Winning teams missing in action at Bathurst 12 Hour

Motorsport is back for 2018, hitting its stride following the traditional slow-down over Christmas.

The Australian racing season sparks to life with next weekend’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, which has attracted some of the world’s top drivers along with sensational GT3 race cars – even if major brands are missing in action.

Audi, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche all have factory-backed entries packed with top-class drivers in the latest weaponry.

Crack European outfits including WRT (Audi), Schnitzer (BMW) and Strakka (AMG) look particularly strong, helped by a host of ex-F1 drivers, Le Mans champions and Nurburgring 24 hour winners. 

More than a dozen Australian Supercars racers are spread throughout the field in cars that should contend for outright victory. Supercars stars with a seat in the race include Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison for Audi, Chaz Mostert and Steven Richards for BMW, Craig Lowndes, Scott McLaughlin, Tim Slade and van Gisbergen for McLaren, Jamie Whincup, David Reynolds and Cam Waters with Mercedes-AMG and Luke Youlden in a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The race also plays host to a growing number of more affordable GT4 machines including BMW’s new M4 GT4 (pictured), which will make its Australian competitive debut in the race.

But pre-race plans have not run to script for event organisers, as no team that has won the GT-based event will return in 2018. 

That includes Australia’s Maranello Motorsport (Ferrari), Tekno Autosports (McLaren) and Nismo (Nissan) teams that took victory across the last three years. 

Maranello's race-winning Ferrari 488 GT3 is rumoured to have cost $1 million to import into Australia, raising questions among competitors about whether the category is at risk of becoming an arms race only accessible to manufacturers and extremely wealthy enthusiasts. Event insiders told Drive some teams struggled to find a budget to run exotic machines in a race which can cost more than $200,000 to contest.

While those dollars could be a deal-breaker for indpendent McLaren and Ferrari specialists, Nissan Australia’s decision to miss the race – even though it owns two GT-R GT3 cars – stems from the shock exit of former managing director and passionate race enthusiast Richard Emery as the brand’s local leader. New boss Stephen Lester was non-committal on Nissan’s motorsport future during an interview with Drive at the 2017 Bathurst 1000, and the brand has not committed to racing V8-powered Supercars beyond the end of this season.

One Bathurst 12 Hour team that doesn’t seem to struggle for dough is the Donut King V8 entry led by Tony Alford.

A regular racer at Bathurst, Alford is the former head of the beleaguered Retail Food Group facing a potential class action from franchisees following a Fairfax Media investigation into unfair business practices.

As delicious as RFG’s products may be, struggling business partners may find Donut King’s racing sponsorship to be in poor taste.

TCR for AUS: ETA 2019

It was only a matter of time before the TCR touring car rules arrived in Australia, news confirmed by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport this week.

CAMS signed a five-year agreement with the booming category which has won support from a wide range of manufacturers including Volkswagen, Hyundai (pictured), Audi and Honda. 

In the same way that Stephane Ratel’s GT3 category and clever “balance of performance” equalisation system transformed international GT racing from a disorganised rabble to a global success story, production-based TCR machines based on the likes of VW’s Golf GTI have united disparate touring car series, even taking over the World Touring Car Championship with a new contest based on turbocharged, two-wheel-drive machinery. 

CAMS has not revealed which promoter will run the category, which may find its way onto the Supercar calendar alongside traditional V8 beasts, turbo diesel SuperUtes and Porsche’s exotic Carrera Cup series.

Daytona 24 Hour

Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso heads a staggering list of drivers set to tackle the Daytona 24 Hour on Sunday, when the former champion will have his first taste of endurance racing ahead of a rumoured tilt at the Le Mans 24 Hour. 

This year’s “Rolex 24” will be contested by a range of cars including new metal from Acura (the Honda NSX-powered ARX-05, pictured) and Mazda in the Le Mans-style prototype class, as well as BMW’s new M8 GT machine.

Australasian drivers are thin on the ground in 2018, with Red Bull Holden Racing Team Pilot Shane van Gisbergen missing out on a seat for the first time since 2013. 

Van Gisbergen told Drive at the launch of Holden’s ZB Commodore race car a return to overseas racing was a key goal of his for 2018, the flying Kiwi hoping to return to Europe to emulate his Blancpain Endurance Series championship title won for McLaren in 2016.

Ford’s Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon will fly the flag for Australian and Kiwi fans in Florida, while Porsche pilot Earl Bamber will also contest the race before dashing across to Bathurst.

The full Monte

Toyota, Hyundai and Citroen go to this weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally ready to start the World Rally Championship with a win, having been beaten by Sebastien Ogier and Ford’s independent M-Sport outfit in 2017.

The three factory-backed teams turn their fortunes around this year – particularly Hyundai, which played second-fiddle to Volkswagen before losing to the plucky M-Sport crew last season.

All three manufacturer teams shook up their line-up in a bid to beat Ford.

South Korea’s contenders dropped New Zealand’s Haydon Paddon as a full-time member of its squad in favour of 2016 Rally Australia winner Andreas Mikkelsen, though Paddon will contest a handful of races later in the season.

Legendary Toyota team boss Tommi Makinen plucked Estonian Ott Tanak from M-Sport to shore up his line-up, while Citroen will run a third car in wildcard events for a Frenchman making his competitive return.

That bloke is nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb, who insists he has the pace to challenge a younger generation of drivers on rallying’s biggest stage.

Paris celebrates Dakar win

Former World Rally Champion “King” Carlos Sainz drove Peugeot to victory ahead of Toyota in January’s Dakar rally last week, adding to his considerable list of achievements.

The Spaniard took honours in a gruelling race beset by controversy surrounding the two-wheel-drive Peugeot’s on-board tyre inflation system and the marque’s investment in sophisticated maps that drew the ire of Toyota and Mini.

Australian rider Toby Priced bounced back from a badly broken leg in 2017 to take an unlikely podium finish in the motorcycle standings for KTM. The Austrian marque also celebrated victory for countryman and factory rider Matthias Walkner, the first Austrian to taste victory in the series.