The say the final moments of this year’s Bathurst 1000 were exciting would be an understatement – it was a dead set thriller.

After six hours, twenty-six minutes and fifty-two seconds on the Mount Panorama track the difference between the leading two V8 Supercars came down to just 0.29 seconds. The Toll Holden Racing Team pairing of Garth Tander and Nick Percat crossed the line first closely followed the Team Vodafone pairing of Bathurst veterans Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife.

With 21 laps to go Lowndes was running in seventh, but by lap 148 the seasoned competitor had made his way into second. It was all set up for a grandstand finish and that’s exactly what spectators and fans at home got. Four time winner Lowndes continued to push up on Tander but the rookie held his nerve and Lowndes couldn’t force his way through. Epic stuff and the winning margin of 0.2917s is the closest in the history of the great race. (more…)

Most of us were stuck to the sofa all day Sunday taking in all the sights and sounds of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for another year. But sadly, there were some within our ranks who had other duties to perform on Sunday, for them – here’s the low down.

This year’s 49th annual Bathurst 1000km race was won by Garth Tander and Nick Percat. The HRT pair were followed by Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife, pole-sitters Greg Murphy and Alan Simonsen, FPR’s Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards, Team BOC’s Jason Bright and Andrew Jones and van Gisbergen and McIntyre.

The all-kiwi crew of Shane van Gisbergen and John McIntyre finished up a hard-fought sixth overall.

After starting the race from the third row of the grid ‘the Giz’ was looking comfortable running in the top-five during the early stages of the race. As was McIntyre once he took over the #9 SP Tools Falcon – until he was turned around by Marcus Marshall and at The Elbow and lost 15 places getting going again. (more…)

New Zealand racing driver Matt Halliday is feeling confident after his recent testing with Jim Beam Racing in preparation for the Australian V8 Supercar Endurance races commencing this coming weekend. Halliday has been signed to drive in the high profile Phillip Island and Bathurst races where he will partner Aussie driver James Moffatt in their Jim Beam Ford Falcon FG.

The two day test was held at the Queensland Raceway last week and proved to be an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with the team and undertake several fast laps. This year will mark Halliday’s 7th appearance at Bathurst where his best performance has been 4th place overall and 1st Kiwi driver home last year.

“It’s been great coming back to Australia to do some serious testing and get a good feel for the Jim Beam car which performs very well. The team have been great in testing so we will be in with a shot for a strong result at both races if everything goes to plan” said Halliday from the Gold Coast earlier this week. (more…)

A spirited fightback drive saw Stone Brothers Racing kiwi driver Shane van Gisbergen cross the line fifth in the second race at the Sucrogen 400 V8 Supercar series meeting in Townsville last Sunday.

The result came following an 11th place finish in Saturday’s race and meant the 22-year-old driver has enough points to retain third place in the series points standings at the half-way point of this year’s competition.

After claiming his second series win of the season in Darwin last month, van Gisbergen headed back to Northern Australia with high hopes but struggled to find a qualifying set-up that worked and had to settle for 22nd on the grid for the first (72-lap) race of the weekend on Saturday.

Sunday’s second weekend qualifying session saw a major improvement – to 11th – but valuable time, not to mention track position, was lost during a Safety Car pit stop when van Gisbergen had to queue up behind teammate Alex Davison. (more…)

The great kiwi hope of the V8 Supercars, Shane van Gisbergen will be targeting his third win of the season in balmy northern Queensland this weekend. The Sucrogen 400 street race meeting in Townsville will see ‘the Giz’ attempt to improve on his third place standing in the series.

It’s already been quite a year for the hard-driving 22-year-old from Auckland, his first V8 Supercar series win coming at his home round in Hamilton in April, his second in Darwin last month. The young Kiwi has shown plenty of form in his SP Tools Falcon round the 2.86km Townsville street circuit too, qualifying fifth quickest at the first Sucrogen event two years ago, and sixth last year. But getting the results has proved tricky to come by with Van Gisbergen’s efforts yielding a 12th in the first race and dnf in the second on his first attempt in 2009. Last year there was improvement with the familiar blue SP Tools Falcon crossing the line eighth in the first race and seventh in the second, the latter after a hard-won drive from P17 on the grid. (more…)

It’s now official that the V8 Supercars racing series will take its brand of motorsport to Austin, Texas in 2013. The news follows on from the Austin city council announcement that the USA Grand Prix Formula One race will also be held at its Circuit of the Americas.

V8 Supercars officials along with Texas Governor Rick Perry and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced the five-year arrangement to bring the racing series to the States.

V8 Supercars joins the already existing 10-year agreements Circuit of The Americas has to host the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix beginning in 2012 and MotoGP World Championship
beginning in 2013. This first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the United States is currently under construction in the city.

The V8 Supercars Texas race will consist of two 200-km races and will be televised live and in full throughout North and South America. (more…)

The worlds of V8 Supercar racing and drifting are usually kept quite far apart but last weekend Kiwi race driver Shane van Gisbergen brought them together. After achieving his second V8 Supercars win and first on Aussie soil (read news) ‘the Giz’ decided to celebrate with a victory lap – going sideways.

The commentators mistakenly thought van Gisbergen’s smokey slides were accidental, stemming from excessive tyre wear but quickly worked out he was hamming it up for the Darwin fans. The Giz went on to fill Hidden Valley Raceway with the smell of tyre smoke and considering the steering ratios of a V8 Supercar,  did well to get as sideways as he could.

At 22 years old Van Gisbergen is the youngest driver in the top-tier series and has almost a professional obligation to pull some reckless moves on occasion and the crowd loved him for it. (more…)

The V8 Supercars round in Darwin has again proved fruitful for Kiwi V8 driver Shane Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen. It was at Hidden Valley Raceway that ‘the Giz’ enjoyed two podium finishes at the SkyCity Triple Crown meeting and this year he went even better claiming his first V8 Supercar win on Australian soil at the Darwin circuit.

This landmark victory comes almost two months to the day after the 22-year-old claimed his first series win at his home round in Hamilton and with two wins to his name now van Gisbergen is a genuine 2011 title contender.

He claimed his second win in style too, following up from the disappointment of a clash and subsequent scrabble to finish seventh in Saturday’s race with an epic drive through the pack from his sixth row starting position to eventually catch and pass Craig Lowndes for the lead of Sunday’s race with just three laps to go.

In doing so van Gisbergen proved the wisdom of Stone Brothers Racing’s tyre strategy, the team choosing to start its drivers on the harder ‘control’ tyre and save the softer ‘option’ tyre until later on, when – as happened – a Safety Car period might play into their hands. (more…)