'02 Astc??

[ASTEM]

Sevi

The site is only For the Super Tourers.

you could Try http://www.thepowertour.com.au this is the promoters site, they may have some information about the qld Race meeting

[sevi]

I went there as well. I couldn't find too much at all. Thanks

[RaceTime]

Sevi - if past rounds are anything to go by, you won't get much informaiton at all on the PowerTour - they have gone from at least providing a preview to a very sketchy and badly formatted and worded excuse for a race report after the event.

[racer69]

After a promising start last year, the Powertour seems to have gone down a level this year for some reason, fields are lower for some reason, what can be done to improve it?

13 cars for QLD, not too bad compared to the other entries, i still don't know where Jamie Miller is, and ASTEM, any word yet on why TC Motorsports decided to park the 406, i mean, Ric Shaw was leading the championship. Where's gmontrack, he'll know?

[RaceTime]

Ahh POwer Tour - could be interesting.

If Brett Ramseys report this afternoonis correct that Oran Park is cancelling race meetings due to costs (see seperate thread) then the Power Tour could lose its prime circuit backer...

[ggitt]

Not every class in the Power Tour have diminished. The Commodore Cup have had fields of 20 plus cars at every round. It's about time some other classes pulled their cars out of their garages and put them on the track....

[D.R.T.]

Yeah the Commodore Cup has been great this year, at Round 1 they had some really close racing.

[gmontrack]

HI guys,
The reason the 406's are not running is simply because there is no one willing to pay the money that is needed to run the car properly. I can not afford to put any money into the running of the cars myself, so unless someone comes up with a reasonable amount, they unfortunitly are just going to set and collect dust. I might add that we did run the car at Oran Park at on a very small budget, mainly to try and help get things going for ASTEM. They have said that they have had plenty off people wanting to drive ST cars but none have contacted us.
As for other categorys on the P. Tour, the C/cup is the best field of cars out there , and some of the best racing, but they don't seem to be getting the credit that they deserve ( my veiw anyway). They have always put on a good show, right from day one back in the TOCA days. One other thing that doesn't seem to be going to good is the TV. I have heard that the Mallala round is not going to be shown till August, and the next round in Qld will not be seen until Nov. Perhaps someone might be able to tell us if this is fact or fiction. I think the Power Tour people have got a great concept, they just need a chance to iron out the bugs and then it will be a great show to go and see.

[Buckshot]

Power Tour better be careful AVESCO don't try to pinch Commodore Cup off them to help fill in the gaps of their support races.

[Mr Squiggle]

I don't think the Commode Cup guys would go for that.

I mean, why give up a growing series with potential which they are a major part of to join a series which is potentially in decline and to be treated like afghan refugees?

[racer69]

I agree,

haven't AVESCO said anyway they aren't really interested in support categories anymore, reckon they are too boring, the fans aren't interested, what a load of BS, thats just their excuse because PROCAR and so on don't want to run with them anymore because AVESCO treat everyone but V8s as second class citizens,the more support categories the better i say.

gmontrack - Hopefully Ric Shaw or someone else can get some money together to run the Peugeot's, Ric did a great job at Oran.

[ASTEM]

The Peugeot 406s are truly wonderful racecars but in their time in Australia have never reached their true potential. The 406s driven by Patrick Watt were always on the pace but sadly these cars are not available. The remaining 406s has been a disappointment with many sad performances.

There are many people interested in the 406s but as ASTEM understand that there is a serious ownership dispute we have advised our members to take considerable care when dealing a lease or purchase option with these cars. We will not put at risk any of our members or any party interested in these car whilst we are aware of the commercial and legal risks.

ASTEM will welcome these cars in our series when the Ownership position is clarified. Monitor http://www.ozspeed.net to keep in touch.

The Television covering the Mallala round will go to air July 18 on Fox and July 22 on Network 10 Fox coverage will continue over the following 4 weeks with the Queensland round starting on October 21st. I know that the MPG boys
are in constant communication with the TV people striving to bring forward programming, but live sport and current events sometimes will get in the way.

All categories on the Power Tour are working to provide the best show they can and it about time that people from all areas of our sport took a more positive attitude and got on with business.

Auto Action has reported that our November Round has been cancelled. We understand that negotiations between MPG and Oran Park are continuing and ASTEM believes some common ground will be found for the Round to be re-established. However in the event that the stand off continues then an
alternative venue will be advised. Our Round will go on.

[Michael H]

ASTEM

I'd like some comment from you regarding a matter that I think occupies the minds of a lot of long-time Super Touring supporters in Australia.

It is clear that the remaining cars are getting older and more troublesome, no matter how much TLC is bestowed upon them. The danger is, if it has not happend already, is that the owners of the few remaining cars will be left with expensive museum pieces. The STCC, which has many 1999-spec cars, has basically deemed that they are too old, and banned them for 2003.

Basically there is nowhere for these cars to be on-sold. The only possibilities could be Sports Sedans, UK Saloon racing , or a series called the Nordic Touring Car Championship, which apparently caters for old Super Tourers.

Where to in the future for Super Touring style racing in the future?

Should:
a) teams buy STCC cars at the end of 2002?
b) declare Super Production is the future?
c) declare ETCC Super 2000 rules are the future?
d) do one of the above and move to the PROCAR bill if possible?

To be brutally honest, and I'm very sad to say it, I can't really see a future for 2 Litre style racing in Australia. For it to ever have a chance there would have to be major changes to Australian society, therefore breaking the Holden-Ford mentality. The ETCC style rules, or BTC Touring for that matter, would also have to grow around the world, to a point where Australia could not ignore the global trends.

Personally, I see the only hope for Australian fans of multi-manufacturer touring car racing to rest with the concept, raised many times over the years, of an Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship, having at least 3 rounds in Australia, two in NZ, one in China, two in Japan, one in Macau, a street race in Hawaii etc.

[DAVID PATERSON]

12 pages!!!! For a class that's dying there seems to be an awful lot of interest left. I wasn't going to bother going to the PowerTour at QR this year, but if they can get a dozen ST cars on the grid, in their own race, I'm there.

Crash, why isn't Juppy driving? I didn't even know he had a ST. I assume this is the one that was advertised in AA for ages for about $20K. Hell I even thought about buying it. I hope WW kicks ass, he can make any car look good.

[Crash Test]

There are some conflicting reports going around about how good this car actually. I always thought it was a dunger, but some folks in the club who have seen it recently think it is a good thing. However, I was told today that it is the car which was bunkered in the 1994 Bathurst 1000, but when they were trying to extract it, they pulled off one of the chasis rails (!), and it hasn't been much chop since then.

Apparently Justin had a workplace accident (or something along those lines) and can't race at the moment.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Is this another accident or a legacy of sometime ago when he was at a factory fire and part of the roof collapsed on him and a fellow firefighter.

[Crash Test]

I think it might be the firefighting thing...

[DAVID PATERSON]

Not good, to be out of action this long sounds pretty serious, i haven't seen Justin in a while, i will have to catch up.

[D.R.T.]

Is this 405 one of Tony Newmans old cars

[Crash Test]

I think Justin is fine, just there are some complications...

and D.R.T.- nope. Newman's cars were the ex Foxtel machines, this car is one that was originally brought out in 1994 and run by Letcher and Sieders, amoungst others.

[DAVID PATERSON]

If it's the one I'm thinking of then yes. I remember last year or the year before, a big guy with an SBS name, Mark Zonneveld perhaps, brought it out of mothballs and ran very competitively until it went bang.

[D.R.T.]

Zonnoveld a very capable driver

[Crash Test]

Zonnevold drove one of the newer cars, I do believe.

[racer69]

I think Zonneveld drove one of the ex-Fastway Couriers cars from 1997, which were the Foxtel cars from 1996, which were the factory Peugeot's from the 1995 BTCC.

Could the Wade Pug be the one Rolfo raced in the early races of 2000? Interesting that there seems to be a fair few 405's and Cavalier's lying around.

I think Michael H has a point, the current cars are getting too old, ASTEM, what is the direction at the moment from 2003 and onwards?

[kmchow]

Wait, Michael H, so are you saying the STCC says even the '99 spec cars are considered too old? Or are you talking about '95 spec cars? Thanks ahead.

I was under the impression that all ST cars--"old '93s" and new ('00 spec??) require lots care. But most of the owners and teams of ST cars are not financially able to properly maintain them at F1 levels of TLC?? That's what the trouble is coming from?? Didn't someone say a proper teardown costs something like 20-40K US??? Now consider a used ST car only costs 55K. If you spend 25K on a teardown, you're basically buying half a new car every 1500K??