Motorsport eNews Issue 163 - July 13-19, 2010

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Issue No. 163 July 13 -19 2010

MUSICAL CHAIRS THE V8 DRIVER MARKET COULD BE ABOUT TO EXPLODE. WE REVEAL HOW AND WHY

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Issue No. 163 | July 13 - 19 2010

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Trading Places Who’s on the move for 2011?

6 Crunch Time for FPR Enduro decision imminent 9 Beemer Bones Formula No more FBMW 15 Tasmania’s next big thing Burdon set for UK test 16 Let the Festivities begin!

Borell still keen on FFFestival

chat 20 Five Minutes With ...

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comment 22 Branagan: Mateship Adam: Beardship

race 24 V8 Supercars 34 Fujitsu V8s 38 Formula Ford 40 V8 Utes 42 MINI Challenge 46 NASCAR

trade 54 Classifieds

POTENTIAL DRIVER SHAKE-UP FOR ‘11

Will Davison, Steven Johnson and Steven Richards are all in the frame for a different seat next season. ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN looks at how the silly season is shaping up

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A

SHAKE-UP of drivers among V8 Supercar’s factory teams could be on for 2011, with the Holden Racing Team, Ford Performance Racing, and Jim Beam Racing all continuing to feature heavily in the rumour mill as the series heads into its mid-season break.

As previously reported by eNews, Will Davison and his manager David Segal are currently holding the key to the ‘Silly Season’. Paddock chat placing Davison at FPR continued to flood the Townsville pits; however a return to Jim Beam Racing is also not out of the question. And all of this depends on whether Davison will actually jump ship from the Toll Holden Racing Team when his contract expires at the end of the season.

According to Davison’s manager David Segal, official discussions regarding his driver’s future are yet to take place, on either side of the Ford/Holden divide.

“At this point, I’m in no position to rule

out any options,” he told eNews, when asked if the two Ford teams were in the frame, “because we haven’t had any discussions about 2011.”

In other words, no official denial that FPR and JBR are options, alongside HRT, for next season.

There were no official denials from FPR or JBR regarding the Davison issue either.

When eNews asked FPR’s team principal Tim Edwards what his team’s driver situation was for 2011, the answer was simple – “It’s a work in progress.”

And while JBR’s Charlie Schwerkolt didn’t go as far as to officially confirm that Davison was on his wish list for ’11, he did tell eNews that Davison left on very amicable terms: “Will is a big part of Jim Beam, and everyone here is very fond of him,” said Schwerkolt.

“He left us on very, very good terms. But I have no idea what his situation for the future is.”

With James Courtney locked in at JBR, a Davison return to the Stapleton team

SMOKE, FIRE AND CONTRACTS RUMOURS. They are an interesting commodity when you are a journalist.

One of the first things a reporter learns is that you can’t believe everything you hear.

The second is that where there is smoke, there is so often fire. In this instance, I’m hedging my bets on the latter.

Yes, Will Davison may well stay with HRT next season. And yes, Steve Johnson is contracted to Jim Beam Racing next

season. None of this means that Davison won’t be in an FPR car, or back at JBR, for next season. Contracts can be broken, and seemingly great relationships can turn sour very quickly. It’s all happened plenty of times before.

Of course, another rule of journalistic life is that things change very fast. It would take about an hour for Davison to re-sign with HRT, The Beams to decide

would require Steven Johnson to vacate the #17 seat. Technically, he is contracted at JBR for another season; however options and clauses on both sides are being carefully guarded.

Johnson himself was cause for scuttlebutt in Townsville, with suggestions that he was talking to other teams, potentially as a way to make the first move should JBR make a real play for Davison. Again, there were no confirmations, but no hard and fast denials, either.

“Both of our drivers are contracted at this stage,” added Schwerkolt.

“As I understand it, both drivers will be driving for us next year. I don’t know anything about [the rumours]. You’ll have to speak to Steven’s manager.”

Johnson’s manager Dale Rodgers indicated that Johnson was under contract for 2011. eNews expects the mid-season break to solve some of the mysteries, particularly those surrounding Davison’s future. Stay tuned …

NEWS ANALYSIS Andrew van Leeuwen – eNews Editor to honour Johnson’s contract, and FPR to take up its option on Steven Richards.

Suddenly, what looks to be a frenetic silly season winds up with very little changing.

It could happen, believe me. But this time, I’m sticking with the smoke and fire theory. Things could get very interesting over the next eight weeks.

Dirk Klynsmith

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FPR to evaluate enduro combos V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

FORD Performance Racing will make a decision regarding driver pairings for the two endurance races following an evaluation day next Monday.

While FPR has long signed its two drivers for Phillip Island and Bathurst, exactly which cars Luke Youlden and James Moffat will end up in is yet to be decided. While team principal Tim Edwards says he has his preferences as to who will partner Mark Winterbottom and who will partner Steven Richards, the make-up of the endurance

team will be decided following the Winton test.

“The final decision has to be made before our last preenduro test at the end of August,” Edwards told eNews.

“We need each of the drivers in the right car for that final test so we can practice pitstops and driver changes. That gives us a month and a half following the evaluation day to make a final decision.”

Currently, the only of the decided enduro line-ups in the FPR garage is the satellite Bottle-O Racing entry, with Dean Canto signed to partner Paul Dumbrell.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

WA: No news is no news V8 SUPERCARS WESTERN Australia’s return to the V8 Supercar calendar is still on track, however the announcement of a date is still some time of.

As exclusively revealed by eNews’ recent cover story (Issue 159), positives talks between the WA government, the WA Sporting Car Club and V8 Supercars Australia have a return to Barbagallo Raceway all but a certainty for 2011.

However, despite online reports over the Townsville weekend that official confirmation and a date were

imminent, V8SA spokesperson Cole Hitchcock told eNews that negotiations were continuing, and nothing had changed.

“The discussions so far have been extremely positive, and the resolve is strong between all parties for V8 Supercars to return to Perth as soon as

possible,” Hitchcock said.

“It’s certainly not across the line just yet, but we are making positive progress.

“Everybody, including us, our teams, our sponsors and the people of Western Australia, understand how important it is to have a Championship event in Perth. That’s what we

are working toward, but there are still ongoing discussions to be had.”

WA’s round of the 2010 championship was cancelled earlier this year, due to V8SA not being satisfied with the infrastructure at Barbagallo Raceway.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

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Townsville model to be applied in NZ V8 SUPERCARS

Dirk Klynsmith

V8 SUPERCAR’S newly appointed CEO Martin Whitaker says the Sucrogen Townsville 400 is a perfect model to help rejuvenate the Hamilton street race in New Zealand.

V8 Supercars Australia will take over the running of the Hamilton’s V8 Supercar round next year, after ticket sales were unexpectedly slow ahead of the 2010 event back in April, which led to former promoter Dean Calvert stepping aside. And having visited the Townsville street race for the first time last weekend, Whitaker says the Far Northern Queensland event will be perfect “inspiration” for Hamilton.

“We’ve taken over the running of Hamilton, and it would be great if we could use the Townsville magic to inspire what happens in Hamilton,” Whitaker told eNews.

“These sized locations lend themselves ideally to V8s. As far as the category goes, it’s important that we are racing at places like Townsville.

Putting Townsville on the

V8 Supercar calendar was an inspired choice, because it’s the sort of community that lends itself to the race.”

With Townsville’s race remaining extremely strong in its second year, both in public support and attendance, Whitaker was full of praise for every aspect of the event.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he added.

“It’s the first time I’ve been to the race here, and when I got to the track [on Friday] I couldn’t believe how many people were here. There was a fantastic buzz, and that translates directly into town as well. That’s what’s great – there is a community spirit.

“I’m really pleased. The track looks fantastic, the team has done a great job, and this event rightly deserved the trophy for being the bestorganised event from last year.

By the looks of it, they’ll be serious contenders this year as well.”

But while Townsville continues to be a V8 Supercar success story, Whitaker held off from suggesting more regional centres will be targeted in the near future.

“Let’s put it this way – it’s a

very, very good model,” he said.

“But don’t forget, we have some other very good races.

We’ve just come from Darwin, where the Northern Territory’s population is 220,000 people, and we had 47,000 people to the track over the weekend.

That’s not bad; there are a lot of other circuits around the world that would be happy with figures like that.

We’ve also got a new event

in Sydney, a re-invigorated event on the Gold Coast, and Adelaide, which is a shining example of how a city runs a motor racing.

“Whether this all means we go somewhere else, well that is the $64,000 question. To be honest, we’re quite happy with what we’ve got right now. But there’s no doubt about it, [Townsville] is a standout event.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

SVG wants same ‘diff V8 SUPERCARS TRIALING differentials for the Car of the Future hasn’t left a massive impression on Shane van Gisbergen, who has called for the category to retain its current, spool differential.

The SBR driver used the Salisbury differential in Friday’s opening practice session at www.mnews.com.au

Townsville along with Craig Lowndes, the pair having used the setup in Darwin’s similar session. Jamie Whincup, Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso evaluated the Detroit Locker at Townsville.

“I think what we’ve got now is a lot better for our cars,” van Gisbergen said.

“We ran the [Salisbury] at

Hidden Valley and we’ve run it on a test day before. It was a lot different and we changed the car so much to help it.

“They lock the inside rear and change the whole characteristics of the car.

To drive it, I had to forget everything I’ve learnt in the last four years.”

V8SA’s Kurt Sakzewski told

eNews there was unlikely to be any further differential evaluation.

“That’s the extent of things at this stage,” he said.

“We’ve requested reports from the teams who did the running and once we get them, we’ll evaluate everything from there.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Dirk Klynsmith

Ben back for Bathurst FUJITSU V8s

BEN Eggleston will return to the driver’s seat in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Bathurst.

Eggleston has been playing team owner in recent rounds, with his Walkinshaw Racingbuilt Commodore running at Winton with Cameron McConville and Townsville with Craig Baird. However,

with the pair ineligible to run in the Fujitsu Series that weekend with their minimum round rule for enduro drivers, Eggleston will return to the seat and finish the year in the VE. Bathurst would have been the Orange driver’s home round, before he moved to Melbourne recently., “I’m definitely going to run the car at Bathurst and the

rest of the year,” Eggleston told eNews.

“I’ve moved to Melbourne in the last week, but I suppose you could still call it my home round. It should be good.”

Two Walkinshaw Racing Commodores ran under Eggleston’s banner at Townsville, with David Reynolds getting preenduro laps in the ex-Fabian

Coulthard, Bundy Red Commodore. According to Eggleston, possible plans for that car are yet to be discussed.

“I don’t really know what will happen to that car after this weekend,” he said.

“We’ll see what happens, but I’m sure if something’s going to happen, it’ll happen relatively soon.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

GMR WANTS FIVE FOR THE MOUNTAIN FUJITSU V8s

James Smith

GREG Murphy Racing is aiming to field five cars at Bathurst this October.

The team has applied for a wildcard entry to the Main Game enduros, and is confident of running four cars in the Fujitsu Series on the same weekend. New Zealand driver Daniel Jilesen will return at Bathurst after missing Townsville, which resulted in a last-minute shuffle of Geoff Emery into the team’s second VE and a call-up for Commodore Cup driver Tony Bates drive Emery’s VZ. Team Manager Dean Lillie said he hoped a fourth Fujitsu

Series driver for Bathurst could be found, to run alongside Owen, Jilesen and Emery.

“We’re still talking to a couple of other guys, we’ll sort out something this week, I reckon,” he said.

“Daniel actually got into a Motorsport Academy in NZ that he’s been trying to get into for years, and it happened to be this weekend. I can’t really blame him for pulling the pin on that one, but he’ll be back for Bathurst.

“We hatched a plan to move Geoff up into that car, which we’ve always wanted to do, and Tony Bates very, very last minute jumped into Geoff’s.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

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FBMW GETS THE CHOP INTERNATIONAL

FORMULA BMW will be no more in Asia and Europe after this year, with the German carmaker set to “realign” its junior motor racing program.

In Europe, BMW will now offer the Formula BMW Talent Cup. For a cool €100,000, a driver can take part in a season-long program of testing, race and qualifying simulations, all in the current Mygale-built Formula BMW chassis. The program also includes fitness and media training, and a ‘Grand Final’ at the end of the year will culminate in one driver having his next season funded by BMW. “Promoting young talent continues to be an important strand of our realigned project landscape,” said BMW’s motorsport director Mario Theissen.

“BMW has been actively involved in supporting talented young drivers since the 1970s, and aims to continue this tradition. With the Formula BMW Talent Cup we are positioning ourselves between karting and professional motorsport, so starting out a stage earlier than with our previous Formula BMW concept.

“This realignment allows us to react to new conditions and the increase in costs seen in junior single-seater racing. As such we are offering young drivers an extremely cost-effective platform and are sharpening our focus on practical driving experience and driver education

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so to provide them with the best possible preparation for their future career on and beside the track. At the end of the oneyear training, the greatest talent will win a season in an appropriate higher race series financed by BMW.” In Asia, current FBMW promoters ASOF (Asian Festival of Speed) will take over the running of their own series, using the Mygale chassis. The same TV package that is currently used will stay in place.

“We have been aware that BMW have been considering withdrawing for quite some time and are well advanced

with our plans to continue the series independently,” said David Sonenscher, CEO of Motorsport Asia.

“We already have the full support of Mygale for the spare parts and everything else in place to continue. We also have the full support of all of the teams, and we jointly recognize that there is a vital need for this series in Asia.”

Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastien Buemi and Australia’s own Daniel Ricciardo are among Formula BMW’s alumni currently competing on the world stage.

Webber is Red Bull’s Wing Man for Germany FORMULA 1 RED Bull boss Christian Horner has publicly said that it will be Mark Webber’s turn to get preference within the team at the German Grand Prix, on the grounds that the Australian has now moved ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers’ Championship following the Aussie’s emphatic Silverstone victory.

This was the rationale Horner used to explain why the latest development front wing was taken off Webber’s car and attached to Vettel’s prior to qualifying. Horner also said that Vettel (whose own updated wing had broken) had performed better with the

front aero update than had Webber during practice.

After qualifying, Horner deflected criticism of his actions, saying that there was only one wing and that sometimes, difficult decisions, had to be made.

“Mark is now ahead in the points so we will act differently at the next race,” Horner told the BBC. “We have a great team result at this race and sometimes difficult team decisions have to be made. There is very little difference between them and as a team we try to give them the same components but this weekend we couldn’t because of an incident. But we will continue trying to catch the McLarens. “

Happy. Sort of BBC he would never have signed a contract for next year A FAULTLESS drive and a start- if I believed that was the way to-finish victory in one of the going forward. world’s most famous Grands “I was disappointed,” he said.

Prix – it should have been “We will see how it goes in the a joyous occasion for Mark future, I will keep doing what Webber.

I am doing and I hope it is Instead, as Webber enough. I’ve had a few hurdles celebrated his win he was in my career, sometimes still clearly unhappy about privately as well, so I think you the previous day’s events – can judge a person’s character and was openly wondering by how they come back from whether or not he can adversity. Some drivers have continue to rely on the 100 that, I’ve had a bit more than precent support of his team others. as he aims to become the “Yesterday I wasn’t happy, first Australian to be crowned clearly, and I am sure we will World Drivers, Champion in have some pretty decent chats. exactly 30 years.

Today went well for me and He went as far as to tell the that’s it.”

FORMULA 1

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ALONSO’S RED MIST Scuderia Ferrari

FORMULA 1 FOR the second race in succession Fernando Alonso has been left feeling as though he has been unduly punished by officials.

At Silverstone the Ferrari driver copped a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner while overtaking Robert Kubica. Ferrari

argued the penalty was unfair because, it claimed, Alonso had been forced off the track by the Renault.

The option of redressing positions could not be taken as Kubica had already retired from the race a few laps after the incident occurred.

Alonso, who finished 14th, was so angry he told his team he did not want to

speak to them again on the radio. Later he refused to speak to the BBC but told Spanish TV that he wanted consistency.

“If a penalty must be punishing it must be always like this.”

Silverstone mightn’t have been much fun, but at least Alonso was able to see his team get up in the soccer a few hours later ...

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Swift Engineering

Chassis decision due

IndyCar to determine new control chassis: multiple suppliers?

INDYCARS TOMORROW the IRL will decide on which control chassis will be adopted for the 2012 season and beyond as the ICONIC seven-member committee sits to make their final vote on the matter.

But rather than directly award the contract to one

of the constructors that submitted designs, there is speculation that instead the IRL will simply issue a desired set of specifications and let the five constructor contenders, BAT, Dallara, Delta Wing, Lola, and Swift, make their own decisions on whether to build chassis to sell to the IndyCar teams.

Meanwhile on the engine front, manufacturers wishing to compete in 2012 against Honda have been given until season’s end in October to confirm their intentions. The

chassis decision will give constructors just under 18 months preparation time for the 2012 season opener in late March.

– MARY MENDEZ

Will goes Green INDYCARS NIKI Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart, Carlos Reutemann, Ronnie Peterson, James Hunt ... Will Power.

From 1961 and 1980, when the US Grand Prix took place at Watkins Glen, tradition called for drivers and crews to celebrate after the race at the 12

nearby Seneca Lodge’s bar.

By winning the Watkins Glen IndyCar event, Power became part of the exclusive group of race winners who presented their victory wreath to the bar.

Power received a standing ovation from the 200-plus fans and diners as he entered the restaurant of the Seneca Lodge on his way to its bar.

– MARY MENDEZ motorsport news

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Honda Racing

Conway targets Infineon return INDYCARS

VETERAN TRACY WANTS MORE INDYCARS

suddenly the car started to come to life. I had the bit between my teeth.

“Not a great finish, but when a guy like Justin (Wilson) finishes 10th, and he and I had the same problems in almost the exact same times, it's actually a help for our engineers in how to go forward at other road courses like Edmonton, Mid-Ohio, and Sonoma.”

– MARY MENDEZ

– MARY MENDEZ

Honda Racing

ALTHOUGH Paul Tracy will drive for KV Racing Technology at the next two IndyCar races, in Toronto and Edmonton, he’s hopeful of doing more races with Dreyer & Reinbold after a solid run with them at Watkins Glen.

Tracy was subbing at D&R at the Glen for the injured Mike Conway. It was the Canadian’s first race start in 12 months.

Tracy said many drivers were battling understeer and it was only after his final pit stop that the team was able to achieve a reasonable set-up. He was 14th at the end.

“I was probably the only guy who didn't want the race to end,” Tracy told Racer.com.

“We made a lot of changes, but we could never get the balance right. We added even more front wing on a set of new reds (option tyres), and

MIKE Conway, who suffered fractured vertebrae and lower left leg injuries in his horrific final-lap crash at the Indy 500, says he will be ready to return to competition next month.

Conway is no longer wearing a back brace and will have the cast off his leg next month.

The target for his return is the road course at Infineon (Sonoma, CA), where he finished third last year.

However, because the Brit is a left-foot braker, it is not yet known if his leg will be strong enough for him to compete.

Should he return, the team will welcome him in the #24 car. Replacement JR Hildebrand would still drive, but in another car, the #23.

In the meantime, Tomas Scheckter will drive Dreyer & Reinbold’s entry at Toronto.

The #24 car will carry Monavie sponsorship, an acai berry juice-based energy drink.

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THE LATEST KIWI KID FORMULA FORD IMPRESSIVE Kiwi rookie Nick Cassidy may return to race in the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship again later this year.

Cassidy, 15, was a late replacement for Adam Graham at Evans Motorsport Group for Townsville and eventually finished third in the final race. While it’s

early days, he could do another round later this year, ahead of a full Australian campaign in 2011.

“We improved all weekend,” he said, “after Practice 2, into qualifying and the first two races, we struggled a little bit, but it was good to come home well in the last race.

“I’d done the Formula Ford Championship back home but the cars

are a lot different, and these guys were in their fifth round, so I knew it’d be a big task for the weekend. I feel like it turned out alright.

“We might look at doing another round later this year, to get some more experience, but we’re definitely looking at having a full run in the New Zealand and Australian Championships next year.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Dirk Klynsmith

FORMULA FORD PLANNING is underway for the next stage of the National Formula Ford tyre tender.

This season is the final year of Avon’s existing, six-year deal to supply control tyres to the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship, with the incumbent manufacturer among those to submit a tender for the next contract.

Testing of the submitted tyres is set to take place at Winton next month, mostlikely Borland Racing Developments using

their Spectrum chassis.

“We haven’t got all of the final stuff sorted yet,” FFord Category Administrator Margaret Hardy told eNews.

“I think there’ll be three [tyre options] to test, but I’m not 100 percent sure yet, I’ll know more in a couple of weeks.

“A couple of the tyres are radials, so that means we need different suspension on the cars, for more camber. The Mygales won’t adjust far enough, I don’t think, but until we get the specs it’s hard to know.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

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

Dirk Klynsmith

FFORD READY TO TEST TYRES

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YOUNG GUN’S UK TEST AUSSIES OVERSEAS

TASMANIAN up-and-comer Josh Burdon will head to the UK next week, to embark on a potential overseas future.

The 17-year-old has only limited car racing experience, having competed ina handful of Aussie Racing Car rounds as a CAMS Young Gun last year before making two starts in the Australian Formula 3 Championship’s national class in 2010.

Now, he is headed to England where

he will test a Formula Palmer Audi car at Jonathon Palmer’s Bedford Aerodrome circuit.

“Rob MacLean, who has worked in Formula 1 before and helped Marcos Ambrose go to Europe, has helped introduce me to some people in England,” Burdon told eNews.

“It’s all come together very quick. We leave on July 27, and we’re straight out to Oulton Park to watch a round of the Formula Palmer Audi series. Then we’ll be completing the test at Bedford.”

Should the test go well, Burdon is

hopeful of racing in the UK next year, either in Palmer Audi or the British Formula 3 Championship.

“That’s the plan,” he added.

“Since Rob first put a press release up saying I was heading to England, I’ve had two Formula 3 teams get in touch and ask me to come and have a chat with them. The idea was initially to aim at Palmer Audi, but we’ll meet with some people and see what happens while we’re there. You never know what is around the corner.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Legends Dinner Invitation Tall tales and true stories from the legendary past.

Guest speakers include:

Kevin Bartlett, John Harvey, Allan Grice, Glenn Seton & John Bowe up front on stage reminiscing about 50 years of Australian Touring Car racing.

You are invited to the 2010 Muscle Car Masters Legends Dinner, proudly brought to you by Valvoline

LEGENDS DINNER SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2010 FOR BOOKING DETAILS: www.musclecarmasters.com.au or 02 9672 1000 www.mnews.com.au AMCM Strip MN CMYK.indd 2

15 9/7/10 1:46:40 PM

Could F3 race here?

Dirk Klynsmith

FORMULA 3 FORMULA 3 cars could race at Bathurst next year as part of a revamped calendar.

The Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship has an opportunity on the table to race as a support category to

FORMULA FORD

16

James O’Brien and is now only subject to CAMS approval,” F3A Chairman Ian Richards said.

“It would sort the men from the boys, but personally, I don’t see why that would be a problem, even if we had a couple of things to work

“I’m absolutely still keen to do it. The last couple of rounds have been tough for me, which has dented the confidence a bit, but I’m still sure that if we do it properly, we could have a good run over there.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

ANDRE STILL KEEN FOR FESTIVE SEASON

through.

“We’ve also approached V8 Supercars Australia about racing at selected rounds, and put in a formal submission.

“There are some exciting things in the pipeline, we’ll see how we go.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Dirk Klynsmith

EVANS Motorsport Group is still a chance to race at this year’s Formula Ford Festival in England.

The Australian Formula Ford Championship team was eyeing a two-car tilt at the Festival later this, with team drivers Andre Borell and Adam Graham. But Graham’s recent budget problems, which saw him withdraw from the Townsville round of the AFFC, have made the task of racing in the UK more difficult.

However, Borell confirmed to eNews that he was still interested, and that if a suitable second driver can be found the program could still be on.

“We need two drivers to make the trip financially viable,” Borell said.

“With Adam unable to get the budget to even do the Australian Championship at the moment, he won’t be able to do it. But there are other options. It’s not over yet.

next year’s Bathurst 12 Hour and is looking to split their 2011 calendar between spots on the V8 Supercar support program and their existing home, the Shannons Nationals.

“Running at the 12 Hour is something we’ve discussed with (12 Hour promoter)

motorsport news

news

Renault gets back in the game PRODUCTION CARS RENAULT will recommence its involvement in Australian motorsport at this weekend’s Australian Six Hour.

Melbourne team R-Sport has established links with Renault Australia, and will debut its Clio 197 at the Eastern Creek race with Ian and Aaron Thorp and Ray Curry behind the

wheel. After the inaugural Six Hour, the team intends to contest the remainder of the Australian Manufacturers Championship, alongside Richard Gartner’s Clio, pictured, which he’ll share with Francois Jouy and Carl Schembri at Eastern Creek.

R-Sport will unveil their campaign at the circuit this Friday, with representatives

from the manufacturer on hand with Robert Watson, who represents a slice of Renault history.

This year is the 40th anniversary of Renault’s last major success in Australian motorsport, with Watson and Jim McAuliffe winning the 1970 Australian Rally Championship in a Renault R8 Gordini.

Renault will also provide course cars for the Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour, with 27 teams entered for Sunday’s race.

Inky Tulloch will be joined

by Victorian Steve Jones in his TMR Evo X Lancer, while Tony and Klark Quinn are also among the entrants, in their Evo IX Lancer.

James Smith

Spychala dials, gets ready to race SALOON CARS FORMER Fujitsu V8 Supercar competitor and NSW Formula Ford campion Joel Spychala will make his Australian Saloon Car Series debut at Eastern Creek this weekend in Round 4 of the series, as part of the support card for the Australian Six Hour Spychala will drive a Dial Before You Dig-sponsored AU www.mnews.com.au

Falcon, stepping into the car campaigned in the first three rounds of the series by team owner Mark Primmer, alongside the team’s second Falcon of Ian Chivas.

“Both cars were always for lease, so if anyone came along and wanted to jump in, I would jump out,” Primmer said.

“I think the main reason Joel wanted to drive was to keep his CAMS licence up to date.

He’s keen to do the last round at Sandown as well; the plan at this stage is for me to drive at Morgan Park.

“Joel lives very close to where our team is based on the midnorth coast, and I’ve known him and his family for years, so the deal came about quite easily. He reckons he can be up the front of the field easily, but we’ll have to wait and see how he goes.”

It’s going to be a big weekend for Dial Before You Dig, the naming rights sponsor for the Australian Six Hour, something Primmer sees as a positive for his team.

“Dial Before You Dig think it will work really well having our two cars there as well as sponsoring the event,” he said.

Spychala will be among a 29car Saloon Car field.

– LACHLAN MANSELL 17

JOEY BACK FOR PCR SPRINTCARS

John Morris

JOEY Saldana has joined a growing number of American drivers lined up to race at Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway this summer.

The current World of Outlaws points leader will be part of Team Kasey Kahne Racing’s Australian tour, using the team’s existing WoO machinery.

The trip will encompass the same Sydney events as Donny Schatz’s Australian summer; the Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix, Sydney Sprintcar

International, $50k to win Scott Darley Sprintcar Classic, Sprintcar Grand National and January 15 meeting.

Saldana is a three-time Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix winner, and won TPCR’s $50k race in 2003.

He’ll be joined by youngster Cody Darrah, who was set to make his WoO debut with TKKR this year, but has been on the sidelines since breaking his leg in a traffic accident in February. Darrah is expected to get back into a Sprintcar in September.

Smrz swaps Stallions

WORLD SUPERBIKES JAKUB Smrz is now an Aprilia man.

The Czech, who has put in some stellar performance on Team Pata B&G Racing Ducati 1198R, raced at RSV4 at Brno on the weekend and will continue on the fourbanger for the rest of the season.

He crashed in both races, and used Race 2 as a test after a tyre spun on the rim.

18

“We really wanted to reach this deal,” team owners Marco Borciani and Mirco Guandalini said in a statement.

“We are confident that as a result of this collaboration, we will be able to prepare for Smrz the best machine in Superbike, if we look at the overall standings.”

The team’s other entry will not be affected by the switch. Lorenzo Baroni will continue racing a Ducati 1198R in World

Superstock events.

“I’m disappointed with my debut, but I’m happy I’m racing on an Aprilia and I really believe in this new project,” said Smrz after the races.

“However, we still have to work on improving my feeling with the front end, where most of the issues were this weekend, but I’m sure things will change for the best at Silverstone". motorsport news

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19 motorsport ENEWS162 news

Five Minutes with ...

JASON RICHARDS

‘JR’ was up and down like a yo-yo in Townsville, but he was in the Top 10 when it counted – twice. He spoke to ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN about a wild weekend

20

James Smith

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Jase, what a wild weekend!

JASON RICHARDS: Tell me about it. Friday couldn’t have started better, with P1 in practice and a 1:12.9s lap. We rolled out on Saturday very confident we’d be right at the front, and qualified 25th (laughs). I was 1.4s off my practice lap! It was woeful.

We didn’t change very much between qualifying and the race, just one tiny change that was really minor, because we knew the car was good. It was a little concerning, but I made an awesome start and I was 16th after the first lap.

We then just passed a bunch of cars, pitted earlier for fuel and tyres, and then punched out some good lap times. That helped us jump a heap of cars, and after the second stop we were next to Brighty (Jason Bright), who started fourth or fifth.

It was an amazing run.

I ran out of pace a bit in the end when I was racing against Russell [Ingall]. I made a mistake when he passed me. He was faster, so I was braking right on the limit, and eventually I locked a rear tyre and ran wide at Turn 2. He got past, but I was still happy. Seventh was much better than we had ever imagined, and it was about where we were on natural speed. We never had the pace of the front-runners.

On Sunday we improved in qualifying. I still wasn’t very happy with it, but we were eighth. I made another good start and things were going pretty good, before my mate Steve Richards fired into the back of me at Turn 11. He clearly came in too hot. He does that often; he makes a lot of mistakes. Unfortunately I was on the receiving end again.

So I was spun in front of the field. I thought ‘I’m out of the race, for sure’. I did get hit by Steve Johnson, but I survived, although I was well last.

It’s ironice. I caught up to [Tony] Ricciardello reasonably quickly, and then he had me off half way down the straight.

He wasn’t going to last very long in front of me, so why he ran me off the road I don’t know. He should be learning the

championship, not putting the elbows out.

Anyway, we put some more good laps together, had another great strategy, and popped out of the seconds top in 14th. I don’t know how. I’d even made a mistake and gone into the wall and had to reverse out.

But there we were in 14th, and I had some good car speed in the end and finished eighth. It was a bloody good weekend. To come back from where we were, twice, was pretty awesome. I was 29th by five seconds at one point …

What’s going on? Both here and at Darwin, tiny changes are making the car speed fluctuate. Have you guys found a reason as to why that’s happening?

Yeah … nah! When it works, the car hooks up and works really well. But if the grip isn’t there, I lose the flow of the car. Bright was in the Top Five in qualifying two days in a row, and I’m a bit of a yo-yo.

I feel like there is an inconsistency in the tyres. I put one set on and go fast, and the put another set on and go nowhere.

But then Sunday the car was fast all day.

It was certainly fast all race. When it can operate at 90 percent, over 15 laps, it comes into its own. People struggle to stay with it. The car has great endurance, which is pretty exciting given that we’re going into the endurance events. I’m still lacking a little one-lap speed, although the 12.9s was a stand-out performance.

We’re still learning. We’ve changed our

philosophy quite a lot.

Back towards the Walkinshaw window, or further away?

Further away. To be fair, I think even Walkinshaw are moving away from what they were doing last year, although I don’t know because we don’t have a relationship with them anymore.

It must be encouraging to see Bright’s car right up there too.

I was looking at the grid before the second race, and where we qualified, between fifth and eighth, is where our true car speed is. That’s good. We’re trucking along quite well.

You know you’re going well when both cars are up there. What we’ve struggled with this year is that one race of the weekend, one car is in the Top 10 and the other one isn’t. Now we’re closing in on the Top 10 of the championship, so if we can be in that group after the enduros, then we can really concentrate for next year. If we can get qualifying sorted, we’ve got the race pace.

Finally, when you do eventually have a trouble-free qualifying and race at Townsville, exactly how many laps are you going to win by?

(Laughs) I don’t know, [Jamie] Whincup looks like he’s got this place sorted pretty well too. It’s going to be a pretty good day when I have no troubles, let’s put it that way. motorsport news

chat

Dirk Klynsmith

www.mnews.com.au

21

Ol’ Buddy, Ol’ Pal ...

I

AM expecting to see some fun photos from Red Bull Racing over the next few days.

Post-Turkey, after Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber clashed while battling for the lead (I am being charitable with my word choice here), there was the pic of the two, shoulders a-shrug, innocent smirks on their faces and a press release stating that the pair of wacky, fun-loving chums would put the matter behind them.

So now, I expect that mid-week there will be PR shots of Webber, possibly hugging team principal Christian Horner and/or Dr Helmut Marko. Cute and fuzzy kittens (or maybe even puppies) may be involved, and I would not even rule out a pyjamaed, pillow fight theme.

You cannot much criticise Webber for what has happened in the last 48 hours.

Within the confines of the everyoneloves-everyone-else PR world of motor racing, he made it very clear he was ticked off when Horner decided to take the remaining ‘primary’ front wing off his car and give it to Vettel for qualifying and the race. It was a Solomon-like decision for the team boss to make, 22

OPINION

and someone was going to be unhappy about it.

Webber was.

Phil Branagan – Post-race, he Executive Editor had the look of a man who has Webber does not do that. We know just slain the so, because we all saw it in Malaysia. dragon. Mark was imperious during the Webber was shocked to see Vettel come race, never putting a foot wrong, and it past him at the first corner but took may prove to be among his finest hours his medicine, stayed out of harm’s way (actually, one hour, 24-odd minutes). and took second place. He did not look Here is the thing. Red Bull Racing happy about it later, but he sucked it up has a huge opportunity here. The RB6and did the team thing.

Renault was, by far, the fastest thing at Whether he has sound reasons for Silverstone, and a 1-2 went begging – doing so or not, Vettel is acting like the just as it did in Turkey. Webber won the Chosen One, but he is not driving like it.

Battle of Britain, but so far, those pukka On the other side of the garage, Webber English chappies Lewis and Jenson are is looking more and more like the team’s winning the war. safe pair of hands.

For a man thought by some to be a The team can win both titles, just as team leader, Vettel is screwing up far too BrawnGP did in 2009. But some time, much. Whatever your take on Turkey, pretty soon, someone is going to need he made a meal of taking the lead. This to make the hard decision, just like Ross week, he overplayed the first corner.

Brawn did a year ago.

Rather than accepting that Webber made The Bulls will need to make sure they a blinder from grid two and slot into back the right horse – otherwise, they second, the German sat it out, picked up might just end up looking like donkeys. a puncture and kissed a 1-2 goodbye. motorsport news

comment

OPINION Mitchell Adam – National Editor

WHERE’S OUR CULT HERO?

A

USTRALIAN sporting fans love a good cult figure.

From Merv Hughes stretching in-front of Bay 13 at the MCG to the various exploits of Warwick Capper, sporting fans can spot and latch onto a character from a mile away.

Motorsport isn’t immune to cult heroes. Guys like James Hunt and Barry Sheene still have sizeable fan bases as a result of their accomplishments and personalities. I’d say the closest we’ve had in Australia recent years would be Paul Morris and Garry Rogers. They’re both outspoken, do things their own way and don’t exactly conform to what you’d expect; Garry was wearing a hat and t-shirt with ‘HOON’ written on them at Townsville on Friday, following his recent brush with VicRoads about his number plate.

In a broader example, Ken Block is one of the world’s most famous drivers, but he doesn’t have a massive list of wins or titles to his name. He found a niche to promote his brand, DC Shoes, filming his gymkhana exploits around warehouses and shipping docks, which went viral and built a massive following among his target market.

By comparison, everything in V8 Supercars is a bit white bread. There are lots of marketable, personable drivers who can service sponsors, media and fans well, but if you lined them up, there are a lot of clean-shaven drivers with haircuts you could set your watch to. Did Garth Tander and Jason Bright run out of random dyes?

Sure, sponsors want drivers who can represent their brand (including V8SA, look at the boyband-spec lineup they put together for the current TVCs), but there’s nothing really distinctive to capture the imagination of fans on a level that isn’t Holden/Ford or results-based.

Even if you don’t follow those sports closely, I’m sure most readers will have heard about Doug Bollinger’s rug, can picture AFL player Nick Naitanui’s dreadlocks or heard about the ‘Wolfman’ in the NRL when David Williams was bearded. They’re all identifiable traits, which have boosted their profiles, without being a hazard when being paraded as a brand ambassador.

No pressure, but there’s a couple of months between now and Phillip Island, boys ... www.mnews.com.au

23

V8 SUPERCARS RACES 15-16, TOWNSVILLE

24

WI

motorsport news

race

WINTER IN TOWNSVILLE

The words ‘Winter’ and ‘Townsville’ don’t generally fit together, but the man they call Frosty had other ideas this year. On a weekend where Triple Eight couldn’t capitalise on massive cars speed and James Courtney increased his championship lead, Mark Winterbottom was sublime.

ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN reports

Dirk Klynsmith

www.mnews.com.au

25

26

Dirk Klynsmith

J

AMIE Whincup continued his title fight back in Townsville, with a straightforward win during Saturday’s Race 15.

It was typical Whincup dominance on the streets of Townsville. The only blotch on his Race 15 copybook was a sluggish start, which saw him drop to third behind Mark Winterbottom and Garth Tander. By Lap 8 he’d clawed his way back into the lead, and from there on in the race was a foregone conclusion.

The only point of the race where it looked like Tander might have a chance of catching car #1 was after the first round of stops. Having fallen away to the tune of seven seconds, a roll centre adjustment during his Lap 23 stop made the lead Holden Racing Team car look sharper and faster. But when the gap got down to 3.2s, Whincup responded, stabilising the gap before eking it back out to the sevensecond mark.

The same thing happened after the second round of stops. But again, Tander’s advantage was too short lived for any meaningful challenge to be made.

In the end, second was the best Tander

could muster.

“It was a big day,” said Whincup. “It was up to me to go hard and keep it on the black stuff. There was no more left. Garth had good pace, [but] our car came on strong.”

“As the track rubbered in, our car came alive,” added Tander.

“We managed to maintain the gap to Jamie that we lost at the start. It was good to be able to see the back of his car again.”

With a solid third place, Winterbottom proved his Darwin results weren’t a fluke, and that he and FPR have found some answers. It was actually pretty happy days in FPR land, with Steve Richards finishing ninth, by far his most promising result of what’s been a character-building season.

And Paul Dumbrell rounded out the Top 10 in the satellite FPR Falcon in Bottle-O colours.

James Courtney narrowly held on to his championship lead with a hard-fought fifth place, right on the bumper of Lee Holdsworth. Courtney was actually very lucky; on the second lap of the race, he found himself in the back of team-mate Steve Johnson. Car #17 spun while #18

continued, and had it been any other car in the field, Courtney might have found himself facing a drive-through.

“The contact with Steve’s car happened when I locked the rears and went in,” said Courtney.

“It was unintentional and unfortunate, especially as he’s my team-mate. We spoke afterwards and Steve was disappointed, but we will move on.”

The award for pulling a rabbit out of a hat went to Jason Richards. Having gone fastest in practice on Friday, ‘JR’ found himself 25th in qualifying. He then made a ripsnorter of a start to the race, before making both of his stops early for clear air. His reward was seventh place after a spirited battle with Russell Ingall late in the race – a fine recovery.

As for Craig Lowndes, it was a day of unfulfilled promise. First, Lowndes was on track to steal pole position from his teammate in the Shoot-out, before a lock-up in the final sector dropped him to 10th.

Then, he tagged the wall on the first lap, damaged the #888 Commodore, and had to settle for a lowly 26th position at the end of the day. motorsport news

race

Race 15

Dirk Klynsmith Peter Bury

Dirk Klynsmith Dirk Klynsmith Dirk Klynsmith

When Team-mates Collide: James Courtney was lucky to escape penalty after a run-in with Steve Johnson, sequence left. Meanwhile, Andrew Thompson’s horror season continued, top, while Russell Ingall and Jason Richards had a battle royal in the closing stages of the race, above.

Dirk Klynsmith

www.mnews.com.au

27

M

ARK Winterbottom capped off Ford Performance Racing’s return to form in Townsville, with an impressive Race 16

victory.

In a bizarre race, Winterbottom’s win may go down in history as a lucky one. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Sure, Jamie Whincup’s Lap 8 demise thanks to a broken brake line was certainly fortunate. The Race 15 winner had everyone beat in the early stage of the race, and another win looked like a formality. When his car lost brake pedal pressure, it was definitely a race changing moment. Could be a championship changer, too.

But the second crazy incident of the race, which saw Garth Tander spin from second place at Turn 3, catch James Courtney and Craig Lowndes by surprise, and see Lowndes retire from the race after reactive contact with Courtney, wasn’t necessarily the race clincher for Winterbottom.

If anything, the race winning moments for Winterbottom was immediately before and after the first stop. Having stopped earlier than the other front-runners, Winterbottom took on just two new tyres, got back on track, and jumped Tander, Courtney and Lowndes in the process to assume the lead. Heading into the second stops, the Winterbottom/Tander fight was going to be interesting; Tander had a shorter stop ahead 28

of him, but Winterbottom had more fresh rubber for the run to the flag.

As it transpired, it didn’t matter. Tander’s spin took him out of realistic contention, and Winterbottom could take his time in the stop, grab all four tyres and a belly full of fuel, and still emerge with a 12s lead from Courtney.

There was one more twist to come. As Courtney pitted for his second stop, Dean Fiore found the wall at Turn 3, bringing out the Safety Car. That allowed Courtney to spend the last stint of the race on Winterbottom’s bumper, but with Whincup out of the running, Courtney decided the championship lead was enough and settled for second.

“Great day for FPR,” said Winterbottom.

“That’s one of the best wins I’ve had. It was a hectic last stint, but the ones you earn are the ones you remember.”

Meanwhile, Courtney was happy to come away with an increased championship lead, despite not having the outright pace of the leaders all weekend.

“When the car is bad, we still manage to drag a result out of it,” he said.

“I was going to have to have a big lunge to get past Mark, and with the position we have in the championship, it wasn’t worth it.

“Getting a championship is about consistency. [But] the championship isn’t over yet. There is still a long way to go.”

Tander ended up third despite his spin, something he was more than grateful for.

“It was my mistake,” he admitted. “I got in to the corner a bit hot and not even a foot wide, but I got into the marbles. If we end up third after being in the barrier, it’s not a bad day.”

Along with Winterbottom’s win, FPR had another great day. Paul Dumbrell was fourth in The Bottle-O car, while Steve Richards was fifth, making it three FPR cars in the Top Five.

Will Davison was sixth, which was a solid result given tge embattled start to the year he’s had for HRT. Just behind him was Shane van Gisbergen, who battled oversteer throughout the race to claim another reasonable haul of points.

In eighth was Jason Richards, with another remarkable performance. Having qualified much better on Sunday, Richards found himself down in 26th – again – after an early clash with his namesake Steve. And again, Richards J refused to give up and fought his way right back through the field.

God help the rest of the field if he ever has a trouble-free race at Townsville.

Rounding out the Top 10 was impressive rookie Jono Webb, followed by Jason Bargwanna.

And there wasn’t a Vodafone-backed car to be seen at the end of the race, despite locking out the front row in qualifying. One word – disaster. motorsport news

race

Race 16

Peter Bury

Dirk Klynsmith

Unfulfilled Promise: Tander, below, was fast before he crashed, while unfortunately for Triple Eight, the two pit photos to the right were taken in the middle of the race. Woops.

Peter Bury John Morris/Mpix

www.mnews.com.au

29

WINNERS

JAMIE WHINCUP: Super fast on both days.

Should have left Townsville with 300 points and the title lead. And yes, he’s in the ‘Losers’ column too.

JAMES COURTNEY: Is this a championship year?

First he escapes a penalty for donging his team-mate on Saturday, and then on Sunday the wheels fall off the Triple Eight wagon.

BRAD JONES RACING: Both of the Jasons had plenty of car speed in Townsville.

GARTH TANDER: Puts it in the wall and finishes third. You can complain about the first bit, not the second.

LOSERS

CAM’S CLOSE CALL WHEN Cameron McConville tells you he’s just had the biggest crash of his career, you know he’s not saying it lightly.

Most V8 Supercar fans will remember McConville’s frightening crash at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island last year. Having been clipped

by Steve Owen, McConville’s Brad Jones Racing Commodore flew backwards from Turn 1 all the way to run out of Southern Loop, narrowly missing David Besnard in the process.

That was a heck of a crash, but McConville says his practice crash at Townsville, caused by a complete loss of front brakes, was even more frightening.

“That was the scariest moment of my career, without a doubt,” he told eNews just after the crash.

John Morris/Mpix

FORD PERFORMANCE RACING: The Boys in Blue are back, no doubt about it. On Saturday, three cars in the Top 10. On Sunday, three cars in the Top Five. And Richo was fast again!

“It’s funny; it happens very, very quickly, but you slow everything down in your head as it happens. And I knew straight away that this was really not good. I managed to turn the car sideways so I wasn’t head-on to the wall, and it meant I couldn’t see the crash coming, either.

“It’s actually a credit to the circuit designers that the tyre bundle worked so well. It did the job perfectly, and if there was just a wall there, the car would have been completely ruined and I probably would have been having a long sleep.”

The brake failure was traced to a component failure, and after a long night’s work, the Gulf Western Oils Commodore was ready for qualifying on Saturday.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

LESS STICK IN TOWNSVILLE

JAMIE WHINCUP: Would have won Sunday’s race by a lap. He was pulling 1.5s every time he crossed the line, for Pete’s sake!

ANDREW THOMPSON: For pretty much all of 2010 so far.

FABIAN COULTHARD: That steering failure on the last lap of R16 wrecked a good weekend from Fabs.

Poor bloke.

30

Dirk Klynsmith

CRAIG LOWNDES: Plenty of car speed, no points for the weekend.

Should have been on pole in Saturday’s Shoot-out.

AS you’d expect for a second-year event, the Reid Park layout was slightly tweaked for 2010.

The quick Turn 1 was opened up a little, Turn 4 curbing was revised, and several sections were resurfaced after issues last year. The impact was minimal, however drivers reported less grip on offer compared to the freshly-laid surface last year. “[The changes] haven’t really made a difference,” Steven Richards reported.

“The biggest difference this year is that we’re a little bit slower. Last year they had the bitumen down for about six weeks before we came here, so it was a bit tackier and stickier and a bit cleaner than it is this year.

“The sections they’ve resurfaced have held up really well, there’s no problem at all. This time last year (after Saturday’s race) they were repairing parts of the track, so they’ve done a good job with it.”

– MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news

race

Dirk Klynsmith

LIKE A BROKEN RECORD

YOU would think that winning a race at the Sucrogen Townsville 400, from pole position, would be enough for Jamie Whincup.

But no – along with his glorious Race 15 win, Whincup also moved to fifth on the all-time winners list for V8 Supercars.

The Townsville race was Whincup’s 41st win in the series, edging him clear of Glenn Seton, who has 40 wins to his name.

The drivers that remain ahead of Whincup are Garth Tander in fourth (44 wins), Peter Brock in third (48 wins), Craig Lowndes in second (74 wins) and Mark Skaife on top with a massive 87

wins so far in his V8 Supercar/Australian Touring Car Championship career.

While racing drivers traditionally snub statistics (in public, at least), Whincup was ecstatic to reach a new milestone in his booming career.

“That’s a huge deal, without a doubt,” said Whincup.

“I’m not going to focus on it too much, but any milestone is huge.”

So what other records might Whincup break this season? He’s currently a huge chance to take the most race wins in a season record from his team-mate Lowndes. The record currently stands at 16 (Lowndes in 1996), and Whincup has

now won eight races, with 12 races left to take the remaining eight wins. When that record is based on percentage (race wins over races contested within a season), Allan Moffat and Dick Johnson share the record at 72.73 percent (1977 and 1981 respectively). Whincup’s percentage is currently 50.00 percent, which means he would have needed to win every race between Race 15 and the end of the season to score 21 wins – 75 percent of this year’s races.

Of course, a broken brake line on Sunday ruined any chance of that. Well, there’s always next year.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

FROM THE COUCH with PHIL BRANAGAN THE TV coverage of the Townsville V8 Supercars races was of a pretty high standard.

The commentary team did not miss much, the diagnosis of much of what went on was swift and pretty informative, and technically, it looked fine. After a fairly boring race on Saturday, just about all the big moments of Sunday’s race were broadcast, up close and personal. When Whincup’s car nosed into the garage, the www.mnews.com.au

TV took us in there too. Just as important, once the brake problem was diagnosed, the director did not dwell on the situation and switched back to the track.

Yes, it was a big moment in the series, but it was not over-played.

The bells and whistles are not there in the same numbers as they are in Formula 1 but the audience is not as huge. Quite.

One problem though; what came before, and at the start of the Sunday

broadcast. What I saw from Melbourne, and I assume it was national, was some kind of Mediterranean basket weaving doco. What a lousy leadin. The intro to the V8 featured an annoying kiddie, barking on about how wonderful Mr Ingall was to him. That was so cringeworthy, I actually turned it over for a few minutes. As if the Ingall SuperCheap ads during the races are not enough to put up with …

31

Results :: Race 15 – Townsville, Queensland

32

Pos

#

Driver

Team/Car

Qual

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

1 2 5 33 18 39 8 9 6 55 17 47 4 24 15 19 7 22 34 12 21 11 51 30 16 88 14 3 10

Jamie Whincup Garth Tander Mark Winterbottom Lee Holdsworth James Courtney Russell Ingall Jason Richards Shane Van Gisbergen Steven Richards Paul Dumbrell Steven Johnson Tim Slade Alex Davison Fabian Coulthard Rick Kelly Jonathon Webb Todd Kelly Will Davison Michael Caruso Dean Fiore Karl Reindler Jason Bargwanna Greg Murphy Cameron McConville Tony Ricciardello Craig Lowndes Jason Bright Tony D’Alberto Andrew Thompson

TeamVodafone Commodore VE Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon FG Fujitsu Racing/GRM Commodore VE Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore VE Team BOC Commodore VE SP Tools Racing Falcon FG Dunlop Super Dealer FPR Falcon FG The Bottle-O Racing Falcon FG Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG Wilson Security Racing Falcon FG Irwin Racin Falcon FG Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore VE Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE Dick Johnson Racing Falcon FG Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE Fujitsu Racing/GRM Commodore VE Triple F Racing Falcon FG Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Commodore VE Rock Racing Commodore VE Castrol Edge Racing Commodore VE Gulf Western Oil Racing Commodore VE Stratco Racing Commodore VE TeamVodafone Commodore VE Trading Post Racing Commodore VE Centaur Racing Commodore VE Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore VE

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

race

Top 10 Points: Courtney 1947, Whincup 1827, Winterbottom 1623, van Gisbergen 1598, Tander 1509, Lowndes 1479, Holdsworth 1398, R Kelly 1352, Caruso 1259, Johnson 1151.

Results :: Race 16 – Townsville, Queensland

www.mnews.com.au

Pos

#

Driver

Team/Car

Qual

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF

5 18 2 55 6 22 9 8 19 11 34 47 15 4 33 30 51 14 7 16 12 17 1 24 88 10 3 39 21

Mark Winterbottom James Courtney Garth Tander Paul Dumbrell Steven Richards Will Davison Shane Van Gisbergen Jason Richards Jonathon Webb Jason Bargwanna Michael Caruso Tim Slade Rick Kelly Alex Davison Lee Holdsworth Cameron McConville Greg Murphy Jason Bright Todd Kelly Tony Ricciardello Dean Fiore Steven Johnson Jamie Whincup Fabian Coulthard Craig Lowndes Andrew Thompson Tony D’Alberto Russell Ingall Karl Reindler

Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon FG Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE The Bottle-O Racing Falcon FG Dunlop Super Dealer FPR Falcon FG Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE SP Tools Racing Falcon FG Team BOC Commodore VE Dick Johnson Racing Falcon FG Rock Racing Commodore VE Fujitsu Racing/GRM Commodore VE Wilson Security Racing Falcon FG Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE Irwin Racing Falcon FG Fujitsu Racing/GRM Commodore VE Gulf Western Oil Racing Commodore VE Castrol Edge Racing Commodore VE Trading Post Racing Commodore VE Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE Stratco Racing Commodore VE Triple F Racing Falcon FG Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG TeamVodafone Commodore VE Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore VE TeamVodafone Commodore VE Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore VE Centaur Racing Commodore VE Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore VE Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Commodore VE

6 4 3 14 10 7 17 8 12 20 21 25 15 24 11 26 13 5 28 29 27 9 1 19 2 22 16 18 23 33

FUJITSU SERIES ROUND 4, TOWNSVILLE

Timmy B’s Breakthrough

34

motorsport news

race

One driver avoided the mayhem as the Fujitsu Series hit Townsville, but this time it wasn’t Steve Owen ...

MITCHELL ADAM reports on Tim Blanchard’s maiden V8 win

John Morris / Mpix

www.mnews.com.au

35

James Smith

FOR a while, it looked as though Steve Owen was somehow immune to the dramas striking other frontrunners in the Fujitsu Series.

For all of the incidents, mechanical issues and general bad luck which had forsaken his expected title challengers in 2010, the Greg Murphy Racing driver ticked along out in-front, picking up wins and podiums as he goes.

After wins in the first two races of Round 4 at Townsville, it looked as though he’d continue that trend and chalk up his third round win of the season. Everything was going well, until an error in the final, which saw him tag David Russell at Turn 2 and send both drivers down the order.

That put the ball into the court of James Moffat and Tim Blanchard, who were enjoying strong runs after ofttroubled seasons. Moffat held a six-second lead and was ontrack to win his first race of the year and Blanchard his maiden round. Then, on Lap 36

14, Moffat found a spinning Wayne Miles across the track at Turn 10, got into the marbles trying to avoid him and hit the tyres.

Advantage Blanchard, who brought it home to pick up his first race and round wins in a V8 Supercar. The round win was made even more impressive after a poor qualifying, in which he ended up 12th, but he picked his way through the field in each race.

“We’re pretty happy with how we ended up,” he said.

“We were a bit lucky with the events of Race 3 but after qualifying we knew we had a big job ahead, put our heads down and kept working hard all weekend, and we’re pretty happy with the end result.”

Russell recovered to fourth in the final race, to grab second for the weekend, having seemingly taken a step forward in terms of pace with MW Motorsport’s ex-FPR Falcon.

Owen’s 17th in the final race

was just enough to rob Nick Percat of a round podium.

Like Blanchard, he had his work cut out for him, having been delayed by an opening lap incident in Race 1. Percat got back to 10th, which put him on pole for Race 2. He subsequently finished second and backed it up with third in the final.

The good news story of the weekend, though, was Taz Douglas. In his comeback after overcoming cancer, Douglas showed good pace and no signs of rust to take fifth for the round.

In the end, Moffat wound up seventh for the final race.

It summed up a frustrating weekend. After finishing second in the opening race, he was forced out of Race 2 by an opening lap move by Paul Morris.

Morris was among a number of high-profile inclusions for the weekend, most of which had troubled weekends.

David Reynolds was quick, but an engine failure in Race

1 put him on the back foot, but he charged to second in the final. His team-mate for the weekend, Craig Baird, was solid inside the Top 5, before also succumbing to engine problems, this time before the final.

Luke Youlden and Marcus Marshall endured rotten weekends with MW Motorsport. Youlden was tagged at Turn 2 on Lap 1 of the opening race by Rodney Jane and spun in-front of the pack. Marshall was among those to make contact, before his weekend ended with more damage in Race 2. He was penalised for contact with Drew Russell in Race 2, Youlden got up to fifth in Race 3, to at least salvage something.

Other than the Race 2 incident with Youlden, Russell picked up an eighth and a sixth in a good weekend, with younger brother Aaren also racing to a Top 10 finish for the round and move up to seventh in the standings. motorsport news

race

Dirk Klynsmith

Steve Owen got into the back of David Russell, left, in the final, changing the round.

James Moffat, above, then led, but came unstuck when he encountered a spinning backmarker.

Taz Douglas, right, shone in his racing comeback.

Dirk Klynsmith

Results :: Round 4, Townsville Pos

#

Driver

Team/Car

Qual

R1

R2

R3

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

999 28 45 222 92 99 58 93 54 59 57 38 32 48 96 777 26 71 86 67 95 13 46 66 021 75

Tim Blanchard David Russell Steve Owen Nick Percat Taz Douglas James Moffat Drew Russell Scott McLaughlin David Reynolds Aaren Russell Ben McCashney Craig Baird Todd Fiore Tony Bates Ryan Hansford Rodney Jane Luke Youlden Marcus Zukanovic Wayne Miles Paul Morris Nathan Vince Colin Sieders Geoff Emery Phil Foster Marcus Marshall Aaron McGill

Sonic Motor Racing Services Falcon BF Team Jayco Falcon BF Earthex Racing Commodore VE Sip ‘N Save Commodore VZ Fastaz Motorsport Commodore VZ Norton 360 Ford Rising Stars Falcon BF Go Karts Go / Zemana.com.au Falcon BF Fujitsu Racing Falcon BF Bundaberg Red Racing Team Commodore VE Go Karts Go / Zemana.com.au Falcon BF Playstation Commodore VZ Jax Quick Fit Tyres Commodore VE Flexi Staff Commodore VE NDD - National Directory Dist. Commodore VZ V8 Race Experience Falcon BF Bob Jane T-Marts Falcon BF MW Motorsport Falcon BF Action Racing Commodore VZ East Coast Traffic Control Falcon BF The Love Machine Commodore VE Batavia Coast Motorsport Falcon BF City Of Townsville Falcon BF Earthex Racing Commodore VE Roadwise Racing Commodore VZ MW Motorsport Falcon BF McGill Motorsport Falcon BF

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

6 3 1 10 7 2 8 9 DNF 12 11 5 18 13 14 20 DNF DNF 17 4 15 19 DNF 16 DNF DNF

3 4 1 2 6 DNF 16 8 7 10 12 5 11 17 14 19 18 9 20 DNF DNF 13 DNF DNF DNF 15

1 4 15 3 8 7 6 12 2 13 14 DNS 16 17 19 11 5 9 20 DNS 18 DNF 10 DNS DNS DNF

Top 10 Points: Points: Owen 1028, Blanchard 752, Percat 750, David Russell 667, Moffat 615, Jane 604, Aaren Russell 506, Pedersen www.mnews.com.au

37

FORMULA FORD ROUND 5, TOWNSVILLE

Chazman Series

Chaz Mostert put in a dominant performance in Townsville to win his third Formula Ford round of the year and extend his points lead.

MITCHELL ADAM was there THIS year is looking more and more like Chaz Mostert’s year in the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship.

In the category’s maiden visit to Townsville, Mostert won all three races and the round, his third of the season. While he had to work hard early, each race had a defining point where a squabble for second and third allowed Mostert to break away from the chasing pack and go on to take the win.

“The car has been race-crafted all weekend, and been great since we got onto the track. I just had to get my head around the track a bit and we’ve seen the payoffs,” he said.

“In the races, it all just came my way. Once I got into the lead, second and third started having a go at each other; that let me get a break and then I could get away. But while they were on me I couldn’t quite get away.

38

“Today is the one year anniversary of my Mum’s death, so I won the round for her.”

Second for the round went to Walsh, who was Mostert’s closest challenger. The pair swapped the lead several times in Races 2 and 3, before Mostert eventually broke away.

With consistency, he’s now also second in the standings.

“I’m pretty happy, it’s a podium and I moved into second in the championship as well, which was a positive,” he said.

“The first few laps, I pressed the issue a little bit, tried to put him under pressure, but once Chaz got into his rhythm it was quite hard for me to keep up.

He probably just had those few tenths just to break away.: Ryan Simpson was the only driver to take a point from Mostert, grabbing pole position in the final moments of the session. In the end, he took a third and a pair of fourths, a

much better outcome than his Sonic team-mates, Geoff Uhrhane and Nick Foster ...

They were among the lead pack early in Race 2, only for a Safety Car deployment to catch out Uhrhane. He made contact with the back of Foster, the resulting suspension damage ending both their races.

Uhrhane got back up to eighth in the final, while Foster was caught up in someone else’s accident on the opening lap.

That all aided the results put on the board by 15-yearolds Cameron Waters and Nick Cassidy, but in truth, their performance looked good anyway. Waters enjoyed the best weekend of his rookie season, with a seventh, fourth and fifth.

Meanwhile, Kiwi Cassidy picked up an eighth and a fourth in the opening two races and a third in the final on debut with Evans Motorsport Group.

Both showed good speed and looked comfortable up the order.

The weekend also saw promising signs from the CAMS Rising Stars, who put together their most-competitive weekend of the year. Jack LeBrocq and Liam Sager both qualified inside the Top 10.

They both picked up Top 10 race finishes, along with teammate Matthew Brabham, with LeBrocq grabbing sixth in Race 1 and fifth in Race 2.

The CAMS boys were in the thick of a frenetic fight for final positions in the ’10 in the final race, which eventually resulted in a last corner rollover for Nathan Morcom - the Synergy Motorsport driver’s second in as many rounds - after hitting the back of Andre Borell who already under attack from LeBrocq.

Points: Mostert 209, Walsh 160, Foster 151, Simpson 150, Uhrhane 135 motorsport news

race

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

Chaz Mostert, above, was too good, winning the round ahead of Ash Walsh, right.

Sonic’s weekend went downhill in Race 2, when Geoff Uhrhane, below, got into the back of Nick Foster behind the Safety Car. Cameron Waters, bottom right, had his best FFord weekend, finishing fourth for the round.

Dirk Klynsmith

James Smith

www.mnews.com.au

39

V8 UTES ROUND 4, TOWNSVILLE

!

N O E GAM ville victory s n w o T ’s d o o g e ls E with Title fight heats up

James Smith

40

motorsport news

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Grant Johnson, above, won the opener before trouble in Race 2, in which Jeremy Gray, below, became a first-time winner. Ryal Harris couldn’t savour the sights of Townsville, bottom.

Dirk Klynsmith James Smith

www.mnews.com.au

John Morris / Mpix

THE battle for the 2010 V8 Ute Series title is now officially red hot, after teammates Jack Elsegood and Grant Johnson finished first and second for the round in Townsville last weekend.

There was nothing between the two. Elsegood took pole position, but Johnson outmuscled the former NRL star to the Race 1 win. Johnson was also too good for Elsegood in the final race of the weekend, but the reverse-Top 12 grid in the second race made the difference ...

While Elsegood was able to climb his way through the field to finish a fine third, Johnson found himself in the back of Chris Pither. The result was 15th for the race, giving Elsegood the edge he needed to win the round. The difference between the two is now just 21 points.

“It’s the most exciting and fun race I’ve had in a long time,” said Johnson of his weekendlong battle with Elsegood.

“Jack’s definitely one of my main rivals, maybe even more so because he is my teammate. I know how the team works and they will always give him a good car.

“We have a mutual respect for each other. The last thing we want is Barrel Pachos (Hi Tech Motorsport boss) on our case. We were fortunate to get a good start and give each other enough room.”

Amidst the controversy of that second race, the V8 Ute Series also had a first-time winner. Starting at the pointy end of the grid, Rockstarbacked driver Jeremy Gray toom full advantage to take his maiden win ahead of Gary Baxter. Gray then backed it up by shadowing Elsegood throughout Race 3 in an impressive performance to take third for the round.

Team-mates David Sieders and Andrew Fisher were fourth and fifth for the weekend, ahead of Rhys McNally and Baxter.

41

MINI CHALLENGE ROUND 4, TOWNSVILLE

James Smith

Talk of the Townsville SERIES leader Chris Alajajian has extended his Hertz MINI Challenge points lead, with a dominant round win on the streets of Townsville.

The Sydneysider won two of the three races to grab his third round win of the season. Victory in the opener came after a mistake by Paul Stokell late in the race, but from there, Alajajian was in control. He took second to Beric Lynton in the Reverse Grid Race 2, before dominating the final. With three rounds remaining, Alajajian’s points lead is up to 47.5 points.

“I’m stoked,” he enthused.

42

“The hard work and effort myself, my dad and [engineer] Nigel have put in does pay off; two wins and a second place, we couldn’t ask for a much better round.

“In the first race, I was working my butt off to catch Paul. When he made that little error, clipping the ripple strip, it kind of capsized him and he did well to keep it off the wall and I took the best of that opportunity and so did Peter McNiven.

“In these MINIs, when you’re stuck behind another car, you get hot air, the temperature rises and the car gets bogged down. So I

knew that if I was going to win the last race, I’d have to get the lead from the start. If I’d have been stuck behind Beric or Paul, it was just going to set me back.

“Once I got a good start, the rest of the race maintained the good pace and we got the win.”

Stokell eventually finished third in the opening race on Saturday, with Peter McNiven also skipping through to take second as he continues a strong rookie season. In the final race, Stokell and Lynton battled it out for second for the race and round, with Stokell eventually getting the place.

It was a standout weekend for Lynton, who scored his first race win and maiden round podium.

“We finished on the podium last year at the Grand Prix but this is my first win and it’s a great feeling,” he said after Race 2.

Driving the Pizza Capers Uber Star car again, Glenn Seton had a relatively quiet weekend, with a best race result of third to take fourth for the weekend, ahead of McNiven and Sean Carter.

Points: Alajajian 512, Stokell 464.5, McNiven 426, Sean Carter 418, Gavin Yortt 344.5, Brendan Cook 275 – MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news

race

James Smith

Paul Stokell, above, led the way in Race 1, before coming unstuck on the Turn 10 ripple strip, allowing Chris Alajajian and Peter McNiven through.

Beric Lynton, below, scored his first MINI race win and round podium.

Peter Bury

www.mnews.com.au

43

AUSTRALIAN GT ROUND 4, PHILLIP ISLAND

Koundouris dominates PI GT

ROUND 4 of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship at Phillip Island wasn’t organised all that long ago, but James Koundouris is glad it was after scoring his first GT wins.

Driving his Porsche GT3 Cup S, Koundouris made light work of the first of two, 60-minute endurance races to take the chequered flag without a serious challenge.

However, Race 2 proved to be a little more difficult, with a late race Safety Car putting him under attack from a hardcharging Max Twigg, who challenged Koundouris right to the end.

Koundouris, however was simply too strong on the flowing circuit, adding 44

the Race 2 honours to his impressive weekend.

“It was a great day and a great feeling to have my first GT win and then to follow it up with victory in the second race also after a huge battle with Max Twigg,” he said.

“The Superbarn Supermarkets Porsche was fantastic and the two victories are a great result for the entire team.”

Second for the weekend was Dean Grant, a position that Grant could put down to consistency. His Mosler didn’t appear to have the same pace of the Porsches early on Sunday, but Grant capitalised on his adversaries’ misfortunes to consolidate an encouraging pair of podium

places, with Twigg third for the round.

Twigg clearly had the pace all weekend, but he couldn’t quite use it to his advantage over Koundouris. After diving under the inside of Koundouris heading into Turn 1, Koundouris reclaimed it exiting the Southern Loop in the dying stages, with Twigg ending up second.

The two title protagonists had troubled weekends. Peter Hackett had 200km/h off in qualifying, but bounced back for a third and a fourth in the two races to reduce David Wall’s points lead. Wall led the opening race early, but suffered mechanical problems and ended up 16th.

Fifth in Race 2 was enough

to maintain his points lead and win the CAMS Endurance Trophy, based on points at Phillip Island and Eastern Creek last month.

Coming home on top in the GT Challenge class was Shane Smollen who led an allPorsche GT3 Cup Car podium.

Just like Koundouris in the class above him, Smollen made his campaign look all too easy as he crossed the line well clear of his nearest rival Michael Loccisano in second place.

But the man receiving all the attention from onlookers was Eric Bana, who nabbed the final podium position, while Tony Alford took out GT Production honours.

– CALLUM BRANAGAN motorsport news

race Joel Strickland

LUCK and sheer pace helped Adam Gowans take the overall honours for Round 4 of the Aussie Racing Cars Super Series at Phillip Island.

After missing out on pole in qualifying, Gowans displayed a dominating bill of speed from then on to stamp down his authority over his rivals to take the opening three race wins, before points leader Kyle Clews won the final.

But Gowans never did it easy, as he had a close battle with at least five other rivals for almost the entire weekend.

“It was tough racing, but I had a lot of fun!” said Gowans.

Finishing in second position

www.mnews.com.au

Joel Strickland

GOWANS’ ISLAND

was Brad Ward, whose consistency throughout the weekend meant he snuck in ahead of an ever-improving Garry Jacobson in third. The two pilots traded places throughout the races, but it was Ward who showed his experience over Jacobson, who was contesting in only his second round for the year.

Taking out the Masters Cup honours was the Sheridan Phillips on return to the category. Driving his Falcon, Phillips was knocking on the door of the top-five in Race 4, taking the challenge right up to the regular front-runners.

– CALLUM BRANAGAN

45

NASCAR Round 19 – JOLIET, IL

Toyota Motorsports

46

motorsport news

race

David Reutimann won at Chicagoland and this time around, there was nobody pointing at the sky and calling him ‘Lucky’

D

THIS TIME, NOO SUCH DOUBTS

www.mnews.com.au

AVID Reutimann backed into his maiden NASCAR Sprint Cup wast year, when rain cut short the event at Charlotte and the Toyota man found himself at the head on the line.

This time, there were no such problems. The Waltrip Camry swept past Jeff Gordon and flew into the distance. It was not a Hendrick Chevy, or any other for that matter, that chased him, but Carl Edwards, doing his best to end Ford’s drought at NASCAR’s top level.

“No rain tonight, we earned this one and nobody gave it to us,” said Reutimann. “That feels really good. I’ve heard so much stuff for winning a rain-shortened event that everybody said we didn’t earn it. Tonight I don’t know what they could say about this one.”

Edwards was the fastest man on the track after the last round of stops, but while he was closing on the spoiler of the #00, he ran out of laps and had to settle for a season-best result for the Roush Fenway team, and the still-new Ford FR9 motor.

“Three more laps and we would have been right there,” said Edwards, “but you never really know, I guess, because it depends on how hard he is running, too. But I feel like with three more laps, things would have gotten really interesting.”

47

The other man who may have challenged for the win was Jimmie Johnson. The four-time Champion dominated the race early, but a pitlane mistake put him back in the pack when he missed his pit box and had to complete another, green pitstop. While charging back, he tagged the wall and repairs cost him two laps.

Gordon took third in his 600th consecutive start, ahead of Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray, who started from pole.

Several title fancies struggled on the 1.5-mile oval, including both Kurt and Kyle Busch, Mark Martin (whose tough season continued with 15th) and Dale Earnhardt, whose great weekend at Daytona quickly turned into a memory with 23rd. Marcos Ambrose finished 28th in his off-the-pace JTG Daugherty car, while Kevin Harvick had a slow car that was stopped with a fuel pump problem.

The Sprint Cup drivers now have a weekend off before they reassemble at Indianapolis. The Brickyard 400 is a happy hunting ground for Johnson and Hendrick Motorsport, and the defending Champion will have a week home with his new baby daughter, whom Johnson and wife Chandra are yet to name.

Many drivers will be hoping that the old adage about racing drivers losing speed for each child rings true at the Brickyard.

Results :: Lifelock.com 400, Chicagoland, IL 1 00 2 99 3 24 4 33 5 1 6 9 7 31 8 11 9 14 10 98

David Reutimann Toyota Carl Edwards Ford Jeff Gordon Chevy Clint Bowyer Chevy Jamie McMurray Chevy Kasey Kahne Ford Jeff Burton Chevy Denny Hamlin Toyota Tony Stewart Chevy Paul Menard Ford

Waltrip Roush Fenway Hendrick Childress Earnhardt Ganassi Petty Childress Gibb Stewart Haas Earnhardt Ganassi

Tums Q7 Aflac Silver 11 DuPont 6 Cheerios 15 McDonald’s 1 Budweiser 12 Caterpillar 14 FedEx Ground 17 Office Depot 3 Moen/Menards 9

Top 10 Points: Harvick 2745, Gordon 2642, Johnson 2557, Hamlin 2542,

Kurt Busch 2524, Kyle Busch 2488, Burton 2465, Kenseth 2446, Stewart 2389, Edwards 2345, Biffle 2292, Bowyer 2286.

48

motorsport news

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NASCAR Media

www.mnews.com.au

NASCAR Media

Toyota Motorsports

I might need some headache powders later: David Reutimann took career win #2 in Illinois, holding off a determined Carl Edwards to give Michael Waltrip Racing the win.

Jimmie Johnson led the early going until he slowed, above, while points leader Kevin Harvick was slowed by fuel pump problems that left his Shell/Penzzoil Chevy in the garage for quite a while, right.

49

WORLD SUPERBIKES ROUND 9 – BRNO

Here is the easiest-to-understand chapter in ‘World Superbikes for Dummies’:

It’s Brno: It’s Max!

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motorsport news

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M

AX Biaggi is almost unbeatable at Brno. This year, he was beaten, once, but he took another step towards taking the 2010 World Superbike Championship.

The Italian had to give best to Jonny Rea in the opening race but the Alitalia Aprilia was too fast in the second, taking his ninth win in 18 races.

“Knowing the track quite well here and the passion of the fans in the Czech Republic, we tried something really special and made some changes on the bike, weight distribution and gearbox and the result was very good so I’m happy,” said Biaggi after the race, held in sweltering heat.

“For me it’s the 10th victory here, and this is my second home country. I love this place!”

Rea’s win ended a recent streak of bad form, and moves the Irishman to third overall in the series points.

Cal Crutchlow took pole position after a dazzling lap, and third in the first race. But he found his Yamaha R1 unridable in Race 2, pulling in to change rear tyres. The Yamaha Italia team later found that his original tyre was so hard that it showed no signs of wear whatsoever, after 12 laps of racing.

His team-mate James Toseland was hampered by electronics in the first race, and the problem looked to have struck again in Race 2, by the Brit passed 18 riders to charge to fourth.

The weekend was a disaster for Leon Haslam, who started 14th and finished eighth and 10th. So bad was the Suzuki’s grip that the Brit has said he will revert to older tyres for the next race at Silverstone.

It was a case of what might have been for BMW. Troy Corser fell heavily on Friday and decided to sit out the races with severe chest bruising, while Ruben Xaus qualified on the front row, finished fifth in Race 1 and fell while third in Race 2.

Points: Biaggi 352, Haslam 284, Rea 203, Checa 189, Haga 172, Toseland 169, Corser 149, Fabrizio 147, Camier/Crutchlow 138.

Graeme Brown/Gee Bee Images

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IN the World Supersport race, Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) held off long-time race leader Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) to win by just 0.124secs, with Triumph’s Chaz Davies third.

Sofuoglu’s Honda team-mate Michele Pirro crashed out of the race, sustaining a fractured right wrist, a broken nose and facial bruising.

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Venezuela, Mexico 1-all at SIlverstone GP2 PASTOR Maldonado and Sergio Perez shared the GP2 wins at Silverstone – but anyone wanting close finishes may have gone home unhappy.

Maldonado, below, jumped past poleman Jules Bianchi at the start of Saturday’s race and ran away, building a 10s cushion by the flag.

Bianchi was almost equally far ahead of Dani Clos in second, with Brit Sam Bird fourth.

On Sunday, Perez smashed the opposition even harder in the Sprint Race, leading Oliver Turvey by more than 15s at the flag. The polesitter held off Clos and Pastor for the position, to take his first podium finish.

SOMEWHERE, OVER THE ...

WA STATE SERIES

Points: Maldonado 56, Clos 37, Bianchi 31, Perez 30, van der Garde 27, Bird 22, Razla 20, Valsecchi 17.

sutton-images.com

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YOU do not have to win the battles to win the war, and Andrew Goldie in one the way to proving that in the WA Formula Ford 1600 Series.

With the attrition rate high among the frontrunners in the Spices Catering Cup at Barbagallo Raceway, Goldie added a second and two thirds to his consistent season, which sees his Van Diemen RF95 leading the title despite not winning any of the races.

Incoming points leader BenLee D’Limi crashed his Van Diemen in the first race and was forced to sit and watch the last two, while Race 1 and 2 winner Jordan Oon (who has just returned from racing in Asia) clashed with Jake McNally (Stealth) in Race 3, leaving Aldo de Paoli to win his first FF race

in his RF92.

Three different drivers won the HQ Holden races, Chris Kneasfey, Rod Jenzen and Steve Raisin sharing the chequered flags. Kneasfey copped a hit in the second race and retiring, and so ended up a lowly 11th overall.

Formula Vee was all about the sweep, with Cameron Edwards (Ajay 08) taking all three wins in the 1600cc class and Bruce Welsh (Jacer) repeating the dose in the 1200cc class.

William Colton did likewise in Historic Touring Cars in his pre1965 class Mk1 Ford Cortina, taking all three wins. Charlie Mitchell won two Historic Front Engine races in his TS Special, with Brian Jarvis taking the final in an MG Midget.

Classic Cars was all about Paul Stubber, but the local

hero did not manage to win all three races. The Camaro was too good in the first and third races but Gary Martinovich took Race 2, and second overall for the round, in his HQ Kingswood (not the Kingswood!) Ron Moller took third overall in his Camaro.

In the Formula Classic cars, Russell Sewell dominated the thin field in his Lola T800, winning all three races. Neil McCrudden took two seconds in his Macon Formula 2, while James McDonald also snared a second place in his BEFA. In the Improved Production Cars, Ashley Barnett won two of the three races in his Nissan 200SX. Unsurprisingly, Kerry Wade (Mitsubishi Evo) took out the other race, after receiving a penalty in the first race of the weekend.

motorsport news

news

Holder leads Aussie 1-2 SPEEDWAY GP AUSTRALIANS ruled Cardiff in the British Speedway Grand Prix but there were some fiery words between the top two placegetters.

Australian champion Chris Holder won his first-ever World Championship round but he and World Champion Jason Crump exchanged pleasantries after a clash in Race 14. Crump

passed Davey Watt and then dived under Holder, who made his feeling known after the race. But Holder, 22, apologied to the veteran after the meeting.

“I’ve got to apologise to Jason,” he said. “I was probably out of order there. It was heat of the moment I guess. I have no hard feelings and I hope he’s the same.”

Asked for his view on the

incident, Crump said: “Chris had his skirt on and I pulled my handbag out for a minute.”

In from of a huge crowd, Holder beat Crump, new series leader Jaroslaw Hampel and Dane Hans Andersen after powering away from the tapes in the final.

“I’m stoked to be here and I honestly can’t believe it,” he grinned later. “It was a bit of blur and I can’t remember how

I got there, but I did.”

While Holder surged up to fifth in the World Championship with 60 points, Hampel took charge at the top on 92, two ahead of his fellow countryman Tomasz Gollob.

Points: Hampel 92, Gollob 90, Crump 75, Kenneth Bjerre 66, Holder 60, Rune Holta 56, Hans Andersen 56, Nicki Pedersen 51, Andreas Jonsson 48, Freddie Lindgren 43.

You-beaut in U-tah ALMS

THE wins have continued for Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud at Miller Motorsports Park Aat the weekend.

The pair took their HPD to its third straight American Le Mans Series victory,

but only after a battle with the Drayson and Intersport entries. Jon Field streaked from fifth to first at the start in Intersport’s Lola-AER, leaving the HPDs floundering, while Drayson’s Jonny Cocker took up the chase, and took the lead near the 30minute mark.

Pagenauud and Brabham bided their

time and, when the turbo cars pitted for fuel, ran eight laps longer in their Acura V6powered car.

Risi Ferrari dominated the GT division, Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni only briefly headed by the Rahal Letterman BMW, which was on a different pit sequence.

Highcroft Racing

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Restored this vehicle back to factory condition. Considerable cost was invested in things like the carburettor, switches, clamps, relay’s, new NOS panels, paint, motor and gearbox etc. It’s has all its factory paint assembly marks and stickers including a detailed under carriage. “Will Trade”. $65000.

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Ferrari 360 Challenge Ferrari 360 Challenge ready to race or private track days. Very competitive car with a number of podium finishes in Australian GT Challenge in 2009 with amateur driver. Near new engine with less than 10,000kms. Internal air jacks. Auto fire bomb kit.

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2009 Transporter 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. Contact Craig 0412895560.

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motorsport news

rear of grid

Odd S pot

JUST in case people got ‘Townsville’ and ‘Smallville’ mixed up, the Far North Queenslanders put on a new media centre for the 2010 running of their V8 event.

While last year the

assembled media were housed in the local school’s library, a new addition to the Civic Centre was enlisted as the 2010 Media Centre. And it was massive. The post-race press conferences were held

in a theatre, which seated approximately 150 times the amount of people that are every likely to attend a V8 Supercar press conference.

Obviously, the folks up FNQ way are used to open spaces.

Dirk Klynsmith

BIG, BAD TOWNSVILLE

Of course, eNews was bunkered away in the Bigpond media truck that is present at each of the V8 Supercar rounds. But we still couldn’t help be impressed by the size of the new journo hang-out.

SIMOOX TAKES THE CUP! IT’S official – simoox is the first-ever eNews FIFA World Cup Tipping Champion!

Having led since early in the piece, simoox was able to hold off a late charge from Kevin Gibson to take the honours. He even tipped both the Third Place Playoff and the Final correct to make it a dominant win. Meanwhile, Gibson went for a last-ditch effort to overhaul simoox by tipping The Netherlands to upset Spain in the Final, but all he did was let Vincent Dumarski through for the second place.

Not that it matters. The prize goes to simoox, which means he’ll be getting a DVD prize pack from Chevron. Well played, sir.

In the bragging rights stakes, Craig Lowndes has wound up the top tipper out of the V8 Supercar stars. And out of the eNews staffers, editor Andrew van Leeuwen was too good for the rest of the office, finishing sixth after also backing his mother country, The Netherlands in the final.

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

Name simoox Vincent Dumarski Kevin Gibson Wayne Bailey ViszlaAtchoo Andrew van Leeuwen Chris Lambden Trevor Campbell Clare Burgett Chewy

Margin 13 11 10 12 13 13 8 11 9 10

Score 38 36 35 35 35 34 33 33 32 32

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