Pitstop: Test day puts Supercar leader in good mood for Oran Park

A solid test day at Winton last week has put Australian V8 Supercar championship leader Garth Tander in a confident mood for the Oran Park round this weekend that marks the halfway point of the championship.

The Holden driver, who has a 38-point lead over second-placed Ford rival Craig Lowndes, is aiming to follow up his win in the last round at Queensland Raceway with his first victory at the 2.7km Sydney circuit.

Reigning Supercar champion Russell Ingall won at Oran Park last year in his only round win for the year.

Kiwi Steven Richards won one of the races last year, and Greg Murphy was third in both races.

This weekend there will be three races including the last of the controversial reverse-grid starts for this season, at least.

After Oran Park the teams switch to endurance mode for two-driver races over 500km at Sandown on September 10 and over 1000km at Bathurst on October 8.

Car switch creates doubts

Team Kiwi's move from Holden to Ford for next year's Supercar championship will be announced shortly, but there are doubts about the team's participation in the upcoming New Zealand V8 championship.

Team Kiwi will not be able to use the Holden Commodores it owns, and will not have time to build Ford Falcons. Last season's driver and Team Kiwi staffer Gene Rollinson may be seen in another championship class.

Endurance in the wet

Despite a wet track, a six-driver team this week set a New Zealand endurance record in a twin-turbo Porsche 996 at the Manfeild Autocourse. The car, owned by Mack Storey, travelled 2942.13km in 24 hours at an average speed of 122.66km/h surpassing the previous record, achieved on October 10, 1996, by 188.17km.

New team for Aussie F1 driver

Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber will join David Coulthard at Red Bull next season. He has been replaced at Williams by Austrian Alexander Wurz.

Rallyfeste moves to Claudelands

Organisers of the Dunlop Rallyfeste next March have moved their celebration of 40 years of rallying into the Waikato Events Centre complex at Claudelands in Hamilton. Between March 23 and 27 there will be a rally show and dinner, and a competitive rally to the south of the city.

Off to Portugal after double win

Palmerston North's Josh Hart became the first driver to win the Rotax Max Challenge for a second time with a dominant performance at the final round of this year's series at the Taranaki Kart Club's Waitara track. Aucklander Michael Wheaton was second in each race. Hart wins a trip to the world final in Portugal in November.