Geoffrey Harris•8 Apr 2013

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: No keeping up with the Jones boys

Brad Jones Racing and drivers Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright have become giant killers in the new era of V8 Supercar racing

Top Fords around mark but Holden still dominant

The Car of the Future has shaken things up in V8 Supercar racing, but not yet in the way that was envisaged.

Rather than new manufacturers winning, it’s different teams from the manufacturer most synonymous with the sport.

The modestly-funded Albury-based Holden team Brad Jones Racing won all three races at the second round of this year’s championship at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains at the weekend.

The form that BJR had shown in the non-championship V8 Supercar races at Melbourne’s Formula One grand prix in mid-March translated into two wins for its New Zealand driver Fabian Coulthard in Tasmania and veteran Jason Bright took the honours in the other.

The series now heads to New Zealand – minus the wrecked Commodore of rookie Scott Pye – for the third round this weekend, with Coulthard a warm favourite to do the business again at the revamped Pukekohe. His sights will be on claiming the new Jason Richards Trophy named after his late countryman and BJR driver who died of cancer in late 2011.

Jamie Whincup scored the only Triple Eight podium finish of the Tasmanian weekend, second in Saturday’s entertaining new 60-60 format, while Craig Lowndes had a luckless time and has to wait at least another week to overtake Mark Skaife as winner of the most races in Australian touring car history.

While first-round surprise Tekno Autosports was overshadowed by BJR in Tassie, although Shane Van Gisbergen chalked up another two top 10 finishes, Holden’s official factory team HRT rediscovered some of its old form. HRT’s James Courtney and Garth Tander each notched up a podium in Sunday’s 100km races, and stand third and 10th in the championship.

The consistent Whincup now leads from Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison, while Lowndes went from first to fourth in one round.

Kiwi rookie Scott McLaughlin is fifth for Garry Rogers Motorsport among eight Holden drivers in the top 10.

Mark Winterbottom was the fastest of the Ford men at Symmons Plains and might have won the final race – which would have been a first for the Blue Oval this year – but for a clash with Coulthard on the second last lap. Winterbottom has moved up to sixth in the championship and Coulthard is seventh after a poor start to the season in Adelaide.

The Kiwi qualified on the front row for all three Tasmanian races and finished third in the one he didn’t win.

“It's awesome to get two race wins and go to my home event this week full of confidence,” Coulthard said. “It would mean a great deal for me to win there. The guys in Albury have given us a car we can fight with. It's been a great effort.

“I didn't think I would be finishing seventh in the points when I got to Symmons Plains, but our expectations changed very quickly. To be leaving seventh is pretty awesome. Hopefully it's a lucky seven.”

BJR teammate Bright led the first of Sunday’s 42-lap races from start to finish to beat Tander, with whom he had had a couple of clashes the previous day.

"The BJR guys did an awesome job in the off season (in building the Car of the Future Commodores),” Bright said. “To see both cars so competitive is a credit to them.

“Fabian is driving really well and I couldn't be happier with the job everyone is doing. Car of the Future was always going to be good for us.

“I felt like we were falling behind a bit last year with the oldest rear end and probably not the best front end in the Holden. The aero kit wasn't a match for the Ford either.

“Now we've addressed all those things and I think we did a really good job with building the cars.

“The things we selected to go into them were obviously the right things. We worked on our weaknesses and made them our strengths – and we haven't even done a test day yet, apart from Eastern Creek [the official pre-season test day in Sydney in mid-February]."

Things are suddenly much more upbeat at HRT, winless now for more than a year.

“It was just a shame we had a few things go wrong in qualifying for race five [Sunday’s final race], because we had an even better car [than that which finished second in race four] but we just couldn’t get through the field,” Tander said.

Teammate Courtney, third behind the limping Falcon of Winterbottom in race five, said HRT could perform “when all the stars align – but the window that our car’s operating in is far too small”.

“It’s been a tough slog … (but) to get two podiums for the team is good for team morale,” Courtney said. “We’ve got a lot of updates on the way for the cars – it’s just killing me waiting for them.

“I’m pretty happy with everything that’s coming and everything that’s in place. We’ve got great strategy with these plans coming along, so I think over the next few rounds – nothing’s going to change for the next one [in NZ] – but after that I think we should see a good jump in performance.

“It’s something we need. But at the moment Garth and I have to do what we can with what we’ve got, keep our noses clean and get those consistent race finishes.”

Nissan Motorsport’s Todd Kelly was a non-finisher in two of the Tasmanian races and otherwise it seems content for now to see its cars in the top 20, while Erebus Motorsport chief executive Ryan Maddsion was “absolutely ecstatic” to see Lee Holdsworth finish 13th in one race.

“We are successfully moving out of the build phase and into the development phase,” Maddison said.

There’s a long way to go yet for the newcomers. For now it’s still very much a Holden-dominated championship with the top two Ford Performance Racing Falcons thankfully providing some competition.

V8 Supercar Championship driver standings after two rounds – 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 513 points; 2. Will Davison (Ford) 450; 3. James Courtney (H) 398; 4. Craig Lowndes (H) 397; 5. Scott McLaughlin (H) 366; 6. Mark Winterbottom (F) 357; 7. Fabian Coulthard (H) 334; 8. Jonathon Webb (H) 332; 9. Shane Van Gisbergen (H) 316; 10. Garth Tander (H) 314.

Rally championship a Honda-Renault tussle

Round two of the Australian Rally Championship in Western Australia was a win apiece to Honda and Renault, as at round one in Canberra a month earlier.

The Honda Jazz of reigning national champions Eli Evans and co-driver Glen Weston took the first heat in the Busselton-Nannup region, almost three quarters of a minute clear of the Renault Clio R3 of local driver Tom Wilde and his co-driver Bill Hayes.

A puncture on the second forest stage cost the other Renault of Scott Pedder and Dale Moscatt a minute but they claimed third in that heat after a blistering comeback. Pedder and Moscatt then won the second heat, while second place Sunday gave Evans and Weston overall victory for the weekend. Wilde and Hayes made the podium ahead of the brother and sister pairing of Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth in a Mazda2 – who were fifth Sunday behind the Volkswagen Polo Vivio of Michael Boaden and Helen Cheers.

While Evans now has won eight ARC rounds straight, equaling the feat of late Kiwi legend Possum Bourne, he said: “I’m only 11 points up in the championship – it sounds like we’re dominating, but it’s not really the case so we’ll go to South Australia [on May 24-26] and try to extend our lead again.”

First top 10 of year for Ambrose

Australia’s NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose qualified on the front row for the Sprint Cup round on the tour’s shortest track – the half-mile oval at Martinsville, Virginia – led the opening lap and finished eighth in his Ford Fusion today for his first top 10 of the year.

Chevrolet star Jimmie Johnson scored his eighth win at the track, ahead of the Toyota of Clint Bowyer. Only Ambrose’s team owner, Richard Petty, and Darrell Waltrip have won more at Martinsville.

Five-time series champion Johnson now heads the points this season, ahead of defending champion Brad Keselowski in a Ford, while recent leader Dale Earnhardt Junior has dropped to third after being spun today and dropping a lap.

Ambrose has gained three places in the standings to be 20th.

Danica Patrick notched a Sprint Cup career-best 12th–placed finish at Martinsville.

Australia’s IndyCar racer Will Power was fifth in today’s second round of that series at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama as American Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the Penske team’s stranglehold on success there. Power, winner at Barber the past two years, was the only driver to use a two-stop strategy.

Reigning series champion Hunter-Reay, driving for Andretti Autosports, beat New Zealander Scott Dixon, who now has finished second there four years in a row for Chip Ganassi’s team.

Power’s Penske teammate Helio Castroneves took third place.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe, winner of the opening round in Florida two weeks earlier, was out on the first lap at Barber with a broken wheel.

Meanwhile, Australian Ryan Briscoe is set to drive a fourth Ganassi entry in next month’s Indianapolis 500. Briscoe, dumped by the Penske team this season, qualified on pole position at The Brickyard last year.

Ganassi is the team with which Briscoe first went Indy racing eight years ago after being a Toyota Formula One test driver.

It has been the most successful team in the classic in recent years, winning several times with Scotsman Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya, although Penske remains the record holder with 15 wins.

Ganassi’s other drivers this year will be Franchitti, Dixon and Charlie Kimball, while Penske will field multiple winner Castroneves, Power and A.J. Allmendinger.

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MOTORSPORT: No keeping up with the Jones boys

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