Motorsports

But at the recent Spring Historic meeting a woman took the honours in the Aussie Special event. Newcastle’s Brenda Hunter claimed her win as she powered her 1958 Lasos Holden around the track.Adelaide’s Ian Motley finished second in the Aussie Special Regularity field. He was glad to be back on the track after a disaster earlier this year.Motley rolled his 1958 Austin 7 in April on the first turn at Mallala – and was presented with a Roll over Certificate for his efforts - but he was thrilled to make a return to compete.“It’s a real buzz to race this beauty around the track,” Motley says.The oldest car in the Aussie special field marquee allocation was Noel Wilcox’s 1932 Austin 7 Cardwell special.Terry White’s 1947 MGTC Special was the oldest of the MG collections. The 1947 MGTC travelled from Victoria parked inside White’s Ford Transit while trailering his friend Chris Farrell’s 1949 MGTC special.Although the Aussie Specials was the main attraction at the spring meet, the Production Touring cars saw a lot of action.In group N, Phillip Woodbury’s 1971 Mazda RX2 chipped an Apex seal in the practice heats which sent him home early for the weekend.While Joe Dominello’s 1963 Austin Cooper S came off course in Race 1 with throttle problems, he managed to get his car back on the track for the last race of the day. 

Our enduro win at Philllip Island at the weekend was very satisfying, but in the end we only pegged back the championship gap from Jamie Whincup by six points.There is now a 92-point gap and the championship is certainly in our sites, but for me the big prize is Bathurst next month. That's the golden egg, our grand final and it's globally recognised. Everyone wants to win at Mt Panorama.We would have made more inroads on the championship at the weekend but for my disappointing sixth-place result on Saturday after qualifying second. Sunday was totally different. Everything went right for us and we had some great battles along the way with Garth Tander and our teammates.My cap is off to my co-driver Mark Skaife. We get him out of the commentary box twice a year and put him in the mix of normal drivers and he is just sensational. The only problem is I'll never catch his total of wins while he's driving for us. He's not only fast, but also wise and mature.Letting Jamie's co-driver Andrew Thomson pass him early in the race was a smart move. We had discussed this and decided we did not want to race early in the day, just stay out of trouble and let the attrition rate happen to others.It's maturity and an understanding of the bigger picture that wins these endurance races. I think that's a lesson Shane van Gisbergen has learnt. He was catching us at a great rate of knots toward the end of the race, but he pushed too hard and must have blistered or delaminated his tyres.Phillip island is a brutal track on tyres and the speed he was driving was just too much to sustain so he basically threw away second place. We also had an incident with him in warm-up that he's taken aim at me about, saying I push the young guys around. I don't know what he means by that. I try not to have contact and can't recall ever having contact with him before.We were on a race simulation lap when he came out of the pits after the chequered flag. There was no time for him to get up to speed and he should have been told by his team that we were charging through behind him.I made contact with his car and he decided he didn't like that so he gave us a hard hit that bent both our cars. I'm sure his team wasn't very happy with that. I'll put my hand up and confess to the first incident, but the second incident didn't need to happen. Anyway, I got over it and got on with the job. The stewards looked into it and didn't see any problems.Shane is a very talented driver, but he still has a lot to learn, especially about long-distance races. If he's learnt his lesson, he'll be a formidable competitor at Bathurst.Our Phillip Island victory was sweet, but I didn't get much of a chance to taste it. The boys had a big night on Sunday, but I went straight to the Broadford track for a ride day the next day, then flew back to Brisbane for a team debrief, then back on a plane and across the other side of the country to Perth to defend my title in the Australasian Safari which starts on Thursday.We had our final Safari test at Mildura before last weekend's race and the two Holden Colorado utes performed perfectly. One change we have made this year is with co-drivers. Last year I had Kees Weel with me, but he's now co-driving for his son, Paul. My co-driver this time is John Panozzo.He's navigated for Paul in the past and he's not unfamiliar with that role, so I'm confident in our ability to put in a good defence of my first Safari title.

... more night races and a Chase points system. There was talk earlier this year about making the Ipswich round a night race and I think it's a shame they didn't go ahead with it. Lights don't have to be a permanent fixture. You can hire temporary flood lights. With Coates Hire a significant sponsor of our sport they could easily have done the job. I'm a big fan of night racing. We started the season at Abu Dhabi under lights and in the past we've had twilight races at Eastern Creek in Sydney and night races at Calder Park in Melbourne. Both have been huge successes. We don't do them any more because of the lack of infrastructure at the tracks where we now race. I'd like to see us return to Eastern Creek with a twilight meeting. Perhaps we could also do Darwin at night with hired lights and maybe Sandown where they already have lights for the horse track, although noise restrictions might be a problem. Night events have worked well for football, so why not V8 Supercars? The other Nascar innovation we should consider is the Chase points system where the top 15 or so qualify for the title and start their points from scratch again. I think it would mix it up and add some excitement to our sport, especially in seasons where we have a runaway winner and the result is almost a foregone conclusion. The current system can sometimes reward drivers who are consistent and don't necessarily win a lot or any races throughout the year. We've seen that happen a couple of times in the past decade. It's boring for the fans while the rest of the drivers and teams tend to use the end of the year for testing for next year rather than racing for this year's title. A Chase scenario with say the top 10 vying for the title from after the enduro rounds would reward drivers that go from conservative mode to attack mode. That's what the fans want to see. They want chasing battles, crashes and grand-final-style excitement. This week we had our final test day before the enduros start at Phillip Island and my co-driver, Mark Skaife, got more time in the seat than me, which is great for his confidence. His feedback and feel for the car is outstanding and to give him that time to get used to my race engineer, Jeromy Moore, and the set-up changes he wanted to try was invaluable. They now have total confidence in each other for a great working relationship. The morning session was soaking wet, then it dried out so we had experience in all conditions and had no issues all day. Skaifey and I are now 100 per cent comfortable in the car and have perfected our driver changes. We simulated routine and emergency pit stops, driver changes, wheel changes and even front spoiler changes; everything and anything you can imagine, we trialled. Everything ran smoothly but we have to remember that it is still just a test day and you don't have the added pressures of other competitive cars sharing the lane and breathing down your neck on the track, plus millions of eyes watching you on TV.

The V8 Supercar driver piloted the A9X Torana over the finish line to win the Group C Feature Race on Sunday, bringing the huge crowd to their feet. Richards also raced Porsche 962 around the track.The Masters attracted a huge crowd ever, to enjoy the number of racing categories. This was the also first time the event included sports sedans.The Fords claimed their win in the Group Nc Division 1 and 2, though the Mazdas did not go unnoticed, winning second place in race three.

NASCAR star Kyle Busch, (26), the current series leader in the class that Australia's Marcus Abrose competes in, had his licence suspended for 45 days and was fined $1000 after pleading guilty to speeding.He was clocked at 206km/h in a 70km/h zone while driving a Lexus LFA, an exotic sports coupe he had on a 24-hour loan."Driving that car was the opportunity of a lifetime, but it occurred at the wrong place and time," he said. "I'm certainly sorry that it happened.""There's probably reason why on the TV commercials they always show at the bottom, 'Professional driver, closed course.' Mine was not that. I apologise sincerely. All I can do is make sure it doesn't happen again."The $700,000 Lexus LFA is a 412kW/480Nm 4.8-litre V10 sports car capable of 325km/h and it can accelerate to 100km/h in 3.7seconds.

We've witnessed several young guns emerge this year, but the Ipswich round was the best example of how these young drivers are starting to make an impact.Apart from the TeamVodafone cars, the only other car that showed consistent speed in qualifying and racing was young Tim Slade's Falcon. His performance has everyone up and down pit lane talking. He's a mature driver for his age and didn't put a wheel wrong all weekend. He certainly put a lot of pressure on both me and Jamie.David Reynolds also qualified and finished well and has repeated that effort on several occasions throughout the year.Another one to keep an eye on is James Moffat. He has a huge legacy to live up to in his old man, but he's starting to show glimpses of his father's brilliance. I watched the replay of Sunday's race and to see Moffat have a mistake in turn four and then instantly pull himself together, get back on it and finish in fourth was excellent.It showed real maturity. Sure he made a mistake, but it's how you bounce back from your mistakes that marks you in this game. That was a fantastic result for him and gives confidence to the DJR team for the future.Stone Brothers Racing is another team with a promising future. They have always recruited young people with talent and with James, Alex Davison and Shane van Gisbergen they are looking formidable. These are the next generation of drivers who are growing with confidence at each event.I took almost 100 points off Jamie's lead at the Ipswich round, but much of that was because of the unfortunate mistakes that plagued his team at the Sunday race.I'm in no doubt that it's going to be very difficult to take the remaining 98 points off him, especially if he continues to run well. I think you'll find he has had all his bad luck at Ipswich and will continue to be the one to beat for the remainder of the season. He's very consistent so for me it's just a matter of plugging away.Meanwhile, I also have to think about the Australasian Safari between Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance rounds. We have another test in the Colorado at Mildura the weekend before the Island, then go straight to Perth for the event. It's not a distraction from V8s. In fact, it helps me in two ways. It keeps me interested in racing and it keeps me focussed on my skills. After the success of having the Australian Superbikes with us at Perth and Ipswich, I hope the organisers can put in more 4x2 events next year.The fans enjoyed the superbikes as much as I did. It's a great series with most manufacturers involved such as Suzuki, Aprilia, Honda, Kawasaki and BMW. I get on really well with Suzuki rider Josh Waters and spent a lot of time with him at the Ipswich round. He came to the grid for my races and I did the same for his.He's a great young talent and he's having a fantastic life travelling the world doing what he loves to do. We share a common passion to go fast.

The six-time Bathurst winner takes over as V8 Supercars Commission chairman for two years from October after he races with Craig Lowndes at Mt Panorama."Whilst I'm chairman of the commission I can't drive in V8 Supercars competitively," he says, stressing the last word and gesturing enthusiastically with his hands."So I won't be able to do Bathurst next year. But things that I would be able to do is test some cars and still keep my hand in. It's important for me to stay current with these things. I'm going to drive the Car of the Year (the 2013 V8 Supercar) not this test, but the one after."Racing is also still on the cards for the six-time winner of the top touring car category in Australia."I've also been approached to do some other racing next year which wouldn't conflict with this at all," he says. "I can't say what just yet, but there are a couple of overseas opportunities plus some local stuff. I wouldn't mind doing that so long as it's not too taxing and it wouldn't take too much of my time."Skaife stunned the V8 Supercar world when he announced his retirement from full-time racing on October 29, 2008. But like John Farnham, he has been attracted back for more.First it was an unsuccessful tilt at Bathurst with veteran colleague Greg Murphy in 2009, then it was a classic reuniting with his old Holden Racing Team partner Craig Lowndes for last year's Bathurst where they held the trophy aloft at the end of the day.Even Lowndes thinks that at the age of 46 Skaife could be too old and rusty to return even to part-time racing in 2014. "Clearly as an absolutely outright professional race driver those days are gone," Skaife admits."What I'd like to do though is pick the eyes out of the events which suit and then I'll contemplate how that works. "I'm not far from making a decision on whether I actually retire from V8 SC racing per se."I've been thinking about it quite a lot and I went and had a couple of weeks holiday and I probably still have a couple of sessions with my wife (Toni) before I decide that totally. Because if I'm not in the car and not competitive I wouldn't want to do it and couldn't physically do it at a level that would make me happy."But even if he hands in the keys to the V8 Supercar, there are overseas racing possibilities on the horizon for Skaife who raced extensively in Europe in the 1990s at Le Mans, the category under F1, French touring car championship rounds and the world cup for touring cars in Monza as well as events in Asia."Some of the ones that still turn me on are the premier ones; some of the really good quality international events like Le Mans and Nurburgring. I know Craig enjoyed the stuff he's been doing this year and under the right circumstances if it wasn't too time consuming I would like to have a look at those," he says.When it comes to partnering Lowndes in these events, he replies, "You never say no do you? It's a weird world, motorsport. You wouldn't have said even five years ago that Craig and I would be driving at Bathurst together. So things are always a moving target in this game."Skaife is confident he is still competitive. In fact, he says he is far better prepared for the endurance rounds at Phillip Island and Bathurst than he was this time last year after having driven the TeamVodafone 888 car at first practice sessions at most venues this year including yesterday's first two practices at Queensland Raceway."I've had more time in the car this year and I'm fitter," he says. "I've had my trainer with me for the last two-and-a-half months and we've worked rally hard and will work harder the next couple of months leading into that race (Bathurst)."When I drove in Townsville in the co-drivers section I ended up second and at the last test day I was only a couple of 10ths of a second away from Craig. I also feel more at ease about it this year because I know the team now. I know everyone's names and Craig and I have a real camaraderie going."I've been lucky all my racing career to work with the best. Gibson Motor Sport was the best team in the '90s and Holden Racing Team was the best in the 2000s and it's good late in my career that I can join the best team around now in pit lane."But Skaife is under no illusion that V8 Supercars is a tough sport. "If you walk down pit lane there is not an average team or average driver in any of those cars," he says. "While I'm happy that I feel more prepared this year, I don't want to linger and sort of run past a time when I feel competent and competitive."Driving is something I have been really passionate about and love. It has been my life, so stepping away from it is difficult. But things change. Things don't go on forever."Skaife has just stepped out of a four-hour commission meeting but is still firing on all cylinders and keen to talk about his new role in the sport he loves."I'm really turned on by this sport and industry and as time goes by I've done more and more of those things in the sport like TV commentary, track design (he designed Sydney and Townsville and re-designed Gold Coast) and now the commission so there are a lot of the elements of the business I really enjoy."The commission deals with the regulatory side of the business, judiciary matters, rules, race formats and the nitty gritty of the sport. Skaife says it will improve the sport for fans and drivers, alike, providing more consistency with penalties and rulings."What people want is good fair consistent decisions," he says. Skaife also points out that the sport is always trying new things such as the two-race format for today (SATURDAY) which, if successful, could be rolled out at other events."From an event billing standpoint I can confidently sit here and say the V8 Supercar race that we will put on this weekend is as good if not the best quality sedan car racing in the world," he says."The new format on the Saturday will have excitement and theatre. It's essentially a bit of a rally concept in some ways with a service time in between two stages which I think has some novelty and uniqueness about it. In addition I love the 4x2 concepts," he says, referring to the round of the Australian Superbikes being run at the Ipswich event this weekend."Over the years Australian motorsport culture has had a lot of synergy between bikes and cars, whether it's been Wayne Gardner finishing riding bikes and coming back and driving cars or it's been the same sort of fans. I go to Phillip island for the MotoGP. I love the event and I see the same people there who attend our car races. So there's a lot of crossover between the fans of those two motorsport arenas."Although Skaife seems just as passionate about his administrative roles, his attention keeps going back to racing at a time when he is staring down the barrel of retirement."I don't want to rush to make a decision that this might be my last Bathurst because that's a pretty big thing to say. It's something I'll think very hard and very carefully about."You are still better off to say I might call it quits while I'm going all right. "I chose to do that with my full time career and I would rather do that after winning those races with Craig last year and doing the races this year."MARK SKAIFE'S BESTBest driver: Craig Lowndes. "He's the best all-round driver, but you would have to say Jamie Whincup is the benchmark in the sport at the moment."Best team: TeamVodafone.Best track: Bathurst. "No doubt."Best event: "Either Clipsal (Adelaide) or Sydney."Best engineer: Craig Lowndes's race engineer, Jeromy Moore. "He's a really impressive young man. He's got a great future in this sport.Best young racer: Daniel Ricciardo who won the British Formula 3 Championship in 2009.BIO:Born: April 3, 1967 in GosfordRacing: Started in karts in 1980s and moved to cars in 1984, joining then Australian Touring Car Championships in 1987. Retired from full-time racing in 2008.Career: 5 touring car championships; 6 Bathurst wins; 218 races; 41 round wins; 85 podium finishes; 87 race wins; 41 pole positionsAwards: 2004 Medal of the Order of Australia

His driver input during the first two practices at most events this year and at all our test days has been invaluable in helping us with set-up and development. If you look at my season this year the one common element has been having Skaife as an offsider.My race engineer, Jeromy Moore, and I are working really closely. Together with having Skaife better prepared, more confident and fitter than he was at this time last year, it's a real boost going into the next two enduro rounds. As a package, we're far more advanced than last year.However, I won't tip another team one-two finish at Bathurst. These endurance races are about reliability and there are a lot of other elements such as luck which play a big part. But if we can run the race the way we want to, we are in with another good chance of a repeat 1-2 team result.I know I was pretty excited after the race on Sunday but I only had a couple of beers with the boys that night and then it was straight back to reality with my feet firmly on the ground. It was a fantastic result for us especially after such a long dry spell.On Sunday I thought my last race win had been at Bathurst, but I actually won in Tasmania last November. Still, it's been a long time between drinks and to turn that around with two pole positions and three runaway race wins was a pretty dominant display. It's been a long time since anyone has dominated a weekend that much. For me it was a huge relief and a satisfying feeling to have accomplished that.On the other hand, my teammate Jamie Whincup was very disappointed with his weekend. But he will bounce back and be a force to reckon with in the enduros. It was one of those situations where one error leads to another. The trumpet sock was left on the engine and that cascaded into a bigger nightmare, putting Jamie behind the eight ball from the very start. The sock caused the throttle to stick open which made it difficult for him to get his speed right coming into pit lane so he ended up with a drive-through penalty. To his credit, he pushed extremely hard to make it back through the pack to 10th but that snowballed into a collision with Rick Kelly on the last lap which meant he limped home and ended up in the gravel trap at turn one.It was an amazing comeback, but the kitty litter was not a just reward for his efforts. Speaking to him on Sunday night he was still very angry as he knew he had good car speed. In fact, it was only our cars and Tim Slade's that really showed any consistent speed all weekend. That probably made for a moderately boring Sunday race, but I think the two-sprint-race format of the Saturday was a huge success.It definitely has merit and should be rolled out at other events. The fans get to see two starts, two fast and furious races with everyone pushing hard on their tyres and all the drama that goes on in the pits between the two races.

…using the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG at an as-yet undisclosed track on September 5.The square-jawed winner of 13 grands prix is racing a Mercedes C-Class car in the DTM championship and has agreed to take on his virtual opponents in the ultimate road-going Benz.The contest will see 24 UK entrants randomly chosen to compete in a run-off driving the SLS AMG on the PlayStation3 game Gran Turismo 5.The top six will then take on Coulthard, who will drive the Mercedes on the real track at the same time the prize winners are racing the same car at the same track on the console.The gamer who sets the fastest lap will win a trip to the 2011 Brazilian GP on November 27.The six million global Gran Turismo players who can't enter the contest will still be able to test themselves against the former F1 star when details of the track and car set-up are revealed the next day.To watch the race online go to www.mercedesliverace.co.uk from 11.55pm, AEST time.

The heavyweight drop top gets the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 now favoured for all M cars as well as giant 20-inch alloys that will test the BMW's ride comfort of the top-end cruiser, especially on Australia’s sub-standard roads.