We have more photos coming soon from Round One of the Independent Race Series, but can whet your appetite with this series taken during Qualifying for the Production Racing Cars on Saturday.

Hans Riehs had been setting the track alight in his Class B Mini Cooper S, setting fastest time in the morning practice session (51.48s), and setting a time good enough for second on the grid before running wide heading towards Suttons. Unfortunately the car dug in as it entered the sand trap and suffered a slow roll onto, coming to a rest on its side.

Hans was uninjured, but took no further part in proceedings. The car suffered fairly minor (mostly cosmetic) damage, and is expected to return to the front of the Production Racing Cars pack in the near future.

The first ever round of the Independent Race Series was held at Sydney's Oran Park over the weekend, with a successful meeting and some very exciting on-track action.

Unofficial practice took place on Friday 10 October, and many of the competitors took the opportunity to get familiar with the flowing Oran Park "South Circuit" layout.

Saturday morning brought the official practice sessions for four separate groups: Touring Car Challenge, Formula Tasman/LeMans Sports (combined), Production Racing Cars and Muscle Division. Drivers had little time to relax, with qualifying held mid-morning.

In the Touring Car Challenge field it was Darren Saillard on pole in his BA Falcon V8 Supercar. In the Formula Tasman ranks, Sam Dale dominated in his Reynard 94D, Mark Laucke was quickest of the LeMans Sports in his WEST. Quickest of the Production Racing Cars was Clark Stott in his Mazda 3 MPS. Muscle Division saw Chris Clearihan take pole in his Future Racer.

Racing got underway just after midday, and the first ever race in the Independent Race Series was Production Racing Car driver Clark Stott, putting in a stunning performance in his Mazda 3 MPS. Racing continued into the afternoon, finishing just before 5pm with a sudden downpour drenching the final race.

Over the course of the day the category results were as follows:

Production Racing Cars was taken out by an envigorated Neil Byers. Byers took his Mitsubishi 380 to two race wins (out of four races), ahead of Anthony Soole (Toyota Celica) and Bryan Fitzpatrick (Renault Clio). Class wins went to Clark Stott (Class A), Neil Byers (Class B) and John Willmington (Class C). As part of a bet made with his team, Neil Byers walked the pitlane (after the circuit was closed of course!) in his checkered boxer shorts to celebrate his wins.

Formula Tasman was won by Sam Dale in his Reynard 94D. Dale won all three races, setting the fastest laptimes in each. It didn't go all his way though - a sticking throttle cable on Dale's car saw Bob Muir take the lead in the final race, but some confusion over the safety car saw Muir excluded from the race. Formula Robertson honours went to Glenn Lynch.

In the LeMans Sports stakes, the overall result went to Aaron Steer in his WEST. Mark Laucke looked strong early on (taking two race wins), but was unable to complete the final race, handing the victory to steer, and relegating Laucke to second. Class honours went to Laucke (Oxygen Class), Scott Bingham (Radon Class) and Rick Otten (Neon Class).

The Touring Car Challenge honours went to Darren Saillard in his BF Falcon V8 Supercar. Saillard beat Mark Telfer (VZ Commodore) and Phil Groeneveld (VS Commodore) for outright honours. The ex-V8 Supercar honours went to Saillard, and the V8 Giants to Telfer.

Muscle Division was taken out by Canberran Chris Clearihan in his Future Racer. Second place went to Glen Austin in his EB Falcon, and third was taken by Steve Wild in another Future Racer.

To access the full results from Round One, please click here.

Round Two of the Independent Race Series will be held at Morgan Park (Queensland) 15-16 November. Keep track of all the latest news and information on www.irace.net.au

The event schedule for Round One of the Independent Race Series is now available to download. The schedule (as well as a range of other administrative documents) is available from the "Admin" page of the site. Or you can access the schedule directly by clicking here.

Round One of the 2008 Independent Race Series will be held at Sydney's Oran Park, Saturday 11 October 2008.

Young rising Australian driver, Tom Drewer has won the 2008 IMSA Lites L2 Championship with a clean sweep at Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Click here for the full story.

Due to a relocation of the iRace HQ, the Entry Form submission fax number will be inactive for a few days. Please do not attempt to fax your entry forms between now and 26 September.

Post or email is still fine.

Round One of the Independent Race Series will take place at Sydney's Oran Park 11 October 2008.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of two events for 2008 for the Independent Race Series, the important documentation and forms are now available.

The Admin section of the Independent Race Series website is the official access point for all documentation. Direct links to the new forms and documents are listed below:

• Entry Form - Round 1 - Oran Park Sat 11 Oct 08
• Entry Form - Round 2 - Morgan Park 15-16 Nov 08
• Supplementary Regulations - Round 1 - Oran Park Sat 11 Oct 08
• Licence Application Form
• Licence Medical Examination Form
• Logbook Application Form
• Driver Profile Submission Form

Please note that many of the forms are in Adobe Acrobat format, and will require the Adobe Acrobat Viewer to view them. The Adobe Acrobat Viewer is a free download, available from THIS SITE.

Following a great deal of anticipation the Independent Race Series will get underway at Sydney's Oran Park, 11 October 2008.

The Independent Race Series caters for a variety of different racing categories, with cars ranging from production-based cars (Production Racing Cars), to ultra-competitive touring cars (Touring Car Challenge), right through to prototype sports cars, and open-wheeler formula cars (LM Sports and Formula Tasman). Mixed in are the pocket rocket racing cars in RocketSports, and perhaps the most diverse sedan-based category around - Muscle Division, catering for everything from HQ Holdens to Japanese turbos.

The Oran Park event will serve as a great introduction for the Independent Race Series, and is planned to be held on the great "South Circuit" configuration of the challenging Oran Park layout. The meeting will take place over one day (Saturday 11 October), and will conclude in time for competitors, officials and crews to sit back and enjoy the Bathurst event the following day (Sunday 12 October).

Details of the second Independent Race Series event have also been released, and the series is set to travel to Warwick (QLD), to the exciting Morgan Park circuit. The Morgan Park event will be held 14-16 November 2008.

Entry forms for each event will be available very soon, and details of the brand new iRace Club will also be released shortly.

The Independent Race Series - Racing for Racers...

Luddenham driver John Willmington is fired up about the new Production Racing Cars series.

With backing from Sydney-based Super Diesel, Willmington has acquired a new car - a SSS N15 Nissan Pulsar, powered by the popular SR20 engine.

Willmington is relatively new to circuit racing, having made his debut in 2007 at the final round of that season's AMRS. He's certainly not lacking enthusiasm or talent though, and his background in go karts has given him a good starting point.

John's main sponsor is also fairly new on the market. Super Diesel is a revolutionary new fuel with benefits that include:

• Fuel economy improved by 4 to 7%
• Black smoke reduced by up to 24%
• Engine noise reduced by up to 15%

With the rapidly increasing application of diesel engines in passenger cars, Super Diesel is just what the doctor ordered!

Look out for Willmington and the Super Diesel Nissan Pulsar SSS at the first round of the Production Racing Cars, in the Independent Race Series. Keep track of all the latest news and information via the official series website: www.irace.net.au

The internet is a hectic place. New websites spring up every day, and it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Most internet users have a collection of sites they visit regularly, but no way of knowing in advance if each of their favourite sites has been updated since they last visited. It can be time consuming to open up all your favourites only to find they haven't changed since the last time you looked.

What if there was a way to have any news items delivered automatically to your computer whenever you connected to the internet? Well, there is a way. And the Independent Race Series website (www.irace.net.au) has incorporated the technology in its design. The technology is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and it allows you to subscribe to a News "Feed", either through a program you may already be using (usually an email program or web browser), or through a dedicated program. Each time you connect to the internet, the program checks the status of the feed, and if there is a new article it can be automatically downloaded. For a full rundown on how it all works, and how you can subscribe, click HERE.

If you already know how to subscribe, the link you are looking for is: http://www.irace.net.au/news/files/blogRSS.php

There are a number of other little innovations incorporated in this website, and we'll bring you more information on how to get the most out of it soon.

The Independent Race Series is all about offering a better alternative for competitors, fans and teams. The more people that contribute to make the series great, the greater the series will be. If you have a suggestion, an idea, a proposal, a way we can do things better, we want to hear from you. To that end, we have opened a suggestion box, and hope that if you see something that could be improved you will let us know. Click the box on the right to head straight to the suggestion box.

Production Racing Cars competitor John Willmington has gotten the ball rolling, by suggesting the Suggestion Box. Thank you John. Now, let's hear from the rest of you!