Motorsport: Supercars head into unknown

The Supercars Series heads for the all-new The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia this weekend.

Built from the ground up at the former Mitsubishi test facility in Tailem Bend the state-of-the-art facility has already impressed the drivers. In addition to a variety of track layouts, including a 7.7km version which is the longest circuit in Australia, there is also a 100-room Rydges hotel on site.

Reigning Bathurst champion David Reynolds has already sampled the track, competing in a GT Championship event held there earlier in the year. In fact, he is the current lap record holder on the 4.9km layout the Supercars will race on this weekend, and he has labelled the track and its facilities “world-class”.

“I think it’s one of the best permanent tracks we go to all year, besides Bathurst,” Reynolds said.

The new layout means all teams enter this weekend on a level playing field, with the powerhouse Red Bull Holden Racing Team and DJR-Team Penske unable to rely on any previous data. While Reynolds thinks that will help give the smaller teams, such as his Erebus Racing squad, a better chance to fight for the wins, he’s still expecting the big names to be contenders.

“It gives the smaller teams a chance but the good teams are still the good teams because they’re got the fastest cars,” he said.

The Supercars will have two races this weekend, with a 24-lapper on Saturday before a 41-lap contest on Sunday.

S5000 brings back V8 open-wheelers

A new Australian open-wheeler series is aiming to hit the track in 2019. Called S5000 the new series will feature Formula One-style single-seater racers powered by 5.0-litre Ford V8 engines.

It will be run by Australian Racing Group, the same organisation behind the planned TCR Australia series, and has been given approval by the sport’s local governing body CAMS.

S5000 originally began as an attempt to revive the glory days of Formula 5000 racing, with two groups producing competing concepts.

Since that time the organisers have decided to ditch the retro themes and create a modern single-seater racing car with carbon fibre tub and F1-style ‘Halo’ cockpit protection.

Australian Racing Group director Matt Braid said the category has already attracted interest from fans, teams and potential drivers.

“The 2019 specification S5000 car not only looks great, but will be extremely safe, fast and spectacular on track, foregoing technical driving aids to ensure driver talent shines through and provide a level of excitement on track that open wheel fans in Australia and the world have not experienced in some time,”Braid said. “We can’t wait to see the spectacle of a strong field of S5000 cars racing wheel-to-wheel on the track in 2019.”

Formula One: Silly season continues

The summer break is over for F1 with the series back on-track this weekend at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

But all the interest has been off-track over the break with several drivers shuffling seats as part of the annual ‘silly season’ which kicked into high-gear when Daniel Ricciardo confirmed his shock move to Renault.

That has seen Renault refugee Carlos Sainz Jr take over the retiring Fernando Alonso’s seat at McLaren. But the bigger move is the promotion of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly to Ricciardo’s vacant spot at Red Bull Racing, alongside Max Verstappen.

The young Frenchman was understandably happy with his new job.

“To be awarded a drive at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing from 2019 is a dream come true for me, I’m so excited to be joining this top team,” Gasly said. “It has been my goal to race for this team since I joined the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme in 2013, and this incredible opportunity is another step forward in my ambition to win Grands Prix and compete for World Championships.”

Sportscars: Porsche to focus on Formula E

Porsche isn’t interested in racing for the Le Mans overall win… at least for now.

Le Mans organisers will introduce new ‘hypercar’ rules for the 2020-21 season, inspired by modern supercars such as the hybrid-powered Porsche 918 Spyder. However, the German brand will prioritise Formula E and its GTE sports car programs in the short-term.

Porsche global motorsport boss, Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, told Drive that while the company is keeping an eye on the new rules it is unlikely to commit in the near-future.

“We looked at it, we attended the first meeting but at the moment we are not actively participating,” Walliser said. “The reason is not that it is not interesting but we have a motorsport strategies for the next years that is set down, with Formula E, with the GT strategy so there is not really a need to develop something new. That will not mean that we are interested in Le Mans racing and overall victories but it’s just the actual situation.”

Porsche will enter the Formula E series to help promote its new range of electric vehicles, beginning with the Taycan in 2019. While the electric racing series is new and very different to anything Porsche has done in the past, Walliser said that is a big part of its appeal to the company.

“No, it will be something different but we also looked for something different,” he said. “It wasn’t looked at to expand what we were doing, it was to do something different. We have a different target group, different spectators, different places, different drivetrain technology and so on.”