NEWS: Sir Chris Hoy Podium in Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge

Sir Chris Hoy MBE contested the all-new ‘Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge’ at the F1 Australian Grand Prix at the 3.3-mile Albert Park track in Melbourne this weekend – as 21 evenly-matched, 137mph, 175PS (420Nm) Mazda6 2.2-litre SKYACTIV-D saloons battled for honours. And the Olypmic champion and budding racer, who will be racing Radicals this year in the UK, managed an excellent second place in the final of the three-race mini-series.
"The Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge in Australia was great fun and provided the perfect showcase for Mazda’s clean diesel technology," comments Jeremy Thomson, Managing Director, Mazda UK. "The event captured the ‘defy convention’ spirit at the heart of Mazda and put a fresh spotlight on our brand in a country where Mazda is already very popular and the Mazda3 topped the new car sales chart last year."
Completely standard, the all-new Mazda6 saloon racecars were fitted with additional safety equipment to comply with FIA regulations including a full roll-cage, Sparco race seat with six-point safety harness, external battery ‘kill’ switches and race compound brake pads. The cars retained their six-speed SKYACTIV-DRIVE automatic transmission with steering wheel paddle-shift selectors and ran on regular, grooved road tyres.
The only British competitor in the event, Chris Hoy qualified a promising third during Thursday’s practice session, finished fifth on Saturday (from a 20th place start) and stormed to a great second place finish in Sunday’s final.
"I am delighted with today’s performance; it was the most fun I have had in the car ever," enthused Hoy, who recently drove the Prodrive Impreza WRC that Colin McRae drove in 1998, for BBC2' Racing Legends program. "After Saturday’s charge through the field, passing 15 cars, I even had hopes of maybe winning the final, but Brad Hodge has been so consistent and he was ultimately out of reach and I had to settle for the runner-up spot."
The three-race Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge was won by former Australian test cricketer Brad Hodge who convincingly took overall honours by winning every race with celebrity chef Shane Delia and star actor Jonathan LaPaglia (Law & Order and NCIS) rounding out the podium.
Women drivers also performed well with Australian hero Olympic cyclist Anna Meares finishing fourth overall – the leading female in each race – and Holly Candy (nee Valance, formerly of Neighbours) singer of the chart-topping single Kiss Kiss, playing a starring role.
Well done Chris! Good practice for the super-fast Radicals this year... sort of!

NEWS: RMA Track Day Diary 2013

Having been involved in the Oulton Park filming of 'Racing Legends - Colin McRae' with Sir Chris Hoy, good pals and Road track day operating buddies, RMA Track Days, are back to their bread and butter now – running first class track days in the UK and Europe. If you want to know what one looks like, check out our Tim Schrick special at Donington Park. They are incredible – open pit lane, overtaking either side, great camaraderie and the best cars imaginable on track. Do one this year! You will not regret spending the extra cash, if only for the amount of track time and space you get, let alone the machinery (and media!) you get to mix with. Expect to see Team Road at some of these events, as usual, in a cracking press car or pasting folk in our old, but not to be underestimated Project S4! The RMA Track Days 2013 dates so far include: 

• Guadix, Spain: 10th & 11th February 2013: Very limited amount of space remaining on this event which is principally designed for those looking for some pre-season testing in decent weather. Book your place now!
• Donington Park - £240: 'Noisy' day: 118 dB(A), 7th March 2013. Make full use of this amazing track in cars that struggle to pass usual 110 dB(A) or lower sound regs. Always an amazing line up on track at this event. 
• Brands Indy - £199: 105 dB(A), 27th March 2013. Just before the first British Touring Car Championship meeting, so expect this event to sell out well beforehand & the track to be full of BTCC stars. Book your place now!
• Silverstone GP - £399: 105 dB(A), 17th April 2013. Home of British Motorsport... need we say more? 
• Spa-Francorchamps, 13th, 14th & 15th May (13th is for cars on road tyres only, 14th is for road and track shod cars and the 15th is for track prepared and seriously quick cars only). Great format on one of the best circuits in the world. 
• Other dates include: Dijon 16th July, Brands Hatch GP 25th July, Le Mans 18th August & Spa 23rd & 24th Sept.

VIDEO: Colin McRae's Garage

Following last night's amazing BBC2 'Racing Legends' program by Sir Chris Hoy – which did such a fabulous job of documenting his incredible life and some of the cars he drove, we take a look back around Colin's amazing garage, back in 2006, with Jon Desborough. Poignant reminders again, but so nice to hear the great man chatting with Jon about some of the cars that he enjoyed keeping, and competing in. We miss you Colin!