Motorsport News Issue 292 - September 15-28, 2004

BARRICHELLO: HOW I DID IT! THE IMEWS BEHMIMD THE I\1EWS

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Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

No. 292 September 15-28 2004

What was Team Dynamik doing in the desert...

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Issue 292

15 — 28 September 2004

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news and opinion 4

Not over by a long shot Dynamik test war heats up 8 On the ropes Question marks over V8s in NZ - and AGP? 11 Remember me? A Villenueve comeback. Are they serious?

12 Clashing horns Luca gives Bernie a serve 14 Like you’ve never seen them Rrst pics of Bathurst and Pi 25 Motor Mouth The Other Bioke in the 05 Commodore speaks 26 Box Seat Saward asks for a "please explain" on Aussie logic 82 Talk Converter Good time to write. About to get busy here

features 28 Five Minutes With Rubens Barricheilo How he lost, then won, then cried 30 Five Minutes With Greg Ritter He came, he saw, he conquered Sandown It’s an all-Richards edition of Motorsport News!

32 JR speaks Jim yacks about Porsches, driving with Steve and what’s next 36 DR speaks too David on Jenson, BAR and what happens in Australia 38 He shoots, he scores! ‘He’ is the Aussie bloke who directed NASCAR 3D

race couerage

40 Safety Car stars at Sandown! Not quite. The Audi could not catch the Stone cars but neither could anything else. All the latest from the Betta 500 52 Just Bloody Brilliant Rubens and Michael make the Great Escape at Monza

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60 Carreras and VDs Sandown’s supports turn it on 62 Fetter is Back Solberg and Atkinson dazzled in Japan

Photos: Cover James Smith Contents; Dirk Klynsmith. suttonimagos.com

regulars 64 Rallying

66 Speedway

68 Drag Racing

70 National Scene

75

Marketplace I

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4

Dynamikgate Roll wills fined $100K over test breach.TD and TEGA lodge appeals- bu

PARTIES on all sides of the Team Dynamik testing controversy are digging in for a long battle, following the nine-page decision handed down by CAMS stewards at Sandown last Friday.

Team Dynamik was fined a total of $104,000 but escaped any penalties to drivers' points or championship positions after being found guilty of four separate breaches of the V8 Supercar regulations. The charges arose after AVESCO Operations Manager Tony Manson observed team members conducting an unauthorised test at South Australia's remote Woomera facility on August 20 and 21.

The most severe component of the penalty was a US$50,000 (approx $72,000) fine for unauthorised testing, which is the maximum allowable under the FIA's International Sporting Code.

Additionally, the team was fined $15,000 for using tyres assigned to IMS-lmrie Motorsport's Level 2 team, a 4

further $15,000 for illegal placement of sensors, and $2000 for failing to display the required V8 Supercar identification on the team transporter. Mike Imrie was cleared of any wrongdoing.

However, the matter is far from resolved, with the findings due to be appealed from both sides. Team Dynamik owner Kieran Wills, opposite right, has announced that he will contest the charges and, in a bizarre twist, TEGA will also appeal the finding that the team "had no intentionto break the rules."

According to the CAMS report from the stewards' inquiry, the bulk of Dynamik's defense was based upon a distinction between the team and its Technical Director, Oscar Fiorinotto. The report states that Wills signed an agreement allowing Fiorinotto access to the #14 'gold' car that Will Davison drove for the team at Oran Park under a franchise leased from Mike Imrie.

Fiorinotto told the hearing that he was using the car for non-racing applications, a

claim he said was borne out by data downloaded from the car's ECU that was later described by a TEGA expert as being "unusual in track-based conditions".

Fiorinotto, formerly race engineer to Craig Lowndes, went on to submit that Woomera was unsuitable for race testing as it did not allow for the measurement of lateral forces, and that the 2.3km strip of tarmac was at least 700m too short for any meaningful aerodynamic evaluations.

Despite urgings from TEGA and AVESCO in regard to the breaches as "intentional, wilful, covert and deceitful", the stewards found that there was no intention to break the rules and Dynamik had attempted to separate their activities at Woomera from the application of the regulations.

However, the stewards decided that the two entities could not be divided, and that the team retained responsibility for the car.

It was also pointed out that Fiorinotto had failed to co operate with Manson when

first approached. Fiorinotto reportedly attempted to hide the identity of the car, designated by the team as 'TD003', before removing a piece of tape that was covering the rollcage's identity number following a further request from Manson.

Crucially, it was also confirmed that Dynamik had conducted an unauthorised windtunnel test with the same car at Monash University in May. Industry sources are suggesting that both were part of calibrating sophisticated simulation software (see insight, right).

The appeal hearing, originally scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday), has been postponed by a week to allow both parties to prepare their cases.

Meanwhile, the team had some somewhat brighter news with the unveiling of its new sponsor, cut-price telecommunications company Dodo. Both the #44 and #45 cars ran with Dodo signage at Sandown.

For more on the Dynamik case, see page 6

t hearing delayed

NEWS INSIGHT

Time for some Dynamic thought?

WHILE the ongoing story of Team D)mamik has had the motor racing industry abuzz,there has been a high level of conjecture about what might be next in V8 Supercar's saga of testing dramas.

The limit of six days' testing at a single circuit means that opportunities for teams to develop and test new hardware are limited and that any gain made in any particular area is precious.

With that in mind,the coming frontier of R&D could be spelled in three lettersCFD. Computational Fluid Dynamics is the science concerned with obtaining numerical solution to fluid flow problems by using computers- ie computer simulation.

Without wanting to get into a jargon that only a computer geek understands, CFD uhlises computer power to predict what will happen to the flow of fluids (ie, air, gas, water,liquids) when subjected to changes in heat, mass transfer, temperature change, mechanical movements and/or other forms of stress.

The science has been around since the 1960s and came to prominence in the '70s when developing, mathematics-based computer languages(like Fortran) made it economical to develop virtual models.

With the rapid and ongoing development of computer power,aided by the access and cormnunication allowed by the internet, CFD is now a powerful tool in a number of industries.

While the aerospace and automotive industries and historical'homes'for CFD,its applications now include the design of anything from a kettle to a train, and the development of retail items from DVD players to paint.

CFD software packages,like the USdeveloped Fluent, allow any person with a reasonable degree of aptitude to set up an operation system,including hardware,for less than $50,000. The software can be run in a Windows XP environment(in other words, you could run it on almost any sub-$5000 laptop) though high-end users are more likely to prefer a Unix machine.

So, why do it? Because, in effect, such software allows you to 'build' a virtual prototype of a widget and change, modify and refine if long before you ever need to build a 'hard copy'. If you have enough information, you can

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subject that widget to almost any imaginable external influence and,when satisfied, build the thing for real and go ... widgeting.

If you follow Formula One closely, none of this is news to you. GP teams have been in the CFD business for years and have the process down to a fine art.

While a basic system might allow you to log five millions cells of information plenty for one of our V8s,according to expert advice-Ferrari's current system employs approximately 100 million cells and,given the current performance of the team's F2004, the proof is in the pudding.

Imagine you want to test a new wing endplate. You could build and test 50 different variations in CFD,actually build the best eight examples and test them in a wind tunnel. When it came to track testing them on a relevant circuit, you might only actually install two.

Considering the cost of running a racecar, the savings involved in the process would be huge.

And,if your test days were,by regulation, restricted, it would be a godsend...

An expert in CFD software told MNews this week that the amount of potential gain in the use of the package is directly proportional to the amount of data logged prior to the processing.

Without prompting - and with no reference at all to the Dynamik saga - his suggestion was that the first step in such a process in the motor racing sphere would be to gain data from a wind tunnel test, with as many serrsors connected to the car as was feasible. His second suggestion was to conduct straightline testing in as tightly a controlled environment as possible. The more accurate the model,the greater the potential gains.

We have been told that several V8

Supercar teams already utilise CFD and that a couple have Fluent. We have no knowledge whether or not one of those teams is Dynamik. But,as we said, the (some would say)draconian testing regulations serve only to encourage lateral thinking and the quest for a new edge.

In the next conversation you have on the subject of testing, you might just use the word 'Dynamic', not'Dynamik'.

-PHILBRANAGAN

Co with the flow: A CFD model of one of Ford US's road car design studies.

Motor racing is a pain in the neck RACE car engineering can be a dangerous business. OzEmail Racing engineer Phil Curtis sported a neck brace at Sandown. No, he had not had contract negotiations with Brad and Kim Jones, nor had he run into Brisbane Lion Jonathon Brown. He had in fact taken a spill off a motorbike two weeks before making the trip to Sandown and spent the weekend smiling through the pain. n Next door. Triple 8 engineer Ludo Lacroix \was hobbling around on a crutch after - guess what? another spill off a motorbike. Both are expected to make a full recovery ... and this possibly explains why we do not see Valentino Rossi at V8 Supercar races. n Dave Ward made his first appearance at Sandown. The former Veloqx Audi man attended his first V8 Supercar race as the new team manager of Ford Performance Racing and took time getting up to speed.

Ward and his girlfriend arrived in Melbourne 10 days prior to the race and have had their acclimatisation hindered by bringing a flu-like condition with them. Hopefully, health will be the order of the day by Bathurst. n Who has a tall tux with #34 on the back? We hear that Leanne Perrier will make an honest man of Garth Tander this month, the GRM peddler and Toyota's first lady of Corollas making the trip down the aisle prior to GT heading off in search of a second Bathurst 1000 win. n Christian Horner, who wants to take Arden Motorsport into FI, was in Russia a week ago, trying to raise funding for an FI programme. If all goes to plan Horner says that he will buy the intellectual property rights to an existing chassis. If the money can be found the team will almost certainly use the design for this year's Jaguar chassis.

In order to fund the team Horner will need to find at least USS40m in order to pay the FIA bond for a new team. This might actually help him as the FIA pays this back to teams in a monthly payment in the first year of competition. The other option for Horner is to buy an existing team. n As support for the proposed F3000 replacement, GP2, diminishes, Aussie British F3 contender Will Power may, we hear, look instead to European F3 in 2005.

As reported last issue, Power will get his first taste of FI when he undertakes the Minardi test offered

by Paul Stoddard, currently scheduled tor Vallelunga on November 9/10.

- SAWARD/STAFF 5

Question Time What constitutes ‘testing?

The reguiations regarding testing are as iong as your arm, but in a nutsheil virtuaiiy anything that invoives a V8 Supercar moving any distance under its own power, over any surface, is considered ‘testing’. You can’t drive one down your driveway, you can’t take one for a spin to decide whether you want to buy it - and you certainly can’t go blasting around rocket ranges.

What was Team Dynamik doing out there?

The team’s answer is that they were involved in part of an on-going scientific experiment to evaluate some new patents that have no motorsport application. It should be pointed out, however, that this explanation has been met with almost universal scepticism within the paddock. Informed sources have also pointed out that the nature of the team’s Woomera test, along with other documented activities in the weeks leading up to it, would by no means exclude potential racing applications.

If the test had no racing application, why was the team using a V8 Supercar?

According to Wills, one of the figures involved in the patent has a Supercar background, and thus considers a Supercar to be a ‘known quantity’ against which variables can be measured.

Who was present at the test?

This is not completely clear. Oscar Fiorinotto was certainly there, along with, according to Wills, ‘two or three’ other team members. Wills maintains that none of the crew from the #44 or #45 cars were present. MNews also believes that a leading international engineer with extensive expertise in data acquisition was also on-site.

Exactly what rules did Team Dynamik break?

1. Rule D1.2 in that Team Dynamik conducted an unauthorised test.

2. Rule C13.10.2 in that Dunlop Control Tyres were used for an unauthorised purpose including breach of rule C.3.1.3, use of Level 2/3 tyres on a Level 1 car.

3. Rule C14.11.2 in that additional sensors were used on the car.

4. Rule E6 in that V8 Supercar identification decals were not displayed on the Team Dynamik transporter.

Why was the identity of the team and car hidden?

According to the team, this was to distinguish the test from a Team Dynamik/V8 Supercar activity.

6

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Wills Resolute We knew that we hadn't done anthing wrong

FOLLOWING the handing down of CAMS' decision, Kieran Wills broke his silence to the media.

"I think the hard part for us, and especially for me and for the team, is that there has always been due process," he said, "And some of the stuff that has been put out in the press in the last couple of weeks has been pretty hard for us as a team to deal with.

"We knew that we hadn't done anything wrong.

We knew that we hadn't been testing for racing purposes, and we knew that it wasn't a Dynamik process. But until you get before the stewards that's the place and the forum to talk about it.

"I think a couple of the pertinent points coming out of the stewards were:'we accept that there was no desire to breach the rules'. The other pertinent one was,'we accept that testing was a further phase of scientific testing and evaluation for another product; nothing to do with Team Dynamik'."

Wills went on to reiterate that the car had been

used in a scientific test, not a V8 Supercar test to benefit the team. The secrecy, he said, was intended to protect the commercial interests of the patent holder.

"This product could be worth hundreds of millions," he said.

"The company doing it wasn't going to give anybody any leads about what it was. Team Dynamik had to distance itself from it anyway, and that's what we did.

"The problem of notifying (the officials) is that they would have been there as well, and under the agreement and the contract 1 signed to let the other party use the car and the transporter, it was a secret test for patents. And if you're going to have AVESCO people all over it, it's not secret."

Wills concluded by highlighting what he called ambiguities in the steward's finding.

"They say both things on the same page, and that's why I'm going to another authority, to have it tidied up."

- MARK GLENDENNING

International Rescue for Sandown?

CALLS for the Betta Electrical 500 to become an international event

[the] Bathurst [1000]."

The Mount Panorama event and

continued at Sandown this year, with a number of international drivers having to do the nowtraditional 'licence dance'.

the Surfers round are the only events of the V8 Supercar Championship Series with international status. Because of that, international drivers may compete with licences issued by their national ASNs.

Triple 8 boss Roland Dane, who had Yvan Muller in his driving squad for the Melbourne race, said that the situation needed to be addressed.

"The drivers have been able to sort that out," said Dane. "(But) the real solution for that is to make the Betta Electrical 500 an international event in its own right.

To do that would be tying it into

However, with Sandown holding only national event status, all competing drivers must hold a licence issued by CAMS for the event. In the case of Muller, who races in the British Touring Car Championship, that meant that he needed clearance from the French

ASN to change to a local licence for the weekend prior to resuming his BTCC commitments at Donington next week.

The sticking point in 'upgrading' the Sandown race could be that, to do so, the track would require an FIA track inspection. The fee for such an examination is $17,000 but the permit issued, should the track meet the required standards, would be valid for three years.

That process currently occurs at Bathurst, adding pressure to the calls to allow the Sandown race to be upgraded.

-PHILBRANAGAN molortoort news

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Triple 8 signs major backer for four more years The Queensland-based team has added betw'een 10 and 12 staff to its

THE Craig Lowndes Factor has made its first impact at Triple 8, with the team announcing a fouryear sponsorship deal with Betta Electrical.

Guy Houghton, the CEO of the Brisbane-based electrical retail chain, made the announcement at Sandown's Betta Electrical 500 last

roster in the past 12 months. Dane said that the new Betta deal, which matches Triple 8's with Ford in that it will run until the end of the 2008 season, will allow T8 to build for the future and challenge for the title next season.

"That is an ongoing process," said Dane. "We are on target in terms of

Friday in company with T8 boss Roland Dane.

"We want to win races," said Houghton. "That's why we are here.

We assessed all our options and our determining factors were the professionalism of the team and the driver profiles for next year."

The team will continue to run two Falcon BAs in the V8 Supercar Championship, with Lowndes and Max Wilson driving. There is no expansion planned for the team, either by ruiming additional entries in the V8SCS or a program in the secondary (formerly Konica Minolta) series.

The announcement came exactly a year after Triple 8 acquired the team from Briggs Motorsport.

"It helps us to plan further forward," said a happy Dane.

"My plan from Day One was to try and sign Craig Lowndes."

Just Aussies: New local drivers, Dapto's Wazza Muller and Johnno Cleland of Woolooniooloo.

IS Sepiember 2004

facilities."

Houghton also confirmed that Betta's sponsorship of the Sandown race will continue for the 2005/06 events. Discussions regarding its backing of PWR Racing under the Chandler's brand is ongoing but an announcement regarding the future of the deal is expected within a month.

-PHILBRANAGAN.

Queensland's own, cuzzie: The TKR/Morris ties may be strengthened.

TKR Move? a 5 I *

PIT lane rumours suggest that New Zealand's V8 Supercar outfit. Team Kiwi Racing, will move from their premises in Sunshine, Victoria, to the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Although team members would not be drawn on specific details, it is believed TKR will relocate to the Sunshine Coast and align themselves more directly with Paul Morris Motorsport, who have supplied and assisted TKR with their racing hardware this year.

TKR are awaiting TEGA's final decision on the Konica Minolta regulations for 2005 before they confirm if they'll enter the series again. MNews understands that the VYs and BAs will be allowed into the series, although finer detai ls, including engine specifications for Commodores, will be confirmed latter this week.

Current Kiwi driver Mark Porter is likely to return to the series next year with the team.

- GRANT ROWLEY

MOVES are currently in the wings for the redistribution of the PROCAR Champ Series categoires, with the deadline for formal submissions of detailed proposals being moved forward from September 30, to September 17 (this Friday), by current custodians, CAMS. It is understood that a few prominent category heads from outside of the PROCAR umbrella were present at the meeting that CAMS held to inform interested parties of the processes, and that respresentatives from the Nations Cup, V8 Brutes, and GT Performances categories, were also in attendance.

Once all submissions are collected, CAMS will begin the evaluation process early October, with decisions hopefully made by October 8, to be announced some time shortly after.

The original intention of CAMS to give preferential treatment to offers that include all four of the PROCAR categories is still said to be on the table, although it appears no offers this nature have been forwarded.

The likely scenario would then be that categories will be given off individually, with private entities, as well as groups of competitiors from the respective categories, being considered as the new category managers of each.

MNews understands that such groups as SEE, MoPro Australia, and Jaimie Blackie of Cup Car Australia, have all been considering various categories, but that just who will be in the running for the category management rights will not be clear until acceptance of submissions closes on Friday.

Also in PRO(iAR news, Paul Stokell is now confirmed as the 2004 Nations Cup champion, even before this weekend's round at Mallala, after the final round was cancelled.

■ As reported in MNews Issue #290, Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly will debut a brand-new Holden Commodore VY at the Bob Jane TMarts 1000 at Bathurst next month.

The car will be labelled chassis #50, although don't be fooled, this is not actually the factory Holden squad's half century of race vehicles.

The number game started with former HRT owner TWR back in the mid 80s when Walkinshaw owned and built Jaguars and Rovers, before creating HRT in 1988. By then, the TWR chassis numbers were up to around 20, so in fact, HRT in Australia have built somewhere near 30 cars.

-JORDAN/ROWLEY 7

The new generation

AUSTRALIAN Formula Ford will step into a new era after an announcement at Sandown last weekend confirmed that the category will compete with wings and a new engine in the national series in 2006 and beyond Additionally, Ford has pledged five years of greater support that will guarantee the fledging category's future. Ford will pick up some of the engineering costs, along with bigger input into the television deal.

The ageing Kent engines will be replaced by a more modern, cheaper and consumer-friendly 1.6 litre Fiesta powerplant, featuring double overhead cam design and a fuel injection system, unlike the

Kent examples. The engine will be approximately 15kg lighter than the current model.

Ford Motorsport Operations Manager Steven Kruk explained that the use of this engine was vital in ensuring there is a relevance between the FFord category and road cars.

The most significant change to the cars visually will be the dramatic change in body styling.

A fixed rear wing and an adjustable front wing won't produce a great amount of downforce, but the appeal of the vehicles and the availability for corporate signage will be greatly increased.

The wings will be control-based, so a common front nose between

Who'S Going Blue?

WITH the 2004/5 V8 Supercar Silly Season in full swing, the main questions remaining still involve Ford Performance Racing.

With two seats to be filled. Ford's factory team is high on the list of many unsigned drivers' call list but the field is narrowing. David Richards, principal of FPR parent Prodrive,said at Monza last week that three drivers were in contention to race for the Broadmeadows,

WIN!

A hot lap with Allan Moffat or Peter Brock in an exquisite Historic Falcon or Monaro!

See page 71 for details

fBIANTEl VMODEL CARS7 8

Melbourne team in 2005.

"We are in discussion with three drivers," he said.

"One of them is employed elsewhere but at the moment I cannot

say any more about it than that."

While Richards is very much playing the cards close to his chest, the favourite for the drive remains Paul Radisich. The current Betta man is believed to have had substantial discussions with FPR principal David Flint in the last month and fulfils Richards's description of "employed elsewhere".

As stated last issue, Adam Macrow, Andy Jones, Luke Youlden and Greg Ritter have all tested for the team in the last month, and reports indicate that while Macrow was the fastest in actual lap times, all impressed team technical director John Russell.

However, Ritter's Sandown 500 win last weekend (in a Ford, to boot)could not possibly harm his chances of a ride with the team which, we hear, is showing more interest in the SBR enduro man than it was a week ago ...

- PHIL BRANAGAN

chassis manufacturers appears likely.

The first new-age FFord, complete with new engine and aerodynamics will be tested in March next year.

Spectrum builder Mike Borland is excited about Ford's extra involvement in the series.

"It's great that Ford committed," Borland said.

"It's hard to get sponsors in any sporting event these days so to get long-term manufacturer support is good.

"The Grand Prix office, CAMS and Ford believe that we need to update the look of the category.

"I honestly don't know how it will turn out. We've gone through a few learn years and it has only just started to pick up again. I'm nervous about that the momentum we've already created ..."

State-based Formula Ford racing will remain unchanged until 2007 at the earliest.

- GRANT ROWLEY

NEW Zealand V8 Supercar fans are in danger of losing their race for 2006- and the date for next year's race is far from finalised.

Problems continue to surround the proposed Auckland street race, due to problems with the traffic plans to hold the race in the City of Sails. Due to the large number of objections to the race, AVESCO has granted a 90day extension to the finalisation of the race.

NZ has a different system of dealing with objections to events of this nature, with any group or individual being free to raise opposition,should they see fit to do so. The objections, being championed

by NZ Herald journalist Brian Rudman(whom,it seems, has never actually been to a street motor race), are starting to take a toll.

"If a solution is not found it could well be the end for New Zealand," said AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane.

"We have major cities around the world such as Singapore, Dubai and Cape Town crying out for us to come there and here's Auckland, who have been gifted the race, almost saying thanks but we can't get it together.

"Now,because we have agreed to this extension, it makes it difficult for any other bid to prepare in time for 2006. On top of this there is also a decision by Motorsport New Zealand not to allow two races in the same year that has foiled any hopes for a race at Manfeild."

The extension takes the deadline for sorting out a new traffic plan until the

Brabham doubles up

DAVID Brabham will drive in both the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 and the Konica Minolta 25 lap V8 Supercar race at Bathurst in October.

The Australian International will steer Dick John Racing's #71 Fujitsu-backed Falcon AU that Owen Kelly piloted to fifth place in this year's KMV8 title.

DJR's Steve Chalker said that Brabham will use the extra mileage at Bathurst to hone his knowledge of the cars and the circuit in the junior series.

"When you are living overseas, it's hard to get miles in these sort of cars," he said.

"He'll get to do the set-up on the car, qualify on his own and race it which will help him get on top of the car and the track quicker."

Brabham will again team up with Owen Kelly in the Great Race after the duo failed to finish at Sandown last weekend.

Chalker also confirmed that DJR have an agreement with Fujitsu to remain on the cars in the junior V8 category for 2005.

The Oueensland-based team debuted a new car at Sandown last week and will also wheel out a new BA at the Australian Grand Prix next year for FPR recruit Glenn Seton.

This means that the two current cars will be used in the KMV8 series next year. A number of drivers have been linked to the seats, including current main game driver Warren Luff, who the team are said to be quite fond of.

- GRANT ROWLEY noiortpori nBws

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NEWS

fall off the map?

Dan the Atlantic Man Australian Daniel Pappas made his Toyota Atlantic debut at Laguna Seca last weekend. Pappas, who has spent this year competing with Aircon Racing in the Australian F3 series, finished the weekend just outside the top 10. n South Australian youngster Tim Slade had his first taste of wings and slicks last week when he drove one of BRM's Formula 3 cars at Mallala.

The 18-year-old reportedly impressed with both his lap times and feedback - which is handy, considering that he is due to make his debut in the Australian Formula 3 Championship at the South Australian circuit this weekend. Slade is still chasing the budget required to race the cars on a more permanent basis next season.

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end of March. Traffic NZ,the Auckland Council and race promoter IMG NZ have until then to work out a plan - which will then be subject to the same process of invesbgation(and possible opposition) that has been happening with the original plan.

Should that occur, the process (which is costing around NZ$300,000) would have to be repeated and the whole examination repeated. In all likeliltood, the race would be cancelled, meaning no NZ in '06 ...

ON the subject of calendars, scheduling conundrums are keeping AVESCO from releasing its 2005 calendar.

With negotiations back on with Phillip Island, it looks as if a choice will have to be made between it and Winton. There is, it seems, no prospect of entertaining an additional round.

For 2006, things appear to be even more grey. The Commonwealth Games,set for Melbourne in March,

will force the Australian GP to a later date, probably May, which places the race into the V8 Supercar season, rather than prior to the traditional late-March start in Adelaide.

Teams are unlikely to welcome the prospect of having a non-points race in the midst of a championship, meaning that Albert Park could miss out on having V8s blasting around the lake.

- BRANAGAN/LAMBDEN

WPS meets PKV IF you were at last year’s Indy 300, you might have spotted a bloke who looked a lot like Jimmy Vasser beiting around for a few laps of the concrete canyon in a V8 Supercar.

This time, the tables have turned. Just days after the confirmation of iast issue's report that David Besnard would drive a Champ Car at Indy this year, Bezzy was on a jet across the pond to get some early mileage ahead of next month’s race.

Besnard completed around 70 laps of Firebird Raceway in Arizona (the same place that Jason Bright first tested a Champ Car in 2000) in Vasser's PKV Racing machine.

“It was an awesome experience to finally get into a Champ Car," said Besnard.

“I was excited, but a little 15 SapisiRber 2004

nervous about the unknown.

"But after two laps I realised it was just another race car, albeit different to what I normally drive.

“I did some good times and was

very happy at the end of the day.

The team gave me some excellent feedback and there were high fives and handshakes all round at the end."

n Speaking of Formula 3 cars, a limited number of opportunities exist to drive one next month - at the Indy 300, no less. Cars range from recent '01 models through to '96 models, and the drives are priced accordingly.

For more information, contact Jeff Mattneron 0418 814 411 or 08 8364 6077. n Three Aussies flew the flag at a two hour kart endurance race at Bayford Meadows Kart Circuit in the UK last weekend. British Formula 3 series competitors Will Power and Barton Mawer were joined by young up-and-coming hopeful Mark Webber. The trio were made to start a lap down, but drove on to take a storming win - only to be later disqualified due to the man in green failing to don a pair of gloves during his first stint. The day was organised by the Mark Webber Supporters Club. n Shane Price is a likely starter in the Konica Minolta 25-lap race at Bathurst.

The Formula Ford driver will test with the Faulkner-prepared team this week at Winton, where it will be determined whether or not he will steer the Holden campaigned by Kurt Wimmer in the KM series this year on the mountain in October.

Price said he is keen to start a career in local V8 Supercar racing. n Tony D'Alberto's chances of driving in the 25 lap Konica Minolta race have been dealt a blow after Independent Race Car's owner Marty Brant confirmed the Holden Commodore VX D'Alberto he has used this year is for sale.

Brant's car won the 2001 Konica series in the hands of Paul Dumbrell, while D'Alberto finished eighth in the KM series this year.

Brant said he would be keen for the car to run at Bathurst in the hands of its new owner.

9

Ford: FI or Bust Blue oval extends Kllen option for V5

THERE is no final decision yet as to what Ford will be doing in FI in 2005 despite rumours that the team will drop the Jaguar branding and switch to Ford.

There are, however, still questions to be answered about the budget Ford is going to agree upon. This does not appear to be set and work is going on to get as much money as the company can raise.

Certainly Ford's World Rally Championship involvement looks to be on the verge of being stopped because of lack of money. There have been reports that Ford's number one driver Markko Martin has signed to drive for

Peugeot in 2005 and it is already clear that the team's second driver Francois Duval will be released from his contract because Ford cannot guarantee him a drive next year.

I Malcolm Wilson, the director of ForS's M-Sport operation, hasieen informed that.there will not be any funding from Detroit next year because all the available money is going to be put into the Formula 1 programme.

The team has an option on the services of Christian Klien. This was due to run out on September 15 but has been extended.

- JOE SAWARD

Not long now

THE Formula 1 Contract Recognition Board will meet on September 26 to discuss whether or not Jenson Button can move to BMW.Williams next year or whether he still stay with BAR-Honda.

We hear that BAR is trying hard to have the date moved forward so that the dispute can be settled before the Chinese GR A decision, however,is unlikely to be made on the day unless there is a clear-cut legal case and it could take another three weeks before a decision is announced.

Last week Button indicated that

the right to take legal action at the end of the contract to recoup that money,if it chooses to do so.

Button has re-iterated that any claims that he is switching for money are wrong.

"Money is not my aim in Formula 1," he said."My reason for moving to Williams is to be World Champion.

We had an agreement to be with BAR for two years, 1 honoured that agreement and 1 think 1 did a good job. 1 think that Williams in future is the team to be with. They've got the resources and Mark Webber and

"contractually we had some differences. That was at the end of 2003 and it hasn't been resolved."

myself will be a great team.

"A Formula 1 driver's career has to

BAR sources say that the dispute over bonuses has been settled and that the team has paid up. This may be true but the team has also reserved

Dallara gets donk

AN engine deal may already be in place for the planned Dofasco Dallara Formula 1 team, whose entry into FI will be announced in China.

A deal has been agreed between the new team and Cosworth Racing for a supply of VIO engines in 2005, when the team is due to begin testing.

The team intends to enter FI in 2006, which might be a good moment if the new 2.4-litre V8 formula kicks off at that point as, in theory at least, the playing field will be levelled with the new engines.

Rumours suggesting that the new team might shortcut the building up process by buying into Jaguar Racing do not appear to have any foundation and the latest suggestion is that Carlin Motorsport boss Trevor Carlin will be the man who heads the testing programme.

It is expected that the team will use Bridgestone tyres although no deal is yet done.

There have been some intriguing suggestions that Gerhard Berger might be a candidate to lead the new team although other names are still being mentioned. Berger does seem to be a player in the world of FI politics at the moment and there is no doubt that Bernie Ecclestone would much appreciate having an ally in one of the teams other than Flavio Briatore.

Berger says that he is "free as a bird" to take on any new roles that is offered to him but at the moment he is not willing to talk about what he might be doing. However, he was busy talking to a number of different people at Monza.

-JOESAWARD 10

keep moving. 1 don't think BAR is going to be the right place to be next year."

-JOE SAWARD For more,see page 36-37

Shanghai confirmal

JARNO Trulli will, as expected, be named as Toyota's second 2005 driver in Shanghai next week.

Trulli says he has a deal for next year but will not say with whom. The fact that current Toyota driver Olivier Panis has signed a two-year deal to test for the team makes it very clear that Panis is not the man who will partner Ralf Schumacher. Panis will substitute if either of the two Toyota race drivers in 2005 and 2006 is unable to race but, at the moment, the team continues to refuse to confirm Jarno, In the meantime, there are suggestions that Trulli may be benched for the remaining three races of the season after a number of lacklustre performances, which haven't aided Renault's bid to hang on

to second spot in the Constructors championship.

Jarno says his car "feels funny"; Renault say he's not trying. But if rumours are true, there may be late season movement at Renault...

In the meantime, the announcement of Panis as the team's third driver is bad news for either Ricardo Zonta or Ryan Briscoe as one of the two is likely to end up without a job - although it is believed that Toyota is doing its best to get Briscoe into a drive with another FI team.

It is worth noting that Toyota recently came close to concluding a deal for Jordan Grand Prix to use its engines in 2005 but that deal appears to have been scuppered.

Toyota wanted to retain more 'technology' in FI engines in exchange for its commitment motorsport nows

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RALF Schumacher's intended return to the Formula 1 cockpit has been delayed by his insurance company.

The 29-year-old German was expecting to rejoin BMW.WilliamsFI for testing at Monza last week in preparation for a comeback at the Italian Grand Prix but his insurers blocked his participation, claiming that the "statutory 12-week recovery period" would not have been observed. Ralf, absent since cracking two vertebra in a crash during the US Grand Prix in June, must now wait until the Chinese Grand Prix (26 September). He is scheduled to test for Williams this week.

Another option would be to get the 2003 test driver Allan McNish back in the car while there are suggestions that the team might take a radical step and go for a big risk and a massive publicity coup in Jacques Villeneuve.

Jacques has everything to gain from making a big impression and would be delighted to be seen in a Renault. Such a move would also keep the French press happy as the team would obviously come in for criticism if it did not take Montagny.

Peter Sauber says that he is not going to sell Giancarlo Fisichella to Renault for the final three races of the year "I do not think that Renault would want to spend the kind of money that I would want to do that," he said. "Flavio Briatore has made his bed and now he has to lie in it."

n Newly-crowned FIA Formula 3000 Champion Vitantonio Liuzzi is to test a Sauber-Petronas C23 at the Jerez circuit in Spain on 16 September. The Swiss team is looking for a replacement for Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005 and the talk is that the 22-year-old Italian figures strongly in the future plans of Ferrari, with which Sauber has had a close working relationship since 1997.

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TVIOST bizarre story of the Monza weekend is linking Jacques Villeneuve to a (temporary) drive with Renault.

Current pilot Jarno Trulli had a second consecutive lacklustre race for Renault at the weekend and, while the Italian driver blames the car and the team blame the driver, it is clear that if Renault wants to compete with BAR in the fight to be second in the Constructors' Championship, it needs to take some action.

Our sources suggest that the most likely course of action is for Trulli to be paid off and for Renault to look for another driver to finish the season because of the breakdown in the relationship after the team's odd decision to ditch the Italian, who has won the team's only victory this year.

The big problem for Renault is that it is not clear who would be the best choice as a replacement. The team has test driver Franck Montagny, but he has never raced an FI car and there is no guarantee that he could score points.

ion

to support ono or rt1 smaller teams but, t things are headed, does not look likely ' way.

Our sources at TO) that the deal with Jo would have bean worth about half the cost of the current engine supplies and may have included the f transfer of Briscoe, on 1^ to Jordan.

- JOE SMiti

In recent weeks Renault has scored just 12 points while BAR has collected 32. At Monza BAR moved ahead, with 94 points to Renault's -JOE SAWARD

.and then, Sauber?

DESPITE lots of talk about a future deal between Sauber and Villeneuve, team boss Peter Sauber says that at the moment no decision has been made.

"There is no deal done," Sauber said at Monza."It is still a possibility but there are other drivers under consideration as well."

Sauber said that it is "sure" that Felipe Massa will stay with the team for one more year but says that drivers who are under consideration to replace Fisichella include Villeneuve, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Anthony Davidson, Gary Paffett, Christjian Albers and Nick Heidfeld.

Rumours had suggested that Villeneuve has agreed a two-year deal with the team for a small retainer with a bonus points scheme but this does not appear to be true.

-JOESAWARD

IS Sepiembir 2004

Insurance stops Ralf’s return

n The Minardi Formula 1 team has been able to negotiate a better deal in renewing its engine contract with Cosworth Racing for 2005, when it will get access to the same 90deg Cosworth TJ VI0 used by Ford's works team. Jaguar Racing, Next season will be Minardi's 21st in Grand Prix racing. n Maserati has presented its homologation run of 25 MCI2 road cars for inspection by the FIA, in the week in which it makes its official return to international motorsports, at Imola in the FIA GT Championship.

CEO Martin Leach commented: "The history of Maserati is one of sporting success, splendid and fascinating cars and exclusive customers. We've completed the series of 25 MCI2 road cars and they're ready for delivery to clients, while the track cars with which we will make our racing return to an international championship are being prepared. It's an important, historic moment." n The unique DBA sportsprototype will again be raced in the USA this month when UK-based team Creation Autosportif competes in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Creation, formed two years ago by California-born, London-based businessman Michael Jankowski, will also run the Zytek V8 powered racecar at Laguna Seca in next month's American Le Mans Series finale. The drivers will be Jamie Campbell-Walter and Nicolas Minassian. The DBA chassis was one of the last projects of Reynard, the now-defunct British racecar maker.

-QUENTIN SPURRING 11

Three Technical Packages AS expected, the FIA has

presented members of the

FIA presents options - Decision to follow

Formula 1 Technical Working Group with three packages of technical measures one of which must be adopted for the F1 rules for next year.

The F1 teams now have 45 days in which to get an 80% agreement on one of the pacakges, although the FIA has confused matters somewhat by saying that teams may pick and choose between bits of the various packages.

The three packages suggested by the FIA include one which would see aerodynamic reductions of the front wings and engines which would have fixed bore, cylinder spacing, engine length, crankshaft centre line height and engine mounting points.

This will not gain support because it creates what would be 'standard' engines, which the engine manufacturers will not accept.

The second package includes radical rear wing changes while the third package includes the banning of all turning vanes and barge boards and engine rules which will make 2.4-litre V8

I

engines the only possible engine.

The interesting part of this package is that there will be sporting regulations which force engine manufacturers to provide engines free of charge and on a fully competitive basis to a number of teams depending on how many teams are racing.

The FIA also says that it wants to introduce two new safety measures as quickly as possible.

These will no doubt cause a great deal of controversy as they will, if adopted, create very different cars from the existing FI machinery.

The first measure is to eliminate “materials likely to leave sharp shards on the circuit in the event of an accident”. This can only be seen as an attack on composite materials used in wings and

Luca Slams Bernie

n

I

FIAT President Luca di 1 Montezemolo has left / no doubt that Ferrari is T back in the GPWC 'manufacturers' camp, with some scathing criticism of current FI and, in particular, F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, last weekend.

"Such an expensive sport cannot survive if we do not increase revenues," he said.

"I think it was a big mistake to sell the company to a German TV company which then collapsed and a mistake to sell it on to Kirch and it is a mistake that the sport is now 75% owned by banks.

A certain era is finished and we

/

12

bodywork.

The FIA also wants to reduce the weight limit to eliminate ballast in order to reduce the energy to be dissipated if control of a car is lost. This would be combined, if necessary, with a change in relative wheel widths front to rear.

The high minimum weight limit was designed to reduce costs by getting rid of the need for expensive exotic lightweight materials. That rule clearly backfired because designers soon realised that the rule gave them the opportunity to create movable ballast in the car which helped them alter the handling characteristics to match the different demands of qualifying and the race.

- JOE SAWARD

have to look at something new which is totally acceptable to the players who, at the moment, get only 47 percent of the money from the TV rights and nothing from the tickets, advertising and other sources of income.

"It is not possible any more. We said these things three years ago but, unfortunately, somebody has not understood ...

"Ferrari is a small company and we have to be very careful about the future," he added.

"We are in favour of a strong political authority in the FIA and in favour of a company taking 20 percent to promote the sport, but we want 80 percent for the teams.

"Unfortunately it has not been possible to find a solution. Now is the time to find a solution or we have to think carefully about the future. There is a big risk to lose teams and I don't see any real determination to find solutions. It is not possible for teams to survive with what is an unacceptably low level of revenues.

"Ferrari can continue to race in FI but only if the level of cost is acceptable compared to the total

turnover of the company."

At the same time, Montezemolo came out in support of the FIA's plan to slash the performance of FI cars.

"Normally if you are ahead you are against changing anything but I totally agree with FIA President Max Mosley," he said. "In the last three years the cars have become too fast. It is time to slow them down and calm down the development of engines, aerodynamics, brakes and other things. It is time to slow the cars but without losing the technology that is part of Formula 1."

Ecclestone said on Sunday that he did not agree, saying that the FIA's proposed changes, including the 2.4litre V8s, will do nothing but increase costs. He added that the major problem in terms of safety is the fact that tyre performance appears to be becoming more and more marginal as the tyre companies fight to beat one another.

Most of the team bosses are pretty much convinced that there is nothing they can now do to stop 2.4-litre V8s coming in for 2006 because no-one can afford not to build the new engines, just in case the FIA wins the day.

- JOE SAWARD moiorsDort news

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a to asking the Italian team not to talk about poaching its drivers until after the end of their contracts!

-JOE SAWARD

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Luca di Montezemolo, above, has left no doubt about Ferrari’s views on who should get the lion’s share of FI revenues...

15 September 2004

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THE quality of some of the international FI broadcasts is set to increase in 2005, with Bernie Ecclestone's FOM group expanding its role as host broadcaster to additional countries.

The use of Ecclestone's directors and camera crews, who understand the intportance of what is going on in races and who do not simply allow the cameras to follow the leader or the local hero, is perceived as a big plus.

While Netw'ork lO's camera work wasn't in question, Australia switched to an FOM-originated feed at last March's Australian GP. "It worked well for us," Network Ten Sports Director David White told MNews on Monday.

"They provide the visual feed - on-track and graphics - and we provide the commentary. The cost is about the same as if we did it ourselves.

"The big plus for the overseas races is a consistently high standard of broadcast, whereas with some countries, their vision can be ... less than you'd hope for..."

Next year FOM will provide the host broadcasting in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Turkey and Belgium and may also get the deals to cover Canada, the United States and perhaps even France and Britain.

-JOESAWARD

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veteran crew chief turned TV analyst Larry McReynolds left the team.

Toyota says that its support was contingent on McReynolds being part of the team.

■ J.J. Yeyley ended his first Nextel Cup race after just 33 laps at Fontana when he backed his Joe Gibbs Chev into the wall and being collected by an unfortunate Brendan Gaughn when Yeyley came back into Gaughn's path.

■ After announcing recently that Ricky Craven will be replaced by Bobby Hamilton Jr. in the PPI Chevrolet in 2005. Hamilton's Busch team released him unexpectedly and PPI owner Cal Wells cleared the way with sponsor Tide for Hamilton to step into the ride starting with the Fontana event, although Craven will drive the car at his 'home' track in New Hampshire scheduled for September 19th. Hamilton finished his first race with PPI 38th after suffering engine problems.

■ It is believed that the Mader factory in Switzerland, which was recently taken over by Mecachrome, is already well advanced in the design of a new 2.4-litre V8 FI engine and that this will be supplied to teams on a commercial basis in 2006. This is the same factory that is currently building engines for the new GP2 series.

-CLARK/SPURRING 13

New look for old favourite

THIS is the latest aerial look at the Phillip Island GP circuit, taken last week.

The famous track features new gravel traps (in white) while a new pit exit will join the circuit at turn one, near the gravel trap in the centre of the picture. To the right of the sweeping turn on to the main straight, right, is the giant new gravel trap that runs all the way around the top of the circuit-and which has been christened Ninety Mile Beach. Beyond are the pits and the second overpass on the straight.

The bike-spec improvements have been completed in time for the Cinzano MotoGP next month.

NASCAR: The Chase is on!

OVER the winter, when NASCAR announced their new-fangled 'play off' system for the last 10 races, people were sceptical - most of all many of the drivers.

But the idea has proved fruitful in a fight for prime-time TV ratings and kept interest alive with fans and media alike; indeed it may have exceeded NASCAR's own expectations as to the hype it's created.

After an interesting night at Richmond on Saturday, The Chase to The Nextel Cup is on, California winner Elliott Sadler just needed to start the Richmond event to claim a place in The Chase. The top six spots were locked in entering the race; Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart, 2003 Champ Matt Kenseth and Sadler.

The remaining four spots were not decided until the end of the Richmond event, with Kurt Busch pretty much just by finishing in the cut. Jeremy Mayfield was the big mover with his win, up five places into ninth.

Newman dropped to 10th and Martin forged from 10th to eighth.

Unfortunately for Mayfield, getting into the elite group was at the expense of his rookie Evernham team-mate Kasey Kahn, who missed The Chase by just 28 points.

Tm happy for Jeremy,” said Kahne, “it’s hard to get too excited, if we didn't have such a bad race I'd be real happy for him, we had a really pathetic race car."

Driving an ill handling Dodge Kahne got spun in the race by Dale Jr, falling below the 400-point cut-off and never recovering, 'I didn't mean to spin him out," said Jr., "I only do it on purpose when I mean to!"

- MARTIN D CLARK 14

Mountain Beckons WORK continues on schedule at Mount Panorama to have the new pit facilities ready for next month's Bob Jane T Marts Bathurst 1000.

Major construction work is almost finished and the pit garages,above, are ready to be fitted out with all the equipment the teams will need for The Great Race. Of course, the new garages will mean that the teams will not have to transport their cars to and from the pit lane, as in past years.

The new control tower. right, is also ready and will allow officials to have a 270 degree view of the circuit.

Garage doors have already been fitted and painted with the appropriate identification numbers. With teams lining up in championship order for the first time, that means that Stone Brothers Racing will have garages 01 and 02, Kmart Racing will have 03 and 04 and so on.

So that is why HRT brought him back...

-PHILBRANAGAN moiortport newt

See Brocky chasing a record tenth Bathurst win at the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000.

Whether you’re a Ford or Holden fan there’s no better place to experience the ultimate showdown than on Mt Panorama, Bathurst.

From the grid to flag this is where the action is.

Don’t miss your place on the mountain, book today.

MB

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T-MARTS

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ticketmasterJ 1300 136 122 WWW.ticketmaster7.com

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Thommo v THE 2004 British Touring Car Championship wili go down to the wire after a tight penuitimate round of the series at Snetterton iast week.

Vauxhall’s James Thompson and Luke Hines and SEAT Sport UK’s Robert Huff all took a race win each at the Norfolk circuit, but the main interest is the tight battle at the top of the table with only one round to go.

Thompson leads his team mate, arch-rival and reigning Champion Yvan Muller by four points, while MG driver and

Independents Trophy leader Anthony Reid is the only other driver with a mathematical chance of stopping them.

Pole-sitter Thompson led from start to finish in Race 1, followed by Matt Neal and Tom Chilton.

Courtesy of pole in the reverse grid race, Luke Hines, above, upset the championship contenders with a lights-to-flag win, in front of title challenger Reid and SEAT quick man Jason Plato.

Robert Huff secured his firstever BTCC win in Race 3 after

Carrol Yvan su1ton-inugrs.a>m

an inspired drive from eighth on the grid. Muller beat home Thompson to push the championship gap to four points before the last round at Donington Park in two weeks.

Note: Since the BTCC started its two-litre formula in 1991, no-one has ever been a back-to-back champion ...

Neal stormed from grid 18 to finish fourth after tyre problems in Race 2 cost him.

Points; Thompson 244, Muller 240, Reid 196, Plato 189, Neal 181, Colin Turkingfon 154, Huff 141.

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ADAM Carroll wrapped up the latest two rounds of the British Formula 3 Championship at Belgium's Spa Francorchamps last weekend.

Carroll nabbed both victories after

a tight challenge from Euro F3 invitee Clivio Piccione in the first race, before he dominated the second and kept his championships hopes alive.

Danilo Dirani finished the meeting with two third places.

Championship leader and polesitter Nelson Piquet Jr. fluffed the start and was forced to make climb from the mid field towards the front.

He finished the first race in sixth and made up a couple more spots to

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]LA MATTIAS Ekstrom took a stranglehold on the DTM title when he claimed victory at Zandvoort recently.

The Swede beat home Audi team-mate Martin Tomczyk and championship rival Christijan Albers after a mid-race stoppage due to a frightening accident.

"This is a great day for me," said victor Ekstrom.

"My car was just perfect, my first start brilliant and I absolutely controlled the race until it was stopped due to the accident.”

Peter Dumbreck survived a horrifying rollover coming onto the main straight when his Opel veered off the circuit at 200kmh, rammed a stack of tyres before somehow getting hooked in and flipping three spectacular times.

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Opel Motorsport Director Volker Strycek said driver error was the cause of the accident.

"The best news of the day is that Peter is well," he said. "The cause of the accident was that Peter was too fast and came a bit off his line. The car got hooked into the g stack of tyres. The crash would certainly have been much more serious had there not

have been that tyre stack."

Briton Gary Paffett kept his title hopes alive with fourth place while reigning Champion Bernd Schneider has lost all hope of challenging for another DTM title after only finishing fifth.

Tom Kristensen, Manuel Reuter and Emanuele Pirro rounded out the pointscorers at the Dutch circuit.

Ekstrom has now bolstered his lead in the series to 13 points over Albers with just two races remaining.

Points: Ekstrom 61, Albers 48, Paffett 45.

motorsport news

EURO NEWS

Hag falls on F3000

If you leave me, can I come too?

MARK Webber is to be accompanied to Williams by one of his Jaguar engineers, Peter Harris, who has been working with him for the last couple of years, Harris had a background in touring car racing before moving into Formula 1. n Michael Schumacher emerged unscathed after a massive crash while testing at Monza late on the afternoon of the second day. The seven-time World Champion was heading to the first chicane when the left rear tyre on his Ferrari deflated at around 335kmhh. Out of control, the car made a heavy rear impact against the retaining wall. Despite the force of the crash, Michael did not visit the medical centre and returned home to Switzerland as planned, while Ferrari and Bridgestone technicians began investigating the cause of the failure.

Last ever F3000 race goes to Italian Champion

VITANTONIO Liuzzi won the last FIA International Formula 3000 Championship at Monza last weekend.

Liuzzi started from pole position and comfortably took the win, his seventh from 10 starts this year.

"It is great to win at home," said the Arden driver.

"Just like at Imola, it's been a great afternoon and a perfect end to

the season."

Tomas Enge and Robert Doombos rounded out the podium places.

Liuzzi's seven victories also puts him equal with Juan Pablo Montoya and Nick Heidfeld as the most prolific winners. Mind you, Liuzzi won all his in one season!

The category, which many recognise as one step below Formula 1, will be known as GP2 in 2005 and beyond and will feature Renault chassis.

n Britain's Jamie Green has wrapped up the Formula 3 Euroseries title with four races remaining.

GTeen, 22, has 111 points and cannot now be caught by his closest challenger. Alexandre Premat. Premat (65 points) is under pressure from Nicolas Lapierre and Eric Salignon (64 points) and Nico Rosberg (63), while Britain’s Lewis Hamilton is still in with a chance at 50 points. Green follows in the footsteps of Ryan Briscoe, who won last year's title and moved on to become Toyota's FI test driver.

Capitalises Alfa 1-2-3 claim fourth, Australian Will Power was well in

the top 10 fight, but struggled to keep the quick front-running pace. He finished eighth and ninth in the two races at the Grand Prix circuit.

Fellow Aussie Barton Mawer came home in 12th and 15th in his debut in the main class.

Meanwhile,Lucas Di Grassi won both races at Thruxton two weeks ago.

The Aussies had a tough day.

Power collected 10th in Race 1 and suffered problems in the second.

Marcus Marshall,in his last drive in the British series for 2004, did not finish the first race and finished 14th in Race 2.

ALFA Romeo put a stop to BMW dominance in round eight of the European Touring Car Championship by sweeping all the podium positions in both races at a hot Imola recently.

Italian Gabriele Tarquini dominated Race 1, beating team mates Fabrizio Giovanardi and Brazilian Augusto Farfus.

Race 2 was a different story due to the reverse grid, but true to Alfa's dominace on the San

n The FIA Foundation has helped to fund a scheme to train Chinese marshals for motor racing. A total of 200 marshals (about the number needed for a Grand Prix) attended a training seminar at the Goldenport International Circuit near Beijing in August with motor sport safety experts being flown in from the United Kingdom to teach the Chinese the necessary skills to ensure that they know what they are doing.

Mario circuit, the victory was theirs. Tarquini scored his second wm,from Giovanardi and Farfus. The only sour note for the red rockets was when Farfus copped a 30s penalty for not complying with the Safety Car procedure.

The Safety Car was called out after a major pile-up on the front straight which eliminated Alex Zanardi,Salvatore Tavano and Stefano D'Aste, beloxv.

Championship leader and BMW pilot Dirk Muller was promoted to third after Farfus' exclusion.

n Tiago Monteiro was out testing for Minardi at Vallelunga last week, the Portuguese driver setting a best lap of 1 m03.81 Os, just a couple of tenths slower than the best lap achieved by regular driver Gianmaria Bruni. The test either shows Monteiro's speed or Bruni's lack of it, depending on how one wishes to analyses the results. Monteiro had never before tested at the track, near Rome.

Points: D.Muller 93,Tarquini 86, Priaulx/J.Muller 85, Giovanardi 62. £

I

15 September 2004

n South Korean tyre company Kumho is poised to become Formula 1's third tyre supplier within the next three years, reports Autosport magazine. Preliminary work is believed to have begun with the designing and building of a tyre and the company is now evaluating how best to make the step up to FI. - SAWARD/SPURRING 17

Pat? Laguna dpeam

new front wing. Similarly, Tracy had similar damage, when he later had an excursion off track at turn two.

by PHIL MORRIS

T

\C.

IE GRAND I RACEWAY SEPT

PATRICK Carpentier confirmed his love of the famous Laguna Seca circuit by winning round 11 of the Champ Car World Series last weekend, his second consecutive Champ Car race win there.

Carpentier was able to leapfrog his Forsythe Racing team-mate, and defending series Champion Paul Tracy at the first set of pit stops and from there, managed to stretch out a lead of over 20 seconds.

This lead then evaporated by a late race restart, although Carpentier easily had the measure of Bruno Junqueira, who had by this stage inherited second after damage caused both Tracy, and Junqueira's teammate Sebastian Bourdais, to pit for repairs.

"The hideck car was good,it got a little loose on the last 4-5 laps, but not complaints other than that. I really love this place. I guess you have to flip over the fence to do good here, because I have done real well here since that incident," reflected Carpentier.

Bourdais started from the pole, and looked good at the front of the pack until contact with Tracy in the opening stages left him in need of a

STune

f

I I'Ll

AJ Allmendinger looked on track for a good result when he was able to stick with the Forsythe duo in the opening stages of the race. Oriol Servia, however, was the man who claimed the final step on the podium after the two drivers got together at the corkscrew resulting in Allmendinger getting an early shower,and Servia delivering Dale Coyne his first podium since Michigan 1996.

"This feels great! We were so close in Cleveland and in so many races, it is great to finally get the result. We have all been working very hard and proving that we are capable together," said Servia.

Michel Jourdain Jr salvaged RuSport's day by finishing a strong fourth, winning out in a tough battle over Ryan Hunter-Reay. Alex Tagliani was able to hold on for sixth in a late race skirmish with Bourdais, which saw the Frenchman have another moment,allowing Mario Habefield through to take seventh place.

Bourdais still leads the points, but has again had his points lead diminished.

Points: Bourdais 275,Junquera 251,Tracy 215, Carpentier 214,Tagliani 201, Dominguez 186.

?TT7^ ,. f

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Hands up who loves this place: Carpentier has five winner's trophies in Champ Car, and two of them were earned at the Laguna Seca. Oriol Servia, right, notched one up for the little guys, grabbing third.

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motorsport news

CART / IRL

joins Enge finds Pappas Atlantics fun IRL home

Mexi Magic

NOT even a malfunctioning air jack during a yellow flag period could stop Adrian Fernandez from picking up his second IRL Indy Car Series victory for the season at Chicagoland Speedway last weekend.

Fernandez, who started from 10th place, held off a spirited charge from Bryan Herta to secure the win.

"We are very excited, and I'm happy for everybody on the team," said Fernandez.

"Especialiy with adversity today when the air jacks broke. With all of the effort the engineers have done, we had a fast car and that's why we won."

Andretti Green Racing's Herta finished mere metres behind, but it was his best result for 2004.

Championship leader Tony Kannan finished third and slighty extended his series lead over team-mate Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon was fourth, which means that Kanaan only needs to finish fourth in the penultimate round of the championship at California Speedway next month to clinch the title.

Vitor Meira finished fifth in front of Penske's Sam Hornish Jr.

CZECH driver Tomas Enge will replace the retired Al Unser Jr in Pat Patrick’s IRL entry at one, or possibly both of the remaining IRL rounds this season.

Best known for losing the 2002 FIA Formula 3000 Championship to Sebastian Bourdais after being stripped of points due to a positive drug test, Enge, below, tested for the team during a break in his Formula 3000 schedule, where he was placed second at Monza over the weekend.

Jacques Lazier and Jeff Simmons have also tried their hand at Little Al’s old ride this year.

Points: Kanaan 538, Wheldon 463, Rice 443, Castroneves 379, Franchitti 366, Fernandez 365, Hornish Jr. 342, Herta 335.

COBRA - 4

THE Australian contingent in the Toyota Atlantic series had a poor time of it at Laguna Seca.

Josh Hunt sustained damage while trying to make a move for sixth place, the subsequent pit stop for repairs ruining any chance of a good result. Hunt finshed in 12th place, one position below Australian Formula 3 driver Daniel Pappas, who was one lap down on eventual race winner and 2004 Toyota Atlantic Champion Jon Fogarty. n The Indy Racing League have announced that the St Petersburg street circuit in Florida will host the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg, April 3, 2005.

The race now joins Watkins Glen and Sears Point on the 17-race schedule as the first road and street circuits to host IRL races.

"The addition of St. Petersburg allows the IRL to achieve two of its primary goals as it relates to scheduling - one being the enhancement of our schedule with the addition of road and street-style events. Secondly, this allows the IRL to fill in a part of our season with a warm weather market in advance of the Indianapolis 500-Mile race,” said Tony George, IRL president and CEO.

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19

Rusty sets'the clock ticking"

RUSTY Wallace announced his plans to retire from NASCAR competition at Daytona on August 30.

Wallace will finish his career at the end of the 2005 season. His final year will be dubbed ‘Rusty’s Last Call’, and will feature 12 special paint schemes throughout the year in true marketing fashion.

“When Earnhardt lost his life, it kind of got to me," remarked Wallace.

“We were good friends. It made me feel nervous and it made me think hard about it. I’ve won a lot of races and I want to have fun in this sport, I don’t want to get hurt.

“It bothered me a lot when Dale got killed, he was the guy I looked at. If I beat him, I felt like I beat the best."

After some 200 short-track feature wins, Wallace, from St Louis, became one of the first

1

non-’good ol’ boys' in NASCAR. He began Ms Cup career at Atlanta in 1980, where he finished second to Earnhardt in a Penske-owned Chevrolet.

He won the Winston Cup title with Blue Max Racing in 1989 before returning to a new Penske team in 1990. Currently, Wallace has 55 wins and 37 pole positions under his belt.

His final race at HomesteadMiami in November 2005 will be his 706th start, after which he says that he will concentrate on his youngest son Stephen’s driving career, as well as his varied business interests. He will also remain a spokesman for Miller Brewing, his sponsor for the past 14 years.

Wallace becomes the first Winston Cup champ to retire since Richard Petty in 1992.

Now, which of those other lame ducks is going to be next?

- MARTIN D CLARK

Means and Ganassi marching on

CASEY Mears has exercised an option to a contract extension with Ganassi Racing and sponsor Target through at least 2005 and possibly beyond.

Mears had a disappointing 2003 rookie year, finishing 35th in series points. This year, Mears has turned

his driving skills around with eight top 10 and two pole positions.

Ganassi also signed Scott Lagasse Jr to join Ryan Hemphill, Reed Sorenson and David Stremme in their driver

night.

His win also put him in the elite Chase for The Nextel Cup. Mayfield inherited the head when leader Kurt Busch ran out of fuel with seven laps remaining. A dejected Busch finished 15th, a lap off the pace, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from handling woes but continual adjustments saw him finish second ahead of Jeff Gordon.

Jimmie Johnson lost the points lead when he was involved in a fracas on lap 179 as Jimmy Spencer and Casey Mears had a coming-together.

NASCAR was initially going to park Spencer for his part, but in reviewing the incident they let 'Mr. Excitement' stay on track.

Mark Martin spun without contact

ufomia Dreamin'

I i' 1

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- MARTIN D CLARK

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Mayfield’S V

JEREMY Mayfield took his first win in 142 races with a victory at the Richmond short track last Saturday

ELLIOTT Sadler fenTled off rookie Kasey Kahne and veteran Mark Martin to take the win at Fontana two weeks ago.

"We're California dreaming here tonight," said Sadler amid his celebrating team, above.

With their second (Kahne's fifth of the year) and third spots, Kahne and Martin moved into the top 10 for the Chase for The Nextel Cup, knocking out Kevin Harvick, who fell from eighth to 15th, and Bobby Labonte, who's lieon running horribly since the firing of crew chief Micheel 'Fatback' McSwam Jeff tJoriion detonated a Hendrick engme v^ith 42 lai)s remaining anri finishing 37th, handing the senes load to

team-maTe Jimmie Johnson who finished 14th.

Carl Edwards was again outstanding The 26-year-old came home fifth, his second top 10 result in just his third Cup race after replacing Jeff Burton at Roush Racing.

Although already locked into The Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a rough night, spinning unaided on lap 219 Eifteen laps later. Junior slipped in the fluids from Ken Schiader's blown engine and hit the wall, ending a dismal evening.

- MARTIN 0 CLARK Final rosuit Sndler (Ford). Kahna (Dodflol, Marlin (Ford), McMurroy (Dodgo), Nowman (Oodga), Edwards (Ford). Riggs IChovy). Jnrratt (Ford), R Gordon (Chovyl, R Wailoca (Dodge).

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NASCAR has given approval to Dodge for a new body style in 2005 replacing the Intrepid used since rejoining the sport in 2001.

Dodge apparently made all set deadlines for approval with NASCAR, Dodge has declined at this point to officially name the new model, but it's no surprise within the sport that we will see the return of the Charger.

I THERE were rumblings j. coming from within

finning Tune in the melee and 'Little E' was lifted

airborne by Johnson, but the latter got the brunt of the damage. returning after repairs to finish 36th.

Yet again, Carl Edwards impressed. After spinning, he recovered to take a sixth placing for his third top 10 in just four Cup starts, showing he will be a true star of the future.

Meanwhile,Busch driver Mike Bliss, a winner in USAC midgets and sprints at Richmond, drove a Joe Gibbs R&D Chev to fourth, outpacing team-mates Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte, who finished dismal 19th and 16th respectively.

- MARTIN D CLARK

I Earnhardt Inc. leading up to I last weekend's race that ^ Tony Eury Sr. and his son Tony Jr. would be replaced

by Waltrip's crew chief Richard 'Slugger' Labbe starting this weekend at New Hampshire.

VGCtfP'*

"amfer

SP^PK

Final Result: Mayfield (Dodge),J Gordon (Chevy), Earnhardt Jr.(Chevy), Bliss (Chevy), Martin (Ford), Edwards (Ford), M Wallace (Dodge), Biffle (Ford), McMurray (Dodge), R Wallace (Dodge).

n Two-time Winston Cup champ Terry Labonte, 47, will cut back to limited schedules in 2005 and 2006, running a minimum 15 races next year. His likely replacement is Kyle Busch, the Hendrick Motorsports Busch Series driver who currently sits second in Series points. Kyle is the younger brother of Roush Racing's Kurt,

"We've been hot and cold the last several weeks and we've got to fix that," said Jr. post-race, "but we've been really good the last third of the season over the last four years."

It would seem crazy for the change to be made now 'Little E', left, is in The Chase, but he has had a rollercoaster season and although he has four wins, he's suffered at some tracks with what appears to be basic set-up issues.

Meanwhile, Labbe is apparently not happy with the lack of performance from Waltrip. So the writing is on the wall - it's just a case of whether it befalls or not...

- MARTIN D CLARK

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21

Rossi ti Another world title

ri ? *’

Chns stars at Assen

ASSEN usually produces great motorcycle races and the Dutch track's round of the World Superbike Championship was no different.

After James Toseland led all the way to hold off Pierfrancesco Chili in the opening race, the young Brit took on Chris Vermeulen in Race 2.

The two put on a cracker, swapping the lead three times on the final lap before the Aussie took the win by 0.037s.

In the epic scrap, almost no-one noticed that Noriyuki Haga,fourth in Race 1, had closed onto the back of the battle to finish 0.117s down.

In Race 1, Chili was followed by Regis Laconi, Haga and Vermeulen, who was having suspension problems.

While Vermeulen flew the green and gold high, the other Australians had mixed weekends. Steve Martin was seventh in Race 1, one spot ahead of Garry McCoy, but a fall and mechanical problems respectively stopped them in Race 2. Troy Corser was outgunned on his Foggy Petronas but had 10/7 finishes.

With his results, Toseland jumps from fourth to first in the points, with Vermeulen right behind. In terms of race wins, Laconi and Haga have five apiece, Vermeulen four, Toseland two and Chili and McCoy have one each.

Points: Toseland 255, Vermeulen 252, Laconi 245, Haga 241, Chili 213, McCoy 163, Martin 144, Haslam 140, Corser 127, Borciani 114.

Good Things come to those who Wait

THINGS could not have gone much better for Valentino Rossi in Portugal.

Sure, he missed out on pole position, Makoto Tamada taking that for Honda and Bridgestone. But the Italian dominated the race,leading all 28 laps to take his fourth straight win at the track and put one paw on the MotoGP title. Tamada took second aliead of Alex Barros, while nearest title challenger Sete Gibernau was fourth.

The best news for Rossi was that Max Biaggi self-destructed on the first lap. The Roman clanged into the rear tyre of Loris Capirossi's Ducati, which won the start. That put Biaggi out of the race and Capirossi last.

From there, Rossi smoked the field to win by 8s.

"This was a super-important race for us," said Rossi who lowered his own race record by 13 seconds.

"1 wanted to push from the begirming because I knew if someone was close at the end it would be really hard because everyone's tyres would be moving around a lot."

For Gibernau,it was a race of frustration, missing a podium finish by 0.2s.

"We got what we deser\'ed today because we've had a bad weekend in general because I made too many mistakes in qualifying and then we changed the bike again for the race and didn't get it right," Gibernau said.

Capirossi mounted an amazing fightback, coming from dead last to seventh, passing team-mate Troy Bayliss a few laps from the end.

Suzuki had its best result of the year, with Californian John Hopkins taking sixth place on the obviously Bridgestone-friendly track.

Points: Rossi 209, Gibernau 180, Biaggi 158, Edwards 111, Barros 102, Checa 93, Tamada 89, Capirossi 84.

More Muggs

AUSSIES dominated the

Assen Supersport round, poleman Karl Muggeridge taking his fifth win of the season on his Ten Kate Honda.

AFTER 11 races of frustration, Toni Elias finally won his first race of the season with a narrow victory in the 250cc Grand Prix, The Spaniard,#24 above, fought off Aprilia rival Sebastian Porto, #19, to win the race by 0.3s.

Dani Pedrosa finished fourth after 22

battling a slow leak in his rear tyre, finishing just behind Frenchman Randy de Puniet(Aprilia) in a dash to the finish line.

Aussie Ant West finished sixth on his Aprilia.

Points: Pedrosa 209, De Puniet 182, Porto 173, Elias 122, De Angelis 104, Nieto 94.

Muggeridge held out Sebastien Charpentier's Honda by a tenth of a second, with wildcard rider Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) third ahead of Ten Kate's Broc Parkes.

The wins extends Muggeridge's championship lead to a massive 38 points, with only two rounds remaining.

SPANIARD Hector Barbera zoomed back into contention for the world title by winning the 125cc GP. The 17-year-old held out the flying KTM of Finn Mika Kallio by 0.1s in a tight dash to the flag.

A fast-finishing Jorge Lorenzo snatched third place ahead of Pablo Nieto's Aprilia, which had started 16th on the grid. Casey Stoner ran with the leaders in the opening pack until his bike slowed unexpectedly with a gearbox problem and was hit from behind by Simone Corsi's Honda. Corsi crashed out, taking Stoner's exhaust system with him.

Points; Dovizioso 183, Barbera 163, Localelli 154, Lorenzo 125.

molorsport news

BIKE NEVUS

Dps Honda'S Armada

looks likely after Biag^i takes out Capirossi at Estoril

Mat heads for 5 MAT Mladin dominated the penultimate round of this year's American AMA Superbike Championship, with victories in both races at the Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia. The New South Welshman won both races from the Hondas of Miguel Du Hamel, Ben Bostrom and Jake Zemke to set up what looks certain to be a fifth AMA title, Mladin's eighth win in 16 races this year took his tally of AMA career wins to a record 32, The final races of the season are at Virginia International Raceway on Sept.18/19, n Despite all the hurricane activity in Florida, renovations to Daytona International Speedway are continuing to their December deadline. The track was hit by two storms in the last month. Hurricane Frances hitting the 4km track three weeks after Hurricane Charley,

The Italian Jobs: Capirossi, #65, turns in to take the lead at Estoril. Biaggi, #3, ruined his race a few corners later.

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From the hot SEA T

I

THINK it's fair to say that we struggled with our car at Sandown.

I buzzed the engine a little bit early on, but even from the onset we were lacking, for whatever reason, a bit of power and a bit of traction. So we were losing a good three car-lengths down each straight. But once I got myself into my rhythm, the pace was there. We could do low1m12s, and I generally thought we were losing around a second per lap in grunt and traction.

That being said, to get where we did and to be lapping as consistently as we did, I was pleased. But it took quite a while to get into the groove of driving the car, to find the best way to drive it over a long stint. I'd only done three or four laps around here in the dry over the last few days.

But I really enjoyed it. It was a fantastic race, with lots going on, and I've learned quite a lot going into Bathurst.

We always knew that it was going to be a little bit hard to get the car sorted out, considering that neither Peter Brock nor I drive the cars on a regular basis.

The weather didn't help - with the changing conditions all the time, we couldn't get a rhythm going with the car to find out exactly where we were with it.

Everyone says back in England,'oh, they're not that hard to drive'. Let me tell you, it is bloody hard to be quick in one of

these cars over a long distance.

They are very different to anything that I've driven. There are no comparisons. And I think that the top guys over here are world-class drivers. I think you could put any one of these guys in any car in any formula in the world, and they'd turn heads.

The level of the Championship is very, very high considering that it's 10,000 miles away from what is considered to be the home of motorsport. This is a fenfasf/cchampionship. I'd love to be here on a regular basis.

I think Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly were unlucky. I think that they did have a bit of pace, and we were following their set-up pretty much to the rule, really.

We made a couple of changes while trying to cure the traction issues that we had.

But I think that I can go away feeling reasonably confident. I think I made a good account of myself, and we've had fun this week, which is important for everybodyl It's a joy to race with these guys, they are such a fantastic outfit. 've been to Bathurst twice before - in fact, I'm still the lap record holder there in Super Touring. Last time I was there, in 2000, the weather was atrocious, so it can't dish out anything nastier than it was then! I've seen it at it's very worst, so hopefully this year we'll get some sun so I can

appreciate it, and get to grips with the new surface.

But it's one of those races.

There are three races in the world which I think are the special ones - Le Mans, Indy, and Bathurst is up there with those two.

There may still be some people in Europe that haven't caught on, and I say let's keep it that way! I'd rather be in with a select group of people who understand what a fantastic event it is.

It's odd really; I can remember watching it as a kid we used to get the telecast when I was growing up - and I've got greater memories of watching Brocky and Colin Bond and all these characters at Bathurst than I have of Formula One in the early days. It was massive in England - everyone tuned in to watch it. And then, for some reason, they stopped broadcasting it. Hopefully now, with a bit more British interest, they might pick the feed up again. But for me it's one of the classic races in the world.

Back at home.

I'm busy driving for the new factory SEAT team in the BTCC. Last month I had my 150th BTCC start, which makes me an official member of the grey-hair clubi We're having a fantastic season. It's the team's debut year, and we've won six races, which is more than anyone else. It's a great little chassis, it's the best in terms of mechanical grip, but we

Motor Mouth with lasoh Plato don't have enough power yet and we don't have enough aerodynamics yet.

But the statistics speak volumes. We've played the strategies really well, and I've led more than double the amount of laps that anyone else has. And we've lost two wins under the Safety Car when I've been leading on the final lap and been fired off, so technically we've had eight wins! So we can't grumble. I've had six DNFs and I'm still fourth in the Championship, nearly third.

It's phenomenal. Looking at the points we've lost, and erring on caution a bit, had we not lost those points we'd be leading the championship.

So it's great for the team, it's great for me as I am returning to the series after being away for two years, and it's great for SEAT as a new manufacturer.

Everything is looking good for the future.

n

D

EAR READERS, I need some help. You see, over here in Europe,there are a bunch of people who can't figure out why there is not more regular public interest in Formula 1 in Australia now that Mark Webber is about to get his butt into a top shelf Formula 1 car.

Okay, this year a Williams-BMW has on occasion been a bit of a handful, but Frank and Patrick have put an Aussie in charge of things for next year and so we can expect the new car to be right on the pace.

The thing that I and my colleagues do not understand is that Webber's 2005 deal has not raised a lot more interest out there in the Lucky Country. And we just don't understand it.

In most countries, there would be wild excitement by now. The men with the bones through their noses in the Amazon Basin have had their vine leaves in a twist ever since Antonio Pizzonia got himself into the second Williams this year.

Cool Finns melt when the name Kimi Raikkonen is chattered in staccato tones up there in the tundra where even the reindeer are cheering him on. The Austrians are raising glasses of schnapps every time Christian Klien hurtles by in his 'Yagwah' and the French are in anguish over the news that next year, without Olivier Panis, there will not be a Frenchman in FI for the first time since 1967.

Even the dour old Belgians managed to get excited about Thierry Boutsen, who was a nice man but who earned the nickname of 'The Biscuit' because he was not a wildly exciting character.

And yet ask an Australian about Mark Webber and no-one - apart from the full-on enthusiasts - seems to have much interest at all. It is almost as if he is an Invisible Man because he doesn't drive a V8 Supercar and drive up the side of a mountain at this time of year.

Wake up Australia. There's a world out there!

The mystery of the Missing Mark is so perplexing for us simple Poms that I decided to go and ask Paul Stoddart to cast some light on the issue. Fie always seems to understand a fair bit about the Aussie mentality.

"They are excited," he said. "But they won't show it until next year when we get into the hype leading up to the Grand Prix in Melbourne. They will get behind Mark like you would never believe. That's the way it is.

"We have the Grand Prix and then

TP

The Box Seat With Joe Saward they forget about FI for the rest of the year.

"The thing is that Australia has so many other sports and does well in so many of them that they only go into Grand Prix mode in January or February. But don't mistake that for not being interested."

Okay, Stoddy, I thought, that sounds logical. But when I looked over my notes later, there was a loud buzzing sound in my brain: "Naaaaahl Does not compute."

People in other countries like other sports as well but their interest in FI is constant rather than seasonal.

So I figured I would chat to a few more sensible people in the paddock.

"It seems that when an Australian leaves the shores of Australia, it is like he or she doesn't exist any more," someone suggests."

"The Aussies support their local stars and forget about the people who are trying to make it in the big world outside Australia. They prefer to look at the big fish in the small pond, rather than support brave little fishes who have swum out into the big ocean."

That seems a little radical but maybe there is something to it. Out of sight is out of mind.

But I am still not convinced. Perhaps it is about winning. Webber is still climbing the greasy pole of Formula 1.

Fle’s not yet at the top and perhaps Australia is not getting excited him because he hasn't yet proved he's a winner.

But in Britain, Jenson Button is front-page news and he hasn't won anything yet.

And it is not as if the British are not good at some other sports as well.

There is soccer, cricket, horse racing, athletics and all the rest of it [ED: and which of those would the Poms be good at, JoePI and yet Button has still got the Union Jacks all a-flutter...

So I don't get it. Australia, explain yourself. This poor confused Pom doesn't understand.

"tt is almost as it he is an Invisible Man because he doesn't drive a V8 Supercar and drive up the side of a mountain at this time of year §r

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Rubens Bamchell,

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The Brmiiian's 2004 iteiian OP win may go hewn in titosi history as The Minacie of Monza. After spearheatiing a stunning 1-2, the Ferrari ace Oownioatien his emotions to ADAM COOPED MOTORSPORT NEWS: Was it the wrong decision to go for intermediates?

RUBENS BARRICHELLO: In a way, yes, but I must say I was quite surprised at how quickly the track dried out. I was starting from pole, and there were people second and third Michael was third - and at the start he could actually see me braking and then take a gamble where to brake and turn into the corner.

If I was first with the slick tyres into those wet first corners, it would have been very difficult. I could have spun and somebody could have gone straight into me. So the decision was made purely on that.

I knew that I could take a five second gap on the first lap, and maybe 10 seconds on the second. But by the second lap, the thing was drying out too quick. I should have come probably on lap four instead of lap five.

The lap yesterday was so special because I was carrying a lot of fuel, so it was a bit of a shame just to throw it away, come into the pits, and put in even more. But all in all it was such a good feeling after the third stop when I was asking, 'Where am I?,' and they said, 'Calm down, you're PI.' Unbelievable.

MN: It was a risky tyre choice.

Would you do it again the same way?

RB: Probably. Starting from where I was, without any reference from people ahead, probably.

MN: Did you ever dream you could come back?

RB: It was incredible, the whole race was incredible. The first lap I thought, 'OK, I've won the race'. The sixth lap I thought 'Oh my god, I lost the race 28

such a good lap with a heavy amount of fuel.

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-Rubens on how he felt. Who says F1 drivers are all robots? completely'. On the 10th I thought things are not looking good, but by the 11th, it was looking better. There were a lot of emotions going on through the whole race that made it very special.

MN: What was the fight back like?

RB: I had a feeling yesterday that the qualifying lap was magic, and when it's like that, you feel like you should just concentrate, do your normal job, and you'll win the race. Maybe it's your day tomorrow.

When I had the first lap I thought, OK, six seconds in front, maybe it's my day. Then all of a sudden I saw P10, and people were ahead. There was a point in the race where I thought it was all over.

MN: When you made your second stop, did you think that it would work out?

RB: Ross [Brawn] was telling me on the radio to keep on pushing because maybe we could change things around. It was down to him and to the team to take the decisions.

MN: In the last stint the car was unbelievable. What did

you change?

RB: The car was fast and I was able to change things around a little bit, the things that I could change, and then they changed a little bit the angle of my front wing. So at the end of the day the car was unbelievable, like I had for qualifying.

MN: The qualifying speeds suggested you were running more wing than Michael ...

RB: Up to a certain point, I wasn't running more wing, but when they started to tell me that it could rain on Sunday ...

I made some tests with more wing last week, and it wasn't bad. I think it wasn't quicker for a lap, but it could have been quite good in saving the tyres and overtaking, even though I was 3-4kmh slower. So it paid off. My car was unbelievably good under braking, and I was a bit slower. As you could see, Michael just passed me with more speed on the straight, and I could do nothing.

MN: It must have been nice to beat Michael....

RB: Not just that, but Michael is a fantastic driver, so for that feeling yesterday was probably even better, because it was

MN: Where would you have stopped?

RB: Very close to him, very close to him. I cannot really tell you because it would be unfair, but it would have been very close to him. A lap away from him ... I was so pleased because I knew people would say about the fuel, but I was carrying quite a lot.

MN: Were you in tears on the slow down lap?

RB: I'm always in tears. I'm relieved more than anything, because I had such a phenomenal lap yesterday, and it was a pity to come into the pits five laps into the race, because I had so much more fuel to go on.

But I think everything paid out today.

MN: What was it like standing on the podium looking down?

RB: It was just the fact that people support me so much, the tifosi. It was an unbelievable day.

On the podium it was quite as good as the last time, so I hope I can win more of those. On the plus side I would have loved to really win here. So I now I can go to Brazil and say,'You won this year already, now relax and try.'

It would have been a shame to get to Brazil and try to win the first race of the season in a place where everybody says that I'm unlucky. I'm not unlucky at all.

We'll try to win Brazil and hopefully it will come. Now that I've won here I'm so relieved I will probably win the last three races! I'm only joking - I hope I can win the last three races. I'm just so happy with the day today.

MN: What do you know about China?

RB: Not much. I know the facilities are amazing, but we just have to wait and see. molorsport n«ws

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Greg Ritter

A part-thiien winning Oie Samiown 5(W? Just another achievement tor V8 Supercan's Super Sub. Ritter put tiown the champagne ami toin PHI BHANAGAN how it feR to take his first enUuro win MOTORSPORT NEWS: How hard is it to get into a car 'once a year' in such a competitive environment?

GREG RITTER: Pretty hard. I guess you would say that it was a bit of a relief to win the race!

Marcos had a nice lead at the start of the race and to be thrown in the deep end at the front of the field was a fair bit of pressure to cop. But the car was quick so I never felt like I had to press that hard to keep the margin. That was a help.

MN: One thing that you said over the course of the weekend was that you felt that the car was pretty comfortable to drive. Other co-drivers have come from Stones and said the opposite.

Is that all about you and Marcos liking the same things?

GR: Possibly. From what I have experienced in driving for other teams in the past, I seem to like a different set-up from most of the other teams I have driven for as well. Fortunately, we seem to like the same sort of set-up.

In testing with the team during the year, I drove both cars and I preferred Marcos's set-up to Russell's.

MN: Was that the determining factor the team made in deciding the pairings?

GR: Part of it. Ross and Jimmy sat down to decide the pairing and Cameron (McLean) did not seem to mind either way. I preferred Marcos - I was a reasonable amount faster in Marcos's car than I was in Russell's - so the net gain was bigger. They decided, I was pretty happy.

MN: Over the last long distance campaigns you have had, it has been a matter of 30

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GR: Sort of. It is pretty difficult.

I got minimum laps in the lead-up to the race. I think I managed six or seven laps on the Friday and I didn't even do a complete lap in the wet. I had some time in the car in the warm-up but, apart from that, there was not a lot of time in the car at all.

Not having driven the car around Sandown - I have not actually done that many laps around Sandown in anything that was throwing me in the deep end a bit. There was no margin for error and that meant that it took a few laps for me to get up to speed.

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GR: I would say so. I have had little or no input into the car set up. Marcos decides what to do and when to do it to the car. I basically get shoved in the thing and told, "there you go, do 54 laps" I In a way, it is easier for me but there is also a lot more pressure for me, being at the very front of the field.

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Once I settled in, I found a nice comfortable speed I could sit at and that was quick enough to pull away from the field.

MN: Do you miss qualifying?

It has been something of a calling card for you and we have enjoyed watching it.

GR: I do miss it. I enjoy qualifying. The tyres are only at their best for a short time, one or two laps at the most, and you have to throw everything you have at it for those laps.

When you do that and you cross the line and see a pretty good time come up on the dash, you get a pretty good feeling.

MN: The Sandown 500 is one of the most traditional and biggest races in the country.

How does it actually feel to win it when you are not a full time driver?

GR: Ummmm .. . . Well, I think that it would feel better if I was the lead driver or in a more permanent position.

But, it still feels pretty good!

MN; How hard is it to stay motivated for the race when 'Real Life' - work, family makes it an incomplete campaign?

GR: I would not say that it is hard. This year is my best shot ever at getting a good result and that is plenty motivation for me!

MN: No point in me asking what side of the fence you want to go to if you do not have a full-time drive ...

GR: Yep! There have not been any offers yet but, if and when they do come up, I would look at all of them seriously and if there is more than one, I would have the chance to choose between them.

MN: When do you think, "What do I have to do?"

GR: It is a bit like that. About this time of year for the past three years, I have conversations to you or others in the media, things get said, but nothing ever seems to eventuate.

I will not get any hopes up until I sign on the dotted line! At this stage, it's just focus on Bathurst and do a good job.

MN: What did you learn over the weekend from Ross, Jimmy and Marcos?

GR: A lot of things! They drum into your head that there is a particular way that you have to drive the car. That's the main thing.

They were trying to calm me down al l weekend as well. They are great, they run a fantastic operation and there is a lot for me to learn.

MN: And I have to ask about the spin ... what did you say, what did they say?

GR: They did not say a great deal, to tell you the truth. When I was sitting in the mud, they said, "Just get the thing back on the track", and reassured me.

When I got out of the car there was not a great deal said but I could see the disappointment on most of the guys' faces.

So, I kicked myself! Probably harder than they kicked me! But that is behind me now and I am looking forward to Bathurst, motorspon news

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FEATURE

There’s not a lot that Jim Richards hasn’t done in motorsport, but driving with son Steve was one of them until Sandown.

MARK GLENDENNING grabbed one of racing’s finest practitioners for a chat

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F you smash you way through enough fortune cookies, you'll eventually find one with a message inside telling you that anybody who enjoys their job never works a day in their life.

If that is true - and never let it be said that this particular writer would dare to question the wisdom of a mystical cookie - then you'd have a pretty good case for arguing that Jim Richards has swarmed through his 57 years blissfully work-free. Given that he has half-a-dozen Porsches sitting in the shed at his place in Melbourne's leafy outer-east, he must be doing something right.

Then again, a look at the results sheets would have told you the same thing. Richards started this season as the reigning Australian Carrera Cup Champion,the reigning Targa Tasmania Champion and was a top three qualifier and top five finisher at Bathurst the previous year (having gone out and won the thing with Mark Skaife in 2002). He may be staring down the barrel of 60, but there are plenty of 20-somethings who would kill for results like that.

2004 is far from over, yet it has already taken on a different shade.

For the first time since 1999, somebody other than Jim and co driver Barry Oliver left Targa with the winner's trophy. And on the Carrera Cup front, this year also looks like being the first time in a long time that somebody has taken Jim on in a Porsche and won,thanks to the resolute efforts of Alex

years as an HRT hired hand trying to stop son Steve from winning the Great Race, Richards and Richards have now joined forces at Castrol Perkins Racing to try and take the chequer together.

But Jim and Steve are far too pragmatic to have struck up a driving partnership on strictly sentimental terms. Both know exactly what is required to win at the Mountain - and on top of that, Steve has a title fight to think about.

According to Jim, the decision to step into Steve's VY was as much about timing and circumstance as it was about keeping it in the family.

"They (Castrol Perkins) called me," Richards said.

"It happened straight after the (2003 Bathurst) race. Steve came up to me and said,'you know, maybe you should come and drive with me next year'. I said,'that's OK,get Larry to give me a call', and that was that.

"It all happened because there's only a very limited amount of co drivers that have got V8 experience out there. Nowadays, you don't get to

drive with Skaifey,and until you drive the number two car, it's fantastic.

"But I'd rather drive with a regular V8 driver. And of course, when the option came to drive with Steve, well ... I'd rather drive with Steve than anyone."

At Sandown, Richards was still settling into the Land of Larry, but he said that the similar culture between Castrol Perkins and HRT made it easy to slot in.

"There's not much between them they all do their jobs and they're all really good," Richards explained.

"It's not really any different, I think it's just that HRT has been on top for a little bit longer, and they've learned a bit more about how to set up the cars quickly, there's a bit more feedback. ."Steve's only been with Larry for a couple of years, but Skaife has been at HRT since 1997. So I think that this team is working really well.

"I mean, HRT are just good guys.

It's not full of absolute geniuses, they

continued on page 34

Davison. We'll get to all that later.

On a different note, 2004 is also the year that Richards's annual foray into V8 Supercars becomes personal literally. After spending the past few

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33

continued from page 33 are just all good team guys.

"It's very hard to comment on whether there is much difference between the cars, because I don't drive them regularly enough, HRT's cars were always absolutely fantastic, this one was really good in the second session (at Sandown on Friday) and they'll make it a lot better again. I would say that it's going to be as good.

"At Bathurst,I followed Larry's cars for lap after lap after lap, and they looked fantastic. So I'd say that there wouldn't be much in it."

Abstaining from V8 Supercars for most of the year frees Richards up to concentrate on his other racing activities, which have been dominated in the past couple of years by the rising Australian Carrera Cup series. Richards dominated the inaugural 2003 season after defecting, as reigning champion,from the Nations Cup championship at the end of the previous year.

But the scenery changed somewhat this season with the arrival of a number of fast younger drivers spearheaded by Davison, who developed a strong Porsche racing pedigree through three years experience of racing the cars in Germany.

Davison has cost Richards a lot of silverware so far this year, but Jim says that he welcomes the battle with open arms.

"It would be a pretty poor sport if the older guys kept wirming and wirming until they retire," he laughed.

"It doesn't happen. We've had some wins, and the guys that have beaten us are fantastic young drivers.

We're not getting dropped off, we're only half a car behind them. The races that I have had this year have been a lot more satisfying than the ones that I won (previously).

"If all of a sudden 1 started qualifying fifth or sixth or seventh, and I was running in that position, then I'd realise that I had lost it a little bit, and I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much,so I probably wouldn't do it. But while you are competitive, and while you enjoy it, you're happy."

Early in the season, the pair's ontrack rivalry was occasionally spiced up with some heat off the track, and Richards admits now that both he and Davison were intent on laying down some markers during the opening rounds.

"1 think, with young Alex, he's done really well overseas, and we've had a bit of headbutting, and a few words, and he's run into me a couple of times," Richards said.

"But over the last half of the season we've got to know each other a bit better. Alex comes motorbike riding with us! I've got no problems with the young guys now.

34

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"He might slip into a gap that I don't want to go into, because I don't want to bend the car. But Tm being conservative. Some of those gaps that you go for close up pretty quick, and I just can't be bothered getting the scars on the car.

"So that's the only difference, and I don't have a problem with that.

Initially, we were ... marking our territory, you might say. But now we're good friends."

The othercalendar major excursion on Jim's annual is the Targa Tasmania rally, an event that he has become virtually synonymous with through his long list of successes there. Richards and Oliver took a new GT2 to this year's event, but were caught out witli a car that was not suited to the diabolical conditions that struck on the last day.

"Six of the (Targa) wins were all in four-wheel-drive cars," Richards pointed out.

"One of them,in the middle, was in a GT3 rear-wheel-drive. What I like to do is take three years, go out three times in a car, and then move on and get something that's different.

It may not be better, but it's different.

"It was time to sell the yellow one(ED:A Porsche 911 Turbo),so I sold that, and the guy that bought it has had a great run with it, and I went to a GT2, which is two-wheel-drive with no traction control.

"The amount of power that the car had, with the weight and everything, it was just far, far too powerful for a wet road. And we had a wet road for a whole day. Up until then, we'd had damp stages and damp days, but no really heavy rain. So the car was fantastic. But in the last day (when it was wet) we just hung on and finished fourth and we later bumped up to third.

"Td rather win at the time, don't get me wrong, but if you do,it's not necessarily good for the event. It's good that someone else wins it in a different vehicle.

"It's even good for Porsche, in a way. You can dominate for too long, and then it becomes boring. So 1 don't mind at all. 1 go in to compete.

If we are good enough, we'll win it.

and if we're not, we won't."

On top of his annual Supercar, Carrera Cup and Targa campaigns, Richards dabbles in any number of one-off events as time and inclination permit. His career is characterised by a diversity that's almost impossible to maintain if you are running full time in a major series nowadays,but Richards maintains that he's never really known any different.

"I've always raced in a lot of different series," he said.

"When 1 started in New Zealand, I would race three cars on the one day.

So I had nine or 10 races - first Td be in a Hillman Imp,then a Holden Monaro, and then a twin-cam Escort.

"In those days, you could get away with doing that, and you could win in all the cars.

"I probably woiridn't Win a race if I was a fuH-time V8 Supercar driver, but I think rd be amongst the top haif-dozen" "But if you were full-time in Supercars, I don't think you could do that now. It's so intensive, and you have to make sure that everything's right. In the old days, you could be three-quarters of a second off pole and you were second on the grid.

Now, you'd be 30th. You've got to put everything into it. My days as a full-time Supercar racer are gone, I can concentrate on what 1 want to do.

"For me,Td much rather do what Tm doing now than be a full-time Supercar driver. They don't want a guy of my age anyway, but if I was a full-time Supercar driver, 1 think Td go alright. I probably wouldn't win a race, but I think Td be up amongst the top half-dozen.

"I qualified third at Bathurst when all the best guys were there, so ..."

A year before that, of course, he and Skaife scored a resounding victory at the Mountain. Richards, however, contends that last year's fifth place with Longhurst was more satisfying.

"A co-driving role is different to a lead driver's role," he pointed out.

"In the HRT car last year, I think I drove terrifically.

"When I drove with Mark,I was too conservative, because I didn't want to make mistakes. But when 1 was driving with Tony (Longhurst), I could drive it as hard as I liked because if I broke down,it was only me and Tony.

"The Bathurst that I have enjoyed driving in the most,out of all of the times that I have been there, was last year, because I think I drove really well, and in the end result, we came fifth and we were only 8.0s behind the leader.

"So in the pack,and in the last 10 laps,I was lapping as fast as the guys who won the race. Td put that performance down as a fantastic result.

The fact that we didn't win doesn't worry me. We qualified well, we didn't make any mist^es in a car,I feel that I drove well,and it was just fantastic.

"In terms of pure driver enjoyment, that was the best one I've been on. It was better than the one that we won,because I could drive without having to remember in the back of my mind that I still had to be a little bit circumspect."

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hich leaves us with the obvious

question. No,it's not'how much longer can he keep going?' because anybody who has been around the sport for any length of time gave up asking that years ago.

Instead, it's the good old hypothetical: Jim, you can do just one race in a year. Pick one.

"Well, if you go to Bathurst, there's just one race in a day," Richards responded.

"Targa is like doing nine races every day for five days. And you don't know what's around every corner. You might think you do, but you don't.

"So as a pure driver competition experience, for me,Targa Tassie wins.

If I was 20 years old, and had only been to Bathurst once or twice, Td probably say something different. But right now,if 1 could only do one race in a year, Td be lining up at Targa. No question." moiorspori news

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Smooth operator; AVID Richards has always been a smooth operator, but recently the boss of British American Racing has been sailing through choppy waters. His star FI driver Jenson Button has announced his intention to join BMW Williams in 2005 while over here in Australia, pretty much everything has gone wrong at Ford Performance Racing.

Yet Richards does not seem to be too worried about it. He is in a fighting mood. Ask him who he has in mind to replace Button and he is off and running.

"We're not looking," he says.

"The Contract Recognition Board will hear the case and I am confident of our position."

That's not entirely true, of course. Richards has to have thought about the problem but there is no way he is going to admit that publicly.

"I think it is worth fighting for Jenson. Really we are

fighting for the integrity of the sport and for the future of all young drivers. If a situation like this is allowed tfa happen, noone will ever invest in a young driver again. If you can tear up contracts and walk away from a commitment,there is no purpose to it."

Push him on the subject and Richards clams shut. He does not want to say what he really thinks about the Button affair. It is ail too sensitive at the moment. The problem seems to be between DR and Button's management bUt he is not about to admit that.

"I have not had a cross word with Frank Williams nor with Jenson," is the best he will say. "If Jenson comes back to us it will not be an easy situation. We are a professional racing team and it is something we will have to work on. Beyond that I am not going to speculate on hypothetical situations."

Right now, however, Takuma

Sato could end up as the BAR team leader and that begs a lot of questions.

"Compared to everyone else on the grid today, Taku is a relatively inexperienced racing driver," Richards admits. "He took up the sport very late but he is improving all the time.

Yes, we do have sporadic setbacks with him but we also see flashes of brilliance. I have watched young drivers many times in the past and it is the ones that have those little flashes of brilliance that you need."

Moving on to safer ground, how does DR think that BAR has done this year?

"I'd say we have performed on target to where I thought we would be," he says, "although I would also say that some of our competitiors have underperformed, which has served to flatter us. You can reach your own conclusions as to whom I am talking about."

But BAR has not won a race.

"Did we deserve to win a race this year?" he asks himself, thinking out loud.

"I am not one for the ifs and buts of motor racing. We haven't won a race. Having said that we are challenging Renault for second place in the World Championship, if at the start of the year I had said that we would be doing that you would have laughed."

That is true.

"You see," he adds, "it is all too easy at this stage to look back and say we should be fighting for second. I have to keep reminding people that they laughed at me when I said we were going to be one of the surprises of the FI season."

So make us laugh about next year.

"Clearly the step up we made this year will not occur again," he says."We will have a more modest improvement in performance. In many ways you can track our performance alongside Renault. We are about a year behind them. We saw a big step from them last year but this year they have continued the improvement but it has been tougher. I expect us to mirror that pattern. There is a bit of finetuning to be done to the team but there are no gaping weaknesses. I very much think wins are on the cards next year.

"Having said that I have not given up the idea that we can win this year. My goal this year was fourth in the Constructors' Championship,85 points, with four podiums and one win. We have exceeded fourth in the championship, we will exceed the points and the podiums.

Will we get the win? I don't know - but if Ferrari gets it wrong one day and we get it right, who knows?"

Richards admits that the Button business has been tough for team morale.

"It is a distraction," he says, "but I sat down with all the guys as soon as this thing happened and suggested that at the beginning of the year we were written off and we proved to them wrong.

"We showed what we could deliver. Today people are

David Richards has pienty,to think about at the moment, with the prebahie exit ef BAR-Hem|a star Jenson Button,Subaru's WRC hopes and Mraf V8 team in Austraiia.

JOE SAWARD dropped in for a chat at Monza suggesting that we are where we are because of one driver. 1 don't believe that is the case.

This team is far bigger than one individual."

It seems a good moment to talk about Prodrive's parallel problematical involvement in the V8 Supercars. Richards' Ford Performance Racing has lost not only Craig Lowndes but also Glenn Seton. How much of a setback is that for the team next year?

"Well, clearly it is not desirable to lose both drivers at the same time!" Richards laughs. "There is no getting away from that fact but this is a young team and we have been through a difficult year but I look at it as more of an opportunity than a problem.

"We have to structure a new team, bring on new blood and build from there."

With which drivers?

"We are in discussion with three drivers," he says and, clearly, he is not going to say more than that. Is he offering any clues at all?

"One of them is employed elsewhere but at the moment I

cannot say any more about it than that."

There is a feeling in Australia that perhaps Prodrive underestimated the V8 scene. Is that a fair comment? n any motor sport category anywhere in the world I believe that the locals have extraordinary specialist knowledge. They did not get to the top of their category because they were sitting on their hands. They know what they are doing. The error is to think that you can import a few people and suddenly you will be able to beat them.

Our objective is to create an Australian team. We are not trying to create a team of imported people. The only people who will go down there are people who will help to kick-start the programme and get processes in place to get the whole thing off the ground.

I don't think we underestimated the competition. I think what we did do was to take on too much in the first year: we acquired a team then we ran

three cars instead of two; we moved premises at the same time; we recruited new staff; we took on a complete engine programme. We tried to do too much.

That is all well and good but Ford Performance Racing is a programme which does not seem to fit into the general philosophy of Prodrive. How does Richards explain that?

FPR is aligned with Ford* Performance Vehicles and is an integral part of that programme. That in turn is part of the Prodrive operation.

Prodrive's policy in motorsport has always been to compete at the top level of motorsport on the world stage: hence our participation in world rallying. Formula 1 and in sports cars with Aston Martin. Our involvement in Australia is slightly different.

FPR has a direct relationship to our road car activities in Australia rather than to Prodrive's motorsport activities on a global scale. even if it benefits from the other programmes.

It is an integral part of the Ford Australia plan. When we took overTickford in Australia and changed the name to Ford Performance Vehicles we felt that it was very important to have a strong foothold in motorsport.

If you are selling performance parts and models in Australia, there is only one category to be involved in.

We could have gone about it in a number of different ways: we could have offered technical support to different teams; we could have done only engines. But we decided that the best thing to do was to have a team and that is what we working on now.

He's going to the Australian Director Sinnon Wincer was thrown in at the deep end of the NASCAR pool to create NASCAR 3D, The IMAX Experience. GRANT ROWLEY spoke to him

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Were you much of a motor racing or NASCAR fan before you took the project on?

SIMON WINCER: Not really, I've always enjoyed motor car sports but certainly not NASCAR, I knew nothing about it and I had to write the bloody thing as well.

I'd just done an IMAX movie for Disney called Young Black Stallion and I guess they needed someone with IMAX experience.

To follow the circuit for a whole year and get paid to go whereever you want and meet the people was fantastic, just irresistible. It was a world I knew nothing about and now I know it intimately, and I haven't missed a race since.

Once you know the personalities, it makes it a lot more interesting.

MN: NASCAR 3D was very different to your past work.

Was it a challenge you enjoyed?

SW: Oh yeah, it was great.

\\

A car had a biow-out and the tyre came off, hounced off n the wafl and came rocketing towards the camera -Simon Wincer

The big challenge was shooting 3D with those cameras. They are huge,they weight 300 pounds (136kg) and there are only two of them in the world and we were using both of them. They only have three minute loads of film, it takes 20 minutes to reload so you have to have great patience. You just go through so much agony when you miss stuff but when you see the results, it's pretty spectacular.

MN:The staged race footage where one of the cameras sat in the middle of the track and another was bolted into the back of the Roush car really gets the viewer involved. How

long were you there filming those scenes?

SW: We did most of the staged racing at Talledaga, which is a big Super Speedway in Alabama. Down the back straight, they hit 210mph. We had the Roush Racing Team build us a special car to carry the camera. We worked with the engineers and they designed it so we could use it in five different positions in the car. They'd change the springs and suspension, according to where the camera was going to be mounted.

I had to put the audience in the driver's seat, basically. The staged races took a lot of time because we'd have to choreograph 43 cars and everyone has to know who's doing what and where. It took a fair amount of coordination.

Plus, it's dangerous. On the last day of shooting, a car had a blow-out and the tyre came off, bounced off the wall and came rocketing towards the camera. It was a great shot

and totally accidental.

What you don't see is the tyre hit the brace that was holding the camera and the camera went up in the air. We missed the 17 cars that had nowhere to go and wrecked.

I'll never forget that moment when the producer rang up the insurance company and said, "guess what..."

MN:That actually looked unrealistic, though.

SW: I guess that's because of the whole 3D thing, I suppose.

It stopped us all in our tracks. We'd seen a few accidents but never had any trouble at all. It brought it home to us that this is really dangerous. That was at Rockingham and they were doing 165mph into that turn and - boy oh boy - when you're up close like that... it's pretty amazing.

MN: When you were at a race meeting, did the drivers and teams have a script to follow or did you just film it as it came?

SW: I basically wrote the script as a bunch of outlines. I had to bone up on the subject matter. so I watched hundreds of hours of videotapes and read a whole lot of books about the sport.

With my outline, we filmed

nu

I

9

outside

the stuff we wanted to feature but we couldn't hold anyone up. They work such an amazing time table, even in their workshops, everything's done to a ticking clock. You couldn't say 'hey, could you do that again'. You have to be very mobile and very flexible.

MN: How did the NASCAR teams react to your presence at the track?

SW:They had to get used to us. They are ail so media savvy and are used to television cameras in their face but their reaction when they saw the size of our camera was 'holy shit!'(laughs).

They are a wonderful bunch of guys. They are just so different to the normal sporting superstars in the US. There are a lot of ratbags in baseball and football who have big heads and don't have time for fans.

These guys are total opposites and are a very elite group.

MN; When the movie was screened in parts of America, punters rocked up to the IMAX theatres dressed in their favourite teams' merchandise and cheered when they came on screen. You would have been privy to the fans' religious support during filming.

SW: Oh yeah. They're pretty fanatical. Of course, the most popular of all is Dale Earnhardt Jr. or 'Junior' as he's known.

He's very popular.

It's been in the top 20 films in the US since it debuted in March. It's doing really well and will probably end up being the most successful IMAX film ever made.

They've actually built a permanent IMAX theatre at the Daytona International Speedway specifically for the film.

MN: Do you have a favourite driver of your own?

SW: I'm a great admirer of

Ilwmn Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Gordon is so good that nobody will bloody help him. He's just awesome.

Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson are the guys that play the moonshiners at the start of the film and they are both terrific drivers. When we showed the film to them for the first time I was really

rr. l

nervous but they were blown away by it, which was great.

They were like 'man,that's what our sport's like'. They thought I really captured it.

They also went crazy about the sound which is one of the great things about IMAX, it sounds like you're really there.

It's direct six-channel sound unlike normal movies.

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Marcos Ambrose and Greg Ritter crushed everyone to score their first V8 endurance race win.

PHIL BRANAGAN reports on the Sandown 500

o

the fastest guy won.

That was Marcos Ambrose. In a

N Sunday in Melbourne, the skies were blue. That, somehow,seemed appropriate, given what happened when the noise stopped in beautiful downtown Springvale.

The colour of the ceiling matched what happened on the track, with Ford taking its first 1-2-3 result in more than a year of toil in V8 Supercar racing. Plenty happened between the time the cars lurched off

respective co-drivers, Greg Ritter, Cameron McLean and Steven Johnson,looked thrilled. So did their team owners.

and the time the flag fell at the end of 160 laps (because of the time limit of the race) but at the end of all the fuss,

"A 1-2 for Stone Brothers again shows that we are the top Ford team, and we're delivering for them,"

race where everything, seemingly, happened, the defending Champ took the lead three times and, when it came time to go fast, went real fast.

Second was Russell Ingall and third was Warren Luff. Their

buzzed Ambrose later."We have a theoretical disadvantage by having to find fill-in drivers to jump into each car but it's worked out perfectly. It's just a fantastic day."

Ingall concurred:"We're very happy,considering that we started from 15th on the grid thardcs to my stunning qualifying. I've guaranteed Cameron that we'll be starting from further up in the next endurance race - I'll give you the strong tip, we're not going to do that again. It's too much hard work."

Just one big happy family of

Queenslanders - and a plasterer from Melbourne.

In the midst of this Ford celebration, the Holden lads suffered the most. Jason Bright had his series lead evaporate after his way fast PWR Commodore had a diff seal go on him,Greg Murphy looked to be in contention for a podium until a single traffic problem ruined his afternoon and the Holden Racing Team had ... another 2004 HRT day.

Both red cars had woes and struggled around to salvage anything from the wreckage.

From the air up there: The opening stanza of the race produced the regular curry we've come to expect in V8 Supercar racing. Left, Johnson runs wide at the first corner, while Jones was turned around and left strandard at turns two and three.

40

molorsport news

a 5 s-

About the only comfort tliat could have some Skaife and co's way was that the team of Larry Perkins had an even worse weekend, all the Castrol cars suffering in the race and two of them in qualifying.

Tire net result of all this was that Ambrose leads the championship from Bright and Steven Wchards. The other man threatening is Ingall. A Holden-Ford battle for the championship looks likely.

And we know why the sky was blue; because,from somewhere above that, Howard Marsden needed to have a good view of what was going on.

Race(160 laps) Huey's springtime cruelty continued overnight, with the wet stuff bucketing down for most of the night. That made the surroundings moist indeed, so staying on the tarmac an absolute necessity.

But, by the time the V8 beasties made their way out for the warm-up, the rain was well and truly gone and the track was showing signs of developing a dry line. While the cars wore wets, noted wet shoe Cleland topped the sheets but was bounced by a dry-shod Brede, which sent about 34 sets of slicks out into pit lane. There was a flurry of quicker times, most set in 'scrubbing tyre' mode before Skaife bounced in a quickie on his final lap to best Steven

15 September 2004

I

Richards, with two FPR cars (Glenn Seton and Alain Menu)also plunging into the top six.

The only incident of note was that Owen Kelly had his Falcon stop at the end of the pit exit, the Johnson team dragging the car back to replace a broken driveshaft.

The usual things - parades, mascots, dancing pink pigs happened prior to the race until, almost on cue, the sun appeared. The precipitation stayed away for the whole race. Yippee.

And,as far as Ambrose was concerned, the almost 500km event went almost to the script of 2003.

Apart from a period after a Safety Car appearance early on when Rick and Lowndes jumped him at a restart, Marcos motored around out the front and set, pretty much,the pace he chose. He handed the car

continued on page 46

Championship contender; Russell Ingall and Cameron McLean guided the Caltex Falcon to second place. Ingall is now in a position to challenge for the title lead.

Filthy: Both WPS Falcons encountered a heap of muddy strife all day.

41

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mathered Luck

Rick went quick on a drying surface during Sandown 500's wet quaiifying.

MARK GLENDENNiNG reports S convenient as it might be, it is a little unfair to talk about Saturday's fight for pole position being a lottery.

Whoever was in charge of the weather seemed to be pushing a different button every couple of minutes, which meant that not only were the track conditions changing for every driver in the Shootout, they were changing between the out lap and the fast lap.

Those who went out later in the Shootout had the benefit of a drier track, but the conditions had more or less stabilised for the last handful of drivers, which meant that, for the fastest guys, it still came down to who could string together the three neatest sectors.

And on this day, that man was Rick Kelly. 2004 has already been a year that has seen the younger Kelly consolidate his potential to become a serious force in V8s, and he confirmed it once again with an emphatic pole lap - the first of his career.

Remarkably, Kelly's achievement made him the third driver this season to have scored their first PI grid spot, joining Steve Richards (Barbagallo) and Craig Baird (Winton), The 0.6s that separated him from fellow front-row man Marcos Ambrose was daylight in V8 Supercar terms, but typically, Rick was still able to find fault 44

with his efforts.

"I was a bit disappointed," he said.

"About halfway through the lap I thought I was being a bit of a pansy to be honest with you, because I arrived into turn one and jumped on the picks quite hard, and then got back off them and coasted up a little bit further.

"I thought Mark (Skaife) and Paul (Morris) would have gone a bit deeper there, but fortunately it was enough and I'm stoked.

"I think it's a lot harder to get pole position than it is to win a race, because there are so many cars going for it, and a lot of things can happen during a race.

I hope that I've broken the barrier now and that we can do it a little bit more often, it would be fantastic."

Many onlookers had been surprised that Kelly had been assigned the responsibility of qualifying the car for the first endurance race of the season, however co-driver Greg Murphy said that this had always been part of the plan.

"We made a decision very early on that Sandown would be Rick's responsibility to do the work, and that he'd be doing the qualifying and the Shootout," explained Murph.

"When Bathurst comes around, for some reason they've given me the job to do it there.

So that's the way it has worked out, and I'm stoked to be

supporting him this weekend."

Second on the grid was Ambrose, who was ruing one that he felt had slipped through his fingers.

"It was a bit of a giggle really," he said. "I'd go out on the out lap and look at where all the water was, and then on the next lap it was dry. So it was a bit random. But I'm happy to be on the front row."

And third went the way of Paul Morris who, like Kelly, was on song for what would have been his first V8 Supercar pole after stunning pitlane with some scorching lap times late in the qualifying session.

"I'd probably have preferred it if the rain had hung around for a bit longer," he said. "The car was phenomenal when it was wet. But third is pretty good."

Practice/ Qualifying

the first session remained dry, allowing them to get some idea of what they'd let themselves in for without having to deal with rain as well.

Five Fords occupied the top spots on the sheets after a mostly uneventful first outing on Friday, but the pendulum had swung the other way when Rick led the times on a greasy track later in the afternoon.

Things were going a little less well for some of his Flolden cousins, though. Marcus Marshall caused some furrowed brows in the PWR garage by getting the #16 VY out of shape at the last comer and tasting armco on the main straight at the end of his first lap, and Paul Weel completed the scene by tagging the wall at turn two in the #50 car a few laps later. Not a great session for the guys in orange.

Those from the northern states muttered about how much they hated Melbourne weather, locals shrugged and said that it had been fine for the past two months, and the Euro contingent wondered why the hell they had left the northern hemisphere and flown for 22 hours just to catch hypothermia.

But mercifully for all of the co drivers that were not completely familiar with the Supercar/Sandown combination moiorsDon nawt

I

U8 SUPERCARS r

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VBScs Round 9 Pas/No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11

Dirty lines: Jason Bargwanna negotiates the mud at turn one in the wet shoot-out, above, while the #18 Shell car and #23 WPS Falcon rally-cross through the mud in qualifying, below.

But things weren't necessarily going smoothly on the other side of the fence, with FPR's #5 Falcon needing emergency surgery to replace an engine.

By and large though, everybody's priority was to simply survive through to qualifying without having something blow up or smash to pieces. And despite the conditions, and the number of cars that made excursions into the grass/gravel/mud, everybody made it through to the business end of Saturday in good shape.

And so to qualifying, and one of the most eventful sessions we've seen all year. The cars ventured out into a steady shower - and in the case of Anthony Tratt, ventured straight back into the pits when he realised that he'd left the car bonnet behind.

Russell Ingall, meanwhile, had his whole race weekend flash before him when he spun on the back straight and was nearly broad-sided by Jason Richards, but some neat evasive action from the quick-thinking Kiwi ensured that both cars lived to fight on.

The drivers were just starting to find their feet when the second spin for the session from Tratt saw the red flag being

waved after the car became bogged. At the time, it was an all-Holden show, with Mark Skaife topping the times ahead of Kelly, Steve Richards and Baird (who had jumped on to the radio to report that his car felt slow, only to be told by the team that he was, in fact, fourth).

The session resumed shortly afterwards, and while car after car was caught out by the tefloncoated track surface, Morris was starting to assert himself. But then, the whole scenario changed completely when the rain stopped, the track started to dry, and all of the times from the previous 20 minutes became irrelevant as it became a battle to see who could best cope with the change in conditions.

The fight really began in earnest when the session resumed following a red flag for the stranded WPS Falcon of John McIntyre. Kelly had topped the sheets just before the session stopped, but Ambrose made his intentions clear by being the first car back out after the restart. He had more than just Kelly to worry about, though. Paul Dumbrell had found something to his liking in the #8 Castrol Perkins Commodre and belted himself into the top three, and behind him, the positions were changing virtually every time a different car crossed the timing beam.

Steve Owen had done a superb job to get the #15 Kmart car into the top 10, but was caught out by the mad flurry in the last minutes of the session and was bumped out, along with Craig Lowndes.

Skaife played his hand and shot to the top with five minutes to go, registering the first lap under the 1 m25s mark to better Kelly's time by 0.7s, while continued on page 46

15 Sspismliar 2004

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Dr i ver

29

P.Morris/A.Gurr

2 51 I 6 17 18 10

M.Skaife/T.Kelly R.Kelly/G.Murphy M.Ambrose/G.Ritter C.Lowndes/G.Seton S.johnson/W.luff O.Kelly/D.Brabham J.Bargwanna/M.Winterfaottom

50

J.Bright/P.Weer

8 31 11

P.Oumbrell/T.Longhurst S.EIIery/L.Youlden S.Richards/J.Richards

15 34

S.Owen/T.Leahey G.Tander/C.McConville

9 05 021 23 3

R.Ingall/C.McLean J.PIato/P.Brock C.Baird/M.Porter D.Besnard/C,O’Brien P.Radisich/M.Wilson J.Richards/F.Coulthard

12

J.Bowe/B.Jones

16 45

J.McIntyre/A.Yoong M.White/M.Marshall D.Brede/W.Davison

25 26

33

27 28

44 21

Sanddwn 5DD, Vic

29

20

M.Larkham/M.Halliday

7^ 14

A.Tratt/T.Mezera P.Scifleet/LHoldsworth

33 34

7 24 5

J.Whincup/A.Davison G.Walden/G.EIIiott A.Macrow/A.Menu

35

43

K.Wimmer/C.D'Agostin

Ti me

CAT Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA Shell Helix DJR Falcon BA Shell Helix DJR Falcon BA Larkham Orrcon Racing Falcon BA PWR Performance Products Commodore VY Caslrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VY Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon BA Caslrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VY Kmart Racing Team Commodore VY Repco Valvoline Cummins Team Commodore VY Caltex Havoline Race Team Falcon BA Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Team Kiwi Racing Commodore VY WPS Falcon BA Team Betta Electrical Falcon BA Tasman Motorsport Commodore VY OzEmaii Racing Team Falcon BA WPS Falcon BA PWR Performance Products Commotjore VY Dodo Team Dynamik Commodore VY Repco Valvoline Cummins Team Commodore VY Team Betta Electrical Falcon BA

N.Pretty/A.Simonsen D.CantoA-Muller S.Wiils/P.Stokell A.Jones/i.Cleland

30 31 32

Car/team Sirromet - Life,Style,Wine Commodore VY Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Kmart Racing Team Commodore VY Pirtek SBR Falcon BA

Dodo Team Dynamik Commodore VY OzEmaii Racing Team Falcon BA Larkham Orrcon Racing Falcon BA Toll Racing Commodore VY Smiths Trucks / IMS Commodore VY Castrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VX Romano Racing Falcon AU Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA PWR Performance Products Commodore VX

1:22.8431 1:24.0860 1:24.2157 1:24.4910 1:24.6484 1:24.7509 1:24.7964 1:25.0367 1:25.0423 1:25.1621 1:25.1716 1:25.2263 1:25.3246 1:25.4630 1:25.5462 1:25.668a 1:25.9055 1:25.9827 1:26.1164 1:26.1717 1:26.1943 1:26.4247 1:26.7128 1:26.8618 1:26.9197 1:26.9569 1:26.9775 1:27.2715 1:27.3827 1:27.7260 1:27.8131 1:28.6203 1:28.7261 1:29.4066 1:30.2915

TOP TEN SHDDTDUT RESULTS 1 2

R. Kelly Ambrose

32.2359

50.8532

1:22.1422

32.2653

50.9047

1:22.7453

3

Morris

33.1666

51.5129

1:22.8858

4

Skaife

32.4743

51.1548

1:23.2208

5

Lowndes

32.9144

51.8027

1:23.3147

6

Johnson

32.5756

51.6947

1:23.8786

7

Bright

33.1606

52.1067

1:24.7091

8 9 10

Dumbrell _ Bargwanna 0. Kelly

33.4194

52.6754

33.3469 33.6762

52.4396

1:25.1486 1:25.3394

53.3586

1:25.9627

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On the money: Paul Morris was very, very quick on Saturday. He set the fastest time in qualifying, but lucked out when he had a moment on his shoot-out hot lap. Still, third place was a good result.

45

continued from page 45 behind him, Ambrose vaulted up to third and began lining the leaders up for another crack.

Before he had a chance to do anything, Morris came back into play. The Dudemobile flogged its way around the track, crossed the timer, and the result - 1 m23.3577s -flashed up onto the screens. Second-placed Skaife was 1.5s in arrears, and with just minutes remaining, the bar had just been raised about 20 notches.

Whether anyone could match it was debateable, but if they fell short it would not be through lack of trying. Jason Plato almost scored a fairytale Shootout result for HRT by going seventh-fastest in the 05 car (and then spearing off the track immediately afterwards), but the intensity of the last-gasp scramble from his rivals saw him shuffled back out again.

How manic was it? With about a minute to go, Dumbrell was sitting pretty in fourth. 60 seconds later, he was teetering on the bump spot. Garth Tander, Owen, Steve Ellery and Steve Richards all lost their claim to a Shootout slot in that final minute, while Lowndes, Jason Bargwanna (who had been fast all weekend) and Jason Bright were on target for the one-lap flyers.

Joining them in the top 10 would be DJR, who after promising so much so often this season, finally delivered not one but two cars into the Shootout courtesy of the efforts of Steve Johnson and Owen Kelly.

And amid all that, Morris broke everyone's spirits by delivering a 1 m22.8431 s kinghit to finish 1,2s clear of secondplaced Skaife - daylight, by V8 Supercar standards.

Top 10 Shootout

t was not raining when the top 10 prepared to finalise the first five rows of the grid - but it had been a few minutes earlier.

Dumbrell tip-toed out to get things started, and despite fighting a losing battle to find traction, managed to string together a tidy lap.

It was no real obstacle for Bright though, who overcame a slight twitch at turn three to eat 0,4s out of PD's time - and then 'do a Plato' and sail majestically off the circuit at turn one on his in-lap.

Bargs was looking on song for 48

a reasonable result before dumping a ton of time in the third sector, while Ov\/en Kelly decided that conservatism was the better part of valour and drove around at 80 percent.

"I was way over-cautious, but I was more interested in keeping the Falcon straight," he said.

"The worst I could do was 10th, so I just cruised around, basically."

Team-mate Johnson pushed somewhat harder and took PI, but could have done it with rather more authority had it not been for an error at the fast left hander on the back straight.

Lowndes immediately made him pay for it by going a full 0.5s faster. What was remarkable about this was the way that he did it - a sleepy first sector had seen the FPR driver a full 0.4s down on Johnson at the first split, but a good sector two and amazing sector three earned a 0.9s turnaround for the Ford star.

He didn't have much time to relish his PI, however. Ambrose was next out onto the fast- ■' drying track, strung three good splits together, took top spot and sat back to see what Rick could do.

Initially, it didn't seem like he was going to be much of a threat after an untidy first corner, but he pegged it back to better Ambrose's time by a full 0,6s.

Over to Skaife. Red Leader conceded 0.2s to Kelly over the first split, and lost a further 0.1s over sector two, but it was over the final part of the lap that everything really came undone.

Skaife's lap was only good enough for third - and there was still Morris to come.

With the driest track of all the Shootout contenders and his eerie speed during practice, everyone held their breath as the Sirromet car shot down towards the first corner - and then let it out again when Morris got it badly wrong at turn two. He was 0.9s in arrears at the end of the first sector, but a truly heroic effort over the remainder of the lap saw him claw enough back to bump Skaife out of third, and rue what might have been.

"I locked the brake going into turn two," said Morris. "I ran wide and nearly got it on the grass Then I tightened the seatbelts up for the rest of the lap and managed to drag the time out of it."

Crunch: The Toll Express Commodore started one of many Safety Car periods, continued from page 41

a

over to Ritter and later had his head in his hands when he watched the car

3-

*■

pirouette around.

This time, it came at the end of the stint whereas, last year, Ingall managed to get it out of the way at the first corner. In 2003, the damage was such that it took the two Stone regulars the rest of the race to limit to damage. This time, it took much less time than that.

"I don't really know (why I spun), to tell you the truth," Ritter wondered later. "I'm not quite sure whether it was a bit of mud or something that one of the WPS cars might have laid everywhere - but it just locked the gears and around she went. Fortunately I managed to keep it out of the gravel and not go too deep into the quagmire there. But it had me worried for a little while!"

To be fair to Ritter, it was a brilliant drive that had been blemished by his

goof.

So, Ambrose entered the final phase of the race with a fast and healthy Ford, which was just as well.

By lap 104 he was 10th, but four of the cars at the front - McConville Brad Jones, Winterbottom and Stokell - were still to make their final stops, for various reasons.

Tander had done superbly to make ground from 14th, followed by Bowe (from 21st) and Wills (from 27thl), while Frosty's task was made all the more challenging when Bargwanna, running comfortably in the top six, found that switching from the primary fuel pump to the reserve gave the Orrcon BA about 400m fuel range (about 10 percent of normal).

That left the team to push the car into the pits, fuel it, install Winterbottom and push it out, all the while plotting a new race strategy based around smaller fuel windows.

Behind them, the 'pitted' drivers were Skaife (recovering well after a Turn 1 loop from The Toddler), Murphy, Ingall, Luff (capitalising on a steady and smart run from Johnson), Bright (whose #50 car had been manhandled terrifically from Weel in the opening half) and, 10th, Ambrose.

'A

V ■ I*.'?

6^

ectrica The front half of the race had already been a struggle, for viewers as much as drivers. As soon as the field filed through the first comer, the mud on the outside of the turn proved magnetic to the WPS drivers.

On various occasions, the silver and black BAs covered more miles on the dirt than the Ralliart WRC team has managed this season and the matching Audi Safety Car was in danger of running out of warranty, so many laps had it covered.

And, as soon as the green flew, the race changed. Will Davison, settling in aboard Dodo II, found Seton sluggish into the Esses. Frosty went to the inside, Davo flicked Seton and around the CATmobile went. It was sitting at 90 degrees to its preferred direction of travel when the next car in the queue nailed it hard.

As befits the kind of evil mist persisting in the Land of Red this year it was, inevitably, Skaife. The nose of the VY crunched his former

continued on page 48 moiorsport news

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continued from page 46 team-mate's B-pillar and,as far as any idea of a successful defence of the 500 was concerned, it was Game Over. The crew garaged the car, made the fixes, taped up the nose and sent Todd back out to complete 75 percent of the race distance to get some points.

"I just cannot believe this year," Skaife told the team over the wireless when the hit happened. That about sums it up.

At the same time. Bright garaged his car for some attention to a diff seal, injured when Brighty was forced off to avoid a spinning Mezera, who was battling for grip. Further hindered by a drive-through penalty for overlapping at a restart, the orange car struggled on to the finish in 10th, one spot up on the sister PWR car, which was delayed by a stubborn wheel nut during a stop.

So,just like that, Ambrose was out of jail. He picked off the cars in front, Murphy making it hard with a squeeze on the main straight and Ingall being a little more compliant.

He made some fast laps when he needed to (see breakout) and motored home.

"I did goof up there on one of the restarts - one of the 1500 restarts,"

Ambrose admitted later. "I went from fourth to third twice,so basically I over-revved the engine and let a couple of guys past me. But I pressed on early and got it back before the next Safety Car - which was about four corners later. So we were really happy with that."

Just as well. Ingall was second, running stubbornly because his rear bumper had got bored and departed.

He is a threat in the championship and no-one will really dwell too much on the fact that his 2003 off in the Stone car cost Ambrose,surely, three Sandowns in a row.

But if Ross and Jimmy's car were safe, the other podium spot was still up for grabs. Murphy held the position until he got balked by Tratt on the back straight and,in the ensuing see-saw on the steering wheel, knocked the pit lane limiter on. By the time he realised what happened and righted the ship, he had lost about 3s and allowed two cars by. The first was McConville, and therein lay a tale.

Plato had spun the Brockmobile, which had been delayed in the opening stint by a wandering roll bar adjuster and, while the GRM crew told Cam that the Safety Car was imminent. Luff blasted past.

Yellow flags or none? Luff was not sure and relied on the judgement of

**

DJR manager Dean Orr, who advised him there were no flags yet, hold position, keep the spot.

McConville was not happy about it but did not begrudge Luff the position (much), understandable perhaps after the Winton win. Cam was battling dodgy steering, bent after a clang with Menu who,it should be said, was swift to find McConville later and apologise.

So we had a Ford 1-2-3. The first tw'o, maybe, expected, but the third a boost for DJR (see breakout). Johnson was terrific early but, with all due respect to Stevie J, maybe this result should be asterisked as Luff's. Often in the wars in his maiden year, Wokka has never (to MNews's

V

knowledge)got down on the team or himself, has been fan and mediafriendly,shown all the traits of a pro V8 Supercar driver and kept going.

Any Aussie racing Ford with a 17 on its door can assigir more than its fair pressure on its driver. On this occasion, the car looked The Business - and so did Luff.

"It's been a tough year for us," he enthused,"and we've been a bit light on in terms of results, so to come to Sandown and have a great result like we have is great for Steve and I, and really good for the team. I think it will give them a confidence boost in the lead-up to Bathurst, and I think you'll see us be really competitive up there."

3.

t

NUMBERS lie. I know that to be true. Politicians are busy, telling us just that about all those statistics and polls that indicate that we do not really believe that they are wonderful chaps but that they are, in fact, a herd of publicly-funded weasels.

In motor racing, things can be equally clouded.

Sometimes, you can set your watches and raise your livestock by the numbers that emerge from any given race.

On other occasions, you need to check the figures and look the other way to nut out what happened.

At the 2004 Sandown 500, 48

the numbers say one thing; the fastest guy won.

Ambrose was untouchable in the race. On a clear track, the Pirtek Falcon was a blue blur. In the opening 30 laps, he registered 11 laps in the 1m1 Is. We say 30 laps because that is how long it took for the next driver, Weel, to become the second man to break into the 11 Club.

And Ambrose kept going.

By the last sprint, even with mud and marbles all over the track, he was into the 10s, rattling off lap after lap, around 0.6s faster than anyone else could manage at

the time. No-one else managed a '10' in the race.

In fact, Ingall set the second fastest lap of the race, with a 1m11.1924s. Let me rephrase; Ingall set the 10th fastest lap of the race.

The nine fastest all belonged to Ambrose.

Many of the opposition teams point to the fact that, in recent years, Bathurst has been a bit of a hoodoo track for the Stones. After the speed Ambrose showed at Sandown, many will have the prayer mats out in a bid to request that the trend continues next month.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Keeping ,in eye on the screens; Ambrose W'.is in fine form at Sandown. moiorsport news

V8 SUPERCARS

I n

Seats remain open for 2005. This performance showed that Luff deserves, at the very least. consideration for one of them.

lapped cars, Dumbrell and Longhurst, who had a quiet race and dragged the car up to eighth. And that was the best for the Castrol crew.

Behind that battle came Murph, who threw everything at McConville but could not make him crack, and

Richards Jr had motored through the stop/start early laps to be in the top six as early as lap 8, only to be forced into the pits for a new splitter when vibrations set in.

Bargs, who rued the loss of 40s in the stop and reckoned his car was podium-ready otherwise.

Jones made it five Fords in the top seven, despite feeling that on his final set of tyres, the pressure bleeders were not behaving as they should have. The other BJR Ford was out early, Andy J spirming after a belt from McIntyre early, only to have a driveshaft end his day way early.

Behind Jones came the best of the

The other problem was that,just like it had been in qualifying, the car showed a lack of speed. Not a huge deficiency but enough to be of a concern with the Mountain looming.

The family plugged on to finish 15th.

The other Castrol car of Alex D and

continued on page 50

I

Smoking killed: From the top, Phillip Sciflett, Nathan Pretty and Paul Radisich all coughed and spluttered their way to retirement.

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49

VBSCS ROUND 9 Sandown, Vic continued from page 49

the stewards.

Jamie Whincup ended up down at the old Peters corner when a

The championship may be led by the defending Champ but three words mean that nothing is certain Bathurst is next. As much as SBR's

puncture forced Jamie to go grassing.

Of the rest, the less said about WPS's squad of WRC wannabes the better, Morris and Gurr struggled with a wet set-up on the Sirromet VY and a couple of incidents and FPR soldiered on to top 20 finishes, Lowndes's early speed fading with his tyres, which left the car understeering. Menu had a couple of clangs on the way after Macrow went well early, while Ellery was out of luck when he had his steering bent in an incident and had a clash with Matt Halliday, earning a yellow card from

form has been stellar everywhere else, Bathurst remains unconquered in the team's current guise, while the challengers are likely to be Murph, the Richos, Skaife and,if this race is any guideline, about 10 other combos. No, more than that-any darrm thing could happen.

And if the usual reasons are not enough to prompt anyone to make the visit to the New and Improved Mountain,Peter Brock will be there.

So,can you think of a reason NOT to make The Pilgrimage?

VBSCS POINTS

feel a lot more," DJ said.

"Even a top five was what we were hoping for but this is much better. When the car gets stronger over a race, it makes it easier for the guys."

And, as much as Johnson is a proud dad, what about the performance of Warren Luff?

"Warren did a great job, doing a double stint shows that the hard work he has put in to be able to

1 SO LAPS

Points after round nine: Ambrose 1487, Bright 1464,

Pas I DRIVER I Race Time|Fastest |Lap

Richards 1397, R. Kelly 1373, Ingall 1347, Murphy

1

Ambrose/Ritter

2

Ingall/McLean

3:41:03.1307

1:10.8251

120

3:41:06.4386

1:11.1924

118

1284, T. Kelly 1163, Tander 1155, Bowe 1004, Bargv/anna 962, Weel 881, Skaife 863. Morris 861, McConville 860, Dumbrell 844, Johnson 832, Longhurst 826, Baird 814, Jones 789, la. Richards 788, Seton 783, Winterbottom 764, Radisich 763,

3 johnson/Luff 3:41:08.3104

1:11.4685

145

4

McConville/Tander 3:41:10.7127

1:11.4118

120

5

R. Kelty/Murphy 3:41:10.9670

1:11.2781

120

6

Bargwanna/Winterbotlom 3:41:12.4071

1:11.7003

33

1:11.7776

32

Luff 736, Tratt 720, Lowndes 637, Ellery 590, Besnard 560, Wilson 504, Wills 499, Noske 304, Brede 292, Coullhard 214, Porter 202, Ritter 192, McLean 188, Walden 181, Marshall 152, White 152, Mezera 148, Brock 140, Plato 140, Ji.Richards 136,

7 Bowe/B. Jones

O'Brien 132, Gurr 128, Macrow 120, Menu 120, D'Agostin 116, Wimmer 116, McIntyre 112, Yoong

3:41:15.5760 8

Dumbrell/Longhurst 159 laps Ja Richards/Coukhard

1:11.7794

82

9

159 laps

1:11.6965

119

159 laps

1:11.6063

93

159 laps

1:12.0297

123

158 laps

1:12.1823

134

158 laps

1:12.6626

95

156 laps 15 S. Richards/Jim Richards

1:12.3434

134

155 laps

1:11.5250

42

154 laps

1:12.0392

114

153laps

1:11.9029

141

152 laps

1:11.9606

132

152 laps

1:12.2477

115

152 laps

1:13.8751

127

148 laps

1:12.6055

137

142 laps

1:11.6543

111

133 laps

1:11.4125

95

123 laps

1:13.4291

93

122 laps

1:12.0963

94

122 laps

1:12.2550

35

121 laps

1:12.6334

7

111 laps

1:11.8576

33

108laps_ DNF Whincup/A. Davison

t:n._8062

46

83 laps

1:12.570^

81

39 laps

1:12.4780

31

37 laps

1:12.1822

36

28 laps

1:13.1561

27

16 laps

1:14.6178

5

10 laps

1:14.0863

7

112, Youlden 108, Elliot 100, McFadyen 90.

Out of their Shell PROUD man, Dick Johnson.

With good reason; over the last 25 years, the man has done whatever it took to make his way in one of the toughest capers around.

So it would have been tough for Johnson to watch his team struggle over recent seasons.

Through it all, he has faced the criticism and been up-front; yes, the results are not coming; no, we are not satisfied; of course, we are working hard.

The proof of the pudding was DJR's newest Barra, rolled out at Sandown. The body language of the car indicated that Johnson's men had made a Step in the right direction; the car was steady, swift and reliable, wet or dry.

So a podium in its maiden race was a welcome result.

This is a feeling 1 want to

Race

do it has paid off."

With that, Johnson looked in danger of being hugged by an enthusiastic and bearded long term fan. Still, the smile on his face was as big as Queensland itself.

Not far behind, surely, was another Sunshine Stater's grin.

Glenn Seton will start next season in an even newer Helix Falcon. Even if he was not confident before of his prospects in his first race with the team in six months' time, he will be rubbing his hands now ...

- PHIL BRANAGAN

10 Bright/Weel 11 While/Marshall 12 Tratt/Mezera 13 Baird/Porter 14 Brock/Plalo

16 Besnard/O'Brien 17 Morris/Gurr 18 Seton/Lowndes 19 Menu/Macrow 20 D'Agostin/Wimmer 21 Yoong/Mclntyre 22 Ellery/Youlden 23 Skaife/T. Kelly 24 Walden/Elliort DNF Pretty/Simonsen DNF Brede/W. Davison DNF Larkham/Halliday DNF 0. Kelty/Brabham DNF Wills/Stokell

DNF Canto/Muller DNF Radisich/Wilson DNF Leahey/White DNF Scifleel/Holdswortb DNF A. Jones/Cleland

BIB P

D

TU

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Two wrongs m mal u

Nothing went right for Ferrari in itaiy, with poor tyre choice and a Lap 1 mistake from Michaei Schumacher. But that just made their 1-2 resuit aii the more speciai. A stunned JOE SAWARD reports from Monza

SUALLY, when a team makes a tactical mistake at the start of the race, the crew and drivers are in for a long and sad afternoon.

When a driver adds to that with an error on the opening lap, the chances of points exit swiftly out the window.

A podium result? You would have to be optimistic. A win? Dream on. A12? Are you mad?

Rubens Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari. He did it after

domination and Monza was the ultimate lesson in domination. Both drivers ran into trouble and yet both men were able to pick up the pieces and get the team back to another 1-2 victory.

The message is clear: the other teams must beat themselves with twigs and then go back to the drawing board and try again.

leaping the wrong way on tyres early and paying the price with an early tyre change and a compromised strategy. Michael Schumacher put on the clown shoes at the second chicane

The weather in Monza at around breakfast timeturned on Sunday when the first drops of rain landed on the Monza parkland. It was not a storm but the intensity built up until it was fairly pelting down.

The weather men had said that it

and spun back to 15th position.

But from then on, both men were flawless. Aided by Ferrari's mighty F2004, the two pushed all the way, ran down the opposition and sent the tifosi home with much to celebrate.

would dry up late in the morning and,sure enough, it did but the track was still wet. Or at least damp.

The sun was begirming to show through as the grid formed up and so the teams were faced with a decision.

The underlying point in all of this was summed up neatly by Jenson Button, who finished third after a strong race in his BAR-Honda.

"I didn't think that the Ferraris were going to be so strong towards the end of the race," he said."The pace of these two guys was just untouchable. Their performance in the dry is just staggering."

And,I guess, that said it all. This season has been all about Ferrari's

Was it wet enough for intermediate tyres or could the drivers survive on grooved slicks?

One man who knew the answer was Bernie Ecclestone. With 20 minutes to go Mr E was chatting to various Italian government ministers who had turned up wearing Ferrari gear. They were talking about the weather and the damp track.

"It'll be dry," said Ecclestone.

"After three (laps) the track will be

completely dry."

And so it was. Tlie point was made blatantly obvious by the lap times. In the end, only four drivers decided that the advantage to be gained from intermediates was worth the risk: the pole man Barrichello, McLaren's David Coulthard, Sauber's Felipe Massa and Gianmaria Bruni in his Minardi.

Up in the media centre, there were sharp intakes of breath when everyone realised that Barrichello was on intermediates. It seemed an obvious mistake.

"It was a difficult decision," said Rubens."When we went to the grid it was fairly wet. The sun was out and basically it was going to dry but it was very difficult to know when. I thought that with wets I could open up a gap in the first five laps that I would be able to really be happy with after the pit stops."

And Rubens was right for two laps. At the end of the first lap, he was 6.9s ahead of Fernando Alonso; at the end of the second lap, the gap was up to 8.2s. But then the conditions changed and on the next lap, Alonso pulled the gap back to 6.6s and on the fourth lap he sliced another 3.8s off Barrichello's lead.

On lap five Rubens went into the pits and dropped from second place (because by then the Renault had

Best performance in a supporting, non-Ferrari role: Button looked like a winner but had to settle for third place.

52

overtaken the Ferrari) to rejoin in ninth place. From then on Rubens was out of kilter with the other pit stops and it was very difficult to judge how he was doing. When he pitted for the second time, he was fourth but was still in touch with the leaders.

That stop cost him two positions but when the others began pitting again Barrichello went to PI. And once he was there he stayed there and even his final pit stop was not enough to lose him the lead.

The race was not easy because Rubens did not know exactly where he was in relation to the others.

"I just kept pushing and pushing,"

A

(e a Right he said. "I was telling myself,'You deserve this,just push the throttle down and go as fast as you can'. So when I came out of the pit I asked 'What position am I in?' and they said PI and I said something in Portuguese which I carmot repeat now but it was a phenomenal feeling."

Schumacher was not a threat. But he made a point by hauling himself up to Rubens's tail a few laps from the end. He was gracious in defeat and admitted that his

lap in 15th position.

After that he drove a storming race, chipping away at the time he had lost, and by the end of the race he had done enough to beat Button.

For a while. Button had thought he had a chance to win but it was a false dream and the blows came all at the

same time. Jenson was hoping to go into the lead when Barrichello pitted.

As that was happening,Schumacher pulled alongside the BAR and went ahead and Jenson suddenly realised that he was third.

problems were of his own making.

He had gone for dry tyres and had tried too hard and slid into Button at

But that was good enough for BAR and, with Takuma Sato finishing fourth, the team collected a haul of 11 points. Rivals Renault got nothing

the Roggia chicane. He spun and by the time he was back on the road, he was a long way back, ending the first

continued on page

Two homes wins in a row? Barrichello led Ferrari's 1-2 at Monza and heads to the Chinese CP on the crest of a wave of confidence.

-)»i.i*Micnaia

1=

il

QuaUtying THE Autodromo Nazionale at Spa were at a disadvantage.

Giancarlo Fisichella was the Monza is all about horsepower and handling. The ^ fourth to run and set a time of throttles of the Formula 1 cars 1 m20.357s. the best time of the weekend up to that point. But it are open more here than at did not last long. In the mid any other race in the year, 73 session Montoya went out and percent of the time. And that blitzed the track, stopping the means that engines tend to clocks at a 1 ml 9.525s, an blow. Fast is one thing, reliable is another. average speed of over 260kph. It was a pretty spectacular lap and And then there is tyre with Antonio Pizzonia just a performance. In recent races the tenth slower a few moments tyre war has been getting so hot that there have been a number later, Williams ended the session with a 1-2. of failures, which would seem to Montoya's lap was the fastest indicate that the sport is getting ever lap in an FI car in an official into dangerous territory.

FI session.

Ferrari's ultimate boss Luca di Montezemolo referred to this The question was not whether or not the Williams-BMWs were almost in passing on Saturday when he said that Ferrari had quick but rather how much fuel the team would load the cars lost the race at Spa because the down with in the race. team had decided to be cautious "We spent a lot of time with its choice of tyres to make sure that the drivers would be preparing ourselves during the safe. test here last week," said technical director Sam Michael.

"We have made the same choice here," he said. "Safety is That work had paid off but was speed in pre-qualifying going to our number one priority." translate into World There is always a certain amount of trepidation at Monza Championship points? because the cars are travelling “The stage was set for an so fast and when a car goes off interesting qualifying session it tends to be in a pretty big way. and the lap times began to The modern generation has reduce quickly; the soon-to-be little respect for the history of retired Olivier Panis was the first this great circuit and so probably to lay his cards on the table but a do not feel the ghosts that lurk lap of 1 m21.8431 s was not out there in the woods but they do understand that this is an going to be enough. A few moments later his Toyota team exhilarating place, where Grand mate Ricardo Zonta sliced Prix cars are allowed to do what another sixth-tenths off that.

Grand Prix cars are supposed to do.

That did not last long either as the first of the Renaults was set There are none of the fiddly loose, but Jarno Trulli could not second gear corners that blight break the 1m21s barrier. so many tracks these days. This The slower first part had left is really motoring and if you make the two Ferraris in the middle of a big mistake, you pay for it. the order after the first runs and it was Rubens who went first. “errari took its usual 1-2 in the The result was a great lap of morning but in the afternoon 1 m20.089s, a second faster than Kimi Raikkonen gave everyone a Trulli's best and a clear indication good jolt of hope by setting the that Ferrari was not about to be fastest lap of the afternoon, trifled with. even if it was slower than Michael Schumacher's lap in the morning when the Ferrari lapped the track at an average speed of nearly 161mph. That's 258 kph.

Average.

On Saturday morning the lap times increased slightly and Juan Pablo Montoya was fastest but then Rubens Barrichello snatched back the best lap with a few minutes to go before the end of the session. The stage was set for an interesting qualifying.

The pre-qualifying session suggested that the track was improving slightly with each qualifying run which meant that the men who finished well at 54

Rubetis i

The 'other' red car crushed 'em au l Monza with the fastest-ever qualifying lap time in Formula t f JO^SvSWARD reports

Bmmmm

,

^

v.

'■

J.

"The car was really good," Barrichello reported. "Even if you cannot do the perfect lap I think this was near to it. It was an exciting lap."

Indeed it was, and with an

average speed of 260.4kph this was the fastest lap ever in qualifying.

Michael Schumacher was the next man to run. People often assume that he will go faster

■olortiort MNS

FORMULA 1

p

1

than the Brazilian but, after a faster first sector, he faded slightly. It was going to be close but then Michael made a mistake at the Parabolica and in an instant he had lost six-tenths.

the Spa winner stopping the clocks two-tenths slower than Michael "Rubens is a lot faster than everybody else," he concluded.

"It will be interesting to see what happens in the race when it becomes clear what strategy other teams have chosen."

Clearly McLaren felt strong, with the team later talking about lighter fuel loads "distorting the grid" ...

David Coulthard was twotenths slower than Kimi but this was a grid that was so tight that two-tenths was a huge amount.

The Scotsman reckoned his lap had been "a tidy one" but he reckoned he had lost some time in the Ascari chicane. It would only be enough for 10th on the grid.

The first 10 men would all end up within a second of pole.

Were the Ferraris strong enough to hold on? ~ernando Alonso put in a lap of 1 m20.654s, a tiny fraction slower than Michael. Fernando was surprised to be thafquick but made no bones about the fact that the best he expected on Sunday was "an aggressive race" and a fight for a podium finish.

He was four-tenths quicker than Trulli and that translated into five grid positions. Jarno had gone for what the team called "a continued over page

"I couldn't have matched him anyway," said Michael later. He was second and the big question was whether or not he could hold on to that.

Raikkonen could not beat him.

Montoya flung his Williams through the chicane en route to second in qualifying, far left; brake failure flung Pizzonia's Williams into the wall in practice, left, while Ryan Briscoe, below. completed his tyre work on Friday and earned strong praise from Toyota's Mike Gascoyne

Grand Prix of

JtaiY

September 112004

2 R Barrichello(BRA) Scuderia Ferrari Mariboro ;'l:2d.089* 3JPMontoya(CO) BMW WiltlamsFI Team 1:20.620 + 0,531 1 M Schumacher(0) - Scuderia Ferrari Mar1tx>ro 'l:20.637 '+ o!M8 8F Aionso(E) MBd Seven Renaiit F1 Team 1120.645" +0.556 10 T Sato (J) : Lucky Strike BAR Honda ' 1:20.715 +0.626 9 J Button ^GB) Lucky Strike BAR Honda ' 1:20.786 +0.697 6 K Raikkonen (FIN) West McLaren Mercedes n 1:20.877 +0.788 4APizzonia(BRAl ; BMW WilliamsFI Team ' 1:20.888 +0.799' ; Mild Seven Renault F1 Team ' 1:21.027 " +0;938 5 D Coulthard (GBl ' West McLaren Mercedes 1:21.049 +0.960 16RZonta(BRA) Panasonic Toyota Racing 1:21.520 + 1.431 14 M Webber (AOS) Jaguar Racing 1:21.602 +1.513 17 0Panis(F) Panasonic Toyota Racing 1:2li41 +1.752 ;14 15CKIien ^uar Racing 1:21.989 + 1.900 IIGFisichella Sauber Petronas 1:22.239 12.150 12FMassa(BR) Sauter Petronas 1:22.287 V'2.198 18 N Heidfeld (D) Jordan Ford 1:22.301 +2.212 19 G Pantano (i: : Jordan Ford 1:23.239 +3.150

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continued from previous page conservative race strategy" but the team said that it did not expect to see any great difference in strategies on race day, despite Barrichello's big advantage.

If Trulli was carrying more fuel there might be an advantage.

But was he?

This was an important question because with the battle for second place in the Constructors’ hotting up, there is no doubt that some at Renault think that Jarno, who has been booted out of Renault next year, is not really bothered about where he finishes and could not give a damn if the team is second or not.

We have even heard suggestions that the team might drop him and draft in someone else for the final three races in an effort to hold off BAR-Honda.

T

he final four runs were for the two BAR-Hondas and the Williams-BMWs and they were all in the hunt, although not close to Barrichello's great time.

Did the Ferraris run light or where they really that quick?

One could not tell.

Button was a tenth slower than Alonso and was briefly fourth fastest. He complained of oversteer. Takuma Sato beat him by a whisker.

But what would Williams do?

The first to go was Pizzonia, who has looked increasingly good in recent events. He had overcome a nasty incident on Friday afternoon when a brake failure sent him off the road and into the wall at the Parabolica but he had come back well and was right on the pace in the pre qualifying. He made a tiny mistake on his qualifying run and was a tenth slower than Sato but a tenth meant a number of grid positions.

All eyes were on Montoya and he did not disappoint. He was quick in the first sector but being unable to get within half a second of Barrichello in the middle sector. But he was twotenths quicker than Pizzonia and second on the grid. Antonio was eighth. That is how close it was.

The big news, however, was that Michael Schumacher had been bounced from the front row and with Fernando Alonso up there as well there was a chance that the Renault might use its super-special start to upset the applecart on Sunday.

It was going to be worth watching.

56

continued from page 53

Boom Crash Opera (Act XIX): Kimi looked racey until the McLaren stopped with another case of Mercedes-Bent.

and so BAR moved to second in the Constructors' title.

Turn 1, Goof 1: Schumacher had a bad opening lap ...

It must have been a crushing blow for Renault, not least because once again Jarno Trulli was completely off the pace. At least until the final three laps, when suddenly he got down to times that he had been nowhere near for the rest of the day.

His fastest lap was faster than that of Alonso and one might have even been led to believe that he was giving a message to the Renault management. Trulli has not scored a point since it was armounced that he was leaving Renault at the end of the year. And no-one is really sure why.

It seems that in the next few days, things will change but Renault may already have paid the price for its bizarre decision not to retain Trulli in 2005.

Alonso did his best and was running fourth and chasing Button when he spun out at the second chicane.

The remaining points went to Montoya,Coulthard, Pizzonia and Fisichella. Montoya looked good early on but towards the end of the race, his FW26 became difficult to drive. On the final lap and a half, it had a gearbox problem and only just made it across the line ahead of DC and Pizzonia, who had had a pretty exciting time, colliding with one another on the penultimate lap. Both men stayed on the road and were nose-to-tail at the flag.

Coultliard's race had been a good one because on the parade lap, he realised that the decision to go with intermediate tyres was a mistake and went straight to the pits and set off on a long-haul one-stop strategy. It paid off and David came home with three points. Williams got six and so pulled away a little in the fight for fourth place in the Constructors' title.

McLaren would probably have done better but for Raikkonen's retirement with an engine failure when he was running with the leading group.

Pizzonia's race was worthy of

comment(once again) because the Brazilian was punted up the rear by Olivier Fanis at the second chicane and spun. He was 19th (and last) at the end of the first lap but charged back through the field and was hoping to get ahead of Coulthard on the penultimate lap.

The move failed but Pizzonia had still done a great race and one must say that some of the doubts that might have existed about his abilities after his problems at Jaguar last year have now disappeared - if you ignore the fact that he was off the road on

more than two occasion ...

Fisichella picked up the last point and he deserved it with a typically gritty race with a heavy fuel load early on. Massa went for the intermediate tyres and for a few laps he looked great and was up to sixth before he pitted. Dumped down the order he was keen to make up for lost time but then crashed into Heidfeld and lost his front wing and had to pit again and that meant 12th to tell the story of what might have been.

A Sauber is not a Ferrari. But, after this, neither is anything else.

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molorsport news

FORMULA -I

Praying at the Altar of Speed 1

EVERY year, Monza closes the European F1 tour, hosting the race on the only ultra-fast circuit still on calendar.

The Italian track is the last temple of speed in the World Championship and that places demands on the teams and their engine partners. All the cars run a low downforce set-up and the latest in VI Os, which feature higher revs and therefore higher top-end power.

So, there is always much to see (and hear) at Monza.

McLaren sported a completely revised nose cone (2), the new shape dramatically wider in comparison to the previous version. Could this be a preview of next year's MP4/20?

The changes are designed to make the car less pitch sensitive and provide a more stable front end. The matching

front wing utilises a single flap and new endplates, featuring a sort of cut of the top rear edge of the endplates to reduce the drag generated by that area.

On the other hand, Ferrari only slightly adjusted its aerodynamics for Monza. The F2004 showed a low downforce wing (1), sporting a very narrow profile flap cut at the extremities. This maximises the top speed on the long Italian straights while still providing stability.

The two Williams-BMWs had a new front wing featuring a double S profile, very similar to the one used at the start of the season when the FW26 was running the Walrus nose. The wing (4), sitting a little higher in the airstream, provides less downforce compared to the old one and featured a central deep

spoon profile.

At the rear, the car had a new wing (3), with a very narrow and slightly ‘S' profile in its cross section. The leading edge w scalloped near the endplate; with a saw tooth profile and showed similarities to the FW25 wing run a Monza a year ago.

- PAOLO FILISETTI

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57

Hot times for Jimmy B

It's an all-Italian race! Bruni is about to he lapped by Barrichello into the Parabolica. A few laps later... boom!

Italian Grand Prix

WHEN Gianmaria Bruni came into the pits on lap 29 he was last. He had had a good day up to that point, his decision to run on intermediates in the early laps had taken him up to 11th place before reality sent him back down the order.

At the second pit stop, Bruni was getting ready to accelerate away when suddenly the car was engulfed in flame. The team regularly carries out fire drill and the blaze was put out with impressive speed by the team and by fire marshals. The problem was that a small amount of fuel remained in the refuelling nozzle after it was disconnected from the car and dropped onto the ground and went under the car and ignited.

No-one was hurt but Bruni inhaled some of the fumes from the extinguisher and had difficulty breathing and so the car had to be retired.

"I cannot thank the guys enough for their professional behaviour and quick reactions _ that undoubtedly helped to avert !. what could have been a major Incident," said team boss Paul Stoddart. "We are investigating what happened."

- JOE SAWARD

Grand Prix of Italy

Results 53 laps/306.720km

September 12 2004

Positions lap by lap

Pas I DRIVER ] Race Time|Tastest |Lap

I

Barrichello

1:15:18.448

1:21.046

41 35

2

Schumacher

1:15:19.795

1:21.361

3

Button

1:15:28.645

1:22.671

13

4

Sato

1:15:33.818

1:22.660

32

5 6

Montoya Coulthard

1:15:50.800

1:22.929

32

1:15:51.887

1:22.889

24

7

Pizzonia

1:15:52.200

1:22.246

32

8

Fisichella

1:15:53.879

1:22.615

51

9

Webber

1:16:15.209

1:23.090

54

10

Trulli

1:16:24.764

1:22.855

52

,v> I:

I 1

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1

6 7

: I

11

Zonta

1:16:40.979

1:23.410

52

12

Massa

52 laps

1:22.941

50

8 AP E30-,

13

Klien

52 laps

1:23.432

29

14

Heidfeld

9

52 laps

1:24.168

23

Baumgartner Alonso

50 laps

1:26.356

31

40 laps

1:22.881

31

11 Rz.

DNF

Pantano

33 laps

1:24.061

13

DNF

Bruni

29 laps

1:26.371

24

DNF

Raikkonen

13 laps

1:23.365

11

DNF

Panis

Olaps

Raikkonen 28. Coulthard 24, Sato 23. Fisichella 19, R.

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58

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Constructors’ Championship; Ferrari 234, BAR-Honda 94.

Sauber-Petronas 29. jaguar Racing 10, Toyota 9. jordan-

8

I

6. Klien, da Malta and Heidfeld 3, Clock 2. Baumgartner 1.

Renault 91, BMW.Wiiliams 60. McLaren-Mercedes 52.

N-, 4

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Schumacher 12. Massa 10, Webber 7, Panis and Pizzonia

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15 DNF

98. Button 71, Trulli 46, Alonso 45, Montoya 42,

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Drivers’ Championship: M. Schumacher 136, Barrichello

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moiorspon news

That brings with it a couple of consequences, the main one being that if you are down on power, there is nowhere to hide.

Despite completing a solid three days of testing along with all the other teams last week, we knew we were in for a fairly moderate weekend unless circumstances (like the weather) changed significantly. The boys at Cosworth have been working very hard, but due to budgetary constraints they just haven't been able to progress as fast as many others. It's just that simple.

You can compromise with wing settings but, on a track where that is at its least anyway, there's not too much room to move.

Practice went very quitefar well.

We didn't move from the set-up we'd finished testing with, although we were obliged to go for the hardest tyre Michelin had brought to the track in order to ensure we didn't suffer rear tyre blistering.

My qualifying lap was pretty good and I don't think I made any real mistakes. Because there are only a limited number of corners, it's very easy to overdrive by trying a bit too hard and then you end up losing time. So, it's important to stay cool.

All in all, 12th was as good as we could have hoped for.

Ik

TH4

The Sunday promised morning to downpour make for an interesting race, with some interesting strategies, but in the end it cleared up and was drying sufficiently for slicks as we gridded up.

My start undid most of what we'd gained in qualifying but, with the dramas affecting some of the others and some quite early stops, we ran as high as fifth in the first stint. It flattered us a bit as I found we had a bit of an understeer problem, which we attempted to improve at the first stop with some extra front flap.

Pizzonia and Fisi (who made a late first stop) both had too

to breeze by, even though I was quite busy sorting out those few things in the cockpit at the time. But, at the same time, he was pretty gentle with me! There was a long way to go and he wasn't going to trash his chances by being too aggressive.

O nce he was past he just disappeared. Impressive package ...

From that point on, it was purely a matter of pressing on as best we could. We didn't have the pace to compete for points. It was just a matter of gaining from any late retirements. Alonso was one, moving us into ninth late in the race.

"Onct ht WM past ha Juat iiMpptaptd.

haprtaaiva packapa...

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- Webber admires Schuey’s car much top speed for me and, early in the second stint, both went by quite cleanly.

Graining started to become a problem in that second stint, along with some brake balance issues, so things were quite busy in the cockpit - and then along came Michael, fighting his way back from his early spin.

He had plenty of fuel on at that point, so he wasn't going

I

t's frustrating to work hard all weekend and just miss out on points, but realistically, that's where Jaguar is right now.

There is of course all the talk about what is going to happen to the team next year, so it's an unsettling time for the boys.

China next. No-one really knows whether it's a Michelin or Bridgestone track yet, and it will be interesting to drive the new circuit and see how China reacts to it all.

At least there are more corners there than Monza and that's what we need!

59

Super-Sonic Reynolds

SONIC Motorsport’s David Reynolds has sealed the 2004 Ford Racing Formula Ford Championship after a fraught and tightiy fought titie showdown at Sandown Raceway iast weekend.

With one race to go at the outer-Melbourne circuit, Reynolds held a slender twopoint series iead over Spectrum title rival Tim Macrow. Reynolds secured the title on the third-last corner when Macrow speared down the inside at Dandenong Road where the pair made the inevitable contact. Reynolds staggered momentarily before crossing the line in second place, which was enough to guarantee the Albury youngster the coveted title.

‘Tm relieved but stoked,” Reynolds claimed after he sealed the series and his first round win.

“I saw Tim getting closer and closer down the back straight on the last lap. He stuck it in but it worked in our favour.”

Macrow was disappointed, but philosophical. ”1 had to have a go,” he said. ”1 had nothing to lose and didn’t want to die thinking about the ’what ifs’.”

Qualifying was held in wet and changeable conditions. Reynolds started the weekend on the right foot with his first pole position, but Kmart endurance driver Steve Owen used his impeccable wet weather skill to grab the Race 1 victory.

Western Australian Dean Fiore

Rcha

by CHRIS JORDAN

made the best start, jumping from fourth to first at turn one.

Macrow, who qualified well down the order, stormed to fourth, despite his engine-cover flapping. He finished the race in the wall down the back straight when too much water made its way into the engine bay, leaving him with no drive. In the mist, fellow Spectrum steerer Shane Price couldn’t see Macrow and ploughed straight into the back of him.

Price was instantly out of the weekend, while Macrow was forced to use Price’s gearbox for the remainder.

The race was red-flagged, which allowed Macrow to keep his fourth place behind Reynolds in second and Fiore.

Sime Tyres steerer David Sieders qualified second (a career-best) but a broken gear linkage in Race 1 halted his efforts.

Race 2 was a quieter affair.

Reynolds got the jump but after five laps, Owen asserted himself at the front. Fiore and Macrow again finished third and fourth, while Brett Francis, James Small

and Andrew Thompson enjoyed a great dice in the latter half of the race.

In the Championship decider.

Kiwi Jason Liefting made a mega start on a drying track, scything from eighth to first at the first turn. But the Winton round winner’s joy was short-lived when he made a driving error while in first place and beached the car in the mud.

Owen’s chance of a cleansweep was destroyed when a gearbox problem caused him to run off the track, which left Reynolds, Macrow and Small to duke out the final few laps of the championship.

After the title rivals clashed.

Small took advantage of their collision and scored a welldeserved win ahead of Sonic team-mates Reynolds and Michael Trimble.

Fiore finished fifth in the last race, third overall and scored the 2004 rookie of the year prize.

- GRANT ROWLEY Final points: Reynolds 287, Macrow 281, Owen 247, Francis 224, Fiore 205, Small 168, Bryce Washington 128, Liefting 120, Trimble 105, Sieders 85.

JIM Richards continued to out-do his younger adversaries in the Australian Carrera Cup Championship by winning Round 7 at Sandown,his second round victory in succession.

Richards was able to further close the gap to Champioaship leader Alex Davison on a weekend where it was error-free driving that set the podium placed drivers apart from the rest.

Just shaded by Fabian Coulthard in qualifying, Jim got the better of the start in Race 1, before Craig Baird, replacing James Cressey in the VIP Petfoods car for the remainder of the season, was able to take the lead on lap two.

Baird's run at the front was soon cut short by an over-exuberant move

by Coulthard at turn four, which turned Baird around, dropping him to fourth. This soon became third, as Coulthard was called in to complete a drive-through penalty for the indiscretion, dropping him back to a race end sixth.

Davison,second in Race 1, got the jump in Race 2, and never relinquished the lead. Richards and Baird battled on for second until Baird did a pirouette at high speed through the fast back straight section approaching Dandenong Road, gathering it up well to only lose one place, allowing Richards into second.

This was later reversed, when the results were taken back a lap after the red flag was flown due to heavy rain.

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rds romp and deemed too dangerous for the slicks-shod field.

This left the race at less than 75

percent complete, meaning that no championship points would be awarded, another element to fall into Richards' hands.

Where as Race 1 for Coulthard had been a sorry end to a race where he had shown very strong pace. Race 2 was a nightmare. The young Kiwi star speared off the track on standing water on the warm up lap coming under the Pioneer bridge, the DNF proving less costly than expected when the race was declared early.

After an early dice for the lead in Race 3 between Baird and Davison, Richards began to make his move mid-race, when Baird was brought in to serve a drive-through for rolling at the start. A few laps later, he had latched onto the back of Davison, and pulled off a bold move under brakes into Dandenong Road corner to grab the lead and the win.

Again, a race did not go the duration when Coulthard made a bad weekend a lot worse.

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understeering off the track coming onto the front straight. Once on the grass, he was a passenger, the car making heavy contact with the armco, launching the car into the air, the driver luckily escaping unharmed.

Jonathon Webb was fast all weekend, and only improved raceby-race, with a fifth and fourth in the first two races respectively, and finally, a third in the final race giving him a well -deserved podium for the round, in the Paul Cruickshank prepared car.

Coulthard was not the only one in strife over the weekend, Peter Fitzgerald an unlucky passenger when hit from behind by Stephen Borness, resulting in a spectacular synchronised spin and launch over the kerb. Rodney Jane was another, lucky to escape unharmed from a wreck in practice. His car came to rest on its side against the tyre wall on the back straight, his team able to repair the car for qualifying.

He's on a roll: Jim's second round win in a row will have Davison nervous and no one could accuse Baird of not trying in his new role in the VIP team.

●f 1

Points: Davison 1068, Richards 969, Coulthard 804, Fitzgerald 615, Pedersen 393, Webb 381.

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Home Town Favourite Fetter Solberg put his recent dramas behind him with a convincing win in Rally Japan. JON THOMSON reports

R

EIGNING Champ Fetter Solberg has put himself back in contention for back-to-back titles with a start-to-finish victory m the first ever WRC round in Japan two weeks ago.

The Norwegian bounced back after a series of crashes and misforhmes in recent rounds to give Subaru an allimportant win on home soil.

Once Solberg saw off a spirited challenge from Sebastien Loeb on Day 1, he never looked back.

A blistering series of stage wins during Day 2 put the rally beyond reach and then it was just a matter of maintaining his advantage throughout the final day.

The win takes Solberg to second in the drivers' title, albeit 30 points (three wins) behind Loeb, who grabbed second in Japan and may have made a fight of it had he made the correct tyre choice.

Solberg sheeted his opponents, largely due to an Inspired choice of Pirellis with exactly the right pattern and compound for the challenging Hokkaido roads.

"After Germany,it's incredible," said Solberg at the finish.

"I must say it was better than I expected after crashing in Germany.

I never thought I could be so good because it was a terrible accident."

Loeb lost time to Solberg on the first day and settled for second, and important Championship points.

"Second is good," said Loeb.

"To win would be better, but the objective is to win the Championship. You can't win every time and Fetter was very fast here.

"The most important difference was the second day when we had the wrong tyre choice for the first loop. After that, 1 didn't try to win again."

Markko Martin's third place again underlined the Estonian's enormous reserves of grit and determination.

Martin and co-driver Michael Park had a rally-long battle with their pace-notes.

The pair realised soon after the start that their notes were far too optimistic for the narrow and twisting roads and they spent the rally constantly rewriting them for the second pass through stages, driving most of the first passes blind.

Martin is also said to be still not 100 percent fit following his huge 62

crash in Argentina, but still put in a strong performance.

The Focus clearly has the pace to match or beat the rest of the field, and the MSport team is hoping Ford management will back an ongoing program in the WRC. Peugeot's woes with the inconsistent and often unreliable 307 continued in Japan. Despite having held back its new five-speed 'box in the search for reliability until now,the Gear, gears?

The Peugeots struggled with their new gearboxes, Gronbolm taking fourth, left, and Rovanpera dragging his 307, above, to sixth.

But no-one could challenge the Subaru of Solberg, below, at any stage.

mil

new transmission proved anything but reliable.

Both works Peugeots made it into the points. Marcus Gronholm, who finished fourth, was never in a position to challenge the leaders, largely due to transmission troubles.

It was a frustrating event for Gronholm, with his campaign going off the rails during the second leg,just after he had passed Loeb for second to head the pursuit of Solberg.

However a 10s jump-start penalty, the gearbox problems and poor tyre choice meant that he ended the day in fifth, more than two minutes off the lead. It was then a matter of battling with Carlos Sainz for the better championship points.

"I was trying to catch Carlos,so (it was)not so bad, but we stiU have things to do to win rallies," said Gronholm.

"We were 20 seconds behind Solberg when the problem started. We could maybe have put a bit of pressure on him, maybe not. We are struggling."

Sainz, the acknowledged master of new WRC events, was never in position to win in Japan,finishing 13s behind Gronholm in fifth.

Behind tliat, the gap was huge, with Hard Rovanpera bringing the second Peugeot home in sixth almost five minutes down on the Spaniard.

Mikko Hlrvonen posted another disappointing performance in the second Subaru,the Finn battling some problems to seventh in another lacklustre performance.

Francois Duval,hot from his podium finish In Germany, was looking good for a points haul until he slid off the road on the second stage of the final leg when in sixth.

The Belgian had the added pressure of having to blood a new co-driver after regular man Stephane Prevot was forced to return home for personal reasons.

Privateer Antony Warmbold in his privateer Peugeot 206 took the final point ahead of Toshi Arai in the first of the Group N cars.

Some performances that were far from lacklustre included another inspired drive from Australia's Atkinson brothers in their Suzuki Ignis S1600,and a fine third in Group N for Dean Herridge,giving Subaru a clean sweep of major honours.

While the Atkinsons weren't contesting the WRC sechon of the Japanese event, their performance in taking second in the Asia Pacific contest behind Karamjit Singh put many of the 4WD turbo drivers to shame.

The brothers led the APRC section for much of Saturday before conceding the win to the Malaysian following a

RALLY

1 Fetter Solberg

Nor Subaru Impreza GB 3h43m50.6s 2 Sebastian Loeb F Citroen Xsara X4 Daniel Elena Mon 3h45m03.9s 3 Markka Martin Est Ford Focus RS04 Michael Park GB 3h45m33.9s

Phil Mills

Focusing on points: Martin did well to grab third, above, in the latest edition of the Ford. But... next year? puncture,and battled for second on the final day until his opponent Katsu Taguchi in an Evo VII Lancer went off the road.

Atkinson made the WRC teams stand up and take notice, blasting his way inside the top 10 outright on Day 2 when he was eighth fastest on one stage in tlie tiny front-wheel-drive 1600cc minnow.

"It was a great feeling to be so fast, but to be only 2s a kilometre outside the pace of the WRC leader when we

are in a little 1600 is unreal," said Atkinson.

A pimcture seven kilometres from the end of a stage cost the brothers 50s when they were set to challenge Singh for the APRC lead. The pair took 12th outright ahead of compatriot Cody Crocker, who battled with an unfamiliar car to take 14th.

Herridge's performance in taking the fight to Arai on his home soil is not to be imderestimated either, finishing 11th outright and third Group N

overall. The young West Aussie backed up his Group N win in NZ earlier in the year and must be a strong chance for a similar win in Perth come November.

The results prove Australia's wealth of driving talent is deep and primed for greater things on the world stage.

With Solberg's win comes an interesting scenario heading to the Rally of Great Britain next week,where the Norwegian always performs well.

4 Marcus Gronholm Fin Peugeot 307 WRC Timo Rautiainen Fin 3h45m58.5s 5 Carlos Sainz E Citroen Xsara X4 E 3h46m21.6s Marc Marti 6 Harri Rovanpera Fin Peugeot 307 WRC Risto Pietilainen Fin 3h51m16.8s 7 Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen

Fin Subaru Impreza Fin 3h51m07.1s

8 Antony Warmbold D Ford Focus RS02 Gemma Price GB 4h02m05.3s Drivers' Points: Loeb 84, P. Solberg 54, Martin 53, Sainz 50, Gronholm 47, Duval 39, Hirvonen 21, Rovanpera 17, Tuohino 16, Loix 7, Panizzi and Carlsson 6, Robert 4, Perez, Paasonen, Gardermeister, Stohl and H. Solberg 3, Valimaki, Warmbold and Ginley 2, Pozzo, Vovos, Campos and Burri 1.

Manufacturers' Points: Citroen 137, Ford 102, Subaru 79, Peugeot 73, Mitsubishi 17.

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FORD'S announcement that it will release Belgian rising star Francois Duval has led other WRC team bosses to speculate that the Blue Oval will withdraw from the Championship next year.

Duval, 23, was released from his contract last week to allow him 'the opportunity to further his WRC career' after Ford decided that it could not guarantee him a seat in 2005.

Team boss Malcolm Wilson's last-minute dash to

the UK did nothing to allay the fears of the other teams and Duval's release only fanned the rumours more.

However, Subaru boss David Lapworth dismissed reports that the WRC was in crisis despite the fact that the WRC may be back to just six cars in 2005.

"The stability in the championship, the agreement we have about the future, is probably the strongest we've .ever had," Lapworth said.

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THE tide of manufacturer withdrawal may be about to turn, with the World Rally Championship set to take a distinctly Japanese feel if rumours from the Land of the Rising Sun prove correct.

Representatives from Toyota, Honda and Nissan all visited last week’s inaugural Rally Japan, kicking off preliminary investigations into the viability of entering the WRC. Sources suggest all three are studying the possibilities of entering the WRC, although none of them would be on the starting ramp until at least 2008 at the earliest.

“I think there is an awful lot of interest in Japan and from the Japanese manufacturers to see how the event works and some whose importance surprised me - not the least because Hokkaido, where the rally was based, is not the easiest place to

64

get to,” said Dave Richards, the International rights holder for the WRC. Richards, of course, has close links with both Subaru through rallying and with Honda through its F1 involvement.

“The positive thing is that there is a great deal of interest there and a general support among the Japanese motor and motorsport industry to have a WRC round in their country,” Richards continued.

“I am positive that all the energy will be a good thing for the standing of the Championship.”

Toyota, above, withdrew from the WRC after winning the manufacturer’s title in 1999 to concentrate on FI, while Nissan Europe, below, last ran works rally cars in selected WRC rounds in 1997. Honda has never ventured onto the dirt.

- JON THOMSON

FORMER WRC champ Hannu Mikkola has heaped praise on Aussie young gun Chris Atkinson after his giant-killing performance in the Rally Japan last week.

Mikkola reckons that Atkinson, right, has the potential to make the grade at World Championship level.

The Finn had more than a passing interest in the Australian driver, who is a team-mate to Mikkola’s own son Vesa in the Monster Sport Suzuki operation.

Atkinson comprehensively out drove the young Mikkola and was comfortably the top two-wheel-drive contender and eighth fastest on one stage in his Super 1600 Ignis.

“Atkinson is really flying,” Mikkola said.

“He is the next star. It’s very difficult to come from Australia, because if you win your local championship, everybody says the level is not high enough and it doesn't mean anything. To beat nearly all the top Group N cars in a WRC is not so easy.”

- JON THOMSON

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RALLYING

Ford looks for a lifeline

sinking?

"The problems in the last few months with Ford and Mitsubishi are way beyond anything to do with rallying.

It's not necessarily a reflection of the championship itself.

"In the short term, a Ford withdrawal detracts a little bit from the show. But as long as we keep the sport going in the same direction, it opens up opportunities for other manufacturers and we saw evidence of that interest in Japan."

- JOIM THOMSOIM/STAFF

sutton-imjges.com

Doing the Monster Mash

Suzuki plans WRC attack - now itjust needs a driver...

AS one manufacturer. Ford, determines whether to continue with its World Rally program, another is making plans to enter the series - Suzuki.

The Japanese manufacturer, which has fielded a four-car team in the Junior World Rally Championship since 2002 and which runs two cars in the Asia-Pacific series, has confirmed that it will run a WRC program in 2006. Speculation has suggested that the car would be designed and developed at 'Monster' Tajima's Suzuki Sport base in its Ryuyou factory in Iwata gun, Japan.

The Ryuyou site has been the base of most of Suzuki's motorsports programs and its cars have been developed in the factory's facilities, which included a one-third scale wind tunnel.

Apart from its JWRC program, it has developed customer cars (which are marketed in Europe by Suzuki Sport Europe in Hungary) and a number of one-make open-wheeler racers, as well as Tajima's hillclimb specials raced at Pikes Peak and in New Zealand.

However, while a prototype may have been at least partially built in Japan, MNews sources have suggested that the car is being completed, and will be tested and developed, by an English team with considerable experience in the WRC. This could mean that there is about to be a significant shift in the makeup of WRC's teams.

Until now, Suzuki has been seen as a lightweight in terms of its WRC ambitions, with sights set predominantly on class wins at world level and victories. However, with the news of a pending WRCar, and a possible tie-in with an English rally heavyweight, those days may well be numbered.

In that light, the performance of the Atkinson brothers in Japan, in plain sight of Suzuki's decision-makers, may not have come at a better time. Chris and Ben starred in Japan and will return to Australia later this month. In the meantime, they have been overseas yet again, doing a recce and preparing pacenotes for their next WRC outing. Coincidentally, that task has taken them to Britain ...

The Tommi Connection REPORTS in the British press suggest that Australian Chris Atkinson could drive a Tommi Makinen-prepared Impreza WRX in next year's World Production Car Championship.

English publication Motorsport Nms says that Makinen's company, Tommi Makinen Racing,"is making in-roads into the Finnish market and prepared the car that promising Australian Chris Atkinson drove on the Rally Finland.

"Makinen has big plans, including the 2005 Production World Championship, which might involve an Impreza for Atkinson," John Atkinson, Chris and Ben's father and the man bankrolling their current ARC campaign, has made no 15 September 2004

secret of the desire to get his sons into a WRC drive as soon as possible.

While the brothers still intend to compete in Australia next year, their program could include a deal with Makinen or, in fact, a full season with Suzuki on the JWRC. Those plans appear to depend on resolving whether the Junior series evolves into a one-make series, the FIA currently considering changing the class for '05.

The car that the brothers are ruiming in the ARC this year was built by Subaru factory operation Prodrive, and it is believed that a deal is being stitched together for the Australian youngsters to challenge for the PWRC in 2005.

- JON THOMSON

AS MNews closed for press, our sources in Europe were reporting that Ford has decided not to pursue its WRC programme in 2005.

The report follows on from the news that Ford rally boss Malcolm Wilson missed the Rally Japan, returning to Ford of Europe FIQ before the start to argue the case for his team's continuation in the World Championship.

Wilson flew back to Europe just six hours after reaching Flokkaido, when he learned that top Ford management was meeting at Brentwood to discuss the future of its motorsport programs.

With the program's future in question, Wilson felt he had to plead his case in person. Our information would seem to suggest that his efforts were unsuccessful, however confirmation one way or the other is expected sometime in the next Couple of months. n With his former WRC opponent Colin McRae now ensconced in long distance rally raiding, four-time world champ Juha Kankkunen has decided to give the Dakar Rally another shot and signed with Volkswagen.

The Finn has already tested one of VW's off-road Touaregs, a turbo diesel-powered space frame buggy with full composite body shell.

Kankkunen was apparently impressed with the machine and is slated to run the car in the UAE Desert Challenge in November as a shakedown for the Dakar marathon in January. n Tommi Makinen made a return to the WRC last week when he piloted the zero car on the Rally Japan, The four-time world champion required a waiver from the FIA and unanimous support from all works teams, as the former Subaru and Mitsubishi driver is still an FIA seed. n Former professional soccer player Norman Dougherty has been named as IMG's new representative in the Australian Rally Championship, replacing outgoing IMG Executive Luke Wilson.

Doughtery's role will be to lift the sponsorhip and profile of the Championship to a new level.

"My goal is to add those professional touches that will make the series even more attractive to potential sponsors, and to give the Globalstar ARC a louder voice in Motorsport in Australia by bringing the spectator awareness and attendance to events that which truly reflects the standard of competition we all enjoy," Dougherty said.

- JON THOMSON/STAFF 65

US gun to join Wdrld Series

AMERICAN speedway star Fred Rahmer is the latest driver to add his name to the illustrious list of drivers set to compete in World Series Sprintcars this season.

'Fast Freddy'from Selfordville, Pennsylvania, will drive his own car, but has formed a partnership with Sydney racer Peter Attard which wOl see Attard's 372ci Carbone engine used throughout the campaign.

Rahmer,right, plans to contest the Proton Jumbuck Speedweek rounds of the World Series Sprintcars, which will run over six nights in eight days from rounds sb< to eleven on the

calendar,beginning at Speedway City on December 26. There is also a possibility that Rahmer will stay on after Speedweek to contest the remaining rounds of the World Series.

Rahmer is one of the most accomplished sprintcar drivers in the United States, with an enviable record. This year in May,not only did the Pennsylvania-based driver win

Fair's 50 nights

A sNteen year sprintcar veteran, he won his last feature just last weekend.

In other World Series Sprintcars news,the last piece of the puzzle for the 2004/05 schedule was finalised recently, when it was confirmed that Heartland Speedway,currently under construction in Moama,NSW,is to host Round 14 of the series.

his 300th sprintcar feature, the very next night he racked up his four 400th overall feature win.

He also has three World of Outlaws wins under his belt, and 16th sprintcar track championships to his name,four of which came in consecutive years at Permsylvania's tough Williams Grove Speedway.

NT title stays put BROOKE David has successfully defended his Darwin Sprintcar Title at Northline Speedway over the weekend.

Despite rolling in tlie final heat, David,left, started the 15 lap final from pole alongside Mark Grosvenor.

David jumped out to the lead and was never headed in the run to the flag.

World Series Sprintcar driver Ben Atkinson worked his way through traffic to claim second,followed by Danny Porter and Alan Barlee.

Also up north, tire NT Sprintcar Trail begins this weekend with WSS drivers Danny Reidy and Atkinson, second-generation racer David Craft, and multiple Australian Speedcar champ Warrene Ekins all competing.

- PARIS CHARLES

See Australia’s Best Drivers in the World’s Fastest Sprint Karts! k September 24-26 Eastern Creeh Karting Raceway Sparco Formula A

Vega Intercontinental C

I. Barclay Holden 223 2. Daniel Elliot 217 3. Matthew Wall 186

/. Bart Price 242 2. Scott Harrison IBS 3. Tom Williamson 182

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I. Ashley Walsh 2SB 2. Paul LashazehsI 202 3. John Martin IBO

I. Kristian Lindbom 229 2. JaHe Williams 212 3. Joshua Scott I9S

For more information phone 02 9672 7530

www.auscihchampionship.com

66

2004 Australian Sprintcar Champion Robbie Farr is preparing for a hectic summer of 50 nights of sprintcar racing.

Now racing for Reeve Kruck's Titan Garages team, everything for Farr will be new.

The Titan team have switched from Eagle to the latest 2004spec Maxim chassis, plus a couple of brand-new 372 and 410 race engines are now at the team's disposal.

The team are also in the final stages of building a new race workshop back in their Brisbane base. Continuing with the new theme, the team will have two new crew members with Nick Speed (formally with Trevor Green and Kerry Madsen) and Scott Mayles (from WoO star Jason Sides) joining Farr this summer.

Racing with Farr in the Titan team will be former World Series Sprintcars champion and World of Outlaws star Daryn Pittman, who will run a limited program, giving the Titan team a strong driver line-up in the big Christmas/New Year period.

Farr will commence his summer campaign on October 2 in Brisbane, and will be running at all the big meetings including the full World Series Sprintcar calendar and the Outlaws Downunder meeting at Parramatta. Farr will also defend his Australian Sprintcar crown at South Australia’s Murray Bridge track on February 12.

- GREG BOSCATO

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SPEEDWAY

Champ fights back Crump still has fight on his hands for FIM World Speedway title

by TONY MILLARD j, i

FIVE times World Champion Tony Rickardsson has won his first Grand Prix in 15 attempts, by taking out the Slovenian GP at Krsko.

Championship leader and title favourite Jason Crump failed to make the final for only the second time this year and now faces a tough challenge in the final two rounds from Rickardsson.

However,if Crump were to win one of the remaining rounds, that would still give him the title, even if Rickardsson claimed the other.

Rickardsson hadn't won since the opening round of 2003 but he was back to his dominant best in Krsko, winning the final ahead of America's Greg Hancock and Denmark's Hans Andersen. He also won each of his four races to reach the final and did so by some margin, looking by far the fastest rider on show.

The five-time winner of the World Championship admitted that this victory tasted particularly sweet.

"I have been confident all season but I just haven't had the luck with the draw for the semi-finals or final.

"They say that these things even out over the year but I am not so sure. But things went really well tonight and I am very pleased."

Crump failed to make the final after going from second to third in his semi. But although Rickardsson

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Rickardsson is not going to let our boy Crump take the title without a fight. has closed the gap at the top of the table to 15 points. Crump can still be confident of being crowned champion after the last round at Hamar in Norway on October 2.

Hancock led in the final, only to be passed by the flying Rickardsson, but he, too, was satisfied with his night's work.

Hancock is now on 111 points, one adrift of Rickardsson.

Seven times Australian champ Leigh Adams has now slipped back to fourth on 89 points and his title hopes are over for another year. The Mildura-born rider came last in his semi-final behind Andersen, Hancock and Crump.

Ryan Sullivan, ninth in the title

race last year and four times Grand Prix winner has a disastrous night.

The Melboume-bom ace is now 12th in the standing and faces an uphill task to qualify automatically for next year.

Only the top eight will receive an invitation automatically, with another two qualifying from this year's world championship eliminator, already claimed by Sweden's Antonio Lindback and Tomasz Chrzanowski of Poland.

The FIM will nominate five more riders and there will be a wild card for each event in a 16-man field.

Points: Crump 127, Rickardsson 112, Hancock 111, Adams 102, N.Pedersen 89,Jonsson 76.

Dude confirms visit WHILST the driver line up for the 2005 Outlaws Downunder event still has to be confirmed, the 2004 Knoxville Nationals Champion, Danny ‘the Dude’ Lasoski, right, will definitely be coming to Parramatta for the January IB IS meeting.

The World of Outlaws star was missing for the inaugural event held earlier this year, but with next

year's race becoming a World of Outlaws points scoring round, Lasoski is certain to be heading downunder this summer.

With the first Outlaws Downunder meeting being so successful, interest in the 2005 meeting is very high in the US, with many topline American stars wanting to venture to Parramatta for the prestigious 2005 race.

Krikke driver set to be announced ONE of the most anticipated driver selections in recent memory will soon be finalised with WA-based Krikke Motorsports team set to announce Robbie Farr's replacement some time in the near future.

The seat is very likely to go to West Australian driver Mark Wells, ending months of speculation that has seen names such as Cameron Gessner, Trevor Green and Skip Jackson mentioned.

Wells ran third at the 2004 Australian Championships, an event won by Farr. n Sydney's Brooke Tatnell, driving the # 5 Guy Forbrook owned car, won his third IRA round for the year on Friday night at Superior Speedway.

Tatnell took command from Ricky Logan at half race distance, and from there cruised to take the win ahead of Jeff Mitrisin, with Logan third.

"This Guy Forbrook car was so good, anyone in the pits could have driven it to victory," said a jubilant Tatnell. "The Wirtgen team has really given me some great equipment and it shows." n Terry McCarl has recently picked up his sixth consecutive Knoxville Track Championship, which he wrapped up by finishing 10th at the final Knoxville show of the year.

Out of the Aussie drivers on show, the best was Brooke Tatnell in 9th, followed by Lynton Jeffrey (11th), Skip Jackson (14th), Jaymie Moyle (15th) and Kerry Madsen (16th). n Donny Schatz last Saturday night claimed his first Gold Cup Race of Champions in devastating fashion in the latest round of the WoO series at Silver Dollar Speedway.

Schatz, who currently ranks third in the WoO standings, led the entire 40-lap distance and won by eight carlengths ahead of Joey Saldana, with Craig Dollansky snaring third.

Further down the order than they would have liked, were WoO championship front runners Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski, whom both finished 10th and 12th respectively.

- DANIEL POWELL/STAFF

-GREG BOSCATO

Hoosier Tire Australia 2004 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP Australian Distributors for

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SILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAY 11/9/04 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10

.. .Donny Schatz ...Joey Saldana .Craig Dollansky . .. .Brian Paulus ●Blake Robertson . . . .Tim Schaffer . . . .Jason Sides . . .Sean Becker . . .Jason Meyers . . . Steve Kinser

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Brad Furr ...Danny Lasoski Mark Kinser Kraig Kinser Davey Key . . .Daryn Pittman . .Roger Crockett . . .Stephen Allard .Randy Hannagan Kevin Pylant

2004 STANDINGS TO 11/9/04 1. Steve Kinser .

2. Danny Lasoski 3. Donny Schatz .

4. Craig Dollansky 5. Jason Meyers .

6. Joey Saldana .

7. Kraig Kinser ..

8. Daryn Pittman 9. Tim Schaffer . .

10. Jason Sides .

7554 7455 7173 7091 7063 7017 6879 6747 .6732 6575

11. Brian Paulus ....

12. Paul McMahan ..

13. Erin Crocker ...

14. Brandon Wimmer 15. Mark Kinser . . . .

16. Jonathan Allard .

17. Bob Bennett .. .

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61

The Dphks Al*e On Det

G

ARY Densham enjoyed the best drag racing weekend of his career when he collected the Funny Car event title over Cruz Pedregon at the 50th Anniversary Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park lasty week to go along with Sunday's Skoal Showdown win.

Densham's win in Funny Car was worth a whopping $225,000 (AUD$323,000) as he added the U.S. Nationals trophy to his Skoal Showdown plaque from Sunday, a feat worth an additional $50,000 (AUD$71,700)'double-up' bonus from the NHRA. Twenty-five years after attending his first US Nationals on a minuscule budget, Densham drove the AAA of Southern California Mustang with crew chief Jimmy Frock's tune-up to a 4.89s at 317mph to trailer Cruz Pedregon's 6.49s at 147mph.

"I came to this race ago with $20 in my pocke^ and absolutely no business being here," Densham said.

Now I've come back here and won the U.S. Nationals.

This is what drag racing is all about. I don't care about that money; it'll all go to the team anyway and if they gave it all to me I'd spend it on drag racing, so it doesn't mean a thing to me.

A trophy from the U.S. Nationals, the 50th annual

one no less, is the thing."

Densham's Mustang was consistent on the^onday despite the ever-increasing temperatures at the racetrack.

He started with^ 4.85/319 win over Tony Bartone, used a 4.92/317 against Phil Burkart Jr., and trailered Whit Bazemore with a 4.93/315 before defeating Pedregon.

Pedregon's Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo reached the final after taking early round wins over Del Worsham, Tim Wilkerson, and Gary Scelzi.

Tony Schumacher scored his third Indy Top Fuel win in a row and fourth in the last five years, stopping low qualifier Doug Kalitta in the final round, 4.59/323 to 4.62/316.

The win moved Schumacher into second place on the all-time Indy Top Fuel win list behind 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits, who won The Big Go a record eight times.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army team, led by crew chief Alan Johnson, were strong from the opening round. posting a 4.55/325 to defeat Mike Strasburg. He followed that with the quickest pass of the second round wheh'he advanced past a red-lighting Morgan Lucas at 4.60/322,

He benefited from some luck against Scott Kalitta in the semis when he won with a 4.74/297 as his damaged engine billowed smoke.

Kalitta, in reaching his seventh final of the year, opened eliminations with a 4.78/313 against Bruce Litton,. posted a 4.65/315 to get past Clay Millican, and recorded a 4.62/315 to out-distance Larry Dixon.

Greg Anderson set the Pro Stock class record for victories in a single season with his 13th victory of the year, and in doing so has tied Force for the all-time pro-class record. In the final, Anderson defeated the Dodge of first time finalist Kenny Koretsky, 6.83/202 to 6.87/201.

Antron Brown provided a second event win for the U.S. Army team with his second career Indy win and second season victory in a row by beating Shawn Gann in a close final, handing Gann his fourthstraight Indy runner-up.

Brown stopped the timers at 7.21s at 185mph to defeat G ann's close 7.23s at 185mph.

History was made in Alcohol Dragster with the event's first all-female final.

Ashley Force, daughter of 12-time NHRA champion John, collected her first career national event win when she defeated Shelly Howard, 5.32/265 to 5.38/265.

Force is just the third woman to win a US Nationals title.

Bob Newberry, Alcohol Funny Car winner in 1998 and runner-up in 2002, collected

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his second Indy win when he bested Chuck Cheeseman, 5.67/253 to 5.79/252.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl POINTS: Top Fuel; Schumacher 1500, D. Kalitta 1340, Berstein 1260, S. Kalitta 1101, Grubnic 1093.

Funny Car: Force 1379, Sceizi 1173, Bazemore 1152, Worsham 1107, Densham 1090. Pro Stock: Anderson 1915, Line 1279, Connelly 1160. Pro Stock Bike; Hines 1038, Brown 885, Gann 839.

Back in the Game AUSTRALIANS Andrew Cowin and David Grubnic both qualified for the historic 50th annual US Nationals Top Fuel field in Indianapolis, the oldest, richest and most prestigious drag race in the world.

Cowin, right, making his first NHRA start in over a year, put the Cowin Family Racing dragster into the field on his last shot of qualifications, just after being bumped from the program

by Scott Weis. Cowin rose to the occasion by motoring down the IRP quarter-mile in 4.721s at 311.85mph to place him 14th and secure a spot on race day.

The Cowin team struggled on their opening two shots, losing valuable data on runs that were hampered by poorly heat-treated fuel pump drives.

In the opening round of eliminations. Cowin got the holeshot and was ahead of first round opponent, Scott Kalitta, as they crossed the 330-foot mark, but he had to pedal it before half-track and Kalitta marched away, posting low e.t. of the round.

Grubnic ended up in the ninth position after recording a 4.632s I 1 f 1

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pass at 314.46mph on his last effort. Four of the five runs that Grubnic made were in the 4.6s range, all over 305mph.

In the opening round, Grubnic hazed the tyres just past the 330-foot mark and banged the blower allowing Clay Millican, who also spun his tyres, to get the win.

The Kalitta Motorsports dragster was sporting a special one-off yellow and black paint scheme, heiovj, with backing from Stanley Tools at the event.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl 1

David Ostauewski

Jim Breaks nirough

JIM Halsey stunned the Indianapolis Pro Mod field with his first-ever win in what might be considered the biggest event to date on the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge.

Halsey, beloiv, driving his nitrous '68 Camaro, stopped Harold Martin in a final round battle between the tv\'o top qualified cars in the field. Halsey used i ; t ●j

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a final round 6.271223 to take the win as Martin encountered engine problems and slowed to a 6.89/157.

Nitrous cars have dominated the

Pro Mod racing in Indy. In the four year history of the AMS Staff Leasing Challenge at the U.S. Nationals, no supercharged doorslammer has ever won The Big Go.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl

Wins means Hines POWERade points leader Andrew Hines earned a year's worth of bragging rights in the Pro Stock Bike category by winning the14th annual K&N Filters NHRA Pro Bike Klash.

In an all-Harley-Davidson final round, Vance & Hines teammates Hines and GT Tonglet faced each other on their V-Rod HarleyDavidsons. Hines crossed the finish line first at 7.20s at 186mph to defeat Tonglet's 7.27s at 183mph.

"It’s an honour to follow in my brother's footsteps and win this event," Hines said of his brother Matt Hines, a three time NHRA champion who now serves as Andrew's crew chief.

"He won it four times so I've at least got one on him now. I hope that one day I can reach his stature and accomplish some of the things he did in his career. I look up to Matt so much. It's awesome to do some of the things he's done."

The special event invites the top eight Pro Stock Bike qualifiers from the previous 12 months.

■ Gary Densham defeated his boss, John Force, when he earned the victory in the 23rd annual Skoal Showdown finale at Indy.

This was Densham's first victory in the big-money special event, which features the top eight Funny Car qualifying point earners from the previous year to race for USDS100,000 (AUDS144,000), one of the largest single payouts in the POWERade Drag Racing Series.

■ The NHRA has signed a multi year agreement with Ringers Gloves to become the Official Gloves of the NHRA and the title sponsor for a lucrative race-within-a-race bonus program for Pro Stock Bike competitors.

The Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle will again be contested as a special bonus event during the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

■ John Force became a grandfather and Mac Tools US Nationals Champion Ashley Force an aunt, following the Friday birth of Autumn Danielle Hight to Force’s oldest daughter, Adria, and her husband, Robert.

■ Actress Sandra Bullock was in attendence at this years US Nationals. Bullock, one of Hollywood’s top box office draws, took in the historic event with Jesse James of West Coast Chopper fame.

The pair were guests of Kalitta Motorsports for the weekend. We're surprised that Aussie Kalitta driver Dave Grubnic was able to concentrate...

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKl 69

nadonal

scene

edtedby

Grant Bowley

aiMy-Up^ Rotax NaUonals

by MARK WICKS

QUEENSLAND'S Scott Auld has taken his first national championship by winning the 2004 Bridgestone Rotax Nationals at Ipswich recently.

After a close fight in the opening laps, Auld (Arrow) took the Rotax Light title ^ead of Ashley Walsh (TruUi) and Matthew Wall(Arrow).

Auld and the JT Motorsport team made some significant set-up changes to the kart for the final.

"We had some mid-comer understeer in the heats,so we moved the seat forward and changed the front-end," Auld explained.

"After the first 13 laps, the thing just took off."

Pre-final winner Wall jumped into the lead at the start and it didn't take John Martin long to move to second, Auld soon got by Martin and was content to shadow Wall in the opening laps. Martin (Trulli) and Trent Mercer (Tony Kart) started to challenge, prompting Auld to put the move on Wall.

Ipswich's Walsh was the big mover,storming to second position from grid 12 as Wall dropped to third. Martin, Mercer, Greg Heslewood,Jason Hryniuk, Matthew Muller, Barclay Holden and Ben Small completed the top 10.

Earlier, Auld had qualified fastest but it was Reif Corbett(PDB GUlard) who showed his pace with two heat wins. Jace Lindstrom (Phoenix),David Sera (Arrow), Geoffrey Grant(who

also won the $500 pole shoot-out) and Auld picked up one heat each.

William Yarwood kept the Sunshine State victorious by winning Rotax Heavy. The victory marked Yarwood's sixth National Karting championship title and his second consecutive Rotax Heavy championship. It was possibly the most dominant Nationals performance of his career, the Arrow driver qualifying fastest, almost 0.3s clear of the field. He then won every race.

The only drivers to get close to Yarwood were second-placer Damien Meyer(CRG)and Aaron Rintoul (Arrow), who threatened during one of the heats.

Despite Meyer winning the start

and leading the opening laps of the final, Yarwood settled in behind so the two could draw away from the field.

He then pounced down the back straight and took over a lead he would never lose to the end. Rintoul held on for third with Kel Tresseder(Monaco) and Michael Pereira (Arrow).

Victorian Jordie Lindstrom won a berth in the Junior MAX class at the next World Rotax Finals after he won a tough Junior Clubman final.

Steel Guiliana(CRG)was fastest qualifier but Kristian Lindbom (Top Kart) and Jake Williams (Trulli) won the heats. Lindstrom (Arrow) qualified outside the top 10, but solid heat results put him on the second row for the pre-final.

"After qualifying, 1 just wanted to try and get on the front row for the final" Lindstrom said.

That he did, earning pole with a win in the pre-final.

Williams blasted into the lead off the start as he, Lindstrom, Lindbom and Joshua Scott(BRM)cleared away from the rest of the field. Fortunes and positions see-sawed among the top four, a number of touches and off track excursions added to the drama.

Williams led into the final lap, but Lindstrom went deep under brakes at the end of the back straight, then fended off all challenges through the last series of corners to take the win.

Scott was second over Williams, Lindbom and Richard Rapa.

IVra Sieders-Too Easy

IF your name is Sieders, the chances of winning a race at Sandown Raceway last weekend in the Aussie Racing Car events were pretty good.

David and Colin shared the three race victories, with Chance of a Lifetime's David scoring Races 1 and 3, while Sime Tyres-backed Colin claimed the glory in the second encounter.

Championship contenders James Ward and Tim Monte had varying degrees of success.

70

Ward struggled in the opening race, coming home in 14th. Things got better for the City Ford entrant though, scoring sixth in Race 2 before a slight off track excursion in the double points Race 3 dropped him down to seventh.

Shell Helix driver Monte was consistent and speedy and gathered enough points to finish a competitive third overall.

John Grother, Mark Duckworth, Jeff Davy and Paul Kemal all showed impressive speed at

jlJ-*

different points of the weekend.

Their fortunes were a lot greater than Brad Ward and reigning Champion Mike Russell.

In Race 3, Ward speared off at the end of the back straight in the slippery condition and flew back onto the circuit

before receiving a nasty crunch from Russell. Both cars will require a tidy up before the next event on the Gold Coast, supporting the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise for a non-championship race, - GRANT ROWLEY motorsport nows

NATIONAL SCENE

lohn MitrriyMptx

Who'S the Boss?

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fBIANTEl VMODEL CARS7

motwsport

Miceli mauls Historic pack at Sandown

MICHAEL Miceli has taken out the latest round of the Biante Model Cars Historic Touring Car series at Sandown last weekend.

Miceli, in his stunning red 1969 Boss Mustang grabbed two race wins, a tremendous effort considering his lowly 11th in qualifying.

It was Garry Treloar in his Camaro who earned pole, but it was another Camaro in the hands of series leader Paul Stubber that quickly gained the ascendency in Race 1. Stubber drove to a comfortable victory, ahead of Treloar, with Miceli doing well to climb to fourth in the spread field.

The second encounter saw atrocious conditions greet the field, with all sorts of obstacles, including low visibility, forcing the field to spread wide along the straights as the drivers searched for vision.

Luckily, early race leader Paul Stubber had sufficient vision in the early stages.

"I was driving between turns one and two, and the huge puddle there had ducks in it!

They weren't looking like

moving, so I had to drive around them," said a startled Stubber.

He was soon to join his feathered friends out in the cold, his crankshaft letting go while leading, leaving his yellow beast parked at Dandenong Road for the remainder of the race, which Miceli duly inherited. Rob Burns's Charger and the Mustang of Drew Marget followed him home.

Miceli quickly overcame a poor start in Race 3 to have the lead by the third lap, and was able to withstand a late charge by Alistair Maclean's Torana XU1 to take the victory.

Stubber was able to effect an engine change overnight before the final race, and achieved his objective in coming from the rear to finish just ahead of main championship rival, Steve Mason, also in a Camaro, in twelfth and thirteenth respectively.

The series reconvenes for the final round at the Eastern Creek Grand Finale.

- CHRIS JORDAN Points: Stubber 206, Mason 197, Marget 193, Talbot 162, Jason Tilley 143, Treloar 136.

Mastering Mallala

WEATHER played havoc at the Mallala Masters, the official South

Australian State Championships.

Adam Allan took a clean sweep of all four events and claimed the Improved Production title. Anthony Wallis showed reliable pace to take second with Andrew Paine, Glen

King, Graham Mason and Peter Boehm separated by less than 10 points for the minor placings.

Kym Burton took his thundering GT Falcon to Group N victory over Darren Fletcher and Stuart Barnes.

Group S went to Peter Hall while John Eason claimed his fourth

Donhardtand Ian Eldridge rounding out the top five.

Competing in the same races were the Sports Car and Saloon Car categories. Graeme Cook took four untroubled victories aboard his GT3 Porsche and Grace Monterosso

consecutive regularity championship.

The openwheel divisions were also mixed together. Aidan Zanotto showed the mix a clean set of rear

claimed the points win in the Saloon Car ranks.

while Mark Foster ran away with the 1600s. Jim Doig claimed the Sportscars title.

- PARIS CHARLES

Steve Laybourn claimed a narrow HQ Holden triumph with Wayne

IS Septembar 2004

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How’s this for a prize: a high-speed ride around the Eastern Creek circuit in a 1971 racing Falcon XY GTHO, driven by Allan Moffat, or a 1972 Holden Torana XU 1 with Peter Brock at the wheel at the final BIANTE Model Cars Touring Car Series round of the season (at the December 4/5 V8 Supercar finale).

Overnight accommodation is included, plus air travel for non-NSW winners.

Enter NOW, and as many times as you like, because there is a valuable interim prize after each round of the series - a full set of 2004 BIANTE Model Cars Touring Car Series apparel (value $250). All entries in hand at the interim closing dates are eligible and all entries go back into the draw for the two final, magnificent prizes.

There are two ways to enter this great competition: 1.

Mail the BIANTE Model Cars logo in this entry form (below), along with your details (name, address, phone, email) to: Motorsport News BIANTE Competition PO Box 7072 Gardenvale VIC 3186; OR

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Mail us one of the promotional leaflets distributed at any one of the BIANTE Models Touring Car Series rounds (listed below). rzace cfatB/veruje April 2-4 Eastern Creek, NSW June 11-13 Barbagallo, WA July 23-25 Winton, VIC August 13-15 Oran Park, NSW September 10-12 Sandown, VIC October 7-10 Bathurst, NSW

Thursday June 3 Thursday July 15 Thursday August 12 Thursday September 2 Thursday September 30 Thursday November 4

Closing date for main prize draw: Thursday 4 November 2004 Fourth draw winner: Dean Worth, Ashtonfield NSW - a Holden fan!

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71

Elfin Hono Titles Secured Woolsten and Stoopman seal Vic series

ROUND five of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships, held at the newly refurbished Phillip Island in Victoria, saw great racing and two series champions crowned.

Byron Bay's Andrew Thompson claimed a well-earned victory in the ultra-competitive Formula Ford series by winning the final.

Thompson finished third in both the opening heats, which were both won

by Michael Patrizi. It was, however, the man Thompson beat to last year's KartStars title, Victorian Troy Woolsten, who accrued sufficient points to secure the coveted 2004 Victorian Championship,in what is the biggest victory of his career to date.

The HQs put on their usually close and hard racing, with Gavin Ross taking the final two race wins,just beating Race 1 winner David Landry in the final. Consistent top 10 finishes allowed Kevin Stoopman to take the championship crown.

After his Race 1 absence allowed fellow Mustang driver Chris Ralph to claim the win, Michael Miceli claimed two race victories in Historic Touring Cars. Strong performances from the XY Falcon of Wayne Purdon and the Mustang of Jervis Ward made it a great weekend for the blue oval, capturing the top four placings in each race.

Typically close and hard racing in Formula Vee saw the race wins shared between Tony Bocquet, Nicholas Jones and Frank Haire with

the likes of Andy Nethercote and David Frith in close pursuit.

Kane Rose was simply too good in the Porsche 944 Series and he took a clean sweep of victories. Brendan Morter settled for second in each race.

Cameron van den Dungen in his Mazda RX7 was the man to catch in Improved Production, taking out the first two races, until a lap three DNF put pay to his weekend,leaving the runner up from the heats, William Schools, below, also in an RX7,to take the victory.

Sports Cars was taken out by the Porsche 911 GT2 of Brett Bedggood, with Perry Spiridis in a Porsche GTS, and SA's Lyndon Punshon in his familiar 5-litre Robnell Cobra,left to share the second placings.

After a Race 1 DNF,Sports Sedan stalwart Dean Randle,above, drove his Chev-powered Saab to two commanding victories. Race 1 winner Dean Camm,in his like-powered Flonda Prelude, earned a second and fourth in the remaining two races.

Robin Bailey was at his usual impeccable best in MGs,driving his V8-engined MG-B to three race victories.

Paul Thomson had similarly great success in Under 2 Litre Sports Sedans, taking a clean sweep of victories for the weekend in his Alfa.

Round 6 of the series is scheduled for Sandown on Melbourne Cup day, where all classes bar HQ's and Formula Ford will be fighting it out for championship points and glory.

THE Historic Sports and Racing Car Association honoured the Elfin name at Eastern Creek Raceway last weekend.

Special guest at the meeting was Lorraine Cooper, widow of Gary Cooper who passed away in 1984. Cooper was the man behind the hand-built sports and racing cars manufactured in Adelaide from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s.

Another famous guest to attend he meeting was Vern Schuppan, right.

The program featured an allElfin race as part of the tribute to the marque. That race was taken out by the awesome 1974 Elfin MS7 sports car of Jack Lewis.

Jack’s son Aaron had the car that grabbed the attention of the crowd and stirred memories of the fantastic days of Australian F5000 racing. Decked out in the famous Ansett livery was the 500 horsepower Elfin MR8.

One who was mightily impressed with the array of Elfins (which included the new Elfin range) was Group N winner, Bob Cox, above far right.

A recent testing and development program on the '66 Mustang by Brad Tilley paid off in spades for Cox. But his weekend was not without its dramas. He put the engine to test when he pulled 8900rpm in the third race, but the Ford hung together for him to take the Group N trophy. He led home Bruce Dummett's Torana XU-1.

First of the Nb cars home was Scott Fleming in the 1964 Lotus Cortina.

The total entry list numbered more than 250 cars in diverse

Thompson Merc Bac

THE legendary Bryan Thompson Mercedes-Benz Sports Sedan was back in action iast weekend at Queensland Raceway in the hands of new owner Roger Williams.

Williams, who purchased the car about a year ago was running at the ‘One Day Wonders'AASA meeting at Queensland Raceway last Sunday.

Jeff Barnes (Pontiac) was the best of the mixed Sedans, taking five of the six wins, with Williams winning the other after both Barnes and Phil Crompton (Mustang) struck trouble. Trent Young (Toyota Levin-Rotary) took

fourth when he could, ahead of the duo of Wayne Clift(VK Group A Commodore) and Angela Lechner (Ford Escort-Capri).

Paul Bryan was the best Gemini in all six races.

The feature race was MoPro Cups 20 lap event, which was won by Kris Walton ahead of Kurt Kratzmann and Colin BernevilleClaye in Lotuses. Chris Oxley took fourth as the top MGF from Brad Lowe and Yanis Derums while Dave Williams won a fierce Daewoo battle.

Carlo Chermaz(PVP 250) was the pick of the Superkart runners and took four of the six wins with Tyrone Gautier(TAG 250) having

molorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

->

Aussie C-Grades lit—

M.irshjll Oss

ured

NATHAN Elston and Nicolas Cambridge were standout performers at the fifth annual Australasian C-Grade karting Titles at Morwell last month.

Elston (Junior National Light) and Cambridge (Midgets) never lost a race on their way to their titles. Both drivers had to survive qualifying heat races as both of their classes were oversubscribed. Scott McMaster defeated highest points scorer from the heats, Travis Bergmeier, to win Junior National Heavy.

Lucas Price, part of the Price karting dynasty but new to the driver’s seat, performed exceptionally well and ran away with the Rotax Heavy title. Victories also went to Shaun Ermel (Senior National Light), David Edwards (Over 40s), Damien Gray (Rotax Light), Tod Nealy (Clubman Super Heavy), Leah Aspinall (Clubman Light), David Enever (Senior National Heavy), Andrew Rae (Rookies) and Paul Rodgers (Clubman Heavy).

- MARK WICKS

Man of Steel NSW Junior Steel Guiliana competed at the Austrian round of the CIK-FIA European Rotax Championships recently.

Driving a Vanspeed kart for the Austrian Hochhauserteam, Guiliana was immediately on the pace in the Junior MAX class and finished practice fourth fastest in a 34 kart field. Disaster struck in qualifying, a fuel line problem prevented him from turning a single lap. Forced to start off the rear of the field for all the heats, he carded 16th, 29th and 22nd. Guiliana moved all the way up to eighth in the final, but an accident ahead forced him off the circuit. Fie was classified 28th.

Impressed by the Aussie's pace, Vanspeed with be running Guiliana at the final round of the series in Portugal next month. n The Grand Finale for the 2004 Sparco CIK Australian Championship Series will take place at Eastern Creek next weekend, September 2426.

range of categories.

Andrew Gibson in his 1960 Triumph TR3a won the final for Sa with Aaron Gabriel's 1957 Morris Minor first home Na. Bill Pye is no stranger to Eastern Creek's victory lane and he made another visit after an impressive performance in his 1974 Porsche Carrera Sc car. He was followed

by Laurie Sellers in the 1965 Marcos 1800 GT Group Sb. The glorious sounding 1967 Brabham BuickVS of Phillip Wright was the first Group 0 car cross the line with Ed Holly in his 1962 Elfin FJ 1500 the best of Group M in the final race for early model racing cars.

- MARTIN VAN REE

Nothing like a bit of domination: Nicolas Cambridge was a standout at the Australian C Grad titles, winning each race in a blockbuster field.

n Nick DeBruijn has taken out the CIK-FIA European Formula A championship. DeBruijn (Gillard) and Davide Fore (Tony Kart) split the wins at the final round at Braga, Portugal, on August 22. Sauro Cesetti (Birel) claimed second in the series ahead of Fore and Marco Ardigo (Kosmic). Italian Stefano Coletti (Birel) won the Junior ICA Championship over Jules Bianchi (Intrepid).

- MARK WICKS

John takes a Bowe to Juniors p/\/1*-'

Klynsmith

c In Action a form reversal to pick up the remainder. Duncan Crisp was the next kart usually as attrition took Its toll on the top order. The other classes were claimed by Steve Talbot(250 National), Bob Roberts (125) and Russell Jamieson (80).

The mixed Racing & Sports Car class, Mike Kilpatrick (Futureracer) won all bar the last race where a spin gave Mark Thomas(RX7)the win.

Thomas won race long fights each time with power over the Westfield of Shame Andree. A five car incident marred their race day.

- MARK JONES 15 Sepiember 2004

I

AFTER recently announcing his involvement as category patron to Formula Junior, John Bowe got reacquainted with the style of car he used to drive.

Okay, the Ozemail V8 Supercar driver has never in fact driven this exact Ralt RT4, above, but Bowe beat it in his last-ever openwheel race

at the Australian Grand Prix support race for Formula Atlantic cars in 1986. Bowe also beat every other car in that race ...

Formula Junior will officially commence at Sandown Raceway during the Histories meeting between November 5-7.

- GRANT ROWLEY 13

NATIONAL SCENE

Kart Spectator awarded payout

A SPECTATOR at the 2002 Portland Kart Grand Prix has been awarded nearly $50,000 in damages after an incident his barrister said was lucky didn't kill him.

Portland resident Darren Sharp was struck in the head by a kart wheel which came free from a racing kart and flew into the spectator area.

Last week, he was awarded $49,434.35 in damages when a jury at the Warrnambool County Court heard the case.

The jury also found Mr Sharp's injuries were not caused by negligence on behalf of the club, but that the club had breached its duty of care as occupants of the Portland streets for the day where the race was conducted.

Mr Sharp's barrister, Neville Bird, told The Wnrrnambool Stniidard Neivspaper; "It wasn't quite as much as hoped,but a win is a win.

"The Portland people (karting club) were so obviously decent, hardworking people that I don't think the jury particularly wanted to knock them about.

"Although the Portland karting club was the defendant, they were under the control of a national safety co-ordinator. 1 think he left a lot to be desired."

-GEOFF ROUNDS

Underdogs take Griffith 500

VICTORIAN-BASED Glenn Owen and Deon Beattie claimed the penultimate round of the Australian Off Roading Championship at the Griffith 500 recently.

Saturday's prologue was staged in front of a large crowd at the Griffith Speedway where the Owen and Beattie combination claimed

second, behind reigning Champions Mark Burrows and Colin Hodge.

Sunday's opening stage proved to be disastrous for Burrows and Hodge as they were forced into

retirement after rolling into a waterfilled irrigation channel. Owen and Beattie, belmu, pounced to take a stranglehold on the event and lead the field all the way.

The team of Shannon and Ian Rentsch showed class to claim the runner-up position over David and Michael Simpson.

Class 2 victors and fourth outright went to Shannon Irvin and Steven Graham. Brett Milton and Katie Siviour claimed fifth and first in Class 4.

The series heads north for the grand final at Goondawindi on October 16-17.

- PARIS CHARLES

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" n _ WESTERN Australia held its second historic race meeting at Barbagallo Raceway on August 29, in conjunction with the Zamels Plate for Formula Vees.

A massive field of Historic Touring Cars displayed good, close races.

Greg Barr (Torana XU-1, above) looked good out front in Race 1 before slipping off the road and back to 21st place. Ron Moller in a similar Torana took the win ahead of Jack Tarr in his Camaro.

Barr managed to get back up the front in Race 2 to take the win from Moller. Race 3 saw Barr again take a hard-fought win.

Formula Vees put on the best show for the day with four close races. Cameron Edwards(CD Vee), Dean Williams (RiBuck) and James Straker (Elfin) were inseparable all day at the front of the field. Edwards snuck across the line to take Race 1 from Williams while Straker took the Race 2 glory. Edwards claimed his second win of the day in Race

3 before the Zamels Plate went to Williams after an exhausting battle with numerous lead changes. It was his fourth Plate.

The historic racing cars were more spread. Rob Poynton running away in his Ralt RT4 in all three events. In Race 3 though, he was given a penalty, which put him back to third. Joe Ricciardo (Tiga FA81) was second in Races 1 and 2, but failed to start Races 3 and 4.

The battle for first of the Formula Fords was close, but Ross Zampatti (Reynard FF88) claimed each race win.

In Historic groups J,K,L and S, Glyn Crimp (Porsche 928) was too fast in Race 1, taking a strong win from Daryl Hansen in his V8-powered MGB. Race 2 handicap saw Ed Farrar win in his MG Special. There was another winner in Race 3 handicap, Derek Garner (Bondley Special) finishing just ahead of Glen Caple in his Bug-eye Sprite.

Caple went on to win Race 4.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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The new shop will carry all licensed and Official Brock Merchandise and memorabilia.

Peter will be there from 10am to 1 pm. You can also see car displays that will be on show and enjoy a sausage sizzle as well.

The new store is at 212a Mahoneys Rd Thomastown Victoria.

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Aev: t*|i. Y :4 rf diiiig cull Vie 03 9873 5400 NSW 02 4577 2400 SA 08 8340 4333 Vic 03 9553 4200 QlO 07 3274 4797 WA 08 9331 8488 Vic 03 9887 3833

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IIGHTWEIGHT 1 FLYWHEELS The ultimate in strength & safety Your choice of standard weight or lightweight steel ● Available for all popular applications including Ford 6 cyl, Cleveland and Windsor V8, Holden 6 & V8. Chev SB & BB V8

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Garys Motorsport Tyres Unit 3/13 Penny PI. Amdell Park NSW^ 2t48 p 02 9676 6655 f 02 9676 5300» e garydunlop@ozemail.com au

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World's leaders in Motorsport Safety Technology Helmets l Suits l Boots l Gloves l Harnesses l Crew Gear l and all accessories for all motorsports Quality l Price l Service Simpson Safety Equipment Australia 11/62 Newton Road Wetherill Park NSW 2164

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Includes lecture and OLT. Formula Ford Zetec Drives - $695 for 40 laps in our Van Diemen 98/99 Zetec cars. No pre-requisites.

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Remarkable Windows of Opportunity for Engine Experts

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P 07 3290 5911107 3290 5933 www.qri.biz moiorsport news

CLASSIFIEDS

news

Classifieds

online Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

SEU

from lust $25

your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/ internet classified service. Courtesy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service my105.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25. Yes 3 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25!

HOW? Just log on to www.my105.com and follow the prompts!

Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

LOG ON NOW

IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

Sedans/Sports Cars

nn

saloon car. This car has just been completed for saloon car racing has standard motor at present but can supply race motor at extra cost. All new parts wheels ,tyres,suspention,spraco seat & harness, vdo instruments. $11,000. peter 293 92123100. www.myl05.com/65392 AU Falcon V8 Supercar, As run by Cameron McLean. Very competitive car, complete spares package to suit, will also sell as roller. Assistance to purchaser. Well priced to sell. Warren 07 5571 6625 or 0414 646 294 873. www.myl05.com/36445

Holden Astra GPN rally car, 2002 model built from a new car. very complex cromoly roll coge sparco seats wiliians belts, fire bomb, 10 compomotive wheels and asortment of tyres, spare engine shockers and much more. $15,000 ONO. 0398730947 or 0417390371.

293 www.myl05.com/33246

Westfield Clubman BIG HP Cosworth motor. No expense spared, adjustable everything. Ford Cosworth injected 2 Litre twin cam. Factory specs 245HP, 165Lbs torque. GONZO stainless extractors, adjustable shocks, A.P Racing copper button clutch, Motec M4 Engine anagement.

Dry sump, 5 Speed box, Quaife straight cut gears. Ford Clutch Plate LSD. Only 6000km. Presents as per photos. . $29,000.

Chris 0418 472 466 / 02 4283 5163. 293 www.myl05.eom/28809

Mazda RX7, Sports sedan built by factory Mazda in the USA. Never raced since total rebuild and is in show condition, full chrome Moly space frame, front wishbone suspension, AP 6 and 4 spot callipers, brand new 3 Rotor turbo changed engine with Microtech on board display, brand new 9inch full floating rear, brand new carbon fibre, aluminium interior, 3 sets 16 x 12 BBS rims, please phone for full spec sheet. $30,000. Robert 0418 974 351. 295 www.my105.com/64891

Torana sports sedan, Torana LJ Sports sedan,modified P76 alloy VB powered, b/wamer 4 sp gearbox , b/w diff, 4 wheel disc brakes, 16 x 10 wheels, Spare panels,logbook,reliable endurance racer. $7500 ONO. Kevin 0417405590. 293 www.myl05.com/86644

VB V8 Commodore $7000, VB Commodore V8, fresh engine, 4 speed, custom exhuast system, full rollcage, 5 piont harness, Dunlop Formula R race/sprint tyres, ideal club/sprint car, also with 4 wheel car trailer and ramps, both in good condition $7000 neg or will separate, call Tony on 46254565. $7000 Neg. Tony 46254565.

293 www.my105.com/81484 Westfield Clubman, Mid field runner in NSW Clubman challenge series.4age 16 valve,Quaiffe LSD 2 sets mounted slicks and wets. Complete package includes trailer and new 20 valve plus many other spares.Laps OP 1.19 EC 1.46 WP 1.06 Winton 1.38 . Very affordable reliable entry into motorsport. $19950 Neg. Neville 0413423537.

294 www.myl05.com/68486

Mazda RX7 Sports Sedan, mid mount fresh 20B PP Microtech injected. Supra 5 speed, Hilux rear LSD, Willwood Brakes, new 16inch slicks, ready to race. $17,000 Not Neg. Darrell 0413 383 102. 294 www.my105.com/78353

ii

1 42

l i

Lotus Cortina MK1 Group N, Biante Series car, historic touring car since 1985.

Recent total rebuild best of everything, immaculate including spares. $35,000.

293 Robert (02) 9869 8254. www.my105.com/58609

77 Clubman S - Club Car, A and metro engine, +30 Cooper pistons works CAM 45mm carbi rebuilt mech and brakes too much to list, 2 rad, oil cooler, ex race for parts. 04/05 NSW rego. $8,000 Or Best Offer. Glenn 02 6672 5229 BH / 0417 260 061 .

293 www.my105.com/83385

IS

kV'-.

Mustang Boss 302 Historic, racing cars, 2002 and 2003 National Series winner, LAP records most tracks, huge spares inventory. $110,000. Rob 03 9429 2110 / 0408 558 610.

293 www.my105.com/27536 Alfa Romeo 1973, GTV 2000 known History since 1978, kowls, 10.5 Borgos two sets of wheels, great starting car for SC or NC Histories. LPD 200. $1,100. Rob 03 9429 2110 / 0408 558 610.

293 www.my105.com/57790

15 September 2004

Porsche GT3 Cup Car. MY2003 with 2004 update package currently running in Carrera Cup. Maintained perfectly (no race mechanical failures), recent motor, gearbox and chassis refresh (no major shunts).

Available now (including entry for Bathurst and Indy) or end of season as package with Spares, Motec, Radio and other Equipment.

Trailer and/or Transporter also available.

Setup, track, dyno, shock, parts life and other data. Price is negotiable. Stephen 295 0418 685 575. www.myl O5.com/19254

60 Anglia1960 GRNB, car has all new components, inc c/ratio gearbox, new tyres, new wheels, new motor twin 45 Webber Koni shocks and g/h logbook, trailer load of spares. John 03 9439 7667 or 0409 465 8 37 .

293 www.myl05.com/57911

%

HQ Racecar, Rebuilt engine and gearbox, new suspension. Heaps of spares, good condition. $4,500 ONO. Stephen 02 4947 9413 / 0407 905 039.

293 www.my105.com/87124 V8 Supercar VX or VY, brand new Motorsport lightweight body shell on set up.

Jig frame plus spare doors, guards, panels, special light weight hand built shell.

294 $11,500. Gavin 03 9543 4280. www.myl05.com/43441

79

Open Wheelers

Clubman 1300, Slicks mounted wets trailer, Corolla Motor, convert back to 1969. Group M Histories. $7,500. Russell 03 5261 6044 293 (work). www.mv105.com/36707

Sport Sedan, 1996 VS, 308, bennet aluminuim heads, Richmond T10, Harrop Brakes, Motec injection. Laptop, Trailer, and spares. 440hp engine, gearbox, diff, all rebuilt. Always came 1st or 2nd in all series it has competed in. Phone Mark 0409 846 717, 08 8284 8087 or papendellsent@adam.com.au, $45,000 Not Neg. Mark 0409 846 717 / 08 8284 8087.

294 www.myl O5.com/12291

RALT RT4, 1982 but has many '86 features incl. wide front track. Recent complete rebuild. Always a front running car.

Complete package with C of D, gear ratios, spares, and data for the historic events. No expense spared with preparation. $75,000.

RICHARD CARTER 0409 993606.

294

www.my105.com/80397

HQ Race Car, 2003 QLD Stale Championship winning car, consistant top 3 finisher, fresh engine/gearbox, heaps of spares, setup info, $6,800 neg. Brett 0402 472 951.

294 www.mvl05.com/48210

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 ). $125 000 aus with free shipping to east coast Australia. $125 000 with spares. Peter 0064 3963 1381- fax 0064 3366 0133.

292

Mk II ESCORT, Incomplete Project. Clean straight shell. Fully seam welded and guseted. 5 link rear w/coil over shocks. Fully adjustable suspension. Welded in cage.

Some spares. Best offer Neg. Matthew 292 0423783894.

Formula Atlantic, Fully retored by professionals. Fresh Lamer engine. Historic Log booked Cof D. Good Australian History.

Very fast and well sorted (fastest Atlantic times where raced) Plenty of good quality spares, car currently resides in Melbourne.

Call Ray Stubber 0413 124 222. $85,000.

0413 124 222.

293 www.my105.com/2948

r~r

4r PORSCHE GT2 TURBO, Spectacular and fast. Ideal for Porsche Drivers Challenge. $130,000 plus GST. Paul 0418 61 85 61.

293 www.my105.com/8972

www.my105.com/18321

www.my105.eom/82002

Sabre Formula Vee, Top John Dean engine. Long+short gearboxes Full catalogue of spares including rod ends, oil, drums etc. Roadgoing 1200 engines and gearboxes. Spare suspension and springs 2sets of panels, 3spare noses Iset of steel rims, Iset of HRW custom built units 3sets of Bridgestones. Open single-axle trailer.

Proven race winner. $15,000.00 Neg. Damian 0417340118 / 03 97505287.

292

www.myl O5.com/1026

●-4 i

293

www.myl05.com/99213

Porsche GT3 Cup, 3,600km. Maintained by Porsche trained race crew. Includes 10 spare wheels, Motec logger & dash, spare bumper and valuable track data. This car is ready to race and we can also set you up completely with transporter (ex Jim Richards) and extensive array of equipment to Join Carrera Cup. $230,000 Or Best Offer.

0418 835300 / 81320541.

Great First Race Car, Competitive Formula Ford. Has successfully competed in the New Zealand National Championship and Winter Series Rolling Chassis only...comes with lots of spares adn set up info. 20000 Or Best Offer. Nick Buxeda +64 21 2154787.

Formula 2 Kaditcha, Completely restored and eligible for Group R Historic (Ground effect parts included). Mounted Wets, Gear Ratios, Spare Nose Cone and Rear Wing.

Comes with new purpose built tilt axle trailer. Only selling due to lack of use. $44,990 Neg. Paul Nelson 0412558386.

293 www.myl05.eom/5039

to sell your gearl From lust $25* just log on

www.myl05.com/83913

Nissan Clubman 2002, RWC, 12m reg.

S/Charged SR 20 tRS all adjustable LSD polished alloy over spaceframe ultra reliable multiple hillclimb trophy winner 46 sec at Mt Cotton on road tyresi $28,000 ONO. Bill 02 6677 7230 or 0438 543 349, 290 www.my105.com/52299

1

a I

Historic Group 0 1967, GWG F3, full cams, COFD plus log books. $20,000 ONO. Bob 291 (03) 5428 2583. www.my105.com/73711

I

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my1 OS.cofn) Advertising can also be supplied using this form (S10/$15surchage to text only/text -h pic advertisements) .1 Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of ri. website for three months. iev PLUS the Please read & cross the desired services and calculate the total. = $35 X standard ad and one inlusion into Motorsport News □ Plus Photo Processing fee $5 □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers □ Speedway □ Drag □ Jobs ADDITIONAL OPTIONS:□ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers □ Wanted □ Photographs □ Other □ Extra issues X $25 per issue Please keep ads to no more than 50 words, ptus up to 6 photos if desired. □ Feature ad on Motorsport News and my105.com homepage for $75 per issue

online classifieds Category:

Description:

TOTAL = $

I enclose a cheque/money order/credit card details lor the payment of the totat amount above,

n Bankcard □ Visa or □ Mastercard Card no Name _ Address

Email Ph( 80

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Signature _ Card Name

Exp

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NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and prim dearly. Pteaso note we are unable to return photographs supplied for use in dassified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possible after receipt. MN/my105.eom dasslfieds are for the sale of private goods ar>d vehicles wly. not business advertisinQ Photos marfred *prooP will not be used.

moiortport news

CLASSIFIEDS Engines Lotus Ford Twin Cam Engine, Totally rebuilt by UK T/C experts New internals.

0.020" oversize bore. New pistons, standard size Lotus steel crank, SE cams, New clutch, unleaded valve seats, new valves and guides. New water pump. Ready to drop in and run. Only needs a distributor and exhaust manifold to suit your application. $8,500 Not Neg. 9417 4755 / 9909 2990.

292 www.myl OS.com/22090 chev ISdegree engine, CHEV RACE ENGINE. NEW BOWTIE CNC BLOCK,18DEGREE HEADS.PERKINS INJECTION.DRYSUMP (NEW PETERSON PUMP)AUTRONIC ECU,COMPLETE RECOND TO MUCH TO LIST.WELL BELOW COST 650HP. $20,000 ONO. brad 0418928953.

292 www.myl05.com/57674 Sprintcar Engine, -12 Brodix, -2 7/16 Kinsler in], Donovan Block, 6 meetings on full rebuild, sprint Mag III, Moroso sump. $2,400 ONO, Tim (03) 6435 7997. 291 www.myl05.com/83261 COSWORTH YBB ENGINE & GEARBOX, Cosworth Sierra YBB DOHC 2L complete turbocharged engine and T5 gearbox, engine professionally rebuilt, balanced etc. turbo also rebuilt with HPC coated manifold.

A reliable performance engine, complete with clutch and gearbox. The engine is in standard speciheation. Please email for pictures. $13,500 ONO AUD. 0401 473643 290 / 07 3425 1269 www.myl05.eom/57607

Parts

QUATA Autronic SMC and AFR Meter, Autronic Air-Fuel-Ratio-Meter, A Model & Bosch 4wire sensor used only once from new.

Cost$2200 for meter and sensor, sell $1600 ONO. Jamie 0421 931 864.

292 www.my105.com/10431 yates cylinderheads, brand new cnc yates cylinder heads bare current port suit konica.never assembled,can supply complete if required.also svo block for sale.

6500.00 ONO. brad 0418928953.

292 www.my105.com/88747 Gearbox Transaxle, special Lola Hewland Penske new c/pinion, all gears new, fully rebuild, ready to race, with on board jacks.

292 $14,000. Issy (03) 9401 1155. www.myl05.com/29140

v8 Trader & Gooseneck trailer, TRUCK 351 Windsor 5 speed + splitter 180lt fuel .3 bunks, stove .water tank .sink, storage, stainless esky. 12v lights, insulated walls.TRAILER elec tail gate, warn winch for car.water & hose, generator, wired, fit sprinter/super/saloon or 2 x small cars, elec brakes, tyre rack, need car licence only. $38,000.00 ONO. Jamie 0409017684. 289 www.myl OS.com/74031

Driver/Crew Apparel Race Suit Package, Race Suit - RPM Mondial, White blue stripe. Small. Boots RPM RPM, Blue, 8 1/2. Gloves BlueA/Vhite. Balaclava and Socks - Nomex.

Helmet - THH Full Face, Medium, White blue/green/silver splashes, $900. Paul 0418 269 798.

290 www.myl05.eom/96081

Jobs

Wanted

Motor Mechanic, full time, part time. Melb SE suburb, experience preferred in performance, prestige, EFI, electronics, fabricating, good knowledge of engine development and dynomomater usage an advantage. Contact Bill on 03 9588 1725 293 www.myl05.com/77884

Dog Gearbox for Mini, Alloy doors etc, 12 inch mini lite wheels. Garry 02 6662 2996 292 www.myl05.com/51829

Competitive Experienced Drivers, Positions are available in a first-class team for national/state series in F/Ford. Highly competitive vehicles with excellent infrastructure. Compete at all Australian tracks. Professional attitude and budget to achieve objectives essential. Please contact cated@clockwork.com.au or 0419 777 977.

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Transporters/Trailers

Wanted, TTerratrip 303 plus, intercom with headsets, smart level Caster Camber guage, turn plate, suspension spring tester, scale system. Gerry 02 9653 2208 or 0418 255 739.

289 www.myl05.com/31672 Wanted Formula Ford or Formula V, suitable for restoration project, consider any condition. Warren 0439 777 627.

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MoTeC ADL, 4meg, 501/0, Pro Logging, Duel Wideband Lambda, Telemetry. Suit old VSsupercar, Boat, Drag car etc. Cost over 12,000. $8000 Or Best Offer. 0421 931 864.

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Covering New, Re-Used, Aftermarket, Reconditioned and OE Exchange parts, with a 1 hour turnaround time.

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Locating Auto Parts

Trailer fully enclosed, 6.5m long electric winch, tyre racks, storage space, new light truck tyres, elecric brakes vgc inside and out. $7300. - 03 9873 0947 or 0417390371.

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Mazda 808 rolling shell. Complete shell, full cage, firewall back, for mid mount engine, any engine will fit, suit Circuit, drags speedway, must sell as is taking up space in shed, call for more info. 1100 ONO. Simon 0409875381.

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Need spare parts for your car?

Enclosed Trailer, fits large sedan, tyre rack, work bench, with vice, 240v/12v lights, aluminium floor and sides, long ramps, selling cheap for quick sale. $3,500 ONO. Scott 02 4982 6834.

292 www.myl05.com/36289 TOW TRUCK, 1988 Isuzu Tilt Tray & Cradle. Rego 12th July 2005. $30,000 including GST Not Neg. Ray P 026331 5991. 291 www.my105.eom/27060

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inotorsport EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan l editorOmnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Mark Glendenning l mark@mnews.com.au National Editor: Grant Rowley l grant@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Chris Jordan l chrisj@mnews.com.au

PRODUCTION Adv & Graphics Co-ordinator: Viv Brumby l viv@mnews.com.au

ADVERTISIN6 Brendon Sheridan - PR Driven Tei: 03 9550 0870 Fax: 03 9550 0816 mobile: 0407 007 286 l ads@mnews.com.au

ADMINISTRATION Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden l publisher@mnews.com.au

FPR fans want Bargs As a supporter of FPR and a long time fan of Craig Lowndes,I am naturally unhappy that he's decided to move on again.

My family and I have decided to stay put this time and stick with FPR but we would like to see them look at a local driver rather than look overseas for a replacement for Craig.

One driver that comes to mind is Jason Bargwanna - Bargs has won races with Holden and has done a fantastic job with an underfunded Larkham team since moving into the Ford camp.

And here's a guy whose not afraid to show his emoHons on the podium, which can only be good for the sport.

McPhersonfamily address zuithheld

Clean up your A.C.T.

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

GONTRIRUTORS 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, Tony Millard (UK), Greg Boscato, Daniel Powell 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, Erin McCowatt Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothwell Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, AF1 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.

As the ACT Assembly election looms near, an often-mentioned objective of what's good, bad or indifferent for the Australian Capital Territory is what the capital offers tourism and what tourism offers the capital.

Sadly, the sport of motor racing and all it offers has been neglected, if not sacrificed.

Many constructive, economical and advantageous projects, exhibitions, festivals and sporting events have been produced in the capital, as well as many that have come and simply gone for one reason or other.

With fear of retort from the uninformed doom botherers the nation's capital has become an enchanted land of festivals and flowers, paintings and politics while leading the way in social engineering.

I am the first to acknowledge the outrageous health, education and policing problems the ACT has, but it is not unique to this region. The rest of the country, albeit capital cities, provincial cities or small towns are all suffering in one way or another while at the same time many of those major and minor areas are going ahead in leaps and bounds with motorsport

converter Send'US your thoughts: mail; PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 email: mnews@mnews.com.au

and facilities, in the knowledge that there are sound economic, educational and safety rewards to be gained.

Michael Atlwell Flynn ACT Canberra Motorsport Supporters Group

Those Oran Park dunnies ...

1 have been going to Oran Park since 1981 and have never been impressed with its facilities, but have not felt it necessary to complain about the poor condition of both the Mens' and Ladies' toilets (behind the main stand) until now.

At 9.30 on Saturday morning my family needed to use these toilets, only to be horrified by the filthy state they were in. It appeared they had not been cleaned since last year's meeting.

Oran Park, for $40.00 per head us spectators expect more for their hard earned money. Maybe we will not be back, it's your call.

Also, a message to Channel Ten. Why is it that your 30-minute Sports Tonight program is made up as this: Rugby League, Cricket, Tennis, Golf, Soccer and some other sport, and another sport, and this

sport, and that sport, and wait for it, motor-oh we have run out of time-sport.

But you still have bme for more rugby, cricket, tennis, golf, 'yawn' bowls,and when motorsport does get more time than a blink, its old news such as practice times or grid starting positions that are from the morning session. So called committed to motor racing charmel: you still can't give us current information, but what more can we expect.

We are not rugby and we do not have a Hopoate or his finger.

We are not shagging our team mates' missus or what have you.

Maybe our sport is too clean as we don't usually have drunken brawls or drive a car over some other player.

So come on Channel Ten, tell us what will get our sport first on Sports Tonight or better still, first on tire news.

A Drummond Cessnock, NSW

The Directors Cut

At Sandown over the weekend, the final Formula Ford race was one of the best that I have ever seen. Two title contenders fighting it out on the track, right until the final corners.

1 was, however, frustrated at whoever it was that had foolishly been put in charge of directing the vision that was being fed to the superscreen.

Here we had two drivers throwing everything they had at each other to win the race, and the series, and the director seemed fixated on the battle for 10th, and we missed the first half of what eventuated at Dandenong Road corner.

Not good enough, I say. It was obvious to all in the grandstand where the true action was, but the director was still oblivious to it.

Alas, at least they had the brains to cross to the aftermath.

Michael Filosi Clayton, Vic.

●Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Australia (ind GST) Overseas (Air Mail): New Zealand, PNG, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillippines, Hong Kong,Japan US, Canada, Europe

1 year $148.50

2 years $285

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Post your cheque/money order to the address above, fax your credit card details (Bankcard, VISA, Mastercard, or Amex) to 03 9596 5030 or email to mnews@mnews.com.au

Bargs for FPR! According to the McPherson family, Jason Bargwanna should drive this car next season.

82

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