The recent Easter period saw the staging of the Bathurst Motor Festival at Australia's iconic Mt Panorama circuit. Categories featured included Historic Touring Cars, HQ Holdens, Production Sports Cars, Aussie Racing Cars, and Australia's fastest racing cars, Formula 3. It was a free event with a requested donation to Legacy, a fantastic charity who help the families of war veterans and receive no government assistance.
    Formula 3 is a worldwide category and Mt Panorama is globally recognised as one of the world's great motorsport challenges that has enticed overseas drivers to various events for decades. Formula 3 hadn't raced across "The Mountain" for some 30-odd years. It was impressive to witness these cars gripped up breezing across the top, then plunging down the Esses and the Dipper. Not surprisingly, the lap record was broken that weekend.
    But were the European and Japanese F3 teams keeping an eye on proceedings? Organisers have made no secret that they would love to welcome them and any other overseas F3 team to expand the grid and promote the Bathurst Motor Festival as a stand alone international F3 event rivalling the Macau F3. formulafrontrow.com believes one avenue of promotion would be for Formula 3 to push to rejoin the support bill for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. The cars could then carry common badging (similar to tyre supplier badging) promoting the Bathurst Motor Festival. This would raise brand and event awareness through TV and online exposure.
    Let us know what you think. Leave a comment or send us an email at: greenflag@formulafrontrow.com. A thoroughly enjoyable Bathurst Motor Festival. See you at next year's event.....  

    With two rounds and a non-championship round completed, Australia's V8 Supercars is shaping up to be one stellar season. It may only be early days in the 2012 championship, but already it's apparent that defending champion Jamie Whincup and Team Vodafone will have their hands full retaining the title, as a number of Ford teams seem very determined to put the top Holden team under siege.
    SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen, Lucky 7 Racing's Tim Slade, Irwin Racing's Lee Holdsworth are all ultra competitive, and any one of them could walk away with the title come December. Not to mention Ford Performance Racing and their highly rated drivers Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom seem more than capable of mounting a sustained challenge for the title, and at this stage of the season, are the team to beat.
    On the Holden flipside, Whincup and his consistently fast team mate Craig Lowndes seem to be driving better than ever and will relish the challenges this season thrusts upon them. But will the other Holden teams step up? Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander is quietly accumulating points, but his vastly experienced team mate James Courtney, undoubtedly hasn't garnered the points he desires.
    Will HRT be able to challenge for wins, and therefore the championship? More to the point, are Jamie Whincup and Team Vodafone able to sustain their position in the pecking order, whilst riding out the prolonged storm from the Ford teams? Let us know what you think. Send us an email at: greenflag@formulafrontrow.com, or simply leave a comment.
    formulafrontrow.com believes the title won't be decided until the chequered flag has dropped after the last race of the season at the Sydney 500. V8 Supercars is one of the most closely fought out motorsport series in the world. At the recent round at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, there was a mere second covering all 28 cars on the grid. It'll be fascinating to see how it plays out......