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Issue 125
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(NZ SS.9S inci GST)
NEWS
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INSIDE Webber’s big week
Mark Webber played a starring role in his GT debut, but had to settle for third place in his Mercedes debut. Mike Kable was there to bring you the full story of his weekend.
V8 Supercar stars on dirt Russell Ingall and Larry Perkins step into the Sprintcar of Garry Rush for a wild taste of life on the dirt. Full story inside.
Gardner speaks out
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(Photo -by (Bmorne Neander -^ouentry Studio)
THE perennial Holden versus Ford battle stepped into a new arena at Phillip Island last weekend when the Holden Racing Team accused the Ford Supercar teams of ‘sandbagging’. Mobil-HRT Team Manager Jeff Grech lodged a written com plaint with the stewards of the meeting after race one, alleging that the Ford teams were play ing ‘possum’.
By PHIL BRANAGAN In the letter, Grech com plained that the Fords were capable of running faster in the first race and that, when leader* Mark Skaife and second-placed Craig Lowndes dropped their times by about a second late in the race, the Ford teams fol lowed suit. While the letter is not believed to suggest why that would hap pen, the Grech’s'inference is
clearly that Ford drivers were slowing to assure the implementation of the parity adjustment recommended last week by the Performance Review Committee to slow the Holdens. Sources within at least two Holden teams suggested that, on the Wednesday before the race while shaking down his new Ford Credit Falcon, Glenn Seton recorded times in the lm32 second bracket, with a best of lm32.7s, 1.2s faster than he achieved in qualifying.
While Seton would not comment on that, he did (like the rest of the Ford camp) react angiily to the suggestion that he was not giving 100 percent. “I can’t believe that people can be so immature and carry on like that,” he said firmly. “I really wanted to do well here, especially after the result at Lakeside, ‘Ford have had directions [in the past] to slow our cars from Continued Page 3
Now that the dust has settled, Frank Gardner speaks openly about his split with BMW and his new association with Mercedes-Benz.
Kart natloiiais The Sprint Karts had their big Nationals weekend at Geelong and we bring you ail the action - P44 ISSN 1320-9744
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Lowndes stars at the Island