Richard CraillCOMMENT: Time to give the Paperclip a second chance
PERHAPS I’m going soft with age, or perhaps the post-Covid excitement of just being back racing is still having a role to play, but I think it’s time we gave Queensland Raceway a second chance. Ever since the venue opened to enormous traffic jams and hours of delays in 1999, the ‘paperclip’ has copped it left, right and centre. There was the uninspiring layout, the pretty average facilities, the terrible access and, let’s be honest, a management that was at times far from conducive to making it easy to go racing. Especially if you only raced at CAMS events. However
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Team TRTDORIC POWER RANKINGS: Quinnsland Raceway SpeedSeries
A HUGE weekend of racing in Queensland at the weekend as national motorsport returned to QR for the first time in three years with a blockbuster event and some great racing. There was lots to take in, so without any further hesitation we dive straight in to the Hot, the Not and the What of a massive Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships / SpeedSeries event in the Doric Power Rankings. Lead Image: ARG / Daniel Kalisz HOT 1. Queensland Raceway We'll have more on the new and improved Queensland Raceway in coming days, but suffice to say the early impressions are
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Mark WalkerGALLERY: City of Melbourne Titles
The Race Torque dropped by the Go Kart Club of Victoria’s downtown Todd Road facility for the Panduit 36th City of Melbourne Titles, and we weren’t disappointed. With massive fields and ridiculously good racing – if the future of circuit racing stems from karting, the sport as a whole is in pretty good shape.
Continue readingLex Kelly is back!
He’s the kid who lifted the spirits of the motorsporting nation through the cluster that was 2020, and now he back! Lex Kelly returns to the screens of Australia in a new web-series with his dad Rick Kelly, as they take on a series of wild garage projects in the Hell-Bent Garage. Kicking off on August 21st, the first series focusses on a unique Harley-Davidson drift trike, which they hope to bring back to life from a burnt-out wreck. Rick has been relatively inconspicuous since retiring from full-time Supercars competition at the end of the 2020 series, with the two-time
Continue readingSandown: Birthplace of Australian Motorsport
An abridged history: from Bushranger to Brock In modern times Sandown has become known as the home of Supercars’ retro round, but the venue can claim to a milestone that pre-dates the entirety of touring car racing: Sandown hosted Australia’s first ever car race. Through multiple generations, both in terms of venue configuration and genre of motorsports that have participated on its famed layouts, the suburban Melbourne track has been witness to many of the sport’s key moments, starting at day one. The passage of 118 years has given way to some debate about the origin of our first meet,
Continue readingANALYSIS: Sandown Raceway Development Latest
Between green papers and planning permissions, there is a reasonable amount to currently unpack at Sandown Raceway. So here goes… Firstly, the venue’s owner, the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) recently applied to the local council seeking rezoning permission to convert the storied Melbourne venue into 7,500 dwellings for 16,000 residents. At the end of March, the City of Greater Dandenong published the plans for the site as developed by the MRC, featuring a mix of apartment towers, townhouses, office buildings, plus other commercial outlets like restaurants and retail. Currently, the venue is zoned for special use, with permission being sought
Continue readingPODCAST: John Bowe’s Adelaide memories
THE Adelaide Street Circuit is back! One of the most famous racing tracks in Australia returns this year along with the Adelaide 500, so we got the only driver to have raced there every year of its existence on the line! Australian Motorsport Legend John Bowe raced open wheelers' in Adelaide in 1985, then Touring Cars, GT cars and lately Touring Car Masters on the city streets - and he's been there every year since the track was launched. He talks about it all - including the famous battle against Larry Perkins in the pouring rain of 1994 that is
Continue readingAdelaide’s circuit rebuild scope revealed
THE RACE TORQUE can reveal the extensive works being undertaken to prepare the famous Adelaide Street Circuit for a racing return when the VALO Adelaide 500 commences this December. Public documents released by the Adelaide City Council following a July meeting outline the immense scope and time pressures involved in not only resurfacing the circuit, but the timeframe involved to do both that and construct the circuit itself at the same time. The documents also reveal the full extent of the circuit's resurrection which includes brand-new tarmac on a vast majority of the iconic 3.219km circuit, in some instances for
Continue readingWhat’s old is new in resurrecting the ‘500
IT speaks volumes to how badly the former South Australian Government and event promoters treated the Adelaide 500 - before they knifed it - that the biggest cheer at today’s launch of the 2022 event wasn’t for a driver, a support race act or even the impressive concert line-up. Sure, they were all warmly embraced, almost as much as the Premier himself who has become something of a rockstar among motorsport fans in South Australia. Rather, the biggest round of applause came from old-time Adelaide 500 ticketholders celebrating the return of ‘Gold Zones’, dedicated areas for Grandstand ticketholders who over
Continue readingDORIC POWER RANKINGS: The Bend
SOME OF the best racing of the season so far, wild weather, a good support program and lots of news headlined The Bend's return to Supercars this year. THERE was lots of good to come from the weekend in Adelaide, while the NOT list was predictable if still very interesting and at times controversial. That's probably why this is an absolutely LOADED version of the TRT Power Rankings, with thanks to our friends from Doric, as always. Don't like our list? Even the score via our socials, @theracetorque. Just be nice doing it. HOT 1. Wet racing THE FIRST 10
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