Round 7 - Eastern Creek

[Last2LiftOff]

Any news on the investigation of the Chinese and Dutch cars? Would they lose (only) any points from the Sprint race or actual grid position penalties for the start of the Feature race?

[Last2LiftOff]

Hey, live video here. Watch Now.

Hinchcliffe unfortunately just rolled it on lap 1 and we're out.

[Matt]

This race is really good!

PS - Does the Lebanon car have all the flags of the UAE on the nosecone?

[Peno]

Another dominating performance by Hulkenberg & he makes it look so easy!

Good to see that Hinchcliffe was okay after his shunt.

Have no idea what vd Merwe was thinkng about and it reminded me of Shimoda's shunt at Monterrey last year.

[David Towe]

Just got home after being at the race, a great day. Sad about Robbies tyre problems in the sprint race, apparently he had a wood screw in it. I sat on the brown grass (as we have a drought here) at turn one and his car never looked settled through it, it was always squirming it's way through the fast sweeper.
Good news last2liftoff, he got out uninjured.

[Caltex Racing]

Another 2nd For Team New Zealand

[racer69]

I'm usually one to stick up for Eastern Creek, but the place looked terrible today

The complete lack of shade in the spectator area's in disgraceful (some covered area's near the bar isn't enough, all you could see was abit of the main straight)

The place just looked tatty, even down to the paintwork on the walls in the pitlane and main straight. Abit trivial perhaps, but this is meant to be a track hosting an international motor racing series!

The actual racing though was very good today from all four categories that were racing (A1, GT, F3 & Historic F2/Mondial)

[Armco Bender]

Well done Jonny again,great pass in the sprint race

Well done to the Chinese car too,a good result after a strong showing at Taupo.




Australia 14th (thats for the cricket)

[enduro1sttimer]

The setup of the toe - leading up to t1 - from the chinese on the dutch driver was awesome. The pass itself was even better!

[mac]

Awesome pass from Ho Pin Tung - that was the highlight of the feature race!

[Last2LiftOff]

Originally Posted by David Towe

Good news last2liftoff, he got out uninjured.

Yes he did David, thankfully. They interviewed James towards the end of the broadcast and he was his usual unassuming self on the incident. It was awfully hard to tell on the replays, how did you see it? Although James had the corner IMO, it looked like he turned-in without leaving Singapore any room and that'll never work.

Originally Posted by David Towe

Sad about Robbies tyre problems in the sprint race, apparently he had a wood screw in it. I sat on the brown grass (as we have a drought here) at turn one and his car never looked settled through it, it was always squirming it's way through the fast sweeper.

From the onboard shots during the Feature race you could see how poorly that car was handling on the last set of tyres. Pretty good work just finishing 10th with that thing.

[Matt]

Great race yesterday, Nico put on yet ANOTHER great performance, and that Chinese car, well, he blew me away with that setup, and pas of Netherlands! That was what a world class open wheel race should be like! Shame for Ireland though, they were doing pretty good until the Swiss punted them off.

[D.R.T.]

Yeah the Chinese car was brilliant. Best racing was found in the mid field. You know times are tough when the local fans went wild as Australia overtook Lebanon for 15th place.

Very enjoyable race though

[strider]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

They interviewed James towards the end of the broadcast and he was his usual unassuming self on the incident. It was awfully hard to tell on the replays, how did you see it? Although James had the corner IMO, it looked like he turned-in without leaving Singapore any room and that'll never work.

I'd say it was a racing incident. James had given Ireland some racing room in front of him and Singapore thought there was a chance to slide through the gap as well, but then the cars touched. C'est la vie.

But I wish every driver could be as fluent as James when being interviewed, even after having such a nasty shunt. As he said, those Lolas are very strong, thank goodness.

[FIRE]

Great race

[blew by u]

Originally Posted by Kebab

What a surprise, NZ and GER ahead of everyone else again. A1 should ban their engineer from the series, it just isn't a level playing field!

If you knew anything about racing, you would know that a enginner and a driver have to combine to go fast so just because you have a great enginneer and two exceptional talents in nico and jonny we should ban the engineer, come on there on top of there game the others need to lift there game to be competetive

kebab

[RotorFan]

Originally Posted by strider

I liked the footage of the two sitting at opposite sides of a table with their drivers before the final segment. No eye contact and an obvious but healthy rivalry!

Yeah, that was fantastic!

Originally Posted by racer69

I'm usually one to stick up for Eastern Creek, but the place looked terrible today

The complete lack of shade in the spectator area's in disgraceful (some covered area's near the bar isn't enough, all you could see was abit of the main straight)

Too right - I was on the mound at T2 and there is nothing there at all. Its little wonder Eastern Creek doesn't get higher attendance - its a very hostile place for humans (esp in summer).

Originally Posted by racer69

The actual racing though was very good today from all four categories that were racing (A1, GT, F3 & Historic F2/Mondial)

Yeah, Alajajan was great to watch, and the whole field of GT I love the sound of those 430s mixed in with the other GTs - its the first time I've seen all those cars together - whenever they've been at Oran Park it is a reduced field.

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

You know times are tough when the local fans went wild as Australia overtook Lebanon for 15th place.

Everyone on the T2 mound were cheering every lap leading up to the pass - that was one of the best parts of the race.

Originally Posted by blew by u

If you knew anything about racing, you would know that a enginner and a driver have to combine to go fast so just because you have a great enginneer and two exceptional talents in nico and jonny we should ban the engineer, come on there on top of there game the others need to lift there game to be competetive

kebab

If you knew anything about sarcasm you'd realise he's on your side!

[farcar]

Here are some random pics I took yesterday. Overall it was a good day.
Heck of a lot more racing than last year. Germany and NZ a cut above everyone else. China also very impressive.

[David Towe]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

It was awfully hard to tell on the replays, how did you see it? Although James had the corner IMO, it looked like he turned-in without leaving Singapore any room and that'll never work.
.

I thought a racing incident, Singapore were almost side by side at one stage so Canada would have known he was there. What I haven't seen is a shot showing how much room Canada left Singapore at the point of impact, or did Singapore move slightly left for some reason then collide with Canada?

The Creek was showing signs of looking like my lawn has for the past 3 years or so, very, very dry. It's a shame but at least the management are apparently abiding by the water restrictions that many seem to completely disregard. I thought there was a complete lack of civilised facilities for the spectator. Sure there are shade sails near the end of the grandstand, but what about tables and chairs to make it more inviting. I understand that at certain categories the spectators would turn them into missiles but please, we had an international show to put on. I sat on brown grass and dirt on the hill at turn one and when I went for a Bourbon and Coke I sat on level brown grass, whoopee, big improvement.

The pass by China on Holland was brilliant and showed that Ho Pin Tung most certainly has a pair, a big pair at that.

Re F3 being close, would it be if Ben Clukas (spelling?) was back in the series?
He was at the Creek on the weekend with a mate of mine and can't raise the money. Sad to say another talent may be hindered by lack of funding.

[strider]

Originally Posted by David Towe

Re F3 being close, would it be if Ben Clukas (spelling?) was back in the series?
He was at the Creek on the weekend with a mate of mine and can't raise the money. Sad to say another talent may be hindered by lack of funding.

It's Clucas. And no, I don't think he would have had any problem dealing with this year's grid, having seen him in British F3 the year before. As you say, another talent going to waste

[Kiwi3]

At the end of the TV broadcast they interviewed a member of the China team who said they changed something in the setup since Taupo, I wonder if it was between 3rd and 4th parts of qualifying as he lept into the top 10 suddenly and was really on it in the feature.

Perhaps they've caught on to what Supernova know (whatever that is). Does Astromega also run anyone else?

[Kebab]

Originally Posted by blew by u

If you knew anything about racing, you would know that a enginner and a driver have to combine to go fast so just because you have a great enginneer and two exceptional talents in nico and jonny we should ban the engineer, come on there on top of there game the others need to lift there game to be competetive

kebab

The NZ/GER engineer worked for FRA and SUI last year ... who dominated nearly every race. This year, SUI are absolutely nowhere and FRA aren't the class act they were ... both teams have used the same drivers as they did last year for several races. The difference is the engineer - he's clearly the key ingredient and I don't think anyone can deny that. What we don't know is whether he's just found something or is simply better than the others.

That's all I have to say about that ...