Motorsport eNews Issue 119 - August 25-31, 2009

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Issue No. 119 August 25 - 31 2009

Early Debut Could a T8 Commodore compete in 2009?

Bright days Breakthrough Queensland result, but what’s his future plans?

A Little help coming for FPR

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

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Contributing Writers F1: Will Buxton, Mark Glendenning, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin D. Clark, Phil Morris Speedway: Greg Boscato, Geoff Rounds, Darren Sutton, Tony Millard (UK) Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Ken Ferguson, John Bosher, Luke Nieuwhof National: Lachlan Mansell, Mark Jones, Aaron Shaw.

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

Issue No. 119 | 25 - 31 August 2009

news 5 Sooner, not later

7 Nitro deal runs flat 8 Foggy! No, Bayliss!

10 Two Bathursts?

18 Sore and sorry

chat 20 5 minutes with ... opinion 22 Larkham race 24 V8 Supercars 32 Fujitsu V8s 36 Formula Ford 42 NASCAR 46 IndyCar 50 Targa West

Will T8 go Holden in ‘09?

New sponsor needed for GC Ex WC nabs enduro seat Not races, two tracks!

Reeves out of Rally Oz Jason Bright When a plan (almost) works Two red winners at QR Caught in a Webb ‘The Kid’ walks it Ambrose finishes third!!!

Briscoe takes title lead!!!

Jones makes it two

trade 52 Classifieds Nothing beats a lazy Sunday in the Qld sun, right Garth?

Copyright: Material published in Motorsport eNews is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher.

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

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

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

Bright: I want two cars again V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

AFTER an outstanding return to form at Queensland Raceway last weekend, Jason Bright is making moves to secure – and build – on his future in the sport.

The Fujitsu Racing driver and V8 Supercars Australia board member qualified on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s race at the Willowbank circuit, thanks in part to his first test day last week in his then twomeeting old Stone Brothers Racing-built Falcon FG. Even though Bright could only manage eighth and ninth in the two races, it was still his most competitive weekend since his days with Ford Performance Racing in 2006.

Since then, racing results have been slim, to say the least.

He drove for his own team in

2007 and 2008, scoring just two top 10 round finishes.

The former Bathurst winner linked with Stone Brothers Racing this year in a technical alliance, competing under one of his RECs (Racing Entitlement Contracts) while leasing the other to Wilson Security Racing.

Pit lane rumours have circulated over the past months in relation to Bright’s future. Now, the 36-year-old wants to put that chat to rest, confirming to eNews that not only does he want to keep both of his RECs, he eventually wants to run them together again – as early as 2010.

“I fully intend to own both licenses next year,” he said.

“I want to be two cars again, maybe even as early as next year. I want to get back to two cars one way or another.

“I’m certainly working in that direction.

“We’re talking to some good people at the moment, and I certainly believe there’s a good chance of it, so it’s a possibility.

“But I definitely intend on holding onto my two licences.

Now that the IntaRacing deal has fallen over, it gets us back

to 29 cars, which is closer to the 28 entries that is desired.

“I still reckon 26 is the number which we should be aiming at.

“I think there’ll be a few other changes in licences towards the end of the year and I want to nail down my deals soon.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

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

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T8 Commodore on the way And there’s chat that its first Holden could be seen in ‘09 V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

IF industry chat is to be believed, there is some chance a Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore could debut before the end of this year’s V8 Supercar series.

While Triple Eight boss Roland Dane didn’t want to discuss the subject of where and when the first T8 Commodore would debut, he was happy to confirm at the weekend that work is already well under way to produce the first prototype.

Although details have apparently yet to be finalised,

Triple Eight is set to enter into a technical ‘partnership’ with Paul Morris Motorsport, which will see PMM’s Supercheap Auto team switch to T8-built chassis.

PMM has already started the shut-down of its existing engine shop, with its engines (along with experienced engine man Rob Benson) moving to KRE Engines – who currently prepare Triple Eight’s Ford V8 units.

The upshot of this is that if a T8-spec Commodore is ready to debut prior to season’s end – at the Telstra Sydney 500 – it could be in the hands of Supercheap team

leader Russell Ingall. On the other hand, if defending V8 Champ Jamie Whincup was fortunate enough to have the 2009 V8 series wrapped up after the preceding West Australian (Barbagallo) round, there would also be nothing to stop him debuting the car either (Craig Lowndes is the only driver with a specific Ford contract to the end of 2009).

PMM’s expected alliance with Triple Eight should provide the performance boost to make it a regular top contender – and suddenly make the second seat, alongside Ingall, a much sought-after position ...

Tech man to audit Ford Performance Racing

A Little Factory Review V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

FORMER TeamVodafone and SBR engineer Campbell Little has been employed by Prodrive boss David Richards to conduct a full review of operations at Ford Performance Racing.

Little, whose brief tenure as V8 Supercar Category Technical Officer ended just last week was, on Monday, at Stone Brothers Racing’s engine shop, watching, while an FPRprepared Falcon engine was run up on the SBR engine dyno.

“I’ve started (with FPR) today, and it just happened that this was on the cards for today – it’s just part of the technical alliance between the two teams. But I’ll be in Melbourne shortly,” he told eNews.

Little has undertaken a contract role, currently not of finalised length, to have a look at all the operational

and engineering aspects of the team which, to date in 2009, has dropped away from its front-running 2008 form.

“I’ll be reporting to Tim (Edwards),” Little told us.

The experienced Ford engineer was present at Queensland Raceway over the weekend, casting an initial eye over the team.

Contractual obligations prevented him from formally having technical input (“for the next few days”), but there was little doubt that both FPR cars were further up the pecking order than has been the case for some time.

“It’s very early days,” Little told us.

“I was impressed with some of what I saw, and less impressed with other things – that’s what it’s about.

“Every team approaches the job with its own philosophy, and theirs is different from my past teams.”

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

Tassie Devil strikes Bristol!

NASCAR MARCOS Ambrose has rocked the NASCAR Sprint Cup establishment with a brilliant third at Bristol.

The Aussie beat his previous best oval result – fourth at Talladega in April – on Saturday night at the unforgiving 0.533 mile (860m) concrete bullring, and scored his seventh top 10 result of the year.

Ambrose described his

Apology Kelvin O’Reilly.

On June 22, 2009, an article appeared in this publication entitled ‘V8 Supercars Executive Chairman outlines agenda for change’. The article included quotes from Mr Tony Cochrane in reference to former TEGA GM Kelvin O’Reilly. It has been brought to our attention that these statements could be considered defamatory of Mr O’Reilly.

Australasian Motorsport News p/l retracts any and all statements in the article which could be considered defamatory of Mr O’Reilly and apologises unreservedly for any distress and embarrassment caused to him and his family.

placing as better than his runner up at Watkins Glen a few weeks ago.

“This is more satisfying than any of the results I’ve had, even all the wins at Watkins Glen, because it’s on such a big stage against the best at a place like Bristol,” he said through a mile-wide grin after the race.

Ambrose qualified 25th and ran third in final practice.

He slowly worked his way forward with stiff competition such as Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin all starting around or behind him and hungry to move forward.

Ambrose had moved his Clorox JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota into the top 10 by lap 125 and up to third 100 laps later before dropping back to eighth

during pit stops under the sixth caution. He had a tense side-by-side battle with Greg Biffle after that yellow flag, but took the position around the outside.

It was Biffle who he fought for third after the ninth caution when his MWR ‘team-mate’ Michael Waltrip wrecked hard. The outside was the faster line if you had a car that worked the higher groove and Ambrose’s Camry started fourth to the outside of Biffle on that final restart.

Ambrose kept his foot in the gas on the restart around turns one and two and entered the back stretch with four laps to run in third place.

Ambrose sprinted away from Biffle during the final three and half laps and ended up a car length ahead of ‘The Biff’ and five back from Mark

Martin at the checkers.

“I got Dale Jr. behind me and Greg Biffle beside me and I’m good friends with Greg. If I did the wrong thing by Dale, I was going to get lynched by about 50,000 people as I was trying to get out of here, so I really didn’t want to mess up.

I wanted to race them hard.

I wanted to race them. But you know that you’re in very special territory up there.

“I have to pinch myself to run against Mark Martin in his 1000th race and finish just off his rear bumper. I’m racing at one of the best races in the world against the best drivers in the world. This place is still intimidating for me, even today. The fans are loud and the track is so fast. Five hundred laps around here is a battle in itself. ” – MARTIN D CLARK

Now for the Sportscar debut NASCAR MARCOS Ambrose has an off weekend this week – so, he is going racing.

As reported exclusively last week in Motorsport eNews, Ambrose and Carl Edwards will make their Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race debut at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this Saturday. The pair will be behind the wheel of the Doran Racing Ford powered Dallara Daytona Prototype the day before the pair race in the Nationwide Series event on the Canadian road course.

“That was the first time I have driven one

of these cars and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what a terrific little race car it is,” said Ambrose, who tested at Virginia International Raceway last Tuesday.

“You can really drive it and it responds to being muscled a bit. We had a really enjoyable day and we made some solid progress in a short amount of time. Carl was great to work with and I think we both really had a good time together today. I have to thank Kevin Doran and his crew for letting us drive his car at VIR today. Both Carl and I got down to some pretty respectable times by the end of the day.”

– MARTIN D CLARK

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Nitr-off for SuperGP Gold Coast organisers on the hunt for new sponsor SUPERGP SUPERGP organisers are committed to finding a new naming rights sponsor for the Gold Coast street race, in the wake of the termination of the energy drink’s sponsorship agreement.

The event was to be known as the Nitro SuperGP; however after reports that all was not kosher within Nitro, the Nitro name was removed from the event’s official title last week.

In an open letter to Queensland’s Minister for Sport, Phil Reeves, SuperGP general manager Greg Hooton said “[Gold Coast Motor Events Company] has been in contact with Nitro regarding its failure to make the payments under the sponsorship agreement.

“GCMEC has been advised by Nitro that irreconcilable differences between the shareholders of Nitro have resulted in Nitro being unable to meet the full

financial requirements of the sponsorship agreement, and that these issues are unlikely to be resolved in the foreseeable future.

“Rather than continue speculation on the matter the Partnership Committee has decided to take swift action to remove Nitro as the naming rights sponsor for the 2009 SuperGP event.”

Hooton’s letter also stated that the event’s commercial managers IMG were responsible for finding Nitro, and would be also be responsible for finding a replacement title sponsor.

“As the commercial partner, [IMG] was responsible for sourcing Nitro as the naming rights sponsor for the SuperGP event. Appropriate due diligence checks were carried out.

“IMG will immediately proceed to the market with the aim of identifying and recommending a new naming rights sponsor prior to the 2009 event.”

GC is the pits: This is an artist’s impressions of the new pit buildings for the SuperGP.

POWER HURT

WILL Power’s IndyCar season has come to a premature end after a major crash in California.

The Queenslander is in Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (California) after he suffered a fracture of his L2 and L4 vertebra when his Penske Dallara-Honda crashed into the stationary car of Nelson Philippe during the first practice session.

The Frenchman spun partway off the racing surface but stopped on the racing line between turns 3A and 4, a downhill slope 2m lower than the crest of a blind hill.

Corner workers flagged the incident from their raised platform located two track widths to the right Power was air lifted by helicopter and Philippe, taken by ambulance, had surgery on a compound fracture of his left foot. Although both drivers suffered concussion, they were awake and alert.

– MARY MENDEZ Update – Monday 8pm Motorsport News has this hour spoken with nursing staff at Memorial Hospital, who assure us that Will is okay, and that on initial diagnosis, his injury will need rest rather than an operation. He is expected to remain in hospital for 2-4 days.

We all wish him a ‘Powerful’ recovery.

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Bayliss in for PI, Bathurst

V8 SUPERCARS TROY Bayliss will make his V8 Supercar debut at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island.

The three-time World Superbike Champion will co-drive Dean Fiore’s Triple F Commodore at the two endurance classics, and drove the VE at Queensland Raceway’s co-driver’s session last Friday.

The Paul Morris Motorsport-built car will

Dirk Klynsmith

TRIPLE F GETS TRIPLE CHAMP carry primary sponsorship from Kitten Car Care.

“The day was another learning experience,” said Bayliss, who clocked a best time of 1m14.28s in the session.

“I was out there with a lot of the guys from the main game and received a few touch ups to officially welcome me to the series.

“I would love to be able to stay out there

all day but being here was just a chance to do a few laps and to let people know that I’m here and will be competing at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

“Overall, I think I need to spend a little bit more time in the car as each lap I did I got better and better and I feel as though I’m getting a good handle of everything – I just can’t wait to get out there for my first race.”

WSR pairs Coulthard, Patrizi V8 SUPERCARS

John Morris

WILSON Security Racing has confirmed that Fabian Coulthard and Michael Patrizi will team up in the team’s lead #111 Falcon FG at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island at the Supercheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst.

“We set Michael some targets at the start of the year and he’s making progress all the time,” Cruickshank said.

“Michael’s speed is good and he continues to improve. There is still areas in V8 Supercar that he needs to concentrate on, like his qualifying and bits and pieces, but he understands he’s there to play a supporting role to Fabian and is there to

continue to learn.”

The Coulthard/Patrizi combination means that the team’s endurance drivers David Wall and Leanne Tander will pair in the #333 WSR Falcon.

With the two regular drivers together, Cruickshank says that his expectation for the lead car don’t change.

“We all say we’re going there to win, but realistically, it’s going to be hard to win against some of those combinations.

We’ll go there with the mindset that we do to all the races at the moment which is to do the best we can and try and stay in the top eight or 10 cars the whole weekend. We’ve done that all year, so I don’t see why anything will be different.”

If You Build it, they will Come MOUNT PANORAMA PLANS for a proposed second racing circuit alongside Mount Panorama in Bathurst were met with widespread support at a public meeting at the mountain last Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by Bathurst residents, motorsport enthusiasts and politicians, who all agreed a second racing venue would bring great economic benefits to Bathurst and the centralwestern NSW region.

The circuit’s design allows for several configurations to be used, as shown in the map. For example, the new circuit could be used on its own to hold club or statelevel events, or driver-training, without the need for any of the existing Mount Panorama circuit’s public roads to be closed. On its own, the new track is 2.5 kilometres in length.

However, the new circuit can also be combined with some of Mount Panorama’s existing sections, including Con-rod straight, Pit Straight and Mountain Straight, to create a 4.6km grand-prix style circuit suitable for classes such as superbikes or

10

Second Circuit planned for Mt Panorama openwheelers, that cannot race around the traditional Mount Panorama Layout due to its extreme elevation changes.

The brain-child behind the track, former bike-racer Allan Cunynghame, says the new track could be used to attract highprofile events such as a round of the World Superbike Championship.

Cunynghame also received some valuable input from V8 Supercar driver Craig Lowndes during the planning stages for the circuit.

“My question to Craig was: ‘how would this be for a sprint round of the V8 Series?’”

Cunynghame said. “He was very supportive to give me his time, because in the track design, I hadn’t put the proposal in front of a professional driver and I wanted to talk to someone from V8 Supercars, so I put the question to him. His comment back to me was that it would be a fantastic thing if you could have a premier endurance race at Mount Panorama, and a premier sprint round as well.”

The cost of the new circuit is estimated at $25 million. According to Cunynghame, this funding would come from all three levels of government.

“If it’s going to happen at all, it will be a joint venture between the Federal and State Governments, and Bathurst City Council,” he said. “If you look at it from a business perspective, it would certainly bring a lot of industry and a lot of business to the Central West.”

State Member for Bathurst, Gerard Martin, is strongly in support of the new track’s construction.

“This is a good way for the Government to invest in regional NSW, create economic development and create opportunities for people to work in the area,” he said.

Local racing identity Brian Nightingale says the new track would provide a much-needed extra racing facility in NSW, especially with Oran Park closing down.

“They want to make Mount Panorama the home of motorsport, but it’s never going to be the home of motorsport when it only holds five race meetings a year,” Nightingale said.

Future progress with the new circuit now lies with State and Federal Governments, who will meet to discuss funding for the facility.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

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KELLYS SIGN KART S V8 SUPERCARS

JDR revives Young Lions concept with Sera

FV8s go Sequential V8 SUPERCARS THE Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series will allow sequential gearboxes next season.

After its successful introduction to the Main Series last season, the FV8 teams will have the option of upgrading to the new ‘boxes.

Team owner Matthew White will get a headstart with the sequential box. He is buying one for his team’s wildcard entry in the endurance races and says that its introduction for 2010 has more positives than negatives.

“They are a better gearbox, maybe marginally faster, but the key thing for our series is that because we’re here to develop drivers, it’s appropriate that they use the same equipment,” he says.

“The downside is we have to go out and buy the new gearboxes, but I think in six months to a year they would have paid for themselves in engine maintainance and the extra mileage you get out of them. It’s a no brainer.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

12

CHAMPION karter David Sera has joined Kelly Racing’s V8 Supercar team as part of a driver development program.

Having achieved everything (and more) on the Australian karting scene, the 21-year-old is looking at getting out of karts and, possible, straight into V8 Supercar racing.

Sera was scheduled to have his first test with the team

Sonic: No Enduros

V8 SUPERCARS SONIC Motor Racing has withdrawn its wildcard entry and will not compete at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

The Victorian-based team has cited a lack of suitable budget to fulfill its obligations at the two V8 Supercar endurance races.

James Moffat and Bryce Washington were penciled in as the team’s drivers for the two races, but when Washington withdrew from competing in the Fujitsu V8 Series after the first two rounds, it put a dent in its aspirations.

“It’s disappointing for us,” Ritter said.

“At the end of the day, it’s come down to our business position. We aren’t in a position to do it, and we weren’t going to do it if we couldn’t do it properly.

“It’s been a struggle to get Moff (James Moffat) to each of the Fujitsu Series rounds, let alone to have a good shot at the endurance races, and when Bryce made his decision a few months ago, it’s had an overwhelming impact.”

Ritter added that his ambitions have not changed looking forward. He still wants his team to run in the endurance races next year – and one day, the Main Game full-time.

“Our plans have not changed,” he said.

“Our mission is still there and if it takes us 12 months longer, than so be it.”

Sonic’s absence means that the 32 cars compete at the L&H 500 and the Supercheap Auto 1000. The other three Wildcard entries are Greg Murphy Racing, Sieders Racing Team and Matthew White Motorsport.

– GRANT ROWLEY

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STAR

at its test day at Winton two weeks ago, but a mechanical issue with the car thwarted that plan. However, he did get a few laps as the passenger in one of the Jack Daniel’s Commodores.

While the step from karting straight into a V8 Supercar might sound like a big step (and risk), team owner Todd Kelly says that they throwing him in the deep end is a high possibility.

“We’ll just throw him straight in and see what happens,” Kelly said.

“David is the standout guy in karts at the moment. He’s been around for a while. He’s at the right age now for us to give him some testing, get him around the track and see how he operates withal the things we do with the cars.”

Sera is thrilled to be involved with the new team.

“I’m just going to be showing my face around the race tracks and see how they go about things,” he said.

“Looking at data, work with the engineers who have been very successful, and Todd and Rick have both won at Bathurst so it’s great to be involved with such an up and coming team. I can’t thank them enough.”

Sera’s first test date has not been confirmed yet, but he will be at each of the team’s test days.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Top Speed 3:16 kays Colin Sieders makes way for Fisher at PI, Bathurst V8 SUPERCARS COLIN Sieders will not be part of his family-team’s wild card entry in this year’s V8 Supercar endurance races.

Sieders, 27, has elected to pull out of Phillip Island and Bathurst after a scheduled operation on his injured leg prior to Bathurst will not be properly healed in time.

V8 Ute and part-time Fujitsu

V8 Series driver Andrew Fisher will replace Colin and team up with David Sieders in the races.

The ex-Triple Eight Bathurst winning Falcon BF that the team is leasing for the race will run in Jesus Racing livery.

“It was a tough decision to make,” Colin said, who competed in the FV8 Series in Queensland last weekend.

“After the weekend, I knew something wasn’t right. A

quick trip to the doctor confirmed I would not be racing with the big guns at Phillip Island or Bathurst.”

As part of the deal, the team’s sponsor ‘Jesus. All about life’ will use the chance to undergo a prime time, multimedia campaign throughout the Bathurst 1000 coverage.

The deal is believed to include an in-car camera for the Sieders/Fisher combination.

Russell returns in ex-BJR Falcon FUJITSU V8

DREW Russell will return to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series for the final two rounds of the championship at Bathurst and Homebush, armed with a Brad Jones Racing Falcon BF that he has purchased.

Russell’s family team Novocastrian Motorsport will prepare the car (last raced by the Albury team in 2007) after a split with Race Image Racing before the Townsville round.

“I have been really impressed by the

professional support we have received from Brad and his team,” said Russell.

“They have done everything they can to help us get this deal in place in such a short period of time.

“We have time between now and Bathurst to test the car and ensure it is set up perfectly before the race weekend begins and with the support BJR is giving us we should be in a strong position.”

Russell will test the car for the first time this week.

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Team Penske moves in on Keselowski NW star set to replace Stremme NASCAR SPRINT CUP

INDYCAR MICHAEL Andretti is taking control of his own team – and Danica Patrick looks set to stay.

This past week the three owners announced they are splitting up, effective October, giving full control of the race team to Michael Andretti. The two promotion companies, Andretti Green Promotions (St. Petersburg race) and Andretti Green Toronto will be run by Kim Green and Kevin Savoree.

“Since becoming partners in 2002, we have been fortunate

to see our companies expand and diversify quickly and successfully,” the owners said in a joint statement. “All of us believe that this decision will maximize the potential of both companies in the future.”

There is an obvious, happier vibe at the team and all four drivers improved in their qualifying results at Infineon with four drivers in the top eight.

“I think it’s looking a bit

like I’m returning,” Danica Patrick told sportsIllustrated. com, indicating sponsorship is conditional on her renewal with the team.

“I’m not done. We are still working through some things, but it’s looking like that. It is moving along very positively.

I would prefer to talk to Mike [Andretti] than to Kevin [Savoree] because he is a larger owner in the team. And, when I talk to Mike things get done. I do think this plays into where I want to be in the future.”

– MARY MENDEZ

Honda Racing

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... and Danica Patrick is staying put

Vickers stays a Red Bullfighter NASCAR SPRINT CUP

Toyota Motorsports

LOOK for Brad Keselowski to make the move to Sprint Cup next season – with Team Penske.

David Stremme confirmed at Bristol what many had already assumed – that he will not be behind the wheel of the number 12 Verizon-sponsored Penske Dodge in 2010.

Stremme has struggled in the Cup Series this season, his first of a two-year contract with Penske, which will no doubt pay his contract through next season.

Rumours at the track have Keselowski filling the void left

by Stremme and, as he hails from Michigan – team owner Roger Penske’s home state – it home it makes sense.

Keselowski won the April Talladega race, spinning Carl Edwards into a wild barrel roll as they approached the checkered flag. He also has three wins in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports this season and sits third in series points.

Keselowski, 25, had wanted to stay within the Hendrick Motorsports fold (JR sources its hardware from Hendrick’s) but there was simply no room for him. He’s started eight Cup races this season and has posted one win and three 10 ten results, the win came driving a Chevrolet owned by Phoenix Racing, a part time Cup team that leases engines from Hendrick Motorsports.

Keselowski’s only comment on the matter at the weekend was that he had “nothing to announce” …

– MARTIN D CLARK

Andretti/Green Split

BRIAN Vickers has re-signed with Red Bull Racing.

Last week’s Michigan Sprint Cup winner has extended his deal, though it not known how long the extension is for.

Vickers stayed in contention

for the Michigan victory all race before winning on fuel mileage. After exploring the possibilities of switching to Hendrick Chevrolet power in recent months the team is apparently now going to return with Toyota in 2010.

– MARTIN D CLARK

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AUSTRALIAN GT has confirmed that eight new FIA GT3 cars have been purchased and will be raced in the flourishing series in 2010.

Series administrators have agreed to a limit of five cars per marque (a reduction from eight this season). The regulation will see spots on the grid at a premium, and it means that both the Porsche and Dodge quotas are already full – seven months before the season kicks off!

It is expected that three new Vipers, two new Moslers and three Porsche Cup S models will be the new GT3 cars seen in Australia.

A concession has also been made for former Carrera Cup Porsche 997s. Next year, five of them will be allowed to compete, boosting the number of Porsches on the grid to 10. However, the 997s won’t be eligible in 2011.

It is believed that the owners

of the new cars will be made public in the near future.

Category manager Terry Little told eNews that it is exciting times for his class.

“I believe that people are realizing that we’ve stuck to our guns all the way through in what we want to achieve and there’s a lot of confidence out there.

“We had a good meeting with our competitors last week and there is a good vibes amongst the group.”

This year’s Australian GT class has two rounds remaining, at Bathurst and Homebush. There is already an oversubscribed grid for the Homebush event (32 cars), and track managers are looking at increasing the grid’s maximum density for the GT entrants.

In other Australian GT news, John Teulen has decided to step down from racing duties due to ongoing issue with the leg injury he sustained at Phillip Island last year.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Dirk Klynsmith

AUSTRALIAN GT

Dirk Klynsmith

Oz GT Boom!

Dixon tests FBMW FORMULA FORD

AUSTRALIAN Formula Ford racer Jesse Dixon is heading to Malaysia to test a Formula BMW car at Sepang this week.

The Queenslander will complete a three-day test with the Meridus Motorsport team at the Formula 1 circuit, having already done a two-day test with them last month.

Later this year, Dixon will compete in the Formula BMW Scholarship program, and is using these test days to ensure he has as much experience as possible in the cars.

“My first test with them went

very well,” he said.

“It’s a completely different style to the Formula Ford.

It’s got left foot braking, six speed sequential gearbox and the steering is much heavier.

The cars are also a lot more physically demanding on your body as well. I think I adapted to it fairly well.

Dixon’s ultimate goal in motorsport is to make it to Formula 1.

“Everyone in F1 has had to make that move to International motorsport at some point and this is the track that I want to go down.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

Drive days for MINI Challenge MINI CHALLENGE

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Dirk Klynsmith

SELECTED drivers will have a chance to sample MINI power in an upcoming MINI Challenge Road Show.

A number of hand-picked local drivers will be invited to come and test the cars from the one-make series in an effort to increase awareness, and boost grid numbers for 2010 and beyond.

The Road Show will take place after the next round of the series at Phillip Island.

First stop is a Victorian circuit (likely to be Calder Park), followed by Oran Park (September 24) and Queensland Raceway (Sept 25).

According to new MINI operations manager Craig Nayda, the tests will be

taken part in by a wide range of drivers: “It will be by invitation only,” he said.

“We’re going to invited a selected group of individuals to the events with the objective being to introduce them to MINI Challenge, explain to them what we’re about and where we’re going. Ultimately, we’ll be putting them in the car to turn some laps and experience the cars.

“We’re not particularly targeting one group of people. We’ve got a complete

broad spectrum of individuals who we’ve got in mind for the days.”

Nayda is the former administrator of Performance Cars, and he is using some of his contacts to build interest in the series.

“From my experience, I’ve got a data base of drivers from Performance Cars/ Production Cars who might not be doing anything anymore. Other guys might be people who are involved in other categories.

We just want them to come and try the cars, gauge their reactions and go from there.”

It was recently announced that MINI itself has committed to continuing its support of the series until 2011, and at the same time, gourmet pizza chain Pizza Capers is locked in as the category’s title sponsor until 2011.

– GRANT ROWLEY

news

FORMULA FORD DESPITE the fact that Sonic Motor Racing locked out the round podium at Queensland Raceway, continuing its domination of the class this year, the team is making big plans for its assault on next year’s Australian Formula Ford Championship.

Having competed with Mygale chassis for the past three seasons, the Victorian-based is helping the French manufacturer design new components to further improve the constructor’s competitiveness.

The Mygale SJ07A chassis has had no development upgrades since its introduction to Australia in 2007, and Sonic boss Mick Ritter wants that to change:

“Clearly, the strong points on the chassis outweigh the weak points, but it’s those weak points that we need to work on for next year. It has to happen,” he told eNews.

“The cars have been the same for three years – it could actually be even more than that – so we are working through ideas of our own to pass onto Mygale.”

Mygale Australia’s Greg Woodrow echoed Ritter’s thoughts.

“I wish that we could have the perfect racecar, but that can never happen,” he said.

“We are working on improving and evolving the chassis. It’s been my goal since I’ve been with Mygale to continue to improve it. While we’ve got the same tyre and engine package and we’ve been successful, I see no need to re-invent the

Dirk Klynsmith

Sonic to develop Mygale wheel, but together, we’re working on changes and you’ll next year, you will see some significant changes to our cars.”

The successful Sonic outfit is planning on running three, or possibly more, Mygale chassis in next year’s Formula Ford championship. Current championship leader and likely series winner Nick Percat won’t be back in the class, and it is expected that Mitch Evans will head to another class, likely internationally, to continue his quest for greater glory.

Fellow team member and Queensland Raceway podium-getter Geoff Uhrhane is locked in for a second season with Sonic, and the team are already in discussions with a number of other potential drivers to fill its 2010 line-up.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Walsh to make Formula Ford comeback FORMULA FORD ASH Walsh is likely to return to the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship in the final two rounds of this year’s championship at Phillip Island and Homebush.

Walsh, who finished second in the 2007 Australian title, is putting together a deal to compete in the last two events of the year having sat out all of

this season.

The 21-year-old competed in the 2008 West European Formula Renault Championship but returned to Australia at the start of this year without a drive.

Walsh is keen to get back in the seat to ensure he keeps race sharp.

“I want to do the last couple of round just to keep my eye in,” he said.

“I haven’t raced for eight months, I’ve done a bit of

testing but there’s nothing like racing experience.

“You never know what’s going to happen in the future.

We might get lucky and get sponsorship or find a drive for next year and if that’s the case, I don’t want to be rusty at the start of the year and not be ready for it.”

Walsh tested a Howard Racing V8 Supercar at the start of this year and is already focussing on trying to secure a

seat in the Fujitsu V8 Series next season.

“That’s the obvious goal for me now,” he said.

“I’d love to race in the V8 Supercar category, whether its in the Fujitsu Series or the Main Game, I guess I’m just focussing now on trying to put together a good deal for next season.

Having this year off hasn’t hurt me. I think it has made more hungry.”

– GRANT ROWLEY

17

news

Reeves out of Rally Australia The final National meeting at Oran Park ...

SHANNONS NATIONALS SYDNEY’S famous Oran Park circuit will see its final ever national race meeting this weekend, when the Shannons Nationals rolls into Narellan.

Steve Owen will return to the circuit where he wrapped up last year’s Fujitsu Series title, logging some important preendurance race miles in the Shannons V8 Touring Cars class.

The factory Holden endurance driver debuted in the thirdtier V8 Supercar class back at the Winton round, winning the opening race.

The other V8 supercars – the Kerrick Sports Sedans – will start with the biggest grid in years, 26 cars entering the meeting. Tony Ricciardello, Des Wall and Darren Hossack are vying for the title, with this penultimate round falling at Wall’s home circuit.

Aussie Racing Cars return to the Shannons bill for Oran Park, with the most noteworthy change being Jim Clews, father of regular race winner Kyle, subbing in for his son, who will be on holiday in Bali. The holiday was scheduled before a late change in the ARC calendar, and Clews Senior will be eligible to score points on behalf of his son.

Eastern Creek round winner (and rally ace) Steve Glenney will return to the Boylan Traffic Solutions Australian Manufacturers Championship, while the Australian Formula 3 Championship will see the exciting battle for the Gold Star between Tim Macrow and Brit Joey Foster carry on. The grid is expected to be as high as 16 cars.

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RALLY AUSTRALIA BRENDAN Reeves’ dream of winning this year’s Pirelli Star Driver award has been shattered, with the young Victorian forced to withdraw from Repco Rally Australia.

Reeves and co-driver (and sister) Rhianon Smyth were both injured in a huge crash at the recent Rally South Australia, with Reeves wearing a neck brace since the accident, and Smyth in the early stages of a long recovery from two broken legs. Cruelly, the crash happened within five kilometres of the end of the rally’s final stage.

Had Reeves been able to start Rally Oz, he would have done so as favourite for the Star Driver award, having been the fastest in the qualifying round in Queensland earlier this year. Now, favouritism falls to Eli Evans, while Reeves is left to rue a tough decision.

“It’s a real shame and it was a really difficult decision to withdraw,” Reeves said.

“But I am still undergoing medical treatment after the accident in South Australia

and if I can’t give 100 percent in the rally, there’s no point in me competing.”

At just 20 years of age, Reeves is confident that this won’t be his last shot at the Star Driver award, for which the prize is six fullyfunded rounds of next year’s Production Car World Rally Championship.

“I’m still young and hopefully there will be lots more opportunities to earn a drive overseas in the future,” he added.

“Both Rhianon and I are both very keen to get back into the car and compete again. We’ve proved over the past 12 or 18 months that we have the speed to match it with the best drivers, and we’re confident that we can achieve our goals over the next few years.”

Cody Crocker is another high profile Aussie that won’t be starting Rally Oz in a fortnight, after a shipping bungle has left his car stranded in Indonesia.

Neal Bates, however, will be a starter, with his Corolla Super 2000 cars gaining the necessary FIA approvals to compete.

19

5 Minutes with ...

JASON BRIGHT

The man in Fujitsu green showed his best speed of the season at The Paperclip, and GRANT ROWLEY explained how, why and what he wants to see in the future

Is there more potential in that chemistry between Dave and yourself?

It all worked well. It’s just early days.

Dave wheeled out a good car this weekend and he’s very experienced in that he knows how to commnicate what to do and can manage the team extremely well. We threw a

20

John Morris

MOTORSPORT NEWS: You changed engineer for this round. A good result. A coincidence?

JASON BRIGHT: No, I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Finally having a test day last week in the FG … We’ve had two rounds with the FG and turned up to the track both times copying what Stone Brothers has been running. It’s meant we’ve been struggling in qualifying and that’s been evident with all three cars.

The knowledge that we gained from the test day, we’ve been able to learn from that and all of a sudden, I had a car that I was pretty confident that I knew I could qualify near the front.

Dave (Stuart, Bright’s new engineer) was really good to the team as far as the racing was concerned, and how he worked with the guys. As far as an engineer/driver relationship goes, it was OK, but moreso, we had a really good test day and spent some time in the car – I would have liked to have done that before Winton this year. We’re a long way behind the eight ball as far as anyone goes with an FG, but I’m a lot more confident now we can get a lot out of the car.

bunch of things at it to get it here, we’ve got a good to where I needed to give me a qualifying car, and we can better qualifying car. make it a much better race car Going into the races, we than what we’ve had today. chipped away at it to make it We’ve got to work on pit stops better, and there’s still more – we lost eight seconds in to come. In the first race we there today which would have had too much understeer popped us out around Frosty and today (Sunday) we had (Mark Winterbottom). oversteer and we sort of overAll those little things bite you compensated. That’s one of the every time. Like most teams, hard parts about not having a though, as soon as you have a warm-up … result like this, all those other We still did a lot testing areas start to improve – there during the races. At no time was a lot of pressure on our this year, have I felt like I guys this weekend. We haven’t understood the car. It’s been been running in the top out of the ‘window’ and three all year so it puts a little nothing had made us get it extra pressure on and I’ve got right. This weekend, we got in confidence that we’ll all benefit the window and everything from this. made sense. All the changes that we made this weekend Personally, it must be nice to from practice onwards made be back at the shiny end … the differences that I’d expect Oh, for sure. It was a tough them to make, and that’s the couple of years at Britek. first time this year that that’s No results on the track or actually happened. financially. I copped it from Ford at the end of 2007, which So you’d prefer to erase the made 2008 pretty much a first half of this season? nothing year. That was a Yes, I think a ‘Chase for the Cup’ struggle to get through. would be a good idea!

This year, we had to make a I’m pretty confident from big change and we didn’t get

in the FG as early as we would have liked. I always said that it was going to take a couple of rounds to get up to speed when we got the FG and, three rounds into it, we’re qualifying on the front row.

Considering we’ve given everyone a pretty big head start, I’m happy with that.

It’s a good result heading into the endurance races.

You have Karl Reindler as your team-mate – who has just one enduro start to his name. How do you think he’s going to shape up?

Karl did a great job in the (Michael) Patrizi car last year and since he’s stepped foot into my car this year, he’s done an awesome job.

He had a great test day with us last week, didn’t put a wheel wrong. He was quite quick all day, and then ended up fifth in the co-drivers session on Friday ahead of some guys that he definitely shouldn’t be. That’s just really says something to me.

I’ve been nothing short of impressed so far.

chat

Dirk Klynsmith

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Ticks for Tyres WE’VE come a fair way with the Sprint tyre now – five of its six rounds are past us – and we’re in a better position than ever to discuss its future in V8 Supercar racing.

If you look at the new format structure where the Sprint tyre is used (one 100km race on Saturday, one a 200km race Sunday), both of them are influenced by the strategies that the teams employ, when

both races are meant to be ‘separate.’ It contradicts the formats that have been put in place for this year.

Also, what we’ve seen with the current rules is that the guys who have used them up on Saturday are out of contention for a win or even a podium on Sunday, and I don’t know if that’s the best outcome.

Having said that, without doubt, the Sprint tyre’s introduction has been a very good thing for racing this year.

I spoke to Dick Johnson after Sunday’s race and we both agreed that, clearly, it’s offering different results, new winners and more passing. But you just question whether an extension

opinion Mark Larkham TV commentator of this is to offer a Sprint tyre for both Saturday’s race and Sunday’s race. You’ll still get the guys putting them on at different times, dictated by their chosen strategy.

One of the issues that you’ll get from this is fuel strategies.

Typically, what will happen is that teams will eventually figure out the best strategy and everyone will very quickly migrate to the same strategy – and that’s not the outcome desired.

So if you look at what we have now, it’s a winner, because not everyone is employing the same tyre or fuel strategies – everyone is trying different approaches – but they need to find a way to do that on Saturday and repeat it on Sunday.

But without doubt, a big tick for the Sprint tyre concept – It’s doing its job to mix things up. Maybe though, a good planning session needs to be put together to find a way to tinker with what we’ve got for next year.

Dirk Klynsmith

22

opinion

Letters

Have your say – email us at mail@mnews.com.au.

The Final Word on T8-to-Holden Maybe Ford should consider pumping $$$ into DJR again or even another new Ford team and then offer big $$$ to the engineering staff at 888 to come across.

Roland Dane seems to take all the credit and makes decisions based on making his success. Well the success is the engineering team not him. I run a business and I’m only as successful as my team.

Come on Ford, stick it to Roland Dane and have other teams prove to him it can be done without him.

Ford fans and even Holden fans should keep loyal to existing teams and not buy Merchandise from 888; this might put a stop to teams not being loyal to their fans for the future.

Paul Buccini Via email It Sucks to be; • Ford Australia. Knowing that their best chance of another championship has gone with Vodafone Racing [sic].

• HRT/HSV, Kelly Racing Sprint Gas Racing and all other Holden teams knowing that GMH has so little confidence in them that they had to buy a Ford team to win.

• The Australian taxpayers who are not Holden supporters now find that their tax dollars are supporting Holden racing teams.

• Jamie Whincup, who did nothing with GRM and was dropped and whose fans were only Ford supporters and will now desert him in droves.

• Craig Lowndes, who has to go through all that anger and angst again.

• GMH, who have so little confidence in their own teams that they have to buy out any viable opposition.

• FPR and Stone Bros, knowing that Ford supporters think that they have so little chance of being competitive that they think only Vodafone Racing has any chance of getting them another Bathurst and Championship win.

• Jim Beam and Paul Cruikshank

Racing, who thought they were in a technical alliance with another Ford team, and now find themselves struggling alone.

• Roland Dane, who now finds himself being abused by his team’s followers. (I guess he has six million reasons to get over it).

• but most of all Tony Cochrane and V8Supercars Australia for allowing an interesting and exciting motor racing showcase to turn into a one make, boring, copy of the late 90s by allowing Ford and GMH to dictate what they wanted, to hell with what was sustainable.(see NASCAR) • A fan of touring car racing in Australia (see above) David Turner Dulong QLD ED: We are closing the book on ‘Triple Eight goes to Holden in 2010’ letters. Yep, we understand that people are emotional about it, but we think that most of the views have been aired by now. So please, feel free to write to us about any other issue in motor racing.

eLETTER OF THE WEEK Good luck to Mark Skaife with the car of the future programme – that will be a tough job.

The racing now is great but I agree it costs way too much.

Cheaper cars hopefully will lead to more races, and I am all for that.

I am not worried at all about the Ford and Holden thing. They are nothing like the cars we buy – they only carry the badge (some) and look similar. They are purpose built race cars with mostly identical running gear.

There is too much racing

going on in the garages (engineering) between races that we never see and that’s what creates winning teams that seem unbeatable.

I know the teams like this engineering edge and see it as part of the race so that’s another tough one for Mark to handle.

Who cares really, I mean, sure that’s where the heritage lies but if we had stuck with it (Production cars)we would not be where we are today. Anyhow our current production cars can’t cope with racing at this level and pace.

As long as it has a V8 and goes around Bathurst close to two minutes I don’t care what badge they wear. The Aussie Race Car series is proof that racing can be exciting, with three wide everywhere, so there must be a way forward that is affordable and exciting.

Alternatively Lock everything down now and mass produce the components to bring the costs down.

Good Luck Mark.

Adam Turner Via Email

Adam Turner 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 15-16 – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY

her t a e w t , ho s r e n n i w land s o n w e t e , s u e Two rac s going on at Q was lot

a l s n e e u Q

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race

ere h T . s e r u fail l a c i n a rts ch o e p m e r y n and ma RANT ROWLEY y. G a w e c a R

e z a D d n a

Dirk Klynsmith

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Swapping spots, not pain V8 SUPERCARS – RACE 15 SOMETIMES, things just happen, and happen in an order so perfect that it almost makes you wonder whether fate is predetermined by the planets and the stars.

Saturday’s race was like that. Jamie Whincup took pole position and was, obviously, the favourite for the race, in spite of the fact that he had never won on his adopted home track. Ultimately, he won, despite the close attentions of, and a spirited battle with, James Courtney, the two swapping spots (but not paint) in a scrap ultimately settled by Whincup getting two cars between them when they exited the pits.

The current Champ won despite a scary moment on spilled oil that coated almost half the circuit saw JDub slde to the very brink of the track. He held on and the revitalised Mark Winterbottom did not. So, one bonus for #1.

The next bonuses happened in swift order, but took time to rear their heads. On

26

lap one, Will Davison clashed with Michael Caruso, and the Holden Racing Team car never reappeared from the pitlane when it stopped on lap 15. About the same time that was happening, Craig Lowndes was lurching along, having hurt his clutch at the start – but that was not his big problem. It was his oil pressure and, promptly, he was in the pitlane and in spectator mode.

Then, Garth Tander. Smoke, then oil, then bang. A relatively rare engine failure. In a trice, the three closest challengers to Whincup were sitting on zeroes. Whincup took maximum points – then revealed that he was managing an oil pressure situation, not dissimilar to Lowndes’, of his own. His engine held, and he stretched his series lead.

On such days’ work are championships built.

Such was the break that the four predominantly red drivers carried to QR that, in spite of the fact that only the leader scored any points at all, they were still 1-4 in championship order at the end of the day – except, Whincup was almost a full round clear.

The other notable was that the top 10 was

split 8-2 in Ford’s favour (well, Pig-led, but you know what we mean). Courtney, Frosty and Steve Johnson duly followed, ahead of Fabian Coulthard. Todd Kelly in sixth and Lee Holdsworth in seventh were the sole Holdens to break into the top 10 on a day when, unusually, the ‘home’ teams had the edge over their southern rivals.

Outnumbered they might have been but, if this keeps up, expect to hear somebody mention the ‘P’ word, and soon.

And it was a good day for Ford fans. FPR turned around a recent horror run, with Steven Richards backing up Winterbottom to finish just outside the top 10 and the leading runner on control tyres and, hence, a man with a fistful of ‘yellows’ for Sunday.

Jason Bright showed consistent and real speed, on the first weekend that the green machine was dragged back into the Stones fold (metaphorically, not physically). Rather than start the weekend well and then watch the car fall to the rear of the grid, the car started and stayed fast, eighth not quite an accurate reflection of how swift the Fujitsu FG actually was.

race

Dirk Klynsmith

Cop this! Jamie Whincup gives his engineer Mark Dutton a face full of champers.

Below, Jason Bright showed genuine pace in his Fujitsu Falcon FG.

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

nt

Marshall Cass

Holden’s best ... in sixth: Todd Kelly was the first Commodore home on a day where Fords were the pick of the bunch.

V8 Supercar | RACE 15, QUEENSLAND RACEWAY Pos # Driver 1 1 Jamie Whincup 2 18 James Courtney 3 5 Mark Winterbottom 4 17 Steven Johnson 5 111 Fabian Coulthard 6 7 Todd Kelly 7 33 Lee Holdsworth 8 25 Jason Bright 9 9 Shane Van Gisbergen 10 67 Tim Slade 11 6 Steven Richards 12 39 Russell Ingall 13 4 Alex Davison 14 15 Rick Kelly 15 333 Michael Patrizi 16 55 Tony D’Alberto 17 51 Greg Murphy 18 3 Jason Bargwanna 19 34 Michael Caruso 20 24 David Reynolds 21 8 Jason Richards 22 10 Paul Dumbrell 23 11 Jack Perkins 24 12 Dean Fiore 25 16 Mark McNally DNF 2 Garth Tander DNF 14 Cameron McConville DNF 22 Will Davison DNF 888 Craig Lowndes Fastest Lap: Tim Slade 1m10.8s

Team/Car Race Time TeamVodafone Falcon FG 40:43.7708 Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 40:44.3571 FPR Falcon FG 40:58.2970 Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 41:01.0157 Wilson Security Racing Falcon FG 41:01.9571 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VE 41:02.4063 GRM Commodore VE 41:03.2208 Fujitsu Racing Falcon FG 41:04.3714 SP Tools Racing Falcon FG 41:05.0493 Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 41:25.7447 FPR Falcon FG 41:26.8122 Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 41:29.7498 Irwin Racing Falcon FG 41:30.8847 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VE 41:31.6449 Wilson Security Racing Falcon BF 41:36.1526 Bottle-O Commodore VE 41:39.3087 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 41:40.8808 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 41:43.5819 Garry Rogers Commodore VE 41:47.8414 Bundaberg Red Commodore VE 41:50.3298 Team BOC Commodore VE 41:50.7667 Team Autobarn Commodore VE 41:51.6564 Dodo Racing Commodore VE 33 laps Triple F Racing Commodore VE 32 laps Hi-Tec Oils Racing Commodore VE 32 laps Toll HRT Commodore VE 27 laps WOW Racing Commodore VE 18 laps Toll HRT Commodore VE 14 laps TeamVodafone Falcon FG 1 lap

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

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Turning the beat around V8 SUPERCARS – RACE 16 WILL Davison suffered the lows of V8 Supercar racing on Saturday but a day later, he was back on the high ground.

The HRT ace was untouchable, taking two spot in the opening two corners and sprinting away from the field. Once he had used up his Sprint tyres, he consolidated his lead and never looked back.

“Yesterday was as tough as it gets in motor racing, with both cars stopping,” he said later, looking remarkably cool in the conditions. “All I could do today was to go on to win the race. There’s lots more races like that to come yet.”

The opposition will be hoping that the

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last comment was a wish, rather than a statement of intent. Even after a scrape while lapping Tim Slade, Davison was almost 15s clear of the field when the thrashing stopped – his form going into the endurance races is ominous.

Craig Lowndes was second, with Russell Ingall third. The Enforcer played his Sprint tyre wildcard later than most, and later than he and the SCAR team intended when his refuelling stop was postponed while the crew dealt with a fuel rig, damaged by an incident when Tim Slade stopped. Rusty was running on fumes and credit cards when he made it in, but third (and another lap record for the team) was just reward.

And fourth was Mark Winterbottom. In

the old days, when the round winner came from adding up the numbers from the two points, Frosty would have been the one with the headlines, backing up a third with a fourth place. Again, Steven Richards backed up with seventh place, and those two team up for the next two rounds.

Good timing …

The rest of the ‘old podium’ would have been James Courtney and Jamie Whincup.

Such is the way of V8 Supercar racing these days – the fact that Whinners backed up his win with 13th and nothing, in particular, was wrong with the car. He made the best of his tyres, and that was that.

The other man to charge through late in the race was Paul Dumbrell, who steps

race

Dirk Kynsmith

Using all the road: It might not have been the fastest way around, but Craig Lowndes was good enough for second place on Sunday. Left, Will Davison bounced back from a horror Saturday to street the field in Race 16.

V8 Supercar | RACE 16, QUEENSLAND RACEWAY Pos #

Dirk Kynsmith

into Red next time out, but there are signs that the development freeze, now in place, could not have come at a more inconvenient time for some teams. We have become accustomed to seeing reliability as a byword, even with the change to E85 this season but multiple teams – good teams – lost motors in Ipswich.

The nature of the track, with tight battle groups, and the ambient temperatures caused havoc and several teams had failures in the engine rooms. Phillip Island and Bathurst do not feature the stop-start-stop nature of QR, and the air is bound to be cooler on the climbs and dives on both tracks. Still, there are some variables in play going into the business end of the season.

This is also the part of the season where TeamVodafone traditionally shines. With Whincup in a strong but not impregnable position, there is still a lot to play for.

Driver

Team/Car

Race Time

Q

1 22 Will Davison Toll HRT Commodore VE 1:20:30.0744 5 2 888 Craig Lowndes TeamVodafone Falcon FG 1:20:44.1460 6 3 39 Russell Ingall Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 1:20:46.8632 8 4 5 Mark Winterbottom FPR Falcon FG 1:20:55.8640 1 5 10 Paul Dumbrell Team Autobarn Commodore VE 1:20:58.4387 20 6 34 Michael Caruso Garry Rogers Commodore VE 1:21:01.3922 15 7 6 Steven Richards FPR Falcon FG 1:21:05.7356 10 8 18 James Courtney Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 1:21:06.5186 18 9 25 Jason Bright Fujitsu Racing Falcon FG 1:21:08.9036 2 10 15 Rick Kelly Jack Daniels Commodore VE 1:21:09.1353 18 11 14 Cameron McConville WOW Racing Commodore VE 1:21:18.8568 24 12 9 Shane Van Gisbergen SP Tools Racing Falcon FG 1:21:21.7992 13 13 1 Jamie Whincup TeamVodafone Falcon FG 1:21:23.2913 3 14 2 Garth Tander Toll HRT Commodore VE 1:21:24.8556 9 15 17 Steven Johnson Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 1:21:26.3237 12 16 33 Lee Holdsworth Garry Rogers Commodore VE 1:21:27.2154 17 17 8 Jason Richards Team BOC Commodore VE 1:21:27.4478 10 18 7 Todd Kelly Jack Daniel’s Commodore VE 1:21:32.8495 21 19 4 Alex Davison Irwin Racing Falcon FG 1:21:37.1467 19 20 24 David Reynolds Bundaberg Red Commodore VE 1:21:37.4194 25 21 12 Dean Fiore Triple F Racing Commodore VE 64 laps 28 22 67 Tim Slade Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 64 laps 14 23 111 Fabian Coulthard Wilson Security Racing Falcon FG 64 laps 7 24 333 Michael Patrizi Wilson Security Racing Falcon BF 64 laps 26 25 3 Jason Bargwanna Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 64 laps 23 26 11 Jack Perkins Dodo Racing Team Commodore VE 64 laps 27 27 16 Mark McNally Hi-Tec Oils Racing Commodore VE 63 laps 29 DNF 55 Tony D’Alberto Bottle-O Commodore VE 63 laps 22 DNF 51 Greg Murphy Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 58 laps 11 Fastest lap: Ingall on lap 3, 1:10.7640s (record) Whincup 2007, W. Davison 1824, Tander 1479, Lowndes 1478, Johnson 1374, Winterbottom 1332, Holdsworth 1269, Ingall 1187, Courtney 1154, Caruso 1134, R. Kelly 1133, Coulthard 1113, Dumbrell 1053, J. Richards 1019, McConville 1017, S. Richards 1011, Van Gisbergen 1011, T. Kelly 897, A. Davison 879, Bright 855, Reynolds 765, Murphy 675, Patrizi 649, Bargwanna 600, D’Alberto 570, Perkins 534, Slade 513, Fiore 492, Marshall 351, Wood 333, McNally 156.

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Paperclip coverage FROM THE COUCH PHIL BRANAGAN

remember much happening after that. I don’t remember going off or anything.

“I made it to the finish, but to be honest, if I had my time again I would have just come into the pits. When I got to the end I couldn’t walk, and I was in the ambulance for about

an hour. I was honestly on autopilot.

“It’s a real shame, because we were actually looking alright before it happened. I was on the ‘softs’ and I was with the pack. That’s the positive I’m taking away from what was a bad experience.”

Dealing with the pressure YOU have seen it before.

A racing driver, in the heat of battle, gets his car across the line – just – and parks it immediately and hops out.

Tired, obviously. Dehydrated, probably.

Not Mark Winterbottom.

Sure, he parked and walked right after the Sunday chequer, but it was a lingering engine gremlin that almost got him.

“We had an oil pressure problem with about six laps to go,” he explained.

“I had to knock it off, I did not want to risk going another lap, so we parked it. The good part is, the engine survived.”

The heat was a factor in some of the motor maladies but, according to the weekend’s top points scorer, that is not the only factor at work.

“People don’t realise how hard the place is on engines.

Most of the failures were caused by different problems, but at least we made it to the end.”

And, with endurance races right around the corner, Winterbottom and Steven Richards are looking forward, not back.

“The guys have worked hard over the last few weeks, and come enduro time, I think that we can be competitive.

We had a bunch of new parts on the car, and most of them seemed to work. There are more coming, and I feel like we are just starting out to get the car to the next level.”

Dirk Klynsmith

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MARK McNally was on fire at Queensland Raceway – almost literally.

The rookie seemed to be struggling in the later part of Race 16, spearing off regularly and looking out of his depth.

But it was later revealed that he lost the use of both his cool suit and drink bottle before half race distance, leaving him so dehydrated that he needed an ambulance after the race.

“The cool suit was basically pumping boiling hot water around me,” he said. “I was using my drink bottle straw to spray water on myself to try and keep cool, but I lost it around half way through the race, so I didn’t even have anything to drink. I can’t

Marshall Cass

QUEENSLAND Raceway is not a place noted for putting on spectacular motor racing (unless you take out the aerials from a few years ago) and from a television point of view, a flat track is rarely as interesting as one with hills.

But The Paperclip turned on some interesting viewing on the weekend. Most notable was the under-car vision of the Rick Kelly’s rear end (maybe I should rephrase that). The diff housing and the connections take a heck of a battering, and while we were watching, it occurred to me that if this happened with a few corners and kerbs, how much stress would be involved at Skyline and The Dipper?

Commentary-wise, things continue apace. It is clear that there is a lot of homework going on in the background, and the voices are settling in well. Matty White’s Dancingimposed exile will end soon, one way of the other, and how it all gels when he returns is an interesting question.

So is what driver-turnedcommentator-turned-driver Mark Skaife’s role will be at PI and Bathurst.

If I have a criticism, it is that the question of motor failures on Saturday was not really addressed on Sunday. Three of the four leading points scorers coming in suffered problems (only JDub survived) and there are, obviously, some furrowed brows. A hot day at Bathurst could increase the worries exponentially.

The coverage always steps up a gear for the endurance races, so all I can offer is that we wait to see what comes next with bated breath.

McNally: On fire, literally

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Youth versus experience can be a different race to watch

Old dogs, old tricks

Dirk Kynsmith

IN a race like Sunday’s where the current champion doesn’t shine, it gives an opportunity for others to step up and there were a couple of notables at Queensland Raceway – Russell Ingall and Jason Bright.

Russell saved his Sprint tyres for Sunday and finished on the podium, but for me, it wasn’t just that fact that made him stand out for me.

I was wandering up and down pit lane and what I found really interesting was comparing tyre wear. I was looking at different tyres from different teams that had been used for a similar amount of time and there were notable differences.

To me, that tells a story of varying car set-ups and how some of the drivers manage their cars. What I saw was that

opinion Mark Larkham V8 pit commentator guys who have been around for a long time, like Ingall and Bright, were managing their rubber better. They know what to do and know what to sacrifice to preserve their tyres to live out the strategy that they’ve chosen.

At the other end of that spectrum, there’s guys who don’t neccisarily have the experience to do that same.

I don’t want to have a go at Shane van Gisbergen here because I think he’s a very talented guy that has plenty to offer this sport for many years to come, but of all the tyres that I measured, his were the

hottest. The way he was driving his car in qualifying, to me, it looked a little pointy, a little tailey. That says that you have to be extremely accurate with the way you drive the car to get the most out of it over the race distance.

It really is a case of ‘Old dogs with old tricks’, and as we approach the endurance races, I’m genuinely look forward to seeing the young versus the experienced. A combination like Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso, who are young and brave, will be a different pair to watch, particularly in wet weather, versus say Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife – old dogs with plenty of tricks. With all the things that get thrown at them, they’ll have a bunch of answers, where a lot of the younger guys might not ...

Pushing the development envelope? opinion CHRIS JEWELL V8 commentator There’s many associated expenses in having these dramas. Whether it’s the cost of blowing up motors or the cost of other people flying off the

track and spearing off, I think that this brings to the fore Tony Cochrane’s ‘14 point plan’.

Over the last four years, people have been talking about a wholesale change to the control engines and engine components and, maybe, we’ve missed the window to help these teams save money if they’re already experimenting

Boom! Garth Tander was one of many to experience reliabilty troubles at Queensland Raceway.

in this way to try and derive an advantage going into the long distance races. They’re tearing up more money that they haven’t even thought of before.

How long will it be before there is (within reason) a standard engine?

Other than labour, the cost of engines is the single biggest expense for the series.

John Morris/Mpix

WE have not seen unreliability in the V8 Supercar Championship Series like we did at Queensland Raceway for some time.

The teams are trying for less friction, more horsepower and better economy, and they obviously can’t test and trial all of that in their four allocated test days over the year.

Perhaps what we saw at Queensland Raceway over the weekend was some of the teams pushing the envelope.

And remember, this was the last round before the recently mandated development freeze.

Coinidence?

There were teams upset that some cars was dropping oil all over the road on Saturday, but then those same teams that complained were smearing the circuit on Sunday ...

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FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES ROUND 4 – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY

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race

Champagne Performance

Three wins from three starts, even with a reverse top 10 race! Jonathon Webb was on top of his game at Queensland Raceway. GRANT ROWLEY reports

Marshall Cass

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One hundred and fifty reason

S

ERIES victories are built on consistency and speed. Jonathon Webb’s 2009 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series campaign is a perfect example of this.

The Queenslander took all three wins at Queensland Raceway last weekend, jumping into the championship lead and showing signs that he’ll be hard to beat in the remaining two rounds of the development title.

Webb, a three year veteran in

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the Fujitsu class, now looks like the complete package, and he was stoked with his home track win.

“It’s been a very decent weekend,” he said.

“We were the quickest car on the track all weekend.

We’re feeling very positive from here. It’s been a great weekend. Getting this result is something that I’ve said to our boys that we’ve needed to do all year. Having some bad luck at Sandown dropped us back to second, so three wins here

puts us on a bit of a high.”

The only hiccup in his weekend was a clash with Grant Denyer in Race 2.

Webb gave Denyer a ‘hip and shoulder’ at turn four, bumping Denyer wide. The officials didn’t take exception to the move, giving Webb the choice of either a points penalty or a four grid place penalty for Race 3. Webb took the grid spot demotion, but by the time the cars got down to turn three, Webb was in the lead again and never headed.

David Russell was second for the round, keeping his title hopes alive. The Howard Racing driver finished second in the first and last races, unable to match the pace of Webb’s Matthew White Motorsport Falcon, but was clearly the second fastest over the course of the meeting.

The Sherrin-back driver only had one blemish – and it was none of his own doing. Russell was the innocent party in Race 2 when Daniel Gaunt missed his braking mark at turn six,

race

Dirk Klynsmith

Staying in touch: David Russell, above, finished second for the round, but no-one could touch Jonathon Webb, leading left. Below, Shane Price had an odd moment at the start of Race 3, costing him a top four overall. Bottom, Rodney Jane showed signs of improvement.

Dirk Klynsmith

ns to celebrate

John Morris/Mpix

Dirk Klynsmith

collecting the back of Russell and sending him spinning off the track. Russell fought back to finish that race in seventh.

Sonic Motor Racing’s James Moffat was third, but mystified by his ex-Triple Eight Falcon’s lack of pace over the course of the event. Similar to Russell, Moffat was third in Races 1 and 3, and had a genuine chance to take points of his title advisories until a clash with Sam Walter while dicing for second place in Race 2 saw the Norton-backed car pinning off

the track.

But is Moffat out of the title hunt? Don’t write the young Victorian off yet, but he is going to need some bad results from Webb if he is going to catch him over the remaining four races of the season.

While Moffat left QR feeling a little deflated, his team-mate had an impressive run. Rodney Jane, in only his third outing in the series, qualified sixth and looked strong, despite a few mistakes and off-track

excursions. The future looks does promising for him.

Brad Lowe had one of his best rounds for the year, taking fourth overall. The MWM driver finished sixth, third and fifth in the three races.

Judging purely on speed, Shane Price was the man who probably should have been fourth overall, but a “weird” spin at the exit of turn one on the first lap dropped him down.

Taking advantage of that was fellow Holden driver Sam

Walter. The Tasmanian had a great Race 2, finishing second and taking fifth for the round.

Denyer ended up sixth, ahead of Karl Reindler who in his second meeting in his return to the series, put together a solid meeting.

The penultimate round of the series heads to Mount Panorama, Bathurst, on October 8-11.

Points: Webb 1306, Russell 1258, Moffat 1113, Denyer 1072, Gaunt 930, Price 913.

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FORMULA FORD ROUND 6 – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY

Mitch Evans, the 15-year-old Kiwi whizzkid, led a Sonic sweep of the podium at QR. GRANT ROWLEY reports

Never Send a Man

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race

DOMINATION is one thing – becoming the youngest race winner in a category steeped in history is another.

Mitch Evans became the youngest driver in Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship history to win a round of the prized class, winning all three races at Queensland raceway last weekend in a crushing display.

The 15 year old Kiwi was untouched in Race 1 and led the majority of Races 2 and 3, eventually taking maximum points away from the ‘Paperclip’ and re-writing the record books.

“I’m stoked with how this weekend has turned out,” Evans said.

“From first practice the car was fast, so it was just up to me to learn the track as quickly as possible ... everything just fell into place – I wish every round was like this.

“Becoming the youngest driver to take out a round was the icing on the cake. If you told me I’d be a round winner at the

start of the year, I would have thought you were joking.”

While Evans was the headlines for the weekend, spare of thought for his team Sonic Motor Racing. The Victorian squad isn’t a stranger to Formula Ford round wins and podiums, but at Queensland Raceway, the team did something it had never done before – clean-sweep the round podium.

Championship leader Nick Percat and the third Sonic car of Geoff Uhrhane were never too far from Evans tail and scored enough points over the weekend to lock out the overall podium.

For Percat, it was a ‘championship’ weekend. He finished third, second and second in the three races, ensuring his handy title lead remains just that.

Uhrhane finished second in Race 1 and third in Race 2, but was taken out of the running early by an over-exuberant Martin Short in the final race. Still, Uhrhane had enough points to take his

first national podium.

CAMS Rising Star Scott Pye had a mixed weekend. A gearbox problem in Race 1 dropped him to ninth, but a spirited fight back gave him fourth and third in the final two races, keeping his chances of finishing second in the title alive.

Ryan Simpson was the first of the Synergy Motorsport drivers home in fifth overall ahead of his fast team-mate Chaz Mostert.

Ben Walter had a solid round, finishing seventh overall with fifth in the first two races before an off track excursion in the last race cost him.

In the bad luck department, Luke Ellery was in the wars. Early weekend dramas were forgotten about quickly with a fine drive from the back to seventh.

A DNF In Race 2 sent him to the back again but was dealt a final blow in the last race by crash magnet Short.

– GRANT ROWLEY

Marshall Cass

n to do a Boy’s Job

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BIANTE TOURING CAR MASTERS ROUND 4 – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY, QLD

Hot enough to Burn

Jim Richards emerged on top after a titanic battle at The Paperclip. REBECCA WYATT reports

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race

I

N scorching conditions, old rivalries were reignited for Round 4 of the Biante Touring Car Masters at Queensland Raceway.

In their first outing at Queensland Raceway, the cars ensured lap records were made, broken and broken again, and it was Jim Richards who came out on top in his ever-popular Ford Falcon Sprint.

In qualifying, three-tenths of a second in qualifying was enough to give Richards the early advantage for the weekend ahead of old V8 Supercar sparring partner John Bowe in a Chevrolet Camaro. Reigning Champion and 2009 Series leader Gavin Bullas manoeuvred his Ford Boss Mustang into third place on the grid in his first outing at Queensland Raceway, ahead of Drew Marget and Brad Tilley.

Richards, however, had a fight on his hands for the remainder of the weekend. A heated battle in Race 1 saw a small grass fire prompt a Safety Car period on lap five, before racing resumed to see Richards land the first blow for the round, finishing in qualifying order ahead of Bowe and Bullas.

A consistent Bullas also finished as bridesmaid in Race 2, this time with Bowe taking a commanding lead in the early stages to finish well ahead of Bullas and Richards.

It was this three-way battle over the course of the weekend that saw Richards, Bowe and Bullas tied on points leading into what would be the final and deciding race. It was the weekend’s three front-runners who dictated proceedings, but an early challenge from Drew Marget saw Bullas locked in a duel for a number of laps before overcoming Marget and clearing out in pursuit of Bowe and Richards.

By this stage, the two V8 Supercar legends had pulled out a considerable buffer over the rest of the field and were fighting between themselves for the top position on the podium.

At the chequered flag it was Richards to emerge victorious over Bowe and Bullas, to take out Race 3 and his first round win of 2009, to add to the Driving Force Best Presented Car Award for the round. A consistent performance from Bullas was crucial in maintaining his commanding 104-point lead over Bowe in the 2009 championship standings, while Gentleman Jim’s points haul elevated him from 10th to seveth overall for the championship.

Round 5 of the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters will be held at Eastern Creek Raceway on September 5 and 6 as part of the Muscle Car Masters event.

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

Heavyweights: Jim Richards, Gavin Bullas and John Bowe fought out the Biante wins, main pic, while Stig lookalike Michael Acheson dug a hole in his Valiant Charger, above.

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AUSTRALIAN FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6 – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY, QLD

TIM TIES IT UP

T

IM Macrow had one of his strongest weekends of the season in the sixth round of the Australian Drivers’ Championship.

Formula 3 celebrated its return to Queensland Raceway after three years with Macrow and Joey Foster putting on some fierce racing with Macrow claiming a pair of victories. The Melbourne driver claiming enough bonus points to leave himself and Foster all tied up on points heading to Oran Park for round seven this weekend.

“Race 1 was intense,” said Macrow.

“At one stage I ran off the track at turn two and was bouncing

40

through the dirt but there was no way I was going to lift. That broke the suspension at the back and made the car really hard to get off the corners which left me open to attack so it was a huge challenge, but in the end we got the result.”

Macrow snatched pole in the second qualifying session, despite bending a pullrod in the first and he out-launched Foster and created a small gap before an off-track excursion.

Foster attacked several times and Macrow defended as hard as he could. There was controversy as the stewards reprimanded Macrow between races for weaving, but no further penalty was applied, the bumps on Dick

Johnson Straight confusing the issue.

Macrow again got a perfect start in Race 2 but the gap never grew beyond a second as Foster chased him all the way to the chequer.

Honours were shared between Mat Sofi and Ben Crighton for third. Sofi broke a suspension pickup point on the gearbox of his Dallara in qualifying and after Team BRM loaned them a gearbox the replacement was finished at 3am on Sunday morning allowing Sofi to battle Crighton hard in both races with Crighton third in Race 1, Sofi third in Race 2.

The National class swelled

Tim Macrow seized the Star. MARK JONES repo to six cars with the addition of Indonesian teenager Rio Haryanto, veteran Bevan Carrick and Formula Ford racer Roger I’Anson to the grid. Chris Gilmour was racing to the class victory when the car slowed on the final lap of Race 1 allowing Tom Tweedie yet another class win. In Jesse Wakeman’s absence the win wrapped up the National Class title.

Gilmour finished third behind Haryanto and ahead of I’Anson, Graeme Holmes, Carrick and Maher Algadrie. In Race 2 Haryanto speared off while leading again handing the win to Tweedie with I’Anson finishing second ahead of Haryanto,

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TIMAKTU Holmes and Algadri with Gilmour retiring early.

National B class saw competition for the first time

Dirk Klynsmith

e momentum in the battle for the Gold orts

this year with Andrew Mill taking the wins from British driver Peter Kalpakiotis after Blake Varney’s car broke during qualifying.

John Morris

The Battle is on: Tim Macrow and Joey Foster put on the lead battle, main pic, while Indonesian driver Rio Haryanto made his Aussie F3 debut.

TIM Mackie took his supercharged Lotus Elise to win the Steve Cooper Surveyors Production Sports Car Final.

Two weeks ago a heartbreaking gearbox failure while leading by two laps at the Sports Car 1 Hour at Morgan Park was erased after sprinting away from Roger Lago (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) who had dominated the previous three races.

After qualifying fourth Mackie had raced consistently in the top three finishing second, third and second before a brilliant start in the final race saw the Lotus pull far enough away to fend of the late race challenge.

Gary Walter’s DRB Cobra raced through the pack from

Dirk James Smith

Tim Mackie emulated his nearnamesake in the Production Sportscars

a poor start to work his way past the Porsches of Roger Lago and Terry Knight (Porsche 996 GT3 Cup) unable to defend against the superior horsepower. Ray Angus (Porsche 996 GT3 Cup) finished fifth ahead of Bob Thorn (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) and Shane Smollen (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup).

Jonathon Webb had qualified on pole position in the new evolution of the Skelta G Force design but retired from the first race, causing a grass fire at Snake Gully and a Safety Car chequered flag. The car was repaired for the last race and Webb climbed from 31st to eighth at the finish in a potent demonstration of the new Skelta.

– MARK JONES

41

NASCAR SPRINT CUP ROUND 24 – SHARPIE 500 500, BRISTOL, TN

GENTLEMEN PREFER

CONCRETE

Kyle Busch beat Mark Martin in an auspiciously clean fight to the flag in Bristol – and Marcos Ambrose looked brilliant in third.

By MARTIN D CLARK 42

NASCAR Media

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NASCAR Media

I

T took two greats of NASCAR, combined, to beat Marcos Ambrose at Bristol.

Kyle Busch’s body language indicates that he does not care much to be Ambrose’s mate – or anyone much else, really – and Mark Martin’s career has been a monument to talent and dedication. Those two apart, Ambrose had everyone else covered at the half-mile concrete bullring.

Ambrose started 25th and finished third. That is impressive, but more impressive was the fact that, with a long delay to clear the wreckage-strewn track with 10 laps remaining, he calmly took to the final

restart. Wary of spinning his rear tyres, he eased away and then attacked. “[At] the last restart I just tried to baby it to try and make sure I solidified my position and managed to get past Greg [Biffle] on the inside there,” he smiled. “He was pinched down and that’s all I needed to do.

“I’m learning as I go. When you get an opportunity to run at the front like that with six laps to go you can’t learn that anywhere else but when you’re out there doing it.”

And he would have learned enough to know that Busch and Martin, in his 1000th Cup start, may have ended the race in the wall.

But he didn’t. Later, even Martin, a hard man if ever there was one, was quite complimentary about Busch’s driving.

“I wanted to get him – he gave me room. I’d have liked to have won it. He gave me room to pass him and I couldn’t do it.”

“Mark Martin – what a class act,” Busch countered. “He deserved to win this race. I’m sorry he came in second – I know how he feels. But man, I drove as hard as I could. He had a chance – he could have done it [spun Busch for the win] but he didn’t. He raced me clean.”

Greg Biffle, who led away from poleman Martin at the start of the race, and Denny Hamlin

rounded out the top five.

It was a miserable day for Tony Stewart. The points leader had to pit early to get his radio fixed, and was three laps down and chasing when his motor quit on the front straight. He was classified 33rd but maintains a healthy points lead.

Clint Bowyer, who started sixth, lost any chance of making the Chase when team-mate Kevin Harvick slowed to give Bowyer room to his outside and was hit from behind sending him into Bowyer and taking them both from contention.

Bowyer was also involved with Michael Waltrip late in the race and fell to 15th in points from 12th with Brian Vickers in 14th.

Ragan is the Top Gun NATIONWIDE

Ford Media

NASCAR Media

Miles of Smiles: Happy for different reasons were Kyle Busch, top left, Marcos Ambrose, above with Jimmie Johnson, and Greg Biffle, below right.

DAVID Ragan took his second career Nationwide Series win at Bristol Motor Speedway, taking the lead from his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards with 52 laps of the 250 to run and holding on through a green, white, checker, three-lap shoot out.

Pole sitter Brad Keselowski came home third followed by Kevin Harvick and Jason Leffler.

Keselowski got into trouble early when he nudged future Penske team-mate Justin Allgaier, who had just taken the lead from him around the outside on lap 38. Allgaier slapped the wall after his tyre was cut and ripped the battery out of his Dodge, while

NASCAR called Keselowski to pit road to remove loose front end sheet metal.

Point leader Kyle Busch started 15th was also in the wars in a typical Bristol incident. Just as he was taking the lead around the outside of Harvick, rookie Chase Austin

blew a tyre and cut down on the leaders.

Edwards carved 91 points off Busch’s lead in the standings, but Busch still holds a 248 point advantage, with Keselowski third and Leffler fourth.

– MARTIN D CLARK

SPRINT CUP | SHARPIE 500, MICHIGAN 1 18 2 5 3 47 4 16 5 11 6 39 7 2 8 48 9 88 10 17

Kyle Busch Toyota Joe Gibbs/M&M’s Q15 Mark Martin Chevy Hendrick/ Carquest 1 Marcos Ambrose Toyota JTG Daugherty/Clorox 25 Greg Biffle Ford Roush Fenway/3M 2 Denny Hamlin Toyota Joe Gibbs/FedEx 41 Ryan Newman Chevy Newman Haas/US Army 9 Kurt Busch Dodge Penske/Miller Lite 13 Jimmie Johnson Chevy Hendrick/Lowe’s 21 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy Amp National Guard 27 Matt Kenseth Ford Roush Fenway/DeWalt 5

NASCAR | DRIVER’S points Ford Media

Stewart 3564, Johnson 3344, Gordon 3310, Hamlin 3141, Edwards 3110, Kurt Busch 3103, Newman 2995, Biffle 2986, Montoya 2975, Martin 2971, Kahne 2963, Kenseth 2945.

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INDYCAR ROUND 14 – GP OF SONOMA, INFINEON

Sleepwalkover

If anyone stayed awake to watch the IndyCars at Infineon, they would have seen Dario Franchitti lead all the way.

Honda Racing

46

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Honda Racing

T

HE bad parts of IndyCar racing – processions determined by track position – returned at Infineon, with Dario Franchitti leading another lights-to-flag victory.

The Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who has had his share of struggles on the road courses, led home Ryan Briscoe, the Aussie taking the series lead with his seventh runner-up finish of the season.

“Track position was critical today,” said Franchitti, who led all 75 laps of the race to take his 22nd IndyCar win. “I did what I had to do to get out front. We stuck to our pit strategy. There were a couple hairy moments out there but this is critical and crucial for the championship.”

While there were no upsets over the

48

closing stages of the race, Briscoe is philosophical about what he needs to do to wrest the title from the Ganassi team.

“If we’re going to win this championship, I’m going to have to win one of the last three,” he said. “Dario got maximum points today, he’s right there and Dixon stumbled.

Coming in second gets old a little bit, but I know we’re up there.”

Dixon’s ‘stumble’ came with a bad qualifying session that left him 13th on the grid and a couple of incidents at either end of the race. By the time the noise stopped, the defending Champion was 13th. Marco Andretti was penalised for his role in the first clash with Dixon.

“We made a few passes on quite a few people, and he got into the back of me

and spun me around,” Dixon described the afternoon. “He came up after and apologized though, he said he didn’t mean to do it. As far as our strategy, we tried to catch a yellow to vault up, but we ended up in the same position.”

Andretti triggered an incident that involved Graham Rahal, Dixon, E.J. Viso, Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, Raphael Matos, Franck Montagny, Justin Wilson and Richard Antinucci. Everyone except Viso, who rode over Kanaan’s car, continued in the race.

Rookie Mike Conway scored his first IndyCar podium after starting fifth, passing both Hideki Mutoh and Mario Moraes in the closing laps to take a career-best result.

Moraes, who missed Mid-Ohio after his father passed away, took fourth.

INDYCAR | SONOMA INDY GP, INFINEON 75 laps 1 10 2 6 3 24 4 5 5 27 6 06 7 18 8 11 9 2 10 33

Dario Franchitti GB Ryan Briscoe Aus Mike Conway GB Mario Moraes Br Hideki Mutoh J Oriol Servia E Justin Wilson GB Tony Kanaan Bra Raphael Matos Bra Robert Doornbos Ned

Target Ganassi -30.0551s Q1 Team Penske -0.2488s 2 Dreyer & Reinbold/Tran -0.8293s 9 KV Racing/Azul Tequila -3.6171s 14 Andretti Green/F Dream -5.4536s 5 Newman Haas Lanigan -6.3801s 17 Dale Coyne/Z Design -6.6997s 19 Andretti Green/7-Eleven -7.1808s 7 Luzco Dragon/US Marines -8.5936s 18 HVM Racing -10.8175s 15

Fastest lap: Franchitti on lap 9, 1m19.3362s (104.502mph)

INDYCAR | DRIVER’S points Briscoe 497, Franchitti 494, Dixon 477, Castroneves 371, Patrick 335, Andretti 323, Kanaan 318, Wheldon 306, Rahal 301, Mutoh 297.

All Images: Honda Racing

Close but no cigar: Dario Franchitti led all 75 laps and finished this far ahead of Ryan Briscoe, left top. The Aussie, top, was second for the seventh time this year. Mario Moraes, above, returned after his father’s death to give KV Racing a fourth place, while Brit Mike Conway celebrated the Ashes triumph with a career-first podium finish.

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Jones, on the double TARGA WEST STEVE Jones is now a two-time QUIT Targa West winner, he and co-driver Ruari Souter-Dawson taking out the modern competition class for the second year in a row in Perth last weekend.

Jones debuted a brand new Nissan GT-R 35 for the event, his 2008 winner being badly crumpled in a crash at Targa Tasmania earlier this year. Jones was also crumpled in the Tassie crash, only narrowly recovering for a back injury in time for Targa West, making his victory even more amazing.

In often appalling weather conditions, Jones won the pre-event prologue, before spending the first leg sitting in second place behind Targa Tas winner Tony Quinn. But local knowledge was too important, and Jones overhauled the Scot-turned-Queenslander on the second day, never looking back until the finish.

“The conditions, you’re just on your toes all the time,” he said. “It was so wet, you came around a corner and there was running water all over the road.

You just had to watch out for anything that could be thrown your way.

“And [Sunday], because it was dry it was the opposite end of the scale – big

50

speeds, lots of grip, and I just had to pull my finger out and drive the best I could.

“It was really good, and really enjoyable.”

Quinn was originally classified as the second place finisher, but an irregularity was detected in his GTR’s exhaust post-event, leading to a disqualification. That was good news for local rally ace Dean Herridge, he and co-driver Chris Murphey being promoted to second in their Subaru.

It also meant another Scot, this time Scot-turned-West Aussie Alistair McRae, rounded out the podium, along with Bill Hayes on a Mitsubishi.

In the classic competition class, Kevin Weeks and Rebecca Crunkhorn took the win in Weeks’ immaculate 1975 Porsche 911 RSR, a handy boost for the pair’s charge in the Australian Classic Tarmac Rally Championship.

Mark and Andrew Conacher won the modern challenge class, making it two wins from one rally for Nissan GT-Rs, while an honourable mention has to go to husband and wife team Razvan and Iona Vlad, who finished third in their diesel-powered Hyundai i30. Rohan Green and Andrew Cutten made sure Porsche 911s locked out the oldies wins with honours in class challenge.

Walking on water: Kevin Weeks put on his water wings in the classic competition class to finally win a Targa West crown, top right. Dean Herridge was a belated second in the modern class, above, which gave third to a famous rallying name in Alistair McRae, right.

race

The Countdown is on ...

NHRA

LARRY Dixon, Bob Tasca, Jeg Coughlin and Eddie Krawiec scored NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series wins at the 25th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals near Reading, Pennsylvania, last weekend.

After defeating Chris Karamesines, Tony Schumacher, and Shawn Langdon, Dixon used a 3.89/306 from his Al-Anabi dragster in the final to defeat a tyre-smoking Spencer Massey.

It was Dixon’s fifth victory of the season.

Tasca, pictured, scored for the second time this year, taking his QuickLane/Motorcraft Ford Mustang to a final round 4.23/292 to 4.24/264 victory over the Ford Mustang of Mike Neff. Tasca trailered Ron Capps in the

opening frame, before taking out Robert Hight and John Force to personally send three-quarters of the JFR Team packing. The victory capped off a weekend that enabled Tasca to secure a spot in the Countdown to the Championship playoff.

Defending Series Pro Stock champion Coughlin won his sixth event of the season by defeating Johnny Gay in the final round, 6.63/207 to 6.67/206.

Eddie Krawiec visited winner’s circle for the fifth time this year, posting a 7.13/185 in the final to defeat Michael Phillips. The victory clinched the number one seed and 20-point bonus in the Countdown to the Championship for Krawiec.

– DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

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rear of grid

Patrizi keen on elite karting to keep race fit

Have helmet, will race ... a CIK kart!

Dirk Klynsmith

MICHAEL Patrizi is considering a return to top line karting.

The Wilson Security Racing driver is investigating options to compete in next year’s Australian CIK Championships.

Frustrated by a lack of miles in his V8 Supercar, Patrizi told eNews that he wants to get back into karting to get more race laps and keep sharp: “Karting is a massive stepping stone class that we all start in, but its also very good way to keep race miles under your belt,” he said.

“When I go back home to Kalgoorlie, I usually spend a day at the kart track.

“With only four test days in a V8, the amount of time that we actually spend in the cars is very limited.

“I’m seriously considering doing a lot more karting next year. I mechanic for Remo Luciani in all the big Australian meetings. We’re doing a pretty good job together, and he helped me out in my former karting days. We have a pretty close relationship so I plan to step back in next year.

“I don’t think I’ll be doing a full world championship campaign like Robert Kubica, but if you wanted to, you could. It’s not that hard.”

The West Australian is a former international karting, having raced for the factory Birel team in the Formula A class in 2003.

– GRANT ROWLEY

t o p S d d O SNAPPED! The famous ‘K-Rudd’ utility was parked over the weekend at the Queensland Raceway circuit, helping to promote one of the Labour party’s local members.

The ute was the centre of the parliamentary ‘Utegate’ scandal two months ago.

But now, bigger news is coming!

Pictured right, the ute found a perfectlysized parking spot right next to the Media Centre. Nothing sinister there, but if you have really good eye sight, you’ll notice the sign that it’s parked in front of which reads ‘Reserved V8SA Chairman.’

Holy cow! Is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd the new V8 boss? Or, is Tony Cochrane heading to Canberra? ...

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