Tag: racing

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Carmageddon Motorsports News Porsche

Australian Carrera Cup series fails to launch in 2009

Australian Carrera Cup series cancelled 2009

On Thursday it was announced the Australian 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup season would be cancelled due to a lack of cars to fill the grid.

Porsche Cars Australia managing director, Michael Winkler, said “to enter the season without a robust grid of cars is simply not viable for all the major stakeholders. Motorsport is an integral part of Porsche’s activities in Australia so this decision is not taken lightly.

“We have already spoken with the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) as the governing body of Australian motorsport and will proactively work with them to ensure existing owners of 997 GT3 Cup Cars are given the opportunity to race in other categories.”

There was an eight round program scheduled for 2009, with the first race planned for the Clipsal 500 later next month.

This news is a real sign of the global financial crisis biting hard at home. It will be interesting to see if those teams with financial backing are able to find alternate series to race in. It will also be interesting to see if the Carrera Cup will return in 2010, or indeed, at all in the near future.

Source: cupcar.com.au – image courtesy of cupcar.com.au (Thanks to Richard for the tip.)

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Motorsports News

A1GP dashboard – live telemetry in your lounge room

A1GP Dashboard - live telemetry

A1GP’s new ‘Dashboard’ feature is set to bring a new dimension to following motorsport. ‘Dashboard’ will be accessible via A1GP.com during pratice and race sessions. It allows users to select any car on track and follow its progress via a live telemetry feed (see example above).

Live timing on the internet is nothing new, but user defined access to live telemetry is. And it promises to be very cool. The feature has already been trialled during last year’s round at Malaysia, with plenty of positive feedback from A1GP Fanzone members, despite some initial teething problems.

Pete da Silva, CEO of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, said: “This is an excellent new feature which fans of international motor racing have never been able to access before. We are sure it will make watching our races on TV even more exciting, giving an added dimension to following the action of a race for every fan. It also adds to our impressive profile of free online content on A1GP.com, including our live video streaming, highlights videos, live positioning timing as well as our exclusive columns and news.”

You can try it out for yourself next weekend during the New Zealand round (23-25 January). Full details listed below.

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Motorsports News

Jacques Villeneuve wanted by Supercheap Racing

Supercheap Auto Racing chase Jacques Villeneuve

Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper is reporting that Supercheap Auto Racing is chasing 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve to fill the seat left vacant by Paul Morris.

Morris is the team principal of Supercheap Racing and he thinks the Villeneuve deal might just come off, “This is real. Absolutely. He is pretty keen to do it,” Morris said.

“It would be the full season. Not just one race. If we can make a bit of a buzz about it then I think it can definitely happen.

“We would have to write about $2 million in sponsorship so we could run the car and pay him to drive.”

Paul Morris knows ex-Aussie Barry Green, a key member of Villeneuve’s management team, and the topic of Villeneuve in a V8 Supercar came up midway through 2008. The newspaper report claims Villeneuve was offered a drive at last year’s Bathurst enduro race but time commitments saw it fall through.

However, Morris, who is travelling to the United States next week, is keen to talk to Green again to see if a deal to bring Villeneuve to Australia can be worked out. “The next step would be to get him out here to drive the car,” he said.

Watch this space. If Villeneuve was to race in the V8 Supercar category he would certainly attract a broader motorsport audience to the series.

Source: Herald-Sun (Thanks to Chris for the tip.)

Update 10 January: There’s some great attention seeking quotes HERE from Paul Morris—he was just getting started when he said this, “We need people in there who have got profile. The current crop of drivers are more worried about where their sunglasses are sitting on top of their hat; they are all as boring as bat shit and not many of them have any real personality.”

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Motorsports

Ireland’s North West 200

Anyone who knows what the North West 200 is will know the event was held in mid-May this year, however, I just caught a few minutes of highlights on FoxSports 2 here in Australia. I don’t know a hell of a lot about the race, but I recall seeing some highlights last year as well, and I recall how spectacular this event is. For those that don’t know about the North West 200, it is, essentially, madness on two wheels.

Think balls of steel, handlebar to handlebar action, on closed public roads. The North West 200 was first held in 1929. The current course is 9 miles in length and is run on a triangle shaped course linking the villages of Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine.

Enjoy the clip above, which is a full lap of the circuit, filmed from an on-board camera. If you enjoy that, check out the BBC Northern Island’s NW200 website, it has some excellent information and lots of video footage to be amazed by.

Of course, racing of this nature has inherent dangers and the 2008 event will be remembered for the death of Robert Dunlop. From all accounts, he was a great bloke, and a bloody good rider, who had achieved plenty of success in the NW 200.

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Porsche

Ãœber-cool vintage Porsche racing posters

Vintage Porsche racing posters

Old skool Porsche racing posters—what’s not to love! Dutch website Auto Kopen has 51 designs for you to choose from. There’s some truly stunning designs and all form interesting time capsules of Porsche racing history. Enjoy…

Source: Auto Kopen (Thanks to Micky for the tip.)

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MINI MINI Challenge News

Australian MINI CHALLENGE under new management

MINI CHALLENGEGood news from the world of the Australian MINI CHALLENGE today with confirmation of a new management team securing the future of the series. Toleman Motorsport has been given the seal of approval from MINI Australia and CAMS to act as Category Management Agency for the rest of the year. All racing dates and television schedules will remain as advertised. Further highlighting the future of the MINI CHALLENGE is word that plans for the 2009 calendar are in full swing with seven rounds already locked in as negotiations continue.

With the demise of Sherrin Motorsport, subsidary company Motorsport Event Management (MEM) was forced to put the management rights for the MINI CHALLENGE up for sale last May.

Toleman Motosport is headed by Ted Toleman who was the person responsible for giving Ayrton Senna his start in Formula 1. Toleman’s last Grand Prix was Australia’s first, Adelaide 1985. It’s great to see Australia’s MINI CHALLENGE series in good hands and I’m sure all fans of the series will be looking forward to racing this weekend for Round 5 at Phillip Island, including live action from Race 3 to be broadcast on Channel 7 on Sunday (check your local guides).

For the full details on the Toleman Motorsport news the press release from MINI CHALLENGE has been included below. Don’t forget, you can keep up to date with the series and its personalties by joining the Aussie MINI CHALLENGE Army on facebook.

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