2014 Shannons Nationals - RACER OF THE YEAR

thenationals.com.au

6 1st Place

10 6 Rounds - 6 Key Moments

12 Congratulations

14 2014 in Photos (Part 1)

16 2nd Place

18 3rd Place

20 4th Place

22 5th – 10th Places

28 2014 in Photos (Part 2)

30 Cars of the Year

Publisher Australian Motor Racing Pty Ltd

Editor Richard Craill

Art Director Sarah Anesbury - 121 Creative Hilton

Writers Richard Craill, Amanda Jackson & Garry O’Brien

Chief Photographer: Nathan Wong

Production Kwik Kopy Printing Hilton

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THENATIONALS.COM.AU | 3

FINDING A WORTHY WINNERBy Richard Craill

WHEN I WAS at school, history was my favourite subject. Dick Johnson always quipped that the only thing you got from looking backwards was a sore neck, but I loved learning about experiences where the human race either took a gigantic step backwards or a massive leap forwards.

You learn a lot about the human condition by studying history. About why people make decisions and what drives people to do certain things. You also pick up on key character traits that are ingrained in our DNA – things that are part of the very fabric of human being.

Take, for example, the constant desire to rank things.

From time immoral we have needed to classify things in order from best to worst. Politics, which has been around longer than most things, is a case-in-point. In a true democracy what we are essentially doing is voting for the person – or the party – who we think is better placed than all the others to lead the region / state / country. These votes then decide the balance of who gets what seat in the parliament and so on.. It’s ranking at its finest. The same can be said for why we favour one brand of coffee over another, the classification of a ‘best friend’ or a favourite song.

Or, the unending debate about who the best ever in any particular sporting discipline is and Motorsport is not exempt from this. Was it Senna or Fangio? Ambrose or Whincup? Everyone wants to know and a majority has an opinion.

Now in a single racing category, this isn’t that difficult. Generally the champion or someone who pushed him or her the hardest is most likely to be classified by most as the best and brightest. Sometimes, like Formula 1 and Fernando Alonso, people feel that bravery and courage in a car not capable of competing at the front classifies them as the man of the year.

However across a host of racing categories as diverse and wide as the nation that hosts them, finding the ultimate drivers’ driver is much more difficult.

But we like to think we’ve had a reasonable crack at it.

The fan vote run on the Shannons Nationals website is a key factor, but it’s not the be all and end all of the process. Online voting these days relies too much on social media as a key influencer and as a result is not the most reliable way of judging who’s best. A driver with 10,000 Facebook fans is always going to get more votes from his fans than one with 500.

So we supplement that with a panel of people who have been there at every round, have seen every race and know the insides and outsides of what each driver nominated has achieved.

Each member of the panel then nominated his or her top-10 drivers, in order, with those positions allocated points. A weighting was applied to the fan votes and those ranked in conjunction with the judge’s voting and the overall score generated the top-10 you see here.

The end result was extremely close – just eight points split the winner from second place and a remarkable 24 drivers of the eligible 36 received votes from our judges. Four different drivers were ranked as number one by members of the judging panel when submitting their votes and that’s exactly what we wanted to see: different people having different opinions on what occurred throughout a remarkable season.

The end result, I’d say, is entirely justified in the same way that our outgoing champion, Richard Muscat, was an entirely appropriate winner in 2013. Both stories are, in fact, remarkably similar and proved the power of success in turning a relative unknown into something a whole lot bigger.

Our winner had a remarkable season, one of challenges, successes, learning, highs and lows, like every other driver. It could also be said that his story contributed to his success – it was different and as engaging as his personality that helped make him a fan favourite, too.

So, congratulations to the winner and to everyone who recorded votes. In a world filled with people dedicated to making lists and ranking the best and brightest, your inclusion in this list puts you in high company indeed.

Turn the page to start at number one...

THIS IS THE story of a driver who went from being an almost complete-unknown to a champion in the space of just six weekends of racing. A driver who used the resources of a championship-calibre team at his disposal to learn, to develop and to grow as a driver and a person this year.

It’s the story of a driver who developed into someone who could challenge the best driver his category has ever seen with regularity.

It’s the story of the 2014 Shannons Nationals RACER of the year.

Justin Ruggier.

JUSTIN RUGGIER

Kumho V8 Touring Cars Series

1st

6 | THE RACING MAGAZINE


LET’S START WITH a statistic.

The top three drivers in this year’s Shannons Nationals RACER of the year voting were split by less than 10 votes at the end of a rigorous three weeks of judging and voting by our industry panel and the wider motorsport community.

After more than 3,800 votes were cast by fans, scaled and ranked in the same way our judges voted, 10 votes was the difference between three exceptional drivers. Either could have, should have or would have won in slightly different circumstances or if the judging panel altered their votes by the smallest margin.

Justin Ruggier’s comfortable fan vote victory assisted his cause however it did not decide the result – despite him getting more than 25% of all fan votes lodged. That’s a lot.

So, we have ascertained that either of the top three were deserving winners. So let’s take a closer look at the man who did, ultimately, triumph; Justin Ruggier.

It starts the week prior to the Mallala Shannons Nationals round.

‘OH, GREAT. Another driver with a difficult surname.’

This was the first thought when Justin Ruggier was announced as Eggleston Motorsports’ driver for the 2014 Kumho Tyre Australian V8 Touring Car Series, the third tier of V8 racing in Australia.

You see, difficult surnames are the bane of racing commentators. Pronounce them wrong and you tend to get the wrath of friends, family and teams who are horrified that you could possibly have the gall to get it wrong.

But a difficult surname was the toughest thing about meeting Ruggier (it’s pronounced ‘Roo-shiieer’) who would not only turn out to be a cracking racing car driver, but a cracking bloke as well.

2014 Shannons Nationals RACER of the year


From the first meeting and a wide grin you instantly got the impression that this was a person who was every second of the day quite literally living a dream.

He qualified on the second row at Mallala and went on to finish second in what was, for all intents and purposes, his first proper crack at national-level racing. No amount of experience in Aussie cars, karting or testing is really any equivalent to actually racing a heavy, powerful and under-tyred V8 for the first time.

A few things quickly became apparent about Ruggier this season. One was his positive attitude that was immediately reflected in the way he drove the car. There was no hesitation, no complacency and no indecision – at least from the outside. But there was also a level of control in his early performances. The mantra ‘just go out and learn, lean and learn’ imputed into his head from team boss and forme racer Ben Eggleston was front and centre. He drove within himself and knew that a trip into the gravel trap would be one less lap he’d get to complete this year.

Factor two was his inherent competitiveness. Despite the controlled and learning performances we mentioned earlier, you could also see that this guy was a proper racer – a guy that wanted it every bit as much as those around him. He was determined, committed and dogged in getting up to speed and challenging the establishment – in this case, the supremely competent Ryan Simpson – as quickly as he could.

So, these two factors worked together to mould a raw rookie into championship contender quicker than perhaps anyone expected. It is this that we suggest contributed to him edging the likes of Hodge and Ricciardello out for the ROTY title.

Certainly, the environment helped. Eggleston Motorsport are as close to a main-game team that you can get in the Development Series, let alone Kumho V8’s, and offered a professional but relaxed learning environment. When Ruggier wasn’t racing his own car, he was in the paddock at V8 Supercars events shadowing the teams regular drivers like Bathurst champion Paul Dumbrell. Soaking it in. Learning. Developing.

On the next page we have listed several key moments that helped define Justin as a driver this year, so we won’t go into them here – but it remained a fascinating experience to watch him develop as a driver throughout the year. Every round he would add a new skill to his arsenal that resulted in him being in a position to contend for the championship at the final round and, ultimately, win it.

The key test, of course, will be to see if he has what it takes to move his career forward into the second-tier Development series – where the pace and intensity will be another level again.

Having said that, in his rare appearances in the series Ryan Simpson has proved a consistent top-10 contender so there would be no reason to suggest Ruggier wouldn’t be able to lap at the same speed as his Kumho series rival. By the end of the year they were very, very evenly matched.

So that’s the key test, but it’s also the key test for next year. In the meantime, Justin Ruggier is the 2014 Shannons Nationals RACER of the year – and deservedly so.


6 ROUNDS – 6 KEY MOMENTS1. THE DEBUTWe all figured that, armed with a quality car and team in Eggleston Motorsport, that Ruggier would be somewhere around the mark – heck, his karting history alone showed some element of competence that would ensure he wouldn’t be disgraced. He qualified on the second row but scored a fighting second in the opening race before backing that up with the same result in races two and three – proving his capabilities.

2. LEARNING, LEARNING...WINTON proved that he was getting closer to the money, qualifying on the front row for the first time and keeping Simpson properly honest in each race. Here, Ruggier learned about cold-tyre restarts and getting the most out of rubber not up to temperature – the key and decisive advantage held by Simpson in the early stages.

3. INTO THE LEAD, BRIEFLYPROOF, then, that he could beat Simpson. At QR Ruggier erupted into an early race one lead – the series 100th race – and held him out for seven of the twelve laps contested before the Falcon driver was able to slip past. In this season of learning, this was perhaps the biggest step he’d taken so far.


4. SOMEONE TO PLAY WITHTHE ADDITION of Cameron McConville into the second Eggleston Motorsport car at Phillip Island was a boon for Ruggier – finally he had someone to draw information and data from. The results were instant: Though McConville won the opening two races and handed the third to Ruggier – his first race win – race two also marked the first time that Ruggier had beaten Simpson in a straight fight. The tide really was turning.

5. WAKEFIELD DRAMAPERHAPS he was fired-up after his Phillip Island non-start, angry at his (relative) lack of speed at the tight 2.2km circuit or perhaps he just made an old-fashioned (and extremely rare) mistake. Either way, when Ryan Simpson drilled the back of Ruggier’s car in the feature race at Wakefield Park the championship was turned on its head. Simpson pitted with Damage, Ruggier stormed through the field to get a podium and score enough points to win the round. And grab the championship lead.

6. CELEBRATIONSA picture says a thousand words. As recent history has well documented, Justin Ruggier won the final round of the year, the championship and the applause of many. But a hearty embrace between the two rivals after the final race summed up the incredible season: Remarkable rivalry – complete respect.


CONGRATULATIONSJUSTIN RUGGIER AND EGGLESTON MOTORSPORT2014 SHANNONS NATIONALS RACER OF THE YEAR!



2014 IN PHOTOSImages by Nathan Wong – Speed Shots Photography. Additional images by Richard Craill & Joel Strickland.



Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship 2014 Champion

WORDS: RICHARD CRAILL

SIMON HODGE2ND

THINGS WERE happening at Sydney Motorsport Park; Interesting things at the end of an interesting Australian Formula 3 season. Amongst a freight train of cars were the two title contenders, duelling over what would ultimately be the race win and, somewhat more importantly, the overall championship.

The driver in the Red and White Dallara was clinging on to a diminishing hope of becoming champion. The driver in the Blue Mygale wanted to end it there and then.

And so Simon Hodge began his attack by using his Team BRM’s Mygale one key advantage that weekend – incredible, overwhelming confidence under brakes and in the initial turn-in to a corner.

Around the outside, Hodge went, committing to the wide way around the tight, second gear corner out where the marbles are. But in this well-developed chassis there was grip aplenty. More than enough, at least, to commit to the line.

And so Hodge did that, running around the outside of Ben Gersekowski, his title rival, and

doing so through the full 180-degree radius of the tricky corner that drops two-to-three meters across its arc.

Throttle buried well before the car was straight, but revelling in the inherent traction of a car with slick tyres and kilos of downforce pushing it to the ground, Hodge bounced the car over the exit kerb and out onto the tarmac apron on the outside of the circuit proper. Pedal flat, he cut aggressively in front of Gersekowski when the road ran out and, save for the briefest of contacts, he was through.

Such was the commitment this year shown by the quietly spoken, ever-thinking driver that is Adelaide’s Simon Hodge.

Though the championship went down to the final round and a great rivalry developed between Hodge and Gersekowski this season, it is fair to say that this was a title fight in which Hodge always seemed to have slightly the upper hand.

Certainly if the deciding factor was raw speed: Hodge had blistering pace over one lap this year, scoring pole position at every round of the championship – never before done in Australian Formula 3 – and most of them with a new qualy record. He set new outright lap records at the Clipsal 500, at Bathurst (with a 2m02s lap unlikely to be beaten in a long time) and Darwin.

And every time Gersekowski doggedly grabbed a race back off Hodge, there the Blue car would


be in second place, scoring points and shadowing his rival. But more often than not – and certainly at places like Clipsal, like Darwin and especially Sydney Motorsport Park – the blue car was out in front.

Weaknesses? Few and far between. Starts were an issue early in the season and for a while you sensed that Hodge was almost out-thinking himself when it came to getting the car off the line. But then again, for some drivers starting a racing car is simple and for some it’s the hardest part of the race. At the start of the season Hodge was in the latter camp but developed as the year went on and once he nailed one – Queensland Raceway’s feature race, where grabbed a stirring victory against home-town hero Gersekowski – it all seemed to click. From there starts weren’t an issue.

Hodge also revelled in a well-developed Mygale that Team BRM gave him. With engineer Steven Giles having already spent a year dialling the car in to Australian conditions and engineer-come-driver coach Tim Macrow working on the organic component, the combination quickly clicked.

It must also be said that for some drivers, there’s no substitute for grip. Wonderful, sticky, adhesive grip from fat, sticky Kumho Tyres – this year wider at the front than ever before – and well-engineered aero. Where Hodge was an extremely competent Formula Ford driver, his transition to Formula 3 exposed a driver revelling in

something that was faster when you didn’t slide it around everywhere.

He also revelled in the battle, the fight. Hodge and Gersekowski battled wheel to wheel at most rounds this year, though the final race at Clipsal, the first race at Bathurst and incredible weekend-long stoushes at Queensland Raceway and Phillip Island were the highlights. It was only in the battle outlined at the top of this story where the pair made anything resembling ‘meaningful’ contact – and even then it was not much more than a tyre mark along the side pod of the Maccas car. It really was a great battle, all year.

THAT SIMON finishes second in our 2014 Racer of the year poll is tough to explain given how successful his season was. There are great contrasts between the year he experienced and that of our winner – but also great similarities. Both were in their first year at a properly high level. Both had to learn on the run. Both had to fight like never before to get the job done.

The result also emphasises the incredible level of talent amongst the national racing scene throughout 2014. A fair case could be made for any of the top three in this years’ contest to be crowned champion and that just 10 votes separated them at the end was proof of that. Through the fan poll and our judging panel, Hodge was less than half of that margin behind our winner... it was that close.

Regardless, this year Simon Hodge won the Australian Formula 3 Championship. He won the Gold Star. He’s the fastest ever person around Bathurst, and most importantly he thrilled and delighted us this year in allowing us to watch a really good open-wheel driver thrash a really-good open wheel car as damn hard as it could go.

And there’s not much better than that in life, I think.


Kerrick Sports Sedans Series 2014 Champion

WORDS: AMANDA JACKSON

TONY RICCIARDELLO

3rD

Eight National Titles. That’s right – EIGHT.

That number alone could arguably be reason enough for Kerrick Sports Sedan Series racer Tony Ricciardello to be listed here at the pointy end of this year’s Racer of the Year standings.

However, while certainly impressive (and record-breaking), it isn’t the only reason that the fans and the judging panel have gotten behind Ricciardello in this year’s judging process.

It also comes down to sheer will. To fierce competiveness. To dogged determination.

Ricciardello lives and works in West Australia, as does his team, but they leave the #5 B&M Ricciardello Motors Alfa Romeo GTV in Melbourne year-round.

This means that they do all of their race weekend preparation and maintenance at the track, starting the day before each round of racing and continuing long into the night each evening.

You would think such a program would be hard to maintain. Yet their outfit is arguably the most


well-prepared, the most reliable, and the most meticulously presented of the category.

When after round three this year he had a clean-sweep of 15 races under his belt, some questioned how he could possibly remain motivated.

The 35 year old would have none of that – telling this magazine “…winning just makes you more and more hungry to win the next one, so it isn’t hard to stay motivated, in fact, relaxing is completely out of the equation!”

While his run to that point had seemed almost charmed, round four would see that come crashing down when the Alfa was caught up along with Darren Hossack in a 235km/h turn one, race two, incident with Steven Tamasi.

All three were left stranded and heavily damaged, and when the race was eventually red-flagged both Hossack and Tamasi soon retired from all further competition for the weekend.

For Ricciardello and his crew, it was time for the famous ‘never say die’ attitude to take full

flight. Before his car was even on the tow truck, Ricciardello could be seen on the radio, telling his crew what parts to get ready.

On his return to the paddock, the garage door came down, the tools came out, and Ricciardello was straight under the car and straight to work.

For one disappointing moment, it looked like the effort would be in vain as the thundering machines of his competitors took to the track for their race three formation lap without the yellow-eyed monster amongst them. Just seconds later, this was replaced with elation when Ricciardello approached the control line of pit lane ready to take the race start – they had made it with just moments to spare.

If after all that, you STILL need further proof of the undying competitiveness, of the ongoing determination, of the commitment to never backing down that makes Ricciardello one of the best, then we leave you with these thoughts from the man himself from the end of our final round of the year:

“It was good to win the round, we didn’t want to finish the title and give up, we wanted to finish hard and we did, it was tough racing all the way to the end, it was really good for the team to finish on a strong note and we will be back next year defending it for sure,” said Ricciardello.

“There wasn’t much tyre left, I was pushing hard, I went off on turn one on one of them and then Darren (Hossack) did it next and I was like, yeah he is pushing hard as well… It is great racing him… they just kept pushing us this last round, we never backed off and it was really good racing.

“It has been really good racing with him over the years and it’s just very intense – the heat, the horsepower, the tyres, the speed – everything just gets you going and… you know we fought to the end – we could have sort of backed off and made sure we got the championship but that is not what we are about, we were coming here to win and finish the year off on a high.”

Mission accomplished Tony!


IT IS A REMARKABLE inevitability that in sport, the best team in any given season often misses out on winning the biggest prize.

Sydney Swans fans would argue the case that they were the best team in Footy this year but that didn’t stop the Hawks from running all over them on that one day in September.

Red Bull Racing are undoubtedly the best team in V8 Supercars racing and yet they managed to lose the Bathurst 1000 on the last lap and once again, another favourite didn’t win.

Ryan Simpson is the epitome of this quirk of competitive sports for he has arguably and by most definitions been the best driver in the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series for the past two years.

He has won the most races. Scored the most poles, the most podiums and led the most laps.

And yet twice the championship has eluded the quietly spoken yet incredibly competitive Sydneysider and his ex-Craig Lowndes, Triple Eight Racing Ford Falcon BF.

Each year the circumstances that have conspired to deny the likeable young driver – a Formula Ford graduate who took time away from the sport once a full time career looked unlikely, and now races purely for fun – the championship.

In 2013 he entered after missing the first two rounds of the year, but immediately made an impact. By the end of proceedings he had set records for single-season victories and most wins in a row and, remarkably, got himself into contention for the championship, even if it was a long-shot.

Renewed and a nearly un-backable favourite this year, Simpson dominated the first half of the championship and, despite increasing pressure and a developing – highly entertaining – rivalry with Justin Ruggier, still looked like he would romp home.

And then Phillip Island came and he was told he couldn’t start the final race after bothering the noise meter one too many times across the weekend. It was controversial, almost cruel stuff and, ultimately, changed the championship because momentum is a powerful thing. Lesser drivers would have walked away then and there.

Out of any moment this year, it was that race that turned Simpson from championship favourite to a driver on the back foot. But don’t let that take anything away from how he performed this season.

When he was in front, he was near on unbeatable. Mistake free, smooth, controlled and relentlessly consistent he was a model V8 Touring Car driver. His cold tyre pace, in particular, remained

spectacular and it was here where he could make an early decisive advantage that would see him ‘break the back’ of races early.

However it was the penultimate race of the season where he showed his true abilities. Running second with one lap to go, he saw a gap on Ruggier’s left heading into the heavy stop at turn two. Coming from a long way back, he stopped the car on the very limit of breaking and got it stopped, passed and in front. It was a decisive, high-performance move from a driver who shares those attributes.

Ryan Simpson may have got the raw end of the stick this year and undoubtedly deserves to win championships, such is his pace, control and execution.

Ranking him fourth out of 409 drivers to race this year is evidence enough of that.

Kumho V8 Touring Cars Series - Runner Up


4tH RYAN SIMPSON



IT WOULD BE EASY to suggest, rather cynically if you ask me, that Fraser Ross only won this year’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge because the two drivers who beat him last year left to new challenges.True, that in the rounds where he was fully competitive in 2013 (remembering he missed two due to a crash at Sydney Motorsport Park), ultimate champion Richard Muscat and runner-up Michael Almond were generally the only two drivers in front of him.But let us not talk down what was turned out to be a perfectly scripted way to win a championship by the young Victorian ad-man from Brighton this year.When he needed to be fast, Ross was exactly so: Pole positions in the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park, Mallala, Winton and Queensland Raceway emphasised his raw speed and his ability to adapt to the faster, often tricker-to-drive Gen-two 997s that were prevailing at the front of the field this year.And then there was his from over a longer distance which was, in short, sublime.Ross owned the GT3 cup’s Jim Richards endurance trophy from its very first round this year, holding out local hero John Goodacre to win the 40-lap twilight encounter at Mallala by less than a cars length. It was a proper pressure-cooker that set the scene for a battle the pair would revisit later that season.He dominated the Winton race and finished a measured second in the enduro finale’ at Queensland Raceway to secure the crown he so coveted.Amongst all that, his consistency saw him win the first two rounds of the season, finished second behind Goodacre at Mallala and then became the first driver to ‘clean sweep’ a round all year when he won all three races at Winton. That round was the key to his championship – a decisive point’s

advantage to take into the final two that would help seal the deal.And finally, there was consistency. He finished every race. Won seven of the eighteen and finished off the podium in just one race – the Phillip Island opener. In that affair, rebounding from a hefty practice crash and in a patched-together car, he finished fourth. Very few drivers have ever lost a championship in a season where their worst finish was fourth.Pace, consistency and endurance, then, were key attributes to his championship – but let us not forget one of the most important of them all… fight.The third race at Winton was the case in point here. A remarkable battle with rival Goodacre. Nose to tail. Hard. Fast. Close. The whole damn race. It was everything a good race should be; captivating, compelling. Exciting. And it proved a never-say-die attitude also existed amongst all of Fraser Ross’ other championship-winning good points this season.Because he likes winning, have no doubt that Fraser Ross will not be overly thrilled about finishing fifth in our Racer of the year rankings. But that fact just adds weight to the championship credentials of this young driver in the Porsche with the bright orange wheels.

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia Series 2014 Champion, Jim Richards Endurance Series Champion


5tH FRASER ROSS


HALF WAY THROUGH this year’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge I had the fortune to bump into Andy McElrea, the ex-pat Kiwi team boss of his eponymous Gold Coast-based team.

After his traditional greeting of ‘Hello, Barry!’ (it must be a kiwi thing...), McElrea pointed towards a relatively nondescript 2007-spec Porsche GT3 Cup Car sitting in the corner of his teams’ garage and spoke.

“I will tell you something, Craillsy,” McElrea stated. “If we are able to put that kid in an outright car by the end of the year, these other blokes aren’t going to know which way he went. You have my word on that...”

Now I am used to team owners talking up their own but such is McElrea’s inbuilt passion he’s hard to ignore. And, with Matt Campbell, he turned out to be speaking the truth.

This quietly spoken young Queenslander made a point this year in what I think is the best way possibly – taking an older car on a skinny budget and putting it places where it shouldn’t go; in this case up and amongst the faster 2011-spec cars that ran at the front of the one-make Porsche field this year. Fresh out of Formula Fords the previous year, Campbell had taken a punt with GT3 Cup, knowing full well that he and his grandad – Morgan Park Raceway promoter Bill – didn’t have the funds to get much past round one, let alone do the full season.

And yet, it’s probably been the best decision they’ve ever made because after a so-so season in Formula Ford last year, Campbell found his calling this season.

His drives later in the season, especially, were mighty. Giving up aero and 50hp to the newer cars, Campbell hustled and simply drove his gen-one 997 as hard as it possibly could. He smashed the other Class B drivers and was a genuine

podium threat in most races. His long distance stuff was singularly impressive – consistent, fast and controlled.

The exclamation point came at Phillip Island when, thanks to the ongoing generosity of McElrea’s extended garage of drivers, workers and supporters, he got into a current-spec car and absolutely annihilated the field.

I like drivers who punch above their weights in older cars. I like it more when they get an opportunity to shine in equal machinery – and do just that.

But I like it more when they are the kind of quiet, reflective, courteous and friendly young drivers that Matt Campbell is. A pathway to championships – possibly many of them – awaits.

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Rookie of the Year, Class B Champion


6tH MATT CAMPBELL


REGARDLESS OF HIS own preservation, Gavin Ross’ races epitomised at the final round of the 2014 Dial Before You Dig Super Six Touring Cars, around the no-so-driver friendly Wakefield Park.Three were in line to take the series, one was already on his way home, the other - Kane Baxter-Smith - was still in the hunt. The races were tough: particularly the second where five cars battled for the win, four of which led at some point.And who came out on top of the wild and woolly affair? Ross, that’s who. In fact he won all three races where any sort of placing, outside of all the squabbling, would have been enough to secure the series.Looking at that final round, and the one before it, Ross won the six races held. A dominating performance perhaps, but further delving would reveal a different scenario.At the opening round he had to come from behind just to get one race win, but had already nabbed a third and a second. In round two at Mallala, Ross took the opener and finished second in the other races. Out of it all though, he won the round.

Winton was not so kind and not because the format was different with just two, longer races instead of the three sprint affairs. He was punted off in the first corner of competition but fought back strongly. Then he was second the following day, and again, second for the round.For his furthest journey from home to Queensland Raceway, Ross was not expecting to beat the local Fords but he did beat all but one of them.Baxter-Smith was unbeatable and put himself into great contention with two rounds to go. But Phillip Island’s clean sweep had Ross, ready to race as always, in the box seat for the title.

YOUNG DRIVERS are the hardest of all to classify.Generally inexperienced, maturing not only physically and mentally but in their race craft as well, the super-young in the sport are hard to mark because their only benchmarks are drivers at a very similar point in their careers.So, in this case it really is a matter of comparing apples with apples and in 2014, Gippsland driver James Golding has been the brightest, shiniest apple of them all. To finish eighth in this company is a remarkable achievement for a 17 year old in his first ever season of national competition.And yet, here he is.‘James’ consistency and ability to score strong finishes when he couldn’t’ win stood out for me,” one judge noted in delivering his verdict. “That’s the mark of a true future champion; maximising situations when you might not have the fastest car.”“He is quick, has all the bravado and talent of a rising star but also has something extra,” another

wrote. “He has that maturity to consolidate and that’s important.”

Golding’s main rival this year, Queenslander Jordan Lloyd, has every right to feel disappointed about not making this top 10 (though he only narrowly missed the cut) because for the most part he’s been the faster driver. But raw speed only goes so far and Lloyds early season was a mixture of raw speed and bad luck – witness a last-lap clash at Queensland Raceway that cost him a win as a key example – that hurt his title position.

So there, waiting, was Golding, who just racked up finishes in the first five rounds of the season.

From the first 15 races, he won four times, finished on the podium nine times and never finished lower than fifth.

Though the championship remains up for grabs as we went to print, it is unlikely that a title victory would have changed the voting in this process. An impressive youngster, indeed.

WORDS: GARRY O’BRIEN


Dial Before You Dig Australian Super Six Touring Car Series 2014 Champion

7tH GAVIN ROSS

Australian Formula Ford Series

8tH JAMES GOLDING



AT THE BEGINNING of 2014 you could well be forgiven for not hearing, or knowing of Lal Lal. The small township to the south west of Ballarat now has a famed citizen as it is the home of this year’s Dial Before You Dig Super Six Rookie of the Year, Jason Leoncini.

Leoncini, pronounced with a ‘ch’ as in ‘Leonchini’, had an inauspicious start. The Holden Commodore VT that he and his dad Engels built from the ground up, was pitted a little adrift of his fellow competitors at Sandown.

Qualifying 17th, finishing just one race in 19th meant Leoncini and his band of enthusiastic supporters would have a lot of work to do. Leoncini qualified better at Mallala and finished inside the top ten in one race. He started at the rear of the 19-car grid in another and worked his way through to finish tenth.

Winton’s third round was a defining one. From a mid-fielder, Leoncini was mixing it with the best Super 6s going around and in the final laps of the first leg he had an epic battle with Ben Grice, grappling for second outright, and was just pipped by more experienced young gun.

Round four at Queensland Raceway proved that Leoncini not only had the stuff to take it up to the front, but he was making a mockery of his Division 2 status. He finished on the outright podium there and then at the final round, was involved in the fight to win the best race of the year.Ultimately he finished fourth overall in the series. Season 2015 will be bigger, armed with a new car, experience, a whole township of fans, some keen Ballarat backers and a refreshing humble attitude, the series is the goal. Like many aspiring, something a little more potent is the ultimate target down the track.

TO SAY AUSTRALIAN Sports Racer Series debutant Roger I’Anson has impressed in his rookie season is a complete and utter understatement.Between his round one win at Mallala Motorsport Park and his clean-sweeping of Winton’s round two – I’Anson ensured from the get go that he was well and truly noticed.On top of the raw on-track success, his ever-smiling nature and the commitment of his family racing team - headed up by dad Ken with mum Kerrie and girlfriend Beth cheering him on - combined to make this 25 year old mining engineer a paddock favourite early in the piece.While the smile may have been plastered over gritted teeth at times during an increasingly tight championship battle with defending and 2014 champ Adam Proctor – who rates I’Anson as one of the best he has raced against in 20 years – it was never too far away.From July the pair would mount one of the year’s most intense title fights, and while Proctor won

the round three and four battles it was I’Anson who managed to keep leading the war – albeit by just one point heading to the now infamous season finale at Wakefield Park.

While a roller-coaster of a weekend, many will never forget the heart-breaking image of I’Anson stranded on the straight in race two with engine failure, after having one hand on the trophy when Proctor beached his racer on the kerb just laps earlier.

In one final show of heart, I’Anson, his family and the West team would pull a mammoth effort to complete a full engine change to front for race three.

While at the end of the day he might not have claimed the big trophy, I’Anson’s passion and raw talent has made quite an impression on the fans and judging panel alike – and with his Sports Racer up for sale, we can’t wait to see what he does next!

WORDS: GARRY O’BRIEN

WORDS: AMANDA JACKSON

Dial Before You Dig Australian Super Six Touring Car Series

4th Place Outright, 1st Division 2 Class, Rookie Of The Year.

9tH JASON LEONCINI

Australian Sports Racer Series – 2nd Place.

10tH ROGER I’ANSON


2014 IN PHOTOSImages by Nathan Wong – Speed Shots Photography. Additional images by Richard Craill & Joel Strickland.



CARS OF THE YEAROKAY, we admit that we couldn’t agree on what was the one best car of the year – so we picked four that stood out, for differing reasons. WORDS: RICHARD CRAILL

RICCIARDELLO RACING ALFA ROMEO GTV – CHEVROLETYOU KNOW the story of grandfather’s axe, right? Where the old, gnarled handle is eventually replaced with a new one – only for the rusty, dented axe head to be changed later. No part of the original axe remained and yet, it’s still the same axe.

Tony Ricciardello’s incredible Alfa is not quite that extreme a story, but it’s an appropriate metaphor. This 21-year-old car has become one of the most iconic in Australian Motorsport history and certainly one of the most successful – it’s record eighth championship in Ricciardello’s hands this year add to wins scored with drivers before young Tony came along.

The efforts by the small, West Australian-based Ricciardello family team to continually develop and push the car to new limits is remarkable. They continue to find new and inventive ways of finding speed from the little red Alfa.

Its strength remains the shorter circuits, but its ability to battle with the John Gourlay-owned/Darren Hossack-driven Audi on the high-speed stuff remains apparent. It gave nothing away through the fast stuff despite giving away wheelbase and apparent stability to the Audi.

No car in Australian motorsport fires out of a corner harder than the little Alfa, and no car looks as devastatingly quick as it, either. It is a remarkable racing car that, at a milestone birthday, looks to be just coming into its prime.

TEAM BRM MYGALE M11– MERCEDES BENZIN A TIGHTLY controlled category like Formula 3, it’s hard to have an advantage so comprehensive that allows you to win races by multiple of seconds – rather than edge ahead as is often the case in the intensely competitive championship.

However, Team BRM unlocked serious potential in the French-built Mygale chassis and in the process helped it become the first non-Dallara to win a Formula 3 title – anywhere in the world – since the 80s.

The Mygale’s apparent weaknesses last year – a natural desire to understeer and straight-line speed hurting drag (thanks to the massive levels of aero the car has – were tuned out of the blue little beasty this year and the result was a startlingly effective race car. The cars’ inherent downforce allowed them to trim the wings out to reduce drag, regaining top speed and allowing the car to be competitive at tracks like Phillip Island, and Bathurst.

And the aero – my god, the aero. The devastatingly effective corner entry and mid-corner that Hodge so appropriately showed in the season finale’ was the cars defining point of this season.

The work engineers Steven Giles, Craig Rundle and last year’s driver Nick Foster put into the car last year paid dividends for Hodge this season, giving him the fastest ever Formula 3 car in Australia – and a championship to boot.


CARS OF THE YEAREGGLESTON MOTORSPORT HOLDEN VZ COMMODORENo V8 Supercar / Touring Car has had more success than ‘Krystal’.

With Justin Ruggier’s victory in the Kumho series this year, the ex-HSV Dealer Team Commodore became the first such car to win the V8 Supercars Championship (with Rick Kelly), the V8 Development Series (with Tony D’Alberto) and now the Kumho Series with the rookie Ruggier.

‘Krystal’ won the V8 Supercar series in 2006 with Kelly in the controversial season-showdown with Craig Lowndes that still rumbles on today. Sold to the D’Alberto family team for the following season, Tony D drove it to the DVS crown in style with a season that helped project him into the main-game soon after.

After undergoing a complete restoration lately, Eggleston Motorsport purchased the car late last year and its partnership with the well-drilled team and the new driver seemed like a match made in heaven. It was fast, reliable, well prepared and solid all season long. It played a big part in winning the championship this year.

Oh, and why ‘Krystal’? Tony D explained earlier this year.

“When we got the car, everyone was heavily into Big Brother on TV,” he quipped.

“I was pretty fond of Krystal (Fawscutt – model and housemate with, err, substantial assets that made her highly popular that season) so we felt like we should name the car after her. She was great…”

FRASER ROSS RACING PORSCHE 997 GT3 CUP CARIN AN EVEN more extreme case than Simon Hodges’ Mygale in Formula 3, Fraser Ross’ championship winning 997 Cup Car was playing on an even more level playing field than the Formula 3 grid.

The hallmark of one-make Porsche racing is that it is a completely controlled formula – all the cars (in the outright class) are identical. That’s the point. So that’s why Fraser Ross’ team deserve accolades, because not only was their car the most reliable, most consistent and the fastest – it was arguably the best looking too.

At least one car in every grid should have bright, orange wheels.


You know you could be the next big thing in motor racing. You’ve got the skills. You know it. Your family knows it. Your competitors know it. But that hasn’t stopped you being passed over for some great opportunities, and its eating away at you. Your competitors have more funds, more exposure, and more support, and they are using that to run away with your dream right in front of you. Your family is trying to help, but that has to stop at a point. You are trying to get businesses and teams to support you, but you are struggling to find success - they want you to show you are different from all the others who hit them up for a leg up, day after day. You don’t know how. You just want to go racing, and you don’t want to deal with everything else. The cold hard truth is – you can’t. If you don’t succeed in standing out, all your hard work, and the hard work of everyone who has supported you to this point, could be for nothing. Don’t despair - you CAN learn how to make yourself stand out, how to build a profile, and how to sell yourself to those who can help make your motor racing dream a reality. Want to know more? Sign up for a FREE strategy call at www.jigsawcomms.com.au/strategy, or contact Amanda Jackson on 0421 378 789 or [email protected]

JIGSAW COMMUNICATIONS WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE ALL OF THE SHANNONS NATIONALS WINNERS AND COMPETITORS ON A GREAT 2014, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN 2015!


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2014 Shannons Nationals - RACER OF THE YEAR