A tranquil lakeside location transforms into a high-octane holiday park with the release of automotive retailer Supercheap Auto’s latest Make Every Trip Super with the Best Performing Oils campaign. The campaign series celebrates its tenth instalment by doubling down on the hijinks and high stakes in a seven-minute film created by TAXI Film Production and Chimera Project. The 2024 campaign is set at the idyllic Lake Redline Holiday Park – a holiday hot spot created especially for the film at Queensland’s Lakeside Park racetrack – where the peaceful serenity is shattered by five pairs of “holidaymakers” gunning for a prime waterfront camping site. Adding to the excitement, their vehicles are also kitted out with tinnies, caravans and roof racks stacked high with holiday essentials. The stars of the show are Supercheap Auto’s ‘Best Performing Oils’ – Nulon, Penrite, Valvoline, Mobil and Castrol – taken through their paces by Supercars and motorsport stars Chaz Mostert, Ryan Wood, Molly Taylor, Rick Kelly, Matt Mingay, James Golding, Garth Tander, Matthew Payne, James Moffat and Michael Guest. Building on the casts of past films, drivers, celebrities, and sports stars make 64 cameo appearances including Grant Denyer and Craig Lowndes, DJ Carl Cox and Skid Factory’s Woody (Ben Wood) in a Mr Zippy ice-cream truck; Charli Robinson, and Corey Parker.
Former MotoGP team boss Paul Bird has died following a short illness, the Englishman passing away at only 56 years old. The Cumbrian chicken farmer has been a hugely significant force in British racing for the past 25 years, with many of the country’s top stars racing for him at some point in the past quarter decade in MotoGP, World and British Superbikes, and at the Isle of Man TT. A former world championship motocross racer in his youth, Paul started sponsoring local racers in the 1990s, with his first success coming with future TT legend John McGuinness when the pair lifted the 1999 250cc British title together, setting up a partnership that would continue on and off for the next 20 years. Bird’s team tasted success at the North West 200, Macau Grand Prix, and Daytona 200, and in road racing with the most successful TT racer ever – Joey Dunlop, who won his last-ever Superbike TT for Bird in 2000. Since Bird expanded into British Superbikes that same year, the list of racers who have competed and won with Paul Bird Motorsport is a veritable who’s who of British motorcycle talent. Names like James Toseland, Sean Emmett, Michael […]
Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than half a century to win a Cup race in their first start, taking the checkered flag in the inaugural Chicago Street Race on Sunday.“This was so cool,” van Gisbergen told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “This is what you dream of. Hopefully I can come and do more.”The 34-year-old van Gisbergen, who is from Auckland, New Zealand, becomes the first driver since Johnny Rutherford to win in his first Cup start. Rutherford won a Daytona qualifying race in 1963. Van Gisbergen is only the seventh driver in NASCAR’s 75 years to win in their first start.“He was in a league of his own,” Chase Elliott said of van Gisbergen. “In my opinion, he put on a really big-time clinic. I don’t want to speak for everybody else, but he made me look bad. I kind of think the rest of us, too.”Kyle Busch noted that van Gisbergen has driven cars similar for Cup cars for years.“He’s probably four, five, eight years ahead of us in this sort of car,” Busch said.Van Gisbergen gave Trackhouse Racing its second win in a row. He drove for Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 effort, and his win comes a week after Ross Chastain won at Nashville.He won a race shortened by darkness after being delayed by rain. The race was to have gone 100 laps but was shortened to 75 laps and then extended four laps by overtime.Justin Haley finished second and was followed by Elliott, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, who overcame an early crash into the Turn 6 tire barrier to score a top five.Sixth through 10th was Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher.The race started on a wet course after rain much of the day, which delayed the beginning of the race by about 90 minutes. It was 20 laps in before teams started taking wet weather tires off and putting on slick tires as the racing line dried.Only once was the track blocked in the event — something that many feared could happen multiple times in the race. The track was blocked in Turn 11 on Lap 50. William Byron missed the corner and then Corey LaJoie and Kevin Harvick made contact, Harvick hit the wall and came across the track and blocked half of it. Other cars ran into each other and the inside lane also was blocked.Christopher Bell won both stages but saw his chances to win end quickly. When NASCAR announced on Lap 46 that the race would be shortened to 75 laps, he was leading, but some cars had already pitted and were in position to make it to the end. When Bell pitted, he restarted 12th behind those looking to make it to the end of the race.On Lap 50, Bell was among those cars caught in the incident in Turn 11 that blocked the track. Five laps later, he spun in Turn 1, losing more positions. He finished 18th.Tyler Reddick saw his hopes for a top-five finish end when he hit the Turn 6 tire barrier while running fourth. He finished 28th.In the end, no one could catch van Gisbergen.“The fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response this week and the coverage has been -- I can’t explain it,” he said. “Like the response and the support I’ve got from everyone and even over here how welcoming everyone is, I can’t believe it. Dream come true.”