Motorsport eNews Issue 105 - May 19-25, 2009 by V8 Sleuth

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Sydney It’s up to you!

Issue No. 105 19 – 25 May 2009

telstra backs homebush v8 SUpercar finale

jim’s new american muscle

new columnist!

Ambrose writes for eNEws

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

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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) Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Ken Ferguson, John Bosher, Luke Nieuwhof National: Lachlan Mansell, Mark Jones, Aaron Shaw.

Photographers Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/Mpix, AF1 Images, James Smith, Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn, Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, Geoff Gracie, Paris Charles, Neil Hammond, Joel Strickland, Ash Budd, Mike Patrick (UK) Motorsport eNews is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden

Issue No. 105 | 19–25 May 2009

news 4 The winner is ... 7 Front and centre 8 They’ll call him Pony 11 Shannons Aussies 13 Ambrose writes 18 Morgan out?

chat 20 5 minutes with ... opinion 22 Morris

Homebush, and Telstra! New WR front-end hand outs Jim Richards’ latest Biante Little racers for Winton eNews’ latest columnist Top Fueller’s race to the line Mark Winterbottom

23 van Leeuwen

Photographer’s NSW view Journo’s WA view

30 NASCAR 34 Superbikes 36 Extras

Wet and cold winners All Stars, All Stewart Haga’s double day WTCC, DTM, BTCC and more

race 24 Shannons Nats trade 40 Classifieds

David Wall was too strong at Phillip Island during the third round of the Australian GT Championship. Full report starts page 24 ...

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.

Joel Strickland

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

Roll Up, Roll Up

No, they are not racing over the Bridge. B V8 SUPERCARS THE success of Sydney V8 Supercar finale sits squarely in the hands of the New South Wales sporting public after the course of the event was set last Saturday. As many as 150,000 spectators are expected to attend Sydney’s first 500km race in December, with two 250km races over the course of the three-day event.

FOR FORMULA 1, MOTOGP AND WRC NEWS, OPINION AND ANALYSIS CLICK HERE T

news

p for Homebush

But, come December ... To kick off the Sydney Telstra 500, which was unveiled to the public in Martin Place on Saturday morning, six V8 Supercars drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge by. Three Falcons and three Commodores driven by Will Davison, Shane Van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard, Mark Winterbottom, Cameron McConville and Russell Ingall made the journey across the ironic landmark, which was

still open to Saturday morning traffic. The races will follow the format of the Adelaide 500, with 250km races on Saturday and Sunday. “Telstra is one of Australia’s best known brands and to have this iconic Australian company put its name to the Sydney Telstra 500 is a glowing endorsement for the event,” said V8 Supercars Australia Chairman

Tony Cochrane. “The Sydney Telstra 500 is an annual event of international calibre and one that must not be missed. “We are absolutely delighted to have Telstra on board.” Sydney’s Olympic precinct at Homebush will be turned into the multi-faceted entertainment area, with major concerts set to take place on both Friday and Saturday nights. An

announcement on the the identity of the performing acts will be made on July 28. Tickets to the Sydney Telstra 500 went on sale from Ticketek outlets on Monday. Prices range from $35 for a Friday general admission to $299 for a premium, three-day grandstand seat. All tickets include free NSW Government public transport in Sydney.

We are in the Big Smoke now: Six V8 Supercars crossing The Coathanger would have grabbed the attention of many a motorist early on Saturday morning. The drivers showed up in force, and the planning that has gone into turning the Olympic precinct into a racetrack shows great detail.

And, the Winner is ... V8 Supercar Fans, it’s over to you ... I LIVE in Melbourne, and sometimes, you cannot move for major sporting events. More than two centuries of rivalry between the biggest settlements in the colonies, then biggest cities in the country, have proved that Melbourne is the sporting heartland. Sydney is not. Both those expressions are generalisations. Both cities are big enough to support events, and there are enough people in NSW to ensure that the 500 is a success and runs for years. The question is, whether they will or not. I write this the day after 82,000 fans flocked to the MCG to watch an AFL match that was nothing out of the ordinary; it was

opinion Phil Branagan Executive Editor a regular season fixture. Such a number to almost any sporting event in the Emerald City is almost unthinkable. The targeted numbers for the Homebush race are not over the top, and they should grow in the future. So, if the Sydney V8 Supercar fans want this event to thrive, they need to vote with their feet. Heaven knows, there will be plenty of reminders it is on between now and December. If you want this race to be NSW’s mark on the motor racing landscape, stand up and make it so.

TO ACCESS GPWEEK – THE WORLD’S FIRST ‘VIRTUAL’ F1 MOTORSPORT MAGAZINE ...

Holden V8 SUPERCARS

THE Walkinshaw Racing Commodores of BJR and Rod Nash Racing head to Tasmania next week with updates to their front ends. The ‘customer’ WR VEs were tested with the new parts at Winton last week, and WOW driver Cameron McConville was impressed with changes the modifications made to his car. “We have been waiting for some time to test the newer-spec geometry,” he said. “The WR cars have been on that path since late last year and we could not test it on ours until there were enough parts, and spares, to go around all the cars. “So we tested at Winton, and we are happy

Phil Williams

To the Front for WR Commodores

enough with the improvements to run the parts in Tasmania. We backed-to-backed bits with our baseline Winton set-up. It can be difficult to assess these things since it takes two-and-ahalf hours to make the changes – and the track changes in that time.” McConville is confident that the new set-up will help the cars with the severe corners and power-down requirement that characterises Symmons Plains. “It speeds the steering up a bit and that will help with the turn in at the hairpin,” he says. “We will need less lock to get turned, and you can never get enough front-end grip. We certainly did not see any negatives from the test, so it should all help.”

Holden Motorspo V8 SUPERCARS

THE future of the Holden Racing Team remains less than crystal clear, despite clarification this week from Holden Motorsport Manager, Simon McNamara. McNamara has responded to eNews’s story last week concerning the future of the Holden Racing Team, and Triple 8 Race Engineering. “HRT is run by Walkinshaw Racing and we are endeavouring to continue that function with them,” he said. “At the end of the day, we hold the HRT brand and we can do what we like with it. But we have a long history with Tom [Walkinshaw] and there is no reason to change it at this stage. We are focused on making HRT a winning team. “There are no discussions between Holden and Triple Eight

news

Phil Williams

n: HRT Future is ... uncertain

ort responds to T8 link – but not much is clearer Race Engineering about Triple Eight becoming HRT in the future.” However, the status of the team, and what will happen in the future, is not a great deal clearer, with McNamara not ruling out that there have been conversations with Triple Eight. “There have been discussions between myself and the principal of Triple Eight about the business of V8 Supercar racing, as there are with other owners from time to time,” he said. “Roland [Dane] has a fair voice in the sport and there are a number of things to be discussed. For instance, he shares the same environmental goals as we do.” McNamara cryptically commented on whether there were options for Holden other than a Walkinshaw-Racing run HRT:

“No, if you are suggesting that we are talking to somebody else. That is not to say that we could not make somebody else HRT but that is not the case. “We are endeavouring to continue with Tom, and to continue with a winning HRT. We are more concerned about winning races than changing things.” McNamara was less expansive on whether Walkinshaw Racing would continue with its current set-up, comprising two HRT entries, plus one for Paul Dumbrell and a fourth for David Reynolds: “That is up to Walkinshaw. They have [four] cars’ support at the moment. “We are focused on HRT and making that team perform as well as it can. The development of Paul Dumbrell and David

Reynolds is part of a continuing plan, and hopefully they will be able to step up. “The business model of [whether to run] four cars [is] Walkinshaw Racing’s decision.” Likewise, he was unclear on whether there would be a more solid relationship between Holden and Triple Eight other than conversations between Dane and himself. “Who knows?” he replied. “Considering the work that they have done with FGs, you would think that they would be running ‘Pigs’, wouldn’t you? And that is not to say that I think that FGs are pigs! “If they are running Holdens, they will not be running pig badges!” – PHIL BRANAGAN

BRIEFLY... n Make sure you tune in to Webber v Monaco this Sunday night early, because there is something good to watch before it (no, not Rove). ONE is running ‘780, The Formula One Experience’ which follows Cam McConville’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drive the Honda F1 car at the Motegi circuit in Japan late last year. Of course, Honda shut up shop right after, so we are not sure what McConkey said about their car. But to find out, tune in at 8:30pm. BTW, we hear that ONE is planning a bunch of other racing docos for later in 09. n Although nothing has been officially announced apparently NASCAR will implement the ‘Car of Tomorrow’ in the Nationwide Series next season at the three restrictor plate events at Daytona and Talladega. The car will be the same chassis and body as the current Sprint Cup car, but will continue to use the lesser horsepower Nationwide Series engine. The obvious plan from there forward would be to implement the car full time in 2011. n Some of Australia’s best Drifters will be at this weekend’s Drift Supercup at Mallala, and eNews has two double passes to give away for the one-off event. So, if you like Drift cars and are based near Mallala, flick us an email – mnews@mnews.com.au – First in, most sideways!

Jim’s new Pony Car V8 SUPERCARS JIM Richards has started to build his next Biante Touring Car Masters chassis – an AMC Javelin. The seven-times Bathurst winner has secured one of the iconic American Motors Corporation-built ‘pony cars’ and plans on having it ready to race by the start of the 2009 season. “It’s a very unique car,” Richards said. “It won the Trans-Am title in the 70s. It never raced in Australia, but the Biante class is about getting cars that have raced with special history and are different to other cars. “We chose this car because it has a significant history, and because it’s a totally different looking car to anything.

Richards has secured a 1972model Javelin, complete with 360ci engine and four-speed gearbox. One of the key reasons Richards choose to build the AMC was because of its dimensions. The Javelin is of similar size to the class’ allconquering Mustangs, making it the ideal base to build a Biante race car around. “The car is actually very similar in set-up to a Mustang in terms of suspension and that sort of stuff. It has its own idiosyncracies, but it’s quite similar in ways,” he said. “And the reason I really like it is because it will add another dimension to the class. We’ve got Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers, Falcons, my Falcon Sprint – this will be great and I’m

looking forward to building it and getting it onto the track. “We’ve got the car and we’re slowly piecing together the parts to build it. I’ve still got the Falcon to run so that remains my priority at the moment. “By the end of this year, it should be ready, but it’s not something that we’re downing tools and flying into by any means. But for sure, we’d like it ready by the end of the year. “The class has got a following. Everyone likes it and it’s probably the only class that has three or four makes battling for the lead – it’s only going to get better.” The Javelins were built by the American Motors Corporation between 1968 and 1974. Javelins competed with success in American Trans-Am competition

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Martin for Monaco debut FORMULA RENAULT

JOHN Martin will join Mark Webber this weekend and take on the streets of Monaco. Martin will have a guest drive in the Formula Renault 3.5 support race at this weekend’s Monaco Formula One Grand Prix. The 24-yearold will race for Martin Donnelly’s Comtec Racing cars around the demanding 3.34km street circuit in a one-off appearance in the series. “I have never seen the place before, let alone turned a lap around there,” said Martin. “But I have driven it on the PlayStation. So I am

Dirk Klynsmith

and were built under licence in Europe and Australia, although never raced on these shores. So, with the car sorted, but what about the driver? eNews understands that Richards’ former Bathurst buddy Mark Skaife has his eyes set on driving in the Touring car Masters class sometime in the near future, and Richards’ Javlin may be the perfect car for him to race. “If at any time Mark wanted to have a drive, he’s more than welcome,” Richards said. “The Javlin isn’t Ford and it isn’t Holden, so it’s not rubbing anyone the wrong way! It would only be a guest drive. We haven’t spoken about it yet, but he is more than welcome to drive that car, or any of my cars. “Just like my son Steve. If he was allowed to, he could drive the Falcon.” – GRANT ROWLEY

not really going into it with any expectations; not having been there before and not having driven a Formula Renault 3.5 car before. But a podium would be an awesome result.” Martin will be the second Aussies to race in the series. Current IndyCar star Will Power raced in the Renault-backed championship in 2005. “I have always wanted to race at Monaco,” said the Queenalander, “and if one day I find myself with my dream come true in Formula 1, then at least I will be familiar with the circuit; it is not like you get opportunities to race there very often being a street circuit. So the more prepared I am the better.”

Technical ideas workshopped at Phillip Island for Australian GT class

Engineers asked for parity suggestions

Dirk Klynsmith

AUSTRALIAN GT LEADING Australian GT series engineers came together at Phillip Island to discuss better ways to achieve parity in the mixed marque class. With an insurgence of new makes to the booming Sportscar field this year, a period of ‘disparity’ was always likely, and it boiled over last week when John Teulen withdrew his pair of Moslers from the third round of the series at Phillip Island. After dominating the opening

round at Clipsal (with Craig Baird at the wheel), restrictors were used to nobble the performance of the Mosler at the Grand Prix meeting, plus additional weight to again slow it for Phillip Island. Mid-week, Teulen decided to pull out. Australian GT currently has a simple parity system – Level 1 for unseeded (non-professional) drivers and Level 2 for seeded drivers – and this is achieved by weight addition and restrictors. In the Baird/Mosler case, the car proved unstoppable, and an adjustment was affected, but

now the challenge is to find the right balance to ensure the cars stay in the series. “We were looking for some more ideas about how to set the parity for Level 1 and Level 2 competitors,” category administrator Rachael Wagg said. “We don’t want to have to keep using weight all the time. It’s not the ideal scenario. There are other ways of paritising between the two levels. The meeting was just a way to look at other ways to do it. “Nothing got set in stone at

the meeeting, it was simply a general discussion.” “We want the Moslers in the series – we’d never not want them. “They aren’t happy with how the parity is at the moment. We think it’s right, but we want them to be there. “Phillip Island proved that our parity is very good. David Wall’s car was changed prior to the Island, and he still won the races, but I think it showed that parity is good and the competitors have mixed in together very well.”

economic downturn coming into play, Bradbury had to shelve plans to race V8 Utes. The former gold medallist said he would like to contest more rounds of the series. “I’d love to do well at

Symmons and possibly even get a few more opportunities with MINI Challenge,” he said. “It looks like a fantastic series and I’m very excited about being asked to drive the Uber Star car.”

Bradbury’s MINI chance MINI CHALLENGE

Marshall Cass

STEVEN Bradbury will make his MINI Challenge debut at Symmons Plains during Round 2 of the series in two weeks. Bradbury, who gained fame by becoming Australia’s first ever Winter Olympic Gold Medallist at the 2002 Games held in Salt Lake City, has competed in a variety of statebased motor racing categories over the past few years, but his new MINI entry will be his most serious racing activity to date. Bradbury will drive the UberStar car at the Tasmanian circuit.

“The twin scroll turbo charged MINI Challenge cars are really fast and I’m hoping to put the Uber-Star car into it’s best ever placing,” he said. “I can’t wait. I’ve never raced at Symmons Plains or paid too much attention to it before in terms of racing there but now I’m trying to find a Playstation game this week to learn a bit about the place. It’s a race against time to get as prepared as I can for the drive.” Bradbury had big plans for motor racing this year, but with some of the effects of

news

Ken Ferguson

Winton Aussies Marshall Cass

New Drag Calendar DRAG RACING THE Australian National Drag Racing Association has released a new calendar for next season. Much of the calendar mirrors this season and years past, however next year’’s Australian Championships will include new events at Willowbank Raceway and Perth Motorplex as well as revised events at Western Sydney International Dragway. “We are extremely pleased with the new calendar,” said ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton. “It has a number of benefits for racers over previous schedules

and for racers, we have a good number of rounds and the travel burdens have been lessened. We are also taking some brackets of our Pro Series brackets to markets at which they’ve never appeared! “With our new ONE HD Television deal attracting a huge amount of positive feedback as well as some terrific corporate support through our new series partners, I am sure this will be the best ANDRA Championship season to date.” For a full run down of the classes and dates for the 2009/10 season, go to www.andra.com.au

AUSSIE RACING CARS THE Aussie Racing Car Super Series will make two appearances on this year’s Shannons Nationals program. The pint-sized racers will compete at Winton and Oran Park, adding to the classes appearances on V8 Supercar events and Australian Superbike rounds. Series creator Phil Ward said that the addition of two Shannons rounds gives his competitors and the class an even greater reach. “We are delighted to race on the Shannons Nationals program,” said series creator Phil Ward. “The two-day race meetings keeps cost down for competitors and running on the Shannons program has some benefits with television,

giving our guys great value in these difficult times. “And this gets back to the grass roots of Aussie Racing Cars. It creates more opportunities for the competitors to be involved as well, and there’s a big variance of circuits. I think when you look at it, our class has it pretty good across the board. The confirmation of a round at Winton means that it will be the next round of the ARC series, followed by Eastern Creek (Superbikes), Oran Park (Shannons), Surfers Paradise (V8 Supercars), with the final round still to be decided. The Winton and Oran Park meetings will have unofficial practice on Friday, with practice qualifying and one race on Saturday, followed by three races on Sunday. – GRANT ROWLEY

Tag out of 500 Canadian star bumped by 0.04s INDYCAR

Honda Racing

QUALIFYING is over and the field is set for the 93rd Indianapolis 500 – and the man left out in the cold was Alex Tagliani. The Canadian stared into space when the fourth and final session ended at 6pm Sunday, Indianapolis time. As Ryan HunterReay and John Andretti made their way into the race, all Tagliani could do was to comfort himself that 1996 500 winner Buddy Lazier was out of the race as well. For once, Bump Day was filled with drama. First Bruno Junqueira slid inside Andretti’s time to place his Conquest Racing car on row 10 for the race. Then Tomas Scheckter withdrew his time, which qualified him for the race, and improved in the Dale Coyne entry. Then Andretti made two attempts. The first failed to get him into the race but he made is in the second, good enough in fact to make it to 29th in the 33-car race. Lazier made one final effort, followed by rookie Stanton Barrett, but with

barely enough time to make the deadline, RHR pulled on his helmet for one final effort. His Vision Racing Dallara was racing through the shadows as he complete the four laps just 0.04s faster than Tagliani to, literally, snatch the final spot in the race away. “I can’t believe we found ourselves in this position to have to qualify in the last three minutes,” said the relieved American. I wouldn’t have put money on that. “It worked in our favour but it was just a question on minutes because Tagliani was pretty fast. Luckily we went out last. We ran downforce levels you wouldn’t believe. We were as trimmed out as anybody has been this month and we still could make it into the 221 mph for some reason but we made it in the show and that is what counted today.” Three women will start the race, Danica Patrick (from 10th), Milka Duno (31st) and Sarah Fisher, who will make her eighth start (a record for a female driver) from 21st. – MARY MENDEZ

When One Legendary Name saves Another INDYCAR

IndyCar Media

JOHN Andretti owes Graham Rahal at least a dinner after a phenomenal save at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In fact, Rahal’s quick reaction may just have saved the NASCAR driver’s life. With less than two hours to go on the second day of qualifying, Andretti, right, made hard contact entering Turn One during open practice. As Rahal came across the debris field at over 215 mph, he chose to run high.

But Andretti’s car slid up towards the wall and Rahal took split-second evasive action not to T-bone Andretti’s cockpit, putting his car into a 90-degree slide. Rahal, 20, managed to slip down to the pit-exit, warmup road where he regained control of his Newman-HaasLanigan car without hitting anything. Of course, he needed a new set of tyres as his were severely flat spotted and it’s likely both drivers needed a change of underwear. – MARY MENDEZ

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The Mayfield Saga, Pt II Toyota Motorsports

NASCAR

AUSSIE NASCAR STAR MARCOS AMBROSE WRITES FOR MOTORSPORT eNEWS

THE controversy over Jeremy Mayfield’s recent drugs suspension continues, with denials, sharp words and even a little comedy. Mayfield is barred from all NASCAR events after being suspended for failing a drug test on May 9. However, he was ‘discovered’ in the infield outside of the NASCAR garage area on top of a motor home at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Saturday. He even spoke to reporters for 10 minutes, and denied that he had taken a prohibited drug. “Am I denying it? Yeah, I’m denying it,” he affirmed. “Illegal drugs? Yeah, definitely.” Under NASCAR’s drugs where NASCAR business or policy, it does not disclose responsibilities are conducted,” what drugs are involved in commented NASCAR these matters. In fact, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston. does not provide drivers with a list of prohibited substances, “This includes, but is not limited to, the garage, spotters though drivers are starting to stand, pit road, driver/owner ask whether that policy might lot, and hospitality areas. change. There seems to have been a Mayfield is contemplating misunderstanding on Jeremy’s legal action at this point part. NASCAR officials spoke and continues to claim it with him and he understands was a reaction between a the rules of suspension and prescription medication and agreed to comply.” over-the-counter allergy Mayfield has named his wife medicine Claritin (ironically, a Shana as the new listed owner sponsor on Carl Edwards’s car) of the team so it can continue that caused the issue. to operate, and JJ Yeley has NASCAR has continued come aboard as the driver until to state there is no appeal such time as Mayfield can get process and that offenders reinstated by the governing must go through a full rehab body. program with Dr. David Black, Until that process takes place, who heads their drug testing Mayfield does have support. program. Before Saturday’s All Star race, Mayfield left the track after NASCAR officials met with him. a light plane trailing a banner flew over the Lowe’s track. The “No suspended driver or banner read, ‘Free Mayfield’ … crew member is permitted – MARTIN D CLARK in any area of the track

This ain’t no Game i-marcos

I MUST be onto something. It’s a week since we Marcos Ambrose started our iRacing.com Australian NASCAR driver push into Australia and New Zealand, then over the weekend, NASCAR announced that there will be an official NASCAR competition for the simulation in 2010. I say simulation, and not game, for a very good reason. I can genuinely say that I’ve used this stuff to learn the tracks over here, keep my eye in between races and just generally race NASCAR. I might be starting to find my feet over here, but I’m still fresher than most, so I need all the help I can get I guess. But it seems there will be a lot more guys on there very soon, so I better get in as much practice as I can. But while guys like Dale Jr, Brad Keselowski and TJ (Jr’s spotter) are pretty handy on it, a lot of the gurus of iRacing. com are just sim racers that love to race without the need of a $20 million sponsor. In terms of my Sprint Cup program, it was a pity not to make the All-Star on the weekend. It would have been nice, but I’d be lying if I said it was my biggest priority this season. Getting the car right for the 600 next weekend was a large part of our focus and I think we have come some of the way to getting it better, but not the whole way. Even saying ‘600’ makes me think it’s going to be a long race – that’s almost as many ‘kays’ as Bathurst, but all by yourself. These longer Cup races are quite new to me, but it seems that when you have a good car, you jump out and you could go and start another race straightaway. But when your car is ugly, it feels like it’s never ever going to end. Hopefully on Memorial Day our Kingsford car is kind to me and the time flies by. By entering ‘PR-AMBROSE’ as the promotional code when joining iRacing.com, you can get a three-month trial subscription for just US$25.

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INVITATIONALS

Joel Strickland

A TARGA Invitational class has filled the final available support category slot for the Symmons Plains V8 Supercar round. The brainchild of Q Media’s Glenn Ridge, ‘Invitationals’ is aimed at cars and drivers from all walks of life to compete at major V8 Supercar races. The Symmons Plains round is the first ‘Invitationals’ event, featuring classes such as Classic Cars, Exotic Cars, Muscle Cars, Targa Cars, Drift Cars and Performance Cars. At Symmons Plains, the ‘Invitationals’ will feature Targa Tasmania’s Tarmac Rally cars, usually seen during tarmac rally events, plus local Tasmanian circuit racing. Headlining the entrants will be local

driver Jason White in his Lamborghini. A former Targa Tasmania winner, White will be up against RX7s, WRX and a major cross section of other cars. “It’s a group of local cars – if they can

Joel Strickland

Invitationals to compete at V8s

enter Targa Tasmania, they can enter at Symmons Plains,” he said. “Were talking with the V8s about other opportunities, but now on the V8 calendar, its difficult for local classes to get an opportunities to race there. “There are some really good state classes around, and this is a great situation where V8s had space and we thought we’d put the local class on.” The Invitationals will conduct practice and qualifying on Friday, two races on Saturday and two races on Sunday. Twenty-eight entries are confirmed for the Symmons Plains round. And the appriopriate final touch – Barry Oliver will be the class’ course commentator ... – GRANT ROWLEY

NASR: McAvaney steps aside SPEEDWAY

Paris Charles

National Association of Speedway Racing Chairman Neil Sayer today announced that General Manager Tim McAvaney will step aside in June. The resignation of McAvaney comes after eight years in the job, a time in which a great deal of change has occurred at NASR. “NASR is a very complex organisation and many

challenges have been faced over the past eight years. The NASR Board thanks Tim for his contributions and leadership over that period and we wish him well in the future,” said Sayer. McAvaney leaves to take up the position of General Manager of Murray Bridge Speedway in South Australia, citing a change of lifestyle had prompted the decision. “It was a difficult decision to move on,” explained

McAvaney. “NASR has been central to my life but there comes a time for a change and a new challenge. “I would like to thank the Board of Directors, the NASR staff and volunteers for their support and look forward to continuing the many friendships I have made.” The NASR Board will meet this week to determine a replacement strategy. – PARIS CHARLES

Mladin: No WSBK

Laconi

Aussie Superbike ace may have been in frame for Miller Park ride – but it’s too late now ... WORLD SUPERBIKES

Suzuki Racing

A POSSIBLE opportunity for Mat Mladin to take on the leading lights of the World Superbike Championship appears to have gone begging. The legendary Australian racer was being mentioned by some in connection with the Alstare BruxSuzuki WSBK ride in the American round at Miller Motorsport Park, but it appears that the key stakeholders were not included in the conversation until it was too late. Mladin’s team manager Peter Doyle has told eNews that time will now defeat any notions of the multiple AMA champion taking on the stars of the WSBK – including his former team-mate Ben Spies. “The biggest problem was that no-one actually spoke with Suzuki Japan, American Suzuki or

Mat himself,” Doyle confirmed. “It appears that the WSB people, Miller track management and a few other individuals were all talking about it, but that’s as far as it went. “Bottom line now is that while everyone thinks it would be a good idea its now too late to do it properly so it wont happen. Even our team here is so busy with having to run two different model bikes already this year we wouldn’t have time to do anything either.” Ironically, Mladin’s team’s nearly three-year winning streak ended at Infineon Raceway on the weekend. Josh Hayes won his first AMA race on his Yamaha R1, with Mladin’s team-mate Tommy Hayden second. The Aussie was fifth, with set-up problems nullifying his pole-setting qualifying speed.

DFX ace faces long crash

Kiwi TRS CIK KARTING

Suzuki Racing

FRESH from victory in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series, Mitch Cunningham will head to Australia next week to compete in the opening round of the 2009 Australian CIK Karting Championship in Newcastle, NSW. Since making his debut on Australian shores 12 years ago at the 1997 City of Adelaide Titles, Cunningham has been competing in a variety of motorsports around the world, but now, he’s returning to his roots. “I’m really looking forward to getting back into a kart and using the Australian CIK Championship to keep my eye in for my 2009/2010 campaign here in New Zealand,” said Cunningham, a five-time New Zealand Karting Champion. “I love the CIK style of racing and have raced at three of the four tracks in the Australian

i out of Coma

WORLD SUPERBIKES

g rehab after Kyalami practice

DFX Corse

THE future of Regis Laconi looks to be in doubt following a serious crash in South Africa. Friday’s practice session was stopped almost as soon as it started when the French veteran was thrown violently from his DFX Ducati 1098R during his out lap. Unconscious, he was transferred by air ambulance to Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, where after he was diagnosed with two fractured vertebrae, doctors placed him in a medically-induced coma. Initials fears of nerve damage and possible paralysis appear to have been tempered by the news that Laconi has displayed some movement in his legs, after emerging from the coma on Sunday morning. A procedure to stabilise his broken vertebrae will be

conducted tomorrow, and after a stay of two weeks, he is expected to be returned to France to continue his recovery. There is no word yet whether DFX will run another rider on its bike in the USA at the end of the month. Ironically, former DFX rider Steve Martin raced at Kyalami, subbing for the injured Troy Corser at BMW.

S Champ targets CIK title

Championship which puts me in a good position for the Championship.” Cunningham will compete

in the Championship aboard a CRG chassis. Lining up alongside him in the battle for the CIK Championship

will be two of Australia’s most experienced karters who are both making their return to the top level of karting in the

country, Tyson Pearce and Kip Foster. Since winning the 2003 Australian Intercontinental C CIK Championship in 2003, Pearce has spent a number of years away from the sport – his first lengthy break since starting his career almost 20 years ago. “CIK racing is what I want to do. It has always been the pinnacle of karting for me and I’m looking forward to getting back into it,” said Pearce. “With work commitments and a family life it makes it difficult for me to take almost a week off to compete at State Championships, which is why the CIK Championship is so attractive to me.” The return of CIK competition in Australia will see all drivers use the IAME Parilla KF2 (formerly Intercontinental A) specification engine, that produces an impressive 40hp, on the chassis of the driver’s choice fitted with Dunlop tyres.

John Morris/Mpix

Cash-strapped Darren Morgan pleades for support

Morgan in doubt DRAG RACING Darren Morgan’s famous 300km per hour Boxing Day Top Fuel incident may put an end to his Castrol EDGE Winternationals campaign at Willowbank Raceway (June 4-7) before it even starts. While the crash may no longer be affecting the Darren Morgan Racing Team’s results, (demonstrated by the team’s maiden event win at WSID’s Nitro Champs which sees the Mildura racer hanging on to second in the Top Fuel championship), it has caused terminal damage to the DMR operating budget. A $300,000 repair bill combined with two costly event rain-outs has seen the team more than exhaust its budget for this season and without additional sponsor support they will not be on track again until next season’s opener. “It isn’t that we don’t want to race, but unfortunately we just do not have any room to

move financially now that we have come to the end of the season after the year’s expensive ups and downs,” lamented Morgan. “We would love to go to the Winternationals, but unless we can entice a backer for the Event we will not be there. “We have entered the Rocket Industries Dragster just in case - we are trying to be positive, but without extra support it won’t be possible as I do not want to put the team behind the eight ball for next season before it even starts by spending that budget ahead of time, so we may have to make some tough decisions if we can’t rally up some immediate support. “All I need is a extra $20,000 in addition to the great support we already have on-board, and we will go above and beyond to help out whoever is happy to give us that support as we really want to be able to go to the event and look at securing second place in the championship.”

Junior Dragster Kiwi Invasion DRAG RACING THE inaugural Cosmic Enterprises Junior Dragster Challenge to be held at Willowbank Raceway on Saturday May 30th has attracted international involvement. 13 year old New Zealander Brock Hodgson has confirmed he will head across the Tasman to contest the event. The Year 9 student from Auckland will take on over

60 local drivers at the Junior Challenge before facing Australia’s biggest-ever field of over eighty Junior Dragsters the following week at Willowbank Raceway’s Castrol Edge Winternationals. “I am really excited about it,” said Hodgson. “Racing at a whole event just for Junior Dragsters will be a lot of fun and there is going to be so many cars at the Winternationals I know it is going to be intense.

“It will be great to fly the New Zealand flag amongst all the Aussies.” At the two events Brock will drive the Junior Dragster formerly campaigned by local racer Jimmy Agate. Jimmy’s father Bruce Agate, otherwise known as ‘Gonzo,’ is one of New Zealand’s best known drag racing exports to Australia. Agate acted as crew chief on a number of championship winning Pro Stock cars.

news

Two Men and a Lady

Phillips wedged between Reed family with one Top Alcohol round to go

John Bosher

DRAG RACING Gary Phillips has clawed his way back to second spot on the ANDRA Championship points table after a clean sweep of the KARCHER Nitro Champs at Western Sydney International Dragway, sandwiching himself between husband and wife combination of Steve and Debbie Reed in the points tally. After accruing the five bonus points from setting low ET of the event with a career best 5.545, Phillips consequently top qualified and then went on to win the event, disposing of current series leader Steve Reed in the final with an

aggressive 5.634 second Steven still maintains a charge at 255.15mph, netting slender 5 point lead over another five points for the Phillips in the National title, event’s top speed. with Debbie also still in After qualifying his 3500 contention a further 25 points horsepower Funny Car in in arrears with just one round third position, Steven Reed remaining in the series. advanced through his quarterAn elated Gary Phillips said; final match up before facing off “We had to win this event or against Debbie in his semi-final. it would have been all over Steven then managed to for the chance to win the take the win over Debbie and championship. It’s nice to also managed to even the have these weekends once in ledger at two wins a piece a while when everything goes in head to head encounters your way. for the season between the “Now it will come down to the husband and wife duo. Reed Winternationals, which is like a however wasn’t able to get storybook ending really from past Phillips in the Final and a drag racing and spectators had to settle for the runner-up point of view with any one of trophy after suffering clutch the top three able to take the issues. title at the final event.”

In the Reed camp, Steve was having dramas. “I was having clutch issues with my Funny Car all weekend at the Nitro Champs, so to qualify third and get the runner up trophy was a fantastic effort by the team,” Reed said. “We were still running off consistent quick 5 second passes despite our problems, which gives us great confidence coming into the Winternationals in June for the decider as we know what we have to do to rectify it.” The final round of the ANDRA Top Alcohol Championship will be the Winternationals held at Willowbank Raceway from the 4th-7th June.

No win, but promising signs for DecoGlaze team DRAG RACING He may be new to the ANDRA Pro Stock ranks but Jason Hedges and his DecoGlaze Motorsport team are making a big impression with a finals appearance at the 2009 KARCHER Nitro Champs held at WSID two weeks ago. The second session of qualifying saw the team lower its personal best elapsed time

to a 7.152s run, which was good enough to qualify the team in the fifth.’ The first round of eliminations saw the team face off with Shane Tucker with the win going to Hedges with a time of 7.18s. In the semi-final matchup with Lee Bektash, Lee went red with a 0.003s light and threw away an excellent 7.14s second pass. In the final the Hedges faced up against the new national elapsed time record

holder John ‘The Rooster’ Barbagallo. In the first round of eliminations Barbagallo turned in a smashing time of 7.04s. No doubt a very impressive time and a time that was going to be very tough to beat in the final. Hedges got the jump off the line with a 0.045 light; however it wasn’t quite enough to hold off his 7.06s. Regardless, there are some promising signs for the DecoGlaze team.

5 Minutes with ...

MARK WINTERBOTTOM

The FPR star drove SBR’s SP Tools car at QR and the SP is that the FG was A-OK ...

So, you are saying that characteristics that teams build into their cars carry over from generation to generation of cars? They do. When you develop something, you are generally trying to develop your strengths and minimise your weaknesses. There are a lot of strengths on our car, and we have gone down the path of what works and trying to make that better. We have been able to improve the strengths, but when you

YOU ALWAYS THINK THAT YOU HAVE DEVELOPED YOUR CAR THE BEST WAY YOU CAN, BUT THERE ARE ALWAYS THINGS YOU MISS OUT ON MW ON FPR

FPR

MOTORSPORT NEWS: It’s unusual that you get to drive another team’s race car. How did you approach that? MARK WINTERBOTTOM: It is a bit different. It was different to do something like this during the season, as well, but the good thing from my point of view is that I have driven for that team before. So that meant that I went up there with an expectation of what the car should be like because, even five years on, it felt very similar to the car I drove in the Development Series. I went there pretty excited. This is quite a rare thing, and I was trying to be like a sponge to try to soak up all the good bits on the car. I was looking at the positives and the negatives so that we could go away and have a think about things, and see what we could do to our car. But it was exciting to be able to do that. You always think that you have developed your car the best way you can but there are always things that you miss out on. So it was a really good day.

take that away and go off in a completely different direction, you lose all your speed, instantly. So, I was a little surprised how much it felt like my Development car from ’03. Obviously, they have made a lot of improvements in all kinds of areas, but the basic characteristics of it were the same. In a situation like that, where Shane drove your car and you drove his, do you need to make a conscious decision to be totally open about it? You have to. There is no use in driving it and only telling half the story. You do it for a reason and you need to be as open as possible. I needed his honest opinion and I gave him my honest opinion of what I thought. There is no benefit telling half the story, or portraying something as good when it is not. Honesty was the best way to do it; the more open you are, the better information you get out of it.

We were both very similar with our feedback, we both have a different direction on what we think our cars need. Is this something that you think we may see more of in the future – even on the Holden side of the fence? They already have got it! They have HRT, HSV [Ed: Walkinshaw Racing], BOC and so on. They have quite a few cars, so there is already some kind of technical alliance. Triple 8 has DJR and Cruickshanks, so it is not like there are not these things in place. Other teams have already got that. We have tried to link ourselves with another team. Both being Ford-funded teams is the best fit that you can have. That is the best outcome. Stones have won championship, there are a lot of smart things on their cars and some smart guys within their team. It is not only logical, it is sensible to team up to see what we can improve.

Do you feel close to getting that breakthrough win this season? I think so. We have come a long way already this season and the cars are strong. We just need to finish it off and prove how strong they are. We have had pole, we have had the speed but we need to finish it off. I am sure that a race win is not far away. Tassie has always been good for us, we tested on Tuesday and we have only had one test day all year. We are trying to develop new cars and every time we run, we pick up. We are not far off, and hopefully in Tassie, we can be on the top step. You are a driver of some experience now. Do you feel that people are looking to you and expecting victories? I guess so. We were such a strong team last year and when you qualify on pole, it puts great expectations on carrying that forward to win. But we put plenty of pressure on ourselves, and no one else can put any more pressure or expectations on us than the team already does. We need to get a win. Second place is a great momentum builder, but we need to win. There are no excuses, we are working hard and I don’t think that it is far away. There is only one team that has won races, so it is not that we are doing a bad job. One team is having a great run. We are not far away from that win.

chat

FPR

Sydney still a challenge – for old and new opinion

John Morris eNews Photographer

John Morris/Mpix

A SMALL advertisement on the side of the road near Oran Park was all that alerted me to the last Supertruck race meeting at Oran Park. Another advert, tucked away in the sports section of Thursday’s Telegraph, promoted the launch of the Sydney 500 in Martin Place, also on Saturday. So I spent the day travelling between Oran Park and Martin Place, from the winding-down of a once great racing venue in NSW to the public launch of Sydney’s newest racing circuit … and I couldn’t help but draw some comparisons. Supertruck racing was once a huge drawcard for fans in Sydney with names like ‘Cricky’ and ‘Tulloch’ sitting alongside the other great circuit-racing identities of ‘Brocky’. ‘Moffat’ and ‘Dick’. Yet the last truck event took place with barely a whimper – no displays, no visits by past greats and, unfortunately, no crowd. The V8 launch had its similarities. The choice of Martin Place seemed unusual. You see, even though it is in the centre of the Sydney CBD, it’s not a weekend venue for crowds. Monday to Friday, the area is crammed with people, especially during lunchtime. However over the weekend shoppers stay in regional centres, whilst visitors tend to hang at Darling Harbour or the Rocks. I guess the venue choice was linked to the desire to incorporate a Harbour Bridge

crossing by some V8s – albeit at dawn – primarily for TV news value. Through the morning commercial radio ads encouraged fans to come along, from 10am to 3pm, but I arrived at Martin Place at 12.45pm just in time to glimpse the V8 transporter and cars, before the cars were loaded onto flat top trucks and driven away. Public show-up had been limited, and the TV element of the deal was done and dusted. I couldn’t help but think that it had been a day of missed opportunities all-round. As motorsport – indeed sport in general – has discovered over time, the Sydney audience is a hard nut to crack. Just look at the V8 crowds at Eastern Creek, or the A1GP. The 500cc bikes struggled to draw good

crowds when held at Eastern Creek. Even Top Fuel driver Phil Read admits that it is difficult to get crowds to Sydney race meetings. So what’s the problem? I just think back to my childhood. Every year my dad would get set for Bathurst, planning the event for weeks, making sure that he had food, drinks and the best position. On race day that was it – from 7am he would sit on his lounge chair and watch the telecast. Heaven help any child that interrupted him outside of an ad break. Yet he never actually went to Bathurst to watch the race. In his younger days he would go to Warwick Farm, if the drawcard was strong enough. He even took me to Oran Park when they had that record crowd. However the

four-hour drive home, stuck in a perpetual traffic jam, meant that he would never take me there again. And that appears to be at the root of the ‘Sydney problem’ – getting to events isn’t easy and settling for the easy stay-at-home option just becomes the simple answer. There’s a lot being put into Homebush, and it ought to work, but how do you take the message to the people? How do you involve the public? How do you get them to get off their butts? That is the huge challenge facing the event – and a marketing task of some size. In the end, it will come down to the magnetism of the event itself, its novelty, some ease of getting to and from, and whether that is enough to get folk like my Dad off the sofa!

opinion

circlework.com.au/Brian White

The West isn’t totally in the dark ... TODAY is my three-year anniversary as a Victorian. Well that’s not entirely true; it was three years ago to this very day that my white Toyota and I arrived in Melbourne, bright eyed and bushy tailed (whatever the hell that means), but while I might have been living here for three years, I’m still a West Aussie at heart, and I always will be. However, having spent the last three years trying to convince my colleagues and friends here on the dark side that Perth isn’t stuck in the 1970s, I see that the people of WA have voted AGAINST daylight saving. Thanks guys, you’ve just proved the Victorians right. I’m glad I don’t support the Dockers or the Eagles, because if I did I’d be too embarrassed to wear a scarf for the next few weeks while this shemozzle blows over. But while that was clearly a ridiculous oversight by almost the entire WA public, the West got something right over the weekend – the Autotrader Trophy meeting at Barbagallo Raceway. There was a recorded figure of something like 2300 members of the public turning out to watch what was essentially an ordinary State Championship meeting; by that I

opinion Andrew van Leeuwen eNews Deputy Editor mean there were no V8 Supercars or SuperTrucks, those meetings being the real crowd pullers in the West. And it goes to show what a little promotion does. It was all to do with the Autotrader support, and the fact that there was something like 20,000 free tickets distributed for the event. And out of that, having a 10 percent take-up rate, for state racing, is pretty bloody good. There were also 141 entries, the biggest for a couple of seasons (again ignoring the V8 and truck meetings). The sun shined all day, and fun was had by all. Unfortunately, as a Victorian, I wasn’t there. I was at Phillip Island for the Shannons Nationals, and the sun wasn’t shining. And there sure wasn’t 2300 members of the public there either, the figure probably closer to 200 – and that’s being pretty nice. For all those who are starting to think that this is Shannons Nationals bashing, it’s not; it’s just that with a whole bunch of Australian Championships on the bill, and a population four times the size to

tap into, Victoria should have been able to outperform WA. Sure, weather plays a part, and Phillip Island is a lot further from Melbourne than Barbagallo is from Perth. But in my mind, it’s the free tickets that do it. There is a recession going on, so spending $20 per person, on a Sunday-only ticket, at Phillip Island was never going to look all that attractive. Not when the local footy game is on for free. But a sun-soaked day on the grass watching state racing for nothing? That’ll keep the accountant happy. Let’s roll. A recession doesn’t have to be a time where event organisers throw their hands in the air and ask ‘what can you do?’ It can be a time to be a little inventive marketing-wise, and make your motor racing event too good to miss – like the WA Sporting Car Club did last weekend. I’m no bean counter, but would you rather have 200 people paying $20 to get in the gate, or 2300 people paying $10 for a hot dog at lunchtime? Anyway, come summertime, us East Coasters will have our own back when we can head down the beach for a few hours after work. And we’re not even worried about all that extra sunlight fading our curtains …

SHANNONS NATIONALS ROUND 3 – PHILLIP ISLAND

Wall on the Ball

David Wall established a comfortable Australian GT Series lead with two slippery wins at Phillip Island. CALLUM BRANAGAN was there

race

Dirk Klynsmith

AUSTRALIAN GT

avid Wall made it two from two enroute to winning the Australian GT Classic at Phillip Island last weekend. The weekend showcased two one hour endurances, with the option of a driver change. Wall, however, elected to run the races himself, and in the end, it was the right decision. Race 1 saw the Porsche driver capitalised on a mechanical failure on Tony Quinn’s Aston Martin DBRS9 to take the outright win in greasy conditions, before finishing first again in Race 2 ahead of a speedy Dean Grant and a consistent Jim Richards. “It was an exceptional race”, said an elated Wall. “We really didn’t expect to have any of the results that we had, and I didn’t expect to get

pole because the air restrictor really hurts the car at a place like this, especially heading for the Hayshed with the wind yesterday (Saturday). “We managed to stay on the track, and we lost a position to Jim (Richards) in Race 2 for a while, but I really didn’t mind him leading while it was so slippery, then we tried to get our way past and we succeeded, and tried to move on when we could. “It goes to show that the pace is there, and our pit strategy worked for us.” Richards finished the weekend second overall, with a second and a third place finishes. Driving his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car, Richards took full advantage of the adverse conditions to challenge Wall for honors in Race 1. “We went as fast as we could the whole race.” Richards said. “It was a bit slippery, and

we managed to sneak into the front for a while, we swapped positions with the Lamborghinis and David (Wall) a couple of times, and it was a great race.” The Ferrari F430 of Nick O’Halloran and Allan Simonsen were the best placed of the two driver combinations, with Simonsen breaking the long standing lap record on his way to securing seventh place in Race 2. Jordan Ormsby cruised to an outright class win in GT Challenge, driving his Porsche GT3 RS, following an off by rival Michael Loccisano on lap two. Paul Freestone (Corvette ZO6) fended off Mark O’Connor’s Lotus Exige S in a ‘David verses Goliath’ battle for GT Production honors. The Australian GT Championship continues in four weeks time at Sydney’s Eastern Creek.

race

John Morris/Mpix Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

Sportscars + Phillip Island = Match made in heaven: The start of Race 2, top, saw David Wall hit turn one first, and he wasn’t headed from there. Jordan Ornsby, above, won the GT Challenge class while left, Dean Grant put in a special performance to finish second in Race 2.

Macrow narrows gap

Foster and Macrow shared F3 race wins, while Jamieson, Holdsworth and Kingsley all took wins in their classes. LACHLAN MANSELL reports SHANNONS NATIONALS

RIT Joey Foster and Aussie Tim Macrow again shared race victories in the third round of the Australian Formula 3 Championship in Round 3 of the Shannons Nationals at Phillip Island on the weekend. In the opening race, held in wet conditions, Foster dominated, taking a 20-second victory. However, in Race 2, a collision between Foster and Mat Sofi ended the British driver’s race, and allowed Macrow to cruise to victory, and also to close within 18 points of the series lead. Leanne Tander made a one-off return to Formula 3, driving her 2007 F3 car, and spent most of the weekend battling with her team-mate Ben Crighton en route to

two victories in the National class. Tom Tweedie continues to lead the national class despite chalking up a DNF in Race 1. Brett Holdsworth bounced back from ninth place in the weekend’s opening Commodore Cup race to win Races 2 and 3 and the round. Holdsworth qualified on pole, but came together with Michael Tancredi in the opening race and slipped off the circuit, allowing Tancredi to take the race win. Holdsworth made the most of a front-row start in the second, top-10 reverse-grid race to take a lights-to-flag victory, and followed up with another win in Race 3. Nick Parker held the Commodore Cup series lead with second place overall, while Tancredi secured the final podium position despite engine problems in the final. Shawn Jamieson extended his Saloon Car

series lead with a round win, taking out two of the three races while defending Champ Steve Kwiatkowski was the other race winner. Tim Rowse finished third overall in his Commodore, while Kris Walton made steady progress to fourth place despite car balance problems in qualifying. Some of the weekend’s most spectacular racing was seen in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. Former Carrera Cup driver Shaun Juniper won the opening race in his 997 Porsche GT3 Cup car, but Matt Kingsley was simply unstoppable in Sunday’s two races. Kingsley absolutely annihilated the field in the wet conditions, consistently lapping four seconds quicker than the rest of the field to take two comprehensive victories. Juniper and Jeff Bobik filled the remaining podium positions after Sven Burchartz and Kane Rose retired from one race each.

race

Dirk Klynsmith Dirk Klynsmith

James Smith

Island’s mixed conditions: Top, Macrow challenged and beat Foster to a race win in Formula 3. Above, Shawn Jamieson won the Saloon Car round. Brett Holdsworth, left, was the round man in his Hairy Lemonbacked Commodore Cup, while Matt Kingsley, below, took his maiden GT3 Challenge win.

John Morris/Mpix

NASCAR SPRINT CUP

ALL-STAR RACE, LOWE’S, CONCORD NC

Smoke Signa

als his Intentions Tony Stewart scored his first win of the season – and first as an owner – in the All-Star race. He doesn’t get any points, just a million bucks ... By MARTIN D CLARK

Ford Racing Media

Hornish scores in Sh SAM Hornish improved on his second place in last years Showdown with a win from the eighth position over Jamie McMurray and his Penske team-mate David Stremme in a ho hum kind of race. “It was the first time I’ve ever won anything in a stock

SPRINT CUP | NASCAR ALL STAR RACE, LOWE’S

Martin D Clark

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

14 17 2 11 99 5 18 20 26 88

Tony Stewart Chevy Matt Kenseth Ford Kurt Busch Dodge Denny Hamlin Toyota Carl Edwards Ford Mark Martin Chevy Kyle Busch Toyota Joey Logano Toyota Jamie McMurray Ford Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevy

Stewart Haas/Old Spice Q15 Roush Fenway/DeWalt 3 Penske/Miller Lite 2 Joe Gibbs/FedEx 15 Roush Fenway/Aflac 14 Hendrick/CarQuest 5 Joe Gibbs/M&Ms 21 Joe Gibbs/Home Depot 5 Roush Fenway/Crown Royal 20 Hendrick/Amp/National Guard 4

T NASCAR Media

howdown

segments, but not the fourth and final, ensuring 10 green flag racing laps. There was a mandatory green flag pit stop on lap 25 then a ten minute break before the final ten lap shoot out. The Race-winning drivers from the previous and current Cup Series seasons are eligible for the All Star Race, along with active champions from the previous 10 years and past winners of the All Star Race. Stewart fought Kyle Busch and then Kenseth, along with Jeff Gordon, who wrecked while racing under Busch and Ryan Newman for the lead two laps into the final segment. Stewart’s team-mate Newman had a car strong enough to win the event, but the three-wide move by Gordon put his car into the wall and he cut a tyre after the restart. Jimmie Johnson sailed

off from his pole position, leading all 50 laps in the first segment, and everyone thought we were going to see a domination by the series champ. But those were the only laps he would lead as Kyle Busch and many others beat him off pit road after the first segment, gaining all-important track position. The next two 20 lap segments livened up a little, with Gordon and Busch both leading before a 10minute break before the final 10-lapper. Before Gordon’s wreck, Johnson was spun on the backstretch on lap one, amazingly without further contact as the battle for the lead came down to Kenseth, Busch and then Stewart who sailed past Busch and then Kenseth for the win. “I felt stupid,” remarked Kenseth, “he went around me like I was tied to a tree.”

Smoke-ing: Tony Stewart was a winner in his own colours for the first time, far left. Jeff Gordon ended his race in the Charlotte cement, top, and Sam Hornish got his first Stock Car win in the Showdown, inset. Marcos Ambrose ran 10th in the Showdown, below, in the Kingsford Toyota.

Toyota Motorsports

car, so I’m pretty happy about that,” remarked Hornish. Joey Logano was voted in by the fans after finishing fifth in the Showdown he would go on to finish a respectable eighth in the main event. With qualifying rained out, Marcos Ambrose started 14th by random draw, ending the 40 lapper in 10th place after battling Robby Gordon in the latter stages. “The Kingsford car was good tonight but we can still get it better for next week,” said Ambrose. “We had pretty good pace, but it’s a 40-lap sprint and there’s a lot going on out there and we just couldn’t get the breaks you need to move up and get through the pack. I would have really liked to have got through to the All-Star, but we didn’t get it done tonight.”

ONY Stewart took his first-ever victory in the All Star Race and first as an owner-driver, pocketing a cool US$1million. After drawing 15th starting slot, Smoke played a waiting game, taking the lead under Matt Kenseth with two laps to run in the final 10-lap segment. “I can’t believe he gave us the bottom,” said Stewart of Kenseth on his first attempt to pass. “I overdrove it in (turn) three and got loose trying to clear him and he was able to get back by. But he gave me the bottom again, so I got down there, got on the gas real quick and got back by.” The format for the 25th running of the Sprint All Star Race changed from previous years, with the race held over four segments of 50, 20, 20 and 10 laps with caution laps counted during the first three

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6 – KYALAMI, SOUTH AFRICA

PUT UP YOUR DUKES!

Honda Pro Images

Another Haga double encouraged people to stop watching the IPL for a while. And Ducati is now 1-2 in the

THE Reds are on top but now the situation is different, with Michel Fabrizio second in the World Superbike Championship. Ducati scored a pair of 1-2 finishes at Kyalami, Noriyuki Haga taking two wins ahead of his Italian team-mate. But the best news for the squad is that, once again, Ben Spies followed his usual pattern of The Three Ps over the course of the weekend; pole, podium, pavement. His Race 2 fall means that Haga appears to be in an impregnable posity\ion in the championship. “We get some good points this weekend and I really enjoyed battling with Michel in the second race,” said Nori later. “We changed a little bit the setting from the first race and that feeling was a bit better, but at some point it got worse. On the last lap I saw Michel do harder braking than me, and of course I took the wrong line but I was able to open the gas and get to the line first.” The Texan was a disappointed man after the second race.

Ducati Corse

Bye Bye Nori: Haga led a Ducati rout in the Republic, taking both wins from team-mate Fabrizio. Rera, inset, came good with third place.

“We were struggling to hang in there in Race 1, it was a good race for all three of us up at the front. When I passed Michel I tried to reel in Nori and then unfortunately made a mistake.” With Spies on the floor, Jonny Rea scored Ten Kate Honda’s first podium of the season, backing up his fourth in the opening race with third in Race 2. The Hondas appear to be coming good as the season progesses, but a challenge to the Ducatis and Spies on pure speed still appears some way off. Max Biaggi was consistent with two fifths, while the best of the Australian riders was Broc Parkes, 14th and 15th in the two races. Points: Haga 250, Fabrizio 165, Spies 162, Haslam 116, Rea 106, Biaggi 103, Sykes 103, Laconi 77, Neukirchner 75, Checa 73. IN Supersports, Eugene Laverty stormed to a third win of the year after a dominating performance on his Parkalgar Honda. The Irishman pulled out a 4s lead in the early laps and was never headed. After being held up early, Cal Crutchlow took second, with Aussie Mark Aitchison emerging from a ruck to snatch his first podium finish in third. Crutchlow leads Lavery by 13 points in the championship.

Cruze Control at Pau

GM Racing

WTCC, PAU CHEVROLET had a great day at Pau with Rob Huff and Alain Menu sharing the wins. Brit Huff capitalised on an error made by pole-sitter Augusto Farfus (BMW) which allowed him into the lead and he spent 17 laps soaking up the pressure exerted by a train of BeeEmms. Farfus was caught out by oil on the track and although he was never more than inches away from Huffy’s bumper, he was never able to retake the lead. Huff’s team-mate Menu slowed on the last lap to drop from sixth to eighth and

therefore guarantee pole for the second race. The race was chaotic: the first red flag came on the opening lap! First, BMW team-mates Jorg Muller and Andy Priaulx tangled, followed by another Bavarian bash between Sergio Hernandez and Felix Porteiro, whilst Tom Boardman shunted his SEAT as well! So, the Safety Car was deployed, but the officials failed to display the boards in time meaning that race leader Franz Engstler suddenly found the Safety Car sat in the road ahead of him. With nowhere to go he smacked the SC and then the barrier!

The race was restarted behind a replacement Safety Car and Menu established himself in the lead ahead of Farfus who was as unsuccessful in passing the Swiss ace as he had been in passing Huff in Race 1. Huff took third defending from Priaulx as the works SEATs had a miserable weekend after the FIA imposed a reduction in the turbo boost on the cars. SEAT has been critical of the FIA for its “constant rule-changing” and is understood to be reviewing its participation in the series. – DAVID ADDISON

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Thommo is number 7 Rollin’ Dane Former champ takes Honda to victory at slippery Donington BTCC

Smith v Calado v Weather FORMULA RENAULT UK DEAN Smith and James Calado were the winners at Donington in the Formula Renault UK Championship. Smith won the opener after a charging Calado spun into the gravel, and fell to 25th. He made amends in Race 2, diving past Smith to grab the lead at just after half distance and then

breaking away for a win. Josh Scott had a disappointing day, both races ending with him falling down the order. In Race 1, he finished eighth, having lost two places five laps from home after he ran wide. But in Race 2, the Aussie emulated the result by yo-yoing up and down the top 10 as he battled a slippery track. – DAVID ADDISON

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JAMES Thompson and Rob Collard shared the wins at Donington in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship. Thompson, in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic, became the seventh different winner in seven races by scoring victory in the opening race and then became the first double winner of the year by winning the middle race. Collard, a winner at Brands Hatch earlier in the season took the third race. Thompson’s first win came ahead of Andrew Jordan, who inherited pole position after quickest qualifier Fabrizio Giovanardi was excluded when his car refused to start on the

button from the scrutineering area after qualifying. On a greasy track, Matt Neal was third. In Race 2 Thommo’s rally experience helped him to build a lead, despite carrying the maximum of 45 kilos of success ballast. He won ahead of Vauxhall teamsters Neal and Giovanardi, with Jason Plato’s Chevrolet Lacetti fourth. Race 3 was all about tyres. The track was wet but drying and most of the field elected to start on wets. Just three drivers, Thompson amongst them, chose slick on the fronts and wets on the back, but Collard bolted from the lights, helped by his rear-wheel drive BMW’s traction and was never seen again as he pulled away. Behind was an epic battle behind that included the Chevrolets of Plato, Mat Jackson and Harry Vaulkhard, plus the BMW of Colin Turkington, plus Neal and Giovanardi. Lap after a lap something happened to jumble the order, but when it counted Collard was ahead by a reduced margin of Turkington who was catching near the end. Neal took eighth but retains his championship lead heading to Oulton Park at the end of the month. – DAVID ADDISON

DTM JUST days after announcing that 2009 would be his last season in the DTM, Great Dane Tom Kristensen bagged a win in the opening race of the season. He was lucky, though, as Mattias Ekstrom, who had dominated the race, suffered a tyre failure on the penultimate lap and was forced to pit. That left TK in the lead with reigning Champion Timo Scheider on his tail. Oliver Jarvis made it an Audi 1-2-3, whilst Paul di Resta was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fifth place. Mercedes suffered dramas early on when Gary Paffett smashed into the back of Alexandre Premat’s Audi and his bonnet flew into the Mercedes of Ralf Schumacher. It smashed Ralf’s windscreen and the roof was caved in, too, but a pit stop and a safety car period helped Mercedes put Schumacher back into the race for a ninth place finish. – DAVID ADDISON

Coulter’s Sydney Swansong TRUCKS

John Morris/Mpix

Local driver Steve Coulter claimed overall victory in round one of the 2009 Australian Supertruck Championship, held at Oran Park Raceway last weekend. Originally scheduled for earlier in the year, the Sydney round seemed lost until Oran Park mangement arranged for the trucks to run with the Independent Race Series as one off. As a result the meeting took place with minimal publicity and a much smaller crowd than would have been expected for what appears to be the last-ever Truck race meeting at Oran Park, and indeed Sydney. Ten trucks entered the meeting, heading by reigning

national Champion Bob Middleton, while a past crowd favourite Glenn Dobson, made a welcome return in the bright yellow Seiders Truck Repairs Racing MAN. The racing was fierce and unpredictable with four different winners over the course of the weekend. Steven Zammit won the first race from Rob Waters and Coulter, while Middleton suffered from mechanical problems and didn’t even make it to the starting grid. In Race 2, Dobson won from Zammit and Waters. Middleton made this race, though struggled to get within four seconds of the leader’s best lap and finished 10th. Race 3 saw the Middleton return to its familiar place at

the head of the pack, from the light truck of Coulter and Zammit. However the final was all Steve Coulter. He grabbed the lead early and simply drove away as the larger trucks struggled to pass the Seton light entries. It was perhaps a fitting end to truck racing at Oran Park, Steve Coulter has been racing

Schumacher back in the lead NHRA

Tony Schumacher, Del Worsham and Mike Edwards were victorious at the 9th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. Schumacher drove to his third win Top Fuel win of the season, and jumped back into the points lead with a final round, 3.85/310 to 3.87/303 victory over Doug Kalitta. Schumacher had earlier defeated Terry Haddock, Morgan Lucas, and Brandon Bernstein.

Worsham, pictured, maintained his second place spot in the Funny Car standings as he made it two victories in a row with a 4.07/304 to 4.15/293 win over Tony Pedregon. The Al-Anabi Toyota Solara had defeated Jeff Arend, Cruz Pedregon, and Tim Wilkerson in the early rounds. In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards edged Greg Anderson, 6.63/207 to 6.65/207. Low qualifier Edwards stopped David Beckley, Kurt Johnson, and Jason Line to reach the final. – DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

there for 20 years and still lives close by. The weekend was even more significant for Steve as his son Matthew celebrated his debut meeting with a class win in his heat. The National series will continue with races most likely to take place at Winton, Malalla and Barbagallo. – JOHN MORRIS

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Maserati’s dance in the dark FIA GT Reigning champions Michael Bartels/ Andrea Bertolini (Maserati MC12) took their first win of the season in the annual FIA GT night race at Adria. Silverstone winners Ryan Sharp/Karl Wendlinger were forced out early on after their Saleen broke a driveshaft

on the green flag lap, having been excluded from qualifying for a technical infringement. Bartels/Bertolini were caught by the sister car of Miguel Ramos/ Alex Muller but it copped a drive-through penalty after it used the wrong tyres in a pit stop and fell to third behind the Corvette of Anthony Kumpen/Mike Hezemans.

Richard Westbrook/Emmanuel Collard won the GT2 class for the second race in a row after a race-long duel with the Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni/Toni Villander which its driving crew complained of a lack of balance due to the extra weight imposed by having two platinum-graded drivers sharing the car. – DAVID ADDISON

Two in a row for Pagenaud/de Ferran ALMS Simon Pagenaud and Gil de Ferran scored their second American Le Mans Series win with victory at the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park last weekend. The pair dominated in their de Ferran Motorsports Acura

ARX-02a with a comfortable 1m13.693s margin over Patrón Highcroft Racing’s Acura of David Brabham and Scott Sharp. It was the second straight overall win for the de Ferran XM Acura, which won the previous round at Long Beach. Adrian Fernandez gave Lowe’s Fernandez Racing a

tight 0.585s victory in LMP2 in tandem with Luis Diaz. The Acura ARX-01b withstood a late fight with Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger, who just missed the team’s first win with Marino Franchitti in one of Dyson’s Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes. Fernandez and Diaz won their fourth straight race in

class. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won for the third straight race in GT2 with a victory in their Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The duo led the entire way and finished 74.559s ahead of Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Porsche of Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler.

rear of grid

Odd Spot OKAY, this is not really Odd, but we needed some space to run it somewhere. There is not much better in the motor racing sphere than Drag Racing for setting the pulses a-racin’. Problem is, the action is all over in a few shakes of a lamb’s tail, so it is a big ask to focus on the art of taking evocative images of things than move so fast, so quickly, for such a short space of time. Good thing that we leave the, um, picturin’ to the professionals. In fact, there are some fairly good amateurs around the drag strips of the big fast land down under as well. The images are: Sunset Smoke Show – professional, Dave Reid Harvey Wallbanger – professional, Jon van Daal Mothership – amateur Douglas Stanley Three-Wheeling – amateur Brendon Bell All great images. Dunno who is going to win. The Sport, we reckon ...