MOTORSPORT: New Challenge at The Mountain

Mt Panorama continues to get bigger. Not higher than its 862 metres above sea level, just more events.

There’s long been the Bathurst 1000 each October, then along came the 12-Hour, now each February, and more recently the Six-Hour at Easter – which next year is in mid-April.

Of course, the racing history at The Mountain goes back beyond all of these, with Australian Grands Prix held there – the first of them in 1938 – and it was long synonymous with motorcycle racing. There have been other activities over the years too.

The latest event though is Challenge Bathurst. It’s not a race as such but a chance for those with performance cars to experience Australia’s greatest circuit in short, sharp bursts.

Over four days late next month (Nov 24-27) there will be at least 320 cars – and perhaps even closer to 400 – on the world-renowned 6.23km track.

For some, especially those in GT3 cars, it will be an opportunity to get in some laps ahead of the next 12-Hour, which is on the first weekend of February.

The first two days of the Bathurst Challenge (Thursday and Friday, Nov24-25), there will be ‘sprints’ for elite and experienced motorsport competitors. There’s provision for 120 of them – and 120 are entered.

On the weekend (Saturday and Sunday, Nov 26-27), there will be ‘regularity’ sessions for others, non-professionals (with performance driving experience and at least a CAMS level 2 licence) wanting to practise and improve their skills.

There are already 200 entries for the weekend, with room for another 75 yet before entries close next Friday (Oct 28).

The first two days of the Challenge have been titled Lightning, the weekend Thunder – with free entry for spectators over the four days.

Among those running on the Thursday and Friday will be the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 that Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup will race in the 12-Hour and Steven Richards Motorsport’s two BMW M6s – one of which is to be driven by Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall and Tony Longhurst.

The Challenge is being run by James O’Brien, who previously staged the 12-Hour until he sold his share to Supercars and began the Six-Hour, and Greg Evans of the V8 Race driving experience.

There was a similar Sprint Bathurst in 2011 but it ended in a legal wrangle between its promoter and the Bathurst council. It was at that event that the late Alan Simonsen set, in a Ferrari 458, what was then the fastest lap of the circuit by a tin-top car in 2 minutes 4.96 seconds.

This time around the Lightning days will provide 160 minutes (in eight 20-minutes sessions) for top drivers in the 120 cars, in three groups of 40.

The entrants are paying $2590 (which includes a $100 fuel credit) for these sessions – one familiarisation, one practice and six timed ‘sprints’.

The weekend Thunder will give participants 120 minutes on track in six 20-minute sessions (one familiarisation and five practice) in five groups of up to 55 cars with a capped lap time of 2 minutes 36 seconds required.

Thunder entries are $1590 a car (including the $100 fuel credit too) and there is the option of two drivers having turns in the car.

Nationals out to nine rounds
The Confederation of Australia Motor Sport (CAMS) has announced an expanded, nine-round calendar for its national racing championships next year – but not the categories for each round yet.

The Nationals will return to Morgan Park at Warwick in Queensland and Wakefield Park at Goulburn, NSW, at the end of next season.

The Morgan Park meeting is scheduled for September 23-24, but no firm date has been set yet for Wakefield Park, although it will be in November.

Five rounds will be in Victoria – the first at Sandown and two each at Phillip Island and Winton. The second of the Winton rounds will be only two days, like that later at Morgan Park.

Sydney Motorsport Park and Queensland Raceway are the other tracks in the series.

2017 CAMS National Motor Racing Championships calendar
Rd 1: Sandown, April 7-9.
Rd 2: Phillip Island, May 26-28.
Rd 3: Winton, June 9-11.
Rd 4: Sydney Motorsport Park, July 7-9.
Rd 5: Queensland Raceway, August 4-6.
Rd 6: Winton, August 26-27.
Rd 7: Phillip Island, September 8-10.
Rd 8: Morgan Park, September 23-24.
Rd 9: Wakefield Park, November (dates TBC).

Dennis on the skids at McLaren?
Change could be on the way at the top of Formula 1’s second most successful team, McLaren, with Britain’s Autosport magazine reporting this week that the contract of 69-year-old chief Ron Dennis won’t be renewed.

Dennis, who in 1980 led the takeover of the team founded by late New Zealander Bruce McLaren half a century ago, has since denied “categorically” that he is stepping down.

McLaren Automotive, which builds the high-performance road cars, is said not to be affected by the bickering within McLaren Technology Group, which includes the F1 team.

Dennis owns 25 per cent of McLaren Technology Group, while Saudi-born, Luxembourg-based Mansour Ojjeh of TAG (Techniques Avant Garde) has another 25 per cent and Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalkat the other 50 per cent.

After reclaiming the team reins early in 2014 by ousting Martin Whitmarsh, Dennis was to have bought out the other shareholders but has not come up with the money and the deadline has long since passed.

Although only Ferrari has been more successful in F1, McLaren has not won a Grand Prix since 2012 and is yet to achieve a podium finish in almost two seasons of its ‘remarriage’ to engine supplier Honda.

Four rounds for Merc boys to settle it
Four races to go in this year’s F1 World Championship – the first of them this weekend (early Monday, Australian time) at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.

Nico Rosberg leads Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by 33 points. Even if Hamilton wins all the remaining races (the others are in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi), second place each time would give Rosberg a first world title. Hamilton already has three, including the past two years.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, a distant third in the championship (101 points behind Rosberg, 68 behind Hamilton), loves the circuit in Austin because of its “loads of opportunities to overtake”.

Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing is second in the constructors’ championship, already won by Mercedes for the third straight year, but he said he had been surprised by the pace of Ferrari, 50 points behind RBR, at the previous race at Suzuka in Japan. However, Ricciardo and teenage teammate Max Verstappen both have new hybrid power units for this weekend.

Ferrari has been the most aggressive of the teams in its tyre selection, opting for more sets than Mercedes and Red Bull of the supersoft compound that Pirelli has taken to the US GP for the first time.

Manufacturers may cut back in DTM
Germany’s DTM, generally regarded as the top touring car championship in the world, may lose a quarter of its field next year.

The DTM has had more than 20 cars the past five seasons, with 24 the past two.

However, reports this week have suggested that the three participating manufacturers – BMW, Audi and Mercedes – may all cut back from eight cars to six next year.

There has been speculation of a fourth brand entering the series, but that would be unlikely before 2019 – when new engine regulations will be introduced.

A new dawn at a great old circuit
One of the world’s most famous race circuits – Kyalami in South Africa – reopens this weekend. The venue near Johannesburg hosted many F1 races up until 1993 as well as being renowned for sport car enduros.

It has undergone a major revamp and what is now a track almost 4.5km long is said to be “close to F1 standard”.

The main race at the festival marking the reopening of the venue will be for ‘Global Touring Cars’ featuring Audis, BMWs and Volkswagens.