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Tag Archive | "Auto racing"

TOYOTA RETURN TO TESTING AS AUDI DEBUT AT SPA

Monday, April 30, 2012

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TOYOTA RETURN TO TESTING AS AUDI DEBUT AT SPA

Although they won't be at Spa for round two of the World Endurance Championship the Toyota TS030 hybrid will be a the track this weekend. The team will complete a functionality test of its new chassis at the Magny-Cours circuit in France. Following the accident at Paul Ricard on 4 April, which damaged the monocoque of the first TS030, the team has worked hard to accelerate production of a second car. This will be completed directly before transportation to the one-day functionality test. A total of seven test days were cancelled in April as a result of the testing accident, giving the team no opportunity to validate the aerodynamic and hybrid system specifications intended for its first race. So the team had no choice but to miss the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps event, which takes place on 3-5 May. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “I would like to express my thanks to the staff members at Toyota Motorsport GmbH who have worked so hard to deliver our second monocoque ahead of schedule. Now we have a very intense testing programme to prepare for Le Mans, beginning with an initial functionality test to shakedown our systems.”

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AUDI RULE THE ROOST IN GT1 OPENER

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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AUDI RULE THE ROOST IN GT1 OPENER

The Audi team of Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor secured a double victory with a win in both races for the opening round of the new look 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship at Nogaro. “I never expected, even in my best dreams, that we would achieve this result at the first race." said Vanthor after the race. "I am still quite speechless, but I think it is because we did a great job, we worked hard together, and we did a lot of testing. Audi have put a lot of effort into it, as well as Belgian Audi Club WRT, and then the co-operation with Stephane (Ortelli), everything is going the perfect way at the moment. I am really happy, this is one of the most beautiful victories I have had, so I hope we can continue in this direction.” The second WRT car, the No.33 of Frank Stippler and Oliver Jarvis finished second as they had done on Sunday to round out a perfect Easter weekend for the German manufactuer. Third was the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Mercedes SLS of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, from sixth on the grid, just ahead of their team-mates Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jager.

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IN PIT LANE Podcast “A Chat with Martin Whitaker”

Thursday, May 19, 2011

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V8 Supercar CEO Martin Whitaker joins us for a chat about the Car of the future, International expansion, New Manufacturers and TV Rights.

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POWER ON POLE AT ST.PETE

Sunday, March 27, 2011

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POWER ON POLE AT ST.PETE

Australian driver Will Power will start from pole at the  Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Round one of the 2011 Indycar Championship. Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 01.9624 seconds (the quickest of the weekend) with 2:15 left in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six shootout for his 11th IZOD IndyCar Series pole. He set a series record last season with eight. Four teams are represented on the first three rows for the 100-lap race on the tight 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit with the scenic Tampa Bay in the background.

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25 YEARS OF WILLOWBANK SPEED

Friday, September 10, 2010

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25 YEARS OF WILLOWBANK SPEED

Queensland drag strip Willowbank Raceway, will celebrate the track's 25th birthday with two days of celebrations next weekend. Saturday will see the biggest cash prize in Pro Street drag racing on offer, when the 10.5 Outlaw Pro Street Shootout hits the track. $10,500 will be on offer in a winner takes all format for the 10.5 Outlaw category. Cars of all sorts of power combinations and power adders, including Blown Injected, Turbo Charged and Nitrous injected V8’s right through to Tube chassis lightweight turbo charged fours and rotaries are eligible. Johnny Wilson, drag racer and co-owner of the Australian Pro Street Association, said that if a drag car has swinging doors and runs 10.5 inch W tyres it is eligible for this bracket. “This means that we will be seeing cars like the Pro Stock monster of Shane Tucker, Deno Brijeski and Matt Abel in their Top Doorslammers, Ben Bray’s Pro FX Gas Motorsports Scion and Tony Wedlock and his Toyota Aurion Pro FX machine competing against cars like Frank Mamone’s Black Chevy Nova and Joe Signorelli’s Toyota powered Celica." he said. Image: Frank Mamone's Blown Chevy Nova © blacktrack.com.au

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AUSSIE ICONS BACK IN PIT LANE

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

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AUSSIE ICONS BACK IN PIT LANE

Classic Car Specialists Brooklands Classic Cars and iconic Australian Sports and Racing Car manufacturer Elfin have joined forces to bring C31's popular live motorsport tonight show In Pit Lane back to Melbourne's TV screens. The new series of In Pit Lane will commence 9.30pm Tuesday night September 7th, live from the studios of RMITV in the heart of Grand Prix City, Melbourne. Special guest will be popular V8 Supercar star Jason Bright driver of the Trading Post Commodore for Brad Jones Racing. Paul Sabine of Brooklands Classic Cars said that the sponsorship of In Pit Lane was a great choice for the company. “In Pit Lane has developed to be an icon in Australian motor sport and Brooklands Classic Cars are delighted to assist in fostering IPL’s ongoing success." he said. Mr Sabine said that Brooklands had been catering to car enthusiasts and owners of interesting and sporting cars for many years and clients could rely on that experience when searching for that special car. "The sort of hard core enthusiast and classic car lover that buys our cars and uses our services are the very same people who regularly tune into In Pit Lane." he said. In Pit Lane host Brett Ramsey said he was delighted to be able to continue with the show which is now in it's 15th straight year of production. The show finished it's last season in May and looked set to disappear forever due to a lack of sponsorship. Now thanks to Brooklands Classic Cars and Elfin, the show returns for a new 13 week series to cover a busy three months of local and international motorsport.

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DTM-SUPERGT REGS MERGER FRAUGHT WITH RISKS

Friday, August 20, 2010

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DTM-SUPERGT REGS MERGER FRAUGHT WITH RISKS

Two of the world's top GT and Touring Car series look set to join under common rules for 2012. And the US based Grand-Am series may join them. Regulations for the popular Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and the Japanese based Super GT series are set to merge opening up the possibility of an exchange of cars and drivers for the future. The new regulations were announced earlier this year and feature: - Common carbon monocoque with roll cage - A standard wheelbase of 2850 mm - Common front and rear overhang - Common front spoiler and rear diffuser - V8 engine of yet to be announced size - Limited number of engines during season - Introduction of "design line" where on one side all cars are common The main aim of the new regulations is a 51% cost reduction in costs, but it's the last item on the list that is concerning the purists most.

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AMBROSE QUITS JTG DAUGHERTY: NASCAR FUTURE UNCERTAIN

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

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AMBROSE QUITS JTG DAUGHERTY: NASCAR FUTURE UNCERTAIN

The NASCAR future of Australian Marcos Ambrose is up in the air after the announcement that the Tasmanian will leave JTG Daugherty Racing at the end of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. “It has been a great five year journey for me and JTG Daugherty Racing,” Marcos Ambrose said. “I am proud of being their driver and of what we have been able to accomplish together. " Ambrose said that the decision to leave had been his as “After five years, I personally felt it was time for a change. Ambrose said that he had no firm plans for next year and has not ruled out a return to Australia and V8 Supercar competition. “I would like to continue in NASCAR and finish off what I started, but I have not discounted returning to Australia.

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KELLY FIFTH AS EDWARDS WINS FOR FORD

Sunday, June 20, 2010

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KELLY FIFTH AS EDWARDS WINS FOR FORD

Australian Owen Kelly has finished fifth in his NASCAR Nationwide race debut at Road America. Carl Edwards driving a Ford won the race which was marred by a massive 10 car pile-up which brought out the red flag. Robb Brent slammed into the back of Tony Raines’ car as the field scrambled to avoid the incident. 10 cars were damaged causing NASCAR officials to call the red flag. The race was restarted over 30 minutes later. Second place in the race went to veteran road course specialist Ron Fellows in a Chevrolet ahead of the Toyota of Brendan Gaughan.

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PEUGEOT STAY ON TOP AT LE MANS

Friday, June 11, 2010

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PEUGEOT STAY ON TOP AT LE MANS

Peugeot continued their domination of the timing sheets with a lock out of positions one to four for the starting grid at Le Mans. The Wednesday time of local hero Sebastien Bourdais was quick enough to keep pole position from team mate Alexander Wurz who was the quickest of the drivers in the second 908. Third place will see the combination of Frank Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and long time In Pit Lane favourite Nicolas Minassian start alongside the semi-works ORECA Peugeot of Panis, Lapierre and Duval. Audi closed the gap slightly to the French marque but will have to rely on reliability and their famous strategy to have any chance of regaining the Le Man crown.

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