Motorsport News Issue 204 - April 27-May 10, 2001

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TARGA: Richards - again

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Webber dominates F3OO0

FI driver shuffle

Island Superbike rain-

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Experience it at your authorised Ford Dealer now or call 1800 503 673,

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news

Issue 204 27 April - 11 May 2001

INSIDE

News and Opinion

4 6 9

14 16 28 82

The heat is on in Darwin Teams face extra race Prost/Jag driver swap Burti and de la Rosa move Nissan in Formula One? Second Renault engine supply?

Alex Davison wins Wanna do Targa 2002, Davo?

Go West to 500s The Ant bags an IMSR500 Box Seat The Tifosi eats Pavlov's dog (?)

Talk Converter Readin', writin', arithmetic

Features 32 36

The Art of Strategy Brains v Brawn in pit lane Brother, where art thou?

Michael and Ralf and the others

Race Coverage 38 44 46 55 58 FI: SCHU 2 BREAKTHROUGH

tO^lE A

U8 DRIVER ANGER jRBnmemmvecotismnv TARO., RIchArd.-

ibber domlnatai F300O

FI driver shuffle Island Swparbike rain-out

Photos: Cover: Marshall Cass. Contents: Marshall Cass, Sutton-lmages and Paris Charles.

66

Targa Tasmania One more for Richo and Oliver Superbikes at the Island Edwards and the weather win Williams back on top Raify won one, Juan didn't Imola Formula 3000 We've gone Webber-crazy Willowbank Tin Tops Victor Victorious Easter Sprintcar Trail Must be Easter; Dumesny won

Regular Departments

26 56 58 62 64 70 72 76

Motorcycles Rallying Drag Racing NASCAR Speedway Histories National Scene Marketplace

1

Drivers angered by inconsistency I'H'

LAMBDEN '

CONTROL of driving standards is set to raise its head at this weekend’s Shell Series round at Eastern Creek.

A number of V8 Supercar drivers have raised concerns about inconsistencies from Race Control during the Clipsal 500 and the subject is expected to be broached at this weekend's pre-event drivers’ briefing.

Motorsport News understands that a number of experienced drivers have expressed concern to V8 group TEGA, citing inconsistencies in the outcome of several incidents diiring the two Clipsal 500 races.

KRTs Mark Skaife is among those with concerns, some of which he expresses in this

4

"I thought it was the worst case of how the Race Administration and Judicial System acted that I have seenrr

- Mark Skaife on the Adelaide 500 week's Motor Mouth feature (see page 27); “Now that I’ve seen the vision of a lot of the weekend, I thought it was the worst case of how the Race Administration and Judicial System acted that I have seen.

“They were so inconsistent. A couple of the incidents were quite severe, and yet the one they pinged Bargwanna for was relatively minor ...” he said this week.

Larry Perkins concurred: “Anyone who thinks the drivers are getting a fair go, isn’t looking at the facts,” he said.

“There’s extreme inconsistencies and unfairness - which have affected all three race meetings so far this year.”

“The time has come to concede that this is an area where the day of the honorary official, no matter how well-meaning, is numbered. We need senior people who are paid for their input and thus have a job description - which enables their performance to be measured properly.”

It is understood that the Adelaide Stewards and driving standards observer Colin Bond have been asked to provide TEGA with a written outline of the reasons for their decisions during the Clipsal 500.

motorsport news

NEWS FI peace deal

As we closed for press, we heard that Bernie Ecclestone has brokered a peace deal with Kirch Media which will secure the future of Formula One. The manufacturers will gain one-third of Kirch and EM.TV's 75 percent holding in FI. Full details next issue.

Two,three, one: The V8 Supercar teams like Darwin, but some don’t like the third race this year. (Photoby oi*Kiynsmiih)

ams critical of arwin evolution Champ not happy: Mark Skaife and others are calling for tougher, more consistent enforcement after the actionpackedAdelaide 500.

(Photo byAF1-images)

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by PHIL BRANAGAN AVESCO is facing criticism from competitors over the scheduling of an extra race at the Hidden Valley round of the Shell Championship Series on May 12/13.

There will now be a 20-minute sprint race on the program on Saturday afternoon, as well as the previously scheduled two 100km races on Sunday.

That means that the teams will face an early start, with an early practice session at 0830, another at 1030, Qualifying at 1245, the Top 10 Run-off at 1350 and Race 1 at approximately 1615.

Lan-y Perkins and Ford Tickford Racing team manager Jon Matthews have both said that their teams -will be stretched by the extra race.

“It’s an awful lot of work to do on the Saturday,” said Perkins.

“I’m critical of the amount of feedback by AVESCO to the teams.

I accept the board’s decision, but I have a problem with being infoimed about it weeks after the decision was made.”

AVESCO infonned the teams of the change last Friday(April 20), two weeks after Motorsport News was told ofthe additional race on

Friday,April 6,in Adelaide.

“The notification only went out late last week,” confirmed Tony Manson, AVESCO’s Operations Manager. “It just didn’t go out, and we have been

pretty contrite with the teams about that.”

Matthews questions whether, with the high cost of running a twocar team, the expense is justified.

“It’s just loading up the teams in terms of expense,” he said.

“They have thi'own in an extra race and it just adds to our costs.

The more laps you do, the more you spend. We are no better or worse off than anyone else, but it is'a strain.”

Matthews also said that, vidth the cun-ent calendar, the teams were already under pressure.

“You’ve got Eastern Creek this week, then you have to leave for Darwin on Monday (ie, May 7).

There is one week to prepare the cars between Canben-a and Perth.

We don’t need extra races.”

Perkins suggested that changes could me made to the Saturday program to take the heat off the teams.

“Fd like to see the Top 10 squashed to fi-ee up the program.

There’s a lot on and,in my opinion, that is the ob-vious thing to get rid of’ At the moment, the third 2001 race is a one-off.

“Originally, they (the Hidden Valley promoters) wanted a full 100km race,” said Manson,“but a 20 minute race is what we can pro-vide.

“We have to talk about the future. They want maximum entertainment for the fans on Satm-day, and they clearly want the race to stand - Larry Perkins out.’

Td like to see the Top 10 squashed to free up the program"

n The Lansvale team has again tested a young driver, obviously with an eye on the endurance races. Tim Leahey is the latest, having briefly tested Cameron McConville's Optus VX Commodore at Eastern Creek. The former Formula Holden race winner is also trying to do a deal to run Craig Harris' Castrol Falcon at the Phillip Island Konica round as Harris will be away overseas. n Mick Donaher will be back in a V8 Supercar at the Konica Series round at Winton next weekend. The New South Welshman is down to drive the Team SA Falcon EL, which Adam Wallis drove in the first two rounds of the series. n Another NSWer, Peter Doulman, is going to have a run at Eastern Creek this weekend in what used to be the Gatorade Commodore. The M3 Motorsport team has sold its Level 2 franchise to Team Kiwi, and Doulman has reverted to #52, the number he and John Cotter carried on their exBrock BMWs when they first appeared on the touring car scene in the late BOs/early 90s. n As we closed for press, provisional final placings for the Targa Tasmania came through. Jim Richards and Barry Oliver won,from Tony Quinn, Craig Dean, Neal Bates and Ray Lintott.

Tuesday's final and very wet leg produced no less than seven crashes, including former winner Peter Fitzgerald, who suffered a fractured vertebrae when his Porsche hit a bank.

Also suffering lower back injuries was NSW driver Tony Esplin, whose Escort crashed heavily.

Event coverage starts on page 38. n No names, no pack drill, but MN hears that a prominent and recently- . retired international driver is shopping for real estate on the Gold Coast. The former open-wheel star, currently out of a ride, is finding the lure of Queensland weather and the current exchange rate a little too tempting and could settle here with wife and family. And yes, he does have international experience in V8powered saloons... n Tony Cochrane's name was prominent in the list of Australia's top earners in show business. The AVESCO Chairman, along with SEL co-owners James Erskine, David Coe and Basil Scaffidi, were on pole position in the rankings, which estimated SEL's 2000 income at $29 million. Cochrane owns 10 percent of the company.

5

Rahal under pressure?

AS Jaguar’s difficulties continue, reports are already suggesting that Bobby Rahal’s tenure at the top of the FI team may be threatened.

Jaguar Racing has been having a difficult time in recent days with a switch of drivers and the cancellation of the planned team headquarters at Silverstone. To add to the misery, Eddie Irvine has again begun to talk about the team’s lack of performance.

In the opening four races of the year Jaguar has recorded four pointless finishes, two mechanical retirements and two spins exactly the same record as at the same point last season - and little is expected by way of improvement.

Niki Lauda, installed as chief of Ford's performance arm in Februaiy, said;“We will have new aerodynamics for Austria and again in Monaco, but we need a completely new monocoque and you can't do that in mid-season. All we can do is keep the motivation in our team.”

The Germanic influence at Jaguar, with Lauda answering to Premier Automotive Group chief Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, is understood to rankle with Rahal. He had a meeting with Ford CEO Jac Nasser in the week leading up to the San Marino Grand Prix but denies that there were any purpose to the trip except to catch up with the Ford boss.

Things were not helped by the fact that Burti has been ditched

despite Lauda’s soothing pronouncements in Imola. This has caused embarrassment at PRsensitive Ford over the way the entire affair was handled and raised further questions over who calls the shots.

Lead driver Eddie Irvine is known to have established a respectful rapport with Lauda, whereas team insiders point to a slightly less complimentary relationship between Irvine and his immediate superior Rahal.

Rahal muffled Iiwine as he attempted to keep Jaguar’s morale on an even keel with the potential threat from Pedro de la Rosa to his race seat, but with Burti being dropped in favour of the Spaniard and Rahal preoccupied, Irvine took his opportunity to speak out: “It's not as quick as last year’s car,” said the Irishman. “The car is just too slow. Williams have proved that the Michelins are not lacking - we’ve got to look at ourselves.”

Meanwhile the proposed Ford Racing campus, to be built on 40 acres of Silverstone Circuit land adjoining the current main entrance, has been indefinitely shelved after Ford and the British Racing Drivers' Club failed to agi-ee terms. Until permanent accommodation can be found Jaguar will remain at its Milton Keynes base, while Cosworth will remain in Northampton. A new wind tunnel for the team is under construction at Brackley, near Silverstone.

-NICKGARTON

Feeling the heat: Is new Jaguar Placing boss Bobby Rahal already (Photo by Sulton-lmages) under pressure from Jag’s European management?

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by JOE SAWARD LUCIANO Burti has been transferred from Jaguar to Prost to replace Gaston Mazzacane in a surprise mid season shuffle, allowing Pedro de la Rosa to make his debut for Jaguar this weekend.

Mazzacane is thus without a drive after just four races.

The news has not come as a shock to the Formula 1 fraternity, as the South American has struggled to get within two seconds of team leader Jean Alesi. The shuffling of the pack at Jaguar, however, has raised eyebrows.

In what became Mazzacane's last appearance for the team, Prost was clearly disgruntled by the Argentine's lack of pace.

"When one driver is half a second behind it makes both push, but when it is more it is difficult to work and there is a big problem for the team," he said. "I don't expect him to be more than two seconds a lap slower than Jean."

Prost signed Mazzacane as a sweetener for major sponsor PanAmerican Sports Network.

The Latin American sports broadcaster is believed to have

required a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking driver on the squad before it committed to the team.

It was for this reason that Prost originally agreed to have Pedro de la Rosa as the team's test driver, mindful that if Mazzacane failed to impress he had a proven quantity ready to fill the void. De la Rosa however decided to walk and went to become test driver at Jaguar Racing with the incentive of a race drive in 2002 in the contract. This provoked threats of legal action from Prost.

At Imola, Niki Lauda, head of Ford's racing activities, announced that Burti would stay with the team for the rest of 2001 with de la Rosa joining team leader Eddie Irvine in 2002.

But behind the scenes deals were being made.

"Prost called me and asked if he could have de la Rosa on loan for a year," said Lauda. "I told him this was not possible because we needed him for our test programme but in Imola he came to us again because he was desperate to find a replacement for Mazzacane."

Jaguar suggested that Prost take Burti, who has as part of the deal picked up an 18-month molorsDOii nevra

NEWS If

n Former Champ Car and Formula 1 driver Andrea Montermini will step back to sportscar racing at the weekend. The Italian will team up with Johnny Cecetto in a Porsche 911 GT3-RS for the second round of FIA GT Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic. ●n^.coin

Jody wants action

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You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye: After firing Gaston Mozzacane, above, Prost GP wasted no time in getting Luciano Burti into a car, top.

Note New Man on front wing. Nice touch.

contract to race for the French team, at least guaranteeing an FI future until the end of next year; "Burti knew that he would not be racing with us next year," said Lauda. "He's done a good job for us, he's young and he doesn't know all the circuits and I was worried that he wouldn't be able to get a drive in 2002.

Now he has a contract with Prost for the next two seasons. n iprn 2001

(PlmmhySimm.lmagtsmdifarsIt/Ballmem

Pedro de la Rosa thus takes the Jaguar drive.

"1 don't feel bad," he said. "It happened to me with Arrows.

And anyway Luciano is happy to go and I am happy, so it just makes sense."

Mazzacane's management team is believed to currently be in talks with European Minardi to try to unseat Tarso Marques, but this looks like a very slim chance of the Argentinean having a Formula 1 return.

FORMER world champion Jody Scheckter has criticised Jaguar Racing for its handling of his son, the team’s nominated test driver Tomas Scheckter, above.

The younger Scheckter, reigning British Formula 3 champion, was promoted to the testing role when Luciano Burti stepped up to drive alongside Eddie Irvine in the race team. Shortly afterwards, however, Pedro de la Rosa was brought in to head the testing and development programmed and the young Scheckter has been kicking his heels after only one outing to date and leaving Jody incensed.

“When Tomas signed as a test driver, it was the pre-Button era when gaining a testing contract was the only realistic way of becoming an FI driver,” he said.

“Ibmas has had many very good avenues open to him but Jaguar had an option on him and that was taken up. There is still an obligation to Tomas, and I haven’t seen anything that puts him in the car in the near futm-e.”

Scheckter is currently looking to hand his son’s management duties on to recognized professionals m the field, with Mika Hakkinen and Olivier Panis’s team of Keke Rosberg and Didier Coton highest on the list after some inspired dealing on behalf of Panis in particular.

Said Scheckter Sr; “It’s time someone else took over Tomas.

When I tell people how good he is they look at me and say 'it's his father’.”

Fortunately for the Scheckters, however, the Jaguar driver shuffle has left the team without a fuUtime tester other than Scheckter and it appears that he will finally have a chance to put Formula 1 experience alongside his Open Nissan Telefonica campaign in 2001.

-NICKGARTON

n We didn't get to see it here, but UK viewers of the SBK racing from Phillip Island were treated to the sight of BBC presenter Susie Perry up to her calves in mud during the opening of the broadcast, comparing the dampened sweeps of our PI to those of Snetterton or Donington in the Old Dart. Flave a stern word with this woman, Diffey... n And We Pay These People Dept: Angela Bishop may have finished last in the Adelaide Celebrity Laser race, but she had at least one fan at the track. After talking her way into the Media Centre (without an appropriate pass), mother Bronwyn Bishop dashed in for a snapshot with her daughter, the Federal Minister for Aged Care commendably quick off the mark for a photo opportunity in an election year. n Former World Rally Champion Timo Salonen is poised to be re-united with Peugeot for this year's Rally Finland. Salonen, who won the title at the wheel of a 205 Turbo 16 in 1985, looks increasingly likely to drive a Grifone-run 206 WRC on his home round of this year's series. "It is still not 100 percent yet,“ said Salonen.

"Flowever, I think things are getting closer, and yes, I would certainly like to drive a Peugeot. But I still need a bit more sponsorship, so until that is organised it is impossible to say it will happen.’

Salonen, who turns 50 this year, had hoped to take on countryman Markku Alen in a 'battle of the veterans', but the latter's attempts to secure a Subaru for the event are reportedly hitting financial barriers, n The Mid-Ohio circuit will host a round of the American Le Mans Series on August 25. The circuit replaces Canada's Mont Tremblant on the calendar with the Sportscars to run a two hour, 45 minute race. n Former British F3 champ Jonny Kane had his first test for Arrows recently. Kane did two days of straightline testing at Lurcy-Levis in France. n USAC Midget champion Kasey Kahne has tested for Team Rahal. It was something of a 21st birthday part/ for the American, who tested the 2000 Lola/Ford which Casey Meats drove to fourth place in last year's California 500. Kahne is under contract to Ford and he'll be getting testing opportunities in some of the major series to see which direction he'd like to pursue. Memo Gidley was brought in by the team to help orient the speedway star on the road course at Miami-Flomestead Speedway.

I

PI SUPERBIKE CONTROVERSY TEE third round of the 2001 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island ended in controversy after the second race was abandoned due to the dangerous weather conditions.

Before officials red-flagged the shortened 18-lap race, Aprilia rider Troy Corser both verbally and physically tried to prevent riders from entering the circuit to commence the official sighting lap, Corser, who finished a distant sixth in the opening race of the day, was endeavouring to have the race abandoned due to the wet and windy conditions that intensified through the day.

Several riders including Colin Edwards, Tady Okada and Steve Martin went out onto the track, but several more tried to break through Corser’s blockade.

Reigning World Champion Colin Edwards was one of the riders to complete the sighting lap, and like Martin, his worst fears were confirmed.

“There’s rivers running across the track. There’s no way we can race on that,” he said.

“What the hell were the organisers thinking today? The first race should not have taken place, but it did. Visibility was almost non-existent in some places and the wind was so strong it was moving my Aprilia offline. It was a matter of survival really,” said Corser in a release issued under his own letterhead.

Wlien it was put to him that it was in his interest to have the race cancelled because he was struggling on his full-wet Dunlop tyres, Corser said, “People can think what they like, but my first and only concern is the safety of the riders.”

The drama climaxed with a confrontation between Corser and his former Ducati team boss, Davide Tardozzi. The Italian vehemently disagreed with Corser’s attempts to prevent riders from entering the circuit, leading to a clash that was captured on live television.

It’s understood that Australian race officials were against the race going ahead in the lead-up to its scheduled start at 3.30pm, and that the SBK race director Roberto Nosetto was of the contrary view.

Just when the confusion reached a crescendo, officials announced that the race start would be delayed by 30 minutes. Minutes later, the decision was made to red flag the race.

-DARRYL FLACK

8

A new CAT for the V8 fight: Bowe will have a new car in Sydney, repiacing the AU which he has run ever since joining the CAT team in 1999.

(Photo by Slipstream Photographic)

New CAT on the block Bowe gets a new Falcon for Eastern Creek, Wills tests

JOHN Bowe has shaken down an all-new CAT Falcon in preparation for this weekend's Eastern Creek Shell round.

The Tasmanian was pleased with a fault-free 80-lap run at Queensland Raceway on Monday, bringing to fruition a 'from-scratch' build of the new car by his small team, which started at Christmas.

“I'm really proud of the guys,” JB told us late on Monday.

“We've only got five full-time

people in the CAT team - compai-ed with 25 at HRT,35 at Gibsons-so this represents a superb effort by them.

‘They've worked some very long hours (in between repahing the existing race car every time someone else ran into it!), it's been built totally fi-om scratch -including the shell- and it feels reaUy good.”

The new car replaces the only other CAT Falcon ever built - the original car built in WA from a

road-going shell - and is much closer to the V8 Supercar weight minimum of 1350 kilograms.

Konica Series pointsleader and two-time Gold Star Champ Simon Wills also tested the car, rmining 20 or so laps.

“It felt quite different to the Stone Brothers car in its handling characteristics but quite nice in its own right,” he said.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN/ AARON NOONAN

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Mb 0MCA Chrysler prototype made its debut at the European Le Mans Series mundi at Donington Park and surprised all with its speed, Olivier Beretta qualifying i fourth ahead ofthe Panozes and running well in the race until colliding with a “ backmarker, whidh broke:the exhaust necessitating a long pit stop.

! \

moiorsport news

NEWS

J THERE could be a new manufaclurer in Formula One next season - Nissan.

Motorsport News has been told that Alain Frost met with Nissan representatives last week, with a view of having the company finance the running of Renault engines, re-badged as Nissans.

Nissan, which has never been involved in Grand Prix racing before, is now 37 percent owned by the French manufacturer after a 1999 deal. The running ofthe Japanese company is now overseen by Chief Operating Officer, Carlos Ghosn.

A Prost-Nissan deal would make a lot of sense on both sides.

The Frenchman currently pays a very high bill for the use of2000spec Ferrari engines, having ended ids partnership with

t Peugeot at the end oflast season.

Funding the Ferrari program has been the main reason for running Gaston Mazzacane, who brought significant backing from South American media company,PSN. As a former GP winner with Renault in the 1980s and world champion with Williams-Renault in 1993,Prost is well-respected by the company.

It also presents Nissan with the opportunity to increase its profile in Europe and Asia,and could provide the company with the chance to go head-to-head with Toyota, which is expected to take at least two seasons to establish its GP program,starting next season.

Nissan executives are said to have given Prost a favourable hearing, but apparently stated that the finil decision stiU

1

rested with senior Renault management, which is committed to fund their own team (currently racing as Beizetton) in the future.

While Renault’s new 111-degree VIO 2001 engines have been disappointing so far this season, two updates are expected to redress the situation, the first due at the French GP in July, with another following in September.

These updated units could be the basis for Nissan’s supply in 2002, with newer units for what will then be Renault’s factory team.

Renault has shown a willingness to have a ‘second’ supply in the past, having supplied its own team,Lotus, Williams, Ligier and Benetton in previous years, and Williams, Benetton,BAR and Arrows with its rebadged Mecachrome, Supertec or Playlifes.

n LIGHTS, CAMERA, TRACTION Formula One descenids upon Barcelona, and there’s not a skerrick of wheelspin in sight.

n V8s, V8s, and more V8s Ford made their intentions clear at the Clipsal 500. Can they back it up at Eastern Creek? Meanwhile, the Konica Series rolls into Winton for round three. n CART Who’s going to win on the high banks of Texas?

ALAIN Prost has revealed that he rejected an offer in 1996 to come out of retirement and partner then-new signing Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

In an interview with French newspaper, Le Figaro, the four time World Champ said he had been in talks but the plan fell through because he would have been forced into a no-win battle with the German.

"In 1995, two years after I stopped racing, Jean Todt contacted me and explained the plan," said Prost.

"Then the following season, I was ready to become Michael's team-mate to help him become worid champion.

"I was ready to go back to the wheel and I would have done it, but people would have tried to 27 April 2001

n World Rally Championship - Argentina Will Ford finally get it together? Will Tommi and Marcus stop talking in such lurid accents? Can Subaru bounce back?

I Un comeback? Non: Prost drove for the Scuderia in 1990 and 1991 and says he (Photo by Pascal Rontlcau/ALLSPORT) nearly did in 1996. play us against each other, when at that time I wouldn't have stood a chance against him."

Prost raced for Ferrari in 1990 and 1991, being crashed out title

contention in the former by Ayrton Senna in Suzuka and benched by the Scuderia for Adelaide in the latter before he joined Williams for 1993.

9

home of

[motorsport] Shell Championship Series V8 Supercars * Apr 29 ... .Eastern Creek

,Rd 3

May 13 .. .Hidden Valley .

Jun 10 Canberra ....

●Rd 4

Jun 24 . . . .Perth

.Rd 6

Jul15 . . . .Calder Park . .

.Rd 7

Jul 29

.Rd 8

Rd 5

Oran Park

Aug 26 . . .Ipswich

.Rd9

Sep 9 . . . .Winton Oct 7 .Bathurst

.Rd 10

Michelin turn

.Rd 11

Konica V8 Supercar Series *

c

.Rd3

May 27 . . .Philip Island Jul 8 ●Lakeside

Rd 4

Aug 12 . . .Mallala Oct 6 .Bathurst

Rd5 Rd6 .(non Championship)

FIA Formula One World

t

Apr 29 .

May 13

E

■

May 6 . . . .Winton . . .

V,'

May 27 Jun 10 Jun 24 .

Championship .Spain

. Rd5 . Rd6

.A1-Ring* .Monaco’

. Rd8

.Montreal

. Rd9

.Nurburgring* .

.Rd 10

Julyl . .Magny Cours* ‘ - denotes F3000 round also

.Rd 11

SOOcc World Grand Prix Motorcycle Championship * ,Rd 3 May 6 Spain . . .

May 20 . . .France . .

,Rci4

June 3 . . . .Italy

.Rd 5

Jun 17 . . . .Catalunya Jun 30 Assen . . .

,Rd 6 .Rd 7

FedEx CART Championship Series *

E

● «r 1 ●

El

Texas . .

.Rd3

May 6 . . . .Nazareth

.Rd4

May 19 . . .Motegi .

Jun 3 .Milwaukee

.Rd5

Jun 17

. . .Detroit.

.Rd7

Jun 24 . . . .Portland

.Rd8

Apr 29

.Rd6

World Rally Championship* .Rd 5

May 3-6 . . .Argentina Jun 3 .Cyprus

,Rd 6

Jun 17 . . . .Acropolis

,Rd 7

SBK World Super Bike Championship Apr 29 . . . .Sugo

,Rd4

May 13 . . .Monza . . .

.Rd5

May 27 . . .Donnington

,Rd6

Jun 10 . . . .Lausitzring

● Rd7

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home of

motorsport H

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All event dales In this calendar were correct at the time of printing. Please consult any individual tracks and/or associations for date changes.

Series or events telecast on Network Ten are marked with an asterisk. Check your local guides for screening details.

Get used to the view? Michelin has thrown down the gauntlet to Bridgestone.

NATIONS Cup championship leader Paul Stokell will be back aboard the Lamborghini team’s older model SVR Diablo for the second round of the series at Wakefield Park.

The GTR that he used to win at Adelaide is headed back to Italy due to being required by the factory, with the possibility of it returning in time for the Canberra round. Team Lamborghini Australia will continue to lobby the factory for the car, which Wayne Gardner used at the Australian GP in the Lamborghni support races, to return.

Meanwhile, reports of a second car in the championship are premature at the moment, though sources indicate that when the GTR returns to Australia, it will be accompanied by a yellow GTR, with Wayne Park in the box seat to drive it.

While Stokell is confirmed.

Prancing Horse Racing are busy repairing their four damaged cars from Adelaide and none of the new-look GTS Dodge Vipers will make an appearance due to the Holinger gearbox being not yet available, leaving Rusty French, Darcy Russell and Geoff Morgan on the sidelines. The latter is overseas anyway.

However, Andrew Miedecke, fresh from his first run in his Viper in Targa Tasmania, will be in the field with the car running in 2000spec, while also on the entry list is

(Photo by Sutton-lmages)

fnegamanHs.r

former Sports Sedan gun Mark Trenoweth in the Jaguar XKR. PROCAR Nations Cup manager Steve Bettes said that the field for Wakefield Park would be 16 cars, with more cars, (including the newly-gearboxed Vipers), to join in as the series continues.

John Bowe’s Bud Mustang will debut in the GT Performance class

w hich featm’es a field of 39 cars, while Luke Youlden and Jim McKinnon will drive the two Holden Astras raced last year in the Bathurst Three Hour in the GT Production class.

Tony Quinn will add to his Targa Tasmania performance by doubling up his Nations Cup Porsche drive with running the 'WP Pet Foods motorsporl news

up the heat

by NICK CARTON

RALF Schumacher’s victory at Imola was a great moment for the young German driver. It was a great moment for Williams after three seasons without a victory.

But the real rejoicing was going on in Munich and in ClermontFerrand, as BMW and Michelin have taken on the best in Formula 1 and have proved very rapidly that they can do a better job.

This is a serious worry for some of the rival companies in Formula 1, as the top management is going to facing some searching questions.

There is no doubt that pressure will increase on Jaguar Racing, because the FI program was aimed at driving up Jaguar sales in the traditional BMW markets. There will be pressure in Germany on

Mercedes-Benz because it has been beaten by its chief rival after less than 18 months of racing. It took Mercedes-Benz a lot longer to deliver big results.

Honda will also be asking questions about its Formula 1 efforts as Honda’s goal has always been to beat the other luxury car companies. The Japanese firm has been officially back in FI for the same time as BMW hut the results have been far less impressive than those of the Munich company.

Probably under more pressure than anyone will be Bridgestone,

HHF: Bridgestone should be worried IT has only taken one Michelin win in FI to set the nerves jangling among the Bridgestone-contracted teams.

Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, this week expressed concern over the Japanese manufacturer's ability to meet the threat posed by new rival.

The French tyre manufacturer returned to Formula 1 this year for the first time since the 1980s, and took only four races to beat Bridgestone, which has been in Formula 1 since 1997.

In response Bridgestone, which brought out a softer compound for San Marino, is testing softer rear tyres and wider front tyres for Spain, but these did not work at all on the

x:

(Photo by Marshall Cass)

27 April 2001

Jordan in pre-race testing at Silverstone. Only following Ferrari's tests at Mugello will the Japanese manufacturer decide whether or not to run the new combination at the Circuit de Catalunya.

After the FIA's draconian cuts in downforce over the winter, Jordan's EJ11 chassis is particularly sensitive due to its front wing construction, making it pin sharp on the right tyres but a handful on the wrong ones, "Bridgestone should be nervous," said a disappointed Frentzen. "I think they should be worried about Michelin. I think they're finding it difficult to find a tyre that suits all its top teams."

.WE.

Hard to beat: Stokell may have his older Lamborghini, but he will still be tough at Wakefield Park.

Ford XR8 in the VSBrutes class while Grant Denyer is busy with television commitments at the Winton Konica V8 round.

-AARON NOONAN

because the victory of Michelin after just four races back is a reflection on the seriousness of both companies. While Bridgestone may still be able to win more races than Michelin as the season progresses, it is going to be a lot more difficult to convince the top teams to continue to use Bridgestone tyres next season.

There have already been rumours that BAR will switch to Michelin next year and at Imola we heard the first well-sourced suggestions that Bridgestone may lose either McLaren or Ferrari.

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NEWS n Larry Perkins' 1995 Bathurst winning Commodore has found a new home with Wesiey May. The karter has taken deiivery of the car from former owner, Kiwi Chris Butler, n Peugeot driver Steve Soper has emerged unscathed from a big testing crash at Thruxton. Tyre failure pitched his 406 off the track and through the tyre barriers at Church Corner, though he was unhurt and resumed testing in team-mate Matt Neal's car, who wasn't at the test. Vauxhali's Jason Plato topped the times. n Former British F3 racer Toby Scheckter has switched to tin-tops and will partner Roland Asch in the new V8-STAR Championship in Germany. Johnny Cecotto and former Mercedes DTM driver Marcel Tiemann will also drive, the former in an Opel Omega, the latter signing to drive alongside Karl Wendlinger for Zakspeed after his Champ Car drive with Zakspeed/Forsythe disappeared when the finance couldn't be found. n Le Mans legend Derek Bell has joined the Bentley team for its assault on La Sarthe this season but not as a driver. Instead, the multiple Le Mans winner will be the team's advisor. n JJ Lehto won't be in a Panoz for Le Mans. BMW has refused to release its driver for the classic, leaving the Panoz team to search for another driver. Mimmo Schiattarella is being looked at to partner David Brabham and Jan Magnussen. n Sascha Maassen will be at Le Mans though. Runner-up in the GT class last year for Dick Barbour Racing, Maassen will run one of the team's LMP 675 prototype Reynard 01 Qs with Eric van de Poele and Didier de Radigues, n We hear there's considerable interest from Washington DC in staging a Champ Car race as early as 2003, while talks are still ongoing with New York City. n Cory Witherill has become the first native American to pass the Rookie Orientation Program at Indianapolis. The former Indy Lights driver was one of 10 drivers including Nicolas Minassian and Bruno Junqueira - to pass the test which is required by Speedway officials before rookies can attempt to qualify for the Indy 500. n IRL champ Buddy Lazier says he's amazed at how fast the Indy Racing cars were cornering around the 0.75-mile, D-shaped Richmond oval which the IRL cars will race on this year after the American tested there last week. Lazier ran 160mph average laps, which compares to the track record of 131mph for a Coors Light Silver Bullet car.

11

Coyn

by PHIL MORRIS

Leaving the Densitron at home: Mezera will be in the #14 Saabwreck machine at Eastern Creek.

(Photo by Slipstream Photographic)

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mas switches VTs

TOMAS Mezera will drive Mike Imrie’s Saabwreck Commodore at Eastern Creek this weekend.

Mezera, who had withdrawn his car due to a lack of budget, will drive the car in a one-off deal, though he’ll have to pre-qualify.

“We hadn’t nominated a driver, so I talked to

Tomas and we thought it’d be a good thing having someone whose done miles in these cars," said Imrie.

"He’s aware how tough pre-quaiifying will be but we thought it (the deal) would be a good, mutual thing for both parties."

- AARON NOONAN

Brawn: There's plenty more IN a worrying proclamation for the rest of the Formula 1 teams, Ferrari's technical director, Ross Brawn, has stated that there is still plenty more performance to come from the dominant FI-2001.

The team has been playing safe with its new type 050 VI0 engine and not yet gone to the full rev limit following early reliability problems in testing.

The intensive test program in Europe, which peaked at five days between the Brazilian and Malaysian Grands Prix, has however cured the problem during the opening period of 'flyaway' rounds. Ferrari is ready to unleash its full potential.

"We'd like to extend its range," said Brawn,"because we will have to in order to keep out competitive edge."

Brawn has also claimed that Ferrari is unlikely to lose any momentum to the other teams with the forthcoming reintroduction of traction control.

"What people must understand is that traction control can only optimise the basic level of 12

traction in the car," he said. "You will still see people pull away at ’ different rates."

None of this confidence is being allowed to breed complacency, however.

"Anybody at Ferrari who thought we were going to have an easy time certainly got a wake-up call in Brazil," said Brawn. "And it was earlier enough in the season to have a good effect."

Another aspect of Ferrari’s car which has got chins wagging

since Melbourne has been its brake set-up, as shown above In this Sutton-lmages shot.

Michael Schumacher insisted his retirement from the San Marino Grand Prix was down to tyre and wheel problems but there has been speculation that the World Champion's withdrawal was a consequence of problems with the new system.

Don't ask us how it works either...

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF

FOR the first time in 177 Champ Car races, Dale Coyne Racing won’t he on the grid for round three of the FedEx Championship Series at Texas this weekend.

Coyne, who merged his team with Team PRG’s Andreas Leberle when he couldn’t secure hacking for his own outfit, has been forced to pull out of the race and the CART series for the time being due to lack offunding with his Lola/Fords.

“It's not like this just happened,” said Coyne.

“We've been trying, but lots of things have got us to this point.”

Coyne cited the loss midway through last year of sponsor MTCI and the cancellation of this year’s event in Brazil as two major blows to his plans.

“I don’t want to carry on the way we've been doing it, running a year-old car and year-old engines.

“Tarso (Marques)showed what we could do when he tested with us and so did Alex (Barron, who was in a position to challenge for the win last year at Surfers Paradise and Fontana, only to be thwarted by mechanical problems in the closing stages).”

Dale Coyne Racing, which has fielded cars in CART longer than any other team apart from Penske Racing and Newman/Haas Racing will thus be forced to miss its first race since Nazareth in 1990, when the team's driver. Dean Hall, preferred to save his Lola in preparation for his home event at Laguna Seca two weeks later.

Coyne hopes to return for round six at Milwaukee.

CART restructure CART has announced a major shake-up of its racing division, eliminating the positions formerly held by Hal Whiteford (president of racing operations) and Dennis Swan (vice president,logistics).

Tim Mayer, senior vice president of racing operations mil head-np the cart's racing division for the time being.

The moves are the latest in a reshaping by CART President Joseph Heitzler. molorsport news

e out of CART Pulling up stumps, or should that be bases because he’s a Yank?

Dale Coyne,

NEWS n All through the weekend of the San Marino Grand Prix, the Williams FW23s carried discreet Senna 'S' logos on the inside of the front wing stanchions at the circuit in which the greatest driver of his age lost his life while battling Michael Schumacher's Benetton for the lead in 1994, n The organisers of the San Marino Grand Prix are settling down to a nervous wait to see whether or not the race will continue to feature on the FI calendar, Bernie Ecclestone is reputedly ready to offer a one-year deal for 2002, but beyond that could make space in the calendar for Dubai, Lebanon, Bahrain or even Moscow, n Both Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher have stated that they will never race for the Scuderia whilst reigning champion Michael Schumacher is still there, Montoya said: "I've not talked to anyone there because I don't knowanyonel" Ralf meanwhile said:"Who couid afford it?" n The FIA's new automatic collision warning systems are set to be tested after the Spanish Grand Prix, The devices will warn drivers of yellow flag zones and cars hidden by spray in bad weather by means of lights, and will ultimately act as 'big brother' to impose a speed limit on all competitors at the touch of a button.

ack on the Bricks

Andretti turns first laps at Indy since 1995 MICHAEL Andretti has turned his first laps on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in testing for the Indy 500, running 217.7 mph laps in a 40 lap session in his Motorola-backed machine, which is being prepared by Panther Racing.

"More than anything, I wanted to know I had a good race car for the Indianapolis 500," said Andretti.

"As soon as I got the car up to speed, I knew that was the case."

Andretti last run on the Speedway was in 1995, when he retired from the lead of the race on lap 77 when driving for Newman-Haas Racing "These cars have less horsepower than the FedEx Champ Cars and they drive a little heavier, but the competition is just as close.

These cars are just different, not better or worse. Just different."

Was he emotional about the 27 April 2001

we were running here, but today was all business."

Andretti will next hit the track on May 7 for practice. While practice begins the day before at Indy, Andretti will be busy racing his Champ Car at Nazareth.

“We were right where we need to be,” said Tony Cotman, team manager for Andretti’s CART program, who will serve as the liasion between Barry Green's operation that fields the Champ Car and Panther Racing in Indianapolis where Andretti’s Indy 500 Dallara/Aurora is being built.

The man means business: Who'd have thought we'd be seeing an IRL logo on Michael Andretti’s racing suit when the CART/IRL civil war exploded in the mid 1990s?

return?

"Nah, I’m not emotional that way," he said.

"I was that way a little bit when we made the announcement that

“Our goal for the day was to get a feel for the car in race trim and we accomplished that.

“It was a good day. It was the first time Michael had really worked with the guys who wiii be maintaining his Indycar and everyone is happy.”

Entries for the Indy race have closed and Motorsporl News has the entry list in this issue on page 25.

- PHIL MORRIS

n Audi has decided to stay in Sportscars until at least 2003, according to sporting chief Doctor Wolfgang Ullrich, "I don't see any other fields in which we would want to compete right at the moment," he said. n Sylvester Stallone's Champ Car movie has reached the silver screen at last. The move, entitled Driven, was originally intended to be a Formula 1 flick until Stallone and Bernie Ecclestone fell out over the cost of race footage. n A meeting of FI team principals at the San Marino Grand Prix discussed the possibility of revoking the FI test ban, which at the present moment will last from the final race of the season on October 14 until December 31, Ferrari and Benetton are deeply upset at suggestions that they are against such a step. n Former Benetton technical director Nick Wirth has resurfaced after a year of being out of the public eye. Wirth has left motor racing and is now involved in a robotics project to design a mechanical dog. One or two of the unkinder souls in the paddock have noted that Wirth is well-suited to this task having designed a couple of 'dogs' while running technical operations at Benetton. Out of work technical men Alan Jenkins and Sergio Rinland were both cruising around the paddock in Imola.

-JOE SAWARD 13

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Alex, Will, whatever: Alex Davison started the season with a win.

VO thumps 'em

AUSSIE Alex Davison has begun his assault on the 2001 Porsche Carrera Cup in the best fashion possible, dominating the opening round at Hockenheim on the weekend.

The 21-year-old, who drives for Team Hewlett-Packard, topped practice, took pole position and won the race.

"I led from start to finish, but that makes it sound a bit easier than it was," said Davison, who was up against 20-plus identically prepared Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Coupes, which this year have sprung wings.

"I got a good start and bolted for the first few laps, but I lost my one-second advantage to Marc Lieb when I missed a gear coming into the stadium.

After that, he was right onto me.

Davison's tyres began to wear at half-distance but he managed to hold out Lieb, who slipped back into the clutches of Davison's team-mate.

Christian Menzel, who ended up grabbing second, making it a 1-2 for the Hewlett-Packard team.

"We were testing here on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we knew that we already had a good base set-up to go with the new aerodynamics,” Davison said, referring to the larger, 'Le Mans GT3R' rear wing and suitably modified front undertray homologated for the GT3 Cup coupes this year.

"The first win is always the hardest, especially when it's been a year between drinks."

Davison's last win came at Oran Park in Formula Ford in 1999 after a learning season in the Porsche series last year.

The Carrera Cup follows the DTM series around Germany and features Sportscar star Sascha Maassen, former DTM driver Roland Asch, and even bike ace Ralf Waldmann, who guested at Hockenheim.

The next round is on May 6 at the Nurburgring.

Hammer and tongs and sickle: Look for the BARs and the rest of the FI show

Briscoe bags fourth

RYAN Briscoe has been forced to settle for fourth in the opening round of the 10round Italian Formula Renault Championship at Vallelunga.

“It's not the best result I was hoping for, but it wasn't bad considering," said 19-year-old Briscoe, a member of Toyota's junior development squad.

"It's very competitive and all the frontrunners from the Formula Renault Eurocup (in which Briscoe is also doing selected rounds) were there."

Only a second separated the drivers between second and fifth in the race, with an older Brazilian driver, Fabio Carbone, some seconds clear of them.

Driving for the Prema Power team, Briscoe had qualified

third in the field of 57, with 32 drivers getting a start in the race.

Briscoe will compete at the third round of the Formula Renault Eurocup at the Magny Cours circuit in France this weekend and has been on the pace at the first two rounds but run into problems.

At the opening round at Monza, venue of the Italian GP, he qualified second after being quickest in the wet first session, and led the race until an oil pump failure put him out.

In the second round at Brno in the Czech Republic he qualified third and was second by the first corner, but was spun off the track in chaos that erupted soon after.

Interest high in Sandown 500

INTEREST is continuing to build in the re birth of the Sandown 500, schedided for September 15/16 for Nations Cup cars.

Although a deal hasn’t been actually signed between PROCAR and Sandown management, talks are well down the track and all that’s left is sorting out a handful of issues which are unfikely to stand in the way of the event running.

“We’ve got a hell of a lot on our plate at the moment (at PROCAR), particularly with running our own meeting (at Wakefield Park on May 5), 14

but the concept is in place,” said Nations Cup manager Steve Bettes.

“We’ve had meetings with Jon Davison, he’s flown up to meet with us and we’ll be there.”

Bettes said that there will be a field of 30 Nations Cup cars for the race, which will be a round of the Nations Cup series with support from the regular PROCAE support categories as well as another, yet-to-be-named.

If the numbers are down, then Class A cars will be included in the field, though Bettes

doesn’t think there would be an issue with having to fill the field with GT Performance cars.

The last major production car race hosted at Sandown was the one-off, one-hom' race held in 1998 (won by Alfredo Costanzo and Dean Canto in a Maserati) and before that, production cars had run as part of the Sandown 500 alongside Group A touring cars.

A one-off Sandown Six-Hour was dominated by the factory Mazdas in 1993.

-AARON NOONAN moiorsport news

NEWS

Hold the F3K

n Still no word on where - or even if -there will be a ALMS sportscar race in Australia. Rumours point to a street race in either Sydney or south east Queensland, but MN hears there is still a fair bit of talking to be done before a deal is inked. n Former Grand Prix driver Alex Caffi reappeared in the FI paddock for the first time in 10 years at Imoia. The former Scuderia Italia and Arrows drivers has spent the last decade racing in sportscars and has never been back to FI. n Also spotted in the Imoia paddock were former Honda boss Nobuhiko Kawamoto, a man who still has very considerable influence in the Japanese company's activities, and his long-time advisor, Ron Tauranac.

Honda has to decide later this year whether to continue with its current policy of supplying engines for two competing teams or whether to concentrate on either British American Racing or Jordan Grand Prix. Both teams are aware of the dangers and are trying to score as many points possible this year to keep Honda happy.

In all probability, the twin engine supply arrangement will continue for one more season as Honda learns more about chassis building. The company's long-term aim remains to have its own team.

in Mockba in the future. (PhotobyMarsh/Bolhwell)

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THE proposed Formula 1standard race circuit in Moscow's Nagatino floodlands has been given final approval by the‘Moscow Group’,a cartel of politicians, industrialists, entrepreneurs and media owners who oversee the banking,trade, transport and construction issues within the city.

An agi-eement was drawn up last year between representatives of Ymy LuzMcov’s Moscow government and TWR,which put forward the circuit plan. It is, however, widely believed by the Moscow police that it was this agi-eement which spurred organised criminals into making an assassination attempt on deputy mayor, Iosif Ordzhonikidze, days after signing the deal last December.

THE FIA has announced that the Formula 3000 package will stay the same until the end ofthe 2004 season.

Contracts have been renewed with Lola for both chassis and gear boxes, Zytek for engines, Avon for tyres and Pi for data acquisition.

The series, which was founded in 1985 as the stepping stone to Formula 1, has run a control chassisIengineItyre since 1996.

The average Muscovite’s income swell hugely compared with the rest of Russia, enjoying 80 percent of the nation's financial resources - but organized crime is a major force.

Considering that there are almost 2000 criminal organizations operating in Moscow today, owning half ofthe private businesses in the city, a still gi-eater percentage of the banks, and running over 60 percent ofthe state-owned companies,it is amazing that the Grand Prix proposal has come so far.

It is believed that the plans for

the Nagatino development approved

by Ordzhonikidze did not feature enough casinos to please the local gangsters. Gambhng is a leading leisure activity in the Russian capital and, as such, a major source ofrevenue for the city’s criminal element.

The proposal signed-off by Ordzhonikidze incorporated four hotels, a hehport and a certain amount of space for casinos alongside the racetrack, but far less emphasis on gambling than the crime lords were lobbying for.

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n It is believed that European Minardi's highly regarded technical director Gustav Brunner has excelled himself, and at high downforce circuits you will see a number of the top teams looking in bemusement at the back of the car. Watch this space.

By Allan Schofield

MANNE FOLD: THE ULTIMATE TBACKSIDE FAN-BOY rktueVoRT SoPaK

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NEWS

Ant grabs a 500

AUSTRALIAN Anthony West made his 500cc motorcycle world championship debut on Sunday,riding a Honda VTwin in the South African Grand Prix at Welkom.

The 19-year-old negotiated to race for the Dutch-based Dee Gee Racing Team following uncertainty about his scheduled ride at on an Aprilia in the 250cc Grand Prix.

West announced on March 31 he would ride in this year's 250cc world championship with a Milanbased Aprilia team, but he missed the series opener at Suzuka in Japan on April 8 because his motorcycles could not be transported from Europe to the

circuit in time for the race.

“Things were still up in the air for this weekend with the 250, so when the chance came to race the 500 I jumped at it,” said West.

“I haven’t been on a Grand Prix bike since the end of last season and at this stage the most important thing is to do some riding.”

“It would have been good to do a test somewhere on the 500 before this weekend's race, but the main thing is I’m back on a bike and I’m fortunate this chance has come along.”

West crossed the finish line in 14th place after having lined up in the 19th spot on the grid.

uinitCH ASIATECH UK,as part of the Asia Motor Technologies group, is designing an outright prototype car to race at Le Mans in 2002.

The company recently began advertising for engineers, aerodynamicists and the like in the UK-though who is the customer they they building it for?

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Could it be for Aston Martin, who previously has stated that they want to go to Le Mans next year?

Could it be for Tom WaUdnshaw, who uses the company’s engines in Formula 1?

Or could it be for their own Sportscar racing program?

And just who is Asiatech?

Questions, questions ...

i

Partners? RalfSchumacher and Cora Brinkmann leave Imola. (Photo by Sutton)

Lerve in the fast lane RALF Schumacher has a new girlfriend who has given him a new lease on life.

The San Marino Grand Prix winner, who first appeared with Cora Brinkmann at Albert Park in March, has taken a swipe at the British press corps.

"I know that English journalists always said that I'm gay but I had no problems with that," he said last week.

The younger Schumacher has been notable for keeping his private life private since his

appearance in GP racing, which had led to some speculation among some of the media.

In the meantime, neither Half's new relationship nor his maiden FI victory has quenched his desire for speed.

The BMW.Williams driver was recently relieved of $1300 by the Austrian highway patrol after being clocked at 170kmh in a 100 zone. Apart from forgetting the speed limit, Schu 2 had also left his licence at home ...

Fox gets F3 iPholo by Dirk Klynsrnith

DICK JOHNSON RACING

Dick Johnson Racing, Australia's longest established motor racing team, is looking for the following highly motivated and enthusiastic individuals to Join the team: l DATA ANALYST-shock retention l DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER - including chassis l MACHINIST - general machining including experience in reading drawings Appiications close 4th May 2001.

If you would like to join a winning team please send your resume to: Team Manager Dick Johnson Racing 10 Emeri Street Stapylton Qid 4207 Telephone enquiries may be made to Brian Lawrence Team Manager on 07 3287 1234 or fax 07 3287 4180 16

,

FORMULA 3 has received another boost with the news that the category has secured television time on Fox Sports.

The Australian F3 Championship will be televised over a total of two hours, with 15 minute episodes for each of the eight rounds joining Nations Cup, GTP and V8Brutes on the Fox bill.

Sydney talking head Grant Boyden will commentate the action. moiorsport news

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No Super 1600 from Monster JAPANESE Suzuki works driver Monster Tajima's intention to run his all-new Ignis Super 1600 kit car at the opening round of the Asia Pacific Championship in Canberra next month has been called off.

Tajima will not front in the new car which is still being sorted and is expected to debut later in the year.

The Ignis Super 1600 was expected to be the first Japanese sourced car to be homologated in the new junior World Rally category and may still snare the honour - but it won't be in Canberra.

Tajima broke the news at the recent Race to the Sky in New Zealand where he took his Suzuki Vitara hillclimb special to third behind eventual winner Possum Bourne (see page 56).

Tajima may run his older Suzuki Baleno F2 kit car in Canberra if current plans come to fruition.

-JON THOMSON

Evans still in frame for 206 WRC AFTER losing the backing of VW Victorian F2 raOy flier Simon Evans will be back in a 4WD turbo at the rally of Canberra as he prepares for a possible World Rally Car drive with Peugeot in 2001.

While Evans refused to confirm the reports first broken here in Motorsport News about a possible link with the mooted Peugeot WRC program in Australia, he also didn’t deny that he has had

contact with the local importer.

Peugeot announced an entirely new importation structure just two weeks after the story first appeared in MN, with Singaporebased Sime Darby Group set to take over the franchise later this year.

With the new company’s stated expectations of increasing sales from the current level of 2500 cars up to 8000 a year, it will need a major lift in profile, which

is expected to come from an involvement in rallying backed by Peugeot in France.

Evans and his navigator and wife Sue will compete in the Rally of Canberra aboard a Group N Impreza WRX as he attempts to get back into the groove of piloting a 4WD turbo after two seasons in front-drive VWs. The car, which is owned by Evans’s father, has been converted to Version IV specification, and initial testing has been promising with the talented steerer hoping to challenge Cody Crocker and Ed Ordynski.

The always-aggressive style Evans adopts is sure to please the crowd in anberra.

-JON THOMSON

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moiorsporl news

NEWS

Courtney 6th

... but he still beat his team-mate

JAMES Courtney managed to score points in both races in the British Formula 3 double-header at Snetterton on April 29.

The Australian qualified back in eighth place, two positions behind teammate Andre Lotterer. Agood start elevated him to sixth on the opening lap of the first race, but he then found himself trapped behind Nicolas Kiesa in the Frost Junior Team.

Not even the benefit of a race restart following a Safety Car period could help Courtney find a way past, and he was forced to hold station for the remaining laps. Lotterer crossed the line in seveth position after a last-lap move on Anthony Davidson, while victory went to series leader Matt Davies, ahead of Derek Hayes and Gianmaria Bruni.

Mirroring the first race, Courtney started Race 2 fi-om eighth,fought his way through to sixth on the first lap, and again went into battle against fifth-placed Kiesa. The final lap saw pair blasting up the Senna Straight toward the finish line, where Courtney was pipped by a mere 0.03s.

Lotterer fared worse,

Future V8 driver; Maybe not, but Courtney is still performing well in the British F3 (Photo by Sutlon-lmages) Championship, so he keeps his Jag company motor. suffering fi-om a series of red-flags that peppered the second qualifying session to line up a lowly 16th.

Some considered driving and a couple of gi-eat passing moves saw liim though to claim ninth place at the finish.

Wet-weather specialist Andy Priaulx claimed the flag ahead of Takuma Sato and Paul Edwards.

Championship Standings: Matt Davies 49, Derek Hayes 49,Andy Priaulx 43, Gianmaria Bruni 37, James Courtney 36.

Mark’s Doc MARK Webber's stunning win in the Imola F3000 race came despite the cracked rib injury sustained prior to Brazil.

The injury - originally sustained thanks to a badlyfitting seat used when testing the Benetton FI car - is taking time to heal, but Webber had some expertise on hand to help him through the Imola race.

Dr. Claudio Costa, the man who looked after Mick during his career, administered appropriate treatment prior to the race, with FI's Prof Watkins looking on I Our full coverage of Webber's second F3000 win, taking him to within a point of the championship lead, is on page 55.

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Vale:

Ken Potter ONE of the founding forces behind what we today know as TEGA, Ken Potter, died on April 15 after a battle with cancer.

'KP'(and wife Pam) had been around touring car racing for many years, initially in his role as sponsorship manager with Philip Morris, during which time he forged strong links with Glenn Seton.

After his retirement from that company, Ken remained with the sport, returning to take a General Manager's role in the fledgling V8 entrants group TEGA, where he and Pam put in enormous hours until worsening health forced him to give it away last year.

Despite his problems, Ken remained an enthusiastic supporter of the sport and was never without a helping word for competitors and officials.

His funeral service in Melbourne last week was attended by the cream of V8 Supercar racing, with several drivers acting as pallbearers.

Ken is survived by Pam, and children Kellie and Dean.

Motorsport's condolences and best wishes go to the Potter family and all of his many friends in motorsport.

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19

■I-

DTM WHILE the DTM has adopted a new one-race with pit stop format for 2001, the results haven’t changed, with 2000 champ Bernd Schneider, taking the honours in round one at Hockenheim in his CLK V8.

Anew Formula 1-style qualifying format, with only 12 laps permitted per car, and improved television package were hits, and the racing was close. albeit among the dominant Mercs, who filled the top six positions with Marcel Fassler, Peter Dumbreck, former Opel driver Uwe Alzen, Tomas Jager and Pedro Lamy following home Mercedes’ golden hair boy.

In fact, the top four cars were all from the AMG Mercedes stable, the fact illustrating how dominant the Mercedes teams are in the series.

Laurent Aiello was seventh in his Audi, the Abt team having brought three brand-new cars to Hockenheim while Timo Scheider was the best Opel driver in 11th, even despite the new Astra’s good pace in testing.

The first pit visitor for the mandatory stops was Aiello, who had some bodywork damage repaired during the stop and dropped down the order. The first frontrunner to pit was Jager, who was turned around in 11.5s by his

Champ of champs; Schneider was again in form, top, but young Swiss team-mate Fassler, left, pushed the German ail the way with the Safety Car helping Marcel work his way clear of Dumbreck. The new Abt Audi, above, surprised by outperforming the Opel Astras.

Laurent Aiello was the top finisher in the TT Coupes.

(Photos by Sutton-lmages)

■<s

Persson team, followed by Alzen, who was also stationary for 11.5s.

Dumbreck pitted from second on lap 20, and was on his way in just 10.1s, while Schneider took 11.4s for his stop on lap 22. That left Fassler in the lead, but only by dint of him not having stopped.

Then the Safety Car went out to recover Martin Tomczyk’s stranded Audi and Fassler headed for the pits and was helped because the Safety Car picked up Dumbreck instead of Schneider.

By the time the error was realised, Dumbreck and the rest were waved past but Fassler was ahead of him when he rejoined the circuit.

They told me over the radio about the Safety Car and to come in,” said Fassler.

“I wasn’t sure how much I’d benefit, but it was quite a lot. Not enough for victoiy, though.”

Schneider said that he had “a lot of understeer” and knew Fassler was on fresher tyres and was quicker.

But I also knew if I didn’t make a mistake, then I’d stay ahead,” he added.

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Audi go 1-2 and 31 i

i

THE Audi R8 prototype Sportscar is simply unbeatable.

Recovering fi'om a stop-go penalty early in the opening round ofthe European Le Mans Series at Bonington, Tom ICristensen and Rinaldo Capello proved themselves unstoppable, claiming the chequered flag as the only car on the lead lap, and handing the Italian driver his third win for 2001. to go with his ALMS wins at Texas and Sebring.

“The car was very good and Tom did a great job in the first two stints,” Capello said afterwards.

“I just brought the car home without taking any risks. With last year's finale at Adelaide, I have won four races in a row - that is really special.”

Kirstensen led the field away

Lights ablaze and an Audi victory is pretty much assured: The works Audis and the privateer R8s were in the lead by the first corner at Donington, above, and never iooked back, whiie the Saieen, left, of Lambert/McKeilar was too good in the GTS class.

(Photos by Sutton-lmages)

from the start, while Stefan Johansson hauled his Gulfsponsored Audi ahead of the works Audi of Frank Biela as the field snaked through the Craner Curves on the first lap.

A clash with a backmarker sent Kristensen to the pits to serve a penalty, promoting Biela, who had reclaimed second from Johansson, into the lead.

“My only mishap was the stop-and-

go penalty. I accept things like that, but the drivers have to be aware of each other and understand how to behave in traffic,” Kristensen said.

After the leaffing Audis had changed drivers, Guy Smith made the move of the race when he shot the Gulf car down the inside of the Melbourne Hairpin to steal second from Emanuele Pirro. Carrying sufficient fuel to last out the race, the Italian had the last laugh

when Smith had to make a late stop, relegating them to third.

For the factory Panoz team,it was a dramatic weekend. David Brabham had hauled the car up to fourth when it came time to hand over to Jan Magnussen. The Dane struck trouble when he landed in the gravel after suffering a loose wheel. He was able to continue, and eventually brought the car home in eighth place.

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21

BTCC/ETCC

A new era

u'i

No ro^en eggs here: Former Honda pilot James Thompson ended up taking the first feature race under the new BTCC rules in the Vauxhall satellite team, Egg;Sport’s Astra. <Phol3 tjy Sotton-lrnagw;

opened at Brands Hatch with a small field of outright cars but plenty of Production class cars, however the 18,000 spectators on hand on Easter Monday were treated to a VauxhaU family feud.

Yvan Muller (in the factory Tiiple 8 Astra), started both races from pole and took victory in the sprint race ahead of team-mate Jason Plato, with James Thompson (in a Ti'iple 8-prepared car for Egg Sport Racing)third and his team-mate Phil Bennett fourth.

The 53-lap feature race started with a new rolling

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of the race but a misfire put him out, leaving Thompson to ward off Plato on his way to the chequered flag.

I had a really good, hard race with Jason in the main Feature event, it was very clean and I really enjoyed it that's what touring cars is all about,” enthused Thompson.

The new 406 Peugeots of Steve Soper, Matt Neal and Dan Eaves struggled with a lack of testing. Eaves the best behind the Vauxhalls in fifth in the Sprint race, while Soper took fourth in the Feature race.

Points: Plato/Thompson 26, Muller 20, Bennett 19, Soper 13, Neal 11.

Yep, a Lexus Tourer!

A bit too new: The new Peugeot 406s struggled with a lack of testing, but, gosh, don’t they look awesome? (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

ST lives!

ALTHOUGH it may still not sound quite right, this is Lexus's challenger on the newiook British Touhng Car Championship.

To be driven by Kurt Luby and Thomas Erdos, the IS200 model is the only rear-wheel drive car In the BTC Touring field and it wasn't ready in time for any testing before the opening round at Brands Hatch but should run OK at Thruxton when a second car is finished for the two former GT Sportscar racers. It's not a totally new concept-the IS200 has been running in New Zealand Schedule S tourers since 1999.

3-

8;

I

WHILE the British Touring Car Championship has abandoned Super Touring regulations, the newly re-constituted European Touring Car Championship is using the rules as well as Super Production cars.

In fact, there are more name drivers in the SP category than Super Touring, with Alfa dominating the latest round of the series at Brno in the Czech Republic. Nicola Larini and Fabrizio Giovanardi shared the wins in their 156s, while Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda Accord was best of the rest.

Former BMW and Honda works pilot Peter Kox took the Super Prod wins in his Ravaglia Motorsport BMW,the team run by 1987 World Touring Car Champ Roberto Ravaglia.

22

motorsport news

Highly fecognisea internationally as second only to ^ the Poris-Dohar, 2001 sees the safari gazetted as Round a of the 2001 pim cross Country Rallies world Cur

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SCOTT Dixon will rim with Panasonic sponsorship on his car from the next round of the CART series at Texas this Ayeekend, following a new technical partnership between ■ '.PiacWest Racing and Swift Engineering. ( , 'rhb Kiwi's extra signage comes from the fact that both Panasonic -and Swift are controlled by the Matsushita family.

'Un.til;now, PacWe.st had been using Reynard's Auto Research f CehtrCi which features a 40 percent rolling road wind tunnel and 7po'st shaker. PacWe,sl owner Bruce McCaw has a .slake in AKf), and ●vlht' teahi, consequently had access to their own secure model room. , Terathaerbdynamicist Bernie Marcus was also ba.sed at the --Indianapolis racility.

■■ The new deal will see PacWest relocate their aerodynamic model to the'-Swift wind tunnel in California, and Marcus will fly there to (■ sUpervise.tests. Current Swift man Casper van der Schoot will -■ 'become Mauricio Gugelmin's race engineer, which grants PacWest iV'bechnical director Allen McDonald the freiidom to oversee the entire fdovelopment program, addition to free wind tunnel time and engineering suppo)-t, the ^^partnarship will distance PacWest from Reynard which also offers ' an additional,benefit in freeing the team up for a switch to Lola .’cha.ssi.s should they so desire.

- PHII, MORRIS

Will Patrick be right?

MEMO Gidley and Scott Goodyear are the front runners to replace injured driver Patrick Carpentier if the Canadian is not able to get cleared for the next round in Texas.

"Memo certainly did a good job for us last year subbing for Patrick, but given the fact that this is our first race at Texas Motor Speedway, I would think we might also take a look at Scott Goodyear, who has raced there before," said Neil SuperSub: Memo Gidley.

Micklewright from Team (Photo by Dan R. Boyd/Bolhweli) Players. his fingers. Carpentier plans on "But the way it looks right being in the car in Texas. now, I don't think we'll need to. ' "It was a bad break," said a Carpentier suffered a chip surprisingly cheerful Carpentier, fracture with no tendon damage "but it was not a bad break." and has full range of motion of 24

Brickyard Ganassi, Penske, Andr

by PHIL MORRIS ENTRIES have closed for the 85th Indianapolis 500 and there’s a strong field of 50 cars set to vie for the 33 grid positions available for the May 27 race.

With each back-up car having to be entered, there are actually 94 cars on the list, with four previous ’500 champs (Eddie Cheever, Buddy Lazier, Arie Luyendyk and A1 Unser Jr) among the field in addition to the wave of Champ Car drivers making a one-off appearance in the race.

Roger Penske has two cars for Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves to be run in Marlboro colours. Chip Ganassi has entered Nicolas Minassian and Bruno Junqueira and Michael Andretti returns for his first race at the Brickyard since 1995 in a Motorola-backed machine.

Late entries included a second AJ Foyt Racing car for Robby Gordon, most recently fired from the Kodak NASCAR drive, as well as one from Della Penna Motorsports, formerly of the CART series. A driver is yet to be named.

A car has also been entered by Lee Brayton, father of the late Scott. This year’s race is the 20th anniversary of Brayton Jr’s first race in the Indy 500 and five years since he was killed in practice before the 1996 race, having already taken pole position.

The Indy Racing League regulars are well represented, with Greg Ray (Team Menard), Robbie Buhl (Dreyer & Reinbold), Scott Sharp and Mark Dismore (Kelley Racing), Sarah Fisher (Walker Racing), Sam Hornish Jr (Pennzoil Panther), Eliseo Salazar (Foyt) and Scott Goodyear (Cheever) also on the list for the fourth round of the IRL championship.

Of the 50 entries, 11 cars still have vacant cockpits and there are a number of drivers roaming Gasoline Alley during recent tests at Indianapolis looking to score drives.

The race returns to a three-week format this year, with Opening Day on May 6, Pole Day on May 12 and second day of qualification the day after, with Bump Day on May 20.

Same guys, different colours: de Ferran and Castroneves will be taking in their second IRL race at Indy, though in full Marlboro warpaint.

(Pholo by SuHon-lmaQtw)

■ _c

FOLLOWING a particularly frustrating Rookie Orientation with CART drivers Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian (which included a crash and an engine blow-up), reports from the US indicate the team owner Chip Ganassi has been busy sounding out Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser to take the drives in the May classic.

Tracy wanted to go but was told no by CART sponsor KOOL after Barry Green had given his OK. "They've invested a lot of money in promoting me and they said if I go to Indy they want to be the one to bring me," said Tracy.

Vasser meanwhile, who drove for Ganassi in last year's CART Series and Indy 500 and was bought out of his contract by Ganassi, is thought to be an unlikely starter unless it made "business sense" to Patrick Racing, as team manager Jim McGee put it.

"You know me, I always want to go to Indianapolis and I've got a couple of interested parties," said the 1996 CART champion.

"But I can't do anything with the consent of Pat (Patrick) and

moiorsport news

NEWS

I field set

etti among 50 car field

hifi up to something?

Jim (McGee).

Tony Stewart and Scott Pruett have also been mentioned on the rumour mill, though Stewart is committed to Winston Cup and Pruett is actually still under contract to Cal Wells' PPI outfit, though not actually racing.

Ganassi admitted that he had taken a few looks, but seemed to think the drivers will remain.

"We've had some discussions but I don't think anything's gonna happen."

- PHIL MORRIS

2001 Indianapolis 500 Entry List

HO 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 28 30 31 32 33 35 37 38 39 41 44 51 52 55 60 66 68 77 81 88 91 92 93 94 98 99

DRIVER SPONSOR/TEAM CHASSIS/EHGIHE Dallara-Aurora Johns Manville/Menard Greg Ray AlUnserJr G-Force/Aurora Starz SuperPak Bud/Galles Sam Hornish Pennzoil/Panther Dallara/Aurora G-Force/Aurora MeijerlTreadway-Hubbard Aria Luyendyk Jon Herb Dallara/Aurora Star Registry/Tri Star Dallara/Aurora Stephan Gregoire Tokheim/Simon Dallara/Aurora Scott Sharp Delphi/Kelley Dallara/Aurora Jeret Schroeder Purity Products/PDM Dallara/Aurora RobbyMcGehee Cahill Racing Jack Miller Dallara/Aurora Olympus-Opalescence/Cah ill Buzz Calkins Dallara/Aurora Bradley Food Marts/Bradley Eliseo Salazar Dallara/Aurora Harrah's/Foyt Sarah Fisher Dallara/Aurora Kroger/Walker G-Force/Aurora WSA/Indy Regency Cory Witherill TBA TBA Dick Simon Racing Dallara/Aurora TruscelliTeam Racing Johnny Unser TBA Dallara/Aurora Della Penna Motorsports TBA Dallara/Aurora Kelley Racing G-Force/Aurora Hollywood/Treadway-Hubbard Felipe Giaffone Team Menard TBA Dallara/Aurora TBA G-Force/Infiniti Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Robbie Buhl G-Force/Infiniti Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold TBA Dallara/Aurora Walker Racing TBA G-Force/Aurora Blueprint Racing Mark Dismore Dallara/Aurora Delphi/Kelley Brandon Erwin WorldBestBuy.com/McCormack G-Force/Aurora G-Force/Aurora Casey Mears SportsLine.com/Galles Didier Andre G-Force/Aurora Galles Racing G-Force/Aurora Nicolas Minassian Target/Ganassi Jeff Ward G-Force/Aurora Heritage Motorsports Dallara/Aurora TBA Brayton Racing TBA Dallara/Aurora Nienhouse Motorsports Dallara-Aurora Michael Andretti Motorola-Archipelago/Green Dallara/Aurora AJ Foyt Racing Robby Gordon G-Force/Aurora Bruno Junqueira Target/Ganassi Eddie Cheever ExciteOHome/Cheever Indy Racing Dallara/lnfiniti Dallara/lnfiniti Cheever Indy Racing Scott Goodyear Dallara/Aurora EPSON/Vertex-Cunningham Shigeaki Hattori Dallara/Aurora TBA Tri Star Motorsports Dallara/Aurora Gil de Ferran Marlboro/Penske Dallara/Aurora Helio Castroneves Marlboro/Penske G-Force/Aurora Jonathan Byrd/TeamXtreme Jaques Lazier G-Force/Aurora John Paul Jr Zali Racing G-Force/Aurora Airton Dare l-800-BAR-NONE/TeamXtreme Dallara/Aurora Tae-Bo/Hemelgarn Buddy Lazier Dallara/Aurora Stan Wattles Hemelgarn Racing Dallara/Aurora TBA Metro Management/Hemelgarn Dallara/Aurora TBA Hemelgarn Racing Curb-Agaj'anian-Beck Motorsports Dallara/Aurora Billy Boat Dallara/Aurora Sam Schmidt Motorsports Davey Hamilton

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27 April 2001

25

BIKES

Rossi's friendly Welkom Vi

'ALENTINO Rossi put in brilliant ride to win _ the South African 500cc Grand Prix at Welkom last weekend.

The diminutive Italian fought his way through a strong leading pack to capture his second victory on the trot, extending his championship lead over compatriot Loris Caripossi, Caripossi had the advantage at the beginning of the race, leading the field away until he was passed by an aggressive Kenny Roberts, who was on a charge after starting from the second row.

Rossi was always close though, and before long he had dispatched Capirossi and the Red Bull Yamaha of Garry McCoy. The Australian’s race came to an early end when he crashed heavily on lap 18 while trying to find a way past Roberts.

By that point, Rossi had claimed the lead, and from that point on he never looked back.

The only threat came from Capirossi, who managed to close down the gap to the race leader with just two laps to go after spending several laps caught behind Roberts, who had slipped back through the field.

A message from the pitwall ensured that Rossi was.aware of.. the threat from behind, and the Honda rider sealed his claim to the race with the final three laps all record-breakers, the last being the quickest of aU. 1 knew it was Loris who was chasing me and closing so I had to do my best to break away from him. I don’t think I rode harder than I could out there but

times in at the end,” said Rossi.

“I thought that maybe I was the only one who could do lm35s but Loris stayed with me right to the end.”

Capirossi said;“My start was perfect right up until the first comer when Kenny ran into me and I had to roll off the throttle which made me lose more ground.

“At the end I really tried to take Valentino but the times were into the 36s and although I could match them there was nothing I could do to get past.”

Tohru Ukawa made it a 1-2-3 for Honda when he grabbed the final spot on the podium, notching up his first top-three finish in just his second 500cc race. The Japanese rider had come up tramps after spending the closing stages ofthe race locked in battle with Shinya Nakano and Norick Abe. “It was a difficult race and I straggled at the end so I must keep my concentration right until the end,” Ukawa said afterwards.

“My bike was good but I couldn’t quite close the gap on Rossi and Capirossi. I am happy to be on the podium though... very happy.”

D

AIJIRO Katoh was on a different planet to the rest of the 250cc field in Japan a couple of weeks ago, but a determined race

the Japanese rider had to work harder for his win in South Africa.

YOUICHI crushed the rest of the 125ccUi field, claiming Katoh’s early-race surges are victory after leading the entire becoming almost customary, and race. After seeing off a spirited again he didn’t disappoint. Before challenge from Spaniard Toni long, he was four seconds clear of Elias, the Japanese rider the field, and it was beginning to disappeared and was untroubled for the rest of the event. look like a long afternoon for the Aprilias.

Behind them,Angel Nieto Jr, Melandri, Roberto Locatelli, and Nobby Ueda, Manuel Poggiali, Tetsuya Harada squabbled Gaspare Caffiero and Masao between themselves for the lower Azuma were closing in on Elais’s podium positions before Melandri, Honda,and before long Poggiali still sore from dislocating his had captured second, a position he held to the end. shoulder in Japan two weeks ago, began to break away and chase A flurry of passing on a track down Katoh’s Honda. not normally known for overtaking An explosive sequence oflaps sent Elias back through the field. from the 18-year-old Italian An attempt to regain lost ground whittled an average 0.5s out of by passing Caffiero came unstuck, and Elias finished his race in the Katoh’s lead. With two laps to go, the Japanese rider’s advantage gravel. The final place on the had been cut to just 1.2s, and podium was claimed when Ueda Melandri was visibly closing in. found a way past Gino Borsoi on Katoh’s race was saved, though, the last lap.

125 cc Champioaship Standings: Ui 45, when backmarker Cesar Barros Azxima 31,Poggiali 31, Borsoi 26, Vincent 17, inadvertently blocked Melandri.

Jenkner 17, Sanna 16, Ueda 16, Nieto 16, The Italian continued to hound the Sabbatini 13. race leader, and the Japanese rider went on the cross the finish line less than a bike length ahead.

Harada claimed third place ahoaeL of Locatelli. \ '● 250 cc Championship Standings: Kat^^ ' r ; Harada 36, Melandri 30, Locatelli 29, Mat^u 20, Rolfo 19, McWilliams 18, Nieto 19, Fa 16,Ho&nan 10.

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26

motorsport news

OPINION

Who's calling the shots?

T

he cancellation of the second World Superbike Championship race at Phillip Island last Sunday was a classic case of common sense and intelligent input by some of the leading competitors.

Troy Corser took the initiative in getting a delay and then sending Colin Edwards out for a reconnaissance lap which confirmed his view that conditions were impossible which they obviously were!

We've faced conditions like that on occasion and I'm strong on the view that the people best placed to make those kind of judgements are the experienced competitors.

W

e understand that we're in the entertainment business, but I wouldn't say that people are standing on the hill wanting to be entertained by someone being killed. We know that our sport is dangerous, but you don’t need to exaggerate that by sending people out in conditions which are clearly too dangerous.

There's not a wilder place than Phillip Island in Australia when it rains, with standing water, rivers across the road and sometimes - particularly tough on a bike I'd guess crosswinds...

In longer races, we V8 racers obviously have the Safety Car option when conditions change.

I can remember getting on the radio pretty hard at Sandown in '98 telling the guys that it was pretty ridiculous, and Adelaide last year when we were all on slicks and it suddenly hosed down with rain.

While the team can pass those views on to Race Control, there's a point to be made that maybe a direct link to Race Control involving nominated drivers might be worthwhile. After all, who is better credentialled to tell Race Control how bad it is - the Race Director/Clerk of Course or the blokes out there in among the spray?

“The major concerns are standing water and visibility.

I have been a car where it's been so bad that I had to look out the side window to know where I was on the track! At Bathurst it was once so bad I ran into the back of the Pace Car...

I'd have no problem if John Bowe, Larry Perkins, Glenn Seton, Craig Lowndes, and Russell Ingall, say, were five drivers selected by all the drivers to have their radios scanned by Race Control and if they were saying "hey, this is

bad, let’s get out of this," that'd be good enough for me.

“To be honest, if the conditions got that bad and, say, Craig was leading at Adelaide and Race Control hadn't made the call, like the bikes do I'd suggest that if we could see Craig's arm out of the window, we'd all go with him. You've got to have confidence in your peers.

Remember Calder a couple of years back? Greg Murphy was sent out to do a reconnaissance lap and made the call. There was no doubt that on that track that day, if you were firing down the straight in fifth or sixth, cars would fire off and into the fence.

Everyone loves driving in the rain - there's nothing better than driving a race car in the rain - when the conditions are good.

And sometimes conditions can be a bit mixed. But when the water is so severe that you can't drive down the straight; when you're motoring along at 250 kmh and can't see one car's length in front of you; if you press the throttle the car will spin around; it doesn't get any wilder than that.

You certainly don't have any control of the car and the repercussions can be pretty savage...

“Well,from where I’m sitting it looks...heil, I can’t see a thing”: The guys in the best position to make a judgement call on the conditions are somewhere in the spray...

Ill

i

ran into Craig (Lowndes) an hour or two after our clash in the second race at Adelaide and we were both pretty casual about it.

However, I must say I was a bit disappointed with some of the media comment out of it, some of it derived from their media group release which said that I turned him around. I always thought it was a bit hard to turn someone around from the front...

It was just a matter of luck that my car was, in mechanical terms, undamaged. Three out of four times, you'd come out of an incident like that with a broken steering arm or something.

The car didn't have World Champion wheel alignment setting. It wasn’t the best, but fortunately it was good enough to finish the race, which was the important thing for us.

Adelaide certainly is one of those 'luck' races. There's as much luck associated with it as Bathurst - Bright won because he was so far back in the field after the lap one incident, he got into the pits when no-one else could get in and won the race from there!

0

n the subject of Adelaide, though, I was disappointed about the lack of action in regard to virtually all of the big incidents that weekend.

I've seen the vision of a lot of the weekend and thought it was the worst case of how Race Administration and the judicial system acted that I have seen.

They were so inconsistent ... and a couple of the incidents were really quite serious.

And in these big double-points races, the consequences for someone being taken out are that much greater. The penalties and consequences for the culprits should reflect that.

27

and across Europe. It is The geese have north Springtime.

All gone manner of beasts and beings are crawling from hibernation and behaving amorously.

The birds and the bees are busy. Hares are just as dizzy in April as they were a month ago.

Flowers are pollinating frantically and even cupboards are crying out to have their winter cobwebs removed.

In the cycle of life, it is a time for planting, a time for procreation. And passion, it must have been this Spring fever that got me the other day when I was walking around Fortnum & Mason in London (as one does). I saw a book about Ettore Bugatti and, without a second thought, I bought it. I am too embarrassed to even discuss the price ...

But I cannot help myself when it comes to Bugatti. As far as I am concerned,'Le Patron' was the only man who has ever raised automotive design to an art form.

A lot of other automobile designers have produced goodlooking cars, some even justify being described as 'beautiful'.

But none of them were artists like Bugatti. it was a genetic thing. His father Carlo was an inventor who strove to solve the problems of perpetual motion and also made exquisite furniture. Ettore's brother Rembrandt was an outstanding sculptor who specialised in works of animals. If I was a multi-millionaire, I would buy them.

And then, of course, there were the automobiles: those designed by Ettore and those drawn by his son Jean.

industrial city of Essen in Germany and I found myself in love with a car. I was dry mouthed, breathless. I had all the right symptoms. And there it was: the Esders Bugatti Royale Coupe de Ville, in its two-tone colour scheme. I had to be dragged away.

Such behaviour is not really in my nature but this lump of metal was somehow special. At A$20m, this babe was out of my league and over the years the passion has faded. I saw the Coupe a couple of years ago at the French Grand Prix and it was like seeing an old girlfriend. There was a spark of something there but it was in the past.

can honestly say that in my life I have only twice fallen in love at first sight. On the first occasion I was at a party in the far from glamorous London suburb of Kilburn. I remember her name but not much more than that.

On the second occasion, I was in the far from glamorous

G

Passion and Pavlov's dons

oing to Imola every Spring reminds one of the unnatural feelings that exist between people and cars. Down at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, there is very real passion for anything Ferrari. You see behaviour which one can only put down to love.

FORMULA ONE

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The Box Seat Will Job SBwtrd

The tifosi are completely passionate about the red cars from Maranello. It is a ! nationalistic thing, but it is much more than that. But do not think it - ; is just an Italian thing. The British ; have a thing about Jaguars which - is along similar lines and the . I French get all coo-ey about

powder-blue Bugattis. What is it about these old flames which get people going? But what triggers these passionate thoughts?

Where does the magic come from?

Deconstructing passion is an impossible task.

It is not just about boys and girls and cars. It is about collecting train numbers or visiting art galleries. Or going to churches and mosques.

Or making money.

There are times when passions collide and that is happening right now in Formula 1. It happened at Imola when the local bishop began mouthing off about running the San Marino Grand Prix on Easter Sunday. A holy day. The Roman Catholic Church met Formula 1 head-on. In an effort to appease the clerics, it was agreed that the parish priest of Maranello, Alberto Bernardoni, would conduct a mass and it would be broadcast on the giant TV screens around the Imola circuit.

It is also happening in the background in FI. The paddock at

Imola was chattering about the recent noise from the automobile manufacturers about starting their own racing series. This is the last thing that the sport needs. It is a competitive world out there.

There was a time when Formula 1 had only to worry about other racing cars but nowadays the pressure for coverage is huge.

Formula 1 has to compete with game shows, quiz programs, religions and other sports. It cannot afford to be split by internal discord. One would have thought that people in FI would be smart enough to try to avoid the mess that exists in the United States of America where open wheeler racing has been split down the middle for the last five years because of money and egos.

The end result of all this is that everyone is losing and will continue to do so until they all get 3.5-litre normally-aspirated engines and get back together again.

Eventually it will happen because the big sponsors will push them back together.

Formula 1 stands on the verge of making the same mistakes as l the Americans and, already, teams have found that their sponsors are not happy about the chunterings of Paolo Cantarella of Fiat and his supposed allies amongst the car manufacturers.

One would like to think that team bosses in FI are smart enough not to get involved in such matters but, like Professor Pavlov's dogs, some of them start to drool when money is mentioned.

When down, the menyou afterboil theit money are the losers. Some have no passion for the sport. Others may once have had it but they have lost it in their desire to make more money.

The next few months are going to be interesting but let us hope that at the end of it all those with the passion will still be around and those without it will have gone off to sell vegetables on market stalls.

II Passione (not a soft drink): The Tifosi take all Ferrari drivers to their hearts and Rubens Barrichello is no exception.

Pff'Iyj I',

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Racing Strateciy

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O win a race in the Shell Championship Series from last is an amazing achievement.

Wlien Craig Lowndes did it in Adelaide in 1999, the assembled onlookers were impressed. When Mark Skaife did it the following year, they shook their heads. Then, this year, Jason Bright did it. Three last-to-first charges - all from the same team. Amazing.

Is it? Amazing,I mean. Or, are there a set ofimmovable fnndamentals that you follow, no matter what, whenever you are faced with that situation, to get you out ofjail?

Race strategy is, in reality, a moveable feast. No two race drivers are the same, and no two races are identical. The factors involved in a 20-minute sprint race - where the basic philosophy is “drive like hell and hang on”- and a two hour race like Adelaide are completely different.

Jeff Grech Icnows this. Holden Racing Team’s manager is responsible for maldng sure that Skaife and Bright have the best information available to them all the time so that they can do what they do best- win races.

So does Fred Gibson, with Lowndes. Now Ford men, the pair have already made an impact in their short time together, Lowndes sitting in eighth in the SCS after winning the first race at Adelaide.

For Grech, planning strategy starts before the race.

“There are a lot of variables,” he says. “Look at the next ‘big points’ race in Canberra; at Adelaide, we have the last pit box, the one closest 32

to the pit exit. At CanbeiTa, it’s different; we are the first pit. That by itself makes a difference.”

So, your man is well-placed in the field and Fred Hunger has crunched his Hi-Lo Racing Commodore into the wall around the back ofthe track. Network 10 is in a commercial break and you haven’t seen it yet. Pit? Maybe not, according to Grech.

“The things we keep an eye on most is the pit windows. You have to be sure that what you do now will not compromise what you do at the end of the race.

“When a pit window opens, we are on alert. But then, one can come in before the other and there is a panic on at the time. Once the window opens,ifit is fuel first and tyres second, you get ready for it. .

‘You can start with a full tank and go right through to the end (of the fuel load). When you are giving your tyres a bit of grief at the end of the race, it’s better to have less weight in the back.”

Gibbo concurs.

‘You have to keep an eye on fuel mileage and, also, how long it takes to get in and out of the pits. That means that you have to keep an eye on what is happening on the piece of track where you could be after the stop. You look backwards, down the field, for clean air.

“That happens a lot in Formula One, as well as V8 Supercar racing.

You often see, in FI, someone stuck in a position and then change their strategy to get clean air when they come out.” > You also have to make sure that the team is ready to perform at its best. All the teams have varied

states of readiness; at the very start ofthe race, before the compulsory pit vrindow opens(in the case of the Clipsal 500, the first 16 laps) you will not pit a car unless there is a problem - as Bright had on lap 1 ofthe Sunday race. But the team still has to be ready.

That’s one area in which Grech is looking for improvement.

“We didn’t do a perfect job (in Adelaide),” he muses.

“We will be looking for that to improve in the next race.”

So is Gibson.

“We got it right on Saturday but, on Sunday,it got us. We had the car speed to be in the fight for the win, but we were in the wrong place.

“Bright made four stops and won the race.

They (HRT) did a good job.”

Track position means everything, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

Sometimes, the one place you want to be is in fi’ont of the field, and sometimes that is the worst place to be.

Adelaide showed this. One factor that has changed in 2001 is the amount of warning that the teams have before the Safety Car- is summoned. Previously, teams have been able to use their radios to scan ■'i'-

i

"1AtegotitmglitonSatifl<day but, on Sunday, it got us"

- Fred Gibson

motorspon news

FEATURE

Boiled lollies: Craig Lowndes was King of Adelaide on Saturday but HRT and Jason Bright brought him back to earth with a thud the following day.

(Photos by John Morris/Mpix, Marshall Cass and Dirk Klynsmilh)

A driver might know before wedo.Biitheusuaflyusually-reOes totally on

It

US" 27 April 2001

-Jeff Grech

the Race Director’s communiques to ‘read/ the Safety Car, and had a con'esponding amount of warning. Now,the system is different; there is no such warning.

“The Safety Car picks up the leader,” states n Gibson. “If you are in front, you have a problem. If you are third or further back, you have a chance to get in and get an advantage. If you’re in front, forget it.”

That helped Bright’s cause in Adelaide. Lowndes and the leaders had passed the pit exit and were beginning their next lap when the

Safety Car started to move.

“Get into pit lane if you can,” Bright was told by his team. He did, Just squeezing in to complete one of his compulsory stops. A second later and he would not have made it.

“That is one of the areas where the drivers have input into the process,” says Grech. “Sometimes, a driver will be able to say,‘so-and-so is in the wall and they may bring out the Safety Car’. They might know before we do, But he usually usually - relies totally on us.”

And sometimes there are things that come up at the wrong time which throw in a wildcard, even if, at first glance, it might not affect your team directly.

Look at Greg Mui-phy. After his Saturday DNF,the Kmart driver had started from the back ofthe gild but, mid-race, was leading the field. Great, huh? No, bad. The HRT cars of Bright and Skaife were line astern, 200 metres behind him, after having completed both of their compulsory stops.

I^at happened? Murphy was going to complete one of his stops under the Safety Car, but tbe team had told him to stay out. Paul Monis, having pitted after he was overcome by fuel fumes, was being treated in his pit. The Big Kev Commodore was in the way. MmT would not have been able to complete his stop, so he was told to stay where he was.

The same thing happened when Murf shai-ed a Vectra with Russell Ingall at Bathurst. Despite their experience - and budget- the Triple 8 team missed an early Safety Car and were dead ducks when the track turned ‘gi-een’ again. Later, when there was another Safety Car after Ingall had been in the car for six laps, they wanted to do another driver change - until Murftalked them out of it...

In Adelaide, there are two pit windows to open before the end of the race. This year, one of those was' on lap 16, after which the teams could pit for either tyres or fuel and get one of their compulsory stops done, hopefully ‘under yellow’. But each team also has a fuel range, and if a car will go only 50 laps on a tank, you are really waiting for lap 28 or after to pit the car for fuel.

So. You are really looking at two things; what lap are we on now?; and how many laps are left until the end of the race?

You read a race ‘backwards’;for example, to get a car home in four stops at Bathurst, you need to go 33 laps on yom’first tank (in the dry) and 32 on each subsequent refill. So the significant lap numbers for Mount Panorama are 33, 65,97 and 129, because they are the results of the total number oflaps, 161, minus 32, minus 32, minus 32, minus 32.

Pit on lap 62, or 94, and you are in trouble. You will have to either

cruise, or get a Safety Car to get home without a splash and dash.

Do it on lap 67 or 100 and it’s full steam ahead.

All that goes out the window, of course, when it rains. Fuel range stretches, especially when Safety Cars make frequent appearances, and you could go 40 laps on a tank.

That means you could, theoretically, do the race on three stops, if not for the minimum four-stop rale of recent Bathursts.

That has been one of the notable things about HRT in the past two years. Almost without exception at Bathurst, where strategies are not hard to work out, they have stuck to their plans, no matter what.

“The position of the race has had a lot to do with that,” explains Grech. “Don’t forget, in the last few years we have gone to Bathurst with a championship to win, and that takes precedence over everything else.

“That’s one of the reasons why so many of the drivers now are saying, ‘let’s take Bathurst out of the championship’. It’s such a big event that a lot ofthem don’t want it to take away fi’om the series. Most of the drivers want to win Bathurst as a stand-alone event.”

So if, or when, Bathurst is taken out of the championship, we could see a different strategy employed by HRT. But,for now, Bathm'st and the other two-driver race, the Queensland 500, are solid parts of the championship. That means that there are big decisions to be made; if both of HRT’s drivers are in contention for the championship, which seems likely, will Skaife and Bright share a car, or continue to be split up?

That’s a problem Lowndes will not have, but there are still some interesting decisions to be made. In 1995, Gibson surprised onlookers by having Jim Richai-ds start the lead car at Bathurst, because Gibson wanted Skaife in it at the end of the race. HRT did the same thing with their number 2 car at the Queensland 500 last season, with Nathan Pretty starting before handing over to Todd Kelly.

Don’t hold your breath looking for Lowndes to start at Queensland this year. Could it be Neil Crompton in #00?

“Could happen, absolutely,” smiles Gibson.

“One thing that the Japanese taught me is that you never make a decision until you have to. You need as long as possible to make a decision but, on race day, sometimes you don’t have the luxuiy oftime.

“We make a lot of decisions based on gut feeling. It all comes down to track position at the end of the race.”

33

Racing Strateciy

In the Red Corner

Ross Brawn has masterminded some of Ferrari's most famous GP victories. ADAM COOPER spoke to the brains behind Maranelio's strategies ONE of the constants in the McLaren-Mercedes versus Ferrari battle in Grand Prix Racing over the past three seasons, in particular, has been the strategies called by Ferrari tech boffin, Ross Brawn.

The combination of peerless driving from Michael Schumacher and smart calls from Brawn have often seen the German triumph, even when the silver McLarens have shown superior car speed.

This season, there are even more variables to consider, with the emergence of a competitive BMW.Williams combination, and a Bridgestone-Michelin tyre battle.

That's manna from heaven for Brawn, who relishes the prospect of the tyre war making his role even more critical.

"I enjoy it a lot, I enjoy the fact that the team has a fair part to play during a race these days," says Ross.

"It doesn't work every time; last year we had some races where we tried to be ambitious on a few things, and it didn't come off. But I always tend to look at the worst case scenario. If

we try this, what's going to happen? We're running fourth, if we try this maybe we'll only end up fourth but maybe we'll get a second or a third or even a win.

“Sometimes that didn't work out and we ended up fourth, but you have to ask yourself, 'what was the downside?' It was easier in some ways last year because only McLaren and Ferrari were seriously in the races. So you were looking at fourth place as the worst case."

But more often than not, the Italian team got it right.

"All you can do is look at the percentages. I think if we're getting 80-90 percent right, we're doing very well. I think anyone who does that is doing very well, because there are certain things you just can't control or predict.

But with Rubens we tried things . which didn't work out."

On a number of occasions Ferrari surprised the Brazilian by bringing him early, sometimes adding an extra stop which he hadn't expected. More than once the results were not what the team had in mind, but the slip ups went largely unnoticed.

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34

wim Sharing the credit: Brawn and Schumacher won in Malaysia. Brawn made great calls, and it doesn’t hurt to have Michael in your car... (Photos by Stilion'Images)

despite the occasional jibe from McLaren's Ron Dennis.

The big difference was that at McLaren, both drivers were in contention for race wins and the title. A mistake with Coulthard was inevitably more obvious and more costly than one involving Barrichello. The odd fumble with the second Ferrari also proved how big a part Schumacher plays.

“I think Rubens is getting to understand how we think, which is helpful," says Brawn.

"Michael's been such an integrated part of it for so long now, both here and at Benetton.

Fie knows the way of thinking, he can add things, he can comment. For Rubens it's a little bit newer. Sometimes without an understanding of the strategy, it doesn't always seem logical.

Whereas Michael understands the way we think. And sometimes if a strategy doesn't seem logical it's difficult to feel committed to it."

In other words, Barrichello was occasionally confused by what the team was doing.

“That's not to say he didn't drive as hard as he could, but the plan wasn't clear to him, and when a driver is confused, it doesn't help. That got much better as the year went on."

What it always comes back to is Schumacher's unmatched ability to make the best of any situation. Even Dennis can't help but admire the man who makes his life so difficult, however painful it may be for him to admit it.

"People don't realise how important the interface between the driver and the team is," says Ron. "Michael is particularly good at working out his own strategy in the course of the race, and sharing that with Ross. I remember when Ayrton drove for our team just how easy it was to get strategies right, because the driver contributes a great deal. I wouldn't detract from either our own drivers or Ross Brawn, but we all have strengths and weaknesses, and I think one of Michael's strengths is to read a race." moiorsRort news

FEATURE

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^i^l^h.i^,nipfmally decides 'yffhaf^^dliafiges you make to I’the car; with regard to wedge adjustment and lowering tyre pressures? '’RP:':l,’ljrt:in a better situation than mbst-d,rivers, in that Rusty is very'smart when it comes to what the car is doing and how we adjust it.

Quite often he will tell us what the car is doing, pushing or loose, and (engineers) Jeff Thousand and Mike Nelson and myself will decide collectively the changes we make. Rusty will usually ask what changes we are planning and go with them, or make another suggestion.

MN: Assuming you end up taking responsibility for a wrong call that you made, what kind of heat do you take from that?

RP: None whatsoever. Things 21 April 2001

happen, choices often aren't the right ones.

At Martinsville recently, late in the race we put just right side tyres on the car and they just didn't wdrk. Earlier in the race they worked well particularly in the outside groove, so whether the track got more rubber build up, or the heat played a factor, we're not sure. Several of my friends on other teams noted the same problem.

I think that's a good example of the kind of scenario you're talking about.

MN; Do you think the new Goodyear tyre compounds will lead to more pit strategy calls?

RP; I really do and I think we've already seen that this year. The tyres appear to live longer and you may be able to take more gambles. Right now everyone is ' Still kind of learning that.

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Brothers in FI

Sir P

SDeak I RaifSchumacher became the first "brother of'to win a GP at imola, which got MARK GLENDENNING poring through the history books to uncover some of FI's sibling rivalries

barely parked his EALF Schumacher had BMW.Williams in pare ferme at Imola before media and casual observers alike had begun reeling off a list of “firsts’ - RalPs first GP victory, the first for BMW since their return,first for WUliams since 1997,first for the reborn Michelin outfit.

The first person waiting to congi-atulate Ralf as he climbed out of the cockpit was his brother, who has also managed to notch up the odd Grand Piix win every now and again. Family connections in Formula One are virtually as old as the sport itself, but until the moment that the Williams blasted past the chequered flag at the San Marino Grand Prix, Formula One had never produced a pair of race winning brothers.

A bit of trivia with which to impress your mates down at the pub: Michael Schumacher is the fomth World Champion to have a brother join him in Formula One. Triple world champ Jackie Stewart (who won in 1969,1971, and 1973), was actually following in the footsteps of his brother Jimmy when he made his first FI appearance with BRM in 1965. Eight years his senior, Jimmy was better lurown for his exploits in Sports Cars, but he did make one Grand Prtx start when he got behind the wheel of an Ecmie Ecosse Cooper Bristol for the 1953 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. He crashed out ofthe race.

Emerson Fittipaldi(world champion in 1972 and 1974) also had an older brother in Formula One. Wilson Fittipaldi spent the

first years ofthe 1970s racing in FoiTnula Three and Formula Two, before making his first Formula One appearance with Brabham in 1972. The next couple ofseasons yielded just two points-scoring drives - a fifth in the German Grand Piix and a sixth in Ai-gentina, both in 1973.

Wilson also looked good for third at Monaco in the same year before fuel problems intervened to spoil his race. He quit in 1974, but retm-ned a year later with his Brazilian-built Copersucar. The endeavom- was not a success, and Wilson finally retired from racing at the end of 1975. His son Christian also raced in Formula One before heading CART-side, where he drives for Newman-Haas Racing.

Another world champion, another older brother. Jody Scheckter made periodic Grand Ptix appearances for McLaren in 1972 and 1973, before landing a full-time contract to replace Jackie Stewart at lyn'ell.

He rode victories in South Africa and France to take third in the championship before moving on to lyiTell and,in 1979, Ferrari, where he won the world title. At the end of a tough 1980 campaign, he quit for good.

Jody’s brother Ian also had a sporadic start to his career, but unfortunately it never really gained momentum.Ian made his first FI appearance in the South African Grand Ptix in the cockpit of a Lotus.

He finished 13th, in what would be one of only fom- occasions from 18 staiis.(He also failed to qualify twice).

Ian added appearances with Hesketh, Tyi-rell, and Williams to

Mum will be delighted: Michael and Ralf Schumacher went the hug after junior's first GP win at Imola.

David, Gary, Barbara?

Australia’s own racing dynasty was less successful, David Brabham starting in 24 Grands Prix - most recently with Simtek, right-and brother Gary DNQ’ing in all of his attempts.

(Photos by Sutton-images and Dirk Klynsmith)

w

Jacques Villeneuve returned to Canada. Fate would have a completely different future in store for the nephew who shared his name, hut that's another story...

4

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his CV before landing a works drive with March for the 1977 season. A 10th place in the Dutch Grand Prix was the ‘highlight’of a disastrous year that was otherwise characterised by mechanical failures interspersed with occasional accidents. Ian quit at the end of the season and returned to South Africa, where he went on to win two Formula Atlantic titles.

Jod/s son’s Toby and Tomas both raced in British F3, and Tomas is now an FI test driver for Jaguar.

While we’re at it, we might as well touch on a few ofthe other significant sibling rivalries in Formula One. Gilles Villeneuve took his first Grand Prix win before a home crowd in Montreal. When his brother Jacques made his Fonnula One debut at the same track in 1981 for Aitows, he failed to qualify.

Three years younger than Gilles, Jacques won the Canadian Foimula Atlantic title twice before attempting to make an impression upon racing’s premier category, motorsporl news

stro

II

FEATURE

Brothers in arms BRABHAM, DAVID (Brabham, Simtek)- 24 starts, 6 DNQ, Best Result 10th BRABHAM, GARY (Life)-2 DNQ BRAMBILLA, ERNESTO (Cooper, Ferrari)-1 DNQ, 1 DNS BRAMBILLA, VITTORIO (March, Surtees, Alfa Romeo)-74 starts,4 DNQ, 1 win.

FABI, CORRADO (Osella, Brabham),-12 starts,6 DNQ, Best Result 7th FABI, TEO (Toleman, Brabham, Benetton)-64 starts, 7 DNQ, Best Result 3rd FITTIPALDI, EMERSON (Lotus, McLaren, Fittipaldi)-144 starts,3 DNQ,2 WDC,14 wins FITTIPALDI, WILSON (Brabham, Fittipaldi)-35 starts, 2 DNQ, Best Result 5th RODRIGUEZ, PEDRO (Lotus, Ferrari, Cooper, BRM)-54 starts, 2 wins RODRIDUEZ, RICARDO (Ferrari)-5 starts, 1 DNS, Best Result 4th SCHECKTER, IAN (Lotus, Hesketh, Tyrrell, Williams, March)- 18 starts, 2 DNQ, Best Result 10th SCHECKTER,JODY (McLaren,Tyrrell, Wolf. Ferrari)-112starts,1 DNQ,1 WDC,10 wins SCHUMACHER,MICHAEL(Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari)-147 starts,3 WDC,46 wins SCHUMACHER,RALF (Jordan, Williams)-70 starts, 1 win STEWART,JACKIE(BRM, Matra, March,Tyrrell)-99 starts, 3 WDC,27 wins STEWART,JIMMY (Cooper)-1 start, DNF VILLENEUVE, GILLES (McLaren, Ferrari)-68 starts, 6 wins VILLENEUVE, JACQUES (Arrows, RAM)-3 DNQ WHITEHEAD, GRAHAM (Alta)-1 start. Best Result 12th WHITEHEAD, PETER (Ferrari, Alta, Cooper)-10 starts, 1 DNQ, Best Result 3rd WINKELHOCK,JOACHIM (AGS)-7 DNQ WINKELHOCK, MANFRED (Arrows, ATS, Brabham, RAM)-47 starts,6 DNQ, Best Result 5th.

The disappointment in Canada was followed up with another DNQ with Aitows at the USA-Las Vegas Grand Pi-ix in the same year. In 1983, Jacques VUleneuve made one final attempt to qualify for a Grand Prix, this time behind the wheel of a RAM-Ford. Again the place was Canada, however this time the circuit had been renamed after his brother in the wake of Gilles’s death in a honific accident during practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.

Jacques again failed to make the 27 April 2001

cut, and retm-ned to Canada where he went on to compete with some success in local categories. Fate would have a completely different futiu-e in store for the nephew who shared his name,but that’s another story...

The Rodriguez brothers, Pedro and Ricardo, were born into a wealthy family that allowed them to indulge their passion for speed from early on. They first attracted the attention ofthe motorsport world when they nearly claimed victory in

a FeiTari at Le Mans in 1960.

Ricardo landed a drive with Ferrari for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, and promptly planted himself on the front row ofthe grid. Ferrari were quick to sign him up for 1962, but despite his enormous talent, the team felt that he was still a httle rough ai'ound the edges and did not run him in every race.

He contested four events for the team, his best result being a fourth place in Belgium. Ricardo was keen to drive in front of a home crowd in the non-championship Mexican Grand Prix that year, but FeiTari elected not to send any cars.

Undeteired, Ricardo commandeered a Lotus 24 instead.

Locked in a furious battle for pole position, the 19-year-old carried too much speed into the Peraltada comer and crashed fatally.

Pedro’s career took a httle longer, to get started. Two years older than Ricai-do, Pedro made a few appearances in Lotuses and Ferraris, starting in 1964, before landing a full-time drive with Cooper for 1967. He claimed a win in South Africa, but left for the BRM team at the end of the season.

The next couple of years produced mixed results, but his race-long battle against the March of Chris Amon in the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix would go down as one of the most sensational victories ofthe decade.

An acknowledged wet-weather racer, Pedro was as famous for his

prowess in a Sports Car as he was in Formula One. Sadly, he was killed while battling for the lead in a race in Germany.

He has made one lasting impact upon Formula One though,in the imposing shape of Jo Ramirez. The McLaren team manager got his break in top-level motorsport when he accompanied Pedro on an early trip to Europe. Having visited Europe in the past, Pedro’s reasoning was that Ramirez would have some idea about the way things worked there, and was thus employed to help make Pedro’s move across the ocean as smooth as possible.

Adding an Australian element to the picture are the Brabham brothers. Considering his bloodline, it is little surprise that David Brabham was involved in racing from early on, most notably when he fought Allan McNish off to claim the 1989 British Formula Three title, and also winning the Macau Grand Prix in the same year.

In 1990 he was scheduled to run F3000 with the Middlebridge team, but when they bought out the Brabham Formula One outfit, a key to the big league landed squarely in his lap. The car was not competitive, and David was dropped at the end ofthe year.

Following a successful stint in Sports Cars, he returned to FI with Simtek in 1994. In a shocking year that included the death of teammate Roland Ratzenberger at Imola, he struggled from the back ofthe grid before moving on to the BTCC at the end of the season.

Gai-y Brabham, meanwhile, had a spectacularly briefforay into Grand Prix racing. Two attempts to make the grid for the USA and Brazil Grands Prix of 1990 with the Life team (a strong contender for the worst team in Formula One histoiy) were met with no reward.

Also of interest to trivia buffs; foimer GP driver Mike Thackwell was David’s brother-in-law, DB having been manned to Lisa Thackwell.

The Fabis, Teo and Con-ado, shared a distinction, and a car at Brabham at one time, before moving on to other matters. Teo took pole in his first appearance at the Indy 500 and won fom- Champ Car races before both brothers headed home to Italy to run the family talc mine (really).

And,for the futm-e, the Sperafico brothers, Roderigo and Ricardo, are in Foi-mula 3000, racing for different teams. That’s just as well; they are identical twins. And their baby brother is racing in BarberDodge in the USA. Tliree brothers in Foi-mula One? Now that would be somethmg...

fargg Tasmania

One day,someone will beat Jim Richards and Barry Oliver in the Targa Tasmania. But not this year: MICHAEL BROWNING witnessed another Porsche Party in Tassie

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'HO can beat Jim Richards in Targa Tasmania? After this year’s 10th anniversary event, the sad truth now faced by challengers past, present and future, is probably ‘no-one’.

Provided the latest Porsches he habitually drives keep going and Richards and long-time co-driver BaiTy Oliver remain on the black stuff- as they do with frustrating accuracy - they have opposition but no serious rivals in the 2000km tarmac rally they have now won for a record fifth time in nine years, while placing second on two other occasions.

This year’s Targa, run for the second successive year over a sixday course with 54 special stages a number of them new or reversedirection stages - was no different.

Fastest in the start-order-sorting George Town Prologue by an astonishing seven seconds in the wet, Richards, at the wheel of his new four-wheel-drive Porsche 911 Turbo, was the class act of a class field.

Such was his dominance that he and Oliver were able to take a two minute time penalty at the half way point stage to change rear tyi-es for the roller coaster run down the West Coast, yet they still maintained a comfortable buffer of nearly a minute over the two wheel drive 911 GT3 of Rally Tasmania winners, Queensland’s Tony Quinn and Tasmania’s Keith Wenn, who 38

chased them relentlessly, but fruitlessly, throughout the event.

Even taking a third tyre and a further one minute penalty on Day 5 to replace the left hand rear Falken (shredded during the unseasonably dry run from Burnie to Queenstown)resulted in nothing more than a step-up in Richards’s pace. With Quinn/Wenn closing to within one second with the penalty, Richards responded by pulling out a further eight seconds on the Day 5 East Coast morning stages.

The pressure told on the Queenslanders, with Quinn running wide on the Richmond stage that afternoon, hitting a rock and blistering a rear tyre on the GTS. This cost him a minute as he too was forced to fit a new cover, returning the gap to Richards to status quo.

Quinn’s job of tagging Richards and Oliver was made easier by the Day 2 problems of 1999 winners Peter Fitzgerald and Michael Mansour, who fell out of contention when the clutch exploded on their 1996 Porsche 911'Turbo on the Weldborough Pass stage while they were holding second place. Then 1994 winner Andrew Miedecke withdrew on Day 3 from third place after a crankshaft harmonic balancer broke on his 1997 Dodge Viper.

Getting plenty of publicity, but ultimately going nowhere in the Modern Category, were the celebrity entries of Mick Doohan

Unbeatable: Richards and Oliver, top, added another win to their mantle in the 2001 Targa Tasmania. Doohan did a Webber in the Mercedes, even after advice from Brock, while Barry Sheene battled hard in Mercedes’s other car, the M-Class, right.

molorsport news

RALLY

and Mark Stacey in their factoiyprepared Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG and the father and son team of Peter and James Brock in a Holden Commodore SS Ute. Doohan’s dash on his four wheel motorsport debut was dramatically cut short when the five times 500cc motorcycle champion hit a bank and rolled his $200,000 Mercedes on the rapid Cethana stage on Day 3 while i-unning an excellent 13th overall.

“Fd been having some brake problems in the morning and when I came to the turn the car didn’t want to go where I wanted it to go. said Doohan. “It hit a bank, rolled over, and went backwards. It was disappointing because I’d been enjoying it and I was keen to get to

the finish.”

Doohan’s crash was one of two major incidents on the third leg of the rally. The other involved NSW pair Gary Burchett and navigator Ron Markland in a Nissan GT-R, who slammed into a tree at high speed in the Deloraine stage over 6.99km.

Bm-chett, a 46-year-old company director from South Windsor, was rushed to Lamiceston General Hospital by ambulance and was admitted in a serious, but stable condition. He later had X-rays and underwent corrective surgeiy for ankle injm’ies before being discharged.

Brock’s crowd-pleasing progi'ess was initially hampered by differential problems which led to a

new LSD being fitted overnight on Day 2, but his Targa challenge came to an end on Day 4 on the Rosebery stage on Tasmania’s West Coast while running 14th outright, when power steering pump problems forced him to slow and collect more than 150 minutes in late time penalties.

“We asked some of the locals, but we couldn’t find the parts we needed,” said Brock. “It was frustrating because making the switch is a relatively simple job. We tried to drive the rest of the stages, but we had to stop. The(power steering) pump seized. The shaft that drives it snapped in half and the pulley fell off.”

The pump was replaced in Hobart that evening, but the nine times Bathurst winner’s role reverted to crowd pleaser for the remainder of the Rally.

The stirring drive by Devonport’s John and Jason White in thenpotent 1990 Nissan 300ZX also came to an abrupt end on the Queenstown stage on Day 4.

Pushing too hard while running in third place and trying to make up time on Quinn,they collected the protective fencing, buckling a wheel and damaging the rear suspension, effectively ending their Targa challenge. The good news was that the remaining strand of wire fencing saved them from a long, expensive and potentially painful drop into the valley below.

Less lucky were Sydney’s Bill Pye and Steve Evans in their 1997 Lotus Elise, who crashed on the later Ellendale stage. Pye was cut free from the Elise and taken to Hobaid Hospital, suffering from neck and back injuries and the stage was cancelled because of the delays caused by the accident. They were released from hospital in time

to see the Targa finish.

CLASSIC COMPETITION The Classic category again provided some of the closest competition of Targa Tasmania of aU four categories, with vehicles built from 1947 to 1981 representing more than half the total event entries.

In yet another great duel which the category has spawned since its introduction in 1998, the Victoriancrewed 1974 Porsche 911s of Rex Broadbent/Michael Goedheer and Paul Stewart/Mark Connolly were separated by less than a minute for most of the event,followed by Tasmanians Geoff and Leon Duggan in their 1969 Datsun 2000 Sports and a determined challenge fi'om the Victorians Paul and Christine Freestone in their 1958 Austin Healey BN4 to claim third place.

Starting conservatively in 10th position at the end of Day 1, Broadbent stepped up the pace in his lightweight 911 RSR on Day 2 to finish the leg second to the very rapid Datsun 240Z of Queensland’s Graham Copeland and John Sibbins, moving into the Classic Competition lead the following day when mechanical problems stmck the Queenslanders.

Last year’s third-placed Classic crew, Stuart and Connolly in their standard 1974 911 Carrera 2.7, tailed Broadbent/Goedheer from then on, closing to within 44 seconds by the end of Leg 4. And when the leading Porsche broke its gearbox on the Lake Leake stage continued on page 40

i

Congratulations

Jim Bichards and Barry Oliver on yonr Targa Tasmania -win!

Tel 03 9769 9666 Fax 03 9769 9555

QUADRANT SUSPENSIONS 62-64 Intrepid St Berwick 3806 Web: www.quadrantsuspensions.com.au Email: motorsport@quadrantsuspensions.com.au 39

Tama Tasmania continued from page 39 the following day, they inherited a Imin. 25sec lead over the Datsun which they never surrendered.

The Duggans in turn retained their advantage over the Freestones to finish a fine third in Classic in their 43 year-old Healey.

SHANNONS TOURING CLASSIC In the Shannons Touring Classic competition(which attracted a thin field ofjust 10 entries) Tasmania’s Philip Nichols and Philip Blake in their 1958 Austin Healey Sprite waged an event-long battle with Sydney’s Brian Titheradge and John Shuttle in their 1955 Jaguar XK140 FHC, with fellow-NSW competitors Darren Meyer of MusweUbrook and Mark Petersen of Bolwarra third in their 1964 EH Holden.

SHANNONS HISTORIC COMPETITION The Shannons Historic

Causing a storm: Brock and Brock flew in Holden’s SS Ute until power steering problems struck, Competition similarly saw a munerically low field of 12 cars, but quality not quantity was clearly abundant with three Grand Prix Bugattis, a Brooklands Riley, two SS 100 Jaguars, a 30/98 Vauxhall and a 1936 Delage Le Mans amongst

the entries.

After being the leader on the first day by the 1931 Bugatti of Sydney’s Max and Richard Lane, Adelaide’s Ian Cocks and Stephen Fong from Sydney took over the lead from Day 2 in their 1926 Bugatti Type 35B and were never

headed, with last year’s winners John and Paul Lawson filling third place in their glorious 1938 Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia Spyder.

A full report on the Shannons Historic and Tomring competitions will appeal'in the next issue of Motorsport News.

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IVIPS congratulates Jim Richards and Barry Oliver

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Report by

^ -y. 'f AIVEERICAN Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda)broke througb for his first-ever victor in Australia, but it was the controversy leading up to theH cancellation of the second Superbike World Championship race at Phillip Island on April 22 that has captured all the headlines.

'IVoyBayliss(Ducati Infostrada), who claimed third behind Edward’s team-mate Tady Okada, now leads the world championship for the first time after previous leader Troy Corser(Axo Aprilia) struggled ! to &ish sixth in the vile conditions -

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: The two Troys are at the head of the championship chase in the World Superbike Championship, with Troy Corser, above, blowing pole and struggling with his Dunlops, which couldn't match the Michelins. Troy Bayliss, below, diced with Tady Okada for second but had to settle for third, while Wayne Gardner, left, was on hand to oversee Broc Parkes's assault. (Photos by Sfipstreom Photographic, John f.tonjs'Mpix and Bob Potts)

that prevailed in race one. ^ Corser, who claimed a record 27th pole position, had a disastrous time in the opening 22 lap leg after slipping to a lowly si 14th on the opening lap. ^ After dominating the dij' sessions in the lead-up to the race,' his Dunlop-shod Aprilia RSVIOOO failed to cope in the incredibly wet race-day conditions. Corser had tested a prototype Dunlop, but opted for the convention^ fiill wet version in the race.

Significantly behind Michelin’s new generation of wet-weather . tyres, Corser had difficulty with the initial turn in on his Dunlops which saw his best lap times plummet to almost 2.5seconds behind winner Edwards.

Qualifying

Edwards and Corser headed the timing sheets for all but the final minutes ofFriday qualifying, which was held in sunny but windy conditions. Bayliss pulled something specialout in the dying minutes with a lm33.577, pushing 44

-

WORLD SUPERBIKES

A wet and windy weekend

Defending World Champion Colin Edwards adds to WSBK scoreboard, while conditions forced the cancellation ofrace two at Phillip Island

Corser to second on lm33.773. The injured Regis Laconi(Axo Aprilia) filled third position without his carbon knee support,followed by Pierfrancesco Chili(Suzuki Alstare Corona) completing the prorisional front row.

Despite the strong head-wind down the finnt shoot, Corser was able to produce a stunning 301.7kmh top speed, perhaps confirming rumours that his Aprilia RWlOOO is pumping an incredible 200bhp.

Saturday morning’s wet qualifying session became almost irrelevant, but that didn’t prevent the leading riders from filling out most ofthe 60-minute stint.

Ruben Xaus(Ducati Infostrada) was especially spirited, running incredibly fast comer speeds and lean angles to finish over a second clear of team-mate Bayliss.

The Aussie survived a scary moment when he was blown on to the ^ass at turn one, somehow keeping the bike upright on the wet and bumpy and infield. Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M)did likewise, exclaiming later,“Man,I was thinking that there’s ditch cornin’soon, but I rode it out.

Phew!”

Organisers declared a wet Superpole, with the top 16 riders allow^ a maximum or 12 laps to completed in 50 minutes.

Corser set the pace for most of the session, wisely banking a few laps for the final minutes if anyone knocked him off pole in the meantime. Edwards and Laconi occupied the front row ofthe grid and were joined by Aussie teenager Broc Parkes(Ducati NCR).

Bayhss was lucky to be circulating at all a^r taking a high-speed spill at the Hayshed, badly skinning several toes on Ids right foot. He returned soon after

on his spare bike, but wasTcmable~ to break the lm34.00 barrier, leaving him fifth on the grid having gone into the session in provisional pole.

Hodgson, who had earlier survived a high-speed encounter with Juan Borja(Panavto Yamaha),catapulted into pole after a decidedly hairy lap. Edwards lay waiting in third behind Corser, with Broc Parkes(NCR Ducati) as the clocked ticked down Superpole specialist Corser went out on his 12th and final lap and carved out a perfect lm33.576 to kncok Hodgson off by O.lfisec.

“Running a ’33 in those conditions is pretty good,” he later said.

Bostrom made a late flurry to grab the final spot on the front row, with Bayliss, Laconi, Lavilla and Parkes rounding out row two.

Race One

Cohn Edwards rode to a convincing five-second win in the opening 22-lap race, held in the most appalling comiitions. Bayliss made the initial jump from row two but was bumped backed to second by the Texas Tornado into turn one on lap two.

Steve Martin(DFX Racing) was bumped back to fourth by Tady Okada, with Akira Yanagawa, Bostrom and Izutsu in tow.

Pole-sitter Corser had made a disastrous start, his Dunlop wets preventing him from hooking into the turns with any confidence, which dropped him to 14th at the end of lap one. It didn’t get any better for the former world champ, as he slipped to 16th in the squalling rain.

Up front, Edwards was pulling out at over a second a lap, as Bayhss doggedly held off an

Brock parks It at Honda: Parkes, above, had a solid run until this moment at Honda Corner which dumped him some time, though he fought back for a strong fifth. And if you thought Parkes is young, then how about this lad, below. Talk about starting them young ...

(Photos by Chris Cartor anj Jamct. Sfr;ilh}

aggressive Okada for second. After running as high as sixth, Hitoyasu Izutsu(Kawasaki Racing Team)binned it at turn one on lap five as Corser began his slow march forward, mainly through attrition brought about the wet conditions and streams of fuel and oil on the circuit.

Parkes levered his way past Yanagawa for fourth, but it all came undone on lap 12 when he slipped off at Honda Comer.

The 19-year-old remounted and only lost a place, but struggled for the remainder of the race with a broken front brake lever to bring home a brilliant fifth place in just his fifth World Superbike race.

As Edwards held an 11 second buffer of Okada, Bayliss dropped offfrom the Japanese rider to finish 18 seconds behind by race end. Yanagawa rode a lonely race for fourth from Parkes, and Corser, ChUi and Chambon.

Marty Cragghl(Pacific Ducati) finishe(i a lap down in 10th place, with Martin in 12th after experiencing a bad misfire for most of the race.

Points: Bayliss 96, Corser 92,Edwards 73, Bostrom 54, Uvilla 45, Chili 45, Yanagawa 42, Chambon 32,taconi 31.

45

San Marino GP

T

HERE is always rejoicing in Formula 1 when there is a new Grand Prix winner and it was the same story when Ralf Schumacher put his name in the record books with a fine victory at Imola.

It was a surprise for the team, for its rivals and for Ralf himselfbut it was not a lucky one.

McLaren and Ferrari did not perform as, perhaps, they might have done but the Williams-BMW, shod with Michelin tyres, did the job and no-one argued that it was not deserved.

The race was pretty dull otherwise. Overtaking at Imola is always a bit of a problem and it was again this year.

The race was settled at the start.

David Coulthard’s pole-sitting McLaren moved a little before the lights went out. DC had to stop the car and, as he did so, the lights disappeared. The result of this was that he had too much wheelspin and fellow front-row man Mika Hakkinen also got away slowly.

It was left to Ralf Schumacher to shde ahead of the two McLarens as they went through the fast left hander on the way down towards Tamburello.

“I thought I was going to be swamped at the start,” explained Coulthard after the race,“but I presume Mika must have made a bad start as well. I sensed Ralf was on the inside. I was getting ready to move that way but I had to move to make sure there was enough space for us all.”

Ralf went through a very small hole and,just for a second, put a wheel on the grass.

“It was a very good start,” said Ralf. “It was just right. I think I was lucky to get David right there.

Luckily, David gave me the space.”

As Schumacher was passing Coulthard so Hakkinen was being overtaken by Jarno Trulli.

“The start basically decided the outcome of the race,” said Mika. “It is very difficult to overtake at Imola unless the driver in front of you makes a significant mistake so I was stuck in fourth place.”

And there he stayed, in the shadow of Trulli until the first pit stops came along. While he sat

there, he was forced to watch as Ralf and Coulthard disappeared off into the distance.

Initially, Coulthard was confident that he was in a good position to win the race.

I was interested to know just how quick he would be in the race and obviously, to my great disappointment, I found out he was quicker than I was,” said David.

In the first few laps, I thought he was on a five stop strategy, he can’t be that quick, and then reality started to sink in and he was getting past lap 20 and I thought‘Mmmm,this must be one stop. This is not looking good at

air.

“I couldn’t even believe it, to be honest,” said Ralf. “I pulled the gap out, but after a few laps, I thought he was going to go quicker so I had to push again. From there on,it was a pretty long race, I must say. It took ages, to be honest.

There was really not much more to it than that. Ralf was ahead all the way to his first pit stop on lap 29. Coulthard had pitted a lap

earlier and so Ralf stayed ahead.

He stopped again on lap 46(once again, a lap after Coulthard) and so remained in the lead again. The gap came down a little towards the end of the race but it was irrelevant. Both men knew it.

One can say that it was a victory for BMW,or that Michelin was behind it, but the fact was that it was a classic example of a total package working well. The BMW engine was powerful, the chassis was good, the driver did a good job and, yes, so did Michelin. In fact, it would be fair to say that the French tyre manufacturer gave Bridgestone a very bloody nose in only their fourth encounter.

“The Michelin is a great tyi'e. said Ralf. “We saw that today.

Evei-ything went perfectly The writing was on the wall for Bridgestone.

I had a little bit of inconsistency, set to set,” said Coulthard. “This made it difficult for me to be really pushing the whole race, so in actual fact I

continued on page 48

From Imola, JOESAWARD reports on the Jay that Williams, BMW,Michelin anti Ran Schumacher opened a can o!

100 percent, certllled...

46

m

Green leader: Coulthard took pole and second In the race, taking the joint lead In the points. (Photo by Marsh/Bothwel!)

motorsport news

Let me show you this bit: The only thing David Couithard could teach Ralf Schumacher was how to behave after your first GP win.

Even Mika Hakkinen, below, was impressed with the BMW.Wiiliams.

^ III I I 27 April 2001

San Marino GP continued from page 46 would say that this is probably the most difficult Grand Prix for me this season in terms of balance.”

Perhaps thing of all was the the strangest performance of the Ferraris. For whatever reason, and it cannot have been an obvious one, Ferrari made the decision to go on hard tyres. This meant that the cars were not very quick in qualifying. Michael Schumacher qualified fourth with Rubens Barrichello sixth.

The Streak Breaker: Coulthard lived up to his promise and snared pole, bringing to an end Michael Schumacher’s streak of seven straight pole positions.

One more at Imola would have equalled Ayrton Senna’s record of eight in a row.

(Pholos by Sutlon-lmages and Marsh/Bothwell)

The race proved the strategy to be flawed. Would it have been any different if Michael Schumacher had been able to keep going?

Probably not. Schumacher had a problem with the front left wheel of his car. Initially he said it was something to do with the brakes damaging the wheel rim. Later this became a rather less specific u problem with the left front corner to avoid any potential embarrassment to Brembo.

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Whatever the details, Michael was slowed up from the very start and was overtaken by Montoya, Olivier Panis and by Barrichello.

He then stuck with the group and was able to take back a place when Panis faded.

But on lap 23, the Ferrari suffered a puncture and Michael had to drive the car around to the pits for a new wheel. He did one further lap but then parked the car, worried that a wheel failure might happen in a dangerous place on the circuit. u We will check all the relevant components in order to understand the problem,” said Jean Todt.

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

DRIVER David Coulthard Mika Hakkinen Rail Schumacher Michael Schumacher Jarno Trulli Rubens Barrichello Juan Pablo Montoya Olivier Panis Heinz-Harald Frentzen Kimi Raikkonen Jacques Villeneuve Nick Heidfeld Eddie Irvine JeanAlesi Luciano Burti Enrique Bernoldi Jos Verstappen Fernando Alonso Giancarlo Fisichella Gaston Mazzacane Jenson Button Tarso Marques

IN.NOVATIONSj

NAT G6 Fin 0 D Ita Bra Col F 0 Fin Can D GB F Bra Bra N Spa Ita Arg GB Bra

CAR West McLaren/Mercedes MP4/16 West McLaren/Mercedes MP4/16 Compaq Williams/BMW FW23 Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari F2001 Benson & Hedges Jordan/Honda EJ11 Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari F2001 Compaq Williams/BMW FW23 Lucky Strike BAR/Honda 003 Benson & Hedges Jordan/Honda EJ11 Red Bull Sauber/Petronas C20 Lucky Strike BAR/Honda 003 Red Bull Sauber/Petronas C20 Jaguar/Cosworth R2 Prost/AcerAP04 Jaguar/Cosworth R2 Orange Arrows/Asiatech A22 Orange Arrows/Asiatech A22 Minardi/European PS01 Mild Seven Benetton/Renault B201 Prost/Acer AP 04 Mild Severn Benetton/Renault B201 Minardi/European PSOl

TYRE B B M B B B M B B B B B M M M B B M M M M M

TIME 1:23.054 1:23.282 1:23.357 1:23.593 1:23.658 1:23.786 1:24.141 1:24.213 1:24.436 1:24.671 1:24.769 1:25.007 1:25.392 1:25.411 1:25.572 1:25.872 1:26.062 1:26.855 1:26.902 1:27.750 1:27.758 1:28.281

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48

Jos free zone: After being hammered in the kaboose in Brazil, Juan Montoya It sure that everyone got the message. He’s still keeping an eye on the mirror, tho molorsport news

FORMULA ONE Barrichello’s third place was not a bad effort and he put it down to a good strategy. But it was an odd strategy because, on hard tyres, one would have expected a one-stop race.

“Our strategy involved going late for the first stop,” explained Rubens.

Barrichello did not help his cause by making a poor start which left him stuck in eighth place but the late-stop enabled him to move up to third place and rejoin in third. He ran with a light fuel load for a quick 15 lap blast and, so, was able to hold on to third at his second pit stop as well. And that was it, Hakkinen closed up on him but was never really a threat.

In the early part of the Juan Montoya was ahead ofrace Rubens.

This was a good effort as Montoya had very little decent running in practice because of mechanical troubles.

In the race he overtook Michael Schumacher easily enough in the early laps and then,just after his pit stop, pulled off a lovely move on Ti-ulli to gain a place. During his second pit stop the clutch caused problems and Montoya lost nearly

Young blokes in blue: Last year, Jenson Button was the Hot Young Thing at Williams. This year, he qualified his Benetton 21st, 11 spots down on 2001’s ‘Hot Young Thing’, Kimi Raikkonen.

(Photos by Marsh/Bothwell)

continued on page 48

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a minute in the pits. He rejoined but found that the car was jammed in first gear. And that was that.

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21 April 2001

The rest were really little more than also-rans all weekend.

Jordan finished Trulli fifth and Frentzen sixth but it should be pointed out that Heinz-Harald was lapped and Jarno was pretty close to suffering a similar fate.

This is not really good enough when one considers that Honda came back with a new engine at the same time as rival BMW and now BMW has won a race and Honda has looked only vaguely threatening.

The tyres were obviously something to do with it, as Ti-ulli complained about having “a bad set” of Bridgestones. The team

described its performance as “solid” and that is about what it was.

I

t was certainly more solid than the performance of British American Racing. Once again, Olivier Panis embarrassed Jacques Villeneuve by beating him in continued on page 50 49

San Marino GP

continued from page 49 qualifying, Panis looked quick early on hut then his gearbox began to misbehave and he slipped backwards.

On lap 22, the gearbox decided to go its own way for a brief moment and, so, Olivier dropped from eighth to 12th. During the pit stops the team changed his steering wheel and the problem seemed to go away but the result was that Olivier ended the day eighth.

But at least he ended the day.

Villeneuve was running eighth when his engine blew up with a very large oily cloud on lap 31. 'ick Heidfeld finished seventh for Sauber but all weekend he was overshadowed by Kimi Raikkonen. This was remarkable given that Raildconen is in only his fourth FI race.

When he retired on lap 18 he was harrying Panis for eighth place. It cannot have been much fun to have the steering wheel come off in his hand. The car turned sharply to the left and smacked the wall.

“As far as I am concerned I put it on correctly,” he said. The implication was that it was very definitely not his fault.

J

ean Alesi gave Prost a third ninth place to add to his eighth

50

place in Brazil. The car has potential but needs more development and all the noises in the paddock suggested that money is now becoming an issue with the deep blue team.

Gaston Mazzacane turned up for the weekend again but it is hard to know why he bothered.

He qualified 20th (mixing it with Minardis and Benettons) and the trolled around until something caught fire at the back end.

One cannot help but think that Prost might do rather better if there were two good drivers in the team.

There homewas about nothing from Aitows. to write Bernoldi finished 10th.

Verstappen retired with a variety of problems caused by a broken exhaust.

Nor was it a wild weekend for Jaguar Racing. Eddie Irvine ran around in the midfield until his engine failed on lap 43 when he was running around in eighth place. The team decided that the one-race strategy was the best way of getting a points finish. It did not work, Luciano Burti did get the finish but he was two laps down at the finish as the result of a gearshift problem which resulted in him losing first, second and third gears.

Ferris Beuller’s Day Off: Not quite, but Mika Hakkinen did have one of his ‘off days at Imola, being beaten to the podium by Rubens Barrichello who, apparently, changed strategy mid-race.

Memories of Aryton; The memorial to Ayrton Senna drew the usual high number of admirers, in this case, F1’s regular track commentator, Bob Constanduros.

(Photo by Marsh/Bothwell)

motorsport news

FORMULA ONE The only other still running at theman finish was Jenson Button but his hopes of a big result from 21st on the grid were, at best, far-fetched.

When the refuelling machine forgot to put fuel in his car at the first stop, Jenson’s chances were shaved further. A second stop filled the tank but he made to the finish half a minute behind Burti.

Giancarlo Fisichella made an excellent start to hurtle from 19th on the grid to 15th at the end of the first lap. His two stop strategy might have netted him ninth or 10th but a misfire developed and in the end it became so bad it was pointless to continue.

The European Minardi team had a pretty miserable time, with both Fernando Alonso and Tarso Marques going out with mechanical trouble. Alonso suffered a leaking brake caliper and arrived at a corner to discover he had no brakes. He

rode over the kerb and flew off the track. He tried to avoid the wall but it got him.

Marques had a fire in the airbox of his car.

w

hen all was said and done and the teams packed up to rush off to the next set of tests, the event had been a success.

Michelin, BMW and Williams were delighted. Bridgestone was worried (and rightly so). McLaren was moderately pleased, as Coulthard is now equal in the World Championship to Michael Schumacher.

Four races have gone and now everyone heads to Spain to see if there will be any difference with the introduction of tractioncontrol and other electronic gizmos. Given by what we have seen this year, it’s is possible that some teams may have already tried out the systems in races. In Barcelona, everyone will have the

same stuff. It could be the moment when the bad guys are found out... but of course one cannot mention who they might be - because nothing can ever be proved.

So, in the end, it is irrelevant.

The good news is that those who have cheated in the past will not be able to do it in the future - and that is good thing for FI. Probably, one day, all the stories of what was done by whom will come out. No-one will be surprised by the names. They are the same people who have been cheating since the electronics bans arrived seven years ago. They have just moved around a bit...

And so, Imola marked the end of an unsettling era in FI history.

The interesting question now is whether it marked the start of a Williams-BMW era. Barcelona is next, with the longest straight in GP racing. Must be BMW country, surely...

Thank you linesmen.

Thank you ballboys: Rail had to put two wheels onto the grass at the start and, from there, the combination of gentlemanly driving from the slowstarting Coulthard and BMW horsepower did the rest. {Pholo by Sutton-lmages)

French flier: Olivier Panis is getting to be a bit of a problem for Jacques Villeneuve, the BAR driver outqualifying the 1997 champ again.

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San Marino GP

What hey said Haghlights ©f the post-race madia conference

of work to see that and it paid off today.

Q: Well, Ralf, now you know why your brother's been making such a fuss about winning all these years. How does it feel for you?

RS: Well, obviously, it's a great experience, and I hope for it to be one of many. I've waited long en ough for it, Iguess. Since I joined Williams, we've had a lot

Q: That start was really something. It may not be possible with the new regulations.

RS: Well, 1 know one thing for sure, for us in the future the starts will be easier than they are now.

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! R, Schumacher 2 Coulthard 3 Barrichello 4 Hakkinen 5 Trulli 6 Frentzen 7 Heidfeld 8 Panis 9 Alesi 10 Bernoldl 11 BurtI 12 Button

^PfiSX Ih30m44,817 Ih30m49.169 Ih31ml9,583 1h3lra2l.l32 lh32ml0.375 6t laps 61 laps 61 laps 61 laps 60 laps 60 laps 60 laps

Retirements Marques Montoya Irvine Rsichella Villeneuve Mazzacane M. Schumacher Raikkonen Verstappen Alonso

lm25,524 lm25.569 1m26.ll7 lni26.308 lm27.358 lm27.243 lm27.350 lm27.582 lm28.369 lm28.956 lm27.932 lm29.096

50 laps 48 laps 42 laps 31 laps 30 laps

Engine Clutch Engine Engine Engine Engine 24 laps Suspension Steering 6 laps Exhaust 5 laps Spun off Fastest lap: R. Schumacher, on lap 27, lm25.524 Drivers’ points: M. Schumacher and Coulthard 26, Barrichello 14, R. Schumacher 12, Heidfeld 7, Frentzen 6, Hakkinen and Trulli 4, Panis 3, Raikkonen and Fisichella 1.

Constructors' points: Ferrari 40, McLaren/Mercedes 30, Williams/BMW 12, Jordan/Honda 10, Sauber/Petronas 8, BAR/Honda 3, Benetton/Renault 1.

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It was a very good start. It was just right, and I think it was lucky to get David right there. It was the same for Mika, and Ijust tided it the same way I did here last year.

This time there was space enough - or David gave me a little space - and from there on, it worked out. It was a pretty long race afterwards,I must say. We did it on the start today.

Q:And the car was good all the way through?

RS: Yes, it was perfect. For the first 10 laps I had to be careful and save the brakes a bit, but from there on I pushed a bit and then backed off again and it was perfect.

Q: Does this victory make it a three-way fight for the championship?

RS: Well, it might be the beginning of it. We've been competitive for the last three . races, but had a bit of bad luck, I must say.

It's still in the early stages; we have to continue working hard to keep the level. There are still areas to work on, definitely, but if we work hard and try our best we may be able to keep up with them.

There's some development needed on the aerodynamic side; that's the same for all of us.

The engine is strong, but will always need development, and I think that the biggest problem we have at the moment are the wet tyres, although to be fair with Michelin, I think they're doing amazingly well in the dry.

Q:David,six points; are you happy with that?

DC: Yes, 1 think so, in terms of it being quite a quiet race here compared to some ofthe others this season. But it was definitely the most difficult to try to achieve a balance with respect to the tyres, there was quite a big variation.

It was quite clear Ralf was the quickest combination today, and I think even ifI'd managed to make a good pit stop he was obviously able to run longer to the pit stops, but it keeps me in with a shout.

In the first few laps I thought he (Ralf) was on a five-stop strategy, he can't be that quick, and then reality started to sink in and he was getting past lap 20 and I thought, “Mmmm, this must be one-stop. This is not looking.good at all!”

Q:Rubens, Mika was really closing on you in the closing stages; did you have it all undler control?

RB:I think so, yes. There was nothing to be gained anymore.I mean,I was 25 seconds from David, and I wasjust taking everything home.

Q:The early stages were very' exciting for you.You were right in a bunch of cars, and you overtook Olivier Panis and your teammate as well; teU us how that was.

RB:It's a pity that it's still quite difficult to overtake, because that could have been quite good racing, but there is no space. You follow the other car, the track is narrow and makes it very difficult, but you have to be there.

I was close to Montoya when he was close to Mika and, because on the braking he was in difficulties, it was possible to get close on the exit again and I wasjust taking care ofthe brakes and the tyres. It was a really good race for me.

Q:Do you think that the choice of tyres was the right one for you and Ferrari?

RB: Well it's a good question, because at the end ofthe day we had a good tyre for the race, hut we may have been slow a little bit in qualifying, and that was probably a mistake.

Looking at the times, Coulthard was able to do on the softer tyre. Maybe that was the better thing to do, but I think it was one of my best races in terms ofconsistent times and overtaking. At the end ofthe day we both tried both types of tyres, and we both chose to go one direction.

Q: Ralf, on your last lap, firstly could you keep up your concentration? Second, what were your precise emotions crossing the line, and third, who spoke to you first in the team?

RS:So many things at once!

At 20 laps to go I started thinking about winning, but then I remembered last year when it was 16 laps to go and I thought, “Okay, let's wait.”

Then the last three laps I was taking it pretty easy. I knew David was six or seven seconds behind me, and Ijust tried to finish. I was pretty relaxed, really, although the pressure is on us to continue like this now.

Over the radio, my engineer spoke to me first, then Patrick, then Frank. They said, “Good job,” because while it might be a long time ago, they're used to winning races.

Q: Ralf, what did your brother say to you;just “Good job?”

RS:He said, “Well done,” and that it was time - that I've waited long enough, basically. moiorsport news

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FORMULA ONE

Berger King

Motorsport News: What does it mean to you to have won the last GP for BMW,and now this?

Gerhard Berger: It's good! It's no question the nicest thing in racing is to drive a racing car and get a win. But the second nicest is to do what I do now and win again!

MN; Do you think it's possible for you to fight for the championship?

GB: No. I don't think we are in a position to fight for the championship. We are a bit ahead of our programme.

We said our goal is to win a race this year, and we won it already now, which is great, and helps a lot for the motivation and the confidence. And it shows that our people and Williams is a very, very strong combination.

But I think at the same time I think we still need good circumstances for us, like weather conditions.

MN; How do you judge the race of Ralf today?

GB: Ralf is an extremely good pilot. Fie showed this year in the first few races that he's an outstanding pilot, and he's very close to the performance of Michael.

I honestly think if you give him top material he's able to win a lot of races like Michael. And today he proved it once more. As he did already in the first three races, but he was a bit unlucky.

MN: When you started your relationship with BMW,did you think you could win in the second season?

GB: Not really! If you know this business you don't think you win your first race after 21 races. It's unrealistic.

MN; Can you put into words what this means?

GB: It's fantastic. Really I have to say I'm very happy about our people at home. After 21 races, to build an engine like it is, fantastic.

The other thing is I was pushing very hard for this Michelin thing. I know how good Michelin is, but I didn't expect that we could win already after four races. And the other thing 54

Gerhard Berger had plenty to celebrate at Imola. BMW’s Motorsport Manager, who scored the marque’s last GP win in 1986, and who almost lost his life at the Italian track 12years ago, spoke to ADAM COOPER

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The Power behind the Throne; Gerhard Berger and Sir Frank Williams (Phuio by Marsh/Bothwell) have proven to be a formidable team in GP racing.

"Let's say vue are going to hope for a second win now, that's cioar" - Gerhard Berger that is great is Williams. It just shows that they are winners, and they are back, and they're as strong as anybody out there, or maybe even stronger.

mistake from a driver. We had only 10 seconds, and it's still not possible to make any mistakes. I think we were controlling the race, but not in a too easy way.

MN: Have you revised the number of wins you expect to get this year?

GB: Of course, when we go to the next race we'll try to do our best again. Let's say we are going to hope for a second win now, that's clear. But our goal was to win a race and get closer to the front. I think that we've showed it already, and the thing is to get closer and closer.

MN: What did Frank say to you about the engine after the race?

GB: We didn't speak specifically about the engine. We were just very happy, because we've tried very hard in the last two and a half years to achieve what we achieved today. We had a great time, but we also had some friction in our conversations.

At the end of the day in the two years we built up a quite strong partnership, we have a lot of respect for each other, and really the success starts already in Le Mans. They were building the car for us for Le Mans, and it starts already there, a kind of success and a kind of confidence and a kind of respect.

But FI is a different story. It's very, very difficult, and when you

MN: You seem very pessimistic, but the advantage today was so big, and it was clear victory with no luck involved...

GB: Was it really big the advantage? I think there was not enough room for a mistake.

There was no room for a mistake in a pit stop, no room for a

go to the front here, it's really something not easy to achieve, and nobody knows better than Frank how difficult it is also on the engine side to get to a position like we are in now. And I think we are just both very, very happy that we get some prize money - even if all goes into the pocket of Frank I

MN: What do you think about the electronics coming back in the next race?

GB: Well, we are all going to be interested in what they are going to change, and we don't know, honestly.

I'm sure it's not that easy. It's giving some different stresses to the car and the engine. It could be that there are some difficulties in the reliability, suddenly.

But on the other side, all that you are looking for is to see is everybody under the same condition, or is somebody under a different condition? We are all going to know in two weeks. We are working at the moment to set out traction control. We are not ready yet, but I'm confident that we are going to be alright.

MN; Are you worried that traction control is going to take too much away from the drivers?

GB: Yes. We're all not happy about it, but it's the only way to be sure that everybody is under the same conditions.

MN: Any thoughts on the emotions of what happened at Imola with Williams in the past?

GB: We all know what happened here in '94. It was a very sad moment, a very sad day. I still sometimes think how can there be a day like this Imola day was in '94? Not just about Ayrton, but also Ratzenberger, the mechanics, the guys in the grandstand, Barrichello... It's just sometimes interesting how things happen. Nobody has an explanation for it.

MN: Was this the best place for both you and Frank to score this first win?

GB: Well, wherever we get it and I think Frank is the same as me - we're just happy. molorsport news

FORMULA 3000

by JOE SAWARD MARK Webber took a dominant victoi-y in the second round of the International Formula 3000 Championship at Imola.

The Benetton test driver took his Super Nova machine to victory from pole position, holding off his rivals in the early laps ofthe race and then pulling ahead at the end of the race with a car which was set-up to be quicker in the closing stages.

After a disappointing result in Brazil, the championship favourite is back in the hunt in the title chase,just one point behind Justin Wilson (Coca-Cola Nordic) who could do no better than sixth at the Autodromo Ferrari.

“This feels absolutely gi'eat,” Webber said. “Two weeks ago in Brazil I was stripped of second place because of a small mistake I made during the race, and that was a real kick in the guts for me and the team. This is the best possible way to get over it.”

Webber had to fight hard with a broken rib, and had Dr. Claudio Costa(who is well known for his work with Mick Doohan and Barry Sheene)on hand to assist his health.

“It was an odd thing,” he said.

“It happened when I was testing the Benetton in Barcelona. The seat felt comfortable enough, but it was a little bit tight and at some point the sheer cornering load was enough to break one of my ribs.”

The start of the race was a lively affair as Webber was slightly slower away than some of his rivals. Darren Manning(Arden Team Russia)found himself on the grass to the left of Webber, while Giorgio Pantano (Astromega)lost the benefit of his fifth place on the grid by running wide across the gravel trap at Tamburello.

In the course of the first lap Sebastien Bourdais(DAMS) disappeared from the midfield causing heartbreak for his crew who had been up all night building up a new chassis after the Frenchman had destroyed his original car in qualifying.

For the first few laps, the order was stable, with Webber leading Manning, Tomas Enge (Coca-Cola Nordic), Antonio Pizzonia (Petrobras Junior Team)and Patrick Friesacher(Red Bull Junior Team), who had done well in qualifying to line up second on the grid. Wilson completed the top six.

On lap seven, Italian Gabriele Varano went off at Tamburello in his Prost Junior Team car, hitting the wall on the inside of the circuit at high speed and being pitched into a dizzy-making series of spins (nine in total).

The Safety Car was despatched but there were two rather worrying interludes: the first was 27 April 2001

A swig of wattle in my hand ...

Webber continues to wave the Aussie flag, getting one back for the tiny indescretion at interlagos.

[Photo bv Sutton-lmaoes)

Webber

The Super Nova star blitzed them in the Imola Formula 3000 round to erase the disappointment of no points in Brazil.

JOESAWARD reports on the Aussie's first win of the year

Take that you Poms! Webber gets the jump on Friesacher (Photo by Sutton-lmages) and it’s game over and champers fly!

the length of time it took before the medical car arrived (due apparently to a radio problem), and the second was the fact that Derek Hill(DAMS)somehow managed to run into the back of Gianluca Calcagni(Monaco Motorsport)in the queue behind the SC at the scene of the accident.

Luckily the two cars missed running into Varano's damaged

car, which was - surrounded by marshals at the time. It could have been a major disaster and Hill was punished with a severe fine from the stewards at the end of the race.

The race restarted on lap 13 and Webber retained his lead. The remainder ofthe race was rather dull, with the only changes being when drivers made mistakes and ran wide. Webber’s team-mate

Mario Haberfeld and Andreas Piccini wiped one another out on lap 25.

Webber pulled away in the closing stages to wdn by 3.3s with the top eight places having remained unchanged from start to finish - hardly a great advertisement for the series.

Wilson now leads Webber in the championship by 11 points to 10, with Manning and Melo equal third on six points.

55

Race to the Sky

The Possum bei America may have Pikes Peak but New Zealand has its own classic hill, in the Cardrona Valley near Otago.

EOIN YOUNG witnessed Possum do it at home ...

THE Kiwi Possum finally broke the Japanese Monster’s stranglehold on the Silverstone Race to the Sky,the awesome New Zealand 14.5km gravel hiUclimb to rival Pikes Peak in the USA. Aboard a 450hp version of the WRC Subaru Impreza, developed specifically for this event, the five time ARC winner took fastest time, heading Californian Kiwi ex-pat Rod Millen’s Toyota off-road racing truck and Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima’s new SOOhp Suzuki special.

Tajima had won the climb for the past three years.

The hill climbs the side of a mountain range in the historic alpine mountain scenery of Central Otago in the South Island, zig zagging up through 139 comers from 500m to 1700m, literally into the clouds. Nary an inch ofAmico safety railing. Seamed rock face on the inside of the comers, bright blue sky and a yawning drop on the outside...

This year, the entry list had the usual strong Pikes Peak flavour.

Tajima had a new, more compact 4wheeled-drive winged hillclimb special Suzuki, powered by an SOOhp twin-turbo Suzuki V6, built for rallycross and weighing just 800kg.

Tajima won Pikes Peak in 1994, but Millen has won the American chmb five times. This year he brought out a 4-wheel-drive Toyota

off-road racing tmek with a 4.7-litre twin-cam turbo V8 giving 620bhp.

Former Swedish Rally Champion,Per Eklund, 55, was a rookie on the hill this year with the specialSaab 9-3 Turbo he drove to win the Em’opean Rallycross title in 1999. The engine has been re mounted longitudinally and in 2litre turbo form it gives 600hp.

The hillclimb is the brainchild of Kiwi entrepreneur and former race and rally driver. Grant Aitken, as an event to promote motorsport in an area ofthe South Island more famous for alpine sports, whitewater jet-boating and bungee jumping. It is actually in the 1880s goldfields area of New Zealand, lying in the Cardrona Valley between Wanaka and Queenstown, a half-hour drive from Queenstown over the Crown Range, the highest motor road in the country and recently tar-sealed. The storied Cardrona Hotel that served the gold prospectors who flocked from California and Australia, is the only hostelry that survives from the original 30 pubs!

Last year the complaints were that the surface was too rough but, with the lower stages recently graded and comers opened slightly to facilitate the removal of a large building from the hilltop tyre test operation, the complaints were that it was too smooth -"a motorway for Monster", as Bourne put it.

Millen worried that the early

smoothed section was now significantly faster than last year.

He had geared-down his new US Toyota off-road racing tmek to cope with the mtted, rocky surface as it had been last year. He was pulling about 170kmh,Possum about 200 and they guessed Monster’s rallycross Suzuki would be good for around 225. It wasn’t looking good and the weekend hadn’t even started.

There were to be two practice runs up the long hill and a final qualifjdng run in the afternoon.

There was an entry of 110 cars,

4

Official: Sis

THE name - Nobuhiro Tajima - is impressive enough by itself. Add to it the nickname 'Monster'and an SOOhp,4WD Suzuki and the legend becomes easy to understand.

The 1.90m-plus Japanese driver earns his nickname with his driving style and his stature, tall and powerfully built, towering over his Japanese mechanics. He has close links with Suzuki as a works rally driver and builds grunty 4-wheel turbocharged hillclimb offfoad specials with Grand Prix power for gravel events like 56

quads and motorcycles but, for car people, the whole event would hinge on the efforts of Tajima, Millen, Bourne and Eklund with former five-time Australian rally champion and Mitsubishi works driver, Ross Dunkerton running in the classic class with a 1975 Datsun 240Z. Early morning Saturday and the dust was hanging in trails all the way up the hill so that faster cars following had problems but sunshine down the valley brought a breeze and the dust soon eased.

After the first day of practice the

Pikes Peak and the Cardrona climb.

Tajima first came to prominence in 1984 when he won the All Star Dirt Trial in his Monster Bluebird 4WD, a feat he repeated the following year as well winning the Carson City International Rally Cross in the US, this time in a 4WD Fairlady Z. Three years in a row he won his class in the Olympus Rally in the US, now with Suzuki in a Group A Swift.

In 1988 he appeared for the first time at Pikes Peak with the first of his twin-engined

motorspon news

HILLCLIMB

ts the Monster : “^ol»P0fi*n0'

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av 'iV.

insides ofsome ofthe comers were hugely ratted, almost to Nm-burgring drop-in Karussel standards and I asked Millen,fastest qualifier in the Ibyota truck. whether he had been bothered by the rats. He rephed in best Crocodile Dundee style;‘Ruts? Ruts? They aren’t rutsl” But I suppose with suspension travel as heroic as the Ibyota track, he probably didn’t notice them. The MiUen track this year is run as a Ibyota Hilux in deference to the New Zealand marketing range and it caiTies the Rugger’catch-word across the nose.

Mfilen is a Pikes Peak specialist and compared the two hills.

“The New Zealand hUl is shorter than Pikes Peak, but it’s more complex and more difficult to commit to memory because so many ofthe comers are similar. I could draw you

Oi, where’s Stace?

Sick of cleaning out Aussie trophy cabinets, Possum Bourne took his winning form home to NZ, where he celebrated with two marsupials of the future.

And age shall not weary them: Per Eklund, above right, may be 55, but the bloke can still get it up when he needs to (the car, that is).

The Saab 9-3 finished an impressive fourth on Ekiuand’s debut.

(Pholos by Gaii Banvood and Saab)

IS not important

hillclimb specials. The special scored top qualifying at Pikes Peak but he was third on race day. After class victories at Pikes Peak, he took overall victory in 1994, still with the twin-engined car. He was also winning the All Japan Dirt Trial championships and gaining class victories in some world championship and Asia-Pacific rallies. Driving the 1.3-litre Swift, he took the F2 2wd class in the Asia-Pacific rally championship and held that title for the next three years. The 900hp Vitara hillclimb special made its debut at Pikes Peak in 27 April 2001

1995, finishing second.

Tajima started Monster International Ltd in 1983 and the company now has 76 employees. It has a one-third scale wind tunnel to test aerodynamics on the cars it develops and sells. Monster's company designs, manufactures and sells competition cars, prototypes, engines and parts for competition and production cars and also is also consultant to other companies in these areas.

Monster International also plans, produces and promotes motorsport events.

One of his companies is called Suzuki Sport and he has a tie-up with the Malaysian tyre company Silverstone and last year won the Cardrona hillclimb with tyres developed specially for that event.

Tajima won all three climbs at Cardrona since 1998 but suffered a succession of mechanical problems this year and was relegated to third behind Bourne and Millen.

But those Kiwis will be sure that The Monster will be back next year ...

- EOIN YOUNG

67

a map of every comer on Pikes Peak, but I couldn’t with this hill. I can remember sequences of comers but towards the top it gets more complicated. Ifthe cloud comes down you can stUl see the road, but it disorients you as to wliich sequence you’re on.”

Millen’s best qualifier was 8m50s, fi'om first-timer Eklund on 9mll.85s and BomTie on 9m 12s. A close-nm thing, considering the roughness of the climb and the power differences between cai's.

On the day ofthe climb, Millen’s confidence as pole man to choose to run behind Bomme’s better-behaved Subam than the rock-chucking Monster’s Suzuld Special that would rain the com-se,turned to fuiy when he was told that he had to start last.

His anger was probably worth 10 seconds but his chmb time of8m48s was 11s south of Bourne’s winning time of8m37s. Bomne said they had worked on developing the car all weekend.

"We got the car to come to me, and I was able to go to it. It was neai’ perfect. Basically,I nailed it!"

Tajima was plagued with problems aD weekend down to a pinion bearing failure on race morning warm-up. He had been given special dispensation to compete, having failed to run in qualilj^g. His best was 8min 56sec for third, ahead of Eldund on 9m05s in the Saab.

Fastest classic was 'Trevor Crowe, 27th at lOmOOs in a 5-litre Rover V8-engined Skoda special built in 1987, Brent Buist was second at 10ml2s in an RS1800 Escort, Robin Feck third in a Chev V8-engined Hillman Imp (!) at 10ml2s and Dunkerton was fourth fastest classic but the first real car at 10m24s in the 240Z. * 57

Willowbank

by KEN FERGUSON

TOP Doorslammer newcomer Kym Petterwood sounded an ominous warning to his more experienced rivals by winning the Tin Tops 1100 at Willowbank on April 14.

The event also proved a happy hunting gi’ound for Victor Bray, who walked away with his first Nationals finals win, and a sixth championship.

Bray had struggled with the Castrol ’57 Chev during early qualifying in the Top Doorslammer bracket, languishing in eighth spot after his first two attempts. Tyre shake forced him to get off the throttle just past the 60 foot mark on his first attempt.

This resulted in an uncompetitive 13.11s pass, and things didn’t improve on his second attempt. The car left the line hard, and picked the front wheels up several times before veering towards the centre line.

Bray was on track for a mid to low 6.20 before hitting the centre line timers and shutting off early to record a 6.39 at only 198 mph. Unfortimately, the pass was disqualified for crossing the centre line.

The big moment for the Queensland veteran came on his third attempt. This was the one that counted - the re-run of the Calder Park Nationals Doorslammer final. Peter Kapiris was the only obstacle standing in the way of Bray’s first Nationals gold Christmas tree. Kapiris looked strong, already having gone 6.47 and 6.37 on his two previous qualifiers.

Past form didn’t count for much as far as Bray was concerned, as he unleashed a

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national record-equalling 6.21 at a blistering 236.72 mph,to defeat Kapiris’ respectable 6.47 at 209.

Speaking after the Nationals final, Bray said, “We've had four weeks to think about this race since the semi-final in Melbourne, and it’s been a pretty nervous time.

All the way through the Test and Tune-last night and qualifying this morning we’ve been straggling with the set up, and Peter was looking pretty good. Luckily for us things clicked when it counted.

“The 6.21 actually felt pretty easy and we know there’s more left in it yet. We’ve just got to work out how to get it.”

Bray then earned a bye in the first round of eliminations after Andrew Searle withdrew from competition with valve damage to the Acme Fibreglass Ford Customline, leaving an odd number in the field. Bray recorded another pass in the 6.20’s with a 6.29 at 215. Robin Judd put Gary Phillips back on the trailer with a 6.44 to a 6.50 from the Lucas Oils Studebaker.

Alfy Sorbello scored an upset win over the Jack Daniels Studebaker of Brett Stevens, when Stevens’transmission gave up before half track.

The big surprise of the night was the defeat of ^piris by Petterwood in his Lifestyle ’63 split window Corvette. Petterwood had suffered severe handling problems with the car since new, and had only managed a previous best of 6.70 at a recent Test and Tune.

Again at this event, Petterwood could not break into the six second zone. Alcohol funny car racer, Steve Reed,even had a shot at it, but, again, no luck. But after making alterations to the rear suspension on the car after qualifying, Petterwood stmined everyone with a 6.27 at 214 mph.

Petterwood faced Sorbello in the second round, and despite handling problems he scraped through for a 7.04 win over Sorbello’s 7.37.

Bray faced Judd in the other semi and was defeated before half track when the blower belt let go

A month in the making: Victor Bray defeated Peter Kapiris in the delayed Nationals Top Doorslammer final (above), while Peter Ridgeway and Bruce Leake duelled in Pro Stocks (below).

(Photos by Marshall Cass)

on the Castrol Chev. Judd booked a place in the final against Petterwood with a winning time of 6.63 at 218. His luck ended when he was shut down after the r burnout in the final, with transmission fluid leaking from the car. Petterwood’s car again handled badly, but took a 10.95 second solo win in his very first event in the Doorslammer class.

Bray’s postponed Nationals win, combined with Searle not qualifying and Kapiris and Stevens going out in the early rounds, earned the Queenslander a sixth consecutive Australian Championship.

Bray was surprised by the early clinching of the title, commenting, “We'd hope to leave here with a good lead but never imagined we’d be able to wrap the championship up tonight. It was just a freak run of upsets.

“All the top guys went out first.

Searly dropped a valve and couldn’t make the first round, Peter was beaten by Kym Petterwood who qualified at the bottom of the field, Brett broke against Alfie Sorbello and then Gary Phillips went down to Robin Judd.

“We actually thought we had to win the semi-final to be safe, and when the blower belt broke I was pretty dark. Then the TV crew came up to me for an interview and said ‘Congratulations, you've won then championship’. All I could say was ‘Are you sure?’”

For the ‘Wild Fridge’’55 Chev of local boy Les Winter, things turned nasty at the finish line on his first and only qualifying attempt. The Chev had turned the t3rres hard off the start line, before 'Winter pedalled it and got straight back on the throttle. He crossed the finish line at 189 mph on fire when the alloy pulley on the front

motorsport news

DRAG RACING

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Etchells sponsor drama

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Something old, something new: Petterwood captured an impressive first Doorslammer win (below), while veterans Bray and Kapiris got that warm and fuzzy feeling before settling the 2001 Nationals title once and for all (bottom).

(Photos by Marshall Cass)

of the crank disintegrated and ruptured the fuel cell.

Winter went deep into the braking area, before trydng to spin the car to a halt on the grass. The car ploughed sideways into a large log lying hidden in the grass in an adjacent paddock. Winter escaped serious injury despite the log making contact with his seat, but walked from the wrecked vehicle a little sore and shaken.

Winter was unsure of the extent of the damage, and, with the abscence of major financial backing, is also unsure as to when

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he will return to racing.

Peter Ridgeway followed a similar path to Bray in the Pro Stock class. Ridgeway was to meet Bruce Leake in the third round of qualifying for the re-run of the Nationals final. Ridgeway had already posted a 7.62 at 179 on his first qualifier, and improved on that with a 7.58 at 180 on his second. Leake had recorded a 7.64 and a 7.70 on his first two attempts in readiness for the confrontation with Ridgeway.

Leake grabbed a small advantage on the start line and

^ icti

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27 April 2001

held that until the sixty foot mark, where Ridgeway pulled away to win the race with a 7.63 at 178 to Leake’s 7.71 at 176.

Ridgeway fell in the second round of eliminations to Jay Watson after pulling a big .320 cherry on the start line. Watson had earlier defeated John Barbagallo to meet Ridgeway in the second. By defeating Ridgeway, he booked a place in the final with Tony Wedlock. Wedlock had earlier defeated Mark Marchetti in the first round, and defeated Leake in the second with a few start line antics that saw a big holeshot win to Wedlock. Leake’s quicker 7.65 at 176 fell just short of Wedlock’s 7.72 at 174. Jay Watson out-reacted Wedlock in the final and took the win by a mere .003 sec, with his slower 7.80 at 173 to Wedlock’s 7.76 at 174.

No other brackets on the night could be run following the Pro Stock and Doorslammer finals. The track management announced that, following the oildown after Judd’s burnout, the track was unable to be cleaned properly, and was deemed unsafe to race on.

The night was shaping up as a fairydale finish for some racers, especially that of Modified racer, Christine Steffens, who was competing in her very first event in Modified, and in a brand new dragster, after only gaining her licence the night before at a test’n’tune.

Steffens made her way all the way through the rounds to book a place in the final with seasoned Modified racer, Graeme Frawley.

Steffens’ husband, Ricky, also made it to the final in the Super Sedan bracket.

The Supercharged Outlaws bracket was heading a similar way, with Luke Shephard going to his first ever final in his Wreckair Hire funny car. At 18 years of age, his 6.79s/201mph run made him the youngest Australian Funny Car pilot to break the 200mph mark. Shephard’s opponent in the final was to be Mick Coleman in his Commodore.

CHUCK Etchells's first round loss to John Force in Gainesvilie may well have been the last time the Kendall/Matco Tools Camaro will be on the racetrack during the 2001 season, Etchells, owner and driver of the Kendall Oil/Matco Tools Chevy Camaro, is at odds with the major backer of his racing operation.

According to Etchells, Etchells Racing is facing some serious sponsorship issues and while there has been a continuing effort to resolve them throughout the season, Etchells has been forced to consult with a Connecticut law firm that specialises in these situations.

While Etchells may be forced to park the Camaro he has driven since Pomona, the team car, (which is currently sporting the logos of rock band. Motley Crue, Mateo Tools and Chevrolet), will continue on the tour.

Jim Epier will remain as its driver.

"It is not appropriate for me to go into the specifics at this moment,"said Etchells.

"One element that has been lost during this period is that we have many other fine sponsors such as Mateo Toois, Chevrolet, Mighty Auto Parts and a myriad of contingency sponsors to which we have a responsibility.

"We will work closely with them to ensure we are continuing to satisfy their needs," n Queensland’s Warwick Dragway has undergone a facelift.

Complaints about rocks in the braking area have been addressed, and the facility now has a complete hot mix strip from burnout through to the end of the braking area, plus a full hot mix return road.

There are also plans to make a parking area at the loop to make it safer when waiting for a tow, and other improvements are pencilled in for the near future. n At the IHRA Holley Spring Nationals at Rockingham two weeks ago, a lengthy rain delay resulted in management resorting to numerous ploys to keep the fans interested. At one point two young men were brought out of the stands for a foot race from the starting line to the 300foot mark.

As the winner was being escorted back to the starting line by Norwalk Raceway Park manager Bill Bader, Jr., he asked the young man if "There could be anything better than IHRA drag racing?"

"Yeah," the young man replied, ■NHRAI" The man was apparently booed by the Pro Mod-loving crowd.

- JOIM ASHER/DAVID OSTASZEWSKI/AGENCIES 59

LARRY Dixon drove his Miller Lite dragster to a final round 4.66/313 victory over Gary Scelzi’s 4.72/313 at the Gatornats re-run on April 22.

The win moved Dixon into second place in the Winston Top Fuel standings, five points shy of leader, Mike Dunn.

John Force, Jeg Coughlin, Matt Hines and Greg Stanfield were also victorious in the US$2 million dollar event, which was postponed five weeks earlier because of bad weather.

Dixon blasted to consistent 4.64/316, 4.66/311 and 4.63/314 victories over Bobby Baldwin, David Grubnic and Tony Schumacher.

“It’s gi-eat to help give ‘Snake’ back to back wins,” said Dixon. “I guess I’ll be the ‘good son’this week. This was definitely a different racetrack than one month ago, and we figured that if we could run 4.6s all day that we’d have a chance to win.”

Scelzi, surprisingly, reached the final round for only the first time

this season, stopping Steve Smith, Rhonda Hartman-Smith and Vegas winner, Kenny Bernstein, the latter being decided by just 0.007sec.

Andrew Cowin returned to square off against Schumacher.

Cowin left just ahead of Schumacher, but the K&N Filtersbacked dragster began to haze the tyres at mid-track. Cowin pedalled once and chased Schumacher to the finish line, but unfortunately lost, 4.74/310 to 4.96/284.

Force, Austin Coil and their Castrol cohorts continued their Funny Car dominance, scoring an impressive seventh Gators title in getting their second win of the season. Force stopped Dean Skuza in the final round, recording a vulnerable 5.31/273, when Skuza lost traction off the starting line.

While Force led qualifying back in March at 4.81/316, the heat and tricky surface on their return made for a different strategy on raceday.

“When we got here, they were dragging a ’gator out of the swamp

-roots

Better late than never: The delayed Gatornat finals proved a happy (Photos by David Ostaszewski) hunting ground for Dixon (top), and Force (above). by the front gate,” said Force.

“I knew right then that the moons weren’t lined up right. We had run 4.80s here, but not in these conditions. When they know you can run a lap, the other teams tend to push it. We had a meeting in the trailer and decided we’d let them beat themselves, if they can step up and run an .88, they’re gonna win it. We kept tabs on everyone all day, stayed with a

game plan and it worked.”

Force came out roaring in the opening two rounds, taking backto-back 4.92 second, 300 mph plus victories over long-time rivals.

Chuck Etchells and A1 Hofmann, before going on to defeat Ron Capps in the semis.

'The 94th career win for Force and a first round loss by Bruce Sarver propelled Force to a 70 point lead in the Winston

omine too strong at AC Delco Nats

So close: Hood was pipped m the Pro Modfinal by Mike Jams.

60

PAUL Romine scored his second straight Top Fuel win in the 2001 IHRA series, knocking off Jim Head in the final round of the AC Delco Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Romine charged to a winning 4.87/300 to defeat the tractionless 6.64/135 of Head. Romine had qualified his CAR Quest dragster second in the program at 4.71/302, before taking out Roger Dean and Bruce Litton in the first two rounds.

Dean was inserted into the field when Shirley Muldowney could not return following a car damaging-last ditch effort to get into the show. Muldowney smoked the tyres on her initial two passes, but finally made it downtrack to post a firebaliing 4.95/297 to land in the seventh spot. The damage on that pass was severe enough to load the car onto a flatbed for its return to the pits. The team then elected to retire from the event.

Head recorded a 4.73/310 for the fourth spot and disposed of Jim Bailey and low qualifier, Clay Millican before taking runner-up honors to Romine in the final.

Mike Janis outlasted the quickest field in Pro Mod history in taking his first national event victory. Janis recorded a final round motorsport news

1

DRAG RACING over Rickie Smith, a huge holeshot standings. victoi-y over Mark Pawuk and a Skuza’s path to the final round semi-final round win over Brad came at the expense of Force Jeter. teammate, Gary Densham, Jim Hines picked up his first Pro Epler and surprise semi-finalist Tim Wilkerson.

Stock Bike win of the year with a final round win over Craig Treble.

Jeg Coughlin made it two in a Hines’s 7.29/180 and slight row as he drove his deg’s Chevy Cavalier to a starting line final round advantage was enough to hold victory over Mark Osborne off the quicker in Pro Stock. and closing 7.28/182 of Coughlin Treble. left the starting line Greg first and Stanfield turned the needed every tables on bit of that advantage as Randy Daniels his winning in a repeat of 6.93/199 held last year’s Pro Stock Ti-uck off the quicker 6.92/199 of final round, Osborne. taking a 7.49/181 to ‘We stumbled at 7.50/180 the start of the victory. The second win this year, but we’ve re-grouped, season by Stanfield come together Looking for a hat-trick: Pro Stock moves him to and have great winner Jeg Coughlin, Jr. within seven harmony again,” said Coughlin. points of the Pro Stock Truck points lead.

Coughlin took out Tom Martino in the first round with a 6.89/200, Mark Hentges made the long then made a leap in the points return tow from Washington to chase when he took out both take honours in Federal Mogul Johnsons ahead of him in the Dragster. Hentges’ blown alcohol standings in the following two dragster recorded a winning rounds.

5.64/238 to stop the injected nitro burner of Dave Hirata, which A 6.89/200 stopped Warren and a 6.94/199 ended the day for Kurt torched a cylinder head in a 5.78/249 effort. in an all-Chevy Cavalier battle.

The early exits by the Johnson’s Jay Payne stopped Frank Manzo vaulted Jeg right back into the in the Federal Mogul Funny Car points chase as he moved past final, 5.82/248 to 5.83/250. Payne became the seventh driver to Kurt into second, and sits just 12 record national event wins in both points behind cuiTent points leader, Warren Johnson.

Federal Mogul Dragster and Osborne reached his ninth final Funny Car. - DAVID OSTASZEWSKI round with a close round one win 6.34/222 to stop Ronnie Hood.

Janis low qualified at 6.20/227 and recorded consistent laps of 6.34/225, 6.34/225 and 6.36/224 to defeat Roy Wasko and both of the Stott brothers, Quain and Mitch.

Hood had qualified in the sixth spot at 6.25/224 and took round wins from Todd Howard,.Alan Pittman and Paul Athey in Johnny Rocca's '51 Mercury.

Troy Critchley recorded a 6.21/214 on his last pass to claim the second qualifying position, but fell in the opening round to Al Billes, 6.43/217 to 6.59/215.

A whopping 42 cars made qualifying passes to set the record bump of 6.334, with the qualified field comprised of seven blown and nine nitrous powerplants.

The Pro Stock final was a repeat of the season opener, pitting the top two qualifiers against each other, with the same result. Gene Wilson remained unbeaten in 2001 when he drove his Mercury Cougar to a 6.65/208 to 6.65/209 victory over the Ford Mustang of Tom Lee. Wilson earlier defeated Steve Williford, Randy 21 April 2001

Trucks face shaky future

: SOURCES suggest that the i upper management of NHRA j has been seriously discussing : the future, or lack thereof,for I the Pro Storck Truck class.

I Only General Motors and ; Daimler-Chrysler seem to have ; an interest in the class, and D-C's ! chances for success in the class i were hampered from the i beginning by former D-C ' motorsport manager Lou Patane's i insistence that the Dodge Dakota ! trucks be built life-size, which 1 immediately gave the Chevy S-10 n and GMC Sonoma models a I considei-able aerodynamic I advantage.

That policy has finally been i rescinded, but is it too little, too i late to save the class?

An extensive audience survey ; was begun during the ; Summitracing.com Nationals to record the reactions of the fans ; and supporting manufacturers, I while polls on drag racing n wehsites have drawn largely , negative responses.

Frequent complaints are made ^ about the series being 'boiing' and ''too slow,' but it may be too late to ! contemplate the addition of ; perfoi-mance-enhancing nitrous

displacement engines.

The category also suffers from a lack of brand-to-brand competition. Despite the close competition provided by the likes of Bob Panella and Randy Daniels, what whets the appetite of marketing types are confrontations between S-lOs and , Dakotas, or Sonomas and Rangers. TTiat has yet to happen in a national event final round, and may never take place the way things are going right now.

Also, the class has no more than two or three 'real' corporate sponsors. The remainder of the Trucks are being backed either by the competitors themselves, or by friends or family who can afford a business promotional write-off.

The other problem looming on the horizon is the popularity of the Pro Mods in their first exhibition race at the Mac Tools Gatornationals.

Several NHRA officials were as : giddy as school boys after just one qualifying session, and it appears that, given the choice, they would much prefer to field Pro Mods at 14 races next year rather than go through another mind-numbing season 'Trucks. ti- JON ASHER

(Piciure by JooA»f»i)

Early shower: Muldowney's car iv'£(.9 damaged during a last-gasp charge.

(Phoio hy DuviJ 0.x!ai:<rwsJii}

Moore and Angelo Alesci while Lee had advanced to the final with victories over David Jenkins, Jason Collins and-Ron Miller.

Pro Stock also produced the quickest field ever, closely wedged between Lee's 6.585 and Jenkins's 6.670.

Bob Newberry returned to supercharged IHRA Alcohol Funny Car racing and grabbed his first win of the season on a holeshot. Newberry, cut a psychic .414 light in the final to stop Mark Thomas, 6.02/236 to 5.95/239.

Newberry defeated Ron Atchison, Dale Brand and Laurie Cannister before taking out Thomas in the final.

Tony Mattioli recorded a 6.82/197 to defeat Doug Vancil in the final round of Nitro Harley.

Mattioli has teamed up with Jim McClure and will ride McClure's bike for the remainder of the season. McClure was to return to riding in Virginia following his crash in pre-season testing, but complications have forced McClure to serve in an owner/crew chief role for 2001.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 61

Kevin Harvick

Making

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OBODY ever said life was wins in 14 events. During 1998 he also posted 3 top fives in the "(They) don't know how to easy," remarked Kevin Truck Series and the following pass. We were having a little Harvick at Rockingham, trouble with our car and year ran full time, finishing 12th North Carolina on February 23 in points. unfortunately we were back in of this year,"but this is the In 2000 he was chosen to the middle of them. They get a hardest thing that's ever drive the Richard Childresslittle impatient and start beating happened in my life." owned, AC Delco-sponsored Of course Harvick, 25, was and banging."

Chev Monte Carlo, in the Busch So from where did the rising talking about the situation he Grand National Series. star come from? found himself in before the "At the beginning of last year He started racing go-karts and second Winston Cup race of the we were behind," said Harvick. then progressed to his hometown year, filling the shoes of a short track of Bakersfield, California, "We didn't have any cars built NASCAR legend twice his age where he ran Late Model Stocks. at the end of 1999 and we were and with twice his experience, in the late Dale Earnhardt, at He captured NASCAR's South still putting the team together.

West Tour rookie of the year Richard Childress Racing.

There was a steep learning award in 1995, then went on to "We're a pretty tough team," curve and it showed early in the win the NASCAR Winston West said Harvick, "this is what Dale year as I saw several tracks for would have wanted.

Championship in 1998 with five the first time."

Harvick still finished We're going to make it » happen and hope he'll be the year a respectable So far this year, Harvick sits proud of us." third in points with three atop the Busch points table with With what Harvick and wins and 16 top 10s in a lone win coming at Texas on the Childress operation 31 races as Rookie of March 31. The team has the have accomplished so far, the Year. intention of competing in all 33 you can be darn sure old Harvick signed to Busch races and the remainder of 'Ironhead' would be proud continue driving the car the 36 Cup series points events. of them. in 2001, with a limited "I'm looking forward to doing it He finished 14th in that schedule of seven races and one reason is that people first outing at Rockingham in Winston Cup towards keep asking whether we can or and following it with an the end of the year, the can't do it," says Harvick. eighth in Las Vegas and reason being that seven "The only problem is, if it rains then came the amazing races is the maximum a or snows or weather becomes a win over Jeff Gordon in driver can run before not factor, there are places where Atlanta. being eligible for Rookie we'll miss practice or we'll need The #29 Goodwrench of the Year status. somebody else to qualify the Chevy won in a style Busch car, but we've got all that Sponsorship for that reminiscent of Earnhardt, worked out." venture was coming from with a three-wide pass If he can achieve the feat, he'll America On Line, but down the front stretch be the first in history to do so. with the recent untimely before holding off Gordon Harvick has some pretty big events taking place, 2000 by inches at the line for shoes to fill, but the pressure Busch Champ Jeff Green the emotional victory. doesn't seem to have affected has been named to drive "Man, there were cars him too much. the car. going everywhere. It's incredible, I've been so (Photo by Martin D Clark) busy since then I still don't think it's sunk in yet."

Somewhere in there he got married to new bride Delana as well l fy Y He continued the year with a respectable 14th at the tricky Darlington, 24th at Bristol, seventh in Texas and then the bump in the road hit at Martinsville, where he Utnilim was swept into a lap 112 u WINNER wreck to finish 34th.

He's extremely talented and we're extremely "There were a lot of A winner in his third race: By JUST outpointing Jeff lucky to have him as a replacement" people who don't know Gordon, Harvick won his first race at Atlanta.

-Crm chiefKevin Hamlin(farleft\mHanrii^and midress)on how to drive this race," he (Photo by Martin D Clark) motorsDori netMS 62

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High line, hard time: Harvick has quickly earned a following, not just because of the legend he follows, but he knows how to win as well.

(Photo by Sutton-Imagcs]

I wanted to make sure everybody knew how hard it was going to be," said crew chief Kevin Hamlin.

As it turned out, it's been extremely easy. I made kind of a bold statement after Atlanta and I got to thinking that maybe I shouldn't have said that," he continued, regarding a comment he made about a possible championship victory in 2001.

He's extremely talented and we're extremely lucky to have him as a replacement.

As if Hamlin wasn't piling the pressure on, the fans expect the now white number 29 Goodwrench Chevy to be up front every week, with the diehard Earnhardt fans seeming to have switched allegiance to Harvick or 'Little E'(Dale Jnr) in droves.

Harvick certainly has the mindset to continue winning in the Busch and Cup series.

Let's go out and do some things that are off the wall and knock some records down," he offers as the team's approach.

We're only going to have one chance to give it everything we've got for him.

Of course the 'him' he refers to is none other then Dale Earnhardt...

21 ADrII 2001

Who s Dale Jarrett again?

Harvi.ek hasn t %ee» aifaiid to imix it wililii .like best on the Winston Cup lour. Miere he sliees underneath Dale Jarrett s #SS U PS Ford Taurus. fl‘hoinb\ t UitNSiaiiluixl

63

Expert: It wasnl the belt

THE Florida court-appointed expert who looked at the Dale Earnhardt autopsy information has concluded that the broken seat belt in Earnhardt's car did not kill the driver.

The four page report by Dr Barry Myers said that "the restraint failure does not appear >-tb have played a role in Mr Earnhardt's fatal injury."

This'is contrary to NASCAR's ' February 23'suggestion that the ■broken lap belt allowed ..Eaffihardt to. hit his chin on the ●i.steeripg wheel and cause his ^cleath. ■. ■ ■ ^lv.‘hMyers',agrees.that his chin S .d'id make jpojitact with the .'B^tlom-of the steecing wheel, 'V put ‘that’the .violent’ head movement vyhen the car hit ■ the,;wall was the cause of , 'death.

The eight broken ribs, also t.ifridicated to Myers that the 1 .^safely belts.did their job.

■ Dr-Steve .Bbhan'non, who "-works for International ';TSpe'edway Gorp (a NASCAR ; eub’ei'deryi.and made the ; (Februaiy statement that the delts'taused the death, issued

I

will putweeks, an end but to it." i seven hopefully this Simpson has in his possession a video tape taken by a fan in the stands that apparently shows a track //, worker cutting the belt to free the injured driver, while others close to the sport think team members or Earnhardt modified the belt for comfort, but will say little more for fear of their jobs.

Whatever the answer, NASCAR is to likely remain tight-lipped until results of their accident re-structure and others tests are completed by August.

Those tests are being conducted by what NASCAR It s turning into a conspiracy theory: The entire Earnhardt tragedy is quickly calls 'independent experts', turning into the JFK-like, grassy knoll affair with the continual scrutiny and although just who those (Photoby Martin D Clark! bids to see the autopsy photos. Let him rest in peace. experts are NASCAR have not divulged. as welcome news for safety another release after Dr Myers 'The Alligator', a University of guru Bill Simpson, a personal report became public.

Florida student newspaper, has friend of Earnhardt's.

"I was trying to answer the filed a cross-claim with the . "NASCAR has handled this questions the media and public Volusia County Medical had to the best of my ability and whole thing very poorly," he Examiners office challenging remarked.

I think I speculated more than I the new law put into place for should have," he remarked.

"They hurt my creditbility by release of the Dale Earnhardt not communicating. I don't "Sometimes you should just autopsy information think anything can make up for say it's too early to speculate."

- MARTIN P CLARK what I've been through the last Release of the report came

Goodwrench

(Photo by Sutton-lmages)

Yates denies Dodge move

ROBERT Yates has dismissed a rumour that had him considering a switch to the Dodge Intrepid R/T camp.

“There's nothing to it,” said Yates, who owns the #28 and #88 Ford Tauruses driven by Ricky Rudd, above, and Dale Jarrett.

“I would think if they came to us, which they haven’t, but if they did come to us, that would really say they screwed up, and the teams they did choose would be awfully upset. They didn't come to us.

“Tm not looking. If you asked anybody in the grandstand what should Robert Yates be running, I think all of them would tell you Ford.”

Yates’s contract with Ford runs through the 2004 Winston Cup season.

- PHIL MORRIS 64

Lepage is le man

KEVIN Lepage, right, will sign a contract in California this weekend with Morgan McClure Racing to drive the Kodak Chevy for the rest of 2001.

Although he had an overheating problem at Talladega, Lepage has done an outstanding job on a race-by-race basis of replacing Robby Gordon in the #4 machine, which the former Indycar driver was sacked from earlier in the season.

Lepage’s last full time ride was in the Roush #16 Ford.

- MARTIN D CLARK

NASCAR More ben dramas NASCAR showed drivers a seat belt at Talladega damaged in a Busch Series race at Nashville Speedway on April 14. The belt, used by Mike Harmon, showed around a half-inch (1.25cm)tear close to the metal adjuster bar.

This apparently occurred because Harmon failed to tighten his belts during the race and the belt had been pulled through the adjuster at an angle.

"It had nothing to do with the type of belt being used," said NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson.

"Drivers just need to be careful in the way they pull their belts tight."

Leader at the right time: The big shunt which everybody was holding their breath for at Talladega never (Photo by Sutton-lmages) happened, with Bobby Hamilton in the right draft at the right time.

[IS

to be are

(Photo by Sutton-lmages)

BOBBY Hamilton scored his first ever restrictor plate track victory at Talladega on Sunday in a competitive event, with 26 drivers leading the race at some point.

Hamilton’s fourth victory came in a caution free race with the always, anticipated ‘big one’ thankfully never occurring.

“It’s the biggest win I’ve ever had,” remarked Hamilton, driving the Andy Petree-owned Square D Monte Carlo. “Right now I think we can go anywhere and win.”

It was Hamilton’s first win in 101 events, his last coming at Martinsville in the Kodak Chevy in 1998, and he was driving the same car that finished second to the late Dale Earnhardt in October last year at Talladega, then driven by Kenny Wallace. The Chevrolet became a show car in 1999, but was brought back to racing last year for restrictor plate duty.

Fom-th-placed Mark Martin, who after qualifying said the race would be a “mad house”, put the zero cautions down to some savvy chiving.

“The drivers deserve a gold medal,” he quipped. “The job they did was incredible.”

Others put the clean racing down to NASCAE’s strong arm pre-race briefing, where they 2} ADril 2001

com ft tf}

■V

insisted they would not tolerate any unnecessary movement below the yellow lines painted on the apron of the track.

Just to prove it, they sent Casey Atwood, Mike Skinner and Todd Bodine, who was running second, to pit road for a 15s penalty for using the apron to gain track position.

Tony Stewart led the race late from laps 162 to 187, but as always, was a sitting duck for the cars behind. Hamilton made a move around the outside with help from team-mate Joe Nemechek, taking the lead with just over a lap to go and moving across the track to break the slipstream.

Dale Jarrett held on to his points lead with an 18th placing, but failed to lead a lap, while Terry Labonte had his best showing in a while in 11th.

It was the first race of 2001 that Roush Racing really had a strong effort, their cars finishing third (Busch), fourth (Martin), 10th (Burton) and Matt Kenseth in 19th.

Although the Dodges were strong early and pole-sitter Stacy Compton and Bill Elliott shared the front row like at Daytona, Sterling Marlin and rookie Jason Leffler were the only Intrepids to run strong, but were drafted back late in race.

Final result; Hamilton (Chevy), Stewart (Pontiac), Busch (Ford), Martin (Ford), B Labonte (Pontiac), Nemechek (Chevy), Benson (Pontiac), Earnhardt Jr (Chevy), M Wallace (Ford), J Burton (Ford).

Points standings; Jarrett 1345, Gordon 1200, Benson 1195, Hamilton 1170, Marlin 1153, R Wallace 1137, Park 1109, Rudd 1096, Stewai-t 1047, Elliott 1015.

n Several teams had parts confiscated by NASCAR at Talladega, the most popular item appeared to be springs of the incorrect rating, while many had to make body changes that were deemed aerodynamic advantages and did not fit the body templates. n Stacy Compton's Talladega pole winning speed of 184.861 mph was the slowest in track history and substantially slower to Bill Elliott's track speed of 212 mph set in 1987, before the carburetor restrictor plates. n The US$20,000 fine handed to Petty Enterprises, for the John Andretti Dodge being too low post race at Bristol, has been rescinded by the Stock Car Racing Commission. It's the first case for a long while where a team's appeal has been successful, with the board deciding that damage sustained during the race and settling of the springs and shock absorbers of the car played a part in the car being under the required height limit. n While Andy Petree enjpyed the success of victory with his #55,team at Talladega on Sunday, his #33 team of Joe Nemechek is on the look-out for a sponsor, following Oakwood Homes' announcement that it wouldn't be continuing its backing in 2002.

■ A prototype carbon fibre seat being developed by PPI Motorsport in conjunction with an English company and Jeff Burton has recently been through a series of crash tests and results of the cocoon structure received the thumbs up.

■ Ray Evernham has hired a pit crew coach for his two Winston Cup teams and drivers Casey Atwood and Bill Elliott. Evernham recently met Terra Flynn again at a high school reunion in New Jersey and decided to hire him as coach. Flynn has finished a career as a Navy Seal, so those employees who believe Evernham is a slave driver now had better be prepared I - MARTIN D CLARK 65

Easter Trail

The right trail

by BRETT SWANSON

A STOUT field of over 51 cars meant the fireworks weren't just confined to the after-race show on all stops of this year's Easter Trail.

The unique points system saw the feature grids well mixed up over the three nights of racing.

However the cream always rises to the top, with Max Dumesny winning on Good Friday at Avalon after a well-timed and patient run, and then Robbie Farr led every lap of the next two features at Mt Gambler and Warrnambool.

Farr’s failure to finish at Avalon cost him severely, as he just missed taking the overall $5000 win which went to Dumesny with a win, third and fourth. Farr finished second from David Murcott, Stephen Bell and Andrew Scheuerle.

-

n

r:x'i ^

Avalon

With 10 cars in each heat within the tight confines of Avalon, action aplenty was expected but was, thankfully, kept to a minimum.

The B-Main saw a big incident when Darren Saillard collided with Grant Tunks and rode out a wild ride, ending his Easter campaign.

John Shore went on to take an untroubled win from Tunks, who was not without his own problems having broken a rocker in the engine. Matthew Reed and Trevor FORMER Warrnambool driver Stephen Bell etched his name into Premier Speedway's record books at their annuai Easter meeting.

Bell, who now resides In Brisbane and drives for Queensland car owners Bill Mann and Barry Lawrence, was the fourth and final driver to smash the track's 10-lap record.

Bell's victory in the eighth heat of the night completed a remarkable run of records as he lowered the mark to 1m50.26s, more than four seconds under the record from the start of the night, which had stood since December 1999.

Another former local, Max Dumesny, started the recordbreaking run in the second heat of the night, lowering the existing record from 1m54.31s to 1 m53.53s. But the amount he 66

No Easter Bunnies here: Max Dumesny added another Easter Trail win to his impressive C.V. (Photo by Paris Charles)

Green just missed the cut.

Shiels sat the DMH Ibgnotti on pole from Marty Perovich, Murcott, Cameron Gessner, Dumesny,Ian Lewis, DaiTen Jensen, Fair, BeU, Robin Dawkins,Troy Little, Mike Van Bremen,David Anderson, Tim McCubbin, and Shore.

Perovich lead fi'om Shiels, Gessner, Murcott and Dumesny,

but on lap six, Farr and Bell clashed, with Farr’s front axle breaking. Gessner had previously moved to second and then, on lap 10, Bell, Shiels and Dawkins had a melee that eliminated Dawkins.

Gessner moved into the lead in traffic on lap 12 and looked likely to score a fine win, as Dumesny was taking some time to get motoring.

Record breakers

The Victorians claim him back! Stephen Bell set the new mark in the #6 (Photo by Geoff Grade) Speedflow machine.

With just three laps to go, Dumesny made his move and took the lead to go on and win from Gessner, Murcott, Perovich, Jensen, Bell, Anderson, Shore, Van Bremen, McCubbin and Little.

Mt Gambler The car count was still high with the addition of some South sliced off the mark would have been more had he not been baulked by slower cars in the last two laps.

Dumesny's record lasted only until the next heat when Victorian David Murcott carved more than half a second off the mark.

New South Wales racer Mark Blyton again smashed the record in the seventh heat, cutting more than a second off Murcotfs effort. In the following heat. Bell, who started off the front row, carved 1.3s off the record to 1m50.26s.

Premier Speedway Club historian Stewart Owen said a track record being broken four times in the one night was unprecedented.

"Off the top of my head, never," Owen said.

-GEOFF ROUNDS ntotorsport news

SPEEDWAY

for Max

(ss stories: David Murcott had a we, while Robbie Farr’s, left, run at 3m picking up the $5000 title bonus. picked up second at Warrnambool.

(Photos by Paris Charles. Geoff Gracie and Ian Robinson)

It's a conspiracy

the Main.

Top scorer Andrew Scheuerle chose to start from the outside on a one lane track which allowed Farr to take the lead at the start and he never relinquished it.

Scheuerle repelled Dumesny for the duration of the event as Farr even struggled to pass lapped traffic. A couple of minor incidents halted proceedings but never really affected the outcome.

Gessner put in another solid run gi'abbing fourth from Matthew Reed, Murcott, Maher, Garry Chippindall, Ken Veal, Tony Moule, Lewis and Vogels.

Warrnambool

The weather to date had been unseasonably good, with clear warm days turning into cool nights that made good horsepower for the methanol-fired monsters.

However, at Warrnambool it was slightly more dodgy and very light rain was falling during the early part of the final feature event.

The Warrnambool obsession with having a fast track continued and nearly each successive heat reduced the 10-lap record as the night progressed.

Sadly, while it was a fast track, it was a single lane race track.

The improving Peter Knight 27 April 2001

second off the record to leave it at lm53.53s and set the recordbreaking ran going (see breakout on left).

Lewis and Murcott were on the front row for the B-Main and were running in reversed positions with two laps to go when Lewis fenced his car while having a big go. Murcott and Veal made the jump to the feature while Anderson, Russell, Blyton and others missed the cut.

The field was on the track and circulating before the A-Feature while Farr’s crew, along with other helpers including Phil Johnson and Ian Vale, were still putting his car back together.

A nervous Farr made it out the gate just in time to take his front row start alongside Maggs, though the first start was waved off and on the second one tragedy struck Linigen when she rode Karl Enderl’s wheel and flipped fairly hard. She ended up spending time in hospital for observation.

After a complete restart, Farr commenced to pull away from Maggs and Shore with Scheuerle and Dumesny next. Farr pulled away with the only change at the

front being when Shore struggled to keep the car down on the racing line thanks to right elbow tendonitis.

In a flash, Scheuerle and Dumesny were through as Shore pushed on again to complete the race in those positions.

“We had 10 guys thrashing on it (engine)some of the friends I've got here in Warrnambool dug really deep and I've got to thank them for this,” said Farr.

“It's been more of a hard night in the pits for us than on the track but we got there in the end.”

The race also doubled as the Fireball Derby(in memory of Bill Evans)and an emotional Maggs received the runner-up trophy in memoi-y of his pop from his mother.

“This could rate as good as a win for us,” Maggs said after celebrating with a donut on the main straight.

Points: Dumesny 760,Farr 716.5, Murcott 694.5, Bell 641.5, Scheuerle 613, Gessner 604, Moule 541, Lewis 506.5, Maggs 504.5, Shore 495.5

VICTORIAN ace Matthew Reed was totally baffled at Avalon when Grant Tunks couldn't take his place in the feature. Reed should have been the next one elevated to the 'A' but was told that wouldn't happen because it would mess up the pay-outs.

Pay me for third in the 'B' and let me race the feature for nothing,"he said, "Even if I win don't pay me, I just want to race."

For some strange reason, his request was refused and the crowd were ripped off, with only 15 cars starting the feature.

Keeping it in the family IN an incredible co-incidence, John Shore and his brother in law Adrian Maher suffered incredibly similar nights 24 hours apart.

At Avalon, Shore transferred from the B-Main to the feature where he finished eighth while Maher crashed out in the second heat and required a new diff as part of the repair process.

The following night. Shore crashed out of his second heat when he collided with a spun David Brown. The impact was severe enough to bend the rear axle requiring the installation of a new one. Maher, on the other hand, ran second in the 'B' and then progressed to eighth in the 'A. Strange, eh?

- BRETT SWANSON 67

m2 Ov'/jiJa

r

New management team awarded titles for January/Febuary THE Sprintcar Control Council of Australia Conference has awarded the 2002 Australian Sprintcar Title to Parramatta City Raceway and its new management team of Bob Spence, Brian Healey and Mike Raymond, who make up Speedway International Pty Ltd. Raymond, of course, headed Channel Seven’s motorsport programming for 20 years, while Spence is the CEO and founder of Pick-N-Pull, America’s largest recycler of used car parts and is a close friend of Steve Kinser and VVorld of Outlaws founder Ted Johnson.

Raymond informed the council that the new owners are committed to invest over $1 million into the complex by way of driveways, seating and placing bitumen in the pit area over the next seven years.

The title will undergo signifcant changes for next year, the most prominent being that it will now be run over three days (Wednesday January 30th, Friday February 1st and Saturday 2nd).

The PCR concept will see the Wednesday and Friday night shows have points on heats which will qualify drivers for main events on the Wednesday and Friday nights.

You gotta beat Skip Jackson at PCR if you want to be the Aussie Champ: The new management team of Parramatta have made plenty of changes to the format for 2002.

(Photo by John Morri&'Mpix) The heats will be seeded by a committee and drawn for the first round of heats each night with the second round of heats to be reversed.

Main event points on Wednesday and Friday will be carried over to Saturday nights racing and topped up with one round of heats to produce a 16 car field which will start straight up in the Championship Final (top points to the front).

Two cars will be added from the B-main to the rear of the A-

main and Skip Jackson (current A1) if he fails to qualify.

The big changes are no timetrials, the scrapping of heat race money and travel subsidies reduced from $30,000 to $10,000.

The $20,000 difference will be added to the prizemoney pool, which will give added incentive to successful drivers.

An official announcement on television coverage will be made at the new PCR launch in September.

Max; No retirement

DUAL Australian Sprintcar champion Max Dumesny was not entertaining any thoughts of retirement after adding the Easter Sprintcar Trail pointscore to his long list of impressive victories this season.

Dumesny, 41, dismissed any thought that retiring from the sport would happen in the near future.

“Not for at least another 12 months anyway," Dumesny said after finishing fourth in the 25-lap feature and clinching his the Easter series by 44.5 points from race winner Robbie Farr at Premier Speedway on Easter Sunday night.

“We’ve had a good season and I'm still feeling okay. We’ll keep 68

going a little bit longer yet and see how we go.”

With 23 podium finishes (including 12 feature wins and six seconds)from a staggering 30 starts, Dumesny has been the form driver of the 2000-01 season.

He added the Victorian Championship, the Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix, The Premiers Cup, Coca Cola Sprintcar Gold Cup and wins in the prestigious World Series Sprintcars tournament anc^ the Autopro Super Sprint Series to his season's achievements.

Dumesny, originally from Nullawarre, attributes his successful year to the efforts of his dedicated and loyal crew led

by Darryl ‘Mouse’ Green.

“I guess the difference this year has been having Mouse come , on board with us," Dumesny said.

“My crew all work hard and are always there for me. It's good for all of us when we do well as a team.

- GEOFF ROUNDS

Todd THE title fight in the Queensland Sprintcar Summer Shootout will go down to the final round, with an amazing six drivers in contention at Brisbane International Speedway on May 19.

Last weekend at the same venue, Todd Wanless produced his best drive of the year to dominate proceedings in the penultimate round, the ABC Auto Gear Maxim driver coming from 12th on the grid in an event which was affected by intermittent light rain.

Peter Thorley and Andrew Scheuerle chased home ’Wanless, with ‘Nitro’ Nathan MacDonald taking a strong fourth after taking two heat wins earlier in the night.

“This is our eighth race that we haven't finished out of the top three, it's a nice way to finish the year,” said Scheuerle.

Darren Jensen had led the feature, but a deflating rear tyre let Wanless by and put Jensen into the wall.

Title aspirants, Stephen Bell and Darrell Hodges, were fifth and sixth, and, along with Hodges, Wanless, Thorley and Kiruck, are all in with a mathematical shot at the title.

Ki’uck will be dependant on the five drivers ahead of him not even completing a heat race, leaving five genuine shots at the series.

SPEEDWAY SCCA conference sets rules

Finally a bit of luck for Nitro Nathan; Nathan MacDonald finally had something go right for him, with two heat wins and a strong fourth in the feature of the penultimate round of the QSSS. (Photo by Geoff Rounds)

Dillon double

LUKE Dillon, the defending Australian Formula 500 Champion, retained his title when he won at Murray Bridge over Easter to give him his third title in a row, a feat never achieved by any other driver in F500 history.

Not only did Luke create history, but his younger 17year-old brother Lee ran second to give the Dillons a 1-2, a feat never achieved before.

Over 60 cars were on hand and after the 18 heats were run on the Saturday night, both Luke and WA’s Trevor Harding were equal on points, each having picked up two wins and a second from their three races to give them the front

row for the 25-lap final held the following night.

With the first two from two repechages going into the final, 21 cars faced the starter and, after one false start, it was Luke who shot into the lead ahead of Harding, Graham Higgs and Kane Cruse.

Luke led away the re start but all eyes were on his brother, who relentlessly harried Harding, finally passing the former Australian title holder to get second.

The Dillons raced to the flag to take a 1-2 with Harding third ahead of Anthony Chitty, Higgs, Cruse, Jason Loveday and Ian Burrows.

- FRANK MIDGELY

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

J(bosirf

^^ RACING TIRE

for more information on Hoosfer Drag and SpeedwayTyres call:

NSW;02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 1187 VIC:03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 SA;08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296

27 April 2001

(Photo by Frank Midoelv)

THE SCCA held a conference at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise on April 20-21, with significant things to come out of it.

They include no change to the weight rule for both open and 360ci cars, a set of specifications for 360 motors to be enforced for the start of the 2003 season, the formulation and subsequent implementation of a national drugs policy for the start of the 2001/2002 season, a change to the red light rule and the awarding of the Australian SprintcarTtle to PCR (see further story).

There has also been a constitutional change, which will allow the SCCA President in consultation with state member club Presidents to make major decisions between AGMs. Other things of signifiance included a continuation of the Stewards school to be held in September 2001, the investigation of the HANS device, the banning of short nerf bars and sleeved undersize axles and amendments to the wing size, effectively banning the oversze side panels. n Mark Kinser has taken his fifth consecutive feature win in the World of Outlaws at the new Talladega short track. Kinser qualified sixth and finished fourth in his heat and seventh in the Channellock dash race, but used the skills that drove him to the 1999 series championship to swipe victory in the 40-lap feature from his cousin and Friday preiim winner Steve Kinser, Aussie Brooke Tatneii finished 12th. n The meeting scheduled for last weekend at Parramatta City Raceway (April 21) was rained out and has now been re-scheduled for Saturday, May 5, n Jamie Maiolo is the new Western Australian Sprintcar Champion. The 21-year-old took out the event at Bunbury on Good Friday, while Shane Murphy, Garry Brazier and Ron Krikke (who made a cameo start in Ryan Farrell's #95 machine) completed the top four. On Easter Saturday, Murphy took out the Easter Sprintcar Showdown at Kwinana ahead of Maiolo and Drew Kruck.

2©tl WORLD OF OUTLAWS SERIES SCORE Standings to April 14,2001

I. Mark Kinser ...

2. Danny Lasoski .

3. Craig Dollansky 4. Steve Kinser...

5.joey Saldana...

6.Andy Hillenburg 7.jeff Shepard ...

8. Brad Furr 9. Danny Wood.., 10. Stevie Smith..

1642 1627 1613 IS44 1535 1533 1515 1513 1490 1477

II. Paul McMahan .

12. Donny Schatz..

13.Tim Shaffer....

14. Brooke Tatnell..

15. Randy Hannagan I6.jac Haudenschild 17.Jason Meyers...

18. Dale Blaney ...

19. Daryn Pittman .

20. Brian Paulus...,

Talladega Short Track, April 20 1468 1466 1441 1435 1429 1427 1401 1397 1265 1042

I. Steve Kinser 2. Dale Blaney 3. Randy Hannagan 4. Donny Schatz 5. Danny Lasoski 6. Stevie Smith 7. Andy HHIenburg 8. Brad Furr 9. Paul McMahan 10.Jason Meyers

I I.Joey Saldana 12. Craig Dollansky 13. Kelly Kinser 14. Billy Wilburn IS.Jac Haudenschild 16. Mark Kinser 17. Brooke Tatneii IS.Tim Shaffer 19. Danny Wood 20.johnny Bridges

69

Briefly Historic

n The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association of NSW Inc. has reluctantly accepted Charles Jardine's resignation as manager of the club due to III health. Charles has made a great contribution to Historic racing in NSW, and the HSRCA has offered him the less arduous position of race secretary.

President John Hunter said: "We are confident that with this much-reduced workload, Charles will continue to recuperate, and continue to enjoy his involvement with the HSRCA. In this way, we hope to maintain continuity in the management of our race meetings, and continue to benefit from Charles's wealth of knowledge and experience in this area."

B It seems that both the New England GP and the proposed Speed-on-Tweed events have met insurmountable obstacles, and both have been put on hold for the time being. There's better news for the Wollongong Sporting Car Club, which will be running a series of hillclimbs on Huntley Hill at Dapto, The next meeting is scheduled for July 8, with others to follow on September 16 and November 4.

Supp regs. are available from the HRSCA, or from PO Box 54, Figtree, NSW 2525.

n The CAMS Historic Commission has agreed to allow event sponsor signage on the windscreens of Group N touring cars. The commission also resolved that the revised dimensional limitations proposed by the Australian Historic Touring Car Association would be acceptable in such situations. The AHTCA proposal for adoption of the name 'Historic touring cars' to apply to all sections of Group N was also accepted.

A proposal advanced by the BugattI Club of Australia for the inclusion of Bugatti replicas in Groups J and K was considered, but rejected by the Commission as it was not in compliance with the Commission's policy on replica vehicles as set out in a paper published in 1996.

Also, the Commission is currently liaising with CAMS regarding content of the Historic motor sport section in the new CAMS internet site. n Eagle-eye department.

Last issue's report about the Legend's Parade at the Clipsal 500 incorrectly stated that Alan Moffat sealed his 1973 and 1976 championships with wins at Mallala. In both cases, the victories were actually notched up at Adelaide International Raceway.

- BRIAN REED

Return of The

by EOIN YOUNG THEY called him the ‘Aussie Icon’on the Silverstone Race to the Sky hillclimb, and Ross Dunkerton lived up to the Kiwi expectations with his Akubra hat and stockman’s coat over his driver’s uniform and the classic 1970 Datsun 240Z as a reminder of the way he won aU those Australian Rally titles in the Good Old Days.

‘The Dunk’has put his good old days down on paper and has ‘Brown Dirt Cowboy’ as the working title for the autobiography he is writing with David Hughes. All he needs now is a publisher.

There’s a lot of‘been there, done that’ legend about the stocky West Aussie, who claims to be the only professional Australian rally driver over a 30-year

period.

He won the first of his five Australian rally titles in 1975. During the next 20 years until his retirement he twice won the Far East Asian rally title, fom- times in the Malaysian title, the West Australian title four times and the Asian Pacific twice. For seven years until he retired, Dunkerton was a factory driver with the works Mitsubishi team.

“As a factory driver you were paid to compete, fly to wherever the car is, drive it,jump out and fly home again. If I crashed the car. I’d walk away and they’d have a new one for the next event.”

The book covers the good days in

rallying and the bad days in business, almost in equal measure according to Dunkerton. His first race was in a Morris Minor 1000, aged 17 and three years later he started a garage business with a partner selling VWs. “Then the bank foreclosed and my partner shot through.”

He drove rallies for Nissan from 19751980 and then they retired him because he was too old at 34, so he switched for Ford in Malaysia and then drove until the end of 1994 with Mitsubishi Ralliart.

Now it’s back to the real deal, driving the venerable 240Z to events, preparing it himself, competing and driving home again. The car was prepared by the Z Car Workshop in Queensland for an Australian classic rally that was cancelled, so he shipped the 240Z to New Zealand for the Dunlop Targa NZ(third overall and class win), the Queenstown Cardrona hillclimb and the Otago Classic Rally.

‘The Dunk’seems happy just to have the wheels spinning and the rocks flying.

The pro days are over and it’s back to the fun again. The core plug popped out in practice and a gasket blew so they sorted that and he finished fourth in the Classic category behind a 5-litre V8-engined Skoda, an RS1800 Escort and a Chev V8engined Hillman Imp. And 52nd overall if you were counting.

I get the impression The Dunk wouldn’t have cared too much. Enjoying his racing is more important than the result these days.

ay, little cars

THE 15th Beasley Memorial Trophy, one of Australia’s most prestigious speedway events, will he contested at the season’s final midget speedcar meeting at Heathcote Park on

April 28.

The race is dedicated to Victoria’s legendary Beasley family -Arthur and his sons Alf and Stud, who became icons of the sport in this country over a 50year period.

Such is the respect that members of the Victorian Speedcar Drivers’Association hold for the Beasleys, many regard winning the Beasley Memorial Trophy as more important than winning the Victorian Midget Championship - the world’s second-oldest midget title.

Only the USA’s Thanksgiving Grand Prix, introduced at Gilmore Stadium in LA on November 24, 1934, is older than the Victorian 70

Championship, which took place for the first time at Melbourne's Olympic Park on April 1, 1935.

Arthur Beasley first rose to prominence in road racing circles in the 1920s, and competed in the 1938 Australian Grand Prix driving a 992cc Singer. That same year, he became the inaugural president of the VSDA. After retiring from racing the following season, he devoted his life to the administration of the sport.

His sons, Alf and Stud, carried on the tradition on the track, with Alf winning the Victorian title in 1955 and Stud taking the honours in 1957.

Sadly, Alf was killed in a race accident at Ti-acey's Speedway in 1958, and the Alf Beasley Memorial Trophy became an annual commemorative event.

Although Arthur Beasley passed away in 1979, and Stud in

It’s a family affair; Stud Beasley behind the wheel of a V8-60 Midget at Brenock Park, 1949.

1991, the Beasley dynasty continues today with Stud’s sons Clark and Leroy actively involved in the sport.

Not surprisingly, the April 28 event at Heathcote Park has attracted a strong contingent of

top interstate drivers to take on the Victorians, and the Beasley Memorial for midget speedcars is part of a double-header bill, the other feature being the Victorian championship for Sprintcars.

- BRIAN REED

motorsport news

f-

HI5TORICS

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Long way from WA: Dunk the Drunk wasn't - drunk, that is - but the former ARC champ was in fine form in his classic 240Z. iPhoios by Gai Barwood)

SMNDOWN MT/ON HmnCTION ● 19 9

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● HISTORIC TOURING CARS ● COMMODORE CUP ● SPORTS SEDANS ● HQ HOLDENS ● FORMULA FORDS ● SPORTS CARS & MORE

Saturday 28th April Sunday 29th April ENTRY Sat $s - sun $m Children & concession card ^RSS 71

'

scene

/

edrteti

ron Noonan

Power Tour set

by AARON NOONAN

TEE Motorsport Promoters Group will debut its new Power Tour at Mallala Motorsport Park this weekend.

Featuring the first round of the Continental Tyres Australian Super Truck Championship as well as the first round of the 2001 Stock Car Championship,a further five rounds are to be run during the year.

“We have lacked suppox’t for many years, the trucks have always heen left to fend for themselves, if it wasn’t for the tracks there would be no Super Truck racing,” said spokesman for ANTRO Inc, President Rob Russell.

“We do pull a crowd and now have bigger fields and greater coi’porate support than ever.

The MPG is the guidance that we,in fact all categories need.

The resources of the MPG will ensure all categories have the best opportunity to grow.”

Local South Australian drivers Nigel Benson and Bob Middleton will be amongst the field, with the former picking up a deal with the Phantom merchandising line in the V8 Stock Cars, which wiU also see 1991/92 champ George Elliot in the field.

Making sure there’s enough inky in the Super Truck pen; Inky Tulloch begins his defence of the Australian Super Truck Championship this weekend at Mallala in the first Power Tour meeting.

Sequential boxesfor

Supports at Mallala include Formula Vees,Daewoos and HQ Holdens, with television for the series due to appear on Channel Ten, Fox Sports and Speedweek.

The Power Tour will have its own edited package program, with two 30-minute programs to go to air following each of the rounds.

The calendar for the Power Tour is as follows: Mallala April 29 Oran Park May 20 June 24 QLD Raceway Oran Park Sep 16 October 21 Winton Calder November 25 72

Now there s more places to race your Super Tourer: By allowing sequential gearboxes into Sports Sedans, and in (Photo by John Morris/Mpix) particular under two-litre Sports Sedans, Super Tourers are now eligible to nm. motorsport news

NATIONAL

Campbeii on fire in QLD ON a green track caused by torrential rain during the meeting, John Campbell broke the Sports 1300 lap record in his magnificent Hooper during his charge to four victories on Sunday in the latest round of the Queensland State Championships at Queensland Raceway.

Behind Campbell, David Barram (ASP) picked up three second placings and a third, while Grant Watson (Prosport Pentium)filled the podium with a second and two thirds.

Don Thallon (Chev Corvette) proved to be the best of the Sports Cars,from the Porsches of Peter Harburg and Darren Dunn, while Ash Lowe clean swept the Formula Ford class in preparation for this weekend’s national round at Eastern Creek in his Swift.

Ian Moncrieff(Van Diemen) proved to be a strong opponent, coming home with three second places, with young Klark Quinn (Vector) claiming third in the championship race.

Ron Lange proved once again to be the class of the Gemini field, with fom- winners’trophies for the weekend. Kiis Walton bounced back after a blo\vn engine in qualifying to be ranner up on three occasions.

Pole man Darren Suhle faded to

third in the races, while Kandice Walker came a career best second in the Saturday scratch race.

Brett Curran made a triumphant start to his 2001 campaign aboard his colourful Capri, taking three wins from pole in Sports Sedans. Wayne Parmenter(Supra) finished the Championship race in second, while Bryce Francis (Photo by Mark Walker) How good does it look? John Campbell’s Sports 1300.

(Civic) came third, later to take victory in the scratch race.

Youd battling for honours. Youd took Dillon ran second, followed by the out the feattrre race fi'om Bonwick Mazda RX7 of Daniel Wilke.

Reigning Saloon Car National and first-timer Brad Schomberg, Trent Usher (Jabiru) put a Champion Shane Beikoff after Yates tangled with Justin Saturday skirmish with Ed (Commodore) picked up the State Senescall on the first lap.

Doherty (Bee Cee) behind him to Championship points from Tim Tom Horton (Mazda RX3) take a clean sweep on Sunday.

Young(Falcon) and Kurt Steven McDermot(PRP Phoenix) Ki’atzmann (Commodore). continued his winning form that came home second in the Phil Foster(Commodore)ended took him to last year’s Championship Race,followed by his weekend on a spectacular note, championship, by winning from Doherty. with a big roll into the turn one pole.

- MARK WALKER The big V8 Commodore of Ross sand trap at the start of a race after contact with Mark Howard (Commodore).

The HQ Holdens(as usual) turned on the action, with Craig Yates, Gaiy Bonwick, and Dale

QUEENSLAND STATE RACING

Sports Sedans SEQUENTIAL gearboxes are now allowed in both under and over two-litre Sports Sedan racing in Australia.

The decision was carried at a meeting of the Motor Racing Committee at the end of March foilwing the National Australian Sports Sedan Association (NASSA) convening a meeting at Phillip Island.

The submission, made by Bill Emeny of NASSA, outlined the desire of NASSA not to make separate rules for Super Tourer cars in order to make them eligible as Sports Sedans.

The NASSA recommendation to alter the regulations did not limit the use of sequential gearboxes to cars in the

27 April 2001

m in KARTING

COMING EVENTS

under two-litre class and therefore are applicable to all Sports Sedans, both under and over two-litres in the national and state championships.

Previously, only H-pattern gearboxes were allowed, so the change will give owners of Super Touring cars another category in which to run them,especially considering TOCA's push to gain headway with the TOCA Touring cars class for V8s.

Considering the number of Super Tourers sitting around during the off-season, the move should help boost fields.

Super Touring cars are still eligible for the TOCA-run series.

- AARON NOONAN

May 6

Vic Country Classic Bd 3 Swan Hill — Ultima Bd

May 12/13 Formula K Series Bd 2 B Oakleigh — Deals Bd Clayton May 20

●o'o So a n.C’cja 6 o

Bendigo National Classic Bendigo — Calder Hwy Maiden Gully

May 27

CluB Day for all clubs

For information on any of the above call the Victorian Karting Association

03 5449 6302 or 03 93621144 ASSOC\M\OH

yyww.vlca.asn.au

vka@bl40.aone.net.au 73

Jyotlting Light about the Clubman pack; Mark WimerhoUnm (H42) ended up on tup. while Barclay rr—. rTfnvc biw-y.lfCi/ Holden (dSH) ended upfourth.

I Nats'01

Mifgpiiottoiii, May and Yarwood star at tlii 2001 Dunlop Kart Nationals in iswcastle over the Easter weekend

Formula Oz action: Western Australian Stephen Arscott (#6)finds a way to auditionfor the Stunt Kart squad with this effort as Adam Klunyk (#13) can t bear to watch ... or get belted by theflying kart!

(Photo courtesy George Bmcc/AKA)

74

by MARK WICKS

B

RENDAIM May, Mark Winterbottom and William Yarwood were the stand out performers at the 2001 Dunlop Kart Nationals at Newcastle over Easter.

May and Winterbottom both clinched a National Title and each placed in a second class while Yarwood took home two Australian Championships.

May (Mike Wilson/ltalsistem) scored a comfortable win in the fastest class at the event, Formula 100. The reigning ICA Australian Champion was quickest qualifier in a field of 32, edging out Winterbottom (Tony Kart/Parilla) and Chris Cox (Tecno/Parilla). May and Winterbottom each won a heat before May took out the pre final.

It was then a straightforward final for Brendan, displacing Winterbottom in the opening laps and pulling away to a dominant win. Cox put in a brilliant drive to pip Winterbottom for second in the closing laps with Mark Hester (Tony Kart) and Jason Hryniuk (Haase) fourth and fifth.

Troy Hunt retired out of third position mid-race with a mechanical problem.

Winterbottom and May also raced the Clubman Light class, this time Winterbottom taking the win with May second.

Winterbottom, the reigning Formula Yamaha National Champion, qualified fastest ahead of Barclay Holden motorsport news

NATIONAL HTS

^V

[

(Azzurro) and the flying Ryal Harris (Azzurro) who won the opening heat. Winterbottom took somewhat of a back seat as Holden took out heat two and May the pre-final.

But when the deciding race came around, Winterbottom showed his class, systematically moving up from third to take the win and set fastest lap on the way. Luke Wood put in a solid weekend’s work for third f Winterbottom and May's efforts in two classes was noteworthy, Yarwood's two victories were something else.

The Queenslander battled with pole sitter and former champion Kip Foster (Swiss Hutless) and perennial front-runner Remo Lucian!(Monaco) to take a well deserved win.

The victory was even more rewarding considering Yarwood (Arrow) was ripped off at the start, running well out of position when the lights turned green and dropping to sixth in the opening lap.

This set up a charge to the 27 April 2001

Success stories one and all: William Yarwood, top left, took liome two Australian Championships, while Shane Price, left, took out the Junior Clubman class. Junior National Light had a full field of40 karts, with Drew Green, above, at one stage holding the front position, though it was Anthony Contarine who did the (Photos courtesy George Brucc/AKA) winning,

front, William moving into position one mid-race, setting the fastest lap and taking his first AKA National Championship.

Later in the day, Yarwood added a second National Title to the collection, winning Formula Australia Heavy ahead of Scott Ferguson and Steve Kwiatkowski.

Yarwood once again dominated the final race but the fact he even finished was amazing considering he had a loose wheel for the entire journey! n the Junior classes, Shane Price (Arrow) also captured his first National Championship, winning the Junior Clubman class. Price initially qualified ninth but worked his way up the field in the heats and ran second in the pre-final before taking command in the main race.

Tony D'Alberto (Azzurro) had been the fancied runner up to that point and finished half a second behind. Fastest qualifier Nick Simmons (Top Kart) spun

out on the opening lap after contact from another kart. he Junior National Light and Junior National Heavy classes were both won by drivers who qualified way back in 18th position. Anthony Contarino (Arrow) took out the Light division from Tom Williamson (Tony Kart).

Defending Champion Ian Dyk won the first heat and made a brilliant comeback drive in the pre-final after DNFing the. second heat. An accident in the opening laps of the final removed him from the race.

James Love (Arrow) copied Contarino's form, moving up in each heat then striking gold in the final of Junior National Heavy running home ahead of Aaron Flipp.

c

arsten Tiedemann (CRG) held the upper hand all weekend and took an easy win in Clubman Super Heavy. Outgoing champion Anthony Higgs (Monaco)finished fourth after starting last, while Kane

Wiltshire and Kane Rider, both driving Dino karts, finished onetwo in Senior National Light, former champion Jason Varley (Arrow) third.

Barclay Holden (Azzurro) inherited the Formula Australia Light win when leaders Daniel Currey (Monaco) and Matthew Wall (Azzurro) collided on the very last corner.

Taz Douglas had earlier retired from a comfortable lead with a mechanical failure.

Brothers Adam and Michael Clark finished one-two in Senior National Heavy, the two bump drafting their way into the lead, although Michael's second position is subject to an official hearing.

On the chassis brands front.

Arrow won an amazing five classes, with Mike Wilson taking two wins. Dino, Tony Kart, CRG and Azzurro took one victory each.

389 entries registered qualifying times for the event and five of the 11 classes required repecharge heats to decide the final field.

75

Industry News

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Some of the features of Kevlar brake pads, include low disc abrasion, low dust charactreistics, low vibration and excellent response with no warm up needed. HSV and Tickford models are

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13 April 2601

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motorsport news

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BOB ROMANO

Performance Motors

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387 LLytton Rd Morniingside 4170 Fax 07 3395 8266

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Authorised Queensland distributor for Haltech Engine Management Systems, inhouse installation & programming carried out in our fully equipped workshop on Dyno Dynamics 4WD chassis dyno.

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m liHiaiEI BBliTil l^o// stated ● Kils and overhauls available ● High flow intercoolers and kits ● Link engine management syslems ● Oil coolers and oil coolers kils ● Silicon hoses and bends ● Tein suspension kils Ph 03 9584 4499 or fax 03 9584 4008 Email avo@bigpond.com or check out our websile www.avolurbo.com

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*Motorsport News Classifieds are FREE tor private sales. Classifieds from motor sport traders are accepted (marked with a ●) and must be prepaid at the following per issue rates: $5 per 10 words (min $10 per ad), photo $10. Further enquiries to our advertising department on 03 9527 7744.

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Forward to Motorsport News Free Classifieds, PC BOX 1010 North Caulfield 3161. Fax: 03 9527 7766.

Email: msnews@ozemail.com.au. Make sure to list your category.

Sports 1300, Nambulc Clubman, front runner, Suzuki twin cam, 3rd in 1300 Nats last December, Eastern Creek lm41s, many spares plus twin axle end trailer. Ready to race. $17,000. Ph Richard 0411 226 117 or 02 9982 6000. ;05

V8 Supercar, VS Commodore ex-Perkins #027.

Completely rebuilt ready for remaining Konica rounds. Turn key package includes large range of spares, pit gear, 2 engines (one new). Will consider trade. For further details. Ph 0414 893 631 . 205 gmaiBimciDf

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1970 XW Fairmont, good body rebuilt to Phase 3 spec, very reliable, big power. Six point cage. Reg 9/01 . NSWBIGH03' plates. $18,000 ono. Ph Barry O'Connor 0407 266 688.205 if.'

Mazda RX5 Improved Production, rebuilt 13B PP and 5 speed Holinger. 5.1 diff, race shocks and big brakes, Simmons wheels, R32 tyres, competi tive car with spares. $12,000 ono. Ph Matt 0411 736 980 or 07 3216 7871.205

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1975 LHSLRTorana, fully restored inside and out, unleaded V8, 4 speed manual, 120ltr drop tank, 14x7, 14x9 Dragway superspokes, rego till Dec 2001. $26,000 spent, selling through lack of use. $1 1,500. Ph 02 6543 3048. 205 Holden EH, Nb logbook, many spares. $7500. Ph 03 8500 4354 ah. 205

XJS Sports Sedan, to be sold without motor but otherwise complete. Easy conversion to XJR shape. $40,000 or $20,000 without Hewland LG500 gearbox. Ph Mark Trenoweth. Ph 07 3399 2350 ah or 0419 724 327.20s

Volvo 242 GT, rare 1979 2 door model, black and Silver, 4spd with 0/D, spare set of 5 spoke alloys, tow bar, /VC, PS, spares parts inci gearbox. Great Touring Car or Club Racer. $4300 ono or consider swap.Ph 02 9330 9458 bh or 0419 583 893 or 9543 3564 ah. 205

Nissan Sports Sedan, ex-Bill Emeny, spaceframe chassis, 2lt turbo, Hewland trans, ind susp, 4 spot brakes, Motec, Bilstein shocks, would make win ning 2L car. Available complete or as roller.

Business commitments force sale, POA. Ph 03 9876 3993.205 Gemini Coupe Improved Production (Club) Car, 2 Litre, twin down draught Webers, adjustable Konis all round, modified brakes, locked dih, many spares. Wakefield Park lm13s. Ready to race. $6000. Must sell all reasonable offers considered.

Ph 0405 101 464.205

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ah. 205

V8 Supercar VS Commodore, Holden 5 litre, 5 speed, ideal starters car for Konica Series or Sports Sedan, includes 80 assorted tyres and pit gear. For more info call Jeff 0415 107 601 . 205

Westfield Sierra Cosworth, fuel injected ex-2 litre tourer engine, Motec M4, 245bhp, dry sumped, Quaife SCCR 5 speed. Vent discs, LSD, fully rose-jointed. Professionally built. $42,000. Ph 02 6642 2417 ah. 2(M

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Ik. Corolla Group A, 1600 4AG, TOMS factory car, all TRD parts, fully adjustable suspension, close ratio gearbox, LSD, AP calipers with balance bar.

15" and 16" centrelock wheels, Motec, plumbed extinguisher, dry break refuelling, air jacks. $12,500 ono. Ph 0419 950 495 or 08 9248 1 142. 205

Exa Sports Sedan, 20B PP Triple Rotor. RWD LHD Fuel Injected, full space frame chassis, lift off front and rear, professional build and National Championship ready. Raced only 4 times since completion, suit new buyer. Fully adjustable dou ble wishbone suspension all round, LSD, Spool and Locked Diffs. Equipped with Fire Bomb, Full instrumentation and Centre-lock wheels. Spare Gearbox, Axles etc. New Pyrometer, Bump Steer gauge. Camber caster gauge. Electric winch trail er, New wets and Drys. All you need to race this car except the dollars is included. 473 HP, 860 kgs. $30,000. Ph. 03 9808 8966 bh or e-mail sunroofs@netstra.com.au 20s

RS2000 Escort 1980, 2L 4 Speed, NSW Rego - Jan 02, authentic Australian RS2000, never raced or rallied, Monza red 2 Door, needs some TLC. $4900 ono, P 02 9671 4753 ah, or 0404 891 513.205 XB Falcon GT, '76 build, unfinished project.

Heaps of new bits in CKD form, suit rebuild enthu siast, reluctant sale due to back injury. $3000 firm.

Ph 02 4821 7782.205

Falcon XR8, 260kW, SVO cam, aluminium heads, 70mm throttle body, EMS computer & handpiece, Koni SUSP, 18x8 ajs wheels and new tyres, twin tuned exhaust, Recaro seats and trim and more. $70,000 invested, sell $29,900. Ph 02 6299 4656. 204

HQ Holden, consistant race winner, 1999 State Championship, 2000 runner-up, lap record holder, best presented car, ready to race, no expense spared, set up assistance, POA. Ph Charles D'Aquino 0413 368 049. 204 VP Commodore shell, ex-V8 Supercar, suit Sports Sedan, full roll cage, ready to go. $6000. Ph 03 5626 1319 all hrs 204 HQ #81, as raced by Tim Rowse. HQRA and Viaorian State Race Series winner 1999. If you want to win then this is the car for you! Make an offer. Ph 03 5626 1319 all hrs.

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Ford Escort Lotus Twin Cam, June 1970, Australian build, rare piece of motoring history, used daily, suit investor/collector as is or upgrade for tarmac rally use, straight rust-free bodyshell, white duco, very clean original interior, good strong motor, recon mag 'Hotwire' wheels, new Yokohama 'Advan' tyres, immobiliser, front brake kit, hi-flowoil pump, FoMoCo4.19 LSD. $15,000 ono. Ph James 0401 051 309 or 03 9857 8208

27 April 2001

Neptune Racing Team, 1965 Australian Touring Car Champion Mustang, faithfully restored to rep resent an important part of touring car history.

CAMS-approved log book. The car has been com pletely used in selected hillclimb and speed events, leaving track records to its credit. Suit someone wanting a useable unique vehicle for more of the same or GP style rallies. Serious enquiries only. Ph Derek McLaughlan 0403 131 304 or 03 9870 5703.205

VR ]| HSV No 38, this ute is fully optioned, has been in storage for 6 yrs, no dirt or wet roads, absolutely as new, Simmons, Yokohama A008s, etc. Genuine 1875kms. $29,990.205

Hyundai Excel Sprint, as raced in GTP 19982000. Ready for season series and Bathurst.

Complete with spares. $13,000. Ph Darren 0428 428 578.205

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1982 VH V8 Club Car, 308-355 Stroker, VN heads, Harrop manifold, 750dp Holley, ACL flat tops, Yella Terra roller rockers, lightened flywheel, centerforce clutch, VS V8 T5 5 speed, Harrop full floater 3.55:1 diff. Full cage, harness, 5AAS seat and steering wheel. 302 hp at rear wheels. Very strong and fast. $ 10,000 ono. Ph 0409 229 303 or 02 4732 4796.205

Escort Sports Sedan, Victorian 2lt State Race Series Sports Sedan Champion 2000 Full pack age $43,000. Fully Rebuilt & Race Prepared package for 2001. Fresh Cosworth BDG 1700cc with new block and crankshaft Speed Tech Fuel Injection System. 4 Pole positions and numer ous lap records in 2000. Numerous spares including fibreglass front, gears and equipment etc Inspection welcome. Ph Luke 0408 522 175 . 205 Gemini Coupe Sports Sedan roller, log book, $3200. Rover 3.5L V8, new heads flow OP. 360hp and block's one thick web. $2500. Ph 02 6734 2259 or 02 6732 3353.205

Mazda RX7 Improved Production, 13B Bridgeport, 51mm Weber, big front brakes, Volvo 4 spots, rear discs, 5 speed turbo box, freshly painted, good entry level car or perfect for sprints. $7000. Ph James 03 9888 3131 or 0413 936 360. 204 Rare Datsun 260Z two seater, rolling shell without doors, hard to find one this good. Bargain at $500.

Ph Sam 08 8248 5309.204

19

Parts

Wheelers

Chev 18 degree heads, complete with titanium valves $5000, Jerico gearbox $7200, T10 gearbox with shifter $3300, Harrop 4 spot calipers $1500, 13", 14" and 15" used rotors, Ford 9" crown wheel and pinions and Detroit lockers. Ph 0418 341 261.205 Sports Sedan Series 4, space frame, new 3 rotor turbo, fuel injected MicroTech ECU, 9-inch full floating diff, AP calipers, 6 and 4 spot. 8 BBS 16x10 - 16x12 3 piece rims, new shell and paint, total package, less gearbox. $30,000 or will separ ate. Ph 0418 974 351.204 Complete racecar package, that includes FIQ95 In 5 years of racing has never finished worst than 4th in NSW at the end of each year. It has 16 podium finishes to its name and has repre sented NSW twice at the FIQ Nationals.

Packages include freshened B.R.E Engine plus spare (both Sealed). 1 sealed rebuilt gearbox plus spare. Complete set of every panel needed.

Spare set of shocks and springs. $7500. Ph 02 9543 2306. 204 Triumph Dolomite 1975, fitted with sprint rear end, 5 speed Toyota gearbox and worked 2TG Toyota motor with factory extractors and twin side-draught Solex carbs. Ph 0407 546 204. 204

Monica

Mazda RX2 Club Car, strong 13b, Needham close ratio gearbox, new dutch, Motec injection, tidy condition, proffessionally built car. All com ponents are excellent quality. No time left for rac ing this year, therefore serious about selling.

Offers around $8700. Ph 07 4151 3864 or 07 415S 2250.204

Porsche RSCS, Brembo big red calipers. $1100 pair.

Ph 0410 635 911.205

Formula Ford RF93 Van Diemen, with '94 updates and fresh Lamer engine, ex Lowndes and Webber. Ready to race, includes ratios, spare wheels and all running gear. Fully enclosed dual axle trailer with annexe also.

Commodore Cup car, 1 meeting old since new build, spare wheels and tyres, struts. Fast car, first meet at Winton. $23,000. Ph 03 5275 5988. 204 AUSCAR VN-VS, complete with some spares, ex-Jason Wylie, urgent sale, will deliver in Australia. POA. Ph Mark 08 8284 8087 or 0409 846 717. 204

Superkart 250cc National, brand new rims and tyres with log book and spares, ready to race. $4500. Ph 02 4578 0193.204

Complete package $24,500 no more to spend.

Ph 03 9233 1725.205 Go Kart, Monza GP sprint Clubman S motor, very quick kart, comes with stand and some spares. $2200 ono. Ph Ben 0409 008 538.205 Formula Ford Spectrum 07, for sale or lease.

Motec dash, ratios, spare wheels, will lease for state or national series. Ph Keith 0408 066 106.

20s

Westfield look-a-like frame, body, rebuilt 2lt Ford, fully rose-jointed, new 8" Superlites, lots more, needs completing. $5500. Ph 02 6734 2295.205 Go kart. Atomic with rotary valve engine and some spares. $2500. Ph 02 4933 4637. 205 Historic racing car wanted. Interesting Group 'M' or 'O' project or a Bowin wanted for restora tion. Would prefer open wheeler. Must be rolling chassis at least, or close to it. Anything considered.

Ph Bob Morey 0402 479 661.205 Westfield look-a-like, frame, body, rebuilt Ford, fully rose jointed, new 8" Superlites, lots more, needs completing. $5500. Ph 02 6734 2259.205

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Pirahna Flillclimb car, sister car to one in photo, brand new, totally complete less engine. $15,000. Ph Dennis 0417 011 652 or Jim 03 9723 6632.204 Formula Ford RF90, wanted, complete or roller, send details of car, price and contact details to fax 03 5441 1439.204 Go kart, Swiss Hutless Maximo '98, blueprinted KTS 100. Tacho, driving suit, ideal for any class, as new condition. $2900. Also, trailer to suit if required. Ph 03 9590 9196.203

Vertex magneto, complete with cap and new leads. Less gear drive. Perfect condition. $850. Ph Robert 07 3263 1 192.205 Hewland Mk 9 gear ratios, 27:24 new $170, 25:27 as new $120. Flewland Maintenance and Overhaul Manual $20. Ph 02 9264 7373, email: trader@clinipath.com.au 205 Cheetah three piece race wheels,4 inch PCD in very good condition, fronts 9 1/4 xl 3, rears 11 1/2 X 13. $800 ono. Ph Rohan 0400 836 856.205 Dunlop wet tyres, used once, as new condition, suit 10x13 and 14x13 wheels. $350 ono. Ph Rohan 0400 836 856.205 Datsun 1000, Sports Sedan, 1600cc CA16 motor, twin 45mm webers, race prep engine, 5 spead gear box, roll cage, locked diff, front spoil er, rear wing, fibreglass bonnet, rev limiter, rear brake bias, ready to race. $4000 ono. Ph 0417 579 810. 205 March 1974 Sports (74S - 7), damaged monocoque with original chassis plate. Going cheap, P.O.A. Phone/e-mail for complete history. Ph 02 9264 7373, email: trader@clinipath.com.au 20s Ford 5 speed gearbox, from an XF, aluminium bell housing and case. Original condition. Quick sale. $450 ono. Ph 02 9834 3495.205 Lotus Cortina/Escort competition parts, Lotus T/C head complete, Quaife 2,5 5CCR gearbox complete, LSD centres 3.9,4.1,4.7,4.9, 5.1 ratios. Alloy bonnet and door skins, 4 spot callipers etc. Much more. Ph 0418 539 027.2M Ford 289-302, large capacity oil pan. Proven in Nc Mustang. New in box, sell for $575. Ph Ross 0408 463 777.204

Hatma T8 Yamaha, hillclimb car, 750 Yamaha 5 valve, 6 speed, motor, aluminium monocoque chassis, monoshock front end, light and fast. $8500. Ph 07 5539 1285 ah. 204

Lotus Cortina, car re-shelled. Historic log book, alloy panels and housings, best components, Carillo, Quaife, SCCR, LSD, gen Miniiites etc, immac cond, Group N or Historic rally. $33,000 ono. Ph 0418 539 027. 204

Dunlop Formula R, D93J tyres, 195/60/14x4, used once in wet conditions. As new, $600. Ph 0408 435 010. 205

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Formula Libre, 1997 Pirahna, powered by Suzuki GSX-R 1100 W/C, mounted wets, spare nose/wing, winner 2000 Winton Masters. Suit racing or hillclimb. $17,500. Ph 03 9723 6632.20*1 Superkart 125, 5 speed, spares inci stand, rims, fuel pump, tyres, chains. Ph Rega 0411 114 254 or 03 9327 2888. $2800, Drive Gear available. 2o-j

Ford, Lotus Bullit Box, Timewarp, brand new unused as optioned for Lotus Cortina, $2500 Also 4.4 diff for Cortina/Escort, few other MKl 250CC Inter Superkart, 1995 Zip Eagle chassis, 256 Rotax motor, Apprillia internals, Delordo carb, motor recently rebuilt. 4th 2000 Australian Championship. $10,500 ono. Various spares for sale. Ph 0412 005 866 or 08 8296 5511 ah. 204 1986 86/50 Lola Formula 3000, stunning ex works car fitted with Mazda 12A rotary turbo.

Full ground up rebuild. Ready to race. Many spares. Part exchange Lotus Cortina considered.

Ph Donnie Mackillop (Scotland, UK) 0011 44 1360 440 902 or email juliasquire@hotmail.com 203

Butcha Formula Vee, one of Australia's fastest.

NSW champion 98, 2nd Super Series 98, Pole 99 Nationals, several lap records, weighs 465kg with 95kg driver. Mags, data logger, $13,500. Ph 02 4954 3333 bh or 02 4359 2796 ah. 203

GT Cortina parts. Ph 08 8264 2948. 204 Spaco pro driver racing seat, black with mounts, alloy. Ph 03 9530 5838 or 0409 997 911.204 2.02 steel main caps, stainless studs and nuts $350, 186-202 Starfire rods, floating bushes $250, knife-edged c/dore crank 202,'010" $350.

Arias pistons, new 2.02 + .003", suit supercharg er turbo. $400, Ph 03 5422 1942 or 03 5422 7037. 2CM Exhaust temperature monitor, with 2 Probes. $250. Ph 03 5250 2345 or 0412 181 136.204 Conrods, Carrillo H beam to suit 289, 302 Windsor, re-sized $500 ono. Ph 03 5250 2345 or 0412 181 136.2tu Flilbourne fuel injection, to suit 289/302 Windsor, just been serviced, cam driven pump, timing cover, lines, shut off, tank, electric water pump. $1500 ono. Ph 03 5250 2345 or 0412 181 136. 204

HKiS Send us your classified ads and we ll run them tor FREE* Category: □ sedans □ open Wheelers □ Speedway DDrag □ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers □ Wanted □ Photographs □ Other,

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NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and print dearly. Please note we are unable to return photographs used in classified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possible after receipt. 'FREE Classifieds are for the sale of private goods and vehicles only, not business advertising (Trade advertisers see Classifieds header for rates). Photos marked "proof" will not be used.

metorsport pews

MARKET PLACE OIMP seats, driving suits and all OMP race, rally and kart products available from new Sydney shop at 625 Forest Rd Bexley. Ph 02 9553 4100. Trade enquiries 02 6562 7762.2043

Toyota Coaster Bus, new 3.4L turbo diesel, fitted with 3 beds and lots of cupboards, full length annex, Nov regp. $18,500. Ph Rod 02 6562 7762.204 Trailer, large enclosed tandem, rear doors and ramps, side door, workbench, tyre racks, near new suspension, wheels and brakes. $5500. Ph 0408 510 198. 2«

Magnetos, Scintilla SA,6 cyl new, clockwise $1250.

4 cyl, as new, anti-clock $650. Ph 02 9997 8072.204 l Air jacks, new/used, large range, most applica tions, quick release handles available, top quality.

C.C.I. Ph 0418 925 767. l Clutches, 7.25, 5.5, 5.0 single, twin, triple plate, sintered or carbon, AP-Tilton-QM, new/used. Spare covers, rings, plates also avail able. CCIPh 0418 925 767. l Pedals, brake/ciutch, floor mount/hanging, new/sued. Also available, bias valves, bias cables, master cylinders, reservoirs etc. CCI Ph 0418 925 767. l Brake calipers, discs, pads. Mega range, new/used, exc condition - AP, Alcon, Brembo, Outlaw, Willwood. Overnight delivery. CCI Ph 0418 925 767. l Hewland, DGB, 5 speed transaxle, top condi tion, new 9:31 CWP, ratio choices and spares available, $14K ratios, over 300 in stock to suit DGB, GFGB, TPT, FT200. CCI Ph 0418 925 767. l Oil coolers - heat exchangers, Earls, Setrab, Serck, 6-70 row, new/used, also used water to oil heat exchangers, over 100 in stock. CCI Ph 0418 925 767.

V8 Dirt Modified NSW #4, 1st NSW Sportsman title 2001, fresh 350 Chev, Bert box. Winters quickchange diff, latest bodystyle. Many spares included. Quick car. $13,000. Ph 07 5536 4995 or 07 5523 2525.205

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Super Sedan Mark 5, Hi-bar chassis, Q/C diff, 3 spd 'gearbox, coil over leaf springs, 5th arm rear, lots of spares and wheels, spare panels, MSD ign, Charlyn power steer, quick steer. 1 season since complete rebuild, $15,000 ono. Ph 08 8261 6672.204

Transporters/Trailers

l Racecar parts, brake parts, chassis stands, diff oil pumps, exhaust collectors, fuel cell acces sories, oil filters, quicklift jacks, ratio boxes, radi ator caps, springs, spoilers, wings etc. CCi Ph 0418 925 767. l Uprights, fabricated/cast, fronts/rears, various sizes, new/used, also CVs, driveshafts, wishbones, rockers, pushrods, all top quality, exc condition.

CCI Ph 0418 925 767. l Radiators, aluminium, new/used, single/dual pass, top quality, large range, various sizes, suit all applications, fr $300. CCI Ph 0418 925 767.

Sierra Cosworth head,complete with inlet manifold &45mm Webers, belt, tensioner, gears etc. $3150 ono. Ph 02 4294 1196. 203 C&S Holley carby, 860 CFM, completely re-kitted. $1050. Ph 0416 048 962.203 Ford 5 litre, Motorsport block, crank and 5.7" rods. POA. Ph 03 5988 6266.203

Transporter, 22 foot pantech, six cylinder turbo, diesel, genuine 200,000kms, ex-Garry Waldon Viper truck, workshop bench, vice, winch, alloy ramps, 240 power, lights, excellent condition, suit large touring car. Air conditioned. $27,000. Ph 07 5530 5248 or 0411 351 404.205 Trailer, large enclosed tandem, 27' x 7.3' x 6', rear door ramp, side doors, full electrical, solar power, inverter, fully lined, sleeps 4, kitchen, water tank with pressure pump, mags, new tyres, 4 wheel brakes. $6000. Ph 0417 286 875. 205

Hilborn injection, to suit Windsor. $1200. Ph 0418 423 007.203 Webers,3 x48 DCO, new unused. $2100 ono. Ph 02 6231 2964.203 Mk 9 gear ratio, 19:32. Ph 07 3806 1465 ah. 203 Ford Sierra RS500 body shell, with doors and hatch, suit Sports Sedan (burnt and sandblasted) $750 ono. RS500 fibreglass panels, bumpers, wing, flares, bonnet and guards, plus headlights and tailights. POA. Sierra 4 door bonnet, guards, lights and bumpers. $750 ono. Ph 0412 676 734.203 Alloy V8 parts, both Leyiand and Rover. Leyland 4spd box complete kit, exc. Ph 02 6231 2964.203 Holden 308 heads, large valves, screw-in studs, guide plates. Crane gold roller rockers $700, A9L conrods, set $200, Edelbrock Performer manifold $200, 308 block standard bore with crank $250 or $1200 the lot. Ph 0416 281 054 or 03 9795 1112.203 Mini Arden, Xflow, alloy head, new, 1310 block, steel crank and rods, pistons, cam, manifold for 2 Webers, all parts unused inc head. POA. Ph Gary 07 5529 3374 or 0414 552 933.203 Valiant Group N parts, Webers, engine parts, new g/box, suspension joints, exc donor car. Will separate.

Ph 02 6231 2964. 203 Chev 350,too much race gear to list, heaps of HR Over $17,000, spent $10,000 ono. Ph 02 9825 6110.203

Speedway Modified Production TE Cortina, 250 X flow methanol engine. Adjustable suspension, p/steer ing and reduction. Ready to race, very competi tive car with plenty of spares. Will sell complete or less engine. POA. Ph 03 5983 6393 or 0419 388 192.205 Sprintcar, 1997 JSd standard bar car. Winters, KSE, Sanders direct mount f/ends. New tank, lightweight plates, complete roller or sell as kit. Ph 03 9778 4839 or 0410 493 242.204

V April 2001

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Bedford Bus, diesel, set up for large sedan (currently Nascar) full roller door & electric winch at rear. Heaps of storage space. Lounge area at front. $6900 ono.

Ph/Mian 0412 352 355. 205 Trailer, ti-axle, mags, black, semi-endosed, tyre, rack, suit Touring Car or Sports Sedan. Registered. $3500.

Ph Aaron 02 4872 2622 or 0410 317 013.205 Race car transporter, plus mobile home.

International N1630 6 speed, 190hp with turbo, cruises llOkm/h. Has 20' workshop and car area, living area sleeps 6. Toilet, shower, TV, video, CD player. 3 way fridge, stove, hot plates, Tasmanian oak cupboards, reverse cycle air cond, compressor, gen set,. 22' annex, roll out. Spent $200,000, bar gain $110,000. Ph 08 9452 2808.205

Engines

Race suit, RPM 'Trans Am’ triple layer, nomex, size XL. Red with white shiny nomex shoulders.

New, never worn. $550, Helmet, open face HJC FG3 kevlar, white. Size large (60cm), unused $90. Race kit bag, RPM, yellow, stores race suit, helmet etc. Excellent condition, as new $50.

Complete package of race suit/helmet/kit bag $600, Ph Richard 03 9762 2282 or 0414 508 723.205

Chevy, fully rebuilt race engine. New block, billet caps. New 5/8 stroker crank, Eagle,6" rods, Ross pis tons, alum ediebrock shaver heads. 634hp, jessell, rocker gear. Dart Wilson manifold. $14,000. Ph 08 9452 2808 or 0408 911269.205

Motoring books and magazines, large run.

Autosport 1968-1994, Autocar and The Motor UK 1950-1964, Racing Car News, various. Modern Motor 54-98. Ph 08 9279 7003 or fax 08 9377 3939.205

Falcon 4.1 crossflow motor, new, never used, all the best gear, too much to list. $5500. Ph 0419 787 031. 2{M

Model cars, ONYX 1:24 1992 Benetton (Schumacher)$40, ONYX 1993 Williams(Prost) $40, 1:20 plastic kits Tyrreil-Yamaha (1995) $30, Ligier JSl 1 (1979)$30, Ferrari 412 TB (1:24)$25. Ph Bill 03 5243 3660 ah. 201

Ford F100, LWB, 351c, C6 auto, power steer, Hayman Reese towbar, LPG, new 2 pal blue, rear seats, alloy mags. $15,000 ono. Ph 08 8261 6672. 204

Chev 6 litre, 355CI 630+hp, JE Pistons .030 Lunati crank & rods standard roller cam & lifters, 4 bolt 010 block, modified cast dart heads, dyno & flow sheets available. $8700 ono. Ph 08 9593 2377 or 0412 357 262. 204 Mazda 1.6lt B6 DOHC turbo, engine and 4WD 5 spd $750, Mazda I.SIt BP DOHC turbo eng and 4WD 5 spd $950, Toyota 4AGE eng and auto $850, Nissan V6 VG30 turbo eng and auto $1250. Ph 0412 146 555 or 03 5134 6998 ah. 203 Pistons BDD Cosworth, 81.00 +.002", 100 miles, new rings. $800. Ph 02 9997 8072. 203 Ford Pinto 2L, 2 x 48 Webers, Crane cam, extrac tors, Mallory dist, 5 meetings since rebuild, Celica 5 speed, suit Club/Sports Sedan. $3800 ono. Ph 02 6687 5355.203 1 Chev 355 engine. Cola crank, JE pistons.

Weaver dry sump, 18 degree heads, Jessel rock ers, roller cam, alum radiator, alum Ford 9-inch spools. Ph 0416 049 442.203 Full race Chev engine, never raced, new 4340 crank, rods, JE pistons, full roller Brodix 10 with Jessel rocker gear, Victor Jnr. Manifold, billet caps, 600hp+ engine. $12,000. Ph 08 9452 2808.203 13B PP rotary, 300hp, complete 51mm down draught Weber carby, button dutch & lightened flywheel. Electronic dist. $2990. Ph 03 9792 9526 or 03 9708 0992.203

Lightweight trailer, open 2 wheel steel trailer 3.4 X 1.8m, built to carry racing car. Tows well, fair con dition. $250. Ph 0408 143 093. 204

Motor Racing magazines, 100s of them, from 1970 to 1983. Includes Racing Car News, Auto Action, Motoring News International and Chequered Flag (complete set), any reasonable offers considered. Ph Russell on 02 4350 2238 bh or 02 43 926709 ah. 204 Motoring and racing magazines, Motorsport, Motor, Autocar, Autosport, Sports Car World, Car and Car Conversions, Car. Huge collection. Ph 0409 997 911 or 03 9530 5838.20..

Queensland Raceway life membership, com petitor level entitles free spectator admission, dis counted entry and garaging fees. 8hrs of free prac tice per week, must be sold, moving interstate. $2000 inc transfer fees. Ph 0415 357 398. 204 Snap-On toolbox, KR 637, 34" long, 18" high, 18" deep, 10 drawers, ball bearing drawer slides, internal lockable section, drop down front cover. $1500. Ph 0419 270 813. 204 Bell Sport II, forced air helmet, small, white.

Complete with 2 speed blower. Cost $950, sell $700. Ph 03 5422 1942 or 03 5422 7037. 2m

Wanted

1 X race suit, double layer RPM mondial. Size M-L, red. $500. Ph 0419 242 025.204 Race clothing, Sparco gauntlets, t-shirt, socks, all new. Bell Mag-4 S61, black, radio wired, exc cond. Assorted balaclavas and L7S nomex tops. Ph 02 6231 2964.203

Motec M48 pro, or M8 ECU. Ph 0410 635 911. 205 Comics, 'Hot Rod and Racing Cars', 'Clint Curtis and the Road Knights'. Any quantity/condition, genuine replies to phone/fax 02 6258 2425 or 0410 423 243. 204 Duggan or Irving cylinder head, suit 6 cyl Holden, will consider complete engine. Ph 0402 304 777. 2m Head for KT100S, in good condition. Also, bits and pieces to suit Arrow Clubman Light. Ph 0418 877 435. 204 FI circuit maps, photocopies OK, for overseas tracks. Must be recent. Ph Bill 03 5243 3660 ah. 204

Ptiotographs

Fully enclosed tandem trailer, suit FFord or open wheeler. CW annexe, lift up top, tyre racks, work bench etc. $3000 ono. Ph 03 9435 7082.204

Trailer, fully enclosed, single axle, easy to tow, front access, suit FF, FV, go karts. Complete with annexe. $1700. Ph Paul 03 9842 3315.204

Hyper Stimulator, excellent condition, inc soft ware for Windows and supports all driving games.

Comes with butterfly steering wheel and gear paddles (FI), pedal box and moulded fibreglass seat, still unpainted and unstickered. $1200 ono.

Ph 02 4655 6266.204

Mk 9 gear ratio, 15:36 or 14:36. Std or hubbed, consider on shaft. Ph 07 3351 3506. 205

Trailer, fully enclosed 7mx2mx2m with full awning, elearic brakes, level rider kit. $6000 ono. Ph 0417 300 406.205

Race car transporter, 1983 Ford FIDO ex-ambulance.dual fuel, resprayed and rust repaired.

Includes TV, video, CB, electric sunroof, AM/FM radio. New heavy duty tow pack and new tyres.

New bushings and rear wheel bearings. $15,000.

Ph 02 9543 2306.204

Michael Doohan, 5 times World Champion com memorative mirror no 130/250 870x630, $350 ono. Auto Action magazines, various 587 to 743, Motorsport News, various 59 to 181. Ph 02 4954 3079.205

Adelaide 500, photos for sale, most V8s, Utes, Legends and celebrities. Some Nations Cup and GTP photos. Ph David Batchelor 08 8634 5310.205

omer Experienced and qualified race mechanic, available for casual work. Based in Melbourne, broad range of experience, V8 Supercars, open wheelers etc. Ph Keith 0408 066 106.205

Workshop decorations. Ford Motorsport ban ner 2.4 X 1.4, blue/red on heavy white vinyl $60.

Goodyear 1980s FI banner, canvas 1.4 x 0.8 $75.

Assorted screen-printed enamel signs. Ph 02 6231 2964. 203 Books, large range, yearbooks, technical, mar que, general interest, genuinely cheap to dear.

Call for list. Ph 02 6231 2964.203 Race suit, FIA size L, FIA boots size 9, FIA gloves size 10, helmet large, 2 meetings old. $700 ono or will seperate. Ph 0419 489 465 or 02 9792 4779.203 Car Storage, at a sensible price from April 1st, monitored, brick iock-up factory, attended 8am6pm daily. Cars only $20 p/w, only 6 places available. Ph Colin, Seaford Vic 9782 4144. 203 Mack 613 Elite tractor, trailer and tanker unit, 23" long, never out of box. Authenticity cert, per fect condition, cost new $565, sell for $400. Diecast metal. Ph 02 6284 4833. 203 Formula One and MotoCross blockmounts, 3 FIs (90x60), 5 Motocross (50x40), very good con dition, $40 ono FI and $15 ono Motocross. Ph 08 8636 2527.203 Queensland Raceway competitors pass, inc free track time and spectator entry, discount competition entry and garage hire, preferred parking etc, must sell. $1500 including trans fer (60% of new price). Ph 0409 270 063. 203 Sponsors required, for a talented QLD driver.

Looking for a naming rights sponsor for Improved Production car. Racing an ex-f roup A Walkinshaw V8 Commodore. Great tax write off! Ph 07 5577 1005. 203

81

OPINION

niotorsport EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Phil Branagan Staff Journalist: Aaron Noonan Staff Journalist: Mark Glendenning

PRODUGTION Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby

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CONTRIBUTORS General: Grant Nicholas, Darryl Flack, Mark Jones, Jon Thomson FI; Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Nick Garton Europe: Quentin Spurring, Gary Watkins US: Phil Morris Speedway: Brett Swanson, Julie Pearce, Geoff Rounds, Wade Aunger, Tony Millard (UK) Rally: Peter Whitten, Jon Thomson Histories: Brian Reed Drag Racing: Greg Ward, Jon Asher (USA), Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, Steven White, Ken Ferguson Super Speedway: Martin D Clark (USA) National; Mark Wicks, Sean Henshelwood, Michael Shaw Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothweli Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, AFl Images, Neil Hammond, Slipstream Photographic, Thunder-Pics, Phil Williams, Allsport, John Morris/Mpix, Frank Midgley, John Bosher, Lynley Reid, Mike Patrick (UK), Daniel Wilkins, Peter French, Chris Carter, James Smith Artist: Bernie Walsh Cartoonist: Allan Schofield Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News - ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher; C Lambden Printed by: PMP Print 37-49 Browns Road Clayton 3168.

Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted.

You dirty Rat! Having just watched the worst display of a lack of racing ability with the ‘racing incident’ between Mark Skaife and Paul Radisich, I felt compelled to write. So Paul is such a great driver that to get past Mark he had to hit him several times before off-loading him at the corner.

Off-loading is the easiest way to get past someone - not a clean way to race. It was early in the race, so what was the rush? Or was he in a hurry to get to his eventual retirement, which seems to happen to him quite often.

That it was declared a ‘racing incident’just shows how bereft CAMS is of any intelligence. An incident involving vehicles coming together should be looked at, and one or both drivers be penalised during the race. Once a vehicle is out of control, as Skaife's car clearly was, it is impossible to predict the outcome.

People will say Skaife was blocking. Yes, he was, but he was maintaining a racing line and it is up to Paul to find a way around.

Congratulations to Steven Johnson for showing his team mate that you can overtake cleanly and end with a good result!

Stephen Trembath Clayton, VIC Incidentally, our Clipsal 500 report incorrectly stated that Radisich was about to recieve the meatball flag. In fact, the culprit was Skaife, who was apparently to be shown the flag for excessive blocking. The person responsible has increased his coffee intake...

Clip their wings After reading the letter from Adam

converter Karyn in MS News #202, regarding the cover story titled ‘Clip Their Wings’, it is immediately obvious that Adam either didn't bother to read the story at all, or he simply didn't understand it.

It has nothing to do with any perceived disparity between the Fords and Holdens, as Adam suggests. It is simply the drivers giving their opinions on what would improve overtaking for both makes in the category, and therefore make it more exciting for the drivers as well as the spectators.

Nobody wants a procession, not even Adam, surely.

Peter & Sheryl Styring.

Croydon, VIC

CART coverage slump Over the years, Channel 10 have provided incredible coverage of the CART series. Parker Johnstone et al have given us informative and exciting commentary, combined with the use of several in-car cameras and well-edited trackside camera work.

These visual aspects have still been in evidence over the last two races, but what happened to the sound quality, the driver

interviews when something went wrong, the car-pit radio conversations, and the commentators actually seeming to have some idea what's going on?

Jeremy Shaw knows all that there is to know about the sport, but he couldn't make a night with all the Miss Indy contestants sound exciting, compared with Johnstone and his compatriots. Ten has raised the bar so high in the last few years, please don't stuff it all up now!

Mungo Worth mungo@castle.net.au

What concessions?

Replying to Daniel Robins letter in Issue 203, what concessions for Ford? None!

No-one ever said a thing about the Falcon undertray that had 200mm cut out of it in 1996.

Everyone knows that until FoMoCo(Aus) officially joined the V8 Supercar circuit, Holden had all the lobb3dng power, so the rules were set to favour GMH. When V8 Supercars first took off in the early 1990s, it was Holden that were allowed to re-design its whole aero package in the one year without a model change - not Ford.

The front undertray change to the Falcons mid-season last year was not a concession. It was giving back what was taken away four years ago or so.

As far as I understand, the TEGA spoiler on the Falcon gives no more downforce than the Ford spoiler.

Ford were not allowed to race the original aero package for the AU, which was designed in the USA by a team fi-om Ford Australia.

Holden have dominated because of unsportsmanlike behaviour, not to mention Larry Perkins and HRT wanting to go to the courts last year if they did not get their own way.

Good luck to all the Ford teams.

Benjamin Young Mackay, QLD

But where’s Muttley?

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

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82

According to reader Stephen Trembath, the Rat brought this battering upon himself in Adelaide.

A workmate has pointed out that Craig’s racing number is 00 - the very same as used by Dick Dastardly in the old cartoon series ‘Wacky Races’.

Is there a hidden message there, in light of his manoeuvre around the mobile chicane in Adelaide?

Ben Lehmann Winnellie, NT

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