Oh for the love of Holdens...

Affirm Press will be publishing an anthology later in the year called "It happened in a Holden", and I am honoured to be one of the writers contributing to the book!

It should be a great compilation and I am honoured to be a part of the project

Here is a sneak peak of what I wrote...

"‘Hey, you,’ the portly figure across the road called in my direction.

I looked around, was he talking to me?

‘You, over there!’ He was now pointing at me through the throng of people walking across the road, intermittently blocking my view.

‘Who, me?’ I mouthed, pointing at my chest, bending the vinyl Summernats logo printed on the shirt.

‘Yeh, you! Come over here!’

I hesitated. The man was bald, sporting a biker’s beard and a t-shirt with a naked lady on the front. The market store he was standing next to wasn’t much better, and cheeky sloganed t-shirts were just the beginning. Every piece of Summernats paraphernalia from stubby holders to novelty pens seemed to have found its way into this guy’s tent.

Oh, what the hell, I thought, as I made my way across the road, ignoring every ‘don’t talk to strangers’ lesson ever taught. Weaving in and out of the crowd, I passed a gorgeous Camaro parked by the store, and only just resisted the urge to stroke its bonnet. Control yourself, girl! I reprimanded myself silently. The last 1960s model stirred something in my chest that gave me the jitters. "

What is your favourite Holden?

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V8's: The New Kids Take Out the Block!

It was a fantastic weekend of motorsport with the V8's and the F1 both throwing up some lovely surprises.

Read my reviews of the weekend V8 races at Richard's F1!

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The New Kids Take Out the Block!

 

It was a day dominated by the youngsters, with the Kiwi teenager Scott McLaughlin taking out the first race of the Sunday, and 21-year-old Chaz Mostert winning the second race at the Coates Hire Ipswich 360.

The comfortable wins by these two rookies is definitely a sign of things to come and shows us all that the series is in good hands!

The first race of the morning started with Championship leader Jamie Whincup and Fujitsu Racing GRM’s Scott McLaughlin on the front row. A good start from McLaughlin saw him taking the lead, with Mostert in second briefly before being overtaken again by Whincup.

See more at Richard's F1 here!

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Whincup wins at Ipswich SuperSprint!

 

The Queensland Raceway track has been dominated by the Red Bull Racing’s Holden team for the last few years, but it is usually the veteran Craig Lowndes at the top of the podium. This wasn’t his Saturday, though, as the Saturday 60/60 SuperSprint race win was taken decisively by his teammate Jamie Whincup.

For the first time in four years, 30-year-old Whincup converted pole position at Queensland Raceway into a win, stretching his championship lead to 131 points from Lowndes who came in fourth. Behind Whincup was rising star rookie Scott McLaughlin in the Fujitsu GRM Commodore and Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom came in third.

Read more here!

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V8s: Back-to-back wins for Lowndes!

What a weekend for  Craig Lowndes at the Coates Hill Ipswich 300!

The Team Vodafone driver took his fifth consecutive win at Queensland Raceway this afternoon, in a definitive and honestly one could say, annihilating performance (other suitable adjectives include conclusive, dominating…you get the picture).   Check out my initial post at Richard’s F1 here!

Race 17 began with FPR on pole and Winterbottom lead for the first few laps, however Lowndes quickly took the lead late during turn six in a deep braking manoeuvre and led comfortably for the rest of the 65 laps.  In fact, the biggest issue Lowndes had towards the end of the race was traffic! Life is good for a race driver when all you have to deal with is traffic…of the cars you are lapping!

Winterbottom held onto the second spot though and cruised in 2 seconds after Lowndes, while Whincup was a little further back, 14 seconds behind.  Will Davison, Fabian Coulthard, Russell Ingall, Shane van Gisbergen, Tim Slade, Michael Caruso and Steve Owen made up the rest of the top 10.

Jacques Villeneuve again found the 24th position, after contact with David Wall on the opening lap sent him seeing daisies, spinning more than a few hundred degrees on the grass.  It was unfortunate for the former F1 driver, who was looking to improve a little more significantly on his Townsville appearance. 

The top two teams ran a similar strategy, both pitting in laps 9 and 38. 

Reynolds also struggled early on with a puncture which set him back to finish with the wooden spoon, while Rick Kelly also ended up at the wrong end of the grid table after he had to pit a third time towards the end of the race.

There were only two cars that didn’t finish the race; Webb and Holdsworth both struggled with mechanical issues and in fact led to a fire in the IRWIN car. 

It was an interesting race with a great crowd, a few snags to see and some decent overtaking at the beginning, and what it does mean is that TeamVodafone now has won six races, after FPR’s seven race streak at the beginning of the year.  Didn’t hurt to see a few burnouts either, now that TeamVoda didn’t have to worry about conserving the engine…

What will Sydney hold?  Do you think TeamVodafone will keep dominating? Do any of the other teams have it in them to challenge the mighty top two?  The Championship moves to NSW and Sydney Motorsport Park later this month.  Stay tuned!

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2012 V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich 300 – Race 2 Result (65 laps):

	Driver		Entry / Team	Laps	Result
1.	Craig Lowndes		Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	65	1:18:23.0855
2.	Mark Winterbottom		Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	65	+ 0:01.9759
3.	Jamie Whincup		Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	65	+ 0:16.1453
4.	Will Davison		Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	65	+ 0:23.7223
5.	Fabian Coulthard		Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	65	+ 0:32.5279
6.	Russell Ingall		Supercheap Auto / Walkinshaw Racing	65	+ 0:33.3190
7.	Shane van Gisbergen		SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	65	+ 0:34.6744
8.	Tim Slade		Lucky 7 Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	65	+ 0:36.1075
9.	Michael Caruso		Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	65	+ 0:41.4618
10.	Steve Owen		VIP Petfoods / Dick Johnson Racing	65	+ 0:55.2013
11.	Steven Johnson		Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	65	+ 0:57.2685
12.	Michael Patrizi		Tekno Autosports	65	+ 0:57.7027
13.	Tony D’Alberto		HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	65	+ 1:06.2307
14.	James Courtney		TOLL / Holden Racing Team	65	+ 1:07.7522
15.	Garth Tander		TOLL / Holden Racing Team	64	+ 1 lap
16.	Todd Kelly		Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	64	+ 1 lap
17.	Jason Bright		Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	64	+ 1 lap
18.	Dean Fiore		Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	64	+ 1 lap
19.	David Wall		Wilson Security / Brad Jones Racing	64	+ 1 lap
20.	James Moffat		Team Norton / Dick Johnson Racing	64	+ 1 lap
21.	Karl Reindler		Fair Dinkum Sheds / Kelly Racing	64	+ 1 lap
22.	Taz Douglas		Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	64	+ 1 lap
23.	Alexandre Prémat		Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	64	+ 1 lap
24.	Jacques Villeneuve		Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	64	+ 1 lap
25.	Rick Kelly		Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	64	+ 1 lap
26.	David Reynolds		The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	62	+ 3 laps
	Not Classified
DNF.	Lee Holdsworth		Irwin Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	55
DNF.	Jonathon Webb		Tekno Autosports	54

Yassmin Abdel-Magied RichardsF1.com (Awesomeness-Accredited) Journalist [Images via V8 Supercars Media]