Multiple Tasmanian sports sedan champion Bruce Gowans and touring car team owner Ian Harrington have been inducted into the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
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The inductions were made at a gala dinner in Launceston, with Gowans, of Devonport, on hand while a family member saw the late Harrington, of Hobart, honoured posthumously.
Gowans started racing in 1966, winning his first state championship a year later, driving a Lotus 23 owned by his business partner Alan Ling.
Racing a Lotus 23B Cosworth, the pair broke lap records in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, finishing third at the Symmons Plains round of the Australian Sports Car championship.
In a purpose-built Toyota Celica, Gowans contested all seven rounds of the 1978 Australian Sports Sedan championship, recording three podiums and third overall.
Harrington helped form Roadways Racing, housed in the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania, Launceston, which competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship and all major endurance races from 1976 until 1985.
A president of Hobart Sporting Car Club, he formed a partnership to buy Baskerville and protect the Hobart track from property developers. He died in 1997.
Going Dutch
Hobart teenager Alex Peroni has signed with MP Motorsport to race in this year’s Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup.
The 18 year-old joins double F4 champion Christian Lundgaard in the Dutch team.
Peroni will go into his second campaign in the single-seater series, having finished 10th last year including a victory from pole on the demanding Pau street circuit, becoming the first Australian winner since Daniel Ricciardo in 2008.
“Eurocup competition is incredibly intense so I am happy to be able to join a team as professional as MP Motorsport,” Peroni said.
“I hope to build a strong working relationship with my new engineer so that we can get the maximum out of the car under all circumstances and be amongst the top drivers at the end of the year.”
New climbs
Stephen Mott made the perfect start to his Tasmanian hillclimb title defence on his home track at Highclere.
Driving his home-built Quoll MB01 open-wheeler, the Cooee racer broke his own track record three times, setting a new mark at 30.39 seconds.
The record-breaking performance has set Mott up for his bid to take out three consecutive state championships, with five rounds to go.
James Lonergan finished second in his Nissan Skyline GTR and fellow Hobart driver Rod Bender (Volkswagen Golf-R) was third.
