All Australian Racers

All Australian Racers is an Australian team which competes in various series across the Australasian Sim Racing organization. The team was founded in April 2020 by sim racers Luke Rosella and Hayden Krueger to originally compete in the Automobilista Supercars Championship but later submitted entries in the 2020 AMSOZ Supercars Championship.

The team currently runs 3 Ford Mustang GT's in the 2021 ASR Supercars Championship, Fielding 3 cars for Mitch McGovern and Oorjit Mishra, and car run under "Hype SimSport" for sponsorship reasons for Lachlan Bourke. The team also fields an entry in the 2021 ASR Super Series.

## History

All Australian Racers was formed in April 2020 by good friends and sim racing enthusiasts Luke Rosella and Hayden Krueger. The team built 2 in house Ford Mustangs to originally compete in the 2020 Automobilista Supercars Championship, however after running in a wildcard race during the 2020 AMSOZ Supercars Barbagallo round, Luke Rosella decided to enter the team into the series the following round.

### Supercars

#### 2020

in Preparation for the Calder round after an encouraging performance in the previous round, the team built a Volvo S60 from Top Gear Racing. The car's Aerodynamics were homologated by Top Gear Racing, and the team used in house internals derived from the teams Automobilista Supercars Championship Mustang, requiring minor adjustments as per regulations. The car sported a retro BTCC Volvo livery, and performed brilliantly on debut, Qualifying 3rd and comfortably running with the leaders, bagging 3rd and 2nd places respectively. Another podium followed at Townsville and Hidden Valley, grabbing 3rd, 8th and 2nd respectively. For Hamilton Street Circuit, the team changed over liveries, running a predominantly white base with black, green and yellow. After another strong qualifying performance, Luke Rosella bagged the teams first win in AMSOZ, taking the lead over Kurt Stenberg just before half way through the race and carefully conserving the lead across the finish.

Another 2nd place came at Sydney Motorsport Park, gaining a handful of positions after a few incidents from rivals. After missing the Phillip Island round, the team won its second race of the season at Surfers Paradise, avoiding the chaos and controversy to win a hard fought race after battling rival Will Devenish in the last few laps. The race was the also the debut for a second AAR entry, with the team building a Falcon FGX Falcon for Dane Licciardo. Luke Rosella again missed a round at the following race meeting, however the team did ship over Dane Licciardo's Falcon, however he was forced to withdrawal from the round due to hardware issues. Luke Rosella ended the season with a DNF at the final round in Bahrain, ending the season in 11th position despite running only half the season.

#### 2021

There were numerous changes for AAR for the 2021 Supercars Championship. 3 new drivers were signed over the summer, along with a string of technical changes. Dane Licciardo was retained, with Mitch McGovern signing on after winning the Bathurst 500 with Luke Rosella the year before. Oorjit Mishra was picked up after putting in a number of strong drives in numerous series in 2020. Lachlan Bourke was also signed, taking up a driver development role after a promising late run in the ASC Super 2 series the year before. AAR built 4 new Ford Mustangs, homologating the car alongside Loose SimSport and Higginson Media Engineering. 4 cars were run in total, 2 being run under "All Australian Racers" with Mitch McGovern and Oorjit Mishra being assigned driver duties. Due to new team regulations for 2021 season, the remaining 2 cars were run under "Hype SimSport", carrying Hype Energy sponsorship and being driven by Lachlan Bourke and Dane Licciardo.

There were problems for the team before the season even started. A week before the first race at Adelaide Street Circuit, Dane Licciardo had a falling out with team managment, leading to the driver being released. No driver could be found to replace the driver, and thus the car was used as a spare and 2 months later, Dane Licciardo would later sign for Evolution Racing Team. The season started strongly, with string of top 10s from both Lachlan Bourke and Mitch McGovern. Lachlan Bourke grabbed the the team best result of the season, with an impressive 6th place at Phillip Island. Due to a lack of practice however, results slumped slightly. Oorjit Mishra was caught up with a incident with Scott Nolan at Queensland Raceway, causing Significant damage. The same car was written off at a massive crash at Barbagallo, causing a new chassis to be built. A couple of Drivers were drafted in as replacements, especially for Lachlan Bourke, who had numerous Karting commitments. Lachlan Locke was drafted in for Queensland Raceway, and Justin Cecil ran at Pukekohe Park.

### Enduro Cup

#### 2020

for the 3rd Bathurst 500 in 2020, AAR fielded 2 Volvo S60's for the race, running the team under the "Volvo Dealer Team". In car #05, team owner driver Luke Rosella and Mitch McGovern teamed up, while in car #167, Dane Licciardo and Nathan Higginson were assigned to drive. Pace was evident from the get go, with the #05 team trading top times with Autobarn racing in the pre un-official practice sessions. The #05 topped the official practice session, while the #167 car placed 13th. In qualifying, Luke Rosella put in a time of 2:03:958, 0.010 faster than the second place car of Will Devenish, while the #167 car of Nathan Higginson placed 13th with a time of 2:07:789. The top 10 Shootout did not go to plan for Luke Rosella, as while up on the provisional pole sitter of Thomas McMillan, ran out sideways coming out of the dipper, which caused Luke to miss out on Pole Position, ending up 3rd and 0.168 off the pole. The race however was different, with the #05 car making it through the first stint cleanly, it ran up the front for most of the first half of the race until a red flag came out due to a server issue. The rest of the race was not so good, with the car setup reverting back to default for co-driver Mitch McGovern and the pace overall for the car worsening. However coming into the last 10 laps, while running second, the lead car of Will Devenish had an engine failure coming into the chase, handing the lead to Luke Rosella. In the end, after some pressure from Thomas McMillan in 2nd (who later had an engine failure on the last lap), Luke crossed the line the victor, completing one of the team's most famous victory. The #167 had an action packed race, with Dane not only fencing twice up the top the hill, but pulling off a spectacular move on Daniel Cox. The car ended up finishing in 10th.

#### 2021

A new look Enduro cup debuted in 2021, with 3 rounds spanning across Sandown, Gold Coast and Bathurst respectively. 2 Ford Mustangs were entered, with car #44 driven by Lachlan Bourke and Hans Brunswick, and #13 driven by Mitch McGovern and Oorjit Mishra. The team started well at the Sandown 300, with a clean run by both cars, with #44 finishing in 4th and #13 in 6th. At the Gold Coast 400, a multi race event, the #44 car had a fairy tale run, narrowly missing out on a first career win for Lachlan Bourke. A late race safety car produced one of the most best finishes in ASR, with the lead car of Paramatta Speed way racing (with team owner Luke Rosella driving) being taken out by the 2nd place runner, transferring the lead to the #44 car. On the last lap, the 2nd place car of Tim Redmond managed to fight his way to the front on the final corner, with the #44 car finishing in 2nd. In Race 2, the #13 car finished in 3rd while the #44 car finished in 8th after reverting to a older chassis due to a shootout crash. Coming into the Final round, the #44 car had a shot of winning the Enduro Cup, leading the points ahead of Team Has been and Team Paramatta Speedway. The team did all they could, running the top 3 all day, finishing in 3rd place, and thus conceding the championship win to Team Paramatta Speedway who won the race. The #13 car was also running strong but ended up retiring with connection issues.

### GT3 World Series

#### 2020

All Australian Racers debuted as a wildcard entry at the team's home round, fielding 2 Audi R8's for Luke Rosella and Hayden Krueger respectively. Hayden Krueger qualified in 8th, while Luke Rosella failed to set a lap time in the session. In Race 1, Hayden ended up finishing in 9th, and Luke Rosella in 6th after starting from the back and setting the fastest lap of the race. In Race 2, Hayden Krueger once again had a solid run, finishing in 6th, while Luke failed to finishing after setting the fastest lap once again. Luke Rosella also ran at the Phillip Island Round, finishing in 13th in Race 2

#### 2021

the team fielded in 3 Bentley Continentals under Cetillar branding, for Mitch McGovern, Lachlan Bourke and Oorjit Mishra respectively. the team's best finish in 2nd, with Mitch McGovern grabbing 3 podiums in a row.

### Super Series

#### 2021

AAR assigned Lachlan Bourke to drive a Mitsubishi Lancer RS in the 2021 ASR Super Series. He has achieved a best finish of 4th during Race 3 of Round 2. He currently sits in 11th in the RS classification, however has struggled to attend the latest rounds due to other commitments.

## Racing Record

(key) (Races in **bold** indicate pole position) (Races in *italics* indicate fastest lap)

### GT3 World Series

\*-Season in progress

\*-Season in progress