Motorsports

The gas-fired Sciroccos which competed successfully in the Nurburgring 24-hour race are powered by a 243kW/400Nm 1.9-litre turbocharged engine.VW spokesman Martin Hube believes motorsport should be looking at more alternate fuels with the 24-hour race featuring several diesel and hybrids models."We have a responsibility as a company to the environment, even in motorsport," he says."This shows the customer that you don't have to fear technology like CNG; it's clean and safe."VW has CNG-powered Passat and Tiguan street models, but don't expect to see any in Australia.Gehling says our CNG infrastructure network is not comprehensive enough. "We would much prefer LPG, because of the existing network," he says.VW makes LPG-powered models such as Golf and Caddy but only in left-hand drive. "It's a chicken-and-egg situation," Gehling says."You don't make it (right-hand-drive LPG models) unless there is demand and there is no demand because they aren't available."

The V8 Supercar driver was recently in Germany for the Nurburgring four-hour race and described the track as having all the elements of the Mt Panorama circuit, only tripled.Last weekend's Nurburgring 24-hour race also has all the elements of a triple Bathurst 1000; in time, crowds, energy and machinery.More than 225 cars, 2000 drivers and thousands of crew took part including legendary driver Hans Stuck who said it was his last race.The endurance race attracted more than 200,000 fans who erected tents, viewing platforms, makeshift grandstands and huddled around bonfires all night long drinking, eating sausages, singing and letting off fireworks.Substitute VB for Bitburger and it's the same atmosphere as Mt Panorama, except for the fireworks.The crowd was entertained by exotic machinery that included Italian, British and German supercars and other race cars from around the world, including a pink Holden Commodore from Australia that retired with mechanical problems.The only aspect where the Nurburgring race pales against the Bathurst 1000 is in noise.The cars are not as loud as the V8 Supercars - some are almost too quiet to be race cars - but the Mercedes-Benz SLS more than made up for it with a menacing growl.The earplugs by the bedside table in my hotel room on the main circuit straight remained in their packet as the constant purring of hi-tech engines rocked me to contented sleep.

…in the grueling Nurburgring 24-hour race, in Germany last weekend. (JUNE 25/26)Two VW Sciroccos finished first and second in class with the lead car driven by Dakar champions Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz and Giniel de Villiers, finishing a commendable 27th outright.VW Motorsport spokesman Andre Dietzel says the Scirocco ran "like clockwork"."The Scirocco race cars are real close to the standard car with its suspension, steering and transmission," he says.However, the endurance racing Sciroccos are powered by compressed natural gas."It shows what the technology is capable of, like Dakar and Le Mans showed the potential of the TDI technology," says Dietzel.However, he rejected reports that the racing Sciroccos will be coming to Australia to compete in our Bathurst 12-hour race."The cars are built to the specification for this race only, not international," says Dietzel.The road-going Scirocco will debut at the Melbourne Motor Show and hit the showrooms early in 2012.VW Group Australia spokesman Karl Gehling says we will only get the Scirocco R while the three-door Golf R will be discontinued. He says the Scirocco will sit between the Golf GTI ($40,490) and Golf R ($48,490-$49,990) and will be the first R model in two-wheel drive.The Scirocco R will be powered by a detuned version of the Audi S3 and Golf R two-litre turbo engines with 188kW of power and 330Nm of torque.It will come in front-wheel drive with the Extended Electronic Differential Lock from the Golf GTI and Adaptive Chassis Control featuring three mode settings.Meanwhile, the three Golf24 race cars prepared for the Nurburgring race did not finish due to mechanical issues.Dietzel says the result is "a bit disappointing"."However, people were enthusiastic about the car," he says."The car was completely new and this was just testing and a promotion for the 35th anniversary of the Golf GTI."The Golf24, however, runs a 330kW/540Nm 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo engine, not the GTI's 155kW/280Nm two-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine.Dietzel says they are not committed to returning to Nurburgring next year.

Apparently the new track at Austin, Texas, will host Formula One and MotoGP racing in coming years and wants us to stage a round there as early as next year. While I am more than happy for our category to expand overseas, I have said many times that we have to be very careful not to extend ourselves too far, especially into different time zones that make live TV coverage difficult. I have no problems with extending into Asia where the time zone suits, but have spoken out about my concerns with driving in the Mid East. Now we look like racing in the US where live TV coverage would be early morning our time. Don't get me wrong; as a driver I can think of nothing better than driving on new and exciting circuits overseas. But we have to be mindful of the fans and a US time zone just wouldn't suit them. It is a bold move to go into a country dominated by Nascar racing, but I think we have a formula that would be interesting to the Americans with our noise, power, circuit racing and levels of carnage. Speaking of racing overseas, I was obviously interested in the results of the Nurburgring 24-hour race at the weekend after my recent participation in the four-hour event there for Audi. It was good to see Audis come in third, fourth and fifth. My hunger to compete in the Nurburgring or Le Mans 24-hours events next year just keeps on growing. Meanwhile, my focus has to be on the current season with our next round in Townsville next weekend. (JULY 9-10) Townsville is the mid-point in the season, so it will be important for morale to finish the first half on a high and be in a solid points position. Then we have a six-week break before the next round at Ipswich in August. That round will feature the welcome return of the popular three-race format we used to have and then reintroduced so successfully at Perth in April. Having three races definitely gives the weekend a different feel for the drivers with more opportunities to make gains or losses through bad starts. The added interest in Ipswich will be a 15-minute changeover between Saturday races. That's a first for V8 Supercars. That will make it very interesting for the teams and drivers with almost no chance to make any set-up changes or correct any panel damage. It will be up to us to drive clean and make sure the cars are in good shape for the second race. This format is so popular with the fans I think it's something they'll have to look at introducing in more rounds. The category is always looking at ways to improve the entertainment value for the spectators. And in the end that's what it's all about. We're an entertainment business. The fans pay good money to come along and we have to strive to deliver.

The Argentine-born son of Italian migrants was born on June 24, 1911 and raced to five world championships - the last at age 46 when he made up a huge time penalty and broke the (then) Nurburgring track record to win his last title. His five-win record stood for 46 years until beaten by Michael Schumacher. Fangio, who raced with four teams - Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-benz and Maserati - has the highest winning percentage in Formula One (47.06 per cent) by winning 24 world championship Grands Prix from 51 starts. This compares with Schumacher's 33.09 per cent. He is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, winning it four times in his career. He retired from racing in 1958. His life was not without incident away from the track. Cuban rebels kidnapped him on February 23, 1958, but he was later released, and remained a good friend of his captors afterwards. The incident was dramatised in the 1999 Argentine film "Operacion Fangio". After retirement he ran his successful Mercedes-Benz dealership in Buenos Aires. He died aged 84 in 1995. Fangio will be honoured at the Goodwood Revival (September 16-18) in the UK this year, which is also the 60th anniversary of him winning the first of his world championships. Goodwood will stage a daily track parade including a variety of his most famous cars, including his winning 1957 Maserati 250F.

They recently used less than 2.5 tankfuls to drive 3,452km from Melbourne to Cairns in an Isuzu D-MAX crew ute loaded with 260kg of camping gear. The normally tearaway twosome throttled back and drove for economy, using just 189.67 litres of diesel to average 5.49 litres/100km in Isuzu Ute's 2011 Max Run Challenge fuel economy competition.The competition winner was Rex Momus from Perth, who alone among over 54,000 entries guessed precisely how many litres the D-MAX rallyists used on their trip. Rex wins a new D-MAX X-Runner 4x2 manual priced at $37,790 drive away, plus the $10,000 worth of BCF camping gear carried by the Max Run D-MAX plus a year's supply of Mother Energy Drink.The Max Run drive had elements of real world driving in that the D-MAX mostly mixed with main highway traffic at or close to posted speed limits, the drivers threaded through about 20 provincial towns large and small and they stopping at many as well as at roadside cafes, museums, giant telescopes, farms, fishing spots, BCF stores, Isuzu Ute dealers and SatNav dead-ends.Their refuels, odometer readings and load were verified and security-sealed on-site by RACV, NRMA and RACQ representatives.Their D-MAX was a 4x2 manual X-Runner, an LS-based limited edition with extra features including sports bar, slimline side steps and leather seats. It was also fitted with an accessory hard tonneau under which was locked the BCF camping gear and cans of Mother Energy Drink.

Moss admits he was scared when he began practice at an historic event during the Le Mans 24-hour race meeting and decided it was time to hang up his helmet.It's his second retirement, following a monstrous crash in 1961 that almost killed him.Moss became a household name during the 1950s and 1960s and is best know as the most successful driver never to win a Formula One world championship.He came back to racing in the 1980s but concentrated on historic events and developed a career that took him around the world - including many visits to Australia - where he starred simply as 'Stirling Moss'.

THE fastest motorsport event in Australia will also provide a financial and morale injection for the local Ipswich economy struggling to recover from January's disastrous floods. Billed as the biggest drag-racing event in the world outside of the US, the 44th Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway starting on Friday (JUNE 10) is the season finale for the ANDRA Pro Series, brackets of Top Bike, Pro Stock Motorcycle, Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Door- slammer and Pro Stock. The four-day event is expected to attract more than 40,000 drag-racing fans. The track was built by volunteers 26 years ago and is still owned by those same drag-racing fanatics. It is part of a motorsport precinct that also includes Queensland Raceway which hosts rounds of the V8 Supercars and Australian Superbikes, a go-kart circuit, a rally track and a dirt kart track. The former Moreton Shire protected the motorsport precinct from urban encroachment to ensure its future. The current Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale has been a long-time supporter of the precinct and council zoning of the area guarantees the precinct will never be closed as have other tracks in Australia such as Amaroo Park and Oran Park in Sydney. Queensland Sport Minister Phil Reeves got a close look at ANDRA Pro Series Top Fuel Championship leader Darren Morgan's 8000 horsepower dragster this week. Minister Reeves donned earphones and took to the driver's seat while Morgan fired up the racer in front of Parliament House for a deafening performance that drowned out the most vocal politician. Minister Reeves says events such as Winternationals and the Ipswich 300 V8 Supercar Championship round provide a "much-needed economic and morale boost to the region". ABOUT THE EVENT The rubber will burn at Willowbank Raceway on Friday from 9am-7.30pm with Pro Stock qualifying at 5pm. On Saturday from 8am-8pm with ANDRA Pro Series qualifying from noon-5.30pm. Sunday action is from 8.30am with ANDRA Pro Series qualifying from noon-5.30pm. Monday fires up from 8.30am with ANDRA Pro Series racing at 11am, 1.15pm and all finals from 2.45pm. Children 13 and under free, students with ID discounted entry. One-day, two-day and full-event passes  available.

…20 years after becoming the first and only Japanese car maker to win the famous race.To mark the anniversary and at the invitation of organisers, Mazda will demonstrate the winning Mazda 787B on the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France on Saturday June 11 before the 24-hour race begins. Additionally, the 787B will also take part in the Driver's Parade through the Le Mans city centre on Friday June 10.The Mazda 787B is the first and only Japanese car, and rotary-engine car, to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.Jointly developed by Mazda and Mazdaspeed, the organisation that managed Mazda's racing program, the 787B has a chassis designed to meet Group C racing car technical regulations and is powered by a four-rotor rotary engine that produces 700 horsepower.Due to a change in the race regulations, 1991 was to become the last year that a rotary-engine car could participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.Since 1991, the winning Mazda 787B has mostly been on display at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima, Japan.As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, various members of the 1991 Mazda team will also return to Le Mans.The winning driver Johnny Herbert (England) will be joined by 1991 Mazda drivers David Kennedy (Ireland), Pierre Dieudonn#aace (Belgium) and other team members.

First is the fact that only a few of us like Russell Ingall and Jason Bright have driven at every V8 Supercars round since it started in 1998. That was back in my HRT days and I remember one year driving up from Melbourne HQ with a big transporter loaded with merchandise and stopping off at all the outback towns and meeting all the people.A few years ago the Triple 8 team all rode motorcycles from Brisbane to the Darwin round. It was about 4500km in eight memorable days. It's a great to get out in the outback of Australia. We came into a small township on the west side of Cape York and we met Jimeoin the comedian in the middle of nowhere. Australia is a beautiful place and you just have to get out and have a look at it.We're not doing any whacky trips this year, but I'd like to do another bike trip again if our team principal Roland Dane will let us. Stay tuned and see what whacky ideas we can come up with in the next few years.Darwin is important to me because I have aunties who live up there and it's always great to see them.It's also important to our sport because it makes us truly national and there are few other national sports that include the Northern Territory. It's such a shame because the people up there are starving for sport and every time we go we get massive support from the fans. Almost the whole city turns out.It was a courageous move for the NT government to back the original race and it paved the way for other states to support V8 Supercars. However, all of those are at temporary street circuits. This is at a permanent track facility and each year the government puts back a lot of the money it makes out of the event to improve the facilities.The West Australian government has now got on track with supporting the Barbagallo circuit and we need more states to do the same so there is a lasting benefit to the people of their state.This week I've been doing a lot of driver training and ride days with competition winners and sponsors at Norwell with Jamie Whincup and Andrew Thompson. It's another great little track and the headquarters for Paul Morris Racing. They've done a lot with the place with go karts, a skid pan and a new 4WD course they've just opened up.It's been good to take my mind off the Nurburgring race of the previous weekend.We still don't know if Warren Luff and I have qualified to race in any of the 24-hour races like Le Mans next year. Audi is focused on the next two endurance races at Nurgburgring and Le Mans and after that they will look into whether we are accredited even though we didn't race because of my crash in qualifying. Regardless of whether we've classified, we both want to go back and set the record straight because we had good speed and had the ability to get a great result.