castrol edge australia enewsletter - vol 4, issue 9

IT’S OUR BEST OIL YET... WWW.CASTROLEDGE.COM.AU 29th MAY 2014VOLUME 4 - ISSUE 9

CASTROL CREWS TASTE SUCCESS IN THE WESTCastrol-backed Ford Pepsi Max Crew’s Chaz Mostert has claimed his maiden victory for the factory Ford team after a mature and decisive drive in Race 16 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Perth 400. Mostert qualified fourth and was third by turn one before claiming the race lead just before the second round of pit stops. He then built a gap which he maintained to the end to beat championship protagonists Craig Lowndes and teammate Mark Winterbottom.

“I had Craig down my neck all race and to race with him and trade lap times with him was cool,” said Mostert. “The team has been awesome all weekend and we were quick from Friday and that set us up for the weekend. This event is my one-year anniversary in the sport so it was great to cap the event with a win. It

STRENGTH FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

was a tough start to the year but the last couple of rounds have been awesome and to come away eighth in the points and with my first win for the team is really cool.”

Winterbottom retains his overall lead with third and despite his strategy not panning out as planned; he was pleased with his weekend and the overall performance of the team. James Moffat and Michael Caruso salvaged a rewarding double top-10 finish at Barbagallo Raceway for the Castrol-oiled Nissan Motorsport outfit

After a disappointing qualifying session that yielded rear of grid starts, Moffat and Caruso finished a fighting eighth and 10th respectively. The results have launched the pair back up the championship ladder, with Caruso back in 13th place overall, one place ahead of Moffat.

“Any day you qualify 24th and finish eighth, you have to be reasonably happy,” said Moffat. “The car was consistent in the race, our strategy was really good and I was able to run to a pace that was comfortable for me and the car. We have a five-week break ahead of us, which includes an important test day, so we need to recharge our batteries but no lose sight that we still have a lot of work to do.”

For the Jack Daniel’s Nissan pair of Rick and Todd Kelly, a consistent race saw them come home in 14th and 16th place respectively. Castrol EDGE-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Tim Slade completed a tough weekend in Perth, coming home a disappointing 25th in Sunday’s 200km race. Slade, who ran as high as third place before pitting on lap 29, made contact with Scott McLaughlin on lap 37 – sustaining a broken steering arm.

2014 V8 Supercars standings

POS DRIVER TOTAL

1 Mark Winterbottom 1199

2 Craig Lowndes 1098

3 Fabian Coulthard 1059

4 Jamie Whincup 986

5 James Courtney 928

6 Shane Van Gisbergen 861

7 Scott McLaughlin 840

8 Chaz Mostert 792

9 David Reynolds 757

10 Jason Bright 754

11 Lee Holdsworth 702

12 Will Davison 678

13 Michael Caruso 670

14 James Moffat 638

15 Garth Tander 636

16 Tim Slade 629

17 Russell Ingall 623

18 Rick Kelly 618

19 Scott Pye 595

20 David Wall 530

21 Jack Perkins 509

22 Nick Percat 499

23 Dale Wood 489

24 Todd Kelly 476

25 Robert Dahlgren 311

STRENGTH FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE STRENGTH FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

Despite tough track conditions in a drama-packed race, Gabriele Tarquini (P2) and Tiago Monteiro (P3) showed great teamwork for Castrol Honda to score the team’s first double podium of the season. With Gabriele Tarquini on pole position for Race 2 at the Salzburgring and with the three other Civics completing the first and second rows of the grid, ambitions were high for podium results.

Monteiro started the race strongly, squeezing behind Mehdi Bennani and Norbert Michelisz from the grid, before major drama unfolded behind them. Five retirements from two major incidents on the starting straight caused the race to be suspended, resulting in a restart under the safety car.

With the race under way again, Jose Maria Lopez, who had moved up to P5 behind

DOUBLE PODIUM FOR CASTROL HONDA WTCC TEAM

just ahead of Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo Motorsport car. Next up for the World Touring Car Championship is Moscow in just two weeks time.

the four Hondas, made his way passed Tiago to P2, and after another safety car period, caused by debris on the track, Lopez passed Tarquini for the lead into turn 9, which was the way it remained.

Meanwhile Michelisz defended valiantly from Tom Coronel finishing P4, while Bennani clung on to a hard fought P8. Monteiro fired his Honda Civic off the line at the start of Race 1 to snatch fifth place at the first corner and the Portuguese worked hard for the whole 15 laps to hold his position to the chequered flag against the tough challenge from Tom Chilton.

He led a high-speed six-car train that included the second Castrol Honda Racing Civic of Gabriele Tarquini who finished 8th just behind the Proteam Racing Honda of Mehdi Bennani and

2014 WTCC Standings

POS DRIVER POINTS

1 José María López 179

2 Yvan Muller 138

3 Sébastien Loeb 134

4 Tiago Monteiro 96

5 Gabriele Tarquini 74

6 Gianni Morbidelli 60

7 Tom Coronel 58

8 Norbert Michelisz 54

9 Tom Chilton 54

10 Hugo Valente 47

11 Mehdi Bennani 36


Castrol-backed Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista made it two Hondas on the podium with a storming ride to third at the French Grand Prix that helped erase memories of a difficult start to his season.

The Castrol-backed Team GO & FUN Honda Gresini celebrated at Le Mans their first podium of the 2014 season thanks to the fantastic third place finish achieved by Bautista. Starting from the seventh position, the Spaniard showed an outstanding performance aboard his Honda RC213V, making several overtakes and settling in third place with ten laps to go, beaten on the finish line only by Championship leader Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi.

“I’m so happy to be on the podium, especially since it’s more than one

CASTROL-BACKED BAUTISTA PODIUMS MOTOGP AT LE MANS

2014 MotoGP Standings

POS DRIVER POINTS

1 Marc Márquez 125

2 Daniel Pedrosa 83

3 Valentino Rossi 81

4 Andrea Dovizioso 53

5 Jorge Lorenzo 45

6 Stefan Bradl 39

7 Pol Espargaró 38

8 Aleix Espargaro 37

9 Bradley Smith 34

10 Alvaro Bautista 26

11 Andrea Iannone 25

12 Nicky Hayden 23

13 Hiroshi Aoyama 21

14 Scott Redding 18

year since I’ve had this feeling,” said Bautista. “After the three crashes we had in the first three races and the practice troubles we had at Austin and in Argentina, we began to work well again at Jerez. Here I felt so good on the bike from FP1, so we’ve been competitive all weekend. Marc was on another level today, but I could stay with others, always trying to keep my rhythm. My thanks to the team – this result gives us a lot of confidence.”

Teammate Scott Redding was the top finisher aboard Honda’s new production racer, the RCV1000R. It was another impressive display from the young rookie, who won last year’s Moto2 race at Le Mans, after a set-up change that allowed him to push deeper into the corners.


http://youtu.be/0WKis4NYLHo

Mike Rockenfeller and has taken the lead of the DTM drivers’ championship thanks to a second place finish at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben behind the wheel of his Castrol EDGE oiled Audi RS 5 DTM.

The Castrol EDGE-backed Audi manufacturer has also moved to the top in the manufacturers’ and teams’ standings. Right in time for the start of the race the sky above the Motorsport Arena opened its floodgates to produce intense racing which was won by Christian Vietoris by a gap of only 0.674 seconds.

“It was a chaotic race,” Rockenfeller said after the race. “I started on standard tires and that wasn’t a good choice for the initial conditions. For me, the race seemed to be over at that time. But then Team Phoenix made a superb decision and called me in for the tire change at exactly the right moment. Even victory would have still been possible. But second place is good, too. We scored a lot of points and clinched the lead of the standings. It was a great day for us. ‘Many thanks’ to Audi and to Team Phoenix.”

Edoardo Mortara of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline came home third securing two Castrol-backed Audi team drivers were on podium just like in the season opener at Hockenheim two weeks ago. Augusto Farfus came home fifth in the Castrol EDGE BMW M4 DTM, while Martin Tomczyk also picked up points, finishing ninth in the Castrol-oiled BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM.

DOUBLE PODIUM FOR CASTROL-BACKED AUDI DTM

2014 DTM Championship

POS DRIVER POINTS

1 Mike Rockenfeller 30

2 Christian Vietoris 25

3 Marco Wittmann 25

4 Mattias Ekström 18

5 Adrien Tambay 16

6 Edoardo Mortara 15

7 Augusto Farfus Jr. 14

8 Paul Di Resta 12

9 Timo Glock 10

10 Bruno Spengler 8

11 Miguel Molina 8

12 Martin Tomczyk 8

12 Timo Scheider 8

14 Gary Paffett 4

15 Joey Hand 1

Lady luck deserted the rest of the BMW drivers in difficult conditions: despite impressive displays for vast stretches of the race, they still missed out on a place in the top ten. Marco Wittmann was unable to convert the pole position, to which he was promoted after the post-qualifying disqualification of Audi driver Miguel Molina, into any form of result.


Castrol EDGE-backed BMW works driver Alex Zanardi made a successful return to Brands Hatch, but this time in his BMW Z4 GT3 entered by ROAL Motorsport. Double Paralympic champion and former Formula 1 driver Zanardi returned to Brands Hatch for the first time since he claimed two gold medals at London 2012 to finish fifth overall in the circuit’s main race of the second round of the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series.

What made this result event more spectacular was that he had started from 17th after finishing the earlier qualifying race in this position. However, Zanardi did not only have to beat the other competitors, but also had to battle to keep himself cool, something made very difficult due to wearing prosthetic legs.

“Man it was tough. At least with the handbike I could breath. It was literally like a pan fire,” said Zanardi. “At the

CASTROL-BACKED ZANARDI FIFTH AT BRANDS HATCH

the race it was arrivederci, so I just had to fight in the car.

beginning of the race it wasn’t that bad because I had my cooling stuff, which was working, but then 25 minutes into


Race Result

1. Proczyk/Bleekemolen Grasser Lamborghini 1h01m19.981s

2. Buhk/Gotz HTP Mercedes +4.043s

3. Jimenez/Bueno Brazil BMW +11.760s

4. Ramos/Vanthoor WRT Audi +19.365s

5. Zanardi ROAL BMW +24.579s

6. Abril/Lisowski WRT Audi +25.187s

7. Salaquarda/Montermini Villorba Ferrari +25.747s

8. Stumpf/Brito Brazil BMW +27.088s

9. Ide/Rast WRT Audi +27.829s

10. Colombo/Fumanelli ROAL BMW +41.001s

“It was one of the toughest things I have done on wheels, either three or four. But we can make it better because there is a bigger bag available for cooling. Even if the car goes up five kilos that will turn into bigger tenths for us if I can cool my body down. One funny thing about the result is I hate number 17. In Italy it is the unlucky number. I even like number 13, but I guess at 47 years of age it is about time to get rid of this type of superstition.”

The two hour-long races were held in perfect weather conditions and a start from sixth on the grid for the qualifying race gave the Italian hope for a good result. The honour of being the highest placed BMW car went to the BMW Z4 GT3 of BMW Sports Trophy Team Brazil of Sergio Jimenez and Caca

Bueno who finished third in both races. The two races were also both won by Hari Proczyk and Jeroen Bleekemolen. Usually two drivers share each car, but the regulations allow handicapped

drivers like Zanardi, who had both his legs amputated, or category Bronze drivers over the age of 30 to compete by themselves.


Castrol Team Hahn Racing driver Jochen Hahn has kicked off his 2014 European Truck Racing Championship campaign off in style winning topping the points table after round one.

Racing in Misano, Italy Hahn won race one and finished on the podium in race three to score enough points to head to the second round with the championship points lead.

CASTROL TEAM HAHN RACING LEAD EUROPEAN TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP

2014 European Truck Racing standings

Pos Driver Truck Points

1. Jochen Hahn MAN 42

2. Norbert Kiss MAN 39

3. Antonio Albacete MAN 33

4. Markus Bösiger MAN 31

4. Adam Lacko Freightliner 31

6. David Vrsecky Freightliner 30

7. Rene Reinert MAN 25

8. Gerd Körber Iveco 11

9. José Fernandes Teodosio Renault 9

10. Stephanie Halm MAN 8

It was the ideal start to the year for the Castrol MAN driver as Hahn looks to secure his fourth consecutive European Truck Racing crown.

The FIA organises the European Truck Racing Championship reserved for Race Trucks. The eligible vehicles are series production two-axle road tractor units.

Round to of the 2014 championship takes crews to Navarra, Spain - June 8.


The Castrol-backed John Force Racing driver Robert Hight and crew chief Mike Neff have won for the fourth time in the 2014 NHRA series and for the third consecutive event.

Hight and the Auto Club team, the No. 3 qualifier at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals, have raced

CASTROL-BACKED HIGHT WINS THREE IN A ROW

to six consecutive finals this season and have a commanding points lead heading to the NHRA Kansas Nationals in Topeka. Hight was racing his teammate Courtney Force for the first time in a final round and there was history to be made no matter who took the win light. For the youngest Force she was chasing the 100th win by a female NHRA pro competitor.

For Hight, who won his 300th round win with a victory over Bob Bode in the first round, it was extending his final round streak and also moving up in the all-time Funny Car win list. He is now only one win behind Cruz Pedregon (34) and two wins behind Don “The Snake” Prudhomme (35) out of 5th and 4th place, respectively.

“It’s kind of funny that Courtney and I have never raced in final, usually the boss (John Force) hogs it and he’s in there with the other one,” said Hight. “Actually, the first non-John Force all JFR final was Eric Medlin and myself it had always been John with one of his other teammates.

“So, it’s pretty cool, you know, it would’ve been big win for Courtney but you know what, we have a lot of momentum, we want to make some history here this is six straight final rounds. I’ve never done this and six out of seven (races), I would’ve never guess this. I’ve won three in a row a few times but I want to win four or even five in a row. I want to see where we can go. We got to take it one round at a time


and that’s what we’re doing, it’s a total team effort,.”

This was the 42nd all-JFR final round and it assured the 230th Funny Car win for John Force Racing. It’s the 14th straight race in which the JFR team has had a least one of its Fords in the final round. Courtney Force was the sixth different teammate Hight has opposed in a final round joining John Force, Neff, Eric Medlen, Ashley Force Hood and Phil Burkart Jr.

Once again, the 16-time NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car Champion will leave Atlanta Dragway empty handed as John Force and his Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang lost in round one to fellow Ford Racer Tim Wilkerson. At the hit of the throttle, John Force’s race car smoked the Goodyear slicks due in part to a glitch in the clutch system.

Sunday’s eight-hour rain delay also put a damper on Brittany Force’s hopes of getting her first Top Fuel victory and

potentially being the 100TH NHRA Pro female winner. Being the third pair of race cars out on a relatively green track, Brittany’s 10,000 horsepower Castrol EDGE Dragster immediately overpowered Atlanta Dragway’s tricky surface at the hit of the throttle.


Castrol-backed John Force Racing driver Courtney Force has raced into the history books at the 26th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka winning the Funny Car title and securing the 100th victory for female professionals in the premiere NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. It was Force’s second attempt at earning this important win. Last week Force fell to red-hot teammate Robert Hight in the Southern Nationals final round in Atlanta.

“This is huge. You could see the emotion on my face after I lost last weekend. It is a big deal and it is a milestone for women,” said Force. “Every girl out here wanted to

CASTROL-BACKED COURTNEY FORCE CREATES NHRA HISTORY

get it. It was close every girl put her heart out there to try and get it. I was crushed after last weekend because I thought to myself that opportunity will never come again and that chance to get 100 will be gone forever.

“I am still trying to soak it in right now. I have to thank my team and all my sponsors. Once my dad and Robert went out today you could see all those colours coming over to our pit area and thrashing on my car. I want to thank all them and all the crew chiefs. They gave me a good consistent race car all weekend and that is what we were missing from the start of the season.”

The win was not without some self-inflicted drama. Force admitted that nerves and pressure were at an all-time high as she rolled her Traxxas Ford Mustang up to face the two-time Mello Yello Funny Car champion. As she tried to give herself every starting line advantage she inadvertently lit


the pre-stage and stage bulbs before Cruz had a chance to pre-stage. This racing faux pas weighed heavily on Force both before and after she ran.

“I almost screwed up on the starting line. I almost failed at my job. I was so nervous and the pressure was through the roof. I was pulling up to the starting line and all I was thinking was Cruz got a hole shot on Robert (Hight). I didn’t want to lose on a hole shot, too,” said Force. “There was a lot on the line. I wanted to roll in a little deep on my pre-stage. I screwed up and rolled it too much and lit both bulbs before he was even staged. Luckily, I left

MELLO YELLO POINT STANDINGS - FUNNY CAR

POS DRIVER POINTS

1. Robert Hight 770

2. John Force 566

3. Alexis DeJoria 509

4. Ron Capps 502

5. Courtney Force 472

when I needed to. I apologized to Cruz and I sure as heck wasn’t trying to screw him up. I screwed myself up. Luckily we got away with it today.”

Force was the No. 1 qualifier, set low ET and Top Speed on the way to her fourth career win which ties her with sister Ashley Force Hood. The Traxxas Ford Mustang driver defeated Dale Creasy Jr., Jeff Arend and Tommy Johnson Jr. to reach her final round race with Pedregon. For Brittany Force and her Castrol EDGE team, it looked like it was going to be their weekend to win her first Top Fuel event. As she started race day from the number one

spot, a first for Brittany Force, she was on track to get that trip to the winner’s circle and potentially claim NHRA’s 100th pro female driver win milestone.

“I’m so happy at how we did this weekend. We were the number one qualifier and we’ve never done that before. We ran a career best 3.74 ET and were super pumped about that so to come out here and go rounds is what we wanted to do,” said Brittany Force.

Unfortunately, a catastrophic engine failure during the semi-final round of eliminations ended her day, but it didn’t dampen Brittany’s spirits or enthusiasm one bit. She’s ready to get strapped into her Castrol EDGE Dragster and hit the drag strip.

“Obviously we wanted to go all the way, make it to the finals and be in the winner’s circle, but our day got cut a little short. However, I’m so proud of my team and we turned it around this weekend and we have a great race car. I’m anxious to get to Englishtown and see what happens,” she added.

Despite qualifying number one on Friday, and just barely getting bumped from the pole position on Saturday by daughter Courtney, John Force’s Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang looked like it was poised for another victory at Heartland Park Topeka.

Unfortunately, mechanical gremlins once again appeared during eliminations and ended his day early with a round one loss at the NHRA Kansas Nationals. Fellow JFR driver Robert Hight’s team was on a six race streak of final round appearances and a three race win streak. This was the first time Hight was eliminated in the first round in 2014. His round record is now 22-4 for the season.


Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor ‘perrebros’ has taken round honours after the fifth V8 Supercars Championship event at the Perth 400 scoring themselves a $100 BP fuel card. The perrebros team’s 125 points haul came with a prediction accuracy of 57% after they took full advantage of the new-to-2014 bonus points system and collected and additional 60 bonus points.

In the overall league standings team Murph has taken top spot from Bloopy Enterprises who slipped back two spots to third. Arne’s Mob climed an impressive 25 spots and now occupies second in the overall standings. The overall drivers’ points winner for the

weekend went to Pepsi Max Crew FPR’s Chaz Mostert after his impressive debut win for the factory Ford outfit.

Red Bull Racing Australia’s Craig Lowndes was second for the weekend with Mark Winterbottom in third as the pair continue to occupy the top-two spots in the V8 Supercars Championship with Frosty ahead by 101 series points. In the Experts’ league Speedcafe.com and Andy Priaulx shared round honours with 22 points each for the Barbagallo-based round.

Speedcafe.com maintains the lead in the Expert league standings with WTCC Champion Andy Priaulx moving

PREDICTOR: PERREBROS PICKS UP $100 BP FUEL CARD

ahead of Rust as the pair continue to trade blows for second spot on the Expert leaderboard. Signing up for the V8 Predictor is easy and players have the chance of winning the ultimate V8 Supercars holiday in 2015 including flights, accommodation, spending money and behind the scenes access to the V8 Supercars world. There are also $100 BP Fuel vouchers up for grabs for each of the 14 championship rounds contested this year plus bonus prizes on top. Round 6 of the V8 Supercars Championship takes crews over to the west for the Skycity Triple Crown at Hidden Valley - June 20-22.


2014 Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor - Global Leaderboard

RANK TEAM NAME POINTS

1 Murph 370

2 Arne’s Mob 349

3 Bloopy Enterprises 331

4 SCATTERS 304

5 Bryce’s V8 Tipping 300

6 lapm 300

7 Flying Falcons 299

8 Team Nosk 292

9 Sixpack Racing 288

10 Topgun 287

11 Becvdh 283

12 team brock 283

13 Hooksta Racing 283

14 boats n hoes 280

15 Kervs 279

16 JohnJohnson 279

17 SLM racing 276

18 Just Guessing Racing 275

19 Chook 275

20 Team Skillsy 273

2014 Expert Leaderboard

RANK TEAM NAME POINTS

1 Speedcafe 173

2 Andy Priaulx 117

3 Greg Rust 113

Additional Points

POLE POSITION LOWNDES, Craig and MCLAUGHLIN, Scott

FASTEST LAP MOSTERT, Chaz and LOWNDES, Craig

RACE WINNER MOSTERT, Chaz and LOWNDES, Craig and MCLAUGHLIN, Scott

Weekend Results - Perth 400

TIME

1 MOSTERT, Chaz 265

2 LOWNDES, Craig 264

3 WINTERBOTTOM, Mark 258

4 COULTHARD, Fabian 235

5 WHINCUP, Jamie 211

6 MCLAUGHLIN, Scott 189

7 REYNOLDS, David 165

8 BRIGHT, Jason 162

9 WALL, David 160

10 COURTNEY, James 147

11 PYE, Scott 142

12 INGALL, Russell 141

13 HOLDSWORTH, Lee 140

14 MOFFAT, James 132

15 KELLY, Todd 130

15 CARUSO, Michael 130

16 PERCAT, Nick 113

17 DAVISON, Will 106

17 KELLY, Rick 106

18 TANDER, Garth 105

19 WOOD, Dale 94

20 PERKINS, Jack 85

21 VAN GISBERGEN, Shane 84

22 SLADE, Tim 79

23 DAHLGREN, Robert 74


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castrol edge australia enewsletter - vol 4, issue 9

Documents

consistent race

race lead

james moffat

tough weekend

dramapacked race

michael caruso

maximum performance

todd kelly