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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Shane Van Gisbergen making his debut with Trackhouse in early July at Chicago Street Circuit

by Sports Benches

Wow!! There’s a couple of NASCAR interest amongst the Supercars community back here over the last 24 hours when Shane Van Gisbergen will be making his Cup Series debut in the 3rd part-time Trackhouse car (No.91 Chevy Camaro) in early July for the Inaugural Chicago event at the brand new Chicago Street Circuit. Such a cool iRacing track to see that actually happen into the real world real soon which is going to be great to watch during the US summer there.

At the same time, it’s also great to see SVG try out a different type of race car in the form of stock cars, having seeing him race rally cars, production cars, sports cars & open wheelers in the past. I’m sure he will do his best there thanks to his usual road course experience where he will racing up against a mix of most cup series regulars & other road course ringers. 

Now there’s some talk that he might be seeking a move over to the US just like fellow NZer & 2 x Supercars champ Scott McLaughlin did back in 2021 to IndyCar with Team Penske. Even though most regular NASCAR drivers go through the usual series ladder, Trackhouse would love to have him full-time alongside Ross Chastain & Daniel Suarez if interested. 

Right now, I don’t think any team would be interested to buy a charter off let’s say Live Fast Motorsports until at least after 2024 when the next TV rights contract has been decided for 2025 onwards. Once that is settled, then we’ll wait & see if SVG would be willing to leave Australia & have a crack at NASCAR for like 40 odd weekends a year. You never know for sure.

It’s a whole different kettle of fish when you have turn to left for most parts of the year, but sure he has done it in the past through the 24 Hours of Daytona on a hybrid road course & oval “Roval” layout as well as some sprint cars on dirt tracks.

After SVG, we hope Brodie Kostecki get his debut there at Cup level soon & potentially full-time in the medium-long term whether if it’s Cup or Xfinity Series level, as he too will be stopping by at Richard Childress Racing over in North Carolina in a few weeks time thanks to his current Supercars employer at Erebus Motorsport.

So good to see some NASCAR interest hitting down under in the hope of having a Supercars driver crack the US when Marcos Ambrose has last done it full-time for many years through all three national series that spanned from 2006-2014.

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Thoughts on Ryan Newman returning to NASCAR Cup Series on a part-time basis with Rick Rare Racing

by Sports Benches

Look who is back to race a few for Rick Ware Racing this year at Cup level? It’s Ryan Newman. He too will begin his part-time campaign next weekend in the throwback Goodyear 400 event at Darlington Raceway as the pilot of the No.51 Ford Mustang with more to come later on.

He has been so busy outside of NASCAR since he no longer races full-time after Ryan left Roush at the end of 2021 such as racing in the legends Superstar Racing Experience series, as well as modified stock cars, spending quality time with his two daughters & many more. He will be a great addition to RWR with valuable & veteran Cup experience, having won 18 races in the past through a few top-tiered teams out there. Plus, he was recently named as one of NASCAR’s greatest 75 drivers as part of their milestone this year.

It’s going to be a while for Newman to get back into the race car with the practice & qualifying being an added bonus after NASCAR temporarily put them on hold back in 2020-21 due to COVID. But I’m sure he will help RWR grow as a competitive Cup team on-track, having seen them post some great results so far earlier this season. So Top 20-25 or even higher than that would be a great start in the hope of proving other critics wrong who want RWR to sell their charters to an established mid-pack organization. Plus, it remains to be seen what will happen to the No.51 entry going forward since Cody Ware has been suspended by NASCAR right now due to his arrest a few weeks ago.

Yes, I’m all for competitive teams & it’s not easy for RWR to find a decent 1-2 full-time drivers + sponsorship to suddenly make their way through the field by battling for top-half places overnight – Look at Front Row Motorsports as an example with Michael McDowell since his 2021 Daytona 500 breakthrough by battling occasional Top 10s + they also got two young talented drivers in Todd Gilliland & Zane Smith & they got championship-winning Truck Series program with Zane right now.

If one team should sell their charter then it would be Live Fast Motorsports by handing it over to Legacy Motor Club or RFK Racing. Nothing against them but they haven’t been really competitive or serious enough to justify their participation at Cup level unlike Trackhouse & 23XI Racing. The last thing they may want to do is to be offered the most amount of charter money like $15-20 million, accept the offer & run by shutting it down.

StarCom Racing exactly did that when they were backmarkers for the whole time (2018-2021) before they sold their charter to 23XI to expand their 2nd full-time entry at the end of the 2021 season in time of the current NextGen race cars era. I probably see the same thing happen for LFM once the current 10-year TV rights contract expires next year before BJ McLeod can invest all that money on improving his Xfinity Series organization.

And while the No.7 Chevy car has been good as always with Corey LaJoie over at Spire, but the sister No.77 entry can do better by getting more funding and/or competitive support from Hendrick if they wish to keep their 2nd full-time charter.

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Reacting on Legacy Motor Club switching from Chevy to Toyota next season with the famous No.43 to finally be on a Camry for the first time

by Sports Benches

My first reaction when I saw this announcement like Wow!! I couldn’t believe it thinking at first if it was fake news, but yes, it did turn out to be real after Toyota has officially welcomed Legacy Motor Club to their NASCAR Cup Series line-up from next year onwards alongside the flagship Joe Gibbs Racing team (four cars) & 23XI Racing (two cars).

Plus, it’s going to be great to see the TRD talent alumni Noah Gragson (No.42) & Erik Jones (No.43) return to Toyota once again at Legacy Motor Club, whom they have been racing & winning races under these race cars in the past. And the co-owner & 7 x NASCAR Champion Jimmie Johnson will race other than a Chevy for the first time too when he too will pop up at selected races in the No.84 like the Daytona 500. It’s not the first time he drove a non-Chevy race car when JJ was racing a Honda engine in IndyCar (Open-Wheel) back in 2021 & 2022 at Ganassi.

So yes there’s going to be some NASCAR fans & predominately old timers in particular as to why Jimmie Johnson, Maury Gallagher & Richard Petty switched to a Japanese car or foreign manufacturing, having seen JJ been loyal to Chevy that saw win accomplish so many races & championships while “The King” has raced & ran various other American car makes for most of his life. 

But the thing is that the world has changed these days and they’re doing this to hopefully win races & potentially championships over the long run. Also, Toyota has invested a whole lot of manufacturing, jobs & service parts right here in America where their Camry road cars have been made over in Georgetown, Kentucky since 1988 – so much history there that makes Toyota so great for many Americans including their participation in NASCAR over the last 15 to 20 years.

What will happen with the change of manufacturers going forward?

Now that the switch has been made official, LMC doesn’t need a technical alliance with JGR but will of course build their own cars while receiving engines & data from Toyota – the same thing Trackhouse exactly operates with their Cup Series program alongside Chevy. 

Plus, will we see them acquire a 3rd full-time charter & revive the No.44 numberplate perhaps? Unless NASCAR is going to take away one of the bottom 3 charter entries (No.15 Rick Ware Ford, No.77 Spire Chevy & No.78 Live Fast Chevy) – should they continue finishing there for the third year in a row, I don’t think any of them will sell up unless they’d be happy to take the money & run. 

But yes, that is something LMC can hopefully make that happen at some point depending on the next TV rights deal from 2025 including sponsorship of course & have one of the Toyota Racing youngsters in there to build some Cup experience like Sammy Smith or Corey Heim. Otherwise, they can always poach Austin Hill from Richard Childress Racing’s Xfinity team who is outstanding right now just like 23XI did to Tyler Reddick (No.45 now) last year.

And lastly, I don’t think Toyota will put LMC out of business after let’s say a few years when co-owners Jimmie Johnson & Maury Gallagher has more than enough decent amount of money combined to generate & keep them afloat while chasing more on-track success. I see no problem with Denny Hamlin & Michael Jordan so far at 23XI, so no doubt LMC will be a great success as 23XI there.

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Thoughts on watching a bit of World Endurance Racing Highlights late last night with the 6 Hours of Portimao

by Sports Benches

After watching a Super Saturday doubleheader of Super Rugby, I got the chance to catch up some of the World Endurance Championship highlights during midnight last night on 9Go, which was from last Sunday’s 6 Hour race from Portimao in Portugal (Algarve International Circuit).

Yes, I did hear a bit about it in the lead-up beforehand when it comes to one of their Porsche one-make support races where some driver  lost control into the wall before it landed on top of an empty grandstand. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it was terrifying which could’ve been a lot worse if some people turned up to watch & somehow got hurt along the way.

Back to the main event and we saw the traditional Le Mans race start style during the formation lap as always before we roll off with the green flag to begin a long day’s work of Endurance Racing. 

And although there’s lot to reflect from start to finish while rotating drivers, adjusting & recharging things on pit road throughout the last six hours, but boy we saw a race-winning move (outright) from none other than New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley in the No.8 Toyota Hypercar Machinery, who got around the No.50 Ferrari with about an hour and a bit to go. What an unbelievable start so far as Brendon is looking for his fourth Le Mans victory now come early June (Sat to Sun 10th-11th).

For now, the WEC moves over to high-octane and adventurous Spa-Francochamps next Sunday where we’re only one race away from the huge annual event. As said, every WEC race live & on-demand is a Stan Sport exclusive, but there’s always one-hour highlights packages a week later from the event for free on 9Go – just look out for your TV guides & tune in on a future Saturday whenever & wherever possible.

And yes, there was some live 24 Hours of Le Mans FTA coverage in the past thanks to Network 10’s former digital channel One, but Nine (the current exclusive rights holder) wouldn’t do it since they doesn’t generate much interest despite running at a comfortable time zone for most of Sunday.

The same goes to the Indianapolis 500 (another Stan Sports property via IndyCar) when you have Australia’s own Will Power & 1-2 Kiwis like Scott McLaughlin & Scott Dixon in the mix, but again they’re held over in the US at around 2am our time which also makes little to no sense to put it on 9Gem.

So while having the one-hour highlights races on FTA is good at our own time for the majority, I’m sure if there’s an WEC, Formula E or World Rally Championship Australian event coming here at some point then Nine will definitely air it live on 9Gem or 9Go. 

You never know what will happen as watch this space!

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Liam Talbot & Max Hofer have been dominant in the GT World Challenge, while the Sherrin family were too good in the APC class alongside an excellent Tony Quinn & Karl Begg GT4 rivalry for the overall honours

by Sports Benches

There’s more than just the Bathurst 6 Hour Easter weekend when it comes to the support categories here at Mount Panorama. We’ll start off with the Australian Production Cars & GT4 Australia combined category (40 minute races) with such a close rivalry between Begg & Quinn for the top spot. Quinn had the first say with the opening race win from pole position in the No.101 Porsche 911 718. However, Begg showed excellent fight back that saw him win Races 2 & 3 in the No.19 Mercedes AMG GT. Meanwhile, Mark Griffith always finished P3 (P4 outright & 3rd in class in Race 1) in the Mercedes while team-mate Grant Denyer seemed to be unlucky (DNF/Parked Race 2 & DNS Race 3) in the No.55 Ginetta G55 also prepped by Griffith.

Then in the APC, all three races have been clean sweeped by the Sheerin Racing family in the No.27 BMW M4 with Chris in Races 1 & 3 – including an 3rd place outright in Race 1 even though he wanted to win them all at one stage before being outpaced by two GT4 cars – as he couldn’t do Race 2 due to main event qualifying where his brother Iain has been an excellent fill-in with the Race 2 win. 

Moving onto the 1 hour World Challenge races now, Liam Talbot & Max Hofer has been outstanding from start to finish in the No.65 Shannon’s Insurance Audi R8. They were too good during the 1st instalment before Talbot got away for the winning move patiently past Malaysian prince Jonor Ibrahim (No.88 Triple 8 Mercedes AMG alongside Supercars regular Broc Feeney) with only 3 1/2 mins left in Race 2. 

And shoutout to local Brad Schumacher, who also clean sweeped the Am class by himself against a few other cars who do have co-driver pairings, in the No.55 Audi R8 for his own Motorsport team.

Since it’s a non-points round, the main APC/GT4 Australia season kicks off on May 12-14 at Phillip Island in conjunction with the next SpeedSeries round. Meanwhile, the GT Challenge cars head off to Barbagello in WA as part of the next Supercars round activities on April 28-30 before rejoining SpeedSeries & APC/GT4 at Phillip Island a few weeks afterwards.

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2023 Bathurst 6 Hour: Jordan Ojeda secures sensational outright win with Simon Hodges after staying out gamble paid off

by Sports Benches

Wow!! What an afternoon of racing it has been on Easter Sunday at Mount Panorama. Yes, we may have seen a few drivers slipping away either off the track, spinning around where one was fortunate to go one, forced to stop due to some mechanical issue or unfortunately making contact with the wall. However, we also saw some amazing moments at the same time with a mix of outright lead changes, late race moves & even post-race drama that define such a great endurance race here that is dedicated to production cars. 

The No.21 BMW M4 of Jayden Ojeda & Simon Hodges has been sensational with the outright win. Not only Ojeda’s gamble to stay out on track paid off with enough gas to bring it home, but he also even used the grass a bit to pass a bunch of other cars over at Conrod straight. Then the No.58 BMW M3 Russells trio of Wayne, Drew & Aaren finished in 2nd. 

Now we may have saw a late pass by Tyler Everingham ahead of Supercars regular Anton De Pasquale (No.111 Ford Mustang for Dick Johnson Racing) for 3rd, but then race officials gave his No.24 BMW M4 a 15-second time penalty for overtaking under yellow. That means Everingham & his co-drivers Grant Walden & Michael Auld were demoted to 6th, while De Pasquale join the Russells & Ojeda/Hodges alongside Anthony Soole & Adam Burgess out of a BMW filled podium.

And shoutout to Ryder Quinn alongside Grant Denyer & his grandad Tony, who won the A2 class in the No.1 Ford Mustang, following an unreal winning move just before the race ended by only 0.09 seconds v Circuit Excel Bathurst winner Ryan Casha (No.2 Ford Mustang with Rylan Grey & Chris Delfsma).

Can’t wait for another SpeedSeries Bathurst round this November with TCR Australia v the world + the season-finale 100km Trans-Am race before the 6 Hour returns for another year in 2024.

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Australian Grand Prix 2023: The race was filled with drama, intense moments & tensed situations 

by Admin

Today’s blog post is all about the Australian Grand Prix in which was filled with craziness that so much that very few Grand Prixs can match such a level like this, so we are not just going to talk about the good and bad things about this grand prix but also that intense upside of emotions that fans had experienced all along from start to finish.

The positives

Starting of with the good things out there first which was the drivers in the front row George Russell and Max Verstappen due to which the fans were able to enjoy the fierce rivalry between Red Bull and Mercedes where George got to a superb start while Max was trying to defend by holding his top-spot position and setting the tone of the race. Later on, we noticed the heroics of Max’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who was overtaking other drivers just for fun through the race field and taking down drivers on one of the most crucial part of the track through the Chicane, rising up the positions and winning the Driver of the Day award.

The downsides

This race was nothing less than a drama and tensed moments wasn’t it? It was just the second lap of the race when Charles Leclerc went on to the gravel from a slight push from one of the Aston Martins later on in the race. Alexander Albon who was having great weekend with Williams went into the gravel by his own mistake after which the race was restarted again with George at disadvantage shifting down to P7 from P1. A tone was being set on the track but soon after on lap 18, there were fumes and fire coming out of the Mercedes driven by George Russell due to which the race was over from him. Soon after, it was on lap 48 when Max nearly went off the track but it was a smart move from him jumping back on the track otherwise if it would have been delay of just few seconds then the race would be over for him.

The intense moments: (or it can be continued in the bad moments to)

Till now on everything seemed fine it was just few laps till we were going to find out the winner of Australian Grand Prix unless on lap 53 when the right rear tyre of Haas driven by Kevin Magnussen got detached and the tyre was rolling all over the track with furious speed, Red flag was seen after which the race for restarted again for the remaining laps which were left with just few laps left the drivers were giving there all but on lap 57 of 58, there were a total traffic of cars bumping and crashing into each other with Carlos Sainz bumped into his countrymen Fernando Alonso; Pierre Gasly being unaware of the situation of Esteban Ocon behind him in full speed as they crashed into each other after which Sainz got a five second penalty where he ended up in P12. No restarting of the race was done for the third time when a formation lap was called upon with the safety car after which the chequered flag was shown drivers in the same line-up as they were before the crash concluding Red Bull and Max winning the Grand Prix first in Australia since Sebastian Vettel back in 2011.

Extra Notes

Lewis Hamilton finishes in 2nd for Mercedes & Fernando Alonso takes the last podium place in 3rd for the third straight time so far this season for Aston Martin-McLaren. And Australian Oscar Piastri just scored his first Formula 1 points in 8th for McLaren-Mercedes where he now moves up to 13th in the Drivers’ Standings on four points alongside Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The next GP is at Baku Street Circuit for the Azerbaijan event on Sunday 30th April.

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Where to tune in to watch the Australian Formula 1 Race live today, as well as throughout the season for the other International events in Australia

by Sports Benches

This is it….the annual Australian Grand Prix race day is back here for another year over at Albert Park in Melbourne, with current champion Max Verstappen on pole position for Red Bull-RBPT ahead of Mercedes’ pair of George Russell (2nd) & Lewis Hamilton (3rd). Plus, we have our young talented Aussie at McLaren-Mercedes in Oscar Piastri, who will be starting second last (19th of 20th) after being given a reprimand during the first round of qualifying yesterday afternoon.

Since the weather is nice & bright on what should be a great afternoon of racing, this is the first of the new five-year media rights deals here with Fox Sports & Kayo staying on as the main rights holder while Network 10 continues to retain the Australian FTA package as required by anti-siphoning law. Yes, it could’ve been Seven who shares most of Fox/Kayo’s Motorsport coverage with Supercars & Bathurst 12 Hour. However, it’s understandable from Ten to air just the full Australian event live & hand over the overseas highlights races to Kayo Freebies from now on, where putting them out on a late Monday night isn’t worth it at all. 

We will be seeing a similar arrangement between 10 & Fox for the MotoGP when these bikes will stop by at Phillip Island for the Australian leg in late October like it was last year after 10 no longer has the International races live via 10 Bold.

It would’ve been nice though to see Seven air the Australian event live on the main channel instead of Ten & air the rest as one-hour highlights on a Monday evening at 6pm via 7mate like Sky Sport does to their Free TV channel Prime over in NZ, so these die-hard Motorsport fans can keep up to date with the sport at a comfortable viewing time while gaining more new fans here at the same time thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series.

We will wait and see how this new Formula 1 TV arrangement goes in Australia before the next rights renewal cycle comes out for 2028-2032; it will be interesting for sure with Nine/Stan competing with Foxtel & maybe Ten through their paid Paramount + streaming platform. 

For now, Fox/Kayo will take the Sky Sports feed as always while Ten will have own commentary today like it was over the last few years, with 1996 World Champion Damon Hill joining Richard Craill & Tom Clarkson since Mark Webber is focusing on his Channel 4 commitments for their UK audience & also looking after Piastri as his manager. 

So enjoy the race everyone and make sure you go to Foxtel/Kayo Sports (subscription required for Live races) & Kayo Freebies (Highlights only) if you wish to follow the sport regularly throughout the season.

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Update on the Round 2 SpeedSeries Bathurst round Free-to-air coverage next weekend in conjunction with the headline 6 Hour race

by Sports Benches

Just saw some Free TV coverage details about the next round’s 2023 SpeedSeries season ahead of next weekend’s event at Mount Panorama in Bathurst that is led by the Bathurst 6 Hour Sunday race.

The good news is that Nine will continue to fulfil its usual commitments with every round live on a Saturday afternoon between 2-5pm on 9Gem & also on 9Go in other states if applicable, even though there’s no TCR Australia, Trans-Am & S5000s for this one until mid-May in Phillip Island (Victoria).

However, this upcoming FTA portion would only cover the 2nd part of the Bathurst 6 Hour Qualifying (2.15-2.35pm) & a mix of GT cars such as the opening race of the GT World Challenge (2.55-3.55pm – 1 hour) & GT4s/Australian Production Cars (4.10-4.50pm) categories. 

That is all you need to know when the 6-Hour Qualifying Saturday afternoon finale sets up a reminder for viewers to switch over to Stan Sport alone over the next day for some of those who yet to have a subscription – should they wish to not only watch the rest unfold but also throughout the season with every full event weekend races live + on-demand replays & highlights that you can’t find elsewhere.

I guess watching the last three hours of the 6 Hour would be perfect through the 3-6pm Sunday afternoon window since there’s no TCR Australia, Trans-Am & S5000s for this next round, but then SpeedSeries is building some growth as one of Australia’s premier motorsport competitions at the same time when a one-off endurance race may not benefit their regular FTA audience that much. 

So never say never when looking to air some of the Bathurst 6 Hour race live on 9Gem/9Go at some point depending on the SpeedSeries interest levels & audience growth. It’s just not worth the risk right now, however, when following the regular categories bring good value that convinces Nine to lend some live FTA airtime through every event of the season. 

The 6 Hour race is expected to be part of the usual two-hour FTA highlights package though if you want to look back the following week or weekend, but keep a close eye on it as 9Go/9Gem will schedule a few replays at various random times like early afternoon or late night to fit them in & watch while you can in before it’s all archived through to Stan afterwards.

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Thoughts on the 2023 Race Tasmania audience figures from the opening round of the new SpeedSeries Season

by Sports Benches


It’s good to see the SpeedSeries experience some audience growth lately following the season-opener from Symmons Plains in Tasmania two weeks ago, with Stan Sport continuing their second year while we saw some increased free-to-air content to every Round now during the Saturday afternoon races alongside the following week’s two-hour replays on 9Gem/9Go. 

The Saturday FTA races provides a perfect platform for the typical motorsports fan to see a sample of how SpeedSeries is like that would hopefully convince someone to chuck in a Stan Sport subscription the next day (Sunday races) or at some point during the season if a two-hour replay probably changes his/her mind.

We also heard some good news today that Speedcafe will now add a replay/on-demand option on top of their live & free coverage for International viewers, so they can look back the weekend’s SpeedSeries events from Round 2 onwards during the Easter long weekend for the Bathurst 6 Hour event at Mount Panorama. So good news for those fans who can’t stay up all night wherever you are around the world before you can watch SpeedSeries there in your own time during the day or the next few days.

Meanwhile back here in Australia, we’re still waiting to hear back if 9Gem/9Go will have some Round 2 SpeedSeries coverage either on a Saturday afternoon as always or during the 6 Hour Sunday event as a partial or whole race since they don’t have TCR Australia, Trans-Am & S5000s there until mid-May for Round 3 at Phillip Island in Victoria. 

For now, you can look back the opening round’s SpeedSeries event right now at any time, anywhere on-demand until the next round including full race replays, mini race highlights & extra content that you won’t find elsewhere on Stan Sport. If not, see it for yourself by starting your week-long free trial by selecting the Stan Sport add-on alongside the usual basic subscription pack.

And while you’re there you can also enjoy IndyCars as well as Formula E, World Endruance Championship, World Rally Championship, Motocross, Australian Superbike Championship, Rallycross and whole lot more sport all on the one place worth $25 a month!

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