Motorsport eNews Issue 27 - October 23-29, 2007

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KIMI THE CHAMP

Issue No. 027 23 – 29 October 2007

g n i d n e p l a e p Ap

is the coast a V8-only zone?

Editorial Editor: Grant Rowley grant@mnews.com.au National Editor: Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Executive Editor: Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au

Australasian

The ‘A’ Team

Production Graphic Design & Web: Jayne Uthmeyer design@mnews.com.au

Advertising National Sales Manager: Calvin Wood cwood@mnews.com.au P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 M 0439 566 265

Issue No. 027 | 23 - 29 October 2007

news 5 Kimi Champ, or is he? McLaren to appeal 6 Fabulous Fabian 10 RuSPORT out 17 Oh what a feeling!

Administration 357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East, VIC, 3187 (PO Box 7072, Brighton, VIC, 3186) P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 admin@mnews.com.au

MD / Publisher

Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au

Contributing Writers F1: Joe Saward, Mark Glendenning, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin D. Clark, Phil Morris Speedway: Greg Boscato, Geoff Rounds, Darren Sutton, Tony Millard (UK) Rally: Ryan Lahiff Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Ken Ferguson, John Bosher National: Mark Wicks, Mark Jones, Aaron Shaw, Daniel Powell, Darius Koreis.

Photographers Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/Mpix, AF1 Images, James Smith, Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn, Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, Ash Budd, Paris Charles, Bob Potts, Neil Hammond, Joel Strickland, Mike Patrick (UK) Motorsport eNews is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Copyright: Material published in Motorsport eNews is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher.

Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Motorsport eNews does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted.

Opinions expressed in Motorsport eNews are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

International photos supplied by Sutton Images, www.sutton-images.com – click here to check out their exclusive poster deals

chat 18 5 minutes with ... opinion 20 Branagan

21 Lambden 47 The Punter

race 22 Mistake City 28 For old time’s sake 32 Out of nowhere

Coulthard a lock at PCR Wilson to NHL Racing?

Privateer Toyota for ARC Kimi Raikkonen Has Indy lost its spark?

Craziness in Brazil Sponsors are queueing!

Tander scrapes in on GC Seb wins Indy 300 ... again!

Kimi sneaks through

trade 43 Trade and Industry / Raceshop / Classifieds

welcome One of these guys is the 2007 Aussie Racing Cars winner.

The other two help run the show Check out the latest eNews supplements via http://www.mnews.com.au

No V8 Supercars/CCWS deal V8 SUPERCARS

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RUMOURS of a commercial partnership between V8 Supercars and Champ Car, which floated around over the Gold Coast weekend, are fanciful, according to V8 Supercars CEO Wayne Cattach.

“You hear some interesting things, don’t you,” Cattach told eNews on Monday, “but no, there’s no basis for those rumours.

“I’m not sure we have anything to gain by entering into that sort of a partnership with anyone.

“The one story which does have some credence is the one that involves Tony (Cochrane) offering SEL’s services to Champ Car. I believe he and Kevin Kalkhoven have spoken, but nothing has come of it.”

At the same time, a

report in the Queensland press has maintained that the Indy organisation has commissioned a report which concluded that the V8s alone could carry the Surfers meeting.

Certainly, the Champ Car organisation is unlikely to be negotiating from a position of strength when talks concerning the future of its contract (which expires after next year’s race) take place.

Adding fuel to the mix, Australia’s A1GP franchise owner, Alan Jones, told Fox Sports over the weekend that the World Cup of Motorsport would love to be part of the Gold Coast programme. With that category’s switch to Ferrari-flavoured equipment (as reported recently), it would certainly make a viable and attractive alternative.

Parity Scare “premature” RUMOURS circulating at the Gold Coast race of a parity adjustment to V8 Supercars for the next round of the Championship Series in Bahrain appear to be wide of the mark.

There was talk that the complex mathematical ‘trigger’ had been set off by Ford’s dominant Bathurst result following a string of strong Ford results.

The discussion centred around the likelihood of the Fords’ aero kits being modified to slow the cars down slightly.

But the rumours appear to have been based on data processed by an older version of the model used by TEGA to

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V8 SUPERCARS

determine the parity between the two marques, which is therefore not current.

In the version used since 2006, a percentage of laps from races are sampled rather than a set number of laps, as the

older version is believed to have produced a number of ‘phantom’ results, dependent on unusual events occurring during races (like late-race DNFs).

The programming consultants engaged by TEGA

to supervise the calculations made the appropriate changes and, we believe, the parity ‘trigger’ is still some way from being activated for what remains of the 2007 championship season.

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Hold your horses!

FORMULA 1 KIMI Raikkonen’s world championship hangs in the balance following a post-race technical dispute in Brazil affecting the cars which finished fourth, fifth and sixth.

Stewards considered a report from FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer stating that Williams and BMW cars used fuel cooled below the limit (10 degrees below ambient temperature) through the race, but eventually decided against imposing a penalty.

Bauer’s report claimed an ambient temperature of 37 degrees, with the four cars concerned recording fuel temperatures of 2324 degrees. Team engineers have confirmed that fuel cooled to that degree would provide a performance gain – of at least 10 horsepower.

Had the Stewards imposed a disqualification on the cars, Lewis Hamilton would have moved up to fourth place in the race – and become 2007 World Champion.

While the Stewards’ decision has, effectively, confirmed Kimi Raikkonen as the Champion, late on Sunday night McLaren confirmed its intention to appeal that decision of the Stewards.

McLaren says that it accepts that it was beaten fair and square by Ferrari in Brazil and says that that it simply wants to understand how cars

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Could McLaren appeal strip Kimi and Ferrari of the World Championship?

can be found by FIA officials to have broken the rules and yet not have any punishment.

This is a fair point and it comes eight years after a ruling by which Ferrari won the Malaysian Grand Prix when the measuring techniques of the scrutineers were called into question in the International Court of Appeal.

This is effectively what has happened in Brazil as the stewards ruled that they did not have “a precise reading of the temperature of 'fuel on board the car' which shows fuel at more than 10 degrees C below ambient temperature” nor did they have a regulation stating “in clear terms that the definitive ambient temperature shall be that indicated on the FOM timing monitors.”

The stewards added that there was a “considerable discrepancy between the ambient temperatures recorded by FOM and

by Meteo France.” This apparently provided them with sufficient doubt as to the true ambient temperature and they thus deemed it inappropriate to impose a penalty.

Given that the outcome of the World Championship might have been at stake, depending on the penalty imposed, this decision was not an easy one to take but it must raise questions about the quality of scrutineering methods, particularly in the light of the Ferrari bargeboard case in 1999.

– JOE SAWARD

eNews – Even Better eNews is now faster than ever!

Readers will now be able to access Australia’s pacesetting ‘virtual’ motorsport mag even earlier each week – as early as 9pm Monday evening.

Yes, eNews has been ‘testing’ and upped its pace!

While it takes some hours for the many thousands of ‘alert’ emails to transmit overnight, keen readers need not wait – simply access the regular link – http://enews.mnews.com.au

(add it to your favourites) after 9pm on Monday for the very latest in Australian and international motorsport news, opinion and coverage.

It just keeps getting better …

BRIEFLY...

Tool ti

n Ford Performance Racing’s commercial manager Simon Derrick has left the team. Derrick had been at the team for the past three years, moving up to commercial manger at the start of this year, replacing Rod Barrett. Derrick is moving to a new job at the AFL’s Hawthorn Hawks. n Results may be in the ‘future’ file on the track but Jack Daniel’s V8 Supercar program is bearing fruit within the liquor industry. The company was recognised with two industry awards for its marketing program in Sydney last week, as Best Marketed Spirit and Best Premium Spirit of the Year. n The Kid who has everything will want one of these, if he (or she) is a Toll HSV fan. You can score a pushbike in the same colours as Garth Tander and Rick Kelly’s cars, complete with sponsor decals.

The Hunter Leisure bike is available for $79 at Kmart and no, you will not have to ‘group’ the bike with that flash HRT model down the street …

Kiwi to get second V8 SUPERCARS FABIAN Coulthard will drive with Paul Cruickshank Racing in 2008, the two-way contest for the drive (with Alex Davison) having been resolved in the Kiwi’s favour.

The 25-year-old will drive a new PCR Falcon, set to be Craig Lowndes’s

Black Boy

V8 SUPERCARS WORK has begun in two states to prepare cars damaged in Indy’s V8 Supercar crash-fest for the long-haul flight to the Middle East.

With two ‘Melbourne’ teams staying in Queensland thanks to of V8 Supercars Australia’s rotational policy for international events, Toll HSV and GRM settled down to repair and prepare for Saturday’s flight out of Brisbane.

Hardest hit over the weekend was Jason Bright’s Fujitsu Ford. After the Race 1 accident at

the first chicane, the car was withdrawn from the round and repaired at Logan Valley Smash.

One team that is not going to be as inconvenienced is HRT. In spite of a wreckagestrewn weekend for both Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly, it was Kelly’s car that ended the meeting with damage, but much of that was going to be addressed by new, black paint in Chevrolet colours.

“It is not as bad as it might have looked,” Todd said on Monday.

“We had to fit the new panels, which were sitting there ready to go, anyway. No big deal.”

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ime again for Fabian chance in Glenfords Tool Centre colours with Paul Cruickshank Racing current chassis. The team’s current ex-Triple 8 Falcon will be driven in the Fujitsu V8 Series next year by David Wall.

PCR has also renewed its deal with sponsor Glenfords Tool Centres, extending the team’s relationship with the hardware company to three years.

Coulthard will replace John Bowe at the completion of this year’s V8 Supercar Championship Series

when Bowe retires from V8 competition.

Coulthard is no stranger to the Glenfords colours. He won the 2005 Carrera Cup Championship in the familiar blue colours with Greg Murphy Racing.

The Kiwi native first drove in Australia during the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, where he dominated the Formula Ford support races. In 2004,

he debuted in the Australian Carrera Cup Championship, finishing third before winning the title in 2005.

Coulthard drove for Paul Morris Motorsport on a parttime basis in 2006, before having a full tilt this year. His season came to a halt, though, when he was the sidelined after Bathurst, replaced by Owen Kelly for the rest of the season.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Marshall linked to Britek V8 SUPERCARS MARCUS Marshall is the favourite to score the second drive with Britek Motorsport next year.

Marshall, who won the final round of the Carrera Cup Championship at Indy last weekend, has emerged as the strongest contender for the #26 ride, which is likely to be vacated

by Alan Gurr at the end of the season.

Marshall has confirmed to eNews that his intention is to drive in the main V8 Supercar Championship in 2008.

“The most obvious thing is I want to be in the main game,” he said.

“There are only a few options out there so I’d like to get something sorted sooner rather than later.

“Britek would be a fantastic position to be in, especially partnering Jason. He’s got the runs on the board and they are a growing team and I’m sure there a lot of people in my position who want to be in a team like that.”

Marshall has driven a number of different cars over the past few years, including Carrera Cup, Champ Cars and V8 Supercar.

– GRANT ROWLEY

BRIEFLY...

– SPURRING/SAWARD

Driver market in top gear: Will Alonso and Kovalainen swap rides?

FORMULA 1 FERRARI surprised the F1 fraternity last week by announcing that its has re-signed Felipe Massa, below, until the end of 2010.

The result of the announcement is that – on the surface at least – talk about Fernando Alonso at Ferrari has now stopped and interest is centring on a possible deal for Fernando at Renault.

Going back to Renault would be a risk, given that the team has not been competitive this year but it would give Fernando the emotional support that he clearly needs.

If this is to be the case, it is logical for the team to keep Giancarlo Fisichella because Alonso knows that he can keep the Italian under control and may be happier going up

against him rather than Heikki Kovalainen.

It is believed that Renault has offered Kovalainen to McLaren in exchange for Alonso, but we hear that Renault wants McLaren to pay Alonso’s retainer. Renault will have to pay McLaren at least US$30m to get Alonso and we hear that the money will go directly from Telefonica to McLaren but only on the understanding that there is considerable Telefonica signage on the Renault cars.

ING is not hugely happy at

the moment, as it arrived in F1 expecting to be on cars challenging for the World Championship, rather than scrapping for minor placings, but may be willing to discuss making room on the car for Telefonica because Alonso will be a bigger draw.

The F1 driver market is, therefore, bubbling away with the rather odd situation of a lot of drivers who are contracted to teams suddenly seeming to be on the market again.

There has been talk in recent days on the future of Jarno Trulli, who has a contract with Toyota, and also talk about the future of Rubens Barrichello at Honda. Barrichello is contracted to the team next year but this does not mean he will be racing if the team decides to pay him off.

– JOE SAWARD

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n Michelin has agreed terms with the Speedcar Series to provide tyres for the planned stock car series in Asia and the Middle East.

It has also been agreed that Formula One Management will be providing the TV coverage for the new series. This is an interesting expansion for FOM TV which up to now has concentrated its efforts on F1 and GP2.

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n BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Toyota have submitted a proposal for new engine regulations to the FIA that they want adopted for the 2010 season.

The manufacturers are opposed to the FIA’s own proposals to introduce allnew regulations in 2011.

Instead, they want to retain the current 2.4-litre V8 through 2012, alongside kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) and a fuelflow restrictor, and are offering a four-race (instead of the current two-race) engine ‘life’.

They have also proposed that an all-new formula should be agreed before the end of 2009, for introduction in 2012. They say that this is a good compromise solution but have not yet had a response from the FIA. For the past two months, the FIA-recognised Formula One Manufacturers Advisory Commission has been considering a raft of radical proposals, including a turbocharged, four-cylinder engine with a swept volume between 1300 and 1500cc, equipped with a fuel-flow restrictor and KERS. Such a powertrain is calculated to deliver about 680bhp from the primary engine plus 80bhp from the brake-generated assist.

Attention Customers: A Deal FORMULA 1 THE F1 ‘Customer Car’ row looks top have been settled, with agreement that Toro Rosso and Super Aguri will be allowed to run customer cars through to the end of 2009, during which time they will be eligible to receive prize money but with the knowledge that in 2010 they must become full-on constructors.

In order for this settlement to work, there will also be an agreement that all 11 teams will share the prize monies, something which was previously not negotiable.

It is anticipated that the financial arrangements will revert to the normal ‘top 10 only’ in 2010 to ensure that the sport does

not have teams cruising along at the back as passengers, collecting money but not doing a good job.

The engine manufacturers have also agreed that they will provide engines for US$10m a year (again), but they say that this will much easier to achieve when the rules change to make teams use the same engines for four races, rather than the current two.

The teams have rejected a proposal from the FIA for a 10-year freeze on engine development, as they want to ensure that the sport maintains its image for cutting-edge technology.

– JOE SAWARD

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More Legals FORMULA 1 McLAREN has instigated a criminal legal action in Italy against Ferrari for alleged illegal use of Italian police documents in the FIA World Council meeting in September.

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In the latest off-track fall-out from Stepneygate, McLaren argues that Ferrari’s use of confidential police files related to the potential prosecution of Mike Coughlan and Nigel Stepney was inadmissable evidence because Ferrari needed a court order to allow the evidence to be used. Ferrari had applied to the Italian prosecutor to be allowed to use the documents and that permission had been refused.

If the FIA World Council made a decision based on illegally-acquired evidence there is the potential for civil legal action to question the legality of the FIA World Council

decision, which penalised McLaren US$100m.

FIA boss Max Mosley has responded by saying that the World Council’s only concern was whether the documents were accurate and truthful.

“We are not concerned with whether there are issues over how that is obtained,” he said.

“Unless there is evidence that it is forged or inaccurate, we will take it on its face value. We do not enter a debate about Italian law; we have neither the time nor the skills for that.”

Ferrari contends that its actions were perfectly legal but there was mention of the problem during the World Council meeting, and Mosley did accept at the time that might could be problems if Ferrari lost the case.

– JOE SAWARD

BRIEFLY...

n The Renault F1 Team sent its Road Show to Mexico City on the week before the Brazilian GP and an estimated 300,000 fans turned out to see a 2006 Formula 1 car running on the streets of the downtown area. Mexicans have been starved of F1 since 1992 when the last Grand Prix was held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. n The Johnnie Walker whisky brand has extended its sponsorship deal with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team through 2012.

Under the new arrangements, Johnnie Walker will increase its financial input to the team and gain increased branding on its racecars.

– SAWARD/SPURRING

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A1GP CEO moves in at T FORMULA 1 SCUDERIA Toro Rosso is believed to be on the verge of being sold by current owners Dietrich Mateschitz (of Red Bull) and Gerhard Berger.

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n The members of the McLaren team have made their own comment on the team’s loss of the Constructors’ Championship this year. The team presented team boss Ron Dennis with a cut glass vase which was engraved with the words ‘2007 Constructors’ Champion – from the team’ on Friday in Interlagos.

Dennis said that the move was evidence of the team’s feelings and said that it showed that in adversity the team has become stronger than ever.

Teixeira Runs with th sutton-images.com

n The word in Interlagos was that Bernie Ecclestone is on the verge of agreeing a new deal with the Brazilians to extend the contract for the race to 2014.

There is also talk of the city of Sao Paulo building a completely new state-ofthe-art racing circuit near the Guarulhos International Airport, which would better promote the image of the city.

The buyer is expected to be Portuguese South African Antonio ‘Tony’ Teixeira, a colourful character by all accounts, who has wideranging connections and businesses in Africa but who has recently relocated to Europe after being kidnapped and ransomed last year in South Africa.

Teixeira, inset, is the man behind the A1GP Series and recently did the deal with Ferrari to supply his series with cars and engines.

The Toro Rosso deal has

A NEW MAN, AND JUSTI CHAMP CARS

NEWMAN Haas Linigan is a probable future home for Justin Wilson following the news that RuSPORT is set to pull out of Champ Car World Series at the end of this season.

The lanky Brit, currently second in the series behind four-time winner Sebastian Bourdais, looks set to replace the Frenchman at NHL. Wilson was told of the team’s decision prior to the weekend’s Indy 300.

“They have just announced they are closing down,” said Wilson at the weekend.

“They have just told me and the crew. They don’t want to carry on. This weekend I will have to see what my options are.”

The news is a bitter blow for the series, which has struggled for numbers in recent years. RuSPORT

owner Dan Pettit is a long-time associate of CCWS stakeholder Kevin Kalkhoven, the two having worked together at JDS Uniphase prior to both buying into what became PKV Racing.

Pettit downsized the team after the departure to Forsythe Racing of AJ Allmendinger and the crash of Cristano da Matta in testing at Elkhart Lake.

A number of events, including the Indy 300, stipulate a minimum grid size of 18 in their race contracts. This would indicate that a new team may enter the series or that one of the existing squads may expand to a threecar entry.

One possibility to do this is Team Australia, which is believed to be considering Katherine Legge as a third driver for 2008

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he Bulls

Toro Rosso

– JOE SAWARD

IN TIME

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been in the pipeline for some time and has been orchestrated by F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. It has been held up by the ongoing dispute over customer cars in Formula 1, but seems that this is now close to a solution with the teams having apparently agreed to allow Toro Rosso and Super Aguri to continue using customer equipment for two more years.

It will be interesting to see what Teixeira decides to do with the team. He is a busy man and thus will probably leave the running of the operation to others – whether this is the current management remains to be seen.

Air India, maybe? Spyker’s last race ended early for Sakon Yamamoto, who did this to GIancarlo Fisichella.

The Force is with you, India FORMULA 1 VIJAY Mallya, the man who now controls Spyker F1, has announced that he intends to rename the team ‘Force India F1’.

The industrialist says that the cars will be known as Force Indias.

Team name changes are governed by rules in the Concorde Agreement, so Mallya will be depending on the co-operation of others in

F1 to execute the change right now.

The team has yet to make any decisions on drivers but it is expected to test a number of drivers in Barcelona between November 13-16. The rumour mill suggests that this will include Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli, Tonio Liuzzi and Sakon Yamamoto. Mallya says that the team will be keeping Adrian Sutil.

The idea that Trulli might

test for the team is on odd one, given that the Italian is under contract to Toyota next year. But Trulli is one of the drivers who is being rumoured as being on the move, despite having a contract.

There is little doubt that Timo Glock will be confirmed as one of the Toyota drivers, but it is a little more difficult to establish who will drive the other car.

– JOE SAWARD

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GRM test for Middle East racer

V8 SUPERCARS THE winner of the 2007/08 Lumina CSV Middle East Championship is set to receive a test drive in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore V8 Supercar.

“You’ve got to look at opportunities like that,” V8 team owner Rogers said.

“There are people who may come out of it who would be quite okay. What we are looking to do is to see who can and who can’t.

“To win a championship of any kind in a one-make championship, clearly you should be capable and be the best driver in that bunch.

“I don’t think its fair to judge

on where the championship is based or who is in it, so I think you have to look at all these things and not leave a stone unturned.“ The CSV championship is a one-make series for Chevrolet Luminas. The 2007/08 championship starts in two weeks as a support category for the V8 Supercar

Championship Series at Bahrain.

The championship runs over six rounds, taking in three rounds at Bahrain and three at Dubai. The championship’s finale will be held at the Bahrain circuit during the Bahrain Grand Prix in early April.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Johnson parks his Henry for an Enzo AUSTRALIAN GT STEVEN Johnson is likely to become the latest V8 Supercar driver to join the Australian GT Championship.

Johnson is set to share John Teulan’s Ferrari 430 at the Sandown GT Classic endurance race, which will also incorporate the Australian Tourist Trophy Title.

The Jim Beam Racing driver will join team-mate Will Davison and touring car stalwart John Bowe in the race, which will run at the suburban Melbourne circuit on December 9.

Johnson says he is looking forward to enjoying a more relaxed race weekend.

“It’ll be a bit of fun,” he told eNews.

“Our racing is so intense these days that it’ll be nice to just enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the pressure being off and

12

being able to just enjoy what we all love doing.

“The car should be good. I don’t know where it sits in the scheme of the championship, but I don’t think it’s as fast

as the car that [Allan] Simonsen drives.

“But if it’s got a little less downforce and a bit more power, then that might suit Sandown.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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Frustration for Winterbottom V8 SUPERCARS

THE smallest of tech-glitches saw Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom stripped of his pole position at Surfers Paradise.

The #5 FPR Ford was found

to have had an engine ignition timing variance over the regulated six degrees.

The ignition timing data from the car showed that the timing was outside of the regulated parameters for a total period of just 0.19 seconds in a complete

lap – a minute and random electronic ‘spike’.

FPR was justifiably adamant that the minutely small period of time that the ignition timing variance exceeded six degrees did not result in any performance gain.

“But we have accepted this penalty,” Frosty said.

“It is a body blow to everyone in the team, not just myself.”

It would have been Winterbottom’s third pole in a row, having taken Sandown and Bathurst’s top spot.

New VD

VAN Diemen continued its long tradition of unveiling its new car at the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch last weekend.

The new VD will be seen in action in the UK next year, but won’t reach Australia tracks until late next year.

The Australian contingent at the Festival had mixed results. See page 41 for details.

End of an era at Holden V8 SUPERCARS AN era will end at the conclusion of the 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series when Pemberton Publicity ends its three-decade PR involvement with Holden’s Motorsport program.

Tim ‘Plastic’ Pemberton, a veteran of the Lion’s motorsport campaigns since the 1970s, was told last week that his contract to provide PR and media

service to Holden would not be renewed.

“I’ll have to find something else, I suppose,” he said on Monday.

“I’m not certain what the future holds.”

‘Plastic’ was a long-time PR man and confidante to the late Peter Brock, and has played a role in most of the racing activities of the company, which is now expected to appoint an in-house person to fill the role.

13

news

Dirk Klynsmith

Formula 3 returns to Clipsal FORMULA 3 THE Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 will return to the Clipsal 500 support card next year.

The Gold Star category last raced on the Adelaide streets in 2004, pictured above.

The F3 season will kick-off at the A1 Grand Prix event at Eastern Creek in February 1-3, followed by Clipsal and a non-championship round at the Australian Grand Prix.

The remaining six rounds of the

championship will be run as the lead category on the Shannons Nationals bill – including a return to Symmons Plains for the popular F3 Superprix later in the season.

At this stage, category organisers are confident that as many as eight new Dallara F307 chassis could compete in next year’s championship.

This news comes on the back of a major prize scheme that will be introduced into Formula 3 next year.

The winner of the 2008 Championship

Jokers in the F3 pack?

THE final round of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship will go down to the wire at Oran Park in two weeks time – and there will be two wildcards in the pack.

Bart Mawer and Walter Grubmuller will join the F3 field for the titledeciding round and they could play a crucial role in the outcome of the 2008 title.

Leanne Tander leads the championship by four points over Tim Macrow, who is just three points behind Macrow.

So what role will Mawer or Grubmuller play?

“It’s an unusual situation for us,” Mawer said, who’ll drive Team BRM’s Dallara F304.

“The title is going down to wire and I’ll be the wildcard!”

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Dirk Klynsmith

FORMULA 3

“I want to end my own year on a high. It would be great to have a good end to the year so I can have a good springboard into 2008.”

Mawer has only completed a limited local F3 schedule this year, but won the last round of the championship at Symmons Plains.

At this stage, Mawer is trying to do a deal to get into the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.

Grubmuller has also only contested limited rounds in the Australian Formula 3 title this year, and will drive for Astuti Motorsport in the team’s F304 at Oran Park.

– GRANT ROWLEY

class (for 2007-model chassis) will win support from Opes Prime Stockbroking to compete in next year’s Formula Renault Asia Series (or $80,000).

For the National class (2004-model chassis), each entrant will have the option to use the Spiess-engine, after the F3 association struck a deal for the engines to be maintained locally, and at an affordable rate. The winner of the National class will receive $40,000 in prize money.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Wanless supports World Series Sprintcars SPEEDWAY WANLESS Environmental Services has been announced as the Naming Rights partner for this summer’s World Series Sprintcars Championship.

The 14 round series will see the nation’s top drivers battle it out in the 21st running of the popular championship. The series will be known as the Wanless World Series Sprintcars.

The Wanless name is synonymous with speedway and Australian motor racing. Former NASCAR and V8 Supercar racer Dean Wanless is the Managing Director. Father Ron was, of course, a speedway legend of the 60s and early 70s.

In other World Series news, Queensland based Morvale Motorsports have announced a two-car attack – with Mackay’s (Queensland) Morvale Group Managing Director – Dan Morton and his young charge – former Australian Sprintcar Rookie of the Year – 18-year-old James McFadden at the helm.

– MATT PAYNE

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Suzuki ARC talks intensify

JWRC Champions still looking at Australian Rally Championship, but ‘08 not a possibility AUSTRALIAN RALLYING

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SUZUKI Australia is still eyeing a factory entrance into the NEC Australian Rally Championship for 2009.

As reported exclusively in eNews #019, the Japanese car and bike manufacturer is looking at becoming involved in the local series sometime within the next two years. And rumours of Suzuki’s imminent involvement were intensified after the recent Sydney Motor Show, where an SX-4 WRC car and a Super 1600 Swift were both on display.

But Suzuki’s Public Relations manager Andrew Ellis says 2009 is still the realistic goal for a local program.

“Certainly showing the cars at the Motor Show and winning the Junior World Rally Championship has increased interest,”

said Ellis.

“But we spoke to Monster Tajima (Suzuki motorsport boss) in Frankfurt and next year is not possible, so it’s still an expression of interest.”

Suzuki Australia will again meet with Tajima at the upcoming car show in Tokyo, where the ARC program will be a topic of discussion.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Biaggi Back?

MOTOGP

Roberts thinking Ducati?

MOTOGP

TEAM Roberts may race a pair of semiworks Ducatis next season.

The English-based team, which has struggled for results and sponsorship with its Honda-powered KR212V this season, will part ways with the Japanese manufacturer after the season-ending round in Valencia next month. The deadline for the team to orders Honda engines for its bespoke bikes expired without action last week.

But the Ducati deal may come to fruition, dependent on a three-series deal involving the MGM Grand Casino and Resorts. The Las Vegas-based entertainment and accommodation giant is believed to be close to committing to a deal that would see it as a naming rights sponsor of not just Roberts’s team but teams in NASCAR’s

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Sprint Cup NASCAR and IndyCar Series.

“Until we have money in hand and we can get serious,” said Roberts Team Manager Chuck Aksland told Britain’s Motorcycle News, “until then, it’s just speculation about what can or can’t be. It would be great though to have a partner in MotoGP that wants to go forward with a team like ours.”

Should the MGM deal be confirmed, it is expected that one of the riders will be one of the Roberts brothers, Kenny Jr or Kurtis, who have shared the team’s single entry this season.

There is no word on a tyre supplier. While Ducati and its satellite Pramac D’Antin team both use Bridgestone tyres, Roberts has used Michelins in recent years and has a past history with Dunlop, the Japanese company currently without any MotoGP customers for 2008.

MAX Biaggi may be headed back to MotoGP, after it was confirmed last week that he would not race for the Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team.

The Italian veteran has split with the factory-backed team, which lost title sponsor Corona beer at the end of this season. It will now search for a new rider for the 2008 SBK. Biaggi, 36, has been mentioned in connection to the second seat at Team Gresini. Fausto Gresini has admitted having discussions with the four-time 250cc champion and is yet to announce riders or sponsors for next season.

One potential sticking point is that Biaggi and Honda parted on less-thangenial terms. In fact, Biaggi sat out ’06 largely because Honda management was angry at his outspoken comments.

But there have been significant changes within HRC of late, with both president Suguru Kanazawa and MD Satoru Horiiki now in other roles within the company, and new President Masumi Hamane seemingly putting performance as a priority ahead of politics.

news

. . . s i h t From d icklan Joel Str

... to this!

Joel Strickland

Australian Rally Championship privateer Glen Raymond to run ex-TRD Corolla for 2008 AUSTRALIAN RALLYING THERE will be three Toyota Corollas in the NEC Australian Rally Championship field next season, with privateer Glen Raymond recently buying a factory Group N(P) car from Toyota Racing Development.

The family team debuted in the ARC last year in an ageing Subaru Legacy, before upgrading to an Impreza STI for 2007. But next year he will make the switch the proven Toyota package.

“We wanted to keep progressing with out cars, so we thought why not pick the car that’s winning at the moment?”

Raymond told eNews.

“I just can’t wait to jump in the car and have some reliability. No matter what you do with the older cars, they are still old cars, so it’s frustrating when things go wrong. But hopefully now I can have a reliable run and see where we end up.”

The car has been purchased outright by the Raymonds, but will be supported

by Neal Bates’ TRD factory squad

throughout next season.

“The car will be exactly how they’ve run it, so there won’t be any problems there,” he added.

“So we’ll own and run the car as privateers, but they’ll supply the technical support to make sure the car is competitive.”

The car that Raymond will run has been TRD’s test car this season, and will be driven by Herald Sun motoring editor Paul Gover at the upcoming Rally of Melbourne.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Eli to miss home event AUSTRALIAN RALLYING

Joel Strickland

ELI Evans is the latest NEC Australian Rally Championship privateer to give the upcoming final round, the Rally of Melbourne a miss.

The younger brother of series leader Simon Evans has had an inconsistent, if fast, season, failing to finish four of the five rounds (three crashes

and one mechanical failure).

As a result he is being sidelined for RoM, joining Dean Herridge and Steve Glenney as non-starting privateers.

“I guess we understand the decision, but it’s still disappointing,” said Chris Murphy, Evans’ co-driver.

“This year we’ve shown we can go quick enough to get results, we just haven’t had the consistency. That’s why this is

disappointing, because it was our last chance to get a result.

“But it certainly isn’t Eli out of rallying.”

Evans and Murphy will run

the upcoming Mount Buller sprint, and are currently looking at options both here and overseas for 2008.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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5 Minutes with ...

KIMI RAIKKONEN

The world has a new Champion, but it isn't the man that everyone predicted ...

At the start of the season, could you have imagined that, even this morning, that you’d be the World Champion?

The start of the season was good! We were in the same position as we finished, so it was good, but for sure, we had some hard times, we had some reliability problems and we lost quite a lot of points.

At one point, people were saying that we weren’t in the championship anymore, but we showed them that they were wrong.

It was vital to overtake Lewis at the start.

It was. I expected to get past him at the start. We’ve had a very good start system since maybe the third or fourth race this year. I almost got into first place but we didn’t want to take too much risk between me and Felipe, so it was most important to get in front of Lewis.

How much did the team tell

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What were your feelings this morning when you came in?

For sure it was really like any other race for me. There were some people who said for sure I was going to win but I didn’t take them too seriously.

There were so many things that needed to go our way today but it all really happened on the first lap. We made a good start and certain things went in our direction and then after that we had a very good car, we were able to keep the pace as we wanted and try to just make sure we were one and two and hope that the rest went right for us.

For sure, I know this hurts for lewis. I know it's not a nice feeling Kimi speaks from experience about losing world titles you about the positions of Lewis and Fernando during the race and how much did you think about the points during the race?

Actually, I saw it on the first lap when Lewis went off and I think at the third corner I saw that Fernando got past him and then in corner four Lewis went off.

So I knew he had hurt his chances for a podium at that point, but they were telling me about his problem or something that had happened so, from that point, we knew we had a better chance now than we had had for many

races. For sure, I knew what was happening behind me but I knew we needed just to make our own race and try to be one and two and then it was not up to us just what was going to happen, so it was the main thing just to go the whole way.

And what were you shouting on the radio on the slowing down lap?

Not really shouting too much, just thanking the team, waiting to get the confirmation whether we won or not.

A really great feeling, it’s been many years ... two times

quite close but it never really happened and this year was looking like it was going to be one of those again – but it was a good job by us to come back and we did it in the end.

For sure, I know that this hurts for Lewis, because you’ve been working for a whole year and then when you lose it, it’s not a nice feeling and it’s a long time before you can try to win it again or even get close.

You never know.

You try to take it when it comes and it worked well for us this year. It was close but then that’s how it should be and we won in the end.

chat

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The days of old ... sutton-images.com

I HAVE a problem. I am old.

Well, not ‘old’ per se, but old enough. I can remember when Champ Cars blasted around the streets of the Gold Coast and, when they stopped and the drivers got out, there were genuine heroes to interview.

Like, Nigel Mansell. Love him or hate him, there was always a story to write.

Emerson Fittipaldi, a legend of the sport. Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. Alex Zanardi. Greg Moore. Juan Pablo Montoya.

Now? Well, Will Power provides a local angle, which is good. Sebastien Bourdais is F1-bound, but it is to a rear-of-grid team.

At least Zanardi and JPM were recruited to

opinion Phil Branagan Executive Editor Williams, which was a Contender then.

Now, to paraphrase Borat, not so much.

There are less cars and less stars in the Champ Car World Series, and that is a pity.

I must admit I did not go to the race this year; October is a busy month and three races in three weeks is a bit much. But 10 years ago, I would have found a way to make sure that I was there. Now, I am not fussed.

I am not bagging the series. These things always go in cycles. I am just saying,

things change. There is no doubt that, past all the hyperbole, the headline act at Surfers is now the V8 Supercars, not the Champ Cars.

But with the current CCWS deal running only until next year’s race, I hope that the Queensland officials negotiating the deal understand what they are looking to sign – a support race to the V8s. It’s a buyer’s market; many series would kill to be on the program, so let us hope that economics – demand vs supply – will come into the reckoning.

If we are going to have an Aussie take on a bunch of unknowns, A1GP might fill that role. Or, GP2 Asia. Champ Cars might as well, but only if the price is right.

Letters

Have your say, email us at mail@mnews.com.au. Keep letters to the point.

Picked a Winner When me and the boys were talking about who was going to win the World Championship in Brazil, I said Kimi straight away.

Okay I admit it … my version of events involved two crashed McLarens at the first corner, not Lewis’ weird gearbox thing and Fernando’s general lack of pace. But still, I knew Kimi would walk away with the title.

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And how ironic that Lewis and Fernando would finish on equal points! Talk about a bizarre year of Formula 1. If only there had been some racing that was as interesting as the politics …

Barry Kipling Brisbane, QLD Indy Fever Made my first visit to the Gold Coast meeting this year.

What a strange race, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.

It’s funny, you go to Bathurst and you are in an environment that attracts only the most dedicated of motor racing fans.

If you are going to sit on the side of a freezing hill for seven hours, you’ve got be a real fan.

But Indy is almost the opposite, with the majority of people there just for the party.

As a real fan, I was a little

worried at first. But then I heard the crowd figures and I thought ‘hey, if this brings people to the track then that’s good for sponsors, and happy sponsors means a strong series.’

Bruce Anderson Richmond, NSW The Standards Line I’m a V8 race fan with no affiliation to any particular team, but I do like to watch the

opinion

Who’s going to tell Kimi?

best drivers do their thing.

You do have to wonder about the standard of drivers in V8s when all the championship contenders bomb out at the same race, Surfers Paradise, when they know it’s a risky place.

The one exception to that is really Garth Tander. His problem was his car controller called for him to leave the pits when Murphy was there.

Maybe I’m being a bit unfair in commenting from the sidelines, but it seems to me that there were some silly mistakes, and lack of thought from a group of drivers on undoubtedly big salaries.

Roger Thomson Keilor, VIC (by email)

opinion

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WE could sense that F1 correspondent Joe Saward could hardly believe what he was emailing when, early on Monday morning (Sunday evening in Brazil) he let us know there was a Stewards Enquiry relating to the fourth, fifth, and sixth cars in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

A short while later came the news that it centred around the excessively cool temperature of the fuel being poured into the BMW and Williams cars. Already, other team engineers were confirming that there was a good 10+ hp in it. This could almost be like the top three home in the Melbourne Cup failing a swab …

Yup, it didn’t take long to figure out that, if this was for real, Lewis Hamilton would end up in fourth place – and we all know what that would mean!

Leading up to the weekend, we’d heard reports of an amazingly petty missive sent

Chris Lambden mNews Publisher to the McLaren team by the FIA, prior to the Chinese race, to ask the team to ensure that Hamilton didn’t break any rules by ‘celebrating too much’, if he won the title there. You sense that if Ron Dennis were to fart inappropriately, there’d be some sort of penalty!

Three hours after Saward’s first email came the followup. The, er, Stewards had, er, decided that, er, maybe the measuring equipment wasn’t up to scratch and that, er, maybe the baseline ambient temperature wasn’t as accurate as, er, it could be. The results of the Brazilian Grand Prix would stand. Even Saward seemed embarrassed.

I’m sorry, but I see a difference in approach here.

McLaren, on one hand, has been persecuted to within an inch (or should that be

The Nut Show With the higher level of quality drivers in V8 Supercars these days, the standard of entertainment has waned somewhat from years past.

Professionalism, precise skills and courteous and civil sporting manners have led to mundane viewing for the fans.

$100 million) of its life, yet two teams clearly gaining a performance advantage in a crucial race appear to be let off in a flash.

McLaren, and Hamilton, were already being gracious in defeat (and not too many

people mind Kimi at last getting his hands on the top trophy), but they had to, as they have now done, appeal those Stewards’ findings.

It places the FIA in an intriguing position, if it is to have any consistency …

eLETTER OF THE WEEK

enthusiastic amateurs found himself in the bunch!. Each could be provided with an unlimited number of cars to sacrifice, along with the ruling that they be permitted to jump into a fresh car once their previous chariot is melded into the Armco.

Sure repair bills will be up, and the professional set will be understandably livid. But really, it’s all about the show these days. And what a show these mobile chicanes could provide.

Matt Treacy matttreacy@bigpond.com

I propose the reintroduction of the random ‘nut-bag’ element: Cashed-up, inexperienced drivers with erratic, unpredictable moves, strange racing lines, moderate driving skills and a propensity for crashing into anything within 10 feet of themselves.

You know who I mean – remember the excitement when one of those

Horspwr Clothing is giving away a t-shirt each week for the most creative letter. Send yours to mail@mnews.com.au, or Motorsport News PO Box 7072, Brighton, Vic 3186 21

V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SURFERS PARADISE – ROUND 11

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race

Nobody’s Perfect The round win at Surfers Paradise could have gone to any number of drivers, as mistakes ruled and championship aspirations were hurt.

GRANT ROWLEY reports

Dirk Klynsmith

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F

IRST it was Mark Winterbottom, then it was Garth Tander, and then it was Jamie Whincup. It seemed nobody wanted to win the 11th round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Surfers Paradise last weekend.

But through the drama and carnage, Tander emerged as the round winner and, crucially, moved to second place in the championship and narrowed the gap to leader Whincup.

Tander won Race 1 and 2 at a canter, before all hell was unleashed in Race 3.

TeamVodafone’s Whincup seemed set to take the surfboard trophy, but a bid to make up spots after an earlier off through brake problems cost him, and many other, dearly.

“I made a mistake and I’ve only got myself to blame,” Whincup acknowledged.

Whincup was one of many in the wars in Race 3.

Tander copped a drive-through penalty for colliding with Greg Murphy in pitlane, dropping him outside the points. And, in some ways, this kind of helped him. When Whincup, James Courtney, Dean Canto and a myriad of others started the final race’s shenanigans, Tander was far enough behind to avoid it (and pick up the necessary spots to seal the round win).

“I felt the contact with Murph and I knew we were going to get a penalty,” Tander said.

“Murph apparently missed his pit bay altogether and the team wasn’t expecting him to be there. It was a small tap, but that’s the rule. We just had to fight as hard as we could.

Joining Tander on the podium were two men who haven’t been in the top three for quite some time.

Russell Ingall was second, his best result since Pukekohe last year.

The Enforcer was fast all weekend and, coupled with three awesome starts, Ingall was back at the front.

Ditto Jason Richards. The Tasman Motorsport team seemed to turn a corner at Surfers Paradise, with Richards taking his first podium since Bathurst in 2005.

Richards spent most of the weekend in and around his team-mate Greg Murphy. The only reason Murph didn’t take to the podium was the he missed the Tasman pit bay during his compulsory stop in Race 3 …

It turned out to be a good day for the Richards surname.

Steven won the final race with relative ease, after his weekend started on a low-note when he crashed in pitlane in Race 1.

Among the other championship contenders, Craig Lowndes had a meeting that he will no doubt rather forget.

Third in Race 1 was the highlight, before he had a slow and lazy spin at Falken turn in Race 2. He rejoined the race, still with a chance at a decent points finish, but a clash partially dislodged his rear bar and he was ordered by officials to have it taped up. Lowndes dropped from second to third in the standings.

Worse though for Rick Kelly. The reigning Champion was struck by Mark Skaife in opening practice, damaging his Toll Commodore. Repairs were made, but he and Skaife never seemed to have the outright pace over the weekend. Kelly fell to fifth in the title hunt and is now 35 points off Whincup with three rounds remaining.

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race

Dirk Klynsmith

Castrol's Edge: Steven Richards won the final race, finishing fifth for the round and moving to sixth in the points standings.

V8 Supercar | Round 11 SURFERS PARADISE Pos # Driver

Marshall Cass

Topsy turvey: Russell Ingall, above, put a good spin on a tough season with second overall. Like-wise for Jason Richards, below. Jamie Whincup, bottom, rued his Race 3 mistake, having shaded Lowndes.

Peter Bury

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Team/Car

16 Garth Tander Toll HSV Dealer Team 9 Russell Ingall Caltex Racing 3 Jason Richards Tasman Motorsport 88 Jamie Whincup Team Vodafone 6 Steven Richards Ford Performance Racing 51 Greg Murphy Tasman Motorsport 4 James Courtney Jeld-Wen Motorsport 888 Craig Lowndes Team Vodafone 1 Rick Kelly Toll HSV Dealer Team 8 Max Wilson WPS Racing 10 Jason Bargwanna WPS Racing 50 Cameron McConville Supercheap Auto Racing 17 Steven Johnson Jim Beam Racing 5 Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing 18 Will Davison Jim Beam Racing 34 Dean Canto Valvoline Cummins Race Team 2 Mark Skaife Holden Racing Team 33 Lee Holdsworth Valvoline Cummins Race Team 111 John Bowe Glenfords Racing 021 Shane Van Gisbergen Team Kiwi Racing 14 Simon Wills Team BOC 55 Steve Owen Autobarn Racing 26 Alan Gurr IRWIN Racing 12 Andrew Jones Team BOC 7 Shane Price Jack Daniel’s Racing 11 Jack Perkins Jack Daniel’s Racing 22 Todd Kelly Holden Racing Team 39 Owen Kelly Team Sirromet Wines 20 Paul Dumbrell Supercheap Auto Racing 67 Paul Morris Team Sirromet Wines 25 Jason Bright Fujitsu Racing

Q

r1

r2

r3

1 1 1 8 4 4 3 3 14 10 6 2 3 2 2 DNF 5 DNF 5 1 8 5 4 13 2 6 15 4 6 3 24 7 11 7 16 6 18 13 9 10 20 14 7 12 DNQ 18 10 9 7 8 13 DNF EXC 20 17 5 12 11 18 11 15 9 14 DNF 16 17 8 DNF 17 12 27 14 25 19 11 DNF 23 22 12 DNF 24 DNF 20 15 13 15 21 DNF 27 23 DNF 16 19 DNF 28 DNF 26 DNF 22 DNF 22 16 19 DNF 9 DNF 26 DNF 28 24 23 DNF 10 21 DNF DNF DNQ DNF 25 DNF 21 DNF DNS DNS

Dirk Klynsmith

Marshall Cass

Points: Whincup 501, Tander 492, Lowndes 473, R Kelly 466, T Kelly 324, S Richards 299, Skaife 283, Winterbottom 271, Ingall 263, Courtney 257, Davison 257, Johnson 221Murphy 208, J Richards 193, Holdsworth 175, Wilson 108, Owen 101, Radisich 96, Bargwanna 86, Canto 85.

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Hero and zero

Surfers Paradise Notepad n Tasman Motorsport turned a corner at Surfers Paradise.

After being Holden’s number one team at Bathurst two weeks ago, the Preston,-based team showed pace again, coming away with a podium for Jason Richards.

JR’s team-mate Greg Murphy was the faster of the two for most of the weekend, but a pitlane error saw Murph miss his pitbay.

Both team drivers Jason Richards and Greg Murphy complained of a lack of drive out of the corners compared to others, but all the signs point towards a strong end of season – and an even stronger 2008. n Russell Ingall’s podium place was the second in a row for Stone Brothers Racing, but at one stage, it looked the younger of the team’s drivers was going to be the best of the SBR men.

James Courtney qualified second and led the opening laps, only to have a slow pit stop, which dropped him down to an eventual sixth. Race 2 saw an engine problem and a drivethrough. He fought back for a galant fourth in Race 3. n Paul Cruickshank was his team’s car controller at Indy last weekend and, according to the team boss, his outfit’s best sprint race result was totally due to the efficiency of his team’s pit stops! The Glenford’s team had a solid result in Race 2, with John Bowe taking 11th, but a clash in Race 3 set him back.

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It all went pear-shaped for Frosty – fastest car in qualifying Practice 1: 1st, 0.26s faster than Tander Practice 2: 3rd, 0.21s faster than Tander

Skaife dropped him back down the order, significantly damaging the #5 Ford.

Qualifying: Banked two consecutive fastest laps to ensure pole, but post-race scruitnineering revelaed a minute engine ignition timing variance (see news pages).

He was excluded and started the meeting from the back of the field.

Race 2: 17th. After an early stop to fix loose body work, Frosty spent almost the entire race trapped behind Rick Kelly.

Kelly paid Winterbottom a visit post-race and the pair exchanged words about the number of times the cars contacted ...

Race 1: 20th. From the back of the grid, FPR put Frosty on a long strategy, passing more than half of the field in the process to be as high as 13th. A last lap clash with Mark

Race 3: 5th. Winterbottom avoided the laterace carnage to salvage fifth, his first pointsscoring finish for the weekend, in the final race.

Brakes and conditions FROM an engineer's perspective, the talking point of the meeting was brakes and track conditions.

With humid Queensland conditions, and the enclosed nature of the concretelined track, brake life was crucial. In particular, many drivers expressed concerns over brake life while tucked in the draft of other cars.

With Toll HSV’s disastrous brake problems at Bathurst put behind them, it was Triple 8’s turn to suffer from less-thanperfect stopping power.

Both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup acknowledged that there was an issue, but thought they were in a better situation than others.

“We were struggling a bit with brakes,” Whincup said.

“I’m not too such what it is – I’m not going to blame a manufactuerer for it – we’re just doing the best we can.”

Having brakes when needed wasn’t guaranteed, and neither was the staying on top of the changing track conditions.

With the Champ Cars laying down loads of rubber on the road, the state of the surface was hard to pick from session to session.

Round winner Tander said that his Toll team nailed it everytime.

“Our car was great all weekend, and the guys did a great job tuning it for the changing conditions,” he said.

race

Mistake free is the key

All the title contenders have speed, but the simplest of mistakes will rule them out

A

TYPICAL Gold Coast set of races has convinced me that this year’s V8 championship is going to be very close – and not necessarily decided by outright speed.

Clearly, the four contenders drive fast cars prepared by two excellent teams. And there’s very little between them in pure speed terms.

In the end, the title will go to whoever makes the least mistakes. But that’s not just the drivers – it includes engineers, team managers, car controllers, wheel-changers: everyone in

ANALYSIS Neil Crompton Commentator the individual car crews.

As it all gets closer, the winner will come from the crew which is managed the best, which doesn’t wilt under the pressure, which doesn’t make that simple error.

Winning the championship from here is a manmanagement exercise.

There won’t be one of the four championship leaders who won’t wake up this week

WINNING THe championship from here is a manmanagement exercise and think “if only” as they reflect on their Gold Coast weekend.

Each had an opportunity over the weekend to lock in a bit of a margin over the rest, and one-by-one – be it through driver error, or circumstances not directly under their control – it fell apart. In the end, not one of the contenders was in the top five cars to cross the line in the

final race.

So, from here on, it’s as much psychological as speed-related.

As someone who knew what he was talking about once told me, “Emotion is the enemy”.

The leader who manages to keep everyone calm and motivated is the one who will most likely end up with the 2007 championship trophy on his desk …

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CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES ROUND 13 – SURFERS PARADISE

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race

Two for the road

He’s done nearly everything during his stay in the Champ Car World Series and, on the Gold Coast last weekend, Sebastien Bourdais added a couple more feathers to his cap. A second ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN Indy 300 win, and a fourth straight CCWS title

John Morris/Mpix

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T

HREE things were broken at Surfers Paradise last weekend; The long-standing record of no repeat winners at the Lexmark Indy 300, Will Power’s Panoz DP01, and the slim chance that Sebastien Bourdais wouldn’t leave the Champ Car World Series as a four-time Champion.

Bourdais’ second win on the Gold Coast was achieved through simplicity, rather than pure speed.

The McDonalds team ran a three-stop strategy of fairly even stints, and Bourdais backed it up not putting a wheel wrong for the entire 1hr45m (or 61 laps). The result wasn’t only another Surfers win, but a fourth consecutive Vanderbilt Cup. “It’s just the success of an awesome group of people within that McDonald’s team,” he said.

“We started that relationship back in 2003. All the results really speak for themselves, you know, it’s how good these guys are. And they proved it today again when we came in the pits in third and came out first.

From there, it was in my hands to try to make it stick.”

Justin Wilson was second, and looked ‘on’ for the win mid-race. Having had some dramas at the start (his car selected neutral on the run to the first corner), the RuSPORT team short-filled the lanky Brit to give him a rocketing second stint. And it almost worked, Wilson passing Bourdais on Lap 38 and going on a charge. But it wasn’t enough, Bourdais’ more conservative strategy allowing him to re-take the lead at the last round of stops.

Third went to Bruno Junquiera, but it could have just as easily been Paul Tracy.

The Canadian had spun at the first corner, and decided to run a two-stop strategy. Unfortunately for him he ran out of fuel a lap from the end. That was good news for Junquiera, who was also on a twostopper and had made a shocking start (stalled on the line for the first ever Indy 300 standing start). But thanks to the nifty strategy he still found himself with a podium finish for the Dale Coyne team.

I

Dirk Klynsmith

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n the green and gold corner there was more heartbreak for Team Australia and Will Power. Having secured pole on Saturday, Power looked good to finally win on home soil. He backed up those sentiments by comfortably setting the pace through the first stint.

But the first stop would be his downfall, a mistake from his car controller sending him straight out into the path of David Martinez. The Team OZ car was bent, but it would be a whole lot more so on Lap 18 when, on a charge back to the front, Power clipped the back of Katherine Legge and hit the wall at Falken corner hard.

“Just a simple mistake,” said Power.

“The guy lifted the lollypop and sent me into another car, which bent the steering arm – then we’re on the back foot. From that point on, the steering wasn’t straight, and the suspension was slightly bent. So the car wasn’t behaving exactly how it should.

“A disappointing day, you know. Once again, the same as last year, we have the car, had everything in place to win the race, but just bad luck.”

race

Peter Bury

Marshall Cass

John Morris/Mpix

Power Down: The hopes of an Aussie victory at Surfers were once again washed away by a pit-lane incident.

Tougher than Monaco?

John Morris/Mpix

Just(in) missed out: A short-fuel strategy almost netted Wilson his first Surfers wins, top, but it wasn’t to be. Late inclusion Oriol Servia had speed, taking pole on Friday, above, while Power led the field at the start, below, but not the finish.

Marshall Cass

ITS no real secret that the concrete confines of the Surfers Paradise circuit is a pretty hostile environment, but is it a more challenging layout than Monaco, the holiest of street circuits?

According to Team Australia’s rookie Simon Pagenaud, yes!

The Frenchman has basis for comparison too. This was his first visit to the Gold Coast, and he has also raced on the streets of Monte Carlo back in his days in the World Series by Renault.

“It is the toughest track I’ve ever seen in my life – compared to this Monaco is a lot easier,” Pagenaud told eNews.

“It’s the way the walls are really close to the track.

And it’s really fast corners everywhere, like the chicane where you smash the kerbs and then get thrown to the

side walls. You have to be careful not to hit them, but you have to be fast at the same time.

Then the straights are very fast and then you have to brake on the uneven surface, which makes it very difficult.”

Being a Team Australia driver also meant Pagenuad was the most loved Frenchman in town.

“It’s called Surfers Paradise and I really think this is paradise! I wish I could come back with my friends and have some vacation because it really is a gorgeous area.

“I’m really impressed with how much support I’ve had from the fans. As a Frenchman I don’t feel like a stranger! So I want to say thank you to everyone for looking after me so well.”

No wokkas, Pag! – ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES | DRIVER'S points Bourdais 332, Wilson 270, Robert Doornbos 262, Power 234, Graham Rahal 220, Neel Jani 218, Junquiera 216, Pagenaud 213.

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FORMULA 1 ROUND 17 – INTERLAGOS

The outsider won the championship as a bizarre and exciting Brazilian Grand Prix unfolded as a day of disaster for Lewis Hamilton.

JOE SAWARD watched it unfold

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My name is Prost. Alain Prost: Just as the French ace did in 1986, Kimi Raikkonen went into the last round needing everything to go his way, and it did. Lewis Hamilton was off the road on lap 1 and never really recovered.

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Controversy, to the End

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I

T was Adelaide 1986 all over again as Kimi Raikkonen, the outsider in the World Championship, came through to win the title with an impressive victory at Interlagos.

A complex game of race-day maths, neardisaster for Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s lack of speed to challenge the red cars, gave the Finn 10 points and lifted him to a total of 110.

The win was not enough to ensure victory alone, because if Alonso had finished second he would have raised his total to 111 and he would have won the day.

“The only way for Kimi to win the championship was to win the race, have Lewis outside the top five, and me in second,” said Felipe Massa. “They needed my help and I was happy to help.”

Massa could probably have won the race on pure pace but there was a bigger picture to consider.

Massa’s second confined Alonso to third, which left him with 109 points, one fewer than Raikkonen.

And even that was not enough for the Spaniard to claim second place in the World Championship, because Hamilton drove the socks off his McLaren after two different problems at the start of the race and rescued a couple of points.

These had dropped him down to 18th place. Lewis did everything he could and made it through to seventh place, collecting two points to lift his total to 109 – he took second in the World Championship thanks to five second places compared to Alonso’s three.

All the spurious suggestions about McLaren’s supposed lack of equality were

answered perfectly. The drivers finished his engineers managed to talk him through on the same points. And you cannot argue a systems switch and everything kicked with that! into life again and he was off again and The best news of all, however, was charging - and charging hard. that the World Championship had been It was always going to be a long shot decided on the race track [or had it – see after that but Lewis was not going to give news pages!]. There was tension all the way up. to the flag because in those closing laps By lap 20 he had battled his way up to Nico Rosberg and Roberto Kubica fought 11th. The stops did nothing to change the a wild duel for fourth place. If the two had order up front but McLaren decided to collided and taken one another off - which punt, putting Hamilton on to a light fuel looked likely several times – Hamilton load and soft tyres - which had been a would have snatched the title back from problem for all concerned all weekend - to Kimi … get them out of the way and to minimise As it turned out Rosberg finally got ahead the damage that they would do. after three tries.

This worked well and it looked, on lap It had been day of surprises from the 35, as though Hamilton was still in with a start, when Raikkonen made a terrific chance. getaway and was alongside Massa at the However, the decision to light-fuel him first corner. Behind them, Hamilton was at the second stop, switching back to the boxed-in and had to lift momentarily to harder tyres, backfired. Any progress that avoid hitting the Ferraris – and that allowed was made was nullified by the third stop.

Alonso to squeeze down the inside and But the damage had been done in those he was alongside Hamilton as they went early laps – the 30 second gap to the vital down into the right-hander at the bottom fifth place was simply too big. of the hill. It was a pivotal moment. The Hamilton pressed on and finished corner turned to the left and the advantage seventh, hoping all the way to the flag that switched to Alonso as they headed off people ahead would drop out and give him down the straight. the points he needed.

“He took the slipstream,” said Alonso, “and Even after he had crossed the line, I protected the inside line and he braked Raikkonen did not know for sure whether too late on the outside and missed the he was the champion, until engineer Chris corner.”

Dyer ran him through the maths.

This brief ‘off’ dropped Hamilton from “I was not really 100 percent sure,” he said. fourth to eighth. It was a blow, but not a “There were people who needed to finish disaster. and we did not know 100 percent and it The disaster would come on lap 8 when took a long time to hear that we had finally Hamilton suddenly slowed. As car after car won it. I am really happy. It was an amazing passed him it looked like the game was day!” over. There was a glitch in the gearbox.

Indeed so. As a spectacle, they don’t any But somehow, in those mad 30 seconds, better than that.

The end of the road: Sakon Yamamoto and Giancarlo Fisichella had their races finish early when the Japanese driver ran into the back of the Renault at speed.

Neither driver was hurt.

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Team Willy lock

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Wings? Yep. Lewis cops it o Reliability?

IMPROVED pace and a terrific qualifying result came to naught as Mark Webber’s final GP of the season produced another early DNF. Both Red Bulls made the top ten, Webber qualifying a strong fifth – ahead of both BMWs, but that was as good as it would get.

He ran in fourth early on, then had to give way to Robert Kubica’s BMW, before the car ground to a halt on lap 15.

“It looks like a gearbox input shaft has broken,” he told us

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after the race.

“That’s a first – it never happens!”

Webber had headed into the race with a three-stop strategy in mind to combat expected tyre degeneration.

“Four laps in, we had the fronts graining – that eventually cleared just before the car stopped. I’d have left those fronts on for the next stint, which might have been quite interesting …

“Anyway, we definitely had improved pace – there’s just a lot of work to do over the winter on the reliability …”

“It’s been a crazy year, but I can’t really say that I’m gutted or that I feel I was robbed,” said Lewis Hamilton when the dust settled post-race.

“It was just unfortunate.

We’ve all of us had some bad luck this year; it’s just a shame that mine all seemed to come at the end of it.

“All along I said to myself that, whatever happens today, who would ever have thought that I would lead the world championship? It’s been a great feeling, having the possibility to win it. The team have done a fantastic job for me all season, and of course I wanted to win. But I guess

it wasn’t our turn after all this year. But I will come back next year stronger, for sure.

“The start wasn’t that great and I got boxed in behind Kimi, then Fernando came past me and I locked up a bit behind him and lost some ground. But I knew that we had the pace to get that back. But then when I was downshifting for Turn Four the gearbox just went into neutral. And I coasted for an awful long time. I still don’t know how, but I managed to coax it back into operation and get going again, but I had to be careful to manage the engine because the revs were very low.

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ks in fourth The battle for fourth place in the Constructors' title was of the few issues other than the Drivers' Championship to be resolved in Brazil.

Going into the race weekend AT&T Williams had a four point advantage over Red Bull Racing – but a rookie driver in the second car. And Red Bull looked strong, with Mark Webber fifth on the grid and David Coulthard ninth. Nico Rosberg was 10th and Kazuki Nakajima way back in 19th on the grid.

The Red Bull plan began to fall apart early on when Webber disappeared with a mechanical problem after just 15 laps.

Rosberg was charging and went further than many of the front-runners, which allowed him to run third for a lap. A similarly long second stint took him back up to third again and then he fell back into the middle of a frantic battle with the two BMW Saubers over fourth place.

For the last 13 laps this was a wild affair with Nico and Nick Heidfeld falling over one another at one point, allowing Kubica to take them both. Then Nico went after Robert and in the final few laps it provided a great battle as the two young chargers fought for fourth place.

It was not until the start of lap 69 that the matter was solved as Nico went ahead and put five points in the Williams bag to put the fight beyond doubt.

– JOE SAWARD

on the chin

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP | Round 17 INTERLAGOS Pos #

Driver

Team

Time

Qual

1 6 2 5 3 1 4 16 5 10 6 9 7 2 8 12 9 14 10 17 11 11 12 22 13 18 14 23 Ret 20 Ret 4 Ret 8 Ret 19 Ret 7 Ret 15 Ret 21 Ret 3

Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28:15.270 Felipe Massa Ferrari +1.493 secs Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes +57.019 secs Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota +1:02.848 secs Robert Kubica BMW-Sauber +1:10.957 secs Nick Heidfeld BMW +1:11.317 secs Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap Jarno Trulli Toyota + 1 lap David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault +1 lap Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota +1 lap Ralf Schumacher Toyota + 1 lap Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda +2 laps Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari + 2 laps Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda + 2 laps Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari +28 laps/Damage Heikki Kovalainen Renault +31 laps/Accident Rubens Barrichello Honda +31 laps/Engine Sebastien Vettel STR-Ferrari +37 laps/Hydraulics Jenson Button Honda +51 laps/Engine Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +57 laps/Transmission Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari +69 laps/Accident Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +69 laps/Accident

3 1 4 10 7 6 2 8 9 19 15 18 14 20 21 17 11 13 16 5 22 12

Fastest Lap: Kimi Räikkönen on Lap 66, 1m12.445s

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP | Driver’s points Points: Raikkonen 110, Hamilton and Alonso 109, Massa 94, Heidfeld 61, Kubica 39, Kovalainen 30, Fisichella 21, Rosberg 20, Coulthard 14, Wurz 13, Webber 10, Trulli 8, Vettel and Button 6, Schumacher 5, Sato 4, Liuzzi 3, Sutil 1.

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP | Constructor’s points Points: Ferrari 204, BMW 104, Renault 51, Williams-Toyota 33, Toyota 9, Red BullRenault 24, Toyota 13, Torro Rosso 8, Honda 6, Super Aguri-Honda 4, Spyker 1.

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“When that was happening, coming so soon after China, I just found myself thinking that for sure somebody didn’t want me to win the championship!

“Even after that, though, I refused to believe that it was over. The first time I thought that was when I saw the chequered flag. I never stopped thinking it was still possible.

“Our pace wasn’t bad today.

Not quite the same as Ferrari’s, but we could have been a little bit quicker with more luck.

“After my mistake in China it was tough to have this luck here, but that’s racing.

I’ve gone from GP2 to being

ranked second in the world and I have every confidence that in 2008 I will come back even stronger, do an even better job and win. I’ll be better prepared and I have the experience of the whole thing.

“At the end of the day I’m second in the world championship, and I beat my team-mate who is a double world champion. That’s a great result. I said I would be a winner, whatever happened today.

“I think that, apart from the start, I drove one of my best ever races today, so that’s why I say I don’t think I was robbed.”

– JOE SAWARD

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MOTO GP SEPANG – ROUND 17

Australia, 10 for 27 For the second week in a row, Dani Pedrosa took pole position for a MotoGP. And for the second weekend in a row, Casey Stoner made sure that was as far as Dani’s ambition went

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Kawasaki Racing Team

EFORE the Malaysian MotoGP, many suspected that Casey Stoner had the fastest rider/bike/tyre combination in the field, and that a third-straight pole position was the best Dani Pedrosa could hope for.

And that was the way things rolled at Sepang. Pedrosa held the edge at the lights but Stoner pounced immediately and led all the way to his 10th win of the season.

Stoner pulled away from the Honda pairing of Pedrosa and Melandri although he was never able to run away – but a 2s gap was enough to count at the end of the race. Predictably, Melandri’s Bridgestones were enough to get him to second over Pedrosa mid-race.

If Stoner’s win was good news for Aussie fans, Anthony West had much of the bad. Ant was pinged for the second time this season for a jumped start and, after showing plenty of speed in qualifying, was at the back of the field when he got back to business. In a race where none of the 20 starters failed to finish, 15th was the best he could do at the flag.

Kawasaki’s honour was upheld by Randy de Puniet in fourth while fifth was a

Rizla Suzuki

See ya: Casey Stoner led into the opening corner and that was the end of the battle for the lead, top. Valentino Rossi, above, started his race in heavy traffic but fought his way through to fifth. Dani Pedrosa let it all hang out in qualifying, below, and took his third successive pole position.

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great result for Valentino Rossi, who was ninth in qualifying (admitting that he was disappointed) and 11th at the end of lap one. But the Yamaha ace lived up to his reputation and picked his way through to fifth, less than 5s from Stoner, at the end of 21 laps.

Melandri’s team-mate Toni Elias was sixth, heading another Gresini vs Repsol HRC battle ahead of Nicky Hayden. The World Champion again looked racey but ran off the track while trying to

get by Elias on lap 13. Hayden recovered to ninth.

Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins fought all race, with the Aussie taking the honours in the all-Suzuki battle. The championship battle between the two and Melandri for fourth behind Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa is now down to five points, with only Valencia to come.

The 18th and final round of the 2007 world championship will take place at Valencia on November 4.

MOTO GP | RIDer’s points Points: Stoner 347, Rossi 241, Pedrosa 217, Melandri 174, Hopkins 173, Vermeulen 169, Capirossi 155, Edwards 121, Hayden 119, Barros 106.

Three times 800 equals fast Nobby Aoki did not get a great result in Malaysia.

But the significance of his race was very important Suzuki Racing

and Vermeulen were faster onto the straights than Aoki.

Ducati has its GP8 prototype sitting in the wings, but has pledged not to race it this season, and Valentino Rossi has already publicly tested two version of a 2008 Yamaha test model.

Oh yes, Stoner knocked off the 2006 Sepang lap record, set on a 990cc bike, a year ago.

These ‘little’ things are just getting faster.

Right Direction: Nicky Hayden was fast until he overcooked it, below, while the Suzukis of Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins had a private battle, below right.

JORGE Lorenzo will go to MotoGP as a two-time World Champion in the 250cc class after a steady performance at Sepang.

Andrea Dovizioso could have taken the title fight to Valencia but his hopes were dashed when, as the leader, Mika Kallio clattered him off the track on the penultimate laps. Dovi recovered to 11th but, even with Lorenzo playing a conservative role to take third, it was not enough to prevent the title being sealed a race early.

The winner was Hiroshi Aoyama. The flying KTM cleared out by 2.25s, to beat Hector Barbera with Lorenzo third ahead of Kallio, Tomas Luthi and Julian Simon.

247, De Angelis 215, Bautista 181, Barbera 166, Aoyama 154, Kallio 143, Luthi 126.

GABOR Talmacsi left Malaysia in a much better mood than he arrived with, after a dominant 125cc win.

The Hungarian was outsped by team-mate Hector Faubel in qualifying but once the lights went green, the only race to watch was for second. While Talmacsi won by almost 7s, KTM’s Tommy Koyama got the best of Faubel and Joan Olive.

Points: Talmacsi 262, Faubel 252, Koyama 186, Pesek 171, Corsi 164, Pasini 161, Gadea 144, Olive 131.

Points: Lorenzo 303, Dovizioso

Aprilia Racing

THERE were three Suzukis racing in Malaysia.

Along with John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen, Nobuatsu Aoki put his testing duties on hold for a few days to throw his leg over a 2008 protype GSV-R. The appearance of the Japanese veteran was most significant, despite the fact that he qualified only 15th and finished 13th in the race.

The impressive part was the engine; ‘Nobby’ was fourth fastest through the speed traps in qualifying, behind only Stoner, Pedrosa and Capirossi. And you can safely assume that Hopper

JORGE MAKES IT 2

Rizla Suzuki Racing

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NASCAR Media

Jimmie and Jeff fight it out NASCAR NASCAR points leaders Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon duked it out at Martinsville last weekend, with Johnson getting the upper hand in the race and moving within 53 points of Gordon in The Chase.

Johnson went under Gordon

with 44 laps to go, and worked on building a good lead.

Meanwhile Ryan Newman caught and passed Gordon, making the two-lap overtime a three-way fight. But Johnson held on from Newman and Gordon for his third straight Martinsville win.

“This thing’s not over yet,” said Johnson, despite cutting into

Gordon’s Chase lead.

Gordon said his Hendricks team-mate was just too strong.

“Jimmie was strong, we were strong, and he got the best of us,” he said.

Former open-wheel stars Jacques Villeneuve and Dario Franchitti both crashed out of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race. Villeneuve was running

12th when he was wiped out of the race, while Franchitti, on his NASCAR debut, was 15th at the time of his race-ending crash.

THE CHASE: Gordon 6055, Johnson 6002, Clint Bowyer 5940, Tony Stewart 5806, Carl Edwards 5767, Kyle Busch 5765, Kevin Harvick 5686, Denny Hamlin 5681, Jeff Burton 5649, Kurt Busch 5635, Martin Truex Jr 5608, Matt Kenseth 5593.

Sandgropers show the locals how it’s done at PCR SPEEDWAY WEST Aussie Ken Sartori took out a superb A-Main victory at the Parramatta City Raceway last Saturday night, beating home fellow WA hard-charger Ryan Farrell with the first Sydneysider home Ian Loudoun in third.

After winning the dash, Farrell jumped into the early lead in the 30-lap A-Main.

But former PCR track champ Robbie Farr quickly forged into second position and challenged Farrell for the lead.

With Sartori in third position the three

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battled until mid-race, where Sartori blasted into the lead in traffic. Farr and Farrell continued their fight until Farrell took control of second placing.

Running a consistent fourth placing most the race was Queenslander Peter Thorley, while a late race battle between Adrian Maher, Loudoun and Scott Darley was a highlight of the night.

Thorley finished fourth with Maher and Darley making up the top six.

The night saw a couple of roll-overs with Craig Brady making it three out of three this summer, crashing out early

in the race, while both Bruce White and Gary Rooke flipped over in the feature.

Max Dumesny was out early in qualifying and set a disappointing time, having to come through the B-Main.

Unfortunately Dumesny finished back in sixth and was a non-starter in the main.

16-year-old rookie speedway kart racer Taylor Johnson took out a very impressive D-Main win at her third only Sprintcar meeting. Moving up in the C Main, she crashed heavily in Turn 3 ending a brilliant night.

– GREG BOSCATO

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Callum wins Festival, Aussies fail to finish FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL CALLUM McLeod is the unofficial Formula Ford World Champion after winning the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch last weekend.

But it wasn’t such a happy story for the four Australians taking part in the prestigious meeting.

As expected Ash Walsh led the Aussie

charge, finishing seventh in both his heat race and the semi-final.

However he wasn’t able to take a result away from the final, retiring on the third lap when his Spectrum’s fuel pump failed.

“It wasn’t a great weekend for us,” he said.

“We struggled for most of the weekend to get a fast set-up. The happiest I was with the car was in the first few laps of the final. I made up a few spots and it felt

really racey.

“But I came out of Turn 1, I put my foot down and there was nothing.”

Josh Scott also failed to finish the final after crashing out. Neither Nikki Templer or Jake Chapman made the final.

Walsh and Scott are testing at Snetterton tomorrow (Wednesday), and will be returning to Australia next week before the penultimate AFFC round in Tasmania.

Oz lads on Japan podium KARTING RYAN Sanderson and Toby Pope finished on the podium at the Toyota All-Japan SL Kart Final on Yamaha’s Tsumagoi Circuit over the weekend.

The Melbourne duo competed against 50 other drivers aboard identical Birel/ Yamaha Clubman karts. However, racing an unfamiliar chassis on unfamiliar tyres, both struggled with set-up and qualified outside the Top 10, Sanderson 15th and Pope 38th.

A first lap incident put Sanderson out of contention in his heat race meaning he missed the cut for the Division 1 final.

“Two guys collided on the inside of me

in turn two and took me off the track” he explained. “That’s what happens when you qualify badly.”

Pope kept out of trouble in his heat but just missed the transfer by two positions. This put him off the second row for the Division 2 Final, which he led for a number of laps before falling back to third. Starting fifth, Sanderson finished second and was catching the leader.

“We finally found a good set-up, and I did the fastest lap of the race, but we just ran out of laps.”

New Zealand’s Matthew Wooding charged from the back (due to an accident in his heat) to take seventh.

– MARK WICKS

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Brad wins ARC title AUSSIE RACING CARS

Marshall Cass

BEN McCashney may have won the round, but Brad Ward won the Aussie Racing Cars Series after a chaotic final round on the Gold Coast last weekend.

A dominating final race performance by McCashney saw him break the lap record on the final lap in his three-second win over Brad and Nick Lowe.

“Once the safety car pulled in I pushed as hard as I could and it didn’t take long to make a race winning break,” McCashney said.

“It is such a great way to end the year with two round victories which saw us climb to second in the series behind Brad.”

Paul Morris clinched second overall for the meeting ahead of Nick Lowe in the BOC Falcon.

But this weekend belonged to Brad Ward, who won his first series title – although it didn’t come easily as he brushed the wall on the final lap of Race 1, dropping several positions, and then finished 10th in the final two races.

Entering the round third in the series,

Paul Kemal did his best to clinch an unlikely series victory by winning the opening two races. A final race blunder saw him retire after making contact with the wall down the back straight, breaking his suspension and ending his title aspirations at the same time.

James Ward was a mere point behind Brad going into the final round, but threw away his title chances with a spin in the final race that resulted in his retirement.

– AARON SHAW Final Points: B Ward 327, McCashney 320, J Ward 315, Kemal 312, N Lowe 302.

Johnson streets ahead V8 UTES

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Dirk Klynsmith

GRANT Johnson took two race victories to win the sixth round of the V8 Ute Series at Surfers Paradise last weekend.

Johnson won the first and third races to claw back eight vital points on championship leader Jack Elsegood.

“The Holdens struggled here last year,” said Johnson, “so we didn’t expect to win the round, so this round was really an unexpected bonus for our title aspirations.”

Johnson qualified second behind Elsegood, but won the start and then the race, while behind him Layton Crambrook fought hard to finish in second with Kim Jane home in third.

In Race 2 George Miedecke started in fourth, but took

the lead on the second lap by passing Steve Hodges.

Miedecke then romped away to take his first ute win, with Ray Sidebottom finishing in second and Ryal Harris in third.

“What better place to do it than at Indy?” Miedecke asked.

“It’s such a fierce track, so to take the first win here is great.”

At the start of Race 3 Crambrook and Harris headed the field but tripped over each other into the first corner, giving Johnson the lead – a position he would never relinquish.

Elsegood pushed him hard all of the way, but Elsegood could not find a way by through the tight streets and finished second, while Gary Baxter finished in third.

– DARIUS KOREIS

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Dirk Klynsmith

Davo wins the battle, Reynolds wins the war!

CARRERA CUP

Dirk Klynsm ith

DAVID Reynolds is the 2007 Carrera Cup Champion after a consistent showing on the streets of Surfers Paradise last weekend.

Reynolds came into the round needing only to be in touch with title protagonists Alex Davison and Craig Baird to seal the deal, a task he proved he was more than capable of in the first race where he finished sandwiched between Baird and Davison.

Having finished fourth in the second race, Reynolds needed only to place within nine positions of Baird to beat him to the title.

But the pressure was too much for Baird, who spun after a restart while leading and dropped to 12th. When the race finished under Safety Car Reynolds was third, more than enough for the title.

“It feels pretty good I suppose,” said Reynolds.

“At the start of the year I set out to beat

these guys, and it’s all paid off right about now.”

Davison, the other driver in the title hunt, was disappointed with the outcome, despite winning the final race of the season after finishing fourth and second in the first two races.

“If I’d won all three races and he’d finished fourth, which he did, I would have won it,” he said. “So it wasn’t a slim chance. But you don’t win a championship in one race meeting.

David has done a fantastic job all year and deserves the trophy.”

But the real surprise package around the Gold Coast was Marcus Marshall, the former Team Australia driver winning the opening two races and placing second in the final to secure his first round win in the category.

“I’ve got a score to settle here after the last couple of years,” said Marshall. “[A round win] has been coming all year with speed, it’s just that I’m a couple of

years behind these guys, so everywhere I go I’m exploring.”

Rodney Jane won the TAG Heuer Challenge for the second consecutive season, while the TAG round winner on the Gold Coast was James Koundouris – ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN Final Points: Reynolds 1170, Davison 1138, Baird 1107, Marshall 879, Fiore 655.

Tate win close call at Calder Park VMRC THE penultimate round of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship held at Calder Park last weekend saw youngster Justin Tate win the Porsche 944 round on a countback over the experienced Dennis O’Keefe.

Dallas Crane won the final

two HQ races cementing round victory from Brian Blackwell and Mark Buckell.

Tyrone Smith won the Under 2litre round after scoring victory in the final race. Barry Megaw won the opening three races, but failed to finish the final.

David Frith clinched Formula Vee round victory from Andrew McLaughlin by a single point.

Ford Mustang driver Geoff Taylor dominated the Historic Touring Cars by winning all four races ahead of Ray Challis in his Torana.

A last lap failure ended Corey Ludeman’s chances of round victory in Race 3 of the Saloon Cars after he opened with two race wins.

Kevin Wright took full

advantage of Ludeman’s DNF and won the round from David Heath.

Ian Cowley clinched Super TT round success after winning four of the five races. George Vidovic was second overall while Race 4 winner Bob Gill finished third.

Full coverage in Trackside insert in Nov 20 issue of MNews.

– AARON SHAW

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rear of grid

Leading the way ...

C

punter@mnews.com.au

Brought to you by the NGK Rally of Melbourne

Want a couple of tickets to NGK Rally of Melbourne (Nov 9-11)?

We’ve got three pairs to give away – just email your details to comp@mnews.com.au (click here) and you’re in the draw. See the stars of Australian rallying up close and personal.

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OP this, V8-heads – the Punter has a sponsor!

It ain’t that hard – the NGK (note the plug – in both senses) Rally of Melbourne wants to associate itself with this widely-read column for a week or two.

I can see their logic – why waste dollars on plain advertising when you can associate with an oracle, a man of the people. Jesus, I sound like Kevin Rudd ...

It’s funny, once Bathurst is over you tend to think that the year is drawing to a close – then you get a weekend like this last one: V8s and Champ Cars at Surfers, MotoGP, a Formula 1 decider and (if you were remotely interested) a World Cup Rugby final, just to make the eyes droop that little bit more.

Amid all that was a fair bit of good news: 1. Poms can find new ways to lose just about anything; 2. People who think they’re going to win the V8 championship are all capable of dropping their bundle; 3. Red Bull (like the Poms) – yet another way to provide Mark Webber with a DNF and, more seriously, 4. Casey Stoner – how about that for a superstar. Title locked away, home GP won, but still sticking it all on the line.

I finally got to bed at 5am Monday morning, quite happy that Kimi Raikkonen had won the F1 championship (anyone other than that miserly Alonso) after the rookie blew it – and then I wake up to find there’s huge drama going on that might rocket Hamilton up to fourth and steal the title back from Kimi.

One heck of a weekend – but just one question for Ten. Why, when the GP would be ‘live’ at 2am would you run Home Shopping crap and delay it to 3am? That baffles me. It also cost me an hour’s sleep.

Odd Spot White men can jump ...

Paris Charles

THIS is not a photo of Michael Jordan, but yes, he does eat Weet-Bix. South Australian Jamie Hendy is jumping with enthusiasm as he counts down the days to the new speedway season. Hendry will be entering into his third year of competition and can’t wait to hit the track with new and improved equipment.

The team have updated their equipment and will be using David Murcott’s ex Maxim from last season.

Hendy is obviously excited about the news, but maybe a career in basketball would have suited him better ...

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