News Archive

Ricciardo returns home for Top Gear Festival Sydney

ARDC News, Blog, Major Events, News Archive, SMSP News

14, NOVEMBER 2013, SYDNEY – Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo and the world championship winning ‘Infiniti Red Bull Racing’ Formula One team are set to take to the track for the first time together in Australia at Top Gear Festival Sydney in March 2014.

Ricciardo, who was recently confirmed as taking over the hot-seat from Mark Webber for the 2014 F1 season, will attend the Festival for the first time and will be involved in a series of Top Gear style challenges in the RB7, as well as having the chance to set the new lap record at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Webber currently holds the record, having shaved an impressive six seconds off the previous record at Sydney Motorsport Park with a cracking time of 1:13.6060 at the 2013 Top Gear Festival Sydney.

Ricciardo, who will be behind the wheel of the Infiniti Red Bull Racing car for the first time in front of an Aussie crowd, is looking forward to taking part in the event.

“I can’t wait to be on home soil next year for Top Gear Festival Sydney. Only a select few Australians have raced in Formula One and I’m proud to be flying the flag now for Australia.” said Ricciardo.

“The Festival weekend is going to be an adrenaline-loaded few days. From all reports, Mark put on quite a show earlier this year so it’s great to be given the opportunity to be a part of the 2014 Festival and I’m really looking forward to taking on the challenges set by the Top Gear boys!”

With Formula One technical regulations set to change to smaller turbo-charged engines from 2014, it will be the last chance for fans to experience the thrill of the naturally-aspirated V8 engine live on track in Sydney. The Infiniti Red Bull Racing RB7 is one of the most dominant Formula One cars of modern times and the same car Webber broke the record with earlier this year. Fans keen to relive the excitement of this year’s festival can tune into Channel 9 on Thursday 21 November for a Top Gear Special filmed at Top Gear Festival Sydney. As well as a multitude of madcap motoring synonymous with Top Gear the programme includes some exclusive footage of Clarkson and May’s unorthodox pep talk prior to Webber setting the lap record.

Tickets for next year’s Festival are now on sale and fans are encouraged to buy early to join the tens of thousands of fans who are expected to attend. Jeremy Clarkson and James May are all set to join the stars and cars as they host the 2014 edition. They’ll be taking on Australian Top Gear presenters Shane Jacobson and Steve Pizzati in a series of challenges including the extremely popular Car Football and The Stig will be taking some of the rarest supercars the country has ever seen for some impressive power laps. Jeremy Clarkson said, “I’m very much looking forward to the Top Gear Festival in Sydney next March. On the downside, I’m afraid I’m bringing the pedantic spaniel James May with me. On the plus side, Daniel Ricciardo is going to have a crack at the lap record in a Red Bull F1 car and that should be very excellent indeed.”

New to the line-up in 2014 is the highly anticipated first round of the Porsche GT3 Challenge Cup. The Porsche series primarily uses the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Type 997) car and will be the headline racing category at the event. Proudly supported by the NSW Government, through its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, Top Gear Festival Sydney will once again be a key event on the NSW Calendar.

Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris, said, “It is fantastic to see The Infiniti Red Bull Racing team are returning for a second year to the Festival, this time with Daniel Ricciardo behind the wheel.” “I encourage racing fans to purchase their tickets to the Sydney-exclusive 2014 Top Gear Festival to be held over the weekend of Weekend of 8-9 March, 2014 at Sydney Motorsport Park.”

The event will be held across the weekend of the 8-9 March, from 8:30am till 6:00pm each day, at Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek.

Tickets available now from Ticketek – 132 849 –

In Australia, Top Gear can be seen on BBC Knowledge, first on Foxtel with brand new episodes coming in early 2014, and then on the Nine Network and Go! About Top Gear Festival Sydney 2014 Offering a variation on more traditional motor shows the Top Gear Festival Sydney brings the spirit of the UK TV programme to life, allowing fans to immerse themselves in their passion for Top Gear and motoring in general.

Transforming Sydney Motorsport Park into the ultimate outdoor motoring spectacular, Top Gear Festival Sydney is taking place on 8-9 March, 2014 and will once again feature a host of never seen before action and stunts. Following a highly successful inaugural event in 2013, which attracted over 40,000 motoring enthusiasts over two days, the 2014 event will be attended by Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and The Stig, along with some of their legendary racing mates and celebrity friends, live in non-stop racing action.

TOP GEAR FESTIVAL SYDNEY BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Top Gear Festival Sydney will see the best of the best put to the test, where anything with an engine will be pushed to its limits.

DATE: 8 – 9 March, 2014, 8:30am – 6:00pm each day

LOCATION: Sydney Motorsport Park, Ferris Road, Eastern Creek

TICKETS: Tickets available now from Ticketek – 132 849 – –

NSW Motor Race Championships Rd 7, Nov 9-10 2013

ARDC News, Major Events, News Archive, Race Meetings, SMSP News

The final round of the 2013 NSW Motor Race Championships was held at Sydney Motor Sport Park on November 9-10.
Over 150 competitors from the nine categories braved a mixed bag of weather conditions over the weekend, with Saturday’s hot and dry conditions changing to wet and windy for the Sunday. This affected team driving strategies, as well as tyre selection and of course the lap times, as driving rain and winds on Sunday, turned the track into a virtual skating rink.
The Superkarts had the worst of it, with their qualifying session and all three of their races being held on Sunday. Being open and so close to the ground, race organizers allowed them to wear rain covers over their driving suits for their races due to the conditions.
However, this didn’t help these powerful lightweight karts stay on the track, as the rain got heavier, the spinning ballet got worse, with karts sometimes two at a time facing the wrong way on turn two.
Robinson Transport had reason to be joyous on Sunday, as one of their newest recruits in the Formula R class, Rodney Brincat, qualified for the front row of the grid for race 2 on Sunday. Rod has only been in this car for part of the 2013 season. His fastest lap time was only 2.5sec off the fastest in his class. Warwick Robinson liked the wet conditions, posting two second place finishes to Garnet Pattersons win in all three races.
Calamity came to John McKenzie’s Lakewood Electrics team in Impoved Prod O2L, as a broken brake caliper saw John with no brakes coming into turn two on race one on Saturday. Repairs completed by Sunday morning, John was relegated to starting from the back of the grid. McKenzie said: I’ll wont be holding back, and we’ll see how far through the field I can get”.
McKenzie had sliced his way through the field of seventeen cars up into fifth place by lap six, until he aquaplaned out of turn one and through the gravel pits impacting heavily into a tyre wall. Bob Brewer took command of this category with a first, second and third place result.
Wayne Healey’s weekend didn’t get off the ground, as his HQ was shunted heavily on turn one, race one, lap one bringing his campaign to a close even before his engine had reached temperature. He was bitterly disappointed, but said he will be back.
After a spin at turn four, Rob Rowes’ Mondial M89S picked up an orange witches hat in his grill, and drove the whole race with it stuck firmly in place. It was returned to track marshalls at the end of the race.
– Words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Event Wrap- Porsche Club NSW

ARDC News, Blog, Major Events, News Archive, SMSP News

The fifth and final PCNSW club driving event for 2013 had 45 enthusiastic members battling it out for club honours on the SMSP North Circuit.

Patrick Garvan ‘s 994 Turbo was extraordinarily quick, with the days fastest lap of 1:03 with Paul McKinnon at the wheel, and a 1:07 for Patrick .

Sean Buchanan found out the hard way just how fast Paul was when he was unceremoniously passed and left breathing exhaust fumes, eventually recording a 1:07 himself.

Richard Perini (GT3 RSR) and Bruce Hibbard (GT2), both seasoned campaigners in competitive racing, rounded out the second and third places in the event.

Vivienne MacMahon, who regularly finds herself featuring in the top 10, brought home an impressive 1:08, and Tom McGann’s 1:12 in the 944 s2 continues to eclipse his car owner/benefactor Chris Stannard’s time of 1:13 sec.

PCNSW Club President Paul Dortkamp (928S), himself a regular racing competitor, said: “We are a sporting car club to our core, and many of our 840 members relish the opportunity to regularly get their cars out on the SMSP track. As an active club we run upwards of 5 club motorkhanas and 5 supersprint events annually.”

Unfortunately for Paul, his track time was cut short on Saturday as a timing belt tension puller bolt failed, leaving him garage bound.

– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Event Wrap: CAMS NSW Supersprint Championships Rnd 8

ARDC News, Blog, Major Events, News Archive, SMSP News

Round 8 of the CAMS NSW Supersprint Championships was sponsored by the Mini Car Club NSW. It was run at Sydney Motorsport Park on Oct 26^th, utilising the South Circuit ,including the newly built 800m track extension. For many of the full field of 90 competitors, it was a wonderful opportunity to drive the new track layout.

The overall fastest lap time was taken by Marek Tomaszewski (Stohr DSR) with a 0:530, closely followed by Duncan Forrest (Stohr WF1) with a 0:538, and Allan Bugh (PRB Clubman) rounded out the top three with a 0:59.

Fastest tin top was Allan Marin (VK Commodore) posting a time of 1:01 sec.

Early in the day Roger Beard wondered why his Clubman was a bit sluggish and upon returning to the pits found his inlet manifold dust cover stocking firmly ensconced inside an inlet tube. Once that was removed the car returned to its expected performance, bringing Roger a fourth place and a quick time of 0:59 sec.

As this was the final round of the 2013 Supersprint Championships, club championship honours went to ARDC with 1097 points, ever so slightly ahead of MX5 on 1090 points, with NSWRRC on 478 points and Manly Warringah on 471 points.

– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Wayne Gardner honoured at Sydney Motorsport Park

ARDC News, Blog, News Archive, SMSP News

OCTOBER 22, 2013: SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK’S iconic Grand Prix circuit will now be known as the ‘Gardner GP Circuit’, honouring Australia’s first winner of the 500cc Motorcycle World Championships and iconic MotoGP legend, Wayne Gardner.

Gardner’s success in MotoGP and his World Championship win in 1987 saw a resurgence in the popularity of motorbike racing and motorsport in general, and was instrumental in the NSW Government building the Eastern Creek circuit as a home for future Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Eastern Creek International Raceway was born in November 10, 1990. Since then, the GP circuit has hosted major international events such as the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars, the A1GP, Top Gear Festival Sydney and World Time Attack Challenge. In 2012, a rebrand and rebuild of the raceway, now Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP), saw track upgrades that enabled the original GP circuit to be run in its original 3.7km configuration, or be expanded to incorporate a new 800m section of track, named The ‘Brabham Circuit’ after Australian motorsport legend Sir Jack Brabham.

The design also offers the ability to split the tracks into two circuits that can race concurrently: the North Circuit, named Druitt, and the South, named Amaroo, after two of the past home circuits of the 61-year-old race club. The renaming of the original GP circuit was held until Gardner returned to Australia from his new base in Spain, where his teenage sons Remy and Luca of Team Gardner Racing are successfully campaigning in the Moto3 and CMV championships.

Gardner and his sons visited SMSP yesterday, and honoured with the official circuit naming in a presentation by the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC), operators of the track since 1996. “We are thrilled to have Wayne Gardner and his sons here for this announcement,” said ARDC CEO Glenn Matthews.

“Through the process of finding a new name for the GP circuit, it was universally agreed by the Board and the Circuit Naming Committee that our original circuit should be named after the man whose success brought new life into Australian motorsport in 1987, and ultimately led to the construction of the GP circuit.”

Gardner and his sons also drove a ceremonial lap of theGardner GP circuit, along with members of the ARDC Board and 15 ARDC Bike Members. “This is a complete surprise, and I am honoured and delighted that such a great track is now going to be known as the Gardner GP Circuit,” said Gardner at the presentation. “We are coming back [from Spain, where Team Gardner Racing is now based] in Christmas, and I cannot wait to take a bike – and a car – around this circuit again at speed,” he enthused.

For further information, please contact Samantha Stevens on samantha.stevens@ardc.com.au or (02) 9672 1000.

WTAC 2013 Day 2 Wrap

ARDC News, International, Major Events, News Archive

EVENT RELEASE: After two tumultuous days of time attack competition, racing has finished for another year. Positions were still being decided in the final sessions, and records have been broken across the weekend.

With Tilton setting the pace early on, the Pro Class field was playing catch-up.

Nobuteru Taniguchi was pushing the Top Fuel / Voltex S2000RR and posting some very fast times. The car went almost a second faster than last year but fuelling problems prevented the team from giving it the final big push on Saturday.

MCA Suspensions’ S13 in the capable hands of Earl Bamber was consistently fast and beat their last year’s time of 1:27.8080 with a new PB of 1:27.3670 moving ahead of Nemo into the second overall and the fastest RWD of the event.

The Nemo Racing team were not able to overcome their overheating problems and only managed to get out for one low-boost session. The 2012 champions still ended the event in an honourable 3rd place.

After having some mechanical issues on Friday, Suzuki went out all guns blazing resetting his 2012 time and edging closer to Nemo’s time.

Unfortunately it was not to be for Suzuki-san as he once again narrowly missed out on the podium finish with a time of 1:27.958. Scorch Racing was the fastest international team at this year’s WTAC, ahead of Top Fuel / Voltex, RE Amemiya and Esprit.

Despite not being able to make the podium, RE Amemiya RX-7 was one of the most popular cars on the track, turning heads wherever it went.

Tarzan had a love-hate relationship with the Esprit NSX, ending the event in 8th place with a time of 1:30.139

Precision Maintenance Evo was the pace setter in Pro Am with a time of 1:30.9570

Sutton Brother’s S15 was spectacularly fast and only a 0.9 second slower than the class leader Precision Maintenance Evo. A well deserved runner up spot for the Sutton Brothers.

Flying the Subaru flag, the Auto Engineering Hulk was in hot pursuit of the Sutton Brothers and completed the Pro Am podium in a third place.

Open Class saw several leader changes during the day with BC Automotive R32 GTR taking the win in the final session.

V-Sport’s Evo X set the best Open Class time early on Saturday but was relegated to the runner-up position by BC Automotive.

Legions of Honda fans cheered Benny Tran who pushed his BYP Racing Integra to its limits, not only placing it on the Open Class podium but also earning the title of the Fastest FWD of the event.

Jason Wright took out the Clubsprint win in the Prcess West WRX STi putting an end to the general assumption that you need an Evo to win at WTAC.

The “mult-tasking” award of the event has to go to Jason Wright and Benny Tran both of whom drove two cars, in two classes and managed to put both of them on the podium!

Jason drove the Autotech Engineering Hulk in the Pro Am and the Process West STi in Clubsprint while Benny Tran drove the BYP Racing Integra in the Open and a BYP Racing S2000 in the Clubsprint Class. Top effort guys!

Jason Naidoo took a well-deserved third place in the Clubsprint Class in his SuperPro Evo 9.

And once again, the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge is over for another year. We have a new World Champion – a team that has not only been the fastest at this event but managed to break the seemingly unassailable lap record set in 2012 by Nemo.

ROYAL PURPLE PRO CLASS

1 – Garth Walden (NSW) Tilton Evo – 1:24.8550

2 – Earl Bamber (QLD) MCA Suspension S13 – 1:27.3670

3 – Warren Luff (QLD) AugerTorque/Nemo Evo – 1:27.7080

4 – Under Suzuki (JPN) Scorch Racing S15 – 1:27.9580

5 – Nob Taniguchi (JPN) Top Fuel S2000 – 1:28.8660

GARRETT PRO AM CLASS

1 Mick Sigsworth (QLD) Precision Maintenance EVO – 1:30.9570

2 Andrew Sutton (NSW) Sutton Bros S15 – 1:31.8320

3 Jason Wright (NSW) Autotech Engineering WRX STi – 1:32.4040

4 Andy Papageorgiou (CYP) Simply Racing Evo VI – 1:33.2980

5 Atsushi Shimaya (JPN) Endless/R Magic FD3S RX-7 – 1:33.5550

V-SPORT OPEN CLASS

1 Dean Lillie (VIC) BC Automotive R32 GTR – 1:31.7980

2 Rick Bates (NSW) V Sport/Go-Pro Evo X – 1:32.4260

3 Benny Tran (NSW) BYP Racing Integra – 1:32.6800

4 Nik Kalis (NSW) Piazza Doro EVO – 1:33.5330

5 Simon Podlewski (SA) Move Yourself Racing 180SX – 1:34.4456

JUST CAR CLUBSPRINT CLASS

1 Jason Wright (NSW) Process West WRX STi – 1:39.2470

2 Benny Tran (NSW) BYP Motorsport S2000 – 1:41.0360

3 Jason Naidoo (NSW) Superpro EVO 9 – 1:41.2560

4 Dan Farquar (NSW) IS Motor Racing/Royal Purple Evo – 1:41.5450

5 John Richardson (VIC) Motul/Advan R33 GTST – 1:42.0590

Our congratulations to all competitors.

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