High Octane

Welcome
Well we are past the halfway mark for the year. Time does fly! So do our simulators. Some of our cars clock 350kph on the Top Gear Test Track. Yes, we now have a Top Gear Test Track. Why not check it out this month. You can even drive a reasonably priced car around it.

We have a great race package this month for only $360 for eight drivers plus a special School Holiday rate for students (student card required). To check them out, visit our monthly Specials Page, for more details.

New Daytime Phone Number for Weekday Race Sessions
We are back to being open by appointment 7 days a week up to 5pm. So if you feel the need for speed during the WEEKDAY's ONLY, please phone Coen on 0401 857 786 (if unreachable, please ring 0411 279 559). Please note that we need 60 minutes notice to open for you and there is a minimum booking of $50. For weekend bookings please ring 07 3274 3272 or 0411 279 559.

Are you the STIG?????
Do you believe that Shuey is really the Stig. No, because I am the Stig. I even have a T-Shirt that says I am. hahahahaha. High Octane is looking for its own Stig. Over the months of July and August we have a special casual session to help us to find the Stig of High Octane. Just like the Stig's identity, the session is Top Secret. To find out how you could become the Stig of High Octane, please click here to email us for more information.......................

Next Big Event - High Octane's Bathurst 500
On Sunday July 26th, we are holding our first ever Bathurst 500. No its not a half distance Bathurst endurance. It is going to be 2 x 250km races with no driver changes. It will be survival of the fittest and most consistent as you race in two races each of approx 90 minutes in length.

Sunday June 28th

10am start, 5pm finish

Format will be –

60 minutes practice on the day (practice is available leading up to the event at casual rates)

10 minute qualify prior to race 1

Race 1 – 40 laps

60 Minute Break

Race 2 – 40 laps (race 1 results determine race 2 start)

Pit stops will be required during the race and full setups are allowed.

Highest driver in points after the two races will be declared the winner.

Trophies awarded to 1^st , 2^nd and 3^rd

Cost including Pizza and Softdrinks during lunch - $80 per driver.

Group A Touring Car Championship
With the help from the Australian Sim Racing Group (To be confirmed), we are planning on running an online league during the second half of this year. Using the fantastic Touring Car Legends mod for rFactor. The series will be open to twenty drivers and each round will be held monthly. Restricted to 1988 cars only, no two drivers can have the same car. So there will be a good variety of cars to race. This is one of the best mods I have ever raced and I even look forward to jumping on line and racing it myself. For more information click here to send an email and we will put you on the email list for info and updates.

High Octane - ANZAC Challenge
On the 24th of May we held our very first ANZAC Challenge. Four Aussies and four Kiwi's battled it out in the V8's at four different tracks. It was a fantastic night with a battle that lasted right up to the last few laps of the final race. The Aussie Team was made up of Max Peterson, Doug Benson, Richard Bell and yours truly (Dale Press as last minute fill in). The Kiwi team was made up of Wayne Domigan, Chris Yearbury, Steve King and Jason. Race one was at Adelaide and the Kiwi's drew first blood scoring 30 points to the Aussies 22. Race two at Hamilton saw the Aussies fight back with a 28 point to 24 point victory. Race three saw the Aussies fight back hard with a 31 point to 21 point victory over the Kiwi's at Pukekohe. Then not to be outdone the Kiwi's fought back in the final race at Sandown to defeat the Aussies 27 points to 25. Bonus points were given to the team that had the fastest lap in each race. The Kiwi's had three out of the four fastest laps so they earned three points to the Aussies one point. So after four and a half hours of racing the final points were , Aussies 107 and Kiwi's 105. Nothing in it really. Thanks to all who participated and congrats to the Aussies. I have a feeling this is not over..............................

High Octane - Dash for Cash - June and July
For the first time ever, your ability to race a simulator at High Octane, could win you prize money. Announcing the dash for cash. From 8th of June until the 31st July you will be able to participate in this event.

The Cars            BMW M3 GTR's
The Track           The Greyhound
The Format         60 Minute Practice Sessions until 30th July - Top 16 lap times will be invited to the Dash for Cash Race Night on July 31st.

How it works Basically you will be able to come in and do 60 minute practice sessions in the BMW's at the Greyhound Race Track. The cost per session will be the normal $35 ($30 for members) plus $2 to be added into the prize pool. The drivers who make up the top 16 lap times will be invited to race in the Dash for Cash Race night on Friday July 31st. There can be only one. No this is not Highlander, the winner on the night will scoop the prize pool. To find out more, click here to send an enquiry via email.

New Father and Son Sessions
From today onwards, we have new Father and Son combined race sessions. "Hang on a minute", I hear the daughters saying. "We like to race with Dad too." Well Father/Son, Father/Daughter, Mum/Son or Mum/Daughter, are all welcome to participate in these special combined session for only $40 for 60 minutes or $70 for 120 minutes up until 5pm every day. Phone 3274 3272 or email racing@highoctaneracing.com.au to find out more.

URGENT!!!!! RELIEF LEAGUE DRIVERS NEEDED - Beginners to Intermediate
Firstly some facts so that you realise that our leagues are not just arcade child's play. 30 percent of our league drivers race in some form of motorsport for real. The age range of our entered league drivers for 2009 is from 17 to 68 years of age. 60 percent of our A Grade drivers have been sim racing for four years or more. Our simulators were designed by real race drivers, not arcade game makers. Its not a game, our league cars can suffer damage from collisions. You drive from within the cockpit of the car, not in bumper cam or behind the car. All races have a full driver protest system with Race Stewards decisions.

WE NEED RELIEF DRIVERS URGENTLY. Unfortunately with all good intentions initially to commit to a full series, some of our drivers find themselves unable to complete a season for various reasons. This is where the role of the relief driver is important. A relief driver fills the vacated empty seat. They can do one round or as many rounds as they like. The notice given is usually 24 hours before the league round however sometimes you could be asked as little as 60 minutes before the round starts. Relief driving is a great way to get into one of our famous leagues without having to commit to a season. You are basically asked if you want to fill an empty seat to which you could say yes or no. If you like the idea of racing in one of our leagues without having to commit, please email racing@highoctaneracing.com.au to find out more. Alternatively phone Dale Press on 0411 279 559. Hope to see you on the grid soon.

Every fully paid session you have at High Octane during normal Racing Hours now gives you a bonus. Introducing the new Frequent Driver Card. You will be given one of these on your next visit. It is a reward for regular visits to High Octane. Race three sessions and get one session free, twice. Each card is valid for four months from your first stamp. Your free drive is an average of your three drives. The Frequent Driver Card is subject to conditions.

The Frequent Driver card is intended for members only. However for the month of December, all drivers will receive the Frequent Driver Card without having to be a member.

New High Octane Forum
We now have a new forum for High Octane members and customers to use. We have had a special High Octane section added to the Australian Sim Racing Group’s Forum. Basically it gives you guys an avenue to chat about High Octane leagues, seek drivers for race nights or to chat about anything else that comes to mind. You will need to become a member of the ASRG Forum which is free. Once you log onto the forum’s, the High Octane section is down near the bottom. Click on this link to check it out. http://www.asrg.org/paddock/viewforum.php?f=37 It will be a great place to have a yarn after each league race night, or if you need drivers for a private race night, this will be where you put the question out to all members and league drivers. Have fun with it, but please stick to the forum guidelines set out by ASRG.

New Combined Hyper and Kart Adrenalin Packages - Thursday Night's Only

Now you can have the best of both worlds with this exciting new package ONLY AT High Octane. A race session that includes the Hyper Stimulators and Go Karts in one package. The Ultimate Adrenalin Package. The package includes.....

1 Hour Hire of the Hyper Stimulators
4 x 12 Minute Kart Sessions

You will be scored on performance on both your Hyper Stimulator race results and kart lap times. The winner to be crowned the Ultimate Adrenalin Champion. So what are you waiting for, to find out more about the ultimate adrenalin Rush, click here.

2008 AWARDS NIGHT - January 19th 2009
WHAT A NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. To finish up 2008, we held a Grand Prix race package at Archerfield Speed Karts. 11 of our award winning drivers from 2008 took to the track to show who's really got what it takes. No virtual damage or action on this night. It all became REAL. However at the end of the day, virtual or real, the ego's remained the same. I have to say, I for one am proud of the driving standards we witnessed on this night. The good, close, clean sim racing we experienced all year was also evident on the kart track. On many occasions I have witnessed varied lap times of the kart drivers and they all blame the kart if they are off the pace. Well we had a gap of 1.5 seconds separating the top 8 drivers after the first qualifying run and the next 2 drivers .9 behind that. The closeness remained for the rest of the night. At the end of the night after 90 minutes of good fierce close racing there could only be one winner. Congrats to David McKeown on winning the night, Tim Harch for second and Coen Bon for third. Yours truly took out the fastest lap during the race with a 46.5 seconds. Yeh, yeh I know, who cares!!!!

As for the awards, congratulations to the following 2008 league drivers for being the top 3 point scorers in each of their leagues.

Rev em Up V8's - Congratulations to Ash Lowe. After 29 races over 10 months. This championship went down to the final race of the year. There was literally one point between Ben and Ash going into the final race. Ash won the battle and now has back to back V8 Championships at High Octane. He is back in 2009 to go for three in a row. Something that has never been done before. Its not going to be easy as all the usual suspects stand in his way of the crown. We even have a previous High Octane V8 Champion, Craig Churchward, making a comeback after 2 years away. I cant wait............
272 Points - Ash Lowe
268 Points - Ben Shakepeare
259 Points - Jim Killeen

Pedal to Metal V8's - Congratulations to Shane Heathcote. After 29 races over 10 months, Tim and Shane, two fresh faced High Octane Rookies were on equal points going into the final race. Regardless of where they finished, all they had to do was to beat each other. Shane finished one spot ahead and won the championship by one point. On a side note, Shane has left QLD now, so he cant pursue the A grade V8 league in 2009 and Tim actually raced with the A grade drivers in 2008 as well. He finished a credible 4th. Watch out guys as Tim concentrates on one league only this year.
279 Points - Shane Heathcote
278 Points - Tim Harch
251 Points - David McKeown

Ferrari and Astin Martin PRO - Congratulations to Michael Sampson. Well there was Michael and then there was the rest. Michael's first League at High Octane and he blitzed the lot. That was no mean feet either as he was up against the cream of or league drivers. The battle however for the best of the rest was decided during the last race. Andrew just held on and added another High Octane trophy to he's cabinet.
174 Points - Michael Sampson
150 Points - Andrew Tuckwood
148 Points - Rod Browning

LeMans Audi R8 PRO - Congratulations to Ben Shakespeare. Although he is still a young fellow, Ben is a six year veteran league driver at High Octane and when I think about it, he has always finished a championship on the podium. This was a close league that could have seen any of the top three drivers win the championship. The closeness of the points is testament to that. The 2009 LeMans Audi R8 Pro kicks off on February 11th with four of 2008's drivers lining up again.
158 Points - Ben Shakespeare
154 Points - Rod Browning
152 Points - Tim Hamilton

2008 BMW Corporate Challenge - Eight teams entered, after 6 months, 24 heats and 72 races. The top two teams to battle out the Grand Final was Brisbane BMW and Archerfield Speed Karts. Many teams battled hard throughout the league but none could beat the might of Archerfield Speed Karts. They won every round and the Grand Final. At the end of the season, just being the best of the rest was a great achievement.
660 Points - Archerfield Speed Karts
588 Points - Brisbane BMW
575 Points - Sunstate Gas & Plumbing
555 Points - Civic Video
553 Points - Tighe Cams
505 Points - Quality Nuts
470 Points - B & D Signs
464 Points - Queensland Health

For all league results from 2008, click here.

IT'S ALL OVER FOR 2008 – Our 2008 Corporate Challenge has been very popular and a successful series. We held the grand final on Wednesday October 15th between Archerfield Speed Karts and Brisbane BMW. Just like every round of the season, ASK won the grand final convincingly. They remained unbeaten for all seven rounds and the final. Well done to the ASK team drivers, Ash Lowe (captain), Coen Bon, Jackson Bermingham and Ben Jurczak. Congratulations also goes to the Brisbane BMW team drivers, Chris Yearbury (captain), Craig Yearbury, Jason Hermann and Julian Sylvester. Next year is going to be bigger and more close with a new points structure. Seven teams have already verbally committed to the series. Only three more to go.

To check out the 2008 results round by round, click here to go to our race results page for the latest results. Then click on the BMW Corporate Challenge results. You will find all our league results on the same page.

For more information about the 2009 season please click here to check out or Racing Leagues section of our website.

From now on when you visit our website you will see a "This Months Specials" starburst on the main page. Don't forget to check it out each month as there will always be something different. You can also click here to get there.

All current members will need to renew their membership for 2008. Membership is required to race in 2008 leagues. You also receive a swag of benefits when you are a members. Free drive on your Birthday, save $5.00 off each session, able to use our frequent driver scheme, invitations to special events plus many more benefits. For the full list click here.

Membership renewal can be paid in person at High Octane during regular racing hours or you can click here to send us your name and current membership number and we will contact you for credit card payment over the phone. Thanks for being members in 2008, we hope you benefited from our various offers and events during 2007.

High Octane Grid Girls

We have two new grid girls as part of the High Octane team. You may have seen Tiffany or Shayne wandering around QLD Raceway handing out vouchers and getting the odd photo taken. Actually, heaps of photo's. They will be helping to take the work load off me during our V8 Supercar, Sunday, Stimulators and Sausage Sizzle events. They are also available for hostess and promotional duties for either private or corporate functions at our race centre. With enough notice the girls can even be hired for your next race package. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them both to the High Octane team and thank them for the efforts at the QLD 300.

It is a team event/challenge that is run between 3 teams: Triple P Racing / High Octane Racing / Simulation Raceway

Using the FVR V8's. These cars are a refined version of what we ran in the Motor Show Series earlier this year. The classic Holden vs. Ford battle. The cars have more grip than the current V8's being used in leagues and for those who did race in the Motor Show Series will know just how close and competitive these cars are. It is a fantastic league for beginners and experienced league drivers.

Wednesday August 1st saw Triple P Racing take out round 1 convincingly. Three races at Mugello saw them take two victories from three starts. Simulator Raceway had a second, third and a first with High Octane Racing coming home in third, second and third.

We can always do with some more drivers. Its not a compulsory league. Therefore you will not have to show up to each round if you don't want and each round will carry on regardless of how many drivers we have on the night. However there will be a discount if you choose to do the whole six round series.

NOW OPEN AT ARCHERFIELD

Our new race centre at 10 Beaufighter Avenue Archerfield is all systems go and ready to take your bookings. We now have eight Hyper's ready to race and all our cockpits now have 19" monitors. The ADSL is connected and our first on line practice session has gone off without a hitch. So the leagues are due to kick off first week in May. Below is the progress that was made from the beginning of construction on February 18 to the final sign going up on April 22nd. I would like to pass on my thanks, gratitude and appreciation to the following generous people who gave up their time to build the new race centre - Craig Day, Jim Lowe, Chris Harman, Mike Russell, Wayne Domigan, Martin Tuckwood and Darren Beckett.

We are pleased to announce that we are associated with another on line racing group. Triple P Racing, otherwise known as TPR. This is a small on line group (approx 15 members) that has only just got off the ground. For those who have enjoyed online racing from here and at home should check out their website and join up. They have some good dedicated people who are very helpful at getting into the on line racing scene. They already have a GTR2 and an Ozzy Racers series underway. I am currently enjoying racing in the GTR2 series. Membership is free, to sign up go to www.triplepracing.com and start your online racing today.

We received many good submissions for our logo and car design comp that we ran last month. The winning submission that was chosen by the judges was a package designed by Aj. Well done Aj, a job well done. You have won yourself a Hyper Stimulator Clubman for your effort. Here is his winning logo and car design.

In the past we have supplied you with gaming computers to match up to your Hyper Stimulator. High Octane can now also help you with all your computing needs. Big or small, office or home, stand alone or networked. From desktop PC's to laptops. All are available to purchase at High Octane. Next time you are looking for a computer system, advise us of your specs and we will provide you with a competitive quotation and the quality of service you have known to experience at High Octane.

On the eve of the Queensland 300, we received a visit from Ford Performance Racing drivers, Jason Bright and Greg Ritter. Jason and Greg managed to get many laps of practice in at QR before even getting to Willowbank. Driving our Hyper Stimulators utilising ORSM's V8 Supercar mod, Jason advised that "this is fantastic, the only thing missing is the 60 degree cabin temperatures". Both Jason and Greg agreeing that the whole sensation was very realistic. Greg was definitely at home in the Hyper clocking a 1:07.6 at Queensland Raceway (which was better than my time). We did make it a bit easier for them for this visit by enabling a bit of traction control, just so they looked good for the camera's. Both drivers were just as competitive as they would be on track. Thanks for visiting guys, look forward to you visiting again some time.

ASRG are an Australian based sim racing club. Operated by a group of hard working individuals dedicated to providing the public with professionally operated online racing leagues. Currently they run two Grand Prix Legends leagues, a Porsche Carrera Cup league, A Formula One League and soon another V8 league. It is a lot more fun than just racing the AI cars in your software. You can quite easily find yourself battling against 20 other drivers who are all real people like yourself. There are usually a couple of try before you join leagues, so you can really see what it is all about. Once you are ready to take on the rest of Australia and sometimes the world you just pay a simple membership fee that lasts you a year and away you go. The membership is excellent value all made possible by the dedicated committee and team all doing it for the love of it. High Octane is a partner/sponsor of the ASRG and regularly participate in their leagues. What's more if you don't have the equipment to race online from home, you can do it in the comfort of High Octane now connected online with ADSL2 +. Check out their website at www.asrg.org. Its free to become a member of the forums so take a look at what's going on behind the scenes.

Just want to share of a couple of websites that I find cool and that are worth checking out.
http://www.aurace.com - AuRace is a provider of royalty free auto photography. They showcase many different local photographers work to allow you to quickly find and acquire Australian motor sport photos. All photos shown can be purchased and instantly downloaded for use under a royalty-free basis.
http://www.rqld.com - They are a Queensland-based group with a focus on Motor sport events for performance car enthusiasts. Membership is free - but necessary to access the forums and events section. The forums are a great place to chat with other rev heads just like yourself. So click on the link and sign up and start discussing technical data, look at some pics and vids and do what you do on forums. I'm a member, just look out for any posts from "Pressy".