A1GP The Netherlands Take First Win of Season Four

Gauteng, South Africa Jeroen Bleekemolen took the Netherlands first victory in Season Four in this mornings Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa Sprint race. Bleekemolen drove a faultless race around the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit to win by 4.407-seconds from Portugals Filipe Albuquerque. Switzerlands Neel Jani had a good start to move up to second off the standing start, but finished third after losing time trying to manoeuvre round Malaysias car, which had pitted in front of him.

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Bleekemolen made a clean getaway from the standing start to lead the chasing pack into turn one for the first time. Switzerland had a great start from third to take second position from Portugal while Indias Narain Karthikeyan also had a good start to move up from fifth to fourth.

India was not able to hold position for long as an aggressive move by Clivio Piccione moved Monaco ahead into fourth with Irelands Adam Carroll also sensing an opportunity to get ahead only a few corners later, so pushing India down to sixth.

China's Ho Pin Tung and New Zealand's Earl Bamber were having a good battle for eleventh. China made a move at turn 13 on lap three but out-braked himself allowing New Zealand to re-take the position.

Malaysias Fairuz Fauzy moved up ahead of Frances Nicolas Prost for eighth, while the Netherlands was storming away at the front with Bleekemolen having a 4.686-second lead over Switzerland by lap four.

With the order now the Netherlands from Switzerland, Portugal, Monaco, Ireland, India, South Africa, Malaysia, France and Italy, the pit window opened. The Netherlands and Switzerland were first in the pits with the following three runners staying out on track an extra lap. Bleekemolen had a smooth stop but Switzerland lost time having to get away slowly to manoeuvre round Malaysias car, which had pitted just in front. Portugal pitted a lap later and was able to re-take second from Switzerland. After the only mandatory stop of the race the order was now the Netherlands leading by 6.4 seconds from Portugal, Switzerland, Monaco, Ireland, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Malaysia, France.

A1 Team Australias fantastic pit work boosted John Martin six places up the field to his eventual finishing position, twelfth. While A1 Team New Zealand moved up three places after the stop.

Portgal was on a charge setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 9 with a time of 1m29.072s, slightly closing the gap to the Netherlands.

Further down the field, Great Britains Danny watts and Brazils Felipe Guimares came together fighting for fifteenth. The pair touched heading into turn one with Watts car spinning into the gravel and out the race.

A very happy Bleekemolen came through to take the chequered flag and record the teams first win in 45 races. Obviously South Africa is lucky for the team as its first of three wins to date was round the streets of Durban in Season One. Switzerland and Portugal completed the podium with Ireland taking fourth from Monaco on the last lap, retaining its championship lead.

Race winner Jeroen Bleekemolen said: Im feeling pretty good. It all just went amazingly. It was a very hard race for me though, because in the beginning I could feel there was some kind of pull with the fuel pick up. It didnt cost me any time but I could just feel it coming.  And then after the pit stop the car just stopped and I feared the race would be over, but it started working again.  I lost about one and half or two seconds, but luckily we were still able to win. 

In the beginning we were really quick, I dont know why we were so much faster, but everything worked.  The car worked really well until the problem came but then it still was exciting for me.

Portugals Filipe Albuquerque said: The team did a very good job and I managed to pass Switzerland.  Im really happy with the fastest lap and second place.

Im still aiming for the lead of the championship.  Its going to be an interesting Feature race now because we are all together in the middle of the grid.  We will see who the luckiest guy is because anything can happen.

Switzerlands Neel Jani said: We were second and then unfortunately we had some problems at the pit stop.  First of all the pit stop was not that quick, and then I couldnt get out because Malaysia was parked in front of me.   We have to be happy with third though as its still points so lets see what happens in the next race.

 Sprint Race Results

Fastest lap: A1 Team Portugal set the fastest lap (1m29.072s) of the Sprint race with a speed of 172.3kph on lap 9.

A1GP Monaco and Netherlands take pole positions in South Africa

Gauteng, South Africa – The Netherlands and Monaco were the toast of Kyalami today as their respective drivers, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Clivio Piccione, claimed the coveted pole position spots for the Sprint and Feature races of round Five of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season, Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa. While it was pole number four for the Dutch driver it was the first ever for Monaco.

It proved to be an exciting qualifying afternoon at the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit, which is 2000 metres above sea level. Both grids look very different thanks to the return of the PowerBoost qualifying rule, where teams got to choose when to engage an extra 60 brake horse power for the entirety of one of their four runs, and a big crash to Brazil’s Felipe Guimaraes in the final of the four qualifying segments. This accident caught the majority of the field out and prevented them from completing their final runs when the red flag was out.

A1 Team Portugal first took provisional pole position having gone fastest in the first segment of the day, however by the time the second Sprint qualifying segment had ended, Bleekemolen had made use of his PowerBoost lap to record a 1m 27.717 lap, 0.355s ahead of Albuquerque.

Reigning champion Switzerland will start the race third, with Neel Jani behind the wheel again showing good pace, recording a lap 0.436s adrift of Bleekemolen.

After a great start to the weekend, Lebanon had a disappointing time in qualifying. Morad looked to be on a good lap during the second segment while utilising his only PowerBoost of the session, but the car had a misfire and lost power ruining his final lap, also putting him out of Feature qualifying.  

Monaco was also in good form, setting the fourth quickest time.

The stage was set for an epic Feature race qualifying, with many teams having not utilised their PowerBoost presses yet. In the first segment, Australia’s John Martin set the fastest time with a 1m 28.439s lap.

But the second qualifying segment came to an end a minute and a half early after Brazil‘s crash, with only five cars having chosen to go out setting a time prior to the accident.

Monaco, choosing to go early, had already recorded a time of 1m 27.269s before the red flag came out and therefore claimed the team’s first ever pole position in its debut season and at its ninth attempt.

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy came back from a difficult day after losing all of today’s practice time due to an engine change earlier in the day. After also choosing to go out early, Fauzy’s time of 1m 27.405s puts him alongside Monaco on the front row.

New Zealand’s Earl Bamber will start third on his return to the team, having sat out his home race last month in Taupo.

A1 Team Germany made its season debut this weekend and will start the races in 11th and 15th with Michael Ammermüller back in the cockpit. Local South African driver Adrian Zaugg will start 8th and sixteenth.

A1 Team Mexico was excluded from Feature race qualifying for failing to stop at the weighing bay. The team will drop to the back of the grid from thirteenth.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s 2008 Formula 1 World Championship runner-up, Felipe Massa, also enjoyed his first visit to an A1GP event today, joining A1 Team Brazil for qualifying. Massa watched the sessions from the pit wall with team principal, and two-time F1 World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, before getting the opportunity to drive a hot lap of Kyalami in the A1GP Ferrari 599 safety car.

After qualifying Massa commented: “It’s really interesting visiting A1GP and I’ve enjoyed seeing the quality of the new car. The championship has a nice style. It’s quite competitive, so I’m happy to be here getting this first experience of watching A1GP. It’s an intelligent format to have countries against countries and a good idea.”

The drivers who had secured the top spots on the grid were even happier.

Sprint pole-sitter Jereon Bleekemolen commented: “I didn’t have a great lap, but it was still enough.  It was good that we took at least one pole position.

“It’s always tricky with pit stops because anything can go wrong.  I mean it’s the same for anyone so I think the guys are doing a great job so far, and they are getting very fast.  Normally you shouldn’t be worried, but as a driver you want to do the job and finish the race in front so hopefully everything goes right.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “I am really pleased with the pace because we were really on it.  We were just slightly off pole position in the Sprint but I am not so happy in the Feature because we are seventh - that’s not what I want as we’re also behind Ireland and Switzerland. It’s always hard to overtake with experienced drivers, so it’s going to be hard for sure. But I will push so hard for it because I really need to start to get ahead of them if I want to continue to fight for the championship.”

Clivio Piccione was delighted to claim Monaco’s first pole position for tomorrow’s Feature race: “I think the whole thing for me was to be on form for the Feature race.  We had a bit of a struggle at the beginning of the season but I think we found most of the problems, and now we’re back on the pace.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the season – especially tomorrow.

“Monaco is such a small country and we have a huge heritage in motorsport and it’s great to have our Prince behind such a project.  He has been following me since the beginning of my career and I’m very proud to have him on our side.  The pressure is on. I mean, it’s a long race with two pit stops, so there are two major stages where it’s going to be tricky.  It’s going to be pretty hot if it doesn’t rain tomorrow. It will be a tough race because I think it will be quite hard on the tyres but we’ll do our best and we’ll keep pushing.”

Malaysia’s Fauzy, who will line-up on the front row in tomorrow’s Feature race, commented: “We had a problem in Taupo with the engine; so we had a brand new engine fitted yesterday for the first rookie session but there was a problem so there was another last minute change today.  We missed the practice session this morning  so we were not sure which set up to use for the qualifying, and so just got the best information to put it together.  I must say thank you to the team and Ferrari.  They worked very hard to get the car ready for qualifying.”

The day began with two additional practice sessions aimed at giving the teams more time after slight delays in fitting additional parts to the cars to enable them to contend with Kyalami’s high altitude. Daniel Morad kept up Lebanon’s astounding pace this weekend in the first additional rookie session, with A1 Team China went fastest in the second session with Ho-Pin Tung.

A1 Team Netherlands became the team to beat going into qualifying topping the times in the final free practice session.

Additional Rookie Practice – drivers and developing nations only

Additional Practice session 2

Official Practice session 3

AUSSIES IN FOR A BUSY YEAR

  Australian motor sport stars are in for a busy year in all major categories of the sport.

  Mark Webber got his season underway last week at Jerez when he gave his broken leg its first test and surprised everyone with a time that equaled his “wunderkind” team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Only two drivers at this test managed to beat Webber’s time and as they were Hamilton and Alonso, he can’t be too disappointed. It must be said however that neither Ferrari nor BMW were on hand as they were both down at Bahrain along with Toyota. Mark’s speed wasn’t the only thing to give satisfaction either. As he completed 175 laps over two days in the car he was pretty happy with how his broken leg had mended.

   The first of our exports to have a hit out this year was Chris Atkinson who was left without a ride in the WRC when Subaru pulled the plug in early January. He has signed a deal with Citroen to drive for there “junior” squad throughout this season although he will not compete in all the rounds. One must say it was typical Chris in the opening round in Ireland, he was very quick when he wasn’t bending the car. Eleven top four stage times out of Seventeen stages including seven in a row as he hunted down and passed Henning Solberg’s Ford Focus for fourth place. Like his World Champion team-mate Sebastien Loeb, Chris used the wrong type of tyres on the first two stages and compounded this when he forgot to secure the bonnet after removing his fog lights, resulting in the bonnet smashing his windscreen. On stage six he got it completely wrong entering a right hander and leveled a telegraph pole. Then came the superb string of drives that had him in a comfortable fourth place with just one stage to go. And he beached it on a rock wall on the very first corner and lost a minute, and fourth place. Still, fifth was a pretty good result first time out in the C4 and it must be said that the conditions were appalling.

   In other categories, David Brabham will line up for two championship contending teams in sportscar races this year. He will drive for Gil de Ferran’s semi-works Acura (Honda) team in the American Le Mans series and has snared the plum drive with the works Peugeot squad for the Le Mans 24 hours. In the IRL Team Penske has become Team Australia with Will Power joining Ryan Briscoe in the famous squad. Depending on what happens with Helio Castro-Neves’ trial for tax evasion the two Aussies may be the teams drivers for the entire season. If Helio gets off, Will will at least start the season and have a ride for the Indy 500 with Penske. 

   A little way down the ladder we have the steadily improving John Martin in the A1GP series who has scored points regularly so far this season including a fine fourth place last time out at Taupo. After his stunning debut season in Europe where he won the West European Formula Renault series and finished runner-up in the Euroseries, Daniel Ricciardo has signed on with the current champion team in British F3, Carlin Motorsports. With Red Bull backing and VW engines Daniel could well be on the way to being our first British F3 champ since David Brabham.

    On two wheels, Casey Stoner has had his wrist operated on and has made it through his first test session with some pain and difficulty but still came out on top of the timesheets. Once again he will be leading the Ducati team in Moto GP while Chris Vermeulen will once again partner Loris Capirossi on the Suzuki. Troy Bayliss may have ridden off into the sunset with last years Superbike title but the “other” Troy (Corser) will head the new factory BMW team whose bike has been showing excellent pace in testing. A third title for Corser perhaps? Who knows. That’s the beauty of Motorsport, until the racing starts, no-one really knows anything. Come November we may be celebrating world champions in seven categories or none at all. But one thing is for certain, it will be fun following their efforts.

 Sam Snape 

14/02/2009

A1GP Switzerland Claims Feature Race Victory in New Zealand

Taupo, New Zealand A1 Team Switzerland claimed its second win of the season in this afternoons Feature race in A1GP Taupo, New Zealand. Neel Jani finished ahead of Irelands Adam Carroll and Portugals Filipe Albuquerque with Ireland retaining its position at the top of the A1GP championship standing.

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Ireland had a clean getaway from pole position but the Netherlands Robert Doornbos was slow off the mark from the front row, allowing Portugal to take advantage, and so dropping back to fifth. Albuquerque was right on the gearbox of Ireland as the field headed into turn one, tapping the Irish car and briefly losing momentum allowing a quick-starting Jani to move up from fourth on the grid to second.

Australias John Martin made an aggressive start to his Feature race, getting Jackeroo ahead of the Netherlands after first dropping behind Switzerland but remaining in fourth. New Zealands Chris van der Drift had a problematic start having to pit with a puncture after a collision with Lebanons Daniel Morad. Morad retired in the pit lane, but New Zealand was able to rejoin, albeit a lap down.

By the end of lap one Ireland led from Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, Netherlands, France and Malaysia, Brazil, USA and India.

Ireland began to pull out a small gap at the front, which was 0.874-seconds from Jani by the end of lap four. Carroll continued to record fastest laps while Monacos Clivio Piccione capitalised on a mistake from Indias Narain Karthikeyan to take ninth.

On lap eight the first pit stop window opened and the emerald green far was first in the pit lane. A good stop from the Irish squad saw the Celtic Tiger retain the lead, while another great stop from the Australian squad got Martin out closer to the leader. Switzerland pitted but wasnt able to take the lead, while Portugal stayed out deep into the pit window in an attempt to make up ground. After recording the fastest lap Albuquerque dived into the pit lane, but with Carrolls new tyres working well he rejoined in third place.

On lap 10 Monaco and Brazil were running wheel-to-wheel when the young Brazilian seemingly closed the door causing the pair to touch, with the result being Brazil spinning across the track and Piccione losing his front wing and running off-track.

After the first round of pit stops the order settled and was Ireland from Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India., USA and Great Britain. Ireland now had a comfortable 3.773-second lead over Switzerland.

On his return to A1GP action Chinas Congfu Cheng had a spin shortly before Great Britains Dan Clarke spun under braking into turn 11 on his race debut for the British team. The 25-year-old kept the engine running and rejoined in fifteenth.

On lap 22, the second mandatory pit stop window opened with Australia being first in this time around. Ireland and Switzerland both pitted on the same lap with the Irish team getting their man away a fraction quicker than the Swiss. However, after Carroll had pulled away from his pit box and looked to have retained his lead the anti-stall system kicked in and halted his progress. The car then stalled and as Carroll got his machine moving again Switzerland took the opportunity to get ahead and snatched the lead of the race. Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal was now the top three after Albuquerque had another clean stop to retain position. China had a problematic second stop with Cheng leaving the pits with the rear jack still attached, resulting in a drive-through penalty a few laps later.

On lap 29 the order was now Switzerland leading from Ireland., Portugal, Australia, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, Italy, USA and South Africa.

Switzerland had a 1.6-second advantage over Ireland and Portugal was continuing to push, with Albuquerque setting the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 14.898s on lap 30.

On lap 37, Clivio Piccione went off at Turn 11 and beached the Monaco car at the gravel resulting in the Safety Car being deployed. As the field closed back up the scene was set for the final exciting laps of the race. Switzerland controlled on the re-start on Lap 41 as the field made its way through Turn 1 incident-free.

USAs Marco Andretti moved ahead of Italy to take ninth before Indonesia's Satrio Hermanto spun at Turn 12, closely followed by Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy, who lost seventh and a solid-points finish at the same time at the same corner. While the action at Turn 12 was going on, Netherlands' Robert Doornbos took advantage and made a move to pass France's Loc Duval.

As the chequered flag came out the top three crossed the line only a few seconds apart. An extremely happy Jani took victory for Switzerland, an even more remarkable achievement given that he was rushed into hospital last week with suspected meningitis, and only came back to full fitness today.

Irelands points haul means it retains the championship lead with 65 points while Switzerland (52) move up to second ahead of Portugal (49).

What a weekend in the end, said race-winner Neel Jani. On Monday I still felt really bad, but I just got better every day with the warm weather in New Zealand, and it looks like the clean, fresh air helped me as well, so that is good.

The first race was already good, a great pit stop put me up to second, but here coming up from fifth to first was nothing we had ever thought of.  I had a great start from fifth to second and I was already next to Adam. I settled for second, but then we had a little problem on the first pit stop as I didnt really get off well as I had a problem with the clutch, and then the second pit stop was fantastic, very quick from the guys.  I saw Adam next to me and heard his engine revving on the limiter and thought there must be a problem, and I just kept on my side then and was able to take him like that.  Then I was just able to control the race.

It was a great, great weekend and a fantastic car.  This was the most points we have scored on a weekend this season and so now it is starting to come good for us, but there are still a lot of points needed to catch up Ireland.

Commenting on the first corner tap from Portugal, Irelands Adam Carroll commented: I needed just a little push to get off the line from behind, and Felipe (Albuquerque) gave me that.

It was all a bit close and quite interesting, he continued. But everything was going well until the second pit stop. Basically as I left the engine just went. It didnt stall immediately as to begin with it was okay. Actually the anti-stall system came in, then it stalled completely and I had to bump start it and go again.  I dont really know what happened. I was actually lucky not to lose more places. It was unfortunate but second place is still good.

I pushed hard and got some decent times in. Then the guys did a fantastic job in the pits for the first stop and we were able to come out with a good gap, which I was maintaining until the second stop where it all went wrong.

Portugals Filipe Albuquerque said: I think the race pace and our speed this weekend was really there, but it was just a question of being in front. It was interesting to see the gaps between us when Adam was leading and I would have liked to be in front to see if I could have gone at the same pace.  I need to congratulate Neel for a good start. I could not do much as I was pushing a lot and here you never rest.   

Offline was really dirty, and once I almost disappeared as it was so grippy on the normal track, but if you went off there was no grip. But I think it was just whoever didnt make a mistake would get third place.

Home favourite Chris van der Drift had a disappointing weekend, ending the Feature race in thirteenth: The first lap was what gave us the problems during the whole race.  We had the anti-stall problem at the start which was unfortunate. Then on the first lap, I dont know who it was, but someone ran into the back of me.  It was unfortunate as after that you cant really do much when you are a lap down.

It was just a pity we couldnt have a better result here for team New Zealand.

Feature Race Results - AMENDED

* 25-second penalty applied for crossing the line on the pit lane exit
** 25-second penalty applied for causing an avoidable collision

Fastest lap: A1 Team Portugal set the fastest lap (1m14.898s) of the Feature race with a speed of 159.6 kph on lap 30.

Sprint Race Results - AMENDED

TASMAN REVIVAL 2008

  Eastern Creek on the last weekend in November was the setting for the second Tasman Revival meeting, a splendid memory trip laid on by the HSRCA. With a staggering 474 historic race cars from all corners of the earth in action it was an impressive effort by the organizers. The sight and sound of these, some of which have not been seen in this country for almost 40 years, and the quality of the racing made this one of the most enjoyable meetings I have attended here.   

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  Everyone’s favorite event was the well supported Formula 5000 which was won by the superbly turned out ex-Teddy Pilette VDS Racing Team Lola T430 Chevrolet. The sound of 21 snarling five litre V8s blasting off from the start was one that few of us will forget, and one that even fewer of us remember. One of my colleagues announced that it gave him goosebumps and on closer inspection, he wasn’t kidding. This incredible field included a huge range of Lolas, as one would expect, amongst which were the ex-Sunoco Penske Racing T192, a T190, a T142, five T332s and a pair of the ex-VDS Racing Teams T430s. Joining these were a pair of McLarens (M10B and M22), the two Ansett Elfin MR8Cs, a couple of Beggs (FM4 & FM5) and single representatives from other makes including Chevron (B24), Talon (MR1A), McRae (GM1), Matich (A50) and March (732A).Oh my God!! 

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   The feature event, the Repco Tasman Cup, may have had slightly fewer international entries this time around but what there was, made up for what there wasn’t. OK we may have been missing the Gold Leaf Lotus 49 that showed up last time but this year we had the gorgeous ex-Chris Amon Ferrari 246T from 1968 and a marvelously melodic 1968 BRM P126 with its screaming V12. Tossed into the mix were a trio of Brabhams (BT4, BT16 & BT22), three Coopers (two T51s including the Alec Mildren car & a T53) and the Mildren-Waggott. Bulking out the grid to a whopping 36 cars were a large group of  Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula Junior cars including some wonderful Lotus’ such as the John Dimmer driven 35 and the Scuderia Colonia 18, and an amazing collection of Brabhams, Elfins and McLarens. Appropriately enough the race was dominated by the lovely little Ferrari driven by Rob Hall. 

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  An enormous field of 1960s and 70s touring cars joined the fray and provided some of the most hectic moments of the weekend. On several occasions on Friday and Saturday the races were red flagged due to incidents including one on Saturday in which three cars were extensively damaged. The main race on Sunday went off without a hitch though and was won by Michael Donaher in his 1969 Chevrolet Camero.

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    Other notable entries were the ex-Niki Lauda March 722 and the perennial crowd favorite, Ernie Nagamatsu in “Old Yeller” Mk2. Ernie is a lovely bloke with an unrivalled passion for his sport who welcomes all into his world and must hand out thousands of badges and other goodies throughout weekends like this one. Apart from Ernie what makes “Old Yeller” such a favorite is that it just looks so WRONG. And I say that with the greatest affection. It may look wrong but when it is going, it sure goes right. Unfortunately this time around “Old Yeller” suffered an ongoing problem with the carburetors before finally succumbing to a clutch failure.

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    There were many more categories on show at the creek including Formula Pacific/F2, Sports cars, Formula Fords and 50’s touring cars and to adequately cover the lot would take much more room than I have available here. What can be said is that they all combined to produce yet another superb three days of historic racing. It may not be able to match the Goodwood Revival but it’s not too far off and the Tasman Revival is a damned sight cheaper and easier to get to for us on this side of the planet. Given another couple of events and some traditions of its own this could easily become one of the big three historic meetings on the world calendar along with Goodwood and Laguna Seca.

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 Easily.

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 Sam Snape 

03/12/2008