due to a dispute over wet weather tyres. Two different batches of the control Dunlop tyres are present at the track, leading to concerns by some teams that one batch could be better than another, giving the teams that use them an unfair advantage. According to the website Speedcafe.com, unattributed "Paddock speculation" is suggesting that the newer of the two batches could prove up to four seconds per lap faster than the older tyres. Teams have now agreed to new regulations that will see them restricted to using just five sets of wet weather tyres in the race. The original supplementary race regulations stated that an unlimited amount of wet tyres could be used. Weather Reports for the weekend indicate wet and cold conditions will continue with heavy overnight fog and the chance of afternoon storms over the weekend.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

The 2012 V8 Supercar event around the streets of Hamilton in New Zealand will be the last. In another blow to the categories dreams of global expansion, Hamilton now joins Shanghai and Bahrain in failed overseas jaunts by the championship. According to the local Waikato Times newspaper, many local businesses are happy to see the back of the visitors from across the Tasman. "It has been a waste of time and money," Evelyn Booth, owner of the Bag Factory Shop told the paper. "We lose money when it's on, customers too, and we are going to be paying for it for a very long time." The council had "completely and utterly" let down the town, she said. The move to axe the race came at the request of V8 Supercars Australia after they took over the running of the event when the original promoter went broke. Acting V8 Supercars Australia chief executive Shane Howard met with the Hamilton City Council last Wednesday night, offering the council $1.2 million dollars to end the contract early. Local ratepayers had paid around $31.4m for the event including $9m worth of race infrastructure. These are now owned by V8 Supercars as a part of their deal for taking over the race.

THE V8 SPOTTERS GUIDE TO PHILLIP ISLAND

LIUZZI JOINS IMPRESSIVE GOLD COAST LINE UP

Current Formula One driver Tonio Liuzzi will join Le Mans stars Sebastian Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin, Indycar drivers Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti on the streets of Surfers Paradise for the second Gold Coast 600 in October. The event, which replaced the popular Champcar race, will see International drivers team with Australian and New Zealand's best in the 640 BHP pushrod V8 Supercars. The impressive driver line up is another feather in the cap for V8 Supercars and their visionary Chairman and colourful Broadway Impresario Tony Cochrane. Cochrane threw the Queensland Government a life line after the collapse of the A1GP series, promising to turn the domestic V8 series round into an event of genuine International interest. With this driver line up he seems to have already achieved this. “We are delighted with the final field of international drivers that we have so far and we still have a couple of surprises to come,” said Cochrane. “To be honest, the interest has been that strong that we could have filled 60 spots on the grid with international drivers and that is a great sign for the event and its future." Cochrane admitted that while many of the drivers might not be household names in Australia, they are all high-profile drivers in their own countries and their involvement in this event will help create so much more international interest for the Gold Coast and Queensland. “It is safe to say everyone will know who they are by the time they leave here." he said.

BRABHAM ON TOP AT SANDOWN SATURDAY

Series leader Matthew Brabham has set the early pace for the third round of the CAMS' Victorian Formula Ford Championship at Sandown International Motor Raceway. Brabham set a fastest lap of 1 min 15.9138 seconds to start from pole in Saturday afternoon's first race. The Mygale driver recorded an all away win to lead home Spectrum drivers Sam Power and Caleb Rayner. Unlike the previous round held at Sandown, drivers were on their very best behaviour after a warning from the meeting's driving standards officer Luke Ellery that a repeat of last meeting's behaviour would not be tolerated.. Ellery warned drivers that officials would take a dim view of any incidents that brought out a full course yellow, or a red flag. Fields in the Formula Fords, were large enough to be able to split the Formula Ford 1600 cars into their own race. Scott Andrews in a Spectrum recorded an all away win from an impressive Adrian Lazararo and Lachlan Marshall. In other events at Sandown...

AUSTRALIAN GP: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Classic touring cars of the 1970's and 80's will be a feature of next year's Australian Grand Prix meeting at Albert Park. Organisers of the Grand Prix are hoping that the popularity of the classic Commodores, Falcons, Sierras, and Nissan GTRs, will drag fans through the gates for the race in late March 2012. Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott made the announcement at the Australian premiere of the award winning documentary Senna, which was held at Melbourne's Crown Casino. The decision to run the classic touring cars comes after the success of the Formula 5000s that have run at Albert Park for the last few years as well as the large crowds at the Phillip Island Historic meeting held the week before the Grand Prix. Mr Westacott also announced the return of the Carrera Cup, and of course the popular V8 Supercars. Other support events are expected to be announced in the coming months. In an attempt to attract more women into the event, Mr Westacott also announced a "Ladies Lounge" to be held at the point restaurant at Albert Park. "The Ladies Lounge will be held on the Saturday and Sunday of the event and will allow fans to get dressed up and experience the fun of the Grand Prix while relaxing and soaking up a stylish." Mr Westacott said. Grand Prix organisers will be hoping that the new announcements will halt the slide in attendance at the Grand Prix which continues to come under pressure from sections of the public and mainstream media. The contract for the event is scheduled to finish in 2015.

DER KOMMISSAR SKAIFE

A big weekend off the track for the V8 Supercars with the announcement of the newly formed V8 Supercars Commission. The Commission will act as an expert resource for the V8 Supercars board of directors and management team, with a primary focus on racing rules, regulations and race formats. The seven member body formally comes into existence today. As expected five touring car champion Mark Skaife has been appointed chairman-elect and will take up the role in October, after the Bathurst 1000. In the interim, Tim Edwards, team principal of Ford Performance Racing, will serve as chairman. Skaife has announced that when he takes up the role he will completely quit driving V8 Supercars. There has been no announcement regarding his television commentary commitments or his company's role in the CAMS Rising Star programme. Skaife will be joined in the commission by V8 Supercars CEO, Martin Whitaker, Shane Howard, The Chief Operating Officer of V8 Supercars, Three representatives of the V8 Supercars teams: Tim Edwards, Brad Jones and Ross Stone. As well as an independent member, who will have no commercial ties with V8 Supercars, that member will be former Motorsport News publisher and sometime F5000 driver  Chis Lambden. The Commission chairman, team representatives and independent member will be appointed for two-year terms.

SUPER FAST SUBARU ROCKS INTO MELBOURNE

Subaru Australia will display it's wicked Liberty GT300 race car at the Australian International Motorshow starting this Friday at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The car which runs in the Japanese based SUPER GT series is powered by a 300BHP version of the company's two litre turbocharged boxer engine. For Subaru the car represents one of the few remaining motorsport projects for a company that made it's International reputation on high performance rallying. But the decision to bring the car Liberty GT300 to Australia indicates that like Toyota the company may once again be getting serious about racing and high performance. Nick Senior, Managing Director, Subaru Australia, said: “Visitors to our stand in Melbourne will see we’ve got a ‘performance corner’, which will include this amazing sleek Liberty race car, which is a highlight of the GT300 series in Japan. “We’ll also have a WRX STI racing car simulator, where visitors can try and set a lap record against some fierce competition at the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany.” So far the Subaru looks to be the highlight for racing fans at the show but there's plenty of other interesting performance machines on display.