Feature

By Sam Tickell

Mark O'Connor's Lotus will be fighting for Challenge Class glory

Yesterday we brought you the Championship preview for the 2011 Vodka 0 Australian GT Championship, so today, the first day of action for the Championship, is the Challenge class.

For 2011, the Challenge and Production classes have been combined into one class.

By Sam Tickell

Ferrari and Maranello Motorsport make a welcome return to the Australian GT Championship

The 2011 Vodka 0 Australian GT Championship will get underway with inaugural Murray Walker Tourist Trophy at the Adelaide street track this weekend.

By Sam Tickell

Signature Motorsports aims to be around sportscar racing for many years. They aim to enter the ALMS at Lime Rock.

Anti-retro. The tag line for the new Citroen DS3. A car that embraced the name of the legendary Citroen DS models of the 60s and 70s. The DS19, 21 et al embraced something different, something new, something innovative.

Anti-retro is something that could also be applied to Signature Motorsports owner/driver, Matt Tarleton and his chosen competition – the ALMS.

By Sam Tickell

Sam Hancock celebrating a podium in the SPEED Series at Silverstone

We were recently able to catch up with Sam Hancock, factory driver for Aston Martin Racing and co-owner of Jota Sport - now a Aston Martin team. Sam has had a successful career but not one that has taken the trajectory of many other drivers. He has raced with great success in the Le Mans Series but has taken steps to the Carrera Cup GB and VdeV/Speed to ensure his driving career. His list of achievements is impressive as he won the inaugural LMP2 Le Mans Endurance Series title with the Courage squad. Three class wins in the Le Mans Series, four wins in the Carrera Cup GB Championship, three wins in the VdeV and Speed Championships and class wins at the Spa and Britcar have been major achievements for the British driver. He has also had a successful career piloting historic cars.

We explore all of this in our in depth and exclusive interview with Sam. We hope you enjoyed our two part interview with Sam. >Part 1 can be found here.

By Sam Tickell

Sam Hancock and a team he enjoys racing with - the factory Aston Martin squad.

We were recently able to catch up with Sam Hancock, factory driver for Aston Martin Racing and co-owner of Jota Sport - now a Aston Martin team. Sam has had a successful career but not one that has taken the trajectory of many other drivers. He has raced with great success in the Le Mans Series but has taken steps to the Carrera Cup GB and VdeV/Speed to ensure his driving career. His list of achievements is impressive as he won the inaugural LMP2 Le Mans Endurance Series title with the Courage squad. Three class wins in the Le Mans Series, four wins in the Carrera Cup GB Championship, three wins in the VdeV and Speed Championships and class wins at the Spa and Britcar have been major achievements for the British driver. He has also had a successful career piloting historic cars.

We explore all of this in our in depth and exclusive interview with Sam. >Part 2 can be found here.

By Sam Tickell

Pruett has won 33 races in Grand Am, and over 60 sportscar wins. Here he celebrates with long time codriver, Memo Rojas

In late October 2010 we were able to catch up with a legend of motorsport - Scott Pruett. The man has been involved in the sport for about thirty years, winning IMSA GTO titles in the 1980 - two to be precise in 1986 and 1988 with Roush Racing. He has won three Trans Am Championships (1987, 1994, 2003), three Grand Am Championships with Ganassi (2004, 2008, 2010), three 24 Hours of Daytona wins (1994, 2007, 2008), class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2001), won two CART races (Michigan 500 in 1995 and Surfers Paradise in 1997), Indy 500 Rookie of the Year in 1989 and has achieved top 10 finishes in NASCAR.

By Sam Tickell

An exciting lineup of cars is expected for a seven round 2011 Australian GT season

The Australian GT Championship have released an expanded calendar as part of a list of announcements for the 2011 season.

By Sam Tickell

Long has a massively successful career in GT racing (pic (c) Porsche)

At the Armor All Gold Coast 600 held recently on the Gold Coast of Australia, we were able to catch up with Pat Long. Pat was not fancied by Australian media for the race but proved to be the shining light of the international drivers for the weekend - proving what we already know, and what some Aussie journos didn't - that he is a top class racer.

He has spent most of his career with Porsche, and the last few years with Flying Lizard Motorsports. He started his car racing career in Formula Fords but didn't really shine. Despite this he caught the eye of Tom Milner and Porsche. He ran the in the Porsche Supercup for a couple of years before starting in the ALMS and Le Mans. Since that time, he has had 30 class wins in sportscars and four overall wins (all in Grand Am). He has won his class at Daytona (2009) and Le Mans (2004, 2007) and taken back to back ALMS GT2 class titles (2009, 2010).

To see a gallery of Pat's career, click here. Please note that this interview took place in late October 2010.

By Sam Tickell

Franchitti raced with success with the Patron Highcroft team in 2010

Recently we were able to catch with with ALMS driver Marino Franchitti while he was holidaying on the Gold Coast and supporting his brother Dario, while he competed in the Armor All Gold Coast 600. Marino has been a stalwart of the sportscar scene for the last decade, competing in Europe and in America. He has competed in the FIA GT Championship in a Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari and in the ALMS with Panoz, Dyson, Andretti-Green and most recently Highcroft. He as raced the Acura ARX-01a and c models, the Lola Mazda and the Porsche RS Spyder. He has also competed in Grand Am. He took his, do date only outright win in the ALMS at Laguna Seca this year and has taken 13 class wins. I'd like to thank Marino for taking the time to sit with us and do the interview.

By Sam Tickell

Brabham took the ultimate sportscar prize at Le Mans in 2009 with Peugeot

Recently we were able to catch up with ALMS Champion David Brabham. Competing at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 with Stone Brothers Racing, Brabham was completing another successful year of racing. Brabham's career in sportscar racing has been something to behold, with 25 wins and 23 class wins from 221 starts in ALMS, Grand Am, Le Mans, Le Mans Series, World Sportscar Championship and All Japanese GT Championship, Brabham has become a true elder-statesman of the sportscar world. He also has an All Japanese GT Championship, ALMS Championships, a Le Mans GT1 and overall win, a win at the Spa 24 Hours, class win at the Daytona 24 Hours, a win at the Bathurst 1000 and has raced in Formula 1. The man has become a sportscar great and it was an honour to catch up with him and to be able to bring you this in depth interview.