Motorsport News Issue 252 - March 12-25, 2003

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Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST No. 252 March 12-25 2003

Rain, not new regs, produces a cracker

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GRRnDSTnnD & CEnERni RDiniSSIOn BOOKIRGS CRLL TICKETIRRSTER? on 1300 136 Ml CRRIPIHG, CORPORRTE BOORIRGS 6 GERERRL IRFORR1RTIOR PH: 03 5952 2710 wwui.phillipislandcircuit.coni.au

news

Issue 252

12-25 March 2003

news and opinion HEia

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WSBmm reverse engineering mode 82 Talk Converter The 3 Rs:

features lull Ig

30 Five Minutes With Paul Stoddart Do all the Good Guys wear black?

32 Mike and his mechanics Renault's main man explains why you’ll see Renaults on the track for two hours every Friday 34 Honda bounces back And Tanaka-san wouldn’t have it any other way

race couerage

36 Oz Lotto hits FI Yes, Michael and Rubens blitzed qualifying but David Coulthard was the man to pick up the pieces. And there were plenty o1 pieces 48 The One that Got Away Mark Webber’s view of a promising Jaguar debut 50 V8s goes racing Bright and Ingall tops in the dry and no-one tops in the wet. And HRT had a tough, tough weekend AIL THl' l\SIO£ CP ACTiaiM 56 AGP supports Nations, Porsches and Formula Fords 60 Turkish Delight King Carlos scores for Citroen

Photos: Cover; Dirk Klynsmith and John Morris/Mpix.

Contents: Dirk Klynsmith and sutton-images.com.

regulars 22 Motorcycles

62 Rallying

64 Speedway

66 NASCAR

68 Drag Racing

70 Histories

74 National Scene

76 Marketplace 1

And there^ a lot to be done to the VYs V8 Supercar drivers commited to the VY Commodore may have some work to do to get the new car, with its wishbone suspension, right onto the pace in the short term.

The evidence from the weekend's races suggests that conversion to the new model is not a simple matter, rivals reporting that even defending champion Mark Skaife appeared to be having 'issues' with his VY. Despite grabbing pole, the

Richards himself now has the luxury of staying with his current VX Commodore while his team tests the new car away from the races, but having committed to the VY, HRT and the other VY runners cannot, under TEGA regs, switch back.

Skaife himself confirmed on Monday that the team still had work to do to turn the VY into "the completely driveable car that our VX was.

"There's no doubt that in that

The car isn't yet as driveable as the VX was and that is something we have to work on before Adelaide

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n

-Mark Skaife defending V8 Supercar champ spun off twice during the dry races, while firstly trying to stay in contact with the lead battle, then playing catch-up.

Steven Richards, who spent a fair amount of time in close proximity to the number 1 HRT car, put it into perspective this week: "Anyone who thinks switching from the VX to the VY is a simple thing, doesn't understand the complexities of it," Richo Jnr told MNews on Monday.

"After 20 years experience with the MacPherson strut front end, no Holden team is going to adapt to the wishbone set-up overnight. It changes a lot of things."

first race, in the dry, we had far too much turn-in oversteer.

Putting it on pole was a big plus, but we haven't yet got a handle on how to turn a good qualifyinjg VY into a good race VY. The car isn't yet as driveable as the VX was and that is something we have to work on before Adelaide - the ability to have a car that is balanced and secure is crucial in those long races."

Skaife confirmed that the team wouldn't be able to test prior to the Clipsal 500: "The damage to Todd's car will keep the guys pretty busy, but there are certainly things we learned from the weekend that we can apply to the car in the workshop."

’FHerfury' ,

Four IS Holden issued with i

by CHRIS LAMBDEN THE issue of TWR Australia's interest in six V8 Supercars, not who owns HRT,is the subject of an ultimatum issued to Holden in the lead-up to the Clipsal 500.

The TEGA Board has determined that TWR/HRT's plans to effectively run six cars out of Clayton(HRT, Kmart Racing and Team Brock)in 2003 breaches its regulations governing franchise ownership and has effectively given Holden until next week to sort it out- or else!

The purchase of HRT by Holden from the receivers of the'IWR Group in the UK in the last fortnight, to secure its future, contravenes TEGA regs in that no manufacturer may own a team. However,TEGA has been understanding of the dilemma and seems set to allow Holden reasonable time to transfer the

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ownership into more acceptable hands.

On the matter of the six cars, though, the group is immovable: "The situation as it stands is that we have given Holden until Adelaide \:Dirk Klynsmitb to resolve that matter," TEGA TTie TEGA Tribunal is an Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly told independent one and comprises MNews on Monday.

"We haven't told them how to do it former Rally Australia boss Garry 'Connolly,former Shell exec Bob - that's up to them. They have the Glindeman and lawyer Adrian regulations concerning team Symons. ownership and we've simply asked O'Reilly would not be drawn on them to comply with them,before Adelaide." the subject of penalties if Holden was unable to comply in time.Penalties The TEGA regs are lengthy and for franchise iirfringements are, complex, but state clearly that no however,fierce, with loss of franchise person or company can have an licence at the top of the pile. interest in more than four single V8 Whether, given the shortage of Supercar car franchises.

The definition of "interest" is also time,Holden might also choose to leave two of its six cars at home until lengthy but is clearly defined and the matter is resolved is another issue. includes in part the words"an economic,financial, legal or beneficial interest, directly or through a related entity, including a minority interest."

Clearly, TEGA is not satisified that TWR Australia - now owned,albeit temporarily, by Holden -complies.

"The TEGA Board had formed a

This didn't help: Todd Kelly gets close to the Betta/Brock Commodore of Paul Weel about 30 seconds into the new V8 Supercar season.

if ,

view prior to the TWR UK receivership and subsequent purchase of the company by Holden that there was sufficient grounds to convene a TEGA Tribunal to look at the issue," O'Reilly continued.

"They are starting that process now..."

The strong stance on the issue by TEGA follows O'Reilly's recent appointment to its Board as a fully voting Chairman, thereby breaking a 2:2 Holden:Ford tie which had previously resulted in a number of frustrating 'no decisions' by the Board on a number of issues.

It places further strain on a TWR/HRE organisation currently dealing with the uncertainty of its purchase by Holden and the fact that Holden must,as soon as is reasonable, relinquish that ownership.

molorsport news

NEWS

the Limit! iltimatum over six'TWR'cars

He wouldn’t have to drive #2...

WE know this sounds weird, but... a little birdie tells us that Rubens Barrichello wants to race a V8 Supercar in endurance races.

The Ferrari driver is quite taken with the prospect of racing one of the critters, especially since one of his Brazilian buddies (no names!) races one for a (fuel) sponsor shared with the Ferrari team. It won't happen this year because Sandown clashes with Monza and Bathurst with Suzuka but hey, you never, never know... n Psst! Wanna see inside a leading V8 Supercar team? Well, you can have a peek inside Stone Brothers Racing this Saturday. Ross and Jimmy will throw open the doors, there will be discounted merchandise on sale and even Russell Ingall and Marcos Ambrose will be on board to sizzle the sausages and take the fans in the jumping castle. If that sounds like you, run, don't walk, to 20 Binary St, Yatala, where the fun starts at 11am and stops at 3pm.

Red rocket in need of a hug; Holden's ownership of HRT will be temporary and is not the problem but TEGA has demanded that Clayton comply with the other regulations or face the consequences.

The Dude in VX for 500 PAUL Morris will be back in his team's Commodore VX for the Adelaide 500 after his new VY was seriously damaged at Albert Park.

But 'The Dude' is already planning to build a new VY in his Queensland workshop.

Morris clipped the Commodore of Paul Dumbrell, whose Castrol Perkins car was returning to the track, on lap three of the six-lap sprint on Sunday morning.

Both wheels of the left side of Morris's car were destroyed in the crash, along with the new double wishbone front suspension and most other major front-end components.

After a stewards' hearing, Dumbrell was fined $5000 over the incident.

"When I was hit it was a surprise, because you don't expect that to happen when another car goes off the track and then comes back on," said Morris, "After that I was a passenger.

"The car spun around and I went into the wall.

The impact ripped the front-left wheel off and I saw it flying through the air. It tweaked my neck a little, but apart from that I'm okay."

12 March 2003

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Morris estimates that the rebuild of the car will cost the Sirromet team $100,000.

Ironically, the first VX the team was also involved in a major shunt on debut when guest driver Matt Neal backed the car into a concrete wall at Oran Park in 2001.

- PHIL BRAIMAGAN

n Former Sports Sedan and V8 Supercar man Greg Crick has bought Geoff Morgan's VI0 Chrysler Viper.

The Tasmanian had his first outing in the car in the Nations Cup support races at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, where he notched up a couple of podium finishes. Speaking of Cricky, he had been sniffing around the Carrera Cup but has decided to go with the Viper in the meantime.

Another interested Carrera Cup racer is Andrew Miedecke, who was at Albert Park and was being linked with purchasing the Tony Quinn Mega Bite GT3 Cup car. n A visitor to the Grand Prix on the weekend was AGPC ambassador Will Davison. The Melbourne iad jetted in from England on Thursday straight from official F3 testing at Snetterton and spent a whirlwind four days with media appearances, potential sponsor meetings and associated racing commitments before jumping back on a QANTAS birdie on Monday afternoon to head straight back to the testing trail at Rockingham, In fact, the 20-year-old will head straight from the airport and get in the race car!

"It's going to be difficult," Davison said just before he departed Melbourne, "I'll feel like I'm floating in the clouds for a while! I'll have a brief run in the morning to see what the track's like next time I go there."

Davison also had a chance to see brother Alex dominate the Carrera Cup support races with three straight wins.

9

Mosley vs Frank am meeting elsewhere.

Mosley also denied being unhelpful towards the GPWC, saying that the organisation was "negotiating in a desultory way with Bernie (Ecclestone) and the Kirch bairks" but added that the FIA "have not yet been consulted about this" and said that he had "yet to meet the CEO of a major car company (as opposed to a number two or three) who does not support the FIA or who thinks the manufacturers should make the rules".

By JOE SAWARD

FIA President Max Mosley decided last week to respond to the news that Williams and McLaren had decided to take the federation to arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Lausanne and issued a withering letter to the two team bosses, which demolished many of their arguments and accused them of being irresponsible and uncooperative.

"You both knew perfectly well that, at least until 15 January, there was great unease among sponsors, television networks and race promoters about Formula 1," Mosley wrote.

"You must also have known that to armounce your intention to go to arbitration would add to this unease and revive all the worries of the

media on 20 February without waiting for a response,indeed before we had even had the letter.

winter break. Yet, having instructed solicitors to write to us on 20

"How irresponsible. You waited five weeks after the 15 January meeting without reacting or seeking a meeting. Could you not have waited another six days for our response to your solicitors' letter

February saying that arbitration proceedings would commence unless we agreed to compromise by 26 February, you went to the world's

Barry Sheene MBE 1950-2003

Barry and Stephanie Sheene 6

before once again destabilising the FIA Formula 1 World Championship?"

Mosley accused the two team bosses of refusing to meet with the FIA to discuss technical rules which Mosley said was plaimed for December 6 only to have the teams turn the federation down and have a

BARRY Sheene lost his battle with cancer on Monday.

The two-time world 500cc champion, better known in this part of the world as a commentator on Network 10’s motorsport telecasts, passed away on the Gold Coast.

Sheene had been diagnosed with cancer of the throat and oesophagus last year and resisted chemotherapy treatment, seeking a variety of different treatments, including those considered 'alternative' by medicos.

"It's a pain in the arse but I’m going to deal with it," he typically said when his disease was made public.

The Londoner started racing as soon as he legally could, progressing quickly through the ranks into GP racing. But a major testing accident at Daytona was a major setback, Sheene requiring months of rehabilitation before he was able to race again.

Sheene won his titles for Suzuki in 1976 and 77 and„ the following year, started a fierce ontrack rivalry with American Kenny Roberts. Roberts, now a MotoGP team owner, beat him to the title in 1978.

Sheene won 24 Grands Prix in a 14-year career and was

Mosley said that the letter sent by the two teams was "unfocused" and "wanders through the measures armounced" and "makes no attempt to say which, if any, of the January measures you agree with". Mosley said that "it is impossible to have a dialogue if the response to a carefully considered set of proposals is a collection of vague claims and confused criticisms with no discernible attempt to address the arguments".

Mosley went on to accuse the two of "ignoring history as well as business reality" in their belief that the future of the sport should be

awarded an MBE in 1978.

He was dropped by Suzuki and, for a time, raced private entries until he retired after a major fall at Silverstone. He turned his hand to touring car racing (his team-mate was Win Percy) and even, for a time, raced trucks. Even when he moved to the Gold Coast, his competitive instincts remained intact, competing in Targa Tasmania in 2001.

Soon after he moved to the Gold Coast, he took to TV commentary, firstly on SBS-TV and then on the Nine network.

When Ten took over the coverage of the races, Sheene moved with it and was soon featuring on V8 Supercar broadcasts as well.

Apart from his racing and TV exploits, Sheene was talented in a number of areas. As a boy, he appeared on stage at Covent Garden: at the height of his racing career, he learned to fly a helicopter (in record time) and he was conversant in Spanish and Italian, Sheene was 52 and is survived by his wife Stephanie and children Sidonie and Freddie. To his family, his many, many friends and millions of fans, all at MNews pass on our sincerest and heart felt condolences. motorsport news

NEWS

Ron

Prodrive for BRutes? Sort of...

GET this man a sheepdog! Prodrive supremo Dave Richards has apparently taken a liking to Ford's V8 utes, and has expressed an interest in getting his hands on one (black, with ail the trimmings) for a bit of paddock bashing around his property in the UK.

placed in the hands of the automobile manufacturers.

"Both your engine suppliers (BMW and Mercedes) have been in and out of Formula 1 and other branches of motor sport over and over again/' he wrote.

"The fact that they say they would like to invest in Formula 1 does not change that. They are answerable to their shareholders, not to the sport.

They can, and will, leave whenever it suits them. This is not a criticism, it is a statement of fact. You must remember that a car manufacturer is not spending its shareholders' money to support motor sport, it is spending it to win and sell more product.

"We are currently seeing a money spending contest with one manufacturer (and it's not Ferrari) employing upwards of 1000 people and virtually unlimited resources in an attempt to win the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. There is nothing wrong with that, the rules certainly do not prohibit it, but we cannot prevent that same manufacturer stopping tomorrow if, for example, its shareholders stage a revolt."

Mosley attacked the teams' use of safety as an issue saying that their arguments were "obvious nonsense".

"We have all seen cars completely rebuilt in less than two hours after a major accident. Yours is a really threadbare argument, particularly when you look at the rest of motor sport and remember that the real race preparation takes place in the two weeks between races."

THERE are suggestions in the UK press that the pit lane mixup with team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, which ruined Jenson Button's race on Sunday, was not totally accidental.

Villeneuve had been due to pit on the previous lap but failed to appear. The team then followed the plan that called for Button to pit but were surprised when Jacques appeared in his place.

Worse still, Jenson was right behind the Canadian.

According to MNews's sources, Jacques was told to go out and do another lap but "seemed not to hear the radio." This meant that the mechanics had to find Jacques' tyres and fit them on the car. While this was happening Button just had to sit there and wait...

"I couldn't drive for another lap," he told The Sun newspaper.

"I would have run out of fuel."

Villeneuve may well have had the same problem but by doing what he did he ruined any chance that the team might have had of scoring a point and as the two men were running fourth and fifth

at the time of the pit stop this was a major disaster.

"Jacques came in on my lap and completely ruined my race," Button said. "He said he was sorry but I'm not impressed."

According to The Sun, it is not the first time that Villeneuve has done this. Quoting an unnamed BMW.Williams insider, the paper said that when Villeneuve raced for Williams "he did exactly the same thing to Heinz HaraldFrentzen a couple of times. It seems to be his way of trying to out-psych a team-mate."

In an interview in the Australian GP program, Villeneuve said: "I don't set out to out-psyche my team-mates. The key for any driver is the question of respect for the team mate. Do you respect him or not? If you do, as I did with Olivier Panis then everything works fine and no-one gets destroyed in the process. But if you don't then it will just happen on its own. You cannot control it or yourself. 1 will respect Jenson once he goes quickly enough on the race track to earn it."

Watch this space!

- JOE SAWARD

Berger leaves with a kick GERHARD Berger is to step down from his role as BMW Motorsport director at the end of September.

But before he left, the 43-yearold Austrian, left, took a swipe at the WilliamsFI team.

He told German magazine 'Kicker' that the new chassis displays chassis deficiencies, noting that the manufacturer's latest VI0 is smaller and lighter than its predecessor.

"It seems the aerodynamics have not succeeded fully," Berger said. "The car doesn't meet my expectations. It's up to Williams to correct it."

In an interview published just before the Australian Grar'd Prix,

Berger continued: "Unfortunately the new car has problems - it's not fast enough. But we have no influence on the chassis. We have to rely on Williams. I hope they come up with something this week. At this point, we're somewhat slower than Ferrari and McLaren, and our engine is not able to compensate for that. We can't be happy with the performance."

Berger confirmed that the two companies were still talking about their future collaboration and that BMW wanted more influence.

"To continue the cooperation is surely desirable, but only under certain circumstances," he said.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

n Which FI engine guru was overheard making enquiries about the possibility of putting together a factory team for the Bathurst 24 Hour race?

Don't be surprised to see the marque, which already has representation in similar races OS, take a role at The Mountain come November. n Piccola Scuderia Corse has confirmed that Kenny Habul will be its driver for the Australian F3 curtain-raiser at Adelaide in two weeks. The deal is currently for just the one race, but if all goes well then expect to see Habul remain in the seat for the rest of the season. Plans for the team's second car are not yet finalised. n One concept that may appear at other GPs this season is the Speed Comparison. Word is that Honda may have a crack at something similar at Suzuka (which it owns), with Takuma Sato suiting up in a BAR-Honda against an All-Japan GT spec Honda NS-X and a road going Civic Type R. One suggestion from us might be to ask Dr Valentino Rossi what he is doing that weekend... n One of the most telling factors of the speed comparison (apart from the handicapping, which saw Allan Moffat the dominant driver) was the speeds of the cars over the first speed trap. Moffat tripped the lights fantastic at 141 km/h; Larry Perkins' Commodore VX went through at 196; but Marc Gene's BMW.Williams scorched them at 281 km/h. n It turns out that Formula One tyres are stronger than camera lenses. One newspaper shooter placed a lens on the ground in pitlane, only to have Rubens Barrichello run it over. The lens, worth around $16K, survived intact but the unit's carbon fibre lens hood did not. n Jenson Button has a hankering for NASCAR racing. The BAR driver said prior to the race that, at the conclusion of his open-wheeler career, he would like to spend "a year or two" taking on the Good 01 Boys on the ovals of the deep south.

Don't hold your breath though; even in his fourth season of FI racing, Button is only 23, the secondyoungest driver on the grid (Fernando Alonso is the youngest at 21).

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Hold

Quick fix to collapsed

Webber encouraged

The Jag breaks but it was quick and the strategy was right...

DESPITE his early retirement from the Foster's Australian FI Grand Prix, Mark Webber is quietly thrilled with the pace the all-new R4 Jaguar was showing in race trim.

The Jaguar team leader completely overshadowed his much-vaunted team-mate and ran as high as fourth in the opening laps, before retiring on lap 16 after a rear track rod failure.

At the time, Webber had closed back in on World Champion Michael Schumacher, with the pair edging away from eventual race winner David Coulthard.

"I'm sure that our 'long term' view towards qualifying was the way to go - even if it did mean starting further down the grid than you'd like," he reported to MNews in his exclusive Race Weekend Diary (see page 48).

Uppermost in Webber's thoughts

was the fact that his team made a string of what turned out to be good calls over the weekend and that he started the race on a tyre and fuel load package that was about to pay dividends, big time, when the car's suspension failed: "Given the genuine speed the Jaguar had and the fact that all of the top four survived some sort of drama during the race, I can't help thinking that we may have missed out on a potentially good result.

"But rather than dwell on that, the team has discovered that we have a soUd base to buUd on and returns to

by PHIL BRANAGAN

base with morale high. The R4 Jaguar and its aU-new 90 degree engine clearly have a great deal of potenhal and if we continue to work hard,I think we can surprise a few people," he said.

"I wish Malaysia was tomorrow!"

HOLDEN Racing Team raced at Albert Park, despite the threat the week prior of the team having to sit out the meeting over ownership issues.

Review for new rules

THERE will be a review of the new Formula 1 regulations before the Formula 1 World Championship comes to Europe six weeks from now.

Ferrari’s Jean Todt hinted at a review in Melbourne and his remarks were backed up by McLaren’s Ron Dennis.

“Hopefully we will be able to make a point after two or three Grands Prix to see what has to be restructured in all the rules,” said Todt.

“I think that the FIA has agreed to look at the whole thing three races from now,” Dennis said, “to see if things have worked or

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whether we should consider changing things that have not worked.”

There were a number of clarifications in the course of the Australian Grand Prix weekend as the teams and the FIA tried to fine-tune the changes to ensure that everything was running smoothly. There were a few changes, notably in reiation to the use of spare cars and the pare ferme regulations.

The reaction to the one-by-one qualifying was generally favourable, although it was widely felt that the rule forcing teams to use the same fuel load

at the start of the race had had a detrimental effect on the spectacle - although it probably did add to the excitement in the race.

FIA president Max Mosley told the Reuters news agency that he was completely satisfied by the spectacle.

“I think it was quite exceptional,” Mosley said.

“It was just a very, very exciting race and completely unpredictable.

There was something happening all the time, there was never a dull period. If it goes on like this, we’re in excellent shape.”

- JOE SAWARD

The controversy was prompted by the purchase of the team by Holden, following a lightning trip to the UK by Sales and Marketing Director Ross McKenzie. McKenzie met with representatives of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the receivers for the TWR Group of companies,and arranged the purchase of HRT and five other companies involved in TWR's Australian activities.

"This is a transition to something else," said McKenzie."We acted to secure the business.

"It was clear to me that the receiver would not want to go racing. Us buying it means that there is a change in ownership. The challenge in the short-term was to get TEGA to support what we have done."

The danger to Holden in having HRT unsecured was that another entity could have gained control of the team by buying it from TWR’s receivers. Any

moiorspori news

NEVUS

en buys HRT

TWR empire must be sorted completely by Adelaide though...

Still looking for more than a computer deal AND it is not only the minnows of the FI grid that are sponsor-hunting. At the Friday afternoon media conference, Sir Frank Williams noted that his team was still without a naming rights sponsor and that his marketing team was still shaking the bushes. Last season, the team was backed by Compaq,the computer company now owned by Flewlett Packard. n Seen in the FI paddock was Peter Gillitzer. The former front man for both Ford's V8 Supercar and FI programs is now enjoying a much quieter life and even wandered down to the V8 Supercar support paddock to renew some old acquaintances. n You meet the nicest people wearing RPM racesuits. It seems that someone pressed the 'disappear' button on Jenson Button's racewear. The BAR driver was stuck but Revolution Racegear's Melbourne office leapt into the fray, the young Brit taking Australia's best in plain colours during the weekend. n You gotta love Justin Wilson if you are a Fiolden fan. With no obvious manufacturer links to provide the Minardi team with road cars, the vertically-enhanced Pom drove to and fro in a Fiolden Commodore, presenting the Aussie maker with an interesting marketing possibility.

Flappy New Fiolden Justin?

Roll up, roll up, what's my starting bid? The Holden Racing Team will have to have a new owner in time for the Clipsal 500, as the rules forbid a manufacturer from owning a race team. such move -would not,in aU Ukelihood, have attracted any sponsorship or support from Holden but it could have been greatly disruptive to Holden's V8 Supercar program. Holden's move does however directly contravene TEGA policy, which expressly prohibits the ownership of a team by a manufacturer.

§: important that it is resolved as soon I . as possible, to take away any I uncertainty that anyone might be

feeling.

At first it was thought,and widely reported, that Kmart Racing and Team Brock would also face the threat of missing the race, but it was determined that those team franchises, owned by John Faulkner Racing,Imrie Motorsport and Paul Weel Racing, would allow the teams to continue unhindered in Melbourne.

HRT's franchise is now owned by Holden and will still have to be transferred to another entity to meet the letter of TEGA's regulations.

One possibility being floated is that Holden Special Vehicles boss John Crerman may seek to own the team, though a Holden insider said at Albert Park described that scenario as "a very, very dim possibility."

12 March 2003

Others have speculated that purchase of the team by the sa-wy Mark Skaife would be the opportunity of a lifetime for the current V8 champ.

While not prepared to comment on those rumours,Skaife admitted this week that the matter had been high on team members' minds in the build-up to the meeting; "We would be lying if we said it was the most perfect preparation," said Skaifey.

"It has been unsettling. It's

"Even from a racing point of view, it's important to have that security and 'togetherness' that the team has had over recent years."

TEGA Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly confirmed to MNews on Monday that the TEGA Board was taking a realistic approach to the issue: "The Board has some discretionary powers in that area and does understand that Holden had to act to secure the team and that it will resolve the ownership issue by divesting itself of HRT within a reasonable time," he said.

"We have asked them to keep us in touch with their plans and will be monitoring the situation.

"A far more pressing issue for Holden is the matter of the contravention of the four car maximum rule (see other story), which we have insisted is resolved before the Clipsal 500."

n Flow many flights are there from Singapore to Australia in a day? That was the question being asked after FIA President Max Mosley cancelled his jaunt down under due to the lack of connecting flights. Mosley had been scheduled to talk to the media on Thursday afternoon, a chat to which we hacks were looking forward, given the current political contretemps surround FI's new regulations. n Brett Francis was awarded the Alan Jones Trophy after his crushing display in the Formula Ford support events at Albert Park. The Trophy is presented to the victor of the Formula Ford class at each Australian Grand Prix. Francis purely dominated the open-wheel class, scoring three wins from three starts. n A little surprise was found on the train tracks just outside Albert Park on Saturday afternoon. A small package wrapped in newspaper was discovered at about 3pm, with some sort of wires protruding from it. Local authorities were called and parts of the corporate spectator areas were evacuated, it turned out it wasn't the work of terrorist though. Inside the parcel were rodents, believed to be hamsters or guinea pigs...

9

home of [motorsport] 2003 V8 Supercar Championship* Mar 21-23 .Adelaide ....

,Rd1

Apr 13

Phillip Island

,Rd2

May 4

Eastern Creek

,Rd3

May 25 ...Winton

.Rd4

June 8 ... .Barbagallo ..

.Rd5

Jun 29

Hidden Valley

.Rd6

Jul 20 ... .OLD Raceway

.Rd7

Aug 17 ...Oran Park ...

,Rd8

BENSON <*HEDCBS

2003 Konica V8 Series* Mar 22 .. .Adelaide ,Rd2 May 4 ... .Eastern Creek July 6 Phillip Island Aug 3 Winton

■Rd3 .Rd4

Nn

.Rd5

2003 FIA Formula One Championship* .Rd2

Aprs

●Malaysia .Brazil

Apr 20 .

. San Marino

Rd 4

May 4 .

■Spain

Rd 5

May 18

.A1-Ring . Monaco

.Rd6

M ar 23

1

.Rd3

.Rd7

2003 CART Championship* .R d2 Mar 23 . . .Monterrey . . .R d3 Apr 13 Long Beach .R d4 May 5 Brands Hatch .R d5 May 11 . . .Germany . .

2003 IRL Championship* Rd 2 Mar 23 . . .Phoenix Apr 13 Motegi May 25 . . .Indianapolis

Rd 3 Rd 4

2003 MotoGP Championship* Rd 1 Apr 6 Japan , Rd 2 Apr 27 . . . .Africa ,Rd 3 May 11 . . .Spain ● Rd 4 May 25 . . .France .Italy 2003 World Rally Championship* Mar 24 . . .Catalunya Apr 19 Cyprus . .

May 16 . . .Argentina

■ Rd5

.Rd4 .Rd5 .Rd6

2003 Australian Rally Championship .Rd 1 Mar 30 . . .Forest Rally (WA) .Rd2 Jun 15 . . . .Rally Queensland .Rd3 J ul 6 .Sydney .Rd4 Aug 10 . . .Meltxjurne 2003 Procar Championship .Rd 1 Mar 20 . . .Adelaide Apr 25

Symmons Plains

.Rd 2

rten1 home of motorsport AH event dates in this calendar were correct at the time of printing. Please consult any individual tracks and or associations for date changes.

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

by JOE SAWARD FORMULA 1 team boss Eddie Jordan says that he does not want to sell his team but that he would if it was necessary to do so to keep the team alive - so long as he still had an involvement.

Jordan came dose to selling the team to Honda about five years ago but that deal failed because Jordan wanted to stay involved.

There have been similar issues in recent months during talks with Red BuU. "The most important thing to me is trying to win races again," Jordan told The Sun newspaper. "If that can only be achieved by me losing ownership of

the team, it would not be an issue. I always look at what is best for the team.

"If someone else took it over - and these days it does appear you need to be part of a car mamifacturing group to win -1 would still Uke an involvement.

I would want to be like a football manager and have a contract for a couple of years, so 1 could help steer the team to the very top. If 1 didn't perform, they could boot me out."

It is worth noting that Minardi boss Paul Stoddaxt says that he would also consider seUing his team if the right deal came along.

Both Stoddart and Jordan are struggling to get the money they need to keep their teams going.

10 grabs FI

NETWORK Ten's maiden Formula One broadcast from Albert Park rated its brains out.

At its peak, 1.9 mi llions tuned in to see David Coulthard win in Melbourne, making it the most watched broadcast of the Australian GP ever. In addition. Ten supplied the live feed around the world following the demise of FOCA's digital television service at the end of last season.

"Ten's telecast was the most comprehensive coverage of an Australian Grand Prix ever and an indication of our commitment to Formula 1 and motorsport," said David White, Ten's General Manager, Sport.

Ten used Bill Woods and Neil Crompton to call the race and will revert to ITV's commentary duo of James Allen and Martin Brundle for the upcoming 15 races.

Allen was very pleased with Ten's efforts; "I was not sure what to expect before I came here," said the Briton, "Ten has been very thorough and professional. For a first-up effort, I am very impressed indeed." molorsDorl news

NEWS ■M

Justin Floats MINARDI FI driver Justin Wilson has become the first racing driver to be floated on the London Stock Exchange.

Wilson, right, hopes to raise US$2m ($3.7m) to pay for his drive this year and is offering investors the chance to double their money and also share 10 percent of Wilson's income until the year 2012.

The 24-year-old Sheffield driver is hoping that he will get support from the public to keep him and is asking for a minimum investment in Justin Wilson PLC of US$750. The scheme will enable investors to claim 20 percent of the money invested against their income tax in Britain under the government's Enterprise Investment Scheme.

} ■■■

the flames EDDIE Jordan has highlighted the problems facing any new team planning to try to break into Formula 1 at the moment.

"In the current climate, with the current wranglings and the current uncertainty, I think anyone who came into Formula 1 would either have to have billions of dollars or rocks in their head," he said. "It just does not make sense.

"1 say that sadly. These are difficult times but I am actually enjoying the fight. I feel much fresher for it and I have put my head down in the last months. I would like to see younger teams who have won championships in Formula 3000 and sportscars and other activities be given a chance."

It is anticipated that the signatories of the Concorde Agreement will soon agree to get rid of the requirement for any new teams to deposit US$48m with the FIA to guarantee their entry.

Once that it out of the way, the biggest cost will be the engines.

The car manufacturers are talking of supplying engines for US$1 Om a year and, if that arrangement can be agreed, the gates will be open for new teams. But in the current economic climate, it is hard to imagine that anyone will be able to find the kind of budget needed to start a new team.

-JOE SAWARD 12 March 2003

competition, spending last Thursday in the company of Mark Webber.

Magrit and her husband got a guided tour of the Jaguar Racing pit garage, as well as various items of Grand

The Avon lady and the Michelin man: Magrit and Graham Falls pass on some skin care tips to Mark Webber at Albert Park.

ALISTER McRae will return to the WRC next month when he competes in the Rally New Zealand.

McRae has been on the bench since Mitsubishi announced that it will take a sabbatical from full-time competition in 2003, but he wiil take on New Zealand in a privately-entered 2002-spec Lancer. Kristian Sohiberg >. will also enter a Lancer as part of Ralliart's customer program.

■ The 62nd running of the Daytona 200 was postponed on Sunday due to bad weather. The event for the Superbikes was due to be held on Monday as we went to press.

And the award goes to

The MNews reader picked the right 25 words (or less) and was the winner of our Grand Prix

not All G

■ The American Le Mans Series suffered a blow last week when the Mexico City and Washington D.C events were cancelled. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico and RFK Stadium in Washington were due to hold events in April and June respectively but officials are now seeking replacement venues for 2003.

Wilson is driving for Minardi for free this year but the team has an option to keep him in 2004 and 2005 and if this option is taken up Minardi is committed to pay US$750,000 in 2004 and US$1.5m in 2005.

Former Grand Prix driver Jonathan Palmer, Wilson's manager, has organised the flotation, although he will not make any money from it, despite the fact that he owns 20 percent of aU Wilson's earnings.

-JOE SAWARD

MAGRIT Falls got more than she bargained for at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

All

Prix memoribUia.

As if it is not odd enough that the Falls live quite near the Webbers in NSW, by an astonishing coincidence , Magrit has been the Avon lady for Webber's Mum, Diane!

So, young readers, next time an Avon lady comes calling for Mum, do not turf her out or, one day, she will come back to haunt you when you are a Formula One driver ...

■ An authorised biography of Formula 1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone will be published in 2004

by Ebury Press. The book is being written by Susan Watkins, the wife of FIA medical delegate Prof Sid Watkins. Meantime an unauthorised biography, called 'Bernie's Game', penned by the abnormally brave Terry Lovell, has just been published.

■ Infineon Technologies is set to announce a three-year Formula 1 technical partnership with Scuderia Ferrari. The Munich-based multinational, whose US division is increasingly active in North American motorsport, will supply the Italian team with its electronic microchip technology and engineers.

■ Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer crashed the new Ferrari F2003-GA at the Jerez circuit in Spain on February 28. Badoer lost control under braking for the Dry Sack corner and careened over the gravel trap into a barrier, causing extensive damage to the new car. Ferrari engineers reckoned that a mechanical failure at the F2003-GA's left-rear had caused the accident.

■ Rubens Barrichello revealed that an inflamed nerve in his back prevented him from taking a turn to test the new F2003 GA at Imola recently. Instead he returned to Brazil to recuperate before setting off for Melbourne.

"I will have the opportunity to try it before we use it. The new car certainly looks quick and I've spoken to Michael to get his impressions of it.

From its performance when it ran at Imola, we can be optimistic about it, but we have to keep our feet on the ground and just get on with our work."

-QUENTIN SPURRING 11

Ben

Craig's new baby

’ Re-birthed Team £

FORD Performance Racing wheeled out its new Ford Falcon BA to make its racing debut in the hands of new signing Craig Lowndes on the weekend at Albert Park. The former V8 Supercar champ, now with CAT colours, will have team-mates Glenn Seton and David Besnard join him in BAs as the season continues.

Ellery injured Shoulder sidelines Queenslander STEVEN Ellery was forced to withdraw from the final two V8 Supercar races at Albert Park after suffering an arm injury.

At the start of Friday's first race, EUery felt pain in his left shoulder, which made changing gears almost impossible.

Following the race, in which he finished eighth. the Queenslander was examined by doctors, who suspected a damaged rotator cuff in the shoulder.

I'm gutted that I can't continue to race this

fSi

A

weekend," Ellery said on Saturday.

The shoulder is still sore, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday.

Unfortunately doctors say that I am not fit to race.

EUery qualified his new Falcon BA and

TEAM Brock made a dream debut at Albert Park but the identity of the team's sponsor came as a surprise to almost everyone.

The Holden Commodore VXs of Jason Bright, right, and Paul Weel appeared in the colours of Betta Electrical stores, the Brisbane-based retaU chain that backs the Briggs Motorsport Ford Falcons of Paul Radisich and Dean Canto. f IronicaUy, Weel and Radisich I tangled on the opening lap of Race 1, putting the Holden out for the weekend and the Falcon out of Race 2.

While Bright won Race 1, the 'Ford' Betta team had a tough weekend. Dean Canto walUng his Barra on the formation lap of Race 3.

"We were as shocked as anyone," said Briggs Motorsport Operation Manager,John McLean.

"We never knew it was coming."

That, apparently, echoes the view of most in the paddock. Until the day before, the identity of the TB sponsor was a closely-guarded secret and Betta was the last name on most observers'lips. The deal was only signed on the evening of last Wednesday,about 15 hours before the cars rolled onto the track.

Motorsport News has been told that the lateness of the deal was

encouraging 11th fastest in Melbourne and wiU now be under regular medical treatment prior to the gruelling Clipsal Adelaide 500,for which V8 Supercar practice starts on Friday week.

-PHIL BRANAGAN

Ihclown 500off

THERE will be no Sandown 500 this season - or, at least, no PROCAR Sandown 500.

After the move of AVESCO to return to the Melbourne track for its traditional Bathurst 1000 curtainraiser, PROCAR will move its event to a championship round at Phillip Island, Competitors were reluctant to equip their cars with endurance refuelling gear for the Sandown race, strip it off for the following sprint races, then refit it in time for the Bathurst 24-Hour at the end of the season.

PROCAR's move presents AVESCO with the opportunity to revert to the historic Sandown 500 title for its V8 Supercar race. The race, which replaces the Queensland 500, was to be called 'the Melbourne 500' and then the 'Betta Electrical 500' but now, it seems, that may change with the use of the generic title possible.

- PHIL BRANAGAN 12

by PHIL BRANAGAN

caused by having the team's probable

moiorspori news

NEWS

a be Brock

I

107 rule chopped

I

Brock shocks V8 paddock with last-minute sponsor

g

I^

THE 107% Formula 1 qualifying rule has been dropped this season because of the new qualifying format, which is intended to produce unusual lap-times and grid patterns in 2003.

FIA president Max Mosley noted: "The teams have been saying that it's pointless, so we're going to invite them to cross it off. It's not important, but it's probably going to be tidier to get rid of it."

3,

n An assertion in the UK's 'Sunday Times' newspaper, to the effect that Toyota was about to join the five European-based Formula 1 manufacturers in their Grand Prix World Championship company, has been denied by Toyota Motorsport principal Ove Andersson.

Moba.T .t n V.'a

Betta the Holden you now know; Jason Bright has taken his VX Commodore with him to Team Brock and had a new yellow and silver look to replace the red, white and black of the HRT. 5 3

3.

PB in NC for '03?

There'S another Monaro available...

sponsor pull out when the deal was virtually done.

Because of this, the Betta deal is thought to be based more about performance than a huge retainer. A media release issued by Holden Motorsport did not mention the length of the deal, which is highly unusual. Bright and Weel appeared in unbranded racesuits over the weekend but expect to be in full livery by next week's Clipsal 500.

Another irony of the deal is that McLean's son Cameron could drive for the team in the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races.

'The former Privateers' champion is close to a deal with what was TWR Racing and is likely to drive for either TB or Kmart Racing, though MN believes that final details have been delayed by the necessity to sort out the ownership issues of the Holden Racing Team.

12 March 2003

HAVING blitzed the Nations Cup field four-zip at the wheel of the seven-litre Holden Monaro at Albert Park last weekend, Peter Brock has refused to rule out driving the car on a more permanent basis.

"Maybe I will (do the series).

I'm not too sure," Brock said.

"I believe there is another Monaro under construction. It was always Holden's intention that there be a few Monaros out there this year.

"How many there will be I wouldn't have a clue. But yep, another one under construction and I’d like to find a position there in the Monaro Nations Cup business."

Nathan Pretty will take over the Bathurst 24 Hour-winning Monaro that Brock drove last weekend when the Nations Cup series rolls into Adelaide in two weeks.

Dirk Klynsmith

n Sauber has been told by Martin Winterkorn, the CEO of Audi, that the company in Ingolstadt, Germany, has decided not to embark on a Formula 1 programme in the foreseeable future, citing cost considerations.

Audi has been awaiting the 2004 sports-prototype regulations from the FIA before deciding whether to build a new Le Mans racecar. In the interim, it is leasing its R8 racers to private teams and putting all its effort behind Team Bentley, which will race only at Sebring and Le Mans in 2003. n French race engine specialist Bernard Dudot has left the new Menard Cheever Technologies(MCT) company in Indianapolis, USA, to rejoin the Renault FI team. Dudot (64), who masterminded Renault's ultra-successful VI0 Formula 1 engines of the mid-1990s, will now run the team's engine division at Viry-Chatillon, near Paris, France, alongside Jean-Jacques His, both reporting to Flavio Briatore. n Foster's, the longstanding title sponsor of the Australian and British Grands Prix, is to become the new title sponsor of the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, starting April 2003. The Australian brewing company has been'a prominent supporter of Formula 1 since 1986.

Motorsport News believes that the second car, thought to be close to completion at the Garry Rogers Motorsport workshops, could be ready for Brock in time for the second round of the Nations Cup series at Symmons Plains in late April.

- MARK GLENDENNING

n The 2003 FIA Formula 3000 series is back to only 10 races, all supporting Formula 1, after the cancellation of the event tentatively planned for Spa-Francorchamps. This race was initially cancelled along with the Belgian Grand Prix, but the circuit promoter put together a proposal to stage it as a double-header with its revived, 1000km FIA Sportscar race on August 31.

The FIA added the date to the F3000 calendar only two weeks ago, but it has now been cancelled once more. The FIA F3000 series will begin at Imola on April 19.

- QUENTIN SPURRING 13

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1 /*<>-

li'

‘Unless I’m very much mistaken Colin, we are approaching a tree’, Last year Murray told MNews of his desire to participate in Targa Tasmania; this year it’s going to happen

And Vm in the wall!

Murray gears up for Targa Tas IS Murray Walker going to compete in this year's Targa Tasmania? HE IS! Walker, recently-retired voice' of Formula One, will navigate for motorsport legend Colin Bond aboard a Toyota Team Racing Camry Sportive in the May 13-18 event.

“I am most grateful to Toyota for this opportunity and I am looking forward with great anticipation to the event,” said Walker.

'Tm not absolutely certain I’m up to reading pace notes to Colin during Targa, but i am relishing the prospect of sitting beside him.”

Bond, who is the Driving Standards Observer in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, is looking forward to the challenge.

“Murray is very enthusiastic and I still enjoy driving so it should be a lot of fun,” said Bond. “I’m very much aware of the status of my co driver and my priority will be to bring him back not only intact, but with a huge smile on his face.”

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Monaro r

THE heat may have gone out of the V8 Supercar parity debate, but there are suggestions it is about to hot up in Nations Cup. Following a 'parity day' at Calder Park last week, where leading contenders were briefly allowed to drive each other's cars, the word is that the competition are expecting further changes designed to peg back the hybrid Holden Monaro's pace.

MNews imderstands that changes are anticipated before next weekend's opening round at the Clipsal 500 meeting.

Holden's case can't have been helped by the weekend's events, where Peter Brock raced to four strong wins in the very same car campaigned in last year's Bathurst 24 Hours.

Word on the street is that Holden were so happy with the result that Brock will probably contest the remainder of the series in a second car, close to completion at the Garry Rogers Motorsport workshops.

It is suggested that he may miss the opening round,but then be a regular contender.

C2,shiny I and new

Meet

TOYOTA has unveiled its 2003 ARC challenger, and in the process announced the formation of the new works Toyota Team Racing (TTR)outfit.

The team, which will outsource the preparation of the rally cars to Neal Bates Motorsport while retaining the management in-house, will field two two-litre turbocharged Corolla Sportivos in this year’s ARC to be driven by three-time Australian Neal Bates and twin brother Rick. Coral Taylor will again co-drive for Neal, while Rick’s pacenotes will be called by former Formula Two and Privateers Cup champion Damien Long.

Promising NSW up-andcomer Ben Barker has been ^ nominated as the ARC team’s'% reserve and test driver.

Neal Bates debuted the Group N (P) Corolla Sportivo to at the Rally of Melbourne last September. % - MARK GLENDENNING

t

Skod potential SKODA unveiled its new WRC Fabia in Geneva recently.

Designed around the Fabia RS,the car is expected to hit the gravel later this season, when it comes online to replace the current Octavia.

The Fabia has been modified in almost every area allowed under FIA rules to create the WRC spec, and the car will be powered by the latest evolution of Skoda's SOObhp,turbocharged,two-litre, four-cylinder engine that is currently used in the Octavia.

To meet FIA homologation standards, 2,500 heavily modified Fabia RS cars will be constructed for road use.

M

CITROEN used the recent Geneva Motor Show to lift the wraps on their new C2 rally car.

The car, which will replace the Saxo in the WRC Super 1600 Championship,arrives on the back of an extremely successful year for the French manufacturer in 1600 rallying.

Spain's Dani Sola won the Junior World Rally Championship in a Saxo, and Italian Andrea Dallavilla and Finn Janne Tuohini finished second and third to secure an all-Cifroen podium in the final round. The marque also won both the drivers and manufacturers championships in the national Spanish Championship.

This year marks the first time that Citroen has contested the entire WRC Championship.

i

motorsport news

nmeneld

NEWS

Double stops for the DTM ai

I D a

Trofeo hits ... and now the sights are set on Bathurst HOLOE/Si

the family

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12 March 2003

MASERATI returned to the world motor racing stage at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix when a pair of Trofeos made their world debut as part of the Nations Cup field.

Rod Wilson and Gary Young suited up for the new Trident Racing team, which is headed

by Prancing Horse Racing founder Tony Raftis. Wilson, who is also Trident's Motorsport Director, struck gold for the team first time out by winning Group Two and finishing sixth outright in the first of four races.

The team is initially being run out of the same stable as the Group Two PHR Racing Ferrari 360 Challenge cars, however the team hopes to be running more independently by the time the cars arrive in Adelaide for the Clipsal 500 support race. ^ The 4.2 litre V8 Trofeo first appeared in Australia at the Bathurst 24 Hour race last year, where it completed a string of demonstration laps at the hands of John Bowe.

According to Maserati Australasia General Manager Herbert Appleroth, the Trofeos will return to Bathurst this coming November - this time, to race.

"We’re definitely planning to be at Bathurst with a car developed to Group One level that will be a match for Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Viper and Monaro," Appleroth said.

"Maserati is also looking at building a version to FIA N-GT regulations and I hope we can get one of those next year."

The Trofeo has been developed to fill the gap left by Ferrari within the FIAT group in Sports Car racing. A one-make series for the cars in Europe is set to get underway soon.

- MARK GLENDENNING

RACERS in the DTM must make two pitstops under the new, single-event race format this year, due to a limited fuel cell capacity and the use of 20litre NASCAR-style refuelling cans.

Special lights on the cars will signify to spectators how many pitstops each has completed. n Fuji International Speedway, which will close in September 2003 for 18 months for a major redevelopment by new majority owner Toyota, has been redesigned

by German specialist Tilke GmbH. The new, 4.55km main circuit (150m longer than the present layout), with six left-hand turns and 10 right-handers, will retain the track's famous 1.475km start-finish straight. n Matra Automobile, the French manufacturer which won Le Mans three times and competed in Formula 1 in the 1970s, is to cease its contract to build the Avantime passenger car for Renault, and close its doors, according to 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'.

The German newspaper says that Jean-Luc Lagardere's group has sold its shares in Renault, worth about $130 million, and will shut the Matra factory, which is understood to have been losing almost $1 million a day.

Matra Sports won a hat-trick of Le Mans victories in 1972-73-74 on the back of a 34-race Formula 1 programme with its own chassis and VI2 engines in 1970-71-72. It had previously competed successfully in F3 and F2 and had built FI chassis for the then-new Tyrrell Racing Organisation, which were raced with Ford-Cosworth DFV engines in 196869, winning the 1969 Drivers and Constructors championships. n Bryan Herta will contest the Le Mans 24 Hours with the Cosworthbacked team running a radical green powerplant. Herta, who tested for Minardi last year, has signed up with Britain’s Team Nasamax for the French enduro and the Sebring 12 Hours.

He will drive the team's Reynard 01Q, which is powered by bioethanol fuelled engine based on Ford-owned Cosworth's Champ Car XDV8.

Herta, 32, said: "It's an exciting project that is of a great deal of interest to me because Cosworth is involved. I'm familiar with the rear half of the car and now I want to get to know the front half as well."

Herta is joined in the car by Frenchman Remain Dumas, a class winner in last year's FIA GT Championship, and sportscar regular Robbie Stirling.

-QUENTINSPURRING/ GARY WATKINS 15

Pollock looks at second car NEW CART team PK Racing may be expanding to a twocar entry.

PK team co-owner Craig Pollock said during a visit to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne last week that the new team, which fielded a single entry for Patrick Lemarie at the series-opener at St Petersburg, has the facilities to run a second car.

"We have everything we need for a second car," said the former BAR team owner.

"It's something that we might do.

Pollock and his Australian

team co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven bought the hardware of the defunct PacWest team at the start of the season and, despite having only six weeks for the inexperienced team to prepare for the race, ran Lemarie, below, to 10th in Florida.

The Scot would not elaborate on who the drivers of the second car might be but Mika Salo, whom Pollock hired as a guest driver for BAR in 2000, is the likely candidate.

The next round of the CART series will be at Monterrey in Mexico on March 23.

£ § S

by JOE SAWARD CART team owner - and the biggest shareholder in the CART business Gerry Forsythe has confirmed that he proposed a merger between Formula 1 and CART last October in a document he presented to FI boss Bemie Ecclestone.

Forsythe says that he still believes that an arrangement between the two championships would be very beneficial.

"1 think that taking CART private would be a good tiring," Forsythe said."With the right partnership, it would be much better for CART than the way it's structured now. There are a lot of synergies that could be put to work for both series. In October,I put together 19 pages of what I thought would be the benefits for FI and CART in a partnership. At some point 1 would like to see that happen."

The revelation is interesting in that it comes at a time when there are

s .1

1s

increasing suggestions that Bernie Ecclestone is willing to buy back the Formula 1 group from the banks which currently own 75 percent of the shares, which were acquired after Leo Kirch went out of business with huge debts.

The banks are keen to recoup the money they loaned to Kirch and Ecclestone is the obvious buyer although we understand that he says he will only agree to such a deal if the teams involved agree to sign a new contract until 2015. The suggestion is that the current Concorde Agreement would be cancelled and a completely new arrangement entered into. The automobile manufacturers have appointed an investment bank to look into doing a deal involving Ecclestone and the banks to find a solution.

In order to build up Formula 1 in the long term there is no doubt that progress needs to be made in America and, thus,it might be a good idea to involve Forsythe in the negotiations

3 SUZUKI sj^RTCo.tjra eas Hobn R>vyo<>» SHIZUOKA JAPAN Phcno 81-52fra6-6O40 FAX e f

Are currently seeking applications for the following positions: RALLY MECHANICS TRAINEE RALLY MECHANICS We are looking to recruit a number of“very special” mechanics to be involved with our IGNIS **Super 1600** Rally programsfor 2003.

To be based in SE Qld these positions could involve extensive travel overseas, within both the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

In order to apply, possession of the following is essential: ●An interest in Rallying and passion for motorsport. ● Exceptional "Natural** talent and ability ● Faultless integrity and a strong desire to achieve ● Excellent presentation ● Enthusiasm and dedication ● The ability to work as part ofa close knit team ● The ability to work under pressure ● The flexibility to be able to travel at a moments notice. ●A validAustralian passport.

Previous motor racing/rally experience desirable but not essential.

This is the opportunity for suitable persons to enter a career in Motorsport (Rally) at the highest level.

Please Contact Peter McDougall 0407 55B E4G OP Tristan Fischer 0413 53B B13

16

Please email your current detailed Resume with references and salary expectations to: Mr Paul Wilding Email: wilding(^suzukisport.com (In the subject line please include “CV” & your name) Applications close 25th March 2003

SUZUKI

lONIS

molorspon news

NEWS

What made Sid Vicious YES,that is a Mercedes-Benz F1 Safety Car beached in the Albert Park gravel and yes, that is Prof. Sid Watkins pushing it.

Formula One's resident medico had to get out and give ff

w

as this would be a great help in building up FI prior to a stock market flotation.

The manufacturers continue to say that they want more of the FI revenues. McLaren's Ron Dennis said last week that the teams currently get only 23 percent of the revenues flowing into FI and that while, he is willing to abide by the Concorde Agreement,he believes that there must be a fairer distribution of money in the future.

It must be remembered,however, that Ecclestone does not own the commercial rights to FI,he merely leases them from the FIA and the federation retains the right to cancel that deal if there is a "change of control" in the management of the sport. As long as Ecclestone remains in charge all is well but if he goes, the FIA has the right to decide whether it wants to work with whoever takes over the Formula One group.

Until a deal is done the GPWC says that it is continuing to push ahead with its plans for a new series although by doing so it is irritating the FIA which is angry at the suggestion made that the organisation could run a non-FIA regulated series, although this is not really a feasible option given the political clout of the FIA. Bemie builds up the business...

The RTL network in Germany has concluded a new four-year deal with the Formula One group to continue its coverage of FI in Germany. The company is reportedly paying Bemie Ecclestone's group US$91m a year for exclusive free-to-air coverage of the FI Grands Prix, which are amongst the most popular TV shows in Germany,thanks to Michael Schumacher's recent successes with Ferrari.

The news is a big boost to the Formula One group and is one of a number of big new deals which Ecclestone has been negotiating quietly in recent months to help boost the revenues of the company.

12 Marcb 2003

it a shove, which proved remarkably unsuccessful.

The Merc was eventually recovered by a tractor and a slightly puffed Sid was last seen heading for the nearest cigar humidor... i-. *.

Nissan to join Toyota in Trucks?

NISSAN is evaluating a programme in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck series, according to the 'Wall Street Journal.' The manufacturer will launch a new pickup truck in America later this year. Larry Dominique, chief product specialist for Nissan's USmade trucks and SUVs, said that NASCAR had initiated the dialogue, which he wants to keep open to learn more about the series.

Japanese rival Toyota will enter the Craftsman Truck series in 2004. n The first aerodynamic tests of the Toyota Tundra racecar for the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, at the Langley Full Scale Tunnel (LFST) in Norfolk, VA, were cut short when the vehicle broke loose from its moorings and damaged the facility. The wind tunnel has been closed for repairs. n The Abt Sportsline team has completed the driving squad that will defend its DTM title by signing Peter Tenting. The 19-year-old German will race an Abt-Audi TT-R in this year's DTM alongside champion Laurent Aiello, Christian Abt, Mattias Ekstrom, Martin Tomczyk and Karl Wendlinger.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

IMG NATIONAL MOTOR RACING MOSEOM to lose Jones Murray’s Corner, Mount Panorama, Bathurst, NSW 2795

GEOFF Jones is to leave the Lexmark Indy 300 and IMG !

Motorsport.

The former Army officer will take up the position of General Manager, Queensland,for Carlton and United Breweries. CUB is a major sponsor of the Lexmark Indy 300 with a contract until the 2005 Event.

"The Lexmark Indy 300 is a great event and one that all Queenslanders can be proud to own," said Jones.

"I have certainly enjoyed every moment and have been fortunate to lead a great team in putting together a truly magnificent event."

Jones has been Chief Executive of the Indy event since November 1998.

When you think of Bathurst,the world famous circuit of Mount Panorama immediately springs to mind. Right at the foot of the mountain is the National Motor Racing Museum where for a modest entry fee you can relive the history of the track right back to the l930’s.There’s 20 cars,8 motorcycles,a 15 minute video in the theatrette, plus lots of memorabilia including trophies, photos, helmets etc.There’s Brock and Moffat, Fury and Jane plus Toombs and Bain.

The Museum Shop has a comprehensive range of souvenirs, videos, model cars, race merchandise and posters, all at competitive prices. Become a member and reap the benefits of the 10 per cent discount as well as assisting our acquisitions fund.

Opening Hours:9am-4.30pm daily l Ph 02 6332 1872

The Museum is a cultural service pruvided by Oatburst City Cuuncil 17

NEWS

Ecclestone faces the GPWC ... as the teams search for a bi^er slice ofFI's pie

Ferrari goes ‘click^

by JOE SAWARD THE major players in the Grand Prix World Championship organisation met last week in Geneva,Switzerland,for the latest round of talks to finalise the details of the financial package that will be offered to the Formula 1 teams in the next few months.

Our sources say that Bemie Ecclestone was also spotted in Geneva and is believed to have talks with the GPWC principals.

This may help to explain some fairly abrasive remarks about the automobile manufacturers which Ecclestone was quoted as saying in the Financial Times a couple of days later. Ecclestone told the newspaper that "writs will faU like leaves in autumn" unless they stop disrupting the sport and reminded them that the teams are bound by the Concorde Agreement until 31 December,2007 and that they should honour the contract accordingly and not complain about it.

The GPWC is believed to be in negotiation with the banks that control 75 percent of Ecclestone's SLEC business, the parent company of the Formula One group. The remarks in the FT may be related to this, as Ecclestone is also believed to be talking to the banks about a deal to buy back the shares.

The GPWC principals have said in recent days that they are now actively looking for someone to be the chief executive of the new organisation. The problem for the GPWC is that it will not be easy to

Stop or my Mom will shoot: Ecclestone, left, is facing the challenge of the GPWC and the teams in the fight for FI's spoils. find a good candidate until it is clear "is not how we share the 23 percent but increasing that revenue share so that the new series will be going ahead. The GPWC continues to say that there is more to go around. The that it may reach an agreement that simple fact is that the European will mean that there is no need for ' professional footballers' association the GPWC to exist. The GPWC is enjoys 75 percent of their revenues." looking for someone with a We have heard suggestions in background in the sales and recent days that if a deal can be agreed between the teams and SLEC, marketing of TV rights.

In Melbourne, the FI team bosses there is likely to be a big new Eurobond to raise money to buy were quite vocal in their calls for a renegotiated Concorde Agreement, Allsport Management,the company which runs the trackside signage, although they said that they would Paddock Club, official supplier honour the existing deal although programs and circuit merchandising they feel that teams need to get a better deal in the future. operations. The company is owned

by Paddy McNally.

"The real issue," says Ron Dennis,

Changes at Fiat

THE Ferrari team has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the Olympus company from Japan.

Olympus is best known as a camera company but the recent upheavals in that industry has led to diversification into digital imaging both for the consumer and for other industries, notably the medical profession.

Olympus was a very successful Formula 1 sponsor in the 1970s, joining Team Lotus in 1978, the year in which Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson enjoyed unprecedented success with the ground-effect Lotus 79, Andretti becoming World Champion. After a strong of victories Olympus decided to move to the Wolf team in 1979 but this was not a success and the company faded from the racing scene again. The company was briefly with Lotus again in 1985.

-JOE SAWARD

Ferrari boss di Montezemoto gots major boost in shakeup

THERE has been a major shake-up in the board of Fiat with Umberto Agnelli becoming the new chairman, replacing Paolo Fresco and Giuseppe Morchio being brought in as managing-director.

As part of the change, Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo has been named as a member of the main Fiat board of directors. Morchio made his name as an executive with the Pirelli group in the tyre business. He will be Fiat's fourth CEO in nine months.

The change of management is important in that it could have a huge impact on the activities at Ferrari, which is part-owned by Fiat. Former Fiat boss, the late Gianni Agnelli, jealously guarded Ferrari but his brother Umberto may not have the dedication to the firm and said recently that he could see the day when Fiat might withdraw from the automobile business.

For the moment that is not going to happen as 18

the Agnelli Family have been busy pumping money into the business. Fiat's losses have been startling however and last week the company announced a loss for 2002 of US$4bn ($3.6bm), which was twice what was expected.

The figure was boosted by the company booking a large number of one-off charges in order to put all the bad news in one package and allow the new management to start with a clean slate.

One way or another it is likely that in future Ferrari will have to justify its FI program much more than has ever been the case and that more commercial sponsorship will need to be found to help pay the bills as the current FI activities use up most of the profits generated by the company.

However the news that Montezemolo is now on the main Fiat board means that he will be in a position to fight for Ferrari at the highest level.

- JOE SAWARD moiorsport news

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Richards hints at ei

by JOE SAWARD

DAVID Richards, who runs the World Rally Championship while not busy with British American Racing and Prodrive, says that he expects two more automobile manufacturers to join the WRC in 2006.

Walkinshaw cops more flak TOM Walkinshaw was heavily criticised last week by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Pumfrey was delivering his long-overdue judgement on the case between Walkinshaw, Arrows and Morgan Grenfell. The judgement is of little importance for Arrows which is in the process of being liquidated but could have serious implications for Walkinshaw as he may be personally liable for debts of US$15.7m ($28m).

The judge ruled that documents signed by Walkinshaw in October 1999 bind him to personally meet liabilities of Arrows and ruled that he must pay Morgan Grenfell's legal costs to date.

These are believed to be in the region of US$600,000, After hearing Walkinshaw's evidence, the judge said he did not believe that Walkinshaw was dishonest but that his behaviour was "below the standards to be expected of a reasonable businessman".

He considered that Walkinshaw's evidence were on occasion "vague and unfocused" and said that "Walkinshaw left me with a clear impression of a man who was in over his head. He appeared to lack the clarity of thought necessary to follow a clear policy. He obviously had a 20

high opinion of his own business abi lities, but my impression was different."

The judge ruled against Walkinshaw's claim that he had agreements from the two companies to reduce the debts and said that Walkinshaw had shown "wholesale disregard for the interests of Arrows Grand Prix's creditors".

The case will continue later this year.

- JOE SAWARD

The WRC currently has six automobile companies competing against one another: Citroen, Ford, Hyundai, Peugeot, Skoda and Subaru. Mitsubishi is also committed to the championship but is taking a year off to develop a new challenger.

Richards did not say which companies would be involved but there is obviously potential from some of the big six firms not currently involved, notably General Motors, Renault-Nissan and Toyota.

There is also potential for a project from a middle-ranking player such as Honda while a number of the smaller niche market companies might also gain a lot from success in rallying. It is possible that new recruits to the WRC could result in the withdrawal of companies from other championships.

Richards said that there will be new events introduced in the near future with Mexico and Japan both being mentioned as potential venues while there will be a WRC in Africa, probably in South Africa

now that the Safari Rally has been dropped from the series.

Richards also said that the viewing figures in rallying are increasing and that in 2002 the total audience registered was 556 millon people.

He also claimed that for the first time a rally achieved a higher audience than an FI race although this was clearly not happening on a regular basis.

TKR.GRM Team Kiwi Racing to get data and a new VY from Vaivoiine

.

I I I I I I !

Marshall Cass

GARRY Rogers Motorsport and Team Kiwi Racing have announced a strategic alliance.

The two Melbourne-based Holden teams will share information and new TKR driver Craig Baird, left, will drive the ex-Garth Tander Commodore VX until a VY is available later in the season.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for us," said TKR boss David John. "As most people will realise, a single-car team is now at a distinct disadvantage in the V8

Supercar Championship, which has become dominated by two and three-car teams. We are confident that the ability for TKR to share in the development process of GRM team over the years will be of benefit to us."

TKR was planning to build its own VY but the car will now be built at GRM's expanded factory in Melbourne, where a second Holden Monaro Nations Cup car (and a second VY for Jamie Whincup) are also under construction. motorsport news

tforWRC?

ight manufacturers ' V

BALLVor><^

chief engii thrawn]altube thi^i^ear, it Is to all toIdoRvith his ears.

Schimpf confl Tl ive-time World loud disco".

Cha1 ion will use a new In other helmet if^ws, Kitai Raikkonen debuted a new lid helmet this year, which will be sealed ajound his head in in Melbourne. TheFipn wore ^fashion~similar t^a fighter a red unit, repla^^g the ! 'pilot's helmet. J solely blue and white Schumacher^new scheme whicJi^was often Schuberth helm^et, which confused with that of teamcosts up to S27iiD00.Js^ - --- - mate (and GP winner! Oa^i^ Coulthard. expected to cut the noise

Focused on success: Ford is in the WRC, FI, CART, NASCAR, V8 Supercars ... will another maker join them in the forests?

Interpublic looks to drop Brit GP rights

THE Interpublic Group of companies has officially informed the British Racing Drivers' Club that it is looking for a way out of its involvement in Silverstone, via its Octagon subsidiary.

The giant American advertising firm has now officially informed the British Racing Drivers' Club of its intention to withdraw from the scene and intends to find someone to take over the lease of Silverstone.

Octagon owns the rights to tire British Grand Prix but originally planned to host the event at Brands

Hatch. Wlien the Kentish circuit failed to get planning permission. Octagon then concluded a 15year contract with the BRDC for the lease of the Silverstone facility.

This was followed by an annoimcement that Octagon, the BRDC and Formula One Management had joined forces to fund a rebuilding of the facilities. The first stages of that work was done but last year Octagon began to baulk at the costs of the second phase of construction work, a move which led to suggestions that FI boss Bernie Ecclestone would be buying Octagon.

This has not happened but tliere seem to be few choices for those involved, as it will be hard to find someone outside racing to take over its involvement in the British Grand Prix. There may be regulatory reasons why Ecclestone has yet to do a deal.

If Interpublic cannot do a deal with Ecclestone, it is hard to see who else might be willing to get involved in a business that has been losing money in recent years because of the need to invest heavily in new facilities to ensure that the Silverstone facilities retains the British Grand Prix.

-JOESAWARD

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21

Herta goes all Green BRYAN Herta will contest the Le Mans 24 Hours with the Cosworth-backed team running a radical green powerplant.

Former Champ Car race winner Herta, who tested for Minardi last year, has signed up with Britain's Team Nasamax for the French enduro and this month's Sebring 12 Hours. He will drive the team's Reynard 01Q, which is powered by bio ethanol fuelled engine based on Ford-owned Cosworth's Champ Car XD V8.

Herta was drawn into the project by Cosworth Racing's Bruce Wood, one of the key personnel of the project. The Californian claimed his three Champ Car victories with Ford Cosworth V8s.

Herta, 32, said: "It's an exciting project that is of a great deal of interest to me because Cosworth is involved. I've had a long and happy relationship with that company."

- GARY WATKINS

CHAMP Car ace Max Papis will return to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time in six years with the US Panoz squad.

The Italian, 33, has signed up to drive the works-blessed JML Team Panoz squad's number one LMP-01 Evo with Olivier Beretta and Gunnar Jeanette. The deal will take him to the opening rounds of the ALMS at Sebring this weekend and then on to Le Mans.

Papis said: "The Panoz has been

going pretty well over the past couple of years. I'm sure this deal is going to give me some satisfaction."

'Mad' Max, who also raced in Formula 1 for Arrows in 1995, explaind that the deal could be extended for the full ALMS."It could continue after that. It depends on a lot of things, but at the moment I am focussed 100 percent on this programme."

Papis has visited the opening rounds for the Champ Car and IRL

Indycar series at St Petersburg and Homestead respectively. He is known to be working on rides in both championships.

Road Atlanta-based JML is pushing ahead with its plans for the season despite the illness of team founder John McLoughlin.

Andy Waldrep, formerly team manager at the Panoz factory squad,is now running JML on a day-to-day basis.

- GARY WATKINS

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TROY Bayliss and Colin Edwards may be gone but Vtwins still rule the World Superbike Championship.

Ducatis dominated the opening round of the 2003 championship at Valencia, with Neil Hodgson and Ruben Xaus heading the show for the factory team. In fact, the only challengers to Ducati's sweep of a top 10 were Gregorio Lavilla's Suzuki, which took seventh and sixth places, and Troy Corser's Foggy-Petronas FP1, which took seventh in Race 2 after qualifying a brilliant fourth.

After leading the first race from lights to flag, Hodgson had to stalk Xaus in the second outing, hammering past on lap four. Corser slid off on lap 10 while in ninth, team-mate James Haydon finishing 12th.

Steve Martin had a fine day, the Melbourne rider fighting with Reggie Laconi's Ducati in Race 1 before settling for sixth before the Pirelli man got the better of Lavilla and Corser for fifth in Race 2.

CHRIS Vermeulen took the fight to Katsuaki Fujiwara in

Hodgson Battle ofthe Twins the opening round of the World Supersport Championship.

The Aussie's Honda swapped the lead with the Japanese's Suzuki before Fujiwara pulled away for a solid 5s win.

Alessio Corradi (Yamaha) was third, while Vermeulen's Ten Kate Honda team-mate Karl Muggeridge took sixth after an all-Aussie battle with Broc Parkes's Dark Dog Honda.

Argh! All V-twins; Neil Hodgson (100) leads Ruben Xaus at Valencia.

Arghl No V-twins: Troy Corser (4) leads Frankie Chili's Suzuki (10).

Superbike points: Hodgson 50, Xaus 40, James Toseland and Chris Walker 29, Martin 21, Lavilla 19, etc.

Supersport points: Fujiwara 25, Vermeulen 20, Corradi 16, Cogan 13, Teuchert 11, etc.

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OPINION

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S a lad, I went to the Trans Atlantic motorcycle races at Brands Hatch to watch the Yanks take on the Brits on their own soil.

The first race was a disaster for the locals' hero. A drive chain was thrown off the black Yamaha and, with the team unable to get from pitlane to the paddock in a hurry, there were very few people - almost none, in fact for the disgruntled rider to talk to.

Except me. He wanted to talk and I was around, so he vented his spleen on me. I had achieved one of my ambitions of my first trip to Europe; I had met Barry Sheene.

After watching Barry on TV commercials as the brunt of Dick Johnson's jokes, from listening to him swoon about the action at the front of a 500s field and from chatting to him in various paddocks, restaurants and bars around Australia, it is impossible to believe that he is gone. He was larger than life. He was a personality who knew no boundaries. He was a lad.

And he was also a legend on two wheels. It's easy to forget that, for almost two seasons in the 1970s, he was practically unbeatable. It took the arrival of the great American Kenny Roberts to knock him off his throne but only after a battle so Sace that fans still talk at»ut it in

awe. American versus Briton, Yamaha versus Suzuki. The stuff of dreams.

Sheene was a rare beast. few two-wheeled racers Very achieve their greatest after they have suffered their 'big' accidents but that Sheene unquestionably did, having survived a 300kmh get-off when the rear tyre on his Suzuki 750 disintegrated while testing at Daytona.

Through sheer force of will, and encouragement from close mates like fellow racer Gary Nixon, Sheene recovered not just his health but his speed, and then some.

He developed Suzuki's squarefour RG500 from an also-ran into a contender and took it to two world titles. He also did for motorcycle racing what Jackie Stewart did for Formula One; he carried it to the mainstream, becoming the public face of the sport to millions and millions of new fans.

In the process, he became rich and famous, a fact usually begrudged in a sport where many aspire to the heights but in which few achieve it. For his efforts, he lived a comfortable life, which he continued when he moved to the Gold Coast. Despite frequent visits 'home' to the UK, mainly to look after business interests or to

yes

1

race in historic events, he loved the place with a passion.

While chatting in Perth last season, he gave me a severe dressing down for lighting up a nasty in front of him, telling me proudly it had been seven years since he gave up the habit. Yes, I replied, but you smoked those ghastly, unfiltered French things.

He laughed his head off.

When the news of his cancer broke a few weeks later, it occurred to me that, at the time he was telling me off, he either knew or suspected that he had a fight on his hands, a fight against a formidable opponent.

For that reason, Barry, I promise I will give it up soon, as you told me to do. But not today.

Today, of all days, I have already lost far too much.

M

y aching (and ageing) chassis racks up four years in the Ed's chair this week and, as ever in motor racing, there are changes in the air.

For the last two of almost four years he has been here, Aaron Noonan has been along for the ride as Assistant Editor. Aaron worked hard, played even harder and drove us all nuts in the years he was with MN. He is also impossibly adept at all manner of things and it was inevitable that he would seek

Motor Mouth

with Phil Branagan

wider endeavours one of these days.

One of these days is now and Noonan is off to the glittering and overpaid world of media relations, where he will toil for the new Carrera Cup and British F3 contender Will Davison. He leaves with our thanks, best wishes and hopes that, some day, he will pay for our dinner.

Upgrading to business class is new Asst Ed Mark Glendenning, a two-year MN staffer. Joining up as new staff writer is Grant Rowley who, like Glendenning two years before, broke his media duck at the FI GP. Nothing like being thrown off the deep end.

I have just realised that, at the same time I was attending my first FI race, Rowley was all of five months old. I feel old.

Start swimming, kid.

And Noonan, it's your shout^^

< 12 March 2003

25

engiiiieering.

The concept is very simple.

You acquire a machine from a rival or an enemy (a racing car, a fighter jet, a code-breaking machine or even a dishwasher) and very carefully you take it apart and examine everything to see how it works, what it weighs and so on.

In the final days of World War II, for example, there was a secret organisation called TICOM (Traget Intelligence Committee).

Its job was to capture as many cipher machines and codebreakers as possible in order to stop the German equipment falling into the hands of the Soviets and to see how much information was available about the new enemy, even as the old one was still dying. The activities of TICOM remain classified to this day but we do 26

'broke' the highest level cipher machines being used by the Russians. These machines were taken apart, reverse-engineered, and completely reshaped what happened in the Cold War...

In motor racing, reverse engineering has been going on since the dawn of automotive ideas. My favourite story along these lines comes from 1913 when Peugeot had a dominant Grand Prix car and its rivals did not know what to do. Peugeot had in fact 'borrowed' most of the ideas of its car from HispanoSuiza, having poached some of the staff. Hispano-Suiza actually sued Peugeot and won but by the time the lawsuit was decided, it was pointless, Peugeot had won the races and gained all the publicity (Ron Dennis ancT Frank Williams, take note ...).

on a sales tour in the care of a racing driver called Dario Resta.

Before joining Peugeot, he had been a driver for the Sunbeam Motorcar Company in Wolverhampton and when it became known that he would be touring the country with the Peugeot, his old Sunbeam boss Lous Coatalen invited him to stop off to have dinner.

While they were having a long (and very good) meal, Coatalan's engineers 'borrowed' the Peugeot for the night. They stripped the car down, measured and sketched all the important parts and then put the car back together again. When Resta set off on his travels the next day, he was none the wiser and in 1914 Sunbeam built very competitive cars. That same Peugeot model was later sent off to America during the war and you will never

think they called it, for the Miller racing engines of the 1920s.

R

everse-engineering has also been seen in more modern times. A very well-known racing team (no, I am not going to name names) once sent a team of engineers to break into the Williams garage one night at a Grand Prix in South America.

They measured the car from end to end and as a result of this incursion, their car was rather more competitive than they had been. They were not caught but some of the members of the team who took part have since admitted to what they did.

All kinds of FI people have been caught measuring things they should not have been measuring over the years and not so long ago, the McLaren team caught a rival moiorsport n§ws

Last years Ferrari, this year's ... Williamsi Ferrari's F2002 was one of the most dominant cars in this history of Formula One and some of its features are being imitated by other teams this season.

aerodynamicist inside one of its trucks. For the fun of it, they locked the poor man inside for a few hours - which was rather embarrassing for the team in question.

Reverse-engineering has reappeared in Formula 1 this year in a completely different guise, thanks to the new regulations.

Formula 1 journalists now have to sit through a Grand Prix weekend, producing reams of copy about the racing without knowing if what is being written is true. The big issue (the vital issue) is the question of how much fuel each car is carrying in qualifying. Without that knowledge, one cannot assess if a grid position is a true reflection of the performance of a car, or whether the car is running with a light fuel-load in order to satisfy a different strategy, be it a racing one or a marketing one.

This means that the only time 12 March 2003

one can write with any confidence is after the race is over on Sunday. This will reveal when the cars pitted and so how competitive they really were.

We have to reverse-engineer an entire Grand Prix. This is fine for specialist publications that are produced after each event but for the television commentators it is a complete nightmare.

But I like it and I will tell you why.

And I found myself thinking about going off with my grandfather to The Summer Theatre at an English seaside resort each year to watch the latest production of an Agatha Christie mystery.

The format was always the same, it seemed to me as a cynical 10-year-old. There was a bit of scene-setting and then a body turned up in the conservatory or the library. A

A very well-known racing team once sent a team of engineers to break into the Vlfiiiiams garage one night at a Grand Prix in South America"

1«

n recent years Grand Prix racing has been an easy story to tell.

I was searching for a metaphor best describing the difference between FI last year and the new FI this season.

detective (or a visiting spinster) took on the job of investigating to find out 'whodunnit' and there would be a series of new clues (and usually a couple more bodies). Then the cast would gather in the drawing room for

the denouement, during which we would discover that the butler had done it and the motive why this heinous crime had taken place. look on FI today as a whodunnit, a story to tell.

In recent years it has been like a cartoon book. There is Friday: Bam! You have a result. There were usually a few doubts but qualifying on Saturday (Wham!) gave a clean picture. The race on Sunday (Pow!)finished off the weekend without much analysis being needed.

Now we have a real case to unravel.

I ran this idea past a colleague in the press room.

"Yes," he said. "I suppose it works. The problem is that it kind of loses the suspense when you catch a serial killer called Ferrari ... "...and there are no other suspects."

21

Five minutes with

John Hogan

Aussie John Hogan has been one of the hackgoounil power piayers in Formum(hm amihas taken on a new roie as commerciai mrector at Jaguar Racing this season. CHIPS UtMBDBV spoke to him MOTORSPORT NEWS: Your plans for 2003 changed pretty rapidly a couple of weeks back - how did it all come to pass?

JOHN HOGAN: I'd left Phillip Morris last March, 1 was basically retired, doing some consultancy work for Vodafone and this came out of the woodwork. I was talking to Jackie Stewart one day, we chatted about things, one thing led to another and 1 said "I might be interested in that!"

This was three weeks ago.

Things happened fast - and here we are!

MN: How close was your recent involvement in FI at Phillip Morris?

JH: Not as direct as it once was - although everything was reported to me in a business sense, I guess 1 haven't been particularly 'hands-on' for maybe 10 years. Watching from the office and on TV and telling people what to do!

MN: How do you see it here at Jaguar? In your previous roles you were, if you like, the boss.

Here you are part of a major company that has, in the past, appeared to be rather bureaucratic.

JH: Jaguar, like Toyota and maybe Renault, is a bit different from the rest of the teams in that it is part of a huge company.

That in itself means that you operate in a slightly different way - you have to take into account the requirements of a major corporation.

On the other hand, you have to operate in a very flexible, diverse, pro-active way. It's an interesting mix in that sense.

MN: There's been a huge amount of change in the off season ...

28

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AT&T JH: There has been a tremendous amount of change, particularly over the last three months. I think the anxiety about the new car was consuming everybody - there had been a series of relatively unsuccessful cars and everybody felt that this one couldn't afford to be another relatively unsuccessful, failure car.

That anxiety together with what I call the Silly Season, the period between the-end of last season and now, where there's a lot of back-biting stuff going on, made it a bit uncomfortable for everyone.

I was standing in the pits on Friday when Mark was going around and everyone could actually see that, hey. it's all right. There were massive sighs of relief all round ... Phhhaw!

MN: A morale boost!

JH: Absolutely. Now, of course, is the hard bit. You have to inch it up, inch it up, inch it up, until you join what I call The One Percent Club.

MN: The team seems to have deliberately gone away from the concept of using 'name' engineers and senior people.

You seem to have a bunch of people who are, according to Mark, very good at their job, but not'household names.'

JH: A good point and one that I think was one of the positive things. The top people in the company. I'm talking about the

engineers, haven't got a history of being at Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and 'doing the pit lane' so to speak. They have all been doing other things.

Tony (Purnell) is a scientist in his own right; David Pitchforth is an aerodynamicist. It brings a new approach.

MN: Your brief?

JH: My brief is to look after the business side of the whole Formula 1 proposition, up to and including worrying about the brand. Jaguar is one of the world's great brands. We have to make sure we are handling that right, that we're wellsponsored - all the marketing things - are well looked after.

MN: Any involvement in the 'philosophical'side of going racing?

JH: A bit, in as much as I've been doing it for a long time.

People ask "what happened with such and such before" I've got a little bit of background.

The other thing I've got which is handy for everybody is a brilliant address book - I can introduce people to other people. You know, "is that what he does - I didn't know ..." That sort of thing.

MN: How big a challenge do you see the job as?

JH: A huge challenge, but not in the sense that it is going to exhaust you, wear you out, or intellectually run you down. It's a

challenge of the volume of things that need to be done in order to get to The One Percent Club.

MN: Any early Impressions of the 'other Aussie'(apart from Malcolm Oastler) in the team?

JH: Mark? He's a first rate guy.

Very cool, calm, collected.

Everything you like a Grand Prix driver to be, frankly.

1 think the skill levels are there; all that stuff is spoken for.

One of the things we, the team, have to do now is give him the car. That'll take time.

He's under a lot of pressure here in Australia. Most drivers are either a second faster in their own country or a second slower!

And you're never sure quite which it is. I've seen some young drivers go to their own country and completely fall apart. Equally, most drivers find that little bit extra at home even Schumacher.

Mark seems very, very good under pressure.

MN: And finally, the most indepth,important question of all, which may correct a widespread misunderstanding ... are you related to the guy who stars in films at all? The British media reported you as brothers...

JH: No relation at all! We share the same name. But let's put it this way: are the Hogan's Catholics? Yes - I've got 31 first cousins. Anything's possible, motorspori news

29 January 2003

29

Five minutes with...

Paul Stodilart

There were no points for MinerUi this Ume hutPaui Stediart stiii manageti to puii a rahhit out of his hat win a boU interpretation of ne quafifying ruies. ADAM COOPBt caught up win him . MOTORSPORT NEWS: What do you think of the way the new rules worked out?

PAUL STODDART: It gave us a more exciting grid, it gave us a more exciting lead up to the race, and it gave us mixed strategy in the race. Clearly when the safety car came out and everybody ducked in, but in any event, it was always going to be a battle of strategy.

The fact is that people in the pubs and clubs around the world are talking about FI. The winner of the 2003 Melbourne GP is FI, it's as simple as that. The rule changes have provide three excellent days of entertainment.

On Friday, a day that was traditionally not terribly interesting, we had a fantastic day, and you saw the pure qualifying order. On Saturday we had a battle with strategy, and on Sunday you saw five different constructors in the top six, and we had the most fantastic race.

Sure the weather played a part, but nevertheless, the rules are the winners. If we have another couple of interesting races, then I think these rules are here to stay.

MN: So single lap qualifying works for you?

PS: What was great about qualifying was that hardened team personnel were glued to those monitors - it's worked.

There is no other way to describe it.

Maybe we need to fine tune one or two things. I'm sure what we did won't be allowed in the future, but it doesn't matter. The point is FI is the winner. It's a pretty mixed bag of regulations, but they were well thought out.

What has to come out of this is that both the team owners, and Max and Bernie, should be commended for doing what we've done, which is liven it up.

30

MN: Were you pleased to get Jos to the finish?

PS: Sunday was the first time that one of the new cars had done a race distance, and I was really pleased about that. The fact that it was the T-car made it even more interesting, because clearly that (car) hadn't done any running. Justin had done about four laps in it on Friday and that was it!

When we fired up Jos's car before the race, a great pool of oil came out. We put him into the T-car, and because it was set up for Justin, it took quite a while to do it. But the way the rules are now, if you switch after qualifying you have to start from the pitlane anyway, so there was no rush.

MN: What about Justin? He wasn't on TV much but he was right up there in the early stages ...

PS: Justin did a great job, and he was unlucky that he got that punctured radiator, but it happens, that's racing, Flad there been a downpour of rain, which was so, so close, we would have been well into the points.

We were carrying one stop fuel, we were tanked to the gunnels. Both drivers were in eighth and ninth respectively, at points in the race, and we were the top-running Ford engine.

MN: I don't mean to disparage Alex Yoong, but what

difference does it make having two topline drivers?

PS: It's been a while since Minardi has had the quality of driver line-up that it's got this year, and it's been a while since Minardi has had the technical package it's got this year.

MN: Were you pleased to be up there with the other Cosworths?

PS: The Cosworth engine is a mega engine, and we are not lacking anything in terms of engine over anybody. This is not about engines, it's about having a little bit more time to work with the car and work on an optimum set-up for the car that will allow us to get the best out of the technical package.

The only thing that this weekend has given me cause to think twice about is that some of the other teams have made massive leaps and bounds over the winter. But I knew by having two quality drivers and a really good technical package and what I believe is the right tyre choice, we were going to be looking good, but clearly other people are looking good as well. So it's still going to be a tough year. But I think there's going to be a couple of circuits where we can surprise a few people.

MN: The problem is that you won't be able to develop the car like some other people ...

PS: The issue of money is sadly

still going to be around this year.

We will have to spend what money we have got very, very wisely to make sure that what we do to the car is really worthwhile. We won't be able to experiment, that's the big difference.

We have enough budget to compete and complete, but not to be too adventurous. It would have been nice to have it, but there have been times when Minardi's been in the position before where they can't do the development programmes they want to do, but that's life. We'll still do the best job we can on the track every two weeks. I've got an open mind about Malaysia, but I'll be watching the weather again...

MN: Does that fifth place really seem like a year ago?

PS: I'll never forget the Australian GP last year, and for me it's going to go down as the best day of my life, but that's not to take anything away from this year.

Our strategy in qualifying I thought was quite brave, and it almost paid off. That was a proper strategy, and it was discussed at length in two team managers' meetings prior to qualifying, and it was available to anybody. We took it. I tried to gamble with the weather, and it almost paid off. If the race had started an hour earlier, it might have been a different story. motorsport news

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Renault surprised the Formula One world by deciding to take the 'Heathrow'option of testing on Friday mornings at GPs in lieu of more than 20 car/days ofin-season testing.

Did it pay dividends for the team at Albert Park?

ADAM COOPER asked the men who know for their opinions

I

F you made the effort to get to Albert Park by 8.30am on Friday, you got a real bonus. As part of the new package of rules changes, nine cars were running around in a two-hour session that didn't exist last year. As one of them was driven

by Mark Webber,the action was of special interest to home fans who had set their alarm clocks.

It's the earliest a Grand Prix

Now,they have to make the selection pre-weekend, along with everyone else, to make life easier for the tyre companies.

"We came close to changing our minds, but I kept my position," says team boss Flavio Briatore."The

meeting has kicked off since the last days of pre-quahfying in 1991. And yet officially, the session doesn't exist and it is just a private test. Ferrari, McLaren and Williams were not

engineers tried to convince me,but in the end I convinced the engineers!"

In Australia, the three Renaults completed a total of 119 laps before six of the teams had even set a wheel . on the track. However,the team wasn't able to take full advantage.

Because of reliability worries,just before the end of the session the team

participating, and they appeared to have very little interest in what was going on.

The two-hour test is a carrot from the FIA for teams who are willing to restrict their testing to just 20 car days between now emd Suzuka. For such as Ferrari, used to running at up to three different circuits in one week, it makes no sense. For Minardi, who could not afford to do 20 days anyway,it's a gift from heaven.

Jordan also has to keep an eye on its budget,and Jaguar had a relatively small programme planned, of 26 days.

The biggest surprise was the decision by Renault to join those three. It's certainly not a question of budget- it's about trying to find an edge over everyone else who is chasing Ferrari.

Weighing up the pros and cons was not the work of a moment,and was confused by a late change to the tyre situation. It was thought that teams would be able to try the full range of tyres- Michehn brought five - and then choose what they wanted.

started engine changes in both race cars. It took longer than expected, and the drivers only got out towards the end of the official one-hour that started at 11am, when they focussed on rehearsing for one-shot qualifying.

That problem should soon be sorted - on Sunday both cars made the flag with modified engines that are still in limited supply - and then the team will really be able to take advantage of the system. If nothing else, the delay allowed the drivers and engineers to study the data they had gathered.

"I'm really pretty happy with it," says the team's engineering boss,Pat Symonds. "It's not just the fact of having two hours, you've also got to consider that if you don't do it, you only have one hour. When you look at what people were able to do after Ham,it's incredibly limited.

"I'm very satisfied with the way it went. It was disappointing that we had to change the engines in both the cars, because we do have a problem that limits our mileage, but nevertheless it's difficult to get the

32

organisation and logistics working well and the whole team just responded fantastically to it. I'm convinced we gained an advantage from it."

Of course to make it work you have to be really on the ball, especially with three cars.

"First of all we wanted to establish whether we thought the circuit was suitable to do a full tyre evaluation, so our concentration was really on the tyre stuff. With Allan we wanted to concentrated on the durability of the tyres, so he did three quite long runs, with two of one option and one of the other,so we got an idea of how the track was changing as well. With Fernando and Jarno we split it between looking at tyres for ultimate performance,choosing one tyre for a durability run,and looking at the basic set-up of the car. As it happens the car was quite nicely-balanced straight off, so we just tried a few things. And Allan had a few bits that we were looking at that were not relevant to this race."

Technical director Mike Gascoyne agrees that it worked well:"Even with the engine change we did a lot of laps. We ran our program spot-on, and the team worked really well. 1 think for a race weekend it's an undoubted advantage. You look at all the circuits, probably with the exception of Barcelona it's all an advantage for the first half of the year. 1 think we benefited from knowing what we were doing with the tyres very early, durability running and so on.

"It's not such a problem here, but at some circuits you need to run high fuel and check brake wear once

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you've got all that out of the way.

Then once you know what tyre you're on you're not pissing around doing back -to-backs in the hour before you start qualifying. You're not going to evaluate the tyres and then do low fuel runs for Friday qualifying. It's very tight.

"If you've done all that, then the running you do in that morning session is purely performance related running. And you don't have a lot of time on Saturday morning, and then you're fixing your race motorsport news

i

FORMULA ONE won't be able to tell you about for a couple of races," he says."Not just for myself,but our team had ideas on how we would go forward and what we would do to the car. They did some of those changes with the other cars, and obviously it had very positive effects. From that point of view it's good,but you miss that final bit, which is ultimately the bit we aU want.

"We had a slight delay on Friday morning which put our schedules out a little bit, so we switched philosophy and concentrated more on the race

so at least Allan is well placed to do that should the need arise.

"It wasn't necessarily the first thought, but it's obviously something that you do take into consideration.

Also I've got to approach it as if 1 was racing every weekend anyway, and the team have to approach it that way,because that's the only way to maximise the two hours. I'm ready and prepared,if something should happen. You just never know what's around the comer."

The downside is that should Trulh or Alonso have a technical problem

''[ think we benefited from knowing what we were doing with the tyres very eariy, durability running and so on" - Mike Gascoyne, right

Something Blue: Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso both showed genuine speed in Melbourne, above.

Test driver McNish, here with author

Grand Prix meeting again. And yet at Albert Park he was back, albeit only for the Friday morning session. Just as it was getting interesting, he had to stop.

The actual frustration I probably

stuff. However,that's not necessarily what will happen all year on every circuit. This was a little bit of a test on what's the best way to do it. We've aU got our theories, but until you put it into practice, you don't know what you can improve and what you can do. We'll go away from here thinking what we gained out of it and what we can gain more out of.

"It's certainly the best option outside of racing in FI. This gives me the chance to show what maybe I didn't get the chance to show last year. You've got to be out there doing it before people will take any note.

I'm current with the technology, with the circuits, with the tyres,from a mental point of view and a fitness point of view.I'm ready to go."

We've seen reserve drivers Luciano Burti and Ricardo Zonta jump into cars m the middle of a race weekend.

on Friday, they might commandeer Allan's car. Oddly,no one from Renault has ever mentioned that possibility...

"That's not something that's come up in conversation, if it's the first lap at Monaco then there might be a justification, but if he stops 20 minutes before the end it would take that long to change pedals."

So how win things pan out over a season? Will Renault regret its decision come September, when testing fizzles out prior to the Indy/Suzuka trip?

"You decide on the situation that pertains you your team," says Symonds."We've obviously tried to look forward through the year, and how we think things will change.

Maybe in September we'll be extremely glad with what we did, or maybe we'll have some regrets..."

Cooper, is now going to be a regular attendee at CPs... well, on Fridays anyway. configuration."

To make it work, you've got to have a sensible and rehable third driver.

"Allan's uniquely placed," says Gascoyne."He's intelligent, he knows the team very well because he's been here before, he's experienced enough that he's not trying to prove that he should be on the grid.

McNish's Toyota career finished at Suzuka last year, even his nearest and dearest probably thought that we would never see him in action at a 12 March 2003

It's 0830. What's the '0'stand fori Oh my God, it's early. Alonso wipes the sleep out of his eyes with a blast around Albert Park in Friday morning's test session.

33

Powerful Dreamer Honda is not 'back’ in Formuia One but, in 2003, it does carry a renewed determination for success. Shoichi Tanaka is the man charged with restoring Honda’s former glory.

He spoke to PHIL BRANAGAN

T

HINGS are changing at Honda. After struggling with a two-team Formula One challenge in recent seasons, the dreams of power and the Power of Dreams now lie fully with British American Racing.

And the man in charge of the dreams- and the power - is Shoichi Tanaka. The England-based President of Honda Racing Developments is an outgoing, smiling racing enthusiast who,one gets the feeling, not only wants to see Honda back on top of the FI pile but needs it as much as he needs oxygen.

The scene is a lot different now.

Previous liaisons with Mugen-Honda and Jordan have been set aside; Honda is now involved only with BAR. "It's a big change this year," he says."We concentrate now only on BAR Honda. We learned with two teams what we need to do as a car manufacturer.

"Last year, it was very difficult. It was very tough to supply the same spec engines to two teams. The number of engines we have to supply (now)is much less and that allows us to concentrate more on the

suttothinuges.com

development of the engines, rather than producing more engines.

"But budget-wise, we are almost the same. We shifted our budget n more into the development and our staff is, mostly, the same number."

The landscape of engine development is changing. New FIA rules prohibit changing engines between qualifying and the race and, next season, the aim is to have a single engine last a weekend.

Sometime in the future, the FIA wants to see six-race engines, probably an ambit claim given that the current life expectancy of an FI engine at full throttle is about 50 minutes. In other words, a current

unit will do a little more than one million revs before being totally rebuilt.

Engine manufacturers have been producing more and more engines each season but the new rules are likely to reverse that trend. By requiring manufacturers to build engines that will last longer, the FIA is, on the surface, reducing the costs involved. But that will not necessarily happen,according to Tanaka.

"We know what the FIA intends to do; one weekend, one engine. We have already started to develop such an engine. That wdl reduce the number of engines that will be used in the races but you also have to consider the number of engines that will be used on the test benches, or in testing.

"Will that be reduced? I do not think so. It will only be a partial reduction in the number of engines produced under the new regulations."

Change requires development and the cost of producing engines that will last longer and longer will be high. And manufacturers may throw away their 2003 engines in order to allow engine life for their 2004 engines to double (or more).

Such changes are not new. This year's Honda,the RA003E,is a 'clean-sheet' design, sharing nothing in common with the unit used previously. For instance, like Cosworth,Honda has adopted a 90degree V-angle between the cylinder banks, as opposed to the 72-degree angle used previously.

But that does not mean that Honda's 2004 will be another 'clean sheet' design.

"Not necessarily," says Tanaka.

"The current engine, we believe, has a lot of potential. The new engine

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could be 'evoluted', based on the same philosophy we have used previously. So I beheve that we may be able to apply this engine to next year but it is still too early to decide that for sure."

Practice and qualifying revealed that the BAR-Honda 005s of Jacques ViUeneuve and Jenson Button were a vast improvement over their predecessors. Yes, there were mechanical failures, ViUeneuve losing most of a Friday session with a detonation, and stopping on Sunday after what the team described as an 'hydraulic failure' that saw smoke pouring from the VIO. But there was also speed, ViUeneuve third in 'quaUfying' on Friday and sixth in the real thing on

Our management is enthusiastic about motor racing; we have itinourDNA

It

with Williams and then with McLaren.

"Today, the competitors are different to what we faced in the 1980," says Tanaka."There are more manufacturers involved in Formula One so we cannot expect to have the same number of wins now in FI. Still, we are aiming to win the championship in a few years."

Wldle Tanaka and his troops have been making great strides in the dyno rooms,so too has BAR on the chassis side with,it must be noted, substantial input from Honda.

"We have a special relationship with BAR," explains Tanaka."We are involved with chassis development with the team and will continue with that. Wlien we decided to enter Formula One, we studied the option

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-Shoichi Tanaka Phil

Saturday, two spots up on Button.

Tanaka was not surprised; "We already felt that, after the winter testing, the car has shown a lot of potential. We are about where we expected to be for the first race of the season."

He has lofty expectations for the rest of the season.

"At Honda, we have the goal to be third in championship points this year, replacing one of the top three teams. We have had some technical problems this weekend but the drivers have done a very good job."

It is a high watermark, compared to recent seasons but still pales into insignificance compared to what Honda achieved in the 1980s,first

of running a complete team; engine and chassis. We will continue to do what we are doing now."

Honda's passion for racing comes from the top, with company founder, Soichiro Honda liimself racing motorcycles and the rhanagement of the firm himself enthused by the company's various programs. At the same time, Honda's involvement in FI and that of Honda has boosted the profile of the sport in Japan, where it was waning in the mid-1990s.

"Our President wUl be at Albert Park for the opening race. Our management is enthusiastic about motor racing; we have it in our DNA. In Japan, Honda was the only car company involved in Formula One

Watch this space: Honda had its share of dramas at Albert Park but Jacques ViUeneuve and Jenson Button both showed speed and made it to the finish in the first race of the season. and now we have a big company like Toyota involved in Formula One. Two manufacturers, with a Japanese driver coming through(Takuma Sato, bar's test driver) and we will see the interest in the sport continue to grow."

Honda's domination of the sport, which saw 15 wins from 16 races in 1988, will never be seen again; there is now too much competition for that.

Yesterday is gone forever but,for Tanaka and Honda, tomorrow is already here.

I

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35

DC and his Sih Nobody would have tipped David Couithard as the winner of the 2003 Foster's Australian Grand Prix before the World Championshipopener but maybe that's exactly why we are in for a great season ofFI. JOESAWARD reports from Albert Park

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AVID Couithard gratefully accepted 10 points in Melbourne and while you couldn't say he was lucky to do so,it was because the Scot was the only one of the top four runners to not make a mistake in a Grand Prix thrown into chaos by an early drying track.

After qualifying, the Ferraris were ahead by a big margin. The local dailies ran the headline "The Yawn of a new era" and everyone seemed worried that more Ferrari domination would spell disaster for the FI ratings.

The race, we all said, would reveal all. But it didn't because the weather

got in the way and the question of fuel loads was confused by the need to switch tyres. So we have to wait to know for sure.

It looked at the end of the day as though Ferrari had been unlucky not to win but was that really the case?

There was one thing that confirmed that it was not: Michael Schumacher took on fuel when he came in to have

Work the theory backwards to qualifying and one can see that Ferrari may have been running with lighter fuel loads than one would expect. Certainly Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello went off at the start like a pair of rockets.

But then Michael pitted, ostensibly to change from wet tyres to dries. The team said it decided to go for an aggressive strategy after that and so Michael had only enough to go to lap 29 and then to lap 47. As it turned out he was called in on lap 46 because of the damaged barge boards.

So was Ferrari unlucky to lose or was the team trying a bit of psychological warfare on the opposition because the car is not as quick as they would Uke? For now we caimot tell.

some flapping bodywork removed from his car. At the time he was

It is tempting to write that Ferrari made a mistake with its tyre strategy by starting on wets but aU the Bridgestone runners of note did the same thing. Only three Bridgestone cars opted to run on dry tyres: the two Jordans and Jos Verstappen.

The Michehn runners all went for

leading comfortably but clearly he had had to pit anyway- he was beaten.

continued on page 40

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Glory, glory to the Silver Speedsters: David Coulthard took his secor\d Oz CP win, top and right, while Juan Pablo Montoya lost his chance at winning his first with a spin while leading, left.

Following his spin, the Columbian bad to fight off Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher, above. before claiming second spot.

12 March 2003

QUALIFYING

The One Lap W A

FTER an off-season of

change and controversy, one could have been excused for thinking that all the brouhaha during the northern winter had been for nothing.

Yes,there were new names and new faces;some teams had new drivers and personnel; there were shiny new cars to be admired for the first time.Even the Melbourne traditions were intact-the weather was unpredictable and Michael Schumacher spun,which is a trick he usually indulges in only at Albert Park (though,this year, he even practiced his spinning in winter testing).

But that would be telling orrly the most superficial of stories ...

So it was that, on Saturday morning in Melbourne,Schumacher dropped the ball at the 160km/h Turn 14. The car spun and gave the wall a decent swat,removing its left front wheel and making a right royal mess of the front wing and suspension.

It Is at times like that Schumacher's cool comes to the fore. Most drivers would climb out and slink back to the pits but Michael kept the beat going and, with only three wheels of his little red wagon on the ground, he drove the car back to pitlane to make sure that his mecharucs had extra time to do the work necessary.

It took about 40 minutes to repair the damage and Michael then caught up - by using the simple remedy of copying Rubens BarricheUo's settings.

"Rubens had done a much better job on set-up," Michael said. "I just simply copied. That is what team mates are there for, to help the other out when he is in trouble, and it worked very well."

Schumacher had seemed a little out of sorts since the start of Friday.

The Ferrari was quick but, with the re-interpreted Formula 1 regulations.

there were potentially any number of explanations for why Michael was not fastest on Friday afternoon. The new rules mean that no-one knows how much fuel there is in a car at any given moment.

Qualifying used to be about running with as little gas as possible to keep down the weight Weight eats time. In Melbourne,lOkgs of fuel is worth 0.4s, so one cannot really judge the speed of a car unless you know how much fuel is on board.

As teams must now race the cars

He had not set a time.

Obviously, we thought there was a problem but there was no time to really think about it because Antonio Pizzonia was already on his run.

The Brazilian had had a miserable time with only a small amount of running and a crash on Saturday morning when he discovered that the brakes were not working at all. His lap was as neat and tidy as he could make it, but he was not pushing as hard as he might have done,to make sure that he got round.

The action came thick and fast. Jos Verstappen was next up and we were finally alerted to a 'scam' that was going on as he went straight into pitlane at the end of his flying lap.

It would be a few hours before the

with which they qualify - with the same amount of petrol as they finished the qualifying runs- things have become rather complicated. On Friday and Saturday we no longer know the strategies.

Schumacher Minardi strategy was slower than was properly he should have explained. The team had decided been on Friday, to take an but because he was the first extraordinary -Paul Stoddart on Minardi’s man to run, he gamble,taking qualifying Strategy advantage of a explained away loophole that nohis lack of speed one else had even considered. as being down to his role as "a track cleaner." He was fourth fastest, Minardi engineers had realised seven-tenths behind Barrichello. that the team would qualify on the back row of the grid whatever happened and therefore, in search of And then Saturday morning, an unfair advantage,had read the when he came went off a couple of times rules and seen that if they did not before finally bashing the wall. Could it complete their flying laps they would be, we thought,that MichaeHs really not have to enter pare ferme. struggling? As qualifying approached there was a lot of excitement. The new At the same time, they could be allowed to start the race. This meant format of running one car after another that by not completing their laps, they with jirst one flying lap for each man is could work on fire cars ovemi^t, an interesting one.

The first man to embark on this change the amount of fuel onboard and if the weather was a major issue was FI new boy Justin Wilson and on Sunday, they would be in a position what he did caught the to alter the car more than their rivals. commentators rather by surprise.

"If we get a wet start tomorrow - then it may work in our favour"

Rather than complete his flying lap he came into pitlane at the end of it.

"If we get a wet start tomorrow and the chances of that happening

are 30-35 percent- then it may work out in our favour," said team boss Paul Stoddart.

"We have nothing to lose. We double-checked the regulations and we are confident that we were not breaching any rule."

Down at the FIA eyebrows were raised and notes taken. The loophole will not remain open for long. The confusion over Minardi's strategy rather overshadowed the efforts of Ralph Firman in the second Jordan. It was a tidy lap and faster than Pizzonia but we knew it would not remain the best time for long.

Ralf Schumacher was next to go, having had a dreadful time on Friday, but he made the same mistake he had done on Friday, going into the first turn too quickly. The time was better than Firman's by a considerable margin but pole it was not going to be unless the rain arrived there and then.

And it didn't.

Ralf would later say that the track was getting faster as *e session went on - which was clear -and so Friday's efforts were really the cause of his lowly grid position. Still, in the

bnders circumstances, ninth overall was not bad.

We were then given a moment or two for reflection(and advertising breaks) and the feeling was that while the car-by-car qualifying was a good idea, the fuel issue was clearly holding the drivers back. They were not really going for it for fear that they might crash the car.

And then the action was on again as Mark Webber slid wide into the first corner. As the race would show, Webber had selected the hardest MicheUn of anyone and it took that bit too long to supply full grip.

It was enough to spoil the lap but Webber explained that he was happier to have made the mistake twice (he'd slipped wide on the alternate rubber the day before)than to have gone into the session without enough aggression. It was a balancing act and he had fallen off.

"It could have been better," he said,"but then again it could have been worse."

Certainly, the local isn't one to compromise his race set-up for an ego trip in qualifying...

Giancarlo Fisichella came out in the second Jordan but his time was six-tenths off Schumacher's best and we knew that the Jordan was not a force to be reckoned with.

The Saubers had seemed low-key until Heinz-Harald Frentzen set off on his fast lap and surprised everyone by going six-tenths faster than Ralf's best.

It was a surprise. After the session, Frentzen did not seem overly delighted and the impression was that the German was probably running with a light fuel load. Even so,he would end up fourth on the grid,the best placing for a Sauber for a long time.

Nick Heidfeld could not match his team-mate but made it briefly a Sauber 1-2 and Toyota's new boy Cristiano da Matta was nowhere near that pace. He had been quick earlier in the event,so 12 March 2003

The man, some strategy and the Frenchman: Schumacher, Minardi and Panis were all in the headlines for different reasons after qualifying at Albert Park.

n

sutton-images.com

t'

.1 the obvious conclusion was that he was running with a heavy fuel load.

Next up was Juan Pablo Montoya and he did a neat and tidy job and took a tenth off Frentzen's provisional pole.

But it was not going to be enough for pole. We had expected a lot from the Renaults of Jamo TruUi and Fernando Alonso. They had been quick all weekend but the feeling was that the cars had to be running light because the Renault VIO is known to be around 100 horsepower down on the best engines in the field. Trulli's run was pretty disappointing and Alonso's was only marginally better.

Running between the two Renault men was Olivier Panis and his time was quite a surprise as well for he was third,just a tenth behind Frentzen. A very good effort.

"I think we have made a very good choice of strategy," he said."But we will see tomorrow."

D

avid Coulthard was next and overshot Turn 1 just a little. It was enough to drop him half a second. McLaren's hopes would rest squarely on Kimi Raikkonen. This was unfortunate, as the Finn had stuffed his car quite convincingly in

I

emC^ the morning session with a high speed crash in Turn Five.

He had nearly done the same thing the previous day but had somehow managed not to hit the walls as he gyrated down the road. The McLaren team had the spare ready for him for the qualifying session but the chances were that he was going to struggle.

There was a pause before the final burst of five cars. First to go would be Jenson Button, left, in the surprisingly good BAR-Honda.The cars were not very reliable on Friday and Saturday but they seemed quick and, unless the fuel loads were warping the impression, they look like being pretty good this year. We would not know that imtil Sunday night...

Button's run was neat and tidy but he felt he might have done a little more had he dared a little more. But eighth on the grid was not a bad effort at all.

Next up was Michael Schumacher and it was a lovely lap to watch. You could see that the World Champion was right on the edge and yet there was control. Michael said later that it

1 M Schumacher (D) ; Scudejia Ferrari Mariboro 1:27.173 2 R Barrichello(BRA) Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ; 1:27.418 + 0.245" 3 J P Montoya(CO) BMWWiliiamsFI Team ; 1:28.101 +0.928 lOHHFrenteen (D) Sauber Petronas 1:28.274 +1.101 20 O Panis(F) Panasonic Toyota Racing 1:28.288 + 1.115 l6JVmeneuve(CAN) Lucky Strike BAR Honda 1:28^420 +1.247 9 N Hefdfetd (D) Sauber PebTDnas : 1:28.464 +1.291 17 J Button (GB) Lucky Strike BAR Honda ! 1:28.682' +1.509 4 R Schumacher(D) BMWWiliiamsFI Team ' 1:28.830 +1.657

ones

“

Mild Seven Renault FI Team i 1:28.928 +1.755 5 D Coulthard (GB) Wes^^Laren Mercedes ! 1:29.105 +1.932 7JTrulll (i: Mild Seven Renault FI Team I 1:29.136 +1.963 11 G Fisichella (I) ; Jordan Ford ' 1:29.344 +il71 14 M Webber (AUS) Jaguar Racing 1:29.367 +2.194

6 K Raikkdnen (FIN) ; West McLaren Mercedes i 1:29.470 +2.297 21 C Da Matta (BRA) Panasonic Toyota Racing 1:29.538 +2.365 Jordan Ford : 1:3li242' +4.069 15 APIzzonIa(BRA) Jaguar Racing : 1:31.723 +4.550 19 J Verstappen (NL) Minardi Cosworth No time 16 J Wilson (GBl . Minardi Cosworth i No time

a

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continued on page 40

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continued from page 39 . had been "a perfect lap" and that he could not have done any better and you could believe him. What was startling was the ground he made in the final sector, which gave liim an advantage over Frentzen, above, of nine-tenths of a second.

Wham! And this is the old Ferrari...

We were down to the last three men now and VUleneuve was awaited with excitement. His lap on Friday in difficult circumstances had been the highlight of the first qualifying session, a real juggling act but this time he seemed more subdued, more worried about the knock-on effect of making a mistake. He was 1.3s slower than Michael. It would give him sixth on the grid but that was all.

"Nothing special," he said.

There were twm cars left to run and we watched as Raikkonen wound up the spare and went for it.

He was three-tenths down at the first split (which was not real surprise) but across the back of the circuit, he held the gap.

But going into the last sector he dropped the ball, hooked a wheel on the dirt and only just saved himself from having a big accident.

By the time he had got himself together again he was way down the order (and would end up 15th on the grid).

He had also picked up a pimcture and this would have an effect on the final runner, Rubens Barrichello. He had been expecting a clear track but as he got round to where Raikkonen had gone off, he found flags waving and small pieces of debris on the road. It was enough to disrupt him a fraction and that showed up on the time sheets, although he was not looking like beating Schumacher even before that point.

He was second and still six-tenths dear of the best of the rest, Juan Pablo Montoya.

A Ferrari 1-2 then. And in dominant fashion ... New rules, old patterns. But the effect had been felt behind that; a Sauber on row two, a Toyota and a Honda sharing row four, and no McLarens in the top 10.

Will the new system be a success?

Doubters will say, not until the monsters from Maranello are not on the front row of the grid at all.

In truth, it is far too early to tell but, given the signs that appeared in Melbourne, there is every chance that, sometime this season, the jury will give Max Mosley's brave new world the thumbs up.

Which is presumably what Max did, watching on TV early in the wee hours of the morning. The FIA President could not get a connecting flight to Australia. Too bad; he missed quite a show ...

The boy's got skills: But unfortunately for Mark Webber, bis Jaguar's suspension didn't. Tbe team's strategy-and speed was still pretty spot-on tbougb, which is encouraging for 2003 ...

8

continued from page 36 dry tyres, with the exception of the two McLarens and that was a mistake which they were lucky to overcome.

At the end of the parade lap Raikkonen realised that he was

Wheel 'em in: The cars are sent to pare ferme straight after qualifying.

Except for the Minardis ...

40

wasting his time and came straight in before the race began, the team taking that first opportunity to add fuel and switch to a two-stop strategy.

Coulthard came to the same conclusion and at the end of lap two

he went in to the pits for tyres - and fuel.

The choice of Bridgestone wets was, it seems, a necessity for those not willing to take a big risk. The Bridgestone grooved slick tyres do not like damp conditions in the way that the Michelins do.

"It was impossible for us to start on grooved tyres," explained Peter Sauber. The implication was there.

The Bridgestone runners did not really have a choice. Later Bridgestone sources suggested that moiorsport news

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ielhlerra PLATINUM w I don't care how many World Titles you've won; Raikkonen didn't flinch when he held his line in turn one and forced Schumacher onto the grass. poor weather forecasting was to blame for the tyre choice. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

The weather was the main preoccupation on Sunday morning as rain fell quite heavily and there were some fairly large bingles in the support races. The rain then stopped but the clouds were still lurking about and the road was still wet in places, particularly under the trees in the fast sections at the back.

At the start Ferrari's hopes took a battering as BarricheUo tried to start his season slightly before everyone else and as a result would have been given a drive-through penalty had he not crashed heavily while pushing too hard after just a few laps.

In those early laps it looked like we were in for another dose of Ferrari domination with the gap between the two red cars and the rest of the field growing at an absurd rate. At the end of the first lap their advantage was 5.8 secs; at the end of the second it was 10 secs.

In part this was due to the fact the chasers were stumbling over one another, mostly on dry tyres, and were not concentrating on chasing the Ferraris.

12 March 2003

As the conditions rapidly dried, the Ferrari lap times slowed and the huge gap suddenly came down as Montoya hounded the red cars. And then we were thrown a new curved ball: Barrichello wiped out.

A lap and a half later Schumacher rushed into the pits. He took fuel and new tyres. There was a glitch with the left rear and he lost a few valuable seconds. He rejoined in 10th position. The fuel he took on would take him to lap 29 and the fuel load then was planned to take him to lap 47. He actually came in on lap 46 because he had damaged barged boards dragging behind the car.

Later the team said that it had decided to adopt "an aggressive strategy" after Michael had to stop to change tyres. That made some sense but one might also argue that it was all theatre and the Ferrari was not as strong as it appeared to be. We will have to wait to find out.

What the race did show was that the Renaults were running pretty light on fuel in qualifying.

The chassis may be good but the engine is not and

continued on page 45

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Signing up: Mr. Schumacher was kept busy, above, like Dean Grant's crew will be after this shunt, below. Justin Wilson, below left, was another in the signing mood, and police guarded Webber's stricken Big Cat, below right, but couldn't help but keep watching the race.

«s> r-.—

MM They're all important celebs, racing drivers or not: The Mini Celebrity Challenge drivers were more accomodating in hamming it up for the camera than the official FI 2003 driver's snapshot session.

42

FOSTiBR'S

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GBMNO PBIX

MELBOUKNE 2003

motorsport news

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The class of

WHEN a new superstar arrives in Formula One,they tend to hit the ground running. Montoya and Kimi were quick straight out of the box in 2001.

Webber banged the unfancied Minardi into the points last year.

If any of this year's crop of rookies are destined to be major players in years to come, they failed to show their hand last weekend.

Remarkably, the one thing that this year had in common with 2002 is that to find the best performer amongst the debutantes, you had to walk all the way to the far end of the pitlane, and then look around for the tallest black-suited person that you could find.

"It was fantastic to have the opportunity of getting towards the midfield and being able to race some of the other guys and drive past them," said Justin Wilson.

"It was good fun and an enjoyable experience, especially in my first Grand Prix," Wilson was second-string to his highlyexperienced Minardi co-conspirator Jos Verstappen all weekend, but qualifying within 0.4s of Jos the Boss on Friday was not a bad effort first time out. Wilson was flattered by Minardi's fuel strategy and tyre choice early in the race, but to his credit he made the most of his wets while they lasted

Wl

3utton'fmages.com

and managed to haul himself well into the midfield. His weekend was eventually cut short when a stone went through a radiator.

Reigning CART Champ Cristiano da Matta qualified 16th, light years behind team-mate Olivier Panis, although the team were quick to put the gap down to different strategies.

At any rate, it came to naught just seven laps into the race for da Matta, who speared off all by himself and ended his

Vi

debut buried deep in Albert Park’s trademark azure gravel.

Little was expected from new Jordan man Ralph Firman, left, so the modesty of his lap times failed to raise many eyebrows.

Being routinely two seconds slower than Giancarlo Fisichella points to a driver with a bit of catching up to do. Similarly, spearing off into the wall on lap six is hardly the way to impress your new team.

But it was the most eagerly-anticipated debut ultimately proved to be the one that delivered the least. Antonio Pizzonia's entry to the sport was preceded by a formidable reputation for speed and consistency indeed, insiders at BMW.Williams still claim to rate him extremely highly.

So why the hell was he so slow?

Admittedly, his opportunities to learn the track were curbed somewhat due to the limited number of laps he completed during testing on Friday morning, and a brake problem on Saturday also denied him opportunities to familiarise himself with the circuit.

But as Pizzonia himself admits, he did himself no favours with a series of driving errors. If the primary aim of a race weekend is to beat your team-mate, it’s safe to say that Webber goes into Malaysia leading one-zip.

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.5?

continued from page 41 tf only we'd known at the start what sort of a race it was going to turn out to be!

When the Ferraris led into turn

so the pace of Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli in the early laps was perhaps not as impressive as it looked.

one, above, it was looking like another Maranello mauling, but it didn't turn out that way.

Debutantes Ralph Firman, left, and Justin Wilson, below left, failed to finish, as did Nick Heidfeld, below. who had suspension failure on his Sauber/Petronas.

But again, everything was obscured by tyre issues. The thing that stood out as odd was that Alonso had to pit in the middle of a Safety Car interlude and he dropped from second place to dead last as a result. And with a big quantity of fuel on board after tliat he did not figure and ended the race in seventh position. Is the car quick? Who can say?

There were similar questions with other cars. The Williamses and the McLarens were both quick, nreir strategies were fairly conventional after the initial McLaren hiccoughs.

Of the four drivers the one to make the fewest mistakes was Coulthard and he was the race winner.

Raiklconen went off a couple of times; Ralf Schumacher had a slow pit stop followed by an unnecessary spin as he rejoined and a near-miss with Heidfeld. Montoya was bound for victory when he dropped the ball and spim on lap 48. If he was abused when he got back to the Williams garage he deserved it. He knew he had made a bad mistake and apologised to the team over the radio.

"It was absolutely my fault," he said,"but it was the only mistake I made this weekend."

Ralf Schumacher, however, provided an interesting thought when the battle was over: "Something is clear," he said."We have a lot of work ahead of us as the new Ferrari is going to arrive shortly, as weU as the new McLaren ..."

Of the rest, it actually seemed as though Jaguar had thought it all through quite well. Mark Webber was on a pretty durable Michelin (and a fair bit of fuel), which he said 12 March 2003

had compromised his qualifying lap a little but, as the early laps rolled along, he raced to fourth,illustrating above all else that the R4 Jaguar has some serious potential.

Some of the advantage was lost when the first Safety Car appeared, which allowed Michael Schumacher

It was a great shame for the local hero, who had done a splendid job and also opted for a two-stop strategy, the right choice. On the early evidence a podium might not have been out of the question. It could have been 2002 all over again ...

Team-mate Pizzonia was less

to get back on his tail and pass on the restart lap as Webber's rubber came more slowly up to temperature.

Thereafter, though, Mark actually closed back onto the Ferrari's tail and, who knows,could have played a major part in the day's events if the rear suspension hadn't failed on lap 16.

spectacular, looking a little out of his depth and circulating down the field until eventually retiring with an identical failure to his team-mate.

Although Alonso's race was

continued on page 46

l l>

f) Guess who's been watching Penske and Helio Castroneves ... The McLaren team were overjoyed to see their man David Coulthard, below, take the Australian CP. Renault, above right, were fast in qualifying but didn't have the race pace.

r

I spoiled by the strategy employed, I Jarno Trulli was the best of the rest. It was interesting that TruUi was half a minute in arrears on what seemed to

FOSTF/'^

be a very conventional race aird he made no obvious mistakes. So perhaps this is the best indication that we have of the competitiveness of the Renaults. He came home five seconds ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Alonso and Ralf Schumacher.

The latter two had been delayed but Frentzen had a sensible run with a two-stop race. Tire first stop was brought forward because of the tyre issue but the plan was not badly disrupted. Heidfeld shone in the

early part of the race but faded away when he had to carry a bigger fuel load. He disappeared on lap 21 with a broken right front suspension.

It is hard to judge how competitive the BAR-Hondas actually were because the team fell over itself. There was a lively battle early on with Jenson Button ahead of Jacques Villeneuve.

They both had to pit early to change the tyres and Villeneuve went ahead as he was the first to come in. Jenson was right with him and they were up to fourth and fifth when the second stops came. And then it went wrong.

The big question was why.

After the race Villeneuve said that

his radio was not working properly and as a result he missed his pit stop and came in when Button was due.

The team was taken by surprise because Button's tyres were ready and Villeneuve arrived.

Both men lost time as a result but Button was feeling more than a little irritated by what had happened and in the final laps his chase of Villeneuve seemed to hint that perhaps he felt Villeneuve had stitched him up deliberately.

Tire two men crossed the line noseto-tail, with Villeneuve ahead, which indicated to anyone who cared to notice that Button had driven a harder race. There was a lot more to the story than met the eye.

It'slitill white and red ^ f 2003 Formula One - season commenced with 'I- One of the more fascinating ?^ ibattles in prospect.

In. one corner, Olivier # .. fanis, 36, aboard the Panasonic Toyota TF103, i_^eJ0resenting Formula ^^One% newest p"; imaniuifacturer, recently described in one 0' racing journal as "an international bank that happens to w make motor cars." After qualifying, he lined up fifth.

In the other corner.

m-

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46

Jacques Villeneuve, 31, in BARFlonda's 005. The 1997 world champion drives for a rejuvenated team, powered by the latest engine from a Flonda (finally) serious about reaching for the top of the sport.

The 2002 team-mates get on well, respect each other and wanted to beat each other as badly as it gets.

The engine manufacturers are bitter rivals: adding to the spice was the fact that Flonda had kaboomed three engines in practice (admittedly, of a different spec to their race engines) and Toyota's latest weapon had been fast and reliable.

Starting on dry tyres, Panis dropped back at the start, finishing the opening lap in 11th, four spots back from Villeneuve. Four laps in, the Canadian pitted for dry rubber, resuming 14th, while Panis was sixth.

But the battle resumed when the Frenchman pitted under yellow on lap 9, rejoining under Villeneuve's wing. The two held station for a while until split by Jenson Button, JV getting as high as fourth during pitstops. But the pattern was broken on lap 25 when both BARs pitted at the same time, Button losing about 14s in the delay.

That put Villeneuve and Panis close together again but, when he lost about 3s on lap 29, the writing was on the wall for Ollie. The TF103 pitted and returned before Panis parked it on the side of the track with zero oil pressure.

The two BARS pressed on, separated by 20s, to record non points finishes, Villeneuve ninth and Button 10th.

- PHIL BRAIMAGAN moiorsport news

FI ACP

K7i

2003 FIA Formula One World Championship

FORWULAI

WORLD

2003 Australian Grand Prix - Overall Race Classification after 58 laps - 307.574 kf«sovlslonaI No.

Driver

Nat

Laps

Time

5 * David Coulthard

GBR

West McLaren Mercedes

58

1:34:42.124

3 [Juan Pablo Montoya

COL

BMW WilliamsFl Team

58

1:34:50.799

Entrant

Kph

Best

194.868

1:28.272

28

194.571

1:27.942

39 32

Gap 08.675

Lap

6

Kimi Raikkonen

FIN

West McLaren Mercedes

58

1:34:51.316

09.192

00.517

194.553

1:27.724

1

Michael Schumacher

GER

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

58

1:34:51.606

09.482

00.290

194.543

1:27.759

27

7

JarnoTrulli

ITA

Mild Seven Renault FI Team

58

1:35:20.925

38.801

29.319

193.546

1:28.638

44

10

Heinz Harald Frentzen

GER Sauber Petronas

58

1:35:26.052

43.928

05.127

193.373

1:29.096

35

8

Fernando Alonso

ESP

Mild Seven Renault FI Team

58

1:35:27.198

45.074

01.146

193.334

1:28.170

35

4

Ralf Schumacher

GER

BMW WilliamsFl Team

58

1:35:27.869

45.745

00.671

193.312

1:28.617

37

16 Jacques Villeneuve

CAN

Lucky Strike BAR Honda

58

1:35:47.660

65.536

19.791

192.646

1:28.770

57

17

57

Jenson Button

GBR

Lucky Strike BAR Honda

58

1:35:48,098

65.974

0.438

192.631

1:28.600

19 Jos Verstappen

NED

European Minardi Cosworth

57

1:36:13.626

1 LAP

1 LAP

188.473

1:31.785

29

11

Giancarlo Fisicheila

ITA

Jordan Ford

52

1:26:41.217

DNF

190.863

1:29.274

49

15

Antonio Pizzonla

BRA

Jaguar Racing

52

1:27:14.104

DNF

189.664

1:29.217

37

Not Classified

"Jacques seemed unable to hear his radio properly," said team boss David Richards.

Seemed?

The only other driver rurming at the finish was Jos Verstappen who had had a bad day which began with an oil leak which meant that he had to go into the spare car, which was set up for Justin Wilson. He started from pitlane but drove a good solid race with an ill-handling car.

Wilson did well in the early laps, possibly on light-ish fuel (tlie Minardis were able to start on whatever tliey

20

Olivier Panis

54:53.052

DNF

179.716

1:29.694

23

Nick Heidfeld

FRA Panasonic Toyota Racing GER Sauber Petronas

0

9

0

37:39.015

DNF

169.016

1:33.519

14

18

Justin Wilson

GBR

0

28:54.048

DNF

176.150

1:33.139

13

14

Mark Webber

0

26:57.488

DNF

177.041

1:29.697

14

21

Cristiano Da Matta

AUS- Jaguar Racing BRA Panasonic Toyota Racing

0

12:00.563

DNF

185.459

1:33.753

7

12

Ralph Firman

IRL

Jordan Ford

0

10:17.584

DNF

185.472

1:36.644

6

2

Rubens Barrichello

BRA

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

0

08:13.822

DNF

193.296

1:37.066

5

European Minardi Cosworth

Fastest Lap I 6 I Kimi Raikkonen

j FIN j West McLaren Mercedes"

wished, having not recorded a qualifying lap) as others struggled but went out with a holed radiator.

Jordan did not have a great day.

Ralph Firman looked good as the track was drying but then went off and had a fairly big crash, ending his FI debut. Fisicheila had had a bad first lap because of the tyre choice and then ran over some of Firman's debris. He lost time because of a

I 1:27.724 on lap 32

end with a gearbox problem.

Toyota finished neither car but again there was potential shown.Panis struggled in the early laps with what seemed to be a heavy fuel load (although given his speed in qualifying this seemed a little odd)but as the

problem with the fuel flap in the middle of the race and retired at the

1

GER Ferrari

Michael Schumacher

2 Rubens Barrichello

BRA Ferrari

3 Juan Pablo Montoya

COL Williams

4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen

GER Sauber

5 Olivier Panis

FRA Toyota

6 Jacques Villeneuve

CAN BAR

7

GER Sauber

Nick Heidfeld

: 8 Jenson Button 9

Ralf Schumacher

5

10

/

m

J

S’!

;GER Williams

10 Fernando Alonso

ESP

11 David Coulthard

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12 March 2003

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The picture we have is still somewhat clouded. Malaysia will give us a few more answers but for FI in general, Melbourne was a triumph, If only because a Ferrari did not win...

Positions iap by iap Accident

1

off very early as he was trying to work his way up through the field as the track dried.

track dried he came back impressively and would have been a real contender

March 9 2003 Nat Car

retired witli a fuel pressure problem.

Cristiano da Matta was running a different strategy and appeared to have more fuel than Panis but went

for points had he not been given a drive-through penalty after going over the yeUow line exiting the pits.

This ruined his race and then he

Grand Prix of AUSlfdlid Grid Position/Driver

i 217.623

1

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 47

EXCLUSIVE

Mark We w

ELL, all 1 can say is "roll on Malaysia." Pulling out of the Australian Grand Prix thanks to a suspension failure was obviously disappointing, but there were a string of positives for the Jaguar team to take out of the weekend.

None bigger than the outright speed the car was showing in the race relative to the rest- once it became clear that the strategy we had adopted towards qualifying in relation to tyre choice and fuel load was spot on.

A few cars which had shone on

The guy in green: Webber's run in the new Jaguar R4 went well until suspension failure stopped the Aussie. But still, the team were thrilled with what the lad had achieved. Roll on Malaysia ...

Saturday were a bit less competitive on Sunday and I'm sure that our 'long term' view towards qualifying was the way to go - even if it did mean starting further down the grid than you'd like.

The data show's that on the previous lap to our demise,car 14 was secondquickest on the road,closing in behind Michael(Schiunacher) and in front of DC,both of whom had regained the time lost in an early stop for dry tyres thanks to a Safety Car period.

Given the genuine speed the Jaguar had and the fact that all of the top four survived some sort of drama during the race, I can't help thinking that we may just have missed out on a potentially good result But rather than dwell on that, the I team has discovered that we have a I solid base to build on and returns to i base with morale high. The R4 Jaguar S , and its all-new 90 degree engine clearly have a great deal of potential and,if we continue to work hard,I think we can surprise a few people.

The new qualifying/fuel is intriguing in that, whileformat you can make some guesses, you really don't have a clear indication of where you stand until Sunday's race is well under way.

Jaguar's choice to take the two hours of free practice on Friday is a good one.

While the track was still a bit dirty early on,it still allowed us to complete a fair bit of preliminary set-up work ride height, brakes etc- and, most importantly,back-to-back our two tyre options early in the piece.

Everything was geared towards a race package and I was pretty satisfied with where we were going as we went

"I used the other tyre and the lap itself was a shocker!

If

- on Friday Qualifying 48

into the hour before qualifying.

With a third car also allowed, I was able to do most of this work in the Tcar, thus saving the race car for when the meeting proper began with that single hour for the whole field before Friday Qualifying.

Our tyre decision came quite quickly during the free practice -1 went for the harder of our two

options. Outright speed difference was minimal, but the one I chose was very consistent and that's what really matters. The only down-side was that it seemed to take a little longer than most to get temperature and thus grip up to optimum level, wMch would possibly affect qualifying, but overall it was the right choice.

Later in the hour, we turned our thoughts towards the first qualifying run and I did a couple of runs with low-ish fuel- and produced a couple of quite respectable laps.

You can use your tyre so 1 options for either Fridayofqualifying, actually used the other tyre and the lap itself was ... an absolute shocker!

No excuses,1 just went in a fraction too deep at turn one. The guys told me the data showed 1 didn't brake any later than normal but I guess the tyres weren't quite up to temperature.

The second and third sectors were good -in fact we were fifth-quickest on the third sector - but the first sector was, well, disappointing.

Saturday morning with we re-did tyre comparison, more the

FI AGP

bber's AGP Diary rubber on the track,just to see if we would get a different result. We didn't and Michehn weren't

over the weekend was the right one.

A good omen for the races to come.

It was a bit tricky for the first couple of laps, but then everything got better ... and better.

The Safety Car certainly rescued tliose who were forced to make an

surprised, but you have to give it another crack,just to be sure.

All sorts of factors come into the final choice -set-up, weight distribution and so on - but 1 think a number of teams went into qualifying with a tyre that was softer than ours.

In fact. I'm pretty sure we were on the hardest Michelin of aU of them ...

I think everyone was thinking a 'two-stop' race at this stage and we went into qualifying with a fuel load that would easily accomplish onethird distance - although some teams appeared to have committed themselves to a shorter first stint.

We were 90 percent decided on the fuel we would run after practice, but we did add a little after the qualifying warm-up,.That's the last chance you 5utton-images.com

have to make any change - once qualifying starts, that's it. You can't adjust your fuel load as qualifying is in progress.

We tried a few things to try and overcome my tyres' tendency to take a while to get going - pressures, blanket temps etc - but they still weren't quite on it as I started my lap, So again the first sector was down a bit, but the next two were fine.

Nevertheless, we were pretty happy with the outcome. It could have been a lot worse- you can have a car with no corners on it! In fact, Michelin said that six of their 10 drivers made some sort of mistake on their lap. It could have been a tyre thing or a driver thing -I'm not sure.

The main thing for us was that we were pretty confident we had the right fuel/tyre package for the race wet or dry.

AI

I

have to pause here to thank the fans for being understanding at times over the weekend. I did try to

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2003

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"It had been so long since they had used the'SCHU' sign on the pit board, they couidn't find it tor a few minutes! nnnrr - on closing in on Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari

sign as much as possible whenever we could, but on occasions I just had to go - there was a race to prepare for!

On Sunday morning I was running a bit late and had to race straight into the Paddock for a team meeting, which upset a few waiting outside the gate - but once the briefing was over,I was able to get back out there again for a bit and play catch-up!

Hope I managed to satisfy most of you.I have to say,the support in Melbourne was,again,just huge.It's not hard to teU this is your home race,is it...

T

he rain on Sunday morning wasn't bad news for us. If it stayed wet,I was pretty confident we had a chance of having a reasonable set-up -even though you're not allowed to change a lot before the race start. If it dried out - as it did - then tlie rubber would be washed from the track and I was quietly confident that our dry tyre would handle that'green'surface pretty well.

We did the parade lap on intermediates, but then switched back to our grooved dry tyres on the grid. I had intended to do two warm up laps, but went straight to the grid and hopped out of the car. The track was drying before our eyes and in the end the guys left the final call to meit was very late...

Again,it was the right decision. I have to say - and it's one of the very encouraging things for our crew that just about every call we made

early stop to get onto grooves (including Michael and DC)and Kimi, who'd started from pit lane on them. having made the decision to come in on the parade lap, change tyres and add enough fuel to him his race into a one-stopper. Good call by McLaren.

From my perspective, things were looking pretty good as we headed towards the first scheduled stops.

Once my tyres got up to temperature, I was able to sit quite comfortably behind Michael and we were getting away from DC.In fact, as we swept through the fast left-right over the far side of the track I was actually thinking'come on, mate ...'

In the pits, they were loving it they joked that apparently it had been so long since they'd used the "SCHU' sign on the pit board (-1 SCHU),they couldn't find it for a few minutes!...

Sure there was still a fair way to go, but I was just starting to think that we had a pretty good package, when it all went wobbly into turn one.

When they got the car back they found a broken rear track rod - and exactly the same thing on Antonio's car. That's a job for Malcolm Oastler's department. I'm guessing it won't happen again...

Still, like I said, there are a big number of positives for Jaguar to take out of Melbourne. We have a car that has a great deal of potential and I wish Malaysia was tomorrow!

We are in fact having a few days break up north before we head to KL, but I think things will be buzzing back at the factory -some of the engineers were on a plane minutes after the race ended and they are very motivated!

49

T

HERE is a lot of questions still to be answered in V8 Supercar racing after the Netspace V8 Supercar Showdown races at Albert Park.

The score was Holden 1, Ford 1, Weather 1 after the Simday morning race was cut short following an incident between Paul DumbreU and Paul Morris on lap 2. Morris's car was wrecked, Dumbrell's less so, the track blocked and the race was binned.

What makes the rest of the equation worthwhile was what else happened. After quahfying on pole position, as expected these days, Mark Skaife spun the Holden Racing Team Commodore VY twice, the car clearly struggling for race speed.

Worse for the Reds, Todd Kelly was out for the weekend after being cleaned up in the first race, with Paul Weel and Paul Radisich involved as well.

Jason Bright gave the renewed Team Brock a fairytale debut with a Race 1 win while Russell IngaU did likewise in Race 2, the Caltex BA looking the class of the field.

Meanwhile, team-mate Marcos Ambrose had a weekend from hell, all manner of electrical dramas leaving the leading 2002 Ford driver in testing mode for the races.

Steven Johnson turned around a tough start to a good result, while Ford Performance Racing had a mixed maiden appearance, with Glenn Seton bearing the worst of the 50

weekend, Craig Lowndes and David Besnard both having time in the spotlight.

As did Jason Bargwarma and yes, two of those three drivers are aboard the previously-unloved Falcon AU. Maybe there is life in the old, er, notquite-dogs yet.

Good first weekends for some,bad first weekends for others and chinks in HRT's armour. And that team has to imdergo something of an ownership transformation prior to the Adelaide 500(see news pages). We are stiU no clearer to knowing who is going to win this whole thing but Mr Ingall is grinning like never before.

Practice and Qualifying For while - a that short while, anyway - itaappeared the Big Red Machine was going to be derailed.

Well, part of it For much of qualifying, Skaife was not fastest.

Kelly T was, until the man whom he replaced at HRT,Bright, leapt to the top of the leaderboard.

It was a stout effort for a 'new' team. Team Brock rolled into pitlane in the AM with a whole new look; it was silver and yellow and the two Commodore VXs were bedecked with the logos of Betta Electrical and the sponsors associated with Briggs Motorsport; Sunbeam,LG,etc. It was the first anyone knew of the deal.

"We were as shocked as anyone,"

reported John McLean,Operations Manager of Briggs."We never knew it was coming."

He was right; they couldn't have.

The deal had been concluded atUteraUy - the last minute,in fact, at the close of business on the preceding evening, Wednesday. As a result.

Bright and team-mate Paul Weel wore racesuits in tlie correct hues but without identification for the actual sponsors. That will come,one assumes,in time for Adelaide.

And,'new' team? Not quite. Team manager is Johnny Panozzo,formerly of HRT and the cars were ex-Red as well. Bright was driving the car he drove to a debut win at Winton, while Weel was in the ex-Young Lions car raced until the end of 2002 by Rick

Kelly Then Skaife struck, not quite at the end of the session, but close. He took pole from right under his former team-mate's nose.

"All the guys are pleased to be back into it after the off-season," said the fit-looking Champion."It's a really enjoyable racetrack to do a good lap on."

Kelly was third, reporting that he felt a little rusty after the off-season break but no dramas in the car department.

And,as for the distraction of, possibly, having a weekend off after the pre-meeting dramas surrounding Holden's purchase of HRT and its attendant implications?

"We would be lying if we said it was the most perfect preparation/' Skaifey said."It has been unsettling."

The HRT pair were split by Bright which,as said before, was no surprise. He paid tribute to the fact that the crew had transformed the car from a shell into a complete car in two weeks which, after the off-season some teams have enjoyed in building new cars from late-deUvered shells, was a relative snack.

Three HRT cars (or former HRT cars) up front. What next? Ingall. The Enforcer had a smile on as many parts of his anatomy as he could manage, sealing a second-row start in a BA that had had only three hours worth of testing at Queensland Raceway prior to the trip south.

"We went a Little bit early," Ingall said."We put our second set(of fresh tyres) on early."

Offsider Ambrose was less well-off.

The Pirtek car was late onto the track in practice due to an electrical problem, which reared its head when he was starting on his second set of tyres in qualifying.

"A small electrical problem," he said tersely. So what was he looking forward to from 14th on the grid?

"Adelaide," he replied.

Speaking of Stone Brothers Racing, the string had been stopped at three.

David Besnard,Ambrose and Mark Winterbottom all 'poled' on debut.

Oh, well, records were made to be broken.

motorsport news

: Oirk Kl)>mw!th

New looks, new results: Russell Ingall, left, and Jason Bright gave their new teams the best possible results. The Enforcer was right on the money in the Stone Brothers/Caltex Falcon AU, while Brighty used the same car in which he ended the 2002 season (but now in Betta/Brock colours) to win Race 1.

The Make a Wishbone Foundation: Mark Skaife was Da Man in qualifying but had problems in the races. The HRT VY looked fast over a lap but seemed to be struggling in race trim. Sounds like a 2002 Falcon AU ...

Steven Richards followed, well pleased with the Perkins VX which, he said, had been "sitting there patiently while the guys have been building VYs." Next was Tander. Now,this was something. Garth was aboard a VY but only after some really late nights at Garry Rogers Motorsport, many of which GT himself was working during. The new car was completed at 4am on Tuesday morning and trucked to Winton, where Tander shook it down for 30 laps.

Satisfied, the tall guy leapt in for qualifying and wound up sixth. And it was no brave, white-knuckle effort, 12 March 2003

as Tander reeled off three successive laps that were all quick on his second set of tyres.

"We made a mid-session change and it worked a treat," Tander smiled. "We had no expectations to do so well; I honestly thought we could be 15th to 18th. Boy, are we happy."

As a 19th grid position went, the GRMs were also happy with Jamie Whincup. The rookie did a manful job in his first qualifying session as a full-timer and was impressively quick.

Lowndes was seventh, the best of

the FPR men, Besnard and Glenn Seton back in 20th and 22nd. The Kid had the best of the traffic in the session and, after hanging around his team-mate's times for much of the session, leapt 10 places on his final lap.

Greg Murphy was eighth, ■reporting that the KRT VX was generally unhappy ("We have the bits of the puzzle but they are not arranged yet") while John Bowe followed, happy enough (but not thrilled) with the OzEmail Falcon BA. Leading the Falcon AU 'class' in

10th was Jason Bargwanna. The Orrcon car was, according to Bargs, really consistent and he was a happy camper after an off-season of change.

The big losers of the session were the Shell Falcons. After Steven Johnson stopped dead on his second set of tyres, the team discovered that the engine had suffered undetected engine damage from a test. He was 15th but that was 13 spots better than Max Wilson, who had all kinds of new cars problems with his DJR car. continued on page 52 51

POS DRIVER 1 Mark Skaife 2 Jason Bright 3 Todd Kelly 4 Russell Ingall 5 Steven Richards 6 Garth Tander 7 Craig Lowndes Greg Murphy 9 John Bowe 10 Jason Bargwanna 11 Steve Ellery 12 Paul Weel 13 Cameron McConville 14 Marcos Ambrose 15 Steven Johnson 16 Rick Kelly 17 Simon Wills 18 Paul Radlsich 19 Jamie Whincup 20 David Besnard 21 Dean Canto 22 Glenn Seton 23 Paul Morris 24 Greg Ritter 25 Brad Jones 26 Paul Dumbrell 27 Jason Richards 28 Max Wilson 29 Rodney Forbes 30 Mark Larkham 31 Anthony Tratt 32 Craig Baird

fQualifying^

GAR Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Betta Team Brock Commodore VX Holden Racing Team Commodore VY SBR Caltex Falcon BA Castrol Perkins Commodore VX Valvoline Cummins Commodore VY Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA Kmart Racing Commodore VX OzEmail Racing Falcon BA Orrcon Larkham Falcon BA Supercheap Auto Falcon BA Betta Team Brock Commodore VX Lansvale Smash Commodore VX SBR Pirtek Falcon BA DJR Shell Helix Falcon BA Kmart Racing Commodore VX Team Dynamilk Commodore VY Team Betta Falcon BA Valvoline Cummins Commodore VX Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA Team Betta Falcon BA Ford Performance Racing Falcon AU Sirromet Commodore VY 00 Motorsport Falcon BA OzEmall Racing Falcon BA Castrol Perkins Commodore VX Team Dynamilk Falcon VY DJR Shell Helix Falcon BA 00 Motorsport Falcon AU Orrcon Larkham Falcon AU Toll Racing Falcon AU Team Kiwi Commodore VX

TIME 1m59.082s lm59.289s lm59.305s 1 m59.399s 1 m59.501s 1 m59.683s 1 m59.769s lm59,878s 2m00.131s 2m00.140s 2m00.146s 2m00.157s 2m00.241s 2m00.256s 2m00.286s 2m00.407s 2m00.444s 2m00.465s 2m00.637s 2m00.804s 2m00.919s 2m00.920s 2m01.176s 2m01.222s 2m01.264s 2m01.281s 2m01.296s 2m01,579s 2m01.616s 2m01.865s 2m02,128s 2m03.558s

Netscape lf8 Supercar ShowPown continued from page 51

Race 1(10 laps) When was the last tune Skaife threw away a race car?

Okay;he did it in quahfying last time out, at Sandown in December,but it was even more unusual to do it while he was second,behind the faststarting Bright.

From behind,Richards reported that the HRT car looked very skatey and, for all his skill and experience,not even Skaifey could keep it on the black stuff when the rear got away. It happened again on lap 5 and Skaife was bunkered for the day.

There had been a Safety Car period already. First race of the season,first comer,first incident. IngaU had been on the right-hand-side of the track, with Tander trying to find a way inside him (unbeknownst to Russell). In third, Todd Kelly caught Richards and IngaU (at least) by surprise by braking, according to higaU,"a good soUd 100 yards before he should have".

Richards took to the grass on the outside and was stunned to find himself third when he regained the black stuff; IngaU carried on in fourth while,in a strange mixture or irony and sponsorship opportunities,Todd KeUy got turned around and was hit by(Mow Clayton-ite) Weel who was, in turn, hit by(Mow Betta-ite) Paul Radisich. All tluee were out on the spot, whUe Cameron McConvUle was delayed in the melee.

So Bright led Skaifey tmtil the latter threw it into a (red) sandtrap on lap five. IngaU stalked Richo for a whUe and snuck past when the Castrol car's braking tweaks got the better of the driver. Murphy came through to fourth 52

after making good early progress and was happier than he had been after qualifying.

But he was not as happy as Bargwanna,one of the drivers he passed during the race. Bargs had a small queue of cars behind for a large part of the race but was a happy,happy man in fifth, reporting that the car was consistent and a joy to drive. And no, we did not ask what he thought when he saw Tander's car on the side of tlte road...

Bowe came next from the solid Lowndes,Steve EUery and Johnson, whose car was, at least, running cleanly, Besnard, Dean Canto and Brad Jones followed, it was to be the last

opening lap and set cruise control to motor aroimd the final 11 laps to Ford's first win with the BA. "It's a testament to how fast the Stone Brothers team can dial a car in," he reported later."We made changes last night but I do not even know what they were; I just told them what . the car was doing and they fixed it."

Richards described it as "ahnost a sickening fairytale debut." He was right; Ingall reported that the car was not just fast but it was predictable, comfortable and looking after its tyres, which is not that difficult when your are 3s in front.

Richards and Bright disputed second, but the Betta car was having

time we saw the Super Cheap car; Ellery was suffering from a tom rotator cuff in his arm and,rather than risk aU for little gain, retired from combat for the weekend.

Race 2{12 laps)

Wahoo! They are racing: Bright leads the pack away in the Betta Brock Commodore, above. Poleman Mark Skaife is looking for a way past, while Ingall, behind Skaife, was unaware of the closing Tander.

Todd Kelly ended up facing the wrong way, right, and was collected by the pack. Kelly, below centre, was joined in retirement by new TB driver Paul Weel, left, and 'fellow' Betta man Paul Radisich, right.

continued on page 54

again. This time, havmg started at the t rear of the grid, he Skaife spun was mid-pack at the time, having passed nine cars on the opening lap but,from there, progress had been slower.

- ' ■ —T

He picked off one or two more cars, lost the rear of the car and resumed, recovering to 18th by the end.

Tander had not even made the start, Paul Morris was 15th and Simon Wills had a spin, repeating what he did in the opening race. With Todd Kelly not even making the start, it was not a good first-up appearance for Holden's Commodore VY. But if the General's generals were battling, their Ford opposites were grinning. Ingall beat Bright away from the lights, pulled 2s clear on the

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53

V8 Supercars

Albert Park naca 1 -10 taps Pas Driver Bright Ingall S. Richards Murphy Bargwanna Bowe Lowndes Ellery 9 Johnson 10 Besnard 11 Canto 12 Jones 13 R. Kelly 14 Dumbrell 15 Forbes 16 Morris 17 Seton 18 Ambrose 19 Whincup 20 McConville 21 Ritter 22 Larkham 23 J. Richards 24 Wilson 25 Wills 26 Baird 27 Tratt

Race limeFasiest lap 22:19.546 2:00.619 22:21.424 2:00.742 22:22.319 2:00.838 22:22.986 2:00.811 22:27.668 2:01.445 22:27.926 2:01.394 22:28.814 2:01.428 22:31.167 2:01.624 22:32.605 2:01.724 22:37.309 2:01.985 22:37.984 2:02.370 22:42.202 2:02.738 22:44.254 2:01.617 22:49.702 2:02.366 22:50.071 2:02.913 22:50.425 2:01.947 22:50.506 2:02.337 22:51.102 2:00.905 22:53.174 2:03.155 22:54.871 2:02.084 22:54.898 2:02.187 22:55.188 2:02.967 22:55.409 2:03.069 22:55.956 2:03.180 23:00.083 2:02.387 23:06.912 2:04.855 9 laps 2:02.838

5 6 6 7 7 4 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 4 5 6 4 5 6 6 7 7 6 7 6 5

2:01.508

4

DNF Skaife DNF T. Kelly DNF Tander DNF Weel DNF Radisich

4 laps 0 laps Olaps 0 laps 0 laps

Race 2-12 laps 1 Ingall 2 S. Richards 3 Bright 4 Bargwanna 5 Bowe 6 Johnson 7 Lowndes 8 Murphy 9 Canto 10 Besnard 11 Dumbrell 12 Forbes 13 Wilson 14 R. Kelly 15 Morris 16 Radisich 17 Seton 18 Skaife 19 McConville 20 Larkham 21 Ritter 23 Jones

24:20.082 24:23.127 24:26.749 24:31.538 24:32.478 24:34.029 24:34.485 24:34.608 24:38.389 24:41.352 24:46.320 24:51.387 24:56.745 24:57.369 24:58.132 24:58.774 24:59.937 25:00.257 25:00.473 25:05.439 25:06.614 10 laps

2:00.243 5 2:00.330 5 2:00.052 5 2:01.156 3 2:00.986 5 2:01.146 5 2:01.214 6 2:00.997 5 2:01.526 5 2:01.727 5 2:01.611 10 2:01.335 5 2:01.660 5 2:01.317 8 2:01.342 5 2:02.080 3 2:02.598 8 2:01.120 8 2:01.819 8 2:02.807 5 2:02.803 8 2:01.570 5

DNF J. Richards DNF Wills DNF Tratt DNF Whincup DNF Ambrose DNF Baird

11 laps 8 laps 7 laps 6 laps 4 laps 2 laps

2:01.497 7 2:02.454 6 2:03.074 5 2:03.076 4 2:00.291 4 2:07.992 2

t

John Morris/Mpix

Dumbrell was going bard in the wet Sunday race. above, before be tangled with Paul Morris. The Queenslander's Sirromet Commodore VY ivas severely damaged in the incident, causing Sunday's race to be red-

flagged.

iJJAl

Something old, new...

Bargwanna was the best of the Falcon AUs, here leading the BAs ofJohn Bowe and Craig Lowndes.

continued from page 52 brake issues and, after the rears skidded and forced him off the track. the battle for the two former Bathurst

whose car looked much happier, Dumbrell, who was making a solid Albert Park debut and Forbes, who the

wars at the tail of the field, running with fellow delayed driver McConville, Larkham and Brad Jones.

Race 3(6 laps) Well, decided it never to add got that water far. toHuey the besieged reservoirs during the night and morning and a wet track awaited the V8 circus.

Dfrk KlfTismiOt

*

co-winners was settling in favour of Richo. Bargwanna took third, holding off Bowe and a resurgent Johnson, the Helix car putting its tough weekend behind with a solid-looking performance.

Lowndes was next, the 00.(ooops, FPR)car making good early progress. from Murphy(who had an off at Turn 10 while trying Bright on for size) was next, the #51 losing speed for half a lap before Murf got it all together again.

A trio of Fords followed; Besnard,

00 team reported had spent a solid day testing at VVinton prior to tlie race while Greg Ritter was shaking down their new BA. Ritter had been in the

54

Dirk Klynsmith

Before and after:

Tlie start was delayed when Canto walled the Briggs Falcon on the

formation lap, the pause giving the SBR crew the opportunity to free and snagged IngaU windscreen wiper before the start.

Oran Park in 2001, the Morris team is

Murphy made the best of the start but Ingall held him out in the opening corners, but Richards took second before the two made contact around

race red-flagged. Any opportunity for Ingall to make it a double for the weekend vanished but the message was clear; The Enforcer and SBR are The Real Deal and will be a factor in

the back. The kerfuffle allowed a flying Besnard into third but it was all about to come to nothing. . Dumbrell had been running hot, taking both Skaife and Bowe on lap 2 but the Castrol car got onto the wet grass, regained the track in the path of the fast Morris. The Sirromet VY tagged the VX and careered into the wall, virtually destroying the car.

Following the Matt Neal incident at

not having any joy debuting cars ...

Neither Morris nor Dumbrell were hurt but the track was blocked and the

the championship this season.

Add to that the form of Richards, Bright and Murphy in the older VXs and the lack of quality track time for the newer VYs and we face a fascinating prospect for the championship-opening Clipsal 500 in two weeks. Always a great event, expect the 2003 edition of the streets of Adelaide to be a blockbuster ...

moiorsport news

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The Dream h Q: What to you get when you cross Peter Brock with a seven-litre Monaro? A: A 40 sweep of the Nations Cup races and a lot of deliriously happy Holden fans.

MARK GLENDENNING reports from Albert Park

llBDi mlBD mlflB ’BlIIQ Bn ^■BB nn

T

HE Bathurst 24 Hour winning Holden Monaro, Peter Brock, and good, old-fashioned luck are each formidable forces unto themselves, but the Nations Cup races at Albert Park last weekend proved that the three combined are untouchable.

Brock steered the Monaro to a clean sweep of the four races, helping the seven-litre beast to notch up a perfect racing record.

But the nine-time Bathurst winner looked set to have his work cut out for him early in the weekend however, when Paul Stokell converted his pole position to lead the field away in race one.

Stokell's Lamborghini Diablo enjoyed a lead of around 0.9s over Brock with just a lap and a half to go when it was broadsided by the lapped TVR Chimera of Kosi Kalaitzidis.

"I'm a bit miffed about the whole thing," said Stokell.

"It's the worst bit of driving I've seen in a long time. He must have braked about 50 metres too late."

The sudden departure of the Lambo opened the door for an easy Brock victory, and put Stokell into the position of playing catch-up for the remainder of the weekend.

With Stokell's Lamborghini starting from the rear of the grid in race two. Brock enjoyed the luxury of a pressure-free opening few laps. Stokell made relatively short work of the traffic to work his way towards the front, but Brock had an answer for whatever challenge the Diablo could offer.

Second place at least put Stokell onto the front row for Saturday's race, and again he got the better of Brock to lead away.

He was still there six laps later trying to defend a shrinking gap to the Monaro when disaster struck in the form of a failed wheel bearing. The Italian machine, which had only arrived in Australia a few days prior to the event, was again left stricken as Brock stroked the Monaro around the circuit for the remaining laps to clock up win number three.

Adding injury to the insult of the Lamborghini's premature

moiorsport news

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exit, a member of the team severely damaged his thumb while undertaking the repair job later that evening. The mechanic was taken to hospital for microsurgery to fix the damaged digit, and the team went into the final day of racing one man short.

If red mist is worth an extra two seconds a lap, then Stokell should consider hiring somebody to sit around the garage reeling off insults while he straps on his helmet. Again starting from the back of the field for Sunday's fourth and final outing, the Lamborghini was positively scary in its efforts to make the most of the final opportunity to notch one up against the Monaro at Albert Park.

In the previous three races, Stokell had not dipped below the 2m02s mark. But this time around, he made two successive incursions into sub-2m02s territory before blasting out an astonishing 2m00.685s - good enough to bump David Besnard from P20 in the weekend's V8 Supercar qualifying session.

"I was surprised at the times," Stokell said.

"We didn't really have many tyres left, so we put the best bunch that we had on there. The track was obviously fairly grippy, and I was probably a little bit more determined, and ... away we went!"

It was a good effort, particularly considering that the car was still running the smaller brakes that it was wearing when it touched down in Australia, but it was not enough to catch Brock in the Monaro.

"I knew I had to get a wriggle on, because I had Paul Stokell coming through very rapidly, and by the same token, I knew that if I was too lethargic, the temperature was going to run away from those tyres and that if the drizzle did come, I was going to be very busy indeed,"explained Brock, referring to the rain that arrived moments after the chequered flag dropped.

"That's the way you've got to drive, I suppose. Get stuck into it a bit, but keep it all together."

While the Monaro and lead Lamborghini were the ones setting the pace, Albert Park 12 March 2003

n

C-\^:

was also a happy hunting ground for Vipers, with a second and third going the way of Greg Crick in the last two races, and a second to D'Arcy Russell in race one.

I'm enjoying it, it's a bit of fun," said Crick, who had only acquired the ex-Geoff Morgan eight-litre VI0 a few days earlier.

I'll need to get a bit more time in the car and to get a bit more comfortable - I don't even fit in it, I've got my head jammed in the roof. But I like the car and I think there's a lot of potential there, with a bit of work.

Indeed, Crick could also have snared the final podium spot in race two, but was caught out when the race was allowed to run two laps longer than scheduled and ran out of fuel on the final lap.

Helping save the weekend for Team Lamborghini Australia was Sam Newman, who picked up a third place in race one as a reward for perhaps the best drive of his career.

The ex-AFL footballer was on

What might have been; Stokell's Lamborghini, above, packed some punch but faired rather less well where reliability and luck were concerned.

Team-mate Sam Newman was also quick early in the weekend but eventually fell victim to varying misfortunes, right.

target to back his result up with another podium, but it came undone when he was put into the wall by the PHR Ferrari 360 Challenge of Allan Simonsen.

The incident was a small blot on an otherwise good weekend for the 24-year-old Dane, who took home trophies for third place in races two and three, and also claimed three Group Two wins.

In addition to PHR team-mate Hector Lestor, his main class opposition came from the Trident Racing Maserati Trofeos of Rod Wilson and Gary Young.

The car's world racing debut got off to the best possible start

when Wilson chalked up a class win in the first race, and while neither car was able to reach the same heights over the remainder of the weekend, the team were reasonably happy with their performance.

Mark King dominated GTP proceedings, steering his Lancer EVO VI I around Albert Park for a clean sweep in the class.

Mazio masters Mini mayhem

ITALIAN male model Mazio Canevarolo scored victory in the Mini Celebrity Challenge at Albert Park on Sunday.

Canevarolo, boyfriend of Australian glamour girl Megan Gale, set the pace in qualifying and went on to win the accident-mared event.

Winter Olympic gold medalist Steven Bradbury finished second, ahead of Rove Live competition winner, Paul Brown.

Face of Foster’s winner Grace McClure, comedians Jimoeon and Peter Heliier.and radio presenter Bridget Dudos were all involved in incidents, forcing the stewards to finish the race under the safety car after two laps.

- GRANT ROWLEY

Pat Rafter, above, avoided the carnage to finish eighth in his first ever motor race.

57

On for young and old

by MARK GLENDENNING

OLD hands dominated a new category at Albert Park last weekend, as Alex Davison withstood the best efforts of Jim Richards to cleansweep the debut of the PER Brakes Carrera Cup series.

From Davison's perspective, the first two races were relatively straightforward matters. The 23-yearold Victorian, who has spent the last three years competing in the German Carrera Cup series, took the lead at the start and maintained it to the chequered flag.

His biggest scare came in race one when a minor excursion off the track caused the VIP Petfoods car to lose its front splitter, allowing Richards to needle away at the gap before finally running out of laps.

"It was one of those races where you're counting the laps down," grinned Davison.

Tim Leahey was pleased to finish third after admitting that he was still finding his way in terms of set-up The first race also marked the beginning of what proved to be an expensive weekend for several competitors, with numerous incidents causing varying degrees of mayhem.

Matthew Halliday, James Dutton, and Rodney Jane all failed to make the start due to dutch damage, while 2002 Porsche Cup Champ Matthew Coleman's Carrera Cup campaign got off on the wrong foot when his car blew a radiator hose on the warm-up lap.

While Davison scooted away to take an eventual 2.4s win in race two, Richards was having a slightly more eventful time behind him. The problems began when he made contact with Leahey at turn one. The Orange-based driver was relegated to eighth,inspiring a great drive to steal the final podium spot from Marcus Marshall, while Richards was left to

Different worlds: Davison, Richards and Leahey lead the field into turn one as all hell brakes loose behind them, above.

The German-based Davison, right, won all three races in the new Carrera Cup series'first outing wrestle a 911 GT3 Cup car that was not handling at all well courtesy of a bent tie-rod.

The damp,greasy track that awaited the field for Sunday's final race raised the prospect of some serious panel damage at turn one. however as things turned out a few of the competitors would have been happy to make it that far.

The field had barely passed the start line when Geoff Morgan made a slow start after bogging down, causing Jonathon Webb to stamp on the anchors and receive a clip in the rear from Dutton. Webb was sent into the back of Morgan, while Dutton speared across the pit exit, back onto the track - and back into Webb ... who went back into Morgan. Both

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Webb and Dutton described their encounter as a 'racing incident'.

At the front, Richards survived a slap from Halliday to put the screws into Davison, but the youngster was up to the task and took the win from Jim by 2.3s.

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once 1 got the start and keep it really smooth," said Davison.

Third place went to Marshall.

Competing in his first wet tin-top race, Marshall's bid for the final podium spot was made a little easier when Leahey speared into wall shortly after passing the Queenslander.

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Francis far too flash at AGP

QUEENSLANDER Brett Francis was the dominant force during the Formula Ford Track Attack support events at the Australian Grand Prix.

Francis, 28, made the most of a crash-marred race one to storm to an easy win. He went on to claim victory in the two remainmg events on Friday and Satirrday.

In spite of some engine difficulties during race two,Francis was delighted with his clean-sweep on the weekend.

"We made some changes and I'm really happy with it now." said Francis.

"Despite some engine problems, the U-Drive car is working well."

After qualifying in fourth place, Francis took advantage of incidents which occurred in front of him in race one. The young Van Diemen RF02 driver was never to be headed again throughout the meeting, but he realises the up-coming championship w'Ul be no breeze.

"The Sonic team had a tough weekend and I know that the results here won't reflect on theNational series."

K&A Motorsport driver Brett Washington gave the established teams something to think about for 2003 after a consistent and deserved second overall in his brand-new Van Diemen RF03. Kurt Wimmer secured

Marshall Cassl an excellent third outright, despite qualifying 15th and struggling to launch the car off the line at the start of each race.

affair for the 24-year-old, finishing a close third behind young Kiwi Chris Pither.

Race one was an eventful affair

Sonic Motor Sport driver Glen Hastings was the quick man during practice and qualifying, but couldn't convert his fast pace into race results.

Hastings ran into trouble early in the first race and was forced to start from the rear of the field for race two.

A spirited charge from the back came to zero when he hit a stray tyre barrier and broke the brake line on

with 11 cars faUing to make the finish. Daniel Reinhardt and Dean

the car. Saturday's race was a happier

Fiore were involved in a heavy incident at turn tliree, taking both of the young guns out of the race.

A great three-way scrape for the lead between Tony Pugliese, David Renyolds and Francis was ruined when Pugliese in his Mary's Gourmet Kitchen Van Diemen closed the door on Renyolds, taking the leading pair out of the event.

Pugliese was again involved in an incident, this time with young Kiwi Jonny Reid. Wakefield Park's Formula 4000 victor qualified in ninth and showed exceptional speed to quickly advance to the front of the field. The incident tore off Reid's right rear tyre and put both of them on the sidelines.

Francis avoided the carnage to record his first win for the weekend.

John Morns/Mpix Dread the red: Brett Francis, top, was in a class of his own at Albert Park.

Not so fortunate was Tony Pugliese, above, who didn't have all his wheels facing in the right direction...

Second place was a delighted Wirmner ahead of Washington.

Race two didn't quite have the carnage of the first event but it provided trackside fans with typically close Formula Ford action. Francis ran

away at the start, established a healthy lead and eventually finishing over 2.0s in front of Wimmer.

Francis'cause was helped by a fascinating battle between Wimmer, Cade Southall and Washington. The trio swapped places on numerous occasions, with Washington just missing a podium place. Southall was overwhelmed by his third position and recognised the significance of a strong result at the Grand Prix supports.

"I think it's very important sponsorship-wise to get a good result at this event." said Southall.

Melbourne-based Queenslander Michael Trimble brought his Sonic Motor Sport entry from the rear of the field to finish in sixth place.

Saturday's race was held under overcast sides but the threat of rain was only that.

Tony D'Alberto suffered a horror weekend,losing a wheel in practise and not making the grid for race one.

He climbed his way up to ninth in the second race but struck trouble on the opening lap. D'Alberto eventually finished seventh.

Francis again stormed to an impressive victory, over 14s in front of Pither and Hastings.

-GRANT ROWLEY

Catch up

with US at

www.delphi.com DCLPHU 12 March 2003

Driving Tomorrow’s Technology

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Carlos proves he T

TURKEY

HEY say that when the going gets tough,the tough get going and Carlos Sainz has proven this once more with his emphatic win in the Rally of Turkey.

While some people have been discussing the 40-year-old's possible retirement, the Spaniard has grabbed a new lease of life at Citroen and on the first-ever round of the World Championship in Turkey, he has once

proved he is a master.

Got a brand new WRC round? Chances again Sainz's win in the rough and tumble of the Anatolian hiUs was are Carlos Sainz will win it for you. similar to his win in Cyprus three years ago that event was also a JON THOMSON reports on the new roundwhen to the championship.

While others struggled with the new Spaniard's maiden WRC win for Citroen stages, the Spaniard powered to

victory in Turkey. He has also won three times on the rough roads of Greece and now has joined team-mate Colin McRae on 25 WRC wins in a career spanning more than 15 years.

While Fetter Solberg and Harri Rovanpera set the early pace,Sainz scooped up the lead when the Peugeot driver broke a suspension strut on the third test of the second

leg.

Sainz went about the task of

^.

building a lead over the remaining four stages of the day and took a lm20s advantage into the final day.

His wirming margin in the end was 48 seconds over Peugeot's Richard Burns.

"I feel very happy for sure. I think there's no secret, it's just to be faster than the others," said Sainz at the finish.

Mm ^

"When you look at the amount of testing we did before the rally it was not much.I was not very confident but I think the team made very good progress in a very short time, the car is fantastic on gravel now and we will now be able to attack any rally in tlie WRC with confidence."

While Sainz was pleased with the win, the comments of his rivals did not cover the Turkish event with praise. A myriad of criticism reflected the rough,rocky going.

Burns tried hard to pressure Sainz and bridge the gap and despite taking over half a minute off him on the final leg, the Citroen driver was always in command "I'm glad it's all over," said a relieved Bums.

"It wasn't so enjoyable - tire stages were just so rough and you really couldn't enjoy them.

"I got through with no drama and on a rally like this you can easily try too hard and then make a mistake, it is a relief."

With no real form guide on a maiden round such as this, pundits were scratching their heads as to exactly who,and what car, would win the rally.

Some thought the Subarus may be well-equipped for the rough going but both Solberg and Tommi Maldnen had problems. Others thought Ford would hit its straps, with Markko Martin a possible dominating force but it was his young Belgian team mate Francois Duval who captured his first podium.

Turning 25: Carlos Sainz, left, proved that there is life in the Old Dogs yet with an emphatic maiden win in Turkey. He now shares the most WRC wins with Colin McRae, below, after Sainz's 25th career victory.

TOTAL V.

%

60

motorsport news

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The surprise was the Citroen, which started the rally with a question mark over its gravel capability, particularly on a rough event like Ais. While few had doubts about Peugeot's capability, it seemed the little Xsara was not considered, despite sharing the same platform.

"Before this rally, I love this question to know where we are with the car and now I know the answer," said Citroen Team Director Guy Frequelin.

"For sure, the car is strong and fast but we need experience on these surfaces and we need to work hard."

Citroen's attack didn't start well

Young blokes, different strokes: Francoise Duval took a career-best third place in his Focus, above, while Juusu Pykalisto did his Bozian Motorsport-run 206 no good at all after a rollover on Leg 1, below.

Smile, you're leading: 2001 world champion Burns, right, leads the championship after finishing second in his Peugeot.

when joint Championship leader Sebastien Loeb took a wrong road on a transport stage and finished up so far off course that he ran out of fuel and was out of the rally (see page 62).

Peugeot's hopes received a dent when Marcus Gronholm broke his power steering on Day 1 and dropped over 10 minutes to be out of contention. In the end, Gronholm stormed back into the top 10 to finish ninth,showing that he would have been a contender if he had not had problems.

n

:*■

The taciturn Finn was blunt in his

Burns believed he could win in

appraisal of the Turkish rally: "I'm not really very interested in this rally. The problem came the first time, about five kilometres from the end of SS3. Then, doing the long stage without power steering was really hard work; not a good rally," said Gronholm.

Turkey but simply gave Sainz too big a start. Burns started his charge from sixth place at the end of the first day, following a couple of punctures.

Ironically it was a tarmac specialist who gave Peugeot a points boost and backed up Burns, Gilles Panizzi bouncing back from his illnessshortened Monte to deliver a fifth

Rovanpera scooped up the baton for the Peugeot squad and was in fine form throughout Day 1 and Day 2 until SSIO, when a rear suspension mount broke.

placing.

Ford boss Malcolm Wilson had tipped Marko Martin for victory but the Estonian's broken gearbox on SS2

Results Citroen Xsara X4 4h32ml4.1s 1 Carlos Sainz/Marc Mali +47.9S 2 Richard Burns/Robert Reid Peugeot 206 WRC +lm46.5s Ford Focus WRC 3 Francois Duval/Stephan Prevot +2m09.1s Citroen Xsara X4 4 Colin McRae/Derek Ringer +2m41,6s 5 Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi Peugeot 206 WRC +3m24.9s Ford Focus WRC 6 Markko Martin/Michael Park +5ml3.0s Skoda Octav'ra 7 Toni Gardemeister/Paavo Lukander +7m 18.6s Subaru WRX 8 Tommi Makkinen/Kaj Lindstrom Drivers Championship points: Burns 18, McRae 17, Sainz 16, Martin 13, Loeb 12, Gronholm 10, Makinen 9, Duval 8, Panizzi 4, Solberg 3, Manufacturers Championship points: Citroen 39, Peugeot31, Ford 25, Subaru 13, Skoda 6, Hyundai 3,

WRC Round 3 Rally of Turkey

saw him start with a major handicap.

In an impressive drive, Martin fought back to be sixth at the end of the rally.

It proved Ford's youth policy is certainly paying dividends, with the Blue Oval saving millions in driver retainers and still scoring strongly in the rallies so far this year.

McRae's punctures on Day 1 meant he would never challenge Sainz but was still able to bring the Citroen home in fourth to deliver the French maker a lead in the manufacturers title.

While both Ford and Citroen are pleased with their efforts in addressing Peugeot's advantage, Subaru ran hot and cold, reflected in Solberg's early shower and Makinen's limp to eighth. After breaking a wishbone on Day 2, the Finn dropped three minutes, exposing an Achilles Heel for the blue team on rough road events.

Hyundai's Armin Schwarz and Freddy Loix were eighth and ninth at the end of Day 1 but broken suspension for Schwarz and a sticking throttle on Loix's car meant the struggling Korean outfit was never going to be a tlireat, despite some strong early times.

The Championship points are now delicately poised, with Burns leading by one point from McRae with Sainz another point behind in third.

For Burns the lead in the championship heading to the fourth round in New Zealand next month is a double-edged sword: "It's great to be leading the championship again, but at the same time we have to remember that this means we will be running first on the road in New Zealand that might not be ideal if it stays dry," said the Brit.

Citroen carries great confidence from this victory and will no doubt be a growing worry for its betterfunded Peugeot sibling in a Championship that is shaping as a fight between the two French manufacturers.

61

Rally Oz on th WA Government claims 65-year deal: FIA

by JON THOMSON THE word in Turkey was that the chances of Rally Australia proceeding this year are, at best, remote.

Sources close to the HA said that FRANCOIS Duval was delighted to score his first-ever World Rally Championship podium and revealed that Rally of Turkey winner Carlos Sainz helped play a part in the Ford driver's third place in Kemer.

Sainz was Duval's team-mate at Ford last year and the two-time world champion is a hero of the young Belgian. Duval said Sainz helped calm his nerves before the final stage of the rally.

"I felt very relaxed until the final two stages when I became quite nervous," admitted Duval.

"It helped when Carlos, who was my team-mate last year, came up to me before the final stage and told me to keep calm and take no risks. He's been under pressure so many times in his career that there's nobody better to receive advice from."

Duval switched co-drivers just before the Rally of Turkey, with Jean-Marc Fortin making way for the more experienced Stephane

Prevot and Duval thought that Prevot adapted well.

"Before the start, my aim was to finish but it was just as important to build a good relationship with Stephane on our first rally," he explained. "We worked well together and I'm as pleased about that as I am about the result."

Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson had been less than pleased with his driver when Duval crashed out of the Swedish Rally last month and while he is pleased with the way the Belgian has responded, he won't let Duval rest on his laurels.

"It's a dream result for Francois, especially after his difficulties in the last few months," said Wilson. "Stephane was a big influence on this result but Francois knows that his work is only just starting now. He now has to live up to this performance."

-JON THOMSON

the issue is much deeper than many people realise and that it is about addressing a contract "that should never have been in place".

While the FIA argues for absolute control over the sporting side of the Australian round,the Western Australian government says that they shouldn't have to sign a new contract because they have already have a contract in place.

But the WA government is playing a high-risk game of poker with the FIA over the future of Rally Australia.

WA Tourism Minister Clive Brown has said he would not agree to any dilution of WA's tenure of the event, even if that meant it was lost to Australia.

Apparently, the WA government has a contract with CAMS that gives it 'first rights'for any Australian world championship rovmd during the next 65 years.

"The HA has an exclusive right to hold raUies in whatever countries it wants to hold rallies in," Mr Brown said.

exclusivity for the next 65 years. We are not agreeing to any diminution of our existing contract."

He said that the Government would negotiate on other details but not the length of that deal.

"We have honoured our contract with CAMS and will continue to honour that contract/' he said.

"We will not sign the(new) contract or agreement because it dilutes our existing right."

Hae HA has highlighted the need to separate the sporting and commercial sides of the event administration, CAMS believed it had agreement with the tourism commission on a new agreement that would satisfy the needs of all parties in January, Both CAMS and EventsCorp issued a joint statement to this effect on January 31.

However,the WATC board reneged and has since refused to sign. Apparently WATC Chief Executive Richard Muirhead recommended to the board that it

"We Will not Sign the(new) contract OP agpeement because it dilutes our existing right"

'Our contract says that we have

Elena makes a Turkey out of Loeb RETRIBUTION in the Citroen team apparently came swiftly for Sebastien Loeb's co-driver Daniel Elena after his massive error on Day 1.

Elena sent Loeb up a wrong road between stage three and four and they went,so far off course that hey ran out of fuel before getting to service, putting them out of the rally.

Elena was apparently carpeted by Citroen Sport team boss Guy Frequelin and told he would lose his job if he made a similar mistake again.

- JON THOMSON Tell him to get lost: Sebastien Loeb may have been Citroen's Golden Boy in Monte Carlo but he wasn't in Turkey ... moiorspori news

RALLY NEWS Neil Bhekbourn

e Brink

Giiles gets dirty THE big surprise in Turkey was Giiles Panizzi, the man who Is supposed to be Peugeot's asphalt wizard.

Panizzi rose to the occasion and put in one of the performances of his career on Turkey's rough gravel stages to finish fifth. While he is known as a tarmac specialist, Panizzi has always maintained that he's not short of ability on loose surfaces, merely short of practice Panizzi matched Marcus Gronholm's times in Turkey but, despite protests that they were well aware of this, Peugeot boss Corrado Provera missed out on championship points from Panizzi because he failed to nominate him for points!

nay cancel V3event agree to the new arrangement but was overruled.

The battles on a world stage follow what have been described as fierce behind the scenes battles between officials and senior WATC bureaucrats late last year that led Garr}’Connelly to resign.

Perth newspaper The West Austmlian has reported a bitter row betw'een key officials who, ironically, are now working handin-hand trying desperately to keep the event in Perth.

New Rally Australia Clerk of Course Adrian Stafford apparently threatened just six days before the 2002 Rally Australia to quit as deputy C of C and reveied to the media what he claimed were

/ can see the harbour! Looks like we are going back to Sin City, folks ...

Sydney keeps ARC

bureaucrabc bungles ruining the event.

He also called for acting Executive Director Shani Wood to be sacked. Ms Wood was later dumped from the position just hours after the event finished on November 3.

"It was a bitter conflict and I made threats which were unpleasant at times, but it happens in life and we've put it behind us," Ml- Stafford said.

"In the end it's not about

s

friendships,it's about working together with a mutual understanding of where the line is.

We've defined that line and it's been fully honoured with no problems."

However the word is that other greater forces are at work on the whole matter with the eventual

is clear that is stagnating in Perth," said one FIA insider in Turkey.

"I brink vou will find that is r-. ha! -.vill happen, maybe not this ■. ear bul4Wtaini\- in 2004," he said.

[i :

■

●

12 March 2003

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THE Formula One community (Ed: especially the press corps) were not the only ones to rue the nonappearnace in Melbourne of FIA President Max Mosley.

Mosley's failure to appear not only meant that his media conference scheduled for Thursday could not happend, it also caused some anxiety for senior executives of the WA tourism Commission and Eventscorp.

The officials had scheduled a meeting with Mosley at the GP to discuss the future of Rally Australia in Perth. The president's ■ last-minute cancellation meant the ! WA execs were left to contemplate the FI racing and wonder if their event would go ahead as scheduled in September.

Neal and Rick on Goodrich rubber

goal being to ensure the rally comes to the East Coast, where population and interest in the rally can be ramped up.

"Tlie only way the rally will grow in Australia is if it can be moved to the East Coast because it

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Max misses a Kodak moment

THE highly successful Harbour City Rally may not be lost after all with a bid by Sydney rally driver and swimming coach Kirk Marks to save the event.

Marks's bid has been approved by CAMS and ARCOM and wi ll see the event change its name to Premier State Rally.

The Sydney-based rally was thrown into uncertainty with the disappearance of organiser Glenn Cuthbert in a boating accident last year. After just one year on the ARC calendar, the Harbour City Rally was pronounced a huge success but there were doubts it could proceed without Cuthbert.

It is believed the event will use Graham Roser as Clerk of Course whi le Marks and his team wil l manage the rally that will again use the Watagan Moutains as its competitive heart.

The rally is scheduled to run from the 5 - 7 July, but Marks has declare that much of the planning is either complete or well underway.

- JOIM THOMSON

THE battle for the Junior World Rally Championship saw a fascinating struggle, with; Volkswagen Polo driver Kosti Katajamaki overcoming a power steering problem on Day 2 to finish a massive five minutes ahead of the pack.

Katajamaki won the first round in Monte Carlo, but was later disqualified for a technical infringement in Turkey, the little VW was legal and well-suited to the rough going.

"This was a very difficult rally, and I am happy that all this bumping and shaking on the bad roads is finally over!" said Katajamaki.

"It was difficult to find the right

speed on these tough stages. I could have gone faster, but I believe this would have destroyed the car."

The rough stages in Turkey took a big toll on the 1600cc JWRC cars.

Swede Daniel Carlsson had looked set to take the win until the end of Day 2 when he hit power steering problems with the Suzuki Ignis and retired on SS15.

Spain's Salvador Canellas could not quite match countryman Carlos Sainz's wm but second place in the JWRC represented a pretty good couple excellent of days' work for the Suzuki driver. Briton Guy Wilks brought his Ford Puma home in third.

-JON THOMSON

WORD from the Toyota rally bunker in Canberra is that the two Corolla Group N prototypes will hit the road this year with BF Goodrich rubber.

The switch from Michelin is apparently a marketing-driven move, Goodrich being a subsidiary of the French rubber giant. The Corollas will be up against the Pirelli-equipped Subaru and Mitsubishi works teams as well as the Yokohama-shod privateer cars of Simon Evans and the Pedder brothers.

Although it is yet to be made official Neal Bates will be joined by identical twin brother Rick in the two-car Corolla team as they attack the 2003 season.

-JON THOMSON 63

Little aims at US Brazle

TWENTY-OIME year old Sydney Sprintcar hard charger Troy Little is set to pack his bags and fly off to the US this winter and run a 15-to-18 race program out of Knoxville.

Little told Motorsport News this week that he is looking at purchasing a car and a 410 cubic inch motor and is also looking into a trailer to transport his car around Knoxville.

Little will base his racing out of fellow Aussie Lynton Jeffrey's USA shop, with Jeffrey helping to set up his US racing program.

"It's almost certain I'll be racing at this year's Knoxville Nationals," said Little.

"The only way to get laps is to run your own car. No one is going to give a ride just because you have raced Sprintcars in Australia.

"You have to go there and race, plus rides are very hard to

John Morris/Mpix

by GREG BOSCATO

Aiming at experience: Troy Little plans to venture off Australian shores for the first time to race in America. pick up. I'll do a few laps, get more experience and see how the deal goes."

The entire package is basically brand new and with the World of Outlaws racing at Little's home track, Parramatta

City Raceway next January, he and the Kimbo Transport Team see that the only way for him to get more experience with the powerful 410ci Sprintcars is to race in the US. - GREG BOSCATO

Swaps and showers

SHOWERS interrupted and upset the normal flow of the penultimate round of the PRC Super Sprint Series on Grand Prix weekend at Avalon.

And they almost severely damaged Matthew Reed’s Championship lead when his main contender Ian Lewis scored yet another feature win on what turned out to be a perfect race track.

Reed had earlier destroyed his own machine, right, in a huge heat race flip and looked like missing the final, until the generosity of Mike Van Bremen allowed Reed to take his place in his #6 machine and take his place in the field.

“It was a good track tonight,’’ said Lewis.

“I was always confident of getting to the front.

Tony Smith just slipped up a little and I was able to get underneath him.”

The win closed him to within 294 points of Reed.

“I didn't even realise Reed was in a borrowed car.

We’re just taking it race by race and trying to win as many as we can.”

Tasmanian veteran Smith continued his consistent run on the mainland, grabbing second place from John Vogels and Rob Rankin.

“We lost out in the traffic,” Smith said.

“I'm just not aggressive enough. Lewis was faster than us, but I thought we matched him after he passed us.”

Vogels too was happy.

“Fly was really aggressive at the start and bumped me out of the way on the first turn. I dropped back to about sixth, but was able to take advantage of mistakes and get under a few guys.”

Rankin was extremely unlucky, sitting second with two and a bit laps to go when Paul Bastow got 64

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GARRY Brazier bounced back to Parramatta City Raceway last Saturday night and took out his third NSW Sprintcar Title.

Brazier's Maxim was running hot in tlie 30-lap Adrad Radiators-supported event and, while Titan Garages points leader Trevor Green did get alongside Brazier's Metalcorp madiine around mid-race, it was Brazier who held command and continued on to score victory over Green. B-Main winner Cameron Gessner forged his way into third after battling with Adam Clarke in the closing stages.

"The restarts were pretty tough," said Brazier.

"Trevor made me work for them.

It's just good hard racing. Trevor did a good job, he gave us a wake up call to get the car going a bit quicker but, at tire end of the day,it's the winner who gets the win and I'm glad I won it!"

Newly-crowned Australian Champion Kerry Madsen returned from tire USA for the meeting but for Madsen it was a problem-filled evening. His BikeBiz Twister developed engine troubles, with the team swapping engines after the heats.

Unfortunately the new unit wasn't running any better, with the Aussie champ a non finisher in the Title race.

But all eyes were on Brazier as he showed that he wanted to equal his father's record of three NSW crowns with the #21 machine, setting quickest time in the early time trials with a blistering 12.168s lap. Green was second fastest with Adrian Maher,Clarke, an impressive rookie Martin Lawes and Brett Loadman making up the top six.

The A-Main saw Brazier winning the start from Green, Clarke and Little and despite a couple of stoppages, it was Brazier's race and title. After starting from position 18, Gessner was the big mover and he battled with Clarke for a number of

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out of shape and took Rankin infield with him, costing Rankin two places.

Crossing the line in fifth place was the V6 car of Van Bremen, however, it was series points leader Reed who was at the wheel.

Reed, in an unfamiliar car, started last and after a couple of easy laps was soon on the pace and moving forward.

For his part. Van Bremen had sacrificed a ninthplace start in the final and had hoped to take over Craig Lawless’s car but the lanky Lilydale lad was too tall for the frame.

The final round is the Fireball Derby at Ballarat’s Redline Raceway on March 29.

- BRETT SWANSON

laps before moving his way into third late in the race, putting Clarke back to fourth, with Andrew Scheuerle fifth and a brakeless Marty Perovich making up the top six finishers.

THE previous week at PCR,the Valvoline Maxim of Max Dumesny took out victory from American Paul McMahan with Clarke third in round 16 of the Parramatta Titan Garages Sprintcar Series.

McMahan got past Dumesny at one stage but the former WSS and Australian champ was able to regain the lead on a very slick track and was able to move away from the American, with Clarke in third, motorsport news

SPEEDWAY

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Madsen back in Oz for two shows AUSSIE Champ Kerry Madsen is back home in Sydney for two Parramatta Sprintcar meetings.

Madsen jetted back in time to race in last weekend's NSW Title and will be staying on for next Saturday night's round 18 of the Titan Garages Sprintcar Series.

While home, Madsen is chasing up support for his return next summer and, if successful, he plans to stay home in Australia a little longer next summer, giving his sponsors more valve as Australian Champion, His US program starts in mid-April racing out of Knoxville and running around the midwest of the USA. As in Australia, Madsen is using a Twister chassis and he is keen to put on a better show this Saturday night.

■ The rain postponed Australian Super Sedan Title finals night is set to be run on Saturday night, May 3.

The recent attempted running of the prestigious Sedan Title saw rain play havoc with the event but with just the finals night remaining to run. May 3 has been chosen with most of the interstate stars expected to return to PCR.

Aiming at Dad's record: Carry Brazier was too good at Parramatta and kept all the wheels on his car, above.

But Marty Perovich's effort the week before, below, was far more spectacular than any victory ...

John Moris/Mpix

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

Xoo$trr

^ ^ RACING TIRE

For more information on Hoosier Drag and SpeedwayTyres call:

NSW; 02 9679 1990 ● Fax 02 9679 1187 VIQ03 9331 6477 ● Fax 03 9331 7444 SA- 08 8332 0800 ● Fax 08 8364 0296 12 March 2003

H The 2003 Australian AMCA Championship finished triumphantly for defending titleholder Shane McKinnell when the Brisbane driver claimed his hat-trick of national crowns on March 8, but behind him controversy reigned when several placegetters failed post-race engine checks.

"This is a really great track, but I found this year's 30 lapper was harder than last year's 40 lap race at Newcastle," McKinnell said post race of the Speedway City layout.

A manifold infringement for runnerup Dallas Czerwinski saw him disqualified and Mick Brougham elevated to runner-up, while officials also excluded Mark Brown and Greg Cassidy from the placings.

This moved Victorian champ Mick Clark and NSW champion John Cartwright up to third and fourth in what had proven to be a controversial finish for this year's AMCA blue ribbon event.

-GREG BOSCATO/ DAVID McNABB

2003 WORLD OF OUTIAWS CHAMPIONSHIP HOLLYWOOD HILLS - S MARCH 2003 [5]

11. Shane Stewart

[12]

[8]

12.

DonnySchatz

[18]

Randy Hannagan

[10]

13.

Rickey Hood

[21]

Daryn Pittman

[19]

14. Aaron Berryhill

[9]

[7]

15.

[16]

1. Steve Kinser

[2]

6.

2. Craig Dollansky

[1]

7. Jeff Shepard

3. Jac Haudenschild

[3]

8.

4. Jason Sides

[4]

9.

5.

Mark Kinser

[6]

Danny Lasoski

1 0. Joey Saldana

Brian Brown

65

HOW popular is NASCAR in the US and the south?

The State of North Carolina voted recently to change the number of a 28-mile stretch of road, NC High-way 136 to NC Highway 3.

Why, you ask?

The road runs from MooresviUe, past the home of Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Kannapolis, home to-wm of the late driver and team owner.

NC state representatives made a presentation to the fallen driver's widow Teresa, rig/if, on 3/3/03 at the DEI facility, while workers installed the first sign in front of the racing Mecca.

Some 200 signs will be replaced along the stretch of road, while a piece of road in another part of the state that was previously Highway 3 is being re-named NC Highway 136.

NC Attorney General joked that

he may have to wave any speeding violations on the road - or that he may not post a speed Limit at all.

Some hope!

- MARTIN D CLARK

Labonte loves

by MARTIN D CLARK BOBBY Labonte took his sixth win at the ultra-fast Atlanta Motor Speedwayon Sunday, passing Jeff Gordon with a rub-and-run move just 10 laps from the chequered flag.

"This is great, we love being competitive," said Labonte, who led 172 of 325 laps en-route to victory.

"I'm terrible on restarts and he's (Gordon)so awesome,but I got by him after that last restart and never looked back."

"He had the best car all day and we kind of swapped back and fourth a little bit," said Gordon of Labonte.

"His car didn't take off to well on the restarts and I was able to get by him on the final restart."

Gordon held on for a couple of 5 circuits, but there was nothing he I. could do to fend off the Gibbs Chev. a’ O I slid up in front of him and tried g to keep squeezing him," continued ^ Gordon,"but he let me know he was

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there, got to the outside of me and there wasn't much I could do after that. To come from 30th up to second.

I'm real proud."

Roush Racing spurred the first two cautions, as Mark Martin's engine expired on lap 135.

"It blew up again," said Martin of his second such problem in as many weeks. Then,just 10 laps later, Kurt Busch suffered the same fate.

"It looks like we busted a piston," remarked crew chief Jimmy Fennig.

Harvick re-signs with RCR

KEVIN Harvick signed a contract in Atlanta over the weekend that will see him with Richard Childress Racing for at least three more years.

The contract also has an additional two-year extension with RCR. "It's nice to be able to have job security," connmented Harvick, who sits seventh in points after the weekend, "Richard has been very good to me and brings a lot of experience to the table because of all he's been 66

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through."

GM Goodwrench also extended their contract for an additional three years on the #29 Chev.

Harvick of course burst

onto the Winston Cup scene in 2001, replacing the late Dale Earnhardt, and was the Rookie of the Year, though struggled in 2002.

- MARTIN D CLARK moiorsRort news

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Atlanta

Little did Fennig know the day would become tougher as Jeff Burton and Roush-powered Ricky Rudd also dropped from the running with detonated powerplants.

Following two Fords blowing up, the Dodges of BiU Elliott and Ken Schrader showed sympathy and also gave up tlie ghost. Rusty Wallace impounding the wall between the two incidents. He was able to carry out tracking changes holding onto the lead lap briefly before dropping back to 15th at the finish.

Jimmie Johnson also lost an engine with 17 laps to run at the same time Bruton lost power.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved back into the top 10 in points with a third place result, saying that "this should make us pretty happy with last week's run the this run, we gained a lot of points back."

Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek and Elliott Sadler also posted top-10 results as did pole-sitter Ryan Newman, who lost his power steering and finished one lap down.

Matt Kenseth's fourth place run has him heading the points table.

"I guess it doesn't really matter this early in the year," said the Roush driver.

"But it's better to be ahead than behind and hopefully we'll have a good run at Darlington this week."

Indeed, everyone in the engine department at Roush Racing will be hoping all of their cars have good runs this weekend after many hours burning the midnight oil looking for the internal motor problem during the week.

Final result; B Labonte (Chev), J Gordon (Chev), Earnhardt Jr. (Chev), Kenseth (Ford), Stewart (Chev), Sadler (Ford), Spencer (Dodge), Blaney (Ford), Nemechek (Chev), Newman (Dodge) 324 laps.

Points standings; Kenseth 618, Stewart 569, Waltrip 543, Johnson 519, B Labonte 510, Benson 487, Harvick 478, J Gordon 477, J Burton 476, Earnhardt Jr. 474.

12 March 2003

T IS for Team MATT Kenseth, right, returned to his form of 2002 with a win at Las Vegas on March 2 with help from his pit crew, showing that Winston Cup really is a team sport.

"I'm so proud of those guys," said Kenseth.

"That probably won us the race. We've got a couple of new tyre changers, one guy that's never been over the wall before in any other division of racing in his life.

Kenseth got the lead off pit road after the sixth and final caution leading for 88 of the final 96 tours, and holding on through a wickedly fast green flag stop with 39 laps to run that saw him beat his former Busch series sparing partner Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the finish line by a whisker over nine seconds.

Jeff Gordon headed pole sitter Bobby Labonte into turn one and lead the first 50 caution free tours through first round pit stops where the DEI duo of Little E and Michael Waltrip battled for the lead.

The pair fronted the majority ■ of the race until Kenseth's Roush Ford took hold.

The first caution flag uncoiled when Ricky Craven tagged Larry Foyt taking both from contention, the yellow waved again quickly on lap 116 when Mark Martin's Roush powerplant expired.

It was also a short day for Robert Yates Racing. First, Elliott Sadler suffered a blown engine, then Rockingham winner Dale Jarrett hit the wall hard to air caution four when Steve Park slipped into him after Park lifted off the gas to avoid the slowing Kenny Wallace.

Jimmie Johnson almost finished eighth, but was punted into a spin by Sterling Marlin exiting the final turn and wound up 11th.

"I'm hoping it wasn't intentional," said Johnson, "but I was racing all day and didn't put a tyre mark on anyone and then I get turned out at the chequers and lose

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Rapping in the hood with the good 'oi boys RAP star Nelly has joined the growing number of personalities involved in the NASCAR circuit.

The rapper has become a co owner of a NASCAR Truck team that will be sponsored by his Vokal clothing brand. The team has plans to hire a minority driver to pilot the truck in the coming months.

■ Ryan Newman grabbed the pole for the Atlanta race with a 191.417 mph lap, the fastest pole speed on the Winston Cup’s 23 tracks, Fellow Dodge driver Bill Elliott flanked Newman on the front row.

The seven provisional slots were taken by Kyle Petty, Terry Labonte, Kenny Wallace, Larry Foyt, Ken Schrader, Jack Sprauge and Dale Earnhardt Jr, who spun on his first lap.

"We were a few inches from a backup car," quipped Junior.

"I'm pretty glad we've still got the car In one piece."

Jeff Fultz and Bobby Flamilton Jr, driving for his Busch owner Team Rensi, failed to make the field on speed.

two spots."

The tide turned in the Joe Gibbs camp with Bobby Labonte finishing fourth and Tony Stewart fifth after the latter holed his fender when he rubbed the rear of Jeff Green early, affecting Stewart's Chevy's front aero.

The DEI cars of 'Little E', Waltrip and Park all finished in the top ilO, Park in that 10th spot.

Top rookie was Casey Mears in the Ganassi Target Dodge 15th, while fellow rookie stablemate Jamie McMurray spun to air a caution when he got too low on the track and simply looped the Texaco Dodge into 32nd.

Sophomore Ryan Newman put up a stellar performance in his Penske Dodge rallying back from two laps down to finish seventh after two pit stops off sequence early in the event.

It may have taken six years to get there, but the Vegas track surface has matured enough to put on a great show with three wide racing aplenty, or was it NASCAR's new body configuration taking shape in the first tri-oval?

- MARTIN D CLARK

■ Brett Bodine, 44, has taken a restraining order out against his wife of 22 years after she reportedly hit him around the head recently.

Trouble had been brewing for the Bodines when his wife Diane was accused of making threatening phone calls to a corporate employee of Bodine’s sponsor Fiooters, after she accused him of having an affair with the employee.

The restraining order stops Diane from entering any racetracks the likeable driver appears at. Bodine is running a part-time schedule with his self-owned team this year. Flis wife has asked the court she be given ownership of the operation.

■ Tony 'The Temper' Stewart was far from pleased about the question a lady reporter asked about the lack of Fords in the top 10 at Las Vegas.

"Why don't you guys get real on this aero stuff, look at the cars that wrecked," he said. " If you're gonna do this look at the whole picture, you guys don't look at it objectively, you try and make a story out of It I" For the record, four of 10 Fords in the field fell out for one reason or another, two finished in the top 10 and four in the top 20.

■ Vegas victor Matt Kenseth and current point leader had a lucky escape In Atlanta during practice, spinning his Roush Ford off turn four in front of point leader Michael Waltrip. Aside from flat-spotting his tyres Kenseth did an exceptional job of avoiding the wall.

- MARTIN D CLARK 67

i BEN Bray backed up his Top Doorslammer success at the Nationals in January by taking out the 32nd Marlow Westernationals at Quit Motorplex, Kwinana two weeks ago.

Bray, who turned 19 over the weekend,claimed the win after a sensational showdown with Peter Kapiris. Bray's .428 reaction gave him a slight advantage over Kapiris's .469, but with both cars covering the quarter mile in 6.120s it proved to be the difference between winning and losing.

Bray earned his spot in the final after qualifying second in the wake of Brett Stevens's national record-

§ New and good: § Ben Bray, above, survived one of the most

breaking 6.09s.

He took his first scalp when he met the brand-new Zap's Rat machine of John Zappia, which he sent packing with a 6.13s after Zappia got out of shape. Bray then met his dad Victor in the semis in a rematch of their

I competitive I Doorslammer fields in recent memory to notch up his second straight win.

scrap at WiUowbank, with junior again getting the better of his old man with a staggering 6.09s pass.

Kapiris, meanwhile, claimed honours in an all-Studebaker battle

Meanwhile, a firstround loss is probably not the debut that John Zappia would have wished for his new car, left, but there will be plenty of opportunities to make amends...

against Robin Judd when the latter wandered across the centreline, and then booked himself an easy ticket to the final when would-be opponent Stevens was unable to answer the

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White blur: Upton, right, was too good for the rest of the Top Bike field

68

call, leaving Kapiris to scorch down the track alone - in 6.05s! Re-setting the record is one thing, but to do it on a solo pass? Those who saw it will be talking about it for months to come.

Meanwhile,Jay Upton continued to rule the roost on two wheels by clocking up another Top Bike victory on his Triumph. Upton sealed his claim to the trophy with a 6.74s/210.28mph pass to defeat the 7.46s offered by Ian Ashelford, who had been struggling with the tune up after half track.

Upton, whose evening began with a solo pass, produced his final effort on the tail of a sensational 6.66s/214mph in the semis for which opponent Brett Stevens had no answer,above right.

Ashelford had a reasonably straightforward journey into the final after taking an easy round one win over Mark Drew, who was forced to shut off on the line with a fluid leak, and a round two solo after Brett Jonas failed to recover from a trip into the sand in his first round outing against Mark Ashelford. moiorsport news

DRAG RACING

Force under the knife 12-TIME NHRA Funny Car champion, John Force, successfully underwent a laproscopic procedure on February 27th to remove his malfunctioning gallbladder.

Force, below, had experienced periodic pain for more than a year and underwent a battery of tests earlier this year that eliminated other possible causes of his discomfort.

After consulting with his doctor and family, he decided to schedule the procedure during one of only two three-week breaks in the 2003 schedule to provide him the greatest amount of recovery time. o S. o.

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Watery curtain-raiser

THE IHRA season opener,the inaugural Amalie Oil Texas Nationals at San Antonio Raceway, originally scheduled to be completed two weeks ago, was been postponed to last weekend because of constant rain.

Rhonda Hartman-Smith led Top Fuel qualifying, recording a 4.629 e.t. at a career-best speed of 319.52 in her Fram-sponsored Top Fuel dragster.

Two-time defending Top Fuel Champion, Clay Millican, was right behind at 4,844/296.31.

Bruce Litton and John Smith rounded out the top four.

Only seven cars made qualifying runs in the lone session on the Friday.

Other number one qualifiers in the professional categories included Mike Janis in Pro Modified: Mark Thomas in Alcohol Funny Car; and Charlie Peppers in Sunoco Race Fuels Pro Stock.

Mike Janis, the 2001 series champion, pushed his Chevy Corvette to a 6.11/227 to lead Pro Mod. Mitch Stott, the first driver to crack the fives in a Doorslammer, stood second in his Radiac Maniac Corvette with a 6.26/225. Steve Vick's 6.27/221 was third, while Fred Hahn was fourth in Jim Oddy's Summit Corvette at 6.36/220.

Mark Thomas, with tuning 12 March 2003

Up his Aiiey

The NFIRA has announced that Ray Alley, director of Top Fuel and Funny Car Racing, will expand his role to include the Pro Stock Racing category.

Alley, who is entering his fourth season with the NFIRA technical department, will interact with Pro Stock teams, racecar builders and product manufacturers on issues involving new technology, rules enforcement and future planning for the Pro Stock category.

Bartone goes bang AFTER winning the season-opening

So far, so good: Mark Thomas topped the tables in Alcohol Funny Car qualifying for the rain-delayed IHRA season opener. coming from 2002 Alcohol Funny Car Champion Jimmy Rector, led qualifying at 5.94/233 in his Dodge Avenger. Mike Cornelia was in the second position at 5.97/237.

Charlie Peppers led the Mountain Motor Pro Stocks in his Ford Mustang.

Peppers cranked out a 6,59/210 to lead after Friday.

Jason Collins in a Mercury Cougar was second at 6.59/212.

The Chevrolet of Doug Kirk is

third at 6.59/210 and Chris Holbrook's Mustang was in the fourth spot at 6.59/209.

Holbrook recorded a 6.56 in the second session, which was good for the top spot, but rolled the car right after the finish line.

Holbrook was uninjured in the mishap, but the same could not be said for his Ford Mustang.

A full report from the meeting will appear in the next issue of Motorsport News.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Winternationals and setting a new elapsed time record at 5.227 seconds,Top Alcohol Dragster driver Tony Bartone made the trek to Gainesville, Florida for the Division 2 opener.

Bartone qualified his Steve Boggs tuned, unblown nitro-burner number one at 5,244 seconds at a whopping 277,94 mph, the fastest speed ever recorded in the class which Bartone backed-up for a speed record in eliminations with two-275 mph runs.

The 1996 Alcohol Funny Car champion, Bartone now holds three of the four records in the alcohol classes, including his three-year old 5,549 second elapsed time mark for the Alcohol Floppers.

Oddly, the last time that Bartone won the Winternationals, he went on to a 37-0 start to the season on his way to the '96 title.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 69

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D LJ The Phillip Island Classic historic nneeting’s reputation is quickly spreading beyond our shores if this year’s field is anything to do by BRIAN REED got the lowdown on the ‘Goodwood of the South’ HE Shannon's Phillip Island Classic meeting on March 1-2 has set new I standards for historic motor I: sport with almost 450 entries from all states of Australia, plus overseas competitors from the UK,the USA, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Heading the lineup were Sir Jack Brabham in his world championship winning BT19 Repco Brabham, Win Percy driving the 1955 Le Manswinning Jaguar D Type, American Kaid Marouf in the delectable Alfa Romeo TZ 2 Zagato coupe and Dean Butler from the USA with his 1934 4-

Old rivals: Both Jaguar and Ferrari have long, long competition histories and Phillip Island hosted representatives from a number of eras. In the green corner was Louis Sellyei Jnr's ex-Le Mans Jaguar XKD 504, one of just six long-nosed D-Types built. Also present was tbe ex-Micbele Alboreto Ferrari FI car, right.

WD Miller Indianapolis car and his Maserati 8CTF. Peter Giddings (Alfa Romeo 8C/12C-35), Stephan Curtis (HWM Jaguar), Peter Wunsch (BRM P26 V8) and Paul Bushby (BRM T82) completed the international lineup.

Sadly, Dean Butler's fabulous Maserati holed a piston on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the meeting on static display, but this didn't deter from the excellent racing that was on offer.

Thanks to the efforts of Peter Mathews, a bumper field of 33 Groups J and K cars was assembled, and 55 Group N touring cars provided plenty of fireworks.

Jim 'Stumpy' Russell was voted 'Driver of the Meeting' with his two brilliant victories over the Giddings Alfa 8C and Butler's Miller. Jim was driving his old side valve Ford Special (otherwise known as 'the little Aussie mongrel'), and after swapping the lead several times with his more illustrious competitors, he saw off the challenges to win narrowly.

Chief Executive Officer of CAMS Rob Nethercote had a taste of historic motor sport when he drove Bob Harborow's Maybach Special, and new

HISTORIGS

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owner of Paul Samuels' Lotus 15, Jac Nellemann from Denmark, scored a winning double in the Groups Lb and Sa scratch races to go home a happy man.

The evergreen Ian Brock brought his Elfin Streamliner across from SA for the Groups Lb and Sa events carrying number 79(denoting his age).

He's aiming to be back next year with number 80.

Patron of the meeting was former race and rally champion

Colin Bond, guest of honour was Diana Gaze, and Jan McLaren l (sister of the late Bruce McLaren) and John Storrfrom the McLaren Foundation in New Zealand were made welcome by the VHRR. Alfa Romeo was the theme at this year's Shannons' Phillip Island Classic, and long time competitor and committee member David Fogg described the meeting as 'the Goodwood of the South Pacific'- a view shared by all who attended.

A Win and a winner: Win Percy was a crowd favourite in the 1955 Le Mans-winning D-Type Jaguar, above left. But there was plenty of equally tasty machinery elsewhere on the track, including Kaid Marouf's Alfa Romeo TZ2 Zagato coupe, above, and the distinctive 1934 Miller 4WD Indianapolis car of Dean Butler.

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Hie birthday club RACV, NECC rack up the milestones THE RACV's upcoming 'Fly the Flag' Tour 2003 will be a nice warm-up to a significant event being planned as part of the club's centenary celebrations in early 2004, when it is proposed to retrace the first major rally conducted in Victoria by the Automobile Club of Victoria in 1904.

In the meantime,the 'Fly the Flag' Tour will see 200 veteran, vintage and classic vehicles setting off from Government House, Melbourne on March 22 and finishing up seven days later at the RACV Healesville Country Club.

Most entrants will be doing the full seven-day trip throughout Victoria, but the event also caters for those who wish only to do single days.

The tour is a 'red plate' event, and the organising club is the All British Classics Car Club supported by the Association of Motor Clubs and the Federation of Veteran, Vintage and Classic Vehicle Clubs.

Enquiries to Frank Douglas (03) 8704 2533 or Brian Kelly (03) 9790 2847.

AND the festivities continue!

The North Eastern Car Club celebrated its 50th

anniversary on March 8-9, with lots of activities at the old Tarrawingee circuit.

The Club started in March 1953 and quickly established itself as an enthusiastic promoter of racing and rallying at both state and national levels.

Shortly after it came into being, the NECC conducted its first race meeting at the Wangaratta Airstrip in Greta Road on Coronation Day in May 1953.

For the next four years the ! club ran regular meetings there until the Tarrawingee circuit was opened in 1957. Large crowds and entry lists were features at the popular oil-surfaced track 11 km east of Wangaratta.

Racing was abandonned in 1965 when constant maintenance, stricter safety requirements and the opening of new circuits at nearby Winton and Hume Weir effectively made Tarrawingee redundant.

However, the club continued to promote car trials and rallies, notably the North Eastern Rally which became a round of the Victorian Rally Championship, and also rounds of the Australian Rally Championship in 1975 and 1976.

- BRIAN REED

Capri all-coi .Simon VtomeT

Have Parana, will bite: McDonough and Wilson, above were the class of the Heritage field - which is where this guy ended up, right. Other competitors included Win Percy, left, a man with a lot of Australian stamps in his passport.

Henry scores a century

THIS is a landmark year in the history of motorised transport and another major player to celebrate its centenary is the Ford Motor Company.

Although officially the champagne corks should start popping in Jime, the festivities are already underway with plans for Australian Fords to take part in a huge drive to Detroit(Ford has built cars in Australia since 1926).

The Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong - the traditional home of Henry -is also gearing up to mark the occasion. Gary Nielsen, Centennial Manager,said,"Ford has touched the lives of people in virtually every comer of the world. Not only has Ford been a driving force in the auto industry, but it has also had a major impact on society, with revolutionary concepts such as the moving automotive assemble line and the $5-a-day work day.

But Henry Ford's days as a car maker go back even further. He produced his first vehicle - the Quadracycle - in 1896,and was astute enough to see the value of racing his primitive vehicle to generate public interest in his horseless contraption.

As a result of the money he attracted, Henry Ford was able to establish the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

- BRIAN REED 72

Humble beginnings: Henry Ford's 1896 Quadricycle, above and right, paved the way for early classics like the Model T Coupe, below.

motorsport news

HISTORIGS

iquering in Tassie

by SIMON WEARNE

A RECORD entry of 139 vehicles turned out for the 2003 Rally Tasmania, but it was the seemingly tmstoppable Jim Richards/Barry Oliver pairing in a Porsche 9114WD that took out the win in the Post Classic and Modem category.

Further back though,it was a big weekend also for the Heritage competitors, who accoimted for more than half the field with a total of 75 entries.

The David McDonough/Lyndon

Wilson Ford Capri Parana V8 eventually claimed the Heritage honours, lm49s ahead of Mark and Rosina Laucke in a '68 Porsche 911 in second place, Jeff Beaumont and Peter Gale were 57s back in third in a 73 Porsche 911RS replica, David Cooper and Heath Clayton were lml3s behind in fourth in a 1970 Holden Torana, and 30s further back in fifth place was the father/daughter pairing of Peter and Rebecca Fames in a '64 E Type Jaguar Lightweight rephca.

Win Percy made a welcome appearance in a very neat'65

Sunbeam Tiger of friend and navigator, Stephen Coffey, Win was soon m the top ten in Heritage, having decided he would stick with the full face helmet,

"I don't want anyone to see the silly grin on my face!" he said.

Not everyone was so happy. After four reliable years, the Simon Hughes/Della Watson 1963 Austin Healy Sprite left the two-times Class winners stranded with valve problems.

Meanwhile, Rob Sherrard and Peter Roberts were steadily coming to terms with the Ford RS 200 Evolution. These cars were built to compete in the infamous Group B era of the WRC,which ended with an FIAban due to excessive speeds and serious crashes. Having just arrived from the UK,this was the first hme one of these cars had competed in AustraUa. Event Organiser Tony Wright was deUghted with the weekend.

"We had more reverse stages than ever this year and that's the format we'll settle on," he said.

"The Targa competitors love Hellyer reverse, and with Win Percy 3' claiming Savage River as the most = awesome bit of road he's driven on, that's a great recommendation to take back to Europe.

Calling Maybach

IT seems our Maybach story some months ago has filtered back to the Fatherland.

Company officials in Germany had no idea that an engine from one of their WW2 military half track vehicles (captured by the Aussies) had been used to power a racing car, and were even more surprised to learn the Maybach Special had actually won a Grand Prix.

Driving the Melbourne home-made 'special', Stan Jones scored a memorable victory in the 1954 New Zealand GP against a top international field which included Peter Whitehead (Ferrari), Ken Wharton (BRM), Jack Brabham (Cooper Bristol) and Tony Gaze (FIWM).

Now, the Maybach car club in Germany wants further information on the marque down under, from Charlie Dean's original Mark 1 built in 1947 through to the current restoration of a later Maybach being undertaken by John Sheppard in Melbourne.

Anyone with information (photos, race results, articles or recollections) can contact Damien Duigan at the Technical Book Shop, 295 Swanston St., Melbourne (phone 03 9663 3951 or e-mail tech2@techbooks.com.au )and he will forward the info to Germany.

- BRIAN REED

12 March 2003

Regular Win-ner returns to our shores TRIPLE British touring car ace and 1990 Bathurst winner Win Percy certainly qualifies as a perennial globetrotter. He's currently on his 41 St trip to Australia during which time he will be promoting the 2003 Classic Adelaide Rally at various capital cities around Australia and competing at the Shannon's Phillip Island Classic in the 1955 Le Mans winning Jaguar D Type, These days, the ex-Mike Hawthorn/Ivor Bueb winning car is owned by Nigel and Naomi Webb in the UK, Win never won at Le Mans (he went close on a couple of occasions) but did have the satisfaction of taking out the class for 1950 cars in the inaugural Le Mans Classic 24-Hour last September and was reunited with the famous car at the Island,

New date for East Coast Classic THE Drive Safely East Coast Classic, the only tarmac rally in NSW, has been rescheduled for later in the year, with September 3-7 now the most likely dates.

Originally planned for March, the rally organisers are following the advice of their main sponsor, the Motor Accidents Authority to broaden the appeal of the event, especially amongst younger entrants, and to cater for a wider range of cars, especially classics.

Owners of modern cars, although encouraged to enter, will not be eligible for outright honours.

Enquiries can be directed to Liz Swanton on 0417 232 643 or lizswanton@hotkey.net.au

Other Coming Events GRAB your diary and cancel any prior engagements that you might have had on the following dates ... * March 22- Vintage Car Family Day, Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens, Dandenong.

Contact (03)9793 4511 or heritagehill@cgd.vic.gov.au * April 19- Bartercard Bendigo Easter Cavalcade of Transport Contact(03) 5435 6462. * April 19-20 - Mallala All Historic Race Meeting, Sporting Car Club of SA„ and * April 21 -Collingrove Hillclimb Contact Joan Shearer, Box 59, Cherryville, SA„ 5134, Phone/fax (08) 8390 1609.

- BRIAN REED 73

lanoiai I

scene

Grant Rowley

aMtedbif

Queensland Club Car Kick-off

THE Queensland circuit racing season kicked off with the traditional February MG Car Club meeting at Queensland Raceway.

The Feb 15/16 weekend saw some good racing amongst thin fields, under a scorching hot sun.

The clash of the weekend was in

the Sports Cars with John Campbell's (Hooper 1300 Suzuki) dominance of the class finally coming to an end with the appearance of Grant Watson's new car, the self-developed llOOcc Kawasaki powered Prosport Mulsanne. While the Hooper qualified on pole, the faster starting Watson held out Campbell to win the first two races. In the championship race, a fuel pump problem sidelined the Mulsanne while leading, giving the win to Campbell from Steve

Norcombe (Westfield SE)and Keven Johnston (Kajera).

Charlie O'Brien's nephew Shannon gave the Van Diemen RF03 its Australian debut, taking a couple of seconds in his open wheel debut after a season in HQs. The winner of the championship race though was Chris Gilmore(Van Diemen RF96B)ahead of Daniel Pappos (Stealth RF93)and Klark Quinn (Vector MG96).

Shane Hart(Bee Cee Jabiru) was a air punching happy victor of the first Formula Vee round,coming from behind to beat Trent Usher (Bee Cee Jabiru) and RusseU Wliite (Spectre).

John Lawrence returned to Saloons cars and after recent Ford dominance gave Holden a win ahead of David Gainer(Commodore)and Troy Norris (Falcon). The other wins were w

rsr -

Mark'^nes

Blood Racing: Shannon O'Brien, above, nephew of Charlie, gave Van Diemen's new stead its Australian racing debut while Grant Watson, top right, leads the Sports Cars through turn 6 at QLD Raceway.

shared between Lawrence and Luke Norris(Commodore).

Carlo Chermaz(PVP 250) took the Superkart main event from John Carter (Stockman MR2 250) and Bob Roberts(Stockman MR2 125).

Paul McCahon won his first HQ races over the weekend, moving clear of the field in the points race ahead of Michael McLeod and Chris Trent.

In the mixed Group N and Improved Production race Daimy

Gatton St success CLEAR and the large130 crowdsskies greeted competitors at the fourth annual Gatton Street Sprints, organized by the Australian All Rally Group.

The challenging one kilometre street circuit provided plenty of action, with the only major incident occurring during Neville Nawratzki first run. Nawratzki lost control of his Torana while

Grant Parker

u

crossing the finish line and smashed into the concrete barriers. Neville was taken to Toowoomba Hospital for observation after losing consciousness after the impact, but was back at the circuit on Sunday.

Honors for fastest outright on the weekend went to multiple Australian Motorkhana Champion, Alan McConnell driving his Suzuki powered Van Diemen, clocking a time of 34.709sec. Alan was inducted into the Crowd pleasers: Appleton's GTR, left, and Voight's Chevy Monza got the fans on their feet.

Mischok (Escort RS2000) took four wins, his first in the class. In the championship race Bob Heagerty (Mazda RX5) was second with Ian Lees (Torana XUl), the first Group N car in third.

Nick Rangeley scored four wins from four starts in the Geminis with Kandice Walker and newcomer John Eddy filling the podium in the championship race.

- MARK JONES

i .. ^ 83-^ 4?^.

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exclusive 39Second Club along with Michael Weston, Darren § -r-4 Appleton, Ray Curtis and Adam Ubergang.

Outright Fastest Registered saw Ray Vandersee in the Westfield take first place from the crowd-pleasing Darren Appleton in his tyre-smoking Nissan GTR. Regular historic competitor Jon Siddons filled the final podium position.

The Unregistered Outright competition attracted a quality field of race cars. Alan McConnell was fastest in his Van Diemen from Derek Pingel,

●/f

Rcwnrri INSUra Net:

●>

ROC Grant Parker

driving the Buick V6 powered ex - Formula 1 Lola. Former Bathurst competitor Stephen Voight pushed his Chevy Monza Sports Sedan to third.

Several ladies joined the competition at Gatton with Patricia Collins in the 'Leyburn' Cortina taking the win from Mia Kosenko in the Mustang Fastback and Jane Veale rounding out the podium.

- GRANT PARKER molorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

Wall and Corbett: The cream of Adelaide

Matthew Wall and Reif Corbett

scooped the pool at Bolivar's City of Adelaide Titles on March 2,the duo winning the two senior feature classes and sharing over $3000 in prize money between them.

Local driver Tyson Pearce(Omega) qualified fastest in Pro Clubman,just pipping Wall(Azzurro)and Corbett (CRG). These three ran a close prefinal, Wall winning as Pearce seized his engine on the very last comer while running third, relegating him to the rear for the final.

The final was all Wall, Matthew running away to a big win. Pearce put in a sensational recovery to grab second, displacing the battling Corbett and Richard Davis in the closing laps.

Fresh from winning the Portland GP,Corbett clocked fastest time in Pro Rotax ahead of Ben Savage and Pearce. Corbett was the standout performer on day one,but by pre final time. Wall had picked up the pace, the two running nose to tale with Pearce further back in third. The final was a repeat performance, Pearce hanging on for several laps before Corbett and Wall kept punching in the times - and trading fastest race laps - to start pulling away. WaU grabbed the lead mid race, but Corbett quickly snatched it back and despite pressure for the entire 21 laps, held on to defend his City of Adelaide title. Pearce trailed home third with Savage fourth.

Having won the pre-final, Paul Pittam (Omega) won the Pro Junior National final with a buffer back to a

Over 40),Jason Holding (Rotax Heavy), Mark Ward (Leopard), Brenton Locke(Clubman Super Heavy), Craig Denton (Rotax Super Heavy), Michael Powney (Senior National Heavy)and Asher Johnston (National Combined).

-MARK WICKS

Horstmann 11 th in Euro opener

The European karting season kicked off with the traditionai Winter Cup at South Garda, Itaiy, last month with Aussie Ben Horstman finishing just outside the top ten by taking 11th in the Formula A class.

Horstman (Biesse/Fox/ Bridgestone) qualified 23rd in the 63 strong field, three tenths slower then pole man Bas Lammers (Swiss HutlessA/ortex/ Bridgestone). Ben kept his nose clean taking two sixths in his heats, lining up 8th for his group's semi final, in which he finished seventh to take grid 13 for the final.

Tony Kart dominated the Formula A result, taking the top four placings with former World champion Davide Fore picking up a narrow win ahead of team mate Michael Amermuller. It was a significant recovery for Fore who qualified fourth but was then 12 March 2003

relegated to the repecharge (which he won) after a DNF in the heats.

The meeting gave an indication of how serious Tony Kart is this year. Having been beaten to the World Championship for the past two years by CRG,the factory entered six drivers, including Carlo van Dam who had been ‘poached’from the Trulli Kart stables.

Despite the Italian team traditionally being a Bridgestone runner, the factory hedged their bets with three of their drivers on Vega tyres including Sauro Cesetti (who sat on pole for the final) and van Dam, although Fore and Amermuller one-two’d on Bridgestone. Britains Oliver Oakes (Tony KartA/ortex/ Vega) won Intercontinental A while Italian Andy Zanella (Top Kart/Comer/ Vega) won Junior ICA.

Kiwi Youngster Scott McLaughlin spiced up the action at the third and final round of the night-time Junior Top Guns summer series at Oakleigh last month.

On a wet track, McLaughlin made some demon starts to lead the pack before Jesse Fenech fought back in the final lap to take the win. In the other classes, local ace David Sera proved he was the stand-out driver of the series, taking a clean sweep of victories in Junior National Light, Heavy and Junior Sportsman to capture the series in all three classes.

Justin Tate won Rookies as second placed Leigh Nicolaou won the title. n Just when we thought Team Arrow had finalised their driver line up for the 2003 CIK series comes news that a fourth throttle jockey has been added to the team.

Multiple Australian champion William Yarwood will compete in the 125cc Intercontinental C class aboard Arrow/TM/Bridgestone, meaning Arrow are now fielding a factory driver in every CIK class. Yarwood was runner-up in the ICC Championship last year.

Wall and Corbett shined at the Adelaide titles, above.

In Pro Clubman, right, the racing as usual, was hot battling group for second.

Josh Trimbell,Shannon Pearce, Matthew Panella and Josh Tynan took the minor placings having traded positions most of the way.

Support class winners were Daniel McLeod (Midgets),Scott Kissock (Rookies),Paul Pittam 0unior National Light), Kyle Booth junior .

National Heavy),Josh Tynan junior Clubman), Scott Ferguson (Clubman Heavy), Greg Mattschoss (Sportsman

Karting Briefs

In freezing conditions CRG struck back the following weekend at La Conca, winning every class on offer, although, to be fair, the Tony Kart factory did not enter. Walter Grubmuller (Junior ICA), Fabio Cenatiempo (ICA) and Jonathan Thonon (Formula A) won the fOOcc classes while Italian veteran Alessandro Manetti cleaned up 125 Intercontinental C. Australians Ben Horstman and Josh Hunt did not race as their Biesse team elected not to compete.

Biesse were originally going to use the meeting. Hunt’s first for 2003, for testing purposes, but cited the freezing conditions as not appropriate for the testing that they had planned. Hunt’s first race for 2003 will now be the opening round of the Italian Championship.

- MARK WICKS

n Further CIK news is that Andrew Thompson will campaign CRG/Maxter in Formula A in his debut year as a senior. A former Junior Intercontinental A Australian champion, Thompson has spent much of his career with Tony Kart and switches to CRG after a short spell with Birel. Andrew is also scheduled to compete in the Ford KartStars series. n A new shipment of Haase chassis has recently hit our shores. Marketed by former World Champion Jorn Haase,four new models are available; Monte Carlo, Freccia, Mizar and MIzar 125. The karts feature various combinations of 28, 30 and 32mm tube,40mm axles(50mm on Mizar 125) and adjustable torsion bars and are available through Velocity Imports. n Franco Guaitoli, the figurehead of the Italian PCR product in Australia for many years, has retired from the business. Paul Scaricamazza, who has been driving and working for PCR Australia for many months, has taken over the organisation. Guaitoli was instrumental in giving a large number of Australian drivers international karting experience including winning the Hong Kong Kart Prix and Japan World Cup with Darrell Smith in 1990. n South Australian manufacturer Omega Racing Karts are offering brand new chassis to drivers who win major events. n Acting AKA President Donald Wells has now been appointed President of the Association, Wells had filled the vacancy since the death of previous incumbent, Kevin Jenner, in November.

news

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For Moro {nfermatlon and a dtmonslrolion tontoU:

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aitlwnwE A WINNING COMBINATION

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Mnufacturcrs S distributors of

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Engineering ►

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PERFORMANCE & RELIABILITY ●NEW NODULAR CASTING :CISION CNC MACHINED, GROUND TO UkaiNG TOLERANCES ’SUIT 308 RODS, BALANCER, FLYWHEEL, LIP OR ROPE MAIN SEAL

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Call Brendon'ory 03^9550 0870 for details

6,U U

COMPOAIOTA'E MOTonspoar whbbls

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the lUOmate predsion component fliiMiing

Engineered isotropic finishes for carbon & alloy steels, stainless steels & titanium components.

Inaease component efRdency and life span, reduce vibration, friction, noise & operating temperature. This is not polishing, but refining machined surfaces to a polished condition, removing machining peaks - the cause of mlcropitdng which leads to component failure.

Guru Racing ●

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Available from the exclusive Australian distributor

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raeejv brakes

Over 10 years experience of brake modifications and upgrades for road and race. Caliper conversion 1, 2, 4 8i 6 piston. Custom made disc rotors,

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ic

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Steel Main Caps to suit most V8 applications

Slate Distributors

Queensland 07 3341 9911 Sydney 02 9609 1101 Melbourne 03 9326 6088

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CLASSIFIEDS

online r:IP5 5=;5=iifip?

Classifitds

Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

SEU

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your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/internet classified service.

Courtesy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service my105.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25.

Yes 6 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $251 HOW?

Just log on to www.my105.com and follow the prompts!

Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

LOG ON NOW — IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT! Tekno Autosports - Carrera Cup Porsche

Tekno Autosports - Porsche Cup Car

As raced by Jonathon Webb in 2002 Australian Porsche Cup. Runner up and Rookie of the Year. Resprayed ready for 2003. Complete with Lister i air jacks, dry break fuel system, 16 BBS wheels, new wets and numerous f n spares. All road equipment including ,i wheels/tyres and interior trim. Puli, EJ Penske/Eibach race suspension.

Motec ECU and fully optioned Motec All data available, $185,000 www.myl05.eom/74603 dash ONO. Steve 61 2 9899 9503.

-4^

_

www.my105.com/87971

2001 Carrera Cup Porsche, factory built . Purchased January 2002 backup car for National Series. Raced atimes only. Round win at Oran Park I (New lap Record), Pole position, race win at Barbagallo.(Approx 8hrs run time). Never Crashed. Sensational looking car In original Motorsport trim, Eligible for Marque Sports Cars, PRA Series and Nations Cup. $200,000.

Steve 61 2 9899 9503

Sedans/Sports Cars

‘VN Commodore Saloon Car, Motor just Re-Built, Well Maintained. $15,000. Glenno (07) 3216 5558 or 0419 787 031 254 www.myl05.eom/54680

Torana LC Sports Sedan (2door), Unfinished, set up for 308, Munoie, 9inch diff, Lola F5000 calipers, oil cooler, Lexan Windows, Aircraft fuel pump, New-paint, aluminium panels, seat, slicks, rims (rear), radiators (x2), wiring. L34 Extractors to suit above $500 ono. $3,450 ONO. mark 0428 535 245.254 www.my105.com/89569

Datsun 1600 Club Car/Sports Sedan, 2nd owner, excellent condition, new paint, cams log book with alloy cage, Velo race seat.

New 2Lt engine with twin 48mm webbers, and extractors. Adjustable race suspension, 4 spot calipers front, 2 spot rear. 2 sets of 14x7 wheels, dry and wet tyres. Spare engine/tyres. Ready to race. Proven results. $9,950. Max 0418 485 460 / (03) 9842 3132.254 www.my105.com/53523

Super Tourer, Ex BTCC Alfa Corse prepared factory car. 3rd in last years championship with a rookie 16 year old.Very reliable oar with a huge spares package including a fresh spare engine and lots more. Please oontact for the spares package or email. Allan 0409023060. 254 www.myl05.com/31946

Torana, Fresh motor, webbers, reco gear box, various diff ratio's, 8 point cage, big brakes, mounted wets, indate harness, log book heaps of spares, registered trailer. . $6,850 Neg. barren 0417 665 238 / 02 4272 1164. 2S4www.my105.com/54450

Porsche GT3, Perfectly maintained by PCM, Approximately $25,000 worth of spares available.

Ready for Race/Rally/Road, Structured financing available. . $185,000 Neg. Dean - 0418 507 403/0418 507 403. 254 www.my105.com/7289

h r1997 Porsche 993 Turbo Rolling Body, Right hand drive roiling body, perfect for conversion into Porsche Cup car. 29,000.

Zane 0408822320. 254 www.my105.com/64028

Falcon Sports Sedan, Car completely rebuilt every part,nut & bolt. Qual 5th outright WA 2002 Nightmasters. 1st Sportsedan WA Endurance last outing 27/10/02, AP 4 spot adj dual bias brake system, Bilstein/Koni, MSD.rose jointed ad] susp, etc... Many spares, wheels, tyres, moulds. This car is awsome to drive with a 6000CC 8000rpm 650HP motor. $37 000 Or Best Offer. Byron 0422 007 380. 254 www.myl05.com/37427

; .1 /

Reluctant For Sale, U2L Sports Sedan.

1380 cc iron head. SCCR box with LSD. Huge front disc brakes. 2 pac paint, 3" 5 point harness & Marsh race seat. Including wets, Dorian timer and trailer. Sub 1:10 at Wakefield Park on old rears. All assistance given to new pilot. $ 7,000.00 with trailer & spares. John Wakefield 0418-872121.

254 www.my105.com/56554

12 March 2003

I

Mazda RX4 Full Chassis Dragcar, 9 inch diff with full spool. Summer Brothers 35 spline axles, koni coil overs, full lift of front, original centrelines all around, car in primer.

Mark (03)9308 9785. 254 www.myl05.com/92754

2ynoiog?c^^ Falcon Sports Sedan, Red log book group NC car, presents very well, fresh 351 Clev eng, has done run in laps only, F and R Sway bars, big brakes balance bar, fuel cell, 9 inch diff, top loader, wheels x 3 sets wets, colour hot orange, more info please call.

Readverstised due to uncompleted sale, $33,000. Doug (03)6334 8855 or 0418 590 318. 254www.my105.com/85213

Honda Integra Type R, Engine & gearbox completely rebuilt by Nizpro only 6 hours use since. Best of eveything, Motec M4 Pro with data logging, Koni Alloy coil overs, full chromoly cage, Sparco seats, harnesses, 2 spare sets std wheels, heap of tyres, spares etc. Winner of class in 2002 Rally Tas, clipsal 500 race in 2000. Proven car. $40,000 Neg. Guy 0419 355 376. 253 www.myl05.com/6865 79

: 0 ^ $

n -j

Charade GTtI for sale, fully rebuilt engine, fully seam welded body, new paint job, new button dutch and pressure plate, LSD, close ratio gearbox, new sllverstone rally tyres and spares. fully adjustable PROFLEX suspension. Everything come with heaps of spares including spare engine and engine parts. Email to wekaprima@hotmail.com.

9,500 Or Best Offer. Chun Chandra OS93104181.254 www.myl05.eom/63025

Mk I Cortina, 2 door, twin 40mm Delortos, New Yokohama Advan tyres, Race seat/harness. New upholstery. Queensland transport mod. plate, club car log booked, very straight and in perfect condition, inspection will not dissapoint. Spare gearbox, diff, brakes, all original parts also included. New galvanised car trailer also available. $9900 ONO. Steve 0414 397 609 254 www.my105.com/17360

Mazda RX7, Improved Production, Injected 13B - Needham, Torson 28 spline floater diff, alloy cage, foam filled tank - Calder 1:05, Sandown 1:24, Phillip island 1:49, Mallala 1:17, Hidden Valley 1:20. Spares. Well sorted nicely detailed car. $15,000. Tracy 0418 824 282. 253 www.myl05.eom/84009

S3

[r»j

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. Rally registration (PVN 490), 40,000km. $16,500. Ron 0438 881556 or (03)9480 0929.253 vraw.my105.eom/67400

t

Lotus Super 7, Genuine Lotus factory built car with complete history from March 1965.

All original parts plus many Lotus upgrades including extra engine, gearbox, rear ends all in excellent condition, too many to mention. The car is in perfect working order and set up for Tarmac Rallies. $50,000 ONO. Mike Wilson B(03) 9439 3111 or H (03)9439 4029. 253 www.myl05.eom/62830

AU XR 8 Future Tourer Team for sale, AU XR 8 Future Tourer Team tor sale. New AU XR8 built from bare shell, new engine, big horsepower, air jacks, all harrop suspension and heaps of spares including engine. Still in development stage with huge future potential. Included EL Falcon currently used as promotional car. Race at Bathurst this year. "Genuine clean the shed deal". POA. Tony Ross 0438 370 793 (day) 08 82501903 or 0427 501 903 (evening). 253 www.myl05.eom/48094

Open Wheelers Gemini Sports Sedan, turbocharged, intercooled, 036 bosch injectors, mb<-8 mircotech, with 4 line handset, 16x7 ROH alloys, with michellin slicks. Commodore rotors all round, with 4 piston calipers, 1 ton holden diff on custom 5 link setup, 5 speed, heavy duty clutch, brake balance-bias setup, Just dynoed with over 150 kw's at the wheels on 15psi boost. $7500 ono. David 0409 803 762. 253 www.my105.com/30583

VN Commodore Sports Sedan, Unfinished Project VN Commodore Space Frame, Rolling Chassis Selling as a Complete Rolling Car, will not Separate. Genuine Reason For Sale. Parts include 6 pot AP calipers for front 13” Rotors, Front Koni Coil Overs, Front and Rear Kings Springs, Full Floating 9",Carbon Fibre V8 Supercar Wing to many parts to list. $18,500 Or Best Offer.

David 0409 803 762. 253 www.my105.com/57193 Commodore rolling chassis. Car comes with NEW OMP seat, Fuel tank. Hydraulic clutch kit and gauges. Spare panels, lights, exhaust system and various other parts. Car would also be suitable for improved production. MUST SELL, $4,000 Neg. Colin 0417 655 223 or(08)8671 2775. 253 www.myl O5.com/12996

□ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers

□ Speedway

□ Wanted □ Photographs

1985 AF2 Kadltcha, Curently flat bottom AF2 but also eligable Group R hisfioric (all ground effects bits available) A very quick car in either category. Complete and total rebuild tip to toe over 5 years - virtually a new car. Judd Golf, FT200, mounted wets, ratios and spares. Very well presented.

Offers considered. Richard Harward 0410 573684/02 9787 9735.254 www.myl05.com/31134

!t2)

Formula Vee Mantis, John Dean engine, 2 sets wheels, Koni shockers, long and short gearboxes, lap timer, VDO gauges in carbon fibre dash, lots of spares, no expense spared, enclosed trailer $1850, tyre rack and storage bin, drop tailgate and ramps, side door. $9,500. Guy 0410 614 737 or(03)9761 4045. 253 www.my105.com/85814

i

I

Wren Formula Ford 1980, Log booked 1986, fully restored and set up by Frank Lowndes, Holinger gearbox with spare ratios, evary assistance to new owner if necessary. $11,500 ONO. George(03)9545 1656 or 0419 356 819. 254 www.myl05.com/78548

□ Drag □ Other

P>' -

Dallara, 397/98 Chassis, Driven by Team BRM driver Darren Palmer, 2nd 2001 Aust F3 championship (2 round wins), holds lap record Eastern Creek and Sandown Raceway. Spiess engine spec 2000, Bosch ECU 2.2.1, PI System 3 dash/data logging.

Comprehensive spares package. Trailer to suit also available. $90,000. Bronte (08) 8254 8444 or 0412 846 997. 253 www.myl05.com/24129

1

online classifieds Category: □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers

Van diemen 85ff 2Ur Hlllcllmb Car, Repowered with 300HP Suziki GSXR motor all good gear. Excellent hillclimbing history could also suit sprints club events etc. $14900 ono or less engine $7000. Fax 02 9729 4290. Ph 02 9606 9181 / 0407 167 397 253Www.my10S.com/33664

□ Jobs

DescripUon: Please keep ads to no more than 50 words, plus up to 6 photos if desired.

Formula Vee, Nationals and 3 State titles winner. Second in 2002 Nationals. No expense spared preparation of this attractive Vee. Fresh Elliott engine. Roll on short and long gearboxes and suspension.

Numerous spares including long and short circuit exhaust systems,2 sets wheels etc.

One of the very best and fastest packages in Australia. $19,800 Neg. Tony Boequet (0419)164 279. 251 www.105.com/43939

rifFwaytosellyourgear!

From lust$25* justlog on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my105.com)

Advertising can also be supplied using this form ($10/S15 surchage to text only/text -i- pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of Ltotorsporl Nevts PLUS therny105.com websiteforsixmonths.

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motorsport news

LASSIFIEDS

CltUMBTS

vveisor uiuoman, i ne tirst car ouilt by uolin Wear in 1969 & raced successfully by Ron Kearns in 1970/1.also raced at the Iasi BATHURST Easter meeting in 1973 winning the class.Has only been back on the racing scene for a couple of years & set new track record Oran Park 26/01/03. comes with heaps of spares. $14,500 Not Neg. 0418 653 023.252 www.my105.com/69977

Sprintcar NSW 75 Hliborn Gambler, 12 Brodex 372 Chev fresh engine, as I am retiring from racing my car goes with all spares too many to list, this car is ready to race, every assistance given, priced to sell. $27,000. Ray Warner (02) 9531 5581 or 0402 075 230. 252 www.my105.com/96230

Engines Mailock 21B Sports 1300, Build 95 Top HP Corolla C/R gearbox, 2 bodies Hill climb and race with moulds very competitive, custom enclosed trailer with spares. $25,500 total package Neg. Gary 0412 085 563. 252 www.myl05.eom/70693

Parts

Speedway

XF Falcon Street Stock , RSA registered, spare diff, gearbox, suspension, wheels and tyres, recall auto metre taco, spitfire gauges, clean and fast car. $3,000 ONO. Mead 0419 968 820/0419 968 820. 254 http://www.my105.com/54471 Sprintcar Parts, VLee psteer complete, NRO w-pump, FBI tank bladder, Tilton brakes mcyl, hats, Pro shocks, Stanton driveline complete, 12 wheels, Hoosiers, bars, arms, stops, 50inch axle F100 stubs.

Top front wings, Moly cage, 29inch bar tubes, seat, push nerf bars, much more.

Robert 0416 241 418 254 www.myl05.com/57863

% W.S.S. Winning Team Sprintcar Sellout, Eagle Sprintcar Rollers from $17,500, Sprintcar Motors from $33,000, Sprintcar packages to suit your needs or budget.

Phone Glenno for further details - 0419 787 031 / 07 3216 5558. Glenno (07) 3216 5558 or 0419 787 031 253 http://www.my105.com/11990

12 March 2003

TANDEM TRAILER, hydraulic brakes, ramps, tyre rack, covered front, ideal sedan, open wheeler $1,500.00 Richard 0412 320 940. $1,500.00. Richard 0412 320 940.254 www.my105.com/4410

355CI Small Block Chev Drag Engine Motor, comes with Garb, 850 Meth BoLaws, Bo-Lawsbelt-Drive, Fuel Pump, Stefs Hi-Torque Starter, MSD Dist. $10,000.

Glenno (07)3216 5558 or 0419 787 031.

254 www.myl05.com/33006 Ford 4.1 Cross Flow Engine, Never used since built, Nothing spared when building. $5,000. Glenno (07)3216 5558 or 0419 787 031 253www.my105.com/9579

Formula Vee, Formula Vee (MAKO 1994)2001 Nationals Winner, State Titles, Bathurst & Eastern Creek Lap records, ready to race package for 2003 season includes heaps of spares. Excellent package to race at the front. $12,500 Not Neg. Gary 0409 622 091.252 vifww.my105.com/17230

38ft Semi-Trailer, Can carry two sedan type race cars. Heaps of storage space Some benches and cabinets. $25,000.

Glenno (07) 3216 5558 or 0419 787 031.

254 www.myl05.com/47675

MOTEC DASH LOGGER, MOTEC DASH LOGGER with loom, some sensors, 2MB memory,beacon,as new $6,000 Richard 0412 320 940. $6,000.00. Richard 0412 320 940.254 www.my105.com/41315 Getrag 5 speed, Getrag 5 speed close raUo gear sets. Straight cut, dog type, new 0417979226. 254www.my105.com/74317 Clutch operated T400, Clutch operated Turbo 400 transmission. Professionally built, currently street set up. ie: park mechanism. Comes with 360 degree scattershield to suit chev and Hurst lightening rods. Ideal 1/4 mile transmission. $1800. Tony 0418 146 590 254 www.myl05.com/26489 Race Suit, RPM Mondial race suit,XL, one piece,black/cream color,hardly used. $430 Neg. Paul 0410 449 062 254 www.my105.com/6014 Quick Lift Jack.Quick lift jack, over centre lever type. Suit all types of open wheeler race cars, or light weight low road cars. $200. Jeff 0417 013 179 254 www.myl05.eom/50472 Various race parts, * Barnes 5 stage dry sump pump $1500. * Weaver 3 stage dry sump pump, tank and pan for Ford V8 $900. * Pushrods chrome moly 3/8 one piece $100/set. * Holley 750 D/P modified $300. l Tilton flywheel suit 7 1/4" clutch $250. * Nascar wheels with slicks (4) $200. * AP six spot calipers $1300. Ring Graham on 0412 351888 or a/hrs on 46 327197. 253 www.myl05.eom/59044 Super T10 gearbox / Holden 308, Comes with bellhousing to suit Hoiden V8, Group A style clutch and shifter. MUST SELL. Holden 308 with Harrop 355 stroker crank, /til new brand name parts used. Top HP engine still needs to be run in $7000neg.

MUST SELL. $3,200 Neg. Colin 0417 655 223 or(08)8671 2775. 253 www.myl05.eom/3073

Transporters/Trailers Dual Cab Car Transporter, Dual cab Misubishi 515 Pantech. 6 cylinder turbo diesel with long range fuel tanks able to carry 2 race cars with lots of storage space, internal lighting and 240 volt power, Electric winch and ramps. $55,000. Ph: Leanne 0438 370 793. $55,000 ONO. Leanne 0438370793. 254Www.my105.com/47670

Trailer, professionally built steel/alloy dual axle enclosed front, tyre racks, full floor with full length alloy ramps, alloy wheels, fresh paint/no signage, suit historic towing cars, sport sedans, etc, $4,500 ONO. Gary 0412 670 422. 25iwww.my105.com/83282

For Lease

Konica 2003 VS Commodore, fastest at Bathurst 2002, fully maintained, transport and personnel team expanding to two cars, phone Matthew or Tim 02 9521 5255. 25i www.my105.eom/17600

Wanted

Transporter, SBR 6cyc 6 speed gearbox fold up ramps elect winch work bench heaps of storage wheel rack 240 lights good tyres 9 months registration goes very well. $11,000 ONO. Darren 0438 217 334. 253 www.myl05.com/68445 Transporter, Mitsubishi FK415 truck, 37ft gooseneck trailer-12 months old, 240v power, lights, ramp door, benches, cupboards. First to see will buy. $27,000.

Jac 0419 789 739.252 www.myl05.com/2559

Gooseneck Racing Trailer, Enclosed with checker plate aluminium, lined with carpet on roof and weatherproof material on walls.

Fibreglass sides and rear, one piece aluminium roof. 6 wheel electric brakes with breakaway kit. Heavy duty al-ko rubber suspension. 12 volt wiring plus 240 volts lights and power points. /Absolutely a show piece, $26,000 ONO, Tino Leo 0408 252 577583 or (03) 5821 4014. www.myl05.com/58382

Tanden trailer, Banana Back. Electric brakes. Spare wheel. Good tyres. Winch.

Ramps. Easy loading. Strong built.

Excellent towing. Designed for Speedway Sedan but used for wide body Porsche race car. Suit any wide vehicle. Easy loading.

Great for home mechanic as trailer allows free access to under body of car. $2,400 Or Best Offer. Mat 0405 134 091. 251 www.my105.com/26592

Super Tow Vehicle / Campervan, LWB, hi roof, dual wheel, Chev turbo 350, registered as campervan, Stratos seats, fridge, stove, double bed, wardrobe, etc, comfortable, quick, economical and legal low vehicle, mechanically as fresh, professional paint, no signage, race car sold. $15,500. Gary 0412 670 422. 251 www.myl O5.com/10007

Wanted, chevy Nova or chevyll parts from 1962 to 1967. Mainly require 63 sedan body panels & any parts for 67 sedans or coupes.AnythIng considered please phone or email , tippo@fastrac.net.au. Bob 0412 810 815.253www.my105.eom/29009 Drive Wanted or Chance to Provel , Mr Kerry Kokotis looking for a drive in GTP, Production, Konica, etc. Endures and Sprints. I offer determination and ability with fitness. You have nothing to lose but a driver to gain. Experience 600HP Dragcar and Club Sprints. Kerry KokoUs 0418 835 727. 252www.my105.com/94097 Wanted, I am looking for any RF91 to 95 Van Dieman Formula Fords. With or with out engines. Any condition looked at. Bruin Beasley 0438 530 698 or (03) 5997 5075.

251 www.my105.com/64087

Heuer 24 Hr Rally Master Dash Stop Clocks, Any condition, chrome cased or fiat black models. Also Rally Haldas, Twinmasters, Tripmasters, Speedpilots and Lap Timing Boards. Glenn 03 9867 6200 or 0418 389 549. 246www.my105.com/13160

I Hy105.coiiri Product Launch Driver Sites Ciub Sites

Join a growing motorsport network on the web.

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81

OPINION

DMorsiion EDITORIAl STUFF

Editor: Phil Branagan " editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor: Mark Glendenning " mark@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Grant Rowley » grant@mnews.com.au

PRODUCTION Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby » viv@mnews.com.au

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ADMINISTRATION Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden " pubiisher@mnews.com.au

CONTACTS 357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East Vic 3187 (PO Box 7072, Gardenvaie, VIC 3186) Ph: 03 9596 5555 Fax: 03 9596 5030 Email: mnew5@mnews.com.au

CONTRIRUTORS FI: Joe Saward, Adam Cooper Europe: Quentin Spurring, Gary Watkins, David Addison US; Phil Morris, Martin D. Clark Speedway: Brett Swanson, Julie Pearce, Geoff Rounds, Wade Aunger, Tony Miiiard (UK), Greg Boscato Raiiy: Jon Thomson Histories: Brian Reed Drag Racing: Greg Ward, Jon Asher (USA), Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, Steven White, Ken Ferguson National; Mark Wicks, Sean Henshelwood, Erin McCowatt, Mark Jones Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothwell Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, API images, Neil Hammond, Slipstream Photographic, Phil Williams, Allsport, John Morris/Mpix, Frank Midgley, Peter Bury, Mike Patrick (UK), Chris Carter, James Smith, Paris Charles, Bob Potts Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News - ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Printed by: Offset Alpine Printing Pty Ltd, Lidcombe, NSW. Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted.

‘Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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82

Safety first

hosting the FI and V8's(no DarreU Eastlake-Yippee!)but if you are going to do a good job at it, get the results right.

P.S: MNews, you make a fantastic magazine.

Larry P yoshijosh57@hotmail.com

I am probably joined by plenty of people by saying I enjoyed the Australian GP. But what I really liked was the lack of use of the Safety Car. There seemed to be plenty of times when a pace car could be called out, but race control controlled itself. I know the V8's were called short, and the Celeb's finished under yellow, but that seemed to be for a good reason.

I congratulate the persons involved for not calling a SC because some bloke sneezed on the scaffolding at turn 12. But I also do realise that tilt-trays can't be on the track with cars that are racing.

Therein lies my problem - one has to think that they are all big boys who can see a yellow flag at one part of the track, or their team members can warn them by two-way. But whatever happens they have to know’such-and-such is in the gravel trap.

This brings me to my sister, who hates motorsport. She said "why don't they just get on with it?" I can't defend that, especially after the Gold Coast Indy.

P.S. My sister also thinks that Skaifey is cute. No counting for taste.

Richard Dobson Dobbo89@hotmail.com

Election day?

In regard to Neil Strattons letter in the last issue. He has hit the nail on the head.

How could the organisers of the largest motorsport category in the country not even consult the two manufacturers involved in the sport?

■What he has said is exactly right in the next few years the smaller race tracks who have supported the sport for years wUl lose out to countries overseas where those people can not buy a Commodore or Falcon.

I believe that a readers poll would be good. Tony Cochrane says that he is doing what the fans want! I have never participated in such polls, so let's show him what the real fans want.

Marcus Arundal marra400@hotmail.com

Sports Car queries?

Ten out of Ten

converter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au Eight out of Ten

When I found out that Network Ten were taking over the coverage of the Formula One,I, like the rest of us, was happy to say the least.

However,recently I found out that we are no longer getting the ITV commentary! This cannot be true!

Neil Crompton,BiU Woods and Darrel Beatty could not even dream of holding a candle to the ITV crew.

Just when I thought Channel Ten had got it right, they have gone and got it oh so wrong.

Great mag by the way.

Mark Hindle troski01@yahoo.com.au ED: This came in before GP weekend. Judging by our other mail, reader Hindle may have made an illjudged early call. Incidentally, the Bill/Nell Show was a one-off - it's back to ITV for the rest of the races.

Nine out of Ten I was watching the V8 Supercars in Melbourne on Friday. 'Whilst looking at the results list and I noted that there was in position 9, Car 15, Rick Kelly. Then on the next page, it said position 13, Car 15, Rick Kelly. There is no way they could get Todd and Rick mixed up, because Todd got wiped out at the first comer on lap one. So please Network Ten, it's nice that your are

After years of watching sub standard telecasts of the Australian Grand Prix, last weekend's effort by the Ten Network signalled a new era in the coverage of the sport's pinnacle category.

To David 'White(GM of Sport), Scotty Young and the entire Ten Network team, congratulations on a great first-up effort.

Bearing in mind the limited time frame and the logistical nightmare of putting it all together,it was an outstanding effort.

The commentary team did a first class job with BUly Woods and Neil Crompton proving to be a class act as the anchor team. Crompton again demonstrated that he is the best motorsport commentator in Australia and arguably the best in the world with a polished performance that should be applauded.

His commentary was concise, accurate,informative,interesting, and superbly presented. It really sets the bench mark for any aspiring commentator.Wihich all goes to prove how bad and out of touch the previous incumbents really were.

Congratulations to all concerned.

You should feel justifiably proud.

Barry Oliver(V8 Supercar commentator) Launceston, Tasmania

Eleven out of Ten I guess there will be all sorts of comments about Channel Ten's coverage and their home-grown commentary team.

But for what it's worth, it was the best FI commentary I've listened to ever. Plenty of information to back up what you saw on screen. Shame we're going to get Brundle and Co from here on... ' GR Harrison Auckland (in Melbourne for the GP)

Andrew P McKinna needs more wax on his "surf board". Or he is wearing blinkers. Try looking up www.alphalink.com.au or www.marquesports.com and you will find plenty happening with sports cars.

In fact, if you study the esteemed pages of this magazine (especially the ones headed "State Racer") there is much lo learn and see.

Sports Cars are alive and well. If he would like to contact me I can give him loads of info.

Philip Youel youel@iprimus.com.au

__

Mpix

Network Ten received some critidsm and much praise for its Ft coverage, but it must be said that Australia's new broadcaster is a welcome change... motorsport news

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