Motorsport News Issue 236 - July 24-August 6, 2002

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motorsport news

Issue 236

n

24 July - 6 August 2002

news and opinion 4

Pulling off the covers Ford fans, meet your new BA V8 Supercar

6

Peter perfectly happy Why Brock is NOT likely to race at Bathurst this year 24 X 7 Bathurst 24 Hour announces TV deal

[falcon

Merry-go-round Briggs V8 drivers named, FI puzzle gets, well, more puzzling 25 Motor Mouth Capital losses 26 Box Seat Never mess with a French gendarme on a bike 82 Talk Converter Put pen to paper and tell us what you think

foaturos 28 5 minutes with Ryan Briscoe F3 to F3000 and back again $0 5 minutes with Peter Brock On Bathurst and media beat-ups 32 I'M quit when I’m 29 Russell Ingall’s five-year plan 36 State of the Nation Steve Bettes discusses life on Planet Procar 38 Prodrive progress Dave Richards sheds light on his his Ford V8 Supercar plan 45 Where are they now? Pedro Chaves, the pre-qual king. Of sorts

race couerage

46 It's over already? Michael stitches up title #5 with about 300 races to go 54 Everyone’s a winner In Queensland, the Nations Cup is a sharing thing 56 What a Performance GTPs get the elbows out at QR 60 The big 2-5 McRae Safaris his way into the WRC history books 62 Hello, Possums Possum in the blue corner, Ed in the red, and the closest Rally SA you’re ever likely to see

motorsport

LREVEALED

regulars

Ford's make-or-break BA Falcon race car!

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Photos: Cover:Jodie Payne, Sutton-lmages. . Contents: .. n I I I Marsh/BOTHWELL, PHotoZ/BOTHWELL, John 'i7.jiV:irrrri?jw4i.n n Morris/Mpix

20 Motorcycles

58 Rallying

68 Speedway

70 Histories

64 Drag Racing 72 National Scene

66 NASCAR 75 Marketplace

Ford^ BA Superoar Hpst look at the 2003 Falcon racop m

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, Downcast: Docs the Ford hove an aero disadvaniat’e'/ Cheek the aiiflou- off Brad Jones's rear whif; ...

. A Ford/Holden parity rovy could be brewing.

Following TEGA's latest aero tests, to . reconfirm existing data in relation to Falcon 'AU/Holden VX aero parity. Ford teams f headed by Ross Stone of SBR - are expected to claim that a deficit in front end downforce is handicapping the Fords and that some form of adjustment should me made as soon as possible.

Although the results of the tests, conducted at Avalon Airport, near Melbourne, nearly two weeks ago, haven't been presented to the TEGA Board or teams yet. Stone is convinced they will show a disparity in downforce between the two cars. Ffe will make a written technical case to this week's AVESCO Board meeting to support his case: "There was a difference when the original tests were done, although thanks to bad weather at the time, the results were a bit inconclusive - I'm pretty confident these latest tests will show it clearly," Stone told Motorsport News this week, "The additional factor is that the change to the Dunlop tyre this year has magnified the effect of that imbalance.

"The Dunlop is a brilliant tyre, but has slightly different characteristics to the Bridgestone - it is superior in drive grip, but has slightly less turning grip.

"That increases the effect of the Falcon having less downforce at the front.

"You can disguise that over a single, fresh tyre lap, in qualifying, but it is clear to 4

see that in a race situation, we are struggling in comparison - and that is why.

"It's all very well having mechanical, dimensional equality as Project Bilueprmt dictates, but at the end of the day, the two cars have different shapes and thus different drag and downforce figures.

"I'm saying that the difference in front downforce is making it virtually impossible for Ford-to compete on equal terms with Holden. There are still six or seven races to go this year. That imbalance should be corrected now."

Stone has the support of severaLother Ford teams in making his case while, unsurprisingly, Holden's teams will point to the Ford's superior drag co-efficient in countering the argument.

Statistically, Stone has a case. Quite simply, since the introduction of the new control tyre at the start of the year, Holden has won every round of the V8 series.

TEGA CEO Wayne Cattach this week confirmed that he was expecting discussion on the matter at the up-coming AVESCO Board meeting: "With the TEGA Board split 50;50 Holden: Ford, you're simply not going to get 'independent' decisions on parity matters," he said "However, the AVESCO Board includes people coming at it from a marketing angle as well - and the success of our sport depends a lot on the reaction of our fans.

That may well have impact on the discussion." motorsport nows

NEWS ford’s 2003 BA Falcon race car is some months away fi’om completion, but the release last week of the base BA road car gives a clear indication of how Ford’s V8 racing future will look.

The BA,codenamed ‘Barra,’ retains only the doors as a carry over from the AU Falcon. While a derivative of the previous model,

everything from the floor pan to the rear roof line is different and while the road car represents a watershed for Ford Australia, the race car too will have the pressure of expectation on it.

Based upon the BA road car’s lines plus technical clues from MN’s spies, artist Jodie Payne has come up with his impression of Craig Lowndes’likely 2003 mount.

While the basic road car has already been well received, thanks to a ‘squaring up’ of the rear end sheetmetal compared to the unloved AU and a lesser but similar process at the front end, the race car is also likely to incorporate several features from the XR performance range, which is yet to be revealed by Ford.

MN’s sources believe this will include a similar twin headlight look to the current XR and may well incorporate a bonnet ‘bulge’ similar to the current Ford Mustang -from which the BA derives some of its squarer look.

While Ford has retained the option of trying both options as it prepares its aero kit for the BA

race car, it is considered more likely that an end-mounted rear wing will be retained, as an obvious point of difference from the Commodore’s more centrallymounted wing. The wing will, however, not be curved as the AU wing was, reflecting the over-all squarer rear treatment of the BA. Under Project Blueprint guidelines, both cars will utilise the same wing chord (crosssection).

Although the road-going BA shell is some 20mm longer in wheelbase, both the BA Falcon and XY Commodore race cars will have to meet the TEGA maximum wheelbase of 2822mm.

Ford teams are anxiously awaiting delivery of their initial BA race shells. Under Ford’s revised policy, all basic ‘race’ shells will originate from the Queensland-based Beehag company’s premises. The required jig was delivered recently from Ford Racing headquarters in Melbourne to the Gold Coast and base shells are expected to be released to teams shortly.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

Son of Green Eyed Monster: This is what Craig Lowndes will steering around the tracks next year. Note bonnet bulge, a la Mustang, and aerodynamics add-ons similar to 2002-spec AU. The car is much different to current Falcon, with higher boot tine, longer wheelbase and wider track.

(Anwork by Jodie Payne)

Indy and NZ confirm 32 cars TEGA has confirmed that the Honda Indy and NZ(Pukekohe) rounds of the V8 Supercar series \A/ill both have entries capped to provide for a maximum of 32-car fields. n There will be a new naming rights sponsor for this weekend's round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Oran Park. The race will be known as the MTA 300, with the familiar OP three-race sprint format remaining. n Ticket sales for the Honda Indy 300 are ven/ strong, with reports that the combined CARTA/8 Supercar race meeting is attracting more than 50 percent higher sales this year than for the same time last year. n GT Performance cars will join Nations Cup cars in the one race at the Honda Indy 300. The classes will run in the same race though will be : separated by two Safety Cars at the rolling start. n No more news on the Paul Dumbrell/Castroi Perkins issue, though reliable sources tell us that the Konica Champ-elect tested one of the Castrol Commodores at Winton last week. n Even if Dumbrell doesn't drive the Marty Brant-prepared Wynn's/IRC Commodore in the endurance races, we're told that the car will still run, with Sports Sedan driver and Bathurst regular Darren Hossack likely among the driving line-up. n No word either on just who will fill the seat's in the second Valvoline/GRM Commodore. Konica Series runners Grant Elliott and Dale Brede were joirred by Sprintcar ace Max Dumesny, Porsche Cup leader Matt Coleman and Formula Fordster Jamie Whincup at a test at Wintoh last week,though Brede is out of the running due to signing with Briggs Motorsport(see page 10).

"I felt pretty at home considering I hadn't been in one for a while," said Coleman. "Fingers crossed something will come out of it" n While the Bathurst 24 Hour is quite a way away, Geoff Morgan isn't mucking about in preparing. The Max Factor Chrysler Viper will have Rick Bates among the driving squad. We think it's a bit of a faster machine than the Daihatsu Sirion that Rick's been used to running in the GT Production series... n Remember the talk of a PROCAR Championship Series round in New Zealand a while back? We hear that a 2003 event may be very close to a possibility, with negotiations well underway and either Ruapuna or Pukekohe to host the event.

5

Jag bites James(again) STILL suffering the side effects of a nasty high-speed crash in Jaguar’s FI car at Monza a fortnight ago, James Courtney was forced to sit out last weekend’s round of the British Formula 3 Championship at Rockingham.

Courtney was travelling at some 350kph on the run to the Ascari Chicane when the rear lower wishbone pulled out and pitched the Aussie into a series of spins before thumping the barriers.

With both wings and every wheel ripped off the Jaguar R3B the updated version of this year’s car - Courtney was taken to hospital for scans somewhat

I

shaken and concussed.

He underwent CT scans and it was a specialist neurologist who advised Courtney to rest for three weeks to ensure the injuries heal properly.

The impact of the accident was such that Courtney’s helmet hit the steering wheel in the 57G impact.

It’s the second time the 22-yearold has had a major component failure while testing the team’s Formula 1 car. He suffered a rear wing failure at Silverstone on the run to Bridge Corner nearly two months ago, but was fortunate that the car came to rest in a sandtrap and didn’t hit a wall.

don’t know what I ever did to 11 upset it, but boy does the Jaguar R3 Ft car really hate me!

After losing the rear wing a few weeks ago when I was testing it at Silverstone after doing just a handful of laps, I was really looking forward to a full day’s testing at Monza for the FI team.

Bloody fast track, Monza.

There is one section where you come up to the Ascari chicane flat out at around 360kmh, brake hard and flick it through.

It’s exhilarating ... well, it is normally. with JAMES COURTNEY On only my fifth lap of the day, I came up to Ascari at full that the car was doing 350kmh speed, jumped on the brakes at the point of impact with the and the right rear wishbone Armco and registered a G-force decided it wanted a quickie divorce from the rest of the car. of something silly like 57g.

The rear wheel must have Needless to say, there is now one less R3 on the planet; known what was going to unfairly, some people probably happen next, so it decided to also jump ship (and took the ' think that is no great loss ...

This was the biggest shunt of rear wing with it). I knew when the wheel went flying past me my life (at least I certainly hope it is!) and there was nothing I doing about 380kmh that this could do about it. The team and surely can't be part of the test the data identified that the car program Jaguar had devised for suffered a rear suspension me that day.

I also knew that this was breakage.

Having seen footage of what going to hurt, and it did ... big happened, taken from the time. The data-logging showed

The Aussie’s lead in the F3 Championship was erased over the weekend, aided by events prior to the weekend’s racing. Main rival Robbie Kerr, who drives for expat Aussie Alan Docking’s team, won an appeal against exclusion from the Silverstone race in June, when he and Courtney made contact that forced Courtney to retire.

Kerr was 18 points behind going into the Rockingham round. A win and sixth place puts him in the lead of the championship by nine points, with 200 to Courtney’s 191.

Courtney will be back behind the wheel at the next round at Oulton Park on August 16.

-AARON NOONAN

I knew that this was going to hurt, and it did... hig time. The car was doing 350kmh at the point of impact and registered rr something siiiy iike 57g.

JAMES

closed circuit TV at the track, it’s pretty terrifying.

I suffered concussion, bruising and swelling to my brain, a strained neck and an almighty headache. Not to mention short-term memory loss, blurred vision and no use of my right arm for a while.

I was taken to the local hospital and given all sorts of xrays and tests, as my head and neck took the full force of the lateral impact. n One week later. I’m still suffering the effects and have just had another consultation with a neurologist here in England, who told me very firmly that I won’t be back in a racing car for at least another 2 weeks. Bugger. That has cost me the handy lead I had in the championship.

So ... how was your week?

Moments before disaster: James at speed at Monza in the F!Jaguar,Just before its suspension broke.

6

Canh

by PHIL BHANAGAN

THERE will be no CanbeiTa 400 next season.

Last week, V8 Supercar series promoter AVESCO and the local Canberra governmentjointly confirmed that the contract to conduct the event would be terminated, two years ahead of schedule.

AVESCO has agreed to a financial settlement to cover the loss of sanctioning fees for the remaining two years of the contract.

Both parties said that a large part of the lack of success of the event was the previous government’s acceptance of a mid winter date.

“Severe winter conditions have done little to show Canberra at its best and images offreezing fans huddling in the gi-andstands say it all,” said ACT Tourism and Sports Minister, Ted Quinlan.

“Extensive TV coverage and other publicity is negated by images that reinforce a stereotype that our city is cold and bleak.

“Moving the event to a waim time of year was essential to attract visitors, sell tickets and enjoy a successful event. Retaining the event in winter posed unacceptable financial risks to the ACT rate payer.”

AVESCO Chaiman Tony Cochrane said the loss of the event would allow the opportunity to pursue other events on the V8 Supercar Championship calendar.

“As a result of this decision, wa will be reviewing other options to add another showcase event to the V8 Supercar calendar in 2003,” said Cochrane.

A full 13-race calendar is due to

Brock

PETER Brock has dismissed stories in the national press that he plans to drive for his own V8 Supercar team, Team Brock, in this year’s Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst.

However, the touring car legend hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility of a comeback - if it were to be of use to his fledgling team: “It’s not at this time a consideration,” he told MN on

moiorsport news

erra canned keep driving: the Canberra V8 Supercar experiment never worked'and has now been dumpesL be announced in September, but AVESCO CEO Wayne Cattach said a ‘replacement’event could be announced sooner than that.

“We are quite close to possibly finalising a replacement race and there could he an announcement as soon as a fortnight,” he said.

Speculation suggests that a possible site for the race could be Tasmania, while the two sprint race/one long race fonnat that was used in Canberra could be retained.

“The race formats developed for the Canben'a event received positive reviews from fans in general and generated strong television ratings,” said Cochrane, “(and) these may be used at other rounds in the future.”

The race has generally struggled for acceptance among race fans since 2000, when it was conducted for the first time.

But the cool weather for the event, and the Liberal Part/s loss of the last ACT election, meant that support for the race at government level waned.

-PHUBRANAGAN

Briscoe back to Formula 3 RYAN Briscoe has abandoned his F3000 programme and returned to the German F3 series following a string of disappointing results with the Team Nordic racing outfit.

“The decision was taken by Toyota to take me out of F3000 because,in their eyes,it just wasn’t working or wasn’t bringing out any benefits for me,or for Toyota,” Briscoe explained.

“I certainly didn’t ask for the changes - it’s not what I wanted to do and I wanted to push right to the end of the ff championship.

The move sees Briscoe reunited with the Prema Powerteam in the Gennan F3 series,for whom he made a

couple of appearances in between his Formida Renault commitments last year.

The short notice of the decision saw Briscoe rushed into a borrowed car for his first appearance at Lausitzring two weeks ago, where he finished 11th and 15th. However, he will spend this week shaking down a new Dallara ahead of his next race at Hockenheim in support of this week’s German GP. “They (Toyota) have given me the chance to return to F3 with Prema, which I’m happy about.

Ijust want to get stuck into it ff and get some results.

(For more on Briscoe's return to F3, see our interview on page 28).

- MARK GLENDENNING

denies comeback Monday (see 5 Minutes with Peter Brock, page 30).

Brock recalled the phrase ‘never say never’ in agreeing that a return to driving might weil be a sponsor's dream: “Weii, you’d think iong and hard about it. You’d have to re affirm a certain ievei of selfconfidence,” he told us.

“Having said that, things were going well when I last raced one 24 July 2002

At the same time. Brock hinted that son James would most likely contest next year’s Konica V8 series as an entree to Bathurst and would not partner regular driver Craig Baird in this year’s race.

Team co-director Rod Nash is, he says, talking to possible drivers to take on the role with Baird.

-CHRIS LAMBDEN

NEWS Hell! A Lambo Marque car!

After missing the Queensland Raceway round of the Nations Cup series, the Lamborghini team will carry out testing for the Sandown 500 this weekend at the Victorian Motor Racing Championships round at the Victorian venue. Regular driver Paul Stokell will race in the Marque Sports events against MGB GT V8s, a Shelby Cobra replica and a fleet of Porsches. n There's a couple of new cars under consideration for Nations Cup in 2003. PROCAR has asked competitors for submissions for next £ year's Eligibility List and among the I hopefuls are the Lotus 200R Elise I (already on the list), the TVR I ..Chimaera and BMW Z3 M Coupe.

S 'Expat Aussie VJ Angelo, who was at I Queensland Raceway a fortnight ago and is bringing one of the BMWs for the Bathurst 24 Hour, wants to run it in Nations Cup next year.

We're also told that a Ferrari 550 Maranello is on the wish list.

"Submissions only opened recently so we've only had a small bit of time and already a few submissions for 2003 so that's encouraging," said category manager Steve Bettes. For an interview with Bettes on the state of Nations Cup, turn to page 36. n We couldn't help but laugh at the progrannme on sale at the QR PROCAR round. It informed us that "in the interest of safety, dogs are not permitted at the raceway. Lions and elephants are also not permitted n to be brought into OLD Raceway for safety's sake." Hmmm ... n Alex Davison has had a tough continuation of his Porsche Carrera Cup in Germany. The HewlettPackard Porsche driver finished 11th in he last round at the Eurospeedway Lausitz after qualifying on the front row of the grid. n The Australian Formula Ford Championship heads to Oran Park this weekend, with a heao-spinning three rounds in four weekends.

Rounds at Mallala and Winton follow.

The championship regulars at Oran Park will be joined by NSW state title regulars in the sahpe of 16-year-old Ian Dyk, who will make his national Formula Ford debut as will Damien Meyer, who currently sits in second place in the battle for the NSW state title. n Albury lad David Reynolds may still be at school, but that can be a good thing for a racing driver. The 17year-old's Spectrum 06 FF is being run by the students of Wodonga TAFE in the Victorian series before an assault on the National series next season.

1

Bathurst 24 Hour la Channel Seven to provide four hours live television for November endure event

by AARON NOONAN THE Bathurst 24 Hour was formally launched by PROCAR Australia in Sydney last week, with the main news to come from the announcement being that Channel Seven wiU telecast the November 16/17 event.

The event will receive at least four hours of live coverage, as well as updates during the night, while PROCAR has also concluded agi'eements with IMG, who have been'contracted to supply ticketing and accreditation, niajor sponsorship, signage and hospitality sales as well as enlisting up to 1000 officials and volunteers, along with other operational responsibilities.

IMG carries out the same duties for the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 V8 Supercar race in October.

“Since we first announced the Bathurst 24-Hour race in March, interest has been intense from all quarters because this will be one of the world’s great motorsport challenges,” said PROCAR Chairman Ross Palmer.

“Until now,there has been only one chance a year to race at Australia’s most famous track, but the 24-Hour opens the door for many drivers who otherwise would never get the chance. Well, the Bathurst 24-Hour will require up to 300 such drivers with international-class licences. The challenge to win will almost be secondary to that ofjust making it around the clock.

‘We’re extremely pleased to welcome Seven as host television broadcaster at Bathurst.

“We look forward to superb coverage from the Seven team, which built a great reputation on its pioneering live Bathurst broadcasts. We are in active negotiations with broadcasters throughout the world to take live and delayed television packages.”

Plans are underway for the extension of pit lane, which will see cars enter the track on Mountain Straight, rather than the existing pit exit. Extra lighting will be installed around the circuit for the November 16/17 event.

83 cars will be able to start the event in 10 different classes, with as many as 12 overseas teams already expressing strong levels of interest in taking to the Bathurst 8

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a Let’s hope the weather is a bit better for the roiiing start: Nations Cup cars last appeared at the Mountain (Photo by Dirk Klynsmilh) in 2000 and will return among the Bathurst 24 Hour field in November. grid in November.

Among those to register interest are the Nordauto Alfa 156 European Touring Car Championship team with a driver line-up including Nicola Larini, Mike Newton (UK, Porsche GT3R), expat Aussie VJ Angelo (BMW M Coupe), Robert Brung (Germany, Nissan Skyline GT-R), Mark Klein (US, Honda Integra), Graham Nash Motorsport (UK, two Porsche GT3 RSs) and UK GT racer Martin Short (TVR Tuscan).

British-based Aussie Ross Buckingham and Brit Gary Ayles want to run two BTCC Production-spec Alfa 156s, while Lyall Williamson’s Porsche Motorsport NZ team have registered interest with three Porsche GT3s. Add to the list Kiwi Andrew Bagnell (Porsche GT3 RS), Sam Li’s UK-based Ferrari 360 team (who have an ex-PHR Scuderia 360 GT) and the Stephane Ratel Organisation which runs the Lamborghini Super Trophy, and already interest overseas is strong.

Former DTM racer and now Porsche Supercup team ovraer Olaf Manthey is also apparently keen to run at the Mountain, with young Aussie Alex Davison one of his drivers in the Supercup.

Supporting the 24 Hour will be a 2-Hour GT-Production race as well as V8 Brutes and HQ Holdens, with tickets already on sale.

The gun car; Expect John Bowe to lead a strong line-up In one ofpossibly (Photo by Dirk KlyiL^mith) four PHR Scuderia.Ferrari entries at Bathurst.

PHR looks at 4

PHR Scuderia plan to run a total of four Ferraris in the Bathurst 24 Hour in November.

The team is looking at running two Ferrari 360 GT (Nations Cup Group 1) cars and two 360 Modena Challenges (Group 2) in the inaugural event, with John Bowe leading the driving line-up in a ‘gun’ car.

Plenty of changes will be required for the cars in preparation for the 24 Hour; preparations that the team has already started.

“We’ve made a list of all the things we need to do and things that need to be made into quick release type stuff,"said team manager Paul Cruickshank.

“There’s suspension, air flow meters, the concern with the durability of driveshafts, alternators, because that’s what’s typically has held the cars up before.”

The team will be able to rely on what Michelotto learnt through working with the JMB 360 GT team at the Le Mans 24 Hour in June, while driving line-ups for the other cars are yet to be confirmed, though expect a majority of pay drivers in the seats.

-AARON NOONAN molorsport news

lunched for '02 No-go for Brock in 24

by A>U)ON NOONAN

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Targa but not Bathurst: Brock in a Monaro at Bathurst would be better, though, wouldn't it ...

FTs with PROCAR V8s get invite to Bathurst 24 Hour FUTURE Tourers will join the PROCAR Championship Series for their next two rounds as well as the Bathurst 24 Hour. ' The V8-powered class will join the rest of the PROCAR Series at the next round at Wakefield Park on August 11 and at Phillip ^.Island on September 22, after becoming unhappy with their ^treatment on The Power Tour. , "We're pretty pleased. We were hoping it would turn out with the ' Power Tour but we think this is the direction for Future Tourers," '-r,said driver and Future Touring Pty. Ltd Director Ray Sidebottom.

"The rest of the category members are happy with the n decision. We've been invited to the Bathurst 24 Hour in .Category , 10, the invitation class as well."

Sidebottom’s APS team intend to run one of its Commodores, while Peter Muir's Mitsubishi Magna is another intending to run.

He said that the class will have a minimum of 15 cars for the Wajcefield Park round.

"The rest of the year is for us to sniff them (PRCCAR), they to sniff us, and then for us to put a program together for 2003. We'll be on the SBS program on Speedweek. Whatever Ross (Palmer) has his classes on, we get a bit of a run. They've thrown us in at the end, so we're lucky at this end of the season."

For the Bathurst 24 Hour, engine builder Ian Tate has already started building the APS team a special endurance-spec motor.

"Nothing's overstressed in these cars, the engines only rev to 6500rpm, they'll do that all day and night."

ARON NOONAN

DESPITE what you may have read elsewhere, don’t expect Peter Brock to suit up and drive a Holden Monaro in the Bathurst 24 Hour.

The nine-time Bathurst 1000 winner had been linked to a twocar works effort for the inaugural event, and while their will be Monaros among the field in November, Brock won’t be racing.

“To be honest, I don’t think that’s a goer,” Brock told Motorsport News this week.

“I hadn’t run the idea via Holden when the reports first came out. I did then talk to a couple of people - I wouldn’t have minded running the Targa car there, with a few obvious changes.

“But Holden has got the commitment to the Garry Rogers project already happening and I think they thought it W'ould send out mixed messages. So no.”

Brock and son James ran a Monaro in this year’s Targa Tasmania and finished a highly impressive seventh, the first of the two-wheel drive cars.

Brock Sr came back onto the V8 Supercar scene earlier this year with the formation of Team Brock, in partnership with Ron Harrop and Rod Nash.

The first and last time Brock raced a Monaro at Bathurst was when he made his Bathurst 1000 (then a 500-miler) debut in a Holden Dealer Team GTS 350 in 1969 alongside Des West. The duo finished third.

Merely the talk of Brock running in the event has given it a massive boost in publicity.

“I did speak to Ross Palmer the other day, telling him that the rumours weren’t true, but regardless, he thanked me for the ‘leg-up’- while it ran, the story was good publicity ...”

In the meantime, the build of the Nations Cup Monaro continues with the debut of the seven-litre machine now being slated for the support events at the Honda Indy 300 on the Gold Coast in October.

For a ‘5 Minutes With’ interview with Brock,turn to page 30.

NEWS CART addresses wheel problem In the wake of an increase in the number of wheels breaking free in accidents, CART has introduced a new rule to address the problem.

Effective immediately, the loss of a wheel will cost the team US$5000, and, if the car continues, the loss of a lap. Subsequent violations will incur additional penalties pursuant to Chapter 10 of the CART rule book.

If a loose wheel impedes or causes damage to a competitor’s car, or causes injury to any person, the team's entry will be excluded from the event. n Ford Germany boss Eberhard Braun is reportedly considering a hctory assault on the ETCC next year. A works-assisted, Hotfielprepared Focus contested a recent round at Oschersleben. The team received dispensation tc run a Eurospec car, but a new US version, the ST170, would meet the minimum length requirement. n A new NASCAR Winston Cup outfit, BH Motortsports, is being established by two AfricanAmericans, Sam Belnavis and Tinsley Hughes, in an attempt to break the traditional white dominance of the sport. The team, which will take to the track in 2003, will receive assistance from Hendrick Motorsports.

"NASCAR has become such a strong sport in the country and there are African-American fans out there," said Rick Hendrick.

"I think it's really good for our sport and for the sponsors to bring in the element that we're missing, and that's an African-American team. I don’t know of any men better suited to do it." n Kenny Roberts missed the last round of the MotoGP Championship because he has had an operation.

The former World 500cc champion has been suffering from 'pumped' arms, a condition similar to 'hat which caused the retirement of Alberto Puig. Kenny is the third member of his family to have to operation; father Kenny Sr and brother Kurds, who races in the USA for Honda, have both already undergone the procedure. n Contrary to our report last issue, the Foggy/Petronas FP1 Superbike will not race this season. The team needs to build 75 road bikes to homologate the three-cylinder machine with the FIM and will now concentrate on developing the racer for 2003. Riders Troy Corser and James Toseland will give the prototype a demonstration run at Brands Hatch on July 28.

9

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n home of n [motorsport] V8 Supercar Championship* ,Rd7 Jul 28 Oian Park Aug 18 ...Winlon

,Rd8

Sep 15 ...Qld Raceway Oct 13 Bathurst

,Rd9 .Rd 10

Gold Coast

.Rd 11

Nov 10 ...Pukekohe

.Rd 12

Dec 1

.Rd 13

Oct 23

Sandown Konica V8 Series*

Aug 4 ... .Mallala Oct 12 Bathurst

.Rd5 , .(non Championship)

FIA Formula One World Championship Hockenheim

Jul 28

.Rd 12

Aug 18 .. .Hungaroring

,Rd 13

Sep 1

●Rd 14

Spa

Sep 15 . . .Monza . . .

.Rd 15

Sep 29 . . .Indianapolis Oct 13 Suzuka . . .

.Rd 17

.Rd 16

CART FedEx Championship* .Rd 9 Jul 14 Cleveland .

Jul 28

Vancouver

Aug 11

. . .Mid Ohio . .

Aug 18 . . -Elkhart Lake Aug 25 . . .Montreal . .

Sep 1

Denver . . .

.Rd 10 .Rd 11 .Rd 12 -Rd 13 .Rd 14

MotoGP Motorcycle Championship* Aug 25 . . .Czechoslovakia Sep 8

Estoril

Sep 21 Oct 6

. . .Jacarepagua . .

.Rd 10 -Rd 11 .Rd 12 .Rd13

.Motegi SBK World Super Bike Championship* Brands Hatch

Jul 28 Sep 1

. . . .Oschersieben

Sep 8 . . . .Assen Sep 29 . . .Imola

. Rd 10 .Rd 11 .Rd 12 .Rd13

Nations Cup Aug 11

.Rd7

. . .Wakefield Park . . .

Sep 8 . . . .Sandown

,Rd8

Sep 22 . . .Philip Island Oct 27 Surfers Paradise . .

,Rd9 .Rd 10

World Rally Championship* .Rd 9

Aug 8-11 . .Finland . . . .

Aug 22-25 .Germany . .

.Rd IO

Sep 19-22 .San RemO .

Oct 3-6 . . .New Zealand

.Rd12

.Rd 11

Australian Rally Championship* .Rd5

Aug 10-11 .Tasmania

Sep 7-8 . . .Melbourne

.Rd6

r

1 ten

home of motorsport All event dales in this calendar were correct at the lime of printing. Please consult any individual tracks and/or associations lor dale changes.

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

Briggs sorted

White and Brede to Join line-up for endurance races

by AARON NOONAN KONICA V8 Supercar Series racers Dale Brede and Matthew White will join Briggs Motorsport for the VIP Pet Foods Queensland 500 and Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst.

White, below right, will team with defending Bathurst Champ Tony Longhurst in the Betta Falcon, above, while Brede, right, will leave his Gulf Western Falcon to drive with Simon Wills in the CAT Falcon.

Dean Canto has already been announced to co-drive with Max Wilson in the other Betta car.

Brede and White tested with Steve Owen, Paul Stokell-and Paul Romano at Queensland Raceway for the team last week, though for Brede it means a change of focus.

The final details of the Canberrian’s deal were being put together as we went to press, though he has received the full support and blessing of regular backer Gulf Western to accept the Level 1 endurance drive.

My loyalties lie with Gulf Western but they’ve been supportive of whatever I do in order to further my career,” said Brede.

“I kept my sponsors in the loop the whole time and they encouraged me. It’s sad not to be doing it with them but I’m still involved with them.

“The opportunity Briggs Motorsport offered was a situation where I could progress my career.

I’ll just do the best I can for them

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and forge ahead.”

Brede had previously announced that Andrew Jones would join him for the endurance races in the Harris Racing-run Falcon that he’s campaigned in this year’s Konica Series.

The car will definitely run the two endurance races with Jones driving and another driver yet to he determined.

Open wheel standout Stewart McColl is one name mentioned and already has had talks with Brede, so should be considered one of the favourites.

Fisichc

GIANCARLO Fisichella is expected to race in Germany this weekend, despite his heavy accident at Magny-Cours, above.

The Italian missed the French GP after a heavy accident on Saturday morning.

Fisichella ran over a kerb in the Estoril corner and i seems that high frequency vibrations caused the front wing of the car to fall off and go beneath the wheels of the Jordan-Honda.

That meant that Fisichella had no steering or front brakes and the car hit the outside wall at around 200km/h.

Fortunately for Fisichella, the car hit the penultimate stack of tyres and so avoided a direct impact with the concrete wall. The Italian suffered a small cut to one finger and two blows to the head.

These left him with concussion and he wasn’t able to remember anything about the crash.

There was an attempt by

motorsport oews

NEWS

Alonso for

THE FI silly-season is now in full swing.

Renault announced on the weekend that test driver Fernando Alonso, inset, will step up alongside Jarno Trulli for 2003.

The Spaniard was loaned to Minardi in 2001 and is held in high regard by Flavio Briatore, who arranged his recent test for Jaguar. This means no place for Jenson Button, who says that his plans will be finalised before the German Grand Prix, and was at Sauber's FlinwiI base last week.

The 22-year-old Briton, who remains under contract to WilliamsFI, has also been linked to Jaguar anrd BAR but said, "my mind is made up towards one team. Wherever I go, it will be a positive step because it's very important

Button for BAR

for me to be with a team that's moving forward."

Our sources suggest that Button will do, or has done, a deal with BAR to displace the only French FI driver, Oliver Panis, see story on right. n There has been mounting speculation that Sauber's Nick Fleidfeld might replace Allan McNish at Toyota, but the German-based team has distanced itself from rumours over its FI line-up for 2003.

It stated that it did not expect to finalise anything until late August. Mika Salo is cpntracted to the end of 2003.

-QUENTIN SPURRING

)

Juan re-signs Montoya does new two year deal

by Marsh. B.jtbuxll

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1

Jordan to convince everyone that Fleinz-Flarald Frentzen (who had not driven the car at all) should be allowed to compete in Fisichella’s place. For reasons not entirely clear, the FIA Stewards seemed to think this was a good idea and announced that they had no objection if Frentzen was to take over the Jordan.

The Stewards ruled that “provided there are no contractual difficulties and provided all teams competing in the 2002 French GP agree in writing" before the start of the warm-up on Sunday morning the switch could happen.

In the end, the whole idea fell apart, as not all the teams would agree to the changes. Frentzen’s own lawyers decided it was not a good idea, given the fact that he is in legal action with Jordan already and did not want to upset Arrows.

- JOE SAWARD 24 luly 2002

f JUAN Montoya will stay a Williams/BMW driver for the next two seasons, with the Colombian putting his signature to a new deal to the end of 2004.

The deal, worth a reported $13

million, is a deal similar to that of team-mate Ralf Schumacher, who signed for three years last year. Montoya's re-signing meant that the.chances of Jenson Button ever returning to Williams are now all but gone.

An empty Spa?

THE Belgian Grand Prix on the wonderful Spa-Francorchamps road course is one of the Formula 1 fixtures likely to be dropped to make way for new races in 2004.

The Belgian government seems set on introducing its tobacco advertising ban from August 2003, three years ahead of the rest of Europe, and the race is title-sponsored by Marlboro. Bahrain and China are waiting in the wings.

- QUENTIN SPUERING

AS Motorsport News went to press, it was due to be announced in Britain that Jenson Button has signed a deal for two years with British American Racing.

The 22-year-old British driver has been dumped by Renault as the French team wishes to run Fernando Alonso alongside Jarno Trulli.

The final details were being put in place on Sunday evening at Magny-Cours and it was then announced that there would be a press conference in London on Monday afternoon as we went to press, at which there would be "a 2003 driver announcement."

The interesting question now is whether Button will be will be partnered by Jacques Villeneuve or by Olivier Panis.

That decision has not yet been made but it is likely that the job will go to Villeneuve.

Fie has a contract with BAR for one more year but is being asked to agree to a new twoyear deal with an option for a third year. Villeneuve has no Veal alternatives to BAR as there are no better drives available to him.

Now that his manager Craig Pollock is no longer running the team, things are rather more difficult although he and team boss David Richards have been building up their relationship in recent weeks.

For Panis, the future at BAR is bleak at best but it is possible that Villeneuve might decide that he does not want to stay. In the meantime, he has been talking to other teams in the hope that a decent drive will come up.

- JOE SAWARD 11

Daylson hits the podum

by AARON NOONAN

Sif

4.

WILL Davison continues to shine in the British Formula Renault Championship, taking a hard-fought third in round seven of the series at Croft, his second podium result of 2002.

It was the Motaworld driver's first 'real' podium, after his Thruxton result was by virtue of the top two drivers being disqualified from the race.

5^"We definitely now have the » t|car speed to take it up to kJI the Fortec cars for a couple of laps, we just need to keep working on our race set-up," said Davison.

As a sign of Davison's increased competitiveness in the tightycontested championship. the Buckinghambased Aussie “DoMiM. qualified on the

Lv

Look out, coming through: Davison is the best ofthe Motaworld drivers in (Photos by Sutlon-lmages) the championship standings. front row of the grid, just 0.005s slower than runaway title-leader, and eventual Croft winner, Danny Watts.

Davison had sat second in the race's early stages, but was unable to hold out Watts's team-mate, Jamie Green, who went by and left Davison fighting off Lewis Hamilton, who spun at the Complex on lap 13, leaving Davison a lonely

run to the chequered flag.

Despite finishing in front of three of the drivers in front of him in the points before the round, Davison now sits equal sixth in the title, merely 13 points from second-placed Mark McLoughlin.

The next round is at Snetterton this weekend.

Points: Watts 189, McLoughlin 139,Sharp 130,Hamilton/Green 128, Davison 126.

Little Al checks in

Indy Racing ace to miss races while undergoing rehab TWO-TIME Indy 500 champion Al Unser Jr, right, has escaped domestic assault charges and has checked himself into a treatment centre for alcohol abuse.

The Kelley Racing IRL driver will be missing from the field until August, with test driver Tony Renna taking over the seat in the Cortecobacked Dallara/Chevrolet. ^ “I have a problem with alcohol abuse,” Unser said at a news conference.

“Nearly every poor choice I’ve made in my life occurred under the influence of alcohol. I don’t understand why I have the problem, but I know I have to straighten it out. And,I now am ready to do so. I know I have a problem that needs to be addressed, and I now have a plan to straighten it out. I am ready to enter a substance-abuse centre and I look forward to the help that I know I need.”

Unser Jr was arrested on July 9 in Indianapolis, though the Marion County, Indiana, prosecutor has dropped the case.

The 40-year-old was alleged to have hit his girlfriend Jenna Soto while drunk as she was driving them home from a strip club. She told officers she hit Unser first to stop him from trying to shift the gears of her car, and that Unser responded by hitting her in the face. She got out of the car and Unser Jr drove off.

12

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3 leaving her on the side of the highway in the ° middle of the night. Soto decided not to press I charges. i Unser Jr was arrested at the motorhome he § keeps on the infield of the Indianapolis Motor I Speedway, but was released a few hours later I after his father, four-time Indy champ AI I Unser Sr, posted $60,000 bail. Soto I downplayed the incident in a statement made I later.

This latest controversy is another in the awkward fall from grace of Unser Jr. He left Penske in 1999 after a couple of terrible years in CAKT. His weight ballooned and results dropped away amid questions over his lifestyle.

Added to that was a dark personal life, the divorce from wife Shelley and paralysing illness that struck down daughter Cody further working against Unser Jr. Joining the IRL with Galles Racing in 2000, he won at Las Vegas in 2000 and Gateway last year and joined Kelley Racing this season. A visibly fitter Unser Jr was sixth in the driver’s championship before his ‘incident’.

“Although we were disappointed by his actions and are strongly against substance abuse of any kind, we give him a lot of credit for dealing with his problem,’’ said team co-owner Tom Kelley. moiortport newt

NEWS Is it Heinz-Harald Makinen?

A rare sight: Enrique Bernoldi’s Arrows/Cosworth actually on the track at Magny-Cours. Blink and you’d have missed it completely...

(Photo by Sutton-lmages)

by JOE SAWARD ^ ’ THE Orange Arrows team went through the motions of taking part in qualifying for the French Grand Prix,sending out Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bemoldi to complete just one lap each to be able to claim that they had participated in the event.

Much depends on the interpretation of the word ‘participation’, which is included in the key clauses in the Concorde Agreement as to whether or not Arrows’s half-hearted effort amounted to participation or whether any action can be taken against the team. Much will depend on whether or not there are any complaints from the

organisers or the FIA observers.

“Unfortunately we were unable to qualify either car today,” said team boss Tom Walkinshaw.

“Our priority has to be to get this team back on its feet and in a position where we can build a positive future. It is sad but we’ll go home and prepare for Hockenheim.”

The team was in constant trouble in France, beginning the meeting late from England, as Walkinshaw tried to negotiate a settlement with Morgan Grenfell.

“We were advised that the best thing to do was to do very little today so that consequences of anything happening on the track wouldn’t interfere with the negotiations.”

The cars were ready for scrutineering but could not

practice until the team had paid a speeding fine of $9000 from the Canadian GP. Walkinshaw faced the press and claimed that “in the fullness of time when the proper full story of this comes out,I don’t think we’ll have anything to be ashamed of.”

The team is expected to appear at Hockenheim but it is unlikely that this sort of behaviour will be allowed to continue, as the FIAis investigating whether it can take legal action to stop Arrows bringing the sport into disrepute by doing just a few laps at each race. ' Walkinshaw says he is hopeful that a solution can be found quickly but the general feeling in FI is that the team cannot survive for much l longer without new investors or a major sponsorship deal.

BMW V8 for 2003 A V8-powered BMW MS is going to hit the track in next year’s Future Touring series.

Ray Sidebottom’s APS Racing team has confirmed that it plans to build one of the German machines to Future Touring spec and race it next year.

“It’ll look like the 5-Series, just with a wing on the back,” Sidebottom told Motorsport News. “It with have all the control running gear. Exactly the same running gear as the VX, but it’ll look pretty mean with the BMW body kit.”

Making a BMW for the category is a relatively simple process, not much more involved than a regular Commodore or Falcon.

“You just buy a complete bodyshell, put It on the jig and 24 July 2002

Just imagine it being orange, with a wing and a Future Touring-spec V8: The BMW MS road car upon which the race car will be based.

build it to Future Touring specs.

Next year’s going to be really interesting. We’re very keyed up about it and PROCAR’s right behind it.”

Sources suggest that PROCAR boss Ross Palmer also has raised the idea a building a Jaguar bodied machine for the class.

-AARON NOONAN

THE 2002 FI World Champ might not be keen (see Rally pages), but Heinz-Harald Frentzen is itching to try out a World Rally Car. Frentzen, who currently has a lot of time on his hands while the Arrows soap opera is played out, said that the idea was first put to him by a German media channel who wanted to spice up their coverage.

"When I thought about it, the logical thing is to do something with Ford, because there would be no clash of interest. I've spoken to Martin Whitaker at Ford and they have some proper facilities in Wales, so I'm hopeful that we can do something, although I'm not sure when.

"Grip levels are obviously different on tarmac and gravel," the German continued, "so there are a lot of interesting implications for steering and braking techniques, i think it would be interesting to be able to go so sideways without losing time." n Ralf Schumacher and former GP star Jean Alesi have both given the thumbs up to the new-look, 4.6 km Hockenheim, the venue for the German Grand Prix this weekend.

Gone is the high-speed section through the pine forests and instead there is a new infield loop, designed by circuit specialist Hermann Tilke, which has created a new Turn 2 and an interesting switchback into a hairpin to rejoin the old circuit shortly before the 'stadium'.

Schumacher Jr, who won the 2001 German GP, and Alesi - who described the change as "a masterpiece" - agree that there will be opportunities to overtake. There is also a new 6500-seater grandstand. n German online sports bookmaker lnterwetten.com was already paying out to all customers who bet on Michael Schumacher to win the 2002 Formula 1 title, even before the French Grand Prix last weekend. Spokesman Heinz Patzeit said: "This advance payout is our way of paying ti ibute to this fact and shaking up the boredom of the season." n FI teams have agreed in principle to the FiA's latest cost-cutting measure."We have an agreement in principle for the constructors to be able to sell, to one other team, items other than the engine and gearbox," said Max Mosley.

These items are believed to include components as substantial as a chassis monocoque. The measure, the first of several proposed by the FIA president to be agreed in principle, still needs approval by the FI Commission and then ratification by the World Motor Sport Council in October.

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF 13

Who goes where? Marii Tracy and Carpentier seek options as FI tester samples Green car

IF you want an idea just how open the silly season is in the US right now,take a look at the podium from the CART race at Cleveland two weeks ago.

Patrick Carpentier took the win in his Player's Forsythe Racing entry, leading home Paul Tracy (Team Kool Green) and Michael Andretti.

All three are looking for drives in 2p03, and joining them in the mix are other frontrunners such as Dario Franchitti.

While the rival CART and IRL _ ... series are competing against Canadians on the market? Paul Tracy and Patrick Carpentier are looking at one another for both drivers and (Photos by Sultan-Images) their optionsfor 2003. teams, the general consensus seems to be that CART drivers everybody for me -1 don't and is being strongly wooed by would prefer to stay in CART. know what's happening," Honda to embark upon an Indy "I want to be in CART," Tracy Franchitti explained.

Racing program. confirmed.

"My number one option is Carpentier has also spoken "I've stated that all along since about his immediate future. here. I very much enjoy driving the beginning of the year. If I'm in CART. At the same time, the "If I wanted to, I think 1 could going to go oval racing. I'll go to technical partnership with Honda be signed within the next two NASCAR because it's prosperous. weeks - but maybe not with has been very good for me. But The IRL is not prosperous. It's the I'm a road racer and this is Player's," he said.

Indy 500 and a bunch of poorlywhere I want to be next year."

"If they come forward by the attended events, other than the Fuelling the rumours time I'm ready to make my ones that have NASCAR seasonsurrounding Team KOOL Green decision, then I'll look at it and ticket deals. is the news that the team go forward. I think I'm going to "(Team owner) Barry Green tested BAR FI test driver be gone by Montreal if I don't basically told me he doesn't Anthony Davidson at Elkhart get an offer by then. I'd love to know what's going on. I'm Lake last week. come back because it's like a pretty much open right now to Davidson, who completed family to me. talk to anybody. I've been nearly 200 miles behind the "Right now I'd say the putting that off, giving Barry wheel, impressed observers by chance that I am leaving the opportunity to put the posting a time just 0,9s short of Player's is 50-50." program together because my the fastest time of the day, Should Carpentier leave, loyalty is to Team KOOL Green. Tracy's Canadian background which was set by current series "But the clock is ticking now. leader Cristiano da Matta. puts him into the frame as a The next couple or three "Anthony is a really smart possible replacement, while weeks is the time you move." current KOOL Green teammate driver," remarked Team Green While the team has chosen 'Franchitti has also been General Manager Kyle Moyer. to remain with CART during the connected with the team.

"I'm sure he could have run past few years. Green is "It's the quicker, but we made a major known to have created an IRL same as change late in the day that budget to wasn't to his liking and we present to weren't able to go back on it."

KOOL, 4

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^An^temy Davidson sampled the Honda power of a Champ CmAiFKoad America. lT%akitr

14

r MARIO Andretti has confirmed that he is considering a return to CART - as a team owner.

The former Fl/CAET champion has entered discussions with Newman-Haas Racing, the team for which he drove for 11 years before hanging up his helmet in 1994.

“1 never said my goal was to become a car owner, but I always kept the option open,” said the 62year-old. “I have so many other things going on that I’m involved in and enjoy, but I think the timing on this is right.”

If it comes off, the deal would most likely see the team run a third car. It currently fields entries for championship leader Cristiano da Matta and Christian Fittipaldi.

‘First, we talked about me just getting involved with the team owmership, but we decided what would serve CART best would be if we would add another car that I would be responsible for.”

Andretti said it’s much too early to think about who would drive a third Newman-Haas car.

“The next step is to see whether .it’s for real, see if somebody might come forward as a sponsor,” he said.

“It’s the time of year when companies are putting together their budgets and making decisions for next year and there are a couple of possibilities right now,some people we could approach.”

There is also talk that Mario’s son, Michael,(another NewmanHaas title winner)could also be gearing up to form a team to run in the IRL, with Honda backing, possibly as soon as next season.

On the flipside, there’s also speculation that Andretti will stay with Team Motorola in CART and join his IRL team only for the Indianapolis 500.

moiortport news

I back to CART? Like old times: Andretti’s last season was 1994 with Newman,"Haas Racing, above left at the ’94 Indy 500.

The 1969 Indy 500 champ is looking at re-uniting with his old team.

(Photos by Keith Burgan and Sutton-lmages)

NEWS Trouble brewing in Spain over dates THERE could be trouble brewing in motorcycle racing mad Spain over a date clash on the 2003 World Championship calendar.

Next year's MotoGP at Jerez has this week been confirmed for May 4, the same date as the Formula 1 GP on the calendar published by the FIA three weeks ago, FIA president Max Mosley says that the Barcelona fixture is now cast in stone. n A pair of the late Jim Clark's Goodyear race overalls sold for $22,000 at a Formula 1 memorabilia auction at Goodwood circuit, A private Italian bidder bought the overalls .which are thought to have been worn 'during a Sportscar race at Riverside in 1963, In contrast, a set of Michael Schumacher overalls, from the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix, sold for $9600 ,,, n Former FI driver Carlos Reutemann, who is now the Peronist governor of Santa Fe province in Argentina, has decided not to stand in the nation's presidential election in March 2003,

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A one-year show only: The German Champ Car round is no more.

(Photo by SuCon-Imajes)

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ARIE Luyendyk is coming back to Indy Racing competition, making his first non-Indy 500 start since the end of the 1998 season.

The 'Flying Dutchman', a two-time Indy 500 champion, v/ill suit up in the IRL's first visit to Michigan International Speedway this weekend in the Michigan Indy 400.

"Meijer and Coca-Cola contracted with Treadway Racing to sponsor our car at both Indianapolis and Michigan," he said. "It was left up to me to decide if I would drive at Michigan, and 1 made up my mind in the last few days that's what I want to do."

24 luly 2002

DESPITE several attempts to throw the event a lifeline,the German round of the CART series scheduled for September 21 at the Eurospeedway Lausitz has been cancelled.

The descent of the speedway onto receiv’-ership left organisers unable to bear the financial burden of hosting the event. This left CART,who had entered a co operative agreement with the organisers to co-promote the event as a joint venture, assuming full responsibility for the cost of promoting the race and transporting the show across to Germany.

“Germany is an important market and we are disappointed the race will not be held, but the only proposed solution was basically for us to write a large cheque on top ofthe financial commitment we had already made,” said CART President & CEO Chris Pook.

“We will! shift our European focus to other markets.”

CART Vice President of Promoter Operations Tim Mayer met with representatives of Eurospeedway,the State of Brandenburg, and the receiver in an llth-hoiur attempt to rescue the race, but in the end,cancellation was deemed to be the only solution.

The departure of Germany from the calendar leaves the Rockingham 500 at Rockingham Motor Speedway in England as CARTs sole presence in that part of the world.

n News of a new American superspeedway, planned on 2700 acres of land purchased by Star State Investments 40 kilometres south of Houston, Texas. Construction of the privately funded, $2m facility is due to begin in late 2002 or early 2003.

The track will accommodate 150,000, half of them seated. Star State CEO Tom Floyd confirmed that there was no contract yet in place with any US sanctioning body. n Ford Racing Technology is giving its full backing to Canadian company Multimatic Motorsports as the exclusive constructor of an allnew Ford Focus Daytona Prototype for America's 2003 Rolex Sport Car Series. Multimatic has been working on its design and development for over four months, but delayed revealing the project until the Ford deal was concluded. n The Grand American Road Racing Association has more closely defined its 2003 Daytona Prototype engine and gearbox regulations.

The new engine definitions, based on swept volume and configuration, stipulate rev-iimits and air restrictor diameters for five different naturally aspirated engine types: up to 3.8-litre (Porsche); 3.8 to 4.3-litre; four-valve 4.6-litre (Ford); four-valve 5-litre (BMW): and two-valve 5.0 to 5,35litre engines.

GARRA has so far approved seven chassis designs and is expecting submissions from at least six engine suppliers.

-QUENTIN SPURRING 15

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Halliday recovers

KIWI Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series driver Matthew Halliday has been released from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after surgery to injuries suffered in a huge shunt at the inaugural Infiniti Pro Series race at Kansas Speedway on July 7.

Halliday, 23, underwent surgery on his left wrist, which was broken when he smacked the outside wall at turn two during the third lap. He also sustained a fractured right ankle and concussion, and spent a brief spell in intensive care after tests,detected bruised lungs.

- MARK GLEIMDEIMIMING

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More Power Power Tour Alive and Kicking

Photos by Ron McQueency/lndy Racing League

Prdlst looks to Le Mans PROST Grand Prix may have disappeared last winter amid huge debts but it seems that the triple World Champion has not given up his desire to be a successful team owner.

As we suggested some time ago, Prost is looking ahead to setting up a new team to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours next season with Audi sportscars bought from the factory team. The new team is not expected to begin operating until the autumn.

In the meantime Prost, pictured left with his former driver Jean Alesi, is planning to take part in a stage of the Tour de France bicycle race.

- JOE SAWARD

by AARON NOONAN THE Power 'Tour will continue with its finfJ three rounds of 2002, despite the cancellation of the Crdder and Barbagallo rounds as well as the defection of Future Touring and dumping of Super Tourers.

‘We’re alive and kicking, contrary to what people may have heard,” said Power Tour CEO Paul French.

“The MPG has had to shed itself of some deadwood. Big promises and short dehveries on the part of some categories have led to penalties being imposed by tracks on the MPG. “I had a call from the Super Touring people the other day and they were trying to explain how they’d be willing to come back.

Their biggest field this year has been 12 cars, and, with Future 'Touring with similar numbers, neither category presents viable number of cars to be a top-line package.”

French said that there is a group in advanced negotiations with the Power Tbur and MPG (Motorsport Promoters Group) about buying the package in

its entirety for 2002 and 2003. He said that a decision would be reached this Friday,though the consortium looking at investing have ruled out plans that have been building for a race at Bathurst next year.

“The MPG is in no way winding up anything other than its involvement in motorsport. Ifit’s not sold(The Power Tbur),ften the current board will ●simply cease promotion of motorsport and stop promotion of it We value the support of the competitors.”

The remaining rounds of the series are at Wakefield Park (September 29), Winton (October 27) and Oran Park (November 24).

“Dates are in place for next year but with respect to the possible new owners and their wishes we won’t be aimouncing any dates until after this Friday.”

The Super 'Trucks wOl stfil run at Barbagallo, though purely as a demonstration run. Super Trucks, V8 Stock Cars, Commodore Cup, HQs and Aussie Racers remain on the Power Tour bill, with French adding that he’s had approaches from at least three other categories about joining. motorsport oews

NEWS

JA,

PANOZ has finally vanquished the might of Audi in the American Le Mans Series race in Washington D.C. Jan Magnussen and David Brabham had a huge battle with both Audi R8s,the Dane taking the win by a scant 0.76s.

Magnussen took the lead for the first time on lap 41,but relinquished it shortly after when he made his first pit stop and handed over to Brabham.

Brabham diced with Emanuele Pirro for several laps, losing the lead on lap 73 and re-passing the Italian with a brilliant move in traffic two laps later.

Panoz pitted again on lap 93, Brabham handing back to Magnussen who regained the lead on lap 104 and held off Kristensen to the finish.

“This result is just an amazing performance from the entire team,” Brabham said.

“To take the stars and stripes ‘Spirit of America’car to victory lane in the first ALMS race in Washington D.C. - particularly after 9-11 last year - is just a fantastic feeling. u ‘For their first race, the entire Washington event went remarkably well and was a real showcase for sportscar 99 racing.

The victory is the second win for the Panoz team in 2002 - repeating the victory by Magnussen and Brabham at Sears Point in May this year.

The team will now begin preparations for the next round of the American Le Mans Series,round six of the championship at Trois Rivieres in Canada on Sunday August 3.

GREG Crick will be joined by Phillip Scifleet for the V8 .'Supercar endurance races in the 3M/Sri Lanka Falcon run by Halliday Motor Sport.

After testing with the team at Mallala last month, the former British F3 Class B racer beat out South Aussies Chris Smerdon and Peter Gazzard for the seat, who both tested, though in Ross Halliday's sister car.

- AARON NOONAN

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Aussie gets drive in BTCC AUSTRALIAN driver Hyla Breese was due to make his BTCC debut at Croft recently in one of the Team B&Q Honda Accords in the Production class.

However, the troublesome car continued to misbehave and developed engine problems, denying him a race. n BTCC drivers Warren Hughes (MG)and Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall) have joined the list of drivers to be docked five points for using more than their allocation of four engines at Croft.

Proton's Phil Bennett copped a second five penalty for using his sixth engine of the year. n The DTM could be heading to Italy next season. Officials from Monza were at EuroSpeedway Lausitz recently to discuss the proposal. n DTM drivers have rejected the idea of an oval race at EuroSpeedway Lausitz next season. Manuel Reuter did some evaluation laps for tyre provider Dunlop and said: "It is fine with just two cars running but 20 cars trying different lines to pass is something else."

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n Renault celebrated its first 1-2 in British Formula 3 recently with Heikki Kovalainen winning the British GP support race from Fabio Carbone.

However, Renault has not yet decided whether it will continue to support F3 next season, above. With the introduction of Super Renault as a rival to F3 and Renault withdrawing its support of the Sodemo-built F3 engine, the future is unclear.

-DAVID ADDISON

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News

Enge wins, Nguyen misses top 10

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JJ gets extra

SPORTSCAR star JJ Lehto will;,contest an extra two rounds of the 2002 American Le Mans Series with Cadillac in what could be a precursor of a full-time drive with the marque next season.

Former F1 driver Lehto, who was contracted to contest the long-distance races with the General Motors brand, will replace Wayne Taylor in the forthcoming Mosport and Laguna Seca rounds. The 36year-old seems certain to drive alongside Max Angelelli in the second Caddy Northstar LMP02, although no final decision has been taken.

Taylor decided to step down from driving duties in the sprint races in order to give Lehto and fellow enduro driver Christophe Tinseau, who shared with Angelelli last weekend in Washington DC, more seat time ahead of October’s Petit Le Mans 1000-mile race at Road Atlanta. It will also allow him to focus on his management role within Cadillac’s 3GR sportscar team.

Lehto, who was prevented by Cadillac from taking up a drive with the Champion Audi team late last month, said: “I’m happy with the decision, otherwise it would have been a quiet season for me.”

Cadillac has yet to commit to extending its prototype campaign into a fourth season in 2004, but a full ALMS programme alongside an attack on Le Mans is one scenario.

Should that happen, Lehto would be shoe-in for a fulldrive.

- GARY WATKINS

SITION VACAI MECHANIC/FABRICATOR Must be capable of all aspects of race and rally car preparation and building. Excellent fabrication skills essential. Teg welding experience an advantage.

This position requires a person who is a self-starter and willing to become multi-skilled.

18

learning the track in a Formula VW, but it ail came undone when a crash in qualifying saw him start from P13.

He recovered and was running in the top 10 dming the race until being squeezed wide at the hairpin and dropping to 11th.

“I suffered mostly because of my qualifying accident, which left me a long way down the grid and with a lot of work to do in the race,” said Nguyen.

“I stalled before the formation lap, but managed to restart in time to take my original position on the grid, which was a relief. I managed to gain a couple of places early on and, after that, I was stuck in a tough midfield battle with four or five cars running nose to tail.”

The race featured one appearance by the Safety Car after Nicolas Kiesa and Derek Hill collided on lap 12, while debutante Thed Bjork, who filled the Nordic seat vacated by Ryan Briscoe, was rammed from behind by Alex Sperafico - on the warm-up lap!

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TOMAS Enge blew the F3000 title wide open after holding off points leader Sebastian Bourdais at Magny-Conrs last weekend.

The Czech staked his claim early by topping the sheets in both qualifying sessions, but when the race began it was clear from the outset that he was going to have to work hard for his vfin.

Bourdais had a run at Enge at the Adelaide hairpin which led to the pair ranning side by side down to the chicane, however the Frenchman was forced to lift when he ran onto a kerb.

As the race progressed Enge’s car began to misfire, and it seemed that things were falling the way of the Super Nova team. But the exProst FI driver held on and took . his second win in a row. Giorgio Pantano finished third.

Enge now lurks just five points behind Bourdais in the title, with four rounds left.

Australian Rob Nguyen, above, spent the week prior to the race

l

AFTER being off the radar screens of Australian racing for a few years,former Castrol Cougar Melinda Price is carving herself a career overseas.

Having recently run the Nurburgring 24 Hour, right, Price is heading to Italy to compete in the Misano Six-Hour in a Group N Alfa 156 with Ross Zampatti.

'Til be seeing what they're all up to for the Bathurst 24 Hour as well," said Price last week, who is an honorary ambassador for the Bathurst race. "I would love to have a drive in that race."

Price is also scheduled to take part in the Merdeka 12 Hour at Sepang in Malaysia next month..

- AARON NOONAN motorsRort news

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MotoGP/World Superbikes

Kato’s 5 AS if having two unbeaten bikes has not been bad enough, Honda will run a third Honda RC211V four-stroke at the Czech Republic GP, with Daijiro Katoh stepping up from an IMSR500 two-stroke.

The reigning 250cc World Champion will ride the five-cylinder bike, which will be prepared by the Fortuna Flonda Gresini team.

'Tm really looking forward to the race," said the Japanese racer.

"It will be a great challenge to ride the machine that has dominated the championship so far this season."

JUST when he looked VTulnerable, Valentino Rossi proved that he is notjust good, h<e is lucky - well,fortimate.

For once,the Italian did not have the fastest bike in MotoGP racing, for he entered the final laps of the frerman GP trailing the two-strokes ofYamaha’s Olivier Jacque and Honda Pons’s Alex BaiTos. But the Brazilian and the Frenchman tangled, both went down and The Doctor took his seventh win in a row.

Tohra Ukawa had led the early going, nursing the injuries he received at Bonington, but with 10 bikes covered by 2s after seven laps, there was a lot of pressure on the Honda rider. Barros took the lead, Rossi stalked him but the nimble and lighter two-strokes looked to have his measure, Jacque sweeping by into second.

The pack was in trouble, with Daijiro Kato and Sete Gibemau tangling. But once the dust settled, it was Rossi in front of Max Biaggi, with Ukawa third.

Biaggi’s Yamaha team-mate Carlos Checa finished fourth with Yamaha’s Shinya Nakano rounding out the top five finishers.

“This has been the most difficult race of the year, winning proved to be quite tricky,” admitted Rossi.

“Get(ting) past Jacque and Barros has been pretty difScult, and later,I made a mistake. They took the lead again, but I was gifted victory when

Califcpri^

TROY Bayliss may have fast and meant that I .had to change my race plan," 'missed a putt' during the ' said Bayliss later.

World Superbike "So I just tried to keep up Championship's stop at with him and wait for him to Laguna Seca but the make a mistake." amazing Aussie still "We always knew that 28 managed to extend his laps was going to be hard on championship lead.

Bayliss won a race and was the tyres and it started taking its toll towards the end second in the other, while there," said Edwards. "I just perennial runner-up Colin couldn't ride any harder."

Edward justified his Stars and Nicky Hayden impressed, Stripes paintjob to win the race Troy did not. But a slide taking fourth after piling the while leading late in Race 1 pressure onto Neil Hodgson, while Eric won the Battle of cost Edwards dearly; not only the Bostroms, Aaron Yates's did Bayliss slip through for the win, fellow Ducati man Suzuki splitting he and brother Ben (Ducati).

Ruben Xaus took second, Edwards righted the ship meaning that Edwards for his 98,000 local fans in slipped further behind in the Race 2, backing up his Super pointscore.

The win was even more Pole with a polished meritorious considering that performance. His Honda and Bayliss and Hodgson's Bayliss suffered a massive Ducatis went into the final lap high side in free practice on locked together, the Aussie Saturday and raced despite and the Brit slugging it out significant bruising and literally -for second as ligament damage to his back.

Edwards built a 1 s gap.

"The pace Colin set was 20

Earlier, another American||H^ had beein exciting the crowo^^ Eric Bositrom (on a fourcylinder Kawasaki, remember!) won the start and led ttlie race for almost four laps before the V-twins blasted past, "I saw Eric getting away," said Edwards, "and thought shit! This isn't good!"

Eventually, Eric settled for fourth,one spot up on Ben, while Hayden's good run wg ended when he tangled witkffl^ Noriyuki Haga. Both were out^ on the spot, the Aprilia rider| for the second time. And Xaus ... the Spaniard crashed on the warm-up lap twice, going straight on at the famous Corkscrew then skating off at the bottom of the track!

He started from the pitlane (a lap down) and finished a subdued 19th.

Champior»5hip points: Bayliss 405, EdwardsSSZ, Hodgson 221, B. BostromlB4, Haga 182, Xaus 172.

Udn they crashed. Then I pushed, because Biaggi was very close and there was only three laps to go.”

For Biaggi, yet to win a race in the ‘four-stroke era’, it was a fhistrating experience.

“Victory has never been so close,” he said. “It was a tough race. I’ve been struggling with the bike when the fuel tank was full. After Barros and Jacque crashed,I sat for

BIKES

Yamaha loses Marlboro Philip Morris calls time on factory team

second. I’m satisfied as the Ml finished between the two Hondas.’

Garry McCoy continued his comeback with ninth place.

'THE preceding weekend,Rossi again had to chase,this time Carlos Checa, who fell while leading.

Biaggi was second once more, while Barros took third place from

the Yamahas of Norick Abe and Ohvier Jacque.

Points: Rossi 220,Ukawa 124,Biaggi 109, Barros 87, Checa 85.

MARCO Melandri took his fifth straight 250 win in Germany,the Italian’s Aprilia lying on the road when the race was halted on lap 23 because ofrain.

Roberto Rolfo’s Honda had been leading but Melandri, aware ofthe coming weather,sped past to claim the win, which was taken finm the lap preceding his fall. Sebastian Porto was third on his Yamaha,from Fonsi Nieto, Roberto LocateUi and 'Ibni EMas. MELANDRI won the preceding week’s British GP,hutYamaha’s Sebastian Porto should have won.

Porto dominated the race until his bike seized, aUowing Melandri to take the win from Nieto, Ehas, Franco Battaini(Apriha)and Rolfo.

YAMAHA has split with its principal MotoGP sponsor Marlboro.

The famous red and white paint scheme, a feature on Yamaha's frontline factory team since 1999, will be seen on the YZROMIs of Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa until the end of the season.

"It's a great shame that we are parting company with Marlboro,"said Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, the Amsterdambased team.

"I cannot discuss our definitive plans for 2003 at this point, but we are in discussions with various sponsors and with both Max and Carlos about next year."

The relationship between the cigarette giant and the Japanese manufacturer has been an unusual one for some time. Yamaha's media department releases press pictures of its Marlboro-backed riders only at tobacco-banned races like the British, French or German GPs, a policy understandable in a politicallycorrect world. But it does allow release Gauloises-branded photos of Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque to be released from events where tobacco branding is allowed ...

The Marlboro move is thought to have been made so that the Philip Morris-owned brand can concentrate on other sponsorships, like that of the Ferrari Formula One team.

Flowever, there is speculation that Marlboro could re-emerge in MotoGP before the banning of tobacco advertising in the sport in 2006.

One rumour suggests that the company could transfer its backing to an all-Spanish team next season, with Checa in contention for a seat, along with current 250cc guns Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elias. The rumour suggests that Marlboro and Repsol would stump up the money for the team, to be managed by recently-retired world champion Alex Criville, a favourite son of both companies.

Criville has links with both Flonda and Yamaha, and could run either machine, given the opportunity.

f

Points: Melandri 170, Nieto 145, Rolfo 127, Battaini 88,Elias 86.

ARNAUD Vincent dominated the 125cc GP,leading Alex de AngeUs aU the way to take a narrow but convincing win.

Local hero Steve Jenkner took third, taking Manuel Poggiali on the final lap, while Daniel Pedrosa was fourth.

ProfIsayhss ts in ila Nonxe; Colin FAwards leads T)vy lUiylm and Nail lladg.san down l.ayiina s fdnion.s (orksivw. The Texan . and the Tmyoan .shared die wins.

AT Donington,^fincent qualified only 16th but came through to run down Pedrosa and Poggiali.

'The latter two riders almost came to blows after the race when Poggiali claimed Pedrosa passed him under yellow flags early in the race. No action was taken over the incident.

^*1

Points:Poggiali 160,lucent 153, Pedrosa 140,Jenkner 96, Cecchinello 91.

21

Nashville IRL

Forget iiiiAe.1camefrom CAST too! Alex Barron put Blair Racing in the Winner's Circle at S'asinille on (P/kho th Smncm-Iirtdgnj Saturday night.

Bappon on the boapd ALEX Barron should be a two-time winner in the CART series,though two engine failures in the last two races of the 2000 season meant he didn't have a win to his name in major open-wheel racing.

Well, that was until Nashville, where the American took the Firestone Indy 200 in style for Blair Racing, which joined the big-name Penske, Ganassi and Nunn operations in moving to the IRL from CART. He passed Scott Sharp on lap 190 of 200 and, after a lap 198 restart, held off Gil de Ferran by 0.4234s to wheel his Dallara/ Chevrolet to Victory Lane.

In doing so, he became the fourth first-time winner in the 2002 indy Racing League.

"Once I got out front, my car

I’m a country boyt Alex Barron can be whatever he wants, he’s a winner!

(Photo by Sutton-Images)

22

Switching seats; Kelley Racing test driver Tony Renna took over Al Unset (Photo by Sullon-Jmages) Jr's ride, the rookiefinishing 10th on debut. was perfect and I just had the pedal down flat out until the end of the race," said Barron.

"This has been a long time coming. We've had a good time all year. To do what we did just now it feels really, really good. It just shows what kind of team Rayovac Blair Racing has.

It wasn't all bad for de Ferran, as the Brazilian took the championship lead from team mate Helio Castroneves, who finished back in ninth place.

"I was fortunate enough to get the timing just right with Barron so I was able to squeeze by Sharp," de Ferran said of the lap 198 restart, "But I have to give it to Barron, he really stood on it on that last lap and gave me no chance."

2001 Champion Sam Hornish Jr took third place, but only after Sharp, who finished third on the road, was penalised one lap and put back to eighth by officials for excessive blocking.

The Pennzoil driver had more luck earlier, when he suffered a flat tyre when hit by rookie George Mack while leading on

lap 171 as he slowed for a caution period.

Richie Hearn (Sam Schmidt Dallara/Chevrolet) and Brazilian veteran Raul Boesel (Bradley Dallara/Nissan) rounded out the top five.

"We lost fifth gear early, so I was having to run in fourth gear the last half of the race," said Hearn. "Not only was it too short, but it was killing gas mileage. I'm pretty happy with fifth. It's our highest finish of the year."

Pole winner,Billy Boat was one of six drivers who ended up in the wall on the 1.33-mile concrete oval. Airton Darb, Buddy Lazier, Greg Ray, the returning Eliseo Salazar and Tomas Scheckter also tasted concrete but were uninjured.

Scheckter was forced high by Red Bull team boss Eddie Cheever, the young South African perplexed by the reason.

The next IRL event is the Michigan Indy 400 on July 28, the debut of the IRL at the twomile Michigan International Speedway.

Points; de Ferran 347, Castroneves 337, Hornish Jr 333, Giaffone 295, Barron 243,Dare 239, Ward 218,Sharp 208.

CRISTIANO Da Matta’s streak of wins in the FedEx Championship Series has come to an end at the hands of Patrick Carpentier at Cleveland a fortnight ago.

In the annual battle around Burke Lakefront Airport, the Canadian took his second CART win and his first on a road course, having won the Michigan 500 last year.

He led 66 of the 115 laps(an increase in race distance over last year’s by 15 laps) and took the win 17 seconds clear of Michael Andretti’s Motorola Lola/Honda.

“We went from our worst weekend (in Toronto two weeks earlier) to our best weekend ever,” said Carpentier.

“This is a team sport, and we won as a team. Ford did everything right this weekend.

They gave everything I wanted.

The guys gave me a perfect car. It was so fast. I hft my hat to them.

We changed the engine this morning, to make sure we had a fresh engine, the best one, and that was a good move.”

The victory was also the first for the Reynard chassis since Andretti won at Long Beach in April and the first for the Ford-Cosworth engine since Max Papis won at Laguna Seca last year.

The race outcome did nbt change the top ofthe standings, but Carpentier’s victory vaulted him into a tie for fourth with Michel Jourdain Jr, who woimd up ninth in the Gigante Lola/Ford.

Da Matta still holds a 120-70 lead over Bruno Junqueira, who failed to finish in the points. Dario Franchitti remains in third with 64 points after also failing to score, moiortpon newt

CLEVELAND CART

‘eaks the streak

AFTER crashing again at Nashville, Tomas Scheckter, above, may be in the unemployment queue, as team boss Eddie Cheever looks to test a new driver prior to the next round of the IRL at Michigan this weekend.

The South African rookie crashed for the seventh time this season.

"He has all the talent in the world to drive a race car fast," said Cheever.

"But I'm starting to wonder if there's an inability to learn with him."

Red Bull are pushing to have a young American in the seat.

Playering the game: Patrick Carpentier, above and below receiving congratulations from Paul Tracy, took his second CART career win. (Photos by Sutton-lmages)

n Tom Anderson, co-owner of CART'S Fernandez Racing, was Nashville's IRL race on a fact-finding mission. He said that a move from one of its cars, that of Hondasupported driver Shinji Nakano, to the IRL for 2003, was looking highly likely. It would see the team run one car In each series, with Adrian Fernandez remaining in CART.

$ \vi

^1

\

Not so KOOL day: Dario Franchitti, above, and his team are getting more used to the Lola chassis, but a mechanical failure put him out. At least he made it past the first corner, unlike Mario Dominquez and Townsend Bell, below, who were both eliminated in this incident.

(Photos by Sutton-lmages)

'\

The race began with the usual turn one drama. Although the first start was waved off, the second time by the green flag dropped.

Everyone made it through the first tmm except for Jimmy Vasser, Tora Takagi, Mario Dominguez and Townsend Bell.

Dominguez and Bell, the only rookies in CART this season, were both eliminated while Vasser and Takagi managed to get restarted and remained on the lead lap. It wovdd be the only full-course yellow of the day.

The race restarted on lap five and da Matta took off with Franchitti and Carpentier in pursuit. The front three pulled away from the rest of the field 24 luly 2002

Cheever loses patience with Scheckter

52

until da Matta dropped out with a boost problem in his Lola/Toyota.

“The car starting losing power so I came in and the team changed some electronics and I went back out but heard the same noise so we had to come back in and retire,” he surmised.

Franchitti now led in the KOOL Lola/Honda with Carpentier second. The two remained close until the second roimd of pit stops which put Carpentier in the lead by 3.6 seconds. The gap remained about the same until Lap 68 when Franchitti pitted and retired from the race.

Carpentier was now 13 seconds ahead ofAndretti, who did cut the margin to under 10 seconds when

lERDEZ.

Carpentier was slowed by lapped traffic.

Andretti took the lead when Carpentier made his third stop, but when Andretti made his third stop, the French-Canadian driver took the lead for good.

Paul Tracy wound up third in the KOOL Lola/Honda, followed by Kenny Brack and Alex Tagliani.

Rounding out the top 10 were Vasser, Takagi, Tony Kanaan, Jourdain and Shinji Nakano.

Kiwi Scott Dixon lasted 27 laps before he was sidehned with a mechanical failure.

Points; da Matta 120, Junqueira 70, Franchitti 64, Carpentier/Jourdain Jr 62, Brack 60,Fittipaldi 68,Andretti/ Tagliani/Dixon 52.

n Townsend Bell was fined $20,000 and placed on indefinite probation for his part in an incident during the Molson Indy Toronto.

Bell was involved in an incident on lap 93 where ,he made contact with the car of Bruno Junqueira, damaging Junqueira's car and leaving him unable to continue. Bell was excluded from the remainder of the event by CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach after making it back to the pits. n Eliseo Salazar returned to the cockpit at the Nashville IRL race on Saturday after receiving medical clearance to race. The Chilean veteran suffered a torn vertebral artery in his chest in a crash at Indianapolis in April His return results in the AJ Foyt team expanding to three cars, with Greg Ray and Airton Dare retaining their seats. n Former Champ Car driver Bryan Herta is suing CART for breach of contract and copyright infringements surrounding the CART Stars of Tomorrow karting program.

Herta, now racing for Panoz in the ALMS, says that then-president Joe Heitzler promised to provide a $6m budget over five years for the series, which was to become part of CART Stars of Tomorrow. He states that CART'S new President, Chris Pook, refused to honour the contract.

23

Overseas Nevsrs Rules reaction in Euro Touring Cars VOLVO and Alfa Romeo are pushing for an immediate U-turn on new rules that shook up the European Touring Car Championship order at Oschersleben earlier this month.

The two car makers were to make their claims at a meeting of team bosses at Spa on the weekend. They argued that the changes to engine rev-limits and minimum weights have given BMW an advantage and explained its domination of the race in Germany.

Volvo motorsport boss Olle Odsell argued that the removal of the 30kg weight penalty for running a rearwheel drive car, such as the BMW, was crucial in the upturn in form.

"The laws of physics say the change of weights for the front and rear-drive cars is wrong," he said.

Volvo is not against the changes to the rev-limits, which have given its five-cylinder engine an extra 250rpm and BMW's six-pot unit an additional 500 revs over the Alfa Romeo's four. Odsell only objects to the timing of the move, which caught Volvo and its Prodrive team by surprise.

Alfa Romeo, however, believes the rulebook should be restored to its pre-Oschersleben form. Monica Sipsz, team manager at works team Nordauto, said; "It is necessary to return to the old regulations. I hope the FIA will find a solution as soon as possible."

Schnitzer boss Charly Lamm claimed that it was too early to judge the rule move after one race weekend on a track that suited the rear-drive BMWs. "This is the slowest track on the calendar, it has the shortest straight and the longest corners," he said.

"That means that this must be a BMVV track. Even without the rule changes we would have been strong here."

■ Rising BTCC youngster Tom Chilton passed his road driving test last weekend. Chilton, 17, was a podium finisher on his racing debut for the Barwell Vauxhall Astra team at Brands Hatch in April, although not allowed to drive on the public highways.

■ Asia will have its own Porsche Supercup for next season. The series will kick off at Sepang in Malaysia will finish on the streets of Macau. In between there will be six races encompassing Thailand, South Korean and China.

■ Mercedes has vetoed the AMG supplying VI2 engines to Carsport Hollard for its new Pagani Zonda GTS Le Mans contender. Team boss Toine Hezemans said the project would still go ahead and that the first monocoque for racing is already in production.

-GARY WATKINS 24

We’re not team-mates yet! Andy Pticiulx and Yvan Muller are going to drive a Kmart Commodore in the endurance W/V/.I /■V Suiiiiii-liium i'i races later in the year hut they proved they are still rivals at Croft.

JAMES Thompson has pushed clear at th*e top of the British Touring Car Championship table with a victory in the latest round of the series at Croft.

The Vauxhall Astra pilot shared the wins with team mate Yvan Muller, though both added a DNF to their win.

Thompson won the sprint race from David Leslie's Proton, the best finish for the

Malaysian machine all season.

Colin Turkington took the Atomic Kitten MG to third, while Muller suffered a puncture that forced him out. >■ "We're back to the level of competition you used to see in the BTCC - it's so high that you can't afford a single mistake," said Thompson.

"Yvan and I were both pushing on as fast as we dared and we both wanted to win."

Muller bounced back in the feature race, but had to fend'off Andy Priauix's Honda Civic Type-R and overcome a lengthy compulsory pit stop to get the win.

Priaulx, who led for several laps, scored Honda's first podium of 2002 with second, ahead of Anthony Reid's Hot Wheels MG. Points: Thompson 11£t, Neal 10T, Muller 98, Reid 74, Priaulx 66.

Back to DTM normality A.

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Photo by Sutton-images

WHILE Audi’s 'TT-R and Laurent Aiello have dominated the DTM series in Germany this year, Bemd Schneider finally broke through for his first win at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz round.

The Mercedes driver finished 10.9s clear of Mattias Ekstrbm (Abt-Audi TT-R) in the feature race, with Marcel Fassler (who won the sprint race) third ahead of championship leader Aiello.

Aiello had a 10s stop for tyres, while Schneider’s Mercedes crew changed theirs in just 6.3s.

Opel drivers Manuel Reuter (fifth) and Joachim Winkelhock had a much better run and completed the points positions so that every brand had two drivers each among the top six.

Double BMW

BMW dominated the latest round of the European Touring C{ir Championship at Oschersleben, with Schnitzer drivers Dirk and Jorg Muller taking a double 1-2.

Volvo’s Rickard Rydell, above, returned to the podium in third, while the previously dominant Alfa Romeos have come back to the pack.

Championship leaders Fabrizio Giovanardi and Nicola Larini had their points lead cut as neither finished on the podium.

MG for ETCC in 2003?

MG-ROVER might compete in next year's European Touring Car Championship - in addition to its challenge on the British series.

MG spokesman Rod Oldaker said that, JBb although he would like to see the rules of the two

championships closer aligned, the ETCC is being considered, for its 2 litre V6-powered MG ZS. - QUENTIN SPURRING I

motorsport news

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OPINION

V.

wmi35, Dimomis anr" Bold and Afro Cldlley I 1»

I

T comes as no huge surprise that the Canberra 400 has become a casualty of the V8 Supercar wars.

The combination of the nation's capital, a June date, a narrow track, no real pits and a general . lack of support from fans meant that the event was always going to have a clouded future, at best.

When the ACT government swapped sides, taking with it the support of the Minister for Leather Pants, Kate Carnell, the clock was ticking.

But, having attended two of the three Canberra races, I kind of liked the event. The locals were friendly, the racing generally pretty good and the city itself is terrific.

The whole show could have done with a few more support events, but it's just that... well, even if the weather was not that unbearable, Canberra in June is hardly somewhere high on my list of Places Where I Want To Be. ong before The Race, there —was The Launch. In late 1999, 1 received an invitation to visit the Seat of All Power and dutifully reported to Melbourne airport for the flight.

There was a handful of we motoring typists on board and, as we filed off after the 50-minute flight, I noticed that the bloke in the seat in front of me on the plane was one Peter Brock.

Mister 05 was going to Canberra not for the launch of the race but to visit the Australian Institute of Sport. He was to be part of the

Aussie Team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and was,excited like a schoolboy at the prospect of working with the athletes he held in high regard; your Thorpes, Freemans, O'Neills, So it came as no surprise when, 10 months later, Michael Diamond shotgunned his way to a second consecutive Gold Medal, his team cap was emblazoned with a Brock autograph. ●

So, we made launch.

People talked, Mark the Skaife navigated us on a tour of the track aboard a . bus, some of which required the poor, egged-on driver going aga/nsf early-afternoon traffic (such as traffic is in Canberra) and then we all set up for photo opportunities outside Parliament House.

As an HRT Commodore and a DJP Falcon were positioned for pics, it occurred to me that there was a lot of hardware on site - a lot of hardware. For a launch, this was huge...

But it was not all there for the launch. Much of the stuff was there for a movie shoot; it was an Indian movie shoot. No, not the John Wayne-type Indian movies, but a made-in-India Bollywood love story, complete with music and dancing. I am no expert on

Sub-Continental cinema but, it appears, that when the hero and heroine and about due for some horizontal yoga, the alwaysconservative director cuts to some dream sequence, and that was what was being shot that day.

And, when the race cars appeared, they just wrote it into the soript and carried on. When the male lead with big hair was cavorting with the impressivelybuilt female lead, they did so around two V8 Supercars, without so much as blinking.

I cannot help but wonder if, when the film made it to the local movieplex in suburban Mumbai, while all the locals were marvelling at love's eternal struggle, some visitor up the back didn't yell out "Bloody hell, it's SKAIFEY!"

“The other memory of the launch came from the venue itself.

The old Australia Hotel, now The Hilton, is a magnificent landmark, just metres from the track, and well worth a visit.

So the launch happened, speeches were spoken and chat was chatted. Sometime during all this, I slipped outside to the fresh air of the hotel's 'quadrangle' to engage in a rather anti-social habit

When the male lead with big hair was cavorting with the impressively-built female lead, they did so around two V8 Supercars, without so much as blinking"

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Motor Mouth Willi Pliil BranaBan (which I discourage to younger, or even older, readers).

A fabulous setting. I was actually walking, no doubt, in the same footsteps as old Ben Chifley, who rose from being a train driver to become a Labor Prime Minister in 1945 and who, among other things, was instrumental in the founding the national airline, TAA, and who launched the first Holden, the 48/215, off the production line in 1948.

It occurred to me that Mr Chifley was a fine bloke and a good judge of character. And his wife, the former Elizabeth McKenzie, was a good woman.

She disliked Canberra; during Ben's career in Federal politics, she much preferred to stay in the family's home town, so bachelor Ben often bunked down in a room at the Australia, just down from the old Parliament House.

Where was Ben Chifley from?

Don't bother reaching for the Australian history books, students.

The city where Mrs Chifley much preferred to stay instead of Canberra was... Bathurst.

l‘hnin hv Jnhn Mu

24 July 2002

25

o

T

HE French and the English are well known for their differences of opinion. On occasion, going back through the centuries, they have even managed to war for 100 Years.

The English call the French 'Frogs' and the French call the English 'Rosbifs'(which is something to do with Roast Beef) and both look down their noses at the other nation.

The French like to think they have style (but think red plastic chairs have a place in interior design) and the English think Coco Chanel is a drink and dress as though they have recently fallen out of the airing cupboard.

The French think the English are sneaky (what were they doing in tne airing cupboard?) while the English believe that France's biggest industry is the manufacture of brown envelopes.

The only thing that unites these tw'o ill-fitting nations is the belief that the Germans are worse. They are, after all, the nation that invented the Michael Schumacher light - a horrible plastic lighting device shaped in the form of the said World Champion wTh a light bulb where his brain should be.

AtFrance the moment have a England bit of a and rapprochement. President Jacques Chirac is an Anglophile and Prime Minister Tony Blair has a house in France.

I saw the former the other day during the July 14 parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris. You may have read about it.

Someone tried to shoot Chirac.

We were probably not more than 200 metres from where the would-be assassin did his thing and we did not know anything about it until we got home.

Chirac came past us looking studiously presidential, waving to the crowd, every hair neatly in place. Flis army of security men seemed to be all in perfect order. There were no secret service men running around in circles wielding Uzis and clucking. It is said that Chirac did not find out until later and replied with a seemingly-stoic 26

"Really?" when told that someone had tried to top him by less than democratic means.

The initial reports on French TV spoke of a lone gunman who was so incompetent that he would have missed his own foot but by the following morning one would have thought that The Jackal had had his day. Two days later the newspapers had jiggled the story into an assault on democracy as a whole and were busy analysing the danger

'S

pin' turns minor events into major ones. There is one Formula 1 journalist who gained the nickname 'Fireball' for his imaginery efforts at a test many years ago when he reported Nigel Mansell escaping from a flaming car in dramatic fashion when in fact all that had happened was that the exhaust had flamed out when the car stopped and Nigel had jumped out and gone off to have a cup of coffee.

w

The British media was Ni full cry^ complaining loudly about what a scamlalous tiung it was that their shiny Button should be kicked out of a decent drive by a coilection of smug wid/or slhny foreigners ft

of extremism across Europe.

Perhaps that is the way of all history. Things happen and in many cases it feels as though nothing important has taken place and yet within a few years these inconsequential events have become part of the fabric of history. This is due to what the journalists like to call 'spin' and the professionals might call 'news management'.

There was a typically mundane example of this genre at MagnyCours where my colleague (and rival) Mike Doodson and I were on our way into the circuit. The Dood was driving and beside us in the slow-moving queue was a very hefty motorcycle cop who I (behind closed windows) referred to as 'Fatty'. Fie could not hear me and as I always smile when abusing people

through car windows, it was not a problem.

Officer Fatty (one might be inclined to make a remark about too many CHIPs) decided that he wanted to put his large blue motorbike where our car happened to be and Mike (being the fool that he is) decided that he was going to be difficult.

Mike lives in England. I live in France and we know that the only man more powerful than a motorcycle gendarme is

Monsieur le President.

As the moment of impact came nearer I remarked "Get away from that bike!" One does not push Gendarmes around.

These men have the power to radio their colleagues while talking to you on the side of a road and so when you get home you find that your house has been burned down anc your cat barbecued. They can arrest you for driving towards a frontier (try not doing that some time).

After the impact had occurred and Officer Fatty had wobbled somewhat we were pulled over.

"Don't say a word," I said to Doodson, knowing that his first rule in life is 'Never trust a motorsDon newt

FORMULA ONE

Frenchman’. But no, the Dood was in full Waterloo mode and when Gificer Fatty blocked out the sun beside our automobile and suggested we had squeezed him off the road, Doodson's English sense of 'Le Fair Play’ overtook him and he retorted that the Gendarme should really look where he was going. ’’Doodson, shut the * a * up!’’

I said.

The crucial moment had arrived. t was early in the morning.

Officer Fatty had a busy day ahead. He was dealing with someone who understands the laws of cricket and thinks that a meat pie is edible. And he simply gave up. Shrugged his shoulders, muttered something about being more careful in the future and left Doodson to be verbally beaten to death by his own colleagues.

This rather dull everyday moment was soon spun into a great tale of Doodson versus the Frogs and there was talk by late afternoon that he would be awarded the George Cross for his bravery in the face of the enemy.

Fortunately by mid-afternoon Renault had announced that Jenson Button was to replaced

by Fernando Alonso and the British media was in full cry, complaining loudly about what a scandalous thing it was that their shiny'Button should be kicked out of a decent drive by a collection of smug andtor slimy foreigners. If they had handed round the songsheet for "The English, The English, The English are best and I would not give

Twopence for all of the Rest" the men from Fleet Street would have been singing it.

That was the prelude to an evening of tortured brains as no-one knew the answer to where Button was going and everyone had 'a good source' which when combined meant that Button had nowhere to go.

Someone somewhere was not telling the truth. The Silly Season was upon us. Spin was being spun and scandal was in the air.

And Officer Fatty was off somewhere eating someone else’s children ...

The Box Seat With Jot Sawtril

British Boyo hatiered by Filthy Frogs: Okay, he 't really, hut Eitglishnuin Jenson Biaion has been shoM’ii Le Door i>y Rcnaull. which will employ Spaniard Fernando Alonso in 2003.

11'l: ‘los tn Sutioiiliiicti;, I ,,'uJ MtirJi/ISitthMelU

27

Five Minutes With

000

Rym Briscoe

Alter sOuiggllng with the Nonlh:team hi FSIMIO, Toyota's FI test arivw has maBe a mlB-seasenjuiim to F8 to turn arounilhis year.

He expImneB Toyota's reasom'ng to CHRIS LAMBDE\I MOTORSPORT NEWS:Is it good to be out of what was clearly quite a difficidt situation with the Nordic F3000team?

RYAN BRISCOE:It was difficult, but I’m not happy that the programme was stopped half way through - that’s not what I set out to do at the beginning of the year.

From the beginning, I knew it was going to be a difficult first half season and hoped and expected that in the second half I’d move forward and start getting results.

The decision was taken by Toyota to take me out of F3000 because, in their eyes, it just wasn’t working or wasn’t bringing out any benefits for me,or for Toyota.

They’ve now given me the chance to return to F3 with Prema, which I’m happy about. I just want to get stuck into it and get some results.

MN:Who actually initiated the change - was it Toyota, or did you seek the change?

RB: We have meetings after all the races and it was obvious that it wasn’t working well(with Nordic).

I certainly didn’t ask for the changes - it’s not what I set out to do and I wanted to push right to the end of the championship.

The decision, in the end, came from Japan.

MN:There have been suggestions that the jump from Formula Renault to F3000 is too big - is that the case?

RB: No, not at all. That’s rubbish.

An F3 car is quite a lot faster than an F3000 car through the corners.

The only thing which makes an F3000 car fast is its engine - 400 horsepower in comparison to the 220 or so of an F3 engine.

The driving style and technique of driving an F3 car is much more like driving an FI car.

MN:So, you’re happy to be back in F3, with a team with whom you’ve worked and had success before.

RB: Yes. It’s a competitive series and I think my driving style better 28

'-mm

MN:They say you learn from every experience in life - what ; has this done for you?

RB: F3000 has been very difficult.

Motor racing isn’t easy. Even last year when things were going like a dream 1 knew that while there were going to be high points, there would also be low points.

So far this year it’s been pretty low and difficult. But for sure it’s character-building.

It’s not easy when you’ve got everyone sticking the knife in, and turning it; having a go at you whenever they can.

But it makes you stronger. I’ve learned how to put up with bad press - that’s been one of the major things this year.

..

suits that kind of car. It’s good to be getting in with a team which I’ve worked well with in the pastit would be difficult half way through a season to jump in with a team I didn’t know. Knowing the team helps a lot.

MN:There must have been a rush for the team to get an additional car on the grid...

RB: It was such short notice for the first race last week that they had to borrow a car from another team, which is doing the Italian championship, and they grabbed a couple of mechanics. The team manager for Prema,Angelo Rosin, engineered my car - he’s engineered for the team,in past years, so that was fine.

But for the remaining races I’ll have a new Dallara, which I’m doing a shake-down in on Monday before the next race, supporting

-1

the German Grand Prix, next week. So we’ll be a bit more organised.

MN:Has this experience highlighted to you the difference between very good teams and not so professional ones?

RB:I wouldn’t say less professional. Nordic is the first English team I’ve worked with and for sure the mentality is a little different from working with an Italian (or European)team as I have done.

For some people,it would work better with an English team; others better with an Italian team.

But for my situation, in F3000 this year, it just wasn’t working very well.[ED: This is Briscoe’s polite way ofsaying that the relationship with his engineer didn’t quite gel].

MN:Toyota has come out very publicly and supportively of the change and of your position with the team.'That must be encouraging.

RB: Definitely. I did a day in the FI car last week and I’ll be back in it when the test ban period ends in September. Not much has changed - I’m still going to be doing all the tests.

I’m here at Magny Cours with the team, as third driver, but the most important thing now is to do well in P3 and push for a bigge^ role here in the future. ’ MN:Any indication yet of Toyota’s plans for you for next year?

RB: We haven’t really discussed next year so far. Realistically, I’d be expecting to continue as test driver, maybe on a more full-on basis. My goal is to be in FI as a race driver in 2004.

MN:When Mika Salo was iU enough to miss Friday at the British GP, was there the possibility of you having to step in?

RB:I was on standby - that’s what I’m there for if one of the two drivers can’t drive. They were doing all they could to get Mika fit enough to drive the car, but I was told to be ready.

It certainly got my heart racing a bit... molorsport news

1

INTERVIEW

29

Five Minutes With

000

Peter Brock

U8Supercar comeback tor Bathurst? Like to see that?

Unlikely, says Peter Brock, who explains to CHRIS LAMBOBU how the rumours started MOTOHSPORT NEWS:A Sydney paper last week claimed you’re making a comeback to run for Team Brock at this year’s Bathurstthe Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 ...

PETER BROCK: Mmmm.It’s one of those situations where something came out of a conversation with a journalist, started off on a tangent and ended up with words being put in my mouth.

There was some discussion with Holden about me doing a couple of laps at Bathurst with a Holden competition winner in a V8 Supercar. I said that’d be okay, but even then there are a few things that have to be put in place.

MN:You could imagine good, commercial reasons for Team Brock to have you in its car at Bathurst. It would be a big plus for sponsors...

PB:Alot would have to transpire for it to occur. IfI was doing it. I’d be teUing people about it, wouldn’t I? It’s not, at this time, a consideration.

MN:Would you do it - for the team? There is always discussion about the advisability of comebacks, but in this case, there’s no doubt it could be a plus for what is still a very new team.

PB: Would you? Well, you’d think long and hard about it. You’d have to re-affirm a certain level of selfconfidence.

Having said that, things were going well when I last raced one ...

[ED: when Brock handed over the HRT Commodore he shared with Mark Skaife at Bathurst in 1997, it was in the lead].

I guess each individual looks at their own case, has to do their own soul-searching. At the end of the day, if the situation arises, Peter Brock will do what he feels, from inside, is best.

MN:We hear you did a few laps in the current Team Brock Commodore at Winton the other day...

PB: Oh yes. It was just half a dozen laps or so, to give a point of 30

Baird in car, Brock on fenders: That's the way it's going to stay. Brock says he is uniikeiy to return to the seat for Bathurst after his fareweii season in 1997, below left.

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(Photos by Marshall Cass and John Moris/Mpix)

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view on the car. It’s not a totally happy car to drive at the momentit’s okay in race trim, but not so much in qualifying.

It’s not linear, in terms of steering, balance etc, so I made a few suggestions and we’re going to try to make a few changes prior to Oran Park.

MN:Okay,so at this point, you’re not ruling anything out...

PB: Bev reminded me that at the time I retired, the phrase ‘never say never’ was used!

I have enjoyed things like Targa, in the Monaro, but as I said earlier, it’s not a consideration at the moment.

MN:Does Team Brock expect to run two cars at this year’s Bathurst race?

PB: That’s a commercial decision we still have to take. Ron (Harrop)has done a lot of work on the VY Commodore and there’s an argument to be made that it might be best to concentrate resources on the new car, rather than invest all the effort in all the spares to run another VX this year.'

It’ll he a pragmatic decision. We do plan to run (son)James in the Konica series next year, so we’ll still be running a ...

MN:Win James partner regular driver Craig Baird if Team Brock runs a single car at Bathurst?

PB: Don’t think so. You need to run very, very hard up there and I think the Konica series next year will be good for James. The Utes thing has been okay for running around in, but I think you need to run consistently in a V8 Supercar.

Rod (Nash)is talking to people

about driving Bathurst.

MN:Can you say who?

PB: I know who - but can’t say.

MN:There have been similar rumoiu-s about you running a Monaro in the Bathurst 24 Hours in November.Is thaf. more likely? ' PB: No. To be honest, I don’t think that’s a goer. Again, people jumping to conclusions.

I hadn’t run the idea via Holden when the reports first came out. I did then talk to a couple of people -1 wouldn’t have minded running the Targa car there, with a few obvious changes.

But Holden has got the commitment to the Garry Rogers project already happening and I think they thought it would send out mixed messages. So no.

However, I must add that I reckon that race deserves to be a goer. It’s a great concepi. and, while the V8 Supercar thing is big, we can’t just have V8s.

I did speak to Ross Palmer the other day, telling him that the rumours weren’t true, but regardless, he thanked me for the ‘leg-up’- while it ran, the story was good publicity...

moiorsport news

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INTERVIEW O

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24 July 2002

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Russell Ingall

The vu Russell Ingall is at the centre ofthe V8 Supercar silly-season, his destiny for 2003 and beyond stili apparently not finalised. CHRIS LAMBDEN asked the Enforcer about iife in no-man's iand

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k

In the office: Despite protestations from Rusty, MN’s spies believe he’il (Photo by Dirk Klynsmith) be occupying a Ford desk in 2003 ...

32

MOTORSPORT NEWS: What is certain is that after seven years - quite a long stay in modem terms - you are leaving Team Castrol Perkins. Has that confirmation affected the way you relate to the team; the way they relate to you?

RUSSELL INGALL;A little; it hasn’t been hke it’s been in previous years.

That’s a bit unfortimate, because announcing that you’re leaving this early is really a courtesy to the team to (a) allow them to get their head around the fact that you’re leaving, and (b)to allow them plenty of time to look at other drivers for next year. It’s the right thing to do for the sponsors and the general public as well, I guess.

I’m not going to say I’ve had any lesser car or anything like thatalthough I’ve certainly had more mechanical failures. Last year I finished every lap of every race this year there have been more mechanical failures than I’ve had in the last three or four years!

That’s unfortunate because there were places, like Canberra, where we could have got a podium result.

MN:It is interesting that in, say,FI drivers annoxince mid year that they are moving from Team A to Team B,and everyone - including the public - accepts that and the team and driver finish off the year professionally. It’s more personal here - say that you’re swapping sides and it’s almost like you’ve mimdered someone!

RI: Mmmm.I suppose that in FI there seem to be more teamssame as footy. But in V8 Supercars I think the public sees it as just two ‘teams’- Holden and Ford.

In reality it’s not really Holden versus Ford. It’s Perkins Engineering versus HRT versus Stone Brothers versus DJR and so on.

I think it is changing though.

Lowndes broke the mould there. I

think people got their head around it - ie, hey, he’s still a good driver, we shouldn’t hang him because he wants to go to a different team, or take on a different challenge.

If that team change happens to involve a different manufacturer, so be it. It shouldn’t be a manufacturer thing.

MN:Seven years, as we said, with LP. What have been the highs - and lows? Would that first Bathimst win be up there?

RI: The Bathurst wins were definitely the highs -I’d probably say I enjoyed ’97 more than ’95, because I was more involved in that win.

I was very happy for the team in ’95 - and winning from a lap down was imique - but I’d been away for six years and was relatively unknown back here so it was ‘Larry won and there was this other bloke in there...’

By ’971 was actually driving the car as well! By then I had a bigger role too; I was more up to speed with touring cars and had more of an influence in winning the race.

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MN:Downers?

RI;I guess not winning the championship. Considering I’ve run second in the championship half the time I’ve been doing V8 Supercars, it’s been a bit hard to swallow. I reckon I’ve come the closest to winning the championship of anyone without actually winning it!

The other low is probably this year. This will be the lowest I’ve finished in a championship of any series I’ve been in since I’ve been racing - karts included!

It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating because I know I can beat the likes of Skaife. On equal ground,I know I can beat him. I’m not picking on Skaife particularly; I’m just picking him out of the crowd because at the moment he’s ‘The Man’.

It’s frustrating because, on ability, I know I can beat him. But moiorsport news

INTERVIEW

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for numerous reasons, it hasn’t happened and I haven’t been able to prove that I can do it.

MN: Larry’s mechanical strength used to he his ace at Bathing.

Now virtually everyone has that reUabiUty - what is the key issue to winning that race now?

RI; Just not making mistakes. You have to have two quick drivers and not make mistakes - not one.

Look at last year. We had two quick drivers and a car that was competitive - as did a lot of other people - but the reason that Skaife won Bathurst last year is that they didn’t make any mistakes.

While mistakes can be made by any members of a team, last year, a lot of the mistakes were driver mistakes - Wills’s crash in Bowe’s car took out a potential winner; Larry in pit lane with our thing; Lowndes. All HRT did was drive around all day and all of a sudden they took the chequered flag.

That’s all they did - and didn’t make one driving mistake.

Pit crews these days are all 24 luly 2002

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pretty much on a par - changing tyres, refuelling etc - so don’t make a driving mistake and you will be in the top three at Bathurst.

MN: When will your situation for next year he clarified?

Obviously, there is a very strong vibe that you’re going to a yetto-be-decided Ford team...

RI: I see MN is one of those who say it’s going to be a Ford team ...

MN: Well, we have spies ...

RI: At the present time, no decision has been made on team - or manufacturer. Negotiations are taking place with both, but other than that I’ve agreed not to comment on it.

MN: When do you want to have it finalised? Isn’t it comforting to know what you’re doing sooner rather than later?

RI: It is. The thing is, the next agreement I do is going to be for the next five years. It’s a long time and the next five years are potentially going to be my best

T)

years as far as outside the car, publicly; inside the car, as far as being competitive and winning championships; and as far as earning capacity goes.

The decision I make is thus a big one and I’m not going to rush it. I rushed a contract two years ago which, in retrospect, may not have been the best decision.

This time I’m going to sit back.

I’m confident enough that I’m prepared to take the risk of missing out on drives. That some teams may be impatient or not want to wait for me, or I don’t get offers is a risk I’m going to have to cop.

So I’m going to sit on the fence, because there’s a fair bit going to happen over the next couple of months - including the possible interaction between overseas teams and teams here and so on.

I’d rather wait and see where all that goes, see what the best offer on the table is at that point and go with it.

3

continued on page 34 33

Russell Ingall

Life at Larry’s 2002is RussellIngall's seventh, anOlast, full season with the CastrolPerkins Racing eguipe. Rathurst ISOSseems so long ago...

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i Russell Who? Following the death of Gregg Hansford, Larry Perkins signed Ingallfor the 1995 endurance races. They won Bathurst and Ingall was in a (Phau by Dirk Klyasmilb) second carfor 1996.

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I could miss out- that’s the gamble I’m prepared to take. I’m flattered that there are already some good offers on the table

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(Photo by Dirk Klynsmilh)

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MN:Is 00 an option?

RI: Obviously, I’m keeping an eye on what’s going on there, but I’d have to say that they are one team that hasn’t approached me - at all.

But I believe there are options there as well.

I get on well with Craig, so in terms ofa team partner I wouldn’t have any problems with it... itjust depends where that team is heading.

Definitely a “wait and see’...

MN:There are a new Ford and fairly new Holden next year.

Assuming HRT/TWR comes out of the blocks in January,aU set and ready to go again, what do the other teams - Ford and Holden - have to do to beat RI: I think there are cars out there capable of beating them. I think there are some good cars out there with average drivers - and I think that’s been the case for a few years.

HRT is a good team with good drivers. In other teams there has been a mis-match - good drivers in average cars and average drivers in good cars. None of them have been combined into a good all round effort.

MN:You hope to rectify that?

RI:You can see the cars which are

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MN;So how safe or otherwise is the $10 I’ve got with someone that says you’ll end up at‘00’ alongside Craig? ...

RI: Ummm. Who knows? It’s only 10 bucks - you can afford it!

them?

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Look here youngfella: Ingall and the Castrol team quickly became aforce in sprint races and the duo teamed up again to win Bathurst in 1997. f

continued from page'33

good and, obviously, there are teams with the potential to beat HRT. While there are tracks where HRT has such a good set-up on their car that anyone could win in it, they have also won races where they haven’t necessarily had the best car. That’s the team thing.

They haven’t made mistakes and the driver hasn’t made mistakes.; When you know you’re not on the pace, you’ve just got to drive around, settle for what you can -in the end they(HRT)have come up l with wins they probably shouldn’t have. Canberra for instance.

Last year, we didn’t have the quickest car by a long shot, but through consistency, not making mistakes and finisWng every race, we finished second in the championship. If you drove the same way with a car that was capable of winning the championship, then you can beat HRT,for sure.

MN:The issue of the severity of penalties for minor nudges, Skaife’s drive-through in Perth, has raised itself again.

Your view?

RI: CAMS gets abit upset when

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34

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INTERVIEW

Stopping things at Castroi; Ingall’s time at Castroi Perkins Racing is up, left, though that hasn’t meant that The Enforcer has been cruising around in collect mode, above.

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(Photos by John Morris/Mpix and Slipstream Photographic)

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we comment about stuff like this, but they can’t gag us from having opinions on things which affect us as drivers.

We’re a multi-million dollar professional sport and I don’t think the rules have been administered to that level of professionalism.

I was involved in an incident with Besnard at Wanneroo and when I saw some of the other antics which went on, unpenalised...

The problem is the penalty system. They have the discretion to vary that penalty - but they give the maximum whether it’s a Murphy/Skaife affair, which was so ridiculous it shouldn’t have been

brought up, or someone who got ■unloaded - Lowndes by Kelly. Now, Lowndes may have been blocking, but Kelly unloaded him, a fairly severe one - but he got the same penalty as Skaife.

In my Besnard incident, I suggested a time penalty which would give Besnard his spot back, penalise me a couple of spots, which was fair. Again, they reacted by handing out the harshest penalty - the death sentence.

Totally destroyed my weekend.

Gone. Besnard ends up on the podium. Rusty about 25th ...

They don’t realise the effect that has not only on drivers, but on teams and sponsors. They can’t hand those sorts of penalties out lightly. It probably cost my sponsors hundreds of thousands of dollars in terms of team exposure and the rest of it that we didn't get as a result.

MN: Is there anything you as a driver can do about it?

RI: I wrote to CAMS three days after Perth suggesting that we should, behind closed doors, without the media, vrithout the team owners

even -just diivers - discuss the problems, look at some videos and come up with something that’s agreeable; a solution to the problem.

At least we’d be looking at it.

To this day, I haven’t had a response. That was two weeks ago.

That’s the problem. In some ways, it’s a disappointment that the idea of a Drivers’group didn’t come to fruition. I think that drivers should have a voice; there should be a drivers’ representative on the Board at TEGA. In the end, something has to be done about this particular issue, because it’s killing the racing - it’s affecting the public and they are starting to tune out...

MN:The issue oflower grip producing better racing, via less aero or whatever, also emerged after Perth.Your view on that?

RI: The best racing I’ve ever had is in categories like Formula Ford, where you are more prone to make mistakes; you haven’t got the safety margin of this downforce.

I don't want to get to tlK end ofmyca*eerandtlinik'you blew IT tliiHH^ anotlier bad decision. n

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Driving round in the dry in Perth is like driving in the wet anywhere else: people make more mistakes, outbraking themselves.

At the end of the day that’s what creates passing.

MN: Given that you’re planning a five-year contract now, which may take you through to the latter stages of your career, what do you want to achieve?

What will enable you to look back and say ‘that was okay’?

RI: A championship.

Championships. I’d like to do a Skaife - two or three in a row. It’s not inconceivable.

I’m not going to stretch it out too

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long -’til I’m an invalid or too slow; mid-to-late 40s or something will do. I’d hate to look back at that stage and not have won a championship.

I made a lot of silly decisions when I was in Europe - that’s only because I wasn’t ‘street smart’. I went over there with the opinion that winning races would fe everything - but it didn’t.

MN:If you had that time over again, what would you do differently?

RI: I would have gone to America instead of Europe. Even though I had some good years in Europe, the money factor wasn’t as big a problem in those days in America.

If I’d gone to America, I honestly believe I’d be sitting in an IndyCar by now. The need for money(in the US)wasn’t there. If you could drive, you got put in the good teams, won races, kept moving up the categories.

In England it was the same - up to F3. After that, you needed gold.

I got that far without money -in fact I was paid to race F3- but the US would have allowed me to go further.

That’s why I’m taking my time deciding where to go now.I don’t want to look back with any regrets. I don’t want to look back and not have won a championship in Australia.

You look back at tapes of the Macau F3 race in ’93 for example I battled with (had a shunt with!)

David Coulthard, passed Barrichello’s factory Ralt, Gil de Ferran was in there.

You look at that, and those guys are all now in FI, Sportscars,Indy or whatever and you think ‘Christ,I was that close ... and then blew it.’I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I don’t want to get to the end of my career and think ‘you blew it’ through another bad decision.

My decisions have often Been influenced by loyalty, or having to accommodate other things.

This time the decision will be solely based on what’s best for me - to win races and championships.

Also

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35

Nations Cup

state el tte Nation

Keeping the competition close in Nations Cup isn’t an easy thing. The man in the hot seat is Category Manager Steve Bettes. AARON NOONAN spoke to Bettes about the lack of numbers in the class, the new Monaro and Bathurst24 Hour MOTORSPORT NEWS: First up, there was a real lack of cars at Queensland Raceway. How much does that concern you?

STEVE BETTES: The Nations Cup numbers will grow from here. QR is always a difficult round to get the numbers up because a lot of the teams are based in Melbourne.

It all happened to click that we had a few unusual circumstances all click at the one time with a few of our competitors.

We're not concerned, we believe the numbers will grow from Wakefield Park on.

MN: That's not Just in terms of numbers of cars, but numbers of manufacturers as well?

SB: Yes. We're expecting at Wakefield Park to have a Lotus Elise running, the 200R version, and have the Lamborghini GTR back and potentially Ross Zampatti with his SVR Lamborghini.

It should show signs of growth coming back and going on from Wakefield.

MN: Speaking of the Lambo, it's disappointing to lose one of your big drawcards as you did at QR. Has there been any negotiations about getting them to come back?

SB: It was disappointing for us to lose them for QR. We understand the owner's choice of not racing in those situations. PRQCAR has to make its decisions on what it believes is right for the category and publish them accordingly and that's what we did.

Team Lamborghini Australia objected to that parity change we made and chose not to race and obviously it's their right to do 36

that. However, we are looking at the adjustments from QR to all vehicles and there will be an instant change with the Lambo because the 30kg of success ballast will come out of the car.

We'll be reviewing all the cars and adjusting them accordingly for Wakefield Park.

MN: Parity is the issue that raises its head most in Nations Cup and you must have one of the least wanted jobs in motorsport in that respect. Is there a better harmony among the teams with the new process?

SB: I think so. At the start of the year we formulated an entrants' group which was in control of the parity adjustments. Recently that group has elected to hand their responsibility of parity adjustments back to PROCAR and its technical advisors.

One of their considerations was that the parity between the vehicles is very close and that they certainly did not want to get in a situation where a couple of the marques would potentially 'gang up' on the others and cause a parity change to happen unjustified.

That will be the way it is done through until the end of the year.

I'd suggest that'll be the way it will be in 2003 as well.

MN: Who has the roles of decision making then?

SB: There's a group of people.

PRQCAR Chairman John Cowley chairs the meetings, Chris Edwards, the General Manager of PRQCAR is involved, myself as Category Manager and the

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technical advice of our Data Analyst Alan Draper and long-time PROCAR advisor Aaron Kelly from Wayne Park Automotive, MN:The introduction of the Holden Monaro has developed a lot of interest in Nations Cup, but I guess that also adds some more headaches for you in terms of getting it competitive with the existing cars.

SB: I don't see too miany problems because I think the introduction of the Monaro into Nations Cup has been a longawaited entry into the category.

The excitement it's already motorsport news

INTERVIEW -Ch

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r Tunt race ofthe season: The Australian Grand Prix support races always draw a strong Nations Cupfield, though getting the numbers to .slo}- up has been a problem, one that PROCAR isn ’i too concerned bv. ^

generated is quite amazing.

It will be an exciting car. It was probably always going to be a controversial car, especially considering that people wouldn't put the car in the same field as a Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini, though as a race car it's going to be worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time it gets on the racetrack.

MN;So when does it hit the track? We've been waiting for quite a while ...

SB: I guess the issue with that is that it's been an extensive project, far bigger than I think 24 miy 2802

Holden, PROCAR or Garry Rogers expected. We believe the car will hit the track later this year to compete in the championship before it ends and in the 24 Hour race at Bathurst.

It's been the construction of the vehicle that's delayed it There have been several issues with solving particular problems.

Going back to last year we configured a set of regulations for the front-engined, rear-wheel drive cars.

What we wanted to do was scoop a lot of cars into that basic set of rules, involving vehicles that had 600-plus horsepower, ran with a six-speed Holinger sequential gearbox, ran 375mm rotors on the front with six spot callipers and 355mm rotors on the back with four spot callipers.

That's where the Monaro is slotting into, though we didn't want to have any vehicle coming out looking like a DTMstyle car with massive flared guards. We also wanted to have adequate tyres and wheels to provide the power-down and handling to compete against the top cars.

It meant quite an intensive re engineering job of the front and rear suspension to make those wheels fit inside the car and without any body alterations to the outside.

The first vehicle will be run by Garry Rogers Motorsport in the category and there will be several others, totalling six in all, run by different teams, who have pretty much put their hands up now.

MN;PROCAR has looked at introducing N-GT cars as the class for Nations Cup but have decided against it. Continuity of rules is a plus for

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competitors, but is the N-GT concept still in the pipeworks?

SB: There's a lot of merit in the N-GT concept. In Nations Cup development at this point of time, it's way too big a step and that's what been considered by Ross Palmer and John Cowley when they were in Europe.

They analysed the running costs of those style cars when they were at the Nurburgring 24 Hour race. They came back with a very positive feeling in their own minds that taking Nations Cups straight to N-GT style specs wasn't going to work in this country because of the money to was going to take to run them.

accommodate those cars. Why hasn't it had the support everybody expected?

SB: It's difficult to come up with an answer. We still have great confidence that the Group .1 and 2 concept will work. It's just a matter of time and maybe a few more opportunities for other vehicles to join that will make it click over and work.

Primarily at the moment we have PHR's three Ferraris and the Mustang. There's a couple of cars being considered for next year on our eligibility list for the class, so I think we could see potentially a TVR Chimaera and also a Lotus Elise 200R,

At this point of time,It^ way too big a step"

MN: Given that the Bathurst 24 Hour is such a drain on resources for teams, you probably wouldn't be expecting too many Nations Cup cars to be among the entry?

SB: It's hard to tell at the moment. The 24 Hour race is a enormously exciting concept for Australia and it will be a race that grows. While everything may not happen in the first year, it will still provide a foundation for the future.

Gradually, there'll be a lot of people running the race with NC cars. We already have quite a strong interest from Prancing Horse Racing to run several cars.

There are other teams considering their options. We'll have the Monaro certainly running and I think'the Lamborghini will be there.

There'll be others but it's a case of teams probably combining in some case to do the race. Maybe the numbers from Nations Cup won't be strong in the first year but in the future there'll be more.

- Bettes on the introduction of N-GT rules for Nations Cup What we see as the future. and many competitors see it as great, that we're going to see continuity of what we've got, where all different sorts of racing concepts in the world can be considered for Nations Cup. Providing they fit into our powerto-weight formulas and potential parity control, then we're able to approve other cars.

The continuity is great news for the current competitors and anybody considering to race in Nations Cup. We believe in 2003 we'll see a new era dawning for Nations Cup with lots of cars.

MN:The introduction of the new Porsche and Ferrari left a bit of a stockpile of the older model GT3 and 360 Modena Challenge cars and you came up with Group 2to

37

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MOTORSPORT NEWS: What'^ the story behind your plans in Australia?

DAVID RICHARDS: There's ;i|b; ■■ secret to the fact that we arer'V, seriously looking at purchasinQi . one of the Ford teams to enter ■ ourselves. With our ownership '/ of Tickford and ail our performance products'in ■ Australia, and our joint venture with Ford, it’s a logical step.

We have a factory with Ford as a joint venture, and we do all the high performance cars in ■ Australia-through that factory.

We acquired it about a year ago, and it's been one of our objectives to put a racing team alongside it..

MN: How close are you to a deal?

DR: I would think we are very close to finalising it. There are

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38

moiorsnsri news

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INTERVIEW

Coming to a ack near You

Englishman David Richards is already busy running WRC and Formula One teams. Now he wants to add y. a V8 Supercar program. a6aM COOPER spoke to him i

a couple of possibilities still, but think it will be resolved in the next couple of weeks.

MINI: Is it going to be 00 Motorsport?

DR: I don't know! I know of a couple of opportunities therefor us at the moment, and I don't know what the final discussions are. But it will be closely tied in with Ford's activities there, and it will probably be on our site.

We'll build a complete new factory for it.

MN: Will you buy a team outright?

DR: Yes, we'll bring (it) on to our site.

MN: So it's a question of getting the equipment and the personnel?

DR: Correct. And we'll do a lot of development work from Britain at the end of the day. Initial

development will be done using some of the resources back at Prodrive.

MN; And will you send a British manager out?

DR: I think it's early days to decide who will actually go there. It will very much depend on the resources there. Some of the teams are very well organised and very well run. I’ve been out a couple of times and watched races, and I was very impressed.

MN: What do you think of the series?

DR: It's a cult series. It's unique to Australia, it's incredibly strong, and it looks like it's going from strength to strength.

MN: How hard will it be to keep an eye on things when it's so far away?

DR: We've got systems for doing that, and we'll put the right sort of management in there. We've got a good team of people there already in the Tickford operation, it's quite a big factory in Melbourne, with 120 people.

MINI: What are you going to call the team - some combination of Prodrive, Tickford and Ford?

DR: I don’t know! We're dropping the Tickford name world-wide, so there probably will be some rebranding.

MN: Ford are your opposition in a couple of other championships. Is it a strange situation to be in bed with them?

DR: Not in the slightest. We do a lot of engine development work with them on other projects, a

lot of road car work, so it's not 1 surprising.

MN: Turning to FT, what did the recent British GP result mean to you?

DR: When it comes together it comes together,and it just proves that perseverance does pay in this business. You have to . keep pressing on. II know''. sometimes you lieally-wonder if you're pushing water uphill, but l it was very revwairding for the n ■; entire team. It -was also on ourdoorstep, so it"s very important ' for the people.. ' , MN: How tdugh has'it been up to now?

DR; I’ve been around a long time so I've seen situations like this before. But yoiu Itiave to

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confcued on page 40

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David Richards MIM: You used your helicopter to track the weather. Have you done that before?

DR: I did it last time it rained there, with Benetton in 1998, and we use it in rallies all the time.

With that type of weather, when it's so close in and you're not sure whether it's going to rain or what it's going to do, the only way is to spot it, so we run the helicopter upwind, just floating around.

continued from page 39

persuade people that you have to keep plugging on, doing the job right. There's nothing wrong.

The team has great morale and a great spirit about them, and they were always going to get a result. The truth of it is we are only one rung up on a very tall

ladder.

MN: Did a result like that with both cars come as a surprise?

DR: No, I would say not. I'm not being too complacent about it, but if you do the job right, the results will come to you when the opportunities arise, and this was a typical race. When the opportunities came to us we didn't do a single thing wrong, and it all happened around us.

MN: Olivier had a lot of technical problems. Were you worried about stopping before the finish?

DR: It's always in the back of your mind. We had a few electronic problems over the weekend, but they cleared them all up, and at the end of the day it all came good.

MN: When you get two cars in the points, does it prove that there's more than luck involved?

DR: Yes. You look at the strategy and you look at how it all comes together, and that really proves what a team is all about. You're right. You get the odd lucky event for individuals, but when it all works for a team it does come right.

MN; How accurate is that?

DR: It was absolutely the most accurate you'll ever get, because it goes upwind and just tracks any weather coming in. So it can give you a time, it knows what the wind speed is, it knows exactly to the minute how quickly it's going to arrive.

Look mate, I II keep Honda and you take Taktima to Australia: Richards has some powerful associates in FI and the WRC, like fellow Honda user Eddie Jordan, above, and Subaru rally star Tonimi Makinen, right.

MN: How did the pilot send the information?

DR: He was talking to me on the mobile all the time.

MN: How much did the info help?

DR: It was absolutely spot-on. At first he said it's only going to be 15 minutes of rain, and then he said, no, it's all slowed up, it's going to last a lot longer than you think. Luckily James Robinson and the race engineers had fuelled up for a longer middle stint, and they could hang on in there. The engineers just played it so right.

(Photo by Suilon-Iimge.s)

\\

ITS a cult series. It's unique to Australia, ifs incredibly strong, and it looks like ifs going from strength to strength ri

-David Richards on V8 Supercars

MN:So you put one over on the likes of Ron Dennis?

DR: They use weather radar.

That's more expensive and, in fact, more sophisticated...

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Commodore Cup Report

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Rd 1 - Oran Park, March 2002 The first round of the 2002 National Series saw a terrific field of cars take part in three action-packed 18 lap races to start the season. Each race was won by a different car with the remaining positions spread evenly across the races. Race 1 was convincingly won by Christian D’Agostin (Strathfield Car Radio), race 2 by Geoff Emery (Emery Motorsport) and race 3 by Marcus Zukanovic (Action Racing).

In hotter than expected conditions, l the evidence of exactly how close Commodore Cup racing is, was that pole position winner Geoff Waters failed to win any of the races. The top 13 positions on the grid were separated by a mere second or less.

As we have come to expect in

D'Agostin - all finishing within a few points of each other.

Commodore Cup, there were plenty of hits. Alan Walls suffered a ruptured rear brake line and slammed into the wall in race 1, but managed to have the car reworked to finish strongly in races 2 and 3.

Race 2 saw the coming together of a number cars and a few retirements followed, including David Gittus, Geoff Fontaine, Craig Smith, some of whom circulated purely to get the points.

Race 3 also had its fair share of incidents with Stuart Scott faring the worse in a lap 1, turn 1 moment and having to sit out the race. Simone Reischig had a coming together at the same turn but managed to finish the race.

However, the day's honors went to Geoff Emery who put in a solid performance to finish in front of Marcus Zukanovic and Christian

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Rd 3- Queensland Raceway, June 2002 Another perfect setting was the scene for round 3 with D'Agostin grabbing poie position and easiiy winning aii 3 races. A notable performance was the improvement of Danny Richert who impressed all day and managed to finish second on the day, with two seconds and a fourth.

Again, the top 10 cars were all separated by less than a second and although the shortened Quuensland circuit made it difficult to pass, the racing was close and there was little room for error. In a relatively incidentfree weekend, the only notables were the Dennis Pana entries who were in the wars all day long. His team-mate Shane Hunt belted the wall in qualifying and had to sit out while repairs were made - and then Pana himself beached the car at turn 1 in race 2 and had to sit out and watch. In fact, Pana had DNF's in all 3 races and would much rather forget the meeting.

A strong field was again evidence of the growing stature of the class and the as the series heads southward for the remaining rounds. all is in place for an exciting contest..

Rd 2- Mallala, April 2002 Sensational weather saw an absolute spectacular of racing in all 3 races and qualifying at Mallala as the Commodore Cup show rolled on.

Another terrific field of cars saw a terrific fightout in qualifying with D’Agostin and Emery trading blows lap by lap and putting in daredevil performances to fight for pole.

D’Agostin came out marginally on top but both were almost O.Ssec better than the rest of the field.

Race 1 predictably saw D’Agostin and Emery fight out for first place with the latter coming off worse for wear after tangling at turn 1. This landed D’Agostin with the stewards and he was stripped of the points, but a later appeal saw this dismissed and the points reinstated.

Race 2 was easily won by by D’Agostin. Race 3 was a terrific duel with the lead cars trading places several times, with David Gittus (Strathfield Car Radio) holding off Mclnnes (Axent) and Emery until Mclnnes tried a move on NATIONAL STANDINGS Gittus which went not so 1 Christian D'AGOSTIN 401 1 right and Emery passed 374 3 Geoff EMERY 2 both to steal the lead and 3 71 Marcus ZUKANOVIC 362 4 11 Andrew MclNNES 323 the race.

314 4 David GinUS 5 The speed of the cars 5 Brett HOLDSWORTH 313 6 improves every outing as 310 7 2 Greg WATERS does the closeness of the 8 89 Lee HOLDSWORTH 301 262 racing, evidenced by the 9 22 Shane GORE 257 10 34 Allan WALLS lap record being set by 9 Geoff FONTAINE 253 Mclnnes in race 3, only to 248 12 6 Rhett RUSSELL be lowered again by Emery 13 33 Denis PANA 239 a lap later.

232 14 90 Daniel RICHERT Round honors went to 202 15 98 Neville HALEY 16 97 Peter CASTLEDINE 166 Emery as the battle for 164 17 77 Andrew PARKER points in the top 10 set 18 17 Simone aECHSIG 151 the scene for a close 19 27 Steve MONTEROSSO 97 series 90 Jt**l

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128’ Geoff EMERY Christian D’AGOSTIN 124 .1 Andrew MclNNES .‘120 Marcus ZUKAN0Vlc5<12 Brett H0LDSW0RTHU03 Lee HOLDSW/ORTH'98 Steve MONTEROSSO 97 94 Allan WALLS 90 Rhett RUSSELL 90 11 69 Gary BAXTER 8812 33 Denis PANA

2 3 3 1 4 11 5 71 6 5 7 89 8 27 9 34 10 6

13 2 Greg WATERS 86 86 14 22 Shane GORE 83 15 9 Geoff FONTAINE 16 17 Simone aECHSIG n 78 17 97 Peter CASTLEDINE 76 18 19 Cameroii PRINCE 49 23 19 32 Craig SMITH22 20 90 Daniel RICHERT Round 3QLD Raceway 1 Christian D’AGOSTIN 151 1 i58 2 90 Daniel RICHERT 124 3 2 Greg WATERS 4 71 Marcus ZUKANOVIC 118 106 3 Geoff EMERY 5 6 89 Lee HOLDSWORTH 105 7 5 Brett HOLDSWORTH 104 8 11 Andrew MclNNES 9 4 David GITTUS 10 98 Neville HALEY 11 22 Shane GORE 12 9 Geoff FONTAINE 13 6 Rhett RUSSELL 14 77 Andrew PARKEF 15 34 Allan WALLS 16 32 Shane HUNl 17 33 Denis PANA

1

STATE SERIES

Emeiy rubs it in!

Round 1 - Philip Island, May 2002 The first round of the 2002 State Series saw some great racing in front of a large Konica crowd at Philip Island in absolutely ideal conditions. Pole position was grabbed by Craig Domaschenz marginally over Geoff Emery.

In race 1, Neil Crowe had a tight duel with Geoff Emery with the former coming out on top to take the points from Mclnnes (Axent) who came in third. A few incidents saw a few retirements, with Zukanovic detonating his team's second engine for the weekend, and Gittus (Strathfield) who decided to park in front of Fontaine at MG and ended up being shunted severely.

An exceptional performance from Andrew Parker (Sentinel Fire Services) to finish fifth was evidence of his improvement in the class. Other notable performances came from some new faces including Peter Newton, Ross Gregory and Dylan Innes who provided good racing with Stuart Scott and Simone Flechsig who rounded out the top 10. Being the only female competitor, Flechsig took great delight in managing one of her best ever performances to finish ahead of many - and with old tyres!

In race 2, the tables were turned as Emery got to the lead and drove away to win relatively comfortably.

An incident between Crowe and Mclnnes on the second last lap saw Crowe stripped of the points after a stewards enquiry.

The performance of Peter Newton to come home 5th was terrific whilst Parker spoiled his day by turning around at MG and have to retire.

Round 2 - Winton, July 2002 The Commodores travelled to Winton for the second round and had to experience extremely cold conditions, with snow being reported falling around the track on the Saturday!

The inclement weather saw terrible qualifying conditions in both Saturday sessions, with Daniel Richert taking pole from a gallant Craig Domaschenz. A terrific field of cars was a prelude to good racing, especially with most of the National competitors and Rhett Russell coming down from Sydney.

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The Sunday saw much improved conditions and in race 1 Danny Richert suffered mechanical troubles to be sidelined whilst Geoff Emery drove away from the field to comfortably win from Andrew Mclness (Axent) and Craig Domaschenz. Further back was Zukanovic and a terrific drive from Newton who held off Fontaine.

A number of DNF's reduced the number of finishing cars with Alan Walls having exhaust problems (like no exhaust!), Dylan Innes beaching the car, and Anthony Bates having an engine let go.

Neville Flaley was sporting a newly acquired car, while Castledine was in the normal Flaley machine - they did well to finish 8th and 9th respectively.

Race 2 saw Mclnnes grab the lead for a lap only to make a mistake and have Emery take the lead and drive away.

Domaschenz managed to pass Mclnnes with a few laps to go.

The days honors went to Emery with Domaschenz and Mclnnes close behind.

Zukanovic came in with a solid fourth and Newton held off Fontaine to finish fifth. An

incident on the start lap at turn 1 saw Rhett Russell having to sit out the race whilst the costly driving of some continued and again the stewards were made aware and were provided with video footage...

It was pleasing to see the newcomers compete and do well, with the likes of Innes and Bates moving up the field and showing good pace and narrowly finishing in front of Scott and Flechsig.

VICTORIAN STATE CH'SHIP STANDINGS 1 3 Geoff EMERY 195 2 11 n Andrew MclNNES 165 3 85 Craig DOMASCHENZ162 4 40 Peter NEWTON 142 5 9 Geoff FONTAINE 134 6 77 Andrew PARKER 132 7 35 Stuart SCOTT 124 ● 8 17. Simone RECHSIG 119 9 37 Dylan INNES 10 84 Kane ROSE 110 11 71 Marcus ZUKANOVIC102 .

12 98 Neville HALEY n 67 '● 13 97 Peter CASTLEDINE, ,64,-: 14 4 David GITTUS ' ' ■ 62 15 34 Allan WALLS. 59' : .

16 51 Ross GREGORY ■ . 59 ' 17 96 JeffWAHERS 57 56 18 24 Anthony BATES 19 90 Daniel RICHERT 52 J 20 7 Neil CROWE 50 21 6 Rhett RUSSELL ’ 29 Round 1 Philip Island 1 3 Geoff EMERY 2 84 Kane ROSE 3 11 Andrew MeINNES

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85 Craig DOMASCHENZ 76 40 Peter NEWTON 70 77-AndrewPARKER65 35 Stuart SCOTT 65 ■

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Dylan INNfS ' ● Geoff FONTAINE SimoneaECHSlG' David GITTUS Ross GREGORY Jeff WATTERS Neil CROWE Marcus ZUKANOVIC

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Craig DOMASCHENZ 86 Marcus ZUKANOVIC 76 Peter NEWTON 72 Geoff FONTAINE 70 Andrew PARKER 67 Neville HALEY 67 Peter CASTLEDINE 64 Stuart SCOTT 59 Allan WALLS 59 Simone FLECHSIG 57 56 Anthony BATES 53 Dylan INNES Daniel RICHERT 52 Rhett RUSSEU 29 Kane ROSE 27

Commodore Cup 3

Category Information c ommodore Cup competitors don’t speak in tenths of a second - they speak In hundredths! It is hard not to feel sorry for a competitor who misses pole position by only one or two-tenths of a second and is on the fourth row of the grid!

The category operates under one of this country’s most tightly controlled sets of regulations which produces incredibly close lap times and also leads to close, action packed racing, it is not unusual to see the cars three or four wide across the track fighting for position.

The highly modified (but tightly controlled) 4.2 litre Holden V8s

produce around 350hp and are renown for their ‘fire-breathing’ exhausts. Bodies are Holden Commodore VB through to VH, manufactured up until 1984.

Around $25,000 to $30,000 buys or builds a front-running car with only a minimal spares inventory required due to the inherent reliability of the car’s components.

Apart from the usual brakes, filters, oils and controlled Dunlop all-weather DOIJ tyres, maintenance is generally restricted to the outcome of

getting ‘just a little bit close’ to one’s fellow competitors.

There are a number of 2 car teams and the class has some 65 cars

Driver Profile Name: Geoff Emery Car No: 3 Marital Status: Tied Up DOB: 4 August 1969 Children: None known Full time job;: Retired Millionaire Most admired driver: All winners Racing Since: 1997 First car: Commodore Cup Favorite Food: Steak Favorite Drink: Scotch Favorite TV show: MASH Driving Ambition: Win at all costs

4 Commodore Cup

Australia-wide which participate in both a National and a State Series.

National races are televised and the class Is always on the lookout for new participants.

The bulk of current lead drivers and ex-champlons have come through from karts and the class Is seen as a stepping stone to V8 Supercars.

If you are Interested or would like further details on the category or cars available for sale, contact David GIttus on 03 9701 5559 or email davldg@actlvedisplay.com.au.

Interested participants can also enquire about team visits or passenger ride days to evaluate the cars.

□rivers who have progressed to V8 Supercars ● Dean Crosswell ● Garry Baxter ● Tim Shaw

(

● David (Skippy) Parsons ● Christian D'Agostin ● Wayne Wakefield ● Craig Harris ● Matthew Coleman ● Ross Holiday and more...

Rumour File ● Who has a new VS? ● More two-car teams for 2003? ● Paid drives for 2003?

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PROFILE

What ever happened l4

Peih'o Chaves?

There have been great anti net-segreat drivers in CP racing. But the Portuguese driver was much hotter than his record suggests LAST weekend, 19 Formula One cars faced the starter at the French Grand Prix.As recently as 10 years ago, there were a lot, lot more.

In the days of PreQualifying, a team’s weekend could actually end early on Friday morning, with only the fast few making qualifying, let alone the race.

And there was a ‘King’ of PreQualifying; Pedro Chaves.

For a bloke with a 0 from 13 record in PreQ, the little man from Oporto in Portugal was actually a pretty fair driver. In 1986, he dominated the local Formula Ford championships and finished third in the fiercely competitive British series the following year.

So he jumped into Formula 3000. Just like that. He floundered in the European Championship, failing to qualify for four of the 10 races, but in the British series in 1989, he found his groove, winning five races. He won the series; Alain Menu was second with just over half Chaves’s points.

He scored one result in the European series, fourth at Brands Hatch giving him equal points for the season with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Fabrizio Barbazza, and then Formula One racing beckoned ... kind of For the 1990 season, he raced for Coloni. Well,‘raced’is perhaps the wrong word. On debut at Phoenix, he crashed at the very first comer, but still managed sixth in the PreQ session. It was to be a career

highlight.

The car, designed by the team’s engineers and students from the University of Peruggia, was hopeless. He was occasionally faster than the Fondmetal car of Olivier Grouillard, or Barbazza’s AGS, but otherwise, he was usually last in PreQualifying. Even at home, at Estoril, he was 24 July 2002

That’s right, don’t listen to ’em: Chaves prepares for the Monaco Grand Prix of 1991. Well, he prepares for PreQualifying, anyway...

(Photo by Howard Boylan/Ailsport)

slowest, by five seconds ...

That was enough. He left the team, replaced by Naoki Hattori, unhappy with having to pay for his own air tickets to races and, unlike Hattori, he did not have fat sponsors to pay for it.

So it was back to F3000, where Chaves had some good results, then Indy Lights in 1993, scoring three podium finishes en route to fourth in the championship. The following year, he scored more podiums, but could manage only fifth in the series. He dabbled in rallying, but went back to Lights in 1995, scoring his only win at Vancouver.

He raced for a time in sportscars and touring cars, but he really found a niche in rall3dng. In local events, his Castrol-supported Toyota Corolla WRC was on the podium in two events, and in 1998, he finished 13th outright in the Portuguese WRC round.

In 1999, he actually won his first title since the FF days, taking the Portuguese Rally championship with two outright wins. The '■ following year, he won it again, with five wins.

Was Chaves hopeless? No, far from it. He just happened to drive a hopeless car, at a time when Formula One grids were over subscribed by teams without the resources to go GP racing properly.

And driving a world rally car is not easy; no less a driver than Michael Schumacher has just turned down the opportunity to do so.

Who knows; maybe one day, we will see Pedro Chaves, the King of unQualifying, in Rally Australia ...

9 For Sale Commodore Cup Car New action racing engine not yet run in.

Fully rebuilt Super TIO - road race spec.

Spare wheels, radiator and rotors etc.

Front running car in the right hands.

Full assistance given to new owner.

Must sell due to owner leaving state. $18,900 neg Ph Owen 041813327^

45

French Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher overcame a case of White Line Fever’ and a new Flying Finn to clinch an historic fifth World title. JOESAWARD reports on a controversial French GP in which the German rewrote the history books. confirmed himself as one of the sport’s Michael Schumacher greatest legends on Sunday by clinching is fifth World Championship matching the record of the great Juan Manuel Fangio.

The French Grand Prix surrendered itself to the German, giving him his eighth victory of the year. His performance also meant a new record of 16 consecutive races in which he has scored points.

Michael was unable to pass Juan Pablo Montoya early on but then moved into the lead at the first pit stop. However, as he accelerated away from the pits, he just crossed the white line at the exit of the pitlane. This meant that he had to pay his debt to society and had a drive-through penalty.

This dropped Michael back to

third place behind Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. For a few laps the three circulated together and then Montoya pitted and the fight was on between Michael and Kimi.

Overtaking was not possible and so it was down to the pit stops and McLaren outdid Ferrari.

Raikkonen was on his way to his first Grand Prix victory, harried by Schumacher.

On lap 68, though, Allan McNish's Toyota suffered an engine failure at the end of the back straight. McNish spun and Kimi arrived without any warning and went wide.

“There were yellow flags,” said Raikkonen,“but not any oil flags. I locked up a front right and Michael got past.

“If you didn’t see the oil, you didn’t see it. I was obviously warned because I saw (McNish’s)

problem, so I was reacting to it. It was my opportunity (to win).”

Raikkonen tried to get back onto the track before Schumacher went ahead, but was not quick enough.

Michael was ahead and, although there were later questions about how the move had been done, the FIA Stewards concluded that there was no case to be answered.

After the incident, Schumacher radioed the team and asked if he should back off and let Raikkonen ahead again and was told that he should do no such thing.

“Once I was in the lead,” said Michael,“it was the worst five laps of my life as I realised that the championship was again in my pocket.

“I had a weight on my shoulders.

The pressure v/as on not to make mistakes and not do anything wrong.”

Later in the evening, Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo flew in from Italy to join the celebrations.

It is rare that a Formula 1 team enjoys such domination and, while there are some who say that such things are dull, we should appreciate greatness when we'see it. Right now we are watching one ofthe most dominant teams in the history of the sport.

Inevitably, the others will catch up for FI is a cyclical business and at Magny-Cours we saw a much stronger showing from McLaren.

This was in part down to tyres, but was also lucky as Montoya held back Michael early in the race, which enabled Raikkonen and Coulthard to stay in contact. If Michael had not made his eiTor at the pit exit, he would have been continued on page 50

The red streak: Heading for a victory that he could barely believe and coming to terms with it all afterwards... ^Photos by sutton-imagBs)

FORMULA ONE

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Talk to the hand: A delighted Michael Schumacher and wife Corrina put aside the controversies of the French GP and celebrate a record-equalling fifth title.

(Photo by Sulton-lmages)

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while Arrows might have 'participated' in the event, one could argue,that thetea'm h'ad-not fuffilled another cl^se In the Concorde n Agreement, in which teams HERE were tvyo<things of undertake’to "to do nothing which note in qualifying for the may be prejudicial to the image and French Grand Prix - the pace dignity of FI as a high class sport”. of Juan Pablo Montoya in his Williams-BMW and the ill-starred What is dignity? What is participation? What is the purpose of exploits of the Orange Arrows team. turning up and not trying?

Montoya reflected many of the hankfully, the main cast soon things that are good about the sport; came out and we were able to and Arrows did the opposite. forget the Arrows saga. The It was an interesting qualifying qualifying session was soon rocking, session in very hot and sunny with Rubens Barrichello setting the conditions. It began with a sad piece of theatre with the Arrows team. The pace and then being knocked off the top of the timesheets by Montoya. two cars had run only one installation Michael Schumacher tried to beat lap apiece in practice, not because him, but made a mistake at the final the engine bills had not been paid corner and bounced across a but, rather, because there seemed to be some kind of Mexican stand-off sandtrap. The time was a good one (he was third), but Michael had cut going on. the corner and the time was later The problem was that Morgan disallowed.

Grenfell, the bank that has a Barrichello came out again and shareholding in the team, was not took back pole, but within minutes blinking. The two cars could easily Montoya had reclaimed the place, have qualified, despite the lack of only to lose it a few moments later to running, but the drivers were Michael on his second run. This was allowed only one flying lap in the first good stuff. few minutes of qualifying and, in For 12 minutes, things were quiet both cases, they seemed to slow and then Montoya carved a tenth deliberately in the third sector. from Schumacher's best time and in It looked as though the drivers the closing laps he held on, improving were not supposed to qualify. his best time by another tenth.

Certainly there was no further effort Behind him in those final moments made. This, it will no doubt be of excitement was Michael argued, constituted 'participation' in Schumacher, but that last effort was the event. Perhaps it did. Perhaps not enough. The gap was 0.023s, not. That is a question of which is so small a gap that it is hard interpretation. to even imagine, but that is all that is Interpretation is a funny thing and.

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Things were mighty,close at the^^i front of the grid - as theyijjave beea"^ l at other recent races - butrgualifying ; and the race have been q'ufie different things, lillontoya-has been i on pole for the previous foi^ races,,.'f' but Michael has been winnibg the races (or allowing Rubens to do so). Z-/-.

But on Saturday night at Magny- n n Cours there was an unexpeptedly light and cheerful air down in the Williams garage. l > ’.

Magny-Cours is a funny circuit. It .-fi is so smooth that, during a race, tyro; wear in not an issue, but the '%■_ performance of the tyres can drop quite dramatically. On this occasion Michelin seemed to 6e confident ■-●a that it had the^tyre that would be needed on Sunday. Montoya was in with a big chance for the race. " I think the chances are much better than normal," said Montoya.

"I am surprised to be on pole. We were not really expecting it here. We were even concerned about McLaren, but in the end we are up there."

"We" in this case referred to Montoya alone because Ralf Schumacher was some way from the pace of his Colombian team mate and this meant that he would start Sunday in fifth place on the grid, four-tenths of a second slower than' his teammate.

Ralf admitted that he had made a mistake at the last corner on his final flying lap and so lost all hope he had had of a top grid position.

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GLOBAL MACHINERY COMPAIMY

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etween the two William^were the two Ferraris and Kimi» Raikkonen's McLaren. ^ " n ."I think that it will be HI iof. honestly we havenT got the full 'picture yet because yesterday things looked a little bit more reasonable. Let's see what happens tomorrow."

Barrichello said that his car was not working well despite the fact that he was third on the grid, just two-tenths slower than Michael.

Raikkonen's fourth place was a promising effort but the Finn reckoned that he might have been third or perhaps even second if he had not made a mistake on his final run. David Coulthard was twotenths slower than his team-mate and so had to make do with sixth place. He complained of oversteer which made it difficult to attack the corners.

The fourth row of the grid belonged to Renault, which was no big surprise as Michelin seemed to have a better tyre than Bridgestone. This in itself was no big surprise as this is Michelin's home track.

Jenson Button outshone Jarno Trulli in qualifying, ending up threetenths faster than the Italian and adding a certainty poignancy to the Renault announcement later in the afternoon when it was revealed (amid no great surprise) that Button was being dropped to make way for Fernando Alonso.

There was a good effort from Jaguar Racing, which managed to qualify Eddie Irvine ninth. This was in part due to the Michelins but also thanks to the new aerodynamic package. Redro de la Rosa had less Kin and suffered a hydraulic failure with his own car and string of other problems with the spare. He ended up 15th.

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Qjiei Tber seenn^^^^^g h. The team ufied^ the ha rder of The Bridgestone compounds.and hoped that the risk would.pay off in the race. The team seemed quite happy on Saturday evening.

The BAR-Hondas were mixing it with the Swiss cars on this occasion with Olivier Ranis 11th on the grid and Jacques Villeneuve-13th. The cars were fitted with new Honda engines and, while Ranis decided to use his new engine just for Saturday, Villeneuve decided to use fewer revs in qualifying and run the engine on Sunday as well.

Jordan had a miserable time again with Takuma Sato 14th and Giancarlo Fisichella ending his weekend on Saturday morning with a huge shunt after a front wing failure. The crash looked to have been caused by high frequency vibration of the wing.

The result was frightening but Fisichella escaped largely unhurt although it was agreed that he could not qualify.

Mark Webber reckoned that he might have been 16th on the grid had it not been for a problem which stranded his race car out on the track after his first run, confining him to the much slower spare, in which he completed just one run. In the end the Minardi was some tenths off the Toyotas.

The Toyota team seemed a little mystified by why the car was not quick, with Mika Salo 16th and Allan McNish 17th.

The final qualifier was Alex Yoong, who scraped into the field with a time which was 106.68 percent slower than pole position.

A close call, when the rules allow for only 107 percent...

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Currently I am working casual at a shoe store and alsofar a t'n cosmetics company in their marketing department. This allows me to ’ work in the modelling industry part time. I would like to concentrate a lot more this year on my modelling. Myfirst Modellingfab wasfar the Fosters Formula One Grand Prix this year. Iprefer photographic work and I also love entering competitions as I havefound the girls to all be veryfriendly. I enjoy motorsport and recently workedfar the World Superbikes at Phillip Island. I really enjoyed the racing there.

I have travelled all around Australia. I have also travelled to America and Canadafar three months. I would love to visit Europe and South America next, lama keen artist and I love to paint and sketch. I read a lot in my spare time and to keep fitIswim and run. My problem is I love to shop.

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French Grand Prijc >●

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continued from page 47 gone, as he has been at so many races this year, but the drivethrough penalty gave McLaren the chance to challenge and in FI you have to take your chances when they come.

David Coulthard made the same mistake as Schumacher and paid for it. He was right up with the Ferrari until his drive-through and

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then dropped back 10 seconds. In all probability he would not have been able to pass Michael, but you never know.

One advantage that McLaren enjoyed was that there was no Rubens Bamchello to worry about.

The Brazilian, third on the grid, once again failed to get off the line at the start of the parade lap.

“I don't know what happened,” said Rubens. “The engine never

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What might have been: Kimi Raikkonen cut a sad figure (right) after sliding off on oil and being passed by Schumacher near the finish (above).

(Photos by Sutton-lmages)

fired up. We tried everything we could. We changed the steering wheel, tried all the buttons, but there was nothing we could do.”

Rubens was not a happy bunny and stomped off to the local airport to fly home. When he heard that Michael had won the race, he changed his mind.

“I felt I had to retm-n to the track,” he said. ‘We are a family and we stick together through thick and thin.”

Williams could have used a little togetherness after a very difficult afternoon.

It was clear early on that Montoya was not quicker than Schumacher, but he held on, pushing as hard as he could.

“Our tyre choice was good in yesterday’s hotter conditions, but it didn't pay off today in cooler conditions. As the race went on we were losing more and more grip.”

Ralf Schumacher was straggling even more and did not help his own

cause when he also ran over the white line at the exit of the pits. He had a drive-through penalty, which dropped him behind Coulthard. It looked for all the world as though as he then went over the white line again, but no action was taken, which seemed odd.

In the end, the Williams men finished fourth and fifth, the only ones other than the McLarens that were on the same lap as Schumacher. A lap down came Button, who led the Renault charge all day. Trulli was not able to match him andi ultimately went out with an en^ne problem. One World Championship point is something for the team and a filip for Button given the news of the day before...

A lap down in seventh was Nick Heidfeld, who did not have a very impressive race, due to problems with the electronics that caused the team to instruct Nick to turn off the traction-control.

The luck of the ... Brazilians: Rubens Barrichello was left in this ungainly position when his Ferrari failed to fire for the start. f ■

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FORMULA ONE French Grand Prix I July 21 2002 M Schumacher RESULT Ihr32m09.837s bRACE 2 Raikkonen 3 Coulthard

Ihr32ml0.941s Ihr32m41.812s Ihr32m50.512s Ihr32m51.609s

4 Montoya 5 R Schumacher 6 Button 7 Heidfeld 8 Webber 9 de la Rosa

10 Yoong 11 McNish Engine R Irvine Broken wing R Trulll Engine R Massa Mechanical R Salo Engine R Villeneuve Engine R Panis vibrations R Sato Spun off DNSl Barrichello Did not start

Peaking too early: For the fifth time in succession, Montoya took pole. And for the fifth time in succession the Williams was not up to it in the race, despite leading away from the start.

DNQRsichella DNE Frentzen DNQBernoldi

(Photo by March/Bothwell)

Felipe Massa’s race was a horrible mess (again). He jumped the start by a considerable margin and had to go into the pits for a drive-through penalty. He then screwed up and drove over the white line at the exit of the pitlane and so had to go back again for another drive-through.

By the time he had done all this, Massa was too far back to make much of an impression and his race ended after a frantic muddle at the second stop because the team was expecting Heidfeld. Massa set off and it seems that something broke.

Eighth place Mark was aWebber, mighty effort from who made a good start and then concentrated on getting as much speed as possible in the crucial laps before and after his two pit stops. This enabled him to pass McNish’s Toyota and he picked up other places as those ahead faltered. It was a very good effort.

“We were genuinely racing machinery which should have been far ahead of us today,” admitted

team boss Paul Stoddart.

Alex Yoong made it to the finish, but he was four laps down by the end ofthe race - three behind Webber - which is not very impressive.

The only other finisher was Pedro de la Rosa in 10th place. His race was compromised from the start when he had to take avoiding action to avoid the incident between Olivier Panis and Takuma Sato. After that he was playing catch up.

Eddie Irvine would probably have ended up seventh in the other Jag, but on the 53rd lap his rear wing fell apart- which was not a great advert for the team - and he went spinning off at the Adelaide Hairpin.

Toyota had a pretty poor weekend with two engine failures in the race.

BAR had little to write home about after Panis went off with Sato at the start and had to pit for repairs. He rejoined a long way back but eventually went out with a suspension problem. Villeneuve went out with a massive engine

71 laps 71 laps 71 laps 70 laps 68 laps 65 laps 52 iaps 49 laps 48 laps 48 laps 45 laps 29 laps 23 laps 0 laps

failure when he was ranning 10th.

Jordan's weekend was what Eddie Jordan described as “a disaster”. And who would argue with that? Fisichella watched the race at home on TV and Sato went off at the first corner and later went off into the gravel.

Fastest Up- David Coulthard on lap 62 lml5.045s Driver's Points: M Schumacher 96, Montoya 34, R Schumacher and Batricheik) 32, Coulthard 30, Ralki 17, Button 11, Rslchella and Heidfeld 6, TruUi and Massa 4, Irvine and Villeneuve 3, Webber, Panis, Salo and Frentzen 2.

Constawtoi^ Points F«iaij 128, VVgiiams/BMW 66, McLaren/Mercedes 47,Renault 15,Sauber/Potinnas 10,n ioninnmonda 6,BARWonda 5,Jaguar/Coswntli 3, MinaidVAsiatech and Toyota 2,AmmsAXswoftli Z

Seconds out: At the end of the race, Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo argues with McLaren boss Ron Dennis over the finer points of yellow flags, but the smile on the face of Jean Todt (left) tells the final story.

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BRAKES 51

French Grand Prix

What Schumi said Edited highlights of the post-race press conference Q: Michael, I think I've spoken to you after every title that you've won, but this one seems to be very, very special for you; very emotional.

MS; Yeah, they’ve all been special in different ways. You cannot compare one to the other. Each win, actually, has been different and there’s never been the moment where you get used to something. You still enjoy it and feel fantastic about it.

Q; Before Kimi went wide at the

1

MS; For me, it was the heat of the moment, in aii honesty. I was having a radio conversation at the same time and watching in the mirrors rather than on the circuit, so it is probabiy a littie bit more difficuit here than somewhere eise because it is in the corner, it is going downhiii and uphiii.

But we are Formuia One drivers and we shouid be able to drive without touching the line or going over it.

DC: it is interesting that Michael said he was having a radio conversation.

Maybe if(my)team were telling me that there wasn’t someone right behind me at that moment then I would not have taken such a risk. But immediately 1 tried to cut as quickly as 1 could to get my line. Of course, if there was no one behind me at that

Q: Michael,that has now equalled Fangio. How does that make you feel and have you considered this moment?

me so that I couldn’t get a go at him. It was just lucky, and I didn’t really expect anything like that, honestly, but that’s the way motor sport is - you have to go until the end and sometimes you get your opportunity.

point it was a bit of a wasted exercise.

But it was my mistake.

MS: I have obviously been asked very often about it, but personally I have To apologise because I am not considering it too much because i feel, and I have mentioned this very often, what Fangio has done in his time is not comparable to what we do, and I think the effort that he had to put in at the time was probably a lot more than just being a driver than in these days, where you have so many people around you, where you have a lot more teamwork than you had in the past. I feel it is not appropriate to compare these things, at least from my point of view, and I simply enjoy the achievement myself without tiying to compare it to someone.

n Q: Were there any yellow flags where he went off?

MS:There was yellow flags. 1 don’t remember whether there was an oil

end, did you think you were goirig to be able to get past him? Were you lining up to give him a big challenge towards the end?

MS: I was pushing very hard immediately after the pit stop. Then I took it a littie more easy because I didn’t find any opportunity. About 10 laps from the end, I started to pick up the pace again.

Honestly, I don’t think I would have found a way without a mistake or a backmarker in the right position. He drove a fantastic race and in the right moments he was enough in front of V

difficult to see or is it just the heat of the moment?

MS: I think you have probably seen more than I can explain, honestly.

That’s rather difficult. I was not feeiiing any sort of pressure before the race because honestly I didn’t believe it was going to happen here.

That was the worst five laps I’ve had in my career, I would say, and they didn’t want to finish; they went on forever. It’s these moments when you feel how much load you have and how much it means to you, how much you love the sport and how determined you are and when finally you pass the flag and everything goes away and you know you have done it, that’s a fantastic moment, unbelievable, and you just get an outbreak of emotions and ... I’m sorry, I can’t find the words for it.

flag and I immediately came on the radio -“Did I overtake under the yellow or nof- but then, honestly, I think in such a situation, as it was afte!" the exit or the incident or whatever, I think there wasn't...

Obviously, he was quite far off-line, but I was concerned at that moment, but there didn’t seem to be any problem.

Q: What were your feelings on that final lap, what was going on, what were the messages in the helmet?

Q; Did you cry inside your helmet or before the podium ceremony?

MS: I was excited and emotional, yes.

Q: 1 would just like to ask how you are going to celebrate tonight. I heard you are going to smoke a cigar very peacefully at home.

MS: We haven’t arranged anything, so we will have to see what comes up and find out. I don’t know what I am going to do, 1 have no idea.

Q: But the cigar?

MS; I think everybody knows that I do that after the race, so there is no sort of secret, but 1 don’t see the need to mention it to the whole world. I am sort of an idol to the young kids and I shouldn’t be smoking, so please...

Q; You and David are not the only ones crossing the white line. Is it

T -vS

French Grand Prix

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Positions lap by lap

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'Grid Position/C |1 Juan Pablo Montoya,col; Williams!

2 Michael Schumacher GER Ferrari I 3 Kimi Raikkonen

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; 5 David Coulthard

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; 6 Jenson Button

GBR Renault

i 7 Jarno Trulli

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n S Eddie Irvine

GBR Jaguar

I 9 Nick Heidfeld

GER Sauber

10 Olivier Panis

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11 Felipe Massa

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;14 Pedro De La Rosa ,15 Mika Salo

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;T6 Allan McNish

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;17 Mark Webber

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|18 Alex Yoong

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19 moiorsport news

FORMULA ONE

H

ow about that. I’d anticipated that the French Grand Prix might be a bit of a dour struggle - but it turned out to be my second-best result of the yearl As we head home on Sunday evening, I’m quietly very pleased with the day’s work. We were up there in among the Jags and Toyotas, trading race pace laps, toe-to-toe with a number of theoretically quicker cars and a good top 10 result - eighth - was a great boost for the team.

I must say, things weren’t looking that rosy until race time, but, having missed a fair portion n of practice (and even qualifying) time, we made a late change to the car that worked well and it paid off in spades.

There’s always a trade-off between straightline speed and downforce and, after looking at all the data again after the warm-up, we decided that we were losing too much corner speed on the first sector especially and decided to take a bit of a punt by adding a reasonable amount of wing.

At circuits that are ‘power’ sensitive, we do tend to run less wing, simply to be able to keep up on the longer straights. MagnyCours is another of those places where you need to be good over the kerbs, too - we were okay there, but, as I said, losing out too much in that first sector. Time to try something...

In percentage terms, we added around five percent front and rear.

It knocked 3.5 kmh off our top speed, but, as the race would illustrate, it was quicker overall, especially in that first sector.

We’d done our tyre back-toback on Friday and opted for the ‘option’ Michelin, the softer of the two choices. Saturday was a lot hotter and clearly there was some disparity among the Michelin runners about the best option.

Williams and Toyota went for the harder rubber but, as Sunday was to illustrate, the soft tyre was the correct choice - although we were a bit nervous about it until Sunday dawned quite a bit cooler than the day before.

Saturday had been a bit of a disaster. I missed the first session completely while a hydraulic problem in my car was fixed, but

I’d managed in my own car, so we opted to sit out the latter part of the session, saving a set of tyres for the race.

My one run, without the Arrows and Fisichella’s Jordan in the race, was good enough for 18th, albeit some seven-tenths behind the second of the Toyotas.

Although we usually find something in the later qualifying runs, I doubt we could have changed the order.

Just faking it one step at a time: Yes, our man Webber ,

was in the running in qualifying... iPhofo hy MiirshBnthwcH)

MARK WEBBER French GP Diary

did at least get half an hour’s running in the second to get some of the chassis work done.

Qualifying was also less than perfect. Fortunately, I managed quite a good ‘banker’ time on my first run because the car ground to a halt on the ‘in’ lap with what transpired to be a fuel pressure problem.

That meant a jog back to the pits to have a run in the spare. It is, literally, a spare, without the power-steering and with "We made a late change to Uie differing brake and aero car that worked well and It paid set-ups to my car.

Ft off in spades.

It only took a couple of laps to realise that it wouldn’t get near the time

24 July 2002

Sunday provided a supersatisfying race, though.

Everything went to plan. The car worked well, the stops were great and we were able to gain spots by pure tactics.

I chased McNish’s Toyota and, when he dived in for his first stop, concentrated really hard on putting together a couple of really good, clean laps and a strong ‘in’ and ‘out’ lap at my stop. Just as it does at the sharp end of the grid, it got me past the Toyota and I was able to pull clear before it blew - which I gather affected the outcome at the front of the race.

With the attrition rate at what is mechanically a tough circuit, it all added up to eighth - a lap down on the leaders and nearly three up on my teammate.

You can’t really ask for more than that.

Two cars in the top 10 is great for Paul (Stoddart), so we move on to Germany next weekend in , an upbeat frame of mind.

No news on where I’llfurther be next year.yet Confirmation that Alonso is replacing Jenson Button at Renault means that I’m the remaining Flavio Briatore/Bruno Michel-managed driver looking to finalise plans for ’03. That means they can concentrate 100 percent on my futurel l As I said last time. I’m optimistic...

Rewardfor effoM: EiglUli place was a great rewardfor driving like this. ^Photo bv Sutlon-htwiics}

53

Queensland Racev^ay

A Thpee way Thing

Geoff Morgan, John Bowe andJim Richards shared the wins at Queensland Raceway as the title chase becomes a close fight between the Viper, Ferrari and Porsche drivers.

AARON NOONAN reports on the Nations Cup battle

F

The sun ain’t setting on this championship just yet: Geoff Morgan had the Max Factor Viper at the front of the pack at Queensland Raceway, setting up a tight title fight through the final rounds of the series. Peter Fitzgerald, above with Morgan, returned to (Photos by Difk Klynsmilh) the podium after a long dry spell.

^ *

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54

-●« -

OR all of the talk about parity that surrounds Nations Cup racing, you could call it ironic that there were three different winners in three races at round five of the series at Queensland Raceway.

Geoff Morgan’s Max Factor Viper took the round honours after a race three win, though John Bowe and Jim Richards won the other two races, making it a tight three-way tussle at the top of the championship table.

“It’s a great feeling to get that chequered flag,” said Morgan, who now sits third in the championship,just 23 points off leader Bowe and 19 behind Richards.

The Viper driver took two runner-up spots in the first two races to go with his final race success.

Amazingly, Richards’s win in race one was the first for both he and Porsche in 2002,though the OAMPS GT3 was unable to hold out the Italian and American machines in the following races.

Morgan slipped by in the closing stages of the ‘reverse eight’second race to take the lead at turn three, but he and the Porsche had a rub and Richards ploughed through the scrub and fell to third as Bowe took advantage.

By the time race three rolled around, the tyres on the GT3 were the issue, as the two-time Nations Cup Champion settled for a comfortable third on the road, later promoted to second.

“We used our fresher tyres in the first two races,” said Richo.

“For

Excuse me: While Bowe, right, had to fight his way back from a driveshaft failure in race one, the dice between Morgan and Richards, below, allowed the Ferrari to close. When the Viper and GTS Cup car touched, guess who was waiting to pick up the pieces ...

(Photos by Marshall Cass)

the third we used the best of the bunch but I just couldn’t lap as quick. There was no need to try 100 percent at the end.”

Bowe’s luck simply wasn’t in the Sunshine State. A driveshaft broke as he left to start the warm-up lap for race one, allowing bothfRichards and Morgan to close in the championship chase as he sat it out.

Nevertheless, the 360 GT arrowed its way from the rear of the small field, and took advantage of a rub between the Porsche and Viper towards the end to sail past and take the win.

Just when things seemed to be on the up,that all changed on lap one of the third race, when Bowe spun Tony Quinn’s Porsche. He carried on and crossed the line second, though a 30-second

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cut;ribert prestiqe aoorr repairs c.

^^L.Ken penalty for the incident dropped him to fourth.

“This was a frustrating race day after winning pole position yesterday gave some hope of being able to consolidate my lead in the championship,” Bowe said.

“But I am nevertheless still in the lead and there are still three . rounds to go. Geoff, Jim and I each won a race today in vastly different cars and I think that promises a very exciting battle to the end of the season.”

The misfortunes of Bowe must have left the Lamborghini team and Paul Stokell kicking themselves at missing a chance to gain some points back on the title leader, leaving Richards the pleasure of slicing the Ferrari’s lead from 63 to four points.

Peter Fitzgerald made a welcome return to the podium in his Falken lyes GT3 Cup with third in the final race to go with a pair of fourths, w'hile Quinn scored a best result of third in the opening race.

The Group 2 battle was all PHR Scuderia. Steve Beards looked to have the upper hand after he won the class in race one and hung onto H

the hack of the Group 1 pack for a while, only for John Teulan to respond and take the next two to take out the round win as well as the Group 2 title lead from Sam Newman.

Points: Bowe 724, Richanls 720, Morgan 701, BeU 509, Quinn 473, StokeU 415.

Group 2: Teulan 725, Newman 681, Beards 676.

●i.

V

M'i Porsche pilots: Peter Rtzgerald put his Porsche back on the podium after enduring a terrible couple of rounds, above, while Scott Shearhan, below, must have thought he was at the speedway and not Queensland fPholoe by Otrk iOynsmith and Marsball Cass) Raceway in among the Group 2 battle.

GT Performance/V8 BRutes

Different DTP Strokes

Peters and Full clash at Queensland Raceway

Three different marques and three different models: Brett Peters, Geoff Full and Peter Floyd took their Subaru, Mitsubishi and HSVs respectiveiy (Pholo by Dirk Klynsmith) to the iimit in GT-Performance at Queensiand Raceway.

by AARON NOONAN BRETT Peters was the dominating force in the Century Batteries Subaru WRX at Queensland Raceway’s round of the Australian GTPerformance Championship, but he didn’t quite take the clean sweep.

The defending Champion extended his points lead over the course of the round, taking victory in the first two races before being spun by Geoff Full during a close dice in race three.

While Peters recovered to point the Subaru in the right direction and salvage sixth place, Full was handed a drive-through penalty, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII ended up 11th.

The first race was on a greasy track after some early morning rain, with Peters, David Wood and Full having spells out in front, until Peters gained the upper hand and won from Peter Floyd’s HSV and Full, with pole-sitter Wood fourth.

Peters, Full and The Flying Surgeon’Anton Mechtler(Evo VII) filled the podium in race two, though Wood had all sorts of dramas. The Kleenduct Subaru driver had to resort to asking over the course commentaiy for any spectators with a 2001/2002-model Subaru to ‘borrow’some suspension bits.

In the end he made it out for race three, but after Full and Peters clashed, that opened the door for a HSV 1-2, Floyd leading home Barry Morcom, who suffered a broken gearshift in race one.

Wood’s bad run of luck continued with a flat front left tyre, while Mark King(Evo VII), John Falk (WRX STi) and Peter Roma (Mazda RX-7),led Peters home.

Points: Peters 682, Full 600, Floyd 556, Wood 546,Alexander 534, King 438.

56

O

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3

I’m on the telly!

'Mad Dog' Denver takes V8 BRute round GRANT Denyer came from the very depths to win the fifth round of the VSBRutes at QR. Denyer detonated an engine on Friday, forcing a hurried re preparation of the XR8.

Disappointed with third in qualifying, the diminutive journalist came through for a second, fourth and first.

Vehicular carnage was well down by Oran Park and Winton standards after alterations to the reverse grid race.

Garry Holt and Glen Barnes led the field away in the first race, while James Brock spun at Turn 3 after a clash with Allan Grice that saw the veteran take a drive through penalty. Holt slowed on the straight as the black flag for Grice came out, and Charlie Kovacs charged past into the lead.

Holt held onto second

He’s getting away! White, Luffand Grice proved that BRute racing is tight.

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmith)

despite same last lap attempts from Denyer, only to lose it when he and Jim Cornish were excluded for having illegal air filters. This promoted Gary MacDonald to third ahead of Barnes and Warren Luff.

Damien White took the reverse-grid race ahead of Luff, while a four car battle for third was settled as Kovacs caught Grice and got inside at turn 6, squeezing the dual Bathurst winner almost into pit wall on the main straight. Kovacs would

get a 'drive-thru' for his troubles. MacDonald broke through the group to take third from Denyer and Grice succumbed to a puncture.

Denyer launched from the grid in race three to a lead he'd never lose. MacDonald took second from Luff while the fight was further back as White and Stephen Robinson fought over fourth, with Grice sixth after starting at the rear of the field.

- MARK JONES motorspon news

spectacular package - and the best ot the best will go toe-to-toe here when the V8 Supercar Championship contenders are let loose on our 2.6bm high-speed race track.

You've gotta be there tor the adrenalin-packed excitement. Get out your calendar and mark Oran Park as the place to be on July 27/28.

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a KARAMJIT Singh has become the revelation of the World Rally Championship,taking the led in the Group N title after just three outings and two wins in the production car category.

At the same time, the Malaysian is also leading the Asia Pacific title outright in a gruelling round of rallies which have seen him criscrossing the globe from Cyprus to Canberra, Greece to New Caledonia, and New Zealand to Kenya.

While Singh is on top in two important tiles, Australia’s drivers must be wondering where they would be placed in both titles it they were contesting them.

Singh was comprehensively outpaced by the Australians in Canberra, .vith the Malaysian declaring the Australians were the fastest Group N drivers in the world and competing in the most competitive production car championship.

- JON ThjOMSON'^

l ^ 5

n i I

1

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Photo by Richard Whitford

Aussie ri

THE FIA could be set to adopt the Australian model for vehicle eligibility in at least some of its regional championships following its success here this year.

The plan follows the pitching of the idea by Australia's World Rally Commission representative Garry Connelly.

The World Rallies Commission has arinounced it will be banning the’highly expensive World Rally Cars from regional titles, such as the Asia Pacific and Middle East championships.

However, the success of the Group N model here in Australia could hold the key to reducing costs and increasing fields in those titles.

Connelly admits he has been talking to the governing body about the idea since it was proposed by Aussie driver Neal Bates at an ARCOM working group meeting last year.

"I think a few of the Rallies Commission people thought I had two heads when I brought it up and some still do, but there is a feeling that this could form the basis for a solution to the problem," said Connelly.

"There is an issue with the problem of disposing of expensive second hand World Rally Cars, and realistically I think the European title and some European national titles can afford to continue with WR

-i cars, but in APRC it is clearly a t strong option as it was here in Australia."

ARCom last week issued the .-» t draft regulations for the new Australian category which will be known as Group N IP) and run alongside the homologated cars from Mitsubishi and.

Subaru.

The rules have apparently received the blessing of current , n manufaet’urers Mitsubishi and Subaru, and have also had input from Ford's Howard Marsden, Toyota's Neal Bates and other interested parities.

ARCom hopes to ratify the . nn

Schuey declines McRae challenge

Bring it on; McRae was keen to meet Schumchaerfor a Fl/WRC face-off.

58

REIGNING Formula One Champion Michael Schumacher has declined the challenge of a head-to-head battle with Colin McRae to determine who is the overall fastest driver.

McRae, who notched up his 25th WRC victory on the Safari Rally, suggested a pair of showdowns against the Ferrari star in both Formula One and World Rally cars as a fundraiser for charity.

However Schumacher, who learnt of the idea when he arrived at Magny Cours for the French GP last weekend, decided to give it a miss - at least for now.

"For him (McRae), it's probably easier to check that sort of thing out with Ford and Jaguar, because it's the same company," said Schumacher.

"Truthfully, I have been interested in running a rally car in the past, but I have to say that my level of interest in that is a bit down right now. I'm not that interested in going through a forest!

"But, maybe one day I'll do it if it's in a safe place."

McRae already has some FI miles under his belt, having taken Martin Brundle's Jordan out for a whirl at Silverstone in 1996, posting some fairly decent lap times in the process.

Not right now; Schuey has declined McRae’s offer, but may he interested trium by Marsb/BOTIIWELL) in the future. moiorsport news

RALLYING Rally briefs SKODA Motorsport are rumoured to be on the verge of announcing plans to build a Fabia World Rally Car. The company is said to have been considering basing its WRC around the smaller Fabia model for some time, after having run the Octavia model for the past three seasons.

Competition director Pavel Janeba did not rule out the prospect of the Fabia being built as early as next year, saying, "that is always possible.

Everything is possible..."

Pioneering Possum? The ARC (imiii> Nfornuil could ser cos a hhiepi iiufor oilier regional eluiinpionships itrouiid die world irii,^'

/ftflHIW.

new rules on July 29.

The draft regulations include a template for ballast plates which can be added to bring about parity should a prototype car prove too competitive.

Connelly says copies of the draft have been dispatched to the heads of both the FIA Manufacturer's Commission and the Technical Commission for consideration.

- JOIM THOMSON

RICHAED Burns has slammed the conditions that caused his somewhat bizarre retirement from the Safari Rally.

By the second day of the rally the World Champion had recovered to be in fifth place after Day 1 delays, caused by an inevitable broken damper and a water leak, when his car suffered further suspension damage. Despite running only on three wheels for 50km of a road stage.

Burn was within sight of Peugeot’s service area when he ran out of luck.

Pre-event rain had washed away much of the topsoil surrounding the service area and, as Burns lurched to within 500m of the pare, his 206 WRC stuck fast in the sand.

Burns and co-driver Robert Reid dug desperately to try and free the car but, after some time, it became apparent that it was a lost cause and surrendered, both having to be treated for dehydration.

“I was thinking getting into service was going to be bad,” he said, “so I tried to get a bit of speed up but the car just dug in. We took the wheel off but it made no difference.

“You risk everything, including your life, at ISOkph over dips and bumps and jumps,then this ... It’s such a waste and an insult to everybody in the championship.”

Burns’s team manager Corrado Provera said, “It is crazy that a car can survive these stages but not be able to cross the service area.”

It was the second such retirement of the day. Skoda’s Kenneth Eriksson had stopped within a kilometre of service earlier in the day.

n A team of five Dutch entries will be contesting the four-wheeldrive section in next month's Australian Safari.

Phillip Soeterboek, the three-time European and four-time Dutch off road champion, will spearhead the Dutch team campaigning a Mitsubishi Pajero in the 4,312km event.

Other Dutch entries confirmed include Andre van Kempen in a Daihatsu, Aad van der Voort in a Land Rover, Martin Van den Heuvel in'a Mitsubishi Pajero, and Rijk Verkerk in a Toyota Landcruiser.

The five vehicles are being shipped from the Netherlands to ' Australia and are scheduled to arrive on August 16. n Also making the trip to Australia for the Safari is Alfie Cox, who finished runner-up in the motorcycle division of this year's Paris-Dakar Rally.

The 39-year-old South African will compete on a Red Bull KTM 600 Rallye similar to the machine that took him to the Paris-Dakar second place behind Fabrizio Meoni.

Cox, who has contested the last five Paris-Dakar events for KTM, will be making his first appearance in Australia.

Safari 'too easy'?

RICHARD Bums has joined calls for a return to a longer, tougher Safari Rally, after widespread dissatisfaction with the more compact,Europeanstyle route.

This year’s Safari had just four different competitive stages, repeated and reversed, and a single, roundly condemned service area in a dustbowl west of Suswa.

Burns retired attempting to nurse a damaged car to service, his Peugeot beaching itself within sight of the time control.

“From what I understand, they tried to put the service area right at the beginning of stage one, but because of fuel rules, they’ve been forced to put it here. It’s such a waste,” said the disgruntled Champ.

“They need to decide whether it is to be a round of the World Championship or a stand-alone. It’s not doing itselfjustice and it’s not doing the World Championship justice.

“But it must be said the World Championship does need a rally in Africa.”

- JON THOMSON 24 July 2002

m

1

"Everything will be new to me, but the harder it gets the more I like it," said Cox. "In these races it's all about going hard when you have to, and keeping a cool head and being calculating as well.

"I’ve heard about the 5afarl and I know the Australian riders will be tough, so this race looks as open as the Australian outback I" - JON THOMSON/ MARK GLENDENNING Photo by Ph0t04/BOTHWELL

59

Safari Rally

Colin McRae

Survivor.

Mov/Star

o

NCE upon a time, no-one could accuse Colin McRae of sticking to a plan to win a World Championship Rally, as time and time again the fast hut fragile Scot seemingly threw away wins.

But the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s classic Safari Rally proved that McRae is now the thinking man’s rally driver, McRae out lasting as much as out-driving the opposition to take his third win in Airica.

The 2002 Safari was one of the toughest on record,just 11 of the 48 starters making it to the finish in Nairobi. Car after car ground to a halt, leaving Ford’s man to take his record 25th WRC win and loom within seven points of series leader Marcus Gronholm.

Hand Rovanpera salvaged pride 60

for Peugeot as its main stars Gronholm and Richard Burns(the latter in very controversial fashion; see page 59) dropped out, while Thomas Radstrom grabbed a fine third for Citroen in its first rough road event in the WRC Xsara.

Day 1 eaven knows Africa needs rain

H

at the best of times and, thanldully, it rained before the event. But that left Kenya’s roads rutted and dangerous, and the toll would be heavy - and swift.

The first victim was Gronholm, out on the opening test with engine failure while H3Tindai soon had a double failure; Freddy Loix retired with a failed clutch on the same stage and team-mate Ai’min Schwarz was sidelined on SS2 with a broken alternator.

With the lead Peugeot out and

Different Brits: While Colin McRae motored to a 25th win, Richard Burrts (Pholo by Sutton-lmages) bogged his Peugeot 500m from service.

atrica

The World Rally Championship got all the Reality Television it could handle in a car-breaking 2002 Safari Rally JON THOMPSON reports

the Hyundai challenge virtually over, Tommi Makinen made the early pace although pundits were pointing to a potential shock absorber problem with the Subarus.

Makinen had a lead ofjust over a minute after the first two stages while McRae had employed a careful game plan. The Scot had identified the stages where he could charge and those that required prudence and was in a strong position, sitting in second half-way through the opening leg in the Rift Valley west of Nairobi.

The Peugeots of Rovanpera, Gilles Panizzi and Bums all had suspension problems in SS3 while Bums also had to stop to extinguish a suspension oil fire when the shock absorber sprayed hydraulic fluid on the hot brake disc.

Mitsubishi’s Francois Delecour retired the imderperforming Mitsubishi Lancer WRC with engine failure on SS3, while team mate Alister McRae was struggling with his fil-handling Lancer. A year seems like a jong time in the WRC; 12 months ago, Makinen won the Safari for Mitsubishi...

One by one, car after car wilted under the pace being set by Tbrnnu.

Juha Kankkimen lost time with suspension and exhaust woes in the sole remaining H3mndai while Petter Solberg was out with engine failure in the Subaru and Tbni Gardermeister tore a wheel from

the Skoda.

Even Makinen lost time with a worry over suspension on SS4, allowing McRae to draw within 17s of the Subaru. Brother Ah dropped over 37 minutes in the final stage of the day repairing a broken brake disc and wheel as the leaders arrived back at the overnight halt, having already completed the distance normally traversed over three days in a regular WRC round.

Makinen’s lead had been paired back to just 16.1s as McRae had played the mixture offast open sections and rough parts to perfection.

Behind McRae was team-mate 24 July 2002

Carlos Sainz, while Rovanpera held fourth from Kenneth Eriksson’s Skoda and Marko Martin’s Focus, giving Ford three cars in the top half dozen.

Day 2 he seeds of Makinen’s demise

T

were sewn in the opening stage of the second etape. Shock absorber problems cost time and he was limping to service in what was the longest and most arduous leg of the event.

Only 29 cars restarted the leg that took crews over the same stages as day one(but in the reverse direction) and with an added stage as well. And then there was the added handicap of overnight rain on the course.

McRae took the lead and was looking strong while Makinen stmggled, but a small consolation was the cancellation of SS6 due to the bad weather preventing the safety helicopters from flying.

Two stages later, the r^y turned; Makinen was out with total suspension failure. At the same time. Ford’s until-now faultless attack Mso tripped up, with Sainz parking his car some 16km past Makinen’s with an oil pump failure.

Bums was starting to post some faster times but then overstepped the mark, tearing a wheel from the Peugeot. The Englishman limped 50km on three wheels, only to beach the car attempting to enter the start control for SS9 and was out of the rally.

All of this carnage left McRae in command, arriving back in Nairobi 2m26s'ahead of Rovanpera, with Martin now seven minutes back in third.

The surprises came from the French - cars and men.

The Citroens of Radstrom and Sebastien Loeb were in fourth and fifth while apparent tarmac specialist Gilles Panizzi finished the leg in sixth.

And the news got better for them; Martin incurred a four minute penalty after his car failed to start in service, dropping him to fourth behind Radstrom.

Spain doesn’t have holes that big: Spain doesn’t have swimming poois that big! Check the size of the rut that Carios Sainz is about to negotiate. Feiiow Ford man McRae took his third Safari win, below.

Day 3 McRae three tough aheadhad on the final daystages and was a picture of determination and confidence as he left Nairobi on Sunday morning.

The Scot immediately stretched his advantage with fastest time on the first stage of the day while Martin had to use borrowed pace notes after co-driver Michael Park left their notes at service. The blue Focus had to be guided by a team helicopter.

McRae went into ‘safety mode’ for the final two stages, knowing the opposition would have to take tremendous risks to beat him and it was a wise move. The Focus cruised through to the finish back in Nairobi to claim the win from Rovanpera by 2m50s.

“Today has seemed a very long day but now it’s all over I can enjoy the victory and taking the record,” said McRae. “The key was to find a good pace and stay with it. It was uncomfortable when Rovanpera was chasing us yesterday but that’s the name of the game. I’d made up my mind not to change my pace.”

Citroen picked up valuable points and experience, with Radstrom taking third and Loeb fifth, split by Martin’s Ford.

Malaysian Keramjit Singh continued his exemplary year taking Group N in his Proton to claim the lead in the production car world title.

The title now moves to the superfast smooth gravel of Finland on August 8-11 where the Peugeots and Fords are likely to be the cars to beat once more.

Results 1 2 3 4 5 6

Colin McRae/Nicky Grist Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen Thomas RSdstrom/Denis Giraudet Markka Martin/Michaal Park Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi

GB/GB Rn/Fin Swe/Fra EE/GB Fra/Fra Fra/Fra

Ford Focus RS Peugeot 206 Citroen Xsara Ford Focus RS Citroen Xsara Peugeot 206

7h58m26.0s 8h01ml8.9s 8hl7m06.6s ■8h19m56.0s 8h20m16.1s 8h33m09.0s

Drivers' points: Gronholm 37, C. McRae 30, Sainz 23, Panizzi 21, Burns 19, Rovanpera 18, Solberg 15, Makinen 14, Loeb 8, Philippe Buglaski/Martin 7, Radstrom 4, A. McRae/Toni Gardermeister 2, Ericsson 1 Manufacturers' points: Peugeot 83, Ford 69, Subaru 35, Skoda 8, Mitsubishi 7, Hyundai 6.

WRC Round 8 Safari Rally 61

Rally South Australia

F

FREEZING conditions, mud and drenching rain failed to dampen the red hot intensity of the Australian Rally Championship, as Possum Bomme and Ed Ordynski battled for heat wins by the barest of margins in round four of the series in Adelaide two weeks ago.

Bourne won heat two of the Coopers Rally of SA by just five seconds after arch-rival Ed Ordynski took heat one by 21s, but the Kiwi sealed the extra bonus point after winning more special stages than his Mitsubishi counterpart.

Bourne won 13 of the event’s 21 stages in a struggle that went all the way to the wire, with the added dimension of determined privateer Simon Evans ripping time from both on the final day adding a fascinating element to the closing stanza.

Evans’s eventual demise handed third to Subaru’s Cody Crocker, and all but ended the Victorian privateer’s brave tilt at the title. .

Heat One

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vans had an early morale booster with fastest time on the opening super special stage at Wayville Showgrounds on Friday night.

That one second advantage encouraged Evans to attack on the Saturday stages, but the wrong tyre choice and severe understeer would cause him grief. A spin in the second stage of the day prevented him from capitalising on that early lead.

The absolutely atrocious weather didn’t help, with local Ordynski describing the conditions as the most diabolical he had ever seen in the Mount Crawford forest.

Ordynski used his local knowledge to advantage in choosing a soft compound tyre,

knowing that the rain in Adelaide would be just as intense up in the hills. He powered the works Evo VII Lancer to an early lead, cutting a swathe through the muddy forests on the soft tyres while his opponents languished.

Bourne again made a wrong tyre choice early and then suffered a broken driveshaft on special stage eight, but the Kiwi would mount a big fightback as the day progressed, tearing back time after the lunch break at Birdwood.

The slippery roads had taken their toll as the day wore on.

Warwick Rooklyn parked the Omega Daihatsu on SS3 with a blown clutch, while Michael Guest was not having a good debut in the new Walkden Lancer Evo VII, out after six stages with a holed oO cooler.

Ordynski was as smooth as you like in the treacherous mud and slush, content to defend his 40 second lunchtime lead, while Bourne was playing catch-up and taking the risks in the stillshocking conditions.

Evans was the first target for the charging Bourne, but the Victorian privateer was driving the wheels off the Subaru in a bid to maintain the challenge against the works cars. Bourne, however, was fastest on all four of the afternoon stages, leapfrogging Evans to take second with a three second advantage by the time the cars arrived back at Wayville. Ordynski finished the day 17s ahead of Bourne.

Crocker was fourth, five seconds off Evans, as he had been all day.

His opposite number at Mitsubishi, Spencer Lowndes, was fifth but only after a torrid battle through the day with Subaru’s third driver Dean Herridge.

Behind the works cars, Chris Atkinson in his older Evo VI was again shining, with some excellent times and another strong performance to be seventh, about

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Suba-duper: Possom Bourne, top, stuck it out to win the rally by the merest of margins, while Cody Crocker, above, was waiting in the wings to grab the final spot on the podium.

Early promise: The situation initially looked bright for Simon Evans, left, but various misfortunes eventually dropped him out of the picture. {Photos by Neil Blackboum and Jon Thpmson)

motorsport news

ARC

Hometown hero: He had the whole crowd behind him, a picture of his car on the sponsor’s beer cans, and he had the aerial skills, but in the end Ordynski, left and below, fell one stage win short of overall victory.

(Photo by Jon Thomson and Neil Blackboum)

VS' 20 seconds behind Herridge after battling with Scott Pedder all day.

Brett Comber in his Daihatsu wrapped up Formula 2 honours by three minutes over the Proton Satria of David West after the retirements of Lee Peterson in his Mirage and Rooklyn.

bemoaning the unpredictable nature of the roads.

“You launch into a comer and find it is incredibly slippery and have a moment, so you ease off for the next few comers and get you confidence back, then when you press on and there is another slippery one. It is pretty hard,” he exclaimed.

Crocker was on a softer oume attacked from the start compound tyre compared with leg on Siuiday morning, with clear one, and was reaping the benefit of skies making for drier but still better grip with faster times, freezing temperatures in the setting his sights on Evans.

Adelaide Hills.

Guest was back after his team Ordynski lost 15 seconds in the replaced his punctured oil cooler, first two stages, slotting into but was having trouble coming to second just ahead of Evans who terms with the handling was again looking impressive in characteristics of the Evo VII. the Hella Subam.

Scott Pedder made an Despite his lead. Bourne was uncharacteristically slow start to the day but was making no Heat 1 Mitsubishi Lancer 1:06.52 excuses, claiming the problem 1 Ordynski/Stewart 1:07.09 Subaru Impreza 2 Bourne/Stacey was just down his lack of 1:07.26 3 Evans/Evans Subaru Impreza attack in the slippery 1:08.13 4 Crocker/Foletta Subaru Impreza conditions.

Mitsubishi Lancer 1:09.07 5 Lowndes/Randell 1:09.30 6 Herridge/Macneall Subaru Impreza Lowndes and Herridge were Heat 2 in another fight for fifth place 46.50 Subaru Impreza 1 Bourne/Stacey with the Mitsubishi driver Mitsubishi Lancer 46.56 2 Ordynski/Stewart heading Herridge, who had 47.36 3 Crocker/Foletta Subaru Impreza bent a lower control arm on 4 Lowndes/Randell Mitsubishi Lancer 48.21 48.49 5 Herridge/Macneall Subaru Impreza the opening stage of the day 6 Pedder/Humm Mitsubishi Lancer 48.56 but recovered to challenge for Driuers’ points: Ordynski 124, Bourne 113, Crocker 86, fifth.

Lowndes 66, Evans 55, Herridge 49, S. Pedder 40, Atkinson With three stages to go 36, M. Pedder 32, Warren/Yamaguchi 28.

Ord3mski mounted a Manufacturers' points: Mitsubishi 314, Subaru 242, Proton 156. challenge, taking 11 seconds

Heat Two

B

Results ARC Round 4

entered the final stage with a

Rally South Australia I five secondin deficit. off Bourne two stages, and 24 Jyly 2002

Bourne, however, was able to win the final stage by one second to secure his victory.

“I’m stoked, I knew we needed the stage wins and we went out all guns blazing to get it,” said Bourne.

“Ed set a fierce pace right from the outset yesterday and we didn’t get it quite right, but today we got it sorted out a bit earlier and were able to get into it.”

For Evans, a last throw of the dice came on the penultimate stage as he was on maximum attack in a bid to take Ordynski. The Subaru driver badly damaged the left rear of the Subaru,losing over two minutes on the final two stages as he struggled to the finish on a flat that he couldn’t change.

Crocker picked up third as a

result of Evans's misfortune, while Lowndes moved up to fouth ahead of Herridge.

Pedder was sixth ahead of Evans who limped into seventh, and another strong performance by Atkinson gave him eighth and the lead in the Privateer’s Cup. Lee Peterson took F2 in his Mirage for the heat, but Comber won the class overall in his Daihatsu in a rally which was tough on small cars.

Bourne's win brings him within 11 points of Ord}Tiski in the Championship chase, but when points are adjusted and the worst results are dropped the pair are neck and neck heading to the equally cold and icy Tasmanian round on August 10-11.

63

No olive branches

by MARK GLENDENNING CHANCES of reconciliation between Bob Jane and ANDRA seem as remote as ever after Jane slammed the sanctioning body in a meeting at Calder Park last Thursday.

The invitation-only gathering, which was open exclusively to financially committed owners and drivers, was billed as “a PRODUCTIVE and CONSTRUCTIVE meeting which will assist in the movement of a POSITIVE and SPEEDY return of Drag Racing to both Calder Park Raceway and Adelaide International

Raceway”(original emphasis).

Many attendees assumed that Jane would delineate his ideas about how drag racing could be revived at his Victorian and South Australian facilities, both of which have lain largely dormantsince the tracks formally broke away from ANDRA last year.

There were also hopes of a possible business and logistics plan for racing imder the CalderbasedAHRC (Australiam Rot Hod Club), and an outline of possible competitor entry fee's, class structures, prizemoney payouts, and track upgrades and maintenance.

However, accounts from those present suggest that these issues remained largely untouched.

he(Jane) had to offer but all he sanctioning in a communication a did was stick it to ANDRA and few days prior to the meeting.

Tony Thornton,” summarised Given that so little firm Super Sedan and Super Stock information came out of the champ Graeme Cooper. meeting, the initial agenda “He wants us to go racing remains open to speculation, without ANDRA,which is just like Some attendees suggested that the MCG saying,‘we don’t want to Jane was testing the water to have anything to do with the AFL ascertain the level of interest in but you can play football here’.” racing at his tracks under his Much was reportedly made of rules, while others saw it as a Thornton’s absence. simple opportunity to reiterate his “I saw no point going if there distaste for the national was no chance of reconciliation,” sanctioning body.

Thornton told MN. Either way,it seems that the “But ANDRA was represented much-hoped-for return to top-level at the meeting by its members.” drag racing in the south-east of According to ’Hiomton, Jane Australia remains somewhere on n had confirmed his intentions to the distant horizon, distance his tracks from ANDRA -7- Calder representatives could pya'wK wAciNig^not be reached for comment;

RACERS NXnONALSapOl

1

Darrell does Denver DARRELL Russell capped off a hot weekend in Denver with his second NHRA Top Fuel victory of the season last weekend.

Russell, right, used a holeshot in the final round to defeat Cory McClenathan, 4.89/295 to 4.87/301.

Russell had qualified third at 4.82/301 and defeated Scott Weis, Paul Romine, and Melanie Troxell en route to the final.

McClenathan scored 4.85/300, 4.88/294, and 4.93/301 victories over John Smith, Doug Herbert, and Kenny Bernstein.

Austraiia's Andrew Cowin and David Grubnic both made the Denver show. Cowin wound up 64

fifth at 4.83/304, following four good laps in qualifying, but fell to tyre smoke and lost a close round one pedalling contest with Herbert. Grubnic made the show in the final spot, earning him a round one contest with low qualifier, Doug Kalitta, which Kalitta won.

Del Worsham stopped Tony Pedregon in the final Funny Car round, taking a 5.16/293 to 5.19/291 victory.

Worsham overcame a slight starting line deficit and finally drove around Pedregon at 1000 feet to win by a scant hundredth of a second.

Mike Edwards bested Allen Johnson to take his second Pro Stock victory of the season.

With both cars welded together at the start, following a short 30second burndown, Edwards posted a 7.33/188 to 7.34/189 win in the final round.

Pro Stock point leader Jim Yates; failed to crack the field for the first time this season in his SplitFire/Peak Pontiac after falling victim to mechanical gremlins.

Matt Hines claimed his first Pro Stock Motorcycle victory in more than a year, stopping arch rival, Angelle Savoie who redlighted.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI Points: Top Fuel: Dixon 1186, Bernstein 1067, McCienathan 834,Schumacher 814, Russeii 735, Kalitta 673, Herbert 648, Grubnic 564, Hartman-Smith 544,

Cowin 513. Funny Car: Force 934, Densham 873, Worsham 822,T. Pedregon 816, Bazemore 730. Pro Stock: Yates 832, Johnson 785, Anderson 772. Pro Stock Bike: Savoie 801, Trebie 680, Brown 620.

motorsport news

DRAG RACING

Clay not soft CLAY Millican remains unbeaten in the 2002 Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series after winning round six in Leicester, New York on July 14.

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Millican top-qualified at 4.81/299, and went on to take out Bobby Laguna Jr. and Louie Allsion before dispatching with Bruce Litton in the final with a 4.95/246 pass.

“The track was brutal all day long,” said Millican.

“The track surface was extremely hot and it caused a few problems for us, but we were still able to get into the Winner’s Circle and that's what we're out here to do.”

While Millican took the win, it was costly in the championship points chase, as the Werner team oiled the track twice during eliminations which stripped away 30 points from their event tally.

Nitrous-oxide dominated the Pro Mod racing in the hot conditions, with two-time IHRA champion Shannon Jenkins taking out an all-nitrous final round against Ed Hoover.

Hoover had earlier claimed the scalp of Aussie Troy Critchley en route to his showdown with Jenkins.

Brian Gahm bounced back from being hospitalised due to heat exhaustion early in the weekend to win become the Pro Stock division, topping Jason Collins in the final round, 6,65/210 to 6.69/208.

Former IHRA Alcohol Funny Car champion Bob Newberry defeated Dale Brand in the final round, 5.94/239 to a slowing 6.99/141, to take his first IHRA win since the 2001 Virginia event.

Steve Stordeur defeated Doug Vancil in the Screamin’ Eagle Nitro Harley final round on a holeshot, 6.455/215 to 6.451/216.

DAVID OSTASZWESKI 24 July 2002

Mid-tepm

report w E have just passed the halfway mark in the 23-race 2002 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series and finally my Darrell Gwynn Racing, New York Yankees team has snuck into the top 10.

It hasn't been the season we envisaged at the beginning of the year, especially after we went out and top qualified at the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona - that 4.490-second run still standing as the quickest pass of the season and the fourth quickest of all time.

But problems in getting the Yankees dragster down the track consistently has meant we've struggled badly, qualifying at each event but losing nine first round races in a row.

It's been hard on both the team and me, but Darrell and his dad, Jerry, recently made the hard decision and replaced our crew chief, Todd Smith, with Mike Green.

Mike's a highly experienced nitro tuner and in the three races since he joined the Yankees team as crew chief it's showed; we've turned things around and suddenly everyone is smiling again.

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At his first race in Chicago we won our first round for the year, while at St Louis we almost made a clean-sweep of the event - top qualifying, setting low elapsed time and top speed of the event and making the final round.

The final was there for the taking: we were in front of Kenny Bernstein and pulling away, but the car shook and rattled the tyres and then broke loose.

"While Pomona and St Louis are the highlights of my year in the US, my trip home for the Castrol Winternationals at Willowbank was one of the highlights of my lifelrr -Andrew Cowin That was the end of that and now Bernstein is three-zip against the Cowin family in NHRA finals, but we'll get him back soon ....

It was a great performance and one that gave the team a

1320 notes witi

Andrew Cowin

huge confidence boost heading into this weekend's race in Denver, Colorado.

We're a brand new Murfdebuting McKinney chassis in Denver and, added to our renewed performance, we're excited about our prospects for this weekend and the rest of the season.

The car is cloaked in, not only the famous Yankees stripes, but also - can you believe this? - the Muppets, with Fossie Bear on the sides!

The scheme is a part of a marketing promotion that Darrell Gwynn, the Muppets and Action .

Collectables are undertaking together, with a limited edition scale model of the car available.

It's pretty cool having a model of your own car with Fossie Bear on the side I While Pomona and St Louis are the highlights of my year in the US, my trip home for the Castrol Winternationals at : Willowbank in June was one of the highlights of my life. ' “Fhe performance of our Rocket Industries dragster was great - 4.75 at over 314mph is a good run anytime - although it's an indication of how the experience gained racing full time in the US can help you.

But the biggest highlight for me was seeing just how good ANDRA Championship Drag Racing is when it's promoted correctly and allowed to flourish.

Like any NHRA event, it proved that there's nothing more exciting in motor racing than drag racing.

But, with a segregated approach, no common goal and without ANDRA, the true opportunities for anyone in drag racing in Australia just won't be there, I just hope everyone at home realises that...

65

Burton’s CAT attack WARD Burton, above, won a crash and incident-marred event at New Hampshire on Sunday,slipping imder race leader Matt Kenseth when he cut a tyre with just 10 laps to run.

It was Burton’s first top five since he won the Daytona 500 in February.

“Since Daytona we have just been a mess,” said Burton, who started 31st.

“We broke so much and haven’t run like we needed to, but we didn’t give up and then something happened to the 17(Kenseth)and we got by. I was out of brake pads on the right front so I don’t know how much further we could have gone either.”

Jeff Green scored his best-ever Cup run when he passed Dale Jarrett for the runner-up slot with

a handful oflaps remaining, further turning around the Richard Childress camp, with RCR stablemates Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick both finishing in the top 10.

Pole sitter Bill Elliott led early but fell off the pace when a faulty carburetor ended a strong run and chance of victory early.

The 14th emd final yellow waved for Dale Earnhardt Jr with 16 laps remaining. He nudged Todd Bodine for seventh position, but spim himself into the inside wall and suffered heavy rear damage. Bodine went on to finish sixth,‘Little E’a dismal 23rd after showing strong and leading many laps.

The New Hampshire track layout needs some heavy re working. Single file racing was the order of the day, as the new 12 foot addition to the inside of the turns

didn’t really help competition.

The track broke up as the race went by, sending Tony Stewart, Kyle Petty and Kurt Busch into the wall when they slipped marginally out of the groove.

Stewart finished 39th, his car too badly damaged to return to the track, while Busch rallied well to finish eighth from two laps back.

Jeff Gordon’s winless streak continued, a bungled pit stop put the DuPont Chev back in the pack late and he never recovered. finishing 29th.

Final result; W Burton (Dodge),J Green (Chev),Jarrett(Ford),R Wallace (Ford), Newman (Ford), T Bodine (Ford),R Gordon (Chev), Busch (Ford), Harvick (Chev), Sadler (Ford).

Points standings; Marlin 2604, Martin 2549,Johnson 2512,J Gordon 2477, Stewart 2464,R Wallace 2386,Rudd 2377, Elliott 2365,Busch 2293,Kenseth 2291.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Harvick hits back KEVIN Harvick, right, took his first win at Chicago on July 14 since his last victory at the 1.5-'.nile oval one year ago.

This year he has been labeled NASCAR’s bad boy after on-track incidents at Bristol and the Martinsville truck race, he was parked by NASCAR for one race and has been somewhat humbled since then.

That all changed in this race though. In just his fourth race since switching crews with team mate Robby Gordon, Harvick steered the Goodwrench Chev back into victory lane, but not without controversy.

After a restart following a caution on lap 195 of 200, Harvick had a run on the Fords of Dave Blaney and Kurt Busch and took to the apron on the front stretch to complete the pass entering back onto the track and spinning on the banked corner in turn one, causing the field to stack up behind him.

Jerry Nadeau, Jimmy Spencer and Hermie Sadler received damage when they made contact 66

Photo bv Sutton-imaoos

with each other in the confusion.

Harvick and eventual runner up Jeff Gordon pitted for tyres and fuel during that caution, while some pitted during the earlier caution.

But when leader Ryan Newman cut a tyre with 26 laps to run and Joe Nemechek slammed the wall .simultaneously, Harvick and Gordon elected not to pit, which gained them track position for the final restart where (Jordon was never in contention for the win.

“It was just a matter of track

position for us,” quipped Harvick who only lead 29 laps, “once we got it, it was pretty much lights out. Gordon thinks my earlier move was stupid, 1 think it was pretty cool, but I just lost it, you can’t blame us for tiying.”

Sterling Marlin was held a lap

by NASCAR after he pitted outside his stall and never made up the deficit, finishing 16th.

Final result; Harvick (Chev), J Gordon (Chev), Stewart(Pontiac), Johnson (Chev), Newman (Ford), Busch (Ford),Elliott(Dodge),R Gordon (Chev), Martin (Ford), Earnhardt Jr.(Chev).

Gibb

by MARTIN D CLARK JOE Gibbs made it official at Chicago that his two-car team of Tony Stewart and 2000 Winston Cup champ Bobby Labonte will switch to Chevrolet from Pontiac in 2003.

He also confirmed they may even run some races with the Chevs as early as Indianapolis on August 4 if they test better than the Pontiacs.

Gibbs originally fielded Chevs for Dale Jarrett from the team’s inception in 1992 through to 1997 when it switched to Pontiac with Labonte. The second team for Stewart opened in 2000.

“I just want what eveiyone else has,” said Stewart, “I don’t want to be beat by a rules package.”

Amazingly, Gibbs’s organisation has played a major role in developing the 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix and continued to do this even though they knew of the impending switch, spending many hours in the GM windtunnel.

The new Pontiac has been approved by NASCAR for 2003, the first body change since 1996, while the new design Chev Monte Carlo has yet to be given the green flag for competition, but is expected to be approved in the upcoming weeks.

The defection of the two Gibbs cars leaves only Ken Schrader, Johnny Benson and Stacy Compton running for tho brand in 2003, with Pontiac negotiating to bring more teams on board next year including the possibility of Cal Wells’s PPI Motorsports and driver Ricky Craven.

Pontiac officials dispelled rumours the marque would disappear from NASCAR racing, motorsporl news

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Benson sits out

MIKE Wallace drove the MBV Valvoline Pontiac in substitution for the injured Johnny Benson at Chicago, but Jerry Nadeau will remain in the saddle until Benson is fit to return.

Nadeau was back behind the wheel for testing at Indianapolis

on July 15 and 16 in preparation for the Brickyard 400 in August.

Benson injured his ribs for the second time this year at Daytona; Nadeau subbed for him earlier in the year after an accident in a Richmond Busch event.

- MARTIN D CLARK

AFTER weeks of rumours Michael Waltrip has re-upped his contract with Dale Earnhardt inc to run with sponsor NAPA though the 2004 season.

Waltrip’s spirited racing of late and win in the July Daytona race no doubt has helped his cause to keep the team intact. However, DEI have not exercised their option to re-sign Steve Park for the 2003 season, so Park’s future looks up in the air at this point, although sponsor Pennzoil are signed up through the end of next year with DEI. Park has been rumoured to go to Bill Davis Racing with Pennzoil, but this now looks unlikely with the sponsor staying put. Apparently Kenny Wallace, who subbed for Park during his recuperation from injuries suffered in a Busch Series race crash last year from September until March this year, is not in the running for the ride.

- MARTIN D CLARK

What now for Rudd?

Ijg I RICICY Rudd’s much-talked about future still seems up in the air, HI CT although indications are that he will not return to Robert Yates JI racing next year.

■ I Apparently money is not the issue for Rudd’s return, more that he keeps § his current team together and that includes crew chief Michael ‘Fatback’ McSwain, who has signed a multi-year extension with Yates.

“It’s all about assurance that the people we have today will be here next year,” said Rudd, t ●J 1 ,'l I j !

McSwain and Rudd have had personal problems, the pair arguing about a Sears Point victory party that McSwain threw for Rudd during the recent off-week and Rudd did not attend due to a family vacation.

Apparently, if Rudd returns, Yates will form a three-car team with son Doug the owner of the third operation.

If Rudd does not return they will stay as a two-car deal, Elliott Sadler likely to be Rudd’s replacement or third team driver.

- MARTIN D CLARK

SPRINT will not return to sponsor Kyle Petty in 2003, leaving Petty Enterprises searching for a backer.

Sprint had been with the organisation, and initially Kyle's late son Adam, since 1996, but financial woes within the US phone industry probably caused Sprint to pull the plug.

■ Greg Biffle will, as speculated, run full-time in the Winston Cup Series in 2003 with sponsorship from Granger, his Roush Busch Series backer. This will give Roush five teams in Cup next year. Biffie will continue to attempt some events later this season to prepare for next year.

■ Rookie hot shot Jimmie Johnson and car owner Rick Hendrick were penalised 25 points after the Pepsi 400 at Daytona for a rule infraction found during pre-race inspection.

Offset bolts were discovered on the rear trailing, or truck, arms of the Lowe's Chev. Crew chief Chad Knaus was also fined $50,000, but the points penaity could stand to hurt them more if the championship comes down to the wire later in the season.

NASCAR had, made it known recently that after height violations earlier in the year, they could be accessing point penalties as a further deterrent for ruies violators.

■ Bill Davis Racing entered its Busch Series driver Scott VVimmer in the Chicago Cup race with sponsorship from Siemens, although he failed to qualify. He will run six other events during the year so to preserve his rookie status for 2003.

■ Discover Card originally came on board with Carter-Haas Motorsports for a limited six race schedule, but after Todd Bodine's seventh place result in the Daytona night race they have decided to extend the agreement for the remainder of the season.

After being laid off by the team following the loss of sponior Kmart, Bodine signed with Busch team Herzog Jackson Motorsports for the year and will have some scheduling conflicts, though the Busch races will take priority.

- MARTIN D CLARK 61

Speedcar Title locked in at Speedway City ADELAIDE’S Speedway City promoter Wendy Turner has confirmed that next season’s Australian Speedcar Title will be held from February 6 to 8, and that the newly-formed united organisation governing the Australian Speedcar scene, Speedcars Australia, are in full support of the event.

“This event promises to be yet another successful Speedcar title held at our venue in as many years,” said Turner.

“With the unification of Speedcar groups from around Australia, this event is shaping up to be the best yet.”

Speedway City will host two national Australian titles. As well as the Speedcar title, the venue will also play host to the Australian AMCA National title, which has been slated to run over the March 7/8 weekend.

The running of the Australian Sprintcar Masters kicks off the summer of racing on November

Together now: The Australian Speedcar Title will stay at Speedway City in 2003.

(Photo by ParUi Charles) 9, with Sprintcars featuring prominantly on the calendar.

‘This event looks set to be a blockbuster as the majority of the Sprintcar teams heading to the western swing of World Series Sprintcars will compete here on the way through,” said Turner.

The WSS circus will visit on November 30, Boxing Day January 18 for the all-important

Grand Final of the series, “We will do all that we can to make the Grand Final every bit as memorable as the Australian Sprintcar Title,” added Turner.

The nation’s best Sprintcars are then expected to return on February 22 for the inaugural running of the George Tatnell Sprintcar Cup. - PARIS CHARLES

Ci*un AUSSIE Jason Crump,right, put himself back into speedway’s World Championship race with a brilliant victory in the Becherovka Speedway Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Saturday night.

“My season got offto a bad start through injury and you cannot compete at this level unless you ai'e 100 percent,” he said.“I have taken a while to get going but this win is what I wanted and I wanted it desperately.”

Crump and fellow Australian Ryan Sullivan looked the men to heat with championship leader Tony Rickardsson struggling to win races. Crump drew the gate position he wanted in the final and just edged ahead of Sullivan going into the first corner.

With Sullivan locked with Crump, Greg Hancock stormed l through into second place and Tony Rickardsson was relegated to fom-th. Sullivan and Rickardsson are now joint leaders of the SGP table on 112 points while Crump has now moved up to third position.

PREMIER SPEEDWAY WARRNAMBOOL l VICTORIA l AUSTRALIA Saturday 25January and Sunday 26 January 2003 THE STANDARD 31ST GRAND ANNUAL SPRINTCAR CLASSIC 6TH AUSTRALIA /AMERICA CHALLENGE CUP

6

SPONSORED BY THE STANDARD Serving The South West Daily

Friday 31 January and Saturday 1 February 2003 4r SPRINTCAR CONTROL COUNCIL Of AUSTRALIA Inc. AUSTRALIAN SPRINTCAR CHAMPIONSHIPS ® Practice on Thursday 30January commencing at 6pm.

Accommodation for these events is filling up rapidly so get your bookings in quickly. For accommodation inquiries contact the Warrnambool Tourist Information Centre on 03 5564 7837. Some Grandstand tickets are still available at $60 per seat for the full racing season and are available by ringing 03 5562 2049.

For more information contact Manager: Graeme Hose Ph 03 5562 8229 Mob 0408 529 625 Fax 03 5562 0625 Email info@premierspeeaway.com.au 68

WWW.premierspeedway.com.au

moiorsport news

SPEEDWAY

n back on top

Skipping on at Knoxviiie IN the lead-up to the 1200 Pound Nationals at Knoxville, Skip Jackson and the JRT team have been in good form following on from their maiden win with a coupie of top five piacings.

Starting from 15th in the main at Cameron in Missouri, Skip passed 11 cars to finish fourth on the Friday night.

The following night the team were back home on familiar territory at Knoxville. Lynton Jeffrey was the second fastest qualifier ahead of Jackson in fifth, Brooke Tatnell 11th and Jaymie Moyle 15th.

Jackson then ran third in the heat race, and started fourth in the 20-lap feature. He quickly moved into second at the start of the race on a very fast race track. Lapped traffic was going to be the key and just as Jackson and the leader approached lap traffic, a yellow flag flew.

Jackson made a run on the leader, Ricky Logan, on lap 15 with the duo racing down the main stretch. A lapped car gave Logan the edge he needed to take the chequered flag first.

"All weekend we were very good," said Jackson. "The car, motor, and the team were great; we just came up a little short. We are looking forward to twin features this week at Knoxville and the 1200 Pound

Speedcars Unite!

A NEW group has been formed in a complete restructure of Speedcar racing in Australia.

‘Speedcars Australia’is the name of the new entity after a new administritive deal was brokered between the Australian Speedcar Control Council(ASCC)and the Australian Speedcar Management Board(ASMB).

Sprintcar identity Bob Tunks acted as Independent Chairman for the meeting which included Barry Power and Warrenne Ekins from

from NASR. The structure of the new

body will involve four zones being represented by one delegate for each zone, with a Chairman being chosen by the delegates to allow for a five person board. The zones are as follows: Queensland, NSW, Victoria/South Australia and Western Australia/ Northern

Nationals the following week."

Of the other Aussies competing, Tatnell finished seventh, Kerry Madsen 10th, Moyle 12th and David Murcott 19th. Sadly, Jeffrey failed to transfer from the B-Main where he finished fifth after a bad heat result. n Former and future Aussie tourists have been to the fore in the All Stars, with Chad Kemenah taking his first All Stars feature of the season as well as winning the Ohio Speedweek, his first such crown.‘ Kemenah took the 30 lap feature at the famed Ohio speedway. Each of the seven Speedweek features was won by a different driver.

Veteran Danny Smith is showing no signs of slowing, having recorded four recent victories with the All

Don’t recycle me! The new Speedcar set-up is good news for the sport.

(Photo by Paris Charles)

the ASCC, Terry King and Chris Gardner from the

Territory.

Initially for the first 12 months, the two representatives for each group at the meeting will act as the delegates while the new elected zone delegates will act as advisers and take over the

ASMB and Tim McAvaney

management next year.

Max Dumesny Motorsport

2002 WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINTCAR SERIES

Australian Distributors for

Xoostfr

^^ RACING TIRE

for more Information on Hoosicr Drag and SpeerfmryTyns call' NSW:02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 1187 VIC- 03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 5A- 08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296 24 luly 2002

Eldora Speedway July 20

1. Joey Saldana 2. Danny Lasoski 3. Craig Dollansky 4. Donny Schatz 5. Kasey Kahne 6. Daryn Pittman 7. Steve Kinser 8. Sammy Swindell 9. Chad Kemenah 10. Tim Shaffer

11. P.J. Chesson 12. Randy Hannagan 13. Kraig Kinser 14. Brad Furr 15. Jeff Swindell 16. Danny Wood 17. Shane Stewart 18. Stevie Smith 19. Mark Kinser 20. Brian Paulus

Stars including three on the trot.

Paul McMahan and Jeff Shepard have also been among the wins while Kemenah has also retaken the points lead.

- BRETT SWANSON

Standings to duly 20 .6401 1.Danny Lasoski .6390 2.Steve Kinser . .6184 S.Craig Dollansky .. .6148 4.Joey Saldana . . . .6084 5.Mark Kinser .... .6078 6.Donny Schatz . .. .6011 7.Tim Shaffer .5952 8.Stevie Smith .... .5902 g.Brad Furr .5586 tO.Randy Hannagan

If variety is the spice of life, then the array of machinery that comes out to play at Goodwood’s annual Festival of Speed makes the event the motorsport equivalent of an Indian restaurant These images from this year’s event, held on July 13-14, prove the point

Blast fp

The Flying French: A quick glimpse of Renault’s F1 past. Pictured top to bottom are a 1992 Williams-Renault FW14B, a 1995 Benetton-Renault (Photo by Sutton-lmages) B195, and a 1979 Renault RS11.

Old friends reunited: Stirling Moss revisits the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that brought him a recordbreaking victory in that year's Mille Miglia. It just doesn’t look the same without Denis Jenkinson sitting next to (Photo by Sutton-images) him though ...

70

1}

HISTORICS

om the past

Yep, it still fits: Twenty-one years down the track, Alan Jones still managed to squeeze into the 1981 Williams FW07C, above.

Ove, what a feeling: Toyota FI boss Ove Andersson revisited his rallying past with a drive in this 1990 Toyota Celica GT4, left.

Fast then, still fast now: John Surtees, below, prepares to take to the track in a 1966 Honda RA300.

(Photos by Sutton-lmages)

% V

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Briefly historic THIS weekend, July 27-28, the HRCC (Qld) will be holding its 25th annual All-Historic Race Meeting at Queensland Raceway using the popular 2,11km 'Clubman Circuit', with Friday 26 available for private practice, This year the HRCC (Qld) will include races for Group C touring cars and an all-Mini race along with a round of the Leo Geoghegan Cup for Formula Juniors, n Coming up at Eastern Creek will be a Rennmax Tribute and Reunion organised by the HSRCA on September 7-8, More than 50 Rennmax racing and sports cars were built by Sydney's Bob Britton over the years - cars that were capable of holding their own against most opposition, Britton continues to produce new innovative designs to this day, and his latest n road-going sports car will be on display at Eastern Creek, Already some 20 cars have been rounded up for the display in a marquee at the track, including the very first car, which has been fitted with a new Coventry Climax engine.

All of those in running order will take part in an on-track tribute during the lunch break at Eastern Creek, Invitations are being sent to all known owners, but if readers know the whereabouts of any Rennmaxes hidden away, the organisers would appreciate hearing from you. Contact Wayne Wilson on 0419 214 804, or Bruce Richardson on 0417 678 024, - BRIAN REED

VALEKen Parfrey THE speedway fraternity was ,' saddened to learn of the passing of former VSDA midget ace Ken Parfrey who died suddenly on July 4 aged 79 years., Ken will long be remembered as' one of Victoria's midget racing stars of the 1950s and '60s during the golden era of Melbourne's Tracey's Speedway, He began his rriidget racing career in 1951 at Tracey's, showing natural ability right from the start and was soon mixing it with all the-ace drivers of the time.

He won the 1955 Australian Derby ahead of Jack O'Dea, Allan Carter and Alf Beasley, Another major victory was the.1962 Alf Beasley Memorial after placing third in this event two years before. He finished third in the Victorian Championship in 1955 and 1958, Parfrey made his final appearance in midget racing at Redline in 1973 before permanently retiring from the sport he loved following a career that spanned 22 years.

- BRIAN REED T1

natiwal Graham Raleighs A scene

DAM Graham became the third different winner from three rounds in the 2002 Ford KartStars Series after a total ly dominant performance at Raleigh, near Goffs Harbour, over the weekend.

At what is considered to be his home track, Graham was not only content to win all heats, the Pre Final and Final, but also qualified fastest and set the fastest lap time in every race!

With such a dominant performance out front, the real interest was the fight to see who could finish second behind Graham.

Round 2 winner Taz Douglas stepped up to the mark, being the only driver other than Graham to break the 46 second barrier in qualifying (45.911s). Graham’s time was a blistering 45.777s, with Josh Arandt(46.134s), third ^ead of Ben Guest(46.284s) and Jace Lindstrom (46.285s).

Incredibly, positions four to 25 were separated by only three tenths of a second, clearly showing the close nature of racing in the series. Graham and Douglas were so confident in their times they didn’t even venture onto the track in the second qualifying session.

The three Heats and Pre Final were a virtual carbon copy of each other at the front, with Graham heading off into the distance comfortably ahead of Douglas.

All the action was behind this dominant pair, with Arandt holding off Lindstrom and Guest in the first heat. Lindstrom took third place in both the following heats ahead of Nick Parker and Adrian Estasy respectively.

In the Pre Final, Queenslander Scott Auld moved up to third place

ron Noonan

Gdted

I H

k

Just another guy in red dominating a racing fieid: Adam Graham, above and right, became the third different winner from the three 2002 Ford KartStars Series rounds heid so far. He won ali the heats, the Pre Final and Final.

(Photos by Simon Adams)

ahead of Parker, Arandt, Guest and series leader Clint Ciathcart, who was struggling for pace all weekend. Still, nobody came close to Graham or Douglas.

The first lap of the Final saw Douglas’s weekend fall apart as he dived inside Graham going into the flip-flop. Neither driver gave way

and a slight touch sent Douglas spinning off the track, rejoining in almost last place.

Behind, Parker had been forced wide at the start and dropped back to midfield as Arandt, Guest, Auld, Cathcart and 'Troy Woolston settled into the fight for second.

'Ifen laps in, a clash between

Parker and Ben Savage saw the latter almost flip his kart, ending his race with his second bent axle for the weekend.

Graham cruised to victory, comfortably ahead of Arandt, who was harassed by Auld throughout the second half of the race but couldn’t find a way past.

Cathcart’s fourth place meant he holds onto the series lead, and Lindstrom took an impressive fifth after charging from 16th on the grid.

Woolston, Grother, Estasy, John Martin and Peter Jenkinson rounded out the top 10. Douglas fought his way back to finish 11th.

Round four heads to Adelaide’s Bolivar Raceway in only three weeks’time.

FORD KART STARS SCOREBOARD 2003 Round Three -Raleigh 21 July 2002 1. Adam Graham 2. Josh Arandt

8. Adriane Estasy

3. Scott Auld

9. John Martin

4. Clint Cathcart

10. Peter

5. Jace Lindstrom

Jenkinson

6. Troy Woolston

72

7, John Grother

Points Standings to July 21 2002

.285 1. Clint Cathcart 2. Adam Graham 268 .262 3. Scott Auld 4. Jace Lindstrom . . .239 .233 5 Josh Arandt.

6. Chris Vander Drift .232 .228 7. Taz Douglas .208 8. Jason Varley .207 9. Nick Parker .

10. Troy Woolston ...201

11. Kane Wiltshire ...166 12. John Grother . ...162 .160 13. John Martin 14. Adrian Estasy ...150 15. Tony Chambers . .149 16. KelTreseder .. . .143 .141 17 Ben Savage 18 Peter Jenkinson . .141 19 Steven Jones ... .140 ,134 20 Glen Saville

molorsport news

NATIONAL

S2000 runs them down

Karting Briefs SCOTT Auld has finally been crowned the Queensland Clubman Light champion.

The World Rotax runner-up qualified fastest and ran first and two seconds in the preliminary races before winning the final. Placings for the meeting were not awarded at the time pending the result of a tribunal hearing.

Paimer takes GT Production wins at QR

by AARON NOONAN

THE handicap starts instituted in the GT Production Series have helped turn the contests into something worth watching.

But Darren Palmer spoilt the system when he made a one-off appearance in the Honda S2000 at Queensland and managed to charge through the field in the Class B car and take both races.

His task was made easier when Holden Commodore driver Scott Loadsman had to start an extra 10 seconds behind the field due to a ride height misdemeneur in qualifying.

The Class E cars led the pack away as the bigger cars chased, though Palmer got past them all with two laps to go and won from standout Proton driver David Russell and Alan Holgersson, the former Camry driver steering John Mcllroy’s Falcon.

Russell again charged away from the pack in race two, but Palmer did the same and took the lead with two laps to go, beating home Russell, Loadsman and Holgersson.

!

The Pool is very rite: Palmer leads Steve Cramp(BMW) at Queensland (Photo by Dirk Klynsmilh) Raceway on his way to two wins.

28 July

24 July 2002

Clubday

Australasian C Grade Titles — Morwell

□

10/11 Aug

Rotax Shake Down meeting — Todd Road

17/18 Aug

AA.ildura Ford Road King Round 3 “ Mildura

23 Aug

Top Gun (Friday) night meeting — Oakleigh

(Pliolo by Dirk Klynsmith)

FRANCOIS Jouy had never stood on the podium of the Mirage Cup before.

But it was Bastille Day at Queensland Raceway and the Frenchman rose to the occasion, taking a career-best second in the first race, before going one better in the second race.

Series leader Gary Young started from the pole and raced away to win Race 1. Jouy started from sixth but fought his way to second at half distance. James Dutton had an engine failure, and a resultant fuel leak set fire to the car and the grass along the length of the inside back straight, letting Grant Park into third.

Kurt Bieder led the inverted race early, until Andrew Taplin and Jouy took up the front running. Taplin ended in the sand at turn three, letting Jouy through to win ahead of Young with Bieder hanging on to third.

- MARK JONES

n The final version of the new Arrow AX8 range of chassis has been released. Primarily designed for 'Clubman' classes, the kart continues the theme set by the AX8-125 and AX8-CIK, but comes in two chassis tube sizes. The AX8 28/30(28 and 30mm tubing) is set for use in Clubman Light and National classes, and the AX8 30/32 is for Clubman Heavy and Rotax.

The frames feature special Edwards wheels, revised seat, 40 or 50mm axle option and a choice of six colours for the CIK homologated plastics.

KARTING 0inCOMING EVENTi

3/4 Aiig

Marchon, vos Bataillons! Joiiy was a winner on the right day in Queensland.

n Nearly 100 drivers competed at the opening round of the NSW APS Super 8 Series at Newcastle last month. Category winners were Steel Guiliana (Midgets), Matthew Harrison (Rookies), Matt Skinner (Junior National), Kristian Lindbom (Junior Clubman), Damien Meyer (Rotax Heavy), Peter Lawler (Rotax Light), Carsten Fedemann (Sportsman Heavy) and Ashley Slavkovic (Sportsman Light).

D

For further information on any of the above events call the Victorian Karting Association

03 5449 0362 or 03 93021144 A N\CTOWAUKAW\HG ASSOOKUOU

www.vka.asn.au vka@bl40.aone.net.au 73

National Scene

Karting switches

Hunting for, and finding, Thompson switches from Tony Kart to Birel a new ride I

by MARK WICKS

ANDREW Thompson, right, has switched from Tony Kart to Birel at the half way point of the APS CIK Championship series.

Thompson, who currently leads the Junior Intercontinental A points, will make his debut with Birel at the next round at Raleigh, NSW on August 25.

Thompson tested for Birel immediately after round two at Ipswich and is making the change with a view to next year’s series when he graduates to seniors and is expected to move straight into the top level Formula A class.

Despite immense success with Tony Kart, it is not the first time Thompson has switched to another brand mid-season.

The last two years Andrew has started the CIK Championship aboard Swiss Hutless before switching to Tony Kart after the opening round.

^A

I Joining an Aussie: Josh Hunt will join Ben Horsiman in the factoiy Biesse/Fox team. (Photo hy iVi/H Ih-nslichutO(l) ANOTHER karting racer to switch teams is Josh Hunt.

Competing in the European Formuia A Championship, Hunt will join feiiow Aussie Ben Horstman in the factory Biesse/Fox team.

Hunt drove an Energy (the same brand with which he won the Australian and Oceania Intercontinental A Championships iast year) at the opening round of the series but struggied for pace with unproven Stratos engines.

- MARK WICKS

Winton 6 Hour field filling up very fast

JUST 10 vacancies remain for the Six Hour Sportscar Relay Race at Winton, due to be held on September 14/15.

The team event, which features a handicap structure that ensures chances of victory are equal by all cars and teams, has been run since 1997 by the Marque Sports Car Association.

This year it‘steps up’ another notch, moving to the newer pit facilities, the move allowing team cars to make their sash change undercover in the garages via the pit lane.

The Friday of the meeting will again be reserved for private practice.

-AARON NOONAN

14

Vees move to 1600cc

FORMULA Vee will move to 1600CC production VW air cooled engines in January 2003.

The new enginfes will be an option alongside the existing 1200CC engines, together with a series of technical changes (primarily aimed at new cars) previously agreed with the Formula Vee Association of

Australia (FVAA). . The Australian Motor Racing Commission meeting on July 9 helped resolve the issues facing the category, which brings it into line with the AMRC's wish to evolve Formula Vee in line with objectives set in the Towards 2000 paper and from

discussions with competitors.

A working party will- be formed under the AMRC to bring together the reievant groups from within Formuia Vee and CAMS to work through technical and logistic issues in an effort to achieve parity and clear representation.

- AARON NOONAN

motorsport news

INDUSTRY NEWS

New classics

CLASSIC Carlectables have released the first in a new series of 1:43 scale die-cast V8 supercar models.

The latest range has significant improvements in detail and presentation over the previous series. The new models include a fully detailed interior which includes the computer box, fire extinquisher, bias levers, roll cage, all cabling and seat belts complete with buckles.

The drivers air cooling tubes are connected to the rear window vents for accuracy. When you turn the car over a fully detailed underbody is revealed, the rear suspension is fully detailed, the front undertray is finished with a

carbon fibre look and the exhausts pipes are fully detailed.

Even the tyres have been given some attention which are scuffed to remove moulding lines and produce a realistic racing appearance. The front wheels are cambered and sit l^Castrol inside the guards which makes the model sit correctly with a racing stance.

The packaging has also been upgi-aded. Each box, which is the same height and width of the previous boxes, includes a

Going GREEN Cotton air filters are now available in Australia. The high performance filters have been used extensively throughout Europe hy many leading race teams across many categories including the factory works teams Peugeot Sport, Citreon Sport, Renault and Toyota Sport.

In Australia Green Filters are used by the Team Brock Targa Monaro.

<BCastrol carlectablei

1 RussellIngajjj^r2002 Castrpl VX Rach^onmpS mirrored floor showing off the detail under body.

The models cost $37.50 and are limited to 2500 to 3000 units each.

The first to be released is the Ford Credit AU Falcon of Glenn

New shocks

'i

Replacement elements, high performance cones and powerflow filters are available for most applications. New to the range is the radical Twister Filter which is designed to only draw cold air through the intake. For more information on the Green Cotton Filter range contact Australian distributor The Race Shop on 03 9462 3089.

Company has unveiled STHE Event Gear its latest challenge for upcoming V8 events.

While they won’t be f f.| competing for pole position, « these little Gatortrucks will be making their presence felt.

Each will be stocked with the latest official event merchandise, including t-shirts, caps, jackets and more. They will circulate through the crowd, making it easier to secure your offical event merchandise.

The Gatortrucks will be 'A out in force at Bathurst, ' .' Indy, Sandown and the New Zealand V8 rounds.

24 July 2002

Seton and the Castrol Racing VX Commodore of Russel Ingall.

For more details contact Modelmania on 03 9650 8604 in Melbourne or Exclusive Models on 02 9746 3104 in Sydney

AUSTRALIAN suspension company Proven Products has announced the opening of a new assembly complex in Albury, New South Wales.

The factory is now producing the well-known 7610 series motorcycle shock range under its new Ikon brand name.

Since the original European manufacturer of the 7610 series discontinued manufacturing, there has remained a demand for this style of shock. Proven Products has signed an exclusive license agreement

for the production of the 7610 shock.

While developing the Australian market, Proven Products believes there are excellent export opportunities.

Some of the standard features of the 7610 series include adjustable rebound damping and full rebuildability.

This year also marks 40 years of activity in the automotive and motorcycle industry.for Proven Products.

For more information on on the Proven range phqne 02 6040 9955. '

Power Volt ROCKET Industries has released the B&M New Volt coil power imit.

The New Volt coil power unit is designed to produce increased spark intensity on inductive ignition systems. It is connected in series with the positive side of the coil, meaning it will also work with coil packs or multiple coil systems.

Since the ignition coil is the heart of the ignition system, increasing the voltage to the coil will improve the spark performance with either a stock or aftermarket coil.

Even if the battery voltage drops below 12 volts, the New

Volt will continue to deliver 20 volts to the coil at a constant 20 amps. The fully epoxy encapsulated electronics are designed to withstand the harshest environments such as rally cars or four wheel drives.

Call Rocket on 02 8825 1900 or email sales@rocketind.com. —

75

Industry News

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3.£J-Ujjj Jaustech Performance 08 8266 7244

filling fastU

Enjoy a great day with Championship level instructors in

Aust 5tandard 4 point belts fr $145

IA

I

●HEADERS

Holley Performance System Distributors

|^^Call_08^132^888foi_younTearest^distribidoiJ 16

I

Dynapack Dynometer Service Centres

mfer^ DRY SUMP OIL SYSTEMS & ACCESSORIES

F-l-U-l-0

$.Y-S*T-E-M-S

5 point - $465 ● 6 point - $495 FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

SMISI

uBKnd

pipe 50mm-70mm Ph 03 9462 3210 Fax 03 9462 2516

intGrriA

2007 expiry, lightweight buckle, 3" webbing, dip in ends Black, Red, Blue

Trade enquiries welcome

AUSTRAL

pipe & Brake Duct 80-102mm

\

Aluminium flexible duct & air filter cloth

FIA HARNESSES Easy to fit Extra Power Max Engine Protection Used by the Mitsubishi Ralliart WRC team.

‘Ml

VI

BRAKES

Cold air duct

ENTRIES FILLING FAST

Manufacturers & distributors of.

HANDBUILT AND ALL AUSTRALIAN ;VIADE

Ml. 02 9758 1966

Reducers Wheel Arches

Sl^FORMANCE wholesale:^;

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au ● Increase horsepower

SHAFT MOUNTED ROCKER ARM SYSTEMS & CAM DRIVES PERFORMANCE wholesale:^

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

’ Increase torque ● IncreaiTe engine life ● RedL'ce fuel consumption ● Provide better wear

Serious Pratectmn

,T/

protection at start-up Rocket Industries is the Manufacturer's Appointed Distributor for Torco Automotive Racing Oils in Australia. All enc^uiries should be directed to: Ph 02 5525 1900 Fax 02 5525 1911 or Email sales@)rocketind.com

■iiotip.n liwi

MARKET PLACE

news

Im. to promote your products and services to the widest possible range of motorspo^" competitors and enthusiasts. Advertising in RACESHOP costs as little as $60 per issue! Call Brendon Sheridan on 03 9596 5555 now!

Yolifll Source For U.S.Diecasl and Collectables

ONE PIECE PACE PUSHRODS

tDrag Racing,Hot Rodding, NASCAR,Sprint Car

As used by cop touring enr, speedway & drag racing teams. l .080" wall chrome mofy l one piece construction

PO Box 340 Sorinwood NSW 2777

l available in

& W diamet

l .050" length steps

^

from 6.00" to 10.00" ^ l .080” wall hardened steel

CAMSl

NEW street race version J '

also available

p:03 9357 0469 f:03 9357 OOOl

CROWCAMS

l Fast profile design service to your requirements l Custom ground roller, solid and hydraulic profiles using unique computer controlled machines for unrivalled accuracy mw l Matching race valve train components CAMS Including PSi(USA) valve springs and a huge range of one piece super duty ^ pushrods Ph 03 9357 0469 or Fax 039357 0001 Visit our website: www.crowcams.com.au

Visj^ouT^ebsite^^/w^crowcams^con^a^

COMPO/VIOT/.VE MoropsPOBr wheels

VIC 03 9386 5331 NSW 02 9676 8655 SA 08 8387 3522 WA 08 9293 3500 TAS 03 6273 7555 NT 08 8941 5388 QLD 07 3217 1188 STUCKEY TYRE SERVICE www.stuckey.com.au

f^RANE i M^ams

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

:S EWQIKEPAHT8#

The ultimate in strength & safety

Stale Distributors

NSW:(02)9678 9977 OLD:(07)3808 1986 VIC:(03)9794 5177 WA:(08)9353 1155 Austrsllan Importer and distributor-:

Ph: 08 8363 5566 Fax: 08 8363 5633 www.cranecams.com.au

r^CRAISJE M TECHNOLOGIES ^PTY. LTD.

ENGINE FASTENERS & ACCESSORIES Wrformance wholesale:;;

I

l Your choice of lightweight steel or alloy l Available for all popular applications including Ford, Cleveland and Windsor V8, ^ n /J Holden 6 & V8, Chev SB & BB V8 Ph 03 9555 5522 Fax 03 9555 4152

PLATINUM

-‘THGz -

ixn

tCREATIVE The

SPECIAUSTS in DESIGN for MOTORSPORT Tel:(03) 9530 9011

l Available in twin shaft and unique single shaft designs for all

- business cards - motarsport proposals — hero cards - banners - large murals - wehsttts

parallel and cant valve engines l Strongest race rocker available with unique lifetime warranty for road and race applications

Ph 03 9555 5522 Fax 03 9555 4152 I

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GUDGEON PINS & RINGS fH^RFORMANCE YfWHOt.ESALE:S

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

■^mantf the besti High performance engine components for over 30 years.

RacBf strip or street.

minm AUSTRAL I Ph. 02 9758 1966

26 Jiie 2812

A

Tfode .nquiri.s wsicome Fax. 02 9758 11S5

Performance Plumbing Made Easy

World’s leaders in Motorsport Safety Technology Helmets l Suits l Boots l Gloves l Harnesses l Crew Gear l and all accessories for all motorsports Quality l Price l Service Simpson Safety Equipment Australia 91 Rookwood Road Yagoona NSW 2199 Ph 02 9791 6001 Fax 02 9791 6002 AUSTRALIA rg DiSTRi tJUTORS

C

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ROC K E

The world’s strongest and most affordable shaft type roller rocker

Australians Mast Wanted Performance Gauges AUTO METER and the Auto Meter Logo are trademarks of Rocket Industries P/L in Australia All cnejuiries should be directed to: Ph 02 58-251900 Fax 02 5525 1911 Email sales@rocketind.com

m

Kocket Industries is the Manufacturer’s Appointed Distributor for Russell In Australia. All enciuiries should be directed to: Ph 02 &e>25 1900 Fax 02 5S251911 Email salcs@>rocketind.com

111

RACING PRODUCTS

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Auto COHPTTTTION tNSTSUMCNTS^

CRANKSHAFTS, CON-RODS,RACE CAMS & VALVE TRAIN COM PONENTS O^FORMANCE wholesale:^;

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au motorsport news

m race shop nows

ISKYi

RADIATOR

LOCK.DOWN SAFETY CAPS

RACINQ CAMS

ini'Sitlerprises can help you with any J

RACING TIRE

r.KARj

MUNSONS

Manufactured in USA by Pro-Gram Engineering

SCOOP PURCHASE

6 pump, front roller

Sold in Australia by

Ph 02 9791 6001 Fax 02 9791 6002 Email sales@simpsonraceproducts.com.au

BDY/\IAGEAR

VUfig Fax 03 5339 2144

If.

nou

itmerica's premium oil pump & timing component manufacturer.

VIC 37A Fonron St Ooklcigh 3I66 Ph: 03 9543 6222 Fox: 03 9543 6244 OLD 3/26 Expo Crt Ashmore 4214 Ph/Fax: 07 5531 0181 NSW 2/109 Aitds St Minlo NSW 2566 Ph:02 9820 4255

fez?

ENGINE BEARIN lu

fffu:imAR,.>4 b 7

V-'J

Trade enquiries welcome Fax. 02 9758 1155

AUSTRAL I A

Ph. 02 9758 1966

Remarkable Wiadows of Opportuaity for Eagiae Experts l Accurate, Repeotoble, Versatile l Take manuol control or hands-free l local design, support, development, installation and on-site training l Top names demand fop equipment(use5 inc NIZPRO, HSV, HRT & John Sidney Racing) For mero information end e domenslretion contertt

l Engine, chassis, go-kart or motorbike

M/ADynoLoq Dynamometer

AREX Computing PO Box 151 Montrose Vic 3765 Ph039751 1142 Fox039751 2173 Mob 0408 055 541 Email oelder@melbpt.oig.

wjScsBteT'ateWSsdm

V

PERFORMANCE & RELIABIUTY

●NEW NODULAR CASTING PRECISION CNC MACHINED, GROUND TO EXAaiNG TOLERANCES 'SUIT 308 RODS, BALANCER, FLYWHEEL, LIP OR ROPE MAIN SEAL HARROP ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA PTY LTD Dt-L Si-.

'I'eleplKJiw iDiii F)474 ()F)()0 Fa.\ (O.'il iM74 ()F)F)F)

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AUSTRAL I A

enou/f/es] 9758 11SS

Ph.02 9758 1986

m Workshop

Marquee Floor

g Display Areas B Access Paths

Installs quickly E Rolls up for storage P

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RACE DESIGNED AERODYNAMICS

V8 Supercar Race and Show Car body kits. Available in

m

^gfck^^^m^Kevlar/Carbon Fibre, composite and

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in It*

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ph 03 9738 1588 Factory548 Mah/em Street Bayswater 3153 Mob 0418374641

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HI-PERFORMANCE 308-355 C.l.

STROKER CRANKSHAFT

Engineering

SMISI

c::r>spoRrscARS PORTABLE FLOQRtNfil

SPECIAL

iHAffROPl

18

)iawk Performance disc brake pads ' have the stopping power and brake modulation to reduce lap limes and put RACING PRODUCTS you in the winners' circle - with 8 different race compounds.

Ai«(rai9% lmg§§i nng$,~-

SMISI

V ●

6.

I

ISO9001 rmgislfmd Evmry pump Is oil tostod for corroct prmssurm A volumm.

Qumllty assured.

7

iHAWKWj 4

17 Kg, 1.S tonne,

1

Factory 9,19-25 Grange Rd Cheltenham vie Ph 05 9585 5340 Fax 03 9585 5320

tWMffac/iTff Tyres

Steel Main Caps to suit most V8 applications

ALUMINIUM RACE JACKS

* IN asABU .vA l/roBOUf

ic New & used karts H Servicing H Spares H Heimets H Suits & aii your karting needs

SniDGCSTone Cnr Mountain Hwy & Stud Rd Bavswater viC 315S Tel 03 9720 saoa Fax 03 9720 8278

pnooiicrs

Ph 08 8371 1500 Mob 0418 600 751

AUTOMOnVB

Xoositr ^

't.

Available for Commodore VN to VT, EF to AU Falcon, BMW, Lancer, Magna & Excel

www.performancewholesale.com.au

Contact your state distributor...

Hardiman Auto Supplies (02) 9771 5877 Motorsport Connections (02) 9838 7272 (03) 9794 5177 Victorian Speed Pro Performance Wholesale (07) 3808 1986 (08) 8363 5566 Crane Technologies Gogear Racing Services (08) 9443 4400

15% I- iHCREASt

«●

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

S^EEDFLOW Premium Motorsport Hose & Fittings!

1

IflA-

■ tOOMf’W

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Also available from ' ^ American Tire & Racing Services (02) 9790 7571 Perlormance Wholesale (07) 3808 1986

I

■KiU

S^FOmANCE wholesale:^

dealer enquiries by Phoning 0413 520 852 email: myent@ozemnil.com.ou

WHITE FACED DIALS

RACE CAMS, VALVE TRAIN TOOLS & COMPONENTS

*»

PERFORMANCE CAMS& ^ VALVE TRAIN COMPONENTS S^ J^FORMANCE

wholesale:^

Phone (07) 3808 1986

Visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

UMI Race logistics

RACE L^isrics interstate transport ALL ROUNDS ALL CLASSES

Fully enclosed custom built race car transporters Professional race car logistic and event specialists Security for car and equipment Contact Neil Griffiths on 0418 474 816

race@tnt.com.au

1

MARKET PLACE

I

II6WS online classifieds

SILL

Classifieds

from lust $25

'jpOM imotorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/internet ebsssiffled service, temr^ssy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service [D^lOOS.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25, te:6fcmonths on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25! HOW?

Jlajsaibg on to www.my105.com and follow the prompts!

Ateri'iiately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for p(MMelectronic submission of

LOGON NOW —IT’S

Sedans/Sports Cars

Peugeot 405 Super Tourer 94, 97 aero update, car only 8 meetings old, 8th 0/R 23/6 at QR, fresh engine and 6 sp trans, fully sorted, new Ohilns and tyres, wets, VGC, $25,000 OLD 0417 703 773 - 237 www.myl05.eom/20223

I

Torana LC feiTR,;, Torana Sports Sedan,Unfinished,. siijE308, Muncie, Lola Calipers. 9"diff, oil cocsier. New, seat,slicks, rims (rear), wiiintig .nrediators (x2),lexan windows, L34 arodraactors, Less Motor.

33,250 ono. Mi»i« O-OCS 535 245 - 237 www.myl 05.coiiii;t!I>'2 SIS

Torana LC Sports Sedan, set up for 308, unfinished, 9“ diff, muncie, Lola calipers, oil cooler, new seat, slicks, rims (rear), wiring,. radiators (x2), L34 extractors, Lexan windows, Less motor, $3250 ono, ph 03 9367 8492 or 0428 535 245 237 www.myl05.eom/20215

Bolwell Mk 4 Club Car, 1966 model, 12A PP rotary, FIX7 5 speed box, 2 sets of race wheels and tyres, many spares, CAMS log book, sold with car trailer, $21,000 ono, ph Paul 0418 101 864 or 03 5977 4193 ah-237 www.my105.com/20225

T WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

Mazda RX3 Coup.©, 1:1B T04E, microtech, big intercoolsr, tubuiHi engine, new turbo, solid clutch, 9" l.S;;0 (fcl-sc diff, 4 spot front brakes, konis7bilslesins.,2 link,roll cage,3.5" exhaust, new whisseldilyres, 300KW @ wheels, dyno sh80;,law/tii. used for sprints, could be road rep. ,5'H fflDO, John 03 9704 9944 237 iV’'i«u*,':my105.com/20214

Torana SS hatch, 400+ hp 5 litre engine, fully studded, rollers, circuit tyre sump, steel/ lightweight flywheel etc, 4-spd, big brake conversion, braided lines, konis, race brushes, whiteline springs/bars, cambered diff housing, new 15x8 wheels, complete, never raced, travelled less than 100km since built, suit club sprints or improved production class, $15,000 neg, ph Jim 03 9795 1112 or 0416 281 www.myl OS.com/20222

Commodore Cup car, professionally built, new engine, gearbox, front rotors, tyres, ready to race with new MRT race trailer, $28,500, ph Cameron 0418 318 866. 236 www.myl05.eom/20228 Mustang '65 OKOt/jip, Nb, 289 High horespower rollaf c^rwn motor, 48 Ida's, floating rear eiid.^ roehelled '99, ultra reliable, fully sorffd, sjjpare g'box, wheels, diff etc. Complelo train freshened.

Immac race reaaycconcnl, $58,000 Ph 0418 539 027. 236 wuv(w„!ny105.com/20219

—

MGB GT 1970, rolling car (less motor, gearbox, loom etc), has V8 engine bay, ideal MG/Marque Sports/Historic Rally Car project. All parts sourced and includes reco diff and steering rack. GHD5UB21950G. $4350, ph Ray Neilson 03 9608 4102 (w)or 03 9591 0068(h)- 237 www.105.com/20226

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24 July 2002

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Ford Escort Mk II S liitiro Sports Sedan, Pinto eng twin Wedkews 4w discs, new brakes, 5-spd 'Celtesh gi'sarbox, locked diff, quick rack staerinn, -itikjailds, many extras, $12,900 iph 02 ®S87 5355. 236 www.myl0S.coml2a!i2''l

Ford Saloon, Ford Saloon Brand New, Beenag cage, latest specs, lightweight, built by FVH Racing & Super Service Engines, including entry fee into OLD 500, the best, built to win. 236. $30,000. James 0416 325 526.-236 www.my105.eom/20302 Falcon EF Race Car, suit Improved Production club car, 530+ hp, Cleveland alloy heads, billet crank, big brakes, coil over suspension, Super T-10, best^of everything, all new, will separate engine, box. Could be modified for street. $21,000 Ph 07 5428 7384. 236 www.my105.com/20236

HQ race car number 68, Top 5 in 2000 NSW state championship. Fresh engine only one meeting old. Spare wheels and tyres as well as other spares. Ready to race. Assistance to new owner. $5,500. Ph Garry on 02 96255918bh or 02 96257008 www.myl05.com/20230

2000 Nissan 2O0.S9X' S3p.ee R, bond cage, new seat and humiisss, Motec M8, fresh engine, gearbox aflzridilil. 12 wheels, spare engine and ar>cil|ptit«s. Weal for Procar 24 hour race. Targa Tn^ atcc. Only raced twice!

Ring Darrell on 02«457583434 or 0403 333 204.

236 wiv+Winmyl 05.com/20220

v-> LJ Torana XU-1, Group No Historic, Fresh Motor, Many spares including complete spare motor, Very Quick Car, Ring for complete llst,$21,000 The Lot, Ph 0414 896 147, or email dcorner@optusnet.com.au - 237 www.105.com/20227

I

Vectra Super Tourer, Vectra Super Tourer, ready to race, Brembo 8 spot brakes, VCP diff, Motec, 22" wheels, large spares package, quick car, Wakefield 1:01.9sec, Mallala 1:12.2sec. $43,000. John 0409 156 550 236 www.myl 05.com/20301

Gemini Coupe race cars, 2, ready to race, both competitive cars, $3000 each, 'ph 07 5428 7384. 236 www.my105.com/20237 Holden Group Nc HQ, V8 Kingswood good car, heaps of potential, cheap V8 racing, $16,500 ph 02 9913 191 9. 236 www.my105.com/20238 MAZDA RX7 Club Car, Close ration 4Spd, 4.8 diff. Kmac suspension, Haltec fuel injection. 13B Bridgeport. Consistently top running car in Qld and best value for money at $13,500, Would cost $20,000 to rebuild. Ideal car for this years nationals held in Qld. Ph Tony Dunn 07 3210 0244bh, or 0438 88 7791.236 www.my105.com/20239

GTP XR6 AUII Falcon, ex Longhurst as raced at Bathurst 99/00. Upgraded to AUII spec as per Procar requirements. Perfect entry level car. List of spares. $35,000.

Ph Guy 07 3343 1566.236 www.myl05.eom/20231

Datsun 1200 Coupe, racing preparation started, car drives and has excellent sound shell, ready for all the right bits, 100% genuine reason for sale, $2000, also second rolling car, sound strinn.shell, minus gearbox, ph 03 9888 7992 or 0419 335 670.

236 www.my105.com/20233

Sports Sedan 6 litre Capri, w/ Chev 600+ HP, engine, Getrag 5 speed, everything brand new, state of art tube chassis, too much to list, $25,000 ph 07 5428 7384. 236 www.myl05.com/20235

3J Corolla KE25, Log book. Bob Holden built 4AGE, Koni Adj. Shocks, 6 Point alloy cage, Call for full list of specs, 95% Complete. Andrew 0427 694 158 - 237 www.mylOS.com/20150

79

Speedway

BMW Super Tourer, BMW 318i Super Tourer 1993 German built. Ex Tony Longhurst 1994 ASTC winner, ex McClean Loads of spares Ready to race or suit BMW enthusiast. $45,000, Anthony 0408 868 306 -237 www.myl05.eom/203 I *

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HSV VX GTS, HSV VX GTS, upgraded coupe AP brakes, motec engine management and dash. Cromoly roll cage .

Ready to win races. First to see will buyl $70000 ono. Craig 0407 724 862 -237 www.myl05.eom/20192

Ponitac Firebird Super Sedan, registered board, was registered ASCF quick-change diff, power steering, wide 5, 308 motor, runs well, coil over suspension, plus spares.

Motor complete rebuild only 1 race meeting. $5000, ph 02 6963 6276 or 0414 779 726 237 www.my105.com/20232 Datsun 1000 Coupe Under 2L Sports Sedan, Best looking, fastest U2litre Sports Sedans in Country, more than capable of winning races/series in the right hands,best everything nothing to spend, cheap, fast, easy to drive competitive car, spares inc brand new mounted-wets, panels,spoilers loads more, Reconditioned ready to race, Transport available to serious buyer, $8,500. Marty 0408 255 005. -237 http://www.my1 05.com/201 55

t

Super Sedan, Commodore Hibar chassis, coil over suspension, leaf spring 5th arm rear Q-change diff, power head steering heaps of spares, spare wheels and tyres, just add your motor and box to race, $12,000 ono, ph 08 9262 1926 - 237 www.myl05.eom/20234 Compact speedcar NSW #47, Laser engine, McGee injection, Schroder box.

Autometer gauges, Gardner bars arm & stops, BP quickchange, very quick car, trailer and all spares, urgent sale, $11,000 ono, ph Troy 0438 557 056. 236 www.myl05.eom/20273

Nissan 200SX GTP, Full roil cage. Race ready. The fastest Nissan in the GTP c/ship. Comes with complete spare car as spares package. $60,000. Peter 0418 313 026 -237 http://www.my105.com/20142

,* ELFIN 630B Formula Atlantic, Built 1976.

Fresh BDD FT200, completely race ready. $45,000. Possibly trade F/F or F3. 0419 777 229 - 237 www.105.com/20229

:SrSSR

L3

street Stock, Current South Australia 1, best of everything, S8000, Ph 0409 007930.

- 236 www.my105.com/20272

r www.myl05.eom/20149

Litre Car, Infinity chassis, Sanders, Halibrand - Carbon Fibre Panel - Ai Paint finish - Everything on car is brand new MUST SELL. $10,000. Brett (02) 4987 2998 237 www.myl05.com/20206

Him tttKHjVttS

i

r

2002 Honda Integra Type R Racecar, 200hp i_VTEC Engine, Currently road rego Race Ready: 0/B Fire Bomb, B/D Roll cage, 4 Piston "HARROP" F/F Brakes, Recaro Seats Sabelt Harness, Window net Kill switches, Packaged with all original Honda components for conversion back to road car, POA. Carl 0414 725 758 -237

Sprintcar Chassis, 1998 Avenger 'Safety Cage'. Complete with lightweight motor plate, stainless steel crash bars, dash, floor, fibreglass panels with scoop, lightweight wing trees, plus more, 35 races, $2000, priced for quick sale, ph 0416 194 763. - 236 www.myl05.eom/7039

Sprintcar fuel tank, midget size, fuel safe bladder and new top plate, good condition, $500, ph 0416 194 763,236 www.my105.com/7044 QV¥7‘ Wfca.jjscxr...

Open Wheelers Porsche 944, Looks Good, Goes Great, enthusiasts car, with BIG sounding stereo.

Ready to race or be the daily traveller as it is today, Recaro Seats, Air Con, Simmons Wheels,4 Point Harness, New Clutch Tight Driving Car. $20,000. -237 www.myl05.eom/20189

Iltfl ^

Jj

Original Elfin NG Vee, ideal car for newcomer from karts, midfield runner has lots of potential, includes fully enclosed trailer, tows well, chequer plate floor, selling due to move to other category, $12,000 Ph 0425 261 315(NSW). 236 www.myl05.eom/20268

Sprintcar - Sportsmans, 186 Holden methanol engine, 3 speed box, mags, fresh paint, Lukey exhaust, race ready, class still running at Drouin & Bairnsdale, good hillclimber. $1500, ph 03 5134 8438. - 236 www.myl05.eom/20274

Harris / Fontana Speedcar, Harris, Fontana Engine, Lots of spares (head, cams, springs, wheels). $32,000.

Mohammed 0411 238 603.237 www.myl05.com/20205

Micro Sprint Car & Trailer, Micro Sprint RM 250 - Excellent condition - B grade car spares - on new trailer. $4,800 ono. jfi/lalt 0405 319 465 (02) 9981 4713 - 237 http://www;my1 05.com/20204

rif#waytosell yourgear! vcomj From just$25* lustlog on online classifieds CStBQOry: □ Sedans

□ Open Wheelefs

□ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers

u Speedway

□ Wanted □ Photographs

□ Drag □ Other

Descrtptlon: Please keep ads to no more than 30 words, plus photos if desired.

(*$25 rate applies to electronically-supplied advertisements) Advertising can also be supplied using this(ortn ($10/$15 surchage to text only/text -f pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of Motorspoft riev.'c PLUS the.;iy105.com websitefor six months.

I enclose cheque/money order for $35 (text only) / $40 (text plus up to five pictures) made out to my105.corri or please charge my □ Amex □ Bankcard □ Visa or □ Mastercard for the amount of $35 (words only) / $40 (words and pic). SS'SoraSS,) card no □□□□ □□□□ □□□□ □□□□ Signature _ Card Name

Name _

Forward your my105.com classified to: fax 02 9648 4111 or mail to my105.com, 105 Carnarvon Street Silverwater NSW 2128.

Address p/c Ph( 80

)

Exp_/

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and print clearly. Please note W0 are unable to return photographs supplied for use in classified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possible after receipt. MN/myl 05.com dassrfieds are for the sale of private goods and vehicles only, not business advertising Photos marked “proof will not be used.

moiorsport news

MARKET PLACE Speedcar Pearce Chassis, V6 Volvo, Lee steering, Gardniner long sipined moly axle, Outlaw, Halibrand, Real, weld, splined pro stocks. Heaps of spares, race ready, $9000 ph 03 9308 3260 or 0425 793 334. - 236 www.myl05.com/7040

Engines Mitsubishi 2.6 engine, Coltspeed built, sleeved block, lightened crank, forged pistons, balance shaft removed, modified cylinder head & rocker gear, quad 55mm throttle bodies, Motec, new clutch & pressure plate, remote filter & cooler. Will make over 300hp on optimax. $8499, or $6499 minus Motex and throttle bodies.

Ph 0411 087 558 - 237 www.105.com/7029 Mini 1300CC engine, SCCR gearbox, button clutch, works cam, all auxilliaries, .

Webber, inlet and exhaust manifold etc.

Winner of Australian Hillciimb Championship 2001, $3800 ph Garry 02 6662 8111 ah.

- 237 www.105.eom/7030 Holden 308 trimatic bolt pattern, HP block and crank, manifold, lots of new parts, Chev forge pistons, rollers, A9L rods, bearings, cam, big sump, Yella Terra Stage 3 heads, L34 extractors, too many spares to list, ready to assemble, I can fax you list. $5250 ono, ph 03 9367 8492 or 0428 535 245 - 237 WWW.105.eom/7031 Commodore 308 motor, 3 speed auto, nearly ready to race, $2000, ph 02 6963 6276 or 0414 797 726 - 237 www.105.com/7032 Sprint car engine 372, genuine Chev Bowtie lightweight alloy block, Lunati l/w crank, l/w Oliver conrods, JE pistons, alloy Summer Bros gear drive. Gambler 4 stage dry sump pump, Moroso l/w alloy sump, Peterson tank and remote filter, KSE water pump and timing cover, Brodix 18o heads. Crane roller gear, Jessel rockers, 2 1/2 Kinsler injector, Moroso l/w alloy rocker covers with internal oilers, Don Zigg Magneto, PWR radiator, DSR fuel pump, MPD l/w crank drive new. complete engine with all water lines, oil lines and fuel lines with high speed and low speed and filter, Schoenfeld swept forward extractors, spin strap muffters. Engine has done 2 season from brand new and has just been freshened. EC. $37,000, ph 03 9728 4839 or 0410 493 242. 236 www.my105.com/7045 Chev SB race engine, 600 HP, raised runner, bow-tie heads, steel crank, best of everything, brand new throughout, $15,000 ph 07 5428 7384. 236 ww.my105.eom/7046

Transporters/Trailers

Trailer, Tandem axle, electric brakes, 15 inch wheels, 16ft x 6ft, 4 inch alloy checker plate deck, with built in slide away ramps, shelving and interior lights. Also tyre rack, lighting poles and lockable alloy boxes for generator, fuel/oil and esky. Tows excellent, must see. Regretful sale, 12 months rego.

Marianne, 02 9823 7284.- 237 www.my105.com/20166

Transporter, 40ft long gooseneck trailer, only set up for 2 super sedans. Bogie axle duals, 14" wheels. Complete with tyre racks, work benches, sink and cupboards. $25,000 07 4666 3538 237 www.my105.com/20164

24 Jury 2002

Dodge 75, V10 motor + 4 spd trans from late Dodge Ram. Jag front, Dana 90 rear.

Needs paint. Powerful and reliable, $20,000 ph 0428 898 864 (Bris). - 237 www.105.com/20244

I: Car trailer, tandem, elect brk, winch, spare, 3.6m X 1.9m, never used, rego 12/02, $3000ono ph 07 3389 8293 ah. - 236 www.my105.com/20282

i

.

Enclosed racecar trailer 18', absolutely first class in design and appearance, full internal fit-out including purpose-built parts cabinets, tyre and fuel, storage spare diff and front axle rack, bench, fluro lighting, ROH Wheels with light truck tyres, aluminium cheq, plate floor and front stoneguard, electric brakes with breakaway, power points, safety switch, side door, nosecone. One owner, used for sprintcar. $15,000 ono, ph 0416 194 763. - 236 www.myl05.com/20280

Mitsubishi Canter, 8/85 Diesel 5 speed 6600 GVM, 18 ft tray with gates and tarp, ramp. Excellent mechanical, new 2 pack paint, $6800 ono ph 07 5494 5240 or 0402 042 258. - 237 www.105.com/20245 20 ft tandem car trailer, with ramps, partly covered,'unregistered, $2000, ph 02 6963 6276 or 0414 779 726 237 WWW.105.eom/20247

s D’ALBERTO I

HOLDEN

I

3

tzrra

Fully inclosed trailer with single axle, 10 by 7 foot (inside). Well presented, tidy unit, with jockey wheel, good tyres, rear and side door for easy access. Suit Go-Karts or any small vehicle. $3,000 ONO. Ph 0407 772 902 237 www.105.com/20249

Parts Mitsubishi LSD, suit early Lancer/Galant, Torana centre. Corona axles, 4.6:1 ratio, 237 $1250 ono, ph 0411 087 558. www.105.com/7033 Chev Suburban 1986, dual fuel, small block, turbo 700, 9 in diff, seats 8, a/c, powersteer, elec windows, alloy wheels, long range fuel tanks, Hayman Reese towbar, $19,000 ono, ph 03 9761 7261.-236 www.myl05.eom/20281

T-10 gearbox with Indy shifter, top loader also with Indy shifter, complete with Hadfield bell housing, Yella Terra flywheel & 2 Holden flywheels, tail shafts to suit 9" diff, cross member to suit each, clutch plate for each and 1 pressure plate, also 1 Ford bell housing, $1260, ph 0417 148 627 - 237 www.105.com/7034

Trailer fully enclosed dual axle, 2 side doors, drop down rear door, flouro 240v safety switch bench 4 wheel brakes rego exc cond, rear opening 73"h x 76'\v, $7000, ph 03 9308 3260 or 0425 793 334.236 www.myl05.eom/20284

9“ diff 3:25 centre, cross drilled vented discs with calipers and lines, floating bearings & sway bar, never used, suit LH Torana. $1600 - 237 www.105.com/7035

Fully enclosed trailer, tri-axle 26' long with kitchen and power outlets, water tanks, new tyres and spare and annexe, $10,8000 ph 0438 128 287. 236 www.my105.com/20285

9" centres 3:50 31 spline & 2:78 28 spline, 2:78 centre has been dismantled needs bearings $275, ph 0417 148 627 - 237 www.105.com/7036 Fuel cell, alloy with bladder, craddle & lines. 40 Itr approx. $300, ph 0417 148 627 - 237 www.105.com/7037

ip." ' ..

Trailer, suit open wheeler, semi enclosed, suit road race or speedway, brand new rebuild rego etc $1500 ph Colin 03 9308 3260 or 0425 793 334. 236 www.my105.com/20279

Trailer Fully Enclosed, currently being uesd to transport a sprintcar. Brand new brakes and springs etc. Flouro lights. Power points. Safety Switch's, A place and rack for everything, incuding 7 wheels, 2 top Wings and a Pit Bike.

Rod 0418 851 080-236. www.myl05.eom/20197

Gearbox, 5 spd, close ratio Toyota, steel cage, 3.00/1.99/1.39/1.00/0.85, EC, $375, ph 03 9546 8342 or 0417 239 641.236 www.myl05.com/7050 Race seat, Sparco 'Pro 2000', hardly used, perf cond, cost $899, black, $600 firm, ph 03 9822 5034. 236www.my105.com/7051 Brembo Four Spot Calipers, 1 Pair perfect condition $600 Ph 0418 729 732.

236 www.my105.com/7052

Other Racesults, Race suits double layer, Simpson blue, red trim, worn 8 times, cost $14,000 sell $700. Also, red worn one season $450. Sparco blue worn two seasons $300. All fits 175 - 185cm. Peter 0418 184 456 or (07) 4053 1555 - 237 www.myl05.eom/20296

sap

r

Trailer, open single axle checker plate floor, 12 X 7.6, electric brakes, jockey wheel, suit Formula Ford, Vee, etc etc VGC $1275, Ph 0412 421 126(Qld). 236 www.my105.com/20283 Racecar Transporter UD, 28ft pan. Brand new out of chassis engine rebuild 12 months ago. New brakes, driveline complete aero kit. Living quarters CO player, sleeps 5ve. Fully equipped throughout with professionally built cupboards 240/12v power - 237 http://www.my105.com/20172

Gooseneck Trailer, Urgent Sale, 40ft 6 wheel Motorsport Trailer. Living area.

Bench, Cupboards, Electric/Hydraulic Tailgate, Fully Plumbed Air & Electricity + Earth Leakage. V Good Cond. $22,000.

Phone 0438 607 615 - 237 www.myl05.com/20218

McGee fuel injection, to suit Holden six (suit Speedway) complete, excellent condition, $1500 ono ph 03 6275 0713 - 237 www.105,com/7038 Skyline GT-R/S, RB 26/25 high mount Garrett R&D hybrid twin turbo's on prof, custom manifold, 3" exhaust to u/floor.

K&N filters, all new $7000,00 ono 0419 485 525. 236 www.my105.com/7049 Fuel pump and regulator, Holley Blue, GC $140, ph 03 9546 8342 or 0417 239 641. - 236www.my105.com/7048

Australian Competition Yearbooks, 1971 (fair condition) $10, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978 (Good condition) $20 each, ph Greg 02 6040 3371 ah. 236www.my105.com/20297 Car Craft magazine collection for sale, all in very good condition, from 1974 to 1987 inclusive, $275. Also Hot Rod magazine collection from 1973 to 1987, ring for more details. Ph 0408 202 337.

236 www.myl05.eom/20298 Motorsport News, every edition, any offer, ph 02 9817 0678 or 0427 006 878. - 236 www.my105.com/20299 Magazines and videos. Rare Racing Car News magazines from 1960s through to final years of publication in 80s/90s. Make an offer. Also, BTCC Highlights videos from 1991-96 plus 2000 and 2001. Le Mans 1999, 2000 and 2001 highlights videos.

Variety of other videos available, email noonz@mnews.com.au for a list or ph 0438 316 148. 236 www.myl05.com/20300

Wanted WARNING: MNews has been made aware of an Individual (using the surname Trees) who is responding to Wanted ads, demanding payment prior to the dispatch of goods and then disappearing once the money has been deposited into a Westpac account in Taree. NSW Po'uce are on the case, but In the Interim please be carefull Bow-tie block, small block Chev, must clear. Ur at 4.125, Siamese bore, cal^ John 03 5278 5753 bh - 237 www.105.com/20251 Toyota Corolla Levin Group C, ex peter Williamson/Mike Quinn/Slex Surplice car.

Information to current rr owner or whereabouts Doug Clark 02 6644 9723 237 www.105.com/20253 1990 or 1991 Van Diemen or 1992 or 1993 Swift Formula Ford without engine, preferebly with a selection of ratios and spare set of wheels. Ph Anthony on NZ 0064 25 215 0695 or email sandymyhrenewsroom@xtra.co.nz - 237 www.105.com/20256 Commodore VK or VL Group A race car.

Prefer HDT built, condition not important/ Ph Steve 07 5493 4577 bh or 07 5493 1848 fax - 237 www.105.com/20257 Toyota bits wanted, 4AGZE series one engine, extractors, light flywheel,1800 7AFE engine with strong rods call 0419 388 075 or email on businessmedia@netlink.com.au - 237 www.myl05.eom/7028 Race quality conrods for early 4AG with 40mm big-end size. Race pads for Volvo 4 piston caliper. Ph Terry 07 3814 3762 or 236 email tobeirne@skillpro.com.au. www.myl05.eom/20294

81

OPINION

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82

State of suspension I have a concern over Project Blueprint. From what I can gather, the Holden teams next year will be running a Fordstyle front suspension and a Ford-style cylinder head design.

Given the dominance of the Holden team(s) at the moment, how is this justified? Perhaps the Ford teams should be performing better, but they have had four years with the AU and not one of them has been able to come up with a way of making them consistent from one track to another, something that seems much easier to achieve with the Commodore..

I can’t believe that all the ‘good’ teams have Holdens and all the ‘bad’teams have Fords.

I believe that the one area of the cars that no-one seems to be ■talking about in Project Blueprint is the main culprit of setup difference between the two makes, and that is rear suspension.

It appears that the AU is only an equal on the fast tracks, like Phillip Island, Eastern Creek and Bathurst.

Everywhere else the Holdens have an ob'vious ‘power down’ advantage, and this must be down to the rear suspension.

The mounting points are different for both cars, and the Commodore has a wider track.

With the new BA Falcon coming out with a wider rear track, will this be the case on the race versions?

And for true ‘Blueprint’, will they have the same rear pick up points as the Holdens? This only seems fair, given that the Commodores are being upgraded at the other end of the car.

And finally, if the BA turns out to be faster than the VY (miracles can happen), will they let it run that way for four years of domination as they have done with the VTAfX? One doubts it very much.

Dean Turner swordswines@ozemail.com.au

^ J

different, practical date.

One certainty is that is the National Capital’s loss will certainly be another location’s gain.

Michael Attwell Flynn, ACT

400 fan

converter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9506 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au

Canberra 400 V8 Supercar round.

The pressure in main appears to have come from failed assembly member Jacqui Rees, ACT Green MLA Kerrie Tucker and the National Capital Authority’s Annabelle Pegrum.

Rees and Tucker have been antiCanberra 400 from day one, endlesly questioning the events worth, figures and alleged inconvenience while Pegrum refuses to accept there is a

I have been to every Canberra 400 since its inclusion in the championship.

The event itself is fantastic.

Also, all the driver appearences are well promoted to the public.

I went to four driver appearences, which included a 6:30 am rise to go to the Pantech Breakfast. Despite it being minus five degi’ees, it was gi-eat.

This brings the question: How stupid are the Canberra Government?

They want to get rid of an event that showcases our city to the nation, brings in a lot of tourism and millions of dollars.

I think the Canberra Government should think twice' about cutting the event, because we do get money back from it unlike a certain grass incident at CanbeiTa Stadium ...

Jen ‘OO’vander Vlist (ISyrs) email address ivitheld

Canberra says sorry!

May I use the pages of Motorsport News to apologise to AVESCO, all the V8 Supercar teams, the racers and their support crews, the support race categories, interstate spectators, track construction groups and hirers, and ACT small business for the actions of an ACT politician.

Having previously displayed his indifference to ACT motorsport, ie the Canberra International Dragway, Labor MLA and Treasurer Mr Ted Quinlan has now pulled the plug on the

We came, we saw, we froze: After three years, the government has pulled the plug on the Canberra 400 - and several readers are sorry to (Photo by John Morris/Mpix) see It go.

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