MOTORSPORT: It’s go, go, go at The Bend

Ignoring any suspicions about Friday the 13th, a major new permanent race circuit has officially entered the Australian motorsport scene today.

The Bend Motorsport Park, 100km south-east of Adelaide, has opened its gates for the first round of the Shannons Nationals, with the major race being a round of the GT category’s Australian Endurance Championship.

Three full-time Supercar drivers – and many co-drivers for that premier national championship’s endurance series – are taking part to get familiar with the venue before the The Bend SuperSprint round in late August, by which time the barren landscape should be fully grassed.

Before then, The Bend will host the third round of the Australian Superbike Championship, next weekend (April 20-22).

This weekend the GTs – with Shane Van Gisbergen in a McLaren 650S, David Reynolds a Mercedes-AMG and Garth Tander an Audi R8 – will race 530km, split between Saturday twilight and Sunday, on a 7.77km layout.

When the Supercars venture to the $110 million venue – developed by the Shahin family’s Peregrine Corporation, South Australia’s largest private company, on the site of what was Mitsubishi’s proving ground in that company’s days as an Australian manufacturer – they will race on a 4.95km layout.

Jamie Whincup and Will Davison are other Supercar stars there this weekend doing some laps – Whincup driving various cars including the Mercedes-AMG he raced in the Bathurst 12-Hour, and Davison mentoring 23Red Racing’s young Porsche Cup racer Luis Leeds.

Whincup is an official ambassador for the The Bend, which he says is “an F1-style circuit –
Abu Dhabi quality”.

“As far as a permanent circuit goes, it has got to be our number one by a long shot,” Whincup said of The Bend, which is located an hour east of Adelaide.

While there’s no way it will host an F1 grand prix, The Bend has been built to Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) grade two and Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) grade A standards which could pave the way for some international two- and four-wheel competition.

The 310-metre pit building – with 34 six-by-12-metre garages – contains a 100-room hotel.

Apart from the road racing circuits, the venue contains a multi-purpose facility for drifting, karting and rallycross, a drag strip, an 80-hectare four-wheel-drive adventure park and other rallying, off-road and driver training facilities.

The GT field for the inaugural event was reduced from 21 to 20 cars after veteran John Bowe crashed his Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 in a fast corner. While the front left of the car was too badly damaged to repair in time for the race, Bowe was unhurt.

The support categories this weekend are the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge, Australian Prototype Series, National Sports Sedans, Radical Cup, Heritage Touring Cars and Group S historics.

Targa Tasmania No 27 all set
Targa Tasmania is almost here – for the 27th time.
The 2000km tarmac rally, with more than 200 cars – from modern supercars to classics – and 33 competitive stages, starts in the island state’s north on Monday and ends in Hobart on Saturday.

It will be part of this year’s CAMS Australian Targa Championship, the first round of which was Tassie’s shorter Targa North West in February won by Steve Glenney and Andy Sarandis in a 2015 Subaru WRX STI.

The other rounds will be the new Targa Great Barrier Reef around Cairns on August 31-September 2 and Victoria’s Targa High Country in November.

Among the challengers to Glenney and Sarandis next week will be Tasmania’s six-time winners of the event, Jason and John White in a Dodge Viper Extreme that was a retirement from Targa North West.

Launceston’s Crichton Lewis and Adam Kudra were the GT4 runners-up to Glenney and Sarandis there and should be contenders again, while legend Jim Richards and Barry Oliver are back for the umpteenth time in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

Monday’s three stages include the George Town Super Stage, while Tuesday takes the field in a loop to Latrobe in the north-west and back to Launceston. Wednesday’s six stages in the north-east include the demanding Sideling, Weldborough, Elephant Pass and Rossarden.

The next day it’s on to Burnie in the north-west again and Strahan on the west coast, then to Hobart – including over the famous Mt Arrowsmith – on Friday, before six stages around the capital on Saturday.

Ricciardo signals intentions to Mercedes
In what may be seen as stating his case for a Mercedes Formula 1 drive next year, Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo says he would have challenged Ferrari’s victorious Sebastian Vettel harder than Valtteri Bottas did at the end of last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I definitely would have … 100 per cent,” Ricciardo – F1’s master passer and the carsales.com.au global ambassador – told Britain’s Sky Sports.

“I would have gone. There's a gap, you’re finishing second anyway, and if you overshoot you’re finishing second.

“Last lap, for the win, you have to go. You have to go. Take them both out [if it goes wrong].

“I don’t want to say I would have won, but if that was me on the last lap you can bet everything that I was going for it.”

Of course, Ricciardo’s race ended early with an electrical failure in his Renault-powered Red Bull RB14, but he is out of contract at the end of this year, while Bottas’ contract at Mercedes is up too – although his career has been managed by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

Red Bull’s choice of power unit for next season may become irrelevant to Ricciardo, but he said leading into this weekend’s Chinese GP that Honda’s improved hybrid must now be “looking attractive to Red Bull” after Pierre Gasly’s fifth place with it for the drink company’s junior team Toro Rosso in Bahrain.

While Ferrari has won the first two GPs this season, Mercedes has been the victor in China every year in the hybrid era which began in 2014.

Red Bull has been third in fourth in Shanghai the past two years, with Ricciardo fourth both times – last year behind Max Verstappen, who had started 16th, and in 2015 behind now-discarded Russian Daniil Kyvat.

Rain has affected the Shanghai race five times in its 13 runnings, although clear skies and 18 degrees are forecast for this Sunday.

Aussie hooks up with AJ Foyt for Indy 500
America’s Indianapolis 500 is likely to have two Australian drivers again this year, both for iconic owners, seeking to become our first winner.

While Will Power is a full-time IndyCar competitor for Roger Penske, James Davison is set to drive a similar Chevrolet-powered entry for AJ Foyt in what would be the fourth start in ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ for the 31-year-old from Melbourne.

Davison filled in last year for Dale Coyne Racing in a Honda-powered entry – after Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais was injured in a crash during the lead-up – and led in the late stages before a multi-car accident that also took out Power.

There look like being 35 entries this year, which could mean a return of ‘bumping’ at the end of qualifying to determine the 33 starters.

Davison’s entry will be a third car for Foyt, the 500’s first four-time winning driver who already has listed Tony Kanaan, the 2013 victor, and another Brazilian, 19-year-old rookie Matheus Leist.

Davison’s effort is being backed by David Byrd, whose family has a long history of supporting IndyCar entries.

Power, 37, from Toowoomba, came within a metre of winning the 500 in 2015 – the year after he won the IndyCar series.