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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries RD4: A mix of opening lap dramas and an easier finish by the respective leaders round off the weekend in Race 3 of the S5000, Trans-Am and TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsports Park

by Sports Benches

What a Sunday afternoon it has been to close out the weekend here at Sydney Motorsports Park in Round 4 of the 2022 ARG SpeedSeries. We’ll start off with the S5000s where Tim Macrow fired off well from pole before he was spun off by Nathan Herne that cost him a few places, while race officials handed Herne a drive-through penalty at the same time.

As the race goes on, we saw a brilliant battle for 1st between Aaron Cameron & Joey Mawson before Cameron completed his payback with the win following his unfortunate opening lap DNF by Mawson into the wall from Race 2 earlier today. And James Golding finished his Sunday spell with two podiums in 2nd & 3rd, having made up lost time from a DNF Race 1 yesterday over a steering issue.

Then there’s the same opening lap drama over in the Trans-Am this time at Turn 1, when the No.67 of Nash Morris touched the wall before he collected Lochie Dalton in No.45 out of the park that led to the next couple of laps under caution. In the end though, Owen Kelly remained unchallenged from start to finish in 1st that followed up from an excellent Race 2 during the night session yesterday. Race 1 winner Nathan Herne became the biggest mover when it comes to track position from 22nd on the grid to 2nd, while Ben Grice rounds off the podium in 3rd.

And we finish our huge Sunday afternoon of ARG SpeedSeries with the TCR Australia category. Nathan Morcom adds another podium finish on top of an excellent Sunday performance from P3 earlier during Race 2 today in the No.11 Hyundai i30 N, but this time he takes home with the win which ended his drought on top of the podium since November 2019 at the Bend in South Australia. He did an excellent job getting around polesitter Jordan Cox on the inside line straight away from 2nd spot before he never looked back ever since, while team-mate Josh Buchan in the sister No.30 machinery completed a 1-2 sweep for their HMO Customer Racing team. And Cox would’ve liked to hunt down the HMO cars all race long, but he’s happy to prevent an all Hyundai Top 3 when he passed Luke King on the final lap for 3rd.

#SpeedSeriesAU #Motorsport #S5000 #TCRAustralia #TransAm #OwenKelly #AaronCameron #NathanMorcom #JoshBuchan #Hyundai #GarryRogersMotorsport #FordMustang #EasternCreek #HMOCustomerRacing

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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries: Youngsters Jay Hanson (TCR Australia) & Cooper Webster (S5000) take out the win in their respective categories during Race 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park

by Sports Benches

It was an easy run from Jay Hanson who dominated Race 2 comfortably in the No.9 Audi RS3 for Melbourne Performance Centre here at Sydney Motorsports Park.

He did a brilliant job holding off a four-wide pursuit at the start which was incredible to watch, before he never looked back as the race leader upfront.

Joining Hanson was the two Hyundai i30s in Luke King (No.2 Moutai) & Nathan Morcom (No.11 HMO Customer Racing) in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Now King may have got in a bit of contact with Tony D’Alberto over in the No.50 Wall Racing Honda Civic earlier on but it didn’t affect him too much as he kept racing all the way in 2nd.

Then we go into the S5000s also in Race 2 with some drama at the start/finish straight when Joey Mawson sent Aaron Cameron over to the wall, as Cameron was unable to race on just moments after the race began. But the highlight though belongs to Cooper Webster in the No.37 Versa Motorsport machinery who was just too good unchallenged from start to finish; he too gets his first win of the year which is an incredible moment to remember from this teenager. And James Golding did a great job passing Tim Macrow for the battle for 2nd where Macrow overcooked it out wide at Turn 6 where that kind of patience paid ahead of him.

Can’t wait for Race 3 later this afternoon with a mix of S5000s, Trans-Am & TCR Australia.

#SpeedSeriesAU #TCRAustralia #Motorsport #S5000 #SydneyMotorsportsPark #JayHanson #Audi #Hyundai #LukeKing #NathanMorcom #CooperWebster #JamesGolding #TimMacrow #EasternCreek

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Motorsport

2022 Australian Rally Championship: All three Toyota Yarises round out the podium spots at the Forest Rally WA with Harry Bates & John McCarthy as the overall winner

by Sports Benches

Good to see a couple of contenders throughout the three-day Forest Rally weekend across Western Australia in Round 2 of the 2022 Australian Rally Championship.

The Toyota pair of Harry Bates and John McCarthy fired off well in the No.1 Yaris, but it’s Eli Evans & Adam Wright who dominated the rest of the Bunbury Super Stages portion in the No.2 Mini Cooper, with a mix of dirt & asphalt through in and out of the Bunbury speedway. Evans & Wright continued to carry that early lead going into Saturday with the stage 5 win, before Bates & McCarthy managed to fight back top spot where they kept their arch rival quiet for the rest of Saturday’s action.

Now Evans & Wright may ended the long-running stranglehold of H. Bates/McCarthy earlier today in the 2nd & final leg beginning at Stage 13, but they sadly dropped out due to a fuel pump issue whilst leading with only three stages to go. So that paves the way for H. Bates/McCarthy to end their campaign here on a high with the power stage and overall win, even though the 80-second penalty didn’t bother him too much over a late check-in earlier today.

Next up is Harry Bates’s brother Lewis & his co-driver Anthony McLoughlin, who finished 2nd in the sister No.3 Yaris GR. Now this pair had to even had to pull over for repairs at one point towards the end of Friday’s activities after Stage 4. However, they made a remarkable recovery ever since that helped them catch up as it goes before they finished well inside the Top 3 following the Heat 2 win.

And joining the Bates brothers is 3rd placed pair of Richie Dalton & Dale Moscott, also in a Yaris, except it’s not a GR chassis. They simply never looked of place within the Top 3-5, especially over the last two days when they finished their Forest Rally WA journey on a high during the Power Stage in 2nd alone. They would’ve liked to took advantage of that H.Bates/McCarthy penalty well & split both Bates Gazoo cars towards the Top 2, but it’s still a great result nonetheless.

Two rounds down, five to go, with the Australian Rally Championship will now head off to Rally Launceston in Tasmania on the 25th-26th June next month.

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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries, 9Gem to show the twilight Saturday event showcasing the TCR Australia live at Sydney Motorsports Park

by Sports Benches

I just read a source from Media Spy earlier this week that 9Gem will show live ARG SpeedSeries racing once again next Saturday on 5.30 to 7.30 pm at Sydney Motorsports Park.

There will be twilight TCR Australia in action as the main event to close it out under the lights alongside the Trans-Am muscle cars and S5000 Open-Wheelers.

All of these races for next weekend’s event via Free to air will only cover Race 1, but there’s no mention of the Sunday races which will most likely be a Stan Sport Exclusive & a two-hour highlights recap on 9Gem/9Go the following weekend.

It’s great to have some live motorsport on for free where we’ll get to see the TCR cars to race under the lights which is a huge must see event.

Hats off to Nine Entertainment for allocating that early Saturday evening slot for their free 9Gem digital channel to the organisers at Australian Racing Group, before Stan Sport & 9Gem heads straight off to the Super Rugby at Leichhardt Oval between the Waratahs v Blues in the regular-season finale clash before the knockout rounds begin on 3rd-4th June.

Although I’d personally love to attempt double duty by also heading straight from the track to the stadium in person myself, but I will be on-site as a spectator for the Tahs’ season-finale game v Blues.

However, I will be attending Sydney Motorsport Park for the Sunday races in person which is going to be a perfect way to finish my busy sports viewing weekend right in front of the action.

And we can’t forget the UEFA Champions League soccer Final on Sunday morning between Liverpool v Real Madrid, as well as the big Sunday of racing starting with Formula 1s in Monaco just before overnight, then the Indy 500 in the early hours of Monday morning & finish it off with NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on Monday lunchtime.

Let’s hope Nine and ARG can surprise us later this year with the Bathurst season-finale live on 9Gem like it was back in February with the season-opener from Symmons Plains in Tasmania, since the Bathurst 6 Hour and its support categories was a Stan Sport exclusive last month.

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Motorsport

2022 Australian Superbike Championship R3 at Wakefield Park Support Categories (Oceania Junior Cup, Supersport & Supersport 300) Review

by Sports Benches

Round 3 of the 2022 Australian Superbike Championship continues at Wakefield Park in Goulburn, NSW, starting with the six-lap showdown in the Oceania Junior Cup. We saw a brilliant front row battle for 1st between Hudson Thompson and Harrison Watts; Thompson fired off well & held top spot for the majority before Watts found his way past him for the winning move towards the checkered flag. And Levi Russo rounds the final podium spot when he dropped a couple of track positions earlier on from 2nd but managed to rebound in 3rd. Although we’ve followed up after the TV broadcast when Thompson and Watts’ final Race 2 results were penalised over the drop of position, so Russo was promoted to Race winner instead.

Then we move on to the Supersport class & John Lytras in No.308 stole the show during Race 2, where he made an immediate impact from 3rd in the beginning & never looked back ever since with the win. Ty Lynch finished in 2nd, while Sean Condon’s return to ASBK after a seven-year absence was a great weekend at Wakefield in 3rd alongside his 2nd place finish from Race 1, even though he lost the lead as pole starter earlier in this race.

And how about a competitive four-wide battle towards 1st out of this ten-lap Supersport 300 Race 3 spell. It was between Cameron Dunker, Taiyo Aksu, and the Nelson brothers in Glenn and Hayden. Dunker was off to a brilliant start unchallenged over the first couple of laps before the pressure began to test him. Now he may have lost 2-3 places with two laps to go when G.Nelson & Aksu briefly shared the lead. However, he kept his cool going into the final lap and found his way back to 1st, where Dunker held off three other competitive riders in such a photo finish past the finish line.

Before we finish off the ASBK weekend at Wakefield Park, it was also great to watch some Aussie Racing Cars (Race 4) alongside the other usual two-wheel support categories. Tom Hayman was too good from start to finish in the 1st placed position for his No.30 Ford, while Joshua Anderson was superb straightaway from 4th to 2nd in the No.36 machine. Meanwhile, Lachlan Ward in the No.117 may have lost a couple of spots when he wanted to keep a close eye on the race leader (Hayman), but at least a rebound back to 3rd is a great result. And Joel Heinrich was another standout driver in Race 4 from 15th to 5th behind Reece Chapman in the No.25, especially in the 2nd half run when being patient for that whole time & caplitised plenty of track positions ahead of Kody Garland (6th) & Rylan Gray (7th).

We won’t be able to see the ASBK support categories for a while since the premier class will be part of the Supercars support bill at Hidden Valley Raceway in NT for June 17-19. However, we expect these two-wheel support categories to return for Round 4 on 5-7 August at Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick, QLD.

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Motorsport

2022 Australian Superbike Championship Round 3 Review: Mike Jones & Wayne Maxwell’s on-track rivalry shares Race 1 & 2 win in the Premier Class at Wakefield Park

by Sports Benches

How good was that to kickstart your Sunday in Round 3 of this year’s Australian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park in Goulburn, NSW. We love this 1st-2nd placed rivalry between Polesitter Mike Jones in the No.46 Yamaha and reigning champion Wayne Maxwell in the No.1 Ducati. Jones may have lost the lead to Maxwell from the beginning, but he had to bide his time until he got his moment with two laps to go on Lap 18 & held Maxwell in the end for the Race 1 win.

Cru Halliday rounds out the podium in 3rd for the No.65 Yamaha, while the No.17 Honda’s Troy Herfoss improved a spot ahead of Bryan Staring in the No.67 Ducati from 5th in 4th. Arthur Sissis came home in 6th (No.61 Yamaha); two BMWs in 7th and 8th from the No.14 Glenn Allerton & No.21 Josh Waters. And Daniel Falzon & Anthony West once again did a great job from the back of the grid to occupying the last two Top 10 spots, with credit from the Mark Chiodo DNF & a few other drivers out of form.

We then return later in Race 2 with the revisit of Jones and Maxwell duel once again for the top spot battle. Jones may have enjoyed a comfortable first 10-13 laps where he started and kept 1st, but Maxwell was just behind his radar when he at last caught Jones on the inside line towards the final Turn 11 corner before he pulled him away far apart for the remaining six laps with the win.

Cru Halliday also completed his Round 3 weekend at Wakefield with a double podium in 3rd; He too was almost passed by Troy Herfoss on Lap 15 in this Race 2 spell, but Herfoss overcooked it on the inside line at Turn 8 & Halliday remained unchallenged ever since. Bryan Staring rounds off the Top 5 in the No.67 Ducati ahead of Arthur Sissis, who finished in 6th. And Anthony West once again inside the Top 10 places in 9th sandwiched between a few BMWs; 10th placed Lachlan Epis as well as both 7th & 8th placed Josh Waters & Glenn Allerton.

It’s good to see Jones shaking hands with Maxwell after the race, who still leads the Riders’ Standings by 23 points at 132 after Round 3 of 7. The next ASBK round will be held at Hidden Valley Raceway in NT on June 17-19 as part of the Supercars weekend support bill.

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2022 Bathurst 6 Hour: The front row BMW overall lead battle tops the charts where Tom Sargent & Cameron Hill overcame a post-qualifying infringement from the very back in 63rd to conquer Mount Panorama

by Sports Benches

This year’s Bathurst 6 Hour at Mount Panorama Circuit was extraordinary to watch, even though the start time was pushed back by half an hour to 11.45 AM AEST due to the fog, where 63 cars fought for every track position across multiple categories.

The No.40 BMW M4 trio of Karl Begg/David Russell/Aaron Norris launched this race from pole position instead of Tom Sargent/Cam Hill in the No.147 BMW M2 following a post-qualifying infringement during inspection (ride height). However, it doesn’t mean their chances of winning are near impossible for the No.147 Tegra Australia team when they made their way from very back to the Top 3-4 as it goes on.

Then we saw a couple of yellows via a series of spins, mechanical failures & wrecks came up that gave the No.147 BMW team some confidence ahead of these restarts; but at the same time, it was a blow for the No.40 Btuned Euro BMW M4 when the pole sitters forced to stop the car on the start/finish straight. Although we saw a couple of competitors escape some twists and turns that almost bit them out of the race, which was lucky to survive & continued racing at the Mountain.

But the big storyline of this race has been the BMW front row battle; it’s just Brad Carr/Tim Slade in the No.8 Car Mods Australia-backed M3 model; against Sargent/Hill in the No.147 Tegra Australia M2 Competition machinery. Both competitors shared the overall race lead thus far before we witnessed the winning move of this Bathurst 6 Hour race with 20 minutes to go on the clock. Slade & Hill went side-by-side before Hill nudged past Slade on the outside line at Brock’s Skyline (Turn 11 of 23) & eventually held off top spot for the win, which led to an overwhelming reaction back in the No.147 team’s pit garage.

How great was it when Tom Sargent/Cam Hill conquered the Mountain from the very back of the grid!

It’s also good to see Garry Rogers Motorsport’s TCR Australia driver Dylan O’Keeffe take home the A1 class win in 4th overall with Mike Sheargold in the No.45 Mercedes AMG for RAM/GWR. And the same goes with TV personality & reigning Dancing with the Stars Australia Champion Grant Denyer, who won the A2 Class in 8th overall with co-driver Tony Quinn in the No.7 Local Legends Ford Mustang.

If you want to relive the 6-hour race both in full length and bitesize, watch it on ad-free Stan Sport right now at any time if you haven’t already got a subscription. Otherwise, Nine will be showcasing the weekend’s ARG SpeedSeries event from Mount Panorama in a two-hour highlights package via their Free TV Channels on Saturday AM from 11.30-13.30 (9Gem) & Sunday Afternoon from 13.30 to 15.30 (9Go).

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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries RD3 on Sunday at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Nathan Herne cleans sweeps in the Trans-Am while Aaron Cameron bounces back with the Race 3 win in the TCR Australia

by Sports Benches

Race 3 of the Trans-Am Australia in Bathurst was a series of twists and turns, most notably between Turns 19 & 20 at Conrod Straight, where race officials abruptly ended the race under yellow. Thankfully, John Hollinger was okay in the No.23 Chevy after this huge wreck; he and the No.12 Dodge of Shaun Richardson were battling for a position side-by-side before Richardson collected him that spun sideways into the wall.

Speaking of the final race results of the weekend, Nathan Herne collected a clean sweep with all three wins in the No.1 Ford Mustang for Garry Rogers Motorsport. Meanwhile, His team-mate Owen Kelly completed his resurgence with back-to-back podiums in 3rd. And arch-rival Tim Brook would’ve loved to end Herne’s long-running stranglehold in the No.38 Ford for Wall Racing when he always had to settle for 2nd. However, he’s happy to take the result as there’s still time for Brook to catch up when it comes to the Drivers’ Standings, even though Herne just extended his lead with four rounds left this season.

Then we look at the TCRs where Aaron Cameron bounced back with the win just a while ago during Race 3 in the No.18 Peugeot 308 for Garry Rogers Motorsport. He would’ve liked to take home the clean sweep when the reverse grid system didn’t benefit him any favors that much after P9 in Race 2 yesterday afternoon. However, it certainly does today when his Race 2 result allowed him to start on the front row, overtook James Moffatt immediately, and held off comfortably through the checkered flag. It’s also good to see fellow GRM driver Dylan O’Keeffe rebound with another podium spot in 3rd on top of a good drive back in Race 1.

And we saw two brilliant drivers who know what it takes to gain a couple of positions all too well at the Mountain. Jordan Cox in the No.33 Peugeot GRM machinery may have endured an unlucky Race 1 yesterday with a DNF after being fasted during practice yesterday. But he wasted no time working his way from the back of the grid to 10-11th following these two remaining races. So does Bailey Sweeny in the No.130 Hyundai i30N for HNO Customer Racing after his breakthrough win on Race 2; he too showed some patience from the 3rd row (6th) to just behind Cameron in 2nd.

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2022 ARG SpeedSeries on Saturday at Bathurst: Nathan Herne wins back to back in the Trans-Am while Peugeots filled up the podium spots in Race 1 & Bailey Sweeny wins Race 2 over at the TCR Australia

by Sports Benches

Nathan Herne is unstoppable in the No.1 Ford Mustang for Garry Rogers Motorsports after he collected two from two wins today so far at Mount Panorama. He never looked out of pace on race day when he passed Tim Brook immediately and held off ever since, even though he wasn’t fastest in any of the practice & qualifying sessions as the cautions didn’t bother him. We love this Herne v Brook side-by-side rivalry. And shoutout to Herne’s team-mate Owen Kelly, who finished 4th in Race 1 just behind No.03 Ford’s Ben Grice, before he took advantage of Grice’s DNF (gearbox issue) the next race & scored the final podium spot in 3rd.

Then we turned our attention to TCR Australia, with Jordan Cox fastest in both practice sessions in the No.33 Peugeot 308 yesterday. Although, he was unlucky not to continue in 3rd when he had to stop his car on top of the penalty that precluded him from starting on the front row before Race 1. Cox’s team-mate Aaron Cameron stole the show with a comfortable Race 1 spell from start to finish, followed by another set of Peugeots rounding the other two podium spots from Ben Bargwanna (No. 71 Burson) & Dylan O’Keeffe (No. 8 GRM).

In the end, though, we witnessed a different winner on Race 2 in Bailey Sweeny over at the No. 130 Hyundai i30N for HNO Customer Racing. Now he may have been unable to get around Michael Caruso at the start from reverse 2nd, having finished 9th in the previous race earlier this afternoon. However, you have to praise his patience as this race goes on when Sweeny finally passed Caruso side-by-side at the Chase (Turn 20); that turned out to be a winning move before Sweeny got to celebrate on top of the podium for the first time.

Race 3 of the Trans-Am and TCR will take place on a bright and early tomorrow morning, before it’s all about the 6-hour feature race in Bathurst.

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2022 Australian Rally Championship Round 1 Review: National Capital Rally in Canberra

by Sports Benches

What an unreal spell from reigning Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen when he got his wish in rallying thanks to Team Red Bull. They supplied him with the Skoda Fabia R5 alongside co-driver Glen Weston, where he & Glen managed to finish runner-up in the opening round of the 2022 Australian Rally Championship. Although it’s a one-off effort since he’s got full-time Supercars duties to defend, Van Gisbergen was running in Top 3-4 all the time, especially towards the end of the rally yesterday on Day 2 with two-stage wins (SS12 & SS13) that includes the Power Stage finale.

In the end, though, you can’t underestimate the brilliance of the current Australian rally champions Harry Bates & his co-driver John McCarthy in the Toyota GR Yaris AP4 for his family-run team. They were too good to pull off the opening day with all the first seven stage wins that put them way upfront before Bates/McCarthy stayed ahead, which was enough to secure an easy win.

Apart from Harry Bates & SVG’s success stories, other competitors stood out throughout the opening round in Canberra. Good to see Brendan Reeves and Kate Catford round off the final podium spot in the Hyundai i20 RN. They started not bad on Day 1, but their late turnaround sets them for an improved Day 2 when ending H.Bates/McCarthy stranglehold with the Stage 8 win, which boosted their confidence.

Taylor Gill & Kim Bessell also had a great showing in 4th, where they also secured the NSW Rally class win in the Subaru WRX STi for Curiositi. And shoutout to Tom Clarke/Ryan Preston (White Wolf Ford Fiesta) & Timothy Wilkins/Jim Gleeson (Wilkins Mitsubishi Evo IX). These guys may have languished in and out of the Top 10 at the start, but a few other competitors’ DNFs given them progress as this rally goes on with a respective 5th & 6th finish.

It will be interesting to see who will challenge Bates & McCarthy up close with six rounds left of the 2022 ARC season, as this series moves over to the Forest Rally in WA on Saturday & Saturday, May 21-22.

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