Motorsport News Issue 271 - November 26-December 9, 2003

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Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST No. 271 Nov 26-Dec 9 2003

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news

Issue 271

26 November - 9 December 2003

news and opinion 05 Double figures Is it 10 wins for Brock - or just 9?

6 8

I.'J'

i Shell

Shell

Triple Bezzy Will he jump from FPR for a Betta ride?

Monareaux As a Vauxhall?

You Pommy swines

10 Silly Old Juan McLareh in ’05 ... It’s not ’04 yet!

18 Macau, your Korea All the news from Asia’s F3 swing 25 Motor Mouth Webber on the challenge and 2004 26 Box Seat Joe sends us a Pronrh ml

in /not Iptti

■\

features I

race coverage

LARKO r:

regulars

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Moaio

76 Marketplace

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Larkham out> Frosty in Lapko prepares for his final race as Winterbonom joins Orrcon team

MARK Larkham has stepped down from full-time racing and has struck a two-year deal to run young V8 star Mark Winterbottom in the Orrcon Racing team.

The Konica series Champion will line up alongside Jason Bargwanna in a two-car BA Falcon squad in 2004 and 2005.

Winterbottom has just completed the second year of a five-year deal with Stone Brothers Racing, but has been released from that contract to take up the drive - although SBR retains future options.

"It had been my hope for some time that we could run a third car ourselves for Mark," Ross Stone told MNews dh Monday.

"But apart from the cost of acquiring an additional franchise, it commits,you to finding an appropriate level of funding to run a car as well. In the end it all became a bit too hard.

"This proposal has been bouncing around for some time, but it only really came together over the last few days.

"We have released Mark from his contract with us, but we do retain first option on him once he has completed his two-year deal with Larko.

"It's a win-win for everybody really."

For Larkham, the decision ends a driving career that extends beyond his 10 years in V8 Supercars, eight as a team owher/driver. Fie came through Formula Ford and the Formula Holden Gold Star series when it was a truly competitive series, before moving into V8s.

"I have said for some time that if an opportunity presents itself to progress our

driver line up, I will step aside -the time is now right," Larkham said this week.

"I believe Mark Winterbottom is a genuinely talented race driver whose achievements to date have been based on his ability-and I like that.

Larko will continue to play a role in testing and will most likely co-drive in the two late season endurance races.

Hot on the heels of a new three-year deal with prime sponsor Orrcon, the team this week concluded a similar sponsorship renewal with support sponsor DecoRug. Larkham started his career in Formula Fords in 1987, winning the 1989 Driver to Europe title. After a brief stint overseas, he raced in Formula Holden between 1991 and '95, winning the Indonesian Grand Prix.

With his Formula Holden sponsor Mitre 10, he moved to V8s full-time in 1995, running a car built by his own team. He joined Stone Brothers Racing in 1997 and took his first win in the non-championship event at the Gold Coast a year later. The following year, back under his own Larkham Motorsport team banner, he scored pole position at Bathurst.

In 2001, he had a disastrous relationship with ICS Smartcard, which left him struggling to source a budget, but steel manufacturer Orrcon stepped in last year and has extended its deal with the team. At the end of last season, LMS expanded to a two-car entry for the first time, taking on Jason Bargwanna.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Shoot-out Drama V8 Supercar Championship contenders Marcos Ambrose,Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife are unhappy about the qualifying 'Shoot-out'format for the deciding round of the championship this weekend.

While the concept of the entire 36-car field being involved in the single-lap contest is considered okay, the random draw for starting positions (involving members of the crowd competing for a range of sponsors' prizes) is certainly causing some concern.

With a substantial passing of time between the first and last runners, there is the possibility that track conditions could change dramatically - an 'outside' influence which the contenders believe could unfairly penalise one or more of them.

"While we're all behind AVESCO's programme to make our racing more entertaining, we shouldn't be taking the sport out of the racing," Skaife said this week.

Murphy agreed: "There's so much at stake and these cars are so close now, tlrat something as simple as the running order could badly affect someone's chances," he said, "Tlie deciding round should provide a level playing field."

4

"Eastern Creek is one of those places where it can stay bone dry, yet the track conditions themselves can change a lot," said Murphy.

"It does mean also that there'll be less time on Friday to set up your car for the race. At some point, you will have to set some sort of a time, just in case ..."

As was the case in New Zealand, the stewards retain the right to abandon the shoot out times if conditions change sufficiently. In that case, they will revert to Friday's practice times to set the grid. It could be a big call- and one opposed,it seems, by AVESCO. AVFSCO CEO Wayne Cattach confirmed on Monday that the group is in the process of introducing a rule which will forbid the abandonment of shoot-out times "unless the session is actually red-flagged."

"We don't agree with the way things went in New Zealand, 'he said.

The rule is already on its way through the system,but Cattach conceded that it was unlikely to be in place in time for this weekend.

Also coming for 2004 is a further tightening of the qualifying cut-off point. Currently at 105 percent of the pole time, the TEGA Board has approved a change to 103 percent.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN motorsport news

NEWS

Webber/Bezzy FPR puzzle frenzy FPV recently ran a promotion with Inside Sport magazine, giving away a hot lap at Eastern Creek this coming weekend.

From the thousands of entries

received from all over the country, the winner was ... Mark Webber.

That's Mark Webber from Georges Hall, NSW, not the other bloke with the chin from Queanbeyan.

Webber will be suiting up with Bezzy on Friday afternoon, while the 'other' Webber is suiting up with Jaguar at Valencia this week for

1

testing.

■ And joining Mark Webber at Eastern Creek this weekend will be

Alex Yoong. No, not the Alex Yoong that works in the bank down the

road, but the one that drove S'

DEBATE is raging among motorsport fans about whether Sunday's Bathurst 24 Hours, in which Peter Brock was part of the winning four-man Holden Monaro

in a major race at Bathurst, there are many who feel that the result doesn't

team, should in fact be considered

number of Bathurst wiimers, some of

the touring car legend's 10th

whom would have the right to include last year's and this year's 24 Hours in their personal win tally.

Bathurst win.

While the result was, clearly, a win

count as a Bathurst win in the traditional sense.

Included among those are a

alongside Webber (the 'other' Webber) at Minardi last year. Yoong will attend the race as a guest of

However, there are also those who believe that Brock's 10th visit to the

podium as a distance race winner (does his BRutes win, with son James

count as well?) is just that - his 10th big race Bathurst win.

Even the MNews office is divided

(see below).

What do you think?

.

Lansvale Racing, for which he tested a V8 Supercar at the start of this year.

■ Betta Electrical confirmed its

ongoing support for the Triple Eight Ford team at Monday's official unveiling of the team's all-new LG Advanced Technical Centre. Team

10? No Peter, sorry

■ ■ ■

I'M thrilled that Peter Brock was part of the winning team last Sunday at the Bathurst 24 Hours but. I'm sorry, it wasn't his 10th Bathurst win.

'Bathurst' has become a generic word and in

terms of generic usage Ibelieve that 'Bathurst' 'refers to the long distance touring car race held ■ once a year at the Mountain.

It's a tough, touring car contest, with a unique history.

Sure, there was a confusing couple of years when a money struggle saw two 1000km races at the track within weeks of each other and I

guess you have to allow the winners of the Super Touring 1000s to claim a 'Bathurst' win, but that's as far as it goes.

The Bathurst 24 Hours is a terrific, major event and all credit to those who win it.

But it's a quasi-production car race. It's not 'Bathurst'.

Brock's 10th was more about pre-event

promotion and post-race Holden hype. And you can't blame them.

Bndck is marketable. Brock sells, he always has^done.

But in the psyche of the average real race

10? Hell yes f absolutely!

CONGRATULATIONS Brocky on your 10th Bathurst win!

Yep, it took some time coming, but Iam counting Peter's 24 Hour win as his 10th at the Mountain. And why not? Despite what they may say to the contrary, AVESCO selectively 'acquired' history when it took over V8 Supercar racing, so

why can't Holden Motorsport and PROCAR do the same?

Where is the downside? We have had Brock on

the telly. Brock on the wireless. Brock in the papers. Brock for President, say I! People are talking about the race and the close finish between Murph and Garth. If this controversy throws some kero on the flames, that is good for our sport.

Do you count 1997, when the Primus 1000 Classic was run two weeks after the Super Touring race? What about Jason Bright and Steve Richards, whose 1998 win was in November, fer

Maybe, in a few years, works teams from

26 November 2003

works for the Queensland-based New South Welshman to drive in a

privately-run Konica team with technical support from Morris in would come from yet, but an announcement from the team is

expected in the coming weeks.

■ As if getting to witness V8 isn't enough, one lucky spectator at

for the 24 Hour honours. Maybe then, people will look back nostalgically at the red 05 Monaro and remember where they were when the race

Event at Eastern Creek Raceway will not be thirsty for 12 whole months.

Yup, you could be washing down your VIP pooch tucker with a year's

mates. Fans the flames.

And Peter; have another crack next year and make it 7 7 ...

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

have tested the team's Commodore

at Queensland Raceway recently, and plans are believed to be in the

next week's VIP Petfoods Main

Right now, there are different opinions about the matter. That is good; keep arguing with your

race next October, then that'd be 10, there's no

■ Rumours suggest that Alan Gurr has signed an agreement with Paul Morris Motorsport. Gurr is known to

Holden, Ford, BMW and Porsche will be battling

finished.

doubt about it...

enable it to provide a serious challenge for the 2004 V8 Supercar championship.

The team's engineers now have a range of up-to-the-minute software to aid in the design and simulation of race equipment.

Supercar's final showdown for 2003

chrissakes?

Hour victory at Bathurst to his credit.

Brock Commodore to victory in the V8 Supercar

available to the team, which will

2004. No word on where the car

How many Bathursts has Russell Ingall won?

fan, Brock has nine Bathurst wins and a 24

Nqw if PB came out and co-drove a Team

principal Roland Dane hosted the function, claiming a new level of technical sophistication was now

- PHIL BRANAGAN

worth of Victoria Bitter, the official

tonsil tickler of V8 Supercars. If you are over 18 and fancy opening a few hundred cans, all you have to do is pre-purchase a ticket on the internet (Tcketmaster7,com) or on the bloweron 1 300 136 122.

05

A

Bezzy on the move StP3|

DAVID Besnard to move from FPR to Triple 8? That’s the latest well-sourced rumour around the V8 Supercar scene.

Such a move will reunite Besnard with Triple 8’s new chief engineer, Campbell Little, both having spent three years working together at Stone Brothers Racing.

The Ford Performance Racing driver is expected to be confirmed as Paul Radisich’s 2004 team-mate following this weekend's V8SCS finale at Eastern Creek, despite the fact that that he is still contracted to FPR. “We have a deal for more than one year," affirmed Bezzy on Monday. “Apart from that, there is nothing to say.”

MNews believes that FPR decided some time ago to release Besnard from his deal, following a number of incidents that have clearly not endeared him to team management.

While Little said that he was not expected to have a major say in who the teams runs next season, he is known to have a high opinion of Besnard, with whom he first worked when SBR fielded an entry in the Konica Series in 2000.

^

n

by PHIL BRANAGAN SPECULATION about the future V8 Supercar franchise situation of Ford Performance Racing increased last week when Craig Lowndes's CAT Falcon was involved in a testing crash at Phillip Island - reportedly with Toll Racing's Anthony Tratt at the wheel.

i Besnard then moved up to the V8SCS in 2001, partnering fellow rookie Marcos Ambrose through to the end of the 2002 season, when Russell Ingall arrived.

Besnard has had a tough season, with a best result of eighth (with Owen Kelly) at the Sandown 500. He is currently 22nd in the championship.

FPR later issued a media release stating that Tratt had been invited to drive the car for the day in a back-toback test alongside the Ford Credit BA of Glenn Seton, who was testing a Prodrive-buUt R8 engine for the first time.

Tratt's car, fitted with one of the team's older-spec engines, had a throttle jam at the final corner, according to tlie team's press release, and the car hit the tyre barriers. The car was substantially damaged in the incident but has now been repaired ready for Eastern Creek. Tratt was not hurt.

Enquiries to FPR were met with a firm "no comment"from technical director John Russell, while team principal David Flint was little more communicative about the matter; "We do not discuss team test strategy outside the team," he commented.

Tratt himself also refused to comment when contacted by

MNews.

Industry sources are suggesting

STONE Brothers Racing engineering ace Campbell Little is leaving the team - and heading for Triple 8.

Little, who has been with SBR for nine years, will be present at Eastern Creek's V8 Supercar Championship Series decider this weekend but will have no role with the team. He will be there only to support his former team mates, with whom he will attend the AVESCO Annual Dinner at Darling Harbour on Monday.

He his currently on annual leave and, while no official confirmation has been forthcoming from Triple 8, he is expected to start work with the Queensland team in January.

The move comes after discussions with SBR co-owner Ross Stone at Pukekohe's V8SCS round earlier this month "Ross spoke to me in New Zealand," says Little. "He said to me,'What are we going to be doing next year?' It was a yes/no question. 1 said that I had an opportunity and explained it to him. He just said,'Look, with alt that. you are going to be doing, you better go on holidays now because you will be pretty busy in January."

6

Little, above right, has denied reports that he has received a huge financial offer from T8 co-owners Roland Dane and Ian Harrison to jump camps, and also confirmed that he had no stake in SBR as a part-owner.

"When Ross spoke to me in NZ,I spoke to Roland and we worked out what 1 wanted to do. I like Triple 8 and the way they approach motor racing and I have always enjoyed what 1 did with them. They have a different approach to motor racing than SBR, wlrich still runs like a family team."

SBR is not expected to recruit a replacement for Little, at least in the short-term. Jimmy Stone will engineer Russell IngalTs Caltex Havoline Falcon in Sydney this week, while the full-time role is expected to be filled from within SBR's current staff.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

For more on Campbell Little, see pages 34-36.

motorsDori news

NEWS

ge Bedfellows that a proposal was on the table for FPR to lease the Level 2 ToU Racing franchise (for a year, with full purchase to follow) and acquire Toll's sponsorship input, along with a commitment to run Tratt in the car.

Whether that plan has foundered because of last week's incident is unknown,hut it is now being suggested that FPR will instead lease/purchase Kees Weeks surplus Level 2 franchise.

In the meantime, Tratt, right, is pressing ahead with his plans to continue driving with Toll Racing as an independent team.

"Business as usual," he said on Monday."We are in the midst of putting together our plans for the 2004 season, including some engine developments."

Tratt said that he had been approached to sell his Level 2 licence but that he would not be selling.

"We have had some interest in seUing but nothing is going to happen, not now."

WILL the contenders in this weekend's V8 Supercar title fight benefit from assistance from their respective Ford or fHolden cOileagues? ^ That's one of the questions being asked as the championship heads for its closest finish in modern history at Eastern Creek.

While it is unlikely that drivers will actively impede any of the contenders in machinery of the opposite brand, it's certainly not too hard to make the passage of a similarly-branded car easiei if a through-the-field comeback is requiied.

"You wouldn't want to be the one who inadvertently orOelled a contendei from our side of the fence," admitted one leading driver (who didn't 26 November 2003

really want to be named)this week.

"But if any of the contenders is back in the midfield, they're in big strife anyway!"

Others were happy to express a view publicaily: "I don't think that they would have to aSk," said OzEmail team boss Kim Jones.

"It would not worry us too much, because Marcos should be in front of us. It depends on what happens. Everything is negotiable.

"We are part of the Ford family and we would prefer to see a Ford driver win the title.

"How would our drivers handle it ? I don't know - we will see. You can hypothesise about it all you like but, until we get iheie in the races, we

marvin.com.au ALLAN Moffat is now an internet icon (no, not like Paris Hilton). Yep, you can catch up with one of the legendary names in the sport, buy memorabilia and check out the great Fords and Mazdas (and Holdens!)from the Moff's career at allanmoffat.com.au n Proof that PR people are a special breed: A certain high-profile PR-type (and former MNews Asst Ed) recently killed his mobile phone when it fell out of his pocket while they were cleaning his pool.(The mere fact that he has a pool proves to us that PR people are paid too much).

He-who-shall-remain-nameless rushed out to get a new phone ahead of last weekend's big race at Bathurst, and Sunday night found him with cause for celebration. One thing led to another, the PR person became increasingly well-marinated and the evening culminated with him putting his brand-spankin' new mobile into a microwave and pressing the action button.

We understand that he is shopping for a replacement as you read this. n Just don't try to ring him for a few days. n Some stories never die: MN's gnomes report that there are moves within the Australian F3 ranks to reconsider the possibility of running Formula 3 cars at Bathurst next year, presumably as a support to the 24 Hour. MN understands that one 2003 F3 frontrunner was even approached to test his car at the Mountain last week, but was unable to accept...

just have to wait to see what happens."

Steven Johnson, like many, is simply out to tnake suie that he does iitis best for his team, Shell Helix Racing.

"As far as 1 am concerned, we are all out there to do the best job we can for oui teams, regardless of the championship situation," fie said.

"I have my own race to worry about. There's a good chance that we can do well. In May, we were struggling when we ran at the Creek but now the car is going much better and we are looking for a good result.

"There is a good chance that Marcos can win the championship, but I do not want to risk a fine, or anything like that."

n One of the famed engine builders of the old Formula 2 era is no more. Swiss engine ace Heini Mader has sold his Mader Racing Components firm to Mecachrome, the Paris-based automotive and aerospace engineering company. It is believed that the Mont Blanc-based group will be involved in Mecachrome's development of a new Renault engine for Formula 2. n A little while ago we ran pics of Peugeot's tasty new 307 WRC car.

Now it seems that the French team might start the 2004 season with its trusty 206. The build program of the new car, which is based on the 307 CC convertible, has been put back by problems, including the slow delivery of parts. "You can't dance faster than the music allows," Peugeot Sport director Corrado Provera told UK's Autosport. "We've not yet decided which car we'll use." n Formula Renault is in for a boost. After three years of competition, the current-spec cars are being updated by builder Tatuus, with changes to the nose, floor, wings and engine cover. Engine output will be upped by about 10 percent to around 200hp.

J

On the road to Dubai PROCAR will make its first foray off-shore within 18 months following the armoimcement that the series will conduct an international endurance race in

NCtC

Dubai,United Arab Emirates, early in 2005.

PROCAR Australia Chairman Ross Palmer confirmed the deal at the Bathurst 24 Hour last Friday in an announcement made in conjunction with United Arab Emirates/Australian Motorsport Management Company Futureracers Pty Ltd. The event will Be conducted at the

Diik Klytismilh

the world's premier GT/Sportscar races," said Palmer.

the opportunities being offered are particularly good for the long-term viability of our Australian series, and especially the Bathurst 24 Hour."

Plans are already in the works for an expansion of PROCAR's overseas program beyond Dubai, with Palmer outlining the concept for a series of endurance races timed to fit in with the off-season in the northern

"Commercially, an event in Dubai opens up a myriad of opportunities.

With Dubai's close proximity to Europe and progressive government.

hemisphere.

"A lot of European teams that race in the northern hemisphere summer get very bored during the northern

soon-to-be-opened Dubai Autodrome

by PROCAR subsidiary PROCAR International Sports Media(PRISM) in partnership with Futureracers (see separate story).

"We believe the event we intend to conduct in Dubai will become one of

hemisphere winter," said Palmer.

"Motorsport to them is not a hobby,it's a business, and they need to be able to utilise their asset base aU year round. The plan is actually for Dubai to be the tliird roimd of a Formula Green GT series, with the first round being in either Queensland or New Zealand."

According to Palmer, the NZ round has been earmarked for the revised facility at Taupo on the North Island.

- MARK GLENDENNING

GRM vs PHR

n

THE much-anticipated battle between PHR

Scuderia and Garry Rogers Motorsport at Bathurst last weekend started earlier than anticipated when PHR Scuderia Team Manager Terry Little called Garry Rogers to task for questioning the eligibility of the PHR's new BMW M3 GTR.

PROCAR back to Indy After the PROCAR debacle at the Lexmark Indy 300 last month,Ross Palmer and his group are currently in negotiations with the Queensland Government and the

"The evil empire has striked back with a phenomenon setting in at Bathurst with Garry Rogers writing letters and unsuccessfully trying to get drivers and teams to sign a petition regardmg the eligibility of the BMW M3 GTR for tlie Bathurst 24 Hour," said Little in a statement.

"To Garry,I have always held you in high regard, however you must question a fully professional team with eight leading drivers running cars with backing for Australia's biggest manufacturer with huge resources and funding, when they stoop to such levels to try and unsettle an unsponsored privateer team, with three fulltime staff, running a car that is 4.0s off the pace of the Monaros.

"Our car is not only legal, but was approved by PROCAR for this event and the 2004 Nations Cup prior to its purchase. It has competed in the USA against the Porsche RS and Ferrari N-GT. You could buy a road version of this car from the manufacturer. It is 8

not a purpose-built hybrid that you cannot

buy.

"The'buUy boy'tactics being employed may have worked in the past by a team who last year threatened to pack tlieir bags and go home when they couldn't get their own way.

Tliey got their way,subsequently winning the race.

"But I wiU say this to Garry put your money up and lodge your protest and we will see you in court. Or shut up and go racing, isn't that what we are here for?"

Neitlier PHR nor GRM were prepared to shed any light on what elements of the BMW had been called into question.

"Obviously Garry knows our cars better than we do," said Little.

- MARK GLENDENNING

Gold Coast Motor Events Corporation about competing at the Indy carnival in 2004 and beyond.

After a bomb scare and the final Nations Cup race cancellation,PROCAR heavily questioned tlie value of their appearance on the Indy bill.

But it seems that the parties may now be able to agree on a return to the Gold Coast street circuit.

Meanwhile, the PROCAR calender has been released for 2004. Adelaide will kick off the eight round championship, which includes Eastern Creek and Sandown, which return to the PROCAR bill.

f*flOCAII Cateiiclar 2004 March 18-21

April 16-18 May 14-16 June 18-20 July 16-18 August 6 8 September 17-t9 October 21 -24 or 30-31 November19-21

Adelaide, SA (Clipsal 500) Oran Park, NSW Sandown, Vic. Winton, Vic. Eastern Creek, NSW Wakefield Park, NSW Symmons Plains, Tas. Major event (Old or N2) Bathurst 24 Hour

motorsport nows

NEIfIfS

Late News: Ford out of WRC, Martin to Subaru

HOLOeiM TOW MkUIAR’S

RUMOURS In the Bathurst 24 Hour paddock suggest that Peter Brock will return to Nations Cup next year with his own team.

It is believed that plans are afoot for Brock to go racing with a two-car team, lining up alongside son James, who has done most of his recent driving in a V8 BRute.

Whether the team would utilise the current machinery or take delivery of new cars is unclear, however MNews understands that Holden n has yet to decide upon its program for the #427 and #05 Monaro next year.

- MARK GLENDENNING Oiri klynttnilh

Emotional rescue?

FRESH from their domination of the Bathurst 24 Hour race,it seems likely that the near future will see Holden's Monaros searching for new comers of the world to mle.

"We are investigating a few things," admitted Holden Motorsport Manager John Stevenson.

"We've got our hands full with the end of the racing season at the moment,but after Eastern Creek we'll sit down and start looking at how we might be able to build Monaros to fit the regulations of some different overseas categories."

One strong possibility is that the car could race with a Pontiac badge in America.

"Pontiac are keen to do something, but we have to work out how to buUd a car within the regulations over there," Stevenson continued.

"There are a few things we could do - for example,it might have a six litre engine, which would give you more freedoms in the rev limiter.

"But we're so consumed with what we're doing in Australia at the moment that all of that has fallen to the bottom."

There are also moves to get a car into next year's British GT Championship, with Surrey-based team Emotional Engineering having announced that it will take a Monaro race car to the UK in January.

The car, which will be rebadged as a Vauxhall Monaro, will travel to the UK on the back of the recent announcement that 300 of the 320bhp road-going versions wiU be introduced in Britain in the first half of next year.

"We've been working on this for a year-and-a-half now," said Emotional Engineering Managing Director Allan Orchard, who was at Bathurst last weekend to haiiuner out the final

details of the deal, going on to say that the long-term plan is to develop the Monaro for Le Mans.

Kiwi Superbike racer Aaron Slight has been confirmed as the team's first driver, with the others still to be finalised.

"We're still in negotiation with one guy which would be great news,but I can't say too much about that," Orchard said.

News of the impending arrival of a Monaro in England was greeted with scepticism by others in British GT circles, however.

"There's no way that car would be eligble," said Rollcentre Racing's Martin Short. "There are two cars like that in the world. What is it based on? They'd never let it into the series."

- MARK GLENDENNING

AS we closed for press, sources in Europe suggested that Ford was about to announce that it was about to terminate its World Rally Championship program, with immediate effect.

We believe that the long-expected confirmation of the end of the MSport-run effort will mean that Markko Martin will join Prodrive’s Subaru World Rally Team to replace the contracted but unfit Richard Burns. We were unable to obtain any information about Francois Duval, Ford's other contracted driver, or able to confirm the future of M-Sport and its staff.

More news in the next issue of Motorsport News. n Several FI teams have now announced their plans for the unveiling of their new cars with Sauber due to reveal its C23 on January 12 and Renault saying it will have its car up and running by January 29 and will launch the car in Palermo, Sicily. Renault recently said that the new RS24 engine will not run on a test bed until mid-January so getting everything ready for an end-of-January launch is going to be a big rush. Sauber will announce its new car in the Red Bull Hangar at Salzburg airport, an indication that the Austrian drinks company intends to stay with the Swiss team in 2004, even if it is still negotiating with Jaguar Racing for a separate sponsorship deal. n Mercedes-Benz has extended its contract with Canadian driver Bruno Spengler for next season's Formula 3 Euroseries. Spengler missed a number of races this year because of a broken back but was strong at the end of the year, scoring a series of podium finishes. Spengler said that he will be stronger in 2004 as he will not have the handicap of having to learn the European circuits.

Although he finished only 10th in the Euroseries this year, Spengler is expected to win races in 2004. n Coloni Motorsport has been testing its Lola-Dome Formula 3 chassis while all the other major Formula 3 teams are in Asia for the races at Macau and Korea. The testing work at Magione was carried out by Formula Ford standout Marko Asmer. The Italian team intends to compete in the British Formula 3 series next year and was running at Magione with Avon tyres. The 19year-old Estonian driver, already a Williams protege and test driver, could race for the Italian team in Britain in 2004.

- STAFF/JOE SAWARD

26 November 2003

i I

I

9

i

ten

3stops GO west at AGP? }*

home of

[motorsport 2003 V8 Supercar Championship* Nov 30 ...Eastern Creek

,Rd13

2004 V8 Superear Championship* Mar 7

Albert Park (non-championship)

Mar 21 ...Adelaide

.Rd 1

Apr 4

.Eastern Creek

.Rd2

Apr 25

Pukekohe

and Webber and Schumacher have concerns over rookies A SHORTENED,straightened pit iane entry and an increased pit

.Rd3

lane speed limit will turn the 2004 Foster's Australian GP into a

May 23 .. .Hidden Valley ..

.Rd4

three-stop race.

Jun13

Barbagallo

.Rd5

The pit lane initiative,

.Old Raceway ..

.Rd6

originating from the office of

.Rd7

Bernie Ecclestone, was the primary announcement at the launcli nf the

Jul 4

Jul 25 ....WintonAug 15 .. .Oran Park

.Rd8

Sep 12 ...Sandown

.Rd9

Oct 10

.Rd 10

Bathurst

Australian Grand Prix last week.

Pit lane speed limits will be raised from SOkph to lOOkph. This

Oct 24 ....Surfers Paradise

.Rd 11

Nov 14 ...Shanghai

.Rd12

Albert Park pit lane entry, will

Dec 5

.Rd13

substantially reduce pit stop times

Eastern Creek .

combined with the re-aligned

and promote the likelihood of three-stoppers.

2004 Konica V8 Supercar Championship* Rd 1

Mar 21

.R d2

. . .Adelaide

Apr 11 . . . .Winton

.R d3

May 30 . . .Eastern Creek

.R d4

Jul 4

.R d5

.OLD Raceway

-R d6

Aug 22 . . .Mallala , Oct 10

Bathurst

"No doubt about it, pit lane will be a busy place!" quipped Mark

Feb 22 . . .Wakefield Park

.Non Ohsn^sionship

Webber,on hand to take part in the launch.

The introduction of third cars and drivers for all of Friday's FI practice sessions - or rather the exclusion of many experienced drivers from taking part- has however drawn some criticism from the GP Drivers Association.

Webber, newly installed as co

2004 FIA Formula One

president with Michael

Championship* Mar 7 . . . .Australia . . .

,Rd 1

"Friday is a crucial day in the

Mar 21

. . .Malaysia . . .

,Rd2

lead-up to tire race weekend and

Apr 4

Bahrain . . . .

,Rd3

Apr 25 . . . .Europe . . . .

,Rd4

May 9 . . . .Spain

,Rd5

there will be up to 10 additional drivers out on the track," he said this week.

May 23 . . .Monaco . . .

,Rd6

Jun 6

.Rd7

San Marino .

Jun 20 . . . .USA

Sch u macher, exp I ained:

.Rd8 .Rd9 .Rd 10

There's the real po.ssibility of

Jul 25 . . . .Germany . . .

.Rd 11

someone having their first run in a

I Aug 15 . . .Hungary . . .

.Rd 12

GP car on a Friday at a Grand Prix.

I Aug 29 . . .Belgium . . .

Sep 12 . , -Italy

■Rd13 .Rd 14

That's not the place for your first run in one of these cars ...

I Sep 26 . . .China

.Rd 15

I Oct 10 . . . .Japan

■Rd 16

I Oct 24 . . . .Brazil

.Rd17

motorsport] ilhs c.itoridnr wt>fv cO"i'ci nl ihv .'imc pfinV'iq PUfnso cormill .tfiK mdividunl ir.ichs or .iMOCi.ifions loi diihi c/i.ifipt*,*;

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fiorlon Of ovnnts lolocast on Nolwork Ton uro H inorkod wllh nn nalcrlsk. Chock your local I fjuldofi for ncroonliif} doloiln,

Woking team in 2005.

Team McLaren Mercedes. We are

The very early announcement,

certainly looking forward to seeing what he can do in one of our cars and

although not imexpected, is bad news for David Coulthard, as Kimi Raikkonen is known to have a deal

I believe that it's a prospect that can't fail to excite Formula 1 fans around

with McLaren for 2005.

the world."

Stories of the deal have been

"The opportunity to sign a talent like Juan Pablo was too good to

circulating in FI circles since late July when it became clear that Williams

miss," said Ron Dennis. "Juan Pablo has achieved a considerable amount

was not willing to increase the

Jag: Brit, Bull JAGUAR Racing is at Valencia . this week for an important test to try to help the team to decide whether it wants to run Justin Wilson, Christian Klien or Townsend Bell as team-mate to Mark Webber in 2004.

While McLaren test driver Alex Wurtz remains an option (Nick Heidfeld appears to have fallen out of the frame), the latest suggestion is that if Klien puts in an impressive test, he may just get the nod for a race seat in 2004, with Bell as the third driver.

There is very definitely a

revenue and we could possibly see

. . . .France . . . .

All pi'iwj; (t.iUih ri

certain that he wiU add to this with

some very inexperienced drivers out there on a one-off basis.

Jul 11

home of

of success in his career and we are

Pablo Montoya will be moving to the

"Some of the teams will look

Great Britain

A

McLaren has confirmed that Juan

upon it as a chance to boost

Jul 4

rten1

;■

"The experienced drix ers can generally deal with one less-

Who would you choose? Christian Klien, above, or Townsend Bell?

experienced driver at a time, but if two \'ery inexperienced drivers get together, it could be a big drama."

The regulations also specifically exclude a number of experienced FI drivers - who have contested

\ '

11 |.

I i

more than six GPs in the past two years - from taking part.

"It means that the likes of Pi/.zonia are excluded, which isn't reasonable."

Both Webber and fichumacher have written to the FIA outlining their concerns.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

j

financial element to the situation as Klien comes with a cheque for US$15m ($21 m) for 2004 if Jaguar wants to take him.

Jaguar will almost certainly need a new driver in 2005 because all the current signs are that Webber will be moving on to join Fernando Alonso at Renault at the end of the 2004 season. If that does not happen it is quite possible that Webber could still end up at Williams.

One way or the other, Jaguar is trying to find a way to moiorsport news

V

IXIJ!Iili

1! ! I I

will launch its 2004 racecar, the R5, at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain, on January 18.

McLaren confirms Montoya for 2005

n The government of Dubai is expected to pitch for a doubleheader Formula 1 promotion with Bahrain, its neighbouring Gulf state, having confirmed that it is to finance a new, international-standard race circuit. The track will be part of a massive new leisure and tourism development, representing a government investment worth US$5bn ($6.3bn) and scheduled for completion by 2006.

Colombian's salary in 2005. At the same time, Montoya was upset that the team looked likely to re-sign Ralf Schumacher and he felt that as long as Schumacher was in the team,he would not be able to win the World Championship.

The choices for 2005 were limited in that Ferrari was not an option as long as Michael Schumacher remains there and the only other team worth looking at was McLaren.Thanks to

the poor qualifying performances of Coulthard,there was the possibility of an opening for 2005.

Some FI conspiracy theorists argue that the timing of McLaren's announcement is a sign that the team is laying claim to Montoya just in case Schumacher decides to retire next spring. Others say that the early aimouncement is part of a scheme to try and move Montoya to McLaren for 2004,

Williams did look around for an alternative to Montoya in 2004 and tried very hard to sign up Mark Webber,but the Australian is nailed into various contracts with Jaguar Racing and Renault and so it was not possible to get him out in time to let Montoya move on. Williams then concluded that it was best to stay with its current driver line-up for 2004.

-JOE SAWARD

Dr Bell? Willichello? integrate Klien and the Red Bull money into the team. One route would be to offer Red Bull an American driver as it is well known that the company wants to build up its brand and market share in the United States. This is the logic behind the Red Bull Young Driver scheme in recent years.

At the moment none of those drivers have done enough to warrant a place in FI, but Bell is in the right place at the right time.

Wilson's hopes of keeping the drive are slim but may be based on a belief at Jaguar that the team can convince the Austrians that Wilson will produce better advertising value than either Klien or Bell.

Signing Bell would help Jaguar increase its sales in the United States of America, if only because the amount of coverage of FI will escalate dramatically if there is an American in FI. It has been 10 years since Michael Andretti left McLaren after an incomplete season as Ayrton Senna's team mate.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 26 November 2003

I FACING a future without ! Montoya, Rubens Barrichello

I looks to be the man Williams 2 wants.

The team is somewhat limited in its driver choice because the men it wants are all under contract elsewhere with Kimi Raikkonen at IVIcLaren; Fernando Alonso at Renault and Mark Webber at Jaguar or Renault.

Barrichello is the only proven winner in FI who is likely to be available in 2005. His contract at Ferrari runs out at the end of next year and the Brazilian would almost certainly jump at the chance of being the number one of a top team like Williams.

In recent years, he has shown himself to be good enough to beat Michael Schumacher in the same car on several occasions.

Rubens is still only 31 years of age but has 10 years of experience in FI behind him.

Williams may also have its eye on Jenson Button, but the British driver is under contract with BAR although he may be able to get out of the deal at the end of 2004 if the team does not And he can bring his own trophies: perform to a certain level.

Is Rubens a Frank-and-Patrick, - JOE SAWARD Williams kind ofguy?

£

i

n Bahrain International Circuit is trumpeting the success of its 'Grand Prix Roadshow', which has been travelling through neighbouring Gulf states to promote the region's first Formula 1 race in 2004. About 28,000 tickets have been sold. BIC expects 150,000 people to visit the Gulf Air sponsored meeting over the three days, each paying between US$100($135, fora weekend general admission) to US$450 (weekend main grandstand). n Five 'tented camps' will accommodate VIP visitors to next year's inaugural Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix. Each camp will comprise of a number of luxury canvas tents, each capable of holding 300 people, to resolve a hotel shortage near the new venue. n The BAR learn will begin its winter Formula 1 test programme this week with Bridgestone tyres, notwithstanding its approach to Michelin for 2004. The team is under contract to Bridgestone until the end of next season but has requested a release. A Bridgestone spokesperson said: "We're discussing the matter with BAR to settle the issue amicably one way or another." n Ford-owned Cosworth Racing is in the process of making over 30 redundancies and blames the newfor-2004 'one-engine' Formula 1 regulation, which has reduced demand from the works Jaguar Racing team and the Jordan Grand Pnx and European Minardi 'customer' teams. n The Jordan Grand Prix team is to work with the new Shanghai International Circuit to establish a training academy for young Far Eastern racing drivers. Team principal Eddie Jordan, who is on a mission to secure Chinese funding, will advise the nation's motorsport bodies on the scheme.

- QUENTIN SPURRING 11

Will the French GP survive?

THE oldest Grand Prix on the calendar, the French, is in danger of becoming extinct.

Since September, there have been indications the race was in serious trouble because it was unable to pay off an US$11m debt to Formula One Management.

Most of this money is owed from the 2003 race but some dates back to 2002. ...

In addition to paying the debts, the company which controls Magny-Cours also need to find the cash to pay for the Formula 1 teams to attend the race. Even if FOM is willing to cut a deal for the French, this will still be another US$8-10m.

The final deadline for the money is mid-December but it seems that all attempts by race promoter Roland Model to raise money have failed. So the decision was made to announce the problem, in the.hope that the French government will come to the rescue of Magny-Cours in the course of the next few days.

There is likely to be something of a public outcry as France prides itself on being the

birthplace of motor racing and the French GP is the world's oldest motor race, beginning in 1906 at Le Mans. Since 1911 the race has happened ever year apart from when France was at war or recovering from war and 1955 when it was called off in the wake of the Le Mans disaster in which 100 people died when a car crashed into.a crowded spectator area.

According to Fiodel, there is a deal in place for the race to return to the FI calendar in 2005 in Magny-Cours but this will inevitably be dependent on money being found.

“In 2004 everyone in France who loves motor sport has to launch into action to bring in all the partnerships which are necessary for us to have Formula 1 back again,” he said.

The French Minister of Sport Jean-Francois Lamour said that he would do everything in his power to ensure that France's national sporting authority, the FFSA, does everything it possibly can to save the race.

- JOE SAWARD

5unon’imajics.i

.c

by JOE SAWARD

Magny-Cours no more? Politics and money will decide the fate of the oldest Grand Prix on the calender.

12

THE Canadian Grand Prix is back on in 2004, according to race promoter Normand Legauit.

The event will take place on June 13, a week before the USGP at Indianapolis. The new deal is until the end of 2006 and the indications are that the deal was done without the need for an extra US$20m to be found to pay the teams to take part in an 18th race.

The implication therefore is that the Canadians knew that the French GP was going to be cancelled several days before the

announcement was made. The giveaway is the fact that the Canadian deal is a multi-year contract as that would not be necessary if it was an arrangement for Canada to be the 18th race.

What is certain is that the Canadians will have had to pay more money than previously, having been dropped from the calendar because of the country's anti-tobacco laws, which came into effect in Canada this autumn.

The new deal is believed to involve the Canadian government, the provincial government of Quebec and the Labatt brewery.

moiorsport news

NEWS

'6 U ifj The BMW Williams team is heading to Jerez de la Frontera in the first week of December to test rising stars Nico Rosberg and Nelson Piquet Jr. Both youngsters are the sons of former Williams FI World Champions and are both making

More young Red Bulls 11

} n ..

VJ3

an impression in Formula 3 racing at the moment - Rosberg in the Formula 3 Euroseries and Piquet in the British F3 Championship. Both men have also recently tested Formula 3000 cars.

Williams will be retaining Marc Gene as its test and

reser\'e driver in 2004 but it may decide that a second test driver in necessary. Piquet and Rosberg nnay be under consideration for that job but it should be noted that Antonio Pizzonia is still a strong candidate for the role.

- JOE SAWARD f\ ■-

Zero Tradition

Test of strength: Nico Rosberg^ above left, and Nelson Piquet Jn wilt get a taste of BMW power

British GP in iose-iose situation as Tennis, Soccer and MotoGP could clash with Silverstone

IF the French Grand Prix is taken off the Formula 1 calendar for next year, it will mean that the July 11 date will be open.

It is expected that the British racing authorities wi ll request that they be allowed to switch the British GP to its traditional mid-July date, the date that the British wanted for 2004.

In the end they were given July 4, a week before the French GP but this created huge problems as it meant that the British event clashed not only with the Wimbledon tennis competition and also with the final of the Euro 2004 soccer competition in Portugal.

If the British event is moved the race will take place on the same weekend as the British round of the MotoGP World Motorcycling: Championship, which is scheduled to take place at Donington Park. This is not a perfect solution but will not do much damage to the TV viewing 26 Kovember 2003

figures.

The likely FI calendar for 2004 therefore (although there may be a further change because of the problems being encountered in Brazil) consists of 17 races, on the following dates: March 7, Australian GP (Melbourne): March 21, Malaysian GP (Sepang); April 4, Bahrain GP; April 25, San Marino GP (Imola); May 9, Spanish GP (Barcelona): May 23, Monaco GP: May 30, European GP (Nurburgring): June 13, Canadian GP (Montreal): June 20, United States GP (Indianapolis): July 11, British GP (Silverstone): July 25, German GP (Flockenheim): August 15, Flungarian GP (Flungaroring): August 29, Belgian GP (Spa): September 12, Italian GP (Monza): September 26, Chinese GP (Shanghai): October 10, Japanese GP (Suzuka): October 24, Brazilian GP (Interlagos).

- JOE SAWARD

RED Bull has announced details of where the 2003 Red Bull Driver Search winners will be racing next year. Three of the four winners will be racing in Formula Renault in Europe, with Colin Fleming driving for Jenzer Motorsports, Scott Speed with Germany's Motopark and Dominique Claessens with Italy's JD Motorsports. Matt Jaskol will spend 2004 in the new American Formula BMW Championship. It remains to be seen whether 2003 winners Paul Edwards, Joel Nelson and Grant Maiman will continue to enjoy Red Bull backing in 2004.

■ Renault will test Finn Fleikki Kovalainen and Argentine Formula Renault V6 champion Jose-Maria Lopez in Barcelona at the start of December. The team will also be running its test driver Franck ' Montagny. Both Kovalainen and Lopez are members of the Renault Driver Development Program. The Finn is 22 and racing in the Nissan World Series while Jose-Maria Lopez (20) was the inaugural champion in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup series.

■ The Chinese government looks set to ratify its signature of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control at the National Peoples' Congress when it meets in March next year.

The country's tobacco industry says that banning all cigarette advertising will be a disaster. The Chinese government supports the tobacco ban move but other authorities such as the city of Shanghai, which wants to have tobacco sponsorship allowed for the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix next year, are opposed to the ban.

■ The British Embassy in Bahrain has warned of a high threat of terrorist attacks against Western targets in the country and British nationals in Bahrain have been told to "remain vigilant, particularly in public places". The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says that there is now 'a high threat from terrorism" and that British nationals should review their security arrangements carefully. The change in status in Bahrain comes after the bomb last weekend in Riyadh, which killed 17 people in a housing compound in the city. The attack, which left 120 people injured, was similar to an attack in May which killed 35 and was aimed at foreigners working in the region. By attacking foreigners the terrorists hope to damage the Saudi economy and this caused the new warnings to Britons in the region. The inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled to be held on April 4 next year.

-JOE SAWARD 13

Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan

THE death of Ian 'Pete'Geoghegan in hospital in Sydney on November 15 signalled the end of an era in Australian motorsport.

The yoiuiger of tv\'o famous Geoghegan brothers,Ian dominated Australian touring car championship in the second half of the 1960s winning the first of his five titles in a Cortina in 1964 before going on to take four in a row from 1966 to 1969 at the wheel of a series of Mustangs.

He earned the alternative handle 'Pete'from his father Tom,an ironwilled ex-racer who groomed liis two sons Leo and Ian for racing greahiess. Ian reminded him of a 1940s cartoon character called Black Pete and his youngest son carried the nickname.

Ask anyone of their memories of 'Pete' and those old enough to remember will tell you of his exploits in the Castrol Mustangs,sideways, inside front wheel dangling in the air over the apex of a corner and out in front of the field.

The Geoghegans did much to establish the Lotus marque in Australia, with Tom securing the distributorship for the Colin Chapman-built cars in the early 1960s. Pete won two of his three Australian Sportscar titles in Lotus 23 in 1963 and '65. He won his third sportscar title in a monstrous Laurie O'Neill-owned Porsche in 1976 But it was in Fords that the majority of Pete's success came. All five of his ATCC titles came at the wheel of cars bearing the blue oval and his one and only win at Batluirst came in a Falcon parhrering Allan Moffat in the first of the 1000km enduros in 1973.

TIrat win came despite many years of trying with is brother Leo in Cortinas and Falcon GTs. The pair were actually awarded the 1967 win, only to have it stripped from them hours later on a lap recount which saw the win go to Harry Firth and Fred Gibson.

While Pete was forced to stick largely to Sportscars and Touring Cars because of liis height and later

girth, Leo was a star in open wheelers and later headed up Chrysler's tilts at the Bathurst classic.

While Pete was a driver of

gigantic talent he had an even bigger sense of humour and was never frightened to poke fun at himself and his trademark stutter. While you rarely heard Pete speak on a victory podium he always had time for a chat and a joke in private.

In retirement, he told people he had started selling bibles to keep him busy and strung them along by saying he had become the top salesman in the country.

"Tliey'd ask mmmeeee wa wa what my secret wa wa was and Td tell em I ju ju just ask do do do ya want to bbb buy on'e or do ya wwwwant me to rrrrrread it to yya!"

It was typical of Pete's selfdeprecating sense of humour.

It was his showmanship and the mastery of the big VS Mustang and his ATCC wins that established the way for the Ford versus Holden battles that set the foundations for the V8 Supercars we know today. In 1999 he was inducted in to the VS Supercar Hall of Fame.

The ATCC round at Bathurst on Easter Monday 1972 in which Geoghegan in a 600hp Falcon and great rival and friend Allan Moffat in his Mustang engaged in a scintillating battle in which the lead changed more than 20 times in 12 laps stands as one of the greatest races ever staged in Australia. See Page 42-43 for a look at the race.

At just 64 years of age Pete has gone too young. He will be remembered fondly by all those who met him and by all of those who he entertained on the racetracks of Australia over two decades.

Wander down to where Creek Corner used to be at Sydney's old Warwick Farm and you may still hear the echo of that snarling Mustang fighting for grip as Big Pete drove the wheels off it. He will be missed.

-JON THOMSON

As we remember him: Pete Geoghegan, Ford Mustang, Oran Park, WO percent. We think that Pete himself would approve of this photo ...

14

Nguyen hea

Now we just have to wait: Nguyen was impressively fast at Monza and could lead Coloni's F3000 program this season.

ROB Nguyen stepped into a race car for the first time in six months when he tested for leading F3000 outfit Colon! at Monza last week and surprised even himself by out pacing a number of young guns to register the thirdfastest time.

The Queenslander set a quickest time of 1 m39.06s, 0.5s quicker than Townsend Bell in the Arden, and 1,2s faster than Matthias Lauda.

"Conditions on both days were hampered by fog and the cold," said Nguyen. "It was far from ideal. My first few laps were frightening. Everything was going too fast and to be honest I didn't think I would be

able to get a grip on things.

"Surprisingly it came back fast, and in only my third outin g I was quickest on the circuit on old tyres. I have to thank Colon! for providing me with the best Formula 3000 car I have ever driven!

"I hope we can settle a dea l over the winter so I can look forward to an extremely competitive season next year."

Meanwhile, Lauda and fellow son of a world champion, Nico Rosberg, are expected to compete in the championship this season. He tested with Arden and is expected to sign with the former championshipwinning team.

- MARK GLENDENNIN G

ALEX Davison, opposite, will end his 2003 racing season the way he began it - with a guest appearance at a race in Australia.

The 24-year-old, who kick-started his year by winning the non championship Carrera Cup events at the AGP, will replace Peter HiU in the Greg Murphy Racing Team Braun #66 Porsche at the final round of the Australian Carrera Cup Championship at Eastern Creek this weekend.

"It's always fun to be back home," said Davison, who has been racing for the Hewlett-Packard-backed Phoenix team in the German Carrera Cup series this year.

"Hopefully I can keep my 100 percent winnmg rate alive after tire tlrree races 1 won earlier in the year at the Grand Prix. I just want to go and have a bit of fun and enjoy the weekend.

"We're always going to race hard but coming mto the championship motorsport news

Alex D heads

NEWS

ds back to F3000

I

)

Gfl®U(^©D1

Fletcher to head Holden’s V8 program

HOLDEN is expanding its Motorsport management. with Craig Fletcher taking the role of Motorsport Manager in early December.

Fletcher, 44, will take responsibility for the Lion's V8 Supercar program while current Motorsport Manager John Stevenson will concentrate on Holden's Rally programs, Nations Cup and Targa involvement as Motorsport Projects Manager.

Up until now Fletcher, who was a mechanic with Peter Brock at the Holden Dealer Team in the early 1980s, has been most noted as the event General Manager and event coordinator for Octagon

Motorsport, in which role he was responsible for the Targa Tasmania, Australian Safari and Grand Prix rallies.

"It is a challenge and a great opportunity. I am very much looking forward to it," said Fletcher.

"Motorsport is very much a part of Holden's marketing strategy and I am going into it with a very good group. I have in John a very strong ally; I worked with him at HDT and Advantage and he has had enormous success."

Fletcher will attend this weekend's Eastern Creek's V8SCS finale "to have a look" before starting his role in two weeks

Alex back to FI - in a Ferrari?

THE astonishing story of Alex Zanardi could take another turn, with Rubens Barrichello saying he is working on getting the Italian a test drive with Ferrari. Barrichello competed against Zanardi recently in a 500 mile kart race in Brazil, below, and was impressed and says that he would

like to see Alex given a run in a modified car at the Ferrari's test track in Fiorano. Zanardi lost both legs in a CART accident in Germany in 2001 but has returned to competition successfully with modified cars. He finished seventh in a European Touring Car Championship race at Monza in October and in May lapped the Lausitzring (where he had his crash) in a CART car at almost racing speeds. n Jordan Formula 1 driver Ralph Firman made history at the weekend by being the first driver to take a modern Formula 1 car out on the Macau Grand Prix circuit. Firman demonstrated the Jordan Ford EJ13s on Saturday and Sunday, returning to the circuit where has won the F3 Grand Prix back in 1996.

for a closeLSh on a one-off drive basis, you've got to have a bit of respect for people who have been racing all year.

"I'm not going to be risking punting anybody off the road for the sake of one position, but at the same time, I'll still be pushing hard," It will be Davison's first visit to the Creek since he raced a Formula Ford there in 1999. He scored fourth in both races in his Van Diemen RF98.

- MARK GLENDENNING 28 HoHtmtisr 2003

n Former Formula 1 driver Aguri Suzuki has been building up a scheme for several years to help young Japanese racing drivers become successful around the world. As part of that programme, Suzuki joined forces with Mexico's Adrian Fernandez to establish Super Aguri Fernandez Racing in the Indy Racing League. The team ran AsianAmerlcan racer Roger Yasukawa this year and expects to confirm its plans for 2004 shortly. Before that happens, the team is going to test Kousuke Matsuura at Phoenix International Raceway. The 24-yearold has been racing this year in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup championship after competing in the German F3 series and testing for BAR-Honda last year.

- JOE SAWARD 15

A

PCRclos

by GRANT ROWLEY

TOBACCO advertising at sports facilities Is banned in the People's Republic of Chinaand has been since the passage of the 1994 Advertising Law. And yet, despite the legislation, the international GT races at Zhuhai in 1996 and 1997 were both run with sponsorship from Marlboro. In addition there have been many other exceptions to the law in the course of the last nine years.

Plans are in place for the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix to be sponsored by Marlboro, but at the same time Chinese government health officials are saying that this cannot happen.

In recent days, the Chinese

have signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, committing the country to the eradication of tobacco advertising in the long term.

In all probability, this contradiction is the result of there being different factions within the Chinese administration fighting different battles.

The fact remains that the race will almost certainly go ahead with tobacco backing because the Chinese are keen for the event to show the world that China is changing, in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

- JOE SAWARD

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PAUL Cruickshank's Konica V8 Supercar team has first option to purchase the Ford Falcon AU Mark Winterbottom campaigned to the championship win this year.

Cruickshank's PCR team are investigating the feasibility of running two,or possibly three cars in the V8 feeder championship in 2004.

"We are looking at it," said the team owner and former driver.

"The Stone Brothers obviously build great cars. The opportunity to buy the Winterbottom car is there and we have first option on it but Tm not sure if 1 want to build the team up too fast. We don't want to spoil all the hard work we did in our first year."

The team's complete driver line-up for 2004 has not been confirmed.

Yoong/Nippon/F1?

FORMER Minardi Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong is taking crucial steps to get back into the world's premier motor sport category.

The 27-year-old Malaysian recently had talks with money merchants from his homeland about the possibility of a return to FI in 2004. The discussions included finding the funding to become Sauber's test driver, as well as a year in Formula Nippon.

Another avenue Yoong, right, and his management are looking at is a drive with Jordan Grand Prix .

Yoong will be at Eastern Creek this weekend as an official guest of Lansvale Smash Repair's V8 Supercar team.

- GRANT ROWLEY

Minardi iooks Wanted; Wealthy drivers from the Arab world with desire to be an FI driver THE Minardi team has long been one of the most active in developing new markets for Formula 1, notably in Malaysia and Russia.

Now that there is a Grand Prix in the Arab world, tire team is looking to see whether it can help the sport

nioiorsport news

NEiniS

:e to SBR AU

No racing in the Life of Ryan AUSTRALIA’S Ryan Briscoe will concentrate exclusively on his increased Formula 1 test role with Panasonic Toyota Racing next season, and forego any racing opportunities. Briscoe, the inaugural 2003 Formula 3 EuroSeries champion, will likely feature in the Friday test sessions, possibly starting in Melbourne on March 5, 2004.

Flowever, the Brazilian Ricardo Zonta remains on board as a Toyota test driver.

although Kevin Mundy will be a part of PCR again in the Actron Air Falcon. MNews understands that four drivers are under consideration for the available seats.

PCR will again continue to receive componentry and data assistance from Stone Brothers Racing.

Cruickshank also revealed that he plans to enter one car in next year's Bob Jane T-Marts 1000, and hopes to step up to the main game full tune in three or four years.

High rolling: PCR team owner Paul Cruickshank is keen to step into the big league, and the purchase of the Konica championship-winning AU would be a good start. Expect to see more of this team in the near future...

n Michael Schumacher pulled out of a planned training session promotion with the Vodafonesponsored Manchester United football club in England because of a knee injury sustained while playing for his local team in Switzerland. But ; the six-time Formula 1 World Champion did take part in a light hearted kart event near to his home town of Kerpen, Germany, this week and said that the injury would not affect his return to driving duty for Scuderia Ferrari early in the New Year. Formula 1 testing resumes next week but Schumacher is on an extended holiday break. "I'm enjoying the free time," he said: "It's good to recharge the batteries. So I'll be doing what I have in the past, not taking part in the winter tests. I’m sure that, when January comes round and I get into the cockpit again. I'll be raring to go. I wanted to train with Manchester United but I like playing in a trouble-free state of mind, and right now I have to be careful."

lames Smith

Cancun to get call up?

Could Mexico be the next in line for a Grand Prix?

THE plans for a Mexican Grand Prix in Cancun are considerably further advanced than anticipated, with indications last week that the Mexicans are already talking contracts with Formula One Management.

The Mexicans say that if a deal is signed soon they will be ready to hold a race in 2005. This would be a big help in building up interest in Formula 1 in North America as there would then be four races in the American time zones (Canada, Brazil, Mexico

and the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis).

The project has the support of the local government in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo and support at national level from the Secretary of Tourism Rodolfo Elizondo Torres.

"Cancun could be a new venue for the Formula 1 championship," Elizonda said last week. "If the Mexican authorities can reach an agreement with the FI authorities, there are real possibilities."

to the Arabs develop and, at the same time, find major new source of sponsorship to help it develop in the years ahead.

The team has just signed an agreement with Algeria’s Nassim Sidi Said, who has been racing in Europe for the last few years, mainly in Formula 3.

Said,30,is probably too old for an FI career himself but he says he is committed to find new Arab racing talents. Under the arrangement with Minardi,Said will run a training and evaluation programme to select the most promising Arab drivers and 26 Nouenthe!' 2003

will assist them in their careers. If all goes well he and others may test for Minardi.

"I've been working on this project for a few years now," he said."The aim being to encourage activities related to motor racing in tlie Arab countries, while taking into particular consideration emerging young talent who could make their driving debut in FI one day.

Personally, I would love to be among the first of these potential FI newcomers."

-JOE SAWARD

The project would need around US$100m in investment and a track would be built close to Cancun’s airport, at the southern end of the Cancun hotel strip, so that noise would not be a problem.

Mexican motorsports is undergoing a renaissance at the moment with six Mexicans having raced in CART this year and the events in Mexico attracting big crowds.

Mexican companies are happy to get involved in CART because they can take advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and cheap labour costs to compete against US firms in the American market. Nearly 90% of Mexican exports go to the US market and so Mexican drivers have been able to find money to race in the USA. - JOE SAWARD

n Champ Car World Series promoter Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc has called the special meeting of its stockholders, to vote on the 'merger agreement' with Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, for December 19- by which date it is expected to have run out of money.

CART is in default on some of its financial obligations and in imminent danger of closure. A definitive merger agreement has been signed by the two companies but the transaction is subject to various closing conditions, including approval ; by CART'S stockholders, who will be asked to approve Open Wheel's offer of US$0.56 per share.

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n Suzuka International Circuit, the Flonda owned venue of the Japanese Grand Prix, is pressing to replace the Korea SuperPrix as the annual postMacau Formula 3 International next year. The Changwon circuit promoter's current five-year deal ends this weekend and it is yet to agree a new contract with the UK based event coordinator. Motor Race Consultants, - QUENTIN SPURRING 17

FORMULA 3

Antinucci wins at Changwon RICHARD Antinucci,the Italianbased American who is a nephew of former FI driver Eddie Cheever, gave Hitech Racing victory at the weekend in Changwon,Korea, scoring his victory in Formula 3.

Antinucci finished only fourth in his second season of British Formula

3, racing this year for the Carlin Motorsport operation but a switch to Hitech Racing for Macau and Changwon obviously paid off as he was able to qualify third and win the

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first heat when poleman Lewis Hamilton and Nelson Piquet Jr collided at the first corner.

Piquet, Antinucci's team-mate, came back strongly at him in the middle of the race but eventually tried an over-ambitious move and

again. Piquet was beaten away by Holland's Robert Doornbos. Piquet had trouble holding back Aussie James Courtney and on the penultimate lap the pair collided.

Courtney got ahead and while Piquet rejoined he went out a few corners later when the car refused to turn and went straight into the wall.

tagged a front wing on Antinucci's rear wheel and so dropped away.

The finishing order of the first heat established the starting order for the second and while Antinucci made a clean start and took the lead

bringing out a red flag.

The result was eventually declared after 23 of the 25 laps and so Piquet was put back into third place. Courtney ended up fourth with his TOM'S Toyota team mate Tatsuya Kataoka fifth and Poland's Robert Kubica sixth.

-JOESAWARD

Aussies luckless at Macau FRANCE'S Nicolas Lapierre has won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix by keeping out of trouble whUe other more favoured runners hit trouble.

Out own James Courtney was the dominant force for most of the weekend,setting fastest lap and

winning the first race and leading the second until the 11th lap when his car picked up a rear puncture thanks to some carbon-fibre debris.

able to take over and win the race by 3.6 seconds over his team-mate Carbone, although the latter ran into trouble with stewards after failing to abide by a penalty given to him for overtaking behind the Safety Car. Lapierre is the youngest-ever winner of the Macau GP at the age of 19. The Nevers-based student

Struggling with the errant car, he went off at the Melco Hairpin, damaging it beyond repair.

With Courtney out,Lapierre was

finished 11th this year in the Formula 3 Euroseries, driving with Signature Plus, having moved into the team in French F3 at the end of 2002, while competing in the European Formula Renault series.

Prior to that he raced in French Formula Renault.

The 50th rurming of the Macau GP was billed as the showdown between a pair of Auusies - F3 Euroseries Champion Ryan Briscoe and Courtney, the new Japanese Formula 3 Champion. But the entry also boasted some other young chargers of note, notably Nico Rosberg and Nelson Piquet Jr, both the sons of former FI World j

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FORMULA 3 BRM DALLARA 398

Champions.

In qualifying, Carbone took pole

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Briscoe (above left) had time in the lead as did Courtney, infront of overall winner Lapierre.

IVant to win the Australian Formula 3 Championship in 2004, or even the Yokohama Trophy Class?

ahead of Briscoe and Courtney with Lapierre fourth ahead of veteran Pierre Kaffer, Richard Antinucci, Nico Rosberg, Tatsuya Kataoka, Paolo Montin and Robert Doornbos.

At the start of the first race, there was chaos as usual with Briscoe

taking off into the lead at the start.

But he went wide during the first lap and was pushed back to third. At the same time Kaffer hit the wall and bounced back into the path of Rosberg and others.

Carbone damaged a front wing and so it was Lapierre who led early on, although he fell back and was overtaken by Courtney, who went on to win with ease. Iliis left Antinucci third, Carbone fading to fourth and Lewis Hamilton fifth (a fine effort from 17th on the grid).

Briscoe ended up 15th.

In the second race Lapierre led home Carbone, Katsuyuki Hiranaka, Ronnie Quintarelli and Briscoe. Tlie top six was completed by Japan's Hiroki Yoshinioto. Rosberg and Hamilton botli failed to finish.

-JOESAWARD

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Peugeot heaves JUST when it appeared that the World Rally Championship's Silly Season could not get any sillier comes the news that Peugeot has dropped Harri Rovanpera for the 2004 season.

Despite having a deal for all events next year, the French team made the decision to drop the former Swedish Rally winner in favour of running Freddy Loix, who subbed for Richard Burns in Britain earlier this month.

Loix is thought to have stronger links to team sponsor Marlboro and impressed in his British drive, which was brought about by the sudden illness of Richard Burns.

Loix is also thought to fit in better with the new driver

Sell! Sell! Sell!

EDDIE Jordan says that he, would be happy to sell a majority shareholding in his Formula 1 team but he wants to stay in charge after selling out.

A few years ago Jordan canne close to a deal to sell the team to Honda but the Japanese car maker refused to accept that Eddie needed to stay on after the purchase was completed.

Jordan turned down the US$30m offer as a result. Honda went on to do a long-term deal with BAR and Jordan has since lost his Honda engine supply.

Last week Jordan confirmed that he has interested parties in Asia but he says that a deal will only be done if he remains with the team.

- JOE SAWARD

eligibility rules, which limit the teams to two experienced drivers and one with lesser results.

Peugeot boss Corrado Provera says the team has now changed its mind.

"We have decided not to keep him anymore," Provera told England's Autosport.

"He has not performed like we would have wanted. Since he crashed out of Finland he seems to have had a mental imbalance in his mind."

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FORMER FI driver Luciano Burti looks to be headed for the DTM. The Brazilian tested with Opel Motorsport at Misano in Italy last week and ended his first taste of a 2003-spec Opel Astra Coupe in a positive frame of mind.

"The DTM car is quite good to drive," said Burti. "It allows you to be aggressive, but under control, making the driving style very

similar to a Formula 3".

Opel is on the lookout for new drivers for its squad next season and also tested former Mercedes DTM driver, Thomas Jager, Porsche Supercup driver Wolf Henzler and F3 drivers Alan van der Merwe, Adam Carroll and Timo Clock.

Burti was expected to have a second test but that has been postponed due to bad weather. Opel

also tested parts for its new Vectra, with Manuel Reuter and Marcel Tiemann running an modified Astra.

In the meantime, Burti returns to his regular job this week, testing for Ferrari at Barcelona and Jerez alongside Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa. Rubens Barrichello is expected to test next month while Michael Schumacher is not expected back in a cockpit until January.

SuperNova gets Plastered SUPERNOVA Racing has signed France's Olivier Pla to be one of its drivers in the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship in 2004 and 2005.

Pla has been racing in the Formula 3 Euroseries this year, left, and finished third in tire series behind Ryan Briscoe and Christian Klien.

The 22-year-old has been racing since 2000 when he made his debut in France's Formula Elf Campus,driving for the La Filiere team. He scored four wins and was third in the series and in 2001 moved to Formula 3 with Saukiier Racing.In 2002 he moved to the ASM team and fmished third in the

French Championship and gainurg some international exposure with victory in the Korean F3 Grand Prix.

This year he has been racing for ASM m the new Formula 3 Euroseries with Mercedes-Benz engines.

"I want to learn as much as possible with the team during the first year and maybe even win some races," he said.

"I am aiming to go for the title in 2005."

With Formula 3000 likely to switch to Renault engines in 2005,it is a smart move by SuperNova Racing as having a Frenchman in a position to win races in 2005 wUl not do any harm at aU. -JOESAWARD

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More trouble in Brazil THE problems between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Sao Paulo legal system have got worse with the judge Joao Andres de Vincenzo refusing to review his earlier decision.

On November 7, the public prosecution sendee in the city claimed that the race harms the city's finances and having looked at the evidence presented to him the judge agreed. This means tliat the contract between the promoters and Formula One Management has been declared null and void by the judge.

The contract expires at the end of 2004. The Sao Paulo authorities then went back to the judge on Thursday to appeal and presented him with documents showing the value of the Grand Prix to the city but the judge again rejected the case. The city now has until the 27th to put together a new appeal but if that is rejected tire citr' will then have to embark on a full-scale legal action to overturn the decision. City officials are worried

that the fight is damaging the image of the city at a time when there is talk of a bid for the race in 2005 and beyond by Rio de Janeiro.

The city does not actually pay for the race but is responsible for the upkeep of the Autodromo Carlos Pace at Interlagos. The fees to host the race are paid for by television station TV Globo, which has hired Tamas Rohonyi to promote the event on its behalf.

The problem is that the costs of upkeep at Interlagos are much more expensive than at most tracks because the circuit is built on unstable ground and so subsidence is a big problem each year.

Supporters argue that the investment made by the city in the track is still valuable for the rest of the year, as the local racing communit)'benefits from the money spent for the FI race.

The problems will no doubt be

solved by the time the race takes place in October next year but it is not something that Bernie Ecclestone needs happening with his only race in Latin America.

"The legal system wants to know what Formula 1 brings to the city of Sao Paulo," said Rohonyi. "It is simple which is why countries all over the world queue up to get a place on the Formula 1 calendar."

Rohonyi is believed to have had contacts with the authorities in Rio de Janeiro, in case a switch of venue is necessary.

"The city does not sponsor anything," says Paolo Scaglione, the president of the Confederacao Brasileira de Automobilismo, the national sporting authority."The city invests to make sure that tire circuit is up to the standard necessary for the Formula 1 race.

That investment benefits the many people who use the track for national events as well."

-JOESAWARD

This will give you the sheets AMERICA'S Ku Klux Klan has started distributing trash mail to suburban Detroit, Mi, residents calling for a boycott of NASCAR stock car racing for "a tendency for discriminating against whites by hiring blacks and Hispanics." Police say the distribution of the publications is not illegal because the content is not threatening.

Residents said the timing was perfect because it coincided with the local 'garbage day'. n Mitsubishi will publicly unveil its 2004 Lancer WRC, with which the German-based factory team will return to the World Rally Championship, at the Essen Motor Show on 27 November, n SEAT UK will enter two works Toledo Cupra R racecars in the 2004 British Touring Car Championship, driven by 2001 BTCC champion Jason Plato and 2003 Leon Cupra R onemake Champion Robert Huff. The cars are now being built in Spain at the Martorell HQ of SEAT Sport, which will provide technical support via its ETCC team. n Next year's British Touring Car Championship has secured a fresh contract with UK channel ITV, under which half the 10-event/30-race schedule will be covered live. n The British ASN,the Motor Sports Association has withheld a permit for the proposed new SCV8 Supercar 'silhouette' track racing championship, and has asked the promoter to provide further details of its complete package by the end of this month. n The Pirelli Touring Car Trophy, a new, pan-European series for 2-litre Super Touring racecars, will be launched in 2004. It will comprise six race meetings and will have separate classes for cars built between 19931997 and 1997-2000. The former head of Alfa Romeo's motorsport programme, Giorgio Pianta will serve as its technical commissioner.

-QUENTIN SPURRING

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Burgess follows Rossi to Yamaha

Makers play

Manufacturers pull out of World Supei

AS we reported a month ago, Jeremy Burgess will follow Valentino Rossi to Yamaha next season.

The veteran team chief, whose Honda experience dates back to Wayne Gardner's Grand Prix debut in the 1980s, will take several key members of his HRC team with him to boost the five time World Champion's bid to win another title with Yamaha, The Aussie has signed a twoyear deal with the maker.

While no statement has been made, it is expected that Rossi will not be able to test his new mount until early in the new year because of contructual obligations to his former employer.

VVhile there is still no word on the future of who will leave Yamaha to make way for the Italian, Alex Barros looks likely to go to Honda's HRC team. The Brazilian, who is currently recovering from surgery to mend tow broken tendons in his shoulder, has strong support from team sponsor Repsol, which does a considerable amount of business in South America.

It is believed that HRC recently enquired about the availability of highly-respected Team Pons crew chief Ramon Forcada, fuelling the Barros rumours.

THERE may not be a World Superbike Championship next year - well, not one of any merit.

The organisation that represents the manufacturers in the series, the MSMA (Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association), issued a press release last week that states none of its members will race in the 2004 series. The group is upset that the organisers of the series, FGSport, and the FIM has rejected its proposed rules for 2004. It also objected to the

I i

says that,"Ducati is exempted due to pre-existing contractual commitments to sponsors."

That means that only Ducati and Foggy Petronas will run works teams in the 2004 SBK and race against the Ten Kate Honda team.

Ironically, the MSMA members have no problem with the World SuperSport regulations and that series looks like continuing unaffected.

The MSMA statement read; The MSMA and each of the individual manufacturers who are f< members of the MSMA would like to thank the media for all the work they pul into covering PT motorcycle racing and for encouraging so many people to lake an interest in, and give their backing to, the sport.

W I)} light of rumors and misinformation regarding who will be competing in World Championship Superbike racing, the MSA4A would like to make a clear statement of its position.

A set of very fair technical rules had been agreed by all MSMA members in order to prevent unnecessarily high market prices for the machines that the series is based on, but the rules have not

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NEWS r l

: Eric gets Ducati AMA call

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I

ERIC Bostrom is the new man for ' Ducati's AMA Superbike program. ' The 27-year-old will throw the leg 1 over a 999 for the Ducati Austin ! team next season, as the Italian : factory tried to unseat reining } Champs Suzuki and Mat Mladin. It ; will be the first appearance of the : current-spec 999 in the series.

)ike Championship that unless these rules are adopted and the decision to restrict tires to a single make is rescinded, MSMA members 'eviU not compete in 2004 World Championship Superbike racing asfactory teams, and furthermore, will not provide technical assistance on afactory basis.

Ducati is exempted due to its pre existing contractual commitments to sponsors.

The MSMA is deeply saddened at having to make this announcement, but has been forced into the decision. j4s motorcycle manufacturers, we have to take a resolute stand against technical rules that are likely to he detrimental to th<’ interests of ordinary motorbike customers, and also against the idea of restricting tires to a single make so that a tire maker can become World Champion just by buying the title. Wc sincerely hope that all devotees of the Championship will appreciate why we have to take this approach.

Finally we would like to thank fans, the public and the mediafor all their support and understanding at this difficult time.for motorcycle sports. We would like to ask you for your understanding and hope that you wilt continue to be able to give your support to the continuing support to the growth of motor cycling and motorcycle racing.

Yours sincerely, Takanao Tsubouchi Secretary General

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A Certain lack of Stars GERMANY'S V8STAR touring car series has been forced to cancel its 2004 program.

The series, which ran for three years, may return to the tracks in 2005, pending discussions with sponsors.

The V8STAR organisation issued a statement earlier this month, which read; "To run the series is feasible only with several strong partners.

This circumstance is made worse by the present economic conditions. V8STAR regrets this step, however, we are convinced of the fact that this is the correct way."

The series catered for rearwheel-drive 'silhouette' chassis, clad with production-style sedan bodies. No manufacturer

branding was permitted and a number of control components, including Australianmanufactured MoTeC ECUs and Hollinger gearboxes, were mandatory.

All races were telecast on the German DSF sports channel, with which discussions are expected to be continued about reviving the series for the 2005 season.

"I find this very unfortunate," said team owner Sven Schnabl.

"V8STAR represented a stage between DTC and the DTM for teams and drivers and offered good sport."

A number of competitors, including former FI drivers Karl Wendlinger, Pedro Lamy and Michael Bartels, are now left with no drive for next season.

s

l I n The 2003 Australian Superbike n , Champion Craig Coxhell is moving to the 2004 British Superbike n Championship. After winning this year's title on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 Coxhell, 21, will ride a Honda CBR1OOORR on Pirellis for the Vitrans Honda team. His team-mate 1 will be fellow Aussie Paul Young, ' who will race a Honda CBR600RR in ; British Supersport. n Poms dominated the 37th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Michael Rutter won the 15-lap race : on his Renegade Ducati Superbike, 5s ahead of John McGuinness (Ducati). Third was Brian Morrison on a SERT Suzuki GSX-R1000. n Proton has announced it will buy a controlling interest in Italian motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta Motor SpA after signing a letter of intent vJth founder and owner Claudio Castiglioni. Proton will purchase 50 percent of the company, which designs and manufactures MV Agusta, Cagiva and Husqvarna motorcycles. The move will give the Malaysian company a controlling stake and distribution rights for the entire range of bikes produced by the group.

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S you read this, FI testing will have started again, in Valencia. What was strictly speaking meant to be a four week break wasn't quite that, with the last two weeks absolutely full-on, thanks to the Mark Webber Challenge down in Tassie.

Looking back on it now, a few days later, I'm thrilled that it went off so well and that we should have, once it's all added up, achieved our target of making $150,000+ for Brainwave and CanTeen in the first year.

Going into it, I was a little worried that we'd hit the spot in terms of getting the logistics right. I wanted everything to be spot-on, especially with the calibre of people taking on the event. It was important to have a 'good vibe' event in terms of getting funding in for the kids, not so much in the short term, but in future years.

I'd had to place my trust in quite a few people down in Tassie who I'd never met, but I'd have to say, everyone delivered and it went off a treat. We were a bit jammy with the weather too, which made it all the more special.

I was prepared for the physical aspects of the challenge, but what was a little unexpected was the added element of camping. I like camping, but when you're doing eight to 12 hours of exercise during the day, then you have to camp and get enough 'fuel' on board in order to back-up the next day ... that was tough.

But we had some amazing experiences and made some life long friendships. Tasmania's a beautiful place, we visited some very remote, awesome places.

26 November 2003

' and I look forward to working on another challenge next year. The concept worked well - it's not a race, but a personal challenge for the people who take part. We have a couple of ideas for next year already which might even make it a sniff more of a challenge as well ...

In the meantime, a massive thanks to everyone involved. It was awesome.

While the now starts forpreparation the 2004 FI season, I go into it with the benefit of a good 2003 behind me.

It started with a lot to prove both for the team and myself as a driver. I was up against this

I I began to really, really enjoy it.

It's a minute and a half of major pressure, but when you get it right, it's quite a feeling.

I guess our weak point was from there on, in particular our tyre management in races. The R4 in itself was quite a quick car, but we had issues with its performance over long runs, some brake cooling issues, and the efficiency of the car in terms of the aero.

It was a much better car than the R3, which had nothing - it wasn't even quick on a single lap - but there is plenty to do as we roll down into the three months of work before the season starts.

'Td be lying if I said there hadn't been interest from other teams about my services in 2005 and thereafter 91

- Mark on all those ‘Where’s Webber going?’rumours

legend, Antonio Pizzonia, who was going to blow me away. That provided that little bit of extra incentive, if any was needed, to nail it, to get things right, from the start.

It went well early on and I was able to establish a good relationship with the people I was working with, and the trust we built up happened very quickly.

Our .strong point through the season was qualifying. The whole weekend often hinges on that one lap on Saturday. It was something that I thought I might struggle with a bit, but in the end

If I had an early 'wish-list' for the R5 it would be that we make some big gains in terms of tyre management, which will be more crucial in 2004 with the recent changes in terms of pit lane layouts and speeds. There will be more three-stop races and we'll run softer compounds. In terms of aero, we also need to make some of those efficiency gains to help with top speed.

The recentthat announcement by McLaren Juan Montoya will be going there in 2005 has seen my name bandied about

again in terms of the Williams team, so I guess I need to clarify just where things are at.

I was recently incorrectly quoted or interpreted somewhere as saying that Jaguar boss David Purnell had already spoken with Frank Williams, Not correct. What I was trying to convey was that ;'f there was ever a need for the two of them to discuss anything, they would.

You have to be so careful!

Having said that. I'd be lying if I said there hadn't been interest from other teams about my services in 2005 and thereafter.

I am clearly contracted to Jaguar through to the end of 2005, but FI contracts are complex things, with performance clauses that work in both directions. It'll be a matter of working through all that at the appropriate time in 2004, which will have some bearing on who I drive for in 2005.

The other thing which people sometimes forget is that I am still contracted, in the first instance, to Renault - which is a good thing. Whatever happens in 2005, whether I'm with Jaguar, Renault, Williams, or whoever, will primarily be decided by Renault.

In the meantime, I believe we have achieved a lot in one year at Jaguar and everyone there is fullon to try and keep the momentum going. There's a lot to do, but that's the challenge, isn't it?

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am writing this column on a paper tablecloth in one of a chain of restaurants they have in France called Hippopotamus.

It is not exactly haute cuisine (steak and chips) but it is a great place to go if you have a nine year-old boy who needs to be fed and has had a very long day doing reconnaissance work in the toy shops of Paris in preparation for Christmas and then going out to see a movie.

It's been a really nice winter Saturday. Right now he is gawping at one of the video monitors that restaurants chains insist on putting up these days.

I am scratching away with a coloured pencil which was meant to be for kids to use to draw. The people at the table next door think me rather odd but who cares. ““he high point of the day was going to see a movie called Michel Vaillant. This will mean nothing to most Australians but to any Frenchman between the ages of five and 55 it has a great significance.

Vaillant is one of France's best known cartoon characters: a racing driver who always wins the race and always gets the girl.

Vaillant first appeared in 1957 and has since featured in 64 books, which have sold an impressive 20 million copies, which is not bad at all when you consider that they are all in French.

At 80 years of age, the creator of Michel Vaillant, Jean Graton has retired, but his son Philippe continues to turn out the stories,^ ignoring the fact that Vaillant must be as old as his father and perhaps a little past it when it comes to mixing with Michael Schumacher.

And that is where Vaillant is extraordinary because, unlike other cartoon characters, Vaillant mixes fact and fiction and races against the real stars, from Jacky Ickx to Michael Schumacher.

Every nine year old kid in France was brought up on the Vaillant stories and it was these which inspired the director Louis-Pascal Couvelaire and director-turned-screenwriter Luc Besson (one of France's best

known film makers, with credits including Subway, Le Grande Bleu and Nikita) to have a go at Vaillant, with a bunch of littleknown actors with unlikely names such as Sagamore Stevenin, Peter Youngblood Hills and the delectable Diane Kruger.

"One of my idols was Ayrton Senna," says producer PierreAnge Le Pogam.

"For me he was a superman; talent in its purest form, an artist. The idea that one could be at a different level to everyone else fascinated me."

But, of course, filming in FI is next to impossible because the sport is so completely obsessed with squeezing every possible penny from every possible deal and so Le Pogam, Besson and Couvelaire decided to give Le Mans a go. Their desire was to create a spectacular and yet authentic movie.

And 1 have to say that they have. Motor racing movies are traditionally not very good, notably the recent effort by Sylvester Stallone which failed on just about every count. Limp plots are generally linked

together by racing shots. But the creators of Michel Vaillant wanted to do it better than it had been done before and so entered two cars in the 24 Hours: one a Panoz and the other a Lola-Judd, run by DAMS and featuring serious drivers such as Marc Duez, Jerome Policand, Philippe Cache, Perry McCarthy and Emmanuel Clerico. n order to be allowed to keep filming the cars had to run at sensible racing speeds and indeed the Lola even finished the race, although the Panoz blew its gerabox in the middle of the night.

The story is cartoon-like in its approach with the Vaillant team winning Le Mans (no big suprise there) despite the dastardly efforts of the Leader team (red cars prone to sneaky and underhand manoeuvres).

The racing footage is great and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience: the best racing film I have seen since the 1960s... although, of course, it won't make much sense unless you can understand French.

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nd I have to say that there was a certain piquancy about the whole thing because the day after the film opened in Paris, it began to leak out that the French GP is to be cancelied because Magny Cours cannot afford to pay its bills.

The circuit owes Bernie Ecclestone $18m from the 2002 and 2003 races and no-one is willing to come to the rescue.

France, as any Frenchman will tell you, was the cradle of motor racing; the first Grand Prix took place at Le Mans in 1906 and the race has been on the calendar every year when there was not a war or a national disaster. To cancel the French GP will be a massive blow to national pride.

But French motorsport has been in a downward spiral since the early 1990s when the then government banned tobacco and alcohol advertising and took the wind out of the sails of many a rising star.

This was fol lowed by the privatisation of Renault and Elf, which meant that available budgets for racing dived again

and one by one the French FI teams went to the wall: AGS being followed by Larrousse and Ligier's reincarnation Prost Grand Prix.

Renault likes to claim that it is still in FI but it is only in name alone as most of the people at Renault FI in Chipping Norton speak not a word of French.

Renault in Paris makes engines and, to be forthright, not very good ones at that...

In Formula 1, French influence is gradually dying out as the drivers get old and retire.

Prost disappeared in 1993, followed by Jean Alesi and now

only Olivier Panis remains and he is the oldest of the FI stars.

New generations get as far as Formula 3000 and then have to head off to CART. The rest end up in sportscars at Le Mans...

Perhaps now, more than ever, France needs Michel Vaillant, a timeless hero at the top of the sport at international level who never disappoints.

It is all that they have left...

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When La France ruled: Alain Prost beads to his first GP win, at the 1981 French Grand Prix at Dijon, below, in a French Renault. Fie leads Frenchman Jacques Laffite in a French Ligier. They are lapping the McLaren of Andrea De Cesaris!

Today's French motorsport glory is confined to the silver screen, right ...

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The Box Seat With Joe Saward

Five minutes with...

Mark Winterbottom

After winning the Monica V8Series Ms year,SBR's young gun is stepping up to 'The Show'win Larkham Motorsport.PHH. BitAniAGAni asked him aout his rapid rise nrough ne ranks of V8racing MOTORSPORT NEWS: Tell us how this all came about.

MARKWINTERBOTTOM: It all happened pretty quickly, as a nnatter of facti SBR was struggling to get a deal together to run a third car and this came up very recently. We decided to go with it.

MN: It has been a bit of an uncertain time, since you won the Konica Series. Were you worried at all?

MW; We were a little unsettled but I left the deal to Ross (Stone) to work through. They were trying for a third car and it was all up in the air. It was going to be a pretty nervous Christmas, wondering what was going to be happening.

It was good to know what I was going to be doing next year.

This makes Christmas a lot easier now! It's a good deal, it will work out well. To work with a new team will be different but that will be a challenge.

MN;It's a two-year deal, what are your goals in that period?

MW: Going into the main series is going to be a lot different to the Konica Series. I learned that at Bathurst, it's bloody tough.

I don't know what to really expect, not until I go out there. It will be good to get into the top 10 now and then and get a result, as long as I can keep improving through the first year.

In the second year, I will have a full year under my belt. I have not been to half the tracks that we race on, so that will be hard. I have some learning to do. So a top 10 will be a good result; better than that will be a bonus. But I do want to keep maintaining my improvement.

MN: Timing-wise, it looks like a solid decision. The IMS Falcon went pretty well at Pukekohe with Jason Bargwanna at the wheel.

MW: Definitely. It was encouraging 28

"It was only two years ago that I was racing karts" - Motor racing the Winterbottom way-karting, Formuia Ford, Konica V8, V8 Supercar Series. Simpie, reaiiy...

to see how the car went over there, to see it up among the fast cars. It was good for the team and, hopefully, they will keep working hard to make sure that the car is improving all the time.

It is a pretty good time to get into the car. You can see the speed that the car has.

MN: It's only a year since you stepped into a V8 Supercar. Is it all a bit dizzying at the moment?

MW: Actually, it's scary!

It was meant to be a two-year thing in Konica and we got up to win it in the first year. Another year in that, or into the main series? We had to weigh that up.

It all happened quickly but I think that moving up will make me learn more. But you are right; it was only two years ago that I was racing karts. It has all been a big rush.

MN: What is the hardest part

about stepping from the Konica Series to the main show?

MW: Everything! In the Konica Series, even if you have a bad run you can still end up in the top five.

In the main series, it is nothing like that.

At Pukekohe, a tenth could gain you five spots. The field is much bigger and the competition goes all the way back. There could be a hell of a fight for 10th position but in the Konica Series, there is the top five guys, then a gap and the next five, then the next five. You have to be on your game all the time.

MN: It will be a little strange to see Jason Bargwanna take a senior role in the team. It seems like, only a few years ago, he was the up-and-comer and now he will be the 'older' driver in the team.

MW: For sure. I have not spoken to Jason about all this yet!

I think that will work out fine. He was in my situation only a few years ago but now he has plenty of experience. It will be a boost to have a 'senior' driver in the team to draw from and to learn from.

MN: You had a couple of drives in the Stone Barra. Are you taking some information in your head?

MW:The Stone Brothers have been unreal. I have learned a lot from them in the year that I have been with the team and it will be good to bring the information that I have with me to a new team.

Really, I am still a rookie so I will be learning every time I go out there. But hopefully, 1 have already learned something and I can bring that to the Larkham team.

MN:The other good news is the fact that LMS has just signed long-terms deal with Orrcon and DecoRug so that the team will be stable over the next three years.

MW:That is great news. That is underway now and it makes it easier to have a plan for the next couple of years. It's good to have security. It gives you confidence, moiorsporl news

Five minutes with

Ryan Briscoe

Oun Bnwpean F3Champion speaks to MARK GLBmMMB about Macau,his coming season antigetting back into a Formuia One car-maybe,atAibertPark MOTORSPORT NEWS:Starting with Macau,was that just one of those races that got away?

RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, for sure, I knew it was going to be a difficult weekend from the start; you know, first time at Macau. It's a superdifficult circuit to learn.

But I was loving it. I got through free practice and qualifying, and things were looking pretty good.

Especially after the qualifying session that counted - being on P2, the front row, was just fantastic. The end result wasn't exactly what I was hoping for ... I got fifth in the end, and had the potential to win, I had the speed. I was lacking a fair bit of straightline speed down the straights - in qualifying, I was losing 0.5s to the fastest guys.

So the race was always going to be difficult because of the straightline speed, I was getting on all right until, in Race 1, I had a bit of contact and came home 15th after leading into turn one. So that was a bit disappointing.

And in Race 2, 1 lost my front wing on the first lap and that just made the rest of the race very difficult. Lacking front downforce around there was not what I wanted. To come fifth overall was pretty good considering the circumstances, but we definitely had the speed to win there.

MN: What did you think of the track?

RB: Well, initially it wasn't our plan to go to Macau, but I'd heard so many fantastic stories about the circuit. And I just thought that after having done a full year of Formula 3 racing, to not go to Macau would just be missing out on something in my racing career. So I pushed for Toyota to take me there with Prema.

MN:So it was your initiative?

RB: Yeah, absolutely. I had nothing to gain from going there - I'd won the most competitive Formula 3 Championship that exists. Going 30

there was purely for my experience and, for sure, to try to win there and 'up' my profile even more. But going there, I probably had more to lose than to gain, but I'm so happy that I showed good speed. And the circuit is just insane - it's got everything, and there's just no room for mistakes.

Really fast, rough sections of the circuit, and just... walls. Around a 6.3km circuit, that's just fantastic.

MN: Have you had a chance to reflect on what you have achieved this year, or has it been a case of'job done,time to concentrate on what we're doing next'?

RB: It's been a fantastic year for me -1 couldn't have hoped for more. With the Euro Series win,

sticking behind me and I'm looking forward to bigger and better things next year.

looking at, because to do F3 again wouldn't really be a good move for me.

MN;Is the situation that you are in a frustrating one? You've delivered on your side of the bargain and won the title, but now the next step is the big step, and there's no room there.

Are you in a bit of a holding pattern?

RB: Well, I think in Europe at the moment, the F3 Euro Series is regarded as the top category below Formula One, certainly from the competitiveness side of things.

So I'm not frustrated.

I'm in a pretty good position with Toyota. I should be in there doing lots of miles with them next year, just building up my experience and

MN: But it's a case of where else do you go, isn't it?

RB: That's the thing. I've got nothing to gain from doing F3 again. I've had such a fantastic season that it really would be pointless to go back there again. It depends on the intensity of the FI program.

Categories to go for ... I've had offers from DTM to go there with Opel, but I just don't really see touring cars as being the right option to take at the moment.

I just want to focus myself on open-wheelers and, while I've got the opportunity, stick with Toyota.

And quite honestly, I think Toyota's intentions next year are to have quite an intense program. I don't think it will allow much time for racing.

If time permits. I'd certainly be up for any endurance races - you know, the Le Mans 24 Flour or something like that. But it would be pretty difficult to focus on doing a full championship season while trying to do a good job with the FI team as well.

I've had oners from DTM to go there with Opel, but I Just don't reaUy see touring cars as being the right option to take at the momenr' - Briscoe ponders his future

the Grand Prix of Pau at the street circuit in France, third at the Masters at Zandvoort, and good speed at Macau, fifth there, it's just been a top year. And to finish it all off. I'll be having some more testing with Toyota ...

MN: You're back in the FI car?

RB: Yeah, I'm flying back tomorrow for testing next week at Valencia. So I'm just trying to make the most of the good results that I've had this year. It has certainly helped me, especially after having not such a good year last year, racing in different categories and not completing a full series in anything.

So this year has been really good for my profile, and mentally .,.

MN: Confidence?

RB: Confidence, yeah. It was a big confidence boost. And Toyota is

my confidence in the FI car, and just trying to keep putting pressure on the race drivers and keep my nose in there.

MN:So is there a chance that we'll see you on the Friday at Albert Park next year?

RB: That's what I'm hoping for. I still haven't got any news from Toyota about my exact position there next year, but I will be testing for them and I think it would be really good for myself and for Toyota if I could come out to Albert Park and be their third driver on the track on Friday. To go out and do a few laps in the FI car would just be fantastic.

MN: What are the plans as far as keeping your racecraft sharp?

There wouldn't be a lot of point going back to F3 ...

RB: That's still something we're

MN:So it's basically a full-time FI test role?

RB: Well that's what we're looking at, but they've still got to put the words down on paper.

MN: And in the meantime, you're just counting on the fact that the two current drivers are not getting any younger...

RB: Yeah. They've got two very experienced drivers - especially Panis who, I think, is probably getting towards the end of his career. I think it's good for the team that they have kept the two current drivers from this year, because a bit of stability was needed.

But I've just got to keep my nose in there and hope for a drive sometime in the future. motorsport news

mUMHO TYRES

How did we get t The 2002 V8 Supercar season has featured some wins, losses and lucky escapes. PHIL BRANAGAN looks at the three championship contenders and what happened - and what might happened, but didn't nnn

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HE points system for the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship contains calculations,

permutations and frustrations but one thing can't be denied - it has set up a cracker of a finale at Eastern Creek this weekend.

After 12 rounds of action, regardless of the formats, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife all head to Sydney town with an achievable goal of wirming the title - a maiden one of the first two and a record sixth for Skaife. But there is a fair bit to take in and,in the

process, a fair bit to look back on before the trophy is lifted at the AVESCO Dinner on Monday night (black tie, thongs optional).

What the three drivers have in common is this fact; they have all taken a loss sometime during the season but they have all dodged disasters as well.

For Ambrose, the equation is pretty straightforward; finish ahead of the other blokes and the title is his.

Finish within eight spots of Murph (over both races) and,likewise, the crown is safely on his scone.

The two Holden drivers have to beat Ambrose,Skaife by some margin, to take the championship:'' Their philosophy is relatively predicatable; win, or bust.

So, kids, how on earth did we get here?

For Ambrose, the bigWith loss came early in the season. the rain hammering down at Phillip Island, most of the leaders pitted for rain tyres straight away, on lap 46 or 47 (of 54). Ambrose did not; he inherited the lead and, when trying to turn into the pit entry road on lap 49, was crunched by Jason Bright. As a result, he was forced to do another

lap.

By race's end, Ambrose was 17th and a lap down on the leaders. He had been fourth before the rain came,a spot eventually taken by Garth Tander(who had rolled the

dice and delayed his second compulsory pit stop). The stewards called the clash a racing incident and Bright, lurching around with broken .steering when the race was redflagged, was second.

Assuming fifth was the worst result Ambrose would have expected otherwise, he dropped 72 points. But his worst score would then have been the 117 he got at Adelaide,so after dropping that, his nett gain would have been 51 points.

If Ambrose had a lucky escape, it was by most people's estimation at Barbagallo. Ambrose had made his stop and was closing in on the second-placed car of Rodney Forbes (who had not pitted). The blue Falcon tapped the silver one into a spin and carried on to take the win.

The stewards examined the matter but dismissed it for a lack of evidence. Afterwards, Ambrose described the incident as "silly"; Forbes's words were somewhat stronger.

Had Ambrose been issued with a drive-through penalty, he would have dropped around 24 places. That would have meant a 48 point deduction.

His other potential big points loss came at Sandown. The SBR Falcon looked to be on course for, at worse, a top three finish when co-driver Russell Ingall skated off at the first corner he came to. The car was recovered pretty promptly and Rusty carried on to fifth place and earned Marcos 176 points. Had it taken another lap to get out, the pair would have finished, at best, 12th. If it had happened at another corner and Ingall fenced it, it would have been a huge loss; possibly a DNF.

Yikesl Marcos Ambrose, below left, was in the lead pack in Perth, despite an incident with Rodney Forbes.

Stuck, but just for a moment: A calm bead and a great comeback drive allowed Mark Skaife to escaped from jail in NZ, below.

And now for a word from TV: Almost everyone felt Creg Murphy was hard-done by in this clash with Craig Lowndes, right.

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ere from there?

For Murphy, was his race Waterloo.

AtWinton about two-thirds distance, he was challenging Craig Lowndes for third when... weU, you know what happened. Through the Sweeper,Lowndes slid wide,tapped the brakes and Murph nailed him in the boot. The Ford slid off and the KRT VX carried on.Soon after, Murph was issued with a drive-through penalty and,after serving it, and with no heart in his racing,finished 14th.

In doing so,there were two nett effects. Murphy scored only 114 for the round, his worst of the season. If he

had stayed where he was,with no call from the stewards,he would have scored 180 points,so he would have been 66 better off. His worst score would then have been the 132 he picked up at Oran Park,so Murphy lost 48 nett points at Winton.

The other effect of the Winton

incident was that, at the next round in Perth, the stewards clearly had taken their finger off the trigger. The Ambrose/Forbes incident passed without enquiry until after the race.

Ambrose's biggest escape became, perhaps, Murphy's second-biggest loss.

"The other effect of the Winton incident was that, at the next round in Perth,the stewards cieariy had taken their finger off the trigger. The Amhrese/Forbes incident passed without enquiry untii after the race rf

T-TT i r4r i.

For Skaife to be third in theof the championship after some things that have happened to him this season is just bloody remarkable.

Far from one incident standing out, Skaifey's season has been a catalogue of disasters. At Eastern Creek in May, both HRT Conunodores were forced to make unscheduled stop when wheel rims split. After that, Skaife gambled on the rain getting heavy and pitted but that didn't work and he finished 19th. In Perth, he clashed with Forbes after the Ambrose incident and was forced to pit for repairs,leaving him 23rd in the third race.

In Queensland, he lost an engine, leaving him with a season-worst 36 points for 27th. The Bathurst door flapping incident dropped from a probable second-placed finish to eighth and the call made by the stewards had something to offend everyone; either the call should have come earlier or not at all.

UPS TO GO 37

It was starting to look like a struggle for the defending Champion.

But,in adversity,Skaife shines. At Sandown,he was driving terrifically well when Jason Ricliards challenged with a lap to go. The two VYs clashed and Skaife carried on to win while Richards was out on the spot. When was the last time the car on the inside of a clash like that ended up stuck while the other one did not?

Luck? Maybe not. It has to be noted; Skaife is exceptionally calm in such situations and HRT does design an element of crash-worthiness into its cars.

Know how. Co

The incident was pretty straightforward. In a braking zone. no argument; if a car punts another one in the boot, it's almost always the following driver's fault. This was not in a braking zone and even Lowndes admittedit was a crook call.

Murphy's gains are harder to pmpomt,such has been his consistency this year. Breaking the races held so far this year into three separate 'championships'shows that. nett, Murphy scored 597 points in Rounds 1-4 and 636 in Rounds 5-8. In

Then, at Pukekohe,Skaife mounted the comeback of the year. After a clang from Max Wilson, MS found himself stuck in the wet gravel on the opening lap of tire first race. Had he spun his rear wheels, he would have dug a hole and bogged himself, lost at least a lap getting salvaged and finished, at best,22nd. After gently rocking his car out of the poo, his comeback drive took him to seventh, gaining him 30 points in that race and 15 grid spots for Race 2. As it was,he finished second for the weekend. He had, quite literally, dragged his championship hopes out of the mire.

So, the championship decider sits on a knife-edge. Ambrose slaughtered everyone at the Creek in May; the always-emotional Murphy is on a roll; Skaife has been here and seen it all before. AVESCO has

the last four rounds, Murph has banked 750 points nett.

The only driver to score more than that in any four straight rounds was Ambrose, who m winning Rounds 36 racked up 760 points nett. The debut of Greg's Kmart VY at Oran Park was awful to watch but, since

got its longed-for classic showdown. Whoever wins this

tliat race, the car has been a jet. And momentum is hard to beat.

thing will be a deserving Champion.

33

A Change Y Campbell Little has been called ‘The third Stone Brother’ but now he is leaving SBR to Join Triple 8- with, apparently, no hard feelings on either side. He spoke to PHIL BRANAGAN

OU have to wonder what Adrian Newey thinks when he walks past the pits of Jaguar Racing.

The man in McLaren grey is noted as one of the best engineers in Formula One and, two years ago, there was a tug of war over his services. In reasonably quick succession, Jag and McLaren both claimed they had the balding Englishman signed up for the following

season. McLaren won the day; under English law, it is not possible to force someone to work for you if that person does not wish to do so.

At the end of the frisson, Newey stayed at McLaren and Jaguar had to make do with what they had. One wonders whether a Newey Jag R4 would have been a racewinner in 2003.

Then again, the Newey McLaren MP4/18 was unable to pass the FIA's crash tests and never raced, becoming the world's most expensive test and show car.

Engineers are like that.

Getting the right man at the right time can make a big difference to your team; a bigger difference, perhaps, than getting a top driver and putting him in a mid-field car.

Campbell Little is recognised as one of the top technical men in V8 Supercar racing. In his role as engineer with Stone Brothers Racing, he has overseen, in part, the resurgence in Ford's main team. The fact that Marcos Ambrose heads to Eastern Creek this week with a lead in the V8SCS has been largely due to the combined efforts of the 38-strong team from the Gold Coast. Little has had a big role to play in that.

So the news that, after nine long years. Little will not be a part of the team in Sydney this weekend came as a bombshell.

Little and SBR have parted ways, with immediate effect.

He will be yvith the team to add personal support, and to attend the AVESCO Dinner on Monday, but it will be a busman's holiday.

Ambrose and Russell Ingall will have the rest of the team around them but, effectively, no Little.

Since the news broke a little over a week ago, the motor racing grapevine has been

Car 4, number 1?

Little has had a big role in making Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall Ford's leading contenders in V8 Supercar racing. Can he do the same at Triple 8?

matorspon news

US SUPERCARS

irec humming with rumours. Little and the Stone Brothers have had a huge falling out. Little h. been made a multi-million doll offer to quit the team. Little v\ stakeholder in SBR. As much as anything - and the fact that all three of those rumours are wrong - Campbe is bemused by all the attentio "If I was a driver, nobody would say anything," he sigh: No, Campbell, we would ... fact, quite a bit.

Let's address those rumour Little and the team have not f a falling out, huge or otherwis "I had a contract, which wa renewed annually," Little explains. "I thoroughly enjoye working with the guys and thi is no animosity.

"Ross and Jimmy have promised me lots of things o\ the years but, when it came to the crunch, it never came up."

And it was not like Little never had any opportunities to move.

"Every year I had offers," he says. "But nothing was ever better than what I already had. I would look at the team, the way that they were funded and the way that they worked and their drivers, and nothing was better than what I had. So I stayed."

Off the record. Little lists some of the teams that have chatted to him. It is pretty much

it, I could not earn money from it. So why have it? There was no advantage to be had. I could have had a job with Ross and Jimmy for life, if that is what I wanted."

So, to the $64,000 question.

What is he going to do?

Little is a cautious man but it is well-known that he has past links with Triple 8 Race Engineering, which now runs the Betta Electrical Ford team.

And that is where he is going.

"I have known Roland Dane and worked with him years ago, when the team was at Bathurst.

(T8 co-owner) Derek Warwick "Ross and Jimmy have promised me iots of Uiings over the tl said to me then,'Come and years hut, when it came to the crunch, it never came up work for us,' but my little girl - Little on the Stones, below was only two then and I did not want to move my family. 1 wanted to stay here.

"Roland is a very determined man. I first met him when I was doing some work for Bruce Miles with the Toyota New Zealand team. Both he and (T8 co-owner) Ian Harrison have kept in contact over the years.

Roland said to me,'One day, you will work for me "Then the thing happened here (with the Betta team). He said,'Come and talk to us if you want a change.' We spoke more before Bathurst but I told him then, 'Look, we are in a fight for g the championship and there is I still a lot to be done. I want to put it off until the end of the a who's who of pit lane.

So, to the second rumour. Is he about to become a very rich man?

"I wish I No. It's not huge money: in fact, it's not a lot more than I am getting now. But it's a new challenge."

And the third rumour - that he had 'points' in the team?

"There was no shareholding, at all," he says frankly. "It was put to me and I rejected it. If I had had a stake in the team, I would not have been able to sell

i

year.' That was what we were intending to do.

"But then Ross spoke to me in New Zealand. He said to me, 'What are we going to be doing next year?' It was a yes/no question. I said that I had an opportunity and explained it to him. He just said, 'Look, with all that, you are going to be doing, you better go on holidays now because you will be pretty busy in January'."

So, even with the links that he has with Triple 8, why that team?

"When Ross spoke to me in NZ, I spoke to Roland and we worked out what I wanted to do. I like Triple 8 and the way they approach motor racing and I have always enjoyed what I did with them. They have a different approach to motor racing than SBR, which still runs like a family team.

"I like Ross and Jimmy a lot, they are friends. I have had some clashes with Jimmy over the time ... maybe 'clashes' is not the right word, but we disagreed on things sometimes.

I knew that, whether he was right or I was right, things would go his way because he was one of the owners of the team. That is fine and I do not have a problem with that.

"But this will be different. The

continued on page 36 35

continued from page 35 team works with a bigger budget than we are used to running with in Australia. I will have a role where I decide whether we go ahead or not.

Now, it is possible that, if I do the right job, I will have a management role. I would be mad not to knock that back. It can only go one way. But I better not talk about that too much ..."

So, apart from his future at Triple 8, and the possibility of doing some shopping at Betta Electrical, how does he feel

about leaving SBR? "My leaving will not impact the team at all. There are 35 other guys there, all working hard, and there are systems and

person in the team that, if he was away for a month at a critical time, things would be affected, and that is Jimmy."

There is a high degree of

It'S not huge money; in fact, it's not a lot more than I am getting now. But it's a new challenge"

11

-Little Is not moving for more money

records in place that will continue to operate. That is what happens there; it just operates. There is only one

mutual respect between Ross and Jimmy Stone and Campbell Little. From now on, they will face off in pit lane from opposite

camps. What happens from now will be fascinating to watch.

And, with this coup. Triple 8 has shown its hand; the team does not intend to spend two years playing catch-up in V8 Supercar racing. Getting Little on board will fast-forward its development program and wins in 2004 are a distinct possibility.

SBR may have left its Ford opposition in its wake in the last two years but Little will be working hard to make sure that, next year, the Stones have more to worry about than just the Holden teams ...

Business as Usual Little or no Little, SBR’s Ross Stone is determined his team will be focused in Sydney

HAVING a key man leave any team before the championship-deciding race of a season is not ideal but SBR boss Ross Stone is not getting carried away before Eastern Creek.

"Campbell had very little input into the Pirtek car at a racetrack.

Jimmy stepped in to fill that role and he took a little bit of a backward step in the last couple of months. That will not make any changes at all."

With Jim Stone stepping in to engineer Russell Ingall for the weekend, will SBR's approach to the weekend change?

"Not really, no. We will be

approaching the race exactly as "Ideally, we could run one we did earlier in the year. after the other with Murphy and Skaife."

There's no extra pressure."

One thing that will be high in Better get your votes in now, folks ... the minds of the opposition was the pasting that Marcos Ingall did a great job for the Ambrose handed out at Eastern team in New Zealand, running as a 'linebacker' for Ambrose Creek in May. "That helps, for sure, but I and making holes big enough think that the other thing is that for both Falcons to gain things have moved on since positions.

"We have talked a lot about then with our car, and the other guys as well. We were due to needing Russell to have points have a test on Monday and that and have a quick car. We need will help more than the other him to qualify up near the front race there." so that Marcos is not out there by himself."

But what about the Sydney What about the other Ford track's finicky nature when it teams? Will there be a team comes to reacting to effort to ensure that the temperature? br The temperatures are the championship goes Ford's way, same for everyone. I think that as opposed to yet another Holden title? the biggest thing will be the "No discussion. One of the random-draw shoot-out. If you pull first out, and if someone things that has happened is that the other Ford teams are like' Murphy runs last, one way or another it is going to be coming off such a hiding and different on the track. It is a bit they want a result. They want to of a lottery but there is not go well themselves, it is not much we can do about it. about making it easy for us. In

New Zealand, a couple of blokes put their nose in and had no option but to proceed. We will be going there as we started the season, to do the best job possible. We need points but we do not need to be conservative.

After leading by so far mid season, Ambrose now has a slender points lead while Murphy is on a role - in the last four rounds, he has finished on the podium at each race and won at Bathurst and Pukekohe.

To add to that, he fought off Garth Tander to win the Bathurst 24 Hour last weekend.

"It would be nice to be there but we should have won Sandown and that got away from us there. We were capable of doing well at Bathurst and in New Zealand we were a fraction conservative. But we were first and fourth at Indy and we are going all right."

Whichever way this thing pans out, it will be a hell of a battle.

motorsDori news

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ENSON Button has had a busy time since the last race of the season in Suzuka. His schedule included visits to the new Grand

Prix venues in Shanghai and Bahrain, while the long list of official commitments also included a hectic trip to Athens for Honda,where the Fl-starved local media pounced on him.In between all that he managed to squeeze in a holiday in Barbados, and even found time to pop the question to long-time girlfriend Louise Griffiths.

"We got engaged a month ago," he smiles. "First of all she cried and then

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she said yes! The problem is tlie FI calendar. It'll probably be next winter, or April 2005 if we stiU have a threeweek break. It's difficult to plan anything..."

Not tliat Jenson is too bothered about being busy during the off season.

"I find it very difficult to slow down.I get bored so easily. The problem is Lou finding time, more than me. Now I've got a bit of time off, she's busy. I've had my holiday, I had a couple of weeks off from training which was quite nice. I put a bit of weight on,but 1 started training again a week ago. And it's hard work at the moment!"

Jenson is more motivated than ever to get back on the mountain bike or into tire gym,for his career is very much back on back with BAR. He didn't do too badly in his second

season at Renault,finishing an almost unnoticed seventh in tlie 2002 World Championship,but this year he displayed a hard edge that had perhaps been missing previously.

Once again he's being talked about as a man of the future, and it's easy to forget that he's still only 23,and has time on his side.

Since his impressive rookie season with Williams back in 2000 the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya,Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have come along and made waves. That's been a little galling for Jenson, not least because he kept the seats warm for the first tv\'o at Williams and Renault respectively, and had to leave just as the teams got into a winning position. The fact that Kimi was discovered by his own original management didn't ease his frustration.

"You want to win immediately when you come into FI," he says.

"Some people are lucky enough to be in that situation. 1 don't think Kimi's first year in FI was as good as my first year, but he was in the right place at the right time to get a McLaren drive, and it obviously worked out very well for him.

"I went to Benetton, and the first year was very difficult, and I struggled through inexperience. It's taken me a little bit longer to get with a team that is competitive and capable of getting podiums and wins, while there are lucky people like Alonso and Raikkonen.

niotorsport news

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FORMULA -I

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"I'm very happy in tire team I'm in now, happier than I have been for the last two years in FI. They've got their chance, but I will have my chance. I know that I have to give everything, so

Absence makes the heart go Honda: Button will have to ifnd time to share with both his loves, F1 racing, above, and fiancee Louise Griffiths, below.

that I know that chance is there. Next

year is a very important year for the team and for myself. The team needs to perform and I need to perform."

For once Jenson has had the breaks,

year earlier eighth wouldn't have meant much, but in 2003 it earned a

valuable point.

"DR said to go for it, and obviously I did. It was a very interesting race. I got up to 11th before the first safety car, dropped back again, and then got back up to eighth. It was a lot of fun, it wasmon-stop, always fighting with other cars."

BAR suffered through much of the summer from Bridgestone's woes. The situation changed not just at the right

for he has stayed at BAR while longtime incumbent Jacques Villeneuve :has been shuffled out. They were never going to be close pals, but even before tire start of tine season they became engaged in a messy war of

time for Michael Schumacher, but also

for Jenson. He qualified seventh at Monza only to be tagged by Mark Webber, and then at a soggy Indianapolis he pitted at the perfect time, and got the jrunp on the whole

words. What was that all about?

"1 think it was because I had quite a bit of press. David Richai'ds was

saying he's going to make me tlie next

field.

"I think we had the hardest

British World Champion, and there was quite a lot of media coverage about it. So I tliink maybe Jacques

Bridgestone, and we were really struggling to generate some heat and grip. The team said, 'You've got to stay

didn't like it, which was

understandable. It had really been liis team for the last four years, so he

was a good thing. We finally sat down

on later races.

out,' and the next comer I threw it off

and had a chat, and got over it (see

found that a little bit difficult, and he

sidebar)."

the circuit! Then they decided to call me in. So we put the wet tyres on, and

tliought that I still had to prove myself.

Eventually attention focussed on what was happening on the track.

Jenson caught the eye when he qualified fiftli in Spain, and followed tliat up with a fourtli place finish in Austria. He was a superb third in first qualifying on Tliursday at Monaco, beliind only the Ferraris, only to be eliminated from the weekend by a horrific crash on Saturday morning.

"I was 100 percent, definitely. I was a little bit cautious when I got back in the car in Canada in practice, and it wasn't too nice it being wet either, but I was fine after a few laps. I wouldn't

"Hd said lots before tlie season, and

tiled obviously in Australia we had the problem in tlie pit stop (when Jacques stopped as Jenson was due in). You always hear a lot of stories about new drivers, and especially outpsyching drivers, and I just thought it was possible that he did it on purpose.

Looking back on it now, I don't think he did. That started tilings off, and then it got a bit too much. But maybe it 26 November 2003

Thankfully there was no lasting damage, and he says it had no effect

have raced if I didn't feel comfortable."

It was a humble eighth place finish on home ground at SUverstone that perhaps did more than anything else to convince Richards and BAR tliat

they'd got their man. Jenson was in the tliick of the action throughout as he charged from the back of the grid. A

it was pretty much the right lap. It was

a great feeling, leading for 15 laps.

Michael came up behind me and I wasn't going to fight him for it, because for us eight points would have been fantastic, and he was going to get past anyway. I was looking really strong."

It was then that his engine failed. It was the single biggest frustration of continued on page 40 39

continued from page 39

I'm spending a lot more time with the team since the last race,than I ever

the year, not least because of the tight battle for fifth in the constructors'

have done. Every little detail on that's going on the car, or that's being changed, I want to know about it. It's a lot more interesting for me."

Jenson was clearly the senior man at Suzuka, but he says that next year, when Sato will have a winter of

championship.

"For the whole team it was so difficult. For the first time they'd led a race, and it was not just one or tvi'o laps during the pit stops. It should have been a really big points score for us, which would have pretty much settled fifth place, but Sauber got 10 points. It was a nightmare."

The tables were titrned in Suzuka, where Jenson's priceless fourth place secured fifth. What's more he was the

preparation behind him, will be different.

"I don't think they'll look at me as the number one driver, because we will get the same equipment. But I do have more experience with the team

last frontrunner to pit, allowing him to lead briefly for the second race in the row. That weekend he also got a taste of 2004, as Takuma Sato took over Villeneuve's seat. Button rose to

anyone said to me,'You're the team leader now.'

"I did what 1 should have done all year, giving as much input as 1 can.

Jacques and me \vould talk over a problem, and he woul.d speak to the team. But now, giving my own opinion, Tm really enjoying it, and

the circumstances are right.

"Definitely. I think we'll be in front of Renault from the word go. It might even be that we'll be challenging the top three teams.

Tlrroughout the season they will be stronger, but there will be times when we can really challenge. As a team we're working very well together. In the pit stops we're one of the best, if not the best. Everyone's really positive, and I think we can really challenge for podiums. And you never know, that win might be there next year."

In his 65 starts, Jenson has yet to achieve a podium,let alone a victory.

He's had some bad luck along the way, notably a last lap suspension failure when running third for Renault in Malaysia, but it doesn't look good on paper.

"It's going to happen. Maybe I'm one of these drivers that doesn't get a podium until he wins. It's a little bit

competing factory-backed teams aligned with the French company, ratlier than the number two at Bridgestone? Much also depends on how Honda adapts to tlie longlife engine rules, for reliability has been poor.

"I went there before the last race, and the new motor looks good. Tliey started a couple of montlis ago doing long runs on it, and it's looking very strong. Obviously we want to lose as

Maybe I'm one of these drivers that doesn't get a podium until he wins"

the challenge.

"It was really weird, because even though I'd got more points than Jacques and I'd outqualified him more times, when 1 heard he wasn't going to come,immediately it felt strange. But also it felt great, because I felt like the team leader,even before

Ferrari, Williams and McLaren when

say anything until it's sorted out"), and it remains to be seen how tliat works. Will it be better to be one of six

-Button on his lack of a podium finish in 65 GP starts and in FI, and I think my opinion will definitely count, especially in the winter testing. Takuma has done a lot of testing, but I'm the one who raced the car 16 times, or 15 times. I've got to be good at everything, and I'm really happy about it."

BAR has yet to officially confirm its intended move to Michelin ("I can't

irritating, annoying more than anything else, because there have been so many opportunities, and every time I see PI,P2 or P3

much weight as possible on the engine, and they've done pretty well.

It's been on a diet and done a bit of

something goes wrong! People don't always see the reasons. The

training!"

So what is the realistic aim for

magazines might say Jenson was in third and he ended up fifth at the end of the race. They don't say why.

When I do get a podium it's going to be extra special, I guess."

2004? Jenson is optimistic. In effect Renault's performance in '03 has given everyone else hope,showing that it is possible to mix it with

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FORMULA 1

Life after JV The Villeneuve relationship was an up-and-down affair JACQUES Villeneuve has a reputation for making life hard on his team-mates, but after his early disputes with Jenson Button the pair managed to establish a working relationship.

"We sat down before the race in Malaysia and talked it over," Jenson recalls, "And then again in Brazil. It just sort of died down, more or less, after that. We were quite close a lot of the time in qualifying.

"I think he understood it wasn't going to be easy, and it was a bit more exciting for him as well. We were at the same sort of level, and we were very cornpetitive. I think he liked that."

It was'just as well that a truce was called before Imola, for they were about to spend even more time together than do most team mates.

Having bought Mika Sato's motorhome, Jenson joined the exclusive FI Camping Club (founder members J Villeneuve and D Coulthard).

At virtually all the European races their three giant motorhomes were parked next to each other, sharing security and other logistical matters.

so some socialising was inevitable.

"We got on a lot better towards the end of the season. We were still very competitive when we were at the circuit, and sometimes it could be a b it of a strange atmosphere, especially before qualifying. And before the race, if I'd qualified in front, he could be a little bit funny.

"But when we were away from the circuit, we got on very well. We had a couple of dinners together. FI drivers don't normally spend that much time together, because we're competing against each other and in the evening you're going back to your different hotels. But living in our little campsite was quite nice. It was like going back to karting!"

So did Jenson come to understand his team-mate a bit better?

"He seemed like a good guy by the end of the year. I think he's just difficult to understand, and he doesn't let people in very easily. But we got on well by the end of the season. If I'd done a good qualifying he'd always say, 'Well done,' or 'Good lap.' He didn't have to say that."

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M

The Day the Ei There were many wins in the long career ofPete Geoghegan but his Bathurst battle with Allan Moffat stands out PHIL BRANAGAN looks back to Easter 1972 IK

T

HERE was a time in

Australian motor racing when one name, Geoghegan, pretty well told the whole story.

The two brothers Geoghegan, Leo and Ian(who was known to one and all as Pete) were simply the best drivers of the era. Leo would win

almost everything there was to win in open-wheelers and Pete would take care of Touring Cars and Sportscars.

In terms of pure statistics, Pete had a stunning career. He won four Touring Car Championships in succession,from 1966 to '69 to add to the one he took in 1964. He won them in a variety of cars; a Ford Cortina (in '64)and four straight in Mustangs, the last title being the first decided by a series rather than a single race.

If one race defines Pete's career, it was the showdown with Allan Moffat at Bathurst's Easter meeting in 1972. Ford was determined to make the Falcon competitive and, under the direction of American engineer A1 Turner at the famed 'Lot 6'factory, built what became known as the 'Super' Falcon XY. One was in Castrol colours for Geoghegan; one was Coca Cola red for Moffat, who raced the car only once, long enough to realise it was no match for his famed Mustang.

"They were pretty complicated cars for their time," recalls long-time Ford team member Colin Russell.

"They had Lucas fuel injection, which could be troublesome, but they had a lot of horsepower."

How much horsepower?

"Pick a number!"

Legend also indicates that the cars cost a fortune, a reputed $125,000 - in 1972 dollars. That translates into, maybe, ten times that now. fe,a classic was set in motion; Pete's thumping 5.8-litre Aussie sedan against Moff's svelte 5-litre, sweet-handling Mustang. There were 12 laps of the Mount Panorama track to negotiate and a full grid - but the 42

reality was that only two cars mattered.

'um

"I am certain that I led the race," remembers Moffat. "I think that I did, but he nailed me on the straight."

For lap after lap, the two Fords staged an epic duel. The Mustang would terrorise the Falcon through the twisty parks of the track, only for Geoghegan to out-drag the American car on the straights.

Worse, the XY was weeping a little oil onto Moffat's car.

"His oil breather can was in the

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boot and splattered my windscreen. I was trying to draft past on the straight and thought,'Oh Jesus, how am I going to see?

"So I did the stupidest thing that I have ever done in a racecar; 1 turned on the wipers, which spread the oil everywhere. I could not see a thing."

With visibility now almost impossible, Moffat was forced to look out the side windows to see where he was - and then he loosened his seat belts to allow him to do that.

"Putting my head out the window was easy if I took the seatbelts off and sat, literally, on the edge of the seat. I was hitting kerbs, bouncing around the car and hanging onto the wheel on the straight at 173 miles an hour!"

Moffat was forced to take the left side of Conrod so that he could navigate (from the left-hand side of the Mustang,remember)by watching the white line. Geoghegan took the right side except for one occasion. On lap 11, they had to lap a car on Conrod at full noise. The driver was Tom Naughton, who was running his Eastside Valiant Charger in the race to get some practice for Bathurst later in the year. Exiting Forrests Elbow, Naughton saw what was coming in the mirror and stuck to tlie safest part of the track - the centre.

"They got me before the hump so I was, probably,50 to 100 metres back when they went over it," Naughton recalls.

Formula Ford at Bathurst: Geoghegan leads Moffat at The Dipper during their famed 12-lap fight at Bathurst 31 years ago. Such was the intensity of the race that some myth has covered up some of the facts over the ensuing years; Geoghegan did not lead all the way. Lance Ruting's photo, below, proves Moffat's memory correct as the Mustang leads the Falcon early in the race.

"I sat as near as I could to the middle of the road; Pete went past on the left, Moffat on the right. I looked under Pete's wheels and I could

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clearly see daylight- a lot of it."

And it was not like Naughton was going slowly. The Charger was hitting over 145mph (235kmh)on Conrod. As Moffat already noted, the Coke 'Stang was maxed out at 173mph. Geoghegan was probably touching 180.

The race went on over the final lap, the Falcon pulling a small gap on Conrod before Moffat reined it in at Murray's Corner. In tire dash to the flag, Geoghegan held sway by 0.6s.

"On the last lap, I got alongside him on the straight," says Moffat. "I grabbed first at Murray's and the engine got the stumbles in the corner.

Pete had more torque than I did, stayed in second and beat me to the finish.

"After the race, I did experience being a Victorian while Pete was now moiorsport news

MEMOIR

inth Sti mil stm r

i

4' One year later: Ceoghegan and Moffat were the winners of the inaugural Bathurst 1000 in 1973 and shared the podium with their winning team, below. Howard Marsden is speaking into the mike and Colin Russell, to whom we spoke for this story and who built the winning car's engine, is far left. irrr".

I

He was one of the toughest drivers I ever raced against but emphaticaiiy fair. Tweive iaps, never more than a rubber band rr apart the whoie way

the Premier of New South Wales! The cars were covered in oil but the scrutineers ... let us just say that I was not the only one needing glasses."

The following year, the tw'o returned to Bathurst as a team. Ford was determined to win the maiden

-Allan Moffat

Bathurst 1000 with its new XA coupe and, in a fairytale result, Moffat and Geoghegan took tlie win, lm23s ahead of the Holden Dealer Team

'

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Torana of Peter Brock and Doug Chivas. Leo Geoghegan was third in another Torana with co-driver Colin Bond.

"That race at Easter weighed heavily on my decision on who I wanted to drive with," recalls Moffat.

Appropriately, Geoghegan and Moffat were the first drivers inducted into the V8 Supercar Hall of Fame, together, in 1999. The two cars from the Bathurst brawl now reside in the Queensland-based collection of David Bowden.

Pete was not a very public man, even for the time. He preferred g actions to words and spoke with a I, shitter for much of his life. The g exceptions, according to some of his I crew, were when he had been

n Novembar 2003

;^HAROIE

celebrating a victory or when he was talking in his sleep.

"He was a terrible test driver," recalls Russell."When he won at Bathurst (with Moffat), he came in with cramps in his hand. He had been driving one-handed,including changing gear,for God knows how long. He had worn tlirough the strings on his driving glove but we never knew. The car was still going fast and Pete never complained.

"No matter what was wrong with a car, Pete just drove around it. It didn't matter."

"He was one of those people who you could achially say was larger than life," says Naughton.

Maybe the last word should go to Moffat; "He was one of the toughest drivers I ever raced against but emphatically fair. Twelve laps, never more than a rubber band apart tiie whole way."

Pete Geoghegan spent 30 years of his life winning races with class and, apparently, ease.

His record stands as one of tlie finest we have ever seen. His passing closes a chapter in the history of Australian motor racing.

43

Hie Power of I MOTORSPORT NEWS; What are

MN: But you learned from it?

MN: I think you were pretty pissed

half the time on the Ralt anyw'ay. As

your thoughts on the way your first

WP: Yeah, I learned from it. It wasn't

off.

soon as I went to Fortec I was

British F3 season worked out?

the way I wanted to go. If you have

WP: Yeah, well there were a lot of

learning so much. I learned more in

WILL POWER: It was good. It was

the money, you go with the right team.

The only time you go with something that is an unknown is when you haven't got a budget and you've got a free ride or something, and you have no choice - if you want to do the series, you have to go that way. But it turned out that Fortec gave me a really good deal anyway.

days like that. You talk to people and things aren't going the right way ...

But I kept in there, and then finally got some money from personal

last two years. It was really good. It was an immensely good boost for

backers and it all turned out well

to run at the front.

actually. Fortec ended up being a really good team. Really good guys.

MN: Does that mean that next year

well worthwhile. We learned a lot

over this year, because of the teams and the way things run over there, and just learning the circuits.

It's started off a bit shaky with the Ralt - it just didn't have the funding or the people behind it to do well, especially when you are up against Dallara, which is such a large manufacturer. But after we went to

Fortec things turned around immediately. We were straight into the top six and consistently edging towards a podium. We did end up getting a podium (at Thruxton) and

MN: How did the split with Diamond Racing (the Ralt team) come about? Did you leave?

the first three weeks there than in the

myself, too. Now I know what it takes t

MN: It didn't take you long to hit your strides once you switched to Fortec.

WP: That's right. It's just so good having a good team-mate and a good

there were a number of other times when we should have but didn't due

to bad luck and a bit of inexperience on the hacks over there.

MN: That's the thing about that series - there is no margin for error.

One mistake and you lose seven spots.

WP: That's right. You can't make a mistake in the race. If you are running in the top six you are ruiming right on the \'ery limit. Every lap is like a Cjualifying lap and if you slip up, bang, someone will take you.

S

WP: Yeah. I just got to a point at Croft where I said, 'just don't worry about

engineer, and a well-fimded team.

Your testing is just so much

it, we're wasting our time'.

worthwhile because of the data from

tough. It's hard to comprehend when you've been racing over here, because the open-wheeler scene over here isn't very big, although the Formula

I actually had an accident in qualifying and thought, 'that's it. I'm just trying too hard and it's not working'. And I think the team agreed as well.

The guy that owned Diamond Racing is really good, I still speak to

your team-mate, you are both working off each other, and you can improve your driving. They can actually point out where you are

Threes^over here this year has become

him. He understood, and he wasn't

MN: Was the learning curve steeper than you were expecting?

WP: No, I was expecting it to be

quite competitive.

But it's just the number of drivers

getting along with the Ralt guys, and he started to realise that the Ralt

that are good in England. You get over there, and there are 20 guys who

wasn't the right way to go as well.

can win a race. One week someone will be 19th and the next weekend

MN: It never ran again, did it?

WP: No. Nobody has touched it since

he's winning a race, nmnmg in the top five sort of thing. That was the difference ... you don't follow a bad

and started running at the front, they

driver.

MN: Going back to when you

hardest way possible to do it. You

WP: Yes, I missed two rounds -

were trying tO/find your feet and

Knockhill and Silverstone. That was

develop a ngw car at the same time.

tortuous, it was so hard. I went to

WP: That's right, and that was just lack of knowledge. If we'd been over

Silverstone and watched the race and

tliere and knew the scene, we

spectator.

44

r-

started to realise that the car needed some work.

British F3 is a tough series to step into at any time, but you picked the

wouldn't have gone that way. It was a good experience. I certainly drove the Ralt hard! I don't know, I can't say much more about the Ralt. It was just an experience that 1 won't do again.

own, and I had no-one to overlay data with. And the data wasn't working

I drove it. As soon as I went to Fortec

MN: But after you left Diamond, you effectively sidelined yourself for two rounds while you looked for something else, didn't you?

kicked things off, with the Ralt -

going wrong.

Whereas with the Ralt, I was on my

it was ... I don't enjoy being a MN: I remember you saying on the phone that you were thinking about coming back to Australia?

WP: Did I say that?

±

—●

-

you feel that you'll be starting the season from a good base?

WP: Yes. If I get a fair chance next year. I'll be aiming to win some races.

If I had the budget right now I'd be able to go testing right now and I'd be with a really good team and I'd be really confident: I'd be saying, 'yes, I can definitely win races, and I'm going to be a contender for the championship'.

But it's hard to say at the moment, because we're just in that time of tlie year where you don't know where you are at, you don't know what's going on. You're just fighting to get a budget. It's the hardest part of the season. You've just got to persevere.

MN: Are you talking seriously with any teams at the moment?

WP: Nobody I can really mention, but I don't think it's going to be a problem getting a seat in a good team.

The hardest thing is getting the money to do it. Once you are cracked into the scene over there and people know you, and know that you are a good driver, they'll give you a good deal. I don't think it wiU be a problem if we can get the money. Even at the last minute, there are always good seats left.

breams Has there ever been a better name for a racing driver than Will Power’. OK, maybe ‘Lake Speed’... MARK GLENDENNING spoke to our British F3 contender

MN:Are you only looking at British F3?

WP:Yeah, only British F3.1 wouldn't look at doing Euro F3 because it would just be stupid starting with new tracks aU over again. I'd just be in the same boat- not knowing the track, not knowing the teams.I know the UK scene well now,so that's my aim.I really want to get over there and do the business.

MN:Now you just need to find someone with some cash.

WP: That's right. The easy bit is driving! This is the worst part of the season, I found it so good when you have the drive; all the money has been paid and aU you have to think about is fitness and driving. You don't have to think about anything else. It was really good,and I'd love to be in that situation. I wish I was right now.

MN: When ate you planning to go back?

MN:Those Brazilians don't know how good they've got it!

WP:Oh yeah. That changes everything. If you've got the money. you're set. You can start planning each step properly, and you speak to the right people, and you get a lot further. But at the last minute, it is so hard.

WP:I'd like to go back in January, and then start testing in February when the testing ban is over, and just go for it.

MN:Has Mark Webber offered much in the way of advice?

WP:I haven't really spoken to him aU that much. He just said 'keep in there' a couple of times when I didn't have a drive. The first time I spoke to him was after I left Diamond,and he just told me to stick in there. Ann Neal helped too, she was really keen for me to get a fair go.

MN:Got an eye on FI? WP: Well, I want to be Australia's next Formula One driver! If I do another year next year, that would be the time to really be aiming for a Formula One test drive and just cracking into the scene.

Power Play; Power had plenty of lows but some highs in his maiden assault on the British F3 scene. His results took an upswing when he made a mid-season switch to the Fortec Dallara, below.

Whether histery decides it was Peter Brock's 10th Bathurst win or not, the 2003 24 Hour was an amazing race as Greg Murphy and Garth Tander fought out a thriiiing fiuish.

MARK GIBiOENNiNG documented a day of wiid weather,triumph and heartbreak on the Mountain

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If Bathurst was a fight between the two Monaros, tea ERE were a couple of

Tsurprises when the cars made their first forays around Mt Panorama on Friday, but the occupants of the first two slots on the grid were not among them.

That the two Monaros would share the front row was as good as universally predicted, with the yellow #427 car taking pole from its red #05 sister by a shade under 2.7s. What was mildly surprising was that they appeared to do it with even greater ease than anybody was expecting. The #427 car completed a grand total of just 38 laps across the three 90 minutes sessions, reeling off the bulk of them in the opening session in the morning. In fact.

the team didn't even bother taking either car down to the pit garage for the second scheduled outing, conducted shortly after the heavens opened late in the afternoon.

It was wet!" said Pretty by way of explanation. "We didn't want to get wet! No, really we'd planned all along not to go out in the afternoon, because we don't want to put miles on the car unnecessarily. The cars are fine. and there's no panic. All the preparation was done in the workshop.

There was little panic in the PHR quarters either, although the late arrival of the team's new BMW left the team having to do a lot of their preparation on the fly.

Doing it easy: The Monaro camp wasted little effort in taking pole position in the Tander/McConville/Richards/Pretty #427, left.

Straight off the boat: Unfamilar car? No problem. Bowe topped the nonMonaro class by going third-quickest in the PHR BMW M3 CTR, below.

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BATHURST Z4 HR

pability m yellow took the first round

If it was causing any headaches the team wasn't letting on, and Bowe bolted in a 2m17.6832s during the night session to secure the team's third spot on the grid alongside Short. A brutally stiff set-up in the opening session coupled with a torrential second outing got the Mosler's weekend off to a slow start, but by Friday night the team had made some changes. By Saturday morning.

Short felt that things were perfect. Well, almost.

"The car is just fantastic," he said with his usual smile. "I didn't realise how good it was until I got into it at the end of the session last night. I wouldn't mind if it stopped raining though ..."

The BE Racing Porsche 911 GTS RC was just behind in fifth place, alongside the Mark Coffey

* ll

1

427

I 2 05 3 420 [4 90^0 5 54 20 48' 6 7 10 8 11 70 1 12 888 13 11 14 301 15 66 16 41 17 4 18 59 19 71 20 57 21 26 22 2 23 40 continued on page 50 24 91 25 23 26 77 27 27 28 17 29 42 30 60 31 44 32 18 33 222 134 62 35 3 36 28 37 37 38 95 39 200 40 75 41 T56 I 42 13 43 45 44 31

5ISI GHNUWe pw MrcufAK

Just Car Insurance Monaro CVS Holden Motorsport Holden Monaro CVS Verve 50j BMWM3 GTRV8 Deutshe Bank X Markets Mosler MT 900R Industry eentral/Falken Tyres Porsche 911 GT3 RC Mark Coffey Racing Lamborghini Diablo BE Racing Ferrari 360 GT Jurgen Alzen Motorsport Porsche 996 GTS VIP Petfoods/Sunrise Porsche GT3 Carrera Floyd Parks Kawasaki/T Green Porsche 911 GTS RS Dedicated Micros/Chubb Alarnn Porsche 911 GT3 RS PHRScuderia Porsche 911 6T3^ Motorsport Innovations Ferrari 360 Modena David Searle BMW 320i A'dam Sharpe Motorsport Morgan Aero 8 Geoffrey Parker Holdert Commodore VY Sterking Motorsport BMW 23M Coupe Cromer Exhaust Racing Holden Commodore VX Quirk's Refrigeration BMW M3 E46 Graham Alexander Mitsubishi Evo VII R WaVne Russell BMW 23M Coupe Eastern Creek Int'l Kart/2UE Mitsubishi Evo VII RS Duller Motorsport BMW M3 E46 Humes Subaru WRX Sti Bruce Lynton BMW M3R Nathan Pilkington Nissan 350Z VS CVW EngineeringBMW 23M Coupe TeamGTBAFPVGT Barrie Thomlinsoh Motorsport Toyota Altezza Falken Tyres Subaru WRX Sti MGC Racing Holden HSV VY GTS Amin Chahda Ford Falcon EL XR8 HMS/Ruff Nissan 200SXGT SolaceWVakeling Holden Commodore VX E Banc Trade BA FPV GT Ross Palmer Motorsport Honda S2000 Donut King/Party Shop Mitsubishi Mjrage Ford Dealers Ford BA XR6 Turbo HMS/Fluff Nissan 200SXGT Dux Hot Water Nissan 200SX GT GTA Motorsport/Aegis Equities Alfa Romeo 156 6TA Osborne Motorsport Toyota Celica SX Thrifty Car Rentals Honda integra Type R Osborne Motorsport Toyota Celica SX

A A A A A A B B A A A F B F F D D D D F D F D D D F D D F

¥ E D E F E D D E E E E

l\I.Pretty/G.Tander/C.I\/lcConville/S.Richards P.Brock/G.Murphy/J.Bright/T.Kelly J.Bowe/N.Crompfon/GXfick/M.AIghadri M.Shon/P.Pearce/C.Lamb/H.Spurle P.Morris/P.Fitzgerald/S.Shearrnan/J.Teulan P.Stokell/A.Simonsen/LYoulden/P.Hackett D.Brabham/K.Engelhorn/A.Montemiini/P.Peter J.Alzen/U.AIzen/A.KIasen/M.Bartels T.Quinn/K.Quinn/M.MarShall/G.Denyer P.FIoyd/I.Donaldson/L.Halliday/A.Donaldson M.Newton/T.Erdos/M.Jurasz/R.Wilson D.WallA/V.Power/P.Freestone/J.Koundaouris R.VVilson/T.Koundouris/P.Jenkins/I.Painier A.Gurr/LSearle/A.Yoong/G.Full N.Cunningham/A.Sharpe/K.Ahlers/T.Shrimpton G.Parker/J.Watters/D.Sala/P.Gazzard VJ Angelo/R.Shaw/M.Williamson/S.O'Donnell S.Williams/G. Moore/T. Bosnjak P.Boylan/G.Morgan/P.Hansen/R.Bates G.Alexander/J.Woodberry/B.Youlden/B.Hughes M.WestbrookA/V.Moore/I.Mitchell G.Holl/G.Young/K.Munday/M.Brock F.Mountain/R.Wilson/R.Brooks.D.Gooding G.Deane/R.Rubis/D.Wanless B.Lynton/B.Lynton/J.Caftwrighl/M.Jackson N.Pilkington/D.Cribbin/R.Hill/R.Hooker W.Russell/S.Cramp/M.King/P.Stubber T.Haines/J.Falk/J.PhilipTT.Sheumack B.Thomlinson/A.Neale/M.Eady W.Boatwrighl/R.Salmon/N.Caswell/G.Hastings M.Cohen/F.Coulthard/G.Emery/T.BIanche A.Chahda/A.Gillespie/B.McFarland/M.Sutherland H.Harrison/R.Catchlove/M.Kilpatrick/D.Johnson R.Lintott/D.Russell/S.Loadsman/I.Luff C.Dean/P.WIIIiams/C.Smith/B.Pye A.M echtler/C.Kovacs/J.B rock/M.Brame P.Leemhuis/S.VBrangwin/TAItord/J.Grounds J.Mcilroy/K.Douglas/C.Stillwell/P.Kirkham G.Hayson/R.Woods/M.Robinson/G.Hunt A.McGill/D.Auger/R.Halliday/M.MilIer A.Ieithhead/P.Doulman/K.Downie/K.B6oker C.Osborne/J.Roecken/T.Keene A.Shephard/M.Bailey/G.Doyle S.Borness/A.Samadi/D.Ratcliff/A.Bretherton

2ml3.2856s 2m15.9739s| 2ml7.6S32s 2m18.1074s| 2m18.3319s 2m19.5626s| 2m2I.1258s 2m21.7062s 2m22.8980s 2m2T2392sn 2m23.3496s 2m25.8469s [ 2ifi26.1494s 2m26.6086s 2m27.8844s 2m32.3818s| 2m32.5871s 2m32.6694s 2m33.9191s 2m34.7237s 2m35.6639s 2m36.0544s| 2m36.3382s 2m36.7334s 2m36.2317s 2m36.8480s 2m37.0180s 2m37.7031s| 2m38.6389s 2m39.9512s 2m39.8165s 2m41.7438s 2m45.2510s 2m45.7565s 2m46.0804s 2m47.4230s| 2m48.3863s 2m48.8796s 2m49.7213s 2m49.7911s 2m50.3600s 2m51.8177s| 2m54.5749s 2m57.6150s

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If Shorty mentions the World Cup, he's a dead man! Martin Short took some time to get the Mosler MT900R sorted on the Yokohama rubber he was running at Bathurst. continued from page 49 Racing Lamborghini Diablo, with both teams declaring themselves happy with the way things were panning out.

The Jurgen Alzen Motorsport GTS just pipped the VIP Pet Foods GTS Cup car for Class B honours, the pair lining up eighth and ninth respectively.

Former Minardi Formula One driver Alex Yoong attracted some interest with his first outing at Mt Panorama, although the affable Malaysian admitted that while the car felt OK, there was plenty of time to be found in the driver.

"It's a phenomenal circuit," he enthused after his first run on Friday morning.

"I was on the limit basically nowhere! It's going to take a long time to really learn my way around it. I was prepared for how steep it is, but the blind corners were a surprise. "I can see why rookies get caught out here so often - you have to treat the circuit with respect."

Team-mate Alan Gurr found enough time in the BMW 320i Super Tourer to qualify it 14th outright, but the fairytale ended there. Problems with the ECU sent the car into the garage mid-way through the second qualifying session, and the car only made sporadic forays onto the circuit during the course of the race.

Yoong completed a total of around 20 laps of Mt Panorama - not as many as he had hoped for, but enough to give him a taste for more.

There were also some mechanical dramas causing headaches in the Cirtek/Dayco camp, albeit a littie less serious.

The team fired the #24 Porsche 911 GTS RS up for the first qualifying session, only to have the clutch fail instantly.

They were forced to spend the morning as spectators, but by the time second qualifying rolled around they were ready to go and secured themselves the 12th slot on the grid.

- MARK GLENDENNING

Last week Macau, this week Bathurst. Lucky so-and-so: Yoong, above, got just enough track time at the Mountain to go home wanting more 30

w

HETHER this was a 24

hour race or a 20 minute race that took 23 hours and

40 minutes to get started is debatable, but the final few tours of

ALJSl 7^'

III

Mt Panorama by the twin Holden Motorsport Monaros last weekend were the sort of thing that make voluntary insomnia worthwhile.

The seven-litre juggernauts had owned the race right from the drop of the green flag at 2pm on Saturday, with both cars running in formation in a demonstration of efficiency, reliability and preparation that was as impressive as it was monotonous.

24 hour races have a way of hurUng weird things into the mix when they are least expected tliough, and tliis one threw in a twist with the sort of timing that would make even the cheesiest Hollywood scriptwriter

proud.

Sunday, 12:50pm. Steve Richards, who was nearing the end of his final stint in the leading #427 Monaro, had reported that the Holden's diff oil temperatures were starting to rise.

With almost 23 hours having passed with neither Monaro suffering from anything more serious than a wonky wiper blade on the red #05 machine, the prospect of a gremlin choosing to strike the leading car in the final charge seemed almost too implausible to take seriously.

But it happened. And although the drama didn't pose a major threat to their grip on first and second place the Monaros were a full 11 laps ahead of their nearest rival - they still faced the headadie of findmg a way to deal with it without the #427 car falling off the lead lap.

The problem was solved for them.

With 70 of the 1440 minutes remaining, the Class E Honda S2000 of Anton Mechtler, Charlie Kovacs, James Brock and Mark Brame lost a

rii

wheel and found the wall at the Cutting, prompting a Safety Car period. Richo swerved into the pits and handed the car over to Garth Tander for the finish, while the mechanics scrambled to get the diff oil cooler problem sorted and get the car back out before the Safety Car brought the field back around again.

This drey did witln relative comfort, and when the green flag signalled the rehim to racing conditions, Murphy did his bit for Holden's marketing machine by backing off a little to allow Tander to catch up and put the Monaros back into die nose-tail formation that they had held since the word 'go'.

From here, the race was expected to finish European-style, with the cars holding station and tickmg the laps off for a glorious, if relatively leisurely 1-2. But there is little European about Garry Rogers except, perhaps, his shoes and watch - and with seven minutes remaining, he got onto the radio and instructed

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GT and Murf that it was up to them to decide who was going to win,(and please try to keep in mind how hard we have all worked to get this far while you're at it).

"I was a bit surprised," Murf admitted later.

With the shackles taken off, the Monaros started to sing. After spending most of the race lapping within the 2ml8s -2m21s bracket, the Monaros dipped right down into the mid-2ml4s as two great drivers in two great, equal cars fought out some of the most intense few laps of sprinting that you'll ever see at the mountain.

Tander pipped Murph by 0.008s to take fastest lap honours with a 2ml4.4894s - an amazing achievement, considering the amount of traffic that the pair encountered but it wasn't enough to give he, Nathan Pretty, Cameron McConville and Richo back-to-back 24 Hours wins.

527 laps, 24 hours and 28.4768s

26 November 2003

Eight is enough: The Holden-ites celebrated as one on the podium after an amazing finish to the race.

Murph's red car bested Tander's yellow one by 0.3s, both drivers setting their fastest laps of the race on lap 525!

after Peter Brock took the start in the #05 car, Murph scorched across the line in first place, greeted home by co-drivers Brock,Todd Kelly and Jason Bright from their vantage point along the pitwall. Mission accomplished.

Wliile first and second place may never have been in any doubt(the possibility of a mechanical distaster notwithstanding), third was rather more hard-fought.

The Paul Cruickshank Racing-run BE Racing Ferrari 360GT had

I was born in Stovakia and moved when I was 18 years of age to London. Starting work os a nanny I continued with this for two years. I then started photographic, modeliing and promotional work. The photographic side of the work took up most of my time.

I have since moved to Australia, which I love and have been here around two years. I am studying Business Finance and Marketing as well as doing some modelling and promotional work too.

When Ifinish studying I would love to follow my career in Europe and get a job in business development and eventually settle there.

For 10 years I have been Latin American and ballroom dancing and appeared in Tina Arena's video clip. I have also worked at quite a few car races in Australia and really enjoy the racing. I will definitely go and see some Formula One Races when I move to Europe.

To keep fit I go enjoy going to the gym and also swimming.

j

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

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

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

A

Is.

continued on page 52 51

continued from page 51

MT900R that finished on the podium

last year was both faster and more established itself as the car to beat for

reliable this time around, but it was a

final podium honours during the first half of the race until its campaign

indication of how much the rest of

came to a sad end in the small hours

the outright field had stepped up this year that it could manage no better

of the morning (see breakout) and in its absence the fight fell to a pair of

than fifth.

Porsches.

While of the car's fragility had most been dialled out by a

Leading the charge was the Class A #54 Industry Central/Falken Tyres 911 GT3 RC of Paul Morris, Peter

Fitzgerald, Scott Shearman and John Teulan, but they weren't having an easy time of it. The Class B #6 Porsche 996 GTS that was keeping them honest may not have been able to match them on the tech spec sheet, but its pilots - Uwe Alzen, Jurgen

year's worth of development, the same could not necessarily be said of the drivers. The team's enthusiastic

spearhead, Martin Short, was almost ruled out of starting the race when he arrived at the circuit having just been struck by a vicious eye infection.

The Englishman threw a variety of concoctions at the problem until

something finally worked, and things cleared up enough for him to carry on as plaimed.

Co-driver Charles Lamb, who

made the trip out for last year's race, was struck by a lurgy of a different kind during his overnight stint.

"He hasn't driven for a year and he was pushing pretty hard," explained Short. "We brought him in for a stop, but when he went back out the fiunes

made him sick and he threw up in his helmet. I've told him to go and have a sleep, and not come back until seven or eight am."

The low-slung British GT car lost two laps in the pits after a split wheel nut left it three-wheeling down the mountain just after midnight, but

things otherwise ran smoothly for a team that looked set to go home with fastest lap honours (courtesy of Short's 2ml5.1044s effort) until

Tander spoiled the party at the last gasp.

The Class B VIP Pet Foods Porsche

GT3 Cup car was sixth, some 12 laps behind the Mosler, after suffering from a fuel venting problem that necessitated a 40 minute holiday in

the pits a couple of hours before sunrise.

Previously the car, driven by Marcus Marshall, weatherman

extraordinaire Grant Denyer, Klark Quinn and car owner Tony Quinn, had been belting out some very reasonable lap times and rmming in

Alzen, Amo Klasen and Michael

Bartels - were more than capable of making up for it.

Aroimd daybreak on Sunday, the Porsches were the only cars in the top half of the field that were running on the same lap (Monaros aside) and the Germans finally managed to overhaul the Australian entry for third place just after 0700am.

Morris and co weren't having any of that though, and by mid-morning the #54 car had taken its spot back.

By lunchtime, the Australians had drawn upon a combination of tidy driving and well-timed pitstops to put a lap between themselves and their pursuers, putting the claim for third beyond doubt.

1»

5

It was a deserved result for both

teams, whose cars ran without any

major hiccups throughout the event, and one that allowed the 996 to

CASTLI

secure first place honours in Class B as a consolation prize.

The crowd-pleasing Mosler

Rare bird: Well in these parts, anyway. The British Morgan Aero 8 made its first appearance at the B24, but not even its extravagant wood-panelled interior could help it to the finish. Next year, guys ...

52

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BATHURST 24 HR li

t

')irk Kivminilh

The supreme test: Everyone knows Mt Panorama is a difficult circuit.

It's even tougher in the dark. And when it's dark and wet? Now that's a challenge - and not just for the drivers, above ...

J

A Class (D) Act: The #71 Quirk's Refrigeration BMW M3, right, was the thing to have amongst the CT Performance cars.

John Morris/Mpix

tlie top five.

Doing its best to chase them down on Sunday morning was the #888 PHR Porsche 911 GT3 RS of Will Power, James Koundouris, Paul Freestone and Des Wall, which had spent the night recovering from a lengthy pitstop courtesy of a broken gearstick. The car was on target for a top 10 finish when, agonisingly, the driveshaft broke with just 30 minutes of the race left to be run, British F3 contender Power was nevertlieless upbeat about his first 24 hour attempt.

"I loved doing this race. I'd definitely do it again," he entliused.

"This is just such an awesome circuit, and the Porsche was fantastic to drive."

The retirement of the #888 within sight of the finish capped off what had already been a frustrating weekend for Prancing Horse.

Despite tire team's chronic lack of time to prepare its BMW GTR V8 due to the car's late arrival from the US, drivers John Bowe, Neil Crompton,

26 HooemDer 2003

Greg Crick and Maher Algadri survived a sprinkling of teething problems to extract some creditable times around the mountain.

However, their their efforts came to an end at 9:30pm though, when contact between Brock and Algadri put tire BMW into the wall and out of the race with serious panel and suspension damage, "Brock was driving like a lunatic, I was highly ruiinrpressed," said PHR Team Manager Terry Little. "There is no need for it - the 24 Hour is a race with slower cars, and to be winning by three or four laps, it just doesn't seem necessary."

The team put an early estimate of the damage at the $100,000 mark.

It was probably little consolation that their Nations Cup arch-rival, the Lamborghini Diablo GTR, wasn't having a much better time. Rim as a joint effort between Team Lamborghini Australia and Mark Coffey Racing, the team put together a combination of the car that Peter Hackett used at Surfer's Paradise

with Paul Stokell's engine, and added Allan Simonsen and Luke Youlden as the third and fourth drivers.

The Diablo surpassed the expectations of many by going the full 24 hours, but along the way it suffered a series of dramas that ensured that it would never be a serious contender in the race. Most costly was an engine drama at 10:30pm tliat led to an enforced one hour stop for diagnosis and repair, but the team also managed to grenade seven tyres during their time on the track due, apparently, to a set up problem. The team eventually finished eighth, forty laps belrind the Monaro, however the spectacle of the Lamborghini tackling the mountain still proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend.

If the team can return next year having learnt from this outing, the car will be one worth watching.

Just ahead of them on the results sheet was the lurid green #8 Floyd

continued on page 54 S3

-V

We don't mess around: Two weeks ago, the team on the left decided to come and race at continued from page 53 Parkes Kawasaki-backed (and awesome-sounding)Porsche 911 GTS RS of Peter Floyd,Ian Donaldson, Liz HaUiday and Andrew Donaldson.

The car was black-flagged when the clip on the oil cap broke, causing an oil leak,”and then lost futher time for a series of drive-through penalties caused by everything from pitlane speeding, to using a cordless drill.

Accident damage also sent the car into the pits for some bodywork tweaks, but the car otherwise ticked

happily around the circuit throughout the entire race.

It was a less happy story for its Cirtek stablemate, the #24 911 GTS RS of Melinda Price, Hermann Tilke,

said Tilke.

Jonathon Rowland and Tim Harvey.

Time lost to a blown left rear tyre just two hours into the race was

race engine during the first qualifying session, and finished it 270 laps down following a heavy excursion into the wall. Not the

compounded by a further unscheduled visit to the pits courtesy of a broken suspension arm. The car was finally parked on Sunday morning by an electrical problem.

"Everything was going well, and then the car just suddenly stopped,"

Bathurst. Last weekend, the #54

The final Class A car, the Porsche entered by UK team Graham Nash Motorsport,started the weekend on a bad note when it blew a valve in its

weekend that Rod Wilson, Manfred Jurasz, Thomas Erdos and Mike Newton were hoping for.

Class D(GT Performance) was pretty well dominated by the Quirk's Refrigeration BMW M3 of Peter

Not for lack of trying

PART of the deal of doing a 24 Hour race is that you sign away any rights that you think you might have for a good night’s sleep.

So the obvious thing to do would be to get a few good nights of shut-eye in beforehand, right?

Normally, yes - unless it's three days prior to qualifying and your car is in pieces. This was the scenario faced by Paul Cruickshank Racing, which was preparing the BE Racing Ferrari 360GT driven

by David Brabham, Klaus Engelhorn, former FI driver Andreas Montermini and Phillippe Peter.

“The team did the Le Mans 1000 two weekends ago," explained race engineer John-Paul Messenger.

"They stripped the car down and brought it out here, and it didn’t arrive in Sydney until late on Monday. We got it on Tuesday and worked in shifts around the clock to get it all built. The car yvas finished at Sam on Friday."

That's seven hours before the first qualifying session, in case you're counting ...

As darkness fell during the race, the Ferrari had established itself firmly in third place, just a lap shy of the Monaros, courtesy of Brabham’s experience and some brilliant stints from Bathurst virgins Montermini and Peter. The car had run without a hiccup from when it first hit the track on Friday morning. But when the glitch came, at 3:30am on Sunday, it was a big, and terminal one.

“The oil pressure light was flashing,” explained a despondent Engelhorn.

“At the first corner it made a funny noise, smelt funny, and then at Skyline the car slowed and I spun on my own oil at Forrests Elbow. It’s very frustrating.”

They don't give prizes tor mere effort at these races. But if they did ...

- MARK GLENDENNING

Industry Central/Falken Tyres Porsche 911 CT3 RS finished third outright.

Never been to a 24 Hour race before? Want to know what you're missing?

Take a look above and right...

Boylan, Geoff Morgan,Peter Hansen and Rick Bates, who took a very respectable ninth outright despite occasional engine glitches.

Tenth place, and first in Class F was the VX Commodore steered by Steve Williams, Graham Moore and Terry Bosnjak, while first Class E car across the line was the Celica of Colin Osborne,John Roecken, Trevor Keene and Steve Grocl.

Anotable andthe unfortunate early retiree was Class B Morgan Aero 8, that Adam Sharpe Motorsport had brought over from their UK base. Sharpe shared the car with Neil Cunningham,Keith AJilers and Tom Shrimpton, but the four were forced to spend the greater part of their visit to Bathurst as spectators after the distinctive car blew a hole through the side of its engine.

The Bathurst 24 Hour showed all the signs of having learned something from its inaugural run last year. Tliis time around may not necessarily have been a sensational race, but it was still a great event. A vastly-improved entry list created

Dll* Klywnurt^

motorsport news

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ahead of his title showdown with Marcos Ambrose this weekend. Job done, Murph was back on the plane returned to the track in time for the race on Saturday morning. No wonder he nearly fell asleep during the post-race press conference ...

■ For one of the drivers in the other Monaro, getting enough sleep was less of a problem. In fact, Nathan Pretty almost managed to snooze through a scheduled nighttime driving stint.

'We were starting to get ready for the driver change, and we suddenly realised that we couldn't find Nathan," said a team member.

We called his mobile, and there was no answer. So we called his girlfriend's mobile, and she had to wake him up - he'd gone back for a sleep!

Pretty was apparently dressed and back in the garage in record time.

And he wasn't along in nearly sleeping on the job - PHR sources suggest that Will Power very nearly did the same thing ...

additional interest, and the fact that virtually all of the visiting teams are already making noises about 2004 can only be a good thing.

A series of torrential downpours also brought an additional element into the race this time around, continued on page 56

■ You want an international race?

Try this on for size; 13 countries, including Australia were represented amongst the driving line-up for the 24 Hour. Most visitors were from the UK (16), followed by NZ (5), Germany (4), the USA (2), Austria (2), Indonesia (1), Brazil (1), Monte Carlo (1), Italy (1), Denmark (1), Lebanon (1) and Malaysia (1).

It's times like these that races are won and lost: The GRM mechanics scramble to get #427 fixed up and back on track before it loses a lap to the sister #05 car, right.

Tyred out: No car killed tyres the way the Lambo did, below right. although the Mosler scored extra points for drama, below

Pirk Kl\ nvnith

■ A reported 41,234 punters braved the monsoonal conditions to attend the 24 Hour over three days well up on last year's crowd of just over 21,000.

- MARK GLEIMDENNING

stay awake during the Preszzzzzzz cenference f*

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IX

QUESTION: Garth, we saw an

continued from page 55 although it's a credit to all concerned that they did not create the carnage that many expected from a combination of wet roads, darkness, Mt Panorama, fast cars and inexperienced drivers.

The Bathurst 24 Hour continues to show its potential as future highlight

ii3 of the international racing calendar however it is not there yet, and it still has some work to do.

But if 2003 is anything to go by, things are moving in the right direction, at roughly the right pace.

Roll on 2004 - and if you have a car capable of beating the Monaros, please bring two.

Just in case...

GARTH TANDER: WeU,I gave it a go! Murph and I were talking about it when we came back from pare ferme - there was more carnage, more slow cars and more debris on the track in the last three laps than there was in the last 24 hours.

We went out and had a bit of a dip, and it just wasn't worth fencing both cars. I had a couple of looks, but it wasn't worth it.

Q: What were the team's emotions

Pos Drivers Class Result Fastest lap On 1 . P.Brocl(/G.Murphv/J.BriaHt/l.Kellv 24h00:28.4768 . 2ni14.4975s 524 A 24h00:28,8273 2ml4.4894s 524 2 N.Pretty/G.Tander/C.McConville/S.Richards P.Morris/P.Filzgerald/SjShearman7J:Teulan 515 laps 2m17.2385s 378' ^ B 4 J.AIzen/U.AIzen/A.KIasen/M.Bartels 514 laps 2m17.0644s 464 2rfi15.l044s 333 5 M.Sh.ortfP.Pea_rce/C.larnb/H:Spurle/G.EIIiott A "507 laps B 6 T.Quinn/K.Quinn/M.Marshall/G.Denver 495 laps 2m18.l406s 445 P.Rovd/I.Donaldson/L.Hallidav/A.D6naids6h 491 laps ~2m21.6795s 148 A P.Stokell/A.Simonsen/LYouiden/P.Hackett 2m15.5127s 350 487 laps I P:Bpvlan/6,Mdr9an/P.Hansen/R.Bat_es D 469 laps 2m3P.8586s 360 10 F S.Williams/G.Moore/T.Bosnjak 460 laps 2m30.7980s 371 ● ir W.RussB!!/S.Cratrip/M.Kinq/P.Sful)ber D 459 laps 2hi32.4075s 345 F 12 G.Parker/J.Watters/D.Sala/P.Gazzard 451 laps 2m30.5739s 385 I 13_ ' R.S.alinonA/Y-Soatvvright/N.Ca^ell/G.Hastings T)'.

449 laps 2m34.4883s 375 D 14 G.Holt/G.Young/K.Munday/M.Brock 445 laps 2m28.5386s 116 | _15 i G.Deane/R.Rubis/D,Wanless/rba 439 laps 2m34.7138s 325 E 16 C.Osborne/J.Roecken/T.Keene/S.GrocI 436 laps 2m49.3974s 331 17 T.Deanrtba/C.Smitb/BTve D: ~ ~ '434laps 2rn39.1402s . 433 F 18 B.Lynton/B.Lynton/J.Cartwright/M.Jackson 431 laps 2m33.1011s 304 372 I T9~:_A:Cliahda/A,Gi|lespie/B:McFarlatid _ ~ F — - 427lrps2m33.6923s 20 E J.Mcilroy/K.Douglas/C.Stillwell/PKirkham 427 laps 2m44.2043s 339 E 2m49.7289s _i ,279 4241411 F 22 P.Leemhuis/S.Brangwin/T.AI/J.Grounds 421 laps 2m46.0753s 410 23 ¥Jtnqala/R.Shaw/M.Williamscn/S.O'dphnBll' -419.laps 2m30.5373s ● 322 F 24 B.Thomlinson/B.Thomlinson/A.Neale/M.Eady 411 laps 2m37.4891s 286 25 RWtlsdMXou.ndoiirjs/PJejiktJis/i.Palri1ej; ~ .392 laps; ::::. 2m25.9344s~ 325 26 E S.Loadsman/D.RusseliA/V.Luff/I.Luff 382 laps 2m39.1366s 288 T27-~~:&Shep.hard/M.Bailev/G.DovlB 204 ~380laps:TT2m52,8501s D 2m32.6023s 295 I 28 M.Cohen/F.Coulthard/G.Emery/T.BIanche 336 laps 2.m_43.3527s.::r94' A 30 M.Newton^.Erdos/M.Jurasz/R.Wilson 2m19.0318s 115 280 laps 2} T.Haims/J.FalJtfXPRJIip/T.SheumacR ' 2m44.6439s 3 32 H.Harrison/R.Catchlove/M.Kilpatrick/D.Johnson D 125 laps .33 F: CTOTips ● 2iii-a756Zr: ' 22~ ' A DNF D.Wall/W.Power/RFreestone/J.Koundaouris 474 laps 2ml 6.0522s 320 TNF A:iyiecMler/LIComAsfl:B'ro.cmBrame ~ TTT: : :"~'~4inaDs ' "2m42.T88rs 36!T-i E DNF A.Leithhead/P.Doulman/K.Downie/K.Booker 353 laps 2m48.2610s 323 ; DNF T.Hafve.v/J.R;maand/H.Iilke/M.Prica.

325.laps' ""ErniB-ams'-^sTo: DNF D.Brabham/K.Engelhorn/A.Montermini/P.Peter A 287 laps 2ml 5.8595s 127 186 Ians' 2m3415 KE A DNF J.Bowe/N.Crompton/G.Crick/M.AIaadri 22 131 laps 2m17.1168s - --.97JaDa" ~" ..2fn2£Z1fi7§ J.'msm D 2m40.3609s 17 DNF N.Pilkington/D.Cribbin/R.Hill/R.Hooker 65 laps -DNF ■M.WestlifDPkay.MoQre/I.MitcliBlI/C.PMe ~ ' O' " 62Ians' 2-rh36:aBDrwmm D 4 DNF A.McGill/D,Auger/R.Halliday/M.Miller 42 laps 2m42.7884s

m

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BATHURST 24 HOUR 027 LAPS RESULTS 96

exciting finish to the race between yourself and Murph. Did you feel that you had a chance to get past him?

when you found out about the diff overheating?

GT: Well, I wasn't aU that happy.

But a 24 hour race is incredibly hard on the car and really all it was was a diff oil cooler pump that failed. It wasn't pumping oil through the cooler at all.

point in time, life's good.

Q:John Tuelan, the Porsche had a good battle for third with the Alzen brothers. How do you feel about the race?

JOHN TUELAN:It's pretty thrilling for someone who has taken up the sport at 50 years of age, and five years later to be sitting up here.

That wouldn't have been possible without the fantastic work by Fitzgerald Racing Services over the past fortnight since we decided two weeks ago to put this together.

Q:Peter, how about you?

PETER FITZGERALD: Do you want to teU me something, Nathan?

NP: No, you can keep racing, (laughter) PF: I guess I love long-distance races as well, it's been a bit of a specialty. And my team as well, we're obviously well-drilled in what to do in long-distance races.

I thought that the car had the goods,and basically we set out a plan, put a team together at the last minute and I think we got the best that we could have hoped for.

So the guys did a fantastic job, I mean we were very lucky that we got a Safety Car right when we wanted to do the fix to the pump, and the guys did a fantastic job to replace the pumps and not let us go down a lap. That kept us in the game.

Q; Murph,Jason and Todd, you must be thrilled to have been with Peter for such a momentous win?

Q: Peter Brock, this time last year you were on the bench. Did you ever think, a year ago that you'd be here taking away your 10th Bathurst endurance trophy?

PETER BROCK: Well, to be frank

GREG MURPHY:Absolutely, winning at any stage at Bathurst is pretty special. I've really got to say that this was an unbelievably tough way to finish the race. A call was made to make it a fight at the finish, and to have two cars on the same

with you I knew that this race really did appeal to me. I thought, '24 hours, Bathurst... yep, this is the sort of tiling I could get my teeth into'. And I remember watching the #427 going up pit straight last year, or diving imder brakes into Murray's, and I thought, 'gee, I wouldn't mind driving one of those things.' So dreams do come true.

Wliat an incredible result, to be out there on the podium. I'm feeling pretty good.

Q: Are you going to have another shot?

NATHAN PRETTY: (interrupts) Oh for Christ's sake, retire! (laughter) PB: Look, there are certain things in life that interest you very much, and when the opportunity came up to share a Monaro with Murph and Jason Bright and Todd KeUy, I tliought, 'this is going to be a weekend to remember'. But I don't know, we'll wait and see. At this

lap after 24 hours and 527 lapsthat's an amazing result, and the GRM guys build these cars just so tough. We didn't have any dramas all day long. The other guys had a little pump failure, and that was pretty minor, and apart from that they ran faultlessly.

And then with three laps to go we were able to go flat chat with a few intermission there and get the result, and I think it was unbelievably tough to have to do that and get the result. Personally I think there's eight blokes here that won the race today, because I don't know how we're going to separate the two cars.

We all deserved to win.

Neither of the cars ever touched the grass, ever touched the gravel trap, ever faced the wrong direction.

So it was pretty good, I reckon.

STEVE RICHARDS: Remember the slicks in the wet pit entry?

GM:Oh yeah,sorry, you're right.

motorsport news

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/ I nearly touched lots of things on that lap.

PB: A couple of weeks ago we were in Pukekohe, and Murphymania struck over there. Can you imagine what it's going to be like now? He's made up for the whole AU Black stuff.

GM: That wouldn't be hard, would it? (laughter). If I become the Prime Minister there will be race tracks in

my driving. Particularly some of the night-time stints there, wdth the slower traffic, lack of visibility and stuff like that. It's a bit like it used to be 20 years ago, with a disparity of 20 or 30s per lap between the front of the grid. Getting the car through there, maintaining a lap speed. getting the end result... I'd have to say it ranks up there, yeah.

every single city in New Zealand!

NP: Uncle Peter?

PB: Yes?

Q: Steve, last year you were the guy who took the chequered flag.

Coming back this year, were you expecting a bigger fight from the internationals?

SR: I think I did. I think we were

NP: I actually know that you are ready for retirement, because when I was following you at night I knew that your eyesight was getting bad because some of those comers

probably a little bit green as a team ourselves, and we battled through a little bit to get a result, and the overseas teams would have been the same. Out biggest strength was, as eight drivers, we had eight guys who could lap the track at the same speed.

That's what it came down to. We have a team of people that could lap consistently and do the times that were specified, and that's a pretty important way to get a result.

Q: Peter, where do you rate this win? Do you rate it the same as a Bathurst 1000?

PB: If Tm going to be honest with you, it's a bit early on, and Tm sitting here thinking 'gee, we won this race.

That's pretty good'. Then when you equate that to the challenge and the amount of difficulty in doing it, and 1 can say that I was pretty happy with 26 November 2003

achiaUy turned into shaights. (laughter) There was grass and all sorts of things flying around.

PB: I just figured I had to get out of there a couple of times! 1 thought, 'this is not a good place to be, Peter, just get out of here, go'. And 1 did, I went!

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Q: I think the only incident during the night was when you came together with the BMW in the Cutting. Can you tell us what happened there?

PB: Well it was fairly minor really. It was Maher, and I had put the car up the inside of the comer going into Reid Park, and I just figured that he probably hadn't seen me, because he just turned right into the passenger door of the car. I felt a bit of a clunk and kept on going. It didn't really hurt the Monaro ... but it certainly didn't do much good to tlie BMW. 51

VW's just deserts

VOLKSWAGEN is hard at work testing its new RaceTouaregs for the Dakar Rally.

Jutta Kleinschmidt and co driver Fabrizia Pons will be joined

by French veteran Bruno Saby and Briton Matthew Stevenson in the two cars, which will be powered by 2.3 litre five-cylinder diesel engines. Sponsorship comes from Red Bull and Shell.

"The target was not only to preserve the unmistakable identity of the production car, but also to simultaneously take into account all the

requirements of a competition model", said VW Motorsport Director Kris. Nissen.

"In addition to the cooling-air flow to achieve optimum temperature management and detailed solutions to assist the ease of maintenance, the aerodynamics in particular gains ever increasing importance in cross country rallying," Saby won the Dakar in 1993, while Kleinschmidt became the first woman to win the classic in 2001. The 2004 Dakar will run from January 1-18.

Not No Bull, Red Bull: VW's new diesel-powered Touareg is being readied for the desert classic, which starts in five weeks.

Stirling Efit

by JON THOMSON

AFTER several years of searching, the Australian Rally Championship appears to have snared a naming rights sponsor for 2004.

Although nothing could be confirmed before we went to press, it is believed that commercial rights holder IMG has secured Carlton United Breweries under its Stirling brand as the sponsor for the ARC. IMG officials were at the last round of the series and have told the clerks of course for the various rounds of the ARC that the naming rights have been finally sold, Stirling logos appeared on the Tedders team car of Mark Tedder at the recent Rally of Melbourne, with the team apparently hoping to snare the company for its exploits. It now appears that the signage may have been an ID test for the company to investigate how signage would show up on the rally machines.

IMG has apparently been working hard to secure a naming rights sponsor for the series and will launch an all-new website and other initiatives early in 2004 as part of a boost in marketing activity around the national rally title.

ARCOM has already ceased funding to the privately-run rally.com.au website and this is apparently going to be shut down in the near future making way for the new rally website.

Carlton's involvement with rallying follows the company's successful tie-up with V8 Supercars through its VB brand.

No booze bus needed: IMG looks to have secured the arc's long hoped-for naming rights sponsor with Stirling.

While the naming rights have been sold off, it has long been ARCOM's policy to continue charging manufacturers for the cost of producing the TV package and direct the sponsorship funds to expanding the awareness of the sport and the series.

British WRC in a fine mess

THE future of the Rally of Great Britain could be in the balance and

will be discussed by the FIA World Motorsport Council at its meeting next month.

The rally has caused serious ructions with teams and the commission,following a rash of speeding fines and bans for drivers following the 2002 Rally GB. The fines and bans were handed out en masse by South Wales magistrates court in the week after this year's rally, with a total of 17 drivers fined or banned for

The FIA is angry that while a World Championship rally brings prestige and around $60million in income to the region, the South Wales constabulary has decided to treat the competitors as criminals for minor speed infringements.

The FIA is believed to have said that if it can't be sorted and a

rational compromise reached, there are plenty of other countries willing to enforce the law while making visitors welcome if the Welsh authorities are not.

breaking speed limits last year.

The fines and bans saw the FIA

It is believed they have taken the view that South Wales police have failed to convince them that

issue a terse statement promising a safety investigation into the roads on the grounds that they were evidently dangerous.

widespread use of speeding cameras is entirely connected with safety rather than raising money.

-JON THOMSON

SB

We won and didn't get fined! Could Fetter Solberg's WRC title clincher be the epitaph to Britain's involvement in the WRC?

motorsport news

RALLY NEWS

lit for ARC

lOOO Pistes off?

DR pushes to have recce changes delayed

WORLD Rally Oiampionship television boss Dave Richards, below,is pushing rally organisers to delay implementation of the recommended same-day'1000 Pistes' recce concept on the grounds that it could reduce TV coverage.

"The fact is the 1000 Pistes-style practising will cut the duration of a rally by eliminating the pre-event recce period, but it is also likely to mean later starts and finishes each day, thereby eating into the time to compile television programs," says Richards "It's a technical problem being able to turn things round for evening shows,as it is for daily newspapers.

"Most sports finish earlier. I've told people that if they do finish later in the day, we can't turn round the TV package to the quality and standards we have in the past," Richards warned.

"We're looking at re-scheduling the program for various reasons timetabling, cost, a whole raft of things."

Only the Rally of New Zealand ^ and Rally Mexico have said they I will use the same day 1000 Pistes i concept, while Rally Finland I organisers have flatly rejected it.

I -JON THOMSON

lUmor forces Burns out for '04 Radiotherapy for Brit: McRae and Martin possibiiiUes for Subaru

AS predicted in the last issue of MNews, Richard Burns's future career is in serious doubt, with the British star now unable to take up his newly-signed contract with Subaru in 2004.

Medical tests have shown that Burns has an astrocytoma and will have to sit out the 2004 World Championship. Astrocytoma is caused when cells within the brain, which normally grow in an orderly and controlled way, have their growth order disrupted and continue to divide and form a lump or tumour. It can reduce alertness and lead to cognitive impairment and is frequently fatal.

The speculation is strong that Burns will never be able to pilot a top-level rally car ever again.

Burns will undergo a course of radiotherapy, which doctors are confident will prove successful. He was forced to miss the Rally G® after blacking out while driving to Wales for the recce.

Subaru however has said that Burns will be welcome to rejoin the team if fit enough to do so in 2005.

"Richard will always be welcome at Subaru and we hope that he may again, when fully recovered, work with us once more," said team boss David Lapworth.

"We will do whatever we can to help Richard back to health."

Lapworth said the team has not had time to consider all the alternative driver options 26 November 2003

for next year, but they hope to make an announcement "in the next few weeks."

One of the most obvious replacements, Colin McRae, himself a former Subaru driver, has made it clear that he is not rushing to fill the seat left vacant by Burns The Scotsman underlined this by signing a contract last week to drive in the Nissan Cross Country Rally team in the Dakar Rally in January alongside 1981 World Rally Champ Ari Vatanen.

"At the moment, I feel very sorry for Richard. No-one deserves that kind of thing.

1^ just hoping he recovers," McRae said. nL/p^jyicRae is likely to be free of comrmrTients once the Dakar Rally ends in mid-January, he could still be near the top of Subaru's shopping list.

Subaru is waiting to weigh up its options, with the likelihood that Markko Martin may be available if Ford shuts down its operation for 2004.

McRae stressed that Dakar is a one-off drive, but expressed the hope that it could be the first step in a new chapter of his career.

"It's something I've always wanted to do. I always enjoyed the Safari, especially the old Safaris, an event where you could pace yourself, but it's very much a learning year for me," McRae said. £ He will be co-driven for the first time by Sweden's Tina Thorner.

- JON THOMSON 59

Mission: Accompli

T

HERE were tears of joy flowing in the Subaru service park in Tasmania last week following the realisation that Cody Crocker had clinched the Australian Rally Championship in a year that had severely tested the resolve of the blue team.

The death of Possum Bourne, the man who had won the past seven Australian Rally Championships, shook the team and rallying to its core back in May,but Cody and co driver Greg Foletta were genuinely 'Doing it for Possum'in taking the 2003 title.

Cody Crocker took his first ARC titie in the Tasmania Safari after a iong, tough season. JON THOMSON reports

Kangas in his Les Walkden-run Lancer Evo VII. Kangas was pipped

by Crocker in Heat 1 after leading from the start and was an all-the-way winner in Heat 2.

"Our run on Day 1 was like doing recce," said Kangas,"it was practice and Sunday was more hke the real

thing.

be a head gasket. The Melbourne driver regrouped and repaired the car overnight and bounced back to take fifth on Sunday. However his Saturday DNF robbed him of the chance to win the Privateers Cup and lost him third in the Championship.

Scott Pedder suffered numerous punctures on the hard-packed Tassie

roads on Day 1 but fought back with some fast times on Sunday to claim a third place and sixth overall for the round.

Another to suffer in heat one and fight back in Heat 2 was Spencer Lowndes, who rolled his Ralliart Lancer on Saturday. While the car was a bit aerodynamically challenged

Bourne's widow Peg was on hand to congratulate Crocker and Foletta in an emotional finish to a tumultuous year.

"Obviously this is a bit of an emotional win,but from our point of view winning the championship carries on the hopes and dreams of those closest to the team," said Crocker.

"1 think it gives Peg and those guys closest to Possum a real sense of pride."

The effort was bolstered by a gutsy drive on Day 1 when Crocker fought back to take a last-gasp heat win over Juha Kangas, giving him enough to deliver the title.

While Crocker took the victory, his rival for the championship,Ed Ordynski, battled with being first car on the road as well as tyre wear issues to come home a valiant fifth ending his tilt at the title.

"To be rurmer-up is not so bad," said Ordynski,"there's only one position that's better and Cody and Greg did a great job to achieve that.

"1 remember meeting Cody as a young guy a few years ago and it is inspirational to see how he has come on to the point where he has won the Championship. He deserves the win."

Ordynski made no excuses for the performance on Saturday but it was clear that being first car on the road really affected the Mitsubishi driver's times and meant that he could only manage a sixth and a fifth for a combined fourth place over the weekend.

A puncture and the pressure relief from the Saturday heat and Championship victories saw Crocker settle for third place in Heat 2 before being presented with the Possum Bourne Memorial Trophy.

To some extent, Crocker's Championship victory overshadowed the fine drive to overall round victory by Finn Juha 60

Tassie Finnish: Juba Kangas and Julia Rabbett took Heat 2 and won the weekend overall in the LWR Lancer.

'It's nice to have the win here and good to take the Privateers' Cup but for me the best thing was to do such fast times here and come out in front.

That feels very nice.

Kangas not only secured the Privateers Cup but also ousted Simon Evans from third in the outright title. thanks to an ordinary result for the Melbourne Subaru driver.

Crocker had strong support once more from his team-mate Dean Herridge, who took a third and a fourth to claim second overall for the weekend.

It was a rally of mixed results for a number of leading contenders with the most notable being Evans, who retired his Subaru early on Saturday morning with what was believed to be a blown engine but turned out to

molorsporl news

RALLYING

hed

t

M

't '*

ILV.': No Blues here: Cody Crocker got to celebrate with 'the boss's wife'Peg Bourne, above, after sealing his first ARC title in the Tasmanian Safari.

Sportivoer and Sportivoer: The Bates Toyota showed improved pace, Neal, below, taking a season-best fourth in Heat 2.

—

—

after an overnight repair job, it handled the fast open roads with aplomb on Sunday to take second and fifth overall for the weekend.

Amazingly,the second stage of the rally on Saturday morning proved to be the Achilles Heel for many of the contenders with Lowndes'roU, Evans's engine failure, Mark Pedder's gearbox problems cmd Scott Pedder's punctures all happening here.

If that wasn't enough, Mark Thompson's hastily rebuilt Lancer was suffering a sticking throttle, and NSW tearaway Brad Goldsborough had an altercation with the scenery in the fateful stage.

The Toyota team took heart from its results on the weekend, despite the fact that Rick Bates suffered a turbo boost failure mid-corner on SS7 that saw him run wide on the corner and beach the car in soft soU. "There wasn't any turbo boost at all," said a dejected Bates.

"There is some sort of exliaust leak and the boost has been disappearing pretty quickly since. I booted it into one corner and there was no power at all; we ran wide and I beached it in some sand."

For team leader and brother Neal, there was further light at the end of the long tuimel the Toyota team is negotiating. Closer again to the pace of the fronti'imners, Neal took a fourth place in Heat 1, albeit 52s off . Crocker's winning time. New gearing and some other minor allowances certainly made some difference to the Prototype Toyota.

"We've made gains every event and this weekend was another step in the right direction," said Bates.

"I was very happy to win a couple of stages and score our best result of the year with fourth place in heat one,so we're certainly getting there."

Bates' efforts on Saturday were brought undone on Sunday with a split water mjector tank that damaged the engine and forced his retirement. He finished the weekend in seventh, equal with Goldsborough and just ahead of Evans and Thompson.

Tasmanian Lee Peterson edged ahead of Peter Lockhart's Proton to take the F16 Championship victory wliile in the big car class, Peter Menzies clinched the win and the title from his brother Ian in the battling Ford Falcons.

So an extraordinary ARC season ended after an exciting, close-fought tussle for the title right to the end. It also saw some uplifting performances and the emergence of a new contender from Toyota as well as the dark tragedy of losing Bourne.

It has been a tumultuous year and 2004 is set to be even more thrilling, with new cars and a strengthened resolve from all of the leading contenders. There will be some surprises and some shake-ups in the off season and the prospect of a major naming-rights sponsor is brewing.

Let's hope it lives up to expectations and we can enjoy a season free from the bad news we endured in 2003.

Heat 7 1 Cody Crocker Qregfbletta.

Subaru Impreza

2 Juha Kangas

Mitsubishi Lancer 1hl6m48.2s

Julia Rabbett j 3 Dean Herridge Blejin Macnbalf 4 Neal Bates 'CbralTaylor' Heat 2 T ICahqas^Raibett

'1hl'6m4ijs Mitsubishi Lancer

rhl7m(j7.3sj Toyota Corolla Ih17m34.2s :::iciTS6.2s:

2 Spencer Lowndes Mitsubishi Lancer 1h06m35.9s

ICrBlylRanfglJ.r 3 Scott Redder

□BiiffluM:::

4 Herridge/Macneall

Mitsubishi Lancer

"7~11Wnr40s| Ih06m40.3s

Drivers' Points: Crocker 199, Ordynski 168, Kangas 148.5, Evans 142, Herridge 127, S Redder 99, Lowndes 90, N Bates 70, Thompson 44, Goldsborough 30, Privateers' Cup: Kangas 196, Evans 194, Goldsborough 131.

ARC 6 TASMANIA 61

Lights Out Controversy, crashes and the Max Factor. The opening round of the World Series Sprintcars had it all. MARK JONES caught all the action from Brisbane

w

ORI.D Series Sprintcars kicked off its summer

outside and somebody made a

long trip across the

of me, and the way the track was

little move and slipped up in front it had a pretty decent cushion at

country with a new opening venue, Brisbane International Speedway on November 15.

Turn 4, as soon as I got out of the throttle it was all over," said

After a fasi inating huiki up to the A-Main, the Teature race itself

I .ewis. "It just hit in and away she went,"

descendeil into farce just past half

With lapped cars included in

distance. I he race was late starting

the restart order this year, Jensen

and was already pushing BIS

was able to use that to advantage,

curfew when a nasty rollov(’r for in .ewisiaiised a red Hag. Then

taking third briefly from a wide sliding SrheLierle but the race stoppeil again almost immediately for Johnson who crashed on the

after a series ol unrelated yellow ll.igs,,nul heateil discussion between c ircuit and series officials. the race was called to a hall wi

straight. I5y this stage the body language between circuit promotor John Kelly and .series

eight laps still to run.

Max Dumesny was le.uling the

commentator Wade Aunger had

niie when the linal delay occurred.

gotten quite heated. Moule's crash

a yellow(aused by 'lony Moule

immerliately on restart was the final straw and to the derision of

hilling the front straight w.ill on th( exit lo’luru Tour. Brooke Talnell

the huge crowd, the race was

was second while Andrew S( heuerle led hoim

1 lightly

Ml kei We didn't lime so well hut won two heals and got up there in the

declared at 22 laps, with Dumesny winning from Tatiiell, Scheuerle,

JMiirfti

Schcucrie

Jensen, Bell, a flying Darrell

Andrew picked up ,i j>renl third place. He ran a

I lodge.s, tiessner, Robbie l arr, Terry Bracken and Bra/ier.

consislani meelin}’, iwllin/' a fine podium place.

lop six .ind i.night tlie invert ,ind started o le front row," said Dumesny.

"It was a little disappointing it didn't go lull dislani e, hot rea didn't I ire heeanse I was leading ir W.IS working

.inyw.iy, exi i"

Brooke's nose at all. II I'd seen his

"Any night you walk away with your car straight and you know only 2filh in the B7-c,ir field. With only six cars to lollow, Talnell look the Shell I lelix Maxim out to record

The C'-Main .s.iw local Ben Wright

a n.IHB, to secure pole. TirsI

gel the helli'r ol Titan (la rages

Scheuerle then Mark Reuter gave

driver Steve Swingler, I hi' B-Main w.is a violent affair, which saw Ian

latnell pause, hut did not get within (Us.

nose

might h.ive Iriei a harder.

dash from I leywood and Scheuerle to .secure ' A-Main IronI row.

Into the I le.ils, poor trialists

I lodges and lerry Bracken and Mark Robinson rolled his Titan

(III lirst present,ilioii the BIS

iil.ide the most ol their high starting

(l.irages car.

sort.11 e W.IS lumpy .md slow .mil lose lie.idm: oIII e.irly in lime

positions to win both of their heats.

Dumesny got the jump on latnell to lead lolinson, Scheuerle and

pii ked lip over I .Os ,is they pri igres.sed.

I tnmesny,seventh out would fie

Ken S.irlori and 21-year-old Aiiierican Irevor Brilman won the

Jensen with Ri'uter lading early, t >n

rem.iining heals. l.ison lohrison's crew h.id to work h.ird lor their A-Main start ig (ivi'r alter lri|)ping .md ri

reilaimed it ,i couple ol laps Tiler, while lurlher h.ii k Br.izier and

Stephen Bell's T.agle in the first 1 ),ish. At le resl.irl, Reuter got tin on ifnell, hut out ol the linal lorner l.ilnefi got belter drive,.iriil got

\

to file line lirst by the srii.i ■si ( m.irgins.

second ll.ish was ni.iile iiiemorahle by a i l.isfi

m ^ m |i

To the Max: Valvoline 1 - Vhe Kes'l 0 ...

82

between Br.iil Tleywood .mil (.an y Br.i/ier, which ended with the former Ansir.ilian cfi.impion

w.iy into third place,

li

think we've proved to people that we're fasI and we're hack on top again.

iii.son

I.ewis le inei I he.ivily on e.ich other lown the length ol the straight, III

lohnson spun out of lliinl pi,ice c.iusc first yellow ol

the night. This moved Scheuerle up to third with lerisen. Bell .md

i

(.essner close behind. After only a lew Tip.s, seventh pl.iced I’hil (l.mie spun ,it Turn 4, whii h in turn caused Br.i/,ier to t.ike .ivoid.ince.

Another short resl.irt ended with <1 big rollover lor Ian I.ewis, le.iving the Kom.ilsu entry perched on the Turn 4 w.ill. I .ewis cli .1 from the

spinning to a h.ill on the

wreck unhurt, hut BIS Itli'tOpm

str.iight, alter recovering troni Hie i l.ish.

I uriew W.IS .ill hut hre.iched during

Dume.sny won tin

"We've been fast all night and I

I.ewis I,ike viitory from Darrell

I tnmesny and D.irren |ensen both

Iri.ils would he sijqiilic.intly IS isadv.inl.iui

your fast, sometimes the result isn't the main thin'.‘I' explained Tatnell

the suhsei|iienl red Hag period.

"I del idi;d to go round the

motorsport news

SPEEDIAfAY

Where where is Wagga Wagga?

RAIIM caused the cancellation of the second round of the World Series Sprintcars at Wagga last weekend.

The track was pounded with constant rain on Friday and received another healthy deluge on Saturday morning. The racing surface was never going to be useable, and the organisers pulled the pin.

The disappointing weather has left series organisers with a major headache, faced with the possiblity of re-scheduling the meeting or cancelling it althoghter. But series chief Wade Aunger says that the latter is the worst case scenario. " We've got a commitment to running 14 rounds this year," said Aunger.

"We don't know whether to hold the meeting later in December or January, possibly on a Friday night, or move it to a different venue. It's up in the air at the moment and the feeling isn't all that great."

The next round of the series (hopefully!) will be held at Speedway City in Adelaide this weekend.

l onlrol: /olw>on\ ni.u liinc, .ihovr, lrii)i)v(l ovrr SIcitIu-n IMI\ t,ii: I hr Ir.mi li.id to work mif’hty li.irti to /jrl llw r.tr rv.uly (or the (in.ll...

Viiiory d.iiK f: M.ix hold', f/ic Iroiihy hlfih, hflow, while Hrookv ,wd Andrew s/i.iiy stories. j

Missing In Action: Wagga missed the sights and sounds oisome great IVSS action. Above, Trevor Brillman (W51)and Zach Howell(Q2)at Brisbane.

f NEOI

iy> Ip27

26 Howambar 2003

HISTORY may have been made on November 15 at Avalon Raceway when Darren Power and Colin Patterson shared the win in the 15 lap feature event having scored a dead heat.

The result was a fitting culmination to an enthralling race in which South Aussie Tim Crouch, Power and Patterson put on a brilliant three-way dice for the lead for the majority of the race.

Crouch and Patterson both took turns in the lead with Power in the mix also. But with two laps to run, Scott Memery influenced the outcome as the trio tried to lap him. Crouch got boxed in and he was the big loser.

Out of the last turn, Power found superior drive on the outside of Patterson and ranged

up alongside as they sprinted towards the flag. As they hit the line, it appeared as though Power may have done just enough to take the win, but the officials conferred and awarded the result as a dead heat. Crouch was naturally disappointed with his near miss while Craig Wicks was closing in on the trio ahead over the final stages. Andy Pearce pushed the Pearce/Canaday to fifth ahead of Craig Smith.

Peter Ghent in the Gearte/JSR had looked in hot form in the opening heat, running the high line to perfection and screamed away to win by over half a lap.

Power scored the win in heat two after overcoming Smiths Volvo/JSR, - BRETT SWANSON 63

n/lixed SPEEDWAY racing made a welcomed return to the heart of Adelaide last Saturday night when the Wayville Showgrounds roared back into life after an absence of over 12 months.

The evening catered for all Speedway fans,featuring some of the best national and international

Engine source problems IT looks like Brooke Tatnell may sit out the history making World of Outlaws downunder January meetings, citing a lack of a 410 engine as the problem.

"We want to run the WoO Show

but right now we don't have a 410 engine," said Tatnell, "1 not going to come here with my 372, because basicaUy you're

kidding yourself if you think you are going to be competitive against Steve Kinser. On a weekly deal yes a 372 is going to be competitive with a 410 if you have the driver experience but you are not going to take a 372 and out-power Steve Kinser. It's just the situation that I've done it the hard way. I've won a legitimate Outlaws show on their

terms but unless 1 can work out a

deal to lease a good motor.I'm not interested."

If an engine is not forthcoming, Tatnell will crew for Sammy Swindell.

With World Series Sprintcars now in force, Tatnell will be missing from liis home PCR for most of the summer.

- GREG BOSCATO

Madsen Magic

AUSTRALIAN champion Kerry Madsen took out a superb sprintcar A Main victory recently at Parramatta City Raceway, defeating a

Little and Blyton with Mark Richards, Laneyrie and Brett Leadsman making up the top six finishers.

The earlier preliminary heats

fast finishing Troy Little, followed by the impressive Mark Blyton.

The 25 lap A Main saw Madsen, right, coming from position 15, but after spinning out on lap 2 , he had to do it from the rear. Dubbo based racer Blyton took control of the race after passing Clay Laneyrie on lap 12, but three laps later a hard charging Madsen stormed passed and grabbed the lead.

The slick track conditions caught out a number of the top runners, including Mick Turner, Steven Graham and Trevor Green who all suffered spins.

PCR points leader Adam Clarke was running with the pack early but dropped down the order mid race.

Now with a 410 engine installed. Little was forging forward in the closing stages.

He gained second position after a stoppage with 5 laps remaining. Three laps later, the event was declared after Adrian Maher flipped over in turn 1, giving Madsen the victory over

saw wins go to Grant Tunks,

84

Blyton, Marty Perovich, Graham, Trevor Green (now running a 410 engine) and Little. Green scored a good win in the Dash for Cash race. Adrian Maher defeated Craig Brady with Mick Turner third in the B Main.

The support divisions saw Brett Jameson defeating Mark Brown and Glenn Revell to win the speedcar feature while Keith Sims took out the V8 Super Sedans main.

- GREG BOSCATO

competitors on two, three and four wheeled disciplines.

Headlining the four-wheeled divisions were the mighty Sprintcars who were out in force domg battle for the 2003 Freight Master Hell on Wheels Sprintcar Stampede. The loose conditions proved to make tricky going for the drivers as they adapted,showing great skill to race tlieir 700 plus horse powered machines around the 530 metre WayviUe dirt track.

The loose dirt track conditions at the WayviUe Showgroimds proved to even up the playing field for the lesser-powered 360ci Sprintcars. The open 372ci cars found it harder to get their 700 plus horse power to the ground. Tire 360ci Sprintcar competitors fiUed three of the top four placings with tire exception

luhii Murrk/Mph

fr;:"

Dillon wins opener

SOUTH Australian Sprintcar star Luke Dillon took first blood in the opening round of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Super Sprint Series at Mount Gambier's Boarderline Speedway.

a [O'^

>5.

Dillo, left, could only manage seventh after qualification, but scorched through the field, taking the lead with just three laps to go from Rob Rankin.

Rankin finished second, ahead of Ian Thomsen and defending champion Matthew Reed, who fought back from a spin mid-race.

motorsgon Rews

SPEEDWAY

Bags at Wayville

●■V

.-I

Paris Charles

Cool to lead the 15 lap race from flag to flag.

An exciting race developed from the rear of the field with Phil March and American sensation Jason Jolinson, who used his big/dirt track advantage to carve his way tlirough the field. The crowd were kept on their toes as the World of Outlaws competitor pulled off some thrilling passes around his opposition, which included a last lap pass on Victorian Wayne Nicholls to work his way to second.

Fourth placing went to fellow Victorian Garry Chippindall who had his hands full aboard his Crow Cams Sclmee, holding out the fast-finishing South Australian duo of Darryl Downing and Damien Eve. The experienced trio of Wayne Bunker, Alan Barlee and former Darwin based racer Russ Walker were locked in a tight tussle to cross the line in their respective order while Sprintcar rookie Simon McKean rounded out the top 10.

- PARIS CHARLES

THE South Australian AMCA ^ barn-storming charge from the competitors put on a stellar ^eqT to win the final race. ^^Ricky Malolo won the Derfnrmance^Adelajd^i8rJ Speedw' 1_ penultimate race and was a real Cr ^lti’Bi1an > ' chance in fhe final 10 lapper Chi ^uced soffft 55^ until’spinning out of contention breitiv two laps from home.

S passing, diving tfito ujah traffic to come from Rteigning SA country ' ' nearr tnl back to win two of the chbhpion Marls Valodze claimed a hat-trick of runner up five races. Not to be upstaged, Mick Brougham also bagged a placings and two thirds.

Darren Flatmann was the pair of race wins, including a

dominate force amongst the large field of Street Stocks to take three victories and a runner up frorn his iflye races while Darren Bfiiitifield and Steve Field clainied a victory a piece.

The Junior Bedafls showed improved speed. Jason Gantz scored 3 wins, while Anthony Owens took a single race victory.

being runner up Jason Johnson who is experienced in racing on large dirt tracks in America.

With rules set in place for the highest points scorers to start from the rear for the Stampede feature race, the 360ci duo of Craig Vanderstelt and Wayne Nicholls shared the front row. At the drop of the green, Craig pounced to lead the field away. In clear air, Vanderstelt made the most of his opportunity and opened a handy lead aboard the Jeff Eeles owned Croft Constructions

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

Xoostrr

^ ^ RACING TIRE

For more information cm Hooiicr Dmg and SpeedwayTyres call-

NSW: 02 9679 1990 ● Fax 02 9679 /187 VIC: 03 9331 6477 Fox 03 9331 7444 SA: 08 8332 0800 ● Fax 08 8364 0296

26 Hovamber 2003

- PARIS CHARLES

Kinser’s coming to PCR THE next two drivers the Parramatta City Raceway have released for the upcoming World of Outlaws downunder tour is the father and son combo of Steve and Kraig Kinser.

While Steve (the 2003 World of Outlaws champ) is well known to the Parramatta fans with his numerous visits, this will be Steve's 19 year old son, Kraig's, first tour as a driver.

Due to his college education, Kraig has only run a limited program this year but still is 15th in the pointscore, with two podium placings, five top five finishes and fifteen top 10 placings this year.

Kraig was originally to tour downunder with his dad two seasons ago but couldn't make it.

But he has toured here before with his family while dad (Steve) raced during the Christmas/ New Year period. For the fans, it will be great to see Kinser Sr. in full fight, racing his own 410 Maxim in the opening round of the 2004 World of Outlaws.

■ Impressive PCR based sprintcar racer Mark Richards is another one of the local driveris updating to the larger 410 engine.

After building up a new MaxBoy this season, a 410 is the next step and at his first meeting he certainly impressed many.

■ The Parramatta promoters have just released another US name to the World of Outlaws downunder.

Slammin' Sammy Swindell is finally coming to Australia. Yes, its finally happening, as the man with over 260 WoO victories, three WoO titles, Knoxville Nationals wins, four Chili Bowl Midget Nationals victories in a 30+ year career will be in Sydney for the January super shows.

"Yeah I have always had it in the back of my mind for a long time that I would love to come to Australia some day and race," said Swindell.

"Over the years however, the dates offered and my own racing commitments here have hindered the chance for me to do that, so I'm glad we can come over to Parramatta for the first time ever.

Swindell is the ninth US driver nominated for this history making event.

- GREG BOSCATO

2003 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP 2003 FINAL STANDINGS

1

Steve Kinser. .

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Denny Lasoski .

Joey Saldana. . .

Daryn Pittman.

DonnySchalz.

Jason Sides . . .

Paul McMahon Brian Paulus . .

9 10

Jason Meyers. , Tim Shaffer . .

10201 10060 . 9533 . 9469 .9156 . 8827 7766 7550 6828 6721

11 12 13

Sammy Swindell .

Johnny Herrera . .

Mark Kinser

14 15 16 17

Randy Hannagan Kraig Kinser Jac Haudenschild Bob Bennett .. . .

18 19 20

Jeremy Campbell .

Tyler Walker Shane Stewart . .

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23 Jonathon Allard. .

24 Jason Johnson. . .

25 Brian Carlson . . .

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27 Brooke Tatnell, . .

20 Stevie Smith 29 Brandon Wimmer

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34 Tom Busch . . . .

35 Dennis Moore Jr 36 Lance Dewease.

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NASCAR says cliversily

ALTHOUGH Dodge Motorsports pulled the plug on its diversity program at the end of the 2003 season, NASCAR are still fighting to bring minority races into a sport predominantly involving white people.

A new program 'Drive for Diversity' is asking for applications from would-be candidates for driving and pit crew duties throughout the south-eastern US in 2004.

Following on from that news the family of Pulitzer Prize winner Alex Haley, the author of 'Roots', has substantial interest in forming a NASCAR Cup team in 2004, partnering up with Sam

Belnavis, current co-owner of BelCar Racing with Travis Carter for driver Todd Bodine. Belnavis a former Miller brewing executive, is the only AfricanAmerican car owner in NASCAR. The operation will be financed from Haley's estate managed by his brother, a prominent Washington DC lawyer and former US Ambassador to Gambia. It will be labeled, 'Alex Haley Racing'.

Bill Lester was the only African-American driver in the three top NASCAR series this year, driving a Dodge for Bobby Hamilton Motorsports in the Truck Series.

- MARTIN D CLARK

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Free undies!

ROBBY Gordon,above, will enter a self-owned Busch Series car in 24 races during the 2004 season with sponsorship from Fruit of the Loom, a leader in underwear manufacturing.

- MARTIN D CLARK

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BOBiY Labonte ran off liko a bandit to win the final VVinston Cup race of the year and end a 33-year era of Winston Sponsorship at .

Honjestead Miami on November 16th,taking the lead from Bill Elliott on the final lap after the race dominator blew a right-rear tyre exiting turn two.

Eiliott, below, came off a win the previous week at Rockingham and he looked set to take the chequers,

^cker-to

motorsport news

NASCAR

y and the Bandit —

leading 189 of 267 laps, but a! he could do was watch 4"r/helplessly as Labonte cruised by for the win while Elliott finished eighth, Labonte leading just half Of the final lap.

"I couldn't believe it," remarked Labonte."! thought he's slipped in some oil, that's got to be tough. I had just said, 'man he's playing with us, he can go anywhere he wants to."

The new 20-degree progressive banked turns produced some great two and three-wide racing, although Goodyear's new softer tyre compound to be used in 2004 didn't stand up to most teams' expectations, with many drivers finding the wall as the new grippy pavement tore holes in the boots.

Kevin Harvick tried a three-wide move on lap five, slipping under Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch, but he got loose and punted the pair into the wall.

With the championship already in the bag. Matt Kenseth, above, ended his day 43rd, the first to retire when his Roush engine expired in a plume of smoke on lap 28.

Kenseth's team unloaded the back up Taurus so he could partake in the

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celebratory burnout, with the nose of the car planted against the outside retaining wall as he laid claim as the last-ever Winston Cup Champion.

- MARTIN D CLARK Final result: B Labonte (Chevy), Harvick (Chevy), Johnson (Chevy), Benson (Pontiac), J Gordon (Chevy), Mayfleld (Dodge), Stewart (Chevy), Elliott (Dodge), McMurray (Dodge), Marlin (Dodge).

Final top 25 point standings: Kenseth 5022, Johnson 4932, Earnhardt Jr. 4815, J Gordon 4775, Harvick 4770, Newman 4711, Tony Stewart 4549, B Labonte 4377, Elliott 4303, T Labonte 4162, Busch 4150, J Burton 4109, McMurray 3965, R Wallace 3950, Waltrip 3934, R Gordon 3856, Martin 3769, Marlin 3745, Mayfield 3736, Biffle 3696, W Burton 3550> Sadler 3525, Rudd 3521, Benson 3448, Nemechek 3426.

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Busch title in the bag; next stop, the main show BRIAN Vickers, 20, captured Hendrick Motorsports first Busch Series title at Homestead Miami by just 14 points over David Green, and in doing so became the youngest-ever champion in the three elite NASCAR series.

The race was won by first time victor and sprint car ace Casey Kahne, 23, who could be departing to Evernham Motorsports in the near future.

Kyle Busch will replace Vickers, 18, in the Hendrick Busch entry next year, with Vickers already embarking on what will surely be a great career in the Cup series.

- MARTIN D CLARK 26 Novemtier 2003

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Tundra times four

TOYOTA has reached agreements with four teams 'to run its new Tundra in the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Bang Racing, Bill Davis Racing, Innovative Motorsports and Waltrip Racing will ail field

Tundras next season. Davis will also assist Toyota Racing Development (TRD) in the construction of the trucks and Tundra V8 engines.

The truck had its first track test at Caraway Speedway in August.

o n

Truckin’ Travis TRAVIS Kvapil became the 2003 NASCAR Truck Series Champion with a sixth place finish at the Homestead Miami Speedway on November 14th.

It was the second-straight year that the Xpress Motorsports team has captured the title: Mike Bliss winning in 2002 before moving onto the Busch Series.

Kvapil will stay with the Trucks in 2004, but will join one of the new Toyota teams. „■ Hendrick Motorsports withdrew an entry from the final 2003 event at Homestead Miami in which Kyle Busch was due to make his Cup debut driving for the Hedrick R&D team.

Similar to the Tony Stewart incident at Texas earlier in 2004, NASCAR confiscated the #60 Monte Carlo due to the body not fitting the rear templates during inspection, while Hendrick claimed they made a last-minute decision to enter the race and there was an oversight in the car's preparation.

Jeff Gordon had previously used the car and the body was replaced after it was damaged in an accident at Pocono earlier in the year.

■ Jamie McMurray claimed his first Cup pole in his rookie season at the newly-configured Homestead Miami, outpacing Bobby Labonte, Brian Vickers and Ryan Newman for the top spot.

McMurray's speed was 181.111 mph, compared to Kurt Busch's 2002 pole speed of 154.365mph on the old six degree banked turns.

Veterans Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader, Derrike Cope and Rich Bickle failed to make the cut and went home, while 2003 Champion Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Robby Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sterling Marlin, Ricky Craven and Kenny Wallace used provisionals to make the field for the final race of the year.

■ Several Cup drivers became part of a marketing package with Gillette, Duracell and Oral-B in a deal reportedly worth $20 million (AUD$26,7m) for 2004. Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will endorse the products and cash in on a share of the loot while keeping themselves clean-cut at the same time.

■ Larry Foyt borrowed a Evernham Motorsports Dodge at Miami to score his best qualifying and race result of his short Cup career. He finished 16th after qualifying 12th in the event, proving to many that he is capable of driving a stock car.

- MARTiiy D CLARK 67

It's a Stanic Attack!

The Australian Drag Racing Nationals showcased sonne new, emerging talents.

KEN FERGUSON caught it all from Willowbank Raceway

S

teve Stanic and Lucky Belleri issued a warning to their feiiow Top Doorslammer rivals with a dream debut in Belleri’s brandnew, Murray Anderson-built,’67 SS Camaro at the itel Community Telco Nationals at Willowbank Raceway last weekend.

Stanic delivered a faultless driving display, with a string of 6.2s passes to take a well deserved win.

Tony Wedlock and Johnny Cowin also started their seasons off on the right note with hard fought wins in their respective categories, while Brett Stevens and Gary Phillips had easier victories in their classes. On a less bright note, Debbie O’Rourke’s beautiful ’67 Monaro came off second best after a tangle with both concrete walls in the Supercharged Outiaws bracket.

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Stanic put the Camaro in third spot in qualifying with a 6.27s/230mph behind the likes of Andrew Searle in his Acme Fibreglass Ford Customline 6.218s/224mph and defending national champion, Ben Bray 6.219/235mph. Brett Stevens filled fourth position in his Jack Daniels Studebaker, with a 6.30/224mph, followed by Robin Judd, Victor Bray, Peter Kapiris, and Grant O’Rourke, all in the 6.3s zone.

Surprise non qualifier in the field was the Lucas Oils Products ‘53 Studebaker of Gary Phillips, who was limited to a best of 6.56s after suffering tyre shake on each occasion. Others to not qualify in the field included Allan Sarkis, debuting his brand new ’57 Chev, Maurice Fabietti and Shane Olive in their Monaro’s, and Joe Schembri in his FC Holden. All cars were limited to only two qualifying passes after the entire Saturday night sessions for Group 1 and 2 were washed out following a torrential downpour in the afternoon. Every effort was made by the Willowbank track Something for everyone: Phillips, below, took an easy victory in Top Alcohol.

While the young girls, left. took an easy win in the tightest outfit competition.

staff to dry the track but it was all to no avail, as the rain returned just as the track was dried at around 8pm.

The first pairing in eliminations saw the Studebakers of Brett Stevens and Robin Judd go headto-head. This was the closest race of the night with Stevens taking a holeshot victory by a mere .001s.

Ben Bray defeated Kapiris in the next with a big top end charge after being almost dead level at the half track mark. The biggest surprise came in the next race when Stanic defeated the Castrol ’57 Chev of Victor Bray in a close one, going 6.24s to a 6.27s. The final race of the first round saw top qualifier Searle break his new engine and cross the centreline in his Customline, automatically handing the win to O’Rourke.

Brett Stevens took a close win over O’Rourke in the second round, while Stanic continued on his merry way, defeating the second Castrol car. Bray Jnr red lit on the start, but Stanic backed up his earlier 6.24s with an identical ET against Bray. The Jack Daniels camp changed an engine between rounds for the final, but his quicker 6.25s just fell short of Stanic’s holeshot 6.26s win.

Johnny Cowin put the Rocket Industries dragster straight into the number one position on his first qualifier with the only 4s pass

of qualifying, a 4.89s/295mph. Jim Read was next quickest with a 5.07s/287mph in the Auto One dragster, followed by Terry Sainty’s 5.62s/253mph and Glenn Mikres on a 5.90s/228mph. Bob Shephard ended his weekend after his first and only qualifier, fireballing the engine at half track.

The first race of the first round of eliminations saw Terry Sainty take a solo 5.56s/228mph win over Jim Read. Read was shut down on the start line, when a small puddle of fluid was discovered under the car just prior to staging. An angry Read expressed his displeasure at the official’s decision before leaving the start line. The fluid was identified as being water.

The next race saw Cowin reproduce his 4.89s form from qualifying, this time on an early shutoff at only 249mph, to defeat Glenn Mikres in the Santo Rapisarda car. Mikres clicked it early resulting in a 5.57s at only 189mph. The Cowin team made sure of the win in the final. backing down the power as not to overpower the track and took the win over Sainty with a 5.07s/276mph to Sainty’s 5.55s/249mph.

Despite non-qualifying in Doorslammer, Gary Phillips put that to the back of his mind and took all the glory in Top Alcohol in his Lucas Oils Products dragster with low ET, top speed and a final

All in the family: First Graeme, then Andrew, and now Johnny Cowin, above, is the man to beat in Top Fuel. Meanwhile, Peter Ridgeway's Pro Stock domination was ended by Tony Wedlock, right

■ound win over Wayne Newby Phillips had earlier qualified second behind Newby’s 5.76S/241 mph with a 5.84s/241mph. He met Newby in :he final at the expense of Debbie Peed and Dean McClennan and ■ecorded his best numbers in the second round, a 5.69s/248mph.

Mewby scored the first round bye n the seven car field and defeated Dean Oakey in the second round with a 5.80s/235mph. Phillips scored the sasiest of wins in the final when Mewby backfired the supercharger at the hit of the hrottle in his burnout. Phillips soloed to a 5.79s/239mph win.

Jay Upton was again the class sf the field in Top Bike, going 3.65S/195mph on the radical rriumph, with Brett Stevens the snly other six second contender sn his Jack Daniels Harley. This vas Stevens’ first ever 6.0s pass

AUtnlijIiri

on the bike, also going 200mph.

Upton bettered his 6.65s qualifying time with a 6.61s/209mph in his first round win. He defeated the second Jack Daniels bike of Troy McLean to set up the dual with Stevens in the final. Stevens also bettered his qualifying time with a 6.88s/200mph in his second round defeat of Craig Bonwick.

Stevens took the honours in the final with a 7.55s solo after Upton’s bike stalled as he came in to stage.

Tony Wedlock began his 20032004 campaign well with a win over Peter Ridgeway in the final

of Pro Stock. Wedlock settled for second spot in qualifying with a 7.48S/180mph behind Ridgeway’s 7.47s/184mph. Ridgeway was driving his old car which has been sold to Dave Rogan, but Rogan has yet to secure his competition license. Both Ridgeway and Wedlock made It through to the final with 7.50s performances to their credit, but both again dipped into the forties in the final.

Although Ridgeway red lit on the start. Wedlock proved a worthy winner with his 7.43s/182mph over Ridgeway’s 7.47s/184mph.

Other winners in other brackets included Maurice Allen in Pro Stock Motorcycle with a

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7.84S/169mph win over Neville Langley. Jim Rowley defeated Colin Lloyd in the Super Stock final, and Craig Geddes defeated Wayne Cartledge in the Competition final. Both cars went under their class indexes, with

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Jack lives here: Brett Stevens, left.

Geddes’ 7.60s B/Altered pass too good for the quicker reacting Cartledge. John Parker took the win in Comp Bike, while Dave McDonnell was successful in Super Gas, Phil Bellert in Modified, George Wegener in Super Sedan, Jeff Helmhold in Super Street, Kevin Williamson in Modified Bike, and Tim Morton in Junior Dragster.

The unofficial Supercharged Outlaws bracket saw some impressive numbers recorded from a number of competitors.

Les Winter stepped back from Doorslammer in his ’55’ Chev but recorded a couple of 6.47s passes, while Daniel Callaghan recorded a best of 7.19s/200mph in his Mark Brew tuned PSI blown 388ci LC Torana. That pass seemed to go almost unnoticed as it was beside Debbie O’Rourke’s violent crash in her Hitachi backed Holden Monaro. She emerged unscathed after almost going over the top of the spectator side wall before crossino the track

I

n contrast to Australia's greatly reduced effort of the past three years, New Zealand arrived on a mission to wrest the 2003 Tasman

Challenge trophy from the locals at the Tattersall's Historic Meeting at Sandown on November 8-9.

The Victorian Historic Racing Register resurrected the once-famous Tasman Series in 2000, and since then the honours have gone to the Australians, thanks especially to Mike Glynn, who won three Tasman Challenges in a row.

This year, things were different.

Glynn decided to step aside and Australia's other main hope,Andrew Robson,suffered what appeared to be a major mechanical problem in his Lola T332 and spent a day trying to find the cause.

Imagine his annoyance when it was discovered to be only a broken rotor button, but the lost time meant Robson failed to record a lap time and started from the back of the grid in Saturday's opening appearance of the FSOOOs. Last year. New Zealand's Roger Williams signalled his intent when he lapped almost 2s under the existing lap record in his 1971 McRae GMl, only to break down when it really counted. This time he was on a mission; he claimed pole position and was out for revenge.

Unfortunately in his excitement, he

jumped the start in the opener and was black flagged,leaving the door open for another Kiwi, Todd Stewart (1976 Lola T430), to score a win first time out in the ex-Brian Redman car - the last F5000 built by Lola.

Stan Redmond (1973 Lola T332) completed a trifecta for the Kiwis.

Sunday's warm up five-lapper saw Williams drive away from the field, leading home Stewart and last year's rurmer-up Ian Clements(1974 Lola T332). With Robson a non-starter,it was another 1-2-3 for the New Zealanders.

The feature race was reduced to six laps after a red flag incident, but noone was going to catch the flying Williams, a well deserving winner of the 2003 Tattersall's Tasman Challenge. Stewart continued to impress, finishing a tad over 2.0s behind the winner and Tony Roberts of Group 7 Sportscars in Auckland filled third place in an interesting F5000 derived from a McRae GM2 in 1974 known as the Talon MRl. The car had only recently arrived in New Zealand from Texas and carried #1 at Sandown - Chris Amon's number on his Talon F5000 in the 1975 Tasman Series.

Robson had rectified his problem and drove brilliantly from the back of the grid to finish fourth. Had the race gone the fuU distance he may have claimed a podium finish, but there

It maybe djark times for the Kiwis elsewhere in the snorting world, but IteLwasn t the case at Sandown, downed Austraiia in, the fra^f^m^njOhaillenm. ]' was

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was no disputing the winner.

Williams was a class act as he set a new lap record during the weekend of lm08.33s -just short of 2s imder Robson's existing record.

The final appearance of the big bangers saw New Zealand continue its domination, this time with Stewart

It's good to meeting see the Tasman Challenge starting to draw competitors from overseas in addition to the New Zealanders.

C.OOU

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taking the chequered flag. Robson carved his way through the traffic to come from ninth to second, only to pit towards the end of the race and leave Ian Clements(Lola T332)a deserving rurmer-up.

Hong Kong's Murray Sinclair filled third place in his 1973 Lola T332.

Where was Williams for this final race? Not surprisingly, he had run out of tyres and was forced to look on from the pits!

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This year the meeting welcomed British driver Nick Linney and Iris 1959 Lister Jaguar sports car and he soon set about demolishing the

If you ain't a Kiwi, don't bother coming: The New Zealanders dominated this year's Trans Tasman Challenge, spearheaded by Roger Williams's 1971 McRae CM1, top.

Also of interest was the ex-Redman Lola T430, left.

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moiorsport news

HISTORICS

Mille revisited

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Groups J, K and Lb sports and racing car events.

His Lister has an interesting history, having been campaigned by Carroll Shelby before being taken over by Boeing Aviation for an unsuccessful attempt on the land speed record for piston-engine cars.

Bobby Bell was the car's other most notable driver before Linney took over in 1996.

Since then, the 52-year old British businessman has taken the VRDC Historic 50s sports car championslrip, and has twice won the prestigious BRDC Championship, winning the top Class A category in 1999 and 2002.

Last month he finished second in the 2003 championship after experiencing a cracked wheel at Spa. At Sandown he ran away with two outright wins, qualifying more than 3s under the lap record.

He finally left the record at lm25.96s, and was a massive 38s per lap quicker than tlie slowest qualifier - a real mismatch!

"It's good to beat the Aussies at something!" he quipped after his demolition job, 26 November 2603

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New kid in town: There was no shortage of cars amongst the Croups }, K & Lb ranks, but none of them could hold a candle to Brit Nick Linney and his ex-Carroll Shelby Lister Jaguar, above.

THE Melbourne Mille is an attempt ' to relive the great days of the one 1000 mile road race in Italy - the famous Mille Miglia that ran from 1927 until traffic congestion and stricter road regulations brought about its demise in 1957.

The Melbourne Mille is a celebration of the event on which it is based - except these days it is done at a more leisurely pace with an emphasis on the social side. It's a non-competitive tour for classic vehicles manufactured between 1927 and 1967, which this year took in some of the best scenery, finest food and special accomodation that South Eastern Australia has to offer.

The 1000 mile tour is the sister event to the California Mille, which is part of a worldwide group of Mille Miglia retrospectives in Italy, California and Argentina.

This year was the fifth running of the Melbourne Mille and director Maxwell Hobson and his team attracted a strong overseas contingent, some of whom have bought cars especially for the event and will leave them in Australia for next time around.

A number of Lancias joined the classy field of Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches, Jaguars, Astons, Alfas and Healeys, including Bill and Stephen Alexander(1954 Aurelia B20 GT), Diane Reidie and Susie Waite (1955 Aurelia B20), and the Flaminias of Noel and All Roscrow, Bruce Lindsay and Stuart Elshaw, and former Australian-based motoring journalist Ian Fraser and wife Robyn.

Like some other Lancia participants, the Frasers had taken part in the 17th biennial Lancia Rally in Castlemaine the previous weekend. Only difference was they had come from England and had purchased their 1965 Flaminia sightunseen in Adelaide. They were more than happy with their purchase I The Melbourne Mille left Werribee Mansion on October 20 and visited such towns as Lancefield, Daylesford, Marysville, Beechworth and Mt Buller before returning to Melbourne five days later.

Chrysler Jeep sponsored the event, and several other supporters including Duttons helped make the Mille a great success. Jeffrey Dutton and Pat Coram took part in a superb 1951 Vignale bodied Ferrari 212-the 91st Ferrari ever made. n As a tribute to the late Murray Batson, well respected competitor and long standing official who passed away in October, Peter Matthews opted to drive Murray's Group M Nota Clubman at Sandown instead of his own Nota Major.

It was a nice gesture from the veteran Peninsula Boys racer and a fitting reminder of Murray's unstinting contribution to motorsport.

- BRIAN REED J1

national

scene

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Brain Bowlev

Future Calling

by MARK GLENDENNING

FLEDGLING Australian motorsport category Futureracers has announced a strategic alliance with PROCAR that will see the series join the PROCAR circus in 2004.

The series, which will be called the 2004 Formula Green Futureracers Series, will be contested at six of PROCAR's stand-alone rounds next year, along with a non-championship invitational appearance at the Bathurst 24 Hour race.

Futureracers will run three races at every round,and will also enjoy a share of PROCAR's television arrangement with AVE. A parallel series will be launched in the United Arab Emirates at the Dubai Autodrome and Business Park, which is scheduled to open in early n 2004. It wUl be billed at Dubai's official entry-level motorsport category.

Futureracers will also become the first category in the world to adopt Formula Green,an Australiandesigned and patented system for measuring ecological sustainability, by running a 'green' fuel containing a reduced level of pollutants.

Futureracers to support PROCAR in 2004 - and a series in Dubai...

futureracers

Is this the future: The pint-sized Futureracers were unveiled at Bathurst last weekend and will be on the PROCAR bill in 2004 and beyond...

'■ I

by MARK JONES

Pye in the eye: Bill Pye took the overall win at Mount panarama in his first race meeting at the famous circuit.

12

THE final round of the Australian Porsche Drivers Challenge was held on the 24 Hour support program, and the recently-crowned New South Wales Production Sportscar Champion Bill Pye took two wins from two starts in his '01 spec Carrera Cup Porsche.

"It's been excellent, great fun," enthused Pye, "My first race win at Bathurst, a highlight of my life."

Second in both races though was more than enough for Queenslander Wayne Hennig to claim the Australian Porsche

Drivers Challenge.

Pye took pole, qualifying 0.4s clear of Hennig (993 GT2), whose car has gained 35 kilos in weight adjustment and success ballast in 12 months and almost 3s clear of Trevor John (944 Turbo). Kim Burke (996 GTS) was next ahead of David Stevens (996 GT3) and Kevin Miller (996 GT3).

Hennig out-jumped Pye to lead the field into Hell Corner with Pye, Burke, John and Stevens in the queue behind. On the wide expanses of Conrod, John blew by the Burke to hold third at the end of the first lap.

Hennig continued to lead until Pye got inside at Forrests Elbow and ran away down Conrod. The moiorspon news

KARTING

Egypt beckons for Wicks and Price VICTORIAN karters Bart Price and Mark Wicks will be representing Australia at the Rotax MAX Challenge World Finals early next year.

Sixty-eight drivers from 35 different countries will compete in the event which will be held at Ghibli Raceway in Egypt on January 22-24.

The duo qualified for the event via the Australian Championships at Newcastle last month. Price won the Rotax Nationals to book his place on the grid in Egypt while Wicks was the highest placed over-35-year-old driver, making him eligible for the 'Rotax Masters' division.

Australian Rotax importer Drew Price Engineering is supplying both drivers with new Arrow AX8 chassis for the race and Wicks has picked up additional support from Tattersall's.

While the top placings will probably be fought out by the younger drivers, Wicks isn't sure of the form of his direct opposition in the Masters section.

"I would hope that I'l l be reasonably competitive with the other drivers of my age, but as yet I haven't heard who has qualified from the \rac.coro z other countries," he said, "The Kiwis and South Africans are usually pretty good, and Bart's certainly got the ability to take the fight up to them."

This will be the fourth annual running of the Rotax World Finals and Australian drivers have previously fared well, NSW's Darrell Smith won the Over-35s Masters World Title in 2002 and Walk like an Egyptian: MNews contributor mark Wicks, Aussie drivers have finished third (William above, and bart Price will wave tbe Aussie, or should Yarwood, 2000) and second (Scott Auld, 2002) but we say Victorian, flag in Egypt in the Rotax MAX have yet to taste outright victory.

- MARK WICKS Challenge World Finals early next year.

top four positions then settled with Stevens next ahead of an entertaining dice between Miller and Anthony Skinner (996 GT3).

Russell Kempnich (930 S) won Class B with Brendan Morter winning the 944 Cup class.

Race 2 was started in the rain and fog of Saturday morning. By lap 3 the field was already behind the Safety Car after Kevin Miller had a lurid spin down Conrod after losing the back of the car on entry to the Chase just after streaming by Trevor John for third place.

Miller hit the wall just at the Chase left hander. Ross Firth (944) hit the wall |ust over Skyline as well.

After the restart, Skinner had 28 HovBniber 2003

Powles’ Suzuka Podium

GLENN Powles finished on the podium at the CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific Championships at Suzuka last weekend.

Competing in Intercontinental A, the Victorian finished third behind New Zealand's Mitchell Cunningham (younger brother of CRG's newly crowned Formula A World Champion Wade)and local driver Kimura (Maranello/Maxter). Interestingly, Dunlop excelled on the traditionally Bridgestone-friendly circuit and Powles was the only Bridgestone runner in the top seven of ICA. The meeting almost finished before it began for Glenn, above, when event organisers wouldn't allow him on the track due to a licence administration mix up. Once sorted, he qualified his Trulli Kart/Parilia 18th out of the 37 entrants, 0.537s off pole. He made progress in the heats to sit 12th overall (Cunningham qualified seventh and carded fifth and eighth). The pre-final saw further progress before eventually taking third in the 24-lap final.

In Formula A, Japan's Yasuda (Intrepid/TM) qualified pole before leading home pre-final winner Davide ' Fore (Tony KarWortex)for un upset win on home soil. Bas Lammers (Swiss Hutless) was third.

- MARK WICKS

an off in the Chase, bouncing across the exit and spinning into the sand trap, while John went straight on at the Chase, not turning for the left hander.

Hennig closed in on Pye each time across the top of the Mountain, but Pye’s spray plume forced Hennig to back away on the straights, and thats how they finished. Stevens was third ahead of Burke, and new Ciass B champion Andrew Luxton with runner up Kempnich just behind.

But the chequered flag did not go out on the last lap and the field raced another lap alongside a surprised 24 Hour BMW M Coupe from the next session.

Final Standings: Hennig 176, Pyo 112, Burke 107, Luxton 89, Don Tryhorn 81.

Crunch time: Queenslander Kevin Miller buried his CT3 against the Caltex Chase concrete in the wet Race 2 on Sunday.

73

shots in the dark ANDREW Brandstater pushed his car and his pit crew to the limit but was rewarded for his efforts at the Do It In The Dark @ Oran Park meeting two weeks ago.

Brandstater doubled up, entering his Nissan Skyline GTR in Combined Touring and Improved Production and walked away with a win and a second place.

"We decided to go up in class and have a go at the Improved Production. It was hard work for the pit crew with the way the program was, but we got good results," Brandstater said.

After a blown turbo hose and starting out of position in earlier races, he fought his way to a win in Combined Touring ahead of Steve Mantle (Commodore) and Geoff Turner (Falcon).

He backed up for the final race on the program to run second to Graeme Watts in his Mazda RX 3 in Improved Production.

When the Group N cars came out to play in the dark, it was Brad Tilley who led the field home in his XY Falcon GT. Cameron Tilley's Valiant S was second with the Torana XU-1 of Greg Smith less than 0.5s behind.

Only seven cars completed Race 4 of the Ted Russell Sport Sedan Memorial with Anthony MacReady the best in his 6-litre Rover SDL The Datsuns were too strong for the MGs and Sunbeams in Group S. The 240Zs of Chris Gray and Peter Lang led home Brett McManus in his MG Midget.

Paul Zyfert won the trophy race for the smaller capacity Improved Production cars while David Cutts claimed the Mono Posto trophy.

The AF2/SuperSports cars ran with invited Formula Fords.

Craig Dawson finished first in his' AF2 Reynard ahead of Kevin Lewis in an AF2 Ransburg Cheetah - MARTIN VAN REE

u

THE Annual Geelong Speed Trials were held at the its traditional Waterfront venue at Ritchie Boulevard, Eastern Beach on November 15 and 16.

Attracting a crowd of around 30,000 spectators, the speed

I

V8 SUPERCAR driver Jason Bargwanna was a popular guest at the Geelong Speed Trials recently.

Fhe Orrcon Falcon driver is a big fan of the event and he enjoyed the relaxed, family atmosphere.

It's a great event," said the little man of Supercars. "It was good to see a different array of cars in a low-pressure environment. The only thing 1 don't like is as soon as the heart rate gets up with the short sprints, it's all over!

Bargwanna drove a special

Bathurst Cobra,above, and was reunited with a Formula Ford, below. for the first time since the mid-90s.

It was great to get back into a Formula Ford,and the Cobra was just awesome. That car makes you take your hat off to the guys that drove them back in the Group C days."

Bargwanna also indicated that he may ask his current boss if he could bring one of the Orrcon team's Falcons to next year's sprints...

-GRANT ROWLEY

NATIONAL SCENE

'< the quickest times on both days.

Andrew Howell, aboard his Pilbeam MP82 clocked a 10.68s, just behind Smith's best.

Nissan GTR R33 Turbo driver Tony Auramides was the BliW

1

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lifeBtil be

'1.

'●i.

«■/"

V

Mix and match: An Austin Healey goes up against the GT40, above left. Above right, even the tyres on the cars from the old school can create a unmistakable Britten smoke-screen. Right Motorcycle.

)

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2003 AU Falcon Supercar 2003 r/odol nowotl Falcon Suporcaavaiablo. last Fofd Boonag cbaaiia.

Largo aoaros packago. Full PAmc iMttv irvo totomo*jy Only racod Komca lartaa, not al Bacbunil. FUly proaareo arM nnalntamod. no OKpanao sparod AJao soNrg 2001 Falcon AU Suporcar, ropainlod Hto 2003 car Now unuaod

# n

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WWW.my10S.com/705

«»9V*a paita awalablo. Oaio(M« aoe S60.

fdMW/SportiCaw

4 RXl eM eat. Ex4aiditetnS^l38 raea btklgtpol. irgna almcal naw. Slawi TfMbbtn, oDUtifbot, noa tUth, turto 5 tptad g«Qa. aM eapa. raeinp tank, VWm erakatk ftntMMatr trata biaa, mcm atav nunaaa. too mucli u niaatton. Oemti tor Oub or Sennto S6SOO ONO. Cdl Rsdnay (03) 9767 S604 f 0400 776 671. m ●ma«y106eem«6M(2

improMd Froducltan RXT, Only « mtatn(ti etd, at now lumno pa«r. 138 ii«actto. 1.1.5 icfo mm fiMick <>ia-«a, LaOMl>itpit«MUaikMwBrakia <para» i.neUlaa Tniar <ho *»aiaut.

174 325.009 Fhl (CS> 9635 1230. ●nKWjmy1M.MnV11050

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OTP MMAN 206CX. radMi 700«t n GtP eor «b*n» ntt (poro eocfctgo «v wy oompeUHo n nght rtondo r« cool ipotod to

Mk t EtiMHL Pentf* iriaatod 2Hr. mMc igntkti, 4«it) diaca, braka boa, 5 link raar, a^uaiabto ayapafOA toat oaA bii oiga.

7SCQNag MWr 0416 4M 9467(00] 6824 2878. nt «nv#iny10S4nmW747}

natn oolo $3».803 k*k» Oita 4ib 707 xyUdeoanMOi a

XU1 Spowa lodan, FdoL Rtoiatoa.

Conatetam Car RteaM Rabbiunaatra oar Comp 6to on 0 to* bud|M9 $10.0CO Or M Olir. m Troy Oaie aao S34 nrwmrjnylffLi

i/'.r.■ -1

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Honda OM« VTCC, Own* Vwy Cage.

PtbPsaO^ocka Niar«ioiospir*aa«todad Idtol ear lor GTP, lirgrordd Frodoeboo k7aaiia<ad« no oaponM (pared Wti.*E SOLD FOA $12.00) ONO 0413 733 407 tn orww.rnyHS.bOadgwn

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SuauM »wW 06. Orocp A ipae. MIC and tttH chimetonih'p airv«« car. Carepitto ratdy ee nUf, oemai ■«« tiuga aparaa aackag*. i naad to Ml qiMMy. nil ttkaellm. Cli Mchatl 0402 t06 915 or (02) 9419 7639. «rarwmy1tfaam»oiU

Tayott aprtniar. Cuwt wae rAGCR bu« iNtaa 3tg no aapapM tetrad iDiB4d «odo (Miona 04. vahro* Ad. voNo (prHg« wg cw4 ttmiOleo rrotoc aaaoo alc. Mpr* 1:1 6diMioc$uitobit(u(p aihwod tio rotora aOjMdoi boa to irurti to lot Anooomopaskago Braa04ltaK236 tn aMtoaq]1664«mHi«M

voriton. C« gtooa, rok oago, FiA tiao oMWtowaio. t tooh oHtotnl, Caotroino

VS ahai tor ciaot npgrtoda OiMi PiadHoa OmN 630:000 OMO MkHati 0419611 ill. m totonMnyl9t.oaad646r

HQ Hatd«« Raoa Car. Qntefc ov, tod toM 1*1 of 2002 OJ7. oriduie ai tocond tott

oompoHtoP radlMor. Wary comptOlaro SocoAd Oraiip 6 I FtkAC apfiK Qto ■Np 2000 « 2001. Nunanwo top

lor 00(0. toMgwi 406 aiipoMewtotoO) aipdoi wuptoti rplrg tooieti. centooafto rpatowl tapaod voouontf# and cytott ●0 vrkoNo and oomo oporao $2».009 No# m ●lyco 103) 9366 3103 ■ng166.oonV7a636

Satakury m tmt mtm, ladtour. auiptnatan told «MM* naar now oaM. no *araa oMMt Ptoa% d ipar* pad*. 63jM0 m MtO- OtorM Kit) 67to$ 4277 WB«uBg166Laomto2Sro

4666 or (63) 0660 0626.

26 November 2003

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Hlatarto Towlni Car Oroup NC HO tOnaowaiA V6 306 4 apaad 460 BH.F. Cmm iag book, nao* orona ranaWl al pans anailabto. Raoa to luppont tor V6 SitMTCir maattigi. 612000 ONO m Cal OoMd on D4i9 239 666 WMrto.my10iLOOiW7SM6

L.

C*aa Car. Wiry conpaMliM ropo car Meat to rape tor 2004 to rgaryl

2 IWHtot. Rally mmntten (RVN mx 41006M1. tttoaoo, CM on Ron eo) 9230

oaiMn laaa, ●annar. 2nd O NSW Staia Qtrtoton^tp.

Sinne SR20 habck 320H» MoIk Ksrto, PMBto bOK Wong bntoaa, M oat Wry «n( pinairAral or Away to raoe. Cba«««iMi Ml*r 8ndiptoOO.SMtOOaAaU04l3306M3 m wan* nylOS corn/72116

donatopmoni. marty root nint, pda potMPra arto top raooM*. Now ongno and otakeato. pMrtaK 4parfaitNtoOng2 or* of too boolto too opontry. $26,000 OHO Kud (07) 3366 <166 m a*aitof166.iand6l616 Far aaM, Paugeoc 40M16 (an brack 12hr oar) aili irnprovad noduclton or uMar 2toM, cmM tiMtoos. aMM «46 pro and oai, braiTM brakaa. toll adouatabto ●uapaoatod |iu4 aiaiiy apaiaa. 616,600 m Nao. Bryoo K») 6398 3103.

MiMr.nv161eanM6626 79

HSV 300kw VX GTS, As run in GT no expense spared. performance, consistent performer. Barry 0412 267 245.

272 virww.my105.eom/85009

EVO 7, Race winning car, many spares.

Garry 0413 879 879 / (02) 9688 3003.

272 www.my105.com/28980 Commodore VC Caged Rolling Shell, Commodore caged rolling shell. Complete with all windows, spare panels, Pacemacker exhuast, new omp seat and hydrulic clutch.

Good straight car, With CAMS log book.

Would suit sports sedan or improved production. Also have 308/355 engine & super T10 gearbox for sale will seperate.

Priced REDUCED for urgent sale. $2,350 272 Neg. Colin 0417 818 977. www.myl05.eom/33019

Formula Ford Van Dieman RF86, Good condition with good history, car just been rebuilt, complete package includes enclosed tandem trailer with fiili annex, many spares including: 18 gear ratios, set of wheels, rocker arms, rotors, sway bars, panels, etc etc, stands and set up bars. $18,900, Robert 0414 840 717.272www.my105.com/46677

Saloon Car No 9, No expense spared in build or maintanence. Top HP Engine with philtzner gears and cooler. Motec data logger dash. Spare engine, G/B x 2, Diff, 3 sets of wheels. Sell complete or separate.

271 P.0,A. Vince (02) 9636 5411. www.myl05.com/96131

w.

Open Wheelers

ri

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52

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Oiemen RF98 Roller, Good specification car with excellent history in Europe. Please email me for full details. $25,000 Neg. 272 www.myl 05.com/40065

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HTG Formula 2, Front running car and very reliable. Mounted wets, heaps of ratios, body moulds. You can't go this fast for less money!

Laps Wakefield in 60,0, E.C. in 1.37.5,0.P.GP in 1.12.3. May seperate if necessary. $30,000 ONO. Ted 0419 254 380 / (02) 4372 1656. 271 www.myl05.com/9474

1986 Van Dieman Formula Ford, Previously owned and raced by Jason Bright, very original car, new harness (exp 2007) some spares and alignment bars. Good first car with potential historic valve. $14,750 272 ONO. Darren (02) 4626 1935, www.myl05.com/88218

M.

HQ 82 for sale, Keven Stoopmans two HQ Holdens circuit car and thunderdome car both for sale. Both cars are in great condition and ready to race. Fastest lap times and podium finishes outright in 2002 and 2003. Plenty of spares inc, suspension, parts, panels, exhaust, everything to win races in 2004. $8,900. Keven Stoopman 272 (03) 9753 5894. www.myl OS.com/83418

r }

^ TIM

Inaugural Championship Winning Car, No Expense Spared in Maintaince all Mechanicals new or Freshened, New phitsner dog box, Harrop brakes & Cambered Rear End, all Pumps and Coolers Fitted, motec, this car was built from new motorsport shell with all new components car is propped ready to put straight on pole (pole an lap record last start} car has more poles race wins and lap records than any other F/T arid no DNF,s ready for new seires or Easily make fast, late improved prod car, new c/cup, or sportsedan spares inc new tyres, wets ect setup and assistance provided tocan price $49,500 consider trade, Tim 0408 755 855.

271 www.my105.com/53713

/■

1981 Cheetah Mk 7, In tip top condition. Pole at Oran Park Nov '02 with Dailara 395 Mugen in field. Easy to drive, valid for AF2, I have all log books if you wanted to tun in historic Gp R. Comes with spares, A proven race winner.

Won Rookie of the year 2002. Entry to Oran Park Nov 15 included. Car fresh and ready to race. Engineer Tom 9588 9443 Owner: Brendon 0409 952 905. $25,000 Neg, Brendon 0409 952 905.

271 www.myl05.com/24886

For Sale, Rolling chassis, full fibreglass body, rear wing, 4-wheel brakes, 4 pot calipers, roll over bar for hillclimbs. Log btxiks. Trailer if required. $1,500. 0412 337 406 / (02) 6655 1722. 272www.my105.com/61879 RALT RT4/86, ex Thackwell/Greg Murphy.

Rebuilt around new tub. Fitted 2.0 YB Cosworth-Sidepods for BDA included with spare ratios, tyres, wheels etc. Turnkey @ A$55,000 plus custom built 4 wheel lock-up trailer, storage compartments etc. A$12,000.

Contact Teagle Ph. (NZ) 64 9 5247662. 274 www.myl05.com/47974

V I

Wlk 6 Cheetah F2, Fully restored. 1600 cc Celica engine dyno time only. Webber 45 carburettors. Hewland gearbox. Brand new chrome exhaust system. Fire system fitted.

Eligible AF2 or Histories. Spares including head and mounted wheels. Also included

Hill Climb, Autocross Sprint Car, Ninja powered, water cooled, independent suspension, weight 350kg 140HP, winning car. $8,000. Call Lochie on (03) 5664 9377 or 271 (03) 5662 5454. www.myl OS.com/86249

Formula Ford for sale. This oar is in excellent condition. Comes with spares, ratios, bodywork pieces, high lift stands, 2nd set of tyres. Comes with a purpose made trailer. This is a turn key package. $28,000. /Vnthony (NZ) 64 21 123 9862.

272 www.myl OS.com/74991

purpose built, fully enclosed refurbished trailer with 12 months registration and full length side and rear annex. Excellent car. $ 37,500 ONO. Alan (02) 6367 3030 / (02) 6367 3222.

272 www.my105.com/69423

2001 NSW Championship Winning Car, 1994 Swift. Will sell as rollar of cx)mplete. engine was rebuilt before 1st meeting. Done one race. Many spares with car. Must sell.

270 Justin (02) 4647 4383. www.myl05.eom/25045

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Legends For Sale, 2 x Original 600 Racing Legends, Championship Winning Cars (86) '34 Ford Coupe, Hank Scott Yamaha FJ 1200CC Engine with Racing clutch $10,000 (85)'37 Chev Coupe, Yamaha XJR 1200cc Engine with Racing clutch $8,000 or $16,000 for both with spares Contact Brad 0419 327 500 or Alan 0419 327 501.

272 $16,000 for both, www.myl O5.com/11009

V8 Supercar Parts, 3HRT single nut rinn $500 each. 2 single nut rattle guns $500 each. Assorted Rocker gear T and D rockes valves, springs, etc. 0415 229 590. 271 www.myl05.eom/86405

/ftft/e-v

S

Chev race Clutch/Flywheel/starter, AP triple plate race clutch / Flywheel & High torque race starter for SB Chev $900 will split. $900 Not Neg. Graham 0403 811360.

270 www.my105.com/59595 Supra Sspeed, 1 ; 1 5th, splined removable gearset as new condition, used only 5 times, brad 0419 492 236.

270 www.myl05.eom/39069

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

A

r

Transporter 35ft Pantec, Unfinished project carries one car, lOOOItr water tank, work bench, sleeping quarters. Plenty of storage. $3,000. 0418 546 755 www.myl05.com/74959

Modified Production Sedan, VR Commodore #10 Aust 2 1998-99 Vic 1 2000-01 Fresh Engine & fibreglass Panels with spares.(02 6033 1291 / 0408 570 822.

253 www.myl05.com/72040

372ci Sprintcar Engine, Lightened Alloy Block, Brodex -12 Heads, Kinsler Fuel Injection, Vertex Magneto, Dry Sump, Latest 1 piece Air Filter System. $22,000. Dennis 272 0408 844 841. www.myl05.com/81925 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

Parts

170 HP 1600 Xflow Ford Engine, This is a all steel top HP ex F2 race engine totally rebuilt in the 80's and properly stored/preserved since. The motor comes with dyno sheets and is complete with 48 mm Webers fabricted inlet & exhaust pipes and some new spares. I need the space and must sell. $7,800. Haydn 0418 340 133.

274 www.my105.com/265S3 Lotus Twim Cam, 1650cc, totally rebuilt, all machining operations, new Cosworth pistons, new LI Cams, Vandervell bearings, LTW cam buckets, head full rebuild, big valves, balanced, rods and crank shotpeened, 45mm side draft Webers excellent and new. $12,000. Call Travis on 0417 319 948. 273www.my105.com/52984

Sprintcar Parts, KSE Power Steering Box $1500, Neilds Power Steering Box $1700, 2 3/16" Hilborn Fuel Injection & Pump + Airfilter Assy $1900, Winters Diff $1500, Halibrand Diff $1200, Winters Diff 4.11 $1200, Franklin Diff $1500, Complete front axle $1400, Magneto & Coil $850 plus other sprintcar parts. Dennis 0408 844 841.

272 www.my10S.com/94331

Shocks and Springs, Shooks and springs 4 Koni as new adjustable aluminium with adjustable platform. Length 13,5 inch. Close 10.25 Inch. Suite o/wheeler or sports car.

273 $2,000. Graham (02) 6681 3735. www.my105,com/647S6 60 Eibach Springs, 100 100,110,120,160,180,200,220,240. $800 for 273 all 8 pairs, Steve (02) 9899 9503. www.my105.com/66573 Tyres,4 Dunlop 265/525x14 295 compound .wet tyres never been fitted to rims. $300.

Jamie 267 0411 197 111. www.my10S.com/17313

26 Noveinber 2003

Racing apparel. Dual layer racing suit Medium, fireproof u/wear and socks, size 11 boots. Bell composite helmet Large. New cost more thah $2,000. $1,200 ONO. Grant 0408 841 680 / (08) 8255 9767. 272 www.myl05.com/51380 Max Wilson's Bella Electrical Driving Suits, One 2-layer suit(worn once)and one 3-layer suit(new) as used by Max Wilson in 2002, both FIA approved and both size small. Can arrange name change on belt and freight, both at additional cost to purchaser. $795.00 each or otfer for both Or Best Offer. Shane 001164 9 5800552. 271 www.myl05.eom/98903

Wanted Driver Wanted, 2003 Bathurst 24 hr. Must have C5 licence. Experience in touring cars prefered. Contact Mark 0407 262 300. 268 www.myl05.eom/54022 WANTED, Sports Sedan / Supercar C/Dore VL-VS either complete/rolling/shell or parts to suit. John Phone (02) 6362 4646. 266 www.my105.com/470

MITSUBISHI FM515 88 TURBO 10 SPEED, Mitsubishi FM515 '88 Turbo 10 Speed 30ft long 60CBM Alloy Furniture Pan, Steel Floor, Can fit up to 4 cars, Long Range tanks, NO REG. Close to RWC. $23,000 Neg. ANDREW 0418 546 318. 269 www.myl05.com/27294

Ford V8 Supercar engine, 619hp Mark McLaughlin,Run only 150km. Headers, SS exhaust, carbon clutch Rattle guns and hoses etc.. Garry 0413 879 879 /(02)9688 3003. 272www.my105.com/58255

Transporters/Trailers

HEMI 265 Parts, 3 X 45 webers inc manifold jetted . 4 inch CHEV pistons and block . Ported Head with roller rockers .

Steel flywheel with twin plate . Alloy bell housing. Single Rail BW gearbox. Make an 272 offer Jeff 0418 640 495 Sydney. www.my105.com/57182

HINO 86 TRANSPORTER 20FT PAN, ITonne T/Gate, Winch, Ramps, Fits Commodore, Belly Boxes, Int 0/head lockers. Tyre Rack,Water Tank, CB, Stereo, Alloy B/Bar, Big Headlights, C/Skin Tyres, Tow Bar, AUG 04 Reg, RWC. $22,000 Neg. Andrew 0418 546 www.myl05.eom/48920

Driver/Crew Apparel

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.my105.com/30158

If

\M

Mill

i/3 1981 Isuzu Turbo Diesel Transporter, 1981 Isuzu Turbo diesel transporter, 30ft pan, smooth sides, 12 speed box, tailgate loader, winch, compressor, generator, tow bar, alloy side toolboxes, double bed, kitchen, CB, UHF, CD, Video, TV, stereo, fridge, kitchen. Suit one big or two smaller cars and tow second/third. Excellent condition, a steal at $55,000. Call Peter, 0418 207 600. 271 www.my105.com/24701 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 only use twice, great to tow.

NSW rego. $12,500.00 ONO. 0405 204 819. 264www.my105.com/8077

Transporter Bedford 40 Foot Bus, Rebuilt 7 litre turbo isuzu Diesel and 6 speed, very fast and comfortable, 10 seater, RX7 buckets, set up for TV, video, radio, CD, fridge, gen, welder, BBQ, 240v wiring, new steel tyres, spent $33,000 on parts alone. $22,000. Chris (08) 8186 4220 / (08) 8370 7011 (H) or 0419 847 102. 267 www.my105.com/39569

/ sold my car over the weekend, I received plenty of phone calls.

Thanks again. - Mark FormulaVee. I think your website is brilliant!

Richard Batchelor r-

81

OPINION

■Marsport EDITORIAl STAFr

Editor: Phil Branagan ● editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor; Mark Glendenning ● mark@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Grant Rowley ● grant@mnews.com.au

Young buck

race and the first two positions

My name is Zac Sharp and I'm 13.

Ever since 1998 Honda hidy

were theirs. Perhaps next year (if there is another event that is) Holden can run three cars so that

300, I've been in love with racing

they can claim tire whole podium

cars. I love Formula Ford, Indy

to themselves. It would be fitting as the whole event has been

Car and pretty much every openwheel car on the face of the earth. how to get into Formula Fords.

Zac Sharp

PRODUCTION

ED: For more info on FFord, check

Graphics Assistant: George Stephen

out mumformulaford.com.au.

ADVERTISINO Brendon Sheridan - PR Driven Tel: 03 9550 0870 Fax: 03 9550 0816 mobile: 0407 007 286 ● ads@mnews.com.au"-

1 suggest though that you save your money, try out kartingfirst and then think about proper racing cars ...

Supercars on Ice The evolution of V8 Supercars

ADMINISTRATION Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden ● publisher@mnews.com.au

has provided us with a fantastic touring car series. beginning to skate on thin ice

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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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1 year }143

Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au

with its fans. The sport is failing to

of the sport.

Take for instance the program V8 Superstars. Each episode. Bill Woods baits each of the drivers to comment on race incidents and major issues that spawns childish arguments between drivers. This creates an entertaining debate, however, the stirring and putting down between drivers detracts from the professional

some brains and set the racing rules in concrete.

Peter Whitlock

to note that the spectator viewing areas were very sparsely populated in comparison to last month's race. Only blinkered Holden people and the misinformed would pay to see such a contrived event. The size of this weekend's crowd looked

attracted.

And I wonder what ever happened to that particular race?

Shepparton, Victoria

Simon Dale

Endeavour Hills, Victoria

Predictable 24

Holden heroes?

So, the 2003 24 hour event has been

Gee, where do I start. The Bathurst 24 hour should be called the shoot-out

run. T^d, predictably, Peter Brock claimed his 10th Bathurst.

It was all so beautifully orchestrated for TV. The #427 car was

of the one off specials, because it seems Holden are able to get away with running a purpose-built race car

pulled into the pits for the mechanics

against the real produetton cars. And

to 'fix a problem'. About half a dozen mechanics were under the back of the

Garry Rogers telling everyone about

car with sparmers working away furiously. But nothing was removed

such a good Holden product that runs a Chev engine, a Hollinger gearbox and a Ford nine-inch diff.

image of these V8 icons and the sport itself.

or replaced. After the pitstop the

Not many Monaros, which run that

yellow car quickly made up the 20 -

drivetram, come from my Holden

Professionalism also lacks when

plus second deficit to the red car but

dealership.

the likes of Matthew White (Network lO's cliief commentator for the V8's) seems to orgasm every time a car gets sideways or a bump from behind.

This exaggerated excitement from commentators, often smothering the interesting radio chat from the teams, is simply annoying and unnecessary.

Neil Crompton is the only one offering intelligent insight into each race because he has the

was then mysteriously unable to pass. It was made to look good for TV

I guess the last and best word for the race goes to Jolin Teulan who

as the two were circulating in close

mentioned to everyone how his car

proximity near the end - the #427 car

was the first production car home.

Well said, John.

Michael

pulled out of the slipstream repeatedly on tlie straights but never made any attempt to pass the lead car.

A contrived result to a contrived

maxboost30@austarnet.com.au ED; Yup, I thoroughly concur. It's good

race. With little real opposition the

that them V8 Supercars don't run Chev

tvj'o Holdens just needed to finish the

engines. Ford diffs and Hollingers ...

WCSSKYIJN

motorsporting backgroimd.

Tlie professional reputation of V8 Supercars is also being destroyed by the race officials.

The inconsistency of rules and penalties is turning people away from watching the sport. The 'make it

2 years $275

regulations is just not professional and isn't fair on the teams and the

r-,

spectators. I fail to see any of the logic from Tim Schenken and his crew, with constant pace car stuff ups and

ifh

inconsistent penalties ...

AS 195 AS250

race last month,it was interesting

2 litre Bathurst lOOOkm races as long as race officials start using

relation to Network lO's telecasting.

There has been a shift to cater more for an entertainment package, while

it was obvious that motorsports fans kept away in their droves.

As I was at the Bathurst lOOOkm

similar to the crowd size that the

entertainment and professionahsm, in

undermining the professional image

promotional exercise.

From what can be seen on TV

up as you go' attitude to the race

$370 $480

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82

converter

However, the category is

CONTAOTS

GONTRIRUTORS

u

BliBli.QU

Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby ● viv@mnews.com.au

SUBSCRIPTIOMS

designed as a Holden

I want some information on

I fear if Supercars does not shift its focus back to a professional sport that relies simply on good racing, many people will turn away from it. Tire sport is entertaining enough without

I.

-4

9-

'ma-.

t

the beefing up of its broadcast. The

Orchestrated, contrived or just too good? Whatever the case, the

racing alone wiU keep its fans alive,

Monaros were simply unbeatable ...

motorsport news

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