it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au 8th august 2012Volume 2 - issue 13

Frosty’s double uP, iNgall FiresThe Ipswich 300 saw Castrol-

backed Ford Performance Racing shake last years Queensland

Raceway dismal performance, with Mark Winterbottom taking the #5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon over the line in second for both race 16 and 17.

Saturday’s racing saw only one safety car period, and a fierce battle between Mark Winterbottom in the Triple 8 sandwich with Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Winterbottom flew the Castrol flag in race 16, spending the majority of the 42 laps in a tussle between eventual race winner Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, finishing on the second step on the winners podium.

Russell Ingall was the next highest placed Castrol-backed driver, after blitzing the Friday practice sessions, Ingall started

Saturday’s race in eighth before pushing through to an impressive fifth place.

Will Davison wasn’t able to capitalise on his fourth place qualifying position, following Ingall ‘The Enforcer’ across the line in sixth.

It was a Kelly Racing trio that crossed the line in 12th, 13th and 14th, Rick Kelly led the pack into the finish, four seconds ahead of his brother and Jack Daniel’s Racing team-mate Todd Kelly.

Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing’s Karl Reindler was quick to cross after Todd Kelly, just making it into the top half of the V8 field.

David Reynolds in the Bottle-O car was the last driver in the mix to finish on the lead lap, crossing in 22nd.

The final Kelly Racing team member Jacque Villeneuve crossed in 24th, and

Tony D’Alberto finished 25th, both 1 lap down from the rest of the field.

Race 17 was shrouded in controversy with Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes struggling late in the race to get past drivers still on the previous lap, the race also saw two drivers unable to cross the line, with Lee Holdsworth lighting up the pits after flames shot out from under his car.

After a very strong start to the race, Castrol-backed Winterbottom took a well-deserved second place, two seconds behind winner Lowndes and 14 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Despite starting on pole position Davison was relegated to fourth for most of the race, keeping pace with Jamie Whincup before he too was caught up in the late race lapped traffic.

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Frosty’s double uP, iNgall Fires

CHAMPIONSHIP TOP 10:

pos driver points

1. Jamie Whincup 2052

2. Mark Winterbottom 1970

3. Will Davison 1876

4. Craig Lowndes 1796

5. Shane Van Gisbergen 1472

6. Tim Slade 1344

7. Garth Tander 1323

8. Fabian Coulthard 1261

9. Lee Holdsworth 1217

10. David Reynolds 1017

Supercheap Auto’s Russell Ingall battled with Fabian Coulthard for most of the race, fighting hard to try and grab fifth place for the second time over the weekend, however he was unable to get past, crossing the line one second after Coulthard.

Tony D’Alberto finished his run in 13th keeping pace with the top of the field; he was the last Castrol-backed driver to finish on the lead lap.

Todd Kelly held his place in the middle of the pack, finishing in 16th despite challenges from Garth Tander and Jason Bright, his Kelly Racing teammate Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing driver Karl Reindler took home 21st.

Villeneuve finished the weekend with matching results; proving he is advancing in a V8 Supercar, he gained four spots in the race from a grid position

of 28th to 24th, despite being spun off the track by David Wall on lap one.

Rick Kelly struggled with fuel levels for the majority of the race, he was forced to pit with only two laps to go for a splash and dash resulting in 25th for the day.

David Reynolds was the last to cross the line shortly behind Rick in 26th; his run was hampered severely after a lap 16 incident with Garth Tander where the two made contact.

Reynolds was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop in the Bottle-O car after the contact caused him to blow a tyre, an unmitigated disaster for his race chances, especially given he had just clocked the fastest lap at that point.

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Courtney Force – the daughter of the most decorated Funny Car racer in history – John Force, has taken her first ever NHRA final round win in Seattle, defeating Matt Hagan in the final.

To get to the final though, she had to eliminate her father – who had one of his best runs in the Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang in some time.

Force beat home Hagan by a almost a tenth of a second in the final – 4.238 to 4.328.

After making it into the field as 14th qualifier, she was matched against Cruz Pedregon in round one and edged him out when he encountered an issue. Next to fall victim to the first year racer was Bob Tasca III and then ‘dad’ encountered problems as the 23-year-old blasted her way into the final.

Points leader, Robert Hight was taken out in the opening round by last round winner, Johnny Gray, whilst his JFR team mate, Mike Neff was also eliminated in round one by Tasca III.

By making it to the semi-finals where he was eliminated by Hagan, Capps closed the points lead to Hight to 31.

“I honestly am still in shock. I think I’m still shaking,” Courtney Force said after the race. “I was telling my dad, ‘I can’t wait to have a Funny Car Wally in my house,’ because you know what, dad has way more than enough so he can’t be mad at me for taking him out in the semis!

“It was a huge run for us to put together four passes like that, it’s been an amazing day.”

courtNey Force taKes First NHra wiN

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Castrol EDGE-backed Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Cars have dominated the top 10 of Rally Finland, finishing third through ninth inclusive.

Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were the leading car, the Finn’s finishing third on home soil, while team-mates Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson finished fourth in a similar car. Latvala ended Thursday’s short opening leg tied in second, but the 27-year-old was unable to match the pace of the leaders on the Saturday leg. He was initially frustrated at being unable to perfect the set-up on his Fiesta RS WRC. However, once he achieved that, he grew in confidence and pulled away

from his team-mate during the final leg to secure third. “As a Finn competing in Finland, a win is always the target, but I said before the rally that if I finished on the podium I would be happy,” said Latvala. “I enjoyed a clean weekend with no mistakes and no mechanical issues and I can’t say that about many other rallies this year, so that’s a good feeling. “I wasn’t at my best in the early part of the event, but I battled hard to get the set-up right and that paid off as I found a feeling with which I was happy. Our pace was strong, but not quite strong enough, so we must all go away and work hard to put that right. We’re not far away,” he added.

castrol edge Fords iN wrc toP 10

Drivers Championship (top 5):

pos driver points

1. S Loeb 171

2. M Hirvonen 128

3. P Solberg 104

4. M Østberg 90

5. J-M Latvala 69

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PARKES PODIUMS AGAIN

After starting 18th, Broc Parkes has secured his second podium in as many races by finishing third in the ninth round of the World Supersport championship at Silverstone aboard his Castrol-backed Honda CBR600RR.

The Australian got a great start, but the race was red-flagged early due to the inclement conditions. Parkes’s second start was even more impressive and it wasn’t long before the 30-year-old had joined the top three at the front of the field. After several laps dicing with South African Ronan Quarmby, he closed in on the two front runners but the Hunter Valley born and raised rider ran out of laps and had to settle for third place at the flag.

“I was a little upset that we had to restart the race, but my second start was even better,” Parkes said. “I got through the first turn well and got back to the front three guys but it was really hard for me to stay with them. I was just trying to hang in there and sometimes I thought they were going away from me. They didn’t break and then I passed Qarmby, but he made a big move trying to get back and it upset me quite a bit. It took me another couple of laps to get by him and by then the other two had gone away. In the last two laps I pushed like hell to be able to fight for the win but I was too far back. Even when they made a mistake on the last corner I wasn’t close enough to take advantage. But anyway, that’ s racing, that’s how it goes, and to come from 18th to third was a big effort!”

two wHeel NewsDrivers Championship (top 5):

pos rider points

1 Kenan Sofuoglu 148

2 Sam Lowes 134

3 Jules Cluzel 120

4 Fabien Foret 118

5 Broc Parkes 98

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Holder still iN tHe miXCastrol’s World Speedway Grand Prix star, Chris Holder has been in the wars over recent weeks, however still remains in touch with the Speedway World Championship leaders as the Series passes its halfway mark.

In the week leading up to the Croatian Grand Prix, Holder sustained a crash in a British Elite League match between his Poole Pirates club and the Wolverhampton Wolves.

At first, it was feared that Holder had suffered an elbow injury that may have jeopardised his place in the Grand Prix. After withdrawing from the meeting, attention from the Pirates medical staff post-event cleared Holder of any serious injury and he was allowed to defend his second placing in the World Speedway Championship.

Although riding in pain, Holder was holding his own - along with fellow

Australian, Jason Crump, who too had been in trouble after breaking his collarbone in Russia just a week before the event. Crump also was taking part - attempting to advance past Holder in the Championship pointscore.

Then disaster struck again. A primary chain let go in heat 14, spitting him over the handlebars in a nasty incident.

Groggily, he got to his feet and took it slowly back to the pit area. The Grand Prix medical staff checked him over and suggested he withdraw from the remainder of the meeting after aggravating a pre-existing rib injury.

He ended the night with a limited six points.

All is not lost in the World Championship chase for Castrol’s young charge, with Holder dropping back to fourth some 13 points off the

Championship lead. He was fortunate that both Crump (9 points) and World Championship leader, Greg Hancock (10 points) missed the Final.

In winning the Grand Prix, Dane Nicki Pedersen elevated himself into Title contention.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (Top 10):

pos rider points

1. Greg Hancock 97

2. Nicki Pedersen 91

3. Jason Crump 87

4. Chris Holder 84

5. Tomasz Gollob 77

6. Fredrik Lindgren 72

7. Emil Sayfutdinov 65

8. Andreas Jonsson 62

9. Jaroslaw Hampel 46

10. Antonio Lindback 46

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ricHo’s saFety tiPs: #9 be switcHed oN From tHe start

The great Peter Brock used to say that if you had the correct attitude to driving, the rest would follow. And that is a very fair point. You need to be switched on to driving from the time you sit into the driving seat.

Treat the click of the seatbelt as like a switch – once it’s in – you’re on. Like it or not, every time you leave a car park – you are in charge of a potentially lethal weapon.

Being aware of what’s happening on the road is so important. Minimise the distractions around you in the vehicle – turning the radio up loud and singing along is one of the worst distractions you can have.

How can you hear an Ambulance coming up along behind if you’re looking at the road ahead and belting out a bit of Bon Jovi?

Another of my pet hates is cruising along the highway and seeing drivers (particularly young females) wearing earbuds in both ears. They would never hear an emergency service vehicle, let alone the cars surrounding them. It’s very important to be aware of the cars around you both in sight and in sound.

On mobile phones, it’s preferable to not speak on the phone at all, but if you must, get a Bluetooth hands free module. I advise turning the phone onto silent when you’re in the car, so that if you get an email or text message, you aren’t drawn to the phone to immediately check it, thus distracting you from the road ahead.

Maintain a level of awareness of what’s happening around you at all times so you will make your destination safely.

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THE

POWERBEHIND THE

PACKBEHIND THE

PACK!