Formula One is the highest level of open-wheel racing. Cars are very high-tech and follow strict rules, and drivers compete for the world championship over a season.
Drift cars are cars set up for drifting—where the driver intentionally makes the car slide sideways through a turn. They’re tuned so the driver can control that slide instead of losing the car.
Silverstone is a famous race track in the UK. It’s especially important in Formula 1 history because it hosted the very first Formula 1 World Championship race back in 1950.
“Lewis” here is Lewis Hamilton, one of the most successful Formula 1 drivers ever. The host is basically saying he’s the fastest and would pass people regardless of the car.
Group C was the racing “rulebook” for a certain type of long-distance prototype race car in the 1980s. It pushed teams to build cars that could go far and last, not just be fast for a few laps.
Place
North Wilkes-Pro
This is a NASCAR track in North Carolina that the host says has a long history. They’re also pointing out that it hosted its last major Cup Series championship race in the 1990s.
NASCAR is a popular American racing league where cars race on tracks, often ovals. The host is using it to explain what kind of racing they’re talking about.
“Ovals” are oval race tracks, like the ones NASCAR is famous for. The driving is different because the cars are turning the same direction for long stretches.
The Supercar Sprint Cup is a race series where drivers earn points. The discussion here is about whether the schedule gives drivers a fair chance to qualify for the finals.
An endurance race is a longer race than a typical sprint. It usually involves strategy and sometimes driver changes, so it can reward consistency over speed alone.
Sprint Cup points are how drivers earn a score across the season. Higher points help you move toward the finals, and the host is talking about how those points are awarded.
This means the winner gets extra points—specifically 25. Those extra points can help you qualify for the finals even if you have a couple bad races.
Place
Tailum Bend 500k race
This is a long-distance race event in Australia (a 500 km endurance format). The hosts are using it as an example of how the series could schedule more endurance rounds.
The Bathurst 1000 is a huge long race in Australia—1,000 km. In this discussion, it’s used as the benchmark for how endurance events score big in the championship.
An enduro is a long race that takes more time than a typical sprint. Teams often rotate drivers so the car stays fast and consistent for the whole event.
Queensland Raceway is a race track in Australia. The host is saying teams already bring co-drivers there for testing, so the extra event wouldn’t change that part of the plan.
Place
Warner & Perth
This is where the next race weekend is coming up. The hosts are talking about who’s close to qualifying for the finals based on the points situation.
Fuel saving is how teams drive and tune the car to use less gas during a race. The goal is to need fewer fuel stops or spend less time refueling, especially in long races.
These are special fueling connection parts used on Gen 3 race cars. They help the crew refuel the car quickly and correctly, but the host says they’re very costly.
A nozzle adapter is the connector between the fuel hose and the car’s fuel opening. If it doesn’t connect smoothly, refueling can take longer, which matters a lot when pit stops are timed.
Timed fuel stops are refueling stops where the clock is the limit. If fueling is slower than expected, the team might not get enough fuel in before the stop ends.
Pit lane is the area where the race car comes in for service during the race. The longer you’re there, the more time you lose versus the cars around you.
A fuel rig is the special equipment the pit crew uses to put fuel into the race car during a stop. It’s designed to flow fuel fast and safely so the car can get back out quickly.
Erebus is a racing team that competes in Australia’s Supercars series. The host mentions it because the fueling problem he describes happened while he was driving for them.
Control rigs refer to fueling systems intended to standardize fuel delivery characteristics across cars/teams. The speaker contrasts them with newer setups, arguing the older approach produced more consistent fuel flow.
Term
Siamese units
Siamese units are an older style of fueling hardware. In this discussion, they’re credited with delivering fuel more consistently, so pit stops weren’t slowed by fuel flow problems.
“Fuel churns” here means how much fuel the car uses and how long that fuel will last during a race. Teams calculate it so they know when they can drive hard and when they have to back off to save fuel.
“Track position” just means where your car is on the track compared to other cars. If you’re ahead, you usually have an easier time staying there than trying to pass later.
“Saving tyres” means not wearing the tires out too quickly. Drivers may drive a bit more gently so the tires last longer, which can affect how hard they can push.
“Pace” means how quickly the cars are running. If drivers are intentionally going slower than the fastest cars just to save fuel, it can make the racing less exciting.
Refuelling means putting more fuel into the race car while the race is happening. Teams plan it carefully because it costs time, so they try to do it at the best moment.
Tire stops are when the car comes into the pits to swap worn tires for fresh ones. New tires help the car grip the road again, but the pit stop takes time.
Endurance racing is longer races where the car has to last and keep performing for a long time. That usually means planned stops for things like fuel and tires.
They’re talking about the Toyota engines powering the race cars. The engines have been winning races, but there’s a problem that teams are working to fix.
The valve train is the engine mechanism that controls when the valves open and close. If the problem is valve-train related, it means something in that timing/control system is causing failures.
Catastrophic failures are the worst kind of breakdowns—when something fails suddenly and causes major damage. In a long race, that usually means the car can’t continue.
Term
drop-in valves
“Drop-in valves” are replacement valves that are supposed to fit and install easily. But even easy-to-install parts can still cause problems if they aren’t the right match for the engine’s setup.
When an engine fails, teams have to figure out what caused it and what that cause leads to. If they don’t connect the two, they can keep chasing the wrong fix.
Sydney Motorsport Park is a race track in Australia. If engines failed there recently, it’s a clue that the problem might show up under real racing stress, not just in theory.
The valve train is the set of components that opens and closes the engine’s valves (including parts like camshafts, lifters, and related hardware). If the valve train is failing, it can cause severe engine damage quickly, which is why teams treat it as a high-priority durability risk for endurance races.
This means teams replace the engine overnight before the main race. They do it when they’re worried the current engine might not last, but it’s a big, time-sensitive job.
A dyno is like a test stand for an engine. Instead of running on a track, the car’s power is measured in a controlled setup so teams can compare results and tune the car.
A safety car is when the race slows down because something is wrong on the track. Everyone drives slower together, and that can affect when teams pit and how the race plays out.
Place
Barbagello
This sounds like a race track name the host is using as an example. They’re basically saying some tracks are better suited to shorter, sprint-style racing than fuel-stop-heavy races.
A reverse grid means the race starts with the order flipped from a previous session. It’s used to shake up the field so more cars have a chance to race through the pack.
A progressive grid means your earlier result affects where you start later. Instead of a totally random or fixed order, the first race helps set the next one.
“Abbey” refers to Abbey Curve at Silverstone, a famous corner complex where cars set up for the next section of the lap. It’s a popular spectator spot because you can see cars braking, turning in, and accelerating out.
Term
Sprint Cup Sprint Races
Sprint races are shorter races than the main Grand Prix. The idea is to make the weekend more exciting and create more chances for action.
Racing tires come in different “types” of rubber. If the series uses more than one type during a weekend, the car can feel grippier or less grippy depending on which tire you’re on.
“Soft” is a type of racing tire. It usually grips the road better for speed, but it doesn’t last as long as harder tires.
Term
Park Fermat rules
This sounds like a rule that limits what teams can adjust after certain sessions. If the car is restricted, you can’t just change everything to fix problems—you have to plan ahead.
Tire prep is what racing teams do to make sure the tires are ready to work right away. The goal is to get the tires to the right temperature and condition so the car can grip and turn well.
Term
10 looking in
“Outside the top 10 looking in” means they’re just not in the final group yet. They need better results soon to qualify.
Cam Waters is one of the drivers in this racing series. The hosts are saying he’s doing well in the standings and is likely to qualify for the finals unless something goes badly.
Tickford Racing is a racing team. The hosts are talking about how the team benefits when two of its cars are in contention for the finals, instead of betting everything on just one.
Person
Thomas
Thomas is a person in the team the hosts are talking about. They’re discussing how his results and the team’s choices influence whether the car can qualify for the finals.
A “pole position” is awarded to the driver who qualifies fastest and starts the race from the front of the grid. The speaker is using it as a performance indicator, along with podiums, to show the driver’s strong form.
A podium finish means you come in first, second, or third. It’s one of the clearest signs you had a strong race.
Term
move over
“Move over” means one driver lets their teammate go by. Teams sometimes do this so the teammate chasing the championship can score more points, even if it costs the other driver a better result.
Concept
simple mathematics
“Simple mathematics” is a shorthand for championship-point strategy: the team believes one driver has the best realistic path to the title based on current standings and remaining rounds. It frames why team orders (like helping a teammate) are justified in the moment.
A “wild card” is when someone gets a special entry for one event. It’s like a one-off chance to race and prove themselves, often with extra experience gained from that weekend.
“Gen 3” just means the newer generation of the race car rules/kit. It’s different from the older “Gen 2” cars—especially in how much grip and downforce the car has, and what tires it runs.
“Super 2” is a lower-tier racing series that feeds drivers into the main Supercars level. It’s where Ruben races now, and the jump to Gen 3 cars is a big change.
“Aero” is how the car’s shape and wings interact with air. In racing it usually helps the car stick to the track (more downforce) so it can go faster and feel more stable.
“Gen 3” means the third generation of the race-car design used in this series. It’s basically the “newer rules-era” version of the cars, so teams build their cars to match that generation.
Term
tube work
“Tube work” means building the car’s main structure out of metal tubes. The speaker is implying this was a full build involving the core structure, not just an upgrade kit.
A “shootout” is a special qualifying session where drivers go all-out for the best starting position. It’s usually short and intense, and small mistakes can matter a lot.
“Hooked up” means the car is working well—gripping the track and feeling stable—so the driver can go fast. It’s basically the opposite of feeling loose or unpredictable.
“Ford Cougar” isn’t a car name that’s widely recognized in the same way as some other Ford models. In the podcast, it sounds like the word “cougar” may be used as a nickname or reference to something mentioned later. If you can share more of the surrounding lines, it would be easier to identify exactly which vehicle they mean.
Person
Brock Smiley
Brock Smiley is referenced in the race-by-race narrative as part of the “not smiling” comparison before and after the turnaround. The host uses him to personify how results changed across Darwin and Townsville.
An “182 point swing” refers to a large change in championship points over a short span of races. In Supercars, points swings can come from finishing positions, reliability, and strategy, so a swing of this size signals a major shift in competitiveness.
Person
Nunes
Nunes is the name used for the other speaker being addressed (“it’s been a bit incredible… Nunes”). The segment doesn’t provide enough context to identify the person’s role, but it’s part of the on-air discussion.
Matt Payne is discussed as the current top driver in Supercars “in between him and Brodie Kasteki.” The host uses Payne’s form to set up the contrast with Brock Feeney’s situation, attributing the difference to car competitiveness rather than driver ability.
LIVE
On the show this week, there is so much to talk about in supercars, Townsville fuel saving,
Thomas Randall from Castro Racing joins us on this show. Jack Perkins is back in the studio
as well. We've got plenty to talk about sprint cup finals, formats, all sorts of stuff.
Let's get started here on the undercut.
He's back in the studio. Jack Perkins, hello, welcome to you.
Yeah, G'day Noons. Nice to be back. You've been pressing on with Moff, so it's nice to
get a look in again. Oh, come on now. Come on now. You've been a busy man. Hey, the big question
though, that everyone wanted to know, when's Jack back? Well, now. And what's happened to the hair?
The swoops disappeared. Well, I lost that bit with myself and I had to go and get a haircut,
but I actually probably need another haircut, mate. It's getting a bit long.
You and me both. I wear a hat every day of the week, Noons, and I only ever have to do it up
when I do the undercuts. I need to sort that out. But enough about my hair, because as you said,
we've both been busy and you've been jet-setting around the place. I have been taking some flights
in recent times, a couple of weeks in the UK, holidays, with a little bit of automotive connection
and motorsport involvement. So a trip to the British Grand Prix. First time I've seen one
of the ones outside of Australia, which was great. And to the Goodwood Festival of Speed,
which I've got to tell you, you've got to go. If you haven't been, you've got to go.
If you love motoring, motorsport, history, heritage, it's kind of like the perfect mixture
of motor show, motor racing event, superstar current names, superstars of the past, legendary cars.
It's kind of like it's like it's sleuth manner from heaven. It's amazing.
You and I have spoken about this before. So I was pretty jealous one morning,
I woke up to about 25 images on WhatsApp from you, different cars and things. And I tell you
what, it looked awesome. And I'd love nothing more than be able to take one of Dad's old cars over
there and be a part of the event. But hopefully that's to come. So Goodwood itself, worth doing.
Yeah, worth doing. I mean, it's a massive event. You probably don't understand the size,
but if you just watch the hill climb on the live stream, the size of the marquise that the
manufacturers put together, they launched cars there. It's very much a motor show with other
stuff, but you walk around and it's superstars everywhere, but it's not just old Formula One
drivers like you, you know, Lando Norris is there, Rossi is there, Gerhard Berger is there,
Daniel Ricciardo is just wandering around. He's not driving anything, but he was there.
Superstars of touring cars, sports cars, Indy cars, Lil Al was there, Mario and Michael and
Dredi were there. There was a bunch. And the thing that really caught me that I hadn't really
pondered about it, they're so open to everything. So it's not just old Formula One cars.
There's drifting. They were so popular, the drift cars. Travis Pastrana had that
Subaru thing that he was here with in Australia at Bathurst last year.
Hayden Pull and the Aussie was there with the LS Power at Sylvia, of all things.
Jamie Winkup obviously was there running that Red Bull Mustang that's doing stuff overseas.
But drifting, American cars, Formula One, Lamar, touring cars, historic cars, rally stages, off-road
stages, you literally needed all four days to try to see a bit of everything. It was
off the charts amazing and I'm kind of addicted to want to go back.
Well, hopefully you can tee up a bit of an Australian V8 Sluth flair for us next year.
But quickly on the Silverstone Grand Prix, I must admit I haven't prompted you for this,
but the Perkins engineering cat behind my shoulder, someone sent me a photo of one at
Silverstone. Yeah, it's amazing what you see when you go around the world.
So that was a good Grand Prix though. Yeah, it was interesting. I mean,
Silverstone, it's the first venue of a Formula One World Championship race in 1950.
What was really interesting though was because there's so many British drivers was getting a
feel for what the British feel about their drivers. Lewis is the man. I mean, he would drive
past on any given lap in any given session. Even in the Ferrari. Yep. Yep, he's the man.
George Russell near Lando Norris, probably P2, but a long way off Lewis. Lewis is the man
in the UK. Well, he's Sir Lewis Hamilton. He's Sir for a good reason. He's Sir for a good reason,
but great to have a wander around the Silverstone Museum as well. That's really impressive if you
ever go over there to have a look. But of course, you're right in racing heartland there where
there's a Polar Formula One teams located within X number of miles,
Lola's right at the track. There's all sorts of motorsport businesses that are all in that area.
So it's kind of the Silicon Valley of motorsport in the UK with all those sorts of teams and
suppliers and stuff. But I did message you when I was at Goodwood because I saw a silk cut jag
that won Le Mans 88, the sister car to the one that your dad drove. And then next to it was a
Skull Band at Porsche Group C car. And I kind of went off and did some sleuthing of a night time
back at the accommodation. It's the Porsche that your dad and Peter Brock drove at Le Mans 84.
In Skull Band at Colors now. And I thought maybe we could like put together some funding crowdfund
GoFundMe and we'll buy it. We would need probably three or 4000000 people to put in $1 each
noons on a GoFundMe page. But yeah, it made me look up some of the information I found on that car
before chassis 102 John Fitzpatrick racing Porsche. And if anyone with deeper pockets than me could
buy that car and bring it back to Australia, I'd love to be a part of putting the original livery
back on it. That would be cool. Hey, let's get into our Castro performers of the week.
As always, our great partner is a Castro bringing the undercut. Who's yours? Are you going to America?
I've got a funny feeling you're going to go around and around here. Yeah, so I did America last time
in the NASCAR stuff and I got to admit the supercar schedule is not really allowing me to do anything
supercars because the last race was a few weeks ago and I didn't actually get to watch a lot of
it. And the next one's a couple of weeks away. So because I watched it again on the weekend,
well Monday morning, the NASCAR race for me returned into North Wilkes-Pro. So for those
who don't follow NASCAR, let me quickly explain it. This was a circuit that started in 1947
and had its last Cup Series Championship race in 1996. Shut the doors. The place grew weeds.
Very reminiscent to be honest for me of Calder Park. And then in COVID, I racing went and scanned
the place and everyone got a bit of interest in it. Then they found some money and they
reinvigorated the place, got it going again, resurfaced the track and in this year was their
first time having NASCAR points race at the All-Star race there last year and they had a
points race there first time since 1996. And I just thought, how good would it be if we revived one
of our old circuits, Calder comes to mind and had a big championship race there. And to me,
I just saw it brilliant. The race itself was okay. It wasn't the most amazing NASCAR race I've ever
seen. But the fact of what the story to get there to me, pretty cool. And to add to that,
Van Gisburgen ran well inside the top five all night. He was second in stage one, fifth in
stage two. And like they say on Happy Gilmore, Happy's learn how to putt. Shane Van Gisburgen
has learned the ovals. And I was very rapt to see Shane have a great result in finishing fifth.
He's the trackhouse number one down there at the moment and doing good things. So I hope you can
get through to the next stage of the chase there for the championship because he's doing a great job.
I love the quote where he said, I don't know what, I won't use the explaining. I don't know what to
do now. He's leading a race on an oval. He didn't quite know what came next, but he knows what
comes next. He knows absolutely what he's doing. My performance of the week, I'm going to go to
Goodwood because it was four days of taking it all in there. My man is Romain Dumart, the Frenchman
who for the third year in a row topped the shootout. So they take all these sorts of cars,
put them all together, let them go loose on the hill climb there, which is the driveway
of the Duke of Richmond's house. As you do, run a hill climb up your house.
For the third time in a row, he's done it with Ford. This was the Emak E Mustang, which is just,
it's like a slot car when you press the button and it just goes zip. Incredible to win three years in
a row in various different forwards. So for me, Romain Dumart is my Castro performer of the week
for getting the job done again at Goodwood. If he can get four in a row next year, that would be
special. That is our Castro performers of the week. Next up is time. Burning questions.
This week, the Burning Questions brought to you by Ford Trade Club. Great to have Jack Ford Trade
Club on board. You're a Mustang driver this year. Yes, I am and probably part of the Ford
Trade Club when we get spare parts for it. Nice. If you're in the Automotive Trade Ford Trade Club,
it's the best place to find the genuine parts and motorcraft as well at exclusive trade club prices.
You can also sign up for the loyalty dollars. Have you already signed up? You probably already
signed up. I'll have to check the fine print. Check Use more genuine parts with
Ford Trade Club's exclusive pricing and the benefits that you can get for members. Great
to have them on board with us here on the undercut. They are involved with Burning Questions.
Jack, I've got the new ball. I'm bowling. You're batting. Is there enough reward for winning
the Supercar Sprint Cup? It's a tricky question to answer because personally, I'm a big fan of
the finals and the way it all works. But I think you're always going to be biased in this question
because there's so many events in the sprint part. So I think the issue comes that there's not enough
enduroes and there's not enough races after the enduroes to finish off the season. So
is there a big enough reward? Well, yeah, I guess you get your ticket straight through to the finals.
But for me, to make it all a bit more even and to potentially take some of the weighting off
how many races there are as part of the Sprint Cup, add another two-driver endurance race.
Add a couple more races after the enduro so that the finals runs at home and then all of a sudden,
it looks a bit more evenly weighted. So if the calendar's 14, maybe pluck a Sprint Cup round
now and pop it into the finals to just stretch that out a little bit more. I mean, the chase for
the Sprint Cup points on our screen, as we see him right now, Matt Payne out in front on 16.56.
He's 92 up on Brock Feeney. So he's had a nice turnaround. Brody Kostecki, Cam Waters ruin the
mix. So it's a bit of a forward climb at the moment. But just to remind people that if you win
the Sprint Cup, you get 25 bonus points to take into the finals. But for me, that free kick that
takes you through the enduros, I think that's more than enough for a reward that you could
absolutely have two shockers and score no points and you're still in the run for the finals. So I
think there's enough reward there. Yeah, absolutely. And just to quickly touch on that, a supercar's
race weekend that's got three races is 300 points. A supercar's endurance race, one race, is 300
points. So there's quite a lot of weight in these two endurance races. And why can't the Queensland
race be a Queensland 500k race? Go to the Tailum Bend 500k race and then the Bathurst 1000.
There'll be a reason someone will say it can't be done, but I'd say, well, don't say can't,
let's can and have another enduro. One of the things that people will say if you want another
enduro is that, well, it's going to cost more money for co-drivers to be able to do. But the
reality is we used to do it anyway. So I'm sure for what a co-driver would charge for an extra
round versus the money that gets spent on all sorts of other things, it's pretty small in the
grand scheme of things. I will promise you at Queensland Raceway, every team will have at
least one of their co-drivers they're watching because they're testing. It's a test on Monday.
And so the cost to have them there doesn't change. They'll be flying them there,
they'll be putting them in hotel rooms. That's how much they pay them for their job to drive.
This is where co-drivers need to be sensible and teams, you know, everyone needs to come to it.
But what I'm saying is they're already there for no extra money. So if they had to put a helmet on
earlier, I'm sure that common sense will prevail if indeed those co-drivers would like a job.
That is part of the mix. That's part of the mix for sure. Talking finals, who is going to miss
out on the finals this year as it sits? There's kind of an interesting cutoff point as we head
towards the next round at Warner & Perth. Will Brown after a sluggish start to the years been able
to get himself up and going and is quite away in front of the cut line now. He's almost a weekend
in front of it with only two weekends to go before the enduroes. But the Walkinshaw Toyotas
8th and 9th, I don't think they're fully safe here just yet. And you've got Jack LeBrock,
who's had kind of a very quiet successful year. He's really been the under the radar performer.
Then you've got a couple of guys who are on the outside looking in. I don't think we're anywhere
close to being sorted here for this part of the finals.
No, we're not. And this is this time of year, we start to really focus in on this top 10 because
it's becoming quite topical, obviously with the sprint part of the championship coming to an end.
And then we start looking at endurance drivers, endurance racers, sorry, and co-drivers and
whatnot. And I've already touched on the points that are on offer at those endurance races. So
when you look at that, 600 points, none of these guys are safe. No, not at all. And if you're Will
Brown and you have a DNF at an endurance race, you're nervous. And you know, both the Walkinshaw
TWG drivers, Woody and Mossot, they can't be comfortable in their position either. So
there's some big names there that aren't comfortable with how their championships progress in
and need some really solid results to make sure that they're going to make it to these finals.
And there's a couple of guys just on the fringe here. So James Golding,
Blanchard's are trending the wrong way, started really solidly. And as triple eight have kind of
had their, and look, it's all relative, Brock Feeney is still in the fight for the championship
second in the points. It's not horrendous and terrible, but they've set such a benchmark for
so long that we judge them a little bit differently to others. But James Golding's still in the mix
here. Blanchard's were strong at the endurance races last year. And Jadon O'Jada, his graph's
going up. Premier Racing's 31 car, it would not shock me. Let's remember what they delivered
at Bathurst last year with James Golding. He's 137 off the cut line. He could easily
choose some of that away in the next two sprint cup rounds. And the enduroes, as you said, are
worth 600 overall. So there's, we're a long way from being done here, but my worry
is actually for the well-controlled supers here because we will touch on Toyota and its engines
and the reliability a little bit later in this segment. But I wouldn't be feeling really easy
if I were them. And I would be feeling really incentivized if I'm Jadon O'Jada or Jack LaBrock
or even Thomas Randall, who's a bit off the graphic here. We're a long way from being done here to
decide who's in and who's out. Well, you touched on that. I think Randall and Heimgartner in particular,
too, that aren't on that board. They're below 12th, so I think the 13th and 15th, respectively,
or 13th and 14th. Anyway, they have two strong results in endurance races. All of a sudden,
they're back in the picture. If you walk away with 500 points from Taylor Bend and Bathurst,
you aren't out of this game. So, you know, I saw somewhere that Heimgartner suggested maybe their
finals run was over after a couple of DNFs through the mechanical issues that they're facing there,
but I wouldn't be counting that out yet because... There's too much of a swing with the endurance.
And so there's a lot to play out yet, Nunes, and that's exciting. I'd be really worried that the
two well-controlled cars might miss out. If anything goes wrong in the enduroes, they're at
the wrong end of the 10 for that to happen. Last year, they're at the right end of the 10.
So, when Ryan Wood had dramas at Bathurst, Chassie didn't finish Bathurst,
but they were high enough in the points that they were sort of okay to be able to keep going.
They kind of don't have this luxury. They need a couple of really good sprint rounds to be able
to push their way a bit forward. And they can't afford to have any issues at the endurance races.
No, no. There's no option. No option. Next question. Jack, do you dislike fuel saving?
I don't dislike it, Nunes. My only supercar's win has come from a fuel saving race.
But it's worth touching on for me. Fuel saving is not new. It's not a new thing. Unfortunately,
I think the contribution to the fuel saving at the moment is the Krontek fuel filling devices
that Gen 3 cars have got. It doesn't get spoken about a lot, like through the telecasts and
the background, but these were new units for Gen 3. They're incredibly expensive to the point
where teams are looking to sell Gen 3 cars. They're taking these fuel filling units out of
the cars to save some money on the purchase price. I'm of the understanding that each churn
nozzle adapter is about $12,000 to $14,000. And that is a horrific amount of money to cars.
Because what happens with these couplers having been involved in Team Land, if you do not have a
complete smooth connection when you're engaging the fuel filler into the car,
you get slow fuel time. So the flow going into the car is slower. Now, why has that got to do with
fuel saving? Because the timed fuel stops occasionally in a lot of the races that the
engineers have worked out. You might need 12 seconds of fuel to get home. So they go 12 seconds,
then they get on the racetrack and realise they didn't get 12 seconds worth of fuel in.
But there's a double-edged sword to this though too. They do that and not have as much go in as
they thought they were putting in. But they also underfill anyway because they're trying to beat
the guy down the pit lane. And as Cam Waters found himself in at Townsville, it's kind of a double hit.
And then they're asking the driver, right of mate, drive slow to get home. He's like, what?
Yeah. And so to that point, I don't really think we needed the churn thing. I think that's a bit
silly. Every team had a fuel rig and it's... So it was said that it was the cost to drag them
around the country and to have the staff to... I don't buy it. The truck's still going. The fuel
rig goes in the same truck. The fuel rigs go to Bathurst. The same truck went to Townsville. I
don't understand why you couldn't take the fuel rig. So for the cost of those oddles, the churns,
the nozzles, all the bits that go with it, if it's... And I asked Supercars this the other day,
it's $12,000 to $14,000 our car. So two-car team... $24,000. There's, well, $24,000 to $28,000, nearly
$30,000 worth of expense. Would it have cost $30,000 worth of expense for the fuel rigs to be
still in use for those events? Unless there's something I'm unaware of. There might be. The fuel
rigs unfold and get packed away in the same transport of the car as the cars. So I don't
understand how there's any different... Now, forgive me if I've completely over-missed
the reality of the situation, but I don't believe they needed to bring the churns in.
You know, look at what we're going to do at Bathurst. We go back to fuel rigs, but...
Same with the finals as well.
The problem is this inconsistent fuel flow. Like one year at Bathurst when I was with Erebus,
we spent nearly 30 seconds longer in Pit Lane over the course of the race because we had slow
fuel fill. It's a control part. We have no control over that. And to me, that's bad news,
especially for the price of them. Compared to the old Siamese units we used to have back on all
the original cars, there was no issues with the fuel flow. And that's why we had control rigs.
So everyone had the same fuel flow.
But in another element of this fuel saving discussion, the teams are their own worst enemies
here because... And again, I spoke to Tim Edwards during the week, and he was absolutely clear and
happy to say this, that they run the race distances. And obviously the fuel being slightly
different this year. It burns a bit quicker. They've modified a few race distances to account for that.
But he said 1.8 churns of fuel is what they determine that the team will need for a race.
But what teams are doing, and once one does it, they all start to do it, it's competitive. That's
how it is. If they go, well, actually, we could get by with 1.7 or 1.6 churns, but our driver's
going to have to cruise a bit. But we want the track position. So although the guy behind's able
to press on a bit harder, if you can't pass a Brody, a Cam, a Will Brown, a Brock Fene,
whoever it might be who are great racing drivers, doesn't matter. You're not going to be able to
get by. Yeah. I mean, look, the strategy element's cool. But I think what fans want to see is the
driver's pushing the cars to their limits. So when you're driving around saving fuel and saving tyres,
you're not really racing cars. You're just like a mileage marathon.
Now, the fuel races work well just by chance, not by design. So by chance that there's a safety car
with 30 laps to go and you can only do 25 laps on a tank of fuel and someone rolls the dice.
That's when it's fun. But if it's week in, week out and we're watching drivers drive these cars
around a second off the pace just to see if they can make it, that's to me not car racing.
One of the things I thought of, could we make the strategy element of this change a bit? They are
restricted. There's one churn per car. So if you were to put your fuel churn in, empty your fuel
into your car, you'd have to then go back and refill it while the car's still sitting there
chewing time to put more fuel in it. So I asked Tim Edwards, well, could you have a situation where
each car could put two churns in per stop? But the fact is he said, well, you'd have to have
another churn for each car. And therefore that's where the cost comes in. If that's another,
what, 12 to 14 grand per churn. So you start to blow it up financially and that doesn't make
too much sense. But I think back to the glory days of, it's easy to say glory days, isn't it? But
Australian Touring Car Championship, sprint races, refuelling, tire stops, all that wasn't a thing.
And we will cover it off in this segment very shortly, but about race formats and sprint cup.
This doesn't feel like sprint racing when we're talking about refuelling,
saving fuel, all those sorts of things. It doesn't match to sprint cup. No.
And it's something we normally only obey with endurance racing.
Yeah, which we'll cover off a bit later in this segment. That's another question. It's on the
next page. Where are the Toyota engines at? That's a major situation here that
they've come out of the box so well, the supers this year. They've won three races.
It's gone far better than I think a lot of people probably would have expected. The
cars look great. They've performed really well. But there is an issue here with the engines that
they're working on. Yeah, and I don't know enough about it because, correct me if I'm wrong,
but they've been reasonably tight lipped on a few of the things with the engine program.
Yeah, there was really only one of the... Carl Fo made some comments on the V8SWTH website that I
went back to. Some of those failures that they've had with Ryan Wood in New Zealand and Chaz obviously
had one in Darwin. Andre Heimgartner's had an issue along the way. He said,
Valtrain related on the exhaust side, you strengthen one thing and you push the problem to
somewhere else and then flows on from there. But he said, the good thing is we know where the
problem or what the problem is. We've identified the next link in the challenge breaking. Parts
are being manufactured for that now and a fix is crucially scheduled to be applied in time
for Bathurst in October, which of course is the big thing that really matters more than anything
else in the sport. Toyota are a very conservative business and company. Naturally, they will
not want to talk about, analyze, have it talked about. We can't not talk about it, but I think the
offset to all of this is that the fantastic performances that they've had for a new manufacturing
year one have been at a higher level than probably anything else, but maybe the Volvo with Scott
McLaughlin. But there's been more super as it's not just been one of them that's been performing well.
It's expected that these things will have issues. Nothing rolls out perfectly straight away,
but the big key is that the people, the roles involved are working on the problem. They know
what the problem is. They'll get it fixed. They will get it fixed and the key will be in time for
Bathurst because that's the thing that Toyota hold above anything else is winning Bathurst.
That's the big thing, like you've touched on coming into a sport. You can come in and be
uncompetitive and have reliability, or quite often it's the other way around and you'd be
competitive and you have some unreliability issues. Without knowing the exact cause and the effect
of the problems they're facing, it looks like they're having catastrophic failures, whether
they're drop-in valves. Does it matter if it's a big or a little failure? Failure is a failure.
It's true and it's not. The hardest thing with engines is cause and effect. You need to understand
what's causing the issue and having seen some of the blow-ups that like Heimgart and had at
Sydney Motorsport Park at the start of the year, they look like big, spontaneous engine disassemblies.
Nothing wants to be in the engine anymore. Then when you get a box of bent parts, try and identify
what the issue is. I think the valve train is what I believe the issue from what you hear and what
you read. Keeping that alive becomes a big issue for Bathurst. 1000km should be all they're all
thinking about right now. Can the engines do 1000km? It might mean we see back to the traditional
Saturday night engine changes at Bathurst, put a fresh one in for Sunday. That is something that
does hark back to back in the day. I've got full confidence that they will be right when it matters
later on the year for finals and for Bathurst in particular. My concern is just where the
Walk and Shore guys are right in the finals mix right now. They're at the back half of the 10,
not the top half of the 10. If anything goes wrong in that run up to get to the finals,
that might put them in a tough position. They are a good crew down there because I believe some of
the original Walk and Shore guys are still servicing the engines here in Australia. They'll
get to the bottom of it. It's just time becomes the problem. There's some switched on people there.
Like you've said, they've come out and they're winter racers. Hats off to them for that.
And it's manufacturing parts. It's getting parts here. It's getting them approved by supercars,
putting them on their dyno. It's a process. It's kind of not like the old days where
if your dad had a drum with these engines, he'd go off and fix it and it's done. The process is
very different in the modern supercars category. But we kind of touched on the next question a
little bit in a previous question, Jack. But what's the best race format? And it's a very open-ended
type of question. It links back to what I was saying about the Sprint Cup. And here we are
talking about pit stops, 200Ks, fuel flow, fuel saving. I might miss something, but Sprint Cup
is not connecting with some of the race formats that we've got. I think Grand Prix, Sprint,
everywhere else, not so Sprint. No, and I think we're probably still in a bit of a position
of supercars where we don't know what the perfect fix is in terms of what should the race weekends
look like. This is my personal opinion because Adelaide 500 came along in the late 90s with
these two by 250K races, and they were excellent. But they were also in a time when we didn't have
a full field of professional drivers. So we were guaranteed safety cars and things to keep it alive.
A 250 kilometre green flag race is incredibly challenging to watch. Because everyone's at
such a good level now. Yep. There's no crashes. There's no safety cars. Very few mechanical dramas.
And the field spread becomes bigger because the quicker cars are more competitive over a longer
run, those battling with poor handling, deteriorate over a long run. And what you get is a poor product
unless there's a safety car. So for me, it's hard to answer. I think you're right. I think we need
more Sprint weekends where there's Sprint races. But I enjoy having pit stops in races as well,
bringing the crew into it, where there's two tyres, four tyres. I don't believe we need to have
fuel stops at Barbagello, you know, at Waniru. For an example, that should be a Sprint race track.
It's sub 60 second lap time, generates pretty good short sharp racing. And back in the day,
we would have had three races on a Sunday there. And it would have been great. And their fans love it.
So it's tricky to know, but I think there's a bit of a mismatch. Like you've said, the Sprint
cups got some of these 500k weekends where there's a couple of 250k races. But they've also got this
440 format, which has got two races on the Saturday and one race on the Sunday. So it's very challenging.
I'm involved in the game. It's hard to keep up with the formats when they rotate around a little
bit. So I can only imagine it's challenging as well for those watching at home. Over the years,
supercars, V8 supercars, the category of the champions, it's changed formats so many times,
trying to find the right thing. Sometimes that's been politically influenced. Sometimes it's
track dependent. Sometimes it's, that's a great idea. Let's just try and see how it goes. It's
been changed for so many reasons. And I looked at the list of things we've had longer, we've had
shorter, we've had, let's have compulsory pit stops, let's have tyre stops. Let's try reverse grids,
which was a thing there for a little while in the 2000s. Let's try reverse six. Let's have
knockout qualifying. Let's try different tyres. There's so many things in the mix here that sometimes
even I find it hard to go, what's the format this weekend? How many cars are dropped out of qualifying?
Which tyre are they on for this session? It's kind of like moving the goalposts in footy every
weekend to know which way, which side of the ground are they on this weekend? It's kind of hard.
But I feel that the sprint cups are misnomer here. I really honestly think we need to get rid of having
so much qualifying. Take that track time and convert it into racing. If you're going to have 200
Ks of racing on a Saturday in Townsville, I'm cool with that. Well, let's have two 100 K races.
Let's forget having to have fuel churns and all the equipment for pit stops. Let's make it
qualify for the first one, start where you finish the first one, like we go back a little bit to
progressive grid. It still opens up scenarios for strategy. If there's a safety car, you know,
what do we come in and do we throw some new tyres at it to just try to vault our way through the
field? There'll be a little bit of that involved. But you've got to do a race format that fits the
banner of that part of the championship and the track. And to me, sprint cup, we're not doing
sprint races here. We're doing those races that are in the finals, the 250s, 200-type K stuff.
That's perfect for finals. I like it. I'm all in, get the teams involved, make it part of
winning and losing the championship, enduro is their own thing. But I think in the sprint
land, and as you said, small tracks, Wanru, Simmons Plains, ghost sprint racing. And then
you don't have to worry about fuel saving. You don't have to worry about all this stuff that's
permeating. Just let them rip. I agree with you. And I think one thing I want to harp on is it's
not just a supercar thing. Like I've seen plenty of dud F1 races, plenty of crap NASCAR races,
and I've seen lots of dud football games. So it's not just a supercar thing, but it's about trying
to find exactly what works well for you. And you look how much money Formula 1 have, and they
still have to have different tyre compounds and a DRS rear wing system to incorporate any form of
overtaking. Yeah, well, and they've even got rid of some of the things that they had that were
probably not that bad. But having been at the British Grand Prix, now the spectacle of it all
was great, the size, the huge crowd, everyone's caught up in Formula 1 fever. The actual car
race in the racing was rubbish. I actually, we sat in the grandstand at turn 1 at Abbey,
which was an awesome place to see the start of the British Grand Prix and watch the race and take
it all in. It wasn't a good car race. And right at the end there where they all packed up again,
and they were going to restart, and then they didn't restart, and it wasn't flash. I mean,
you don't see too many cracking Formula 1 races. It's just that it's got such a spectrum of
excitement and enthusiasm around it off the back of drive to survive. And it's the biggest thing
in town at the moment, probably makes it a bit better than it really is. But it's not a problem
just to supercarsage. Just got to always think about entertainment. It's got to be entertaining.
People love watching cars racing. And what are some of the most entertaining races of the year,
Jack? Albert Park, Sprints, Short Races, Get It Done. And the racing quality on the whole
has been pretty good in recent times. But I reckon you could make it even better by making
the Sprint Cup Sprint Races. Quick one to finish us off with. Who holds the key to the silly season
for next year? Because there's still a few seats up for grabs. Who's the person with the key right
now? Well, it's an interesting one, because we've been speaking a lot about Matt Payne,
and it's a bit of a strange one, because I think he's probably the number one
seated driver in the moment, I think. But surely he goes nowhere now. Well, from what I understand,
but that's, I don't know why he wants to move. It's a whole other topic, but surely anything
that kind of happens for next year is potentially to make way for an impending move
from the Groves with Payne. So who holds it right now, though, for next year? Because
let's just presume he's going nowhere. He stays at Groves. I think it's potentially David Reynolds.
Yeah, in terms of does he get another opportunity? Does he call quits on his full-time driving?
And it all because I think the speculation and all the things we know are suggesting that Matt
Payne is going to end up in that race team come 2028, and it's sort of what happens in between.
So that's going to be interesting. It's probably not as busy a silly season as we've seen in the
past, but there's certainly going to be a few things that happen as a bit of a preamble to
what's to come. What happens in this silly season for next year, I think, are very much one-in,
one-outs. So does Reynolds go on or not? Do they put someone else in for another year before
Payne arrives? Does Declan Fraser keep his seat? Does anything happen to BJR, Matt Stone?
They've piled a bit of pressure on Declan already, I see.
There's been a bit coming there from the sounds of things in recent times. So I don't think it's
the domino effect this year, though. I think that comes next year and it'll be headed by Payne.
That'll open a seat at Groves. Whoever jumps there opens a seat up somewhere else and so on and so
forth. So the silly season chat next year for the year after is going to be absolutely
bannerhead stuff. But that is the burning questions. Thanks to Ford Trade Club. If you work on Ford
Speed to your local Ford dealer about becoming a Ford Trade Club member. Now this weekend,
the Racefuels' Winton Festival of Speed is firing into action. I'm going to be among all the action
they're taking it all in. Here's a little taste of what you can enjoy this weekend.
We had to sit out at Darwin, but he was back up on the wheel in Townsville and he's with us here
on the undercut. Thomas Randall, welcome. Thanks, Ners. Great to be here. Great to have you here.
55, Castro, Mustang, Tickford on the whole. Graph's going up. Things are good at the moment.
Yeah, I mean, certainly the last two rounds have been a big step in the right direction. The first,
well, the previous three rounds were, yeah, certainly a challenge. The two in New Zealand
and Tassie were tough, but this championship is hard to be consistent. I mean, the competition
level is so high and you might think you've found something and then the next time you go out,
oh, hang on, that didn't work. So it's challenging, but certainly the weekend we had in Townsville,
I felt like as a whole, things really clicked and it just sort of felt like I was back and
sort of found my feet again. What do you think sort of been missing? Has it been the team not
giving you fast enough race cars or because it was looking pretty good at various stages over the
last couple of years in terms of like Nuneset, upward trajectory, but it just looks like it
didn't happen for a long time this year. Do you know what it was or you haven't been able to figure
that bit out? I mean, it's hard to pinpoint just one thing, Jack. And I mean, you've been in the
game long enough to know that there's so many things that make up being fast and trying to be
fast consistently. I'd say probably the biggest curveball has been this new compound
tire that we got in 2025 and the way the formats have changed from just being one compound weekend
to most weekends, not Townsville, but overall we have mixed compound racing. So you'll qualify
on the new soft, which came out in 2025. Then you go back to the super soft, which is a bit
of a different construction. And now we've got different Park Fermat rules and it's all very
different. And I think being able to adapt to the different tire from what we've been used to,
certainly 2024 was a strong year for the team. And for Cam and I, we finished fourth and fifth
in the championship and things were looking really good. And I just feel like that's probably been
one of the big curveballs. I mean, there's certainly been strong rounds and then there's been
tougher rounds, but probably the biggest thing is understanding why we were fast or why we weren't
fast. And that's, I'd say over the last six to eight months, that's where the work sort of been
put into, you know, looking at or pinpointing, looking at the history of what we've been doing
with the cars or how I've been driving it and seeing, okay, well, this worked, you know, whether
it's a setup thing, tire prep, there's so many elements and not only that, every other team is
also stepping it up. And I mean, you can just see looking at groves this year, for example, I mean,
they are the team to beat day in, day out. One of the things that I think now is two rounds to go
and sprint cup before we get to the finals with the Ryko Enduro Cup. You find yourself in a really
awkward, interesting position where you're on the outside of the 10 looking in trying to get into
the finals, like you were last year, you got yourself in there. Cam Waters, your teammates,
right up the top, he's what third in the points now, he's, he's right up in the mix there, that
barring a disaster in the Enduros, you'd pretty much almost lock him in. I would argue that it's
better for Tickford Racing, and maybe this is a question more so for Jack than yourself putting
you on the spot, but it's better to have two cars in the game for the finals than one and putting
all the eggs in the basket there, because what happens if Cam and Frosty have a mare at the
end or Bathurst where all of that effort, and you know, if they sacrifice Thomas a bit more in
the next couple of races to boost Cam along, and maybe you miss out on the finals, but what if they
trip over for something that's completely out of their control, and then suddenly there's no Tickford
car in the fight? Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting point you raise, and I guess it's further to what
I asked Thomas about, you know, have they been able to put the finger on the reasons why the
performance is not great, but I guess you forget a little bit about the finals side of things because
you know, we've been sprint racing, and I'm sure Thomas, when you're not performing as well as
you'd like from a team and a car point of view, finals couldn't be further away in your thoughts,
you know, five races ago, you were trying to work out how to get from 15th on the grid
into the five, but now all of a sudden, finals becomes a bigger talking point as we're approaching
the end of the sprint season, you think, hang on, we've actually got to execute now, so how much
have the finals influenced further to Aaron's point? How much have they influenced 55 car,
but also the broader Tickford organisation? I think up until before Townsville with, I guess
what happened with Darwin, you know, I missed the Sunday race, which was obviously not ideal.
Yeah, finals wasn't really on the right, I mean, I want to be in the 10, but it's like, okay, we're
just going to take it race by race here, and get ourselves in a position where, you know,
we're back comfortable with the car, and I feel like at Darwin, they found something with the team,
I mean, Cam was back on form really, you know, he won the round,
he got a podium in every race, got two pole positions, and I probably didn't get to show
what I could do up there, given what happened on the Saturday race, but then going to Townsville,
yeah, I just felt like I was back and comfortable again in the package, and again, we just sort of
took it race by race, and you know, we've actually made quite a lot of inroads on that 10 now, and
I think we nearly made about 100 points back, and there's still two rounds to go in the sprint cup,
but then also there's the enduro cup, which the points at the end of that's what's going to get
you in the 10, so there's still a lot of points up on offer, and I mean, on paper, it's all well
and good to say, you know, if we can have another couple of weekends like Townsville, we could be
back in that 10, and last year, as you said, we were in the 10, all the finals, and we made it to
Sanddown, unfortunately, that was it for both Cam and myself, but I feel like it's really important
to have both cars in the 10, because you look at what the Walk and Shore or the TWG guys did last
year, and I think that really voted well for Chas. Is that a situation now where you can,
I guess, throw your weight around a little bit and say, look guys, sometimes when you want me to
move over for Cam, I get it, you want to maximise Cam's position in the championship, he's at the
moment the best bet for the championship for the team because of the simple mathematics, but
there's got to come a point here where I've got to get a bit of a help out too, because
who's better than one? Have you had those chats? Will you have those chats? How do you go about
those chats? Because it's hard to keep everybody happy. Well, I think, you know, it's a good
conversation, and yeah, I mean, those seven points could matter at the end of the Enduro Cup, so
personally, I feel like it's very important we get both cars in the 10. I mean, the team have
said that, you know, they want both cars in the 10, so yeah, let's just hope the next couple
rounds, we can make that happen. It's pretty interesting when you start to think about the
Enduros, because there are a lot more points on offer for those two big races, obviously the 500K
race and the Bathurst 1000. You're heading in with a new co-driver. Again. Again, yeah. You've
not had the same one ever yet? No, every year it's been different. Please don't play me for the
haste. Do you smell? Maybe, maybe. Does that start to play on your mind as well? Like start to think
about how you can integrate your co-driver, Ruben Goodall, into driving the car, setting up the car,
you know, being part of the team and then knowing that his role is not just to contribute for those
races, it's potentially to get you in or out of the finals. Yeah, I think the team have been having
those chats with Ruben, and you obviously did the wild card at Townsville, which is just great
from an experienced point of view, because the Gen 3 cars are so different compared to the Gen 2s,
which is what he races in Super 2. I mean, they've got different, not just different technology,
if you like, but they've got so much more aero. It's a different tyre. It's the hard tyre versus
what we run on the soft. And to, I guess, have to go back to back on a race weekend at Bathurst
between the Super 2 and the Gen 3 is a big thing. So I think that's where Ruben, it was good to see
him do that wild card and get valuable miles. Unfortunately, he was caught up in that lap
one thing on Sunday, but the team did a great job, get it back out, and he did 50-odd laps.
I think that for him, and, you know, being a rookie a first-timer, it's obviously an exciting
thing. I mean, that's typically gave me my chance back in 2019, like co-driver Lee Holdsworth. And
that was probably a big thing for Lee. You know, you've got a rookie guy being a co-driver,
albeit I had a lot of experience in other championships up to that point. And we actually
ended up finishing third overall, got a podium, it set sand down. So, yeah, I think Ruben's,
you know, it's been good for him to do that wild card. And, you know, it's just knowing your role
as a co-driver and bring it back in one piece, try and maintain position. It's almost a harder job
because there's a lot of pressure on you, but I'm sure he'll be right.
We've seen in recent rounds Cam got his hands on a brand new chassis, brand new car.
Do you get one soon? When's that coming? Are you going to get your hands on one? Some fresh,
new, nice, new-smelling metal for maybe the Enduros, the Finals? What's the story?
Yeah, that's probably a question for the team, I'd say. Yeah, up until Tassie, I'd been running
my car that started Gen 3, so that had done every single race. And then Tasmania was when the team
debuted the first Tickford-built supercar. And that's obviously been working pretty well for Cam
in the last couple of rounds. So maybe you just betted it in at Tassie and since then it's been
on song. So that was a big moment for the team to build the first car. I think that they're working.
That's the first Gen 3 car that they've built, rather than from a pace package, you know, tube work.
And then that weekend, well, they switched me to Cam's first car.
Which was the Austin Syndric wildcard car from the end of last year.
I believe so, yeah. And the car that Cam was in.
So he's dancing here. Are you going to get a new car at some point this year? Surely.
You're in the same one for three and a bit. Is it time to give Tommy some fresh metal?
I agree. I'll just say that I agree. I want a new car.
That's the new headline.
It's sort of interesting talking about cars because it feels like Cam's performance has
lifted with the new chassis, whether it has or it hasn't or not. But further to something Aaron
raised before, it's been a few times where you've sort of moved out of Cam's way. And now I know
you probably say something differently to what you're thinking right now. But at what stage can you
not be playing second fiddle to Cam, do you think? Is it when you get your first race win or is it
when you can knock him off more and qualify or do you think it's going to evolve where you might
be playing sort of second fiddle to Cam? It's tough. I felt like on the Saturday,
like we were having a good race, you know, and we qualified well. I mean, the shootout,
I felt like I made a couple of little mistakes, but the car was hooked up and, you know,
you probably know more than anyone. When the car, you know, you're just yelling with the car and
you feel like even when you make a mistake, you can be at the front. And that's when you just
really feel at one with the car. And yeah, like I said, I thought we were having a really good
race. And yeah, as a driver, I guess getting the call six laps to go, it's some, yeah,
pretty frustrating. But yeah, we'll see. Well answered. You've always fronted up for these
stuff really, really well. Especially when you've put me on the spot like this.
That's the end of the game. That's the end of the game. Hard hitting questions.
Hard hitting. Well, well, do. What would you do, Jack?
Rip the radio out, run my own race. But I'm not beaming that position much, mate. But I can see
that, that it becomes frustrating at some stage, you know, yourself, if you can outperform Cam in
qualifying and prove to the team that, Hey, I'm the guy that can still win this race for you guys.
That's probably what you're trying to try to achieve. Well, the good thing that we are going
to achieve is that Tom's going to come back and join us on a Castrol special because retro
liveries back for later in the year and viewers of the undercut will be able to get involved.
Vote on what liveries going to be on your car later in the season. We're going to do a pile
of special episodes, the first of which is coming up very, very soon. Keep an eye on that on our
socials and on our YouTube. Jack's going to join us for that. You're going to join us for that as
well. We'll step through some classic cars and start to get a bit of a vibe of what might be on
your car for later in the year. So I think you'll be a cougar, though, just quietly come stand
there later on in the year. Thomas, thank you for joining us all the best for the next couple of
rounds in the spring cup. Thanks, thanks for the hard hitting questions.
It didn't hurt too much. It didn't hurt too much. Hey, thank you to Thomas and the team at Castrol
for having him with us today. Next up here on the undercut, it's time to go number crunching
as we get ready to head to Waniru in Western Australia.
Let's crunch some numbers and take a look at the stats that matter as we head to Waniru, Jack.
And well, Feeney v. Payne, let's have a look at the last six races because this tells quite a
story. On the left side, six races ago leading into Darwin, Brock Smiley, Matt Payne, not smiling.
Go through three in Darwin, three in Townsville, get to the right side, Matt on top smiling,
Brock not smiling. Have a look at the turnaround that's unfolded here. This is a 182 point swing
across six races. It's been a bit incredible, to be honest, Nunes, when you look at that because
in none of those races have triple eight scored a podium and there have been circuits where in
particular the team and Brock in particular in Darwin and the team in Townsville have excelled
in the last 15, 20 years. So it's been just sort of unbelievable to see how it's sort of transpired
because for me at the moment, I've touched on this earlier in the show, Matt Payne is the number
one driver in supercars at the moment in between him and Brodie Kasteki. That's just in current form.
Obviously to me, Brock Feeney should be well in that sentence, but unfortunately their cars just
aren't competitive enough at the moment, which is strange because they hit the ground running
their first race for Ford and won it at City Motorsport Park, but they've just been struggling
to really get on top of the Ford at a lot of other tracks since then. And the interesting thing is
those other two teams, Dick Johnson Racing and Groves are Fords. So it's not like a parody deal,
it's a team setting up and drivers making the most out of what they've got. So it's fascinating
when you think about it like that because add to that triple eight got Ford on board to be Ford's
main team and they're not at the moment. So I'm finding that incredibly fascinating to be watching
from the outside. We have to wait till the season shakes out in full to get to the end of Adelaide,
but I can't help but feel that triple eight are not going to stay down like this for long.
That interesting element where last year, Wolkenshaw said, no, we played the game this way.
We didn't show all our cards, we played around, we tried things during the year and then we came
home strong. Whereas Red Bull was strong all year and then didn't quite get it done at the end.
They seem to be adamant saying, no, no, we're not playing the game here. We're not
fiddling, we're trying. Let's see what unfolds over the year because I can't help but feel that
triple eight are going to go bang very soon. They've swapped manufacturers times before. They've had
new cars, new models, new eras, new iterations and they've always been successful and carried on the
form. Now, it's a different era of triple eight. It's different ownership. The people involved,
there's a few key elements there that are the same over time, but they've had the mix and no matter
who the people were in the shirts, they kept on doing the job. I feel they're going to keep doing
the job, but Grove Racing is probably the best competitive outfit that they've had to go up
against in a while who've basically learnt from triple eight and built a replica of triple eight
absolutely and hats off to Grove and their drivers for doing a phenomenal job.
But it's just so interesting, isn't it? I talk about and listen to you talk about
Walk and Shores last year and how they're claiming they're preparing for finals. Now,
my experience suggests that nothing that they learn at the upcoming race at Waniru is going to
help them at Bathurst or is going to help them at Adelaide because the Waniru circuit has such a
unique surface that none of the Waniru setups work anywhere else anyway. But maybe they're still
procedural things or the way they're preparing the cars, things that can carry over to other
events. And we've heard triple eight talk about straight line performance versus other forwards.
So maybe they're working on ride heights and body work, fit ups and lubrication or whatever it might
be to try and improve their straight line performance, which sure, if they get some gains
that will come up at Waniru. But I just find it incredibly hard to sit here with a straight face
and go, oh, I'm testing this weekend at Waniru for Adelaide. I mean, it's just like playing
football at the MCG for a game you're going to play in Darwin. There's just no relationship.
We've had a few football references today, haven't we? Yeah, I mean, I like to break it down for
the layman. But yeah, it's going to be fascinating. But like you've touched on triple eight are the
best team in this game from a record point of view, they've got the best people in the game too.
Great engineers, great people running the show. They'll get on top of this. And it's just a matter
of where and when. Hard to go against history. Hey, let's take a look at Brodie Kasteki because
he's been up and down, literally. Have a look at the graph here. He's first 11 races of the year
five wins. He's winning Townsville on the Sunday, which was a ripping drive, was his only win from
the last 11 races. So but he's still been there or thereabouts. But that drop off, obviously,
the incident with Chas in New Zealand. Tassie wasn't a great weekend, but it's kind of feast or
famine. That graph goes up a long way and there's trophies attached. Or when it goes down, it goes
down a fair way. Yeah, and it's still in. I'm not counting him now. I think he's absolutely
100% in the totem mix here. When you reset the points, he's absolutely in this.
Well, and you know, you think about how he set a race out at Darwin
while he's battling some health stuff. And in any other championship, you'd be thinking,
well, that could be the win or lose factor. But the fact that the points get reset, he's fine.
But I think this role of Costa Nunes is something we're going to see more and more of with these
Gen 3 cars because the cars are so close and what works for a team. And this is probably
further to my triple eight point. What works for the team, for them at Sydney Motorsport Park,
hasn't worked at other tracks. And you're going to find that there's a lot of calculated guesswork
with your setups. And sometimes a team from left field may be able to produce a better result.
Look at Andre Heimgartner at Tasmania, won a race, hasn't looked like a win in a race since. Now,
I don't mean that disrespectfully, but the combination of you know, correct. And because
everyone has the same specification car, they've got the same uprights, the geometries within a
window, the springs are there, like everyone's got the same access to the tools. Sometimes it's
going to work for you. And sometimes it's not. And you look at some of Brody's results there,
sometimes they've just missed it. They've just missed the setup window. And it's good because
it doesn't always mean the same person's going to win every week.
Which is good for the game overall. It's hard to pick. Shootouts are a big consideration
in supercars racing. We're going to see a lot of them in the finals, the enduroes as well.
I want to put a couple of guys under the microscope here and have a look at how
they convert to shootout performances. Have a look at this. Polls per shootout started.
Chas Moster gets in a lot of shootouts, but he doesn't get a lot of poll positions. In fact,
one of them is that 2019 Bathurst where Scott McLaughlin in the record books is wiped and Chas
is, you know, he didn't physically start from the poll. One was a Ben Top 15 shootout and the
other was that cracking Bathurst lap that he did in 2021. You've got to qualify well and execute
in shootouts to be up the front for those finals and enduroes races. Cam Waters, he gets stuff done.
Kosteke gets it done in shootouts like pretty much no one else. Matt Payne hasn't really been able
to go on, but he's in the top half of the shootout field. I just thought it was something to put
under the microscope because there's so many shootouts in the rest of the championship. This
becomes really relevant. Yeah, and we love shootouts, Nunes. They're a great part of a race
weekend and the Bathurst shootout is one of the most famous parts of a Bathurst race weekend.
It's very interesting to see that data because, man, that's an incredible number of missed
opportunities for pole position when arguably there would have been times when he was provisional
pole. So, yeah, you need to get on top of that one lap pace. And as we know, where you start in
these races goes a long way to being where you win or lose the race. And that topic can extend
to Tickford Racing. Let's have a look at how they've been trending. We talked a lot about their
start to the season up to and including Taz. They're two cars averaging 11.2 in quality.
Last two rounds stepped it up for Cam and Thomas. 5.8. That's a big jump in the case of those two
rounds. You've got to qualify well to race well. 100%. And to be fair, I guess Cam's been able to
kind of make better use of those poor qualifying results and maintain his championship position,
whereas Tom Randall hasn't been able to kind of convert those 15th back qualifying results into
top 10 finishes. But they're certainly on an upward trend. They've found something with their
cars and their performance and it's at the right time of the year. So, for Cam Waters and Tommy
Randall, they'll be looking forward to the next few races and seeing if they can continue this
strong form and make sense of it, Nunes, because there's one thing to be fast, but you have to
understand why you're fast. And that's one of the biggest things with these cars.
Did you get the impression from our chat with Thomas that he's not going to get a new car
any time soon? I did get that impression. And whether or not, look, I'm not a big believer
on new cars making a big difference unless there's a reason. Are they lighter? Are they stronger?
Are they, what are they, you know? But I think he would like a new car was the impression I got there,
but he did a great job at Townsville with the car that he had and looks like that's the car he's
going to have for the rest of the year. So, Tickford have trended one way in quality. I want to take
a look at Blanchards now, Jack, and they're trending the other way. That start to the season
for Aaron Cameron, who's qualified well and had horrible races generally over the year.
He's had all sorts of stuff go wrong. And James Goulding, look at the slide here.
First part of the year, 7.1. They've dropped a 15.7 average across the two cars. That's a reflection
of big two. Also, they're a Triple 8 sort of connected team as well. So, when Triple 8 maybe
aren't going as well, sometimes you see that the customer team is not going so well either. So,
that's one to keep an eye on because that's a slide that they need to arrest
and get a car in the finals. They can still get James Goulding in there to contend.
Yeah, and this is an interesting one. We've spoken about teams performing poorly,
trying to work out how to go better. And this is almost the other way around. Blanchards,
do they know why they were fast to begin with? Was it more luck than good preparation or have they
tried something different now and the trend is that it's going worse? So, that's the thing.
There's two sides to those arguments. One is when poor teams are looking for performance and then
other ones when they get the performance is understanding something my dad was always pretty
big on. Understanding how did that happen? Was it just good luck or were we making calculated
decisions to the setup? Was the driver driving the car better? But the interesting one there is
the head-to-head qualifier, which I saw on the V8 Sleuth website. Aaron Cameron 12 to Gold in 10.
When you look at the championship board, as we've touched on, Aaron Cameron finds new and
inventive ways to not be there in the end of a race. That one crashes seemed to be his forte,
but he's outqualified James Gold in 12 to 10. So, he's got speed against his team, mate, but
needs to convert that and the team need to get them back in well inside the top 10 because
this time of year, especially, Goldin's really their only chance to get in the finals.
So, he really needs to deliver. Do you believe in curses?
Depends what they are. If it's on you or if it's on someone else, maybe. There's a curse
running here. Don't get pole position, Jack. Have a look at this. No pole sitter in Darwin or Townsville
won a race. I don't think that's Cam having a tearing. I think that's been added just quietly
to the graphic there. So, that's six races in a row where pole hasn't won a race.
You've got to go back to the last race of Gen 2 in Adelaide 22 and then the first five of Albert
Park 23 to find a stretch of six where no one's won from pole position. The last time that we
went seven in a row without a car winning from pole, we had to go through the falls. Townsville
to Bathurst in 2016. And if we could get to eight in a row without a car winning from pole or nine
even, you've got to go back to 2014 to find the last time that that happened. That underlines
your point that the Gen 3 era, it's really hard to keep nailing it even when you nail qualify.
Yeah, and we're contradicting our shootout conversion numbers from before, Nunes, about how
little... But not every qualifying is had a shootout. Correct, correct. But it is interesting
to see that because I think the biggest thing with qualifying on pole becomes the extra pressure
of getting the car off the line. And we've seen that that could still... Pole's no guarantee
to win the race. Let alone lead the first corner. And that's a perfect stat for that. And as we've
seen before, people can win from down the back. So, that's an interesting number. It's crazy to
think that none of the pole sitters over those last two weekends have won a race. So, there you go.
If you qualify second, third or fourth at Wanru, you're still in with the chance of a win.
But you get the money if you get on pole and drivers love cash. There's no problem about that.
Next up, here on the undercut, we're going to put Jack to the test right here on the workbench.
ACL race series are back with us here on the undercut for the workbench. And in recent times,
James Moffitt's been in good form. Jack Perkins is in the hot seat. Of course, ACL,
awesome partners of Perkins over the years. They're still involved in supercars, so many
other forms of racing. World-class engine bearings in Launceston, Tassie. So, Tassie fans,
be proud of what comes out of that Appalachal state of yours. Because for over 70 years,
they've been punching out awesome bearings for worldwide motor racing, including,
you go back to the Repco Brabhams, the ACL involvement there. It's a long and story history.
It's an Australian success story. Nunes Bathurst winning bearings, and they've supplied
all around the world. Great team down there. And like I said, all the way from Tassie,
world-class manufacturing. So hats off to the team down at ACL.
Now, will it be hats off for you, Quiz Time? You ready?
I think so.
On the workbench this week, I want to know who has the most race wins in the history
of the Australian Touring Car Championship and supercars in a particular season. So there's
the top six that I've got here. Your challenges, can you name them all? And for bonus points,
when and how many race wins did they have? Go.
Well, so I can, but I feel like some of the older guys are going to get robbed,
just be pure race numbers in a season.
Correct.
So I think about champions in the early 90s, Seaton, Scaife, and then Lowndes. And I think,
well, there was races, maybe only 10 races a year.
Start naming names, Jack.
So who has the most race wins in a season? It's going to have to be, it won't be one of
those young blokes, one of those older blokes. I'm going to say Shane Van Gisburgen.
Yep.
Scott McLaughlin.
Shane Van Gisburgen first. He had 21 in 2022.
Scott McLaughlin had 18 in his championship, winning 2019 season. So you're in order,
one and two already.
Yep. Then, and I'm okay if you don't have them in order.
Okay. Well, I've written Scaife because surely one of his years is close to being in the record
books. His year of years was 2002. 15 wins. He's equal fourth. So there are three drivers
tied and equal fourth. So Scaife is absolutely one of the six.
Lowndes.
Lowndes is third on the list with 16 in that 1996 season.
Yeah. The 1996 season was one that stuck out for me. What about Glen Seaton?
He won one of his winning years?
No.
No.
Not even on the overall list beyond the top six.
Okay. Well, what about Garth Tander?
He's 15. He's on the list. He's championship winning season in 2007, the Toll HSV dealer team.
He had 15 in that particular year. So I think from memory, he had 15 career wins before that
season. And then he won 15 in a single season to double his tally. And by the way, Garth's new
book is out just before Bathish. You can pre-order it now from the V8 Swiss Superstore.
And he does open up about quite a few topics having been involved with writing with him.
So keep an eye on that one for the upcoming months.
I'll have to get that one for Christmas, maybe, Nunes.
One to come. You've only got one left here. You've got everyone but one.
I'll tell you two that won't be on there with respect to those guys.
Rick Kelly and Russ Lingle. They're probably the least amount of wins to win a championship this season.
Okay. So I'm missing someone.
And it's not necessarily the championship winning. Of course. I was going to say 2008.
He won 15 races as well.
So not in 2012. I would have thought 2012.
One more races in 2008. Winner in an absolute blitz in the back end of 2008.
Ian Craig won at Bathish. Then he did winning. He won the Gold Coast.
Bahrain, Simmons. Yeah, he won a whole pile. I think he won 11 on the last 13 that year
from memory off the top of my head. So...
And what do I win?
Nothing.
Not even some bearings from ACL?
Not even some ACL race series bearings. You're going to have to go to Tassie yourself
and go and do a deal with them down there. Thank you to ACL for getting on board with
the undercut again in recent times. But you've done well there. Moff set a very big benchmark
in recent episodes and you've delivered to. So well bowled.
They are the six most winning drivers in a season in the history of Australian Touring
Car Championship and supercars racing. I don't think the way this season is going,
anyone's going to join that list or come anywhere close to being in that top six.
But another big show, mate. A big thanks to Thomas Randall,
to Castro, to Ford Trade Club, to ACL for getting on board.
The V8 Sleuth Superstore is pumping. You can see a lot of the products behind us here.
The V8 Sleuth Magazine. Issue 05 is coming very soon with the Peter Brock VN Commodore that
we've, you've been heavily involved in getting that back together. We're going to sit down and
talk about that. It's going to be in that magazine that's out sometime in August.
But you can buy all the back issues of the magazine from the online store.
There's a cap behind you there that is that available too?
Yep. Perkinsengineering.com.au noon. So we've got our 91 Retro Perkins Engineering Cap and
big thanks to everyone that supports what we do on our YouTube and Facebook. And I can't wait to
get that new magazine with our latest restoration PE13 on the front cover.
It's looking sharp, that VN Commodore. That's the Peter Brock 1991 Bathurst shootout car.
Before we go, last show we had a great Castro commercial from back in the vault.
To finish the show this week, we're going to go back into the vault again and take a look at how
they made these ads at Sydney's defunct Amaru Park Raceway. On behalf of the whole team,
that is the undercut. We'll catch you next time.
And over $60,000 worth of equipment, including the remarkable DynaLens camera for vibration-free
motion shots. Now let's have a look at the action shots used in the commercial and some of the
methods used for making them. This is one of the special rigs developed for this commercial.
You'll notice that it's attached to the car by suction caps.
These caps will support a heavy camera while the car is being driven at high speeds
without damaging the bodywork. The rig can be mounted anywhere on the car. In this case,
we're using a center rig. This is how the action looked through the camera.
And here we have the rig mounted on the bonnet.
And the rear rig.
We used a camera at track level to take this dramatic shot.
This take was made with the camera mounted on a high-speed special-purpose vehicle.
These shots, together with many others, gave us the final commercial,
which will run from now until the day of the Hardy Ferodo 500 on 41 TV stations across Australia.
It's estimated that during this period, it will reach an audience of over 5 million.
Here's the finished commercial.
About this episode
From Goodwood and Silverstone travel stories to the “cut line” for finals qualification, the hosts connect motorsport history with the season’s pressure points. They break down how endurance weighting, DNF risk, and fuel/strategy math shape who stays in contention—then zoom into Gen 3 fueling hardware, valve-train reliability, and tire-compound curveballs. The episode also tees up the “undercut” and a trivia challenge, plus upcoming magazine and event coverage.
THE Undercut is back for another week, breaking down the latest news in the world of Supercars racing!
Aaron Noonan is joined once again by Jack Perkins, who is joined in studio by Tickford Racing ace Thomas Randle.
Who will win the Supercars Sprint Cup? Who misses out on the Finals? Fuel saving comes under the microscope, ditto Toyota’s engines.
What is the best race format for Supercars? Who holds the silly season keys, and much, much more.
In Number Crunching, we look forward to the annual visit to WA, with qualifying form coming under the microscope.
This week on The Workbench, Jack is put to the test – who has the most race wins in an ATCC/Supercars season?
There are some Group C and A raw sights and sounds, plus another dip into the Castrol archives.
This is V8 Sleuth’s look at the world of Supercars, with the angles you don’t and won’t get anywhere else, with the analysis and numbers to back them up!
Agree/disagree with our takes? Let us know in the comments!
Like some of the stuff in our studio?
Check them out in the V8 Sleuth SuperStore below!
V8 SLEUTH MAGAZINE: https://bit.ly/47XVTxz
PERKINS MOTORSPORT: https://bit.ly/4mPNFfl
MODEL CARS: http://bit.ly/4678VH3
BOOKS: http://bit.ly/4pfnZLC
APPAREL: http://bit.ly/4pblOIQ
Our thanks go out to Castrol - unlock the very EDGE of performance today, for more, check out: https://castrol.com.au/edge
Also, to our Burning Questions partner, Ford Trade Club - the best place to find Genuine Ford, Motorcraft® and Omnicraft™ parts at exclusive Trade Club prices.
We also welcome aboard ACL Race Series, who, for over 70 years, has been producing world-class engine bearings right here in Australia. Check out: https://www.aclperformance.com.au/
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