inpitlane.com | Tag Archive

CARRERA CUP RETURNING DOWN UNDER

Friday, July 30, 2010

It's official, The Carrera Cup is set to return to Australia's racetracks for 2011. In a media release issued late this afternoon, Porsche Cars Australia (PCA) announced that they would seek dates for a series, hopefully next year. The announcement means that PCA can now enter formal discussions with all key stake-holders for a possible return to the V8 Supercar calendar from as early as next year. Carrera Cup was introduced to Australia in 2003 and ran up to and including 2009 through a third party service provider. The reintroduction of Carrera Cup would this time be exclusively managed and operated in-house by PCA. “We have the chance for a fresh start, with an all-new race car and an all-new approach for Porsche Carrera Cup Australia,” says PCA Managing Director Michael Winkler.

RICHARDS RUNS NEW CARRERA CUP CAR AT SANDOWN

Friday, July 23, 2010

0 Comments

RICHARDS RUNS NEW CARRERA CUP CAR AT SANDOWN

A surprise visitor to the Sandown pits for today's open practice for round three of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championship at Sandown. The new challenger of the reborn Carrera Cup series completed a handful of laps with Jim Richards behind the wheel. The new car features more advanced aerodynamics than the previous model with a wider rear wing and more pronounced front splitter. The new car is also more powerful than the car it will replace with power increased to 450 bhp. The car was entered for the day via Porsche Cars Australia who were testing the car for compliance with noise regulations. Porsche Cars Australia have made no secret of their desire to return the Carrera Cup to the local racing scene. The return to the V8 Supercar support calendar could cause some consternation in the ranks of the Australian GT Championship who have established for themselves a popular niche in several major V8 events.

BRABHAM, PAGENAUD WIN UTAH ALMS

Monday, July 12, 2010

0 Comments

Australian David Brabham and team-mate Simon Pagenaud have raced to their third consecutive victory in the American Le Mans Series with a hard-fought victory in the Utah Grand Prix. Pagenaud drove the final 1:45 in the team’s HPD ARX-01c, and the Patrón Highcroft crew took advantage of a quick final pit stop to beat Drayson Racing’s Emanuele Pirro to the line by 19.116 seconds at Miller Motorsports Park. Pagenaud and Brabham haven’t lost since the Long Beach round in April and increased their championship lead in LMP to 11 points over Muscle Milk Team CytoSport’s Klaus Graf. He and Greg Pickett, driving a Porsche Spyder, were third, 90 seconds behind the winning car.

AUDI DOMINATE NURBURGRING 24 QUALIFYING

Saturday, May 15, 2010

0 Comments

The Audi R8 LMS looks to be the car to beat in the 38th running of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring with the first four grid positions filled by the German Sports Car. The two Audi customer teams ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing had the correct strategy in qualifying: After it had rained during first qualifying on Thursday and the Nordschleife was still very dirty and slippery at the start of Friday’s second qualifying session, the two teams only went gunning for lap times shortly before the end of the final two-hour qualifying session. Lucas Luhr (ABT Sportsline/8m 27.967s) and Mike Rockenfeller (Phoenix Racing/8m 25.782s) initially used the now considerably superior conditions to set new fastest laps before they were beaten by Marco Werner (ABT Sportsline) with 8m 24.753s. Rockenfeller was still able to improve to 8m 25.568s on his last lap, but remained in second position. Pierre Kaffer (Phoenix Racing) completed the Audi quartet at the head of the field after posting a 8m 29.250s lap. As a result, an Audi starts from pole position for the first time in the history of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. "That four of our customer cars occupy the first four grid positions underlines the qualities of the Audi R8 LMS on the world’s longest and most demanding race track and is fantastic advertising for our new customer car, which we have developed over the last two-and-a-half years," explained Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who follows the Audi customer teams’ preparations himself on location, and in doing so demonstrates how important the new customer sport programmed with the Audi R8 LMS is for Audi Sport.

PEUGEOT ON TOP IN SPA LE MANS WARM UP

Monday, May 10, 2010

0 Comments

Peugeot won a chaotic Spa 1000 km race last Sunday as the teams prepare for the 24 hours of Le Mans in June. Late race rain and an on-track power failure made the day unforgettable in more ways than one. French driver Simon Pagenaud, along with co-drivers Pedro Lamy and Sébastien Bourdais, took their Peugeot 908 to the win, as the race was called at the six-hour time limit. Audi driver and seven time Le mans winner Tom Kistensen, looked set to grab a thrilling victory after a late race rain shower. Kristensen gambled on Intermediate tyres, and looked set to easily catch the lead Peugeot when the rain stopped and the track dried out. The Audi struggled on but couldn't hold out the second Peugeot of Stephane Sarrazin who came through to take second place. The Audi hung on for third. In LMP2, the Quifel-ASM Team took the win with drivers Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral in a Ginetta - Zytek holding off the team RML Lola of Tommy Erdos Mike Newton and Andy Wallace.

PORSCHES ON TOP IN ADELAIDE GT OPENER

Friday, March 12, 2010

0 Comments

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.

NO THREAT TO SYDNEY GT RACE

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

0 Comments

The Australian GT Championship have denied rumours that they would not be on the grid for the Sydney street race in 2010. A post on an Internet forum had claimed that the GTs had been replaced for Sydney, a story denied by Australian GT Director Rachael Wagg. "I don't know where they'd get that one from." she said. "Our calendar for next year is almost set and at this stage the only date not confirmed is a planned race at Phillip Island." Ms. Wagg said that it was possible that the GT series could run it's own meeting at the Island if nothing suitable could be found.

MOSLER MONSTERED OUT OF AUSSIE GT

Monday, May 11, 2009

0 Comments

The Australian GT series has lost one of it's major drawcards with the withdrawal of John Teulan's Mosler team. Teulan hit out at Australian GT organisers, saying that that despite encouragement to enter the series, it had now become pretty clear they wanted to get rid of the car. "The organisers want us out there to help the flash car parade, but this way we may as well drive a local taxi" he said. Teulan said that the car had undergone no less than 8 parity changes in it's short two meeting local history that had created confusion and made the car potentially dangerous to drive. "the standard car is 1200 Kilos, in Europe they run at 1300, by the time we're finished we'd be carrying an extra 450 kgs at Phillip Island and that's not to mention the ride height and air restrictors." Teulan said that changes to the car after the first race in Melbourne had already slowed the car by around three seconds a lap "now they want to slug us another 80kg" Air restrictors had already cost the car around 35% of it's power and the ride height changes had left the car in a potentially dangerous racing condition. "These things are not touring cars, they are designed with a certain ride height and if you start messing to much with it the car can become almost undrivable at high speed."

MOSLER MONSTERS STREETS OF ADELAIDE

Saturday, March 21, 2009

0 Comments

A winning debut for the controversial Mosler MT900 as New Zealand driver Craig Baird wins race one of the Australian GT Championship on the streets of Adelaide. Starting from pole Baird jumped to an immediate lead and was never headed despite close attention from David Wall in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S. Klark Quinn showed his potential as a professional driver with a strong third place in his Porsche 996 GT3 also taking the win in the Challenge class. 24 cars finished the race with the tight confines of the Adelaide street circuit testing even the best drivers. Jim Richard's retired early after contact with another car, John Tuelan spun his Mosler late in the race and John Briggs was out early in the Dodge Viper. The second race for the Australian GT Championship will be held tomorrow (Sunday)

COME ON WITHOUT, COME ON WITHIN

Monday, February 23, 2009

0 Comments

Tony Quinn and Shawn Jamieson were among the winners in the opening round of the 2009 Shannons Nationals, held at Bathurst's famed Mount Panorama last weekend, 20-22 February. Running in conjunction with the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour, over 260 competitors tackled 'The Mountain' in action-packed Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Saloon Car, Formula Vee, HQ Holden and Improved Production races on Friday and Saturday. On debut in the growing all-Porsche series, the versatile Quinn won all three races of the GT3 Cup Challenge season opener to take the round win ahead of Bill Pye and 2008 champion Sven Burchartz. Quinn battled with 997 Trophy Class competitor Nathan Caratti at the head of the field all weekend, with Caratti taking a dominant class win and beating Quinn to the chequered flag in Race Two. “It was good to have Nathan to race against,“ Quinn said. “A couple of the other drivers had problems and I think guys like Max Twigg probably didn't have the kind of weekend they are capable of. But the series is really great and growing - and I hope it continues to do so.“ Series debutant Matt Kingsley's first race back from injury after a heavy crash at the 2008 Clipsal 500 was brief, retiring from the Race One after he was left stranded on the grid by a clutch failure and collected by Max Twigg.