Motorsport News Issue 298 - December 8-21, 2004

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Issue 298

8 — 21 December 2004

www.mnews.com.au

news and opinion 4

The World is not enough SBR, Marcos plan a 3-peat

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Targeting America! Briscoe and Marshall get accents

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Younger than Springtime Kicking off 2005 with a bang io We have a cunning pian Jean Todt wants to keep on testing 12 Two-tiered assauit Canto and Luff get into the TBA V8 series 25 And now, the forecast Grant Denyer gets all Brutal 26 Box Seat Why won't anyone just hire Tonio Liuzzi?

82 Talk Converter Some end of season’s greetings

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features 28 Five Minutes With The 3 Amigos Marcos, Rusty and The Rat turn it on 30 Five Minutes With Stephane Ratei What is planned for GTs and Bathurst?

32 Tripie Treat Steve Ellery teils us exclusively the reasons behind his move 36 My other car is also a BMW.Williams Webber on the dawn of a new era 38 Willing and Abie What happened when Davo and Power drove the Minardi 44 New World Order A peek behind 2005's World Touring Car Championship

race couerage

48 Dad, I got Stoned in Sydney. Again Marcos takes title #2 and pretty much everything else at Eastern Creek. Russell was second, The Rat flew and the HRTs crashed into each other at the first corner. All the news from Sydney Biokes with V8s and Wings The latest on World Series Sprintcars

Photos Cover: Ford Racing Media Contents: Ford Racing Media and sutton-images.com

regulars 21 Bikes

58 Raliying 62 Speedway 64 Drag Racing 68 National Scene 75 Marketplace 3

Ambrose,SBR aim New hardware on the way for a shot at history

by PHIL BRANAGAN WITH the dust barely settled on his second V8 Supercar crown, Marcos Ambrose is aiming at a third,in 2005.

The 28-year-old said at Eastern Creek last Sunday that he was targeting a third straight win next season. Behind the scenes. Stone Brothers Racing is already working on the technical package that it wants ready to defend Ambrose's title and Russell IngalTs second-place in the 2004 series.

;

"I'm aiming for three, I would love to get a hat-trick," Ambrose said.

"Tm with the best team in pit lane.

The synergy is there and there's no reason we can't get three in a row. I am really proud to be V8 Supercar Champion and that I have backed that up from last year."

Ambrose said that one of the things in his favour, apart from his and the team's dominance in Sydney,is the fact that many of the opposition teams are making significant changes to either their driving lineups, their technical packages or, in two cases, are moving cities.

On the other hand,SBR is planning no major shift in its 2004 team:

"There's no reason why the package should suddenly crumble," said Ambrose.

SBR Technical Director Ken Douglas confirmed on the weekend that the team would send Ambrose and Ingall into battle next season in new Ford BA V8 Supercars. In the two years the drivers have raced the current model car, they have driven only two cars between them, Ambrose steering his current Pirtek car in all races and Ingall driving his HavoUne BA,except when he shared the Ambrose car in the 2003 endurance races.

Douglas says that the 2005 SBR Fords wUl be an evolution of the cars tliat were built at the end of the 2003 season.

"I guess you could say that we are 'refining' the cars," he said."We do not believe that you have to throw everything away and start again just for the sake of it."

The team has had a partiallycompleted Falcon its is Yatala, Gold Coast shop for some time,just days away from being finished, in case either of the current race cars were damaged too badly for immediate repair. That car will be completed

soon and a new shell is being built and is expected to be ready for pre season testing.

On top of that, SBR is expanding its engine shop to cope with the demand of supplying its own cars and those of Larkham Motor Sport and Triple 8 Race Engineering. The pool of engines may be further expanded, we hear, with a deal to supply motors to a potential two-car entry in the V8 Supercar feeder series.

The strategy contrasts with that employed by SBR's arch rivals, the Holden Racing Team. The Mark Skaife-owned team has nm its radical 2005 car in the last two races of this season and is working on a second, similar car for Todd Kelly to drive from the start of the '05 season.

While the Stones drivers have been

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in their cars for the last two years, HRT has gone through a number of chassis in its bid to get back to the top.

This season alone,Skaife has driven four different cars, starting the season in his'own''04 car, moving into Kelly's car for Batliurst and Sandown and then being forced to race his 2001/02 Bathurst winner at Surfers when his racecar was crashed at Bathurst by Jason Plato.

Ellery confirm

WHAT was suspected at Eastern Creek last weekend became official on Monday, with Triple Eight Race Engineering confirming that Steve Ellery will race for the team for the next two years.

Ellery, 30, will partner Craig

Lowndes in an all-new lineup next season aboard two new Team Betta Electrical Falcon BAs. "Steve is an experienced driver about to hit his stride. He has shown he has speed and we feel confident that we can give

Wilson wants to stay

MAX Wilson is left without a seat for 2005 and he has few options.

The Brazilian only found out that he was out of a drive with Triple 8 last month and is now considering what will happen,either in Australia or overseas.

"Everything happened so late in the game," Max said on Monday."At the moment,there are no options at all."

Wilson said that, after three seasons based in Australia, his preference was to remain here.

4

"If something came up,I would be happy to be involved here. That is my priority. Otherwise,I might go back to Brazil."

The TC2000 Series, which is based in Argentina, is the strongest tin-top class in South America and is one avenue that Wilson may pursue. Regardless, he wants to race in the V8 Supercar endurance races.

"If I don't find a full-time ride, for sure," he said. "If I get a ride somewhere else, I would like to do the races, if there are no date clashes. That would be a possibility."

-PHIL BRANAGAN

motorsport news

for Three

NEWS

Guess what? A judicial review CAMS has announced a review of its V8 Supercar judicial processes.

Tlie announcement,on Monday, comes as no surprise given the spate of controversial rulings and penalties handed out throughout 2004.

With teams and drivers pleading for, at least,some consistency, CAMS' press release said that the review would "aim to ensure best practice, international compatibility and transportability and a judicial system that is both fair and transparent for competitors and motor sport enthusiasts."

The review panel will, according to the release, be chaired by Lex Lasry QC and will review the existing judicial process, penalties, timing of hearings and seek information on best practice in other motor sport categories worldwide and other sporting codes.

The review will be seeking submissions from relevant

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individuals and organisations. The terms of reference for the review will be available on the CAMS website.

The first meeting of the review panel is scheduled for 15 December and the recommendations will be made public before the end of February next year.

ed at Triple 8 him the platform to make 2005 his best season to date," said team principal Roland Dane.

"This is a driver with a passion for the sport and the energy for winning. He's very focused on the tasks at hand and will be an important asset and integral part of the team at Triple Eight."

Ellery said that he was looking forward to the challenge.

"I have been waiting a long time for this and it is my big chance. Lowndes is not going to be an easy team-mate to have he is a great driver, he is quick and we all know that. We do not all necessarily know where I am.

We are about to find out."

The news means that Steve Ellery Racing faces an uncertain future. The team lost its long time sponsor Super Cheap Autos in October and has curtailed plans to run a second entry in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. SER has a 8 December 2004

three-year deal to run the Kanga Loaders entry in the feeder V8 series and may even expand to a second entry, depending on current negotiations.

In the meantime, team principal Bruce Ellery says that the team is still pushing ahead with its intent to run in the main series next season.

"We are looking for a driver who can assist us," he said.

"We feel that the team has done a good job this season'and if we can get the right budget, we would love to continue."

Ellery made his V8 Supercar debut at Bathurst 10 years ago.

He won his only race at Sandown in 2000 and has twice finished third at Bathurst, with Tony Longhurst in 1996 and with Luke Youlden last year.

He will drive the #88 entry next season while Lowndes will drive with #888.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

Ifs about time for changes Comment: CHRIS LAMBDEN AT last! While the attention of many agitated race fans will be on the outcome of a judicial review process, let's hope some attention is also given - perhaps at a separate place and time - to assisting in the mechanics of decision-making.

As an example, go no further than the outrageous Stop-Go handed out to Mark Skaife for jumping the start of Race 1 at The Creek (as if a penalty was needed bearing in mind what transpired seconds later at Turn One!). Many, many naked eyes are sure the HRT team leader was hard done by - I am one of them. So, if it's that hard to make those calls, let's utilise the technology that is lying around to assist those charged with making them.

It can't be that hard ...

Youlden ponders options LUKE Youlden is on the verge of securing a highly-sought after endurance drive.

The 26-vear-old Victorian, who tied the knot with fiancee Rebecca last Saturday, will almost certainly drive for a leading Ford team at Sandown and Bathurst. The two teams vying for his signature are Stone Brothers Racing and Ford Performance Racing. An announcement is due in ^ the near future.

Youlden also recently tested one of Tony Quinn's Carrera Cup machines recently, see brief page nine, and is one of two drivers tipped to get that drive.

MNews would like to wish Luke and Rebecca all the best on their honeymoon in Thailand.

■ We hear some more parts of the Brltek puzzle are in place. The team's two Falcon BAs will be sourced from Ford Performance racing but, as yet, there is no confirmation that the team will use Rob Benson-built FPR engines. The team will also run an entry in the 2005 Carrera Cup, with Bryce Washington running Adrad colours on an ex-Greg Murphy Motorsport car.

We also believe that apart from running a Falcon in the second-tier series, Jose Fernandez will race an FPR Typhoon in the GT Production category.

There has been a delay in sorting out some of the subsidiary sponsors for the Fujitsu-branded team, which we expected to be launched in about the middle of January, ■ The fallout from the Team Dynamik Woomera test continues.

The team confirmed recently that it has lodged an appeal against the recent decision of the V8 Supercar National Court of Appeal, which upheld the original penalties issued against the team for illegal testing, and increased the financial penalty as well as imposing a ruling that the team's cars start one lap behind the field for the next two rounds. The V8 Supercar National Court of Appeal's findings were suspended pending the determination of the FIA International Court of Appeal (which is why you saw Simon Wills and Dale Brede grid up with the rest of the field as normal at Eastern Creek on the weekend).

Caugiil in the Net Generation Y internet hounds will probably have already noticed that MNews is now out there in cyberspace. Betweenissue news updates, assorted information and opinion pieces can all be found on .com.au WWW.—" Check it out...

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Taking It To The Streets PLANS are indeed afoot for a street parade of FI cars on the Wednesday prior to the AGP in March.

Following the exclusive story in our last issue, revealing a 'test run', with a Minardi show-car being pushed through Melbourne's city streets late at night, the Grand Prix Corporation has confirmed that it is looking at the possibility of GP cars being driven through the streets on that day.

Following the success of London's recent experiment, above, the Melbourne City Council is, we hear, supporting the initiative.

Its success now rests on negotiations with the FI teams and the associated costs of lining a

number of cars up in the middle of town. The value of such a globally-viewed pre-race stunt is substantial and, as such, the likelihood of it going ahead is quite high.

On a similar note, we hear there are similar plans for Mark Webber to appear in Sydney - as he did last March with a Jaguar FI car - only this time with a BMW.Williams. And we hear that the demo area may not be so constricted this time. Watch this space ...

At the same time, there are suggestions that Paul Stoddart's fleet of Minardi two-seaters may make an appearance at the Clipsal 500 meeting, two weeks after the AGP.

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Getting Down To Bus

MARK Webber kept up his workload at the Jerez FI test last week,completing a substantial 189 ,laps in two days. .1 Only Ferrari's Luca Badoer and Jordan debutant Robert Doombos managed more,but spread over four days.

Webber concentrated on tyre work with Michelin before handing his car over to German Nick Heidfeld, who now looks to be one of just two drivers in contention for the 2005 race spot alongside Webber in 2005.

While variable weather conditions made direct comparison difficult.

Williams engineers were, we hear, pleased with Heidfeld's work.

Combined with Webber's less than positive comments,carried last week by Italian sports newspaper Gazetta del Sport, about Pizzonia's continuing claims that he got unequal equipment during his time at Jaguar (see Box Seat, page 26), the race seat pendulum could well be swinging in the German's favour.

Heidfeld is expected to test for the team again this week.

For Webber's report on hisfirst BMW.WllliamsFl test, see page 36

Climpses of 2005: Mark Webber gets bis bands on some serious weaponry at Jerez. above, while former team-mate Christian Klien puts the re-named and re-liveried Red Bull Racing car through its paces at the same circuit, right.

Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Montoya had his first taste of Ron's finest when he took the McLaren MP4/19B out for a blast, left.

NEWS

Deal Close

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ofs^hing IRL contract- but the FI door remains open

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RYAN Briscoe looks certain to contest the IRL in 2005, but will retain links with - and a path back to - Toyota’s F1 team.

Following MNews’exclusive revelation in our last issue that the young Australian tested for the Ganassi IRL team at Firebird Raceway the previous week, comes well-sourced (but unconfirmed) news that the two parties are close to signing a contract for 2005, and possibly 2006.

While the initial approach and test was a Ganassi initiative, Briscoe is of course contracted to Toyota long-term and will have had to seek the company’s permission to proceed to the contract stage.

While Toyota has still been discussing the Briscoe/Jordan F1

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AFTER a long hard season you could excuse a few of the PR guys to be a little lax at Eastern Creek.

But this was certainly not the case for Orrcon Racing's Lee Hanatschek, who was as keen as ever to spread the word regarding all things Larkham Motorsport. Lee prepared a press release in Mandarin for the Chinese contingent present from the Shanghai, pictured below.

That's why he earns the big bucks.

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■ Thinking of runnning for the spot of AVESCO Chairman? Too bad.

Tony Cochrane will be in the big seat for at least the next three years, following a unanimous vote from the AVESCO Board last week. Cochrane has held the position of Chairman since 1997 and his re-appointment will see him steer the category through a critical phase of its planned global expansion.

^OST weeks after David

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option, it seems the company is agreeable to 'loaning' its driver to Ganassi’s top-flight IRL team (which runs Toyota engines) and thus retaining the option of taking him back into the FI programme in one, or two, year’s time.

Having only just turned 23, time is still on Briscoe’s side. He and his management may well have decided that racing at the forefront of the American series provides a better showcase than travelling at the back of FI with a team that will be running a very ‘interim’ car for the first half of 2005.

Briscoe was in transit to Australia from Japan (where he had been attending Toyota’s endof-year motorsport function)-as" '● MNews closed for press and was unable to be contacted for comment.

Forward planning

^ Besnard impressed the ‘ dickens out of the Champ Car fraternity at the Gold Coast, v Marcus Marshall has raised L eyebrows with a superb performance during a low-key L test for Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring early last week.

Marshall, who has L contested machinery ranging from Porches to British Formula Three to V8 Supercars over the past 12 months, completed a total of 158 laps of the Florida circuit over two days.

His running time was ■ hampered by brake problems, but his 52.45s held the top of the timesheets for virtually the entire second day before being topped when the other drivers completed a final new tyre run.

What made Marshall's efforts particularly noteworthy was that he was able to coax those times out of the team's unfancied second car, the #19 Lola that has been steered by a number of paying drivers during this year's Champ Car World Series. Additionally, he was testing alongside a number of Toyota Atlantic and Formula BMW USA frontrunners who had prior experience with both Champ Car-style cars and the Sebring circuit, including highly-rated Toyota Atlantic veteran Michael Valiante.

Marshall and his advisors are still in the USA, where they are spending two weeks arranging meetings geared toward finding a seat for the Queenslander in 2005.

- MARK GLENDENNING

■ Wally Storey is coming back to Melbourne. The Chief Engineer at Tasman Motorsport will follow the team down the Hume Highway to its new HQ adjacent to Harrop Engineering. We hear that one of the sticking points, his son Robbie’s engineering studies, can now be transferred south, so it’s time to move.

Storey has been Melbourne-based previously, having been at the Holden Racing Team in the early 1990s.

■ It’s a marriage-fest on the Ford side of V8 Supercars.

To add to Luke Youlden {mentioned previously) and the January nuptials of Marcos Ambrose and Sonja, we hear that the lovely Michelle will finally manage to get David Besnard to the altar this weekend. We old romantic types at MNews wish the young honeymooners all the best for their big days.

■ Eastern Creek pit lane rumour suggests that Super Cheap Autos may take its funding to AVESCO to become naming rights sponsor of the V8 Development Series, replacing the departed Konica Minolta.

7

Mixed rt SkaHe:Cutthe politicking

HRT boss reacts to rumours of Walkinshaw return HRT/HMS boss and lead driver Mark Skaife has reacted to reports that Holden may be in negotiation with Tom Walkinshaw to allow the HSV owner to take managerial control of Holden Motor Sport reports that have been getting a mixed reception around the industry.

Despite Tom Walkinshaw Racing going into liquidation in the UK and Walkinshaw himself being on the wrong end of some severe supreme court judgments as a result, he does retain ownership of Holden’s performance car arm here in Australia. It is said that he is concerned at HRT’s performance this year and how that may affect HSV’s business, and is proposing to once again take overall control of Holden’s motor sport.

Holden’s motorsport boss Ray Borrett confirmed this week that the subject of HRT’s performance had come up as part of a review of HSV’s business.

“We are in discussion with Tom

^about a number of things that

relate to HSV and yes, he’s expressed some concern about HRT’s performance this year and how that may affect HSV. He’s concerned and wants to know what we’re doing about it.

“At the same time John Kelly and Kees Weel have spoken to us about wanting a higher level of service from HMS.” Borrett denied that a move to install Walkinshaw would be seen as undermining Skaife: “No,” he said. “Our objective is simply to get the red cars winning again.”

The Holden boss then pointed out that, in fact, the red cars were - apart from the race one, turn one incident- quite competitive at last weekend’s Grand Finale.

Indeed, both started on the front two rows - so where is the problem?

For his part, Skaife-who stands to be most-affected by such a decision - is clearly disappointed that such a move would even be considered.

Despite being guarded about his comments, the message when

he spoke to MNews on Monday was clear - just let us get on with the job!

“I’ve been disappointed with the comments on the service that HMS has given the other teams, “it can’t be too bad when one of the customers wins Bathurst twice in a row! And two of them were in contention for the championship right until the last round ...

“However, I am primarily interested in HMS and the staff getting the best results for HRT. We do service too many cars.

HMS sells parts to several teams.

Maybe that needs to be addressed.”

Along with this subtle barb for those currently lobbying within Holden for Walkinshaw's return: “Everyone talks about me having too much work on my plate ... I’d like to focus my energies on making our cars fast - I thought Ford was the opposition ...”

If there is to be any change, according to Borrett, it will be well before the 2005 championship kicks off, in March.

“And it’s a big ’if’,” he concluded.

Dumbers remains LFs man PAUL Dumbrell will remain a Castrol man for the next two seasons.

Dumbrell, 22, signed a contract with team boss Larry Perkins the week prior to the final round of the 'V8 Supercar Championship Series at Eastern Creek last week.

"We actually agreed terms some time ago," said Dumbrell.

"I always wanted to stay with LP and it was just a matter of sitting down and sorting out a few details."

The move ends speculation that the former Konica V8 Supercar champion was to race for another team next season, possibly in the colours of national retailer Autobarn. With PD staying in Castrol hues, it looks certain that the Autobarn livery will be applied to the Commodore of Alex Davison, who will run his first V8 season in 2005.

But Dumbrell may miss pre-season testing.

Tomorrow (Thursday) he will undergo surgery in Melbourne to repair a right shoulder, which has been giving him trouble for some time. He will be treated by Dr Greg Hoy, a specialist is sports injuries who operated on Shane Warne's shoulder 8

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two years ago.

Patients usually take three months to recover from treatment, which could mean that Dumbrell could miss the proposed Oran Park test in midFebruary. Should that be the case, it is possible that Perkins may have the car driven by one of the team's endurance drivers, - PHIL BRANAGAIM

A SPRING Training-style session could be the starting point for the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series.

AVESCO is considering holding the two-day event at Oran Park on February 18/19 to officially launch the new-look championship. The opening day is planned as a fan day where the public can meet and greet their favourite drivers and teams and check out new-for-05 liveries and merchandise. The following day would be a long test session to allow the teams to fine tune their car prior to the opening races of the season at Albert Park two weeks later.

AU teams would be required to attend the test, with cars in new liveries and team members in new uniforms. The test day would count in the teams' allocation of six for the season and the teams would be limited to tyres from their tyre banks, rather than fresh tyres.

Not all teams have welcomed the idea with open arms. One team owner points out that his team would probably want to test at his home' track prior to the day, to ensure that his cars were well-sorted before they appeared in public. His fear was that should a team appear at the test and not be on the pace, his drivers would

Auckic NEW Zealand may fall off the V8 Supercar calendar after plans for a street race in Auckland were vetoed by local authorities two weeks ago.

Resource Management Consent commissioners declined the application for the race, proposed for 2006, citing concerns over the potential impact on traffic, noise and amenities.

AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane said that he was flabbergasted by the decision.

“This is an incredibly bizarre decision,” he said.

“The Auckland City Council bid for the race and was awarded it

TEGA tl THERE could be a major change in strategy in V8 Supercar races next season if changes being proposed to the pit stop regulations come into force in 2005.

TEGA is looking at a number of proposals, the most significant of them limiting the number of rattle guns used to change wheels to tivo,

motorsport news

NEWS

laction

Spring Training What a great place for... the Olympics Comment by PHIL BRANAGAN

SO, we are going testing in Sydney, are we? Marvellous.

I realise that AVESCO and TEGA are keen to make inroads into the massive New South Wales market.

That is one the reasons that this test S'

Fan day in February at Oran Park? The punters may like it, but what do the teams, or even the media think? start the series on the defensive.

Another said that the test would mean that the season would, effectively, start tw'O weeks earlier than it has in the past.

"People in Pormula One complain about what a long season they have," he commented, "Well, El had its last race six weeks ago. 1 have guys here with eight, even 10 weeks' aimual

leave. When are they supposed to take it if this happens?"

Another team owner said that the idea of having the test in Sydney would only maximise inconvenienc e to the teams, which are largely based in either South-East Queensland or Melbourne. His suggestion was to hold the session in Victoria one year and Queensland the next.

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ahead of other New Zealand cities. Why stick your hand up for it in the first place if this is the outcome?”

Race promoter IMG NZ Ltd also voiced its disappointment.

“We lost the Rugby World Cup co-hosting, the America’s Cup has gone, and this was a major sporting event presented to us that would have been a wonderful sporting spectacle,” said IMG NZ General Manager Dean Calvert.

The issue caused deep divisions within Auckland's council halls, and now raises the question of whether the Supercars have any future in NZ after the series makes one last visit to Pukekohe

session is probably going to be held at Oran Park.

"We cannot ignore a city of four million people," said AVESCO and TEGA Board member Roland Dane last weekend.

Why not? They ignore you.

After Tasman Motorsport decamps for Melbourne next month. Sin City will have no Level 1 or Level 2 V8 Supercar teams.

Part of the reason for the team moving to Melbourne is because of the fact that, despite its efforts, the team was never embraced as its own by the Harbour City.

There was a record crowd at the Creek last weekend, with more than 50,000 punters rolling through the turnstiles over the three days.

Not bad - until you realise that there were more fans at Symmons Plains. The most recent census figures (1995) say Sydney has a population of 3,879,000 people.

According to the same numbers, Launceston has 65,800.

NSW has a race at Oran Park.

NSW has a race at Bathurst. The

next April.

Wellington and Manukau had been identified as possible alternatives, however Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast said that Wellington would not be interested in the race unless the promoters substantially changed their terms.

Also keen are the owners of the planned Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, which will be located just south of Auckland.

only thing crazier than having another V8 Supercar event in NSW is having two rounds at Eastern Creek. Sport is a tough sell in the state; motor racing looks like an even harder one. The public has voted with their feet; whatever they want, it is not more V8 Supercars.

So let's stop believing that that is what they deserve.

Let's go to Townsville. Let's go to the Middle East. Let's go (back) to Winton. But please, enough Sydney.

kinks about gun control NASCAR style.

This would have the effect of

prompting teams to weight the pros and cons of longer 'four-tyre' stops and faster cars against a car with compromised tyre performance (two tyres only changed) but with better track position.

"There are a number of things 8 December 2004

being looked at by the [TEGA] Board," Chairman Kelvin O' Reilly said last weekend in Sydney. "That is one of the matters being examined."

Such a scenario has played,out in NASCAR racing for years, with races won and lost on tyre strategy. It means that there is also likely to be more positional changes later in the

races than have been seen in recent times.

We hear there may be some 'tinkering' with the points system, but not the mass simplification overwhelmingly called for when MNews recently surveyed the V8 Supercar industry on desirable changes for 2005.

V8 Development schedule change THE 2005 V8 development series calender will be changed.

Due to be discussed at an upcoming board meeting tomorrow (Thursday), the second round at Wakefield Park has been put back by some two months, while the Phillip ■; Island round, which was scheduled to run in July, has been relegated to the final round of the championship in December. This rrieans both the main game Supercars plus the V8 development series will have their final rounds on the same date.

The 2005 V8 development series calendar will look like this; Adelaide (17 March), Wakefield Park (13 May), Eastern Creek (8 July), Queensland Raceway (22 July), Mallala (19 August), Bathurst (8 October), Phillip Island (27 November).

■ From the 'I hate it when this happens' award. A prominent morning radio shows runs spots for Ford after each round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series and last Monday's was pretty cheerful, given that Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall had just clinched 1-2 in the title. But the radio lads carried on, commenting that the top three drivers in the series would all be racing Falcons next season. And we thought that Jason Bright was third in the points. Don't tell us the FM radio jockeys have an inside line ...

■ Carrera Cup teams have been testing young guns over the past few weeks, preparing for their 2005 campaigns.

Reigning Australian Formula Ford Champion David Reynolds had his first taste of Porsche power at Calder Park Raceway aboard a Greg Murphy Racing GT3.

Also, Queensland Carrera Cup team VIP Petfoods Racing tested four young stars in the search for a lead driver for next year's all-Porsche series.

Team owner and driver Tony Quinn gave Luke Youlden, Ian Dyk, Brett Francis and Adam Graham seat time at Queensland Raceway to familiarise themselves with the GT3s. Each driver only completed a handful of laps on a busy track day.

■ Testing, testing, Dick Johnson Racing also gave three drivers a full day's hit out at Queensland Raceway in one of the team's AU Falcons.

V8 BRutes Champion Damien White, Lotus runner James Moffat and youngster Daniel Qrr were let loose in a series of laps at Ipswich on a stifling hot day last week.

Track temperatures were believed to have exceeded 60 degrees. Hot stuff, even for a man with a nickname 'Ice' .. .

9

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And now for my latest trick

DC

Ferrari pulls another one out of the bag F1's team bosses were due to meet in London as MNews closed for press, with Ferrari boss Jean Todt reportedly trying to deflect the other team bosses with a package of cost-saving measures, which will allow Ferrari to continue unlimited testing.

The package is unlikely to be accepted as many of the team bosses are tired of Todt blocking every attempt that is made to cut costs as he defends Ferrari's current advantage over the rest of the field.

Todt, left, is not going to be willing to reduce testing in the 2005 season because Ferrari's strategy is to start the year with a revised version of the F2004 and then switch to the new F2005 when the car is ready.

The new car will not be ready until the end of February and the team will then embark on a serious testing programme so that the

new car will be fully reliable before it goes racing, most likely after the first three 'flyaway' races.

The team says that the new car will be another leap forward in terms of performance. It will be an evolution of the current model with a new engine, which will be different to the current unit.

The car has been developed under the watchful eye of Aldo Costa who is seen as the man most likely to take over the chief designer mantle when Rory Byrne retires at the end of 2006.

The team bosses are also expected to decide on what to do about Max Mosley's extraordinary decision recently to cancel the FI Commission meeting (which was to finalise 2005 regs) on very tenuous grounds - JOE SAWARD

W TWO former Ferrari employees are to be charged with industrial espionage foilowing investigations concerning Ferrari aerodynamic ‘ data ending up at Panasonic Toyota Racing.

The Cologne-based team denies that it was involved in the dealings and has cooperated fully with the authorities in Italy and Germany which have been provided with confidential data.

Toyota itself has taken legal action to try to ensure that data which is alleged to have been stolen from Ferrari is not returned to the Italian team because, it argues, this would be handing over Toyota’s own software and Ferrari would be getting back much more than was allegedly stolen!

10

According to published reports the investigators discovered a considerable amount of Ferrari software copied into the computer programs related to the Toyota wind tunnel project.

The Modena public prosecutor Fausto Casari alleges that Angelo Santini and Mauro lacconi stole data from Ferrari, lacconi was a Ferrari engineer in 1999 before leaving to join a firm called Aerolab, which is based in the town of Nonantola, 24km from the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello. He was hired

by Toyota as a consultant, working with Santini, a Toyota employee.

The first hearings are expected to take place early next year.

-JOE SAWARD

Hie Full THE BAR-Honda team was scheduled to test Nelson Piquet Jr this week, but this test is not believed to be part of the search for a new development driver.

That process is ongoing, with three men - Alan Van der Merwe, Adam Carroll and James Rossiter-all running for BAR-Honda in testing in Spain last week.

The Piquet test is apparently a commercial matter because British American Tobacco wants to get more coverage in Latin America and Piquet is seen as the man most likely to get headlines.

Piquet, right, was one of nine drivers who were looked at closley as part of the scheme to find a young driver but he was not chosen although his two rivals for the British F3 title. Carroll and Rossiter did make it through.

The team currently has four drivers on the books with Jenson Button, Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson and Enrique Bernoldi, but it is felt that the team wants to be prepared for the future and intends to take

moiorsport news

NE1AIS

alking Bull DAVID Coulthard could have an FI lifeline, at Red Bull Racing, after all.

After initially dismissing him as a candidate, new team owner Dietrich Mateschitz is now suggesting that a deal is possible.

Coulthard himself was in Paris for the Race of Champions event last weekend and confirmed that he is in heavy negotiation with Mateschitz to join the team in 2005. No deal is yet agreed but DC was giving the impression that a deal will almost certainly go ahead.

Although this will be a step down from McLaren and Williams, Coulthard is realistic enough to know that it will keep him in the sport at a time when all the other decent drives in FI, and in other championships, have already gone for 2005.

iuttun-ioMti'

While Coulthard scores highly in the experience stakes, there are some within the Red Bull hierarchy who feel that it is a better choice to go with two younger drivers.

Vitantonio Liuzzi has impressed with his testing for the team and is unlikely to be satisfied with a testing drive.

There is a still a chance that Liuzzi could go to Jordan-Toyota.

The other drivers in the frame at Red Bull Racing are Christian Klien - who seems likely to get one seat - and Nick Heidfeld, if he does not get a drive at Williams, -JOE SAWARD

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Piquet

Would you trust these two with a Formula One car?

No? Well luckily, Paul Stoddart did ...

on one driver who will be developed over the next two seasons.

Davidson's immediate future seems- now to be as a test driver at BAR as his proposed test with Williams has not happened and looks unlikely to happen because of contractual 'issues' between the two teams.

- JOE SAWARD 8 December 2004

WILL Power, above left, and Will Davison, above right, have joined the ranks of Australians to have driven Formula One cars, after both tested with Minardi at Misano last Tuesday.

The pair each completed 22 laps of the Italian circuit in one of the team's current PS04B cars, and ended the day within 0.1s of each other, and just 0.6s shy of the far more experienced Austrian Patrick Friesacher. Team owner(and fellow Aussie)Paul Stoddart was impressed.

"They both acquitted themselves with distinction, in that they were on

the pace quickly and set very competitive times after only a relatively small number of laps," Stoddart said.

"This is hugely significant, when you consider neither of them had ever sat in an FI car before today.

"I believe both have a positive future and let's hope at least one of them is able to follow in Mark Webber's footsteps."

For more on Davison and Power's Minardi Formula One test, please turn to page 38

Ferrari and Midland?

THERE are rumours suggesting that the planned Midland FI team will be using Ferrari engines in 2006.

The stories suggest that the new team will take over the supply of engines currently enjoyed by Sauber. .

The team has also been linked with a, deal with Mexico's Mario Dominguez, who is a frontrunner in Champ Cars and has won two races in recent years despite the fact that his early career was none too impressive, n There is to be a reshuffle of staff in Michelin's FI programme, with project leader Pascal Vasselon moving on to a bigger job within the company. The Service Competition at Clermont Ferrand will continue to be run by Pierre Dupasquier but Vasselon's role is to be divided up between others. n The act of a cornered man?

Bernie Ecclestone, who has already trademarked the term 'Formula 1', has filed a new trademark application in Europe for 'Grand Prix', and in the UK specifically, for 'British Grand Prix'. The CEO of Formula One Holdings is awaiting the decision of a London High Court judge as to whether he may continue to appoint most of the executive directors of that company, while controlling only 25 percent of its stock. The three 'FI banks' that brought the case against him hold the remaining 75 percent and, if the judge rules in their favour, they would gain control of FOH. They would then be expected to move swiftly towards a deal with the manufacturers that are planning a breakaway series called, er, 'Grand Prix World Championship'.

If Bernie wins the trademark battle, but loses the war, we wonder what the races would be called... n Mark Smith has rejoined Jordan Grand Prix as Technical Director, returning to the team where he spent 10 years before moving to Renault. Smith was one of Jordan's original designers in 1991. Smith will go to work designing a new car for Jordan for the mid-season. The team will start the year with modified 2004 chassis, fitted with the Toyota VI0 engine. n Red Bull Racing will unveil its 2005 car, the RBI, at the Jerez circuit on February 7. Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth continued to oversee pre-season testing in Spain this week, with this year's FIA Formula 3000 Champion, Vitantonio Liuzzi, and Christian Klien. Included on Friday was the 21-year-old Swiss Neel Jani, who is on the Red Bull driver development programme and was formerly a test and reserve driver for Sauber Petronas.

- JOE SAWARD/ QUENTIN SPURRING 11

Canto, Lul

GT Performance joins V8 program

by GRANT ROWLEY

FOLLOWING on from the example set by the V8 Ute series, the former GT Performance category has taken a vital step towards securing its own future.

A new company called GT Performance Racing Pty Ltd, comprising car owners from the series, has struck a deal with AVESCO to join the V8 Supercar calendar next year. GT Performance was one of several categories left stranded by the collapse of the PROCAR series earlier this year, The company's board, consisting of Garry Holt, Beric Lynton, Greg Siddle, Peter Boylan, Gary Young and Trevor Haines, has sent a business plan for the future to competitors and shareholders in an effort to secure commitment to the restructure. A maximum of 32 licenses will be made available.

The series has provisionally negotiated to contest an eight-round series with AVESCO, bolstered by at least 30 minutes of televison per round on Ten's Trackside program.

Vehicle eligibility for the series has also been revised, with cars such as Holden's Monaro and the Ford Falcon F6 Typhoon now permitted to enter. A under two-litre class is also being considered.

"The category is a sensationally competitive and diverse touring car series that has developed a strong national fan base," Holt said.

"With the unprecedented prospect of multi-year deals for the calendar and television, plus the new licences to compete, we're now on the brink of a growth phase with huge potential.

"The competitors are excited about investing in their own future which means making an immediate commitment to race next year.

This is also a great opportunity for potential competitors from other categories to consider this series as a real investment opportunity - particularly with the level of television coverage, the premium motor sport events the series will race at, and the relatively low entry cost given the production base nature of the cars."

WARREN Luff and Dean Canto will be very busy boys in 2005.

Luff, the former Level 1 Dick Johnson Racing driver, right, is set to announce his plans for next year, which will include a V8 development drive and an endurance seat in a leading Ford team.

Confirmation of Luff's future was not signed or sealed as MNews went to press, however sources suggest that the Gold Coast resident will drive the Jim Morton-owned exStone Brothers AU in the development series next year with Decina Bathrooms backing. The car will be prepared by Queenslandbased team Paul Cruickshank Racing, which also prepares Marcus Zukanovic's AU Ford.

Both Morton and Cruickshank's team have strong links with SBR, and it is thought likely that Luff is the man in line to grab one of the hottest seats in the endurance races as co-driver to Marcos Ambrose in the endurance races next year.

All parties were tight-lipped, but an announcement on the above is believed to be imminent.

Meanwhile,former Konica Series I

year with Briggs Motorsport.

Canto will, for the fourth successive year, drive for the Betta team in the endurance races

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alongside Craig Lowndes,new signing Steven Ellery and a yet-tobe-named driver.

HOV.OC1SI

It is also likely that the Falcon BA I that Canto will drive in the t Development series will be liveried I in Betta Electrical colours.

Howard Racing, which and,if so, how to undertake it," he campaigned Cameron McLean in the said on Monday.

Konica Minolta Series with At this stage, TEGA doesn't have reasonable success this year, tested an application for the BA II Falcon. ex-pat Aussie Neil Cunningham at O'Reilly was responding to a Queensland Raceway and the Kiwisuggestion that TEGA might be born UK-resident will contest planning a more comprehensive set selected rounds of the V8 of aero tests, possibly using off-shore Development Series next year in one wind-tunnel facilities, if both the VZ of the team's current Falcon AUs. and BA II were to be introduced in Team owner Mark Howard is set to the new year. take reigns of the remaining ex-Triple "There's nothing on the agenda at 8 BA. the moment other than consideration A team launch is expected in late of the VZ application," he told us.

January 2005.

jro^ VZ aero?

PLANS to allow the Commodore VZ into V8 Supercar racing early next year won't necessarily involve a re-assessment of the aero package.

TEGA Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly has confirmed to MNews that an application to introduce the VZ has been received and is due for consideration by the TEGA Technical committee.

"It's up to the committee to decide whether the changes involved in the VZ are significant enough to \varrant a re-evaluation of the aero package 12

champion Canto will return to the feeder V8 class to drive for Howard Racing in 2005.

The Sydneysider will be confirmed at the team in the coming week,and the deal will see him steer an exTriple 8 Falcon BA. One of the Falcons is reportedly the car that Canto drove in 2003 in his ill-fated

A Kiwi,

and Th

Radisich leaves Fort

PAUL Radisich has found a new home for next year after confirming a move to Team Kiwi Racing in 2005.

The experienced New Zealander, who leaves Triple 8 to make way for Craig Lowndes, will fill the seat vacated by the WPS-bound Craig Baird.

Radisich will make his debut for the team at Albert Park in March behind the wheel of a brand-new Commodore that is currently under construction at the TKR workshops.

"Team Kiwi Racing have made some serious changes to the way the team will line

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I’ll be back: Look for Deano to return to the Mountain next season in a Betta Electrical Falcon.

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for Team Kiwi drive

up in 2005 as we start the second stage of the teams development," said Radisich.

"I have sat back over the last few months and watched what (team manager) David John said he would do, and to his credit that is what has happened, which has made the decision to join TKR the right one for my family and I." Radisich arrives at TKR just as the team prepares to abandon its Melbourne base and relocate to the Holden Performance Driving Centre, where it will enter a joint technical and engine development program with Paul Morris Motorsport.

2004

It'S Sense-less

V8 DEVELOPMENT teams may face the prospect of competeing in their series in 2005 with limited sensors on their cars.

The new rule, passed by TEGA last week, means that most set up sensors will be outlawed.

This has been introduced to stop leading V8 Supercar teams from gaining extra data over other teams, TEGA Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly confirmed that a few disgruntled teams have voiced their displeasure with the new rules, however, they are there for a reason.

"The object is to restrict Level 1 and 2 teams in the main series from competing in the D development series for the 5 purpose of testing," he said.

I "We don't want to see the top teams assist their main program

by not using the development series for what it is meant for."

O'Reilly suggested that he would be happy to hear from Development teams that can find other ways of making various points of difference between the cars that compete in the two categories. Other changes could include aerodynamic, or even rev limits, however cost issues are foremost in TEGA's mind.

One leading team manager from the Development series though was none-too happy about the sensor rule change.

"It's supposed to be a series to develop drivers, teams, mechanics and engineers," he told MNews.

"How do you train an engineer when he's got no tools to work with?"

- GRANT ROWLEY

NEWS

Kochy hits the Creek LIKE any other round of the V8 Supercar series, there were many grid girls at Eastern Creek over the weekend.

But new V8 ute Champion and Sunrise weatherman Grant Denyer took a different slant on the idea, utilising the services of Seven colleague David Koch as his 'brolly chick' for the final race on Sunday, Koch and fellow Sunrise presenter Mark Beretta were also treated to a ride with Glenn Seton and Craig Lowndes in the FPR Falcons on Friday afternoon.

Of course, being media rides, the speeds were not flat-but, but we could help but notice the flat changes each car made down the straight - and the front splitter scraping under brakes into Turn 1. n Jack Elsegood will join forces with Ian McAllister and Luke May in the Coopers Pale Ale Racing Team for a three-pronged attack on the 2005 V8 Utes Championship. The Coopers team will also field fourth car for Chris Smerdon at selected rounds when business commitments allow. n Allan McNish is to race in the DTM in 2005, adding to the list of exFI drivers in the class. The ex-Toyota racer has joined Audi’s all-star cast for the new year, joining Matthias Ekstrom, Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk in Joest-run cars.

Fellow Sportscar racers Rinaldo Capello and Pierre Kaffer will also make the switch to DTM and will join Christian Abt and Frank Stippler in the second-string 2004-specification cars, leaving Frank Biela and Emmanuele Pirro on the sidelines. n Jamie Green will be switching from F3 to touring cars in 2005 with Mercedes. The former BRDC/ McLaren Young Driver Award winner will join Bernd Schneider, Jean Alesi, Mika Flakkinen and Gary Paffett in a five-strong AMG works team next season, despite having tested for F3000 team Arden International.

Christijan Albers is believed to have been offered a year-old car for 2005 and is hence looking at options in FI. n Richard Childress Racing has confirnned that Jack Daniel's will sponsor the #07 Monte Carlo driven by 42-year-old Dave Blaney in the Nextel Cup Series next season.

The car will carry the logo 'Pace Yourself, Drink Responsibly' as part of the agreement with NASCAR to allow liquor companies in the sport.

The team becomes the first to sign a liquor company to a full-time primary sponsorship. Series Champ Kurt Busch will carry Crown Royal backing as a primary sponsor in selected 2005 races on his Roush Ford, - ADDISON/CLARK/STAFF 13

Tratt Falcon sold Dexion team grabs Tratt BA and hardware THIS is what the ex-Anthony Tratt's Toll Express Falcon BA i/ill look like in 2005.

Tratt, who now drives a Holden in the main Supercar series, has sold his 2003-model Falcon to V8 development team Dexion Racing. The Tony Evangelou-owned , ANT Racing Team will i contest the entire

\ junior V8 league next A year. ^ Evangelou, who i finished fifth in the ' Konica Minolta 25y lap Challenge at Bathurst in October, will again undertake the duties behind the wheel. Dexion has also re-signed with the Victorian team for the 2005 season.

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by GRANT ROWLEY TASMAN Motorsport will award a test drive to the winner of a competition within next year's New South Wales Formula Ford Championship.

The soon-to-be Melbournebased V8 Supercar team is backing the initiative which will be promoted by Wensley Carroll's Xcellerate Sports Management. The competitipn will be dubbed the Tasman Motorsport Search for a V8 Superstar.

This year's NSW FFord Champion Joel Spychala, above with Tasman Motorsport's Jason Richards, is commited to the National 14

%

Champion, has upstaged the big names in the Race of Champions at the Stade de France in Paris.

Kovalainen first beat David Coulthard, moved on to overcome Jean Alesi and then defeated Michael Schumacher to be the best of the

second fight by three-tenths. In the

final race Schumacher was right on the edge and managed to emerge from the showdown nine-tenths ahead of Loeb.

Loeb did not go away emptyhanded however as in the Nations Cup event later in the evening he and Jean Alesi gave the French team victory over Finland.

Schumacher and Armin Schwarz, representing Germany, were knocked out early in the competition when Michael slowed down on the final lap, thinking the event was over: "It was stupid/' he said."I thought the race was finished. I got a bit confused because I thought I was a little bit in front. Anyway,it was good fun. I’ve had a great time."

Champion

1^41

WnWLse.

HEIKKI Kovalainen, the 23-year-old Finnish Nissan World Series

racing drivers. In the final he beat World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb by O.Ssec.

In a separate showdown between Schumacher and Loeb, the FI World Champion came out ahead in a series of three races.

Schumacher won the first by a tenth of a second. The pair then switched cars and Loeb won the

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FFord championship in 2005, but is tempted to do the state series again.

"I'm sure it will bring more guys from interstate into the NSW series," he said.

"You have to go overseas if you're going to drive openwheelers at the top level so being able to take a very positive step towards the V8 Supercars is just a great opportunity."

The new initiative is a boon for the NSW state series, which not only boasts the V8 test, but commands extensive television coverage and other prizes next year.

For more on this exciting series, check out the National Scene (page 68).

CHRISTIAN Jones sealed the Asian Formula 3 series last weekend at the Batangas Racing Cricuit in the Philippines last weekend.

Jones entered the final round with a slight 10 point buffer over Irish rival John PJHara. .In the first race, O'Hara

finished first, ahead of Jones, which narrowed the points gap to five points.

The final race of the season was an anti-climax though, because the pair clashed at the start and crashed heavily into the wail.

O'Hara copped a $10,000 for his.part in the controversial

I

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NEWS

Wilson signs with RuSport JUSTIN Wilson will drive for Champ Car team RuSport Racing in 2005.

The former Minardi and Jaguar Formula 1 driver will partner American sensation A.J. Allmendinger, who drove for RuSport this year and finished sixth in the title chase.

Wilson drove for Mi-Jack/ Conquest Racing in 2004 and finished the series in 11th place.

hael!

With a crowd of 62,300 the event was a great success and a huge boost for the career of Kovalainen.

I haven't had a chance to beat

these sorts of drivers in my career and to beat Schumacher was

■ Tasmania’s round of the Australian Rally Championship will be run by experienced promoter Octagon Australian next year. The Safari Tasmania has also secured a further two years of backing from Subaru.

> gn

exciting," he said. "The victory doesn't change my plans but hopefully it will create interest in me in the future.

The US team suffered a serious setback before the event when NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon had to pull out with a bad dose of flu.

Jimmie Johnson was joined by replacement Casey Meats but the team was not sufficiently competitive to get beyond the first round.

-JOESAWARD

start-line incident.

Jones, the son of 1980 FI World champ Alan, secured the title with four wins and two seconds from 10 starts to finish the year on 111 points.

Fellow Aussie John Pettit finished the first race in fifth but crashed in the second race after resetting the lap record.

m sutton-images.com ;

8 Oecember 2004

GP2 Launched

sufft)n-m7ages;.com

THE new GP2 series has announced the names of the 12 teams which will be racing in the series in 2005.

There are no big surprises in the line-up and with so many established names, it will be interesting to see whether or not the sponsorship is available to pay for the racing, given that the new series is more expensive than the old FIA International Formula 3000 series.

The teams which will appear in 2005 are: Arden International, Coloni, BCN, Durango and Super Nova, all of which were active in Formula 3000.

In addition there will be a new team called iSport International which has been established by Paul Jackson, the man who has been running secondary teams for Super Nova Racing in recent years in Den Bla Avis and Petrobras Junior Team colours.

DAMS and David Price Racing will be moving up from the Renault V6 series while British F3 teams Flitech and Piquet Racing have joined forces to establish Flitech Piquet. In addition British F3 team PI Motorsport will be joining GP2, team boss Roly Vincini having landed a big backer.

It is a similar story with the new ART team, an alliance between Nicolas (son of Jean) Todt and the highly successful Formula 3 team ASM. The team is expected to have backing from Vodafone, although Todt had denied that this is the case.

The final team is Campos Racing, run by former Grand Prix driver Adrian Campos, who is moving up from the Nissan World Series.

Aussie Will Power's representatives are talking with a number of the British-based teams.

- JOE SAWARD

■ Changes have been proposed for the Australian Rally Championship's Privateers' Cup for 2005. In an effort to reduce costs, it has been suggested that competitors be allowed to nominate just four of the six Super Series rounds in which they want to compete. Other cost cutting measures under consideration include testing restrictions, tyre numbers and a limit on the number of services during an event. The proposal is being sent to ARC registered competitors for comment this week.

■ Sweden's Bjorn Wirdheim, who was Jaguar Racing's 2004 test and reserve driver, will not be continuing with Red Bull Racing. Wirdheim, who won the Forrmula 3000 title in 2003 with Arden International is expected to sign for PKV Racing in Champ Cars, where he will join a trio of other F3000 champions: Bruno Junqueira (2000), Justin Wilson (2001) and Sebastien Bourdais (2002).

■ As you read this. Barton Mawer is on his way to Bahrain to join British F3 team Hitech for the Bahrain Formula 3 Super Prix.

Sydney-born Mawer, who contested 10 rounds of the British F3 Scholarship series, tested the car at Silverstone two weeks ago in preparation for the race. He will drive the car used by Danny Watts in Macau. Joining him will be fellow Aussie Karl Reindler, the Australian F3 frontrunner making his international debut with Swiss Racing Team.

The Bahrain Formula 3 Super Prix is a new event that replaces Korea as the second 'fly-away' international F3 race after Macau.

■ Team Dynamics is set to ditch its Honda Civics for Integras for next year's BTCC, Team boss Steve Neal confirmed that the stubby Civic was the wrong shape for a BTCC car, - SAWARD/ADDISON/STAFF 15

I

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NEWS

Utebber rolls a Lucky Seven MARK Webber will carry race number seven when he debuts for the BMW.Williams team in Melbourne next March.

The FIA last week issued its official entry list for the 2005 FI World Championship, with a number of driver spots still carrying TBA. While the official list included 'Jaguar Racing', it is expected that the name change to Red Bull Racing will follow shortly.

- JOE SAWARD

2005 Formula 1 Entry List 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Michael Schumacher [D] Rubens Barrichello [Bra] Jenson Button [GB] Takuma Sato [J] Fernando Alonso [Esp] Giancarlo Fisichella [Ita] Mark Webber [Aus] TBA Kimi Raikkonen [Fin] Juan Pablo Montoya [Col] Jacques Villeneuve [Can] Felipe Massa [Bra] TBA TBA Jarno Trulli [Ita] Ralf Schumacher [D] TBA TBA TBA TBA

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Lucky Strike BAR Honda Lucky Strike BAR Honda Mild Seven Renault Mild Seven Renault BMW Williams BMW Williams West McLaren Mercedes West McLaren Mercedes Sauber Petronas SauberPetronas Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing Panasonic Toyota Racing Panasonic Toyota Racing Jordan Grand Prix Jordan Grand Prix Minardi Minardi

Bridgestone Bridgestone Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin Michelin

era

8

3

SPECULATION in Europe links Prodrive(now no longer involved with the BAR Honda Eormula 1 programme) with a fresh joint project with Honda, targeted at the new FIA World Touring Car Championship.

JAS Motorsport will operate its Honda Accord racecars in the inaugural series next season, but the Italian team has no official factory support. Prodrive built Honda's cars when it contested the British series.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

Bridgestone Bridgestone Bridgestone Bridgestone

DRIVER WAIMTED

I

2005 V8 Supercar Development Series Holden VY Comnnodore Leve 1 Team Supported 6 Round Championship Requirements l Strong budget l Performance Ability l Appropriate Licence Serious respondents please apply Call 0418 820 338 16

i

Chev nicks Larini CHEVROLET has signed Italian former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini to race in its three-car Lacetti team that is being formed for the inaugural 2005 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Larini, 40, an experienced touring car racer with Alfa Romeo, will partner Swiss veteran Alain Menu and a young driver yet to be named in the team, whose (formerly Daewoo-branded) cars are under build in the UK by RML. Last month, in a race at Jerez, Spain, Larini was the co-driver for Alessandro Nannini, the former Grand Prix winner for Benetton, when his compatriot returned to the cockpit for the first time for seven years in a Maserati coupe.

- QUENTIN SPURRING motorsport news

mm’s PLACE, U WJLLIAMSFI

mu This is a rare opportunity for you and a frie see the inner sanctum of the legendary B WilliamsFI team, the new home of Aussie star Mark Webber, at the 2005 FORMULA Foster’s Australian Grand Prix.

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You’ll also win 4-day Grandstand tickets, i economy Qantas airfares (from any Austr capital city except Melbourne), five nights accommodation. Pit Lane Walk Passes : (for Saturday 5th March) and Grand Prix merchandise - all for two people. Sensational!

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* Win a personally guided tour of the BMW WilliamsFI Team Garage by Mark Webber* l Plus airfares, accommodation & grandstand g tickets for the 2005 FORMULA T Foster’s - Australian Grand Prix

Albert Park Melbourne, 3-6 MarcA 2005.1 i For bookings, calf Ticketmaster? oil 131 641 or visit www.grandprix.com.au * Should unforeseen FI commitments prs««rt Ma»k t»ng D'esent the tour Witt be conducted by a BMW WMUamsF i T^aea staff member

HOW TO ENTER Simply answer the question on this entry form and send to: CHECK OUT MARK’S PLACE COMPETITION, PO BOX 7072, GARDENVALE, VIC 3186.

The answer judged best by our panel will win. You may enter as many times as you i

NAME: ADDRESS: _ POSTCODE: PHONE:

MOBILE:

EMAIL: In 25 words or less, tell us why you should be the one to check out Mark’s Place, the BMW WilliamsFI Team Garage:

like, but only original entry forms will be accepted. Entries must be received by Thursday February 3, 2005. ditions apply. For details see Promotion Date: 08/12/04 - 03/02/05

FOsmrsAusmuAN A W- aKAHDPIllX200S

LHe in the Fastlane

MICHAEL Patrizi will drive for Brett Lupton's Fastlane Racing team in the 2005 Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford Championship and will be taking some very serious equipment into battle for his quest to win.

The West Australian driver has aquired a brand new Van Diemen RF05 for the campaign and is clear in his intentions to win the title.

"With Brett engineering the car - he has been in FI and has got to be one of the best engineers in Formula Ford - we can only go forward in leaps and bounds and I am really looking forard to next season," said Patrizi, above.

"The new car should be here next week and we will strip it and do everything we have to do to it. Then we will go testing two to three times a week all the way up to next year."

Patrizi has raced for the Anglo Motorsports team in the NSW and Victorian State Formula Ford series this season and is a former international kart racer, cutting his teeth on the tough European karting scene.

- CHRIS JORDAN

Triple the fun

EXPECT NASCAR outfit Evernham Motorsports to announce that it will a field a third team in rnany Cup events next season, with Bill Elliott, right, the lead driver of a _ Dodge that seeirusJiKely to be spbns'ordd by ; Stanley Tools.

The operation will also run some Busch events in 2005 with Stanley, before embarking on a full, schedule with a new driver in 2006.

Chris Andrews, who recently departed Richard Childress Racing as crew chief for Robby Gordon, will head the operation.

- MARTIN D CLARK

by CHRIS JORDAN THE Australian Formula Ford Association is planning to revive a Formula Ford Festival event for 2005.

If successful, it would be the first event of its kind to be held in Australia since 1994.

The event would be a way of bringing the large number of statelevel competitors the category currently enjoys, especially in Victoria and New South Wales, together at one event with the national series teams. This would be an ideal way of encouraging the state competitors to take the step up to the I national level, thus keeping them in the category.

"The idea died off when the a category went down a bit," Margaret Hardy, Administrator of the Association, told MNews.

"But now is the ideal opportunity for it to come back. We have lots of competitors, especially in the state series.

"We would like to have it late in the year, maybe in November,as December is a little too late.

"Oran Park has shown interest to run it with another event they are planning. You wouldn't get the track

time at an AVESCO meeting. You would need to run lots of races for things like older Historic Formula Fords."

Support for the event was widespread throughout Formula Ford competitors and teams at Eastern Creek at the weekend.

"I think it is a great idea for us/' said Paul Zsidy of Borland Racing.

"As it grew you would like to see 50-60 cars plus for a festival-like weekend. 1 can't see any downsides."

"If Formula Ford in Britain and France adopt the new (Fiesta) engine as we are (in 2006) we could really have a festival witlr a truly international feel."

The last Australian Formula Ford Festival was run at Winton in 1994 and won by Dugal McDougaU. 2005 Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford Championship R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 NC

Cllpsal 500 March 17-20 May 6-8 Barbagello Eastern Creek May 27-29 Eastern Creek July 8-10 Old Raceway July 22-24 Oran Park August 12-14 Mallala August 19-21 Sandown September 9-11 Bathurst October 6-9

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nolorsporl news

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Honda of Troy TROY Bayliss is now a Honda man.

The Taree rider will partner Alex Barros in the 2005

MotoGP world championship,

the pair running Camelbranded bikes for the Pramac Pons team.

Bayliss, World Superbike champion in 2001, joins Camel Honda after spending his first two years competing in the premier GP class with the factory Ducati team.

The Australian scored four

podium finishes in that time, although a maiden MotoGP victory has so far eluded him.

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motorsport news

NEVirS

Audi goes for Le All Stars COOPER S Racing dominated the GT Festival in Bahrain at the end of November, with David Brabham and Allan Simonsen taking the honours in their Ferrari 550 Maranello.

With a number of the FIA GT cars delayed in China with customs problems, opposition was limited for the AussieDanish pair, with only the Saleen of Dominque Dupuy able to take the fight to the Ferrari.

Race 1 was a 35-minute sprint race, but after a dismal day of organisation by Bahrain officials, it started in almost total darkness and was topped after 18 of the 35 minutes - when visibility was non-existent. However, Simonsen was the star of the opening race, having taken pole position in the bright red unsilenced 550. Leaping away from the rolling start, the Dane quickly built up a lead and was never headed in the truncated race.

Ferraris all 'round!: Russian Sergey Zlobin won one of the CT2 races, above, but Brabs and Simonsen won overall, opposite page, Brabham did race two on two-driver race, and Dupuy the Friday morning, the best was always going to be race of the weekend as he compromised by a slower co driver in Francois Fiat. fought for 35 minutes with However, two safety car Dupuy. The gap went up and periods helped the French down like crazy, with Dupuy pair, and Dupuy was catching riding shotgun but never Brabham near the end until seriously challenging - until the diff went bang on the last the last couple of laps, Dupuy lap, the Saleen finishing third catching Brabham in traffic behind Frederic and boxing him in two corners Dedours/Frederic Makowiecki from home to take the win, David second. in a Chrysler Viper GTS. With Bahrain the venue for Race three was the last the FIA GT Championship next sprint race and Brabs and year, the Festival is on the Dupuy lined up again, but an move - and is likely to wash early puncture dropped Dupuy up on these shores ... to seventh after a pit stop.

- DAVID ADDISON The final was a 60-minute

ORECA is returning to Sportscar racing next year with an Audi R8. The car will be French blue in colour and carry the backing of PlayStation, a long-time Oreca backer. An all-French crew will drive the car, with Sebastian Bourdais, Emmanuel Collard and Nicolas Minassian the likely drivers.

Team owner Flughes De Chaunac said: "It is like being the French football team manager, everyone will be looking to see who I choose!" n Next season's Silverstone LMES event is to start at 4pm to increase the amount of racing in the dark. And rain, probably, knowing the UK. lEd: We are not sledging English weather, Addison is a Pom ...) n The Japanese GT Championship is going global. The popular domestic series has applied for dates outside Japan for 2005, including a race at the Malaysian GP circuit and at Sepang in China. A race in Turkey is also being considered, as are dates in South Korea and Singapore.

The plans come on the back of an invitational race at Fontana in America.

- DAVID ADDISON

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Rossi Yamaha's ’05 Ml flies in testing JUST when the opposition was probably sick of the sight of Valentino Rossi, the World Champion has topped a test at Sepang.

Rossi and new team-mate Colin Edwards spent three days in Malaysia getting intimate with Yamaha's 2005 Ml, The Doctor getting within kooee of his October pole time. Better, Edwards was faster in the test than his fastest time set on the Honda RC211V two months ago.

"The 2005 Ml is virtually a completely new machine, and so it is like starting over from scratch all over again," Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio told MotoGP.com.

"The engineers are working closely with Valentino to decide which way to go on this new project, because it was felt that the 2004 machine had practically reached as far as it could go."

Rossi sported a new design

on his AGV helmet which, according to him, depicts his cleansing of MotoGP this season ...

Also present at the test was the Suzuki team, with test riders Kousuke Akiyoshi and Nobuatsu Aoki filling in for the American pairing of John Hopkins and Kenny Roberts, who continue to recover from injuries.

I

Honda'S Copycat

MAKOTO Tamada will ride for a one-bike Honda team in next season's MotoGP championship.

The Japanese rider, who won two races last season riding for the Pramac Pons Camel Honda team, will run a Honda RC211V with backing from Konica Minolta.

Interestingly, the team will switch from Bridgestone tyres to MicheUns, despite Tamada's impressive form on the Japanese rubber.

The team will be run by his '04 team manager Luca Montiron and former Honda Europe president Tetsuo lida.

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motorsport news

1

BIKE NEWS KR + KTM + Michelin = fast

Spanish Yamaharmada RUBEN Xaus and Toni Elias have found a new home in MotoGP.

The two Spaniards will line up for the French-based Yamaha Techs team and will test their 2005 YZR-MIs in Malaysia, starting on January 22.

"After having signed Toni Elias we decided with our

"It is Elias' mix of youth, and the four-stroke experience that will come with Ruben which I believe will provide the balance for a successful season for the Techs team."

Xaus, runner-up in the World Superbike Championship,

THE Good Old Days of motorcycle racing, when you took this chassis, fitted it with that engine and these tyres, has made a comeback in MotoGP testing at Jerez.

Former Proton Team KR rider Jeremy McWilliams rejoined his old team to shake down a prototype machine, a 2004-spec KR fitted with a new KTM V4 engine. The seemingly odd combination was fitted with Michelin tyres, rather than the team's usual Dunlops and, strangest of all, it was pretty damn fast.

It was the second time that the team has tested the Austrian V4, which already seems to be better that the team's own asthmatic V5. In fact, so Impressed was McWilliams with the unit that he passed on the chance to sample a development engine before passing the testing over to Gregorio Lavilla and Kurtis Roberts for more testing.

"There's nothing about this bike I can compare to the Proton KR V5 I rode in 2003," said the Ulsterman.

"It's so much better in every way."

The team is yet to name riders for 2005 or, indeed, commit to a partnership with KTM for the future.

McWilliams is yet to sign a deal after racing for Aprilia this season.

stepped up to MotoGP with the D'Antin Ducati satellite team this season,finishing 11th overall. His maiden podium came in Qatar with third place.

Elias has already sampled the 2004YZR-M1 at Valencia, below,following the final round of the season. He finished fourth in the 2004 250cc

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THE HOLDEN RACING TEAM STORY OUT NOW ON VIDEO The link between a high performance car manufacturer in Holden Special Vehicles and its racing division has produced the most successful racing partnership in Australian motor sport history.

Formula One has Ferrari.

For five consecutive years, HRT won the Australian Touring Car Championship. Several great victories at Mt Panorama in the Bathurst 1000 put the icing on the cake for the team.

The list of the team’s drivers read like an Australian motorsport who’s who with the likes of Peter Brock, Mark Skaife, Jim Richards, Craig Lowndes, Greg Murphy, Larry Perkins, Win Percy, Allan Grice, Tomas Mezera, Neil Crompton, Wayne Gardner, Brad Jones and Jason Bright all driving for the team.

In this DVD, we examine the origins of the HRT in 1988 with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, meet the drivers who have brought the team so much success, recapture the great moments in the Championship and The Great Race, and talk to the people behind the team’s success, as well as looking at the team today and its new directions under champion driver Mark Skaife.

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LESS

OPINION

Fine and sunny but chance of a late braking move

Y

ou can't go anywhere without motorsport fans asking about the V8 Ute series.

The Utes are raw. They are Australian icons, they are colourful in the commentary. The carnage is high and the recipe is simply perfect for attracting this new breed of non-motor heads into the sport and it's successful.

There is nothing like it in Australia and there is probably nothing like it in the world. It's almost reminiscent of the British Touring Car Championship in its heyday, just with big moustaches, short weathermen, weird nicknames and a lot more sideways action!

We've gone through a couple of years with a little bit of uncertainty. We all wanted to support the PROCAR thing as much as we could because Ross Palmer was passionate, had some great ideas and, of course, was the initiator of the Utes series. We hung out as long as we could and in the end it just wasn't meant to be. Now we are really excited that we are on board with the V8 Supercars. It's probably what we should have done two years ago, to be honest.

A

VESCO's own studies uncovered the fact that the V8 Utes are already the number

developed purely for entertainment. It's not like a normal motorsport category. It's designed for maximum bang for your buck. Bringing back the thing that motorsport has lost over the years, particularly with Formula 1 and previously with V8 Supercars, and that passing, general entertainment and excitement.

A lot of people grizzle with our random grid draws - the Chook lotto - but it's what has made us a success, that's for sure.

But gents, best of all, the .»/. percentage of girls that watch V8 Ute is higher than any other category I The admission price that they are asking at the entry gate of a V8 Supercar meeting is exceptionally high for the . . ^ 've had a couple of, ^ ^ working man, so they need to'' ' o[i)(Dortunities to'drive the OzEmail V8 Supercars at d rive ensure that to survive they have days. I've had that taste and I'd a good entertainment package. I think the Utes were just the give my left testicle to be able to do it to be honest. missing piece of the big puzzle I was always a racing car driver and together, V8 Supercars is first and a TV presenter second. taking on the other sports in a But the TV career has shot up X n major way. rapidly in the last couple of years and I'm slowly reaching that fork it's almost reminisent of the British Touring Car in the road where I am no longer going to be a Mark Skaife, but all ' j.

Championship in its heyday,just with hig moustaches, "* I can’hop'e for is to tryopd land an short weathermen, weird nicknames and a iot more enduro drive with a good team.

That's my dream and that's my ' sideways action! focus at the rnoment and if could make that happen, I'd be an exceptionally happy weatherman/race car driver.

one support category.

They have been a popular sport even though we have jumped from various television networks and had this instability. But now that we have a multi-year contract under our belts and we've got some security, we have already seen the value of our franchises triple and quadruple in value. We are seeing capacity grids locked in. We are excited to be with Formula 1 - what a contrast there I So what will the Formula 1 guys think when the Utes go to Albert Park in March next year?

They already have their faces glued to the screens when the V8 Supercars are out on the track. You can imagine what they are going to think when these Aussie inventions are bashing each other around the track, spearing each other into the sand traps and usually doing nasty things to each other as we do!

It's such a great thing, the Utes. You've got to always remember that it is a category

Motor Mou th With firant Denver

Channel 7 weatherman Grant Denyer won the Kanga Loaders Series for V8 Utes at Eastern l Creek last weekend.

UTE

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Prize-gmngSr Italian pres T

The with BoxJoeSeat Saward 5

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I

HIS is the time of year for prize-givings, exhibition races and testing - the lap times of which actually mean very little.

It is a time when the everhungry FI news sources search for things to write about.

As a result of this, in recent days we have seen a smattering of news about Mark Webber being critical about his proposed Williams FI team-mate Antonio Pizzonia. It all comes from an interview in an Italian newspaper - and when that happens, who knows what was really said, translated, retranslated and all the rest of it...

Webber has strong views about wfiat happened when Pizzonia was his team-mate at Jaguar Racing, because the Brazilian always said that he did not receive fair treatment and obviously that reflection Mark.

The people at Jaguar (then as now) are insistent that Mark is right and that the cars were the same.

It really does not matter that much but it is clear that, given a choice (which he will not be), Mark Webber would probably prefer a different team-mate. Fie was looking forward to going up against Jenson Button, which somewhat defeats the

argument from the Pizzonia camp that Webber is afraid of Pizzonia's speed.

As I always say when thethose subject comes up with concerned, we will see. Time gives us all of these answers and there is no point in arguing about it now.

The answer will be delivered to us by this time next year and while one can argue that results may not be a fair reflection of the situation, they are (and will always remain) the only way one can truly assess anything.

I would, however, happily defeat myself by arguing that Michael Schumacher is not the best-ever racing driver, although the results book proves me wrong in no uncertain terms.

On Saturday in Paris, however, Michael was beaten by a young guy called Heikki Kovalainen in the Race of Champions event at the Stade de France.

Kovalainen, a 23-year-old who is signed up as a Renault Development Driver, is expected to race in GP2 in 2005 and will probably be named as a Renault FI test driver as well.

The interesting thing was that not only did he beat Michael but he also outpaced David Coulthard and Jean Alesi on his way to the big showdown with World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb.

You can argue that it all means nothing but it is certainly something to have on your CV.

The man (hopes) has options: Vitantonio Liuzzi, right, has been linked to WilliamsFI, above, Jordan (or perhaps Arden), top, and Red Bull Racing, below. It seems it's only a matter of time before someone signs the talented Italian ...

I

26

motorsport news

FORMULA 1

i and where to for Liuzzi?

Afew years back, kid called Vitantonio Liuzzi abeat Michael Schumacher in a kart race and Michael did not forget.

Now Liuzzi is making waves in FI circles and one has to ask why someone other than Red Bull Racing and Jordan are not taking a closer look at him. Sure, some of the big teams would like him to be their test driver but a guy as good as Liuzzi is not interested in that.

The best drivers do not need years spent as test drivers. The Alain Prosts, Ayrton Sennas, Mika Hakkinens, Michael Schumachers and Kimi Raikkonens of the world arrive in FI with enough talent to overcome any need to mess about learning how to do it and Liuzzi seems to me to be a man who has the same look about him.

Tonio did test a Williams a couple of years ago but for some reason, the team did not seem to pay much attention to it.

Sauber gave him a run this autumn the day after signing Jacques Villeneuve and Liuzzi blew the engineers away and without mechanical trouble. might even have embarrassed Felipe Massa. But the Swiss team had nothing to offer. So it was off to Red Bull where in two tests he has made it very clear that he has the measure of Christian Klien, despite the fact

that Klien has a year of experience in the car that Liuzzi has driven for just a couple of days.

If Red Bull is dumb enough not to take him, then Jordan probably will (and certainly will if the team is taken over by Christian Horner, who ran Liuzzi in Forrmula 3000).

But it strikes me that Williams is mad not to be giving him another try, given what he has done in FI thus far. There was some talk of Williams testing him again but the team is fixated on the idea that experience is

important and so wants to use Pizzonia, who has done a million miles running around away from races.

But Formula 1, let us not forget, is about racing, not testing and there are different attitudes and different reactions to pressure.

There have been many drivers who were naturally fast but who shied away from the cut and thrust of a race, while others who were not ultimately

V

IrfL

the quickest would always come out ahead in a fight.

There is no doubting that Pizzonia is a quick driver but we have yet to see the cut and thrust in races that makes a World Champion. With Webber, we know it is there.

Williams would do well to take another look at Liuzzi before doing a deal with Pizzonia.

And it might be worth a look at Kovalainen as well ... although with Flavo Briatore involved, that would inevitably be an expensive operation.

Five minutes with

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Memos,a Rat aiM an Biitmcen

We've never done a Five Minutes with more than one person heiore, but the post-race press conterence atEastern Creek was so good we thought it would be a shame it you missed out QUESTION: Marcos,the perfect weekend. Pole position, three starts, three wins, and you were never really hassled.

MARCOS AMBROSE; Well, it wasn't that easy out there, but we'll take it. It was a great weekend for the Stone Brothers team.

They deserve a one-two in the Championship, and I'm really proud that Russell and 1 could get one for them.

It was a dream day and a dream weekend. Yesterday was everything, for the Championship, and today was just the icing on the cake.

Q: This is your 13th round win in just four short years.

MA: Yeah, it's just fantastic. 1 had no idea that I was going to go so well so early. I gave myself a five year plan in the category, once I was established ... and I've still got a year to go.

Q: Paul, it has been a long time between drinks. It must be a buzz for you to finish off your time with Triple 8 with a podium?

PAULRAQISICH: It's just an awesome way to finish off. It has been an extremely difficult season - or two, or three ...

But we've got the car working very well, and it’s great now (laughs). We've done the hard work.

But the team has done a great job all year. Sure, we've had out problems at quite a few races, but to come out in this one, my last race for Ford, my last race for Betta Electrical, is just terrific.

There is no way that anyone can run with Marcos at the moment, he is just on top of his game. His car is awesome, and just following him there it was a picture to watch.

But I'm extremely happy, and we have big plans for next season, and we'll start all over again.

2B

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Q: You are going on to Team Kiwi next year, the team is moving up to Queensland.

Qbviously this is an exciting change for you as well?

PR: Yes. People will actually be able to understand me, so there's quite a bit of interest there! (laughs) Look, Team Kiwi is joining forces with Paul Morris Motorsport and even though they'll run separately, they are joining forces for their development program. We're going to start with a brand-new Holden car and engines and I tell you, the package looks very exciting.

Q; Russell, you said earlier in the weekend that you were concerned about a lack of grip.

Your second place in the championship seemed to be looking a bit remote on that basis?

RUSSELL INGALL: We sort of couldn't get our heads around the car, all through qualifying and practice.

It definitely wasn't happy, not like when we were here at the beginning of the year in the wet.

It actually had us a bit fooled. We didn't know what to do. But the boys got their heads down last night and said OK, we'll put another package in.

We went out in the warm-up and the thing felt really good, and in that last race it was just a jet. I

was just driving with one hand, and I was actually cracking a few jokes with the team. 1 never talk on the radio, and I was actually cracking a few jokes with them when I was sitting behind Skaifey.

And that's not taking anything away from Skaifey, but the car was just very, very fast. So it was great that they can actually turn things around like that, and take a car that was a bit average and make into a potential winner.

Q: Bearing in mind everything that has happened in the past with you and Mark Skaife,that was one of the longest battles we've had. Talk us through that.

Rl: Mate, imagine the cash registers going with all that coverage, hey? (laughs). Ching, ching ... no flies on me! You reckon I was going to pass him?

No way! I picked up around another 80 grand there!

No, it was a good race. Mark was in a bit of trouble. His rig wasn't very pacey, and 1 was sort of giving him a few taps because he had no corner speed and 1 had plenty.

I could give him a couple rather than ... I don't know ... I was going to have a decent go at him, have a good fling, and then 1 thought, 'no maybe next lap'.

And then I was,'oh, should I do it?' And these flashes kept coming back (laughs).

And then the boys jumped on the radio and said, 'hey, you are third overall on the day', and I said, 'don’t worry about the day, what about the Championship?'

They said, 'you're running second at the moment'. So all of a sudden I thought it was time to engage the brain again (laughs).

That was the deal. After that I thought I'd just sit there. I wanted to keep pressuring him, because if there was an opportunity to get past 1 was going to go for it, make no mistake about that. I thought, 'the way he's been going, he's going to make a bit of a cock-up somewhere'.

And he basically didn't. He actually drove very well, because his car was pretty evil. He drove it well and made no mistakes, so 1 couldn't get by him.

Q: Bearing in mind what has been said about Marcos's performance and the way that his car has performed, is it likely that there will be some interchange of information to try to get your car up to the same pace as Marcos's car?

Rl: Look, everything is totally open in the team. There are no secrets. There a lot of rumours that go around saying that Marcos has got a better engine or a better package.

The cars are identical. They are. At the end of the day, you've just got to face the facts. Marcos is on top of his game, like Paul said. You can't let one area down in this game at the moment.

You've got to have everything absolutely perfect. As a driver, you've got to be a good racer, know how to set the car up, and be a good qualifier.

And Marcos is all of those things, and that's why he wins championships. All the rest of us have got a little glitch somewhere in our performances.

That's for us to rectify so that we can actually get out and beat him, and that's the deal. notorsport rbws

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Stephane Ratal

Top-tine GT racing iooks set to visit Austnaiia alter the recent visit of HA GT promoter Stephane Ratei to Austratia, m between visits to China amiBahrain. DAW ADDiSON caught up witt him MOTORSPORT NEWS: We hear you have been in Australia recently?

STEPHANE RATEL: Yes. It is a fantastic place and the motor sport there is incredible, with the most successful touring car championship in the world that all Europeans should aim for, plus the best FI and Moto GP. MN: Why the visit?

SR: FIA GT is a global championship but to earn that name it must go to Australia.

I want to see GT racing incorporate Australia and this is the first part of making that happen.

MN: Group C wasn't popular there,so why should GT work?

SR: GT racing has a different appeal. People can associate with our cars more than they could with Group C cars or even prototypes now.

People can identify Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins where as they can't really do that with Group C cars. Also, you must promote it better to create the national interest by having national drivers and teams.

Then you must organise TV coverage so that two years down the line, people know what you are bringing and you can build on it.

We are looking at a teaser in 2005 and a full-blown FIA round in 2006.

MN: What do you mean by 'a teaser'?

SR: The GT Festival could go to Australia to test the water.

I went to Surfers Paradise but they are in a contract with V8s and Champ Cars. I have (also) had talks with Bathurst and

Phillip Island.

MN: Did you approach the circuits or did they come to you?

30

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"We are looking at a teaser in 2005 and a full-blown round in 2006" -Salvation may be at hand for GT-starved motorsport fans in this corner of the world...

SR: I made the approach to them. I have a contact in Australia who helped me get the Lamborghini Supertrophy to the Grand Prix, and he helped me organise the meetings. I am confident that we will succeed.

MN;Is it a done deal, or is it just likely?

SR: We are at the preliminary stage. We have to have an idea of budget, such as travel costs for cars and people. Taking five mechanics economy class is not cheap, for example, and we need the costs to be met as much as possible by the promoter.

It is not a cheap exercise, particularly given the cost of getting the cars out here.

It is a long trip on a boat and expensive to fly them, so we have many factors to consider before we make a decision.

MN: Would it be GT or WTCC (World Touring Car Championship) as well?

SR: Just GT. In Europe the Super Weekend idea works well because it halves the cost for promoters, but for flyaway events where you have the two platforms, the costs double for promoters because they are funding the two championships.

MN: What about taking over the Nations Cup? SR: It seems that the regulations are the problem.

If the GT Festival comes to Australia and we have 10 Australian entries, then I would not look at the championship.

But if we got 25 entries, then I would be keener.

We would have to run it to our regulations (GT1, GT2 and GTS) and if that kept some teams out for a season, then that may be good because by not racing they would be bored and want to come back to racing, to our regulations.

I have no idea of the economy

in Australia, so it is hard to answer, but we would not have GT1 cars - they are for the FIA Championship, so we would have GT2 and GTS if we took it over, as we do in Britain and France. This offers people a better chance to do well.

Anyway, it is not an immediate priority. I am looking at GT racing in the Gulf though, and there is interest in the product there so a championship may start soon ...

MN: And any thoughts on saving the Bathurst 24 Hours?

SR: I am interested in it. I think it is an excellent place for V8s, and it makes sense for every circuit to have more than one major race, like Le Mans and Indianapolis. It needs reviving and maybe I can help.

All 24 Hour races bring good crowds because there is more than just racing, and it makes sense to have one in Australia, but I don't see it as an immediate objective. motorspon news

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STEVE ELLERY: It wasn't through a lack of trying. After the podium finishes at Sandown and Bathurst in '03, we thought that '04 could have our first round win, a Bathurst win, certainly a

middle of the season but we did; we found Bruce Price.

It took us a few races to get used to everything, but we got into the top 10 in Perth and had a strong Winton, things looked good at Sandown and Bathurst but a few problems stopped us getting a result.

It has been a really frustrating year but sometimes things happen that are out of your control.

few more podiums. My confidence was up, everything was going really well.

We went to Adelaide for the first race of the year and qualified inside the top 10. The races turned bad for us. Then we lost our engineer, Wally Walburn, to WPS. It is hard to find a good engineer in the

MN: How much of that is a factor of Ford teams starting to get on top of the BA, catch up the gap to the Stones and make things generally more competitive?

SE; The BA has been a lot more user-friendly car, I am sure you have heard that up and down pitlane. It makes more sense than an AD: when you make small changes, a little bit more happens. Small changes work.

If you put all the teams together, I think that you would find that pretty much all the BAs handle the same. There are things in the front of the car that allow changes to make a difference and we have worked hard to have that right on our car.

We do not have the budget to have an engine program to match Stone, HRT or anyone else but we are pretty happy with the BA and what we have been able to achieve from it.

the team, it must be pretty satisfying to have the Konica car go so well with Luke [Youlden], He and Andy Jones were close all year and even when Greg Ritter arrived in what was pretty much a Stone car,the Super Cheap car wasn't blown away.

SE; No it wasn't. It comes down to the fact that we found Bruce Price.

For us, he was a user-friendly guy to have in the team for us, as far as the team is concerned.

He worked on each individual driver. He took Luke out for a test day in the Konica car we set up just for Luke; from that moment on, he was further up the front. Mallala was a strong showing, and I put it down to that fact, and the fact that Craig Hasted lifted the engine program.

The drivers were starting to tell him more feedback and all that... roundabout, I guess, made cars better.

MN: From the point of view of

MOTORSPORT

MN: What about Luke's development? From both your view and the team's, his progress must be very pleasing.

SE; Definitely. We grabbed Luke three years ago when he had done a couple of Bathursts with Perkins. When he came to us, he was a bit green. Funnily enough, 1 have probably learned a lot off Luke in the last three years. We helped each other.

One thing Luke is, he is

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probably the fittest person I know. I cannot think of any driver in this category who would be any fitter than Luke.

He made me try harder in my fitness and I made him try harder on the track. When we got to Sandown last year and finished second, to stand on the podium with him at Bathurst, it capped off a good few years for us. I really wanted to do it again this year.

We really hoped to win the Konica Championship and it wasn't through a lack of trying.

You cannot get any closer - he only needed one more point somewhere! We are very proud of the way that Luke has turned out; we put a lot of effort into him, he put a lot of effort in and we hope that somewhere, there is a future for him.

I believe he is good enough to be in this category; he proved it at Bathurst.

Your single-car team endures a tough season. Your sponsor abandons you midway through one of the biggest race weekends of the year. And then, the phone rings and you end up in one of2005's plum seats. Its been a strange year for Steven Ellery, as PHIL BRANAGAN discovered

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MN: What happened to the team at Surfers has been welldocumented and widely reported. From a driver’s point of view, after such a long relationship with a sponsor, how disappointing was it?

SE: \/ery disappointing. It was five years - how many people can say that they have had the same sponsor that long? We were really proud of the association and we got stronger and stronger over the years. continued on page 34 Torga Tasmanio ‘05 is the first Class Endorsed Event,

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continued from page 33 The chain of events ... lam not going into that. It all ended. I was disappointed with Super Cheap that they decided to do it that way.

MN: It cannot be good for the sport when 'dirty linen' makes it into the public?

SE: No. This sport is hard enough. We know - we are out there at the moment looking for sponsors. That is hard enough but it is harder when you lose sponsors from the sport.

Look; I wish them all the best.

I hope they stay in the sport in whatever form they choose, whether they sponsor a team or an event or a series.

If they go to another team, the sport is richer with them than without them. I hope Super Cheap stays in the sport. I just do not like the way the thing was done publicly; it did not have to go that way.

MN: At any point after that happened, did you mentally cross off that you would not be driving next year?

SE: Yes. I decided that we would speak to a few teams and as all the pieces started to fall into place, it was looking more and more likely that I was out the door.

I had pledged my allegiance to the team and, if the worse came about, I would run a Konica car. I wanted to keep driving, pick up an endurance drive and win BathurstI That was important. That is where I was; I was not going to quit altogether. Somehow, I was going to get through it and keep the career going.

It would have been tough; nine years in the main game and it could all end now. That was hard to deal with.

MN:Then Roland Dane comes along. A shock?

SE: Totally! I didn't think that there was an opening there and, once I learned there was, I went and listened to what they had to say.

MN: How? Who made contact with whom?

SE: Fie rang Dad to see what I was up to and asked him up there for a meeting. I didn't even know about it! They spoke, he came back and told me what they were after, and he told me to go and have a meeting with therh.

So I had a meeting, one meeting turned into two and that turned into a signature and a drive.

34

Ford Medij

MN: Can you expand on 'what they were after'?

SE: They made it blatantly obvious that they were after experience. They had [Craig] Lowndes and they wanted a guy who could drive, was easy on tyres and easy on cars. They want to go forward on set-up.

So, 1 had a decision to make. I had to start thinking of the reasons why I should do it ... the pluses and minuses. I cannot say there were any negatives except that I have to let my team down and leave. It was a tough decision.

MN: I can imagine. But you have gone from the possibility of not having a drive to having a car identical to Craig's - with a Stones engine. Is that like waking up and pinching yourself?

SE: Yeah! Then you need to wake up and think about the reality of the thing.

I guess the number one thing I thought of was how good it would be to drive with Craig as a team mate. To have a car that is equal, with Stone Brothers engines, I could not turn my back on that.

Triple 8 from an engineering point of view, from their background and what they have already done here in Australia. I had to look at all that and consider. Three things together.

It was an awesome combination.

I could not wait to get back there and put pen to paper.

Then, I walked out and reality set in; "Oh no, this is my big chance!" I have been waiting a long time for this and it is my big chance. Lowndes is not going to be an easy team-mate to have he is a great driver, he is quick and we all know that. We do not all necessarily know where I am.

We are about to find out.

I have to show people what 1 can do. I believe that I can do it.

MN: We have seen glimpses of you driving for other teams in the past, most visibly, DJR. That was pretty impressive.

SE: I look back and I think, "I gelled with that team really well".

I had a great couple of months with DJR back in 1999 and Paul Radisich and I almost won Bathurst. That was a big buzz.

Even with some thirds at Bathurst, 1999 really stands out as my best drive at Bathurst. I worked with the team really well

"We know that Craig Lowndes is a great driver. We do not neccessarily know where I am. We are about to find out.

We finished ninth in 2001 and 1 have shown glimpses, but not for all 13 races. Next year, I am going to have to step it up and make a championship out of it and give the team two cars in the top 10. I know I can do that; it is a matter of getting out there and doing it.

MN: Despite the experience you have in V8 Supercars, is this like starting over?

SE: It is. It is really big for me.

The last five years have been great for me and this season has been the best year I have had.

The bunch of guys we have in the team have been absolutely fantastic.

1 wake up in the morning and 1 want to go training and I want to work hard. It gelled this year.

Unfortunately, the results do not show that.

With the new-found enthusiasm, I am really looking forward to going out there and giving the team what they are after.

MN: And what is the future of SER? SE: Um ... I think it's pretty good. For me, sponsors were not found in time but I still think that the [Triple 8] deal is a better one for me.

For SER, we are going to keep s working hard to find someone to come in and drive the car. That is the goal. We are searching for and it was unfortunate that we sponsors, we have the Kanga Loaders deal for the 'Konica' car. didn't greet the chequered flag.

In my mind, we won that race. 1 The last thing I want to see is will take it! the team ciose just because I But, saying all that, in my own leave. They are working hard to team for five years, 1 have been keep a car on the track and the in a comfort zone a little bit. I am franchise going. looking forward to stepping out There are some good guys; into another team and working Craig Hasted's engines, Bruce hard. I am looking forward to that. Price, all the guys. They deserve I think that my biggest problem to be there. If someone can over the last few years has been come into this team and help to putting a whole season together. keep it all going, it will be great,

FORD

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Oi Mark, got a With the first six days of testing under his belt at Willianns, Mark Webber tells CHRIS LAMBDEN how it all went and what a difference the new low aero/one tyre FI regs will have.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: You've now completed your first tests with Williams, a team with three or four times the budget you've been used to at Jaguar.

How do those extra resources most obviously show themselves?

MARK WEBBER: You can tell by the data they've got bolted away from over the years.

They've tested a lot of theories, shall we say, about how to get a car to go quick, so there were lots of things, information, that Jaguar hasn't got. So that was immediately impressive.

The car itself was just that bit stronger everywhere really, every little bit of detail is more complete.

The team itself runs smoothly. Jag did too, in terms of the efficiency of each of the people involved - it was just that we didn't have enough of them!

Williams is bigger.

Resources are important in terms of making the car go ■i faster.

Good to get that first test out of the way, learn the systems on the car. Now we can start to concentrate on the whole package.

MN: In terms of learning new systems, let's take the steering wheel. Is the layout of all the associated buttons and controls different and did it take long for it to become second-nature?

MW: It is very different to the Jaguar. There are some similarities and some significant differences. It didn't take a huge amount of time to get on top of those. There are some changes, in terms of the controls involved in the new regs, which mean that even if I'd stayed at Jaguar, there would have been new things to incorporate.

36

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"It'S amazing what you can do to the balance of the car by taking the fuel out!

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- Webber

MN: While it's difficult, with new tyre, aero and engine regs for next year, can you pick the areas where you feel that the base BMW.Williams package is better than the Jag? The traction/rear-tyre degradation thing was an issue and, dare we say it, starts ...

MW; Yes, they are more on top of that. Having said that, you can never be on top of things enough.

You can always improve.

The traction is a lot better than the Jaguar but, again, is it better than the Renaults?

Possibly not. But the Williams is stronger than the Renault in other areas it blew them away over the last few races. It's all about understanding the car for 18 different tracks.

MN: Testing times are, of course misleading, even though they are reported and quoted at length by many. Can you explain Just how much

times can vary depending on the fuel load, tyre spec, etc?

MW: The cars are incredibly sensitive. Even when we run GP weekends, in the one hour practice sessions, the track can move around quite a lot often it's quicker at the end because there's more rubber down, sometimes not.

That's in a one hour session, so when you go to a three-day test, people look at the times at the end and go 'oh, he didn't go that well' or 'he was awesome.'

For example. I've got a fair idea of the fuel load they ran with Montoya in that first test when he put in the fastest time. People thought it was awesome, but I know the score

j

and it was ... just another lap.

There are so many variables in testing. Ten kilos of fuel either way is worth three to four-tenths depending on the track you're at; there's all sorts of aero combinations being used; and even the time of day can make a big difference.

For example, I was 2 seconds a lap quicker than Nick Heidfeld when he tested last week - but he didn't even get to run on the track when it was pretty much dry, whereas I did. He was doing intermediate testing.

Testing isn't a Grand Prix. It's about testing the vehicle and comparing A with B. It's simply not about fast lap times. Times actually count for very little - it's nice to go quick but, at this time of year, it's fairly meaningless.

MN: So what could be the time range, purely depending on fuel load?

MW; Well, it could be 50 kilos, which is 1.5 to 2 seconds. On bare times, Christian (Klien) was virtually as quick as we were last week but I know what fuel he was on ...

As they say, it's amazing what you can do to the balance of the car by taking the fuel out!

4

MN: Having run on them now, what differences will we see as a result of your having to run one set of tyres only in a race?

MW: It's going to knock the lap times around a bit. it's early days at the moment, but Barcelona's a track which is very hard on tyres, so you've got to go hard on compounds to make the tyre last for 330kms. And along with that goes ail the stuff like traction control - anything you can do to look after the rear tyres.

And the front tyres! In the end, a well-balanced car will do wonders for tyre wear. notorspon rows

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new motor?

There'll be a huge onus on the driver to look after them early on. A lock-up on the opening lap could be a disaster. I had one the other day in testing and the vibration was so bad I could only just see in a straight line.

Instead of 15 lap stints, we're going to be asked to go for 65 laps or so on one set of tyres ...

MN: How about the reduced aero? Has that affected overall balance?

MW: When you take downforce off, clearly it's harder on tyres too, because the car is moving around a lot more.

The regulation has hit hard and teams have lost loads (of downforce). Between the two, it's quite a big hit, so we have to do as much as we can to claw some of it back.

MN: And the two-race engines - any difficulties there?

MW: It's a big thing, when you consider these engines were originally designed to do just 400kms - now they're expected to do 1200 yet produce competitive power.

It's a big ask. Malaysia is tough enough on engines anyway - I'm expecting it to be even tougher for a lot of people this time. Melbourne will be fine but Sepang will be tough ...

MN: By reputation, BMW's engine is said to be pretty strong when compared to what you've had. Is it as good as they all say?

MW: It's pretty strong. But Cosworth did a good job with the finances they had. they have some clever guys there.

But yes, it was better, but

I

not absolutely phenomenal ... just another little step.

can really start to understand the tyres even better.

MN: Better in any particular areas, tractability, top end ...?

MW: I do know, but really can't say...

MN: And a new car mid-late January?

MW:Yep. That's well in hand.

In the interim we're running a pair of FW26CS, with next year's engine and gearbox in the back of it, at both the next tests and the New Year tests, also at Jerez.

MN: How much more testing before Christmas?

MW:Two more days, down in Jerez. More long runs, so we

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T S never a bad thing for an Australian to be strapped into a Formula One car.

This is a country with a long and proud history of punching above its weight in world sport, and the number of Australians that have driven a Grand Prix car in the last few years- frequently with minimal financial assistance from home -

bears testament to that. Along with Mark Webber, we had James Courtney racking up miles m a Jaguar a couple of years back and Ryan Briscoe helping to anclior Toyota's test program last year.

And two weeks ago, the two Wills - Davison and Power - maintained three years of almost parallel careers when Paul Stoddart fulfilled a promise made at the Australian Grand Prix back in March and let them loose in a Minardi.

It was a moment tlnat each had been working towards virtually since they first drove a kart and unsurprisingly, both drivers were m orbit for days afterwards.

"It was a really incredible trip, enthused Davison.

The whole five days that 1 spent witli Minardi was really incredible. and 1 enjoyed it a lot Obviously the test was the main thing, but spending time at the factory was pretty amazing, learning about it all. Just being involved with the team for a week.

It helped me prepare as well as it could do for tire test. I felt pretty well prepared, and everyone was really

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formula ONE

,11 Starts Here Will Davison and Will Power recently became the latest Australians to get a foot in the FI door. But what really matters is where they go from here.

By MARK GLENDENNING

When the boys light up: A quick chat with Stoddy, left, then it's time for Davison, above, and Power, right, to be let loose in the Minardi PS04B that Gimmi Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner used during the 2004 season. good to me,really helpful.

"There's a lot to take in,so really in the end you've just to get out there and experience it for yourself. But they filled us in with all of the controls, and told us what does what, and then just sent us out to get on with it. They put quite a lot of faith in you." .

Meeting up with the team at Misano on Italy's Adriatic coast, the pair were each allocated 22 laps in the Minardi PS04B, with their running time broken into short three or four lap runs to give the drivers time to adjust to the physical demands of the car.

"Your body couldn't handle(a long run) on your first time," Power explained.

"So you go out,and the first run for me was an out lap, three timed laps, and an in lap. Next one was out, three timed laps and an in lap. Then it was out, two timed,and in, and then another one out, two timed and in, and tlien two timed new tyre runs.

"Tm sure that if 1 had done a 10 or 20 tap run. I'd have known about it!" agreed Davison.

"They are hard work, they really are. 1 held up really well, but it's like being in a grenade. Off the corners and stuff, it's like a grenade with heaps of grip. It's quite weird to experience. Your head doesn't know ie.:3

2BI4

which way to go."

New inductees to Formula One invariably come away from their first test gibbering about brakes and acceleration, and a few days after hopping out of the car. Will and Will were still struggling to communicate the experience in a way that mortals (i.e. schmoes like you and me whose FI seat time will never extend beyond Playstation)can appreciate.

"I think everything was phenomenal," Davison ventured.

"The whole package. The car was just incredible, really. There was massive acceleration, but in a really nice,smooth way. The engine, the note was just awesome,and there was such a smooth delivery of the horsepower.

"There was so much horsepower!

It's kind of hard to explain how 850 horsepower can come across smoothly. It just throws you back. But it's the best sound,and the gearchanges are so smooth and quick and crisp on tire paddles. It's just an awesome feeling."

"The brakes were the most impressive thing," asserted Power.

"You think that you have to use a lot of brake pressure, because you look at the pressure sensor on the computer. But because there are so many Gs, you hit the brakes, and the G-forces acting on your legs and foot

iUlivn-imjf’cs.com

and body actually put the pressure, on the brake for you. You are trying to pull it off as you are going into the corner.

"If you want to carry speed into a corner you don't want to brake too much, but the Gs actually make you brake more than you want to. So it's hard to brake too little, if you know what I mean. But it's good going into a big stop, where you really want to stop the thing."

Given the significance the November 23 test as aofmilestone in the careers of Power and Davison, it is easy to get caught up in the fuzzy, teary-eyed 'day of days'-type sentiment.

But if either driver does so, it will virtually guarantee that their FI careers amount to no more than, well, 22 laps around a regional Italian circuit on a chilly late-November day.

As noble and genuine as Stoddart's intentions were when he arranged for the test, it is clear that he never meant it as a serious evaluation for a race seat with the team. If he had, he would have given the drivers more than 22 laps to show what they were capable of.(Besides which, Minardi drives tend to be based upon assessments of bank accounts rather than tlie capacity to perform miracles in a race car).

l^eyertheless. Power and Davison recoghised’that an almdST^*" tinimaginable opportunity had been handed to them on a platter,and both delivered in spades. The pair's best laps were virtually identical, with Power's lmll.790s topping Davison by just 0.11s.

But what really stood out was that they were just 0.6s off the best time set by Patrick Friesacher the day before- a guy who has won FIA F3000 races and done a lot of miles in Minardis, both one and two-seaters, over the past months.

"1 think Paul Stoddart was pretty happy with both of us," said Power.

"1 think he was surprised at how quick we went. But we both knew in our minds that we only had 20 laps. or 22 laps or whatever it was,so you had to get on it quickly, but be smart about it and not charge in and throw it off the circuit."

But as good as the pair were, it is not what they have done that is important,it is what they do from here. It would be tempting for either driver to rest on their laurels after such a performance, but both Davison and Power are acutely aware that they now have a limited window in which they can harness the renewed momentum that the

continued on page 40 39

continued from page 39

.

Minardi test has given their careers and find a way to move forward.

"It is never easy for anyone to break into FI, but this is an opportunity that a lot of people never get," Davison said.

"So we'll give it a red-hot go,give it a big crack, maximise the time, and see what we can do."

Despite the Victorian's recent flirtations with V8 Supercars, he said that FI was still very much the bullseye in the middle of the target.

"My focus has always been FI," he insist^."It's just waiting for opportunities,and this is an opporhmity that 1 have to maximise.1 couldn't continue over in the UK,I realised that that was not going to be the way that I was going to get tlvough.

"Fortunately, Paul has given us this opportunity and I've done well in the test. Now I just have to come up with some funding, basically."

■'WhatUavison won't be doing is returning to the British F3 championship thatJjosbeen centre of. his efforts for the past couple of seasons.

"Absolutely not," he confirmed.

"Maybe I should aim directly for FI. I've been in F3 for a couple of years.

I've proved that I am perfectly capable in the FI car ... maybe there are some possibilities there in a test role or something. I don't really know, as yet.

You've got to set your goals high and go for them. I still have to find out a lot more information, but obviously my ultimate dream has always been FI, and now I've proved that I am capable of doing it.

"If we can get the support together there is no reason why I can't be on the grid or there in a testing capacity.

"Obviously there is a lot that has to come into place, but the test has created an opportunity,some hype, and a lot of people here are pushing for another Aussie on the grid.

"1 think Paul was initially unsure about how well we'd go, but he was satisfied with what we did and now I'd like to work with him in making something happen for next year, or in two years, or three years. I'm still

had a run in the car, maybe 1 can arrange to have another run in it next year. Just keep the lines of communication going, and we'll see what we can do.

"I mean,GP2 is the place to be next year, but 1 really don't know how that is going to be possible. It's expensive, and what does anyone care about it over here?

"You've got to break into something like Minardi, and that's the only way to get into FI at the moment. It's very difficult to prove yourself in a category like GP2, because you need such a big budget."

Power is also working hard interest, and all of a sudden people towards securing something for 2005, start believing. They start think,'hang and made a step in that direction when he rocked up at Misano a week I before the FI test to sample one of I Team Draco's F3000 cars.

"But obviously at a time like this, next year is pretty crucial. It's going to be busy from now until Christmas, we're going to be knocking on a lot of people's doors and maximising the opportunity that Paul has given us."

"The test created a whole lot of

I "They had four drivers on the day, ® because they are looking for people ^ for next year, and actually the car really suited me and suited my style," said Power.

"I actually found it easier to drive than a Formula Three, as far as getting time out of it. At the end of the day,on new tyres, I was a second quicker than all the guys there. That's the biggest thing I learnt out of Formula Tliree; how to get the most out of new tyres.

"But doing the F3000 test the week J before the FI test didn't help me at all, actually. It probably hindered me. t1 I had to get back into the rhythm of rr driving Formula Three-style; you know, getting off the brakes and - Power on preparations for his first FI test carrying a bit of mid-corner speed."

This is where Davison and Power's only 22, so I'll just play it by ear. If on, maybe we could have another career paths look set to diverge something can't happen next year Td Australian on the grid next year'.

Draco has opted to contest tlie still like to cqntinue my relationship There are possibilities there. We're not Renault World Series next year ratlrer with 'Minardi and Paul. than make the switch from F3000 to talking F3 anymore, a lot of people don't understand Formula 3 over 1 can always go back over there.

GP2, which creates a bit of a hurdle as far as Power's immediate I've got the relationship there. I've here. Now we're talking about FI.

Doing the F3000 test the week hefore didn't heip me at aii. If anything, it held me hack.

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■●ttrsiin

aspirations go.

CP2 is my target," he said. "1 really need to do tlnat. You are going to be in front of all the Formula One teams, and if you do well in GP2 then you are virtually guaranteed some sort of testing role or race seat in FI. Which begs a question. All of the GP2 teams are currently sorting out tlieir drivers for next year. So why has Power picked now to return home to Queensland? As it turns out. this was not part of the grand plan.

Actually, my work permit ran out on the 30th (of November)!" he said.

"1 stayed there right up to the last possible day!1 don't want to be

home,I want to be over tliere sorting out a deal. That's the unfortunate thing about being m England, you are restricted by your work permit Now 1 can't go back over until 1 find a team, have a deal, and get a contract signed so 1 can get a work permit. It's a bit annoying. 've got some people helping me over there. But more importantly, I have people here helping me as well.

It's people here that 1 have to target. in order to get the money together, as usual. It's the same story every Christmas for me. Finish the year, no money,start searching for next year's budget.

If we can get the support together there is no reason why I can't be on the FI grid or there in a testing capacity

- Davison sets his 2005 target nice and high

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Tomorrow, the World

In 2005, the World Touring Car Championship returns after a gap of18 years. Drivers and manufacturers are lining up for a chance to call themselves the best on the planet. PHIL BRANAGAN looks at what might become the Greatest Show on Earth

w

ILL Ferrari and Michael Schumacher successfully defend their World

Championships in 2005? The smart money says, probably.

Likewise, many expect that Sebastien Loeb will be able to lead Citroen to back-to-back World titles next season. There will also be trophies handed out in karting, not to mention what the Americans make of a bunch of their locals zooming around ovals, paved or not.

Whatever happens in the 'main' series next year, there will also be another world title worth watching.

For the first time in 18 years, there will be a World Touring Car Championship and, unlike the previous incarnation of the title (see breakout) it will be worth a look.

The 2005 WTC has grown out of the European Touring Car Championship and its Super 2000 category, which has been in play in the Northern Hemisphere over the last five years.

The cars are pretty basic and based on Group N regulations, which require that 2500 identical cars are produced within a period of 12 consecutive months - hence no production hot-rods. Tlie cars must have engines no bigger than 2000cc, five-speed gearboxes (sequential shifting allowed) and a number of other homologated items are allowed, according to the 'kit' approved for each manufacturer. In other words, if a team without manufacturer backing commits to the series, it can access the same bits and pieces as the factory teams do.

To even up competition, as happened in the old Super Touring class, front-wheel drive cars are given a weight break of 30kg over their RWD opponents. Rev limits are imposed,throttles must be operated mechanically (ie, no fly-by-wire, even if the road car has it fitted) and the whole thing is deliberately kept lowtech, as opposed to what happened in ST racing in the 1990s.

The result is a car with around 260 horsepower, weighing a little over 44

Focus

Coming attractions: Ford will run a 'side-door'effort with Hotfiel Sport's two-car Focus entries, above, while former BTCC champ and Bathurst 1000 winner Rickard Rydell will spearhead the Seat Cupra team, below.

.

4I » 5^ *

2005 WTC UNOFFICIAL ENTRY LIST BMW 320i BMW Team Deutschland Jorg Muller (GER) BMW Team Deutschland Dirk Muller (GER) Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) BMW Team Italy-Spain Antonio Garcia (ESP) BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW Team Great Britain Andy Priaulx (GBR) Kurt Mollekens(BEL) BMW Team Belgium-Luxembourg Carl Rosenblad (SWE)Crawford Racing/Eje EIgh Motorsport Stefano D'Aste (ITA) Proteam Motorsport TBA Proteam Motorsport

Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Gabriele Tarquini (ITA) Augusto Farfus Jr.(BRA) James Thompson (GBR) The Heartbeat of America: Nicola Larini has joined Chevrolet's list of recruits and will race the Lacetti, above, formerly known as a Daewoo.

1100kg and with a fuel capacity of 100 litres. Top speed of the cars is around 250khm on fast tracks.

Obviously, the class has been moulded with an eye on containing costs.

"Whatever regulations come, always teams and manufacturers find more ways to spend more money," says BMW Motorsport Team Manager Charly Lamm.

"I think what is also new with the Super 2000 regulations is that the FIA have tried to keep the costs low, and they have to continue to do that.

Even up to FI you see that manufacturers are concerned about costs, and 1 think that has to continue. I just hope that the World Championship will be an affordable 8 December 2004

one for the teams and manufacturers."

In the short-term, at least, the result has seen the class embraced by a number of manufacturers. BMW leads the way,as it usually does, and Alfa Romeo has followed its usual motorsport policy of going anywhere that the Bavarians do (except for FI).

Seat runs a factory team, while there were privateer entries in the 2004 ETC from Honda,Ford and Peugeot.

Expect to see all those in the WTC next season.

But, as they say on the shopping networks, there is more. General Motors is launching a three-car

continued on page 46

AutoDelta Squadra Corse AutoDelta Squadra Corse AutoDelta Squadra Corse

SEAT Toledo Cupra Jordi Gene (ESP) Frank Diefenbacher (GER) Rickard Rydell(SWE)

SEAT Sport SEAT Sport SEAT Sport

Chevrolet Lacetti Alain Menu (CH) Nicola Larini (ITA) TBA

Chevrolet Racing Chevrolet Racing Chevrolet Racing

Brilliance Ml TBA TBA TBA

Team China Team China Team China

Peugeot 307GTI/407

TBA

Peugeot Sport Engineering

Ford Focus ST170 Thomas Klenke (GER) TBA (Michael Funke?)

Hotfiel Sport Hotfiel Sport 45

r FEATURE

'csw.ucc ceasing V l^;'.ufancc Finance

Original BMW Toilo

ince 1

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BMW Country: Compare Dirk Muller's 2004 3201, above, with the 1987 WTC-winning M3 of Roberto Ravaglia, right.

continued from page 45

"Of course, there is always a danger that it will become too big, but it's also up to us to try and keep it big in terms of communications, but not too big in terms of money.

Probably there were problems in the past because sometimes we didn't find the right product. I think this product, two races of half an hour, really gets the people interested, because it's spectacular. It's a race bumper to bumper, and it's incredible."

The 10-round series will be launched in Monte Carlo this Friday

by FIA President Max Mosley and it is sure to be a great ride before the final round of the series at Macau in

assault based on what has been known until now as the Daewoo Nubira. Tlie cars are now Chevrolet Lacettis, developed by Ray Mallock Limited in England,and will have an all-star squad of drivers to lead the way.

You may never have heard of Brilliance but,if plans work out, you will. Team Cliina Brilliance is also

I

UK-based, with the design work of John Barnard and management from former BTCC driver John Batchelor behind the team's Mis, which are based around Mitsubishi engines.

The team's drivers are yet to be

II

'\

The European is great, but the WTCC will be fantastic n

-AndyPriaulx

%-

i v; k

named but it appears that the Chinese are determined to succeed.

11 months' time.

And what of the drivers? Current

And that is just the list of makers that have nominated for the 2005 title. There could be more; Volvo and Peugeot both ran in the ETC last season, Audi has developed an S2000 version of its current model A4, which races in the Swedish series.

The teams in the series will still be based in Europe but that is not a drawback, according to Seat's Motor Sport Director Jaime Puig.

"Our brand is mainly in Europe, and we don't sell in Japan and North America, but the rest of the world we are more or less interested in," says the Spaniard.

ETC Champ Andy Priaulx can't wait to take on the world.

"I think it's about time that it

46

grew," says the BMW Great Britain driver. It's been a hard few years for touring cars, but I believe it's on the up now. The following is good and the championship is right. It's not anything like what it used to be in terms of costs, and I think it can be controlled.

"It's got a buzz about it, and obviously it would be nice to win the World Championship. The European is great, but the WTCC will be fantastic."

-With ADAM COOPER

g

r

History never repeats(we hope) !

In 1987, the WTC ended in tears ...

IN 1987,the world was a different place. The stock markets crashed in October, leaving Prime Minister Bob Hawke and the world's best treasurer Paul Keating with a lot of thinking to do.

The best movie of the year was Rain Man, taking Oscars for best picture, best director and best actor for Dustin Hoffman. Jimmy Barnes released Freight Train Heart, his biggest solo album. Mr and Mrs Shaparova had a baby girl, Maria, the current Wimbledon Ladies' Champion. Across the Atlantic, the Duffs welcomed Hilary to their family, while Mr and Mrs Dinosaur had a purple youngster they named Barney.

And the FIA had the World Touring Car Championship. For one year, manufacturers fought out a battle to take bragging rights as World Champions: 11 rounds on three continents gave its enough gravitas to justify its 'world' status.

But, by the end of the year, it was obvious that the series had been hatched prematurely. The only makers to sign up for a tour of duty were Alfa Romeo, BMW and Ford and the Italian factory pulled the pin before the flyaway races. There was the odd Maserati (the emphasis on 'odd') and even a Holden Commodore or two but, in the end, it came down to a fight between the Euro teams of BMW and Ford.

And even that had moments of farce. The factory Fords were disqualified at Monza for illegal electronics, a ruling that, at worse, looked like a paperwork failure. All of BMW's M3s were also booted for running illegal bootlids and, later, modified roof panels, leaving the Commodore of Allan Moffat and John Harvey to earn the distinction of being the maiden WTCC race winners.

It was getting to be a sad joke. By the time the cars got to Bathurst, the battles for both the manufacturers' and drivers' crowns were on in earnest. The Eggenberger Sierras were the fastest things on the Mountain by a country mile, but they were also so illegal it made your eyes hurt. The Texaco Fords finished 12 in the race, were disqualified for illegal wheel arches and the race awarded to Peter Brock, his ninth and final win at The Great Race.

An appeal was lodged and dragged on for almost a year before being dismissed by the FIA. As a result of all the fuss. Ford took the team prize and Roberto Ravaglia was crowned the maiden WTC champion. To the credit of the FIA, the whole mess was flushed down the can. A European title was reinstated for 1988 and the teams got back to doing what they did best, which was racing their cars the way that they wanted to without having any pesky Aussies pointing to all the bent parts of the cars.

"I still can't tell you what really made the FIA decide to abandon the WTC after just one year," says BMW's Charly Lamm.

"Obviously at that time it was a different approach, it was a different race format. Now I think touring car racing under Super 2000 regulations we now have a stable format, we have sprint racing, and I think there's a strong enough base to make it a World Championship."

Let's hope Lamm is right. After all, we can only take so many tragic touring car comedies or Wall Street crashes, not to mention purple dinosaurs. moiorspon news

'm

Ford GT40 the story

From the hlrth ol the

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Hire super-charged , I evolution, this programme charts the life ol one ol the greatest sports cars of all time. Tiff Needell also lakes two very different original GT40 models lor , 3? a spin, pushing the I «« speedo past 200MPH! 75 mins

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See dur new catalogue for over 250 more title^.

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With the dominant Valentino Rossi switching » from Honda to Yamaha before the start ol the season, the Championship was no certainty. 24 riders. 16 rounds and only 1 winner MotoGP provides the ultimate lest for the greatest two-wheeled stars in the world.

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Practice and Qualifying

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OU know the scene. We have all seen it in every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

The hero of the hour is within reach of vanquishing the opposition. He is so close, he can almost touch it. His squared jaw looks set to break into a grin any moment when the deed is done.

Then, at almost the lastminute, drama. Disaster happens. Children shriek, women faint. Grown men wonder how this setback will be overcome. Then, almost as quickly, all is well. The impossible is possible. Our hero prevails. Cue credits and music.

See you at The Oscars.

No doubt, all of these things were in the mind of Marcos Ambrose when he stepped from a bent Pirtek Falcon at the end of the opening practice session on Friday. With the title at the end of his fingertips, Ambrose was already fastest in the session and was looking for more when he went into Turn 1 as hard as he ever has and then drifted onto the still-damp edge of the line.

Blue car bounced over green grass and into white wall. The damage looked bad, as these things usually do at first gaze, but the SBR mules patched things back together and sent the car back into battle for Practice 2 before pulling it apart overnight.

"I just made a mistake 1 think," Ambrose explained.

"It was a wet track with a dry line, and I don't know if I just got stuck on the wet line a little. But it's OK, the damage was only cosmetic and it came up pretty well.

"I have got to this point in the Championship because I attack ■the car. I try to get the best out ^ of me and the car. If it was a mistake it was a minute mistake and it was just circumstances wet grass at 240km/h and a small sandtrap."

And, in the giant scheme of things, no big deal, and it put the Stones team on the Friday evening news. By the following morning, it was business as usual.

Well, almost. Ambrose likes to be first; so does Mark Skaife.

The battle between the two for pole was in a class of its own, so much so that the third-fastest man in qualifying, Todd Kelly, was all but 0.9s off his team mate. Skaife took fastest time by 0.45s. In this league, that was night and day.

It was a funny session, with the track cooling off and getting faster as the clouds rolled in.

Jason Richards had topped the slower, session from Cameron McConville, who was pleased enough by his time to remain confident of staying in the top 10. When the dust had settled.

Cam was 19th, just behind Brad Jones, whose OzEmail car was struggling for set-up. Everyone else in the faster session beat all the slowies, which is pretty unusual.

Two cars that would not make the Shootout were those of John Bowe and Paul Week The PWR Racing entry slid wide in Turn 5 early in the session and, when he regained the track, he was close to the OzEmail car. JB was unsighted, the two clashed and both were done, Weel crunching the wall (and causing the session to be stopped) and Bowe breaking a Watts Linkage.

In April, Bowe had qualified fastest, which was a severe reversal of form.

No such news at Kmart Racing. Earlier this year, the cars bobbed around like kayaks in qualifying, only for Rick Kelly to turn it all around in the wet race.

This time around, the KRT VYs returned to 'form', despite the fact that the cars (now Spidermanless) had been swapped between the drivers.

Rick was 21st, Murph 22nd.

After his first run, engineer Erik Pender asked whether the Kiwi 7^^

lohn Morris/Mpix

Fast but last: Besnard was late getting onto the track in the Shootout and was relegated to 10th.

50 r

Battle S It wasn't the shock ofseeing the Pirtek Falcon damaged in first practice - it was the shock ofseeing it stay on top of the field. PHIL BRANAGAN reports on qualifying at Eastern Creek

wanted anything done to the car.

"Yep," replied Murphy, "make it faster."

Rain was prayed for by the team. Understandably.

The cars to miss the 10 were those of Jason Bargwanna, who was pretty happy with his Orrcon car, Steve Johnson and Warren Luff (who was an impressive fifth in both practice sessions in his last DJR drive), Steven Richards (general lack of balance in the warm conditions) and Paul Morris, who felt that there was more time to be found in the Sirromet VY. In the 10, Russell Ingall was just a little off in the 98 car (looks odd, that), while Tender dragged a time out of his GRM car to make it in. Both Triple 8

Falcons made it with damn near identical times, though they were split by Craig Lowndes, ablaze as usual in the CAT car.

David Besnard played it smart in the WPS Ford, choosing to sit in the car for almost five minutes mid-session and wait for the track to come to him, while Jason Bright joined Todd Kelly as the last of the mortals, behind the battle for provisional pole.

And what a battle it was. At one stage, Skaife's two fastest laps were faster than everyone else's, even if Bowe's April time was still half a second faster at that time. Ambrose tipped him off pole with a 1:32.18s but Skaife struck back immediately with a google-eyed 1:31.73s to erase Bowe's mark, though motorsport news

US SUPERCARS

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^PUALIFYING^

I vases Round 1 3 Pds/Nd 2 1

Mark Skaife Marcos Ambrose

3 4 5

22 50 23

6 7

Todd Kelly Jason Bright David Besnard Max Wilson

6

9

34

Craig Lowndes Paul Radisich Garth Tander

10 11

96 10 17 29 11 18

Russell lngall Jason Bargwanna Steven Johnson Paul Morris Steven Richards Warren Luff

31 3 21 33 44

Steve Blery Jason Richards Brad Jones Cameron McConville Simon Wills

16 17 19 20 21

Ambrose's staggering 2001 qualifying time was still a second out of reach.

Top 10 Shootout f the qualifying session was good to watch, the Shootout had all that and more.

Ingall went first and he and Tander, who followed, both reported the same thing that the track was much less grippy than it had been for the session, which Garth showed by running wide at Turn 1. Lowndes's car showed the same thing, losing its rear grip at Turn 8 but The Kid pressed on to set the best time so far by a considerable margin.

Wilson dropped the odd wheel off, Besnard overdrove from the 8 Decemlier 2004

first corner (half a car wide at Turn 2) and finished up ninth, which became 10th when he was penalised for a late arrival at the pit exit ("It's been a while since I was in a Shootout," Bezzy mused). Next, Bright looked to have made the save of the weekend when he turned it to Nine with locked rears, Sprintcar-style but still managed second-best time to date.

Todd's car was well twitchy all the way around but he set best time to date but them came Ambrose's stunning lap. The blue car rocketed around the track neatly, throwing down the gauntlet to Skaife.

The HRT boss had a wide window to shoot at because Ambrose was all of 0.75s faster than Todd. Still, Skaife is never one to shirk a challenge and he went all-out for this one. His opening split was actually faster than Ambrose's (there was no second split recorded on Marcos's lap) so we all held our breath as the red car lunged for the line.

Skaife was frank and disappointed after his lap.

"It was down in every spot,"

Dr i ver | car/team | t

2

12 13 14 15

itations

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Eastern Creek, NSW

15

Rick Kelly

22 23 24

51 5 20

Greg Murphy Glenn Seton Mark Winterbottom

25 26 27 28 29

12 7

John Bowe Paul Dumbrell Alex Davison

45

Owen Kelly Dale Brede

30 31 32

75 14 16

Anthony Tratt Lee Holdsworth PaulWeei

33 34

43 24

Christian D'AgostIn Garth Walden

021

Craig Baird

Holden Racing Team Commodore VY Pirtek Stone Brothers Racing Falcon BA Holden Racing Team Commodore VY PWR Performance Products Commodore VY WPS Falcon BA Triple 8 Betta Electrical Falcon BA Ford Performance Racing CAT Falcon BA Triple 8 Betta Electrical Falcon BA Repco Valvoline Cummins GRM Commodore VY Caltex Havoline Stone Brothers Racing Falcon BA Larkham Orreon Racing Falcon BA Shell Helix Dick Johnson Racing Falcon BA Sirromet l Life,Style,Wine Commodore VY Castrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VY Shell Helix Dick Johnson Racing Falcon BA Steve Ellery Racing Falcon BA Tasman Motorsport Commodore VY OzEmail Brad Jones Racing Falcon BA Repco Valvoline Cummins GRM Commodore VY Dodo Team Dynamik Commodore VY Kmart Racing Team Commodore VY Kmart Racing Team Commodore VY Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA Larkham Orreon Racing Falcon BA OzEmail Brad Jones Racing Falcon BA Castrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VY Castrol Perkins Motorsport Commodore VY WPS Falcon BA Dodo Team Dynamik Commodore VY Toll Racing Commodore VY _ Smiths Trucks/IMS Commodore VY PWR Performance Products Commodore VY PWR Performance Products Commodore VX Romano Racing Falcon AU __ Team Kiwi Racing Commodore VY

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1:31.7327 1:32.1841 H32.6206 1:32.6686 1:32.6901 1:32.7007 1:32.7400 1:32.7988 1:32.8125 1:32.8876 H32.8995 1:33.0055 1:33.0277 1:33.0473 1:33.1758 1:33,1765 1:33.3783 1:33.4190 1:33.4216 1:33.5182 1:33.5267 1:33.5724 1:33.6160 1:33.8560 1:33.9321 f:33.9362 i;3’3.9882 1:34.1488 1:34.3090 1:34.4987 1:34.5383 (:35.1841 1:35.7221 1:36.2883 No time

V

TOP TEN SHDDTDUT 1:32.4345

1

Ambrose

27.3020

2

Skaife

27.2550

No split 1:06.7922

3

T. Kelly Lowndes

27.2365

1:07.0397

1:33.1843

27.5040

1:07.5021

5

Bright

27.8063

1:08.2873

1:33.6643 4.2743

6

27.9350"

1:08.0179

4.3121

7

Ingall Wilson

27.9580

1:08.1346

Radisich

"27.8562’

1:08.0461

U4.4224 1:34.4419

9

Tander

28.0613

l:08i2896

1:34.6899

10

Besnard

27.9217

1:08.0676

1:34.4586

4

BIG

1:32.8835

D™ www.bigpond.com.au

The boss goes close: Mark Skaife scored provisional pole, but was pipped

by Ambrose in the shoot-out.

The top 10 Shootouts are won by he said. "It didn't grip up, not making any mistakes." enough and I probably tried to And he didn't make any. drive it up. I suppose I get eight out of 10 and seven out of 10 for Sixteen pole positions in four seasons is a pretty good effort in the car." this game. If that was all you "Skaife and I usually fight for had, it would be fine. More than pole position," said Ambrose, "we have for the last three years. that and it becomes special.

51

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Insurance

FOSTER'S AUSTRALIAN GRAND pmx2005

atvyowtOMMt/

For enquiries please call contact Octagon Australia on (03) 9685 3500 or email jackie.parry@octagon.com

continued from page 49 expect though Rick Kelly starred in Race 1 and looked set for more points in Race 2 until Lowndes gave him a lesson in car positioning ...

HRT? Skaife started and ended the weekend in fine form, with provisional pole and a great Race 3 effort but the first comer of hostilities ended The Reds'chances, Skaife and Todd Kelly clashing in the first comer. His Race 3 comeback put him in fifth overall for the weekend, but has a team ever looked forward to January 1 with such longing, so that this nightmare of a season can be put to rest?

Or, with two titles and counting, wiU Stone Brothers now take the position in the sport that HRT used to occupy? Has it already? Ambrose spoke openly of his desire for a third title (see news pages) and there is nothing like momentum in this sport.

The 2004 season may be over but the intrigue continues.

If8 SUPERCARS

Fourth was Besnard. He reckoned that the car speed from the black WPS car was good enough for sixth or seventh but a great stop from the team vaulted him clear of the pursuers and,from there, he drove straight to look after his tyres.

And next? Rick Kelly drove a storming race, getting a great start, riding a magnificent pitstop (as usual) and driving doggedly to hold out the (obviously)faster Radisich.

From a grid spot in the low-20s, he was 11th by lap 2, inside the top 10 before his stop and not far from a podium finish by the time the chequer dropped, "Good start, good pitstop," he said matter-of factly later."We are stUl a couple of tenths off. We have still got to try and win the thing."

From 21st, most drivers would be thrilled with fifth. Wanna know why Rick Kelly will win several Touring Car titles? After a stunning drive, he

continued on page 54

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Dud start to the end: Garth Tander's driveline problem at the start of Race 1 was a bad way to finalise his career at Garry Rogers Motorsport.

Race 1(26 laps)

J

~ust like that, it was over. Since March,Ambrose has been trying to add another trophy to the shelf and, in three seconds, he sealed the deal in Sydney.

Once upon a time, his starts were notable only because they were so bad. Nowadays,they are among the best in the category. The advantage of that is not just that it can win you races (or, more accurately, put you in a place where it is hard to lose races).

It also keeps you clear of danger.

His start was a cracker. Not as good as Lowndes's, whose getaway was enough to give you religious thoughts, but good enough to take the Pirtek car clear of the mess that was about to happen.

Once that was done, Marcos drove hard on cold tyres, as usual, eking out a 2s lead after two laps. He pitted relatively late, as part of a plan to stay out of trouble,should it come to that. By the time Bright pitted even later, Ambrose was 10s clear and he concentrated on making no mistakes.

The job was done,second title in the bag.

"Just in case we had a slower pit stop,I was not going to lose too many spots (to not win the title)," he said. "But it was one of the best I have had this year."

The SBR crew had already had its bad stop, costing Ingall about 5s and dropping him to what would turn out to be seventh. Bright stopped even later than Ambrose, to take third in a car that was better on its first set of tyres than its second, despite a roll centre adjustment during the stop. Between the two was Lowndes, who made the aforementioned John Force launch and drove it home despite running out of tyre grip earlier than he would have liked.

8 December 2004

THE best thing to say about ” the year endured by the Holden Racing Team is that it IS over.

Before the first race at Eastern Creek, Mark Skaife was pacing his garage iike a caged iion. It was obviously an important race for him and the team, even if the season was pretty much shot to hell.

So the sight of the two red VYs spinning at the first corner did nothing to excite the team. Skaife and Todd Kelly had their races end before they had even started and the team, having suffered such woes in 2004, was pretty much over it. Team Manager Jeff Grech looked like he was about ready to kill someone - anyone.

But, considering what had just happened, Skaife and Todd were pretty approachable.

I got a reasonable start but not my best,” explained Kelly.

B ut Mark’s was worse. I didn’t see Lowndes at all. I was alongside Mark and I thought, no problem. I thought I was in there but what I didn’t realise was that Lowndes was there. I was already committed.

H

A

He [Skaite] was coming over: to me and fwas'getting fed'onto the grass. I thought,'get duPdfthis’, and 4' was on the anchors.

When 1 thought, this is getting ugly,’ I did everything I couid to get out of it.

And, Skaife’s view?

I knew he[Lowndes] was there. I was probably in a similar situation to Todd, in having a guy close to me. You have to give each other a little room.'

Clang. Bash. Both cars effectively, out. After the race. the drivers talked it over (“You can’t walk around not looking at each other," explained Kelly) and it was sorted.

Still, the lads stayed positive.

‘We have had everything this year, I thought, but we hadn’t had this,” admitted Skaife. “We had a good stop and the car was fast.

This one got away from us. We proved that we are as fast as that [Ambrose’s] car.

Bad karma does not necessarily carry over from year to year. Do you think that the boys of Clayton will party hard on December 31? Count on it.

- PHIL BRANAGAN 53

The last blast: 35 V8 Supercars line-up for the last race of 2004.

continued from page 53 was pissed that he didn't win the race. The only drivers to possess such standards are the great ones.

Radisich was bottled up behind Kelly in a visibly faster car (hello.

Craig) and team-mate Wilson looked to have speed enough for a podium but he jumped the start and a drivethrough penalty put paid to his chances. Few at Betta appeared as though they are not looking forward to Max's exit and the arrival

I

Lowndes and Ellery.

Another driver on the move. Garth Tander, went nowhere. When he dumped the clutch, the nose of the diff pinion sheared off, a rare failure. and he was stuck fast.

Race 2(39 laps) ISunday t was hot, early, in Sydney and it looked like itonwas only going to get hotter as the cars took to the track.

It was so hot that the citizens of the

western suburbs had their Mark Taylor-endorsed aircon units turned up to 11 and such was the drain on the national power grid that the electricity went off before the start.

There was a delay but, after a bit. officialdom deemed that giant screens and commentary were less important than getting things moving. So, off they went. Track temp was 39; by the end of the race, it was 40 and change.

It was a preview of 2005, in microcosm. The battle of the race was between Triple 8's old driver and their new one, with Radisich holding out Lowndes lap after lap to take second. There had been action on the way; Lowndes had a brush with Rick Kelly, who made an amazing start to leap into second place on the opening lap. Time after the time faster FPR car harried the KRT one(we could not write that six months ago) until lap 16, when Craig got the inside and Rick got dirt. broken steering and a valuable lesson.

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The battle was decided by superior pit work by the Betta team and the fact that, despite not having blazing one-lap pace. The Ratmobile was consistent on its tyres. It would have taken a mistake or an assault to change positions but Radisich made none of the former and Lowndes made none of the latter. It was good to watch.

Elsewhere,Seton and Luff had a ding/dong battle, with the senior driver getting the nod, while Murphy (who had been off after a drivethrough penalty for speeding in pitlane) and Bright(who was delayed with debris in the radiator) went elbow to elbow for a while, Murph having a good peek at the PWR team and Bright having a look at... whatever.

So, the pitstops happened in a rush (as pitstops tend to do)and we had the sight of Jason Richards pounding around the front of the field until the end of lap 20. He resumed in 13th and started to motor through the

field.

Ten laps later, with everyone else sliding around like a labrador on lino, the Tasman car (together with the similarly-scheduled Wilson Ford) was the fastest thing on the track. Despite a lack of straightline speed, he took care of, in order, Tander, Ellery(who also had a broken exhaust), Bargwanna, McConville, Skaife, Johnson and clamped onto the tail of his namesake,Steven. He and Johnson had been having a great battle until Jason arrived and broke up the party and we were treated to a classic between a car with lots of grip but no power and one with the opposite characteristics.

Steven held sway to the flag. It was

a good strategy from the Tasmaniacs: "Hot track, late stop," commented Ron Harrop. "It's not that hard to figure out, you know."

No,apparently not. Oh yes, Ambrose won. Fie followed Lowndes at the start, pitted earher than he did and, at one stage,lapped 2s faster than the rest of the field. The winning margin that seemed like an hour was just under 20s. It looked like it could have been more, had he desired.

Ingall was the one to suffer the illluck at SBR. He brought the car into for its stop a little hot and broke the speed limit, earning a drive-through.

Second in the championship was still up for grabs.

motorspon news

n

K3SV

End ofseason frivolities: Paul Radisich, left, will be able to look back at 2004 with a smile after a great finish to the secondoverall. We dare say the guy on the right will also have a smile for a while ...

Runner-up ... not this year: Jason Bright, above, failed to secure second in the series after his clash in Race 3 with Mark Winterbottom, below.

And just to add to the hin,25km from the track, it was raining as the chequered flag fell...

Race 3(39 laps)

... but it was not when the cars appeared for the final sortie of the season. It was cooler by around 15 degrees and rain threatened but, as it turned out, a few spots in the later laps put paid to anyone winning the race because they took wets at the compulsory stops.

But hey, at least we had electricity, so off they went. Most of the drivers spotted some of the oil left by the Histories off-line at Turn 1 so,even when Radisich matched Ambrose off the start, Marcos was pretty confident that he would have the corner to

in a dangerous position. Out came the yellows and the Audi while Frosty recovered and Bright struggled on. The Incident put paid to any flickering hopes that Bright had for second. The dash with Frosty meant that the car was not all it could be.

I had bent steering," said Brighty.

"It was very frustrating. We just ran around to finish."

himself. And he was right.

But the start meant little when Bright and Winterbottom clashed at Turn 2 and the Orreon car ended up

But all was right in Tasmania. At continued on page 56

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continued from page 55 the restart, Marcos was Is clear after a lap, he wound up the pace and then backed off to make his total winning margin for the three races to just under a minute.

"I think that I will take them like that every day of the week," said Ambrose.

So, he ended the season for the third year in a row with a buttkicking performance. It is getting to be a habit and others will be hoping that Phillip Island holds some trepidation for him in 2005.

As Ambrose pointed out, the scrap between Ingall and Skaife was well worth watching. Clearly, the VY was not happy;just as clearly, the BA was.

Rusty happily swapping lines at will and darting around in the mirrors.

"I was going to have a decent go at him, have a good fling, and then I thought,'no maybe next lap'," explained Ingall."And then I was, 'oh, should I do it?' And these flashes kept coming back."

As we said in the introduction, it was good to see Skaife seek Ingall out after the race. Friends? Probably a bit much. Mutual respect? They may not admit it but, it seems, plenty.

The biggest disappointment of the race was that Lowndes did not get to climb onto the podium for the round.

The car was in fifth with five laps to go when it reverted to its old self and blew up.

"It was a bit of a sad way to fiirish off 2004 and my career at FPR," he said through the trademark grin,"it seems that some of our old problems came back to haunt us in that final race."

Radisich did not have the car

race by Tander.

Of the rest, Rick got up to 15th from the back, which was a good drive to carry him into 2005. He was better off that Murph, whose car was, yet again, a handful. He was three spots behind his team-mate.

"It was a bit of a disaster," he said.

"We couldn't get the car to go well around here, I guess the results speak for themselves."

Truer words were never spoken.

Ambrose may have conceded provisional pole to Skaife but, after that, he was white-hot. SBR looks set to keep all its key components in an off-season of change in the sport,so the spectre of a three-peat by Ambrose seems very real.

Some may be hoping that his marriage to long-time partner Sonja next month will prompt Marcos to sit, think about the Big Picture and slack off next season. Possible?

Perhaps. Likely? Ummm ...

FINAL POINTS Ambrose 2174, Ingall 1936, Bright 1920,

1502, Johnson 1416, Tander 1396, Skaife 1294, McConville 1292, Ja Richards 1245, Seton 1237, B. Jones 1235, Weel 1192, Winterbottom 1190, Radisich 1188, Lowndes 1182, Luff 1149, Morris 1071, Tratt 1047, Dumbrell 1018, Ellery 991, Wills 929, Baird 925, Wilson 865, Longhurst 856, Besnard 790, Brede 393, Ritter 372, McLean 360, Coulthard 330, Noske 304, Yoong 278, Mezera 272, A. Davison 256, Ji Richards 248, D'Agostin 240, Youlden 240, Wimmer 236, McFadyen 226, 0. Kelly 214, Porter 202, McIntyre 199, Walden 185, Leahey 164, Owen 164, Whincup 160, Pretty 156, Simonsen 156, Halliday 152, Larkham 152, Marshall 152, M. White 152, Stokell 144, Brock 140, Plato 140, O'Brien 132, Brabham 128, Gurr 128, Macrow 120, Menu 120, Elliott 100, Holdsworth 34.

D

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www.bigpond.com.au

Race 2

r.

Z<3 LARS

Pds I DRIVER 1 Race Time|Fastest |Lap 1 Ambrose 1:03:10.4380 *1:33.7276 5 2 Radisich 1:03:29.6896' 1:35.4505 13 3'' Lowndes' 1:03:30.2635_ 1:35.1760 '14 4' n 'S.'Richards i:d3';'44.987'3 1:34.7235 9' i. Ric'har'ds'i ●03:45.7401 1_j34.9286 22 1:03:50.0247 1:34.9539 7 Johnson 1:'03;'5'd.'859r '1:34.3270 "6 7 . S'kaife_' 1:b3:5'5.6252' 'l:35.3138 14 8 Wi]son_ 1:34.'450'5 6 10 "Mc'Co'nville 1:04:62.6756 1:35.2111 6

5 6

9 "in'g'air "" ir03:55.3600'

11 Bargvyanna 1:04:05.3095 J:'35!5234 12 1:35.4823 7 12 'T. keliy' ' 1:04:17.4161 1:04:17.9408 1 :‘35.8906‘ 10 'l3_'SeVon 1'4 Luff 17(34:18.6912 'T:‘35.'7568 9 1:04:2a99'55 1:35.4171 7 15 Bowe 1:04:21.8161 1:35.7401 19 16 Baird 17 'WeeT 1:04:29;5129 1:35.3124 12 18 Tander i:04:31.'32i5" Y:'35.2937 5 Y:64:32.118d l':34.8206 5 19 Jones 1:04:41.5754 '1:35.0023 12 20 Besnard 1:04:42.3891 ‘ 1:34.9893 19 21" Bright ' 22 Winte'rbottom1:04:'44.3271 1:36.1649 20 23 'Morris 1:04:48.4953 1:35.0301 18 1:35.1367 6 24 Murphj/_ 1:04:50.2779 25 Dum'brell 38 laps 1:36.7319 19 " 3'8 laps ' 1:36.534'2'17 26 Tratt _ 27 "Davison ”38 laps” 1:36.6527 12 1:36.2790' 15 28 'd.' Kelly ' ^ ' _' j'38 laps 1:36.5215 14 38 laps 29 _ Holdsworth' ' 38 laps 1:36.0636 6 30 Bre'd^ '38 laps l":37.3276 28 31 'D'Agostin 32 'Walden '38 laps 1:37.2342'22 37 laps 1:35.2208 12 33 Ellery ' 16 laps 1:35.1027 8 D'NFR. Kelly_ ' DNFWills "6 lap's 1:40.1238 2

speed to challenge and settled for fourth from Todd, who just managed to hold out McConville. Morris was seventh, a great result after starting 23rd, wliile the two Richardses turned it on again,joined late in the

Pos I Driver|Race Time|Fastest|Lap 1 Ambrose 41:45.8004 *1:33.4044 2 2 Lowndes 41:57.6720 i:'34.0099 8 3 Bright 41:58.4047 1:33.9040 8 4 Besnard ' 42:12.8927 lV34.1535 8 5 R. Kelly 42:16.1341 1:34.5148 7 6 Radisich 42:16.6385 1:34.‘4275 7 42:i7.Y007 'l:34;i'574 8 7 Ingall 8 S. Richards 42:17.4799 '1:34.3473 11 9 Johnson' 42:23.8698 1:35.0868 11 10 Bargwanna 42:25.0411 1:35.0954 6 n n n 42:26.33'93' 1:34.9295 11 11 Ellery 12 McConville 42:32.2736 1:35.1723 11 13 Murphy 42:35.8902 1:35.1092 2 14''Seton 42:36.6444 1:35.0147' 3 15 Luff 42:37.2479 1:35.1538' "3' 16 Dumbrell 42:39.0264 f:35.2330 8 17 /. Richards 42:39.5429 1:35.0499 9 18 Skaife'‘ 42:40.0631 1:33.5845 11 42:44.0315 1:34.8004 6 19 Jones 20 Tratt ' 42:44.39'33 '1:35.3414 J4 21 Bowe 42:49.1793 ' 1:34.5650 7 42:49.4191 1:3'4.6233 14 22 .Wilson' 23 Davison 42:58^165 1:35.1018 11 24‘ Hordswdrth 42:58.3064 l':35.'5010 7 43:13.5100 l':35.4394"l5 25 Brede_ 26 Wills' _2_^25'laps _ 1:35.0494 4 27' T. kelly 25 laps 1:33.9763 5 2®. Wntefb6ttom_ 24Japs 1:35.5391 11 '22 laps 1:34.3019 7 2^"M’drrjs' c5NFO. Kelly '21 laps J:35:bTl8 14 DNFWalde’n 2 laps'‘ 2:d5.'7014 1 DNF Baird' n 1 1 jap '2:28;5581 0 laps DNFTander 0 laps DNFD’Agostin

Murphy 1913. S. Richards 1819, R. Kelly 1793, T. Kelly 1623, Bargwanna 1526, Bowe

BIG

1 3

Eastern Greek, NSW Race ^ Ze> LAPS

From here, we move on: Top, Murphy, above. Bright and below. Luff, will all move on to different roles in 2005.

Race 3

Pds

Driver | Race Time

1_ Ambrose 2 'Skaife ■ 3 4

39

Ingall Radisich

LARS Fastest

I Lap

1:04:31.8346 *1:33.8759 13 1:64:58.3235 " 1:34.6756 5 1:04:59.7378 1:34.0237 6 l:0'5:03'.5506 ' ‘1:34.8375 ”7

5 ■ T. kelly'' J:05-r08.1074 1:34.4423 * *8 6^ McConville 1:65:'68.7051 * 1:34.2694 9 7 Morris 1:05:11.8233 ‘ 1:'34.1738 9 8 S. Richards 1:0571.9^65 1:35.1192 7 9 Y Richards 1:05:l'2.'32i4 Y:35'.4055 24 10 Tander' T:65':12.9816 1:34.4558 28 '1:05:14.4384 1:35.3097 14 lY ‘ Wji'so'n " 12 'Bowe ' i:05':'l8.6507 'l:34.6247 8 '1:05:19.6677 ' '1:35.0496 10 13 Johnson Y: 6 5:2 O'. 2393 “ ” i VS4.1784 9 14 Jones _ 1:34.8766 '9 15 R: Kelly _ 1:05:21.9209 1:35';3771 21 16 'Bargwanna' l:05:2l‘l583 i'7 Baird' '1:65:28.5437' 1:35!3254 11 1:'05:29.6640 1:35.4720 13 18 Murphy 19'Wills 1:0'5:29.9309'"'l':35.1547 30 20 Luff 1:65:‘33.02'28 ' 1:34.6193 12 ■2rBesnard ■ T:b5;38.il84 ' i:35.5'240 2*7 22 Seton 1:05:39.8183 1:35.3139 12 23'Bright‘ ‘ ' 1:05:4T.2223 1:35.2353 21 24 Dumbrell 1:05:42.8353 1:35.9477 26 25 Tratf 1:05:43.1636 1:35.7461 10 26 Weel" i:b5:45.6464 1:35.1518 8 27 Davison 1:05:47.4308 1:35.8128 12 1:05:56.5737 1:35.8545 23 28 Ellery ; 29 Holdswo'rth 1 :b5:56.7492 1:36.2504 30 30 Bre'de' ‘ ‘1:06:10.2544 1:35.8930 24 31 0. Kelly 38 laps 1:36.5011 9 32 Walden 38 laps 1:36.7‘970 9 33 Winterbotlom 37 lap's " 1:35.3898 '28 DNF Lowndes 33 laps 1:34.1700 8

I 1 !

!

I I 1 I

56

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PeiMBOt gets Hflarkko people that urged team manager Corrado Provera to sign the Estonian.

Martin finished third in the 2004

by JON THOMSON

PEUGEOT has confirmed the worst kept secret in rallying by announcing that it has signed Markko Martin for its final season in the sport.

Martin, 29, has had an up-anddown year with Ford and clearly was not prepared to wait and see if the Blue Oval was going to stay in the sport. It appears he came to an agreement with the French maker two months ago before learning that Ford would make a long-term commitment and Peugeot would pull out.

Drivers' World Championship and boasts a total of five WRC wins.

Three came this year, including two superb tarmac wins in Corsica and Catalunya.

"I am looking forvvard to having Marcus as team-mate," he said.

I "We get on well together and I I have a great deal of respect for him. I ●I believe he is still the fastest driver in 5 the championship."

Meanwhile, cutbacks at Peugeot short-term one-year contract with Sport have started to bite ahead of its Peugeot proves successful so that his pullout next year. The French long-term future and worth can be company had been grooming both Daniel Carlsson and former bolstered for 2006 and beyond The one factor that will benefit the mountain bike champion Nicolas Estonian is that he is a great friend Vouilloz but both young hopefuls with new team-mate Marcus will apparently now be seeldng Gronholm, who was one of the employment elsewhere next year.

Martin's management has been trying to undo the deal ever since and this has been the major reason why Peugeot is only now announcing the signing.

Martin can only hope that his

Vouilloz, who ran selected European events in a Peugeotsupported car in 2004, has a year to run on his contract and had hoped for another World Championship season in a 206 WRC, while Swede Carlsson was confirmed as the works team's third driver in August.

"I think we will have some

difficulties in finding a program for them. We will try to find some solution," said Provera.

It is believed both Peugeot and Citroen will announce a round of retrenchments in the next few weeks, as both will have to live with severely reduced budgets for 2005.

Citroen's hopes of turning around the board decision and continuing on in rallying in 2006 evaporated last week when motorsport boss Guy Frequelin conceded the decision to pull out is not negotiable.

Desert Stormer Robby Gordon Joins VW’s Dakar assault

AS if he was not already considered versatile, Robby Gordon is joining Volkswagen's attack on one of the world's classic motorsport events - the Dakar.

The NASCAR regular and former CART and IRL driver will race one of Volkswagen's four Race-Touaregs, below, in the January event, joining 1993 winner Bruno Saby, '98 winner Juha Kankkunen and Jutta Kleinschmidt, who became the event's first female winner in 2001.

"Robby convinced us of his qualities during a test in September," Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen told Autosport.

"We consider him to be the perfect addition to our three established regular drivers, and we now have one of the most experienced, multitalented and convincing driver line-ups in the field."

The 35-year-old American, who was recently released by Richard Childress Racing, has considerable off-road experience, taking six USA titles in the dirt as well as two wins in the Baja 1000 before his attention turned to the tarmac.

WHILE Mitsubishi may be struggling to put its financial house back in order and turn around its world-wide sales slump, it seems all systems are go at the company's motorsport arm, with the green light being given for its promising revised Lancer WRC05.

While it was first believed that the new car would come mid-way through the first quarter of '05, it seems the WRC05 will break cover on next month's Monte Carlo Rally.

Massive performance gains with the new car have led new Mitsubishi

i I

i

V

H. - 58

%

motorsport boss Isao Torii to sign off on it and push for its introduction as early as possible. It is understood that many senior management believe that a revitalised rally effort could bring a much-needed morale booster to the embattled company and that some spending in this sector may be a worthwhile investment in the company's ongoing future.

Mitsubishi had considered delaying its introduction while carrying out further development, but testing has revealed the WRC05 is already on the pace and clearly better than the '04 car, which has

been dogged with problems all year.

However, while the Monte cars will ostensibly be '05 models, they will meld some aspects of the '04 machines. It is believed the cars will feature semi-automatic gear changes and active centre differentials at the very least. Initially the cars will not have active front and rear diffs but these will be introduced as the season unfolds.

Mitsubishi motorsports chief engineer Mario Fomaris has emphasised the importance of getting the basic elements of the design right before introducing more complicated technology, such as active systems.

However one of the criticisms levelled at Fornaris this year has been that his approach has been too cautious and that the cars have been unreliable.

Mitsubishi looks certain to confirm in the next couple of days that it has signed Peugeot cast-off Harri Rovanpera to join former team-mate Gilles Panizzi, who is already contracted to the Japanese maker.

Italian Gigi Galh is also likely to be retained, mostly for tarmac events.

-JON THOMSON motorsport nows

RALLY NEWS

Czech Mates SKODA has gone for some fresh faces as it has one last throw of the dice in World Rallying in 2005.

While veteran Armin Schwarz will continue with the team next year, the Czech maker has adopted a youth policy by signing young French star Alexandre Bengue and Finns Jani Paasonen and Janne Tuohino for the company's full attack on the Championship.

While Schwarz and Benque will concentrate on the tarmac rounds Paasonen, who has had a miserable year with Mitsubishi, will compete mostly In gravel rounds, along with sometime Ford driver Tuohino. On

I cannot wait; '■ Cardemesiter will be hoping to stay at Ford in 2006 so he can drive the new Focus WRC car.

] i

Malcolm makes a Meisterstroke

FINN Toni Gardermeister will almost certainly be joined at Ford in 2005 by Spaniard Dani Sola after the former Skoda and Seat driver was named as the Blue Oval's number one driver for next year.

Sola is believed to be favoured for the number two spot, thanks to the large bags of money the Catalunyan can bring with him.

Ford WRC boss Malcolm Wilson made it clear that while he was prepared to pay for his number one driver, the team's number two would have to bring sponsorship with him.

Wilson has said that he has been approached by at least a half dozen strong drivers armed with the funding for the second works Focus. He agrees that signing Gardermeister has been a major gamble, with the journeyman Finn's best placing on a WRC is a third with Seat in NZ in 1999.

"Arguably he has never had the machinery

to do the job at Seat and Skoda and I reckon he can turn that around next year because the Focus is clearly up to it," Wilson said.

"Toni's commitment is total and that has been demonstrated by his eagerness to immerse himself in the team and everything that it does. I think he's ready for it."

Gardemeister, 29, will have a new co-driver, with Jakke Honkanen replacing his career-long partner Paavo Lukander, who retired at the end of the 2004 season. The new pairing got to know each other on a shakedown run that started last Thursday in Sweden.

His Ford contract is for 12 months only and will give the Blue Oval the opportunity to re sign Markko Martin - or chase Sebastien Loeb -when Citroen and Peugeot pull out of rallying for 2006.

If I build it, will it win?

JUST to show how keen he is to join the Ford team, Gardermeister has agreed to work with the team over the European winter break doing more than just driving.

He has asked to work as a mechanic on the shop floor at team HQ helping to build the Focus World Rally Cars for season 2005. His offer to work on the spanners is seen as an indication of his commitment to what many believe is his last throw of the dice at the top level.

Gardermeister's move is also a practical measure, because 2005 World Championship rounds will generally include just one mid-leg service. Knowledge of the inner workings of the car could give : Gardermeister an edge over many of his competitors in 2005.

8 Oecemher 2004

-JON THOMSON|

some rounds, the team will enter three cars as it fights to attain competitiveness in the WRC. Schwarz and 2003 French champion Bengue will kick off the Skoda assault, piloting the two official entries of the heavily-revised Fabia, above, on the Monte Carlo Rally next month.

■ As we revealed last issue, Tasmania's round of the ARC has been taken over by sports management company Octagon, which has signed on to run the Subaru Safari Rally in 2005.

Octagon already owns and promotes Targa Tasmania, as well as the Australian Safari cross-country rally.

ARCOM has not announced how long the contract with Octagon will be but, with Subaru confirming it will continue to back the Tasmanian round in 2005 and 2006, it is believed that the tenure will be for at least two years.

ARCom Chairman Garry Connelly said Octagon's involvement as the Promoter and Organiser will help in further raising the profile of the Australian Rally Championship.

"The Octagon team brings with it a wealth of experience and will retain valuable support from key officials that have been involved in the event before," said Connelly.

The rally will be under the charge of Octagon's Rob McGuire, who has some ambitious plans for the event and says he is looking forward to becoming involved with the championship.

"Certainly, we'd hope to increase the professionalism of the event from the outset. But our broader goal is that within two years we would like the Subaru Safari Tasmania to be recognised as the best round of the ARC," McGuire said.

-JON THOMSON 59

/

FD

J

ROUND 3 of the 2004/05 Proton World Series Sprintcars, held two weeks ago at Adelaide’s Speedway City, was an enthralling battle with a popular winner.

American driver Jason Johnson eventually got the upper hand and went on to take a thrilling win over the reigning Australian Champion Robbie Farr, but the journey was a fantasticaliy hard-fought affair.

Johnson’s last race at Speedway'City also resulted victory, when he now-famously won as his sister lay dying in hospital after a car accident at home in the United States.

There was still visible emotion for Johnson after the win, which also catapulted him to the top of the World Series points standings.

Local racer Trevor Green made a welcome return to his home track and proved fast from the outset, posting the quickest qualifying lap aboard his Adrad Radiators Eagle. All things went to plan for Green as he steadily progressed through the heats and went on to claim victory in the A-Dash event, giving him pole for the A-Main ahead of Johnson, Brooke Tatnell, Darryl Wright and Farr for the 30-lap main event.

Green led the 18-car field as they charged into turn 1.

Johnson, Tatnell and Farr were all on his tail tank as they reeled 60

off the opening laps. The first stoppage of the race came when Phil March, Leith Ahifors and Mark Wells tangled in turn 4, with the latter two able to restart.

Victorian Tony Moule was the next to retire to the infield with mechanical difficulties.

Green looked comfortable in the early stages until Johnson squeezed his way through amongst the lapped traffic. This brought Green into the clutches of Farr and the two cars touched going into turn 1. The local’s fairytale meeting quickly came to a disappointing end after breaking his steering arm in the contact.

Johnson opened a handy lead on Farr during the middle stages of the event, while further back in the pack Tatnell and Dumesny thrilled the crowd with a battle for the final podium position.

Farr worked his way onto the tail of Johnson and the two slugged it out for the lead while slicing through lapped traffic.

Johnson looked to be in the box seat but Farr never gave in, sticking the nose of his Titan Maxim into the lead before Johnson fought back to soon reclaim the prime position and hold on for the win.

Tatnell managed to edge out Dumesny for third while Shane Stewart carved his way through from near the back of the pack, rounding up Darryl Hodges and John Shore in the dying laps to

claim fifth. Further back was Wright, earning the honour of DMI Home Town Hero Award as the highest placed noncontracted WSS competitor.

World Series debutant Dylan Jenkin proved to be the surprise packet of the night and impressed many experienced rivals; winning his two heats, qualifying directly into the BDash and claiming 12th in the feature race ahead of the reigning WSS Rookie of the Year Mark Reuter.

- PARIS CHARLES

I1.

2.

13.

4.

5.

6.

7.

18.

U5 Q36 N8 V5 U6 05 N6 S28

1_V6

10. 025

Jason Johnson Robbie Farr Brooke Tatnell Max Dumesny Shane Stewart Darrell Hodges John Shore Darryl Wright Mike Van Bremen Terry Bracken

Points: Johnson 1954, Farr 1933. Stewart 1860, Hodges 1695, Dumesny 1489, Tatnell 1275, Shore 1168, Van Bremen 970.

WSS R3 ADEUIDE

AFTER a less than memorable start to his Australian season campaign,four times World Series champion Brooke Tatnell bounced back to form last Saturday night to take out Round 4 of the Proton World Series Sprintcars at the western NSW venue of Wagga International Speedway.

Tatnell, 33, started alongside American ace Shane Stewart, after he had claimed the B-Dash, where Tatnell, from the drop of the green flag bolted to an immediate lead closely pursued

by Stewart. Throughout the 30lap feature race Tatnell withstood numerous challenges from Stewart, who threw everything but had no answers to Tatnell.

"It's been Boxing Day last year since we got a win, so we're pretty happy to take this one," said a relieved Tatnell. "I was very happy to see the chequers in the end because it was getting moiorsDort news

I

k in town SPEEDWAY

Brooke Tatnell has found form at the right time ofyear,Jumping into Worid Series contention with a win at Wagga.

DANIEL POWELL was there

pretty slippery out there."

One of the most bizarre circumstances to come out of the main event, other than a handful of spins and crashes, there were two bizarre caution periods for infield tyre markers that had made their way onto the circuit. The second appearance of the infield tyre marker was in turn two, which incidentally saw sixth placed Darryl Hodges sent to the rear of the field for hitting one, as officials deemed him as the cause of the stoppage.

This then set up up a two-lap sprint to the chequered flag, with Stewart having one last opportunity to hack away at Tatnell's lead. Despite Stewart applying the pressure, Tatnell was able to withstand the attack and go on to score his first WSS round in close to a year.

Third place went to Mark Wells, 'the Geraldton Jet' snaring his first podium finish aboard the West Australian 8 Decemher 2004

number two Krikke Motorsports car, after earlier in the night being the highest point scorer after qualifying and heat races.

Outside the podium finishers were current Australian Champion Robbie Farr, a career best WSS finish foryoungster Danny Reidy in fifth, with the remainder of the top 10 cars being, a struggling Max Dumesny, local hope Grant Anderson, B-main winner Ian Lewis, former Victorian champion Ken Veal and in 10th was a not-so-happy Jason Johnson, with the latter enduring a forgetful evening after heading into the weekend as the WSS points leader.

In terms of the casualties during the feature race, there were a handful, with the most notable being Darwin youngster Ben Atkinson, who on a charge after setting the second quickest lap in time trials, before suffering a right-rear flat tyre after contact with a fellow rival

12 months too long: Tatnell, above left, ended his World Series winless streak at Wagga while Stewart, above, regained the series lead with a strong second.

down the back straight, Victorian domestic racer Ian Thomsen suffered an early end to his feature race aspirations after rolling his Viper car in turn four.

Earlier in the night, both Stewart and Tatnell shared victories in the A and B dashes respectively. Heat race wins went to Reidy, Wells, Anderson and Woods. In time trials Dumesny scorched around the 520-metre track to post 'quick time'.

A number of drivers encountered dramas during the heat races. Veal and Dubbo's Leigh Nicholls suffered rollovers in separate incidents, while Veal was able to rebuild and return later that night, young Nicholls was forced to put his ex-Mark Blyton Avenger on the trailer due to extensive damage.

^BrookeTTatneir.: Shane Stewart MaTk’Wells n Robbie Farr

10.

U5

Danny Reidy Max Dumesny Grant Anderson Ian Lewis Ken Veal Jason Johnson

Points: Stewart 2801, Farr 2766, Johnson 2442, Tatnell 2406, Dumesny 2165, Hodges 2135, Wells 1865, Shore 1573,

WSS R4 WAGGA 61

I;

Habit F LAST Saturday night Troy Little continued his great form at the Parramatta City Raceway with the 22-year-old winning his fourth AMain victory of the summer at Round 7 of the PCR Track

Championship.

Little, right, took the lead late in

Red Hot BIS ANDREW Scheuerle won his

second race of the year at Round Four of the Comp Cams Sprintcar Series at Brisbane International

Speedway a week ago.

Fresh from a WSS fourth, the

caught the pair. The dice was resolved when Macdonald got a lucky break in traffic and drove around both in turn 2. That set

up a charge at Scheuerle from the final yellow restart, but

Scheuerle was too quick.

Toowoomba flyer won every

Jenson claimed third while

race he contested; both heats, times in the Feature Race from

Wright faded, losing fourth to a flying Clayton Walker, who started 13th after winning the B-

pole position.

Main. The result moved Walker

the Dash and ran away four

“Everything just went really

into second in the points after a

well, 'said Scheuerle. “After

dreadful night for Clem

several yellows and restarts we managed to get the job done. The guys put in a really good effort.”

in the B-Main.

Second was a hard fought affair initially between front row

Hoffmans ended with a puncture The ever-consistent Bruce Marshall had to hold off Todd

starter and series returnee Ben

Wanless for much of the race, finishing sixth with Wanless

Wright and series points leader

seventh. The other finishers were

Darren Jensen. Brock Dean out-

David Grose, Wayne Lemon, Tony Michell, Mel Boyes and Dean.

launched the pair of them, only to spin his nervous looking car downfield after just two laps.

As the race wore on Nathan

Macdonald (who started 11th)

- MARK JONES Points: Jensen 234, Walker 183, Bruce Marshall 177, Hoffmans 163, Wanless 153, RobbieFarr 140.

the 30-lap race, running tlie high groove forge past a very impressive Ian Loudoun to take control, leaving Loudoun to finish second with tlie

previous week's winner Mark Richards third.

Loudoun took the lead from the

green, and despite a few race

stoppages held tlie field at bay. But by lap 10, former Australian cliamp Kerry Madsen, having just returned from the USA, had powered up into third after starting back from position 17.

Madsen looked fast and was

fighting it out with Brett Loadsman

for second, but the pair got tangled up with a spinning Mick Turner

around lap 15. Loadsman flipped over while Madsen, having nowhere to go, hit Loadsman. While Madsen was forced out, Loadsman returned

after repairing his top wing only to retire shortly later.

That put Richards in tliird, but Adrian Maher in the other Bevelite

Glass Maxim was coming on strong along with Little. Maher moved into second, giving the Bevelite team a

opening round of the 360 Sprintcar Grand Prix Series at Tlmmis

Speedway in Mildura a week ago.

For the second straight week Brett Milburn had to settle for the runner up position, with Adelaide veteran Dennis Burford putting in

the drive of the night to snatch third in the shortened (due to curfew) feature event, Burford had been involved in an earlier melee that saw

him have to restart from the rear of the grid. Chris Evans finished fourth, with local Col Beasley rounding out the top five.

- BRETT SWANSON 62

charge as he first rounded up Maher then an impressive Loudoun to take

the lead and the win. Maher spun out with a few laps to rim, giving Richards tlrird with Craig Brady, Martin Lawes and Wayne Skipper made up the top six finishers.

"At the start we didn't have

anything," said Little. "We missed tlie set up a little but luckily we had a red light and Bill Roberts came out and spun some wrenches, changed some shocks and we got it going half way through the race.

"I thought 'what am I going to do witli the two Bevelite cars' but it all

came togetiier at the end. I was just

Dillon raids SOUTH Australian Luke Dillon

Starting out of position four he

looked unstoppable from the moment he rolled into the pits of the Sungold Milk Stadium at

settled in and concentrated on what he had to do and worked his

Warrnambooi last weekend for Round 2 of the Eureka

ALLAN Barlee drank the victory champagne when he won the

one-two witli Little powering into third a few laps later. Little was on the

way up to second and'was closing in on Dillon. While there was two

Garages & Sheds Super Sprint

lapped cars between them Bell was only 9 metres off the tail of

Series.

the leader when Domain Ramsey

With his undoubted ability and probably the best car in the pits

spun in turn 2.

the result was almost a forgone conclusion. However, somebody forgot to tell local ace and Round 1 winner Stephen Bell that a heavy 360ci engined car would stand any sort of a chance.

Dillon astounded the big field of

smaller engine,, heavier car and the lapped cars being restarted between him and Dillon. Try as he might Bell was unable to bridge the gap and had to settle for second

well to qualify the Brad Parr Racing

cars with a scorching run against

machine second.

the wall in his second heat on a

The restart hurt Bell due to the

ahead of Adrian Parr, who drove

Local Darren Mollenoyux

new track surface that put rubber down and gave full width racing.

Not surprisingly, he scored pole and led the feature from the drop of the green but as he had done

continued his impressive debut with another top five finish on his

in the opening round. Bell planned

brilliant opening heat win and

his race to almost perfection.

looked good for a top five feature

home track.

Jeff Judd returned from 18 months out of the car with a

molorsporl news

NEWS

DPming four positions. NZ racer Trevor Wishart got caught out in the B-Main and flipped over badly damaging his machine.

THE previous week, Mark Richards took out his maiden Sprintcar victory,just finishing ahead of Loadsman with Craig Brady home in third. They were all in with a chance of taking out the win on the final lap, a mere two tenths of a second between the trio as they crossed the line.

patient, chipping away. Up high wasn't any faster,just that the momentum was up there."

The earlier preliminary heats saw wins to Madsen, Loudoun,Little, Wayne Skipper, Grant Tunks and Trevor Green while Tunks also won the Dash for Cash, defeating Green, Madsen,Skipper and Loudoun with Little a non-finisher.

Madsen started his PCR summer badly, damaging his top wing after tangling with Maher on the opening lap of heat one. While Maher was forced out, Madsen was able to restart, only to crash out in the main.

Mick Turner won the B-Main from a fast finishing Kelly Lmigen with Ian Madsen and Rod Bright in the top

Young Jamie Jones led the A-Main for most laps, but whUe leading his machine jumped out of gear, forcing him to drop a couple of placings.

Skipper also lead for a few laps but broken shock mounts caused his retirement, while an impressive Loadsman,after having to qualify into the A-Main field from both the C and B-Main races, also led the main around lap 20.

The previous week's winner Little, after crashing out in his earlier heat and badly bending the front end of his Eagle machine, took out a good victory in the B-Main. Little had moved up into fourth by mid-race in the A-Main, only to spin out and had to restart from the rear. Little had moved back into seventh by the end of 30 laps.

- GREG BOSCATO

FIM 2005 calendar unveiled BENFIELD Sports, organisers of the FIM World Speedway Grand Prix, has announced a nine round calendar for the 2005 series.

Benfield also announced the dates for the Speedway World Cup, now a vital qualifying race for the following year’s series, to be hosted over three venues over the space of a week.

Heat 1 will be held in Great Britian on July 31, Heat 2 in Eskilstuna, Sweden on August 2 and the finals at Poland’s Wroclaw Olympic Stadium on August 4-6.

The biggest loser is Norway, which hosted the final Grand Prix of 2005, which now gets no rounds of either the Grand Prix or World Cup. The final round will now be hosted by Italy.

2005 FIMWortd Speedway Grand Prix April 30 May 14 May 28 June 11 June 25 July 9 Aug 13 Aug 27 Sept 10

Wroclaw, Poland Eskilstuna, Sweden Krsko, Slovenia Cardiff, Great Britain Copenhagen, DK Prague, Czech Rep. Malilla, Sweden Bydgoszcz, Poland Vicenze, Italy *TBC

Victorian border before a diff problem sidelined him.

The new track surface held up extremely well, with 37-odd Sprintcars in action and not a single rollover from the class.

Dillon though was clearly sending a message for the gun teams when they land here next month for the World Series double header, and critically, he’s already had a run on the new clay.

- BRETT SWANSON

Stewart confirms Eldora purchase AS we suggested in September, NASCAR star and former Speedway racer Tony Stewart has purchased Eldora Speedway from the legendary Earl Baltes.

The Ohio track is one of the most famed and reknowned on the World of Outlaws schedule. n Barry Radford, the driver who sustained serious injuries in a crash at Garrick Speedway, passed away on Friday, November 26.

The 62-year-old was competing on November 13 when he made heavy contact with the wall in his Super Sedan. He was immediately transported in a critical condition to Launceston Hospital, and later transferred to Royal Hobart Hospital. n Last Saturday nights PCR Speedcar feature was taken out by Brett Morris (now Mopar powered) with Steven Graham and Troy Jenkins following him home. Earlier in the night Graham got tangled up with Tim Evans in turn 4, resulting with Graham flipping over and Evans crashing into the front straight catch fencing. Evens looked to be unhurt but was taken off to hospital later in the night. n The Litre cars joined the Sprintcars on the November 27 meeting at PCR, with Gary Hahn taking out a shortened Litre Feature with Aussie Champ Scott Darley second and Brenden Fox third.

The race was declared after thensecond placed Wayne Blake had spun out in turn four with third placed Michael Sammut spearing off and hitting the outer wall. Second place was awarded to Darley with Fox third. n Mildura's Col Beasley made every post a winner to claim the opening round of the South Australian 360ci Sprintcar Action Series at Bordertown's Tolmer Speedway.

The podium was filled by father and son team of Dennis and Michael Burford. Next was second heat victor Craig Vanderstelt over Mildura's Darryl Bottams who made a welcome return to racing.

- BOSCATO/POWELL/CHARLES

Hoosier Tire Australia 2004 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP Australian Distributors for

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7Mark Wells 8John Shore 9Mike Van Bremen

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63

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Your

team has just gone through a major expansion. Did you ever think it would get this big?

BRETT STEVENS: I've been

planning it for 18 months to two years now. Originally, no, I

never thought it was possible but it's a good thing and it's good for the sport in general.

we've got comfortably into the pits and it works well. If it gets any bigger, it will create dramas

for us. We just need to perfect a few things and change the way we do a couple of things.

MN: Has there been any teething problems?

BS: Oh, just minor stuff. After

It definitely helps us in terms of getting data off the cars and

the first round in Sydney, I was

as a cost-effective exercise. vehicles doesn't mean it's nine

everything go so smoothly. To have 45 crew and everyone work well together and be so

times the cost. It actually

successful at the same time,

works out a little bit better and

MN: Are there more, longer-

it's just been huge and I couldn't ask for it to be any better. It's probably 90 to 95 percent of the way to being

term plans in store?

perfect.

Just because we've got nine

looks good for the spectators.

BS: As far as racing is concerned, it's not going to get any bigger. We are at a point where we can fit everything

really pleased to have

BS: It is taxing. I've just got to make sure I've got enough time to get my head around stuff because I'm calling the shots on eight vehicles, not just the three that I'm in.

We are getting there. I'm not confessing to be an expert at this but Iwill always have a go at something and try until I succeed and I suppose that's what's got me where I am.

MN: The only piece missing from the team is a Top Fueller.

Any thought of one being run under your banner?

BS: No. Ijust think the Doorslammers, the Alcohol Funny Cars and the Bikes are a

good mix. Top Fuel is very popular but it would take a lot

MN: What about the workload

of racing in three categories yourself, plus running the team?

of concentration on me to be able to do that and also a lot of

money. I just don't have the resources to do it, or the manpower.

(

RAG RACING One day. I'd like to have a go at it. If someone offered me a drive in a car, I'd probably have a go at it, as long as I didn't have to do the work. I've got enough on my plate.

MN: You've had a long and successful association with your major sponsor. Jack Daniel's. How long will we see that last for?

BS: I've been with them 11 years and as far as 1 know, we'll just keep going until one of us has had enough.

As for the future, it's definitely not a short-term thing with them.

MN: What's Jack Daniel's reaction been like to the expanded outfit?

BS; Awesome. We have a great relationship. The publicity that we are creating for the brand is awesome. We just get on really well. It's not like a sponsorship deal; it's more a friendship with business associated with it.

MN: Drag Racing has gone through a couple of lean seaspns in Australia. You have worked hard to have a big team full of front-running cars. so are you frustrated that Australian Drag Racing isn't as big as what it could be?

BS: Yes, it does get very frustrating and I'm sure the potential is there for it to keep increasing in popularity.

I think everyone in the sport needs to put their heads together as a group. We've got a good package here to sell to the consumers. It all comes down to the fact that we are putting on a show and we've got a brilliant show, we just need some more places to race at and have more organisation amongst ourselves.

With the opening of Sydney, it's definitely increased the interest in the sport. We need to get more racetracks, more cars and some television behind it and the sponsors will come flooding back into the

MN: Would the next state you'd want to take the show back to be Victoria?

BS: Yeah. We need to be back racing in Melbourne and Adelaide. And a few regional tracks as well. Let's not forget places like Darwin that have racing facilities. If you can run a V8 Supercar meeting up there. I'm sure they'd like a round of drag racing as well.

There's so much untapped potential. I don't know, do we have go get someone to come in and treat it like a marketing business? 1 don't know the answers to it but 1 do know the potential is there for it to i happen.

You look back at 1996 and 1997 when Touring Cars were Touring Cars, not V8 Supercars and drag racing was very popular. AVESCO grabbed the Supercars and ran with it and look where they are today ... We need something like that to happen with drag racing.

Splai Family Affair

!l |l

IT was a family affair at Round 3 of the Australian Top Doorslammer Series when Ben Bray beat his father Victor in the final at Kwinana Motorpiex iast weekend.

It was a tense three rounds of qualifying for the Doorslammers, with 13 cars vying for the eight elimination places. Ben Bray set a new category record on the way to qualifying fastest, with his 6.02s/236mph the quickest-ever for a class legal Top Doorslammer.

"The car's been going hard all year and showed lots of potential," Bray said.

"It all came together with a good track."

Local boy Robin Judd was second quickest qualifier with a personal best 6.09s/228mph on his first run. Peter Hamilton also did a PB to grab third qualifying spot, with a 6.12s/230mph in his Statesman. i I It took Victor Bray until the last round to qualify.

His 6.36s/225mph was good enough for seventh.

Andrev|^.^earle made a stronp return to drag racing, pipping Bray to si)tfh“wrfliTslightly better 6.36s in the Alan Sarkis Chev. Gary Stevens was another surprise qualifier, setting 6.38s/230mph at his first ever drag meet.

Both Brett Stevens Racing cars failed to qualify, with 'The Boss' suffering engine problems after the second run, leaving him outside the eight. Kath Stevens just missed out in the Jack Daniel's Corvette.

The Brays had mixed runs through the eliminations. Victor took it easy in his first eliminkion run after Robin Judd Wt t^^red light at the start'-.' Ben also had an f>!i'n, his 6.18s/231mph too fast for Gary Stevens who almost lost control half way down the strip.

Victor had to work harder in the semi, eliminating Peter Hamilton with a 6.24s/232mph.

Ben did another scorching time, with his 6.03s/236mph eliminating John Zappia who looked loose the whole way down.

Ben carried his string of low sixes into the final, eliminating his father with a 6.04s/237mph. Ben was elated with the victory, which gives him a handy series lead.

AUSTRALIA'S'Queen of Speed' Rachelle Splatt is readying herself to return to the track, with a new race car and the necessary equipment to run consistent four second/300mph passes landing in Australia recently.

Having retired from driving in 2000, Splatt made a one-off appearance at the Kwinana Motorplex in Perth two years ago, recording Ae track's first four second pass, before selling her entire operation to Mark and Luke Shepherd.

With a resurgence in both general

Bazemore fii

by DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

"I feel 110 percent with the result," he said.

"I should have about 110 points over anyone now, with Brett Stevens not qualifying and Robin Judd going out in the first round."

While Stevens and his team didn't fair well with the Doorslammer, they did better in the Top Bikes.

Stevens set a rather loose 9.31 s/120mph opposite Mark Ashelford, then used a 7.21 s/177mph to eliminate Dennis Grant in the semi.

Kim Stevens showed good pace in the early eliminations, using a 7.22s/197mph to beat Mark Drew, then a scorching 6.89s/191mph to advance to the final.

Both Brett and Kim Stevens dipped into the sixes for the final, however it was WA local Kim who took the win with another 6.89s/209mph.

Kim described the win in front of his home crowd as "unreal."

ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

FUNNY Car racer Whit Bazemore has been fined $15,000 by the NHRA for unsafe driving and unsportsmanlike conduct following his first-round loss at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals late last month.

Bazemore was observed exiting the racetrack at a dangerously high speed and allegedly ignored the instructions of NHRA officials to reduce his speed. He further ignored directions as to where to safely stop and park his vehicle.

His actions endangered the safety of the other race team crew members, ESPN personnel and NHRA officials in the area. Bazemore had previously been warned about this practice on numerous occasions.

Additionally, Bazemore's use of profanity during his starting-line

I

66 I

motorspon news

DRAG RACING

NHRA releases injected-nitro changes

tt in the chair 5

public and corporate interest iit the sport following the opening of the Western Sydney International Raceway,Splatt set about planning her return,long-time crew cliief Peter Wileman securing a little-used McKinney chassis to replace the previous Hansen unit on a trip to the US earlier this year.

There has been a slight setback to Splatt's return, the new car receiving damage to its front end during its transportation. Renowned Australian chassis builder Murray Anderson is currently undertaking the repairs, while also taking the opportunity to update the cockpit to the latest NHRA safety standards.

-

Dd for Pomona incidents .

I

o

.^1

5

a:

a ©6?

ii

fi

Wi

'll?

conversation with NHRA Chief Starter Rick Stewart was deemed to be unsportsmanlike and detrimental to the sport.

Bazemore's conduct constitutes a violation of the Participant Conduct section on page 243 of the 2004 NHRA Rulebook.

Prior to further participation at

any NHRA events, the fine must be paid in full. Bazemore has been placed on a two-year probation period through November 16, 2006.

Any violation of NHRA safety or participant conduct rules within this probation period will result immediate termination of his driving privileges.

O’ROURKE Motorsport have announced it is planning a comeback to Top Doorslammer racing following an accident at Quit Motorplex late last month.

However, race fans will have to wait until next season for the return of the Doorslammer, with the team deciding to focus on its Supercharged Outlaw program for the rest of the summer.

“It's disappointing to bow out of the series for this season.

Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to go forward and we are confident we will be back with a better package," Grant O’Rourke said.

It is still unclear in what capacity the team will return to Top Doorslammers, with another announcement expected early next year.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Getting Baca behind the wheel

TOP Fuel driver David Baca has announced plans to run the entire 2005 POWERade Drag Racing Series.

After a seventh place finish in the point standings during his rookie 2003 season, Baca’s business commitments forced him to leave the tour after the Topeka event in 2004.

Baca returned in Seattle and ran the majority of races left on the ’04 schedule. At Las Vegas in October, the D. Baca and Family dragster ran it best time of the season when it covered The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway quarter-mile in 4.526 seconds at over325mph.

At Pomona, the site of the season-ending Auto Club of

S'

O'Rourke return ... soon g

rii;*' ll

fl

Southern California Finals, Baca ran a career best elapsed time of 4.487s in the opening round of qualifying to earn third spot on the qualifying ladder. He then advanced to the semifinals before a malfunctioning magneto ended his day.

Current tuner Rick Henkelman has elected to take a brief hiatus from his duties, so former U.S. Nationals winner and father of David, Dennis Baca, will handle the tuning.

Kevin Poynter, will continue as crew chief and is currently undergoing his licensing procedures for his Top Fuel license so he can drive the car during testing.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

FOLLOWING the final event in 2004, where Mitch Myers recorded the quickest two A/Fuel Dragster passes in history at 5,102s and 5.118s, the NHRA Competition Committee has announced a maximum nitromethane percentage for nitro-injected dragsters.

Beginning in 2005, the nitromethane content will be restricted to a maximum of 96 percent in the attempt to decrease speeds. n Reigning POWERade Champions Tony Schumacher, John Force and Greg Anderson lead the 2004 class of drag racing nominees for the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) All-America Team.

The three straight-line Champs are joined by Rookie of the Year Jason Line, three-time Top Fuel Champion turned Funny Car pro Gary Sceizi and four-time IHRA Champion Clay Millican. n Trussell Motorsports has announced the hiring of former Alcohol Funny Car champion and veteran tuner Jimmy Rector for the 2005 season.

Rector formerly tuned 2003 World : Champion Mitch Stott and IHRA *■ Funny Car veteran Mark Thomas.

Team owner Paul Trussell has not indicated whether the team will run the Torco Race Fuels Pro Modified division on the IHRA Hooters Drag Racing Series or the AMS/TLR Series.

■ The AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge will consist of 14 events in 2005.

It is expected that 10 of these events will be conducted at NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events. The remaining four event dates and locations will be announced soon.

The series will have a rulebook of its own for 2005, written by a special committee. In the past, the IHRA rules were implemented. Current plans are to increase the supercharger overdrive back to 29 percent for blown cars. Nitrousinjected doorslammers will have unlimited cubic inches and for the first time in the history of the class, turbocharged engines will be permitted.

The new rules will reward drivers of pre-1972 model entries, with the exception of the '63-'67 Corvettes, with a 100-pound weight break. The Corvettes will receive a 50 pound (44kg) weight break.

The eight-car fields will expand in 2005 to 16-car fields. Qualifying will be reduced to three attempts, two on Friday and one on Saturday, with the first round of eliminations scheduled for Saturday and the remaining three rounds of eliminations on Sunday.

61

nanonal

scene

eiftedby

Win m this Test in this

NSW Formula Ford V8 test incentive announced

V8 SUPERCAR team Tasman Motorsport will offer a test drive of its VY Commodore to the winner of a 'Search for a V8 Superstar' competition within the 2005 New South Wales Formula Ford series.

The amazing prize is just one of many new initiatives offered to entrants of the state series. The NSW Formula Ford Championship will command solid television exposure next year, as well as added bonuses for entrants who commit to the entire six round competition, held at Oran Park, Eastern Creek and Wakefield Park.

Tasman team manager Jon Matthews is confident the link with a Formula Ford championship

will be beneficial for both.

"It's good to be able to put something back into the sport whenever you can," he said.

"Many of the younger guys get involved in the sport with the dream of one day being invited to drive a V8 Supercar. We want to bring that dream a step closer and who knows - we might uncover a star in the making."

The man behind the project, Wensley Carroll from Xcellerate Sports Management, has secured the category its own television package on FOX Sports and SBS, which will comprise of six, 30 minute programs, solely dedicated to the series. The FOX Sports coverage

Grant Rowley

rVM.

will be broadcast in prime-time.

Carroll says the cooperation between a state Formula Ford series and an up-and-coming V8 Supercar team fits perfectly.

"This association is quite strategic in that it provides an affordable, and easily definable path through to Australia's top category for the young racecar drivers," he said.

"This is a major step forward for the premier V8 feeder category."

To have a chance at the Tasman test, entrants will pay a competition entry fee of just $3,000.

As part of the rejuvenated

r

-1

NSW series, drivers will receive a fitness program, discounted accommodation and meals, driver management and education as well as a trackside masseuse at each round (not to mention the V8 test chance).

Stand 21 Racegear, AirXtreme Art helmet designs and Scooteria have also lent their support to the initiative.

Carroll plans to expand the series to incorporate rounds in Victoria in 2006.

- GRANT ROWLEY For more information on the series, contact Wensley @ Xcellerate Sports Management.(0414 434 369)

Perkins confirmed for Aussie Racing assauit National fu

by GRANT ROWLEY

! | I F

I.

JACK Perkins will drive in the Aussie Racing Car Championship next season in Castrol colours.

Jack, the son of motor racing legend Larry Perkins, will suit up in identical Castrol colours to his father's V8 Supercar team livery. The new-for-2005 Castrol colour scheme will be launched in February, where both the Supercars and the Aussie Racer will be unveiled together.

The VY Aussie Racing Car Jack will drive will be completed before Christmas, and he'll test the car in early January in plain livery.

Perkins Jr. will also compete in the Victorian Formula Ford series in his self-prepared Formula Ford next year.

The 18-year-old has just completed rebuilding the engine

potential junior drivers for the prized seats in the WPS and Valvoline-liveried cars for next season. An announcement on those drivers is expected before the end of the year.

Aussie Racing Cars has also nailed down its 2005 calendar.

Confirmed starter: The popular series will Jack Perkins will drive in a Aussie compromise seven Racing Commodore VY in Castrol championship rounds and is Perkins colours next year. scheduled to start on the Clipsal 500 support bill. The i®@§ eaDcgmcaaiT pint-sized Supercars will again Rd1 March 17/20 compete in a non Clipsal 500, Adelaide Wakefield Park Rd2 May 14/15 championship race at Surfers Rd3 May 27/29 Eastern Creek Paradise before their inaugural Rd4 July 22/24 Queensland Raceway Rd5 August 12/14 Oran Park journey to Tasmania's Rd6 September 9/11 Sandown 500 Symmons Plains for the last NC October 20/23 Surfers Paradise round of the series.

Rd7 November 11/13 Symmons Plains And the categories television and plans to test his ex-Steven package has been beefed-up, Ellery Van Diemen RF92 before with a larger slot confirmed on Christmas at Calder Raceway.

Network 10's Trackside Meanwhile, negotiations program. Up to four in-car continue between Aussie cameras will be in opertion at Racing Car owner Phil Ward and each round.

THE future of national motorsport was up in the air as Motorsport News went to press on Monday.

Both the Premier Racing Series and the newly-formed Australian Motor Racing Series are vying for the chance to co-ordinate and administer most of the national-based motorsport categories in Australia, including Formula 3, Formula 4000, Australian Production Cars, Commodore Cup,TranZams, the Touring Car Challenge,above, Saloon Cars and Superkarts.

68

motorsport nows 1

NATIONAL SCENE

Karting Comeback!

Red Bull gives KartStars wings - FBMW test drive to be won - CIK offer grand Suzuka prize

AUSTRALIAN karting's recent momentum continues to gather with the news that Red Bull will be the major sponsor of next year's KartStars series.

KartStars will make its long awaited return after a year's sabbatical following Ford's withdrawal from the program at the end of 2003. Red Bull's support will give great credence to the series and will also offer one of the most spectacular prizes ever offered in Australian karting - a test drive in a Formula BMW car in Europe in late 2005.

The prize will be offered to the winner of both the KartStars series and also the new Junior Max series, for which final approval is yet to be signed off on by the Australian Karting Association.

KartStars will again be powered by

jre on hold O/ Event Photos

●<>

Both organisations are working towards an eight or nine round series. At this stage, Garry WUlmington and Co's AMRS are tipped to take control, however, co operation from the circuits seem to be sticking point. The AMRS is rumoured to have a naming-rights sponsor, which is believed to be Gulf Western Oil. CAMS will decide soon which series will have the right to run the categories.

-GRANT ROWLEY

8 December 2004

1

the FR125CC Rotax Max engine and be run with a control chassis and Bridgestone tyres. If approved (which is widely expected in the coming weeks)Junior Max would be run on the control tyre, but with open chassis rules.

A number of incentives will be put in place in the rejuvenated championship,including a special 'Red Bull' helmet for the leader of the series, similar to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

"When we were able to attract a company like Ford to karting, it made people stand up and take notice," said George Turton of Drew Price Engineering, organisers of the KartStars and Junior Max series.

"We have done that again with Red Bull,so it is good news for karting," The two classes will be run with the same four round series as the Australian CIK Championships, meaning that Arrow could be forced to scale back its present efforts with the JT Team Arrow factory team in the CIK classes.

"Certainly the logistics of running two classes and CIK involvement is pretty heavy. We will certainly continue in Intercontinental C,as it is

VjMSTtm Q-

?

great for our development of the gearbox kart. The other classes ... we will have to wait and see."

The Australian CIK Championships will also be enlivened with the news that the champions of both the Intercontinental A class and the elite Formula A class will be awarded an all-expenses-paid drive at the CIKFIA Asia-Pacific Championships in Suzuka,Japan, late next year.

The prize, along with many cost cutting measures, should hopefully see numbers grow in Australia's premier karting series after a few lean years.

Impressing at the world-renowned Suzuka event is considered an Australian driver's best chance at being picked up by one of the European factory teams. Indeed, it

Formula Test: The winner of the rejuvenated KartStars series will score a test in a Formula BMW machine, above, while winners of Formula A and Intercontinental A receive drives in Japan's FIA Asia Pacific Champs. was in this fashion that Ryan Briscoe, James Courtney and more recently New Zealand's Wade Cunningham were signed by factory teams, leading them all on to greater success and prominence,including world titles for the latter two.

"We are about giving young drivers the best possible opportunity to further their careers in motorsport," said International Karting Council member Craig Denton.

"Running the CIK and Rotax classes together will save costs on our overheads and allow us to have much greater promotion of the events in the local markets."

Despite fears that the introduction of Junior Max would see the end of Junior Intercontinental A(JICA),the breeding ground for stars such as Courtney and Briscoe, the IKC wiU ensure the class's survival with the introduction of licence restrictions on the class.

"Junior Max will be for B and C grade licence holders,leaving JICA to the A graders," Denton said.

All CIK classes, including the KartStars and Junior Max, will be run over two finals per round with the scrapping of the pre-final format.

Both finals will be worth equal points, but the round and state championship will go to the winner of the second final.

The series has also reverted to four rounds, all to be held in capital cities

2005 Sparco Australian CIK Championships and Red Bull KartStars Rd1 Geelong, Vic Rd2 Eastern Creek, NSW Rd3 Ipswich, Qld Rd4 Bolivar, SA

April 9-10 May 27-28 July 22-23 September 17-18

to keep costs to a minimum. Other cost saving measures include changing the control fuel to Shell Optimax and limiting tyre allocations to just five for JICA,six for Intercontinental A and eight for both Intercontinental C and Formula A. Formula A will run a softer compound than other classes, reaffirming it as the fastest karting category in Australia.

Crowd attendances at each round will be made a priority of the promotion strategy, with on-track entertainment a possibility and pre round marketing of the events in each state. A television deal looks unlikely, allowing organisers to put funds towards other promotion.

Rounds two and three will be run on Saturday nights to promote a close relationship with the corresponding V8 Supercar rounds at Eastern Creek and Queensland Raceway. Sparco will continue on as the CIK series' naming rights sponsor.

-CHRIS JORDAN 69

Denyer's Histone dates

by CHRIS JORDAN

1 1 !I

THE Australian Historic Touring Car Association has announced a six-event calendar for the 2005 Biante Model Cars Historic Touring Car Series.

Beginning at the Clipsal 500 in March, the major change to the schedule is the introduction of a Historic ‘Muscle Car’ meeting to be held at Eastern Creek on October 30. The event will see the Historic Touring Cars take top billing, enjoying use of the pit lane garages. The event is also likely to feature Formula 5000s and Group C Touring Cars.

The Histories will also return to Mount Panorama next year for a non-championship event. It is also currently being mooted for a

I'

2005 Biante Model Cars Historic Touring Car Series Rdl Rd2 Rd3 Rd4 NC Rd5 Rd6

Clipsal 500 Barbagallo Eastern Creek Mallala Bathurst Eastern Creek Phillip Island

March 17-20 May 6-8 July 8-10 August 19-21 October 6-9 October 30 November 25-27

Legends event to be held next year in conjunction with AVESCO and the cars would be run by former greats of Australian Touring Car racing at a V8 Supercar round.

Meanwhile, the Motorsport News Historic Touring Car ride winners were thrilled to some hot laps by Allan Moffat and Peter Brock, above.

- CHRIS JORDAN

Exige and Satria for 2005

I

MOPRO Australia will drastically revamp the Kumho Tyres Lotus Trophy for 2005. The Lotus Elise cars are to be replaced by the 140kilowatt Lotus Exige and the Protonowned car company is to increase its backing of the series.

Entrants will pay $125,000 plus GST for the privilege of racing the eight round series, which will again be run with the V8 Supercar main and development series and be televised on Trackside. This cost of the car does not include tyres or repairs, but each competitor will take ownership of their Exige at series' end.

The second-tier MoPro series will also take on a new look, with the MGs and Daewoos to be sold to make way,for a Proton Satria GTi series. This series will also be manufacturer-supported, with a cost of $33,000 plus GST for the series.

2005 Kumho lyres Lotus Trophy Calendar R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8

Barbagallo May 6-8 Eastern Creek May 27-29 Hidden Valley July 1-3 Queensland Raceway July 22-24 Oran Park August 12-14 Mallala August 19-21 Symmons Plains Nov 11-13 Phillip island Nov 25-27

also not including repairs and tyres, but the driver will not retain ownership of the car. The current intention is for the series to be run with the new Australian Motor Racing Series.

It has not yet been determined whether the Exige cars will be permitted to compete in other categories. Approximately 10 of the current Elises will be kept by MoPro for corporate drive days,leasing for Targa-type events and Chance of a Lifetime events.

-CHRIS JORDAN

Moflat takes it to the Creek JAMES Moffat had a mixed weekend at the final round of the Kumho Tyres Lotus Trophy at Eastern Creek.

While capturing the round victory, it still was not enough to clinch the championship, which went to seasonlong rival Damien French.

Moffat was victorious in tw'o of the tliree races, his record blemished only by an incident late in Race 2 when he collided with French. Andrew Fisher slipped through for the win.

For the Champion, the only thing to really go well was the fact that the 70

championship was secured. Race 1 saw French hit the wall on the inside of the exit of Turn 1, while the Race 2 clash with Moffat saw him record another DNF. A solid drive in the final race from the rear of the field to finish 10th a more encouraging end to his season.

- CHRIS JORDAN

GRANT Denyer took home the Dunlop Trophy from the second and final round of the 2004 Kanga Loaders V8 Ute Summer Series at Eastern Creek after a hard fought battle with Marcus Zukanovic.

The.two drivers flew the flag high on an already good day for the blue oval and were the clear standouts in the field.

"It's the ultimate dream to win a championship. It's just a shame that it's taken four years to do it," said an elated and relieved Denyer.

"I knew that it was between us going into the last race and he drove like a champion. He has driven far better than me all season, it's just that we have made big improvements for these last two rounds."

Race 1 saw Denyer drive away from the field from pole ahead of a flock of contenders fighting for second. Zukanovic was forceful in his driving as he moved up from a lowly 11th in qualifying to finish sixth.

The tables were turned in Race 2 with the inverted grid draw, leaving Zukanovic to quickly get to the front as

Charlie Kovacs got extremely sideways through Turn 1, above.

Denyer was mindful of Zukanovic's lead and worked equally hard to carve through the field, eventually getting to fourth.

After an early Safety Car in the final race, Denyer and Zukanovic immediately pulled a gap on the field. Denyer, however, just had that edge in terms of speed, and eeked out a slight gap to be just out of Zukanovic's grasp to

5 £

Sonic's three pointer

SONIC Motorsport continued with its championship winning ways at Eastern Creek last weekend with gun recruit Dean Fiore claiming overali honours in the Formula Ford Challenge.

I The crew at Sonic ended the ■iweekend with a trifecta as category returnee Tony Pugliese finished the weekend second overall and Sonic's other 2005 driver, David Sieders, third.

“1 always thought the cars were strong enough and that I would just have to get used to the team and the way it operates,” Fiore said.

Fiore, above, immediatley gelled with the Sonic team and eventually win by 1.9s.

Kinn Jane led the rest of the the ex-David Reynolds title winning Van Diemen. While field home in third, giving him qualifying speed evaded the third overall for the round and young West Australian, he quickly series. Jane fronted a gaggle of made amends in the races, Utes, with Adam Bressington, collecting two seconds and a win.

Benn Wilson, Charlie Kovacs and Luke May never far apart all weekend and swapping a great deal of paint during the Q proceedings.

Pugliese’s return yielded instant results as the Victorian was the highest of the Sonic drivers in qualifying. Pugliese had little trouble jumping back in the groove of the cars and was able to claim a win in the final race, just resisting the challenge of Fiore.

Sieders was able to make the most of a car very different to the Anglo Motorsport Van Diemen he campaigned this year. His consistency scored him third overall though and while not completely happy with the comfort of the car, he was buoyed by his, and his new teams, impressive effort.

Spectrum drivers had a less happy time of it, despite showing great speed over the weekend.

Andrew Thompson showed impressive pace to win the first race, but his weekend soured when given a drive-through

□

Final Points: Denyer 170, Zukanovic 158, Jane 149, May 119, Wilson 95, Leaver 81.

Dirk Klynsmith

dCUULd

THE Biante Historic Touring Car Series produced three different winners and a lot of damage at Eastern Creek last weekend.

Paul Slubber powered his Camaro to the Race 1 victory, ahead of the Falcon XY GT of Jason Tilley. The positions were reversed in Race 2 when Tilley grabbed the upper hand.

V8 Utes regular Jack Elsegood made a successful appearance in Eric Stanford's XY GTHO Falcon, grabbing a round victory in the final race over some much more experienced company.

The final race, however, will be remembered for the shocking crash at Turn 1 that claimed a large chunk of the field and heavily damaged many cars. Oil from a blown engine \ was strewn across the fast corner and many cars came to grief soon after, including Slubber.

The West Australian, however.

penalty for jumping the start of Race 2.

Several drivers intending to campaign next season made appearances at the Creek, with varying success. NSW State Champion Joel Spychala impressed with third in qualifying, but two spectacular crashes, the first of which also ended Daniel Elliott’s weekend when the two collided through turn 1, put pay to any good showing before a full campaign for 2005., Shane Price was another whose qualifying speed did not translate into results. Starting the first race from second, a missed gear early in the first race sent the Bosch car into a spin at turn 3, leaving Price to play catch up there after.

-CHRIS JORDAN

;]fr^nn was able to power out of the sand trap and take fourth position and claim the 2004 Championship, a mighty feat after missing the opening round.

The very last race there we were caught in the oil slick and we could have lost it right then and there," said Slubber.

I've never won anything like this before. When things were making it hard for us this year we didn't lay down. I'm real happy.

Uirf, hlyn^nilh

71

Kemal and Wi

New Qld Champs

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THE final Queensland state championship round of the season was held at Queensland Raceway, hosted by the MG Car Club.

Bob McLoughlLn (VS CommodoreChev) won the first Sports Sedan event but a broken a gear lever crowned Colin Smith (Rover VitesseChev) as Champion after he finished second in both races. Chris Donnelly (EB Falcon) won the second race.

John English (Charger) won the first Group N race from Gary Jackson (HQ Monaro)and Kerry Finn (Mustang). Into the final round, points were tied but Simon Phillips (Torana XUl)won the race and the title in final style after a great dice with outgoing champ Bruce Dummett(Torana XUl). Series runner-up Josh Brown (Torana XUl) was third.

A pair of victories saw John Eddy crowned the new Gemini Champ.

Ben Singleton took a third and a second with Cameron Wilson and Michael Dawes taking the other podiums.

Troy Norris (Falcon) took two wins and the Saloon car title, with

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I:

harassed the car of Kemal at various stages throughout the races, but never quite had enough to keep with him.

Despite this, he collected two second placings, a third and a fourth. Ward’s main rival for the title, Tim Monte, suffered a broken axie in the final race, putting pay to his championship chances.

The Pennzoil cars were filled at the Creek by V8 Supercar driver Tony D’Alberto and his former team boss, John

2

Derek Pingel(Lola) won both races and the Racing Car title ahead of Greg Fahey (Reynard)and Dean Tighe (Ralt RT4). Trent Usher(Van Diemen RF97)claimed the Formula Ford title with a pair of fifths in the combined races.

A win and a second guaranteed Paul McCahon the HQ title, with Gary Bonwick taking the other win.

Shane Hart(Jabiru) won both Formula Vee races from team-mate Ross Loudon,ending up two points shy of a perfect season pointscore.

-MARK JONES

Chermaz Perfect Challenge

CARLO Chermaz scored an impressive five wins from five starts at Queensland Raceway recently, and in doing so, claimed the Pacific Superkart Challenge.

The regular Queensland front runner was tested though over the weekend after qualifying fifth due to a damaged clutch.

Four of the other 250 Internationals pushed Chermaz's PVP for pace over the course of the weekend, but none could mount a consistent challenge.

Steve Cloake was second in the division on consistency, with Victoria's Rod Prickett third despite an axle failure, which pitched him almost completely across the Turn 2 sand trap.

The biggest threat to Chermaz, above, winning looked like Steven Tablet in 250 Nationals until he spun into the turn 1 kitty litter while on the outside of Tyrone Gautier in Heat Four. He still won the class ahead of Duncan and Neville Crisp.

Geoff Nothdurft's new Stockman kart helped him steal the 125 division ahead of Bob Roberts and John Hedges.

Russell and Chryss Jamieson finished first and second in 80cc division. They actually took second and third overall with their consistent results.

I

I

Nicholas Laracy(Commodore) finishing second both times ahead of Kandice Cannon (Falcon) and Troy Hoey(Commodore).

Klark and Tony Quirm went 1-2 in their VIP Porsches in the Sportscars while third was enough for Peter Saunderson (Radical) to take the title.

Scott Duncan(Mazda 808) won the first Improved Production cars but Stephen Thompson's(Mazda RX7) second place secured him the crown.

A win in the second race for David Skillender(Mazda RX7)gave him third in the title.

PAUL Kemal dominated the Aussie Racing Cars field at Eastern Creek, topping every session and winning all four competitive races.

From pole in each race, Kemal was able to squeeze just enough out of his VIP Petfoods Falcon to keep a small but significant gap ahead of a frantic swarm of chailengers.

An ecstatic James Ward completed his year with second overall, enough to claim the 2004 Championship. Ward

- MARK JONES

Msnhall Tas*

Where m THE 15th annual Image Racing Island Magic meeting was held at Phillip Island recently and 250 entrants competed in nine classes across the popular weekend event.

The main event on the program was the diverse one hour Sport Car enduro.

Carrera Cup entrants Dean Grant and Andrew Taplin won the Victorian Tourist Trophy for Sportscars after a weekend-long battle against D’Arcy Russell’s Dodge Viper. Russell eventually finished second, ahead of Phillip Spiridis and Marc Cini in another Porsche.

Russell and Taplin won the preliminary driver and co-driver races respectively.

The CSA Saloon Car Series completed its sixth and final round of its national title.

West Aussie Clint Harvey

secured the crown, but it was Steve Kwiatkowski who won the San Remo Saloon Car Challenge. Former champion Bruce Heinrich finished second ahead of Matthew Lovell, Harvey and Kevin Weeks, who fought back from a 200kmh off in Race 2 to storm from the back of the grid in the final to finish a remarkable fifth.

Formula Ford was an allShane Price affair. The quick youngster scored a convincing pole position and cleared out in the Trophy race to beat James Moffat, Cade Southall, Sam Oliver and Terry Kerr.

The Mauri Fordham Trophy for Formula Vee was won by Frank Haire, who barely edged out Nicolas Jones. Pole-sitter Eric Irvine finished third, ahead of Brett MacLennan.

Kane Rose sealed the 2004

12

motorsport news

-t

NATIONAL SCENE

rd win Faulkner. Faulkner, having raced the cars before, was immediately on the pace. A black flag for rolling at the start in Race 1 sent him deep into the massive field, but by Race 4 he was back dicing at the front, finishing Race 4 in third. □’Alberto was the revelation of the weekend. He was a very late substitute for John Grother in the Pennzoil Falcon. Once completely at one with the style needed to steer the pocket rockets, the young Victorian was in the thick of the frightening action up front. D’Alberto’s second placing in the final race gave him third overall and for the second time this year, a podium in a Falcon for the regular Holden driver.

The Sieders boys were amongst the action, but neither were at ease with their cars.

Colin in particular, when his steering wheel came of in his hands while running third in Race 3. Remarkably, he still managed a top 10 finish and held on to second in the championship.

Shane Wolki’s fine efforts gave him the 2004 Masters Championship crown.

- CHRIS JORDAN Final Points: J.Ward 344, Colin Sieders 316, Monte 316, Davy 303, Kemal 298, Yara/ood 289, B.Ward 280, Harrigan 278.

Suzuka: Tough for Aussies

UCNLOP

LAST months Asia-Pacific Championships at Suzuka, Japan, turned into a tough initiation to international competition for Australian drivers Ashley Walsh and Kristian Lindbom.

Walsh (Trulli/Parilla/Bridgestone) started the event very well and held pole position in qualifying before being bumped to ninth late in the session.

Walsh found himself on the receiving end of opening lap hits, but managed to finish all races (ninth, 10th and 13th) to sit eighth for the pre-final. A collision saw him drop to 15th and yet another opening lap shuffled saw him off the track and running last at the beginning of the final. Walsh soon started making ground, but his engine lost power due to a broken reed valve, probably due to rocks entering the engine when he was pushed off.

Kristian Lindbom (Top Kart/Comer/Dunlop) never caught up after losing significant track time during Friday's practice when he seized an engine on his second lap. The team also struggled on a 'green' track with their tyres until the surface rubbered in. With handling handling and engine problems, Lindbom finished 32nd, missed heat two when the engine failed to start, and crashed in heat three. After 26th in the pre-final, the team made dramatic changes and softened the kart considerably. This, combined with the shift in pace of Bridgestone to Dunlop in Intercontinental A, saw Lindbom going much faster in the final to take 20th.

The race was won by local drivers, Yamamoto (CRG/Maxter/Dunlop) ahead of Nakayama (Birel/TM/Dunlop) and Sato (Vanspeed/TM/Dunlop).

The Formula A final was sensational, Martin Plowman (Zanardi/Parilla/ Bridgestone) carving his way back through the field having lost the lead earlier in the race. Plowman took a narrow victory over Miguel Molina (Intrepid/TM) and local hotshot Hiroshi Umegaki (Birel/TM) with pre-final and heats winner Ben Hanley (Maranello/Maxter) fourth. The top 15 Formula A drivers were all on Bridgestone.

- MARK WICKS

Todd’s MAX man AUSTRALIA'S representative in the Rotax MAX Challenge World Final will be decided at the National Super8 final at the Todd Road circuit, Melbourne, on December 18-19.

This is the last major karting event for the year and the winner of Rotax Light will be the driver chosen for the all-expenses paid entry to the World Final which will be held on the Canary Islands in January. Jordie Lindstrom is already confirmed as our Junior representative courtesy of winning Junior Clubman at the Rotax Nationals in September. Close to $20,000 worth of prizes have been organised for the meeting, including $2000 cash for Clubman Light (paying down to 10th place) which has turned what was essentially a support class into one of the feature events.

■ PDB Team driver Reif Corbett has sidelined himself for the rest of 2004 after falling off a pocket bike.

Corbett fractured his leg when he 'dropped' the tiny bike (which is owned by fellow karter Matt Wall) after hitting a pot hole.

■ A drive in a Formula Ford was the prize on offer for the winner of Clubman-Pro at Ballarat recently.

Jason Flamilton, 19, overcame an opening lap bump to pick up the win and the prize on offer from G-Force.

Starting from grid four, Hamilton (Monaco) actually crossed the line in second, however the initial winner was later excluded after failing postrace engine measuring.

- MARK WICKS

agic lives Phillip Island turns on the sun for the 15th annual Magic meeting

Porsche 944 series with victory in The Endeavour Cup. Michael Sam Abay edged out Brent Rose to complete the podium.

Darren Hossack turned the Sport Sedan races into a demonstration, crushing the field in his Saab. Chris Muscat (Mazda RX7), Peter Yates (Saab), Lee Holdsworth (Commodore) and David Krause (Commodore) rounded out the top five.

The Victorian Historic Touring Car Trophy saw a Mustang trifecta. Michael Miceli, Chris Ralph and Jervis Ward gave the blue oval something to grin about.

Improved Production Cars a tough fight between Leanne 8 December 2004

Ferrier (Tander), Cameron van den Dungen and Benjamin Schools.

The trio were involved in a clash earlier in the weekend, but in the Matthew Flinders Plate, Ferrier came up trumps, ahead of Cam Van, Shoots, Paul Rule and Kelvin Twist.

The HQ Holden field small, but the racing was typically close. The Cowes Cup went to Glen McDonald from Rodney Earsman and Ken McIntosh.

Next year, the Island Magic meeting moves off its traditional date and gets pushed a week earlier to make way for the 2005 V8 Supercar Grand Finale.

- GRANT ROWLEY

Endurance magic: Dean Grant and Andrew Taplin, above, won the Sportscar one-hour race. Below, Ferrier and Schoots got tangled.

73

NATIONAL SCENE

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LEADING Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup championship drivers Matt Halliday and Craig Baird dominated proceedings at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch two weeks ago.

Baird smashed Jim Richards's qualifying lap record and crossed the line first in Race 1, but had five seconds added to his overall time post-race after he was judged to have jumped the start. The penalty dropped him to third behind Halliday and Ross Rutherford.

Halliday led from start-to-

Q

finish in Race 2, but Baird got one back on him in the sensational final race. Baird jumped Halliday at the get-go but Halliday executed a brave pass into the high-speed kink on the back straight.

Baird got back past his compatriot on the 10th lap when Halldiay began to struggle with tyre wear.

Rutherford, right, was consistent and finished second, fourth and third in the three races, which gave him third overall.

Rick Armstrong was another solid contender. He finished fourth and third in

nr

the first two races, but was swallowed up by Mike Weeks, Bryce Washington and Dean Fulford in the longer third event.

The next round of the New Zealand Porsche series heads to Timaru International Motor Raceway on January 8 and 9.

Points: Halliday 434, Baird 406, Rutherford 330, Weeks 314, Armstrong 309, Fulford 283.

Henshaw in control WADE Henshaw took a clean sweep of victories in the second round of the Parker Enzed New Zealand Touring Car Championship at Ruapana recently.

Pole-sitter Paul Manuell finished Race 1 in second place in front of WPS V8 Supercar endurance driver John McIntyre, but neither could do much about Henshaw's speed.

McIntyre was able to pip Manuell in Race 2, but Shane Drake trumped everyone bar Henshaw in the 14-lap final, finishing second ahead of United Video Falcon driver Mark Pedersen. McIntyre slipped to fourth while Kayne Scott, reigning Champion Andy Booth and Manuell rounded out the top runners.

Points: Henshaw 426, Booth 345, Manuell 326, McIntyre 284, Pedersen 279.

Red Bulled te the eyeballs

WHILE completely devoid of motors, we just couldn't help ni'tVT r"

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flare from The Red Barron' there was carnage when a ' S'' ''"pact with the '®cing a chilli and there were kids running around faster than Christian Klien's FI car, so full to the eyeballs on the sponsor's product. What more could you ask for?

For the record, the BBQ Boys were victorious, winning the trip to a European FI GP next year for their efforts in a car that actually cooked the lunch on its way along the desent. The driver also scored a ride in an FI two-seater.

-CHRIS JORDAN

Prix down the gentle slope of Lansdowne Street in East Melbourne a week ago.

Despite the light-hearted approach from competitors, officials and ceipbrity judges alike (Marcos Ambrose among them), it is impossible not to take the evfent seriously. The major sponsors now own their own Formula 1 team and with 40,000 people in attendance, it ranks with a V8 Supercar meeting.

The flavour of the event was everything you'd expect from a street race, but a little on the abstract side. For starters, Jason Bargwanna was the winner of his heat race in a Sonic Motorsport dragster, defeating Mark Webber's helmet (impressively assembled by Mark Webber's Supporters Club). We just can't work out why Bargs's mount was called Knob Head Racers?

Small things on steriods Larger than life Lego, top, and Mark 'Big Head'Webber, above, fired down Lansdowne There was fire, thanks to a Street, Melbourne in the Red Bull CP. 74

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Classifieds

Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

from just $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 1\lews 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)

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CL CHARGER BIG BLOCK 7 / A.V

< HARD TO FIND CL CHARGER WITH A HEAVILY MODIFIED 383,HEADS FLOW ^ 624.F268 CRANE CAM, Ml MANIFOLD, & BOWLAWS 780 CARBY, INCH BILLET * AXLES 02 NOS SYSTEM SHOULD RUN ; HIGH 9S $$$$$$ OF RECIEPTS NEVER RACED YET LOTS OF BALLS TOP STREET CAR .SHOW CAR ETC. $35000 Or Best Offer AUD. Kerry 0418835727.

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IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT! the best hq in australia

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this is possibly the best hq for sale in australia this car has been totally been rebuild from the ground up, chassis of the body restoration the quality of the car is amazing, done 2 races this J year and totally upgraded for 2005 been In storage scince 1996 histories etc. $10,000 Or ► Best Offer. Kerry 0418835727.

V

www.myl05.com/88562

Sedans/Sports Cars -

Commodore VT 98 Suit racecar, Complete car Suit use as racecar.cant be registered for road use available with or without drive train, or interior,engine conversions available 3.8, 3,8 suppercharged, 5.0 liter,5.7 liter. 6500 as roller. Concord Parts 299 Plus 0412 288060. www.myl05.com/61998

Cil

Porsche 944, Built for 944 Challenge Series, everything new, engine, gear box, drive shafts, steering, loom, dash etc, no expense spared, only lightly raced by older driver, sorted suspension, high power engine, minimum weight, ready to race, support available, superb car. Sister car to front runner in series. $33000 ONO. Brian 299 0418519948. www.myl05.com/21561

in

!

GRP Nc "68 MUSTANG TRANS AM, OUTSTANDING RACE HISTORY, PREPARED AND MAINTAINED WITH NO EXSPENSE SPARED. BUILT WITH THE VERY BEST AVAILABLE. FRESH TOP HP ENGINE. EXTENSIVE SPARES. FULL SET-UP DATA. TOP 3 BIANTE SERIES 2004. RARE OPPORTUNITY. $90,000.

300 DREW 0418312587. www.myl05.com/54457

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)

Commodore Sports Sedan, Group C copy, 308 Holden motor, 5 speed Supra gear box.

Group C suspension, spare complete painted body shell with flares and spoiler.

301 $9,500 Neg. Adrian 02 6362 2027. www.my105.com/39789

8 oeceniAer 2004

w

■V

Mazda Rx2, Very well set up car. Good A032R tyres, 4wdiscs, Koni adjustable shocKs, extended trailing arms rear, alloy fuel tanK. $7500 Neg. Simon 0412334541. www.myl05.com/45986

Holden HQ Race Car, Rebuilt C and B engine and gearbox. New suspension.

Heaps of spares. Good condition. $3,900 ONO. Jamie 0407 905 039. www.myl 05.com/68060

XY GT Falcon, Improved Production log booK, rebuilt 351W, close ratio top loader, 9" diff, 4 wheel discs, 6 point steel rollcage, spare panels, easily changed to Historic.

299 $16,000. Geoff 0408 139 384. www.my105.com/9828 944 Challenge, 944 Challenge. Clean & straight with recent respray, 10 laps only on fully rebuilt engine, latest mods including blade adjustable rollbar and race radiator. $36,000. $36,000. Geoff 0418 995 500.

299 www.my105.com/98544

Improved Production Mazda RX7, immaculately built car, only 6 races old.

Chrome moly cage, 1:1, 5 speed box with quioK change, custom manifold and alloy radiator, electric water pump, thermo, Haltec, factory LSD with spare ratios, 2 piece tailshaft, cambered rear with adj watts linKage, adjustable braKe balance bar and much more. Includes large range of spares and trailer. Complete ready to race pacKage. $25,000. Phil (02) 9835 1230.

301 www.my105.com/89211

LOTUS MOTORSPORT 200 ELISE, Imported as a KnocKdown racecar by Lotus Motorsport Australia, this is the very last Motosport Elise chassis to be produced by the factory. The car has never raced in the UK or here and has new everything! Big braKes, blueprinted standard motor, roller barrel! throttle bodies, Motec, Safety Devices cage, Corbeau seats, and much more.

Great reliable car for Production/Marque Sports or could be a potent Sports Sedan with a change of motor. A similar car won the 2001 Production Sports car championship in 2001 beating Porsche GT3's.Due to the closure of Lotus Motosport Aus, this car Is being sacriOced at $100,000. Normal new price would be $170,000. Call Peter Landan on 0418 207 600. $100,000, www.myl05.com/38796

I,

2001 Porsche GT3 Cup Car, This car is as new. Complete chassis overhaul includes new control arms, caster arms, rotors, pads, drive shafts and an engine build. Comes with 3 sets BBS with rubber, stacK dash/logger, new harness and fi re equip.

Ready for season 2005. $139,000 Neg. 301 Paul 0418 319908. www.my105.com/55838 SI 5 200SX, suitable for GTP, Tarmac Rally, Marque Sports, Drifting & Sprint events.

300 $28,000. Greg 0419 361 908. www.my105.com/32128

lotus europa body, comes with doors bonnet,boot lid and wiring loom.llghts and windscreen . $4950.00 ONO. peter 024576 299 1222. www.myl05.com/35181 10

n^

ECLAT Series II 2.2, Queensland registration and fresh roadworthy, white (pictured), fresh paint, 8 original Lotus Speedline alloy wheels, top end overhaul and new cam belt, all ports polished and matched. Crane Cams fireball ignition, Accel Coil, Top Gun Leads, Inboard rear discs, electrics upgraded (mainly Bosch), + 1982 model for spares , 22,000 ONO. George 0409 271 187.

299 www.my105.com/90584

r;: 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).

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 0418 685 575.

299 www.myl O5.com/19254

Racecar & Trailer For Sale, CAMS Log Book Regular entrant at nsw Sports Sedan & Super Sprints Seven years entered 6hr Relay Classic has finished them all. 12 years of fun and reliability. Trailer regd 08/05 electric brakes Dual axle Lockable Panniers Extra long ranps for low car Designed light weight 465kgs. S6500.00 Not Neg. David 299 (02) 9792 3909. www.myl05.eom/74025

2001 Porsche 911 Cup Car, New Axles, Updated nose and front fenders, 2004 rear bumper, 04 motor (4 hours), wiring looms and ecu. new Tilton Clutch and flywheel.

Fresh transmission (10 hours). Fuel cell and auxiliary pumps. Spare wheels. The motor and wiring etc was an $80,000 upgrade. $135,000. Dave +64 2 7499 7507.

299 www.myl05.com/95732

-I ’

4) Porsche Cup Car 2002, Ex Timo Bernhard car 2nd over all in Supercup series, 1st or 2nd place in every Pea race entered.

Beautiful car original livery , perfect.Never any accidents, 80 hours on engine needs freshening. Price negotiable pending new engine. $120,000. Dave +64 2 7499 7507.

299 www.myl05.com/11034

GROUP N(C) 911 S PORSCHE HISTORIC TOURER, Rare and competitive car, twin plug head, best of everything, new motor and suspension. $85,000. Guy 07 3343 1566.

299 www.myl05.com/8144

Ford GT40 mkiverslon, body mould and chassis jig and part completed chassis.assistance given to purchaser,could make interesting small business. $38500.00 299 ONO. peter 024576 1222. www.myl05.com/33881

Ultima GTR, 5 liter Ford engine fuel Injected with Porsche G50 5 speed gearbox, full roll cage Simmons wheels, racing harnesses new trim. $110,000. Mark 9838 8374 bh / 0408 976 958.

300 ■www.myl 05.com/89394

2000 Porsche 911 GT3 R, Always impeccably maintained by The Racer's Group, this car is still liveried in the 2002 TRG design. This car won the Pheonix Grand AM race in 04. - Fresh transmission with Daytona gearset currently installed Fresh engine - 4 Hours since rebuild Ohiins shocks - radio - spare wheels Motec Dash . $118,000. Dave +415 847 2311.

299 www.myl O5.com/10803

2000 Porsche 911 GT3 R, It was campaigned In the Asian Supercar series for one season, then completely refurbished after that season. The motor and transmission were redone by Porsche-AG. Own this clean car for much less than its market value. Car is sold with a spares package and wheels. . $125,000. Dave +1 415 847 2311.

299 www.myl05.com/70760 -rarTi- ;, .i

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 oar 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.

299 www.myl O5.com/1026

59 1999 Porsche 911 Cup Car, Stock 1999 Porsche 911 Cup Car, Fresh TRG-rebuilt Cup motor, 18 hours of PCA racing and testing use. 10# Are system. New fuel tank and pumps. New set of rain tires. Two sets BBS wheels Yokohama tires. TFtAC 2003 PCA Road America Concours winner.

94000. Dave +1 415 847 2311.

299 www.myl05.com/32334

2001 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, This car is in perfect condition, with low hours - probably the nicest 2001 GT3RS in existence. No crashes, carbon undertrays Moton shocks.

4 hours on motor and tranny. Motec dash.

Radio. Fikse and BBS spare wheels. $165,000. Dave +64 2 7499 7507.

299 www.my105.com/71475

yMFway to sell your gearl From lust $25* lust log on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my105.com) Advertising can also be supplied using this form ($10/$15surchage to text only/text + pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of (ilotorsport Mews PLUS theiiiy .OS.comwebsiteforthreemonths.

Please read & cross the desired services and calculate the total.

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online classifieds Category: □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers

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NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Please use the form provided and print deerfy . Please note we are unable to return photographs supplied for use In classified ads, Ads w«! appear as soon as possible after receipt. MN/my105.com classifieds are for the safe of private goods and vehicles only, rtot business advertising Photos marked ‘proof will no! be used

motorsport oews

CLASSIFIEDS Speedway ■%

/ \< ^ \ ^ super sedan pontlac grandprix, light weightchassis.fresh engine with dyno sheets 366 bow tie block+heads.dry sump.msd ing.winters box.woodwood rack+powerhead,new winters quick change with belt tubes.griffon radiator.rebco guages.weld wheels,afeo threaded shocks,new body.most spares,car 15 showes old. Ph Daryl after 6:00pm. Daryl 299 (03) 5973 6075. www.myl05.com/87272

Open Wheelers

A

r. . . ]

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. www.myl05.eom/5039

Ralt RT4 82/86, proven results in this growing historic category, recent rebuild, spares gear ratios, data, C of D, log book, 299 RICHARD 0409 993 606. www.myl05.eom/37048 Wanted Van Diemen rf86"s, I am looking for 1986 Van Diemen FF cars, any condition in any state. Please call Bruin 0359975075.

299 www.myl05.eom/20632

Parts Formula Vee, Car recently won the Queensland Super Sprint Series, Form Vee Class. Top runner in the ri ght hands. Cams logbooked, fully sealed engine and gearbox just run in. Spares and trailer included.

Moving onto V8's Must sell as soon as possible. More photos available. $7200 ONO. Steve 0414 439048 / 55744468.

299 www.my105.com/65753

Formula Ford Historic Bowin P6f, car is well maintained, Ritter engine, spare ratios, log book and COD. Holds current lap record QLD raceway. Excellent condition. $30,000 ONO, Geoff 07 5523 4653 / 0438 4333 115.

299 www.myl 05.com/13289

ca^e-0 « ® O 1986 RALT RT4 ATLANTIC, Ralt Chassis No594. Extensive rebuild for '04'. Ex Allan McCall Team Tul US Atlantic car with Fox Shocks, Jennings BDD, Bahner stiffening mods etc. Already top 4 runner in group R. Selling with many spares & data. Ring John or Tony 0418 736 869 B/H 07 3359 4222 AH. $80,000 Neg. Tony 0418 736 869 / 07 299 4222.

3359 www.myl 05.com/19609

RF94 Va" Diemen Stealth, 2004 N.S.W state winner, 2001 VIC state winner.

Maintained by Mid-Coast Ford Racing, car is ready to race for 2005 season, comes ^ylth Ritter engine, 4x ohiins adjustable shocks, plus logger and dash, lots of spares, set up infomation. Joel 0419 993 299 155. www.myl 05.com/80201

8 December 2004

STOLEn GERR PLEASE CALL UUITH lAFO Stolen 20 Gear Ratio Sets, suit Hewland, FT200 FGB etc. Anonymous phone call identifying person selling such gears greatly appreciated. Chas 03 9752 7639 (b - ah), 303 www.myl05.com/86582

——liSte—Ltt

chev race engine, chev 18 degree 336 race engine,bowtie block,cnc heads,delwest valves,jesels,dry sump,perkins lnjection,belt drive,crower rollers,autronic ecu plus much more,all as new. 18,000 Neg. 0418928953.

299 www.myl05.eom/53508 formula holden/f4000 engine, formula holden/ f4000 engine v6 buick,330hp lOOOks since rebuild.scat crank argo rods aries pistons roller cam roller rockers ect Shane wilson spec cam heads and manifold complete with ecu. suit road or race . speedway. $12,000 ONO. mak 299 0418531797, www.myl05.eom/3504

Motorsport Jobs Fabricator, Sheetmetal Worker/TIG Welder/Fabricator reqd by Braeside racing car manuf. Must have alum TIG exp. Exc cond, neg pkg. Ph Paul 03 9580 5236. Full Time. Borland Racing Developments 03 299 9580 5236. www.myl05.eom/57051 Rally Mechanics, small Melbourne based team requires rally mechanics with specific experience in build, preparation and running cars at national championship level.

Commencing early 2005 and beyond.

Applications in writing by Jan 31 to: The Manager, CM&E, PO Box 1216 Blackburn 299 North VIC 3130. www.myl05.com/69715

SBC PARTS, Pro action CNC heads titanium in & s/steel ex P/C $3000. Ross pistons 12.5.1 comp suit 350 + 30 thou p/c $800. EFI manifold individual runners cross over magnesium trumpetts all hardware $2000. Gonzo extractors suit SBC in HQ. $750. New 80a-1 pump $700. Justin 299 0410534183. www.myl05.eom/67240

Engines F/F Goodman Engine, 2 fresh Goodman engines,can be supplied with Oil pump.carby, dissy. ALSO available 1300 ford to suit histories. Phil 02 67463404 / 02 67463404.

299 www.myl05.com/39278

Transporters/Trailers

F350 Dual Cab + Gooseneck, Ford dually, 7.4ltr powerstroke turbo deisel in perfect condition, 55kms. 38ft gooseneck painted in 2-pack inside and out, generator, racks and tool cages, pit trolley, storage areas. Superb condition. This rig was the Philips Car Stereo show rig and still has the sound system ($20k+) and sat nav etc. $89,000 299 Neg. Paul 0418 319 908. www.myl05.eom/34039 Ford F150 XLT for sale, Ford XLT. Dual cab. Long wheel base. Exc. Cond. Air con.

Auto. Petrol. Seat 6 comfortably. Mech A1. ^ $38500 Or Best Offer, dean 0412 365 029.

299 www.myl05.com/34140

Karts for sale

25th Anniversary Arrows AX6, Not used in 18months because of commitments else where. Shame to leave her sitting around.

Runs well previous owner 3rd in championship. Purchase from Kartworks 10/06/2000.

Wayne 0407948357 / 299 43900990. www.my105.com/32291

yates, YATES cnc cylinder heads suit windsor/cleveland.5 sets available,3 sets brand new in box $5000 a pair, 2 sets 1 season old,fully recond,delwest valves etc,t&d rockers ,new springs,. 6800 Neg. 299 brad 0418928953. www.my105.com/15012 Jerico Gearbox, 4 spd Jerico Nascar gearbox, straight cut racing box used in 500hp VN holden club car in 2004.

Excellent condition never damaged and regularly serviced. Ultra reliable and great to use. Includes shifter. Stop mucking around and get a proper race box. $4250. Jeff 0418 299 239 466. www.myl05.eom/30853

Marketing & Media, Formula Ford seeks a person to dynamically manage its media/marketing. Includes off/on track, driver, media pre and post race activities.

Requires strong marketing, media and communication skiils.

Contract fee/expenses wiii be negotiated. Send cv, references to experience. cated@escalate.com.au. or P 0 Box 117, Albion 4010.

Part time.

299 www.myl05.com/98386

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/ am very happy with the service I received. Aii three of the enquiries you forwarded were firm buyers and it was sold on a first come first served basis.

Again thanks.

I. Hills

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OPINION

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Ijvww.mnewsxom.au EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Phil Branagan l editor@mnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Mark Glendennlng 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: Vlv Brumby l viv@mnews.com.au ADVERTISING Brendon Sheridan - PR Driven Tel: 03 9877 7271 Fax; 03 9877 7207 mobile: 0407 007 286 l ads@mnews.com.au ADMINISTKATION Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden l publisher@mnews.com.au CONTACTS 357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East Vic 3187 (PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186) Ph: 03 9596 5555 Fax: 03 9596 5030 Email: admin@mnews.com.au

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CONTRIDUTORS 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 Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, 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, AFl Images, Neil Hammond, Alisport, John Morris/Mpix, Frank Midgley, Peter Bury, lltike 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, N5W. Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted. ●Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

1 year $148.50 Australia (inci GST) Overseas (Air Mail): New Zealand, PNG, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillippines, Hong Kong,Japan A$210 US, Canada, Europe A$270

Seriously NASCAR? Going back many issues ago there was debate over the amount of coverage your magazine was giving to NASCAR. At that stage it had dropped to small snippets here and there and not the usual larger formats that we had been lucky enough to get over previous years. You claimed this was due to not having it shown on commercial television here in Australia.

I agree with you that now we cannot get it on free to air TV, but after watching the Champ Car race from Queensland,I can't see why we have them on Ten. This was the first time I had bothered to watch them this year as I have taped most rounds but turned them off after 15 or so minutes as I didn't know who I was watching racing aroimd the track. It was no name/brand formula.

All the names are gone that I have watched for the past 10 or so years and unfortunately it is not the series it was five or so years ago.

What would be nice is if Ten, who are looking after us race fans so well, would possibly do a deal with Foxtel and show us poor unfortunates who do not have pay TV at least the last couple of races in the Nextel Cup each year.

So come on Channel Ten, keep up the great work, talk a deal with Foxtel and make some of us die-hard race

(

SPj

Talk converter Send us your thoughts: mail; PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 www.mnews.com.au My main complaint is that with all the racing over the weekend why did we not see the Historic Touring Car racing? Instead we saw repeated interviews and stories from Saturday replayed on Sunday morning?

The suicide kangaroo that did the job on the Richards' car I think was trained up by the Stone Brothers.

Don't worry Ford fans - you will win Bathurst soon,even if you have to buy all the drivers.

Cheers for the great magazine.

Brad Collins bloinka@iprimus.com.au SBR, Marcos and MNews 3ll very pleasing

has the large corporations sponsoring it due to it being so successful.

Shayne Hunter shaynehunter@hotmail.com

I haven't missed an issue of your mag since late 2002 - why? Because your mag offers non-biased opinion over Ford and Holden and just gives us the facts, unlike your rival, which is severely opinionated against Ford and seems to endorse and make

Histories deserve TV

and even with heaps of complaints about it by team managers, drivers and supporters (I assume)nothing has been done about it.

I would just like to know if those proposed wind tunnel tests are still going ahead and if they are how much of this info will they share with the public?

Anyway,I hope they will fix it for next year. I don't care if a Holden or Ford win as long as the parity is equal. So why didn't a Holden win this year? It's obvious; Ambrose isn't just a Moffat or Brock, he's a bloodyMichael Schumacher and SBR are like Ferrari: Just lots of hard work that's why there winning. So congratulations Ambrose,SBR team and Ford on two in row.

Michael Salo salol@lelstra.com

V8 Image change Looking at the V8 Supercar logo that has been around about seven years now,I think it looks quite bland and should be improved so it stands out more.

The V8s have changed a lot since 1997 so maybe it's time for an updated image for the logo. I quite like the NASCAR logo. Maybe the V8 logo could be updated to look more like that Better stiU, let the readers send in their own drawings and pick a winner and that could become the new V8

nuts happy with seeing some racing that is close, has big name drivers and

As a dedicated motor racing fan I loved the Bathurst commentary, especially Neil Crompton's comments.

guys picked up on the parity problem on the Fords as early as the Eastern Creek roimd in 2003,

cover-stories over nothing with Holden.

Supercar logo for 2005 and onwards.

What do other readers think?

Mattheiv Burge mattburge@netspace.net.au ED: Your wish could well be AVESCO's command. We're guessing that a logo revamp will be part of the $lm+ category relaunch set down for February 18 and 19 see news pages).

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2 years $285

$390 $495

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 admin@mnews.com.au

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Count the empty seats; Reader Shayne Hunter would like to see NASCAR on free to air television in Australia.

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