RACE CENTRE
WorldMags.net
Courtney aces van Gisbergen
KALISZ/LAT
V8 SUPERCARS ADELAIDE (AUS), FEBRUARY 28-MARCH 1 RD 1/14
in Adelaide’s ripper gripper
AUSSIE CARRERA CUP
Steven Richards made a perfect start to his
bid for a second successive title with three
wins in Adelaide. The multiple Bathurst
1000 victor won the first race from David
Russell and Nick McBride, the second
ahead of Craig Baird and McBride and
the third over Baird and Russell.
V8 DEVELOPMENT
Paul Dumbrell (Holden) and Cam Waters
(Ford) split the V8 Development Series
wins in Adelaide. After Waters won the
opening Friday encounter, reigning
champion Dumbrell fought back to take
the Saturday win. Chris Pither and Aaren
Russell put their Fords on the podium
in the respective races.
NASCAR XFINITY
Kevin Harvick won last Saturday’s race
at Atlanta in his Chevrolet after the Ford
of pursuer Joey Logano suffered a
left-rear-wheel vibration in the closing
stages, causing the Daytona 500 winner
to take it easy. Ty Dillon was the highest
finisher registered for points, taking third
from Chris Buescher and reigning
champion Chase Elliott. Buescher now
leads the points on countback from Dillon.
NASCAR TRUCKS
Two-time champion Matt Crafton ramped
up his bid for a title hat-trick by dominating
at Atlanta on Friday, taking his ThorSport
Toyota to an 8.7s win after a 74-lap stretch
of green-flag racing. Ty Dillon came home
in second place ahead of Ben Kennedy,
while Daniel Suarez and Daytona winner
Tyler Reddick completed the top five.
82 AUTOSPORT.COM MARCH 5 2015
Courtney takes
early points lead
THREE DIFFERENT HOLDEN DRIVERS
won three V8 Supercar races in
Adelaide and it was James Courtney
who left the city with the points lead.
The Holden Racing Team driver
won the Sunday 250km race for
the second year in a row but it
was the manner in which he did
it – snatching pole position and
withstanding constant pressure over
the final 20 laps – that marked him
as a title contender. In perhaps his
finest V8 Supercar drive, Courtney
held out Shane van Gisbergen lap
after lap to win narrowly.
The weekend did not start like
that. Reigning champion Jamie
Whincup was in a class of his own in
qualifying for Saturday’s two 125km
races, taking both poles by huge
margins. The Triple Eight man
dominated the fir st race to win, but
an untimely puncture dropped him
from contention in the second,
leaving Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian
Coulthard to take victory.
That, and the fact that Scott
McLaughlin failed to start the
opening race when his Volvo
developed engine dramas on the
formation lap, set up a fascinating
Sunday. Courtney snatched pole by
the narrowest of margins and was in
contention to win for most of the
race, particularly when a doubtful
strategy and set-up problems
put Whincup back in the pack.
Courtney’s team-mate Garth Tander
worked his way up to third, but
could only sit and watch the battle
for the win play out in front of him.
Whincup took fourth but only
Coulthard leads
van Gisbergen
after a last-lap drama, which saw
him entangled in a multi-car pile-up
involving Chaz Mostert’s Ford
and the Nissan of James Moffat.
Mostert’s car was badly damaged as
Whincup sped home to fourth place,
before both drivers were cleared in
what was determined as ‘a racing
incident’ post-race.
The Nissans scored some solid
top-10 results but Mercedes-Benz
struggled, Will Davison’s
catastrophic weekend offset only
slightly by the speed of rookie Ash
Walsh, who ran in the top 10 in race
two. Marcos Ambrose had a mixed
weekend in his V8 Supercar return,
qualifying badly for the first two
races before impressing team
co-owner Roger Penske with a top10 grid spot for the final race. Three
mid-pack finishes were the best the
former NASCAR man could manage.
WorldMags.net
KALISZ/LAT
Frenchman Nico Jamin claimed the title at
Barber Motorsports Park as there was
heartbreak for Jake Eidson. Brazilian Victor
Franzoni won the first of a reduced two
races (the first fell victim to the weather)
from Eidson, meaning the American only
needed a seventh place in the finale to be
crowned champion of the two-round
mini-series. Eidson was running second to
Franzoni on the opening lap when he fell
victim to a fuel-pump failure. This promoted
Jamin to second, and he took the lead
when Franzoni made a small mistake with
three laps remaining. This gave him the
crown by five points from Franzoni.
LABOUNTY/LAT
82
USF2000 WINTERFEST
Ambrose and the other V8 men
will get some ‘practice’ at Albert
Park’s non-championship Australian
GP support races before hostilities
reconvene at the tight Symmons
Plains track at the end of the month.
O Phil Branagan
RESULTS
Race 1 1 Jamie Whincup (Holden Commodore),
33 laps in 48m28.7493s; 2 Chaz Mostert (Ford
Falcon), +0.8572s; 3 Fabian Coulthard (Holden);
4 Craig Lowndes (Holden); 5 Mark Winterbottom
(Ford); 6 Shane van Gisbergen (Holden). Race 2
1 Coulthard, 39 laps in 59m05.6809s; 2 James
Courtney (Holden), +1.9574s; 3 Lowndes; 4 Garth
Tander (Holden); 5 Jason Bright (Holden); 6 Rick
Kelly (Nissan Altima). Race 3 1 Courtney, 78 laps
in 1h56m00.5102s; 2 van Gisbergen, +0.7602s;
3 Tander; 4 Whincup; 5 Winterbottom;
6 Coulthard. Points 1 Courtney, 258;
2 Coulthard, 241; 3 Tander, 237; 4 van Gisbergen,
222; 5 Whincup, 216; 6 Lowndes, 208.