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Geoffrey Harris10 Feb 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Prancing proudly atop The Mountain

Three makes have now won the Bathurst 12 Hour in the past three years, but Ferrari's victory this time had a special poignancy – and McLaren has fired a warning for next time

Aussies back on top in 12 Hour – and a Kiwi’s record
Endurance racing has scaled new heights at Bathurst.

Motorsport’s most famous brand, the Prancing Horse of Ferrari, has conquered Mount Panorama, in large part due to Craig Lowndes, the poster boy of the sport in Australia.

Lowndes had co-driver mates, of course, in this conquest in Melbourne-based Maranello Motorsport’s F458 – Mika Salo, the Finnish ex-Formula One star; John Bowe, a seemingly ageless Bathurst specialist; and the gentleman racer Peter Edwards.

Together they dedicated Sunday’s Bathurst 12 Hour victory to Allan Simonsen, the Danish favourite son of Maranello Motorsport who lost his life in an Aston Martin at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hour.

Records were set on The Mountain throughout the weekend – 296 laps, or more than 1835km by each of the top five finishing cars, 10 cars under Simonsen’s old GT lap record, with the fastest – Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen in a McLaren MP4 12C at 2 minutes 3.8506 seconds – bettering the previous day’s pole position record by Maro Engel in an Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS. Engel’s lap of 2:03.8586 edged Salo’s best qualifying lap in the Ferrari by just 0.08 seconds.

While the two-minute barrier wasn’t broken, something not helped by the extremely hot conditions, these GT3s are the fastest cars in official Bathurst history, considerably faster than the V8 Supercars in October’s 1000km classic.

They lap more than half a minute ahead of the iconic Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III that Allan Moffat took around in 2:36.5 in 1972 – when the track was a little shorter, pre-dating The Chase.

Even the little Fiat Abarths, one of which our Editor-in-Chief Mike Sinclair co-drove to Class F victory in the 12 Hour, lapped quicker than that HO we thought so mighty.

There were four makes on the lead lap at the end on Sunday – Mercedes SLSs in second and third, the McLaren fourth and an Audi R8 LMS fifth – and this “Other Great Race” now has been won by three different makes in three years (after Audi in 2011-12 and Mercedes in 2013).

Lowndes, Bowe and Edwards became the first Australian drivers to win it since the introduction of the GT3 cars in 2011.

The margin of victory was only 0.4 seconds, ahead of the Merc SLS of Germany’s HTP Motorsport, with the “Aussie” SLS from Erebus and the McLaren within three seconds of the Ferrari .

There were many other tales of triumph, adversity (including for all three podium cars) and heartbreak. See colleague Adam Davis’ reports for more snapshots of Australia's longest motorsport race. And go here for the full Bathurst 12 Hour race results are here.


Six out of six for Murphy in V8 SuperTourers

A man so synonymous with Bathurst, Greg Murphy, wasn’t there this time. Instead he made a clean sweep of the second round of New Zealand’s V8 SuperTourers at Manfeild, just as he had the first round at the new Highlands Park.

Yet Murphy won the second round by only one point from Simon Evans – no, not the multiple Australian rally champion, but the older brother of Mitch Evans, the Kiwi rising through international open-wheeler ranks with the backing of Australia’s recently-retired F1 driver Mark Webber.

Evans (Simon that is) scored bonus points from qualifying and by setting the fastest lap in each of the Manfeild races.

Jason Bargwanna, who is to be the driving standards observer for the V8 Supercar Championship this year, won all three NZV8 Touring Car races at Manfield – in a Toyota Camry.

He collected the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy for a second time and has taken the series lead.
   
New Zealand V8 SuperTourer Series driver standings – 1. Greg Murphy (Holden) 553 points; 2. Andre Heimgartner (Holden) 425; 3. Ant Pedersen (Ford) 418; 4. Richard Moore (Holden) 409; 5. Simon Evans (Holden) 392; 6. Mark Gibson (Ford) 305.

Next NZ V8 SuperTourer round – Pukekohe, March 22-23.

Swedish success puts Finn on top in WRC
Volkswagen finished one-two for the second time this World Rally Championship season in the second round, Rally Sweden – but its world champion driver, Sebastian Ogier, wasn’t on the podium.

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala won the WRC’s only snow rally ahead of Norwegian teammate Andreas Mikkelsen, whose podium was his first.

“I had a whiff of victory for long parts of the race (until a spin on the 18th stage, which allowed Latvala to win by 53.6 seconds),” Mikkelsen said.

Ogier made what he admitted was a “stupid mistake”, skidding into a snow bank on the second day. That dropped the Frenchman to 20th but he fought back to finish sixth.

VW’s Polo R won 18 of the 23 stages – and Ogier 10 of them.

“The conditions were incredibly slippery … eight points is the best we could have hoped for after my mistake,” Ogier said.

Ogier set one record for the weekend – travelling 41 metres through the air before landing after the famous “Colin’s Crest” jump, breaking American Ken Block’s previous best by four metres.

Latvala’s victory was his second for VW, his third in Sweden, the ninth of his WRC career, and he leads the world championship for the first time.

VW motorsport director Jost Capito said it had been “a perfect performance” from Latvala.

Another Norwegian, Mads Ostberg, finished third in a Citroen, close behind Mikkelsen, and won the Power Stage ahead of Latvala.

Finn Mikko Hirvonen was the top Ford Fiesta driver in fourth, while Estonian Ott Tanak and Norwegian Henning Solberg won a stage each in Fords and finished fifth and seventh respectively.

Polish ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica made it to the finish too but twice lost 10 minutes having to free his Ford from snow banks and another three minutes after a third brush with the white barriers.

Ford M-Sport’s veteran team principal Malcolm Wilson said it was the the most difficult Swedish rally he could remember.

Hyundai’s two i20s made it to the finish under the WRC’s Rally 2 regulations, after not finishing the second day because they hit rocks.

Hyundai’s top driver, Belgian Thierry Neuville, was second fastest on two stages – one each on the first and last day – and was classified 28th after a puncture on the penultimate stage, while Finnish teammate Juho Hanninen finished 19th.

Hyundai notched its first championship points and for the third round, on gravel in Mexico in three weeks, will install Australian Chris Atkinson as Neuville’s teammate.

World Rally Championship driver standings after two rounds - 1. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, VW Polo R) 40 points; 2. Sebastien Ogier (France, VW Polo R) 35; 3. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Citroen DS3) 30; 4. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, VW Polo R) 24; 5. Bryan Bouffier (France, Ford Fiesta RS) 18; 6. Kris Meeke (Great Britain, Citroen DS3) 17; 7. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford Fiesta RS) 13; 8. Ott Taenak (Estonia, Ford Fiesta RS) 10; 9.  Elfyn Evans (GB, Ford Fiesta RS) 8; 10. Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford Fiesta RS) 6.
      
WRC team standings - 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 72 points; 2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 56; 3. Volkswagen Motorsport II 26; 4. M-Sport World Rally Team 22; 5. Hyundai Motorsport 8; 6. RK M-Sport World Rally Team 4.

Next WRC round – Rally Mexico, March 6-9.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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