Tag:

Audi

Motorsport

Nathan Herne outstanding in 2022 in the Trans-Am while Tony D’Alberto took home the TCR Australia title as this SpeedSeries season all ends here at Bathurst International

by Admin

The Bathurst International was held this weekend, and boy oh boy it did not disappoint. For those who don’t know, the Bathurst International is a weekend with plenty of racing in a lot of different categories. So let’s look over the highlights from the Trans-Am and TCR Australia.

In the Trans-Am, Nathan Herne took the pole position for Race 1, and managed to hang on to it for a great win for him and Team Valvoline. He managed to hold off the Supercheap Auto of Nash Morris, as well as the TPS Caravans of Brett Holdsworth and the Garry Rogers car piloted by Owen Kelly. After a less than ideal practice, Benjamin Grice made a fantastic recovery and was in the top 10 by lap 3. However, the Safety Car was brought out for a spin by Zach Losicalpo at Murray’s Corner, where he became beached. At the end of Race 1, Nathan Herne took the top step of the podium, with Owen Kelly and Holdsworth completing the top 3.

In Race 2, Nathan Herne could not be stopped and stormed to another win. It was a front-row lockout for the Garry Rogers Mustangs, but an error from Owen Kelly at Hell Corner allowed Herne to pull away, with Holdsworth getting racy with Kelly at Griffin’s Bend. There was a shunt between the SupaFSeries Mustang and the Chevy of John Holinger at Forrest’s Elbow. Zach Loscialpo made a great recovery from last on the grid, crossing the line in 11th place. Herne took the second win of the weekend, with Holdsworth in second, but contact at the high-speed Chase corner between Morris and Kelly allowed Lochie Dolton to finish the podium.

In the Turtle Wax 100, Nathan Herne once again took the chequered flag to round off his hat-trick of wins this weekend. There were some mega drives, with Aaron Teb and Jack Sipp up 11 and 8 places respectively. Even though Grice was still recovering from a crash in Practice, he was challenging in the top 5 throughout. Lochie Dalton got a bit too confident at the chase, beaching his car and bringing out a short Safety Car period. On the final lap, Robert Noaker had to roll into the pits with power loss, with Herne finishing first, with Ben Grice in second and Nash Morris in third to round off a great race and a great weekend of racing.

In the TCR, the opener was a great way to start off this weekend. Young hotshot Bailey Sweeney met the chequered flag first. For most of the title contenders it was a race to forget, riddled with retirements and struggle. It was an eventful race, with lots of great battles in the midfield. Kangaroos brought out the safety car on lap 12, which bunched the field up for even more close racing. At the restart, King passed Cox into 10th position, which is essential for his title hopes. Hanson had a heavy shunt at Reid Park, but emerged relatively unharmed. At the flag, it was Sweeny from O’Keeffe and Morcom to round off the top 3.

Will Brown won the final TCR race of the weekend, but missed out on the title. That honour went to Tony D’Alberto, who took the 2022 TCR Australia Championship. Will Brown put in all the effort, with some spectacular overtakes to put himself in the lead, but D’Alberto managed to maintain 11th to give him enough points to clinch the title. There were plenty of battles throughout with a few scrapes and retirements. The top 3 were Will Brown, Bailey Sweeny and Josh Buchan, with D’Alberto taking the title by 2 points.

What a great weekend the Bathurst International turned out to be, but next year will definitely be even better! See you then!

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries RD 5: Nathan Herne completes clean sweep in the Trans-Am while the Honda duo of Tony D’Alberto & Zac Soutar dominated yet again in Race 3 after Jay Hanson won Race 2 in the TCR Australia at Queensland Raceway

by Sports Benches

It’s good to see a mix of new front runners earlier today during Race 2 of TCR Australia, especially when Michael Caruso led for the majority from reverse pole in the No.10 Alfa Romeo Giuietta, after the original polesitter Lachlan Mineeff (No.14 MPC Audi RS3) had to start from pit lane. 

Sadly, a mechanical issue cost Caruso the win he desperately wanted to for Ashley Seward Motorsport which was a huge blow. That paves the way for Jay Hanson, who made plenty of spots through the field, before he chased down his Melbourne Performance Centre team-mate Will Brown in a battle of the best Audis (RS3) for the win. 

Then we move onto Race 3 where Hanson remained running inside the Top 3, but couldn’t get past both Hondas where they have dominated once again. Tony D’Alberto had an amazing weekend at Queensland Raceway with 2 of out 3 wins for Wall Racing ahead of Zac Soutar, who finished 2nd twice in both Race 1 from yesterday & Race 3 earlier this afternoon.

And there’s still a lot of thrills and spills being spun across the race track over in the Trans-Am. But what hasn’t changed is Nathan Herne controlling the entire grid after he completed a clean sweep all weekend long in the No.1 Ford Mustang for Garry Rogers Motorsports. 

Good to see his team-mate Owen Kelly rebound from the opening lap trouble in Race 1 yesterday with back-to-back third places today, while Jett Johnson never looked out of place in the Top 3-4. And Supercars regular Brodie Kostecki just completed his one-off stint in the No.66 Chevy Camaro here; he finished 6th earlier in Race 2 after a stellar start yesterday in 3rd during Race 1 before he added another podium this time in 2nd in Race 3. We wish Brodie all the best as we hope to see him fulfill his ambitions in the NASCAR Cup Series, even if it’s a partial ride effort next year.

What a weekend it has been at Queensland Raceway after three long years when they last hosted there before COVID got in the way. We can’t wait for Sandown Raceway in Melbourne on the 14-16th next month, with two rounds left in this year’s ARG SpeedSeries season.

For now, make sure you sign up a seven-day Stan Sport free trial right now on top of the usual $10 basic subscription to catch up every race live and ad-free alongside on-demand replays and highlights. It will also be another $10 for the Sports pack if you’re happy with their motorsports content such as IndyCar, Formula E, World Endurance Championship, World Rally Championship and Motocross beyond the seven days.

If not, Nine will continue to roll out a two-hour highlights package for free that looks back from this weekend’s event at Queensland Raceway. Tune in the following times on Thursday evening at 11pm-1am on 9Go, as well as Saturday 10am-12pm on 9Gem & next Sunday at 2-3.50 pm on 9Go.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries RD 5: Thrills and spills being played out in Race 1 yesterday at Queensland Raceway with the Trans-Am and TCR Australia where both winners were too good all along from start to finish

by Sports Benches

Yesterday afternoon of ARG SpeedSeries racing at Queensland Raceway was full of twists and turns, where losing control or being collected into the gravel can cost you a few spots or even dearly. It changed the course of these opening respective races with the Trans-Am & TCR Australia.

We’ll start with the TCRs and what a day it has been for Tony D’Alberto in the No.50 Honda Civic Type-R for Wall Racing. Not only he set and started pole position but he too took the opening race win which was too easy from start to finish. While Zac Soutar would’ve love to have a close sniff of Tony and challenge him for top spot, but he‘s happy to finish 2nd also in the same Honda car & hopefully go one better for the next two Sunday races.

And it’s good to see Jay Hanson back on the podium in 3rd for the Melbourne Performance Centre organisation, as well as Bailey Sweeny in 5th behind Aaron Cameron (No.18 Peugeot 308 for Garry Rogers Motorsport) following an opening lap scare through the grass that cost him a few spots. Although, Sweeny’s team-mate Nathan Morcom was unlucky to be taken out by Ben Bargwanna into the gravel.

Then we go into Trans-Am where we also saw another driver who was too good with Nathan Herne in the No.1 Ford Mustang for Garry Rogers Motorsport. He has no problems getting the job done from pole position to dominating the entire field, especially when some drivers behind him was collected through the gravel on the opening lap. While some slip and spills continue across the race track, it’s great to see 17-year-old Jett Johnson finish 2nd after he got around Supercars regular Brodie Kostecki in 3rd with credit from these restarts. So awesome seeing Brodie spend the weekend here as he hopes to fulfil his NASCAR aspirations over in the US next year, especially when he was being linked with Trackhouse Racing’s 3rd part-time Cup car that has a specific focus on International drivers.

Can’t wait for Races 2 & 3 later today with TCR & Trans-Am to round off Round 5 of 7 in the 2022 SpeedSeries season.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
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

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries, Day 2/Race 2 Review of AWC Race Tasmania in Trans-Am, S5000 & TCR Australia

by Sports Benches

The Trans-Am event on Race 2 was once again filled with a series of wrecks, especially at the tricky hairpin corner that gave no time to resume racing after the first 5-8 laps.

However, we saw a bit of entertainment where Nathan Herne successfully made the winning pass off Tim Brook towards the end of lap one in the No.1 Ford for GRM, having held off top spot through the end on what was been in a yellow flag shortened race. We’d love to see Brook show off his incredible escape like he did yesterday, but just couldn’t hold off this time and end up in 4th.

Then we move onto the S5000 open-wheelers where there was a couple of early race dramas going on. We saw yesterday’s winner Joey Mawson being collected at the opening lap by team-mate Tim Slade for Team BRM, Blake Purdie’s spin at the hairpin on Lap 8 that led to another safety car out on-track & Adam Garwood’s car stopped during the Lap 15 restart.

But how good is Josh Fife in the 88 ACMFinance.com Racing machinery, who was unbelievable from start to finish, not even the restarts bothered him where he unleashed the entire field before Fife held on top spot comfortably through the chequered flag with the win.

And we round it off with the TCR Australia category through a mix of brilliant racing and bumps into the wall.

We saw the opening lap battle for 1st place with GRM team-mates side by side between Jordan Cox and Aaron Cameron, although Cameron may be unlucky to have lost out after he urgently made to pit road for repairs but what a comeback moment though from Race 2 winner Jordan Cox.

Now Cox may have experienced an unfortunate pace lap drama yesterday afternoon where he started on pit lane & finished 17th, but he did a great job holding off top spot comfortably from start to finish. More to come if he manages to keep that race-winning form going into Race 3 a bit later on and the remaining six races of 2022.

Also another shoutout to Tony D’Alberto in the No.50 Honda Civic for Wall Racing. He too made a sensational last lap pass on Will Brown in No.999’s MPC Audi RS3, and that was enough to deliver him a podium finish in 3rd.

Lots to reflect on a great weekend of racing at AWC Race Tasmania.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail