Motorsport eNews Issue 113 - July 14-20, 2009

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aTownsville

Issue No. 113 July 14-20 2009

Where next ?

The blueprint is set, so who could hold the next regional V8 race?

WEBBER!

How our bloke won his first Formula 1 race

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

Australasian

The ‘A’ Team

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

Advertising National Sales Manager: Oriana Kennedy oriana@mnews.com.au P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030

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

MD / Publisher

Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au

Contributing Writers F1: 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)

Issue No. 113 | 14 – 20 July 2009

news 4 Townsville ...

6 Taz Mania 8 Tower Power 10 Inta is Outa 13 Back to basics

chat 20 5 minutes with ... opinion 22 White

What a great place for a race!

Douglas gets GMR call-up Totem pole for all V8 rounds Marshall records DNS PCR eyeing FV8 return Garry Rogers

23 Lilley

Fan First Party Young and wild(cards)

32 Fujitsu V8s 36 V8 Utes 38 MINI Challenge 44 IndyCar

Finally! JC breaks through Moff looks the goods!

No waitin’ for Layton Stokell not slow-kell Scot Speeds

race 24 V8 Supercars trade 50 Classifieds

As if we could resist ... congrats from the entire ‘A Team’, mate.

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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.

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

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New Towns Y A W A n benchmark w o l B V8 SUPERCARS

COULD Necastle be the next regional centre to reverberate to the roar of V8 Supercars?

To say that V8 Supercars’ Townsville debut was a success would be an understatement – last weekend’s sixth round of the V8 Championship Series has set a new benchmark for events in regional centres, with outstanding crowds and atmosphere rivalled only by Adelaide’s Clipsal 500.

In fact, Townsville’s three day crowd of 168,057 eclipsed Adelaide’s first-year effort from 1999.

With the success of the event as obvious as the delightful weather (especially for the thawed-out Victorians), the subject for discussion around the paddock was which town would best suit V8’s next regional event?

And the town on many lips was

Newcastle, NSW. Situated 162 kilometres north-east of Sydney, the world’s largest coali town has popped up as an ideal regional town that could embrace a V8 meeting – like the accommodating residence of Townsville.

Its predominantly blue-collar population doesn’t currently have a permanent nationallevel motor racing facility, although it doesn’t want for sporting teams.

The Newcastle Knights (Rugby League) and Newcastle Jets (soccer) are wellsupported by the locals and dominate the talk of the town – mirroring North Queensland’s love for its NRL team (North Queensland Cowboys).

With Townsville’s ultrasuccessful template now firmly in their hands, will V8 Supercar Australia look to make its next venue venture another regional town – like Newcastle?

“Yeah, a lot of people have said that to me this weekend actually,” said General Manager of V8 Supercars Events Shane Howard.

“The thing is, no event of this size or nature exists without major support from the government. Of course, the government only has so much.

We’ve been lucky enough that the NSW government has totally got behind the Telstra Sydney 500. We need to make that a winner, and that will show the economic triggers to support government backing for more of these events.

“It’s one step at a time for us.

We’re promoting six events this year with two new street events, so at the moment, our full focus is on that.”

While V8SA’s next regional race might be a few years away, Howard said that Townsville’s mega debut confirms V8 Supercars’ popularity in regional centres.

“The people of Townsville can have a great sense of pride about what they’ve done up here,” he said.

“It’s the same as Bathurst, Darwin and, on a smaller scale, Tasmania. Regional towns can do big events and they are very popular.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

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

news

VICTORY!

sville track sets a new k – so where to next?

Webber takes his first F1 win

FORMULA ONE

Minor problems, easy fix V8 SUPERCARS TOWNSVILLE’S maiden V8 Supercar race presented very few, minor problems that will easily be fixed in time for the 2010 event.

Spectator access across the main straight foot bridge was the large crowd’s biggest gripe, as well as a shortage of public toilets. These are the two priority changes for 2010.

Other items that will be upgraded for next year’s race include the track surface, higher grassed spectator mounds and the lengthening of the concrete area in pit lane.

All in all, fairly minor issues, but V8 Operations manager Kurt Sakzewski says that meetings were already taking place over the race weekend to pinpoint changes for 2010.

“As a first event, there’s things that

MARK Webber has praised his Red Bull F1 race engineer Ciaran Pilbeam (yes, son of the Englishman who made the Pilbeam sports cars) for guiding him through the drive-through penalty crisis which threatened to destroy his German GP to an historic maiden F1 win.

Pilbeam delayed telling Webber about the penalty until the team had calculated that, despite the approx 20 second time loss, the race could still be won.

“Ciaron and I have been together a long time and he knows how I tick – he always tells me stuff as it is, not what I want to hear,” Webber told GPWEEK (www.gpweek.com).

“But I’ve heard since the race that he told me as late as possible as he didn’t want me to mull on it too long! I’d wondered whether I might be in trouble – the last thing I wanted to do was have contact on the front straight … I lost where Rubens was for a bit and we clipped each other …

“The message though, when it came was bad news/good news. Ciaron said ‘you’ve got a drivethrough mate … but we can still win.’

“That was music to my ears, because although I knew I could still get a strong result regardless, I wasn’t interested in second or third, because I knew I had the pace to win and I knew that Heikki was holding the others up.”

And so it transpired, Webber putting in a dazzling second stint on the harder Bridgestones, to eke out enough of a lead that the third stint was, well, cruise mode.

can be improved on, but the size of the crowds have had a big effect on things,” he said.

“Everyone has been quite conscious of the fact that this is the first event, because you don’t really know who many people are going to turn up until they get here! Any of the feedback at the event, even the things that haven’t been perfect, has all been positive, constructive feedback.

On-track, drivers raved about the circuit’s layout, despite the crumbling surface at a couple of spots. Overnight treatments didn’t completely fix the issue, although the cause appeared to be that the surface had not been ‘roaded’ by street cars much prior to the race, so it wasn’t “seasoned.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

Dirk Klynsmith

For all the coverage and an exclusive post-race chat with Australia’s newest F1 GP winner, CLICK HERE to go to our sister GPWEEK publication.

Dirk Klynsmith

Skaife honoured

V8 Supercar Board member, semi-retired racer and a leading contributor to the Townsville event ‘brains trust’ Mark Skaife was given the honour of ‘christening’ the latest street venue with three laps in a V8 Supercar prior to the first cars practising last Friday.

The former champ completed his three laps at the wheel of Greg Murphy’s #51 Sprint Gas Commodore – which of course would explain why the ex-HRT star was reportedly spied at Sprint Gas Racing not so long ago undergoing a seat fitting ... wouldn’t it!

SS GPWEEK – THE WORLD’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL ‘VIRTUAL’ MOTORSPORT MAGAZINE ...

BRIEFLY... n The entry deadline

for the National Division at this year’s Repco Rally Australia is close of business tomorrow (Tuesday July 14).

The class will cater for cars complying to Production Rally Car regulations, not full FIA Group N specs, with 15 entries to be allowed.

Interested parties should email Janah on janah. mclean@rallyaustralia.com

n As title sponsor of the Townsville V8 Supercar race, Dunlop took the chance to launch its latest performance product for the road – the SP Sport Maxx TT. n Lucas Docking has left the Holden Racing team.

The long-time man in red, who most recently has been involved in the marketing and sponsorship activities of the team, has joined former boss Mark Skaife.

Docking will work with Skaife Racing on a number of projects, involved with Skaife’s numerous roles in the media, on V8 Supercars Australia’s board and his racing projects, which are expected to include outings in the Biante Touring Car Masters.

V8 SUPERCARS TAZ Douglas will be the second driver in Greg Murphy Racing’s wildcard entry at this year’s endurance races.

The Fujitsu Series front-runner will share a Sprint Gas Racing VE Commodore with regular GMR driver Sam Walter at the L&H 500 and Bathurst 1000 later this year, in what will be a third entry of sorts for the ‘Gassers’, and the main series debut for the sister team.

GMR team manager Dean Lillie confirmed that Douglas’ call-up came after the team’s first choice – Karl Reindler – signed with Britek Motorsport instead.

“I chased some drivers with more credentials than Taz, but he’s just doing such a great job [in the Fujitsu Series],” Lillie told eNews.

“He’s almost exactly the same size as Sam, he’s not doing anything stupid, he’s a normal bloke, and he has fantastic mechanical sympathy because he understands how these cars work.

“Our only challenge will be stopping the guys from competing with each other, but Taz seems really keen to work with the team, so it really shouldn’t be a problem.”

Douglas is in his second year of Fujitsu Series racing, having debuted with Image Racing at the Clipsal 500 last year. He moved to Paul Morris Motorsport mid-way through last season, before establishing his own team – Fastaz Motosport – at the start of this season.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

n Forget the ponies and the dishlickers – V8 Supercars betting is set to become the way to go.

V8bet was launched during the Townsville meeting last weekend, and is a joint venture between Sportingbet Australia and V8 Supercars Australia.

Accessible through www. v8bet.com.au, the service offers easy betting options for V8 Supercar racing, international motor racing, and, for the more traditional punters out there, gallopers, trots and dogs, as well as non-sporting events like elections.

Taz: Wild Child!

Calendar waiting on AGP date V8 SUPERCARS GROWING speculation surrounds the 2010 V8 Supercar calendar, with increased paddock chat that the series could kick off with a double-header round in the Middle East.

It is believed that V8 Supercar Chairman Tony Cochrane is heading over Europe this week to discuss the future of V8s continued off-shore expansion.

V8 officials hosed down rumours that this year’s 12th round at Bahrain would be cancelled to accommodate a back-to-back Middle Eastern opening next year.

Also denied by officials

was the introduction of a Singapore round at the new Changi circuit for 2010. At the earliest, that is expected to come in 2011.

A final calendar for next year can not be declared until V8s receive a locked in date for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

With next year’s Formula 1 calendar up in the air, V8s is likely to release its calendar later than its traditional September announcement.

However, there are a few dates that you can be guaranteed of. Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 will remain the first ‘Australian round,’ likely to be one week ahead of the AGP (if it maintains its

March time-slot). Hamilton will retain its April slot, as does Townsville’s street race (to coincide with the school holidays). Phillip Island (midSeptember) and Bathurst (mid-October) won’t change, neither will SuperGP’s Gold Coast event and the Homebush Grand Finale.

It is also expected that Tasmania’s Symmons Plains will held at the year, as opposed to this year’s schedule.

This means that you can bet your bottom dollar that eight of the 14 rounds already have their place – pending Middle Eastern expansion and Australia’s other permanent tracks.

news

Caratti grabs Triple F drive V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

AARON Caratti will co-drive with Dean Fiore at this year’s Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races.

The West Aussie has all but signed a deal with Triple F Racing for the L&H 500 and Bathurst 1000, with he and Fiore the second all-WA pairing, the other being Tony Ricciardello and Mark McNally at HiTec Oils Racing.

While Caratti has very little V8 Supercar experience, he was a front-runner in Carrera Cup before it folded at the beginning of this year, often going wheelto-wheel with the driver that will now be his team-mate.

“I want to sign someone before our next test day [in two weeks], and it will most likely be Aaron,” confirmed Fiore.

“Aaron doesn’t have too many V8 miles yet, but I know what a Carrera Cup car is like to drive, and he has proven he can consistently win in that environment. So I know that with some miles he’ll be just fine.

“And he’s a smart guy, well and truly smart enough to help me get the car home. That’s my aim for the endurance races; just to get the car home.”

Caratti’s arrival at Triple F is slightly unexpected; it was understood that Paul Morris Motorsport, which runs Fiore’s car,

was set to spread Morris himself, Owen Kelly, and American Boris Said across the two Supercheap Auto cars and Fiore’s entry. Now, one of those drivers will miss out, with only the spots next to Russell Ingall and Tim Slade up for grabs.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

news

d New mobile ‘race order’ tower to be implemented in 2010 at every V8 roun

Fans to be on the pole!

V8 SUPERCARS

T

track of the cars by receiving a signal from the car each time it crosses the timing line. That signal isn’t meant to transmit back to the car, so we don’t have any method to transfer information to the car. Plus we’d have to look at how big

the LED number would have to be to be seen from all areas, light conditions etc.

“As an idea, LED display sounds good, but trying to make it happen would include a few more obstacles”.

– GRANT ROWLEY

sutton-images.com

HE challenge of knowing ‘who is running where’ in a V8 Supercars race could be about to become much easier for spectators.

A new mobile ‘totem pole,’ similar to the one in pitlane at Bathurst, is set to be constructed and taken to each V8 race displaying lap times and race positions in an attempt to give fans more live race information.

The totem pole is likely to be ready for the 2010 season, although there’s a chance that it could be seen for the final round of this year’s championship at the Sydney Telstra 500 at the new Homebush street track.

V8 Supercars operations manager Kurt Sakzewski told eNews that the totem pole, among other information devices like handheld television units, are on V8’s wish list.

“The totem pole is something we’re investigating seriously at the moment,” he said.

“V8 Supercars realises its value at Bathurst. One of the key things is letting people at the track know who is going fastest and where they are on the track. We’re investigating that at the moment and we’re not sure how long it will take to get it up and running, but it’s certainly on our ‘to-do’ list.

“We create a great show for the fans on the track – the next step is to keep them informed.

The more we communicate with them, the more they’ll get out of it.

“It might be tight to see it this year. It all depends on time lines. It’s probably more of a 2010 thing. From Bathurst, we have a busy end to the year.

First of all we’ve got to figure out how to build it, transport it around and get the electronics working.

“If we could have it ready and going for Sydney, that would be fantastic, but I certainly wouldn’t promise anyone anything.”

Another information idea that V8s is pursuing is the use of hand-held television/radio sets for fans to hire at the track – similar to the Kangaroo TV concept that Formula 1 and NASCAR have employed in recent years.

“That’s another thing we’re investigating,” Sakzewski said.

“It’s a big exercise to put something like that in place. It’s not just the infrastructure of transmitting the information and all the pictures, it’s actually providing it. The F1 device has about 12 different pages, giving you access to team’s radios. It’s all great technology, but we’re not at the stage where we have access to that or the budget to put something like that together. There’s a bunch of things that are on our wish list, and as soon as we get them up and running, we will.

“Hopefully something like Kangaroo TV can be here in the not too distant future.”

Furthermore, there has been suggestions of an LED display on the windscreen, displaying each driver’s race position. While this would represent the best way for fans to keep score with ‘who is where,’ Sakzewski says that technology like that may be too advanced … for now.

“That would involve some fairly complex electronics to transmit that information to each car.

“At the moment, we keep

V8 SUPERCARS MARCUS Marshall did not compete in the sixth round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series last weekend at Townsville when financial troubles continued to plague his 2009 efforts.

Marshall’s IntaRacing team arrived at the new street track and rolled his ex-Triple Eight Falcon out of the truck without an engine installed. eNews understands that a deal to use an engine could not be struck, and it was decided to park the car

for the weekend.

It was confirmed today (Monday) by V8 Supercars Australia that embattled owners Daniel Tzvetkoff and Salvatore Sciacca would be penalised the mandatory $150,000 for failure to contest the race.

It’s another knock to Team IntaRacing, which has endured a disastrous debut season.

IntaBill, which owned the company Access Cash, closed its doors before its launch date and the team’s sponsorship was not signed off. The Intabill company

Dirk Klynsmith

Marshall misses out on round

went into liquidation last week.

The Sherrin Group sponsored Marshall’s entry at Symmons Plains and Hidden Valley and were negotiating to buy the team, but a suitable deal could not be reached.

It’s the first time since the Walden’s ‘noshow’ at the Clipsal 500 that a car has failed to start a V8 Supercar race.

According to V8 Supercar’s Bigpond website, Marshall is now in negotiations with another buyer to keep the car on the track.

Triple F backing gains some momentum V8 SUPERCARS

10

Marshall Cass

DEAN Fiore’s Triple F Racing entry had an unprecedented level of corporate support at last weekend’s Townsville race meeting – and some of it could trickle on for the remainder of the season.

The fledgling privateer team has been running a plain white VE Commodore since it took over the ex-Team Kiwi Racing license before the Winton round, with the Fiore family working hard to make up some commercial ground in touch economic times. And in Townsville there was a breakthrough of sorts, with a host of local businesses

offering support.

But it might not all be a oneoff; according to Fiore, some of the sponsors, including Haymans Electrical Services and McSheds are interested in ongoing support – a welcome turn of events for the team.

“A lot of these guys are interested in what we’re doing, and some of them think we might be able to do something for the rest of the year,” he told eNews.

Fiore has also kicked off a clever marketing campaign called the GFC – Go Fiore Club. For a $1200 investment, members have some space on the side of the #12 machine, and get two tickets to one

of the remaining events this year. The GFC currently has 13 members, and is the brainchild of Fiore, his engineer Nigel Barclay, and his commercial advisor Damien White.

“After Darwin, where we had a few little sponsors, Nigel said ‘you should start a club. So I spoke to Damien about it, and it went from there.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

news

Dirk Klynsmith

Morris Cleared V8 SUPERCARS

HRT tech guru predicts 1:13.4s fastest lap, and he is ...

Right On! V8 SUPERCARS

THE Toll Holden Racing Team’s pre-Townsville predictions were right on the money, according to the man who was responsible for the team’s simulations of the brand new circuit.

Alistair McVean, who is Will Davison’s engineer, ran a series of pre-event simulations, and deduced that pole position would be a 1:12.0s lap, and fastest race laps would be in the area of 1:13.4s. As it turned out, the team was 0.4s out on the qualifying prediction, with James Courtney doing a 1:12.474s lap to top the last session before the shoot-out.

But the race predictions were right on the money, Lee Holdsworth setting a 1:13.472s

PAUL Morris Motorsport has been cleared of any wrongdoing, following an investigation into the circumstances under which Tim Slade’s #67 Commodore stopped during Race 10 in Darwin.

As reported in eNews last week, V8 Supercar’Investigating and Prosecuting Officer Peter Wollerman looked into the incident (following complaints from other teams), which caused a late Safety Car and brought team-mate Russell Ingall back into contact with the pack and allowed him to make up eight places late in the race, thanks to the his use of the Dunlop Sprint tyre.

However, Wollerman declared there to be no malicious intent, and concluded that Morris had instructed Slade not to pull off the circuit out of fear that the hot exhaust would start a fire, and not to purposely spark a Safety Car period.

benchmark in Race 11, and James Courtney setting the official lap record in Race 12 with a 1:13.462s effort.

“We’ve got some good software that makes these predictions for us,” McVean told eNews. “It takes the circuit’s coordinates, which are provided to us by V8 Supercars Australia, and forms a prediction. It’s based on things like the predicted speeds, and it helps us a lot with knowing what gears the drivers have to be in for each corner, and things like that.

“We still had to make some changes to the car during practice, but we weren’t too surprised with what we found, and it was more fine tuning.

The software means we are half way there when we start.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

11

Cruicks FUJITSU V8s

V8 SUPERCARS

AFTER being replaced for the remainder of the V8 Supercar season, Dale Wood took on a new role for the Kelly Racing team at Townsville.

Wood acted as new driver Mark McNally’s engineer, talking the Hi-Tech Oils driver through his debut weekend.

“It’s an interesting side of the fence,” Wood said.

“It’s not ideally where I wanted to be. I’ve always been interested in it. I’m sure I will learn a lot from this which will come in handy when I move back into the series. So it’s not all bad.

Wood said that it was tough to sit in a pit

Dirk Klynsmith

Wood’s new role

garage on without the need to use a helmet.

“Initially it was hard, and after finding out tythat I wasn’t driving, it took some time to swallow it all. The saying ‘eat humble pie’ means a lot to me now, and now that I’ve been dealt this, I’ve just got to make the most of it.”

He also said that the Kelly team have been more than fair, given his situation.

“It’s too small of an industry to burn bridges,” he said.

“I haven’t got a bad word to say here. The fact that I’m still involved in the team is something that I’m really grateful for.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

P

AUL Cruickshank’s Wilson Security Racing is committed to fielding a car in next year’s Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, if the right driver can be found.

The Wilson Security Racing team boss says that Leanne Tander is one of the drivers on his early short-list, but regardless, he is keen to have a presence in the Fujitsu class.

“We’re starting to actively look around now and see who is available,” Cruickshank said.

“We’ve spoken about possibly doing something long-term with Leanne if we can raise the budget. If we can’t do that, then we’d still like to do it because we have to start bringing in someone young that hopefully we can nurture and progress into the Main Series. Whether that’s Leanne or

Out with the old, in with the new FUJITSU V8s

THE Townsville round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series was the last meeting for the older compound Dunlop SP Sport Maxx control tyre.

The newer control tyre, which has been used in the main game since Darwin last year, was given to Fujitsu Series teams for the first time in Townsville, with competitors receiving four new compound and four old compound tyres in their eight-tyre allocation. It effectively gave competitors two compounds to choose from for the three races, but, according to Dunlop’s motorsport manager Kevin Fitzsimmons, the difference between the two tyres wasn’t enough to have any impact on the results.

“Certainly from the competitors I’ve spoke to, there

12

isn’t a huge difference,” he told eNews. “The newer tyre is the same construction as the older one, the binding agent is just different. Had we known that there’d only be 15 Fujitsu Series cars here this weekend, we probably could have given everyone two sets of the older compound, but it hasn’t been a problem.”

The Townsville round was also the first since Winton that the Dunlop Sport Maxx sprint tyre wasn’t used in the main game, leaving much of the paddock wondering how the stickier rubber would have worked on the new circuit. But Fitzsimmons says the sprint tyre would have struggled with the loading.

“I think the sprint tyre would have spoiled the event,” he added. “The loading would be way too much for the left rear tyre.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

news

shank set for FV8 return Development Series graduates look to step back for 2010 season

some young hot shot, we’re not too sure.”

Cruickshank started his V8 team management in the Development Series back in 2004 and while he acknowledges that the series is in a lull at the moment (only 15 cars entered the Townsville street race) he says he has a “soft spot” for the class.

“Having started in the Fujitsu Series, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for it,” he said.

“I think that it can still offer a lot of value. Clearly the gap is big between the Fujitsu Series and the main show as we’ve seen, but it needs to be part of our business and we should do the best we can to support it.

“Given that the rest of the junior

categories around the world aren’t that healthy either, we should be doing the best we can to make the Fujitsu Series a success.

“For us, it won’t come at the expense of doing anything we’re doing here, but if it can be funded correctly with the right driver, we will be looking at it.”

If Wilson Security Racing does enter a car in the 2010 series, it would use Michael Patrizi’s current Falcon BF chassis.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Dirk Klynsmith

Leanne to contest two more ...

FUJITSU V8s

Dirk Klynsmith

LEANNE Tander will make compete in the next two rounds of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series start at Sandown and Queensland Raceway.

The former Australian Formula 3 contender will drive the same ex-Bright BF Falcon that she drove in Round 2 at Winton.

After a difficult round at Winton, Tander tested the Wilson Security-backed Falcon recently and team boss John McMellan said that the fast femme will be in a better position for Sandown.

“We’ve done a bit of work with the set-up and now have a better understanding of where that car is at,” McMellan said.

“The biggest issue we had at Winton was that we had no bits to make any adjustments to the

car. The car now suits her better.

“Leanne didn’t do too bad at the test. The engine that’s in the car is a bit down on competitive power, but it’s ok. It won’t be a class leading set-up, but it will be better than it was at Winton.”

Tander says that the reason for competing in the FV8 Series is to ensure she’s ready for her endurance role with Wilson Security Racing.

“We improved the car because we hadn’t been able to go out and try it before Winton,” she said.

“The engine isn’t the best, we know that, and unfortunately we go to Sandown and Queensland Raceway which is where horsepower is crucial, but focusing in on the big picture which is Phillip Island and Bathurst.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

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Ambrose aims at Double

Aussie back in Nationwide car at Watkins Glen – but NW problems NASCAR MARCOS Ambrose may be humming along in the Sprint Cup Series, but all is not well with JTG Daugherty Racing

With no sponsorship on the horizon, the team laid off the majority of the employees working on the Nationwide Series team last week.

scheduled to run Ambrose at the two road courses of Watkins Glen and Montreal next month, with a Toyota crewed by the handful of employees remaining.

Ambrose scored his maiden victory in the series last year at the Glen, and will be looking to repeat the effort – maybe at Sprint Cup level – next month.

– MARTIN D CLARK

The operation is however

Ford Racing

NOW, NASCAR APPEALS

Lawyers seek to overturn Mayfield injunction – and he still isn’t racing NASCAR SPRINT CUP JEREMY Mayfield’s situation is no better than it was last week, and the hissing match between NASCAR and the ownerdriver continues.

– MARTIN D CLARK

14

Toyota Motorsports

The Saga regarding Mayfield’s drug suspension, which was overturned on appeal by a federal court last week, took another twist when NASCAR announced it will take the case to the court of appeals.

NASCAR also tried to drug test Mayfield last week, but were unsuccessful in doing so as it looks highly unlikely Mayfield will race again as he seeks either sponsorship or a buyer for his team. Mayfield underwent an independent drug test last week and expects the results from that this week.

news

TG Explains

sutton-images.com

INDYCAR A WEEK after the announcement that Tony George would not continue as the CEO of the Indy Racing League but remain one of the team owners of the IndyCar Series, he made this statement, not willing to discuss the subject further:

“Nearly 20 years ago, I was asked by my family to represent our business as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Since accepting that position, I have served at the pleasure of the board and, in doing so, I enthusiastically agreed to commit myself to stewardship of a great institution. While my service as CEO has

now ended, I consider my stewardship to be a life-long appointment.

“From the perspective of my experience as President and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I am acutely aware that the interests of IndyCar racing as a sport, the IRL as a league, and the most important motorsports race in the world, are mutually dependant and interconnected, both now and in the future. I did not feel that a subordinate position as “CEO of the IRL” was a management vehicle which would allow me to accomplish the objectives that the family and the board requested me to pursue. I declined that

position.”

“There have been many questions raised in the industry and in the media about whether any of these recent changes reflect a reduction in the commitment of our family or the IMS to the IRL or the sport of IndyCar. My mother (Chairman of the Board) has assured me that no such reduction of support or commitment is intended or anticipated. I can assure teams, sponsors, media and fans that our family is sincere in its commitment to the Indianapolis 500, the League and the sport.”

– MARY MENDEZ

New venues look to be in contention: Laguna Seca, Baltimore and ... China?

IndyCar calendar doubts INDYCAR

THE IndyCar series plans to announce its 2010 season by August 1 at its Kentucky oval race. But that may be optimistic considering a number of situations in flux.

The plan is to hold 18 to19 events, with nine to 10 ovals, starting in Brazil in early March.

A new venue in China is a possibility for a fall race, held either immediately before or immediately after the race in Motegi, Japan.

Several events have conflicts or changes for next season.

The IRL has indicated it would like to return to the Milwaukee Mile, the short oval following the Indy 500. But the new promoter group has laid off all employees, failing to pay their sanctioning fees from the end of May to the IRL and mid-June to NASCAR for its truck and Nationwide series races.

The Watkins Glen event is up for contract renewal and wants to move its Fourth of

July date to the fall because its NASCAR event follows within three weeks. The Edmonton race, two weeks after Toronto, is in jeopardy because the city airport circuit is being sold for development, although the race could be moved to a downtown, temporary street location.

Cleveland, a temporary airport track the IndyCar series said it would omit in 2010, is now of interest. But the promoter is re-evaluating the

race to be held in 2011 when the economy improves.

Discussion with other venues include a return to the Las Vegas oval, Monterey’s Laguna Seca, Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, or two possible new street courses in Baltimore or New Hampshire.

The 2010 schedule could be delayed a few weeks, which often happens as negotiations take longer to finalise.

– MARY MENDEZ

15

Folks rally for Erickson’s overseas bid FORMULA FORD EIGHTY friends and supporters of Australian international racer Daniel Erickson contributed more than $15,000 towards his 2009 British Formula Ford Championship campaign at a fundraising dinner and auction last Friday night.

With Channel 10’s Greg Rust, below right, hosting proceedings at the Campbelltown Catholic Club, the evening featured on-stage

interviews with local racers Bart Mawer, David Wall and champion boxer Daniel Geale.

Erickson made a ‘live’ online appearance from his apartment in Bromham, Wiltshire.

A long list of donated goods and sporting memorabilia were auctioned off, with an autographed Mark Webber race helmet fetching a handy $3500, purchased by Campbelltown businessman and racing enthusiast Barry Morcom.

The AMSF-supported driver was delight at the gathering and the amount raised on the night.

“I’m thrilled that so many people turned up to support me,” he said.

“Knowing that they’re right behind my racing endeavours has given me a huge confidence boost.”

Daniel’s next races will be this weekend at Donington Park.

MINI end DRAG RACING MINI Challenge looks set to employee the same twodriver format that it used in Townsville in the category’s penultimate round at Barbagallo Raceway in November.

Johnson in historic street fight

McLaren-fes

LEYBURN SPRINTS

16

Peter Bury

QUEENSLAND racing royalty Dick and Steven Johnson will swap V8 Supercars for some golden-era Ford power when they contest the 14th annual Historic Leyburn Sprints on the Darling Downs next month.

The Johnson duo has accepted invitations to drive a Ford Falcon XY GT and Ford Escort Mk 1 in the round-the-streets event on August 15-16.

Dick and Steven will join a field of around invited 170 competitors in historic and classic cars.

Race Director Mike Collins said the Johnsons’ return to Leyburn would be a major attraction for spectators.

“It will be a treat for us all to see Dick and Steve in action in some magnificent classic Fords,” Collins said.

“It is typical of Dick, Steve and the Johnson family that they have given their support to an event that helps keep alive Queensland’s rich motor racing history and that they will come along and have some, pure grassroots fun.”

news

Dirk Klynsmith

duros booked in for Barbagallo Six cars enter last weekend’s Townsville street race with two drivers, where a longer third race included a compulsory pit stop.

Category spokesman Craig Denyer told eNews that the two-driver format suits the remote venues.

“The idea is to cut down on the costs for some of the teams on the long haul.

“For tracks such as Townsville and Barbagallo, it’s ideal. It also allows us a chance to mix up the series a little bit with a variation in format.

“We’re going to review the

st to kick off HD

format after the Townsville round and make a decision on Barbagallo. There is certainly a lot of interest from the West Australian drivers who want to do their local round. This is a great opportunity for them to do that.

“And the West Aussies are

NEW ZEALAND WORK is moving along at speed at New Zealand’s brand new Hampton Downs motorsport facility, south of Hamilton.

Plans are for the circuit to be completed by New Year, in time for the first weekend of a Bruce McLaren-themed historic Tasman Revival meeting (the second will be the following weekend at Pukekohe).

The Bruce McLaren Festival is scheduled for January 2224, and is expected to attract a number of classic McLaren cars, from within NZ and overseas.

In the meantime, the residential apartments located over the pit complex are completed, and the circuit itself is close to surfacing. The complex will also feature a motorsport industrial area.

pretty quick too. In the V8 Utes, we’ve got Grant Johnson and Kerry Wade who are very quick, and because there’s no Ute round at Barbagallo, there’s a bit of interest from those guys to have a run on their home track.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

Crick’s Silverstone debut FORMER Australian GT Champion and the current GT category Driver Standards Officer Greg Crick is to compete at the Silverstone Classic in the famous Mercedes Sauber C9 that was driven by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass in the 1989 World Sports Car Championship.

Crick joins car owner Rob Sherrard in the car which will be the first Mercedes from the era to race in Britain since the end of the Group C Category more than 15 years ago.

The Silverstone event runs from July 22 -24, and Crick is eagerly looking forward to slotting into the classic car – reputedly valued at $4 million: “I haven’t driven the car at all yet, and Silverstone will be an awesome place to do it!” he told us this week.

“I’ve watched a GP there, but never driven round the place … and this is the car that did over 400kph at Le Mans! …”

Back in 1989 the Mercedes was recorded at a recordbreaking 252mph (403kph) on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans, which set a racing world speed record at the time. At the end of that season, the car was retired before being restored by the Sauber team in 1992 and sold in Switzerland before being acquired by Sherrard.

17

news

Be Quick!

FIRST LOOK: New Queenslandbuilt Sprintcar

SPRINTCARS QUEENSLAND speedway racer Allan Woods and Paul Gislingham will debut Australia’s latest Sprintcar chassis – the Quick Time (QT).

The ‘QT’ chassis is designed and built chassis by Woods and Gislingham (former Cameron Gessner Crew Chief ),

and will give the car its first run in Cairns and Mackay. This northern trip will present itself as an ideal situation for driver Woods to test and tune the newly-created chassis and componentry.

Once the crew and driver have got a handle on the characteristics and set up the machinery, the QT will become available for sale throughout Australia.

“Without giving too much away before we run the car, the chassis is unique in design and we believe this will suit the Australian tracks and conditions better than the American cars currently being imported,” Woods said.

“The other bonus with our chassis is not only is the car Australian made but we will be able to help keep the costs down for the competitors.”

The team will front up in Cairns this Saturday for their debut outing before rolling onto the Mackay Speedway the following week. August will see the team base themselves in Cairns for two outings before returning back to Mackay for the Morevale classic. . night event. It’s the race

The Shannon’s Seven set for Sydney SHANNONS NATIONALS

V8 SUPERCARS’ Homebush street race may be the biggest circuit racing event in Sydney this year, but Eastern Creek’s sixth round of the Shannons Nationals this weekend has its own tempting drawcards.

Seven categories are heading to Sydney, making this the largest competitor list for the Shannons season.

Tickets are just $20 on Sunday (including grandstand seating and pit paddock access) with kids under 12 free. As an added bonus, in conjunction with new Australian Manufacturers Championship sponsor Boylan Traffic

18

Solutions, any wheelchairon the day, with selected bound fans and a carer will drivers on hand to meet the receive free entry on Sunday wheelchair-bound fans, their as well. carers and family and friends.

Peter Boylan said it was often In terms of on-track difficult for disabled people action, the Australian GT to attend sporting events and Championship is the lead act, hopes his gesture will attract with a 23-car field scheduled more people through the gates. to contend. Local driver David ``I know of several wheelchair- Wall currently leads the title bound fans who follow chase over James Koundouris, motorsport very closely,’’ he 2008 champ Mark Eddy and said.

Jim Richards. ``But it can be difficult Formula 3 should see the for disabled people to get return of the Joey Foster/Tim trackside, which is why we Macrow rivalry which has been are so delighted to be able to building all season. Forget The make this offer,’’ he said.

Ashes, this is the Poms playing Special parking close to the on our soil … pits will be made available Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge

makes its first visit to Eastern Creek with a 20-car field. New to the series is former V8 privateer Bob Thorn. He'll drive an ex-PCR Porsche, run by Andy McElrea. Matt Kingsley continues to lead the way in the title standings.

The Australian Manufacturers Championship is also up on numbers, with 2528 cars expected.

Commodore Cup, the Australian Superkart Championship and the Tyrepower HQ Nationals are also on the packed program.

– GRANT ROWLEY

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5 Minutes with ...

GARRY ROGERS

One of the most experienced team managers in pit lane is as committed as ever to the GRANT ROWLEY sport that he loves MOTORSPORT NEWS: Michael Caruso’s result at Hidden Valley was a breakthrough for both him and the team. An exciting result for all …

GARRY ROGERS: I was rapt to see Michael win a race. I think it’s been great to see our cars over the last 18 months getting more and more competitive.

He drove outstandingly well to get that result for someone who is still relatively fresh to the business.

It’s been a gradual rise for your team.

What was the turning point?

Money.

You have more of it now?

We’re spending more. There’s less of it arriving, but I’m spending more.

Where is that extra money being used?

Just developing the cars and spending more money on anything that needed extra detail. That encompasses personnel, R&D, and it makes your business work.

What was the turning point? Was it influenced by the introduction of Walkinshaw Racing engines in 2008?

I don’t think that in itself was the sole reason for the turn around. At the start of 2008, (team manager) Kevin ‘Shirl’ Shawyer and I had a talk about what we were doing. Our cars were competitive but not competitive enough to win. We decided that it was a matter of spending more money on the areas of our business to be able to get extra speed out of the cars. That came from engine, suspension and the way our cars are put together.

I suppose the engine changed created a bit of publicity but it was more about chassis development, brake development, personnel development. Coupled in with the new engines, I think our performances have benefited from all of that.

Is the sport heading in the right direction for a team like your own to derive more revenue from it?

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It’s going to be very hard on brakes and it’s going to be very hard on tyres, especially the left rear. tander on next weekend’s first race at townsville It’s not for me to determine that. The way it is now, it’s very difficult to source the revenue that you need to be able to compete at the top of the game all the time.

You’ve got two extremely good young drivers. Lee Holdsworth has been spoken about as a driver on other team principal’s wish lists. What’s your position?

Obviously I want them to stay, but that all depends on our team’s structure that we’ve created and the amount of money we can source to do so.

You’ve been doing this for some time.

Are you still passionate about the sport.

Absolutely, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it. If I didn’t want to do it I wouldn’t because there’s no financial gain in doing it.

Your team had a very good period in 1999/2000. Given the increased competitiveness since then, is this a better period for your team compared to then?

I wouldn’t say it’s a better time. One of the things I love about this is that I’m still doing it with some of the people that I was with back then.

For me, it’s satisfying to have gone the journey with those people. We had a lean period for a few years but they stuck around and we’ve got ourselves back up.

The satisfaction level is probably better, because it’s hard to continually get a result due to the level of competition that you’re up against.

Back in 1999/2000, it was a super time, but I’m not one to look backwards. I think to try and make better of what we’ve got and we can enjoy the next run of success.

chat

Peter Bury

21

I

WAS down in Tasmania a couple of months ago, and I spent some time with some random people – a few die-hard local fans – and, from what I can gather, there’s confusion in the grandstands.

For this sport to prosper, it needs to be able to be followed with limited confusion.

The round at Symmons Plains had the Option tyre, and in the first part of the race, you are able to follow the race and know who is running where. In the middle of the race when pit stops are happening and people are cycling through, you don’t know who is where and what’s going on. In some ways, it looks like a all-in

practice session. Towards the end of the race when all the stops are done, it settles into a rhythm and you can follow it again.

How do you fix this? I reckon that V8 Supercars do away with the windscreen car numbers and replace them with an LED light – and that light can display a number that reflects the position that the car is running in the race. I’m sure something like that can be hooked up to race timing So when Craig Lowndes heads out of pits and he’s 17th, the display on his window says that, and is updated as the race unfolds. That way, the people on the hill can follow the race better and more importantly, follow their favourite driver

with closer scrutiny.

With the technology available today and the size of the number that you could get away with on the windscreen, I have no reason to think they couldn’t work.

There’s been some talk about having a mobile scoring tower with the race positions on it – a la Bathurst – and that makes a lot of sense, but if its located on the front straight and you’re at Turn 5, it’s no benefit to you.

Also, as a side point, I think the rain light should be used in conjunction with the orange light on the windscreen when the option tyre is on. It would allow the driver behind to know what they’re up against.

Teams are relaying information to their drivers all the time, but

opinion Damien White Racer/Commentator

sometimes that doesn’t come through quick enough.

Information is precious in this business – for the drivers, the teams and the fans. We have lots of information available, so I reckon it’s time we used it.

Damien White is a two-time V8 Utes Series champion, holds a commercial role with Triple F Racing and Supercheap Auto Racing and is also a supports commentator for V8 Supercar Television.

PUTTING THE FANS FIRST

Dirk Klynsmith

22

opinion

Give the wildcards a fair go

AS one of the successful wildcard applicants in this year’s two endurance races, we’ve been invited by V8 Supercars to increase grid numbers and add to the spectacle of the big races.

And we’re really looking forward to it.

We’re not there to get in people’s way; we’re there to run our own race, keep our nose clean, and not ruin anyone else’s race.

But if something does happen, and a front-runner gets momentarily held up, or our blokes get swamped on a restart, we need the front guys to have a think about what they say afterwards.

Before they go to the media and tell the world that someone doesn’t deserve to be on the grid, they need to think about the implications on these young guy’s careers.

Sure, whingeing to the team on the radio is one thing, but they really need to consider whether it deserves to go further than that. At the end of the day, they are toying with people’s careers when they go and say derogatory things on the television or in the media.

Young drivers just want a chance. As a professional team made up of full-time employees, not weekend warriors, we do realise that we’re not at the level of the

guys that will run right up the front, and we’re not out there to take their trophies. We have three goals; the first goal is to finish, the second goal is to beat the other wildcards, and the ultimate goal is to stay on the lead lap. That is a dream come true for a wildcard entry, and that’s where we have set our sights on. But we won’t be out there racing the leaders if we’re lapped, because we’re not there to do that.

It’s been a while since ‘privateers’ have been around, but once upon a time it was a yearly thing, having to deal with slower cars at Bathurst.

We want this to be the great opportunity for the team that

opinion Dean Lillie TM, Greg Murphy Racing it has the potential to be. We’re not doing this as a money spinner – we have actually put ourselves out there. It’s been a tough year for us. We ran three cars last year, and we’re down to one this year. We’re not set up to only run one car; we’re set up to run a lot more.

So this is a great marketing exercise for us, because, if we can get out there, do a good job and not get in anyone’s way, then drivers might look to us for a seat next year.

That’s why this is so important to us.

Dirk Klynsmith

eLETTER OF THE WEEK Channel 7 have upset their South Australian motorsport viewers again.

At 1.30 p.m. Sunday (S.A.time) the voiceover casually announced that Adelaide viewers would now go to the football. No problem, I thought, they have four digital channels, surely they won't broadcast the same thing across all of them. How wrong was I!!!?

Surely Channel 7 it is obvious. If you have conflicting programs, keep everybody happy and transmit different coverage on some of your four digital channels. After all if the ABC, SBS, and Channel 10 can do it, why can't you?

Ross Dickie Via email

Ross Dickie is this week’s winner of the DVD Transporter 3, starring Jason Statham, compliments of Icon Film Distribution Australia.

Send yours to mail@mnews.com.au, or Motorsport News PO Box 7072, Brighton, Vic 3186 23

V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACES 11-12 – DUNLOP TOWNSVILLE 400, FNQ

The inaugural Townsville street race was the success story of 2009 – a GRANT ROWLEY watched Jamie Whincup

An Instan

24

race

and it’s now an event that every V8 Supercar driver will want to win. p and James Courtney be the first on that list

nt Classic

Dirk Klynsmith

25

Bump and Run V8 SUPERCARS – RACE 11 THE first Townsville V8 Supercar street race was affected by mechanical problems and determined by the first of two Safety Car periods.

James Courtney and first-time pole-sitter Lee Holdsworth were both taken out of the lead of the race, destined to be the maiden Townsville winners, until mechanical dramas sidelined them.

It was just the sixth lap when weekend fast-man Courtney was slunped inside the cockpit of his Falcon, ruing an engine problem that denied him a chance of victory. It was perhaps typical of his fortunes over the past few seasons – bad luck striking at precisely the wrong moment. Courtney would have to wait 24 hours to get his own back on the Townsville track …

Holdsworth was also delivered a blow when the Valvoline supply inside his engine dried up. It was thee strongest position that he has ever been in – including that wet

26

Oran Park day back in 2007 when he won his first round.

Holdsworth looked every bit a winner in Race 11, but it wasn’t to be. And for Holdsworth, there wouldn’t have been a better time to win. Just three weeks ago, his GRM team-mate Michael Caruso bagged his first career victory, stealing the main headlines from Hidden Valley. Holdsworth and Caruso are good friends off the track, but no one likes being upstaged by their team pal …

The demise of Courtney and Holdsworth promoted the ever-present Jamie Whincup to the top step of the podium – his seventh win for the season. Not that Whincup’s win was a gimme. He qualified second but made a meal of the start and had an uneasy time fighting through the pack. Contact with Caruso bent his steering, David Reynolds collided with his TeamVodafone Falcon under Safety Car conditions and then Whincup bumped an out-of-sequence Jack Perkins out of the way. Collectively, everyone in the TeamVodafone garage

sighed and waited for the drive-through penalty punishment – but it never came.

Whincup dodged a bullet, and even he was surprised.

But the reigning Champ is in the form of his life at the moment. Just like a cricket batsman who knows when to play a shot or let the ball through to the keeper, Whincup is on the front foot, averaging well above the rest. Sure, he might have got away with a dodgy leg-before-wicket decision, but that’s the nature of the game.

Second and third went to the Toll HRT pair of Will Davison and Garth Tander.

Davison had the edge on Tander the entire race, but his advantage was so fine that the reason why Davison finished ahead was that Tander had a longer fuel fill at his first stop. A small strategy advantage that ultimately got him ahead. But Davison can consider himself lucky to have survived Tander’s late advances. The team’s newest driver suffered from an oil surge problem in the latter stages of the race and had to throttle off in certain parts of the track.

race

Getting on with the business THERE was a lot of interest in the Whincup/Perkins incident, pictured left, but rather than dwell on that specific Mark Larkham clash, I think it raises the possibility of V8 pit commentator some alternate discussion.

For me, there’s a need for two distict passing regulations within the rulebook.

The first needs to be the existing ruling and mechanism where two cars are racing for position verses the situation where cars are passing a lapped car.

There’s a distict difference between those two scenarios and, as such, I think there needs to be two different rules.

If you’re coming up on a lapped car and he hasn’t been made aware by his team or he hasn’t observed blue flags, or there’s ample opportunity to move aside, then you should be free to ‘bump and run.’ And I don’t mean turn him around and put him in the fence – you should be able to move them aside and get on with the business. I think that should absolutely be allowed.

But it shouldn’t be accepted when you’re racing for position.

For me, that’s a discussion that should be had ...

COMMENT

V8 Supercar | RACE 11, TOWNSVILLE, FNQ John Morris/Mpix

Before Tander could attack Davison, he had to pass Caruso to secure his place on the podium. The Hidden Valley race winner was showing his competitiveness was no flash in the pan, finishing fifth. And you get a feeling that Caruso ain’t going to be going backwards anytime soon. The way he walks and the way he talks has changed– an air of confidence has crept into his game – and that only means good things for GRM’s surge towards the endurance races.

Craig Lowndes was fourth, passing Caruso late to seal the spot. It was a generally quiet race for Lowndes, unable to match Whincup or the two HRT cars (although he did put on a slideshow that any drifting fan would be proud of ).

The race was given a late revival when Alex Davison’s Irwin Tools Falcon blew up, producing a Safety Car. It was a situation tailor made for Russell Ingall, who eventually finished sixth, gaining places with some brave passing at the end of the race.

Mark Winterbottom was eighth with a long brake pedal ahead of Cameron McConville, who was another to pick the right pit strategy on the day.

Jack Daniel’s drivers Rick and Todd Kelly were seventh and 10th overall, but that was as good as their weekend got …

Pos # 1 1 2 22 3 2 4 888 5 34 6 39 7 15 8 5 9 14 10 7 11 10 12 9 13 17 14 3 15 111 16 25 17 12 18 11 19 51 20 333 21 6 22 24 23 8 24 16 DNF 55 DNF 4 DNF 67 DNF 33 DNF 18

Driver Jamie Whincup Will Davison Garth Tander Craig Lowndes Michael Caruso Russell Ingall Rick Kelly Mark Winterbottom Cameron McConville Todd Kelly Paul Dumbrell Shane Van Gisbergen Steven Johnson Jason Bargwanna Fabian Coulthard Jason Bright Dean Fiore Jack Perkins Greg Murphy Michael Patrizi Steven Richards David Reynolds Jason Richards Mark McNally Tony D’Alberto Alex Davison Tim Slade Lee Holdsworth James Courtney

Team/Car Race Time Q TeamVodafone Falcon 1:35:37.4475 9 Toll HRT Commodore 1:35:38.8969 5 Toll HRT Commodore 1:35:39.1939 3 TeamVodafone Falcon 1:35:40.4901 15 GRM Commodore 1:35:41.8697 4 Supercheap Commodore 1:35:42.2786 14 JDR Commodore 1:35:46.9849 19 FPR Falcon 1:35:47.2321 16 WOW Racing Commodore 1:35:47.4951 13 JDR Commodore 1:35:47.6842 17 Team Autobarn Commodore 1:35:48.1763 12 SP Tools Racing Falcon 1:35:48.4704 7 Jim Beam Racing Falcon 1:35:48.7594 8 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore 1:35:50.3515 20 Wilson Security Racing Falcon 70 laps 10 Fujitsu Racing Falcon 70 laps 27 Triple F Racing Commodore 70 laps 28 Dodo Racing Commodore 70 laps 25 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore 69 laps 26 Wilson Security Racing Falcon 69 laps 18 FPR Falcon 68 laps 21 Bundaberg Commodore 66 laps 11 Team BOC Commodore 60 laps 6 Hi-Tec Oils Commodore 60 laps 29 Bottle-O Commodore 67 laps 22 Irwin Racing Falcon 60 laps 24 Supercheap Commodore 42 laps 23 GRM Commodore 28 laps 1 Jim Beam Racing Falcon 5 laps 2

Fastest lap: Holdsworth on lap 24, 1:13.4727.

27

The things that usually go w V8 SUPERCARS – RACE 12 ANYTHING that could go wrong in James Courtney’s V8 Supercar career has.

Be it mechanical dramas, crashes or mistakes, Courtney has suffered it all.

After coming into the V8 series with one of the most impressive CVs in the field, much was expected – and maybe that expectation is the reason why his first major victory didn’t come until last weekend’s Townsville street race.

Yes, he had a race win last year with his former team (Stone Brothers Racing), but even that weekend, things transpired against him.

But in Race 12 on the new street circuit, the race was his to lose – and he didn’t.

In the end, a faster, cleaner pit stop leaped him ahead of championship leader Jamie Whincup, and that was that.

Courtney looked strong from the moment his Jim Beam Falcon turned a wheel on Friday afternoon, and it was fitting that when the chequered flag flew at the end of the weekend, JC was on top.

Had Jim Beam Racing not got him out

28

in front of Whincup at that critical pit stop during the Safety Car period, there’s a better than even chance that Courtney would have won anyway – such was the speed on his car.

“It’s been a long time coming – it’s been a tough start to the year,” he said. ”Anything that could go wrong did, it’s just great to be able to reward the guys with the win. We come straight off the back of truck this weekend and the car was electric, it was on fire. That makes my job so much easier.”

Adding to the glee for Dick Johnson Racing was Steven Johnson’s fifth place.

It was a typical Johnson drive on a circuit where grit and perseverance usually triumph over raw speed.

Whincup was again strong, but not the strongest – and that’s rare. His victoryor-nothing approach in 2009 is certainly paying dividends, but for the first time this year, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t bridge the gap to be the race winner.

Regardless, Whincup now has more than one whole race’s point’s advantage over second-placed Will Davison. This reeks of a

back-to-back title season. He knows how to win, he knows how to finish second now, and he sure knows his way to the press conference room (or theatre, as was the case at Townsville).

“I was trying to catch James and get that number one position, but we got a fairly early indication that his race pace was very fast,” he said.

“It became all about track position for us, trying to get out of pits in front of him, but in my second stop, or new South African ‘lolly pop’ guy said “go” and I thought he was saying “no!” so there was a bit of confusion.

“I don’t think we would have got out in front of James anyway …”

Garth Tander was third from his teammate Davison. The pair qualified first and second respectively, but the red duo complained in both races that their cars weren’t fast enough in the first and middle points of the race.

For these shorter 200km races that make up the majority of the remaining races, this situation must be rectified soon if they are going to haul back Whincup’s huge series

race

James Smith

Street fighters: The first lap produced some action, clanging wheels with Greg Murphy and launching in the air. Left, James Courtney took his first V8 win.

Peter Bury

wrong didn’t

lead. On the upside, if late race pace is their thing, the names ‘Tander’ and ‘Davison’ must be stickered on the window on car #2 in the endurance races … Besides Whincup and Craig Lowndes, it’s a combination hard to look past.

Sixth in Race 12 was Mark Winterbottom. After an absolutely shocking weekend for the FPR’s this was the result that the factory team would take home. ‘Frosty’ was fast and ran as high as third, but the team doesn’t look a shade on their 2008 form.

Winterbottom’s result was something to smile about, as his team-mate Steven Richards had another horror race. Spun on the opening lap by Russell Ingall, Richo made an optimistic lunge on Jason Bargwanna later in the race, taking out Ingall in a repeat of their Symmons Plains clash. Tit for tat or desperation?

Paul Dumbrell and Craig Lowndes racked up other notable efforts. Dumbrell took eighth, soldering on despite his appendicitis flare up, while Lowndes was ninth after spending an extra lap behind the Safety Car while the rest of the leaders had pitted.

Hard luck stories? There were a few, and it seemed that for three outfits, it was a case of ‘what you can do, I can do better’. Engine problems plagued both Jack Daniel’s Racing cars. Sprint Gas Racing was in the wars, and Stone Brothers Racing had five steering rack failures over the course of the weekend.

V8 Supercar | RACE 12, TOWNSVILLE, FNQ Pos # 1 18 2 1 3 2 4 22 5 17 6 5 7 33 8 10 9 888 10 34 11 14 12 8 13 67 14 24 15 333 16 12 17 55 18 25 19 111 20 6 21 16 22 11 DNF 51 DNF 39 DNF 15 DNF 7 DNF 3 DNF 9 DNF 4

Driver James Courtney Jamie Whincup Garth Tander Will Davison Steven Johnson Mark Winterbottom Lee Holdsworth Paul Dumbrell Craig Lowndes Michael Caruso Cameron McConville Jason Richards Tim Slade David Reynolds Michael Patrizi Dean Fiore Tony D’Alberto Jason Bright Fabian Coulthard Steven Richards Mark McNally Jack Perkins Greg Murphy Russell Ingall Rick Kelly Todd Kelly Jason Bargwanna Shane Van Gisbergen Alex Davison

Team/Car Race Time Jim Beam Racing Falcon 1:35:03.3900 TeamVodafone Falcon 1:35:04.2974 Toll HRT Commodore 1:35:05.5854 Toll HRT Commodore 1:35:09.6024 Jim Beam Racing Falcon 1:35:12.4442 FPR Falcon 1:35:13.7996 GRM Commodore 1:35:14.3019 Team Autobarn Commodore 1:35:15.0490 TeamVodafone Falcon 1:35:21.7146 GRM Commodore 1:35:22.5962 WOW Racing Commodore 1:35:23.8041 Team BOC Commodore 1:35:26.7945 Supercheap Commodore 1:35:30.6709 Bundaberg Commodore 1:35:32.8611 Wilson Security Racing Falcon 1:35:37.5247 Triple F Racing Commodore 1:35:48.7076 Bottle-O Commodore 1:36:26.6545 Fujitsu Racing Falcon 71 laps Wilson Security Racing Falcon 71 laps FPR Falcon 71 laps Hi-Tec Oils Commodore 70 laps Dodo Racing Commodore 66 laps Sprint Gas Racing Commodore 71 laps Supercheap Commodore 70 laps JDR Commodore 66 laps JDR Commodore 50 laps Sprint Gas Racing Commodore 43 laps SP Tools Racing Falcon 13 laps Irwin Racing Falcon 12 laps

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

Fastest lap: Coulthard on lap 33, 1:13.4470 Points: Points after R12: Whincup 1560, W. Davison 1386, Tander 1212, Lowndes 1110, Johnson 1050, Holdsworth 993, Winterbottom 957, R. Kelly 903, Ingall 830, Caruso 828, Coulthard 828, Van Gisbergen 798, Dumbrell 789, McConville 786, J. Richards 777, S. Richards 711, Courtney 698, A. Davison 666, Bright 633, Reynolds 591, T. Kelly 573, Patrizi 522, Murphy 513, D’Alberto 417, Perkins 405, Bargwanna 390, Fiore 387, Marshall 351, Wood 333, Slade 321, McNally 75.

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Dare to compare FROM THE COUCH PHIL BRANAGAN IF only I had not watched Formula 1 qualifying on Saturday night.

Townsville’s telecast ticked all the boxes – almost. Commentary, fine. Aaron Noonan slipped into Dancin’ Matt White’s shoes, again, and sounded at hom;. Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife’s comments on Saturday’s Whincup-Perkins clanger showed that their personalities have transferred fully intact from the cockpit to the commentary box. Cromley analysed it to smithereens, and Skaifey leapt into action and called it a dud call. The V8 trio convincingly topped BBC’s Legard-Brundle pairing over the weekend.

Technically, great. I even liked the closer, featuring the Moonwalk – now he should be on Dancing with the Stars – and the Larkhamisms. You just know Larko is going to get tagged ‘Mr Squiggle’ in the near future, don’t you?

But, those pesky Germans.

Their video overlays of different F1 cars, from identical angles, are just stunning. Just like in the Red Bull Air Races, it gives a fabulous comparison of speed and line, and great insight to the viewer of what the drivers’ strengths and weaknesses are.

It really is compelling viewing, and is the next innovation I want to see in V8 Supercar telecasts – with Skaife, who knows more about driving a V8 Supercar than anyone on the planet, providing expert comments. Please.

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Appetite for Attitude FIRST of all, and this goes without saying, hats off to Townsville – it was a great event.

For me, I took a lot of note of the track layout and how it impacted teams. Well done to everyone, including Mark Skaife, who was involved in its creation. On reflection, it’s a little sad that too many green fields sites over the years haven’t been maximised to make a better circuit design.

Looking at what evolved over the weekend, I would go and grab Turns 5 and 6, replicate them three times in a lap, make sure the exit of Turn 6 runs onto a long straight, stopping at a hairpin. I reckon you’d have a cracker ...

But it’s hats off to the guys who laid this track out, and Skaifey was a big part of that.

He’s obviously got a feel for that – and it’s never easy as it appears. You’ve obviously got a lot of environmental considerations – drainage, roads, existing infrastructure – all those existing constraints to deal with to try and come up with a layout with something that suits our category and something that creates overtaking opportunities. It’s a very difficult thing to achieve – and I think they nailed it.

In amongst all of that, what

intake.

I felt there was a little bit of a hollow in the middle of Mark Larkham both races which could be V8 pit commentator overcome in the future by allowing teams some more appeals to me is that they’ve freedom with fuel strategies been able to give that classic, that suit their individual brutal street circuit imagery desires and objectives. As we where you can see the body saw on the weekend, most language of the cars – that of them were running very is a distinct difference to an similar strategies. ordinary layout.

One of the reasons the Watching the cars work category has arrived at the through Turns 8 and 9 and the 100 litre rule has been to fast bump at 10, and knowing stop the endless and costly how tight some of those pursuit of fuel economy. As an drivers would have had to had aside, some of these events their crutch straps fastened to should be freed up from the do that, it was great stuff. compulsory fuel intake.

Also, I just can’t remember a I think the category needs to time in recent years when I’ve move as quickly as is practical seen cars in oversteer mode, to come up with ways to in particular prior to the races. discourage or regulate the The cars haven’t changed pursuit of fuel economy. While since the last round, so I can it is a desirable outcome in only suggest that, given the the ‘green’ environment that circuit’s high grip levels, it was the V8s support, it can’t be a consequence of the track’s pursued at endless cost. design.

Dare I say, we’re seeing more I say bring more of that on, mechanical and engine failure because the vision of cars at – and without knowing the those angles is something that facts – I suspect some of that appeals to everyone. can be contributed to engine economy pursuit. he 200km per day format We have seen for some time of the weekend was fine, exception reliability, but in the but moving forward, I think last few races, there’s been an the Townsville track probably above average failure list and lends itself to a 250km length it’s all in a similar part of the to get rid of the regulated fuel engine ...

opinion

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race

eNEWS asked some random Paddock members their thoughts on Townsville

The biggest tick of approval JAMES COURTNEY, V8 Race 12 Winner: It was quite unusual for the fans to come up to you and use manners! They said please and thank you. Everyone was very welcoming. I had a great time.

GARTH TANDER, Holden Racing Team Driver: People voted with their feet this weekend and if they all go home and tell five people what a great weekend it was, they better get more hotels up here ...

AARON NOONAN, V8 TV Commentator: Just the sheer numbers through the gate.

This town has been starved of something like this for a long time. It was an un-tapped market – now it’s tapped.

fantastic for the category.

BRETT ‘CRUSHER’ MURRAY, Acting V8 Media Manager: An impressive debut. As a group, they’ve done an outstanding job for a debut race. The feeling of the race is like a small Gold Coast race.

GARRY ROGERS, GRM Team Owner: In the short space of time that they had to get this show organised, both the building and the facilities, you have to give them 100 out of 100.

NEIL CROMPTON, V8 TV Commentator: It’s the perfect response to a two decade-old North Queensland question.

KURT SAKZEWSKI, V8SA Operations Manager: Bloody fantastic. From the teams, the locals, the drivers – the feedback from everyone has been great. As a first event, there’s things that can be improved on, but the size of the crowds have had a big effect on things.

TIM EDWARDS, FPR Team Principal: It’s just something that everyone in the sport can be proud of. It’s amazing and

DANIEL GAUNT, Fujtisu V8 Driver: The atmosphere is great, the track is good, but it’s awesome to be here in this

weather – this is winter! It’s tshirt and shorts and I’m still sweating.

MICHAEL PATRIZI, WSR Driver: Fantastico! The people here are very hospitapal, and they’ve put on a magnificent show.

LEANNE TANDER, Fujistu V8 Driver: I’ve been to a couple of the ladies’ functions and other activities and its amazing how everyone has really got behind it. It’s has a great atmosphere, the weather is perfect and everybody’s loving it.

KEVIN FITZSIMMONS, Dunlop Motorsport Manager: A lot of people have done an exceptional job; not just in running the event, but in the planning and execution of the complex. Every little teething problem will be easy to fix.

MICHAEL CARUSO, GRM Driver: Fantastic people!

LEE HOLDSWORTH, GRM Driver: The circuit has instantly become one of the toughest we race on. It’s just so busy, there is no room for a rest.

DAVID REYNOLDS, Walkinshaw Racing Driver: The track is great.

Very impressive. Our cars have worked really well around here and it makes it enjoyable.

TONY D’ALBERTO, Bottle-O Racing Driver: The track is pretty physical – 200km around here each race is a long way. I know some of the drivers are struggling a bit, but besides that, it’s a great circuit and everyone has got behind it. I reckon they’ve kicked a big goal.

GLENN SETON, Bottle-O Racing Engineer: It’s a great facility, and a great place for it – being in the sun is great. Townsville and the surrounding towns needed something like this. And we’ve found out just how popular V8 Supercar racing is up here.

JACK PERKINS, Dodo Racing Driver: I thought it was awesome as soon as we got here. The track is bloody good, very exciting.

GRANT DENYER, Fujitsu V8 Driver: I’ve never met a more passionate bunch of V8 Supercar fans. They are the hardest of the hardcore and that’s why we do this silly sport.

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FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES ROUND 3 – TOWNSVILLE

The Head of the Class James Moffat was not quite perfect in Townsville – but he did take the weekend’s best points haul forward to the next round. ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN was there

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race

Dirk Klynsmith

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Dirk Klynsmith

I

F the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series is a school for budding V8 Supercar drivers, then round winner James Moffat was the teacher at Townsville.

But forget the three Rs; Moffat’s lesson plan in north Queensland was all about the two Cs – consistency and car speed. That was what won the weekend for the Sonic driver, and that’s why he also rocketed back into title favouritism, despite still sitting third in the standings.

Consistency was the real key. Not only did Moffat win two of the three races comfortably, he safely trekked his way to third in the inverted top 10 race to make sure he took as many points as possible back to Melbourne.

Then there was the car speed, which was staggeringly evident – despite Moffat’s claims post-Race 3 that none of it was as easy as it might have looked.

“With it being a new circuit, and us all starting with a clean slate, I thought we could look pretty good,” he said. “As it turned out the car was good, and that’s how you want to do it. The car speed is the most important, and yeah, we had plenty of it.

“But with a reverse grid race, there’s

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always a challenge. You don’t even have to do anything wrong to end up in someone else’s crash, so I was a bit worried about that. And then in Race 3 the car wasn’t as consistent as it was in Race 1, so it wasn’t as easy as it might have looked.”

Second for the round was Jonathon Webb – and it was a performance typical of the Queenslander’s 2009 form. He wasn’t quite fast enough to win, but was able to finish second to Moffat in Race 1, second to reverse grid specialist Grant Denyer in Race 2, and fourth in the final. The result was second for the round, and quite remarkably for the someone who hasn’t won a race this year, the championship lead.

Denyer – showing the form of his career – was third for the round and added another win to his tally, but the real story behind Moffat and Webb was that of one-time title leader David Russell. A shocking run in the inverted grid race ruined what had the potential to be a third place weekend, and cost Russell the points lead.

Sam Walter was the unluckiest driver of the weekend, copping shameless, and race ruining, smacks

in rear quarter from Paul Morris not once, but twice. The lowlights were all part of what was a fairly inauspicious FV8 debut for Morris, who also unnecessarily drove another debutant, Rodney Jane, into the wall during practice.

Damien Assialit was another driver who had rough weekend; having qualified beautifully to start Race 1 third, the Fujitsu-backed driver made a shocking start. He did the same thing in Race 2, and then had a helping hand in Taz Douglas turning Daniel Gaunt around, and then finished Douglas off himself a lap later. A few corners down the road, Assailit ploughed into the wall, ending his race and leaving him 14th for the weekend.

Gaunt, meanwhile, had some retribution in the final outing, finishing second, his best result in a V8, and looking like the only bloke in the same class as Moffat.

But as far as the title’s concerned, it seems strange, but the bloke sitting third looks like he really is in a class of his own. It’s going to be a good run home …

race

James Smith James Smith

Colours of the north: Clockwise from top left, Grant Denyer took his second win of the season. Rodney Jane got some hurry-up from Paul Morris, both ending up off the track in the process. Daniel Gaunt looked good for more points all weekend, while Jono Webb leads the series in the Gulf Western Ford – which is still to get to the chequered flag first!

Dirk Klynsmith

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YOKOHAMA V8 UTES SERIES ROUND 5 – TOWNSVILLE

The Mother of all Battles There were three winners in three races in FNQ – but Layton Crambrook came out on top

T

HREE races, three different winners; that’s how the Yokohama V8 Ute Series rolled on the brand new circuit in Townsville.

But one of those winners was the most consistent of them all, round honours going the way of Layton Crambrook.

George ‘Slick’ Miedecke was the first winner of the weekend, jumping polesitter Jack Elsegood at the start of Race 1 and basically never looked back, leaving Elsegood and Garry Baxter to fight behind him.

“This is my first time winning from Race 1,” said Miedecke. “I have won off reverse grid before, but it’s such a great feeling to do it, especially coming off such a good qualifying [session].”

Ryal Harris was the winner of Race 2, which was also the race that seriously derailed Miedecke’s weekend. Pole-sitter Paul Williams was pushed into the wall at turn 12 by Andrew Fisher, causing a five-car crash that included the Race 1 winner. It was Game Over for Miedecke – and he wasn’t happy.

“It’s put me out of the championship, as noone can take two DNFs,” he added.

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“It’s unfortunate it happened on a weekend we were going to win, but that’s how it goes.”

Fisher was clearly at blame, but wasn’t charged when officials found that a deflating tyre was the real culprit.

This was all great news for Crambrook, who finished ninth and earned himself pole for Race 3. From there it was all over.

Crambrook led home title leader Elsegood for the race and the round, closing to within five points in the championship.

Harris, meanwhile, saw any chance of turning his Race 2 win into a weekend disappear in the final heat. The youngster bumped Grant Johnson out of the way to claim fourth place, but the officials didn’t like it. He was fined $1500 after the race for his actions.

The Townsville race has really tightened up the race for the title; just five points separate Elsegood and Crambrook at the top of the table, with Baxter just 30 points off the lead, and Johnson 41 points off the lead.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

race

James Smith

Dirk Klynsmith

James Smith

Utes on the Streets: Layton Crambrook came away with top points, main pic, and won the final race. George Miedecke, left, was the man to catch in the first race but it all went bad from there, ending his weekend early in a fivecar melee in Race 2.

Gary Baxter and Jack Elsegood, top, were in contention all weekend and finished in the top three for the round.

Peter Bury

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That’s what Friends are for There was lots going on in MINI-land (okay, Far North Queensland) and Paul Stokell emerged from the chaos to win – all by himself

John Morris

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race

Dirk Klynsmith

Petyer Bury

They came from Everywhere: The two-driver MINI race attracted drivers from all around the motorsport sphere.

Former A1GP steerer ‘The Chris’ Alajajian and Paul ‘The Dude’ Morris shared the #9, while Chris Atkinson stepped out of a WRC car to try his hand at something with FWD and a star on board (with Steve Owen).

Meanwhile, Grant Sherrin got some major air in Race 1, before he got tangled up in a melee in Sunday’s two-driver race.

Paul Stokell drove ‘solo’, opposite, to win Sunday’s main race.

James Smith

M

INI Challenge drivers had the chance to share a car for Race 3 at Townsville – but when all was said and done, Paul Stokell took the chequered flag all on his own.

The 35 minute final outing for the MINIs in North Queensland was touted as a mini enduro, meaning two drives could share a car if they wanted to. Those that didn’t want to share still had to complete a compulsory one minute long pit-stop.

That was what Stokell did, and it paid off, the Tasmanian winning the big race by close to nine seconds. It was his second win of the weekend, Stokell having wrapped up Race 2 earlier on Sunday morning after finishing third in Saturday’s Race 1.

“I really enjoyed the Enduro format,” said Stokell.

“I’m a bit surprised, but naturally pleased that we were able to account for the field the way we did. I’d like to win my sixth Australian championship if I can, and this is helping my points situation.”

Second to Stokell in the ‘enduro’ was international rally star Chris Atkinson and former V8 Supercar driver Steve Owen, who paired up in the Uber Star car. The well credentialed pair set the fastest lap of the race, and held off the equally credentialed group of Chris Alajajian/Paul Morris (third), Nathan Caratti/Aaron Caratti (fourth), and Grant Denyer/Warren Luff (fourth).

But while the race was a long one, the

drivers didn’t take long to give the crowd something to look at. As the field piled into Turn 2 on the first lap, Scott Bargwanna fired into the wall hard, just a fraction of a second before John Modystach did exactly the same thing, just a couple of metres further down the road. Neither driver was hurt in what was the most spectacular crash of the weekend.

Nathan Caratti, the younger of the two brothers sharing a car, won the opening MINI race of the weekend on Saturday. The West Aussie qualified on pole, and drove away from Alajajian and Stokell, who fought tooth-and-nail behind him.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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NASCAR SPRINT CUP ROUND 19 – LIFELOCK.COM 400, CHICAGOLAND, IL

MARK

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K TIME

race

Mark Martin turned around a bad month with a dominating performance at Chicagoland.

By MARTIN D CLARK

Toyota Motorsports

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A

FTER taking the lead in the pits on lap 42, Mark Martin headed a racehigh 195 of the 267 laps at the Chicagoland Speedway, and held off his Hendrick team-mate Jeff Gordon for his fourth win of the year.

“The double file restarts are really here to mess up the best car and that’s what makes it exciting for the fans,” commented Martin after losing the lead prior to the final caution to Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson.

“We got shuffled back to third and we made the best race out of it we could. I saw the opening when those two guys [Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers] got together and here we went. I knew when we got front that last time there was no way anybody was gonna catch us.”

Hamlin slid up into Johnson on the penultimate restart, leaving the door open for Vickers and Martin. However Vickers got loose under Hamlin, taking the pair high and parting the seas for

Martin to slip through for the lead and to hold off Gordon on the final restart over two laps.

In his quest to move forward again after the incident with Hamlin, Johnson (who lead from lap 10 through the first caution, when his crew made a rare pit road mistake) slid up into Kurt Busch. It was enough for Busch to hit the wall and gave a Johnson a retaliatory side swipe, dropping Busch to 17th at the finish as he pitted for new tyres.

For the first time, both Red Bull Racing cars started in the top five with Vickers grabbing his fifth pole of the year and Scott Speed alongside on the front row although the ex-F1 pilot didn’t stay there long and was lapped by Martin on lap 83 to finish 36th.

Sam Hornish appeared to get turned

by Joey Logano to air the first ‘wreck induced’ yellow flag with 49 laps to run, Hornish ending his night in the inside wall. The second wreck occurred when

Advertise for as little as $75 per issue - special monthly packages Contact Oriana Kennedy oriana@mnews.com.au

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Dale Earnhardt Jr swiped the side of eighth-placed Paul Menard, cutting Menard’s left rear tyre and taking him out along with Jeff Burton and Speed who were caught up in the aftermath.

“It’s the fourth week in a row we’ve been involved in a double file restart and I’m about done with it,” said Burton – even though the incident happened three laps after the restart …

After qualifying 10th, Marcos Ambrose had an up-and-down night that ended on an up with a sterling 11th place result after rallying back from a lap down, and a low point of 29th, at one stage. What turned out to be a savvy move for four tyres under the sixth caution as the Tasmanian got the free pass and saw him move up seven spaces in the final 18 laps, including a pass on his MWR team-mate David Reutimann. Ambrose remains 18th in points, just 35 behind Jeff Burton and 118 in front of Jamie McMurray.

Toying with the opposition NATIONWIDE JOEY Logano’s pit crew elected not to pit during the second and final caution last Friday night while his team mate Kyle Busch stopped for two tyres and thought he had the winning combination.

NASCAR Media

The Running of the Bull: Brian Vickers was in Mark Webber Mode, leading the field away from pole position. By the end of the race, he was seventh, which was better than Carl Edwards could manage. Running a silver livery, below, the Ford ace is still in contention for the Chase, but there were no Fords in the top 10.

– MARTIN D CLARK

NASCAR Media

But surprisingly clean air proved pivotal and Logano fought Busch on the restart keeping him behind and stretching out to healthy lead over the final laps for his third win of the year.

“If you look at my victories it’s always been a 1-2 finish between me and Kyle, so that’s pretty neat,” said the teenager later. “That’s awesome for Joe Gibbs Racing.”

Brian Vickers was third while Jason Leffler made it 1-2-3-4 for Toyota, the first time that has happened in the history of the series.

On the other hand, it was a bad weekend for Brad Keselowski. He went a lap further than his JR Motorsports crew wanted before his first stop, and ran dry on the way to the pits. The ensuing push start put him a lap down, and 12th was the best he could do in the end.

SPRINT CUP | LIFELOCK.COM 400 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5 24 9 14 11 39 83 48 33 19

Mark Martin Jeff Gordon Kasey Kahne Tony Stewart Denny Hamlin Ryan Newman Brian Vickers Jimmie Johnson Clint Bowyer Juan Montoya

Chevy Chevy Dodge Chevy Toyota Chevy Toyota Chevy Chevy Chevy

Hendrick/Carquest Hendrick/National Guard RPM/Budweiser Stewart Haas/Office Depot Joe Gibbs/FedEx Stewart Haas/US Army Red Bull Racing Hendrick/Lowe’s Childress/Cheerios Earnhardt Ganassi/Target

14 7 15 32 4 12 1 3 5 17

NASCAR Media

NASCAR | DRIVER’S points Stewart 2884, Gordon 2709, Johnson 2672, Kurt Busch 2526, Hamlin 2457, Edwards 2438, Newman 2385, Kahne 2336, Montoya 2321, Kyle Busch 2298, Martin 2296, Kenseth 2296, [Ambrose 18th, 2078].

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INDYCAR ROUND 10 – HONDA INDY TORONTO, TORONTO

NEW PERFORMANCE FUEL (Perfo 105) Unleaded 113 RON, 98 MON & 16.3% Oxygen!

The highest octane and oxygen combination in the world!

Massive power gains and anti knock in NA and Turbo engines Elf Perfo 105 is in stock now, we have approval to supply from Aus. Govt. available from your local Elf racing agent

www.racefuels.com.au 44

On Target Dario Franchitti took pole position and drove through the wreckage-strewn streets to win in Toronto

Honda Racing

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Red on Target: Dario Franchitti led them away at the start and ended up smiling at the end of the race. The other fellas on the podium, with Will Power (in yellow) and Ryan Briscoe (in the pits) charging through the pack and onto the podium.

It was all looking shiny forr the locals, with Alex Tagliani, below, in position for an upset.

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INDYCAR | HONDA INDY TORONTO, T.O, CANADA 1 10 2 6 3 12 4 9 5 18 6 7 7 14 8 26 9 34 10 2

Dario Franchitti GB Ryan Briscoe Aus Will Power Aus Scott Dixon NZ Justin Wilson GB Danica Patrick USA Ryan Hunter-Reay USA Marco Andretti USA Alex Tagliani Can Raphael Matos Br

Target Ganassi 85 laps Q1 Team Penske -1.6745s 11 Team Penske -2.1355s 2 Target Ganassi -2.4803s 8 Dale Coyne/Z-Line -2.9230s 4 Andretti Green/Boost -6.4095s 18 AF Foyt/ABC Supply -7.1837s 12 Andretti Green/Venom -8.2552s 17 Conquest/The Keg -13.4745s 12 Luczo Dragon/FRS -16.0983s 9

Fastest lap: Briscoe on lap 84, 1m02.2313s (101.524mph)

INDYCAR | DRIVER’S points

Franchitti 347, Dixon 345, Briscoe 334, Castroneves 269, Patrick 266, Wheldon 240, Andretti 239, Kanaan 227, Wilson 217, Rahal 209.

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to pitlane for a fresh Firestone tyre. The same fate befell Ryan Briscoe, so right away, two of On the streets of the country’s biggest the three Penskes were nearly a lap down and city, Alex Tagliani led. Paul Tracy, born fighting their way back to the front. and bred just a few miles (sorry, kilometres) up “It was unfortunate on the first lap somebody the road, was second. The two part-time drivers cut my rear tyre down into Turn 3,” said Briscoe. were on the way to an unlikely 1-2, which would “I guess probably not entirely unexpected just have brought Maple Leaf-tinged tears to every with where I was starting and the nature of the son and daughter of the Great White North. track and everything.”

Then, real life set in. Tracy tangled with Helio Tagliani stretched his fuel range and when Castroneves and retired with bent suspension.

Tracy passed car after car after starting 15th, it The subsequent yellow flag fell perfectly for looked like the unlikely might just happen.

Dario Franchitti, who had lost track position with But it didn’t. What did happen was a bunch a slow pitstop and time behind slower traffic. of crashed on the unforgiving Exhibition Place The Big red Car from Ganassi sped off to another concrete, with Tony Kanaan, Tomas Scheckter, win.

Richard Antinucci, Mike Conway and Robert “A third of the way down pit lane, it went Doornbos joining Tracy and Castroneves on the yellow,” the Scot explained later. damaged list.

“We had a great second pit stop. We headed Through the chaos, Briscoe sped home for out; I think I was heading second. Paul Tracy and second (his fifth such result in six races!) from I were really close, someone tracked me in the the impressive Power, Scott Dixon and Justin pits. I guess the timing showed I was ahead, so Wilson, unable to repeat his Watkins Glen they put me ahead of Paul. I was behind Helio. I heroics but gaining points for Dale Coyne. pressured him. He looked like he was in trouble, Danica Patrick was the best of the American so I was able to pass him.” drivers, just ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay.

It was a race consumed by chaos. Even before After a weekend off, racing resumes at the green flag, Grahal Rahal and Will Power Edmonton. Let’s go, Canada! were in contact, and that sent the Queenslander OR a while – just a little while – it looked liked God really was a Canadian, eh?

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Cody Canes them in Hokk APRC CODY Crocker has continued his dominant form in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship by adding the Rally Hokkaido trophy to his collection.

The Subaru driver made it three wins from three starts this season and looks to be on-target for a fourth straight APRC title this year.

Crocker took just two points from Leg 2 in Japan, after Katsu Taguchi beat him across the day’s seven stages. But the Impreza WRX STI driver easily took the 10 points for winning the round, finishing the rally 1m09.9s clear of the local driver, after the Aussie already scored the three on offer on Saturday

for being fastest on Leg 1.

Hiroshi Yanagasawa was third over the weekend, with New Zealander Emma Gilmour back in fourth place, 3m56.1s off the pace.

“We are now in a strong position in the Championship,” said Crocker on Sunday.

“There are still three rounds to go but we have nearly a one event buffer, which is where we wanted to be at the stage of the season.”

Crocker now sits on top of the points table with 47 points, just one shy of the maximum available. Taguchi is in second place with 35 points, and Crocker’s MotorImage teammate, Gilmour, is third with 21 points.

Saavedra leads 1-2

James Davo fifth in wet-dry Lights race in Toronto INDY LIGHTS JUST what motor racing needs: more Sebastians.

AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing have uncovered another winning Seb, with Sebastian Saavedra scoring his second victory in Indy Lights at the weekend in Toronto. The Colombian led an AGR 1-2, splashing through the wet Canadian streets early in the race to lead home team-mate JR Hildebrand.

“It wasn’t easy, I’m telling you,” said Saavedra, #27 right, later.

“This is one of the hardest tracks I’ve been to in both wet and dry conditions.

All the cars started on wet

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tyres but by lap seven, the track was dry enough for slicks.

Saavedra resumed behind Hildebrand, #26 right, and moved past on lap 18 to take the win.

James Hinchcliffe was third from Stefan Wilson, with James Davison fifth. The Aussie started third, but a slow pitstop (without air tools) put him back in the pack.

“I've never driven so hard in my life to get through the field and secure a top five so I have to be happy with my drive,” he said.

“A bit disappointed with the result considering we had the speed to win today, but people know we’re quick and our time will come.”

race

kaido BROWN AND GOLD

Subaru Dave O x 2

NHRA ANTRON Brown, Ron Capps, Allan Johnson, and Eddie Krawiec shared the pro wins as the NHRA Full Throttle Series kicked off its annual three-race West Coast swing and the 30th annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Denver’s Bandimere Speedway.

IndyCar Media

Brown collected his third Top Fuel victory of 2009, posting a 3.94/295 to defeat Doug Kalitta, who banged the blower and slowed to an 11.36 at 43mph.

Brown’s Mark Oswald/Brian Corradi tuned dragster had bested Rob Passey, Morgan Lucas, and Spencer Massey in the prior rounds of racing.

In a Funny Car final round battle of the two top point

earners in the class, Ron Capps used a 4.18/297 to defeat the 4.23/296 of Ashley Force-Hood, to put the two drivers in a virtual tie for the top spot in the standings. Capps and the DSR team, led by tuner Ed ‘The Ace’ McCulloch, had the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge consistent in early round wins over Gary Densham, Cruz Pedregon, and Jack Beckman. This was the fifth victory of the year for Capps.

Johnson racked up his second Pro Stock victory of the season by defeating Jason Line on a holeshot. Johnson’s Mopar Dodge Stratus stopped the timers at 7.004-seconds at 195 mph to edge Line’s slightly

quicker 7.001 at 195. It was Johnson’s ninth career win and second of the year. For the day, Johnson took out fellow Dodge competitors Danny Gruninger, Johnny Gray, and Rickie Jones.

In the all-Harley Davidson Pro Stock Motorcycle final, defending series champion Eddie Krawiec defeated teammate Andrew Hines, who fouled at the start, 7.45/175 to 7.51/166. Krawiec defeated Mike Berry, Douglas Horne, and low qualifier Hector Arana to reach the final.

– DAVE OSTASZEWSKI

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Odd Spot

sutton-images.com

rear of grid

YOU did not think that we would let this opportunity pass, without publishing an embarrassing photo of Mark Webber, did you?

On Sunday night, Aussie time, we all jumped for joy when Webber took his maiden GP win in Germany. Then, he grabbed the champagne bottle and game himself a bath.

We thought that we have seen that look somewhere before. We had – and a trip through the archives turned up this shot of MW dumping a bottle of Moet on his head, after taking out the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

That was in 1996, kids. A long time ago.

We confess that we have, er, socialised with Webber a little over the years, but we cannot confirm whether he holds his champers better while actually drinking it, rather than using it as a shower. That’s where the second pic comes in; you gotta love the Mr Bean look MW gave when he got his test gig with Benetton in 2001.

Of course, now we have an excuse to run a pic with Yellow Pages in it, and remind everyone that the unknown kiddie knocking on your door, looking for a sponsorship deal, might turn out to be a GP winner one day.

We expect Webber to get better at the champagne thingy, once he gets some regular practice at it …

Prayers answered – by Karl and Chris RACERS Karl and Chris Reindler are used to hot and tricky conditions.

The pair are long-time motorsport competitors and have dealt with the odd dangerous situation before.

But while completing exploration work of their father’s mining company at dusk last week in the middle of Western Australia’s harsh outback, there was something falling from the sky.

A single engine Cessna was flying across the sand – and there was a problem.

Aboard the plane was four religious community group members, heading to Perth, but they never made it …

Karl takes up the story.

“It was pretty exciting – but not for me!” he said.

“The plane obviously had problem, it was coughing and spluttering, getting lower and lower. We watched it go below the tree line and eventually heard a massive crash. We raced over there to see what happened. Too be honest, we were thinking the worst.

“The four guys inside needed some help.

Somehow, they survived, so we jumped on

our satellite phone.

“We hadn’t seen a single car in that area for four days – we were literally the only people out there.

“They had no water, no food, no communication – they didn’t even know where they were! I’d hate to think what would have happened if we weren’t there.”

The four men escaped largely unharmed with only minor abrasions and injuries.

The Reindlers helped organise emergency personnel, and set-up a camp fire for the religious men before the entourage arrived. The four survivors spent most of the time thanking the man upstairs for his assistance in landing their aircraft.

But forget the ‘almighty,’ they should be thanking god that the Reindler boys were close by …

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