WEEKS UNVEILS FORD GT FOR AUSSIE TITLE TILT

Kevin Week's Supaloc Racing Team will today unveil it's new weapon for the 2012 Australian GT Championship. The Supaloc Racing Ford GT will make its first public appearance at today’s Clipsal 500 launch at the historic Adelaide Oval. The sophisticated and distinctive Supaloc Racing livery has been combined with the classic, low-slung lines of the GT to produce a mouth-watering piece of automotive artwork. The GT3-spec version of the Ford GT combines the traditional styling and a rich racing heritage of the original Le Mans wining GT40 with the latest technology. This will be the only Ford GT competing in the 2012 Australian GT Championship, and it is in fact the last example that has been produced.

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.

US PRO STOCK STARS ANNOUNCE NEW ENGINE BUSINESS

Coughlin Brothers Racing, an entity owned by drag racers John, Troy, Mike, and Jeg Coughlin Jr., announced a partnership with Nick Ferri and Roy Simmons to build a state-of-the-art engine shop that will produce Pro Stock racing motors for consumers around the world. JNR Racing plans to build and lease motors from its new Research and [...]

WHINCUP ON ISLAND POLE, THANKS TO OWEN

After a qualifying process that was more complicated and even more boring than the recent Federal Election, the Team Vodafone, Triple Eight Commodore of Jamie Whincup and Steve Owen will start from pole for tomorrow's Phillip Island 500. Whincup, the defending V8 Supercar Champion, can thank his co-driver Owen for his pole position. Owen confirmed yet again that he should be in the main game with an all the way win in the first grid qualifying race. Jason Bargwanna in his Rock Racing Commodore was second after a great late race move on Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander. Rick Kelly dominated the second race after making a great start to overhaul Jamie Whincup who blew the start and was swamped by Dick Johnson Racing's James Courtney. Whincup had to pit leaving Kelly to take the win from Craig Lowndes with Courtney third.

AUSSIE BRISCOE ON POLE FOR TEXAS INDY

Australian driver Ryan Briscoe will start from pole in Saturday night's Indy car race at Texas Motor Speedway. Driving for Team Penske, Briscoe recorded a four-lap average speed of 215.273 mph (1 minute, 37.3275 seconds) to earn the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the Firestone 550K race which will be held under lights at the high banked 1.5 mile oval. Dario Franchitti, seeking to be the third consecutive Indianapolis 500 champion to win at Texas in the same year, was 0.0057 of a second off Briscoe's pace. He'll start on the outside of the front row for the 228-lap race under the lights after an average of 215.261 mph. Briscoe's teammate and fellow aussie, Will Power, will be on the second row along with New Zealand's Scott Dixon.

BRUCE McLAREN: A MINUTES NOISE

JUST FOR OUR DIRECTOR: HEMI HEAVEN FROM SPEED TV

A McLAREN MERCEDES FOR YOU AT HOME

The latest collaboration between Mercedes and their F1 Partners at McLaren has just been released, but for those of you down under don't get too excited, You can't have one.  Named the SLR Roadster 722 S, the new car pays tribute to the historic victory at the Mille Miglia long-distance race in 1955 by British motor-racing legend Stirling Moss and his co-driver Dennis Jenkinson, in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with the starting number 722. Powering the SLR Roadster 722 S is a supercharged 5.5-litre V8 engine hand-built by the Mercedes-AMG engine shop. With an output of 478 kW and 820 Nm of torque, power is put to the road by a five-speed automatic transmission developed by Mercedes-Benz. It is specially configured for a very high torque, and allows the driver to choose between two sets of shift characteristics. As a result the roadster powers from zero to 100 km/h in  just 3.7 seconds, with 200 km/h in 10.6 seconds.

BLOW TO SBR AS SPONSOR CLOSES THE WINDOW

Stone Brothers Racing have announced the loss of long time sponsor JELD-WEN for the 2009 season. In a press release issued earlier today JELD-WEN Australia spokesperson Bruce Tosello said “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with Australian motor sport through our partnership with SBR, first with Marcos Ambrose taking the championship twice and in the last three years with James Courtney.”  Mr Tosello said that the company's  decision to sponsor a whole car in 2005 was part of a branding exercise to introduce Australian homeowners to the JELD-WEN name. “With that job now complete, we’re headed in a different direction for 2009 so we remain fresh and competitive in the eyes of our customers.”