Motorsport eNews Issue 84 - December 9-15, 2008

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Issue No. 084 9 – 15 December 2008

E S I R P R U S

R A T S I KIW N O S E MOV

s y a W g n i n n Whi en v8 crown d ai M ures c Jamie Se

Editorial Editor: Grant Rowley grant@mnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Phillip Mahoney philm@mnews.com.au Executive Editor: Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au

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

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MD / Publisher

Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au

Contributing Writers F1: Will Buxton, Mark Glendenning, 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

Photographers

Issue No. 084 | 08 – 14 Dec 2008

news 4 Northern Exposure 6 Honda Wander ...

11 Junior Johnsons 14 Indy dials 911 17 500km minimum 21 Musical Chairs

chat 24 5 minutes with ... opinion 26 Bond

We hope JR likes country air ... away from Formula 1!

Is DJR headed back to FV8?

Porsche 911, that is ...

Canto sticks to enduros Marketing switch at Toyota Paul Morris

27 Lambden

Farewell Oran Park Farewell Oran Park/Skaifey

34 FV8s 38 Formula Ford 44 World Rally

Whinners loses, Tander wins Steve O-Win A-Laska keeps his cool Loeb wins the hard way

race 28 V8 Supercars trade 54 Classifieds

John Morris/Mpix

Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/Mpix, AF1 Images, James Smith, Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn, Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, Geoff Gracie, Ash Budd, Paris Charles, Neil Hammond, Joel Strickland, Mike Patrick (UK)

Australasian

The ‘A’ Team

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

One of the last classic two-wheeler Oran Park shots we’ll ever get to run. If they get rid of Barbagallo, all of our pics will have the cars on – gulp – four wheels!

Pause for thought opinion Grant Rowley Editor eNews LUCAS Dumbrell’s accident in Friday’s Formula Ford was the most violent race car incident I’ve ever seen live.

The force with which his Mygale rolled was frightening. I feared for his life in the moments after the crash.

Thankfully, Lucas survived, although it seems he has sustained some serious and permanent injuries.

How could the chances of an incident like this be reduced? Clearly, Dumbrell didn’t see the Safety Car boards and the yellow flags as he continued to race at speed. Nothing can be done about that now. However, with pit-to-car communication, perhaps Dumbrell (and the rest of the field) would have known sooner that the track was under a caution period.

It has been a long-standing rule in Australian Formula Ford to have no radio communication with the team behind pit wall. One of the reasons it hasn’t been introduced is to keep costs down. To be fair, it has been considered before, but never introduced.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider. Or maybe modern technology could result in flashing yellow dashboard lights in all cars?

Formula Ford is our country’s most recognised development category – turning rookie drivers into future V8 Supercar and Formula 1 drivers. All top-line car racing categories uses pitto-car communication. Having your engineering chatting in your ear as you ping down the straight at 250kmh is part and parcel of motorsport. Why doesn’t Formula Ford – a category that develops future race drivers – use this, or warning light, technology?

Racing drivers crash. At the end of the day, Lucas Dumbrell’s crash is the one in a hundred that produces a serious outcome. Despite all the precautions, motor racing is dangerous. It isn’t a time for knee-jerk reaction, but it may well provide the impetus for thought.

Jason Richards set

Tasman Motorsport driver looks Albury-bound for the 2009 V8 Supercar V8 SUPERCARS JASON Richards is set to drive for Brad Jones Racing in 2009.

The Kiwi, whose contract with Tasman Motorsport concludes at the end of the year, is likely to be drafted into the Alburybased squad under a multi-year contract following a deal which has been brokered between BJR and Holden Motorsport.

eNews understands that all parties concerned have agreed to the new arrangement.

Richards declined to comment as eNews closed for publishing, but Sprint Gas Racing co-owner Tim Miles clarified the situation.

“We are working through things with Jason,” said Miles, “and we hope to have things settled by the end of the week.”

Horrific crash injures Dumbrell FORMULA FORD FORMULA Ford racer Lucas Dumbrell has sustained permanent spinal injuries following an unfortunate accident at Oran Park on Friday.

The 19-year-old ran over the back of another car as the field slowed to observe a full-course yellow, and the Autopro Mygale was launched into a series of violent rolls, from Oran Park’s famous ‘Flip-Flop’, down to the outer wall at the final turn.

While many a Formula Fordster has emerged from significant shunts unscathed, Dumbrell was less fortunate. He remained conscious, but had to be cut from the car and was taken to Liverpool Hospital, where an overnight operation assessed spinal damage.

On Sunday, came confirmation that Dumbrell’s spinal chord had been

“compromised, but not severed”, but that further tests and recovery time would determine the extent of any permanent injury.

Dumbrell’s family met with specialists on Monday afternoon and, as eNews readied for release, updated his condition: He remains in an induced coma in Liverpool Hospital, following surgery to repair the C5 vertebra, which was deemed a success.

Lucas will be transferred to Melbourne’s Austin Hospital as soon as is practicable for further treatment, although we understand the prognosis is not good.

“He just turned 19 last week and he’s had his life changed and it’s shattering,” elder brother Paul told us late Monday.

“My thoughts are only with him. He’s one of the strongest young kids I’ve ever met and I’ll be by his side the whole way …”

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t for Brad Jones Racing

r Championship Series Richards’ likely arrival at BJR will see Andrew Jones bumped out of the team’s regular line-up, with Cameron McConville retaining his seat in the #14 car.

The development will end two decades of having a Jones drive a BJR car. Brad and Kim Jones set up their team for the 1989/90 AUSCAR season, and Kim’s son first joined

the team in 2003.

Richards has been a regular fixture in the V8 Supercars circus since 2001 when he drove for Team Kiwi Racing. He moved to the Team Dynamik in 2003 before switching to Tasman Motorsport in 2004 where he has been ever since.

‘JR’s’ best results have both come at Bathurst where he finished

second in 2005 with Jamie Whincup and second this year with Greg Murphy.

Richards finished the 2008 V8 Supercar season in 17th position, while Jones finished back in 24th.

It is likely that Jones will retain a role within the BJR camp as an endurance driver.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Dirk Klynsmith

JOHNSON REMAINS A JIM BEAMER V8 SUPERCARS

Marshall Cass

John Morris/Mpix

STEVEN Johnson will remain at Jim Beam Racing in 2009.

After months of speculation regarding his future at Dick Johnson Racing (the famous team his father part-owns), Johnson is set to sign with the team for at least one more season.

A formal announcement regarding Johnson’s re-signing is expected in the near future.

Johnson has been a full-time part of DJR since 2000 when he replaced his retiring father, but his future with the team became clouded when the shock news was revealed (by eNews) that James Courtney had been

signed for the team for 2009 and onwards.

With team-mate Will Davison headed for HRT, Johnson’s position might have seemed secure, but the new shared ownership, and commercial considerations, have meant a delayed decision.

The 34-year-old has competed for DJR in every round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series since 2000, winning two rounds (both in 2001).

After finishing fourth overall at the Clipsal 500 this year, the next few rounds of this season were frustrating. However, a strong second half of the year (including the introduction of the new D-

spec Ford engine by the team at Bahrain) saw better results come through in the final three rounds, elevating him to 10th place for the season.

– GRANT ROWLEY

The Dreams is Over FORMULA ONE

PRODRIVE may make it onto the grid at Albert Park in March after all, as the British company emerges as a potential saviour for Honda’s Formula 1 team.

Following last week’s bombshell that the Japanese company was pulling out of Grand Prix racing with immediate effect, former BAR and Benetton team principal David Richards may have his hopes of rejoining the sport restored.

Following the collapse of his plans to run a McLaren-Mercedes Benz ‘customer’ next season, the Brackley, UK-based Honda team looks to be a prime asset to allow him to return to GP racing.

An emotional Honda CEO Takeo Fukui confirmed the news last Thursday in Tokyo, the company left with little choice after the recent sales downturn that has impacted the motor industry on a world scale.

With sales down by more than 25 percent, Honda

is set to shut its Swindon, UK factory in the first quarter of 2009, while cutbacks are being made in other facilities around the world.

The recent slump has led to a drop in Honda’s share price of more than five percent. At the same time, the company’s Formula 1 team, which runs without commercial sponsorship, has struggled to be competitive in the sport, in spite of an 800-strong workforce working on a budget estimated to be in excess of $400 million.

Honda Racing CEO has confirmed to the BBC that the team has “had three serious

But will Prodrive play saviour?

people come and suggest they’d like to buy the team” but declined to name them. Fry, who became Managing Director of what was then BAR F1 in 2002, previously worked for Richards at Prodrive.

One matter that will have to be settled prior to any deal is the status of Jenson Button. The Briton recently signed a long-term deal to stay with the team and prior to any news about whether he stays with the team, there will have to be an amicable settlement between Button and his management, Honda and the team.

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USA and MotoGP OK FORMULA ONE

Webber and Punter!

FORMULA ONE MARK Webber expects to back behind the wheel of a Red Bull F1 car on February 10.

Following his mountainbike accident during the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, the Aussie has spent the past few days recuperating in Melbourne and visiting a specialist (shared with cricketer Ricky Ponting – the two caught up on Friday to swap recovery tales!) and will now spend a few days at home with his parents, in Queanbeyan, before flying back to Europe.

sutton-images.com

DESPITE its Formula 1 withdrawl, Honda remains committed to its other motorsport activities.

The company will maintain its IndyCar and Sportscar programs in the USA. A written statement released by Honda Performance Development said, “It is unfortunate that current global economic challenges have necessitated the cessation of Honda’s participation in Formula One racing. However, Honda’s U.S.based motor sports activities are expected to continue in 2009 . . . and beyond.”

Its MotoGP effort will not be diminished.

“The decision to pull out of F1 does not affect the other forms of motorsport Honda are involved in,” Honda Europe spokesman Paul Ormond told autosport.com.

“We will be looking at reducing our costs, as we’re sure other teams will be doing too, in MotoGP and other motorcycle activities.”

Five Questions ...

FORMULA ONE If Prodrive buys the team, what will it do for engines?

It will run a third-party engine, and it is not hard to figure out where it would get it. Team principal Ross Brawn has strong links to Ferrari, which recently ended a customer engine deal when Force India did a deal with Mercedes Benz. Brawn has said that re-engineering the 2009 Honda to accept a different engine would delay the launch of the car by about a month. No huge deal.

sutton-images.com

What about sponsors?

Tricky. David Richards had a deal to back his McLaren B-team with the Baugur Group, the Icelandic financial group that recently struck financial trouble.

But Prodrive recently sold a 40 percent stake to Kuwait-based TID, so Richards is cashed-up in the short-term and now has allies in the Middle East.

Does Jenson Button have options?

Yep. He can sit on his hands and collect Honda’s big cheques, get real with his salary demands and drive for whatever the team is called post-Honda or drive something else.

Toro Rosso has offered him a test next month but JB may have to race for less money that he is accustomed to. A bit early to run the ‘Jenson for Bathurst’ headlines, though.

“Things are going about as well as they could,” Webber told us at the weekend.

“If things continue like this, I would expect to throw the crutches away by the end of January and I plan to be in the car when the February 10 test starts.

“That means I will only have missed two days of testing that I was scheduled to do. All things considered, I’ve been lucky – it could have been a lot worse.”

One event that Webber will miss is this weekend’s Race of Champions, where he was scheduled to pair up with Troy Bayliss. sutton-images.com

What if nobody buys the team?

Fire sale time. Other GP teams will pick off the staff, the factory will become something else and life will go on – until the next team wanders towards the brink.

What about the other teams?

Toyota has said that it is staying put.

BMW and Mercedes Benz are watching their sales plummet, but both look secure for now. People are still guzzling Red Bull and Indian beer in big numbers and Ferrari is Ferrari.

BRIEFLY...

n Spare a thought for

the hard-working lads from Dunlop in next week’s V8 Supercar tyre testing.

Triple Eight and Paul Morris Motorsport will test at Queensland Raceway next Monday, while HRT and Jack Daniel’s Racing will get to work at Winton (1450km south) the following day.

Among the tyres to be tested will be the new, faster ‘option’ tyre proposed for future use. n Ben Rainsford will be the new chairman of Rallycorp, the commercial rights holder for the Australian Rally Championship.

The South Australian businessman will replace Steve Ashton, who is stepping back after holding the position since 1999. n Rob Storey will log some more V8 Supercar miles this week when he tests for the Sieders Racing Team at Oran Park on Tuesday.

PMM Star Car?

Morris considers Star car after he confirms reduced role V8 SUPERCARS

Morris is keen to start think “outside the square” for his PAUL Morris has stepped team’s future. down from regular V8 “That’s something we’ve Supercar competition – and come across and we’ve got has some innovative plans for that idea out there,” Morris said his team’s future. about the ‘Star Car’ opportunity.

The wily team owner and V8 “It something they do in Supercar board member has NASCAR really well and I think not confirmed who will replace it’s something we’ll definitely him in the #67 Supercheap explore.

Auto Racing Commodore VE in “You’ve got to start doing 2009 after an initial agreement things a little differently and with Jonathon Webb went if you could sell sponsorship sour before Oran Park. While around that idea then I think it Webb remains a contender could work. for the seat, Morris outlined a “But I’ve got no one at the radical plan to use the entry moment, and I’m not in any as a ‘Star Car’ – offering drivers rush. We’ve got until March from Australia and abroad to next year and we’ll just go compete in one-off rounds of through it with Russell (Ingall), the series.

Les (Small), James (Small) and Many racing championships Brad (Wischusen) and work out around the world have a similar what’s best. deal, including NASCAR, and “It depends which way we

go and what shapes out. I’ve spoken to some key guys in some other teams as well.

There’s a fair bit of interest out there.”

Another addition to the Morris team next year will be at least two Fujitsu V8 Supercar entries, using the team’s current VE Commodores.

“Yeah, we want to run the Fujitsu Series and use the two current cars that we’ve got there,” he said.

“We’re talking to a couple of guys at the moment about that.

“The series is obviously beneficial. A lot of guys are running Walkinshaw cars, but our car won that series this year. I think we did a pretty good job with that and Steve Owen did a great job, and so did that team.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

SBR/Courtney split confirmed V8 SUPERCARS

STONE Brothers Racing has confirmed one of the sport’s worst-kept secrets – that James Courtney is leaving the team.

A simple press release on Monday outlined the split, effective after the team’s final corporate ride day on December 17.

Both SBR and Courtney will not, according to the statement, be making any announcement regarding their future plans until the New Year.

However, as eNews reported some weeks back, Courtney will join Dick Johnson Racing on a three-year deal, while his seat at Stone Brothers is expected to be filled by Alex Davison.

Dirk Klynsmith

n Asian Formula 3 Championship team Eurasia Team Goddard is planning on running two cars in next year’s Australian Formula 3 Championship.

The team debuted on Australian soil at the Grand Prix this year as part of the support car. No drivers have been named yet.

Peter Bury

n Chris Atkinson has been released from hospital and sustained serious injuries after being involved in a high-speed accident during the final round of the World Rally Championship in Great Britain.

‘Atko’ crashed on the first day of the wet and icey event and was airlifted to hospital for precautionary tests.

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FPR’s third car hunt

Ford’s factory team wants to remain a three-car outfit after the demise of FRSR he said.

“It’s the right thing for us to do. We have some fairly big FORD Performance Racing is overheads, but it’s not just that, pushing to remain as a threeit’s a good way of grooming car team for 2009. younger drivers, engineers, The factory Ford team is new sponsors to the sport. searching for a licence, driver “We are interested in running and sponsor to retain itself as a third car, whether that’s three car outfit after the shock another customer or us news that Jim Morton would actually getting hold of a third sell his Ford Rising Star Racing license at the conclusion of this license. That’s all yet to be determined. season.

“Jim made the announcement FPR Team Principal Tim eight days ago that he was Edwards remained optimistic pulling out, and that caught that he’d be able to get the right deals in place for his team us unaware. I’ve got staff and infrastructure to run a third car to continue into 2009 with little staff and structure change. if we can.”

In the frame for the potential “The reason we increased to drive is Andrew Thompson, three cars two years ago was that we felt that it was the right who was close to a deal with business model, and we still do,” Morton for 2009 until his

V8 SUPERCARS

Marshall Cass

decision to pull out of team ownership.

If a third licence and driver is confirmed, it is certain that the entry would start the season in a brand-new FG Falcon.

In other FPR news, an

announcement regarding the team’s 2009 sponsorship package would be locked in soon. Both Castrol and Orrcon’s current deals came to an end at Oran Park.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Dirk Klynsmith

Team Kiwi has ‘09 plans FUJITSU V8s TEAM Kiwi Racing’s future is in the air – but it will be on the grid in 2009.

The all-black team is considering a return to Holden machinery after a turbulent two-year period with Ford.

If a Holden deal is to happen, a technical partnership would likely be struck with Paul Morris Motorsport.

TKR and PMM worked together for

three years between 2004-2006 before TKR secured Ford New Zealand funding.

Now that the blue oval support has dried up, TKR boss David John is looking for the best possible deal for his team in 2009 and beyond.

“It’s up in the air for discussion,” John told eNews.

“We’ve just got to work out what’s best for the team going forward. Without Holden or Ford manufacturer backing,

KRE 4 PCR

Loadsman will be back FUJITSU V8s Dirk Klynsmith

V8 SUPERCARS PAUL Cruickshank Racing has secured a new engine arrangement with Triple Eight‘s Ken McNamara Racing Engines.

Cruickshank’s team has used Stone Brothers Racing Engines for the past six seasons, but has decided to bring all of his technical arrangements in line with Triple Eight Race Engineering. PCR sources its chassis from T8, and with the introduction of the newmodel FG Falcon, it made sense for PCR to switch engine suppliers.

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you’ve got to look at what’s best.”

In terms of driver line-up, John is keen to retain the services of Daniel Gaunt, who made his V8 debut over the past two rounds at Symmons Plains and Oran Park. eNews also understands that a substantial offer was placed to TKR for a complete purchase of his team by another V8 team – including the TKR brand – but the parties could not come to a deal.

– GRANT ROWLEY

“We just wanted to fall in line with the technical alliance with T8; it made sense to go the whole hog,” he said.

PCR will remain based at the SBRowned race shop in Yatala and said it was a hard decision to leave SBRE. “We’re still staying at SBR’s premises. It was a very hard decision to move away from SBRE but it was in the best interest for PCR. “Ross and Jimmy have been great to me and out of all the decisions I’ve had to make in recent times, this has been the most difficult.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

NEWLY-crowned Fujitsu Series winning team Tint-ACar Racing is set to defend its title in 2009.

While the make-up of the team is yet to be finalised, team owner Scott Loadsman says the squad is very hopeful of running a two-car effort in next year’s series.

“It’s a crazy silly season, and everyone is talking to everyone else,” he told eNews.

“It all depends on money as usual, but the options are open.”

Loadsman already has a second car; the Paul Morris Motorsport VZ Commodore codenamed ‘Gidget.’ That will be paired with the ‘Earnhardt’ PMM car in which Steve Owen wrapped up the FV8 title in at Oran Park last weekend.

As for drivers, while nothing is close to being a done deal, Loadsman did admit that he had spoken to Brett Holdsworth, Tim Slade and Luke Youlden about a program for 2009.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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DJR: Expansion is an option FUJITSU V8s

Dirk Klynsmith

DICK Johnson Racing looks set to run as many as four cars in 2009.

The Jim Beam-backed team is currently assessing options regarding the two BF Falcons that Will Davison and Steve Johnson have campaigned this year, with Triple Eight-built FGs set to make them obsolete in main series terms next year.

And one of those options is to run an inhouse Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series program.

Team co-owner Charlie Schwerkolt says a deal-turned-sour has caused a re-think as to whether the cars will be sold or retained by the team for an FV8 campaign.

“We thought we had the cars sold, but that didn’t happen,” said Schwerkolt.

“So now we are looking at both options.

At the end of the day we need to go with what is the best financial option for the team, and there are advantages in going either way.

“One of the advantages of [running an

FV8 program] is that you get to bring drivers in as long-term projects for DJR, so I definitely have an interest in reinstating it. I’m keen to talk to parties.”

According to Schwerkolt, the decision to consider an FV8 return was a recent one, and as such, placing specific drivers in the picture was impossible.

DJR is no stranger to the development series, having started at the second-tier level back in 2003 with Tony Riciardello. In

2004 Owen Kelly nearly won the series with Jose Fernandez as a team-mate, while Dean Canto did take the title a year later when he and Grant Denyer teamed up in DJR Falcons. The team’s final year in the Fujitsu Series was in 2006 when they ran a threecar effort for Denyer, Marcus La Delle and Andrew Thompson, the latter kick-starting his Supercar career with a host of race wins late in the season.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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The Phillip Island 5000 V8 SUPERCARS THE future of V8 Supercar racing at Phillip Island has been well secured with the signing of a new 10-year deal between the circuit and V8 Supercars Australia.

The Victorian circuit’s owner Andrew Fox was at Oran Park last weekend to help announce what he described as a “win-win transaction” between the two parties. It also locks in Phillip Island as the home of the pre-Bathurst 500km event, with Tony Cochrane claiming

the deal included the circuit being “the permanent home of the L&H 500.”

“It’s a great reflection of all the work the Fox family and all the staff at Phillip Island have done with that venue,” said Cochrane, “the way they’ve pulled it up to a world class standard facility.”

Cochrane also says that the deal highlights the category’s interest in staging rounds at permanent circuits, despite a growing trend towards street tracks in recent years.

“From our point of view [this] is exactly what we are looking for in Australia and

overseas,” he added.

“We very, very are much about keeping permanent circuits; our only condition is that permanent circuit recognise our status now in the world of motorsport, and make sure that they are, like us, looking for new ways to go forward.”

For the duration of the deal, the L&H 500 at Phillip Island is likely to remain in September, most likely on the weekend preceding the AFL Grand Final, on which there are no Sunday football matches.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

Clipsal construction starts as stands cover up V8 SUPERCARS THE Adelaide street circuit is receiving the biggest upgrade it has seen since it was first constructed for the Australian Grand Prix back in 1985.

The most notable change will see all of the grandstands covered by roofs, keeping patrons out of the latesummer sun.

Last year a shade system was trialed over one stand and was a huge success, leading to the circuit-wide integration of the covers.

“We are a temporary street circuit, and we will the first anywhere to have covered facilities for all our grandstand patrons,” said the event’s new

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CEO Jason Allen.

“It’s a huge commitment but the fans deserve it and as Australia’s largest domestic motorsport event we are taking V8 Supercar racing to yet another new level.”

Work has already begun on the new shade structures, as

well as a brand new state-ofthe-art temporary pit building.

“The new multi-storey pit building features larger garages for the V8 Supercar teams, a new race control, a new state-of-the-art media centre and corporate facilities with stunning views of the

circuit,” Allen added.

“In addition, we have resurfaced the racing circuit loop inside Victoria Park, including the start/finish straight, and we are also undertaking some remedial road works on the other sections of the circuit.”

– PHILLIP MAHONEY

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Tander tests for PMM! V8 SUPERCARS

WR to be approved V8 SUPERCARS WALKINSHAW Racing is expected to be approved imminently as a V8 Supercar licence holder, and for more than the two licences of the Holden Racing Team.

As this edition of eNews closed to go live, the V8 Supercars Australia board was in Sydney, rising after its latest meeting. While the deliberations of the board remain confidential, a wellplaced source has indicated that the matter of WR was due for consideration.

What was then known as Walkinshaw Performance was subject to a lien by the Touring Car Entrants’ Group (TEGA) in March last year, after disclosures that it had acquired a half-share of the Holden Racing Team. In a statement to its constituent teams, TEGA advised “TEGA has not approved Tom

Walkinshaw as a person suitable to hold a controlling interest in a licence nor hold a licence in his own right.

“Should Walkinshaw seek to acquire more than a 50 per cent interest in Skaife Sports at any time in the future he will be required to seek formal approval from the (TEGA) board at that time.

“Skaife Sports has agreed to a stringent monitoring regime and a level of co-operation with TEGA with regard to compliance issues.”

Last Monday, WR assumed ownership of the other 50 percent of the team.

But we also believe that WR has agreed terms to secure the licence formerly used by PWR Racing. In that case, any approval of WR by the board for that transaction would extend to any other licence (up to the maximum number of four), provided that WR met the regulations involved.

LEANNE Tander made a return to V8 Supercars at Oran Park today (Monday), driving a Super Cheap Auto Racing VE Commodore at the team’s ride day.

The chance for Tander to get some V8 seat time came along so late she was forced to don an ill-fitting SCAR race suit and wear the same helmet her hubby Garth wore to victory in the weekend’s V8 round.

“Paul just asked me yesterday to help out with the rides,” she told eNews, “and any time you can get laps in a V8 you jump at it, so it was a lot of fun.

“There’s a lot of body roll compared to the Formula 3! It didn’t take me too long, just a few laps, and I got back in the groove, so it was good.”

Tander is not a total stranger to V8 Supercars, having raced in the development series back in the early 2000s, as well as doing some ride days with Garth over the last couple of years.

And she is likely to be back in a V8 full-time next year, with the Tander family racing team, TanderSport, likely to step up to the Fujitsu Series in 2009, graduating from Formula 3.

But Tander says it is still too early to start putting exact details, such as chassis and driver deals, to the plan.

“It’s still far from being settled,” she added.

“We are looking at a few different options. To be 100 percent honest, I don’t know any more than that.

I’m not keeping things from anyone; it’s still all up in the air.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

13

A dozen for Wood Bros NASCAR SPRINT CUP WOOD Brothers Racing team is cutting back to a 12race program in 2009.

The team, which lost major sponsors Little Debbie (which is switching staying with Marcos Ambrose at JTG Daugherty Racing) and the US Air Force (moving to Gillett Evernham Motorsports), will concentrate its efforts on Daytona and the 1.5 mile speedways, where they feel the Ford program is at its strongest.

The team has run with limited schedules before, with drivers like David Pearson, below, who won 11 of the 18 races he entered in 1973. Bill Elliott, the 1985 champion, will drive in 2009 so the same cannot be expected.

– MARTIN D CLARK

Ford Racing

EUROS LOOK TO INDYCAR INDYCAR AUDI, Porsche and Alfa Romeo are the manufacturers most interested in taking on Honda in the IndyCar Series.

The three manufacturers appear to favour a smaller displacement, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine.

Terry Angstadt, the IRL’s President, Commercial Division, revealed in a recent radio interview that he and other IRL officials will be going to Germany next week to discuss the new engine formula. An unnamed ‘Italian manufacturer’ is also expected to attend.

The IndyCar Series has stated they want to have at least two more engine manufacturers signed and the specifications nailed down by the end of this month, in order to provide manufacturers two full years to design, build, test, and supply engines for the 2011 season.

The IRL can offer any manufacturer the famed Indy

500 to showcase their engines.

But with the global economic downturn in recent months, it may be much more difficult for the IRL to close a deal.

Both Porsche and Alfa Romeo have previously competed in open wheel racing in the CART days.

Porsche raced in 1989 and 1990, earning one victory with Italian driver Teo Fabi, not on speed but through team boss Derrick Walker’s fuel strategy.

After a long development period, Alfa Romeo raced for one season in 1990. Both may be lured back by the thought that Honda took several years to become competitive and Toyota even longer, whereas the turbocharged, V8 2.65 L Ford Cosworth powerplant endured since the 1970s.

– MARY MENDEZ Past times: Teo Fabi was Porsche’s only racewinner last time around, and the German motor did seem pretty solid ...

Gillett close to new Petty Partnership NASCAR SPRINT CUP NASCAR’S latest merger may see Petty Enterprises closing its doors and merging with Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

GEM founder Ray Evernham recently sold what was left of his investment in the team to the Gillett family to purchase a local North Carolina dirt track, leaving the notion of a four-car Petty Gillett team – incorporating the famous number 43 and all-important owner points – a real possibility.

Seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty and son Kyle gave up majority ownership of the team earlier this year to

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investment group Boston Ventures, but have no full-time sponsors for 2009 for either of their two cars. BV recently laid off 40-plus employees at the race team and an additional 40-plus at the Richard Petty Driving Experience stock car school.

There is already a link between the two teams, as GEM currently supplies engines for the two Petty Dodges. The possible merger leaves 2000 champion Bobby Labonte without a ride at the team, but his name continues to be connected to the Target-backed Chevrolet entry at the newly-merged Earnhardt Ganassi Racing operation.

– MARTIN D CLARK

news

Joining the Beach Boys NASCAR SPRINT CUP

finish. With Ambrose and his team running an MWR entry, the points have transferred to the JTGD’s #47 for next season.

All four of DEI’s entries ended the season inside the top 35; in 14th (#8), 16th (#1), 27th (#15) and 32nd (#01) positions.

– MARTIN D CLARK

Toyota Motorsports

Porsche Media

THE latest round of closedowns and mergers appear to have provided a boost to Marcos Ambrose.

With the demise of two Dale Earnhardt Inc Chevrolets and with no current takers for ‘buying’ the car numbers (and owner points) amid the current NASCAR downslide, the JTG Daugherty star may well find himself starting the new season in the all-important top 35 in owner points.

Should this happen – and it looks extremely likely at this point – the Tasmanian is guaranteed a spot in

field for the Daytona 500 in February.

Using the points Michael Waltrip Racing accrued with its #00 entry, Ambrose was inside the vital top 35 positions heading into the final race of the 2008 season at Homestead but he dropped to 36th with his 42nd place

Porsche Media

p

NASCAR Media

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Rundle: strength in numbers

No Aussie Champs? E

BRM looking four-wards

ADELAIDE-based Team BRM is two steps closer to finalising plans for its 2009 return to the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championships.

A second driver has now been officially named, with Jordan Skinner set to join Ben Small in a BRMprepared Mygale SJ09a chassis next year. Skinner, just 17 years of age, has been competing in the Victorian Formula Ford 1600 series with the team this year.

Team boss Mark Rundle indicated that there will be more driver signings to come, with the team hoping to run at least three, and maybe four cars next season.

“That’s the goal, because it makes a huge difference with data and development,” he told eNews. “The fact is there is strength in numbers.”

As for the other drivers, while no decisions have been made New Zealand stand-out Ritchie Stanaway is on the team’s wishlist, and has made his intention to compete in Aussie championship next season publicly clear (see separate story).

Mygale privateer Trent Harrison is also a potential candidate.

The team is also set to take delivery of its first Mygale chassis in a couple of weeks, with the French-built car having touched down in Melbourne last Thursday. BRM expect to have it in Adelaide within the fortnight, ready for testing to start early in the new year.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

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sutton-images.com

FORMULA FORD

RACE OF CHAMPIONS WITH just a few days to go, there is no confirmed replacement for Mark Webber in the ‘Aussie’ team for the Race of Champions, to be run at London’s Wembley Stadium this weekend.

With Webber sidelined thanks to his broken leg, it was hoped that Chris Atkinson would join Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss, but the Subaru WRC star has a

clashing commitment.

As eNews approached publishing deadline, there was a suggestion that Will Power might be approached or that, alternately, the Australian team might become more of an ‘All Stars’ squad, with a Euro ring-in.

Having just ended his bike career, Bayliss has kept up his training regime and enters the weekend full of enthusiasm, but facing elite opposition, including regular ROC star, WRC Champion Sebastien Loeb.

Stanaway set for more Aussie FFord FORMULA FORD NEW Zealand stand-out Richie Stanaway has confirmed that he will race in the 2009 Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship, and will supplement his program with the Toyota Racing Series.

The 16-year-old debuted in the AFFC at Oran Park last weekend, impressing with the eighth fastest qualifying time despite never having seen the Sydney circuit before Thursday’s practice sessions. He was on for a top six finish in the first full race before his Mygale succumbed to engine heating problems and he was forced to retire.

Now, he is planning a full championship assault in 2009 – although with what team is still a question mark. With strong ties to Mygale through his New Zealand program, it is likely that Sonic or Team BRM are the front-runners for the Kiwi’s services.

“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think we’ll probably end up doing it,” he told eNews.

“We’ll make a decision in the next couple of weeks about which team we do a deal with.”

Stanaway is also scheduled to make his TRS debut in New Zealand early next year, with a one-off outing at the A1GP round at Taupo in January. He plans to do the full TRS season in 2009/2010, with the goal of heading to Europe to pursue a career in open-wheeler racing.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

news

Enduros only for Canto

V8 SUPERCARS V8 SUPERCAR regular Dean Canto will be without a permanent V8 race seat in 2009.

The likeable 28-year-old, who wrapped up second place in the Fujitsu V8 Series at Oran Park last weekend, has resigned himself to the fact that he will not occupy a full-time seat – in neither the Main Series or the Fujitsu Series.

Canto will instead concentrate on his confirmed V8 endurance seat with Ford Performance Racing, as well as other ride and driver training days.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s motorsport,” he said.

“There are drives out there but most of them involved bringing money.

“I have the two enduros with FPR, the four test days and endurance driver sessions on Friday. I’ll still be hanging around the track.”

Canto has also offered his services to teams as a trackside consultant for Fujitsu V8 teams.

“I’ve been around long enough and I have a good idea about these cars. I’m sure I’d be an asset to some of the privateer teams.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

BF Racing to expand in ‘09 FORMULA FORD BRETT Francis’ BF Racing team is hoping to field at least two cars in the 2009 Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship.

The team is currently running Nick Foster’s program in the series, starting the year with a Van Diemen chassis before moving to a Mygale for last weekend’s season finale at Oran Park.

And if Francis has his way, Foster will

have a team-mate for next year.

“Ideally we’ll run two cars,” Francis said.

“It would be really good for Nick to have someone to bounce off in terms of set-up, and it helps to be able to share data and costs and those sorts of things.

Until the lights go out at the Grand Prix next year nothing is for sure, but that is certainly the plan.”

While a second driver is yet to be confirmed, David Lawrence may make an appearance for the team at the

opening round at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

Lawrence, who won the Queensland Formula Ford title with BF Racing this year, is headed to the USA to pursue a future in NASCAR, but might start the year in a Formula Ford should the dates work out.

BF Racing is also keen to defend its state title, but is yet to sign a new young talent to replace Lawrence.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

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Supercharged match race DRAG RACING IT might not have been a round of the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship but that didn’t stop John Zappia and Robin Judd getting some serious track time at the Perth Top Fuel round in the fight for bragging rights in the supercharged sedans.

Judd and Zappia went blow for blow at Kwinana with Zappia now recording an amazing 10 fives in a row (six at the Goldenstates and four during the Top Fuel event).

But not to be outdone, Judd bought the crowd to their feet as he again dipped into the 5.8s with a semi final 5.88s.

Lamattina’s record run DRAG RACING WHAT is it like to run the fastest quarter mile time outside of North America?

Well, you’ll need to ask Phil Lamattina that, because he did it at the Perth Motorplex last weekend.

Lamattina ran a blistering 333mph, and predictably, was very proud of his achievement.

“It was a ride all the way until I popped the chutes,” he said.

“It was at this point I thought to myself that it must have been a pretty good pass.

As the team came to tow the car back, they knew it was a 4.59s run. We were all wrapped with this considering it was a PB for the team.

“It wasn’t until I was being interviewed back at the startline that it was pointed out we’d actually gone 333mph.

“Through disbelief, I double and triple checked with the time keepers and realised that our team had just done something very special.”

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news

The Legend Lands in OZ Lance Larsen helps Darren Morgan Racing in its quest for big numbers DRAG RACING Highly-credentialed NHRA Crew Chief Lance ‘The Legend’ Larsen was on hand with Darren Morgan Racing in Perth last weekend, bringing with him almost 50 years of top-level drag racing experience.

Larsen, a long-time acquaintance of Morgan, has been brought into the country to assist the Mildura-based Wicked Quick/Rocket Top Fuel outfit with its set-up and consistency.

“I arrived from the USA on November 22nd and I’m only staying until mid-December”, said Larsen.

“It’s a flying visit but hopefully we can make some sort of difference to the way Darren has the car going by the time I fly out.”

While the immediate results from the weekend’s event weren’t what Morgan or Larsen were hoping for, both the team owner and the NHRA stalwart feel the exercise was well worthwhile.

“Getting knocked out in

the second round was a little disappointing but the tuning advice we have got from Lance has been invaluable. He really knows his stuff,” said Darren Morgan.

As for Larsen’s thoughts on the weekend, he was a little more philosophical.

“Qualifying wasn’t too good.

We had problems with some complex systems but in the end we had a few of them fixed. We really wanted to get the car more finely tuned and with some more time and a few more passes, I feel that we could have done it.

“The weekend wasn’t a complete waste though. Like I said, we have found some problems and before I leave I want to be able to have them worked out for Darren and his team.

“And at least by Saturday night none of the guys wanted to hang me.”

It’s not Larsen’s first time to Australia, having graced our shores in 1981 as Crew Chief for Jeb Alan, and always promised to make a return.

“I’ve been in regular contact

with Darren over the phone for years and I think on every call he has asked me to come out and help him. But my racing schedule never really gave me an opportunity until now.

“I’ve always been very impressed with the team passion and involvement within the sport [in Australia] especially when none of them are 100 percent fully professional racers. Every spare minute is spent on the cars and figuring things out; their dedication is phenomenal.”

According to Larsen, it’s not only the teams that set a high standard.

“From what I’ve seen here in Perth and also in Willowbank back in 1981; Australia’s drag racing facilities are fantastic, very aesthetically pleasing and well looked after from dedicated staff.”

Larsen has strong ties with successful NHRA driver and former team owner Clay Millican. It was Larsen who spearheaded Millican’s return to competitive drag racing in the second half of the 2008

season.

“Clay and I have a special bond; he’s like a son to me.

Our team is also very close; they all know their place and what it takes to be competitive in the NHRA. It’s a fantastic team and it was a pleasure to be able to work with Clay from September onwards after we got some backing from [Memphis businessman] Mark Pickens.”

It’s a drag racing career that has spanned some four decades, starting for the 61year-old Southern Californian as a school leaver.

“I’ve done the same thing [tuning race cars] since I was 18 years of age and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Larsen credits his passion and drive on the everchanging mechanical evolution.

“You can never be consistently the best tuner as the mechanical industry is always changing and something new is on the market. It’s the change that keeps you motivated and on the top of your game.”

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Drewer tests GT winner

AUSTRALIAN GT NEWLY crowned American IMSA Lites L2 Champion Tom Drewer celebrated his win with a test of the 2008 Australian GT winning car at Calder Park last week.

Australian GT Champion Mark Eddy offered Drewer the test of his Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 following his return from America.

“Mark decided that we should both celebrate our Championship wins and offered me a short

test in his GT3 Lamborghini. It was a fantastic opportunity to get behind the wheel of a GT car before I head back to America,” said Drewer.

“I am very keen to try and fit in some GT drives into my program for next year and see GT1 and GT2 in the American Le Mans Series as a great stepping stone from IMSA Lites to Le Mans Prototypes.”

Drewer is yet to finalise his plans for 2009 but it looks likely that he will compete in the IMSA Lites L1 class for the season.

Osborne out, Glindemann in?

CAMS COLIN Osborne will not seek re-appointment as President of CAMS when his current term expires on January 31, with Bob Glindemann the favourite to take over the role.

Osborne, pictured, was first appointed to the board of CAMS back in 1990, and has been the President of the governing body for nearly eight years.

“It has been both an enjoyable and challenging privilege to have

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served the sport in various roles, and particularly as President,” said Osborne.

“Looking back on the last few years, I think the organisation can be very proud of some of its achievements in what can only be described as challenging times.”

A new President will be elected at the upcoming board meeting on December 12, with Glindemann – a former Shell executive and current CAMS director – likely to get the nod.

Weeks wins appeal CLASSIC RALLYING

THE result from the 2008 Classic Adelaide has been overturned following an appeal by Kevin Weeks.

After leading the entire rally, Weeks followed rally protocol and stopped on stage to help a fellow competitor who had run off-track during the second last stage.

A formula exists to calculate the driver’s time based on their rally performance.

Weeks was only awarded enough time to place him second overall behind Bill Pye, but Weeks won his appeal last week to have the decision overturned.

Thus, Weeks is the winner of the 2008 classic ahead of Pye and Jim Richards.

news

Neil Blackbourn

Astra, McLeod to make Bathurst return BATHURST 12 HOUR ENTRIES for the Bathurst 12 Hour in February are flooding in and a former Bathurst champion is getting ready.

Peter McLeod, who won the 1987 Bathurst 1000 along with Peter Brock and David Parsons, will pair up with his two sons for a new attack on the Mountain.

McLeod and his sons, Ryan and Gerard, will drive a Holden Astra SRi in the Showroom enduro.

“To be running with the two boys in the

car will be good,” said McLeod.

“To be honest I believe it is possibly the first time a father and two sons has raced in the one car.

“I haven’t driven competitively since around 1996, except for one race in 1999, but now I have a little RX7 sports sedan and have been doing some racing to get my licence back. Really, its like riding a bike and I have done something like 2000 laps around the Mountain so I am not too worried about getting back into it.”

Although Peter brings the bulk of experience to the campaign Ryan and

Gerard are no strangers to racing.

Ryan has been competing in the Fujitsu series for the past few years, while Gerard is the head mechanic for the Britek V8 Supercar outfit.

“With me getting back into it a bit and Gerard recently getting his racing licence, we figured that we have a very small window of opportunity to do something like this where we could all race together.

Obviously I would like to think I can keep doing this forever but reality will kick in at some stage and so it will be good to have a go at sharing the car between us.”

New manager for Toyota AUSTRALIAN RALLYING TODD Connolly will not be Toyota’s motorsport manager after January 1.

The manufacturer is having a restructure of its marketing department, meaning Connolly will become the

manager of interactive and digital media. His job will be taken by Wayne Gabriel, while Lindsay Chappel, who has be involved Toyota’s stunt driving team, will also move onto the motorsport program.

Gabriel is currently Toyota’s promotions manager,

dealing with its AFL and NRL programs. But he has prior form in motorsport, having been involved with Daihatsu when it won its six consecutive Australian Rally Championships for manufacturers.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Joel Strickland

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news

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2 Richard Francis

Richard Francis

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Richard Francis

Richard Francis

Shunt! Jake Williams did his level best to destroy his Escort in the Oran Park Group A & C race.

James Smith

Engineering a kart win MOJO ENDURO THE man who usually makes Russell Ingall go fast will be charge of his own lap times this weekend at Tood Road for the Mojo Enduro at VACC Park.

James Small, a former Formula Ford driver turned engineer, will steer an Arrow B-Max at the Matt Wallorganised four-and-a-half hour event.

Small has been out of a race seat for most of the year,

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only competing in the Aussie Racing Cars at the Grand Prix.

Small has secured sponsorship from Supercheap Auto but hasn’t locked in a co-driver yet after Alan Gurr pulled out with business commitments.

Regardless, Small is keen to race in the second-annual event, despite the fact that he hasn’t raced a kart since the Victorian Open at Oakleigh in 2000. He says that he is looking forward to mixing it with some of his old friends

and rivals. he doesn’t have experience “It’s a great initiative by Matt at is racing against his brother Wall,” he said.

– Ben. “It’s great that all the guys Ben Small will team with who used to race together to Luke Price, and typically, get back together at the end James is keen to beat them. of the year and have some fun.

“I’ve never raced against “I’m sure once the helmets Ben, so I’ll hoping to get one come on, there won’t be too on top of him. Although I many people laughing, it will know he’s been doing a lot of be serious stuff, but fun all the testing, so I might just have to same.” hold him up!”

Small has experience Practice kicks off on Friday, around VACC Park, but with qualifying and the big has never driven the track race on Saturday. ‘backwards,’ but one thing that – GRANT ROWLEY

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5 Minutes with ...

PAUL MORRIS

Last weekend wasn’t just a farewell for Mark Skaife and Oran Park – it was also the last full-time GRANT ROWLEY round for Paul Morris. But there is still plenty going on at PMM ...

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Oran Park was our last round as a full-time V8 Supercar driver. I don’t see any tears! You’re not fussed by it all?

PAUL MORRIS: Nah, it was good. The worst thing about it was that they didn’t deploy the Safety Car at the right time again (in Race 3). That makes me upset the most. Everyone else does their job right and they keep getting it wrong.

What about your replacement in the team for 2009? There’s was chat about Jonathon Webb …

I’ve got no one at the moment, and I’m not in any rush. We’ve got until March next year and we’ll just go through it with Russell, Les (Small), James (Small) and Ben and work out what’s best.

It depends which way we go and what shapes out. I’ve

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Dirk Klynsmith

What was the thing that made you decide not to continue full-time racing?

Just the fact that I wasn’t concentrating on my racing properly.

I’ve been driving some other people’s cars lately and I’ve realised that I enjoy my driving a lot more when I’m not thinking about what’s going on with the car and what’s happening with the team and whatever. I’ve also been getting more enjoyment out of seeing Rusty (Russell Ingall) doing well.

That is just as exciting as being a driver myself.

I want to put my time into the V8 Supercar board and get them heading in the right direction and the planning and management of my team.

spoken to some key guys in some other teams as well.

There’s a fair bit of interest out there.

I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago about possible retirement. When did you first start to consider it?

More towards the end of the year. After I went Sprintcar racing, I realised how much fun it is and how much work we have to do to make this a better show.

can’t go ‘racing’ as we are now.

You look at the emails on the LAN after each race and there are about 20 emails about ‘who hit who’ and ‘what car hit what.’

These guys are just a bunch of girls. They should sort their shit out on the track and go racing.

They’re all just tearing up and worried about who touched each other instead of getting on with the racing.

Until we get rid of that mentality, the sport isn’t going to be as good as it could be.

So working on the board becomes more of a priority …

Yeah, to be viable, you just

So what’s your driving future from here?

Whatever’s going. We’ve got

the 12 Hour coming up, and I want to do the enduros next year and whatever else.

There’s plenty of things out there where you can really enjoy your racing without all the sheilas involved!

You’ve done a lot of racing over the past couple of years.

What’s the best category for ‘racing?’

Aussie Racing Cars, for sure.

You’ve got 20 blokes there who go racing because they enjoy it.

If you got V8 Supercar drivers to race for the pure enjoyment of it, you’d have a hell of a better spectacle of it.

chat

Dirk Klynsmith

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Dirk Klynsmith

Saying Goodbye

IT is sad to see Oran Park have its last V8 Supercar race meeting.

It’s a permanent circuit and a lot of people get particular enjoyment out of this types of tracks – not just for the big meetings, but also for the guys who come here and test.

The problem is, if you lose these circuits and you end up with temporary circuits, there will be nowhere for the future generation to come to race tracks and learn their skills.

opinion Colin Bond Former Bathurst winner My best memory at this track was back in a Torana XU-1 back in the 70s. I started from the back of the grid because we’d be rallying all night. It was a 100-lap race but the thing broke down on the last lap.

Looking back, I consider that to be one of my better races.

The damn clutch disintegrated

on the last lap!

I’ve had lots of good races here over the past years against a lot of good competition. I think it’s a circuit that the spectators like because you can see a lot going on, and that’s one of my biggest problems with temporary circuits. If you got to the Grand Prix in Melbourne, you can’t see the cars on the other side of the track. And it’s the same with most streets tracks …

At Oran Park, you can see 80 percent of the track from just about any vantage point and that is one of the charming aspects of it.

It’s the same with Phillip Island, depending on where you are, you can see a lot of the track.

Another advantage is that they are fast and safe circuits. In my opinion, they are far safer than the street and temporary tracks that are becoming more popular on the calendars.

Letters

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

Small mistakes Only journalists and V8 Supercars Australia thought that Mark Skaife had any financial interest in HRT. Everyone else interested in motorsport in Australia were aware that GM Holden had circumvented the rules by nominating Mark Skaife as team owner of HRT. In an otherwise stellar career, this is one blot on his CV that, like Michael Schumacher’s

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deliberate crashes with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, will be resurrected whenever discussions about his nomination as a true champion (which he is) are propounded.

Please Mark, relieve your conscience and come clean, so we may respect you for your achievements not revile you for your mistakes.

David Turner turnerdf@bigpond.com

Seeing Red The Evil Empire is back in business.

The benchwarmers have been tossed to the pavement, and the Imperial Forces have returned from their enforced exile. HRT shall forever rule the track with an iron fist.

One should hope that the Walkinshaw accountants don’t have another brain embolism again any time soon. One can’t imagine that there is to many

lemmings left that would be prepared to fall on their sword for the exalted one, again.

If Mark Skaife can gather together the few shreds of self-respect that he has been left with, he should strongly consider turning blue for a tilt at the 2009 Championship.

Surely a bloke with his record would like to go out on a high note, with pride intact?

Matt Treacy Matttreacy@bigpond.com.au

opinion

Happy Christmas? Bah, Humbug for many racers … opinion Chris Lambden mNews Publisher

Dirk Klynsmith

A NUMBER of things came to an end at Oran Park on Sunday, apart from Mark Skaife’s career as a full-time racing driver.

That’s the way it usually is at the final round of anything.

In F1, David Coulthard woke up on the morning after the Brazilian Grand Prix to the realisation that he is now an exprofessional driver – and today (Tuesday), following all the bonhomie and back-slapping at Monday night’s V8 Supercar Dinner, so will Skaife.

In Mark’s case, the transition is going to be more stark. He also, for the first time in a long time (even preceding his ownership of the team), wakes up not having to concern himself with the day-to-day goings on at HRT. It’s not what he had originally planned or hoped for, but it is the way it is.

It’s a huge hole and, despite the brave face at the weekend, it’ll take some significant new challenges and projects to even partially fill the void. John Bowe

recently outlined the unseen stress involved in professional racer ‘retirement’ and there are many for whom it’s a similar tale. Good luck Skaifey.

Paul Morris also chose the weekend to announce (despite shrugging the idea off when we tackled him a couple of weeks back!) that he will step back from full-time racing. In his case, it’s a less-stressful move – he still has Paul Morris Motorsport to run, and has titlechasing ambitions.

For others, the future is less predictable. If what we hear is correct, Jason Richards’ move from Tasman to BJR signals a break, at best, in the Main Show V8 career of Andrew Jones, and there are others with no confirmed plans for 2009.

Christmas can often be a tough time for racing drivers – ask Will Power, for whom Christmas 2007 was the first for many years that he knew for sure what he’d be doing the following year! The same can be said for many of the backroom boys – the engineers and mechanics who make the industry tick. It can be an uncertain time.

What does seem certain is

that the weekend was the last time that the motorsport BigTime will visit the picturesue Oran Park. Time, and the Sydney suburban sprawl, has caught up with Oran Park – as it did with Amaroo Park some years back – and it will close to all racing in a few months.

Everyone has an Oran Park story. It remains one of the more challenging

circuits in Australia and it is a shame to see it go. There is little likelihood of it being replaced, so Eastern Creek – development or not – becomes the sole venue for Sydney Club and State racing, the nearest alternate being Wakefield Park, near Goulburn.

So Goodbye Oran; so long Skaifey; well done Jamie; and good luck to those in limbo!

eLETTER OF THE WEEK Boiling Point The issues surrounding Mark Skaife and Tom Walkinshaw as reported in this week’s eNews make my blood boil.

Despite the success of the road car operation, everything Walkinshaw seems to get involved in on the track ends up in turmoil. Consider the following: - Brock unceremoniously dumped after three year relationship simply

to get sponsors/supporters on board (although retirement was a good choice at the time) - the mismanagement of Lowndes (left floundering in Europe) eventually resulting in losing the most valuable talent of the last 20 years to Ford; - HRT ownership debacle, dragging the best known brand in Australian motor sport through the mud; - now, the shafting of Skaife after he was basically used as a stand-in

as he had a good credit rating when someone was required to hold the licence.

As a Holden fan, I enjoyed HRTs golden age as much as anyone, but this week’s developments have left a very sour taste in the mouth for many of the Holden faithful.

I can only wish Mark Skaife all the best in retirement.

Simon Leach LEACHS@stgeorge.com.au

Send your creative letters to mail@mnews.com.au, or Motorsport News PO Box 7072, Brighton, Vic 3186 27

V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES ROUND 14 – NRMA GRANDE FINALE, ORAN PARK

Not without a Fight Anyone who thought that Garth Tander would hand over his V8 Supercar crown without a fight were proven wrong, as he became the last-ever V8/ATCC winner at Oran Park. GRANT ROWLEY watched

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race

John Morris

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O

N a weekend where legend Mark Skaife competed in his final V8 race and the famous Oran Park circuit hosted its own ‘Grand Finale,’ a new kid was crowned the Champ.

Jamie Whincup took victory in the Race 1 of the NRMA Grand Finale at Oran Park, putting the title out of reach of Mark Winterbottom with a crushing win on Saturday.

And lucky for Whincup that he did that, as Sunday turned out to be a disastrous day for him. Differential failure cost him in Race 2 before a clash with Paul Morris in the season’s final race left him with a flat tyre and damaged wheel.

It was Whincup’s worst round result since Hamilton – not that he was too concerned,

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as the championship was his.

“This is an amazing feeling. It is twice as good as I ever imagined,” he said.

“It has been a long tough grind but as a team, we really pieced it all together this year. I feel like we thoroughly deserve this, this is why we do what we do – money can’t buy this feeling.”

Tander won the round and restored some lion pride before the season was out. The Holden Racing Team lead man wasn’t thrilled with the handling of his Commodore during practice, but come qualifying, the West Aussie was at his best, taking pole position almost half a second.

Race 1 didn’t work to Tander’s plans, though, when he was pinged for a dubious jump start. Despite the 10s pitlane penalty, he stormed back to sixth before taking the

Race 2 victory. He recovered from a slow start to Race 3 to grab second in the race and first for the round.

Fellow Clayton driver Rick Kelly won the last race, capping off another consistent round. He took third for the round after qualifying outside of the top 10.

Second overall went to Craig Lowndes, ensuring that a Triple Eight car finished on the podium in every round during the second half of the season.

Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall was unlucky not to be on the overall podium after being in the hunt the entire meeting.

Ingall finished third in Race 1, second in Race 2 but two flat spotted tyres at the start of Race 3 cost him a chance of overall success.

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Dirk Klynsmith

Farewell for all: Mark Skaife, right, competed in his final V8 round. Below, ‘The Old Lady’ Oran Park was also waved goodbye on the weekend.

V8 Supercar | ROUND 14, ORAN PARK, NSW

Dirk Klynsmith

In his final race for Stone Brothers, James Courtney was fifth ahead of a disappointed Steven Richards.

Richards started the weekend shooting for fifth in the championship but ended up eighth when he was penalised for jumping the start in Race 3.

Winterbottom’s faint championship chances were negated in Race 1 when the FPR driver collided with Skaife in pitlane. It earned him a damaged car, drivethrough penalty and any remaining chances of the title.

As for Skaife’s farewell, it seemed like it was going to be a meeting he’d rather forget – until the final race.

The six-time Oran Park winner was involved in the pitlane incident with Winterbottom in Race 1. More damage was inflicted in Race 2 before he started from the back in the final and stormed to 12th place. Resultswise, not an entirely fitting farewell for the five-time champ, but it did take some of the attention away from the fact that it was also the final-ever V8 round at Oran Park.

Pos # Driver

Team/Car

Q R1 R2 R3 Pts

1 1 Garth Tander 2 888 Craig Lowndes 3 15 Rick Kelly 4 39 Russell Ingall 5 4 James Courtney 6 120 Steven Richards 7 25 Jason Bright 8 34 Michael Caruso 9 111 Fabian Coulthard 10 67 Paul Morris 11 33 Lee Holdsworth 12 17 Steven Johnson 13 88 Jamie Whincup 14 7 Todd Kelly 15 18 Will Davison 16 9 Shane Van Gisbergen 17 16 Paul Dumbrell 18 3 Jason Richards 19 14 Cameron McConville 20 5 Mark Winterbottom 21 26 Marcus Marshall 22 11 Jack Perkins 23 50 Andrew Thompson 24 51 Greg Murphy 25 777 Michael Patrizi 26 021 Daniel Gaunt 27 2 Mark Skaife 28 55 Tony D’Alberto 29 12 Andrew Jones

Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE Team Vodafone Falcon BF HSV Dealer Team Commodore VE Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore VE Jeld-Wen Motorsport Falcon BF Ford Performance Racing Falcon BF Fujitsu Racing Falcon BF Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VE Glenfords Racing Falcon BF Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore VE Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VE Jim Beam Racing Falcon BF Team Vodafone Falcon BF Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE Jim Beam Racing Falcon BF SP Tools Racing Falcon BF Autobarn Racing Team Commodore VE Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE Team WOW Commodore VE Ford Performance Racing Falcon BF IRWIN Racing Falcon BF Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE PWR Performance Products Commodore VE Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE Ausdrill Ford Rising Stars Falcon BF Team Kiwi Racing Falcon BF Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE Rod Nash Racing Commodore VE Team BOC Commodore VE

1 6 1 2 260 2 2 5 3 252 11 9 4 1 236 5 3 2 11 226 7 5 6 4 222 6 4 3 17 202 13 13 7 7 172 18 8 11 10 160 24 18 10 8 146 21 14 14 9 140 9 12 25 6 134 17 15 9 16 134 3 1 DNF 23 124 8 7 8 DNF 124 10 10 15 21 120 15 DNF 13 5 118 29 19 16 13 114 14 16 3 14 114 12 11 19 22 106 4 23 12 18 104 26 20 22 24 78 22 17 DNF 20 66 19 DNF 23 15 64 23 21 51 DNF 64 25 DNF 21 25 48 28 22 24 DNF 48 16 DNF DNF 12 46 20 DNF DNF 19 32 27 DNF 20 DNF 30

Points: Whincup 3332, Winterbottom 3079, Tander 3048, Lowndes 2871, W. Davison 2495, Courtney 2446, R. Kelly 2430, S. Richards 2416, Ingall 2236, Johnson 2163, Holdsworth 2065, T. Kelly 2053, Coulthard 1823, Skaife 1644, Van Gisbergen 1614, Murphy 1572, J. Richards 1548, Caruso 1439, Bright 1438, Morris 1436, Dumbrell 1398, McConville 1370, Marshall 1113, A. Jones 1071, D’Alberto 890, Patrizi 848, Price 843, Thompson 771, Perkins 620, Besnard 459, Scott 362, Owen 351, B. Jones/Wilson 343, Pretty 338, Macrow 320, Luff 259, Canto/Youlden 252, Ellery/Ritter 245, Noske/ Wood 226, Halliday 225, Giovanardi/Hynes 222, Radisich 196, Webb 160, A. Davison 156, Pither 130, McIntyre 128, Baird/Seton 118, Gaunt 112, Denyer 102, Reindler 96, Neal/Said 94, Weel 84, Al Musalam 46, Bargwanna 38, Reynolds 22.

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Deserved What does the V8 Supercar world think of Jamie Whincup ...

Dirk Klynsmith

Lee Holdsworth – GRM driver I’m happy for him. He certainly deserves it.

He’s just been so dominant. Good on him.

Glenn Seton – Two-time V8 champion I think it’s fantastic. He just missed out last year and he’s done a better job than anyone else.

Tony D’Alberto – Rod Nash Racing driver Deserved champion. I’ve watched him through karting, Formula Ford to this and he’s always been up the front in everything he has done.

Daniel Gibson – Channel 7 commentator Brilliant. Not only does he deserve it, but he’ll be a great champion for the sport.

Tim Edwards – FPR team manager He’s done a fantastic job over the last few rounds. He’s had a bit of lady luck – Tassie and Bahrain where things could have brought him undone – but that’s how championships go.

Jonathon Webb – Fujitsu V8 driver I think it’s well deserved. Jamie’s had a nice, clean, tidy run and he’s really come of age over the past few years.

Michael Caruso – GRM driver Phenomenal job. He deserves it. You can’t take anything away from him.

David Reynolds – Fujitsu V8 driver It’s wonderful. I remember three years ago when we had the same fitness trainer

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and he was asking “How do I beat Craig Lowndes?” Now he’s beating everybody …

Dirk Klynsmith – MNews photographer He’s the form driver in the form team and if they can continue this form, they’ll be the champions again.

Daniel Gaunt – Team Kiwi Racing driver I think he’s a deserved champ. He’s been in a league of his own. After his crash at Hamilton, you would have thought he was out …

Erik Pender – HSVDT team manager You can’t deny him. What a super effort!

And it’s not just him, it’s the whole T8 team. We know what it takes to win and they deserve all the accolades.

Paul Cruickshank – PCR team owner He 100 percent deserves it. It’s a reflection of the team and support he has around him. I think he’ll go down as one of the great V8 Supercar drivers.

Jim Morton – FRSR team owner Jamie won a succession of things in karting and he’s the first of that generation to come all the way through to the top. He’s a deserved winner.

Tim Blanchard – AMSF Inter. Rising Star It’s good that a young guy won the championship, especially an old Sonic driver! It’s good for the future young stars who want to get into V8s – its shows them that it’s possible.

Andrew Jones – Team BOC driver I spent a few years if my youth racing against Jamie at kart tracks and the like battling against him and I take my hat off to him. He’s got no ego, very personable and he a top bloke.

Mark Winterbottom – FPR driver He dominated the back half of the year. I mean, he was leading, had a 300-point loss, and he’s come back to win it, so he’s a deserving champion.

James Small – Supercheap Auto Racing engineer It’s good to see someone I used to race against growing up and kicking all the oldtimer’s arses!

Tony Cochrane – V8 Supercars Australia Chairman He’s a tremendous ambassador for the sport, and a very fitting champion. I’m delighted that Jamie has had a breakthrough championship win; he’s a dedicated individual and he’ll be an outstanding ambassador.

Paul Morris – Supercheap Auto Racing driver It’s pretty good, considering he did one less round than everybody else. When you’re young and your confidence is up, that’s what happens. He’s been smart enough to suck Lowndes’ brain and Lowndes has been kind enough to let him do it and he’s managed to get on with it and win.

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Marshall Cass

Driver to Driver

Larko wonders what would have happened if there was an era of Mark Skaife – driver only ...

IT was interesting speaking to Mark Skaife as soon as he jumped out of the car in his final race. The Channel 7 guys wanted me to have a chat to him ‘driverto-driver’ and what we saw in that last race was ‘Mark Skaife The Driver.’

It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch Mark and I could only imagine what might have been going through his head when so many people run around compete just because they can or because they can afford to, and here’s

opinion Mark Larkham V8 pit commentator Mark, driving the car from the back of the grid to 12th position – and I mean he drove the car – and here he is hanging up the helmet.

I guess we’ll all wonder for a long time what would have happened if Mark had

put himself in a situation where he just brought his helmet to the race track.

More championships? More Bathursts?

Just being the race driver isn’t Mark, though, because he has so much more to offer on the other side of the race track, but gee whiz, I would have loved to have seen another era of Mark Skaife – just as a driver.

I think he’s still got quite a bit to offer.

The people that he was passing there in the last race weren’t mugs.

Mind wandering NOT a great weekend for watching a V8 Supercar telecast.

Look, the broadcast itself was fine and the racing was … okay, if a little processional.

It’s just that, Jamie Whincup’s first win put the cup on the mantelpiece on Saturday, making the Sunday races were dead rubbers.

There was a tad too much of a Skaife-fest in Race 3 for my taste and a cracking finish in the golf – ironically, hosted by former

the broadcast somewhere,

FROM THE what role he would take. The ex-driver? Neil Crompton has COUCH that role sussed. The host?

Phil Branagan

V8-head Leigh Diffey – had me switching channels. Not what Seven might have wanted at the end of a year of doughy ratings.

The other problem was, my mind kept wandering, to 2009.

I could not stop thinking about what was coming up next year and if Mark Skaife is to slot into

Nope, that will likely fall to Mark Beretta. I am guessing that Grant Denyer will get back in there sometime next year, when he is fully recovered from his injuries. Then, there is the Addison factor …

The short answer is, we will all have to wait and see what Adelaide brings us.

The highlights of the year

were a great Bathurst telecast (not their fault that the race itself fell short of 2007’s), a break-out year for Mark Larkham and some strong backup work from Aaron Noonan and some of the lads (and lasses) he dragged into the Comm Box. There were lowlights but, given that we are in the holiday season, it feels a little petty to mention those. All in all, there is much to look forward to in the coming year. Bring it on.

33

FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES ROUND 7 – ORAN PARK

Jack the Knife

Just as in the Main Game, there was a title sealed – by Steve Owen, as expected – and a Commodore driver in the winner’s circle – Jack Perkins.

ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN reports 34

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Dirk Klynsmith

35

T

HE stress of double duties at Oran Park wasn’t enough to stop Jack Perkins winning the final round of the 2008 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series last weekend.

While he had to share his time between the Mack Trucks Commodore in the development series and the Jack Daniel’s Commodore in the main game, as well as dealing with adverse weather conditions (oppressing heat on Saturday and intermittent rain on Sunday), Perkins was good enough to take his first win of the season.

Having finished second to Dean Canto in the opening encounter, Perkins was simply the best in the wet conditions for Race 2. He jumped Canto at an early restart, getting a better run onto the main straight and into the first turn as the Safety Car peeled in. Once in front, he stayed there, not putting a wheel wrong in the tough conditions.

Canto, meanwhile, had more dramas as the second race wore on. Having had an easy time of things in the first race (his 21st FV8 race win), he found the going much tougher when the track was wet. A second restart saw an almost carbon copy move on him for Tim Slade, securing third for the round for Slade and dropping Canto to third in the race and second for the round.

According to the two-time FV8 champ, it was all about grip; or a lack thereof.

“We were struggling with drive all weekend,” Canto confirmed, “so in the wet on the restarts I just couldn’t get the power down.”

One thing Canto and Slade had in common was a window demister problem. Both the Howard Racing Falcon and the Slade

36

Speed Commodore broke the demister wire, meaning the two drivers were battling to see in the wet conditions. Slade even had to resort to opening his driver’s side door behind the Safety Car to keep air moving through the cabin …

Fourth and fifth for the round were Jono Webb and Mark McNally, both of whom had similar weekends. They were quick, if not spectacular, and rounded off solid seasons with a solid result. Webb’s result was also good enough to elevate him to third in the final standings, displacing David Reynolds, who was sixth for the round, off the series podium.

For the first time all year, Steve Owen wasn’t on the podium for the round. Not that it mattered – fifth in the first race was enough to secure the 2009 title. But it came amazingly close to not happening, with his Tint-A-Car backed Commodore dropping to seven cylinders at the start of Race 1.

“It is a real relief,” he said afterwards.

“I’m surprised it held on that long. I thought the car was going to end up a smoking pile!

“I’d never done the full championship before; it’s my first full year in the Fujitsu Series, so to win the championship is personally very satisfying.”

He was ninth for the round, one spot ahead of Marcus Zukanovic, who had a storming drive in Race 2 to move from 24th on the grid to finish fourth.

FUJITSU V8s FINAL Points Owen 1762, Canto 1621, Webb 1527, Reynolds 1494, Perkins 1399, Wood 1122, Slade 1061, Reindler 1056, Trimble 1053, etc.

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John Morris

Marshall Cass

Minor League Home Run: Dean Canto extended his record FV8s race win total to 21 with another chequer and OP, main pic. As expected, Steve Owen iced the title on Saturday, above. For both drivers, the question is, what happens next? There were some intra-team battles between Tony Bates (#35) and Geoff Emery (#36, above) while Andrew Fisher, right, might have been looking for forgiveness after another shunt in his Commodore, right.

Marshall Cass Dirk Klynsmith

37

AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 8 – ORAN PARK

Triumph and Drama The final national Formula Ford round at Oran Park will be remembered for two reasons; Lucas Dumbrell’s horrific crash, and Paul Laskazeski’s title glory. ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN was there for the highs and lows

FORMULA FORD PAUL Laskazeski wrapped up the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship in style at Oran Park last weekend by winning the final round.

From the start of the weekend it was clear Laska had pace over the rest of the field, a point highlighted by his efforts in the second practice session when he was a smidge under half-a-second faster than anyone else in the field.

But while it was expected that he would wrap up the title with a Race 1 win, he never got the chance. Lucas Dumbrell’s huge crash under Safety Car caused a red flag,

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and the race was eventually abandoned and deemed a non-event. With just 40 points on offer for the remaining two races, the championship was Laska’s, although not necessarily in the way he wanted to take it.

He did get a proper win on the board when racing resumed for Race 2, decimating the field in a fairly mild encounter. Along with a second place in Race 3 and the extra point he scored for pole position earlier in the weekend, it was enough to secure the round win as well as the title.

“When [Kristian] Lindbom passed me for second in the last race I really wanted to get back past, because I wanted the round win

so much,” he said.

“The car was great all weekend, the guys all did a top job, and it was pretty much a perfect weekend.”

It might have been pretty much perfect, but Daniel Erickson made sure it wasn’t absolutely perfect. The CAMS Rising Star looked sublime in the final race of the weekend, passing Laska for the lead at Turn 3 after a switch-back battle through Turns 1 and 2 on the fourth lap. Once in front he pulled away from the field, setting a new lap record and taking the last-ever national Formula Ford win at the historic Oran Park circuit.

Third for the round was Lindbom, who

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Bad hair day: Laska, above and main, wrapped up the title with a round win.

Daniel Erickson, below, was impressive, winning the last race at OP and setting the lap record.

Bottom, the boys hang out on the podium.

John Morris/Mpix

Dirk Klynsmith

was consistently the fastest Mygale driver throughout the weekend. His Sonic teammate Nick Percat was fourth, securing second in the title fight.

As usual, the Sydney circuit rewarded local knowledge, with current NSW Formula Ford Champ Ryan Simpson finishing sixth for the round, just his second outing at national level. Rob Storey was another New South Welshman to be fast, running well inside the top 10 all weekend and finishing ninth for the round.

John Morris/Mpix

Final Points: Laskazeski 342, Percat 274, Lindbom 222, Erickson 198, Ben Morley 151, Adam Graham 146.

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AUSSIE RACING CARS

NICK Simmons might have won the final round of the Aussie Racing Cars Super Series at Oran Park last weekend, but as so often is the case, Paul Kemal was crowned Champion.

It was the third title for the lanky New South Welshman, and while he didn’t make a huge impression of the results at his home circuit, his main title rival David Lawrence had an even worse weekend with ongoing engine problems.

“The feeling hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Kemal.

“But I know I have made history here this weekend being the first person to win three titles in this category and I must say it is great; one of the best moments I have had in motorsport.”

Out front, the weekend started off being all about Ben McChashney. The young gun won the first two races of the weekend, but slipped to third in Race 3 and fourth in Race 4, leaving him third for the round.

James Ward won the third

race in a brand spanking new Toyota Aurion, while Simmons was the final race winner of the weekend – enough to secure him round honours.

“This is a perfect way to end the year with round victory as we have worked so hard throughout the season without actually winning a round,” Simmons said.

“The race itself was great, and once I took the lead I defended hard and came out with the win.”

Making a guest appearance was two-time Australian

John Morris/Mpix

Third time around

Rally Champion Simon Evans, who swapped pace-notes for qualifying sessions in the TRD Aurion entry. After getting a feel for the category in Race 1 with 16th place, Evans stormed through the field in the remaining three encounters, finishing a weekend-best sixth in Race 3.

In the final, Evans took a bit too much liberty of having no trees to run into, and wound up missing a door off his Aurion on his way to 12th place.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Marshall Cass

40

John Morris/Mpix

Winners are grinners: Nick Simmons may have won the round at Oran Park, but the championship went to Paul Kemal for the third time.

James Ward debuted a brand new Toyota Aurion, winning the third race.

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Johnson wins; so does Crambrook V8 UTES GRANT Johnson won the final round of the V8 Ute Series at Oran Park on the weekend, but Layton Crambrook did enough to clinch the championship.

Layton Cranbrook finished sixth in Race 1 after being overtaken by a hardcharging Ryal Harris late in the race.

However, an incident early in the second, top-16 reverse-grid race threatened to derail Crambrook’s title hopes. He went off the circuit at Turn 4 on the first lap after contact with another competitor, resulting in a flat-tyre, an unscheduled pitstop, and a lowly 25th-place finish. With Crambrook’s main title-rival Kim Jane finishing second in Race 2, the stage was

set for a thrilling final race.

“We had no bad luck all year, so I suppose it had to come to us all in the one race,” Crambrook said.

In Race 3, Cranbrook made up several positions on the opening lap, and finished seventh after a solid, mature drive. Kim Jane failed to capitalise on his superior grid-position and slotted back to fourth, not enough to rob Cranbrook of the title.

Grant Johnson’s round win came off the back of his Race 1 victory, which he backed up with consistent finishes of fourth and second in Races 2 and 3.

Former Holden Young Lion Kurt Wimmer finished just behind Johnson for the round. After a disappointing qualifying result, Wimmer finished 15th in Race 1,

giving him a front-row start for Race 2, which he won. In the final race, Wimmer made a blinder start, jumped straight into the lead, and was never headed. Gary Baxter finished third overall with finishes of second, seventh and third in the three races.

As has become the norm for V8 Ute racing, all three of the weekend’s races featured plenty of contact between cars, with a few drivers receiving mechanical black-flags due to loose bodywork.

Several drivers also sustained major damage from the incidents, particularly Ute racing veteran Charlie Kovacs, who retired on the first lap of Race 3 due to heavy contact.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

John Morris/Mpix Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

A new Champion: Layton Crambrook, top, didn’t have the best round, but did enough to win the title.

Last year’s champ, Grant Johnson, main, finished the year in style with the round win, while Kim Jane, above, just missed out on tthe title.

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Bargs Master Class Niel McFadyen may have won the title at OP but it was Bargs who led the way

Marshall Cass Dirk Klynsmith

MINI CHALLENGE

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West Aussie Paul Fiore won the reverse top six Race 2 (and finished fifth in the other two races), while Todd Wanless had a terrific weekend, competing at Oran Park and Parramatta City Raceway in his Sprintcar. Wanless finished eighth in Race 1 and fourth in the final two events.

The Uber-Star car was driven by Sydney socialite Justin Hemmes, but his popularity amongst the MINI mechanics wasn’t high when he rolled the car in Saturday’s second race. The team tried to repair the car but he didn’t make the grid for Race 3.

Dirk Klynsmith

NEIL McFadyen wrapped up the inaugural MINI Challenge Series at Oran Park last weekend, staving off a close fight from Paul Stokell.

McFadyen entered the round with a comfortable margin and did enough to wrap up another national title to go with his Formula Ford success of 2003.

McFadyen saluted his team’s efforts for his series success.

“I really have to give this up to the M3 Motorsport team,” he said.

“They have lived and breathed MINI Challenge since the series was first announced and for some of them even to the detriment of their own businesses.

It’s been a tough year for us and I’m really happy to be crowned a national champion once again.”

While McFadyen was the focus post-race, Jason Bargwanna was the man out in front at Oran Park.

The former Bathurst 1000 winner was in a league of his own in the MINI Series, winning 10 races during the year. The only

reason ‘Bargs’ wasn’t in contention for the title was that he missed a round earlier in the year – otherwise, he would have walked it in …

“The series has been fantastic for us, “ Bargs said.

“I wasn’t sure what we were doing at the start of the year, my thoughts were turned more to eight cylinders rather than four – so it’s been an interesting but enjoyable diversion! It’s phenomenal to have won 10 races in the series and be winning again… it’s a great feeling.”

Scott Bargwanna (Jason’s cousin and team-mate) finished second in the final race, capping off an impressive season for the Matchmaster-backed team.

Stokell was close to the MINI crown, despite going into the final round with a huge points gap. He needed a miracle, it didn’t come, but it was pretty close in the end.

“We tried our best to get Neil this weekend, but just couldn’t get it across the line in the end,” he said.

“Hopefully we might be able to go one better next time!”

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BIANTE SERIES

mechanical problems.

Amongst the less powerful Class cars, a great battle emerged throughout the three races between the Porsche 911 RS of Rory O’Neill, the HQ Holden of Greg East and the Holden Torana XU-1 of Trevor Talbot. In the end, East scored enough points to secure the Class B title.

With an assortment of new cars set to take to the grid in 2009, and veteran drivers like Bowe, Richards and Glenn

Seton expected to contest the full season, the stage is set for next year’s Biante Touring Car Masters to be even more competitive than this year.

– LACHLAN MANSELL John Morris/Mpix James Smith

JOHN Bowe won the final round of the Biante Touring Car Masters at Oran Park on the weekend. Driving his Camaro, the racing veteran won the first two races and finished second in the final.

Brad Tilley was the other race winner. The Sydneysider, driving his famous green Falcon GTHO, overtook Bowe on the first lap of the final race and managed to hold onto the lead, despite vigorous attacks from Bowe. Tilley also set the lap record in the final race, despite some slippery conditions late in the race when rain started to fall.

Gavin Bullas had a consistent weekend, the Ford Mustang driver having already wrapped up the series. Bullas finished all three races in the top three.

For spectators, the highlight of the weekend was the nose-to-tail racing between Bowe, Bullas, Tilley and Jim

Richards throughout the first race. Richards actually carried his Falcon Rallye Sprint into the lead early in the race, using the superior braking to overtake Bowe around the outside into Turn 3. However, Richards was eventually defeated by the straight-line speed advantage of the more powerful cars, and eventually finished fourth. He backed up with fifth place in Race 2, but then retired from the final race after just two laps with

Marshall Cass

JB bids farewell to OP

43

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 15 – WALES RALLY GB

44

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In the nick of time

It took until the final stage of the Wales Rally GB for World Champ Sebastien Loeb to get the lead, and he had to overcome some adversity to do so

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F

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IRST Sebastien Loeb won by a little bit at the Wales Rally GB. Then he won by a lot.

Confused? So was Loeb when he was initially handed a jump-start penalty on the penultimate stage of the rally. To make matters worse, he had gone into that particular stage just 1.4s behind rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala, and bettered the Finn’s time on the run by 9.2s.

So, despite being adamant that he hadn’t left the line before he should have, Loeb went into the final stage of the event with a 2.2s deficit, rather than a handy little lead. Not that it mattered; the 2008 World Champion overcame Latvala on the final stage in a thrilling fight to win the round by just 2.7s. A few hours later, some icing was added to the cake when the initial penalty was overturned, increasing the winning margin to 12.7s.

“There couldn’t be a better reward for this team and the fantastic season it has put in,” said the World Champ.

“The added bonus of winning this weekend’s highly complex event is the icing on the cake.”

Not unusual for that part of the world at this time of year, the event was fraught with terrible weather. It wasn’t just rain and mud, but ice that made the conditions so tricky.

They were tricky enough to catch out Aussie Chris Atkinson, who crashed early on the first day, and hit hard enough to warrant a trip to hospital to be checked over. Championship runner-up Mikko Hirvonen was another firstleg casualty, his Ford Focus ending up on its roof.

His team-mate Latvala, however, made the best of the rain and hail to take an early lead, which he would protect until the last stage of the event. And while it was clear throughout the third leg of the rally that Loeb was probably going to hunt him down, the young Finn was delighted to be in a position to fight with the World Champion.

“I told myself I would be either first or second, and not waiting in the forest for a trailer to come and collect the wreckage,” he said.

“I’m disappointed, but this is my best finish in Britain and the battle has made me mentally stronger. I now feel ready to start next season and fight for the title.”

Dani Sordo was third in the second Citroen, while Petter Solberg was fourth and P-G Andersson equalled Suzuki’s best result with fifth.

Francois Duval and Toni Gardemeister were sixth and seventh, with a recovering Hirvonen rounding out the points-paying positions.

MotoGP World Champ Valentino Rossi finished 12th – quite impressive given the icy conditions – his second-best WRC finish after he was 11th in New Zealand two years ago.

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First the worst, second the best: Jari-Matti Latvala was first for most of the rally, but succumbed to Loeb on the final stage, above. His team-mate Mikko Hirvonen lost control at the splash, left, and rolled as a result, below.

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Great finish to a good year: Suzuki’s P-G Andersson, left, looked the goods in Wales, coming home fifth while his team-mate Toni Gardemeister was seventh.

Petter Solberg had a strong finish too, with fourth, above.

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Son of a Gun SPRINTCARS NSW

John Morris/ Mpix

SPRINTCARS PCR YOUNG Mitchell Dumesny continued his sensational start to the Parramatta Sprintcar summer by taking out both the 20-lap Sprintcar A Main’s last Saturday night.

Mitch took out the first A Main from Kelly Linigen with Todd Wanless third while Dumesny defeated an impressive Chris Muir and James Thomson in the second race.

Mitch came from position six in the first powering by Craig Brady on lap three to take an easy win.

In the second he simply forged towards the leaders taking control mid-race.

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“I had to work of it” he told eNews.

“I came from six to win but my car was a handful. They graded the rough track making it so much easier. My car was awesome but it’s still twisted!”

The interesting two A Main format certainly worked, with teams given seven minutes between races to work on and refuel the cars before tackling the second race.

With 20 or so cars off racing in NSW Country Series meeting, the rescheduled meeting from last week still had 34 Sprintcars, with Kelly Linigen setting quick time in qualifying over Craig Brady with Grant Tunks third fastest.

The heats were fairly

straightforward with wins going to Darren Jenson (Qld), Muir, Thomson and Martin Lawes while Paul Jeffery took out the B Main.

The opening 20-lapper looked it might go flag-toflag but, with just a lap to run, Ian Madsen and Marty Perovich tangled forcing them both out with bent cars and unable to make the second A Main. Mid-race in the second, Brady and Dean Thomas got together on the front straight with Thomas’s car rolling on its side. Wanless was unlucky and hit Thomas joining the retirements with a bent front end while Brady was out suffering brake problems.

– GREG BOSCATO

IAN Loudoun defeated local Dubbo racer Jeremy Cross with team-mate Adrian Maher to claim first blood in the NSW Country “Thunder in the Plains” Sprintcar series.

In front of a huge crowd, almost 20 of the regular Sydney sprintcar stars ventured to the opening night of the new Dubbo track and Loudoun continued his impressive form in taking out the opening round.

Despite light rain falling towards the end of the feature, the locals loved the thundering 800 plus horsepower Sprintcars.

The only downside was that Darryl Campbell, Gary Rooke and David Craft had crashes but overall the meeting was certainly a success for the NSW Sprintcar Club.

We will now have to wait until February 21 for Round 2 at the Gilgandra track.

– GREG BOSCATO

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Green grabs gold in Tasmania WORLD SERIES

with Max Dumesny in fourth The fast-finishing Jason Dawkins slid past James McFadden on the final lap to claim fourth.

– PARIS CHARLES Points: Tatnell 740, Dumesny 696, Farr 692, Green 676, Peter Lack 570.

Paris Charles

LAST Saturday’s victory in Round 6 of the Wanless World Series in Hobart was just the shot in the arm needed for Trevor Green and his Adrad Radiators-backed team.

Up to this point, the hard charger from Adelaide had suffered a string of bad luck with engines, blowing up and two differentials failing to go the distance.

Saturday night will hopefully prove to be a turning point for Green, who seemingly passed his bad luck onto fellow contracted driver Robbie Farr.

Things were going to plan for Farr after claiming the highest points score and

winning the dash race to start off pole.

Farr had the race in control as he led comfortably until the wing tree collapsed, ending his run.

Green slid into the lead and before to long had come under challenge from Kerry Madsen who mounted a serious assault for the lead before flipping out of contention in the Robyn Dawkinsowned machine, trying to avoid contact with the leader. Madsen limped home in thirteenth edging out contracted driver Ricky Maiolo.

But it was Green who powered on to victory lane aboard his Maxwell-powered Cool to end the successive winning streak of Brooke Tatnell, who finished second,

A nail-bitting finishing for Murcott SPRINTCARS VIC DAVID Murcott survived a dramatic 30-lap A Main to win his third successive Fireball Derby at Avalon Raceway on Saturday night.

A fast-finishing Matthew Reed raced into second place and closed quickly late in the A Main, which also doubled as the fourth round of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series. Reed though was not quite good enough to pass Murcott who hung on to win, while Mount Gambier’s Steven Lines grabbing third.

While Murcott celebrated, it

was West Australian driver Luch Monte who was left to ponder what looked a certain win.

Monte shook off Ryan Farrell in the race and looked to be cruising to a certain win until disaster struck at a restart with only a handful of laps remaining.

The problem was tyres and Monte’s was one of the first to deflate in what was a cruel turn of events that would also claim others.

Murcott just got on with what he does best, racing hard.

He got to second from his original fourth starting position to inherit the lead

following Monte’s demise and then the casualties began.

Suffering the same tyre fate as Monte were Grant Anderson, Darren Mollenoyux and Farrell who was placed third at the time.

Murcott becomes the first driver in the event’s 40year history to win his third successive Fireball Derby and was happy to win for his South Australian car owners Mike and Daryl Downing.

“Thanks to Mike and Daryl for towing the car over, it’s a long way for them and for once I get to travel 20 minutes down the road to my house

so thanks very much to them,” Murcott said.

“I had to race Ryan Farrell pretty hard for second and I thought once I got past him I would have a shot at Luch but tyre wear played a big part in it and in this case it’s better to be lucky than good.”

The next round of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series is scheduled for December 20 at Premier Speedway, Warrnambool.

– GEOFF ROUNDS Points: Reed 847, Van Bremen 761, Anderson 718, Ludeman 700, Mollenoyux 695.

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ANDRA TOP FUEL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 – PERTH MOTORPLEX

Three! three! three!

Lamattina was fast at Perth Motorplex – in fact, he is the fastest outside of the USA DRAG RACING

THE Perth Motorplex played host for Round 3 of the ANDRA Top Fuel Championship with six of the country’s quickest dragsters fighting for the win, it was always going to be a tough contest.

The biggest talking point of the weekend was the Fuchs lubricant’s team who got the tune-up perfect in qualifying.

Driver Phil Lamattina smashed his way to the top of the qualifying list with a blistering 4.591s pass at an amazing 333.33mph.

The velocity of the Fuchs dragster was the fastest speed recorded outside of the

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US with the 536.42kmh pass eclipsing the previous best terminal speed set by Scott Kalitta (332.84mph, 535.63kmh), which stands as the current ANDRA National Drag Racing record.

Morgan went on to take victory in the final, beating Phil Read, who actually had lane choice for the final.

Lamattina however proved that lane choice was not everything at the Perth Motorplex, as the Fuchs Lubricants dragster thundered to a 4.59s win over the Auto One Jim Read Racing entry with a very quick 4.62s, with the best race of the night saved for the Top Fuel final.

Lamattina made it through to the final thanks to a smashing win against DiFillipo

in Round 1 and a bye in Round 2.

Read defeated Allan Dobson and Darren Morgan in the semis. Read’s win against a Morgan was nothing short of sensational, Read’s 4.61s pass just beating Morgan’s 4.67s.

In qualifying, Morgan looked good, trailing Lamattina with a 4.751s pass. Next was West Aussie local, Allan Dobson with a 5.000s, defending ANDRA Champion Read with a 5.231s, Martin Stamatis with a 5.341s and Victorian Darren DiFillipo rounding out the field with a 5.933s.

The next round of the ANDRA Top Fuel Championship will be held at Western Sydney International Dragway, December 26 and 27.

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Rained out

SPEEDCAR

sutton-images.com

A fiery end ...

CHINESE RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP DEAN Herridge finished his 2008 season on fire in Shaowu, China – and not in a good way.

The West Aussie was looking good in the final round of the Chinese Rally Championship, running third heading into the final day. But with a few stages to run he damaged his factory Subaru, which resulted in a fire on the way back to service.

“We hit a big hole on the inside of a fast right-hander,” he said.

“It hit hard enough to break the lower control arm and, in the process, snapped the top of the suspension, the steering arm and then pulled the driveshaft from the gearbox.

“We made it most of the way [back to service], but the dragging tyre caught fire."

Out front the battle was between Finns Juha Salo and Jarkko Miettinen, with Salo rolling on the final stage having led most of the rally, handing victory to Miettinen.

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SPEEDCAR rookie Vitantio Liuzzi made a great debut as the UAE-based rock ‘n’ rollers began series two in Dubai.

Despite Race 2 being cancelled due to a flooded track, it was an encouraging start to the season with better racing, greater reliability and a more professional approach to the organisation.

Liuzzi looked strong all weekend, qualifying ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and rookie Christopher Zoechling, the Champ Car Atlantic racer being based in the UAE. Liuzzi bagged the lead and was never headed, while Frentzen battled with Gianni Morbidelli to secure second place, feeling that he could have caught Liuzzi had there

been a few more laps. Indeed, a handful were lost under the safety car after Jean Alesi tapped Stefan Johansson into a spin. The Swede mistimed his return to the pack and was hit from behind by Marcel Tiemann, his front left corner scooping Johansson’s car out of the way and into a roll!

The freak rain storm also forced the cancellation of the second GP2 Asia race.

Round 2 of the series was decided over just one race won by Kamui Kobayashi with Davide Valsecchi in second and Roldan Rodriguez in third.

New Zealander Earl Bamber finished down in 20th after a disappointing weekend, but fortunately dropped down only one position in the standings.

–DAVID ADDISON

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A9Xcellent GROUP A&C

Neil Hammond

VEE NATIONALS WHILE the V8 Supercars were saying farewell to Oran Park the Formula Vees were doing battle around Winton Raceway in Victoria.

The weekend saw plenty of close racing across the Formula Vee 1200 and 1600 field, as well as the HQ Holden 4-Hour Enduro.

John Morris/Mpix

PAUL Stubber won all three Group A/Group C races at Oran Park on the weekend, driving his ex-Holden Dealer Team A9X Torana. Stubber was shadowed closely in all three races by the Nissan Skyline DR30 of Glenn Seton.

The old HRT Walkinshaw VL Commodore of Norm Mogg and XD Falcon of Frank Binding battled for third place across the three races.

A large variety of other cars from all different eras

contested the three races, including an assortment of Nissans, Jaguars, Holdens, Fords and also some more obscure vehicles, like a Triumph Dolomite Sprint and a Volvo 240 Turbo. The speed differences between the cars resulted in lapped traffic being an obstacle for the frontrunners to negotiate.

As well as the three races, several demonstration runs were held, allowing the historic cars one last chance to travel around the Oran Park circuit.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

Vee Power

In the Formula Vee 1200 category Paul Sharman dominated the weekend taking four race victories from Eric Irvine, who grabbed four second places.

Wes Young battled through for two third places early in the weekend but fell away, allowing Philip Contessa to take the final spot on the podium in the last two races.

In the 1600 class drivers in four classes

fought it out across six races to determine the starting grid for the feature race.

In the end Ben Porter was too strong, winning the 12-lap feature ahead of Daniel Reinhardt and Michael Kinsella.

In the HQ enduro, the Keven Stoopman/ Andrew Williams combination was too good and led home Neil Cory/Bruce Heinrich, while Matt Lovell/Peter Holmes finished third just over a lap down.

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Literary Odd Spot Vandalism!

HERE at Motorsport News, it is not uncommon to see Editorial Old Bloke Branagan lurching around the place and muttering about young people, the education system and the lost art of spelling.

He would have dropped a valve had he seen Tony D’Alberto’s car’s rear window at Oran Park. During one of the practice sessions, the driver’s name had been vandalised in favour of some sponsor-

oriented, non-sequitur.

There is no telling what medical infarction may have occurred had he known that this was not an one-off. The second TDR car had ‘The Stig’ festooned on its windows, only to be replaced later on by ‘Reynolds’, as in David Reynolds.

‘D’Alberto’ was restored to the green Commodore when the going got serious on Saturday afternoon.

Quite right, too …

Jack Attacks Diabetes

JACK Perkins had a fairly quiet weekend in Sydney.

There was the Mack Trucks Commodore to race in the Fujitsu V8 Series races (and practice, and qualifying) and then there was the Jack Daniel’s VE to drive in the Main Game (ditto).

Then there were autograph sessions, merchandising appearance to make, polishing Larry’s helicopter …

Okay, we are joshing about the last part.

Among all the commitments, JP found

time to present a cheque to Mike Wilson, the CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Perkins was front and centre in the Bathurst Walk for a Cure in October; the aim of the exercise was to have 50 people raise $5000 for Diabetes research.

The result was that over 250 people took part and just under $26K was raised, which we reckon is a top effort.

To mark the occasion, Jack took Wilson for a blast in his FV8 car. Must have helped the cause; the young fella took his first round win of the season on Sunday.

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