Motorsport eNews Issue 161 - June 29-July 5, 2010

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Issue No. 161 June 29 -July 5 2010

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THE SILLY SEASON IS HERE! PLUS

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Issue No. 161 | June 29 – July 5 2010

news 4

Who is after Davison?

A couple of Ford teams 7 Time for new cars, eh?

NZ updates its V8 formula 9 Morris’ new look: Pink The colour, not the singer 10 Pedder injured in crash ARC contender breaks leg 12 F1 shock: Alonso upset Local hero fuming

chat 22 Five Minutes With ...

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comment 24 Van Leeuwen and Adam World Cup feeble ... er, fever

race 26 Shannon’s Nationals Winton 32 ARC South Australia 36 NASCAR New Hampshire 40 World Superbike Misano 42 Superleague, IRC and Qld

trade 44 Classifieds

DAVO HOLDS THE SILLY SEASON KEY V8 SUPERCARS

W

ILL Davison looks to hold the key to the V8 Supercars Silly Season. eNews believes that there are at least two teams showing interest in securing the services of the current Holden Racing Team driver, quite apart from whatever intentions HRT has of holding on to the man who has raced the #22 Commodore for the last two seasons.

After a great maiden season with the iconic Holden team last year, which included second in the Drivers’ Championship and wins and Bathurst and Phillip Island, 2010 has proven to be a struggle for Davison.

A change in engineers within HRT appears to have had an unsettling effect on the team’s performances, though there were signs that the new cars that the team rolled out last week in Darwin have put Davison and team-mate Garth Tander on a better footing for the second half of the season.

We believe that one of the teams looking at Davo is Jim Beam Racing, the team for which he raced between 2008 and 2008. Despite his highprofile defection to the Red side at the end of his time, he parted ways with the team on good terms, and maintains his links with Jim Beam through a personal sponsorship deal. If there is such a thing as a happy parting, particularly at the front of V8 Supercar racing, this looks to have been one of those rare examples.

Of course, JBR currently has two drivers under contract, with James Courtney on a multi-year deal and Steven Johnson in the first year of a two-year arrangement. However, the team has long held aims of expanding to four cars from its current three-car arrangement and, with first-year Main Game driver Jonathan Webb doing a good job in the Canadian Club-backed car, there is no reason to think that finding space for a fourth car, and for Davison, would prove to be an insurmountable task.

On the other hand, there are a number of high-profile drives and drivers still to be sorted out for next season. As reported last week, Paul Dumbrell is set to determine his future in the next two months, and with that rides the prospects of Rod Nash Racing’s Bottle-O-backed entry. Nearby, the future of the Steven Richards/Ford Performance Racing entry is up in the air, and while Richo has told us that he is determined to reestablish his claim on the drive past the end of this season, it is difficult to imagine that the team is not looking at all its options.

Davison, a race winner with Ford in 2008, is well-regarded on the Blue side of the fence, and while we could not get any comment from FPR regarding Davison (the team did not return calls in time for this edition going live), we believe that the team’s management see Davison as one of the drivers on their ‘wish list’.

As for Davison himself, he said “I don’t have anything to comment on, so it’s not even a ‘No Comment’.

“The discussions have not started yet. During the [mid-season] break, we will start to work out what is going on for next year.”

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Dirk Klynsmith

AGP PITS FOR SUPERCARS V8 SUPERCARS V8 SUPERCARS will have their own pitlane at Albert Park next year.

The days of crowding cars, tyres and crews into the front of the Formula 1 pitlane will be over, with the new facilities due to be announced in Melbourne today (Tuesday).

Victorian Tourism Minister Tim Holding, AGP Corporation CEO Drew Ward and V8 Supercars CEO Martin Whitaker were due to make

the announcement at the Albert Park track mid-morning.

The move suggests that the team will now be able to make pitstops, as they do at most V8 Supercar Championship Series races and that, therefore, the AGP support events will take on more of the format of the regular V8SCS races. It may also pave the way for the races to eventually be included as points-paying rounds of the V8SCS, subject to a number of other issues – ie TV agreements – being sorted.

James Smith

WILCARD ENTRIES CLOSE V8 SUPERCARS

John Morris/Mpix

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APPLICATIONS for wildcard entries for the L&H Phillip Island 500 and Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 close this Thursday, July 1.

After three wildcards ran at the events last year, up to five will be granted this year from the Fujitsu Series. Matthew White Motorsport,

Greg Murphy Racing and Sieders Racing Team, who all had wildcards in 2009, are set to apply, along with Newcastle-based Adrenaline Motorsport.

Former Commodore Cup champion Geoff Emery is expected to be one of GMR’s two drivers, with the team preparing his VZ Commodore in the Fujitsu Series.

Webber contemplative on Red Bull Air Race FORMULA 1

points finish of the year. He has dropped to fourth in the World Drivers’ Championship, 24 points behind world championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

“There’s still everything to play for,” he says. “To be 24 points behind Lewis is nothing when you consider that I scored 50 points in the space of eight days a few races ago. And we’re taking nothing for granted at Red Bull Racing; we need to continue working flat-out because our rivals are bringing updates to every race. There are now four drivers who have two wins apiece – Lewis, Jenson, myself and Seb – and it’s going to be a fascinating second half of the year.”

The next race is the British Grand Prix and Webber is impatient to get back behind the wheel.

“We hope the RB6 will be competitive at Silverstone,” he says, “because the track has lots of high-speed corners, through which our car excels.

“I feel a little tender today, but I’ll be fine come the race weekend and I cannot wait to get back in the car.”

sutton-images.com

MARK Webber is licking his wounds – metaphorical wounds, not actual wounds – after his terrifying European Grand Prix crash.

The Aussie’s Red Bull-Renault took to the air at almost 300kmh after his front tyre rode over the rear tyre of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus. The car flew up into the sky and crashed back to earth on its roll hoop, before it hit a kerb, flipped onto its wheels and ran off into a tyre barrier.

Webber was conscious throughout the massive shunt and, after throwing his steering wheel out, stepped from the wreck unaided. His only injury was a small cut on one arm.

“Initially, I thought Heikki was going to let me through without a fight,” says Mark, “but as we approached Turn 12 he started moving towards the middle of the track. As I pulled out from his slipstream, he braked and before I knew what had happened I was pointing at the sky.

“The telemetry showed that he braked 80 metres earlier for that corner than I had on

the previous lap, so it was completely unexpected.

“My car felt like it was airborne for a long time. I had time to worry about whether there were any bridges at that point on the track – which, luckily, there weren’t. If there had been one, I would have hit it because I went pretty high.

“But the car stood up to the accident well. This chassis – Number 4 – has been good to me: I used it to win back-to-back races in Barcelona and Monaco, and now it’s saved me from serious injury in Valencia.

“I have a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise I’m fine. What’s frustrating was that this accident should never have happened. I understand as well as anyone that F1 isn’t a charity event; you have to fight for every position – but not when you’re five seconds off the pace and you have one of the quickest cars in the pack behind you.

“I mean, how long was Heikki going to stay ahead of me?

Another 15 seconds? He must be asking himself whether it was worth it.”

The DNF was Webber’s first of 2010 – in fact, his first non-

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NZV8s go for control chassis

NZV8S THE NZ V8 championship is set to adopt a NASCARstyle common chassis as the central point of its future plans.

With the current field of Falcons and Commodores made up of original AUs and VTs upgraded to BA and VY/ VZ models respectively, and no great incentive from either manufacturer to introduce current models, VEEGA, the teams’ association, is set to make the significant change, which will allow other car brands to take part. eNews understands that a meeting of VEEGA two weeks back has given the go-ahead

for a full prototype to be built

by Brisbane-based engineer Paul Ceprnich (ex-PMM, BMW Motorsport), who has been in discussion with the NZ group for some time.

His brief was to produce a base chassis which could take numbers of differing car models, for a rolling chassis cost of under NZ$200,000 (AUS$180,000). It is also required that cars be able to convert easily from one brand to just about any other equivalent brand.

Assuming the successful creation of the prototype, and acceptance by MANZ, the new spec chassis will run at first in 2012 alongside the existing cars, with a full switch in 2013.

John Morris / Mpix

WR confirms Reynolds for Townsville FV8 FUJITSU SERIES WALKINSHAW Racing has confirmed David Reynolds will race in Round 4 of the Fujitsu Series at Townsville next month.

Reynolds, who raced in the 2008 Fujitsu Series, will step into WR009, the Commodore used by Fabian Coulthard prior to the Darwin Main Game round, and run a Bundaberg Red livery.

In a similar arrangement to Cameron McConville’s outings,

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Reynolds will race under the Eggleston Motorsport banner, using #54.

“I am really thrilled to have the opportunity to get back into a Walkinshaw Racing Commodore,” Reynolds said.

“To line up as an endurance driver in one of these cars you really need to be on top of your game and nothing compares to actual racing miles in the car.

“I know the guys at Walkinshaw Racing really well so it should be like stepping back into familiar territory.

GOALSKE! NOSKE! V8 SUPERCARS

MARK Noske will team up with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport for the endurance races.

The veteran co-driver will partner New Zealander Daniel Gaunt in the Gulf Westernbacked Commodore at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island, followed by the Bathurst 1000 in

October.

Noske, 34, will be making his 10th Bathurst start, having raced for such teams as the Holden Racing Team and Holden Young Lions, Stone Brothers Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport. His best finish came in 1999, when he partnered Todd Kelly to sixth in the HYL Commodore.

TAZ READY TO RACE FUJITSU V8s

TAZ Douglas has confirmed that he will make his return to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Townsville next month.

Douglas has been sidelined so far this year due to a battle with Lymphoma, however, with his chemotherapy out of the way and a successful test at Winton under his belt, Townsville beckons.

“The test day was no stress,” Douglas

told eNews.

“The car ran perfectly all day. The only issue we had was when it stopped after two laps because I forgot to turn all the switches on!

“Physically, I was fine. But obviously I was a bit rusty behind the wheel. I wasn’t quite where I was at by the end of last year, but I don’t think it will take long to get back up to speed.”

Douglas’ Fastaz Racing Commodore

will be backed by Astral Pools at both the Townsville and Bathurst events, while former FV8 competitor Terry Wyhoon will take the engineering reigns in Townsville, having helped Douglas through the recent Winton test.

Also, expect to see Douglas on Channel Ten before the Townsville round, with Sports Tonight recently filming a spot that will air before the Victorian’s comeback.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

PERKINS OUT OF FV8 FOR THE YEAR FUJITSU V8s JACK Perkins is unlikely to race in the Fujitsu Series again in 2010.

Perkins was aiming to make his third start of the season at Townsville, in the James Rosenberg-owned Commodore, however arrangements haven’t come together.

It also rules him out of

RACE

contesting the Bathurst round, with Main Game enduro drivers only eligible to race in that weekend’s Fujitsu races if they’ve done three of the four rounds prior.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said.

“We tried our hardest, but we couldn’t get it to happen.

V8 Supercars Australia and Damien White (Fujitsu Series Operations Manager) have been very helpful in getting

SUPERSPRINT

cars on the grid, and they’ve given me every opportunity, but it’s the same old story of money not growing on trees.

“With the first two rounds, I was able to prep my car after hours, but we’re been working to sell James’ car. We had a backup option, which was an older VZ Commodore, but we couldn’t get it all to happen.”

Perkins will join Tim Slade in the Wilson Security Racing

TARMAC RALLY & TRACK DAYS

Falcon at Phillip Island and Bathurst, with his Fujitsu Series outings providing valuable miles. The 23-year-old will now turn his attention to finding a full-time ride for 2011.

“If an easy opportunity came up to do Sandown or Homebush, I’d definitely take it, but my main focus is on getting a full-time gig for 2011,” he said.

– MITCHELL ADAM

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NEW LOOKS FOR TOWNSVILLE Both Paul Morris and James Moffat will have new looks in the Fujitsu Series in FNQ, with Morris sporting an interesting pink livery, above, and Moffat adding Doric to his list of supporters, below.

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BRIEFLY

n CAMS has nominated Leanne Tander to join the newly-created FIA Women & Motorsport Commission.

There are currently 19 members on the WMC, which works with the various FIA commissions to strengthen the participation of women in motorsport.

“I’m really excited that I’ve been nominated for this position,” Tander said.

“It’s is a real passion of mine to encourage more women to be involved in motorsport in whatever capacity; as drivers, engineers or mechanics – anything. I’m looking forward to my first meeting and learning more about the role.” n Also from CAMS, they’ve called for Expressions of Interest from parties seeking the Competition Management Agreement for the Australian Manufacturers Championship from 2011. The Production Car Association of Australia held the rights for most of the last five years, but relinquished that duty recently.

10

Pedersen Undecided FUJITSU V8s

ANT Pedersen is in familiar, uncertain waters ahead of Round 4 of the Fujitsu Series at Townsville next month.

The New Zealander has been a round-by-round proposition with Matthew

White Motorsport in his rookie season, securing late backing before each event to compete at Queensland Raceway and Winton Motor Raceway in May. “It’s 50-50 at this stage,” he said.

“We’re not too sure, we’re just working on a few leads

and hoping to bring them together sooner rather than later. At this stage, I’m not too sure, I really can’t give a concrete answer.”

Pedersen is currently seventh in the Fujitsu Series standings.

– MITCHELL ADAM

SETO ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE MINI CHALLENGE GLENN Seton will back in a MINI Challenge car come the Townsville round in a fortnight’s time.

The two-time Australian Touring Car Champion already has an impressive pedigree in the MINI Challenge, having started nine races for three wins, a pole and a podium. And he will be back for more in Townsville in the Pizza Capers Uber Star car.

“I really enjoy driving the MINIs, and this is my fourth opportunity to race in the series so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Seton.

“I have never driven around the Townsville

Street circuit, but I headed up there last year and everything from the track, to the fans, and the atmosphere was really fantastic. I think the MINI is a car that will suit this circuit and I’m looking forward to the challenge as the Pizza Capers Uber Star driver.”

Beric Lynton will also return to the series at Townsville, as one of 17 entries, with McElrea Racing yet to nominate their two drivers.

Meanwhile, the former Parts Manager at Lynton’s BMW Dealership on the Gold Coast, Simon Eaton, is the category’s new Operations Manager. Eaton replaces Craig Nayda, who has taken up a role with the promoters of Extreme Monster Trucks Australia.

BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE V8 SUPERCARS BEN Barker will return to Formula Ford in a fortnight, making his debut in the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship in Townsville.

Barker, who races for Team BRM in the Australian Formula 3 Championship, will drive one of the South Australian squad’s Mygale Formula Fords on the streets of Townsville. He will replace Martin Short, the Kiwi running low on funds.

It will be a return of sorts for Barker, who raced Formula Ford in

his native Britain before moving to Australia.

“I can’t wait, it’s going to be good fun to get back in a Formula Ford and race on a street circuit for the first time,” said Barker.

“The Australian cars are slightly different to the ones I am used to, with the main difference being down to the grooved tyres compared to the slicks in Europe.

But I’m hoping that I remember how to drive the cars and get back in the groove quickly.

“I’m basically just going to go out there and drive the car as hard as I possibly can!”

John Morris/Mpix

n Wakefield Park will host the 2010 Australian Rotax Superkart Nationals on October 30. The last National non-gearbox Superkart titles were contested in 2008, with this year’s originally scheduled to run at Mallala’s Shannons Nationals round.

“The return after a twoyear absence is nothing short of sensational for the Rotax Superkarters,” Superkarts Australia director Wayne Horswell said.

Dirk Klynsmith

n Eric Bana will contest the next round of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship, at Phillip Island on July 9-11.

Bana, who has dabbled in Australian racing including in GT, will drive his 996spec Porsche GT3 Cup Car in Round 4.

motorsport news

news Michael Vettas

PEDDER INJURED IN SA AUS. RALLYING

SCOTT Pedder has broken his leg, in a massive crash at the Scouts Rally SA in South Australia last weekend.

The title contender was engaged in a fierce battle with Simon Evans on the fast forest tracks, when his Mitsubishi left the road and struck several trees. The worst of the impact was on the driver’s side door, trapping Pedder in the car with a severely broken leg.

Simon and Sue Evans were first on the scene, and were lucky to miss the stricken car, which was blocking the road. According to Sue Evans, who comforted the injured driver while paramedics freed him from the wreck, abandoning there run was the only thing to do.

“There’s no question – Simon and I couldn’t get out of the car quick enough,” said Sue. “It’s a big rallying family, and it’s just

the way it works. You don’t like to see anyone in trouble.”

While the stage on which the accident occurred was cancelled, Simon confirmed that it was tough to get back to full speed after seeing the shunt.

“You’ve got to move on and focus on the job at hand, and not think about what’s happened. It was a little bit difficult for sure, [but] by the last couple of stages we were in full swing.”

– PHIL WILLIAMS/STAFF

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FERRARI media

Nooobody expects ... THE

SPANISH INDECISION FORMULA 1 FERNANDO Alonso slammed race officials after the European Grand Prix, telling local Spanish TV that the result had been ‘manipulated’.

Alonso was crucially disadvantaged when the Safety Car for Mark Webber’s crash pulled out onto the track. The Ferrari driver had been third at the time

m sutton-images.co

12

behind Lewis Hamilton, but while Alonso fell into line behind the Safety Car, the McLaren driver drove past it.

The upshot was that when the race went green, Hamilton was in second place and Alonso had dropped well down the order.

“It’s a shame, not for us because this is racing, but for all the fans who came here to watch a manipulated race,” Alonso told Spanish TV after the race.

“We were running well, in third after a good start. Then the safety car came out, which wasn’t too good for us, but Hamilton overtook the safety car, something that I had never seen, overtaking the medical car with yellow flags. We were a metre off each other, and he finished second and I finished ninth.

“This race was to finish second. Then with the safety car I would have finished where I finished in ninth, and Hamilton in eighth. But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn’t respect them finishes second.”

Adding insult to injury for Alonso was the fact that Hamilton was indeed

adjudged by stewards to have illegally overtaken the Safety Car, but incurred no effective penalty. By the time they arrived at the decision to issue Hamilton with a drive-through penalty, the McLaren driver has established such a margin over third placed Kamui Kobayashi that Hamilton was able to take his drive though without the loss of any positions.

“It must have been very hard to know,” Alonso said the officials’ delay in penalising Hamilton. “They must have taken a lot of laps to see the replay of how he overtook the medical car.

“But that’s how it is. Unfortunately everything goes against us and it seems they are allowing everything.”

But some things did go Alonso’s way, a later revision to the results moving the Spaniard from 10th to ninth.

On what was another farcical Safety Car episode for F1, nine drivers each had five seconds added to their race times after being judged to have driven too quickly during the Safety Car period. The nine were Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Tonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa. motorsport news

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F1 gives them moving wings FORMULA 1 sutton-images.com

GP/ For full F1/ Moto ews, WRC coverage/n CLICK HERE to get to ine GPWeek magaz om www.gpweek.c

WHEN wings first arrived in Formula 1 in 1968, they were adjustable. A year later they were banned for safety reasons.

Forty-one years later adjustable rear wings are set to return as the sport searches for ways of fostering overtaking in F1.

The concept of an electrically cockpitadjustable rear wing was devised by FOTA and has been ratified by the FIA, effective from 2011.

However, drivers will not be given free rein to adjust their wings. There will specific restrictions on when and in what circumstances wing angle changes can be made.

The FIA will be looking to exert certain electronic controls over wing adjustments from race control to prevent them from being activated in the opening laps of a race, as well as on specific prohibited parts of the track.

In addition, drivers being closely pursued will not be permitted to use their wing adjusters as a defence mechanism.

The system will be automatically disabled whenever the driver’s foot touches the brake pedal.

In other FOTA news, the teams will next year cease their voluntary ban on the use of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), which was introduced to F1 last year.

sutton-images.co m

Pirelli wins tyre war FORMULA 1 IT was a late starter in the battle to become the sole supplier of F1 tyres in 2011 but Pirelli has won the Formula 1 deal, the FIA announced in the lead up to the European Grand Prix.

Fellow former F1 supplier Michelin had www.mnews.com.au

earlier been favoured to beat Cooper Avon to the F1 contract, and indeed the French tyre maker was favoured by the F1 teams’ group, FOTA. But the decision was the responsibility not of FOTA, but the FIA. “Pirelli has been selected as the single tyre supplier for the FIA Formula One World Championship for a period of

three years, commencing in 2011,” an FIA statement read.

“The sole supplier will undertake to strictly respect the sporting and technical regulations implemented by the FIA.” Pirelli’s last season in F1 was 1991 (above). The Italian tyre maker has 44 F1 wins to its credit, dating back to the 1950s.

13

2011: 1 in IndyC INDYCAR

PATRICK RETURNS

Shepherd rounds up Danica: another 30+ finish NASCAR NW DANICA Patrick, who admitted she is nervous after being away from Stock Cars for three months, was credited with a 30 percent increase in attendance for the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Speedway last weekend.

Driving for JR Motorsports, New Hampshire was her fourth stock car event. She finished 30th after starting 25th, her cause not assisted by getting hit by veteran Morgan Shepherd on lap 7.

Patrick blamed Shepherd for the incident but

he saw it differently; “I wasn’t the only one she was holding up, she was holding up other cars too – she will learn it,” Shepherd said. “There’s two [lanes], right around the bottom and kind of the middle of the track. You really can’t run all that high.

“She just made it hard to pass. We just got together when we went down in the corner.

She squeezed me a little bit and we got together and that’s all there was to it.”

At least she will not have to wait long to see if she can finish better than the 30s. Patrick next NW race is at Chicagoland in two weeks.

– MENDEZ/STAFF

THE 2011 IndyCar schedule will be announced at the beginning of August and is expected to remain at least 17 races, but with some changes.

Brazil (Sao Paulo’s temporary street course) will move to the beginning of May rather than remain the season opener.

Added to the schedule is Baltimore, a new temporary street course, in early August.

As the IndyCar Series returns to Watkins Glen for its sixth event there, it could also be for the last time. The contact is up for renewal. The Glen is an ISC (International Speedway Corporation) track, owned by the France family, which also owns the rival sanctioning body, NASCAR. ISC does

No Joy for Randy LaJoie

NASCAR’s drug policy nabs former driver: apologises to ... everyone NASCAR A SECOND driver – albeit a retired one – has been busted under NASCAR’s substance abuse program.

Randy LaJoie, the 1996 and 1997 NASCAR Busch (now Nationwide) Series Champion, admitted to smoking marijuana after the CocaCola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. A few days later, he was tested by NASCAR to enable him to obtain a spotter’s license to work for Joe Gibbs Racing and the traces of marijuana showed up in his blood.

LaJoie has been suspended 14

from NASCAR indefinitely and has also been fired from his analyst’s role at ESPN. Whether he keeps other positions for different media outlets remains to be seen. He also has a race seat business, The Joie of Seating, but whether his suspension has any effect on this remains to be seen.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and respect NASCAR’s decision,” said LaJoie, right, in a statement.

“I wish to apologise to my wife and family first, to NASCAR, to my fans and to the various media companies which I work, including ESPN, Sirius Radio, Speed Channel and

Performance Racing Network. I have this day sought to enroll in a substance abuse program.

My use of marijuana was an isolated incident following the Coca Cola 600.

“I plan to follow the recommendations of the substance abuse counselor and suggestions of NASCAR and hope that someday I can prove to NASCAR and all the people with whom I associate that I have taken such steps to see that instances such as this do not reoccur.”

Owner/driver Jeremy Mayfield’s case against NASCAR for suspending him indefinitely was recently thrown out by the US Federal court.

– MARTIN D CLARK motorsport news

17 races again Car Season Franchitti’s demonstration laps this weekend prior to the Cup race. After an exciting and successful short oval event at Iowa, drivers requested more short tracks be added to the schedule, having lost Milwaukee when the promoter failed to pay its sanctioning fee and Richmond because the ISCowned track didn’t renew.

Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports track is in dispute with the local New Hampshire police who billed the track US$170,000 for their services.

Smith asked for a price reduction to $65,000, which was denied. Now Smith is threatening to move one of his two New Hampshire NASCAR dates to another one of his tracks next year making room for the IndyCar series.

– MARY MENDEZ

INDYCAR PAUL Tracy has secured an IndyCar ride.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced last week that they have signed the veteran to replace the injured Mike Conway. Following his horrific accident at the Indianapolis 500 where he ran into the back of Ryan Hunter-Reay and was launched into the catch fence, Conway returned home to the UK after spending a week at Methodist hospital. The Brit must wear a back brace for two more months healing a compression fracture of one of his thoracic vertebrae, similar to Will Power’s injury during last season. He also is recovering from fractures to his lower left leg.

Tracy is the third driver filling the Conway seat in the #24 car, after Tomas Scheckter drove at Texas and Graham Rahal at Iowa. Tracy, who starts start his 271st Indy car type event at the Glen, is sponsored by

sutton-images.com

not promote its races and attendance has been suffering at the IndyCar events at those tracks. IndyCar’s Kansas attendance, another ISCowned track, dropped by two thirds, from a sell-out of 75,000 a few years ago to barely 25,000 last May. “Our preference, and our team and manufacturers’ preference, is to keep the schedule to 17,” Terry Angstadt, IRL’s President, Commercial Division, told the Star Gazette, responding to a question about returning to The Glen.

“At this point, it does an existing event a disservice to tell them we aren’t coming there again.”

New Hampshire’s short oval will most certainly be added, planned at the end of July next year, as NASCAR fans were treated to Dario

D&R signs Tracy

the Honda Indy Toronto event, befitting a man from the Toronto suburb of West Hill (which is, ironically, east of the city).

“I feel great,’ said Tracy, who is also signed with KV Racing Technology to compete at Toronto and Edmonton.

The Dreyer & Reinbold team has also indicated they want to sign Rahal for the remainder of the season and plan to run him in a third entry, #23, alongside their full-time driver of the #22, Justin Wilson. Rahal and Wilson were team-mates at NewmanHaas in 2008.

– MARY MENDEZ

RHR stays put Raymond Parks passes INDYCAR

www.mnews.com.au

Martin D Clark

RYAN Hunter-Reay looks set to remain at Andretti Autosport.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Ryan HunterReay, currently seventh in the IndyCar title chase and with one win at Long Beach this season, will continue at Watkins Glen driving for Andretti Autosport. No sponsorship package has been announced as yet for the American, who won the round at the northern New York track in 2008.

Andretti Autosport is also planning a fifth entry giving Adam Carroll, the A1GP champion with Team Ireland,

his IndyCar debut. Carroll did one day of testing last week in preparation for next weekend’s race. To maintain his IndyCar rookie status, Carroll can compete in only three races this season.

“The idea is that I will drive in two, three, four races in the second half of the season, Carroll explained to the Belfast Telegraph.

“And, if it works out for both sides, I will join them for a full season next year. Getting this opportunity with a team such as Andretti Autosport is the sort of chance I’ve been after for a long time and I intend to make the most of it. I’m confident I can.”

– MARY MENDEZ

THE last surviving link with the very origins of NASCAR, more than 60 years ago, has died.

Raymond Parks, who was one of the attendees in the meeting that formed NASCAR at the Streamline Hotel, above, in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1947, has passed away at the age of 96. Parks, who started his ‘racing’ career as

a moonshine runner and served time in federal prison for the offense, was the first car owner to win a NASCAR championship with driver Red Byron in 1948 and 1949.

Parks got to see his lifesize statue and a replica of that first car –leading the pack – at the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte during May. – MARTIN D CLARK 15

Ericks-on AUSSIES OVERSEAS

John Morris / Mpix

Smerdon’s new toy

V8 TOURING CARS

Richard Craill

A celebration of Australia’s Muscle Car heritage and a tribute to the drivers that raced

DANIEL Erickson will make a comeback to the American Formula 2000 Championship next weekend.

Having made an impressive debut in the series’ opening round back in April, but since then a lack of funds has seen the Sydneysider on the sidelines. Now, he will return to the series at the Watkins Glen circuit in New York.

But while he was on the pace back at Virginia, Erickson acknowledges that his return will be a lot tougher.

CHRIS Smerdon stepped into his new ride in Round 3 of the Shannons V8 Touring Car Series at Winton last weekend.

Smerdon, who won the series’ inaugural title in 2008, has purchased an exStone Brothers BA Falcon, replacing the AU Falcon Mark Winterbottom used to win the 2003 Fujitsu Series.

The South Australian was third for the weekend.

“It’s a former James Courtney car, which has been sitting to the side in the Stone Brothers Racing shed since it was last raced,” Smerdon said.

“I spoke to Ross (Stone) about acquiring a car in 2009,

“I’ve never been to Watkins Glen, let alone raced there,” said Erickson.

“And I’ve missed four rounds of the series, whereas the other guys can only have been getting quicker after racing regularly.

“I hear that there could be as many as 40 drivers because the IndyCars are on the program. About the only thing in my favour is that this time I’ll have driven an F2000 car before, which I hadn’t at VIR. “I’ll be more than happy if I can finish in the top five at Watkins Glen.”

but there was a shortage of machinery. When this one became available, I jumped at the chance to buy it.

“SBR have prepped the car for me and are giving us a hand this weekend, the car has never left the Stone Brothers stable before, so from that standpoint it has a great pedigree.”

Winton featured the biggestyet field for the third-year series for ex-Supercars, with 14 cars on the grid.

“It’s fantastic to have 14 cars here, it’s the first time we have seen these sorts of numbers,” Smerdon said.

“Everyone within the class is quite positive, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going from here.”

AUTOBARN TOURING CAR MASTERS GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING CARS (Pre-1973) GROUP C HISTORIC TOURING CARS (1973-84) GROUP A HISTORIC TOURING CARS (1985-92) MASTER BLASTS BEST OF THE BEST HERITAGE HOT LAPS ULTIMATE RACE REPLICAS

FATHERS DAY SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2010 CHECK OUT: www.musclecarmasters.com.au or 02 9672 1000

16

motorsport news

news

IROQ GOES TO THE PEOPLE RALLY

Jeremy Rogers

THE International Rally of Queensland, a round of the Australian and Asian Pacific Championships, will return to Caloundra for the first time since 2005 this year.

A 2.3km bitumen stage at the Sunshine Coast Industrial Park will host the Coates Hire Rally Shootout, with two passes on the Friday night of the event, July 30, before competitors head to the Mary Valley township of Imbil.

“The cars will race against

the clock in the first two competitive stages of the rally, but instead of running one at a time they will be sent off pursuit-style in batches of two or three, which will really add to the excitement,” Event Director Errol Bailey said.

“General viewing will be excellent from trackside mounds, while corporate guests will enjoy access to the fully-catered Party Deck.”

Organisers will also grant four ARC competitors a free wildcard into the Asia Pacific portion of the event Joel Strickland

Easts head to Eastern Creek PRODUCTION CARS ALAN East Motorsport will contest next month’s Australian 6 Hour at Eastern Creek, keen to bounce back from their Bathurst 12 Hour disqualification.

Trevor Symonds and David and Des Wall finished

second on the road at Mount Panorama in February, but were excluded for having different compound tyres on their Evo IX Lancer at the same time.

The trio will get back in the car for the July 9-11 event.

“It was an honest mistake, and it gutted us,” East said of the

Bathurst exclusion.

“We appealed it, but they didn’t want to listen to us.

We’ve been in touch with the tyre manufacturer in Japan, and running different compounds was actually to our detriment.

“In the 12 Hour, there was really only six and a half hours of racing, so the car is as good

as new.”

In another combo, Shannons V8 Touring Car Series drivers Chris Delfsma and Dean Neville will team up, with Delfsma taking back the GT Falcon he sold late last year. With John Bowe and Jack Elsegood, Delfsma took a class win at the 2007 Bathurst 12 Hour.

Chevron has all your motorsport needs covered including classic race packages, Bathurst highlights as well as in-depth documentaries. See our website today for the full range of DVD’s available.

www.mnews.com.au

17

SPEEDWAY PAUL Morris is aiming to make the long trek south to western Victoria to compete in next year’s huge doubleheader at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway.

Morris, 42, has been competing in Sprintcars for 18 months, and now wants to take another forward step in his speedway career and compete at the two biggest events on the calendar, the 2011 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic (GASC) and Australian Sprintcar Championship, slated for late January and

early February.

Morris campaigns a Supercheap Auto-backed Eagle chassis with a KRE Engines 410ci powerplant and says he was looking forward to racing on Australia’s fastest clay speedway at the two blueribbon events.

While new to the sport of Sprintcar racing, Morris believed the experience he has already gained competing on northern speedways would go some way to taking on the famed high banks on Warrnambool.

“Stepping into a sprintcar

has been a learning experience but I have picked it up pretty well,” Morris said.

“It’s like with everything else, the more experience you have the better you become.

Sprintcars are a whole new ballgame and totally different to anything else I’ve ever driven. They’re short, fast and wild – and I love driving them!”

Morris competed at 38 meetings during the 200910 season, finishing seven AMain features, mainly in New South Wales and Queensland and recently topped the points at the Lismore Gold

John Morris/Mpix

DUDE, WHERE’S MY SPRINTCAR? Cup, earning a potential frontrow start.

“We’re starting to hit our straps and make a few AMains, and the aim is to keep improving and have a run at events like the Australian Titles and the Classic,” he said.

The 2011 GASC will be the 39th running of the prestigious event and will be held on January 22 and 23 and attracted 78 teams to the 2010 version. Only three days later the things with wings, will again hit the track for official practice night of the 2011 Lucas Oils Australian Sprintcar Championship.

TATNELL TAKES OUTLAW WIN SPEEDWAY BROOKE Tatnell has grabbed his second victory and another US$10,000 in the recent round of the World of Outlaws in Nebraska.

Tatnell started third and on lap 16 passed Jason Meyers for a lead he would never lose in the 25-lap race at Junction Motor Speedway.

It was the 11th Outlaws win of his stellar career, and he couldn’t wait to let his family know of his efforts.

“There is no such thing as an easy race 18

anymore, I just want to thank the people that have believed in us in our career,” Tatnell said.

“If it wasn’t for those people, we wouldn’t be out here still plugging away, especially my wife and daughter and future son.

“They are waiting at home to hear the results and I can’t wait to call them.”

Craig Dollansky got past reigning Outlaws champ, Donny Schatz with two laps to go for second spot while Meyers was eventually fourth.

Recent visitor to Australia Lucas Wolfe set a new track record in qualifying, and

finished fifth followed by Jason Sides, Joey Saldana, Jac Haudenschild, Australian Kerry Madsen and multiple Outlaws winner Steve Kinser.

The following night at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City was won by Kinser from veterans Jac Haudenschild and Sammy Swindell, while for the Aussie drivers Madsen was eighth, and Tatnell was 10th. The chase for the Outlaws title is currently being led by Joey Saldana as they build up for the 50th running of the prestigious Knoxville Nationals in August.

– GEOFF ROUNDS motorsport news

(EY TRUE BLUE James Courtney has finally arrived in V8 Supercars

A Man of Many Colours

mpion, World Cha Formula 1 s 500 winner, s indianapoli n, le mannve cart champio ues villeue star. jacqall those and in has been he will race at v8 october, on the gold coast. how supercar branagan ing he told phil ut return he feels abo 31 down under

WINDING BAC

K the year that was... motorsport

The Family Bu siness

news

www.mnews.com

.au

30

The team that is now Red Bull Racing Grand Prix. For started life as Stewa a father

By PHIL BRANAGAN -and-son business, it did pretty rt welll ...

Raising the Tartanic: business. The 1997 Stewart-Ford’s cars certainly looked the Barrichello, Johnny car was launched by Paul Stewart, Rubens Martin Whitaker, Herbert and Jackie Stewart.

The other ‘suit’ then with Ford is It was a soaked and Jackie who celebrate now V8 Supercars Australia at the Nurburgr CEO. d on the podium ing. is now rarely seen Sir Jackie is a regular GP attendee with his drivers in racing circles. but Paul, inset,

T

HE success of the Red Motor Show in Bulls in Grand Detroit. Jackie, Prix then 56, was to racing is not the capable of mounting be Chairman of work a GP the team and of a minute assault. Backing Magnussen, and his son Paul was came from a in Melbourne motorsport never – success in to be the Managing typically Stewart in 1997, the adventure is.

Director. list of blue To accurately track began.

It was a logical chips – HSBC, It was not a great the success move. The pair Texaco, Sanyo of the team, you start. had set up Paul and the Malaysian Magnussen hurt need to go Stewart Racing government – his legs in a preall the way back in 1988, initially and the white season testing to 1996. Ford to car was bedecked crash, was a sluggish a seat in Formula provide Paul in Stewart Racing suspension suffered and the giant, Ford 2000, tartan sleepwalking throughalmost a number then Formula which, let’s just of failures during 3. It was in that its say, was the first season. involvement with unlike category that anything else The highlight PSR found form; we have seen was team, following Peter Sauber’s aided by some on a racecar.

Monaco, Rubens second at its title win, and good drivers splitting the then somewha and, initially, Stewart two Ferraris, but t sudden split, the exclusive use also decided to the six points with Benetton go of Mugen-Honda with Bridgesto would be all the . But motors, the ne, team would that the Sauber-Fo it was clear team won six titles Formula 1, in the then new to bank. In the 17 in eight face of the races, there were which came duringrd marriage, seasons and victories Goodyear-shod 26 retirements.

Australian contenders. in Formula Peter Gillitzer’s 3000 showed Fellow newcome watch at Ford On paper, 1998 that rs was not Racing, was not capable of movingthe team was Lola (which lasted Prost and much better. The going to bear only one team scored the same results. the motor racing further up race) were also one less point, ladder. on the Japanese but those five Enter Jackie Stewart.

But Stewart Jr rubber, as was moved Stewart was not the Minardi and up one spot triple World champion The driver his father Arrows, which to eighth in the was, taking driver had signed World Contructors’ announced to but a single win Champion Champion the world that Damon in F3 before ship. But he was setting up graduating to like a risky decision.Hill. It looked movement behind there was his F3000. After three 1 team, Stewart own Formula seasons at that But there were Jenkins departed the scenes; Grand Prix, in level, without some , replaced by January 1996. any great results, people in the backgrou clever He was former Jordan he stepped out designer Gary so with the support doing nd. of the cockpit Alan Jenkins was Anderson, and to run the chief Ford indeed, the team’s of Ford; With Ford backing, the team. designer, and Cosworth Engineeri acquired existence was the Stewartwork announced at ng and was started to expand Ford SF1 was a developing a brand-ne the International neat in Milton Keynes the PSR HQ Rubens Barrichell package. for 1999. Magnusse w engine to a facility o moved over n split with 16 from Jordan to the team and partner Jan was replaced by Jos Verstappen – who left the motorsport news

to fourth in the Constructors’ title, ahead of In September such 2004, Ford as Benetton and teams announced that Williams. It the team was was looking like for sale, Jaguar the chairman Joe something, if not start of Greenwell stating: big, “Ford has certainly competiti then decided it can ve, and with no longer team at the end significant potential. a compelling business make of the season. case for Stewart GP was “For all the World Then, along came any of its brands beginning to Ford. to compete in look like a disaster Having funded Championship F1.” in much of Grand Prix But the good news the making. races that I won, the team’s set-up Initially, Tony Purnell, or even was that costs, the the new SF3 was the company Champion of Ford’s then ships quick out of premier performa head bought the team themselves, the box. Barrichell nce off the Stewarts there was nothing division, was thought o may well and have won in Melbourn it as Jaguar. Stewart rebranded yesterday meant,” close to what the favoured bidder to be e he but Sr stayed for the for overheating, on as Chairman day after the result. said the team. But the he , but during proposed deal and qualified on led in Brazil the course of the “To be on the fell through and, pole in France. podium with first year in hours But it was Johnny before its new guise, both of our drivers, Ford would have Herbert who Paul Stewart was been forced gave the team forced to step something quite was to shut down its finest hour, aside unusual. It was the team in midsplashing through undergo treatmen and MD, to a great thrill for Novembe r and lay me, because t for cancer. A rain to win at the the German litany of bad decisions the last Grand 300 staff, Dietrich off more than Nurburgring.

Prix I won the Mateschitz followed, Better yet, Barrichell which led to Jackie German Grand stepped in, bought Prix o was at the third, the team so for the 44th leaving the team Stewart Nurburgring. So and rebranded time that was the at the end of it as Red Bull and first as a team in his career, the 2000. last time I was Racing. At the owner, Jackie on a podium.” same time, Ford Stewart got to Jaguar suffered More results followed, announced that stand on a Grand a succession it had with Prix podium. of management a fourth-fifth points Cosworth to Champ sold changes, Car owners most of which Malaysia vaulting haul in Kevin Kalkhove moved the team n and Gerry team in a downwar the Forsythe. www.mnews.com.a d direction. u And the rest is history ...

17

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motorsport news

m.au com.au www.mnews.co

20

Two Guns’

final tour

No. 397 July 20010 inc GST Australia $7.95 NZ

American Speedcar star the Australian speedw Bob Tattersall was an annual and popula ay scene from the late r feature on ‘60s. His last engage ment down under was 1950s through to the end of the ill with only months in to live. JAMES COCKIN 1971, but by then he was terminally Australian tour of Bob GTON recalls the emotio ‘Two Guns’ Tattersall. nal final LEASE do me a

$8.5

“P

favour,” Bob Tattersall said to Sydney Showgroun d track announcer Steve American hero: Bob Raymond. “Don’t Tattersall was let them know I’m dying. a crowd favourite on the That way it will be easier to say goodbye.”

Speedway scene right Australian through the It was the night of 1960s, left, below.

Saturday May 1, 1971.

American speedcar champion Bob Tattersall was supposed to be racing that summer, as he had done on his previous tours of Australia, 12 but he clearly wasn’t well enough. He had to pull out of the previous week’s engagemen t and to do a farewell parade instead agreed lap the following week before flying home.

“I respected Bob’s wish, Raymond, “but somehow,” recalled the large crowd sensed fortunately, American and Australianthis giant of speedway was saying farewell for the last The crowd gave Tattersalltime.” a standing ovation. The drivers and riders in the Showground pits underneath the Martin and Angus Stand also sensed something and spontaneously walked out onto the edge of the track and formed a guard of honour. “The only one I circuit’s history,” wrote can recall in the Raymond.

Steve Raymond would when he mentioned have been one his friend’s declining of the few to know state of health in the exactly what had following week’s happened to Tattersall programme notes. when he went to Adelaide the week “Bob had a firm engagemen before. The Friday t to race in night meeting had been Sydney last Saturday rained off but Tattersall night and originally couldn’t have raced intended to return in any case. Rowley home Park promoter Kym very next day. However, to America the Bonython was diplomatic in Adelaide he consultedduring his six days a local specialist

PM 15/6/10 4:38:57 68

motorsport news

In this issue of Motorsport News, James Courtney tells why he can become V8 Supercar champion, while former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve reveals how he’d like to be a V8 Supercar driver. Also, the rise of F1 engine maker Cosworth, rally ace Scott Pedder, Cameron McConville and much, much more … www.mnews.com.au

regarding his poor health since a bout of bronchial pneumonia earlier this year ... ” In fact it was much more serious than that.

Tattersall had to be rushed to hospital to have a tumour on his forehead removed. was first diagnosed He with this time it was critical. cancer in 1967 but He was given only few months to live. a

He was a hard drinke r, a chain smoker and was noted for his superstitions. He never wore anything green and refused to race if there were girls in the pits or peanuts.

/N 3ALE 69

.OW 19

DRAG RACERS BUY UP BIG! DRAG RACING

THE calendar for the 2010/2011 Drag Racing season at Perth Motorplex has been released with the biggest change being that all events will now take place over two days.

The season opens on October 29/30 for the first of nine national-class events.

There will also be six Fast Fridays containing the popular sportsman series and a

nostalgia drag racing event.

ANDRA Pro Series rounds include two Top Doorslammer and Top Bike events, along with one Top Fuel event.

A round of the Rocket Allstars Racing Series at the Westernationals will be held in March. A new addition to the calendar is the Ultimate Bracket Meeting in February, planned to be a big prizemoney event for sportsman racers.

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

Motorplex locks in dates

Luke Nieuwhof

DRAG RACING

Luke Nieuwhof

AN auction of ex-Brett Stevens Racing vehicles by the Queensland Government before the Castrol EDGE Winternationals has seen Top Doorslammers, Top Bikes, a Top Alcohol Funny Car and a Pro Stock Motorcycle find new homes.

Among the high profile drivers making purchases of the vehicles was Matt Abel, who now has the exBrett Stevens Ford Falcon,

pictured, and will debut it at the Northern Territory Drag Racing season finale on July 3.

Gary Phillips, meanwhile, bought the Ford Mustang Funny Car, the only other Top Alcohol car besides his own Lucas Oils Monte Carlo to exceed 260mph.

Another of the Top Doorslammers has been purchased by WA Top Alcohol racer Anthony Begley (see separate story on opposite page).

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

PERTH MOTORPLEX 2010/2011 CALENDAR October 29/30 – Grand Opening November 19/20 – National Drag Racing December 3/4 – Goldenstates (Top Doorslammer, Top Bike) December 26 – Nitro Funny Car Challenge January 8 – National Drag Racing January 28/29 – Australian Top Fuel Championship March 5/6 – Westernationals (Top Doorslammer, Top Bike, Rocket Allstars) March 26 – Nitro Funny Cars April 9 – Grand Final

ANDRA Pro Series news is proudly presented by:

20

motorsport news

news Luke Nieuwhof

Begley bags a good deal DRAG RACING WA Top Alcohol driver Anthony Begley has set himself two new challenges for the coming season, beginning with licensing in a Nitro Funny Car next weekend, and also purchasing one of the ex-Brett Stevens Top Doorslammers from the Queensland Government auction.

Begley was asked by Queensland Nitro Funny Car owner Rod Bailey to drive for

his team, in a new car Bailey has just brought in from the USA. Begley will climb into the cockpit of the Funny Car for the first time on July 6 with the team looking to debut at the Sydney Funny Car event on July 31.

“Rod was looking for someone to drive and (current Funny Car racer) Damien Harris had spoken to him and I about it,” he said.

“We got talking and Rod needed someone with the alcohol Funny Car licence

Buxton’s blast DRAG RACING ALEX Buxton was satisfied with his first event in

Competition Bike at the Winternationals, after setting the AA/CBI national record for speed.

ANDRA Pro Series on

already. We’re hoping it will be a smooth transition.”

Once he has been licensed in the Nitro Funny Car, Begley will then turn his attention to the Top Doorslammer, pictured.

Begley said that he didn’t intend to purchase a car when he went along to the auction.

“It was a spur of the moment thing, I wasn’t going to buy it but I couldn’t believe the prices they were going for,” he said.

“To start with I bought it for parts and I was going to take the good stuff out of it and

swap it with the Funny Car.” After interest shown from sponsors in the new Top Doorslammer, Begley now intends to drive the car at Perth’s two ANDRA Pro Series rounds.

“We might have a crack at it this year and play around in the local rounds,” he said.

“The potential with sponsors at the moment is more with the Doorslammers. The only thing is that the Doorslammers are a lot tougher than Top Alcohol.”

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

Buxton rode the Wolf Racing LAE nitrous-assisted Kawasaki ZX12R to a top speed of 182.2mph to take the title. “(The record) was our team goal for the weekend and we did it first pass out in

qualifying, then bettered it on race day,” he said.

“This bike might look like it used to but underneath it’s an all new power train. We’re expecting some much bigger numbers soon.”

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

Friday July 2, 9:30pm Pro Stock, Winternationals

Next ANDRA Pro Series Round: Fuchs Australian Nationals, Sydney Raceway, September 10-12 www.mnews.com.au

21

Five Minutes with ...

JAMES MOFFAT

James Moffat hasn’t had the best start to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, but Townsville is next, and he’s won there before. By MITCHELL ADAM Going into Townsville next weekend, is it fair to say that the first three rounds of the Fujitsu Series haven’t gone the way you would’ve liked?

Obviously Clipsal started off pretty well.

At the time, we were a bit disappointed, because you always want to try and win, but while Steve [Owen] had a bit of pace on us, we were clearly the second-best car.

There was nobody near us in terms of car speed and we were fast enough to push Steve along. At the time we were a little bit disappointed, but as it’s turned out with the last two rounds, Clipsal’s sort of been pretty good ...

Queensland was an absolute shocker on a number of levels. Winton, I think, we made a bit of progress with the car and had a bit of bad luck more than anything in the last race. I made two pretty average starts in the first two races which made life harder, but we were still able to come through in those races and pass a few cars, but in the last race we had the issue with David Russell at Turn 1, when he smacked into the side of us and it broke the exhaust mount.

We got a mechanical black flag and that put pay to any decent result in that race, because we lost a lap-and-a-half repairing the exhaust. As it turned out, when we went back out after repairing things, we set the quickest lap and it looked like we probably had the quickest car on the track, but that doesn’t count for anything when you’re a lap down and running around on your own. So while the result wasn’t there, there was a bit of encouragement.

Steve’s about a round ahead of you in terms of points – is that something you’re thinking about at this stage, or are you just taking it race by race?

Yeah, he’s more than a round ahead of us, I think it’s about 360 points. The only way we’re going to have a chance at winning the championship is if he has a bad round; a bad race won’t help us. Obviously if he

has one bad race it does help us a little bit, but in reality, with the speed he has, he’s always going to be in the top two or three cars, you’d think. So we’d really need him to have a bad round where he scores close to nothing and we have a cracker.

We’ll just keep working away as we are, and hopefully we’ve got a good car at Townsville. I’m pretty confident heading there, particularly with the form FPR had at Hidden Valley.

Hopefully FPR as a group has turned a bit of a corner in a way, from the last couple of rounds where they’ve been struggling a little bit. That’s really reflected across all four cars now, including mine.

Obviously I went well at Townsville last year, won the round. I’m looking forward to getting up there, it was a great event last year and I’m sure it’ll be the same.

Frosty made mention of some of the new ‘Campbell bits’ that have been making their way onto the FGs. Does much of that thinking and new work end up on your car (BF)?

Yeah, obviously with Campbell coming on board this year, FPR have taken a bit of a different direction in terms of their setup from recent years. It’s probably taken everybody a little while to get their heads around it.

Obviously they have put in some new development parts, which they hadn’t had a chance to put on the cars until after Winton, due to the busy start to the season. From their side of things, they’re a lot happier with the car and obviously the results on the weekend speak for themselves.

All of that information does get translated and related to my car; my engineer is Frosty’s data engineer, so he’s obviously on top of all of the set-up stuff they’re doing. Whilst, in theory, it should all change over, with the differences between the BF and FG. I don’t think it’s a straight-forward thing of plugging what

they’re doing into my car.

But we’re tried to take the positives out of Winton in terms of my car speed in the last race, which was a positive for us and we’ll be looking to take that forward to Townsville. Obviously it helps that Frosty and the team had a good result in Darwin, so we’ll be hoping to have a similar result.

It’s been a while since Winton, what’s been going on?

I was over at Perth with my car for the functions Norton held recently with FPR and Triple Eight. The car was on display at a big function they had at Eve Nightclub in Burswood Casino. They hired it out and had 700 to 800 people there; it was a good night.

My car didn’t do any laps, but I did some rides in the FPR car and then my car went with the FPR cars straight to Darwin from Perth. It was funny; Sladedog (Tim Slade) sent me a picture on Sunday night of my car in pitlane when all of the teams were packing up, which might’ve been a bit weird to see if people didn’t know what was happening.

The cars got back here on Wednesday night, then they’re off to Townsville.

They’ve done some miles in the last few weeks!

Looking ahead to the enduros, after Townsville I imagine FPR will have another test day or two and decide final pairings?

Yeah, I think we’ve actually got an evaluation day after Townsville, and I think there’s another test day before Phillip Island, but I’m not 100 percent sure. The final pairings still haven’t been decided, so I think Townsville might have a bearing on how things turn out, from the sounds of things.

Either way, for me, I think it’s a winwin situation. It’ll be nice to know which direction we’re going, so you can start to work towards it, but anyway, time will tell.

“ Either way, for me, I think it’s a win-win situation 22

‘Moff’ on the enduro pairings motorsport news

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Dirk Klynsmith

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OMETIMES, we don’t realise just how lucky we are.

By ‘we’, I mean motor racing and its fans, media and competitors. And we’re lucky because the spread-out nature of our sport makes video reviewing necessary.

As I write this, I’m watching England and Germany do battle in the Round of 16 in the World Cup. England has kicked what is clearly a goal. However using the referee’s naked eye, it’s been dismissed as a near chance. With the 1966 World Cup final’s controversy still ‘fresh’ in people’s minds, something tells me this is a moment that will be debated for a long, long time.

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NE of the things I’m enjoying at the moment is being able to catch fastkicking, low-scoring and ties pretty much whenever I turn on the TV. SBS is doing an outstanding job broadcasting the FIFA World Cup, with coverage almost around the clock across SBS and SBS2. And, to be honest, I wouldn’t expect anything less; when they commit to broadcasting a sport, they do it properly. Every match has been live – between the two digital channels – and there’s been plenty of replays and unique programming.

I could say they’re kicking a goal, but that’d probably be the most obvious pun in the world. So I won’t.

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But here’s the difference.

Back in 1966, the televisual aids at a football match weren’t that good. Type ‘1966 World Cup final’ into YouTube and watch the first English goal scored in extra time yourself. You might have an opinion, but you’ll be guessing.

The video is very inconclusive.

In 2010, the video is very conclusive. England scored a goal and they were robbed.

Why a video reference system isn’t in place in world football is beyond me. In cricket and tennis, it is widely used. In Rugby League, barely a try is scored without video confirmation. In AFL, no one is banned from playing until the tribunal has vigilantly

Not all networks are created equal when it comes to broadcasting sport. As a former Sydneysider, one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Melbourne was the non-existence of Rugby League on Free To Air TV. Channel Nine has the rights, but they bury it.

Sure, Victoria isn’t a League stronghold, but you’d struggle to even see a Melbourne Storm match at a decent time. Conversely, Sydney isn’t AFL territory, but at least Seven and Ten have a crack, and show matches in similar timeslots to the ‘AFL states’.

But in Melbourne, Nine treats League like a leper.

Earlier this year, the Storm played a 2pm match on Good Friday, a day without an AFL

OPINION Andrew van Leeuwen – eNews Editor studied the video. Why soccer is so focused on tradition and therefore so frightened of introducing technology to the game is something I don’t understand.

As a result, the game has become outdated and unfair.

You might not agree with every decision that is handed down in motor racing – be it Formula 1 or V8 Supercars – but you can never argue that proper review isn’t performed.

Decisions are never made spur-

of-moment, or even as a blind guess like we saw in South Africa last night, and that’s something we should be very thankful for.

You can complain all you like about delayed telecasts and so on, and don’t even get me started on how long it took the stewards to hand down Lewis Hamilton’s penalty in Valencia last night, but relatively speaking, we are lucky to enjoy a fair and evenhanded sport.

OPINION Mitchell Adam – National Editor match. It could’ve been an opportunity for Nine to throw some sport into the mix for a captive audience, but instead, they opted to show it at 11pm, so it didn’t clash with the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal – on Channel Seven.

Next week’s final State of Origin match – admittedly a dead rubber between NSW and Queensland, but still one of the biggest League matches of the year – will be delayed until after an episode of Hey Hey It’s 1980. And they wonder why League struggles to grow

a fanbase down here?

Which brings me to V8 Supercars, which, fortunately, has no such issues being a ‘national’ sport.

Understandably, fans want to see more coverage, preferably live, and people aren’t exactly pleased when an AFL match is dropped in between qualifying and a race.

But, on the whole, we all do pretty well out of it. Races are broadcast within a couple of hours in predictable timeslots, and some are pretty much live.

It could be a lot worse ...

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WHAT FOOTBALL CAN LEARN FROM MOTORSPORT, AND VICE-VERSA

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SHANNONS NATIONALS ROUND 5, WINTON

On hold The Commodore Cup Endurance Challenge headlined the show as the Shannons Nationals headed to Winton. Lee and Brett Holdsworth took out the Ashley Cooper Memorial Trophy, while Adam Beechey and Dean Croswell took the round honours. LACHLAN MANSELL reports on a controversial weekend

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Justin Collins

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Richard Craill

LEE and Brett Holdsworth have won the Ashley Cooper Memorial Trophy in the thirdannual Commodore Cup Endurance Challenge, while Adam Beechey and Dean Croswell took the round honours at Winton.

With skilful strategy, consistent driving and a slice of luck, Beechey and Croswell, above, emerged ahead of some of the more fancied runners on the weekend’s points. The pair took advantage of a controversial Safety Car period in Saturday’s first 45-minute race (see breakout) to emerge third on the track after the pit-stop shuffle, with Crosswell then working his way past the Marcus Zukanovic / Gerard McLeod and Adam Lloyd / Ryan McLeod entries to take the race lead.

Third position in Race 2 behind Lee / Brett Holdsworth and Ross McGregor / Steve Owen was enough for Beechey and Crosswell to claim the round win. It was Beechey’s second round win in his debut Commodore Cup season, while it was another strong Endurance Challenge 28

result for Croswell, who won the inaugural event in 2008 alongside Michael Tancredi.

“I came into the weekend thinking about points, and I would have been quite happy to just come away with a solid result,” Beechey said.

“In Race 1, we made the right call with the pit stops which gave us a big advantage, and in Race 2, I was able to pull away from Geoff Emery which I was very happy about.”

“I’ve now won more of these Commodore Cup enduros than anyone else,” Crosswell added. “I think I’ve shown that I’m the specialist in these races, so hopefully someone will pay me to drive with them next year!”

In addition to winning the Ashley Cooper Memorial Trophy with victory in Sunday’s second leg, the Holdsworth brothers finished the round in second overall.

They looked to have Race 1 in the bag after a blistering opening stint from Lee, but they were caught out by the safety-car intervention and dropped to seventh.

Lloyd and McLeod rounded out the podium, employing a

similar strategy to the Beechey / Crosswell team to finish second in Race 1 before falling to seventh in Race 2.

Just missing out on an overall podium finish was the well-driven VH Commodore of former karting star Matt Hayes and Garry Rogers Motorsport mechanic Ryan Millier. Hayes also wrapped up the Silver Star series for VH Commodores.

Title contenders Scott Andrews, Tony Bates and Josh Hughes all had miserable weekends, allowing Beechey to open up a sizeable series lead. Andrews’ co-driver Tim Shaw was caught up as an innocent victim in a Race 1 incident before the team was penalised for missing the pit window in Race 2.

Bates and team-mate Geoff Emery struggled with carburettor problems, while Tim Blanchard was called in at the last minute to drive alongside Hughes when his original co-driver, Paul Morris, withdrew due to illness.

Hughes and Blanchard both showed impressive pace, but were caught out by the Race 1 Safety Car and then snapped a throttle cable in Race 2. motorsport news

James Smith

Safety Carnage Rob Lang James Smith

OVER the last few years, the V8 Supercar Championship has been no stranger to Safety Car controversy, but on the weekend, Commodore Cup was similarly affected, causing tempers to flare up and down pit lane.

The Safety Car was deployed in Race 1 due to a crash involving Chris Stevenson. A number of drivers, including race leader Lee Holdsworth, pitted immediately, but found they couldn’t rejoin the race because the officials closed the pit exit. Several teams opted to stay out on the circuit for an extra lap (including the Beechey / Crosswell, Lloyd / McLeod and Hayes / Millier teams) and effectively gained almost a whole lap on those who pitted straight away.

Holdsworth, who was on-

course for an easy race win with his brother before the Safety Car, was bemused.

“They closed down the pitlane, which caused us to get held up,” Holdsworth said.

“Then when they released us, they picked us up as the race leader, when in actual fact they reckon we were a lap down, so they stuffed up a couple of times.”

Confusion arose when the Safety Car picked up the race-leader Matthew Hayes, and when he pitted, the Holdsworth car was the next car in the queue.

However, the closing of the pit exit was questionable. The supplementary regulations stated that the pit exit would only be closed when the Safety Car drove past the pit exit, while the Safety Car was actually at the opposite side of the circuit.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

Tim Blanchard made a brief Commodore Cup debut at short notice with Josh Hughes, top middle.

Richard Craill

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Rookie Matt Hayes and Ryan Millier combined for a strong result in a VH Commodore, above left, while Scott Andrews’ title tilt took a dent with a Race 1 incident, left, in a tough weekend.

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THERE was strength in numbers when the Shannons Nationals hit Winton Raceway at the weekend, with strong fields across all categories the order of two clear – if crisp – Victorian winter days.

Tony Evangelou extended his lead in the Shannons V8 Touring Car Series, but was made to work for his round win by a strong, series-record, 14-car grid that produced competitive racing all weekend, and showed that the third-tier V8 category is on the rise.

The Victorian took pole position in his BA Falcon and then scored additional points by topping the unique Time Attack one-lap shootout, before going on to take out two of the three races convincingly.

“The car was a rocket ever since we took it off the trailer,” Evangelou said.

“We made some changes to the car at (the previous round)

Mallala and it’s been great since then.”

Dean Neville won the second race after Evangelou’s shot at a win was hindered after startline contact with Ben Eggleston’s Commodore bent his exhaust and cost him valuable horsepower. A fired up Neville, driving an ex-BJR Falcon, took advantage and – after beating his rival off the line – pulled away to win the race before going on to finish second for the round.

Chris Smerdon finished third, showing the potential of his new ex-SBR BA Falcon by improving throughout to score a fourth and two thirds.

The first GM product home was fourth-placed Eggleston, whilst local boy Mark Sheppard scored fifth overall.

Race 2 was marred by a hefty crash from EL Falcon driver Leigh Moran, who hit the Turn 4 wall hard on the ninth lap, bringing out the only Safety Car of the V8 round in an otherwise clean

and competitive weekend.

Whilst Evangelou’s V8 Touring Car Series round victory was reasonably straightforward, the Australian Saloon Car Series threw up more drama and its third winner from three rounds this year.

Victorian Simon Tabinor was the happiest driver at the end of the weekend, taking out the round after points leader Shaun Jamieson looked to have the weekend shot to pieces, having dominated qualifying and Races 1 and 2.

However, Jamieson’s Commodore was penalised for having a missing front bumper bar bracket – saving precious weight – and as a result had his winning points removed and was relegated to the back of the grid for the final race, before he elected to withdraw from the event.

This left Tabinor’s Holden out in front of the final race to take his maiden race and round win. Consistency

netted Falcon driver Sam Milton second overall and a resurgent Tim Rowse – who bounced back from a Race 1 DNF to battle to second in Race 3 – on the final step of the podium.

The HQ field was racing in the memory of much-loved competitor Dallas Crane, who passed just one week prior to the event.

Multiple Saloon Car title winning ace Bruce Heinrich returned to his roots and swept pole and the first three races, however a critical mistake in the feature cost him a clean-sweep and handed the spoils to Andrew Williams in an emotional weekend for the large HQ fraternity.

Justin Levis and Bill Pye teamed up to win the CUE Production Sports Car 1 Hour Enduro in their supercharged Lotus, whilst Pye and Porsche driver Ivan Klasan split the two, single-driver, sprint races.

– RICHARD CRAILL

C T 8 V n i ff o s e Tony te

Justin Collins

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James Smith

James Smith

Matthew Hansen and Leigh Moran clashed in SV8TC Race 2, above, which left Moran’s EL heavily damaged after meeting the Turn 4 concrete.

Simon Tabinor, below, emerged victorious from a controversial Saloon Car round, while Andrew Williams, bottom left, took out the Dallas Crane HQ Challenge. Justin Levis and Bill Pye, bottom right, won the Production Sports Enduro.

Richard Craill Justin Collins

Richard Craill

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AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4, SCOUTS RALLY SA

BACK TO THEIR BES

Simon and Sue Evans are now fully in control of the Australian Rally Championship after a dominant win, and a big crash for Scott Pedder, in South Australia.

PHIL WILLIAMS was there

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Michael Vettas

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HE battle for supremacy in the Australian Rally Championship between Simon Evans and Scott Pedder resumed in earnest in South Australia on the weekend, and it was the Evans crew that came out on top.

Leading the series by 17 points going into the event, Evans planned to stamp his authority on the 2010 ARC and claim another victory in South Australia.

The rally opened on Friday night in near freezing conditions with a Super Special Stage – two laps of the tricky Angaston Showgrounds, where the event ended for Ryan Smart after just 350 metres when his Corolla tagged a barrier, which catapulted him into a tree on the opposite side of the track.

Immediately there was an upset; Justin Dowel and Simon Evans were quickest of the ARC drivers on each of the runs, but local talent Declan Dwyer, running in the SARC component, set the fastest outright time in his Mitsubishi Evo 3.

Scott Pedder gave himself some hard work to do with a mistake – initially

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heading the wrong way at the first turn.

By the time he realised the error and recovered, the ‘No Bull’ driver had lost 12 seconds.

With six stages on Saturday on a combination of fast shire roads and sloppy forest tracks, Evans was fastest on three of the first four stages. He took the Heat 1 honours by 20.1s over Pedder, and added a further six points to his lead in the series.

Heat 2 kicked off at Angaston in single digit temperatures on Saturday night, with Scott Pedder making up for his earlier mistake by going quickest, earning the right to be Car #1 on the road for Sunday.

But just over 1.5km into the day’s first of six gravel stages, Pedder had a massive impact on the drivers side, hitting several of the huge Redgums that line the South Australian roads.

Evans, the next car through, managed to stop just metres from the stricken Mitsubishi, which was partially blocking the track.

“I can’t believe I managed to get this thing to stop,” said Evans.

“I really thought I was going to hit him.”

Pedder was trapped in the wreck with a severely broken leg, and it took over an hour to free him before he could be medivacced to hospital.

Pedder’s co-driver, Jon Mortimer, was shaken but uninjured.

Taking a stage win on each of the remaining stages, Evans blitzed the opposition to take the win for Heat 2 ahead of the Nathan Quinn/David Green combination. Steve Shepheard/Steve Obrien-Pound were third, making their first step onto an ARC podium.

“Yesterday’s battle was just the best battle I’ve had with Scotty Pedder for ages,” said Evans.

“I just absolutely relished it.

“There’s still two rallies to go, and anything can happen. Look what happened to [Ryan Smart] earlier in the weekend – [and] obviously [Pedder] – this sport is so tough. This is why we do it. It’s not easy to win. We keep coming back for all those reasons.

“The championship is far from over.”

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Michael Vettas

Phil Williams

Hero to Zero: Justin Dowel went from being a high-flyer one minute, left, to crashing down the next, above. Steve Shepheard kept it nice and clean to takle his first ARC podium, below left, while unfortunately for Scott Pedder, this photo wasn’t the closest he got to the trees, below.

Michael Vettas

Michael Vettas

Michael Vettas

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NASCAR Round 17 - LOUDON, NH

NASCAR Media

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A bumper battle

A bumper battle it was between Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson in New Hampshire – but it was Johnson who got to make the winning bump.

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NASCAR Media

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TOYOTA Media

Dodgem cars: The battle of the bump at New Hampshire was won by Jimmie Johnson, main, trailed here by Kurt Busch, who also got bumped by Tony Stewart. Marcos Ambrose was a solid 13 th , still no doubt ruing the events at Infineon the previous Sunday, right.

immie Johnson took a dramatic victory in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Speedway after a bruising run to the flag with Kurt Busch Johnson’s fifth win for the year came in controversial circumstances, the Hendrick Chevy driver bumping Busch’s Penske Dodge for the lead with just two laps remaining.

It was the final restart, and Johnson’s bump on Kurt Busch as they went green into Turn 1 was enough to unsettle the Dodge so that Johnson could slip past.

It was a payback for a similar move Kurt Busch had made on Johnson a little earlier in the race.

“When we got going on the restart,” said Johnson, who prior to that penultimate lap bump had only led the race for a single lap,

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“Kurt knocked me out of the way, and I thought, ‘I don’t care if I win this race or not – I don’t care if I finish this damn thing – I am running into him and getting back by him one way or another.

“My thought process was, ‘Wreck his ass.’ And my end result was like, ‘You can’t do that, you’ll wreck yourself, you’ll look like a fool. You still have a chance to win the race, focus on your job and do your job.’

“I’m not good at doing that stuff.

Usually I crash myself in the process, so I tried once and moved him – [and thought] ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve got to hit him harder’ – and the second time I moved him out of the way and was able to get by him and was able to get going.

“It made it easier for me to get off the brake a little earlier and nudge him. But I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, I can knock the 48 out of the way because he’s not going to wreck me.’ That’s the last thing I want people to think. He didn’t wreck me, and at the end of the day, I guess I didn’t owe him a visit to the fence, so it worked itself out.”

Busch, who would be bumped back to third place by an aggressive Tony Stewart on the final lap, had no real complaints: “We didn’t just flat out wreck them. We didn’t cut his tyre. We didn’t drive over him. It was just a nice nudge that we are all used to seeing and appreciating on short tracks.”

Stewart, who’d recovered from going a lap down after being delayed by a fuel issue at his first stop, was remorseful afterwards, declaring himself at fault in the clash with Kurt Busch.

It’s my responsibility as the guy on the inside to control my car and I slid up into him,” he conceded. “So I definitely owe him one on that one.”

Jeff Gordon was fourth, the Hendrick driver having survived an earlier clash with polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian led early on, but eventually bowed out after separate clashes with Reed Sorenson and Clint Boyer.

Kevin Harvick had an uneventful run to a fifth place finish that saw him retain his points lead.

Bump and grind: Bumping off the restart proved a popular strategy at New Hampshire. Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton lead winner Johnson and Jeff Gordon, main. Martin Truex Jr, below, was 20 th but Kasey Kahne went out with a blown engine after having led more laps than anyone else.

TOYOTA Media FORD Media

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Results :: Lenox Industrial Tools 301, Loudon, NH Pos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

No. 48 14 2 24 29 38 33 88 20 43

Driver Jimmie Johnson Tony Stewart Kurt Busch Jeff Gordon Kevin Harvick Ryan Newman Clint Bowyer Dale Earnhardt Jr Joey Logano AJ Allmendinger

Make Chevy Chevy Dodge Chevy Chevy Chevy Chevy Chevy Toyota Ford

Team Hendrick Stewart Haas Penske Hendrick Childress Stewart Haas Childress Hendrick Joe Gibbs Petty

Sponsor Lowe’s Old Spice Miller Lite Dupont Shell/Pennzoil US Army Cheerios Nat. Guard Home Depot Insignia

Qual.

10 25 3 16 24 5 9 31 11 29

Top 10 Points: Harvick 2334, Johnson 2194, Ky Busch 2193, Hamlin 2183, J Gordon 2142, Ku Busch 2118, Kenseth 2092, Burton 2027, Biffle 2011, Stewart 1983.

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WORLD SUPERBIKES ROUND 8 – MISANO

The World Cup may have passed The Azzurri by – but in Italy, an Italian on an Italian bike was almost untouchable

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ITALY 2

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2, JAPAN 0

AX Biaggi is beginning to look, and ride, like the 2010 World Superbike Champion.

The volatile Roman, already a four-time winner of the World title in 250cc GP racing, scored his fourth ‘double’ of the season at Misano and in doing so, has put one hand on the crown.

In the first race, it was Troy Corser who took the battle to Biaggi.

The polesitter (a first for BMW) led for two-thirds race distance until Biaggi swept past, setting up a thrilling battle to the flag.

Carlos Checa fought his was through to second from Corser, with Michel Fabrizio fourth ahead of Sylvain Guintoli.

The second race was much more straightforward. Biaggi settled in fourth to watch the opposition scrap and then moved through, stretching his lead to as much as 6s. By the flag, his Aprilia was 4s to the good, from Leon Haslam, Fabrizio and Yamaha’s Crutchlow.

“In Race 2, to be honest, maybe I rode ... pushing the envelope a bit, maybe even risking too much,” said Biaggi after his eighth race win of the season.

“But on the other hand, without risk there is no gain! This race represents a crucial moment for us and for our season we are coming out with our heads held high.”

Corser dropped to 10th in Race 2 but was satisfied with his podium finish, in which he was less than a second from the win.

“I made a mistake and Max came past, I tried a bit too hard and that was about it for me,” he said. “It was positive all the same because we managed to stay in front for a good while.”

Points: Biaggi 307, Haslam 270, Checa 172, Rea 158, Haga 151, Corser 149, Toseland 138, Fabrizio 131, Camier 130, Crutchlow 120.

EUGENE Laverty took out the Supersport race, his Parkalgar Honda taking him to the win and back into the lead in the championship.

Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) took second ahead Kenan Sofuoglu, whose Ten Kate Honda ran off-line or off-track on several occasions, before finishing third third. Sofuoglu’s team-mate and polesitter Michele Pirro crashed out of contention early on, taking early leader Gino Rea with him.

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FAST FREDDY AGAIN IRC

FREDDY Loix has proven once and for all that he is the master of the Ypres Rally, taking his sixth Belgian win in a one-off return to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Loix was drafted into the Skoda team for his home event, and after an early challenge from Kris Meeke resulted in the Brit crashing out, Loix was able to cruise to Ypres win #6 ahead of fellow Skoda driver Jan Kopecky, and fellow Belgian Thierry Neuiville.

“I’m very happy, very happy,” said Loix.

“It was a nice comeback for me to the IRC. I really have to thank my sponsor BFO and Skoda Motorsport, who gave

me the possibility to prepare myself properly and provided me with a car to win. It was difficult when Kris retired because it was hard to know how much to attack, so I am very happy.”

Meanwhile, Meek rued a lost opportunity to challenge for a win in the famous event.

“It was a mistake with the pacenote,” said Meeke.

“We turned in a little too early and ran out of room on the exit of the corner.

When you’re pushing like we were that kind of thing can happen.”

Series leader Juho Hanninen also crashed out of the rally on Friday evening.

That has allowed Kopecky to close the points gap to just three points.

The Ypres Rally also marked Aussie Chris Atkinson’s debut in the IRC, but it was short lived. Bizarrely, Atkinson, Proton team-mate Alistair McRae, and the semiworks Proton of Tom Cave all retired on SS4 – with an identical engine problem.

“We started this event looking for a top 10 result, and I think without the problem we had, that sort of finish could have been on the cards. It was tough to come here first time and compete with guys who have done this event time and time again, but that was the way it was.

“Once again, this event demonstrates that the Proton has great potential, but to come to what is a very competitive championship for Super 2000 cars and try to show that potential is not easy.”

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Rare Porsches steal the show in Qld QLD STATE THE Shannons Sports and Muscle Car Spectacular was held at Queensland Raceway last weekend, with the featured marque Porsche putting its best foot forward.

The Porsche museum had on display a factory Porsche 935 (ex-Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass), a road registered Porsche 911 GT1, and a Porsche 356 200GT, fresh from Targa Tasmania. Other Porsches included a Vern Schuppan 956, the Australian Sports Car Championship winning 934 for Alan Hamilton and Allan Moffat, while the Bowden’s Own collection brought along the first 911 to make an impact in Australia – Alan Hamilton’s 1968/9 Australian Touring Car Championship car.

“A 911TR, it’s one of about four or five the built in right hand drive,” explained Dan Bowden.

“Alan went to Germany and oversaw the car being built. He finished third in 1968, was coming second and did a tyre on the last lap, crossed the line on the rim and finished second in the first full series in 1969 to Ian Geoghegan. It was the closest a Porsche ever got to winning the championship.”

– MARK JONES

Mark Jones

KIWI TAKES THE 100,000 SUPER FINAL SUPERLEAGUE THERE were three winners from three races during Superleague Formula’s German round at the Nurburgring last weekend, but the big winner was Chris van der Drift.

The Kiwi took out the 100,000 Euro Super Final in Germany for Olympiacos, after making a blinding start from the second row of the grid to overcome

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Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) and Tristan Gommendy (Galatasary).

Earlier in the weekend, Buurman took out the first race, before Alvaro Parente won Race 2 for FC Porto.

John Martin had a weekend to forget in the Beijing Guoan car, failing the start the first race when he had a wheel problem on the warm-up lap, before finishing 16th in Race 2 after starting from pole.

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2009 Transporter

68 Camaro 8 Sec Turnkey

Brand new,custom build. Honda quiet gen set, air con office with large tinted windows. In floor storage,removable stairs to office for extra space. Full length upper deck for two cars,non slip pirelli floors. Low floor entry,6 ft 6 high ceiling. Unique, custom designed for the V8 series. $195,000.00 ONO. Call Craig 0412895560.

Full chassis mild steel,540 BB dart,Pro 1 heads,King Demon,transbraked 2 speed power glide,Dana 60 pro 4.11gears dif,spare pro 4.55's,pearl paint,spare bonnett,new tyres 1 meet old.delay box.heaps more parts,has run 8.73@157mph on soft turn,runs super striaght ph chris 04 02 255 119. $57,000.00 ONO.

www.my105.com/92800

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www.my105.com/74460

www.my105.com/47234

Mirage Cup Race Cars Mal Rose Racing offers ex Mirage Cup Cars for track days events to CAMS licence test Corporate events. Ready to race Cars have International class results at Nurburgring Dubai , Sepang, Spa & Bathurst. EVO brakes , ajustable race suspention packages incl transport, fuel, tyres & service. Call Mal 0428449414.

www.my105.com/40412

Speedway Transporter this truck is setup raedy to go racing with,incl complete motorhome facility,beds,shower,toilet etc.trailer 1 car,qaud,3 wings,2 rear ends,3 front ends,5 front wings,mez floor,toolbox,fuel jug rack,storage under trailer,medium ridgid licence. $199,000.00 Not Neg. Contact Allan 0412 731 608.

www.my105.com/55296

motorsport news

rear of grid

WOW, HE’S REALLY MOOOVING ... Odd Spot

Michael Vettas

If you though the only ‘Cowes’ in motor racing was a town on Phillip Island, you’d be wrong. The Scouts Rally SA had some very interested spectators on the weekend.

You could say they thought it was ‘udderly’ fascinating.

SIMOOX HOLDS STATION!

WE’RE at the business end of the FIFA World Cup, and that means eNews is getting closer to crowning its first World Cup Tipping Champion.

Having held a commanding lead as eNews went to press last week, simoox has continued to lead the way. Heading into the Netherlands v Slovakia match, simoox holds a two-point margin over Trevor Campbell, who has stormed into contention during the Round of 16.

Kevin Gibson has also been a solid improver in the latter part of Round 3 and the Round of 16, moving into fourth place behind Vincent Dumarski.

Craig Lowndes has become the third different driver to be best of the V8 Supercar stars, with eNews expecting that unwavering belief in his beloved Italian squad has cost Michael Patrizi.

In the eNews staffers race, Andrew van Leeuwen is fifth outright, but Mitchell Adam is coming, appearing in the Top 10 for the first time. www.mnews.com.au

eNews WC Tipping Top 10 Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name simoox Trevor Campbell Vincent Dumarski Kevin Gibson Andrew van Leeuwen Wayne Bailey ViszlaAtchoo Chewy Gougoodthing Mitchell Adam

Margin 9 7 7 8 6 7 9 8 9 7

Score 29 27 27 27 26 26 26 25 25 24

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