Motorsport eNews Issue 164 - July 20-26, 2010

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Issue No. 164 July 20 -26 2010

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Issue No. 164 | July 20 - 26 2010

news 5

Three From Three Blanchard, Allan and Yvan 7 Duno out, Davo in?

J-Davo in line for IRL start 9 Chev to Commodore Raffii makes his V8 debut 15 V8s to race at Bathurst!

V8TC, that is ...

18 Pye’s piece of the action Bill gets new Camaro bits

chat 20 Five Minutes With ...

John Crennan

comment 22 Normoyle: Back to the Future Emery: The Great Race

race 24 Aussie Six-Hour 32 IndyCar 36 IRC 38 Speedway

trade 54 Classifieds

MURF

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URF’S TRIPLE TREAT V8 SUPERCARS

G

Phil Williams

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REG Murphy heads into V8 Supercars’ endurance racing season with three different co-drivers for the three long-distance races.

The four-time Bathurst winner will have a mix of international experience with youthful exuberance over the three races in September and October. The sequence of drivers who will partner the Kiwi in the Paul Morris Motorsport entry has been prompted by a series of clashing events, which restrict the team’s options and which have set-up a fascinating situation.

At Phillip Island’s L&H 500, Murph will be partnered by rookie Tim Blanchard, who will be making his Championship Series debut. The 23-year-old, who has had a breakout season in the Fujitsu V8 Series, scored his first round win at Townsville and, clearly, the former FFord champion is a man being groomed for great things in V8 Supercar racing.

At Bathurst, Murphy will be joined by the vastly experienced Allan Simonsen. The Dane has one of the most varied CVs in world motorsport, and was a standout when he last competed in The Great Race in 2008, finishing fifth outright in a TeamVodafone Ford Falcon he shared with Richard Lyons. He will not be available for Phillip Island, because of a clashing Le Mans event, the Autosport Silverstone 1000km race, in the UK. Simonsen, 32, is having a brilliant 2010 season, winning the Nurburgring 24 Hour race, and finishing second in the GT2 category at the Le Mans 24 Hour race last month. He is also the reigning Asian Le Mans Series Champion in GT2.

The third, and perhaps biggest name to climb into the Castrol Edge Commodore VE will be Yvan Muller. As reported first in eNews, the former World Touring Car champion will be the team’s international driver at the Gold Coast 600, bringing experience and French flair to the team.

Muller, now 40, is the most accomplished of the recent internationals to have competed in V8 Supercars. He won the Sandown 500 in 2005, partnering Craig Lowndes, and with a WTCC title in 2008 and the 2003 British crown, is considered in many quarters to be the most competitive all-round touring car driver in the world.

Motorsport eNews expects the news to be confirmed by the team this week, followed by confirmation that Paul Morris will join Russell Ingall in the team’s Supercheap Autos entry.

COTF NO APRIL FOOL V8 SUPERCARS

V8 SUPERCARS’ Car of The Future will take the step into the testing phase on April 1.

Two prototypes – one a Holden Commodore VE and a Ford Falcon FG – will be built by Paul Ceprnich’s Pace Innovation over the spring and summer, and will be mobile test beds for all of

the componentry that will become mandatory for the new cars, which are due to be introduced for the 2012 season.

V8 Supercars Australia’s board greenlit the project at its most recent meeting last Thursday. V8SA will fund the built and testing phase of the development.

The cars will feature control

items such as fuel systems, pedal boxes, electrical items and independent rear suspension. However the board also determined that the live rear axle used in the current generation cars will be permitted in racecars in 2012.

The following year, IRS will be mandatory.

V8SA will also continue its current program of having

teams test certain COTF items during regular Friday test sessions, in conjunction with Championship Series rounds.

The V8SA board also approved the formation of a Commercial Working Group, to deal with the ongoing commercial matters involving V8SA and the teams. The Group will be headed by V8SA CEO, Martin Whitaker.

THREE WILDCARDS FOR BATHURST V8 SUPERCARS THREE wildcard entries will race in the L&H 500 at Phillip Island and the Bathurst 1000.

The V8 Supercars Australia board last Thursday approved the submissions from Greg Murphy Racing, Matthew White Racing and Sieders Racing Team for the two enduros.

Adrenaline Motorsport

withdrew its application.

“We didn’t have all of our ducks in a row, so we decided to withdraw,” team owner Wayne Russell told eNews.

“We didn’t want to enter, get the wildcard and later withdraw if things didn’t work out, which could’ve cost someone else a spot.”

David Sieders, who will co-drive the Sieders entry with Andrew Fisher, is looking forward to

getting to Bathurst.

“We are working through the things we need to finalise the deals, now that we have the goahead,” he said.

“We are looking at the race like last year, with the aim to keep our noses clean and be the first wildcard entry home. That did not go our way last year, but that is what we are working towards.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Dirk Klynsmith

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J-DAVO’S NEW RIDE? INDYCAR

JAMES Davison is poised to make his Indycar debut – and it could come at the expense of Milka Duno.

Criticism of Duno’s continued presence in the IndyCar series, in cars in which she appears to be out of her comfort zone, has hit an all-time high, with new CEO Randy Bernard recently all-but calling for her to step out of the cockpit of Dayle Coyne Racing’s Dallara-Honda.

“Duno hurts the credibility of IndyCar,” Bernard said. “This is not a rich man’s sport. We need the best drivers, the

fastest and most versatile in the world, competing in Indy cars.”

Already this year, her performance at several street course events have been such that officials have ‘parked’ the wellfinanced Venezeulen before the leaders of the race start lapping her. At Watkins Glen, she was described as “the 16th corner” (on the track with 15 corners) and Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose qualifying lap was ruined when he encountered her on-line, chased her down in the pit lane afterwards and said: “Wake up!

Wake up! You have to use your mirrors if you are going to drive that slow!”

Davison, who raced in Indy Lights last

year, has acted as Duno’s driving coach at Dale Coyne Racing since the second race of the season, at St Petersburg. The suggestion has been made to Coyne that Duno step aside for Davison so that her sponsor, Citco, might enjoy better results.

In the meantime, the 21-year-old from Melbourne is working on resuming his GrandAm season. Davison, who made his series debut at Watkins Glen with Ryan Dalziel and Mike Foresy in Starworks’ BMW-Riley, is looking to return to race for the Starworks team at Watkins Glen, Montreal and Miller Motorsport Park.

– MARY MENDEZ

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

9/7/10 1:46:40 PM

CRENNO’S BACK

V8 SUPERCARS JOHN Crennan is back in the V8 Supercar business.

The Melbourne businessman, who was with the Holden Racing Team and Holden Special Vehicles at their inception, has joined Kelly Racing as Chair of its management team. His role will be to focus on the current organisation of the team, plan Kelly Racing’s future and working to identify new business opportunities.

The move comes after Crennan completed a two and a half year non-compete restraint and ambassadorship role with the Clayton-based HSV and HRT on 30 June 2010.

Crennan was with the HRT and HSV teams when both Todd and Rick Kelly joined the Clayton squads.

“John played a key part in Rick and I starting and progressing through the ranks of V8 Supercars,” said Todd Kelly.

“In my case, as a 17-year-old from the country joining the

Holden Young Lions in 1997 and with Rick as an 18-year-old in his first year championship win in Formula Holden open wheelers in 2001.

“We were rapt John accepted our recent invitation to assist our team in the areas of planning, mentoring and identifying new business opportunities.”

Crennan indicated that he felt like he was joining old friends.

“I have long enjoyed a high quality association with Margaret, John, Todd and Rick Kelly,” he.

“Todd and Rick are absolute role models in their sport and the recent decision of the family to establish their own team was a natural extension of their great reputation in the sport.

“Todd and Rick’s remarkable talents in so many areas have to be admired. How they have achieved so much in just 18 months with their new team only adds to my respect for them.” motorsport news

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WELCH VS. LOWNDES

RAED HOT TEST V8 SUPERCARS

RAED Raffii wants more seat time after testing V8 Supercar at Queensland Raceway.

The Bahraini driver tested a Supercheap Auto Holden Commodore at the track, as part of a promotion for drivers competing in the Chevrolet Supercars series in the Middle East.

“Incredible – I can’t believe how fast V8 Supercars are, they’re very, very fast race cars,” said Raffii, 21.

“They are difficult cars to drive, very different to the I drive back home in Bahrain. I put a wheel off the track a couple of times, I found it hard to slow the car down, but then the team told me to apply more brake pressure – you have to stand on them!”

The test was to go to the winner of the series but Fahad Al Musalam, who tested for Garry Rogers Motorsport and raced in Bahrain for Team Kiwi Racing in 2008, stood down in favour of his younger rival.

RACE

SUPERSPRINT

SIMON Welch doesn’t get to score points against Craig Lowndes often.

But in the eNews World Cup Tipping Competition, Welch not only took on Lowndes, but beat him – comprehensively.

Under the codename simoox, Welch dominated eNews’ first World Cup Tipping Competition. As a result, he’s won a DVD pack from Chevron.

“I’d like to thank Motorsport eNews for organising an enjoyable World Cup tipping competition,” said Welch.

“It was good fun tipping against the V8 drivers. Seeing my name above Craig Lowndes on a points table doesn’t happen very often.

“After winning a New South Wales State of Origin jumper a couple of weeks ago (what am I going to do with that?), I can only hope that the prize from Chevron isn’t a Dick Johnson DVD. I’m a Holden boy!”

Luckily for Welch, the DVD pack includes Skaifey – The Mark Skaife Story, and Australian Touring Car Races Volume 8. There’s also The Racing History of the Australian Ford Falcon XD/XE ... maybe he can give it to a mate for Christmas.

The moral is, read eNews and win! Big congratulations to Welch from everyone at eNews and Chevron.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

“V8 Supercars are unique cars to drive, but Raed has impressed us with his how he approached the test,” team owner Paul Morris said.

“He has genuine ability and is fast.

Experience counts for a lot in this category but I’m confident that with more testing he would quickly fit in and be competitive.”

Moves are afoot to have a Middle East driver compete in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series in coming seasons, and Raed may be able to do that, according to V8 Supercars Chief Executive Officer, Martin Whitaker.

“I think what’s nice about today is that Raed has had the chance to realise his own dream and ambition to drive a V8 Supercar and I think the wonderful think about it is that he’s applied himself in a very professional manner,” Whitaker said.

“Hopefully this will develop into a chance for Raed to get a drive in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and after that who knows what will happen.”

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7/4/08 10:02:02 AM

Webber backs down … a bit FORMULA 1 MARK Webber has said he now regrets some of what he said publicly at Silverstone after a British Grand Prix victory that was almost totally overshadowed by the Red Bull front-wing controversy.

Webber was furious after qualifying when team-mate Sebastian Vettel was given the upgraded front wing from Webber’s car. The Australian told the media he wouldn’t have re-signed with Red Bull had he known this would happen, and then after winning the race the next day he on the radio he described his performance as ‘not bad for a number two driver’.

“It’s a fair admission that I put

too much out to the world,” Webber told the Daily Mail newspaper. “I would have liked it not to have got out. But it did.

“I wear my heart on my sleeve and I try to be honest to myself and everyone, and I’m being honest with you.

“I don’t want any favouritism; just a fair deal. You need to make sure you don’t have any headwinds. You can’t afford anything that makes it a little bit harder for you.

“On Saturday I was obviously a bit hot under the collar with what was going on. It was a unique situation because it was the first time we had just one component. It was a tricky decision to make. I was pretty disappointed by it.

“But the upshot is that it will go the other way in the future it just will, even if that’s hard for people to believe. He was given the wing because he was higher in the championship than me.

Now I am higher, so you can follow the logic.”

The drama at Silverstone, coming just six weeks after Vettel crashed into Webber in the Turkish Grand Prix, prompted fresh talks between Red Bull Racing management and Webber and Vettel to try to clear the air.

“There is respect both ways,” Webber continued. “That’s why I will be staying with Red Bull next season. I am part of a sensational team.

“We’ve got two of us at the

Stuck Slams RBR FORMULA 1

10

outrage,” the German said.

“Whoever decided to take the new wing away from Webber qualified for his final pension.

“Christian Horner is just a puppet – the strings

for Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz are pulled solely

by Marko. Mateschitz must respond by putting in a new man at Red Bull; Tost is in every respect one of the best managers in F1.”

For full F1/MotoGP/WRC coverage/news, CLICK HERE to get to GPWeek magazine motorsport news www.gpweek.com sutton-images.com

FORMER F1 driver HansJoachim Stuck has slammed Red Bull Racing in the wake of the front wing controversy at the British Grand Prix, calling for the dismissal of both Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko and team boss

Christian Horner – and for them to be replaced by Scuderia Toro Rosso chief, Franz Tost.

In his column in the German newspaper TZ, Stuck laid blame for the furore at the feet of Marko, and described Horner as Marko’s ‘puppet’.

“What the team management did in Britain was an absolute

front. It’s a sensational problem to have. I could be at the stage of my career when I say, ‘It’s fine, mate, I don’t really care,’ but unfortunately – or fortunately – I can’t do that.

“Who knows, in the next few months, if we’re both still racing at the front, things could become more tense between us.

“Seb did nothing wrong all weekend. After the race, he shook my hand. The first rule in motorsport is to try to avoid contact with your team-mate.

After the race, I spent 20 minutes with Seb’s mechanics.

“The stories that the teams on the two sides of the garage aren’t getting on is total rubbish.

You don’t need to have enemies in life. I just want a fair crack.”

Villeneuve Racing Team?

FORMULA 1 JACQUES Villeneuve is again hoping to make a return to Formula 1, this time as part of a bid by Italian race team to fill the vacant 13th team slot on the grid in 2011.

Durango owner Ivone Pinton confirmed on the 422race.com website that Villeneuve was on board with the former GP2 team’s F1 bid.

“I really hope together we will find a place,” he said. “We still don’t know where the car would be built, but the team’s base will definitely be ours, in the Veneto (region of Italy).

“As well as being the driver, I’m sure he will make a useful contribution to the company. I think he’s preparing a job to do after he hangs up his helmet.”

Villeneuve, World champion in 1997 and winner of 11 grands prix, has made several attempts at an F1 comeback in recent times.

Having been dumped at the end of 2003 by BAR (a team set up especially for Villeneuve), he made drove three races for Renault in 2004 before signing with BMW-Sauber for 2005. But the Canadian did not make it through till the end of 2006 before being replaced

by F1’s first Polish driver,

Robert Kubica.

Earlier this year he had been earmarked as driver for the Serbian-backed Stefan GP which had access to the previous year’s Toyotas but which was unable to secure an entry, despite the nonappearance of US F1.

Villeneuve switched to NASCAR several seasons ago but both failed to impress and retain a regular drive. He has made sporadic NASCAR appearances this year, almost winning the Nationwide Series race at Elkart Lake. This weekend the former Indy 500 winner will attempt to qualify for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

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11

IndyCar 2012: BYO wings

Dallara wins bid: Chassis costs slashed: Teams to develop aero INDYCARS THE ICONIC Committee has met and has awarded the contract to supply the control IndyCar chassis for 2012 and beyond to Dallara.

The Italian manufacturer, which is also makes the current Indy chassis, was chosen ahead of BAT, Delta Wing, Lola, and Swift, the four other constructors that submitted proposals.

However, while IndyCar will continue with a spec chassis arrangement, the new deal between Dallara and the IRL allows for teams to develop their own external aero packages: dressing the chassis with different body work, including front and rear wings, side pods, engine covers, and more.

The IRL anticipates these

aero kits could be produced by automotive and aerospace companies in addition to chassis constructors.

“If two chassis were picked, such as Dallara and Lola, we’d be back to one supplier in three years,” explained Tony Cotman, a member of the ICONIC committee.

“Everyone migrates to the best package and we’d be back to a spec series. A large amount of the downforce is developed from the underwing (undertray). The aero kit consists of wings and body work, which are fine tuning devices. If we allowed the undertray open to everyone for development, the costs would be uncontrollable.

“The goal is to encourage technical partners by creating an avenue to jump on board.

We’re lucky that once Dallara

was chosen, they were willing to go along with this. We’d love to see Swift and Lola do the aero body kit.”

“If Penske develops an aero kit, it can be called a Penske. There must be a proposal submitted and approval given. There will be a period for other teams to decide if they want their own kits.

“There will be a box rule where the wing is created within a box with minimum and maximum parameters. But because of the versatility of the tracks, road courses and short and long ovals, different wings will be needed.”

Some restrictions have been placed on the development of the aero kits. Teams can only race two different aero kits in a season, and a maximum cost of the kit has been set at $70,000.

All aero kits must be approved

by the IRL. In addition, teams must make their own aero kits available to any team that wants to buy it.

The new Dallara rolling chassis, which is to be built in new facility in the town of Speedway, near Indianapolis, will cost US$385,000, or $36,000 less without bodywork.

The pricing represents a 45 percent decrease on the current Dallara cost.

“Dallara is a safe car and they now have 10 more years experience since they built the current car. You can’t have tight competition unless all the teams have money. Fifteen to 20 years ago F1 had a big difference in their cars. Right now Mark Webber is winning everything. Everyone thinks Webber learned to drive again but the car had improved a lot.”

– MARY MENDEZ

Images courtesy IndyCar Media

12

motorsport news

EDWARDS VS KES FEUD CONTINUES NASCAR NW WHO remembers the Carl Edwards vs Brad Keselowski war of 2009? Well. It’s back on.

The two drivers may have had a weekend off from NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series but that did not stop them firing more ammunition at each other in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway’s Nationwide round. On the final lap of the race, Keselowski dived inside Edwards at Turn 1, and Edwards returned fire leaving Turn 4, leaving the Penske Dodge and spinning target for cars racing for the chequered flag.

Shelby Howard piled into the helpless Keselowski at full speed, but thankfully, no drivers were hurt.

Jacques enters Brickyard 400

“My guys built me a great car,” said an unapologetic Edwards in Victory Lane.

“We came to the checkered flag, and I hate to see stuff tore up, but we came here to win and he took it from us there in Turn One.” Keselowski was not a happy man after he was released from the track’s medical centre.

“I figured out a way to beat him. He wasn’t happy with me, so he wrecked me.

“He turned left into me and wrecked me on purpose.”

The resulting win for Edwards, and 14th for Keselowski, leaves the Ford man in second, and 168 points behind the Penske Dodge driver in the NW series points. The two have a history, and there are more chapters to be written in this book before the season ends.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP

NASCAR Media

JACQUES Villeneuve will attempt to race in NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis this weekend.

The former Formula 1 World champion and Indianapolis 500 winner will attempt to qualify for this weekend’s Brickyard 400 in a Braun Racing Toyota. Villeneuve raced for that team at Road America’s “I am very excited to join with Braun Racing and [sponsor] Dollar General at Indianapolis,” Villeneuve said.

“We had a very exciting and solid race last month at Elkhart Lake. I had hoped it would result in additional opportunities to drive for the organisation.

“I have a lot of good memories at the Brickyard.

Winning the Indy 500 was a very big highlight in my career.

This will be my first venture in a stock car there, but I am confident that we will do well.”

The Canadian has just two starts at the famed Speedway, in 1994 he finished second and the next year he bettered that position to take the spoils.

– MARTIN D CLARK

250,000 reasons to be a Legend LEGENDS

www.mnews.com.au

culminated with the Legends Million feature race with the Speedway putting up the largest purse for the entry-level Yamaha powered scale cars.

The purse drew 300 racers from all over the US and several foreign countries to race on the quarter-mile frontstretch oval at the speedway.

– MARTIN D CLARK

Martin D Clark

HOW does a cool quartermillion dollars sound – for winning one race?

It sounded pretty good to Daniel Hemric at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 19-yearold bagged US$250,000 for winning the Legends race at the North Carolina track.

Pole winner and Legends veteran Dog Stevens lead 90 of the 100 laps on Saturday night, but he drifted wide just once and that allowed Hemric, right, to take the lead and the win.

For Stevens the wobble cost him $150,000, while Steven Cantrell came home third, collecting $50,000.

The two nights of racing

13

BRIEFLY... n The headline act at the Sydney Telstra 500 will be Guns N’ Roses. The veteran rockers will headline the entertainment at the second race around Sydney’s Olympic Precinct.

Guns N’ Roses will be joined by fellow American great Tony Hawk, regarded as the world’s greatest skateboarder, and other support acts.

n This year’s Australasian Safari will make a metropolitan start, with the official launch to take place at Hillarys Boat Harbour near Perth.

The 2010 Safari drivers – headlined by V8 Supercar star Craig Lowndes – will be on show at the seaside location immediately before setting off on the gruelling 3600 kilometre trek across the country’s west.

“Hillarys Boat Harbour will provide a great venue for the official start, as it will showcase the beautiful Western Australian coastline to our interstate and international competitors,” said event director Justin Hunt.

The 2010 Australasian Safari kicks off on September 17.

14

James Smith

n Will Davison, Garth Tander, Fabian Coulthard and Andrew Thompson all took part in ‘Run Melbourne’ on Sunday to raise money for the Peter Brock Foundation.

Leanne Tander and Riana Crehan also took part in the 10km run. And, in typical racecar driver speak, Davison was talking times afterwards.

“It was a great day for an even better cause,” he said.

“Unfortunately I went way to hard and had a blowout after about five kilometres, so my time wasn’t too flash, but it was about raising funds for the Peter Brock Foundation.”

Three More Six Hours for 2011

PRODUCTION CARS LOOK for a four-race endurance series for Production Cars in Australia next year – but it may not be within the current framework of the Shannons Nationals Series. eNews believes that there are advanced plans to conduct during 2011 four 6 Hour endurance races of the type that took place at Eastern Creek at the weekend. Our sources indicate that the four events will be conducted at the Creek, Phillip Island and Winton Raceway in Victoria and at Queensland Raceway.

The Production Car category has, and remains for this year, a feature on the Shannons National Motor Racing Championships. As well, it has been the headline act at the Bathurst 12 Hour since its return to the motor racing calendar in 2007, but plans to open that event up to cars that compete in the Australian GT Championship are already well-advanced.

In Sydney at the weekend, Shannons Nationals Series Manager Rob Curkpatrick backed the concept.

“I really think the race was a turning point, in the terms of the Manufacturers Championship’s role within the Shannons Nationals series,” he said.

“The competitors voted with their feet and they are overwhelmingly in favour of more

endurance racing. We exist to provide a place to race for our competitors so we are already advanced in plans for next year to do more of this kind of event.

“We have the flexibility to be able to include a variety of different formats and we have already been discussing plans for 2011 with competitors.

The Manufacturers Championship people have shown that this is what they want and it also fits well with our plans for the future of the Shannons Nationals.”

However, we believe that the promoters of the tracks involved are not necessarily planning only for the races to be part of a Shannons program, and that the races may be held as part of a ‘stand alone’ series. eNews believes that another catalyst for the proposed 6 Hour Series is a level of disappointment among a number of Producation Car competitors, who feel hard done-by by the inclusion of much more expensive GT cars in what until now has been their marquee event on the Mountain.

There are also suggestions that two of the rounds could be run as ‘twilight’ events that finish in darkness, and that there will be a television package, broadcast post-event on a yet-unnamed and free-to-air broadcaster.

– BRANAGAN/CRAILL motorsport news

news

More and more V8s at Bathurst V8 TOURING CARS THE Shannons V8 Touring Car Series is set to venture to Bathurst as a support category for next year’s 12 Hour.

It will be the first time the series has competed at Bathurst, although many of the cars have a rich history at the circuit in V8 Supercar

competition.

According to the V8 Touring Car team entrant’s representative Garry Mennell, the main goal is to give the category a flagship event to kick off the series.

“The idea is to give the competitors a premier event to race at, and then hopefully they will continue for the rest of the series,” Mennell said.

“We actually spoke to James O’Brien about supporting the event this year, but we weren’t quite ready. The numbers have gone up this year though, which has been really good for the category.

“We’ll be aiming for 20 cars but we might even get a few more than that. We’re not aiming to get a lot of Fujitsu Series competitors, but if there

are Fujitsu driver with eligible cars who want to compete, we’ll certainly welcome them.”

The V8 Touring Car Series will also continue to limit competitors to cars up to and including the VY Commodore and BA Falcon until the end of 2011, to avoid conflict with the Fujitsu Series.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

Fast among Equals

Book review: Skaifey Life in the Fast Lane IT is difficult to review a book like Skaifey Life in the Fast Lane because, from the moment I picked it up, I realised that it was not written with me in mind.

The back cover text describes Mark Skaife as “the most successful driver in Australian motorsport history”. That is not a line aimed at a cynical motorsport journo, who might otherwise nominate a Brabham, a Jones or a Brock for such a description. It speaks to someone at an airport or in a bookshop, shopping for a time-killer for a long flight, or for a Father’s Day present.

But you get past that, and get into the read. The first part of the book covers Skaife’s V8 Supercar career, not race-byrace, but with musings on seasons, before it moves on to Skaife analysing Skaife. By the end, you have been through the story, but whether you feel like you have more insight into the man would be up to the individual reader.

One thing though; it sure sounds like Skaife. There are many Skaifewords like “brands” and “life committee”, and lots of people who are “mates”, but not a huge amount of detail about what he felt inside when things were great, and when things were bad.

But here is where I felt short-changed by the book. Why people in the motor racing business in this country, and maybe elsewhere, might spend $34.95 would be for some insight into what happened inside the Holden Racing Team in 20072008, when the team was performing www.mnews.com.au

badly and when Skaife, ultimately, took his exit from the team he joined, then owned, then co-owned. And there, the book definitely comes up short.

“I won’t do you the disservice of trying to recollect those two years because, in all honesty, my memories of them are pretty foggy and I’d rather forget them,” he writes.

The closest you get to an insight is Skaife’s description of Holden Motorsport as having “a business model full of holes which were exaggerated by car company policies, high overheads and future management agreement issues”.

That lack of detail leaves you wanting more. Andrew Clarke, who ghosts the book, was at those races and so were some of Skaife’s inner circle. Rather than Clarke, or anyone else, providing memory triggers, Skaife simply cops out. There may well be sound reasons why and perhaps, in a decade or so, memories will improve and fogs will lift, and we may get the full, or less empty, story. But not now.

With Skaife still racing, and doing so in a Holden, it may also be that 2010 is a bit too soon for him to have become ‘unbranded’ and for this book to appeal to readers who are not necessarily Skaife and/or Holden fans. But I don’t rule out that situation also maturing, and also improving, with time.

I can only think that a second and revised version of this book, in a few years’ time, might provide more satisfying reading. In the meantime, Skaifey Life in the Fast Lane will appeal to fans of the man,

and does provide some commentary on what has been a stellar career. But, like I am sure many people who work in the motorsport caper, I’m selfish, and want more.

– PHIL BRANAGAN Skaifey Life in the Fast Lane $34.95 Published by Ebury Australia, through Random House Available from August 2 15

Dirk Klynsmith

BRM REMAIN UNSURE FORMULA FORD THE makeup of Team BRM’s Formula Ford line-up throughout the remainder of the 2010 season is uncertain.

Kiwi Martin Short contested the opening four rounds, but sat out Townsville with budgetary issues and was replaced by

FORMULA FORD

16

driver joining the team at Symmons Plains and/or Sandown.

“Martin’s got the budget for the Gold Coast, he’s really looking forward to racing there, and he’s trying to raise the money for the other two rounds,” team manager Mark Rundle told eNews.

“We’ll run three cars again next year, for sure, and we’re

going to do some testing in September with a couple of guys who are looking at doing the championship in 2011.

“Depending on what happens with Martin, there’s a good chance at least one of them will jump in at the end of this year to get some miles.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

REID COMING BACK

Dirk Klynsmith

SAMANTHA Reid will make her comeback to open-wheel racing next weekend at the third round of the Victorian state series at Sandown.

The South Australian, and former Formula 3 competitor, will take on the majority of the National Formula Ford field in the ‘Fiesta’ class, driving the same Van Diemen RF03 that she raced back in the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship.

“I can’t wait to get back in the seat of my Formula Ford,” she said.

“They are great cars to drive and the competition is really strong, given that it’s the world’s premier junior development category.

“I am busy preparing to return to National level competition, with my sights set on Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 12 hour endurance race in 2011.”

one of the team’s F3 pilots, Englishman Ben Barker.

Short is set to return in the next round on the Gold Coast in October, but the seat - alongside Tom Goess and Jon Mills ¬- for the final two rounds is up in the air.

The Adelaide squad will test a number of prospects for 2011 in September, which could even lead to a new

motorsport news

news

MINI CHALLENGE BERIC Lynton is set to stick around in the MINI Challenge after winning his first race at Townsville.

The Gold Coast MINI dealer took out Race 2 and scored his first overall round podium finish, in his first hitout of 2010. With

the results under his belt, he’s set to contest the remaining three rounds of the season at Phillip Island, Surfers Paradise and Homebush.

Meanwhile Dylan Thomas will trade places with his father, Dave, for the next two rounds before Dylan returns for Homebush.

LYNTON STICKING AROUND James Smith

MORE SEDANS FOR SERA SPORTS SEDANS JAMES Sera will continue his fledgling circuit-racing career in the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series at Morgan Park.

The multiple karting champion made his debut at Mallala in the last round of the series, finishing second www.mnews.com.au

for the weekend aboard Dean Randle’s Saab. Sera will race the car again at Morgan Park next month, and could end up doing the rest of the season.

“He’s going to run at Queensland,” Randle confirmed.

“It’s really just one round at a

time, but James will probably drive it for the rest of the year, I’d say at this stage.

“At Mallala, he was really good, he really enjoyed it and was easy to work with, it went well. We matched the Audi’s times in the first and second races, and if he didn’t spin in the second race he

would’ve won that.

“We’ve made a lot of changes to the car again, and there’s more to make before Morgan Park, so it should be a bit quicker again. And it’ll be a bit of a leveler as well, not many of them have been there before.”

– MITCHELL ADAM 17

NEW PIECES FOR PYE TCM

TOURING Car Masters presented by Autobarn newcomer Bill Pye will have an up-specced Camaro when the series returns from its mid-season break.

Pye is currently running fourth in the series in the ex-John Bowe Camaro heading into the next round of the series at Eastern Creek’s Muscle Car

Masters in September.

“At the moment, I’m probably not up to the standard of the other fellows up in front of me,” Pye said.

“The car is a little bit tired but we hope to fix that by Eastern Creek, we should have a new motor put in it and an upgraded brake package, which all of the other front-running cars are now running. The old motor is the one John

ran last year, it’s a bit tired; it’s blowing a lot of smoke.

“We’ll also take a bit of weight out of it, we’ve been running about 40 kilograms overweight, we need to get it back to 1600 kilograms. With all of that, I’d like to get up a bit closer to Jim and John. Andrew’s [Miedecke] the next target!”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Dirk Klynsmith

BEECHEY STEPS BACK TO HQs V8 SUPERCARS

18

James Smith

COMMODORE Cup points leader Adam Beechey will add some HQ racing to his 2010 schedule.

Beechey, who also races Speedway, has purchased the late Dallas Crane’s HQ Holden, which he intends to race in the Tasmanian State Series for the remainder of the year.

“I’m going to do some HQ racing down in Tassie to try and get the category going again,” Beechey said.

“My brother races one and I’ve just bought another one to try and boost the field, so we’re going to run that as of next month. I heard Dallas’ car was for sale, it’s a good car and we wanted to come back to Tassie anyway. You can’t go wrong with the car.

“I raced in the HQ Nationals in ‘08, it was my first time in the car, the second meeting I’d ever done and we finished second, so I was pretty happy with that.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

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19 motorsport ENEWS162 news

Five Minutes with ...

John Crennan

John Crennan is back in the V8 Supercar Game after a few seasons on the sidelines. He told PHIL BRANAGAN about his new role with Kelly Racing MOTORSPORT NEWS: You couldn’t stay away …

JOHN CRENNAN: No. Once we got the ‘noncompete’ out of the way, we could get back to business. It is a little bit like not having played football for a few years, and having been pushed into the corner and having to play cricket. That is fine but I am very happy to be back playing football.

The other side of it is that, during the time that I have had not quite so hectic a life, I did not like the sight of seeing men my age waddling up to the newsagents’ to get the paper, or to take the dog for a walk. That is just not the kind of stuff that I wanted to do.

You have been on the boundary line, watching the game. What are your impressions?

To me, the product looks fantastic, from the standpoint of crowds and the street events. I can understand the financial aspects of the overseas activities, and I guess I will look forward at taking an interest in the strategic direction that V8 Supercars are taking.

The TV product looks pretty darn good, and I understand that if you look up and down pitlane, you would never have seen better arrangements. But I understand that there is room for improvement.

But unlike my other role, I am quite happy to stay out of all that. My interest now is developing things and running a business. Todd and Rick and I go back a long way and I hope that from a back room, that I can give them a bit of extra direction, and advise them in some of those things. There is also something to do on the team side of things as well.

have decided to, I guess, have an eachway bet and have a certain amount of infrastructure and, with that, risk.

Obviously the Kellys, when they embarked on this 18 months ago, decided to undertake the ‘Superpower’ approach, and there are some great business models working in that regard.

That is where I see it coming to. By way of a more specific comparison to where HRT was and where the Kellys are, yes, there are some comparisons to be made there. A bit more finesse, a bit more planning and a bit more special development would certainly help the performance, I am sure.

You have always been one to recognise the value of a brand. Jack Daniel’s must be a pretty good brand to have from Day 1 with this project.

Yes, and that was quite exhilarating for me. I met last week in Sydney with the Managing Director and their key people, we had a three-hour review meeting.

I was most impressed with their vision and the feel that they have. I know that it is an iconic brand, but I was impressed.

As I said, branding is probably my favourite topic. I can see a lot in the things that they do, so I am really looking

forward to working with them.

I want to spend a day up there as soon as I can so I can get down further into how that works. We can both build up well, build up the energy.

I am always wary of asking people whether they are taking on a full-time role. Full-time in this business can mean 100 hours a week.

How active do you think you will be?

First of all, it is an honorary role. I wouldn’t and did not want to take any fees for this.

I just have great admiration and respect for these guys and I would love to play a part in them becoming a force in the business.

Where I sit at the moment, there are some high fences to jump, and I hope that we will be on top of that in the next month or two months. It might be two or three days a week.

I am also retaining my office at Richmond, where Mark Skaife has an office as well. He and I will be doing some work in the road safety area, and I have invited by GM in Detroit to get involved in a major automotive group over there, and to do some work for this group. I will be going over there in August, so there are some things that I will have bouncing along.

Do you see similarities between where Kelly Racing is now, and where HRT has been in the past?

Yes, to a certain extent. There are, quite obviously, two opposite business models in this game at the moment. There are the large operations that have decided to have fully self-contained arrangements, where they are not dependent upon anybody. Then there are the teams that 20

motorsport news

chat

Dirk Klynsmith

www.mnews.com.au

21

Paul Cross/Chevron

Car of The Future?

No, Back to the Future WE’RE still waiting to find out exactly what the V8 Supercar Car Of The Future will be. But from the little that I’ve seen of it, the future of V8 Supercars looks a lot it might be a re-run of the past – but at only two thirds the price.

Reducing costs appears to be the main thrust of the project, and that’s surely an admirable and necessary endeavour.

The other big thing Mark Skaife and his team have been focussing on is building parameters into the COTF spec that will make it easier for new manufacturers to get involved.

But there’s a third area I’m hoping will get some attention – the way the cars behave on the track.

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago while watching the Nationwide NASCAR Elkhart Lake race on TV. While there were moments when it was like a game of rugby in a tennis court as the big, heavy stockcars lurched their way round the narrow road course, what struck me was just how entertaining it was: they were sliding around like touring cars from a previous era; they were routinely side-by-side, and they were overtaking one another.

NASCARs aren’t even touring cars in the traditional sense of what we perceive as a touring car, but they’ve got all the old-fashioned touring car ingredients you don’t much see these days: big, 22

OPINION

heavy cars that don’t handle or stop all that well, and don’t have Steve Normoyle – much downforce.

Special Projects Editor These are all the things that V8 drive 5-litre V8 package that could match Supercars aren’t. the twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive Nissan The problem with V8 Supercars is, like GT-R. To do this, the men at the Holden most touring car categories, that they’re Racing Team and, at Ford, Glenn Seton too good for their own good. and Dick Johnson, opted to go for as Given that the Car Of The Future is a much downforce as they could physically kind of a clean slate, I’m hoping they take achieve.

Hence the wings. the opportunity to really think about the The GT-R was banished by the end of physical characteristic of the cars. What the season, but the big wings and front I’m hoping is that they get rid of those air dams on the V8s remained. huge rear wings and front splitters.

If, as goes the argument against They add nothing to the spectacle, getting rid of wings in F1, it’s a question other than to tie down to the road a of cosmetic appeal (taste is subjective, car that otherwise would be a fairly but I reckon V8 Supercars would look attention-grabbing prospect for a driver awesome if they took the wings off ) and who has to deal with the physics of the fact that it’s extra real estate for the 1350kg and 480kW on moderately sized sponsors’ decals, then leave them on but tyres, and bugger all downforce. make them ineffective.

Let’s face it, the aero kits are only there If that makes the cars unwieldy to the via a quirk of history that dates way point of unsafe at places like Bathurst back to 1991. When the VP Commodore and Phillip Island, then perhaps we could and EB Falcon – effectively the first V8 legislate for an adjustment allowance at Supercars, and the basic blueprint for the those tracks.

A bit like an aero equivalent cars as they are today – were developed of the sprint tyre rounds. for racing, the objective was to win the Let the Car Of The Future bring a 1992 Bathurst 1000 as much as it was to revival of old-school style touring car create a new V8-only category. racing.

That meant coming up with a rearmotorsport news

comment

Dirk Klynsmith

Geoff Emery moves from Fujitsu Series racer to Main Game pilot with Murphy Motorsport’s wildcard entry

STEPPING UP TO THE MAIN GAME

W

E are going to the V8 Supercar endurance races with Greg Murphy Racing, and that is a great boost to help us through the winter break.

I have never run in the Main Game or in any of the endurance races and it is always good to be measuring against the guys you watch when you are at the races, or on television.

Our first expectation is to beat all the other wildcards in the races at Phillip Island and Bathurst. That is the goal that we take into it and we do not want to have too high

www.mnews.com.au

expectation to measure up to.

We want to show good speed and bring the car home in one piece, and that is more important than unrealistic aims.

The endurance race put you in endurance mode, and that is a fair bit different to other events. We train pretty hard for the Fujitsu Series anyway; I have a personal trainer that I use throughout the season and you need to keep your cardio up, and that will be something you focus on with the longer races coming up.

GMR pus together a good package, we had good car speed at Townsville last week.

PERSONAL

We were on the pace, and the

racing, there are a few

Geoff Emery – Greg Murphy Racing and the team will be working hard to make sure that that is the same for the long races.

We are still in the process of sorting out some of the details yet – we have not sorted out who will be the other driver in the car just yet so that is obviously something that we need to get moving on as soon as we can. It is like any other part of

considerations to be finalised.

The races will obviously be exciting to be involved with.

Nobody needs to be told how important Bathurst is, and there will be a few drivers that we race against in the Fujitsu Series making the step up for those races.

It’s going to be a challenge but I am really looking forward to it.

23

AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP AUSTRALIAN SIX HOUR, EASTERN CREEK

24

motorsport news

race

WEST OF THE BEST It was pretty simple, really. Stuart Kostera and Warren Luff were too good for the rest of the field in the first-ever Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour. LACHLAN MANSELL reports

S

John Morris/Mpix

www.mnews.com.au

TUART Kostera and Warren Luff have annihilated the opposition in the inaugural Dial Before You Dig Six Hour at Eastern Creek, winning the race by two laps in their Team Mitsubishi Ralliart Evo X. After starting the race from pole position, Kostera and Luff settled into a rhythm and lapped consistently quicker than every other car in the field for almost the entire duration of the race. Of the 195 laps they completed, there were only nine that they didn’t lead, such was their domination.

“We had a good strategy, and we stuck to it,” Luff said after the race.

“We knew tyres were going to be a big factor over the race distance, so we were conservative to start with, but we pushed hard once we knew where we were at.

“Team Mitsubishi Ralliart did a fantastic job with all the car preparation and race strategy, and the car didn’t miss a beat all day. Stuart and I were very evenly matched as well which definitely gave us an advantage.”

Inky Tulloch and Steve Jones came home second to make it a Team Mitsubishi Ralliart 12. Both drivers were consistent, but lacked the outright pace to take it up to Kostera and Luff.

“I was aiming for one spot higher, but we just couldn’t catch Stuart and Warren,” Tulloch admitted after the race.

Peter Conroy and Mark Brame brought their Evo X home in the final podium position after sneaking up on some of the more fancied runners as the race progressed, while the third TMR car of Glyn Crimp and Matt Cherry finished fourth. While Cherry churned out some impressive lap times, Crimp simply did not have the pace of the front-runners.

Peter O’Donnell and John Bowe won Class B and finished fifth outright despite Bowe being unhappy with the two-time Bathurst 12-Hourwinning BMW 335i’s handling on full fuel tanks. Rounding out the Top 10 was the well-driven Subaru STI of Barton 25

James Smith James Smith

26

Men in Black: Led by Alan Heaphy (centre), the TMR team were way too strong, above. John Bowe and Peter O’Donnell, below, took on the 4WDs and finished fifth outright, while Chris Delfsma and Dean Neville struggled with tyre problems, bottom.

John Morris/Mpix

Mawer/Gavin Bullas, the Mitsubishi Evos of Jim Pollicina/Anthony Loscialpo/Gerry Murphy and David Wall/ Des Wall (who were in contention for an outright podium until a hub failure), the Astra of Ryan McLeod/Garry Holt (Class D winners) and the Mazda 3 of Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas, who recovered from a broken gear stick to win Class C. Class E was taken out by Bob Holden, Justin Matthews and Craig Bradshaw, who finished 18th outright.

Incredibly, there were no Safety Car interventions during the race, and the reliability rate was also better than some predicted, with 20 of the 25 starters making it to the chequered flag. Out of the five nonfinishers, two were forced into retirement just minutes away from the race finish. The Renault Clio of Richard Gartner/Francois Jouy/Carl Schembri came into the pits for a fuel top-up with five minutes to go and couldn’t restart, while a driveshaft failure in the Steve Briffa/Christian D’Agostin HSV Clubsport R8 ended their run a gutwrenching six corners away from the finish line.

Other non-finishers were the Tony and Klark Quinn Mitsubishi, who suffered engine problems, and the second Renault Clio of Ian Thorp/Aaron Thorp/Ray Curry, who battled race-long with various gremlins. Both those cars made it further than the FG FPV F6 of Rod Barrett, Peter Boylan and Geoff Morgan, which lasted just seven laps.

motorsport news

INTRODUCING THE TMR BATHURST EDITION LANCER EVOLUTION.

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Order now from your local Lancer Evolution Dealer. For further information contact TMR on (03) 9271 3668 or visit tmraustralia.com.au

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19/01/10 3:20 PM

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Join the winning team at TMR!

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Please forward applications and resumes to tmr@tmrperformance.com.au or mail to PO Box 5166 Hallam VIC 3803 www.mnews.com.au

27

SIX-HOUR – RACE EXTRA

WRAP ATTACK

T

HE Bathurst 1000 has had a history of competitors being forced to remove their front and rear windscreens due to misadventures, most recently with Craig Lowndes and Yvan Muller in 2005.

At the six-hour, Terry Conroy, Richard Mork and Matthew Hayes were treated to the same air-conditioned motoring thanks to an unfortunate incident in the morning warm-up session in their Honda Integra Type R, as Mork explained.

“The scrutineers wanted to check the car, so they opened the bonnet, and when they had finished, someone stupidly forgot to do up the bonnet pins,” he said.

“The windscreen flew up and smashed the windscreen, and with such a short time before the race, we couldn’t replace it.”

Originally the stewards weren’t going to allow the car to start the race, but the team, ever the innovators, decided to rig up a temporary screen with glad wrap. When the race started, the temporary screen instantly disintegrated, and Richard Mork pitted after the first lap to have the rear screen removed, as per the regulations.

“We just pulled out the whole hatch because that was quickest,” Mork explained. “We had to add 20 kilos of ballast to make sure we weren’t underweight.

“It was very breezy but I’m used to it because of the racing I’ve done on motorbikes. It cost us a lot of top-end speed though, and we were probably about a second a lap slower.”

Despite the uncomfortable driving conditions and compromised pace, the Integra’s three drivers soldiered on to eventually finish an impressive 13th outright and second in Class D. – LACHLAN MANSELL

28

motorsport news

race

A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME

Q

UALIFYING for the six-hour involved two half-hour sessions, with the times from the two sessions combined to determine the grid positions for the race, using the time set by the starting driver in each vehicle.

Stuart Kostera and Warren Luff used

the qualifying session to pre-empt their domination of the race, qualifying on pole by 1.2s from the BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnell and John Bowe, who were the best of the Class B runners. The Wall/Wall, Cherry/Crimp and Quinn/ Quinn Evos rounded out the Top 5 on the grid.

Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas took pole for Class C with 10th outright, Ryan McLeod and Garry Holt put their Astra on pole for Class D with 17th outright, and the sole Class E car, the Holden/ Matthews/Bradshaw Toyota Yaris, was 24th overall.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

John Morris/Mpix

John Morris/Mpix

TURNING THREE INTO TWO A

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James Smith

John Morris/Mpix

FEW teams in the six-hour were originally entered with three drivers, but then cut back to two after a strange quirk in the rules was discovered.

Perhaps the best example of this was Subaru team owner Jim Hunter, who stood himself down from driving duties, leaving Barton Mawer and Gavin Bullas to complete the race, pictured right.

Mawer explained the reason for the decision.

“When we looked at the rules, it appeared as though they were written for two drivers only,” he said.

“The rules said that each driver had to do at least one and a half hours in the car, so if all three of us had driven, we would have had to do an extra stop for a driver change at some point. It worked out more efficient to just have two drivers.”

Several other teams also made last-minute alterations to their plans to suit this regulation.

Benched drivers included Michael Gray (scheduled to drive with Lauren Gray and Jake Williams), Trevor Symonds (scheduled to drive with David and Des Wall) and Paul Morris (scheduled to drive with Ryan McLeod and Garry Holt). The best of the teams to use three drivers was the Jim Pollicina/Anthony Loscialpo/Gerry Murphy entry, which finished seventh outright.

– LACHLAN MANSELL

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SIX-HOUR – SUPPORTS

Se cond Hand: Garioch’s Saloon Car was very bent after Race 3, top, while Jamieson took round honours, above. Matilda Mravicic was a fast femme in Mazdas, below, while Kieran Pilkington was the man to beat in HQs, right.

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motorsport news

race

CRASH STOPS SALOONS Trackside smash cuts race for Saloons at The Creek. RICHARD CRAILL reports

A

James Smith

MASSIVE final race crash marred an otherwise competitive fourth round of the Australian Saloon Car Series, as the Shannons Nationals categories hit Eastern Creek in support of the Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour.

Two Ford Falcons driven

by Nathan Garioch and Dean Kelland were all but destroyed in a Race 3 crash that was triggered when Garioch’s car failed while sitting on the grid.

The car was pushed to the side of the circuit and the field reset before a full race restart – but was collected when Kelland’s Falcon was tagged by another competitor as the field crossed the line to complete the first lap at speed.

With his car turned around at

high speed, Kelland slammed backwards into the stranded Falcon parked on the side of the circuit. The massive crash caused huge damage and left officials with no other option but to abandon the race with just one lap in the books.

Both drivers escaped major injury, however Kelland was taken to hospital for precautionary checks due to the severity of the impact.

He was later released and returned to the circuit with nothing more than a stiff neck.

Prior to the dramatic conclusion to the weekend’s action, Shaun Jamieson emphatically returned himself to the top of the Saloon Car series standings after two race victories on Saturday.

After taking pole position by a mammoth margin – 1.2

seconds – the South Australian Holden driver rebounded from a dramatic weekend at Winton in June that saw his car excluded from the second race due to a technical infringement.

Whilst Jamieson won both races, his title rivals self destructed and in the process threw the points standings wide open. Winton winner and series leader Simon Tabinor didn’t even get a start after his Commodore’s flywheel departed from the engine in qualifying, leaving him parked for the weekend. And Victorian Tim Rowse pushed Jamieson hard in Race 1 and finished right on the rear bumper of the Red Commodore in a sign that the pole-sitter wouldn’t have things all his own way – but was subsequently

left seething after a Race 2 incident that saw him turned around by Ryan McLeod.

In other races, Matilda Mravicic and Daniel Deckers split the honours in the Mazda MX5s, Mravicic taking pole position and Race 1– after a tight battle with Deckers – before retiring from the second race.

She rebounded to charge from the rear to finish the final race second, but Deckers swept through to take his second win from two starts, and therefore the weekend overall.

Kieran Pilkington swept all three non-championships HQ Holden races, the well established New South Welshman having the measure of Greg King and Duane Cambridge all weekend.

John Morris/Mpix

John Morris/Mpix James Smith

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31

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES ROUND 10, TORONTO

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POWER’S PATIENCE

He sat back, waited and then pounced – that’s how Will Power won IndyCar’s annual visit to Toronto

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Green Machine: A fresh lick of paint saw Dario Franchitti finish second, pictured, while Justin Wilson couldn’t turn an early lead into a win, far right.

W

ILL Power is surging towards the IndyCar crown following a dramatic victory on the streets of Toronto.

It was a typically incident-packed and Pace Car-plagued Toronto Indy race, but the moment of truth was just a straight out clean piece of racing for the lead.

It happened 14 laps from home in the 85-lap journey as Justin Wilson struggled for grip during one of the race’s many restarts. He slid a little wide at Turn 1 and that was all the invitation Will Power needed to take the lead and a victory that would be the 150th openwheeler triumph for Team Penske.

“I know how this race goes,” Power said. “I really hung in there and waited and waited. I knew if I made no mistakes and had good stops, we’d have a chance of finishing on the podium or maybe winning. When I passed Justin, that was the key to the race.

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“It’s quite an honour to help get Penske Racing its 150th openwheel win. That’s just an incredible feat by a great team.”

For Wilson it was to be a disappointing day that had promised plenty. Off pole position the British driver looked strong for much of the race, and his Dreyer & Reinbold team timed the pit strategy to perfection by running Wilson longer than Power and Dario Franchitti, so that Wilson resumed in the lead after they’d all done their last stops.

But then came Power’s ambush, followed half a lap later by a spin for Wilson that dropped him to seventh.

“As I went through Turn 7 I felt the car get sideways, so I got on the brakes,” Wilson said. “But I just locked the rears all the way through the brake zone and couldn’t get them unlocked enough to make the corner.

“At first I thought I had a puncture on the left rear, but I think it was probably

just pick-up from while we were running under caution – I hadn’t cleaned the tyres off enough before the restart.”

Wilson’s woes gifted second place to Franchitti, who got one last chance to attack Power when the Pace Car came out for the final time after Tomas Scheckter tangled with Alex Tagliani. But the Australian held firm till the end.

“The key moments really were those last restarts,” Franchitti said. “Justin looked like he was struggling to get up to speed on the reds. Will almost crashed in one. I thought I’d get him there, but he kind of carted me a bit down the back straight into three. I would have done the same to him, so it wasn’t anything too bad.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan made it a three-four for Andretti Autosport, with fellow Andretti driver Danica Patrick finishing sixth behind Graham Rahal.

motorsport news

race

Top 10 Points: Power 377, Franchitti 335, Scott Dixon 299, Ryan Briscoe 292, Hunter-Reay 286, Helio Castroneves 285, Kanaan 273, Wilson 240, Wheldon 231.

Results :: Race 10 – Toronto, Canada

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Pos

#

Driver

Team

Qual

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

12 10 37 11 02 7 22 26 78 4

Will Power Dario Franchitti Ryan Hunter-Reay Tony Kanaan Graham Rahal Danica Patrick Justin Wilson Marco Andretti Simona de Silvestro Dan Wheldon

Verizon Team Penske Air Wick Ganassi Team IZOD Andretti 7-Eleven Andretti NHR/Quick Trick Newman/Haas GoDaddy Andretti Z-Line Design Dreyer & Reinbold Venom Energy Andretti Stargate Worlds HVM National Guard Panther

2 5 4 8 14 12 1 10 21 15

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BRUNO’S SHOCK WIN IRC

IN the dying stages of the Rally Azores, it looked like a certain Skoda 1-2. In the end, Bruno Magalhaes led home a Peugeot 1-2. Funny sport, rallying ...

Having had to battle Magalhaes all rally, Skoda man Juho Hanninen looked like he had it won, heading into the final loop of stages with a 20s margin thanks to his challenger suffering a gearbox problem.

But on the penultimate stage, a puncture took Hanninen out of contention.

That put Jan Kopecky in the box seat for the win, but on the final stage of the rally he crashed out, handing a remarkable win to Magalhaes ahead of Kris Meeke.

“It’s like a dream and I think we deserved it after the problem with our gearbox,” said Magalhaes.

“We pushed from the first metre of the

first stage, we led for a long time and won many stages and didn’t make any mistake.

When I saw the car of Jan Kopecky I could not believe what was happening and I drove very slowly to the finish. It’s a

fantastic feeling.”

Hanninen continues to lead the Intercontinental Rally Challenge from Kopecky, with Magalhaes now in third place.

CHEV, BEEMERS SPLIT BRANDS HONOURS WTCC

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BMW and Chevorlet continued to split the honours in the World Touring Car Championship, with each manufacturer taking a 1-2 finish at Brands Hatch last weekend.

The first went to the Chevs, with Yvan Muller turning pole position into an easy race win ahead of team-mate Robert Huff and independent Colin Turkington.

But on Sunday, it was Andy Priaulx who had an easy time of things, cruising to the win ahead of Turkington, who capped off a great weekend with second place.

Yvan Muller was fifth in the second race, retaining his title lead in the process.

motorsport news

race

RIGON NO BELGIAN WAFFLE SUPERLEAGUE FORMER Superleague Formula series winner Davide Rigon was back in the action last weekend, taking out Zolder’s super final for Belgian club Anderlecht.

The home win for the club came comfortably, with only Rigon and Chris van der Drift having new tyres for the final race.

Earlier in the weekend, van der Drift dominated the first race for Olympiacos, the Kiwi winning by well over a second

from the rest of the field. Then in the reverse-grid Race 2, Julien Jousse took his first win in the series for Roma.

Aussie John Martin had an ordinary weekend for Beijing Guoan, finishing 13th in Race 1, and seventh in Race 2.

PYE AFTER WINNER AUSSIES OVERSEAS SCOTT Pye has continued to claw his way back into contention for the 2010 British Formula Ford title with two third places at Rockingham Speedway last weekend.

While no one was good enough to beat first-time winner Tio Ellinas in either of the races, Pye’s consistent, and careful, run to third place in each race puts him well in touch with current series leader Scott Malvern.

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27th KINGS ROYAL ELDORA SPEEDWAY, USA

S

TEVE Kinser pocketed a cool US$50,000 for winning the 27th Kings Royal at his carowner’s – NASCAR star Tony Stewart – Eldora Speedway on the weekend, beating home Australian Kerry Madsen, Donny Lasoski and Donny Schatz.

The Kings Royal kicked off “The Month of Money” in the World of Outlaws, and is used as a strong form guide for the world’s biggest Sprintcar event, the Knoxville Nationals, on August 11-14.

Madsen took the lead from Kinser on Lap 12, only to have Kinser nearly return the favour as the pair had a drag race down the front straightaway.

But Madsen would hold after blasting to the high-side in Turn 2 and quickly pulled away.

Madsen had victory in sight, but Kinser had other ideas, hunting down Madsen and grabbing the lead back at a restart with three laps left.

“It was a lot of fun to get out there and win it tonight,” said Kinser.

“Kerry ran a great race and I hated to get into him on the last night, but you have to go for it when you can go for it. I just really enjoy getting to run at Eldora.

“I was reeling him in pretty fast and got into the wall on the front stretch, and [then] got right back on him and got into the wall on the back chute as I was going to go by him. I was catching him pretty quick and messed up both times. I got a third chance, so I guess it ended up all right.

“We always look forward to the Kings Royal. We have run it for a number of years and it’s always a special race. It’s one of the biggest races of the year and I always enjoy racing at Eldora

anyway. Most of us race drivers would race for nothing to win the Kings Royal, but the money is good and you need that to keep going up and down the road. It definitely is a race you want to try to win.”

For Madsen it was a case of so close but so far.

“I’m just disappointed,” Madsen said.

“I knew the gloves were going to come off on that last restart. You get such a good run coming off [Turn] 4, and it worked every time. We just didn’t get it done on that last restart.

It was exciting, but unfortunately we were second. We’ll just go on from here.

“The car was unreal, how good it was. We had a quicker car, but two laps wasn’t enough to get back by him.

We’ll have to deal with second here tonight, but I am very proud of this team.”

Kinser, the 20-time World of Outlaws champion, won the first Kings Royal in 1984, and followed that up with victories in the famed event in 1988, 1991, 1997, 2003 and 2005. The Sprintcar legend is the only driver that has made the A-Feature at all Kings Royals, finishing on the podium 15 times.

For Kinser’s car owner Stewart, he completed double duties, winning the 360 class feature and setting the fastest lap time in qualifying, while Kasey Kahne finished 15th in the AMain and fellow NASCAR pilot Dave Blaney also made the main feature finishing 24th.

Melbourne’s Domain Ramsey finished the C-Main in seventh, with Mount Gambier’s Steven Lines getting 16th in the B-Main and Bruce White of Sydney 19th.

KINSER

Aussie Kerry Madsen went close, but as GEOFF ROUNDS reports, Steve Kinser is still the King of Eldora

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STILL THE KING

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IPRA Nat & State Champion2007 8th outright World Ssuperlap 2010 Comes with truck & triaxle covered trailer Many spares & extras Suitable fo: Superlap/ Time attack, Supersprints, Hill Climb & Circuit Racing See:http://www.advanwheels. com.au/racing/car.aspx?id=13 For car specs. $110,000 ONO. Jeff Brandstater 0425 289 171 / 02 98344604.

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rear of grid

Odd S pot

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We couldn’t let this issue of eNews go past without a special mention of the incredible Valentino Rossi, who had to hobble to his bike to take part in the German MotoGP – just six weeks after busting his leg in a crash. He finished fourth with a remarkable ride. Full details are in our sister magazine GPWeek – www.gpweek.com

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