Motorsport News Issue 265 - September 3-16, 2003

LAST CHANCE TO WIN BATHURST TRIP I Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

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No. 265

September 3-16 2003

CHAMPIONSHIP PRESSURE BUILDS AS SANDOWN 500 LOOMS

Can anyone beat

INTERVIEWED

TAURANAC SOLBERG COURTNEY HEAD

m Changing J of the guard in Hungary

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HM0RPM1 Issue 265

3-16 September 2003

news and opinion

features 28 Five Minutes With James Courtney Things are getting Nippy for JC 30 Five Minutes With Allan Simonsen From a Ferrari to a GRM Commodore V8 32 Red, Hot and Blue A mid-season chat with the unstoppable Marcos Ambrose 36 Head Man Patrick Flead on Hungary, Ralf and team orders ...

38 Ron Reminisces Ron Tauranac has achieved an awful lot in his career 58 Getting Petter and Petter A yack with Rally Australia-bound Fetter Solberg

race coverage

V ^ * Iki

44. 1 44 Spain, France and Hungary Fernando Alonso shakes off the ‘new lad’ tag with a butt-kicking victory at the Hungaroring. At only 22. No, really, he is 52 Who won the Mallala Konica round? Here is a hint: Mark Winterbottom UBTOMWCSTO WWW was there and he brought a car with him. We feel confident you can work the rest out

TOlDOgitM Can anyone beat theorean^- , MUKAIWC SOlU»3

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regulars Photos: Cover: Dirk Klysmith Contents: sutton-mages.com and John Morris/Mpix

70 Histories

72 Nationai Scene

76 Marketpiace 3

Test finally over

end

by PHIL BRANAGAN

THE V8 Supercar endurance races are not going to be the Stone ●Brothers Racing cakewalk that many observers are predicting, according to some of the leading drivers in the class.

THE 2003 testing 'ban' that Holden's ownership issues impacted on Kmart Racing and Team Brock is over.

AVESCO has issued testing logs to both of the teams, which have not been able to test since the start of the

out in the teams' agreement. There is also the provision to allocate an amount of test days on a pro rata basis but, with a maximum of eight days testing allowed, and considering the timing of the issuing of the log books. that formula also resulted in two

season while their ownership questions were settled to the satisfaction of the Board of the Touring Car Entrants' Group (TEGA).

Team Brock tested at Winton on Monday, while Kmart Racing Team was due to test on Tuesday.

But, while both teams get used to loading up a pantech with cars going to a racetrack with no spectators, the novelty will be short-lived. Both team have had two days allocated, which means that both will have only one between the two endurance races.

The allocation came about because of the examination by AVESCO of the teams' previous links, and those they had with the Holden Racing Team.

"If teams are deemed to be 'grouped', they are deemed to have benefited from the testing of the

teams with which they are grouped,' said AVESCO CEO, Wayne Cattach.

"When AVESCO examined the matter, we deemed that they benefited from the six days of testing ’ that were conducted already (by HRT). Vifiien you are 'degrouped', the matter is examined. We determined that two days' testing was the appropriate amount."

According to Cattach, the guidelines for such matters are laid

days testing.

The decision by AVESCO clearly indicates that it firmly believed that there was a level of communication between the three teams. Motorsport News also believes that an investigation into the ownership issues surrounding the teams may be ongoing, despite the approval to transfer Level 1 licences to KRT principals John and Margaret Kelly and TB principal Kees Week Whatever, the teams can test but, as has been the case throughout the 2003 season, time is at a premium.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

The ‘All-stars’ Monaros HOLDEN will field an all-star lineup for its bid for a second straight Bathurst 24 Hour victory.

Regular 'red' Monaro driver Peter Brock will be joined on the Mountain by Jason Bright, Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy in the twice-around-the-clock race.

Defending winners Cameron McConville, Nathan Pretty, Steven Richards and Garth Tander will driver Garry Rogers Motorsport's 'yellow' 427engined Monaro.

Murphy, a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner, is looking forward to the challenge; "I have enjoyed 24-hour races at Daytona and Le Mans and done OK," he said. "Doing the same at Bathurst and helping bring home another win for Holden and Monaro would be really special. It's a different concept to our normal V8 racing and a chance to forget about championship standings and

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While most recognise that Marcos Ambrose, Russell Ingall and SBR are in rare form going to Sandown and Bathurst, the opposition teams are predicting that the Pirtek/Caltex pair will not have things their own way, starting at Sandown next week.

The Holden Racing Team's Todd Kelly says that the red outfit, so long the benchmark for other teams to aspire to, is ready for the challenge of beating SBR. "The team has not changed since it was dominant not long ago and we have had to deal with a lot of things this year," admits Kelly.

"Project Blueprint needed to happen, and it is fantastic that Stone Brothers has been going so well this season. SBR has been developing a car for the last three years and they are feeling the benefits of that.

"All the development we have had this season has been from scratch. To do what we have done this season in the time frame we have had has been impressive."

Kelly says that the team, which has in effect raced three different cars through the course of the 2003 season, has been operating at the same high level, or higher, as it has previously; "We are doing things this year more than we have ever done. We have been making major changes at the races, even between sessions, and we have still been close to the pace.

"We have the new car and the new engine at Sandown and everyone will see that we are getting back to where we should be.

X ‘s

enjoy ourselves in what is becoming a very significant event."

"Talking to the guys who drove last year, I believe it's a very tough event," says Bright, "But driving alongside Brock, Murf and Toddler will be interesting and I'm looking forward to it. The competition is sure to be strong, but who knows, it might develop into a Monaro race between the two teams."

Providing much of the opposition for the Aussie Coupes will be Martin Short, who will drive one of two Mosler MTSOORs in the race, "It's incredibly challenging and the moment you bite off more than you can chew you hit the wall," said Shorty, who finished second last year. "(It means) sun, fantastic people, fantastic track, a great race and a wonderful way to end the year.

Kelly and co-driver Mark Skaife started the season in update VX Commodores, then moved into VYs while the team prepared their definitive VY, which will race with the new Holden Motorsport engine at Sandown.

"We have had different cars aU season. First we had the hybrid car, which was a VX converted to a VY. We had to so that so that we could have two cars ready for the start of the season. Now we have a new VY, which I drove at Queensland, and now we have a new engine, and motorsport news

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NEWS

24 Hours of BMW RUMOUR of the week surrounds Bathurst, two clocks, a BMW and a 5-litre V8.

Suggestions that a Beemer M3GTR will be at the 24 Hour gained ground this week when spies reported that a deal was done and that one of the American-built weapons was heading our way.

The car, with a pedigree in Stateside endurance racing, is said to pack an all-star driving lineup for the November race. If it lands, it should be on the pace, Monaro lads ...

that changes the weight distribution a little. So it's new again.

"If other teams had to do that in less than a season,they would struggle. We are in a phasing-in period. I knew that it was going to be hard from the start, we all knew that, but we have done a good job."

That said, Kelly is aware what a good job SBR has done this season.

"Stone Brothers have a composed team, they have done a good job but we have a lot of potential on our side. The endurance races require a lot of input from the team,in fact more than 50 percent, and as a driver you can feel the input and professionalism from the team. The team steps up and that is the most important part of the sport. If you do not have a good foundation, you are pushing uphiU right from the start.

"But despite all the dramas we have had, we are still a team. People have been making approaches to our team but no-one has left and that is a good thing."

One of Ford's best 'other' chances in the endurance races is the OzEmail Racing pairing of Brad Jones and John Bowe. The Alburybased team has taken the Bathurst 1000 to HRT over the last two years and Jones holds the V8 Supercar (and outright) Moimt Panorama lap record.

Jones is under no illusions that SBR is the favourites for Sandown and Bathurst; "I think that they are going to be hard to beat," he says."I do not think that we have easy cars to set up. I don't think that most of the teams have got on top of the car yet.

"But on top of that, a lot of things comes into it when you have two drivers in the mix. John(Bowe)and myself are one of the stronger driver pairings and we have a good record in endurance races together.

3 September 2003

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We do not have to start looking for fancy reasons n to justify our existence

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- Larry Perkins, right "Bathurst is a funny place. What works there is not what always has worked at other places, and that tends to even things out a bit. I think we would be disappointed to think we would not be in the top five at Bathurst."

Jones also believes that the team's second pairing of ^Andy Jones/John Cleland could be a contender.

"Our second car is worth a bit of an outside bet. The cars will be run the same and the drivers are going to do as good job. I think that Andy is as good as(Mark) Winterbottom and you are only as good as the car you are in."

He also suggests that Holden's 'underdog' teams to keep an eye on are Team Dynamik and Sirromet Motorsport.

Larry Perkins, who makes his return to the driving seat after stepping down from a full-time role at the end of 2002, said that it is highly probable that SBR will face stiff opposition at Sandown and Bathurst.

"Of course it's realistic," said the veteran. "I don't have the attitude that anyone is unbeatable. Whoever wins on the day is the one who gets it all right and no-one has a

monopoly of getting it right.

"I am not going to make any wild claims. We have a track record that suggests that we do not get it wrong too many mistakes."

One of the genuine strengths of the Castrol Perkins team is the form of Steven Richards. The 30-year-old has an impressive endurance pedigree and is nearly always a factor at Bathurst.

"Richo has been everywhere and his record is what it is," says Perkins.

"We do not have to start looking for fancy reasons to justify our existence.

If someone out there has to say that there is no point in going, they must be bom losers.

"The historical facts) are there for all to see. I am curious to see how I will go(behind the wheel)-1 have never had a layoff of this long before and I will be looking forward to it. I have not been a part-time driver since the early 80s."

Richards's HMS-engined Commodore VY has had reliability problems, related to the alternator, over recent rounds of the V8SCS. Perkins said that the problems had now be identified and the team was confident that they had been overcome.

■ And the other rumour of the week is ... We hear that one team is talking about the possibility of getting the services of a former world champion for the 24 Hour.

No, he hasn’t raced since he hung up the big yellow suit and no, he hasn't raced a saloon in donkey's years. But hey, a little sunshine, some George Harrison music, show him where the Hill is and you never, never know ...

■ Frank Gardner is recovering well from open heart surgery.

The legendary driver and team manager underwent a heart bypass last week and reported that he was feeling fine after the event.

No word on whether Gardner, 71, wore his famed terry towelling hat during the op. Get well soon, Frank, ■ If you are a Holden Racing Team fan, and want to know what really happened in some of the team's most famous victories, The Holden Racing team is a must-read book.

From the team's origins, to its troubled early years, to the unstoppable recent times (and, impressively, even Mark Skaife's recent ownership) author Andrew Quested takes you behind the scenes - and it is not always a heartand-flowers account.

The volume, published by Lothian Books, is available from leading outlets for $50.

■ Paul Dumbrell has signed a personal sponsorship deal with automotive retail group Autobarn.

The 21-year-old Castrol Perkins V8 Supercar driver had an association with the company during his domination of the 2002 Konica season and adds to the growing number of Autobarn-affiliated V8 drivers.

■ Nothing confirmed yet, but a deal is believed to be close to completion that will see Queenslander Rob Nguyen make a return to the International F3000 Championship with Team Astromega at Monza next weekend.

5

Vale Howard Marsden 1942-2003 A

USTRALIAN motoring has lost one of its greatest contributors and finest gentlemen following the death of ‘ Howard Marsden on 19 August.

Marsden, who had been battling cancer for seven months, was surrounded by his family when he passed away,aged 61.

His most recent endeavours have seen Ford's V8 Supercar program turned around after a three-year low,during which Falcon drivers won little more than 10 percent of the races against their Holden i Commodore-mounted opposition.

Marsden's four-decade career in

, motorsport started when he joined Alan Mann Racing in the UK in : 1963, running programs in touring car and sportscar racing, and : rallying, in Europe and the USA.In 1971, he was appointed Special Projects Manager for Ford Australia, ; in which time he developed Ford's : Falcon GT HO Phase II and IV. When Ford withdrew from motor ; racing shortly thereafter, he joined Nissan, where he ran the company's successful rally program until the manufacturer entered touring car racing in the 1980s. When Fred Gibson took control of the Australian program in 1985, Marsden moved on to other projects, including Nissan's assault on the World Sportscar Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Eleven years ago, he returrved to Ford Australia to oversee Tickford i Development Engineering's ' development of high-performance : road cars before, in 1999, he was seconded back to the track as General Manager of Ford Racing. ; Marsden was swift to assess Ford's malaise in V8 Supercar racing and instigated a plan to expand the company's representation on the

grid,improve its results and then to develop the Falcon BA racer. He also instigated the Ford KartStars Series, increased funding for Formula Ford and streamlined the links of communication between the marque and its representa tive teams.

Marsden's polite manner was sometimes mistaken for aloofness but nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath his conservative exterior lay a spirit as competitive as any of the drivers with whom he worked and, unusually, the respect others felt for him in the sport crossed political lines. He suffered fools, but not gladly, and was never backward in offering encouragement, advice or, when appropriate, constructive criticism.

Howard had expressed publicly his intention to step down from the sport at the end of the current season, to spend more time on his rural property and pursue his love of painting and music. Sadly, his desire for some well-deserved 'down time' was not to be satisfied when his illness was diagnosed earlier this year.

At last year's AVESCO prizegivmg, he announced that he would not be present at the 2003 dinner to accept any awards and later explained that he thought that, when Ford won the championship,he would leave the spotlight to others. Typically, Howard did not crave adulation for his considerable achievements,nor would he wish to be big-noted as the architect of much of Ford's recent successes. But it was largely his will, drive and determination, allied to that of Ford President Geoff Polites and their teams,that have seen the company return to the forefront of the sport.

Marsden was cremated after a private service shortly after his death.

HARDIE

To my great sadness,I cannot remember the first time I met Howard. But I do remember feeling that, as a rookie reporter, he treated me with respect beyond my modest experience and, as 1 got to know him better, he extended to me examples of courtesy and professionalism that I will value always.

Howard Marsden was a bright, committed,knowledgeable and

formidable gentleman who leaves behind an legacy of hard work and success, and a spirit of dignity, as well as a void which is unlikely to be filled. To his wife Christine, daughter Samantha and son Grant, to his many allies and friends, and all involved in the sport he loved, we at Motorsport News extend our sincerest condolences.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

1.4// photon courtesy Ford Rapoff

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Coming full circle: Marsden, 31,shared the winners'dais with 1973 Bathurst 1000 victors Allan Moffat and Ian 'Pete'Geoghegan, left. Almost 30 years later, he was there when Dick Johnson, right, shook down the prototype Falcon BA f/B Supercar, Ford's first in-house car since the 1970s.

6

motorsport news

NEWS

Formula 3s for AGP! Top Aussies - and internationals - for Albert Park

Yoong goes bang ALEX Yoong was taken to hospital over the weekend after being involved in a shunt while driving a Crest Jaseri Racing Porsche 911 GTS Cup car in a 12 Hour race at Sepang.

Yoong, who was sharing the car with a line-up that included Datuk Mokhani Mahathir, third son of the Malaysian President, spent some time under observation before being released. n Last weekend's Konica round at Maiiala attracted a weekend crowd of 7500.

by MARK GLENDENNING RELIABLE sources suggest that Formula Three will be included on the support bill for the 2004 'Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

The inclusion will mark a massive step forward for the category, which has enjoyed enormous growth over the past three seasons. Efforts to attract Australians who are competing in F3 championships

overseas such as Will Power, above, Will Davison and Ryan Briscoe are also believed to be in the works, however it is understood that there are a number of logistical and scheduling difficulties to be overcome.

A spot on the Grand Prix bill will fill the hole left on the category's calendar when it was dropped from this year's Lexmark 300 CART race on the Gold Coast, and will add further gloss to an already

prestigious start to the season.

Plans for a repeat of last year's Lady Wigram Trophy race in New Zealand are thought to be in their early stages, and the series will also return to the support line-up for the V8 Supercar race in Adelaide.

The addition of the series to the Grand Prix line-up is rumoured to come at the expense of long-time FI ^support category Formula Ford.

Finalisation of the deal is expected within the next few weeks.

Alliance challenges CAMS role

WINTON'S major historic meeting,the Australian Historic Motor Festival, on October 4 and 5, looks set to be the 'test case' event for a recently unveiled group,the Australian Auto-sport Alliance, which plans to offer an alternative means of staging motor sport events in Australia.

The group is headed by President Mick Ronke (Winton promoter). Vice President Bob Jane, above, Secretary/Treasurer

Marsden Service on A MEMORIAL function to honour the life of Howard ; Marsden is being planned for next week.

The service will be held for Howard's many friends and collegues in the sport and has been scheduled for Wednesday, September 10.In keeping with Marsden's modest demeanour,it will be a get-together over a drink to celebrate his considerable achievements and tell stories about him,rather than some elaborate religious ceremony. .3 September 2003

Garry Willmington (circuit manager at Wakefield Park) and CEO Phillip Smiles, principal of business services consultancy Smiles Turner and proposes to offer a "lean and mean" non profit organisation to supply organisational services to motor sport clubs.

Over the years a number of organisations have attempted to offer alternatives to the CAMS system, this latest unapologetically targeting the interests of permanent circuits.

Insurance has always been a prime issue among potential breakaway groups and while CAMS maintains it must insure to cover all categories of motor sport in the country, including

rallying, circuit promoters have felt for some time that circuit racing has to some degree subsidised the more riskattracting elements of motor sport.

The AAA claims to have arranged cost-effective insurance through a number of insurance companies and brokers, both in Australia and overseas.

Other than a press release cautioning competitors that its insurances will not apply to the historic meeting and to ensure that adequate risk management and insurance systems are in place, CAMS has not yet made major comment.

It has, however, announced plans to target new, young, motor sport participants, by sanctioning Street Drags and the popular (in Japan) sport of 'drifting.'

AAA lists among its aims the introduction of "necessary and effective training for a new generation of officials." The availability or otherwise of CAMS-trained officials may well be the determining factor as to AAA's initial success when competitors assemble at Winton next month.

n Oops. Last issue we ran a caption referring to Nathan Pretty's NC Monaro running Pirelli rubber. In fact, the #427 car has been using Duniops ever since its victorious debut at the Bathurst 24 Hour race last year. The person responsible for the error has left the country. Really. n Shane Beikoff was missing from action at Mallala on the weekend due to budget constraints.

However, Beikoff will be back for the Konica Challenge race at Bathurst. The team also have plans in place to re-skin their current exStone Brothers EL into an AU for '04. n Last year's New Zealand V8 International has received the 'Best Sports Program Award', which was announced in Auckland recently. The Supercars beat a Celebrity Boxing match and the International Rugby World Sevens. n Psst! If you like your bacon, eggs and those funny little triangular hash brown thingies, the Ford V8 Superbreakfast is going to be right up your alley.

The chowdown, to be held at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday 11 September from 7.30am, will feature all of the Henry's V8 Supercar stars, including Marcos 'Pass the yoghurt' Ambrose, Craig 'I want raisin toast' Lowndes and Russell 'What, no gravy?' Ingall, Tickets are priced at $80 and can be booked through Ticket Master 7 r at www.ticketmaster7.com or by .’ calling 136 100.' n Audi Sport has confirmed that it is working on a successor to its wildly successful R8 LMP900 sportsprototype. Director Wolfgang Ullrich told the UK's Autosport:"We want and hope to be back, but up to now there's no decision. We hope that it : will come sooner rather than later." n With Formula BMW expanding to the UK next season, front-running British F3 teams Carlin Motorsport and Fortec are making plans to be involved. The series will run as a : support category to the British Touring Car Championship.

7

It's that

by GRANT ROWLEY

00 Motorsport on the Market

00 MOTORSPORT is for sale.

Team owner Bob Forbes has put the team entire inventory, including Falcon BA and AU racecars, on the market. The team, which ran as many as three cars last season, has not , been seen on the grid of a V8 Supercar Championship Series round since Hidden Valley in June.

"Everything a team needs to compete in the series (is for sale)," said Forbes on Monday.

"We have all the cars, plus the equipment, for a new owner to go racing."

Forbes also said that he had a choice of two licences available for a prospective owner but that he could not elaborate.

"Obviously, you need a licence

to go racing and we have options available. But it is not right to discuss that in a public forum and I will discuss that only with prospective purchasers."

Forbes said that he had no plans to start a new team, whether it was to be in V8 Supercar racing or any other category.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Same Colours - Different Team No details yet, but buy-out is agreed LOOK for the Betta Electrical Falcon BAs to run at Sandown under the banner of Triple 8 Engineering.

While no announcement has been made, Motorsport News believes that the deal between Triple 8 principals Ian Harrison and partners Peter Dane and Peter Butterley, and former team owner John Briggs, has been agreed upon. The details of the deal are in the process of being settled by the lawyers representing both parties before being presented to the Board of the Touring Car Entrants Group TEGA for approval.

Harrison said on Monday that the deal was ‘‘moving forward in a positive manner.”

“It is still not sorted but Sandown is a possibility.’

Erroneous media reports recently suggested that Triple 8 had been looking at purchasing a stake in Team Dynamik, should there be a glitch in the Briggs deal. Sources suggest that Harrison and Butterley were seen in Adelaide following the recent Oran Park round of the V8SCS, sparking 8

rumours that the team was looking at Adelaide-based TD. However, MNews sources suggest that Butterley, who already has interests in Australia, was merely attending a meeting with his legal advisers, who are based in the South Australian capital. Harrison confirmed that he was also in Adelaide, shopping and visiting friends made there during his time with the Williams Ft team. t l Triple 8, which operates \ Vauxhall's factory program in i the British

m m m

Car Championship, is expected to leave the current Briggs set-up in situ, prior to conducting a review towards the end of the season. Current Betta driver Paul Radisich is expected to remain with the team, likely to be joined by another driver who will replace current Briggs Motorsport steerer Dean Canto, below.

The team will bring Rickard Rydell and Matthew White into its driving lineup for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

W^H little over a week before the Betta Electrical Sandown 500, the final pieces of the endurance driver jigsaw puzzle has finally come together.

After a year or two in the V8 wilderness, Adam Macrow and Darren Hossack will team together for the Sandown and Bathurst classics.

Macrow,the 1998 Formula Ford champion,is confident the pairing can score a worthy result.

"We are aiming for the top 10," said Macrow."The car is up to it and the guys in the team are great. I'm really looking forward to it."

Hossack, who currently leads the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, echoed Macrow's predictions.

"It's been three years since I've driven one of these cars," said Hossack,"but it's going to be good to join a team of their calibre."

The pair tested recently at Phillip Island, where they completed 10 laps each in Craig Lowndes CAT BA. On the other side of the fence, the John Faulkner-prepared Holden Young Lions team will return to the 'Main Game', with Dick John Racing refugee Tony Ricciardello joining regular Young Lion Dale Brede.

Konica regular Steve Owen will team with former production car champion Phillip Scifleet in the exPaul Morris Commodore VX. Owen, who last raced at Sandown in 1998 in a Formula Ford (and coincidently won the race) will join Scifleet at the Morris's workshop on Thursday for a seat fitting, and will test at Queensland Raceway the following day.

And making a return to the V8 ranks for the endurance races is 21year-old Alan Gurr, who will team with New Zealand-born Andy McElrea.

4

lohn Morrif/Mp

motorsport news

NEWS

time of the year,folks Ins and Outs: Macrow and Hossack will steer David Besnard's BA, above, while Tony Ricciardello steps out of his DJR seat, below, and into a HYL drive.

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Provisional Betta Electrical Sandown 500 Entry List 1 1 Holden Racing Team i 2 Holden Racing Team 13 Lansvale Smash Repairs ; 4 Pirtek-Caltex Racing '5 Ford Performance Racing 6 Ford Performance Racing ‘ 8 Castrol Perkins Racing ■9 Pirtek-Caltex Racing ; 10 Orrcon Racing 11 Castrol Perkins Racing ' 13 Smiths Trucks 115 K-Mart Racing Team ■ 16 Betta Team Brock ) 17 Shell Helix Racing 118 Shell Helix Racing 1 19 Ford Performance Racing I 20 Orrcon Racing 21 OzEmail Racing , 021 Team Kiwi Racing 23 INXS Team Ford 24 Romano Racing 29 Sirromet-Life/StyleAWine 31 Super Cheap Auto 33 Garry Rogers Motorsport 34 Garry Rogers Motorsport 44 Team Dynamik 45 Team Dynamik 46 Holden Young Lions 50 Betta Team Brock 51 K-Mart Racing Team 65 Betta Electrical 66 Betta Electrical 75 Toll Racing 99 Thexton Motor Racing 888 OzEmail Racing

Mark Skaife/Todd Kelly VY Tony Longhurst/Jim Richards VY Cameron McConville/Tim Leahey VX Marcos Ambrose/Russell Ingall BA ' David Besnard/Owen Kelly BA Craig Lowndes/Glenn Seton BA Tomas Mezera/Paul Dumbrell VY Mark Winterbottom/Mark Noske BA Mark Larkham/Jason Bargwanna BA Steven Richards/Larry Perkins VY Steve Owen/Phillip Scifleet VX Andy Priauix/Cameron McLean VX Marcus Marshall/Greg Ritter VX Steven Johnson/Warren Luff BA Max Wilson/David Brabham BA Adam Macrow/Darren Hossack BA Grant Johnson/Kerry Wade AU Brad Jones/John Bowe BA Craig Baird/Mark Porter VX Rick Bates/Neal Bates AU Andy McElrea/Alan Gurr VX Paul Morris/John Faulkner VY Steven Ellery/Luke Youlden BA Jamie Whincup/Alan Simonsen VY Garth Tander/Nathan Pretty VY Simon Wills/Jason Riohards VY Nicolas Minassian/Jan Magnussen VY Dale Brede/Tony Ricciardello VX Jason Bright/Paul Weel VX Greg Murphy/Rick Kelly VY Paul Radisich/Rickard Rydell BA Matthew White/Dean Canto BA Anthony Tratt/Paul Stokell BA David Thexton/Brett Peters AU John Cleland/Andrew Jones BA

while Morris dumps youth for Experience

PAUL Morris has changed his choice of co driver for the endurance races at will now share his Sirromet Commodore VY with John Faulkner.

The Gold Coast-based team made the decision two weeks ago, and Wayne Wakefield, who had been named in the team, is now without a drive.

“After considering all the options we felt it was a tremendous opportunity for our team to have John in the car for the enduranoe races,” said Morris.

“He's always been a quick driver, and importantly he 3 September 2003

has plenty of experience racing V8 Supercars at Sandown and Bathurst.

“Right now I think our car is as good, if not better, than any Holden going around in V8 Supercars, and bringing John into the team is a big plus in our overall package.”

Faulkner, left, 46, stepped down from racing at the end of last season and now runs the Holden Young Lions program in the Konica V8 Supercar Series. He has made seven V8 Supercar starts at Bathurst, with a best finish of fifth in 1997.

End of the chase SPARE a thought for Octagon Motorsport Manager Craig Fletcher. As if running a weather-affected Australian Safari was not enough of a challenge, Fletch was at the wheel of a Holden Jackaroo chase car when it went blackside up on the fourth day of the event. , No-one was hurt in the incident but the ''Roo was a bit second-hand ... n Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc (CART) has had two of its Board members resign.

Team owner Derrick Walker stood aside from his seat on the board last week, citing a "potential for the appearance of a conflict of interest" over decisions regarding the future of the company. Shortly after, Robert D. Biggs stepped down from the position he assumed only last month.

Biggs, formerly a managing partner in the Indianapolis office of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, cited "personal circumstances" for his decision.

■ L-O-L-A Docko? Alan Docking Racing recently tested Lola-Dome's Formula 3 car at Pembrey in Wales.

The car, which has been heavily revised after extensive testing in Lola Cars International's 50 percent windtunnel, completed 130 laps at the track. A decision as to whether the car will race again this season is expected soon.

■ Here is the latest from our 'Jason Akermanis has already done this' file. Queensland Reds Rugby stars Glen Panoho, Fletcher Dyson and Julian Huxley were due to have a gallop around The Paperclip in a 'race-prepared V8' (doesn't say 'Supercar') yesterday (Tuesday).

No word on what kind of car the beefy lads of the north were to drive or, even, if some damn New Zealanders were going to show up and beat them. Again.

■ Valentino Rossi is making noises that there could be a riders boycott of Suzuka in the future.

Seems a number of MotoGP aces are a bit weary of the Japanese venue, at which Daijiro Katoh was killed earlier this year.

While safety upgrades are mooted for the track, reports suggest that they are running late, not comprehensive enough, or both. One potential sticking point re the boycott could be that Honda, which owns the track, also employs Rossi and most of the MotoGP frontrunners.

■ Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has invited Gerhard Schroder, the German Chancellor, to visit Ferrari's Maranello factory in an effort to promote Italian-German relations after the recent scandal resulting from remarks made about Germans by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 9

ten

FI Te

home of [motorsport] 2003 VS Supercar Championship* ,Rd9

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

,Rd 10

Oct 26

Surfers Paradise

.Rd 11

Nov 9

Pukekohe

.Rd 12

by JOE SAWARD

THE latest discussion amongst the Formula 1 team owners is centred on how much testing there should be in the future.

It seems that all but one of the

,Rd13

Nov 30 ...Eastern Creek .

2003 Konica V8 Series* Oct 11 ... .Bathurst

.Non Championship

teams are agreed that there should be two-day Grands Prix, with Friday given over to four or five hours of test sessions. In addition to this, the teams are happy to accept something like 20-30 car-days of testing (ie 15 days of testing with two cars or 10 days with three cars).

The fly in the ointment appears to be Ferrari, which wants to continue to enjoy the luxury of being able to test on its circuits at Fiorano and

2003 FIA Formula One Championship* Sep 14 .. .Monza ...

.Rd 14

Sep 28 .. .Indianapolis Oct 12 Suzuka ...

.Rd15 .Rd16

2003 CART Championship* n Rd 15

Sep 7 ... .Montreal Sep 28 .. .Miami

.Rd 16

Oct 12

Mexico City ....

.Rd 17

Oct 26

Surfers Paradise

2003 IRL Championship* .R d 14 Sep 7 Chicago Se 21

Fontana

.Rd 15

Oct 12

Texas .

.Rd 16

2003 MotoGP Championship* ■Rd 11

Sep 7 . . . .Estoril

,Rd 12

Sep 20 . . .Rio de Janiero Oct 5 .Motegi . . . .

.Rd13 ,Rd 14

jOct 12 . . . .Sepang . . . .

Oct 19 . . . .Phillip Island Nov 2 Valencia . . .

.Rd15 .Rd16

2003 World Rally Championship* Sep 7 . . . .Australia Oct 5 ■Italy

.Rd 10

Oct 19 . . . .France

.Rd12

Oct 26 Nov 11

.Rd13

.Rd11

Spain . .Great Britain

.Rd 14

2003 Australian Rally Championship Nov 16 . . .Tasmania

,Rd6

2003 Procar Championship ,Rd 7

Sep 19 . . .Winton . . .

Oct 23 Gold Coast

,Rd 8

Nov 23 . . .Bathurst 24 Hr. . .

champoosHp

2003/04 World Series .Rd 1

Nov 22 . . .Wagga Wagga

.Rd2

Nov 29 . . .Speedviray City

,Rd3

Dec 6 . . . .Avalon

,Rd4

1

ten

home of motorsport I

All event dales in this calendar were correct at the lime ol priming. Please consul! any individual tracks andiorassocialions lor date cnanges.

I

Series or events telecast on Network Ten are

I I

marked with an asterisk. Check your local guides for screening details.

Mugello.

Fisichell

DC signs on for more at McLaren

THE West McLaren Mercedes team has decided after some debate that that it is going to keep the same drivers next year.

Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard will race for the team, with Alexander Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa continuing as the test drivers.

Our spies tell us that Coulthard is likely to stay for just one more year before moving on to make way for Juan Pablo Montoya. Elements within the team tried to oust Coulthard for 2004 and to put in Wurz for next season. The signings will help to clear up the confusions on the current driver market, as Wurz's name has been mentioned in connection with various teams, notably I BAR and Jaguar.

McLaren's deal with Montoya 1 in 2005 is yet to be confirmed s

but it seems very likely that the story is true and that Coulthard will need to look elsewhere. The obvious speculation is that DC might try to put together a deal with Jaguar Racing, as it is anticipated that Jaguar could need a new lead driver. Mark Webber is the favourite to move to Williams if Montoya does depart.

Sources in Germany are already saying that Ralf Schumacher has negotiated a new deal with Williams to extend his contract by two more seasons, which will take him to the end of 2006. The stories say that Ralf has accepted a drop in salary from US$15m ($22m) a year to around USS9m but that he will win a considerable bonus if he is World Champion and will be allowed more personal sponsorships.

- JOE SAWARD

THE future of Jarno Trulli was not thought to be in much doubt as Fernando Alonso's team-mate at Renault next, particularly in the light of recent performances from the Italian who has overshadowed Alonso since the Spaniard's early successes this year.

Renault has yet to conclude a new deal with its test driver Allan McNish.

The team wants to promote a stable

environment on which to build success but we have still to see the outcome of the current negotiations between Renault Sport, its technical director Mike Gascyone and Toyota.

Toyota has already announced that it is not going to change its driver line up next year but it is keen to restructure its technical departments to improve the results.

3

Sprintcars Nov 15 . . .Brisbane

r

Ho Hum Silveil

.Rd 18 .Rd19

Nov 2 ... .Fontana

Renault sits pat on Drivers

-JOE SAWARD

I 1

N ck: No

THE halcyon days of German drivers dominating the grid in Grand Prix racing are becoming a distant memory.

With Felipe Massa all but confirmed as the second driver at Sauber next year, Heirtz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld are on the market and there are not many jobs going for 2004.

There may be test drives available at Ferrari and Williams but the only jobs in racing (assuming that the current 10 teams all survive) are two at Jordan, two at Minardi and one at Jaguar. Heidfeld's agent has been spotted around Jaguar Racing a fair amount in recent weeks but nothing had been announced.

moiorsport news

NEWS

sting Changes Friday testing gains support except for Guess Who? O

o \

£

I I' s 3

It's only money: While other teams want a test limit, Ferrari Luca Badoer drives around, and around, and around...

a goes on a Swiss Roll GIANCARLO Fisichella has signed a two-year deal with Red Bull Sauber Petronas.

The deal was announced in Hungary, a surprising nnove, given that Peter Sauber did not announce its second driver for next year. At the moment, it is clear that the team intends to sign Brazilian youngster Felipe Massa but there are still negotiations to be resolved between Ferrari, Sauber and Petronas over the deal. Presumably this is about the financial details of the deal more than anything, as Ferrari wants to retain Massa in the long-term but is keen that he should race and so may have to give Sauber a deal on engines and related technology. Whatever the case, that deal

is likely to be confirmed.

It is thought likely that Heinz-Harald Frentzen might be willing to stay on as a test driver while Nick Heidfeld's best hope appears to be with the Jordan team.

It is worth noting that Adriano Morini, owner of the Draco Formula 3000 team, has announced that he has freed Massa from a management contract that has been in place since 2000. Morini and his Brazilian partner Riccardo Tedeschi have sold their rights and it believed that these are now controlled by either Ferrari or Jean Todt. The day-to-day running of the business will be looked after by Todt's son Nicolas.

- JOE SAWARD

blue,$0 green c The future of nurent Jag driver Justin Wilson is uirknown. Sortie ’ obser\'ers believe that the tall Briton is doing a good job at the moment, given his relative unfamiliarity with the team's R4 racecar. However, sources suggest that he could be on his way out,leaving the way open for Jaguar to sign the German.

Heidfeld and Mark Webber are

test drive at Ferrari, or to hope that Jordan finds the money to enable the team to pick experienced drivers.

There is little hope that Frentzen will f find a drive, although we have heard |j| suggestions that he might be happy to stay on at Sauber as a test driver ^ for the Swiss team.

The problem tor Heidfeld is that unless Mercedes-Benz wants to let

both graduates of the Mercedes-Benz driver training program and have a mutual respect for each other's abilities and Jaguar is thought to be seeking a higher profile in Germany.

With Jordan and Minardi both looking for budgeted drivers for 2004, Heidfeld's only leal option ^ beyond Jaguar Racing is the second

him go,he still has another year to run on a long-term deal he has with the German manufacturer. Heidfeld's interest in Mercedes-Benz took a dive at the end of 2001 when McLaren passed him over and hired his Sauber team mate Kimi Raikkonen,a major blow for the German driver.

U -JOI

3 September 2003

f

Hungary for cash IT seems that plans for Jordan Grand Prix to run Sweden's Bjorn Wirdheim as its third driver in Monza have been axed because Hungary's Zsolt Baumgartner has come up with a pile more cash. Baumgartner made his FI debut with the team at the Hungarian 'GP and did a solid job standing in for the injured Ralph Firman. n Indianapolis Motor Speedway is to construct infield seating rather than relying on its massive grandstands around the oval and earth banks in the infield section.

These are designed for fans who want to get close to the action but have the luxury of reserved seating.

The new seating will be located at turn six at the top of the back straight and between turns 10 and 11 which will allow spectators to watch the FI cars in the corners before they accelerate out on to the oval. n The extra weekend off racing has given the Formula 1 teams the chance to show off their equipment to their fans, with Sauber and Minardi both running exhibition events.

Minardi's annual bash for the fans moved this year to Rockingham and on Saturday, team boss Paul Stoddart was doing some laps for the fans when he pushed a little too hard and hit a concrete wall.

At HinwiI, there was an exhibition n for Sauber fans, showing off some of the older Sauber machinery. During this event, held in a local car park, a C5 sports car spun, causing four fans i to suffer cuts and bruises. n Clay Ford? Ford Racing in Dearborn, Michigan, is working on a V8 race engine for the USA's sprint car and short-oval racing market. The n all-new aluminium-block unit is intended to go head-to-head with the dominant 'small block' General Motors-based V8 motors. n BAR Honda driver Jenson Button has been much in news in England in recent days as a result of his girlfriend Louise Griffiths's involvement in the BBC's Fame Academy, a show which aims to uncover new pop stars (ED: Good, just what we need). Griffiths was down to the last eight but failed to impress the public, the judges and her fellow competitors on Saturday night and was voted out of the competition.

This means that 'Louise's Boyfriend' can now go back to being plain old Jenson Button once again. n The Whiteways Technical Centre in Enstone, the home of the Renault FI team, is being expanded with the construction of a new logistics building for the team's race trucks. The team will now expand its composites department and materials research department, and . is also adding a gearbox dynamometer to the facility.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 11

Michelin thrown a curveball EVEN with Michelin having the upper hand in Formula One's tyre war,rubber is all the talk in FI at the moment.

The FIA's Charlie Whiting last week circulated a letter to teams warning that "it has become clear that under certain circumstances the total front tyre contact patch on some cars can exceed 270mm in width.

"With immediate effect, any part of a front tyre which we consider has been in regular or systematic contact with the track will be deemed tread and will be taken into account when measuring the width of the tyre as defined in the regulations."

The result of this has been a series of reports suggesting that the FIA has changed the tyre rules. This is not strictly the case, as it seems that the federation is simply acting to protect itself after what appears to have been an unofficial complaint from one of the teams running on Bridgestone tyres.

Ferrari denies that it is involved in this but it is an amazing coincidence that the tyre issue has emerged after the Italian team received a hammering in the Itali after M

Schumacher was lapped in Flungary and a few days later FIA President Max Mosley and Whiting were spotted visited Ferrari headquarters in Maranello.

Stewards to define the meaning of "contact patch" and if those involved do not like the decision made the whole matter can be referred to the FIA International

After the humiliation of Budapest, Ferrari President Luca di

Court of Appeal for a final ruling.

Matters are complicated by the fact that Michelin claims to have an FIA document that indicates that its front tyre profile has been deemed "to comply with the FI Regulations".

Michehn has also made the very valid point that there is nothing that can be done to change the situation unless the FLA makes it known what

Montezemolo was quoted as saying that "Hungary must never be repeated" and asked Ferrari's technical partners "to put in an extraordinary effort to respond to the strong competition in order to be as competitive as possible."

The message was clearly aimed at Bridgestone and although the Japanese tyre company denies any involvement in the complaint to Ae FIA,it is unlikely that such a move would have been made without considerable consultation between the parties involved.

The complaint puts the FIA in a difficult position because it cannot easily ignore such a thing and then be seen to have done so if the problem becomes public and a warning letter to the teams is probably the best compromise. It is now up to the FLA to decide what is "regular or systematic contact with the track".

If a car is deemed to have

procedures will be employed to measure the width of the contact patch at Monza.

"We can expect some difficulties in the definition," a Michelin statement said,"since a tyre in its use can be in systematic contact with various objects,for example kerbs, which,according to their profile and position, can touch up as far as the middle of the side walls."

When measured at rest all the

De F< CART and IndyCar great Gil de Ferran will retire at the end of the season.

'The Brazilian veteran, who has won two CART titles and the 2003 Indianapohs 500, will close tire chapter on his career at the final race of the IRL season m Texas on October 12. His place at Marlboro Team Penske will be taken by Sam Hornish Jr (see separate story).

De Ferran,35, has suffered two serious crashes in the last 12 months and won the Indy 500 in May despite driving with a painful back injury, suffered at Phoenix in March.

"I felt it was important to stop while I was at my best," de Ferran said.

"I wanted to wait until the end of the season to announce to everyone

"current FI tyres comply with the tread width regulation.

With the title fight so finely balanced, it would be a shame if the season was ruined by discord over

,5

Hornish j

Not Branes, Braun

THIS is the swish new look that GMR Team Braun will carry into battle in the Carrera Cup. Peter Hill, Roger Oakeshott and Tim Leahy will wear the colours of German shavermeisters Braun in the all-911 GTS series.

“We have been talking to Mark (Tysoe) and Ian Coleman for a number of months now and their decision to back our new team is one we are determined to make a winner,' said immaculateiy-groomed team boss, Greg Murphy.'

12

ri" paw

LESS than two weeks after looking to join the rush into NASCAR racing, Sam Hornish Jr has confirmed that he will join Team Penske.

The 24-year-old American had been expected to join the chase for the Nextel Cup next season but will now join the IRL IndyCar League's premier team. He will replace the retiring Gil de Ferran,

Renault-engined Forr Formula 3000 is going to get a major revamp in 2005, with a change of engine on the cards.

The Formula 3000 field shrank to 13 cars at Hungary and there are similar problems with numbers in the rival European Formula 3000, the Formula Nissan and Formula Renault V6 championships.

There is little logic in having four competing series all trying to establish themselves as the important formula, particularly as Nissan and Renault are

motorsport news

NEWS

srran xo

Cold Turkey

my decision to stop driving, however,] realise it is in the team's best interest for me to do so at this time so they have the opportunity to hire the best possible driver. I feel they have done so with Sam." Team owner Roger Penske heaped praise on his departing driver; "Gil's commitment to the team produced two national championships, eight victories, including our 100th win, and our 13th Indianapolis 500-mile race victory," Penske said in a statement.

"He has certainly made a place in Penske Racing history as one of our great drivers."

De Ferran won the 1992 British Formula 3 championship and moved to F3000, taking three race wins in

seasons. After a brief stint as a Formula One test driver, during which he had track time with both Williams and Footwork, he moved to , one wm. the CART series in 1995 with Hall The following year, de Ferran moved to Team Penske. He won the Racing, winning the rookie of the year title. In the fmal race of the title in convincing fashion and season at Laguna Seca, he won his successfully defended the crown the first CART race. following year, before the team In 1997 he moved to Walker announced that it was moving to the Racing, replacing Robbie Gordon.

IRL IndyCar Championship. He finished third in the 2002 Despite failmg to win a race, he finished second in the series, but the championship, and this year led Penske's third consecutive 1-2 finish team struggled the following year, falling to 12th with no wins. In 1999, at the Brickyard.

-PHIL MORRIS he finished eighth in the series, with VI

oins Penske posse "The opportunity to drive for the most successful open-wheel team in history and to follow in the footsteps of the organization's remarkable driver lineage, including GU,is an honour," Hornish said.

Hornish has won two IRL crowns, in 2001 and 2002. He is the winningest driver in the series history, with nine victories. The Ohio native has raced for the Pennzoil

lufa 2 cars in 2005? sister companies.

We hear that the plan is for Renaull Sport to become the engine supplier although the engines will probably be based on a John Judd unit rather than a production-based Renault engine.

This will take away the need for the Renault V6 series and Formula Nissan and if costs can be cut the European Formula 3000 series will-fade away.

Formula 3000 will also become known as Formula 2} -JOESAWARD

3 September 2003

Panther team since 2000, after a successful career in US F2000 and Formula Atlantic.

While the team has made no

announcement, it is expected that Hornish will take in some NASCAR events next season, running in a third car. Penske operates a NASCAR team with drivers Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman.

-PHIL MORRIS

NO Turkish delight? There could be trouble ahead for one of the new races calculated by FOM boss Bernie Ecclestone to keep tobacco money in Formula 1.

Ecclestone has signed a letter of intent for an inaugural race in 2005, and a new track is consequently now under build near Istanbul. But an undersecretary at the Ministry of Health in Ankara has thrown an unpredicted spanner in the works by stating that cigarette sponsorship is unlikely to be allowed at the race.

Implying that his Ministry had not been consulted on the nation's Grand Prix project, Necdet Unuvar said: "If anyone asks us, we will say that cigarette commercials are not appropriate."

Turkey is currently preparing to join the European Union, and Dr Elif Dagli, a member of the nation's Cigarette & Health National Committee, went further. Stressing that cigarette logos had been featured 5933 times during TV coverage of a recent Grand Prix, Dr Dagli told the 'Zaman' newspaper that tobacco firms were attempting to keep Formula 1 out of the scope of Turkey's Law 4207, which aims to "prevent the medical damage done by tobacco products." n Canada's federal government in Ottawa has denied a clear statement from one of its ministers that it was ready to 'bend' its anti-tobacco law to accommodate the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.

Immigration Minister Denis Coderre said that the government was now ready to exempt foreign tobacco companies at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in exchange for the addition of trackside anti-cigarette billboards. However Steven Hogue, a spokesman for PM Jean Chretien, responded: "The government has no intention whatsoever of amending this legislation." n The BAR Formula 1 team is willing to race without its 'Lucky Strike' cigarette branding if the Canadian Grand Prix is reinstated on the calendar. Imperial Tobacco Canada announced. The team's major shareholder, British American Tobacco, was asked for the concession by its Montreal subsidiary.

"We tried to impress on them how important such a decision would be for Montreal, indeed for all of Canada, and they agreed this was the right thing to do," said Imperial CEO Bob Bexon. n Mercedes-Benz Motorsport in Stuttgart has vigorously denied German media reports to the effect that its entire Formula 1 engine operation is to be housed under one roof to the llmor Engineering factory in Brixworth, UK. - QUENTIN SPURRING 13

ALL three competing Australians took something out of the British F3 Championship double-header at Spa last weekend.

Although a part of the British Championship,the race also featured guest appearances from leading F3 Euro Series competitors, which allowed Sydney's Ryan Briscoe to run head-to-head against British series regulars Will Power and Will Davison, albeit without being allowed to score points.

Power,above, claimed first bragging rights when he took his Fortec DaUara around the rollercoaster circuit in the fourth-fastest time. Briscoe was 0.3s adrift in sixth, while Davison, making his first appearance for Menu Motorsport after leaving ADR,was 13th quickest in the wet session.

The second qualifying session was complicated by a flurry of yellow flags, however Briscoe still managed to post the fifth quickest time. Power could manage no better than 19th after suffering from mechanical problems, while Davison initially qualified 15th before being dropped to 22nd after havmg his best time scrapped for passing under yellows.

"1 didn't see any flags, so to be moved back and have my fastest time disallowed was pretty disappointing," he said.

Of the Aussies, the star of the first race was Power. Despite the variable track conditions that caught a number of his rivals out.Power stayed in touch with the leading trio. He had just passed Nelson Piquet Jr to take third and was dosing in on the battle

for first and second when the safety car was brought out to rescue a couple of stranded cars. A sudden downpour caused the race to be red-flagged a lap later, and Power was unlucky to be demoted back to fourth on countback.

"We were really quick," said Power."It was just uiflucky that the red flag came out when it did, because we were in a good position and catching the leaders."

Briscoe finished sixth, while Davison gained two spots to finish 14th.

But better was to come for the Victorian in Race 2, when he made a lightning start from P22 and carved his way aroimd the famous Belgian circuit to eventually finish 11th. Two of the cars ahead of him were non point scoring Euro cars, which vaulted Davo to ninth and sent him

home with some unexpected points.

"This weekend was all about getting comfortable in the car and with the team,not so much on the results," said Davison.

"It's important that I've raced at Spa. The experience from racing here will be filed away in the memory bank for next time for sure!"

Briscoe finished fourth in the second race after some tough scrapping at the head of the field, while Power had to settle for 17th after what he described as "just a bad race."

Both races were won by runaway series leader Alan van der Merwe, however there will still be plenty for Davison and Power to play for when the Championship continues at Donington next week.

Davo Now On The Menu BRITISH Formula 3 contender Will Davison has changed teams.

The 21-year-old Melbourne driver \will in race the remaining rounds of the 2003 British F3 ; Championship with Menu Motorsport, which is managed by Aussie Mick Kouros. Davison debuted in his new Dallara/Opel-Speiss at SpaFrancorchamps in Belgium last weekend.

“Naturally enough, the recent lack of results has forced us to come to a difficult decision to part company with Alan Docking Racing, which was borne out of the fact that the budget for the season from our investors was drying up due to the lack of results," said Davison.

"We parted with ADR on totally amicable terms and sat down to plan just where we would go from there. On Tuesday of this week, a budget came through and there was a seat available at Menu Motorsport, so the deal all came together relatively quickly, really." motorsport news

Collect the three parts of Rusty s jig-saw puzzle (from this and the past two issues of MlNews), put them in an envelope, along with your name,address and contact details and get it to us by the closing date.

If your entry is the one drawn,then you and a friend will win our exclusive prize: n Air travel for two to the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 from your nearest Australian capital city; W Two nights accommodation; n Grandstand seats for.Saturday and Sunday; n Caltex Havoline racewear

AND TO CAP IT ALL OFF

Hauoline \ Premium

1 20W.SI

n A guided tour of the Stone Brothers Racing garage with the Enforcer himself!

HOW TO EiMTER 1. Collect the three parts which make up the picture puzzle of The Enforcer (third piece is on the right of this page). The first and second pieces appeared in the September 3 and 17 issues of MNews respectively.(Only original pieces, cut from MNews may be used - no photocopies)

2. Put all three pieces in an envelope, along with your name, address and contact details, and get it to us by the closing date, Thursday 11 September 2003.

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Gardenvale. VIC 3186. Multiple entries are accepted. Jig-saw pieces MUST be originals. The Promoter accepts no rcsponsibilltv lor late, lost or misdirecled mail. The Promoter reserves llic nghi to verily the validity of entries. 3. The promotion commences on 6/8/03 and closes al 5pm EST 11/9/03- The promoHon will be drawn on 12/9/03 al 357 Nepean Highway. Brighton East. Victoria.

The v/inner v/ili he contacted by phone and/or mail and iheir name published in Molorsport News on 17/9/03. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The winning eniry will v/in a trip for 2 people lo Bathurst, including return economy air travel (tom the v/tmior's nenresl Australian capital

Send completed entries to us on or before Thursday 11 September 2003 to: Join The Enforcer at Bathurst Competition, PO Box 7072, Gardenvale ViC 3186 City to Saliiursl. 2 weekend grandstand tickets to Ihe 2003 Bob Jane Tinarts 1000. two nights twin-stiarc accommodation. Caltex Havoline merchandise and a personally guided tour of the SBR pit garage with Russell Ingall. The garage tour must be taken on the Saturday at a time determined by the SBR team. The pri^o is subicci to booking and IlighI avaliahility and llights cannot be changed once tickets have been arranged. 5. Spending money, meats, taxes, insurance, transport to and from departure point, transfers and all other costs incurred as a restill.of taking Ihe prize are the responsibility of Ihe winner. The prize is not transferable or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. 6. The prize v/mnec

and their comp ion agree lo comply with Ihe Conditions of Entry lo the Event. The prize v/mner acknowledges that motor racing and any related activities arc dangerous and accidents can liappori. and (hat participation in any prize has a degree of danger.

7. All entries become Ihe properly of Ihe Promoter. Hovrever. details concerning enlranls will not be made available lo any organisabon or dalabaso. 8. II winner ts tinder Ihe age ol 18 years, the prize v/ill he av/ardod to a member ot the winner’s immediate lamily (as nominated by the winner) provided such person is 18 years of age or over and complies with all of the above conditions.

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NEWS

James goes fourth

Taku sorted?

BAR'S David Richards will neither . confirm nor deny paddock talk that , his team is poised to promote its test driver, Honda protege Takuma Sato, to replace long-time employee . Jacques Villeneuve. Richards does not plan to make any announcement until the Japanese finale in October.

Courtney shines in damp Formuia Nippon debut JAMES Courtney has placed the Formula Nippon regulars on notice after a strong debut at Mount Fuji.

The Sydney youngster,in the first of four drives with the 5 Zigen team, quahfied a disappointing 16th but, after wholesale changes, charged in the race.

"The track was a bit damp and 1 got a good start, made four or five positions on the first lap," he said.

"It dried out pretty quickly -1 think our set-up was best in those damp conditions - and 1 stayed around 11th until it began to drizzle again."

The real moves came when

Zigen in the Rain: Courtney made an impressive start at Mt Fuji.

r

Courtney made his compulsory tyre pitstop. His crew called him in as a Safety Car was summoned and he rejoined alonside leader Benoit Treluyer. Courtney slotted in behind

the Frenchman and held his position until the track dried out, forcing him to cede to Satoshi Motoyama and fellow former Jaguar test driver Andre Loiterer. Still, he held onto fourth at the end of the race.

n Having stepped up from ; Minardi to replace fellow Formula 1 n rookie Antonio Pizzonia, Justin . Wilson still has a battle to retain his

After the restart, it dried out again and Courtney lost a couple of spots to finish fourth.

"Given where we were at the start of the weekend,I think it was a reasonable first-up result," said Courtney.

The 22-year-old returns to his Japanese F3 campaign this weekend while manager Alan Gow is getting busy, with offers for a Nippon seat for the 2004 season sure to arrive thick and fast.

. place at Jaguar Racing alongside the ; impressive Australian Mark Webber l next year.

Jaguar's Tony Purnell commented: "Justin is hoping to impress us and we're very much hoping to be impressed by him. Then we'll take stock and look at next year. But if a driver has a sponsor in tow, then he is more attractive..."

For 5 Minutes with James Courtney see page 28

SO does Mupcho!

Cix/ak ^oaelle presents

E

, /

^ RACE CAR DYNAMICS AND DAIA.ACQUISfflQN SEMINARS,,

w.."-

- ●»

e

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DO YOU KNOI//V/HAT YOU DONrKNOlV?

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CHRISTIAN Murchison has scored his best results of the season in Formula Renault V6.

At Spa in Belgium, the West Australian qualified eighth and sixth for the two races in his DAMS car and, after equalling his best result to date with a sixth in Race 1, brought home the bacon with fourth in the season outing.

"The start of the first race was really hairy!" he said after the race.

"I made a good start and, just before Eau Rouge, I banged wheels with Jaime Melo in the wet and I caught it. He fell back (which was good) and I passed a few cars to finish sixth, just behind Matt Halliday.

"It was a bit of a challenge.

The car itself was not damaged but the steering was a little bent.

3 September 2003

n Only in America? Bristol Motor Speedway experienced spectacular growth in one promotion prior to the Sharpie 500 Winston Cup race, when 23 marriages were conducted on its : tarmac by Sullivan County court clerk Sue Jones. The Tennessee oval first offered weddings in August 2002 after NASCAR rescheduling left the track free on the Saturday morning.

Only 11 couples tied the knot there last year.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

Modern racing has become extremely competitive. It's not only about finding the correct set up, it's also about understanding why a set up change is working or not, knowing how to quantify this advantage and knowing how to reduce the time and money spent on the racetrack to find the best setup. These seminars allow participants to improve the skills required to understand, analyse and predict race car performance, which

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That meant that the car was a bit of a handful on the faster corners but we pressed on and held position.

"In Race 2, I got another good start. Melo was right alongside me again - 1 am getting used to having him around, it seems to happen a lot! - but I held him out on the first lap and we started a battle.

"It was typical Spa. He was carrying a little more wing than I was, so he was all over me in the corners but on the two long straights, I was able to pull a gap and hold him out for another lap. ' "Then Kousuke Matsuura caught him and went past, right onto my tail. We ran four laps nose-to-tail in the dry before it started to rain. That caused a bit of action and the race was redflagged."

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NEWS BOTHWfLL

MG Big on Brantfs

I VAUXHALL'S dominance of the ' British Touring Car : Championship is slowly coming i to an end after MG took both wins in rounds 15 and 16 at Brand Hatch recently.

Warren Hughes, right, scored his first win for the year, fighting off determined pole-sitter Yvan Muller to claim the Race 1 win, Hughes's MG team-mate Colin Turldngton scored the Race 2 victory, his maiden series win, in dramatic circumstances.

Turkington snatched the lead from Muller on the last lap after a |- late-race safety car.

Muller then got caught in a : tangle with MG's Anthony Reid, which sent both cars spearing into

scenery. Muller recovered to finish fifth but was less than happy with Reid after the race.

The pair staged a push-and-shove match in parc-ferme , and championship leader Muller had his licence taken away from him .● for 11 days. This means he will ' miss the first day of practice at the penulitimate round of the BTCC at Donington Park this weekend.

Muller's team-mate, James Thompson, fell further behind in the points chase. The former champion only finished fifth and 10th in the two rounds.

Points; Muller 183, Thompson 158, O'Neill 119, Neat 114, Reid 103, Morrison 99, Hughes 75.

UALE:

Tony RuM

TONY Rudd, the British engineer responsible for the series of BRM V12 race engines, has died at the age of 81, ahead of scheduled heart surgery.

Rudd served the British Formula 1

chassis-engine constructor for 19 years as its chief engineer and also as its team manager until 1969, when he 'was recruited by Group Lotus as its engineering director until his retirement in 1991. Over more than 50 years as an engineer in the field of high-performance engine development, he became a worldrenowned authority, highly respected for his readiness to innovate.

From a pre-war school holiday involvement with Prince Chula and 'B, Bira' and their ERA racecars, Rudd went on to become an

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engineering apprentice at RollsRoyce in Derby. After a wartime spent working on aero engine service and durability operations, he was seconded to Raymond Mays's troubled BRM factory in Bourne, Lincolnshire. There he caught the

motor racing bug for good, and never did return to Rolls-Royce.

Under Rudd's stewardship, BRM won the Formula 1 Constructors' championship and brought Graham Hill his first Driver's title in 1962.

Seven years later, he was controversially replaced at BRM (by Aubrey Woods) and instead joined Colin Chapman at Lotus, where he worked for more than 20 years.

Rudd's entertaining autobiography was entitled simply: 'It Was Fun'.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

i Honda and SCV8 is go

Honda has approved the bodywork silhouette of its four-door Accord model for Britain’s new SCV8 Supercar Championship, which will be launched next season using 550bhp V8 engines built by Nicholson McLaren, in bespoke rear-drive chassis engineered by Andy Rouse. Meanwhile, Rouse shook down his prototype SCV8, in a Jaguar X-type body, at Silverstone, completing 40 laps in the new racecar without mechanical problems.

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You can't pass j HILIO CastFoneves scored nis second victory for the year and became tbe series points I leader at Nazareth Speedway recently.

Castroneves’s Team Penske [ Dallara/Toyota led the final 173 [ laps, crossing the finish line I 0.1‘697s in front of Panther Racing’s Sam Homish Jr. who pressured Helio all the way to the flag.

Honda-powered Bryan Herta continued his impressive form.

I finishing third.

Castroneves, who kept his fence climbing antics alive, right, was delighted with the win, especially for his Penske team.

“It was very good:” said Castroneves.'Tm extremely happy for the team, especially I here in the backyard of Team Penske. I could not disappoint my guys.

The team’s second driver. Indy j 500 winner Gil de Ferran finished j in fourth place and now sits second ! in the title fight. It was de Ferran’s noth top I’O finishJn-a-row.

Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, the other series contenders, had a difficult Nazereth outing.

Dixon started from pole position and ledThe first 52 laps I before a halfshaft problem halted j his charge.

"It just doesn’t seem like we I are meant to win the Championship." said the Kiwi.

"We have ied so many races amd been fastest and then had silly little problems."

Kanaan entered the race on

Si ^-9

top of the points, but on lap 120, Chip Ganassi's Tomas Seheckter clipped the right rear of Kanaan's Dallara, sending both vehicles into the wall at turn two.

Kenny Brack finished fifth, ahead of Al Unser Jr.. Dan Wheldon and Roger Yasukawa.

Castroneves’s win was Toyota’s 10th for the year. This clinched the Japanese company the IRi Manufacturer's Championship.

Sarah Fisher did not start the race after a major incident during Saturday practice at.turn two.

Fisher was released from' hospital the following day ater suffering a severe back contusion.

The IRL IndyCar Series will continue at Chicagoland Speedway.

- PHIL MORRIS

WITH rumours swirling around the paddock about the team's future in the Champ Car World Series, Newman/Haas executed a magnificent onetwo at Denver,coinciding with the team's 350th CART race last weekend.

Bruno Junquiera converted pole into a magnificent race win ahead of team-mate Sebastian Bourdais.

Oriol Servia kept in touch with the Newman/Hass duo, but eventually finished 12s off the front-runners after holding off CART Championship leader Paul Tracy.

Junquiera sustained mid-race pressure from Bourdais, a handful of caution periods and a slight brush with the wall to claim his second win at the Denver street course in as many years.

1 like Denver more and more each time I come back here, said the Brazilian.

Parly Crasher Cai<e!aMX^

Points: Castroneves 429, de Ferran 404, Kanaan 397, Dixon 387, MOrnish

EARTS

"This is for sure a big win for Newman/Haas Racing, finishing one-two in their 350th start is great. Scoring more points for the championship is big too, this is exactly what I needed."

Rookie of the year leader Bourdais was also extremelly happy with his Denver result and was in awe of his team-mate's performance, "i tried as hard as I could but never had a chance to get Bruno," said Bourdais. "He is tough on the street circuits."

After a spin in the final qualifying session, Tracy started the race from a lowly ninth, but picked up three places on the first lap of the race. The Canadian inherited another place when his Player's/Forsythe team-mate Patrick Carpentier crashed out of the race.

Slick pit work frm his team eventually gave him fourth overall, and a handy 18-points in front of championship rival Junqueira.

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IRL / CART

Newman/Haas Adrian Fernandez finished fifth, ahead of Michel Jourdain Jr. American Spirit Team Johansson had a scare in pit lane when a fire broke out while refeuling Ryan Hunter-Reay's Reynard.

"I was told verbally and motioned to go, so I did," Hunter-Reay recalled. "The next

●w.

thing I knew, I felt a massive heat wave coming over me and realised I was on fire."

Hunter-Reay and the crew escaped the mishap unharmed.

- PHIL MORRIS

Points; Tracy 204, Junqueira 186, Jourdain Jr. 165, Bourdais 142, Carpentier 128, Servia 108, Fernandez 92.

PaciliCai®

Salo makes CART debut

I

^

3

Winner: Junqueira steered his Newman/Haas Lola to pole, above, and the Denver race win, below.

MIKA Salo made his Champ Car debut at Denver last weekend, and the ex-FI driver was on course for a top 10 finish after a spin early in the race. He was eventually taken out by Tago Monterio on lap 84.

"It was a disappointing ending to what could have been a great race for us," said the Finn. "1 was going at the same pace as the leader (and) the guys did great pit stops. We were able to gain spots in the pits all day." Salo will return at the next round at Miami on September 28.

■ Darren Manning became one of the most successful Champ Car drivers of all time at Denver. The young Brit scored another top 10 result (eighth), which gives him the most number of consecutive top 10 results by a CART rookie.

58,000 SCREAMING Canadians turned out to see one of their homeboys take a win on native soil, but they left the circuit disappointed.

Team Rahal's Michel Jourdain Jr. spoiled the party at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, beating home Oriol Servia in a battle fought all the way to the flag.

Patrick Carpentier finished third despite some minor issues with his gearbox and brakes.

Jourdain took the lead on lap 65 and held on to record his second career win.

Servia, who has experienced horrible results in the last three

"This is a great day for Team Rahal and Gigante," said the Mexican, left. "The car was perfect today, and the crew gave me some of

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3 September 2003

races, was well pleased to be back on the pace; "I was saving my car in the first two stints but when it was time to go fast I was still having trouble catching Alex." "(But) this is a good result for us and should give us momentum for

Denver."

Championship leader Paul Tracy ran home a subdued sbdh after * running out of fuel within sight of the finish line. He lost two places in the confusion, but holds a comfortable series lead over Bruno Junqueira, who had another disasterous result.

Junqueira finished in 13th place, two laps down, out of points and in desperate need of a decent result.

Mario Dominguez finished fifth ahead of Tracy, Roberto Moreno, Adrian Fernandez and Max Papis.

The first Reynard home was Darren Manning, who finished 10th. This gave him seven top 10 finishes in a row, which is the most for a Champ Car rookie in over 15 years.

■ Jacques Lazier returned to the IRL fold at Nazareth Speedway, replacing the injured Vitor Meira in Team Menard's Dallara/Chevrolet.

Lazier, who broke his back at Nazareth last year driving for Menards, was forced to pull out of this year's event after hitting the turn three wall during practice. The team withdrew the entry before the race started.

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the best pit stops this season," Poleman Alex Tagliani was hoping for a debut victory on home turf and led the majority of the race.

During the early stages of the event, Tagliani was able to build a margin of 7s. But high fuel consumption and a safety car played against the French-Canadian, and he eventually finished fourth.

■ Felipe Giaffone stepped into an IndyCar for the first time since suffering fractures to his right leg and pelvis in an accident at the Kansas Indy 300 in early July.

"It's just great, really great to be back," said Giaffone. "My leg wasn't a big issue. (But) towards the end of the day, it was getting a little tired."

Giafonne tested at Chicagoland with his Mo Nunn Racing team.

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21

Hedepics takes Safari SEVEN years after winning his sixth Australian Safari victory on a bike,John Hederics finally achieved his dream of becoming the first person to win the gruelling cross country marathon on four wheels and two.

The Mildura farmer piloted his modified Nissan Patrol to a 27m45s win over Peter Brock's production Holden Rodeo ute.

The Safari was marked by torrential rain on the first day in the far west of NSW that caused two days of competition to be cancelled to prevent damage to farmers' roads. The rain-shortened 2003 Safari saw just over 1500 kilometres of competitive stages after losing 600 kilometres on the two

b'

cancelled legs with 55 of the 71 starters making it to the finish.

Hederics took the lead on ML

L Putting in a new landing: Nathan Pretty had a fraught time in the second Holden Rodeo but still managed to put on a show for the lads in the helicopters ...

day four of the eight day event, storming ahead on leg 4 from White Cliffs to Broken Hill, and was never headed from there to the finish.

While Hederics had a

relatively trouble-free run to victory his successor as Safari Moto master Andy Caldecott gave himself a massive 20 minute handicap after drowning his bike in the Macquarie River less than an hour from the start in Bathurst.

If that wasn't enough, Caldecott also battled severe shoulder pain after colliding with a kangaroo and a heavy crash on the penultimate day.

His efforts in winning his fourth straight Australian Safari on a bike have also given the Adelaide rider the lead in the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship with two rounds remaining.

For Hederics, the win was a dream come true and a fitting reward for his persistence and skill, overcoming the bad luck that has robbed him of a win on four wheels since switching from bikes in 1997.

"It has always been a dream of mine to win both the Auto and Moto divisions in the

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22 t

NEWS Safari and I'm pleased we have finally been able to achieve it," he said.

"The event could not have gone any easier for us. It's funny, when you're doing it tough the bad things seem worse than what they really are, but this year everything just seemed so easy. I know that's not normally the case, so I'll treasure this victory even more," he said.

Caldecott admitted his fourth straight victory aboard the KTM 660 Rallye was aided

by Honda rival Paul Sinderberry's navigational error when he took a wrong road within a few kilometres of his home town of Condobolin, costing him a three minute penalty. Just 2mS8s separated Sinderberry from Caldecott at the finish Despite the lost time, the accidents and the injuries, we just never gave up hope and that makes this victory so good. I thought three-in-a-row was special, but this just blows it away," said Caldecott.

I'm not feeling any pain now,having won the event. but I sure felt some pain when I crashed a few times.

Peter Brock's drive to second

outright in the near-stock Rodeo was a triumph for the Holden team and its largely unproven ute after switching from its Jackeroos that have dominated the event in recent years.

'The Safari is full of moments and just reaching the finish is one of them," a relieved Brock said.

"The course was a huge test - one slip-up and it was easy to go off the road and out of the event. We have seen some beautiful country over the past eight days, but we have also been through one very difficult race."

It was Brock's second outright runner-up finish in the event, having achieved the same in 2001, while it was also his third class victory in the past three years.

Jeff Portman made his return to competitive rallying after a 13-year layoff by joining his Holden Rally Team team-mate on the podium,finishing third overall in his standard Rodeo, while Paul Sinderberry took second in the Moto division and his Glenn Hoffman Racing Honda team-mate, Andrew Coaker, was third.

-JON THOMSON

I want one too

AFTER months of speculation, Peugeot has confirmed its WRC driver line-up for 2004.

World Champion Marcus Gronholm will be joined in the three-man squad by current team mate Harri Rovanpera and Belgian Freddy Loix.

The Belgian, currently a Hyundai driver, was sought by several teams as, despite his experience, he is yet to make a podium in the WRC, as per the new-for-2004 regulations.

Rovanpera, who drove for the

Castrol congratulates Barton Mawer on three consecutive round wins to take the leacl iini the Ausitraiaini Formyila 3 Chaimipionshijp 3 September 2003

French team on a limited program this year, will now move into a full time drive for the first time in his career.

Peugeot will also field a fourth 2003-spec car for the majority of the championship, either directly or through favoured privateer team Bozian Racing. Swede Daniel Carlsson will drive the entry on at least eight gravel rounds.

All drivers are expected to run in Peugeot's stunning new 307 WRC, below, which is already undergoing testing in Europe.

/ /

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OPINION

Goodbye to an Old Friend H

OWARD Marsden was one of the most remarkable men I have ever met in motor

\

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Motop Mouth with John Bowe

"Howard was always noted as the mastermind of Ford's Falcon GT HO, which created a golden era. But he knew so much about all n manner of other things

-JB on Marsden, below

racing.

He was so unassuming,and yet he did so much throughout his life in racing. In the mid to late 1990s, when he was still at Tickford, we used to do a lot of gigs around the country, with the dealers. Rick Naylor, David Cuff, Howard and myself used to travel around the capital cities with a range of Tickford products. David Segal (who was involved in the PR side of Ford) and I used to always urge Howard to write a book but he was too unassuming to do that.

He was a very private person but he had a wicked sense of humour.

H

oward is one of the reasons I am driving a V8 Supercar now.

In 1985, he was Nissan's motorsport manager and I was racing an open-wheeler - but I figured that the only way to kick on in this country was to race a touring car.

I had heard on the grapevine that Nissan was going to run series for the Pulsar FT Turbo, with all the major touring car drivers of the day - except for Peter Brock, who was so closely associated with Holden.

So, we had AUan Grice, Dick Johnson, Bob Morris, Geoff Portman, George Fury, Glenn Seton and so on.

I rang Howard up every single day to nag him and,in the end,I think that he gave me a drive just to get rid of me! To his credit, he always knew why I was ringing him but he always took my call.

He would always give advice to people - not just drivers, but engineers, mechanics,everyone. He always had time for anyone. For a man in his position, who achieved all he had achieved, he could have been a big-time charlie, but he never was.

H

e also had an incredible knowledge of the sport.

Howard was always noted as the mastermind of Ford's Falcon GT HO, which created a golden era. But he knew so much about all manner of other things. We would chat over dinner when we were travelling around the country and we would try to come up with questions that would stump him; "Howard, who drove the Aston Martin in such-and-such a race in 1959?" He would always know the answers. Only full-on motorsport fools like us would be remotely interested in things like that, but he would always know the answers.

Amazing.

The sad part for me is that he will never have the time he wanted for

3 Sepiember 2003

himself. He put so much into the BA project and he had a huge influence on the whole motorsport culture within Ford.

In 1995,1 was in the same position that Marcos Ambrose is in now. At DJR, we had the best Ford in the series and we were winning races. But riobody at Ford was interested, at all.

All the turnaround that we have had, that has got us to where we are now,came about because of Howard, and the fact that he was supported by Ford President Geoff Polites. Now racing is part of the Ford culture again. A huge achievement.

With the BA program, Howard took a lot of the things that used to be left to the teams in-house. He was able to recognise that the company's expertise in engineering, combined with some very talented people, would bear fruit on the track. That had never been done before. Ford became involved.

The BA is an outstanding race car well,some of them are outstanding but I am yet to hear one person publicly acknowledge how much of a contribution Howard made to that.

And that did not concern him one little bit -1 know,because I asked him. And that was how he was. A measure of the man.

I am sad that, at the stage of his life when he was looking forward to taking the time to smell the roses, and spend some time on his property, he should be taken by that terrible disease. To me,that is the most tragic part of all.

The endurance races arethese coming up fast.

Most of the races days are endurance races, so I guess the big change for Sandown and Bathurst is that we have two drivers for each car.

That brings with it a whole set of issues. When you have drivers of diverse sizes, like Brad Jones and me, you have a problem. Bradley likes to sit like he is in a Jason recliner, while he thinks I sit like I am in a half-open pocket knife!

Because of that, we will have a little 'dickey' seat, so that is not too much of a problem. But it does make the pit stops a bit funny.

I am glad that the race is at Sandown. The place has a lot of history and often I think we do not pay enough attention to those things.

It is a great circuit for that kind of race and always throws up its own challenges. I think that Dick and 1 led every race there over a period of 10 years and only won two of them.

But,in the OzEmail team, Bradley and I, and Andy and the Mad Scot, will be doing our best job. It should be a great weekend.

25

The Luck of tl T

HERE are times when you marvel at the luck that you see in Formula 1 circles.

People inside FI often forget that all of those who are involved in the sport are the lucky ones.

You can argue that we make our own luck or that there is no such thing as luck, but I have never really believed that.

Some people are born lucky, others are not. The difference in Formula 1 is that we never get to see the unlucky people because they never make it to Grand Prix racing and end up bored, in dreary jobs, dreaming about what might have been.

worked exactly as they should have done. That vvas not luck. It was brilliant technology. Right now, so they tell me, the FI safety men are embarking on a project to save the lives of drivers in a 200kmh head-on crash. That may sound impossible but not when you think that my grandfather thought that sending men to the Moon was a waste of money because he knew that the Moon was made :~r

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of cheese... ^ B ut Firman's crash allowed another kind of luck to fall upon a littleknown Hungarian driver named Zsolt Baumgartner.

Zsolt has done nothing of any real note in Formula 3000 but he's wealthy and it was decided that he would shell out a rumoured

ow, you can say that Ralph Firman was 'lucky' not to hurt himself seriously in his accident in Hungary but that would be a wrong use of the word. FI's safety engineers have worked long and hard on designing systems that will save a driver's life in a high speed accident.

Firman was the beneficiary of that technology. All the systems designed to protect him

$550,000 to be the Jordan Grand Prix test driver for the weekend in Budapest. That gave him two hours of running and lots of publicity in Hungary.

But then on Saturday afternoon, Firman crashed, Jordan needed a second driver and - "Oh look, there's Zsolt!" He was hanging around with a Jordan racing suit, a ready made seat and a helmet. And so Hungary got its first Formula 1 driver.

Spare a thought, please, for Marc Gene, Luca Badoer and Alexander Wurz, the test drivers of the top three teams, who have been hanging around for years waiting for just such a chance ...

To give him credit, Zsolt did a good solid job but I don't expect there to be a huge rush over the winter to sign him up for 2004 ...

You havehad to say that Fernando Alonso more than his fair share of good luck in Budapest as well. The Renault has been underpowered all year and noone, not even the team itself, thought there was much of a chance of a win.

But in Hungary the Renault worked perfectly. It was still not a match for the Williams-BMW or the McLaren-Mercedes but it won the race. And for that Alonso has Mark Webber to thank. Webber and the Williams starting software.

The race starts. The two Williams-BMWs come off the line as though driven by a pair of little old ladies and, just to make it perfect, Ralf Schumacher gets into a flap and screws up at Turn 2 and spins. And then dear old Mark Webber successfully holds back all the other cars until Alonso has a big enough lead to be uncatchable.

Baumgartner was hanging around with a Jordan racing suit, a ready-made seat and a heimet. And so Hungary got its first Formula 1

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FORMULA ONE

leIrisli.'^:^«» Still, Fernando drove brilliantly and the car was reliable and the fact is that a win is a win and whether it is lucky or not is irrelevant.

But, you know, the luckiest person of all in FI is Bernie Ecclestone. Any new winner in Formula 1 is good for the sport.

There is no longer the mindnumbing certainty that Michael Schumacher will finish the day ahead (or pretending not to be and letting his team mate win).

Now when people consider their plans for Sunday afternoon (or late Sunday night, in the case of we in the Antipodes) they wonder what will happen in the race.

“This year there have been eight Grand Prix winners, more than in any other season since 1985. And we still have three races to go. Admittedly, this is not as unpredictable as the amazing 1982 season when there were 11 different race

winners but otherwise it is something which has only been achieved on a handful of occasions in the 53 year history of the World Championship (Oh, all right then. There were nine winners in 1975 and eight in 1977, 1983 and 1985).

Alonso's victory is also great news for FI in Spain, where 40 million people have shown very little interest in the sport up to now. Alonso's win will mean that FI booms in Spain and the result of that will be new sponsorships, new drivers and lots more TV revenues for FI. If that all sounds rather far-fetched, remember that 15 years ago there was almost no interest in FI in Germany. Michael Schumacher changed all that and nowadays FI can get away with charging TV broadcasters $160m a year for the German rights to the races.

But forget all of that, because the best thing about Alonso's

victory in Budapest was that it sets up a fabulous showdown for the World Championship with three drivers covered by three points with three races to go.

Statistically, seven drivers could still win the title.

And that is just what Formula 1 needs.

A year ago, we were all bored by Ferrari and people were turning off their TV sets in droves, FI was in a slide and everyone was in a panic.

Now, thanks to Max Mosley's coup d'etat on January 15, we have rules that not only cut the costs but make the racing more exciting.

We have a new generation of drivers coming up who look as though they may have what it takes to beat Michael Schumacher: there is Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya and Alonso. In the background ●we have Felipe Massa (who may turn out to be better than all of

ThewithBox Seat Job Saward them) and we have Mark Webber, who grows in stature week by week, showing his best with mediocre machinery.

I don't know about you lot, but I am rea//y excited about the end of this season - and 2004 and 2005 as well ...

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Five minutes with...

James Courtney

not content with nominating the Japanese F3championship, the Aussie has made an impressive Formuia nippon debut, with fourth piece first-time out. CHRiS LAMBDEn spoke to him WilM; Compare Formula Nippon to F3000 for us.

JC: The tub is the same, along with most of the bodywork, but the engine cover is different to accommodate the different engine. The basic aero package is the same, apart from the fact that there's a different engine cover.

At the end of the day, there's a bit more power and a bit more grip than F3000, I guess.

Basically, it's a quicker car!

MN: And the drive came out of the blue?

JC: Yes. The 5ZIGEN [pronounced Go-zigen in Japanese apparently!] team got rid of one of its drivers I'm not exactly sure why - and asked me to do the last four rounds.[ED: The dumped driver was Ryo Fukuda pictured, right, in the car which James has now taken over].

I had a test at Mine two weeks ago, but it was far too hot to do anything meaningful. The track temperature was 55 degrees, and we did hardly any laps.

There were just two one-hour sessions before qualifying on Saturday and I lost a gearbox during the second hour, so there really wasn't a huge amount of time to try and get sorted. In those short sessions, I don't get out of the car, so there's no chance to really get into the data during the session.

MN: Did you get anywhere near a set-up that you felt was reasonable before qualifying?

JC: Not really. Fuji is a very low down-force circuit and the car was moving all over the place.

It's very hard to find the limit when that's the case.

At high-downforce tracks, with the car stuck to the ground a lot more, when it starts to move around, you know you're getting pretty close to the lirnit.

28

Fuji doesn't allow you to do that, so we were struggling a lot with the set-up and in qualifying.

I'm not used to running on the

MN: Did you change a lot?

JC: Everything. The team didn't have a very good base set-up, to be honest - when we arrived at

11

At the end of the day, there's a bit more power and a bit more grip than F3000, i guess. Basicaiiy, it's a quicker car!"

- Courtney compares Formula Nippon to Formula 3000

Nippon tyres in qualifying mode either, getting the best out of the tyre, so we ended up 16th, which was a bit disappointing.

MN:Is it much of a step from F3 to Nippon?

JC: Probably not, but in our case running at Fuji made it seem a bjt harder - the limited testing and low-downforce nature of the track made it seem that way.

MN: Things obviously improved as the weekend went on ...

JC: We made quite a few changes to the car before the Sunday morning warm-up and ended up fourth fastest, which was a bit more like it.

the track the handling was really ... crap. That made the transition that little bit harder.

If a car's reasonably set up when you first step into it, you can work things out quite quickly. Trying to learn the car with it not very well set up to start with, that wasn't very nice at all ...

Coming into the championship at this time of the year, with the other guys pretty well sorted with their set-up, it was always going to be a challenge.

MN:The race itself?

JC: The track was a bit damp and I got a good start, made four or five positions on the first lap.

It dried out pretty quickly - I

think our set-up was best in those damp conditions - and I stayed around 11th until it began to drizzle again.

We made some good progress then and, when I came out of the pits after my stop [ED: Nippon races feature a compulsory fuel and tyre stop], I actually came out alongside the leader, behind the Safety Car (which had triggered the stops), but had to slot into second.

After the restart, it dried out again and I lost a couple of spots, to finish fourth.

Given where we were at the start of the weekend, I think it was a reasonable first-up result.

MN: Is this an indication of where you'll end up next year, or is it just a temporary arrangement?

JC: It's just a four-race agreement. There are still a number of options being talked about for next year and Alan's (JC's manager Alan Gow) quite busy with that now, but if I was to be in Formula Nippon there's a few thing's I'd like to be a bit different. molorsport news

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3 September 2003 i

Five minutes with

Allan Slmonsen

Aiter making a huge impression with his periormances in this year's Nations Cup, Cie super-quick Dane is now staring Down the barrei of his V8Supercar debut. MAKK GLENDBmiNG spoke to him IViOTORSPORT NEWS; How are you approaching this first race at Sandown?

ALLAN SIMONSEN: I've done long races before, so we just want to do the best we can. We haven't found out yet who's driving with who.

We are going to do a test next Friday at Winton that all the . drivers are going to attend, and I'm pretty sure at that stage we will find out who drives with who and how everything's going to be planned out.

M!M: So the team hasn't told you anything about any expectations that they might have ...

AS: Oh, there are expectations about who is driving, and I think at the moment it is sort of leaning towards me driving with Jamie (Whincup). I don't think there's a final decision taken yet.

IVIN; What about in terms of their expectations of your performance?

AS; They haven't said anything about what they expect from my performance, but obviously they know what I've done previously in my career.

So I would assume that they can see I have been winning races all the time in my past, and that's why they took me on board.

They expect me to be right up there, and I expect that of myself, as well.

MN: Do you feel that you have come to grips with the car yet?

AS: We're doing a test, as I said, next week, and I'm pretty sure that I'm learning all the time when I'm in the car. It's not the most difficult car I've driven in my time.

It's definitely a different car but it's not difficult, I find.

Whether I've got to grips with it or not, it's hard to say. You're learning al l the time.' I'm 30

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definitely not behind it ... I think I'm pretty much on it.

It's obviously a different matter when you're doing a long race, the way you handle everything and approach the race. So I think we'll be up there.

MN: How did the link with GRM come about?

AS: It came about because I thought that the gig I had with Briggs was a done deal. That's the agreement I had with John Briggs. Obviously that fai led, and I was sort of left out.

My intention has always been that I want to drive in the V8s full-time next year. And I know that in order to achieve that, I need to make sure that I drive in the endurance races, so I can show the people who need to see that I am good enough to get the drive.

And if I didn't have the endurance races, I think it would be hard to any team to take me, a new guy, on board that they haven't seen drive at all.

So when the Briggs thing failed, I obviously tried to ask around to find out what other options there were.

A good friend of mine, Chris Sparrow, who knows Mark Coffey who I race for in the

Ferrari very wel l, also knows Garry Rogers, and he opened that door for me.

I went to see Garry at Phillip Island, where I was driving the Ferrari, and Garry invited me to do the test.

So that's how the whole thing came about.

MN: You said that the plan has always been for a full-time V8 drive next year. Why V8s?

AS: The appeal is that I have come from Europe where at the end of last year I was testing with the F3000 international teams'and obviously that is the second-highest category you can get before you get before you get to Formula One. And that's what I really wanted to do. That didn't fall into place because of economy. Previous to that I'd driven in British GT and Formula 3, so I had been driving in the top categories all through my career.

When I came down here at the Grand Prix and the Adelaide race, it was quite easy to see what the biggest championship was.

And also, the V8 championship has got a good reputation in Europe. People speak very, very highly of it. A lot of

championship in Europe - British touring cars, European touring cars - all the top drivers there probably recommend the Australian touring car championship higher, maybe, than the one they're in themselves.

So it's very, very highly-rated.

For my career, 1 think it's a very good move. If I come down here and do well, then if I wanted to go back to Europe, to have that on my CV is a big, big plus.

MN: And you are continuing in Nations Cup for the rest of the year as well?

AS: Yes. That's the plan. The plan is to continue with the Ferrari at Winton and Indy.

We are also working on getting the car to the 24 Flour race - that is what we are working the hardest on with the team at the moment. Flowever, if any of those things are going to happen or not, I can't say because I'm not the team owner. I'm just driving.

What we're looking forward to as well is that Mark Coffey is trying to put something together for us to compete next year in a Group One car in the Nations Cup, as well as if I get a V8 Supercar drive. motorspon news

INTERVIEW

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ne Best Touring Car

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Let's get right to it. Are you the best touring car driver in the world?

MARCOS AMBROSE; 1 have no comment on that at all. 1 am just lucky to be doing what I am doing.

That is what the trip to the USA was about; to have a look around internationally. What we are doing here is pretty unique and it is tough job, as a driver, to keep competing in races in our championship.

It is nice to be recognised internationally, with things like being put in the top 10 (touring car drivers) in Autosport. I have read that magazine a lot and value that comment.

But the best in the world?

Don't know; don't think so.

MN: Fine, Marcos. But looking at the other championships in the world, no driver is doing the job, and getting the results, that you are getting.

And we know that the Australian championship is the most competitive in the world.

MA: True, but there are plenty of drivers out there.

1 have had a pretty quick rise in the championship. We have covered a lot of ground in the two-and-a-half years since I started (in V8 Supercars). I am a better driver today than .1 was two or three years ago but I do not look at that side of it at all.

You do not want to get too big for your boots. There are a lot of races still to come and a

championship to be won this year. I do not want to get carried away.

MA; Where are we on the Marcos Ambrose career curve?

Are you still improving?

MA; There is no doubt that I am still improving. This year has been a big boost for me; I am more controlled and I am more dedicated towards getting an understanding of the car.

The last three years have educated me as to how different these cars are, compared to a single seater. My knowledge base is improving and my driving level is improving. I seem to be able to push harder with less mistakes. I am pressing on a lot in the races and I do not seem to be making as many mistakes.

As an overall package, I am definitely improving.

MN: have your achievements this year exceeded your own expectations?

MA: Definitely. We had the promise all last year, and the year before, and we had glimpses of good form.

For one reason or another, we lost many of the opportunities

we had in those years but this year, we have not put a foot wrong. When the races have come to us, we have been able to take them and we have been reliable. We have had a great year so far.

You cannot expect to win five races in a year in this kind of field. Last year, Mark Skaife dominated with five wins, and the rules were changed to try and stop that happening. We have turned the tables and done just that. We could not have seen that at the start of the year.

MN: I see you at race meetings, and have spoken to team members after meetings and I know how much time Stone Brothers Racing spends on diagnosis of the technical side. Do you spend a lot of time diagnosing the'Marcos Ambrose'side?

MA: I wish I could spend more time on that.

There is a balance to be struck between sponsor commitments and doing what we do on the track. If 1 had my way, I would butt heads with my sponsors and spend more time with my team.

Ideally, I would like to spend 24/7

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I do not deny the fact that, when I came hack to Australia, Skaife was setting the example. Watching how he went about his business, how he went racing, was something that I learned a lot from ff

-Ambrose on Skaife

with the team, going through all the data At certain times, I have made mistakes and I could have done things differently. I am making less mistakes now, and less mistakes off the track. I am a hard critic of myself and I think that is what you have to do, be self-critical. I have made mistakes in my career but 1 have made it through.

MN: For the first time in your career, you have a really experienced team-mate in Russell Ingall. Do you talk to him about those things? Do you compare notes on how the driving side is going?

MA; I look at everybody up and down pitlane and see how they are going. You are always trying to pick up things and learn. I like to see how they do things and see how the react to things, how they work on and off the track. I use everybody as a benchmark.

I do not deny the fact that, when I came back to Australia, Skaife was setting the example.

Watching how he went about his business, how he went racing, was something that I learned a lot from. Russell is the same; we do not necessarily sit down over a coffee and talk about our experiences but you do pick up things as you go.

MN:So what did you pick up in the USA? MA: I picked up that we do it pretty well. What we have here

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in a championship is just fine, and that the way we look at our data is pretty good.

I think that you sometimes have to go outside the box and look at the way others do things to realise that we do things pretty well.

MN; Endurance races are coming up and they will have a big part in deciding who will win the championship. Does the team have a battle plan set so far?

MN: Not as such. Russell is the first team-mate that I have had who has been a fully-fledged, professional driver before he came to the team.

David Besnard was different and when I was racing in Europe, it was the same; you are racing against guys who are not yet professional. David had pretty much come into V8 Supercar racing with the same background that I had. Russell is a full-time professional; no mess, no fuss, ■(he) knows what to do and when to do it. We execute our plan on the day and that is the advantage of having two full-time drivers running competitively. That makes it easier for the team.

MN: Does that make it easier for you, to have Russell in the same car?

MA: Without doubt. Totally. It takes away ... there are variables

and you cannot take away what might happen on the mountain.

But when I hand the car over to Russell and he hands it over to me, we know that we are doing the best that we can. If something (bad) happens, that is part of racing, but we are going to be doing the best that we can.

Marcos Ambrose would not say thatbut we would. PHIL BRANAGAN spoke to Ford's red-hot V8 Supercar ace about his season so far, Bathurst and - wait for it- why he is becoming even better

MN; Does it mean also that the team will compromise on car set-up? How close are you two guys?

MA: At Oran Park, we were running pretty similar set-ups.

Russell got caught out at the end because he was running out of tyres but, without that, we were running pretty much the same speed. We share a lot, we have a good car with good balance and when we hit the trigger point to make it work on each track, I think that we run pretty much the same.

MN: That has been one of the outstanding things; your 'trigger point'. You and the team have made the car do pretty much whatever you want, whether it's a 'race' car, a 'qualifying' car or a 'shoot out' car.

MA; True. That makes it easier but there have been times this year when we have struggled . . .

MN: Really! Where?

MA: At Winton, we struggled. continued on page 34

BOSCH Spark Plugs mooei.

i a 33

continued from page 33 Go back to Queensland Raceway, we were changing the car so much through the sessions - and even in the race because the track changes so much depending on the conditions. At Perth, we struggled early on, and the same at Darwin.

There have been times when we have not hit the nail on the head straight away but we have managed to work it out. That shows the depth of talent that we have in the team; we have 30-odd guys behind the scenes and all the team has a good understanding. We have a good 'brain pool' in the team and we all work well together. We have a we have a real team ethic at races. There is a reason why we are not competitive, there is a

reason why the car is not competitive and there is a reason for everything these days. We rely on theory but when it comes to putting it into practice, we work it out.

That's him on the right: No, not quite, it's Ambrose's Devilish mascot. And that is a sign of the popularity of the Taswegian among Ford fans, young and old.

MN: At the end of the season. if you have not won the championship and Bathurst, is that a major let-down?

MA: For sure. You only have to look at where we are now in the championship, 70 points ahead.

Last year, we might have had a 200 or 300 point gap to second place.

If we lose it, it will be because we have not won when It matters. We have a drive to succeed now, we have to really win it now. If we do not win it, it will be our own fault.

At Perth, we struggled early on,and the same at Darwinrr -Ambrose on his season. He won in Perth. And in Darwin...

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MINI: The team races hard.

Does SBR celebrate hard?

MA: We did do after our first win! But we were so busy after the other five, we did not have time for a big celebration.

It is hard to do when you are winning because it breeds expectations. I think that, especially after Oran Park, it was, 'That was good, a good job' but that was what we expected to do. You should enjoy the moment but this is a time when, in a year's time, or two years of five years, when you look at it, you should be proud of what we have achieved.

Everyone is putting in a lot of effort and the team is putting in a lot of what we need to do to win.

The team is making sacrifices to make sure that continues and I am putting myself in cotton wool for the rest of the year. I have put the dirt bike in the garage and we have to focus on what we have left. We have to capitalise on what we have achieved up until the middle of the year to bring it home.

It is not the time for a party ...

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The Betta Electrical sandown 500 is back in Melbourne and better than ever.

If YOU love your racing you'll love this. See the tradition return in Round 9 of the V8 Supercars Championship Series.

Experience 3 days of non-stop action with the huge V8 Supercar race on Sunday. It's your chance to see the teams fine tune their tactics in the first big endurance race of 2003. See Skaife v Ambrose, ingall v Perkins, Bright v Lowndes. It's one race you simply can't miss. So if you can't get it out of your head get down to sandown. September 12 -14. Tickets at the gate or call Ticketmaster7 on 136100. For more information visit www.BettaElectricalSandown500.com.au.

For Corporate Bookings call IMG on 03 98641127

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ELECTRICAL 12-fa SEPT 2003

Williams had a strange race in Budapest From respectable grid positions both drivers got away badly and then made their problems worse by getting it wrong round the first couple ofcorners. ADAM COOPER spoke to technical director Patrick Head MOTORSPORT NEWS: It was a mixed afternoon for you in Hungary, but at the end of it you are leading the constructors' championship for the first time this year...

PATRICK HEAD: From that point of view it's good.

One can look at today with ' mixed views. If you start second and fourth on the grid, to finish third and fourth is certainly not progress.

Equally, we were eighth and 18th at the end of the first lap, . so third and fourth after being eighth and 18th at Budapest is really not too bad!

Clearly the car was quite quick, and it's just a pity that Half didn’t have the opportunity to show whether he could have mixed it with Alonso.

All credit to Alonso. He drove a fantastic race and clearly was very quick, but Half probably could have made him earn it a bit more.

MN: Ralf had a launch control problem at the start. Was it influenced by being on the dirty side of the track?

PH: I'm sure that was one thing that didn't help, but ultimately you have to be able to start on all sorts of track surfaces, and that was just one of them.

MN:So the system reacted to the dirty track in a way it shouldn't have done?

PH: Something like that.

Apparently there was too much activity from the clutch and traction control.

MN; And then he seemed to panic a bit round Turn One and Turn Two...

PH: That was thing. We went into the first corner fourth and sixth, and ended the first lap eighth and 18th, so somehow they didn't make the best of it.

36

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not in a position to chaiienge. He's 14 points behind Michael

- Head on the chances of team orders for HalfSchumacher, above

MN: And Ralf had a delay in the pit stop?

PH: It vjas just that Michael was alongside, and Carl (Gaden), the chief mechanic, kept the lollipop down as Ralf was trying to go. It was just the unfortunate positioning of Michael in the pitlane. Sam (Michael) said that Carl was quite right to have kept the lollipop down.

PH: Oh yes. Including passing his brother as well.

MN: What about Juan's race?

PH: The moment Webber came in, Kimi was free to go, and Juan was stuck behind someone at that time, and that's where the gap was made.

MN: And he had brake problems as well?

PH: The brake .wear was a little bit on the high side, but nothing serious.

MN: And then he had a spin which wasn't really necessary...

PH: It's his third when you consider Australia and Montreal and that one.

MN: He passed a lot of people on a circuit where it's hard to pass,so do you think he proved a point?

MN:That's not how you win a championship, although it didn't cost him this time ...

PH: No, but it could have done.

MN; Are you going to talk to him about it?

PH: Well, he's the guy that loses by it, so we'll probably mention to him that it wasn't the best thing in the world. I see he's out there at the moment saying, 'I don't know what happened, the car just got away from me!'

MN: Obviously you had the pace, but generally did you think this race would be the least favourable of the last four?

PH; No, we thought we had every chance of competing at the front here. It's a disappointing result to have Kimi finishing ahead of us, and motorspon news

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we've lost a point to McLaren in the constructors' - or they've closed up one on us.

But we've now got eight on Ferrari.

MN: Are you confident about the last three races?

PH: We're two races away from Silverstone, a race that Ferrari won and were clearly very strong at - and Silverstone has some similarities to Suzuka, certainly. We are aware that we have got to make some improvements if we're going to compete directly with Ferrari at Suzuka.

MN: And it won't help if the weather goes against you...

PH: It's a bit mixed. If the weather conditions go towards 3 SaeiMbtr 2003

Bridgestone's intermediate, then Michelin don't have anything that can compete with it. The window for the wet tyre is probably narrower than that for the Bridgestone, but in the right conditions it's a very good wet tyre.

MIM: Obviously team orders are not yet an issue, but will Ralf be helping Juan at some point?

PH; Basically the situation is quite simple. It will only occur once Ralf is not in a position to challenge. He's 14 points behind Michael. Theoretically there are 30 points on the table, and say there was a big coming together among the top three, he could still be in there.

I was bom in England and lived there until I was about 10 years old before moving to Australia. I have been very lucky to have travelled all over the world because my mum works for Qantas. The mostfavourite places I have visited are America, Paris and Fiji.

I have been at University studying for a Bachelor of Marketing but, at the beginning of last year, deferred for a year. I would really like to become an actress, so I have joined a few acting agencies and also become involved with some local theatre groups.

About 3 years ago I became a lifeguard and started surfing for two main reasons -1 love the beach and to keep fit. I have also danced for 15 years and choreograph routines.

To keep fit I go to the gym at least 3 times a week and I also play soccer once a week. I have been playing soccer for 5 years now.

I love my modelling because of all the people I meet and the places and locations I get to see.

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

51 Promotions I PO Box 4052 Patterson VIC 3204 Phone/Fax 03 9557 7750

Call the CMC Help Line for the location of your nearest CMC Power Tool stockist, or to order the latest CMC catalogue GMC Help Line 1300 BOO 001

37

Winning By Dei There are racing cars designers - and then there is Ron Tauranac. His cars took Jack Brabham to his second and third worid championships, while the list of winners in his stepping-stone formulae cars reads like a virtual Who’s Who of world motorsport The most successful open-wheeler designer in the sport’s history is now back home in Australia, and he found time for a chat with MARK GLENDENNING in part one ofan exclusive two-part interview

MOTORSPORT NEWS; Could you start by bringing me up to date with what you have been doing over the past three or four years?

RON TAURANAC: WeU ... I'll have to lliink about that a little bit.

Three or four years, that takes us back ... I haven't really been doing much - oh, yes I have,I went to help Phillip Walker out. He has a BT26,1 think. So I've been testing with them a few times, and trying to get the car up to date. He runs Walker Freight, and he has a number of historic cars, so I've been helping him out.

MN:Does it mean anything to be working with the old Brabhams again?

RT; Oh,it doesn't really matter. A

w-

car's a car, and I don't really remember anything specific about them all. You can recognise your own handiwork, what you've done.

And of course, my wife died two years ago,so I've had to sell aU the family goods and the house. I've mainly been getting organised to sell the house. Of course,I go skiing for the winter every year.

MN:And you've been working with Honda as well?

RT:I've been a consultant with Honda since about 1979,on and off, when they came to us with their engine in Formula Two.So we ran their engine for a number of years.

Then that firtished and I was freelance. In fact, I sold out to March,

and I worked for March until they went broke m 1993. And in '93, Honda came to me and they wanted some school cars. So we built three experimental cars which they wanted to try, and they were all 100 percent, so they ordered a dozen cars.

So then I got finished (with that) and then I did a little bit for Tom Walkinshaw Racing. They were haying trouble with their Yamaha engine, which was really a Judd engine.

the catch tank throughout the atmosphere,and running out of oil.

And they were aacking the number one inlet valve seat,and it was because they had a tie across the heads to transfer the water. And it was stiffen than the chassis and that cracked the head. So we sorted that out.

RT: Arrows, yes. I only did a little bit of work there.

MN:This didn't happen to coincide with Damon Hill finishing second ...

RT:... at Hungaroring. Yes, that's right-and he was leading that.

And then Honda read that I was

They were blaming the engine for all sorts of things, but it turned out that they were bailing their oil out of

working(with TWR).I'd stayed in the background,I never said anything. l But somewhere or other,the press

MN:This was with Arrows?

INTERUIEIAT

Sign Listen up: Sporting a serious expression (and equally serious sideburns) Tauranac, above, speaks to facky Ickx and Frank Williams in 1973, Ickx had a one-off drive in the ISO-Marlboro Williams, for which Tauranac was

sution-irvj^f^.cvmi

guys working for Arrows(wrote .something), and (Nobuhiko) Kawamoto,Honda's CEO,got to hear of it - he was in England at the time, and he read it - and the next morning I got from Japan saying, 'Ron, we don't want you to do this.'

1 said,'yes,but the other bloke's paying me a fortune,' and he said, 'Ron, we don't want you to do this!'

He had no authority to offer me

Technical Advisor. But Tauranac's reputation comes first and foremost from his design work, ranging from the 1967 World Championship-winning Brabham BT24, below, to the Ralt RT35 F3 cars, seen here in the hands of Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard at Thruxton in 1991, left. anything, and I'd done the job anyway,so with difficulty - Arrows didn't want to let me go -1 resigned from them, and just didn't do very much from then on.

MN:Those Honda school cars weren't the last cars that you designed though, were they?

RT: No,while I was just finishing those off, someone came to me for a

Formula Renault. Someone in Malaysia wanted half a dozen.

The chap that organised it used to work for me.They paid me a deposit, so we designed them and built the prototype, and we were making aU the parts for half a dozen and no l more money arrived after that.

So I ended up inheriting that, so I sold off the one I made and all the ^

bits to ... I forget his name ... Barry ... anyway,he died about two months ago. He was running the car (MG;initially designated the Ronta FRl)for Iris son.

continued on page 40

sutton’lmages.com

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3fl C-

continued from page 39 MN:So going back to the start, like a lot of people you started out primarily as a driver.

RT: Well,I had to build my own car to be able to drive. I had no money,it was just after the war in about '49, and we were driving out-Sunday afternoon drives used to be the fashion then.

I heard this noise, and I stopped and looked,and there were cars rushing up and down the airstrip.

And 1 had a look and 1 thought,'well, I wouldn't mind doing that'.

Then I managed to run into a chap by the name of BiU Heathrow, and he had a little motorbike workshop down near Central Station (in Sydney).

He told me about the SOOcc Car

' » .1

Club,so I went and got some Autosport magazines and read about that, and went to Mitchell Library in my lunch hours and read all I could, and ... built a car.

MN:So did driving lead to designing, or designing lead to driving?

RT: Well, I built the car, and I tried to study it before it hit(the track). There wasn't very much about it technically,it was hopeless.

MN:It had no shocks the first time you drove it!

RT: I had no shocks, no money ... then I learnt that it needed shocks.

No I didn't, what 1 did was stiffen the springs up,and then the next time up at Hawkesbury the wheel rolled under, because there was nothing to limit the travel on the swing-out axles.

The eye of the spring broke, the wheel went under and it flipped me again and I landed on top of the barbed wire fence!

MN:For most people, that would be a pretty good incentive to give up driving.

RT: Well no,I carried on after that. 1 went alright after that.

I then eventually found some money for some dampers,and realised that you had to limit the travel on the swinging halves, and then started designing a better geometry for the swinging halves.

Instead of having the short sw'inging halves,I made a triangulation that crossed over, so that the half axle was in fact threequarters of the width of the track which Mercedes did a year later on their Sports Car. They didn't see my design, of course, but it came out on that car a year later.

MN:When you started working, it seems that you had a lot of different jobs that gave you skills which 40

inadvertently came in very handy later on.

RT: Yes, that's right. Well, the job I had ... well,I did a number of jobs, but the leading one was working for CSR Chemicals.

I was in designing - we all designed the factory - and it was jig and tool design where I was more of a specialist. They picked out of 50 draftsmen four of us to supervise the subcontracting of all the stuff. And as it happened, I chose rather than supervising all the welding, to do the casting side of it.

So I got involved in castings and pattern making,and then 1 took the lead in mounted runners and risers on the board,so 1 knew all about that side of it. So it was a bit of everything. CSR didn't worry about qualifications. If you could do the job, you got it, so you went from one thing to another.

Then it was all finished, and I was Shift Supervisor, and I didn't like the shift work so I left and then Frank G Spurway got onto me,and I was into designing nuts and bolts and screws and all that sort of stuff.

And then Quality Castings - when I was at CSR,they were the people that we subcontracted most of the stainless steel casting to. So they offered me a job as works manager.

I went there and met Jack (Brabham)by chance. I used to subcontract work for him, which is how we built up the relationship. He bad a little one-man machine shop.

I went up there to buy a Velocette motorcycle engine off him,just for my car. We got talking, and 1 subbed work out, and we got friendly, and

then I helped do design work on his car and he did machining for mine.

MN:Did you have any reservations about making the move when he asked to join him in the UK? RT: That was a big jump. 1 had a big job?! was works manager,and 1 had a wife and a four-year-old kid.

What had happened was, he went to England, and after a few years he went to Cooper and became their works driver. When they were switching from the leaf-spring to the double wishbones he wrote me a letter and asked me what the proportions should be.

He fed the proportions in to Owen Maddocks, who was there - he was more of a draftsman than a designer - without Charlie Cooper knowing anything about it. So that's how a lot of the development work happened on that.

And he(Brabham) used to come back for the Tasman Series every Christmas and we'd see each other.

Then when he was back in 1960, he offered me a return air ticket to go over and see if I liked it for six months. I swapped the return air ticket for one air ticket for me one way,because I had go via LA to look at a race at Riverside. I helped run his Cooper there in the SportsCar race.

And my wife and kid got on the boat and went over. In 1960, that was a hell of a step. I don't know, why I didn't think about it more (laughs).

MN:It's probably just as well that you didn't, or you might not have gone through with it.

RT: That's right, yes. Well, right

\\

In 1960, moving the family to England was a hell of a step. I don't know why I didn't think about it more!

II

I

through life things have happened like that.

Like when I sold Brabham out, Colin Chapman got on to me and offered me a job there. I accepted, and he came down in his plane and flew the family up to find a school and a house for the kids, and all that was done.

Then on the Monday morning, after we'd spent the weekend up

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Heavy Hitters Pt 1: (l-r) Derek Bell, Tim Schenken and Tauranac check out the Niagara Falls in 1972, while Ronnie Peterson gets busy with a camera in the background, above.

Heavy Hitters Pt 2 ; Senna puts the Ralt RT3 through its paces at Oulton Park in 1983, left.

Here and now: Four decades after first joining forces with Brabham, Tauranac's advice is still in demand at the track, right. there, he rang up and said, 'can we put it on hold for a little while?' He had to sort something out with his staff, because I think the chap there that had come from BRM wanted the job of top designer.

So I just said to Colin, 'well if you can have second thoughts, I can'.

And he thought that was a 'no', so we did nothing more until he asked if I could come and race engineer one of his cars at Mosport in Canada, which I did.

And then by chance, I hadn't started anything, and then Larry Perkins came and drove up with a car and a trailer in my driveway and asked if I'd have a look at it and see if I could recommend some improvements.

I wandered around it and said, 'well, I think it would be easier to start again', and he said, 'well, let's do that!'

My wife wanted to get me out of the house, because I'd always worked seven days and five nights and now I was home most of the time, except for a bit of consulting work. She saw a factory advertised and that was the start of Ralt, so all of these things are a little bit by luck.

MN: So there is no regret that things didn't work out with Chapman?

RTr 'No. Who knows, you never know what the other side of it would have been.

But I think it was far better to do

3 September 2003

my own thing and do Ralt, becau se that became bigger than Brabham, really. I think at Brabham we made ● about 550 customer cars, and then at Ralt, over 1000.1 think the total of the two was up around 1650.

MN: Is there a common characte ristic or concept across your cars?

RT: There are a few things, yes. I guess one thing that I think mattered from the begimiing, particularly after my incidents with the first Ralts, I realised that control of the tyre contact patch was very important.

Even if you really didn't know where you ought to make it move, it really had to be rigidly attached to the car, and be very consistent with its movement.

So that made it consistent in handling, and gradually I realised that it was important that, because of the varied calibre of mechanics, that you needed to make the car consistent in its set-up; So if you altered, say, the camber, it didn't want to alter the toe-in. And if you altered either one of those, say on the rear suspension, you didn't want to alter the comer weights.

Corner weights weren't that important back in the Brabham days.

It was only when the cars got much stiffer and the ground effects came in that it became very important. So that's when, in the Ralts, when you designed it you realised you didn't want to screw up the corner weights.

Everything was independent adjustment.

The other thing I think in the earlier days was where you put the roll centre and the roll centre movement. It needed not to jump around and not to move laterally across the car unless you particularly wanted it to do it.

And in doing that, I tried to make the car so that if you liken the handling of a car to a globe, you could be anywhere around the top and it was still going to work alright.

Whereas if you made it like an icecreani cone, you might get much better handling if you're on the peak, and if you fell off the edge because of someone not setting it up right, it ^ didn't handle.

So that was my philosophy. Not to make the quickest possible car with Schumacher driving if, but to make something that everyone could drive.

MN: Which is obviously something that you'd have needed to keep at the forefront, given that you were mainly building production racing cars.

RT: That's right, yes.

MN: Do you think your approach might have been different had you focused on designing and building FI cars? Would your approach have been less... conservative?

RT; I don't know. The Formula One cars seemed to work alright, and there wasn't a problem there, and our Indianapolis car worked fine.

That was always built in a big hurr}' - we didn't know we were going to do it until Christmas, whereas other people started the year before. So we had to rush over there with the car.

The first one I did for that, Andretti drove. His mechanic ... I think the chap that had the Brabham, crashed it and it needed a repair. And Andretti's mechanic offered to repair it if they could make a copy.

So they made two copies, and that became Andretti's car that he won Indy in. And it went on from there.

Next Issue: Tauranac on Chapman, the emlution of design, modern racing, and why Dallara's monopoly in Formula 3 looks unbreakable.

41

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^tJli Images: Neil Blackbourn

. Www.Dedders.com 3U

Any doubts that Fernando Alonso is going to be a world champion one day were cast to the Hungarian winds when the 22-year-old became the youngest-ever GP winner. JOE SAWARD reports from Budapest

T

HE future of Formula One arrived at the Hungaroring, when Fernando Alonso etched

his name into racing folklore by becoming the youngest-ever driverand the first Spaniard -to win a Grand Prix.

Despite his tender years(Alonso turned 22 only recently) it was an emphatic performance from the Renault driver. He took his second pole position in stunning style and, after Mark Webber battled early in the race to hold onto second place, Fernando simply disappeared into the far reaches of the Hungaroring. Aided by a new-spec Renault engine, which is still well down on horsepower compared to the missiles from Germany and MaraneUo, he built a massive lead within six laps, and rode a three-stop strategy to a relaxed 20s victory.

You can argue that Alonso did not have the fastest car and tliat he was lucky that the Williams-BMWs made such an appalhng start; you can argue that Webber's stubborn defence of second place in his Jaguar handed him victory but the fact is that it really does not matter.

And Renault would not have complained, the French mai-que taking its first win in its own right(as opposed to wins with Lotus, Williams and Benetton) in 20 years.

The result was more significant than that however,because it sets up what could be a classic show'down for the World Championship. Tliere are three races to go and three drivers covered by three points. Michael Schumacher is still in the lead but the performance of the Ferrari in Budapest was such that in the closing laps Michael was lapped by Alonso.

Perhaps as he looked in his mirrors, Michael could see the future coming towards him...

A2003 number of factors decided the Hungarian Grand Prix.

There were three cars in the race with, potentially, winning car speed Alonso's Renault and the two WUliams-BMWs.Alonso won,both WiUianas drivers made bad starts and driving errors and, while the 44

youngster bounded away out front, everyone else had to make do with whatever was left.

The Hungaroring is known for being a place that is hot, dusty and tight. Overtaking is as good as impossible (well,it has been in the past,though changes to the track have been made to advance the cause of passing) and qualifying -and starting -counts for a lot.

and for these type of comers it is fantastic."

Yep,the kid does the PR thing weU too... is cause was aided by Ralf Jchumacher and Juan Montoya.

Having dodged the possibility of having to serve a 10 grid-spot penalty after his startline incident in Germany, Ralf made a meal of the second comer

and spun. Running 19th (Cristiano da Everyone not in a Renault knew Matta was in the pits having a starting that the start would be a problem. The problem fixed)Ralf then scythed RS23 has great launch control, and through the field, surging up to third starting from the dirty side of the track is a challenge. That meant that tire cars by the end of the race, Along the way,he pulled a starting first, third, fifth and seventh masterful overtaking manoeuvre on (Alonso,Webber,Barrichello and his brother, catcliing Michael Raikkonen)led into the first comer unawares as the pair approached and, with Webber battUng hard until ’lapped traffic in Turn 1. It was the first his Michelins cleared their early time that many observers could graining phase, Alonso was an unbackable favourite to win. remember such a thing happening.

"It is easy to imagine how things "For the first two or three laps I had Mark Webber in the mirror," he could have gone if I'd had a better start," said Ralf. explained."Then during the eighth or Montoya settled into a fast pace ninth lap I asked the team 'Where are once in clean air, setting the fastest lap the others?' and they told me'15 of the race, but a late-race spin almost seconds behind'and I thought'Oh my gifted third place to his team-mate. It God,I am very fast now'. Yeah,the was the second such error this season. first stint was very important for the JPM surrendering a victory in result of the race and I pushed quite a Melbourne with a similar lapse in lot but I did the race quite slowly after concentration. that. The car was fantastic all weekend. We don't know why.

"Probably because the chassis is fantastic. The engine is maybe not very powerful but we have a very light engine,a very low centre of gravity

K"

aikkonen took second. McLaren

d not have the car speed of the opposition but managed to leap Kimi past Webber at the first stop. From

a?

|1 Ts’Odq

i One vital point: Michael Schumacher struggled to eighth in the Ferrari.

IV Cause and Effect: Alonso won the start from the fired-up Webber, left, but that was the last anyone saw of the Spaniard. Seventy laps later, he had erased Bruce McLaren's name as the youngest Formula 1 CP winner, above.

WodOforwi

3 September 2003

there, he cpnsohdated his position and set up a fascinating final three races in the championship.

As expected Coulthard also drove a strong race, his hvo-stop strategy helping climb to fifth by the finish.

There was nothing that David could do about the two Williams-BMWs,but after starting ninth on the grid, the Scotsman felt that fifth was good as he had spent much of the afternoon watching faster cars in his mirrors trying to get ahead.

Ordinarily, a car racing backwards from an early second to an eventual sixth is not an example of a great drive, but Webber was exceptional in Hungary.

After losing as much as three seconds a lap to the flying Spaniard m the early laps, Webber picked up his pace once his tyre graining issues settled down.On his second and third sets, his pace was on par with the Williams drivers and he was comfortably ahead of an off-song

Trulli.

Justin Wilson suffered from his lack of experience in the car and was running in the midfield when the engine gave out after 43 laps. The Brit was brought into the team to do what Antonio Pizzonia could not do (ie. back up Webber in Jaguar's battle with

continued on page 48 45

1,-TV

IB Feel the need, U EFORE even heading to Budapest,an ail-‘MiGhelin shootout for pole position, so vital on the sinewy Mungaroring,looked likely; Only a year ago, Ferrari dominated the weekend, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher running 1-2 in the race after qualifying in the same order. It says something about the strides taken by Pierre Dupasquier and his Michelin men in the 12 months since that noone realistically expected a repeat performance this time around Obviously, Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head realised the importance of a good starting spot, the team going to considerable trouble (and. rumours suggest, spending almost $200,000,) to have Ralf Schumacher's 10-grid spot penalty from Hockenheim overturned. From an, at best, grid: spot of 11, Ralf had little or no chance of making the podium and keeping his fading world championship hopes alive.

And, away from the "Big 3 teams, there was a wildcard. As at Monaco, horsepower matters less at Hungary than it might elsewhere; chassis and aero grip come into their own here and. with that in mind, no-one could afford to discount the Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli.

"I think you'll See a Renault on pole," said test driver Allan

McNish on Friday afternoon after Trulli had gone fastest in the first qualifying session.

He was right- but it was not irulli who did it. The Italian veteran went too hard too soon on his qualifying, lap and, as a result, would line up 'only' sixth. A third-row start was not a disaster, given Renault's best-in-class launch control but, as with the other 'even' numbered:starters.

Jarno would be starting on the grubby side of the grid Aided by a revised Renault VI0, with a reported 10 extra horsepower, Alonso did it properly and managed to muscle the car around to pole. It was his second of the season and came with, it seemed, minimal drama. He was a full second faster than the oversteering Trulli. was right on the limit towards the end," Alonso admitted.

R

-ai Schumacher led the Williams-i'MWs in second.

Juan Pablo Montoya was fourth on the grid, directly behind Ralf but he said that he was not really

going for pole.

"It iSiiimportaBt that I start ahead,of iiy iehael," he said.

"When III saw Michadl's time, 1 took it a bit easier than I needed to do because I: knew his time was not good." Yeah, sure’.

While Aionsois ipeiiformance was quite a surprise, the lap pulled out of the bag by Mark Webber was quite extraordinary’*and even he was surprised:.

I don't know how I, did it," he admitted. "We changed the ear so that we would!take quite a hit in qualifyingi in: order tO’ihelpuS: be quicker in the race’.,il' don't want to do a lap like that again. It was right on the edge. I really don't think I Gouldibave done any better."

Team-mate Justin Wilson:found that, while a Jaguar R4 is a vastly superior car to the Minardi PS03 in which he started the season. he still has a long way to go to match his Queanbeyan-born team-mate, and lined up 12th For the second straight year.

Barrichello won the Ferrari battle. besting Michael Schumacher by a half-second. The World Champion

n

1 don't know how I did it. We changed the car so that we wouid take quite a hit in quaiitying in order to heip us be quicker in the race,i don't want to do a lap like that rr again. It was right on the edge - Webber after qualifying

won himself no;new fans by driving: alf over the toadi after his Friday qualifying:lap, ensuring that a dirty line awaited the ne>ft runners. A smart tactic, given that the Oerman prizes results, more lt?ian: sportsmanship.

The McLarens were seventh and ninth on the grid, with Kimi Raikkonen ahead of David' Coulthard’. This didi not seemftOi bode wellifor the race but Oa'wid' Coulthard was very upbeat. He was going for a two-stop strategy and was starting on the clean side of the track.

This year the car has tended to:race better than it qualifies so f hope to have a good race," he said.

David was four-tenths slower than Raikkonen but the-difference in strategy explained;that.

The Michelin domination continued with Olivier Panis putting his Toyota into 10th place on the grid. The team had not been expecting much because the Toyota chassis is not good;on tracks like the Hungaroring and so 10th was a good place to start.

Cristiano da Malta was 15th but he was not too unhappy about it although he complained throughout that his car was very nervous. confident were it not forquite the gauber would have been fact that the team was running on Bridgestone tyres. The team

moiorsport news

FORMULA -I

Lrat UriNmiiJiMn mrm has been doing a; lot of development on the C22and compared to the other Bridgestone runners, it was quite competitive with Nick Heidfeld 11th on the grid and disappointed by that because he made a mistake in turn 2. HeinzHHarald: Frentzen made a similar mistake but being on a different strategy meant that he would start way back in: 17th on:the grid; Jordan did not look too bad until Saturday morning when Ralph Firman's rear wing:fell off the car in the high speed section running down tO’furn ‘i. fhe result was a massive accident that saw Ralph subjectedi tO'4'6G of lateral forces as he hit the tyre wall. Formula 1 safety was once again tested to the maximum;.

The foam around the driver's head absorbed the enormo,us impacts as Ralph's head went f rom side to side.

Ralph was shaken up but he was not seriously hurt. He was flown off to hospital and. it was agreed that test driver Zsolt Baumgartner would be drafted in to replace Ralph. There was some fussy paperwork to ibe completed for Baumgartner to b e issued with the required: FI Superlicence but the local lad headed into qualifying once that was done.

"Tm excited: about the race tomorrow and: want to. finish without any mistakes," said the

tookie. "I'®ii#he first Mmgarian driver to race in Formula One and'that's a big; airtt lor my country because we've had a Grand Prix lor 18 years.

Everyone's dream: will come true now but I didn't think it would' happen this sooni, and-at our home Grand Prix!"

Even, if the chainces of making a Webber*iike home debut were low, he did a sound job and qualified Ifth, despite making a rookie error in switching the engine's fuel mixture to a 'fuelsave' setting before bis lap started:, Gianearl© Fisichelia was 13th.

British iS'^merican,‘Racing was really struggling because the high centre of gravity of the IH ondb' engine meant that the cat was skipping around and eating: i ts own tyres. Jenson Button was 14th and Jacques Villeneuve 16th'.

Minardi was Slow (as aivvays) and so having Jos Verstappen and Nicolas Kiesa 18th and 20th was really no surprise.

There was no doubt about it after qualifying:. Michelin was dominant with eight cars in the top 10. Ferrari might have tried to convince us that things would be different on Sund.ay but it was fairly clear that the weekend was going to be one during which all Michael S chumacher 'Could hope for was to minimise the loss of points.

Yellow, Peril: Ralph Firman escaped from a 46C shunt in practice but was smiling the next day, below,

[ August 23 2003 6 F Alonso (£'■

4 R Schumacher iP i laJH UMWebbor 'AUSj

3 J P Montoya (CO;

2 R Barrichollo 'BRA)

7 J Trulll (I)

laiil 6KRaikkonon(P!.N)

1 M Schumacher (D)

5 D Coulthard jGi

20 0 Pants (F)

9 N Heittfeld ^0)

15JWnson(G3)

Jordan Ford 1:23.726 + 2.038 17 J Button (GB) Lucky Strike BAR_Hqnda ; i 1:23.847 + 2.159 2lCDa Matta fBRA) I Panasonic Toyoja Racing i ; 1:23.982 + 2.294 16J Viltonouvo (CAN) ! Lucky Strike BA^Honda ■ : 1:24.100 + 2.412 10HHFrent2on(Di ; Saubor Petronas i '1:24.569 +^881 19 J Vorstappon ‘b<\ I Minardi Cosv/orih + 4.735 I 1:26.423

“BHasHSSBaaa ! Jordan Ford + 4.990 f i:’26.678

3 Septsnbar 2003

continued from page 45 Toyota and BAR-Honda)and the team wili be iooking for a much swifter effort at Monza.

Ferrari had a disastrous but ita went within 30 secondsrace of being catastrophe.

Barrichelio was right with Webber eariy but Rubens messed up an overtaking attempt and trussed the chicane,forcing him to allow Mark (and Raikkonen) through.

At the start of lap 20 Rubens braked for the first comer and the left rear comer came apart. A rear wishbone had broken and the entire comer came apart with the suspension driveshaft and brake system all being torn apart.

The car went straight on at the end of the straight with very iittle braking and no steering and hit the barriers head-on. It was a sizeable accident but fortunately there was enough run-off and tyre protection to ensure that Rubens was not hurt. He hopped out of the car without any obvious hurt and gave the cameras a thumbs up, w'hich may have heiped Race Control decide that there was no need for a

hydraulic failure after 14 laps.

Toyota flattered to deceive. Olivier | Fanis was running at a sensible pace when he suffered a gearbox failure while da Matta started from pitlane after stalling on the grid. He was a lap 1 behind from the start but managed to show the potential of the car by setting the fifth quickest lap time of the race.

The two Minardis finished 12th and 13th after a good solid race with Jos Verstappen a lot ahead of Kiesa but still a long way behind but it was better than the Jordans wliich both went out with engine failures.

The Renaults may lack the horsepower of their rivals but the rest of the car is good - no, great. That may not count for much at Monza, where car speed rules the day. But, clearly, we have seen the start of a great career for Fernando Alsonso.

Ferrari, and Bridgestone, must strike back in Italy. We know the BMWs will be on the pace at Monza, and that the drivers wiil be fired up as never before.

And Michaei has cracked under championship-deciding pressure before.

This is going to be great to watch...

Safety Car and no need for medical intervention. Afterwards Rubens complained that he had not been given any medical help.

Michael Sdtumacher was still running but he was not realiy very threatening. He was dealt witit easily by both WUliams-BMWs and in an effort to avoid further loss of position he tried to outnm his rivals on the second stint. This meant that he moved up to third before his stop.

The problem was that he ran out of fuel on his last lap and dropped a lot of time as it came into the pits when the engine began to cut out. That delay cost him a lot because when he came out of the pits, he was stuck behind Coulthard and so 11 laps later Ferrari cailed Michael in, filled him up and sent him after Tmlli. In the end Michael was eighth.

IftheF2003-GAhadrundry anywhere but in pitlane, Michael would have had to walk in ...

Heinz-Harald Frentzen making a mess of it and forgetting to stop for fuel. He had gone for a two-stop strategy but retired when the tank ran dry.

"The team instmcted me to come into the pits but the radio was not working," said Frentzen."They tried to call me in with the pitboard but when I went past I was behind (Nicolas) Bdesa and I did not see it."

Jenson Button came home in JOth place for BAR. He had a bad first lap but made up a few places early on but then the car's differential began to malfunction and Button had to fight his car aU the way.Jacques Villeneuve was not as fortunate despite a good start(he was 10th on the opening lap) and ended up going out with an 48 i

JAPEST

FORMULA -I

Wings, wings and more wings Horsepower is fine but, at the Hungaroring, you want as much downforce as possible. PAOLO FILISt 111 reports on FI’s latest tweaks

This is not going that well: Ralf Schumacher turned Q2 into last on lap 1 when he spun, above, before he surged back to fourth.

A Zsolt from the blue: Following Firman's shunt, Jordan called on test driver Zsolt Baumgartner, left, making him the first Magyar to drive in a CP. Suspended activity: Rubens Barrichello's run ended prematurely when the left-rear corner broke on lap 20, below.

Race settings onboard: At the Hungaroring, everyone runs as much downforce as possible, below left.

3 September 2003

;

AS with Monaco,the Hungaroring is characterised by short straights and a very twisty layout.

This season the track underwent some slight changes as the pit straight has been elongated and also the last section of the track features a 90 degree corner after a longer straight than in the previous layout.

These changes slightly affected the cars, especially brakes, but aerodynamics remained the fundamental point to set up the cars in an efficient way. The downforce load in fact is as high as in Monaco and, for some cars, is even higher. some sporting additional profiles to the rear wing, strange winglets and, in one case, also a mid-wing.

With the teams already concentrating on 2004 projects, not many changes were introduced here, but we have to say that some new features seen here demonstrate that the development never ends.

Sauber and Williams were the most active teams. The Swiss team in fact featured a massive overhaul of the aero package of the C22.

The car sported a revised front wing featuring a new flap that sports a sharp-cut profile, not rounded as before.

At the rear, there are new winglets on the sidepods coupled with big chimneys as hot air vents, due to the very hot climate.

Sauber tried a solution already sported on the Williams - a shark fin applied on the top of the engine cover, with a

vertical extension in the rearmost section, top.

Williams, middle, continued in sporting a sort of patchwork of aerodynamics solutions already seen during the season. The FW25 sported an engine cover without the shark fin that was applied in the last two races, and at the same time the same winglets configuration used since Malaysia and on highdownforce tracks.

It was interesting to note that

an asymmetrical layout for the hot air chimneys was adopted.

In this instance, the chimney applied on the top of the right sidepod is smaller than the one on the left.

There were interesting small changes for Minardi, in particular to the front wing, above, sporting new endplates featuring the knife edge profile curved as an arch in a similar fashion to Renault, Ferrari, and Toyota.

49

2003 FIA Formula One World Championship

FQRMUIAI

WORIP

2003 Hungarian Grand Prtx- Overall Race Claaalfication after 70 tape - 306.663 kma Time Entrant Nat Laps 70 1:39:01.460 ESP Mild Seven RenaUlt^Bt iFeam 70 1:39:187228 RN West Md.aren Mercedes 70 1:39:35.997 COL BMW WilliamsFl Team 70 1:39:37.080 GER BMW WilliamsFl Team 70 1:39:57.995 GBR West McLaren Mercedes 70 T:40':'iTl0’3 AUS Jaguar Racing 69 1:39:07.141 ITA Mild Seven Renault FI Team 69 1:39:'ot:564' GER Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 69 1:39:31.419 GER "Sauber Petronas 69 1:39:50.036 GBR Lucky Strike BAR Honda 68 1:39:34.706 BRA Panasonic Toyota Racing 1:39:43.591 67 NED European Minardi Cosworth 66 1:39:54.756 DEN European Minardi Cosworth Not Classified 47 1:08:14.221 GER 'SaUlDeFiP^tFohaS 42 1:01:08.009 GBR Jaguar Racing 34 0:50:44.830 HUN Jordan Ford 33 0:47:47.060 FRA Panasonic Toyota Racing 28 0:41:10.205 ITA Jordan Ford 19 0:27:36.239 BRA Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 14 0:20:53.019 CAN Lucky Strike BAR Honda

Driver PCS.I No. 1 I 8 Fernando Alonso 2‘T'6 Kimi Raikkonen Juan Pablo Montoya Ralf Schumacher David Couithard ~6"iT4 Mark Webber 7 \J Jarno Truili 8 ; l‘ Michael Schumacher 9 1 9 Nick Heidfetd id“i‘i7 Jenson Button Cristiano E>a Matta llj 21 12 1 19 Jos Verstappen 13 : 18 Nicolas Kiesa 3 j 3 4'T"4 5 ; 5

T

10 Heinz Harald'i^Bfe^ Justin Wilson

i 15 ! 12 ; 20 11 2 16

Zsolt Baumgartner Olivier Panis Giancaiio Rsichella Rubens Barrichello Jacques Villeneuve

Gap 16.768 17.769 01.083 20.915 16.108 1 UP 00.423 23.855 18.617 1 UP 1 LAP 1 UP

34.5_37 3'5.’6‘^'

56.535 72.643 1 I^P i'u'p 1 UP 1 UP 2 UPS 3 UPS 4 UPS DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF

Kpb 185.810 T85.287 184.736 184.703 184.059 183.566 182.981 182.968 182.237 181.670 179.497 176.594 173.635 181.045 180.583 176.104 181.523 178.762 180.912 176.196

Best

1^22.095 1:22.319 1:23.193 1:23.156 1:24.100 1:23.207 1:24.267 1:23.376 1:23.040 1:26.559 1:27.641

Lap 47 66 37 55 40 49 34 38 54 65 36 60 47

1:24.450 1:24.936 1:26.464 1:24.414 1:25.081 1:24.583 1:25.278

45 26 22 17 13 13 13

1:22.565 1:22".372

Fastest Lap

I I

Drivers' Championship Points: M. Schumacher 72, Montoya 71, Raikkonen 70, R. Schumacher 58, Aionso 54, Barricheilo 49, Couithard 45,Truiii 24, Webber 15, Button 12, Fisicheiia 10, Da Matta 8, Frentzen 7, Panis 6, Villeneuve 3, Fleidfeld 2, Firman 1.

Constructors’ Championship Points: Williams/BMW 129, Ferrari 121, McLaren/MercedesBenz 115, Renault 78 BAR/Flonda 15 and Jaguar 15, Toyota 14, Jordan/Ford 11, Sauber9.

Grand Prix of Hungary

Positions lap by lap Mechanical failure @ Pit stop

August 24 2003 Grid Position/Driver

Nat |Car

1 I Fernando Aionso l 2 'RalfSchumacher

GER Williams

3 I Mark Webber

AUS Jaguar

4 iJuan Pablo Montoya

COL Williams

5 i Rubens Barrichello

I BRA Ferrari

6 iJarno Truili

' ITA Renault

I

McLaren

FIN

8 i Michael Schumacher

GER Ferrari

9 David Couithard

GBR. McLaren

10 Olivier Panis

FRA Toyota

11 Nick Heidfeld

GER Sauber

12 Justin Wilson

GBR Jaguar

13 Giancarlo Fisicheiia

ITA Jordan

14 Jenson Button

GBR BAR

15 Cristiano Da Matta

BRA Toyota

16 Jacques Villeneuve

CAN BAR

17 Heinz-Harald Frentzen

GER Sauber

18 Jos Verstappen

NED Minardi

19 Zsolt Baumgartner

HUN Jordan

20 Nicolas Kiesa

GBR Minardi

50

M7LM H

ESP Renault

7 IKimi Raikkonen

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i 3 [Juan Pabic^MontoyT

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20 moiorsport news

\, FTER 3'cotapre ©t ordinary t Grands Prix, things rocketed \to the other end of the spectrum with our best performance of the year in Hungary.

On paper, to start third and' drop back to finiish sixth might not seem that big, but with our race package where it is, to genuinely race with the Big Four teams and finish ahead of Trulli and Michael, is something we're thrilled with.

Saturday's qualifying lap was the highlight for me.It was the best single lap run I've done and it set up the rest of the weekend.

It was right, right on the edge, but it got the result we needed.

Those of you who saw some of it on the news or Ten's coverage would have seen the car drift wide and put a couple of wheels on the dirt on the exit of the fast right-hander in sector two. I'd gone in there miles faster than ever beforel The data showed we'd gained'two and a half tenths through that one corner - and I lost seven hundredths by slipping wide.

The boys thought that was acceptable! ...

Things hadn't actually started that promisingly.

In fact Friday morning was a nightmare. I lost the car on lap five into a sand (or Should that be stone) trap. It peppered and damaged the suspension to the degree that it meant changing the wishbones.

We had a throttle problem, then I lost an engine and Justin's car damaged a gearbox. Good start!

It did, however, force me into the T-car and, one way or the other, we stuck with it all weekend - and will do at Monza.

My engineer ?? has had one little thing gnawing away at him for a while now with my race car. It's just one little measurement, involving a millimetre or two, but .it just hasn't been right on my race car.

It's been fine on the T-car and Justin's, so maybe there's something in it.

The toottom:liine is.that we ran the T-car and we ended' up in better shape than: we have been for a while.

We'd most oursettrack timespent working on:ofrace up,, as that's been our achilles heel. We ended up on: the softer

stage of its development, the Cosworth is a little thirsty. In fact, our consumption is a; good ten percent higher than the others.

That has repercussions. We're carrying 10 percent more fuel for the same number of laps, so when we drive out of pit lane.

Funny Finn: Webber's start was athere, solid you one I Stay and he kept Kimi Raikkonen behind him until ^ the tyre stops, , above.

Despite qualifying a career-equal best third, allow himself to get a big head, !left...

Webber did not

%

Michelin option, despite the fact that one of our concerns is rear tyre degradation. Funnily enough, the harder Michelin worked better in the lower track temperatures at this track. Once I'd done a reasonably long run 'blister check' on the soft option, we reckoned we had a set-up which would' be okay enough to go with it.

There are some things, however, that you can't change and which affect your race performance to a greater degree. One is fuel consumption. I mention it, because I've had a couple of questions about why our pit stops are often a second or so slower than the big guns.

It's not that our boys are slack.

Far from it. It's because, at this

our car is heavier. It costs up to three-tenths per lap. It also takes ten percent longer to refuel hence the fractionally slower stops. Fuel consumption is one of those developmental areas that Cosworth are working continually on, but for now it's one of the areas where we can’t match the opposition.

That's what adds up, though, and that’s why we knew we would most likely fall back as the race progressed on Sunday.

N

ot that we gave it up easily.

We'd opted for a three-stop race simply to keep our fuel load (and hence tyre degradation) to a minimum. At 5Gs load, lOkgs of fuel has the effect of 50kgs, so you can see the logic behind our decision.

The* start went perfectly, even to the point of having Rubens, who I knew would struggle to pass, end up behind me in third, holding up the.others. In the end he dived in too fast at the esses and ran off and over a kerb which caused the rear suspension damage that brought him undone soon after.

We had the pace to hold Kimi at bay until the first stops, where he did the extra couple of laps, then came out in front.

Montoya too passed during a pit sequence, and then Ralf loomed up behind, recovering from his first lap dramas.

I was able to keep him a bay for over 10 laps, but he finally got a good run onto the straight and had a big lunge into turn one.

Atreally this point was still pushing hard -I most of the laps were 'qualifying' style - because we'd seen that DC was on a two-stopper and weren't sure where we'd end up after our last stop.

I came out four seconds behind him and, for a few laps, took time from him, but then had a chat on the radio, thought about it, and settled for the three points. At this point, between us and Jordan, I was the only Cosworth still running, so we went into conservation mode (still easing away from Trulli and Co, though) and came home with three points. ike I said, sixth doesn't sound flash on paper, but once you' analyse it, it was a big day for us. I enjoyed it. At the end I was exhilarated -1 actually told the boys I'd like to go and do another 30 laps!

Roll,on Monza. It may be tougher, as we seem to go better on circuits that the teams don't regularly test on - and we're all there this week. But, as we illustrated last week, if you do everything right, good things can happen.

51

Mallala

mks'mll Mark Winterbottom capped off his Championship with a perfect outing in the iast round of the 2003 Konica Series at Maiiaia.

MARK GLENDENNING was there

A

ND on the sixth round,Ross Stone said; Go out there and do unto others as you have been doing to them all year.

And Mark Winterbottom took his SBR Falcon, and with it he did smite his opponents. And Ross Stone looked on and saw that it was good and that, more than ever, he had the enviable problem of too many good drivers on his roster, and not enough available seats in the main show.

Dirk Klynsmith

Having already sealed the 2003 Konica Series Championship (joining Dean Canto, Simon Wills and Paul Dumbrell in etching his name on the trophy) during the previous round at Winton, Winterbottom technically didn't have to bother showing up at Mallala last weekend.

And based on the magnitude of the hiding that he dished out, it's a fair bet that most of his competitors wished that he hadn't.

Winterbottom was again the class at the field at the South Australian circuit, taking a clean sweep of pole position and three wins from three races. The one thing that stood out was the impression that he had saved his best for last.

Far from basking in the glow of being the new Champion, Winterbottom's dominance was arguably more absolute than it has been all season. For the first time all year, neither car nor driver showed any sign that things were going anything less than flawlessly.

"You can't enjoy a weekend any more than getting three wins," smiled Winterbottom.

"1 finally got it off the line and good starts, and I think that's really what set me up for race one and race three.

We had good car speed all weekend, and really just hung in there."

Winterbottom went on to dedicate his result to Howard Marsden, who passed away recently after suffering from cancer.

"He got me through karts and to where 1 am today. Without his assistance, I don't think I would be standing where I am."

Appropriately, the top three outright finishers for the weekend ended the round in Championship

order. Matthew White was second in the Gulf Western Oil Falcon AU,a good result from a weekend marred by a few niggling mechanical problems, ahead of Mark Porter, who was struggling a little for car speed but kept out trouble - on this occasion, no easy task - and benefited from some misfortune elsewhere in the field.

Warren Luff, making his first appearance in the D]R Falcon driven throughout the year by Tony Ricciardello, drove admirably to end the weekend just four points shy of Porter in fourth, while fifth belonged to Tony D'Alberto, who survived an eventful outing to score what was by far the best result of his young V8 Supercar career to take home fifth.

As always though,for every happy ending there was someone else throwing their helmet around in their trailer. Topping the list on this occasion was Owen Kelly, whose weekend came to a premature end in a race one incident involving D'Alberto that began at one end of the main straight and ended in the concrete wall at the other.

Joining Kelly m looking glum was Andrew Jones, who had an outing that featured a little bit of everything encompassing blinding speed, mechanical problems and the odd error.

Qualifying

m Whoever is that persists i to sendingitthe Konica circus Mallala in the depths of winter should be forced, by Act of Parliament, to actually attend the race. It is an event that is fast becoming synonymous with hypothermia, as was amply demonstrated by Saturday's qualifying session.

After spending most of Friday being lashed by some vicious winds, Saturday dawned to a series of rain squalls. One such downpour timed itself perfectly to coincide with most of the first practice session, which meant that hardly anyone got enough of a run on a dry track to gauge much about what kind of car they had at their disposal.

moiorsport news

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V8 SUPERCARS

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When the second practice session rolled around at lunchtime, the conditions had been upgraded from 'damp, then wet' to 'dry, windy and cold', before rallying to a spectacular 'fine and windy' when the qualifying session began in earnest mid afternoon.

The conditions meant that anyone who was banking on fresh rubber to give them something extra was in trouble, for the track was so cold that most reported needing four laps to get the Dunlops warmed up - by which time, any new tyre gain had gone out the window.

Winterbottom swung out and banked a couple of laps in the lm08.8s range - a worrying sign when the rest of the frontrunners were hovering around the midlm09s. The SBR car looked pretty much invincible unbl, late in the

session, Jones pounced.

The Albury driver had been waiting for just the right moment, and when it came, it was devastating.

The BJR Falcon seared around the circuit in lm08.4295s, a gain of 0.7s over what had been his previously fastest lap.

Ordinarily, it would have been enough to put the Winton winner on pole ... except that Winterbottom had thrown on his second set and banged out a lm08.4064s to steal pole from under Jones's nose by a scant 0.0231s.

"I don't know which is worse, really," said Jones.

"I think I'd rather be 0.6s slower than him than to miss out by just 0.02s. It's a lot more difficult to swallow. We went on the second set and worked really hard on getting

continued on page 54

f Qualifying POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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DRIVER Mark Winterbottom Andrew Jones Matthew White Luke Youlden Owen Kelly Warren Luff Mark Porter Dale Brede Steve Owen Peter Gazzard Brett Peters Kevin Mundy Robert Jones Tony D'Alberto Adam Wallis Grant Elliott Craig Bastian Jamie Miller Todd Wanless David Russell Mark Howard Jose Fernandez David Thexton Tim Gordon Terry Wyhoon

3 September 2003

CAR Milligans/SBR Falcon AU BJR Falcon AU Gulf Western Falcon AU Super Cheap Falcon AU Smiths Trucks Commodore VT DJR Falcon AU Hydralink Commodore VX HYL Commodore VX Saabwrdck Commodore VX SM/Scotts Commodore VX Greenfield Mowers Falcon AU Actron Air/PCR Falcon AU Spies Hecker Racing Commdore VX HYL Commodore VX Sydney Star Racing Falcon AU Sydney Star Racing Commdore VS Abacus Property Group Falcon AU Pedders Alexandria Commodore VX Smorgon STeel/PCR Falcon AU Chance of a Lifetime Falcon AU Howard Racing Falcon AU Team Fujitsu Falcon AU Thexton Motor Racing Falcon AU First State/TGM Faclon AU Kitome Falcon AU

Round 6

TIME lm08.4064s lm08.4295s lm09.0774s lm09.1924s lm09.2057s 1m09.4383s lm09.4572s lm09.4911s lm09.5726s lm09.6005s 1 ml 0.2549s lml0.4595s 1 ml 0.4942s ImlO.SOIOs lml0.5072s 1m10.5157s 1m10.5300s 1m10.5756s 1 ml 0.7275s 1m10.9200s lml0.9662s 1 ml 1.0678s lml1.3291s lml3.3656s No Time

Mallala

Dirk Klynsmilh

3“

Best of the non-Stones class: White, above, didn't have a completely trouble-free weekend, but by keeping the scale of his dramas a little lower than those of his competitors he managed to earn a result.

In there when it counts: Porter, left, lacked a bit of car speed, but he was one of the few frontrunners to go home with a car that was more or iess intact at the end - and third for the weekend, and the series, was the end result.

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Konlca VS continued from page 53 some temperature into them slowly, and it seemed to make a difference.

"I came across the line and last time I'd asked, Mark had done a lm08.8s. And when I saw a lm08,4s on tlrere I got on the radio coming down the back chute and said, 'please teU me that's enough'. And they said,'no, he's got you by 0.02s'.

So here we are!"

Kelly looked briefly like he might be able to get somewhere within the ballpark of Kelly and Winterbottom, hut the Smiths Trucks Commdore VT kept finding traffic at all the wrong moments and was eventually forced to settle for fifth behind Wlrite and Luke Youlden.

White's best time was 0.6710s shy of pole, and nobody else got within 0.78s.

Race 1 (19 laps)

A

s the cars sat on the grid waiting for the lights, two things looked to be going in favour of Jones on the outside front row.

For one thing, having the ideal line into the first corner at Mallala is less important than being on the right part of the track at turn tw'o. So if the driver in slot two can overcome being on the dirty part of the track and stay in touch with the polesitter through turn one, they are in a good position to try for the lead on the exit of the next corner.

And secondly, Winterbottom's one Arclrilles' Heel this year has been getting away from the line.

But Winterbottom blew both theories out of the window when he nailed the start perfectly. Jones was less fortunate, and by the time the field had sorted itself out mid-way through the first lap he had fallen to fourth behind White and Kelly.

From the leader's point of view, the rest of the race was pretty much a formality. Winterbottom pulled out a 2.0s gap over the first two laps, and cruised home untroubled to take the win by 5.3s.

"For once, 1 didn't have people in front of me at the start," he grinned.

"That was a bit foreign! Form there, once you get a gap, you are safe from all the carnage behind you.

The car wasn't quite right - we went for a compromised wet/dry set-up so we'll change that back for the next race and it should be a bit better."

While Winterbottom was doing his thing at the front, the shape of a lot of people's weekends were being determined by what was going on behind him.

White set himself up nicely in second place in the early part of the race, but third place was up for grabs and there was any number of drivers trying to stake their claim to it. Kelly, Youlden, Luff, Gazzard, Porter and 54

>●- *Dirk Kivnsmilh

Jones were all in the fight, and positions changed frequently as the pack jostled amongst itself over the open ten laps.

Aside from the odd bump or scrape there was little serious contact ... until Youlden, himself under pressure from Jones, went into the back of Kelly.

The Smith's Trucks Holden managed to gatlier itself up and continue, while Jones had a moment of his own when he went off at the last corner a few moments later. The BOC Gases-backed BJR car got back onto the tarmac with no harm done. but dragged a lot of Mallala's finest topsoil with it.

Jones had another close escape a couple of laps later courtesy of a whack from Gazzard, but before any of the leaders had another opportunity to strike problems the Safety Car came out to rescue the stranded Team Fujitsu Falcon AU of Jose Fernandez.

The field completed four laps under yellows, but as soon as the green flag was waved the panel banging started again. Jones, whose car was starting to blow smoke from the right rear as it exited some of the left-handers, got past Luff, who moments later was whacked from behind by Gazzard.

But that was a mere bump with what happened next. Kelly, who was still making his recovery after being turned around earlier in the race, got crossed up coming out of the last corner while running with D'Alberto.

The pair touched, sending Kelly off the track before he rejoined, only to be thumped by D'Alberto again.

Kelly was sent spearing off the circuit at turn one at full noise and shot through the run-off and into the concrete wall - backwards.

Owen was fine, the car was not.

"1 was behind him, and he got crossed up coming out of the corner," said D'Alberto. "I moved over, and he kept moving across. 1 think I just tapped him and that sent him around, and then he came back onto

And that pretty much takes care of that: Kelly came into the round needing a good result. Needless to say, this wasn't what he was hoping for...

the track and I had nowhere to go. I wasn't trying to take him out, I was just trying to hold my line.

1 was a little bit crossed up. admitted Kelly.

"That's where he started hitting me. But he was never going to pass continued on page 56

Dirk hlynimith

Motorsport meets The Matrix

AS crap as The Matrix movies are, even i will admit that those bits where everything freezes and the cameras move around an object monentarily frozen in time are cooi.

Can you imagine the same thing in Supercars? Well, now you won’t have to, because It looks like it might happen.

Photographer Mark Ruff specialises in such wizardry, and he was at Mallala last weekend doing a trial run for Channel 10 that, if successful, could seriously spice up future Supercar coverage.

“Today we are using a total of 24 cameras,” Ruff said. “They are set up on the finish line, and as cars cross the line we can freeze those moments and create a 3D effect, where we can track around the image from behind to the front. The system can be used at any point during the race, and images can be available for TV five seconds after they happen.” cards As well as its racing applications, the system is alsi les. for other events such as the upcoming Commonweal ●i - MARK GUENDENNI

Dirk Klynunilh

motorsport news

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Konioa V8 Supercar Series — Mallala

Konica V8sRd6

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Mallala Race 1 (19 laps) POS DHiyER BRGE TIME/UPS

FASTEST

1 2 3 4

Winterbottom 25ml2.6079s lm09.2497s* White 25m17.9115s 1m09.6320s A. Jones 25ml8.6659s lm09.6855s Porter 25ml9.5820s 1ml0.2403s 5 Luff 25m20.3002s lm10.2715s 25m22.6275s 1 ml0.5529s 6 Gazzard 7 Brede 25m23.1187s 1mlQ.7051s 25m23.6917s lml0.7663s 8 Owen 9 Peters 25m26.3622s 1m11.1436s 10 R. Jones 25m27.0047s lmll.2355s 25m27.7511s 1m10.9875s n Mundy 25m28.2020s 1mll.4872s 12 Whyoon 25m28.8186s lmn.4225s 13 Elliott 25m29.5461s lml0.7069s 14 D'Aiberlo 25m29.8261s lm11.6643s 15 Miller 25m30.8108s lml1.3509s 16 Wanless 25m33.4316s 1ml1.82l2s 17 Howard 25m33.8216s 1ml1.7799s 18 Bastian 19 Youiden# 25m36.2956s lm10.0492s 25m42.9465s lml4.4565s 20 Lawrence 21 Wallis 26m01.9626s 1 mil.2667s 18 laps lm09.6529s DNF Kelly DNF Gordon 12 laps 1m13.7642s DNF Fernandez 9 laps 1m11.8378s DNF Russell 8 laps Imll.2289s DNF Thexton 7 laps 1ml2.0566s DNF D'Aiberto 6 laps 1m28.5631s # include time penalty of 19s Race 2 (IB laps Reverse Grid!

1 Winterbottom 23m21.0514s lm09.8976s* 2 Wallis 23m24.8701s Imll.1328s 3 Wanless 23m25.1721s Imll.0117s 4 23m26.3383s 1m10.8450s Whyoon D'Aiberto 23m27.2561s 1 ml 1.2668s 5.

6 Luff 23m28.0009s 1ml0.9761s 7 Porter 23m28.3121s 1m10.8844s 8 White 23m28.6893s 1ml0.1899s 9 R. Jones 23m31.5583s 1m11.1849s 10 Owen 23m32.7935s 1ml0.9246s 11 Miller 23m39.7000s 1ml1.6569s 12 Peters 23m39.9789s lmll.8650s 23m42.0095s lml1.9936s 13 Bastian 14 Gordon 23m45.5887s 1 ml 2.4933s 15 Thexton 23m50.9940s lml2.1667s 16 Lawrence 23m55.0017s 1ml4.4020s 17 Russell 17 laps 1m12.0531s DNF Brede 15 laps lm10.9901s DNF Mundy 13 laps 1m10.8697s DNF Youlden 13 laps lm10.9580s .DNF Gazzard 3 laps 1ml0.7976s DNF Howard 2 laps 1ml2.7121s DNF A. Jones 2 laps 1m13.8081s DNF Elliott No laps

Race 3 (28 laps)

1 Winterbottom 32m49.9155s lm09.4827s* 2 White 32m58.1609s lm09.6976s Potter 33m11.0695s 1m10.3428s 3 4 A.Jones 33ml2.7374s. 1m09.9363s Luff 5 33m26.7305s 1 ml 0.4238s 33m26.7305s 1m10.7070s 6 Brede 33m30.4928s 1ml0.5790s 7 Peters 33m33.7605s 1 ml 0.8489s 8 D'Aiberto 9 R. Jones 33m36.6215s 1 ml 0.7459s 33m52.7976s 1m10;6781s 10 Youlden 11 Miller 33m55.1562s 1ml1.4512s 12 Wallis 33m56.0640.s 1m11.5913s 13 Fernandez 33m56.8722s Imll.1881s 14 Elliott 33m58.6465s 1mi1.6517s 15 Wanless 33m59.1921s 1ml1.1750s 16 Howard 27 laps 1m1l.6862s 17 Wyhoon 27 laps Imll.1534s 18 Thexton 27 laps lml1.8034s 19 Bastian 27 laps 1m11.749is 20 Lawrence 26 laps lm13.9120s DNF Owen 26 laps lml0.5471s

Final Points after dropping worst wound: Winterbottom 922, White 864, Porter 780, Peters 718, Youlden 688, Brede 680, Kelly 680, Gazzard 658, Bastian 626, Mundy 612, A. Jones 604.

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continued from page 54 me down the straight. By the time he hit me the second time, I was gone -1 was sideways this way, then I was sideways that way, and then I was sideways on the grass ..."

The stewards later declared the accident a racing incident, and no further action was taken.

Meanwhile, White was having some problems of his own. Just prior to the Safety Car coming out, his Falcon suffered a throttle sensor failure.

When the engine began randomly cutting out as well. White's position was there for the taking - and as the race ticked towards an end, Youlden took it.

"It kept cutting out randomly/' said White. "I think Luke was pretty kind to us, not turning us around! In the end it just died on the back straight and he just sailed past."

Youlden was initially awarded second, but after a post-race hearing the Super Cheap Falcon driver was handed a 19s penalty - the equivalent of a drive-through - for turning Kelly around early in the race.

White thus got his P2 back, with Jones rounding out the top three ahead of Porter, Luff, Gazzard, Brede (suffering a misfire) and Steve Owen (who grenaded a brake duct).

Race 2 Reverse Grid (18 laps) Compared the carnage first race, with the reverse grid -of the normally guaranteed to produce some panel damage - was fairly tame.

Youlden received a double whammy when, in addition to his time penalty in Race 1, he was made to line of for the reverse grid as if he had finished second - in other words, right down at the back.

To make matters worse he lost his clutch on the warm-up lap, and set off with 18 laps worth of hard work ahead.

Jones would probably have traded places with him, though. The Falcon started blowing smoke virtually from

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Dirk Klynsmi

Going you own way: Super Cheap Falcon driver Youlden had his share of dramas over the weekend, but he certainly wasn't the only one. the start, and on lap three it coasted into the pits and out of the race.

First thought to be a broken oil line, later inspection revealed that the cause of the problem was in fact a bit of a mystery. A new powerplant was dropped in for the final outing.

At the front, Adam Wallis was making the most of his starting position to build a good lead over Todd Wanless, who himself was comfortable clear of the pack.

But the fast guys were starting to work their way through ... although nof without some drama. Brede's challenge was hampered by a big lock-up on lap four that flat-spotted a tyre, putting him on the back foot, and not long afterwards Owen gave a few drivers a fright when he spun in front of a group at turn six, scattering V8 Supercars every which way.

Amazingly, everybody survived unscathed.

Youlden's clutch problems saw him come undone on lap 11 when the car came to a halt at turn seven, prompting another appearance from the Safety Car - and dissolving the gap that existed between the last few leaders and Winterbottom. The SBR car was in fourth place at the restart on lap 14, dispatched them without raising a sweat, and that, as far as the win goes, was that.

"We were able to take a few more risks, because we weren't fighting for the championship," he explained.

Wallis and Wanless finished second and third respectively, however a number of the faster cars failed to see the chequered flag due to late dramas.

Gazzard was parked with a leftfront blowout that did enough damage to its surrounds to ensure that the car would not be back on the track for race three, while Brede's frustration continued when he was sidelined by a broken fan belt.

"We dropped a fan belt, we were struggling with brakes, and we zipped a front tyre," said Brede. "The car was stuffed. The boys are busting their balls, and we're getting nowhere."

Race 3 (28 laps) fter all the drama of the first two

A

races, tire final Konica Championship race for the season was something of an anti-climax.

Winterbottom again got a good start, but then appeared to miss a gear change on the approach to turn one and copped a soft tap from White. No harm, no foul, and Winterbottom gathered himself up and drove on to win by almost 9.0s.

For his part. White has a similarly lonely run in second and underlined his claim as 'best of the rest' to take the runner-up slot by 13.0s from Porter, who had picked his way through after spending the first half of the race running in sixth.

Just 1.7s behind him was Jones, who was keen to take something out of a weekend that had promised so much and delivered so little.

Starting back in the middle of the pack, Jones was tlie only driver outside the top two to post a sub-lmlOs lap as he flung himself around the circuit to finish just off the podium. Luff followed him across the line, ahead of Brede, Brett Peters and D'Aiberto.

While relatively pleased with the results of his first run in the DJR Konica car. Luff was also ruing what might have been.

"It would have been nice if we could have finished third for the weekend," he said. "In the second half of the last race we were losing a // lot of rear end grip.

So after a dramatic season, the 2003 Konica Series ended on a rather quiet note. For most of the field, there is still the non-championship race at Bathurst to come, and co-drives in the endurance races will keep many of the front-runners from sitting on their hands in the coming months.

For the rest, it's time for a break before they think about next season and the possibility that, if a more suitable home can't be found, then the Winterbottom/SBR combination might be back for another crack. A daimting prospect indeed ...

moiorsport news

FORMULA FOR[3

Doing It When It Counts 7

by CHRIS JORDAN

SYDNEY'S Neil McFadyen was in irresistible form at the penultimate round of the Australian Formula Ford Championship over the weekend, collecting maximum points.

McFadyen turned a six point Championship deficit into an imposing 19 point lead, making South Australia's Mallala circuit his own on a weekend that saw his title combatants struggle to match his speed.

After collecting pole and a vital championship point, McFadyen made perfect starts in each of the day's races and simply drove away from the field.

"I was surprised to get such a good lap so early on, and that the other guys lacked my early (race) speed," he said.

"My standing laps were very good and I really just backed off once I had the gap."

Second for the weekend was Sonic driver Glen blastings. The Victorian qualified fourth and was as high as third in Race 1 before an altercation with Ian Dyk at the Turn 5 hairpin saw him run wide and drop a spot, losing valuable time.

The second race was more kind to him, finishing a strong second, . Adrad Radiators driver Bryce Washington had his best Championship round result to

date, finishing third overall at his home circuit after collecting two third places.

"I'm really happy to be on the podium, but I really set out to finish in front of Tim Macrow for the Rookie of the Year standings," he said.

Washington's car was on the pace all weekend, quickest in Friday practice before qualifying second. Fie lamented though, the pace of McFadyen on race day.

"Neil was just so quick.

Straight out of the gate, he was on it," Washington admitted.

"On cold tyres, he would put together a really fast standing lap. You can't really compete with a car that's just so quick straight away.

"We had his pace by the end

1o

of the race, but by then ..."

Tony Pugliese came into the round with the championship lead, but had a disastrous weekend.

After coming home second in the first race, Pugliese bogged his car down at the start of Race 2, dropping back to 14th.

In a desperate attempt to regain lost positions, he went very deep under brakes at the Northern hairpin on Lap 3, only to tangle with Clayton Pyne, leaving Pugliese to park his damaged car on the infield.

Tim Macrow performed soundly in the Spectrum, collecting fifth place in both races, as did Brett Francis, who scored a sixth and a fourth.

Local driver Tim Slade had a

stellar weekend. After spinning out of contention in Race 1, the eighteen-year-old finished Race 2 in seventh place to collect his first National Series points.

Queensland's Daniel Pappas also broke through to score points in both races, his first for the year.

Going into the final round at Sandown in two weeks time, McFadyen will be looking to extend his current streak of four race wins on the trot.

"The pressure that the other guys had is now on me. But I'd rather have a 19 point lead going into the last round than be behind," Points: McFadyen 205, Pugliese 186, Hastings 186, Francis 132, T. Macrow 92, Washington 89.

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3 September 2003

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Man of Act, Fetter Solberg has already been a champion - at Remote Control car racing, and dancing. Now he wants a World Rally Championship, with Subaru.

In Melbourne en route to Rally Australia he told MARK GLENDENNING about why it was important to win his way, with his team

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INTERUIEIfir

/ am staying here: Fetter Solberg has turned down the hig teams (like Peugeot)and hig money to stay in Subaru blue for another three seasons. He is obviously loyal and, from the evidence of this interview, not afraid to speak his mind.

In motor racing.

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HE distinctive blue Subaru Impreza WRC hurtles madly about, using every available bit of space,and spending as much time going sideways - with millimetre-perfect precision, mind you - as it does going forward.

After a few minutes and several close calls, its driver, himself fresh from a closer-than-close second place in the Rally of Finland a few weeks ago,flicks the car through 180 degrees and slides it backwards until it comes to a halt... between the legs of an office chair. Remote control in hand, Fetter Solberg looks up and grins:"I parked it!"

When he is not terrorising the occupants of Subaru's STI showroom in Melbourne's Docklands with a

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3 Sepiember 2003

radio-controlled car (something he does with considerable flair, as one would expect from one who took out the Norwegian RC championship as a 13-year-old), tire Subaru driver's seemingly limitless energy is charmelled towards making the transition from WRC rising star to superstar.

The concept of manufacturers spending a season in 'development' has become a bit of a cliche in recent years(with the exception of Mitsubishi, who took the remarkable step of taking a 12 month sabbatical to sort themselves out). But the Subaru camp is convinced that it is on the brink of something rather good. And if it happens,_2003 will stand out as the year in which the foundations were laid.

The team has understandably revealed little about its plan of attack for the next few seasons, but it is abundantly clear that Solberg will feature heavily. The Norwegian rode into this season on the back of his first WRC win in the Rally GB at the end of 2002, and has backed it up with a series of strong outings highlighted by his crushing win in Cyprus, and the runner-up spot in Finland.

To that end, the team announced a few weeks ago that they have secured the 28-year-old's services for the next three years. After spending some time in Solberg's company,it's not hard to see why they were so keen to keep him. For many top level drivers, the prospect of arriving in Australia a week early and going into PR overdrive would be greeted w'ith anything from patient indifference to outright dread. Solberg, however, seems to thrive on it.

"If you try to be someone else, you are just using more energy," he reasons.

"So there's no point. Just be yourself. Some of the things 1 say are not the best, and I get a lot of complaints because I am maybe

\\

Maybe I got better offers from Peugeot or Citroen or, I can tell you I did - but n it's not about the money

- Solberg on his decision to stay with Subaru for three more years swearing too much and talking too much bullshit. But what can you do?

You can't stop it. And then you have to be false if you want to say something else.

"1 got a letter from Subaru, actuallyrA long letter.'We were not happy with your last rally', because on television 1 was swearing ... was it ... four times after each other? On television! You know,'beep, beep, beep, beep'.

"And then after, 1 got a small problem,and 1 was swearing five to six times - after I got this letter! And 1 turned to the camera and I said (looking- sheepish)'sorry'(laughs).

That's the difficult thing, it's so difficult to hide your expression.

"I am driving. I don't have time to think about what I am going to say.

Maybe it's wrong, but that's how it is.

And we were talking about it just before a rally, the Japanese (from Subaru) with David (Lapworth) and Paul(Howarth), and they were saying,'you know, you are swearing quite a lot'. I said,'yeah, I know', because 1 am also getting a lot of stick about it from my mother (laughs).

"And then David said,'Paul,just forget it. It's impossible'. Or something like that. And he said,'just be yourself'. So, no more letters (laughs). Hopefully."

Effervescent, excitable, and talkative (indeed, one reason that he likes Rally Australia is because "a lot of the people are very similar to in Norway. Very open, talk a lot, and it's good!"), he is, in short, a sponsor's dream - and by God,he can drive. So Subaru wanted him - and he is more than happy to stay.

"Maybe I got better offers from Peugeot or Citroen - or, I can tell you I did - but it's not about the money," Solberg explains.

"You can laugh now,but everything is not about the money.

It's very important, everything around it. That the team are positive, that the president in Japan is happy and positive, and that the strategy that the team have put together for the next three years, and what they are going to put into the car, with the different systems ... I know it will be a good car. I asked for five things from the team, things on the technical side, and I got all the five things."

Solberg's decision to reject tire offers of more money and a car that is more competitive in the short-term says a lot about his values. He wants to win, and win often - but he wants his success to mean something.

"I have been with the team (a while) now,and we've been pushing, and pushing hard," he explained.

"And they know that we don't have the car quick enough yet- this

continued on page 60 59

continued from page 59 year. You go to different rallies, and you're trying to win every rally.

That's the plan. On the slow and twisty sections, nobody keeps up with us. It's just on the fast sections that we struggle a little bit. But I think if we can do that, get the whole team to work the whole time to be the best, then(we will).

"They are putting in a lot, I am putting in a lot... and then (together we can) get the championship. That is more of a challenge than to go,for example, with Peugeot, who have won the last three years, and then win. You come to a winning car, you come to a winning team - why should I give them more (wins)? Do you understand what I mean? Like,I rate Finland higher than the Cyprus win."

By any standard, Finland was one to remember. While Markko Martin was having the time of his life scoring an Estonian victory on Finnish soil, Solberg spent the final day in a nose-to-nose slog with Peugeot driver (and 2004 Subaru team-mate) Richard Bums. Stage after stage, the pair traded tenths of seconds before Solberg finally came up trumps with an advantage of just 1.3s. Over three days and a few hundred kilometres of rallying, it doesn't get much closer than that, and it took everything that Solberg had on tap to make it happen.

"That was a killer stage, you know?" he beamed.

"I was really flying. I could never have done it again. There was a small jump just before the first corner, and I jumped and I almost jumped out of the corner. I was standing driving, I was standing in the seat. I bent the throttle pedals! The team, they tried to do it later and they couldir't do it."

As upbeat as Solberg is about his prospects for the future, one clrange that he is greeting with obvious disappointment is the decision of current team-mate Tommi Makinen to call it quits at the end of the year.

"Tommi has giveji a lot from himself," Solberg reflected.

"Everything I asked for, he told me the tmth and helped me,especially with some of the stages and rallies that I don't have so much experience on. Even if I didn't ask him, he always showed his impression of what his feeling was anyway.

"Like I said, he is a very different team-mate compared with some of the others I've had. Very nice guy. He is a very nice friend and a very good team-mate. He shares everything."

And Makinen's assistance has not been a one-way street.

"I taught him to have fun!" Solberg exclaimed.

"He is so relaxed now. He's a good laugh."

As a former competitive dancer 60

no,that's not a naisprint(apparently one of those annoying people who are adept at just about anything, Solberg also used to do some modelling ... one gets the impression that if you handed him a guitar, he could probably play that, too), it was worth asking whether Fetter ever tried teaching Makinen to dance."No ... but I taught his wife!"

It scarcely needs to be said, then, that life alongside Burns is going to be rather different.

"With Richard, it is a very different personality. There is nothing to compare at all. But we have to do the best, we have to do the best for the team,and that means we have to co operate as much as possible. But if he was in a different team,like (he is) now, then I'd have to beat him anyway. So it doesn't matter.

"I don't remember how he is as a person. It will definitely be different with Richard, but that's not my problem. That's up to the team to make him work around the team philosophy."

One thing that Bums will bring with him is a chequered reputation as a team player. He and Solberg last drove together in 2001, the year that Bums took out the championship before moving on to more Peugeotflavoured pastures.

"That year, I slowed up for him to give him points in Sanremo. And I did the same in New Zealand, because I was quite a lot quicker. I had to stop up and give him a better starting position for the second day.

This time around,I don't want to have everything. I want both cars to do well. That time,it was just him all the time. But what's the point now?

There's two. It's a team that wants to do well for both of us."

But if we fast-forward to this time next year and imagine that Solberg is in strong contention for the title.

would he expect the Brit to return the favours?

Whe Subaru \

"That's a team thing. That's not for me. But me,if 1 want to win a rally, I want to win it myself. If I win the rally because somebody helped me, f### you. I'm not good enough."

Solberg isn't drawn to say much else about his future team-mate, however he drops a hint while talking about his nick-name, 'Hollywood'.

"It could be a worse name! To tell you the truth, I did a lot of promotional things in Hollywood, and that's where it started. I have always had fun, you know? It just goes that way. It doesn't matter - it's better than 'Ginger Whinger' (laughs). We won't mention any names..."

For now though,Solberg has more immediate concerns than how he will gel with his new team-mate, and the most pressing is the upcoming Rally Australia. The Norwegian scored a bundle of points here last year, and is confident that this is a place where the Subarus could again be looking at a solid haul - particularly if the heavens open.

"I am actually hoping for rain and cold weather," he said.

"It's always going best for Subaru and us when it is difficult conditions, and colder weather. We were fighting from almost the first day last year when it was wet and damp and stuff, and then it became completely dry 'and we couldn't keep up. I was second until after a couple of stages on Simday,but we knew,on Sunday, that we would lose the second place.

But nobody beats us when it's muddy conditions and it's twisty."

As the 2003 WRC season enters it final stages - with Solberg still sitting theoretically in contention - and the promise of a revised engine and aero package(and supremely motivated g

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"He is a very different team-mate compared with some of the others t've had. Very nice guy. He is a very nice friend and a very good team-mate. He shares everything l§

-Solberg on his soon-to-retire team-mate Tommi Makinen, above

AS long as we were having a chat with Petter Solberg, we thought it would be fun to take a squizz inside his weapon of choice, Subaru World Rally Team's Impreza WRC 2003.

The car was developed over a 14-month period with input from UK-based Prodrive, Subaru's parent company Fuji Heavy Industries and the company's high-performance Scandanavian driver) on the cards for next year, life for the just-married Solberg is good. But it's hard not to wonder what might have happened had his racing career followed another path that presented itself a few years ago.

"In '96,1 got a contract with Renault to drive in the Renault Spyder category that was supporting all of the Formula One races," he said.

"I did one test, and I had never driven it before, and I was the quickest. I got the seat, but I was ... no. It was so boring. Brake in the same place, change gear in the same place ...

"F### that, I need some action."

motorspon news

INTERUIElAf

n in Perth, Petter Solberg and the Vorld Rally Team choose to fly STi

IX:

arm, Subaru Tecnica International (STi). The car's heavily-revised aerodynannics have been designed to provide greater downforce that is predecessors, as well as better cooling. The 'cheese grater' rear wing is the car's most visible change.

The 1994CC flat-four engine.

featuring an IHI turbocharger (with 34mm restrictor), produces the specified 300hp at 5500rpm and drives through a six-speed electro-hydraulic gearbox to all four wheels. The torque spilt is 50/50, with the differentials electronicallycontrolled.

The car his shown here in

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I

Ogle This PEUGEOT

Panizzi’i V.-

RiUQiOf has pulled the covers off the new 307 VURC that will feplace the hugely successful 206 in 2004.

Based on the 307 Coupe Cabriolet, the car is ! the first front-^line WRC machine to have been based on a convertible since the 1i70s, and will , be publicly unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show inext month.

The 307 WRC is the product of 15 months of development, and has been extensively tested by Cedric Robert andi Andrea Aghini, with Marcus Gronholm and; Richard ©urns having also taken turns in the driver^ seat.

The car features virtually nO'carry-over partS:

fpom the 206. It features a SOObhp XU7JP4 engine bored out from 1.8 to two litres and turbocharged, with e new five-speed transverse gearbox.

A new four-wheel drive system has been added, however the retractable steel roof featured on the road^going version is welded shut for competition purposes.

The car is also considerably larger than the 206 in response tO’the new-for-2004 regulations that impose a- miinimuna bodysheil weight of 32§kgi.

The car wii be homologated onJanuary 1i, 2004, however Peugeot have not announced a date for the car's rallying,debut.

TARMAC specialist Gilles Panizzi will suit up in Mitsubishi colours for 2004.

The 37-year-old six-time rally winner, who was forced out of his Peugeot seat by the new third driver eligibility rules, will replace Alister McRae. "Joining Mitsubishi is the perfect solution for me," said Panizzi,above. "I have long stated that 1 want a full WRC programme,and am very pleased to be joining a team that has such a

Going Home RICHARD Bums will be back in blue next year after confirming that he will leave Peugeot and return to Subaru.

The Brit, who currently leads the championship despite not having won a rally this year, has signed a two-year deal with the team with which he won the 2001 championship.

"Subaru is the team Pve had the most success - with, and I'm really looking forward to being a part of it again," Bums said.

"For the time being, though.I'm putting thoughts of next year to the back of my mind.

My focus is the current season. There's still a long way to go,and I'll continue to push 100 percent for the 2003 title."

Bums will line-up alongside Fetter Solberg, a combination that team principal David Lapworth believes is the best going around.

"Richard and Fetter are two of the most exciting drivers out there, and with both of them driving for Subaru,1 believe our line-up for 2004 is second to none."

62

Tommi says bye TOMMI Makinen has ended months of speculation about his future by announcing that he will hang up his helmet at the end of this season.

Universally regarded as one of the all-time greats, the 39year-old Finn is the only driver to have won four consecutive world rally championships. He has 24 WRC wins under his belt, 22 of which came during his tenure with Mitsubishi.

“It was my original decision two years ago," he said.

“I decided I would leave after two more years. I cannot complain too much. It has been good tun." moiorsport news

RALLYING

Cody:My 03 Crocker to debut new car at Rally Oz

Switch

successful heritage in the sport."

According to Mitsubishi Europe sporting boss Sven Quandt, the signing of Panizzi is the first step toward a revitalised WRC effort for the team after a sabbatical in 2003.

"We are taking our return to the sport very seriously and Gilles is part of our commitment to a successful future," Quandt said.

"His talent on asphalt is unmatched, and he has proved to be a mounting force on loose surfaces." nnn

and he’s leaving with a bang

MEANWHILE,Panizzi is talking down his chances of continuing his recent success at Sanremo in October, claiming that stalled development of the 206 will make it difficult for him to score a fourthstraight win at the asphalt rally.

"I think I'm an honest guy," he said. "I've told Peugeot that the car hasn't progressed since last year. I think they're working too much on the new car. For me,the Ford is the fastest car in the championship at the moment."

However Panizzi's words did not go down well with Peugeot Sport boss Corrado Provera.

"The car still performs strongly," he maintained.

"What is incredible about this 2003 season is the amount of human errors. We have a very reliable and efficient car that has been from time to time jeopardised by human error.

The rallies that have not been won by us have been lost by us.

"It has been because of human errors, not because the car is old.

"Gilles should show how good he is on tarmac in the rallies, because in the two rallies behind us, he didn't show anything."

The wheel bearing failures that struck the team in Finland have been attributed to assembly problems.

3 September 2003

CODY Crocker will debut a Model Year 2003 Impreza WRX STi at Telstra Rally Australia, being held in Western Australia from September 4-7.

Crocker has worked his way into a strong position in the Australian Rally Championship in an MY02 Impreza WRX STi, winning five of the eight heats contested and holding a 19 point buffer over Ed Ordynski in the race for the national driver’s title.

But Rally Australia, which is not a round of the driver’s championship, provides him with an ideal event to put the MY03 impreza through its paces across 386 competitive kilometres.

Crocker will then decide which car he will use to complete the remaining two rounds of the Australian Championship, Rally of Melbourne in October and Subaru Safari Tasmania in November.

The Impreza WRX STi Crocker will drive at the World Championship round was used by his mentor, the late Possum Bourne, at Rally New Zealand.

The four-time Group N national champion recently tested the car in South Australia, and as a result, decided to make the move for Rally Australia.

“It tested well, we were very happy,” Crocker said. “We were achieving better times than in the MY02 car on the same bit of road we used during Rally SA. “Rally Australia really provides us a perfect one-off test for the car as it doesn’t impact on the driver’s championship and it’s not critical in the ARC Manufacturers’ Championship as we have a handy buffer over Mitsubishi and Toyota in that battle.

“Probably the biggest challenge the MY03 car provides us is that it’s left-hand-drive and that will be difficult to get used to, even though we’ve had a left hand drive recce car for several years and done thousands of kilometres in it. Getting the last few per cent of performance at high speed is always the hardest thing to achieve in a rally, and the left hand drive thing will make that a little bit harder.

“The MY03 car is still young in terms of its development. Spending three days in it will be great. I'll learn a lot about it, and so will the service crew.

“We’ll see how all the aspects work out in WA-the left-hand-drive, the performance - and then we’ll make a decision on which car we use going forward.”

Did OK DIDIER Auriol is a definite starter for next week's Rally Australia after making a speedy recovery from shoulder surgery. The 45-year-old was forced to withdraw from Rally Finland after the first stage because he had virtually no movement in his shoulder.

The past couple of weeks have been a tough time for Skoda on the medical front, with Auriol's team-mate Toni Gardemeister breaking a bone in his wrist in an ice hockey match.

Gardemeister is also expected to be fit for Rally Australia, although don't be surprised if you see him sporting a light cast. n The first of the 'from left field' signings triggered by the new driver restrictions has been sealed with the news that 34-year-old Martinique driver Simon Jean-Joseph will be a Citroen driver in 2004.

Jean-Joseph, who is currently driving a Super 1600 Clio for Renault, will line up alongside Sebastien Loeb, with the team's final seat still to be announced. n Suzuki is hard at work preparing a new version of the Ignis for the 2004 WRC. The new car will be based on the forthcoming five-door hatchback, and could be a vital part of the company's stated aim of delivering next year's Junior Champion. n FIA World Rally Championship Commission President Shekhar Mehta has predicted that the 2004 WRC calendar will be expanded from 14 to 16 events, with compensating rules to cut costs expected to be introduced simultaneously.

Fie conceded, however, that he is concerned that the manufacturers have so far failed to come up with many realistic cost-cutting proposals, and suggested that the FIA may be forced to introduce new rules to do the job including a possible ban on turbos. n Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena will travel to Japan immediately after Rally Australia to participate in a two-day recce for Rally Hokkaido ahead of the expected appearance of Rally Japan on next year's WRC calendar.

The Citroen pair will be joined by members of the team's logistics and engineering personnel to investigate the rally, which shares a number of stages with next year's planned championship round. n Hard Rovanpera claims that he stands a good chance of retaining his seat at Peugeot next year. Rovanpera has shared the outfit's third works car with Gilles Panizzi in recent times, and the recent departures of both Panizzi and Richard Burns from the team lessens the threat of Rovanpera getting the chop under the new rules restricting works team's driver choices.

63

WSS TV Dea

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Sprintcars to be aired during cricket iunch breaks IT'S official. World Series Sprintcars will be on free-to-air television this summer.

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I REIGNING South Australian : Sprintcar Champion Luke Dillon I looks set for a big summer ; season of racing ahead.

Luke and his family team will i be starting their 2003/04 season ’ at Riverview Speedway, Murray Bridge aboard a new Cool chassis and self-prepared Gearte engine.

‘This will be used as our test session before gearing up for the Australian Sprintcar Masters being run the following week at

Speedway City,” said Dillon, above.

Due to family commitments for this season, Luke will regrettably miss the Brisbane and Wagga rounds. But Luke and his family team will be taking in as many events as possible aboard his S81 Cool, which will include the gruelling WSS Speed week, the Victorian Title on Jan 3, the SRA round at Mount Gambler and all the shows at his home track, Speedway City.

- PARIS CHARLES

Miss World ... Series Sprintcars!

WORLD Series Sprintcars has added a new dimension that is guaranteed to bring an extra sizzle to the summer season ahead.

Female fans can become an

interactive part of the WSS in 2003/04 by entering the 'Miss World Series Sprintcar' competition.

Each month, a new girl will be chosen as the 'Calender Girl of the ’ Month'and have a selection of

Hotel in Parramatta, NSW. Females aged 17 and up are now eligible for the title of Miss WSS. To enter, log on to www.worldseriessprintcars.com.au.

-PARIS CHARLES

photos displayed in a special section on the WSS website and also in the WSS official program.

All girls entering the competition will be in tire running to win some fantastic prizes. The winner will be flown to the Grand Final round of the series at Adelaide's Speedway City on January 17 where she will he crowned with her title. Miss WSC will also have the duty of assisting in the presentation ceremony to the winners.

Following that herself and a partner will enjoy a weekend of luxury staying at the Pacific International

Pans Charlfs

Clamour Girl: WSS Miss September - Sonia from Adelaide posing on Wayne Bunker's Maxim.

AffloUtei* Motepspopt Tpagedy

THE racing world lost another driver in Oskaloosa, Iowa during the running of the $30,000 to win Ultimate NonWinged World Challenge for sprint cars on August 12.

Keith Hutton, originally from Queensland, was instantly killed as he hit the front straight wall with the side of his car.

Hutton relocated several years ago to Knoxville, where he had served as a mechanic for Don Drcud Jr., Randy Hannigan, and most recently, Clint Garner.

An infrequent competitor over the last few years, Hutton recently finished third behind Jimmy Sills and Roger Rager in the Masters Classic at Knoxville Raceway. He was 53 years old.

- JULIE PEARCE

The 2003/04 WSS Championsliip will be shown on the Nine Network nationally and it is believed that the majority of the broadcasts will appear during the Imich breaks of the cricket.

13 of the 14 rounds iia the series will be aired in half hour programs between early-December and lateFebruary.

AVE Executive Producer Greg Sita has been brokering the deal for the past few weeks, and was delighted to confirm the landmark television coverage.

"There's no doubt this is a giant shot in the arm for World Series Sprintcars and Speedway in general," said Sita. "Nine have given us a solid commitment and some excellent time slots to put on a

cracker program that really showcases the excitement of WSS.‘ Broadcast times have yet to be finalised.

Sullivan scores in AUSTRALIAN Ryan Sullivan became the first rider to win two Grand Prix this season when he triumphed at the Ullevi Stadium in Sweden on Saturday night.

He clinched victory ahead of Britain’s Scott Nicholls and fellow Aussie Leigh Adams, who is now joint championship leader with Denmark’s Nicki Pedersen.

There was disappointment though for Jason Crump. The Gold Coast rider was immaculate in winning through to the Final but was left at the start when the tapes went up as he blew an engine.

Sullivan, right, has had a disappointing season, his World Championship hopes ruined by a succession of injuries, and he now admits: "For the first time in a long while I am riding free of pain. My confidence took a real dip (but) I still feel I need more races.”

Adams, the only rider to have made the semi-finals in each of the six rounds so far this year, says that he isn’t taking too much notice of the fact that he is leading the championship, the first time he has ever been in that position.

“The only time that it really counts is after the last GP,” said Adams. “Things are going well at the moment but I am not looking

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too far ahead.”

There was chaos seven days before the meeting, when a badlyprepared track caused the original meeting to be abandoned with just three heats completed.

Nicholls has now been third and second in each of the last two rounds but he was still disappointed.

“I had the best gate in the final and felt I should have won from there, but Ryan made a great start and that was that.”

It was another cruel night for Crump, so unlucky to draw the unfavoured gate four in both his motorsport news

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The players are coming on to the field so let's cross to the commentary box with Richie Benaud, and along side him, it's Wade Aunger...

SPEEDWAY

Brady Bunch

I i WHIN Biooke Tataelil pulled off a i daring last-lap pass of Saramiy : Swindell to win the Inaugural I Track of Dreams Nationals at the Jetmore Motorplex on August 18, ! he created history by becoming the ; first Australian to win an O'Reilly i World of Oudaws Series"A" Feature.

Tatnell, who started outside tire [ front row,chased Swindell , tlrroughout tire first 29 laps before ; catching the three-time series i champion in the third conrer. He tlren took his Eagle around his hero high in turn four and beat him to the hire by tire mdith of Iris front tires. ; "This Phillips 66 teanr is not a large operation," said Tabrell. "But Court(Grandstaff)and tire bovs i give me everything they can, and tonight it was good eirough.I'm just ! glad my dad was here to see this. He hasn't been to America in four years, ‘ and I'm happy was able to get my n first win with him waitdring."

His dad George has always been proud of his sons achievements and

Sweden

Daniel Beard

ability and couldn't have been happier with Brooke's performance.

"I'm very proud of Brooke toiright," said Tatnell Senior."He's been trying hard in America for a long time,and it really paid off tonight."

The win by Tatnell is equivalent to a Minardi winniirg an FI GP. This was no gifted or lucky win as Tatnell drove well all iright and clearly outran the best of tire best iircluding Ste\-e and Mark Kinser, Knoxville Nationals drampion Dairiry Lasoski and the likes of Donny Schatz,Jason Mevers and Jac Haudenschild.

- BRETT SWANSON

/

semi-final and final. Crump battled through to take second place in his semi but the blown motor at the start of the final badly hit his hopes of going on to become World Champions. His only consolation is that only Adams, of the riders ahead of his in the title race, picked up more points than he did.

Pedersen and Tony Rickardsson, joint leaders before the start, failed to reach the semi finals.

Rickardsson was the first to be eliminated, collecting only six championship points, his worst of the season. He is now third overall but only a point adrift of Pedersen and Adams. Crump is fourth but only 14 points separate the top five with the seventh stage, in Prague, taking place on September 6.

- TONY MILLARD Points: Adams 96, Pedersen 3S, Rickardsson 95, Crump 88, Hancock 82.

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

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^^ RACING TIRE

For more information on Hoosier Drag and SpeedwayTyres call:

NSW:02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9619 1187 VIQ 03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 933!7444 SA-08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296 3 September 2003

Darnel Beard

SYDNEY'S Craig Brady is getting excited about his sprintcar debut scheduled for the PCR season opener on October 4.

Brady, a former Australia Speedcar driver, is lining up in a 410 cubic inch Maxim sprintcar owned by Barry Lewis. The Steve Kinser-built powerplant is on its way from the USA and the new Maxim chassis should be race-ready for Brady by October. Brady is fully committed to his PCR sprintcar campaign as his race winning Esslinger-powered TCR speedcar has been sold to a New Zealand driver. With the Parramatta City Raceway hosting the January 810 World of Outlaws show, interest in the new 410 sprintcar's is certainly hotting up with many of the regular Parramatta Sprintcar 'all stars' investing in the larger 410 engines for the upcoming summer. n Second generation racer Grant Tunks has been building up a brandnew 2003 MaxBoy for the Parramatta sprintcar season ahead.

With support from RM Race Fuels, Tunks Speed Shop and Tool Connection, Grant is hopeful that despite sticking to the smaller 372 engine his new Maxboy will be still be ultra-competitive on the PCR clay, especially if the tracks stay slick this summer. Grant has come on strong over the past few seasons, his #54 machine has picked up a number of brilliant feature and heat victories.

Grant told MNews last week that he is also looking at competing in the 2004 Australian Sprintcar Ttle to be held at the Bunbury City Speedway inWA. n Adam Clarke has survived a huge flip unscathed in America.

The crash was reported to be one of the wildest accidents in recent years from within the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association.

Clarke was racing the Greg Nelson-owned Midget at PowerCom Park when he clashed wheels while attempting an outside pass.

Reports state that apart from being a bit stiff and sore, Clarke is quite okay and is seeking another ride for the BMARA 50-lap Fireman Nationals before returning home soon to set-up for the local season racing Garry Rush's sprintcar at Parramatta.

-GREG BOSCATO/SWAIMSON

2003 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP CALISTOGA SPEEDWAY AUG 30 1. Danny Lasoski

8. Brad Furr

15. Brent Kaeding

2. Jason Meyers

9. Johnny Herrera

16. Brian Pauius

3. Joey Saldana

10. Jonathan Allard

17. Randy Hannagan

4. Donny Schatz

11. Jason Sides

18. Toni Lutar

5. Tim Shaffer

12. Dennis Moore. Jr.

19. Jac Haudenschild

6. Paul McMahan

13. Tim Kaeding

20. Roger drockett

7. Daryn Pittman

14. Sammy Swindell

21. Jim Carter

I

2003 STANDINGS AUG 31 1

Steve Kinser..

2 Danny Lasoski .

3 Joey Saldana ..

4 Dacyn Pittman 5 Donny Schatz.

6 Jason Sides .. .

7 Brian Pauius ..

0 Paul McMahon 9 Mark Kinser...

10 Tim Shaffer. . ,

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11 12 13 14 15 16

Jason Meyers Randy Hannagan.

Sammy Sv/indell..

Johnny Herrera .

Kraig Kinser Bob Bennett

17

Jac Haudenschild.

18 19 20

Jeremy Campbell.

Tyler Walker Craig Dollansky..

4893 4625 4334 4233 4097 3829 3817 3575 3250 2785

65

Who is Keeping Score?

FOLLOWING an incident after the Michigan race, Jimmy Spencer was suspended by NASCAR for the Bristol, Truck, Busch and Cup races he was entered in and fined USS25,000 (AUD S38,500)for punching Kurt Busch in the face while he sat in his car in the Michigan garage area post-race.

The feud goes back to 2001, when the pair originally nnade contact on track at Phoenix. It spilled over when Busch shoved and barged Spencer aside to win the Bristol spring race in 2002, and came to a head at Indianapolis when Spencer dumped Busch into the newly-installed SAFER barrier in August last year.

Busch called Spencer a "decrepit old has-been" after the incident, and the pair was placed on probation through the end of 2002.

Just when everyone thought the duel was over, Busch hit Spencer while racing for fourth position on the front stretch of the fast Michigan two-miler. His radio conversation was monitored, and he was heard to say, "See I'm not very good at being bad, I was trying to flatten the seven car (Spencer) fender and I got mine. I needed to be further forward on his car."

Whereupon his crew chief Jimmy Fenig responded, "They just showed that on TV, you just missed by about an inch or two, not far enough forward."

Busch responded, "Inches only count when you're playing horseshoes and hand grenades.

And I don't want to play either with that clown."

So it was clear Busch tried to flatten the fender on Spencer's Sirius Ultra Motorsports Dodge in the hope the fender would then cut through the tyre.

TNT TV handed a tape of the in-car, in-garage audio of the post-race fisticuffs to NASCAR, who released it to the media.

The tape starts with Spencer, above right, shouting several times to Busch to "get out of the car". Other words were exchanged, culminating with Busch saying, "do something, just do something, you'll die."

Busch emerged from the car with a bloody nose and broken tooth after a nearby police officer intervened, and the pair, along with their crew chiefs and Busch's car owner Jack Roush paid an extended visit to the NASCAR truck.

Early reports suggested Busch had a broken nose. This was not the case, although Busch had nose surgery last year and there are concerns that the incident may have aggravated his condition.

The pair have been placed on probation for the remainder of the year, and other drivers have been thanking Jimmy.

"I'll pay Spencer's fine," offered Robby Gordon. "He's (Busch) had

it coming fora while!

Busch, below right, spun Robby during the 2002 The Winston, and admitted freely afterward he did it because he needed a caution.

Gordon has yet to retaliate.

Spencer appealed his suspension but it was upheld by NASCAR, while Busch, who was to appeal his probation, dropped it like a hotcake once he found out his radio communication was made public.

The bummer for Spencer is that he could be charged for assault if the local Michigan justice system so decide. Ultra Motorsports truck driver Ted Musgrave filled in for Spencer in the Winston Cup race at Bristol, Spencer's favourite track.

- MARTIN D CLARK

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Redemption? Appa KURT Busch overcame the adversity surrounding himself and Jimmy Spencer during the week and drove to victory lane for the fourth time in 2004 with a win at the half mile Bristol bowl on August 23rd, his third win at the track in four events.

"This has to be the sweetest victory of all," remarked Busch,left. "To be able fo overcome what's happened this week, it will help put everything behind us."

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66

The victory, though, was not popular, Busch electing to opt out of the customary post-race doughnut session. When he emerged from his car in Victory Lane he was greeted with boos from the majority of the 165,000 fans in attendance.

"I hate that 'rubber head' won," said runner -up Kevin Harvick, referring to Busch's primary sponsor Rubbermaid.

"When you win the race and they all boo you, it pretty much shows you're a butthole and you deserve to get socked."

The victory came controversially too. With 117 of the 500 laps remaining, Busch spun second-placed Sterling Marlin into the wall.

NASCAR warned him via team radio

to keep it clean for the remainder of the event or face a penalty, and laps later he passed under Harvick cleanly for a lead he would not relinquish.

"I've got to apologise first to Sterling Marlin," said Busch. "I guess he was letting me go, but I was setting him up for the pass and I made a mistake. I didn't want anything to happen tonight that would be negative."

Marlin, though, was less than understanding.

"That was a bone-headed move on motorsport news

NASCAR

Hello, Newman RYAN Newman, below, took his sixth pole of the season at Darlington over fellow sophomore Jimmie Johnson.

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Old Bloke,Still Fast

VETERAN Terry Labonte, 46, won the 53rd and final Darlington Southern 500 to be held on the Labour Day holiday weekend on Sunday, his crew giving him the lead with a fast stop off pit road with just 33 laps remaining.

"We've been on a losing streak from hell," commented Labonte on his first win in 155 races dating back to 1999, "but our pit crew won this race for us.

"We got out front and that track position is key. I've -wondered many times if I'd ever win again, but this was a great run for us." Labonte took his first win of 22 at Darlington in 1980.

Labonte, nicknamed the 'Iceman', held off Kevin Harvick on the final restart. Harvick making contact with the lapped Ryan Newman who was racing Dale Earnhardt Jr.

rentlynot his part," Marlin said,"I was gonna let him go, but he ran right into the back of us. 1 don't guess Spencer got him hard enough!"

Jeff Gordon cut a right front tyre after leading 179 laps from the pole. He returned to the track in 16th, orily to later spin into the frontstretch wall courtesy of an apologetic Matt Kenseth.

Jamie McMurray held up the strong looking three-car Ganassi effort, finishing third after Marlin and Casey Mears wore drop kicked in wrecks, while point leader Kenseth's luck continued. Kenseth cut a left rear tyre, but slowing on the track caused a wreck behind him and the

"The #12(Newman) got into the wall, I don't know what the hell the #8 and #12 were doing eight or nine laps down and racing," said Harvick.

"But when 1 hit the 12, 1 got even further behind. If there's anybody that's going to win the last Southern 500 on Labour Day then Terry Labonte deserves it. He's one of the great legends of our sport. He's pretty awesome."

Christian Fittipaldi appeared to cause wreck one on lap five that also involved the cars of poor qualifiers Rusty Wallace, Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Jason Leffler and Tony Raines.

For Wallace, it was his fourth DNF in succession.

"Leffler nailed me from behind," said Fittipaldi. "I want to believe he had some brake problems."

On the restart Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin were involved in a scuffle, the latter two replacing radiators.

Gordon, though, would be swept into a caution five wreck with heavy damage after contact with Casey Mears ended in a 32nd placing.

Leader Jimmie Johnson hit the rear of Waltrip slightly under braking, the damage apparently enough to hurt the front downforce, and Johnson would

not see daylight up front again. | Greg Biffle had a great run and looked to have the race sewn up, but with 40 laps to run his Roush Ford jumped out of gear and he did well to finish 10th.

Matt Kenseth came home 14th and stretched his points advantage to 389 over Earnhardt and the fast-approaching and consistent Harvick.

Kenseth slapped the wall while leading on lap 108 and never looked the same again.

"I drove it too hard and smacked the wall," said Kenseth.

Newman lead 120 laps from pole, but a problem with the kill switch or ignition switch during a pit stop on lap 228 saw him Ifise eight laps before discovering the problem. 'Little E' encountered a broken differential after a stop at lap 167 while running tenth. Jr. finished 25th, and Newman ended up 23rd.

- MARTIN D CLARK Final result; T Labonte (Chevy), Harvick (Chevy), Johnson (Chevy), IVlcIVIurray (Dodge), Elliott (Dodge), Mayfield (Dodge), B Labonte (Chevy), Craven (Pontiac), E. Sadler (Ford), Biffle (Ford).

Points standings; Kenseth 3718, Earnhardt Jr. 3329, Harvick 3303, Johnson 3323, J Gordon 3127, Busch 3114, Newman 3075, B Labonte 3053, Waltrip 3012, Stewart 2936.

caution he needed to pit.

- MARTIN D CLARK Final result; Busdi (Ford), Harvick (Chevy), McMurray (Dodge), Kenseth (Ford), Johnson (Ford), Newman (Dodge),Jarrett(Ford), Craven (Ford), Earnhardt Jr.(Chevy), Mayfield (Dodge).

3 September 2003

No quarter: Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon go three-wide at Darlington.

Larry Foyt was the only driver failing to make the field, while provisional starting slots went to Michael Waltrip, Ken Schrader, Kyle Petty, Kevin Lepage, Derrike Cope, Hermie Sadler and Jimmy Spencer who hit the wall on his first timed lap and used a back up Dodge to make the cut. n Jeff Green ran his last race at Darlington for Dale Earnhardt Inc in the Pennzoil Chev. John Andretti will replace him starting this weekend at Richmond, but we can expect Busch Series driver Scott Riggs to also run the car later in the season as the team evaluates pilots for 2004, n Todd Parrott, who was given a paid leave of absence from Robert Yates Racing in April, has surprisingly returned as crew chief for Elliott Sadler's struggling team, although he would have preferred to return as Jarrett's crew chief.

Todd's brother Brad was fired at the same time as Parrott's leave was given. Brad found a home at Roush, while Todd approached several teams for employment, but was turned away.

Todd had been Dale Jarrett's crew chief at Yates, with Jarrett having some harsh words at the time that he has now retracted.

"I probably put too much blame on him," said Jarrett. "I have to step back now and say it wasn't totally Todd Parrott's fault."

Raymond Fox, who had been Sadler's crew chief, will stay with the team as car chief.

"I think Todd Parrott's return will help us find the depth we are missing at this point in the season," remarked Sadler. n Jeff Gordon is storied in the latest issue of Playboy magazine in a feature on Deanna Merryman, who she says was having an affair that lead to the divorce of Gordon and exwife Brooke.

The scandal did nothing to stop Gordon snagging the pole at Bristol with a 127.597mph lap. Mark Martin the surprise outside front row sitter.

Provisional slots went to Jeff Burton, Joe Nemechek, Jeff Green, Todd Bodine, Casey Mears, Kyle Petty and Christian Fittipaldi, while Flermie Sadler, Derrike Cope and Billy Bigley Jr. failed to make the field.

- MARTIN D CLARK 67

USNal PERSISTENT rain showers and a

dismal forecast for the next few days have forced the NHRA to postpone the 49th annual running of the U.S. Nationals for one week.

Densham Goes Alone ... Again AFTER winning the Funny Car title in Brainerd just a week ago, Gary Densham has announced that he is going to field an independent Funny Car team next season.

This will see an end to a three-year association with the John Force Racing organisation.

Densham, right, plans to compete for the 2004 championship in his own race

car, something he did for 29 seasons prior to joining Force Racing in 2001 Questions about whether the Force team will consist of two, three, or four cars next season has put the 56year-old veteran in a position in which he feels it necessary to explore options that will ensure his continued full-time participation in the series.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Hie Fastest Gun FRANK Gugliotta won the 2003 Sunoco Pro Stock Shootout at Norwalk Raceway Park two weeks ago. Gugliotta took home the $20,000(AUD$31,000) winner’s share in the special race-withina-race program during the IHRA Sunoco World Nationals.

In the final round, he took advantage of Pete Berner's nap at the starting line, taking a 0.061 to 0.291 advantage to post a 6.58/211 victory. Berner saw there was no catching Gugliotta, and slowed to a 6.74s at only 173mph.

Gugliotta, below, entered the program as the third-seeded entry and in the first round of eliminations posted a 6.63/210 victory over Rick Jones’s Dodge.

In the semis, Gugliotta dismissed the only Chevrolet in the program, that belonging to John Montecalvo. Gugliotta took the win as his 6.59/210 was enough to hold off Montecalvo’s track record pass of 6.56/211.

Berner, who had stopped fellow Ford campaigners Carl Baker and Brian Gahm, recieved US$9000 ($14,000) in his runner-up effort.

Semi-finalists Gahm and Montecalvo each took home a US$2500 ($3800) bonus, while first round finishers Baker, Jones, Doug Kirk, and Charlie Peppers each collected US$1500 ($2300)for their efforts.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI i. 1. ;;

Leaving the Force: Cary Densham will leave John Force Riicing at the conclusion of this season.

Bruce Ba

BRUCE Litton scored his eighth career IHRA Hooters Drag Racing Series Top Fuel national event title at the Sunoco World Nationals presented by PPG at Norwalk Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

Litton piloted his Lucas Oilsponsored Top Fueler to the crown by defeating points leader Clay Millican in the final round. Litton had given up a slight advantage to Millican at the start, but Millican's Werner dragster began to spin the tyres, allowing Litton a 4.93/294 to 5.51/197 win.

In what is becoming the regular final round pairing in IHRA competition, Litton has been the only driver to defeat Millican in 2003 and he has done it twice this season. Last year, he lined up with the Werner Enterprises-sponsored driver in a total of nine final rounds.

Litton opened eliminations with a single when Tim Gibson couldn't get the Stevens Family entry fired. In the second round, he drew another solo as Jack Ostrander couldn't make the call.

Litton then scored a seihi-final round

Djvid Ostasicwski

68

Friday's initial Pro qualifying session was a washout, but Saturday's program was completed without any delays. The rains once again moved into the area on Sunday and cancelled the remaining two qualifying sessions.

With so much racing left to complete, the only conceivable option was to continue the racing over to the following weekend. There will be one round of Pro qualifying on Friday, with two more rounds of qualifying and the Budweiser Funny Car Shootout on Saturday with final eliminations taking place on Sunday.

David Baca, right, Gary Scelzi, Greg Anderson and Angelle Savoie head the qualifying sheets in their respective categories.

Baca drove his Johnny West-tuned dragster to a track-record E.T. run of 4.504s at 326.32 mph to sit atop of the Top Fuel ladder.

Current POWERade point leader, Larry Dixon rides second at 4.53/319,

win in a smokey pedaling duel and defeated Scott Kalitta, who was making his return to active Top Fuel racing.

Millican stopped Louie Allison, Bobby Lagana Jr. and took a single into the finals when Mitch King couldnt answer the bell after grenading a motor in the round prior.

Thomas Patterson scored his first Pro Modified win of the year with a final round victory over Quain Stott, 6.37/221 to 6.49/219. Patterson qualified his '41 Willys 13th at 6.34/215 and defeated Fred Hahn,Pat Moore and Von Smith en route to the finals.

Stott qualified his LeeBoy paving equipment Corvette seventh at 6.191117 and took out Harold Martin,Sal Passarelli and Tony Pontieri to reach the final round.

In Sunoco Pro Stock, two-time series champion Doug Kirk claimed his first victory of the year when he defeated Carl Baker, who broke just off the starting line. Kirk drove his Charlie Hunt-owned Ford Mustang to an uncontested 6.58s pass at 210mph in the final for the win.

"I was telling Charlie(Hunt) after we won that we might be able to recoup some of what we tore up at Martin", said Kirk, pictured.

Kirk entered eliminations as the 10th qualifier and defeated John moiorsport news

I RAG RACING

tionals Postponed followed by Doug Kalitta at 4.55/327, Tony Schumacher's 4.56/324, and Paul Romine, who carded a career best at 4.57/306 in the Carrier Boyz dragster.

Cory McClenathan used a 4.59/282 for sixth, with Scott Kalitta, m making his return to NHRA Top Fuel Racing, recorded an event opening 4.59/320 shot in his Jesse James-West Coast Choppers dragster. Rhonda Hartman-Smith's 4.63/305 rounds out the top eight.

Australian native David

Grubnic is currently 17th with a 4.80/303 best.

In Funny Car,Schumacher racing team-mates Scelzi and Wliit Bazemore lead the pack after tv\'o runs. Scelzi holds the number one qualifying position in Funny Car after he . recorded the quickest pass of his career at 4.765 at 316.01 in his Oakley Dodge Stratus. Bazemore is right behind in his Dodge at 4.76/323.

John Force has his Castrol Mustang third at 4,78/317 with Johnny Gray fourth at 4.82/321. Ron Capps (4.82/318), Tommy Johnson Jr.

VALE: Lucille Lee

Anderson drove his Vegas General Construction Pontiac

Grand Am to a track record pass of 6.799 at 202mph to secure the provisional Pro Stock pole.

Anderson, the points leader, has been the fastest qualifier nine times this season.

Kurt and Warren Johnson hold on to the second and third spots respectively at 6.80 and 6.82, both at 202 mph. The current bump is a 6.856, held by Texan, Bo Nickens.

Savoie is at the top of the Pro Stock Bike class as she rode her

,

Suzuki to a 7.172 pass at 189 mph.

Shawn Gann is second at 7,19/185 with point leader, Geno Scali (720/185), and Craig Treble (7.21/183) rounding out the top four.

't

\J DAVID BAGA

Oaviit-Pstiii/cwski

(4.82/304), Dean Skuza (4.83/314), and Phil Burkart(4.83/318) round out the current top eight.

The bump is held by Terry Haddock at 5.04/297, with such notables as Del Worsham,and the Pedregon brothers, Cruz and Frank still on the outside looking in.

Troy Critchley is currently qualified 15th at 6.35/220 in the Pro Mod Challenge. He will need to better the current bump of 6.271s, held by Mitch Stott. Low qualifying honours thus far belong to Billy Harper, who put his nitrousbreathing Dodge Viper on the pole at 6.213/226 mph.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

ck At The Top

LUCILLE Lee, the second woman in history to score an NHRA Top Fuel event win, passed away on Aug. 24 after a yearlong illness. She was 52.

She remains one of only five women to ever win a national event in a fuel category, joining three-time champion, Shirley Muldowney, Shelly Anderson, Cristen Powell, and Lori Johns.

Lee worked at TR3, manufacturer of a resin glaze car wax, which sponsored the Top Fuel dragsters of Marvin Graham and Steve Hodkinson. She attended a national event in 1981 with her employers and saw the TR3 car in action, remarking that, 'It looked like fun.'

Within the year she was behind the wheel of a second team car.

She stunned the drag racing world when she won the 1982 March Meet in Bakersfield, California, defeating Shirley Muldowney in the final round.

Later that year, she and team mate Hodkinson met in the final round of the Southern Nationals in Atlanta in the first team Top Fuel final in NHRA national event history. She was also part of the only all-female Top Fuel final round in history when she faced Muldowney at the 1982 Spring Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. n Pro Mod driver Jack O'Dell passed away Saturday during the World Nationals at Norwalk Raceway Park. The Pro Modified competitor collapsed after a qualifying pass and was immediately transported to Fisher-Titus Hospital in Norwalk where he died.

a Jack was the patriarch of the O'Dell racing family from South Sioux City, NE. His son Kevin competes in the Pro Mod class as well.

PjvH OitJirm lii

Bartunek,Pete Berner and Jeff Dobbins with steady 6.61/209, 6.60/209, and 6.61/210 passes. Tlie victory also put Kirk at the top of the point standings.

Baker and his Summit Racing Mercury Cougar reached the finals after defeating Charlie Peppers,John Montecalvo and Shootout Champion Frank Gugliotta.

In Alcohol Funny Car,Jim Sickles made his first appearance in IHRA

3 September 2003

competition a successful.one as he drove his Tom Anderson-tuned, Meyers RV Super Centers-sponsored flopper to the title over former world champion Von Smith.

Sickles defeated John Foster, Tony Bogolo and Neal Parker before taking Smith out in the final.

Smith was pulling double duty on the weekend as the driver of Roy Hill's Pro Modified entry and Rocky Hummel's Funny Car.

He qualified second and advanced to the final by defeating Dan Roman, .

Ronnie Midyette and five-time champion Mark Tliomas. In Hill's Pro Mod car, Smith lasted until the semi-final round.

The next stop on the 2003 IHRA Hooters Drag Racing Series will be the 8th Annual Amalie'Oil North American Nationals at New England Dragway on September 5-7.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

n 'Hollywood' K.C, Spurlock was behind the wheel of a drag car for the first time in nearly nine years, piloting the Carrier Boyz Top Fueler at Norwalk. The veteran Funny Car driver, who initially ran a nitro Funny Car, has now made the transition over to the Top Fuel division. After a 4.71/302 lap in testing at Indianapolis, Spurlock put the dragster into the Norwalk field seventh at 4.89/246. In the opening round however, Spurlock was dealt a loss in a pedaling contest with Bobby Lagana Jr. - DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 69

Hie Racing Bug

by BRIAN REED

GEORGE Reynolds is a spritely 75-year-old who shares his unit with mementos of his prolific racing career -trophies, a pile of tyres in the corner, lots of car parts and his prize possession - his much-used and highly successful VW Beetle in a courtyard right outside his window.

"I wasn't really interested in cars, but when my brother-inlaw, Eddie Perkins (Larry's father) asked me to partner him on a record attempt from Perth to Melbourne in 1953 in a newly-released VW, it whetted my appetite," he recalls.

"In 1954 I bought a VW, became friendly with Ivan Tighe, and took it to Templestowe hillclimb where I broke the class record."

A long association began with VW in circuit racing, hillclimbing and rallying including all the roundAustralia rallies from 1956 onwards. A second placing in the 1957 Ampol Trial was a highlight, as was his outright win in the 1959 Alpine Rally.

George drove the first Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island in 1960 sharing a VW with Perkins, but their car ran out of fuel while leading its class. The following year he teamed with a youngster by the name of Jim McKeown and this time they made no mistake, taking class honours in the VW. A dental technician by profession, Reynolds soon developed a keen interest in the mechanical side of cars and in 1963, under the watchful eye of Phil Irving, he prepared and

10

raced a Ford Cortina GT belonging to Jack Godbehear's wife. Her only comment was, "Will 1 ever see it again?"

George was happy to return it to her unscathed after campaigning it during 1963.

George drove a total of eight Phillip island and Bathurst classics, the highlight being an outright win with Bob Jane in 1964 behind the wheel of a Ford Cortina GT. "Before this, Bob Jane had been my mortal enemy as I used to race push bikes against him at the Essendon board track," said George.

His 1964 success attracted the interest of an Australian dentist in England, who invited him to drive a V8-powered Cortina at Oulton Park in Cheshire. The following year.

Shell invited him to undertake a gruelling test of its X-100 oil, and he and another well-known Aussie driver. Bob Holden, set off from Bombay to London in a Cortina GT. The pair made the most of the opportunity and also competed in four major European rallies - the Spanish, the Tulip, the Acropolis and the Austrian Alpine.

In 1968, Reynolds was invited to take part in the inaugural London to Sydney Marathon, co-driving a Holden Monaro 350 with David McKay. Unfortunately their campaign came to a sudden end close to the finish when George rolled the car near Broken Hill after falling asleep behind the wheel.

That same year he won the 'Driver to Europe' award, having showed his skills in an Elfin Formula Vee by winning 39 out of 42 races. He took his trusty Elfin overseas, and a highlight

The RIfi

by MARK JONES LEYBURN Historic Sprints again played host to a mouth-watering collection of historic racing and sports cars two weeks ago.

While Ray Vandersee carried off the lap record in his much-modified Van Demon version of the Westfield Clubman,there were a few open wheelers amongst the smorgasbord of sedans.

One car that stood out though was a sports car, a genuine sports racing car rather than road-going exotica, a 1962 Elfin MaUala.

was contesting a Vee race at the old 14-mile Nurburgring track in appalling conditions.

The race was abandoned after only five laps.

George took part in two other London to Sydney marathons, first with Des West in a VW (the car that today graces his courtyard) and in 2000 with Englishman Andrew Gorrod in a factory-backed Volvo.

In the late '60s, George added another string to his bow when he ran his successful George Reynolds Advanced Driving School at Calder and Sandown.

"Our Formula Vees were loaned to the most promising drivers for race experience, and all Formula Ford winners for years after had been through the school," he said.

Last year, Reynolds contested the Alpine Rally in his trusty VW Beetle with his daughter Wendy Reiter as co-driver. Most recently, he took part in the 2003 Peugeot Redex Reliability 50th Anniversary Re-Run. His contributions to the sport have been rewarded with life membership of the Cortina Mkl Club, the VW Club (which he started in 1954) and the Historic Rally Association.

The first of five examples built by Carrie Cooper's famed company, the Mallala was based on the Catalina Formula Junior chassis. This car, the prototype, was built with an aluminium body, rather than the fibreglass the subsequent MaUalas would sport and was the first rearengined Sports Car Elfin built.

"David McKay drove it first at MaUala at its first event, which it won, but was disquaUfied because it was push-started," said Bevan Batham,the car's restorer and custodian.

"The car was for Greg Cusack, who drove it until 1964."

The car travelled around several owners before being purchased by Peter Goodwin.

"Peter gave me the opportunity to restore it and get it back out so people can see it."

"It runs a 1500 pushrod Ford engine, twin 40 side drafts, front and rear disc brakes," said the car's driver, former Toyota touring car driver Brad Stratton.

"The head on it is still the original head that was on it from 1964," added Batham."The gearbox is original, the clutch is original. The disc brake rotors and caUipers; aU original. The only difference now its got fibreglass body instead of aluminium."

The car spent 27 years garaged at the end of its racing life in the nearby township of Warwick before a fiveyear restoration project began. This was completed last year, not long before the 2002 Leyburn sprints. This is only the car's third competition appearance since then, having run in a regularity at Queensland Raceway.

The peak of the car's career was in the 1964 Tasman series, where it ran in the Sports Car events run alongside the Tasmans. Cusack defeated Leo Geoghegan's Lotus 23B to win the Lakeside round,before going on to take third at Longford.

Stratton certainly drove it with verve expected of its creators, being one of the few to venture early on Sunday morning during the rain which drenched the drought-stricken town,

motorsport news

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n

HISTORICS

iht Stuff at Leyburn c.

Hold on: Tratton prepares to unleash the gorgeous 1962 Elfin Mallala, above, upon the unsuspecting tarmac at Leyburn.

Completely stock-standard.

Yeah, sure: Ray Vandersee's scary, heavily modified Westfield Clubman, right, nailed the lap record.

Classic Adelaide Gathers Moss OVER the years the Classic Adelaide Rally has earned a reputation for attracting many overseas entries, including top international names in the sport.

The 2003 rally looks set to break all previous records, and heading this year's star studded field will be Sir Stirling Moss, right, who has been signed to drive one of the fabulous 'Gullwing' Mercedes-Benz 300SL classic sports cars from their museum in Stuttga''t.

The 'Jack & Stirling Show' is set to continue, with Sir Jack Brabham back for more this year behind the wheel of a current model Mercedes-Benz 500SL. There has also been considerable interest shown by a number of international Ferrari clubs, and co-founder and executive chairman of Classic Adelaide, David Edwards is soon 3 September 2003

to embark on an overseas trip to help finalise arrangements in order for the owners and their cars to take part.

In addition to the internationals already signed up, 153 local entries have been received - and there's still two months to go before entries close. It looks like being a record year for the 2003

Classic Adelaide Rally which will take place from 19-23 November.

Further information and entry enquiries can be made by contacting Silverstone Events on (08) 8227 0666, fax (08) 8227 0611, or e-mail challenge@silverstoneevents.com - BRIAN REED

Foreign relations SOME exciting overseas cars will be taking part in the Phillip Island Classic next February 27-28 (the weekend before the 2004 Australian FI Grand Prix).

Win Percy will make what will almost be his 50th visit here when he returns with Nigel Webb's Le Mans-winning D-type Jaguar (the exIvor Bueb/Mike Flawthorn car).

This year at Phillip Island, the Dtype ran very competitively despite a rev limit of 4900rpm due to a carburation problem. Win will have eOOOrpm on tap this time, so he'll be one to watch in the Sportscar races..

Also returning to our shores will be American Tom Price. Instead of the Maserati he ran two years ago, Tom will be bringing his lightweight Ferrari GTO 250. Also amongst his stable of desirable cars is the exTony Gaze/Graeme Lowe Alta open wheeler.

Peter Giddings will return with the ex-Whitney Straight 1934 Maserati affectionately known as 'old 3011'.

Another ex-Tony Gaze car which he drove in Australia in 1951 is a two-litre Alta sports car coming from . England, and Dean Butler will be back to drive the sensational Indianapolis 500 Miller 4WD racing car that made such an impression at the Historic Winton meeting.

Negotiations are underway for several other classics including Jaguar and Aston Martin, and it is hoped that no fewer than three ERAs will add to the nostalgia of 'the Island'. n Not to be outdone, the Kiwis are in on the action and 12 Formula 5000s will be coming from New Zealand to take on the Aussies in the 2003 Tasman Challenge at the Tattersall's Historic Sandown on November 7-9. n Supp. regs. and entry foms are now available for two important hillclimbs coming up in Victoria. The MG Car Club of Vic. will stage Round 2 of its Club Challenge on September 14, and entries close on September 9 with David White, 12 Ardgower Court, Lower Tempiestowe, 3107.

The following month (October 2526) will see the running of the 23rd annual Mt. Tarrengower Historic Hillclimb at Maldon, organised by the Vintage Sports Car Club of Vic. and the Bendigo Car Club.

Secretary of the meeting is Roger Boehme, PO Box 146 Golden Square, 3555. Phone/fax (03) 5443 7008. n Ray Vandersee won at Leyburn with the 41s time, a 41.94 in his Van Demon Honda S2000-powered Westfield clubman. Second fastest was local Mike Weston in the V8 ford powered Leyford GT ahead of Bruce Simpson's Porsche 934 replica.

- BRIAN REED/MARK JONES 71

I

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Graei Bowley

Gold Star Title Alive i

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by CHRIS JORDAN 19-YEAR-OLD New Zealander Daniel Gaunt has shot to the top of the prestigious Gold Star standings after round five of the Australian Formula 4000 Championship at Mallala last weekend.

Coming into the weekend fifth, and some 28 points behind championship leader Nelson Hartley, Gaunt,above, put together two faultless drives, showing seamless driving ability on a weekend that was littered with driver mistakes and mechanical misfortrmes from his rivals.

Gaunt moved from the PurePower team to the Ralt Australia outfit for this round, and it obviously paid dividends.

"We struggled with brakes in practice, but managed to find good race pace," said the Kiwi."I just kept my head down and did the job."

The weekend looked set to become a battle between the other Kiwis,Jonny Reid and Nelson Hartley. The pair qualified first and second respectively, and embarked upon a titanic struggle for the lead in the early stages of Race 1. But it all came unstuck on lap five, when Reid tried an inside pass on Hartley, locking his brakes and spinning both

Down to the wire: Trengove has a chance at the 2003 Cold Star crown.

11

cars off the circuit. Local driver Paul Trengove then inherited the lead, only for himself to spin at turn two, giving the lead, and victory to Gaunt.

Ricky Occhipinti, battling with the set-up of his Reynard, but did exceptionally well to hold onto second ahead of the recovering Hartley, who was subsequently excluded from the results for disobeying first a 'meatball' flag,for an intermittent smoke trail (oil) following his car, then for disobeying the black flag that followed.

Whilst Gaunt may have been seen to have inherited victory in Race 1, he

showed the field a clean pair of heels in Race 2, with a start to finish win.

Trengove was able to wrestle second from Occhipinti on lap six, while Jonny Reid and Nelson Hartley were both forced to retire with engine troubles. Rohan Carrig took out Silver Star honours.

So as the teams enjoy a three month break before the final round at Eastern Creek,it is Gaunt who now leads the series, one point clear of Occhipinti, with another point back to Trengove. Hartley sits 12 points off the lead, and Jonny Reid stiU remains in the hunt.

Points: Gaunt 110, Occhipinti 109,Trengove 108, Hartley 98, Reid 92.

Oops: Michael Joannou visits the grass in his Mantis Racing Reynard. molorsport news

Magic McLeod

Azzurro driver wins FA - Third ICA victory for Powles - Thompson takes ICC

IN 1993, the western NSW city of Dubbo opened the nation’s finest kart circuit of the time.

That year culminated in the state championships including a feature race for Formula A. Having just won the inaugural CIK series, Queensland’s Richard McLeod won an action packed race against the likes of Ben Horstman, Phillip Scifieet and Jeromy Lohmann.

Fast forward 10 years and Dubbo’s circuit is now 330 metres longer, still superbly organised and hosting it’s first ever round of the nation’s top series.

On the track, seemingly, not much had changed - McLeod, still faithful to the Azzurro kart took a stunning Formula A win to launch himself into contention for the championship he won back in ’93.

In Formula A, CRG driver Jason Firyniuk took a healthy points break into this penultimate round and claimed comfortable heat wins, amassing a heap of championship points on the way.

After torrential rain on Saturday, the 30 kilometre final become a shootout between Hryniuk, Barclay Flolden, fastest qualifier Matthew Wall ana McLeod'. The race was spectacular with awesome lead changes. As he did in Melbourne’s opener, Matthew Wall built a lead only to fade in the final laps, leaving Hryniuk and Holden to race to the flag.

They went side-by-side on numerous occasions but when they fought for the same piece of track into the McDonald’s right hander bn the last lap they crashed, leaving McLeod (who was only inches behind) to sweep 3 September 2003

CIK CHAMPIONSHIPS 2003 past into the lead. From the pits it was hard to apportion blame to either - this was the last lap of the FA final, after all.

McLeod was ecstatic, shaking his fist as he crossed the line for a fantastic win. In the end, he beat New Zealand’s Wade Cunningham to the line by only a kart length, the CRG driver, impressive after another season in Italy, storming to second from sixth with Wall finishing third, Jason Burns fourth, Jon Grother fifth and Daniel Elliott sixth.

With three wins from four starts, Glenn Powles is getting so close to owning this year’s ICA National Championship.

Onoe again Powles was superimpressive, recovering from a relatively poor qualifying effort with a gutsy drive.

Nick Lowe qualified fastest in the rain ahead of Mitch Cunningham and John Martin but then Tim Ball took a dominant pre-final win. He was unable to hold off Powles, who took the lead early and pulled away. Behind him, Ball held second with Martin fighting off a determined Matthew Muiler. Muller had one brief moment in third but surrendered for his fifth ICA career fourth placing, Powles won as he pleased from Ball and Martin,

jncredibly making it a Trulli Kart 1°2-3! The cliche was inevitable and instantaneous - Trulli Amazing!

In only his second ICC race, 15-year-old Andrew Thompson’s performance was like that of a veteran. The JT Arrow driver qualified fastest and then proceeded to lead the field easily throughout the weekend.

Off the Ft style standing start, Thompson was soon leading and never challenged.

Joshua Pontello took a great second with new series leader Tyson Pearce finishing third, Matthew Sofi fourth and Ashley Slavkovic fifth.

Omega Kart's Mason Merritt claimed a stunning pole position by 0.5s in Junior ICA, but stopping Kristian Lindbom was always going to be near impossible. Throughout the heats, Lindbom fought off attacks from Merritt, Paul Laskazeski, Ashley Walsh, Daniel Erickson and Ben McCashney but in the final Lindbom disappeared into the distance, extending his series lead with a dominant win, McCashney finished second with impressive Kiwi Michael Burdett an excellent third.

The series final is at Geelong on October 18/19.

- IAN SALVESTRIN

driving seat is Chris Cox, the NSW ■'driver coming out of retirement at his home track aboard a Tecno. Word is that Cox was under Auld's pole time in recent testing...

■ The internationally renowned Gillard kart is now available in Australia, the team scheduled to make its official debut at the Rotax Nationals this weekend, KartStars front runners Troy Wooiston and Blake Mills will pilot the grey and red machines in Rotax Light while WA's Danny Fisher will compete in Rotax Heavy. Wooiston will also drive for the team in Formula A at the final round of the Dunlop CIK series at Geelong next month. The team is said to have a direct link to the factory and the tuning expertise of Peter de Brujin, importer Jamie Buxton hoping to have de Brujin assist the Australian team later in the year. Former factory Gillard drivers have included Carlo van Dam and Kimi Raikkonen.

■ Karters who want to watch the Bathurst 1000 can do so - and race their kart during the ad breaks! Well maybe not quite, however that could be the case at Melbourne's Todd Road circuit when the 20th anniversary edition of the City Of Melbourne Titles is run on the same weekend as Bathurst. Realising the unfortunate clash with The Great Race, club organisers are planning to have a big screen installed so that nobody misses out on the action.

What better way to spend the time between heats?

■ The allocation of tyre contracts for the next three years was one of the main topics of interest for karters at the 2003 AKA National Conference held in Melbourne a few days ago.

The Clubman class has been allocated the MG 'red' tyre, a product that has been used with success recently in ReSa. ReSa moves to MG 'yellow', the 'yellow' also kept as the Formula 100 tyre. The Dunlop SL6 will be used for Formula Australia. All the National classes will remain on Dunlop SL1 with Rotax retaining the Bridgestone YGK, the tyre the class uses world-wide. Tasmanian Donald Wells has been re-elected as AKA President.

-MARK WICKS

Cleaning Up

Slubber Driven Silly by the Tilley’s BRAD Tilley took a clean-sweep of wins in the Historic events at Oran Park last month.

The yellow Ford Mustang, left in front, scored three memeroble wins, while his brother, Cameron in his green Falcon GTHO, claimed two second place finishes.

Paul Stubber drove the wheels off his Chevrolet Camaro, but could do little more than pick up two podium finishes.

Henry Ford would have been happy with his Blue Oval drivers in the third race after Mustangs and Falcons filled the top five places.

The persistent Drew Marget (Mustang) drove well to third ahead of Robert Cox (Mustang) and Doug Westwood (Falcon GTHO).

- GRANT ROWLEY

Griffith Goid

REIGNING Australian Off Reading Champions Mark Burrows and Colin Hodge left 55 other competitors in a trail of dust during the third round of the Australian Off Road Championships at Griffith, NSW. The pairing dominated Saturday’s Prologue (qualifying), winning by 26.5s from next rival Dave Fellows.

The pairing went on to take the overall race victory aboard their Max Burrows Bulk Haulagesponsored buggy in the gruelling 500km race.

The pairing of Glen Owen and Deon Beattie claimed the runner up position just ahead of Craig Hoare and Jamie Robinson. The top three place-getters all from class one entries.

Round two winner David Fellows from Alice Springs were running comfortably inside the top three until a flat tyre cost him valuable time. Despite the setback, Fellows still managed to capture fourth and class nine victi lir team. Bruce and

Alex, worked well to take fifth and also claiming the class eight winners prize.

Andy Ryan and Glen Collis were next home making the most of their home track knowledge.

The local combination bagged a well-deserved outright NSW state round win, sixth outright and class two winners.

Two places back were class seven victors Geoff Pickering and Glen Watson, who battled hard aboard their Mitsubishi 4WD Pajero.

Disaster struck for Hayden Tatnell when he rolled his buggy into a ditch, dropping him back to 14th before fighting back for 9th overall and runner up in class nine.

Rounding out the top 10 was the team of Brett Milton and Katie Siviour who took class four honours after capturing their class lead on the final stage of the event.

The next round of the Off Road Championships heads to Goondiwindi, Queensland for the fourth and Grand Final round on October 18-19.

- PARIS CHARLES

^

V-'wot'

JOHN Bryant took a clean sweep in the Historic Touring Cars at Maliala, taking pole position and three race wins.

The South Australian’s Falcon Rally Sprint, below, was closely followed all weekend by Robert Braune’s Charger, and the Torana XU1 of Ian Gear.

Gear was able to break Braune’s stranglehold on second place In the final race, with a spectacular late braking manoeuvre into the Northern Hairpin.

-CHRIS JORDAN

A little

by CHRIS JORDAN

Dirk K/ynvmfh

VICTORIANS Marcus Zukanovic and Geoff Emery were the standout performers at round six of the Commodore Cup at Mallala last weekend.

The two had a terrific battle at the front of the field all weekend, showing why they are at the top of the series standings.

In Race 1, pole sitter Zukanovic and Emery got off to a classic start, going through the first two corners side-by-side before Zukanovic was able to pull ahead. As Geoff Fontaine set about grabbing third spot from David Gittus, Zukanovic set a lap record on a weekend where the circuit was not lending

FOR a driver, Phillip Island is a challenge.

For a photographer, Phillip Island is a dream, especially when a rainbow appears in the Tasman Sea near Honda Jiairpinl MNews photo man Dirk Klynsmith made the most of the scenery with this wonderful picture, however, there was no gold at the end of the rainbow for Wayne Hennig, below, in the Australian Porsche Drivers Challenge at the Island recently.

Hennig and Paul Whitmarsh clashed while battling for the lead which took both cars out of the race.

This left Russell Wright to take the win, despite close attention from Paul Blackie.

Gary Young picked up third, ahead of Simon Bartter and Kevin Miller.

The race was stopped after a serious incident involving Victorian Ray Ayton at Lukey Heights. He was released from hospital the following night.

- GRANT ROWLEY

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motorsporl news

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NATIONAL SCENE

bit ofZukanoYic Magic itself to fast times.

But just as his lead was looking insurmoimtable,Zukanovic's engine expired in a huge cloud of smoke, handing Emery the lead, and race victory, from Fontiane and Gittus, who faced late race pressure from Brett Holdsworth.

Zukanovic was subdued about his

chances after his engine failure.

"It's cost us the championship," he said."We really needed a clean sweep here to put us back at the top (of the points standings). If we can get an engine in the thing, watch me go!"

And go he did. Using a borrowed engine,Zukanovic started from the rear of field in Race 2, passing ten cars on the first lap, and reaching tliird position by lap four. Fontaine offered little resistance as he relented second to Zukanovic,leaving only Emery befw'een him and a last-to-first victory.

At this moment,the heavens opened, unleashing an almighty downpour upon the circuit. As

Emery braked for tlie Northern Hairpin, his car skated wide, allowing Zukanovic through.

"We were right there, and when the rain came,I just backed off and took the lead," said Zukanovic, who took a remarkable win ahead of Emery,Fontaine and Brett Holdsworth.

Zukanovic was understandably chuffed with his efforts.

"That's the best I've ever done. I

just wanted to get a good starting grid for Race 3, so pole's pretty good!"

In Race 3 Zukanovic was never headed, with Emery in close pursuit, but just lacking that little extra needed to get past his great rival.

Fontaine and Gittus topped off a consistent weekend by following in third and fourth respectively. The race was declared at seven laps under the Safety Car, due to the high number of disabled cars littered around the circuit.

"The boys just set the car up

Local Knowledge

Paris Otaries

Scorching: Marcus Zukanovik lunched an engine in Race 1, but fought back with vigour to record a last-to-first win in Race 2. awesome," Zukanovic said of his pit crew. "I think we'll leave this set-up for Wakefield Park."

But he will need more than just raw speed going into the final round.

as his Race 1 DNF has seen Emery extend his points advantage witla one round remaining.

Points: Emery 512,Zukanovic 450, Gittus 393, Fontaine 376.

ADELAIDE drivers dominated Round 6 of the CSA Alloy Wheels Saloon Car Series at Mallala Motorsport Park last weekend.

Whilst finishing without a race victory, Steve Kwiatkowski, left, was the weekend's overall victor, having finished the weekend of close racing with two second and one third placing.

Saloon Car hotshot Bruce Heinrich looked to be in his usual dazzling form, qualifying on pole and winning Race 1. But disaster struck while Heinrich was leading Race 2, his wheel nuts shearing off, forcing him to park his three wheeled Falcon at turn three, allowing rival Shaun Jamieson to cruise to victory, with 'Steve K' second.

Race 3 saw Victorian Kane Trease get the start and take the win.

- CHRIS JORDAN

Moffat and Harvey back at Barbagallo j i af

THERE'S an old saying,'They don't build'em like they used to.'For the most part, that's a bad thing.

However, when it comes to classic and vintage cars, it's a good thing because it gives us a great chance to see, hear,smell and appreciate just what it was like to race a car yesteryear.

Such was the case at Barbagallo Raceway two weeks ago where fans got the chance to see two legends of the track do mock battle in a thundering XY GTHO Falcon and XUl Torana. Allan Moffat, 65 right, and John Harvey,28, delighted the crowd with their thrust and parry tactics.

The racing on Saturday was spectacular with Harvey taking the wheel of a blue HQ Monaro. Harvey won both his races in the Historic class, one of which was marred by a

3 Septemeber 2003

|-1 ^ ^ B

rollover. Alan Hornby's Mark 2 Escort snapped out of control coming out of the Biante Esses and pitched into a corner-to-corner barrel roll.

Alan came through with a bruised back and broken arm.

Saturday also saw the HQs and Formula Vees and Fords battle once

again with Derek 'The Postie' Burns losing a wheel in the first Vee race, which had to be restarted twice after two red flags in lap one!

Tony James,new national HQ Champ,continued his winning way yet again, while Dean Fiore and Steve Armfield shared the glory in the Fords.

Street Car gun Aaron Caratti lowered his own lap record by over 0.1s in their events. One of the starters copped a faceful of oil on the last lap of the last even as a Mark 1 Cortina's flywheel exploded in a shower of sparks crossing the finish line. The starter was fine after being

quickly irrigated with water.

Sunday saw the first race of the day stopped after Leigh Turner's red XUl snapped an axle and ploughed into the passenger front side of Harvey's loaned Monaro. Harvey returned later after some hasty work to notch up more wins during the day.

In the Saloon class, one of the races saw a gap of just 0.02s between Grant Johnson and Luke Hansen.

Barbagallo's next event wiD be the multi-class State championships in October.

-DAVE CONOLE IS

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Distributors for Victoria and Tasmania Your high performance tyre and suspension specialists

ONE PIECE RACE PUSHRODS As used by top touring car.speedway & drag racing teams. l .080" wall chrome moly l one piece construction l available in M«" & H" diamete

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Formula Ford Test Drives - $695 in our cars.

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Pistons for any onaino combination \/a. e and 4 cylinder oulcKnat doll .ry

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No dtgradation of spring pressure in later stages of a race Spring I.D.'s ere chamfered for retainer clearance Specially processed premium-grade chrome silicon State-of-the-art winding Tested by leading engine builders

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Sedans/Sports Cars

Series 2 RX7, Developed for ILMS.road registered. Targa/Ad classic 7/7 finishes, 5 Class wins, 3 Category wins. Maintained to highest standard with many new parts and extensive spares including gearbox, wheels, tyres, brakes, pads, tailshaft etc. Advice and support available. New vehicle being built. $20000 Neg. John 0416 262 625. 266 www.myl05.com/72179

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GRUOP SA, Including: Spare Parts, Spare Wheels, Complete Body Moulds, Various Diff Ratios NEW SHOCKER & SPRINGS MOTOR REBUILT (2 MEETINGS),Good history, winner (7 times) Alan Jones Trophy at Winton, numerous wins Phillip Island and Malala. $37,500 Neg, WINSTON 0418 314 111. 266WWW.my105.com/44487

Honda coupe9 1971, 1300cc air cooled dry sump 87 K watt engine (standard) daily use & speed events to date needs roll cage for circuit/rally, well maintained, improvements too many to list phone for details. $6500 ono ONO. (02)4953 8874.266 www.myl05.eom/26340

3 September 2003

2000 Mitsubishi Evo 6 Group N,Built from New. Car by Ralliart NZ. European Profiex fully adjustable suspension. Edgel petfbmnane engine.

Autionic computer. Elf & ave gas programmes.

Best of everything, 12 compomotive wheels.

Spates package by negotiation. Phone Daynom Templeman +64 9 4440359 or +64 21 989304. $65,000 Inc shipping & airfare to view Neg. 270 www.mylO5.com/1896

Commodore Vs Future Tourer, Only four races old, 2nd at Sandown last November, 308-305 HP Built from new parts, absolutely immaculate, ideal State Level Sports Sedan, Targa or roller for new Commodore Cup Series, Harrop Brakes, pedal box, etc, on board fire extinguisher system. Memo wheel, Sandown 20'8, spares package included. $39,000. Brett Youlden 0402 456 281. 267www.my105.com/73276

2002 TVR CHIMAERA,This car was built brand new Aug 2002 has raced twice. Has 330mm AP fr Brakes - 290mrh Rr Lighter version race body from Fact Glebs dog box - spool diff - FIA Moly cage - Carbon Dash panel Center lock wheel( 12 spares) Ring for further details Must be sold.

No $$$ to compete.. $80,000 Neg. KOSI 0419 524 752.267 www.my105.com/41150

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Honda Integra Type R, Engine & gearbox completely rebuilt by Nizpro only 6 hours use. Best of eveything, Motec M4 Pro with data logging, Koni Alloy coil overs, full chromoly cage, Sparco seats, harnesses, 2 spare sets std wheels, tyres, spares etc.

Winner of class in 2002 Rally Tas, clipsal 500 race in 2000. $33,000 Neg. Guy 0419 355 376. 268www.my105.com/6B65 Low Cost Race Car, 3rd in 2001 state championship, Oran park GP 1.22.4, Oran Park 50.8, Eastern Creek 1.52,9, Wakefield Park 1.10.9, Won class at King Edward Park hill climb. Won class at Buladelah hill climb and 9th outright. Runs well, low maintainence car, cheap to run. $5,800 ONO. Greg 6553 6358, 266 www.myl05.com/71976

Ford Saloon Race Car, National championship car, built new 2003, cost $45,000 + latest bits, top Beehag cage, new gearbox, fitted with road engine. $16,000 Bargain. Spares, new top H/P engine $5,200, Stinger computer $700, new Fitzner g/box $2,500, 4 race rims tyres $400, latest Pacemaker exhaust $500, spares heaps $400. James 0411 055 688. 266 www.my105.com/7B316 A Rare Nissan Skyline Group A, Could race in Historic Group A next year. Currently racing as SpOrts Sedan, A Championship Winning Car easily converted back to original. Loads of spares. Wprth the price in parts alone. Reason for sale retiring. $50,000 For Quick Sale ONO. Clive (03)9387 0680. 266 www.my105.com/86846

Lotus 7 Clubman, Professionally built by ex F1 constructor. Fully registered as a Lotus [but is a Replica]. $20500 Neg. Malcolm 266 0418 835 206. www.myl05.com/63599

Targa / Classic Rally BMW 3.0S, Well known and developed classic rally car. Fully road legal, very fast, 230kw M5 eng, recent timing chain etc, balance engine 45,000km.

Bilsteins, 2 x LSD, 2 x BBS rims, new R series rubber, Sparco seat, harness. Loved car, just 2 owners 23 years. Urgent sale.

Airfare refunded, $16,500 Neg. Vince 0401 989 779. 265 www.my105.com/92200

Subaru WRX, B Class road Registered, Full cage. Good Motor over 275kw. 66sec Car Wanneroo, Dog Box, Autronics, Proflex, All swaybars, Ap brakes. Straight through pipe, S Anti-Surge oiland fuel system. Custom Radiator, Big $$ Spent, Spares available. $35,000 Or Best Offer. Sean 0419914062,

2L Sport Sedan, Datsun Stanza. Strong motor(SR20) with Quad Throttle bodies and Wolf 3D. 5 speed box. Slicks and Wets.

Front running car, finished 3rd in Vic State titles 2002. Lots of spares. Tilt Trailer available $2000. $13,500. Shane 0418 540 794 / 03 9702 1694. 265 www.myl05.com/87486

Subaru STI RA, Close ratio Box, 4.44 diffs, 330 mm rotars and AP calipers, full roll cage Quich Rach steering, 5 injectors, uni chip, 1.53 Phillip Island, 17inch Speedlines, Exel club and hillclimb car, emaculate original condition. $24,500, Ian 0408 103 815 / (03) 9555 9291. 264www.my105.com/81841

79

Open Wheelers

1,

Historic Formula Ford Bowin P6F, unfinished restoration, 90% compiete.

Powder coated chassis, new floor, new arms and brakes. Must seli as shifting, 514,000 ONO. Vince 0418 509 145. 266 www.myl05.eom/69205 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. $11,000 264 Neg. David 0418 www.myl05.com/37003

Datsun 1600 Club Car/Sports Sedan, 2nd owner, excellent condition, new paint, cams log book with alloy cage, Velo race seat. New-2Lt engine with twin 48mm webbets,and extractors.

Adjustable race suspension. 4 spot calipers front,2 spot rear. 2 sets of 14x7 wheels, dry and wet tyres. Spare engine/tyres. Ready to race.

Proven results. $7,950. Max 0418 485 460 / (03)9842 3132. 264www.my105.com/80734

Lotus 7 Replica, 200hp Rover V8, T5 Gearbox, Independent suspension. Good brakes. Used for Hillclimbs, Sprints, Motorkanas. 2 Sets of wheels, spare motor, gearbox and diffs. New seat and 5 point harness. . $12,000. /Vlyson 0400 065 164 / 07 3202 9262.264www.my105.com/73946

Not so Special, Formula Libre Hillclimb car, less engine. CAMS Log book. All the best bits such as Penske shocks, Knight steering rack, Motec M800, Torsen LSD, etc. Best Offer. Greg Mackie 0402 415 022.

266 www.myl05.com/34866 Fomula Vee Mantis, Car only done 4 meetings, John Dean Engine, roil on long and short gearboxes, 3 piece wheels, spares, log book, ready to race. $8,000 ONO. Jim (03) 5967 2288. 266 www.myl05.com/58115 Spectrum 07 FF, 2 sets rims & tyres, 2 side pod covers, 2 nose cones, 4 nose boxers, long & short wheel base. Ratios, Motec & Beacon, Lifters & Blocks, Penskl Shocks, Just rebuilt, Great Looking Car & Very Fasti, $34,000 ONO,Andy 0418 177 269/ (03)97371537.266 www.my105.com/70841

Elfin 620 FF Historic Grp Q, restored in 96 & refurbished in 02 by Boreland [Spectrum] Lamer engine, tyres 4 meetings old. Always maintained regardless of cost , eg new belts. Competitive times with ageing overweight driver comes with light enclosed trailer & spares. Nothing to spend just add petrol & race $27,500. Eltham. Bob Morrow (03) 9386 5331 / (03) 4397 665. 266 www.myl05.com/49004

Welsor Waggot Sports 1300 Clubman, built 1972 by Colin Wear car no.6, complete rebuild 3K Corolla engine with big valve head, Modena straight out close ratio gearbox, new clutch, rebuilt diff and new front shocks, 2 sets of 3 piece wheels, 1 set of Soft Avon tyres, new aluminium guards and battery etc, very quick and competitive, with all log books. $16,900. Andrew (03) 5443 0810 / 0418 510 462. 266 www.myl05.com/7355

Historic Formula Ford Wren, Group R, Log book and C of D. In excellent condition and ready to race, a competitive and inexpensive entry into Historic Open Wheelers. Trailer available if required. $17,500. Eamonn (02) 9604 7680. 266 www.myl05.com/21062

1981 Cheetah Mk 7, In tip top condition, Pole at Oran Park Nov '02 with Dallara 395 Mugen in field. Easy to drive, valid for AF2. 1 have all log books if you wanted to mn in historic Gp R. Comes with spares. A proven race winner.

Won Rookie of the year 2002. Engineer: Tom 9588 9443 Owner Brendon 0409 952 905. $27,500 Neg. 264 www.my105.com/24886

Van Dieman Stealth, Rolling Chassis.

Immacutely maintained by K&A and Troy Dunstan. Penske 3-way shocks, MoTech, myriad of spares including full panel sef, suspension arms, drive shafts etc. Abosiute front runner. Available mid September for NZ rounds or 2004. If you want a winning car at national or state level, this is ideal.

266 Tony 0419 777 977. www.myl05.eom/77850

VAN DIEMEN RF 86, Unique model with spare set wheels, nose cone, gear ratios bodywork & other spare parts. Roiling 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 1 30 600. 264 www.myl05.eom/53909

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 all Australian tracks and assistance. Spares package with car. $32,995. Greg 03 9580 7047. 264www.my105.com/73905

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CLASSIFIEDS Speedway

Production Modified Sedan, Commodore #10 Aust 2 1998-99 Vic 1 2000-01 Fresh Engine & fibreglass Panels with spares.02 6033 1291 / 0408 570 822.

263 www.my105.eom/72040

ROVER 5 SPEED GEAR BOX, Rover 5 speed close ratio rover gearbox suit TR8 or MG, straight cut close ratio ex Tom Hutchinson, Needham rebuild complete with bell housing and tilton oil pump, ratios by application. $2750. Ray 9608 4102. 264 www.my105.com/60121 COMMODORE, Commodore caged body shell in excellent condition, never bent. Suit Commodore Cup or Sports Sedan, Urgent Sale $2500 ONO. Richard 0419 225 433.

263www.my105.com/14131

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/$750 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

Transporters/Trailers

Escort Full Floating Rear Axle, with spare axle and alloy hub, vented discs, and Brembo 2 spot calipers - $2,270. Brembo 4 spots 2x41 mm and 2x45mm to suit 295mm plus disc - $1,290. Danny 0409 470 055.

265 www,my105.com/30059

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 Fomula 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

Engines

CHEV TRUCK, 6.5ltr turbo diesel, automatic, full electrics, central locking, cd player, alloy wheels and nudgebar, 5th wheel towing hitch, tubliner and hardtop, 6 seater, cloth interior, great for any towing job. $48500 Not Neg. Owen (03)5176 1355.

264 www.myl05.eom/90492 Chev C30 Banana Back Truck, Tyre rack, heaps of enclosed storage space. Reco 400 small block and reco Turbo 400 transmission. Power Steering, Elec Winch, CD. Meticulously maintained. 12 months reg. $25,000 Neg. Phillip 94993088 / 0418367004. 264www.my105.com/49750 Trailer, Large enclosed car trailer, 6.5m long X 2.5m wide x 1.95m high. Spring loaded rear lift door, side door, work bench at front, will fit all open wheel cars and most sedans. Originally built for Speedway Super Sedans. Photos available on request. $10,000.00 ONO. Bronte 08 8254 8444 or 0412 846 997.264www.my105.com/38329

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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. 26owww.my105.com/81149

2002 AU Super Sedan, John Brown Chassis, all 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 989 010 / (02) 4730 3440.

259 www.my105.com/4465

Parts

20B PP Race Engine, Top HP Microtech engine management, tilton twin plate clutch, alloy flywheel, with all good gear, used . Transporter Isuzu SBR, 18 Ft Pantech, twice ready to drop in car and go $16,500 Excellent rear ramp system that works well ONO. Gregg (02) 9674 5651 BH. 266 for low cars. Large toolbox. Chrome rims, www.myl05.com/22284 5SP 6BB1 turbo engine. Well maintained truck that is ready to use. . $11,750 +GST. Richard 03 5248 8845.

264 www.myl05.eom/52901 Enclosed Trailer, Tri axle trailer with electric brakes on two axles front and rear, has been carring a super sedan, tyre rack at front, 12v winch ohiy use twice, great to tow.

NSW rego. $12,500.00 ONO. 0405 204 819. 264 www.my105.com/8077

Ford/Mazda Twin Turbo Race Engine, 2.5 Litre 640Hp or 790Hp depending on compressor housings, all quality components used JE pistons,crower Rods etc etc Autronic engine management and GDI, intercooler and plumbing everything needed done one race ,cancelled project cost over $33,000 to reproduce a steal at $17,500 serious calls only please, Gregg (02)9674 5651.266 www.my105.com/8711 Toyota 4 AGE 20 Valve, Black Top, set up for rear wheel drive, suit many applications, aluminium competition sump, comp clutch, hand made extractors and exhaust. $2,900.

Adrian (03) 5221 5225, 264 www.my105.com/57119 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. 284 www.myl05.com/79592

Hollnger Sequential 6 Speed Gearbox, as new done 15 to 20 genuine laps cost $17,700 a few months ago, bargain at $14,000 serious inquiries only. Gregg (02) 9674 5651. 266 www.my105.com/71745

3 September 2003

l

D ,1

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 truck. $35000. Dennis 0408 844 841. 262 wvirw.my105.com/24901

Collectable/Memorabilia Blante Models - All Signed, 1 x Johnson XE Palmer Tube, 1 x Moffat Cobra Coupe 1977,1 X Moffat Coupe 1978. 0415 178 696 254 www.my105.com/92629

Driver/Crew Apparel

Betta Electrical Driving Suits, As used by Tony Longhurst and Max Wilson last year, 2 suits each, 1 new Wilson suit never used, FIA approved 2 & 3 layers. NZ$1300 Or Best Offer. Shane Drake 001164 9 5800552. 264www.my105.com/43425

Wanted WANTED, Sports Sedan / Supercar C/Dore VL-VS either complete/rolling/shell or parts to suit, John Phone (02) 6362 4646. 266 wwfw.myl05.eom/470

Visit mniMiiylsSxsHi GU C/3

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03

o 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.Aish 0405 123 035 /(03)9736 2006.

263 www.my105.com/86978

E T3 CO CD / sold my car over the weekend, I received plenty of phone calls.

Thanks again. - Mark FormulaVee.

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

I think your website is brilliant!

Richard Batchelor

Get it seen Get it soid!

81

OPINION

mtUROMt EDITORIAl STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan «editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor. Mark Glendenning “ mark@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Grant Rowley " grant@mnews.com.au

racing (even if it did show up the Jaguar's weakness) and it was on a great racing track, but one which Bemie wants to kill for more (his) money!

Oran Park turns on the best V8

PRODUCTION Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby »viv@mnews.com.au

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GONTRIBUTORS FI: Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, Gary Watkins, David Addison US: Phil Morris, Martin D. Clark Speedway: Brett Swanson, Julie Pearce, Geoff Rounds, Wade Aunger, Tony Millard (UK), Greg Boscato Rally: Jon Thomson Histories: Brian Reed Drag Racing: Greg Ward, Jon Asher (USA), Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, Steven White, Ken Ferguson National: Mark Wicks, Sean Henshelwood, Mark Jones, Dave Conole, Chris Jordan Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothwell Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, AFl Images, Neil Hammond, Slipstream Photographic, Phil Williams, Allsport, John Morris/Mpix, Frank Midgley, Peter Bury, Mike Patrick (UK), Chris Carter, James Smith, Paris Charles, Bob Potts Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News - ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Printed by: Offset Alpine Printing Pty Ltd, Lidcombe, NSW. Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted. ●Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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82

Motorsport, ’03 Style Wow,what a difference a year makes as far as watchable motor racing goes.

The British FI was fantastic

m

Supercar race for ages, although I am not convinced blood-rushed Paul Morris did not just make a top holeshot start. The pathetic little replay we saw showed he was back where he belonged, but flying forward. But then again what can Paul Morris expect from our blind officials -

conuerter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au

especially when he is taking them to court!

The MotoGP was fantastic, with Troy Bayliss making a super each of the drivers and tracks in the Paul Morris-type start to take the lead worlds major racing leagues such as from row two. Those guys gave us an FI, CART,IRL, NASCAR,V8 unbelievable high speed race with as Supercars, World of Outlaws and so much overtaking as the 125s! on.

And just to show how things have This would give the likes of myself, really changed, the Champ Cars are the average motorsport fan, a better struggling to keep me interested. understanding of'who'is behind the As for the V8 Supercar points wheel of the car and not just the system, which could be starting to name. work, maybe our officials could do a It is a whole lot more fun watching review using a variety of point score racing when you know about the systems,say over the last five years .personalities behind the wheel. and with an allowance for greatness Things to include could be there prevailing. Probably the same career highlights, their ambitions and winners would still prevail, but to interests and so on: it would be great keep it simple, at least remove the to see... dropping of worst result and more T^nyhow, great magazine! importantly encourage a points Do any of the commercial system for overtaking and gaining television networks have the rights to positions on the track. broadcast NASCAR racing? It is not Jolm Gray shown on TV, which stinks. It is an jjgtd@idx.com.au awesome racing series. Also, why doesn't Network 10 show the whole

In need of driver profiles

I am a keen motorsport fan,in particular of American motorsport.

As a fan I do not know much,if anything, about most of the drivers in all of the major racing series, and I am sure that I am not the only one.

What I would like to see in your magazine early next year (probably before racing season)is a preview of

IRL season, especially since they show the Indy 500(which is undoubtedly the greatest race on earth Ken Clements kenclements953@hotmail.com

No value at OP

I was at Oran Park on Sunday watching spme great V8 Supercar

Thanks

JOHN, Janelle and Kate have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of well wishes, tributes, phone calls, letters and flowers that have been received in this most tragic of times in the lives of the McColl family.

Stew lived an obviously successful career that, on August 9, was brought to an all-too-short conclusion.

We always realised his potential and have ridden the ups and downs ; over the past 12 years in being part j of his dream to become "a famous i racing car driver" - a statement he I made to his grandparents when he

racing. However it would have helped to know what was going on!

There were no video screens or result boards, the PA was completely inaudible and, when the race finished, most of us had no idea who had won!

But this was only the start of our problems. Driving out of the car park took us two hours! Two hours to 'drive' around 500 metres. It took us less than that to drive the lOOkms home to Sydney's Northern Beaches.

AVESCO should certainly give Oran Park Management an ultimatum: fix it up or get out. It was completely unfair on us, the spectators. I generally only go to one V8SCS round a year - and I think it will be Eastern Creek next year...

Michael Bishop thebishops@ozemail.com.au

The People’s Hero I, along with everyone else in motorsport, was saddend by the passing of one of Australia's greatest motorsport contributors, Howard Marsden.

He has been a part of some of our most historic moments in our sport, nationally and internationally. From the Falcon GTHOs to his time with the Nissan rally team and Nissan internationally, where he helped get the Japanese manufacturer into FI along with his up-and-coming friend at the time. Max Mosely.

Howard helped Nissan dominate Australian touring cars by building a car to what the rules were at the time.

Thanks for everything Howard, especially what you have given us Ford fans throughout your career.

Condolences go to his family at this hard time.

I'm glad Howard got to see Ford dominate this year, thanks to his hard work in the years leading up to his passing. I will never forget how much you've done for Australian motorsport.

Paul Martin Shemood QLD was five years old.

Stew achieved his dream in every sense, both on and off the track and we can all be proud of his standing in the racing community We wish to convey our deepest gratitude to all who assisted our family throughout this period of time and hopefully we will all maintain his memory for many years to come.

We express our desire to stay in contact with all who have touched our lives so deeply over the years. jolm, janelk and Kate McColl jolm.mccoll@stelform.com.au motorsport nows

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