Kumho Tyres are supporting competitors and officials associated with the Independent Race Series. Competitors are in the running to win a pair of Kumho race tyres, and one volunteer official per round will win a set of four Kumho road tyres.

At Round One, the winners were as follows:

Marulan Driver Training Centre Production Racing Cars - Class C: John Willmington

RocketSports - Future Car Division: Robert Free

Marulan Driver Training Centre Touring Car Challenge - V8 Giants Division: Phil Groeneveld

Volunteer Official: Rex Jolly, Scrutineer

The prize awarded to the racing categories will rotate between subcategories at each round. For Round One, the prize went to Class C for Production Racing Cars, Future Cars for RocketSports and V8 Giants for Touring Car Challenge. The next round will see the prize awarded to a driver from a different subcategory.

As announced previously, our friends at Super Hoist Plus are supplying prizes for the overall Series Champion and Series runner up at the end of 2009.

As the Independent Race Series is a very diverse series, with a wide range of categories competing, and different race formats depending on the category, the best way to decide a "Series Champion" has proved to be a significant challenge.

We have arrived at a formula that is intended to be fair and equitable for everybody, and at the same time manageable. The system will work as follows:

Competitors will be awarded points for their position in their subcategory for each race. First place will receive 4 points, second place 3 points, third place 2 points, and fourth through to last receives 1 point. Competitors will also be awarded a point for each of the other cars in their subcategory that they defeat (for the purposes of this, the number of cars in each subcategory will count every car that attempts a race over the course of a race meeting). For categories that have less than four races over the weekend, points will be divided by the number of races, and then multiplied by four to achieve an equivalent allocation of points as the categories that do have four races. In the event that none of the subcategories within a category have at least three cars, then all cars will be considered as one category for the purposes of Series points calculation.

This does all sound a little complicated, but it is the fairest method we can devise for the purposes of determining a Series Champion.

The standings after Round One are as follows:

Robert Free - 28
John Willmington - 24
Nick Chambers - 22
Darren Saillard - 22
Graham Smith - 19
Merrick Malouf - 19
James Flanagan - 18
Carly Black - 18
Sam Dale - 16
Anthony Soole - 16
Matthew Clift - 16
Clark Stott - 15
Mal Rea - 15
Paul Bruce - 15
Richard Mork (Production) - 14
Neil Byers - 14
Dave Gardner - 14
Josh Riehs - 13
Clive O'Connor - 10
Candace Shafell - 10
Phil Groeneveld - 10
Hans Riehs - 8
Joe McGinnes - 7
John Biddlecombe - 5
Richard Mork (Touring Car) - 4
Gary Leaton - 0

So, everything is very close after the first round, and a reminder of what is on offer:

Series Champion - Two Post YSJ-3000 Hoist

Series Runner Up - Resto Roller

The Independent Race Series first visit to Morgan Park has come to a close, and some great racing took place over the course of the day. A full round report will follow, but the results from the round were as follows:

Touring Car Challenge & Muscle Division

1. Darren Saillard - BA Falcon V8 Supercar
2. Merrick Malouf - BA Falcon V8 Ute
3. Dave Gardner - VS Commodore V8 Supercar

V8 Supercar - Darren Saillard
V8 Giant - Philip Groeneveld
Muscle Division - Merrick Malouf

Production Racing Cars

Class X - Anthony Soole

Class A
1. Nicholas Chambers - Mini Cooper S
2. Clark Stott - Mazda 3 MPS
3. Richard Mork - Honda Integra

Class B
1. James Flanagan - Hyundai Sonata
2. Carly Black - Peugeot 206
3. Malcolm Rea - Toyota Celica

Class C
1. John Willmington - Nissan Pulsar
2. Candace Shafell - Toyota Corolla
3. Joshua Riehs - Proton GTi

RocketSports & Future Racers

Future Racer - Robert Free

Holden Roadster - Graham Smith

Formula Tasman & Le Mans Sports

1. Sam Dale - Reynard 94D

Conditions at Morgan Park were ideal for most of Saturday for Independent Race Series practice and qualifying. A little bit of wind and a few drops of rain made way for fine conditions in the afternoon.

The action on the circuit was mixed. The Formula Tasman and Le Mans Sports field was quite small, and Sam Dale set the fastest time in his Reynard 94D, with a 1m04.9s lap. John Biddlecombe in his Saker clocked a 1m13.4s lap.

In the RocketSports and Future Racers, local star Robert Free set the pace, with a 1m10.4s lap, holding out the Holden Roadster-mounted Graham Smith. Biddlecombe in the Saker was next fastest, with Clive O'Connor taking fourth in another Holden Roadster (1m16.6s).

The categories with the greatest amount of jostling were Production Racing Cars and Touring Car Challenge.

In the Production Racing Cars, most of the field is covered by just 6 seconds, and there are 8 cars covered by just 3 seconds - the action should be hot on Sunday! Anthony Soole took pole in his Lotus Elise (1m12.4s), Hans Riehs got his Mini Cooper S really moving to take second (1m14.1s), just edging out Clark Stott in his Mazda 3 MPS (1m14.9s). Richard Mork took 4th, John Willmington 5th, Neil Byers 6th, newcomer Josh Riehs 7th, Malcolm Rea 8th, James Flanagan 9th, Nick Chambers 10th, and newcomers Carly Black and Candace Shafell filled 11th and 12th.

In the Touring Car Challenge and Muscle Division, Darren Saillard set the fastest time, but it almost didn't happen - Saillard was fighting a gearbox problem which forced him to drive with one hand while he used the other to hold the car in gear! Saillard still managed a blistering 1m04.4s lap. Richard Mork was next quickest, with a 1m08.0s lap, Gary Leaton in 3rd, Phil Groeneveld 4th, and a relieved David Gardner in 5th. Gardner had his throttle jam wide open at the end of the straight, and his quick reactions saw him pull up just short of contact with the tyre barrier. Next up was the two-wheeling Joe McGinnes in his XY Falcon, followed by Merrick Malouf in his V8 Falcon Ute.

Onboard video from Dave Gardner's V8 Supercar will be available shortly on the iRace Blip TV page - click here to view.

A live gallery of photos from the event is available. Visit the iRace gallery here. Or you can access the images directly through the iRace Flickr gallery, where you can download the full resolution versions for printing or reproduction.

The weather looks good again for tomorrow, when all the action is scheduled to happen at the exciting Morgan Park circuit.

Friday practice has been completed, with a number of cars taking to the Morgan Park track. The general consensus from competitors is that Morgan Park is a challenging, exciting and rewarding layout - it's mix of fast sweeping corners and tight direction changes makes mastering a fast lap tough, and nailing the right setup essential.

A selection of photos have been added to the Live Gallery, available by clicking here.

With apologies for the delay in getting this online (somebody dug through the iRace HQ phone/internet lines!), the Round One schedule is now available for download.

Click here to download the PDF schedule for Round One.

The Independent Race Series is always working to serve our competitors and fans in the most effective way possible. We try to innovate and capitalise on useful advances in technology that can make everyone's lives a little more streamlined.

When the site launched, we offered our news as a RSS Feed (click here for more information on how you can have every articled delivered to your email program or other RSS reader).

We've started a mailing list and send regular updates to all our subscribers (subscribe here if you haven't been receiving the emails).

We've launched a fully featured Online Entry System that makes it easier for competitors to submit their entries, and makes life a little easier at our end by automatically putting all the entry information into a handy spreadsheet.

And now, in the leadup to Round One, we're ready to launch something else new. Live Updates. The iRace website has always been kept pretty well up-to-date, but race weekends are always a challenge to get new information on the site. This is a problem, because race weekends are what we are all about. Well, now we've introduced two ways to overcome this.

We now feature a live "photostream" on the front page of the site. There is only one photo there now, but that will change once the round gets underway. The most recent photos from the current round will appear in this section. And to view all the photos from the current round, go via the Multimedia page to the round in question and select the Live Photo Feed. The link for Round 1 is here.

We'll also be adding short live news updates to the front page. We can send these in from a mobile phone, so trackside news should appear fairly regularly. The most recent items will appear on the front page, and to view them all, you can check out this link. If you already have a Twitter account, you can 'follow' iraceupdates and receive the news in your 'tweets'.

Bottom of site front page

And if all this sounds like too much for you, you can relax, because all the regular news and updates will still happen. Round reports, and post-event news items will be available in the normal way.

So, get ready for the year ahead. And if there's anything else you'd like to see on iRace.net.au, you can always provide feedback through the Contact Us page, or in the Suggestion Box.

The Touring Car Challenge and Production Racing Cars categories will boast support from the exciting new Marulan Driver Training Centre at Round One of the Independent Race Series.

The Touring Car Challenge features cars from the past 20 years of Australian Touring Car racing, and a diversity format where everyone has a chance to take victory.

Production Racing Cars is dedicated to road-based, production cars, from the showroom floor, via a couple of safety modifications, straight to the race track.

The Marulan Driver Training Centre is dedicated to road safety through driver training and education. The centre, around an hour and a half south of Sydney, features top quality training facilities and a 1km long, 8m wide track, specially designed to feature a variety of driving challenges. Visit www.mdtc.com.au for more information.

Competitors in TCC and PRC will display MDTC windscreen banners in recognition of the support.

Round One of the Independent Race Series heads to Morgan Park this weekend, 20-22 March. Keep track of all the action on www.iRace.net.au

A special notice to competitors

To ensure the Kumho Tyres truck at Morgan Park is carrying the tyres you need, competitors are asked to preorder their tyres using this form. Orders should be placed by opening of business Mon 16 Mar to ensure the correct tyres are onboard the truck.

There are still a few days left to get your entries in for Round One, at Warwick's Morgan Park.

The Independent Race Series will visit the Morgan Park circuit for the very first time 20-22 March. Entry fees are set at an affordable $395, including TV coverage on Fox Sports. As well as a great weekends racing, competitors put themselves in the running for a pair of Kumho tyres, and the great Super Hoist Plus prizes at the end of the year.

To submit your Round 1 entry via the online system, click here.

To access the old-school mail/fax-in entry form, click here.

For more information on Morgan Park, and the first round of the Independent Race Series, click here.