Motorsport News Issue 262 - July 23-August 5, 2003

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news

Issue 262

23 July - 5 August 2003

news and opinion I

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features

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32 Prodigious Son Todd Kelly may be the odd one out in the Kelly family - Mum Dad and little Bruwa are all with Kmart Racing - out life is still pretty good ● 34 Win but Never Prosper Cheating? In racing? There have been some doozies

race

regulars

Mnntt-iMkwtr

Wife's

Photos: Cover; Dirk Klynsmith and sutton-images.com.

Contents' sutton-images.com.

Marshall Cass, Dirk Klynsmith, James Smith

20 Bikes 68 Drag Racing

62 Rally

64 NASCAR

66 Speedway

70 Histories

72 National Scene

76 Marketplace 3

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BIG Borrowing space from Bob Thorn: Ellery and Ambrose clash on the way out of the pits at Queensland Raceway.

Ellery Sympathetic

STEVE Ellery is not annoyed about being hit

by Marcos Ambrose at the Queensland 300 last Sunday - in fact, he is sympathetic towards his Ford rival.

The Super Cheap Auto driver says that he would have let Ambrose through had he seen the Pirtek Ford driver coming out of his pit bay.

"I was focussing on exiting the pit lane and getting on with racing when all of a sudden I saw a flash of blue, then it hit me," Ellery said.

"I was more shocked than anything else

because I wasn't expecting anybody to come out.

"I would definitely have let Marcos through had I seen him coming, I didn f want to mess up his lead."

Ambrose had to serve a drive though penalty over the clash, setting up his late-race charge to second. Later, the Tasmanian admitted that he was at fault.

"The stewards had no choice in the matter, but I did feel for him," said Ellery.

The BigPond Institute V8 SUPERCARS has its second presenting sponsor - internet giant BigPond.

The Tesltra-owned company has joined Victoria Bitter as the branding sponsor of the V8 Supercar Championship Series in a deal that will run until the end of the 2006 season. BigPond also holds h\'o options to extend the deal in four-year instalments.

AVESCO started talking to BigPond several months ago and the deal was bolstered last month when Marketing Manager,Amanda Johnson attended the Barbagallo round of the V8SCS. Part of the sponsorship package will include an enhanced internet service.

Subscribers to the h gh-speed BigPond broadband service will be able to view qualifying sessions, shoot-outs and media conferences live, as well as tapping in to eight in-car cameras. Races will be broadcast on the net three hours after they start, and there will also be an historical archive of races dating back to 1997.

The company took a late naming-rights deal to back the Queensland 300 last week, beloiv, and Ms Johnson said that similar deal with future events was a possibility.

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moiorsport news

NEWS

Comes Rusty! and the championship

by PHIL BRANAGAN AFTER his maiden win for Ford in the Queensland 300, Russell Ingall believes that he can win the Bathurst 1000 - and maybe even the V8 Supercar Championship.

The Enforcer led a 1-2 ahead of team-mate Marcos Ambrose at the Paperchp last Sunday, the first-ever such result for Stone Brothers Racing, and believes that the championsliip title is stiU within his reach.

"I can't see why not," said Ingall following his win."I have not sat down yet and crimched all the numbers. We will have to notch up a few more results like that one, but it will be pretty hard."

Ingall said that he was still to get 100 percent out of the Stone Brothers Falcon BA,admitting that he was about two-tenths of a second per lap off the pace he felt would regularly challenge Ambrose and Holden's Mark Skaife.

One area where Ingall wiU be looking for a gain is in qualifying. In 89 races in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Ingall has had only one pole. Against that, Ambrose

Ratbag to you FOR the second time in three years, a spectator has run onto the track during a Formula One Grand Prix. .A man identified by police as Faither Neil Horan,an Irish priest now living and working in London, ran onto Silverstone's Hangar Straight during lap 12 ot Sunday's race, causing cars to dodge around him a t 300km h. The protest immediately forced race organisers to deploy a Safety Car. Faither Horan was in an orange kilt, with a Star of Da vid pinned to the front ot a green shirt. He brandished a banner reading 'Read the Bible, the Bible is always right'.

The Irish Times reports that the man has been issuing appeals to the media to highlight recent events in the Middle East which, he believes, form part of a Bible prophecy foreshadowing the end of the world.

"Over the next few weeks," read a recent statement from the 56-yearold,"I wilL'Cod willing, be paradiing in front of media

23 JUI» 2003

buildings, in different parts of London,as a personal witness to this appeal (for peace in the Middle East). I will be doing my peace dance to symbolise the wholesome entertainment which will fill the Earth. 1 am not a prophet, I am only the interpreter of the prophets."

In the 2000 German Grand Prix, a disgruntled former,employee of Mercedes-Benz took to the track to highlight alleged grievances he had with the car maker. He was arrested, but not prosecuted.

Coincidentally, the winner of the race on that occasion was Rubens Barrichello, who won atSilverstone.

The implications of all of this on Silverstone will no doubt unfold in the days ahead but it was the last thing that the Northamptonshire track needed after all the criticism it has faced in recent weeks. After Hockenheim the Germans were told to shorten the track to ensure that it could be properly marshalled ...

-BRANAGAN/SAWARD

scored his 11th pole position at Queensland Raceway, his 33 championship round.

But Ingall also said that tire format of the second half of the season, following on from what had happened in the first seven rounds, made a long-held ambition to hold the title achievable.

"Bathurst will have a big bearing on what will happen,and who will win the championship. I have always had pretty good form there, and at Sandown for that matter,so I reckon that they will be the makers and breakers.

"The rest of the rounds should be good for us too but, if I had to say now,I would say that the endures will decide it(the title)."

Ingall had his worst result of the season at Hidden Valley, scoring 82 points. Unless he scores worse than that in the second half of the season, that is the score he will drop.

Bright has been remarkably consistent, making his worst score at Barbagallo's sixth roxmd, where he gained 134 points. Under the newfor-2003 points system. Ire currently has to drop that score, hr contrast, Steven Richards scored zero points in Queensland after air engine failure, while Sknife scored a season-low 36 after a similar problem.

Ingall recognises that could be a deciding factor; "The 'bad luck' factor could come into it. Richo has had his. I've had mine but Brighty is yet to have his.

(But) we can't take the cautious approach now, we need top three finishes."

While the SBR Falcons have been competitive all season, there is more speed to come. Ambrose said that the team had several developments in the works for the cars (see MNews #260) but team boss Ross Stone said at the weekend that none of them had yet been fitted to the cars.

"There is more to come from me, for sure, but there's also more to come from the car," says Ingall."The basic car itself is not the rocketship that everyone thinks it is and we certainly have plans to get more out of it."

And, if the championship does go all the way through until the end of the season?

"The final race of the year is at Eastern Creek," smiled Ingall,"and we are on the money there ..."

00 no more 00 Motorsport is, effectively, no more. The team which, until recently, ran Greg Ritter and Rodney Forbes, was a non-starter in Queensland, having formally transferred its two-car franchise to John and Margaret Kelly, new owners of the Kmart team.

With 00 down to a skeleton staff, team manager Alan Heaohy was present in Queensland tying up loose ends. MNews understands that team owner Bob Forbes may be seeking a single car Level 2franchise in order for son Rodney to remain in V8 Supercars. n Mick Doohan has signed a deal with Network Ten which will see the former bike world champ take up an expert comments role in selected races as well as using his contacts to arrange interviews with some of the big names in motor sport for Ten’s RPM programme.

Said Mick: "I've got to know many people at the top-end of motorsport, from past and present eras, and getting them to tell their stories in their own words will be as interesting for me as it is for motorsport fans watching." n Influential FI magazine 'FI Racing' has ranked Mark Webber fifth among the current Grand Prix drivers. In a poll of 20 experts, made up of team owners, former drivers, engineers and commentators, to be published in the next issue of the magazine, it names Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoyoa and W'ebber as the top five in FI. Webber is decribed as "the surprise of the season." n Formula 3000 championship leader Bjorn Wirdheim is to test for a number of different cars in the months ahead with stories of potential tests with BAR, Jordan and Williams. n As we closed for press, v/e learned that Formula One Management boss Bernie Ecclestone had given British GP organisers the British Racing Drivers' Club a deadline to commit to upgrading the facilities at the track, or risk losing the event. "If we have not got a firm commitment by the middle of August, then we'll make an agreement with Octagon to say 'byebye' and get out of it. Simple as that," said Ecclestone. n Gutsy effort. Former KartStars racer Adam Graham, a recent Formula Ford graduate, finished a career-best 13th in the first race of the championship round at Queensland Raceway on Sunday, despite the tragic death of his 20 year-old sister Kristy in a car accident the preceding Thursday. MNews extends its sympathies to the Graham family.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 5

Done Deal

TEGA approves new Holden team owners

THE Holden ownership saga ’ appears to be over.

Last week, the TEGA Board ; approved the applications n submitted by Mark Skaife, ' John and Margaret Kelly and ; Kees Weel to take over the I two Level 1 licences held by I Holden (Holden Racing Team), Bob Forbes (00 Motorsport) I and John Faulkner (John ^ Faulkner Racing) respectively. : Skaife and Weel are ; expected to 'activate' their new ; franchises (ie, have their i teams' cars entered under the I new arrangements) prior to the 'next round of the V8 Supercar ; Championship Series at Oran ijRark next month. The Kellys J new licences were utilisedi last ! week, the two Kmart i Commodo|g,s‘Of"Greg Murphy

and Rick Kelly running under their new ownership arrangements at Queensland Raceway last weekend.

The changes, which have been under discussion by the parties, Holden and the Touring Car Entrants' Group for some time, came about following the financial difficulties surrounding the TWR Group, which appointed receivers in February.

The parent company of TWR Racing owned HRT and KRT and, at the same time that TEGA and Holden sorted out the ownership of HRT, the two parties also negotiated to determine the future ownership of the franchises of all three teams.

—PHIL BRANAGAN

Holden Ow

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00, KRT get tyred and emotional THE Kmart Racing Commodores of Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly were forced to practice for last weekend's Queensland 300 on the stock of practice tyres formerly allocated to 00 Motorsport.

Following notificaLon to TEGA that Kmart Racing would operate under its new licence arrangements,TEGA determined that tire team must nm on

OO's stock of 32 tyres, and arrangements were made to airfreight the tyres to Brisbane from OO's Dandenong, Melbourne factory.

KRT team manager Rob Crawford was nohfied of the requirement as he was about to board a Brisbane-bound flight at Melbourne airport.

"I actually had the (boarding)pass in tire machine when my mobile phone rang," said Crawford."I had to back up and sort out what was going on.'

Likewise,former 00 team manager .Alan Heaphy was about to board a plane 30 minutes later when his mobOe phone rang.

"1 thought for a .second that it was not serious," Heaphy said,"but we were able to act pretty quickly and get things moving."

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I hope these ones weren't Rodney's: Murphy makes the best of practicing his KRT Commodore on what was 00 Motorsport's stock of used rubber.

Heaphy also mentioned that, wlien he turned his phone on when he landed, he had two dozen voicemail messages...

Only 16 of the tyres made the flight north, the aircraft involved having insufficient capacity for any more. The cost of the sudden move, which was borne by KRT, was $4500.

Drivers Murphy and Kelly were, understandably,less than impressed that they were running on tyres more used than the tyres they have been expecting to run on.

"They were a bit sorry," said Murphy."Getting the cars set up in practice was pretty well impossible. We would change the cars, sometimes quite a bit, but the tyres slid all over the road."

00 Motorsport has been able to test on its stock of tyres, while KRT has not, with no testing log issued to the team while its ownership was discussed by TEGA and Holden.

Under the circumstances,both drivers did well in the race, Murphy finishing eighth, one spot ahead of his team-mate.

-PHILBRANAGAN

motorsport news

NEWS

nership Sorted

... but Faulkner faces $300K payout

by PHH. BRANAGAN

JOHN Faulkner faces a huge payment to the Touring Car Entrants' Group TEGA following an unusual course of events last week that saw him default on his licensee's commitment to field fwo V8 Supercars at the Queensland 300.

The recently-retired driver, under whose two Level 1 licences Kmart Racing has entered the opening six rounds of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series, was forced to try and put together a last-minute deal to field hvo cars, after being advised by TEGA that he would be required to fulfil his contract following the transfer of the Level 1 licences previously used by 00 Motorsport to the new o-wners of

Kmart Racing,John and Margaret Kelly.

Faulkner would not comment on

the matter, other than stating,"It is an unfortunate situation and we need to talk about what will happen next.

"My number one priority remains the Holden Young Lions program.

That is where my focus is now and I want that to progress long into the future."

Faulkner's predicament came about following the approval by TEGA of the transfer of the 'Holden' V8 Supercar teams. Because of the fact that the Kelly had instigated the change of the team's licences prior to the QR weekend, the former JFR licences, in effect, were 'set free', that is, they were not attached to any team.

TEGA Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly underlined that there had been no choice made, and no decision, whether to initiate the requirement to Faulkner; "It is not a 'fine' because a fine implies that there has been some sort of decision made," he said. "The matter is clearly written in the team's agreements."

O'Reilly declined to confirm the amount of the fine, citing confidentiality, but MNews believes that the sum is $300,000. The amount is levied per round hut the transfer of the other licences, to Mark Skaife and Kees Weel (see separate story) is almost certain to be completed before the next round of the championship at Oran Park next month.

Questions and Answers What happened in Queensland last week is complicated -some have said pedantic. Here are some of the question we have asked, and been asked

Why was John Faulkner obligated to run two cars in Queensland?

As a holder of two Level 1 licences, Faulkner has actually been obligated to run two cars in all the races this season.

But until now, that obligation has been met by Kmart Racing, which now uses the former 00 Motorsport licences. That meant that Faulkner had to find another way to do it, and he was not able to do that.

Why didn't Faulknerjust run his two Holden Young Lions cars?

He couldn't. They are not legal for the V8SCS; for instance, neither of his Commodores have MoTeC's control ECU, wmich IS mandatory in the SCS but not in the KV8SS. If he had presented the cars and they failed scrutineering, he would have been charged and fined, in all likelihood, $30,000.

And he would have still been in default of his TEGA requirements.

Why didn't Holden try to find two other cars for him to enter? hidden did. But t-rr-e ran out. The cars would have had to be at the track on Friday. There simpl\ wasn't time.

So why weren't JFR's enries simply withdrawn?

Linder FIA rules, once an entry has been accepted, it cannot be withdrawn unless there is a Force Majeur. That would be something like a death, financial insolvency or destruction of property tie, the cars are damaged in transit), etc. A Force Majeur:s something that hapoens that is out of anyone's control. This was none of those things.

Why did Murphy and Kelly have to run on the 00 Motorsport tyres?

Because a team’s tyre bank is assigned to its licence.

When KRT changed the licence under which it ran, it 'inherited' OO's tyre bank and was therefore responsible for getting it to the track by Friday.

Aren't numbers assigned to licences also?

Yes, but Faulkner relinquished his right to them to the 23 luiy 2003

team's new owners. If he hadn't, you would have seen the KRT cars running under #00 and #7 last weekend.

Why weren't HRT and Team Brock in a similar position?

HRT is not affected in any way. New owner Mark Skaife has a deal to acquire both the team and the licences from Holden, HRT's previous owner. TB owner Kees Weel has a deal to acquire the JFR licence but, last weekend, both HRT and TB ran under the same conditions under which they have run all season. For instance, Weel has not yet 'activated' his new Level 1 licences and ran last week under the team's Level 2 arrangement. Only John and Margaret Kelly ran their team last week under their new arrangements.

What would have happened If the Kellys had waited like Weel and HRT? Hard to say, since that did not happen but, in all likelihood, nothing.

Will the promoters of the Queensland 300 take any action over the fact that there were 33 cars, and not 35, in their race?

No. The deal between the prom'oters and A\/ESCO was one of the older agreements and A\/ESCO CEO Wayne Cattach says that the number at which a penalty may be applied was below 33.

Can Faulkner appeal his 'fine'?

No. According to the TEGA teams agreement, the financial penalty he faces is not a fine, as such. No decision has been handed down regarding the matter because there-was no deliberation made by TEGA's Board. Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly says that TEGA's rules are simply being applied.'

Can legal action be taken?

Whether or not the matters ends up in court, lawyers are going to be busy this week, Holden is not likely to be pleased that the man who runs its Young Lions program is the one who has ended up with this penalty. Where it goes from there will be largely up to Holden's Ray Borrett.

Co-driver frenzy SCHUMI for Bathurst! No, not quite, but the five-time Fl Champion recently tested an Autodelta Alfa Romeo 156 GTA touring car at Mugello in Italy.

"It was a nice experience," said Schumacher after the test. "The reason for this test was to point out how much Alfa Romeo and Ferrari are close."

Schumacher's step-brother, Sebastian Stahl, who races in the Alfa 147 one-make series in Germany, also tested the car. n Rubens for Bathurst! No, not that either, despite radio station Triple VI running the rumour last week.

Apparently, the rumour was a replay of a brief MNews ran in March.

Rubens will be busy that weekend, running in the final FI GP at Suzuka.

Unless, of course, Jean Todt drafts in Dick Johnson for the race .,. n John Howard for Bathurst! No, again, but in the USA, presidential candidate Senator Bob Graham has begun sponsoring a Roush Racing Ford in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Apparently, it is a bid to attract rural voters (no-one say 'rednecks') in the build up to the next elections in November. 2004. n In response to talks between the Sauber Petronas Formula 1 team ana Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari has offered to reduce its annual bill for the team's Petronas-badged 'custome''' engines next year - on condition that the Swiss team hires its Brazilian tes‘ driver, Felipe Massa, according to German newspaper 'Die Welt'.

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF

IS THIS YOU? MNews'is seeking a permanent casual graphics assistant to join the team for one (or two) days a fortnight on our production deadline.

What do you need? Graphic design skills, including a good working knowledge of Apple-based QuarkXPress, Photoshop and Illustrator software: the ability to work under deadline pressure: availability every second Monday for a busy 12 hour day.

An interest in motor sport is also a very worthwhile asset if you are going to be a part of this petrol-soaked atmosphere.

The job could well suit a student in the latter stages of a course, or a more experienced person simply looking for part-time work.

If this is you, the initial contact should be written, to Chris Lambden, Motorsport News, PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186, or via email to publisher@mnews.com.au

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Dane

The celebrations eventually died down in the MNews office after our 10 year anniversary, but there were still some folk who wanted to wish MNews all the best...

The CART Champ Car World Series has been racing in Australia since 1991, putting us in the unique position of watching Motorsport News build itself from a startup publication to the trusted media source that it has now become. The publication has always demonstrated its professionalism and shows with every issue why it continues to grow to this day.

Congratulations to Motorsport News on its 10th anniversary and here's wishing for many more.

Christopher R. Rook CART Champ Car President and CEO I would like to congratulate Motorsport News on its 10th anniversary and of course wish it and its staff another successful 10 years. Certainly, Motorsport News represents the best of motorsports journalism and its quality coverage of racing events and issues is second to none.

Once again, on behalf of all of us at Team Rahal, congratulations, Bobby Rahal Owner, Team Rahal I have never been associated with such a professional magazine that continues to be at the forefront of ground breaking news ... usually well ir front of its competitors.

Motorsport News knows no boundaries and appears to obtain news ever, from the other side of the world before the local mags. It's refreshing to read nononsense stories, 'with no bullshit facts not flowered up to look good.

Good luck for the next 100.

John Cleland Two-time British Touring Car champion Cong.’-atu'ations on your 10th birthday, i hope you have manymore successful decades.

Phil Harrison Marketing Manager ARDC Happy Anniversary! I am proud to know that information about our team is being read in Australia. It does not matter where you live the smell of nitro is universal!

This is one great magazine.

Clay Milllcan Defending IHRA Top Fuel Champion 8

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PIZZONIA out, Wilson in. As Motorsport News dlbSedifof i i press, weekend rumours that Minardi driver Justin Wiieon was j to be named as Mark Webber’s team-mate at Jaguar Racingi; i with immediate effect were set to be confirmed. i ; li appears that, despite a stronger performance at SilwerStone, ; where he out-qualitedi Webber for only the second time this.

1 : season, Antoniio Pizzohla’S time is up andithe team has agreed I terms,te replace with'the lanky Brit.

The Brazilian was signed by previous team principal Niki Lauda , andi has ibeeni a big;disappointment, despite coming;with very good I ! referenoes from; Williams, where he worked'.as a test driver last j [ year.

There was talk of Pizzoniabeing!droppedi asearly as the' i i Spanish GP in Barcelona but,that crisis was headed off and;it j I looked as though Pizzonia would,be ,retained!lor the rest of the !

I year. Jaguar Racing management, however, seems to have run out!

I of patience with; him.

I !MNews sources suggest that Wilson was spirited;;lnto the Jaguar 1 ' factory at Milton Keynes late one night last week to see if he could 1 fit his lanky frame into a Jaguar chassis. | It seems he can and an announcement was considered;likely early in the week.

It has been suggested;that Denmark’s Nicholas Kiesa will;join i . Minardi with backing from his Formula 3000 sponsor Peugeot. : Kiesa has been driving:this year for Den Bla Avis and won at : Monaco although it must be said that Bjorn Wirdheim dominated ‘ the race but lost the viotory \«hen stopped before the finish line to ; ; wave to his team, j Jaguar’s desire to get Wilson into one of the cars now is an ; indication that the Yorkshireman will be signed on a,long-,term n corvtract and racing this year will prepare him for next year, without the need for there to be a period of acciimatisaton.

We also hear that Minardi is going to sign up a new third driver to ; i join in the testing at every Grand; Prix. It is believed that this role ' could go to Italian Gianmaria Bruni.

, RYAN Briscoe coura be headed for formulae as diverse as Formula Nippon or CART in 2004.

During a recent interview with Australian media,the Toyota-contracted Briscoe flagged the two categories as potential targets, assuming he continues to lead the European Formula 3 title all the way to the finish.

"Nothing's really been ’ discussed yet," he said.

"Right now I'm ijust concentrating on:^0ing the best job I can in series."

Briscoe has;s>'ipbettbphind -car the wheel olf.^ » A. !; i

motorsport news

Mountain

Ex-Fl driver to pilot Dynamik Bathurst contender THE man looking most likely to join Team Dynamik for the endurance races is Jan Magnussen.

The Adelaide-based Holden team is expected to confirm soon that the ex-Formula One driver will partner Nicolas Minassian in an all-international lineup at Sandown and Bathurst. Regulars Simon Wills and Jason Richards are expected to drive together.

Magnussen, 30, recently joined the Prodrive Ferrari ALMS team and will make his series debut at Sears Point this weekend, sharing a GTS class 550 Ivlaranello with David Brabham. Despite his new commitments, there are no ALMS that clash with the two distance races.

over recent weeks, undertaking some shakedown and straight-line aero work, hut doesn't . expect to get much,if any track work this year.

With the likelihood of a seat in Toyota's FI driver line-up for 2003 thus looking modest,the Japanese or US formulae look more likely to provide the next stepping stone in his career. The only other FI option would be a loan arrangement to another team -such as Minardi which now has a record of providing something of an F1 'kindergarten'for emerging drivers.

The team is said to be planning for the Dane to test one of their Commodores at Mallala for two days prior to the races, Magnussen having for some time expressing a desire to race at Bathurst in a V8 Supercar.

Magnussen won the British Formula 3 title in 1994, winning a record number of races. He made his GP debut in Japan in 1995, driving for McLaren, and drove for the Stewart-Ford team in 24 GPs. He scored one point, in Canada in 1998.

Magnussen will be no stranger at Sandown and Bathurst, having several friends in the V8 paddock, including Queensland 300 winner, Russell Ingall.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Ritter on the Hunt GREG Ritter is talking to a number of teams about an endurance drive at Bathurst and Sandown.

The Victorian, who was stood down,then reinstated, then stood down again by 00 Motorsport, has been targeted by a number of V8 Supercar team owner, and is confident

Have glasses, will drive: Ritter is searching for a competitive V8 enduro drive.

that he will be gainfully employed come the spring.

“A few people have been on the phone, which is great,” said Ritter this week.

“Kees Weel has been pretty supportive and so have one or two others, so I suppose we will have to see what happens.”

While Ritter would not be more forthcoming, MNews believes that the most likely seat for him will be the second Team Brock Commodore, alongside Marcus Marshall.

Ritter starred in the endurance races last year, in which he shared a Dick Johnson Racing Falcon AU with Alan Jones. The two drivers worked together well, and Ritter out-qualified team regulars Steven Johnson and Paul Radisich at Bathurst, getting the #18 car into the top 10.

In the meantime, with bills to pay and his first child due in October, Ritter has returned to his trade as a plasterer.

“We have to have food to put on the table,” said Ritter on Monday. “And I have to give back my (Ford road) car today (which came by way of being a Ford V8 Supercar driver). That's a bit sad, really ...”

NEWS

Alex is back!

ALEX Zanardi will be back in action later this year in the FIA European Touring Car Championship.

The Italian former FI driver lost both his legs in an Champ Car accident at the Lausitzring in September 2001 but has already driven a Champ Car with his artificial legs.

A BMW 3201 has already been modified to allow Zanardi to race with hand controls and the Italian was out testing the car this week at Misano. Zanardi will race for the first time in October at Monza. n Construction of the new Formula 1 circuit in Bahrain is on schedule with 30 percent of the building work already finished.

The track should be in operation by the end of this year and is expected to host either the third or fourth round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in April next year. n Niki Lauda has been busy trying to push the idea of a street race in Vienna. According to local newspaper reports Lauda has mapped out a course on the streets of the city with the centrepiece being the famous Vienna State Opera. The likelihood of such a project ever coming to fruition is very small given the problems which are likely with financing ana getting the necessary cleaiances. n The Den Bla Avis Formula 3000 team has shut down. The operation was run by a satellite organisation to David Sears's Super Nova Racing and this year was running Nicholas Kiesa of Denmark and America's Phil Giebler. Super Nova was running Enrico Toccacelo and Derek Hill.

The decision to close the team meant that the two American drivers were dropped and at Silverstone Kiesa joined Toccacelo at Super Nova.

This may be about to change again however, as Kiesa is tipped to be about to sign a deal to join Minardi in FI. The disappearance of Den Bla Avis means that there are now only 16 cars left in the series. n Another revised Formula 1 weekend timetable has been suggested by Formula One Management chief Bernie Ecclestone.

It would consist of six hours of 'private' testing and one official free practice session on the Friday, and further free practice and qualifying {in the current format) on the Saturday.

A Sunday morning warm-up would precede a second qualifying session three hours before the race. Ferrari and McLaren are reported to oppose the concept.

- JOE SAWARD /QUENTIN SPURRING 9

ten

Buddies

home of

[motorsport] 2003 V8 Supercar

by JOE SAWARD

Championship* ftug 17 .. .Oran Park

.Rd8

Sep 14 ...Sandown Oct 12 . . .Bathurst .

.Rd 10

.Rd9

Oct 26 . . . .Surfers Paradise

.Rd 11

Nov 9 . ...Pukekohe

.Rd 12

Nov 30 .. .Eastern Creek .

Rd13

2003 Konica V8 Series* .Rd5

ftug 3 ... .Winton

Rd 6

Aug 30 .. .Mallala Oct 11 ... .Bathurst

.Non Chamcxonshlp

2003 FIA Formula One Championship* Aug 3 . . ..Hockenheim

Rd 12

Aug 24 . . .Hungaroring

Rd 13

Sep 14 .. .Monza

Rd 14

Sep 28 . . .Indianapolis Oct 12 Suzuka

Rd 16

Rd 15

2003 CART Championship* Jul 27 . ...Vancouver. .Rd 11 Aug 3 .. . .Elkhart Lake

Rd 12

Aug 17 ...Mid-Ohio . .

.Rd 13

Aug 31 .. .Denver .. .

.Rd 14

2003 IRL Championship* Rd 10

Jul 27 .. . .Michigan . .

Aug 10 .. .Gateway ..

.Rd 11

Aug 17 .. .Kansas City

Rd 12

Aug 24 .. .Nazareth . .

Rd 13

Sep 7 ... .Chicago ..

.Rd 14

2003 MotoGP Championship* .Rd 9

Jul 27 ... .Sachsenring .Brno Aug 17 Sep 7 .

Sep 20

.RdI O

.Estoril

.Rd 11

.Rio de Janiero

.Rd12

.Motegi

.Rd13

2003 World Rally Championship* July 27 .. .Germany

Rd8

Aug 10 .. .Finland

,Rd9

Sep 7 . . .Australia

.Rd 10

2003 Australian Rally Championship Aug 10 . . .Rally Of S.A Oct 5 Melbourne

.Rd4

Nov 16 .. .Tasmania

.Rd6

.Rd5

2003 Procar Championship .Rd 6

Aug .8 ... .Phillip Island

Bd 8

rten1 J

home of

motorsport^

n

spending most of its money on promotional activities supporting the races with TV advertising and off-circuit promotion. Budweiser is limited in what it can do at races as Foster's has 'pouring rights' for the Formula 1 World Championship.

Budweiser is hoping to use FI to raise its international profile considerably. The deal is for five years and is rumoured to be worth around US$15m a year.

"Budweiser is one of the world's most admired and identifiable brands/' said Sir Frank Williams. "It has an impressive history as a patron of motor racing."

KING OF BEERS

The company had originally planned a deal with Ferrari but that fell through and Williams was chosen because it has backing from Hewlett-Packard, which is the only company which is using FI to advertise in the USA.

Redl White and Blue!

Budweiser has even forsaken its usual red livery in favour of Williams and BMW's favoured blue to get into Formula One.

Cowboys or Indians?

Will the next new Formula One race be in San Francisco?

SAN Francisco may be getting a Formula One Granci Prix.

MNews hears that an announcement is due very soon that there will be a race held in the Bay Area within three or four years.

It seems that San Francisco would like to use the event to brighten up its international image and to help with urban regeneration in a rundown neighbourhood to the south of the main downtown area. The model for the event would be Albert Park and we understand that the venue wil l be a public park which is currently rather rundown.

At the moment, Indianapolis boss Tony George owns the right to host any event called 'The United States Grand Prix at . ' but this

agreement is thought to run only for as long as the current Indianapolis contract.

Chris Pook, now the boss of CART but formerly the man who ran the Long Beach Grand Prix, could run an event in San Francisco for Bernie Ecclestone. Pook is currently employed by CART but his contract ends in 2004 and it is anticipated that the series will by then be under different ownership and management.

The aim is to create the same festival-like atmosphere as Melbourne and open up more interest in FI in the United States.

Bernie Ecclestone has denied that there are any plans for such an event.

- JOE SAWARD

Rd 7

Sep 19 ...Winton Oct 23 ...Gold Coast

n

THE giant American brewery Anheuser-Busch has signed a sponsorship deal with WilliamsFl, as we predicted some weeks ago.

The company will use its Budweiser brand. Although there is only limited signage on the cars it is understood that Budweiser will be

All event dales in this calendar were ccrrect at the ante of pnnting. Please consult any individual tracks n and/or associations lor date changes.

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

... or does Bernie want the Jewel in the Crown?

THE idea of an Indian Grand Prix has been revived by comments made by Ecclestone suggesting that there could be a race in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Ecclestone has been talking about getting into the Indian market for more than 10 years, his logic being that the country, which has a population of one billion people, has a fastemerging middle class which numbers in the region of 200m.

This would follow the recent trend in FI to head for the big countries without any history in the sport.

There was a rush of activity in India about fiVe years ago with plans for a race to be held near Calcutta but the project became bogged down in financial problems and faded away.

It is interesting to note that Indian businessman Veejay Malik was a visitor to the

British GP at the weekend.

Malik is an avid racing fan who runs the Kingfisher Beer company, which used to be a sponsor of the Benetton FI team back in the 1990s.

One major problem is that Malik is involved in the civil war that has been going on in Indian motorsport in recent years but he is backing the dub which is independent of the FIA's chosen partner in India.

- JOE SAWARD motorsport news

NEWS

Tyre war over?

THERE were rumours in Germany last Wednesday that Bridgestone would be withdrawing from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at the end of 2004.

The Japanese tyre company could have ignored them but instead felt the need to issue a press statement on Thursday to say that there is no intention of withdrawing.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, the company's director of motorsport, said that "there has never been a moment that Bridgestone has thought of withdrawing from Formula 1 since our entry back in 1997."

Eight is Enough!

i Could there be a 2.4-Utre VS in FI's future?

AS Motorsport News foresaw last month, there may be a cut in engine capacity and cylinders in Formula One engines.

The intention discussed was to simply remove two cylinders from the VI Os, like Ferrari's F2003 unit, above, and switch to 2.4-litre V8 power units. In order to achieve such a change, it is necessary to have unanimity amongst the car

lANGAKLO 'isichella is Talking to Sauber about a deal to race for the Swiss

I

team next year.

Giancarlo is, officially at least, under contract to Jordan Grand Prix but because of the team's

23 July 2003

makers but this was not possible because there are some FI companies that want to continue to use the VI0 brand.

The general response from team bosses was that any change of engines would create massive new costs as manufacturers develop purpose-built engines.

recent financial constraints, a deal was struck which gives Fisichella a smaller salary but part of the fill with his own sponsorship. It is not yet clear whether there needs to be more negotiations to enable the team to release Fisichella or whether he can go when he pleases.

There is little doubt that there will be at least one driver leaving Sauber at the end of the year and it might even be both. The problem is that there are few opportunities for either Heinz-

- JOE SAWARD

Harald Frentzen or Nick Heidfeld and it may be that they have concluded that Sauber is their best bet. It is possible that Heidfeld could be moved to a Mercedes-supported team as he remains under contract to Mercedes for one more year.

It is hard to imagine that McLaren would drop David Coulthard in exchange for Heidfeld but the German did show well against Raikkonen when the two were team mates at Sauber.

There continue to be suggestions that Rubens BarricheMo could move to Sauber to make way for Felipe Massa at Ferrari. Interestingly, there have been no denials at all from Ferrari with regard to these rumours.

-JOESAWARD

n Paul Stoddart has a fleet of two-seater Formula 1 cars which he has not been using in the past year and he has proposed to the other Formula 1 team bosses at Magny Cours that these be used next year for celebrity two-seater races on Sunday mornings at each Grand Prix.

Stoddart said that he would like to see 10 cars painted up in the different colour schemes of the various teams each with a VIP as Its passenger. n The BMW Williams FI team gave Estonian racer Marko Asmer his first proper FI test last week in Barcelona. The 18-year-old is currently racing in British Formula Ford for Richard Dean's Team JLR Out was previously a factory driver v-iith the Tony Kart Team.

This IS his first year racing cars but thanks to the fact that he is being managed by Harald Huysman, who helped develop the career of Jenson Button, he has already tested for Williams at the Vairano centre in Italy, doing straightline aerodynamic runs.

R Helnz-Harald Frentzen's sister Nicoie-Nadine may be only 14 but she has already caught the racing bug. She was stopped by police last weekend while out driving her mother's car in Monchengladbach with her 11-year-old sister and another friend. She faces charges of driving without a licence.

Nicoie-Nadine already competes in kart races but has to wait until she is 18 before she can get a road licence. n BAR formula 1 test driver Anthony Davidson has apparently reached a verbal agreement to be the reserve driver for Jaguar Racing, in the event that either Mark Webber or Antonio Pizzonia (or his replacement!) are unable to compete. Davidson made two Formula 1 starts for Minardi last year, standing in for Alex Yoong, "It is an unofficial reserve driver role, without any contract at all," said Davidson.

- JOE SAWARD /QUEIMTIN SPURRING 11

Three FPI

by PHIL BRANAGAN

FORD Performance Racing will enter three cars in the V8 Supercar endurance races - but the team may not run them.

Follow'ing a meetmg of the TEGA Tribunal last week,FPR has been told that their three entries wall have to be fielded for the Melbourne 500 at Sandown and the Bathurst 1000.

BRANDS Hatch,the former Formula 1 circuit close to London, is up for sale and there are fears in the racing community that the facility will be sold to property developers.

The circuit's previous owner Nicola Foulston tried to solve this problem a few years ago by signing a long-term contract with Bernie Ecclestone to host the British Grand Prix. Having done that she sold the company to the giant US promotions company Octagon for US$180m. Octagon found that it was impossible to get planning permission for the development needed and as a result concluded a deal to lease Silverstone from the BRDC in order to hold the race. That deal is now in place until 2017.

This has left Brands Hatch with

little worth to Octagon and the track has been put on the market, along with the other circuits owned by the Brands Hatch group, namely Snetterton, Oulton Park and Cadwell Park.

The aim is to sell the circuits as a going concerri if it is possible but the sale could be broken up and in that case it is unlikely that anyone in motor racing will be able to compete with the property developers who wish to develop Brands Hatch. The 400-acre site near Swanley in Kent is prime development country and local objections have been based on the noise of a Grand Prix track rather than on actual development.

The sale will be by bidding with a decision expected by September.

- JOE SAWARD

FPR had been seeking to run only two cars m the races, for the confirmed driving squads of Craig Lowndes/Glenn Seton and David Besnard/Owen Kelly.

Team principal David Flint said on Monday that the matter had not be completely settled by the team.

"There are a niimber of possibilities being discussed," said Flint."We are still some way from being sure what may or may not happen."

FPR operates its entries under two Level 1 licences, which formerly were owmed by Glenn Seton Racing, and a Level 2 licence that has been leased from Rod Nash Racing. ” Tire rules regarding the lease of a 'V8 Supercar licence are quite clear and restrict the leasing out to one team for a period no longer than two years. That means that, having leased the Nash licence, FPR would not be able to re-lease it to another entity.

Level 2 licensees are allowed to miss

20 percent of V8 Supercar Championship Series rounds (wlrile Level 1 licensees must attend all

events) but L2s must enter any event longer than 400km - in this case, Sandown and Bathurst.

What may happen, and what team insiders say is the likeliest scenario, is that FPR will enter submit its three regular entries but that the third car, which may not even be one of its three BAs or two AUs, would be run and driven by a 'third party'. If that were to happen, any number of teams could run their own cars, so long as they complied wdth the V8SCS regulations.

FPR team manager Jon Matthews could not add any light on the matter, speaking only on the rmderstanding that it had not been determined whether the entry w'ould be run by FPR or someone else.

Asked as to whether the Prodriveowmed team would make use of international drivers contracted to the UK parent, should the team run its own car, Matthews said,"I wouldn't have thought so. Ideally, we would want someone with V8 Supercar experience and Bathurst experience. But we also recognise that it's pretty late in the day to start looking at what drivers are available."

-PHIL BRANAGAN

Jackie takes a wee shot

SIR Jackie Stewart has launched a scathing attack on Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley for what he calls a "vicious" campaign to destabilise the British GP and for failing to put money back into the sport.

This is not a very clever approach as Ecclestone recently invested US$20m into trying to help the track upgrade its facilities but he felt that the money had been wasted by the British Racing Drivers' Club, which Stewart represents.

Stewart said that "Silverstone is certainly better than Sao Paulo in Brazil, better than Spa, better than Hungary, better than San Marino and the pits are still better than at Hockenheim in Germany."

Ecclestone's response to that has been to argue that as the centre of the motor racing world, Britain should have an FI venue 12

that reflects this status.

Ecclestone argues that the BRDC should invest the money it receives in rent from Octagon and use that to borrow money to upgrade the track. Stewart says this is "economically-impossible" but has not explained why this is the case. The British government has refused to put money directly into the funding of the Grand Prix although some money has been found to help Silverstone build up the infrastructure of British motorsport.

The most damaging thing, however, was Stewart's attack on Mosley and Ecclestone, saying that much of the money in the sport is flowing out. While there may be some truth in his arguments, Ecclestone argues that he is the man who made what FI is today and he deserves to gain from that. The FIA argues that it cannot control

"None of that money,to my knowledge, has gone hack to circuits but Mr Mosley has nice new offices in Trafalgar Square,as weH as in Paris and Geneva" - Stewart, above

the commercial side of the business and so has sub contracted that to Ecclestone and the money from that transaction has enabled the FIA to establish a research foundation, which has other values to the sport.

"None of that money, to my knowledge, has gone back to circuits but Mr Mosley has nice new offices in Trafalgar Square, as well as in Paris and Geneva," Stewart said.

Stewart’s opponents argue that Stewart is the wrong man to be talking to the British government about public money when he was a tax exile in Switzerland until relatively recently.

Stewart warned that there might not be a British GP in the future unless there is help from the government.

-JOE SAWARD (for more. Box Seat, page 26) moiorsport news

ts for Endupos 3entries required- but wiii they be FPR cars?

Odd numbers only: The TEGA Tribunal wants three FPR entries but the cars that show up might be different.

Stoddy Compromises MINARDI team boss Paul Stoddart says that a solution has been found between the teams and so his announcement that he would run his cars without driver aids at the British Grand Prix was no longer valid.

The Australian was able to convince the other team bosses that they need to sort out the so-called 'fighting fimd' and he has agreed to agree not to challenge the rules for the rest of this year.

"We've had some contribution," Stoddart said."As everything always is, it's a compromise but I think we can safely say that for the rest of the year the fighting will all be done on the track, which is where it should be."

Stoddart also says that in all probability he will also withdraw his opposition to the rule changes for 2004, This has yet to be confirmed.

Stoddart's handling of the other team bosses in recent months has been unpopular but impressive. He still has to find a way to keep the team alive next year and is waiting to see what Bernie Ecclestone is going to do to help out.

It was announced in Canada that Ecclestone was

a No threat: Stoddart, left, with McLaren's Ron Dennis, wants to keep the fighting on the race track.

23 July 2003

buying into Minardi but there has been no indication since then that anything has been done. Ecclestone may have a buyer lined up for Minardi but at the moment there are no signs of who this might be. There are rumours that there are two serious buyers on the market at the moment but rumours and realities are very different things.

-JOESAWARD

NEWS

Back in Buenos THE Argentine Grand Prix couid be revived on the Autodromo Oscar Galvez road circuit near Buenos Aires, perhaps as early as 2005.

Formula One Management chief Bernie Ecclestone has had a meeting with Argentina's vice-president, Daniel Scioli, to discuss such a proposal.

The last Formula 1 race in Argentina was in 1998, since when the South American nation has been hampered by severe economic problems. n Russian industrial entrepreneur Roman Abramovich, said to be the nation's second richest individual with a worth of US$5.5 billion, is considering an investment to kickstart the stalled Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix project.

The international sports fan attended the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours immediately after finalising a deal to pay more than $48 million for control of Chelsea Football Club in London.

A major stockholder in Aeroflot, the national airline, and Sibneft, the world's fourth largest oil company, 36-year-old Abromovich is a member of the Russian parliament and a close associate of Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president's favoured verue for a new national Formula 1 fixture - following the failure of the project in Moscow - is the projected Puikovoring road circuit near St Petersburg, n A selection of international cricket champions suited up for a gokart race in Chennai, India recently.

Australian Test captain Steve Waugh took on local hero Sachin Tendulkar, former Australian pace great Dennis Lillie and West Indies batsmen Brian Lara. Tendulkar won the race after Lillie and Lara were involved in an on-track clash.

Waugh looked like the man to beat until he was 'caught out' by mechanical dramas... n APCC contenders Team Satria will enjoy full factory backing from Proton Cars Australian for the remainder of their campaign in 2003 and across 2004.

The team, which comprises two Satria GTi hatches steered by the father and son team of Geoff and David Russell, will now run with full funding and technical backing from the company after having performed well as a private operation. n CBS Sports is to expand its broadcasts of the Champ Car World Senes in 2004. The network will show 10 events next season, including the season-opener in St. Petersburg and the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Others events are TBA. - QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF 13

No winsf

Alex back at the wheel ALEX Davison will contest an additional round of the ALMS Championship to compensate for his late withdrawal from what would have been his debut in the series at Road Atlanta recently.

The Germany-based Melbournian will now partner Robin Liddell in the PK Sport Porscl-ie 911GT3-RS at Infineon Raceway this weekend and then again at Trois-Rivieres a week later.

"At the moment I'll be doing those two races and tlien I'll speak to the teams about the rest of the season,"

said Davison.

"They were still pretty happy with me after Atlanta even though I didn't race, so there is a good chance that I can do all the remaining ALMS races that don't clash with my Carrera Cup commitments."

Davison, who is now mid-way through his third season in the German Carrera Cup Championship, was a last-minute withdrawal from Road Atlanta after being struck down by an illness.

- MARK GLENDENNING I i.

I I

JAMES Courtney continues to notch up the points in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship, but he had to work hard to do it during the ninth and tenth rounds of the series at Suzuka two weeks ago.

The 23-year-old from Sydney qualified on the front row for both races, but his Race 1 pole position went to waste when he was forced lo start from pit lane due to a starter motor failure.

He sliced through the field to climb as high as fourth before eventually finishing fifth after a battle with TOMS team-mate Tatsuya Kataoka.

"It was bad news having to start from pit lane, but bit it was an exciting part of the race passing ever'/one," said Courtney, "I think I must have passed about 10 guys in those laps - it was a lot of fun."

Shinya Hosokawa was first to greet the flag, ahead of Paolo Montin and Shinya Sato.

For race two, Courtney started from second on the grid and the wet side of the track, which had earlier been subjected to some showers. Montin beat him away from pole and never relinquished his advantage, going on to take the win from Courtney and Hosokawa.

Points: Courtney 156, Montin 126, Kataoka 102, Quintarelli 94, Hosokawa 87.

14

RYAN Briscoe continues to hold a commanding lead in the F3 Euro Series despite a bittersweet outing at the famed Le Mans circuit two weeks ago.

Briscoe qualified the Prema Powerteam car on the first row alongside polesitter Christian Klein for the first race, but both of them were beaten away to the first corner by Nico Rosberg, who made a lightning start fromi the second row.

The Finn was never headed thereafter and survived the attentions of Klein to take his first win in the series, leaving Briscoe to finish third. The result enabled the Italy-based Sydney sider to extend his lead in the Championship.

"I'm happy that my friend Nico was able to gel a win," said Briscoe.

"As for me, it was a good result for my championship - but i'll still be hoping to do better tomorrow."

Will

WILL Davison bounced back from his disappointing round at Castle Combe last month to score a swag of point in the 13th and 14th rounds of the British F3 Championship at Oulton park last week.

Davison, beloiv, qualified eightli for the first race and worked his way up to fifth, where he remained after getting stuck behind Jamie Green on the overtaking-unfriendly track.

.As things turned out, this was not to be. Briscoe started from fifth on the grid, but his race ended early when he was punted into the gravel and into retirement on the first lap.

As a stoke of luck, however, two of his main rivals - Oliver Pla and Timo Clock - also failed to score points.

At the front, Klein drove

Will The second outing saw Davison's ADR Llallara Mugen-Honda start from ninth position and finish eighth.

"We went for a risky fuel strategy in qualifying and I went out on really low tanks," said the 20-year-old from Melbourne.

"On my first two flying laps 1 hit traffic and then on my third try I ran out of fuel! Up until then I was going quick enough to be fourth or fifth.

"The weekend was a reasonable turnaround from the last round.

"We're hack up to a reasonable position, although obviously I'd like to have done a bit better. We really struggled in the test day on Friday and I was worried that it was going to be like Castle Combe all over again, but after that we made the car a lot better and learnt a lot."

Fellow Australian Will Power also went home reasonably happy with his weekend, although he admitted that his weekend was compromised by his qualifying results, which saw him start from 18th in race one and 11th in race two.

"I qualified badly for the first race, because it was the first time I'd been there," Power explained.

"While everyone else was out working on their set-ups on Friday,I was just trying to learn the track. It's the hardest track in England."

Power recovered strongly when race time rolled around though,and fought his was through the field to finish 12th in the first outing and motorsporl news

NEIfirS

Changing places REIGNING BTCC Champion James Thompson entered the Jim Clark Memorial Rally in Scotland earlier this month. Driving his Mitsubishi Evo VI, Thompson came home in eighth position at the end of the three-day event. n Fabian Couithard moved up to eighth in the British Formula Renault Championship after the latest round of the series at Croft two weeks ago.

The Kiwi qualified 16th for both races, but struggled to find passing opportunities in the races.

Nevertheless, he managed to Improve upon his grid position in both outings to finish 14th in race on and 13th in race two.

superbly to score his maiden win ahead of Fabio Carbone and Bruno Spongier.

With the season now half over, Briscoe will carry a dominant 27 point advantage into the next round at the

n An Aussie in the DTM! Almost.

ITR, the promoter of the Germanbased series, has combined with the ARD TV company and Sauerland Event to combine a world title boxing bout with a DTM round at the Nurburgring next month.

Under the headline 'Boxing Meets DTM', the DTM's first floodlit 'superpole' qualifying session will be held on Saturday August 16 and will be followed by local Markus Beyer and Aussie Danny Green in a stoush for the WBC Super Medium Weight title Green is managed by former world titleist, Jeff Fenech.

Nurburgring on August 17.

Points: Briscoe 65, Carbone 38, Klein 37, Pla 36, Clock 35.

'ogpess ninth in tlie second race.

Series leader Alan van der Merw'e won both races.

Last week, both Power and Davison were testing at Rockingham to get some valuable miles under their belts before the series resumes at that track on August 2/3.

- MARK GLENDENNING

Points: van der Merwc 216, Green 132,Piquet 116, Antinucci 91, Watts 87, Bremer 80(Davison 62, Power 10»

Back in town JAMES Manderson has returned home to Melbourne mid-way through his Euro F3 campaign with Swiss Racing Team.

Manuerson, the reigning Australian F3 Champion, toid MNews that he had returned from Europe to work on his budget.

"This is meant to be a learning year, and missing one race isn't the worst thing in the world," he said.

Manderson accompanied the SRT outfit to the latest round of the series at Le Mans but did not race.

Flowever, he said that he aims to be back on the grid for the next round in Germany in a few weeks.

23 lulv 2003

BJORN Wirdheim was in cruise-and-collect mode for the latest round of the International F3000 Championship at Silverstone last weekend, delivering a flawless performance to nail the win.

Wirdheim, the current points leader, qualified the Arden machine on pole and never looked back, leading the entire race and setting fastest lap for good measure along the way.

Giorgio Pantano chased gamely from the second spot on the grid, but the Swede was in a class of his own at the Northamptonshire circuit and steamed away to cross the line 9.0s ahead.

Third, some 11 s further down the road, came Vitantonio Liuzzi who got the jump on Ricardo i Sperafico at the start and went on to lead a five-car convoy, in which everybody jostled but noone actually managed to gain a ' position for the duration of the race.

Patrick Friesacher, Enrico Toccacello and Townsend Bell were next, with Nicolas Kiesa coming home as the last of the points scorers. The Dane was racing in the colours of Super Nova after financial problems . prevented his regular outfit. Den Bias Avis, from making the field.

Also present was former British F3 champion Marc Flynes, who was making his first

n Next time someone brags about 30mpg from their Commodore, think of this; the Lycee St Joseph La Joliviere team from Nantes, France, clocked a mindboggiing 10,705mpg in the latest Shell Eco-Marathon, held at Rockingham Motor Speedway in England. The students' vehicle, 'Microjoule' was driven by 12-yearold Morgan Legeay on its run. n Nice news: Ford Credit will donate US$100 ($150) to the Susan G, Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every lap the #88 Robert Yates Racing Ford Taurus completes in the Kansas 400 at Kansas Speedway on October 5.

appearance in an open-wheeler in two years. It was a weekend that Hynes would probably rather forget, as problems with his FIANS device eventually saw him bring his BCN F3000 car home dead last.

Points: Wirdheim 52, Pantano 34, Liuzzi 29, Toccadello 27, Sperafico 27, Kelsa 20.

n A 56 year-old histories racer, David Heynes, was killed at Silverstone last weekend, during a supporting race conducted after the Grand Prix. Heynes was driving a Lotus 15 and was pronounced dead at the circuit hospital after a heavy crash into the tyre barriers at Becketts. n FIA Sportscar Championship organiser Stephane Ratel has confirmed that the remaining four rounds of the 2003 series will be held, having received firm commitments for up to 16 cars from sufficient teams.

After the early rounds had attracted small grids, Ratel had threatened to cancel the fixtures.

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF 15

Reynard to Player's get boost

by JOE SAWARD

I

Pook pushing for faster Reynards

CANADIAN tobacco company Players Ltd has announced that it is pulling out of motorsport sponsorship because of restrictions which come into force in Canada on October 1, this year.

The anti-tobacco legislation is being challenged but, as the new Tobacco Act comes into force on that

THE six drivers racing Reynard Champ Cars may be in for a boost from CART. At the recent race in Toronto, CART President and CEO Chris Pook said that he is looking to persuade the CART board to approve some additional technical enhancements to the chassis, including an aerodynamic boost. date, the tobacco companies have no choice but to back down.

‘1 am reasonably confident that I can assemble the votes to get the Reynards some help within the next seven days," Pook told The news comes just a few months Associated Press. after NASC.AR's title sponsor CART is believed to want to introduce modifications to the stock Winston announced that it would not Reynard design that were developed by Penske Racing when that be continuing because it was impossible to hilly exploit the team ran the 01C chassis two years ago. sponsorship.

Four teams run Reynards in the CART series; American Spirit Players has played an important Team Johansson (Jimmy Vasser and Ryan Hunter-Reay), Fittipaldirole in the development of Dingman Racing (Tiago Monteiro), Mi-Jack Conquest Racing (Mario motorsport in Canada, dating back to Haberfeld) and Walker Racing (Rodolfo Lavin and Darren Manning, beloWl. the early 1960s when Players funded the first international race in Canada One sticking point in Pook's plan may be resistance from the in 1961. Six years later, Players majority of team owners who run Lola chassis. Despite , funded the first Formula 1 Canadian implementing a chassis design freeze at the end of last season, Grand Prix, The company remained a Lola built 10 new B2/00 cars for the 2003 season, allowing its backer of the race in one form or teams to update their hardware. Reynard struck financial another until 2000 when legislation difficulties at the end of 2001 and no new Champ cars have been manufactured since.

Lola team owners are also unlikely to want to give an edge to their poorer-funded Reynard opposition. A new Lola B2/00 chassis costs around US$400,000 ($650,000 approx.), about four times the going race for a used Reynard 01C. - PHIL MORRIS

within Canada made it impossible to continue,

Players' other major success story has been to develop the careers of young drivers and since 1994 it has been a major force in CART, mainly with Forsythe Racing. Players supported the careers of most of Canada's best known racing names, supporting Gilles Villenein’e, Jacques Villeneuve, Greg Moore,Patrick Carpentier and in recent years Paul Tracy as well. Players money has also been used to develop the CART events in Toronto and Vancouver.

And while Canadian health

campaigners may see the end of Players sponsorship as a victory, it is worth pointing out what has happened to French motor racing in the years following the introduction of the Loi Evin which banned tobacco and alcohol advertising in French racing.

The ban came into effect on January 1 199.3. The government of the day promised to help keep the racing industry healtln but failed to deliver on those promises and the once ne\’er-ending supply of French

Wfiop Lui Bank

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A recent c^fltcat^on from PROCAR EegarcBng^igibiiihetor the race mrare IMB thaTJTK' ,b^d TT P.niippg which raced Thayer sOtts biuEbuisring 24 (See. are patsrmty anilely to come gown undento the Roverrto' event.

Opat. fflhiDh won ffs Nurburgring ratSePd wtaeb had

l^R riportecSp foBkiBg^rSe

to ths racst y^to appeir.

Sente time ago, Afet Spsrts&iE, whieh built the css for A<^ 16

I j! -It fnads sorru Ebout the Bathur^ race, tte idea being the cc^^f buildiRg the cars over imm than one euer* The 24-houpvet8iofi of the TTs teAure a iirm-Thpi’^ changes to ths OTM crajsin& Eluding larger fuel Snfs and a detuned 4-!itis \^-engine.

There had afej been a suggestion 4bat Sport Auete^t& which and A4 Super Tourers tiiaPar the': ai^iices of Brad Janes Racing, woutd be tSBHBd for ths twfeeareund the elodr event, tfrajgh BJR earn manager Kim JEmes wouti not confirm th^ -Pt^LBRANAGAN motorsport news

NEWS

Sheene Curve christened

no longer

THE new Sheene Curve on the Brands Hatch 'Grand Prix' circuit was used for the first time during last weekend's Historic Superprix meeting.

So-named to honour Barry Sheene, who died earlier this year, the reprofiled corner has replaced the daunting Dingle Dell chicane which racers approached 'blind' over a brow, and has returned the circuit close to its original 'GP' layout.

f *

i i

S.

f

Are you Playing? Players will pull the pin on their sponsorship of the blue team due to anti-tobacco legislation.

FI drivers dried up. Motor racing at an international level has become almost impossible and the closure of Larrousse, and the passing of Ligier into foreign hands was the result.

Ligier was briefly and disastrously revived as Frost Grand Prix but quickly went out of business. In

Formula 3000 DAMS,Apomatox and others all disappeared from the scene. French motorsport remains devastated with no real signs that it is going to recover.

"Through the years, the drivers and teams affiliated with Player's have been outstanding ambassadors

for Canada," said Bob Bexon, the president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, the company which markets Players.

"Tlirough their talents, they have elevated Canada to a place of prominence on the international scene."

n Stone Cold Brothers Racing?

An American TV production company has announced plans for a new racing series that it describes as "the V\AA/F of the auto racing world."

Centerline Media in Hollywood (where else?) says the Bad Azz Drivers Series(BAD) will be contested by professional and semiprofessional racers on closed courses resembling city streets. It promises to include hazards such as potholes, oil slicks, rain showers and downed trees.

We think they mean 'WWE'; the WWF is the World Wildlife Fund and if those swines think that they are going to run over Bambi ...

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF

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17

Sulayem retires -

v»-

AFTER successfully campaigning Jacfearoos during the past two Au^aliariLSafaris, the Hotdbn Rally Team is making the switch to the new Rodeo for this year's event.

Holden has officially entered three Rodeo 4x4 Space Cabs, powered by the new, all alloy 3.5 li&e V6 peb'ol engine, in the Showroom 4x4 categbry for Australian motor racing icon Peter Brpcfc, Bathurst 24-hour winner Nathan Prei^ atidTlual Australian Rally Champion ©eoff Rbltmaiii The Rodeos have been pFepare^-iffMelbbi^ne by three-time Australian Rally Champlprfe^fe'.,' winning co-driver, Jeff Beaumont. ’ ’ '

THE astonishing reign of IViohammed Ben Sulayem may be over, the Middle East rally champion reportedly considering retirement.

Ben Sulayem, left, missed the opening round of this year's FIA Middle East Championship in Qatar, did not enter the Rally of Lebanon and, apart from his home event in Dubai, currently has no plans to contest any other rounds in this year's regional series.

Should a new Middle East Champion be crowned this year -- and it is almost certain that one will - It will be only the fourth time in 17 years that a driver other than Ben Sulayem has held the regional title.

The Arab world's top driver captured the Middle East Championship for the first of 14 times in 1986 and has won it each year with the exception of 1992, 1993, and 1995, when he did not contest the series because o" international commitrrients, '■ I ve been driving competitively since 1982, and I know a lot of people think the time is right for me to call it a day," said the UAE stan "That's going to happen eventual ly, and after enjoying so much success this would be a good time to step back."

Ben Sulayem drove for Toyota until 1991 and, when he returned to the Middle East series, moved to Ford, But he has been unable to secure a sponsorship deal from Red Bul l and Ford to run a new Focus WRC this season.

"I'm definitely not going to go back in the championship unless everything is in place. Ford and Red Bull have given me loyal support and, who knows, if another major sponsor came forward perhaps 1 could have another crack at the title next year.

Ben Sulayem has already won more FIA regional championships and more International rallies than any other driver in history.

Fie has scored 60 rally wins in the Middle East Championship, those victories coming in Dubai (15), Qatar (9) Lebanon (4), Jordan (12), Qman (6), Kuwait (4), Abu Dhabi (5), Bahrain (3) and Syria (2). moiorsport news

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Man United Makers threaten SBK walk out over technical backflip

'THE future of the World 1 S'Uiperbike Championship is in ' serious doubt following a threat by ; manufacturers to withdraw from : the series. : The FIM and SBK organisers j FCSPORT (formerly known as the ) Flammini Group)issued a ; statement in California last week, i doing an apparent back-flip on its : polic\ of implementing air : restrictors on multi-cylinder lOOOcc ; engines, like that currently fitted to ; Suzuki'sGSlLX-lOOO. The' f manufactmors - Ducati, Suzuki, ! Kawasaki, Petronas, Aprilia and :● Honda - responded witli a ^ statement of their own, threatening j to withdraw from tire championship ! at the end of the season. In part, its i statement read; I "The six manufacturers that are i the members of tlie MS.MA feel that I this sudden change does not i conform with the quality and status j of a World Championships, and ■ does not meet basic requirements [ for technical rules, such as enabling ' large numbers of teams and j companies to compete under fairer I conditions. The adoption of rules

20

that are a long way awav from the reasons for drafting the rule described abo\-e has had a major impact on the interest of the manufacturers in competing in World Championship Superbike."

It later said; ",Vs a consequence, the large majority of the .MSMA member companies who were considering entering World Championship Superbike ha\ e reviewed their positions and decided not to enter World Championship SuperBike at all.'

The statement was signed by Takanao Tsubouchi, the Secretary General of the MSMA. There is now likelv to be a major amount of political manoeuvring o\-er the following weeks as the Fl.M and FGSPORT face the annihilation of the championship.

IronicalK’, the mo\ e came at the same time as the competitiveness of the new regulations was shown for the first time this season, AMA regular and SBK wildcard Mat Mladin taking Superpole on his Suzuki ahead of the championship regulars.

YELLOW was the colour of the day at Donington's British MotoGP. Valentino Rossi provisionally won an all-Italian race over Max Biaggi by 1.2s, but lost the win after copping a 10s penalty for passing under a yellow flag earlier in the race.

"I feel clear in myself, I won a hard fought clean race; I race on the track - not in the office," said Rossi.

"But the rules are the rules and I can't argue with the law. I hope the outcome doesn't affect the championship at the end of the season."

Rossi had passed Loris Capirossi under yellow flags at the beginning of lap two,following Torhu Ukawa's opening-lap fall.

Rossi hunted down Biaggi for the lead and took over after the Roman ran off the track at a chicane.

The penalty dropped Rossi to third behind Sete Gibernau. The Ducatis of Capirossi and Troy Bayliss were fourth and fifth ahead of Spaniard Carlos Checa (Yamaha).

Capirossi was lucky to have stayed up,just missing the fallen Yamaha of Marco Melandri earlier in the race.

Toints: Rossi 167, Gibernau 133, Biaggi 130, Capirossi 84, Bayliss 64, Barros 62, Checa 57, Ukawa 56.

SPANISH star Fonsi Nieto dominated the 250cc Grand Prix, leading all the way from pole position.

Nieto fought off championship leader Manuel Poggiali by 0.2s, just ahead of the fast-finishing Aussie Anthony W'est, who scored his third consecutive podium with another

Ducatis take

DUCATIS still did the winning at Laguna Seca's round eight of the World Superbike Championship - but the silverware was passed around.

Frankie Chili bounced back from a huge turn one crash to win the first race while Ruben Xaus, below, took a dominant win in Race 2. Chili was brought down by wildcard Aaron Yates (Suzuki) but kept his head in the restarted race, watching leaders Xaus and Reggie Laconi fall in front of him.

"I cannot believe I am here on the podium and winning the

Italian "But I just tried to stay close to the guys in front and today 1 got a little luck when Ruben and Regis went down.

But we are all so much on the limit, this is what happens," Chili took the win from Neil Hodgson while Mat Mladin, who took the Superpole, finished fourth after his tyres went off The Aussie missed the second race, after having raced to a win in the AMA race, while Yates battled the SBK - ^ regulars before TaKng a tumble.

Chili fell on the opening lap of

moiorsport news

BIKES

Locals set for 8Hour dominance

The Pride of Italy: Biaggi leads Rossi, above, prior to running off the track late in the race. Max won anyway...

O Lucky Man: Capirossi was lucky to miss the fallen Yamaha of Marco Melandri, below, earlier in the race.

Laguna

Race 2, Xaus waiting until lap 4 to take the lead and then spearing away to an 11 s win from Hodgson. HM Plant Ducati rider Chris Walker held out Laconi and Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla for third.

Troy Corser took eighth in Race 1 before his Foggy Petronas dropped a cylinder in Race 2, Steve Martin crashed In Race 1 and his Ducati missed the start of Race 2 after engine problems.

Points: Hodgson 3b5. Xaus 233, Toseland 201, Laconi 187, Lavilla 166, Walker 156 Chili 14;-. Martin 95, Borciani 83, Pedercini 91 ^

strong ride.

West was fifth with seven laps remaining but stormed past Toni Elias (Aprilia) and Honda rider Roberto Rolfo.

"I don't want anyone to think I can only be fast in the wet, I wanted to show that I can do it in the dry," said Dutch TT winner West.

Stoner (Aprilia) rode into a solid fifth place behind Alex de Angelis (Aprilia).

Points: Poggiali 121, Nieto 106, Elias and Rolfo 97, West on 94.

AUTOMOTIVE SERWCE MANAGER/ C9 SENIOR lEAOIKG TECHHIGIAH

TEENAGER Hector Barbeta scored his first career victory in the 125cc GP. Barbera, 16, led 18 of the 25 laps on his Aprilia to lead home speedy Italian Andrea Dovizioso.

The race ended in controversy when Stefano Perugini dived inside Dani Pedrosa under brakes at the Melbourne hairpin and took out the young Spaniard's front wheel.

"This cannot go on any longer," fumed Pedrosa after the race. "It carmot be that Perugini is allowed to pull these dirty moves with the blessing of race direction."

Title contenders Steve Jenkner and Lucio Cecchinello also craslied, meaning that the top three riders in the points table failed to score. Casey 23 July 2003

THE 2003 Suzuka 8-Hours is shaping up as a Japanesedominated affair this year, with only a small number of foreign riders entered in the August 3 race.

Among the 51 entries in the event, Honda is pinning its hopes on the experienced duo of Tohru Ukawa and Hitoyasu Izutsu and MotoGP rookies Nicky Hayden and Ryuichi Kiyonari.

The pairings, who tested their' bikes at the start of the month, will share Honda RC51s in the race and, while Hayden is an 8Hour rookie, 20-year-old Kiyonari was second in his class in 2000.

Also running on Honda V-twins will be former GP racer Tadayuki Okada and Chojun Kameya riding for Team Sakurai.

There are only three Aussies entered in the race. Anthony Gobert and Adam Fergusson will pair up on a Corona Extra TiForce Suzuki GSX-RIOOOinthe XF1 class, where they will face still Honda opposition from the CBR954RR of Shinichi Itoh/Takeshi Tsujimura and former World Superbike champion Doug Polen/Toshiyuki Hamaguchi.

Other entries include Warwick Nowland, with Stephane Mertens on a Suzuki 1000, Yukio Kagayama and Atsushi Watanabe on a Yoshimura Suzuki GP-1 Maxim GSX-R1000 in the JSB class, Canadian Jordan Szoke and British rider Paul Young on a Corona Light TiForce Suzuki GSXR1000 in Superbike and American Mickey Lane and Takuya Tsuda on aHondaCB1300SF.

Points: Pedrosa 124, Jenkner 98, Cecchincllo 97, Dovizioso 93, Perugini 92.

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Mashing 'em at Nashville

GIL de Ferrari scored victory at Nashville Speedway in round nine of the Indy Racing League.

But more significantly, the Brazilian closed his Championship points deficit to series leader Tony Kanaan.

It was de Ferran's fourth IRL victory, leading 49 of the 200 lap race. He now slots Into second In the series and is a mere 14 points behind Kanaan.

De Ferran has been a model of consistency lately, finishing third three times in-a-row before winning in Nashville.

"I'll tell you, it was a fantastic race today," said de Ferran. "I mean, right from the start, the car really felt good.'

Pole man and current IRL front runner Scott Dixon finished second ahead of de Ferran's Penske team-mate, Helio Castroneves.

Dixon's equipment may not have been fast enough to win, Nine rounds down, Six to go: The battle between the top four IRL drivers, but the Kiwi kept with the leaders to maimain his including de Ferran above, is set to be very close. ° championship position.

"I'm not sure if we really had a car to win tonight, it was IT probably a second, third-place car," commented the Kiwi after the race. "(But) if you can stay at the top, you're going to collect some points." i j Rookie Dan Wheldon finished 3 a career-best fourth aboard his Genuine Dallara/Honda while 2002 n/ Ml Nashville winner Alex Barron, ije subbing for Felipe Giaffone, rounded out the top five. the price of ail Kanaan finished a lowly ninth, L Klippan Narnesses i which is his worst result since offer ends 9/8/03 crashing out of the Japan 300 in April. His series lead shrunk from a comfortable 49 points to a mere 14.

"It wasn't a good night for us," Kanaan said. "I think we ran out of luck tonight, to be honest."

The race actually finished under yellow flags after Buddy Lazier crashed on the penultimate lap. Lazier was uninjured.

The series heads to Michigan this week where the title fight between Kanaan, de Ferran, Dixon and Castroneves wil l be red hot.

-PHIL MORRIS

Your Victorian

specialist

Factory jj, 19-25 Cmige Rd Cheltenham VIC Ph 03 9585 5340 Fax 03 9585 5320 22

Points: Kanaan 303, de Ferran 289, Dixon 288, Castroneves 282, Kenny Brack 245, Ai Unser Jr, 227, Scott Sharp 193, Sam Hornish Jr. 186.

David

GMread FOLLOWING its tests of a Cosworth-designed and built engine, GM Racing officials announced last Wednesday that they have submitted a request to the IRL IndyCar Series to switch engines used in IRL races.

The new ‘Gen IV' Chevrolet is expected to receive approval and may be raced at Michigan International Speedway next weekend.

“We’re waiting anxiously,” said John Barnes, co-owner of Panther Pennzoil Racing. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to run the engine soon.

This will be a positive step for all the Chevy teams.”

Panther driver Sam Hornish Jr has tested the engine several times, including a run at Kansas Speedway on July 7 in which the engine reportedly turned laps more than 8kmh faster than Hornish’s qualifying speed two days prior.

"We have formally requested IRL officials to approve the Gen IV Chevy Indy V8 for competition in 2003,” said Joe Negri, GM Racing’s IRL program manager, in a statement.

molorsport news

and Jan in Red I

FORMER Panoz drivers David Brabham and Jan Magnussen will return to the American Le Mans Series at California's Infineon

I

Raceway this weekend, driving a Ferrari 550 Maranello.

The Aussie and the Dane will be joining the driving line-up for Care Racmg Development's Prodrive team in the GTS class, left.

"I'm really excited to be back in the American Le Mans Series," said Brabham."And I'm just as excited to be driving again with my old friend Jan Magnussen. I look forward to having some great dices in the Ferrari against the Corvettes and with our old friend (Corvette driver) Johnny O'Connell. It will be great fun."

PcmoMon

AfOTia

y for new engine

The duo will join Prodrive regulars and Le Mans class winners Tomas Enge and Peter Kox in the other car.

Care Racing also announced that it will field a third 550 later in the season, to be driven by rising American Formula Atlantic star Danica Patrick and Frenchman Jerome Policand.

NEWS

Substitute of the year?

PART time Indy driver Alex Barron replaced Felipe Giaffone for the Indy 200 at Nashville Speedway on the weekend. It's the third time this season Barron has been used to substitute injured drivers. He replaced Gil de Ferran at Penske earlier in the year, and drove for Ane Luyendyk at the Indy 500 this year where he finished sixth. n Sam Hornish Jr. is considering his racing future. The two-time IRL champion is debating whether to stay in indy-style cars, or move to NASCAR. Hornish himself has confirmed that NASCAR is an option, however the move is unlikely.

Hornish is negotiating with his current team Pennzoil Panther Racing, while Penske has been mentioned as a outside chance for the Sam's services. n Firestone began a three year deal to sponsor the Nashville Super Speedway round of the IRL series.

The news comes after the tyre company confirmed sponorship of the Firstone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway Firestone also sponsor the Indy 225 at Nazareth Speedway.

- PHIL MORRIS

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rBaoJc\ NOW!

“Pending IRL approval, GM Racing will make the Gen IV Chevy Indy V8 available to Chevrolet teams in accordance with IRL regulations.”

Chevrolet has had a tough time this season, since the arrival in the series of Toyota (which has won six of the first eight races) and Honda, which leads the series points standings with Tony Kanaan. Hornish, Chevy's best performer so far, is eighth in points at the mid-point of the IRL season.

Now, IRL officials must decide if GM Racing can introduce the new engine before being made available 23 iuly 2003

to all of its teams-a key policy in IRL rules. Chevrolet supplies five team - Panther, Red Bull Cheever Racing, Team Menard, Hemelgarn Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold - but does not have enough of the new engines available to update all of them at once.

The Cosworth had been intended to compete in the IRL with Ford badging. Cosworth officials submitted paperwork to the IRL during the off-season but scrapped the plan after Ford became CART's exclusive engine supplier for this season.

- PHIL MORRIS

SYDNEY

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Doing It for the Locals

by PHIL MORRIS HIM front of a huge home-town audience, Canadian Paul Tracy scored his sweetest victory at Round 10 of the Champ Car World Series on the streets of Toronto last week.

Tracy, driving for Player's/Forsythe (Player's also hail from Canada), qualified on pole and led every lap of the race. It was the first win for Tracy in Canada since his victory at the same venue 10 years ago.

Needless to say, Tracy was emotional.

"To win here in Canada for Team Player's is the defining moment of my career," said Tracy. "This win is 10 times better than the win here 10 years ago."

Tracy's victory has now [.a

I 5BHIS ’ o .lYrrrr^ ■.coitC

Drink to this: Tracy, above, gets the podium treatment from Jourdain, below, who took a well-earned second place.

In :

1 t

« iiB

^411 :

opened up his Championship lead to a comfortable 14 points at the half-way mark of the series.

Another local was also doing good things at his home event, until a conciete wall got in his road. French-Canadian Alex Tagliani closely trailed Tracy for the first 31 laps, until he clipped one of the Toronto walls.

Handing second place to Bruno Junqueira.

The Brazilian led Michel Jourdain Jr. into the final pit stops, but Junqueira made a mess of it, parking too close to the pit wall. This mistake gave second place to Jourdain.

Junqeuira eventually finished third.

I should have been second. claimed Junqeuira after the race.

Unfortunately at the last pit stop I made a mistake and lost a position to Michel."

Frenchmen Sebastian Bourdais drove a mature race to finish fourth, moving him well ahead in the rookie of the year points score.

Birthday boy Oriol Servia, who turned 29 on race day, finished fifth ahead of the experienced Champ Car man Roberto Moreno and Laguna Seca winner Patrick Carpentier.

Points: Tracy 137, Junqueira 123, Jourdain Jr. 113, Carpentier 88, 5 Bourdais 86, Servia 76, Adrian Fernandez 69.

!!!'S i. i

I

i|

’ s

OPINION

Everything In Its place s .On/liTIIVIlS I wonder whether the inmates have finally taken over the asylum. Often in rallying ill pose the question:'What the hell were they thinkingi?'

Take the decision a few years back to scrap the Coffs Harbour-based NSW round of the Australian Ratty Championship. I can't remember the justificaition, but the rationaile was to move the rally south to Sydney.

Why, yo,u may ask, does a sport like rallyi:ng, which is best conducted in the wide open spaces of a state forest or farmland, give itself the handicaip of basing an event in Sydney?

Take it from someone who lives in the Emerald City, getting around is no easy task.

There is near-gridlock any time of the day or night, and moving rally cars around is even worse.

A'RCom's original reasoning was that all the rounds would be based « the state capitals.

They would be more professional, bigger, brassier and :just plain better.

Moving the ARC to Sydney was a bold move. It took the

sport to the very heart of the CBO for the fiirst ti:me. It putted a crowd of around 300, all packed in; a;nd creating,a fantastic atmosphere. The rally got some pretty good media coverage in the city's newspapers and even on the TV news.

Only problem was, after the 800 metres long CBO stage, the forestry stages were a; two-hour transport away on the Central Coast. They were pretty mediocre stages and they provided few decent spectator opportuin;ities.

This the to Sydney stage wasyeair moved Eastern Creek, where it drew an Ok crowd of about 3000 to view some pretty lacklustre action. One wonders how many will come back for a second dose next year.

To be fair. Premier State Rally organisers hadi to battle the logiistical nigihtmare of torrential rain for days before the rally and their forestry stages were cut to ribbons.

There weren't too many punters out In the forest watching,. But no problem with that, we have good TV coverage and the philosophy is don't worry about puinters in the f0.n.est, the TV wil provide the pfaibform; for spreading; the word 10’ the masses,.

But wait a second. Wasn't the rationale for moving the rally to Sydney spectator -interest?

Pulling 3000 to 4000 people to a National Championship rally in a bustling city of four million people is hardly anything to crow about.

So why trade off the beautiful surrounds, easy access to the forests and better roads at Coffs for the headaches, extra costs and lack of stages of Sydney, especially when you can't pull a decent crowd?

Even more intriguing:; at about the same time as the NSW move, was the decision to move the WA round out of Perth to Bussellton, a coastal resort town the best part of 200 kilometres from the big smoke. In SA this year, the great Rally SA has moved out of Adelaide to the Barossa Valley. Queensland is based at Caloundra and^ Victoria in the Yarra Valley. So why do we need an ARC round in Sydney?

The people who make the decisions will tell you that its because the corporates have better access to the rallying, the image is better, yadda yadda yadda ... You can make yourself believe just about anything if you really try.

he point to all this is stop trying to turn rallying into something it is not. Let's not forget that rallying has always had an element of adventure to "IIT'yisu know, man and machine against the elements, set against a background of stunning

■rl t b §m T h oin s oii rural backdrops - the sort of vision that makes you take a breath when you see it, whether it is live or on the box.

The Premier State Rally produced none of that. The forestry stages were cruddy, and the stages were run in massive shadows that made the TV pictures look pretty ordinary as well. It was contrived, and it looked it.

It's never good to criticise without offering an alternative so here is one potential answer: Bathurst.

You know the place, the spiritual heartland' of Australian motorsport, home to NSW's biggest annual motorsport event.

Don't bother with Sydney, It's not worth it. Base it in Bathurst, in the shadow of Mount Panorama, our own cathedral of speed. You could even base a couple of special stages there. There would be at least as many spectators turn up, it isn't much further from Sydney than the mediocre Central Coast stages, and the TV pictures would be fantastic.

The sooner the inmates realise rallying and big cities are natural enemies, the sooner they are going to capitalise on the increasing growth of the sport on the back of the increased manufacturer involvement. itoiii Tihomggn is MISIews'Hally correspondent and also works itor SBS Sport

Neil Blackbourn

25

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he other day I was chatting to Ove Andersson about rallying.

"As far as I am concerned, all rally drivers are mad," I said.

Ove smiled.

"No," he said. "Everyone is motor racing is crazy. It is just that we all have different kinds of madness." it reminded me of a remark made by Bernie Ecclestone a long time ago when a book called "Grand Prix People" was first published.

"They are all mad," said Mr E. "That's ail."

One thing that everyone in

motor racing has in addition to slight madness is an ego. Those without one fail to make it in this hyper-competitive sport because in order to be there, one has to believe that one is the best whether one is a photographer, a driver, a pastry chef or a wild haired aerodynamicist.

People who have their egos under control are some of the biggest stars. They know that in excess ego and vanity can be a weakness and those who have been allowed to let their egos run out of control with no checks or balances from the real world can become hideous, boorish people (and, no, I am not

Save Silverstone: Sir Jackie Stewart wants the British GP to stay in BRDC hands ... but is Bernie ownership the realisticway to go?

referring to anyone specifically).

It is the clashes between the various egos involved in FI which make the sport so completely fascinating - and so much like a soap opera.

2)art of the annual soap opera is Silverstone week, a time when everyone wants to be your friend (if you have a pass available) and there is the oncea-year dispute over the British Grand Prix. The British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns Silverstone, says it cannot afford to improve the facility; the powers-that-be in FI say the place is iike a country fair.

It is as much a part of the British sporting scene as is Wimbledon or The Derby.

This year Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley came up with a new argument; the BRDC has an annual income or S'2m from the lease of the circuit and they argued that the club should borrow against this sum rather than paying a bit pementage of it in tax and dividends to certain

club members. Sir Jackie Stewart, top honcho of the BRDC, said this is not possible.

Everyone yawned.

Sir Jackie put his head in a noose a few weeks before the event by telling the world that 'here would be an announcement before the British GP about the British government pumping money into Silverstone. There was an announcement but all that Silverstone got were warm words but no government cash.

Stewart's response to this was most extraordinary. He launched a tirade against how Ecclestone makes too much out of the sport (which is rather ungrateful given the fact that Bernie recently handed over $20m to Silverstone) and how Mosley has nice new offices in London. It was not a measured response and a cynic would say that Sir Jackie's considerable skills as a marksman were some-what misplaced as he fired straight into his own foot.

Jt was ail done in the name of

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rhe best way to ensure the future of the British Grand Prix is to give in and Ibt Bernie rebuiid Siverstone as he wants it to be "Saving the British Grand Prix" which seems a noble enough cause The problem is that the BRDC will never save the British GP. Even if the government does dip into its pocket it cannot help enough to keep Silverstone competitive with the new generation of race tracks around the world.

It is no secret that Bernie Ecclestone would one day like to own Silverstone and Stewart and others are always talking about a different "agenda" which they say they know nothing about. But they know.

And,from where I am sitting, it seems to me that saving the British GP is going to be best achieved by stopping all the messing around and facing up to the realities and selling the whole place to Ecclestone for a

horse-choking wedge of wonga.

The BRDC knows that it is sitting on an asset which, according to the club's balance sheet, is worth $90m. A sale is currently not possible because the club has rules which block a purchase but that really does not make sense. The best way to ensure the future of the British Grand Prix is to give in and let Bernie rebuild Silverstone as he wants it to be.

Mr E has the money and has shown he is willing to spend it, as he did with Paul Ricard. ~Tne big qi;estion, therefore, is not how the BRDC can raise an impossible amount of money but rather what the BRDC sees as its role in motor racing.

The club was created to be an informal dining club which aimed 3StS of

motorsport, to extend hospitality to drivers visiting from abroad and to further the efforts of British drivers who were competing abroad. The club has organised races since the very beginning but there is no real reason why it has to do so.

Giving up Silverstone may be a wrench but with $90m in the bank a lot is possible. The club could invest in a suitable property in London and operate as gentleman's club. If it was felt a circuit was necessary then one could be acquired (there are four on sale in Britain at the moment).

Even with these purchases there would still be a lot of money left over and the purchase of some dull old fashioned government bonds would guarantee a nice safe income of $2-3m a year which would need to be spent to avoid taxation. This would enable the club to dole out scholarships to young British drivers and do good deeds for the sport, which

The Box Seat witli Jot Saward is what is needed.

This, of course, would mean that some of the old ideas are surrendered and so we come back to the start of the column.

It is not a question of the good of the sport but rather or ego.

Logic says one thing, but ego may not let that happen ...

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Five minutes with

RussellIngall

It may have taken a hit ionger than expecteU, but The Enforcer's switch to the Biue camp has tinaiiy pain nivinemts.

I’m the pineappie', he toiti PHiL BRAIVAGAni

MOTORSPORT NEWS; Is this win a relief?

RUSSELL INGALL: I think that after the Grand Prix, that people were expecting, 'he's going to be on the ball with this thing'.

And it hasn't come, and there's maybe a few that have gone, 'errrr, maybe not'. But if you can get out there and stick it together and put it together, then ... off you go.

But we still can't sit back, we're still not fast enough. At the end of the day, Marcos (Ambrose) was quicker today.

There's no doubt about that, he drove really well in that last stint.

I probably had half a second in it, but he was still 0.4s on me per lap. I've still got to pick that up.

It's as simple as that.

5V1N: How hard has it been to be in a winning team and not being the one winning the races?

Rl: It's frustrating, there's no doubt about it. When you've got a team that has g.ot two very competitive cars, and one's doing the winning and one isn't, it doesn't reflect well, I guess.

I must admit though, in saying that, that we've had some shocking runs We've had a lot of car speed, and the team's pointed that out to me, because that's one good thing about SBR, the team is very supportive.

If they can see when you're going through a rough trot, they bring out the chart and they say, 'hey, here are 32 cars, here's your lap times for the entire race, and up to a point you've been one of the quickest, if not the quickest, car out there.

'You've got the car speed, you just need the luck'. They prop you up. You look at it and you go, 'oh, shit, maybe it isn't that bad.

Maybe we can go out and win'.

So you know that once you're up the pointy end, it's going to happen.

28

MN; It's probably the first race of the year where you haven't overtaken for position. Are you frustrated?

Rl: (laughs) It's a lot better, I can tell you, it's a lot better. I mean, it's easier from the front, there's no doubt about it, because you just kill tyres coming from the back. And you're always hitting panels, and the chances of going off, coming through the field, are huge. It's just an easier day.

Qualifying has never been my strong point, but... that's just another thing I've got to work on. I've got to work on just settling in a bit better with the car - I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the car, and there's a lot more there. It's just that, there is a technique to driving these things, there's no doubt about that. And the way you need to be able to set them up, there is a technique.

Marcos has mastered it, and that's what I've got to do. I'm creeping up to it, so once I get that in hand, and pick up qualifying ...

MN: It's a different environment at SBR,obviously.

What are you still learning?

Rl: Oh, there's a lot of things.

There's just a particular way that they set the cars up, a lot of the drivers have troubles coming to grips with it, and usually take

a period to get to grips with it, but you've got to do it.

And I realised that I was going to have to break a lot of old habits, and get in there, and it's hard. When you've spent seven years with one particular car, and one team, you sort of get into a bit of a groove, a rhythm, of driving that car that particular way.

And it's hard to sort of break that and go completely the opposite. But you've got to do that. But it's not something you can do in five seconds.

MN; Does that mean you are looking for more from yourself over the rest of the season?

Rl: I think there's more in me, for sure. Absolutely. See, I've always been strong. Racing doesn't bother me. Wheel to wheel racing, or challenging anyone, that side of it doesn't bother me.

But you've got to have speed nowadays, and the speed side of it is an individual thing. There's just you and the car. So I've got to tune my head into doing that properly, and I've not yet got on top of it. But I'm getting there.

MN:The last few races, having to watch Marcos win, would that rate as the most frustrating thing you've had to

go through as a driver?

Rl: Oh yeah, absolutely. No doubt about it. The saviour is, we know why. And the reason is bad qualifying, and getting tangled up in things I shouldn't have. That's what's done it.

IVIN: So what do you want now? Obviously more wins, but is the Championship out of reach now?

Rl: Well, it's back up to fourth, so it's a lot better than I thought it was going to be. But who knows, who knows. I mean, Marcos is looking very strong for the Championship to be honest, he's going to be hard to beat.

My main aim is that if he is going to be in a good spot to win, then I don't want to be too far behind. You never know. It's going to be tough ... second's not, though. So whoever's going to be challenging for the Championship lead, whether it be Brighty or Marcos or whoever, they can go for it, but I don't want to be too far behind, put it that way.

MN: Does this make you a real Ford man now?

Rl: It makes me a real Queenslander! I’ve been inducted. Well, I’ve been named 'the pineapple', anyway ... motorsport news

Five minutes with

Paul Mornis

Since winning at CaUen in 20S1,Paul Morris has shown plenty oi speed, hut untillast weekend,it has rarely translated into results.

MARK GLENDEMmiG asked him about it MOTORSPORT NEWS: Your fourth place today was by a mile your best result this year, and in fact your best finish since you won at Calder in 2001. It must be good to have everything moving in the right direction again?

PAUL MORRIS: Yeah, obviously, bringing a new car out and getting a result like that, it's good.

With all the development we've given it, and after being in the wilderness for a while, it's good to get back up there.

MN: So what was the difference this weekend? Was there more to it than it just being your test track?

PM: Yeah, look, our car have always handled good. We just haven't had the engine in it, you know?

The new engine just made most of the difference, really.

For the first time. I can kind of hang with guys in a straight line.

We are still not quite as good as the guys that finished in front of me, they have got a little bit more straightline speed. But it is a lot better than what we have had.

There's lots of things we need to improve on, but this result was good for everyone. We know what we've got to do II

MN: Looking at the times, once you get past first and second, I think you just about had the fastest lap of the race.

PM: It's good. It handles good, we've just get to work to get a little bit more acceleration out of the engine and ... that's basically it, really.

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MN: Although you've been up at the top all weekend you did have some clutch dramas, didn't you?

PM: Yeah, we lost a clutch in the warm-up this morning and did the Shootout basically without a clutch.

We put a new one in it, but with about 20 laps to go it had gone again. So we drove the last lap of the race without a clutch, just to make sure we got home.

MN: So what is this result worth to the team? Is it something you can build on?

PM: Oh, definitely. There's lots of things we need to improve on, but this result was good for everyone. I mean, we know what we've got to do.

Our pitstops weren't that good - I think we had a gun fail, and we lost 18 seconds in the pits. If that hadn't have happened, we would have been on the podium.

We're overjoyed to bring it out as a new car, and give it some runs on the board. Now we just need to work away at the things we need to improve at.

MN: Does running the second car for Wayne (Wakefield) place any additional pressure on the team?

PM: No, we get some extra guys in to do it and just sort of run it. motorspon news

INTERVIEW

1

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31

Wopklna For 7 f

The 2003 V8 Supercar season is barely half over, and already Todd Kelly has faced a new team, a new boss and, as oflast weekend, a completely new car.

MARK GLENDENNING cornered him after qualifying in Queensland to ask about it

MOTORSPORT NEWS: You're debuting HRT's new VY this weekend. It seems to be pretty quick, although you were saying yesterday that it's not easy to drive.

TODD KELLY: Yeah. To be honest it's a little bit quicker than 1 expected, given that the whole car's completely different with the layout of everything because it's a purposebuilt VY. We've had a pretty good educated guess with the set-up to come here with. Td only done two laps in the car before we brought it here. So considering all that, for the car to be on the pace, it's pretty good.

But as you said, it is hard to drive.

Up until now,it wants to throw you off at every corner.

But it still produces the lap time, so we've just been concentrating on trying to make it a bit easier over a race distance.

And we actually changed it again then. Because we've rim out of time, we were changing things between qualifying and the Shootout! So it wasn't right for the Shootout, but the modification we've done, we're just

going to leave that and try to finetune it a little bit more, and it should be a lot better over the race distance.

MN: What's the hardest aspect of the cat to get a handle on?

TK: It's just the knowledge of what the car needs, and what it wants for certain handling problems.

All the base set-up and the menus that we've accumulated with the converted cars, you can just throw them in the bin, because they don't work at all.

Tlie rear ends are the same, but because the front is so different, the rears are behaving differently anyway. Mark's (Skaife) and my own car are usually pretty similar, within a spring of each other, or within a few clicks on the shock of each other, but this weekend we're absolutely miles away.

So it is a lot different, and it will take another race and another test day to really come to grips with what the car needs.

MN:What was the rationale behind plonking you in the new car?

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TK: With my Championship position, to be honest, it doesn't make any difference if I'm third or I5th.

Obviously with Mark, he needs every point he can get, because he's stUl got half a chance. My car, which is identical to the one I'm driving here, wiU be ready probably for Sandown. So the idea was for me to develop the car and get a bit of a head start, and then we can both get in those cars and hopefully have them really sorted out for the last part of the year.

They have,in theory, got a bit more potential than our current ones, with a lower centre of gravity and stuff.

MN: It has taken the team as a whole a while to get up to speed this year, hasn't it?

TK: Yeah,it's because of all those things. This year, we'll end up driving three completely different spec cars. There's the converted VY, the fully-built VY', and then at the end of the year, the fully-built VY with the full VY engine - which is different again.

Amongst everything else,just from being an outsider in recent years to being in the team, this is definitely the hardest year in the past four or five that the team's had to deal with.

Everyone's done a fantastic job, it's just that because of the way it's turned out, there hasn't been the continuity.

See, Ambrose's car is identical to last year's car, with a slightly better aero package, and Tm pretty sure that the menu and the base set-ups that those guys have got is bugger-all different to what it wasTast year. So they're rolling their thing out and it's fast at every track, whereas we're learning as we go.

So it's going to be one of those years where we need to build up our banks of knowledge. At the end of this year and then going into next year, we should be back to where we normally are.

MN:Are you satisfied with the job you've been doing behind the wheel?

TK: Yeah, you know,considering this

weekend where every time I've driven out of pitlane the car's been different, to go out and bang out quick laps when the car's been on a knife edge anyway, you can't really do much more.

As far as the progress we've made from when we got here with the car to what we've got in the car now,I think we've done a pretty good job engineering-wise and to be up in the top ten ... we're pretty happy with it.

As far as the team and everything goes I feel settfed in, but I'd like to consistently settle into being in the top three fl

MN: Does HRT feel like 'home' now?

TK: Yeah, as far as the team and everything goes 1 feel settled in, but I'd like to consistently settle in to being in the top three. Which again, is out of my hands.

At the start of the year, when we were on a bit more level playing ground, I was qualifying second and third regularly.

So as far as the whole team thing goes I am settled in, but as far as the car and tine knowledge is concerned it will take a little bit to reall)' settle in and start consistently being up the front, motorsnort news

INTERVIEW

he Man

Dirk Klynsmith.

MN:Is there any fundamental difference between the way the HRT guys go racing compared with Kmart?

TK: Not really. You know, Kmart's a very dedicated team. Kmart's probably almost the most dedicated team in pitlane.

Those guys, you know, you can hear rattle guns going off at six o'clock every night of the week when they're practicing pitstops over there.

So the guys are prett}' good there, it's just, 1 guess, the experience and the knowledge and things like that at HRT. The guys at Kmart have only really been there two or three years, and the head guys here - two of them got their little award for being here for 10 years the other day. And there's, I think, four or five guys that have been here for iO years. And all that knowledge just accumulates.

Like, things that we're encountering now' with the car, they'll go,'oh,I remember that from back in '92, when we did this and that'. And just having that background is probably one of the biggest things that makes a difference.

But each team has the same dedication, and the same approach to going to the racetrack, without a doubt.

MN:On top of all the inconsistencies with the cars, there 23 July 2003

has also been a lot going on politically where HRT has been concerned this year. Have you been taking much of an interest in the whole ownership thing?

TK: No ... obviously Mark has, but for me, there's really not much point getting tied up in it. At the end of the day. I've got no control over it.

The guys have got the team's best interests in mind,and right through the whole thing. I've been told things as they can tell me things, and I've just been worrying about doing my job. That's basically the only thing I've got control over.

MN;It must have been a bit hard to get away from it though, because you had Mark heavily involved with it on one hand,and your folks playing a big role on the other.

TK: Yeah, it's funny. You probably won't believe me,but with Mum and Dad at Kmart, absolutely nothing has changed with our relationship.

1 can't speak for Rick, because he's over there amongst it all, but when I see Mum and Dad - or Rick - we don't talk about racing and all the crap that goes on.

So luckily, nothing has changed there, and they haven't got too involved with it. They don't bring it home over the dinner table.

But 1 don't know how Rick's going with it all!

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- V.

fr5 only Chea\ Cheating has been part and parcel in motor racing ever since, probably, the very first race. PHIL BRANAGAN looks at some of the classic examples of what has been detected, and what hasn't...

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motorsDort news

FEATURE

ting ¥men you

Get Caught D

EAR and gentle readers, be seated. I am about the share a secret so serious, so hidden in the bowels of the motorsport world that it may come as a considerable shock to one and all.

There are times when the people the men and women who steer racing cars around the racetracks of the world, and those who prepare those cars, do not play by all the regulations all the time. They bend the rules; sometimes, they break them into small pieces.

They (dare 1 say it?) client.

Cheating i.s defined by various dictionaries as,"To mislead; fool: to act dishonestly; practice fraud. To violate rules deliberately, as in a game". Cheating in motor racing is much less black-and-white. For every person who writes a rule, there are 100 trying to find a way to drive a bus through it.

"1 have never cheated," said one V8 Supercar team manager we spoke to. "That is, no-one has ever proven that the cars I have prepared have been illegal. I do not do that, but I have been known to operate in the grey areas."

And it operates around the world.

Legendary NASCAR driver-turnedcommentator Darrell Waltrip had his qualifying time for the 1976 Daytona disallowed for a technical infringement and DW 'fessed up before the race; "If you don't cheat, you look like an idiot. If you do it and you don't get caught, you look like a hero. If you do it and get caught, you look like a dope. Put me in the category where I belong."

Writing a story about cheating in motor racing is never easy. The tales are surrounded by mystery and the mists of time and, it must be stated, the laws of slander (or, in this written case, libel). Because of these facts, it is virtually impossible to be specific about who, where, when and why

but, on my word, all the following stories are accurate.

During the earlyera days of the turbocharged in Formula One,any team running a Cosworth engine was just making up the numbers,such were their horsepower deficit.

The engineers had a number of clever ways of levelling the playing field including the notorious 'watercooled brakes'. Tire rules stated that a car could have its fluids refilled before it was weighed after the race so the normally-aspirated cars had

a good idea, and it worked well.

However,one of the most inventive brains in racing history, the legendary Smokey Yunick,found a way to get around the rule. His cars appeared for inspection with their springs frozen (literally; Smokey had them in the freezer overnight). Tliis meant that they would stick at full length and not 'settle' until they heated up during a race. Then the cars got lower once on the track, had less drag and went faster.

In Formula 1, the opposite is true; cars have to pass a ride height check after the races. That led to a ludicrous

"if you don't cheat, you look like an idiot.!! you do it and you don't get caught, you iook like a hero. It you do it and get caught, you look iike a dope. Put me in the category where I beiong It

- Darrell Waltrip, right water tanks for the brakes, to be filled only after the race was over. Of course, during the race, that meant that the car was underweight.

There was also the case of the team that, usually, made major aerodynamic changes during a qualifying session. They were very thorough; on more than one occasion, the rear wing itself was changed.

Funny thing was, while one mechanic could easily take a wing off, it took three to put the new one on. Of course, then the car was weighed ...

Ride heights are a good subject for, um,'creative thinkers'. NASCAR officials deemed that measuring ride heights immediately before races was

situation in the early 1980s where cars were lowered mechanically during the race (providing more downforce) before driver hit a 'lift' button on his 'in' lap to restore the car to the 40mm minimum height. It was usually hard to .spot but, if you have a tape of the highlights of the 1981 season, have a look at the Austrian GP. Wirmer Jacques Laffite ran the slow-down lap with the Ligier-Matra in the 'up' position. It looks like you could have driven a shopping trolley underneath it.

continued on page 38 35

continued from page 37 'Touring Car racing is full of great J- stories. It is well-known that Eggenberger's Ford Sierras were disqualified from their Bathurst 1-2 finish in 1987 for illegal wheel arches, only noticed when one of their wheels was delivered to another Ford team - which could not fit them onto their (legal) Sierra.

BMW started the season with a 1-7 sweep of the world championship opener but all the cars were booted because of illegal body panels. Allan Moffat/John Harvey were declared the winners in their Commodore.

Long before that, Ford's Falcon XD ran at a lighter homologated weight than Holden's smaller,'lighter' Commodore - but it had nothing to do with cheating. CAlMS had homologated the weight of car based on Henry's six-cylinder car, not the 351. More than 10 years later, the boot was on the other foot, when CAMS discovered that Ford had been supplying its team with lightweight bodyshells for their V8 Supercars.

The first time 1 ever saw a

I Those were the days: ! The 1987 World Touring Car championship was a classic I for creative rule-reading. It started with all seven BMW M3s bounced at Monza for

European Touring Car race was ... well, it was somewhere in Europe, let's say. The Group A cars lined up in the assembly area and, while the drivers and crews watched another race, I went to have a closer look at one of the weapons.

That meant leaning on the roof to get a good look at the interior of the car. Much to my horror, when 1 stood up and took my weight off the roof, it had a journo's arm-shaped dent in it.

If you ever see an archive photo of a race-winning car with a small indent just above the driver's door, that was caused by me. Sorry.

Of course,in the Group A days(as now), body structures, including a roof, w'ere supposed to be as manufactured. Last time I check, no Brand X sedan ever left the factory with an aluminium roof. Except, obviously, this one. yVnd no,it was not a BMW M3 ...

illegal bodywork, above, and ended in tears with the Eggenberger Sierras, left. disqualified from a Batburst 1-2 for running illegal front guards.

The lowdown: Jacques Lafitte won the 1981 Austrian GP with his Ligier JS17 in the 'legal'position. below, before 'booting'it up on the victory lap.

One of the best stories in touring car concerns the deciding race of a major championship. All season long.

Team A battled with Team B, the latter having the upper hand at the start of the season and the former playing catch-up as the seriousness of the situation became apparent to Manufacturer A as time went by. Tlie brass of Company A saw the gravity of the situation and, not wanting to be seen to be caught short at the final hurdle, opened the purse strings and committed to making their cars more competitive.

The championship had, as championships do, a control fuel regulation, as in V8 Supercars and several other series. The fuel was designed to work with a variety of specifications of cars, which was just as well because, particularly in the 36

case of Team A and Team B, the hardware was much, much different.

As the races went by and Team A became more and more competitive, so too the drivers of Team B reported

that not only were the A-team getting quicker, the smell coming from the back of their cars was changing too.

So, the tide turned. The year came down to the final race of the season

and whoever won would be the champion. There was a lot on the line.

It was no surprise that the As qualified 1-2 for the race; they were

moiorsport news

FEATURE going like rockets. But the B-Team had a cuianing plan. They had a photographer ready and waiting and he took photos of the A's fuel drums, which were stored in the back of the team's garage. During the night before final qualifying, the Bs set to work and, using the photos as a guideline, reproduced the drums witli exact copies.

The following night, while everyone slept, the Bs cut their way through tlie fence separating the opposition compound from tlieirs and replaced A's fuel drums with the ones they had made, which contained control fuel. That done, they reconstructed the fence and scurried away to await the race.

Which they won,because the As went like turkeys on the 'legit' fuel.

And the best part was, no-one could say anything, because you cannot protest a legal fuel.

Production Car racing hasofficial always been a minefield for any determined to make sure that all the cars were completely kosher.

Particularly when turbo cars were running at the front of the field, there ^vas a concerted effort to find a way to ensure that all the cars ran the same boost and, therefore, horsepower.

Tliere were ways aromrd it. Some teams were smart enough to realise that the driver's door was always open when the scrutineers ware at work,so the dome light became an 'override'. Likewise, the car stereo can be useful; one driver never raced w'ithout the wireless turned on in his ... err. Brand C-mobile. Music meant boost; silence meant legal.

Even a tightly-controlled category like Formula Ford has its moments.

Tltese days, things are pretty good, but some time ago, a driver w'on a major race after coming from near the rear of the field. It was some drive and, before he made it to the podium, it took some time to untangle himself from the intricately-rigged drink bottle his team had installed.

The bottle must have worked a treat; the driver looked as fresh as a daisy. But, as someone asked later, who uses a drink bottle for a 12minute race when it is only 15 degrees?

Tire finalracing word should go to for a wellknown driver who, reasons obvious, camiot be named.

He recently completed a fairly good, but not great, year and was speaking about the rival team that won the championship.

"Their cars are really fast at all the tracks. They must be cheating," he mused.

How could he be so sure, 1 responded?

"Because we are cheating like blazes and 1 can't get near them!"

23 July 2003

The Great American Scheme Put some — make that a lot - of agile minds together and raise the stakes and you have the creative world of NASCAR. MARTIN D CLARK looks at cheating, American-styie CHEATIIMG in NASCAR continues - although was more prevalent in the past when rules were not as tough as today and when scrutineering body templates first used in 1967 numbered 10, not the 30-plus of today.

Before more stringent rules were put in place, crew chiefs considered bending the rulebook like bluffing in a poker game. NASCAR has learnt from those cheaters and employed ex-crew chiefs like Gary Nelson - himself guilty of cheating - to police the problems.

One multi-championship winning team built a car for restrictor plate racing that measured 30cm longer than the 'stock' car; the only problem was when the two cars were loaded in the transporter they couldn't close the door. The team fooled the NASCAR inspectors and won the race, but there was no fooling the truck driver, who knew nothing of the longer car until it came time to close his tailgate ...

One team (at least) got 'great fuel economy' in the 70s by running a fuel line through the roll cage of the car, in addition to its 22 gallon tank. There is even an urban legend that Smokey Yunick once drove a racecar out of tech inspection before its fuel tank was refitted I One old ruling was the windscreen had to be made from glass; this would be NASCAR's way of checking the area was in compliance within the marques. But some teams even went to the extreme of custom manufacturing and sizing more aero efficient windscreens.

Bending the rules is not all one-way: NASCAR has sometimes caressed the rules to benefit the outcome of races.

Richard Petty captured his 200th (and final) victory in front of President Ronald Reagan at Daytona in July 1984 and there is continued suspicion that his team ran a large motor in the race - with NASCAR's knowledge and approval. On the other side, GM teams cannot fail to mention that Kurt Busch's

^ Martin U Clark

recent win at Michigan was watched by William Clay Ford, present to celebrate Ford's centenary.

There have also been suspicions among rival teams that Dale Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 win (during the sport's 50th anniversary season) was a 'fix'. What is usually overlooked by these 'experts' is DEI's form, at other 'restrictor plate' events at the Beach, or Talledega. DEI has two full-time employees that work on engines solely for those four races each year.

What else? 'Debris on the Speedway I'Sometimes, it is fortuitous to avoid being lapped by having some rollbar padding or a drink bottle accidentally fall out of the car. Then there are the 'empty' drink bottles (well, empty of fluid) that are removed from the cars after they have been weighed and, when dropped, make a dent in the concrete aprons ...

Probably the biggest way teams cheat currently is on pit road. Although NASCAR has increased the number of pit road officials over the years, teams will still leave off one or two of the five wheel nuts if they think they can get away with it and they know a caution could follow quickly.

The largest fine in the sport's history, US$60,000 ($90,000), was dished out to Ray Evernham, then-crew chief for Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports in 1995. Gordon crashed at Charlotte after a

broken hub caused the front wheel to come off the car.

When the car returned to the garage on a wrecker, officials discovered the car had (illegal) titanium hubs. Hendrick team mate Ken Schrader was leading the same race but blew up five laps after N.ASCAR sent word that the post-race teardown of the winner would be particularly thorough.

That same year, Ricky Rudd's self-owned Tide Ford was found to have a hydraulic jack tha^ lowered the car at speed to lessen drag on the rear end.

Crew chief Bill Ingle was slapped with a 50 grand fine.

In 1997. Gordon showed up at The Winston in Charlotte with a car nicknamed T Rex (after its Jurassic Park paint scheme). ExGM chassis guru Rex Stump had designed the chassis and suspension and, although the car passed inspection and romped away with victory, he team was told not to bring ^^he car to the racetrack again. And T Rex, above, was never seen again.

Traction control remains c thorn in NASCAR's side. There have been several instances of alleged TC at the races and NASCAR now routinely cuts open ignition boxes with a circular saw at short tracks.

Policing traction control remains one of the main reasons NASCAR will not switch from carburettors to fuel injection.

Is cheating still going on?

Almost certainly. But, for now, no-one is getting caught ...

37

No Stone le

I

It took a while - heck, it took years- but Stone Brothers Racing got its first 1-2 as Russeii Ingali returned to the winners' circle at 'home'. PHIL BRANAGAIV reports from Queensland Raceway

s

TONE Brothers Racing did not have the weekend that a

lot of people, perhaps even those in the team, expected at Queensland Raceway.

Marcos Ambrose did not win his fifth consecutive round of the V8

Supercar Championship Series. But his drive in the race was, perhaps, the best of the season - and he did finish second.

But the better news was that Russell Ingall was the man who beat him. The Enforcer was shadowed by Ambrose all weekend and both Ford men had to give best to Mark Skaife before raceday came, but Ingall was the man with the biggest grin after 300 kilometres, taking home the pineapples and the trophy for his first championship win with SBR. It was also the team's maiden 1-2 result in a championship round.

Skaife dominated practice and qualifying, topping the sheets in all sessions until Ambrose brushed him aside in the shoot-out. After leading the race early, HRT lost out in pit strategy to their Ford foes but Skaife still looked set for second until losing an engine just minutes from the end of the race.

Ambrose looked like Ford's main hope until the pitstops. First, a wheel jammed during a tyre change and then, trying to make up stalling after a fuel stop, Ambrose clashed with Steve Ellery upon exiting the pits. As a consequence, he served a drivethrough penalty before he started a chilling charge to second.

Todci Kelly was HRT's salvation, taking third in its first 'spec' 38

Commodore VY, while Paul Morris reflected his strong weekend with fourth in the Sirromet VY, the local taking bis best result in b\'o years.

Jason Bright maintained his points lead, on uncorrected terms anyway, but the other pre-Queensland points leader, Steven Richards, had a disaster. Artificially far back after losing an engine in qualifying, he had another fail in the race, giving the Q300'most likely' stahis of the round Richo will drop in the final wash-up.

There were plenty of spectators, a new series sponsor in BigPond internet, bright skies and lots to see at Ipswich. And Russell Ingall acquired honorary Queensland citizenship with his win. All in all, not a bad weekend.

everyone else in the sport take the pith?

First, there was Sunday morning with which to contend. Morris had his clutch pack up during the warmup,forcing him to improvise during the single-lap session. The whinos fitted a new one quickly and The Dude just made it to the grid. The crew's efforts were to be rewarded.

After a vocal slaughter of the National Anthem(we are not sure if the promoters ran a lucky dip to pick someone from the crowd to sing it. but that's how it sounded) Max continued on page 44

Race(96 laps) So, off we all trooped for, perhaps, history.to Brisvegas Would Ambrose really take five straight? Had HRT made the right decision to put the new car in the hands of Kelly and not Skaife? Did anyone remember that, many moons ago, Gibson Motorsport did a similar thing with the first Godzilla GT-R they gave the new weapon to the junior driver and left their established star in the tried-andproven old axe? And that worked out alright.

Was there really going to be a fight among the drivers to take home Box of Pineapples? Was all that a media beat-up or was the winner of the race really going to be known as'The Big Pineapple'? And,if he was, would molorspori news

V8 SUPERCARS

Unturned 0^T

-i

'Local'Hero: Ingall took on local status in bis latest home state, taking the BigPond 300 in style, left.

Flagging Times?

Is there more Ford flags than Holden flags in the spectator areas, above?

Smoke and Fire: Ingall's car was not as quick as Ambrose's but it was still pretty firey.

I; below, while Skaife never gave up trying, f. below left, in the older of HRT's two VYs.

QuaHtying

Shootout at the QR Corral T HERE may be problems in the world and some of those may affect Mark Skaife. But the Holden Racing Team was not letting the fact that Marcos Ambrose was shooting for Ford immortality and five wins, or the shorterthan-planned shakedown of its new Commodore VY stand in the way of making qualifying a red affair.

Skaife was in blazing form, topping Friday's practice session and both corresponding session on Saturday with times of 1 ml 1.2208s, 1 ml 1.1952s and 1 ml 0.7496s respectively. Despite running the older of the team's cars, the defending Champion was setting the agenda; if you want pole, beat this ...

Having a diminished bank of practice tyres after a couple of bad rounds, Russell Ingall found himself struggling until, qualifying in the slower group, he set the fastest time for that 16-car session. He felt like he'd left 0.2s behind, but 'hoped' he would remain in the top 10. Behind him came Greg Murphy, Garth Tender, Jason Bargwanna and Mark Larkham, Craig Baird and Jason Richards, the latter stopping the session with an off in the Team Dynamik VY. You go off at QR and that is all she wrote.

So, out came the quicker group and it was always going to be about Skaife and Ambrose. After Craig Lowndes set the early pace, the Pirtek Barra was the first Contender (as opposed to contender) to appear and Marcos fairly whistled around, setting a 10.4488s and backing that up with a 10.6 next time around. Over to you. Reds ...

After six minutes, out came Skaife. His effort lasted only one lap; it was a 1 ml 0.3723s blast and back to pit road he came.

Sometimes, what does not happen in motor racing is as watchable as what does happen.

The HRTs and the Stones occupied the final two bunkers of the exit end of pitlane and they were watching each other closely. The HRTs knew that Ambrose had had new tyres fitted to the left (ie, working) side; the SBRs knew that

Skaife was still in the car. It was cat-and-mouse; when Ambrose alighted from the Falcon, Skaife got the all-clear to alight from the Commodore. Neither driver would have another crack at it.

Skaife admitted that he was waiting to see what Ambrose would do; Ambrose admitted that if Skaife went out, so too would he.

Both agreed that the current qualifying timetable, which meant that the teams would run the cars in the Sunday Warm-up in race trim, then put a 'Q' set-up on board for the shoot-out, then replace the race set-up, was unnecessarily awkward. But both realised that the reasons for doing so, to entertain the Sunday crowd, were clear.

Whatever happens on the racetrack, there is a fair bit of mutual respect between the two teams. Nice to see.

Third was Todd Kelly. This was notable; for, perhaps, the first time, HRT was effectively running two different cars. Toddler reporting that the 'ground-up' VY (as opposed to Skaife's VX-to-VY car) was edgy; "We always knew it was going to be hard," said Kelly. "It's a learning process, almost as much as the original VY, It's a bit of a knife-edge car.

Ingall's time survived for fifth.

The Enforcer separated from the headliners by Simon Wills. The Dynamik VY was restricted to merely nine laps on Friday, due to the rear suspension binding. But, when push came to shove, the 2002 Q5 winner was on the pace, though the margin to provisional pole was 0.44s which may, usually, cover the top 10.

But the performance also served to underline the fact that 'home ground' advantage was overrated.

HRT had matched SBR on that team's test track, just as Ambrose did at Winton. Dynamik, remember, tests at Mallala and Wills has been a regular contender for the top 10.

Paul Morris was sixth. The Sirromet VY was running an HMS engine for the first time and, apart from the improved engine performance. Team Dude admitted that the driver had lifted as well. In fact, having rung up a mid-10 in

testing, there appeared to be more to come from the black and silver Commodore.

Jason Bright was seventh, still feeling frustrated from a lack of testing (which will now, presumably, be put aside by the sort-out of the ownership saga) while Paul Radisich was eighth. The Rat reporting that all was well in both race trim and qualifying trim; "We DO run less fuel in qualifying," he reported when asked what the team had done. Yes Paul, we are sure that is it...

John Bowe was ninth, his track time compromised by an engine change, which was prompted by an oil leak, the cause of which was unable to be immediately identified by the Brad Jones team. Jones was hampered by set-up problems; it was also notable that the new V8 Supercar Championship decal on the #21 car, necessitated by the arrival of BigPond, was less than absolutely clear on the OzEmail car ...

Greg Murphy was 10th, a pretty notable performance, given that the team had run on 00 Motorsport's supply of tyres (see breakout). Murf was pretty unhappy about the situation by, given the magnitude of what he has gone through in the last 12 months, was pretty philosophical about it; "We have to guess a bit," he admitted.

"It's tough," agreed team-mate Rick Kelly, in 16th. "It is not like we can even go back to last year's set up; everyone has lifted their game since then."

Just missing the shoot-put were the Ford Performance Racing Bas of Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton.

The Kid had flat-spotted a right-front tyre on an earlier lap and, despite setting a mid-lap split time that looked to have him in good shape to bump Murf, knew that the car would struggle through the double left at Turn 4/5.

There were sad tales in the pack, Steven Johnson and Cameron McConville struggling with doses of the lurgy, not leaving either enamoured with the prospect of driving 300km in the Queensland winter sun, Paul Dumbrell,

a

... refreshed from a brief visit to San Francisco, bested Steven Richards, the Castrol VY stopping after four laps with a dead engine. The new HMS unit started the weekend with 300km of mileage 'credit' but gave up the ghost 10 laps before it was due to be levered out. He was 29th.

And David Thexton qualified. The Falcon punched outThecko's six motorsport news

best-ever QR laps during qualifying, pleasing the team no end. Okay, it was not a pole performance, but things may be heading in the right direction for the embattled team.

u

nder a blue sky, the track was a little cooler and all was set for a close shoot-out.

Murphy ws smooth all the way 23 July 2003

clutch, Morris was up to the task.

Some may forget that he made some of the best Super Touring drivers in the world look like donkeys at Bathurst in 1997 and this was one of those laps; inchperfect, the car stable on the road, impressive. Clearly, the Sirromet car has a lot of potential.

So does Dyanmik's, but Wills was not as quick as Morris, the car visibly understeering through

Turn 6. Kelly's VY just looked pig awful, Todd's 'knife-edge' description proving an accurated one, which left only the Big Two, Ambrose and Skaife.

Basically, Ambrose got a pitch he liked and hit a home run with a 1 ml 0.7777s lap, a mark for which Skaife to aim. The two-year-old car came out and Mark gave it an almighty try, but Ambrose was

home by, ooooh, all of 0.1 Is. It was a great show. David Coulthard has decided he hates single-lap shoot-outs; we love 'em. Ambrose and Skaife, in particular, may be able to pass on some tips, DC, if you need any help, ask us to put you on to these two blokes. We have their mobile numbers ...

- PHIL BRANAGAN 41

Congratulations to Stane Brothers Racing on a dominant 1-2 at Queensiand Raceway Russell IngaII and Marcos Ambrose both use Caltex Havoline Premium to protect their V8 Supercars exactly the same oil you can buy from Caltex to protect your car.

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\

fQualifying^ POS 1 1 2

4

3

2

4 44 5

9

6 29 7 50 8 65 9 888 10 51 11 6 12 5 13 66 14 19 15 17 16 15 17 31 18 18 19 34 20 10 21 20 22021 23 45 24 16 25 3 26 33 27 21 28 8 29 11 30 23 31 75 32 24 33 99

TIME DRIVER/CAi! Mark Skaife lml0.3723s Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Stone Brothers Racing Falcon BA 1ml0.4488s Todd Kelly lml0.6835s Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Simon Wills lml0.8127s Team Dynamik Commodore VY Russell Ingall Caltex Havoline SBR Falcon BA lml0.8798s Paul Morris lml0.8878s Sirromet Commodore VY Jason Bright Betta Team Brock Commodore VX 1ml0.8959s Paul Radisich lml0.9403s Betta Electrical Briggs Falcon BA John Bowe lml0.9416s OzEmail Racing Team Falcon BA Greg Murphy lml0.9576s K-Mart Racing Team Commodore VX Craig Lowndes C AT Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA 1ml0.9649s Glenn Seton Ford Credit FPR Falcon BA lmll.0561s Dean Canto lmll.0955s Betta Electrical Briggs Falcon BA David Besnard lmll.l909s Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA Steven Johnson lmll.2004s Shell Helix Racing Falcon BA Rick Kelly lmll.2303s K-Mart Racing Team Commodore VX Steve Ellery lmll.2406s Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon BA Max Wilson lmll.2913s Shell Helix Racing Falcon BA Garth Tander 1ml 1.3259s Repco Valvoline GRM Commodore VY Mark Larkham lmll.3759s Orrcon Racing Falcon AU Jason Bargwanna lmll.4315s Orrcon Racing Falcon AU Craig Baird lmll.4820s Team Kiwi Racing Commodore VX Jason Richards 1ml 1.4866s Team Dynamik Commodore VY Paul Weel lmll.5285s Team Brock Commodore VX Cameron McConville Lansvale Smash Repairs Commodore VX lmll.5520s Jamie Whincup lmll.6622s Repco Valvoline GRM Commodore VX Brad Jones 1ml 1.6848s OzEmail Racing Team Falcon BA Paul Dumbrell 1mll.7064s Castrol Perkins Commodore VX Steven Richards 1ml 1.7666s Castrol Perkins Commodore VY Mark Noske lmll.8117s INXS Team Ford Falcon AU Anthony Tratt lml2.2909s Toll Racing Falcon AU Wayne Wakefield lml24056s AMRO Pty Ltd Commodore VY David Thexton lml3.2566s Thexton Motor Racing Falcon AU

Top 10 SOoot-oiit

90 minutes.

"We knew that the race would

followed a lap later by Ingall and Tander.

Wilson lost a starter motor on the

be won between the pitstops," mused Ambrose afterwards.

The following lap came a decisive moment. Skaife and

"There was a little bit of aggro (at the first corner)so I let Mark go and settled into a rhythm."

One thing that SBR had in its corner, with its two drivers

Ambrose pittetl together but, while HRT laid out for a fuel

parade lap, forcing him into the pits for the first five laps of the race. Skaife and Ambrose made a pretty even getaway, the two actually touching entering the first corner. Ingall took third from Morris, Bright, Wills, Todd Kelly, Radisich, Murphy,Lowndes,Rick Kelly and Bowe.

The next part of the race was when you went outside to water the garden,spay the cat or, even, think about having a go at fitting that old small block into Mum's 1972 Corolla. The drivers knew

6 Bright 40.2625s lmn.1783s 7 Murphy 40.3689s lmn.3666s 40.4200s 1m11.4l80s 8 Kelly 9 Bowe 40J3841S lmll.5287s lORadisich 40.6051s lmll.5462s

the score; there would be Safety Cars, traffic and the priority was to be patient,look after the hardware and rubberware and

WSSCSRodBiil BIgPond 300

get in position for the race proper, when it started in about

1 Ambrose 40.0831s 1m10.7717s 2 Skaife 40.1488s 1m10.8862s 3 Morris 40.2321s Imll.OIOOs 40.2125s 1m11.1110s 4 Ingall 5 Wills 40.1677s 1m11.1262s

OLD

«

\

continued from page 38

k

/'

in ♦

SA

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having qualified so close together, was the option of 'strategy on the run'. Both said later that there were as many as six possible scenarios in play for pit strategy in the race and Ingall went so far as to admit he didn't know what his strategy was when he stepped aboard for the race.

So Skaife edged away at around a tenth a lap until the lead was up to 3s. Todd Kelly started the leaders' pit cycle on lap 40 when he came in for fuel.

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stop, SBR laid out tyres. As a consequence of an almost-20s wait for Skaifey to get fuelled to the finish, even a sticky rear wheel could not stop Ambrose passing his rival in the pits after a 13s delay.

What followed was,essentially a long qualifying session. With fresh rubber and on low fuel, /kmbrose's first flying lap was an 11-dead and he kept up the pace for the next 10 laps, scalding through traffic, lights ablaze. Two laps after his first stop, Skaife came for tyres, while Ingall came in bang-on the mid-race point,48 laps, and rejoined ahead of the

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44

motorsDon news

U8 SUPERGARS

astroL

mat

Settle down boys, settle down: Skaife won the start after a brush with Ambrose, the field settling down for a long. Safety Car-free race.

HRTcar.

So,in effect, an SBR1-2 looked a lock. Ambrose continued to hammer out the lead until it was just over a minute to Ingall and pitted on lap 56.

He stalled after a 19s wait and, furious with himself, clashed with the innocent and exiting Ellery.

"In my haste to get restarted, I pulled out in front of Steve," he admitted. "1 didn't know he was there, 1 apologise to Steve and cop the penalty."

continued on page 46

or why you should always leave your phone on while boarding

AIRPORTS are fascinating places.

Ever noticed the carpet in the departure : lounges? No? Next time you fly, look down when you check in. The carpet is, usually, blue. That is ' because of what is called 'colour psychology'; in : the world of mother nature, humans never stand on something that is blue. Green grass, yes.

Brown mud, ditto. But nothing in the real world underfoot is blue so, in theory, when you do stand on blue carpet, your mind tells you to hurry up and get out of there, which is just what the airlines want you do, so that they can service other travellers.

Something 'fascinating' happened at Melbourne Airport last Thursday. AS he was, literally, about to board a Queensland-bound flight, Kmart Racing team manager Rob Crawford had a call on his mobile phone, advising that his team would be forced to surrender its stock of pre-used 'practice' tyres. Further, his team would acquire the stock of 'practice' tyres previously in the hands of OO Motorsport, the franchise of which new KRT owners John and Margaret Kelly.

And KRT was responsible for the transit of the tyres from Dandenong to QR.

A few minutes later, while standing rn the queue for another QR-bound flight from Melbourne, the mobile of 00 team manager Alan Heaphy buzzed. He was being advised of the same scenario and immediately organised the movement of 32 tyres to Tullamarine to be flown north.

Sadly, there was insufficient room on the designated plane to take the rubber. Only 16 hoops could be accommodated and those four sets of Dunlops would have to serve The Murf and The Rickler, above, until new tyres were available for qualifying.

There was, even, the suggestion that the two KRT Commodores would have to run #7 and #00 during the weekend, those number having been allocated to their new Level 1 licences. There was even discussion whether the KRT crew would have to swap their series passes for those allocated to 00 Motorsport.

Some would consider all these matters pedantic, silly even. But, given some of the things we have seen and heard already during the 2003 season, such things should not, necessarily, prompt even a raised eyebrow ...

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45

V8SCS Round 7 fl’lil Racewav 3 Race - 96 laps

Pos Driver 03 1 Ingall V SS 2 Ambrose 3 I Kelly 4 Morris

Race time Fastest lap On Ih57m 26.4960s lml1.0680s 8 Ih57m29.7751s 1mll.0680s 45 Ih57m44.8646s 1mll.B7l5s 70 Ih57m50.5955s Im11.7004s 58 1h57m53.2198s 1ml2.02I3s 7 5 5 Bright Ih57m55.9641s lml1.7824s 75 " 6 Lowndes Ih58m01.0013s lmll.7086s 57 7 Bowe Ih58m09.2732s 1 ml 1.9849s 5 8 Murphy Ih58m18.3954s lml2.0612s 63 9 R. Kelly Ih58m28.5210s lml2.0206s 61 10 Weel Ili58m29.4041s lml2.1229s 71 11 Besnard 12 Johnson 95laps lml2.3284s 57 13 Dumbrell 95 laps 1ml2.0927s 69 14 Ellery 95laps lm12.1371s 63 15 McConville 95 laps 1ml2.4245s 51 16 Whincup 95 laps 1ml 2.4878s 58 95 Ians 1ml 2.0512s 51 17 Bargwanna 18 Baird 94 laps lm12.8549s 45 19 Tratt 94 laps lml2.7247s 5 20 J. Richards 93 laps 1m12.1692s 83 21 Noske 92 laps lml2.5454s 14 22 Canto 92 laps lml2.2704s 61 23 Thexton 92 laps lml4.0502s 54 24 Wilson 90 laps 1m12.0377s 51 25 Tander 78 laps 1m12.2370s 10 DNF Radisich 95 laps lml2.0093s 6 DNF Skaife 88laps lm11.4118s 7 DNF Larkham 88 laps lml2.2698s 44 DNF Wills snaps lm12.1298s 7 DNF S. Richards 41 laps lml2.3135s 18 DNF Jones 24 laps lml2.6926s 12 DNF Seton maps 1ml 2.3554s 8 Points: Bright 1195, Ambrose 1159, Murphy 1101, Ingall 1013, Weel 1007, S. Richards 992, Skaife 965, Lowndes 908, R. Kelly 898, Radisich 836, Tander 828, T. Kelly 752, Johnson 671, Bowe 667, McConville 635, Wills 609, Seton 600, Wilson 588, Morris 575, Bargwanna 568, Ellery 538, Besnard 446, Jones 444, Baird 439, Dumbrell 435, J. Richards 427, Larkham 417, Noske 413, Canto 412, Whincup 385, Ritter 359, Tratt 356, Forbes 238, Thexton 84, Wakefield 72.

Points After Dropping Worst Round. Ambrose 1063, Bright 1061, S, Richards 992, Murphy 987, Ingall 931, Skaife 921, Weel 881, Lowndes 850, R. Kelly 799, Radisich 794, Tander 792, T. Kelly 752, Bowe 649, McConville 635, Wills 609, Seton 600, Johnson 591, Morris 575, Bargwanna 566, Wilson 558, Ellery 526, Besnard 446, Jones 444, Baird 439, Dumbrell 435, J. Richards 412, Noske 395, Canto 388, Larkham 387, Whincup 385 Trail 344, Ritter 329, Forbes 238, Thexton 84, Wakeheld 72.

LIFE l STYLE l WINE

continued from page 45

Crack a bottle open: Paul Morris flew all weekend, backed up by fine and speedy work from the NEMO crew. His Commodore VY stacked up pretty

The Pirtek car cruiseci through the lane a few laps later and got up to speed.

"Tell me the gap and give it to me every lap," said Ambrose over the radio. It was 17 seconds.

well against HRT's newest in the hands of Todd Kelly, below.

"1 thought,'You're a bit optimistic, Marcos'," said Ross Stone afterwards.

There tvere 38 laps left. A halfsecond a lap? Not possible, surely.

Never say never. The blue car blasted around in the mid-lls and caught Skaife on lap 85. There were 10 to go and it looked like a battle royal but Ambrose clearly had more car speed and dived through into second into turn four on lap 89.

Just as it looked like third to Skaife, it all went bad. HRT's run of engine woes in Brisbane was extended when the car slowed and pitted. It was a rare DNF for the defending Champion.

Ani to add insult to injury; after the race, Skaife was cited for a pit

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lane speeding infringement. Yes, he exceeded the limit, but it was because

inoperative. He was slapped with a $250 fine. Just when it looked like,

with the engine dead and turned off, his pit lane speed limiter was

post-Winton, there had been an epidemic to common sense regarding pit lane fines, up comes this to put it 'right' again. There are guidelines, and leeway shown on Fridays and Saturdays, but this looked slightly ridiculous.

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So, it ended, with Toddfrom Kelly salvaging something the wreckage of a baaaaad weekend with third place.

After the race. The Toddler echoed his comments made before it, reinforcing the fact that the team's first'VY' VY was a quick-ish but brutal thing to drive.

"It is still one of the hardest cars 1 have driven," he said."On the first set of tyres, I had to let some of the guys go. The first half of the race was The End is nigh: Ambrose's brilliant chase paid dividend, catching Skaife with 10 laps to go. Soon after, the Pirtek car was through to second and Skaife was pit-bound with a broken engine.

motorsporl news

U8SUPERCARS 5 ?●

the longest (time) I had had in the car and I learned how to drive around some of the problems."

Other teams would dream of rolling out a new car and having it on the podium first time out. Such are the high standards we are used to seeing from the Reds that this was considered a let-down. But the team has not yet scratched the surface of the new car and this thing is a long way from settled ...

Fourth was Morris. The crew, basically, saved Morris's bacon, the clutch failure before the shoot-out putting the whole weekend in jeopardy. The Dude made it onto the grid with moments to spare in the silver and black machine and, running much of the race in company with Bright and Todd, the locallybuilt VY looked a match, at least, for the one built in Melbourne.

"I am not sure how 1 looked against the leaders," commented Kelly afterwards, "but Paul's car, maybe, looked after its tyres a bit better (than mine did)."

A Sirromet-built Commodore all but matching an HRT-built one? Yes, there are differences between the cars, most notably the fact that HRT still use 18-degree Chev engines, but these are heady, and improving, times for Dude Racing.

Behind cameeven Lowndes, again that, if Fordproving yet Performance Racing is not yet the yardstick to which Ford fans look for podium performances, Craig's car still pedal and get results when he qualifies ahead of the ruck. He had a neat battle with Bowe, JB reporting that he was surprised the CAT car kept its tyres shiny as long as it did.

David Besnard was 11th, encouraging in the context of running an new Barra was, obviously, less brilliant when considering that he won here (in an SBR car) last season.

Gierm Seton was an early retiree, his Ford Credit BA parking with a broken bracket for a crank sensor.

Behind Bowe, who clanged around 23 July 2003

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with a broken exhaust header for much of the race, which made the car sound terrible but slowed it less, came Murphy. The Kmart car put its 00 tyre set-up woes to bed witli a consistent performance, though 'The Murph' rued a lack of brake performance. At one stage, he was battling with Wills and the Team Dynamik driver, realising that it was a long race, left a gap for his countryman to go through. But Murph flat-out could not stop the VX, clattering into the VY before carrying on. Something was kiaocked awry with the Wills car, the former Konica champ battling on until parking on lap 52. The steering had been off-centre since the hit and the team suspected that the distributor had been damaged.

Murph's team-mate Rick Kelly was right behind, having no better race pace than his off-sider, while Paul Weel followed, having been struggling on his first set of tyres until his second set magically found him a half-second.

Steven Johnson made it to 12th, driving bravely after struggling all weekend with the flu. The mystifying lack of Safety Cars gave him no chance of respite, but the Hehx BA was a full lap behind the winners, who also call QR their 'home' test track.

Of the rest of the finishers, Cameron McConville battled to 15th, like Johnson, also battling the lurgy, from Jamie Whincup (clutch problems), Jason Bargwanna (who had a tyre puncture after picking up some debris) and Craig Baird, running in a newer-spec, Perkinsbuilt Commodore VX for the first time.

Dean Canto was 22nd, after having his gearbox jam, then his gearshift break, leaving him with a gear stump for change with and a battered left paw afterwards. Max Wilson lost one further lap after his delay at the start, reflecting that his pace was pretty similar to Johnson's while Garth Tander was the last classified finisher after breaking a tailshaft on lap 78.

still leading: Jason Bright is still the man to catch (on uncorrected terms) after a steady fifth in Kees Weel's Commodore VX.

Jones, like Bowe, had a broken header early in the race and parked after a quarter of the race, while David Thexton was lapped after the same distance and proved his consistency by losing another three laps in the remainder of the race.

Somewhere in the future, the BigPond 300 may be looked at as a pivotal race in the 2003 season.

Stones won again, but Ingall reasserted himself against his red-hot team-mate. Ambrose was kicking himself after finishing second, believing that his own error had cost a shot at five in a row. And Skaife

will drop this round from his end-ofseason pointscore after looking untouchable in the lead-up.

Oran Park beckons. Last year, Skaife beat Ambrose there and later declared that he (Skaife) believed that he had an inferior car when he did it.

It is not hard to imagine that, if Ambrose wins there, everyone will believe that is the case.

But Ingall has now won, as a Ford man. He is one of those creatures who thrives on innate confidence, and The House of Stone has become the first team to win races with both its drivers this year.

Bright still leads but is yet to see a chequered flag up close - but the Weel team will now be able to test their cars. But the United Nations SBR is owned by two New Zealanders, and has a Tasmanian and a British-born, South Australianraised, Victorian-tested Queenslander as driv ers - is still the team to beat.

Put away the pineapples, pull out the Waratahs and wave them for your favourite team. The second half of the season promises a whole lot of bang for our bucks.

Congratulations to Stone Brothers Racing Team

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Well done Russell Ingall and Marcus Ambrose the first 1-2 finish for a Ford team since 1995 it

3/4 Prosperty Parade Warriewood NSW 2102 ph 02 9999 3655

The Will To Win” www.eibach.com.au 47

BritislB OraitH Frix

Lightning strikes -r:

The last time a loony got on to an FI track, Rubens Barrichello won. Michael’s fall-guy was the star again when Silverstone IV*' is hosted a protester, whose madness threw race strategies into confusion. JOESAWARD was also there on both occasions ...

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0 doubt someone somewhere has calculated the likelihood of lightning striking the same tree twice. But it happens and at Silverstoire lightning struck Grand Prix racing for the second time when a man wearing a kilt climbed over the debris fences and began running up Hangar Straight, towards the oncoming cars.

He carried with Itim some kmd of message but no-one could read what it said. Race control had no option but to send out a Safety Car to protect this fool from himself and that was to have a marked effect on the race.

The timing of the Safety Car was such that 14 of tire 20 cars went into the pitlane immediately. Tlris meant that several teams had to deal w'ith both cars at the same time and, inevitably, there were victims.

Wlrether it changed the identity of the winner is arguable. At the time of the one-man track invasion, Jarno Trulli was leading in his Renault.

Belrind him Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen were scrappring over second place. Barrichello had,in fact, just passed the Finn.

Things went a little wild after that

with h\fO Toyotas leading tlie field for several laps but they were on a different strategy and soon dropped away. Trulli was by then out of the picture and it was left to Kimi and Rubens again.

On lap 42, Barrichello pressured Raikkonen into a mistake at Bridge and took the lead. And that was the end of that. Barrichello drew away and went on to win. And here was the strange thing. The last time a lunatic ran out on to the race track was at Hockenheim m 2000 and on that occasion it was Rubens who snuck through to victory, beatmg the dominant McLarens!

You can say that Rubens was lucky but if the truth be told, the luckiest man at Silverstone on Sunday was the idiot in the kilt... 'he intrusion did not damage the .. battle between Raikkonen and Barrichello but it certainly hurt the chances of a number of other drivers, notably Michael Schumacher,Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso.

All three lost time in the pits because w'hen they arrived their team mates were ahead of them being

refuelled. This lost them only a few seconds but their position on the track made it almost impossible for them to make up the lost ground.

Montoya did the best job, carving past five cars in three laps once the race was on again.

In the end he was able to get right up with the leaders and took second place when Raikkonen had a second 'off.' But for Michael Schumacher it meant frustration in traffic. In the end he finished fourth, but he was nearly half a minute behind the whiner.

"It was an interestmg and very busy race," said Michael afterwards, "but to be honest it was difficult to have an overview of what happened from the cockpit. Rubens however dgsen'es the victory. I am happy for liim. Fourth place for me was not too bad considering what happened."

Michael also made the point that with the current scorhig system in FI he lost only one point of his lead over Raikkonen m the World Championship.

Barrichello was happy to be back m the limelight and he felt that the performance answered his critics in no uncertain fashion. It had been a good race.

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Barrichello admitted after the race that he had been concentrating so hard that he had not e\'en seen the track invader.

"I was so concentrate," he said. "I wasn't thinking of anything else!" t the start, it had not looked like Barrichello was going to be in the hunt because both Trulli and Raikkonen jumped ahead of him before the first corner. Trulli was able to edge away but not by much.

When the Safety Car came out and the team called him in, Trulli found that the car was not handling as well (probably because of a much bigger fuel load). He dropped away and was down to seventh place by lap 27. In the end he finish^ sixth but that w'as a pretty big disappointment.

"I had to fight hard to defend my

Right colour, wrong bloke: Rubens drove like a man possessed and his team appreciated it(above) Believe it or not: yes, it's a Toyota 1-2 (left). motorsport news

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position: it was right on the limit a few times," he said.

Alonso was running on different rubber and looked to have made the right choice as he climbed up through the field after his long pit stop and was up to third place when he pitted again. The problem was that the second stop vvent wrong.

"The idle speed of the car was very low," he said, "and it stalled."

After that Alonso drove without most of his electronic aids and in the end he went out with a failed gearbox, caused presumably by the lack of electrical power.

With of the picture the Renault Michelinout attack was led by Raikkonen. He was strong all day but struggled with the balance of his car on his last set of tyres. This was probably the reason he went off at Bridge on lap 42 and then at Stowe on lap 48 but he came home third and was content with that, "All (he plans went a bit different when the Safety Car came out," he said. "I was just going until they told me to come in but it worked out well."

23 July 2003

It was not a great day for David Coulthard although he did drive a strong race and ended the day in fifth place. He made up some places at the start but then there was disaster when his head restraint fixings broke and flew out of the car.

This resulted in a Safety Car being sent out for debris. David pitted and so, when the second Safety Car came after the man ran onto the track, he was able to stay out and take advantage of the situation.

11

back to seventh place but in the dash to the flag was able to make up two places.

It had been a very strong I'ace but starting so far back on the grid had not helped his cause.

The result of Raikkonen's off was that Montoya finished second which had looked very unlikely after the first pit stop left him in 13th place.

He drove hard and made up places with impressive ease and had climbed to second before his second

I was so concentrate, I wasn't thinking of anything else!

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- Rubens Barrichello, who didn’t see the track invader

Suddenly he was back up to third place with his whole disadvantage having disappeared. The problem was that he then had to pit again in the middle of the race and the team changed the strategy to go for three stops. This dropped him to back again and he had to fight through the midfield until he was in the clear again and up to fourth.

Then he had to stop again. 1 le fell

stop on lap 38. It dropped him to fifth but he was back to second by the end. He made one mistake and went off but it cost him only time and not position.

"My car was strong," he said, "and I cannot be anything but happy as I managed to get from 13th to second at the finish. Those points will certainly help in both World Championships."

Ralf Schumacher had a less successful day. Early on he was fourth but after the pit stops he went off and broke one of the car's bargeboajds. This went into the sidepod and the engine started to overheat and so he fell back and had to pit for the debris to be removed on lap 19.

This dropped him to the back of the field. After that he tried to make up ground but ended the day only ninth.

"It was just bad luck," said Ralf.

Behind the big driven four teams there w'as a Toyota

by Cristiano da Matta which led the race for 18 laps. This was caused by the fact that when the first Safety Car came out, both he and Olivier Panis went into the pits for fuel. The implication was that they had both been running with light fuel in qualifying and were taking advantage of the circumstances to get topped up.

When everyone else had to stop when the second Safety Car appeared they stayed out and so for a while the order at the front was Da Matta, Panis - Toyota Heaven!

continued on page 52 49

QuaHtyina

And the shall be first T

iie odds that Rubens Barrichelio would be on pole position for the British Grand Prix were not good, unless of course you were brave enough to think that something strange would happen and that fate would play a part in proceedings.

It was most unexpected, particularly after Barrichelio had made a big mess of the first qualifying on Friday, ending up in a sand trap and without a time registered. In final qualifying he would therefore run second in line, with only Justin Wilson on the track before him.

In such a situation, the early runners do not usually set the fastest times because the track tends to get faster as more and more cars run. But on this occasion things were rather different. The wind was blowing throughout the session but towards the end it began to become much stronger.

The result was that some of the men who should have been challenging for pole position

were not and so Barrichelio went through the entire session without being beaten.

There was always the hope that Michael Schumacher might do it at the very end of qualifying but Michael tried a little too hard and went off on the dirt and so ended up fifth on the grid.

It was all rather unexpected.

But for Rubens it was particularly hard going; "It was just agony waiting for everyone to finish their laps," he said. "It was much more difficult than any other time because it was just waiting, waiting. I don't think running at the beginning of the session was a disadvantage in terms of lap time, but there was a lot more pressure xo he 100 percent committed - but not to make a mistake. It was a mind game."

And on this occasion Barrichelio won the game.

The big question which everyone was asking after qualifying was, why? For the last few races, Ferrari has been in

the doldrums. Bridgestone has taken the blame for the problems but the Japanese have been flat-out trying to find an answer to Michelin domination.

In part it was due to the track.

Silverstone is a place with high speed corners and Ferrari enjoys a significant advantage over its rivals in this respect. At the same time, the team has been working overtime to improve the cars. ’"We came here with lots of new items," said Barrichelio.

"And the car is very fast.

Bridgestone has done a fantastic job.

You often hear drivers say such things and over the years one tends to ignore such blithe remarks. But what was the reality? Bridgestone had new tyres for Ferrari both in terms of the construction and the compound. But how much was VNDf.R PRESSURE? "The car was not wellbalanced and I ivas not able to hit the apex at some corners. The car has changed a lot since this morning and I am // not sure why.

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down to the track and how much to the tyres? No-one could answer that question.

Logically the one man who should have beaten Barrichelio was team mate Schumacher but he went off at Abbey on his qualifying run.

"I made a mistake, slid wide and got dust all over my tyres and that cost me more time," he said. It was a rare error for the World Champion and it dropped him to fifth on the grid.

"You cannot expect to be the fastest when you drive off the circuit." said Michael.

Both Ferrari drivers talked about how good the car felt but again there was the issue of how long the tyres would last in the race. Speed is one thing but consistent speed is quite another.

For once Michelin seemed to be beaten but Pierre Dupasquier warned that it might not be as easy for Ferrari on Sunday.

"We think we have made some good choices," he said, "but the track temperature tomorrow will be important."

And it would be very important also if it rained because Bridgestone seems to have a major advantage is such conditions.

Barrichelio being on pole was not the only surprise.

Jarno Trulli was second quickest in his Renault, just a tenth or so off Barrichello's pace.

"It is a totally unexpected result," said the Italian with some honesty, "but I did a nearly perfect lap."

And perhaps therein lies the tale of the day because, along with the variables such as fuel loads and tyre performance, we motorsport news

FORMULA -I now known as the R23B. But what fuel loads were the Renaults running? We knew very little except that Trulli and Fernando Alonso had chosen different tyres for the race.

Alonso was eighth but seemed happy enough with his tyre choice -for the race. But of course, just who was on the right tyre would not be known until the race was, well, half over...

Still, it was good to see a different look to the grid.

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Zero to hero: Rubens' Ferrari was reclaimed from the kitty litter during Friday Qualifying, commiting him to 45 minutes of ten sion on Saturday as 18 cars failed to match his time!

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own at McLaren, it was a sadly similar story to recent races. Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest but David Coulthard was back in 12th. It was all about levels of confidence again.

"I ran wide at Stowe," said David, "and then I locked up at Club. The car was not wel lbalanced and I was not able to hit the apex at some corners.

The car has changed a lot since this morning and I am not sure why."

Raikkonen,.however, delivered despite the fact that on Friday he had been the one off the pace.

"Kimi had a very control led and competitive lap," said McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh.

"It was nothing wild."

But was T enough to allow Kimii to win the race? The team was confident that it was ...

It seemed strange given the recent results to see the two Williams-BMWs back in fourth and seventh on the grid, with Ralf Schumacher again outgunning Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Colombian had a great list of problems and did not understand because in the morning the car had been set-up much the same. It was the conditions which had changed.

"We knew that this track was going to be a tough one for us," said Montoya. "The car was very difficult and snappy."

Ralf Schumacher did a rather better job but while the drivers

were less than enthusiastic, the Williams engineers were convinced that the team's pace in the race would be enough to deal with Renault and Ferrari. he unusual shape of the grid was confirmed by the presence in sixth place of Cristiano da Matta in his Toyota.

All weekend Olivier Panis' car had been quick but almost inevitably something went wrong at the important moment and Olivier was al l over the place during his lap and so ended up in 13th. No-one knew what had happened.

The odd thing was that da Matta achieved his lap time having had to switch into the spare at the last minute after problems in the warm-up. Fie did not have the chance to run in the windy conditions and so the team just had to guess at settings.

"The car was the best it has been all weekend," said Da Matta, adding to the age-old motor racing adage that it is just possible to tune anything to a stand-still I Aside from the two Ferraris, T was a Michelin-weighted front end of the grid but Jacques Villeneuve managed to drag his ’BAR-Flonda up to ninth place.

This was a surprise because in the morning Jacques had suffered an engine failure and had lost a lot of track time. The crew changed the engine very quickly and gave Jacques a few vital minutes at the end of the second practice session.

"I don't think I could have gone any faster," Jacques admitted.

Jenson Button was in all kinds of trouble thanks to an excursion over one of the vicious Silverstone kerbs at the exit of the Becketts section of track.

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23 July 2003

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Perverse? While Panis set the Toyota pace on Friday, Da Matta, below, was the man when it mattered on Saturday.

continued on page 52

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also had the issue of gusting wind which affected drivers in different ways. There was therefore an element of luck involved in the whole process.

But one could not write off Renault that easily for this was a very different car to that used at previous races.

The cars have been substantially modified and are

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continued from page 51 "1 was trying to carry my speed on to the straight," he confirmed. "I ran just a little bit too wide and something went wrong in the suspension ... it is amazing how much difference an inch or two can make."

Button backed off. He would start the race from the back of the field. Not good news at his home race.

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aguar Racing seemed to be struggling for once and Dr Mark Gillan put his finger on the problem: "It is difficult here at Silverstone for the teams that do only 20 car-days of testing," he said. "The other teams know the track better and so have an advantage. To be in the top 10 here will be quite an achievement for us. It is a bit easier at some of the other tracks!"

Unusually, the faster of the Jaguar drivers was Antonio Pizzonia who edged out Mark Webber by a few tenths.

"Even old Michael threw it off the track," quipped Webber, who semed to lose most of his time on the second sector. "It wasn't easy out there."

Tenth and 11th was, however, some sort of base for Jaguar to build on on Sunday.

The Saubers were pretty uninspiring as they have been in recent races and the two drivers ended up in 14th and 16th place, the difference being that HeinzHarald Frentzen's run was not affected by the wind as much as Nick Heidfeld. There was also the question of strategy. The two cars were on different strategies (as Sauber tends to do) and so the effectiveness of the plan would have to be assessed after the race.

“The two Jordans were 15th and 17th with Fisi ahead of Firman again. Things v/ere not great at Jordan.

"1 am afraid we just have no grip and that is the beginning and the end of the story," said Gary Anderson. "It is down to a lack of development all round and basically we have more or less the same car as we started the season with. I feel sorry for the drivers. It is frustrating for them too ..."

And that meant (naturally) that down at the back a second down on Firman were the two Minardis, separated as ever by a few tenths. They were more than four seconds a lap off the pole position team. It was not a big surprise.

52

continued from page 49 Olivier fell victim to Raikkonen

Go the Blues: Trulli, above, led into turn one while, below, Montoya needed both hands to adjust his visor. When Arnie met Bernie, below left, - big guy meets big guy ...

quite quickly and then, inevitably, the three-stop strategy went wrong.

Cristiano pitted on lap 30 and dropped to seventh. He was back up to third before his final stop on lap 44 but that dropped him back to sixth and then in the closing laps he was knocked back one more place by Coulthard.

"I am very used to leading races," said the CART Champion,"but this was my first time in FI and that was a special feeling. I knew it would not last long so I enjoyed it while I could!"

Fanis also suffered from the strategy but track position really Icnocked him back. He was third when he pitted for the second time but he fell behind the battling midfield pack and from then on lost time which he could never maKe up.

He finished lltli.

British American Racing had a pretty good day and Jenson Button drove from the last place on the grid to eighth at the finish. His two-stop strategy saw him going up and down the timesheets but he showed strongly and looked feisty.

"I don't think I could have done much better than that," he said."That

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was one of the best performances of my career. The car felt great and I had a lot of fun carving my way through the field."

Jacques Villeneuve had a similar strategy and was ahead of Jenson much of the way (Button was held up during the first pit stops because Jacques was there ahead of him)but at the second stops Button got aheacl and pulled away.

Jacques was running ninth in the closing laps but he spun on his last lap and dropped behind Ralf Schumacher.

Of the rest there was little to report.

The only man unlapped in this group was HeinzHarald Frentzen who drove a strong race after a disastrous start

which left him at the back and then losing out in the chaotic first pit stop because Nick Heidfeld was there ahead of him. After that he was flying on his way to 12th place.

Heidfeld's race was ruined by a puncture on lap 20 which dropped him right to the back and he never made much progress from there. He

finished 17th.

Ralph Firman was a lap down at the end but had had his moments in the race, not least because he had pitted during the first Safety Car and so ran as high as seventh. The second Safety Car destroyed the advantage however and so when it came to his next stop he tumbled to the back. He finished 13th. Giancarlo Fisichella had a rather more conventional run but never got out of the midfield and went out on lap 44 when he had a rear suspension failure and spun wildly through Becketts. and lots of what the team refers to Jaguar had a dreadful day with lots as "issues" and everyone else calls problems.

Pizzonia had an issue with his steering wheel and pitted during the moiorsport news

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first Safety Car. He did not stop at the second and then chased hard and had a fairly lively battle with his team mate Mark Webber until he had "an engine issue" which ended his race on lap 33.

Mark Webber had issues of his own, the car never balanced to his

all weekend. In the end, he could do no better than 14th, having opted for a three-stop strategy which was not the right thing to do.

Minardi finished both cars with Verstappen 15th and Wilson 16th.

The two men had a brush with one another on the first lap and then

Justin did not get enough fuel in his pit stop. He had to pit again and then ran to he finish with a heavier than planned fuel load. Verstappen race, by comparison, was positively quiet.

A weird race then but one which added a little spice to the World Championship.

How was your clay?

Fisi, left, had a lurid spin after the suspension broke, while Alonso's Renault, above, ran out of electrics completely - having had no driver aids for some time.

Techno innovations aplenty at Silverstone

Several teams introduced major technical changes for the 11th race of the season, including Toyota, BAR, Ferrari, Jaguar, Williams, Renault and Minardi - some pf them full ‘B’ spec versions of their cars.

Four interesting changes are illustrated here.

Toyota’s TF103 (pic A) has undergone a huge aerodynamic overhaul, with changes in every area of the car: front wing, bargeboards, rear end, rear wing and diffuser. The new front wing features a revised version of the endplates with the horizontal knife profile curved downwards in a simiiar fashion to the Renault one introduced at Imola.

The bargeboards were also refined, now sporting a reduced section and a flat uoper profile, while the most visible change is related to the sidepods that now resemble very closely the Ferrari ones. Now. the coke bottle section is narrower and lower

23 iuly 2003

than before, sporting new double winglets (2) provided with a flap in front of the rear wheels and big chimneys (1) covering the exhausts.

Furthermore, the sidepods provide increased cooling efficiency, with shark air vents which clearly took inspiration from the Ferrari F2003 GA. Williams introduced an original shark fin on the top of the engine cover (pic B), increasing its profile so as to improve the air flow directed to the rear wing.

This change should be particularly effective on fast tracks such as Silverstone, increasing consistently the efficiency of the rear wing.

Following the crucial testing sessions of the previous week, Ferrari introduced changes on the F2003 GA (pic C). Alongside some intense development of the tyres by Bridgestone, the Italian cars sported revised aerodynamics at the front.

A new front wing featuring revised endplates that, in a similar way to Toyota, follow the fashion launched by Renault with the knife edge, downwards curving wide profile that improves the efficiency of the front wing. This adds a certain amount of downforce, while at the same time keeping under control the turbulence generated by the front wheels.

The Ferrari changes were completed with the adoption of

new outer barge boards placed inside the front suspension. In particular, these small shields(l) are now connected to the single keel underneath the chassis(2) and are in a more advanced position in comparison to the outer shields of the previous version.

It is understood that this provides a better driveability of the front end of the car, now more sharp in the fast corners than before.

- PAOLO FILISETTI

53

u

DUSTER’S

2003 FIA Formula One World Championship 2CXI3 British Grand Prix - Overall Race Glassification after 60 laps - 308.355 kms - Provisional No.

GRAl VERS

Driver

2 Rubens Barrichello 3 ■Juan Pablo Montoya 6 Kimi Raikkonen 1 Michael Schumacher 5 David Coulthard

5 6 7

FIN West McLaren Mercedes GER Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro GBR West McLaren Mercedes

1:28:37.554 1:28:43.016 1:28:48.210 1:29:03.202

Gap 05.462

Kph

Bast

Lap

208.757 208.543

1:22,236 1:22.938 1:22.911 1:23.024 1:22.692 1:22.797 1:23.528

38 33

BRA i Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

Fastest Lap 1:22.236 on lap 38

1:23.912 1:22.943 1:23.705 1:23.463 17^37933 1:25.087 1:23.833 1:27.021 1:25.859 1:24.537 1:22.819 1:24.823 1:23.158

10 60 9 32 53 10 57 47 58 33 28 2 9 9 37 40 9

; 225.054

Drivers' Championship Points: M. Schumacher 69, Raikkonen 62, Montoya 55, R. Schumacher 53, Barrichello 49, Alonso 39, Coulthard 33, Trulli 16, Webber 12, Button 11, Rsichella 10, Frenizen 7, da Matta 5, Villeneuve 3, Heidfeld and Pams 2, Rrman 1.

Grand Prix of Nat

1

BRA Ferrari ITA

Renault :

3

Kimi Raikkonen

FIN

McLaren '

4

Ralf Schumacher

GER Williams

5

Michael Schumacher

GER Ferrari

6

Cristlano Da Matta

BRA Toyota

. 7

Juan Pablo Montoya

COL Williams

‘ 8

Fernando Alonso

ESP Renault

9

Jacques Villeneuve

CAN BAR

10 Antonio PIzzonIa

BRA Jaguar

11 Mark Webber

AUS Jaguar

12 David Coulthard

GBR McLaren

13 Olivier Panis

FRA Toyota

14 Heinz-Harald Frentzen

GER Sauber

15 Glancarlo Fisichella

ITA

16 Nick Heidfeld

GER Sauber

17 Ralph Firman

IRL

18 Justin Wilson

GBR Minardi

19 Jos Verstappen

NED Minardi

20 Jenson Button

GBR BAR

Positions iap by lap Accident

T

Car

2 JamoTrulll

-

Great Britain

July 20 2003 Grid Position/Driver

54

Tifne

60 60 60

2 I Rubens Barrichello

Olivier Panis Heinz Harald Frentzen

Constructors' Championship Points: Ferrari 118, Williams BMW 108, McLaren Mercedes Benz 95, Renault 55, BAR Honda 14, Jaguar 12, Jordan Ford 11, Sauber Petronas 9, Toyota 7.

Rubens Barrichello

Laps

Fernando Alonso 11 Glancarlo Rsichella 15 Antonio PIzzonIa

7 JamoTrulll 21 Cristlano Da Matta 17 Jenson Button 4 Ralf Schumacher 16 Jacques Vllleneuve

Ralph Firman 14 Mark Webber 19 Jos Verstappen 18 Justin Wilson 9 Nick Heidfeld

FOST

Entrant

10.656 05.194 208.339 60 25.648 14.992 207.755 60 1:29:14.381 36.827 11.179 207.321 ITA Mild Seven Renault FI Team 60 1:29:20.621 43.067 06.240 I 207.080 BRA Panasonic Toyota Racing 60 45.085 1:29:22.639 02.018 1 207.002 GBR Lucky Strike BAR Honda 60 00.393 206.986 1:29:23.032 : 45.478 GER BMW WiiliamsFl Team 60 1:29:35.586 587032 12.554 206.503 CAN Lucky Strike BAR Honda 60 206.291 1:29:41.123 ! 63.569 05.537 FRA Panasonic Toyota Racing 60 l:29:42.76r^5-207 *“0l7638 206.228 GER Sauber Petronas 60 1:29:43.118 ' ‘65.564 ! 00.357' 206!214 IRL Jordan Ford 59 205.248 T:28:38.294 1 LAP ~ |'“rLAp' AUS "jaguar Racing 59 1:28:39.222 iIaT ~ OO^ 205.212 NED European Minardi C^sworth 58 1:28:40739i” , 2 IaPS ‘ ' TIap" 201.688 GBR European Minardi Cosworth 58 1:28:44.162 2"LAPS~^ 03.771 201.545 GER Sauber Petronas 58 1:28:47.645 03.483 2 LAPS 201.414 Not Classified ESP Mild Seven Renault fl Team d'nf” 205.111 52 , 1:18:10.218 UA Jordan Ford 44 1:08:29.980 DNF 198.043 BRA Jaguar Racing 32 0:49:37.709 DNF 198.765

20 10 12

1

Nat

BRA Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro COL BMW WiiliamsFl Team

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©Pitstop

Lapped

20 I

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Jordan J

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molorsport news

FORMULA 1

-.»T,

British Diary

I

guess we had to have a bad one sooner or later - but it's a shame it had to be what is effectively my second 'home' race of the year.

The British Grand Prix is of course Jaguar's home race and so it always involves a bit of hype This year the team had agreed a one-off race sponsorship deal with the producers of T3- Terminator 3which meant that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be there on Sunday.

I have to say that when he turned up for the photo-shoot, I've never, ever seen so much press before. It was all a bit mad.

As I write this I'm also about to drive a current race-spec R4 through the streets of London to

Leicester Square, park it on the red carpet, hop out and wander up the red carpet for the UK premier of the film ... n terms of set-up for the weekend, we got a bit lost on Friday and never really recovered.

It's a bit of a complex thing, but despite a reasonably successful test the previous week in Barcelona, there was a problem getting either a good balance in the car or reasonable tyre life and we just couldn't get to the bottom of it.

We were well into the forest and never rally came out of the trees!

New tyre performance was quite good and so both qualifying runs were more

guy, left; the media liked Arnie, below. but Mark had more serious problems to ponder, above...

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representative of where we should have been.

In fact, Friday's qualifying run, where we ended up seventh, was a good lap - the final sector was the quickest of anyone.

Saturday's single lap was less satisfying.

Apart from the high crosswinds which affected the second half of the session, it wasn't the best lap I ever put together either.

R

It's lurv: The pommie sheilas like our

^ %

egardless, that was as good as our weekend was going to get and we knew it before the race started.

A two-stop strategy was the obvious way to go, but with the car the way it was, we decided to aim for a three-stopper.

It looked like it was going to be a fairly long day and, guess what, it was.

The extra stop cost us big time and, in the end, it was just

p

\

a matter of getting the car home as best we could.

The suddenderanged appearance of an obviously spectator on the track is the scariest thing I've had to deal with for quite a while.

At the time, I was reasonably close behind another car and I thought I glimpsed what I thought was some Renault bodywork floating around - the colours were sort of similar.

When I realised, a microsecond later, just what was going on, I was stunned.

It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened if he hadn't been running straight along Hangar Straight and someone had hit him ...

Well done to the marshall who, I hear, crash-tackled the guy and got him out of the way.

ockenheim is next and, once we've had a really good look at what went wrong at Silverstone, we should be able to put it behind us and get back onto the upward path we've been treading so far this year.

In the meantime. I'm now off to Istanbul for two days work on behalf of Jaguar team sponsor Becks, while the team also deals with the renewed speculation about my team-mate ...

55

GLEN Hastings opened a 16 point lead over his Sonic Motorsport teammate Tony Pugliese after an action packed second race at Queensland Raceway.

In a Safety Car-peppered Race 2, Hastings (Van Diemen RF01) took the lead from Pugliese on lap six with a desperate braking duel at turn three before inching away to win the race and the round from local hero Brett Francis (Van Diemen RF02), with Neil McFadyen (Van Diemen RF94) third for the weekend.

“After struggling in qualifying, the Sonic Motorsport team did a great job to get the car in fantastic form again, and i'm really pleased to have extended my lead in the Championship” said Hastings.

“We were right on the pace on Friday, when we went to qualifying we were seven tenths slower. We went different on the set-up in Race 2 and with all the V8 rubber down, it suited our setup.”

In Race 1 Francis got the best start off the front row to lead a wheel spinning polesitter Pugliese around on the first lap ahead of McFadyen, Hastings, Michael 56

clashed in turn six, which sent Trimble, Tim Macrow and Justin on the second lap.

Pugliese off track and into the When the Safety Car had gone, Cotter. Pugliese used his superior wall, wiping off the nose cone and blastings made his move and power to duck inside Francis at turn two and take the lead down bending the front left corner of the dived under Pugliese at turn car. Francis had no answer for three. There was contact, and the back straight on the second Hastings, the gap at the chequer Pugliese was forced wide. With lap. McFadyen was able to hold 0.3s. Cotter finished fourth behind the Sonic cars slow off line blastings back until half distance.

McFadyen with Wimmer next just Francis saw an opportunity and Fie grabbed third through turn five. ahead of Clayton Pyne and went side by side with blastings Macrow. down to turn 4 but had to give Hastings then chased down -MARK JONES best to Hastings who was on the Francis, taking second with two inside,for the 4/5 complex. laps to go and finishing 3s behind Points: Hastings 154, Pugliese 138, Pugliese, now fourth, struggled the fleeing Pugliese. Francis held McFadyen 123, Francis 100, Cotter 60, to get past McFadyen and the pair Macrow 48. out McFadyen for third while Cotter won a six-car battle for fifth ahead of Bryce Washington and Kurt Wimmer A collision in this group saw Tim Macrow spun airborne into the turn three sand trap.

Race 2 saw even more drama at turn three after two separate incidents each brought out the Safety Car. The first on lap three saw Tim Slade and Stephen Borness drive into the sand before Kent Quinn went off at the same corner on the re.start lap. The start had seen Pugliese lead off the line from ^ Inhn Hastings with McFayden getting the better of Francis, only Trouble in Paradise: Shannon O'Brien, in a haze of tyre smoke, had the front to lose the position at turn three end ripped off his Van Diemen at Queensland raceway last weekend. motorsport news

t

F/FORD

C/CUP

Asserting Authority

A

FTER a few recent incursions onto the top of the podium by some of the series up-andcomers,Jim Richards re-asserted his dominance of the 2003 Australia Carrera Cup Championship in round five at Queensland Raceway last weekend.

Richards scored pole position and led every lap of all three races to end the weekend with a hat-trick of wins, and a strong buffer in his Championship lead as the series enters the final few rounds.

Marcus Marshall was again the best of the rest, going home with three second places after breaking three clutches early in the weekend,with Darwin round winner Tun Leahey occupying the lowest step of the podium after another consistent outing.

Richards thumped away at the start of the opening race late on Saturday afternoon and never looked like being caught, which meant that the interest in tire race lay in the fight for the minor placings. But as tilings turned out,there wasn't much fighting to speak of; the one exception being

Marshall, whose VIP Pet Foods car got a good run out of the last comer on the third lap and moved past Peter Fitzgerald's EI^O machine to take second place at turn one. Marshall had actually passed Fitzy on the opening lap, but ran slightly wide shortly afterwards when he was caught out by cold brakes and handed the position back. Fitzgerald maintained the pressure on Marshall for the remainder of the race, but never managed to find a way past.

"I could have had a go at him,but the cars are very even," said Fitzgerald.

"I left too big a hole and let him past, but we raced the whole race without a touch and that's what I like to see. We need to dial out some laterace understeer for tomorrow,but we're pleased about being up front."

Leahey ran a lonely race to finish fourth ahead of Kiwi Kevin BeU, who had been battling brake problems.

Richards again made a perfect start in race two on Sunday morning, but his hopes of trying to build an early gap were sunk by an appearance by the Safety Car on the second lap. The

yellows started waving when Rodney Jane suffered ABS problems and plowed into the back of Jonathon Webb,and their stricken cars were joined almost immediately after when Tony Quinn went off at the same spot while tiying to avoid another car.

"There must have been fluid there," explained Jane."When I braked, the ABS went crazy and 1 got off the brakes again and then back on, but I couldn't pull up and poor Jonathon was turning the corner and got hit in the side."

The race restarted on lap seven and Richards threw down the gauntlet with a couple of flying laps to build a 1.0s lead over Marshall by lap nine. But Marshall had an answer, and reeled off a succession of quick tours in his efforts to make up ground. It appeared to have paid off when the Queenslander made a big move on the penultimate lap, but Ricliards held fast and went on to take the win,leaving Marshall with the fastest lap of the weekend,a lml3.4557s,as a consolation prize.

"We didn't count on it being an eight-lap race," said Marshall."That's

The good, bad and ugly: Rodney Jane and Jonathan Webb, above, got tangled, resulting in considerable damage to both cars. Below, Richards continued his excellent Carrera Cup form, taking another clean-sweep.

how I had my car set up,so we struggled a little bit at the start."

Leahey finished tlrird, 0.5s down the road, ahead of Bell, Fitzgerald, Bell, and Matthew Coleman, who was smarting a little after being forced to start from rear of grid when the rear left of his car was found to be

1mm below the minimum ride height after the first race.

Series debutante Charlie O'Brien had also been banished to the back of the grid for the race due to his part in a clang the previous afternoon.

Marsnall made the better getaway from the line in the final race, but Richards managed to keep his advantage and lead the field through the first comer.

Behind them, Webb had another scare when John Teulan had a big lose just in front of him and almost cleaned him up,but he was able to slip past unharmed.

The race was again intermpted by the Safety Car when David Scaysbrook became beached on lap three, but as soon as the green flag waved on lap six, Marshall started applying some pressure on Richards.

The reigning Nations Cup Champion is not easily intimidated, however, and the pair traded a series of quick laps before Marshall's hopes were shot when once again the Safety Car came into play. This time, it was to rescue the cars of Geoff Morgan and Dean Cook, who had an expensivelooking accident at turn three.

By the time the cars(and the coolant that was smeared all o\'er the track) were cleaned up tliere was just one lap to go,and Richards cmised away at the restart to take the flag ahead of Marshall, Leahey and Bell.

The series continues at Sandown in September.

- MARK GLENDENNING Points; Richards 819,.Marshall 738,Fitzgerald 603, Leahey 585, Bell 480, Coleman 372.

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Paul StokelJ blew the Nations Cup Championship wide-open with a perfect weekend at Oran Park. MARK GLENDENNING reports

D

ESPITE fronting up at Oran Park against one of the strongest fields the series has produced in the last 12 months, Paul Stokell turned round five of the Donut King Australian Nations Cup Championship into a one-man show with a dominant performance two weeks ago.

The Team Lamborghini Australia spearhead encountered a few niggles early in the weekend, the most serious of w’hich was a broken upright in the opening session. But the V12 Diablo GTR recovered to top the times in et'ery session and hand Stokell a clean sweep of the three races - and enough points to assume the lead in the Championship.

"The weekend couldn't have gone better, really," said Stokell. "We had some little problems in practice, but w'e got on top of that and there were no dramas.

"It's surprising, it's one of those circuits where I thought we might struggle a little bit against the Ferrari. I didn't think we'd be on the pace, but anyway ... it turned out well!"

The leading Lamborghini arrived in Sydney with a new Holinger sixspeed sequential gearbox, however the team were inclined to attribute their speed to gains made in set-up rather than hardware.

58

John Bowe ended the weekend in second place, with the PHR Ferrari 360GT carrying enough pace to keep the majority of the field in check, but not enough to do anything about Stokell. Nathan Pretty completed the podium after a consistent weekend in the Monaro.

Stokell set himself a precedent for the weekend by galloping away from pole at the start of the first race and leaving everyone else to fight over the scraps behind him. The man with the most work to do was Anthony Tratt in the second TLA Group One Lamborghini, who had started from the back after missing qualifying.

Like Stokell, Tratt had suffered a broken upright in practice. This shouldn't have been a problem except that the team had discovered that due to a mix-up with their supplier, they didn't have the right parts. After two very late nights and some help from F3 frontrunner Barton Mawer's engineering team, Tratt was back on the track on Sunday morning, albiet with a lot of cars ahead of him.

Also having early problems was the Viper of D'Arcy Russell, which was forced to qualify on just three shockers.

"They were playing up on Friday and then it seized in qualifying,"

saud Russell.

"They're Konis, and we can't get a spare in time. .Andrew Meidecke has pulled tu'o off his Viper and sent them over - tltey're Proflex, and it won't work right, but it's better than nothing."

Come race time, Bowe made a slow start from third on the grid and dropped a couple of positions on the run to the first corner, but within a couple of laps he had passed Peter Brock and Greg Crick to assume third place behind Stokell and Pretty. By mid-distance, the Ferrari had closed up enough to be causing Pretty some concern. But the battle was over quickly - on lap eight, Bowe dived inside the Monaro at turn two and as far as second place was concerned, that was that.

But Pretty still had a fight on his hands if he wanted to hold on to third, because Crick was not far down the road and the Viper was flying.

The Tasmanian had outbraked Brock into turn one to take fourth early in the race, and proceeded to post the second-fastest lap of the race (lm08.7866s, as compared with StokelTs fastest lap of lm08.6267s in a race where nobody else dipped below the lm09s mark) in his efforts to gain ground on the yellow Monaro.

Crick made a succession of lunges exiting the final corner in the late

sm

stages of the race, but on each occasion the Monaro had enough grunt to thwart him.

Finally, on lap 12, an opportunity of sorts presented itself when the pair closed in on the lapped car of Sam Newman at the dogleg.

As Pretty went to go around the Group Two Lamborghini SVR, Crick spotted a gap, held his breath, and shot through between them to take third place with the most audacious moves of the year.

"It was a bit of opportunism," grinned Crick later.

"I hung back when 1 saw that he was catching the slower cars and just waited for the moment. It was a bit of a Jim Richards move - an old people's manoeuvre!"

The top order remained unchanged from thereon, with Brock following Pretty across the line for a Monaro 4-5 ahead of Tratt, who made good progress through the pack to come home in sixth place.

Stokell repeated his disappearing act at the start of the second race, but there was drama unfolding behind him. Pretty made a good start and was attempting to go around the outside of Crick through the first sequence of corners when the pair made contact.

Although he lost a few positions.

Pretty survived unscathed.

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m Crick, however, was less fortunate, and he limped back to the pits and out of the race witli a broken steering arm.

"1 was just braking and then ... ka-thump," explained Pretty. "He hit me in the back wheel but tliere's no drama. It was just one of those things."

With StokeU having already vanished over the horizon and Bowe having a similarly lonely run in second, the main interest was in the battle betvN'een Brock and Tratt for third. Even that was settled fairly early when the Lamborghini dived inside Brock at turn two, and from there the field essentially held formation for the remainiirg ten laps.

Afterwards, the Monaro camp admitted that despite having arrived in Sydney with their first parity adjustment for the season, they were still short of where they needed to be.

"Green tyres tend to hide things a lot, and there's a fair bit we need to sort out," said Pretty. "We really need to sit down and do some testing."

Brock agreed.

"It's just not fast enough," he confirmed. "1 thought the car was better in that race, given that 1 didn't want to change tyres and mask things with new tyres.

"But we need to get some kilometres behind us. The car itself, 23 July 2003

Nice sky, nice car; Bowe, above, couldn't do much about the lead Lambo at OP, but the PHR Ferrari 360GT was comprehensively the best of the rest.

Came over: Pretty squeezed as much as he could out of the Monaro to finish third, his weekend hampered only by a clang early in race two. The same incident ruined an otherwise

●

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Dirk'KIynsmith

Dirk Klynsmitk

strong outing from Crick, below.

with big tyres and a good torquey engine, you'd think it would hang in there better than it does."

●I

StokeU at the start againofdrove the third into and the sunset final race with Bowe once again leading the chase. Once more, the main interest lay in what was happening in third place - and in the opening couple of laps, there was a lot going on.

Pretty launched the offensive on Tratt from the word 'go', and made it past on the second lap after a great move that saw the Monaro hanging to the outside of the Lamborghini for several comers, with each giving the other just enough room to fight without spearing off. Brock made tire most of his new rubber to duck underneath the inside of Tratt at the last comer on the same lap to take fourtlr.

It was a good start for the Monaros, and it got better for them when Pretty began to make some mroads into Bowe. The Monaro's efforts were hampered a little by lapped traffic, but on the 16th lap Pretty managed to squeeze past and slot into second place on the run down to the first corner.

Brock also managed to gain ground over the Ferrari, but ran out of laps before he was able to do much about it and the red Italian car went

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on to cross the line just under 1.0s ahead of the red Australian car. For good measure, Bowe also bagged the fastest lap of the race.

Behind them. Crick finished fifth in a Viper that was not quite handling right after its race two dramas.

Martin Wagg finished the weekend with a seventh and two sixth places to go home with bragging rights as the fastest Porsche of the weekend, while James Koundouris went a little better by steering his Porsche GTS to a hattrick of wins in the Group Two class.

So the series moves to Phillip

Island with a new leader and what looks to be an intriguing showdown over the final three rounds.

Logic would suggest that the Island should suit the Lamborghini, Winton should suit the Ferrari and Indy could be anybody's. But logic, as has been proven time and time again, is quite often a moron. We'll have some idea one way or the other when the series reconvenes off the Victorian coast next month.

Points: Group One: StokeU 348, Bowe 345, Pretty 249, Brock 166, Crick 148, Tratt 92. Group Two: Koundouris 98, Newman 96, Young 37.

59

WRX spells Success WAYEME Boatwright gave the army of spectating WRX Club members something to cheer about when he took his ProTecnica WRX Sin to a pair of wins in round five of the Australian GT Performance Championship at Oran Park two weeks ago.

Boatwright's clean sweep coincided with a disastrous round for series leader Mark King, and has allowed the Subaru driver to close within 15 points of the top of the Championship table.

Bob Pearson ended the weekend second overall after a consistent outing behind the wheel of the PRO-DUCT Motorsport Mazda RX-7, with the Lancer EVO VI I of Garry Holt completing the podium.

Boatwright made a textbook start from fifth on the grid in the first race, and had planted himself in the lead before the opening lap was even half completed. Holt led the chase ahead of Bob Hughes (Lancer Evo VI) and polesitter Pearson, who had bogged down badly at the lights. The RX-7 recovered to third on the next lap, but the charge was halted immediately after when the sister Mazda of Mark Brame went into the wall at turn three, bringing out the Safety Car. The race was restarted after three laps, and proceeded uneventfully until Steve Knight (Lancer Evo VI) and Nathan

Pilkington (350Z Version S) clashed on the exit of the last corner during lap eight.

Pilkington clipped the rear of Knight while trying to move through on the inside and sent the Lancer into the wall, where it rebounded and collected the 350Z on its way back across the track.

Both drivers managed to get their stricken cars out of harm's way, and were left gesticulating at one another as the final laps of the race ticked away behind them.

At the front, Boatwright went on to take the flag after surviving a late charge from Holt, who in turn withstood a last-gasp effort from Pearson. King's Lancer Evo VII finished fourth ahead of the similar car of Graham Alexander, with Justin Hemmes rounding out the top six after another solid performance behind the wheel of the second ProTecnica WRX. With an extended distance of 22 laps and the inclusion of a compulsoP)' pitstop. Race 2 promised to be anything but predictable.

And so it proved. Boatwright led the field away at the start with Holt, Alexander and Pearson leading the pursuit. By the end of the sixth tour though, the leading three had all shown their hand and pitted, relegating themselves well back into the midfield and handing Pearson the lead.

From there, the race took on an FI flavour as the early leaders

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tried to get back up towards the head of the field as quickly as the could, whi le Pearson did his utmost out the front to maximise his advantage and hopeful ly rejoin ahead after his stop.

Unfortunately for the Mazda it didn't quite pan out, and after diving into the pits on the 20th lap, Pearson rejoined the race just behind the twin Subarus of Boatwright and Hemmes.

The ProTecnica crew had been having an eventful afternoon.

While working his way through the field, Boatwright had spotted his team-mate behind him and, not realising that he was on the same lap, waved him through! The order was restored a few laps later.

Peter Floyd opted for the least conventional strategy of all when, having read the rulebooks and noticed that the penalty for failing to stop was one lap.

Blue, green, blue, green: Floyd takes his VY for a roll in qualifying

decided to go for a no-stopper, wear the penalty, and hope that speed, luck, and Safety Cars would play into his hands. But it didn't work - the Commodore GTS VY was first across the line, but was relegated to 11th. It was still a decent result, given that Floyd had taken the car for a roll through the turn one gravel on Saturday morning . . .

Floyd's demotion saw Boatwright take the win ahead of Hemmes for a Subaru 1-2 that was made all the more impressive by the fact that Hemmes had driven without third gear for much of the race.

Just down the road was thirdplaced Pearson, who again finished strongly and was perhaps just one more lap away from stealing second place.

- MARK GLENDENNING Points: King 271, Boatwright 245, Cramp 130, Hemmes 129, Hughes 112, Morcom 108, Alexander 105, Falk 99

motorsport news

GTPERFO R M A N CE/F3

Mawer on IWe

by MARK GLENDENNING BARTON Mawer underlined himself as a serious challenger for the 2003 Australian Formula 3 Championship by dominating what proved to be an eventful weekend at Oran Park a fortnight ago.

Mawer, who arrived at the NSW circuit boasting new backing from Tech 2U on his Dallara F96, went home with maximum points after scoring two poles and two wins, and closed to within striking distance of Championship leader Michael Caruso on the points table.

"It was a really good weekend," said Mawer.

"We're really happy,and we seem to be betting stronger as the year goes on."

Caruso finished the weekend in second position overall, with the outright podium being completed by the increasingly fast Christian Jones.

Mawer made a good start in Race 1, and Iris cause was helped when Caruso failed to make a clean getaway from the second slot on the grid.

"I couldn't get a single rotation out of the wheel when I dropped the clutch," Caruso grimaced later.

By the time the Sydney driver had got going, he had dropped a number of spots. One of the beneficiaries was James Cressey (carrying new backing from Wynn's NZ), who made a lighting start from the third row to take second place through the first sequence of corners. But the Kiwi's fortunes quickly took a turn for the worse when he was rear-ended at turn eight on the first lap by Kenny Habul, who had also made an amazing start from eighth on the grid to be in third.

The Piccola Scuderia Corse car clipped the right rear of Cressey's Dallara at full noise and launched skyward, travelling a considerable distance through the air and almost collecting a marshall's post before 23 July 2003

finally crashing to the ground. Given that the team's data suggested that Habul was pulling just under 2.0G through the air, he was lucky to escape severely winded but otherwise unhurt.

"I had turned in, then Habul just came flying in out of nowhere and ran clean over the top on me," fumed Cressey.

"I've seen the replay and he just didn't brake. He just went flying in at a million miles an hour, hit my right wheel wheel then launched himself over the top of the airbox.

"Forget that I had got up to second. Forget that I'm fighting for a championship. To do what he did. when he did, is inexcusable. He can do what he likes with his own life but when he risks mine ... that's when I get angry."

Habul saw things differently.

"He hit the brakes where you don't expect it," he said."He hit the brakes so hard, so early that it wouldn't have mattered if I was five metres behind him."

Habul's weekend ended on the spot, but Cressey's frustrations were just beginning. After pitting to change a tyre and remove the remains of his rear wing,the New Zealander was erroneously black-

flagged.

He returned to the pits and got out of the car, only to be told that there had been a misunderstanding between officials and that he could rejoin the race! One of those days ...

Meanwhile, Mawer was enjoying a comfortable lead over Jones and BRM rookie Karl Reindler, with Caruso sitting fourth and posting a succession of fastest laps in his efforts to make up lost ground.

Proceedings were interrupted by the Safety Car after an incident involving Maher Aldagdri and series newcomer Johnny Chan,but at the restart Caruso wasted no time in going on the attack. He found a way

yusf like the FFord days: Cressey, above, has been getting a lot of unwanted miles without a rear wing over the past few months.

Added bonus: What's better than winning? Winning and being presented with your trophy by Ron Tauranac, right. past Reindler to take third at turn two,and a late-race battle elevated Caruso to second when he snuck past Jones on the last lap.

Caruso made a stronger start in Race 2, but Mawer managed to outdrag him down to the first corner to hold his lead. From that moment, the race was a two-man show. Mawer and Caruso built a sizable gap over the rest of the field and settled into a race-long dice for the lead.

Caruso was quick through the tighter sections, but Mawer had a substantial advantage in outright speed and was able to negate any gains made by his pursuer. But the race was sealed with four laps left when the Safety Car was called out to allow Craig Bundle's stricken car to be retrieved -just as Caruso had found himself with a lapped car between himself and Mawer.

Three laps under yellows meant that there would be a one-lap dash for the flag, and with traffic in the way,Caruso's hopes were shot.

Mawer made a perfect restart to

confirm his claim to the win,leaving Caruso to settle for second.

A recovered Cressey finished third ahead of Peter Hackett, who enjoyed some late-race luck when Reindler spun our in front of him on the last lap.

Perhaps the revelation of the weekend was Marchy Lee from Hong Kong, who joined the series after abandoning the Asian F3 championship.

Despite the mad rush by the team to get the car ready in time, a total lack of data, and a complete unfamiliarity with the circuit, Lee distinguished himself with a seventh in Race 1 and sixth in Race 2.

Points: Caruso 162, Mawer 152, Cressey 110, Jones 101, Hackett 79, Gurr 49, Reindler 47.

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WITH two rounds of the World Championship now based on Mediterranean islands, the Italian round appears set to make it three when the Sanremo moves off-shore to Sardinia.

In another change, the new Sardmian event will be run on dirt rather than tarmac, returning the Italian round to its roots.

While contracts have yet to be signed, president of the Italian motorsport governing body Gino Macaluso says that Sardinia is set to take over the Italian round.

"It is the right direction, because

technically the area is very interesting and it is very safe," he said.

"We are studying a solution where a great part of the stages will be on private land."

Sardinia has previously been considered as a possible venue for Italy's World Championship rally when it hosted the Costa Smeralda Rally, a European Championship round.

Sanremo has had a raft of problems in recent years with spectator control, crowding and a lack of different stages attracting criticism.

- JON THOMSON

Rally of Melboui

RALLY of Melbourne organisers have signed a major sponsor after many years of struggle running a rally that many believe is the jewel in the crown of the Australian Rally Championship.

NGK Spark Plugs has signed on as the naming rights sponsor for what wil l now be known as NGK Rally of Melbourne.

Based wholly in the Yarra Valley, the Victorian round of the ARC has this year overcome the problems with the death of its founder and driving force Glenn Cuthbert, and is moving forward thanks to the partnership formed between rally administrator Justin Hunt and Cuthbert's younger brother Neil.

The signing of NGK to a long term naming rights deal and a new base at the The Sebel Yarra Valley Resort have helped the new partners establish a firm foundation for the rally.

"We now have the resources

and the security that will allow us to take the Rally of Melbourne to the next level," Neil Cuthbert said.

"NGK is thrilled to be associated with the Rally of Melbourne. It's an exciting time for us."

For NGK, this year's Rally of Melbourne marks its first foray into local event sponsorship.

"We've been very seriously looking at the Rally of Melbourne for a few years now but didn't have the resources," said associate director of sales Peter Hein.

"This year we were able to commit so we jumped at the opportunity. For us, it's about brand building. We supply mariy Rally teams with quality NGK spark plugs, so this is our opportunity to increase awareness of our products in the community."

With the rally now rescheduled to a more pleasant spring date on October 4 and 5, the road and weather conditions in the Yarra Valley should provide

16? Not Keen THE debate over the proposed changes to the WRC continues, with a number of leading lights in the series declaring an expansion to 16 rounds from the current 14 is not the right way to go.

Ford has made the harshest assessment, going as far as to declare that it may reconsider its involvement in the WRC if two extra rounds are added in 2004.

"We appreciate what's being done to reduce costs, but it no way equals the cost of two extra events, especially Japan and Mexico," said team boss Malcolm Wilson, right.

"Ford will review the situation if it goes to 16 rounds. Let's stabilise what we've got. With the economic situation, the timing is just not right."

Ford's anxiety is shared to a lesser degree by several other manufacturers.

Jean-Pierre Nicolas of Peugeot Sport fears that some of the FIA's cost-cutting ideas are poteniially dangerous and believes more discussion is required before any of the moves are acted on.

"All the ideas that are on the table at the moment could be good, but some of the ideas are 62

just plain stupid," said Nicolas.

"We would prefer to do only 14 rallies - even 12 rallies, which would be a better idea to reduce costs - but if the World Council says 'Do 16,' we will do 16."

Even WRC TV rights holder David Richards has given the expansion plans the thumbs down, citing a negative effect on TV coverage in the short term.

"The effect of 16 rallies will be to potentially compromise the TV package," said Richards. "Asa long-term plan. I'm a big supporter of 16 events and if you want the perfect calendar, you would alternate with Formula 1.

"But in the short term, we just have to be a little bit careful we don't overload people with costs the teams as well as ourselves."

- JON THOMSON

CITROEN has thrown its two i established stars Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae into a state of uncertainty by signing its young French star Sebastien Loeb to a new contract that will keep him at Citroen until the end of 2005.

Loeb, pictured right in 'Everest mode', has spent the bulk of his career in Citroens, coming to prominence in Saxo in Super 1600 before being drafted in to drive the Xsara WRC. He has won two World Championship rallies in Xsaras, the 2002 Deutschland and this year's Monte Carlo. He also won last year's Monte but was excluded for a minor tyre infringement.

The 28-year-old Frenchman believes n that it's a sound career move establishing himself as the star of the team.

"It's a very good team know everyone in the team and it's a nice atmosphere. My aim is to fight for the title next year if possible and at least in 2005,"he said.

The decision to sign Loeb means that either Sainz or McRae must leave the team at the end of the season, as 2004 rules restrict manufacturers to no more than two drivers who have recently finished in the top three of a World Championship rally.

- JON THOMSON

NEWS

IMG, ARC link up

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a tremendous platform for the event.

The spectacular spectator stage around the De Bortoli

Winery will be run twice on Sunday this year ensuring a stunning conclusion to the rally. ~ JON THOMSON

SKODA is brimming over with excitement following a number of extremely positive tests in the leadup to the debut of its new Fabia World Rally Car on the Deutschland Rally this weekend.

A couple of minor glitches, including a broken alternator belt that jammed the cambelt and caused some bent valves,failed to dampen the excitement of the Skoda team, which believes the Fabia will quickly challenge the established WRC teams.

The Czech team maintains that it has made solid progress and laid the foundations for strong performances The Skoda team has now moved north to Finland to hone the car for its first loose-surface appearance, the Rally Finland in August.

- JON THOMSON

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Loss of a champion

TRAGEDY struck the burgeoning US National Rally Championship on July 12 with the death of the Subaru factory team of Mark Lovell and Roger Freeman on the fifth round of the series, the Oregon Trails Rally.

The pair were fatally injured when their Subaru'Impreza went off the road and hit a tree only a few hundred metres into the first stage of the rally. Emergency medical personnel pronounced the two Britons dead at the scene.

Lovell burst on to the British rallying scene in the early 1980s driving Escorts - both rear and front-wheel-drive - and became a member of the British Junior Rally Team. He won the 1985 national title driving a Nissan 240RS and followed that by taking the Open Championship the following year in a Mike Little-run RS200, above.

Lovell, 43, and Freeman, 52, had been rallying together for 20 years, and Lovell also won the 2001 US title for Subaru after re igniting his career in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship, the US national title.

Lovell’s driving career took on a new lease of life when Prodrive set up a team for Subaru in the USA in 2000. He had renewed his partnership with Freeman this year. Both were married with children.

Our sympathies go out to their families.

- JON THOMSON 23 July 2003

IMG has confirmed its contract to market the Australian Rally Championship for the next three years.

IMG will have the job of maximising the commercial value of the ARC for its current stakeholders and introducing a new range of interested parties.

IMG's Director of Motorsport, James Ashworth, confirmed the arrangement last week.

"We look forward to working with Australian Rally Commission Chairman Garry Connelly and his colleagues, and the ARC organisers and promoters in helping make the ARC one of the best rally championships in the world," said Ashworth.

"We already have several proposals in the market place and look forward to taking the sport to another level in the country. We want to develop a standard look and feel to the whole show."

Australian Rally Commission (ARCom) Chairman Garry Connelly said there is great potential to grow the championships even bigger and better.

"The involvement of IMG is an important milestone in the development of the championship and is designed to compliment the work done over the past few years

by ARCom, Network Ten and the manufacturers suoporting the ARC," Connelly said. n CAMS has introduced a new Rally Navigator Single Event license for those wishing to 'try out' rally navigating.

The license, available to CAMS members for club and multi-club events, will allow competitors to get experience as navigators at a reduced up-front cost, and will also make it easier for navigators to avail themselves on a one-off basis, which should lead to larger fields.

Risk management concerns mean that a driver version of the single-event license is not under consideration. n Mark Taylor,(husband of threetimes Australian champion rally co driver Coral, not the cricketer) has entered a new business venture aimed at taking him back to the sport he loves.

Mark has purchased the Sideways Action rally school from Darren Williams and is aiming to build the sport into his full-time job.

"My wife has made her passion her job, now I want to do the same," said Taylor.

"I have had my own businesses in the building industry and still do, but my heart is in rallying and while this is a weekend-only venture at the moment, I plan to make it a full time occupation."

63

Many lai

by MARTIN D CLARK JIMMIE Johnson battled fuel mileage and yellow fever at New Hampshire speedway last Sunday, where a gamble not to pit for fuel and tyres during the 12th and final caution resulted in his second win of the season.

Ryan should'na, but did RYAN Newman picked up his third win of the year at the Chicagoland Speedway on July 13 by 2.6s over Tony Stewart, who dominated the race early by leading 80 of the first 106 laps.

“I was pacing myself, trying to keep my distance without abusing my race car," quipped Newman, above, the only Dodge driver to win this year.

1t was a shoulda, woulda. coulda, situation for Tony, he wasn't in the right place at the

right time.”

Newman took up the running on lap 210 of 267 holding off Kevin Harvick, who was going for h 3 third-straight win at the track, but ran out of tuei with three laps remaining.

Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson for third witn eight laps to run. Johnson mounting a late charge starting at the rear following an engine change and

able to get away,” he said. passing his boss Jeff Gordon in Several drivers in the points the closing stages. Track position was crucial on restarts as Stewart chase took a hit literally in the lapped so many cars before the standings. Dale Earnhardt Jr. first caution, something that bit dropped from second to third in him in the buh later. the standings when he rear-ended “I think we had the fastest car, his Bud Chevy hard into the wall. it was just a scenario wnere on l Bobby Labonte, left, had a the restarts we got caught back scary rear-end impact with the in the pack and leaders were wall spurred by contact between Johnny Benson and Casey Wears, with a full tank of fuel his car erupted in flames, but he emerged unscathed.

■ri' “I’m fine,' he quipped. “I smell like a barbeque pit, but I’m OK.” Matt Kenseth had a ‘bad day', finishing 12th the first car a lap down in only the second time this year he has not completed all the laps.

Final result; Newman (Dodge), Stewart (Chevy), Johnson (Chevy), J Gordon (Chevy), Waltrip (Chevy), J Burton (Ford), R Gordon (Chevy), McMurray (Dodge), Sadler (Ford), Mayfield (Dodge).

The Penn runs dry

DALE Earnhardt Inc. have learned that Pennzoil will not return as primary sponsor of the number one Chevy piloted currently by Jeff Green.

This also dispels rumours that IRL pi lot Sam Hornish may enter Cup in 2004 with Pennzoil backing at DEI .

Kraft, a DEI associate sponsor, has been tabbed as a possible replacement, although it's probably too early in the game to make anything of this.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Johnson, nbove right, who ran the final 103 laps ona single tanks of fuel, took the lead from Ryan Newman with 35 laps of the 300 remaining and held off Ke\'in Harvick, below right, by 2.3s for the win.

"Flat tracks are not my specialty," quipped Johnson about the newlypaved track.

"First I was told we were OK on fuel, but as time went on I was told to conserve more and I was starting to get a little worried."

The first three laps saw three different leaders. Pole sitter Matt Kenseth led lap one,Jeff Gordon lap two and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lap three, but Gordon soon whipped back around Little E and went on to dominate a good portion of the race, leading the most laps.

The first caution aired on lap nine for John Andretti, who was sideswiped by Jimmy Spencer and sent into the v\'all. Johnn\’ Sauter also spun in the Morgan McClure Kodak ride.

This was the first of a series of cautions through the race for accidents, those involved included Sterling Marlin, Mike Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Christian Fittipaldi, Kenny Wallace and third-placed Jamie McMurray, who lo.st his brakes

Jimmie c

TEAMS practiced over five days at indianapoiis Motor Speedway in readiness for the August 3rd Brickyard 400, and Jimmie Johnson posted the overaii fastest speed at 182.028 mph in his Hendrick Chevy.

Tony Raines was fastest in the first two-day practice session on July 8th and 9th, using Hendrick power in his BACE Motorsports Mote Carlo to attain a 179.918 mph speed over Jeff Green in his DEI Chevy, Casey Mears and Sterling Marlin in Ganassi Dodge’s and Jeremy Mayfield in an Evernham Dodge.

Joe Nemechek and Rusty Wallace, along with Johnson, were among the fastest during the second test, held over three days due to rain on day two.

- MARTIN D CLARK

motorspon news

NASCAR

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and pounded the wall hard.

Along with Handck,the other two Richard Childress Chevs finished in the top 10- Robby Gordon fifth (without second gear), and Steve Park eighth, his best run in his new ride. Three out of five Roush Fords finished in the top 10, Jeff Burton amazingly so after spinning into the wall early, and Greg Biffle 10th after recovering from a one lap deficit.

Biffle and Jeff Gordon traded paint several times early in tire event, and Gordon chose not to let Biffle get a lap back leading up to a caution.

Biffle responded with a rub under caution, but on the restart sent race leader Gordon up the track. The incident saw Biffle, his crew chief and Jack Roush visit the NASCAR trailer post-race.

Gordon meanwhile,like Tony Stewart, elected to fit four fresh tyres under the final caution, while others stopped for two or just fuel. The decisions cost them dearly, Stewart finishing 22nd and Gordon 24th.

Stewart had a coming together with Rusty Wallace, the pair exchanging had signals during the

Trading Jack I for John

Hie war is over THE legal battles between NASCAR and Bill Simpson are over, after representatives from both parties said that Simpson agreed to drop his lawsuit after recieving an apology from NASCAR. The case stemmed from Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, to which NASCAR claimed that a faulty Simpson harness was a contributing factor.

Simpson has since formed his own company after selling ; the company he owned for 40n plus years, and intends to move back into NASCAR after losing ^ a large chunk of the market to , European manufacturers.

Simpson contested all along : that the harness was mounted incorrectly, and since then NASCAR has mandated belt mounting points and is more thorough on scrutinising those installed and also carries out date checks.

- MARTIN D CLARK

GM

23 July 2003

n Kerry Earnhardt, the older half brother of Dale Jr., has been released from his Busch Series ride at FitzBradshaw Racing to be replaced by veteran Tim Fedewa. n NASCAR and 2004 series sponsor Nextel have forbidden the use of the AT&T phone company logo in 2004 on the BAM Racing Dodge piloted this year by Ken Schrader and sponsored partially by AT&T. As previously reported, Cingular and Alltel will stay on the cars of Robby Gordon and Ryan Newman respectively, but because the BAM deal has been part-time this year, NASCAR put more stringent rules in place for 2004 that will probably see AT&T disappear from the sport.

Roush Racing had also been courting AT&T as a replacement for Citgo on Jeff Burton's Ford, but that deal bit the dust when the Nextel announcement was made.

I JOHN A ndretti has replaced I Jack Sprauge behind the i wheel of the Haas CNC-owned Monte Carlos.

Effective for New Hampshire and Pocono, the move comes after Sprauge crew chief Dennis Conner was replaced by veteran head wrench Tony Furr earlier in the year.

Sprauge, above, was 37th in points exiting Chicago, while middle of the race. Rusty was also Andretti was released from spun by an apologetic Little E, but Petty Enterprises in June. Furr still managed a 17th placing. previously worked with Andretti at Cale Yarborough Racing, Final result; Johnson (Chev>0, Harvick (Chevy), \A4here they won the 1997 Pepsi Kenseth (Ford), Newman (Dodge), R Gordon (Chevy), Earnhardt Jr.(Chevy),Jarrett (Ford), 400 Daytona July race.

Park (Chev}'), J Burton (Ford), Biffle (Ford).

Due to a prior commitment, Andretti will, however, enter the Points standings; Kenseth 2848, J Gordon 2614, Brickyard 400 in a Chance 2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2575, B Labonte 2472,Johnson Earnhardt Jr-owned car 2429, Waltrip 2373, Harvick 2316, Busch 2243, Stewart 2226,J Burton 2200.

- MARTIN D CLARK

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NASCAR IS continuing to work with, and apparently intends to have ready in a racing situation, some form of roof escape hatch by season end.

They are currently working on different hinging, release and removal options.

5

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n NASCAR tested seven cars on their dyno.meter post-Chicago. Those put through their paces included the Dodges of Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield, the Chevys of Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson and the Fords of Elliott Sadler and Jeff Burton.

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n Arnold Motorsports will make its racing debut when it attempts to qualify for the Brickyard 400.

Following that the team will enter the Bristol, Richmond, Dover, Martinsville and Homestead races, plus an ARCA event at Talladega.

The ex-Melling Racing Dodge's will be piloted by short track veteran Billy Bigley Jr. and ex-Truck Series crew chief Doug Howe will head up the operation owned by Tom Arnold.

The operation is leasing power from Arrington Racing Engines and legendary driver Bobby Allison is acting as an adviser to the team. n Rumours are rampant in the garage regarding Tony Stewart's future. He has been tabbed to replace rookie Casey Mears at Ganassi Racing in 2004, v/ith Ganassi sponsor Target buying him out of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing and Home Depot.

Currently Stewart visits his Gibbs race team about once a month. In contrast.he hangs out at Ganassi considerably more often, and has done for several months.

- MARTIN D CLARK 65

Adams claims first SGP win for the year and looks good for more of the same ...

LEIGH Adams,32, won his secondever Grand Prix and became the fifth different rider to win a Speedway Grand Prix this year as ’.he world championship series reached the halfway stage.

P was the Aussie’s ,30ih Grand ! Pri’ and he previous!-.- h-ad reached -nt Grard ri '. ..'nly.six occ -i--ions, b'..: tb.t '■.l .oOO crowd saw ri'c \Lidura ksl ■ c iris best.

3 has been .Adams, .-if battling to rcac'-’ tb.e tinrO of a GP this season but n a ni^ht of superb ie the mos t racint; in sluvicma, be c fhis rUrnities t'C ”.--t off a spiri‘e'1 cnallenge rron'i T-erma-rk's \'mki '’’edc-rMTi. Tnird V. ,is Briti..r.'s Scc'tt \ic' oils, jP. u nnal for the first ri.ne in 2u . .th Poi..-;nd's Tomasz C.ollob fourih. .Adams suggested his campaign

l-SL 7

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66

this year has been irnstratii g.

"1 wanted to do much belter this year," Adams said, "it just wasn't working out.

"But tonight 1 had two good gate positions in the semi-final and final and I wasn't about to mess them up."

He was actually passed by Pedersen on the last lap of a pulsating final but cut back to regain the lead.

"It was a good,fair race and for a moment I thought Nicki had it but I made a good cut back and got in front again," Adams added.

Pedersen's frustration at losing his chance of becoming the only rider to win twice in 2003 was tempered by the fact that defending World Champion Tony Rickardsson failed to make the final and the pair nowshare the oc'erall lead on 89 points.

Aa ^ ictory means that he is onl\-11 points behind the leaders of what IS taming out to be the most exciting title chase in years.

The hvo most disappointed rii.ltrs were Aussie Jason Crump,a winner last time out in Denmark,and Rieka rdsson.

Crump looked set fo'- a pi.ue in the final, at the expense of Pedersen until he ran out of fuel and limped home last in his semi-final.

Rickardsson never looked totally at ease but still picked up 13 points to keep his SGP world title challenge on track.

Australian Ryan Sullivan was rid'ig in considerable discomfort and. p.-in He finished ninth and will '.v''nonn. the mid-season break \'. itli tlu' liiiv li und, at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenbiug not .scheduled until

SOUTH Australian Super Sedan competitor Royce Wandin is looking to move into the 360ci Sprintcar ranks after six seasons of racing in Australia's premier Speedway sedan class.

Wandin has decided to make the move up into the open-wheeled section after watching the South Australian 360ci Sprintcar division develop over the last few seasons. " I really like the way that the class has been formulated to keep the costs down and I really believe that the class will grow

Augi st 23 Luka- 1 .'I yml escaped with just a broken fror; moth after a horj ific crash which s.i-.v him rushed to hospital with ii.in ies i r'g na'b suspected to be much ;eriM',is For Sydne's's nidd VVi si.ire, the I ight was one he'll want to forget in his last year in the sport. He was exc'udcd from his first ride for louching the tapes and then retired in his n-.'.\t after losing his line on the first bend to be eliminated at the earliest possible stage.

Mildura's Jason Lyons battled from the early stages and eventually crashed out with just three GP

points.

-TONY MILLARD

Points: Rickardsson/Pederson S’), Adorns 78, Crump 72, Hancock 69, Diymi 5S, Tomasz Gollob 56, Rune Holla 56, Ryao Sullivan 54.

Strong in numbers, said Wandin. "Also Speedway City promoter Wendy Turner has given the class a home track where we can run locally for our sponsors, which is a great incentive for our team."

Wandin now has his recently rebuilt VL Commodore Super Sedan up for sale as a complete roller plus spares.

"My wife has said that I can't buy the Sprintcar until the Super Sedan is sold so the car is now on the market for a bargain basement price!" said the butcher.

- PARIS CHARLES moiorsport news

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SPEEDWAY

Yankee Invasion!

ALTHOUGH the World of Outlaws will be racing at the Parramatta City Raceway next January, there already looks to be a strong US presence at the Sydney track way before the January 8-10 meeting takes place.

Young third generation racer Kraig Kinser, son of the ‘King’ Steve Kinser, will be down under for the big Christmas and New Year races.

Kraig was originally going to tour with his Dad a couple of years ago but couldn’t make it.

For this upcoming summer though, Kraig will be in Australia and will be aboard the PCR house Maxim, It’s the same car that Robbie Farr used in the US last year as his prize for winning the PCR track championship Driver to the World of Outlaws Premiership.

The Maxim sprintcar is in fact an ex-Steve Kinser machine, which makes it fitting that his son will be racing the car.

Fellow American Shane Stewart has also beeen confirmed to be touring this summer, racing one of Cyril Peal's BC Motorsports cars.

Stewart has also been signed up to help promote the ‘Visit Australia Down and Dirty Down Under Tour’.

Shane will work with American racetracks and local media to promote the tour, which provides the Yanks an opportunity to come see speedway ‘down under' And there is a strong possibility that Joey Saldana, above on fire, will be back touring this summer.

Joey was virtually unbeataole last season in the Trevor Greenowned Eagle and there is a

YOUNG Sydney hard charger Troy Little made his Knoxville (USA) debut a ,fortnight ago racing the Kimbo Transport 410 Maxim.

Having missed hot laps due to a fuel problem, Troy, on his maiden run on the big 1/2 mile Knoxville track and using the larger and more powerful 410 cubic inch motor, set a brilliant 16.527s lap. Not bad, considering fellow Aussie Kerry Madsen set the quickest time, a 15.547s lap.

But In the ultra-competitive field, Troy ended up 32nd out

of 38 entries.

That was it for his debut meeting as on his second lap, the freshly-built engine developed troubles which forced Little out for the night. It was found that the engine had burnt a couple of valves.

Last Saturday night Troy returned to Knoxville for his second meeting of his US campaign. In a 30-car field, Troy set 16th best time with a 15.865s lap placing him seventh in heat three and sixth in the B Main.

- GREG BOSCATO

K

fohn

Max Dumesny Motorsport ^

number of local car owners trying to secure Saldana’s services here. When that gets finalised, it looks like the talented and very likable Saldana will be back racing in Australia.

Among other drivers planning to compete in Australia are Donny Schatz, Daryn Pittman, Terry McCarl and Brook Tatnell.

- GREG BOSCATO/STAFF

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n Quick Race Parts, together with QA1 Motorsport have joined World Series Sprintcars as contingency sponsors for this season's WSS Presented by Proton Cars Australia.

The driver with the fastest lap time in qualifying will receive a brand-new QA: shock, valued at $275. n There have been two changes to the Work Series Sprintcar schedule. The second round of the champ.onsmp v\as to be held at Gunnedah, hut has now moved to Wagga Inter.national Raceway on November 22.

The second change is the third round at Brisbane international Raceway. Earmarked originally for January 7, it has been moved forward one day. n Former Australian and WSS champ Max Dumesny heads of to the USA soon to pick up a new engine from Joey Saldana. While in the states, the Valvoline driver is hopeful of picking up ride for next months Ford Dealers of Iowa Knoxville Nationals presented by 'Visit Australia'.

^

The Little Big Man: Troy Little, shown here at PCR last year, made a modest but successful debut at Knoxville.

n Congratulations to reigning SA 360ci Sprintcar Series & Dirt Kart Champion Michael Burford for his upcoming marriage to girlfriend of eight years, KyliePapps.

- BOSCATO/CHARLES/STAFF

2003 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP ELDORA SPEEDWAY JULY 19 16. Paul 9. Jimmy Stinson McMahan 10. Todd Kane 17. Joey Saldana n. Jason Meyers 18. TylerWalker 12. Jason Sides 19. Brian Paulus 13. Randy 20. Jac l Hannagan Haudenschild 14. Kenny Jacobs 15. Sammy Swindell

^ 1. Steve Kinser nn I V^ 2. Greg Hodnett J ^^ 3. Jason Johnson ^^ RACING TIRE 4. Stevie Smith ,, „ JO j. T „ 5- Tim Shaffer For motv m^trmation on Hoosier Dmg andSpeedwayTyres calb NSW:02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 1187 * VIQ 03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 ^ ' SA-08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296 ^ ^ 23 July 2003

IF you have a spare $250,000, you can become the naming rights sponsor of Parramatta City Raceway.

Currently, the PCR promotion crew is looking at a couple of potential naming rights sponsors and with the huge season planned in 2003/04 ana the new seating, corporate facilities and the increased media profile yetting involved with the Parramatta track, it is certainly not a bad investment. n PCR co-owner Bran Healey has confirmed that there is 15 definite American arivers here for the big World of Outlaws meeting. He has a list of 20 or so drivers who want to visit the PCR next January. When Parramatta C'ty Raceway Managing Director Steven Green arnves in the US for the 2004 Kno.xville Nationals, the list of American drivers will be finalized.

Little debut at Knoxville

Australian Distributors for

Got a lazy $250,000?

1

2003 STANDINGS JULY 19

1 Danny Lasoski 2 Steve Kinser..

3 Joey Saldana..

4 Daryn Pittman 5 Donny Schatz.

6 Jason Sides . .

7 Mark Kinser..

8 Brian Paulus .

9 Paul'McMahon 10 Tim Shaffer'..

.6141 .6121 5775 5703 ,5412 5318 4523 4444 4067 ,3710

11 Randy Hannagan...

12 Kraig Kinser... .

13 Johnny Herrera. .

14 Sammy Swindell 15 Jeremy Campbell.

16 Jason Meyers ...

17 Bob Bennett 18 Jac Haudenschild 19 Craig Ooilansky .

20 TylerWalker.. .

3576 3504 3291 3283 3154 3006 2937 2900 2785 2773

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Millican in tune

. CLAY Millican won his fourth Top Fuel race of the 2003 Hooters IWRA Drag Racing : Series, avenging his loss of I two weeks earlier by 'defeating Bruce Litton in the l final round of the inaugural : Motor City Nationals at Milan : Dragway.

The event was labeled a ; 'tuners race' after Friday ; afternoon, as the Pro cars had : problems getting down the track, trailed at 5.06s/284mph in his Lucas Oil dragster. n with most of the tyre-shaking "We are just glad to make it ; problems occuring between 60 out of here with a win," said ; and 200 feet downtrack. illican. : After discussing options and ; solutions, IHRA officials met with It wasn't really a the Pro teams and informed them horsepower win. We took a 4.50s car and made it run 5.0s, n they were bringing a crew to which isn't easy, and luckily, we : smooth the surface. Working all ' night, the Milan and IHRA crews did it all without really hurting ; delivered an improved surface for any parts. ' the remainder of the weekend.

"I knew that every run I had to be ready to pedal or grab the ; Teams adapted by going back brake and I can't say enough i to basics; reacting to changing about what Mike Kloeber and conditions and tuning their cars ! for the challenging racing surface, the whole Werner team was able to do."

Clutch set-up and tuning were Mike Janis scored his first critical in finding the best way to get down the tricky Milan surface, vvin of 2003 when he defeated Millican, below, started from the Steve Vick in a supercharged versus nitrous Pro Modified I number two qualifying position I and wasted no time heading back final, running the quarter-mile in ' to the Winner's Circle with wins 6.55s/224mph to stop Vick's over Grant Flowers and Ken Zeal game 6.66s/213mph. in Paul Smith's car. In the Janis qualified number one, and continued Millican-Litton final ran a 6.41 s/227mph to defeat first round opponent Wayne round war, Millican and the Torkelson, before defeating Mike Werner team used a 5.00s/252mph to stop Litton, who Ashley in round two and Paul Athey in the semi-finals with a pair of mid-6.5s shots.

It was the first meeting since the implemeiiitation of the new 25 percent bbwer overdrive ruling on su rcharged entries.

"It wasn't fcretty, but we' take it! sail Janis, above. ^ro Modifild point leader

Mitch Stott was a surprise non qualifier after carding a 6.59/214 best after three sessions.

Jason Collins won his second-consecutive Sunoco Race Fuels Pro Stock event defeating Floyd Cheek in the final round, 6.74/208 to 7.79/127. After dispatching John Bartunek and low qualifier Chris Flolbrook in the opening two frames, Collins got a big break in the semis. Collins fouled at the start and appeared to give John Montecalvo an easy trip to the finals, but Montecalvo got out of shape and crossed the centerline, advancing Collins on the first-orworst rule.

John Vouros defeated Ronnie Midyette in the Alcohol Funny Car final round, running a 6.27s/232mph to stop Midyette, who got out of shape and dangerously close to the wall.

Vouros had earlier defeated Terry Munroe in round one, Chris Foster in round two, and Tony Bogolo in the semi-finals.

The win was Vouros's first.

The next event on the 2003 Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series is the ACDelco Canadian Nationals at Toronto Motorsports Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 25 - 27.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl

Force ri JOHN Force scored his first victory in exactly one year as the 12-time champion won for the second consecutive year at Bandimere Speedway ending his longest winless streak since capturing his first championship in 1990.

Angelle, join the THREE-time NHRA Pro Stock Bike World Champion Angelle Savoie and team mate, Antron Brown have signed on with the U.S. Army Racing NHRA team of Don Schumacher.

Savoie, who currently holds second place in the Pro Stock Bike standings, and Brown, who sits in fourth, joins Schumacher Racing Top Fuel driver, Tony The Sarge’ Schumacher, right, as part of the U.S. Army team.

Without a sponsor for the first half of the 2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season, Savoie and Brown will now sport the traditional black and gold colours of the U.S. Army for the remaining eight races of the Pro Stock Bike campaign under the Don Schumacher Racing umbrella.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl

moiorsport news

DRAG RACING

Mitch less rich

a

THE Radiac-sponsored Pro Modified team of Mitch Stott, below, was fined US$5000(AUD$7700)for commiting an action "deemed detrimental by IHRA toward IHRA", and placed on probation for one year.

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lies Clash of the Titans The Funny Car final round represented the two drivers that have combined for the last 13 championship titles. Force and Cruz Pedregon. In the 53rd time the pair had faced each other in eliminations.

Force was able to take a 35-18 edge

, Antron Army

over Pedregon by posting a 5.04/289 to 5.06/302 win.

Ironically, Pedregon has won more final roimds over Force than any otlier competitor,but has also lost more finals to Force than any other driver.

Force's Castrol Mustang came form the sixth qualifying position and posted a 5.10/301 to stop Johrmy Gray in the opening frame. In round two. Force helped team-mate Tony Pedregon in the standings with a 5.13/290 win over Wliit Bazemore. A semi-final round win over Frank Pedregon sent Force into his third consecutive final round and 166th of his career.

Pedregon,in his first final since winning at Englishtown in 2000, stopped Gary Densham,low qualifier Tim Wilkerson, and Dean Skuza for a shot at Force in the final.

Dixon simply dominated the Top Fuel racing in Denver, qualifying on top at 4.79 seconds, and setting low e.t. and top speed of the meet during eliminations. A 4.72/311 disposed of Mitch King in round one, a 4.77/309 took out Tony Schumacher, and a 4.73/313 gave Dixon a beer-war win over Kenny Bernstein.

In the final round, Dixon's Miller Lite dragster squared off with Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools dragster, fresh off a win in Madison.

At the green, Dixon,LaHaie and the team were flawless again as the Miller dragster recorded a winning 4.73 second pass at 313 mph to defeat Kalitta, who lost traction and slowed to a 5.13 at 228 mph.

Warren Johnson, above right, was able to rack up his third Pro Stock win of the year by defeating Jeg

23 July 2003

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Coughlin in the final round,7.22/191 to 7.25/190.

Johnson's GM Performance Parts Pontiac improved in every round in victories over George Marnell, Greg Anderson, and defending event Champion Mike Edwards.

Pro Stock point leader Anderson earned his seventh No.1 qualifying position of the season when he powered his Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am to a pair of new track records, recording an elapsed time of 7.205 seconds at 191.26mph to lead the 16-c^lr Pro Stock field.

Blaine Hale raced to his first career win in Pro Stock Motorcycle, defeating Mike Berry in the final round on a holeshot. Hale used a final round 7.62/176 to stop the quicker and faster 7.59/176 of Berry.

Hale advanced into the final round with wins over low qualifier G.T. Tonglet, Karen Staffer, and current point leader Geno Scali.

The tour heads to Pacific Raceways,just outside of Seattle this week for the CarQuest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

A Mitch Stott racing team member provoked this decision by his actions immediately following an unsuccessful qualifying attempt by the Stott Team at the Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan. n G.T. Tonglet became the first Pro Stock Bike rider to pilot a HarleyDavidson to a No. 1 qualifying position in NHRA history when he rode his Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagie Harley-Davidson V-Rod to a track record elapsed time of 7.534s at 175.96mph.

It was the first top qualifying spot of Tonglet s career. Tonglet's team mate, Andrew Hines, qualified his Harley-Davidson in the No. 2 position.

Tonglet was defeated m the opening frame when he red-lighted, tossing away low e.t. of eliminations at 7.550s.

Hines advanced into the semis, only to lose on a holeshot to Mike Berry. n Top Fuel rookie Brandon Bernstein made an appearance in Denver.

He has been sidelined since his mid-May accident in New Jersey, where he crushed two vertebrae in his back. He has been recovering ever since, with orders from the doctors that he stay out of the cockpit for the foreseeable future.

He is currently wearing a clam shell-like brace that he removes only to shower. n Division 6 Alcohol Funny Car racer Jett Field died on July 8 as the result of injuries suffered when he crashed his jet Funny Car during an exhibition run in Spokane, Washington.

The Pocatello, Idaho resident was hospitalised in a coma following the accident, which took place Sunday evening. Two days later, his family decided to remove him from life support. He was 44.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 69

Goodwood turns TENTH anniversaries are big occasions - MNews just celebrated one, and so did the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The 2003 Festival was one of the best yet, blessed with great weather, a mouth-watering collection of racing cars and motorcycles and a massive crowd, 158,000 people attending the three-day event on Lord March’s estate in the south of England.

The sights and sounds were, as usual, stunning. The fastest time of the day, as if such a thing matters, was set by Graeme Wight m his GouldCosworth GR51 hillclimb car.

The fastest Historic cars was

David Franklin's Ferrari 712, while driver of the day was Jorg Muller In the Le Mans-winning BMW V12 LMR. Subaru rally ace Fetter Solberg was voted the most spirited driver, while a number of drivers were given 10th anniversary awards for their long-standing support of the event. Among the names were Aussie world champions Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, Sir Stirling Moss, American legends Dan Gurney, Jim Hall and Phil Hill and John Surtees who, as usual, thrilled the crowds on both four wheels and two.

Roll on the next 10 years of Goodwood ...

Knight Rider; Sir Jackie Stewart appeared, driving the Tyrrell family's newly-restored Tyrrell 001, above. Doing things by initals were Af, Alan Jones, below, and Jamiroquoi's JK... er. Jay Kay, below.

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Luscious Lancia: There's only one thing better than seeing Lancia's stunning Stratos, below, and that's having three-time Monte Carlo Rally winner Sandro Munari driving it.

Three-wheel dreamer: See that nut in the winged helmet aboard the Kawasaki's sidecar, opposite? Um, that's Lord March

himself...

51 f

The Real Deal: Two-wheel legend Giacomo Agostini and Le Mans legend Derek Bell pass the time of day in the English sunshine.

70

moiorsport news

Recent convert:facky Ickx reacquainted himself with Ferra^s gorgeous 312 PB, above. Stirling Moss rolled along in the 1955 Mille Miglg^inning Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, below,\whUe Al Unser_^r, right\lso m^ed Benz horsepower when he lit up Penske's PC23,jright ma^

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by ERIN McCOWATT ROUND five of the Poolrite V8 Brutes Championship at Oran Park wasn't the usual door rubbing sideways shenanigans we've come to expect from these cotvbovs. Instead, for most of the time, the rac’ng was close and serious, with the drivers focussed on collecting championship points.

Cary MacDonald took overall honours for the day, w'ith defending Champion Warren Luff coming in second, followed by James Brock and Grant Denyer.

Damien 'Ice' Wliite drew pole posit’on for the first race, but when the lights went green it w'as Luff and Brock who made the most of the start. White held them out for the opening laps, as MacDonald joined the fray and ducked dowm the inside to take the race lead.

Third placed Luff was distracted

by Brock's red Brute Strength ute behind him until lap five, when he melted the Iceman's cool, and passed him for second. Brock was .■■so able to pass White a few laps Lif'jr, creating a gap immediately.

Nandi 'Mr Damage' KisS and Ross Almond had a slight altercation ojEiing oh the V 'G ■hama bridge on lap v;ght,

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with Gavin Harx'ey joining them on the grass. Luff closed in on MacDonald during the closing stages on the race and set a new lap record of lm21.696s, but there wasn't enough laps left for him to take the win away from MacDonald's Kanga Loaders Holden.

A reverse grid start for Race 2 gave Charlie Ko\ acs a fighting chance from pole position. Gary Baxter was d('ing well until a flat tyre forced him out of the ra^e on lap two.

Kovacs took an early lead, but was challenged mid-race by Brock.

Their doors touched on the exit of the last turn on lap 7, and then Kovacs fell off the tarma^^^fc||4 at turn 2, dropping him back a.

number of positions. MacDonald gave chase to nenv race leader Brock, and made a big dive up the inside on the last corner of the last lap. It was successful, and MacDonald took the win from Brock.

Another great battle for the minor placings was fought between Chris Smerdon, Dave 'Schmacko' Griffin ● and Grant 'Mad Dog' Denyer. Panels were rubbed, and the tyres were tested on the dirt, but it was Denyer who came away with third position.

Starting from pole in Race 3, MacDonald took an early lead. The huge 26 utes

made turn one look like a cattle rush, but all were at^le to drive on with the race. Luff started from third, but passed second placed Brock on lap two when Brock missed a gear exiting Recaro. Luff pushed his Ford on to challenge MacDonald, and made a solid pass coming under the bridge.

Griffin learnt that utes don't handle so well on three wheels - his left front wheel came off on the last lap, yet he limped it home in a fiery shower of sparks on the brake disc to finish in 14th.

Luff took the win,followed by MacDonald, Brock,Smerdon and Kovacs.

Points: Luff 230, Brock 191.5, MacDonald 189.5, Denyec 166.5, Kovacs 149. Baxter 144.

Diersptn news

KARTING

No more Clubman?

Maiden Win for Wboisten

Victorian dominates under lights at WiUowbank

TROY Woolston became the third winner in as many rounds when he won the Ipswich Ford KartStars on the weekend.

Woolston held an advantage over the field for the entire meeting, qualifying fastest then recovering from a Heat 2 mechanical failure to forge ahead, winning both the pre final and final.

Woolston and Luke Wood headed .the two qualifying sessions with series leader Andrew Thompson third. Woolston got straight into winning mode in the opening heat, leading home Thompson and Wesley May,however the second heat turned into disaster, a broken chain resulting in a DNF and a rear of field start for Heat 3. This gave Thompson the opportunity to pounce, winning the next two heats. May and Reif Corbett completing the top three with Wood consistently placing fourth, AustraUan number one Josh Arandt had also been proving fast, but fell out of the lead mid way through Heat 3 with a broken exhaust. Both Woolston and Arandt had a tough job ahead in the pre final, but Troy fought back and took the win,setting a fastest lap several tenths quicker than anybody else.

Held under lights on the Saturday night, the opening laps of the final were hectic, Woolston,Thompson and Corbett all took turns at leading with May also getting in on the action. This allowed Arandt to catch, making a five-way dice for the lead before Troy was able to draw away marginally as the others battled. Woolston held the advantage through to the end of the twenty lap final, Thompson catching 23 July 2003

a little towards the end.

The win sees Woolston move up the championship table, however Thompson's consistently good results sees him increase the series lead.

Arandt and Corbett battled to the end before Corbett, who was having his best showing yet in KartStars, dropped a chain on the last lap. May inherited fourth with Ben Savage, Tim Blanchard, Luke Wood,Nick Parker, Tom Williamson and John Martin rounding out the top 10.

Round two winner Jason Varley struggled for pace all weekend, eventually coming home 11th.

In the Super Cheap Auto Junior Blitz support events, James Love was totally dominant, never losing a race.

Having been disqualified from the second round, it was an impressive cbmeback from the Victorian, made even more productive by the fact that series leader Jordie Lindstrom DNF'd both the pre-final and final.

Behind Love there was plenty of action as Ashley Walsh spun out after contact with Ben Small early in the race. Tlien, on the final lap, a move

by Kristian Lindbom on 'Trent James for second didn't come off. Both drivers were out on the spot, which elevated Small and Damien Assaillit to the podium.

The other Junior Blitz winners were Brent Reading (Junior National Light), Craig Schmidt(Junior National Heavy), Max Carter (Rookies) and Nicholas Foster (Midgets).

The next round of Ford KartStars is at Oran Park on August 8-9.

-MARK WICKS

Smile boys and girls: Luke Wood, Troy Wooltson and Andrew Thompson stand tall on the KartStars podium at Ipswich last weekend.

A RECOMMENDATION will be made at the AKA National Conference proposing the Clubman classes be removed from the National Championships.

The sweeping move has been proposed as the shape of Australian karting continues to change in light of global and local technical and environmental issues. The class has been the backbone of Australian karting since it was introduced in 1983. It became a Nationally recognised category in the late 80s and has been one of the most fiercely contested categories since.

Despite the proposal to drop it's 'National' status, it will have little impact on club level racing where the engine is still extremely popu'ar. The revamped Nationals structure would also see the Formula Rotax classes included in the traditional AKA Nationals at Easter. For the past three years, Rotax has enjoyed its own 'Nationals' event, something the competitors and promoters of the category would no doubt be eager to continue.

Another proposal to produce a list of officially registered kart engine builders will not be put forward, the AKA agreeing with the concept in principle but indicating that the AKA is a sporting regulatory body, not an industry regulating autho'ity. n number of the CIK teams got togetner recently at Dubbo for a mid season test The idea was to get a number of karts on track at once to condition the surface and therefore allow some representative testing that can normally only be done at or immediately after a CIK race meeting. Unfortunately, the bitter cold was only broken up by intermittent rain making it a waste of time, however some teams and drivers did take the opportunity to get some wet weather testing under their belt n Corey Chivers kept his cool under pressure to win Rotax Light at the third round of the Golden City Power Series at Oakleigh on July 13.

Nick Parker was lining up a move for ‘ the lead when his engine faltered handing Bart Price second, Parker hanging on for third, Richard Lyon and William Nicholson put on a great battle for Rotax Heavy honours, Lyon taking victory after contact pushed Nicholson down the order.

Will recovering for second. Brad Stratton picked up the Formula Australia Heavy win ahead of Geoff Wyhoon after leader Andrew Pugliese DNF'd with a broken chain.

David Sera continued his domination of juniors winning all three junior classes.

- MARK WICKS

NATIONAL SCENE

/ T> '.RUSSELL

Mixed fortunes for Proton debut ROUND five of the Australian Production Car Championship at Oran Park was a little more rough and tumble than usual - just ask Geoff Russell, who rolled his Proton Satria GTi in the second race, right.

His son, David Russell, took outright and Class-D honours in the lead factory-backed Proton Satria GTi. Craig Bradshaw brought his Falcon home to take the Class-Awin, with David Ratcliffs Celica winning ClassB and newcomer AJ Lewis taking a lonely Class-C win.

The staggered class-based start allowed David Russell to take an early lead in Race 1.

Defending Ciass-D champion Marty Doxey was into the pits early with a flat tyre. Behind David Russell, Rick Bates and Geoff Russell were swapping positions in a great race until

the faster cars caught up with them on lap 5.

Class-B contenders Ratcliff and Steve GrocI passed the smaller cars with the big V8’s of Scott Leadsman and Bradshaw on their tails.

On the last lap, there wasn’t enough tarmac for both of the V8s - they touched and Leadsman spun exiting Recaro, getting back on track in time to finish ninth. Russell took the win easily from Ratcliff and Grocl.

The red mist came down for Race 2. Again, David Russell got a good start, leaving Bates and Geoff Russell to battle continuously behind him.

Graham Roylett had a big moment near the dogleg, his Proton ending up in the tyres and very nearly on his roof.

AJ Lewis took the lead in his Toyota Camry. Behind him, Bates and Geoff Russell tussled

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on lap six, both looking for the inside run around the kink at turns one and two. Russell came off second ■ >Jt 'L best, his car going wide i L' ?: into the mud John Morrii/Mpi trap, and rolling over onto its roof. This brought out the safety car, letting the ClassA V8s catch the smaller cars.

A restart on the last lap saw Leadsman weave through the Class-D cars and set the fastest lap, ending up second behind Lewis. Ratcliff came in third, with David Russell slotting into fourth.

- ERIN McCOWATT nn

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AN almost capacity field gridded up for the opening round of the Australian Porsche Drivers Challenge at Oran Park.

With a lot of familiar names on the entry list, it was always going to be a hard fought contest.

Paul Whitmarsh took double

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honours, holding out Wayne Hennig for two race wins in his Class A 911 GT2. Class B honours went to Don Tryhorn, with Brendan Morter's 944 winning Class C. Wliitmarsh took tlie lead from the start in Race 1, leaving Hennig to chase hard on his tad. Porsche veterans James Koundouris and Martin Wagg settled back into third

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and fourth, fighting hard for the minor podium. Wlritmarsh set the fastest lap of the race in an effort to keep Hennig behind him. Wagg was in tliird until Koiuidouris dived down the inside at turn one, followed by Russell Wright, leaving Wagg to settle for fifth.

Hennig got the jump over Whitmarsh in Race 2, and held him out untjl they encountered lap traffic near the end of the race.

Whitmarsh took the advantage, wliile Wagg and Koundouris battled for third again. Koundouris made the same passing move at turn one, and was able to hang on for third place, and third overall on the day.

- ERIN McCOWATT

Friendly Fellow takes on the Champ Hunting Ground

ALICE Springs competitor David Fellow left his opposition in a trail of his dust at Round 2 of the Australian Off Reading Championships.

On Saturday. Fellow won the prologue (qualifying) by 9s from his nea.-e;' rival. After 9 challenging 35km laps through the Pine Forests of Millicen: in South Australia. David took the outright honours and class nine victory aboard his Roe-Aire

single-seat buggy.

Second outright and Class 1 winner was the pairing of current Australian champions Mark Burrows and Colin Hodges, left, with fellow class 1 competitors Garry Turnbail and Chris Proud taking outright third.

Greg Gartner and Jamie Jennings took a welldeserved 6th outright and Class 4 victory. The Class 2 spoils went to Ben and Luke Erceg who finished just ahead of the ‘Son and Mum team of David and Annette Oakley. They took the Class 3 win.

Class 7 victors were Geoff Pickering and Glenn Watson in their Mitsubishi Pajero.

Darren Thorne and Samantha Brackstone took ff, the Class 5 win, while Matthew Owen and ● if

Matthew Ryan fought off a hard charging Ivan Robertson and Marilyn Evans to take the Class 8 victory.

The series heads to NSW for the Griffith City 500 scheduled for Augu^ ..-PAWS CHARLES

TROY Hunt almost managed a clean sweep at Oran Park for round four of the Falken Tyres Mirage Cup, taking pole position and galloping away with two race wins.

Gary Young took the win in the reverse-grid Race 2.

Battles further back in the field saw Richard Gartner end up in the mud at turn two.

- ERIN McCOWATT

^

Reversing the fortunes: Cary Young, in front, took the reverse grid race win. motorsport news

INDUSTRY NEWS

V8 Style

IntorcofTHS Memory Tire Gauge

The popularity and growth of the V8 Supercar series has made it one of the most marketable brands in Australia. Now well established as the premier racing series in Australia, the popularity is continuing to grow. As a result of this success a

Gauge Memory New from a leading US manufacturer of set up equipment is this memory tyre pressure gauge.

Aimed specifically at tire professional race team this easy to use gauge allows for the storage of up to 10 complete sets of tyre pressures. Also includes a four car timing system. Available now from your local Revolution Racegear store for $1149. Phone 1800 804 778 for further details.

Simpsons on the Move Due to a steady growth in business Simpson Race Products has moved to bigger and better showroom.

Simpson Race products offer a full range of racing safety equipment. Race suits, boots, gloves, harnesses, and accessories are avialable. Check out the new

showroom at 11/'62 Newton Road Wetherill Park NSW 2164.

For more info on the full Simpson range phone 02 9756 0202 or visit www.simpsonraceproducts.com.au

booming merchandise industry has emerged offering the fans an increasing range of t-shirts, caps and jackets proudly displaying their allegiances. To date none of this merchandise was applicable to the mam focus of the sport - the cars. Now Aunger Carcraft, Australia's leading automotive accessories company, things are set to change.

The new Aunger V8 Supercar range is an official licensed product of the V8 Supercar Series licensed by AVESCO. The new range, which is due for release August 2003, will be available through major automotive accessory retailers.

The range includes premium quality car seat covers, steering wheel cover,floor mats and seat belt shoulder pads all

On The Red Line PERFORMANCE WHOLESALE

are now Queensland distributors

for Red Line Synthetic Lubricants, adding to their

MP

10] 90

: 'je’

I

featuring the V8 Supercar logo. Three colours are available red, blue and black. This is the first release of a range, which is set to expand witli new products to be released in the coming months.

The car seat covers are produced using premium quality fabric with extra padding for increased driver comfort. The unique padded sides enliance the racing style and the ring tie system ensures easy do-ityourself fitting to most cars with a professional finish.

The car seat covers come

appearance and feel while also featuring the V8 Supercar logo.

The new V8 Supercar range from Armger are set to race out the door and will no doubt become a feature in the car park of upcoming V8 Supercar rounds.

For further information

complete with separate headrest covers for a real

or the location of your nearest stockist call 07 3268 7655 or visit

sporty appearance.

www.aunger.com.au

already extensive high performance product range.

Red Line race oils and motor oils ha\ e gained a reputation in the market for producing a quality product. Red I ine claim to have the ultim.ate racing lubricants providing the highest degree of protection and cleanliness for your engine with the lowest internal friction.

Red Line race oils provide high temperature lubrication and claim a higher film strength than any petroleum or synthetic product marketed.

Red Line motor oils are made from polyol ester base stocks enabling them to withstand

23 July 2003

Matching seat belt shoulder pads featuring the V8 Supercar logo are also available to complete the sports look.

To complete the range quality steering wheel covers feature a suede

tremendous heat. This high temperature stability is ideal for turbocharged engines. Long drain capabilities are another benefit, being 12 months or 20,000 km.

Red Line lubricants encompass a complete range of products to enhance its race and motor oils.

Other key products include the range of gear oils and transmission lubricants, petrol and diesel fuel system cleaners, CV-2 synthetic grease, assembly lube and Waterwetter"' super coolant.

For more information visit the website at www.performancewholesale.com. au or contact Performance Wholesale on 07 3808 1986 .

75

i

mrace shop news

RRCESHOP gives you the opportunity to promote your products and services to the widest possible range of motorsport competitors and enthusiasts. Advertising in RACESHOP costs as little as $60 per issue! Call Brendon Sheridan on 03 9550 0870 now!

lloiku

9

Australia's Mast Wanted Performance Gauges

PmKFOftMJkNCB

^ pmoouc-rm ^

www.holley.com 1^^

ru

i

j . RADIATORS, INTERCOOLERS & OIL COOLERS l Offroad cars l Motorbikes l Boats l Hot Rods l Street Cars l Circuit Cars

L I

AUTO METER snd the Autc Meter Logo arc trademartcs of Rocket iniu&tnet P'/L m Auatraka. All V

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L.

trade en^utnes should be directed to: Ph 023&251900 Fax02&6251911 Email sale&tfrocketindoom

|^^Cal|^08^132^888jOTyou^nearest^distributo^J

^^ ^I^

Yaur Complete Performance

i

Ignition Source

%

O^JSGS/iSJ/O&S

S .U., Dellorto, DCOE single / twin ilbutor for Austrab.AI irtdt *nqiir1«t (houid b« diracud to Ph.U

t<Ce Fn.02 9758 11SS Emri^lntoVUnxonCM

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Rocket induswes is the Manufacturers Appointed Distributor for Edelbrock in Australia. All trade encuurries shfxild be directed to: Ph 02 3325 1900 Fax 02 3325 1911 Email 6ales^rwketind.com

I

VIC 03 9386 5331 NSW 02 9676 8655 SA 08 8387 3522 WA 08 9293 3500 TAS 03 6273 7555 NT 08 8941 5388 5IUCKEY QLD 07 3217 1188 sEBvncE www.stuckey.com.au

Proven Performance ./J engine products

WJSBRE

ALL

AUSTRALIAN

MADE

GOLD COASI INDY 1,2 a 3 Bedroom units available Trackside (limited apartments) a local areas. Price on application.

Mobile 0422 107'09or jCi 61 755941 202 FUEL INJEaiON SYSTEMS, FUEL PUMPS, m AIR DENSITY GAUGES , £r COMPONENTS

MOTORSPORT WHEELS

Rocket Industnes is the ManufacUirera Appointed Distributor for Mick^ Thompson Performance Tyres in Australia. All trade enc^uiries should be directed to: Ph 02 3325190C' 02 33251911 Email sales@>rocketindoom

-r

&

COMPOMOTIVE

i^aak up with :ksy Thompson

y

Contact 07 55 981 499 or Fax drawings to 07 55 984 398

ACGDMMflDATION for WEEK

irWUSO^

40% large filtering surface Multi layer filter design Three clip quick release (No bolts)

M5D Ignition and the M5D Ignition Logo are trademarks of Rocket Industries P/L in Australia. All trade enciuiries should be directed to: Ph 02 &&25 1900 Fax 02 5325 1911 Email sales#rocketind.com

V

.WEIAND.

Holley Performance System Distributors

A^SO

●a'-

●HEADERS

Phone 07 3808 1986

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.perfonnancewholesale.coiii.au

SHADE SPECTRUM SHADE

Superior strength Exact stem to seat concentricity Closely controlled marginjhelghts Fully machined combustion faces Swirl polished undertieads Hard chrome stems Hard tips

Now available in 3 sizes 2.4m X 2.4m 3m X 3m 4.5m X 3m to cover all situations.

Maintenance free.

The 60 second shade structure.

1800 089 089

M»r<uf«n«n appointed dijuttxrtoffof Au«ra4.AH/4d»coquW«*K«idN<**ct«J»

'WWW.iiiclriiasliiaB.ciiB.iii

Ph.0797S8l966P4x0297S8l15S Em^Info*fjb>t40fnjg

FIA HARNESSES aluminium ● OVC Diamond turned skirts ● Sure seal ring grooves ● Diamond finished pin bores Rocket Industries is the Manufacturer's Appointed Distributor for Arias Forged Racing Pistons in .Australia. All trade enquiries should be directed to: Ph 02 33251900 Fax 02 33251911 Email salcs^rocketind.com

76

2008 expiry, lightweight buckle, 3" webbing, dip in ends Black, Red, Blue 5 point - $539 ● 6 point - $579 FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

Aust Standard 4 point belts fr $145

m

)N

RACE PRODUCTS

Ph 02 9756 0202 Fax 02 9756 0203 sales@simpsonraceproducts.com.au

World's leaders in Motorsport Safety Technology Helmets ● Suits ● Boots ● Gloves ● Harnesses ● Crew Gear ● and all accessories for all motorsports Quality ● Price ● Service

■

Simpson Safety Equipment Australia 11/62 Newton Road Wetherill Park NSW 2164 AUSTRALIAN

DISTRIBUTORS

molorspoil news

MARKET PLAGE

CROWCAMS

P helbkrra ATINUM The world’s strongest and most affordable shaft type roller rocker

Formula Fonts@Calder Park Open Pradce 30 laps(S795) Fun Dnve Days (from S49St

l Available in twin shaft and unique single shaft designs for all parallel and cant valve engines l Strongest race rocker available with unique lifetime warranty for road and race applications

-DRIVE

Formula Fords@ Queensland Raceway Orwe Days (tton S495>

Dream H.Drive it.

K)rmuio Ford Race School www.udrive.coin.au

Gift Voucheiz AvoHable

Ph 03 9555 5522 Fax 03 9555 4152

Further Inlormation and Bookings: 03 9217 8866 or 07 3396 3666

D)

Balance

The True Performance Alternative

PERFORMANCE T:JRON_a.ALUMMUMl^INDE^mDWm

] l Extremely durable bonded dampening material ' l Easy to read computer etched timing marks l Available in economical cast iron Street, al! steel SFi approved Race and new Serpentine for Chev, LSI, LTl etc Ph 02 69378888 Fax 02 6921 7S36 Visit out website www.precisionparts.com.au

Phone 07 3808 1986

or visit our website for your nearest cUstributor.

WWW. perfonnancewholesale. com. au

(fp

MACHINE PRODUCTS

1

ivmmm Phone 07 3808 1986

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

RflomoinpofraigimTO

ctHign Fertormanco Pans

g

‘

machines for unrivalled accuracy aow

‘Matching race valve train components

CAUS

including PSi(USA) valve springs and a huge range of one piece super duty pushrods

Ph 03 9357 0469 or Fax 03 9357 0001 Visit our website: www.crowcams.com.au

I

Hi PERFORMANCE EHC'HE [>AHTS#

LIGHTWEIGHT FLYWHEELG

The ultimate in strength & safety

«

Your choice of standard weight or Hj lightweight steel k l Available for al! popular applications wf including Ford 6 cyl, Cleveland and Windsor V8.K Holden 6 & V8, Chev SB &BBV8 H

●is'im.

Ph 03 9555 3322 Fax 03 9555 4152 www.yellaterra.com.au

ONE PIECE RACE PUSHRODS 6m r S^bEDFLOW B Tr.

As used by cop touring car, speedway & drag racing teams. ● .080" wall chrome moly

|n Premium Motorsport Hose & Fittings! W

● one piece construction ● available in M»" & diamet

Contact your state distributor...

Hardiman Auto Supplies (02) 9771 5877 Motorsport Connections (02) 9838 7272 Victorian Speed Pro (03) 9794 5177 Performance Wholesale (07) 3808 1986 ' (08) 8363 5566 Crane Technologies

HfH'w.performancewholesale.com.au

Hf^^TuanTum

DID

IRH -I'J V

A WINNING COMBINATION

Shaft Mounted Rocker Am

l Custom ground roller, solid and hydraulic profiles using unique computer controlled

www.yellaterra.com.au

Im^OPUNE IS

l Fast profile design service to your requirements

Services

(08)^^^^^W

● .050" length steps from 6.00" to 10.00"

'

/

eww

● .080" wall hardened steel

a

CAES

NEW street race version also available

p:03 9357 0469 f:03 9357 0001 visit our website: mvw. O: o.vc.irri.'.c h.n.uu

MAT LAEODN

CAMS racing and rally licence courses @ Oran Park monthly $605 in your car.

Includes lecture and OLT. Formula Ford Test Drives - $654.50 in our

Custom Pistons for any ^ V«. e and 4 cylinder ulcrkast dallvary in tHe Induartry Ail -new CNC »aeltlning centres Highest quality pistons in the Industry

K?

S390 5911

DWXNEsOF MOTORSPORT

[GMiR¥4Si

MOW

10 Carnegie Place Blacktown NSW 2148 p 02 9676 8655 f 02 96765300 » e garydunlop@ozemail.com.au

www.garysmotorsporttyres.com.au

PERFORMANCE £r Ar - ^aRACE PISTONS^ aisimiawfSSiMWimtsi^sa?

Phone 07 3808 1986

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

\4fww.perfonnancewholesale.com,au 23 July 2003

R

Engine building Vehicle & engine development International Racing Drivers School For more info ph 02 9873 1773, fax 02 9871 1018 or email peter@finlays.com.au www.finlays.com.au

& machining service

Cl*A.\5iS

.NOtOVlTtlLS

For your engine tuning and development needs

Postal Addross PO Box 21 Gisborne VIC 3437 Tel/Fax 03 5428 1123 fVlabile 0408 B34 265 Email KDOLKAR50bIgpond.com.au

aatomattve

MOTORSPORT TYRES IM STOCK

aiumiDiHin Competition Wheel Nets 0 - SO Type Pressore Saoges

_

cars. No pre-requisites. 40 laps at Oran Park.

i' Phone 07 3808 1986

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

i

?immmsitR0D.si TDMlr*/;

I

mmmm sp

Ph one 07 3808 1986 CD

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

www.performancewholesale.com.au

TOIALSEAL PISTON RINGS

Available from: NSW: Uotorspot Connection 02 9B38 7272 VIC: Revolution Racegear 03 9373 8700 WA:Go Gear Racing Services 08 9443 1457 X M4nufxtur*n4ppcinl«d( MlOI wsa IB« FM.0J «50 11K

^Phone 07 3808 1986 V

or visit our website for your nearest distributor.

. www.performancewholesale.com.au 77

m race shop

news

PLASTICS

PERFORMANCE aMS a yALVEJRAmOMPONENTS

® Full range of industrial plastic materiais Nylon, Acetal, Teflon. Polythenes, PVC etc » Racecar windows “cut to size" & moulded ° Perspex & polycarbonate sheet ex-stock o Polyurethane & Delrin for suspension bushes

specialists in l Turbochargers ball bearing and non ball bearings l Kils & overhauls available l High How intercoolers and kits l Link engine management systems «* Oil coolers and oil coolers kits* Silicon hoses and bends l Tein suspension kils

^Phone 07 3808 1986

57 Taunton Dr Cheltenham VIC 3192 Ph 03 9584 4499 Fax 03 9584 4008 Email avo@bigpond.cam

or visit our wehsite for your nearest distributor.

PLASTICS FOR INDUSTRY DANDENONG VIC 03 9706 381 1

www.perfonmncewholesale.coin.au

mmmm

Remarkubie Windows of Opportunity for Engine Experts » Accurote, Repealoble, Versalile l Take mnnuni control or hands-free “ Loco! design, support, development, inslollalion and on-site training

automotiv^mm proAtets

» Tap names demond top equipment(users inc NIZPRO, HSV, HRT & John Sidney Racing] »Engine, chassis, go-kort or raotorhike

Jpfc|DvtioLoq

I AREX Computing : POBox VS) Monitne Vk3765 ;Hi0397511142 Fox0397SI2173 I Mob 0408 055 541

ImMwSicstatcrgteiM^

Eneii oeMer-^elbpc.oig.ou

Queensland 07 3341 9911 lO

Sydney 02 9609 1101 IVielbourne 03 9326 6088

CompetKian disc pads l Race brakes l Pagid l Hawk l Endless

> ^ ;

raeejv brakes

i T*; Ph.(U97S8t9«r«.0297S8nSS CiralU

hUnutlxium tainted d>Ure>utor fbt As

g^RAlME m^ams

Steel Main Caps to suit most V8 applications Manufactured in USA by Pro-Gram Engineering

Slate Distributors

VIC: (03) 9794 5177 WA: (08) 9353 1155

rM

Ausfra//an Importer and distributor:

CRA.ISIE

Ph: 08 8363 5566

Sold in ^TUT3y|#Pfi 03 5339 5/59 03 5339 2/44 Australia by minink

Fax: 08 8363 5633 TECHNOLOGIES PTY. LTD. rwww.cranecams.com.au

●s High per/ormance & radng disc brakes

1

visit

TRACnON

i

AV#N

; Books, ^eos, DVP's \

Distributors for Victoria and Tasmania

Enjoy your loyl

Your high performance tyre and suspension specialists

p 07 5578 6656 m 0438 172 134 f 07 5578 6657

NEW

Engineered isotropic finishes for carbon & alloy steels, stainless steels & titanium components.

Increase component efficiency and life span, reduce vibration, fricbon, noise & operating temperature. This is not polishing, but refining machined surfeces to a policed condibon, removing machining peaks - the cause of micropitting which leads to component failure.

mwuvooiOr

FEL-PRO PERFOFUyiANCE GASKETS J

PERFORMANCE & RACE ENGINE

Guru Racing -

78

●t

I Race logistics LOGISTICS interstate transport ALL ROUNDS ALL CLASSES Fully enclosed custom built race car transporters Professional race car logistic and event specialists

Phone 07 3808 1986

Contact Neil Griffiths

www.perfonnancewholesale.coni.au

race@tnt.com.au

on 0418 474 816

CUSTOM PARTS

%●

v' Local Spares & Support V From 1 to 5 Stages V Bracket Mount or V Flange Mount ■7 Complete Systems / Call for a FREE brochure I

SCuSf.ScEfU Vic. W (03)^25^^

Security for car and equipment

or visit our website for your nearest riistrlbutor.

Australian Made ■r Best Quality ●r Lower Price

Oie unimate pretiion component Onishing

PiruiruPAnim

I

DRYSUMP OIL PUMPS

M U wvw.gummolorsports.com

»

?k 02 9909

Now based at Morgan Raceway Warwick Leo will personally instruct small classes (6) on technique and vehicle set up i^i/rse?t Jr specia l i f available at\ cost only $200 per day ■ rates for i Wakefield j

RACING TYRES

Motorsport from FI to Drive Days

I's

Leo Geoghegan Performance Driving School

65 Kellets Rd Rowville 3178 Ph 03 9764 281 I Fax 03 9764 8740

^YOKOHAMA

lor all your motorsport merchandise & memorabilia

Workshop Manuals for cars and bikes How To’s for just about everything

1

NSW: (02) 9678 9977 OLD: (07) 3808 1986

l Performance Friction Over 10 years experience of brake modifications and upgrades for road and race. Caliper conversion 1, 2,4 & 6 piston. Custom made disc rotors,

Manufacturers & distributors of rai

Made in USA

Top Engine Builders Insist On ARP!

; For more IntermaHea aiid a demenstratii intoit:

H^=^|Dynamoineter Ij

1

leonml^

■

\

^

P (0 8) 9258 7700^

SPECIAL

1

HI-PERFORMANCE 308-355 C.l.

Engineering L-

|5«

' ihcksass^ - iM usaau V' torou^

m

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glH

3

HARROP EHGINEERINO AUSTRALIA PTY LTD 9€ Bdil Sirwi Piofton

Telephone l03)9474 0900 Fax l03l 9474 0999

CLASSIFIEDS

Classifieds online classifieds 7

news

Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

SEU

from Inst $25

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 3 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25! 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!

1994 PORSCHE 911 GTR Converted to GT2 body, inci carbon fibre on bonnet & rear wing. Recent dyno records 280HP at rear wheels.

Motec data acquisition and dash. Motec engine management and fuel injection.

Price is FOB Perth, Australia. $100,000 Neg. Michael 08-9347 8800.

www.my105.conm/75124 Sedans/Sports Cars r

_ RX7 Sports Sedan, 13b turbo, T04, Microtech MTX8, 430 HP Supra gearbox, comp clutch, borg warner 4.11diff, comp SUSP, Cobra seat, datalogger, 16inch wheels, log book, turn key. $20,000. Rod 0403 254 387. 263www.my105.com/17545

V

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w

2 Litre Sports Sedan, Ford Zetec Twin Cam, 121 kw at wheels, 5 speed 2 x LSD + ratios, weighs 740kg, 5 link, Bell crank rear suspension, adjustable Bilsteins front and rear, new mounted wets and spare slicks, heaps spares, log booked and race ready, laps PI 1.51, Calder 1.07, Dyno sheets and official current lapi times available. $11,000 Neg. David 0418 358 197. 263 www.myl05.com/37003

23 luly 2003

Porsche 930i964, Body 3.8 RSR v/ing, coil over suspension 3.3 itr turbo, G50 gearbox, fully rebuilt motor, new turbo, three sets of wheels, race ready. $53,000. Garth 0411 700 666. 262www.my105.com/88878

0:

-- -

1969 Porsche 91IT. 1969, Long wheel base, 2 litre, LHD, Group Sb log book, race/rally. Ultra reliable. Excellent rust free condition. No expense spared in race preparation and equipment. Can be easily converted to Goup Nb. CH registration.

Trailer also avail, for sale. Detailed build specs, avail, on request. $48,000 ONO. Tony 0419 898 835. 263www.my105.com/7720

1..

Cortina Mark 1 Group N, Log book, very straight, immaculate inside and out, 1598cc C/R gearbox, 45 Webbers, range locked diffs, adj suspension, alloy cage, lots of spares, including full shell. $15,000. Robert (02)9869 8254. 263 www.my105.com/59812

LOLA T492 S2000 (1978), This beauitful historic sports car has been subject to a recent freshen jp and is absolutely race ready. It is totally original and unmolested, right down to original gearbox & engine numbers, as it left the factory. Very quick and a delight to drive, low maintenance and ultra reliable. (Group R). $48,000 ONO. 262 Stephen (03) 9710 1444. www.myl05.com/66989

1999 Bullet Roadster, Show Quality Engineering with Supercar Performance, Microtech MT8 & Controller, Airconditioning, Custom 3" Stainless Exhaust, Custom Headers, New Tyres,Fantastic To Drive, Turns Heads, Sounds Like A Ferrari On Steroids, Full NSW Rego, Register Any State, May Trade USA Muscle Car or Other Interesting Vehicle. $65,000 Neg. Scott 0408 222 321.263 http://www.my105.com/76308 Mallock Mark 31, Brand new roller (factory car), knock on hubs, 8 x Magnesium F2 wheels, body panels, fuel cell/foam, steering, disc brakes with Wilwood calipers, Suzuki 1300, Twin cam engine, gearbox, diff centre. Ask for Greg. $10,000, Greg Baird 0419 645 770. 263WWW.my105.com/82744

Datsun 240Z Race car, 1st U3ltr/ 5th outright 2002 VMRC Sportscar class, L28 2.9ltr motor. Triple webbers running avgas, R200 LSD, 4 spot calipers, new hawk pads, new vented rotors, 16x10 Dunlop slicks, fibreglass panels, spare g-nose front and much more, laps ph island in 1:47, can help new owner with set up and maintenance.

20,000. Ashley 0418 508 756 / (03) 9555 7848, 262www.my105.com/66083

Mazda RX7 One of the quickest cars in Targa Classic Division. Proven track record Baskerville 59.4s. Upgraded Microtech ECU and many spares. This car is ready to race/rally in 2003. $26,000 ONO. Kym 0409 211 614. 262www.my105.com/40907

Porsche 944, Challenge race car LHD, motor and gearbox renbuilt, at the end of 2002 season. 2002 lap record holder at sandown with trailer. $25,000. Garth 0411 700 666. 262www.my105.com/49958

RX3 Sports Sedan, Coupe, alloy cage, Needham 5 speed, konis, LSD Mazda diff, series 4 brakes, big wing, front air diffuser, 15 inch race wheels, log book, no motor. $4,250. Rodney (07) 3396 9255 / 0403 254 387 262 www.my105.com/38750

WaPjjoK 3a Lotus Motorsport 200, Brand new engine with dry sump. No expense has been spared on this beautifully presented car. A true pleasure to drive with lap times at Eastern Creek under 1:40. $150,000 Neg. Mark 02 9838 8374 / 0408 976 958. 262 www.my105.com/30841

Mazda RX7 1993, Vielside kit, roll cage, alloy rear wing, 13b Peripheral port, massive Trust T88 turbo, fat Trust inter cooler, giant waste gate and custom exhaust, greddy race BOV, metal clutch, Apexi digital meter, race style suspension, purchased only as a race car as cannot be complied, $thousands spent on it. $34,000 will take trade in, Kerry 0418 835 727. 263 www.myl05.com/76349

79

Open Wheelers 41 VK Commodore Sports Sedan, Chev engine, top loader box, 9 inch diff, mid mount engine, easy to maintain, ideal car to get started, V8 power at a budget price, sell with motor $19,990 or without $9,990 just add yours. Cams log book. Greg 0417 580 760. 261 www.my105.com/69663

Westfield Sierra Cosworth, Specialist high performance vehicle. 245 BHP, Flat Slide Injection, Dry Sump, Button Clutch, Motec M4, 4 Vented Disks, 5 Link Rear 2.5" AVO Shocks, 3’ 6pt Harness, Quaife Sierra 5 speed, LSD, Rose jointed, 13“ Wheels with Yokohama 032 Tyres. Professional engine rebuild just completed. This is an excellent track car but don't have time to use. $36,500 Or Best Offer. Brett 02 6285 3644. 26i www.myl05.com/91004

2001/2002 Championship winning WRX Sti, still holds OR lap record, rally rego, Moly cage, proflex shocks, Momo seat, Autronic, extra wheels, would be unbeatable club car. $34,000 ONO, Brett 07 3284 8844. 261 www.my105.com/67352

Commodore Cup Race Car, new engine, gearbox and front rotor's, professionally n built, ready to race. $23,000. Cameron 0418 318 866 260www.my105.com/75696

TORANA HATCHBACK, Torana Hatchback Genuine 5 Litre SS Hot 308 L34 Yella Terra Heads & Roller Rockers.Runs on premium unleaded, M21, 9in 4WDiscs, Big Brakes, 6 Point Cage, Harness, Stratos Seats, Koni Shocks, 5 Spoke Alloy Wheels. Excellent Rally or Club Car, Road Car, Will help organise freight for buyer. $6500. JOSEPH 0418 293 330. 261 www.my105.com/47220

MYGALE FORMULA FORD, Just fully rebuilt by Mygale Australia - no expense spared with all latest factory updates. Ritter Race Engine at zero kims. Full set up for ail Australian tracks and assistance. Spares package with car. $32,995.00. Greg 03 9580 7047,264WWW.my105.com/73905

Porsche 944, Race Car LHD All works performed by Fitzgerald Racing Services High HP Motor, Honed Turbo, LSD Racing Diff, Gearbox Reco Last Season, Cromolly Lower Arms ADJ Suspension, Full Roll Cage, Log Book 4 sets Wheels. Done Targa Tas and Porsche Cup. Great Balanced Car Nothing to do, just get in and race. $29,500 261 Neg. Lee (03) 9464 3955. www.my105.comre8517

RALT RT4/81 ROLLERS, Car#1 ex Bowe very original restored car,wets,gear sets,COD.Car#2 ex O'Brien,Cesario,rebuilt tub,little to complete.Both have correct ID# and documents.offers on either or both required.Engines available. Neg. Peter0418 556 934 262 www.myl05.eom/53909

VAN DIEMEN RF 86, Unique model with spare set wheels, nose cone, gear ratios bodywork & other spare parts. Rolling chassis - can supply new engine. CAMS Log Book. Ideal restoration project for ‘someone wishing to make a start in Formula Ford. Suit state series competitor or club racer. Help can be supplied to buyer. $12,500 Not Neg. John 0418 130 600.

262 www.myl05.eom/53909

Gemini Sports Sedan Rolling Chassis, suit rotary or piston engine. Ideal oar for Warwick 2 litre series. 2 sets wheels, 2front spoilers + extras. Comes with parts to suit rotary instailatlom FiX7 Turbo gearbox, new clutch, flywheel and driveshaft plus 51mm Weber & extras. Please email for details.

Will split car and mechanicals. $7,500 Neg. Mark 0416 067 014.

261. www.myl05.eom/56041

Cann Suzuki, Cann Suzuki, Hiilclimb Formula Libre. Cams Log book, long history.

Freshly Rebuilt IIOOcc Suzuki to 1260cc.

Very quick under 1300cc car with registered trailer at $8500. $8500 ONO. Ron Hammond (02)4996 4129 /(02)499 64129.

262 www.myl05.com/41264

Formula Ford Historic Bowin P6F, car is well maintained, Ritter engine, spare ratios, log book and COD. Always a top performer, and in excellent condition. $25,000 ONO. Vince 0418 509 145. 261 www.myl05,com/54032

Mk 6 Cheetah F2, Fully restored. 1600 cc Celica engine dyno time only. Webber 45 carburettors. Hewiand gearbox. Brand new chrome exhaust system. Fire system fitted.

Eligible AF2 or Histories. Spares including head and mounted wheels. Also included purpose built, fully enclosed refurbished trailer with 12 months registration and full length side and rear annex. Excellent car. $39,500 ONO.Alan 02 6367 3030 / 02 6367 3222.261 www.my105.com/69423

GWG 1967 Group 0, Log book and Cams certificate of description, motor fully rebuilt, four speed Hoilinger Box. $24,000. Bob (03) 5428 2583. 259www.my105.com/97101

I TlfiFwayto sell your geari From Just$25* lustlog on I

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CLASSIFIEDS Speedway

Modified Production Sedan, Oommodore #10 Aust 2 1998-99 Vic 1 2000-01 Fresh Engine & fibreglass Panels with spares. 02 6033 1291 / 0408 570 822.

263 www.myl 05.com/72040

Modified Production, EL Ford, Front runner,2 Seasons old.

Adjustable suspension. Auto Meter gauges, Race tyres.

Ready to race. $10,500 ONO. Don 0418 643 901.261 www.my105.com/58339 Sprintcar High Bar Rolling Chassis, Lightning Chassis, new tank, almost complete. $4750 2 Maxim Chassis $1200/5750 Also a range of Sprintcar parts including Quick change diffs, shockers with dyno sheets, bars with test sheets, complete front axle, bare front axles, front and top wings, tyres, rims, bonnets, side bars. Quad with push Bar $1100 . Dennis 08 8269 2928 / 0408 844 841. 260www.my105.com/25409

Used Racing Tyres, 3 x Bridgestone RE610S 225/50/16 25% left $50 ea ono. 4 X Dunlop Formula R D96J Wets 205/60/15 80% left $75 ea, ono. 2 x Formula R D78J 195/60/14 60% Left $50 ea, ono. 1 x Dunlop Formula R D78J 185/60/14 25% left $30 ono. 2 X Yokohama A-028 225/50/16 25% left $25 ea. . Jim 02 4731 4988 / 0414 31 4988.263www.my105.com/12863 Sprintcar Parts, Chassis & Engines, Large range of used sprintcar parts including diffs, wheels, axles, chassis and engines. For a full list Fax (08) 8269 5969 or e-mail lightning@picknowl.com.au. 262 www.myl05.com/69516 Porsche Parts, 1 set fully adjustable bilstein suspension (currently on PorscheGT3) excellent condition, fully refreshed in 2002. Spare spring, 1 spare shock, Neg $3,750. 1 set OZ racing 18” rims (PorscheGT3) $4,200 or original GT3 rims $4,500. Lightweight door and floor inners, to suit PorscheGT3 $2,100. Race exhaust GT3 $2,200. Cobra evolution race seat $500. Detachable steering wheel $250.

Separate or sell lot for $8,500. . Dean 0418 507 4 03. 259www.my105.com/88971

Engines PERKINS HOLDEN ENGINE, Perkins Holden V8 Supercar Engine, just Fully Rebuilt. New Perkins Heads - $19,500 ono.

Also available spare panels, wheels, spoilers etc for VH Commodore POA. $19,500 ONO. Greg 03 9580 7047. 264 www.myl 05.c6m/79592

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Transporters/Trailers

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I I Twin Cab Isuzu, 1983 Twin Cab Isuzu SBR, 22ft pan, Electric winch, hydrolic tailgate, compressor, belly lockers, CD Player Reg 12/03 $27000 ONO Phone BH 0405 123 035 AH 03 9736 2006. $27000 ONO. Ash 0405 123 035 / (03) 9736 2006.

263 www.myl05.com/86978

WPA Transporter, Dualcab , turbo 6 speed, complete with generator, compressor, ellectric winch for car, winch for tailgate, 130000 kims, has seperate front room, fitted out for super sedan. 45000+ GST ONO. michael (07 ) 54 3 7 7 6 03 .

258 www.myl05.com/77696

Collectable/Memorabiiia Biante Models - Ail Signed, 1 x Johnson XE Palmer Tube, 1 x Moffat Cobra Coupe 1977, 1 x Moffat Coupe 1978. 0415 178 696 254 www.myl05.com/92629

Ford Trailer Crew Cab and Gooseneck 9m Trailer, 350 Chev engine petrol/gas, tandem axle trailer, carry 1-4 cars, exc. cond. VIC rego many features. $45,000 plus GST ONO, Tony 0408 805 518. 263 www.myl05.eom/30158

FORD F250 1991 & 36ft Goosneck trailer , A/C, Powersteer, Low kms, CD, EFI, Trailer as 240V, Belly Lockers, Annex, Heaps of Storage. , $29,000 ONO. Henry 0417 131 989. 262www.my105.com/35479

Driver/Crew Apparel Racing Suits/ Helmets. 2 Full suits RPM Racegear.Nomex Three, Blue & White size M Racesuits,gloves M,shoes size 8.Boll Helmet SR-PRO Size 7 1/4 or 58,with carry bags.These suits and helmets were used in 2 Targas and are very dean and well looked after, $975 each set,as I will sell seperateiy. $975 each set ONO. Tony 07 55321400 / 07 55773077. 254 www.myl 05.com/22200

Wanted Escort Race parts, 4 or 5 speed close ratio gearboxes 'Rocket type' or similar. 4.1 & 4.4 crown wheel & pinions. Quick rack steering rack. Anthony 0419 340 927 / 03 6343 6193.

261 www.myl O5.com/10410

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Production sedan VK Commodore, Moe engines 202, Tilton clutch, Redline cage, adjustable suspension. Auto meter gauges, includes spares. Ex Aus 1-2 (2001-2002). $9500.00 ono Ph John 0412 687 563 or (03) 5134 4812. $9,500.00 ONO, 260 www.my105.com/81149

& 2002 AU Super Sedan, John Brown Chassis, ail the best equipment used, open axle diff, Burt Box, 363 Cleveland engine 700HP, no expense spared on building of this car, only raced one meeting. Plus all spares. $35,000 or will separate. 0419 989 01 0 / (02 ) 47 3 0 344 0 .

259 www.my105.com/4465

Parts

COMMODORE, Commodore caged body shell in excellent condition, never bent. Suit Commodore Cup or Sports Sedan. Urgent Sale $2500 ONO. Richard 0419 225 433.

263 www.myl05.com/14131 Suspension and Brakes, VL Commodore Bilstein shocks, king springs, Harrop strut bearing plates, ride height adjustment F & R, adjustable sway bars, panhard rod, adj. rear arms, VT 330mm discs on VT hubs, VT twin piston calipers. $1,600. Mario 0413 880 180. 263www.my105.com/11634

23 July 2003

' V Mazda MX5 1.6 engine, 1.6 litre with polished cam cover (inc. starter, alternator, flywheel)$ 500 Tighe cams and adjustable cam gears $400 EFI technology 45mm throttle bodies, with custom made polished manifold $1500 Locke Stewart extractors $250 $2650 or $2500 for all Microtec computer and dash (+ all wiring harness) $1200 $3850 or $3500 the LOT. Approx 86kw at rear wheels on Ric Shaw dyno.

Nick 02 9736 4172.

263 www.myl05.eom/67304 Suzuki GSX - R1100, motorcycle engine, 1990 L model 1127cc, suitable for hillclimb car, litre sprintcar, racing buggy, etc, completely standard, no modifications.

Includes carburettors, oil cooler, starter motor, alternator, GDI unit, Road use only, never raced, excellent condition. Also, complete turbocharger system to suit above engine. Any offers?. $1,900. Brett (03) 6295 061 0.263www.my105.com/82215 372 Alloy Sprintcar Engines, 372 Sprintcar Engine Maxwill Built, Just freshened with new special stroke scat crank, Kinsler F.l.J and Mallory Super Mag III, Just dynoed and set to go. $28000 also a 372 Sprintcar engine,Maxwill built as raced in 02/03 season, $25000 2 3/16 Hilbourn Fuel Injection complete with latest 1 peice air filter$1800 Aluminium Radiator $200 Roller Camshaft $150 Pro Iron Lightning Steel Cylinder Heads - Complete, Ported, Good HP $2500 . Dennis 08 8269 2928 / 0408 844 841. 260 www.myl O5.com/1589

Chev C30 & Enclosed Trailer, Chevy C30 Dual Cab with 22ft Enclosed Trailer, currently used and decked out as a sprintcar transporter, 6 seater, Gas/Petrol (350L Tanks), Black, Tri-axle trailer fitted with electric brakes and break-away system, air compressor. Travel with the speed of a car and the room of a tmek.

S35000. Dennis 0408 844 841. 262 www.myl05.eom/24901

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Trailer Car / Boat, 6m x 2.5m, with totally enclosed 6m x 5m x 2m high annex. Fitted tool box on draw bar and ramps. $6,500.

0408 369 070. 260 www.my105.com/7375 TRAILER, New 2.98 long x 1.82 m wide.

Professionally built. Uncovered, single drop axle, jockey wheel, hinged ramps. 12 months registration (June). In Sydney. $2,200 inc GST. Peter 02 9873 1773. 259 www.myl05.com/2735 Coach Transporter, 38ft midmount, B58 Volvo 275HP, four speed pre select gearbox, air brakes. Maxi brakes exhaust, tubless tyres, aluminium chequered plate drop back rear door, electric winch, new carpet iri front section. Pontoon lounge fridge, $20,000 ONO. 0419 989 010 / (02) 4730 3440. 259 www.my105.com/14138

More refined searches Browse the ‘motorsport catalogue' of new parts and accessories Coming Soon. . .The Motorsport 1 fsmu *

Get it seen Get it soid!

81

OPINION

motorsport n6ws

EDITORUL STAFF Editor: Phil Branagan l editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor: Mark Glendenning l mark@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Grant Rowley » grant@mnews.com.au

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Day Dreamer

I have often been accused of having an over-active imagination, but the current ownership debate between Holden Motorsport and TEGA (MN#261),I find amusing in the extreme. Imagine the following scenario: TEGA: We are not satisfied with the current teams ownership as submitted.

Holden: That's the way it is.

TEGA: You have two weeks to submit the proposal in a manner which is suitable to us.

Holden: Get stuffed!

AVESCO: We support TEGA's decision and unless such a submission is forthcoming in the time stated, all three teams will be stripped of the points accumulated this year.

Holden issues a press statement which reads, in part: "We wish to announce that HRT, Kmart Racing and Team Brock will be withdrawn immediately from the championship,and all factory assistance to other Holden teams, in any form, wall also cease.

Holden's future participation in motorsport will be by the way of the Australian Sport Sedan Championship, Nations Cup,GT Performance and the Australian Production Car Championship, utilising the six drivers from the V8 teams.

Work on our 2-litre V6,six-speed AWD Barina will now be stepped up with a view to competing in the 2005 Australian Rally Championship with drivers TBA. Mr Cochrane was last seen pleading for the fans not to desert, and TEGA was believed to be reexamining the size of the 'big stick'.

As I said, my imagination became overactive, however...

Col Young Coolah, NSW

converter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au Bluey pipes up I just watched the Konica Races on TV and want to make a few points.

It seems if you're not a big budget team you don't get on TV. Car 77(Tim Rowse), who ran an old VS for the first time this season due to lack of budget, beat home some so-called 'big budget' teams. Race 1, Rowse starts 24th and comes home 15th ahead of some big teams. Race 2, he had to start from pit lane, drove really well to finish 15th again, stiU no tV coverage. Race 3 starts 12 and finishes 12th, again ahead of some bigger teams.

Overall on the day, this no-budget team finishes 14th. How can these young drivers get sponsors with no TV mention at all? I was at the race meeting and saw what this small team does with a very old car, and the pit crew are mostly oldies too.

My other point is Mr Brede, if you're such a good driver to be lapping a fellow driver, you should be picking your passing points more carefully and not blame the other

driver for your poor judgement.

Your team boss said you weren't driving to instructions, so stop being a sooky-la-la and get on with it. Other drives had bad breaks but didn't get on TV and cry about it.

Keep up the good racing, because the Konica races are better to watch than the 'follow the leader' V8SCS races.

BIulj Konb bIucykoala®hotinail.com Ed: Thanks for writing in Bluey.

You have a point, however you also must appreciate how difficult it is to squeeze more than an hour and a half's racing into a tight 30 minute package ...

Happy Birthday to us!

Great Amiiversary edition! I'm sure you would have burnt the midnight oil to pump that puppy out back to back...

I tried to email you an icecream cake, but it just screwed up my computer.

To the entire MNews crew. Happy 10th birthday!

Chris Jordan cjordan@esc.net.au

Stone Brothers are tops idow about giving Ford a parity boost?

They obviously need one, because you've got.3mbrose winning then 50 Holdens behind him. And those Holdens aren't even full-spec VY chas.sis and engines...

Ambrose is winning because he is by far the best V8 driver. Even better than the Moffats, Brocks and Skaifes.

These guys had all their success in factory-prepared cars when their manufacturer was on top. SBR deserve more backing from Ford.

Michael Salo inichnelsalo4@msn.coni

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

Is reader Col Young dreaming, or could Mark Skaife swap his Commodore for an Astra and compete in this year's APCC? motorsport news

TENTH ANNII^^Y ^^■|j|l303,eLENJSSET0N ® 1934 MASKsSSS^ 1 E ■S193C GRAIG LOWNDES BN i>^-398 GRAIQ LOWNDES ?OilO MARK SKAIFE

Marcus Ambrose will be out to continue his winning run, but he will have a full 32-car grid of other Falcons and Commodores all trying to stop him!

Come and see if Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, Greg Murphy, Russell Ingall, Jason Bright, Steven Johnson, the Kelly boys, Glenn Seton, John Bowe and 22 others beat him to the chequered flag.

A full day’s racing, with Formula Ford, Historic Touring Cars, MG Trophy Series & Aussie Racing Cars - excitement from start to finish!

Contact Oran Park for details of corporate hospitality availability, with tickets available at the track and through Ticketek.

AimuST 15th, 16th & 17th

ORAN PARK IS TRULY THE PLACE TO BE IN 2003

For fuither information, contact: Oran Park Raceway on 02 4646 1004

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