By Roger McCleery
GLOBAL MOTORSPORT OVERVIEW
Motorsport
In Full Swing
South African and international motorsport is now in full swing and providing a very watchable spectacle.
T
he Castrol Toyota Motorsport
Team were off to a flying start
in Round 1 of the Donaldson
Cross-Country Championship
outside Harrismith in the Free State
at the beginning of March. Reigning
champions, Anthony Taylor and Denis
Murphy, carried on where they left
off in 2013 with a win in their Hiluxes,
followed by Leeroy Poulter and Rob
Howie, fresh from the Dakar, who took
2nd place.
Hardly catching their breath, the
team took their newly prepared
Toyota Yaris Rally cars to Scottburgh
in KZN and pulled off another 1 / 2.
Leeroy Poulter this time alongside lady
navigator, Elvene Coetzee, won ahead
of former VW star, now in a Toyota,
Hergen Fekken and his lady navigator,
Carolyn Swan.
Reigning rally champion, Mark
Cronje with Robin Houghton, caused
serious damage to their Ford Fiesta
when they crashed backwards into a
tree 500m in the first stage and into
retirement. Dutchman, Hans Weis, and
Belgian Bjorn Degandt, got the Sasol
Volkswagen Polo onto the podium
ahead of Giniel de Villiers/Fred Godrich
(Imperial Toyota Yaris).
Toyota also won the S2000 4-wheel
drive class for older cars with
Namibia’s Wilro Dippenaar and Kes
Naidoo in an Etios with Guy Botterill/
Simon Vipacy-Lyle winning the tough
1600 2-wheel drive category in another
Yaris.
Still on rallying, Frenchman Seb Ogier,
the reigning World Champion, took
the spectacular Rally of Mexico from
team-mate and Finn, Jari-Matti Latvala.
The Shell Hyundai 120 of Thierry
Neuville from Belgium brilliantly got
onto the podium after just three rallies.
The TV coverage of the World Rally
Championship is awesome – probably the
best coverage you will see.
Good to see McLaren and Williams taking
on Red Bull, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari,
to make it five different makes in the top
six.
On the best road racing circuit in the
world, the World Superbikes put on a
breathtaking show at Philip Island just
along the coast from Melbourne. Irishman
Eugene Laverty gave Suzuki their first
win since Kyalami in 2010 in the first
Superbike Race with Frenchman Gvintoli
getting his first overall win on an Italian
Aprilia in the second race, which was red
flagged. At times there were eight riders
fighting for the lead.
Nico Rosberg gave the Mercedes-Benz
engines their 100th Grand Prix win.
Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo, in the Red
Bull was 2nd to the cheers of the huge
Australian crowd, who were overboard
at seeing the first Aussie ever to get
on the podium at an Australian Grand
Prix. This was spoiled afterwards when
stewards announced there had been a
fuel flow problem in the Red Bull and they
disqualified the car.
In the 600CC SuperSport category
another Frenchman, Jules Cluzel, gave
the Italian MV Augusta its first win since
1976 when Agostini was ruling the
world. To be honest, Cam Petersen beat
that record winning our South African
SuperSport Championship last year, also
riding an MV.
This decision has been appealed by
Red Bull. John Magnusson’s son, Kevin
on debut, was right there in 3rd in the
McLaren. He was ahead of his team-mate
and world champion, Jensen Button, who
both moved up in the results after the
disqualification of Ricciardo.
The African 6-hour Endurance Race run at
Phakisa in the Free State was won by an
imported car and team - the Nissan Juno
V6, driven by Adcock, Carruthers and
McCaroll. Thomas Reib and Sean Greve
(Shelby) were 2nd with Andrew Strike,
Des and son, Jade Gutzeit, in a similar
car 3rd.
New look Formula 1 Grand Prix Racing
got under way in Melbourne to mixed
reviews. All the talk at the moment is
about technology, energy gathering and
fuel usage, but doesn’t necessarily ensure
a great motor racing show. However, the
cars go just as fast, although the sound of
high revving V8’s has gone. Pirelli seem to
have sorted out their rapid tyre degrading
suffered last year, with the result that the
cars can now go further on the new tyre
compounds without constant activity in
the pit, which are not really that exciting.
| Wheels in Action
94
april 2014
Let’s hope over-regulation
of this complicated new
formula and changing results
as teams come to terms with
this new technology doesn’t
make people turn off their
televisions. This is the time
for engineers and stewards
to remember that basically
Formula 1 is a sport and
entertainment and that the
majority of viewers don’t
give two hoots about their
technology. They just want to
see good GP’s.