Motorsport News Issue 238 - August 21-September 3, 2002

TEGA to rule on

Would Ford boycott Bathurst?

by CHRIS LAMBDEN

V8 SUPERCAR group TEGA looks set to act this week on Ford’s claim for redress of an alleged aerodynamic imbalance between the current Falcon and Commodore,which has resulted in an unbroken string of Holden wins going back to last year’s Queensland 500.

An issue that has resulted in a continuous and embarrassing 50:50 impasse by the TEGA Board will be resolved, one way or the other, when Chairman Wayne Cattach activates a casting vote as early as this week.

To date, Cattach has voluntarily not utilised that vote - to avoid criticism that, as a former DJR team manager he is a ‘Ford’ man. However, Ford representatives have recently pointed to the fact that the TEGA constitution does not allow Cattach to do so, which should see the Chairman obliged to break the tie this week and address this key issue.

Given that the group’s constitution also commits it to providing a product featuring approximately even Ford/Holden race wins, it is not hard to predict which way the decision,, could and should go.

Ford is backing the case made by Ross Stone of SBR (reported in our last issue)that the Falcon has, through its longer bonnet, more inherent front ‘lift’ than the Commodore. While the cars may be mechanically equal, this imbalance has become more apparent with the adoption of the new Dunlop control tyre. Stone says.

While the issue will automatically be overcome on the new 2003 cars under ‘Project Blueprint’ Ford is not prepared to write off the remainder of 2002 and is adamant that the issue be addressed now:

“We (Ford) are totally supportive of AVESCO/TEGA’s position in running the sport, but we are pointing out that it does not have a process in place to address this current situation,”

Ford Racing Manager Howard Marsden told MN at the weekend.

The Chairman is ohiiged to use his vote. He cannot voiuntariiy abrogate that responsibility"

-Ford Racing’s Howard Marsden 11'

“The group’s constitution commits it to presenting a sport where both manufacturers are capable of winning an equal number of races. There is a clear imbalance there at the moment and we have identified the problem (and are proposing a solution), but thanks to the 50:50 split in the Board, the group has been incapable of addressing it.

“The Chairman is obliged to use his vote. He cannot voluntarily abrogate that responsibility.”

Exhibiting a degree of forcefulness not usually associated with the blue oval’s spokesmen, Marsden added that if TEGA did not act. Ford would “have to consider its options.”

While he would not elaborate, MN understands that.

unofficially, Ford has hinted that it might even reconsider its participation at Bathurst.

The repercussions of such a stand are astounding. The Boys from Broadmeadows are serious this time

For his part, Cattach confirmed to MN on Monday that he would “seek advice on Tuesday to confirm completely that I am required to use my casting vote.

“If that is the case, I will do so.

“If it can be demonstrated that there’s a case for change,then it will be made. If so, the appropriate testing will be carried out so that implementation can be made prior to the next race - the Queensland 500.”

Cattach would not offer an opinion as to which way his casting vote will go.

He also confirmed that the results of the recent aero tests, carried out by TEGA at Avalon Airport, have not been released to the teams “for fear of inflaming the parity debate.”

In the meantime, Holden Motorsport Manager John Stevenson has predictably dismissed the need for change:

“We shouldn’t be making rash adjustments this late in the season,” he told MN on Monday.

“We’ve all agreed to the introduction of Project Blueprint next year. We should simply finish off the year and proceed from there.

“There have been plenty of opportunities for Ford cars to win races. The fact that they haven’t is due to driver and team

error.

“Look at last weekend - it was pit stops, not speed, which cost Ambrose two wins ...”

request, could we see a one-make Bathurst where Holden Commodores run 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-S9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-1920-21-22 and 23?

FORD is proposing the adoption of a slightly longer front splitter for the Falcon to overcome the car's inherent additional 'lift'. It has looked at two options, but is likely to back the version proposed by SBR's Ross Stone. It increases the splitter length at the front by 10mm at the centre, increasing to 30-35mm at the corners.

It will overcome that lift imbalance," //

«

Stone confirmed at the weekend. At the moment,the Falcons have to cope with additional understeer into corners as a result of the disparity. To do that, you compromise the rear, it slides around more,and you use up the tyres quicker.

"You can disguise that over a single lap, in qualifying, with fresh rubber, but as each race goes on,the effect gets

worse.

Stone is unimpressed by Holden's claim that Ford teams are shooting themselves in the foot:

"I'm tired of this thing that only HRT know how to run a race team. That's bullshit. There are some very good people in other teams-the playing field isn't level, though."

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

Formula Holden: If TEGA does not act on Ford’s

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmith)

V8 parity

Don’t take your love to Townsville

DO not go booking any acconnmodation for a Townsville round of the V8 Supercar ● Championship Series. Queensland Events Corporation Chief Executive Michael Denton has ruled out any support for a race in the far north, saying that a multi-million dollar support package for a race "is beyond the capacity of the local business community and city to afford without significant government support".

At the same time, TEGA is, we hear, close to confirming a replacement for the Canbera V8 round, with Tassie still considered the favourite venue.

■ Bizarre rumour of the week: Totally unconfirmed, but we heard a beauty over the Winton weekendCAT to jump ship and fund a TWR-run Commodore for... Jason Bright. We said it was bizarre, but...

■ The stats man tells us that HRT could tie up the V8 championship at the Queensland 500. If Mark Skaife wins with Todd Kelly and Marcos Ambrose lower than second, and Greg Murphy lower than fourth, it's all over, leaving just Jason Bright as an outside chance to challenge MS for the crown.

■ Talking enduros, HRT is shortly expected to confirm what we told you weeks ago -that former Gibson Motorsport team-mate Jim Richards will be paired with Mark Skaife, with Jason Bright again sharing with Tomas Mezera.

Perkins calls for weight penalties

A POSSIBLE variation to the current parity situation has come from Larry Perkinssuccess penalties.

The Castrol team owner/driver has suggested that individual handicapping for race winners is actually already allowed for in the TEGA regulations.

“The rules clearly say that cars may be reviewed,” he said at Winton.“The wording of the rule does not rule out making adjustments to individual cars.”

Perkins’s suggestion is that a 50kg penalty could be applied to just the Holden Racing Team, which would potentially boost the performance of notjust all the Ford teams, but all the Holden teams as well.

Perkins also pointed out that any such modification to the HRT cars could be implemented quickly and cheaply, and likewise be reviewed should the need arise.

-PHIL BRANAGAN

COMMENT

Breaking the impasse

AT least TEGA looks like it will make a decision now that its chairman has, apparently, been forced to use a casting vote.

It will overcome the-farcical situation that has prevailed, with a TEGA Board made up of representatives of two Holden and two Ford teams being asked to make decisions on performancerelated matters.

Of course the two Ford blokes want to go faster. Of course the two Holden blokes don't want them to. It's human nature. It's farcical.

For now,the weight of responsibility for a decision will fall squarely onto chairman Cattach. He will review the evidence and attempt to make an independent decision. And, whatever that is, the sport must accept it and live with it. Any suggestions of legal challenge, whatever the outcome, should be treated with disdain.

The system as it stands is, clearly, incapable of dealing with these sorts of issues and the case fgr the addition of a couple of truly independent additional members on the TEGA Board gains weight with every such stalemate.

In this case, Ford's case is compelling. Pure stats show that Ford hasn't won a round for nearly a year. Yes HRT/TWR, which has won all of them (11 in a row), is good - but are all Ford's forces complete Wallys?

Is TEGA's guiding charter the requirement to ensure someone else does win?

There are good and bad Ford teams, good and bad Holden teams. Right now the best Holden team is winning everything. The best Ford team isn't winning anything.

The contrast couldn't be starker.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

■ V8 BRute racers have pledged their allegiance to the PROCAR Champ Series following recent comments from AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane that the class should be on the V8 Supercar support bill.

Following a meeting between all teams, drivers, owners and PROCAR officials at Wakefield Park, they voted unanimously to continue on their own path with the PROCAR Series.

"It all started with Tony Cochrane commenting on TV that V8 Brutes should be suppprting V8s, which is totally, very rude," said PROCAR Deputy Executive Chairman John Cowley.

"I don't get up and say 20 of his drivers are talking to me about the 24 Hour race!

"There's no way the V8 BRutes will support any V8 rounds. It's a franchise of its own. It's the second most popular series in Australia (behind V8 Supercars). honestly believe it's not a good fit for them anyway, they already have their quota of V8s.

"The crowds are getting better and better as we go from round-to-round. We have no intention of going as a support category again."

Tander stays at GRM

GARTH Tander is staying put.

The West Australian ended speculation that he would switch teams for 2003 by signing with Garry Rogers Motorsport for a further two years to include the 2003 and 2004 seasons. «

Tander spoke to a number of teams over the past three months in a process which was, surprisingly, endorsed by GRM boss, Garry Rogers.

“Garth and I have been talking for months and I supported him talking to other teams during that time,” Rogers said.

“1 wanted him to work through all the issues and make up his mind where he wanted to be before we sat down to strike a final deal.”

“I obviously want to get back to winning races next year and shoot for the championship in 2004,” said Tander.

“There’s a lot of work to be done but if I didn't think we were capable of getting those results, I wouldn't have re-signed.”

The team is cuiTently building a new Commodore VY 'Project Blueprint' car for 2003. Bargwanna, who will be out ofcontract with

Wills/Briggs split

But Simon gets Caltex and Team Kiwi rides for endurance races

by AARON NOONAN

recent experience in V8s on a full- team owner John Briggs to discuss

their future a fortnight ago, the time basis.

SIMON Wills and Briggs situation,” Wills said of his struggling for results since taking

It just wasn’t a happy 2001 Konica champ resigning after

Motorsport have split,the Kiwi departure from the CAT team. over the drive from John Bowe at resigning from the driver’s seat

It was more a personality clash Pukekohe last year. of the CAT Racing Ford a between me and him (Briggs). Industry insiders say that Wills fortnight ago amid personality

There wasn’t any problems with Snr has decided to pursue his racing problems within the team. ambitions with his own team. the team, but we(Briggs and

However, within a week of going Wills) couldn’t gel. I don’t have a further fuelling the story reported ‘on the market’he has been quickly by MNews last issue of a new team problem with where the team’s snapped up for the endurance set-up in South Australia, using a going but it got to the stage where races. Level 1 franchise obtained from a we had to do it.

Wills will join David Besnard,

above, in the Caltex Havoline Ford for the Queensland 500, and then drive for his‘home’team. Team Kiwi, partnering fellow All-Black Jason Richards.

The Stone Brothers team had tested Mark Noske, Andrew Miedecke and Ken Douglas for the drive, though Wills, who drove the Pirtek Ford in the endurance races in 2000, obviously has far more

“Life goes that way - you can’t get along with everybody and relationship problems are everywhere.

“I don’t have any major qualms with John - he’s been pretty good about it. He’s the boss, it’s his team and I think we did the right thing in stepping aside and getting on with the racing.”

Wills and father Keiran met with

current one-car team.

Steve Owen, who has spent this season racing an Imrie Motorsport Commodore in the Konica Series, replaced Wills at Winton, though has committed to IMS for the enduros.

That all leaves a seat next to Dale Brede in the CAT Ford for the enduros -so the merry-go-round hasn’t quite stopped yet.

No Super Credit

DON'T look for a merger between Super Cheap Racing and Ford Credit Racing any time soon.

Both parties have denied rumours that the teams may combine their efforts in the future, following Glenn Seton's test of Steve Ellery’s Super Cheap Falcon at Queensland Raceway earlier this month.

“There's nothing to talk about,” said Ellery at Winton.

“I was away in England at a mate's wedding and we wanted someone with experience to run the car at QR. We asked Glenn to do it and it was just a matter of two teams co-operating and getting something out of it."

Ellery also said that it was not L

^? under the operation of Glenn Seton

^I Racing with Ford Credit backing. The announcement scotches

a slight to the team’s test driver Luke Youlden, who raced an SCR Ford in the Konica Series this season and who will co-drive with Ellery in the next two vases rounds.

“We are really happy with Luke and it was nothing to do with not having faith in him,” said Ellery.

Meanwhile, Seton has announced that his team will remain unchanged for the 2003 season, with the team to remain

^I rumours that FCR may have been .J| targeted by British company 05 Prodrive to build up into a Holden Racing team-style 'Super Team’, as well as ending other speculation linking Seton to other teams.

The team has not ruled out s

“I have been made a number of offers from different teams over the past few months, but the only option I felt totally comfortable with was keeping the team in-house,” said Seton.

running a second car next season, though any expansion of the current single entry will depend on funding.

PB and Motorola

Brock unveils black look for Bathurst return

by PHIL BRANAGAN

PETER Brock will return to the scene of his most famous triumphs, Bathurst, in a oneoff appearance this October.

Brock ended a month of speculation by confirming he will share the Team Brock Holden Commodore VX with Craig Baird, below, in the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000, The car will run a one-off black and gold livery for the race, which will be the 30th anniversary of his first win in the Bathurst 500 in 1972.

Brock, 57, made the announcement at the Melbourne headquarters of communications company Motorola, which will back the team for Bathurst and into next season.

"You know what happens out there in the big wide world, with big sponsorship and deals going down," said Brock. "You can often find difficulties in making it all come together.

"One of the facts of life is that I knew that, if I was going to drive this car at Bathurst, it would get a lot of people excited about supporting what we are doing.

"That would have a considerable flow-on effect to the year 2003 and beyond. From a business perspective, that was a pragmatic decision.

"But let's not get our wires crossed here. That is not why I am doing it. am doing it because it is a wonderful adventure. They happen to be the side benefits to all that.

"If someone said to me, 'Peter, you are never, ever going to hop in a racing car again in your whole life, would accept that with good grace and good humour and it wouldn't worry me. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it at all.

"This is different though. This is Peter Brock drawing a line in the sand and saying, 'This is what I am doing'. This is a personal commitment to say, 'Yep, am going up there, I am going racing at Bathurst and it is going to be a hell of an adventure'. It's going to be chaotic; it's going to be outrageous, I think, as far as the crowd control is concerned and keeping to schedules. But if you can't have a few laughs out of doing all that, something is pretty wrong."

engine of the Holden Racing Team Commodore VS expired shortly afterwards with co driver Mark Skaife at the wheel and Brock's racing career, at least at the top level, looked over.

Since then, he has participated in specialist events like the Australian Safari and Targa Tasmania, both events organised by his long-time management company. Octagon. Ironically, Bathurst is promoted by IMG, Octagon's biggest rival in the sports management field.

Brock intimated that the idea of coming back for the race came from discussions with SEL's James Erskine and Tony Cochrane, most likely in Canberra in June. Erskine likened a Brock return to Bathurst as being similar to Jack Nicklaus to the US PGA golf tournament.

Brock has been working out to get race fit for the event, while his next sporting engagement will be in the Safari, which starts at Bathurst this weekend.

Brock will drive a

An expensive lost wheel for Weei

Fine watch: Paul Weel's K&J Thermal team copped a $7000 fine relating to the incident at Oran Park where the team's Falcon lost a wheel. Meanwhile, Kim Jones was given a $5000 fine, suspended until December 31,for making comments on Network Ten's coverage of the same round that were "likely to bring the sport into disrepute."

■ Speaking of the K&J Ford, Kiwi Mark Porter and Geoff Full will handle the driving duties for Kees Weel's team in the Queensland 500 and at Bathurst. What Paul Weel does next year is up in the air, according to the man himself, but the talk of him driving a car prepared out of the Stone Brothers stable just won't go away.

■ Nine months out from the 2003 Targa Tasmania entries are running on schedule to perhaps break the 300 mark. To date, 196 entries have been received by event organisers Octagon Motorsport for the classic's four categories. "Interest is as high as it's ever been, and that's reflected in the big entry numbers," said General Manager of Targa promoter Octagon Tasmania, Rob McGuire.

■ Attention Flolden fans. Flolden has a new motorsport website, containing ail of the latest, results, links, pics and info for V8 Supercars, Formula Flolden, Monaro, Targa Tassie and the Flolden Rally Team. Go to www.holdenmotorsport.com and don't forgot to ask for Rory.

■ Kmart Racing's Todd Kelly will try on a different set of wheels for size this weekend when he takes part in the Weetbix Billycart Grand Prix in Lilydale, Melbourne. The Toddler is the Grand Marshall for the event, which will rev up at the Lilydale Adventist Academy on Sunday, August 25, at 10am.

■ Alan Gurr will join Dugal McDougall in the Pepsi Commodore for the V8 Supercar endurance races. The former Formula Flolden racer tested for the team at Calder recently, as did F3 racer Paul Stephenson.

■ This year's Sandown 500 will be a little different. Last year, teams had to do three compulsory pit stops, but this year there won't be any and teams will only need to stop as many times as they see fit to run the 500 kilometres. With the differing fuel tank sizes between the Nations Cup cars as well as horsepower and fuel consumption, that makes for an interesting race. SBS will provide a live telecast of the event on September 8.

Jacques says he stay

IT seems that Jacques Villeneuve's imminent return to the CART Championship Series may not be as imminent as it is rumoured.

Last weekend, both Villeneuve and his manager Craig Pollock denied recent reports that the BAR driver was about to quit F1 to return to racing in the USA, where he won the Indy 500 and championship double in 1995.

Villeneuve reported that, during the mid-summer break before the Hungarian GP, he had had no « contact with anyone regarding a drive in the series, while Pollock professed no knowledge of how the rumour started.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But it (Villeneuve’s staying at BAR) really is true. No-one has asked Jacques to go to CART. He is going to stay at BAR next year. I guess people are trying to get him out of there.”

The problem is that if Jacques does force BAR to honour his AUS$30m contract, the team is going to suffer financially, so Villeneuve has been told (in very short words) that after that he can go and tap-dance for a living.

It will be a 12 month period of stress and no-one will be very happy, but Villeneuve will get his money.

Confusing the issue is the fact that Gerry Forsythe, who owns the CART team said to be chasing the Canadian, is a shareholder in BAR, and that any offer to race Stateside would make life easier for BAR boss David Richards.

Jordan snai

ealspells danger for Mur

by JOESAWARD

EDDIE Jordan has confirmed that Jordan Grand Prix will have Ford-badged engines firom 2003-2005.

“We have signed a deal with Ford in a partnership arrangement which will be for three years,” Jordan said in Hungary.

“The car will be known as a Jordan-Ford.The engine-as part of the new range ofFord cars-will be called the Ford Cosworth RSI.”

Such a deal has been rumoured for some time, but it appeared to have failed. However,on Saturday night in Budapest the negotiations were concluded and Jordan hurriedly announced the deal on Sunday.

The basis ofthe agreement appears to be a business-to-business deal between Jordan sponsor DHL and the Ford Motor Company for the transportation ofFord parts.

This means that Ford will have a

heavily-subsidised pai-ts supply relationship,DHL will get a foot in the door at Ford and Jordan will get the FI engines on the back ofthat deal.

It is worth noting that last week Ford announced plans to scale down its World Rally Championship

involvement, with either Cohn McRae or Carlos Sainz being dropped(see page 11).

This would save a considerable amount ofmoney and the implication must be that Ford is doing that for a reason.

Ford rally boss Malcolm Wilson said that he wanted to spend the money to develop a new car for 2005.

The important issue now is what happens to Jaguar Racing as Ford is thought imhkely to run Ford-badged engines in a Jordan as well as a Jaguar-branded team.

The fiiture ofthe team has been imder review recently with Ford's chieftechnical ofEcer Richard PanyJones completing a study at the end ofJuly of how to make Ford successful in FI.

The deal with Jordan was negotiated by Parry-Jones, who recently told The Financial Times that the company was setting aside up to US$150m a year for the next few years to build towards eventual success.

The implication in all this is that Ford may have learned from its mistakes as a team owner and has decided to seU Jaguar Racing.

The frantic activity going on in Budapest suggests there is a plan for Jaguar- Racing to be sold to Dieti-ich

Arrows struggle*

THE future ofthe Arrows team is expected to be finalised this week,with either Craig Pollock buying the team or the whole operation going out of business. Thei-e has been a lot oftalk of alternative investors to PoUock, but,with Red Bull apparently moving towards doing a deal with Jaguar and the recent Saudi Ai-abian consortium having produced nothing but talk. Arrows seems to be facing a deal with Pollock or no one.

Pollock seems to know this and is trying to get the best possible deal.He says that he will not go ahead unless the deal is exactly what he wants.

Arrows missed the Himgarian

in rather odd circumstances,

Mateschitz so that he can constitute his planned Red Bull Team USA to aid the compan/s push into the US.

of the times: These fans gave Tom Walkinshaw a clear message.

■es Ford

e ofJaguarRacin,7

a coup to ensure the viability of his FI team, this time completing an unexpected deal with one of the world’s biggest

Talking turkey? Bernie Ecclestone (right) with Ferrari team manager Jean Todt.

Bernie eyes

Ferrari stake

THERE were reports on Italian television on Sunday that the Ecclestone Family is to huy into the Ferrari car company.

Bernie Ecclestone has made a huge amount of money out of Grand Prix racing and may invest in Ferrari to safeguard the value of his shareholdings in FI as Ferrari is seen as a key element in the future of FI.

Until recently, Ferrari shares were not available to anyone, but Fiat recently sold 34 percent of Ferrari-Maserati SpA to the Italian bank Mediobanca for US$768m (AUS$1.42b).

The bank has announced plans to float the entire shareholding next year.

The rumours we have heard do not make it clear how much of the company Ecclestone is interested in buying, but it is possible that it could be the entire stake.

Fiat retains a majority shareholding of around 56 percent, with the remaining 10 percent being ownedby the Ferrari Family.

for FI survival

with team boss Tom Walkinshaw recalling the team trucks when they were on their way to Budapest. This was explained away as a necessary move because oflegal advice from the team's lawyers.

This was put forward as justification for Torce majeure’, which in normal circumstances is applied to things beyond the control ofthe team.

Lack offinance has never been accepted as force msgeure’.

The most logical explanation of all this is that while negotiations continue between Pollock and current owners Walkinshaw and Morgan GrenfeU Private Equity, the team is in a very delicate financial state and there was a

danger that paying Cosworth Racing US$1.6m (AUS$3m) on the Wednesday before Budapest might have been challenged by other creditoi’s.

Once it became clear that Arrows would miss Hungary, it seems that the creditors began to take action.

Niki Lauda said that Cosworth Racing is going to take action to get the money owed byArrows, rumoured to be US$6m.

The best way for the team to avoid being wound up would be for the team to be placed in receivership this week and the rights to the ConcordeAgreement sold to Pollock before the next race.

Timing is vital in aU this

because if the team is insolvent and misses a race, the Concorde Agreement rights simply disappear and the tesun has no value.

Cosworth would likely agree a deal to supply engines to Pollock ifhe did acquire the team from the receiver.

There would, ofcourse, be serious implications for the creditors ifthe team did go into receivership, as the money owed is unlikely to ever be repaid in full.

It would, however, free up the team to operate without debt and with new investment. This would

also help to save something like 200jobs atArrows.

The blokes who will go Prancing

PHR Scuderia has confirmed their driver line-ups for the Sandown 500 in September. John Bowe will be joined by Steve Beards in the team's 360 GT, while Paul Morris will return to the team and partner John Teulan in a 360 Modena Challenge. Scott Shearman will step back into a Faz, having run a Porsche this season, and will partner Sam Newman. The team recently took delivery of a second 360 GT as well, to add to the existing Bowe Bud machine.

■ Speaking of the PHR team, the Sunshine and Richmond-based outfit is investigating the possibility of running a Formula 3 car next year. Experience with F3 cars is something team manager Paul Cruickshank has plenty of - he worked for West Surrey Racing in the UK in the early 1990s, working with the likes of Rubens Barrichello, Pedro de la Rosa and Pedro Diniz,

■ Aussie youngster Will Davison has managed to emerge unscathed from some dangerous weather conditions in the latest round of the British Formula Renault Championship at Knockhill. A massive downpour forced officials to red-flag the race, though full points were awarded. Despite spearing off the road, Davison still finished 10th and is fourth in the championship. The Motaworld driver races again at Brands Hatch this weekend before returning to Australia next Friday to catch up with family, friends and sponsors.

■ Expect to see Christian Jones in a Formula 3 car later in the season. We hear there's a 2000/2001-model Dallara with his name on it and what is interesting about the whole deal is that the Mugen-Honda powerplant is apparently the weapon of choice. It would be the first F3 Mugen-Hondapowered car in Australia.

■ The Formula 3 Association is in the process of a new tender for control tyres for the class for next year. Current provider Yokohama are one of the three 'finalists', with testing to be conducted at Phillip Island in mid-September.

■ Cirtek Motorsport, who ran a Porsche in the 'Race of a Thousand Years' ALMS race, are keen to bring two Porsche GT3RS cars for the Bathurst 24 Hour. The top private team in the recent Spa 24 Hour GT race is looking for drivers.

■ Interesting rumour we've heard about the Bathurst 24 Hour and a possible entry featuring two of the Lamborghini Super Trophy cars from the Stephane Ratel Organisation

Future secured: Once again, Eddie Jordan has pulled off

car makers. (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

home of [motorsport]

V8 Supercar Championship*

Sep 15 .Qld Raceway .Rd9

Oct 13 Bathurst .Rd 10

Oct 23 .Gold Coast ,Rd11

Nov 10 .Pukekohe .Rd 12

Deo 1 Sandown .Rd 13

Konica V8 Series*

Oct 12 .Bathurst .(non Championship)

FIA Formula One World Championship

Sep 1 Spa .Rd 14

Sep 15 .Monza .Rd 15 .Rd 16

Sep 29 .Indianapolis

Oct 13 Suzuka .Rd17

CART FedEx Championship*

Aug 25 .Montreal .Rd13

Sep 1 .Denver .Rd14 .Rd15

Sep 14 .Rockingham

Sep 21 .Lausitzring .Rd16

Oct 13 .Mexico City .Rd17

Oct 27 Sorters Paradise .Rd 18

Nov 3 California .Rd 19

MotoGP Motorcycle Championship*

Aug 25 .Czechoslovakia

Sep 8 Estoril

Sep 21 .Jacarepagua

Oct 6

Oct 13 .Sepang .Motegi .Rd 10 .Rdll .Rd12 .Rd13 .Rd14

SBK World Super Bike Championship*

Sep 1 .Oschersieben

Sep 8 .Assen

Sep 29 .Imola

-Rd 12 .Rd13 Nations Cup

Sep 8 Sandown

Sep 22 .Philip Island

Oct 27 Surfers Paradise .Rd8 .Rd9 .Rd 10 .(non Championship^ Nov 17 .Bathurst

World Rally Championship*

Aug 22-25 .Germany

Sep 19-22 .San RemO

Oct 3-6 .New Zealand

Nov 1-3 .Australia

Nov 14-17 .Great Britairi

Hill leads from Hill and... it’s Hill!

JUST when you thought motor racing could not get any more confusing...

Derek Hill, the son of 1961 World Champion Phil Hill, has signed a deal to be managed by Brigitte Hill, the sister of 1996 World Champion Damon and daughter of Graham Hill, the World Champion of 1962 and 1968.

Oddly enough, Derek’s ambition is to be Formula 1 World Champion.

The first sign ofthe new management is that Hill(Derek) will now be looked after by Erwin Gollner, the trainer who oversaw Hill(Damon)during his successful years with the Rothmans Williams Renault team.

All those Hills, and not one of them related to each. And what would Murray Walker say?

-JOESAWAJRD

Putting the Thunder back in Thunderdome

MOMENTUM for the return of NASCARs to the Calder Park Thunderdome continues to build, after Rusty French tested his Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the banked tri-oval last Friday.

French, who is behind a move to resurrect NASCAR racing at the Dome, completed around 60 laps of the facility.

.Rd 10 .Rd 11 .Rd12 .Rd13 .Rd14 said.

Australian Rally Championship*

Sep 7-8 .Melbourne .Rd6

"It was fantastic," French

"I had not raced at the Dome before, and it-was not as daunting as thought it might be. It was like being on the Big Dipper and holding the controls."

Tony Edwards's team is also thought be testing at the track later this week, with Chris Templer at the wheel.

Despite having lain largely unused for nearly two years, French reported that the track was in "surprisingly good nick," however Calder's Peter Bridge confirmed that track owner Bob Jane was considering an upgrade of the surface.

Calder Park has indicated that it is prepared to consider re-opening the facility to racing if a minimum field of 28 cars

Ford cons t

can be found. A date of December 14 has been pencilled in for the first of what is hoped to be a threerace 'Summer Series' with two races at Calder and one in Adelaide.

According to French, there has been plenty of interest since the plans were first announced, however the grid is still not yet full.

"I'd urge anyone who is interested in racing a NASCAR at the Dome, whether they want to buy or lease a car, to get in touch with Peter Bridge at Calder Park," he said.

At the opposite end of the

spectrum, it is also possible that NASCARs may be on the support bill at Honda Indy in 2003.

"I spoke to (IMG's) Geoff Jones, and he said that he would look into the possibility of putting on the 2003 Indy event," said French.

An approach to the Australian Grand Prix Corporation is also on the cards.

The NASCAR series, which ran under the Power Tour before the program folded, has three events remaining in its 2002 road racing series. -MARKGLENDENNING

lers WRC future

Colin, Carlos may go to fund new Focus

COLIIM McRae and Carlos Sainz may be facing an uncertain future as Ford considers the future of its World Rally Championship program.

The two former world champions could face they axe, not so much for any lack of performance but because Ford may not be able to afford their highlypriced drivers and the cost of developing a new version of its Focus rally car.

The two drivers will be out of contract at the end of the current seasan and Ford rally boss Malcolm Wilson has not ruled out letting one of his star drivers go.

"It's not something we want to do," Wilson said recently. "But we might have to lose either Colin or Carlos. We might still end up keeping both of them, but the new car is the future."

The new car is slated to take over from the current

car for the 2005 season and its development, as well as the ongoing program for the current car, is a priority for the Cumbria, UK-based team.

"I haven't had any thoughts about next year," McRae, left, said in response. "But when we get around to it, the deal has got to be right and it's got to look like it can win the championship."

Both drivers could have options for next season.

Tommi Makinen is once again thought to be contemplating retirement from the sport, which may open the door at Subaru, while Mitsubishi is currently struggling to develop is Stage II Lancer WRC, which is campaigned by Francois Delecour and Alistair McRae. Some time ago, both McRae brothers said that they would like to be team-mates in the future and this opportunity may see that happen.

Bathurst Blockbuster

THE Bob Jane T-Marts Bathurst 1000 is promising to be the biggest and, maybe,the best in the history of the event.

Some ofthe biggest past and present names of Australian motorsport were at the Calder Park Raceway last week for the October 10-13 race’s official launch, led by Bob Jane himself, below, and his two co-drivers from the inaugursd 1963 and 1964 Bathurst events, Harry Firth and George Reynolds.

Among the drivers who will be at this year’s race Were nine-time winner Peter Brock, six-time winner Jim Richards and three-time winner Dick Johnson and son Steve, who will attempt to win his first 1000 with co-driver Paul Radisich.

Other race winuers presented included Steve Richards, Craig Lowndes, Greg Murphy, Jason Bright, Garth Tarder and Jason Bargwanna.

This year’s evert marks a number of milestones.

including the 40th anniversary of the race itself, the 30th anniversai-y of Brock’s maiden win in 1972 and the 10th anniversary ofthe debut ofV8 Supercars at Mount Panorama.

With the recent confirmation of Brock’s participation in the event,ticket sales are running at record levels and race promoters IMG Motorsports are hinting that the record crowd figure is under threat.

Tickets for the event are available through Ticketmaster? on 1300 136 122 or through the event’s official website, www.bobjanetmartsl000.com.

Silly in the USA

The silly season is in full swing in America. So what moves are being talked about? There's whispers that there's a few CART teams keen on Tomas Scheckter, while other free a.gents are Patrick Carpentier, Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti. Tony Kanaan's deal with Mo Nunn expires at the end of the year, with Franchitti being tipped to take over Christian Fittipaldi's seat at Newman/Flaas. Jerry Forsythe is working on reviving his Forsythe Championship Racing operation that shut its doors at the end of last season.

■ Toyota's new IRL engine has carried out its first track test. Flelio Castroneves ran 360 kilometres at Kentucky with the new engine in a Dallara propped by Marlboro Team Penske.

■ Not giving up; Lola is gearing up for another attempt at breaking into the IRL chassis manufacturing business. The company wasn't successful this year, losing out to US builder, MK Racing, which will be producing chassis under the Falcon name.

■ Brazilian Vitor Meira has replaced Mark Dismore in the Team Menard Dallara/Chevrolet in the IRL, joining a long list of drivers who have warmed the seat this year. Meira, who made his debut at Kentucky, joins P.J. Jones, Jaques Lazier and Raul Boesei on the 2002'honour list'.

■ Kiwi Matt Hailiday is aiming at returning to the IRL's Infiniti Pro Series this weekend at Gateway. Last year he finished on the podium in the Indy Lights race there, and his Bowes Seal Racing team has prepared a brand new car for his return. Before he can drive, Flalliday has to have the pins removed from his broken wrist and pass the necessary tests.

"1 think some light weight training and cardio work will be enough to get me through the first race then have a fortnight break until the next round in Chicago," said Flalliday.

■ Aussie World Supersport Champion Andrew Pitt has assisted in breaking the world speed record for an inline skater. Pitt dragged German Dirk Auer behind his Kawasaki ZX-12R, reaching 291.8km/h, beating the old record by over 20km/h. The record attempt took place on a cordoned off section of the B3 autobahn between Darmstadt and Eberstadt.

Raciiu) Team Beil, 'ano

■ Fie just keeps on earning: On the list of deceased celebrity money makers of the past year, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt came in fourth with some $40 million. A year after his death at Daytona last March, was beaten to the line by Elvis Presley, 'Peanuts' creator Charles Schultz and Beatle John Lennon.

The Rii Shanghai gets Chinese nod

IT seems likely that the city of Shanghai is going to win the race to stage a Foi-mula One GP in China.

In recent years there have been a variety of different attempts at host a Chinese Grand Prix, notably at Zhu Hai, near Hong Kong.That plan failed because the area did not have the mfrastructure necessary and so projects since then have been centred on cities that could cope with the Grand Prix circus. The rumours in the last year have included races in Shanghai,Beijing and Wuhan.

The organisers of the race recently announced that they had signed commercial agreements with the Formula 1 group of companies to run a Grand Prix from 2004 onwards.

The race has stiU to be confirmed by the Chinese national sporting authority and by the FIA,but that will depend mainly on safety inspections once the race track has been completed. Shanghai has commissioned Germany’s Hermann Tilke to design a 5km circuit which will also have a one mile oval and will feature

seating for 50,000 people.

The City of Shanghai has budgeted $750m for the project and has created the Shanghai International Circuit Co to build the new facility in the JiaDing area,in the north-western suburbs of Shanghai.The city of An Ting, where the Shanghai Volkswagen Car Co produced the first automobiles to be built in China,is now being turned into a project called ‘Auto City* and the Grand Prix will be

located in the An Ting area. This is very well-connected, with a motorway directly fix)m there to downtown Shanghai

and accMs to the two

intemaiSimal airports i ^nsActioa work « IQii month.

French GP threat

BERNIE Ecclestone said last week that there are two slots on the Formula 1 calendar in 2004 and that he has seven different groups bidding to hold a race.

This is a very useful situation for the Formula 1 boss who will be able (and happy)to put the different bidders up against one another.

The problem is that no-one seems to know where the two slots are going to come from. Most of the existing 17 races have long-term deals in place which go beyond 2004 and those which are weakest are in places where Formula 1 wants to be. Ecclestone is wisely looking for new markets to keep the interest of the current FI sponsors and is also hoping that the new markets will bring in new money. The Chinese market is, in this respect, the most important as this is now seen as the country which is offering the biggest opportunities in the future.

The one race which currently looks weak is the French Grand Prix, as there is little left of the once thriving French motor racing industry and Renault has

chosen to base its chassis operations in Britain. In addition there is only one French driver left in FI (Olivier Panis) and he is yet to secure a drive for next year.

There has been some talk of Renault taking on Sebastian Bourdais to be its test driver as the French company has been on the receiving end of some criticism about not doing enough to support French drivers. Renault is backing a whole

string of young drivers including a Finn, a Pole, a Brazilian but there is only one Frenchman on the books (at least publicly) at the moment.

The French, who consider themselves to have invented the sport, are naturally appalled at the concept that the French GP could drop from the FI calendar but in the modern age such romantic notions are swept away by commercial considerations.

- JOE SAWARD

by JOE SAWARD

MINARDI has pulled off a remarkable sponsorship deal with the giant Russian energy company Gazprom.

The deal, although starting small, is believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars to the team over the next three years.

Gazprom is the world’s biggest gas company,it controls 94 percent of all Russian gas production (which is 23 percent of the world’s output and is responsible for around eight percent of Russia’s gross domestic product). Gazprom pays about 25 percent of all the tax received by the Russian government and nowadays is listed on the stock exchange with both Russian and foreign investors.

The company is developing its international markets and it is expected that the FI involvement will be to help the company become better known around the world, particularly in Asia.

It was thought that Gazprom might be behind a bid to buy a share of the team but it seems that there is another deal in the pipeline with an English company which is seeking to buy half the team,leaving Paul Stoddart in charge. The team is also talking to the much-heralded Saudi Arabian consortium but this does not seem to be as serious as has been suggested.

As part of the Gazprom deal, Minardi will test Russian driver Sergey Zlubin. Gazprom hopes to assist Zlubin to become the first Russian driver in the World Championship and the program will begin this autumn with Zlubin completing 700km of testing for the team.

Photo by Sutton-lmages

Sacre Bleu: The French GP could come under threatfrom newer races

ssians are coming

Stoddy grabs Davo

BAR test driver gets 2-race Minardi deai

ANTHONY Davidson drove the second Minardi in Hungary and will do so again at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The British driver, who has spent the last couple of years working as a test driver with BAR, was able to find the money necessary to secure the drive. He replaced Alex Yoong who, as per his contract, was sat because of his failure to qualify in three races this season.

The announcement was bad news for Giorgio Pantano, although the Italian can now concentrate on winning the Formula 3000 title, which he would have to have abandoned if he had gone to Minardi.

The Briton did a respectable job on debut, out-

running Mark Webber on Friday (on, admittedly, low fuel) and qualifying half a second behind the Aussie. In the race, he kept Webber in sight until the first round of pitstops, buMost time through some over-gentlemanly avoidance while being lapped.

There is still the chance that Yoong may race later in the season though it seems more likely that Bryan Herta could drive the team's second PS 02-Asiatech at Ipdianapolis. The American tested for the team at Donington recently and, although the former CART race winner did not set the world on fire, the team was reported pleased with his performance.

- JOE SAWARD

Time for a Chime?

Will Minardi ring for Townsend Bell?

FORMER Patrick Racing driver

Townsend Bell was a visitor in the Budapest paddock,the San Franciscan saying that he would like to have a future career in FI.

The 27-year-old has driven this year for the Patrick Racing CART team but recently was dropped by the team because he was having too many incidents. Bell says that his aggressive driving style, which has 21 August 2002

got him into trouble in CART,is a sign that he is willing to race with the Europeans and hopes to be able to get a ride in Fonnula 3000 el even a Formula 1 test drive.

With America looking for a Formula 1 driver to help build up the sport in the United States, Bell, right, would be a good option... The problem is getting a drive to prove his speed to the FI team bosses.

Dindo and Tom win at Mosport

DindoXapello and Tom Kristensen have continued the Audi domination of the American Le Mans Series, taking their R8 racer to victory on the weekend at Mosport in Canada. Not so lucky was team-mate Emanuele Pirro, who was briefly knocked unconscious in an accident while battling with Kristensen for the lead. Stefan Johansson and Johnny Herbert took second ahead of the Cadillac of JJ Lehto and Max Angelelli. David Brabham and Jan Magnussen were fourth for Panoz.

■ The Ferrari 330 TRI/LM that won the Le Mans 24 Hour in 1962 with Phil Hill has been sold at auction for just under $12 million. The car was the last front-engined car to win the classic event.

■ Yamaha has announced that Carlos Checa will continue racing for the team. The Spaniard, who joined the team in 1999, has signed a twoyear deal with the Dutch-based team and will race alongside a yet-to-benamed replacement for the departing Max Biaggi on Ml four-strokes again.

■ Chris Walker will race for Ducati in the World Superbike Championship next season. The Brit will replace Neil Hodgson with the GSE team and will partner James Toseland on Ducati 998 F02s. Walker is racing for the Fuchs Kawasaki SBK team this year.

■ Loris Capirossi made the most of the break in the MotoGP schedule to marry long-time girlfriend Ingrid Tence in Monte Carlo. Following the civil ceremony, the couple were due to have their marriage blessed at a religious ceremony in his hometown of Borgo Rivola in Italy.

■ The Formula 1 teams have unanimously agreed to break into this winter's testing moratorium, and will be free to carry out unlimited testing in a three-week period before Christmas. A 12-week track-testing ban, first enforced last winter as a cost-cutting measure, will be put aside between November 26 and December 15.

Jaguar Racing is reported to have appointed Rob Taylor, formerly the head of design at Arrows, as its new chief designer. Taylor is straight to work on the 2003 racecar, originated by his predecessor John Russell, which is undergoing development in the team's wind tunnel in Bicester,

-JOE SAWARD UK.

■.Hungarian Formula 3000 racer Zsolt Baumgartner was given the opportunity of demonstration laps in a Jordan-Honda at his home Grand Prix on raceday morning. The 21year-old also competed in Saturday's F3000 race for Nordic.

Make mine a Black Russian: Anthony Davidson made a solid Minardi debut in Hungary but the team has bigger fish to fry with the possibility of many rubles from Gazprom.

(Photo by Marsh/Bothwell)

VALE: Jim Crawford ]

JIM Crawford has died at his home in Florida. He was 54.

Crawford was a man who nearly made it in both Europe and America, but eventually left the sport with no major recognition for his talents. In recent years he had been working as the captain of a fishing business on Florida’s Gulf Coast, near St Petersburg.

Crawford was born in Scotland in 1948 and raced in Formula Ford before ending up in Bolton, Lancashire, working as a mechanic for Chevron Cars.

Luckily his driving talent was recognised by Chevron boss Derek Bennett and in 1973 Crawford began racing in Formula Atlantic and won the 1974 British title before being signed up by Team Lotus as a test driver-.

When Jacky Ickx quit Lotus in mid-1975, Lotus boss Colin Chapman gave Crawford his chance alongside Ronnie Peterson. It was only his 25th motor race, and he struggled. The team dabbled with a couple of others (notably John Watson and Brian Henton)and then Crawford returned at the Italian GP, below.

But at the end of the year he was dropped by Lotus.

For the next few years he drifted, doing development work for Toyota and racing a variety of different machinery, but then returned to Formula Atlantic in 1979. He then moved into the British F2 series and, after an attempt to build a career in the European Championship in 1981, he went back to the British FI series and won the title in 1982.

He then switched to CanAm and finished second in the series in 1983 in the RK-March 847. He finished second again in 1984 but then also made his CART debut in the Theodore.

That led to a chance in 1985 with the Wysard Indycar, but after that he raced only at the Indianapolis 500. He suffered serious leg injuries in a huge accident at the Speedway in 1987 but returned in 1988 and finished sixth in the race, having mn third until the closing laps. He continued to enter the event until 1995 but failed to qualify in both 1994 and 1995.

- JOE SAWARD

by PHIL MORRIS

CART driver Christian Fittipaldi is on his way to IMASCAR.

The 31-year-old has signed on with Petty Enterprises to drive one of the team's Dodge Intrepid R/Ts in Busch Grand National and Winston Cup events next year ahead of a full Winston Cup campaign in 2004.

"We are extremely excited about this announcement, not only four ourselves but for Dodge and NASCAR," said Petty Enterprises CEO Kyle Petty,

"We feel that signing Christian Fittipaldi is a huge blessing for Petty Enterprises."

"Stock car racing is a little bit different from what do, so we're going to break into the whole program and I think that will bevery good for me," said Fittipaldi.

"Petty isn't going to throw me into the first race at Daytona and say go out there and fight the big lion. We have to sit down and see exactly which races we

want to run, either in Busch or Cup. still have half of a season in front of me. I want to finish everything as well as possible."

Fittipaldi, nephew of two-time FI world champ Emerson, has priors in tintop racing, having made a couple of one-off appearances in Busch series races in the past 18 months.

After failing to qualify at Charlotte earlier this year, he bounced back to qualify fifth at Gateway last month, but retired with a blown engine.

Priestley recovering

BEVERLY Hills 90210 actorturaed-Infiniti Pro Series driver Jason Priestley is on the road to recovery after hitting a wall head-on at nearly 300 kph at Kentucky Speedway two weeks ago.

Priestley was on a respirator to keep him sedated, but he was

breathing on his own and was alert. Indy Racing League medical director Hem-y Bock said.

The actor was flown to the University of Kentucky Medical Center with a spinal fracture in the middle of his back and a closed head injury, as well as a broken nose and broken bones in both feet, Bock said.

Bock refused to speculate, however, on how long Priestley’s recovery might take.

Pholo by Sutton-lmages

TWR on the hunt

TWR has indicated that it wouid iike to remain in the IRL despite the withdrawai of Nissan, via its infiniti brand, from the series.

The company is on the hunt for a new manufacturer to badge its next generation 3.5 litre engine, which has already been developed for the 2003-06 period. Infiniti's withdrawal means that the engine will not be able to be used unless a new manufacturer steps in.

Top Infiniti user Cheever Racing boss Eddie Cheever says he is keen to stay involved with the TWR program.

“They had worked on the new engine before Nissan decided to leave,” he said. “All the technical design work has been done, but it's an orphan engine and needs the right partner to join in.”

PHIL MORRIS

Priestley, 32, crashed coming out of the second turn in the final practice for the Kentucky 100, an Infiniti Pro Series race.

He got sideways and he corrected and then shot off the track,” said former Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, whose son, Arie Jr., competes with Priestley in the series.

Luyendyk said Priestley appeared to have driven through ‘oil-dry’, an absorbent material that had been spread on part of the track about 10 minutes earlier to soak up oil from another car.

Priestley began racing in 1991 in the California Rally Series and won his first race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1998.

- PHIL MORRIS

CART dates revised The Elfel Power

ITR, the promoter of Germany's DTM series, is talking with ADAC Nordrhein about staging a round of the series on the Thursday before the 2003 ADAC 24 Hours at the Nurburgring. ITR is keen to be associated with the massive popularity of the mixed-field 24-hour race which, in May 2002, pulled 151,000 spectators over five days, to watch 600 drivers in 200 cars.

CART have released a revised version of their 2003 calendar, which was originally unveiled a couple of weeks ago.

The new calendar sees the European leg moved from September to April, with a yet-tobe-confirmed race slated in to replace the now-defuct event at the Eurospeedway In Germany.

The season will also end one week earlier than originally planned, with the final event at Fontana having been brought forward a week to November 2.

- PHIL MORRIS

REVISED 2003 CART DATES

Feb. 23, St. Petersburg

March 23, Monterrey

April 13, Long Beach

April 27, Europe(TBA)

May 4, Rockingham

May 18, Chicago(TBA)

June 1, Milwaukee

June 15, Laguna Seca

June 22, Portland

July 6, Cleveland

July 13, Toronto

July 27, Vancouver

Aug. 10, Mid-Ohio

Aug. 17, Elkhart Lake

Aug. 31, Denver

Sept. 7, Montreal

Sept. 28, Miami

Oct. 12, Mexico City

^ Oct. 26, Surfers Paradise

Nov. 2, Fontana

The 2003 dates for the five-day 24hour meeting on the Eifel circuit have already been set for May 28 through June 1. ADAC Nordrhein has commissioned a feasibility study focusing on the timetable and paddock arrangements.

■ French Formula 1 tyre supplier Michelin has been approached to make an all-new racing tyre -for 'Scalextric' model racecars. The UK maker of the big-selling slotcar racing toys, Hornby has new licences to produce models of the 2001 McLaren and Williams, and is now looking to Clermont-Ferrand for a source of 'pukka', 1cm wide tyres for them.

■ Not averse to flirting with the odd rumour, Eddie Irvine told the UK weekly 'Autosport' that he might consider a year of Formula 1 testing if he does not get a drive in 2003. There have been indications that 36year-old Irvine will part from Jaguar Racing at the end of this season and, more recently, he has been linked to a return to Jordan, the team with which he started his Formula 1 career with two end-of-season GPs in 1993. "I've had a good innings but I'm not ready to retire," said Eddie. "If I don't get a drive, there are lots of other things to keep me amused. Who knows what I would want to do? Maybe a year of testing? It would be nice to work with a really good team, so we'll see."

- QUENTIN SPURRING

By Allan Schofield

A Serve with Spin

ROB Nguyen had a frustrating day in the latest Formula 3000 round in Hungary on the weekend.

The Astromega driver ended up 11th, although he made a brilliant start and got up to eighth-place qualifier Antonio Pizzonia. But the Brazilian ran wide and clipped the Aussie’s car, spinning him and dropping him to the back of the field.

“I made a fantastic start - but that cost me dear because I ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Nguyen.

“The problem here is that 90 per cent of the result is qualifying and the other 10 per cent is the first lap, because after that there are very few overtaking possibilities.

“Once I rejoined I was a bit bored, to be honest, because the rest of the cars were about 30 seconds up the road.”

Only

JAMES

hew.

PI'm back on track again in the British Formula 3 Championship!

After being oufof action since the Monza FI testing shunt, I was pretty eager to get back into the swing of things.

The neurosurgeon kept telling me to take things easy and would have preferred me to spend some more time resting, but the championship is at stake here.

As I've been reminded many times, my shunt was actually more violent than Luciano Burti had last year in the Prost FI, and he sat the rest of the season out and hasn't raced since.

We decided to do the big F3 'Masters' event at Zandvoort, just to give me some race-time

Lucky he’s got somebody to look after him James and girlfriend Caiys bring a whole new meaning to the term, ‘post-race debrief. in the car before the next championship event.

To be honest, I wasn't really on top of it and came away from the race meeting with little more than a gigantic headache. My brain is still a bit swollen and bruised so Isuppose being thrown around the racetrack at high speed is probably not the best form of rest and relaxation I can give myself.

Oulton Park last weekend worked out OK, though. We went there some nine points behind the championship lead, after missing both races at Rockingham, and came away in the championship lead again.

A win and a third was a great result and just as pleasing was the opportunity of being able to

show everyone that the kid is back in town although I still get a massive headaches from being in the car and which takes days to go away.

Being out of action has also created another problem at this time of the year, ight at the height of the driver 'silly season.'

Losing the championship lead and having question marks hanging over your well-being and race-fitness, from the shunt, doesn't help when we are trying to secure a deal for next year and beyond.

But if I put my head down an underline the fact that I'm 100 percent again, then think will be OK.

Gotta go. Now where are those bloody aspirins?

Davisi ll\UJ

Courtne

AFTER missing the Rockingham round of the British Formula 3 Championship,James Courtney has moved back into the lead of the series foUowing the latest round at Oulton Park on the weekend.

The Carlin Motorsport driver led the first race from the first corner right to the chequered flag after finishing fourth in the other rainshortened race.

He now holds a slender two point lead over Robbie Kerr with three rounds and six races to go, although things didn’t go entirely smoothly.

In the second race, Courtney fired past pole man Robert Dahlgren and stfil managed to fend off his attackers despite a clutch problem.

“It made it very difficult on the downchange without the clutch,” said Courtney.

Former points leader Kerr, driving for expatriate Australian Alan Docking’s team,finished third behind Dahlgren, who was later excluded for a technical infringement. Kerr was also gifted points in race one after he speared off the track and into retirement while in.seventh place.

The race was stopped at twothirds distance in the midst of a rainstorm with results declared on countback to the previous lap, reinstating Kerr to seventh with Courtney holding fourth place, motorsport

let the white hat guys push the white car. Wear a red one and you’re disqualified! Nguyen had 'one ofthose'days in Hungaiy. (Photo by Sutton-Images)

(Photo by Sutton-Im with JAMES COURTNEY ages)

in grabs podium

by AARON NOONAN

I AFTER a steady improvement I in results in the Porsche S Supercup,Aussie Alex Davison has broken through for his first podium finish in the latest round of the ultra-competitive series at the Hungaroring on Sunday.

The Manthey Racing driver qualified fourth, but got a cracking start and jumped into second behind Marco Werner,left, though was unable to edge out the German and had to settle for second.

“1 think that was the best start I’ve ever made,” Davison said.

His Software AG-Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup coupe dispensed with Stephane Ortelli on the starting straight, and was alongside Philipp Peter as they entered the first corner.

“We just touched lightly as we went through the first comer, but 1 came out in front. There was a little bit of damage,and 1 noticed that my steering wheel wasn’t straight after that, but the car felt fine.

“It’s a big relief to get a nice result, especially after 1 was going to say the beginning of the season, but it’s really been the whole season!”

His points haul moves the 22year-old up the points into equal 10th,following a fourth place in the last round at Hockenheim. There are three rounds of the series left at Spa, Monza and Indianapolis.

C’est Le Dome du Thunder

A group in northern France is planning to construct a third European oval race circuit near the 'town of Abbeville, 70 miles south of Calais. Currently the only major paved ovals in Europe are those at Rockingham, UK, and Lausitz, Germany, which jointly promote the fast-developing ASCAR stock car series. If the project comes to fruition, it will be a 1-mile short tri oval, using part of an existing rallycross circuit. Spokesman Bruno Martin said: "ASCAR is the kind of show we want to put on. I think ASCAR could be very popular here in France and, because we are so close to the Channel, I hope that the British fans would come to watch too."

■ The Ford Motor Company has revealed that it paid Wolfgang Reitzle US$2m in severance to ensure that the former Jaguar boss does not divulge any secrets that he knows about Ford. The pay-off came to light in Ford's filings at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Reitzle lost out in a power struggle after Jac Nasser's departure and decided to join the Linde AG industrial group. Fie agreed not to join a competing automobile company for two years.

■ Quote of the week goes to BMW technical boss Dr Mario Theissen who was asked in Budapest if he could give any secret details about the new BMW VI0 engine for next year. Theissen said that the engine would be a very radical unit as it would be a "270degree VI0 mounted upside down" in the back of the Williams chassis. - SPURRIIMG/SAWARD

Carlin eyes Euro F3“for James?

TOP UK F3 team Carlin Motorsport is looking at entering a team in the revived European F3 Championship in 2003, possibiy with James Courtney as the driver.

The six-round championship would include rounds in Germany, France and Italy and is seen by team boss Trevor Carlin as a logical step for a driver after national F3 racing.

"We'd like James to do it," said Carlin. "European F3 is somewhere to go after national F3, given how difficult it would be to emulate Takuma Sato and go straight into FI."

■ BTCC venue Knockhill is rumoured to be losing its annual fixture. The tight Scottish circuit has been a popular, if crude, inclusion in the BTCC calendar since 1992 but sources believe the cost of holding a BTCC round has become too high for the independent circuit to manage.

According to circuit boss Derek Butcher: "We love staging major events, but if we are losing money or just getting our money back, we are rather busy fools."

A spokesman for series organiser British Motorsport Promoters(BMP) said he had, "nothing to add at this stage."

overseas spies tell us that the Cadillac Sportscar program will be terminated at the end of this season.

Despite significant investment from General Motors, the Northstar Prototype has been unable to shake the vice-like grip of dominance

held by Audi or even make much of a dint in the rest of the competition. The cars will run in a selection of the remaining American Le Mans Series rounds, including the Petit Le Mans, before being parked and becoming museum pieces.

Faulkner gets the ‘other’ brother

WITH the departure of Mark Noske from his endurance plans, John Faulkner has signed raUy ace Rick Bates to co-drive the Dynapack/JFR Commodore in the endurance races.

“Other team owners are concentrating on putting graduate teenagers in their cars, but you can’t drag a kid off his skateboard and expect him to do a(two-minute)

10 at Bathurst!” said Faulkner.

“Rick is a rated driver in any car, so a mix ofspeed and experience has no downside.” Noske had been organised to drive a second car in selected races as well as the endurance races, though be gave Faulkner notice last Tuesday that he wasn’t going to go through with driving for JFR.

“It’s no-one’s fault,just a lack of miles and the second car not

getting up and running as planned I and wanted to do something that leads into something for next year,” he said.

He tested the Caltex/SBR Ford last week as an audition for replacing the unavailable Wayne Gardner for the Queensland 500, though seems certain to reunite with former Prancing Horse Racing team-mate Craig Baird in the Team Brock Commodore for the ’500.

BTCC splits

Neal won the Sprint race after a fine drive in a car that was ranning a wet set-up on a damp road. Priaulx led initially from team-mate Alan Morrison in their Hondas, but as the road became wetter, Neal’s set-up came into its own and he took the lead. A robust Anthony Reid(MG)had shouldered past Morrison early on and did likewise to Priaulx for second, whilst‘AP’spun down to seventh.

Race two was his, though, despite the rain being so heavy as to make caiicellation ofthe race a prospect. Started behind the Safety Car after five laps, the race marked a maiden win for Honda. Despite a late race scare when a puddle and mud tried to trip him up, he held on to win from Yvan Muller and James Thompson.

ANDY Priauk,above, and Matt Neal split the BTCC wins in the latest round at Knockhill in Scotland.

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Born from the successful Imola design but adapted to cope with more

Kentucky IRL

Gee,it's Giaffene

by PHIL MORRIS

BRAZILIANS are nmning rampant in American open-wheel racing, with a new name taking his firstIndy Racing career win at Kentucky Speedway in the form ofFelipe Giaffone.

Last year’s Rookie ofthe Year took his Mo Nunn/Hollywood G Force/Chevrolet to victory in the 300-miler over new points leader Sam Hornish Jr, leading 124 ofthe 200 laps to become the sixth different winner in the 12 races run this year.

“I think Mo is never going to let me test again, that was pretty much the only track we never tested, and we did pretty good,” laughed Giaffone.

“We had a great car. I knew in the warm-up,I knew we ended up 10th. I said,‘We don’t have to change anything. The car, it’s really good’.”

Giaffone had the lead on lap 162 under the final caution and had to withstand pressm-e from all comers. Buddy Lazier, who has struggled this year in the Hemelgam Racing machine,finally got his act together and blasted his way onto the back of Giaffone with 10 laps to go, though Hornish went by the 1996 Indy 500 winner with six to go and continued the chase. A last-lap move was thwarted by lapped traffic.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Pennzoil driver, as he moved into the IRL points lead for the first time since losing it at Indianapolis. He holds a fom-point lead over Helio Castroneves, who finished fifth behind Giaffone, Hornish,Lazier and Scott Shai-p. And it was a typically close foish',just 0.8142s covering the top four cars at the end.

‘We had something for him (Giaffone), too bad we came up on that lap traffic,” Hornish said.

“It made it a little bit rough. He had to look in his miiTors coming off of(Turn)four and about ran in the back of(Jeff) Ward.”

Points leader entering the race, Gil de Ferran, was the big loser, slipping to third by finishing a delayed 21st after colliding with : Richie Hearn in the race’s early stages.

Hearn in fact suffered a broken right foot in the accident, but the injuries weren’t limited to the track. Tony Renna, driving a third Kelley Racing car upon the return of A1 Unser Jr from alcohol-abuse.

struck two crew members during a pit stop, breaking the leg of one and injuring the neck of another.

Unser Jr finished sixth in his first race back while pole winner Sarah Fisher, who took the firstever pole by a woman in open wheeler racing, finished eighth. It came as no sm’prise that Tomas Scheckter again was involved in an accident, after colliding with Airton Dare on lap 90.

Points: Hornish Jr 399, Castroneves 395, de Ferran 386, Giaffone 382, Barron 283, Sharp 262, Dare 253, Ward 237, Unser Jr 235, Lazier 229.

Unser Jr returns

stops to re-fill the

AL Unser Jr returned to IRL competition at Kentucky and finished a strong sixth after missing two races while being treated for alcohol abuse at an undisclosed centre.

The Corteco-backed driver received approval from his doctors to return to the cockpit, though the two-time Indy 500 champ says it's only the start of his recovery.

"My recovery program didn't end," said Unser.

"No, that's just the beginning. have a program that I'm following today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and the rest of my life. was told by the doctors that once you're considered medically healthy and are taught how to better manage your lifestyle, the next phase of the recovery is getting back on track with your ife.

So what happens if or when he gets his next win?

"I don't know, am going to ask the IRL to make sure there is a bottle of milk when win again and the champagne is going to go all over my race car, not me, my race car."

Brazilian bonanza: Felipe Giaffone out-ran the opposition at Kentucky and put himself in the title-chase.

(Photos by Sulton-lmages)

\<>

drink bottle; Unser Jr confers with team-mate Scott Sharp hefore practice. to /●! Sitll"

Road da IVIatta

IT'S becoming an all too common occurrence in Champ Car racing, but Cristiano da Matta continues to pile up the wins,taking the Motorola 220 at Road America on Sunday.

The Newman/Haas driver held out Alex Tagliani and Bruno Junqueira in the run to the chequered flag, moving him to a comfortable 42 point margin over Junqueira in the championship chase.

Da Matta started his

behind da Malta and Tagliani.

The top three would stay that way for the remainder of the race, while Tony Kanaan chimed in for a strong fourth place having started at the back of the field

"The team gave me good pit stops, the car was perfect, everything was perfect," said da Malta.

"I'm very pleased with the way things went and that our strategy worked. We were able to stay on track and do quick laps. I had hot tyres and a very low fuel load. That's what won us the race."

robbed'his KOOL-backed Lola/Honda of straight-line speed., while the Kiwi had rear brake failure, and had to park his Target Lola/Toyota. Lola/Toyota in second place but dropped to third at the start after being passed by Paul

You call this parking?

Mario Dominquez had this moment in practice hut recovered for a top 10finish on race >

Jimmy Vasser was fifth, clear Tracy. Tracy then passed

of Christian Fittipaldi, Patrick polesitter and defending race

Points: da Matta 143, Carpentier/ Carpentier (who won the winner Junqueira for the lead as Junqueira 101, Franchitti 85,Fittipaldi previous race a week earlier at the field headed into turn five.

82,Tagitaai/Jourdain Jr 80, Andretti Mid-Ohio), Mario Dominguez, Tracy held the lead for the 77, Tracy 69, Brack Michel Jourdain Jr and Michael first 24 laps, but surrendered it Andretti. when he made his second stop

Among the ahead of the lead pack. His day retirements were was over on lap 40 when Kenny Dario Franchitti and Brack (Target Chip Ganassi Scott Dixon. The Racing) spun while attempting to overtake Tracy and took out Scot went out with both cars.

Pit stops would prove to be mechanical the key to da Malta's win. A failure bungled stop on lap 50 caused that Junqueira to lose valuable time

tPlioio hy SutUm-Imagps)

Plutio hy

● Detailed 1:43 scale 50th Anniversarv commemorative models. ● Limited Edition of 2500 of each.

Onward Christian Soldiers

wHAT gives? Brazilians, African-Americans, Mexicans,open wheel drivers and a combination of both are making their way into the whiskey runnin'territory of the good 'ol boys in NASCAR. Well,they wanted to run at the hallowed Brickyard so what do they expect?

The latest 'intrusion', recently announced, has Brazilian-born Christian Fittipaldi, 31, driving for Petty Enterprises in selected NASCAR Busch and ARCA Series events on Winston Cup tracks in 2003, then plans are for him to step up to the upper echelon of Cup in 2004.

The big factor in the signing of Fittipaldi is the operation has no sponsor for the venture, but PE CEO Kyle Petty puts weight in Christian as a "marketing opportunity we haven't had,for what he can do in the market place and his marketability, we look at this as another major step in our building process."

That's all well and good; but can he drive a 3500-pound stock car? Apparently they think so. Christian has some testing under his belt with Petty at a nonNASCAR track and they were starstruck with his feedback, "We were all impressed with him," continues Petty, "we feel that more than anything else Christian needs to be behind the wheel in racing situations."

No shit!

Sure,the likes of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart have made the grade, but they started life slinging Sprintcars with major success, before Gordon made it to Busch and Stewart to the IRL and Busch. Gordon was an instant hit in Busch, Stewart was anything but, however when he made the jump to Cup, his ability shone immediately.

Hard Lemonade, his last at St Louis where he started fifth and finished 35th with engine failure. On his debut at Homestead-Miami in November, he found out how 'hard' a wall was in a stock car when he was punted halfway through the race by southern boy Hank Parker Jr. who didn't want no Brazilian FI racer in front of him! He came home 39th after starting 33rd.

Now Petty have two of racing's most famous nephews on their books; John Andretti (if he stays with Petty for 2003)to uncle Mario; and Christian to uncle Emerson. Christian's father Wilson is a cattle farmer-turned racer-turned cattle farmer so he may have some good advice for his son on how to run with them good 'ol boys, "Stock car racing is a little bit different from what I do," says Fittipaldi.(Oh really!)

3etty also have a Mexican driver in the shape of Carlos Contreras driving in the NASCAR truck Series, and Cup driver Bobby Hamilton has African-American Bill Lester in one of his trucks. Fittipaldi, Lester and Contreras will all drive Dodges.

Coincidence, right? Wrong, it's part of the DaimlerChrysler diversification program that saw Willy T, Ribbs embarrass himself last year in a Hamilton truck.

"We took a lot of Dodge's advice on this hire," says Petty of Fittipaldi, It's also damn smart marketing on the part of Dodge for the US minority population (or at least what was!)

So can the Newman/Haas pilot jump from Formula 3000(where he was champ in 1991) into Formula 1 and, ultimately, eight years with CART, to something thatm under the skin, resembles a 1940s Ford pick-up truck? for.

To this point, Fittipaldi has raced

in two Busch races with Innovative Motorsports and sponsor Mike's

"So we're going to break into the whole program and I think that will be very good for me. Petty isn't going to throw me into the first race at Daytona so I go out there and fight the big lion, we have to sit down and see exactly which races we want to run. I want to finish everything as well as possible."

"Can the Newman Haas pilotjump from Formula 3000 into Formula 1 and, ultimately,eight years with CART,to something that under the skin resembles a 1340s Ford pick-up truck?rr

No one could probably be happier about Fittipaldi's entry into NASCAR than their own marketing departments in Daytona Beach, Charlotte and New York City. It illustrates that stock car racing has finally made its mark as an acceptable US motorsport when it attracts such big names, and he's far from the image portrayed by current points leader, Tennessean, Sterling Marlin, which is exactly what the governing body are vying

So what's next for NASCAR; a Canadian in Paul Tracy or maybe Sam Hornish? Don't hold your breath - it won't be long before more established stars from other divisions hit the pavement in steel dinosaurs and spit tobacco

But can they drive a stock car?

Martin D. Clark is Motorsport News’s Charlotte, North Carolina-based NASCAR correspondent 4

Lommme Emmoy no roof: F3, F3000', FI, Champ Cars and now. Busch Cup. Will:Chmdm^UimMm

I■HE two Minardi one Russian speafer who was not a motorhomes each have an Russian. And he is having a year off American CART driver Townsi awning under which team at the moment after a miserable Bell was quietly muttering away to nbers and guests sit to pass time engineering with Prost Grand man from Minardi trying to work a rr time. Prix last year. deal to become an Amencan m

The funny thing was that Paul Formula 1. It vras perestroika under ; most races, these are placed ■by-side and a small gap is left Stoddart's team, which a couple of canvas and in the middle was a

veen them so that there is, in months ago looked shakier than photographer who was not quiet effect, a little alleyway between Arrows, was quietly introducing the sure which way to turn to take his

the two which one can wander biggest company to come into picture. Formula 1 for years. down and talk to people on one "Wouldn't it be funny," said Paul side or the other. Most teams have What is Gazprom?" someone Stoddart, "to one day run a team ■ ' larger and more absurd asked one day. with an American driver and a arrangements but Minardi's set-up Allow me to read you the press Russian driver! Cold War Racing! works well. release," I said. "Gazprom bla-blaIn Hungary, there was a most bla. Gas producer bla-blabla. Ah Sof driving talent at the moment toddart is on the lookout for a bit amusing scene on Friday when the yes, here it is. Gazprom provides 25 team held a very small press percent of ell tax revenues for the because it looks ever more likely conference. There were two Russian government. Bla-bla-bla. It that he and Mark Webber will be journalists and twice as many controls 23 percent of the world's going their separate ways at the people being interviewed. The natural gas market. end of the year. reason for this very exclusive affair And here was little old Minardi Webber will be off to greener was because they were speaking having worked the deal. pastures at Jaguar and Stoddart will Russian. There are lots of But it was better than that. While be happy because, in exchange, he multilingual types in Formula 1 but the Russians were busy on the one will have a rather cheaper engine over the years, I have only ever met hand, under the other awning was deal than would otherwise be the case from Cosworth. And he hopes

wnAtardiPli

that a Cosworth engine in the back

of a Minardi chassis will create a car that is capable of scoring points on a regular basis.

Stoddart can find drivers who will pedal this beast fast enough and. with a big enough budget, he can

Ants, Chicks and Gas: Anthom- Davidson made his GP debut with Minardi at an interesting time, with Russian gas and Hungarian women on the

at Budapest. (Plwios hv Sitiion-liiiiiecsl

scene

have two men capable of doing the job properly. The Stod seems to be pretty chirpy about the idea.

The team will probably have to build a car which is a little bit bigger than this year’s car so that Justin Wilson can fit in but, if that deal doesn't work out, he can always run Giorgio Pantano, Anthony Davidson, Bryan Flerta or even Townsend Bell. Come to think of it, he could even run a Russian bloke if he turns out to be the fastest thing west of the Urals.

Bell was fired recently by Patrick Racing in CART for having too many accidents. So what went wrong? I asked.

"I wanted to overtake people," he said. "And guess that in CART they don’t like guys doing that. want to win races and so am kindof aggressive."

Fie sounded like a Formula 1 driver already. "Look out! I’m coming through! And I’m not going to lift..."

Afew motorhomes (and a bit of empty space where once Arrows might have been) further up the paddock there was another odd scenario. Jacques Villeneuve and Craig Pollock were happily telling everyone that no-one has made JV an offer to go to CART - and yet, over in the United States, Gerald Forsythe is wandering around telling pressmen that he would like to have Villeneuve back in CART. Flow can it

be?

Pollock smiled. Fie seemed a little tired (something to do with late nights negotiating with another Scotsman) and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don’t know," he said. "But it really is true. No-one has asked Jacques to go to CART. Fie is going to stay at BAR next year. I guess people are trying to get him out of there."

The problem is that if Jacques does force BAR to honour the $30m

.ct*- t K ■it.

contract, the team is going to suffer financially and so Villeneuve has been told (in very short words) that if he does that, he will have a contract for one year and after that he can go and tap-dance for a living. It will be a 12 month period of stress and no-one will be very happy but Villeneuve will get his money.

The Forsythe rumours appear to be a carrot to lure Villeneuve away and make life easier for BAR boss David Richards. This makes sense when one considers that Gerry Forsythe is actually one of the people who owns BAR!

This is the time of year when all kinds of strange and twisted scenarios like this are happening up and down the paddock. It does not matter how a deal is struck, so long as a deal is struck. Over the years. Formula 1 drives have exchanged hands for all kinds of bizarre

ex^iange-fcK aa en^ie ' (Coswoah at the time was owned by the Vickers coinpany, a wellknown arms firmy.

’Hah!," said Gerhard Berger one e\ening when we were discussing such things. "When I drove for Arrows, paid for my drive with trucks."

What? We chorused.

"Yeah," said Berger. "I was running a trucking company. I wanted to drive for Arrows. The team wanted trucks - so gave them some!"

Well, there you have it. People will tell you that Formula 1 is a bit dull at the moment. I think this is total rubbish because Formula 1 is not just about the racing. It is about the soap opera as well.

Every day all over the world people sit down and watch 'Neighbours' or 'Flome and Away'. And they find it fascinating. Formula 1 is a soap opera where the cars are a little faster - and the

reasons. I remember one year a team boss was busy trying to story lines are wilder! But negotiate a deal to sell tanks to a fascinating, nonetheless. Middle Eastern government in

"Wmdibi't it be fumy to om day run a team with m American dnvm* and a

Five Minutes With PariRarisuri

Times ape tough atShellHelix Racing,the Queensland-based team having its worstseason In living memory. CHRISLAH/iSDBVsgoke with the Kiwiand asked 'what'sgoing

MOTORSPORT NEWS:Things have hit a low at DJR.You were the last Ford team to win a race(Q500 last year), hut right now you are struggling in the bottom half of the field. Can you put your finger on the problem?

PAUL RADISICH: We’re struggling to keep our corner speed, both in qualifying and race trim. We put a new set oftyres on and we’ll get a four-tenths gain, but of course everyone else gains about a second.

Just getting the car into and out of a comer without losing too much speed is our major problem. We’ve tried everything. We've turned off the power at the rear wheels, tried everything, but whatever we put into the car, try on the car, it laps within a tenth.

It’s very frustrating for everybody concerned. We’re desperate to overcome the problem, but to date we are unable to tune the car. It’s not responding to changes we make.

MN:There are some issues going on at Ford level which may,or may not,improve the front end of the car - hut DJR is struggling in relation to the other Ford teams. How do you turn it around?

PR:At the moment the Stone Brothers cars are very competitive and'they are the closest to the top Holden runners.

The talk ofthe front splitter and so on may help them bridge that final gap to be competitive with the lead Holdens, but we’re a good second and a half off the pace. IfI could tell you how to fix that, I would!

All we can do is keep on keeping on, dot the i’s, cross the t’s, so we can eliminate the problems. It’s been eight months now and I’d have to say that as a team we haven't gone forward at all.

MN:There are effectively three weeks until the next race, at your home track. Will DJR be going back to basics during that time to try and sort the problems out? Any fresh ideas?

PR:Yes, Matthew Lyall, who was

with Ford, hasjoined the team. We’ve been an engineer short for quite a few races now and vidth him come some fresh new ideas which perhaps will help us.

We’ve already been back to the basic drawing board and found that hasn’t worked. We’ve gone through so many different configurations, gone right back to last year’s settings and so on, but the car will basically lap a second off the pace at Willowbank, but within a tenth of a second regardless of what’s in the car. It’s clear that we haven’t been able to make our cars work on the Dunlops and clearly everybody else has. We don’t believe it’s just a problem with how we tune the car - we’ve tried every combination going and nothing makes a difference to the car. So we need to look a bit beyond and a bit deeper to try and find out why the car is consistently slow.

We’ll be testing a lot at Willowbank in the hope that we can come up with a solution.

MN:What can a driver do in these circumstances. When you’re winning the driver gets a fair share of the glory, but when things are down, what can you do to try and lift the team?

PR:The only thing we can do is give accurate feedback as to what the car is doing, what it is telling us. At the moment the diary is full of notes about what the car is NOT doing and what it SHOULD be doing! In these circumstances it’s easy to get frustrated and annoyed, which makes things worse. You just have to keep your head down, keep thinking about what the car is trying to tell you, discussing it with the team and the others who are there to try and help.

MN:On a personal note,does your commitment to DJR stiU extend beyond this year.Do you know what you’re doing in 2003?

PR:I have a contract, which was signed last year, which goes until the end of 2004- and that hasn’t changed. All the ingredients are there to fix our car - we’ve just got to put it all together.

Boy, how things change; Last September, the Shell Helix Falcons were winning. Radisich and Steven Johnson, below, took the last Ford round win in V8 racing at the Queensland 500. This year, above, the cars just aren’t near the front.

(Pholos by Dirk Klynsmith)

(Brock) Memories

Colin Bond

Former HDT team-mate

"He was lucky!

"I remember one race (ED; in 1980), he hit some bugger and was in the pits on lap 3. By lap 50, he was back into the lead. But the Holden Dealer Team had better cars, and there were no Safety Cars in those days,so it was easier to get a lead.

"You had to nurse the cars along. They were Series Production cars, remember, and they were never designed to be race cars. Brock was very good at doing that in those cars. In fact, a bit like Michael Schumacher is in his cars.

"But we did everything. With the Torana XU-1,the Holden Dealer Team had to go rallying,so that we could

get the money to go racing because General Motors was not officially in racing. I did the rallying while Peter concentrated on the touring car championship, which was something that I never did. In hindsight, maybe that should have been different, but I was the experienced rally driver, so that is the way that it worked out.

"So it was a pretty busy time. It wasn't just like we were in that series; we also did the Toby Lee series in New South Wales, we did rallies, hillclimbs, everything!

"I raced with him and against him for years and one thing never changed; Brock was always a very fair driver."

Paul Radisich

"I never raced at Bathurst with Peter but I did race there with the same team.

"But do remember that Peter always had to be the fastest driver out there. He did whatever it took to take the top position; very, very competitive. He approached Bathurst a bit like Dick; it IS the Holy Grai and it didn't really matter what else happened during the year as long as he was the fastest man at Bathurst.

"I followed what he was doing when I was younger. remember racing against him in New Zealand - at Wellington, think. had just started in the category then and Peter was in the Ford Sierra then and he went past me on two wheels. thought to myself, 'THAT is the way you have to drive a touring car!'."

mind. Brock was probably the first man that ever followed that learned how to drive a touring car.

"You learn things from everyone in the sport. You take away little bits of racing against, and with, everybody, no matter how long you have been racing in the sport. For sure, Peter is one of those guys. In my early career, learned a hell of a lot from him.

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are made ef this

Jason Bargwanna

Former Holden Young Lion

"One of the things I remember most was my Bathurst with the Holden Young Lions car in 1997. It was Peter's last Bathurst, until this recent announcement, and when I did the pole position lap on the Friday, he was almost the first to congratulate me when I got out of the car. He almost lifted me off the ground,though that is not hard to do!

"The other memories? Sitting in front of the television as a kid, watching him in the Toranas and the Commodores, and being in awe of what the man was able to do at that stage. It was great to watch.

"Over the years, you certainly listen to what Peter had to say about winning the race, you take it all in and try to learn from it. But it is different now to what is was in those days, so good luck to him this time!

Larry Perkins

3-time Bathurst-winning c(Klriver

"Racing with Peter the three times we won Bathurst were, obviously, pretty special memories. In my first three Bathursts, I finished third and had two seconds. I didn't have that many memories of racing against him before those wins and, in later years, he was relatively uncompetitive.

"In '87, can’t remember racing against him there but, in the 90s, it wasn't a big deal.

"When we raced there together, we went there EXPECTING to win the race. That was the exact reason I was in charge of the preparation side of things.

"I think that looking back on Brock's wins is an indication of how much the competition has changed over the years. Saying that the levels of competition were similar then to what they are now is possibly a distorted view.

"At my very first Bathurst, 1990,1 sat next to him at the Drivers' briefing. I was 18 years old,,and I was sitting

behind Dick Johnson. I could not believe where I was; it was an amazing thing. That year, he went past me across the top of the mountain like I was standing still, so that made it especially great to go up there and be a part of what was going to be his last Bathurst."

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Playing with the Big

The newest signing to Castrol Perkins Racing for the endures, Paui Dumbrell, has hit the V8 big tinne.

AARON NOONAN profiles the Konica Channp who looks set to take over from Larry Perkins in 2003

WHEN Paul Dumbrell

grids up to race in this year’s VIP Pet Foods Queensland 500 in September, he’ll be 20 years of age.

While most other 20-year-olds have only had their road licence for a handful of years,the Konica V8 Series Champion will be in a Level 1 Castrol Commodore that has a serious chance of winning either of the two endimos in a team that has experience with winning the hig ones’.

And if anything, he will become his own identity, out ofthe shadow of his father Garry, who has been involved in the sport as a sponsor and team owner.

“Sure, my Dad’s got a lot of good contacts within Wynn’s Australia,” says Dumbrell.

“Contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t actually own it; he’s the Victorian distributor and Wynn’s Australia ventured into V8s with Darren Hossack in 1997 and then with Gibson Motorsport.

“It was good to have those links straight away in my career and they’ve been very good to me. The

i-P on PD

"OVER many years I've decided not so much to run established, ready to run guys. I've gone for guys who will be able to do it, given time. I don't expect to get him up there at Bathurst and put the car on pole position, it's not like that.

"You don't necessarily need to have guys with a high profile. Signing Paul had nothing to do with the testing because I'd made my decision before I let him test the car. He had done a very good job over the duration of the Konica Series. He's relatively cheap to get because he's still a young guy, and I'm willing to give him a run.

"There's no doubt I haven't made a decision about next year. It's perfectly obvious he's going to be on my list. It'd be nice for him to do a good job, but relatively newcomers can make mistakes, just as old guys can make mistakes.

"I found his manner very good. He doesn't come along with any ego problems or problems of the 'rich kid' tag. He clearly wants to get there on his own personal ability and I reckpn he's done that.

"It's been very pleasing to have him come along to a few test days and he quickly got in and matched the times of me and Richo. His feedback has been positive and I didn't necessarily expect him to do that. It's all about gathering experience in the deep end of the pool."

- AARON NOONAN

goal was to win the Konica Series this year and it proved a point to a lot of people.”

With an eye on filling a seat in 2003 at Castrol Perkins Racing (which we already understand as being a done deal), Dumbrell has been taken under the wing ofthe retiring Larry Perkins and it’s time to play with the big boys. The main game isn’t as forgiving as the Konica ‘playground’and the weight of responsibility is something he’s fully aware of.

“When you put it like that,it sends a few shivers down the back of your neck. There’s a lot of pressure there, but for me there’s been a lot offaith put in me by Larry and Castrol to get the job done. Whoever I’m paired up with. I’m pretty confident of being able

11Whatever anyone gives me.I'll certainly give back...

-On the rough and tumble of the ‘main game’ n

Boys

to do a job as good as anyone else could in that situation.

“Their interest came very late in the picture. We were speaking to a few other teams and then it came out ofthe blue. It was a pretty quick process.

“Actually, it was reported in the media long before anything further than a quick conversation with Larry about what plans I was up

factors involved as well. In the Konica Series this year, I did make a few mistakes, only limited, and I was able to push ahead and still win those races.

“Previously I might have thrown it all away, whereas this year I’ve developed and in the main series that’s where you have to be on the ball.

finish at the endurance races is so hard to predict because there are so many aspects from the Safety Car to other people having accidents- you just can’t predict.” Perkins is known for not suffering fools well. He’s seen as somewhat of a demanding t3q>e, but the age barrier between the two is something new for the pair in their racing careers.

you’re doing, he’ll tell you. It’s good to be in that atmosphere, everyone knows where they stand.”

So what about the Mountain?

Having been there before in ‘second-string’cars, this is the first time he’s been in a full-blown Level 1 car.

“Being within the team and learning within the team,if there was an option for next year, would certainly put me in the box seat. Obviously we’ve spoken about that. If I go out and get the job done in the endurance races, keep a level head and bring the car home in a good position, I should be in the box seat.

“Whatever happens next year, I’d like to at least make sure Fve” got good security and time to develop. It’s going to be hard and nothing like the Konica Series. You’ve got to take every opportunity with two hands.

“It’s something I’m looking forward to. There’s a few other

“Even HRT are faced with circumstances they have to work with and get the best out of a potentially bad situation and that’s where I’ve learnt the most this year and translate that across into driving for Larry this year.

"There^ a lot of pressu'e there,but there^ been a lotoMaithputinmeby Larry"

-On the importance of the endures to.

the difference.

“I reckon it’ll probably be an advantage more than a disadvantage,” says Dumbreii of

“All three drivers have won Bathurst at least twice, with Larry winning six, and Russell and Steve winning two each, everyone’s got lots of experience.

“On the team front. I’m working with a new team and I’ve got to make sure I fit into the environment, no matter how many cars are being run by the team, whether it’s Larry’s or someone elses. You’ve got to get everyone on side and all have the same goal.

“It’s not like ‘finish in the top five and you’ve got the drive’or anything like that. A position

“Larry is taking me under his wing during the endurance races and will teach me as much as he can. It’s not only beneficial to him but also the team to get a good result.

He’s always said during testing, if I have a question, even if it’s out of left field,‘don’t be too scared to ask’.

“He’s very up front. If you have a question, he’ll give you a straight answer. If he doesn’t like what

“I’ve done a couple oftests with them and all ofthe guys have been great. Within the industry you get to know quite a few people so before I even went there I knew half a dozen people so when I walked in I wasn’t a complete stranger.

And is he expecting a rude welcoming from the establishment?

“I don’t think so. Everyone gets put in their place quite early, but whatever anyone gives me. I’ll certainly give back because we’re all there to win races and I want everyone to know that’s what I’m about.”

V8 Supercar’s Generation-X just got younger...

becoming the ‘Castrol Kid’ for the

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmith)

All these lubricant products! Dumbreii moves from being a Wynn’s-boy to endurance races after winning the 2002 Konica V8 Supercar Series.

IMo more CA

Aftera tough 2002,Simon Wills and Briggs

Motorsport have parted company but it’s not all bad news for the former Konica Series champion.

AARON NOONAN asked him about the split and where he’s landed for the endures.

MOTORSPORT NEWS:The obvious question - how long have the things been festering with Briggs Motorsport that resulted in you and John (Briggs) heading your separate ways last week.

SIMON WILLS: Since the start of the year, what has become clear is that there is just a personal difference between myself and Briggs. We don't really get along too well; we're two different types of people. The same with my father (Keiran); there's a bit of a clash there as well and with Dad having a fair involvement in motor racing and in my motor racing, he didn't agree so much with how Briggsy goes about his job.

It's a clash and we've decided to pull the pin. It's his team, he's the boss and he can do want he wants with his team. We decided to get out and let him do what he wants.

MN: When did the point come that it was a chore heading to a race meeting?

SW: Only just recently really. We had a pretty good car at Barbagallo and did pretty well. We found some speed in it, and in all three cars, but then the following race meeting we really struggled. ^

We found quite a few problems with the car and we tried to point them out, but they weren't really listened to and they felt the car was fine. We felt it wasn't and it just stemmed from that. We said 'it's got to change' but it didn't look like it was going to - so that's why we got out.

MN: By this time of year, generally,there are no seats still available for the enduros but you've landed two decent rides for Queensland and Bathurst.

SW: It's great. The main thing is that I've got to get my career sorted out and see where I'm going next year. It gives me a bit of time, but the opportunity to jump into a good car - both were on the front row of the grid at Queensland last year - is great. I know I can get in and have a good car and feel what a good car is like. We'll go from there.

MN: You've driven for SBR before - in the enduros with Craig Baird in 2000- so you've got a good understanding of how they work?

SW: Yeah, that's great. I get along with them well and with Dave (Besnard) as well. The cars have improved since I drove them last and I think it's going to be interesting.

At least now I've got a good shot of really having a good go at winning the race.

It was quite a fortuitous move.

MN: Any bitterness towards Briggs Motorsport and perhaps turning the enduros into a 'look, I can do it' scenario? SW; I wouldn't say bitterness. All I want to do is go out and do my thing and go as wel as I can.

This year don't feel the car was capable of showing that I could actually do the job, so that's why I've looked elsewhere. might be wrong; Briggsy might be wrong. I don't know. We'll see in due time.

For instance, Radisich is having a hard year. If this was his first year, everyone would be writing him off. just want to prove a point- that I can do the job.

MN:The rumour mill continues to churn about a new team in Adelaide involving your father and your former Formula l4olden team boss Malcolm Ramsay. Are you involving yourself in that?

SW: At the moment I'm just looking after myself. Dad's trying to help point me in the right direction, but he is inte,rested in trying to get something up with Malcolm and going in the future but, again, it's quite early to try and set something up.

I know they will want to do a really good job, so I'm staying out of that. I don't know what stage they're at or whether they're going to go ahead with anything or not.

At the moment I'm looking for options for next year, so I can look after myself if nothing eventuates.

MN: Is this next step going to be the most critical step in your career?

SW: I suppose it is. If go out and have another bad year, they'll say it was me and not the cars. At least I've got a few months now to get in people's ears and prove to them what can do.

Driving at Bathurst isn't the sole priority. If I do the right things now, can set myself up for another 20 BathurstsI We'll see.

T Claws

Falcons, everywhere there’s Falcons: After joining Briggs Motorsport

in the final few rounds of 2001, Wills and the team have parted ways due to a clash between the driver and team owner John Briggs. Wills will re-unite with Stone Brothers Racing for Queensland, for whom he drove with Craig Baird in the 2000 endures, below. (Photos by Dirk Klynsmith and Marshall Cass)

The Hoodoo

Jason Bright laid the Holden Racing Team’s Winton winless streak to rest with two emphatic wins at Winton on a day

when pitstops cost Mark Skaife and Marcos Ambrose dearly.

PHIL BRANAGAN reports from northern Victoria

IGHT is a good numberbut it is nowhere near as good as 11.

That is the number of successive rounds ofthe Shell Championship and V8 Supercar Championship Series that have been won by the TWR Racing equipe, after Jason Bright broke the Holden Racing Team’s Winton hoodoo last Sunday. Bright qualified third fastest and took both 32-lap races in Northern Victoida, but only after a straggle. Aided in the opening race by a lightning pitstop, he took Race 2 after Mark Skaife suffered from a rare lapse from the Reds’pit crew, his Commodore delayed about 15 seconds after the car was dropped early. He fought back to add a ninth place to a fourth in Race 1.

Second overall on the day was lijnart Racing’s Todd Kelly, while Marcos Ambrose took third overall in the Stone Brothers Falcon that was again best in breed. The *> Tasmanian took a stunning pole position but, once again, was beaten in the pits by the Claytonbased Commodore teams.

With Greg Murphy and Garth Tander filling the minor positions, the Winton weekend was a disaster for a number of teams. Craig Lowndes had all manner of problems,finishing Race 1 with a bent diff housing and failing to finish Race 2, while the Shell/DJR team had more disasters,Paul Radisich and Steven Johnson continuing the team’s struggle for speed, both failing to finish the second race.

Under flawless skies, the racing was close but processional, which seems to be the way of the world at the moment. But the speed Ambrose showed,far from his test track, does offer some hope for anyone hoping that the TWRmy does not make is an even dozen when the VIP Pet Foods Queensland 500 goes gi’een next month.

Practice and Qualifying

Those you may think that Achilles is a Greek rally driver who finished third in Group N at the Acropolis this season may want to skip this next bit.

Achilles was,in fact, a Greek warrior of considerable merit. He was virtually unbeatable in a stoush, the result of haring been dipped in water as a youth rendering him invincible. But, haring been held by the heel while immersed, he suffered a fatal blow on that part of his foot. Hence, the expression ‘Achilles heel’that is usually referred to a rare weakness one may display from time to time.

While Skaife and Bright may not

It’s a NEW CAR!!! Jason Bright gave HRT’s latest Commodore a winning baptism at Winton, topping qualifying and taking both races at the Victorian track. Todd Kelly, below, was second overall. (Photos by Dirk Klynsmilh and Chris Carter)

Jason

Mark Skaifa

Marcos

Todd

Greg

David Besnard

Garth Tander

John Bowe

Rick Keliy

Craig Lowndes

Brad

Jason Bargwanna

Steven

Russell

Larry

Top 10 Shoout-Out

vases Round 8 Winton Raceway

continued from page 34

quite be in Achilles’s class, they still go alright in a battle, a fact demonstrated admirably by the fact that they arrived at Winton with a perfect score to defend.

Holden Racing Team may do most things right at most places but, if the team does have a track at which they display Achilles-like tendencies,it is Winton.

Last year,for instance, Russell Ingall won the round. Skaife, in fact, was stranded in 15th after qualifying but, on raceday, came through to grab a bunch of points with a third overall. The 2000 and 1999 rounds were won by Jason Bargwanna, and no matter how far you go back through the annals of history, you will not discover an HRT win in Northern Victoria, despite the combined efforts of Brocky, Jason, Mark, Tomas, Wayne, Win et al.

The practice sessions were held under glorious skies, with no wind and good ambient temps after a chilly beginning(no, really they were). Rick Kelly demonstrated his growing reputation by topping the opening session (despite being not entirely delighted with the Young Lions VX)while older lion John Bowe snatched fast time in the second session from right under Skaife’s nose.

There have been times- lots of times- during the course ofthe 2002 V8 Supercar Championship season when we have sat on the edge of our seats during qualifying. Getting into the top 10 or top 15 from the ‘faster’session has not

been, necessarily, any guarantee of maintaining position into the correspondingly-numbered RunOff, given the frequency of cars being ‘bumped’by others in the ‘slower’session.

Not this time. Various circumstances,including having a number of cars from the slower group have a look at the kitty litter and drag debris back onto the track, meant that, for 21 of the 25 minutes of the second session, there was only one incursion into the top 18 spots. The first to ‘make it’ was Mark Larkham before his

So is numerology.

FENG Shui is a mystery to me. reported Rogers. "I had massage and some other treatment and feel much better.

Centuries ago, while the Chinese were considering the natural order of things and how the universe really worked, my Dublin-based forefathers (actually, it was probably my foremothers) were working on 87 different recipes for potatoes. So my lack of understanding of the Big Picture is down more to genetics than any shortage of intelligence on my part... Garry Rogers understands the universe. The Valvoline Team owner had been suffering from a wretched back and neck for some weeks, and a lack of improvement and, when conventional medicine brought little or no relief, Rogers turned

to a Chinese doctor to seek

some comfort.

! have improved out of sight,

"The Chinese know a lot about numbers. I got talking to the doctor and he suggested that, if things were not going well with the racing team, maybe we should change numbers and see what happened."

So, when the GRM Commodores were rolled out of the transporter, Jason Bargwanna's VX was #34 and Garth Tander's, left, wore #35. For the first time in a single driver race, they had swapped numbers and the team, the Doctor (and, no doubt, my forefathers) were watching the results with interest.

But, even then, any changes may have had less to do with the numbers themselves than

lAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Boys.

And the margins were narrow outside the pointy end as well. Glenn Seton was all of 0.11s away from the Run-Off but had four cars between himself and Lowndes’s 10th position.

Such is the start of competitiveness, as we keep saying. Blink and you miss the top 10, 15 or whatever.

The Run-Off beckoned and, at first,it looked like Business As Usual. Lowndes, Rick Kelly (in the single-lap session for the second time), Bowe and Tander all did solid, if unspectacular,jobs. But Besnard, on a good lap, out-braked himself at Penrite and lost a stack oftime to race himself back to 10th.

Murphy had a good look at the time but later admitted he was not fast enough, while Kelly shave a few hundredths off his team-mate’s time to grab fourth.

continued on page 38

Mixed fortunes: Ambrose was emphatic in the Run-Off, taking his third poie of the year, but the Sheii Heiix Fords were right at the back, Paui Radisich and Steven Johnson continuing a hard season with DJR.

headway while Larry Perkins and John Faulkner also made it past ‘slower’cars.

2-

i old Formula Ford sparring partner, Russell Ingall, leapt past into 14th. He was pretty close to making it (less than a tenth, in fact) but, when the flag fell on the session, Craig Lowndes(who was sitting on the ‘bump’in 10th) was safe and stopped chewing his fingernails. Not even the mercurial Max Wilson could make his customary

So,the attention fell to the faster group. For a while, it looked like the HRT pair may struggle, making their customary late exit from the Red Cave onto the track and setting a time, only to see others knock them from the top. Ambrose was one challenger, Todd Kelly another but, once they got onto the second set of rubber, all was restored to the honour of Cla}hon.

what is associated with them.

In Practice, drivers may use only tyres marked previously from earlier races. And tyres are allocated to cars, not drivers; as a result of the change, Tander would get to use a set of 'green' Dunlops that were marked with '35', while Bargwanna would have to do his best with more experienced rubber.

Some would wonder whether the fact that Garth would, potentially, have better practice rubber than his team-. mate was cause or effect. At the end of the second practice session, Tander was fourth fastest, 0.9s and 12 positions better off than Bargwanna. Mathematics may never fib but, at times, they may not reveal the whole truth either.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

But this time, it was Bright who made the best of the conditions. It was pretty close; his advantage over Skaife was all of0.0006s in a lm22-odd second lap. According the mathematical brains wellsuited to calculating these things, the difference in the laps was about 2.2cm -less than an inch.

As usual, the gaps to the rest were small, but telling compared to the front two.Ambrose was third, fastest in the Ford class, while Kelly T and Murphy(who celebrates his 30th birthday this weekend)followed from Besnard, Barg er, Tander(sorry, wrong number)and Bowe, whose position in the top 10 is becoming a matter of habit. Rick Kelly, Lowndes, Jones,Tan Bargwanna (bugger!), Richards, Ingall, Seton, and Perkins.

Home track advantage; of the 16 fastest qualifiers, 14 called Winton their home test track. Only the Stone cars ofAmbrose and Bezzy broke into the ranks ofthe Home

(Photos by Dirk Klynsmith)

Winton

continued from page 38

Then came Ambrose. Later he would describe the lap as “the. second-best of my career”(after his Bathurst pole lap last year). The result was a lm22.9447s which,in qualifying itself, would have been good enough for seventh.

Skaife was a tenth down on Ambrose’s effort after one sector and looked to be struggling, while Bright made a big error early in the lap (losing three-tenths to Ambrose)before clawing back some ofthe loss to all but tie with Skaife. The margin between the two was the briefest time measurable with V8 Supercar timing, 0.0001s which translates to a few millimetres.

Close, but no cigar.

Race 1(32 laps)

There must be something about racing under perfect skies that brings out the best in racing drivers. Yes,there was the odd elbow in the race but, generally, everyone was wellbehaved.

And there was no Safety Car but, despite is non-appearance, everyone played safe strategy-wise and, as soon as the pit window opened, it was on for everyone.

Skaife had led away as Marcos sat at the start, the #1 Commodore propping mid-Motorsport News Esses as Bright looked (unsuccessfully)around the outside ofthe blue Falcon. But the order was unchanged; Skaife, Ambrose, Todd Kelly, Bright, Murphy, Tander, Besnard,Rick Kelly, Ingall, Bowe and Jones.

Already out of play were Lowndes and Bargwanna. There had been contact in the opening

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Winners for each round will receive fabulous prizes of Team gear. Model cars. Magazine subscriptions and much, much more.

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corner, with Ingall and Rick Kelly getting involved as well, the #00 and the #35(bugger,it’s #34 now) returning at the rear of the field. Bargs got back into his rhythm and made some ground to finish 22nd while Lowndes got trapped in 25th. Ingall and Kelly continued, the HYL driver with a dinged door. There was more to it than that.

Lowndes’s diff housing was bent; on left-handers, it was understeering and on right handers,it was oversteering. Under brakes, it was doing both. Considering what might have happened, and the combined clean noses of Crompton and Forbes, 00 Motorsport was as happy as it could be(under the circumstances) to have three relatively undamaged cars after the race.

With the ‘no pitting under yellow flag’rule in play,the World pitted as soon as the window opened on lap 3. In marched Skaife, Tander, Bowe and eight other on that lap, while Bright came in next time around. The other HRT car pitted a lap later and the Reds were brilliant, turning Brighty around in 6.5s. He resumed right in front of Skaife... who had a big look two corners later but Bright held him out for the ‘lead’. Which was precarious; while the Reds sorted out their track position, Todd Kelly pitted and beat both HRT cars into the Motorsport News Esses. Bright had momentum and forced his way through at Turn 4, but he held out Skaife and held onto ‘second’ place. But Ambrose was still

Hi Ho Silver: Race 1 started badly for Lowndes; the leaders made it through but he fired down the inside and spun his chances away. But Hay, the fans still seem to love him

(Pholos by Dirk Klynsmi

th)

The Used Car Lot

Jason Bright made HRVs day with its latest Commodore

THERE were times, in past years, that team would almost routinely build a new car for the endurance races - or, at a pinch, Bathurst.

It was not so much that the new cars were necessarily faster; sure, the ongoing march of progress means that a newer car is potentially a little quicker than an old one. But a newer car is, by its very definition, newer. So you would expect a brand-new unit to have brand new stuff on it, which tends to make things slightly easier.

This year, things are more conservative. All V8 Supercars which appear in 2003 or later will be subject to the full force of Project Blueprint which says, in part, that all cars will feature double wishbone front suspension. Be they Fords, Holdens or some other yet-to-beannounced brand, they will be the same up front.

That means, in effect, that there are likely to

be less, if any, new Commodores before the end of the 2002 season. Add to the mix the imminent appearance of Ford's new Falcon 'Barra' BA in October and there are plenty of teams looking at 2003 cars.

GRM is building a new Commodore VY, complete with wishbone front suspension, while a similar car is under build at the House of Larry for Steyen Richards to race next year.

But not the Holden Racing Team. Jason Bright was debuting a new VX at Winton, the car having been roaded'in a Winton test that included HRT enduro co-drivers Jim Richards and Tomas Mezera. It came out of the truck for its first race meeting, qualified fastest and won its very fir^t, race without too much trauma. They have a lo't of things going for them, those lads from Clayton

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Winlon

continued from page

circulating -fast. He managed to make up the ground he had lost with the ordinary start, but when he came in on lap 7, he split the Claytons to take third. They droned around, with slightly varying gaps, and that looked like the way that they were going to finish.

But,if Forbes managed to keep it clean, Paul Romano did not. When he was about to be lapped, the Ultra Tune car managed to get in the way of the leaders and, with Todd losing momentum,Ambrose levered down between the Commodores to take second under braking. Along the way, Kelly felt a tap in the backside and felt that, rather than the baulk, had cost him a position, though Kelly almost undid himself with a wide moment on the final lap which almost, but not quite, opened the door widely enough for Skaife to steal third.

Kelly protested the Pirtek car and both drivers presented their cases to the Stewards, who determined it was a racing incident. Seems about right.

The Tasmanian Devil and the Boy who cried 'Wolf'

DURING the post-qual'ifying shoot-out media conference, there was discussion about parity and,to some extent, a call from one of the drivers that one marque was at a disadvantage.

The call came from Mark Skaife.

The current championship leader's point was that Marcos Ambrose's massive advantage in the shoot-out was evidence that the Ford, far from having a speed disadvantage to the Holden was,' in fact, a better mousetrap than his Holden.

His words, largely, echoed his comments on the recent edition of Network 10's 'V8 Super Stars', during which Skaife said that he believed that Ambrose, right, had a better car than he did at Oran Park - meaning by inference that he, Skaife, believed he had beaten Ambrose by driving better in an inferior car.

So, that’s the way it finished. The underlying argument to TWR took five of the top seven Skaife's view is that qualifying is positions, Ambrose(second)and the ultimate, and pure, test of car Tander(an unnoticed but polished speed. Everyone drives qualifying drive after an early battle with laps at 100 percent and that Rick)the only interlopers into the determines who has the fastest Empire’s natural order of things. car. Bowe was eighth (despite the car

The gap between Ambrose and sounding like hell with a broken Skaife at Winton was 0.439s. On

paper, a huge gap, the biggest Ford over Holden gap of the Needs a builder: season so far. But, John Faulkner received, probably. by his own a tap in the rear which elbowed admission, Bright's him into the tyres on the opening shoot-out lap lap of Race 2. contained a large

error that cost him time during the first sector of the lap -and there went any chance of pole position. Because he and Skaife ended up only 0.0001s apart, the last two sectors of Bright's lap were pretty special. Therefore, the true indicator of the speed of HRT's VXs were neither Skaife's lap nor Bright's, but a combination of the sectors of the two. Ambrose, who described his lap as the secondbest of his career [after Bathurst 2001], was pretty much at the maximum all the way around.

So, based on Skaife's first sector and Bright's second and third, the 'optimum' HRT run-off lap was a 1 m23.2115s, which closes the gap to

Ambrose to 0.2668s. Does a quarter-second over a single lap margin justify a call for parity? Not quite as much as 0.62s, the edge poleman Bright enjoyed over the Pirtek Ford [the best of 'the rest'] at Darwin, or even 0.64s, which was the margin that Skaife had over secondfastest Ambrose in the Eastern Creek run-off. On those occasions, to MN's knowledge, no Holden drivers were calling for parity adjustments to assist the Falcons. Was Skaife's comment a wind up? Was is a genuine plea for help for a disadvantaged underdog? Or was it politically-motivated? He knoy\/s; we do not.

But, like anyone else in the sport, he has a right to his opinion. And we all have the right to ours.

- PHIL BRANAGAM

exhaust header)from Ingall(no damage from the hit), Jones, Besnard and Richards, who was delayed after a whack from The Rickler.

Radisich made good progress to make it to 15th, but Johnson’s ill- 0 fortune continued, his car stopping in the pit lane when he stalled unexpectedly. The yellows are having a wretched time and must be praying for 2003,Project Blueprint and Barra.

But for HRT,it was one down. one to go for the hoodoo to be broken...

Race 2(32 laps)

ell, the hoodoo WAS broken. wbut only after some fun and games and some Safety Car action. Bright won but it was a battle. He got away well but there was an SC board right away,John

(Photo by James Smith)

Winton

V8S6S Bound 8

Ulflnvon R’lflfav

Race 1-32 laps

Rise time Iisitest lap

45:45.3302 1:23,4788 7

45:46.8633 1:23.5978 4

45:52.1179 -1:23.4514 7

45:52.8332 1:23.3098 10

45:53.0348 1:23.5147 10

45:57,0081 1:23.8053 9 46:00.2334 1:23.7118 9

46:05.4506 1:23.4531 5

46:08.7116 1:24.1268 8

46:10.4038 11:24.2103 17

46:15.6777 1:24.2224 14

46:15.9165 1:23.5477 5

46:27:0718 1:24.5918 6

46:34.1653 1:24.3036 13 «:35.D378 1:24.3798 6

46:35.3099 1:24.7034 4

46:41.8432 1:24.5392 9

46:44.8035 3:24.5567 9

46:45.4945 1:248575 9

46:49.4492 11:25,1323 18

31 Tratt

32 Weal

DNF Johnson

DNF Radisich

DNF Lowndes

DNF Faulkner

12

1:24.0020 12

1:23.6679 11

1:24,1113 14

1:23.9717 11 5250.5044 1:24.5716 14 5251.0043 1:24.7448 14 5256.3321 1:24.7567 12

1:24.6250 31

1:24.5867 29 53:02.4385 1:24.3176 14

53:02.9842 1:24.9331 13

53:032547 1:24.6276 14

53:08.7686 1:25.0498 25

53:12.0351 1:24.8530 13

53:18:5504 1:24.3040 13

53:18.9550 1:25.1180 13

53:20.7581 1:25.3474 13

53:432860 1:25.1386 10

30 laps 1:25.0242 12

30 laps 1:24.3744 21

29 laps 1:24.5429 11

29 laps 1:25.8165 28

29 laps 1:24.3900 9

26 laps 1:25.3382 13 IS laps 1:24.6544 14 7 laps 1:25.1499 7

Points: Skaife 1775, Bright 1096. Murphy 1002, T. Kelly 9€, Ambrose 341, S. Richards 791, Lowndes 722, Tander 643, Besnard ■619, Ingall 556, Bowe 538, Longhurst 503, Johrtson 443, Jones 404, Bargwanna 389, Crompton 371, J. Richards341, Seton 320, Baird 303. -Perkins 304, Larkham 302, RadisirSh 292, M6:Conville 284, R. Kelly 274, Faulkner 267, Ellery 247, Simon Wills 239, McLean 214,WoBi,214, Wilson 189, Tratt 183, Forbes 173, Morris 170, Wayne Gardner 62, Wakefield 56, Stephen White 43, McDougalUl, Greg Riltsr 36, Owen 10, Romano-58.

Faulkner -vyent straight on at the Motorsport News Esses for reasons of which not even he was certain.

I have no idea what happened,” he said. “I made a good start and got into the corner, but it went straight on. I did have a look at the back and I had damage there I did not start the race with but, at the time it went off, I thought it was all me.

But while that was happening, Lowndes was in trouble. He had a flat and toured in while the Safety Car was out, but broken front suspension awaited (probably caused by a combination of the contact with Seton and dri'ving in on the tyre-damaged wheel) to compound his terrible weekend.

The cause had been a tangle with Seton, who also had to pit. Later, he got served off at the MN Esses by Owen, the CAT rookie earning a drive-thru penalty for his indiscretion.

The restart held better news for Ford. At Betta corner, Bright ran wide and Ambrose seized the opportunity to get the lead. With the delay from the Safety Car, the pit window opened the complexion of the race changed.

Bright had made a good stop but Skaife, who came in on the next lap, had his worst stop of the season. His car was dropped before the wheel change was completed and 15 seconds, and eight positions, were gone before he got back onto the track.

And Ambrose had another bad stop; he lost not just the lead to Bright but a podium finish to the

Kmart pair, once again the KRT team making the SBRs iook siuggish in pit iane. The good news is that, at the next race, pit stop iengths are determined not by the time it takes to change a wheei as much as refueiing time.

And it is on home turf...

So, it went. Brighty amused himseif by setting the odd iap record on the way to HRT’s maiden Winton win and the eighth from eight races for the team. Skaife made it past Jones but that was as far as it went, as Besnard heid him out to the flag.

The other TWR driver who lost a bunch of ground was Rick Kelly. The Lion was held out wide by Ingall and, by the time the Kid regained the blacktop, he was 13th, not sixth. Hard thing to learn, the V8 Supercar apprenticeship.

And, so it ran out, Bright leading Kelly and Murf home from

Ambrose. Tander, Ingall and Richards headed the next Ford, Besnard, who was just too stubborn to let the aggressive Skaife through.

The tough weekend continued for the Shells. Radisich had a flat tyre and struggled around to the pits, while Johnson had the car drop onto seven cylinders for a reason that the team just could not fathom. Unlike some of the other Queensland teams, they were not even showing much optimism for the VIP 500 Hoodoo? Gone. Eight race wins in a row will do that for you. Brighty loves his new car and Todd Kelly even seems pleased with the one Jason just gave him, which Bright didn’t particularly care for.

Home gi'ound was a big advantage at Winton. Let’s wait and see if the same applies to even up the ledger next month at Willowbank...

Red Corner, Blue Corner: Ambrose v Skaife is turning into the battie of the season but both suffered bad pit stops at Winton. (Photos by Dirk Klynsmii:-)

Marshall Matters

Formula Ford title to go down to Queensland decider as Whincup hits troubles

by AARON NOONAN

ALL the signs pointed to Jamie Whincup wrapping up the Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford Championship at Winton on the weekend, but it was his Valvoline team-mate Marcus Marshall who was the man out front,the Gold Coaster taking both races in the penultimate round.

Marshall took the lead in race one from Whincup after the championship leader’s front left tyre started to deflate and was never headed. He backed it up by withstanding immense pressure from Mark Winterbottom in the second race to take his first ‘double’ win in Formula Ford.

“I just drove it hard the whole time,” said the Queenslander.

Things didn’t go completely smoothly for Marshall though.A clutch problem in race one left the Sonic squad with the task of changing it before the second race, but that was nothing compared to Whincup’s weekend.

Having qualified on pole by half a second, the aforementioned flat tyre left him struggling home in 14th in race one before a speedy charge in the second race left him third by race’s end.

“I was struggling big time,” reported Whincup. “Ijust kept locking up under brakes and there was a few times, because of the pivoting of the car, that the engine cut 00'and came back on.”

A hit with Andrew Jones (OzEmail Van Diemen)during his race two charge left Jones out of the race with bent suspension after finishing sixth in a torrid race one.

Neil McFadyen again impressed in the Tankworld Stealth, scoring third for the round with a third and a fourth, while Tony Pugliese (VD RF98)again showed speed with a fourth and a fifth.

Birthday boy Barton Mawer had a fifth and a sixth, while Tim Macrow, younger brother of 1998 champ Adam,had an impressive weekend,taking a seventh and an eighth.

So now the title lead for Whincup is 21 points with one round to go at Queensland Raceway and 41 points up for grabs, and, although the points are weighed in favour of Whincup, anything can happen in Formula Ford and usually does.

Points: Whincup 222, Winterbottom 201, Marshall 188, McFadyen 132, Mawer

August 2002

pflfjiyMpfiiiEg

The champ: Will Power, above, easily the class ofthefield in 2002, dominated thefinal round, though not quite to the level that he has in the rest ofthe championship. AM Asai, right, led race two but couldn't hold out

and Tim Leahey.

THE 2002 Holden Australian Drivers' Championship officially became Will Power's at Winton on the weekend, the Ralt Australia racer taking two more wins to round out the season in style.

The new Gold Star Champ had things made easier for him on the warm-up lap of race one, when pole-sitter Christian Murchison (Hocking Motorsport 97D)suffered a driveshaft failure that left him a helpless spectator in pitlane.

So Power did what he's done virtually all season. He charged away from the line and disappeared into the distance, leaving the rest to scrap among themselves.

Akihiro Asai was the best of

the rest, running home second ahead of Stewart McColl and Tim Leahey, making a one-off run in the car run earlier in the year by Peter Hackett.

Leahey actually had to start from the back of the field, after completing no laps in qualifying. After an engine change prompted by a failure on Friday, the re-attachment of the floor to the machine had accidently pinched a brake line, leaving the Orange-based driver with brakes that were seized on.

Asai was a man on a mission in race two and took off the line in the lead, but Power looked like he was cruising and suddenly lit the afterburners and stormed past, bringing Leahey through behind him. They ran

away to finish in that order, with McColl fourth after a wild ride through the grass on the run to Penrite and Murchison fifth, having been stuck for quiet a few laps behind Peter Hill's MONE-11 machine.

Roger Oakeshott rounded out a solid year by taking the Silver Star championship.

Points: Power 197, McColl 143, Hill 110, Murchison 94, Asai 38.

- AARON NOONAN

Fighting for a Sonic Motor Sport 1-2: Marcus Marshall took two from two at Winton as team-mate Jamie Whincup, who looked odds-on to wrap up the title, has to go to Queensland to try and finish things off.

(Photo by Dirk Ktynsmilh)

Power

(Photos by Dirk Klyiismith}

Hungarian GP

Photo by Sulton-lmages

s Oftheir own

Rubens Barrichello

could not contain his delight at winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, but he was one of the few people who found any greatjoy in the race. This was a Ferrari demonstration,the icing on the 2002 celebratory cake for the men in red.

Michael Schumacher had to settle for second place, yet his fans went home not unhappy that Rubens had won the race. It was very clear that Michael could easily have won if he had actually been racing.

Rubens led from start to finish and there was never really any threat from Schumacher. He was just cruising along behind Barrichello.

We might have been convinced that it was a proper race were it not for the fact that Michael has the ego of a winner and could not restrain himselffrom leaving a little clue behind. His lap times in the closing laps were as follows: lml9.564s, lml9.801s, lm20.275s, Im 16.207s, Im 20.884s, lml9.679s.

With that one lap Michael showed what he might have been doing if he had really been fighting...

Michael himself confirmed that the team is racing for Rubens right now.

“Our priority is still to get him into second place in the championship,” said Michael.“Hopefully,that will come soon and then the two ofus can have some fun together.

“The reason I did that very quick lap dates back to Silverstone, when Rubens was behind me in a very similar situation when we were also supposed to be going slowly and he suddenly did a quick lap.

“So today I asked Ross what was the quickest race lap time and did

that lap to pay Rubens back for Silverstone!”

One should not really have expected much more from the Hungaroring. It has always been a fairly silly racetrack with very limited overtaking possibilities. Despite that, the McLaren boys

Let’s hear it for the boys and girls: The Ferrari fans were out in force as usual and celebrated hard after another storming race in which Rubens Barrichello headed home Michael Schumacher (opposite page). The podium was a celebration of Ferrari clinching the Constructors’ Championship. (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

Hungarian GP - Qualifying

RIubens Barrichello took his third pole position of the season in Budapest, edging out Ferrari team leader Michael Schumacher after the World Champion had a smail moment on his iast flying lap.

It was not one of the greatest qualifying sessions in the history of the sport but it set the stage for an interesting race between the two Ferrari men on Sunday.

Schumacher wants to win his

“it is simply because he was doing a good job and I couldn't match it,” Schumacher said after someone suggested he might have thrown his last lap. In the end, he was just six-hundredths slower.

Barrichello has no doubt that his pole position was ali his own work.

“My first run wasn’t great,” said Barrichello.“We improved the car a lot and so I'm pleased— The presence of Giancarlo

winced a lot. The soft tyre compound was too hard and the harder compound was good for use on the Paris-Dakar.

In the circumstances, therefore, the fact that the two Williams-BMWs were on the second row was a very good effort, but Ralf Schumacher was four-tenths off the pol^and Juan Pabio Montoya was almost a second behind him.

“Given the Fer-r^i superiority, especially In Budapest,'second

quite a lot of changes, but it never seemed to achieve a more positive outcome.”

So if the Williams team looked a bit like a swan gliding along on a smooth pond there Is little doubt that under the water a lot of work was going on.

“We tried something very dramatic on qur car,” Ralf Schumacher said. “It was totally the opposite to what we were / working on, and it has wo/keqjir , must say the team did a brilliant

10th victory of the year, but Fisichella in fifth place on the grid row is not too bad,” Montoya job.' Ferrari want Barrichello to puli' gave a hint of something else

Normally one would expect to said. “But am definitely not h clear of his rivals in the battle for quite important. Bridgestone was appy with my qualifying result. I' find McLare.n somewhere up second place in the World well ahead in this game. Th really could not find the right there and the day before ' Championship. Ferrari has said balance for my car. We tried qualifying team boss Ron Det|n!s had made a big fuss about'th& ’ e Michelin runners said all that it is now going to concentrate the right things but privately they various set-up options and made its efforts on Barrichello.

Then the boys light up:

The Toyotas struggled for

pace all weekend, but at

least set the pits alight

with some spectacular

burn-outs. The last of

them, however, cost Salo

a penalty when he was

sent out into the path of

de la Rosa’s Jaguar.

(Photo by Sulton-lmages)

need'to be up at the front on the grid, to find the ears 1i0th and llthi on the grid was therefore a big surprise ^ not least for the team, which toad high hopes of doing something;dramatic in Wungary fe as toaditoappened at Monaco.

At the Hungaroring, however, the two ears were two seconds off the pace.

"Our'lack of performance in light^the results w^achieved: in Monaco and Magny-Cours, which are circuits with similar characteristics, is something which we at this stage don't fully understand,” said E)ennis."No specific part of the package is responsibtejbufjwe haven't even managecf to" what we have.' le best out of

With qualifyiiiig such an important part of the PnSr^arian event,Takuma Sato did not have any high hopes for the race,

ftenault managed to qpaiily its cars sixth'and:ninth with Janno irrdlli threertenths of a second ahead of Jenson Sutton on this occasion. Sutton spun off on his first flying lap and never really lieeoweredifrom thatsetbaek. Iriis next runs were not quick and Jenson did not know why.

¥rulli was happier(beating i Sutton is a good thing to be doing: at the moment)and benefited from a slightly better specification. ! Renault engine.

The Saubers were seventh and , eighth with Felipe Massa beating Nick Heidfeld. Soth drivers complained'about understeer but| with the Sridgestone ^res working well there was hope that there might be a good result in the race, particularly if there was

a.hinnia at tha fii

■In.th, it cntnar everyone-else-loeked-rather—^Fteioheliarin.his'ilordan.

“We've been quick all' - weekend,” he said. “Fifth is

Things were not so good for Takuma Sato, who was down in 14th on the grid.

“I aborted my first run when a Renault spun in front of me. I set my " fastest time on the second run. On the third rug,therg was smoke coming out of the car and so I went to the Tcar for my final run.”

Theback of the grid was very fnuOh''a''qa'esti0mof'animals headinaJoriNoah'sArk: twobv two.

The BAR-Hondas were .1:2thand 13th with Olivier Panis ahead of Jacques vilISTiSin/e.'

The Jaguars were 15th and 16th with Pedro de la Rosa outqualifying Eddie Irvine. Seventeenth and 18th were the two Toyotas with Mika Salo beating Allan McNish by a tenth and a bit.

And at the back were the two Minardis with Mark Webber half a second ahead of his new teammate Anthony Davidson, who did a very solid job on his Formula 1 debut. He qualified 106.3 percent slowerthan Barrichello - but he made it and that was the important thing.

CARS

05 is back

Peter Brock is back racing at

this

Autoart are producing a model in large 1 18 scale complete with opening doors, bonnet and boot together with a certificate of authenticity. To ■ secure yours, phone nowl

Just like us: That's right even Formula One racing drivers put their shoes on one foot at a time. The only difference is that even new chums like Felipe Massa have someone to do it for them... (Photo by Sutton-

Bathurst

year.

Hungarian GP

He flies, he lands... T-' He crashes! Jenson

continued from page 47

Button gave the Renault recovered from a dreadful plenty around the performance in qualifying. Hungoraring, but a loss David Coulthard pulled off a clean

After that, the Williams understeered so badly that Montoya complained ofelbow soreness after struggling home in 11th place.

Often the first corner here is a wild affair, but on this occasion everyone was far too well behaved. Banichello took the lead while Half Schumacher made a better start than his brother and thought about challenging for the position as they went down into the first corner, but he backed off and slid in behind Michael.

Behind them there was a bit more bustle as the rest ofthe field sorted itself out.

rphe man who made the most ofit was Giancarlo Fisichella, who emerged fourth with a very fast starting Felipe Massa, having jumped from seventh to fifth.

Jenson Button and Montoya got in each other’s way and even bumped one another at one point and so ended the first lap in sixth and seventh positions, but still ahead of Raikkonen, Jarno Tnilli and the rest.

Beyond the two McLaren passes, there wasjust a string ofcars running nose-to-tail all afternoon.

Ifthe Formula 1 world is going to keep coming back to Budapest,the locals are going to have to rebuild the circuit so that we can see a bit of concentration put him pass on Nick Heidfeld into the first into the bunker. comer and then Kimi Raikkonen (Photos by Sutton-lmages) muscled past Juan Montoya on the ran down the lull while the Williams driver bounced over the kerb and ripped up his undertray.

Promising debut: Anthony Davidson talks to the media as he awaits his GP debut in the second Minardi. (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

more entertainment. This track layout is lousy and, as was seen at Hockenheim, with a little imagination one can build tracks where passing is possible.

One can argue that the cars could be changed to achieve the same result, but aerodynamics are aerodynamics and the problem keeps coming back. Ifthe track had more than one line there could be overtaking and until it does there win not be any.

The other people who need to get themselves organised are Ferrari's rivals. The Italian team has done a highly competentjob but all the other teams should be doing better. And Michelin should be doing better.

The pit stops changed little except that halfway through them Button spun out under pressure from Raikkonen and so Kimi was sixth for the second stint.

Coulthard was seventh, having overtaken Trulh during the pit stop sequence. And then came Heidfeld and Takuma Sato (who gained from the retirements ofVilleneuve and Eddie Irvine). Everyone else was by then a lap behind.

The Feirari lead remained at around 10 seconds for most ofthe second part ofthe first stint. In the second stint the gap went out to 20 seconds.

The second pit stops ruffled the order a little in that both McLarens were able to vault past Massa and. Fisichella so that Raikkonen was fourth and Coulthard fifth.

For McLaren it was a good race given that the team had started so far back, but Raikkonen was disappointed that a podium place had gone begging.

7 August 2002

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

Fastest lap: M. Schumacher on lap 72, lml6^7s

Drivers' prants: M. Schumacher 112, Barrichello 45, Montoya and R. Schumacher 40, Coulthard 34, Raikkonen 20, Button 11, Heidfeid 7, Rsichella 7, Tmlli and Massa 4, Villeneuve and Irvine 3, Webber, Frentzen, Salo and Panis 2.

Constructors' points: Ferrari 157, Wiiriams/BMW 80, McLaren/Mocedes 54, RenauK 15, Sauber/Petronas 11, Jordan/Honda 7, BAR/Honda 5, Jaguar/Cosworth 3, MinardVAsiatech, Tr^ota and Arrows/Cosworth 2.

Fisichella grabbed the final point for Jordan, but had run as high as fourth before the McLarens slipped by with some quick laps around the pit stops.

That left Massajust outside the points, complaining that his Sauber felt nervous on the first and third sets oftyres, but fine on the second.

Trulli had a typically lacklustre race to finish eighth while Button ditched his oversteering Renault in the kitty litter after being distracted by a halfoffby Davidson just ahead ofhim.

Mark Webber struggled throughout a tough race vdthout a drink bottle, losing time on both stops as the crew tried to fix the problem. It was not his best race of the year, but he recorded another finish, two laps down on the Ferraris.

Villeneuve retired his BAR with a transmission failure while Irvine parked the Jaguar after experiencing a misfire.

Salo was given a post-race 25second penalty for an unsafe pitstop, the Toyota team sending him out into the path ofPedro de la Rosa's Jaguar. That dropped him from 13th to 15th.

It was not a happy race for the Finn, made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that his extinguisher went off20 laps from the end and filled the car with foam.

“I corddn't really see anything after that,” he commented. He didn't miss much.

Anna

My modeiling is something I would like to pursuefull time in the near future. Photographic work is what I enjoy most. I competed in the Miss Indy Car in 2001 and was a nationalfinalist. I was also a nationalfinalist in the 2001 Fox 8 World Sports Model Search. Sofar thisyearI have been in the Miss Calender Girl. I enjoy all the car racing I have been involved in especially the international events that come to Australia.

At the moment I am attending university studying nursing. I am in my secondyear and have one moreyear to go. Eventually, with my nursing I would like to work in theatre.

I am also working part time in sales at a sufshop to help me get through uni. On the weekends I am a horse riding instructor which also helps with unifees. I have been horse riding since I was very young and at the moment I own a horse called George. I would love to ride professionally, maybe in three day events.

I love to go to the gym so this keeps mefit, I also like to run. In winteryou willfind me snow skiing as much as I can.

To relax Ispend as much time as I can with myfriends going to dinner and a movie.

For more pictures of Anna visit www.sppromotions.com.au

Hungarian GP What they said

Highlights from the post

race press conference

Q: Rubens, what about your start?

RB: I couldn’t believe when I looked behind and I was like two cars ahead, I said, Jesus,just stay cool and don't brake too late.

Q: And after that, everything was good?

RB: Everything was good. Initially we tried to save a little bit of the rear tyres just to see if we could have any problems, but during the race we had no problems at all, not temperature or tyres, anything, I mean anything. There was no problem. We just had a fantastic race in terms of everything. Everything was really perfect.

so how threatened did you feel?

RB: Well, when you have such a champion - I’m not saying this because he’s here or because he’s my team-mate- but when you have such a champion behind you, he’s always a pressure. It doesn’t matter the situation, there's always a difficult race, especially in Hungary because you always have the chance of running off the track. The track was particularly very dirty on the outside so it was so easy to make a mistake today, to miss the race and to miss points. I still felt it was very difficult. We had to keep concentrating and physically it wasn’t easy as well, so it was a hard race but a good one.

RB: To be honest with you, I didn’t pay attention much. I was looking in the mirror... I felt like asking Ross if there was a problem with Michael or not, because I didn't know what was going on. Then all of a sudden, I had BoomI I saw a car behind me and I said, Jesus ChristI He must have done a quick lap. But Ross said, don’t worry, he’s having fun.

Q: Was that what it was, Michael, having fun?

MS: Basically, yeahl

Q:Just to wake everybody up?

MS: Just to wake up myself probably!

Q: Now both of the championships are out of the way,do you think you might be

We are not completely open to race... Let's hope that happens soon and then we can have good fun again

-Schumacher

allowed to race one another?

MS: It is very clear that we want to make sure that Rubens sort of does the job in order to get the second position in the championship and until this, obviously, to some degree, we are not completely open to race because there’s no point in me taking points away from him, that’s not the intention. Let’s hope that happens soon and then we can have good fun again.

Q: Michael said the intention was not to overtake you necessarily.

Q: Wasn't Michael's

D D D D A < vA D D y

I Hungarian GP

had thought that the Hungarian GP might be somewhere where we might have gone reasonably well, but it turned out to be one of those days that you just have to finish and get on with the next one!

Things didn’t go well from the start. It was going to be pretty hot,so my crew had frozen the drink bottle reasoning that it would thaw and provide nice, cool liquid. However,it didn’t work out like that,the tube was blocked and after one mouthful on the opening lap, that was It!

I actually got both McNish and Panis around the outside of Turn 1, but the Toyota powered past on the straight before we’d completed the lap. Panis,though,stayed behind and I was able to stick quite close to the Salo,de la Rosa, McNish trio as we headed to the first stops.

The Ferraris were flying up front and looked like lapping us at around lap 25,so we chose to come in then and avoid the inevitable time loss that you have when you make way for the leading cars, i had a good ‘in lap’ and was right on McNish’s gearbox as we came down pit lane,so I knew that this presented an opportunity to maybe, with a super stop,jump him.

In my eagerness,though, I screwed up. I braked too late and overshot the pit bay. As a result, I hit a couple of the guys - one of the fuel fillers' fell over and one of the wheel crew cracked a thumb.

It just reinforces how vital it is, how critical it is, to get this element of a race just right. Too much haste ^ in my mind

I’d already left the pit before I’d got in...

With all that, and the team cramming a normal drink bottle in by my left arm. It was a slow stop and put me some 8-9 seconds back from the Toyotas.

A lap later, my arm crushed the new drink bottle against the side of the car and it exploded its contents all over

me...

The car was going along quite well nevertheless and, although I was hot and dry, it wasn’t affecting me in any other way. But from here on it was simply a matter of plugging on to the finish. There was surprisingly little attrition and so our position didn’t change all the way to the end.

The guys had a brief go at

the drink bottle during the second stop, but in the end I waved them away and pressed on - we’d have lost far too much time.

The lead-up to the race was mixed. Michelin,to be blunt, simply went too hard with their tyre selection for this track and we were affected as badly as any of the other teams.

I normally start Friday on the harder tyre regardless, to get some consistency as we set the car up. This we did again, but the tyre was just too hard. By the time we switched to the ‘softer’ option, it was late Friday and we’d wasted too much time.

Even this soft option was too hard for us and even McLaren - which look after Michelin’s softer rubber quite well(as at Monaco). At best it was a good qualifying tyre for the Williams, but that was abo^ it.

It ms definitely too hard for us for qualifying, so we decided to do just three runs and save a set for what would be a hot race day.

My third run was okay - not

all three sectors ‘green’ (fastest to date)- but a theoretical best(1m17.2s)lap wouldn’t have changed anything,so we saved the set of rubber as planned. We did make a lot of changes to the car after the warm-up and produced what was quite a good race car and the rest you know.

My new team-mate

Anthony Davidson did a good job. After 15,000km of testing with BAR, he has loads of experience in terms of electronics systems, traction control, etc and it was good for the team to have this new input and for me to have someone else to learn from and bounce things

off.

He had a steady race early on - getting out of the way of the leaders is a bit daunting first time up - but was pressing on well later in the race before he spun.

Spa is next. I’ve always loved it as a drivers’ circuit, but it’s also a power track, with those long,flat (sections,so I’m guessing we’ll struggle for out-and-out pace. But our little team has sprung more than one surprise this year, so you never know - and it might

Bowe does it easy in round six

start nature ofthe Goulburn

by AARON NOONAN

layout was predicted by many to be the best chance ofPorsche’s GTS SOME would have found it Cup car being on top.

boring,butfor any Ferrari fans

Morgan took three second- that made the trek to Wakefield places, holding out Richards in the Park,it was simply heaven. first two races, but had to work his John Bowe took the PHR way by the defending Champion in Scuderia/Bud Ferrari 360 GT to the third race when Richards pole position and three straights squeezed his way past at turn one. wins in the sixth round ofthe The Viper got a better run onto the Poolrite Nations Cup series. straight and took the spot on lap making it look far too easy. 11,leaving Richards with three

After losing some points to title third-places for the weekend. rivals Geoff Morgan and Jim

“I actually thought we’d struggle here,” said Morgan, who added that some new tyres for the VIO beast had made a difference. Richards pushed hard all weekend and continues his Richards at Queensland Raceway, the clean-sweep was enough to move Bowe to a clear points lead in the championship.

“At the start of the weekend I

was only four points ahead of Jim and I expected his Porsche and the others to be strong at this track,” said Bowe, who lowered the lap record in each race.

“But with good work from the PHR Scuderia team we’ve managed to add another 30 points to the buffer. I hope we can maintain it, but it’s still too close for comfort between me,Jim and Geoff Morgan.”

Morgan’s Max Factor Viper was the best of the rest, somewhat of a surprise considering that the stop-

championship chase in exactly the same way as 2001, placing an emphasis on scoring points all the time.

Best ofthe rest was the returning Paul Stokell in the Lamborghini Diablo GTR that had been missing from Queensland. The Victorianbased Tasmanian scored two fourths and a fifth in the final race, after Ibny Quinn(VIP Pet Foods GT3 Cup)charged his way past.

“I’m driving it as fast as I can,” said Stokell ofthe big machine. Quinn, meanwhile, was the best

e

This was as close as they got: The field could do nothing but watch Bowe drive away, above, while Richards, below, pushed the OAMPS Porsche GTS Cup car as hard as it would go. {Photos by Sutlon-lmages)

it Wakefield Park

ofthe rest in the ‘Porsche class’, though a mistake in race two, where he speared off at the hairpin and dropped to seventh on lap four, was the only downside of the weekend.

Stokell got in front in the final race, but Quinn got back by on lap 13 at the exit of the hairpin.

“It was either there or at the end ofthe back straight,” reported the pet man. “IfI can see daylight,Fm going for it!”

Peter Fitzgerald and Kiwi Kevin Bell spent all weekend attached to one another’s bumper bars, while the Group Two class put on perhaps the best battles of the three races.

While the racing among the big boys’ was non-existent,the three PHR 360 Challenge drivers made a race ofit.

Sam Newman got the honours in the first race after Steve Beards copped a drive-through penalty for jumping the start, while a spin heavily delayed John Teulan. Newman backed it up in race two ahead of Teulan and Beards, though a stone'that flicked up smashed the windscreen of Teulan’s machine, prompting some head-scratching for race three.

Officials wouldn’t allow it to run

in its smashed-up state and, without the means to put in a replacement screen properly, the team ended up ripping the front and rear out and kitted Teulan up with a full-face helmet.

Beards got back to win the last race, clear of Newman and Teulan, who leads the Group Two pointscore.

The non-championship Sandown 500 is next, with the series proper to re-commence at Phillip Island late in September. Ifthe racing was boring on a small and compact track like Wakefield Park,then what’s it going to be like on a big, fast track like the Island?

Points:Bowe 905,Richards 870,Morgan 866,BeU 609,Quinn 598,StokeU 545.

Group 2: Teulan 876, Newman 857, Beards 843.

Whoops: Tony Quinn was the quickest of the Porsches bar Richards but made a mistake a speared off in race two, above, while the Group Two cars put on the best racing. Steve Beards, below leading a windscreen less John Teulan, took race three in the ciass.

Buddy hell: John Bowe turned the Wakefield Park round of the Nations Cup into a Ferrari drive day.

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmith)

(Photos by Dirk Klynsmith)

Wakefield Park

More of Mando i

Hackett returns to F3 with a win whiie rookie rolls spectacularly

by AARON NOONAN

PUT simply,the Australian Formula 3 Championship round at Wakefield Park was a cracker.

The competition was close in qualifying as well as the racing, leaving two tightly contested races but the same championship leader in James Manderson, the BRM driver taking race two to hold his points advantage over Cooltemp bugger, oops, um:Power, above, took to the Goulburn scenery among the racer Will Power. backmarkers, while Manderson, below, continues to lead the title over the iil' Queenslander.

"There's no way you can cruise," said Manderson.

"When you're looking at a title, you just can't make a mistake, it's almost nerve-wracking."

The return of Champion Peter Hackett threw a curveball into the equation, the Piccola Scuderia driver taking pole for race one from Power and team mate Justin Watt, only six-tenths covering the top six drivers.

Power pretty much dominated the race. He got the jump on Hackett and started to move away, only for lapped traffic to force him off the road on lap 10 and that was all 'Hollywood' needed to go through and take the win.

to catch the group up front.

didn't have all the parts to repair it so we decided to concentrate on Peter's car."

The result left Power unhappy, unable to get a shot at regaining the lead.

"One of the backmarkers spun at the right-hand kink and I went through the dust," surmised the Queenslander.

"I reckon I would have won because it's so hard to pass. It's not a true race when stuff like that happens - I was dreading those backmarkers!"

The final order was Hackett over Power, with James Cressey flying through to third in the Starion Enterprises machine ahead of Manderson, Caruso, Darren Palmer and a

Cressey bogged it down badly off the start.

Cressey charged his way back, engaging in a fight with Hackett for third at the end, which he won after Hackett went by at the last corner of the race, only to give the position back on the run to the line for fear of a possible penalty for passing under yellow flags.

" just spent the whole race making up positions," said the Kiwi.

"We're still sorting it out and learning the car."

Power was beaming after the race.

"It's the best race I've had all season!" he exclaimed, after becoming used to cruise-andcollect affairs in Formula Holden.

Former GTPerl§pm.r

by AARON NOONAN

THE complexion of the Australian GT-Performance Championship changed significantly at Wakefield Park,as champions current and past had differing fortunes.

Manderson had pole for ra

It was a win scored under the Safety Car, as Watt and the charging Michael Caruso had collided at the final turn, with Caruso's lunge resulting in Watt struggling Paul Stephenson, being launched into orbit and onto his head. He was fine but

two and simply cleared away as the rest fought over the the car was not, though neither driver laid blame at the other.

"It was a bit of a roller coaster," said Watt.

"It was one of those racing incidents where we were trying scraps.

Hackett and Power resumed their struggle, with Power charging past at the hairpin to take second on lap one, while

Caruso, sporting new backing from Formula 1 Magazine and EuroBusiness, ran home fifth, clear of Palmer, Stephenson and Ricky Occhipinti.

Points: Manderson 151, Power 116, Palmer 114, Cressey 110, Caruso 47.

2000 champion Mark King (Delphi Lancer Evo VII) bounced back with style, taking two race wins in a return to form, while Wayne Boatwright benefitted from some new Falken tyres to take his Impreza to a win in race one.

“We did a lot of work on the shocks and they worked well on this circuit,” said King, who ofcourse is the man behind Kings Springs In a weekend dominated by the four-wheel-drive turbo machines, the championship lead changed hands. Champion Brett Peters (Century Batteries Subaru) encountered gearbox problems (blowing third gear)in race one to finish 14th, and was unable to work his way back through the field.

Somewhat ironically, that helped Geoff Full into the championship lead. The Evo VII driver wasn’t even going to bother racing in the rest of the championship after being totally fed up with it all at Queensland Raceway, but took a second and two thirds to move into the championship lead.

Points: Full 755,Peters 736, Wood 691, Floyd 677,King 603.

(Photos by Dirk Klynsmilh)

eigning again

nee champ bach on top asPeters slips

IF there’s a ‘control’type series on the go,there’s a pretty good chance that Warren Luff will be out front.

A front-runner in Suzuki GTis, Mitsubishi Mirages and all sorts of other little machines. Luff again dominated the V8 BRute round at Wakefield Park.

Damien White took the Quirk’s Ford to a win in race one over Luff, Jack Elsegood and top Holden driver Gary MacDonald, until Luff bounced back to win the remaining two races.

He had his work cut out for him in race three, as Grant Denyer’s VIP Pet Foods Falcon proved a difficult obstacle to overcome.

“It was a hard-fought battle,” smiled Luff.

“I’m going to have to talk to Ross Palmer about some rolling starts because every time I get on the front row for the third race I muck it

Grant made it hard. He drove bloody well. It’s so hard to pass here, you have to rely on other people making little mistakes. That’s what Grant did and that’s all it took for me to get past him.”

Denyer took a second in the reverse-grid second race and a fourth in the final, while White scored a fifth and a second to add to his earlier win.

But Luff is getting away in the championship battle, as Fords hold down the two top spots.

MacDonald, who is the top Holden driver in the series in third after two fourth places and a third at Wakefield Park, isn’t giving up on his title hopes just yet.

“Anything can happen,those Fords break down a lot...”

Luff 837, White 725, MacDonaid 656, Denyer 627.5, Kovacs 581, Grice

A Smashing Time: He's sponsored by smash repair businesses in V8 BRutes andfor the V8 Supercar enduros. Is there something that people are trying to tell us about young Mr. LujP

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmilh)

Points:

562.

Amazing what happens when your wife says you have to race!

Geoff Full, above, moved Into the title lead despite thinking about pulling out of the series, while Mark King, top, bounced back in the best way possible.

(Photos by Dirk Klynsmilh)

-AARON NOONAN up!

ISTORY may look back spruce forests in and around the

HYumping Yack Flash: on this year’s Rally of lakes of central Finland with the

The ultra-fast Finnish roads Finland as the turning world’s best fighting for the title. produced their usuai share of point in the World Rally Burns went chasing the win spectacuiar driving from Gronhoim Championship, with Peugeot’s from the time the flag dropped, above, and Burns, right, the Marcus Gronhoim posting his Peugeot pair dominating the event. powering to an early lead before Gronhoim battled back. It quickly third consecutive win on home soil to grab a big lead in the became apparent that the World title. Peugeots were the cars to beat, Gronholm’s grip on a second with Hand Rovanpera joining the near the potential it had displayed crown was tightened thanks leading duo in his 206,shutting in testing. Jani Passonen was the largely to the demise of many of out McRae and Carlos Sainz in the best Lancer driver in 12th, Mister his rivals, in particular Colin Fords. McRae was 17th and Delecour was Fetter Solberg was performing McRae, whose dramatic exit on the out of the rally after nine stages final leg when his Ford burned to well early, sitting in fifth while with collapsed suspension. the ground may well have turned team-mate Tommi Makinen was

By the time the rally arrived his title hopes to ash. well off the pace in eighth. back in Jywaskala at the end of Nothing could be taken away

The pace of the Peugeots had the the day, Burns had a lead of 12 other team managers scratching from Gronhoim and Peugeot which grabbed a 1-2 finish, Richard seconds after winning six of the their heads; days 10 stages.

Burns coming home in second to ensure the French maker streaked

ahead in the manufacturers title.

Day 1

They call the Finnish Rally the ‘Grand Prix of Finland’for a very good reason. It is an out-andout race through the pine and

“I can’t see where Peugeot is getting that advantage from,” admitted Subaru boss David

Lapworth.“More worryingly, I can’t see where any of us are going to find that kind of extra pace.”

But Mitsubishi were having even more head-scratching, the new Step II Lancer showing a severe pace deficit and nowhere

Rovanpera had moved up to second and Gronhoim was third, all of which meant Peugeot boss Corrado Provera had a wide smile

on his face.

Solberg would need to be on his game to match the pace ofthe Peugeots in front if he was going to challenge on leg two.

Day 2

Peugeot’s first stumble when Burns landed h ! came heavily after a jump on the second stage of the day and lost power. This allowed Gronhoim to move into second.

A stage later Rovanpera had a motorsport news

puncture and dropped behind, the problem elevating Gronholm into the lead. Unfortunately for Rovanpera, the puncture turned into a lost wheel and the Finn struggled to make it out ofthe stage, eventually retiring before the timing marker.

On the other hand. Ford had a 21 August 2002

Running Hot in Finiand:

Colin McRae’s rally - and maybe his championship hopes - went up in flames on Day 3, his Focus barbecueing itself to destruction, below. 1 Marcus Gronholm/Tlmo Rautiainen

Lossi Wheelienen:

Harri Rovanpera dented Peugeot’s dominant weekend when a blown tyre led to this, below right.

(Pholos by Sutton-lmages)

better day with McRae starting in fifth and moving up to third as he gained more speed in the Focus. He managed to claim fourth from Solberg, but then lost it again on SS15 when the Subaru driver put in a storming time. But the Scot came back strongly on the day’s final stage to steal fourth back from the Norwegian.

Markko Martin’s progress saw him slide from eighth to sixth, thanks to not only good times, but also a slight problem for Peugeot’s Sebastien Lindholm, who had been occupying seventh.

Solberg and Makinen were also on the move in the Subarus, but sometimes down as well as up.

Solberg began the day in fourth, but slipped to sixth on the day’s second stage. He came back to fourth. But a spin on the final stage cost him time, conceding fourth to Sainz.

But it was Gronholm who shone on Day 2, avoiding problems to lead the field with a massive lm30s second advantage over team mate Burns with McRae lucky to be third.

Day 3

Gronholm began the final day with plenty of breathing space, the only enemy likely to be himself.

Given the team situation and

points; Gronholm

Manufacturers' points: Peugeot

Ford

the need to score points Burns took the cautious approach. Although he claimed stage wins on Day 2, Gronholm also opted to drive carefully on the final leg and in fact won only one stage all day, posting fastest on the final test to prove that he truly is the master of the Finnish rally.

Burns meanwhile continued to fight throughout the day, but having already declared that second place was better than a non-finish, he didn’t take any unnecessary risks.

Solberg once again outshone his more experienced teammate Makinen,something which would certainly have i-ankled the Finn on his home event.

Ford came extremely close to a podium finish but McRae’s hard charge for home came to a fiery end on the fourth stage ofthe day when his third-placed Focus caught fire and quickly burned to the ground.

After two days of hard work McRae was bitterly disappointed with the disaster which will severely hamper his hopes for this year’s World Championship. But at least his exit meant his team-mates Sainz and Martin would each climb the leader board and earn the blue oval more points.

Sainz, who began the day in fourth, lost out to Solberg on SS19, but two stages later was back in fourth with McRae’s demise. Martin

also benefited from McRae’s retirement, moving up to fifth Solberg charged on the final day, blasting past Sainz and then taking third with a little help from McRae’s retirement.

Maldnen had to settle for sixth and a solitary point towards his Drivers’Championship. The Finn seemed to lack the pace and motivation ofthe past, and backed up speculation that he may well be contemplating retirement fi’om the sport at the end ofthe day.

It was a desperately disappointing rally for Mitsubishi’s new car. Passonen was the best of the three drivers, taking eighth while Alister McRae was out with collapsed suspension four stages from home.

Citroen, Hyundai and Skoda struggled to match the cracking pace of the Peugeot, Subaru and Ford teams. None of them showed anywhere near the speed necessary to be a serious contender in a sprint rally like this.

Gronholm’s performance means that he now has a 17 point buffer on McRae in the title hunt heading to the 10th round, an all-new rally in Germany in a fortnight.

With three of the remaining five rounds suiting the Finn down to the ground, the Scot will have his work cut out for him as the title races to its conclusion.

Drivers'

47, C. McRae 30,Sainz 26, Burns 25, Panizzi 21, Solberg 19, Rovanpera 18, Makinen 15.

77,

55, Subaru 35, Mitsubishi 6,Skoda 5, Hyundai 4.

MiStar BB

Safari Tasmania Passim aomces

A rare error put Ed Ordynski out of the Safari Tasmania and aiiowed Possum Bourne to strike a decisive biow in his quest for his seventh straight ARC titie. JON THOMSON reports

THE pace of this year’s Australian Rally Championship has put the leading competitors on the edge,and the Tasmanian round saw Ed Ordynski slide over that edge with dramatic effect.

Ordynski’s demise in a spectacular crash while leading the Safari Tasmania resulted in Subaru rival Possum Bourne grabbing the points lead in the hotly contested series with just one championship round remaining.

Oi'dynski was eliminated early on day one after he clipped a power pole on the third stage. He was taken to hospital with bniised ribs, and co-driver Iain Stewart was admitted for observation but while both were later released,they would take no further part in the rally.

Bourne took the overall win after finishing second and first in the two heats, again taking the bonus point on a countback of stage wins with team-mate Cody Crocker.

Despite Ordynski’s crash, Mitsubishi still leads the manufacturers title thanks to the strong performances from Spencer Lowndes and its privateers.

Heat One

had a determined look face when he launched

Ordynski on his fi into the opening stage at the Derwent Entertainment Centre

Super Special on the edge of the Derwent on Friday night.

The Mitsubishi driver gi'abbed the early advantage,taking a one second lead into the Saturday morning stages thanks to Bourne’s poor choice oftyres and a missed gear on the 1.4km spectator stage in front of more than 8000 fans.

Ordynski carried that advantage through under sunny skies on Saturday morning, when the rally moved to the Florentine valley northwest of Hobart.

The Mitsubishi was up by four seconds when,on the third stage of the day, the tight Bushy Park spectator test through the hop fields, Ordynski slid wide on the final comer and clipped a power pole. With the lead Mitsubishi out, it was a battle of the Subarus with Crocker was leading the way. Bourne had apparently again selected the wrong t}Tes and suspension settings and was paying the price.

Privateer Subaru driver Simon Evans was battling with Bourne for second until a puncture cost Evans time, handing Bourne the advantage.

Crocker, on the other hand, was feeling comfortable with his Subaru, posting faster times to take the lead.

Lowndes had a slow start but moved up after Evans’s delays, passing Scott Pedder to be third and moving into a strong points scoring position.

Despite being slippery the Tassie roads were hard packed and extremely abrasive, rewarding harder compound tyres not the softer ones many had chosen, ^^ichael Guest was still looking

ill at ease in the

Lancer and his stage times were reflecting it. The former WRC driver was struggling in sixth before being sidelined on SS8 with mechanical failure.

Behind the lead factory drivers, Scott Pedder was well positioned in fourth with Herridge in fifth.

Underlining his growing confidence and poise, Chris ^ Atkinson was the best of the fl privateers in sixth after a day-l^H

Torpedo-.Ed: Ordynski, above, was in command until a close encounter with a tree put Ed and co-driver lain Stewart into hospital and out of the rally, handing the initiative to Possum Bourne, below.

(Photos by Noil Blackbourn)

Walkden Evo VII

Wall of death! Goasdoue’s Lancer may not be latest spec, but it held its^ own in the privateers battle - witth a little ‘precision driving’ thrown in for' good measure.

battle with John Goasdoue in his older Lancer.

Young NSW south coast driver Ben Barker proved he could be a driver to watch, the Neal Bates protege posting impressive times in his older Lancer on his way to eighth outright.

Crocker was in fine form and never looked like being headed as he raced to the heat win, 18 secs clear ofBourne, with Lowndes a further 55 seconds back in third and Pedder fourth.

Evans finished a lowly ninth after his tyre woes and would be looking for a better result on Sunday.

Warwick Rooklyn edged closer rto the F2 Championship, winning tine category by a big margin after local Mitsubishi Mirage driver Lee Peterson suffered myriad problerms.

Heat Two

Y^rdynski was feeling sore and V/ Sony, and spent day two in tuis hotel room pondering the machinations of the championsliip. Out in the forest, Bourne made

(Photo by Jon Thomson)

up for his car set-up problems on day one by immediately blitzing the opposition with a string of fastest times.

It was colder and much more slippery, thanks to a front which had swept through on Saturday night, bringing rain and cold to the Hobart area.

Bourne was hot however, and won the first three stages to be 15 seconds ahead of Crocker, with Evansjust four seconds behind.

“The car felt really good on the first two stages,” said Bourne.

“It just holds the line better and because I’ve got it set up to put more drive to the rear, I can really hold a good hne through the faster corners.”

More punctures meant Evans would again be out of contention as the day wore on, allowing Lowndes to move up and challenge Crocker.

Mark Pedder was out on the first stage with a broken tailshaft, while brother Scott lost considerable time on the same stage with a broken brake caliper.

Atkinson had been nominated by

Mitsubishi for manufacturers points for heat two, but rolled spectacularly on the first test ofthe day and was out with a broken rear hub.

Crocker struck problems with his brakes, and then suffered a pimctm-e. He consequently found himselffending offa strong challenge from Lowndes, w'ho had moved to within four seconds ofhim after the first five stages ofthe day.

Crocker rectified these problems, and was able to hold Lowndes at bay over the last three stages, even thought the margin between the pair was never more than seven seconds.

Bourne had to win the final stage at Derwent Entertainment Centre to ensure the overall rally win, and equalling Crocker’s time was enough to clinch it for the Kiwi.

Bourne’s win takes him to a strong lead in the title, and gives him some breathing space at the final drivers’ round in Melbourne

next month.

‘Yesterday we struggled with the tyre selection and the set-up but we had no such problems today,” said Bourne.

“It was drier than we thought in heat one and all our testing vvas in the wet. With the overnight rain we reverted back to our original set-up which was spot on.”

Lowndes came home in third ahead of Guest, who enjoyed a better but still fi-ustrating day in his Lancer, while Dean Herridge gi'abbed fifth again.

Goasdoue had another strong drive to finish sixth and best privateer, with Mark Walden seventh and Scott Pedder eighth. Evans came home a lowly 11th after further tyre problems.

Rooklyn clinched the F2 national championship in only his tenth rally, bringing his Daihatsu home ahead of Lee Peterson.

Dude, that’s my barn; Crocker gives a local farm owner a heart-attack en route to a strong second overall. (Photo by Neil Blackbourn)

Tyred out: Evans was on full-beam early in the weekend but eventually (Photo by Neil Biackbourn)

contention with tyre problems.

Atkinson for

c [ ^ou

TEN years after it replaced the Galant,the highly successful Lancer may be nearing its end as Mitsubishi's frontline rally machine.

It was revealed in Finland that Mitsubishi is considering the possibility of using a new, smaller model based on a floorpan shared with parent company Mercedes Benz.

Ralliart management has previously insisted that a smaller car would be developed solely for the Super 1600 Junior category.

However after its disappointing showing in

Finland, the Lancer WRC Step 2 is looking less like a rally winner short or long-term.

Mitsubishi has identified the problem and believe the Lancer is unlikely to beat the series leading Peugeot 206.

Since Daimler-Chrysler bought a stake in Mitsubishi Motors, new management has expressed concern that rallying has placed too much emphasis on the Lancer and too little on Mitsubishi as a whole.

No final decision has been

taken, and work on a Step 3 version of the Lancer has also begun.

- JON THOMSON

THE big discovery of this year’s ARC,Chris Atkinson, may be tackling the Junior World Championship in 2004 as part of the Suzuki team after a successful test in Japan a fortnight ago.

The 22-year-old Queensland stockbroker tested the Suzuki Ignis Super 1600 car on the Japanese northern island of Hokkaido with SuzukiSport director Monster Tajima, who was impressed with his speed and intelligence.

Atkinson who leads the ARC Privateers Cup after competing in only a dozen rallies ever, is in the running for the drive along with a Kiwi driver who tested at the same time.

Despite his rollover on leg two in Tassie, Atkinson continues to impress in his Evo V Lancer and intends to continue in the ARC in 2003, even if the Junior World Championship drive goes his way.

World of hurt, Ford-style

FRANCOIS Duval has added to Ford’s massive 2002 WRC Focus carnage, wrecking his car in a test a week before the Finnish event.

Ford raced to build another 2002 spec car for Duval in time for the rally.

The team had to strip Markko Martin’s Safari car, and ship it to Finland for rebuildingjust in time for scrutineering.

Martin wrecked a car in Deutschland testing, and another on the Swedish shakedown. Sainz has had substantial accidents testing for Sweden and Catalonia, while McRae’s contributions include his Cyprus rolls, another testing for Finland, and the fire towards the end of the Finnish event.

“I can’t believe we’ve had a year like this. It’s been absolutely horrendous,” Ford team chiefMalcolm Wilson said.

- JON THOMSON

Atkinson was impressed with the Super 1600 Suzuki, particularly the dogbox and the power.

“It would be a great opportunity we will just have to wait and see if it comes off,” said the young Gold Coaster.

“I reckon we should be able to do both the JWRC and the ARC next year. It may mean a lot of flights, but I reckon I need the experience and the rally miles, and the ARC competition will only hone my Super 1600 skills.”

I

‘Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean ...’ Colin McRae’s co-driver Nicky Grist looks on as the pair’s Focus goes up in smoke during the Rally of Finland. (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

JWRC?

.ik;

The new generation: Atkinson is in theframefor a JWRC dri e with Suzuki after a promising test in Japan.

It was the finance and accountancy graduate’s performance in the Asia Pacific Rally of Canberra that led Tajima to test him for the JWRC drive.

A decision is likely sometime in October.

- JON THOMSON

Ed in doubt for Hokkaido

Safari Tasmania injuries may sideline

Ordynski from Asia Pacific round

Rally briefs

SPECULATION is building that fivetimes World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen may be in his last full season.

Looking tired and missing his long time co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki, Makinen's performance in Finland only added to the rumour mill.

■ The prognosis for Tommi Makinen's co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki has not improved.

It is unlikely that he will be alongside Makinen until 2003 at the very earliest and maybe not at all if Makinen retires at the end of this year.

The 43-year-old Finn suffered serious back injuries when Makinen crashed on last year's Tour of Corsica and has not competed since. He has been replaced by Kaj Lindstrom in the Subaru squad this year.

■ Gilles Panizzi is still recovering from shoulder bone and ligament danpage sustained in a training accident, and will be replaced in Germany by Harri Rovanpera.

"The reduction of the fracture passed off perfectly, but the torn ligaments take much longer to heal. But I will be ready for San Remo," he said.

ED Ordynski’s crash in Tasmania may prevent him from contesting the Asia Pacific Rally Hokkaido in Japan as planned.

Ordynskis’s two broken ribs and the fact that the roll cage and other componentry in the Lancer Evo VII were badly damaged has led Ealhart team boss Bob Riley to say a start in Japan was unlikely.

The 'car was set to be airfreighted to Japan for the rally last week but the damage is much more severe than first thought

“The team will get back to me with a list of what they think is

required to fix the car,” Riley said.

“Ifthe chassis and roll cage will take too long to repair, we have a new Evo VII chassis in the Ralliart workshops.”

However Riley is more concerned about putting Ordynski back in a rally car too quickly after his injury, and the risk of possible further damage.

“We will speak with medical staff to determine the recovery time for Ed. The last thing I want to do is exacerbate the injuries Ed already has.”

- JONTHOMSON

■ Harri Rovanpera's co-driver Risto Pietilainen is convalescing after a successful operation on an aneurism and could be back in action this season.

"Happily, everything has gone very well, he is recovering fast and is moving, talking, and walking. We think he will be back in a couple of months," said team boss Corrado Provera.

Pietilainen, who is 39, was rushed

to hospital after complaining of severe headaches. He has been replaced by Rovanpera's former co driver Voitto Silander for the time being.

- JON THOMSON

(Photos by Jon Thomson)

Kenny downs Dixon

KENNY Bernstein moved closer to points leader Larry Dixon with a victory in the Top Fuel final round of the Rugged Liner NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway last weekend.

Bernstein motored to a finalround 4.83/303 to defeat Dixon, who struck the tyres early. Also grabbing professional victories were John Force in Funny Car, Jeg Coughlin in Pro Stock and Geno Scab in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Bernstein began his march to his 34th career Top Fuel win (65th overall)from his fourth-best 4.66/319 qualifying shot. The Budweiser team was on the receiving end of good luck in the opening frame when they recorded a very vulnerable, blower belt throwing, 5.58/167 in a round one defeat of John Smith, who redlighted. In the second frame, crew chief Tim Richards, had the car back to its normal pace in a 4.64/319 to 4.67/318 win over Cory McClenathan. Bernstein then took out low qualifier, Doug Kalitta, with a 4.61/321.

Dixon marched into his 11th final round ofthe season from his number two qualifying effort of 4.65/314. A solid 4.65/319 defeated Luigi Novelli in the first round and a smokey 6.08/250 took out Darrell Russell in a tyre-spinning round two slugfest. In the semis,the Miller Lite dragster got back on track to post a winning 4.67/315 against Tony Schumacher. Andrew Cowin qualified sixth at

IKawasaki in 10 years

4.71/316 and stopped a tyre smoking Rhonda Hartman-Smith in the opening frame with a 4.76/300, but was ousted in the following round in a close side-byside race with Schumacher, 4.74/304 to 4.77/282.

Force made it back-to-back wins heading into the U.S. Nationals in Indy by defeating team-mate Gary Densham in the final round. Both cars lost traction early, making it a drivers race to the finish line, where Force recorded a motor killing, but winning 5.40/216, with Densham trailing at 6.92/130.

The Castrol Mustang had qualified on top with a 4.85/319, and posted winning 4.94/309, 4.89/319, and 5.05/292 round wins over Scotty Cannon,Dean Skuza, and Bruce Sarver on its way to career win number 103.

Densham had defeated Frank Pedregon in a close, 4.93/285 to 4.94/309 round one race, and stopped Whit Bazemore, 4.90/314

to 4.89/316 on a holeshot in the second round. In the semis, he faced his other team-mate, Tony Pedregon, with the pair losing traction early with Densham coming out on top at 6.45/179.

Coughlin downed new point leader Greg Anderson in the final round, 6.91/199 to 6.98/199 on his way to career win number 26, but more important, Coughlin has clawed his way into second in the standings,just 35 shy ofAnderson.

The Je^s Mail Order Chevrolet barely made the field, posting a best of 6.91/198 for the 15th spot. In eliminations, Coughlin was brutal on any driver named Johnson, as he recorded holeshot victories over Allen Johnson’s Dodge, and Warren Johnson’s Pontiac in the opening two rounds before disposing of Kurt Johnson's Chevy in the semis.

Anderson grabbed the point lead when he defeated Jim Yates in the second round.

national event victory by defeating three-time 2002 winner, Craig Treble, in the final round, 7.27/183 to 7.29/185. Scali rode the Pete Brigg’s Racing Kawasaki to victory, giving Kawasaki their first NHRA national event win since the 1992 event in Atlanta, where the late Dave Schultz was ^^ctorious.

After defeating Todd Doege and Thomas Miceli in the opening rounds, Scali paired up with twotime series champion,Angelle Savoie. At the gi'een, Scali strapped a huge .403 to .543 light on Savoie and took the win with a 7.27/183, while Savoie clicked it off just past half-track.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Points:Top Fuel: Lan’y Dixon 1320, Bernstein 1222, McClenathan 942, Russell 916, Schumacher 878, Herbert 815, Kalitta 804, Cowin 660, HartmanSmith 630, Grubnic 628. Funny Car: Force 1086, T.Pedregon 987,Densham 961, Worsham 932,Bazemore 862, Cannon 819, Capps 767, Skuza 667, Gray 661, Johnson Jr 632.Pro Stock: Yates i)

Geno Scali scored his first 940,Anderson 926, Coughlin Jr 874, Johnson 832, Krisher 749.Pro Stock Bike; Savoie 878,Ti-eble 796, Hines 691.

Someone old, someone new: Kenny Bernstein, below, added another mark to his win column by downing title

rival Larry Dixon. Meanwhile, in Pro Stock Bike, Geno Scali, above, scored his first win and the first for

when he nailed two-time champ Angelle Savoie.

’ (Photos by David Ostaszewsk

SfMm

^ DRAG RACING

Drag briefs

Angelle Savoie has been thrown a lifeline after the Star Racing outfit signed Retail Fixture on as a sponsor for the remainder of the NHRA season.

Savoie has been struggling for cash since Winston withdrew from NHRA at the end of 2001. Her team had signed CVEC Power Systems as a new primary sponsor, but the agreement was dumped last week, with team owner George Bryce citing "inconsistencies with the project's development."

Savoie ran with the Retail Fixture's colours at last weekend's event at Brainerd, but the company will revert to an associate role for the rest of the season unless the team fails to I find another primary backer before J'l the US Nationals, in which case ' I Retail Fixture will again dominate the g paintwork on the Pro Stock Suzuki.

arlits's f 1975 record for the most victories in a single season. Millican and crew chief Mike Kloeber, have absolutely dominated the series, scoring wins in 14 of the last 15 events contested dating back to last year's championship season. Patterson recorded his first career Pro Modified win on a huge holeshot, driving his blown '63 Corvette to a final round, 6,37/222 to 6.32/225 win over point-leader, Al Billes's '53

perfect season in the Hooters/IHRA Drag Racing Series, winning the Top Fuel title at the inaugural AC Delco Canadian Nationals held at the brand-new Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario two weeks ago.

Millican blasted his way past Louie Allison and 17-year old Josh Starcher before defeating Bruce Litton in the Top Fuel finale, 4.81/293 to a tyre-hazing 5.18/241.

back

JOHNNY Rocca will make a comeback to active driving when he returns to the Pro Mod wars with his ironHorse ‘49 Mercury. Rocca will use Thundercraft Racing Engines in his return, and will bring on Darren Mayer as crew chief. Rocca had recently made test runs at the Mid-Michigan Motorplex, with 900 foot passes netting some mid-6.80s.

The team will contest an IHRA event in Maryland and the final AMS event in Las Vegas prior to their assault in Pro Mod in 2003. - DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Studebaker.

The Thundercraft Racing Engines-powered duo of Patterson and Troy Critchley qualified second and third on the ladder, posting 6.23/226 and 6.25/224 passes respectively. In their semi-final round match-up, Patterson overcame a holeshot by Critchley, and powered to a winning 6.33/218.

In reaching the semis, Critchley had recorded a 6.39/222 to stop Harold Martin. In the second round, Critchley cut a near perfect .403 light on his way to a 6.39/224 to 6.35/221 holeshot victory over Steve Vick.

Canadian John Konigshofer scored his first Pro Stock win on native soil by piloting his '02 Mercury Cougar to a 6.63/211 victory over John Montecalvo, who recorded a 6.63/210. Konigshofer welded Montecalvo at the tree, gaining almost a tenth of a second advantage at the start and maintaining it for the win.

Steve Stordeur defeated Doug Vancil in the quickest side-byside Nitro Harley race in IHRA history. Stordeur recorded the quickest pass of his life in the final round at 6.30/221 to defeat Vancil, who trailed at 6.38/198.

The Team-Mancuso rider had earlier defeated Joe Scatella and Mark Conner.

Dale Brand, above, grabbed his second straight Funny Car win on the tour, defeating point leader, Jimmy Rector in the final round. Rector looked to be headed for an easy win when Brand shook the tyres, but Rector slowed at half-track, allowing Brand to sneak past for an off-pace, 6.20/238 to 8.35/105 victory.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

■ Top Fuel veteran Ranee McDaniel was seriously injured in a crash during a nostalgia event in Boise, Idaho on August 11. McDaniel was rushed to hospital where he was listed as being in a 'critical' condition. Subsequent reports suggets that he is still "basically unconscious", but is slowly making progress.

■ Rock band Metallica recently rented out Infineon Raceway drag strip to celebrate lead singer James Hetfield's birthday.

The band, along with a few family and friends, spent the day hammering down the strip in an assortment of vehicles, including a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1957 Chevrolet Corvette, and a 1965 GTO convertible. They also brought the same Chevrolet Camaro that was used in the video 'I Disappear.'

■ Gary Sceizi has given his strongest hint yet that a return to the driver's seat may be just around the corner.

In an interview with competitionplus.com, Sclezi admitted that an announcement was not far away, and that Team Schumacher was looming as the most likely option.

"I can tell you that the most serious person that has pursued me has been Don Schumacher," said Sceizi, "He stepped up and put me in a racecar, which was a pretty big move. He had it fitted to me to give me every possible chance with positive results. I've race hard against Don Schumacher and he's raced hard against me. It's kind of amazing to see him come forward like this and he used to be my number one rival. We are just waiting for a sponsor to give us a green light and hopefully that will come in the next few weeks. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen in three weeks or it could not happen at all."

Spencer becomes a Target?

JIMMY Spencer didn't qualify for Watkins Glen, but his number 41 Target Dodge did. Confused?

Scott Pruett, above with Jeff Burton and Mark Martin, was chosen by owner Chip Ganassi to pilot the car and put Spencer in a second #42 Target Dodge, but Spencer's speed was not up to snuff and the car number had no car owner points so he failed to make the grid with a provisional slot.

Pruett qualified 19th and finished sixth aiding the car number, if not Spencer in the standings. Spencer was in the team's pit for the race, but his absence form the car helped fuel rumours surrounding his possible demise from the team at season's end.

■ Steve Park has signed a one year contract extension with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to drive the Pennzoil Chevrolet through 2003 when the Pennzoil contract is up. Apparently they will not return in 2004.

■ Johnny Benson and crew chief James Ince have extended their contracts with MBV Motorsports, the team jointly owned by Valvoline,for a multi-year contract with the #10 Pontiac.

■ Aerodynamic changes were put into effect at Michigan with the Pontiac Grand Prix allowed an extra half inch increase outwards from the bumper and the Monte Carlo a one inch increase. The changes were for this race only, but may be used at other tracks later in the season pending NASCAR's decision.

■ Burnouts have become the order of the day with the majority of drivers in all three major NASCAR-sanctioned series, but plans have been put in place to limit the drivers from causing damage to the cars that may hamper the post-race inspection process. Greg Biffie recently blew a tyre in a burn out and was below the minimum height requirement during Busch Series inspection, prompting the ruling.

■ Rusty Wallace, Kyle Petty, Bobby Hamilton, Hut Stricklin, Casey Atwood, Mike Wallace in the Foyt Pontiac and Tony Raines took the seven available provisional starting slots at Michigan, Busch points leader Greg Biffie the only man to go home in the Roush Racing Ford.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Penske to Dodge?

THE recent rumblings surrounding Penske and a switch to Dodge are true.

Motorsport News has discovered from an inside source that they are indeed iooking to switch if Ford do not foliow through with more financiai support that Penske are pushing for.

Although this would be considered late in the day to make a change for the 2003 season, the Dodge sheet metal would fit their existing chassis so the major change would be in the engine department, cooling and oiling systems.

Penske has been with Ford since the 1993 season when it switched from Pontiac. Roger Penske owns multiple Dodge and Ford dealerships so the deal for drivers Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman, below, could be swayed either way.

- MARTIN D CLARK

iDALE Jarrett, above, won his first ever Winston Cup race at the Michigan International Speedway,and on Sunday, he repeated the feat some 11 years later.

What was amazing about Jarrett’s victory was the fact he was the cause for the first caution on lap 10 when he lost control of his extremely loose Robert Yates Taurus and spun on the front-stretch grass falling back to 39th.

“I knew from racing here earlier in the season that my car worked better on four new tyres,” said Jarrett, who took the lead from Jeff Burton with four laps to go,

“We just bided our time and worked through those guys that

took on two to gain track position and it paid off.”

The garage area was filled with unhappy crew members whining about the extra aero advantage given to Chevrolet and Pontiac and following qualifying they had reason, but it was the Ford camp that seemed to dominate the latter stages of the 200 lapper. Kevin Harvick led the most laps taking the lead from polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr on the first lap, ‘Little E’ taking it back before a series of lead changes involving Bill Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.

Unfortunately for Busch, his Roush engine dropped a cylinder and he would lafer retire, while the

by MARTIN D CLARK

TONY Stewart has been fined $20,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of the year by NASCAR following the Brickyard 400,after he punched a photographer in the garage area.

To make matters worse, in an unprecedented move, his sponsor Home Depot have levied a $100,000 fine against Stewart that will be donated to charity and also placed him on probation until December 31.

"I came really close to losing my job and really hurt the people at Home Depot," said

former IRL driver

"That's what hurts the most is I let them and my team down. I didn't know I had a problem until last week and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make myself a happy person again, but I realise it's going to take a lot of work,"

It's a known fact that Stewart has no time for the media and in particular photographers, these latest actions coming after he thrust a tape recorder out of a reporter's hand, throwing it to the ground at Daytona in 2001. He then shoved series director Gary Nelson.

Stewart replaced the recorder and made a public apology, but

has had to eat humble pie again after his latest tantrum and has admitted he will undergo anger management training.

Stewart's performance in the race is also at question with the team. He motioned winner Bill Elliott by for second-place with 21 laps to run and from that point dropped back through he field to 12th, totally mystifying the Gibbs crew as they expected him to finish in the top five.

Crew chief Greg Zipadelli put it down to frustration on Stewart's part, something Joe Gibbs will not take lightly or the long conversation he and 'Zippo' had with the

niulii hy builuit-liiui^

Stewart.

same fate occurred to Newman, although he managed to nurse his stricken Penske Ford home in 31st.

In the points race. Sterling Marlin finished sixth, one space behind Martin, while Tony Stewart continues to show strength with a runner-up slot coming off his win at Watkins Glen and could be poised for his first championship in fourth.

Final result; Jarrett(Ford), Stewart (Pontiac), Harvick (Chev), J Burton (Ford), Martin (Ford), Marlin (Dodge), Johnson (Chev), Benson (Pontiac), J Green (Chev), Earnhardt(Chev).

Points standings; Marlin 3094, Martin 3051, Johnson 3034, Stewart 3010, J Gordon 2944, Rudd 2926, R Wallace 2903, Elliott 2858, Kenseth 2799.

- MARTIN D CLARK

photographer post-incident.

Stewart flew from his native Indiana to Charlotte before returning to Indiana to apologise to his outraged team following the race result, which cost the organisation close to $200,000 in prizemoney.

Home Depot are also not amused with Stewart's actions and rumours are circulating that they are looking for his release.

This adds fuel to the talk that

Making it Up

Stewart strikes back at The Glen

TONY Stewart came out of NASCAR’sjail-house and into the penthouse with a win from the pole at Watkins Glen on August 11 following his controversial incident with a photogi-apher the previous week (see story below).

Stewart led 33 of the 90 laps in his Home Depot Pontiac, taking the lead for the final time from rookie Ryan Newman with 17 laps remaining and holding on through a caution and red flag period for the win in commanding style.

“This is a big win for our race team,” said Stewart,“but it’s not going to heal me a bit. Winning this race is a band aid that covers it up right now.

“Now I have to get to work on getting my life sorted out. This

race is for Mr. Mook (the photogi’apher Stewart punched), he’s going to be an integral part of changing my life.”

Newman had an outstanding run in his Penske Taurus in only his second circuit race to finish runner-up, although just like his team-mate Rusty Wallace, who finished 17th, suffered power steering failure.

Jeff Gordon, who going into the race had won four of the last five races at the track, finished a dismal 22nd after many chassis adjustments, while points leader Sterling Marlin suffered engine problems and finished 30th.

Robby Gordon was the class of the field early, but again failed to make it to victory lane at a circuit event. He moved from seventh to second on the first lap and had the lead on lap four from Ricky Rudd.

However slow pit stops and a high first gear ratio hampered his track position and he never made up the lost ground on track, even though he passed Rudd racing back to one of the caution flags, which, although not a rule, a gentlemen’s agreement exists so that it should not happen.

P.J. Jones gave A.J. Foyt his first top five result with a fourth placing in the Conseco-backed Pontiac, while another circuit racing ring-in, Scott Pruett, finished sixth in the Ganassi Target Dodge.

Final result; Stewart(Pontiae),

NASCAR PPI switches to Pontiac

CAL Wells announced at Michigan on Saturday that his PPI Motorsports team hasformed an "engineering and marketing alliance with Pontiac for 2003," his words for the fact they are switching to the GM brand for 2003from Ford.

Ricky Craven will stay on and Wells is close to sealing a second team for next year. This will more likely be with Jerry Nadeau if the sponsor they are working can be signed.

■ Robert Yates Racing officially announced on Sunday that Elliott Sadler will drive an M&Ms-sponsored Ford from his stable in 2003, complimenting the team of Dale Jarrett.

The twist is the car number of the team will change from 28 to 38, the old numerals supposedly being transferred with the Texaco sponsorship to Ganassi Racing and a yet-to-be announced driver.

Whether Ricky Rudd will be the pilot is still in the air. Rudd's current crew chief, Michael 'Fatback' McSwain, will stay with the team to head up Sadler's efforts.

■ Latest rumours at Michigan now have Ricky Rudd going to the Wood Bros, replacing Elliott Sadler in the Motorcraft Ford after early speculation had him running a third Ganassi Dodge with his current Yates sponsor Texaco/Chevron.

Two scheduled press conferences with Ganassi have been cancelled as Ford try to keep Rudd in their fold, which with the Wood Bros could be achieved.

■ NASCAR tested a Dodge, Ford and 2003 Pontiac under racing conditions at Charlotte on August 6. The cars featured a larger 'greenhouse' area, something NASCAR has been working on in wind tunnels to make the cars more stable at speed.

Unfortunately, the test was not a success, with the cars being more unstable than the current design. The idea of a taller roof (by one and a half inches) and longer area between the front and rear windscreens was to give the driver more room inside the cars for

Stewart will join Ganassi Racing in safety purposes, plus aid them aerodynamicaily to run closer together in packs. 2003 with backing from Texaco after Ricky Rudd closes out his

mstoBQip, S one-year contract and subsequent aies

retirement with Ganassi.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Controlled aggression: That’s what won Watkins Glen for Tony Stewart. Now he just has to translate that to his off-track life. (Photo by Sutton-lmages)

Newman (Ford),R Gordon (Chev), P.J. Jones(Pontiac), Rudd (Ford), Pruett (Dodge),J Burton (Ford),T Bodine (Ford), Waltrip (Chev), Martin (Ford).

- MARTIN D CLARK

Aussies take Cup

AUSTRALIA has won the FIM Speedway World Cup Final in a thrilling meeting at the East of England Showground tonight, lifting the Ove Fundin Trophy aloft for the second consecutive year.

But it was not all plain sailing for the Aussies, who won with 64 points, Denmark second on 58 points, Sweden 54 points, Poland 48 points and Czech Republic 36 points.

The lead changed between the top four teams throughout the night, but after the Australian captain Leigh Adams's heat 18 win, they never looked back despite Sweden and Denmark both playing their Jokers in the latter stages.

Indeed, Australia were the only team not to play a joker (where a rider's points are worth double) all evening.

"It was all down to team spirit, everyone just clicked tonight," said Australian team manager Neil Street, above with the victorious team.

"We didn't need to play our joker and that shows we are the strongest five man team in the world."

"We thought we were up against it when we were behind in the early part of the meeting," Australian captain Leigh Adams, top, commented.

"But we dug deep, there was no home track advantage out there tonight and luckily the rain held off."

Farr heads for the Outlaws

ROBBIE Fan- has left for the United States to take up a drive o in the World of Outlaws,his I prize for winning the 2001/2002 I Parramatta Track title.

I Farr will be in the US for about a month, with the possibility of his first race being at Antioch Speedway this weekend in a 410 wingless Sprintcar, before moving on to California for his drive with the Outlaws at Calistoga and Chico in one ofthe Kinser cars.

by GEOFF ROUNDS

STEVE Kinsei’ again etched his name in Sprintcar immortality when he led all 30 laps to win the 42nd Annual Knoxville Nationals, grabbing his 12th victory in the prestigious event, and his first since 1995.

The ‘King of The Outlaws’ started from position two with defending champion Danny Lasoski beside him but, it was Kinser who led after lap one and dominated to lead home Donny Schatz and Craig Dollansky, with Lasoski finishing fourth.

In an emotional post-race victory celebration, Kinser stood atop of his Quaker State Maxim with a flag-waving wing dance but a pre race fuel problem may have cost him another chance at Nationals glory.

“When we came out there in hotlap session, I just felt terrible and I couldn’t figure out why,” ICinser said.

“I came in and went to shut the fuel off and realised I only had it half-way on. I don’t know how we ran. We didn’t know what to do, but we left it alone and here we are.

“This is pretty good since we’ve had crashes in the first corner the last two years. I didn’t feel good on the bottom all night, I just couldn’t roll it. I think they left the bottom down there for Danny.I thought it was him coming by me on the last lap. When I saw it wasn’t him I said ‘oh thank you, thank you, thank you.

Schatz, who thrilled Australian fans last summer, nearly gave himself a 25th birthday present that very day when he nearly stole his first Nationals win when Kinser turned sideways on the final lap. It was not to be for Schatz and he was again left lamenting what could have been in Knoxville.

“If we had been closer to those guys(Kinser and Lasoski) at the beginning, we might have had a better chance,” Schatz lamented.

“I gave it the best I could, but Steve did a better job. We just congratulate him and I’ll have to come back and try to win.”

The ever-impressive Schatz did have some earlier good fortune winning the final leg of the Kele World Challenge, defeating PJ Chesson and Brooke Tatnell.

Former Nationals winner Mark Kinser caused the only stoppage of the race when he spun his Mopar-

ir's Knoxville

Tucker Time F500 dates set for 2002/2003

THE Tucker Time Formula 500 Series has released its calendar for the 2002/2003 racing season.

The series will kick off in support to the World Series Sprintcar show at Speedway City on Boxing Day, with the following rounds at Timmis Speedway in Mildura (December 28), Avalon (December 30), Premier Speedway (January 1), and Western Speedway, Hamilton (January 3). The Victorian Title will be at Premier Speedway on January 4,

■ Congrats to speedway correspondant and World Series Sprintcar main man Wade Aunger and wife Kristy on the arrival of their second son Riley, a new baby brother for Liam.

Regular faces up the front: They don’t call him the King for nothing, as Steve Kinser, above and below, added yet another Knoxville Nationals crown to his large collection, while WoO Champ Danny Lasoski, below right, ended up fourth in the A-Main. (Pholos by Martin D Clark)

powered Maxim on lap 12 and rejoined to eventually finish 20th. Fastest time-trialler Joey Saldana(15.218s) dropped from grid position three to eventually finish 10th while Greg Hodnett cut through the field from 12th to sixth just behind Tyler Walker.

Sydney’s Kerry Madsen was the lone Aussie in the A-Main, starting 19th and finishing 24th, after spinning with six laps to go. He climbed into the top 10 after finishing ninth in both the preliminary feature on night two and the Kele World Challenge.

Other Australians at Knoxville included Skip Jackson,(llth in the B-Main), Ja3rmie Moyle (seventh in the C-Main), Brooke Tatnell(15th), L5mton Jeffrey(18th),Peter

Murphy(fourth in the D-Main) and David Murcott(eighth in the E-Main).

Max Dumesny Motorsport

Histones fever went into overdrive at last month s Shannon s Historic and ■ - Classic Cars Festival, when a huge array offamous drivers and machinery descended upon Queensland Raceway. Here are some highlights

C/as/i of the titans: Ke in Bartlett and Leo Geoghegan go head-to-head, above, at an e ent that also featured a healthy field of Group S Sports Cars, top.

The Lion doesn’t sleep

A LARGE gathering ofthe party faithful was on hand on August8 to celebrate the 30th anniversary ofthe Holden Sporting Car Club of\^ctoria Inc.

Originally known as the Tbrana Club ofVictoria,the club’s first meeting was held on August 22,1972. When the Commodore took over from the Torana, it was time to change the club’s name to the more encompassing Holden Sporting Car Club of Victoria Inc.

Special guests present for the 30th anniversary celebrations included Peter Brock and Harry Firth, John Harvey, Jason Bargwanna and Garth Tander.

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of life membership to Firth, the man who masterminded Holden’s great motor racing successes beginning in the 70s, and the man responsible for kick-starting Brock’s brilliant career.

Harvey followed with some amusing stories from his colorful and diverse days in the sport, and a fascinating visual presentation on

BRIAN REED

(Pholos by Marhsall Cas Don’t touch that dial: Up close and personal with the interior ofa Cor ette. s)

how the new Monaro came into being was given by Holden’s design whizz Michael Simeoe.

Thirty years on: Three decades after his historic first win at the mountain (and just weeks before he makes his return), Brock was one of many guests on hand for the Holden Sporting Car Club of Victoria celebrations. (Pholo by Chevron Publishing) motorsport news -

The golden

2002 marks 50 years since a steering committee was formed along with the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC),the purpose of which was “to build Australia’s first international Grand Prix circuit.

Motor racing was no newcomer to the Island, with major events dating back to the 1920s, but here was a serious attempt at creating a permanent, world class track.

The 1952 steering committee had been preceded by a meeting in 1951 when six local businessmen decided to re-establish motor racing,since the earlier, rather crude circuit on an airfield 2km from the current track had fallen into disrepair after 1935.

In 1952,PIARC put out a call for 7000 subscriptions at 10 pounds each to assist in the development of the circuit, and soon building works began.

An Alfa Romeo was used to measure the three-mile distance required for certification as an international circuit.

After an urgent call for more money from the shareholders and overcoming major engineering hurdles, the opening meeting was held in December, 1956.

The Light Car Club ofAustralia organised and staged the inaugural Armstrong 500- a 500-

mile event which was Australia’s first long distance race for production cars and a precursor to today’s Bathurst enduro.

After eight hours and 15 minutes, the Cheney-entered Vauxhall Cresta of Frank Coad and John Roxburgh crossed the line to score a memorable victory.

Due to extensive damage resulting from the 1962 Armstrong 500,Phillip Island was closed and the race was transferred to Mt. Panorama,Bathurst.

Then in 1963, Len Lukey purchased the Phillip Island circuit with a view to redevelopment. It re opened for racing in April 1966 but

Austin Powers Island

again fell victim to track damage in the late 1970s and was subsequently used as a farming property by the owners.

Auiother change of ownership saw Barfield Pty. Ltd. acquire the circuit in 1985, and three years later engineer and promoter Bob Barnard was awarded a round of the world motorcycle championship.

On April 6-9 1989, Phillip Island staged Australia’s first round of the 500cc World Motorcycle Championship and,in front of more than 90,000 enthusiastic fans,Australia’s Wayne Gardner scored an emotional win.

- BRIAN REED

Back in the Charger

FORMER Australian Gold Star champion Leo Geoghegan will drive a production E38 Chrysler Charger in the Parade section of Classic Adelaide 2002, a car similar to the ones he helped develop for the 1971-72 Bathurst races.

Geoghegan was the driving force behind the surprise debut of the new Charger, The Sydney open-wheeler driver worked in Adelaide with Chrysler Racing boss John Ellis and secretly

track developed four race cars at Mallala in preparation for their race debut at Oran Park and Bathurst in 1971. His efforts were rewarded on debut at Oran Park when the new 'works' cars filled six of the first 11 places. The Charger posed a real threat to the Ford and Holden camps in the following 'Great Race', but missed winning due to tyre and fuel problems. In spite of this, Geoghegan's Charger still

managed to finish second in Class D behind Colin Bond's Holden.

Now, in a nice touch of deja vu, the Charger E38 which Leo will drive in Classic Adelaide 2002 is owned by his former team boss Ellis.

The elder brother of five-time Australian Touring Car champion, Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan, Leo's main racing fame came in open wheelers. He contested the Australian Grand Prix from 1966 to 1970, dicing with the world's best drivers such as Clark, Surtees, Stewart, Hill, Rindt, Hulme and Brabham during the parallel Tasman Series.

Geoghegan's efforts were justly rewarded when he won the 1970 Australian Racing Drivers Championship in a Lotus 59 Waggott.

Classic Adelaide 2002 is from 16-20 October.

Old acquaintances renewed: Leo Geoghegan will be reunited with his faithful E38 Charger at Classic Adelaide.

The famous British marque celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and the Festival will salute the milestone during the weekend with a parade and on-course commentary amongst the events planned.

The Festival will feature an allHealey race as well as events for all other categories of Historic racing.

■ Veteran Australian racer and motor sports identity John Crouch has been awarded life membership of CAMS in recognition of his contributions to the sport.

The New South Welshman began racing during the 1930s, and following World War Two scored his greatest success by winning the 1949 Australian GP at Leyburn in a Delahaye.

He also won the 1952 Australasian Hillclimb Championship at Rob Roy, driving a Mk5 Cooper JAP 1100. Crouch was the Australian distributor of Cooper cars, and was an influential figure during the formative years of CAMS.

■ Victorian State Manager of CAMS and the driving force behind the Geelong Speed Trials, Gary Grant, is about to announce details of the resurrection of this long-standing event after reaching agreement with Geelong City Council.

The popular sprint along Ritchie Boulevard will be staged on November 16-17 and will take place in the same section of beach front used in previous years.

■ The next championship round of the Victorian Historic Racing Register will be the Morweil Hillclimb to be held at Gippsland Park on Sunday, September 1.

All historic classes as well as a road registered class will be contested, and several other clubs have been invited to participate.

Scrutineering will commence at Sam,there will be track familiarisation, and then the competition will get underway at 11am.

The organisers are planning three runs for new drivers and five for competition drivers. Entries dose on August 30, and multiple entries will be accepted.

For further information contact Ray Da Costa on (03) 5940 1647 or 9776 1013.

Austin Healey will be the featured marque at the Australian Historic Motor Festival to be held at Winton Motor Raceway on October 5-6.

Was it fhaf long ago? Close battling during the Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island in the early 1960s.

(Photo by Chevron Publishing)

BRIAN

nadmalscene

Glenaenning

ecftedby Cathcart!

VICTORIAN Clint Cathcart has assured himself victory in the 2002 Ford KartStars Series after winning 00 Motorsport Round 4, held at Adelaide’s Bohvar Raceway two weeks ago.

Nicholas Parker jumped the field by setting the fastest qualif^ng time (34.840s) ahead of Cathcart(34.902s),Scott Auld (34.906s), Round 3 winner Adam Graham (34.910s) and Jace Lindstrom (34.931s). He was the fourth different driver in the four rounds to claim the honour.

The first heat also went to plan for the young Victorian, leading from the front and never being headed, although Auld was close behind for the duration. Cathcart and Graham were both also in the mix,finishing third and fourth respectively. Adrian Estasy moved up to fifth ahead of Taz Douglas, Jason Varley and Ti’oy Woolston.

All hell broke loose as the field crossed the start line for the second heat. No start was given, and as the field compressed, karts were pointing in all directions.

As the back half ofthe field scrambled for space, James Reynolds was sent skywards, kartwheeling into the infield. Fortunately he emerged unscathed, however the damage to his kart was too great to repair in time for the restart.

The race was halted and the pits became a fluiTy of activity as drivers swung into repair mode.

The restart was less dramatic, with Parker being pursued by Cathcart and Auld, with Varley, Estasy and Douglas fighting not far behind.

Auld quickly made his way past Cathcart,then took the lead from Parker. Cathcart followed him through not long after. These three finished in this order, with Estasy fourth ahead ofDouglas and Varley. Sunday morning greeted the

drivers with driving rain and strong winds,leaving them to prepare for a wet track.

Cathcartjumped into the lead ahead of polesitter Parker and Douglas, but it only took two laps for the latter to overtake the pair in front and establish a two second gap. Cathcart had his hands full holding off Parker and Scott Auld. Meanwhile, Kane Wiltshire was braking with his left hand directly on the master cylinder after a first lap incident left him with a broken brake pedal. Remarkably, he still

finished the race, albeit in last place and a lap down!

Douglas, however, continued comfortably out in front and cruised to victory ahead of Cathcart, Parker,Auld, Varley, Savage and Woolston. Estasy faded to 13th after a mysterious engine gremlin.

After the weather had cleared, another heavy shower left the track wet again for the Pre Final.

A few drivers gambled by running slicks on the rapidly drying surface, but this proved to be the

wrong decision, with all of them falling well back.

Josh Ai-andt, who was racing with a dislocated shoulder after a snowboarding accident the previous weekend,failed to start the race due to engine problems.

Cathcart headed the field from the start, with Parker and Douglas in hot pursuit. These three ran nose to taO until the eighth lap when Parker squeezed by.

By the time the chequered flag was \vaved,Parker had eased out a gap over Cathcart and Douglas, with Guest beating home Lindstrom, Varley, WiQiamson and Walter.

The Final saw Parker lead for the first two laps before Cathcart took over. A lap later Douglas also moved by.

Further back, Estasy was the big mover, coming from 20th to seventh in only eight laps before his engine seized, leaving him to ponder what might have been.

Back at the head of the pack, Cathcart was still holding off Douglas, who was shadowing his every move. Auld slipped by Parker and set out after the leading pair.

Despite a concerted last lap effort from Douglas, Cathcart held on to win. Auld was a close third, with Lindstrom and Parker not far behind.

Cathcart’s points lead is now unassailable, with Auld, Lindstrom, Douglas and Graham all within a few points of each other. Parker, Chris Vander Drift, Varley and Arandt are the others in with a real shot at the allimportant top four positions which gain the chance at a Ford factorysupported Formula Ford drive.

With such high stakes, the final round, to be held in conjunction with the Queensland 500 V8 Supercar event at Ipswich on September 14-15, is sure to be a battle royal.

FORD KART STARS SCOREBOARD

Job’s done: Cathcart leads Douglas and Auld, above, on his way to the round win and the 2002 Ford KartStars title with one round still remaining. The trio share the podium, below. L-R Douglas, Cathcart, Auld, (Photos by Simon Adams)

Shared spoils A smoking result

THE competitive nature of the Kumho Tyres Trophy MG Series was underlined at Winton last weekend, with a host of different drivers getting the results.

Ian Kegg was the early pace setter, topping the sheets in both qualifying sessions, but when the serious business started it was Jamie Cartwright who drew first blood. Cartwright narrowly won the opening race in the Gold Coast MG Rover car ahead of Chance of a Lifetime entry Ben Morley and Kegg.

But in race two it was Mark Williamson's turn. Adam Bressington was second in the Fabre Racing MGF, with Kegg again claiming the final spot on the podium.

PORSCHE Cup races are nothing if not entertaining, and the latest outing at Winton last weekend was no exception.

Wayne Hennig made his intentions clear early by leading the field away from pole and taking a flag-to-flag win.

It came at a cost though. The Noosa Cat Australia 933 GT2 blew a turbo on the final lap but remained on the track, trailing massive plumes of smoke in its'

wake as it ran through the final corners. Remarkably, Hennig still won by five seconds, but with spares of everything fatvf the turbo sitting in the truck, the car did not make it back out for race

two.

Matthew Coleman continued to bring home the results by driving the Bob Jane TMart/Century Batteries 996 GT3through the smoke trail to finish a comfortable second ahead of

Dean Cook’s Beck’s/Rosita’s Racing 996.

Jonathon Webb was fourth after dislodging Martin wagg on the last lap.

In race two it was Coleman’s turn to do the flag-to-flag trick, but he had to hold off the hardcharging 911 GT2 of Paul Whitmarsh to do it.

Whitmarsh spent the early part of the race dicing with Webb before getting past the teenager to claim second, and then set about chasing down the leader.

He nearly made it too - when the pair crossed the finish line, they were seperated by just 0.04 secbnds.

Webb took the Tekno Autosports 996 GT3 across the line for a relatively lonely third place.

Somewhere in there is a Porsche: Hennig won the race, but sadly his turbo didn ’t survive to enjoy the celebrations.

(Photo

Hryniuk still the Road King EVENTS in KARTING

Extends Road King Karting Series lead

JASON Hryniuk has extended his lead in the Ciubman Light ciass of the Ford Racing Road King Karting Series after winning the Mildura round on the weekend.

Hryniuk(CRG)dominated the results, but had to put up a fight all the way,fending off challenges from Dale Carpenter (CRG), Grant Anderson (Azzurro) and Adam Klunyk (Arrow).

Klunyk wound up second after Carpenter and Anderson made contact and hit the barriers, Mark Hester(CRG)coming through for third.

In the Junior Clubman feature class, Leah Unsworth (Tony Kart) got by David Sera mid race and drove on to a solid victory for the second round in a row.

Sera (Arrow) claimed second, but had also dominated the Junior National class, easily winning every race, however he was excluded from the final

after the exhaust broke two laps from home.

This handed the win to local driver Shaun James. Others to take popular victories on the streets of their home town were Dane Bobart(Clubman Heavy), Greg Mattschoss(Clubman Over 40s) and Scott Ferguson (Formula Australia Heavy).

Despite crashing out of the lead in spectacular fashion, luckily without serious injury, Andrew McFarland picked up the Rookie win, while Luke Skinner moved back into contention in the Leopard class, winning every race.

Other winners were Grant Anderson (Formula Australia Light), Brett Arnett (Senior National), Mark Hester(Rotax Light) and Brett Davidson (Rotax Heavy).

The fourth and final round Is on the streets of Swan Hill on November 2-3.

23 Aug

Top Gun

hy Dirk Klynsmilh)

Karting briefs

GIEDO van der Garde and Michael Ammermuller both took wins and finished runner-up to each other at the third round of the Formula Super A World Karting Championships at Braga, Portugal, on August 11.

Dutchman Van der Garde (CRG/Maxter)and Dane Ammermuller (Tony KartA/ortex) ran consistently in the heats where Carlo van Dam (TrulliAfortex) and Davide Fore (Tony KartA/ortex) did the winning.

In fact, van Dam had been exceptionally quick, winning the opening two heats, but a collision in the third allowed fastest qualifier Fore to grab a win. Carlo then drove a heady race to third in both finals. Van der Garde now shares the championship lead with Italy's Ronnie Quintarelli on 85 points ahead of Alessandro Manetti (67), Gianluca Beggio (63) and Van Dam (56). The two Birel teams head the manufacturers title ahead of Tony Kart.

■ The Western Australian APS Super 8 Series kicked off recently, 166 entrants lining up at Wanneroo in what was also the Tiger Kart Club's

Top Rookie:Joshua Hughes topped the Rookies at Wanneroo (Photo by Brad Mitchell]

A torrential downpour that hit the circuit on race morning slowed up the pace, but not the enthusiasm.

The top S8S positions went to Cade Bell (Sportsman Light), Adam Maguire (Rotax Light), Daniel Rochford (Midgets), Joshua Hughes (Rookies), Pascal Kuhn (Junior Clubman), Glen Cuthbertson (Rotax Heavy) and Brad Fitch (Sportsman Heavy),

■ Two sets of brothers took wins at the Two-hour Superkart Relay Enduro at Calder recently. Rod and Jason Conn took out the 125 Gearbox division of the event while Peter & Ben Gazzola triumphed in 80cc Junior.

Other category winners were Darren Formosa/Darren Fortuyn (lOOcc Non-Gearbox), Joe Misitano/Kimngate (80cc), Jason McIntyre/Fred Milana (125 Maxi), Graeme Williams/Colin McIntyre (250 National) and Mike,McCrudden/Robert Clinch (250 International).

- MARK WICKS

Good things come in smaii packages

IDAVID Russell again produced the goods in the Class E Proton Satria GTi at round six of the GT Production series at Wakefield Park two weeks ago,taking two wins. In accordance with the handicap system, the Class E cars were flagged away 16.5 seconds before the second group was unleased, and Russell made short work of the ; first race by slipping smartly into the lead at the first opportunity and staying there until the chequered flag.

Ups and downs: Da id Russell did the giant-killing trick again by sweeping the wins in the Class E Proton Satria, top. It was a different storyfor Rick Bates, above, who ended up in the boonies after a tapfrom Martin Doxey.

GARY Young scored some runs for South Australia’s finest when he drove the Cooper’s Ale entry to a pair of wins in the latest round of the Toyo Tyres Mirage Series at Wakefield Park two weeks ago.

Young won both races by relatively comfortable margins, leaving Peter Leemhius and Grant Park to pick up the pieces with a second and third place each.

Steve Cramp (Class B BMW 323i)followed him across the line, with Colin Osborne (Celica) third.

Series leader Scott Loadsman (Commodore), who overcame oil pressure gremlins to top the qualifying sheets, retired with kill switch problems.

Race two didn't come to Russel so easily. David Runkel's Proton took the early initiative, with Darryl Coon's Falcon XR6 sitting in second ahead of Russell. The Proton made steady progress through the field though, and eventually greeted the flag first ahead of Cramp and Alan Holdersson (Falcon XR8). Loadsman again failed to finish, this time 5 courtesy of diff troubles,

g

^ Points: Loadsman 433, Osborne 419, Cramp 381, McGill 336, Doxey 308, S Russell 280

second round of the Grand Prix series.

(Photos hy Dirk Klynsmith)

PETER Brock was all smiles : after giving a new Australianbuilt roadster an informal shakedown at Melbourne’s Calder Park recently.

Powered by a Holden Gen III V8,the Extreme 7, or X7 for short,is the brainchild of Daytona Motors partners Mike Moore and Shannon Smith, of Woodend, in country Victoria.

Brock, who agreed to sample the light-weight, clubman-style car “because it looks like a fun thing,” managed a best lap of63 seconds in road trim around Calder’s road circuit-just six seconds off V8 Supercar pace.

He said that despite hitting 250

km/h on the main straight, he was able to brake at the same point as V8 Supercars.

Brock said the X7 looked like it was built around the Holden Gen III V8, adding,“This is what we like.”

He said the slingshot effect of the lightweight construction - its uses a steel chassis with fibreglass and aluminium panels - was “like driving an SS Commodore with all the body removed.”

With a kerb weight of 826 kg, the X7 is about half the weight of an average car, yet is powered by Holden’s 5.7-litre alloy V8, producing around 250

kW of power.

The power-to-weighrt ratio is 3.3 kg/kW, putting it in thie super sports car league.

Most ofthe other mechanical parts are also Holdea-sourced - a six-speed manual transmission, differential, brakes arcd fuel pump.

Apart from a few other go-fast bits, such as Bilstein shock absorbers,the remainder is handbuilt built at Daytona’s Woodend factory.

So far, only one road-going example has been produced, but further cars will be budlt to customer order, at a starting price of about $70,000.

The Future’s orange

■ The third round of the APS CIK Australian Championship will be run at Raleigh this weekend (August 2425) and will see the return to Australian competition of Josh Hunt.

Hunt, who is competing in the European Formula A Championship with the Biesse/Fox team, will make a one-off appearance with Tony Kart. Back in Australia due to the summer break in Europe, Josh is competing at Raleigh primarily to keep race fit and not lose any form prior to returning to Italy in mid September.

Once back, he will prepare for the remaining European and Italian Championship rounds, as well as the Monaco and Japan World Cup events.

■ Speaking of Raleigh, another driver will be using the meeting to make their CIK Series debut Victorian hot-shot Leigh Gallace will step up to the Junior ICA class using Azzurro chassis.

Gallace has tasted much success in the Junior Clubman class in the last two years, winning several state championships.

■ The third annual Rotax MAX National Championships will be held over the weekend of August 31September 1 at Melbourne's Todd Road circuit.

A 'shake-down' meeting was held at the facility on August 11, allowing drivers to clock extra race miles prior to the big event.

While a number of the major players were racing in the South Australian Ford KartStars round on the same day, a number of Victoria's top Rotax drivers competed, Aaron Dowers beating home Adam Bullas and Bart Price in Rotax Light, while Richard Lyon won Rotax Heavy ahead of Dale Patterson and Aaron Shiells.

■ Martin Hines has made an incredible return to the driving seat, winning the second round of the European Superkart Championship at Donnington Park earlier this month.

FUTURE Touring made its debut on the PROCAR Champ Series support bill at Wakefield Park, with the wins shared between the two'heavyweights' of the class in Ray Sidebottom (APS Commodore VX)and Terry Bosnjak (drive.com.au Magna).

Bosnjak took pole in 1m04.1 Is, but couldn't stop the orange Holden of Sidebottom, above, moving past into turn one at the start. It only lasted a few laps before the category director slipped off the road at the hairpin and allowed Bosnjak, Tim Shaw's Age Commodore, and Steve Williams(Commodore VX) past, leaving Sidebottom a chase for the rest of the race.

He worked his way back to second, but

couldn't stop the Magna from adding to its victory earlier in the year at Oran Park.

Shaw held on for third, while Wiiams,Mark Papendell, Geoff Parker (debuting a respllendent VX), Shannan Sidebottom and Andrew 3iaw(who bogged down badly on the start) were mext home.

Sunday's race was ruined right from -the start, Bosnjak handed a drive-through penailbyfor getting a bit too impatient in leaving ti® starting

iine.

That left Sidebottom to take a comfortable win ahead of T. Shaw, Williams, Sidebottorm Jnr, Kerry Wade and Parker.

Bosnjak recovered for eighth in tie HG-car field.

It was almost nine years to the day since Hines, 54, had retired from driving and the UK veteran had lost none of his touch, qualifying fastest in the wet, winning both races and setting fastest lap in each, Hines (Zip/Rotax) fell back at the start of both events, wrestling the lead from Bobo Westman (PVP/Rotax) on the last lap of race one and inheriting the lead in race two when Westman collided with Damien Payart(PVP/FPE), the two crashing out at high speed.

Despite not contesting the opening round at Nurburgring (it was abandoned due to the weather), Hines now enjoys a healthy lead in the series.

reliable, very easy to drive. Some spares,Lakeside 63sec,QR 1min.28s. Complete with trailer. $8,000. Lee 07-3984692 / 0403048893 239 .my105.com/20353WWW,

Torana SLR 5000 , with sponsorship deals to $4,000 Inclusive.

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Open Wheelers

BRD, includes: Great Lamer engine, MoTeC, wheels, ratios and numerous spares, assistance, will separate, $36,000 neg (03) 9884 5675. 238 www.my105.com/20324 Torana Sports Sedan, Six cylinder 202 + 40 Duggan

Dallara F3, 95/96, factory Novamotor Fiat, mounted wets. Stack datalogger dash,continuing full maintenance program, spares package negotiable. $68,000 Graeme 03 5881 4411 BH e-mail: gkhracing@agspares.com.au www.105.eom/20359

Formula Vee 91 Spectre, low kms, plenty of potential, ideal for Nationals, garaged in Queensland, trailer included. Mike $7,500238 www.105.com/20313

Super Sedan Ex NSW, auto meter gauges. Chariyn Power Head Wilwood brakes reco, Bert Box fuel cell. Weld, Wheels Titon pedals, new Camaro body, light weight Franklin Diff, Fresh engine. Will sell without motor at $15,000 or with motor at $25,000.Russell 0419 692 677. 239

Super sedan chassis. New 101' super sedan chassis, leaf spring, afeo upper and lower control arms,wide 5 all round, speedway eng QC, speedway eng rack & pinion. Alloy tank, engine plates suit chev, 180'rap-over headers, Wiilwood pedals. Firebird body.Enough to make complete roller sell complete $8,000.00 ono Ed 0405204-819 239 www.my105.com/20352

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 J

V8 Dirt Modified NSW #99, 350 Chev dart heads, Bert Jones Cam, TRWpistons 11.3;1, Halibran quickchange diff Holden box. Ram clutch, good straight car, also included spare tyres, front axle, 6 pin hubs, torsion bars shocks etc. $12,000(02)6571 1897 238 www.my105.oom/20303

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.com/20234

Engines

Chev Race Engine, Chev race engine. 362ci 18° best of everything as used by Peter Logue last season. Chev 18” Brodix heads latest CNC Program never used. 0412 399 020 239 www.my105.com/7070

Speedcar Engine 300HP, Fontana angle plug engine complete with lines & oil tank. Ready to run with spares. $16,000. 02 9654 0743 / 0418 449 295 www.myl05.eom/7019 238

Transporters/Trailers

NEW Tiltable Triaxle Trailer, Inside dimensions are height 5ft, width 6ft 6 inches, length 22ft.

Volvo B10M motorhome, plus Isuzu 4x4, fits in rear garage under king bed, 6 berth solar inverter generator, TV, video, satellite, BBQ, full stove, shower, WC, full fridge. $325,000 neg. 0418 772 748 www.myl05.eom/20319 238

Race Transporter / UD Prime Mover, Aicon, radios, radial tyres.36ft.2 car trailer, full annex, kitchen. M/wave. W/tank. Air bot store. Tyre rack. $42,000 Des 0408 228 770 -238 www.my105.com/20326

Fully enclosed dual axle trailer. Fully enclosed dual axle trailer suit F/Ford or other open wheeler. Professionally made, high quality steel construction with veneer interior. High roof, bench, air lines, elec brakes. Tows great. $5,000. (03) 9884 5675 www.my105.com/20325 238.

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

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. $6,500. Marianne, 02 9823 7284, 237 www.my105.com/20166

<

Racecar Transporter

MARKET PLACE

Turbos X 2, Brand new never used T4 hiFlowed suit 4 Cylinder and the other flowed to 800+hp suit a V8 or truck. $1500, & $1750. Matt 0409 872 934 - 237 www.105.com/7037

Brembo Four Spot Calipers, 1 Pairperfect condition $600 Ph 0418 729 732. - 237 www.my105.com/7052

Other

Autosport Magazines, Autosport Magazine 1985-2000, FI Racing 1996-2000. Include supplements, must sell, any questions call or email auskobe@optusnet.com.au AH (03)9309 3136-238 www.my105.com/20327 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. 20 ft tandem car trailer, with ramps, partly covered, unregistered, $2000, ph 02 6963 6276 or 0414 779

Go-Karts or any small vehicle. $3,000 ONO. Ph 0407 772 902 - 237 www.105.com/20249

Parts

Super Sedan Parts, 2 x Tel Tac suit Magneto x Electric ignition, 15 x Weld Wheels W5 12" x 5" offset with Rim Loc's, S/H tyres 28.5" to 32" American Racers. 0412 399 020 239 www.myl05.com/7070

Cobra 'Evolution’ race seat, with wrapround head support(as used by V8 teams). As new, with fitting rails (costs $1,250). Black. $800 ONO - 236 www.my105.com/7065 (03) 9822 5034

Koni coil-over shock absorbers, Koni coil-over shock absorbers, alloy body, bump/rebound separate adjustment, 52mm dia. 280mm compressed 430mm ext. Michael 0412 480744 or 07 5547 5085 - 238 www.my105.com/7048

Dunlop SP sport, Dunlop SP sport 2 x 225 X 640 X 18, 2 X 265 x 650 X 18. 0412 524 186 - 238www.my105.com/7063

Brand New WRX MY02 Wheels & Tyres, Jason $2100 ono, 0401 709 953. - 238 www.105.com/7061

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T-10 gearbox with Indy shifter, top loader also with Indy shifter, complete with Hadfield bell housing, Yelia 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, $1,260. 0417 148 627 www.105.com/7034

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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

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 Police are on the case, but in the interim please be careful!

Open Wheeler - Hillclimb Car, Open Wheeler (Hillclimb Car), current or previously used, rolling chassis or complete car etc, prefer bike powered, anything considered, will travel. 02 4877 1507 - 238 www.myl05.eom/20314

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Toyota Corolla Levin Group C, ex peter Williamson/Mike Quinn/Slex Surplice car. Information to current rr owner or whereabouts Doug Clark 02 6644 9723237 WWW.105.com/20253

OPINION

Djoitrsport

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F3 fever

I attended the latest round of the PROCAE Championship Series at Wakefield Park, and I came away very impressed!

The one category that really got my attention was the Formula 3 cars - they are really something else! They are just like FI cars!

The qualifying sessions and races were just awesome! I witnessed some of the most intense action in my 25 years offollowing motorsport. They even had a car flip-over in the first race.

I don’t understand why they don’t get more media coverage (TV and print). They could be huge.

I can only see them getting bigger especially when Webber and/or Courtney get a competitive drive in FI.

Perhaps Motorsport News could give the championship more coverage - because I had no idea it was at its current level until the weekend.

They’ve certainly made one new

fan!

converter

race from the back of the field and make two pitstops insted of one’. Maybe then Ford will be happy.

MN on the airwaves

Aaron Topp aa_topp@hotmail.com

The dirty ‘P’ word. Again. Well, now we hear that dirty ‘parity’ word again.

What else do Ford want? They already have the full version of Holden’s undertray, while Holden use a cut down version oftheir own undertray.

Oh,I know someone is going to say ‘the Fords were slowed dovm, why arent the Holdens getting slowed down?’

What’s funny about this is that they always seem to forget that the Fords were slowed down because they were using lightweight body shells.

Wasn’t a Ford on pole at Oran Park? Oh that’s right, they are only slower in the race and Ambrose used up all his tyres tring to catch Skaife.

It couldn’t have been becouse he had to charge back through the pack after his team did a 25 sec pitstop, could it? Hang on, didn’t he finish second in the last race? If all the Holdens are up the front of the field, he would have had to pass a fair few of them to get up to second, wouldn’t he? Two of them would of been HRT cars, wouldn’t they?

So what will AVESCO try to do next to stop HRT from winning? We have already seen longer races, reverse top six races now longer races with pitstops and HRT became the best at all of them.

Next year we might see rules such as ‘if you race under the TWR banner, you will have to start every

(ED: who?), who may,instead of yelling “Big off at the Chase, big off at the Chase - it’s a Commodore - can’t tell the number or driver yet”, would say, “There goes Ingall, the team were talking about the rear left damper playing up!” Richard Dobson dobbo89@hotmail.com

ED:There’s a website in the planning stages. Stay tuned.

Country Comfort

Well done Winton! I made the trip up there at the weekend dreading the long queues to get into the place, only to find that the problem has been solved. The new main gate, out front, seemed to \york and we had little problem getting in and out.

As the last of the great country race tracks, I’d hate to see it disappear fi’om the series to make way for some other Big City Colin Marshall Big Buck AVESCO Super zerotolerance316@msn.com Promotion. They deserve to keep their spot- there seems to be something new each time and they certainly draw a good country crowd.

Have you guys thought about producing a website, a-la Autosport, with an option of Radio Bathurst 1000?

Radio Le Mans was fantastic. I could surf the web while having the commentary in the background, and in the slow points they read out the e-mails from around the world.

I plead ignorant when it comes to costs, I have no idea whatsoever, but please try not to use the existing commentary - they take themselves way too seriously. I would rather see (hear?) someone like Chris Lambden

It seemed like a huge crowd turned up. Shame the result was the same.

It looked to me like the TWR boys were pretty much cruising out front and it took a pit stop mess up to push Skaife down the queue.

If, as you say, the Fords have a downforce problem, then it should be fixed before they rename it Formula Holden

Andrew Hillman Coburg, VIC

PS: Go Brocky!

Feel the Comfort

Phil

Branagan

- Motorspart News