Chequered Flag Motorsport

Goodbye ChampCar … Welcome Back IndyCar!

In recent weeks rumours gathered momentum that the end of the ChampCar vs IRL war was nigh. On Friday, a press release from the Indy Racing League confirmed what everyone had been hoping for - the American open wheel racing civil war is over. For 2008, there will be a single premier North American open wheel category.

It is good news - but is it too late? The sport has been damaged so badly in the last decade. Makes like Lola, Reynard, Toyota, Chevrolet and Mercedes have quietly disappeared. Drivers like Hornish Jr, Franchitti, Allmendinger, Montoya, Villeneuve and others have decided their futures lie in NASCAR. Michigan, Fontana, Nazareth, Laguna Seca and other circuits have disappeared.

Will the glory days ever come back? 2008 is going to be a year of recovery, but at the very least we are promised arguably the strongest driver lineup in American open wheel racing this decade. Castroneves, Andretti, Wheldon, Dixon, Wilson and Power sharing the same piece of road around tracks like Surfers Paradise, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen? Yes please …

Vale Ashley Cooper 1980-2008

The team at GlobalF1 and Chequered Flag would like to extend their sympathies to the family of Ashley Cooper, who has died from the injuries he sustained at the Adelaide 500 on Saturday.

Ashley was racing in the V8 Supercar Fujitsu Series support race on Saturday when he hit the wall at Turn 8 in his Holden Commodore. He was treated at the scene before being rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital where he was placed on life support. The sad news filtered through today that he did not make it.

After being a front-runner in the Commodore Cup, Ashley made the step up to the V8 Supercar Fujitsu series in 2007, debuting at QLD Raceway late in the season. His participation at the Adelaide 500 was meant to be the start of a tilt at the full Fujitsu season.

Our thoughts are with Ashley’s partner and young-children.

We would also like to extend our thoughts to Matt Kingsley, who was badly hurt after a major crash in the V8 Ute race on Sunday. He has been cleared of a spinal injury, and Chequered Flag wish him the best in his recovery.

“Unfortunately, motor racing is also this” - Mario Andretti.

Site Updates - February 14, 2008

Regular visitors to Chequered Flag will no-doubt notice that we have changed the sites’ design. I felt that the new design makes the site more slick, contemporary, and accessible to a variety of platforms. Users will notice many small tweaks in coming days as we complete the transition.

As part of the overhaul, we have installed the nggallery gallery plugin. This allows us to process images for upload much faster, and make them more presentable to our readers. Viewing photos in a gallery will now be a case of just clicking next or previous to cycle through - no more clicking on individual pictures. A slideshow is also available.

Our older galleries are yet to be re-formatted (and consequently will not display correctly at this point in time). The first gallery to feature the new format is the gallery from today’s V8 Supercars test session at QLD Raceway. 13 cars were in attendance, including Paul Morris motorsport, Dick Johnson Racing, Team Vodafone and Stone Brothers. View the gallery here.

In other site news, long-time friend of the site, Paul Martin, has taken on the role of commissioning editor, and will help collate content for the site. Welcome to the team Paul.

Site Updates - January 9, 2008

Welcome to the New Year - we hope you enjoyed the festive season.

Why not usher in the new year by getting into some motorsport photography? Photography101 is a guide designed for those who have never even pointed a camera in the way of a racing car. You can find it here.

The Changing Face of Jacarepagua (Rio de Janeiro)

Interlagos is the home of Formula One in Brazil nowadays, but from 1978 to 1989, Rio de Janeiro’s Jacarepaguá circuit played host, a venue which from 1996-2000 also hosted CART. Unfortunately, part of the circuit was demolished in 2005 to make way for a new stadium that would feature in the 2007 Pan American Games. These photos below show the construction of the stadium. See this thread on GlobalF1 for more photos.

The future of the circuit is unclear - will it be completely demolished to make way for residential buildings? Thankfully, there may just be a future for the circuit yet. The track has been used for Brazilian stock cars in a new configuration, and there are plans from Hermann Tilke for a revamp.

Site Updates - November 18, 2007

Photos from the Gold Coast Indy 300 are now online! Check the gallery for photos from the V8 Supercar & ChampCar double-header around the streets of Surfers Paradise.

Bathurst 1000 - Mini-Preview

It’s the “Great Race”, the the crown jewel of the Australian Touring Car Championship - the Bathurst 1000, at Mt Panorama.

Times have changed at Bathurst. The privateers are gone, so are the 50+ grids, and the once-a-year racers. But those days live on YouTube. Check out the Chequered Flag YouTube channel’s special Bathurst playlist.

Why not pump yourself up for this years race with a look at some of Chequered Flag’s Bathurst features?

Almosts - Ten of the Worst
Home to some of the greatest triumphs, Bathurst can also be cruel. This article looks back at some of the most heartbreaking results in motorsport, including a few at the mountain.

Bathurst: A Virtual Lap
A pictorial guide to Australia’s most hallowed tarmac. See the sights of the great moments.

Vale - Peter Brock 1945-2006
A year has passed since the tragic death of Peter “Perfect”. Brock’s legacy will still burn strong above Mt Panorama.

Bathurst 1000 Past Results
Winners of the “Great Race”, dating back to the first Bathurst 500 event in 1962.

V8 Supercars - Bathurst, Round 9, 2006
David Gallagher’s superb photographs from the 2006 edition of the ‘1000.

Site Updates - 22 September, 2007

Photos from the 2007 edition of Speed on Tweed are now online here. This year’s theme was a celebration of the Australian Grand Prix, and there were some fantastic cars and drivers on hand.

Stars in attendance included Sir Jack Brabham, Kevin Bartlett, Will Davison and Tim Schenken, while an ex-Alan Jones Beatrice Lola and a Brabham-Repco BT19 were amongst the cars that pleased crowds along the street circuit.