Motorsport News Issue 281 - April 21-May 5, 2004

.■ BATHURST: SBR’S ENDURANCE LINEUP the IMEWS BEHilMD THE l\IEWS

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motorsport news

Issue 281

21 April — 4 May 2004

news and opinion

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Stones unturned Ritter and McLean for enduros

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Ralf heads to Cologne Looks like Williams is over it

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Driving licences WPS needs one, and Thecko doesn’t

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10 Will on podium, Wiil isn’t

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Power puts it to Davison, and the rest, at Silverstone i

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14 Brabham-Lamborghini No, not a new FI team,just David’s new Sportscar ride 25 Motor Mouth The sorry state of Nations Cup 26 Box Seat Saward writes something that Ralf might want to skip over 82 Taik Converter Sandown 500, Adelaide 500 ...

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28 5 Minutes With Jose Fernandez Fujitsu’s man takes his first KMV8SS podium 30 5 Minutes With Corrado Provera Peugeot’s WRC boss is not panicking 32 Silver Dream Racer TKR’s Craig Baird is enjoying life 36 One day in Italy With the last Imola FI race looming, we look at the Villeneuve/Pironi feud 40 Senna remembered Ten years after 1 May 1994, we talk to the people who influenced his brilliant career 48 Don’t forget Roland the Rat We didn’t 52 Behind closed doors Inside Team Toyota Racing’s FIQ

race couerage 54 Home Boy Makes Good Andy Jones emerges from the KMV8SS ruck at Winton Ayrton Senna claimed pole position for the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix by an amazing 1.2 seconds in bis JPS Lotus-Renauit 97T. See pages 40-47 for our look back at his career.

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Photo by sutton-images.com, Cover photo by sutton-images.com

lO yean later thelegenU the racer

regular departments 22 68

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Bikes

64 Rallying

Drag Racing 70

National Scene

66 Speedway 75

Marketplace

58 Oran Park PROCAR Nathan’s Monaro wins - but where did all the other cars go?

60 Oran Park F3 Crash! Bang!

Litt!e teams makes good - and no Gi!mourGir!s...

62 It gets Petter and Petter Solberg tops an all-out battle in Rally NZ 3

Rumour Rile Where we air all those intriguing, but to date unconfirmed, rumours dug out by our imperious spies ...

Rittep and McLea

Now this is a good rumour. We hear that Win Percy is going to be heading down under next month to take part in a tarmac rally in a Jaguar. Winston has been confined to a wheelchair since last year but we hear that the honorary Aussie describes himself as one of the fastest 'hand control' drivers in the UK. Even if he does not win the event, we reckon Winny will be worth watching and, knowing him, he will be TRYING to win the event.

Seen those beach blonde guys who get around to all of the V8 Supercar races dressed in their OzEmail V8 Supercar gear to support the brothers Jones? The grapevine is buzzing that Waldo and Horey may have been lured away to provide moral support for another, newer. Falcon team that have silver and black cars ...

Rumour of a young Formula Fordster who may be heading to wings and slicks in F3. While not running FFord at the moment, this South Aussie is being slated to test for Bronte Rundle's team in the near future. No names but we'll tell you when and if something happens.

Doubling Your Super

Heard the one about Oran Park bidding for the November round of the V8 Supercar Series that hasn't got a home yet?

Where's Wayno? Remembering the fact that Wayne Wakefield filled in for Jan Magnussen at Sandown last year for Team Dynamik, could the Queenslander end up back there for the endures? Or could Dale Brede not still be feeling very Dynamik by that stage of the year? Rumours of sponsorship money not coming through, coupled with a few accidents, have the rumour mill buzzing that the Canberrian might be heading out the door before the end of the season.

Either way, the vibe is that Neil McFadyen, last year's FFord Champ, will get a guernsey for Sandown and Bathurst in lieu of him having anything else to race this season.

Line up if you're short and have a funny sounding surname. Word on the street is that it will be Canto/Wilson in one Betta car but who will join The Rat in the other? Apparently there's a Triple 8 shortlist of a few Euro drivers...

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LOOK for a second Super Cheap Falcon in the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Team boss Bruce Ellery is looking to expand his team and run two cars in the future. The team currently runs a single entry in both the V8SCS and the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series for Steve Ellery and Luke Youlden respectively.

"That is the thought we are working towards," said Ellery Sr last week.

"But whether it happens is another thing. We would like to run the second car, with both in Super Cheap colours and I have talked about just that with (Super Cheap principal) Bob

Thorn. But there is a lot of work to be done before we get there."

One of the problems about such an expansion would be the availability of licences. The Ellery team currently has one Level 2 (Ellery) and one Level 3(Youlden) and would need another Level 1 or 2 licence. There are currently a number of 'leased' licences in use and Ellery would have to acquire one of those.

In addition, the WPS team, which is currently running a single entry for David Besnard, will need two licences for 2005 and beyond.

The Gold Coast team runs Bezzy under a Level 1 licence leased from the Tasman (nee

Lansvale) team, which is believed to have plans to expand to a two-car entry next season.

Such a move would mean 'reclaiming' its licence, leaving WPS to look at the single L2s currently held by Kees Weel and Romano Racing and that of Imrie Motorsport.

A late report suggests that WPS may have in fact done a deal to take over David Thexton's Level 2 franchise, leaving the Kiwi to place his team and equipment up for sale.

In the meantime, Ellery's BA has been repaired from its Eastern Creek accident and will make the boat trip to New Zealand this week.

- PHIL BRAIMAGAN motorsport news

n for SBR drives

by PHIL BRANAGAN

STONE Brothers Racing is expected to confirm soon that Greg Ritter and Cameron McLean will be its endurance drivers.

The pair, who raced for Holden teams at Sandown and Bathurst last year, wiU join Marcos Ambrose and Russell IngaU in an assault on the endurance races in September and October.

However, there are a number of details to be sorted out before the team settles on its final driver

21 April 2004

Waiting to fiii that V8 TBA AN announcement for the venue of the penultimate round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series will now come following the Pukekohe round of the championship.

AVESCO's Tony Cochrane said this week that there was still no news on the venue but that there were three still in contention, though there were "long-term" considerations still to be taken into account. n Network 10 is making changes to its Sunday night line-up starting in early May and, while motor racing will not be getting a gig at 8:30pm, it is still good news for we motor heads.

Ten will can the Sunday night movie in favour of two one-hour dramas back-to-back, but that means that the way should be clear for racing to start at 10:30 or shortly after. It's nice not to be at the mercy of l-o-n-g movies any more ...

pairings.

MNews believes that the team will keep Ambrose and Ingall in their Pirtek and Caltex cars respectively, unlike last year when they were paired for the two races.

Physically, there is little to choose between the four drivers, with all within about eight centimetres in height and six kilos in weight. So it appears that the team is keen to conduct a test session with aU four drivers to identify which traits of which lead drivers' set-ups most suit their co-drivers.

Ritter, 31, has made five starts at Bathurst and has been something of a qualifying star. In his last two starts, he has out-qualified team regulars at Dick Johnson Racing and Team Brock respectively and has placed fourth at the Mountain twice.

McLean,36, has made eight starts at Bathurst, most recently sharing a Kmart Racing Commodore with Andy Priaulx. The car was eliminated from contention after a first-comer incident. He has also won Privateers' crowns in both Super Touring and V8 Supercars and is a former Australian Sports Sedan champion.

Ironically, McLean's best result at Bathurst came in 2001 when he finished fourth in a Shell Falcon AU which he shared with Ritter ...

The move means that two prized co-drivers are off the market in a year when they are sure to be at a premium.

Neither the Holden Racing Team nor Kmart Racing Team wiU have any of its 2003 co-drivers available to the teams at Bathurst. Jim Richards and Tony Longhurst, who raced for HRT last season, are committed to Castrol Perkins Racing and McLean and Priaulx are already spoken for, the Brit having a clashing European Touring Car round with his BMW GB team.

That race is also expected to mean that Rickard RydeU, who made a strong V8 debut with Triple 8 last year, will miss the race, due to his ETCC season with Seat.

NEWS

n Valvoline V8 team boss Garry Rogers has escaped penalty for comments made in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper on March 29 regarding Paul Dumbrell and the turn eight incident in race two of the Clipsal 500. The Stewards determined there was not enough evidence to support the allegation of bringing the sport into disrepute.

He's got a seat, but in which car? Cameron McLean has been keeping up miles in the Konica Minolta Series and will be in an SBR car for the enduros.

Craig leaves FPR! CRAIG Lowndes has walked out on Ford Performance Racing and joined the OzEmail Racing Team.

For one day.

Yep, the three-time V8 Supercar champion stepped out of his CAT Barra and into a BJR BA in order to shoot a television commercial for Ford, along with Pirtek's Marcos Ambrose, at Eastern Creek.

Trouble was, FPR did not have any of its three BAs track ready on the day the shoot was scheduled and advertising and track timetables are even less flexible that racing teams. So there was a quick ringaround of Ford teams and, with BJR having a third Falcon ready to roll, out came the black and white crayons.

The Albury-based car was converted in no time flat, trucked to Sydney and used by

Junior for the day. The shoot went well, Craig and the car went to their respective homes and everyone got on with life.

The advert is expected to hit the telly screens soon. Have a good look at the vision; you know where, on the front bar, the Prodrive logo is written?

Well, on the Oz car ... they would not have put another team's logo there, surely ...

- PHIL BRANAGAN

n WPS Racing has begun the search for endurance drivers to complement full-timers David Besnard and Mark Noske. Carrera Cup ace Alex Davison, Charlie O'Brien and Kiwi John McIntyre tested for the team at Queensland Raceway last Friday, with both of the team's ex-00 Motorsport Falcons seeing track time.

Davison is said to be high on the shopping lists of a number of teams, particularly ones that run Commodores from Clayton ... n Interesting to see Holden Motortsport's Ray Borrett and Craig Fletcher at the Konica Minolta V8 round at Winton on the weekend.

Our minds can't remember a stand alone KMV8 round where the General have had an official presence.

Rumours have swirled about their unhappiness with the current Young Lions set-up though Steve Owen's impressive performance can't have hurt, qualifying on the front row at Winton and challenging for the race one lead until contact with Owen Kelly. n Look for a Swede in the next Channel 10 FI broadcast. Nope, not the blonde from Abba or even Lars from your local Ikea, but none other than Ove Andersson. Toyota's GF advisor is suiting up to join Billy Woods and Neils on Wheels on the San Marino GF show on April 25.

Ove will be in Australia preparing to give Toyota Australia's ST205 Celica a gallop in Targa Tasmania.

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Circuit de Catalunya

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o Q THE European Arrest Warrant issue may cause the Spanish Grand Prix to be boycotted.

FIA President Max Mosley has called a meeting of the Formula 1 team bosses in Monaco on May 5 and there are suggestions that he may use this event to try to convince them to boycott the Spanish race in an effort to stop the warrant becoming a threat to &e sport.

Mosley and some of the team bosses argue that they might be held liable if there is an accident in a European country that has signed up for the Warrant and that this could lead to people being imprisoned without trial for lengthy periods of time.

Mosley says that all it needs is a magistrf nameb) a high ii The less

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although Italy is currently opposed to the Warrant,there are potential problems in Spain,Britain and Belgium.

A boycott of a race is not an easy thing to organise because teams are contracted to attend an event. However,our understanding is that the contractual obligation only goes as far as appearing for scmtineering and there is no legal obligation for the cars to actually run.

Thus we might see a situation in which the FI teams all turn up in Spain but spend the weekend in the garages at the Circuit de Catalunya unless the Spanish government(and perhaps others) agree to exempt Formula 1 from the Warrant.

AFTER months of speculation,it looks like WilliamsFl and Ralf Schumacher are definitely parting ways.

Team insiders are saying that the German has been told that his

seemmg ending i have no lost on t teams and.

services are not going to be needed after his contract expires at the end of the current season and that the team will have two new drivers on board the BMW-powered cars in 2005.

Juan Montoya has already signed a deal to join IGmi Raikkonen at McLaren next year and favourite to fill Schumacher's spot is Mark Webber.

iutton-images.com

Mosley talks oftech change

MAX Mosley says that the FIA is worried about the speed of the Formula 1 cars and could act to slow them down.

“We are looking very carefully at possibly using powers that we have under the Concorde Agreement to reduce the performance of the cars,” Mosley said.

“If we conclude that the cars are too fast, then we oan give notice to the teams under the Concorde Agreement which requires the technical working group to come up with proposals for slowing the cars and they have to do that within a limited time. If they don’t come up with the proposals, we have the right to impose something.”

Although the Concorde Agreement is a secret document, it is our understanding that the Technical Working Group has two months to come up with ideas before the FIA is allowed to act. If that body - made up of the FI 6

technical directors - does not come up with a suitable solution, the FIA can present three alternative packages of measures and they will be forced to choose between them.

But how do you slow themn down?

The quickest and easiest way to reduce the cornering speeds of the cars would be to increase the thickness of the underfloor ‘plank’ that is bolted to the bottom of the cars to stop them running close to the ground.

This would involve only changing one number in the regulations and would mean that teams would need to look again at their aerodynamic performance and almost certainly rethink their suspension geometries.

Another method of slowing the cars would be to insist on a change of the tyre regulations, with an increase in the number of grooves. This would not be popular with the tyre oompanies that would

Schumacher,28,is expected to join Toyota but the deal is far from done,despite some big money talk from his manager, WUli Weber. A Toyota spokesperson recently confirmed that there had been discussions about having the German join its team.

"We admit we have had contacts with drivers including Ralf," he said.

"But we haven't signed him. We're not even close as far as I know."

need to create new moulds.

The most extreme form of change - which would not really be possible in the course of a season - would be to reduce the engine capacity. There appear to be plans for this to happen in 2006 with a new 2.4-litre V8 idea having been discussed. Back in 1994, in the wake of Ayrton Senna's accident at Imola, the FIA did insist that engines be reduced from 3.5-litre units to 3.0litres but this was not introduced until the end of the year.

Such a change in the capacity of the engines would normally be a huge undertaking for the manufacturers but, by cutting both the number of cylinders and swept volume by 20 percent, cylinders remain the same size. motorsport news

Rtmzx

will also "Be There!I" to share Mike's mike for the first telecast of the Adelaide round, which will be shown this Saturday afternoon at 12.30pm on Nine.

The Webber situation is complicated by the fact that, while his current Jaguar Racing contract (which runs until the end of 2005) has an out-clause, that clause only comes into effect if the team is not in the top five in the Constructors' Championship by mid-season.

Further to that, his release would only be 'automatic' if he goes to Renault, as part of his management deal with Flavio Briatore.

Schumacher came into Formula One in 1997 with Jordan where he stayed for two seasons before moving to Williams in 1999. He has started in 116 races and scored six wins, with four pole positions and six fastest laps.

Over recent times, there has been a considerable amoimt of private disquiet in the relationship between the team and driver, with Schumacher quitting a test at Barcelona last week early because of what he said was a back strain.

To add fuel to the fire,former GP winner Johnny Herbert recently scoffed at talk that Ralf was worth $20 million a year.

"There's no way he's worth

anywhere near that," he told the Sunday Mirror.

"The way he's driving and behaving I'd say he's worth about £5.50."

Williams is in no obvious hurry to choose a new driver or drivers, with Jenson Button also a possibility. The Briton's deal with BAR is similar to Webber's but, after two podium finishes in the opening three races of the season. Button is third in the championship.

So it appears that his chances of the team not being in the top five are sHm,and that is regardless of whether Button would want to leave

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an increasingly successful team where he is the clear lead driver.

Williams also tested Scott Dixon twice in the last month and the current IndyCar Champion is expected to test for the team again in September.

In the meantime, we watch and wait. One aspect that could come into consideration is that the motor racing landscape is littered with drivers who have had their ' budding FI careers destroyed after being Webber's team-mate. Even if

Renault decides it wants Webber, there is no guarantee that might be the best thing for Fernando Alonso's career and, as he is another driver managed by Briatore, that could be a significant consideration.

For more on RalfSchumacher, see Box Seat, page 26-27

Major FI calender change

THE Formula 1 calendar in 2005 may be very different from the races we have in 2004.

In recent years, the calendar has changed as new races have arrived. This has meant that the Brazilian GP has been pushed to the end of the year and the Austrian GP has been lost. The San Marino GP is set to follow in 2005 but the biggest change next year may well be because of tobacco as the European Union has a new anti-tobacco ban coming into effect at the end of July 2005.

There are three races that will be directly affected: Hungary, Belgium and Italy. With San 21 April 2004

In with the new, out with the old; Bahrain, above, was a new addition for 2004.

Marino no longer taking place, it could be that the Italian GP will be moved fonward in the year and it is possible the FI authorities will see fit to move Belgium and Budapest as well.

This could mean that the non tobacco races such as Britain and France would be moved back in the year, while the Turkish GP is expecting to come onto the calendar in August as a non-tobacco event.

The current trend of FI leaving Europe is likely to continue with only the major races such as Monaco, France, Germany, Britain and Italy likely to survive in the long-term as F1 looks to east.

-JOESAWARD

H Speaking of the PROCAR Champ Series, look for a couple more cars to hit the Nations Cup field for round three at Sandown in early May. Expect to see the second Team Brock Monaro for James Brock and the ex-PHR BMW GTR V8 run for Luke Searle. n Go to the outside. Cole: After the talk in Sydney newspapers of a 'liasion' between GTP racer Justin Hemmes and Nicole Kidman and the 'Cole Trickle' stickers that appeared on his Subaru in Adelaide, there was a change in name for him at Oran Park. Apparently the sticker was changed to 'Maverick' for last weekend but, after his practice crash, it was quickly updated to 'Goose'. Something about being in a flat spin and heading out to sea ... n Champ Car officials introduced another element to their 2004 racing season on the weekend in Long Beach. Bridgestone re-introduced an 'option' tyre with a twist, whereby each car entered is allowed eight sets of slick tyres and, of that amount, six sets were the standard street course-spec tyres. However, the other two were of a compound offering more grip, giving the potential for teams to speed up the pace whenever they wished to use the tyres. Each team had to use at least one 'option' set during the race. n And Greg Murphy thought a five-minute penalty was bad I Brazilian rookie Augusto Farfus, who won the first round of the European Touring Car Championship at Monza for Alfa, has been slapped with a 10minute penalty in both of the races, handing the win to BMW's Jorg Muller for suspension irregularities. n Porsche Supercup racer Klaus Graf could become the first man to race on the Indianapolis oval and road course in the same year. The German has signed to drive BAM Racing's Dodge in at least seven NASCAR Nextel Cup events, beginning at Sears Point in late June.

If he races in the Brickyard 400, he would become the seventh man to race on both layouts, joining Juan Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr, Sam Hornish Jr and Alessandro Zampedri.

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V8 Gearbox Wbr

Crick and his machine: Good to see a young bloke getting out there and having a go ...

Targa in Crick’s Sights

GREG Crick is returning to Targa Tasmania.

The two-time event winner will line up for the road rally aboard a Porsche 911 GTS with former ARC champion navigator Mark Stacey. The pair will compete in an ex-Maher Algadri car that was previously raced in the Nations Cup, with 350 horsepower from its 3.8-litre engine.

"It's been a few years since I raced in Targa, and this deal has come together quite late in the piece," said Crick.

"It's a good opportunity because Porsche have been very successful in Targa."

After taking delivery of the car earlier this month, Crick and Stacey have had four days of reconnaissance to familiarise themselves with the 2105km course. Crick, 49, has won the event twice in Honda NSXs with navigator Greg Preece.

This year's Targa has attracted 282 confirmed entries, including Peter Brock in a V8 Holden Monaro, 2003 Nations Cup Champion Paul Stokell in a Volkswagen R32 and a Toyota Celica GT4 ST205 driven by Toyota's Formula One advisor and ex-team principal Ove Andersson, The tarmac event will be held between April 27 and May 2.

V8 SUPERCARS may be heading into a controversy regarding gearboxes.

A letter was issued to teams

legal, the Falcons of Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton travelling to New Zealand this week with RD6s fitted.

recently saying that the new Hollinger RD6 gearbox did not meet the category's regulations and that it was not be used by teams. This is despite the fact that the unit is already in use by Castrol Perkins Racing and Ford Performance Racing.

There had been talk about the new 'box failing to meet the dimensional rules of the category last year but modifications to the imit,including relocating the output shaft, have overcome this.

"The regulations specify what they do and there was a generic drawing of what is a Hollinger gearbox," he said.

"The(RD6)gearbox, as it exists, is a change between the roller bearings and the use of wider gears. There was an anomaly with the shift lever position but that has been changed. I see no reason why the 'box does not comply with the regulations. To my imderstanding, the gearbox was never a 'control component' but now the exterior of the box is 'frozen'."

Perkins points to the fact that there is no advantage gained in using tire new box; "Any engineer will tell you that there is no gain in the gearbox. The new one has wider teeth and is, in fact, heavier. The internals of the gearbox are free under the regulations and people having been having teeth made for the older box for some time.

Larry Perkins was clear to point out that, imtil a technical bulletin was issued by TEGA regarding the matter, he was adopting a 'wait and see' position.

"When TEGA issues a bulletin, we will have to weigh up whether we go to the Stewards over the matter," he said on Monday.

FPR Technical Director John Russell is adamant that his cars are

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Owen'is a Lion Konica Pi STEVE Owen has replaced Michael Caruso at Holden Young Lions in the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series.

Owen, left, received the call from the team on Thursday evening, and was on track and ready to go at Winton on Saturday.

"It’s a great opportunity,” he enthused. “I’m absolutely rapt.”

Despite his practice sessions being hampered by a misfire, Owen scored the team’s best-ever qualifying result when he put the car on the front row alongside Andy Jones. He carried the pace into the races, scoring fastest laps in two of the three outings, however an array of mishaps prevented him from turning his pace into results.

Owen, who is currently contesting the Australian Formula Ford Championship, said that he intends to contest the remainder of the Championship with HYL provided he can scrape together the necessary funding.

“Hopefully being involved with an organisation like Holden Young Lions will help the chequebooks open a bit faster than they normally do!” Owen said.

Caruso departed the team early last week after what was described as a ’contractual dispute’.

“It’s a shame that it didn’t work out,” Caruso told MNews on Monday.

“Now I just want to move on, and I’m looking forward to taking on some new challenges.”

- MARK GLENDENNING

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THE Konica Minolta V8 points system has again been called into question by some of the Championship's leading drivers.

Under the current NASCAR-style system, points are awarded in increments of two. But while NASCAR is contested over 36 rounds, the Konica Minolta championship convenes just six times - which offers few opportunities for drivers to recover from a bad result.

"I got 192 points at Adelaide," said Owen Kelly, opposite.

"With two point increments you've only got to drop one of those heats, and it's 76 points. And if somebody else doesn't miss a single race, they could potentially finish third or fourth in all of them and win.

"I think most people agree that the bloke who wins the most races deserves to win the championship. 1 don't think the guy who drives around in third or fourth for the

moiorspon news

NEWS

Looming?

This is how you do it...

"The Board is not in possession of all the facts."

RusseU says that he does not understand why the matter has been brought up; "It is a storm in a teacup. There is no advantage to be had in changing gearboxes. It is better from an engineering perspective, but it is heavier. No-one has to fit them and,if they wanted to, it is not an expensive item. The cost of a new 'box is $18,000, about the same as a set of callipers and not that much. If we sell a 'box to a Konica team, we can change over for about $8000. It is not a control item. Do I have to notify TEGA when I change callipers? No, so why this?"

In the meantime, LP's two Castrol VYs of Steven Richards and Paul DumbreU and the two FPR Fords will race in Auckland with the new units fitted while, after the teams return to Australia, expect much discussion about the matter.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

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LEADING Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Championship drivers have called the series’ driving standards into question following last weekend’s incident-laden third round at Winton.

Several frontrunners sustained damage to their cars during the weekend's racing, with most of the carnage taking place during the reverse grid second race.

“There was some shocking driving out there from guys who you’d think really shouldn't be like that,’’ said current Championship leader Luke Youlden.

“It can wreck your whole championship, and it does a lot of damage to your car. Every single reverse grid race we have, the car comes out destroyed.

“I’m not sure what we can do about that. I’m sure it’s good for the fans and everyone to watch, but for us guys who are trying to press on, it’s a little bit difficult."

Winton round winner Andrew Jones agreed.

“There was some absolutely disgusting driving going on in that second (reverse grid) race,” said Jones, who went on to say that the worst culprits were not necessarily the less-experienced drivers.

“To be honest, I can’t believe the standards of some of the people who drive in this category that are supposed to have a wealth of experience.

“I think it needs to be said, and it needs to be said in a big way because the way the talent is in this category at the moment, it makes it difficult in those reverse grid races. Most of the top 10 guys reaily use their head in those races,-but there’s a couple that don't and it makes our sport look really bad."

-MARKGLENDENNING

>ints Back in the Spotlight whole year should be crowned the champion."

"Unfortunately the points system caters to a series that does 36 races, so if you have a bad weekend you have the next 10 races to make those points up, and it opens tire chance of someone else having a bad weekend," agreed Winton round winner Andrew Jones.

"But when we do six, there's a fairly big difference, isn't there? I don't have the answer, but maybe somebody does.

"I think if you win a race, you should get more than a two point benefit over the guy that finishes second. We're all here to win, so if the guys who's busting his balls to win wins, he should be given something a bit more than a two point buffer over the next guy."

While agreeing that there was room for change, Matthew White took a slightly different view.

"I'm probably different to some of the other guys, because I'm fully accountable for the reliability of my car and how it finishes," said the Gulf Western driver.

"That's part of winning the championship, and that's part that we're focussing on making sure is right. In saying that, I think the points score could probably stay the same, but with maybe five points for pole, or five points for leading the most laps.

"It gives you a bit of incentive to have some passing, which wouldn't be a bad thing."

- MARK GLENDENNING 21 April 2004

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/ tr Chris Carter I

BRDC chairman Ray Bellm visited Paul Ricard last week in an effort to see the kind of facilities that Bernie Ecclestone is talking about for Formula 1 in the future.

Ecclestone bought the facility in 1999 and then invested heavily to redevelop the entire track as a test track for Formula 1 cars. Bellm went away impressed by the facilities saying that he now understands what Ecclestone wants to see at Silverstone.

■ Work is well advanced on the circuit being built in Istanbul for the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix, which is expected to take in August 2005. It is thought likely that the Flungarian GP will be pushed from its traditional date to make way for the new race.

The work on the new track is due to be completed by the end of March next year.

■ Jordan had denied rumours that Giorgio Pantano might be replaced shortly by Augusto Farfus Jr, who is currently racing for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car series.

■ There are suggestions that Ferrari is trying to hire software engineer Naoki Tokunaga, the Nissan engineer who designed the electronic systems which are used by the Renault FI team.Tokunaga developed the systems while working with the Nismo team in Japan and they became available to Renault when the two companies began exchanging motor racing information as part of the relationship between the French company and the Japanese giant.

■ Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine is being sued in Ireland but a former business partner. John Foley claims that Irvine and some of his business associates defamed him last year when he was trying to set up a nightclub next to Irvine's Cocoon bar in Dublin. Foley and Irvine fell out last year over how the Cocoon should be run.

■ Andrea Bertolini, the official Ferrari Maserati sports car test driver, was called in by the Ferrari FI team to do some development work on the F2004 FI car recently. The 30year-old was doing aerodynamic verification testing.

Bertolini never made a name for himself in single-seaters as he remained in karting until 2000. After a season driving a privateer Porsche he joined the JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena team in 2002 and 2003 and was taken on this year by FerrariMaserati.

-JOE SAWARD 9

n

Powei

home of

[motorsport 2004 V8 Supercar Championship* May 2 ....Pukekohe ...

■Rd3

May 23 ...Hidden Valley

■ Rd4

Jun 13 ... .Barbagallo ..

J ul 4 ■Old Raceway

● Rd5

II' Will takes Alan D(

,Rd6

Jul 25 . . . .Winton

,Rd7

Aug 15 . . .Oran Park

.RdS

Sep 12 . . .Sandown

.Rd9

2004 FIA Formula One Championship* Apr 25 . . . .San Marino

.Rd4

May 9 . . . .Spain

.Rd5

May 23 . . .Monte Cario

.Rd6

May 30 . . .Nurburgring Jun 13 . . . .Montreal

.Rd7

Toyota 4 2?

THERE has been a lot of talk in

lead of Sauber and become

recent days about Toyota supplying a second team in Formula 1 in 2005.

customers, until there comes a point at which they can either find a motor manufacturer of their own or costs reduce to such an extent that they can survive and be competitive.

The situation is becoming increasingly critical for the small teams because of the current gridlock that exists in finding a settlement for the commercial problems in FI. - JOE SAWARD

May 14-16 Jun 4-6 . . .

. .Cyprus

.Rd5

. .Acropolis Rally .

.Rd6

June 25-27

. .Turkey

.Rd7

Jul 16-18 .

.Rd8

Aug 6-8 . .

. .Argentine . .Finland

.Rd9

This is not thought to be very likely although our sources say that it could happen in 2006.

The main feeling in FI circles is that one or two of the smaller teams (notably Minardi and Jordan) need to become, in effect, junior teams for the bigger operations if they are to survive in FI.

Aug 20-22

. .Germany

.Rd 10

. .Japan . .Great Britain . . .

.Rd 11

Their only hope is to follow the

Sep 3-5 . .

.Rd8

2004 World Rally Championship*

Sep 17-19

.Rd 12

2004 Australian Rally Championship* ,Rd2 Jun 5-6 Queensland Jun 26 July31-Aug1

Tasmania

.Rd3

. .RallySA

.Rd4 .Rd5

Aug 28-29 . . . .NSW

2004 Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Championship* Rd4

May 30 . . .Eastern Creek J ul 4 .Qld Raceway Aug 22 . . .Mallala . . . .

Oct 10 . . . .Bathurst . . .

. Rd5 .Rd6 .NonCha/npionshtp

2004 Procar Series May 16 . . .Sandown Jun 20 . . . .Winton

.Rd3

Julia . . . .Eastern Creek

.Rd5

Aug 8 . . . .Wakefield Park

.Rd6

Sep 19 . . .Symmons Plains

.Rd7

.Rd4

2004 SBK World Superbike Championship May 16 . . .Monza .

.Rd4

May 30 . . .Germany

.Rd5

2004 Moto GP Championship * May 2 .

May 16 Jun 6 .

Jun 13

. . . .Spain . . . .France

.Rd2

.Italy

.Rd4

.Spain

.Rd5

rten1

Ten scores Logie

IT may have been a night of white teeth and cleavage at the TV Week Logie Awards in Melbourne last Sunday but V8 Supercars still made an impact in telly’s night of nights.

Network 10 took home the Silver Logie for the best sports coverage, taking the gong for its 2003 Bathurst 1000 coverage. Ten got the award in front of its own Australian FI GP telecast, Seven’s Rugby World Cup telecasts and Nine’s Test cricket, AFL Friday night football and Rugby League’s State of Origin Series.

“This again shows that the V8 Supercar Championship Series is fast approaching the likes of football and cricket in terms of general appeal and popularity,” AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane said.

"With Network Ten’s outstanding coverage and support, which this Silver Logie recognises, our sport is at the elite level in this country and around the world.”

Adding to Ten's big night, Rove McManus took three awards for his ‘Rove Live’ variety show.

And no, we are not expecting him to suit up with Skaifey for Bathurst but you never, never know .,. Oh, make sure you say hi to your Mum for us as well ...

- PHIL BRANAGAN

home of

motorsport^ ^

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

The Alan Docking Racing driver started fourth for race one and in damp conditions ran home to second, though couldn't take advantage of his second-qualifying position for the second race as it was postponed due to terrible weather.

"It is great to get a podium finish early on, points are always the aim the team and I have really gelled together and we are very positive about things to come, it's still very early days." said Power.

"We have got to the stage now where we can go to a track and only

Marshall heads U

.Rd3

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

AUSSIE Will Power has finished second in the latest round of the British Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone over the weekend.

There was logic behind the one-off drive in Aussie F3: After looking to Supercup racing, Marshall has made a last minute switch to British F3.

I MARCUS Marshall will I become the fourth Australian a in the British Formula 3 Championship, following the Queenslander's eleventh hour change of plans.

The Gold Coaster, who had been negotiating to land the Toyota Atlantic deal eventually landed by Josh Hunt, had originally intended to race in the Porsche Supercup this year, however has made a late change of plans.

He will join Carlin Motorsport in one of four entries run by the former championship-winning motorsport oews

■nil Pepformance

NEWS

We like it Old School Style...

THE Canadian Grand Prix will have a field of 30 historic FI cars, fielded by the Historic Grand Prix organisation.

The series, which ailows for cars built between 1966 and 1983, has been seen in the past at Indianapolis but this is the first time it has ventured across the border to Canada.

The field will certainly keep Canadians happy as it features a pair of Ferraris once driven by local hero Gilles Villeneuve: a 1979 312T4 and a 1980 312T5. The field will include the Lotus 79 of 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti, a pair of Williams FW07s and another pair of FW08s.

There will be a McLaren M23, a Tyrrell 004 and a variety of Brabhams, Marches, Shadows and Penskes.

icking Racing to first podium at sog^ Silverstone

have to make mmor adjustments, it s where we want to be at right now.

Will said.

The same luck wasn't with Will

■ Formula 1 hopeful Nice Rosberg turned in a great performance at Hockenheim with two wins in the first two races of the Formula 3 Euroseries on the weekend, Rosberg (Team Rosberg DallaraOpel) took the lead from pole man Alexandre Premat (ASM DallaraMercedes) at the start of the first race and won by just over a second.

Toyota protege Frank Perera (Prema Powerteam Dallara-Opel) took third, after British driver Jamie Green (ASM Dallara-Mercedes) and Nicolas Lapierre (Signature-Plus Dallara-Opel) had a coming together. Green fell back to eighth but then charged through to take fourth place at the finish. Lewis Hamilton was 11th in his Manor Motorsport DallaraMercedes.

In the second race Rosberg beat Green off the line and held him off, the Englishman finishing less than a second behind at the finish. Premat was third ahead of Signature's Giedo van der Garde, ASM's Eric Salignon and Hamilton.

iutton-im3ges. com

Davison, the Menu Motorsport driver qualifying sixth but slipping back to finish 11th overall and 10th of the championship pointscoring cars.

We went backwards and were just not fast enough at all, which means we've got a bit of work to do," he said.

No one's more down than the team and they're keen to get on top of what it is.

Scholarship class contender Barton Mawer added another podium place - third - to his strong start to his debut in the British series.

Croft hosts the next event on May 2.

A bit lost: Davison confers with Menu chief engineer Mick Kouros about the tough Silverstone result. Surely little relief could be taken from bis countryman Power's, above, result either ...

>r British F3 team and has already tested for the outfit, sampling their Dallara/ Mugen-Honda in the official F3 test at Silverstone last Friday.

"Carlin is such a well-known team and they do things properly so I'm really looking forward to getting in amongst it," he said.

"Things had been heading down the track in Supercup and I was keen to race there this year but when the possibility of running with Carlin came up, it was something that I jumped at.

"I had started getting the ball rolling with trying to do something in Atlantics with an eye on getting 21 April 2004

into a Champ Car for the Surfer's Paradise race, but things ground to a halt there. I'm determined to give the F3 program a big shake."

Marshall, who will still drive in a round of the Supercup by virtue of the one-off prize drive he won in last year's local Carrera Cup, will debut at the Snetterton rounds of the series on May 31.

Marshall intends to return to Australia before the end of the F3 series to prepare properly for the endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst. He drove with Team Brock in last year's events alongside Greg Ritter.

5 a-

■ Former Le Mans 24 Hour champion Jan Lammers has signed ALMS LMP675 champ Chris Dyson to join the Racing For Holland team for the Le Mans 24 Hour on June 1213. The duo, who teamed up recently in a Dyson Lola in the Sebring 12 Hour, will share a Dome/Judd with an as-yet unnamed third driver.

■ The latest round of the FIA GT Championship at Valencia has fallen to Ferrari. The BMS Scuderia Italia combo on Fabrizio Gollin and Luca Cappellari led home team-mates Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel for a 1-2 clear of the debuting Lamborghini Murcielago of Peter Kox and Oliver Gavin. N-GT class honours went to the Freisinger Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 11

New Safety Rules tested

NEW safety regulations were trialed at Oran Park last weekend for all PROCAR competitors.

If the trial is deemed a success, all CAMS-sanctioned meetings will use the new system, possibly from July onwards.

Entrants had to sign a scrutineering declaration form that stated that their cars were in

compliance with the safety and eligibility requirements in the CAMS , National competition rules.

About 10 percent of the competitors from each class were randomly picked for safety scrutineering, where inspectors checked each and every safety aspect of the car.

Stiff penalties will be in place for any entrant failing to be meet the scrutineering standards. Fines of up to $10000 could be imposed for noncompliance. Only minor problems were found at Oran Park but no fines were imposed.

It was the first time the system had been used anywhere in Australia. The system has been used successfully for some time in New Zealand and some parts of Europe. The change is designed to lessen the number of CAMS volunteers required for race meetings.

-GRANT ROWLEY

Vale

When it is safe, you may proceed to the left: Look for more stringent safety scrutineering in future meetings.

No smoked Turkey

MUMTAZ Tahincioglu, the head of Turkey's Motorsports Federation, says that the Turkish GP will not have tobacco advertising.

Turkey is committed to eradicate tobacco advertising and the government wiU not bend to pressure

Doug Chivas

MOTOR racing has lost one of its great characters with the passing of Doug Chivas.

Chivas, who was 82, passed away earlier this month following heart problems.

Chivas raced a huge variety of cars throughout his long career, most recently driving in a dirt track karting event (in Darwin!) in 2002. He was also a dab hand at rallying, driving a Holden Monaro in the London to Sydney Marathon in 1968 and finished twice on the podium in the Southern Cross Rally.

But it is for his touring car exploits, Bathurst in particular, that Chivo is best remembered. In 1973, he was invited by Harry Firth to partner Peter Brock in a Holden Dealer Team Torana XU-1 and, driving the middle stint of the race, his orders were the stretch the fuel window as far as he could.

Chivas was leading the race before handing the car over to Brock for the run to the flag 12

>7*

when the car ran dry on the way into the pits.

Chivas, then 51, leapt out of the car and pushed it up the hill into pit lane. With his crew urging him on but not allowed to assist, he pushed it as far as he could before collapsing in exhaustion, the crew taking over and allowing Brock take the car to second outright behind the Allan Moffat/Pete Geoghegan Ford Falcon. The Holden crew may have lost the race but Chivas's efforts, witnessed around the country on Channel Seven, were etched into the folklore of the sport.

Despite taking a back seat from competition, and with his ongoing health concerns, Chivas remained a mentor to many and a keen supporter of motor racing. To his family, many friends and fans throughout Australia, MNews passes on our sincerest condolences at the loss of a fine man and great competitor.

Formula 1 is not worrying about tobacco and pushing up the income being demanded from races instead.

The problem is that only a tiny proportion of the money being paid by race organisers is going to the teams, which will be the big losers when tobacco disappears.

The loss of tobacco revenues may hurt some teams but those which

perform well will be able to find money from other sources. There are s many who are already arguing that keeping close to tobacco is counter productive for FI, as it is driving away a large number of other sponsors that would otherwise be involved in the sport. The loss of Is this... the end? Or is it no butts? tobacco will, of course, further from Formula 1. The cars will increase pressure on the Formula however be allowed to run without One group to share more of the branding. profits that it generates from the There is a similar problem in China sport. but it seems that more and more -JOE SAWRD

2 2.

3

motorsDort news

NEWS

Back to the drawing board

Testing times fer Scotty INDYCAR Champion and WilliamsFl prospect Scott Dixon broke his ankle in practice for last weekend's Motegi round of the IRL IndyCar Championship.

The New Zealander was one of four drivers to hit the concrete wall at the Honda-owned track last Thursday. Dixon suffered a nondisplaced hairline fracture of the tip of fibula in his left ankle and, after being evaluated by doctors on Friday morning, was cleared to race.

He raced in the event,finishing fourth behind Dan Wheldon,Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves. The injury is not expected to affect his IRL season, which continues with

MIKE Gascoyne, the technical director of the Toyota Formuia 1 team, has reveaied that it is urgently building a replacement monocoque for its TF104 racecar, The current chassis is badly affected by track undulations and Gascoyne believes that only a fundamental change will cure the problem. Toyota, which tested a repackaged version of the TF104 last week, will need to undergo FIA crash-testing to homologate the new chassis.

practice for the Indianapolis 500, staring May 8.

Along with Dixon,Tomas Scheckter,Sam Homish Jr., and Tora Takagi aU hit the wall at Turn 4.

Takagi was airlifted to Dokkyo University Hospital after complaining of back pain but, after X-rays of his neck and back,finished 10th in the race.

n The Chinese Smoking & Health Association is campaigning against Formula 1 cigarette branding at the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix at the new Shanghai International Circuit in September. Its vice-chairman, Wu Zhaosu, said that recent research had found that nearly 90 percent of adult smokers start before the age of 18 in China and that youngsters who watch sporting events were therefore key in the fight against tobacco.

Dixon, right,flew to Japan straight from his second test with the WUliams-BMW team at Barcelona.

He set a time that was 0.7s slower than regular test driver Marc Gene, and it is believed that he will test for the time later this season, most likely in September.

n British Formula 3 Champion Alan van der Merwe has signed for former championship-winning team Super Nova Racing to contest the FiA Formula 3000 Championship, which opens at next weekend's San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. The South African's team mate is Patrick Friesacher of Austria, who placed fifth last season for the Red Bull Junior squad and is embarking on his fourth successive season in the series.

I rij

imtoBfti

3

§

NEAL Bates has thrown his support behind Elf Fuel being reinstated as the control fuel for the Australian Rally Championship.

Elf was signed on as the Championship's official fuel supplier at the beginning of the season, however the deal was cancelled in a bulletin published by CAMS just days before the ARC'S opening round, the Respect Yourself Forest Rally in WA last month.

"There was an agreement that that 21 April 2004

was the way we should go, and that was set in concrete," said Bates, who runs three works-backed Group N Prototype Toyota Corolla Sportivos in the ARC,opposite.

"Everyone tuned their engines and was set up and ready for that. And 1 personally find it incredibly frustrating that it has changed, because if we don't get that back as a control fuel then it's a huge amount of money to re-map again."

According to Bates, his stance is

shared by the other manufacturers involved with the series.

"I've spoken to Mitsubishi and Subaru, and we're aU in agreement that we are happy with Elf being the control fuel," he said.

Sources suggest that the CAMS move may have been as a result of another fuel supplier questioning the legality of the control fiiel deal in the first place, rather than concerns about the quality of the control fuel.

- MARK GLENDENNING/STAFF

n Racing Technology Norfolk, the highly accomplished racecar design and build operation owned by Audi, has closed down its design office.

Originally built with Toyota money and operated as TOM'S GB,the facility has been the best-equipped in the UK motorsport industry outside Formula 1.

It was taken over by Audi in 1998 and its design team, led by Peter Elleray, was most recently responsible for the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours race winning Bentley Speed 8.

Elleray has accepted a position with the ambitious RML team in the Le Mans Endurance Series and the FIA GT Championship, joining another new RML recruit, former Jordan Grand Prix technical director Gary Anderson.

-QUENTIN SPURRING

CARRERA CUP PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD Presented by Motorsport News Vote for your favourite driver at www.cupDar.com.au after each round and go into the draw to win some great prizes each time!

The People’s Choice winner will be announced at the Carrera Cup Awards Night on Monday October 25.

13

f-

Tearing uii

by MARTIN D CLARK

RUSTY Wallace literally moved the earth on the way to victory at the flat half-mile paperclip speedway they call Martinsville on Sunday and the tricky concrete track played more of I an outcome to the end result than I ever before.

For Wallace it was his first visit to

Masters Golf TIM Leahey will steer Volkswagen Racing's second Golf R32 alongside Paul Stokeil for the remainder of the GT-Performance season.

Leahey, who has competed in almost every Australian national championship, completed both practice sessions at Oran Park last weekend, but was put on the reserve bench early after Paul Stokeil crashed his mount heavily at turn one after the ABS

failed. Leahey will get his first drive in anger at the third round of the series at Sandown next month.

The Volkswagens featured plain red livery for the first time at Oran Park, and a major sponsorship announcement will take place at Sandown. MNews believes mobile phone giant Vodaphone will be the team's backer.

- GRANT ROWLEY

victory lane in 105 events,ending a two-year dry spell and taking career win number 55 for 47-year-old Rusty over a hard-charging Bobby Labonte.

"I had a top three car all day long," said Wallace who started 17th.

"Ryan(Newman)two tyred it,(last pit stop),Johnson's on old tyres and I'm thinking, man,I can win this thing,I just kept digging and got real aggressive and put this baby in victory lane."

Jeff Gordon without doubt had the car to beat,but when Michael Waltrip brought out the seventh caution, spinning and pulling out a lump of concrete from the track surface in turn

three, an additional chunk of concrete was then lifted by race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sent into the front of Gordon's Monte Carlo, causing substantial panel damage.

Tire race was red flagged for an hour and 17 minutes at lap 290 of 500, waiting on the epoxy mix to dry and giving the drivers a welcome break on a very hot day.

But even though the damage was not of Gordon's doing, NASCAR would not allow the Hendrick team to carry out repairs under the red flag and he restarted 23rd.

"I'm not happy about this," said Gordon."We worked so hard to get track position, it could have been worse it seemed it went aroimd the right front and not under the car."

Gordon rallied after a 30 lap side by side battle with Ryan Newman to finish sixth.

Earnhardt Jr. passed Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps for third and the lead in the points race, Johnson electing not to pit on final

Pres Bartlett ONE of Australia's most experienced and respected racing drivers, Kevin Bartlett, is PROCAR Australia's new Driving Standards Manager.

Bartlett started his new gig last weekend at the second round of the PROCAR Champ Series at Oran Park.

KB's brief will be to oversee Nations Cup,GT Performance, Australian Production Car and the V8 BRutes championships.

"I cannot condone drivers rubbing their cars against others, but I'd certainly Uke to see doorhandle-todoorhandle racing," he said.

"Penalty-wise, I'll be looking to impose something brief and on the spot until drivers get the message."

Bartlett, below, won almost everything there is to win the Australian motor racing, taking two Gold Stars as Australian Driving champion, winning the 1974 Bathurst 1000(with John Goss) and also competed at the Indy 500.

Brabs

DAVID Brabham has been named as the lead driver of the new Lamborghiniaffiliated Krohn-Barbour Racing team in the American Le Mans Series.

The Aussie, right, who raced a Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello in last year's ALMS, will join Peter Kox and Canadian Scott Maxwell in the team, which will debut midJune at Mid-Ohio.

Running the new Murcielago R-GT,the team will run two cars in the GTS class of the series, competing again the factory Chevrolet Corvettes.

Brabham will drive with Kox

alambo

in the team's #5 car, while Maxwell, a former ALMS class winner, will share with team co-owner Tracy Krohn.

"I'm obviously looking forward to the challenge,"

said Brabham.

"It's a new team, and a car that's new to the series. With my experience driving the Ferrari last year, and driving the Saleen at Sebring, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lamborghini goes. I know Peter and Scott very well and am happy to be driving with them, and with Tracy it's potentially a very good package."

Brabham has competed in all but three of the 48 ALMS races held since the category began in 1999 and has taken seven overall wins (for Panoz) and three GTS class wins last year. motorsport news

NEWS

I the pavement Rusty wins while Gordon gets cemented

stops with 85 laps remaining.

'We made a mistake," said crew chief Chad Rnaus of the decision to stay on track and lead the field."We didn't stand a prayer.

He was right, but Johnson did well to hang on for fourth.

Final result; Wallace (Dodge), B Labonte (Chev),Earnhardt(Chev),Johnson (Chev), Newman (Dodge),J Gordon (Chev), McMurray (Dodge),Kenseth (Ford), Marlin (Dodge),Jarrett (Ford).

Point standings; Earnhardt 1167, Busch 1162, Kenseth 1155,Johnson 1088, Sadler 1069, Stewart 1067,J Gordon 1046, R Wallace 1010, Kahne 1007, Harvick 1003.

Riding the Blue Blur: Wallace, below, was too slick in the Miller Lite Dodge and now eighth in the Nextel Cup points standings.

Saw road, ate road: Jeff Cordon was a sith place-finisher when the DuPont Chev was taken out by a slab of Martinsville tarmac.

No more Raceless in Seattle INTERNATIONAL Speedway Corporation, which is owned by the France Family, has confirmed it have looked at possible site for a new track in the Seattle area of Washington State. The move comes following recent rumours of an expansion of the 36-race point schedule in 2005 and beyond. If built, the track would be used for NASCAR Cup, Busch and Truck events, plus a possible IRL event.

ISC owns nine tracks that are currently used by the Nextel Cup Series. n The Orlando Sentinel and The Florida-Sun Senf/ne/newspapers have ended their challenge to overturn a Supreme Court decision that bars public access to autopsy photos of the late Dale Earnhardt after his 2001 Daytona death, it seems this may finally put to rest the grief Earnhardt's widow Teresa has been going through to uphold the decision made by the court and curb further appeals. n 2002 Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton received some air bag burns and a bump to his head when he managed to fall asleep at the wheel of his Chevrolet Suburban SUV on the morning of April 12. Burton who was wearing a seat belt was othen/vise uninjured in the accident. but the vehicle provided to him by GM was a total loss. n Brett Bodine has decided to fold his self-owned race team and apparently hang up his racing helmet instead taking a position with NASCAR as a special project engineer. Bodine, who holds an engineering degree, will assist Gary Nelson, who heads up NASCAR's R&D facility in North Carolina to build safer and more cost effective cars for the governing body.

- MARTIN D CLARK

See Australia s Best Drivers in the World's Fastest Sprint Karts! k

BE WHERE!

Australian OK Karting Championships t-2 May 2004 - Bolivar Raceway Summer Rd, Bolivar Adelaide SA ^ For more information phone 03 5274 1406 21 ADril 2004

Solid Queenslandei

by JEREMY SHAW

Walker grabs Haberfeld

BRAZILIAN Mario Haberfeld has concluded a late deal to join Derrick Walker's Champ Car team - driving one of only two Reynards in the Lola-dominated field - and finished a respectable 10th in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

"Considering we only had one afternoon's testing before we came here and especially with the rain on Saturday,I think we had a good first race," said Haberfeld, who

accumulated 11 top-10 finishes during his rookie campaign in 2003 with Conquest Racing, highlighted by a fourth-place finish at St. Petersburg.

"We wanted to score some points and we achieved that. We stUl have a lot of things to find out about the car, which is good for me.

"So considering everything I was happy that I was still able to push hard the whole race. The team really did some great pit stops. I think on

each of them we passed someone. We just pushed hard the whole race and finished ninth. The same place I finished last year,so we need to improve in our next race."

Backing for the venture comes from Cummins,the company returning to Walker's outfit since it was a sponsor from 1994 to 1999, with Robby Gordon and Gil de Ferran handling the driving duties.

-JEREMY SHAW

RISING Gold Coast racer Josh Hunt made a solid start to his career in the Champ Car Toyota Atlantic Championship Series at Long Beach last weekend, guiding Lynx Racing's Wright Patton Shakespeare/ Atkinson Core Group Swift to a promising ninth-place finish in a 21-car field.

Hunt, 18, who contested a few Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship

18 cars? No sweat

Car

DESPITE dire prognostications, the Champ Car World Series kicked off in Long Beach, California, last weekend with the promised field of 18 cars.

The final seats were filled only in the days leading up to the race, with Champ Car veterans Oriol Servia and Tarso Marques, above, signing up for the unfancied Dale Coyne Racing team.

"I'm very excited," said Coyne, whose team's best result in 20 years of Champ Car racing remains Roberto Moreno's third-place finish at Michigan in 1996.

"We've had a lot of drivers over the years, probably 40 or 50, and there have been two that really impressed us. One was Paul Tracy, who 16

drove one race for us in 1991 and then was snapped up by Roger Penske. The other was Tarso Marques, who tested for us in '99 and also was signed up by Penske.

"Oriol, too, has shown well the last few years.

I think these guys can help us raise our game and become a competitive force."

Both Servia and Marques drove their cars for the first time only on Tuesday, in a final preseason test on the California Speedway road course, but both acquitted themselves well.

Sadly, they were hobbled by a variety of ailments during thfe race weekend, with both cars falling by the wayside on raceday.

- JEREMY SHAW

Photo courtesy Chatap Car World Series.

motorsport news

NEWS

debut fop Hunt

1

finishes ninth in Long Beach Atlantics races in North America last season, had resigned himself to continuing his education this year and had enrolled in university after failing to secure a full-time drive - until a couple of weeks ago.

Hunt tested only twice for the Lynx team, which has won several championships in the past, prior to his first race, but acquitted himself respectably.

He qualified 15th, his cause hardly helped by inclement weather in the second qualifying session, and refused to be flustered when he lost a

couple of positions at the start.

"It’s just that some guys were a bit hungrier than 1 was," he admitted.

"I just wanted to keep my nose clean, get through the first corner and pick up as much experience as I could."

Hunt quickly regained the lost ground and more, picking up fourth places within the first four laps, then drove a sensible race, taking advantage of others' mistakes and gradually moving up the order.

"We're happy," he concluded.

We came here

to get a finish, and if we finished, we wanted to be in the top 10. We did both, so I'm happy. Now we can go do some more testing and see if we can go faster."

Scotland's Ryan Dalziel led all the way from pole to win the race. His Sierra Sierra Enterprises team-mate, rookie French-Canadian Andrew Ranger, finished an impressive second after former champion Jon Fogarty's engine blew up.

Turkey. No bull THE plans for the new Formula 1 circuit near Istanbul, to be built to accommodate the projected Turkish Grand Prix, have revealed a 5.3km, 16-turn, anti-clockwise layout.

Approximately 150,000 grandstand seats are included in the scheme, of which 50 percent will be covered. A top speed of 320kph has been simulated by FIA track designer Hermann Tilke, and the venue is due to be finished by 31 March next year.

Turkey is unlikely to become a member of the European Union until 2010 at the earliest, so tobacco advertising will be allowed at the new venue. Formula One Management chief Bernie Ecclestone has been asked for a fixture there later in 2005. n Shukri Ghanem, the prime minister of Libya, attended the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix on a fact-finding mission, with a view to furthering his nation's ambition to build a circuit for a Formula 1 fixture as soon as possible.

The north African country, which hosted FI-type races between 193339 on the 8.18-mile Mellaha road circuit near its capital, Tripoli, has embarked on a political mission to rejoin the international community under the rule of Col Muammar Gadaffi. n This year's British Formula 3 round at Spa-Francorchamps (on 12 September) has been awarded the FIA European Cup title, replacing the Pau street race round of the EuroSeries. The Belgian F3 race, which will now be the penultimate round in the 2004 British series, is now expecting a capacity 49-car grid. n Mygale Cars, the French racecar manufacturer that builds Formula Renaults and its own Formula Fords in the Magny-Cours Technopole, Is again evaluating a Formula 3 project. The company has hired British freelance chassis designer Andrew Thorby to assist in the project, which Mygale hopes to bring to fruition in 2005 to join Lola Cars in attacking the market long dominated by Dallara.

YOU'VE seen the two-seater McLaren Formula 1 car, now there's a two-seater Champ Car. Steered by Ryan Hunter-Reay, right, the car was used in New York City for filming a Champ Car ad before appearing at Long Beach on the weekend for Cole Trickle to drive.

Trickle, left with series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven, has been out of the sport since winning the Daytona 500 in the early 1990s but sampled a ride in the car with Roberto Moreno.

Hang on a minute, we must have been mistaken. It's actually Tom Cruise. Easy mistake to make if you're a rev-head...

21 April 2004

Pjwto courtesy Qump Or World Series

n The commitment of NASCAR fans is renowned, but has occasionally been known to exceed the ideals of the US stock car body.

Last year one such, armed with a deer rifle and emboldened by alcohol, opened fire on a crop duster that was spoiling his enjoyment of a televised race commentary.

Last week the offender, who fired a 12-shot volley and hit the aircraft (but not its pilot) with three of the shots, was sent to prison for six months by a North Carolina court.

- QUENTIN SPURRING 17

OVERSEAS TOURING GARS

Muller off and running I B

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by DAVID ADDISON

Touring P^^*^**'onship

THE new-look three-race BTCC format was a big winner at Thruxton, with a huge crowd on hand to watch the action in the opening round.

James Thompson, Jason Plato and Yvan Muller won the three races, Thompson leading race one all the way.

Matt Neal caught him mid-race but lost time when he mucked up the chicane, fighting back to finish just half a second shy.

The first race saw the comical sight of lots of drivers all wanting to be 10th, which became pole for the semi reverse grid for race two.

With eighth, and a second row

A'iip

J

Welcome back! Plato returned to the BTCC for the first time since 2001 in style, above. He got to share the podium with close, er, um, buddy, Muller, above right, in race two.

start, Plato was able to score victory in race two, despite old adversary Yvan Muller chasing him home. Plato's comeback

win got the biggest cheer of the day as the SEAT, running the smaller ETCC-spec brakes, fended off the ballasted Astra.

Muller took race three with Anthony Reid's now independent class MG chasing him home, Reid reckoned the MG's engine was better than ever, although a lack of cash may prevent too many appearances in the future. With two wins though, Vauxhall still has the upper hand.

Points: Muller 38. Plato/Thompson 28, Reid 25, Eaves 15, Neal 14.

Automatically Alias in ETCC Paffett's first YOUNG gun Gary Paffett has taken first blood in the DTM series at Hockenheim on the weekend.

The Brit, driving a works HWA AMG Mercedes, overcame pitstop dramas to win the 37-lap race when team-mate Bernd Schneider suffered a broken suspension wishbone with just four laps to go.

“It was incredible!” Paffett declared as he jumped off the podium.

“I had a great start and managed to get past the two Audis. I had to follow behind Jean (Alesi) as it was very hard to get past and after the first pit stop he was still ahead.”

Schneider and Paffett had swapped the lead on a few occasions, but the youngster overcame a pitlane stall to claim 18

I the win, finishing clear of Christijan Albers and Mattias Ekstrom’s Audi.

Tom Kristensen took fourth spot in another of the Audis on his debut in the German series.

The debuting Heinz-Harald Frentzen, above, took his Opel to 11th.

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ALFA simply dominated the second round of the European Touring Car Championship at Valencia in Spain on the weekend.

Gabriele Tarquini led home team mates Fabrizio Giovanardi and Augusto Farfus in the opening race, clear of a train of BMWs,led by Andy Priaulx, left.

In race two, the order was reversed with Giovanardi topping Tarquini and Farfus, clear of BMW's Dirk Muller.

Jan Magnussen debuted the Peugeot 306,finishing 11th in race one and scoring a DNF in race two.

Tarquini leads the title chase, two points clear of Giovanardi.

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CHAMP CARS

Start it like It ended Tracy tops Champ Car opener at Long Beach

by JEREMY SHAW PAUL Tracy lied.

The charismatic Canadian said at the beginning of the 30th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend in Cahfomia that he would be happy to pick up a solid pointscore toward his quest of successfully defending his hard-earned 2003 Champ Car World Series title. A podium finish would be just fine, he said.

Well, that seemed to be no taU order after his Indeck/Forsythe Racing Lola-Ford Cosworth and Newman/Haas Racing teammates Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais had traded times throughout the two days of practice and qualifying on the unforgiving street circuit.

Tracy was second-quickest in each of the two qualifying sessions, but was obliged to start from the inside of the second row of the grid by virtue of the fact that Junqueira snared the pole on Friday and Bourdais topped the timing charts in the slower, weather-affected second qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

In accordance with the Champ Car regulations, each of them was thereby assured of a front row starting position. But Tracy didn't stay in third for long. Only as far as the first comer,in fact.

He tucked in behind polesitter Junqueira on the long drag down

No longer a Player,just the game itself: Paul Tracy was unstoppable at Long Beach, charging into the lead from third on the grid. He wasn't headed all day, despite the best efforts ofJunqueira.

Shoreline Drive, and rather than being content merely to play followthe-leader, Tracy already had a plan: "I decided to commit to go down the inside and just wait until he braked,and then go a little bit later," he said.

Tracy's plan almost went awry went the Brazilian braked a tad earlier than Tracy had anticipated and he was forced to take evasive action, . which sent his car into a lurid slide.

"I was able to catch it and just got

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it stopped [in time]for the corner," declared Tracy, who,once into the lead, took control of the proceedings and relinquished his advantage only very briefly - to teammate Patrick Carpentier - during the second round of scheduled pit stops.

"The car was just perfect all weekend," summarised Tracy after his dominant victory - the 27th of his career. "It feels great to start off the year on the right foot."

The gap back to Junqueira varied between a few car lengths and as much as eight seconds during the 81lap contest. The Brazilian's PacifiCare Lola clearly was at least as fact as

Tracy's similar mount,but Junqueira never got close enough to offer a significant challenge and had to settle for second.

Bourdais overcame a poor start, losing a couple of positions, to finish hot on Junqueira's tail in third, while Carpentier charged hard in the second half of the race to take fourth ahead of Mario Dominguez's Herdez Competition Lola.

FI refugee Justin Wilson drove a solid race with Eric Bachelart's MiJack/Conquest Racing Lola to be the top rookie in sixth.

Points; Tracy 32,Junqueira 29, Bourdais 27, Carpentier 24, Dominguez 21, Wilson 20.

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A good start: Justin Wilson was top rookie and sixth in the Brit's first Champ Car race. molorsport news

IRL INDYCAR

Dan

WINNING your first race in a category is iways good. Winning it from pole position is, well,spec-ial.

Dan Wheldon did all that, and more,in Japan's third round of the IRL IndyCar Series, becoming the first Briton to take a win in the series and giving Honda its maiden win at Motegi.

The 2003 Rookie of the Year held out team-mate Tony Kanaan in a race-long battle that was settled by 1.4s. Wheldon led all but eight of the 200-lap race.

"There was definitely a lot of pressure to win this race," Wheldon said."We were told that we had to do this, but with the preparation they had made, we were in good shape.

"We were expecting to run up front because we had done so earher this year. Honda kicked butt. They deserved this."

Helio Castroneves took third on a day when the Penske team was comprehensively out-sped,the Brazilian recovering from a 15th grid position. Darren Manning was fourth from Scott Dixon, Buddy Rice,Dario

Franchitti, Kosuke Matsuura,Scott Sharp and Tora Takagi, making it two Japanese drivers in the top 10.

The last British driver to win a CART race was Mark Blundell, who win in CART seven years ago.

Honda's joy was seven years in the making. Ford winning at Motegi's CART races in 1998-2000 before Toyota took two CART wins in 2001/02. Scott Sharp continued Toyota's streak in the first ERL race last year.

"1 don't think we've still realised what just happened here," said Robert Clarke, vice president and general manager of Honda Performance Development.

"It's been so long in coming and so much has gone into trying to win it.

It's hard to put into words what it means."

The race was the final event for IndyCar's current spec cars, with 3Utre engines and revised aero rules coming into effect for the Indy 500

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One warm Jim Beam, please: Dan was Da Man at Twin Ring Motegi, taking pole and dominating the shiny end of an Andretti Green 1-2. next month.Practice for the Brickyard classic starts at the Speedway on May 9.

Points: Wheldon 123, Kanaan 117, Castroneves 106, Manning 90, Dixon 82, Sam Homish 76, Rice and Tora Takagi 76, Alex Barron 64, Matsuura 62.

IT'S official; Valentino Rossi really is a Legend.

The five-time World Champion started his career with Yamaha with a fairytale win in the South African MotoGP in Weikom,taking a slight but teUing win over arch-rival Max

Biaggi.

To rub salt into the wounds,Rossi stopped on his victory lap and kissed his Yamaha Ml,a sight that must have made his former employers Honda seethe with anger.

Rossi became the first man in the long history of motorcycle racing to win back-to-back races riding machines from two different manufacturers,following his final Honda win at Valencia last November.

"The emotion is fantastic and it is different from the normal emotions I have felt after winning in the past," said Rossi who has now won 60 GPs including 34 in the premier class (MotoGP/SOOcc).

"The weekend was perfect, with pole position and then a great rhythm in the race and a very great battle against Biaggi. To win is incredible. I knew I couldn't afford to make a mistake and I only had one place to overtake Biaggi."

Starting from pole on the new three-by-three grid, Rossi leapt away and started a two-bike war with Biaggi, which raged for 23 laps.

Biaggi took the lead and held Rossi out for three laps before Rossi ruthlessly forced his way through to take the win, Honda men followed, with Sete Gibemau third from Alex Barros and Nicky Hayden. The Ducatis had a

22

tough time, with Loris Capirossi taking sixth on his 2004 bike ahead of Colin Edwards, who battled frontend chatter all race on his 2003-spec Honda, while Troy Bayliss struggled to 14th after qualifying a disastrous 21st.

Honda, whose riders were split 50/50 on whether they raced '04 or '03 bikes,filled six of the top 10 positions. But, after what Rossi did to them... who cares?

THE opening 250 race of the season was a nail-biter that was only decided on the final comer.

Danny Pedrosa (Telefonica.

Movistar Honda)had a race-long battle with the Aprilia of Randy de Puniet, the two swapping the lead four times on the final lap before the 125 World Champ forced his way past on the last bend.

Pedrosa not only won on debut, he did it after breaking both ankles at PhiUip Island late last season.

Sebastian Porto (Aprilia) was third after falling back to 22nd when he ran wide on lap 2.

ANDREA Dovizioso won the opening 125cc race of the season on his Honda.

The young Italian out-foxed veteran Roberto LocateUi after a racelong battle to win by 0.7s Third was Casey Stoner, the Aussie giving KTM a podium result on debut with the team after sweeping past Spaniard Pablo Nieto that took him from fourth to third through the final sequence of corners. Nieto took fourth from Frenchman Mike Di Meglio.

IT was Australian Day in April in Italy - but it was nearly a clean sweep.

After chasing Ten Kate Honda team-mate Broc Parkes for most of the race, Karl Muggeridge found himself In the lead of the SuperSport race when Parkes fell with eight laps to go, holding off the Yamaha of wet-weather ace Kevin Curtain to take the win.

"I'm delighted to win in such horrendous conditions," said Muggeridge after the race, which was delayed by 40 minutes after the heavens opened.

"I was nearly out of the race a couple of times early on so I'm pleased to be here. I don't know if I could have caught Broc. I'd close on him and he would respond so it was static. I had a few slides and would have settled for second, but I'm happy to win."

Parkes was philosophical after his fall; n "I lost the front on the second last left," he said. "I sort of just touched the brake going in and it tucked under, but so fast...

"I never had any moments in the race before that and I felt really good. I saw that Karl was catching slowly so I was dawdling a bit and needed to go a little faster."

Jurgen van den Goorbergh, who was third, now leads the series on 57 points, with Curtain on 47 and Muggeridge an upwardly mobile 37.

Parkes is 11 th, on 13 points. motorsport news

BIKE NEWS

Home Boys wet threat THE home teams did well in the Misano round of

the World Superbike Championship, with Ducati - and Italian riders - to the fore.

Regis Laconi won the opening race and looked to be heading for the second win when,on the final lap, his wet tyres gave up the ghost and Pierfrancesco Chili charged past.

"The second race was reaUy difficult," admitted Reggie,"because I was in the lead for 24 laps and then Chili passed me on the back straight on the final lap. We went for full wets because we thought it was going to rain again. CWli went for an intermediate rear."

And that told the story. Well, part of it; in the opening race, Laconi was forced to ride hard to hold off Troy Corser, the former champ riding wonderfully to give the Foggy Petronas team its second-ever podium result. Chili was third from Noriyuki Haga and Chris Vermeulen, who continues to show that the Honda is becoming a threat to the Italian V-twins. In the second race, Vermeulen was slowed by a bad tyre choice and finished 12th.

Surprise poleman was Steve Martin, who took his first pole but dropped to seventh in Race 1 before howling up to third in the second race.

Garry McCoy struggled,failing to finish the opening race and dropping to 17th, one lap down, in Race 2.

In the red corner: Laconi leads Steve Martin's DFX Ducati early in Race 1 at Misano.

Points: Chili 97, Toseland 77, Laconi and Vermeulen 70, Haga 69, McCoy 55, Martin 54, Chris Walker(FP) 52, Mauro Borciani (Ducati)49, Corser 48.

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OPINION

T

ME old saying 'it only takes two cars to have a motor race' took on a whole new meaning at Oran Park when the PROCAR circus headed to Sydney's southwest.

Six cars in Nations Cup,just four in the GT class - one of which had only turned eight laps before Friday practice.

Quite simply, it just wasn't good enough - and the powers-that-be at PROCAR were the first to recognise this.

MNews believes a major meeting to radically change Nations Cup, in the short term and long term, will take place next week.

But don't get me wrong, I think the PROCAR Champ Series is a refreshing change from the commercialily-driven, egotistical world of the greatest motorsport show on the planet(you know which one I'm referring to).

OK,the crowds are smaller and the Mark Skaifes and Craig Lowndes of the world don't turn up, but Nations Cup aside,the support cast is fantastic.

GT Performance had seven manufactures represented at Oran Park,some of which enjoy healthy factory support.

I think GT-P would be more than capable of headiining the PROCAR circus, assuming it could attract a couple of bigger teams and manufactures.

There are also seven different car companies fighting for the Australiian Production Car Championship and you could even hear the small crowd cheer at the end

ttiin erant Rowieif,^ Healthy competition; The ever-popular Justin Hemmes dices with GT-P factory-Mitsu man Steve Knight. u

When the Monaros were allowed to compete at the end of '02,the NC bar was raised two levels. Since then, the value of the bar has decreased five fold"

of the Sunday's first APCC race.

And where PROCAR lacks the Skaifes and Lowndes, PROCAR own VSBRutes. They have an fan base most V8 teams can only dream of. Just turn the volume down a wee bit on the commentators, please.

And we can't forget Formula 3. It's only in its fifth year, but last year's runner-up is competing (quiet successfully) in the mecca of F3 championships, the British series.

And hey, it's much easier to get around the PROCAR paddocks without becoming bogged down by record crowds ... and Peter Brock is

there!

And PROCAR certainly know how to look after the media.

I've never seen a platter of fresh fruit at a AVESCO meet...

But we have to face facts.

The Nations Cup bordered on the ridiculous at Oran Park and I don't think we are jumping the gun here. There are more than 15 cars laying garages around this brown country waiting to enter, most of which are more than capable of not only bolstering the grids, but winning races.

Ross Palmer financially assists many competitors in every one of his categories, and if it weren't for him, there would have been even less NC entrants at OP. You only have

to have a look at the signage on Brock's Monaro to know that Ross pays Peter Perfects bills. Not that they is anything wrong with that though. Tony George dug deep into his pockets to salvage the IRL IndyCar Series - and look where that is today ...

Ross has big dreams for his fledging series, but he also has big pockets. The Bathurst 24 Hour is his main drawcard, but it won't be viable if there is no series for the cars to compete week-in, week-out.

So, it's time for deregulation.

I ain't no techincal wizard, but to start with, the Monaro's a engine capacity reduction.

When they were eligible to compete a the end of '02, the NC bar was raised two levels.

Since then, the value of the bar has decreased five fold. Go figure.

But there are cars with plans to race at Sandown next month. If all of them fulfil there promise, PROCAR will be able to say 'the grid size has doubled since Oran Park'.

We live in hope ... .

I

must say that at the moment I am in a state of some confusion. I know that there is not much in the way of real Formula 1 news doing the rounds(ED: Please don't say that Saward ...) but I am completely baffled by the stories that have been circulating in recent weeks about Ralf Schumacher.

Ralf is a rather strange fellow who has led a very protected life. His career in motor racing was greatly helped by the fact that his brother is Michael Schumacher. He was quick on occasion but did not have any of the same iron in his bones as his big brother.

Out of the cockpit Ralf seems personable enough although, when he is not in front of the media, he appears to be inclined to be rather difficult with sponsors. If you ask the people at Williams if they like him, they will change the subject and talk about the weather. While pretending to be a fly on the wall in the Williams pit, I have seen him throwing a few wobblies.

“That is all opinion, of course, but I believe that there are others who share the same basic views. Which brings me to the source of my confusion: Why on earth

Some of the peop mainly in the manag Tokyo rather than th may be a little naive Formula 1 - but the'j stupid. If stupidity w requisite for a manai role at Toyota, I kno\ number of other FI people who would be working in Japan by now.

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B^ B^ When the rumours of the $110m deal first emerged, I went to Toyota and started asking questions, I might as well have tried pulling teeth from an elephant. Toyota people don't talk about anything to do with their FI policy. But eventually with a lot of wheedling and cheesy grins on my part, I did manage to extract one useful remark.

"Do you really think we would do something like that?"

"I hope not," I replied.

21 April 2004

extent, the fallback position can be higher than if negotiation starts at a sensible level. ~or centuries, man has been throwing out seeds in a wider arc than he can harvest.

There is, in my opinion, no chance at all that Ralf will be staying at Williams. The team, at least according to the people I have been talking to, feels that it made a lousy decision over Ralf the last time that negotiations were taking place and has ended

deal with Toyota remains to be seen. Neither of the drivers at Toyota has done a bad job but then again, neither has been sensational. The time is probably right for a change. But is Ralf the right person? Will he grab the team by the scruff of the neck and push it along towards the front of the grid.

That is what Michael Schumacher can do. That is why Michael is worth so much. That is what Ayrton Senna could do.

Ralf does not seem to have that

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Bla iGn the gap between the teams because if those that can afford him do not want him, there is no chance that those who cannot afford him will even look at him.

It is better for them to look for new stars like Christian Klien who are cheap and cheerful and, if the worst comes to the worst, assets that can be sold on at a latter date.

One is almost tempted to say that Ralf is past his sell-by date ... unless Toyota comes to the rescue.

27 gra

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Five minutes with

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Jose Fernandez

You can expect anything to happen at a Konica Minoita roune, but not even Jose Femamiez expecteU to be on the podium at Winton.

MARK GLBWmtNB spoke to the DJR driven atten the race MOTORSPORT NEWS: Going from a Historic Group N Touring Car to a V8 Supercar podium in about 18 months is a fairly good effort...

JOSE FERNANDEZ: No, I think it's better than a good effort.

But you need people around you to do it. I tried it last year on my own and I had buckley's.

Now I've got a good group of people around me, great sponsors ... what more could I ask for? We've probably got the best structure, the best team, in Konica Minolta.

And I say the best because I get along with the guys, you know, there is probably an equal amount of mechanical experience along pitlane. But I feel like I've gone into a home, and I'm really comfortable at DJR, and it's just fantastic.

MN: You're doing a good job behind the wheel,too - it all seems to be coming along quite quickly.

JF: Yeah, you know I always thought I had a little bit of talent, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the car and come into Konica Minolta.

But last year I learnt absolutely nothing, because we had no data, I had to do the maintenance on the car, I had to organise sponsors ... I had to do it all. So 50 percent of my grey hairs are probably from that.

But in saying that, now it's really relaxed. The sponsors are happy, the team is excited - we've had a couple of podiums now, and one win. Unfortunately Owen (Kelly) had a failure which was a shame, because I'm sure that he would have done the job today, but coming third isn't so bad.

MN: You've also been really consistent so far this season, which is particularly good for you given the way the current point system works.

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JF: Yeah, that's really what I aim for. I aim to qualify in the top 10, because that gives me a chance to mingle among the fast guys.

And you learn from doing that. ' And having experienced people around you makes everything a hell of a lot easier.

Especially if you can listen, and perform, and do what they want you to do.

So the consistency is coming from ... number one, being patient. This year, I have learnt a lot of patience. This year, I think a lot of the guys that are out there learning, want to press the throttle a lot more than you should. You've just got to wait, and then wait, and then wait, and then just drive it out. It's the consistency, and the patience, and having a good team and good sponsors that make the whole thing really worthwhile and comfortable to do.

I mean, I had a lonely third race - 1 must have raced almost the whole thing on my own, really.

MN: Given the way the races panned out today though,that's probably what you'd want!

JF: Yeah, but I thought for a little while that I was catching the front group. They were just in front of me, they were just about within an arm's reach, but

I didn't want to do anything stupid and jeopardise my spot for two points.

And even if I caught them, another job is to pass them. So that's the biggest thing I've learnt this year; to put my thinking cap on and say, 'well, should I go out and kamikaze myself just to get two points, or should I sit back and worry about getting them in the next race?'

I mean, if I've got the car then I'll definitely try it. But if the car is on that edge already, then I'll just sit there and mark my ground and not let anyone pass me.

MN: Given that we are at the halfway mark in the championship and you've moved yourself into the frame as far as the overall points go, are you changing your approach to the nextfew rounds?

JF: I don't really want to get too , cocky about things. I'll just take everything really plain and simply. If I'm fast and fortunate enough to be in the fast group then yeah. I'll definitely give it a go. But from the beginning, all I wanted to do was learn to drive these things and be consistent, and we're doing that.

Fortunately for me, a lot of the drivers up at the front are making mistakes, because

they're getting pressure to make mistakes, or they're getting punted off.

So if we can consistently stay where we are and just nibble at it... I'll be happy if we can finish top five, and if we can do better then I'll be over the moon. But I don't want to get too cocky too early, because it sort of can bite you on the arse.

With Race 2, (ED: When Fernandez was forced to start from pitlane and then suffered a puncture), if I had sat back, I wouldn't have done what I've done today. But something made me go out and chase 'get going, get going, get going'.

And we picked off a lot of cars and did really well in the second race. And we did well in the third race. It was just consistency.

We didn't put a foot wrong, it was all comfortable and easy, and most enjoyable. I cried in the car when they told me I was third. I could not believe it.

MN: You didn't know that you'd finished on the outright podium?

JF: No. I didn't want to know. I didn't know until I drove of the line. They came on the radio and said,'keep driving to the podium'.

I said, 'you're kidding'. An amazing moment. Unbelievable, molorspori news

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29

Five minutes with

Cornatio Pnovena

After being the WRC team to beat since eariy 2000,Peugeot's new 307has stpuggieu since debuOng at Monte Cario in January.

JON THOMSON spoke to the Peugeot Sport boss prior to Raiiy NZ

WJOTORSPORT NEWS: Corrado, it has been a tough start to the year for Peugeot.

Is that a fair statement?

CORRADO PROVERA; No, no, 1 don't agree.

We have a brand-new car, Marcus is only few points away fronn the lead in the championship which means that this is a very narrow gap and as far as Peugeot is concerned, we have succeeded in getting both cars to score points - with the one exception being Sweden, when Freddy Loix had a problem.

So we are not at all worried.

We are working through the problems: the car is a winning car.

MN: Do you think perhaps the perception has been that Peugeot is having a tough time because you have been the standard-setters for the past three years?

CP: Of course, and in the meantime the competition is getting better and better.

And sure, I suppose to some it could appear to be a tough start, but it is only the start. And don't forget that it took us eight rallies to make the 206 competitive, and New Zealand is only the fourth rally for the 307.

We did six events in 1999 with the 206 and then had an awful Monte Carlo in 2000, and we won in Sweden. So we have plenty of time, and to make a car as technologically complex as the 307 takes a little bit of time.

So we are on track, I believe.

MN: Your number one driver Marcus Gronholm has been quite vocal about the car's shortcomings.

CP: Yes, but he made a mistake and we expressed to him our incomprehension about this, because he was completely aware that the car was new.

So we spoke to him.

30

You know, Marcus is starving of victories because last year he make some mistakes, and we never complained about them.

So I think that he has to behave as a world champion.

"I think next time, Marcus will not say the stupid things he said in Mexico it

- Provera on Marcus Gronholm’s public criticism of the 307

MN: Did Marcus get a slap on the wrist?

CP: A little bit, yes, a little bit.

He remains an exceptional driver, in our opinion the best overall, and I understand when he is driving and the car has a problem with the steering power he may react in a tough way.

But always he must remember that a lot of people

are working in order to make him win again.

I think next time, even in case of this type of problem, he will not say the stupid things he said in Mexico.

MN: Did Marcus's comments spur your engineers and technicians on, or where they demotivating?

CP: You know, when you launch a new car it is like an engineer's baby, so the excitement of having it can't be improved on.

■ I don't think what he say would motivate people to work harder; what we had to do was sit down and make it clear to Marcus that we are going in a direction that we are not changing and it take a a little bit of time, but not as much as people imagine.

Unfortunately the last win for Marcus was middle of last year, so he is starving a little bit.

MN: You talk about Marcus being a big talent, but after just two rallies as number two you have benched Freddy Loix. Was his performance not up to scratch?

CP: No, I think with Freddy we have been honest with him.

We were expecting a lot from him in Monte Carlo and Sweden and he did something quite disappointing, and this year the situation is much tougher than last year.

We only have two cars to score points, not three, and what he has done in Monte and Sweden was not good enough.

So we decided to switch to Harri (Rovanpera) for Mexico and New Zealand, and after this we will be deciding whether Harri will continue or if we have to call Freddy back.

To be honest, I hope that Harri will do something very good and get the drive, and he is absolutely capable of doing this, moiorsport news

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finer a straao start to the season Craig BairO heads 'home to Pukehohe la eighth place la the V8SCS. But m he taid I BBfilUfiCfilU, the Best nttgr hejipstto come tram team Kiwi if

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andl aiiki fromi small famflyi ^ either in Scotland or living on the Coast now, so the chances are pretty slim.

MN: It has been a pretty strong start to the season for Team Kiwi. Have you exceeded your expectations?

: I guess wnvsre ifr bit iudcy to g^'raln Creek. IB the morning waimup^ we were fotirdi or fildi quickest straight away and the car was good in the rain. I knew that, if it was wet, we would have a pretty good run.

1 never thought for a minute. though, that we would end up inside the top 10 in the championship. When someone told me after the meeting that we were eighth overall in the championship I thought, 'Well, that's pretty good, isn't it?' I still thought we would have 11th or 12th.

To be eighth? I would never have thought that in a million years.

MN: Did the rain flatter the car? ft was actually pretty fast when you pulled it out of the truck.

quality on the front row of the grid

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- Baird, left, on his prospects with his new car

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in' ■●●’VJTi By the time diafteey-re^di^-^ gearboxes and the (^ssis and get to the next meeting, thBT& is no such thing astestinggr v,<i. development We know it is very hard to know what the set-up is. At least working with the Morris team, we know what set-up they ran at, say.

Eastern Creek last year. If anything, we know what direction to go in from there.

In layman's terms, it comes with a set-up that worked last year and that giVes us a huge head start.

-*■

MN; Is it much different to the VX you drove last year?

CB; It is a much better car. I think Larry (Perkins) built that car in 1999 and raced it in 2000. You can't compare it. continued ad

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continued from page 33 We were talking about a car that was four years old and an engine around 80 horsepower down on the best thing out there. Maybe not 80 but, at the beginning of the season, it seemed it was 80. It was just miles away.

Now, we have a good engine.

Between Morris's and (engine builder) Neil Burns, we have a good, reliable package, not the best in the field but not the worst in the field. The car handles well, dry or wet, so now it is much better.

I think we have qualified 18th in two out of the three meetings. It is not where we would like to be but, with a team with two mechanics and one engineer - and that is all our Australian base has - there is a lot of people behind us. Half the field, in fact - what are they doing? Not too bad.

But sometimes, you get back to the hotel and look at the sheets from the day and think, '18th?' I think that, given the right opportunities and the right car, I can qualify on the front row of the grid. The only time that I had that opportunity was with Stone Brothers and I did not get to grips with the circuits I had to learn and I did not adapt quickly enough to Supercars.

MN: Was that what it was when you were with SBR? Was it a real baptism of fire?

CB: It was. We had a reasonably good car but there were areas where we got lost and that hurt my confidence. 1 tried almost too hard to do well, instead of just being a relaxed driver, turning up, jumping in the car and doing it.

My driving style never adapted immediately to Supercars. I came from the open-wheeler, two-litre background of having high corner speed and not so much power. These things have no mid-corner speed, a huge amount of power and little grip, so it was a role reversal of what I was used to up until 2000.

But look; there are maybe 30 guys out there who might say the same thing. Look at someone like Paul Weel; people say that the bloke struggles, or whatever, but when he was put in a good car, he has come up trumps. He has done well; from the back of the field to two podiums in Adelaide in a couple of years. There are 30 guys who could do that but they have to have the right equipment.

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"Three hundred keys at Eastern Creek, rain, hail or shine, has got to he a bore to watchn - Baird talks race formats

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So that is one example going one way and Craig Lowndes is an example going the other way.

MN: Do good racing drivers develop bad habits when they are driving bad racing cars?

CB: They do, no two ways about that. I did, for sure.

You tend to over-drive things.

To go fast sometimes, when you look at someone like Marcos Ambrose in a top 10 shoot-out and there is no-one better - it almost looks like he is in slow motion. He is at one with the car and his confidence is high. That is all about confidence in the car; he brakes late and he knows that the front end is going to grip. Turn it in, wait, put the power down ...

In a car with no power and no grip, you just over drive the thing and end up going slower and slower.

MN: Have you completely got all that out of your system yet?

CB: I think that I have. The Morris car has a lot more frontend grip than I have been used to in a V8 Supercar. I am the kind of driver who finds it difficult to drive with understeer and V8 Supercars generally understeer.

So it is having the confidence to brake late, because there is a lot of time to be made up under brakes, and having the knowledge that it will turn in.

That is the big thing. This is really the first time 1 have had that in a V8 Supercar.

MN: How much exchange of information is there between you and Paul and the Sirromet team?

CB: Not a huge amount. Our base set-up is there but they are not a massive team either.

They are at the track with their team and we cannot be in and out of the garage, leaping all over their data. When we are at the tracks, we work in our own environment. But if we have a question that we need to ask, or we get lost, we can ask. They are doing a good job; they have qualified well in the races. They are all busy getting on with their own program but, if I walk in with a question, I have been given the time of day and a decent answer.

MIM: Does it help that you have a relationship going back to the BMW days?

CB: For sure. I know ail the guys there, I know Paul well.

I guess that the good thing is that as a driver, Paul has nothing to prove to me and I hope that I have nothing to prove to him.

For us, it is a matter of beating the other 30 cars on the grid, it is not about keeping information from one another.

MN: Does the 280,300km format suit you better than sprint races?

CB: No. I am not a big fan of it, to be honest.

Three hundred kays at Eastern Creek, rain, hail or shine, has got to be a bore to watch.

Sometimes it's a bore inside the car! It's too long; sometimes the race goes 10 or 15 laps, you get the stops done and sometimes you have no idea where you are running, I am always on the radio asking,'Where am I running?'

Sure, there is a bit of strategy in it but it is not 'strategy', really.

We all have to make a tyre stop motorsport news

118 SUPERCARS \\

!reckon that If you took Ross and Jimmy Stone, one mechanic, Marcos Ambrose and the team's engine builder to a race and put the car on a trailer and towed it with a Ford Transit van, they would still win!"

- Baird champions the cause of the ‘iittie’ team

and we all have to make a fuel stop. As far as that goes, there are not many moves that can help people. Morris made a beauty in Adelaide with back-toback stops but, generally, I don't like it.

When I first started in 2000, I loved the format of three sprint races. I think that the ideal format is what we are doing at Pukekohe; 100 kay races, one on Saturday, two on Sunday. Nice spread.

MN: Going to NZ,in front of the'home'crowd, is it a special event for you?

CB: I wouldn't say that. I live in Australia and I enjoy going to every race meeting, I really do.

Sometimes, I think we can overlook how lucky we are to be able to show up 14 times a year and run in a V8 Supercar race. It doesn't really matter where that track is for me; I enjoy going to Darwin as much as I do going to New Zealand or Perth. All the races I enjoy, not only just for the racing but to have the team environment, and to chat with the other teams up and down pit lane.

MN:Team Kiwi has enjoyed great support, especially across the Tasman. Is that as strong as ever?

CB: It is probably stronger since we had the result at Eastern Creek. As far as numbers go, the amount of emails we get from New Zealand every week is just unbelievable, whether we do good, bad or otherwise.

As raw numbers supporting the team, it is phenomenal. The team has had a base of sponsors that have been there since the start and the team would never have survived without those.

But, as for financial support out of the country, it is pretty minimal, in terms of running a V8 Supercar. It needs a new corporate, naming-rights sponsor on the side of the car. We need more staff and the only way we can do that is to pay people to turn up and work.

MN: Can a 'little' team survive in the cut-throat world of V8 Supercars nowadays?

21 April 2004

CB: I reckon that if you took Ross and Jimmy Stone, one mechanic, Marcos Ambrose and the team's engine builder to a race and put the car on a trailer and towed it with a Ford Transit van, they would still win!

Even though the people who run the sport would not want to see that, there is no reason why that little bunoh of guys could not win. They would probably win more races because, commercially, there would be less to do. To run 40 guys, or however many they have working there, is a big undertaking. If half a dozen turned up each race they would probably go a bit better!

So yes, I think that a small team can survive.

MN: You have been doing this for a long time now,since you were a teenager. Still fun?

CB: You bet. I love it.

I am driven by results. That is my motivation. Last season, and before that with Team Brock, they were old cars that you were never, ever going to qualify on the front row of the grid. Sometimes, when it's like that, it is hard to commit yourself 100 percent.

When 1 drove the Porsche in New Zealand against Jim Richards, all I wanted to do was to beat Jim Richards. Even though it was a two-year-old car, I committed myself 110 percent to every corner and every braking zone. If I stuck it in, I was sticking it in for a reason.

In the last couple of years, it was because I was going to be 22nd but I was going for 19th. I could have been 17th but I also could have been upside down and in the fence. You have to ask yourself, 'Can the team afford to fix it? Is it worth hurting yourself for two positions if you are already in the second half of the field?' No, it's not.

But, if I have a car that is capable of getting on the front row of the grid, I will give it everything. If that means ending up in a fence, upside down, whatever, you would do it. I just do not seem the point in doing if you are somewhere in the 20s.

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Rebbeca I would love to act in the film industry.

I have studied at a Performing Arts College forfour years, as well as studying at the Australian Institute of Musicfor vocal training for two years. Dancing has also been a part of my life since the age of three.

At the end of the year I am leaving to live in Los Angeles to study for two years at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting. Later in life I would love to direct and produce films.

I have really only been modelling since the age of 15 or 16 but I am keen to get back into the modelling industry for the next year until I go to America.

At the moment I go to the gym four orfive times d week to keep fit. I love going out with my friends to clubs to dance, or going to the movies. Water sports are also one of my favourite ways to keep fit. I am a self confessed shopaholic.

I

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

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Imold has seen sonne of the greatest \ turns to Imola for what is,for teams, with the exception of Tyrrell (which had Italian sponsors) at least, the last Grand Fornnula One races in history-and Prix heldnowat the Circuit named for boycotted the race and only 14 cars Enzo Ferrari's late son Dino, lined up for the race on a cloudy some of its darkest days. MNews memories inevitably turn to some of Sunday, Turbo cars dominated the practice great battles of past days. looks back at the 1982 San Marino theOne race that will never be and qualifying sessions, with Rene Amoux on pole and Alain Frost forgotten came in 1982. This was the alongside in the Renaults and Gilles GP, which started in controversy and the year of an ongoing dispute between Villeneuve and Didier Pironi on the Formula One Constructors second row in their Ferraris. Frost was foilowed by tragedy Association(FOCA)and the sport's

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motorsport news

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To finish second is one thing, hut second because he steals a place is something elserr

- Gilles Villeneuve, right, never forgave Didier Pironi, below, for what he saw as an act of betrayal

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had problems in the race and,by lap 15, it had turned into a threehorse race between the two Maranello cars and Arnoux.

What happened next has gone down in the folklore of the sport.

On lap 26 Villeneuve took the lead and the crowd went berserk.

A few minutes later, they went into orbit; Arnoux was about to retire with engine problems and Piroiu bombed past to make it a Ferrari 1-2.

The third-placed Tyrrell of Michele Alboreto made for a perfect day; yes, he was an Itahan but, with a Cosworth engine under the cover of the car, it was falling back from the reds at about four seconds a lap and no threat to the dream finish.

It all looked so perfect- but there was a problem looming. In the days before planned fuel stops were introduced, Ferrari's 126C2s were thirsty and, with much of the lap covered at fullthrottle, getting the cars to the finish was a marginal proposition. Team orders were issued; slow down,hold posihon and save fuel.

Villeneuve complied,confident that Pironi would also foUow orders. So, with no threat in his mind, Gilles was a happy man.

"I was cruising along and believed that Pironi was being honest. I was not expecting him to pass me,but aU of a sudden I 21 april 2004

saw him coming up on me.He slid past with all four wheels locked, and that was the end of it.'

Such a thing went against the very fibre of the Canadian. He wound up his car again, retook the lead at Tosa and then slowed again, hoping that the message would get through to his team mate. That was not to be; on the final lap,Pironi again forced his way past and, with no time left to mount another attack, Villeneuve finished second to the Frenchman by 0.366s.

Villeneuve seethed while Pironi tried to make light of the situation with his own explanation of what had happened.

"We both had engine problems and there were no team orders."

Gilles responded, telling the media,"That is not true. In all my time at Ferrari, when you get a 'SLOW'sign it means'hold position'. To finish second is one thing, but second because he steals a place is something else."

Villeneuve was asked following the race whether the deed would force him to leave the team. His answer was that, if

Pironi stayed at Ferrari, he would leave. He was confident that he would not want for offers and, indeed,it is likely that he would have gone to McLaren the following season.

Of course,it never came to that. VUleneuve's statement that he would never again speak to Pironi proved true in tragic circumstances. Two weeks later, while qualifying for the Belgian GP at Zolder, Villeneuve's Ferrari struck the March of Jochen Mass and somersaulted into the air, hurling Gilles to his death. One of the sport's greatest drivers had been lost.

On August 8, in Germany, Pironi hit the slowing Renault of Prost and shattered both of his legs, ending his own career. Five years later, he was killed in an ocean boat race off the coast of the Isle of Wight. A short time later, his partner gave birth to twin sons, whom she named Didier and Gilles.

There were great days at Imola,and sad days. After this Sunday,as far as Formula One is concerned, there will be no more days.

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10 Yeans Later On the first day of May, 1994, Ayrton Senna died atfnwfa. The death of the greatest driver of his generation changed Formuia One forever. Some of the peopie who knew and worked with the three-time worid champion rememher the racing driver, the hawed genius and the man

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he rivalry between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna was perhaps the fiercest in FI history, and it kept the sport interesting even when one team was dominating. Inevitably Prost does not talk very often about Senna, and he's repeatedly turned down requests from journalists writing about the 10th anniversary of Ayrton's death.

But he did open up recently for Dutch TV production company Dolphin, which was making a documentary for the Ayrton Senna Foundation.

Available soon on DVD, The Right To Win tells the story of Ayrton's career, with contributions from family, friends and colleagues.

Prost talked about Ayrton for an hour, but because the crew taped so much material only a few of his comments made the final documentary. However, MNews has had access to original tapes of the fascinating full interview, and thus for the first time we can tell the inside story of the Prost/Senna relationship in Alain's own words.

The pair became team-mates at McLaren in 1988. Ironically Prost says that he was fully behind the idea of getting

Senna on board.

"At the beginning we had many, many discussions with Ron Dennis," he recalls. "At the time I was considering the McLaren team as my team, and my family. In 1986 we had a trip to Japan to get the Honda engine with Ron. It was almost done, but something happened in terms of contracts just at the end.

"That's the first time we talked about who could be the second driver if we had a Honda engine. I remember we had a discussion about top drivers like Nelson Piquet, or whoever. I said to Ron, 'Take the best young guy coming to get a very strong team. And that's Ayrton.' They all said, 'Why do you want to have Ayrton?'

"Why not? I was always thinking about the team first.

Obviously I did not know what was going to happen. I knew that he was going to be very quick anyway, there was no question about that."

It didn't take long for Ayrton to show his speed. An intense battle soon developed, on and off the track. Even briefings became a subject for competition, as Alain recalls.

"We were dominating FI, but we still wanted to improve the car. We also knew that if we

were quick and fast and it was a winning car, that was also because of us, because of the drivers. It's not pretentious to say that.

"You know when you are good, when you are at the top, you know what is your car, your engine compared to the others.

"We always wanted to have a better car, and the fact that we were fighting so hard together, we were putting the performance of the car and the team at a very high level. We were spending three, four, five hours on briefings, while other drivers did 20 minutes or 30 minutes. A lot of people were saying, there's no point. Why do they do that?

"But it was for two reasons.

The first was to improve the car and the team, and the second is to be sure that we could not forget something that could suit us, or suit me for example better than Ayrton - or Ayrton would think of something that would suit him better than Alain. Very often it was very small things. But everything was prepared in an unbelievable way.

I don't think - in fact I'm absolutely sure about it - we ever lied, or hid anything on the work together. I'm sure

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-Alain Prost, right

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"But that's also why in the end'it'GOiuld' become l »(■ psychology. There was no way that I could go out of the briefing before Ayrton, and Ayrton could not go out before me. So we were going out together. And sometimes the engineers said,'Phew! Good luck...'

"I don't think - in fact I'm absolutely sure about it - we ever lied, or hid anything on the work tog*ether. I'm sure. I could trust him, he could trust me."’’

Everything was open and we were talking as normal team mates. But when this work was finished, it was really tense."

Senna was never happy when Prost beat him: "That was Ayrton's character.

He was furious, for sure. It was part of the way he was thinking.

Losing for him was already bad, and losing against me was really the worst thing he could have. His whole motivation was to beat me, and I understood that during our fight, but even more when I stopped. For me continued on page 40

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continued from page 39 that was a revelation. In fact he was in FI obviously because he loved racing and FI, but his biggest motivation was to beat me. Which was good for me."

Prost says that he had the advantage when it came to setting up the car.

Unfortunately for him, Ayrton was able to benefit.

"1 think the weakest point was for sure if he had been alone in a team, I don't think he was the best to set up the car or bring the engineers in the right direction to improve the whole car. I don't think he was exceptional on that.

"That's why in the end I had

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enough of working very hard and doing everything, especially in the winter. 1 remember many, many times when I was doing some tests and coming back home and 1 had a call from Ron saying, 'Could you go back in England tomorrow because Ayrton is not coming - he wants to stay in Brazil.'

"You do that once, twice, but in the end you have enough, because when he was coming back in January he was fresh. I was a little bit upset about that sometimes. I also knew he was not the best for that. I think it was my strong point. He was confident about what I was doing."

Of course, the Prost/Senna relationship is remembered best for their many fights on the track. Sometimes, as at Suzuka in 1989 and '90, it ended in disaster, but there were many other close calls.

Much to Prost's frustration.

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Ayrton found it impossible to accept that he might be wrong.

"Many times we talked together with Ron about the fact that we wanted to have a normal fight on the track, in the correct way. Because we were in the same team we did not want to lose the race together for the whole team, we had to be careful. But when he was in the car...

"I remember once or twice, for example the start of the British GP he overtook me in the first corner. He just stayed almost flat and pushed me outside. Obviously if I didn't move five metres, he could not go through. It was the way he was thinking.

"The problem with Ayrton in this type of situation was you could not talk. You could not talk about this kind of thing.

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because he would never accept (he was wrong), he would never have the same judgement, not only with me, but with anybody. He was thinking that it was a normal way of overtaking, he didn't realise that it was really me voluntarily going away, and he would never see the things the same way as you. Absolutely, never."

In the winter of 1993-'94 there was a thaw in their relationship.

Alain was by now retired, and having taken his seat at Williams, Senna had a reason to renew contact. He was interested in Alain's thoughts on the team and the previous year's car - Senna found the seating position uncomfortable - but there was more to it than that.

After 1 retired, we started to

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"He was a very strange person, but in a way you wanted to protect him, you wanted to help him"

- Prost on his greatest rival;

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talk about a few things, didn't know why at this time, personal things, the fact that he ijecause we didn't have many was afraid, the fact that he problems. Obviously the cars found the car not very good, were getting quicker and that he wanted me to take care quicker as always. He was not the same. (of)the GPDA for the safety. He was very, very concerned about "That's when he told me for the safety. He was looking like a the second or third time that he weaker person. He was a )was not very motivated, he normal person, I would say. : missed me, and it was not the “The Imola weekend started same. His voice and the way he the week before, maybe two behaved was really different. weeks before, where we had a He was really looking weak, not few telephone conversations. the same Ayrton that I knew ..."

He called me a few times, Alain has some interesting sometimes for no reason. He just wanted to talk a little bit.

He had problems with the car. and he was convinced that Benetton was cheating, and he was very upset about that -1 don't say that, it was him saying that to me!

memories of Imola. Famously,' Ayrton gave him a greeting * when doing a commentary of a lap for French TV, saying that he missed him. Just before the race he came into the Renault motorhome where Alain was having lunch, a gesture that stunned the Frenchman. Later they talked for the last time, alone at the back of the Williams garage, minutes before the start. Such things are still vivid in Frost's mind. He says that, of course, he misses

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1 his old friend. ^ ^ ^ "Everybody misses Ayrton, because of the way he was on the track. You still want to see him on the track, fighting against Schumacher! I don't know if he would be there today, because he would be older anyway, but you really miss this part.

"He was a very strange person, but in a way you wanted to protect him, you wanted to help him. I don't know why. I think what we may miss the most is maybe discovering more the human side of Ayrton.

I think if he was still there he would be a very big help. especially for Brazilian people.

Brazilian children, because he would be a god. He is still, but lly be so famous. he would do ally good. n Alain Frost raced in times. He ivas already ived in FI in 1984 and dterefortivo seasons.

By ADAM COOPER

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It was a p:ie:asutie it© fee with him in thatara.iMa setthe fear very very high, I Wish we could have measured him properly against Michael Schumacher but his death robbed us of that.

His great legacy t© iFormula 1 has been safety, After he died everything changed.

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AYRTON SENNA

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T is 10 years since the death of Senna and it is a subject about which Frank Williams rarely talks openly.

Williams has lost two drivers in his FI career; Senna and Piers Courage and both accidents were profoundly shocking and painful.

When you look at it we really had very little direct exposure to Senna because we really only got to know him for a few months - between January and May 1994.

But he was a phenomenal racing driver. The best driver we ever had. He planned and plotted everything. He always used his mind before he used 'hiSv:nio,uth,apd;vyhatwas ve^^

clear is that he was a very clever man and a really outstanding negotiator. He was the toughest person I ever negotiated with. I think that if he had lived he would have gone on to a major career in politics.

He was meticulous about everything. He worked very hard with his engineers to make sure that his car was absolutely right. He was the pioneer of a new level of fitness in Formula 1 which was something that Michael Schumacher took up afterwards.

Senna trustedvery few people outside his close circle of Brazilian friends.

His death left us in a state of complete shock. Over time, that faded and now we have fond memories; sad memories.

A lot of people do not really understand it but we also feel a responsibility to have lost such a worldwide figure.

It was one of the blackest days for our team. It is hard to say that that it was the blackest because I was very close to Piers Courage. I just adored the bloke and it was very hard to adore Ayrton, He was just very different.

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don't think Ayrton would have changed anything. He lost his life doing something that he was passionate about. It was his life. He was completely dedicated and focused and he sacrificed a lot of other things in his life for that.

He was obsessive to the detriment of his development as a human being. For him,he got an uplifting emotional experience out of winning races but it was always an emotional rollercoaster for him. He was never comfortable with where he was.

He struggled in his early years in FI but in the end we talked about a deal. He was a fine negotiator and he spent a lot of time thinking about it and in the final part of the negotiation it became a question of who was going to give way on the last $500,000.1 suggested we toss a coin to break the deadlock.I won the bet and it was only later when I was driving away that I realised that it was actually for $1.5m because the deal was for three years.

I think that his most defining moment was after Suzuka in 1989

In the initial period when he was a young guy in Formula Ford going into Formula 3,1 offered to pay for his F3 in exchange for an option for his services in FI. He did not want

when he was deeply affected by what happened. He retired from the sport and it took a great deal of effort on my part to convince him to come back. That was the sort of person he was,if he found himself

anything other than a guarantee of

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AYRTON SENNA single-minded approach and having absolutely the maximum level of fitness. He set new standards. That was part of his obsession.

When he joined the team, he did not have a sense of humour and that did not go down well. It was important that he had one and I started the process of making him understand the value of laughter and it became an amusing mission for Gerhard Berger and myself.

Once Ayrton realised there was an element of competition involved, he entered into the spirit of it. It helped to break down the tension and was a good adhesive in the relationship.

The difference between a good driver and a great driver is his ability to win with a car that is not perfect. He was great at coping with adversity.

He knew very well the risks. He knew his limits and he knew the danger and he accepted it. There were times when his competitiveness did get the better of him. He was an honourable guy but we all have weaknesses and I don't think he was proud of what

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happend at Suzuka in 1990(when he drove Alain Frost off the road).

It was not one of his finest moments.I don't even think he could justify it. He would have preferred to win the World Championship in the right way but there was a kind of balance.

Ten years after his death there is still tremendous interest in him as a person. He didn't really have a bad side. He was a caring guy. A team player. He was prepared to admit he was wrong when he was wrong which is an unusual quality in a racing driver. He was a real friend.

If you had adversity in your life he wanted to make it better. He did not have the aggressive hardness that most men have. He was compassionate. At one point, that was spun in a very bad way by another driver who wanted to undermine his popularity in Brazil by suggesting that his male friendships were more than that.

That really did affect him.

He had a mistrust of virtually all humans and it took him a long time to understand how to develop

relationships. In the end,I always felt that his group of friends was diminishing.

He would not have gone on and on in Formula 1.1 don't think he ever really planned to stop racing but he was heavily drawn to Brazil and would go to tremendous lengths to go there. It was very important to him. He was very mindful of the fact that he could change things in Brazil and make a difference. He wanted to help the underdogs and he certainly did that.

The Senna Foundation was his

doing.

He was caring gujiL A team player. He was prepared to admit he was wrong when he was wrong which is an unusual 4 quality in a racing driver.

He was a real friend" -Ron Dennis

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Ron Dennis zoas the team boss most closely associated with Ayrton Setina, who joined McLaren in J9SS and stayed until the end of 7993, winning 35 races and three World Championships.

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Fop most of his career, I didn't iike him and he didn't iike me" -Joe Saward, below right

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CAN never listen to Tina Turner's Simply the Best without thinking of Ayrton Senna and, no matter how many races Michael Schumacher wins,I still find it impossible to think of him as a greater driver than the Brazilian.

Schumacher is the embodiment of efficiency but Senna was magic.

I had always respected him as a driver, ever since 1 first watched him in Formula 3 in 1983. A year later I stood in the rain on the outside of the Swimming Pool complex at Monaco and watched him hound Alain Prost in the wet.

For most of his career, I didn't like him and he didn't like me. Things came to a head at the end of 1992 when he started spouting forth about Alain Prost being afraid to have him lams. as a team-mate at It was unworthy of Senna and I wrote him an open letter in Aiikvporl, which went straight through his armour and hurt him. What hurt him more, 1 think, is that some of those around him agreed with me and sent him copies of the article.

A few months later, we found ourselves sitting across from one 46

another at a dinner in Adelaide and we ended up having a shouting match.

He wanted to know why 1 had written the article and without mincing words,1 told him that it was because it was true. He said 1 did not know what 1 was talking about; I replied that if he wanted to be understood, he had to learn to open up a bit and learn to trust.

1 dared him to trust me.

I guess it must have been nine months later that J was approached

by Betise, Senna's PR,and told to ask him for an interview. He did not give one-to-one interviews and others looked on from a distance, openmouthed,as the sparks flew between us...

But then we settled down and Ayrton began answering questions in a completely open fashion. We talked about everything: his attitudes to racing; about friendship; about religion; about poverty; about women and about having a family. It was an amazing interview and I knew that this was Ayrton's test.

1 wrote it as it had happened and 1 earned his trust, so we never

with 'off the record' after that.

We knew. In the months that followed,I grew to like him as well as to respect him.

There were many extraordinary things about Ayrton Senna but for me the most remarkable was his will to succeed. His need to win. He came from a wealthy family, was welleducated and well-raised. And yet he always felt the need to keep on improving. He was extraordinarily lucid and brilliantly intelligent.

Anyone who saw his press conferences where he talked about driving will tell you that there has never been anything like that, before or since. He opened up his soul and we were all entranced - whether we liked him or not.

He could talk on many subjects and in several languages. He had found God and had the courage of his convictions to stand up and be counted. He was happy to share the message, but recoiled because of the ridicule it created.

He never did stop learning and in his final year I believe that he really began to mellow. Maybe it was

because I was getting to know him differently, 1 am not too sure. But I felt that he was finally at ease with himself and content with his life.

If he had to die 1 guess he died at the right time - at the absolute peak of his ability, in the prime of his life, doing what he loved best and adored all around the world by millions and millions of fans.

MNews's FI editor joe Sawcird covered Ayrton Senna's career from his 1983 British F3 titic nntii his death 11 years inter ■Diorspori aev.::

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Robbed!Senna lost the 1979 World Kart Championshipiin unfortunate circumstances.

The injustice of it aii, was too much. The tears fiowed, tears of sheer frustration...

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- Chris Lambden

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N 1978 1 was a race mechanic to British kart ace Terry Fullerton, who Senna later in life named as the greatest driver he had ever raced against.

In September of that year, 17-year-old Ayrton Da Silva (as the kart world knew him then) arrived to join the same team as Fullerton for his first race outside of Brazil - the 1978 World Championship, at Le Mans.

After Ayrton's very first pre race test, I vividly recall Fullerton quipping "this new Brazilian kid could be a bit of a problem!" Fullerton never, ever, handed out that sort of compliment, even behind closed doors. He feared noone.

Senna spoke no English at that point, so seemed a little ‘14

remote. He acquitted himself well enough that first time, finishing fifth.

At the Japanese Kart GP, some weeks later, it rained in qualifying. The youngster had never driven in the wet before and he was all at sea. He learned. In FI, as we first saw at Monaco in 1984, he was untouchable in the wet, above.

He returned to Europe for the full 1979 kart season, boarding with the owners of the DAP kart and engine factory in Milan. His English began to appear, along with the on-track assertiveness that the world was to come to know.

In any year other than 1979, Senna's performance would have won the World Karting Championship. In those days, the business end of the

championship weekend involved three final races, best two results counting. In the event of a tie, the third result counted except in 1979. It was something of which Ayrton was, it seems, unaware.

He had dropped a heat but moved forward through the finals to lead the third. It tied him with Dutchman Peter Koene. Under the usual tie breaker system, Ayrton would win. He thought he had. The last few laps were an amazing display of exuberance and adrenaline as he flicked his machine around Estoril's kart circuit in a series of extrovert celebratory slides.

But he hadn't won.

The minutes after that race were extraordinary. The

deflation, ^ — disbelief and, most importantly to him, the injustice of it all, was too much. The tears flowed, tears of sheer frustration. (Fastforward to the 1990 Japanese GP at Suzuka, Turn 1 ...)

But the will to win was always there, right at the start of his brilliant career.

In n 'pirvioiis life' MNews I'liblislier Chris Lambden was in Hie rb^ibl place at Hie rif;lit lime and saw fivin close tpiarlers Hie earlp developinciH of Ai/rloii Senna,from his I’m/ first kali race in iliirope, in I97S. 47

N the corner of my computer screen sits a helmet pin. It is white and red and bears the name Roland Ratzenberger.

It was a gift sent to me from Roland's family in Salzburg, Austria, after someone sent them an appreciation I wrote about their son, which was printed i n mid-1994. With it came a card, with words of thanks, in German, and with two pictures. One is of Ratzenberger in his Simtek-Ford, in practice at Imola on the day he lost his life. The other, left, is of a young boy, perhaps three years old. playing with his favourite toy cars.

Ratzenberger was no giant of the sport. ike Senna was. He was a talented driver who, handicapped by a lack of finance did whatever he could to further his career. That included driving touring cars around the world, including at Bathurst. It included racing for Stellar's Formula 3000 team in Japan, and Toyota's Sportscar

It also included lying about his age. giving himself a two-year 'discount' to aid his chances of forging a professional career. That meant that he was actually almost 34 when he was killed, not 32 as widely quoted elsewhere.

Through all the ups and downs of his career, no matter what car he was racing or wherever in the world he was doing it.

Ratzenberger never lost sight of the fact that he was doing what he loved and looked like he was enjoying the moment.

It is a sad thought that he died because his car broke; sadder still to think that what happened the following day has. largely, overshadowed his life and career.

As I said, not a great racing driver in the giant scheme of things but a fine man, always determined and cheerful always giving 100 per cent and doing whatever it takes. And a man always to be remembered.

"No manor what car he was racing wherever in the worid he was doing it, Ratzenberger never iost sight of the fact that he was doing what he ioved

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The Best Damn Gapage in Town Toyota Team Racing is officialiy an ARC round winner following Simon Evans's success in WA. But it has taken a lot of work and a little ingenuity to get there.

MARK GLENDENNING dropped in at Neal Bates Motorsport to get the lowdown

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HE image of a three-car, works-supported rally team's home base springs into the imagination easily.

A huge factory (perhaps with some nice water features and palm trees), three varieties of Tim Tams in the kitchen, carbon-fibre toilet seats and army of highly dedicated, highly specialised workers, all working like sponsor-emblazoned robots to get the cars ready for the next event.

Well, apart from the 'highly dedictated' bit, the reality is quite different- at least, where Neal Bates Motorsport/Toyota Team Racing isconcemed.(We might be wrong about the Tim Tams too, but since Bates didn't take MNews into the kitchen, we'll never know).

Based in a quiet street in an industrial corner of Canberra,TTR shares its premises with Bates's automotive business. But most of the space - and from Bates's perspective, most of the energy - goes into the three Group N (Prototype) Corollas that the team takes into battle.

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The year has started well for the team, with new arrivals Simon and Sue Evans taking a slightly fortunate win in WA following Chris Atkinson's disqualification.

"We hoped that we would come out and be on the pace," reflected Bates.

"We'd done a lot of work, but we'd changed things on the car last year that we thought would bring improvements, and then went to rallies and we still weren't there. So we weren't bubbling over thinking that we were going to come out and

cream everybody, but we were hoping that we'd be competitive.

"To be competitive is a huge achievement for everyone here, because it's a car that we've built ourselves rather than doing a Group N car with STi parts, or Ralliart parts of whatever. So we're very, very proud of that."

Competitive, they were. Joining Evans in the outright placings was Bates himself, who finished third along with co-driver Coral Taylor, while up-and-comers Ben Barker and Damien Long brought the third Corolla Sportivo home in 10th.

The third car is a step up for TTR this year, and to cater for the extra woridoad. Bates has doubled the size of the team ... to six.

"We were badly understaffed before," Bates said in a masterpiece of understatement.

"To build and develop and run two cars, we had three people. And now we've doubled that to six people. So if you can imagine building cars and trying to do rallies and developing them when you've got three full-time staff, it's pretty full-on.

"Even now,if you compared it to a touring car team that has 30 or 40 people to run two cars and we've got six to run three cars ... it's a lot of work."

It also means that there is little space within the team for heavy specialisation - if there's anything you needed to know about the suspension,for example, then you'd probably find that the gearbox guy would be more than able to tell you. moiorsport news

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Neil Blackhourn

Pressure situation: The TTR team gets busy on Simon Evans's car during the Forest Rally in WA. In full flight: In a bit over 18 months, the Corolla Croup N Prototype car has evolved from a concept into a rally winner. And it's only just starting to hit its strides ...

"Basically we're a small team,so everyone does a bit of everything," Bates confirmed.

"We all have specialised areas, but we also cross over fairly well. For example, we built a new truck early this year, and everyone was involved in facets of building that. So it's not as though we're big enough to say 'you will only do that'."

The Corolla ARC programme was borne out of Bates being left with nothing much to do after the change to Group N regulations rendered his WRC Corolla ineligible to compete.

"We went to Toyota and talked them into(Group N),basically," Bates grinned.

"They were not overly keen to do it, but we told them that we could build a car along those rules and make it win, and talked them into it.

"So that's why we were very keen for it to do well, because we told them that that's what could happen.

"Even for the first 12 months they were questioning it, probably,from a competitiveness point of view."

Looking at the fromitthe perspective ofsituation hard results, is not hard to see why Toyota may have been concerned. But in this case, you have to look considerably further than hard results to see the full picture.

Unlike its Subaru or Mitsubishimounted rivals, TTR's first problem was that Toyota did not produce a 21 April 2004

four-wheel-drive car that could be directly translated into a Group N rally machine.

The solution was to graft the fourwheel-drive system and engine from a CeHca GT-Four beneath a Corolla body shell and rurming gear - an endeavour that, unsurprisingly, presented a whole host of unique problems.

"The geometries change straight away," explained TTR's engine man Geoff Foreshore.

"As soon as you put,for argument's sake, a 4WD knuckle in the front of a front-wheel-drive car, the geometries change straight away, and those have to be tuned. Things are wrong,and you've just got to work around them."

"You hear about people using laser leveling systems and plotting points and those sorts of things, well we did everything with water levels and string bolts," continued Bates.

"Which,1 still to this day,say is every bit, if not more, accurate than any other state-of-the-art system. It probably just takes a bit longer, and we didn't have money for the other stuff so that's how we did it, "But we built the first car, which is Ben's car now,and Simon's and my car exactly the same.

"There were no changes between the second car and the third car, and

continued on. page 52

m-.-:

nn

l

First pics! MN brings you the first glimpse of Neal's new car, which the team anticipates will take to the road towards the end of the season. We imagine it will look a bit different to this, though.

Homegrown: Everything that the team can make by itself, it does - such as the chassis jig, below.

continued from page 51 the changes from the first car to the second car were absolutely minimal.

So that says to me that it was pretty right the first time."

'Pretty right' it may have been but it was also pretty slow. And this was exacerbated by the fact that unUke its rivals, which had the benefit of several years and thousands of kilometres of testing and development in Asia, (Mitsubishi, remember, are up to the eighth evolution of the Lancer), the Corolla ARC car was essentially being developed and tested in the heat of battle.

"We finally talked Toyota into doing this, so we told them that we should run Rally of Melbourne (in 2002)" Bates explained.

"By the time they said yes, there was 11 weeks to go. So we sort of thought,'far out'. So we built a car in 11 weeks, got it ready, and did the Rally of Melbourne.

"The ideal situation would have been to have a year's development before we ran the car - if you look at motorsport internationally, that's what they would do. But in Australia there's not the money nor the resources to develop for a year and then come into competition.

"So it was basically straight into the frying pan.

"The car, to start with, was incredibly difficult to drive. It had a lot of problems that we sorted out along the way. When we first built it, the biggest problem was that the steering was so heavy that you just couldn't steer the thing.

"So once we overcame that, the car was a lot better to work with. The steering was so heavy that you couldn't nm any front diff, it was just very, very difficult to drive.

"But the biggest difficulty in doing last year was having the time to develop the car, because you're getting it ready for rallies, and rebuilding engines and gearboxes ... you're doing your race preparations while you're trying to develop it.

"You run very short of time to do that, so we did a huge development programme during the off-season, starting almost from the end of last year,just to do miles and try things and develop things, and it's paid off.

"Sometimes it was hard work, and when you're down,everyone has got the answers. Like if you look at last year, we were uncompetitive, and every person out there has got ideas about what you're doing wrong, and you've even got privateers at the end of the rally saying that you're doing a crap job and they could be doing it better - and they were probably ringing up Toyota and telling them how good they are.

"But we never thought that it wouldn't be competitive. And we went to rallies knowing that there 52

were things on the car that weren't right, but we were in a situation where we didn't have the time, or there were other problems stopping us from fixing it.

"So we've never not knovm what's got to be done. It's just been a time restraint, and a lot of work getting there.

"You just block aU that criticism out- you don't confess to knowing everything about motorsport but, having been aroimd a long time, our guys have had an enormous amount of experience over the years.

"They've seen a lot of things, and

It was basically straight into the trying pan"

U

-Bates on the lack of lead time prior to the Corolla’s debut in Melhourne in 2002 they know how things work,and you just know generally what's got to be done and you work towards making it right.

"If it was a Group A car it would be easier, because you can just put whatever wherever you want. But being a production car, you've got standard cross-members and control arms and aU that, and you have to work out other ways to make it all work.

'If you look at the car, the

New faces; Last year Neal ran a two-car team with brother Rick in the second car. This time around, he's joined by Evans, above, and a third car for Ben Barker, right, who served his time as a test driver last season.

And with the benefit of the luxury of spending some energy on making the car go faster rather than trying to strip it down for a race the following week,it's not surprising that just about every aspect of the car has

"Our engine gains were such that we ended up with about the same power as we had before, but on a lesser fuel. Which I think has taken us pretty much on par with every one else."

The other major addition for the year is that of Evans, who has finally made the step into a factorysupported role after several seasons of heroics at the wheel of a privateer Subaru.

"I actually was keen to have Simon last year, but it wasn't really the right timing," Bates admitted.

"In a development year, the car would have been hard work,and so it's something that we spoke about over last year and it ended up happening at the end of the year.

"I think he's the fastest driver in the country by a reasonable amount. I think if you put him in any other car against any other team out there, he's be faster than them.

- Bates on Simon Evans, pictured above with co-driver and wife Sue

"He's just that bit braver and a bit more eager than most people out there, I think. He uses a bit more road in most places ... he's just very, very hungry and very committed.

"You don't employ Simon Evans and then expect him to be a second driver,so we're doing everything we can to make sure that he has as much a chance to win the championship as I have.

been improved.

"Oh, we found gains in everything," Bates said.

"We got some more weight out of the car, we did some stuff with diffs and suspension, we got a little bit more engine performance, although we went to a different fuel.

"People said,'why would you want to employ Simon, what if he's quicker?' For me,Tm the team manager as well, and I want the best results possible for Toyota.

"If Simon drives quicker than me, well, good luck to him. It didn't do Dick Johnson any harm to employ John Bowe,or Larry Perkins to get

w

He'S just that bit braver and a bit more eager than most people out there, I think. He uses a bit more road in most rr piaces...

technology in our car's probably not as good as some of the others.'The diff's a centre diff, the intercooler set up is probably not as good as on the other cars because it's got a water-toair intercooler and all that. So given all that, we're very happy with it. It's competitive."

motorsport news

i

V

i:

Sue Evans and Simon Evans

Russell Ingall. So I look at it from that point of view and try my best not to be selfish with decisions with regard to that.

"And he and Sue fit in to the team

love trucks, and have a passion for trucks, and so does Simon

very well. Because we're such a small team, we don't have truck drivers

said he wanted to drive the biggest truck,but that's mine,so he can

and all that sort of stuff. I actually

bugger off!"

You're invited to be part of Australia's fastest growing motor sport Why not see what it's all about for yourself? Attend a race meeting at your local club and talk to the drivers and crew. There are classes to suit almost everyone from 7 years to 77 +.

Midgets 7-11 years Rookies 10-12 years Juniors* 12-16 years in TWO weight divisions Seniors*Over 10 classes of varying power & driver weights to choose from. * Other more powerful classes available for experienced racers.

21 April 2004

Initially we had him down to fly to the rallies, but he wasn't really keen on that, he wanted to drive. Sue Back at base: The Bates and Barker cars are joined in the workshop by the ST105 Celica that Ove Andersson will drive in the Targa Tasmania

Contact your state's karting office for details The Australian Karting Association Inc For information about karting and how to gel started in your Stale or Territory call

13D0 3D 5278 [13DD 3D KART] New South Wales www.akansw.k.iftingausiralia.com.nu victoria www.vka.asn.au Queensland WWW,akaqld.asn.au Tasmania South Australia Western Australia wsvw.kartinpwa.com.a Northern Territories South Australia Tasmania

53

Andy Steps on T

Andrew Jones came out on top after a scrappy Konica Minolta round last weekend that was as much about consistency and damage limitation as outright speed.

'MARK GLENDENNING reports from an uncharacteristicaily sunny Winton

HAT Andrew Jones won at Winton was significant, but more significant was the way that he did it. An easy cruise for a talented young guy with Level One support,running on his home track?

Hell no. Try a first, third and seventh from the three races instead.

It was that kind of weekend.

"You can caU Winton my home track because I live close to it, but I don't get to do a hell of a lot of driving here unfortunately," Jones said.

"The idea of this weekend was to get as many points out of the round as we could, which we've done,and to being back some of the deficit that we have (in the Championsliip)."

Luke Youlden drove with as much

head as heart and it paid off big-time, with the Victorian finishing second outright and, more importantly sweeping past Matthew White to take the lead on the Championship table.

He didn't escape the weekend entirely unscathed though, with a fracas during the reverse grid race forcing the Super Cheap car into the pits with a puncture.

"No way did I think I'd be sitting here after that sort of debacle," said Youlden.

"I made three good starts here this weekend, and that was enough to get

me up the side and up to the front in that third race."

And proving that under the points system consistency is at least as valuable as speed,Jose Fernandez steered clear of the various opportunities for mayhem and was rewarded with his first visit to an outright Konica Minolta podium courtesy of his third place. The fact that he had started from pitlane in the second race after his car failed to start on the dummy grid made the result all the more remarkable.

"I definitely wasn't thinking about a podium at ftat stage!" he grinned.

"It's all a big learning curve for me.

I didn't even race here last year; this is my first time at this track. So to come out with a podium is ... I didn't even dream about it.

"I just wanted to finish with some points and have a good weekend. To finish on the podium is just fantastic."

Elsewhere, there were stories anywhere that you wanted to look.

Robert Jones, making his first appearance in the series since last year, was also rewarded for his consistency and smart driving with a fourth overall ahead of Cameron McLean,while Grant EUiott(Sydney Star Commodore VX)and Marcus Zukanovic(ActronAir/PCR Falcon)

The Lion GroU I

I 5

I=:

“T'S a scenario that plays out virtually every time a shoal of V8 Supercars go out to qualify.

A couple of practice sessions set the scene, the lower half of the field go out to qualify, and then the faster 50 percent come out and mow them down.

This time, somebody changed the script. The slower guys went out and for most of the 20 minute session they behaved as expected, lapping politely in the 1 m25s to 1 m29s range.

So when Steve Owen banged out a 1 m23.651 s on his seventh lap - a good 2.1s faster than anyone else had managed - the whole afternoon was turned on its head.

It was miles beyond the reach of anyone else in the lower half of the field, but more importantly, it meant that the faster half of the field faced a far steeper mountain to climb than they had anticipated.

And with every minute of the

'faster' qualifying session that passed with Owen still at the top of the sheets, his effort was made to look all the more impressive.

Then, with just 80s left on the clock, Andrew Jones unloaded a 1 m23.2090s, bumping Owen from pole position by a hefty 0.4481 s, and backed it up with a 1 m23.3761s right on the flag, The BOC Gases/BJR Falcon was on pole by just under half a second, and 0.7s ahead of third placed Matthew White - a gap which, in V8 Supercar terms, amounts to being in a different postcode Owen, whose deal to fill Michael Caruso's seat at Holden Young Lions had only come together on Thursday evening, was delighted to have gone from the couch to the front row in just two days.

"It's the fastest time I've ever done around here by about 0.4s, so I was rapt," beamed the Victorian.

"I feel like a bit of a tool to be honest, becaused I raced last

motorsport news

KONICA MmOLTA V8 SUPERCARS

the Gas both earned good points hauls after finishing sbdh and seventh respectively.

For some of the leading title contenders though, the weekend was a disaster. White spent most of the weekend in catch-up mode after sustaining serious damage when a backmarker took him out at the start of the second race, while Owen Kelly's hopes of a round win took a dive when he was spun out of the lead in the first race, and then failed to start the third outing due to a broken radiator.

Perhaps the most bittersweet performance was that of Steve Owen, who was a late ring-in to replace Michael Caruso at HYL. Owen grabbed the opportunity with both hands and took the Commodore to places it had never been before, however a series of mishaps meant that his efforts would not be reflected in the final results.

Race 1 (14 laps)

# i # /1■i !

*■

And as far as the leaders went, that was the most interesting thing tliat happened until the dying stages of the race. The intervention of a Safety Car (for Lee Holdsworth, who wound up beached on lap 5 after being caught outside a pack going into a right-hander at the top of the circuit) kept the field relatively tight, and the small breakaway by the leading trio was also kept in check by the fact that both Owen in second

place and Jones in third appeared to have more car speed than Kelly, but no way to get past.

On lap 11 though, Owen got sick of waiting. The HYL Commodore got a good run on the approach to turn 10, spotted the smallest of gaps, and went for it.

CBR Photographic

A day of mixed fortunes: Andy Jones, above, had an eventful weekend but still took the round win, while rival Owen Kelly, below, also had an eventful weekend and wound up right off the radar...

!■ I Wi

But by the time he got there, Kelly had slammed the door shut. The ensuing crunch broke the rack on Owen's VX, which wiped out his steering on the spot and pitched him into the Team Fujitsu/DJR car a second time.

he reflected glow from combined .. front-row heroics of Jones and Owen on Saturday lasted about 0.1s into the curtain-raiser. Both drivers

Owen retired on the spot, while Kelly was flung into a spin that dropped him back to seventh.

"He tried a banzai move and took

made sluggish getaways, allowing Kelly to spear through and take the lead into the first corner.

me out," seethed Kelly afterwards.

f^up-rstj

m

continued on page 56' Y

^CPUALIFYINB j

KMVBSS Round 3 Pds/Nd I 1

21 April 2004

TI

ME

1:23.2090

Holden Young Lions Commodore VX Gulf Western/Jayco Falcon AU

1:23.6571 1:23.9402

Andrew Jones Steve Owen

28

Matthew White

5

71 111

Owen Kelly Mark Porter

6

30

Luke Youlden

7

64

Tony D’Alberto

8 9

40 27

Wayne Wakefield Cameron McLean

10 11

81 65

Jose Fernandez Marcus Zukanovic

12

56

Kevin Mundy

Team Fujitsu Falcon AU Actron Air/PCR Falcon AU Actron Air/PCR Falcon AU

13 14

300 96

Tony Evangelou KurtWimmer

Holden Young Lions Commodore VX

15 . 16

90 72

Phillip Scifleet Lee Holdsworth

Rupprecht Motorsport Falcon AU Smiths Trucks Commodore VX

1:25.2738 1:25.3567 1:25.6614

3 4

afterwards), and he was joined on the second row by Owen Kelly, who had spent all day chasing a lack of grip.

Hydraulink Racing's Mark Porter was quite happy to have qualified fifth in a car that had struggled for qualifying pace earlier in the season, putting him just ahead of Luke Youlden and Tony D'Alberto, who spent half of his qualifying session battling a stuck gear.

- MARK GLENDEINJNING

CAR/TEAM Team BOC Falcon AU

19 46

'2

weekend in the Formula Ford, so the (V8) engine felt like it had a huge amount of horsepower, and then it turned out that it was running on seven and a half cylinders because of a broken sparkplug!"

Matthew White was reasonably happy to be third on the grid despite having gone slightly the wrong way with his set-up ("altough having said that, it still wouldn't have done a low 23s," he admitted

Dr i ver

WINTDN

Team Fujitsu Falcon AU Hydraulink Racing Commodore VX Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon AU Wynns/PPG/GMAC Commodore VX Greenfield Mowers Racing Falcon AU

Dexion Racing Falcon AU

17

98

Grant Elliott

Sydney Star Truck & Bus Commodore VX

55

Stephen White

Rupprecht Motorsport Falcon AU

19 20

66 69

Gary MacDonald Robert Jones

21 22

80 76

Michael Olsen Dean Wanless

Kanga Loader/RLM Falcon AU Spies Hecker Racing Commodore VX Oslen's 4x4 Falcon AU

23

89

Adam Wallis

60

Brad Tilley

25 26

32 37

Jay Verdnik Mark Howard

1:24.1851 1:24.3989 1:24.4536

Howard Racing/Weathered & Howe Falcon AU 1:24.7157 1:24.7668

18

24

1:24.1186 1:24.1240

Wastecorp Commodore VX Rupprecht Motorsport Falcon AU Speed FX Racing Falcon AU

1:24.8271 1:25.0946 1:25.1035 1:25.2115

1:25.7311 1:25.8613 1:25.8875 1:26.2539 1:26.2552 1:26.2779 1:26.4752

27

68

Shane Beikoff

1:26.4865 Hi-Trans Racing Commodore VX Howard Racing/Weathered & Howe Falcon AU 1:26.5762 1:26.9405 Shane Beikoff Racing Falcon AU

28

110

Jamie Cartwright

Chance of a Lifetime Racing Falcon AU

29

91

Gary Deane

Peters Motorsport Falcon AU

1:27.8453 1:29.3110

55

continued from page 55 "There's a good reason why it is 2004 and he is still driving in Formula Ford."

"KeUy left the gap and saw too late that I was coming in," countered Owen."He came across and took a defensive line, and we hit. It was around the brake marker,so we hit at a fairly high speed, which is why the car was damaged so much."

All of this worked out beautifully for Jones, who inherited the lead on the spot and drove on to take a comfortable win ahead of Luke Youlden (Super Cheap Faclon AU) and Mark Porter, who had come out on top of a good scrap against White.

Wayne Wakefield took fifth in a down-on-horsepower Greenfield Mowers AU,while Kelly's red mist from the earlier incident was not quite enough to help him salvage a sixth place.

Kelly had spent the dying laps dicing with Cameron McLean,and a big run out of the final corner saw the two cars greet the chequer side by side. A glance at the timesheets, however,showed that McLean had held Kelly off by a scant 0.0035s.

Back with a bang: Robert Jones, below, kept the car straight and on the black stuff, and wound up fourth outright. mmm

Best of times, worst of times: Youlden, right, will go into the next round as the new Championship leader, while for Porter, far right, it was a case of what might have been ...

"He(McLean) outbraked himself at the end of the straight, and I thought,'oh perfect. I'll take him'," said Kelly. "I tlaought I had him ..."

Race 2 Reverse Grid (17 laps) A 7ith an unscheduled visit to the

B6HTVISI0II

pits to rectify a wayward distributor cap and the loss of a further couple of positions courtesy of a whack from behind, the opening race had been fairly horrendous for Tony D'Alberto and his Wynn's VX. The upside,though, was that D'Alberto would start the Reverse Grid race from the front row alongside polesitter Holdsworth. After a good start, D'Alberto had pulled out 1.5s over the pursuing Holdsworth - until he found some oil on the circuit and phoetted into the scenery.

He wasn't alone. The pursuing pack were also caught out by the greasy stuff and shot off the circuit and into the centrefield. KeUy, who had worked his way up to fifth from 22nd, drove through the dustcloud and found himself instantly promoted into the lead.

«rVI U

As the Safety Car took to the track to facilitate the rescue of D'Alberto's stricken Holden,a look through the field showed that most of Kelly's mam rivals had made good progress from the rear of the grid. Porter was sitting sixth (having started 26th), Youlden was eighth (from 27th), ahead of Wakefield in ninth(from 24th), Owen in 10th (from 29th) and Jones in 11th (from 28th).

Missing from the equation was White, who had hobbled back to the pits after sustaining damage in a clash at turn three on the opening lap.

After a lengthy speU in pitlane, White returned to the track on lap nine,just as the green flag waved for the restart. Moments later, aU of Jones's hard work came undone when he got belted by Wakefield. The BOC Gases Falcon scrambled back onto the circuit way back in 22nd place.

"There are a few cowboys out there," said Jones through clenched teeth after the race.

CliR'PhotogrnpMc'l

MOTORSPORT

DZ86R

DZ02G

>

►

Another Safety Car spell followed a lap later after Jamie Cartwright beached the Chance of a Lifetime AU at turn three, and as if on cue,both Fernandez and Youlden swimg into the pits to have punctures attended to.

At the restart on lap 12, KeUy led from Porter, Owen and Wakefield,

however the latter's hopes for a good finish were dashed by a trip off the track at the sweeper that dropped him back to 10th.

As the laps ticked away,KeUy squeezed out enough of a gap to consolidate his lead and went on to take a cruisy 4.8s win.

But behind him,Porter was having a far less easy time of things, because Owen was on a charge. The HYL car made a couple of lunges at the Kiwi, but was struggling to make anything stick until the final lap, when the pair went through the last sequence of turns side-by-side before Owen came up trumps by squeezing Porter onto the grass on the exit of the last comer and slipping through to pinch second.

Behind them in fourth was Marcus Zukanovic, who drove well to score his best Konica Minolta result to date, and rescued a good result for the Actron Air/PCR team that had seen its other car, driven by Kevin Mundy, clobbered senseless at the epicentre of the Reverse Grid carnage.

Robert Jones also did well to secure fifth ahead of the recovering Wakefield(who had sustained a broken swaybar)and Andy Jones.

Race 3(24 laps) The championship situation another critical twist beforetook the

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KONICA MINOLTA V8 SUPERCARS KMVBSS Rd 3 Wl NTD N Race 1

Chris Carter

final race even started when steam started pouring from the front of Kelly's Falcon as it sat on the front row waiting to go.

The start was delayed while the stricken BA was towed back to the garage where the team later foimd a sizeable gash in the radiator.

Kelly's misforhme left Porter sitting on the front row all by himself, and he made the most of the opportunity by getting a perfect start and scooting away.

After just two laps, he had opened out a gap of 2.3s over second-placed Wakefield, but moments later the car

rI A

slowed with a puncture at the sweeper.

It was a disappointing result for the team, who had just started to find some qualifying pace to match Porter's generally good race pace.

Still, on last weekend's form,a podium result looks to be very much in the cards for the Hydraulirik car this season.

Meanwhile, Wakefield picked up the lead, but he had Youlden breathing down his neck. The Super Cheap car appeared to have far more in reserve than its rival, however, mindful of the fact that there were

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21 April 2004

still a lot of laps to go,Youlden was content to wait and pick his moment.

"I knew it was a long races, and we wanted to look after the rear tyres," said Youlden later.

"I did have a couple of lunges at him,but I was getting a bit frustrated towards the end because I beUeved that he was holding me up and I saw these boys breathing down my neck a bit."

'These boys' were McLean,Andy Jones and Owen,who had all slogged their way through the field and were circulating in close formation.

But when Wakefield suffered a broken axle and coasted back to the pits, the other four were freed up for a skirmish over the final 10 laps.

Much ducking and diving ensued, with one particular highlight being Youlden, McLean and Owen all trying to overtake each other at the same time. Yet in stark contrast to the pattern of the rest of the weekend,it was all fought out without contact.

The gremlins'intervention in proceedings was not finished yet though, and on lap 19 Owen's car suddenly twitched and then slowed down,forced out of contention by what was later found to be a damaged axle.

The last few laps were less eventful, and Youlden went on to take the win ahead of McLean and Jones. Fernandez was fourth, a good reward for staying out of trouble all weekend, ahead of White.

The show moves on to Eastern Creek at end of May,and the Championship has taken on a whole new slant. Youlden's relentless consistency is paying dividends in the form of a healthy points lead, but just one DNF could blow the whole show wide open again.

The game is far from over.

Points: Youlden 491, White 457, Fernandez and McLean 441, Porter 423, A. Jones 391, Kelly 386, Wallis 377, Elliott 358, MacDonald 330, Zukanovic 317, Verdnik282, Howard 278, D'Alberto 266, Scifleet 261, Caruso 256, Wakefield 251, Evangelou 226, Mundy 206, Wanless and Holdsworlh 192, Wimmer 172, Tilley 169, Beikoff168, Gurr 166, Carhuright 162, R. Jones 144, Olsen 140, Rose 124, Peters 108, Cordon 96, Foster 90, Deane 74, Owen 62, Haliiday 51, White 30.

1 S L.ARS

Pos I Driver| Race Time | FASTEST On 25:03.5634 1:24.5606R4 1 A. Jones 2 Youlden 1:25.1556 4 25:07.1601 3 Porter 25:07.8313 1:25.2573 11 4 White 25:10.2985 1:25.4202 4 5 ' Wakefield 25:13.3275 1:25.7814 14 6 McLean 25:14.9104 1:25.6819 14 25:14.9139 1:24.9230 4 7 Kelly 25:16.0336 1:25.6994 15 0 Evangelou 9 Wimmer 25:17.0177 1:25.7253 11 10 Fernandez 25:19.9982 1:25.8756 11 25:21.3022 1:26.1205 12 n Scifleet 25:24.1910 1:26.0020 3 12 n Mundy 25:24.5486 1:26.4138 14 13 Elliott 25:28.7275 1:26.9603 11 14 MacDonald 25:29^0712 1:26.8683 10 15 R.iones 16 Wallis 25:33.2216 1:26.6203 15 17 Zukanovic 25:34.5115 1:25.8928 11 18 White 25:35.5942 1:27.2507 12 19 Olsen 25:35.9449 1:26.8496 12 20 Ve'rdnik 25:36.3342 1:27.0800 13 21 ' Beikoff 25:37.8993 1:26.8982 9 25:4^2286 1;27.1985 13 22 Cartwright 25:50.8864 1:26.5963 10 23 Tilley 24 Howard 26:00.7877 1:27.2405 10 26:01.8692 1:29.2369 10 25 Deane 26:01.9618 1:27.0483 15 26 Wanless 27 D’Alberto 15 laps 1:25.6878 4 28 Holdsworlh 15 laps 1:26.1514 4 DNF Owen 1 1 laps 1:24.7324 4

Race 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Kelly Owen Porter Zukanovic R.Jones Wakefield A. Jones Wallis 9 Verdnik 10 Elliott 11 Fernandez 12 ' Olsen 13 Howard 14 Beikoff 15 MacDonald 16 Youlden 17 Wanless 18 Deane 19 Tilley 20 McLean 21 Mundy 22 Cartwright DNF Wimmer DNF Scifleet DNF D'Alberto DNFWhite DNF Holdsworlh DNFWhite' DNF Evangelou

Race 3 1 Youlden 2 McLean 3 A. Jones 4 Fernandez 5 White' 6 Elliott 7 R.Jones 8 Zukanovic 9 D'Alberto 10 Holdsworth 11 Wimmer 12 Mundy 13 Wallis 14 MacDonald 15 ' Wanless 16 Cartwright 17 Beikoff 18 Howard 19 Deane 20 Evangelou 21 Wakefield DNF Owen DNF Verdnik DNF Porter DNF Olsen DNF Tilley DNF Kelly

1 V LARS 28:33.6780 1:25.2884 15 28:38.4349 1:25.4044 15 28:40.9196 1:25.7300 14 28:45.9623 1:26.4848 16 28:48.5584 1:27.1046 14 28:48.9737 1:26.5217 16 28:50.1389 'l:25.0859M6 28:53.0168 1:27.0992 14 28:56.9082 1:26.6925 16 28:57.4460 1:27.0281 15 28:58.8477 1:26.3412 16 29:00.4096 1:26.9974 13 29:03.1284 1:27.7570 3 29:03.6602 1:27.8601 15 29:04.6723 1:27.4855 16 29:06.1431 1:26.2364 4 29:06.6339 1:27.8838 5 29:09!7868' i':'28.8694 3 29:17.1476 1:26.0198 5 16 laps 1:26.0252 14 16 laps 1:26.4969 16 flaps ' 1:27.9200 4 12 laps 1:26.8008 4 ' 11 laps 1:27.2989 5 10 laps 1:25.5814 5 10 laps 1:31.7418 9 6 laps 1:25.9727 5 4 laps 1:27'9951 2

Z' A- LARS 34:35.5136 34:36.8941 34:37.9287 34:43.0259 34:48.0916 34:58.2094 34:59.0471 34:59.4458 34:59.8615 35:05.2611 35:12.7497 35:15.0306 35:20.0198 35:42.7955 35:54.8761 36:02.2827 23 laps 23 laps 23 laps 22 iaps 20 laps 19 laps 12 laps 6 laps 4 laps 1 lap

1:25.6675s13 1:25.0796s 4 1:25.0592s 5 1:25.7682s 9 1:25.4238sl3 1:26.2303s 5 l:26.6349sl8 1:25.8950s19 l:25.8830sl6 1:26.1052s 5 1:26.3241sl6 l:26.3187s14 1:26!6680sl0 1:27.1180s 9 l:27.4949sll l:27.8865sll 1:27.1763s 6 l;27.4972sl5 l:28.4851sll l:25.9018sll 1:25.6194s20 1:24.9195*10 l:26.5247s12 1:31.0449s 1 1:28.5472s 4 1 1:42.9560s

57

Three's a Cro Nathan Pretty pounced on Paul Stokell's misfortune to win Nations Cup at Oran Park.

GRANT ROWLEY reports

I

F you received a prize for having the fastest car at a race meeting, Paul Stokell and his Lamborghini would have won it hands down at Oran Park.

But the fragility of Stokell's car cost him in round two of the Nations Cup, which gifted the win to Monaro man Nathan Pretty.

Not that Pretty didn't work for the victory, even if there were only a disappointing six cars competing in the class. The Porsche Drivers Challenge bolstered the field to ensure the TV coverage didn't look as lame as the grid size.

Pretty knew he wasn't the fastest, he knew he didn't have the optimum set-up, but he also knew that he had to stick to the task, and he was duly rewarded.

"There was no way I was going to keep the Lambo behind," admitted Pretty after his third career NC round win.

"But we've got to take the wins any way we can, even though it's through the misfortune of Paul."

Pretty was on the defensive the entire weekend, a role he said later he's never had to do before.

In Race 1 and 2, he held the close attentions of Peter Brock at bay. Stokell gave it to the yellow Monaro in Race 3, until mechanical woes slowed the Lamborghini.

"I've never had to make the thing so wide so that was a new challenge," he smiled.

Stokell's Lamborghini was ultra fast, and your hard-earnt cash looked safe on him at the TAB, but uncharacteristically, two mechanical problems cost him a certain round win

SB

A slight touch with Brock just as the cars got the green at the rolling start was all that Stokell had to worry about in Race 1 and he comfortably cruised to the win.

The all-black machine (lessDonut King sponsorship) looked set for more of the same in Race 2, but an interfnittent misfire ruined his run. Stokell was lucky to salvage third ahead of Carrera Cup entrant and Group 2 leader, Stephen Borness.

Race 3 could have been potentially worse for Stokell, and expensive for Team Lamborghini Australia. Having just passed Pretty for the lead on lap 10, flames and sparks began to shoot from the Lambo's exhaust like a roman torch and the car momentarily dropped on to six cylinders. Stokell conserved to ensure he finished the race and maintain his championship lead.

"We'll have to do 3ome homework before the next round," rued Stokell.

Second overall for the round was a lucky escape, but one which we will try and quickly forget.

Brock was deemed to have jumped the start of Race 3 which spoilt what was a strong showing. In the opening races, the mountain master took it to Pretty, a guy nearly 30 years his junior.

The tyre-sensitive Oran Park circuit gave both Monaro runners plenty of headaches over the weekend. Pretty ran all three races on the same set ("They were RS by the end," he claimed), while Brock switched between Micheilin and

Sparks, flames and fire: Stokell's Lamborghini looked spectaular, but TLA have some reliabilty issues to sort before Sandown.

Pirelli in the quest for consistency. In Race 1, Brock squared up a pair of his Michelins, which forced him to use the Pirellis for there on.

Behind the leading threesome, Borness stayed out of trouble to finish fourth on all three occasions and win Group 2.

John Teulan and Theo Koundouris staged their own private war on occasions.

Koundouris finished on top but Teulan remains at the front of the G2 table.

David Stevens gave the Porsche 911 GT2 its Australian debut in NC, but the stunning car had limited track miles under its belt prior to arriving at Oran Park. Boost problems halted the cars development progress in Race 2 and it did not start the last race.

Points: Stokell 164, Pretty 144, Simonsen 78. P.Brock 64, J.Brock 54.

□ SYDNEY local Bill Pye toyed with his Porsche Drivers Challenge rivals at Oran Park in among the Nations Cup field.

Due to the poor NC turn out, the Porsche men were not only rewarded with guaranteed television coverage, but they received an honourable accolade from none other than Peter Brock for their excellent behaviour in the midst of a much faster category.

“I enjoyed having the Porsche guys with us," said Brock.

“It added an extra dimension, like a high speed game of chess.”

Pye creamed his opponents

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Dirk Klynsmith

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with three commanding wins in class while finishing fifth outright in all events. At times, he had his GT3 running with Stephen Borness’s Carrera Cup mount, and also ran well in front of the other Group 2 Nations Cup entries.

David Giugni was the best of the rest while Kim Burke and Trevor John were also top three place getters.

Some of the slower Porsche were being lapped every six toures by the quick guys, but to their credit, they ran their own race without ruining any one elses.

- GRANT ROWLEY

Hot and Holt GARRY Holt demoralised the GT Performance field at Oran Park,racing to two commanding wins last weekend.

But his weekend started with a dose of controversy.

Holt clashed with factory Volkswagen entrant Paul Stokell as the pair came off the bridge on lap one. StokeU was left standard in the middle of the track and was extremely lucky not to have severely damaged his second VW Golf for the weekend.

"1 just froze, put my foot on the brake and just waited for the bang," he said. But luckily, the bang didn't come.

Holt was charged with not taking due care but has appealed the 50-second penalty. The hearing will be held next week where more evidence will be presented.

Justin Hemmes finished second overall in his spare car after rolling in Friday practise four times. The car bounced over the tyre wall at turn two and crashed heavily through the Shell billboard, below.

"I went through the kink really hot in sixth gear," he said later.

"Usually it's fifth gear, but it got away from me and I was just able to spin it slightly. I didn't want to go head first so she rolled over a few times."

But Hemmes collected a heap of points from the round and remains at the head of the championship ladder.

Ric Shaw's aging Mazda RX 7 helped him score thud overall after a strong pole position and Race 1 win. In the remaining heats, he could only manage 11th and eight respectively, but his competitors inconsistent results gave him the final podium slot.

Stokell fought back after his controversial Race 1 clash

S^haSijon

with Holt to challenge Hemmes in the last race. But things turned pear-shaped again for the Nations Cup Champ. On lap nine, Hemmes got slightly crossed up over the dog leg and Stokell pounced on the opportunity. He went deep into the last turn, but maybe too deep and grazed Hemmes'Subaru before slamming into the concrete wall.

This was not a weekend Volkswagen will want to remember in too much of a hurry. Stokell nearly crucified himself in practice when an ABS drama saw him almost destroy his original car. Tim Leahey,who was slated to return for the team, was forced to relinquish his drive for the championship contender.

The Mitsubishi Evo Vm battle raged fiercely in the midpack. Mark King, Bob Hughes,Gary Young,Steve Knight, Barry Morcom and Ross Almond were all involved in, at times,heated battles. Almond and Young claimed a handful of top five places and strengthened their championship position. Hughes picked up three top 10 places, highlighted by third in the final encormter. HSV driver Peter Floyd also ran constantly inside the top 10.

Knight was set for an overall top three finish until lap five in the final race when he slightly lost control of his Evo across the back of the track. When he regathered and rejoined, an unintentional side-swipe from another competitor saw him end the race buried axle deep in the sand trap.

The GT Performance series continues at Sandown next month.

-GRANT ROWLEY Points: Hemmes 140, Holt 110, Almond 89,Young 87,Floyd 83, Stokell 76, King 74, Morcom 73, Knight 71.

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmith

Dirk Klynsmitb

Don't bowl there: Stuntman Justin Hemmes bounded through the Shell Rimula sign in practice - and has been asked to pay for the damage!

FORMULA 3 got nasty at Oran Park last weekend but through the Race 2 biff and barge came a heart-warming result.

Young privateer Chris Gilmour, who prepares and runs the car with only the help of his father, took his maiden F3 victory with a win in the second race after a gutsy third in Race 1.

Gilmour clearly didn't have the outright pace of qualifying fastman Ian Dyk, but he avoided the Race 2 crash-fest to score a debut round win.

"I'm stoked, stoked," he said.

"I just stayed in position, held on and pushed when I needed to. When 1 saw the other guys were getting tangled up, I just focused on the job. I'm stoked."

Yes, he was stoked.

Peter Hackett was expected to take the speed challenge up to rookie Dyk, but couldn't match the Shelleys-backed steerer for pace. However, Hackett came away from the meeting second overall, despite varying degrees of carnage in Race 2.

Dyk scored both pole positions, which helped him claim third overall and maintain a slender series lead.

Hackett got a great start to Race 1, although it may have looked better than it was thanks to the slow get-away from Dyk. Dyk latter admitted that the start of the race is one aspect of his package that needs refining.

"That's my half of the deal that I haven't got right yet," said Dyk. "I'm psyching myself out and rushing.it."

It only took three laps for Dyk

to assume the throne, executing a great move around the outside of Hackett into Oran Park's fast turn one kink. From there, he set sail into the hot Sydney sunset and claimed a commanding win.

At one stage, Dyk had a lead of nearly 10s and admitted later that he was trying to beat Michael Caruso's 2003 fastest lap, but fell short by 0.2s.

"I had the lap record in my head," he smiled.

"I settled down though and just did the times to win the race. The car is just fantastic."

Scud Racing's Heath Eustace ended the race in the sand trap on the approach to the final turn after he locked his rear brakes and bounced into retirement.

Race 2 saw the gloves come off on the opening lap, and the carnage didn't stop their either.

Gilmour got the best at the green, which was a blessing in disguise as the field headed under the bridge because behind him, all hell broke loose.

Nathan Carrati forced his way down the inside of Hackett where contact was inevitable.

Hackett bounced into Dyk, who suffered suspension damage, while Hackett broke his front wing.

Daniel Pappas and birthday boy Karl Reindlertook advantage of the damage and raced into the top three but more action was to follow. The pair of youngsters clashed at turn three on lap five, which launched Pappas onto two wheels and into a small spin. Hackett grabbed his second place back, which he would not relinquish from there.

Reindler continued on to pick

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FORMULA 3

Dirk Klynsmilh

NZ Racer: Nic fordan, above, finished a fine fifth in Race 2.

In red and out front: Hacked leads the field in the opening stouch, below.

Champ leader: Ian Dyk was ultra-fast at OP, but a Race 2 tangle halted bis quick F3 rise. up a deserved third in Race 2, despite his front wing dragging at all angles for the last few laps after more contact with Hackett.

The pair actually clanged wheels three times at turn two, and the results of the race are pending due to the incident.

Hackett, the 2001 F3 champion, said afterwards that he was surprised at the level of carnage in the race.

"I've never been airborne before," he said, wide-eyed.

"The thing just lifted up and I was bouncing around. But I was pushing out there. I didn't know which side the front wing was broken, so I just kept going even though my tyres were fried."

John Pettit was one who was forced to take evasive action and was lucky not to get caught in the sand trap in the lap one melee. After an Impressive fourth in Race 1, Pettit stormed back from his off-track excursion to claim another fourth place.

Suffering from a self-confessed lack of confidence in qualifying, Pettit made up for his weakness in a storming Race 2 drive.

Electrical gremlins robbed

Nathan Carratti of a top five finish in Race 1, while the lap one contact in the second race two ended his weekend early before he could get over the Yokohama bridge.

New Zealander Nic Jordan claimed the trophy class in his first visit to Oran Park, with wins in both races. His weekend was highlighted by fifth place outright in the last race.

The Formula Three circus reconvenes at Sandown Raceway on May 16.

Points: Dyk 61, Gilmour 60, Reindler 53, Pettit 36, Hackett 30, Pappas 22

/antes Smith ' pjhn Morris/Mpix

bi 1.

"I've never been airborne!" Hackett, 28, and Reindler, 19, clashed three times in one corner in the second race, above and below. The controversial clash remains in the hands of the stewards.

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21 April 2004

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Sol Man

Possum Bourne would have approved ofFetter Solberg winning Rally New Zealand, the World Champion dedicating his victory to the much-missed Kiwi legend. JON THOMSON reports from Auckland

R

BACHING deep into his rapidly developing bag of skills, reigning World Champ Fetter Solberg posted the drive of his career to claim his first Rally of New Zealand victory, producing a determined and dogged performance to beat Marcus Gronholm by 5.8s in a see-sawing battle on the hard-packed Kiwi roads.

In a win he devoted to the late Possum Bourne -a year after the famous Kiwi competed in his last home International - the Norwegian Subaru star fought hard all the way and not even a spin and a broken power steering pump three stages from home could rob him of victory.

While Solberg starred, nothing could be taken away from Gronholm, who suffered a roll and a myriad of problems but just kept on coming back for more.

Markko Martin was always a threat to repeat his Mexican victory in the new evolution of the Focus and was never too far away from Solberg and Gronholm,but had to settle for the last podium spot after the torrid three-way fight on the final day.

An elated Solberg hugged every member of the Subaru team when he arrived back at the Raglan service park after the final special stage.

"I am exhausted, totally drained," said Solberg. "It has been such a tough fight and I am tired emotionally and physically, particularly after breaking the power steering, but it's been bloody good fun.

"I think the hardest man to have behind you is Marcus Gronholm,but I've never lost a fight and this was a good one, really good. He had trouble and I had trouble. It's been bloody hard for the whole weekend.

The drama-packed final leg was the most intriguing and saw Solberg hold the advantage over Gronholm and Martin until the first of two runs through the classic Whaanga Coast stage, when Solberg hit a rock. The incident damaged the Subaru's power steering and Solberg had to wrestle the car back to service trailing fluid.

Going into the final three stages, Solberg trailed the Peugeot driver by a single second with Martin a further 62

12.2s back. Gronhokn doubled his advantage on the first test but then spun,dropping 18.2s and handing the rally to Solberg.

Heading into the last stage through the Whaanga Coast stage, Solberg led by 16.3s and Gronholm and Martin were locked together in second.

Gronholm scorched through the stage, taking 12.3s off Solberg and almost 20s off the Ford driver to seal second but fall short of taking the win.

Gronholm, despite his tribulations, was much happier that he had been in Mexico when his tirade against the new 307 drew the wrath of team management. He seemed more at ease with the new car and was always near the top of the score sheets.

The lanky Finn looked like he could dominate the rally on Day 1 but rolled on a right-hand bend at a spectator point, losing almost 40s.

Tliere was very little damage to the Peugeot and Gronholm fought back , but ultimately the crash cost him the first win in the 307.

"The first win with this car is not far away," said Gronholm."The team has made some big improvements since Mexico and the car is much better. You can attack with confidence now."

This was despite the fact that a new handbrake mechanism almost certainly cost Gronholm the win when it jammed in a tight corner on the penultimate stage. The system has a second lever called a stopper, which is released by the co-driver at the start of each stage, enabling the driver to use the handbrake for tight corners.

But apparently Gronholm had knocked the stopper into the 'locked' position, an error that cost him the raUy. "When I used the handbrake at the second comer after the start and I spun,I didn't know what had happened.I thought it must be the diff. It's very frustrating."

Ford was happy - but not elated with the latest evolution of its Focus, with Martin conceding that it was his slow start on Day 1 and the wrong tyre choice on the final leg that cost him a chance at the win.

"We lost too much time on Friday," said Martin."I chose the wrong tyres

on the final run through the stages on Day 3; we had a proper fifth gear moment and after that, knowing that Marcus had taken the harder tyres I reckoned it made sense to go for the six points."

Such was the ferocity of the tlireeway fight over the final leg that it was easy to overlook the other contenders.

The Citroens of Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz were never reaUy in the hunt, despite some strong stage performance Loeb took some stage wins during the rally and brought the new evolution Citroen home in fourth,just ahead of Harri Rovanpera, who had promised so much early in the rally in the second Peugeot, while Sainz came home in sixth with a mediocre performance.

Citroen struggled throughout the rally for the right set-up on the Loeb car but in the end,the Frenchman was happy to scoop up the points on offer in what was a strong showing for a driver considered a tarmac only specialist just 12 months ago.

"It wasn't a brilliant start but it got better. It's been tough but we got good points anyway,"said Loeb The question at Peugeot is, did Rovanpera do enough to capture the permanent drive as backup to Gronholm after two rallies replacing Freddy Loix? The money is on Rovanpera; despite losing a spot to Loeb on the final day,the Finn was in the battle for the lead on Day 1 but struggled with set-up for the rest of the rally Solberg may have won but Subaru's other nominated car came home in seventh after MUkko Hirvonen clobbered the same rock that caused Solberg's power steering problems. The young Finn was never really in a position to challenge the front-runners.

Ford's young Belgian number two Francois Duval also hit the rock and went off the road through a fence, dangerously close to a sheer drop into the ocean on the first run through Whaanga Coast.

Mitsubishi's tale of woes continued, with both cars failing to even make the end of the first stage.

Both Gilles Panizzi and Kristian Sohlberg went out on Thursday night

at the opening stages on the Manakau Super Special with flat batteries, due to a glitch in the new alternators the team were using. It was a major embarrassment for the struggling team that was hoping to get some valuable stage miles under its belt as it attempts to find competitiveness.

In a landmark drive for Aussie Dean Herridge, the young West Australian won Group N in his Subaru Australia-backed car after his team-mate Cody Crocker had a puncture two stages from the finish while leading. The tyre problem cost Crocker 80 seconds and the win in the Production Car class. Crocker has never enjoyed luck on the Kiwi event, leading the class on several occasions only to have misfortune strike.

Herridge led home German Production Car ace Manfred StohTs Mitsubishi,by 49 seconds. Stohl took the major points for the Production Car World Cup. Herridge and Crocker's performances in leading the overseas contingent can not be undersold. Both put in superb drives, as did young gun Chris Atkinson, who battled a misfire and other problems before a spin put him off the road in his Subaru on the final leg. The Aussie contingent beat the world's best, including former WRC regular Alister McRae,something that came to the notice of the European teams.

The championship heads to Cyprus for the next round on May 14 where the rough roads of the Mediterranean island are always a challenge and could throw up any number of possible scenarios. molorsporl news

lAf RC

I 1 Fetter Solberg Nor Phil Mills GB

Subaru Impreza 4:0^29^.

2 Marcus Gronbolm FinPeugeot 307 WRC Imo Ra_utianen_Rn 4;0m4 3 Markko Marin Est Ford Focus RS WRC3 Michael Park

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5 Karri Rovanpera Fin Peugeot 307 WRC

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MarciMIrtii^jE^ 7 Mikko Hirvonen Fin Subaru Impreza WRC

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8 Daniel Carlsson Swe Peugeot 206 WRC

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Solberg on top: Fetter Solberg, above, out-ran the opposition to register his first WRC win of the season and move into contention for a second title. Marcus Gronhoim rolled on SS6, left and below, but his Peugeot 307 was not damaged enough to stop him charging to second. sutton-images.com

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Drivers' Points; Martin 26, Loeb 25, Gronhoim 24, P. Solberg 23, Duval 14, Sainz 13, Hirvonen 6, Tuohino 5, Loix and Panizzi 4, H, Solberg 3, Valmaki and Carlsson 2, Burr11.

Manufacturers' Points: Ford 47, Citroen 38, Peugeot 33, Subaru 31, Mitsubishi 5.

WRC 4 NEW ZEALAND

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teflon is a trade mark of dupont 63

Dpivi

Atkinsons Outed

QUEENSLAND brothers Chris and Ben Atkinson have been excluded from the Respect Yourself Rally, the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship,for having an illegal braking system on their Impreza.

The exclusion elevates Simon Evans to first and gives Toyota its first victory with the Group N P Corolla.

As reported in the last issue of MNews,the Atkinson's win was provisional while CAMS officials awaited a ruiing by the FIA on the car's brake booster. The subsequent inspection saw the FIA deem the servo booster contravened Group N regulations.

The decision has drawn criticism from many quarters, since the solid bar that was fitted to the Prodrive-built Subaru is a standard fit on many Group N cars and is not a performance enhancer.

Other Subaru and Mitsubishi

drivers were scrambling to change brake boosters ahead of last week's Rally of New Zealand as a direct result of the Atkinson judgment.

The common modification saw a reinforced steel rod run through the brake booster for more positive brake feel and improved safety. FIA rules say that brake servos may be disconnected in Group N but it appears that reinforcing the steel rod and removing the servo innards has now been deemed illegal. This is despite the fact that the system has been used for some time and no official ruling has been issued by the FIA on the matter.

Prodrive, which built the Atkinson's car, flew new parts to New Zealand and although Subaru crews worldwide may be affected by the latest turn of events, it is not known when or if the FIA will issue a public clarification.

- JON THOMSON

by JON THOMSON FETTER Solberg has fired a savage broadside at the FIA over the changes it is making to the World Rally Championship,saying that it was time to make a stand before the sport is badly damaged.

"If things keep going, we will lose fans and spectators," said the World Champion.

"Sure we have to have a show and

% Hero to Zero: Chris Atkinson

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Biting off more than

LONG-TIME Mitsubishi Rally chief Andrew Cowan admits the team may have gotten ahead of itself with its new Lancer WRC04 but that says there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaking to MNews at the Rally of New Zealand, Cowan said switching from what the team had to an advanced World Rally Car was huge and that the technological leap had caused them to falter a little as evidenced by its performance so far this year.

"You can't undersell the change that has gone on here," said the Scot, inset.

"We were the last team to switch from a Group A car and 64

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it was a very competitive car, so everyone had high expectations. But the fact was, it was a modified production car and when it came to WR Cars, everyone else had a big start on us.

"We now have a superb team of engineers and we're making progress but we still have a way to go."^

Cowan said the gearbox and suspension are.the most pressing problems for the Lancer and that big progress has been made, with Australian engineer Daniel Creed joining the program to work on the transmission.

"We are working through the problems and we are solving them one by one," Cowin continued.

"You have to remember that this is a three-year plan and that we are only four months into it, so we have a long way to go.

"The plan is to be on the podium in '05 and winning in '06 and we can achieve that."

- JON THOMSON

some glamour,but it is about time we had a period of stability. It was very good particularly last year, and now things are changing so quickly, noone knows what Is going on.

"I think for example in New Zealand; so many rules were still being decided half an hour before the recce started. It seems like they want to change the rules every week and I am worried that rallying will be destroyed in some ways.

"The FIA changes the rules for stupid reasons and despite outcry from the teams and drivers, and then, when they don't work, they change them again. It is frustrating and confusing and is very destructive."

The Norwegian's attack on the changes took place in the official FIA pre-event press conference at Rally New Zealand last week and his views were backed by his WRC rivals including Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm,GiUes Panizzi and Markko Martin "I think everybody should be very worried," agreed Martin."If people involved with the sport don't really understand, then people outside wiU never understand."

Martin was the driver's spokesman and attended meetings with the World Rallies Commission last year but apparently his protests at the changes fell on deaf ears, according to Solberg.

"Markko sat in meetings last year and told the WRC our views but noone paid any attention. He may as well have not said anything for all the good it did. But I think we have to be much stronger and look at ways of making tliem listen to us before the damage is too bad."

Mitsubishi Motorsports chief Sven Quandt also slammed the proposal to ban mid-leg service from the 2005 World Rally Championship and stated that it had not been put forward in any formal discussions between the FIA and the manufacturers contesting the series.

"We need the service park," he said. "It is dramatically important in Europe and Japan. Imagine, we motorsoori news

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RALLY NEWS

BPS Slam HA Solbepg leads calls for rule stability

cannot invite people, because there is nothing to show. This is the best way to invite people to rallies. If we cannot invite people, there is no point: this is our marketing tool. I can give you a list of reasons."

Quandt also received backing from the manufacturers' representatives, who unanimous in condemning any ban on service.

The HA changes the rules tor stupid reasons and despite outcry from the teams and drivers and then, when they don't work,they change them again

1V

Citroen boss Guy Frequelin said the concept to ban mid-leg service was ludicrous and will see a decline

tl

-Solberg, left

in spectator interest.

"It's good to have service and show the cars to people," Frequelin said.

"Even if we don't change anything, the spectators can see the cars and there is no cost reduction by making a ban. It doesn't cost us to have a mid-leg service; the mechanics are paid whether they sit around or are busy working on the cars. We can limit the costs, of course, but there's a point at which it ceases to be reasonable."

While the ban on mid-leg service has not yet entered WRC law, the idea gained the assent of the FIA World Council at its most recent meeting,something witlr which the manufacturers are not impressed.

The service ban proposal is linked to the 'Super Rally' concept pioneered in the ARC, which sees championship points allocated each day and allows crews to fix their cars 21 April 2004

and restart rallies should they be forced out.

The manufacturers claim that they have had no formal opportunity to discuss the changes that are being pushed by FIA President Max Mosley, on the basis that it would cut costs.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Peugeot Sport Director Corrado Provera said.

"All the manufacturers are agreed we have to bring the cars back to service at least for PR purposes. We are working together to find a solution, because everybody wants it.

It will be difficult for a car to go from the morning to the night without a problem."

Prodrive Subaru rally team

director David Lapworth judged that a World Rally Car could cover 150 stage kilometres without maintenance, as Imprezas can do so in testing, but emphasised that competition was different.

"It's technically feasible, but I'm not sure it's desirable," he commented.

"The consequences are quite wideranging. What do we do with all the persormel and infrastructure we've invested in? It will lead to all sorts of problems: what degree of suspension damage will you be allowed to continue with? What happens if you knock out a headlight or a tail light?

In rallying, you make mistakes, you hit rocks that weren't there in the recce."

Hyundai delays WRC return HYUNDAI may postpone its return to the World Rally Championship until 2007 and is likely to base the new operation in Britain rather than Germany as it has previously proposed.

Hyundai has previously stated that it would return in 2006 with a new car based at its European headquarters in Russelsheim and that the new operation would be wholly owned by the parent company, rather than an independent firm such as previous contractor MSD. It is believed that while a new car may be engineered in Germany, car preparation might be carried out in the British midlands where it will be easier to source experienced personnel.

n Ford was not the only manufacturer to wheel out a new car in NZ, with Citroen's evolution of its Xsara making its first appearance after its homologation on April 1.

The new car, above, is much different, built to new rules that mandate a minimum weight of 320kg for the body and roll cage. To do this, the car features carbon fibre body panels, including the front guards, while the engine has new internals, with crankshaft, conrods, pistons and flywheel all changed.

There is also a new exhaust and turbo wastegate, providing improved torque while still staying within the FIA's mandatory 300 horsepower limit. n Possum Bourne may be gone but he is still keeping on eye on one of his favourite events, A life-size bronze statue of the former New Zealand rally champ was dedicated prior to the Race to the Sky on the Snow Farm Road in the Cardrona Valley, where the event takes place, RTTS Promoter Grant Aitken said that Possum had "the best seat in the house," "The Race to the Sky was Possum's favourite event and we are proud that it was," said Aitken, Peggy Bourne said that the location of Possum's statue is awesome.

"He can watch over everyone from up there and I'm sure he will be telling everyone what to dol" she commented.

6S

Farr F

Sir Molly Reed wraps up PCR DARREN Mollenoyux proved that to finish first, first you must finish after he claimed the Sungold Milk Australian Formula 500 Championship at Warmambool's Premier Speedway.

Gavin Casey stormed out to a commanding lead early and looked untouchable, but was forced to retire due to engine temperature problems.

This handed Mollenoyux the lead and eventually an emphatic win. Matt Brown finished second after a tight battle with Michael Wise.

Danny Hogan was fourth while Darryl Wlllsher and Ian Burrows rounded out the top six.

- PARIS CHARLES

VICTORIAN ace Matthew Reed took the final Sprintcar A-Main victory recently at Parramatta City Raceway, defeating Craig Brady and the ‘Gas Girl’, Kelly Linigen.

Using the smaller 372 powerplant, Reed started from position six, took control of the race on lap three and wasn’t challenged from there.

Linigen was the early leader but officials put her back a position after they deemed she jumped the start.

Brady moved into second late in the race, while new 2003/04 Parramatta Sprintcar Track Champion Adam Clarke, after winning the B-Main, finished fifth behind Trevor Green. Mick Turner made up the top

by BRETT SWANSON

T

HREE consecutive nights of racing and three different feature winners - Max Dumesny,Robbie Farr and Cameron Gessner- meant the Easter Trial fans got plenty of bang for their buck.

But Aussie #1 Farr got the last laugh, driving Reeve Kruck's Titan Garages Eagle to take the overall win thanks to consistency and hard charging heats.

Dumesny kicked off his Easter campaign in fine style by taking the opening round at Avalon on Good Friday.

A combination of heat results

SIX.

Green seemed to have the $5000-to-win Dash for Cash series final sealed until a 20 cent part broke. Grant Tunks pick up the cash and the Dash Series from Clarke and Mark Blyton.

- GREG BOSCATO Final PCR Points: Clarke 4566, Troy Little 4424, Brady 4330, Adrian Maher 4326, Leadsman 4316.

6?

5

SPEEDWAY City's dual Sprintcar Showdowns proved to be a battle of the big guns with Australian Champion Robbie Farr, Max Dumesny and Adelaide's Luke Dillon went wheel-to-wheel over two gruelling weeks recently.

At the start of the first feature, Dumesny jumped to lead and was able to hold it imtil the finish, despite attempts by American Jason Johnson. Farr rounded out the podium ahead of local trio Dillon, Phillip March and Trevor Green.

Farr and Dillon made the most of their front row start on the second

and passing points saw Farr sit on pole for the 25-lap race, with John Vogels alongside.

After a scrappy first turn that saw contact between Vogels and IXunesny,another start was required where Vogels assumed the lead from Farr,Dumesny and Gessner.

night and opened up a handy early lead.

Dumesny,having started towards the back after an engine failure earlier in the meeting,began on a steady path towards the front which eventually rewarded him with third.

Farr went onto take the win and the Showdown victory from a relentless Dillon. Danny Reidy showed good pace to finish fourth ahead of Darren Jensen, Mark Reuter and Phil Johnson while rookie Leif Ahlfors rounded out the finishers.

-PARIS CHARLES

One to watch: Cameron Gessner starred over the three events.

Bell' Slice ef Histery

Racing into the Sunset: Bell scored the inaugural 360 title.

66

WARRNAMBOOL'S Stephen Bell created history two weeks ago when he became the inaugural Australian 360ci Sprintcar Champion after a near faultless display of racing.

And we say near faultless, because after leading the first 36 laps of the 40 lap journey, Bell looped the Peter Jacobson owned #76 Eagle, handing the lead to Allan Barlee which set up an exciting finish between the pair.

Bell recovered and was forced to chase Barlee, execute a daring final corner outside pass to take a narrow win, bringing the Mildura crowd to it's feet.

"Mum always said if you can't be good, be spectacular," Bell said of his late-race spin.

"But it's great to win a national title."

Barlee was also elated with his second placing, but was amazed at the pass Bell pulled off.

"I knew where he had to go to pass me but I didn't think he'd be able to do it.

Third place fell to a man who trashed his car in the preliminary feature, Tony Moule, while fourth was great reward for Craig Vanderstelt who'd charged from the front of the B-Main to fourth ahead of Brett Milburn.

Milburn shared the front row with Bell, but later suffered a front stub axle failure before recovering to fifth place.

- BRETT SWANSON

motorsport news

SPEEDWAY

inds Easter Form

I

On lap six, Farr relinquished second place when he couldn't keep the front end of the Eagle on the ground as he powered out of turn two. On the next lap in the same place, Vogels got tangled up with a backmarker and his race was over.

Dumesny assumed the lead and stormed on to win ahead of Farr, Gessner, Adrian Maher and Mike Van Bremen. Tim Hutchins rolled after the flag when he didn't see the chequered flag while dicing with Danny Reidy and nosed into the turn one waU. Farr was again off pole at Mt Gambler's Boarderline track, where a couple of Adelaide cars were added to the field.

This time Farr made the most of his pole position by taking the feature win ahead of Dumesny, Gessner, Leif Ahlfours and Van Bremen.

Gessner got his first Easter victory at Premier Speedway on the final night.

Maher always runs strong at Warmambool and his Easter was

Et

ParisrOiarlcs-

Standouts and show stoppers: Robbie Farr, above, claimed the 2004 Easter Trail. Below, Ian Thomas and Troy Shiels made spectacular contact.

coming along well when he sat his Bevelite Glass machine on pole. His joy was turned to dismay though with just 10 laps to go when his car ground to a hit.

Luch Monte assumed the lead but surrendered it to Gessner when he tagged the back straight wall.

Dumesny was waiting to pounce but it was Jensen who set up the win for Gessner when he jumped the cushion and rolled. On the restart, Gessner had a clear track and was able to pull away from Dumesny to take the win from the local hero with Monte, Farr(who endured a mid-

PapsCharfes:

race spin) and Anderson following.

Overall, Farr took the $5000 bonus prize as the overall trail victor.

Dumesny picked up a $3000 bonus.

Gessner an extra $1500 and Maher $500. Completing the top 10 overall were Anderson, Ahlfours, Reidy, Reed, Hutchins, and Rob Rankin.

Darley drinks the Litre

IT'S been a long time coming,but finally Sydney's Scott Darley has claimed the Australian Litre

Sprintcar title.

After many national title podium places, Darley blitzed the field at Charlton Raceway,Toowoomba and was the form driver all weekend.

David Fanning started the title decider from pole after defeating Darley in the shootout.

Fanning's title chances were cut to pieces when the powerplant in his #31JSR cried enough and expired, which ended a pleasing weekend on a sour note.

Max Dumesny Motorsport Australian Distributors for

Xoo$trr i

^5.

For more Information on Hoosier Drag and SpeedwayTyres calk

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

21 April 2004

DARRELL Hodges claimed his eighth consecutive feature race victory at Toowoomba's Charlton Speedway against the strongest field Hodges has faced since this run of wins began.

Starting from fourth, Hodges was third once the race got under way, passing Darren Jensen for second after five laps, and taking the lead from Max Dumesny after 12. After that, Hodges drove away from the field to record an emphatic win, with Terry Bracken and Darren Jensen completing the podium.

Earlier in the race, Jensen's car went off song the with the driver believing the engine had rocker damage, but a radiator hose had blown and the engine was cooked.

Bracken took second down the back straight on the last lap.

Dumesny retired at half distance after a seal had blown in the steering box, coating the cabin in oil and making it impossibie to steer.

Cameron Gessner stopped only a few laps later with a right rear puncture.

Todd Wanless finished fourth ahead Tony Bridge and Robbie Farr.

Farr had been sent to the rear after officials judged that the Titan Garages driver had jumped the start twice. n Craig Dollansky romped home to score his first feature race win of the 2004 WoO season last weekend at 1-55 Speedway, Pevely, MO. Dollansky led the entire 40-lap distance and won by 10-car lengths ahead of Daryn Pittman and Tim Shaffer.

Earlier in feature race proceedings, before a lap was even completed, both Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser were eliminated after two separate rollovers.

The previous night, Steve Kinser claimed the 25-lap feature race at Sedalia's State Fair Speedway, Sedalia, MO. After taking the lead from long time race leader Shane Stewart late on lap 20, Dollansky looked set to have the win in the bag with less than five laps remaining until he collided with a lapped car.

Kinser was never headed and went on to defeat Stewart and Jason Meyers.

-MARK JONES/ DANIEL POWELL

2004 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP

^^ RACING TIRE

NSW:02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 1187 VIC 03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 SA-08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296

Following Darley home was the Queensland pair of Brett Barron and Brad Hilder.

Earlier in the weekend title hopeful 'Trent Singleton ended his campaign in his opening heat when a roll over put him out of action.

-DANIEL POWELL

Hodges Again

MANZANITA SPEEDWAY .Craig Dollansky ..Daryn Pittman Tim Shaffer ... Tyler Walker ... Jason Sides .. Joey Saldana .... Jerrod Hull . Paul McMahan . Brooke Tatnell . Shane Stewart

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

. Danny Lasoski Jonathan Allard .,. Kraig Kinser ... Ricky Logan Toni Lutar . Jason Meyers ... Brian Brown ..Jesse Hockett ... Erin Crocker Tim Vandervere

2004 STANDINGS TO 17/04/04 1. Steve Kinser ..

2. Danny Lasoski .

3. Paul McMahan .

4. Tim Shaffer ...

5. Daryn Pittman .

6. Donny Schatz .

7. Kraig Kinser...

8. Craig Dollansky 9. Jason Sides ...

10. Jason Meyers .

1425 1356 1331 1327 1324 1324 1321 1306 1298 1272

11. Tyler Walker ..

12. Brian Paulus .

13. Joey Saldana .

14. Jonathan Allard 15. Shane Stewart 16. Erin Crocker .

17. Brian Brown .

10. Toni Lutar 19.Jason Solwold 20. Dean Jacobs .

1237 1200 1199 1112 1092 1046 1035 1019 .843 .833

67

And the

Anderson Unstoppable

BRANiDON Bemsteim raced to his second victory of the season when he powered past first time NiBERA finalist, Clay Millican, to win the : O'Reilly NMRA Spring Nationals, : a t Houston Raceway Park.

Other winners included Tim

: Wilfcerson in Funny Car, Greg Anderson in Pro Stock, and Karen n Stoffer, who became the seventh female to win in a professional category when she rode to the Pro n Stock Bike win.

In the Top Fuel final, Bernstein's Budweiser dragster, the top qualifier ; at 4.516s, overcame a huge starting line ad vantage when Mdiican lost traction at mid-track. Bernstein took ‘ the victory in 4.69-secondS at just : 271 tnph when the burst panel let near the finish line.

The win also helped Bernstein's i bid for the NHRAPOWERade championship as he closed Tony Schumacher's lead to just 38 points when Schumacher exited in tire ^ second round. Enroute to the final round, Bernstein racked up round wins over John Smith, Cory McClenathan,and Scott Kalitta.

Miillican, who was enjoying his best day ever at an NFIRA event in his 104 Octane Boost dragster, had earlier taken round wins over Mark Kinsella, Doug Kalitta, and defending two-time Champion Larry Dixon Jr. Tim Wilkerson outdistanced Pomona winner,Jerry Toliver, in the Funny Car final round,4.89/303 to ' 5.08/277. Tire win, Wilkerson's fourth of his career, enabled him to leap from ninth to third place in the championship standings. For the day, tire Levi, Ray, and Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo scored victories over Bob Gilbertson, Eric Medlen,and point leader,Del Worsham. The win over Worsham came in a thrilling two-thousandths of a second margin of victory.

68

KAREN Stoffer's Pro Stock Bike win in Houston last weekend makes her just the seventh female to win a professional category at an NHRA national event.

Staffer beat Antron Brown by .0018s to take her first win in three final-round appearances.

Overcoming a .023 to .039s starting line advantage by Brown, Stoffer had made up the difference by half-track and then held on to win her first national event by .0018 seconds, or about half a foot.

Stoffer will share the special

Toliver raced to his 10th final

round and second of tire year by winning tlrree straight rounds where he lost traction at some point during tire ruir. Toliver and his lucky ride were able to get past Las Vegas winner,Plril Burkart Jr., Jolm Force, and low qualifier (4.846s) Gary Densham.

Anderson continues to dominate the factory hot rods as he racked up Iris fourtlr win of the year,stopping teammate Jason Line in the fhral round,6.73/205 to a slowing 9.46/98. The defending POWERade Champion was impressive,low qualifying the Vegas General Constmction Pontiac on the pole at 6.693-seconds. Airderson then showed bracket-like coirsistency with a string of 6.73s passes at 204 and 205mph in round victories over Mark Wlrisnant, Larry Morgan,and Jeg Coughlin.

Line,in an identically prepared Pontiac,came from the second position in the field to reach his first career final round. Liire posted the second best numbers of every round, taking wins over Steve Jolms, Dave CoimoHy,and Mike Edwards.

Pro Stock Bike rider Karen Stoffer became just the seventh female to win a professional category at an NHRA national event when she raced to a final round,7.15/186 to 7.17/186 victory over Antron Brown.

In reaching her third final-round, Stoffer raced her Geico Direct Suzuki to big wins over Craig Treble, GT Tonglet, and points leader Andrew Hines. Stoffer's slowest pass of the day was a 7.19s in the semifinals.

Brown kept his U.S. Army Suzuki in the low 7.2s range as he rolled past Josh Helvie,Shawn Gann,and reigning POWERade Champion Geno Scali.

Mike Ashley, driver of the Unique

Two happy blokes: Anderson, top, all but owns the NHRA Pro Stock class at the moment, while Bernstein, above, still has Dixon in his sights in Top Fuel.

Performance/InfiNet Insurancesponsored Pro Modified '67 Shelby GT 500E, collected his second career AMS Pro Modified Challenge victory by stopping 19-year-old Zach Barklage in the final round of Pro Mod.The New York Mortgage Banker won from his number one qualifying position of 6.165s to take a final round 6.18/229 to 6.19/232 victory.

The win marks the third career national event victory for Ashley and it came at tlie expense of Scotty Caimon in the first round and Mitch Stott in the semis. For his part, Barklage scored convincing victories over Von Smith and Ed Hoover.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI POINTS;Top Fuel: Schumacher 458, Bernstein 420, Kalitta 357, Grubnic 298, Dixon 286. Funny Car. Worsham 405, Denasham 320, Wilkerson 318, Force 302,Toliver 287. Pro Stock: Anderson 550,K.Johnson 394, Coughlin 312. Pro Stock Bike; Hines 196, Stoffer 190, Scali 153.

Ready to

DESPITE enduring a mixed bag of results during the 2003/04 ANDRA Australian Top Doorslammer season, reigning champion Ben Bray is confident of putting it all together during the Tin Top Titles at Willowbank Raceway on April 24/25.

A set-up consisting of the 'latest and greatest' in parts for both his and father Victor's '57 Chevrolet Top Doorslammers has the Castrol/Super Cheap Auto outfit eyeing greater consistency during the sixth round of the National championship, which also features the fourth round of Travelaire Tours Pro Stock.

"The Tin Top Titles holds a lot of prestige for drivers as it really is a showcase of these two very competitive brackets," said Bray, above.

"Last time round in Sydney dad (Victor) red lighted in the semis and I encountered engine problems,so it was very disappointing considering the lead up was promising plenty."

Bray will sport his new-look Super Cheap Autos Top Doorslammer at Willowbank Raceway.

molorspon news

I

word for the day is day with Super Gas winner Erica

Enders, who also notched her first national event win Sunday.

"Wow," said Stoffer, right.

"I think that's the only way to describe this. To go from almost not being able to race to winning our first event is unbelievable.

"All of the teams out here are so tough. We beat the Harleys back-to-back and then a tough Army team in the final.

"I think we've showed we can handle this level of competition and make a championship push.

Why not? The way I feel right now anything is possible.

H

rh Kiynsmith

Rumble "We were one and two qualifiers in Sydney so that was a frustrating result. We've consistently been quicker by a couple of tenths of a second on everyone else but luck hasn't run our way.

"At the Tin Tops we'll go in with a different set-up combination and it'll be something we've wanted to try aU year so we're counting on some positive outcomes.

"It's going to be a tough task trying to win back-to-back Tin Tops, but the air and track will be better suited to drag racing this time 'round and there's no reason we can't collect top points.

"We had a lot of problems earlier in the year but we've now got a handle on things. It looks as if Brett Stevens has the points to take the Championship but he won't have everything his own way. If he eases up on the throttle at any stage we'll be there, ready to pounce."

The Tin Top Titles serves as the major preliminary event to the Willowbank Wintemationals to be held on June 11-13.

21 april 2004

"I don't know if I've absorbed all of this yet. The fans were screaming and so many people told me they stayed to root for us in the final.

"One guy even missed a flight outta here. They say you never forget your first win and I certainly believe that's true. The feeling I have right now just keeps ebbing higher and higher.

Like I said,'Wow' is the word of the day."

In reaching her third finalround, Stoffer raced her Geico Direct Suzuki to big wins over heavyweights Craig Treble, GT Tonglet, and points leader Andrew Hines.

Staffer's slowest pass of the day was a 7.19 in the semifinals.

six-time NHRA Pro Stock Bike Champion team owner George Bryce of Star/G Squared Motorsports has split with rookie rider Angie McBride.

"Angie and I tried to work out a suitable contract that would work for all parties concerned," said Bryce.

"Unfortunately, we were unable to agree on some issues, and felt it would be best to terminate our relationship. I wish Angie the best and hope she does well ir whatever she plans for the future."

George Smith of S&S Cycle, Incorporated, Bryce's G Squared Motorsports partner said, "I know that George and Angie worked hard to get ready and put a deal together. We're disappointed we couldn't pull it off. Angie has great potential and I wish her well."

McBride, who came from the Outlaw Pro Street series, has expressed an interest in eventually returning to the NHRA. McBride made what turned out to be her first and only appearance aboard the Star/G2 bike when she made her professional debut at the Mac Tools Gatornationals.

"I have dedicated my adult life to motorcycle drag racing and

RAG RACING

ANDRA Pro Stock Bike points revised ANDRA has revised the assigned points for the current Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship Series, The revised points table is as follows: Daniel Peatey 205, Callum Godeassi 185, Sam Scerri 185, Maurice Allen 185, Neville Langley 170, Damien Densmore 120, Jason Lee 105, Andrew Badcock 100, Phil Howard 60, Michael Gilbertson 60, Peter Cochrane 20. n NHRAand ESPN have formally extended their television relationship through 2006. in 2001, NHRA and ESPN signed a historic five-year relationship giving ESPN the exclusive rights to NHRA Drag Racing programming, which includes the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, NHRA 2Day, and the NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series.

Since that time, NHRA has enjoyed more hours of programming per year and a significant increase in viewership, unparalleled in the sport's 53-year history.

Good news for NHRA, good news for ESPN, and really good news for those lucky so-and-sos here in Australia who have cable TV and tune in to the coverage of drag racing in the US.

made many sacrifices to accomplish personal goals such as a championship in Outlaw Pro Street," said McBride, above.

"I regret that Star Racing and I could not work out the details.

I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone at Star Racing, George Smith and everyone at S&S Cycle and Snap-On tools for supporting me.

"The NHRA is a wonderful racing organization and they will see me in the future. I wish with all my heart it could have worked."

Fred Collis, who raced with the team last year, will be handling the riding responsibilities for the remainder of the season.

n After a three-year absence from the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, BobVandergriff Jr. is planning a return to Top Fuel racing at the 24th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in mid-May. Vandergriff plans to add more races to his schedule as sponsorship permits, "i had pretty much drawn the conclusion at the start of the year that I had been on the sidelines for too long," Vandergriff said.

Vandergriff's last final-round appearance came in 2000 at Phoenix.

He has six final round appearances on the NHRA tour including his first one at Indianapolis in 1995. n Clay Millican advanced to his first-ever final round in NHRA Top Fuel competition at the NHRA O'Reilly Spring Nationals.

"To come here and make it to the finals for the first time ever is pretty awesome," said Millican. "It was nice to win three rounds and make it to the finals, which was our goal coming into the race."

Unfortunately for Millican, he was shot down in the final by Brandon Bernstein.

"It was disappointing to lose. Our team is used to winning when we go to a final round, and it has been a long time since we lost in the finals.

"If you make it there, you definitely plan on winning."

69

I

tiona

by ERIN McCOWATT DAMIEN White won round two of the V8 BRutes Series in his Team Brock Holden at Oran Park last weekend after taking two race wins and pole position.

Ex-NRL player Jack Elsegood now leads the championship in his Ford after finishing second overall with two seconds and a third place.

The final race was marred by a four-lap safety car period when Roy Leaver (Ford), George Elliot (Holden), Rob Jarvis (Ford) and Matt O'Grady(Holden) were caught in a pile-up at the south end of the circuit.

The massive crash was a domino effect of too many BRutes vying for the same bit of tarmac. The stewards later declared it a racing incident.

Despite leading the second two races from the first comer. White was grateful for the Safety Car in the third race because it bought him some

scene

eAedbv

respite from the pressure Elsegood was applying.

The Safety Car helped me a lot in the third race because Jack was pushing me," said White.

My hope was for Charlie Kovacs to have a go at Elsegood at the restart, which he did, then-1 cleared off by putting in some smooth and consistent laps.

Kovacs won Race 1 after the race was red flagged nine laps into the scheduled 12 when a fuel Une problem caused O'Grady's Holden to catch fire as it was buried in the sand at the exit of turn one.

It seems to always happen in the last race: The BRute boys(and girl) gave the Oran Park fans plenty to see, including this four-car pile-up.

The Safety Car was called out on lap four of the first race after Gary Baxter's Ford got a flat tyre, which had caused the car to shake so much

Kovacs finished the weekend fourth overall when he was given a 45-second time penalty after the third race for jumping the restart.

Team Brock rookie Berm Wilson finished the first race in third but broke

with Elsegood for second place in Race 2 until the throttle cable broke on his Ford on the last lap, ending his race and pushing him down the order for the grid of race three.

White is now second in the

the oil sump over a kerb in race two and could only salvage 14th in Race 3.

Returning for his first round in 2004, Grant Denyer was battling hard

championship, with round one winner Dave Griffin in third.

that the engine relay lead fell off and the car lost power and stopped on the exit of the final turn.

Baxter's weekend didn't get any better when more troubles caused him not to finish any of the races.

Points: Elsegood 129, White 123, Griffin 119, Kovacs 106,Smerdon 97,Jane 80.

Future Debut THE future is here, or is it?

The Formula Green Futureracers debuted at Oran Park last weekend for four demonstration races.

Although only seven cars ventured to the Sydney circuit,

70

the fans were alble to see how this series will work.

Queenslander Mike Kilpatrick won all four events while former Aussie Race Car driver Chris Butler took reins of the Team Brock car, right.

moiorsport news

MATIONIIL SCENE

Reigning Champ still Reigns ^ THE RDA Rotors Commodore Cup I proved to be the pick of the support C> bunch at the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series round at Winton on the weekend,with tight racing the order of the day.

In Race 1, defending Champion Geoff Emery and Axent Global racer Geoff Fontaine (behind the wheel of one of the new specification VR Commodores made eligible for tliis year's series) led the pack along with Christian D'Agostin,though the real charger behind was Craig Domaschenz.

Domaschenz picked off Fontaine at the end of lap three but couldn't do anything about race wiimer Emery, who crossed the line 3.37s in front of

D'Agostin and Domaschenz.

Fontaine took fourth clear of Daniel Richert(another of the new spec Commodores),Daniel Orr, Brett Holdsworth and David Gittus.

Domaschenz again was in the action in race two,swapping it with Emery only for the Champ to come out in front again, Fontaine took third ahead of team mate D'Agostin,Richert, Orr, Gittus, Andrew Mclnnes and Holdsworth.

And Emery didn't even have his new car for Winton. He's expected to move up to the newer spec Commodore shortly now that team mate Tony Bates' machine has hit the track and is up and running.

-AARON NOONAN

School boy blows ^em away SYDNEY schoolboy Chris Alajajian took his first round win in round two of the Australian Production Car Championship at Oran Park last weekend after a great battle with Toyota’s Leanne Perrier.

Alajajian, 17, missed out on the win in Race 1 by just 0.04s after catching Perrier on the last lap.

Perrier, recently moved from Class B to Class C after a parity review, showed excellent form in her Corolla, lapping an average of 2.0s faster in the races than her qualifying time.

The nimble 4WD Subaru Liberty of Alajajian proved to be too quick

:.D/r*%nanirft

for current Champion, Scott Loadsman, his heavy Hoiden Commodore finishing third in both races.

Sydney driving instructor Ian Luff continued his dominance of Ciass B, taking the ciass win in both races in front of David Ratciiff’s Toyota Ceiica and Ailan Shephard’s Honda Integra.

Reguiar Class D front runner David Russeli biew a gearbox in the first race, aiiowing his father Geoff to take both Ciass D wins in his factorybacked Proton Satria GTi. n Raiiy ace Rick Bates drove the wheels off his Daihatsu Copen to finish second in Ciass D, aibeit a iong way back in the outright field.

Alajajian now leads the championship from Loadsman with Perrier in third.

- ERIN McCOWATT Points: Alajajian 103, Loadsman 90, Perrier 74, Luff 70, Ratcliff 68, G.Russell 63.

Detention for you boy; Alajajian, left in front, took the series lead off Scott Loadsman at Oran Park while the battle for the minors was intense, above.

Supporting a good cause THE support races at the Konica Minolta series saw winners come from all across Australia.

In the Saloon Cars, Western Australian Clint Harvey, left, took a race win, while Luke Norris picked up the other two heat victories.

Improved Production saw a small but loyal field enter. Ray Hislop picked up the first win in his EB GT Falcon. But not to be out down, Mark Short re-addressed the situation with two great wins.

In the MOPRO Cup, experienced man Chris Oxley took two wins while Yanis Derums claimed the other in the MGs. On the Daewoo

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21 April 2004

ledger, Damien French and Dave Williams shared the winning spoils.

71

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The brilliant Porsche 904 /s 40 years old. BRIAN REED looks at one of the great sports racing cars from the famous Stuttgart stable

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HE Type 904 GTS Carrera, arguably the most beautiful roacVrace car ever built by Porsche, was produced in just four months - from plasticine to prototype.

After a lean two years of competition, Porsche needed a new GT car to regain lost ground. Hans Tomala, Wilhelm Wild and Ferdinand 'Butzi' Porsche collaborated to bring about Porsche's groundbreakir\g 904 to contest the FIA Group 3 GT class.

The Type 904 GTS Carrera was less related to Porsche's road-going cars and was a more specialised racer, owing some of its heritage to the company's 804 Formula 1 car, in particular the all-round double wishbone suspension.

The 904 was also Porsche's first 'plastic' car, featuring a deep section box chassis with the fibreglass body bonded to it.

The arrival of the Typ 904 GTS Carrera coincided with the release of the 911 road car, and it seemed logical to fit the new six-cylinder engine to the race car.

However, time constraints led to the 904 staying with the tried and tested quad-cam four Carrera stretched to 1966cc and producing 195hp. 106 cars were rushed through production in order to meet FIA homologation rules, and

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Rathep than outrun its opposition,^ bulletppoQf904r 1IUOP0 them down, often in spite liilihugo powep n disadvantage

almost all were fitted with the 10-year old four-cylinder powerplant. Some ran the 911 six, and just a few brave souls had the 270hp flat eightcylinder units derived from the 804 FI engine of 1962.

Although successful in European hillclimbing and sprint races, the 904 was undoubtedly at its best in grueling, long distance sports car races where its stamina and reliability came to the fore. Rather than outrun its opposition, the bulletproof 904s wore them down, often in spite of a huge power disadvantage.

Success, came early in 1964 after two 904s finished first and third outright in the Targa

Florio. Colin Davis and Antonio Pucci led home Ferraris, Shelby Cobras and other highly fancied opposition. The same year, five 904s were entered for the Le Mans 24-race. All five finished in the top 12, the highest placed being seventh outright. A six-cylinder 904 finished fifth at Le Mans the following year.

Not only did the 904 GTS Carrera look the part, it out performed the opposition where it mattered most - on the racetrack.

Melbourne driver andracing motor sports official Ken Price has one of only

two 904s in Australia, left.

During a trip to the UK in 1996, he heard of a road-going 904 from some English Porsche club members and eventually tracked it down.

Apparently the car had been involved in a crash and the owner had sold the four 5 cylinder quad-cam engine and [ gearbox to help pay off some j business debts and had ! hidden the rest. Price bought what was left and, after -' looking up drawings and body moulds in the UK, restored,the I m. car to a rolling chassis before ; SI = shipping it back to Australia.

Back home, a two-litre six cylinder engine similar to the early 911 and a five-speed gearbox were assembled by John Gregory and the 904 was once again ready for action.

Ken has successfully campaigned the car in Porsche Club sprint meetings, regularity events at Sandown and Winton, and has dominated his class in the Victorian Hillclimb Championships, winning the Historic class in both 2003 and 2004.

91

NZ Easter Titles AS in Australia, Easter is the time for the National Karting Championships in New Zealand.

12 classes competed this year at Auckland. Ryan Grant was the most successful driver of the meeting, taking home two titles. Senior Open and Senior 125cc National.

Matthew Hamilton kept the Rotax Light national title in the family, beating a class field that included elder sister and outgoing champion Fiona, Tony Chambers, who finished seventh at the World Rotax Finals in January, finished second. Earl Bamber took his Kosmic to a narrow win over regular Oz visitor Michael Burdett in Junior ICA.

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by MARK WICKS

M

ATTHEW Wall has taken out the Formula 100

National Championship at the 42nd annual AKA Sprint Kart Championships at Puckapunyal over Easter.

Wall(Arrow)started the final from pole alongside Paul Laskazeski(Top Kart), above, and while 'Laska' won the start, it wasn't long before Wall got through. Defending Champion Barclay Holden (Trulli) worked his way to second, but couldn't quite

displace Wall for the win. Third went to fastest qualifier Glenn Powles (Trulli), who recovered well after a slow start.

Laskazeski's highlight came in Clubman Light where he led for just 40 metres - but it was the metres where he led that mattered. Despite qualifying fastest, Laska didn't win a race until the final, Ashley Walsh took out the heats and James Sera won the pre-final. Similarly, after closing down a significant gap, the .

Kart-1 driver looked destined for another placing until Adam Graham coUided with race leader Sera in the

very last comer. Laskazeski(Arrow) dodged the wreckage to take the win ahead of Kyle Clews(Monaco), who had led the mid-section of the race and Troy Woolston(PDB).

The high drama was not confined to Clubman Light. The closeness and unpredictability of the finals was best demonstrated in Senior National Light. Three drivers charged to the finish line side-by-side and in an Arrow trifecta, Chris Jeffrey pipped Dale Beaton for the win by 0.010s.

Ryan Sanderson was third, an extra 0.083s behind.

Senior National Heavy finished in a similar way. Tim Blanchard (Arrow) edged out Tasmanian Ben Walter (Gillard) by 0.018s while defending Champ Jason Pringle(Arrow) was . third.

Buried in the pack on grid 12, nobody tipped Cameron Thorpe to win Formula Australia Light,but that's exactly what the Monaco driver did. Shane Price and Matt Wall won the heats but neither figured in the final. Blanchard (Arrow)snatched second ahead of Justin Schneider (Monaco).

Schneider went one place better in Formula Australia Heavy,but the win went to Western Australian Brad Fitch (Monaco), the only driver to retain his national title. Reif Corbett (Gillard) was third.

After Remo Luciani and William Yarwood crashed out of the pre-final.

Clubman Heavy shaped up as a showdown between Jace Lindstrom, Troy Hunt and Ben Savage.

Lindstrom had won all the heats and

The highs and lows of National karting: Laskazeski lost TWO, but claimed Clubman Light by a whisker.

21 April 2004

sat on pole, but Kel Treseder was the sleeper in the pack and saved his best for the final. On the final lap. Hunt drafted his way past Lindstrom to take the lead but the two made contact a few corners later, allowing Treseder(Monaco)to pounce. Brett Hobson (Top Kart)sneaked through for second while Hunt(Top Kart)

n The Victorian Superkart Championship will be held at Phillip Island on May 1 and 2. With a cloud hanging over the Australian Championships later in the year, this might be one of the bigger Superkart meetings for '04. n One for the Oops Department: Pics from the opening round of the CIK Championships at Geelong last issue were taken by Steve Partridge, not Mark Wicks. We should have known - Wicks couldn't take a photo of a moving object to save himself! kept going for third.

Kristian Lindbom took a remarkable win in Junior Clubman, having started from grid 33 as a result of a DNF in the pre-final.

Aided by ample carnage up front and race leader David Sera losing his brakes with three laps to go, Lindbom (Top Kart) was fast nonetheless and claimed victory.

Jordie Lindstrom (Arrow) took second (from grid 32) over Steve McGarry (Monaco).

Sera made up for his Junior Clubman disappointment by clinching Junior National Heavy (his third National title in as many years) after a push and shove match with Nathan Mills(Monaco), who finished second ahead of Nick Johnstone (Arrow).

Leigh Nicolaou(Arrow) picked up Junior National Light after a frantic battle that saw half a dozen drivers with realistic chances of winning.

Ryan Reynolds(Kosmic) was next followed by Chaz Mostert(Tony Kart)in third.

Just one driver took an 'easy' win.

Scott Simpson(CRG)crushed the opposition in the final of Clubman Super Heavy. Craig Denton (Monaco) recovered from an engine problem to take second.

Such was the competitiveness of this year's Nationals that, apart from Simpson's 10-second win, no other driver won a final by any more than 0.68s...

73

NATIONAL SCENE IV-

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MOTORSPORT NEWS: There's a big break between now and the Queensland Raceway round so it seems you'll be the series leader for quite some time!

COLIN SIEDERS; It's probably a good way of going into a break by leading the championship.

It's all going really well at the moment.

MN: Will you test between now and then?

CS: Probably not. We've got our engine being rebuilt at the moment. I wouldn't mind a test day to run it in, but I'm going to America for a bit of a holiday soon. I'm not sure if we'll have time.

MN: You were involved in a nasty road accident when you were 15 and have lost some of the use of your left leg. Tell us about this and how it affects your driving?

CS: I was a passenger in the back of my friend's mother's car where she was unfortunately killed.

It broke my pelvis, which

damaged the nerve in my left leg. It has kept me out of a lot of things until last year when I able to have my first motor race in an Aussie Race Car. MN: So you must right foot brake in the car?

CS: I'm the only person in the category who has a right foot brake pedal. Phil Ward has specially made pedals for my car so I can 'heal and toe' properly while everyone else is dragging their foot on the left pedal like a go-kart.

MN: The Aussie Race Car category is going gangbusters at the moment.

What are your thoughts on the pint-sized tourers?

CS: It's huge. If anyone leaves the category there are another 10 people trying to get in. It's just amazing how big it is and how big it can get if it keeps going the way it is.

I think it's a great place to start your career if you want a career in racing. It's also the perfect category to have fun and a good place to start racing.

MN: Do you think we could see Carrera Cup or even V8 Supercar teams pluck young drivers from the ARCS? CS: You never know what can happen there. It's possible if there is a real stand-out driver and hopefully I could do that sort of thing.

It's a good stepping stone to learn tracks and learn race craft and hopefully move into categories like Porsches or V8s.

Klark Quinn has made the step into Porsches and he's not doing too bad.

MN: Considering your family's involvement in the sport over the years, were you always destined to drive race cars?

CS: Our whole family has raced ever since I was born. I've always been around race cars, so I think it was just expected.

I don't know if I was destined to be a race driver but that is what our family loves doing.

MN: So we guess the short term plan for you is to win

The perks of a Sime Tyres deal: Colin Sieders currently leads the Aussie Race Car championship. this year's championship?

CS: Everyone's goal is to win the series and we'll try and win and do our sponsors proud.

The points score structure rewards consistency. If I can be in the top five and stay out of trouble, hopefully come the last round we'll be leading the championship.

Revolutionary Legend CONSIDER yourself a 'Revolution Legend'?

Revolution Racegear have announced a sponsorship deal with the Aussie Race Cars that will see one driver at each round of the series awarded 'The Revolution Legend' prize for outstanding achievement over the weekend.

No, it's not for the overall winner.

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The award is given to someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty, on and off the track.

TDK FJ driver Dennis O'Sullivan claimed the $200 gift voucher at the Adelaide round, while Tom Vecicivic picked up the prize at Eastern Creek for the tireless help he gave his fellow competitors off the circuit.

- GRANT ROWLEY moiorsport news

=:

INDUSTRY NEWS

LSI Package Holley Carbs Crow Cams now offer three distinctive power options for the Holden LSI Gen 111 V8 with the release of the 350 kw option.

The 350 kw package is tuned specifically to be used with big valve ported cylinder heads.

The Crow test vehicles used

Holley Carburetors introduce the new Ultra Series HP and Dominator Carbs.

The ULTRA Series include CNC machined billet metering blocks giving you ultimate control over every aspect of the fuel curve with simple emulsion jet changes.

The billet metering systems offer idle feed restrictors for easier tuning of idle system with no drilling required and changeable power valve restrictors. The cast base plates have been replaced with CNC machined billet base plates on the HP for added durability and strength.

Dominator bowls with built-in

CNC ported heads heads designed for the kit by Kostecki Engine Centre in Perth. These heads are available on an exchange basis including race quality oversize valves at a special price to purchasers of the 350 kw cam kit from Crow Cams.

oversized sight windows are part of the ULTRA series so float adjustments are easy and safe.

Crow pipes offer a stainless exhaust system with 2.5 inch collector heads and 1.7 litre high flow cats to provide adequate flow to suit the 350 kw

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Contact Holley Performance System Distributors Pty. Ltd. for more information and applications by phoning 08 81321 888

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CLASSIFIEDS

/Zn]7M^^32m) online classifieds t

news

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Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

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your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/internet classified service.

Courtesy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service my105.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25.

Yes 3 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25! HOW?

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Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

LOG ON NOW — IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

Sunday Drivers Winter Clearance Sale

Safeen Mustang S351

i.

'4-i

Ex nations cup/sports car, immaculate build quality, 560HP supercharged 351 V8, proflex shocks, ideal for targa/tarmac rally or to add to the collection, priced to sell at a fraction of the build cost of $240,000 - Sell $50,000. Various spares available ] including, engines, gearboxes, diffs, panels, suspension componenets etc. $50,000. Kevin Heffeman 0413 733 407.

LJ XU1 Holden Torana

Group NC #74, Sister car to #90, immaculately prepared, numerous race wins, fastest laps. Race winning top HP 202, koni shocks. Ready to race $38,000.

Various spares available including, engines, gearboxes, diffs, panels, suspension components etc. $38,000.

Kevin Heffeman 0413 733 407.

'

www.myl05.com/67684

www.myl05.com/29225

LJ XU1 Holden Torana

HQ GTS Holden Monaro Group NC #28, Ex Jackson car, no expense spared, numerous race wins, fastest laps and lap records. Tyre smoking Mega HP 350 chev, proflex shocks. Scare yourself for $60,000.Various spares available including, engines, gearboxes, diffs, panels, suspension components etc. $60,000. Kevin Heffeman 0413 733 407.

www.myl05.com/89543

Sf ff ■ ^

Group NC #90, Ex Jackson/Heffernan, immaculately prepared, numerous race wins, fastest laps and lap records. Race winning top HP 202 engine, koni/profiex shocks. Ready to win $40,000. Various spares available including, engines, gearboxes, diffs, panels, suspension $40,000. Kevin components etc.

www.myl05.com/85246 Heffeman 0413 733 407.

Sedans/Sports Cars

V

Group A ST185R GT4, This is a Great Car has been Garaged for the last 3 years only done 116043 KM in its life has rebuild motor with no km new wheels/Tyers 215/40/17 has blow of valve and CT 26 turbo. $18500 Neg. Darren 02 9648 4111 / 040 899 0411.

285 www.my105.com/57671

Lotus Elise, Fresh engine, close ratio gearbox, adjustable front and rear shock absorbers, full roll cage, sport 190 engine spec, just rebuilt, 1 set of spare wheels, terratrip, ready for Targa, excellent buy.

Priced to sell. $65,000. Mark 9838 8374 282 (bh) / 0408 976 958. www.myl05.eom/55980

Ford Escort Mk1, excellent condition, 2 litre pinto motor, very reliable, great circuit club car, cams log booked, also available for sale new trailer $1800, and race suit, gloves, shoes used twice $800 neg. $13,500 Neg. Sasha 04 1 8 6 8 0 293. 282 www.myl05.com/61765

4 DdMVTKnw ' .■w

RX7 Series VI, Imported, cannot be complied. Suitable for race car, parts etc Complete running/driving. $18,500 ONO. 0407244542. 282 www.my105.com/91219

21 April 2004

Mitsubishi Mirage, 4th outright 2003, quick and tidy car, very reliable, podium finishes, ready to race, some spares, may deliver. $18,000 ONO. Adam 0438 541 972. 283 www.myl05.com/26642

Toyota Corolla AE82 Improved Prod., 3rd 1600CC QLD 2003, 20 valve, Autronic, FIA cage, TRD cage, TRD GPA gearbox + diff, all VGC/fresh, easy to drive, prof built, $9,600. Justin 0417 703 773. 284 www.my105.com/70676

\

2002 Tanzam Corvelle DTM, ready to race and win again. DTM -Carbon/Kevlar body.

Chrome moly chassis, 3 x way Penske shocks fully fabricated in chrome moly rear with 9inch Ford, 5 speed Wiseman. TC gear box. BBS 3y pease wheels AP 6 pot brakes, 6 litre Hendrick 700 hp engine, dry sumped, 180 degree exhaust system. Only the very best has gone into this car. (No duty to pay car of new Zealand orgin ). $135,000 with spares. Peter 0064 3963 1381- fax 0064 336 6 01 33 . 282 www.my105.com/1026 Mitsubishi Evo 6 Race car. Improved Late Model National Production Championship winning car. Big horse power engine, autronic ECU and CDI, brembo 8 pot brakes, cusco diffs, proflex suspension.

Brand new brakes,clutch, driveshafts, turbo and exhaust manifold. Holds lap record at Barbagallo, heaps of spares. Can be raced in GT Performance/ Improved Production. $45,000 Or Best Offer. Aaron 0409 298 108, 283 www.my105.com/74684.

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Open Wheelers L-.I.

Escort RS1600 (Replica), Tarmac Rally Car, Twin Cam Shell, 2ltr Alloy block BDA, Motec Injection, Dry sump, Quaife 5 speed SCCR Sierra Box, Tilton Twin plate clutch, Tranx LSD, Quaife Floating Axles, Willwood 4 Piston front Ford Motorsport rear discs.

Alloy Tank, Alloy radiator, Bilsteins, 2 14 “ Adjustable front, single leaf rear springs, compression struts, anti-dive, too many extras to list, replacement cost well in excess of $120,000. 1 Event old, everything new or rebuilt. $58,000 ONO, John 0438 441 480. 282 www.my105.com/77953

Mazda RX-7 Race Car/Parts, Mazda RX-7 roller with new Roll Cage, paint, flairs and rear spoiler. 13B Bridgeport Engine in pieces. Racing Beat Carbon apex seals and springs. Racing Beat Pulley, 2 sets of alloy wheels, Sparco race seat. Series 3 Diff Assembly, 4 pot callipers, hubs, discs, turbo gearbox,48mm Webber and Manifold. 8500 Neg. 0732694134 / 0754967848 282 www.myl O5.com/12923

Formula Ford Spectrum 06, Great 1st car, competitive in all state and National events, great history with many poles, fastest laps and wins, finished 4th Bathurst 02, 5th AGP 04, Penske shockers all round, dash and logger, set up equip, full set ratios, 3 sets wheels and tyres, ready to race, $29,000.

Daniel (03) 9725 5366 / 0411 029 561. 282 www.myl O5.com/18142

Formula Vee 1998 Mantis, Fresh John Dean Engine, rollon long and short gearboxes, 3 piece wheels, spares including nose cone and mould, log book, ready to race. Fully enclosed trailer also available almost new $2,800. $7,500 ONO. Jim (03) 5967 2288. 281 www.my105.com/39084

r r.

FORMULA FORDS, Mawer 004b (Group R), Elfin 600FF (Group Q), Van Diemen RF85, Reynard 88FF. All complete and with some spares. Ideal for FF driving school in NT or Tasmania. For full details from peter@finlays.com.au. Peter 02 9873 1773.

282 www.my105.com/2223

I

LC/LJ XU1 Torana, Perfect for NC class (never been registered on road) rose jointed frontend, big springs, girllock oversize brakes, original sprintmasters. Body in mint condition. Fresh original paint, bathurst tank 2x 202 engines. Needs to be assembled, all parts available!. $5,200 ONO. Adam 0412 934 889. 282 www.my105.com/40787

Cheap Wings & Slicks. Full C of D & historic log book. Beaut little car, ideal entry level. Well built with all the right gear.

Recent rebuild of all mechanicals and ready to race. Complete with excellent trailer and spares. $23,000 Neg. Paul Scott 0413 057 097.

280 www.my105.com/67439

/r I

For Sale and/or Lease Drive, Dallara 301 update, the winner of the Australian F3 2003 Championship driven by Michael Caruso. Ready to race. Spares/Transporter available. Call Mick Caruso (02) 9905 5814 or 0418 481 122 or e-mail 280 bms@optusnet.com.au.

WWW.myl05.com/63986 Westfield, S.E. Clubman, Race prepared Toyota 3SGE, hollinger 5spd/quick shift, motec. Ford motor sport LSD, spare alternate ratio DSD. 2 spare sets of Spare mags/tyres-slicks/wets. engine/gearbox. Ph. Island 1.44, Sandown 1.20, Winton 1.30. Fully end. trailer + awning make it a complete competitive package. $30,000. Ernie 0352215225 / 0352505491. 282 www.my105.com/11109

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Vvl

TURBO ROTARY RALT, Dowled, ported, lllanetti ceramic seals. Ball bearing turbo, external w/gate,multi plate clutch,alloy flywheel, microtech,dual bosch pumps,4 stage dry sump, huge spares, pi dash, 8 wheels, ratios, tyres, arms, moulds, d/shafts,discs,pads,wings, 600hp awesome to drive. $75,000 Or Best Offer.

Michael 0411 676 ,V; www.my105.com/52281

TIGA FA82 Formula Atlantic, Complete car in perfect condition. Recent full restoration. Engine dismantled for inspection. Will consider an interesting trade. $48,000 Not Neg. David 0409 603 749.

282 www.my105.com/49988

Bowin P6F, $25,000 ONO. Keith 0401704-401.

282 www.my105.com/24538

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Mallock U2 MK21 1300cc, Completed 2002 current CAMS logbook Del Luca Corrolla motor on 45DCOEs. Comes with MSD ignition and adjustable rev limiter, 6 point FIA current harness, 4 wheel d/brakes, cockpit adj. brake bias. Ford diff, new AVO shockers, w/bone jigs and spares. $10,000 281 ONO. Ian (08) 8322 1029. www.myl05.eom/20218

HILL CLIMB / FORMULA LIBRA, Fast competitive hill climb special, link ecu, 4wheel disk breaks, new omp harness & steering wheel, 4 new tyres, turbo, intercooled, on unrego trailer. Ready to race in 2004 hill climb series. $8,900 or best 280 offer. Kym 0402 144 828. www.myl05.com/37151

#i» wayto sell your gear! From just$25* justlog on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto myl05.com) Advertising can aiso be supplied usingthis form ($10/S15 surchage to text only/text -f pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possibie issue of Motorsport, News PLUS the mv105.com website forthree months.

Please read & cross the desired services and calculate the total.

LLUJ/ZJLLXZJSimJ online classifieds Category: □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers

news Description:

□ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers

□ Speedway

□ Wanted □ Photographs

□ Drag

□ Jobs

□ Other

Please keep ads to no more than 50 words, plus up to 6 photos if desired.

K Standard ad and one inlusion into Motorsport News □ Plus Photo Processing fee $5 ADDITIONAL OPTIONS:□ Extra issues X $25 per issue

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□ Feature ad on Motorsport News and my105.com homepage for $75 per issue

TOTAL = $

I enclose a clieque/money order/credit card details lor die payment of Itie total amount above.

□ Amex □ Bankcard Card no Name _ Address

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Signature _

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NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and print clearly. Please note

we are unable to return photographs supplied for use in classified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possible after receipt. MN/myl05.com classifieds are for the sale of private goods and vehicles only, not business advertising Photos marked *proor will not be used.

motorsport news

Engines

I Porsche 3.4 Litre Boxster Engine Complete NEW, Built by Chellingworth Porsche Perth. Includes flowed heads, Porsche Sport cams and Pfitzner flywheel.

283 $25,000 ONO, Kim 0417 917 189. www.myl05.com/88381 Chev, 5lt 302 engine, 010 block, 4 bolt, steel capped mains, 23 alloy brownfield, heads, big stainless valves, isky valve springs collets and retainers, roller cam shaft, rev kit, crow push rods, crane roller rockers with stud girdle kit, 6inch carillo rods, steel crank shaft, 12,5.1 comp brc forged pistons king high performance bearings, dry sumped with pump / tank and lines, 780 holiey, victor jnr manifold, flex plate wih 7 1/4inch plate clutch, reduction starter, alloy water pump, Peterson belt drive system this engine has 550 plus hp.

Ideal improved production race engine can be heard going price $15,000 ono. 0407 943 062 / 0408 343 062.

284 www.myl05.com/6557

Karting

Transporters/Trailers

Yamaha J Race Engines, two of the best complete units available, DP Karts b/printed and maintained, multi trophy winners, inci air box, AKA 14, header and spark box $2,400 firm for each unit, John (03) 9808 3680 281 www.myl05.eom/23703

Trailer Fully Enclosed, Wanted home movies on 8 mill. Super 8 (obrand new, alum clad, internal size, L3600 h1900 w1950 electric brakes 240v sink, water tank, fridge, lighting, alum ramps, storage box, 1/t truck, tyres, removable winch fitting suit formular or sports car. $7,500. Brian 9726 6749 / 0417 501 818.

283 www.my105.com/52165

TONY KARTS, 1 X Tony Kart Mitox/CIK (1 Season) $2700.00 1 x Tony Kart Mitox/CIK (2 Seasons) $2000.00 1 x Tony Kart Mega (1 14 Seasons) $2200.00 1 x Tony Kart Racer (3 Seasons) $1500.00 ono 2 x ARC/Baron water cooled engines $1700.00 With Radiator $1900.00 Alastair McGregor 281 (03) 94668366 www.my105.com/85149 F100-CIK ENGINES & GARBS, 1 X Vortex/Baron FIDO water cooler with radiator $2700.00 1 x Vortex/Baron F100 water cooled engine & pipe $2400.00 1 x Parilla/Saron F100 water cooled engine & , pipe $2400.00 2 x Vortex/Baron Air cooled engine $1400.00 ea 2 x IBEA Carburettors 281 $250.00 ea www.myl05.com/34625

Race Transporter, International T2670, 1982, 28ft pan, 2000kg Tienen lifter, 14Lt Cummins, 9sp road ranger, 28 x 15ft marquee, compressor, generator, electricity, storage boxes, and much more. $35,000.

Druggan Family Racing 0416 104 582 /(02) 9636 4432.

282 www.myl05.eom/26017

iOLi.

Nissan FJ20, Quad throttle forged pistons Ported, Polished head all new parts throughout. Suit sports sedan etc. Cost over $7000. Only used twice. Offers over $4000.

281 $4,000. Michael 0407 668 835. www.myl05.com/32181

SILVER 2002 CRG MARENELLO ROLLING CHASSIE, 4 SPOTT BRAKES, 40 MIL/kXLE, NEW TEAM STICKER KIT, IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, METICULOUSLY MAINTAINED BY DEREK CUNNINGHAM, RUNNING OUT OF KART SPACE GOING CHEAP FOR QUICK SALE, $1,600. 2002 CRG Maximo Rotax rolling chassis ex Pete Lawler, excellent condition tralee 0427 450 442 281 $2,000 www.myl05.eom/9409

L -A

Gearbox Transaxle, special Lola Hewland Penske new c/pinion, all gears new, fully rebuild, ready to race, with on board jacks.

284 $14,000. Issy (03) 9401 1155, www.myl05.com/29140 Race Wheels, Race Wheels.BBS Snake Tongue Rims centre lock Super Touring 1 piece light weight 19*8s good conditlon$900ono John 02 65695781. $900 ONO. 283 www.myl05.eom/34580

21 April 2004

Race ready Super Sedan, Super Sedan Pontiac FIrbIrd complete car, race ready, engine very strong, Q-Change diff wide five all round.new coil over chassis to go with car.easy to set-up $16,500 ono Ph 0413 226 771 . 16,500.00 ONO. 0413 226 771. www.myl 05.com/27300

Maxim Sprintcar, 1999 Maxim Sprintcar.

Complete rolling chassis. Currently run as 360 car, with very little use. Straight car, with near new Winters rear end and all good running gear. 25 Gal. Outlaw Fuel Cell, wings and Sander wheels. Phone 0418 502 277 498. $16,500. 0418 502 498. www.myl O5.com/12329

Collectable/Memorabilia Home Movies Motorsporf, Wanted home movies on 8 mill. Super 8 (or other format) of motor racing from 1960 to 1980 (Tasman Series, Gold Star, National Sports & Touring Cars). Transfer from film to video/dvd free of charge to owner upcoming video project.

Contact steve@capricornmedia.com.au 280 or (02) 9659 0665. www.myl05.com/44486

For Lease F3 Drive Available, Team BRM have one of their front running Dallara 301 Spiess Opel cars available for Round 2 of the Australian F3 Championship at Oran Park 16-18 April. Bronte Rundle (08) 8254 8444 / 0412 846 997.

281 www.myl05.com/6120 □rive Available - Formula Ford, Old Championship, Bathurst and Indy Championship winning Team, Greg (07) 5446 7611 / 0411 052 944.

281 www.myl05.eom/60813

Wanted Super Tourer wanted to buy, 2 Lt. Super tourer wanted to buy. Any make considered.

CRAIG 006442370345 / 006442322828, 281 www.myl05.com/35893

IfiSR

www.my105.coni

Speedway

Parts

Sports sedan/supercar Parts, Supercar.CV type floating axles,31,33,35 spline unused$125. Coil over springs vaious rates from $30,Quick release steering hub new $60, Exhaust merge collectors, various sizes new from $350pair, PSI valve springs$200. From $30 ONO. Graham 262 0412351888. www.myl05.com/62338

Race Transporter, 45 gooseneck fully lined, full fit out for race car, SBR Isuzu Twin Cab, 235 horsepower turbo, 5.5 KBA generator, compressor, aluminium lockup boxes over wheel arch, CD player, CB radio, radial tyres, RWC. $85,000. BH (03) 281 5940 2034 / AH 0418 109 976. www.myl 05.com/17216

2 Car Transporter, 2 stage Hydrolic tailgate, Bench's, tyre racks, suit open wheelers, CD, tow bar, stored inside workshop. $38,500 ONO. Peter (03) 9761 4510. 280 www.myl05.com/86618

Enclosed car trailer. Fully enclosed car trailer, suit large sedan, plenty of room for equipment, currently used for carrying HX' holden ute. five good tyres, electric brakes, back door loading ramp, side acess door, electric winch. $5600 ONO. John (02) 6382 6819 . 281 www.myl05.com/24986

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36ft Gooseneck and 93 Chev dually, 36ft Gooseneck, tri axel 12v/240v, free standing annexe, elec winch, frop axels, beaver tail, skylights, $20,000. 93 Chev Dually, crewcab, ac, 12 stack CD, new tyres, new carpet, seats 6, gas, fuel, lowered 4in/6in, pwer vision mirrors, GM Tonnea, $50,000.

Bruce 0417 790 944 / (07) 5496 9066, 281 www.my105.com/4912

Dual Cab Transporter, 6 cylinder Isuzu, checked plate floor, internal lighting, 240volt powered, electric winch, side tool boxes, plenty storage, fils sprintcar, 4wd motorbike and plenty of spares, rwc. $30,000 Neg. 280 Wayne (03) 5940 1884. www.myl05.com/26568

Vi

o o The buyer rang from the ad on the my105 website.

The service I received from all the staff at my105 was exceptional. It truly was several notches above any advertising organisation I have ever dealt with. -M.Mulquin.

Get it seen Get it soid!

81

V;

OPINION

■UHSptrt EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan " editor@mnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Mark Glendenning « mark@mnews.com.au News Editor: Aaron Noonan « noonz@mnews.com.au National Editor: Grant Rowley « grant@mnews.com.au

Thanks MNews!

Monaro have moved the

Thanks for a great magazine Motorsport News.

My mother-in-law gives me an annual subscription for my birthday, so I guess I am one of the lucky ones who has a great mother-in-law!

Mark Madden EUerslie Vic

goalposts time and time again no wonder people can't be bothered with the series!

If it wasn't for Ross Palmer

The B Pillar?

PRODUCTIOH Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby ● viv@mnews.com.au

ADVERTISIN6

Brendon Sheridan - PR Driven Tel: 03 9550 0870 Fax: 03 9550 0816 mobile: 0407 007 286 “ ads@mnews.com.au

ADMINISTRATION

Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden » publisher@mnews.com.au

CONTACTS

357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East Vic 3187 (PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, ViC 3186) Ph: 03 9596 5555 Fax: 03 9596 5030 Email: mnews@mnews.com.au

I read with interest how Paul Dumbrell was exonerated from the Adelaide incident and how

the Perkins drawings provided evidence of Dumbrell being in front of Cameron McConville's 'B' pillar.

If we then apply the same principles to Sandown 2003, should Mark Skaife have yielded to the Team Dynamik car when Jason Richards was clearly past the 'B' pillar down the inside?

If this is correct, why weren't Skaife and McConville penalised for their failure to yeild?

Paul Oatley NSW

CONTRIROTORS

FI: Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, Gary Watkins, David Addison US: Phil Morris, Martin D. Clark Speedway: Brett Swanson, Julie Pearce, Geoff Rounds, Wade Aunger, Tony Millard (UK), Greg Boscato Rally: Jon Thomson Histories: Brian Reed Drag Racing: Greg Ward, Jon Asher (USA), Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, Steven White, Ken Ferguson National: Mark Wicks, Sean Henshelwood, Mark Jones, Dave Conole, Chris Jordan Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothwell Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, AFl Images, Neil Hammond, Slipstream Photographic, 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.

Great Australian Bite?

After watching V8 Superstars, I was quite annoyed at AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane's attitude to most topics.

With the cancelation of the Shanghai race in November, there is talk of the Supercars championship round being either in Tasmania or (God help us) New Zealand and NZ seeming to be the front runner.

I thought that this was the ATCC,' not the World Series; Tony, how about using our great circuit at Mallala for a second SA round. Don't forget, SA holds the record for crowds at a Supercar round and Grand Prix.

When the tourers ran around Mallala, we also held the record at the time for the most attendance of a round of the ATCC. We are the motor racing capital of Australia. NSW gets four rounds of the championship and Victoria gets two.

The total crowds for all six events would not add up to the crowd for

converter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au

being financially able to prop up the series, I'm sure it would already be flatlining to the point of extinction.

Where is the PHR BMW and the 700 Ferraris they seem to own? What happened to Jim Richards' GT2 Porsche and more Lambos and the Maseratis?

When they have to put the Porsche Drivers Challenge Series in with Nations Cup, you know there's a problem. What is to be done about it I don't know, but it's going the way of Formula 4000 - a class once great but now not worth the race track it takes

up.

two days at the Clipsal 500!

As usual, the East Coast pulls all the strings without thinking of the true fan base.

Mark Osborn Oakden SA

Hird of Crompton?

It was interesting to see the $20,000 fine Essendon footballer James Hird received for telling the world that an AFL umpire was no good at his job.

What about when Neil Crompton, commentator extraordinare, bagged Colin Bond on national TV last year when Greg Murphy was given his drive-through penalty for touching up Craig Lowndes at Winton?

What's the difference? I like both AFL and V8s, but can't stand when either of my sports are brought into disrepute.

Adam Hasslelon Yarrmuonga, Vic

Where’s the Nations in Nations Cup?

Having just seen the latest round of the Nations Cup at Oran Park, one question springs to mind.

How long can it continue for?

Quite clearly, the arrival of cars like the 550 Ferrari and the Holden

Having said that, GT Performance and GT Production fields are through the roof and the racing's mega.

And now I know why the F3 field is a little thin - there's more Aussies racing in British F3 than there are in Aussie F3!

Jack Brookes Sydney, NSW

PD and LP fan We should all be proud as V8 followers. To have a tough old bugger like Larry Perkins, who stood beside his number two driver, Paul Dumbrell who was under a seige of critism from Cameron McConville and Garry Rogers regarding the Race 2 Clipsal 500 crash.

Once again, you are innocent until proven guilty Cameron, I hope you will be apologing for remarks that were clearly wrong!

This kid is fast, and on the day of the crash he was faster than you.

Perkins Engineering should be commended for there actions. Well done 'LP' and the Castrol team for sticking with this kid.

Your rewards will come ...

Andrew I via email

DirkKIfimllh

'Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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82

Has the chequered flag fallen on Nations Cup? A paltry field at Oran Park has got our reader's alarm bells ringing. molorsDort news

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