Motorsport News Issue 243 - October 30-November 12, 2002

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Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST No. 243 October 30-November 12 2002

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Extreme velocity, violent vendettas - this is the future of ra.dng.Take the wheel of a h<^ercraft that travels at over I OOOkm/h.

Marvel over it’s customised weapons. Remind yourself before you turn the ignition...there are no second prizes.

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Issue 243

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30 October -12 November 2002

news and opinion 5

Indy’s rainman Who the hell is Mario Dominguez anyway?

7

Rusty hates Brighty Not really - but he is a bit upset

10 Team USA goes MIA Gurney and Bernie head the FI news

herds; Mexico's No.'l Salsas

12 Euro testing frenzy Davo, Marcus and 2 Jameses test 25 Motor Mouth Mr Lambden gets some lead in his pencil 26 Box Seat Saward knows who Mark Skaife is. Yee har 82 Talk Converter You’ve had a busy fortnight, readers. Go on; get it off your chest

foaturos 28 Five Minutes With Jason Bargwanna How to end a drought, Bargs-style 30 Mistaken Identity A chat with Murray Walker. He’s retired but he still loves it 32 Lunching with the Young Guns We ate with Paul Dumbrell, Nathan Pretty, Greg Ritter and Matty White and then went to Timezone and got thrashed 36 Hot to trot The Bathurst 1000 could not destroy Mark Skaife’s engine. HRT

race coverage

Photos: Cover; Dirk Klynsmith.

Contents: sutton-images.com.

John Morris/Mpix and Aaron Noonan.

regulars 62 Raiiying

67 Speedway

68 NASCAR

72 Histories

74 National Scene

76 Marketpiace

70 Drag Racing 3

The farce and the fu

CART officials swing into damage-control mode as criticism mounts over Iasi

by MARK GLENDENNING

LAST weekend’s Honda Indy 300 ended amid a storm of controversy regarding both the conditions imder which it was run and the circumstances under which it ended.

The race was initially delayed by a start-line accident involving eight cars that was brought about by the poor weather conditions, and caused minor injuries to Tora Takagi and Adrian Fernandez.

The restart came 75 minutes later, however continuing deterioration of the track conditions led to just seven racing laps being completed before finally being declared over after 40 laps, 10 fewer than the planned 50 (which itself had been reduced from the scheduled 70 due to the delays in cleaning up debris from the accident).

The cars spent all but seven laps circulating behind the Safety Car. Most talk concerned the decision to flag the race on lap 40. Under CART rules, a race is deemed ‘official’ once it has reached the halfway mark of the scheduled distance. Given that the original race distance was 70 laps, this made 36 laps the point at which the race could be declared.

The call to extend the race by an extra four laps under heavy rain and failing light mystified many onlookers, and the fact that Michael Andretti was leading at that point(he pitted a lap later, handing the lead to eventual winner Mario Dominguez)even sparked a line of thought among conspiracy theorists that CART may have deliberately pushed the finish point beyond Ajidretti’s pit window to prevent an IRL-bound driver from taking the win.

According to CART Vice President of Racing Operations John Lopes, this was not the case.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

“In fact, I observed the stewards making their decision, and it was a very tough decision because we were in a situation where there were several drivers cycled to have pitstops on laps 36 and 37. As such, the stewards didn’t want to play God and choose who was going to win the race.

“So they stepped aside and convened and decided what was the best way to conduct the finish of the race. And that was to have the race go as long as possible, with respect to light, and cycle 4

everyone through their pitstops at least two times.”

CART Steward Chris Kniefel elaborated.

“Keeping in mind that the maximum number for the pitstop window was 20 laps, that’s where 40 kind of became the magic number; 40, 41 was the magic number there, and obviously as we crept closer to 40, the weather persisted in a downward trend,light was obviously difficult, and, uh,the pace car was running out of gas ...

“I would venture to guess that, no matter what lap we picked, there was going to be people that were happy, and people that were not happy.

“I think it goes without saying that it’s not our job to worry about who we please and who we don’t please. Nor is it our job to look and see who might win, who might not win, based on the different strategies that might play out.

“It’s our job to attempt to make decisions that are based on integrity and thoughtfulness, and we really believe that getting to a point where everyone will have had to have made an equal number of pitstops was a fair decision.

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No manor where we came down on this one, it wasn't preny"

- CART Steward Chris Kniefel

“Obviously in the Michael Andretti situation, they pitted, I beheve, on lap 16, which would’ve took them to 36, which would have been the munber at which it became an official race. If you wanted to look carefully into that, there would be a very interesting rulebook interpretation based on that.

“Technically, he was due in the pits on lap 36. And I would venture to guess, although I certainly would not be so presumptuous as to speak for anyone, that the cars that were immediately behind Michael at that time, which were the two Team Rahal cars of Vasser and Jourdain, pitted on lap 17. It’s entirely possible that they had a different interpretation of that rule.

“We were in a situation, guys, where no matter where we came down on this one, it wasn’t pretty.

And we were very aware of that.

“I can assure you that any insinuation that I and my fellow stewards made a decision that was based on doing something wrong to Michael Andretti because of his

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Raincheck: Michel Jourdain Jr’s car goes showerproof for morning warm-up, right. The race itself, above, was a different matter...

(Photos by sutton-images.com)

decision to go race in another series is just wrong.”

But many believed that it was a mistake to go ahead with the race in the first place. CART confirmed that they had actually investigated the possibility of red-flagging the race and rescheduling it for the following day, and also stated that pulling the plug was not considered an option.

“Nothing would have made me happier than to red-flag it and come back tomorrow,” said Lopes.

“We actually talked to the promoter early on in the race to ask him if we could race tomorrow.

He said no. It has to do with business interruption issues and street closure issues. And we also wanted to give the fans who paid their money and travelled so far to be here a chance to see the cars on track, and we also wanted to have a chequered flag.

“If not,if we would have redflagged the race, we would have had one ofthe races in the championship go without points awarded.

“So we decided to move forward in a very, very difficult situation. It was really our only option”.

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nous weekend's washout

NEWS TWR in full Prince of darkness combat mode?

SO who the hell is Mario Dominguez?

If you were asking yourself that question when the Mexican rookie was skiing around the streets of Surfers Paradise in the closing stages of last weekend's bizarre CART round, you probably weren't alone.

The Mexico City-born 26year-old entered the series this year after spending three seasons contesting Indy Lights, where he scored one win (at Miami in 1999) and finished fourth overall last year as a member of the PacWest Lights team. Prior to that, he spent the four years splitting his time between Mexican F3 and Mexican F3000.

He took out the F3 title in 1998 - the same year he made his first Lights appearances but a more critical point in his career came two years earlier, when he made his first links with Grupo Herdez.

It was an emotional first win for Mario, but even more so for the team. Herdez Competition formed out of the ashes of the Bettenhausen Motorsports outfit, an earthy, Minardi-esque team that gave such luminaries as Helio Castroneves and Patrick Carpentier their first shot in Champ Cars, but never actually made it to the top of the podium.

The team was dealt a devastating blow when team

owner Tony Bettenhausen and wife Shirley perished in a plane crash in early 2000. It seemed that the team would fold, but Grupo Herdez stepped in and assumed control of the operation. Memories of Bettenhausen still run close to the surface among CART circles, and on that front, Sunday's result was a popular one.

Going into last Sunday's race, Dominguez was as dark a horse as one could imagine. Neither CART officials or drivers had much experience running under the kind of conditions that they were faced with, which meant that just about anything could happen. When the field spends 33 of 40 laps behind a Safety Car, everyone is equal. There was no racing to speak of, which reduced proceedings to a strategic game of cat and mouse.

Dominguez's team took the approach that from the back of the field, they had nothing to lose. They gambled, they got lucky, they won. The winner was quick to congratulate the team on their strategy after the race, and with good reason.

After the first round of stops were completed, for instance, the Herdez Competition Lola Ford was the biggest mover, having gained eight positions on the track. To an extent, you can make your own luck ...

-MARKGLENDENNING

i002 HONDA m 300 GOLD COAST QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA

BRINGING back the draft...

Okay, it sounds a little weird, but a good source told Motorsport News that there were marketing men from the Australian Defence Forces at Indy to talk about a deal to sponsor a TWR Commodore next season.

We asked and got some puzzledlooking responses, and we would be stunned to see it happen.

And what happens if you hit a camouflage-bedecked car in a race?

"I didn't see him Bondy, honest ..." n So where will the TBAs listed on AVESCO's 2003 calendar be?

There should be an announcement soon but, in the ipeantime, we hear that two of the decision makers from the company were sighted at Darlington Park in Queensland recently, adding fuel to the flames that the Queensland 500 may not be as deceased as we think it was. n Speaking of AVESCQ, we hear that there will be at least one announcement regarding its support program for next season.

We have been told that there are still a few things to be signed but that TWO classes that have never appeared on their undercard before will be definite starters for '03. n Eeeen Zeeed: With Pukekohe the next stop of the V8 Supercar Championship Series trail, the latest rumours filtering back across the Tasman indicate an interest in reviving the Wellington street race.

The event, last run on sprint race format for the V8s in 1996 and beforehand being a 500-kilometre Group A enduro, would form a double-header over two weekend, becoming a 'twin' race with the Pukekohe round.

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n The weather put paid to the plans that the Flonda Indy 300 organisers had to top the 300,000 spectator mark for the first time. In the end, 298,000 punters came to the event over four days, still a record.

And even the ones who showed up must have been grateful for some rain; we need it.

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■ Apologies to all our readers for a glitch in the last issue. We inadvertently reprinted pages 8 and 9 from a previous issue, due to a technical problem in the production process.

It seems that three bags got sucked into one of our computer's intake ducts, and as a punishment, the person at the keyboard will be waxing Jason Bargwanna's new surfboard this summer. Sorry.

5

Monaro gets Ingall even Prettier

by PHIL BRANAGAN

Richo Junior and Nathan get 24 call-up THE two lucky blokes who will join Garth Tander in the Bathurst 24-Hour will be Steven Richards and Nathan Pretty.

The Castrol Perkins and Holden Young Lions drivers, who finished second and fourth respectively in the Bathurst 1000, were named in the squad on Monday, and are looking forward to coming to grips with the yellow Just Car Insurance-sponsored weapon.

"The Monaro should hold a home ground advantage against the world's best," said Richards. "The car will be strong and fast and the distance is no worry."

Despite their considerable racing experience, neither driver has competed in a 24Hour race before, Richards's sole experience coming as an engine man for Nissan during

his stint with the team in 1998.

"I've always had aspirations for this sort of event but never had the opportunity," said Pretty. "To team up with long distance men like Garth and Richo will be a great experience Both 'rookies' were due to join Tander in testing the car at Winton yesterday (Tuesday), with more testing due before the Garry Rogers Motorsport 32-strong team heads to Bathurst for the November 15-17 event.

MEANWHILE, Holden Special Vehicles has unveiled the road-going version of the car at the Sydney Motor Show.

The first order for the near$200,000 machine has already been placed by PROCAR boss Ross Palmer.

THE incident between Jason Bright and Russell Ingall in Race 1 of the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge at Surfers has been deemed to be a ‘racing’ incident by the Stewards- and The Enforcer is not impressed.

The two Holden Commodores were dicing on lap 12 when, approaching the Fosters Chicane, the Holden Racing Ifeam driver got a run on Ingall’s Castrol car. After running over the kerb to Ingall’s right, the two emerged from the chicane side-by-side and made contact. Ingall hammering into the wall and out ofthe race.

His car was damaged badly enough to require a substantial rebuild before it is shipped to New Zealand for the next round ofthe V8 Supercar Championship Series.

‘Tt was a pretty low act,” said IngaU. “There is a driver etiquette and there’s tracks where you can do it and there are tracks where you can’t. Indy is one ofthe tracks where you don’t.

slams “The stewards deemed it a ‘racing incident’. They set the guidehnes for driver conduct and hope that they stay consistent.

“What he was thinking, I don’t know. It is a lack of procedure by the officials. He should have been blackflagged for hitting me in pitlane.”

The two cars had already tangled earher in the race, when both headed in to make their compulsory pitstops nose to tail and Bright’s front hit IngaU’s rear in pit lane.

Both continued with damage, though no action was taken by officials.

“I went from 40 kays to 60 with the hit! I was actually worried that I would be black-flagged for speeding in pit lane, and get a drive-through penalty. If he had turned me around in pitlane, I could have hit someone.

Imagine what that would have been hke. But nothing happened; I was dumbfounded.

“It was a big bucks accident.

There is a heU of a lot of work for the boys to do. They had to strip the car down to the shell; you don’t need to do stuIFlike that right before New Zealand.”

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Well be back next year to make up for this,” says race winner Mario Dominguez

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AVESCO has a heart and showed it on the weekend. Tony Cochrane, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes were present when the V8 Supercar body handed over a cheque for $25,000 to the Red Cross's appeal for the Bali tragedy. OzEmail Racing also advertised the appeal, on the roof of John Bowe's AU. Sounds like a good idea to dip into your pockets, visit the National Australia Bank and pay up for a good cause, fans.

■ While it might have taken a while for Channel 10's V8 Supercar experts to figure out who actually won the round at Surfers ... Jason Bargwanna's win was the fourth of his career and was the first time this season that someone who was not in the shootout won a round. r

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CART drivers have voiced their disappointment over the circumstances surrounding last weekend’s Honda Indy 300.

“Well, I mean, it sucked,” third place-getter Paul Tracy said bluntly. ‘What can you say. Mother Nature just dealt us a bad hand today, and it was out of everybody’s control. We came here to race, thousands of miles, and we wanted to put on a show.”

Race winner Mario Dominguez agreed, and highlighted the difficulty of the conditions that the drivers were faced with.

“I remember the team told me to stay away from the pace car, and I said, ‘I can’t stay away too much, because I can’t see where I’m going. I just have to follow him to see where I’m going.’

“It was a tough race.

Unfortunately it rained, and the people here in Australia couldn’t get to see the best show that we can put together. But we’ll be back next year and make up for this

AVESCO digs deep for Bali

one. I want to thank everybody who came to the track and even in the pouring rain, stayed until the very end.”

“I think the decision was right that we run behind the pace car,” said second-placed Patrick Carpentier.

“There was no other way we could have done it. We were hoping that it would stop raining and maybe we would start again, but it was too dangerous. In a race like that, whatever you decide ... if you had stopped the race five lapped earlier, I would have been pissed off. But they stopped five laps later, so Fm pretty happy but someone else is pissed off.”

Tony Kanaan was one of several adrivers who expressed their sympathy for the fans who weathered the deluge.

“I feel really bad for the fans because that had to be a tough thing to sit through ... the ones that stuck around, anyway.”

- MARK GLENDENNING

■ There were athletes aplenty at the track over the course of the weekend. Swimmers Michael Klim and Geoff Heugill were on the scene, along with four-time surfing World Champ Layne Beachley. Mick Doohan was there, as was former Wimbledon champ (and Honda ambassador) Evonne Cawley. And a bunch of footy players, whose names escape us ...

■ Honda is taking its new Indy Racing League program very seriously.

The head of Honda Performance Division, Robert Clarke, reported that the company will build a new factory in California to accommodate the program, with its in-house engines coming on-line in 2004.

■ Friday night's Honda Indy Ball at the Marriott was a hoot, the highlight of which was a series of door prizes.

The top gong was a night's accommodation at the hotel and the winner was none other than Mr and Mrs T Schenken of Melbourne. Let's hope the limo from the airport doesn't hit the kerbs.

■ The update on the Carrera Cup situation is that Cup Car, the company formed to run the Carrera Cup, has been granted "preferred tender status" by CAMS, bringing the introduction of the class in 2003 one step closer. Representatives from the organisation were busy in meetings as we went to press as the terms and conditions of the category management agreement were being thrashed out.

■ The bunfight over HSV wheel sizes was rectified in the lead-up to the GT-Performance support races at the Honda indy 300 over the weekend. CAMS gave the OK for HSV racers to use 18 x 9 wheels on the 300-kilowatt machines after the issue came to a head at the Phillip Island PROCAR Champ Series round and the V8 machines didn't race.

7

20 cars in 2003 CART I

DESPITE recent defections from its ranks to the Indy Racing League, CART will field a 20-car grid next season, according to the company's Chief Executive Chris Pook.

At least two new two-car teams will be coming into the category next season, according to Pook. But the former Long Beach Grand Prix promoter would not identify which teams, or drivers, may be involved.

"I do not want to make your job easier for you," he told Motorsport News. “But there will be good news, and quite a bit of it, in the next few weeks."

While Pook was being coy, MN believes that one of the teams may be sourced from Super Nova’s Formula 3000 operation. In its 11-year history, the British-based team, run by former driver David Sears, has won three driver's titles (for Vincenzo Sospiri, Ricardo Zonta and Juan Montoya).

Zonta's name is being connected with the team while the identity of the other driver remains a well-kept secret.

However, former Super Nova driver Kenny Brack is out of contract with Target Team Ganassi and maintains a friendship with Sears, who has been spotted at a number of CART events this season ...

The other British connection to the series is Johnny Herbert.

by PHIL BRANAGAN

Site'll he rinlit: Chris Pook expecls 20 cars in 2003. even if Ganassi am!co r/'fc.,,,, M don i come hack to pit lane. l.lgl * C

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li The FI veteran has maintained a desire to run in the US since his retirement from GP racing at the end of 2000 and our sources suggest that he has secured major backing to take to the series, possibly from oil giant BP. Player's, which will field three cars next year for Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani, may look at fielding a fourth car.

Rumours had connected former CART champion and BAR FI star Jacques Villeneuve to the drive but, with that option

now seemingly exhausted, it appears that the man first in line to fill any fourth seat is likely to be Michael Valiante, left.

The 22-year-old from British Columbia finished second in the Toyota Atlantic Championship this year with Lynx Racing and is considered to be the heir apparent to the mantle of the late Greg Moore. Both Tagliani and Carpentier are graduates of the same series as Valiante.

Herdez Competition, which won its maiden CART race at the weekend, is expected to expand to a two-car operation, with a TBA joining Honda Indy 300 winner Mario Dominguez.

A series of other announcements are also expected soon, including the confirmation that current Ganassi driver Bruno Junqueira will join Newman-Haas Racing, possibly alongside 2001 F3000 champ Justin Wilson, who tested impressively for the team earlier this month.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

THERE will be Champ Cars races at Surfers Paradise until 2008, at least, after a five-year agreement between race organisers and CART was announced last weekend.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and CART Chief Executive Officer Chris Pook made the announcement that the series would return to the track in the long-term, ending speculation that the event would become solely a V8 Supercar round if cart’s current troubles continued.

The two parties have an ‘in principle’ agi-eement, with contract matters still to be discussed.

“This means we have secured the race until 2008,” Mr Beattie said in pit lane.

“If you put this amount of money into Queensland Tourism in the USA, you would get almost nothing for it.”

Pook said he was “delighted” with the Premier's announcement; “It is fantastic to know that we ^5

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Fernandez te miss Fentana No more

ADRIAN Fernandez will miss California Speedway’s round of the FedEx Championship Series at this weekend and is in doubt for the season closer in Mexico City.

Fernandez was involved in a multi-car pileup at the start of Sunday’s Honda Indy 300 and, after being extricated from his broken Lola/Honda, was examined in the track medical centre.

“After further CT scanning, Adrian has two thoracic fractures at T-2 and T-3(below the neck)," said CART’S Director of Medical Affairs Dr. Steve Olvey.

“They do not require surgery and there is no risk to the spinal column. He will be wearing a cervical collar for comfort and will keep his flight (to the United States)tomorrow (Monday, as we went to press).

“He will not be able to drive at Fontana, and the question of Mexico City will determined later in the week.”

Fernandez was released from hospital on Sunday night and returned to his hotel to rest for the flight to his home in Arizona.

“It’s unfortunate that once again I was in the wrong 8

deliveries

place at the wrong time,” said Fernandez.

“The visibility was zero and everyone was being extra cautious. I was hit from behind and Tora (Takagi)’s car landed on top of my head. It could have killed me.

Neither Fernandez or his team co-owner Tom Anderson made an announcement regarding a replacement driver but it is almost certain to be Max Papis. The Italian subbed for the team at Mid-Ohio when Fernandez was injured in a multi-car crash at Vancouver.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

CART CEO Chris Pook confirmed in Australia that FedEx will cease to be the title sponsor of its Champ Car series at the end of this season.

'The relationship has been wonderful," Pook said of FedEx. ‘They shipped a lot of stuff out of our paddocks. But in this sort of series you need a sponsor active in the retail market. That was never FedEx’s game plan, but I hope they will continue to work with us.”

CART held talks with a potential new series sponsors in Australia over the weekend.

-QUENTIN SPURRING motorsport news

»

NEWS

i new 5-yp deal Five plus five equals Channel Ten? We dunno, but Peter Beattie and CART CEO Chris Pook were happy to (Photo by Dirk Klynsmith) announce the new five-year deal, will be coming back for another five years.”

This year, the Honda Indy 300 shared hilling with the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge which was,for the first time, a round of the championship. The V8s will also

appear on the program next season, when the category's contract for their races ends.

There will he a new namingrights sponsor for the Indy 300 next season. Honda, which has sponsored the event for the last

four years, ended it deal last weekend, and will not return to the race.

Honda is leaving Champ Car racing at the end of the season and will compete in the rival Indy Racing League next season.

Richo wants to win something eise...

HAVING won just about everything he has competed in, Jim Richards is on the lookout for new worlds to rule - and whispers are that he has his sights set on the Classic Adelaide Rally.

Richards is building a Porsche 911 RSR, which, if completed in time, he will take to the event next year.

Richards completed three days of this year's edition of the event in the Parade section, driving one of the distinctive Paris-Dakar winning Porsche 959 4WD cars.

If Richards does make it to next year's event, long-time Targa Tasmania co-driver Barry Oliver will again be strapped into the navigator's seat. n Ian Dyk is the latest racer to commit to next year's national Formula Ford series. The 16-year-old has the backing of Selleys and Dulux for his campaign and will run a 1998 model Van Diemen, which is currently undergoing a rebuild. n Spencer Lowndes will contest this weekend's Telstra Rally Australia behind the wheel of the Lancer EVO Vi that he has steered for the duration of the 2002 ARC series.

Lowndes was due to do the event in the EVO VII that team-mate Ed Ordynski drove for much of the year, but the car was severely damaged when Ordynski hit a pole in the Tasmanian ARC round, and Ralliart Australia has been unable to get the car fixed in time for Spencer to take the wheel. Ordynski will drive the new VII that he debuted at Rally Hokkaido. n Michael Schumacher borrowed a Minardi two-seater racer earlier this week and took to the Ferrari test track at Fiorano to give some of his friends a ride with him in an FI car. The Minardi two-seater was painted red especially for the occasion and the five-time World Champion completed more than 100 laps of the track just having fun and giving his friends a thrill.

Pencil Cris in for FI CRISTIANO da Malta has confirmed that he has an offer on the table to drive in Formula One next year.

But don’t listen to him - he /S going to be racing alongside Olivier Panis in 2003.

Speaking at the Honda Indy 300 at the Gold Coast last weekend, da Matta admitted that the Formula One offer was there, but that he had not 30 October 2002

yet decided whether to accept it.

“For me, it’s a pretty difficult decision," said da Matta.

“That’s the only reason why it is taking so long.

The decision is up to me.” da Matta claimed that he is still unsure of when he will make the final decision.

-MARKGLENDENNING

n Formula 1 teams do not use tobacco branding in Britain but the British government continues to campaign against tobacco sponsorship, despite the fact that most of Europe is happy to wait until the FIA-backed ban on tobacco sponsorship begins in 2006. This makes it harder for those who argue that Belgium is being excessive in its demands to ban tobacco sponsorship within its own borders.The British legislation last week received an unopposed third reading in the House of Commons and now goes forward for Royal Assent before becoming law, possibly by the end of the year.

-JOE SAWARD/STAFF

9

ten home of

[motorsport] V8 Supercar Championship* Nov 10 ...Pukekohe .Rd12 Dec 1 Sandown ,Rd13

US FI dpeam is

CART FedEx Championship* .Rd19 Nov 3 ... .California Nations Cup Nov 17 .. .Bathurst .(non Championship)

World Rally Championship* ,Rd13 Nov 14-17 .Great Britain .Rd14

Nov 1 -3 ...Australia ...

World Series Sprintcars .Rd1

Nov 16 .. .Bunbury ....

Nov 23 ,..Kwinana ....

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.Rd3

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Mar 22-23 .Adelaide ....

.Rd 1

Apr13 ... .Phillip Island

.Rd2

May 4

.Rd3

Eastern Creek

May 25 .. .Winton

.Rd4

June 8 ... .Barbagallo ..

.Rd5

Jun 29 Hidden Valley Jul20 ....T.B.A

.Rd7

Aug 17 ...Oran Park ...

.Rd8

,Rd2

I Mar 22 ...Adelaide Eastern Creek

,Rd3

J July 6 ... .Phillip Island ..

H Aug 3 ... .Winton

.Rd5

,Rd4 ,Rd6

I Aug 30 .. .Mallala

.(non Championship)

2003 Formula 1 Championship Albert Park

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Mar 23 .. .Malaysia .Brazil

■Rd2

Apr 6

,Rd3

Apr 20 .. . .San Marino

.Rd4

May 4 ... .Spain ....

,Rd5

2003 CART FedEx Champianship* Feb 23 . . .St Petersburg

.Rd1

.Monterrey . .

.Rd2

Apr 13 . . . .Long Beach

,Rd3

Apr 27 . . . .Europe . . . .

.Rd4

May 4

Rockingham

.Rd5

May 18 . . .Chicago . . .

.Rd6

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

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I 2003 Konica V8 Series* n Feb 23 .. .Wakefield Park ,Rd1

Mar 23

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.Rd4

Mar 9 .. . .Albert Park .. .{non Championship)

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2003 V8 Supercar Championship*

H Oct 10 ... .Bathurst

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Nov 27 ...Kalgoorlie ...

Nov 30 ...Adelaido ....

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

4 It’s just the bottles talking: After Gurney devoured his win nings, he decided an ali-American F1 team was just the thing to do ... {Photo by Sutton-lmages)

DAN Gurney's plan to creaite an all-American Formula 1 team next year,announced,at Indianapolis only a month ;ago, has been put on hold becaiase the money needed could not be found in the time available.

“The conditions to enter IFl at this particular moment in time are in some ways more favourable than in the recent past,” said Gurney.

“There are grid spots,emgine availability, the possibility to purchase existing teams aiad technology, but other circumstances relating mostly to the economy and the availability of multi-year sponsorship look less promising.

“Some xmcertainty in the future direction of Formula 1 racing does not help, eitheir.

“The deadline we set for ourselves has not been met. We were not prepared to comnnit to a situation which was not properly funded for at leasrt three years.”

Gurney said that there w~as huge interest in the idea, with most Americans feeling that it would be a huge boost to oj>en wheel racing in America.HEe

j

1

The Eagle has landed. Not: Gurney in his glorious prime at the wheel of the F1 Eagle.

(Photo by Sutton-lmagos)

hopes to be able to push ahead with the idea at some point in the not too distant future.

Will the F1 Commission achieve anything The Formida 1 Commission meeting on October 28 - just as Motorsport News was going to press - was being billed as the most important meeting in the sport for 20 years, but there were no signs that anything positive would come from it.

The FIAhas proposed a series of ideas that it says are designed to improve the FI show and cut costs.

Some of these are revolutionary and have raised important issues for the sport (as indeed they were intended to do).

The FIA's suggestion that drivers could switch from team to team in the course of a season is impossible in practical terms, but the suggestion that weight might be added to cars when they score points appears to be deadly serious.

While the structure being suggested does not penalise anyone too much (as the teams will

FIA President Max Mosley: Playing the numbers game, (pnoiobysunon-imaoes) all end up carrying weight and so the best car will still be the winner) it is against everythirug for which Formula 1 has stood for the last 50 years and so is being

opposed by many.

Some of the smaller operations, however, seem to be planning to vote in favour of the proposal.

- JOE SAWARD motorsport oews

dead

NEWS The FI cash Bernard checks fight continues CART’S accounts BERNIE Ecclestone is considering buying into Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc, but CART President Chris Pook is cmrently saying “there are no formal discussions going on about our relationship with Formula 1”.

Our sources say that there is definitely activity taking place, with CART having now allowed Ecclestone’s legal people to look at the books and contracts CART currently has in place.

Once these have been assessed, there may then be what Pook calls “formal discussions” and so the possibility that Ecclestone will take over CART remains real-even if Pook would rather that the talks are not in the pubhc domain.

“I have known Bernard for 30 years,” said Pook on the weekend.

“There are many things for us to talk about.”

CART last week announced a

second amendment to its statutes to allow deny Forsythe to increase his ownership of CART to 24.9 percent.

The original statutes were designed to ensure that CART shareholders receive fair value and equal treatment in the event of any takeover ofthe company, although, according to the announcement made,this amendment is “not being made in response to any proposal to acquire CART”.

Under the new deal, if anyone tries to buy more than 15 percent of the CART stock, without the agreement ofthe board of directors, the shareholders must be offered beneficial terms on their stock.

This rule is designed to avoid any hostile takeover. That looks like simple good housekeeping by the CART men,just in case Ecclestone concluded that he would do a deal without the agreement ofthe board.

-JOESAWARD /PHIL BRANAGAN

China lands FI race The final contracts to allow the Chinese Grand Prix to go ahead on a new track being built in Shanghai have been signed and the new race has been announced.

The first Chinese GP will take place in 2004 and the initial contract runs until 2010.

The contract will be dependent on the track being cleared by the FIA for safety, but this is not likely to be a problem as the design work on the project has been done by

German architect Hermann Tilke.

Getting a Grand Prix in China has long been one of the goals of Formula 1 and the sport’s sponsors will be delighted as the race will give them direct access to the country’s estimated 1.2 billion people.

The economy has been improving recently and is now the second largest in the world behind the United States and has annual growth of something like five percent. With a growing consumer

class in China, it is the major target of the international car companies and many of the other F1 sponsors as well.

Work on the new facility will begin immediately and everything should be completed by March 2004.

The circuit is designed to hold a crowd of 200,000 spectators and the plans include a major automotive theme park next to the circuit, similar in concept to the facilities at Suzuka.

-JOE SAWARD

MAIMNIE FOLD: THE ULTIMATE TRACKSIDE FAN-BOY

FOUR Formula 1 teams - BAR, Jordan, McLaren and Williams - are to enter arbitration over the Prost Grand Prix benefit money that was paid earlier this year to Minardi.

The four companies intend to start proceedings against Formula One Management in the International Chamber of Commerce in Lausanne, Switzerland. Minardi principal Paul Stoddart said that, if the arbitration panel was to rule against FOM and he had to repay the money, his Anglo-ltaiian team would be likely to go out of business.

However McLaren, at least, has confirmed that its main motivation is to get the rules clarified. Following the failure of Alain Frost's company in France, its share of FOM's 2001 TV and travel benefits fund became the subject of a protracted dispute.

Most of the teams wanted it distributed throughout the grid, but Minardi, which had finished immediately below Prost in the 2001 Constructors championship, made a case claiming all the money.

Eventually it was paid to Minardi

by Bernie Ecclestone's company, on the personal recommendation of FIA president Max Mosley.

n The city of Beijing has started building an Fl-standard circuit to rival the new Chinese Grand Prix venue in Shanghai. The first foundations of the $240m project were laid in a Beijing suburb this week. n The mayor of Moscow has squarely blamed Bernie Ecclestone for the fact that Formula 1 will not be coming to the Russian capital. Yuri Luzhkov told Russian news agency RIA: "We wanted to stage the Grand Prix, but he (Ecclestone) wanted to keep all the rights for the eventticketing, TV, advertising. That's why the negotiations failed. It would have left us with only engine smoke..."-QUENTIN SPURRING

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James tests Courtney in Arden F3000 at Imola

JAMES Courtney has completed his first test in an F3000 machine,spending two days in an official test at Imola for the Arden squad, which lost this year's title to Supernova.

The runner-up in this year's British F3 Championship for Carlin Motorsport, Courtney's best time of 1m37.641.s stood up well against drivers with far more experience in the cars and on the circuit. He was seventh fastest on the first day of testing and fourth fastest of the second day times.

Discussions and negotiations are continuing, regarding his 2003 program, which should be decided in the next month.

Patrick Friedsacher topped the times for European Minardi team with a 1m36.703s, while Gohried Armin Crasser, in the other Minardi machine, wasn't up to the same pace.

Also in action, albeit just for one day of the two day test.

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Taking over: Courtney testedfor Tomas Enge’s old team, Arden.

(Photo by sulton-images.com)

was another Aussie in Rob Nguyen. The Astromega driver ran a best of 1 m38.986s last Thursday, good enough to be fifth quickest for the day.

Marshall goes Murray

Welcome to English weatherl The weather wasn't nice when Marshall took the Murray Racing machine onto the Silverstone circuit last Friday ...

QUEENSLANDER Marcus Marshall will join forces with top line British Formula Ford squad Murray Racing as it makes the move to Formula Renault for the upcoming Winter Festival, to be run at Brands Hatch and Donington on consecutive weekends in mid-November.

"We did some testing at Silverstone in the wet on Friday, which was really good," Marshall told Motorsport News. "We were testing among F3 cars, so with no other FRenaults there we were really running off the times of the F3 cars that were there.

"It's a really new tub, very well presented and got all the gear.

The car's right on the pace. Murray Racing offered me a better deal, basically (than Motaworld, for which Marshall had already tested). It's an easier option for me. Enthusiasm is very high at Craig's (Murray's) team, everyone's very keen.

"There's some really switched on people in the team who have engineering experience with these cars and F3, so that's positive too."

-AARON NOONAN 12

by AARON NOONAN WILL Davison has had his first taste of Formula 3 power in an Alan Docking Racing DaUara/ Mugen-Honda.

After finishing fourth in the Formula Renault series, the Australian is working on a deal to 5 move into F3 next season, and tested alongside current British Champ Robbie Kerr at Silverstone last Friday.

Despite it being wet all day, the 20-year-old felt comfortable in unfamiliar surrounds.

“It was pretty torrential during the middle of day, but starting to dry by the end ofthe day.

“The car was pretty much what I expected. My first day was to get a feeling for everything in the car.

the gears, brakes etc. I got quite comfortable and towards tbe end I got into a good rhytbm. At the end of the day, I was pretty happy.

“You can instantly feel the car’s not quite as forgiving as a Renault and can snap pretty quickly. The car’s a little more on the edge.

‘You can feel the downfroce in the wet. They’ve got a lot of torque down low so you can really feel it accelerating through the gears.

“Robbie was doing some Avon tyre testing so it’s bit hard to compare times but I wasn’t too far off. I was on old tyres and he was on new, so when you put it all together, it wasn’t too bad.”

Davison said that he was due to test for the team again,'more than likely this week.

And Mand

NEWS

Enge stripped

Toyota goes allnew for 2003 ^ g ^ » I 3

TOMAS Enge,above, has been stripped of his FIA Formula 3000 title by a decision of the FIA World Motor Sport Council to exclude him from the results of the Hungarian Formula 3000 race after the Czech was found 5 to have tested positive in a random dope test. ^ Enge’s management later I confirmed rumours that the i' substance was cannabis but denied I that Enge had used the drug and I that the test must have been caused because Enge had been in the same room as someone using the drug.

The removal of Enge’s points means that Sebastian Bourdais has been confirmed as the 2002 Formula 3000 Champion.

The World Council also revealed that Enge’s racing licence is to be suspended for the next 12 months, although it was decided that if this sanction was imposed,it would probably destroy his racing career.

It was agreed that the penalty will be suspended on the understanding that Enge will submit himself to random dope

o as well!

by MARK GLENDENNING NEWLY-crowned Australian Formula 3 Champion James Manderson had his first taste of European racing when he tested for German F3 outfit Swiss Racing Team recently.

The whirlwind trip, which was slotted in between the Victorian’s F3 commitments at Phillip Island and the Gold Coast, saw Manderson fly halfway around the world for a one-day test for the team, which took out the final race in the German F3 series at Hockenheim in early October.

Poor weather hampered Manderson’s test, run around the

30 October 2002

Hockenheim short circuit, however his limited seat time was apparently enough to impress team boss Othmar Welti, who has confirmed his interest in taking Manderson on for season 2003.

The car was a latest-spec Dallara 3/02 Opel-Spiess which differed from Manderson’s 2001 BRM Dallara in a number of ways, most notably the sequential stickshift.

Manderson was accompanied by engineer John Paul Messenger who previously engineered Takuma Sato at Carlin Motorsport in the British F3 series before moving back to Australia and hooking up with BRM.

tests at any time the FIA chooses to ask him.

The championship order has been further altered by the decisions of the FIA International Court of Appeal, which also met in Paris and examined various appeals resulting from the Monza F3000 race.

The Coloni team made the appeals after the FIA Stewards of the meeting rejected the team’s protests against the Petrobras Junior Team and Team Arden.

The court ruled that the Petrobras Junior Team car raced

by Antonio Pizzonia was not in conformity with the Technical Regulations and excluded the car from the event. A separate appeal to have the race winner Bjorn Wirdheim and his Arden team mate Enge excluded failed.

The final points standings mean that Bourdais finishes ahead of Giorgio Pantano, while Enge drops to third place. Wirdheim is fourth and the best-placed rookie while the Sperafico twins, Ricardo and Rodrigo are fifth and sixth.

- JOE SAWARD

To G or not to G, that is the question...

THE new version of the famous Ford GT40 will be called the ‘Ford G’, because Ford Motor Company neglected to have the name copyright-protected when the original was built in the 1960s.

Safir GT40 Spares in Cincinnati, OH, noticed and capitalised on this omission in 1999 by registering the name for its own use.

“Of course we were prepared to let Ford have the name, but they didn’t make us an offer,” said Safir CEO Bob Wood.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

TOYOTA Motorsport in Koln, Germany, is preparing an entirely new design for its 2003 Formula 1 racecar, after its debut season with a relatively conservative 2002 design.

"The TF103 will be an all-new car," confirmed technical director Gustav Brunner.

"The steering wheel will be the only part that will stay the same as this year - but even that will only be for the first races of the season. We want to play a leading role behind Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and BMW Williams." n The annual round of Formula 1 winter testing will start in Spain at t|ie end of November, six weeks after the 2002 season finale. Ferrari and BAR are booked to appear at Barcelona over November 26-28.

McLaren, Williams, Renault, Jaguar, Sauber and Toyota are all scheduled to test at the Valencia circuit between November 26-30. The teams will also test in December, at Barcelona and Jerez. n Jordan Grand Prix will miss next month's winter Formula 1 tests, preferring to wait until early January when its all-new Cosworth chassis will be completed. This year's EJ12 cars were built for the Flonda VIO and could not easily be adapted for interim test purposes. n Next year's Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, at Barcelona on 4 May, has avoided the embarrassment of a date clash with its two-wheel counterpart. Motorcycle racing is hugely popular in Spain and the clash would have undoutatedly affected ticket sales for the FI event. But the MotoGP organisers have moved their GP, at Jerez, along a week to May 11. n Petronas, the title sponsor of the Swiss Sauber team which brands its one-year-old Ferrari VI Os, has confirmed its intention to produce its own fuel for Formula 1, The Malaysian company's scientists embarked on a fuel development programme earlier this year with engineers from Sauber Petronas Engineering. Petronas must submit fuel samples to the FIA for tests before homologation. n In addition to Sebastien Bourdais, the 2002 FIA Formula 3000 Champion, who will drive in Spain later this month, Renault FI is also to test Franck Montagny and Remain Dumas of France and Tiago Monteiro of Portugal. Renault Sport director Patrick Faure is keen to sign a French driver for a testing role in 2003 which could lead to a full-time drive.

- QUENTIN SPURRING 13

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Get ready to turn left: Target/Ganassi won at Texas with Jeff Ward this year, above, and wiil go all-out in 2003, with Scott Dixon, below, among (Photos by sutton-images.com) the driver line-up.

Chip to IRL

Dixon and Scheckter to fill seats in V3

by PHIL MORRIS CHIP Ganassi has confirmed the worst-kept secret in open wheeler racing - he’s going to the IRL lock, stock and barrel in 2003, joining with Toyota and taking Scott Dixon with him.

The Kiwi will join Tomas Scheckter, after the South African recently tested for the team at Indianapolis. The duo will run G Force chassis with Toyota power and Target continuing as sponsor.

Scheckter, who drove alongside Eddie Cheever in the Red Bull outfit in the IRL this year and won the Michigan 400 before walking out on the team late in the season, may have some hurdles to overcome.

“Tomas drove for us in 2002 on assignment from TWR Group, which currently holds his contract,” Cheever said in a statement.

“TWR Group has recently exercised its option, pursuant to their agreement with Tomas, to retain his services as a driver in 2003. In response to this recent announcement, TWR is consulting their legal advisors and intends to pursue all remedies available to them.”

Ganassi ran one car in the IRL this year for Jeff Ward, though he is now out of a full-time seat. Kenny Brack and Bruno Junqueira won’t be back with ‘team red’ in 2003, the Swede apparently with a ride sealed but not announced and the Brazihan to jump to Newman/ Haas.

“I’m very happy to be back with the team for another year,” Dixon said.

“This has been the best team in open-wheel racing for the last 10 years. It’s a great team with great people, and it’s one of the main reasons that I wanted to come back for another year.”

14

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Brabs/Pano;

McNish tests for Penske DISMISSED Toyota Formula 1 driver Allan McNish got a test run in Marlboro Team Penske’s IRL Dallara/Toyota a fortnight ago at California Speedway.

McNish flew directly to the USA from the Japanese Grand Prix, in which he had not been allowed to compete after hurting a knee in a qualifying crash.

“I drove a CART Champ Car on a road course a few years back, but I've never had the chance to experience an oval,” said the 2000 ALMS champion.

“And this is not only an oval.

It’s probably the fastest race track in the world."

-QUENTIN SPURRING

SPORTSCAR superstar David Brabham has been ditched by the Panoz team for next season, along with team mate Jan Magnussen.

The only drivers to have beaten the all-conquering Audi R8 in the American Le Mans Series over the past three season have been released one third of the way through a three-year contract.

Team owner Don Panoz said he was letting his two star drivers go because he didn't believe that the team will be able to provide them with a competitive car from the start of next year. That, he said, would be "a waste of their incredible talents."

More correctly, Panoz doesn't want to spend nearly $1 million paying two drivers at a time when he believes he has little realistic chance of challenging for the ALMS title.

Brabham, who joined Panoz in 1997, said: "I'm not too upset because after such a long period it was probably time to move on. I believe this will end up being a positive move for my

career. I've developed as a driver during my time at Panoz and I will take that to whichever team I end up at next."

Brabham is pursuing opportunities to remain in Sportscars and has been in contact with Bentley and the Champion Racing customer Audi team.

Panoz will revert to the unsuccessful LMP-07 chassis first run by the factory in the Adelaide ALMS race in 2000 and then for the first half of last year.

The 2003 Panoz contender will be a refinement of the reworked version of a car that was raced this year with a moiorsport news

NEWS

gone

McLean'S team to leave V8 Supercars at end of season

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Ford. We started 19th, stayed on the lead lap throughout the seven hours and came home eighth, but even some of the non-finishers got more air time than Cameron McLean and Tony Scott.

“Cameron and I believe it would be extremely difficult to replace such a substantial sponsorship and so we have decided reluctantly we have little choice but to sell up.”

The Brisbane operation has everything for sale,from the Level Two franchise, to its year-old exPrancing Horse/Bud Ford Falcon, transporter and all spares and equipment.

In addition, it will cancel its order for a new Falcon BA shell, which was expected to have been delivered in January.

McLean, who won the Privateers’championship in his first V8 Supercar season in 1999, says he has no plans for 2003 but may seek a drive with another team.

“We still have to complete 2002 and everyone in the team will do that to their best ability,” he said.

“We have not only V.I.P. Pet Foods but also many other sponsors who have been tremendously loyal and who will in turn earn our loyalty until the very last lap.”

by AARON NOONAN

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Going to the stars and stripes: Brabham and Magnussen will have tofind something else to drive in 2003 ...

(Photo by suiton-tmases.com)

Mugen Honda V8 in place of the original's Zytek powerplant.

The 2002 campaign with the LMP-07 was run by Multimatic squad, which has now been put in charge of developing the car around another V8, this time developed by Don Panoz's Elan Power Products division. This is believed to be the Ford-based pushrod V8 that has powered the design on which the LMP-01 Evo is based since 1997.

- GARY WATKINS 30 October 2002

PARAGON Motorsport will walk away from V8 Supercar racing at the end of this year’s championship.

The Queensland-based team, which finished a superb eighth in the recent Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst, will sell its entire operation -including Level 2 franchise - in the wake of receiving miniscule television coverage from Network Ten at Bathurst.

Main backer V.I.P. Pet Foods had told the team it would not renew its deal for 2003, because it was dissatisfied with the amount of coverage given the team during race telecasts on the Ten Network.

“It was a simple business decision by V.I.P. The owner, Tony Quinn, could not justify further investment for the amount of TV exposure our team received this year,” said team manager and co owner Ross Dillon.

“It’s hard to disagree. Bathurst was our best result of the year and it was the year’s most important race, but even then we got hardly any mention in the telecast, as many of our supporters phoned last week to tell us.

“We were the first Level'Two team to finish and only the third

Yoong to CART? ■D

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ALEX Yoong may be heading to Champ Cars in 2003.

The Malaysian Minardi driver, who is actually under option to Paul Stoddart’s team for next season, says he’s close to a jump to the ‘other’ open wheeler series.

“We are very close to signing with a winning CART team,” Yoong says. “The moment this is done, we’ll have to get the release from Minardi and we’ll move on from there. I feel a year’s racing would be better, and am looking forward to CART. “Also the fact that there is n chance to win races instead of racing at the back is veiy attractive to me.

The competition in CART is very intense.”

Moore lawsuit dismissed in US AN American court in San Bernardino, CA, has dismissed a 'wrongful death' lawsuit brought by the family of the late Greg Moore against CART and International Speedway Corporation.

Moore was killed In an accident during a CART-sanctioned Champ Car race at ISC's California Speedway in October 1999. The suit alleged negligence by both CART and the track with regard to safety precautions. n Chris Pook has predicted core changes to the CART engine regulations in 2005. In an interview with Swiss magazine 'Motorsport Aktueir, the CEO of the US sanctioning body confirmed paddock rumours that it intended to go from turbocharged V8 motors to naturally aspirated VI0 or VI2 engines, fuelled by gasoline instead of methanol.

CART has an interim two-year 'spec' engine deal with Cosworth Racing for 2003-04. n Nicolas Minassian, the Frenchman dumped by Chip Ganassi mid-way through last year's Champ Car series, has been crowned ASCAR Champion in the UK. The race series, which ran races at Rockingham in the UK and the Lausitzring in Germany, is looking good to continue building in 2003.

In the meantime, Minassian will test a Busch Series car in the US as a reward for winning the title. n Two front-running Formula 3 teams, Carlin Motorsport and Saulriier Racing (formerly known as Promatecme), have signed up for next year's Telefonica World Series by Nissan, the fast-expanding, Spanishbased series which is viewed as a rival to the FIA Formula 3000 championship, Carlin and Saulnier are well'estabiished in Europe, with numerous successes in Britain and France respectively. The additions will bring the Nissan series up to the maximum 12 two-car teams allowed under its regulations.

■ Jaques Lazier, younger brother of Buddy, has returned to the cockpit of an Indy Racing car for the first time since breaking his back at Nazareth in April. He ran 77 laps at Kentucky in the Team Menard Dallara/Chevrolet, Both he and Sam Hornish Jr both shook down the 2003-spec Chevrolet Indy V8 at the same circuit on Saturday. ''We wanted to take our time, get up to speed slowly, and complete the first test cycle for the GM engineers.

Everything feels really good so far, so we're pretty excited," said Hornish, - QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF

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Vive El Dude PAUL Morris may not have driven his Sirromet Commodore at Surfers last weekend but the car did appear - in unlikely hands.

Champ Car star Adrian Fernandez took the VX for spin around the track on Thursday, which was permissable because Morris was not entered in the race.

Instead, The Dude' was down to drive Maher Algadri's Ferrari 360 GT in the Nations' Cup events.

Fernandez found the experience interesting: "It was better than I thought," said the Mexican. "The car had plenty of power and good brakes, but I had to get used to the Flpattern (gearbox) and I have not had to heel-and-toe for about eight years..."

No word on when Morris will have a steer of the Team Fernandez Lola-Flonda ...

Jim, JB team up - in a PHR Porsche

A TOTAL of 50 entries have been received for the Bathurst 24-Hour race on November 12/13.

A surprise last-minute confimation is that Prancing Horse Racing will run one Ferrari 360GT and a Porsche GTR RS for Jim Richards/John Bowe/TBA, while Paul Morris and Sam Newman are the two drivers confirmed in the Ferrari.

The David Brabham/ Stephane Ortelli/Vic Rice/ Darren Palmer Porsche GT3 RS leads the entry list, with a sister entry for drivers all TBA’d.

But there are still a lot of entries to be finalised before the cars take to the Mount Panorama track for the inaugural race. As an example, Paul Stokell is entered in the Lamborghini Australia GTR

but said on the weekend that

Seikel Porsche with John

he may not be racing in the event, depending on what happens in the next two weeks.

Steven Richards and Nathan

Lloyd, Tony Burgess and Jurgen Alzen, while the Group 5 battle promises much,twotime GT Performance Champ Brett Peters leading the assault in the Subaru WRX Sti

Pretty have been confirmed in the factory Holden Monaro, while the Mosler GT will be driven by Martin Short, Mark Pasley and Charlie Lamb.

Long-time Kiwi visitor Andrew Bagnall is entered in a

shared with Gary Deane, Robert Rubis and John Falk.

The Future Touring also class also looks interesting, ^ith two Commodore VXs taking on two Magnas.

Bathurst 24 Hour Entry List

Group 1

No 7 10 11 20 24 25

427 999 TBA TBA TBA TBA

Car Drivers Chrysler Viper ACR D'arcy RussellABA/TBA/TBA Paul Stokell/TBA/TBA/TBA Lamborghini Diablo GTR Rollcentre Mosler MT900R Martin Short/Mark Pasley/Charles Lamb Brabham Honda NSX Ian Palmer/TBA/TBA/TBA Cirtek Porsche GTS RS David Brabham/Stephane Ortelli/Vic Rice/Darren Palmer Cirtek Porsche GTS RS TBA/TBA/TBA/TBA PHR Scuderia Ferrari 360 N-GT Paul Morris/Sam Newman/TBA/TBA GRM Holden Monaro Garth Tander/Steven Richards/Nathan Pretty PHR Scuderia Porsche GTS RS Jim Richards/John Bowe/TBA Seikel Porsche GTS RS Tony Burgess/Andrew Bagnall/John Lloyd/Jurgen Alzen Nash Porsche GTS R Mike Newton/Chris Maries/TBA/TBA Greg Crick/TBA/TBA/TBA Honda Mugen NSX Chrysler Viper ACR Matthew Mott/Scott Kelly/Kaylene Chaproniere/Matt Smith

Group 3

3 22 111 TBA TBA

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Simon Logan/Brad Hennessy/Scott Haywood/Andrew Trotter Dennis Chapman/Debbie Chapman/Lindsay & Scott O'Donnell TBA/TBA/TBA/TBA VJ Angelo/Ric Shaw/Mathew Marsh Bruce Miles/Murray Cleland/Gary Geeves

Group 5

7 9 17 25 27 33 35 57 60 77 200 220 222 TBA TBA TBA TBA

Peter Boylan/Damien White/Peter McKay Anton Mechtler/Wayne Park/Kevin Bell/Bob Hughes Trevor Haines/Mark King/Trevor Sheumack/Tony Longhurst Richard Davis/Allan Walls/Denis Cribbin/Roland Hill Wayne Russell/Steve Cramp/Garry Holt/TBA Bob Pearson/Mark Brame/Bruce Stewart/TBA RIc Shaw/TBA/TBA/TBA Graham Alexander/John Woodberry/Barry Morcom Wayne Boatwright/Ross Almond Nathan Pilkington/TBA/TBA/TBA TBA TBA TBA Mark Cohen Brett Peters/Gary Deane/Robert Rubis/John Falk Dennis Gilbert/Glenn Gilbert/Kimon Pappageorge John Payne/Scott Logan/Scott Bruce/Mike Ellett

Logan Porsche GTS BMW 3181 Haysom Toyota Supra BMW Z3M Coupe BMW 320i BMW M3 Coupe Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII Tickford TE50 HSV VX GTS BMW M3 Coupe Mazda RX-7 Series 8 Mazda RX-7 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V Subaru WRX Sti Nissan 350Z Haysom Nissan 200 SX Haysom Nissan 200 SX Haysom Nissan 200 SX HSV VX GTS Subaru WRX Sti Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI HSV VX GTS

Group 9

13 26 28 31 62 70 TBA

TBA Toyota MR2 Bathurst BMW 3231 Wayne Moore/Roger Townshend/Ross Buckingham/Tony Blanche Honda S2000 Peter Hansen/Hermann Tilke/Ken Talbot/James Philip TBA Toyota MR2 Bathurst Holden Commodore VXV8 Scott Loadsman/lan Luff/Rick Bates/David Russell Ford Falcon XR6 Daryl Coon/TBA Ford Falcon XR8 John English/Ted JarvIs/Tony Rutherford

Group 10

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Mitsubishi Mirage Mitsubishi Mirage Holden Commodore VX Holden Commodore VX Mitsubishi Mirage Mitsubishi Magna BMW MS E36 BMW M3 E36

molorsport news

NEWS New IRL chassis isn’t 'Barra1 The name game: So how did MK Racing decide upon the name Falcon Cars for its new Indy Racing League chassis for 2003?

The seven-year-old grandson of co owner Ken Anderson named it.

"That was a funny story," co-owner Michael Kranefuss said. "Actually, we had to buy it from Ken's grandson. He came in one day and said the fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon. In order that I wouldn't run into any legal problems from him, we did a contract, and I bought the rights from him for US$100."

Only in America ...

At least we stayed dry: Richards, leading, was less than thrilled with some of the decisions.

(Photo by Marshall Cass)

Nations Cup drivers unhappy at Surfers Kerb problems and shortened races angers PROCAR stars

TWO of the leading drivers in PROCAR’s Nations’ Cup championship have questioned whether it is a good idea to race the class on the streets of SiuTers Paradise.

Jim Richards, who sealed his second straight NC title last weekend, said that he liked racing on the track but did not support having points on the races, especially after the final race was cut from eight laps to five.

“I don’t think it should be a championship event,” said Richards.

“To cut the race short is siUy. Another three laps ... the Donut King guy can stop riding his bike for five minutes. It’s great to come, I wouldn’t want to miss it.

but I don’t think it should be a championship event.”

Paul Stokell also had issues, especiaOy with the controversial matter of kerbs during the races.

“It’s difficult with kerbs and things around here, and the time constraints,” said the Lamborghini driver.

“Running a championship round here is a bit of a joke, I think. But it’s a good event and it’s good to race in front of a large crowd.”

Stokell was also disappointed with the shortened final race.

“We weren’t even informed and I think that it’s a little bit disappointing ...”

-PHILBRANAGAN

n The Ferrari 333SP Sportscar is going out in style at the Grand-Am finale at Daytona on November 10.

The very first chassis built will run in the hands of Wayne Jackson and Patrick van Schoote, bringing down the curtain for the car's competition life and also the current open-cockpit Prototype formula for the Grand-Am series. The car was the only 333SP actually constructed by Ferrari. The remaining 14 Series One cars were: contracted to Dallara and all Series Two cars were built by Michelotto. n Doran-Llsta, the winning team in this year's Grand-Am-run Daytona 24 Hour, will move to the American Le Mans Series in 2003. With the GrandAm series moving to the new Daytona Prototype rules next year and Kevin Doran, team manager of the team, being a car constructor for the new rules, the outfit's Dallara/Judd is no longer eligible for the series but can race in the ALMS. Didier Theys will remain in the driving line-up.

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News

Belgium close to extinct THE Belgian Grand Prix is expected to be cancelled this week Monday, after the meeting of the Formula 1 Commission.

The teams are not expected to agree on whether or not the teams can run at Spa without tobacco branding and if there is not an agreement between them, the race is off.

The Belgians will probably argue that it is the fault of the FIA, which has handed the problem on to the teams but the reality is that the Belgian politicians can only blame themselves for what has happened. Their persistent insistence that tobacco sponsorship must be banned despite the fact that most of Europe has accepted the FIA ban on tobacco advertising in 2006 - has led to several clashes with the FI authorities.

This appears to be a ploy by the dominant Flemish politicians to take away one of the country's biggest sporting events from the French-speaking region.

The Belgians have backed down on all previous occasions but now it seems they cannot do so as there is no time for the new anti-tobacco law to be modified in time for the 2003 race. The Royal Automobile Club of Belgium is already working to have the law changed so that Formula 1 can return to Spa in 2004 but the hopes for a 2003 race are fading fast.

- JOE SAWARD

Porsche back to FI? SOURCES in Germany say that Porsche is planning a return to Formula 1 - and say that this time it is for real. The new challenge would probably come in 2005.

There have been rumours for several years that Porsche would enter FI but to date the company has always said no, but profits are now such that a Formula 1 progi-amme is quite possible - without making a massive dent in the balance sheet.

The first hint that something might be happening came in August when Porsche opened its new factory in Leipzig, complete with its own test track which features some of the famous corners from FI tracks around the world. The message being given out was

that Porsche will soon get back into serious competition but, not as many people believe, in Sportscar racing.

When asked earlier this year whether Porsche would enter Formula 1, company boss Wendelin Wiedeking said that such a program would cost $700m a year. But Porsche can afford it.

In the last few days has announced pre-tax profits for the 2001/2002 year of$3 billion. In that period the company sold 54,000 cars and that will increase next year with the introduction of the new four-wheel drive Cayenne sport utility vehicle, which is being built in a brand new $480m factory in Leipzig.

- JOE SAWARD

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Photo by sutlonTimages.roi

Many Hans make Footwork: Could Porsche's next FI venture be more successful than it was with Footwork?

Will BMW go its own way?

DR Mario Theissen says that BMW has three choices for the futui’e of the company in Formula 1.

The director of BMW Motorsport says that no decisions are yet made but that “the options are building our own Formula 1 car, continuing our collaboration with Williams in a more appropriate form or quitting FI.” It has been an open secret for some months in FI that BMW is looking at what to do in the future but now it is official.

“We’re too far behind Ferrari,” Theissen, right, said.

“We want to become World Champion by 2004 but we can only do that with perfect collaboration in all areas and that includes the exchange of all data and the common use of computer simulations and research facilities.”

The current deal with Williams runs until the end of 2004 but if BMW decides to do its own thing it will need to start the preparations immediately to allow for a year of building and recruitment and a year oftesting before entering the j World Championship in 2005. j -JOESAWARl

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Running the Bulls

by JOE SAWARD THE inaugural Red Bull Driver Search is over, with Danny Sullivan and his judges choosing the four young Americans they think are hestsuited to make it to Formula 1 in the years ahead.

The original 16 candidates had been whittled down to 12 before they were flown to France for the testing at Paul Ricard, Ryan Hunter-Reay announcing that he had decided to stay in the United States next year to take advantage of an opportunity in CART. This left Michael Abbate,Paul Edwards, Phil Giebler, Patrick Long, Grant Maiman, Rocky Moran Jr, Joel Nelson, Scott Poirier, Boston Reid, Bryan Sellers, Scott

I I I f -

Formula Vauxhall, Formula Palmer Audi and in the British F3 series in 2001 with Alan Docking Racing. This year he has not been racing because oflack of finance.

Maiman,from Wisconsin, is also 8 24 and this year won the Formula Dodge National Championship and came up through the Skip Barber Racing School and championships.

Joel Nelson is 21 and comes from Reno, Nevada. He has raced both in Formula Palmer Audi in Speed and Bobby Wilson. The tests England and in Formula Russell in resulted in Edwards, Maiman, the United States this year.

Nelson and Speed being chosen.

The final winner is 19-year-old Edwards is the oldest of the Scott Speed from Manteca, quartet, the 24-year-old Californian California, who has emerged from driver has been competing in karting and Formula Russell(he Europe since winning the Winfield won the title in 2001 before moving School prize in 1995. He then raced in Formula Ford in Britain in 1996 to Formula Dodge, in which he was beaten this year by Maiman. and 1997 before moving on to

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Faster V6 NIssans A TWO-SECOIMD reduction in lap-times in the 2003 Telefonica World Series by Nissan is predicted after this week's first track-test of the latest, 450bhp version of the 'spec'three-litre V6.

KTR driver Bas Leinders drove his team's Dallara for 64 laps of the Valencia circuit with the new power unit.

Nissan Motor Spain sporting coordinator Jose Maria Ferrer said of the test: "The new engine makes the car much more driveable.

"We made some mapping adjustments and saw several possibilities to increase performance, specifically with ^ the fuel-injection and exhaust systems."

The series is quickly becoming a strong one, with this year's

20

^ /

■j?

'●-1 ‘W

Champion Ricardo Zonta, Justin Wilson and Franck Montagny among the driving talent.

Also, plans to take the Telefonica World Series by Nissan to South America later this year have been finalised.

The originally scheduled race in Argentina is to be replaced by a

second Brazilian round.

The V6 engined 'spec' Dallara racecars will be at Curitiba on December 1, moving on to Interlagos the following week.

Zonta has already clinched the 2002 with these two rounds remaining.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

It’s red and it looks good, so therefore it should go well; Aussie Troy Bayliss has been busy with the Ducati team as it gets prepared for the 2003 MotoGP season.

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FORMER BTCC boss Alan Gow has been hired to head up the proposed Premier 1 GP series that links racing teams to soccer clubs.

Since its launch in 2001 the series has struggled to attract sufficient football clubs to make the plans viable, but Gow said: "I have to admit that I was very dismissive of the series until I looked at the business plan. It's a fantastic concept and a very clever idea." n Yvan Muller is being targeted

by SEAT to head up its ETCC campaign for 2003. There is also talk of a second semi-works team running two more SEAT Toledos next season in the ETCC. n Dunlop has been appointed as -single tyre supplier to the 2003 BTCC with the deal lasting until 2006. The last time Dunlop-shod cars tasted success in the BTCC was in 1996 when Frank Biela's Audi took the title. n Brand Motorsport, based in Swindon, England, has confirmed its intention to compete in the 2003 FIA Formula 3000 championship. Team owner Martin Kendrick has bought three Lola B2/50 chassis and all the factory equipment from Flelmut Marko's disbanded Red Bull Junior team in Austria. n The board of Maserati has committed the Italian 'supercar' manufacturer to a competition programme in 2004, embracing the Le Mans 24 Flours and the FIA GT Championship, in which advanced composite chassis will then be eligible.

TROY Bayliss has continued testing of Ducati’s 2003 MotoGP challenger, with the 2001 World Superbike champ joining test rider Vittoriano Guareschi in a test at Valencia last week.

It was the first time the bike had been run outside of Italy, Bayliss running 34 laps on one day and 84 the next as he gets more and more acclimatised to the new ‘Desmosedici’ prototype.

“We’ve done a really good job these past two days,” he declared.

“The conditions of the track weren’t so good but we got a lot of work done. We’ve made a lot more progress since Mugello and I’m feehng better every time I step on the bike. There are a lot more things to do, but we’re getting there.

“This is not my Superbike for sure! It’s very different, much lighter and more powerful.

“There is nothing from the Superbike on this. Basically I have to start from scratch and get ready for MotoGP.” 30 October 2002

■ Lister Cars is aiming to enter two all-new sports-prototypes in the 2003 Le lylans 24 Flours. CEO Laurence Pearce originally planned to run one example of the all-new design, which is due to track-test next month with a Chevrolet V8 engine.

■ A new Judd V8 aimed at the LMP675 sports-prototype category is running on the dyno at Engine Developments in Rugby, UK. John Judd's company has based the 3.4litre unit on the Champ Car engine it abandoned when CART opted for a single engine supplier in 2003.

■ Opel Motorsport director Volker Strycek, a former race driver of some note, undertook a second test on Saturday with a 460bhp Astra V8 Coupe DTM racecar on the Nurburgring Nordschleife to prepare for a possible entry in Germany's ADAC 24 Flours there in 2003. The Astra (Manuel Reuter's 2002 car) has been equipped for the test with adapted suspension and fuel tankage.

- DAVID ADDISON/ QUENTIN SPURRING

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Mexico, Europe for ALMS THERE will be 11 events in an expanded American Le Man Series next year.

There will be new events in Mexico at the 4,4km Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, and another in Europe after a two-year absence. The venue for the European race has not been confirmed but it will be in May, between Le Mans's PreQualifying and the race in June.

The season will open and close with its two longest events; the Sebring 12-Hour on March 15 and the 1600km Petit Le Mans on October 18.

The series, which held 10 races in 2002, will return to many other venues that hosted events in the 2002 season, including California's Sonoma Raceway, Trois-Rivieres in Canada, Laguna Seca in Monterey, California and the Miami Downtown Street Circuit.

Events will also be held at Mosport International Raceway, the RFK Stadium Circuit in Washington, D.C. and a 800km race at Road America.

With the exception of the Sebring and Road Atlanta events, all other races will be timed events of two hours and 45 minutes. All races will be televised in the United States, with at least four on network television. Three will be on NBC Sports and one on CBS, while the remaining six will be on the SPEED Channel.

Television coverage for the European round has not been determined.

- PHIL MORRIS

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The 1600cc car was displayed last week in Birmingham and interest in the new racerfrom competitors was strong, with several orders being received.

Testing ofthe car is expected to start soon, with a debut date ofMarch 2003.

VALENTINO Rossi has started testing for his debut in the World Rally Championship in November.

The four-time World Champion,fresh from his Australian MotoGP win,took to the mountains above Imperia on the Italian Riviera with co-driver Carlo Cassina.

“I felt very comfortable with the car and felt the same sensations as I do in MotoGP concerning cornering lines and engine power,” he added.“On the other hand the braking distances are very different.

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News

The Rat wins at home

by JOHN HAWKINS

PAUL Radisich salvaged something from a forgettable season by teaming with Mark Pedersen to win the Yellow Pages 500 at Ruapuna Raceway the weekend after Bathurst.

The first running of the annual event as a New Zealand V8 Toureronly race attracted the biggest crowd in many years to the Christchurch track.

Falcons monopolised the front row of the grid, with Andy Priaulx putting the Tracer Motorsport Falcon he shared with Aaron Slight on pole position, shading Radisich’s Yellow Pages example.

In fine conditions, Priaulx moved to the front with Radisich keeping in touch for the first 10 laps before taking over.

The man on the move was Wade Henshaw in the fastest of the Holdens. Henshaw had been demoted to 15th grid position when his VX was found to be underweight after Super Pole, but he quickly moved up and eventually passed Priaulx.

A tussle between Radisich and Henshaw enlivened the first hour, but shortly after Henshaw’s co driver Bernie Gillon had taken the wheel, the Mike Pero Racing car pitted for a long stop with power steering problems.

The Priaulx/Slight car was slowed by brake problems and pitted early for the compulsory pad change, and later retired when a

It’s a Ford and it’s yellow, but it wins: Radiisich teamed up with Mark Pedersen to clunch, er, clinch, the win (Photo by Euan Cameron) in the Yellow Pages 500. radiator header tank burst.

The Paul Manuell/Craig Gilbert VX led briefly before coming to a grinding halt in the pit lane, and from then on Radisich and Pedersen carefully nursed their car, which was suffering oil pressure problems, home.

Radisich/Pedersen completed 124 laps, one clear of the second placemen Roger Townshend and Paul Kelly(Commodore VX), with Mike Pero and Rick Armstrong in another VX third on 120 laps.

Team Kiwi posted the first retirement with Andy Booth bringing the Holden Commodore he was due to share with John McIntyre in early because of overheating.

1

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ETCeChamp to BMW

ALFA ROMEO touring car superstar Fabrizio Giovanardi is leaving for BMW for next year.

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- GARY WATKINS

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OPINION

Before ifs too late,gimme the Lead

I

S it me, or is there some additive in modern lead-free petrol that is sending motorsport administrators slowly round the twist?

There has to be a reason for the current wave of mad, bad, decisions being taken by those who control motorsport- on a world-wide basis.

It came to its absurd peak last weekend at Surfers, with nobody prepared to do the obvious - hang out a red flag and go home. The Flonda Indy 300 should have been put out of its misery way before its contrived ending, which came well after most on-track spectators had wandered off and even host broadcaster Network 10 had pulled the pin and moved

Ten's commentators had tried to talk it up, to make sense of nonsense, but in the end even the analytical Neil Crompton gave up I Nobody could have objected to giving best to the monsoonal conditions. Instead, the once-ayear Indy racegoers and TV addicts were subjected to Death

by A Thousand (well, 35) Pace Car Laps.

But it's been a mad month all round: Murph's five-minute penalty at Bathurst(what were they thinking?); the kerb-hopping drive-through fiasco that, again, took a fair bit of meaning out of Saturday’s V8 Supercar race at Indy; and of course. Formula 1.

Y

es, FI. As this is written, the administrative glitterati at the world's motor sport peak are gathering to discuss what to do; how to boost FI audiences again; how to 'save' it.

I'm guessing they'll tinker around the edges (anything else might cost too much) when what !t drivers irs have St two

years - hack down the aero grip, increase the mechanical grip, and get rid of the driver aids. Common sense. Just do it.

At the moment, thanks to its advanced in-car TV, driving an FI car often looks no more complex than Playstation 2.

It will be Interesting to see just what does come from the chat but when the build-up has included such suggestion gems as drivers swapping teams every race; two engines per year per car; and weight handicapping, well, you've got to wonder...

While thedefinitive FI 'problem' is one of the structure of the category and its cars, the other recent madness has all related to decisions made during the running of individual races here in Australia.

Now, I'm as long-term a motorsport 'tragic' as anyone, but I fear that the people making some of these decisions, or the rules that lead to them, are fast disappearing up their own regulatory rectums.

It's a bit like the obsessive political correctness that Is making day-today life so frustrating.

rs petty - but more Impoptantly, m lUGb noise. Noise? The sotRiil you hear is

The kerb-hopping fiasco at Surfers reached great heights; drive-throughs, time added to races(Bargwanna went from fifth to 21 st then back again on appeal late Saturday night), 'virtual' cones (drivers crossing a point where a cone used to be before it got knocked off!)... P-L-E-A-S-E! As Mark Skaife said bn the TV broadcast(being very careful not to criticise anyone individually), the system is wrong. Too right. It's pedantic and it's petty - but more importantly, it's creating far too much noise. Noise? The sound you hear is people turning off... f

N

o-one's advocating anarchy, but whatever happened to lining a bunch of blokes up on the grid, saying "see you in 25 laps" and just letting them get on with it?

Motorsport in Australia is in danger of simply losing the plot.

And its audience.

It is obsessively over-regulated.

You really can't blame officials for implementing regulations - it's their job. It's the rule makers.

Please guys, lighten up.

In the meantime, I'm going to campaign for banning of unleaded petrol. Bring back the lead - none of this madness happened before they got rid of it...

Call in Ingallfor a drive-through: No. This numher 8 is Jimmy Vasser and he can drive over as many cones as he wants because he drives a Champ Car. fPhnio by John Morris/Mpix}

i

30 October 2002

25

I

T is over for another year and as the Formula 1 souls drag themselves home at the end of the year, or rush off to hide out in sunny places in the Pacific or in the Antipodes - ignoring, as always, any Real World activity such as bombs in Bali - the focus is already turning to next year.

In fact, for most teams,'Next Year' has been top of the agenda for several months. Ferrari's domination this year has been the big issue but anyone with a brain knows that the problem of falling audiences will be easily solved If either Williams or McLaren (or, if a miracle happens some rank outsider) can challenge the mighty Maranello Marauders.

The cynics say that all the current fluff about rule changes is designed to keep the Formula 1 name in the newspapers, get people talking and create a little excitement while the real business of fixing the sport is carried out by lawyers representing banks, bulding societies, car manufacturers and the rest of them.

This has not stopped a certain amount of panic in recent weeks.

This is misplaced - or at least that is what a lot of the more sensible folk in FI seem to think.

26

The sport has been suffering from a crisis of confidence brought on by the falling TV ratings. Is it a surprise that this should happen when we are treated to five consecutive Ferrari 1-2 results and some mindless fumbling with formation finishes at the United States Grand Prix?

Of course not. Why should anyone want to watch something'where the result is known in advance?

Working on that theory, noone would have watched Bathurst this year. Mark Skaife has completely dominated the V8 Supercars for such a long time that I have trouble (over here in Europe) remembering the name of another race winner in recent years and yet I received press releases telling me that there were more poeple at the Mountain than ever before.

And guess what?

Skaife won.

And yet people do watch.

Because you just never know.

Last summer (or was it the summer before) I was in San Francisco and went to watch the Oakland As (anyone who puts an apostrophe in here should be taken out and shot for abuse of the English language) playing their game.

A baseball field on a warm afternoon is really a very pleasant place to be but that day the As were having a bad day and the Cincinnati Wombats (or whoever the other team was) was beating them. There seemed to be no hope.

We had eaten some hot dogs and had some popcorn and it seemed like a good plan to go home and avoid the rush at the end of the game. But I stayed.

You just never know what will happen and, sure enough, suddenly the gears meshed correctly and the As exploded in a frenzy of home runs.

Several pitches went clean out of the ballpark and It turned into a classic comeback victory which those cruising down the freeway on their way home missed completely.

You just never know.

People In FI circles will tell you that Ferrari will be dominant again next year but that is to fail to understand the way that Formula 1 operates. These are competitive people (sometimes to an obnoxious extent) and they do not like being beaten by anyone.

They have been working flat out for months to figure out what went wrong this year and how to fix it next year. There have been quiet switches of

engineers from team to team.

Knowledge has been flowing as it does in FI circles - and the rival teams have a better understanding of what it is that makes the Ferrari fast. The research and development molorsport news

we rc World Champions informer Indy 500 winning machines, left championship defence? Well some oftheir ideas have been jt

departments of the big teams have not been sitting around their offices, looking out off the windows and getting depressed.

They have been working flat out to figure out how to claw back the gap.

Everyone says that Ferrari has such a huge budget that no-one can get close but it is not just about money. Formula 1 has always been and will always be about people. You can turn up with an unlimited budget and score no points at all in FI. You have only to look at British American Racing to understand that.

Ferrari is strong and it will remain strong. Whether one likes him or not, this is due to the bullheadedness of Jean Todt and his ability to form and then protect and feed a team of good people.

But they are not magicians. They are clever engineers who have been able and motivated to do

They are not magicians. They are clever engineers nwho have been able and motivated to do the job properly -Saward on Ferrari’s staff 30 October 2002

the job properly.

When you loc this year you ha the aerodynamic department let the team down badly. But there were reasons for that.

The team's chief aerodynamicist at the time, Geoff Willis, was being courted by (and subsequently departed to) BAR. His mind was probably not on the job and his assistants were youngsters who did not understand that one must take risks and do more than just a solid job. There was also the issues of tyres.

With McLaren switching to Michelin the French comnpany found itself in a dilemma. Ferrari and Bridgestone are working so closely together that an advantage was being gained.

The Japanese tyre company will tell you that everyone had the same tyres and I am sure they did. But those tyres were designed for Ferraris.

At Michelin they had to balance the needs of McLaren and Williams and there was, inevitably, a halfway house. If there is one thing that will help Formula 1 in the future it will be a rethinking of the tyre supply rules.

The Box Seat With Joe Saward Sure teams should be restricted to a choice of two compounds for a race weekend but it would be a lot better if teams were allowed to have compounds which were different from those supplied to other teams. Then the playing field would be equal.

Hidden away amongst the proposals being discussed as we were closing for press was a proposal to do exactly this. That will probably be enough to bring the Ferrari rivals back into the ballpark. And development work will help to do the rest.

And the minute there is a McLaren or a Williams victory or if a Toyota is suddenly up there and challenging the sport will be popular again. It needs a few and tucks and much better TV coverage but all these things are coming.

Until then the sport needs to be confident in itself...

21

Five Minutes With l ll

Jason Bamwmna It's been a leng time since Bathurst2000 when Bargs last won a VB Supercar rount. The Valvoline pilot spoke to ClPgS LAIWOBIabout his breakthrough at Surlers Paradise

MOTORSPORT NEWS:A very timely win? Apart from the fact that it comes after quite a lean spell for the team,it also comes at a time when you’re still discussing next year with Gan-y Rogers.

JASON BARGWANNA: There’s no doubt, it obviously helps in that area. But I’ve always believed in what I can achieve Eind kept my confidence going through the hard times - and we’ve managed this time to get things back on track with a good result.

Bathurst was undoubtedly a low point in my career - probably in my life! - crashing that car given the situation we were in, but to come back with this win is an amazing feeling.

MN: Given that you haven’t agreed a deal with Garry (Rogers) yet for next year, does this result make a significant difference - and do you expect to finalise those discussions soon?

JB: Garry and I have been talking for a while now and we’ve worked through some issues - and I’m sure we can resolve most of it quite quickly.

I’m proud to represent my , sponsors - Valvoline, Cummins, Repco and Holden - and I want to be able to continue to represent them for a long time.

There’s still a little bit of work to do, but I’m pretty sure we can put it all together.

MN: The team went weU at this event last year as well - is there some set-up thing that works particularly well for you here?

JB; Our test track at Winton has a lot of tight corners, as does Surfers, and that may play a role in it, but the sort of event it is - a big commitment from the team and drivers - helps.

Garth did a great job in qualif3dng, proving we had the car speed to do the job and we held it together from there in the races.

I love racing there. I’ve always had good performances there 28

Cummins

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Speedy Bargs: The 2000 Bathurst winner was in form on the Gold Coast. Note to Tony Cochrane: sprinklers (Photo by Dirk Ktynsmith) at all V8 Supercar races to become compulsory ...

Formula Ford to Touring Cars.

When you feel confident and enjoy a track, as I do there, it helps.

MN: When the weather turned sour, did you feel your car set up was as good as any?

JB: We had a really good chassis for the weekend, a really good balance in the car. It’s difficult to pass there, but when I woke up and saw the weather I was so excited. I knew we had a chance of getting a result.

I was aiming to try and get on the podium and the race came together well. I was able to pass Richo, Marcos and Craig, and Murph made a dud choice of tyi-es, so it went my way.

MN: The other talking point from the weekend concerned the kerb-hopping penalties.

From the sidelines, the way that it was handled looked silly and it took away from the impact of the weekend - you yourself had time added then reinstated in Saturday’s race.

Why is there this kerb obsession at this meeting?

JB: The problem, I think, was the grey areas. There was a difference between ‘grazing’ a cone and ‘hitting’ a cone and if you were reported eight times - ie, eight cones - then you were to cop a penalty.

My eighth ‘hit’ on Saturday was at a time when I was right up the boot lid of another car, and it had been agreed prior to the weekend that under those circumstances, you couldn’t be expected to see them as well and wouldn’t be penalised.

I was put back to 21st, but we examined the data and were able to make the point about being right behind another car, so they (the Stewards) accepted that.

I don’t know why there is so much attention paid to the kerbs and the V8s.

When we were the support act, I guess you had to accept that the CART guys wanted things a certain way, but now we are equal billing for the weekend, then you’d think we would be treated equally in that regard.

Having said that, if the cones were replaced by concrete walls, no-one would hit them, would they?

MN: It made for a late Saturday night with the Stewards though, to sort it out...

JB: And not for the first time!

I remember back in ’95 I won my first Formula Ford race, at Lakeside, having spent Saturday night with the Stewards, who wanted to take away my qualifying time and hence a front row grid.

They didn’t and I won the next day.

Maybe there’s a theme there ...

MN: Can you carry this renaissance form through to Pukekoke and Sandown?

JB: I think so. The team has made genuine progress lately and it’s taken a lot of work, but we have been on the pace over the last two or three meetings.

We know now that we can do it.

We have the car to do it. It’s just a matter of getting a good set-up early at Pukekohe and going from there.

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- Bargwanna on equal treatment between CART and V8s in regards to kerb-hopping motorsport news

INTERVIEW

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Murray Walker

My aeaumulcat

In his long career with the microphone, Murray Walker became as much a part ofthe Grand Prix scenery as the cars and drivers.

MARK GLENDENNING caught up with the nometired ‘Voice ofFormula One’during his recent visit to Melbourne.

MOTORSPORT NEWS:Did you find the commentary work demanding?

MURRAY WALKER:Yes it is demanding! It’s demanding and stressful physically, because of aU the ti-avel that’s involved, and because when you’re at a Grand Prix from Thursday right through to Sunday, you are on your feet the whole time talking to people, rushing around, looking at the cars, going to the commentaiy box.

And it’s veiy stressful mentally, because when you’re doing commentary,it’s for two hours on end, and I always stood up to do it, so

that’s tiring.

But Formula One is allegedly the most difficult sport ofaU to commentate on,and it’s not me saying that, it’s the Head ofSport at the BBC. Because unlike virtually any other sport that you can think of, football, tennis, boxing, athletics, which happen in the eye ofthe beholder in the gi-andstand, Foimula One mshes past you once every lm20s, and you have to be on top of the strategy and who the individuals are, and it was my job to keep people mformed about a very complicated situation.

So yes,it was stressful. But that doesn’t mean to say that I didn’t like it. I probably liked it because it was stressful!

MN:I guess that the job of keeping people interested was made all the more difficult in situations like qualifying, where there might not be much going on for the first half hoim.

MW:Yeah, that’s always very difficult, li^en you’re dealing with an hour and the viewers turn on expecting to see an hour of action and they get 35 minutes, it must be very frustrating and puzzhng for them. It’s difficult for them to understand why the cars have an hour available and only use half ofit.

And of course then you’re continually having to explain that they only have 12 laps, and it only takes them about 18 minutes to do those 12 laps, and that they’re always waiting for the others to go out and rubber up the track for the conditions to be more suitable, which accounts for the long delays.

And it’s bloody hard work when you’ve got to fill in for 25 minutes, but that’s part of the sport.

Now I see that one of the proposals for trying to defeat Ferrari is to have four half-hour qualifying sessions. I think that would actually be quite a good idea, because the modem computer takes care ofthe aggregate time thing.

In the old days, when they didn’t have computers, and both the

Friday and the Saturday sessions counted, it was hell’s own job for a commentator, because you were having to do all the additions mentally while you were talking.

But now, modern computers can show you what the individual times are and what the aggregate times are in the correct order, so it would be no problem. And I suppose that if they only got half an hour, they would be more likely to come out onto the circuit. And you might get varied conditions, you might get conditions in the wet and the dry ...

Before, people used to say that if the Friday session was dry and the Saturday session was wet it spoiled the show, because on the Saturday, the times could not be better than the Friday because the conditions were worse and it was very frustrating for the viewers to understand that and it was quite difficult for the commentators to communicate it.

So that’s one of the proposals I think could be a good idea. Some of the others, I think, are absolutely ridiculous.

MN:I was going to ask you about the FIA’s proposes, particularly the driver swapping idea, but you just beat me to it!

MW: Well, words fail me. If the people who have put that idea up are supposed to be responsible, knowledgeable people about Formula One, which is a very serious sport which commands world-wide interest and vast financial interest as well, I don’t know what they’re doing there.

To suggest that the drivers should change from team to team is too bloody ludicrous for words! I mean,I could go into chapter and verse, but obviously the whole art ofFormula One is getting the car and the driver tuned together. Well, that’s going to completely destroy that.

Yffiat’s going to happen to the sponsorship implications? It’s got to be somebody putting it out with his tongue in his cheek - very firmly.

At least I hope it is, because if it’s a serious suggestion, God help us.

MN: What do you think you brought to your viewers that was so special?

MW:I don’t think it’s for me to say.

If they found what I did entertaining, hopefully that’s what I gave, because I always regarded my target audience as not the dedicated nutter like you, or the dyed-in-the-wool anorak who knows all about from the year dot Rare honour: Indy boss Tony George presents Murray with a piece of the original Brickyard.

(Photo by Marsh/BOTHWELL)

motorsport news

INTERVIEW

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onwards, because they were going to listen whatever and whoever.

I regarded my job as not just to inform but to entertain, and to try to grab the uninterested and uncommitted by the throat and say, “This is fantastic, this sport. I love it, and you ought to love it too!”

And I was enthusiastic about it because I am enthusiastic about it, and I was passionate about it because I am passionate about it, and hopefully my delivery and style got to the people.

So I suppose I bought to it ; enthusiasm, passion, involvement, and an effort to entertain.

MN: Were there any moments during the 2002 season where you thought, ‘gee, I wish I’d heen in the commentary hox to call that one’?

MW: Yes, from the beginning to the end of all the races. I can’t emphasise too strongly that I didn’t stop because I wanted to stop. I stopped because I had been doing it for 52 years, which is a hell of a long time, and because I know that age withers. I am an old man, literally, and it’s going to get to me.

In the not-so-distant future, there’s going to come a time where either physically or mentally I won’t be able to keep up with the travel and the stress and all the rest of it.

And I wanted to go out with dignity at a time when I felt I was

30 October 2002

The top of their respective games: Michael Schumacher was on hand for Walker’s final broadcast at last year’s US GP, above.

Fan favourite: Murray met his Australian fans during a recent visit to promote his new autobiography, left.

(Photos by Marsh/BOTHWELL and Peter Bury)

at the top and not on the way down with people thinking,‘he’s past it, he should jack it in’. And it’s very difficult to get the timing right. I mean,I know I could have done it this year, I know I could do it next year, but I don’t know how long I could go on.

All I do know is that I've got to stop some time, and I thought that I would rather stop too soon than too late.’Whilst I would love stiU to be doing and know I could do,I am totally at ease with myself because I made the decision to stop rather than somebody else making it for me.

I was enthusiastic about it because i am enthusiastic about it, and i was passionate about it because I am passionate about it"

11

MN:Did you prefer working with another person next to you, or going it alone?

MW: Well ... I did my first two years of Formula One, 1978 and 1979, on my own, and I fiercely resented the advent of James Hunt, partly because I felt that I was doing a satisfactory job, and partly because I was worried that they were going to replace me with him. However, with experience, I know that the BBC Head of Sport Jonathan Martin’s decision was absolutely right.

So with hindsight, I very much prefer working with somebody else, provided you can do it. I mean, provided that the two of you are prepared to make the sacrifices, the concessions to the other to enable the other chap to make a contribution . Which was

something that I found difficult with James Hunt initially, because I am an enthusiastic gasbag and I was wanting to dominate the whole thing.

I wasn’t trying to dominate the whole thing so that I could push James out, I was just full of words which I wanted to get out and didn’t want to let the other bloke get in. And there was a lot of friction over that.

And also there were aspects of James that I did not respect, but eventually, we learned to accommodate each other. And although I was at the delivery end rather than the receiving end, so I don’t really know. I’m told that that chemistry in the box was extremely good, and that the result from the viewers point of view was very entertaining.

But Martin Brundle was a revelation. He is one of those rare things, a sportsman who can string not two words together but half a dozen words together. He knows what he’s talking about, he talks about it extremely well, he’s got a highly-developed sense of humour, (and) he’s a team player.

We got on well together in the commentary box and there was never any friction or problems at all, and he was an absolute joy to work with, and I believe the end result, from the viewer’s point of view, was probably the best I have ever been associated with.

MN:Do you think that the constant emphasis on ‘Murrayisms’has detracted from your achievements?

MW:Yes. Yes I do. I mean, being very serious, if I look deeply into my psyche, my personality, I suppose I am always going to feel sad about the fact that people’s immediate association with me is

of a seemingly bumbling buffoon who is constantly opening his mouth and putting both feet in it.

Whereas I pride myself on the fact that I am very professional about what I do, I know what I’m talking about and believe I can talk about it.

The ‘Murrayisms’ which people talk about are trivial things, those slips of the tongue, words coming out in the wrong order, momentary misidentification, malapropisms ...

But they’re a result of my personality and my enthusiasm, and it has always surprised and pleased me, actually, that they appear to endear me to people and not actually put people off.

So I suppose I ought to take the rough with the smooth.

MN:It seems that you have now embarked on a new career of simply being Murray Walker.

MW:People say,‘what are you going to do now?’ The short answer is, I don’t know, because most men, when they retire from their job, want to develop their hobby, which might be do-it-yourself carpentry, or collecting stamps, or whatever.

I’ve been working at my hobby since 1949. My hobby has been broadcasting and motorsport. That is now denied me as a result of my own decision, so I’ll have to find something else to do. I think I finished the book by saying,‘one door closes and another opens’, and it always has for me.

People are still asking me to do all sorts of things associated with motorsport, and to do after dinner speeches, and to open things, and to write things. I don’t have any reservations about having to be idle, which wouldn’t suit me at all.

There’s going to be plenty I can do, but I’m not too sure what it is at the moment.

31

Stars of Bathurst

So, where to n There were tear yeunger drivers who preved their werth in the recentBoh Jane T-Marts 1000atBathurst.

AABON niOOIVAnisat down tor lunch with young'uns Oreg Bitter, Matthew Wlute, PaulDumhreO and Nathan Pretty to taUi turkey about the ZOOZrace

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Well guys, Bathurst is in the books and the young guys proved their worth. Did it all pan out as you thought it would,in terms of results? Have you proved that you're good enough to take the next step?

MATTHEW WHITE: I'll go first!

After having two good runs with Briggs, at the Queensland 500 I got the opportunity to qualify the car and got in the shootout, the first time all year that car had been in the shootout.

It was a great opportunity, then at Bathurst, it was sort of Tony's deal because he won last year so the team listened a lot to him and he did a great job all race. When I got out of it at the last stint, we were in the lead after all the hail and I thought we were in with a s chance. We didn't have the car speed to win the race, but a top five was possible.

Going from that, I think you prove that you are capable and worthy of a (full-time) opportunity, but there's probably 50 drivers out there that are worthy of an opportunity so you're really just another one.

NATHAN PRETTY: You're never totally happy. It's always nice to finish higher. Finishing fourth is so close to being on the podium that it sort of hurts that little bit more!

I just jumped in for the two races. That's what I'm employed to do. My job is to bring the car home. I wasn't told to try and match Rick's pace, my job was to bring it back in one piece for Rick to punch out the times. I did that and the team was 32

Have helmet, will race: Nathan Pretty did a stellarjob, top, in the Young Lions car tofinish fourth with Rick Kelly, while Greg Ritter, above, ran seventh and Matthew White, above right, took sixth.

(Photos by hiarshtiU Cass and Dirk Klynsmith)

happy. That was my job for the year so I'll box myself up and put myself back in the cupboard ready for next year.

PAUL DUMBRELL:The opportunity at Queensland and Bathurst, where you really are on show, is great because you get so many miles. With the limited practice time, it was hard to get some miles but in the race, you could get in tune with the car and start to get comfortable.

MN: Was that drive in the Castrol car moreso a clincher of any 2003 deal than winning the Konica Series?

PD: I guess so. In the Konica Series you're not racing against Skaife, Lowndes and the like. It gives you a good comparison, the Konica Series, in terms of times, but until you're there racing the 'big boys' ...

Not damaging the car, passing during the wet with the HRT car and all that type of thing, I guess I proved I can be quick but also

keep a level head and be aware that it's such a long race.

MN: Greg, out of the non regulars, you were probably the one that got the biggest rap, considering that you out ran the #17 car all weekend.

GREG RITTER: Bathurst was excellent for me, probably better than last year. Driving with Cameron McLean last year, a fair bit of the credit went to him. This time. I'd been working with the team all year and that put me in the forefront of that particular car.

To be quicker than the other car through the course of the weekend was just fantastic for me,for whatever reason. I wouldn't say I expected to be quicker (than the regulars). I hoped. I thought it was possible.

MN: What's the'X Factor' that you need to be able to make that next step and challenge the Skaifes and Brights?

PD: I still think those guys are

learning themselves. I don't believe there's anyone in the sport who can say that they're not learning, except maybe Michael Schumacher!

Dealing with the media and sponsors is another thing that people don't generally think about and that's another thing that the Skaifes and Lowndeses do so well and we have to take the next step with.

GR: A full-time drive. That's the next step for me. Obviously with a good team - that's the path. 1 think I have a lot of faith in my own ability and, after Bathurst, probably even more faith in my own ability than I did before, due to having a really good run and being as quick as many of the supposed 'gurus', I think I have the ability to cut the mustard, given the right circumstances at the right team, MW: You've got to think like that. You get to the point where you think 'I can race', but unless you're out there saying that 'I molorsport news

FEATURE

DW? They smile when we tell them we’re payingfor lunch ... White and Ritter, above, were two ofthe stand-out young iins for the Blue Oval at Bathurst, while Paul Dumbrell, below, teamed up with the experienced Lany Perkins to continue his V8 Supercar learning process.

(PhtJlf)s by Stark (Jlendainiiifi miJ Dirk Klynsmitli)

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am going to be capable of running with these guys', you're never going to make it.

GR: At times though -1 know I have - you question your own ability. I remember driving at Adelaide in a Commodore a couple of years ago being three or so seconds a lap off the pace. It was so frustrating. You scratch your head and think,'maybe I'm not the next Michael Schumacher'I

Sydney Unite 79 Newton Rd Wetherill Park 02 9609 1101

MN: Between all you guys, you've all taken different avenues and paths to get to the same place, where you all are now. Matt and Paul have come through via the Konica Series, Greg's hooked up with a Level 1 outfit but paid his dues in the workshop and Nathan, you've come via super speedway like Matt. What's the best way to go about it?

MW:'PD' takes the cake. To be able to do it the way he's done it, not everyone can do that though.

MN: You've come from

Melbourne 44 Racecourse Rd North Melbourne 03 9326 6088

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AUSCAR/NASCAR via the Konica Series and never done open-wheelers or karting.

MW: I went straight from the ovals to the Konica Series. In the first year it was good because the series was just getting going and there was some amateur cars. Then, you didn't need $100,000 to do the year but now it's getting more competitive.

Dumbrell put the benchmark through the roof this year with what he did. He got the best car he could and drove it well and had the best people working on it he could. It made the rest of

us look like clowns but that just means we've all got to do what he did next year.

Unless you do that, you don't get the reward that he's got. He committed himself in a huge way, but he got the biggest reward out of it as well.

NP: Matt and I raced against one another for a fair while on the super speedway. We didn't have the money to do open wheelers.

At the time, funds were a huge thing and that's still true today.

I never regret it, though. I continued on page 34

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33

Stars of Bathurst t^/CTOPIA BITTVJf I

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People have got to be starting to think 'hang on, this Ritter's got to be haif a shot at it.m

More yellow and blue than the West Coast Eagles: Ritter, above, is still under contract to DJR but without a drive, while (Photos by Dirk Klynsmith) White, below, is afree agent to 2003.

-Ritter on 2003 continued from page 33 don't know whether that's a bit of a downfall, but we learnt a lot about tin top cars and doing our setup ourselves.

PD; The Konica Series is great.

You get good miles in identical cars, so when you make the next step, it's not as much of a step, but you're still racing against different guys. Extending the final race at Konica rounds has been a good thing and looking after tyres and brakes are just a few more things you can apply to that next step.

MN: Matt, would another year in Konica V8s be worthwhile for you,just to keep your j name out there and keeping' your V8 experience up?

MW:That's the only thing it's good for. I've got to the stage where it's not helping my career at all, but a team won't put you back in a car unless you've got

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race miles; experience with the gearboxes and you don't wrong slot the gears, all the mistakes that people who haven't driven them for a while make.

MN: Nobody else here is working on their own car like you Greg. You've got to think now you've paid your dues and can be soiely a paid, professional driver.

GR: I'd like to think so. But by the same token, if it was to help me next year, and if I believe it would make my car more competitive, or make me have a better understanding of the car rather than just swan around during the week and be a driver on the weekends - I'd do it.

MN: As much as we talk about the'Young Guns'and 'Generation X', things haven't changed in the grand scheme of things. The top guys are still the top guys. What's it going to take for the landscape to alter and the next Lowndes be discovered?

MW:They've pretty much made it clear they want it to be a closed shop. Unless you're an exceptional talent or got some big sponsor support, I think it's going to stay status quo for quite some time.

NP: The franchise thing does tie things up a lot. It's hard for them to give young guys a go.

PD: The talk about Queensland becoming a one-driver race

means that there's one race a year where young guys can make a name for themselves. In a capped field of 32, 36, or whatever, it's going to be hard and you might find teams still looking at overseas drivers because they've got experience during the year and they can't risk putting a young guy in.

GR: When Lowndes, Tander, McConville, so on and so forth, came in several years ago, this is hard to say, but I guess you'd say it flushed a bit of dead wood out of the category. It lifted the game and now it is so competitive. The class is full, apart from the exception of one or two, of excellent drivers. It's at the stage now where it's really, really, hard to crack into.

And with the supposed rule changes with what's going to happen next year with franchises and so forth, for guys like me and Matty, unless you align yourself with a team that will give you a drive all year, you're going to get your endurance drives at the end of the year and that's about it.

MN: And it's not the driving of

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motorsport news

FEATURE I

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Get it on the road, young fella: Dumbrell starred in the damp penultimate session of the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000, ultimately winding up fifth, above. White, below with Ritter, also

"I think we made the right decision...

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- Dumbreii on staying in the Konica Series for another season in 2002

picked offsome more fancied opposition in the wet conditions at Mount Panorama.

(Phoios hv Dirk Klynsmiih and Mark Glciidenniiii!)

the cars that's the issue for the young guys, but the various intricacies, like knowing how hard to go on green tyres, for instance.

PD; With limited experience in limited testing, that makes it really hard. The guys doing 13 rounds a year have an advantage and the only way we can learn is with the opportunities you get.

GR: Very much so. You can do as many test days as you want but a race is worth probably 10 test days. Just through the experience of getting on green tyres and racing against other people. I was fortunate this year that I did quite a few test days but trudging round and round and round Queensland Raceway six or seven days of the year, doesn't really help you that much. It does, but it doesn't give you enough to step up to the next level.

MIM: It just keeps you from dropping down a level?

GR; Yeah. To match it with guys who are in the cars all year is so hard. They have so much confidence in their car, themselves and what they have around them, they can bounce it off the wall and whatever else.

You jump in the thing one and a while and you think 'geez, I better not go too hard through here, don't want to fire it into a wall'.

MW: You can't make a mistake, can you?

GR: Exactly. And if you spear off and make a mistake, you get absolutely crucified.

MN: Greg, one minute you're 30 October 2002

of 'the boys' on the workshop floor, next minute you're a driver, in a role where some would perceive you to be 'above' the mechanics.

GR: Working in there five days a week and sometimes more has definitely helped me fit in. I get on well with all the guys.

We can have a laugh and a joke and carry on and they do relate to me very well, whereas the other drivers are only in there now and again.

It's almost like they are on a different level, whereas, as an ■ example, when I was racing at Eastern Creek this year. The car had certain problems and we were going through data and stuff and come about 9pm we decided to totally change the car.

On went the overal ls and under the car I went with the boys. They real ly relate to me, whereas I think they find it hard to relate to the other drivers.

MW: I've done the hard yards too. I've built a motor, done a gearbox, done diffs, you name it.

I try not to do that any more because I figure when the crap

hits the fan you're not going to step out of the race car and start spannering it, are you?!

They put in just as much work as the drivers, they do a hell of a job.

MIM: How frustrating is it?

Knowing what you can do but not getting that golden chance and the door opening?

PD: There's been tonnes of times where you just don't know where the next path is going to lead. At the end of 2001 we had to look at what was best in the long-term and so we decided to do the Konica Series and make sure we were prepared to move up after that. I think we made the right decision.

MW: You've got to eat humble pie .. .

GR: You do, but you've got to keep on, keeping on, really.

Eventually, something's got to happen. People have got to be starting to think 'hang on, this Ritter's got to be half a shot at it'. Something's got to turn up.

MN; So did everyone's phones ring hot after Bathurst?

"You've got to eat humble pie... iti

- White on the frustrations of trying for a fuii-time Levei 1 drive

NP: Nah. I couldn't see myself wanting to change (anyway), Holden have been fantastic to me in the last few years. A couple of years ago I was driving taxis and I'm still concreting now.

I'm a strong believer in never forgetting where 1 started.

GR: I have had a couple of calls from different teams. But at the moment, I'm still contracted to DJR and DJR are trying to do something for me next year as well. It depends on what's best for Greg Ritter.

MW: You've got to be like that, too, Russell Ingall's taken that approach. You're supposed to be loyal to a manufacturer, but unless it's getting you somewhere . . .

I've spent 12 years driving Holdens and, really, it's gotten me nowhere. I got three phone calls this year, all from Ford teams. I made three phone calls, all to Holden teams. Go figure!

MN: So what about next year?

PD; Well, no matter what happens with racing. I'll be back at uni, whether I get a drive or not, so that's at least something!

I should know in a few weeks.

There's a few options and we're going to have to decide which one is best. The two races with Castrol Perkins hopefully gives me a good foot in the door there.

MW: For me. I've got nothing concrete on the horizon, so it's a case of talking to a lot of people.

For lack of getting a drive, you've got to run Konica, and run it professionally and win the series. It's the only way to get a drive if you miss out this year.

35

HRT's engines

HRTs mdestru w You ape leaaingHmw^ 1000. Almms are goiag eOi>'//// the tenweraOuvs are sen aewrecoptb. The champions^ is on the Ihie. Milyou drive for the tioideu Rachig Team, you keep going-and whi The GreatRace, pm.RRANAGAiUiooks at what happened to Mark Skaife at Rathurst-and what didn't...

HAT does a bag of home-brand potato chips cost? Fifty cents?

A dollar?

It could have cost the Holden Racing Team a whole lot more than that. Or, to be precise, a chip packet (and a few other bits and pieces) almost brought the Mark Skaife/Jim Richards HRT Commodore VX to its knees.

For the second year in a row, Skaife nursed a 'wounded' car to the chequered flag to win the Bathurst 1000 and, coincidently, seal the V8 Supercar Championship. In 2001, it was close on fuel, Skaife running the car to within a lap of running dry.

This time around, with the car's air intake jammed with three plastic bags, it was the engine temperature that was soaring and, by the team's own estimation, another lap would have seen the car stop with a blown motor.

Remarkable, in itself. Even more amazing, when the engine came

temperature runs in the low to mid-SOs celcius, but almost straight away, there were problems.

"The first bag went in (to the grille) about lap 135," Grech continues. "Straight away, the water temperature went to about 90 degrees, but when the Safety Car came out (about two laps later), it went back to normal again. When it went 'green' again, it went to 93 degrees and hovered there for a few laps. It was going up by a degree a lap until it plateaued with about 12 laps to go.

"Then the second bag went in.

That was the one you could see on TV; there was a bag in front of Mark when he went over Skyline and then it wasn't there (ie, behind the car) any more."

Now, almost half of the air intake grilled was covered. The airflow to the radiator was severely compromised and the oil cooler, which sits at the bottom

"Half the team wanted to pit him right there and then,clean the car up,send him back and salvage some points. The other half wanted to keep him out and see what it would do" - TWR Racing’s Jeff Grech

1

out of the car, it was examined in the factory, given a top end rebuild (camshaft, valves, springs, etc) and put back into TWR Racing's inventory of 17 race engines. As this edition of Motorsport News hits the newsstands, the engine in question, #021, sits in a box, in a container, on its way to New Zealand, where it will be a spare for HRT, Kmart Rasing or the Holden Young Lions teams.

So, what happened, and how?

"We had been pulling stuff out of the grill at every stop," says TWR Racing General Manager Jeff Grech. "There was a fair bit flying around on the track all through the race.

"The last stop, when Mark hopped in for the final stint, we did the same," That stop came at the end of lap 133. There were 28 laps left, so the #1 Commodore was well inside its fuel window to make it to the end of the race.

Normally, the car's water

and in front of the radiator, was getting practically no air at all.

"Within a lap, it hit 113 degrees," says Grech. "I started to think,'Boy, we are in trouble here ...'

“It was turning into a game of chess. The temps were still going up, Mark had alarms going off inside the car and we started to make plans. I have to say, half the team wanted to pit him right there and then, clean the car up, send him back and salvage some points.

The other half wanted to keep him out and see what it would do."

By now, Skaife had talked to the team about what was happening and was making adjustments inside the car. Any race car at Bathurst is under the most load for the run out of Hell Corner, up Mountain Straight, to the Cutting (which is seriously uphill; television 'flattens' it out a lot) and all the way to Skyline. On a race lap, that is about a minute of track time.

"Mark had been starting to save motorsport news

TECHNICAL

r

'ctai les it," Grech continues. "He was short-shifting over the mountain and coasting it down the hill, "Perkins could see what was going on, Steve Richards started to press hard and, from there, it was a matter of taking it corner by corner."

Richards had dropped back at the penultimate restart, when Skaife took the lead. But the set up of the tastrol car has seen it come into its own in the second half of its stints and, against a wounded animal, Richards was chasing hard, Skaife was driving a remarkable stint. Even with all the problems in the car and 'coasting' down Conrod Straight (a comparative term; he was still pulling around 270kmh) he was losing, on average, only half a second per lap.

His last seven laps were all in the 2m1 Is range.

With five laps left, the car was a time bomb. The water temp was 113 degrees and gaining a degree a lap. The radiator cap, a proprietary motorsport item, was designed to blow off at 118 degrees which, if this kept up, was going happen on the final lap of the race.

"The water overflow runs down the back of the car so that fluid will not get under the tyres," says Grech. "The water pump displaces enough capacity to pump all the water out in 300 to 400 metresf After that, an engine will run for about five seconds before it will haemorrhage.

"When Steve was catching, Mark thought he was losing power. He had to give it one last hammer, so he held his breath and it spiked, flicking to 118 up the hill for the last time before it went back to 117. He eased off across the top and cruised home.

"After that, the telemetry showed that it went to 130 with the heat soak but the engine was only idling in pare ferme, with no load on it, so that was not enough to damage the engine.

"The coolant system carries about 10 litres. We got five litres out of it after the race ..."

Apart from the water numbers, there were other figures coming out of the car's telemetry that gave the red troops the heeby jeebies.

Without the aid of much cooling, 30 October 2002

Red Alarm: While Skaife coped with three bags full ofradiator blockage in thefinal laps, opposite page, team manager Jeff Grech, right, played high-speed chess with the engine numbers.

Meanwhile life goes on at TWR Racing’s engine shop, below right, with one ofthe team’s 17 V8 Supercar engines getting afreshen-up.

(Phoioi by Dirk Klynimith and Phil branagan/MN Digital)

the gearbox was running at 125 degrees, the gears sent away for heat-testing after an initial examination showed they were still okay. Power steering temp was 93, the diff was running at 113 and the oil temperature read 150. But that figure is the maximum the sensors will read; estimates put it at 155.

"I know that Mobil is a sponsor," mused Grech. "But there is no way anything but a synthetic would cop those temperatures. A mineral oil running that hot would have fried.

It's bloody good oil."

Another consideration was fuel.

According to TWR's engine gurus, fuel consumption at high temperatures can diminish by as much as 10 percent. But with a short stint (Skaife made 31 laps in the opening sprint, with no Safety Cars) and four laps under yellow in the closing laps, he still would have cruised it. Besides, with all eyes watching the car's temps, few were worried about fuel.

There was also a design feature that helped the engine survive.

The HRT VXs run a right-angle shaped intake grille, with the vertical surface set back behind a top horizontal grille. That is specifically designed to allow some air to flow into and through the top of the grille, even if the vertical surface is blocked. A vital element that told on October 13.

And, of course, Grech had another asset going for him; Skaife.

"He probably stretched another two laps out of it," G;tech said.

"He did just enough to stop the engine going over the top.

"Even on lap 159, some of us wanted to pit him and clear out the intake. But, in the end, we didn't have to ..."

Surfers Paradise

The nightmare of the worst drought in years turned into a dream for Jason Bargwanna as he broke his winning drdught on the Goid Coast PHIL BRANAGAN reports

I

T may have taken intervention from Huey in the form ofsome unseasonal October weather,but Jason Bargwaima ended a two-year winning drought at the GUlette V8 Supei’car Challenge on the Gold Coast.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver finished fifth in the first race but, when the rain fell on Sunday, he pulled on the galoshes to out-pace the field, assisted by Race 1 winner Greg Murphy’s decision to take on slick tyres at his mandatory pit stop.

With Murffalling through the pack like a stone, Craig Lowndes came through to second overall. while Murphy was third for the weekend to maintain his challenge for second overall in the V8 ' Supercar Championship Series.

While the racing on the track was excellent, as usual, the decisions taken offit were the talking point of the weekend.

After practice and qualifying were pockmarked by decisions over the use of kerb-marking cones.

Race 1 was virtually destroyed by them.

Mark Skaife, John Bowe and Brad Jones all lost potential podium finishes when they were deemed to have whacked the cones and issued with drive-through penalties. Indeed, Bargwanna was initially sentenced to obscurity with a Saturday night penalty that was later, sensibly, overturned. allowing him to take his rightful position for Sunday’s race.

By Surfers standards, the carnage rate was low. Worst off was Russell Ingall, elbowed into

the wall on Saturday by Jason Bright, while David Besnard also clunked the concrete on Saturday.

Steve Ellery was the other notable crunchee, but all cars are expected to make the shup (sorry. ship) to New Zealand.

Practice and Qualifying IT was, somehow, appropriate that there was championship status awarded to the V8 Supercar races at Siufers, the first race after Bathurst.

A number of teams had burned oil at midnight and later in an effort to return the cars from Bathurst to wherever (mostly Melbom’ne),freshen them up and pack and dispatch them to SEQ for Little Big Man: Jason Bargwanna above, was delighted with the sudden big wet on the Gold Coast, splashing his way to a very popular victory.

(Photo by Marshall Cass)

You can lean on me: Steven Richards goes in off the cush with a little help from Todd Kelly, who battled tonsilitus all weekend.

[Photo by John Morris/MPIX)

motorsport news

V8 SUPERGAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

^ fOOLS *

the rock around the streets.

There was a high quotient of crossed fingers that hardware escaped carnage, reason being that three days after the race a container ship awaited to freight the stuff to New Zealand.

So there were some pretty buggered-looking people who arrived on ‘the Coast’(as the locals call it)for limited R&R before it all happened again. Not that the V8 circus is alone in that regard; long time Champ Car pundits are used to undertaking such endeavours in a week, and that time frame may involve changing the spec of a Lola or a Reynard from road course to superspeedway, or vice versa ...

There were issues to be taken on board even before The Travel. For the first time, there were championship points on offer, so

30 October 2002

the prospect of wheeling out an old ‘dunger’for the Coastal Crash-Fest or dogging it, preferring to keep The Right Stuff for a ‘real’race, were over - not that we are suggesting that this has ever happened before. Honest.

Also, the ‘legitimate’status of the races, along with the involvement of sponsor Gillette, meant that the V8 Supercars shared top billing with the Champ Cars for the first time - meaning, presumably, that the treatment of the two classes would be quite the same.

In theory, that was the case; in practice, the V8 Superca? circus was still at the southern end of the complex (in exile) and there was also the matter of what car you were driving when you hit a marker cone (see breakout).

Practice went pretty well as expected, as far as the car order was concerned, but even in the early going it was fairly obvious that the pace was going to be fast.

The development of the cars, along with the fact that the same sessions a year ago were weatheraffected, meant that the qualifying record was going to take a battering, and that was the way it went when it came time to go fast.

During practice and qualifying, it also became clear that it would soon be easier to keep track of who had NOT been pinged for kerb hopping than who had been. The Magnificent Seven who managed to stay ‘clean’ were: Ambrose, Glenn Seton, John Faulkner, Murphy, Bright and Skaife. And that list would become smaller come the race.

But first there was pole to settle.

The usual things happened; the Shells were nowhere, Steven Johnson 21st(“It feels pretty well balanced, it’s just... slow”) while Paul Radisich had an engine drop onto six cylinders as soon as he went out in qualifying.

Likevrise, Seton was nowhere, FCR’s backup car refusing to be nice, but at least he was ahead of Rick Kelly, the Lions VX being even worse. The Rickler was trying to sort it out, but the contrast to the other TWR cars was startling, three making the top six. The exception was Todd Kelly, who was suffering from tonsillitis and resting in his room between sessions.

Provisional pole went to Garth

continued on page 40 39

Surfers Paradise

^lalifuing^

POS NO

DRIVER

OAR

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Garth Tander John Bowe Jason Bright Greg Murphy Marcos Ambrose Mark Skaife David Besnard Craig Lowndes Max Wilson Steven Richards Brad Jones Russell Ingall Cameron McConville Jason Bargwanna Paul Weel Todd Kelly Larry Perkins Tony Longhurst Greg Ritter Steve Ellery Steven Johnson Jason Richards Mark Larkham Craig Baird Rodney Forbes John Faulkner Neil Crompton Glenn Seton Cameron McLean Rick Kelly Anthony Tratt Paul Radisich

Valvoline/Cummins Commodore VX OzEmail Racing Team Falcon AU Holden Racing Team Commodore VX K-Mart Racing Team Commodore VX Pirtek Racing Falcon AU Holden Racing Team Commodore VX Caltex Havoline Falcon AU 00 Motorsport Falcon AU Betta Electrical Falcon AU Castrol Perkins Commodore VX OzEmail Racing Team Falcon AU Castrol Perkins Commodore VX Lansvale Smash Repairs Commodore VX Valvoline Cummins Commodore VX K&J Thermal/DuPont Faicon AU K-Mart Racing Team Commodore VX Castrol Perkins Commodore VX Betta Electrical Falcon AU Caterpillar Falcon AU Super Cheap Racing Falcon AU Shell Helix Racing Falcon AU Team Kiwi Racing Commodore VX Orrcon Racing Falcon AU Team Brock Commodore VX 00 Motorsport Falcon AU Dynapack/GJ Gardner Commodore VX 00 Motorsport Falcon AU Ford Credit Racing Falcon AU VIP Pet Foods Falcon AU Holden Young Lions Commodore VX Toll Racing Falcon AU Shell Helix Racing Falcon AU

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

34 888 2 51 4 1 9 00 65 16 21 8 3 35 43 15 11 66 600 31 17 ' 021 10 54 7 46 27 5 40 02 75 18

TIME 1:51.0045 1:51.0252 1:51.0640 1:51.1443 1:51.1908 1:51.4121 1:51.5839 1:51.8193 1:51.8337 1:51.8911 1:52.0803 1:52.0811 1:52.1247 1:52.1604 1:52.2733 1:52.3339 1:52.3678 1:52.3959 1:52.4042 1:52.4530 1:52.5459 1:52.6466 1:52.7642 1:52.9775 1:53.0561 1:53.0714 1:53.2572 1:53.3632 1:53.4109 1:53.5421 1:55.1747 No time

Top 10 Shootout Pos Driver

Split 1

1 2 ,3 4 5

50.0003 1:23.3842 1:50.7030 49.7165 1:22.9768 1:50.7612 49.9447 1:23.2376 1:50.8228 49.9562 1:23.4706 1:50.8539 49.8154 1:23.4086 1:51.1620

Murphy Bowe Lowndes Skaife Besnard

Split 2

Time

Pos Driver

Split 1

Split 2

Time

6 Ambrose 50.1496 1:23.7594 1:51.3048 7 Wilson 50.1860 1:23.6877 1:51.4883 8 Tander 50.2596 1:23.8476 1:51.2301 9 Bright 50.2178 1:24.3310 1:51.8816 10 S.Richards* 51.1735 1:24.7111 1:52.4883

* Richards's time disallowed for missing chicane

USSCSRUH Gillette V8 Supercar Gliallenoe

Jeff, I’ve got a bit too much understeer... DOH! Jason Bright ploughs into the tyre barrier during qualifying after com plaining of a bit too much understeer in the HRT Commodore.

(Photo by Brad Cronberger)

continued from page 39

throughout the sessions and who lost some time with understeer in

Tander. No, stop giggling, it did.

Despite a flawed qualifying season, Tander(who won here a year ago, remember)felt that the GRM VX was a pretty handy weapon as soon as he went out and, with a few tweaks, came up with a ImSl.OOs for pole. And it looked like a proper lap, not some beastly car being dragged reluctantly by a stubborn driver.

Bowe was second, having suffered the frustration of a repeat performance from a front suspension rose joint (in a different car to the one he raced at Bathurst).

the Honda Hairpin.

Bright also ended the session with the car in the tyres on the same corner; “I had a really good lap, but I locked the inside front on the last corner and brushed the

JB’s solution to the kerb problem was dramatic and tongue-in-cheek (we hope); “They should raise them so high that, if you touch them, n you roll onto your roof!

Best of the HRT duo was Bright, who made zero changes to his car

tyres. Actually, it was more than a » brush...

Murphy was fourth and looking extremely confident, despite chasing the car for much of the sessions, while Ambrose was fifth, unhappy with the balance of the Stone Brothers Falcon.

Ambrose and team-mate Besnard sandwiched Skaife, a testament to the hard yakka applied by the SBR team after Wayne Gardner’s car-destroying crash at Bathurst.

Besnard would have been behind Lowndes, but Craig lost his

continued on page 44

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motorsport news

I

V8 SUPERGAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Don’t kerb THE rules of footy do not say that you cannot push someone in the back. The rules say, if you do, you will be penalised; the other bloke will receive a free kick.

Likewise, when I played basketball, the rules did not say you could not foul someone while they are shooting. They said, if you did, he was going to the charity line for a couple of free throws.

The rules of V8 Supercar racing do not say that you cannot use the kerbs. They say that, if you do, there will be a penalty, either a loss of best lap (in practice and qualifying) or a drive-through penalty in the race.

But... when was the last time you saw a footy game with no free kicks, or a basketball game

with no free thrc»i^4in^ Because the acceptable one;>au ftyurc the downside into the equation, make your decision and get on with it.

Here is another wrinkle. Even if they were given equal billing on the Gold Coast, Champ Cars and V8 Supercars were not treated equally. Drivers like Dario Franchitti and Cristiano da Matta had carte blanche to FLATTEN the kerb-marking cones at every opportunity, with complete impunity. Russell Ingall and Craig Lowndes biffed them (not that hard to do in a sedan, as opposed to a Lola) and were penalised.

And then came Race 1; Mark Skaife, Brad Jones and John Bowe all had opportunities for

racing

good results taken away from them for hitting cones.

Just? Under the current rules, yes. Fair? No. Jason Akermanis and Andrew'^ Gaze do not get sent off for ( fouling their opponents in the- -jgg manner mentioned! Tbd99Hfl|M worst, a few more goes at keep playing. That makes sense; if you send off your stars, you will ultimately just drive away your fans.

But, having made the decision to have V8 Supercar races on street courses, with temporary kerbs - and then award those races championship points - why invoke a virtual ‘death penalty’ for what is really a misdemeanour?

Why ruin Skaifey, Bradley and JB’s weekends because they clouted a kerb - sometimes in traffic?

We have a great series.

When the American circus arrives at Surfers, or the world at Albert Park, we get QDftwng but great feedback from the visiters jafilBtiMicfccaLiaciGa. We have see ■Hn^geis a teke note, of that clout was minirhat get over it. If someone is doing it repeatedly to gain an unfair advantage, act.

The current situation is wrong.

Our best racers are driving v^ith one hand tied behind their backs.

V8 Supercar fans are smart enough to know what is going on and deserve better. So do the drivers.

Sometimes, the best call a referee can make is no call at all.

We have at least one future V8 Supercar round on the streets of Surfers Paradise. If you don’t mind umpire, please, next time let's see the drivers Play On. - PHIL BRANAGAN

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H40LDEN

Surfers Paradise continued from page 40 best lap with a kerb issue, dropping him to eighth (he was otherwise not too glum) while Max Wilson leapt into the Run-off(as usual)from the second group.

This was a good effort; while Max has Champ Car experience, he was replaced prior to the 2001 Honda Indy 300 by Alex Barron and was new to the track. He was, for example, nine spots up on team-mate Tony Longhurst, who knows the track well, while the third Biiggs driver, new recruit Greg Ritter, was a spot back in 19th.

The last car to make the run-off was Steven Richards. With Wilson having tipped Brad Jones out of the 10, the #16 Castrol car bumped Ingall back to 12th, which is the way that Ingall’s qualifying luck seems to be running recently.

The other notable performances came from Cameron McConville in 13th and Paul Weel, delighting the locals no end in 15th in the K&J Thermal AU.

R

ICHARDS had used all of his 10 allocated tyres in qualifying and was less than confident for the Shoot-out, so he was not hugely

disappointed that, at the first chicane, he locked a wheel.

With rubber at a premium, he straightlined the chicane and continued on page 46

Not a great day for the red cars: Series Champion Mark Skaife, above, had a weekend he would rather forget, but could be thankful it didn't come earlier in the season.when points were crucial. Russell Ingall, below, did not even make it to Sunday after losing a barging match with Jason Bright while Craig Baird, below (Photos by API -Images and Marshall Cass) left, finished with a bloodied nose.

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Surfers Paradise

4

Ford Credit where it’s due: Glenn Seton lunged past Nell Crompton on the final lap of the first race, only to slam into the unsuspecting Rick Kelly - which cost Seton a 35-second post race penalty, and Crompton a finish.

Not for lack of trying: The Shell team struggled in qualifying, both cars in the back third of (Photos by Marshall Cass) the grid, but made good progress in the races.

Tyred, not emotional: Greg Murphy took a storming win in race one, but went for wets too early in race two. He stiil finished third overall. |(Photo by DlrK WynsmiUil ^ '

continued from page 44 continued, but it was no surprise when the time was disallowed. He would start 10th.

Lowndes was the big winner of the session, moving to third with a clean lap, while Besnard hopped up a few places to fifth, one behind Skaife.

Next man Ambrose made it a Stone Bros third row in sixth, but then Murphy pulled out a howler of a lap...

He was only fifth fastest in the first split but was fastest of all in the second, setting a lm50.7030s for his first pole since Pukekohe last season.

Bright followed but struggled; Bowe rocketed through the first two sectors at warp speed (0.3s faster than anybody), but, by his own admission, was too conservative at the Fosters Chicane, dropping to second. And

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V8 SUPERGAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

4

Takin’ it to the Max: With all his Champ Car buddies watching, Max Wilson was right on it from the outset, degpite never having driven the circuit, but was let down by the Betta Electrical Falcon. (PhotobyDirkKiynsmiihi balconies remove their

clothing?

Tander, after walling the car at ANA during the warm-up (prompting the GRMs to cannibalise Jason Bargwanna’s car for parts), was pretty conservative over his lap, dropping seven spots to eighth.

Race 1(22 laps) The circulating pitsquestions were obvious: Wouldthe brakes last a 22-lap race? How many cones would be hit? And why do those ladies on the

With any race, the start is important, but on a street course it is vital. Bowe was snoozing at the lights, Murphy took off and, as far as winning the race was concerned, that was all.

Murf pulled away and had the gap at around 4s when the Safety Car was summoned. He made a good restart, using the excellent

power down of the KRT Commodore at the chicanes and, despite having a few concerns over his brakes, made it home by 0.7s.

The only worry came when Lowndes, having stayed on the track a few laps longer than the leaders, came out in front of Murf when the 00 car resumed.

“Lowndesy was pretty kind on

continued on page 48

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47

Surfers Paradise V8SCS Round 11 c/3

Surfers Raradase

CA Digs 1 - 22 lipt 09 Pos Driver Race time 49:08.0240 1 Murphy 49:08.7241 2 Ambrose 49:15.4605 3 Lowndes 4 S. Richards 49:17.9254 5 Bargwanna 49:19.6928 6 Bright 49:20.5754 7 T.Kelly 49:21.1847 8 Wilson 49:23.4558 9 Weel 49:23.7602 10 Johnson 49:24.2603 11 Ellery 49:24.6698 12 McConuille 49:25.0043 13 Perkins 49:25.5874 14 J. Richards 49:27.8979 49:28.0704 15 Radisich 49:29.5548 16 Tander 17 Longhurst 49:29.8764 49:31.2044 18 Faulkner 49:34.0240 19 McLean 49:36.4577 20 Tratt 49:38.2300 21 Larkham 49:39.5045 22 R. Kelly 49:41.1065 23 Crompton 49:44.6117 24 Skaite 49:46.6714 25 Jones 49:54.6042 26 Bowe 49:55.9825 27 Forbes 50:17.5769 28 Seton# 29 Ritter 20 laps DNF Baird 18 laps 11 laps DNFIngall DNFBesnard 1 lap

Fast, lap On 1:51.8024 1:51.6490 1:52.2447 1:52.9448 1:52.7056 1:52.3864 1:53.0409 1:52.3220 1:52.8056 1:53.4652 1:52.7633 1:53.1364 1:53.8778 1:53.5533 1:53.9231 1:52.7281 1:53.0572 1:53.6687 1:53.4505 1:54.5010 1:54.2317 1:53.6815 1:53.4630 1:52.4110 1:52.1085 1:51.7156 1:54.1689 1:53.4113 1:52.6098 1:53.9568 1:52.9098 3:28.2482

9 4 6 4 7 10 9 10 11 7 11 10 3 5 22 8 6 21 7 8 6 10 10 1 7 7 10 6 7 6 11 1

/Seton got a 35s penalty post-race Rpce 2-22 laps 1 Bargwanna 2 Lowndes 3 T. Kelly 4 Tander 5 Longhurst 6 Radisich 7 S. Richards 8 J. Richards 9 Besnard 10 Johnson 11 Bright 12 Baird 13 Crompton 14 McLean 15 Bowe 16 Tratt 17 Perkins 18 Murphy 19 McConville 20 Weel 21 Seton 22 Larkham 23 Forbes 24 Ritter DNFEIIery DNF Jones DNFWilson DNFKelly DNFSkaife DNFAmbrose DNFFaulkner

52:48.4839 52:53.0464 52:54.7978 53:01.2481 53:02.0670 53:05.8273 53:07.1107 53:07.3200 53:13.6762 53:14.4939 53:17.7082 53:18.4074 53:19.8830 53:21.0556 53:23.0038 53:27.4654 53:31.7528 53:34.8711 53:41.8016 53:50.8455 53:51.4715 54:04.3569 54:32.0160 21 laps 10 laps 7 laps 4 laps 4 laps 3 laps Olaps

2:09.5818 11 2:10.4476 21 2:09.8295 22 2:08.3526 10* 2:10.1293 8 2:09.3273 10 2:09.5081 11 2:10.8155 22 2:10.4084 22 2:09.7071 22 2:11.8330 22 2:10.9575 9 2:09.8925 22 2:10.4528 10 2:11.1968 22 2:12.8836 9 2:12.3700 22 2:10.2503 10 2:10.1942 21 2:12.9354 7 2:12.9566 22 2:14.8344 8 2:15.1743 7 2:12.0025 21 2:09.0944 8 2:12.1217 9 2:14.7853 5 2:18.5930 4 2:24.9796 2 2:19.3960 3

Championship points Skalfa 1984, Bright 1290, Murphy 1217, S.Richards 1199, T.Kelly 1146, Ambrcse 1133, Lcwndes 946, Ingall 876, Besnard 849, Tander 840, Bargwanna and Lnnghurst 661, Bowe 657, Johnson 543, B.Jones 506, Perkins 502, Wills 491, Crompton 483, Ja Richards 467, Larkham 407, Radisich 394, R.Kelly 389, Ellery 373, McConville 358, Baird 353, McLean 348, Weel 344, Faulkner 338, Seton 337, Ji.Richards 304, Tratt 285, Forbes 277, Mezera 232, Wilson 221, Ritter 185, Morris 184, Dumbrell 160, A.Jones 136, Pretty 104, Scotland Youlden 100, White 98, N.Bates 88, Power 82, Stokell 72, Wakefield and Owen 70, Gardner 62, Brede, Cleland and Leahey 60, R.Bates 56, White 43, McDougall 41, D'Agostin 38, Luff 36, Crick and Scifleet 34, Full and Porter 30, Miller, Searle, Dumesny and Whincup 26, Krause/McIntyre 22, Brock, Miedecke and Quinn 20, Mundy and Simpson 18, Beattie 16, Romano -58.

48

GT racer: Garth Tander gets plenty of attitude into the Valvoline Commodore as he fends off Todd Kelly.

(Photo by Marshall Cass)

continued from page 47 the exit,” the Kiwi said later. “He didn’t come across (onto the line).”

The battle was for second.

Ambrose was left to fly the Ford flag alone, Bowe’s bad start having hurt him when Besnard thought he saw enough of a gap at the back chicane to have a sniff. JB took the line, Bezzy took the wall and struggled in to retire. In the mixup,Ambrose had a moment but Bowe kept third behind Skaife.

Lowndes stayed out longer than the Holdens and was right under Murphy’s wing but, two laps later, he locked his brakes at the first chicane and stopped completely to avoid the possibility of a drivethrough penalty.

That dropped him to fifth, but that became fourth when Bowe’s adventures continued with a wallbanger at Falken Turn, Jones following Lowndes through the gap.

'The Safety Car was summoned when Ingall hit the wall on the back straight. He had already had fun with Bright, the HRT car ramming IngalTs on the way into the pits, and Bright was attacking at the Fosters Chicane on lap 12.

The red car went over the first part of the chicane on Ingall’s right, tried the outside on the second part and the two cars made contact. Ingall riding into the wall.

By the time the mess was cleared, there were five laps left, but plenty of drama.

Tander had already had his day ruined by a drive-through, but then the black flags came out in

earnest, for Skaife, Bowe and Jones. One by one the drivers acceded to the requests and served their time, leaving them stranded in 25th, 26th and 27th at the end of the race.

The beneficiary was Lowndes, who, after his chicanery, found himself in third, where he stayed despite a sticking throttle.

The only other headline was when Seton, Rick Kelly and Neil Crompton tangled at the ANA Hotel, the latter two ending up together in the wall.

Steven Richards took a steady fourth from Bargw'anna, Bright, Todd Kelly, the impressively smooth Wilson, the likewise Weel and Cameron McConville.

But, after the race, there was drama.

Along with Steven Ellery and Greg Ritter(who were on the same piece of racetrack) Bargwanna was adjudged to have hit one cone too many and received the equivalent of a drive-through penalty. Bargs had already left the track when he found out and returned to plead his case, showing evidence that he had deliberately slowed to AVOID hitting cones.

The stewards accepted his explanation and returned his position. Along with that, they erased the penalties to Ellery and Ritter. In Bargs’ case, it would make a world of difference to his weekend ...

Race 2(22 laps) ... Because it was raining on Sunday morning. And Elroy

Jetson loves a slippery racetrack.

There was hoo-haa even before the formation lap. Skaife and Ambrose spun on their ‘travelling’ lap (from the paddock to the grid) and drive-through penalties were briefly considered for both drivers.

In the end, no action was taken, but just imagine what the quotes would have read like ...

In Skaife’s case, it would have mattered little. A sensor took a dislike to the precipitation and his engine was misfiring. After a couple of exploratory stops, the rain had done what three plastic bags could not two weeks earlier and Skaifey parked his unmarked car for the day.

Lowndes made one of the those starts you dream about and took the lead from grid three, a spot soon occupied by poleman Murphy, while behind Richards and Bargwanna held off Toddsilitis, Wilson, Bright and McConville.

It took Murf all of a lap to get back the lead, the KRT car looking really hooked up in the damp, but nothing was going to be sorted until the round of stops. Who would bet on the weather clearing and choose slicks? And who wanted it to pour?

Bargs, obviously. After disposing of Lowndes in his second attempt at ANA, he set the spinnaker and took off after the leader.

Following him a little way back was Longhurst; from grid 17, he was rocketing through the pack and running up to two seconds a lap faster than the leaders.

Murf made the call on lap eight

motorsport news

and came in for slicks and,for a while,it looked like a positive move.

But then the rain started again and down the charts the car fell.

“My call,” shrugged Murphy later. “No-one else to blame.

Bugger ...”

After pitting on lap nine (and keeping Lowndes behind him) Bargwanna was effectively the leader of the race, with only McConvUle unpitted when a Safety Car appeared for a plethora of parked cars(R. Kelly, Jones and Ellery, who had received a belt from McLean).

So, when the Lansvale car pitted, Bargwanna took off, had some fun splashing around in the puddles and won by 4.5s.

For a while, it was looking good for a GRM 1-2. Undistracted by a Valvoline towel-wrapped idiot who decided to walk onto the track at ANA,Tander scorched past Lowndes into second, but a moment at the Fosters Chicane allowed Craig to re-attack and take second, Kelly taking fourth at the same time.

Longhurst was fifth after a brilliant display of heads-up driving, echoed by Radisich right behind him. Behind came the battle for the Richards Trophy, Steve holding out the inspired Jason who, as always, was a factor in the Team Kiwi machine.

And then came Besnard. After a

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lap, we were looking at a potential epic. From the back row after his Race 1 wallclanger, Bezzy passed 13 cars (13!) on the opening lap and was ninth by lap six. But then, like Murphy, he gambled on slicks and tumbled down the order.

Things got worse when he got into the tyre wall at Falken but, after a stop for wets, he still made ground to make it to ninth.

So, the drought ended -

I

I

Bargwanna’s, that is. He was a happy and deserving winner, even if he looked a little unsure what to do with the trophy - a surfboard!that looked like a Malibu next to its owner.

Rain in Queensland? Unlikely, but true. What’s next; a heatwave at Pukekohe? Unlikely, but maybe.

There is still plenty to play for.

Full yur Chully Buns and take a seat. If you can find one ...

Mover and shaker: The Stone Brothers team pro duced a new Falcon for David Besnard, which the young man qualified fifth, just behind Skaife.

After crunching the wall in race one, he drove a storming race in the wet on Sunday, moving up 13 places on the first lap alone, only to choose slicks at the (Photo by Marshall Cass) wrong time.

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Honda Indy 300

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When Surfers broke loose: While Mario Dominguez, left and inset, took home the trophy, there were some contenders for ‘crash of the day'. The eight-car pile-up at the first start left Jimmy Vasser on his head, above, and Adrian Fernandez, right, and Tora Takagi, bottom, on their way to hospital.

Both escaped serious injury.

The Honda Integra Type-R Safety Car, below, actually led the most laps in the ‘race’ ... {Photos by sutton-images.com, Marshall Cass, Dirk Klynsmith and John Morris/Mpix)

, 51.

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In perhaps the most farcical race in the hi^oiy ofChamp racing, Mario Dominguez, who qualified last, wokjhe Honda Indy 300-and that was after a number of pit stops^knd having held the lead for the last four laps! MARK GLENDENNING reports on a soggy Surfers Paradise event that fizzled out once the massive eight-car startline pile-up had been cleared away 50

St

CHAMP CARS

rave Hard to find a Target when it’s wet: Bruno Junqueira was the form Target/Ganassi Lola/Toyota all weekend, (Photo by Marshall Cass) though he got caught out with the 20-lap pit window and ended up 14th, the last finisher,

o

RDINARILY,the first win for a driver and a team is something long remembered. The 2002 edition of the Honda Indy 300 on the Gold Coast was certainly memorahle,hut Mario Dominguez’s first win for Herdez Racing was only a small part of the story.

If you were watching from home and stayed awake for the whole thing, you did well. If you were at the track you had no choice but to stay awake (apart from going home,I guess), as I defy anyone to sleep in the kind of conditions that greeted the CART circus when it gridded up.

That cart’s visit to our shores this year will always be associated with awful weather on race day and a literally processional race that was run almost entirely behind the Safety Car is unfortunate, because on the whole it was a brilliant event.

The fieldof Champ Cars was perhaps uncomfortably small, but the atmosphere abounded with genuine optimism that CART’s darkest hours were now behind it, and that the show would very much be back in this part of the world next year.(And right up to 2008, apparently).

But there’s no escaping the fact that the race/two hour parade offered little to get excited about a sentiment with which most of those actually involved agreed wholeheartedly.

Qualifying Brazil can seemingly good racing drivers thepump way out that Taiwan pumps out calculators, and this was all too apparent during the two qualifying sessions.

Two Brazilians went to bed on Saturday night safe in the knowledge that they had already bagged a point for the weekend.

Bruno Junqueira earned himself

a guaranteed front-row spot after topping the timesheets on Friday, only to have pole stolen from him the following day by countryman Cristiano da Matta. And to cap things off, Tony Kanaan’s claim to the third spot completed an allBrazilian top three.

While disappointed about having to start the race from the outside of the front row, the advantages of an all-Brazil top three was not lost on Junqueira.

“The good thing about this qualifying session is that before it I said to Tony,‘Hey Tony, let’s get you and me and Cristiano in the top three and then maybe the chicks will look at us’,” he quipped.

“Maybe we will have a three-car crash at the first corner,” inteijected da Matta.“We can go and see the girls early!”

Junquiera’s rise to the top of Friday’s timesheets came down to his efforts in the dying minutes of the session as the notorious concrete walls of Surfers Paradise ensured that the guys with the red flags had plenty of work to do.

“It was a pretty exciting session for me,” he explained.

let's get you and me and Cristiano in the top three and maybe the chicks will look at us...

11

It

-Junqueira’s qualifying ‘deal’ with countryman Tony Kanaan “I waited a little bit to go on to the track, and then on my first lap there was a red flag. Went out again, red flag again. Went again, red flag. Went in and changed for new tyres ... first lap - red flag.

Then with seven minutes to go, I had a lap!

“I did my first lap very conservatively to make sure I had a spot on the gi-id, and then from the second lap I started to push.”

Rookie Dominguez was

responsible for the first of the red fl'ags after going straight on at the Honda Chicane and smacking the wall. Vasser was next, taking both ends off the car. Dario Franchitti clouted the wall a short time later, and Patrick Carpentier’s tmm to kiss the concrete was next.

Junqueira was perched on provisional pole with an advantage ofjust 0.06s over closest rival Paul Tracy, but as things turned out it was enough.

“We decided to wait, wait, wait ... and then Bruno put a lap in with a minute or so to go and I just really had no time to respond,” said the Canadian.

With an extra day’s worth of gi’ip on the track, times tumbled when Saturday’s session rolled around.

With the obligatory red flag period (instigated by Christian Fittipaldi, who spun up an escape road) out of the way early, da Matta wasted little time in making his intentions clear when he ended Kenny Brack’s hold on the top spot.

Junqueira responded, going 0.2s quicker, but da Matta had something in reserve and sealed the deal with a lap record lm30.204s on his 10th tour, bumping Junqueira offthe top by just 0.01s.

Kanaan completed the Brazilian sweep with a last-gasp flyer that booted Brack down to fourth ahead of Tracy. It had been an eventful session for Tracy, who overcooked it and clipped the wall.

“I missed the line at the entry to the chicane and flew into the air pretty high and that must have damaged the suspension,” he said.

“I got two more laps in and then I was limping it home to the pits and it broke on the straightaway and I nicked the wall.”

Fellow Team Green-er Dario Franchitti was down in eighth.

Clutch problems had severely limited his track time earlier in

continued on page 52 51

Honda Indy 300

» W

Pos No 1 1 2 4 3 10 4 12 26 6 44 7 52 8 27 9 20 10 51 11 8 12 9 13 11 14 33 15 32 16 39 17 5 18 55

Driver Cristiano da Matta Bruno Junqueira Tony Kanaan Kenny Brack Paul Tracy Scott Dixon Shinji Nakano Dario Franchitti Oriol Servia Adrian Fernandez Jimmy Vasser Michel Jourdain Jr Christian Fittipaldi AlexTagliani Patrick Carpentier Michael Andretti Tore Takagi Mario Dominguez

Nat

(BRAI (BRA) (BRA) (SWE) (CAN) (NZL) (JPN) (SCO) (ESP) (MEX) (USA) (MEX) (BRA) (CAN) (CAN) (USA) (JPN) (MEX)

Team Havoline/Newman-Haas Target/Ganassi Pioneer/Nunn Target/Ganassi KOOUGreen Targel/Ganassi Avex/Fernandez KOOL/Green Visteon/Patrick Tecate/Fernandez Shell/Rahal Gigante/Rahal Eli Lily/Newman-Haas Player's/Forsythe Player's/Forsythe Motorola/Green Avex/Walker Flerdez/Bettenhausen

Car Lola/Toyota Lola/Toyota Lola/Honda Lola/Toyota Lola/Honda Lola/Toyota Lola/Honda Loia/Honda Reynard/Toyota Lola/Honda Lola/Ford Lola/Ford Lola/Toyota Reynard/Ford Reynard/Ford Lola/Flonda Reynard/Toyota Lola/Ford

i

Fri Qua I 1:32.162 1:31.515 1:32.267 1:32.900 1:31.575 1:32.143 1:32.663 1:35.278 1:32.794 1:32.301 1:32.428 1:32.384 10:26.085 1:33.770 1:33.506 1:32.574 1:32.710 1:35.161

Sat Qjal

1:30.204 1:30.214 1:30.427 1:30.616 1:30.731 1:30.810 1:30.936 1:31.040 1:31.087 1:31.351 1:31.369 1:31.709 1:32.223 1:32.300 1:32.367 1:32.439 1:32.522 1:33.655

FedEx Championship Series Round 17 Honda Indv 30 45

Brack Attack: We don’t know where Kenny Brack, left, is going in 2003, but he had one of his better 2002 races on the Gold Coast.

(Photo by John Morris/Mpix)

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Er, step away from the camera: Barry Green, right, must be auditioning for a job with Motorsport News. After all, he hands control of his team over on December 1 ...

\ S. > J

(Photo by sutton-images.com)

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CHAMP CARS

Shiryi-san Hope he’s got a boarding pass! Paul Tracy took to the skies in the KOOL/ Green Lola/Flonda at the Fosters Chioane, above, while 2002 Champ-eleot {Photo by sutton-images.com and Marshall Cass) Cristiano da Matta, below, snared pole. continued from page 51 the day, and he opted to spend his qualifjdng session playing it safe and learning the track.

Adopted hometown hero Scott Dixon was flying close to the wire when he left to the absolute last moment to post in a lap that vaulted him from 11th to sixth.

It’s tough not to enjoy yourself at Indy, but quite a few teams managed it on Saturday. Adrian Fernandez was 10th quickest after failing to get his Lola/Honda suitably balanced, and Team Rahal aso had a frustrating outing, with Vasser down in 11th and joining the chorus of drivers lamenting their bad luck with traffic.

“I kept running up on cars that were just cruising around,” he said, “It seemed as though half of the field was on one straightaway, and this is nearly a three-mile track.”

Team-mate Michel Jourdain Jr was one spot further down after battling a combination of heavy traffic and chronic understeer.

It’s not where they wanted to be, but one man who would have gladly traded places with them was Michael Andretti. After ending Friday in ninth, Andretti spent most of the following day simply trying to match his times fi'om the previous session.

He finally managed it -justbut on a day when everybody else was finding an extra couple of seconds, a mere 0.04s improvement was not nearly enough. The result?

The Motorola car would be starting from the second-last row.

“It’s very, very disappointing,” rued Andretti.

“I don’t know why we were slow today, I just can’t explain it. That was as fast as I could go. I’m pulling my hair out right now.”

But the day belonged to da Matta, who would start from pole for the seventh time in season 2002.

“We were able to get it right,” he said. “I am very pleased to get another pole. As Bruno said, hopefully the girls are going to look at us a little bit better now ...”

30 October 2002

Race(40 laps) Not evencould the nutcases behind ‘Driven’ have come up with a day as bizarre as race day at Honda Indy on the Gold Coast.

It all started, as most things do, with God. Few things in this world look as good in real life as they do in advertisements, but the first three days of the Indy carnival more than lived up its image of an orgy of racing set against a backdrop of sun, beer, and lots and lots of promotional girls.

But Sunday dawned rather like an August day in Melbomme. It was overcast, there was a cool breeze blowing, and when the Champ Cars hit the track for their morning warm-up session, there was rain.

When the 2pm start time for the race came around, there was also rain. Then there was a lot more of it. Great news for the farmers, who have been weathering the worst drought in this part of the country in 90-plus years, but not so good for the 16 Champ Cars paddling their way around Surfers Paradise.

It should have been 18, but the first attempt to start the race came to an awful end with a massive shunt on the startline. It began when Jimmy Vasser slammed into the back of Adrian Fernandez.

“I was trying to keep a pace as we came down for the green flag,” explained Vasser,“but to be honest, I couldn’t see anything because of the spray. He must have checked

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I QUALIFYING may have proved || frustrating for just about driver [ I who was not Brazilian, but the 11 feel-good story of the day was I Shinji Nakano.

I The Fernandez Racing pilot suffered second-degree burns to his left hand in a fuel fire at Miami three weeks ago, but I bounced back to qualify himself in seventh spot - three ahead of his vastly-more experienced team-mate (and boss), Adrian Fernandez.

"My hand is already nearly healed," he said, holding the wounded paw out for proof.

"After the accident I spent four orjfive days getting treatment, then I flew back to Japan and saw some doctors there. It feels nearly 100 percent."

Prior to joining the CART series, Nakano had a brief fling in Formula One as a Prost and Minardi pilot in 1997/98, so if you have ever wondered about the comparative difficulties in driving the respective cars, the Osakaborn Shinji is a good man to ask.

"Oh, Champ Cars are much harder," he mused. "FI cars ... very easy!"

"I like both. I like racing," he explained, "but they are different. Road course, you must be strong, fit. Oval, not so fit, but you must be strong here (tapping his head). You make a mistake on a road course, no problem. You have run-off, or you go up the escape road. You make a mistake on an oval, you make a BIG mistake ..."

-MARK GLENDENNING

up very early and I was maybe five feet from him when I saw his car. I clipped him and got sideways. ‘"The next thing I knew, I was on my head and sliding. I could see Michael’s nose coming straight at me and I was thinking,‘Don’t hit the cockpit’. Luckily, he didn’t get to me.”

The clash between Vasser and Fernandez triggered a chain reaction that ultimately accounted for eight cars-in fact, Christian Fittipaldi was the only driver in the back half ofthe field to avoid the carnage. Vasser’s stricken Lola was whacked by Tora Takagi, who in turn was launched by Dominguez.

Andretti went into the back of and then underneath Tagliani, with Carpentier and Jourdain also getting caught up in the mayhem.

Fernandez and Tagaki both needed assistance to leave the cars, and both were later taken to the

Gold Coast Medical Centre, where Takagi was found to have sustained minor fractures to his pelvis.

Fernandez complained of pain in his lower neck, and while initial xrays failed to find any damage, he was later found to have factures to the T2 and T3 vertebrae.

He will be forced to skip Fontana next week, however,it is expected that Takagi will grid up provided that he is not in too much discomfort.

It was a lucky escape for Takagi and Fernandez, both saved by the simple fact that their cars absorbed the forces of the impact exactly as they were designed to do.

But it was also a lucky escape for da Matta, who had been beaten through the first corner by Junqueira, and in theory, would now have a second chance at

continued on page 54 53

Honda indy 300

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continued from page 53 converting his pole position into a race lead.

As things turned out, da Matta did make a better job of the second start when it came around an hour or so later, but essentially it was meaningless.

Reduced to 50 laps from the original 70, the race was finally put out of its misery on lap 40, when it reached a duration of two hours.

Just seven laps were completed under a green flag, with Andretti distinguishing himself by making one of only two overtaking move under racing conditions when he got past Carpentier and Fittipaldi to claim 13th position on lap nine.

Just one lap later, the yellows came out, and from then on it was Safety Car Central.

With no passing under the Safety Car, the race was going to be decided entirely by pit strategies (kind of like CART meets Formula One).

Each car was required to make two stops, and each car had a pit window of 20 laps.

The guy who got it right in the end was Dominguez, who started from dead last. The rookie from Mexico City had been driving the spare since damaging the race car early in the weekend.

His involvement in the pileup at the start of the race could very easily have spelt an early shower for the Herdez outfit, but the team did an extraordinary job in getting the car repaired in time for the restart, an endeavour which was 54

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HONDA

ultimately rewarded with even more extraordinary results.

If you combine CART’S pitstop regulations with a race nm almost entirely behind a Safety Car, there’s really only one strategy available to someone starting from the back pit often, push your pit window out as far as possible, and hope like hell.

Incredibly, it worked. By the time the first round of stops was completed, Dominguez had gained more than anyone else in the field, climbing from 16th to eighth. He stopped three more times as the afternoon wore on, the last of which came on lap 22. He wouldn’t have to stop again until lap 42.

At this stage, it seemed that the race would be called at 36 laps, half the distance of the original 70. If the flag had dropped then, Andretti, who lined up with Dominguez at the back of the field, would have been an equally-miraculous winner.

But Andretti had last stopped on lap 16, and therefore, was a sitting duck. On the 36th tour, he dutifully pulled into the pits, and you could almost hear the sound of millions of bottles of cerveza being opened in Mexico.

“I hope I don’t wake up from this dream, because then it will be a nightmare,” beamed Dominguez.

“What goes around comes around, and we’ve had the worst luck you can possibly imagine this year, and all that bad luck just turned around.

“The team went a mission to repair it (the car) and I’ve got to give it to them, they left it perfect.

When I got back in, they said, ‘the steering might be a little crooked or whatever’, but when I got back in I said, ‘wow, it’s perfect’.”

The fairytale was the one feelgood factor that saved a ‘race’ that was otherwise an intensely frustrating excercise for all.

Positions shuffled as drivers called and mis-called their various strategies, with just Oriol Servia and Dixon doing anything out of the ordinary.

Servia was first up, his engine mysteriously spontaneously combusting while trailing around behind the Safety Car, forcing him to park the Patrick Racing Re3mard in a halo of flames on lap 11.

Dixon survived until lap 24, when he pitted for the second time

in three laps to allow his mechanics to fiddle around under the engine cowling before finally calling it a day with electrical problems.

The other big moment, surprisingly, came from da Matta, who spun inexplicably under yellows at Batercard Corner and tagged the wall with just six laps left. He recovered and continued, but dropped away to eventually finish eighth.

Second car home was Carpentier, who ran a similar strategy to Dominguez, albeit a little less effectively.

“Some said that Mario Dominguez did not really deserve the first place, but this weekend Michael was starting beside him at the back,” said the Canadian.

“And I was starting beside these guys too. I don’t think that anybody was deseiwing that place besides the guys that were at the front.”

Completing the podium was Ti’acy, the Team KOOL Green driver the only place-getter to have started the race in the top 10.

“I didn’t really understand what was going on, and my team didn’t understand what was going on,” he said.

“We had a feeling that CART was going to try to get to half distance, and we knew that we had moiorsport news

CHAMP CARS HONDAINDY 300

What They Said

21 October ZOOZ - Dedaied after 40 Ians FOS Driver n '■jRaciiime CP 1 ■' " 2:00:06.524 Dominguez s/3

The thoughts of the Champ Car stars on. Honda Indy 2002

2 3 4 5 6 7

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: 'I really think it will be the first of many for this team.

"We had the good luck for once today. I kept thinking I could win this thing if this or that strategy played out. But our bad luck turned around and we won. It was unbelievable. A win is a win and you take it no matter what."

PATRICK CARPENTIER: "It was too tough of conditions but it was the right decision to run the race behind the pace car.

"In a race like that, that's just the way it is. I've lost races like this, but I ended up second today and I'll take it."

KENNY BRACK: "Unfortunately, we didn't stop on lap 22 or we would have won the race. (Laughs) But seriously, we had great car today and had a chance to win.

It's a shame that the race was decided behind the pace car. " I guess that it was the fairest decision in that everybody had to pit twice." to do two pitstops. So I guess it was really just thinking ahead and forecasting what CiLRT was going to do.”

CiUlT folk flew back to the US promising to come back next year with something special to repay the fans who turned up only to be either frozen or bored to death.

Bring it on!

Performance Quality Value.

TONY KANAAN: "What a day.

I've never experienced anything like that in my life. I don't know what to think, other than that if the race would have gone 50 laps and we would have continued under yellow, I would have been the winner.

"I feel really bad for the fans

Carpentier Tracy Brack Kanaan Tagliani Franchitti da MaRa Andreni JourdainJr ; FiRipaldi ^ Vasser n Nakano fJunqueira l±‘ V

9 10

n

12 13 14

RetirementSv 15 Dixon 16 Servia 17 Takagi '18 Fernandez

(Photo by Dirk Klynsmilh)

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think they perhaps cheated Michael (Andretti) out of a victory today.

The rules said the race would be complete at 36 laps, and given the conditions it should have been called."

MICHEL JOURDAIN JR: "Congratulations for Mario Dominguez and the Herdez people. For many years, I was associated with them and they have put a lot of money into the sport. Now finally they get a winning result.

"I'm happy for them but I don't think it is fair. A guy that qualifies over a second slower and has four pit stops wins the race."

24 la'ps/Bectrical 11 laps/Engine Fire 0 laps/Did Not Start ^ 0 laps/Did Not Start

Lap leaders: da Matta (MO), Junqueira I1M8), d^^r Matta (19-29). Andretti (30-35), Fittipaldi (36), ; Dorhinguez (37-40). ● i ; ^ Winner's ave speed: 89.881kmh.

Fasted lap: da Matta, on lap 7,1;56.457s. : Points after round 17: da Matta 219, Junqueira 144, Franphitti 135, Carpentier 131, FittipaldlUS, Jourdain jlr 105, Tagliann03, Tracy 101, Andretti 94, Brack 93.

Talking it over: Alex Tagliani and Michael Andretti were both caught up in the first start shunt.

because that had to be a tough thing to sit through ... the ones that stuck around, anyway."

2:00:08.701 II 2:00:09.073 I,] 2:00:09.271 2:00:11.318 772:00:14.352 ■'2:00:16.464 ' 2:00:19.862 ' 2:00:20.035 " 2:00:20.168 : 2:00:21.316 2:00:22.756 2:00:24.094 2:00:24.630

i:rwr"f ffiH

MISS INE>V

It wouldn’t be Indy without the girls: Lauren Lille was Miss Indy for 2002. Sorry, we didn't get her phone number...

(Photo by sutton-images.c»m)

TOYO TYRES YOUR PROFILE TO PERFORMANCE

Performance Quality Value

881 Control Tyre As used by 2001 Mitsubishi

RAl D.O.T. approved.

CAMS approved.

As used by Rick Bates in 2001 Targa Tasmania .

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55

y

Nations Cup/Formula 3

RIcho takes number

I

And Peters clinches GTPerformance title in Subaru at Si 1

I

by PHIL BRANAGAN THE illustrious record of Jim Richards added another title at Surfers Paradise when he added the Nations Cup title to the mantle.

Richards’s CAMPS Insurance

year when many(including Jim) expected his Porsche to bow to the Ferraris, Vipers and Paul Stokell's Lamborghini, Richo won the Targa Tasmania, the Rally of Tasmania, took fourth in the Queensland 500 and won the Bathurst 1000.

Queensland, taking pole position and all three wins on the concrete

Maybe someone should give him a Champ Car ride ...

But, while Richo was unassailable on the streets, he was

canyons in what was fairly processional racing.

Following the race, the Kiwi legend was, as usual, modest about his achievements;

less than impressed that the race carried championship points, rival Stokell backing up his concerns (see news pages).

Richards came to Queensland

“You’ve got to finish every race,” he said, “and fortunately, the Lamborghini had its problems, the Ferrari had their problems ...

“I suppose you’d have to say it has not been a bad year!”

It sure hasn’t. To add to his

trailing Geoff Morgan in the title race but the nimble GTS took pole

Porsche GTS Cup was the class of the field on the streets of

second Nations Cup crown, in a

^9

Tony Quinn ripped a corner off his VIP Pet Foods Porsche in the session and was out for the weekend, while Sam Newman also nudged the wall but was able to carry on after repairs.

All three races were straightforward for Richo. Stokell and Bowe followed him home in Race 1, Bowe and Fitzgerald in Race 2 and, after Fitzy made a dream start in the Sunday race,it took until the penultimate lap for Bowe and Stokell to force a way past and, by then, Jim was home and hosed.

L

JOHN Teulan took out the Group 2 title, after Newman’s qualifying problems aided a consistent run for the Gold Coast local.

David Scaysbrook (Porsche)took out the wins in all three races but Teulan’s Ferrari 360 did enough to take the crown.

Group 2; Teulan 1192, Newman 1117, Beards 1018.

GEOFF Full was the class of the GT Performance field in his Mitsubishi Evo VII but Brett Peters’s consistency ruled the day, three second places enough to give him the class championship.

Peters was in a deliberate mood,

by 1.27s, from Stokell’s Crazy John’s Diablo GTR, John Bowe’s

Stokell’s biggest dramas came in Race 2. After missing the start and dropping to fourth, he was challenging Bowe before he overshot a comer under brakes and

Ferrari 360 GT, Peter Fitzgerald’s

dropped to fourth.

straight title. The only driver to get close to the two series contenders

Falken GTS Cup and Paul Morris, subbing for the weekend in Maher Algadri’s Ferrari 360 GT.

Final Series Points; Richards 1211, Morgan 1177, Bowe 1087,StokeU 855, Bell 825, Fitzgerald 760.

GT Performance Peters 1077, Full 1060,Alexander 837.

EARL’S

driving carefully and content to follow Full to seal his second

was Wayne Boatright(Subaru).

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molorspon news

SUPPORTS

three r

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J

V'-

Too Cootfor the Temp: Witt'Powerwas ‘ih'e man ‘in Formula 3 at Surfers Paradise, the Queenslander cleaning up both races while his rivals crashed all around him.

(Pliolo hy MarsluiU.Cassi .

Champ, champ and crashed: Jim Richards and Brett Peters, above, sealed their respective titles, while Tony Quinn, below, lost his battle with the concrete.

(Photos by John Morris/Mpix and Mai^hall Cass) 1-

r

/ \ %

ITS 'I

I

THE Australian Formula 3 Championship ended with a series of bangs at Indy last weekend, with Will Power dominating proceedings while a plethora of incidents took care of many of his rivals.

Power was beaten away from the line in the first race by Champ-elect James Manderson in the BRM Dallara 01, but Power regained the lead and hammered down the road with Manderson chasing him all the way but unable to stop Power winning.

While Power and Manderson were disputing the lead, ail hell was breaking loose behind them. James Cressey's recurring engine management problems left him stranded on the startline, and he was joined by debutante Barton Mawer, who did well to qualify on the second row for his first race.

Both cars managed to get moving, but just as Cressey's wheels began to turn another drama arose, this time in the form of Justin Watt's Piccola Dallara 01. Watt swerved to

Catch up with us at www.delphi.com

r DELPHI. 30 October 2002

Driving Xo morrow’s Xechnology

miss Mawer, but, at full noise, plunged straigiht into Cressey.

Cressey managed to run seventh, but Watt was out.

He was soon joined by PSC team-mate Peter Hackett, who was sidelined when an input shaft broke. Mawer got past Darren Palmer for third on the last lap. A valve problem saw Manderson's car fail the vacuum test after the second qualifying session, so when the field gridded up for the final race, James was obliged to line up at the rear.

Power got a way well to lead into the fiirst corner, but a tap from behind forced the Queenslander into a spin that dropped him to third. He recovered to regain the lead on the opening lap, and backed off to take the win just over 5s clear of his nearest rival at the end.

Further back, it was raining shards of carbon fibre. First into the wall was Palmer, who backed it in while being chased by Michael Caruso. Then Mawer tapped Caruso's rear. Initially it seemed that little damage had been done.

but then the front bodywork flicked up and backwards, straight into Mawer's line of vision.

Mawer tried to get the car back to the pits, but driving on was perhaps a little over-ambitious, as when Manderson tried to get around the stricken Dallara 96, he wound up being whacked.

Manderson returned to the pits to retire with broken suspension, while Mawer gave the notorious concrete walls a solid thump.

Elsewhere, Cressey had been running well, albeit with a wing that was sagging more and more to the left as each lap passed. With Hackett looming large, the wing collapsed on the penultimate lap, Hackett was unable to capitalise, having been given a drive-through for kerb-hopping.

A wingless Cressey completed another lap to cross the line in third, but was later relegated to fifth courtesy of a 30s penalty.

Second was Caruso and Hackett inherited third. Newcomer Christian Jones finished sixth.

- MARK GLENDEIMNING

BPnnSas

Delphi Automotive Systems Australia Ltd 86 Fairbank Road, Clayton South, Victoria Australia 3169 Telephone; 03 9551 8700 Facsimile: 03 9551 8215

57

Phillip Island

Tho Doctor mak

I

T was very much a case of the Doctor being in surgery, methodically diagnosing the symptoms and then treating them with the best possible cure.

In this case, 11 Doctori, Valentino Rossi, analysed why the allconquering Repsol V5 Honda wasn’t on the pace and he treated it with a goodly dose of his own cure - skill and daring.

Rossi pressured Honda rival Alex Barros throughout the 27 lap Skyy Vodka Australian MotoGP and, half a lap from home, the Brazilian was forced into error trying to regain the lead, running straight on at Honda Corner, allowing The Doctor to take his 10th win of the season.

The Brazilian’s West Sito Pons Honda recovered to finish second ahead of Tohru Ukawa, but the lost opportunity could weigh heavily as Barros seeks a high-paying ride to close off his career. /Qualifying produced a VY surprising front row with, periiaps, the two-strokes having a final shout at the ‘fours’ before the cams-and-valves set rule the roost completely in 2003.

In gusty conditions, Garry McCoy and Jeremy McWilliams staged a one-lap-at-a-time duel, with the Ulsterman grabbing his second Island pole position. McCoy took second from a last-lap time for Nobuatsu Aoki, while the recent gains made by Bridgestone were further underlined when Jurgen van der Goorbergh filled the final front row spot on the Kanemoto Honda NSR500.

But, come the race, the fourstrokes(and Michelin) made a statement. The Hondas took off, pushing McCoy back to fifth and McWilliams to 17th after the three-cylinder Proton made a shocking start.

Barros and Rossi quickly established a gap, the World Champion content to sit and wait behind the black bike before making his move with four of the 27 laps remaining.

“Alex was very fast but I don’t give up in case his tyres go off,” said Rossi later.

He was right. The West bike was running a softer tyre than its HRC cousin and Barros was also suffering from the RC211V’s Achilles Heel, clutch problems.

On the final lap, Barros made an all-or-nothing dive up the inside at 58

Honda and took to the escape road.

As Rossi motored on to his 50th career GP win, Barros regained the track and took second.

‘If Alex had not made the mistake I’m sure we would pass three or four times before the finish,” grinned The Doc later.

This circuit is incredible; it is very hard to be the man in front because the rider behind gets help from the slipstream.

Ukawa took a steady third,just holding offfellow Honda man Daijiro Kato, while van der Goorbergh completed a strong weekend with fifth, barely 11s behind the flying Rossi and only 2s behind a podium result.

Max Biaggi took sixth, ha\dng shaken off Aoki’s Proton, while Kenny Roberts’s Suzuki and Olivier Jacque’s Yamaha led home McWilliams, who recovered to 10th after his bad beginning.

McCoy? A case of what might have been ... The Red Bull Yamaha was in tyi-e trouble from the start and the New South Welshman was forced to pit for a new Michelin. He returned right behind the leaders and circulated at their speed to finish a lap down in 18th,the last of the finishers.

Points: Rossi 335, Biaggi 199, Ukawa 198, Barros 179, Carlos Checa 141, Norick Abe 23, Loris Capirossi 109, Kato 104.

Irish Eyes are Smiling: Jeremy McWilliams took a I ' surprise pole position on his Proton two-stroke, above, after a duel with Garry McCoy, below. The Aussie hit tyre problems in the race, despite the advice of a passing Bridgestone F tyres fan, one Mr P Brock

of Melbourne, right...

(Photos by Cotin Reuben and John Morris/MDix)

\

X-;:

molorsport news

MOTOGP

es it 50

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i

At just 23, Valentino Rossi scored his 50th career GP win at Phillip Island's Australian GP. JON THOMSON watched The Dec's return to the winners'circle SKY

MfTP

fi One from the East, One from the West and One from Heaven: Valentino Rossi, right, was in a class of his own at the island, out-waiting Aiex Barros and taking the win when the Brazilian took to the escape road on the finai lap, below. The two shared the podium with fellow Honda man Tohru Ukawa, above. (Photos by John Morris/Mpix and Rob Cianflone/Getly Images)

\

Phillip Island

MelanUri win nails 250 title

IF the winds affected the MotoGP contenders, they were merciless to the 250s- but the quarter-litres still produced a great race.

Marco Melandri had to win this race if he was to shut out Spanish rival Fonsi Nieto before the final GP on his rival’s home soil in Valencia.

And that is what the 19-year-old did, his Aprilia overcoming a fairly obvious straight-line speed deficit to Nieto’s similar machine. Using his corner speed and traffic to advantage, Melandri attacked at MG onthe final lap to snatch victory by 0.007s.

In doing so, Melandri became the youngest man to lift the 250 crown.

“Today I brought out all my ‘rage’, that energy and motivation that takes you to victory, that means you just don’t give up,” he grinned.

“I was never satisfied during the race, never content

Best of enemies: Marco Melandri, top, sealed his first world title after a knock-down, drag-out fight fight with Fonsi Nieto.

You ... team-mate: Casey Stoner, #27, had a tough weekend, with set-up problems leaving him well down the grid.

That bloke giving him the heave-ho at Honda is his team-mate, David Checa.

(Photos by John Morris/Mpix)

60

-1 just wasn’t going to lose, I wanted to win, I wanted that title. More than anything, I wanted to go back home after this long tour with the title in my pocket.

Fm overjoyed, it’s fantastic.”

Sebastian Porto(Yamaha)and Roherto Rolfo (Honda) made it three manufacturers in the top four spots, while Toni Elias won a battle with Randy de Puniet for fifth.

The Aussies did not fare well. Casey Stoner struggled with set-up on his Aprilia all weekend and could only manage 10th in the race, while the only local wildcard to make the 250 grid, Russell Holland came home 20th one lap down on his RGV Spares Yamaha.

Points: Melandri 273, Nieto 241, Rolfo 199,Elias and Porto 172.

-JON THOMSON

King K@i Proton rt KENNY Roberts doesn't smile often and it has been a tough five years with his Protons but there was a big smile on his face when Jerry McWilliams took pole at Phillip Island. ' It comes just one race before the three-cylinder two-stroke is pensioned off and the Proton backed team switches to a V5 four-stroke.

Roberts's engine will be a 60

250/J2S GP

turn of the Green Meanie COMING from production based bikes and being thrust aboard Kawasaki's first GP bike in 20 years would be a daunting prospect for many riders - but not for Andrew Pitt.

The 2001 World Supersport champ has been testing the fledgling Green Meanie fourstroke this year and stepped up to the plate in Malaysia to take the seat from an injured Akira Yanagawa for the last two GPs of the year.

Stepping off a Supersport bike and on to a GP machine is flo easy task but Pitt seems to

Please put an ‘02’on it: Andrew Pitt gels to work on Kawasaki’s ZX-RR MotoGP contender which is dn eloping guile well, thanks \cry much ...

have taken it in his stride.

Finishing in both Malaysia and Australia, Pitt improved the performance significantly between the two races coming home 35 seconds doseno the winner second time out.

"It has been a steep learning curve but the team has helped me along and we have a long way to go but I was thrihed to finish both the races, lift the pace and improve from Malaysia," said Pitt.

Pitt has cemented his place with the team for 2003 but it is untlear who will be in the Green team with him.

Alex Barros has been connected v/ith the team but one thing is clear - Andrew Pitt will be a name to watch in MotoGR just as the late Gregg Hansford was aboard the green GP machines of the 1970s.

-JON THOMSON

iny plans tad bikes degree unit built using the resources at hand at his Banbury factory in the middle of England's 'FI valley', Malaysian car maker Proton and its subsidiary Lotus Engineering.

But more than just being a racing bike, it will also form the launch pad for a range of road bikes to be marketed and manufactured by Proton.

Initially there will be a single cylinder 125 sports bike to be followed by high-end performance road bikes.

Roberts will retain riders Jeremy McWilliams and Nobu Aoki for next year as they throw their weight behind a four stroke that he believes will be more versatile than Honda's.

"I have reckoned (the) V5 is the ideal solution from the time they announced the rules, before Honda announced theirs," said Roberts.

"V5s have the same weight limit as a four and better performance. It is a no-brainer, and Honda has proved that."

- JON THOMSON 30 October 2002

Manuel control: Manuel Poggiali's Gilera leads Lucio Cecchinello (Aprilia) in the 125cc GP. (Photo by John Moms/wpix)

Gilera storms 125s

ARNAUD Vincent could see his grasp on the 125 World Championship slipping away in qualifying as the Frenchman could not match the pace of his Gilera-mounted rival Manuel Poggiali.

Vincent had a 20 point lead going into the race and rode intelligently, given his relatively poor qualifying performance and knowing that Poggiali had all the work to do.

Vincent was content to sit the early stages of the race out in fourth or fifth allowing Poggiali and Pablo Nieto to dice for the lead.

Only in the closing stages did the Frenchman move forward to challenge. He moved through to fourth at the flag, behind Poggiali, Lucio Cecchinello and Pablo Nieto (Aprilias). Daniel Pedrosa was fifth, 0.57s behind the winner!

Aussies Joshua Waters, Peter Holmes and Jeremy Crowe finished 25th, 26th and 27th respectively.

Poggiali closed down the points gap to Vincent from 20 to 15 heading to Spain for the final showdown.

Points: Vincent 253, Poggiali 245, Pedrosa 218, Cecchinello 172, Jenkner 157.

-JON THOMSON 61

Alister in doubt for Rally GB

Back to make a splash in the WRC:Dumped by Peugeot at the end of200J, Auriol, below left, will return to thefull (Photos by suUon-imagcs.com) WRC next season in the Skoda, above.

1 ALISTER McRae’s chances of taking part in the Rally of Great Britain hang in the balance as a resnlt of the mountain bike accident that has already eliminated him from three World Championship raOies this season.

McRae,above, was officially ruled out of Rally Australia last week, after doctors ruled his condition to be still too fragile, with his badly bruised liver still recovering from the fall.

Asked if he would appear on his home event, the 31-year-old Mitsubishi driver said he was hopeful, but that things aren’t looking good.

“They think it’s a bit optimistic, but I’m having another scan as late as possible,” said McRae. “They say you shouldn’t get in a car for three months. It’s an outside chance.”

McRae is not suffering greatly at the moment, but doctors’ concern is that another accident or even the impact of driving sideways in ruts or over rocks could cause further damage.

“It could tear it where it’s torn or even be a wooden box job,” McRae admitted.

- JON THOMSON

i

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t'

OUT of a drive in this year's World Rally Championship, Didier Auriol will return in 2003 as part of the Skoda team.

The Frenchman, who was dropped by Peugeot after 2001, will team up alongside former Seat team-mate Toni Gardemeister for the full 14 round championship next year.

"It is great to be part of a works team again," said Auriol.

"I have made a good choice with Skoda Motorsport because we will make a perfect match. I know I have a lot of experience I can pass on."

Denis Giraudet will again by Auriol's co-driver, though the future of current driver Kenneth Eriksson is in the air. The team says it is still in discussions with the Swede, as plans for a third works entry have not yet been finalised.

Poss to Pikes End of tf HOT from winning his seventh ARC title and planning an attack on the 2003 World Group N title, New Zealander Possum Bourne is now planning an attack on the famed Pikes Peak hillclimb in the USA. Bourne has a Group A Impreza which he used to win the Hokkaido Rally in Japan in September and then took to second on the all-tarmac Japanese Alpine rally, and

believes it could be a weapon on the Colorado hillclimb without the need for a 34mm turbo restrictor.

“I like the idea of trying it on Pikes Peak, it would be a bit of a weapon and I reckon that we could generate about 650 horsepower without a restrictor and we could get some weight out of it as well,” said Bourne, who tackled his home country’s equivalent, the Race to the Sky, in a similar car.

- JON THOMSON

Photo by Neil Blackboum

TWICE-World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz has admitted that he is no closer to knowing what car he will be driving in the 2003.World Championship, and that retirement is a possibility.

"You can never be confident," said Sainz.

"I hope to know something before Australia.

"It is not good to be in the situation where you don't know what you are going to do. I am still waiting for an answer from Ford.

It seems they are really struggling to put something together."

Sainz is aware that the prospect of returning to Subaru is not encouraging. In the absence of an Ford offer, joining Hyundai remains a possibility.

Sainz, who turned 40 earlier this year, is now in his 16thstraight season in top level World Rallying, and after 23 WRC victories and two World titles he is the veteran of the championship. motorsport news

RALLYING

Burns escapes crash i

Peugeot ace puts Gilles Panizzi out of Rally Australia

Oh, bugger, is that what I did... Last year’s world champion Richard Burns and co-driver Robert Reid emerged OK, (Photo by sutton-images.com) but the 206 was so badly damaged that Gilles Panizzi will sit on the sidelines this weekend, RICHARD Bums and co-driver Robert Reid have emerged unscathed after a high-speed testing crash near Dwellingup in Western Australia during testing for this weekend’s Rally Australia.

The Peugeot pairing were driving Gilles Panizzi’s 206 machine along a twisty section of road when they went up the side of an embankment and hit a tree head-on. While the Brits were OK bar a little bruising, the same couldn’t be said for the pre-event testing car.

which was the car Panizzi was to drive in the event.

Tm a little sore, hut nothing to woiTy about,” reported Reid.

“These things happen, especially in a place where the trees are very close to the road.”

Peugeot cancelled the next two days of testing in order to repair the car, though were unahle to, and Panizzi’s next appearance will be at the Rally of Great Britain in a Peugeot 206 as team-mate to Valentino Rossi.

ARC calendar released for ’03 ARCom and CAMS have announced the calendar for the 2003 Australian Rally Championship. It will begin with the Respect Yourself Forest Rally in March and will end in November with the Rally of Melbourne, again of six rounds duration.

The Australian Rally Championship Super Series consists of the same six rounds as 2002, which are part of the Drivers and Co-drivers Championships.

The Australian Rally Manufacturers' Championship is run over these six rounds as well as the additional two international rounds- the Rally of Canberra (May 9-11, subject to final FIA approval) and Rally Australia (Septembers-?).

The rounds of the ARC are: Forest Rally (March 28-30), Rally OLD (June 11^15), Sydney (July 4-6, provisional).

Rally SA (August 8-10), Safari Tasmania (October 3-5), Rally of Melbourne (November 14-16, provisional). n Karamjit Singh has clinched this year's Asia-Pacific Championship after claiming victory in the China Rally two weeks ago. The Malaysian Proton driver defeated nearest rival Nico Caldarola and will now tackle Rally Australia this weekend, going into the final round of the Group N World Production Cup as leader.

Evans a Toyota chance

1='

"It is getting harder to get motivated as the Championships grows with more events. It is very tiring 30 October 2002

. Phtno by-PholiwfBQTHWfcLL

trave ng and competing so much, but I am still enjoying the competition."

- JON THOMSON

SIMON Evans, who admits to having had discussions with Ford, has apparently also been considered by Neal Bates for the drive in the Bates team’s second Toyota Corolla Group N prototype in the ARC in 2003.

Although the privateer star would not confirm the report, it is believed he is viewed as the fastest driver available to boost the Toyota team’s competitiveness against the onslaught of the Subaru operation which has held sway for the past seven years.

“At this stage I am preparing my Subaru fur Rally Australia and the plan is to build a new shape Impreza for 2003,” said the Melbourne-based driver.

“If a manufacturer wants to use me,then I am interested in talking.”

- JON THOMSON 63

Australian Speedvs^ay GP

Hancock grabs While the Australian riders couldn't quite manage to win on home soil, they certainly turned on a show at Telstra Stadium on Saturday night JON THOMSON reports on the first Speedway Grand Prix ‘down under’

V. it

w

Sliding into the unknown: Lukas Dryml, Nicki Pedersen and Ryan Sullivan get into things at Telstra Stadium.

Winners are grinners: Jason Crump, Greg Hancock and Scott Nicholls celebrate their podium spots in the Oz GP, above, while the Oneworld girls, below, certainly added some colour. Once again, no phone numbers ...

(Photos by Terry Dale)

Hancock took his first American rider Greg Speedway Grand Prix championship win of the year with victory in a drama-packed Australian Grand Prix at Telstra Stadium in Sydney.

Controversy in both semi-finals saw Australian Ryan Sullivan, right, eliminated when he touched the starting tape in the first, while a crash in the second took out Swede Andreas Jonsson and Czech Lukas Drymel.

Drymel and Jonsson clashed on the first corner of their semi and Jonsson went down heavily after being hit by Drymel’s bike.

The Swede was taken away by ambulance for treatment to a badly injured knee while Drymel was uninjured.

Hancock overcame a determined charge from Britain’s Scott Nicholls and Australian Jason Crump in the final to take the last round of the 2002 World Championship in front of 31,990 people.

Hancock, the 1997 World Speedway champion, had not won a Grand Prix this year and has struggled for form, but rode brilliantly all night to take the victory ahead of Nicholls with Crump.

A devastated Sullivan argued with the race referee Tony Steele about his exclusion in the semi final to no avail and saw his second place in the championship slip away as Crump took enough points to move ahead of him the title.

It wasn’t the only time that the referee made a controversial decision during the night, excluding Aussie Stave Johnston from an earlier heat for arriving at the start a few seconds late, despite an agreement for leniency because of the size of the track.

The newly re-crowned World Champion Swede Tony Rickardsson also had a tough end to his season, eliminated in heat 22 after finishing last.

Hancock was pleased with his return to form and attributed the performance to his team and the bike they gave him.

“It was a gi’eat result for us and fantastic to win here in Australia

particularly with my team-mate Scott Nicholls taking second,” said an elated Hancock.

“It was a gi’eat Grand Prix and very hard fought but I had confidence from the start, the bike was perfect and the team has to be congratulated.”

Crump made a gamble in the final when he drew the difficult number three starting lane on the outside of the track, going for a faster acceleration package sacrificing outright speed in a bid to get top the first corner in the lead.

“It was a gamble which I had to make,” said Crump.

“If I had made it to the lead I could have stayed there but it wasn’t to be.”

SPEEDWAY

I

►

Australian GP

A night of heartbreak: Aussie Ryan Sullivan may have lost the World Championship to Tony Rickardsson, below with Sullivan and Jason Crump, but he also lost a chance at a run in the final in his home GP as well as second place in the title to countryman Crump.

(Photos by Terry Dale) Unfortunately for Crump, he didn’t get to the first corner ahead and had to settle for third.

Sullivan’s elimination from the semi was devastating for the 26year-old Adelaide rider who had high hopes of capturing Australia’s first ever round of the World Speedway Championship.

“I am devastated,” said Sullivan.

“The past eight weeks has been I ●S' I f

30 October 2002

just demoralising both on and off the track and tonight just caps it off.”

The diminutive Sullivan was referring to not only his on-track problems but also a relationship breakdown in his personal life which weighed heavily on him at the most critical point in his racing career.

Sullivan led the title until the eighth round in Poland in September when he broke his collarbone and despite his best efforts he watched as the championship slipped away Sullivan’s exclusion from the semi saw Crump advance to the final and meant that Crump took enough points to move past SuUivan into second in the championship.

MUdura’s Leigh Adams started the night well but then a third and a fourth in heats 15 and 17 saw him go out while the other Australians including Ibdd Wiltshire, Jason Lyons, Mick Poole, both pictured kft, and Johnston were all gone by heat 18.

Rickardsson paid tribute to the Austrahan riders for their performance this year and says it is

getting tougher to keep them at bay.

“They are hard tough competitors and it is going to be difficult to stay in front it is getting harder every year,” he said.

Australians finished second, third and fourth in the title with Crump, Sullivan and Adams trailing Rickardsson in the championship standings.

Event promoter David Lander said the Grand Prix was a success with the crowd meeting expectations.

“It is a long time since top level speedway has been staged in Sydney and it is an education process but we will be back next year,” said Lander.

The Grand Prix is Kkely to move from the Olympic stadium to the Sydney Football Stadium on November 8 in 2003 because of a clash with the Rugby World Cup, while Lander is likely to also promote a New Zealand round in Wellington.

The teams now return to Europe to prepare for the start of the 2003 season in Denmark in April.

Final championship points: Rickardsson 181, Crump 162, Sullivan 158, Adams 127, Karlsson 122.

Speedvs^ay Downing them in South Oz

Marcliiiig in at PCR

Phil March grabs(gening night win atParramatta

by GREG BOSCATO

DARRYL Downing scored a convincing all the way win to take the T&R Murray Bridge SprintcarCup at Riverview Speedway in October 19.

Downing started from pole in the 20-iap final, with Trevor Green running home second and Phil March third. After starting alongside Downing on the front row, Mark Reuter took fourth spot He had earlier won both his heats but was subsequently relegate to third in his second heat after stewards deemed that he'd put both inside wheels on the infield in passing Darryl Wright Former F500 national champ Luke Dillon had his first real competitive Sprintcar outing and finished fifth, dear of Garry Rush Jr, who was behind the wheel of the Darren Disbury#5 machine.

- FRANK MIDGLEY n After a very successful stint in Litre Cars, Martin Lawes has taken the big jump and purchased the exBrooke Tatnell Avenger. With support from Workforce international, Kendall Oils and Auto Image Australia and with the help of his expert team that includes father Ken, a former State Super Sedan Title holder, Lawes has engine whiz Ivan Walker on-side, who has revamped and improved a 357ci ex-NASCAR Chev. n Talented Sydney racer Nathan Smee will run a full season in the John Hart-owned Sprintcar this season. The former NSW Litre Car title holder has spent the past couple of seasons racing a Speedcar, but after a couple of impressive drives in the Maxim last season, the deal was done for him to run the full PCR Championship series with the team this year. Hart has two cars in his stable: the Maxim which was run at the PCR season opener by Robbie Farr and the older MaxBoy which Nathan used on the weekend at PCR. -GREG BOSCATO

FORMER Australian Sprintcar champion Phil March, right, took out victory last Fridaynight at Sydney’s Parramatta City Raceway.

The South Australian hasn’t raced at Parramatta for a number of years, but racing his new Cool chassis, March was in brilliant form all night.

In the 30-lap A-Main he was simply sensational, quickly on the charge after starting from position 14. Dubbo star Mark Blyton led for most of the race and looked to have the race in his control, but with around 10 laps to run, Blyton began to get tired and March, who had bided this time, powered his way into second after passing Brad Heywood.

He battled with Blyton for a lap before forging away to a race winning lead.

Aussie Champ Max Dumesny, who spun out on the opening lap, had moved into fourth but couldn’t improve his position in the closing stages. Despite a late race stoppage, it was all March as he held control of the race until the checker, taking out the victory from Blyton, Ha5rwood, Dumesny,

THE dates for the 2002/2003 World SeriesSprintcars Championship Have, a* last, b»een confirmed.

“We had planned to have these dates out i Hong time ago,” said WSS MD David Lander,“bmt with the Insurance Crisis and a number of tracks notssure if they’d even be opening a couple of weeks ago at was natural to expect some delays.”

The 2002/2003 schedule is a 15 rouiad affair- with no two consecutive night affairs and a return to tswo former WSS host venues - Parramatta CityR-aceway (NSW)and Kalgoorlie International Speedwa^f(WA).

The newest venue on the calendar is Sonic Speedw-ay at Swan Hill, which will host its fir^st-ever WSS round on January 17 next year.

-AARON NTOONAN

14. We expected that we could go alright. You can’t always win, so I just concentrated on what I was doing and they would have to be good to get past.”

PCR Track Champ Robbie Fanhad a terrible night after finishing second in heat one. He had a coil lead drop off while leading his second race and, while leading the B Main, a tyre deflated, sending Farr into the tyre wall and out for the night.

2002/2003 World Series Sprintcar calendar November 16 Rd 1 Bunbury November 23 Rd 2 QUIT Motorplex November 27 Rd 3 Kalgoorlie November 30 Rd 4 Speedway City December 7 Rd 5 Avalon December 14 Rd 6 Parramatta December 26 Rd 7 Speedway City December 27 Rd 8 Murray Bridge December 28 Rd 9 Mount Gambier December 30 Rd 10 Avalon January 1 Rd 11 Premier Speedway Rd 12 Brisbane January 4 Rd 13 Brisbane January 8 Rd 14 Swan Hill January 17 Rd 15 Speedway City January 18

2002 WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINTCAR SERIES State Fair Speedway October 20

1. Tyler Walker 2. Tim Shaffer 3. Danny Lasoski 4 -Brad Furr ^^ RACING TIRE 5. Steve Kinser For more Inforwcthn on Hoosier Drag and SpeedwayTyrss call: 6. Joey Saldana NSW:02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 /187 7. Stevie Smith Via 03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 8. Craig Dollansky 9. Danny Wood SA- 08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296 10. Shane Stewart 66

Bruce TWhite and Troy Little.

PuiiGctures hit a number of front runner-s, with Marty Perovich and AndreTw Scheuerle, who were in good poositions, before being forced out oftthe event, while Ti-evor Green also retired with front end damagr^e. = don’t get up here often and we liaci no problems,just went about our business,” said March.

“I tile ought it was a bit of a handiecap to start out of position

WSS dates confirmed

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

Coal. ruASsis

11, BIcKy Logan 12, JSsaon Johnson 13. Bai-oidy Hannagan 14. Baiwyn Pittman 15. Bonnny Schatz 16. Biian Paulus 17. Matrt Clevenger 18. Jao‘Haudenschild I 19. 0ei:t=ek Beckman 20. Bon Droud Jr.

Standings to Oct 20

1 .Steve Kinser .... a.Danny Lasoski ,.

S.Craig Dollansky . .

4.Joey Saldana . . , S.-pm Shaffer 6.Mark Kinser ....

7.Brad Furr S.Donny Schatz ...

9.Stevie Smith ....

10.Randy Hannagan

.9876 .9584 .9569 .9515 .9431 .9368 .9200 .9192 .9173 .8643

motorsport oews

N^CAR

Er, excuse me, coming through: McMurray surprised even himself with victory at Charlotte, above, out-racing 2000 Winston Cup champ Bobby Labonte.

(Photo by Martin D Clark)

McMuppay s Huppy Chip Ganassi has a history of taking chances on drivers like Vasser, Zanardi and Montoya and coming up big with results in Champ Cars. Now he’s got another hot prospect in his NASCAR squad in Jamie McMurray MARTIN D CLARK reports on the rookie sensation

B

ACK on September 7, Chip Ganassi made the surprise announcement that Jamie McMurray would pilot a third Ganassi Dodge alongside Sterling Marlin and Jimmy Spencer in 2004 sponsored by Chevron/Texaco, the sponsor departing Robert Yates Racing and driver Ricky Rudd after a 14-year hiatus.

To say the announcement was a surprise would be an understatement. McMurray, in his second year in the Busch Series prior to running two spotty years in the Truck Series, was winless in both. His best result was a runner-up slot at Richmond the day the Cup announcement was made.

So why did Ganassi hire McMurray? What did Chip see in

him?

It didn’t take long for that question to be answered when points contender Marlin broke a vertebrae and was told to sit out for the remainder of the year, this after sitting at the top of the standings for 25 straight races.

“Chip told me the reason I got the job was because I had a good looking girlfriend,” said McMurray.

“He told me a good looking girlfriend didn’t always get you the job, but an ugly one would definitely not get you the job!”

His girlfriend is Cielo Garcia, above right with McMurray in Victory Lane at Charlotte, the Miss Winston who he was dating before he jumped in to drive for Marlin.

Garcia had to quit her job when he joined the Cup Series due to a 30 October 2002

I off season. I’m glad I finally won a ° race. When I say ‘finally’, I mean i between the Busch and Truck

5a Series.”

/Kill

The winning feeling: McMurray celebrates his Charlotte success.

(Photo by Martin D Clark)

clause in her contract stating she can not date a Winston Cup driver.

“If he’s good enough to drive for us next year,” said Ganassi,“then he’s good enough to drive for us this year. Why look outside, when we have him right here.”

McMurray piloted the Coors Light Dodge for the first time at Talladega, his maiden voyage in a more powerful and longer Cup car.

Had the team not miscalculated fuel mileage, Jamie could have ended the day in the top 10 after some heads-up driving on the restrictor plate track. He finished 26th, not too shabby, but not the result they were hoping for.

"Chip told me the reason I got the job was because I had a good looking girlfriend It

- McMurray on Ganassi’s ‘reasoning’as to why he got the job One week later at Charlotte, McMurray answered everyone’s question as to why Ganassi had hired him, winning the race and beating multi-Charlotte winner and former Winston Cup champ Bobby Labonte in the process.

“The number one question I’ve been asked is why did Chip and Felix (Sabates co-owner)take a chance on me?” commented McMurray.

“I knew I would be asked that question over and over during the

o Finally, yes, and it was in just S' his second Cup event, equalling a record set by Johnny Rutherford who won a Daytona 500 qualifying race back in 1963.

The record for the modern era dates back to 1972, and was held

by Kevin Harvick, who won in his third-ever Cup race back in March last year.

McMurray, 26, started racing karts at age eight, winning 150 plus races before progi-essing to Late Model Stock Cars and then the 'Truck Series.

While leading at Charlotte, McMurray doubted he would win.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” he commented. “I haven’t won a truck race or a Busch race. You’re leading at a track you absolutely hated last year. The team told me I was driving like a girl (referring to his pit road entry).

“I’ve seen so many people spin out getting on pit road. I felt like the one or two seconds I was going to give up on pit road would be better than spinning out.”

He didn’t do any spinning, but he definitely did the winning ...

“I think a lot of people gave up on this race team, not only with Sterling being out, but with bringing a rookie in,” remarked crew chief Lee McCall.

“Jamie’s a great guy to work with, he’s got a great head on his shoulders and I really think you’ll see bigger and better things to come from him.” Q) 67

Penske plays Dodge MOTORSPORTC W

■Q

Pom to try Busch

ENGLAND’S John Mickel is busy in Mooresville, North Carolina, building a new NASCAR Busch Series Ford Taurus for his debut in the penultimate series race at Phoenix on November 10.

Mickel, the 2001 UK ASCAR champion, has partnered up with Team Rensi, which runs a car for Bobby Hamilton Jr in the NASCAR ‘second division’ series and if funding can be found will run alongside Hamilton for the full schedule in 2003.

Mickel’s Deuce Racing ASCAR team owner Peter Malstorm is working with Ed Rensi on the project and both are hoping in return to field a US driver in ASCAR during 2003 as part of the US-UK Unity Project which was announced at the beginning of October in front of the Washington Monument, above.

- MARTIN D CLARK

TO have two cars in the top 10 in Winston Cup points and then decide to make a switch to another car manufacturer for 2003 would seem absurd to most people, but Roger Penske sees it as a step in the right direction and Rusty Waliace and Ryan Newman, above with Penske, wili switch to Dodge in 2003.

But the move wasn't just a race team decision - it expanded among the Penske empire that owns multiple DaimlerChrysler dealerships, including the iargest Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep dealership in the country and has other business interests with DaimierChrysier.

“As you look at Dodge Motorsports,” said Penske, “there’s a definite commitment to go forward.

“Our three-year contract with Ford expires after this season and that gave us the opportunity to talk with a couple of manufacturers about our future.

In less than 24 months Dodge has become a major player in the Winston Cup Series, they’ve led the points standings most of the year and more importantly they have incredible resources.

“When we looked at our opportunities and evaluated the available aerodynamic and engine technology, we found this to be the right fit for us.”

Penske switched from Pontiac to Ford in 1994 after Rusty Wallace finished second in 1993 to the late Dale Earnhardt.

“We switched over to Ford in 1994 and won eight races,” said Wallace.

“If we were ever going to do it.

this was the year to do it, next year the bodies are going to be almost identicai. Larry Wallace (no relation) our engine guy was basically the key to this whole thing. If he felt as though we couldn't make the horsepower, then we probably would have had to take a second look.

‘The Ford guys hate to see us go, but it’s a huge business decision from the sale of Detroit Diesel (Penske owned it) to DaimlerChrysler and all the dealerships he's got and the llmor thing.”

Penske’s contract with Dodge is for three years, but don’t expect a switch in 2006, unless Dodge is pulling the plug on its NASCAR program Penske will stay with them for the foreseeable future.

Business dictates that.

- MARTIN D CLARK

from the furthest back in the field.

Busch captured the lead in his Roush Taurus for the final time when he was able to pinch Benson in lapped traffic.

Ibny Stewart started back in 31st, but was the class of the field by the mid-point, moving to the front to lead on lap 204. Then he suffered handling woes after contact during an incident in which Jeremy Mayfield spun. The points leader ended his day 11th, Jimmie Johnson

shaving his lead by 15 points to end the day 82 points in arrears.

Truck Series points leader Mike Bliss (subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin in the Ganassi Dodge) finished a creditable 14th, while Ricky Rudd finished an amazing third.

Rudd battled back from two laps down after he cut a tyre on lap five and then suffered a broken alternator within the final 100 tours.

Pole-sitter Ryan Newman led

the first 33 laps, but ended up 15th. Jeff Gordon looked strong early, but contact with Jeff Burton sent him into the wall.

The accident put paid to a good result and he wound up 36th, three laps off the pace, and his title defence looking dismal.

Busch hold

by MARTIN D CLARK

KURT Busch held off a hardcharging Johnny Benson, right, at the paper clip-shaped halfmile Martinsville Speedway on October 20 for his second career Winston Cup win.

“I was able to catch him, I just couldn’t pass him,” said Benson.

“I needed a lot more time without traffic. I tried to move him out of the way, a little bump here and there, I just wanted to break his traction.

I’m not going to wreck a guy.”

With the win, Busch equalled a record set by Richard Petty, Junior Johnson and Jeff Gordon for winning at least two races before their 25th birthday. Busch raUied back from an early incident in which he was spun

by Gordon on lap 179 of the 500.

After leading 111 of the final 112 laps and having started back in 36th, Busch also holds the record for winning a race at the tight half mile

Final result; Busch (Ford), Benson (Pontiac), Rudd (Ford), Earnhardt Jr. (Chev), W Burton (Dodge), Johnson (Chev), Craven (Ford), Jarrett (Ford), R Wallace (Ford), Martin (Ford),

motorsport news

NASCAR T3

D

Burton gets nabbed for 25

5-

li

.-~a^

Kupt again!

by MARTIN D CLARK

FOR the second week in succession, Kurt Busch, above, found himself in victory lane in Atlanta on Sunday,leading 83 laps of the almost three-hour rain-shortened event.

“This one feels much sweeter, more smooth,” said Busch of his third victoiy of the year.

“The adrenalin of those last laps with all those points guys running up front was amazing. We made some adjustments there at the end and getting in and out of pit road was great for us.”

Busch’s Roush crew had him off pit road first during the final stops and he never looked back, heading a much-improved Joe Nemechek to the fifth and final yellow flag on lap 242 in his Hendrick Monte Carlo.

Tony Stewart finished fourth, being passed by Dale Jarrett in the closing laps, but padding his points

What the? Halloween certain was evident at Atlanta ... (Sulton-lmages.com) lead to 146 over Mark Martin as rookie Jimmie Johnson spun twice, dropping to third in points with a 22nd place finish.

“We had a loose car, luckily I didn’t hit anything,” said Johnson, “We just really expected the track to tighten up a lot more and it didn’t. We’re rookies and this stuff is supposed to happen.”

“There isn’t a sucker out there that can say I-was points racing,” said Stewart, who dropped back to 32nd after the red flag for rain on lap 26 when the crew tightened loose wheel nuts from the first stop.

“I had that thing sideways

chasing Nemechek down, we drove non-stop to get to the front.”

Nemechek, Jeff Gordon, Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Busch were the major players to contend for the lead, while Jamie McMurray, in only his third event, finished a creditable seventh in the Ganassi Dodge, racing in relief of the injured Sterling Marlin.

McMurray won his first Busch Series race the previous day at Atlanta after Nemechek ran dry of fuel in the closing laps. Marlin, meanwhile, could return to the driver’s seat if he gets the OK from doctors during this week.

Final result; Busch (Ford), Nemechek (Chev),Jarrett(Ford), Stewart (Pontiac),Earnhardt Jr.(Chev),J Gordon (Chev), McMurray (Dodge), Martin (Ford), Kenseth (Ford), Newman (Ford).

Points standings; Stewart 4428, Martin 4282, Johnson 4278, Newman 4225, R Wallace 4201, Busch 4131, J Gordon 4127, Kenseth 4067, Jarrett 4027, Rudd 3990.

2003 is here already THE 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that Kevin Harvick will take into battle for the 2003 Winston Cup has been unveiled. Featuring an aggressive frontal region,the RCR machine will debut at the Daytona 500 next season.

30 October 2002

WARD Burton, above, and car owner Bill Davis were docked 25 points each in the driver and owner points standings after post-race scrutiny at Martinsville tu,'’ned up non-approved front springs on the CAT Dodge.

Crew chief Frank Stoddard was fined $20,000 for the infraction following their fifth place result. a Busch Series driver Hank Parker Jr. will attempt to qualify for therRockingham event in a third Evernham Motorsports Dodge as an R&D effort out of the Dodge camp.

Parker has two wins in the Busch division and currently drives one of only two Dodges in the series for Team Jesel. n Jerry Nadeau will not drive the Petty Dodge for the remainder of the year due to a shoulder injury he suffered in a kart accident. Steve Grissom ran the car at Martinsville.

Nadeau remains slated to replace Ken Schrader at MB2 Motorsport, with possible Army sponsorship. n Todd Bodine has been placed on probation for a 10-car wreck he caused at Charlotte on October 13.

Bodine attempted a pass on Ward Burton with two wheels on the wet front stretch grass.

"I know I'm going to get blamed," said Bodine after the incident. He was righti Bodine recently quit the Busch Series in an effort to concentrate his efforts on the Haas-Carter ride and the team is fighting to keep Discover Card as a backer next year. n During practice and qualifying at Martinsville several drivers were complaining about the changes made to the inside groove of the inner turns, which had been cut.

Apparently, track owner Clay Campbell had asked Rusty Wallace what needed to be done to the track to improve the racing and Wallace suggested diamond cutting if like Indianapolis.

"Next time Rusty has any bright ideas he needs to keep his mouth shut," said Jeff Gordon.

The outcome was an extremely rough surface that could cut your hand if you rubbed the concrete. It turns out Campbell did the right thing as the racing was the best seen in many years at the track, with lots of two wide competition ...

- MARTIN D CLARK 69

Dixon is da Champ

LARRY Dixon,Jeg Coughlin, and Angelle Savoie clinched their POWERade championships at the 2nd annual AC Delco Las Vegas NHEA Nationals with respective Top Fuel,Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle wins in the penultimate event on the NHRA tour.

John Force took the Fimny Car event title over teammate, Tony Pedregon, but the championship battle will go down to the wire at the final event in Pomona.

Dixon, who claimed his first Top Fuel championship,led the standings wire to wire, making him only the second driver in Top Fuel history to do so.

The late Gary Ormsby accomplished the feat in 1989.

The Miller Lite dragster claimed its ninth win on the season by stopping Tony Schumacher in the final round, 4.61/320 to 4.67/314.

The title was Dixon’s to seal after Kenny Bernstein was tossed in the opening round by Shirley Muldowney. Bernstein shook and lost traction, while Muldowney streaked to career-best pass of 4.58 seconds.

Dixon then stopped Scott Weis in the opening round, 4.62/321 to 4.86/294 and capped the Championship with a second round, 4.58/323 to 4.67/308 win over Rhonda Hartman-Smith.

In the semi-final round, Dixon squared off with Australian Andrew Cowin, who had posted a pair of 4.56/328 and 4.62/321 wins over John Smith and red-hot Doug Kalitta. At the green. Cowin left too soon, redlighting, and tossing away a brilliant 4.59/327 to give Dixon a 4.62/323 win and a ticket to his fourteenth final round of 2002.

“This was a nice ending to a great day,” said Dixon.

“Everyone wants to win and get the most points, today it meant that we clinched the championship.

“I didn’t think it would happen here, because Kenny (Bernstein) has been running so strong. They had a little trouble, Shirley ran the best lap of her life and he was out.

“As a kid, you dream of this stuff, you see Shirley and Snake win championships and dream that you might do it one day. To five the dream is huge. I didn’t really feel any pressure today.

“Once Kenny went out, we knew what we needed to do, regardless of what happened today, was to go to Pomona and do a burnout. After the title was wrapped up, we were 70

I

A couple of rather happy guys: Dixon, above, has nailed the 2002 Top Fuel title after a dominant year driving for Don Prudhomme, and Jeg Coughlin, right, did his bit by traking out the Pro Stock Championship.

1* M

.9

(Photos by David Ostaszewski)

able to concentrate on winning the race.”

Schumacher, entering his fifth final round of the year had bested Japan’s Yuichi Oyama, Muldowney, and Doug Herbert.

Force claimed his seventh victory of the year and 105th overall in one of the best Funny Car final rounds ever. The Castrol drivers cut near-identical lights, with Force reaching the finish line first, 4.82/305 to 4.86/301.

Force enjoys a 31-point lead, or a round-and-a-half of racing, as the tour winds-down in Pomona.

Force, who has struggled a bit as of late, dropping holes and hurting parts, returned to his August form by qualifying fourth at 4.79/322.

Enroute to the final round, he used runs of 4.92/304, 4.80/323, and 4.84/320 to stop Frank Pedregon, teammate, Gary Densham, and Tim Wilkerson.

“It threw the belt near the end and I thought he’d come around me, but I guess he threw his a little sooner,” said Force.

“We told everyone we’d race once the championship is locked up for our team and we proved it here.

“That was a heck of a drag race.

We both wanted it bad and this is not the final deal. The final deal is in two weeks in Pomona where we still have some fighting to do.”

Pedregon qualified second at 4.78/322 and stopped a tyre smoking Bob Gilbertson in the opening round, took a 4.89/307 to 4.88/317 holeshot win over Del

cs.- ●_

iK

Worsham in round two, and bounced Ron Capps in the semis, 4.92/310 to 4.96/297.

Coughlin, the most feared car in Pro Stock since July, capped off a Championship-clinching day by taking a final round, holeshot victory over Warren Johnson.

Coughlin cut a near-perfect .401 light, and despite Johnson’s decent .467 reaction time, the starting line advantage was too much to overcome and Coughlin was able to motor to a 6.96/198 to 6.92/199 victory. The win was Coughlin’s fourth straight, and eighth of the last eleven events.

With title contenders Jim Yates, and Greg Anderson failing to qualify for eliminations, Coughlin was able to clinch his second Pro Stock World Championship in three years after a first round win over Scott Geoffrion.

Both Yates and Anderson suffered mechanical gremlins, causing the cars to miss and slow their cars during qualifying.

The Jegs Mail Order Cavalier defeated Ron Krisher in the second round and advanced into the final with a victory over Allen Johnson, who red-lighted.

Johnson put his GM Performance Parts Pontiac into the final round with a trio of 6.93/198

victories over Tom Lee, Tom Hammonds, and Greg Stanfield.

Savoie won her third consecutive POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle championship with a final round win over Matt Hines, tying her with Shirley Muldowney for most professional championships by a female competitor.

The rider of the Mohegan Sun Suzuki cut a stellar .408 light at the start to post a 7.24/183 to 7.21/190 holeshot victory.

“I have to say that winning on a holeshot is one of the most awesome feelings in the world,” said Savoie.

“I guess because I really contributed to the win. Usually all the credit goes to George and the Star Racing team.”

After stopping Karen Stoffer in the opening round, Savoie then took out Geno Scab, setting up a semi-final round title bout with, Craig Treble, which Savoie won when Treble fouled at the start.

The win over Treble sealed the championship for Savoie, George Bryce, and the Star Racing/Mohegan Sun team.

The final event on the 2002 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series will be the AAA Auto Club Finals at Pomona Raceway, Pomona, California, November 7-10.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI motorsport news

DRAG RACING

Rockingham rumble

THE IHBA concluded its Hooter’s Drag Racing Series at Rockingham Dragway on Sunday, with all remaining professional Championships being wrapped up.

Shannon Jenkins secured his third Pro Mod championship with a strong semi-final round finish, icing out event winner Mitch Stott.

Jimmy Rector bagged his second Alcohol Funny Car crown during qualifying, and Doug Vancil wrapped up his second consecutive title in Nitro Harley when he mathematically eliminated Steve Stordeur during qualifying.

They join Pro Stock Champion Brian Gahm and Top Fuel World Champion Clay Millican, who both clinched their crowns at the previous event at Budds Creek.

Millican was the only newlycrowned champion to reach the Winners’ Circle on Sunday, downing Bruce Litton in the Top Fuel final, 4.83/301 to 4.96/291.

Millican won from the pole for the tenth time this year, following a 4.76/294 shot during qualifying.

In eliminations, he racked up a pair of 4.88/274 and 4.85/291 wins over Louie Allison and newcomer Tim Cullinan before defeating Litton in the final.

Stott scored his third consecutive Pro Mod victory by stopping Rickie Smith in the final round,6.25/224 to 6.32/220. The Radiac Maniac recorded a stout 6.16/227 to qualify second, and racked up 6.27/224, 6.26/224, and

Photo by David Ostaszewski

6.28/223 wins over Harold Martin, Chip King, and Tim McAmis to move into his fourth consecutive final round and grasp a firm hold on second place in the final standings.

“I honestly felt that after Jimmy Rector (crew chief) and I decided to go with a blown program this year, that we could win the championship,” said Stott.

The fifty cars on hand established the quickest 16-car field in IHRA history, with 2001 champion Mike Janis leading the way at 6.130 seconds. Paul Athey held dovm the final spot at 6.303.

The field consisted of nine blown and seven nitrous cars, with blown cars taking the top seven positions.

If the field had been a 32-car affair, the bump spot would have still been a stout 6.402.

Carl Baker put his Summit

Racing Mercury Cougar into the winners circle, downing Jeff Dobbins in the final round, 6.60/208 to 6.62/210. With his second win of the season. Baker was able to move into second place in the final standings, getting around John Montecalvo, who failed to qualify his Citgo Cavalier.

Baker came from his ninth-best qualifying effort of 6.58/210 to stop John Bartimek, Elijah Morton, and Jason Collins, posting 6.66/207, 6.63/208, and 6.63/208 victories.

As was the case in Pro Mod,the Pro Stock field at the ‘Rock’ was the quickest in history, with the entire field qualified below 6.60 seconds.

Charlie Peppers led the field with a 6.541/210 blast, while Morton anchored the show at 6.599 seconds.

Dale Brand notched his third victory of the year, defeating five -D s time and defending world champion Mark Thomas in the Alcohol Funny ct Car final. Both driver cut near s; identical lights, but Thomas moved out of the groove and headed toward the wall, allowing Brand to take a 5.84/235 win.

(23321 Needing to qualify better than 15th, Rector, above,locked up the Alcohol Funny Car championship with a stout 5.79/240 pass for the fourth position.

After stopping Chris Foster in the opening round. Rector’s mount was unable to fire in a meeting with Phillip Hooper.

Mark Cox stopped Ray Price in SHANNON Jenkins took his Iceman '68 Camaro to victory in the Nitro Harley final round, the final event of the NHRA/AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod 6.69/167 to 6.75/205, after Price Challenge Series in Las Vegas. had dominated eliminations, Jenkiins claimed his sixth victory in ten events with a final round posting the quickest runs in each of win over Mitch StOtt in a battle between the best of blown and the opening rounds. nitrous competitors.

Cox single-handedly knocked off Jenkins posted a final round 6.24/223 to stop Stott, who trailed Team-Mancuso in the opening two at 6.31/224. frames to move into the final round Jenkins top qualified at 6.26 and had defeated Dennis Radford and score his first career win. and Mike Ashley to reach the final round.

Vancil locked up his Nitro Stott, the third seed at 6.35/223, had defeated Rickie Smith and Harley championship in

Ice Ice Barbir

Thomas Patterson to move into the final round. ^ DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 30 October 2002

qualifying.

- DAVH)OSTASZEWSKI

Drag briefs TENDERS are now being invited for the construction of the Western Sydney International Dragway.

NSW Minister for Public Works and Services Morris lemma announced that planning approval for the facility was granted two weeks ago, which now leaves the doors open for construction to commence once the tendering process has been completed.

Five companies have been approached by the Department of Public Works and Services to bid for the construction contract, with preliminary work expected to commence in December. The track is expected to be fully operation in time fdr next summer's Championship season. n Johnny Mancuso defeated teammate Steve Stordeur in the final round of the US$22,000 Screamin' Eagle Nitro Harley-Davidson Shootout, held during the IHRA CarQuest Auto Parts World Finals at Rockingham.

Mancuso, who clocked a winning 6.46 to stop Stordeur, collected the winners share of US$8,000.

Stordeuer's runner-up effort netted US$5,000. n Brandon Bernstein, son of Kenny Bernstein and heir to the throne of the Bud King at the close of this season, made licensing passes in Dallas following the O'Reilly Fall Nationals.

Bernstein made two passes, clocking runs of 4.62/322 and 4.69/320, far surpassing the 5.20 second, 275mph passes required by the NHRA, The young Bernstein will assume the driving duties for the six-time champion for the 2003 sedson. n Cory McClenathan, who carried the colors of Berryman Chemical in Dallas, will continue to fly the Berryman livery for the remainder of the year on the Henkleman and Baca dragster. McClenathan qualified seventh in Vegas at 4.60/316, but was defeated in the opening round via a Rhonda Hartman-Smith holeshot, 4.64/316 to 4.63/319. n In a related note, David Baca debuted a second team-car in Las Vegas, and has picked up backing from Pro Long Super Lubricants and Waterloo Tool Storage.

The Henkleman-Baca team will fly the colors through the final event in Pomona.

Baca was uable to qualify the car in Las Vegas, recording a 4.73/315 best.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI/ STAFF

71

Classic Adelaide

An

by BRIAN REED

THE Melbourne team of Rex Broadbent and Michael Goedheer withstood a strong challenge from dual Classic Adelaide winners Andrew Cavalli and Michael Dale to take out the 2002 Classic Adelaide Rally in their 1974 Porsche 911 RSR. Two hundred vehicles took part in the rally, which was run in three categories - a Tour section for desirable cars not fitted with safety requirements such as roll cages, a Parade section for invited exotic cars, and a Competition section for the serious rallyists to contest the 30 special stages.

The Parade section included Le Mans winners Vern Schuppan and Geoff Brabham,Indy 500 winner and three-time CART champ Bobby Rahal, Win Percy, local champions Leo Geoghegan and Kevin Bartlett and Jim Richards.

Sir Jack Brabham also took part and was patron of the event.

Others in the Parade section included prolific writer and

)

historian Doug Nye with Paul Vestey.

Vestey always appears with a desirable vehicle, and this year he and Nye took part in a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C in which the owner once scored a class win at Daytona. Vestey is a former Le Mans competitor, and this year he encouraged Matt and Di Spitzley to bring out their Alfa Romeo sports car which competed at Le Mans in 1935. The car is valued at a cool $5.5 million!

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the SL MercedesBenz, and to mark the occasion, head of the Mercedes-Benz car clubs. Dieter Ritter, brought out three cars from the museum in Stuttgart. He and wife Gabi drove a 1957 open-top 300 SLS SCCA championship model, while Rahal and his wife Debi took part in the Macau GP-winning 190 SLR roadster, and there was also a graceful 1955 300 SL Gullwing.

A second Gullwing belonging to Queensland’s David Bowden and driven by Kevin Bartlett was judged the ‘Peoples’ Choice’ at the Concours d’Elegance.

j

Very different Porsches: Jim Richards paraded the ParisDakar winning 911, above, while Rex Broadbent and Michael Goedheer took overall honours in their 1974 911 RSR, right.

Klaus Biscof, curator of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, brought out a 1955 Porsche 550 A Spyder plus two 4WD Porsche 911s that won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1984 and 1986.

The five-day Classic Adelaide from October 16-20 commenced with a 4km Prologue at Murray Bridge to determine the starting order, and immediately Broadbent and Goedheer signalled their intentions. They established a significant lead on Day'Two and were never seriously challenged.

In an effort to counter the Porsche challenge this year, Cavelli had fitted a 2-litre BDA motor to his 1972 Ford Escort, but a misfire early in the event ended his chances of a third win.

RESULTS Outright Winners(Competition) 1. Rex Broadbent/Michael Goedheer 1974 Porsche 911 RSR 2. David McDonough/Lyndon Wilson 1972 Ford Capri V8 Perana 3. Andrew Cavalli/Michael Dale 1972 Ford Escort BDA Outright Winners (Heritage) 1. Andrew Cavalli/Michael Dale 2. Rex Broadbent/Michael Goedheer 3. Edward Baker/Andrew Ballantyne(UK) 1965 Sunbeam Tiger 360

Racing royalty: Bobby and Debi Rahal in the sleek Mercedes-Benz 190 SLR, right, and the Paul Vestey/Doug Nye 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C, left.

(Photo by Mark Glendenning/MNews Digital)

HISTOmCS Briefly historic

P

Austin power

AUSTIN Healeys fiUed the grids as the deservedly featured marque in their 50th anniversary celebrations.

Fifty-three examples paraded the track with the familiar Bug Eyes, Sprites, the 100/4s and 100/6s in different states of tune and trim for road, race and rally.

The special cars included Tom Barr-Smith’s Healey SR2 Climax which competed at Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 before being dismantled.

Starring also was the special Le Mans Sprite used at the Sarthe in 1967 and 1968, helow, where it finished both races and was the best British entry. Clocking 154 mph on the Mulsanne Straight(no doubt towed by a seven-litre GT40),it averaged just over 100 mph for the 24 hour in 1967, all

iibugagaia

4

from 1292cc!

NOJ 392 was another notable entry, a 1952 prototype which finished 12th in the 1953 Le Mans among other career highlights before eventually becoming a neglected $200 car. Today,its condition and value are much better.

Ross Bond’s big Healey appeared at the gathering, while a pair of earlier Westland and Elliot Rileyengined cars added more history to the marque.

While the Austins were the centre of attention for their celebrations, there was great racing and plenty of well-turned out machines to admire across all classes.

Winton Histories twice a year? I like that idea ... now, which marque is turning 50 next year?

-NEIL HAMMOND

AFTER 30 years, Gold Star champion Leo Geoghegan and Chrysler team boss John Ellis were reunited at Classic Adelaide in a Chrysler Charger. Leo was largely responsible for the development of the Charger and John managed the team that ran at Mt. Panorama in 1971 and almost won in '72. n With more than 70 books to his credit, Doug Nye has now extended his interests to include the production and marketing of historic motor racing videos. And if what he screened at the S.A. Sporting Car Club Dinner during Classic Adelaide is an indication of things to come, we're in for a treat. Previously unseen footage of the great Jim Clark in action behind the wheel at Quiton Park, Alfa Romeo winning the first FI world championship, and Mercedes-Benz testing their allconquering Silver Arrows were enough to whet the appetite. n One Classic Adelaide entrant had a particularly expensive weekend. Englishman Jon Atherton was participating in the speedrestricted Parade section in his Ferrari F360, and was nailed after being clocked at 185 kph during one of the sections! He was fined a whopping $4000 for the indescretion. n One of the more bizarre moments at Classic Adelaide came when a competitor spun ... and was broadsided by the camera car.

!

I.-Tm .

WIN Percy's 1990 ATCC and Sandown HRT VL Commodore was back on track for the first time since that year at the recent Winton Historic meeting.

Gary Collins bought the car after the fifth place finish by Brad Jones and Neil Crompton in #7 at Bathurst. In storage ever since and now back with #16 and the original paint - including Bathurst wear and tear - speed was no problem at Winton, despite a shakedown with an old underpowered Group C motor.

Next outing will be among a larger field of the class at the Sandown Histories meeting on November 9-10.

- NEIL HAMMOND

n The Vintage Motorsport Weekend to be held at Camperdown, Victoria from November 1-5 has undergone some fine-tuning.

Improvements have been made to spectator areas, and for the first time there will be a Post-Vintage Thoroughbred class for invited vehicles manufactured up to 1939.

This year's entry list includes a wide range of vehicles from standard production to elite racers such as Bugatti, Delage, Vauxhall, Bentley, Austin and Chrysler, and Doug Sterry will be back to defend his title in the quick Ford A Model racer. It is also expected the famous Pockett Ford A Special (a title winner many years ago at both Arthurs Seat and Mt. Tarrengower hillclimbs) will take part.

Event Director Wes Wilkinson is also hoping to build the motorcycle class.

Following registration and scrutineering, the Vintage Motorsport Weekend comprises a Motorkhana at Mockridge Park on Saturday, November 2, a quarter-mile sprint in Manifold Street on Sunday morning followed by a closed street stage during the afternoon, and a hillclimb at Mt, Leura on Monday 4.

- BRIAN REED/ MARK GLENDENNING 73

■aflonal Fine Wines and Martin Hines get better with age

In what can only be described as a remarkable achievement, 54-year old Superkart veteran Martin Hines has clinched the FIA-CIK European Superkart Championship at the final round at LeMans. Upon his return to the driving seat, Hines has been impressive, but he had to overcome a number of technical problems in France.

A seized engine in qualifying saw him drop to'third on the grid, then, while moving up the field in the first final, his replacement engine also seized resulting in zero points as championship rival Torgier Kleppe picked up fourth, closing Hines's championship lead to just one point with one race to go. Another engine was cobbled together from parts of the two blown units, and this was good enough for him to take third, one position ahead of Kleppe and enough to claim the crown.

Frenchman Francois Vinuales won Final One but DNF'd the second Final, compatriot Damien Payart taking a convincing win ahead of Bobo Westman and Hines, John Riley won the division 2 series.

■ Ben Horstman won his second successive Monaco Cup last month.

Still with Biesse/Fox, the Aussie swept to a convincing Formula A win through the streets of the principality.

The victory bodes well for Ben and Queensland team mate Josh Hunt as they prepare for the Formula A World Cup. Earlier in the month Hunt and Horstman finished 20th and 22nd ? respectively in the Italian Formula A championship, Davide Ford taking the win for Tony KartA/ortex, ■ The Monaco Cup meeting also saw Alex Zanardi back in a kart, the Italian making a guest appearance aboard a machine fitted with a brand new Wankel type rotary kart engine developed by Parilla. Named the Rocket, the power-plant punches out a whopping (for a kart) 58hp, Zanardi's machine was fitted with special steering controls.

scene

IkGlenilenning

The BRUtal Streets

WARREN Luff added another title to his CV by securing the V8 BRUtes title at Surfers Paradise.

After following the front four cars in the opening race to secure the title, the Sydney driver let himself off the leash in the final two, winning Race 2 and finishing sixth in the final outing.

“It’s a relief to get the series locked away early, so I can just enjoy the racing for the rest of the weekend,” said the 26-year-old.

And it was a title for Ford.

Something to celebrate, this year ...

James Brock won the first race, Steve Robinson, Charlie Kovacs and Gary McDonald making in an all-Commodore affair, but Luff redressed the balance in the second race, leading Grant Denyer and Damien White to a Ford 1-2-3.

The last race turned into a bit of a lottery, with all manner of penalties handed out for kerb hopping. Jack Elsegood had to withstand White climbing all over him on the final lap, but the former Roosters League player hung on to take his maiden BRUte win.

“I knew I’d be in the top half but luckily, a few things went my way, with a few guys getting penalties and whatnot,” said Elsegood.

While all the chaos was going on up front. Luff was sprinting from the rear of the grid to a sixth-place finish.

POOLRITE V8 BRUTES

I r

m I

Poolrite V8 BRUte Points Luff 1006, White 913, MacDonald 904, Denyer 740.5, Kovacs 710, Grice 697.

Ready, Red Rooster? Jack Elsegood had his first win in his Falcon, above, while Warren Lujf, below, sealed the title in Race 1 and won Race 2. (Photos by Dirk Klynsmith) irHi

■ Rotax's new generation of kart is now in Australia and ready for evaluation by karters. The RM1 is powered by the DD2 2-speed Rotax MAX based engine and is supplied as a 'turn-key' package. The machine has been approved for use in the AKA's 'Open' class.

- MARK WICKS 74

motorsport news

NATIONAL CALDER Park’s non-existent ‘wet track’licence threatened to unsettle proceedings at the final round of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships at Calder Park on October 20.

Thankfully the clouds didn’t burst and the meeting continued as scheduled.

Glen Hastings(Van Diemen) made a break on cold t)rres in the opening lap of the Formula Ford pointscore event, then controlled the race to the end to pick up the win, and the championship, ahead of Cade Southall(Stealth) and Tony D’AIherto (Mygale). Hastings’s nearest championship rival, Daniel Reinhardt, tore a couple of corners off his Spectrum in the preliminaiy race, a mammoth job by his crew getting the car onto the giid, Daniel hauling it up to seventh by the end.

Mort Fitzgerald(MGB V8) did the usual and easily won MGs (ahead of Peter Clark and Andrew McDowell), but The Doc also ran Sports Cars too, taking second behind John Good (Porsche 911)but ahead of Tom Hutchinson (Triumph)in a red-flag shortened race.

Formula Vee belonged to Andy Nethercote (Elfin) once again, the Green Machine just fending off a late challenge from Frank Haire (Elliot) with David Frith (Sabre) third. Tony Bocquet’s chances of challenging Nethercote for the championship vanished when a wheel came off his Jabiru on the warm up lap!

Mustang’s filled the top three placings in Historic Touring cars, fastest qualifier Darren Hill beating home Michael Bugelly and Bill Trengrove. However, attention had earlier been centred on the #2 ’Stang of Peter Roach. After contact with another competitor. Roach effectively destroyed his car against the ‘Lowndes fence’, luckily without injury.

The Porsche 944s continued their strong showing, this time Mark Eddy picking up the win over Ojars Balodis and Steve Canny.

Richard Gay was too strong for the HQ field, beating home Ken Wright and John Moore and picking up second in the series, Andrew Nowland having already wrapped up the title at the previous round.

Ken Douglas(RX7)won the race and the series for Improved Production, Phil Morris(Datsun) taking second on both counts while Paul Rule took the big A9X Ibrana to third.

Steve Newing steered his Datsun Stanza to the Under 2-litre Sports Sedans win, but it wasn’t enough to overhaul Rupert Rodriguez(Datsun) for the championship. Paul Thompson (Alfa GTV)took second ahead of Rodriguez in a strong out race.

-MARK WICKS 30 October 2002

Just like Craig: Peter Roach's Ford Mustang heads towards the Thunderdome.wall after contact, (pnoio by James smith)

When thiPilisjust as

by MARK WtCKS ADAM Graham and Arrow have clinched the APS CIK Australian Formula A Championship with a calculating third place at the Geelong final on the weekend.

But nobody could stop Andrew Tomlinson,the Top Kart driver dominant all meeting and picking up his second win in two rounds.

With Graham leading the points, Tomlinson did everything he possibly could to steal the title, qualifying fastest and blitzing the opposition. After winning the pre-final, Andrew simply drove off into the distance to take the win, in the hope that Graham finished out of thd placings.

That wish almost came true, Graham falling back into the mid pack early in the race and not displaying the form he had in the pre-final where he took second.

Richard McLeod (Azzurro) took a gamble to use the same set of

f

Ji ll

tyres for the entire race meeting, the move appearing to pay off until stopping with a mechanical failure while running a comfortable fourth.

Another to fall out was Michael Patrizi (Birei), a broken coolant hose taking him out while running second. Troy Hunt (Top Kart) encountered a tyre problem allowing Matthew Wall (Tony Kart) to take second ahead of Graham (Arrow) and WA's Daniel Elliott (Trulli Kart).

It was a similar nail-biter in intercontinental A. Series points leader Luke May(CRG) seized his engine in the pre-final and had to start the final from last.

Meanwhile, closest challenger Glenn Powles (Trulli Kart) had been the pace setter all weekend, once again qualifying fastest before taking a couple of heat victories and second in the pre final to Adam Klunyk (Arrow).

Powles and Justin Ruggier (Kosmic) battled for the lead in

rliolo ov nsf' C/ki^/vv

as first...!

the final as Klunyk fell back to third and May charged from the rear. Ruggier was ecstatic to take his maiden CIK win, the former ReSa champion getting away from Powles in the closing laps.

Glenn held on for second ahead of Klunyk and Timm Weitzel (Tecno). Meanwhile, May had worked his way well into the top ten, picking up enough points to take the crown.

Benjamin Chong Sun (Top Kart, pictured! headed into the round with a healthy lead over Andrew Thompson (Birei) in the Junior Intercontinentai A points. This was consolidated when Thompson DNF'd the first heat with a flat tyre. Kristian Lindbom (Top Kart) qualified fastest, but the meeting belonged to Paul Laskazeski (BRM). .

Laskazeski won the pre-final and fought with Thompson for the lead of the final before dropping the hammer late in the race and pulling out a winning margin. Thompson had an off track excursion in the closing laps as Lindbom took second with Leah Unsworth (Tony Kart) third and the new champion, Chong Sun, fourth.

William Yarwood (Arrow) won a thrilling 40-lap Intercontinental C final after a dice with fastest qualifier Nick Agland (CRG).

Yarwood made a mess of the start and fell to sixth before working his way back to the lead.

He then came under pressure from Agland in the closing laps before Nick overshot a passing manoeuvre on the last lap. Jason Burns (MacMinarelii) clinched the title with third, 75

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Extensive detail on how to rebuild a Holden V8 rrp $38.45

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Classifieds online classifieds 7

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Yes 6 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25! HOW?

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Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

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IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

Sedans/Sports Cars

ALPINE RENAULT A310 V6

Group 4 GT 1979 superb road car.

Adjustable double wishbone, coil over Konis F&R. 3 piece ailoys, Weber iDA3C's, extractors, squat and 1.1 m low. Ideal layout for further competition development.

Desirable entry Targa & classic events. $37,500 Neg. Steve or 0418548311 243 cpconsci@unite.com.au

www.my105.com/68067

"iw -I ■OWlUi 9tom

Honda Integra Type R 2000, Delivered new in Aust, prepared by Robinson Racing Developments, fully welded cage, Sabelt Harnesses, Mugen Exhaust, 10 factory wheels, potential class winner Targa, GTP, Terratrip, intercom, window net, log booked, as new. $39,500. Steve 0418 508 233 243 www.my105.com/99417

VN-VS COMMODORE, A modified or 3 litre. Brand new, Redline roll cage, I & J four coil adjustable suspension, Bilstien Shockers, SS Rims. $4,200 Or Best Offer.

0412 552 959 243 David www.my105. com/4812

us

EA falcon SPORitS SEDAN, Space frame chassis, coil over suspension, top loader, 9" rear, mid mount 351c, (needs rebuild), dry sump, well sorted spares including: diff ratios, panels, moulds, new tires and purpose built trailer. BARGAIN $13000 ONO. Glenn. Day 02 4871 2443 or Evening 02 4 8 72 1 215 243 www.myl05.com/49138

Lombardi Grand Prix, Lombardi Grand Prix, Abarth Mags, 1969/70 alloy bodied rare italian sportscar (oniy 6 in R.H.D), 38,000 miles.

Excellent original condition. These cars raced at le-mans. May take trade. $39,950 Neg. G. Fasano 08 8278 6874 243 www.my105.com/52335

1 \m

i

30 October 2002

Torana Sports Sedan, Six cylinder 202 + 40 Duggan alloy head 4 speed V8 M21 gearbox 48mm Webers 330+ HP, fresh rebuild no expense spared, well maintained winner of Australia 2000 NSW OLD SA hillclimb Sports Sedan championship log book and spares, ready to race. $12,000 ONO. Day 03 9350 1728 or Evening 0418 311 320 243 www.my105.com/20311

MK2 CORTINA Sports Sedan, Winner of 1999 and 2000 NSW Hillclimb Championships, microtech computer, fresh rebuilt engine, ultra reliable, log book, well sorted and maintained, heaps of spares, ready to race, complete with dual axle tilt trailer. $11,500 Neg. Glenn 0410 529 701 243 www.my105.com/39079

FORD EA SALOON CAR, No expense spared ready to race. Vince. $22,000. 242 www.my105.com/85910

Nissan Improved Production Car, NISSAN 180B COMPLETE REBUILD Improved Production Car (Club Car) A87 Big Port head, stainless valves, TWIN 45 WEBERS, 280 ZX 5 speed, R180 4:11 diff, KONI shocks, full cage & more. Very quick car, has done 2 min flat at Phillip Island, capable of better. CAMS LOG Book & more.

Will trade for road car. $5000.00 ONO. Con. Day 0418310930 or 9849 1520.

243 Evening www.myl05.com/356

PORSCHE 944 CHALLENGE, This is the current series winning 944 Porsche, holding a number of lap records. All the best parts, bilsteins, coil overs, fresh engine and gearbox, secure the car now by deposit and take delivery after the final round of Vic state chamionships. $43,000 Call Brendan on 0419 818 788 242 www.my105.com/43071

% V8 SUPERCAR, vs Perkins built, ready to race, Perkins Chev PE 151, aii long distance gear fitted, spares, wheels, tyres, etc, very tidy car, all this for just $60,000 Lawson 04 1 7 778 1 88 .

243 www.myl 05.com/60808 _

(

Sunbeam Tiger, SB logbook, concours rebuild, full race 289 Ford engine, 347bhp, 4sp. Top loader, race suspension, Konis, Cobra seats, Willians harness, half cage thru to firewall, fuel cell, 8 Superlite wheels, 12 slicks/wets. Spares include new discs, pads, windscreen, plus original 260 engine, seats, hood, suspension. Lightly raced never pranged. Build cost over $125k. $65,000. Richard 0 3 9 8 2 2 5 0 34 . 243 www.my105.com/1632

VH COMMODORE CUP CAR, VH Commodore cup car, Ex Owen Davis, good reliable car, comes with spares. Ready to race. $21,000 ONO. Dylan 0438 235 415 243 WWW.my105.com/75753 VL Walkinshaw, VL Walkinshaw 355 Stroker, Alloy Heads,Roller cam,300KW at wheels, TKO Box,18" Simmons wheels, Harrop brakes 381mm front, 354mm rear, stainless twin cat exhaust, genuine 10,000kms since new, also c/w original motor, gearbox, brakes, wheels etc. immaculate vehicle, owes, $85,000 sell $50,000. Zane. Day 03 8795 7775 or 0407 981 122, 242 Evening www.myl05.com/42293

i

JE ^ioon Car, 6'rily raced two meetings, LSt reliable car, some spares, urgent sale. $25,000 ONO. Troy (07) 320 9 87 55. 243 www.my105.com/42401

i I’

■

I

Mazda MX5, Finished 3rd in ciass for Production Sports Cars 2001 and 4th out right in the 1 Hour endurance race. Lap times; Eastern Creek: 1m 50- Oran Park: 1m 19- Wakefield: 1m 08- Winton: 1m 36Queensland Raceway (Clubman): 1m 04.

Currently 3rd in the 2002 Prod Sports Drivers champiohship. Easiiy converted to GTP specification. Trailer also available. $18,000. Zane 0414 402 410. 242 www.my105.com/17035

19

Open Wheelers

Honda Prelude Sports Sedan, Australia's Fastest 2Lt Sports Sedan, Full Space Frame Construction - 770Kg, Nissan SR20 Super Touring Engine, Hilux Rear LSD, Willwood Brakes, Motec, All Lap Records At Willowbank and Morgan Park, Wiliowbank National CCT 1-15-2, Spares Include Engine, G/Box's, Diffs, Moulds. $40,000 Includes Trailer. David 0408 720 560 243 www.myt05.com/40279

HONDA CRX, ZC Twin Cam 1600cc, 5speed, A032 Yohohamas, Lakeside 62.8.

243 $7,500.

0412 578 474 www.mvl05. com/4547

Mazda RX3 Improved Production Car, car #77 2nd outright 2001VMRC 100% finishing record. 13B Bridgeport 5 speed. 4.4 diff & new brakes. Heaps of spares. Fast reliable competitive car, ready to race. Phillip Island 1.50, Winton 1.36, Calder 65 $10,000 with spares. $10,000 Neg. Paul 0408 550 677 or 03 9729 1496 242www.my105.com/22171 98 J&J Sprintcar 30" Car, Excellent condition. Winters Diff, KSW Power steering, senders spindle mount front end, Sanders bird cages, Mag Engine plate, sec n wheels, Kirkey seat, 360 engine, plus spares and equipment as owner retiring, $30 000 ono, or sell roller for $15 000 ono.

243 David (03) 9799 0470. www.my105.com/871 60 Escort Mkll 2 Door Rolling Shell, Feb, 76, 3/3J log booked with 11 point alloy cage, very good standard shell with no modifications, never raced, various spares included, call Simon for any other details. $1900 ONO.(03) 9500 9073 or 0403 179 073 242 www.my105.com/52670

Porsche GT3, Perfectly maintained by PCM, Approximately $25,000 worth of spares available. Ready for Race / Rally / Road, Structured financing available. $210,000 Neg. Dean 0418 507 403 242 www.my105.com/7289

Nascar Oldsmobile Rolling Chassis, With T-10 gearbox, only needs fuel cell and motor, spares available, including wheels, parts, etc. $10,000 ONO, Graham (03) 9898 8202 or 0418 344 067 242 www.my105.com/39638

m

(

Fiat Spyder Convertible 73, Professional restoration, bare metal respray, rebuilt 1800 HC engine, new steering, brake and suspension, transmission components, dashboard timber and crash pad, console original carpets and upholstery, campagnola wheels, new windscreen, door rubbers and vinyl top, delightful to drive, attractive Italian classic, collectable investment. $21,750. Justin 0407 002 726 242 www.my105.com/4755

1997 Gambler Hi Bar Sprint Car Roller, Race ready, less engine seat, raced only 3 seasons, Winters long spline diff, Willwood brakes, KSE power steering complete with spare nerf rails & front axle. $15,500 ONO 243 Dani (02) 9609 2210. www. 1 05 . com/45442

HISTORIC MARCH 73B, Arguably the most successful group Q car. Fresh BDD Cosworth engine and Hewland FT200 gearbox. Significant early UK history. Many local lap records and wins. Spares include extra chassis and engine - will separate.

Price depends on package. Richard Carter 02 9999 3606. 243www.my105.com/20217

Formula Ford - Van Diemen RF98, Immaculate car, meticulously maintained & prepared by Michael Ritter ready to race.

Ex Greg Ritter/Alex Davison 1998, 99, 2000 & 2001 Nat Championship pole sitter '& race winner, 2002 Vic Champs race winner & top placegetter in Nat Champs, best available. C/W Circuit set up, Motec logger, Koni shocks & much more. $39,500 ONO. Enclosed tandem trailer 12mths old, $5,000 ono. Tony 0417 355 433 243 www.my105.com/88054

If

NISSAN PULSAR GTIR, NISSAN PULSAR GTIR. Lightweight rally version.

C/R g/box, roll cage, FIA spec seat/harness, 3 inch exhaust. Centreline suspension, Pagid race pads, surge tank, competition radiator. Very competitive.

Second Group 5 & PIARC sprint championship 2000 & 2001. Numerous top 3 finishes. Spares. Rally registration (PVN 490), 40,000km.. $17850 Neg. Ron Day 03 9480 0929 or Night 0438 881 556 243 WWW. my105. com/67400

Reluctant Sale - Welsor Sorts 1300, The last one built for racing by Col Weir in Sydney (chassis #13). Full Log Book History. It currently runs a Pulsar 1300, runs strong and reliable. Great fun to race and potentially a very valuable historic race car project. Supplied with a registered tilt trailer, extra wheels, and other sensible spares. $11,500. Arthur. Day 0438 953 258 or Evening 07 5495 3258 243 www.my105.com/9560

NSW Championship Winning FF, NSW Championship winning Formula Ford 2001, '94 Swift, Peter Lamer race engine, with many spares, tyres, ratios,some suspension components, body mouldings, custom built trailer. Formula Ford and Components $24,000. Trailer $5,500. Or nearest offer.

Duncan.

(02) 9707 1011 243 www.my105.com/20362 Sabre, Top HP Elliott engine,Updated Chassis & Bodywork 4 meetings old 3 gearboxes 2 sets mag wheels spare suspension many other spares,enclosed trailer. Bill. Day 0417 103 389 or Evening 9879 9538. 243 www.my105.com/47984

THCwaytosell your gear!

7 22Z27 From just$25* lustlogon online classifieds (*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my105.com)

Category: □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers □ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers

□ Speedway

□ Wanted □ Photographs

□ Drag □ Other

□ Jobs

livno Description: Please keep ads to no more than 50 words, plus up to 6 photos if desired.

Advertising can also be supplied using thisform ($10/$15 surchage to text only/text -f pic advertisements) Advertisements wili appear in next possible issue of Motorsport :.'sv;s PLUS the 05.coir, websitefor six months.

I enclose cheque/money order for $35 (text only) / $40 (text plus up to six pictures) made out to my105.com, or please charge my □ Amex □ Bankcard □ Visa or □ Mastercard for the amount of $35 (words only) / $40 (words and pic).

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Forward your classified to: fax 02 96471177 email mnewsfSmyl 05.com postal address My105,105 Carnarvon Street Silverwater NSW 2128.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and print clearly. Please note

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we are unable to return photographs supplied for use in classified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possible after receipt. MN/my105.com classifieds are for the sale of private goods and vehicles only, not business advertising Photos marked “proof" will not be used.

molorsport news

MARKET PLACE Blue printed KT100S YAMAHA, KT100 S clubman motor, blue printed by J&A Tuning v/good engine raced once since last rebuild, C/W carby and headers. $1,400 240 www,my105.eom/7064

March 77B, Available now as top-line Hillclimber and suitable for Historic restoration. Supercharged Cosworth 2 Litre.

Trailer, loads of spares and all information.

Immediate sale, make me an offer, everything must go. Trade and terms considered. Best offer. Peter 02 9873 1773.

243 www.myl05.com/81256

2Ltr Formula Libre Hillclimb Car, Supercharged Suzuki GSXR 1127 motor with all good gear, centrifugal clutch, Falacon rods, Wisecos, Cams, etc. Microtech computer controlled alcohol injectioh, 1st ih class + 2nd outright NSW HCC this year with 7 hillclimb class records, comes with freshly rebuilt engine, and spares. $14,900 ONO. Tom (02) 242 9606 9181 or 0407 167 397 www.myl05.com/33664

Raschella Racing, 496 JP1- 5/8 Velasco crank. Brooks rods, K motion springs.

Titanium retainers, crane roller cam and lifters. Donovan gear drive, Hansen heads, 14:71 Littlefield blower. Bird injector, 990 pump, single plug, spares eight Venolia pistons, four new BRC pistons. Two sets rods twelve runs old. Spare roller cam, rings, bearings, gaskets and rockers, $28,000 Neg. Nick 0417 848 743. 240 www.myl05.com/9723 Chev 406, 4 Bolt Splayed steel caps Eagle 4340 Stress Relieved Steel Crank and Steel 6 inch rods Roller chain and button. Manly Ultra light pistons. Stud kit top and bottom Roller cam and rockers Near new ported 23 degree Iron Eagle heads Stainless valves with Titanium Retainers Long block only Can be seen on Dyno. $6800 ONO. Pete.

Day 03 9700 0459 or Evening 0407 814 903 243 www.myl O5.com/1 6942

Transporters/Trailers

Super Sedan, Rayburn Chassis, Camara Body, Willwood Pedals, Speedway engineering Diff and rack. Sweet power steering and ram, Muncie box, 2 radiators, triple plate AP clutch. Spare rims, tyres and panels, 180 deg headers, flowmaster exhaust. Complete roller minus engine and fuel tank. $5,500 ONO. Pete 0749 822 061 243 or 0409 321 401 www.myl05.com/81914 Super Sedan AU Falcon, 2001 John Brown chassis, has dbhe one race meeting as new, fresh engine, dry sump, 365cc Ford, Willwood brakes, AFCO front end. aluminium radiator, Charlyn power head, Burt box, open axie, quick change, aluminium wheels, sell complete or as a roller. PDA. 0419 989 010 or (02) 4730 3440. 243 www.myl05.com/85436

Engines

Super Touring Engine and Parts, Engine 2lt Super Touring Engine for sale $17,000, Tilton clutch plates 7/8x20 spline $199, Dunlop camber gauge $200, Intercomp scales trolley alloy ramps $2800. David 0418 794240. 243 www.my105.com/6488 Nascar 23 Degree Engine, Just been rebuilt, roller cam, new top end, valve train, etc, around 600HP. $25,000 ONO. Graham (03) 9898 8202 or 0418 344 067 242 www.myl05.com/53737

30 October 2002

UNICHIP, Increase your Horsepower by this add on Chip. This chip was used ih Safari once only, Repacement cost $550+. $375 ONO. Russell 03 9579 2166 / 03 9836 7331. 241 www.myl05.com/27963

86 Isuzu FVR rigid cab. Takes up to 4 open-wheelers plus equipment, belly lockers, new awning, long rego, reliable vehicle. $26,000. Mike 0403 046 403. 243 www.my105.com/36345 FULLY ENCLOSED TRAILER, 21ft long with power outlet's, lights, tyre rack, work bench, winch, electric brakes, new tyres, 12 mths reg $7,000 ONO. Jeff. 0402 038 239.

243 www.myl05.com/47324 Coach Transporter, 38ft mid mount 250HP turbo Volvo 4 speed, pre select gearbox, air brakes, exhaust brake, tubles tyres, alloy tailgate and ramp tyre rack, electric winch, front selection, lounge and fridge, rego. $23,000 ONO. 0419 989 010 or (02) 4730 3443.

243 www.my105.com/23511

Lotus Exige For Lease, This car is available for lease for the entire 2003 season. Price Neg. Chris 0411 571 222. 242 www.myl05.com/78417

Formula J1600 dally or weekly Hire, Formula J 1600 open wheel racing car Japan spec series car.Available for Lap dashes. Club days, Hillclimbs, Sprints, Etc. Neg. Ted 0412 288 060 242 www.myl05.com/981

Other

Fully enclosed trailer. Tri-axle 26' long with kitchen and power outlets, water tanks, new tyres and spare and annexe. $10,800.

0438 128 287. 243www.my105.com/20285

Pit gear for sale, Raytey temp gun $350, Go jacks $285, Five Motorola GP300 radios five spare battery's two chargers (one six piece) two Uniden scanners one in car kit four head sets $4750, Dorian timer $300, Three Suntec ’Xdrive rattle guns 700ft $600, Snap On torque multiplier $750, Five Harris high flow regulators $1200. David 0418 794 240.

243 www.myl05.com/61464

Wanted Lotus Twin Cam Cylinder Head, DCOE 45 Weber carbs, Hewland Mk 5/6 g'box complete with pawl diff etc. John 0415 621 898.

243 www.my105.com/21503 4 X YOKOHAMA A032R 205/60x15, tyres (or similar), suitable for club level hillclimbs etc. Rodney 02 6332 4072. 24i www.my105.com/88254 TRAILER WANTED, Lightweight single axle Trailer to suit historic rear engine openwheel racing car. Car weighs only 450kg and need internal dimensions 14' x 6'.

Require some cover so can be fully enclosed or at least weather-proof. Please call (02)9949 3996 home or (02)9499 3911 work.

241 www.my105.com/37982

Jobs Race Engineer Available, Available on a daily basis or full 2003 Season. Equipment available, including set-up platform, scales, two car transporter, etc. Greg 0411 052 944.

243 www.myl 05.com/20477 Drivers Required, Drivers required with sensible budgets for 2003 Formula Ford national and QLD Series, Fully prepared race winning vehicles, including equipment, spares, pit crew and set-up data. G.-eg (07) 5446 7611. 243 www.my105.com/40825 INTERNATIONAL DRIVER AVAILABLE, for 24 hr Bathurst. Ex-NZ Nat. champion sports sedans / Group A. Bathurst experienced. Fast, safe and good on gear.

Night driving and wet weather capabilities.

Froht or rear wheel drive. Big or small hp.

Outright / Class contender. Long distance specialist. Team player with best attitude to wini Email Tony on autoshift@ihug.co.nz 241 www.myl05.eom/42098 Motorcycles Sales, Motorsport and motorcyle accessory manufacturer/imporfer requires enthusiastic person for general warehouse duties, phone sales and shop sales. Some weekend work involved. For more information call Anthony at Race & Rally on Ph. 02 9709 4655. 24i www.myl05.com/994

My105.com has launched a brand

Parts

Circuit Race Seat, Fia standard. Never been used. All black, to suit large driver, cost $850 new. With mounting brackets.

Removable, washable padding. Extra protection of vinyl like material at the "wear points". Priced for quiok sale. $550 ONO. Adam (08) 8266 3214 243 www.my105.com/60571

Magazines, Australian Auto Action 1981 2002, Australasian Motorsport News #1 2002, Motorsport Reporter late 70's - 80’s, Autosport 1965, plus other books.

C. Meaden. 0409 564 432. 241 www.myl05.eom/704

For Lease

17P

Holden 202 Blue Motor, Knife edged, balanced crank .01 inch brgs. $350 Holden 202 short motor ex-supercharged speedway race motor $750, 202 billet camshaft. Bruce (03)5422 1942 or (03)5422 7037. 243 www.myl05.com/89493 Honda, Nissan & Mazda Engines, Honda S2000 motor & Sspeed no computer 19000klm $7500. Nissan FJ20 turbo & 5 speed computer, airflow meter & harness $1750. Mazda Rotary 13b turbo seriesS $1500.

0412 578 474.

243 www.my105.com/4775

Parts for Sale,' New and used aluminium pro shocks $140 - $220, sprint tail and bladder $1000, torsion bars $140, titanium drive shaft $200, D&F seat inci headrest and padding $250, 3 sets headers and mufflers $200 - $400, sprintcar radiators from $100, late model headers with adaptors (new) $500, Vertex supermag $1200. David. Day (02) 6021 3962 or Evening (02) 6025 5561.

243 www.my105.com/58328

: - -iff

Speedway

P4''O

Cosworth 16 Valve Head, Cosworth 16 Valve Head. Not used since complete rebuild, custom valves, titanium retainers, double springs, tigh cams and adjustable cam gears. $4500 ONO. Grant 0410 681 526 243 www.my10S.com/33301

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81

OPINION

OMorsiNri EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan »editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor: Aaron Noonan » noonz@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Mark Glendenning ® mark@mnews.com.au

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82

Why, why, why?

Is it a prerequisite to leave all common sense at the door to get a job in race control at a CART event? What happened at Surfers was the biggest unfunny joke in motorsport that I can remember.

The TV commentators and race teams were dumbfounded (as was I) about the indecisiveness ofthe race controllers and also about the reasoning behind their decisions when they finally made them.

When it became obvious that the weather wasn't going to improve they should have just red-flagged the race and cancelled the round. No-one wanted to see the cars just going around and around under yellow.

That was just pointless.

Because the result turned out to be a lottery there was no real point in waiting until the race could officially count, especially since the teams who’d put a bit of brainwork into the situation trying to legitimately win the ‘race’on tactics got shafted in the end.

I heard mention during the telecast of how washed-out races are supposed to be run again on the next fine day, but given the unique logistics involved in running this round, and CART’S obligations the following weekend, surely all involved would agree that there would be no repercussions involved in just cancelling it outright.

Aaaahh, but that would mean using common sense, I suppose.

I love this event and I have been there three times in the past, but I'm very glad that this was one that I stayed home for!

Carl Neilson Townsville, Queensland

Bathurst revisited Thumbs down CAMS oflSdals for the Murphy 5 minute penalty. This fuel spill should not have happened, but the penalty-in effect automatic disqualification from the race-is hard to find any precedent for in motorsport.

The team should have been put on notice and faced a later tribunal or dealt a lesser on-the-spot penalty,thus staying in the race and giving linart some return.

Thumbs down for the commentary team - a full understanding and explanation of the race regs on the Pace Cai- would have made it easier for the viewer.

Thumbs down for Channel 10there were more than 10 cars in this year’s race. Actually, 24 finished.

Look,for example, at Tfeam Kiwi (I can’t beheve I’m writing this).

They just made the cut, badly damaged the rear of their car last session Saturday, worked through the night, made the start and finished 11th. Their return to their sponsors and fans for running the

converter Send us your thoughts; mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email; mnews@mnews.com.au

distance and gaining 27 places? Ifen seconds television coverage on the third-last lap!

Thumbs down for not seeing all of the 45 Group N competitors who paid $1000 entry. WiQ their families and supporters encourage them or sponsor their entry next year?

Thumbs up for the historic shorts on past drivers and race cars - this helped:maintain interest between the two hours 30 minutes-plus of commercials...

Thumbs up to all the old bulls that filled the first five. Jim Richards,AJ and Larry, well done!

Adrian Coyne Yeerongpilly, QLD If David Addison is a pommie, then they’ve finally beaten us at something!(ED: UK correspondent Addison picked the correct 1-2-3 in MNews’Bathurst preview!)

Chris Cummins rotoflex@rotoflex.com.au Your magazine is to be congratulated on giving credit where credit is due with your article on VIP Petfoods/ Cameron McLean’s performance at Bathurst.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the television coverage that in relation to the smaller budget teams was appalling. Professional business partners (sponsors)of small budget teams justify their commercial involvment via the television screen: it would appear that the program director has the power to malce or break the viability ofteams by his choice of the vision that goes to air.

A handful oftop teams do not make The Great Race great nor do they alone malie for good television, particulaify 10 hours of it. We aH understand that there are commercial reasons why manufactm-ers teams do get the lion’s share(pun intended) of the limelight but without a fair go to the majority the big pictoe . will suffer, for us aU. Doug Partington Wodonga Institute ofTAPE EB:McLean’s lack ofTV time has had an unfortunate sequel -see news pages I agree with the comments in your last issue by reader Mike Routledge.

The TV coverage was pathetic, tom apart by a high volume of ad brealcs - we missed three laps every set of ads. That’s approximately a third of the race distance - maybe the race should be renamed the Bob Jane TMarts 600?

By the way, when are the V8 Supercars coming to Noifh Queensland? Come on AVESCO,the potential is enormous.

Brendon Garland Townsville, Queensland

And one makes six!

Yes,I said six not five! You fine journos have forgotten Skaifey's 1987 2-Litre Tburing Car title which actually puts him ahead of Pete Geoghegan and Dick Johnson in the all time'Iburing Car Championship stakes. Well done Skaifey, fficho and the mules at HRT. Rod Smith rodsmithraeing@aol.com M

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Mario who? Reader Neilson agrees with many that Sunday's Honda Indy {Photo by Dirk Klynsmith) 300 should have been stopped earlier. motorsport news

GEAR UR

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