In Pit Lane Videocast 055

WIN TICKETS TO HISTORIC SANDOWN

With a record 420 competitors taking part, this weekend’s 18th Nationallube Historic Sandown (November 6-8) can claim the largest entry ever seen at the popular Melbourne circuit since it opened in 1962. As well as capacity fields in most categories, some 100 V8-engined historic touring, sports and open wheeler racing cars will compete in 16 races over the weekend. A highlight of this year’s meeting is the final and deciding round of the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters series, with former Bathurst winners Jim Richards and John Bowe again locking horns in their Falcon Sprint and Chevrolet Camaro respectively. Three generations of the Brabham family will also be on track for a unique Speed Comparison, with Victorian Historic Racing Register Patron Sir Jack dropping the flag on his Le Mans 25-Hour race winning son Geoff in a BMW M3, his grandson and rising Formula Ford star Matthew aged 15 and four times Australian champion John Bowe in a racing GT40 replica.

EASTERNATS TO CALDER PARK

The popular Easternats auto festival is moving across town to Calder Park. Easternats promoter Jon Davison announced today that a long term agreement has been negotiated with Bob Jane, to stage the event at the Keilor based venue commencing 2010. The move comes after Sandown Park owners the Melbourne Racing Club [MRC] terminated the Licence Agreement in June. Negotiations with both the MRC and the City of Greater Dandenong proved fruitless, whilst the benefits of moving to Calder Park became increasingly obvious.

LOWNDES & WHINCUP COME HOME TO HOLDEN

It's official. The Triple Eight team of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will race a Holden in 2010. Speculation had been growing that the British owned team would switch to the General Motors marque after Triple Eight was dropped from official Ford support earlier this year. In a press conference held at Holden's Port Melbourne headquarters this morning, the announcement was made that the championship team would be making the switch to Fords for 2010, Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey  said that “Holden has a long and proud history in motorsport that stretches back over 40 years and today's’s announcement is an exciting step into the next chapter.” “Our commitment and passion for motorsport has not wavered. Today we are making a clear statement on how much we value this sport which is also a very smart, responsible sponsorship decision.... click headline for more.

IMG LINK RAISES THE STAKES IN F1 BREAKAWAY

Website Grand Prix.com is suggesting that global sports management juggernaut IMG could be the people behind the promotion of an "alternative F1" series. IMG is one of the World's largest sports promotion and management companies and if anybody can rival Bernie Ecclestone for professionalism and global reach then it's IMG. IMG has a global portfolio that includes many of the worlds biggest sporting events and the company has plenty of motorsport experience including running a number of major street races including the Surfers Paradise Indy race and several Champcar rounds in the USA. It also has run Bathurst and the Sandown enduros here in Australia. Currently they are responsible for the media and marketing rights to events including the LeMans Series, NASCAR, NHRA Drag Racing and The World Speedway Grand Prix. Interestingly IMG is also a media partner of the Williams F1 racing team, one of only two current F1 teams to commit themselves to the traditional FIA series next year. FOTA is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the planning for their series, certainly, if as rumoured IMG is involved, then the chances of it happening and operating successfully just got a whole lot better.

FERRARI WINS SANDOWN BUT LAMBORGHINI TAKES THE TITLE

The Ferrari team of Nick O'Halloran and Alan Simonsen took out the Sandown GT classic last weekend. Held over two one hour heats the black Ferrari crossed the line over 16 seconds ahead of the Viper of Ross Lilley and former Nations Cup Champion Greg Crick. Tony Quinn making his debut in the ex Peter Hackett Aston Martin DBRS9 led the race at various times but fell back to third late in the race. The Lamborghini team of Ted Huglin and John Bowe came through to finish fourth with former F1 driver Ivan Capelli impressing everybody with his speed in the Maserati Trofero. Max Twigg in a Porsche GT3 Cup Car was sixth to take out Class B over the team of Michael Locisano and Marc Cini with high profile Hollywood actor Eric Bana also in a Porsche in third. Only 13 cars finished the race which was dealt a blow on Friday when the cars of Championship Contender John Kaias and Kim Bourke came together during private practice. With Kaias out Mark Eddy in the Lamborghini became the Australian National GT Champion after a seventh place finish.

NEW CORVETTES JOIN THE AUSSIE GT PARTY

Chevrolet will join the field for the steadily improving Australian GT championship with the news that both Neil  Bryson & Paul Freestone will be running Corvette's at Sandown in November. Bryson's car is the ex Ken James yellow machine imported from the Speed GT challenge in the USA but never run down under, the car will be prepared by Melbourne sportscar specialists Jocaro.  The car will run in the GT challenge class as it is not fully compliant with the series FIA GT3 specs. Freestone, who competed regularly in production car racing in the 90's in a Lotus and at the Calder Park Thunderdome will run his Corvette in the Production class.

PORSCHE JOIN AUSSIE GT REVIVAL

Porsche will make a challenge to the 2009 the Australian GT Championship following the successful testing of a brand new GT3 997 Cup S model at Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway. The latest GT3 spec Porsche model will join the ever increasing GT field and and based on the times set during the test the car will be a genuine threat in the GT Championship division. The 997 Cup S will be the first current model Porsche to race in the series in several years due to a controversial ban in the 997 GT3 Cup Car by CAMS in order to protect the Carrera Cup series. One of only fifteen cars produced and the first to arrive in Australia, the Porsche GT3 997 Cup S has all the necessary ingredients to compete with the Gallardo GT3 model Lamborghini, Aston Martin DBRS9, and Ferrari 430 GT3 that have been the ‘gun’ machines in this year’s Australian GT Championship.

NEW VIPER TO BITE DOWN UNDER

The Australian GT Championship has received a major boost with the news that regular competitor Ross Lilley will debut a brand new Dodge Viper at the final round of the series at Melbourne's Sandown Raceway in late November. The new V10 will replace Lilly's ex John Bowe Lamborhini Gallardo  which has been sold to former Porsche driver Dean Grant. Grant, is a veteran of  the Carrera Cup Championship (2003-2006) and was that Series Tag Heuer Champion in both 2004 and 2005.

MONARO MANIA TO HIT HISTORIC SANDOWN

The 40th anniversary of the first major race win by a Holden Monaro will be celebrated at the VACC Historic Sandown race meeting on November 8-9 this year. Around 40 Monaros of all models are expected to be on track or on display at the meeting to mark the historic victory at Sandown on September 15, 1968 of the then-new HK Monaro GTS 327 in the Datsun 3 Hour production car race.