Motorsport News Issue 304 - March 9-22, 2005

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No. 304 March 9-22 2005 Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

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motoisport Issue 304

8-21 March 2005

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news and opinion 4

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MarcUS! Who will replace Ambrose at SBR? 6 It’s like he never left Dumbrell's back in the game 8 Who needs racing When you’ve got Stoddy and the FIA? 11 Dad, can I borrow the car?

Guess who is driving in AIGP 15 Gilles the movie We just hope it’s in 3D. And better than Driven 25 Motor Mouth Hard hitting words in the Celebrity race 26 Box Seat We love the line about BRM’s firing order 90 Talk Converter Yippee! We

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2005 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix 36 My Williams Debut Hey, did you know that Webber got past DC? 40 Tonio on Friday Well, there was not much else to get excited about 42 Dry + Wet = Fizzy The first look at the new FI qualifying system 48 The Brave New World Webber fastest in qualifying but no pole, Fisico wins for real, Rubens and DC star and Michael gets one from Heidfeld 52 In case you missed it Late-race parking, Villeneuve and the McLarens 56 Photography 101 There was action off the track, too 58 HRT and BOC Toddler, JB and Skaifey split the wins in the V8s 64 Bart, not Simpson Mawer gives it to the locals in Formula 3 66 Sitting on my Porsche Carrera Australiana around the Lake C-M WEBBER OW MIS GP WEEK 80 Wakey Wakey The AMRS season kicks in beautiful downtown Goulburn

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Photos; Cover: Ford Racing “ - "htidTuNiiecAa! Media, John Morris/Mpix the SURPRISE Contents: sutton-images.com, dcTD for hs SBR spot!

Dirk Klynsmilh, Pants Rowley 'SURER-FISi lta&an%'K>yDiw>^

20 Bikes 70 Speedway

22 Stateside 68 Rallying

74 Drag Racing

76 National Scene

83

Marketplace

SBR; Is Richo the Favo The hottest seat in V8Supercar racing is up h>r grabs in 2006

by PHIL BRANAGAN STEVEN Richards is emerging as the man who could replace Marcos Ambrose at Stone Brothers Racing.

Immediately it was confirmed on Saturday that Ambrose would leave SBR at the end of the season to pursue a career in NASCAR,speculation started in the V8 Supercar paddock as to who would be the man to join Russell Ingall at the two-time Championship-winning team.

Richards is signed to the Castrol Perkins Holden team until the end of next season, as weU as to Holden until the end of 2005. But MNews believes that his deal allows for him to leave, as long as a settlement is reached with CPR. As well, MNews believes that Richards received a substantial offer to join Ford Performance Racing for this season but a team source said that the buy-out in Richo's contract was "too expensive".

Richards would not comment on the possibility of any SBR deal at the weekend,stating oiily "as far as I know,I am staying where I am."

Initially, rumours suggested that Craig Lowndes would be the man to take the Pirtek-backed ride at Stones and that he would be Ford's preferred choice of driver. However,this idea has been dismissed by Roland Dane, co-ovmer of Lowndes's current team, Betta Electrical Racing.

"They[Lowndes and team-mate Steve Ellery] have both signed twoyear deals," said Dane."Ellery has an

Just peel off a 1: It is early days but could it be Steven Richards who takes the Pirtek seat in 2006? option but Craig has no options whatsoever."

However,one rival team owner was quick to point out that "everything is for sale" in motor racing..."

There are a number of factors that could come into play with Ross and Jim Stone's choice of a replacement.

One is that, after a busy siUy season at the end of 2004,a number of drivers are starting two-year deals this year, meaning that they are theoretically off the market imtil the end of the 2006 season.

The team has contracted Luke Youlden and Warren Luff to share its endurance racing driving duties and

either driver could be in contention, should the Stones want a younger driver to develop.

One rival team owner also pointed out that SBR may be somewhat constrained by the fact that it has been so successful over the last two seasons; "SBR needs a certain type of driver.

To maintain its position, it needs to have two race-winning drivers. That would probably mean that taking on a younger driver and developing him,as it did with[Mark] Winterbottom,is out of the question.

"So it needs someone like Richards.

They know him,he knows them and everyone in the paddock knows what

a good driver he is. In fact, he is the perfect fit for SBR. The only hard part might be getting Larry [Perkins] to let him go."

Perkins would not comment on the notion on Monday; "I am not going into any contractual arrangements about any drivers," he said.

Richards was the last driver to win the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford, taking the race with SBR in 1998 with Jason Bright. He is also seen by many fans as a 'brand neutral' driver, having raced Holdens for Gibson Motorsport, Garry Rogers Motorsport and the Perkins team, and Fords for Stones and Glenn Seton Racing.

Time for F1 to take a good look i COMMENT

MNews says DEAR Mr Ecclestone, Mr Mosely,(and whoever else thinks they are part of running this thing called Formula 1): Shame you couldn't get down here to experience the result of your latest handiwork. It was riveting stuff (not). Led by the appalling aggregate procedure for qualifying, which is a complete farce, Formula 1 has in our view reached a low ebb. Where to start?

4

We're not even going to discuss the Stoddart issue here. That is politics. This is about what used to be a sport.

This is about what the true enthusiast, who used to be a bum on a seat, thinks.

It's about a sport where, in final qualifying, the first three runners choose to drive around and park; where the fastest car in qualifying starts from grid three; where half of the grid openly didn't try! A show where the average race fan is totally confused - not to mention the drivers. Did you know that Fisi didn't even realise he wasn't the quickest on Sunday morning until

someone in the media pointed it out?

DC had it right. How would it be if Wimbledon was decided over two matches, on separate days, and they added up the scores? He even used the WWF (that's World Wrestling Federation) comparison. Is that what it's come to - a pathetic, artificial, manipulated earner?

Whatever it is, it's not Formula 1 as it should be.

You can fix qualifying in a hurry(what the hell was wrong with the good old one-hour all-in slug-fest? Nothing, with a couple of subtle changes), but the rest might take a little longer.

What kind of motorsport encourages a team to pull its cars in with a lap to go? In what other sport is non performance rewarded - in this case with a fresh engine for the next race?

And you made all these changes for 2005 under the guise of safety. Safety?

Rubbish. The record suggests that FI is safer now than it's ever been - safer than many, many other motor sports.

Less aero, more mechanical grip - big time! Everyone knows that. Stop pissing around the edges and get it right.

You're at the top; it's your responsibility, your duty to fix

motorsport news

iipite?

Crash car, fix car, win race...

DID you hear the one about the racing driver who started from the back half of the grid on slicks, picked his way through the pack and won his first V8 Supercar race for ages?

And have you ever heard that the youngster in question did all this in a car that was crunched up to the rear window in a recent testing shunt?

And do you think that the knackered team and new sponsor were not smiling like tigers later?

Of the other Ford drivers who might otherwise fit the 'model'for SBR,Bright is committed to FPR for two years, as well as having substantial Ford backing for his new Britek team.

The other factor may be that Holden may finally have had enough of 'its' drivers crossing the divide and joining Ford teams,following the recent high-profile defections of Lowndes,IngaU and Bright.

That could mean that getting a current Holden driver could be tough,though HRT owner Mark Skaife refused to comment on the status of Todd Kelly. He did say that his team-mate had signed for 2005 but would not elaborate on the duration of the contract.

MNews believes that, despite Skaife's assertion, Kelly is yet to actually put pen to paper for HRT and that the contract on offer is for one year only. With many of the drivers in the paddock on two-year deals, Kelly initially preferred a longer deal but he may be ideally placed now ...

Of course,should Richo be the man at SBR,Perkins will need a driver, which sets the siQy season off somewhat early. And Kelly looks to be ideally placed again.

As for Ingall, he is yet to sign a deal to stay at SBR beyond the end of the season though no problems are expected to get in The Enforcer's way.

"If they put a three-year contract in front of me,I would sign it," said IngaU in Melbourne."I am very happy here, why would I want to leave?"

at itself? it. If you can't then maybe it is time for some new blood, with some fresh ideas.

In case you didn't get it, we're pissed. Pissed that, just when Australia has a genuine contender in FI, it's a mess.

And in case you think we're just a bunch of silly colonials gone stark raving mad, we have to tell you there's a strong undercurrent of agreement among our international media colleagues. It's just that most of them,frankly, admit they can't express their concerns for fear of possibly affecting their GP accreditation status.

That's sad too ...

9 March 2005

Devil Alert!

Ambrose's five-year NASCAR plan

MARCOS Ambrose may be prepared to take as long as five years to break into NASCAR's marquee series, the Nextel Cup. After heavy speculation, Ambrose confirmed last weekend that he would leave Stone Brothers Racing one year before the end of his contract (in 2006) to attempt to establish a career in the USA. The two-time V8 Supercar Champion will travel to Charlotte next month for a seat fitting and return following the Shanghai round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series to test a Busch Cup car with a yet-to-be-named team. He may also have further tests this year prior to moving with his wife Sonja to North Carolina, probably Mooresville, at the end of the season.

Ambrose, 28, said that the decision to leave Australia was a hard one.

"The onus is on me to establish myself over there and get comfortable with the cars," he said. "I have not sampled a NASCAR of any description so I understand that there is going to be a learning process before we establish a racing situation. Ford USA have said,'We are here to support you'. They do not run or own teams but they have teams that they support. We will work that out over time."

Ambrose will go Stateside with the full support of his team owners Ross and Jimmy Stone and Ford Australia's President, Tom Gorman, He will not be paid by Ford but is likely to maintain some role with the company's Australian arm.

Ambrose will also go with positive vibes from his opposition drivers; "I think it's great," said Craig Lowndes, "i raced overseas and I know how great a challenge it is."

"I am always excited about Australian drivers trying to make it to the pinnacle," said Mark Skaife. "For Marcos to go and have a crack at NASCAR is fantastic. My hand is up; good luck to him.

"For the Champion to go away does not weaken the series. With the depth of talent we have, we will be just as strong."

As for Ambrose, it may be that he will drive in selected races in the Nextel Cup even before he is established in any lower category.

The form of road racers Ron Fellows and Boris Said at road course events at Watkins Glen and Sears Point confirms-the view that many of the oval track specialists are not that strong when turns start to go to the right.

Ambrose is well-known, and highly-regarded, by Ford Racing's management, including General Manager Dan Davis. He first showed interest in a USA career two years ago and met with Ford's racing boss and others during his assault on the Daytona 24 hour race last month. How would he go against the big names in NASCAR on a road course?

"He will give them a hosing!" enthused Skaife.

- PHIL BRAIMAGAN

n Some unkind comments suggested that the Bowe-JonesSkaife podium in Race 2 at the Lake was the oldest in terms of combined age in the history of V8 Supercar racing. Now, Bradley admits to being 45 and Skaifey is soon to turn 38, but does anyone really know how many candles JB blew out last time? n Renault FI driver Giancarlo Fisichella has announced that he will run a team in the Formula 3000 Italia series. Fisichella Motor Sport will be run by Giancarlo's manager Enrico Zanarini, who has experience running racing teams from back in the 1980s when he oversaw the Alfa Romeo team here in Australia. The team will have technical assistance from Durango Corse. Fisichella says that the Italian series is just a starting point and that he will be looking to move into GP2 in the future. n McLaren has confirmed that it has signed a major new sponsorship deal with the British distillery company Diageo to promote the firm's Johnnie Walker whisky. The deal is believed to be worth as much as US$68m a year. n International Aussie golfer Stuart Appleby will join Paul Stokell behind the wheel of a pair of Lamborghini Gallardos in this year's Targa Tasmania, from April 26-May 1.

The dual entry will be the Gallardo's international motor sport debut.

Valued at almost $400,000 each, the Gallardos have been modified at the Lamborghini factory in Sant'Agata, Italy, to compete in Modern Competition section of the Tasmanian rally.

With his own Gallardo garaged at his Florida home, Appleby first became involved with Lamborghini Australia following his attendance at Lamborghini Experiences at Phillip Island last year.

New FPR team manager TIM Edwards is to be the new team manager at Ford Performance Racing.

The former Jordan Grand Prix team manager, right, will take over the role of Dave Ward, who will leave the Ford factory team at the end of the month.

Englishman Ward, who joined FPR at in time for the Sandown 500 in September, is staying with the team until the build of spares for the two new FPR Falcons, which raced at Albert Park last weekend, is completed.

Edwards, who hails from Melbourne, returned home in 2004 and joined the Commonwealth Games organisers late last year.

IN other FPR news,former technical director John Russeil is soon to have a new

job - with TEGA. The former Formula One designer will be a technical consultant for V8 Supercars and MNews sources suggest that he will have a 'roving brief of responsibilities.

Russell joined the team in time for the 2003 season and resigned his position last month after meetings with team owner David Richards.

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Dumbpell i PAUL Dumbrell will compete in all rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship Series - and team boss Larry Perkins is backing him up.

The former Konica champion was in danger of missing out on the 32car rounds of the series after AVESCO gave the now-Tony Longhurst owned Team Dynanuk entry a wildcard for the whole series.

This was necessary because the entry, driven by Dale Brede last season, did not finish in the top 30 cars in the 2004 championship.

However,it is believed that the Perkins team may 'shuffle' its entry between the Level 2 licences under which Dumbrell and Alex Davison will compete this year. Tlrat would mean that Davison will miss out in Auckland,Perth, Shanghai,Darwin, Surfers and Symmons Plains.

"As of today. Team Perkins Racing has three licences and we are free to

Long, frustrating Fujitsu-backed team perplexed at series laws

WHILE Tony Longhurst f is delighted to have a 100 ' percent entry this season, | Britek is looking at a | thinner-than-that season.

NEW V8 Supercar licence holder Tony Longhurst is not sure who will drive his entry in the Clipsal SOO. The two-time Bathurst winner, who purchased a Level 1 licence and entry from Team Dynamik in the past fortnight, has a number of options as to who wiiil get the seat, including Max Wilson, Will Davison and himself.

"I still have 10 balls up in the air," he said on Monday.

"That wiJI really decide what I will do with driving. I was impressed with how Will went on the weekend, he will be a star of the future, no doubt, and Max is a good mate of mine.

They might be in it but, if f cannot get the money, I will drive it myself."

Longhurst's choice may depend of TD's decision regarding the driver of the other entry. The team has two guaranteed entries in all races this season by virtue of AVESCO's decision to give preference to Level 1 licence holders.

Neither car wiilil have any penalties that may have arisen over its testing breach last season, a fact that Longhurst says was pivotal in his decision to buy the licence for a rumoured $1.5 miiilion. "[There were] no concerns whatever," he said,. "AVESCO in their wisdom accommodated that, i have got nothing but praise for their system."

As for driving^ himself Longhurst said that was something that, should it come to that, he was looking forward to.

"Tenjoyed the whole weekend with Dynamik. The results were not fantastic but I was iimpressed for the whole weekend."

- PHIL BRANAGAN 6

manipulate those as we see fit," said Perkins on Monday."Paul Diunbrell and the Castrol car will run all the races.

LP said that he had "no comnrent whatsoever" on the decision to allow the Dynamik LI entry a ticket to race for the whole season.

-PHIL BRANAGAN

The new Ford team has | only one start guaranteed j at the races that restrict grid size to 32 cars and Britek General manager Chris JeweU, right, is perplexed.

"1 had hoped that tlrey[AVESCO] might have revisited the whole scenario," he said foUowing the Albert Park races, where Matthew White drove the sole Britek entry.

"I know that they [Team Dynamik] are a Level 1 entry but, as I put to [AVESCO CEO]Wayne [Cattach], this could jeopardise a whole season.

My suggestion was that one car[ED: of the three wildcards] did one race, one did the next and we share the pain. 1 would think that it would be a good idea to move with tlie times."

Jewell points out that all 34 licence holders are now sponsored and serious competitors, as opposed to the 2004 scenario by which some entries attended races solely to keep licences 'alive'.

The team's major backer, Fujitsu, has expressed its ongoing support of the team and JeweU said that he had no

concerns on that front.

But the company has just opened a major facility in Shanghai and has planned a major j presence at the GP track T'i when V8 Supercars race ' j there in Jime.

It is important that : we do not lose large I sponsors hke Fujitsu," said Jewell."They are investing in the brands of both Britek and VS Supercars but they are well aware that there are other sports out there in the marketplace."

Jewell said that he had even asked AVESCO if it would be possible to fly the team's entry to China at its own expense, which he estimated at just over $30,000.

The team was frustrated at having only one car at the AGP support events,Jewell saying that Iris discussions with the AGP Corporation suggested tliat there were no problems with running 34 cars in Melbourne.

"They wanted 34 cars," affirmed JeweU."We would have been there if we could, even if it meant running a car from a carpark in Fitzroy Street.

"It is frustrating. You do not buy a football team and then find that you cannot play."

-PHIL BRANAGAN

motorsportnews

NEWS

lets the full ned

Another Kelly

nnn

TODD and Kristy Kelly are parents, soon-to-be-toddler Mason making a jump start the Sunday before the AGP meeting. The littleist Kelly, is doing fine, as is his mother while Todd did look a little tired before racing got underway. Congrats to all. n Bulls may be red but money is green - or pink. After trying (and failing) to hire Robbie Williams to float some tunes at the Melbourne knees-up last week. Red Bull opted instead for American popster Pink to head down under to inflict some music on its partying crowd. The bill for Her Pinkness to sing three numbers? A cool million bucks is the rumour.

S a S

I You'll see him at a round near you ... maybe: Alex Davison and the Autobarn entry is set to sit out some of 2005.

season ahead for Britek Comment by PHIL BRANAGAN BY anyone’s estimations, Britek Motorsport is sureiy the very modei of how to go V8 Supercar racing.

The Jason Bright-owned team bought two licences, secured significant backing from major sponsors, including multinationals Fujitsu and Ford, has established an impressive HQ and provides employment for 25 people.

But, for a number of events this season (at least) the team will be playing with one hand tied behind its back - or rather, one car. The idea that the team, and others, will be forced to half-sit-out 32-car races is crazy. If AVESCO and TEGA allow there to be 34 licences, why can’t 34 cars be allowed to race - or, at least, qualify?

At Albert Park last weekend, there were 32 cars present. If that is purely a commercial decision, I do not understand it. Why can’t a sponsor have its cars race in front of one of the biggest audiences of the year, and enjoy all the trimmings (like corporate hospitality) that go along with that?

If Tony Longhurst’s entry gets to start all the races and others do 9March200S

I a When White isn't all right: Fujitsu and Britek are the big losers ... not, under the current rules, it is good luck to Tony and stiff Cheddar for the others. For one, I would much rather see all the cars have a crack at the race; best man wins. If you are fast enough, you are in. If you miss out, go home and better luck next time.

Longhurst gets in because he has a Level 1 licence. The others that miss out are Level 2s. If for no other reason, this is enough justification for wiping the floor of this two-tier system and making all licences Lis. I know that they are supposed to be more valuable but, with the massive movement

in the licence market in the last three years, many L2 holders paid more for entry ‘tickets’ than many of the LI originals did anyway. Let market forces rule; it will all even out in the end.

It is time to level the playing field. In the huge growth of the category, this ridiculous system has not stayed in step. And, before anyone picks up the phone to enlighten me that rules are rules ... I know that. People make rules, and people can change them.

I also know that Britek, Fujitsu and Ford deserve better.

n Speaking of music, we are unsure if the Paddock Club qualities as Crowded (we poor and underpaid journos cannot afford to go in there) but one man seen emerging from the salubrious suites was none other that Neil Finn, the lead singer of famed rock band Crowded House and now a soloist to be reckoned with. n Also seen at the Park were the usual herd of celebs in the BMW race, a Thorpedo, a Minogue, a 10 named Bo, four fiddlers named Bond, two actors from The Bill, a Dean Canto impersonator singing the national anthem and Nicolas Cage (and three bodyguards). At least the latter had the good taste to ditch his headwear (the best hat you ever saw worn for what must surely have been a lost bet) and present it to Giancarlo Fisichella after the GP. n If you are thinking about heading to the Clipsal 500 this year, a special surprise awaits.

The ex-Alan Jones Beatrice-Lola Formula 1 car will grace the Adelaide streets again. It was actually the very first Formula 1 car to drive around the famous street course when Adelaide held its first Grand Prix in 1985. n AMS Chief Executive Officer, Dr Rob Nethercote, has announced the appointment of David Permezel to the position of West Australian State Manager. Sandra Watson has taken maternity leave from her position of CAMS WA State Manager. n Wondering why the FI cars appeared to be going so much faster than usual in pitlane? Well, it's because they were. A directive was issued to the teams on Saturday morning informing them that the pitlane speed limit had been increased from 60kph to lOOkph. It came too late for Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan though, who was relieved of USD$6750 after being clocked at 86.2 kph during practice on Friday morning. ?

Stoddy; Max must Go

by JOE SAWARD

Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart has called for the resignation of FIA President Max Mosley following the FIA's defeat in a Melbourne court last week.

However, the FIA is not giving up easily and it was expected that the federation would go back to court this week to try to overturn the decision made to grant Stoddart an injunction to run 2004 cars in the AGP.In the end Stoddart agreed to back down,faced with threats from the FIA to stop the AustraUan Grand Prix, and he was furious when the federation then issued a threat against all international motor racing in Australia.

"If Australian laws and procedures do indeed allow a judge to act in this way,it will be for the World Motor Sport Council to decide if a World Championship motor sport event of any kind can ever again be held in AustraUa," an unsigned FIA press release stated.

Stoddart reacted to this with "total disgust", saying that "the author of this FIA press release is misinformed, or has scant regard for the truth" and went on to call tlie statement "an ill-judged, ill-timed document", which Stoddart said he felt was "created to disrupt and discredit the Minardi FI team, the Australian Grand Prix and me."

The Australian judicial system is similar in many ways to those of the

/ hope it starts: After taking Friday off, Minardi got going on Saturday with Chistijan Albers, boarding the PS04. world's other major democracies and it cannot give comfort to the relevant motorsport bodies in those countries when the FLA President issues statements such as this".

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation was also less than happy with the FIA's statement: "The issues raised by the FIA in today's statement clearly have implications for many other

countries which host rounds of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship," said a statement from Ron Walker, adding that Australia's FIA representative John Large will raise the issue when the World Council meets later this month.

Stoddart, who has the tacit support of most of the FI teams - at least according to conversations

journalists have had with tlrem says that Mosley should now resign.

"He retired once in July last year," Stoddart said."He needs to do it again. The wounds are getting so deep now there is not going to be any healing. We are heading to the demise of FI through our own bloody stupidity, too much pig headed arrogance in all quarters to see the obvious."

The Gunfight at the Minardi

PAUL Stoddart came to Melbourne expecting trouble.

Indeed, one might reasonably argue that he was inviting trouble in order to have a showdown with the FIA. He did this by presenting 2004-spec cars for scrutineering. The FIA said that if all the teams agreed the cars could be raced in that form. However Ferrari refused to sign. Jean Todt then said that he would sign if everyone else did, at which point Jordan opposed the deal. In the end, however, Stoddart says he managed to get all the signatures.

But this became irrelevant when the FIA Stewards tried to block Minardi's participation.

Stoddart^rgued that the cars 8

should be allowed to run and the issues involved should then be considered by the FIA Court of Appeal. The stewards concluded however that they could not rule on the matter because they were not privy to the terms of the Concorde Agreement.

"We had to take them through a very complex issue and explain that the Concorde Agreement is the governing document of FI and overrides and has the power to amend the FI technical regulations," Stoddart explained.

"We have given them sight of Concorde but you cannot expect them to learn its complexities in five minutes and I sympathise with them on that."

Stoddart thus went to the Supreme Court of Victoria for an injunction to allow him to run in the event. The case went before The Honourable Justice Habersberger who ruled that the FIA must allow Minardi to compete in qualifying on Saturday.

On Friday night writs were served on the FIA, Ferrari and the other teams(as parties to the Concorde Agreement)to appear at a hearing on Saturday afternoon. The FIA complained that it did not get a say in the hearing but the judge obviously felt that the documents supplied by Minardi were sufficient.

The FIA would have had its say in the court case on Saturday afternoon, but the

mstoisiiortnews

NEWS

To Change or not to Change

Sauber/BMW No Sale BMW MOTORSPORT is not shopping to buy the Sauber Formula One team.Reports from Europe late last month indicated that the German maker was looking at purchasing the Swiss-based team to add another string to its bow. But BMW Motorsport boss Dr Mario Theissen said in Melbourne last week that the Bavarian company was not interested in anything other than a potential engine supply arrangement.

"We are not looking to buy, Sauber or anything else," said Theissen.

"What we have done is starting discussing the framework under which we might supply engines in the future. Those talks are with Sauber, and also Red Bull."

Sauber is in the final year of its deal with Ferrari and will continue to use the Italian VI0 engines this season. But Sauber principal Peter Sauber was less forward than Theissen in discussing the matter.

"We have 19 races with Ferrari engines this season," said the long-time owner. "What we will do after that is a matter for this team only and not the media."

Along with Flonda, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Toyota, BMW has agreed in principal to supply engines to a second team at an affordable cost, as part of the manufacturers' policy to establish its own association to represent its efforts.

In the meantime, the design of BMW's first V8 FI engine is in the process of being finished, though Theissen was not able to nominate a date when dyno testing of the 2.4-litre unit would start.

- PHIL BRANAGAIM

WHILE BAR appeared to pull a master-stroke by withdrawing it's two cars on the last lap of the Grand Prix, it may be a doubleedged sword.

By doing this, the team guaranteed that it will be allowed to change engines before the Malaysian Grand Prix (without penalty), while all the finishers will have to go to Kuala Lumpru with the same engines used in Australia. BAR and several other teams sought confirmation on several occasions before the event that this was an acceptable course of action and the FIA representative - Charlie Whiting confimed that this was allowed.

Thus,can we expect any team that is not in the points at the end of a race to send its cars into the pitlane at the end of the event?

Possibly not. Should BAR survive the heat of Malaysia and score points, it will be obliged to head to the equally oppressive heat of Bahrain with the same engines, while those who have 'played the game' will get fresh units.

Either way,the two-engine rule has, in these early days, yet to achieve what it was designed for.

At last count, at least six cars(30 percent of the field) will be able to front up in Malaysia with a fresh engine. Michael Schumacher and Takuma Sato will be on their third units...

-JOESAWARD

Corral Four wheels.

Five tyres action was withdrawn when Stoddart agreed to avoid disrupting the Grand Prix after the FIA threatened the event.

What was clear throughout the weekend was that Stoddart was fully prepared for every eventuality and had a sizeable legal team working with him while the FIA was unprepared and had to find local representation.

Max Mosley was not even in Melbourne, which meant that he could not be directly involved in events and had to rely on his assistants Alan Donnelly, a consultant to the federation, and Richard Woods,the FIA's director of communications.

- JOE SAWARD

9 March 2005

THE FIA has agreed that FI teams will be allowed to have one extra tyre for use in the races this year, but only in the event of a 'safety'issue.

The decision appears to have come about as a result of the worry that the FIA might run into trouble from a legal point of view if it did not have a mechanism which allows drivers to stop and change a tyre in a dangerous situation.

In part this may also be due to the fact that the lap times in Melbourne were not three seconds a lap slower than last year, as they were designed to be,but rather only 1.5s slower, and even this may not be a true representation of the difference between 2004 and 2005 because Melbourne was unseasonally cold this year and this certainly had the effective of slowing down some of the cars.

The Malaysian Grand Prix will provide a clearer picture of the actual gap between the current lap times and those of last year so that the effectiveness of the FIA rules can be properly judged.

If the lap times are similar to those of last year, the federation has a problem because the new rules were forced through on the grounds of safety with the stated intention of slowing the cars by three seconds a lap. If this has not been achieved, the FIA may have to act again to protect itself from legal action in the event of an accident.

-JOE SAWARD

A green Indy 500 THE Indy Racing League has joined forces with the ethanol industry.

This year, the cars will be run on a mixture of 90 percent methanol and 10 percent ethanol but in 2007, the engines in IRL will be run with 100 percent ethanol.

Racing engines operating on ethanol have proved to have excellent performance due to the fuel's high octane content, it is much better from a marketing point of view, as ethanol is much more environmentaily-friendly than some other fuels. n Former FI driver-turned World Rally Championship star Stephana Sarrazin is to race for the Aston Martin team in the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida on March 19. He replaces Tomas Enge, who has had to drop out because of his recently-signed Indy Racing League deal with Panther Racing.

Sarrazin will now partner Peter Kox and Pedro Lamy in one of the two Aston Martin DBR9s, while the other car will be driven by David Brabham, Darren Turner and Stephane Ortelii.

-JOESAWARD

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motorsport

9

Renault-Powered

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WILL Power is in for what could be a career-defining year after finalising a deal to run with Carlin Motorsport in the new World Series by Renault.

The Queenslander joins forces with the prestigious British team on the back of some strong testing. performances at Paul Ricard and Barcelona over the past few weeks. His best lap of 1m28.774s at Barcelona was 1 .Os under the 2004 pole time, and the unofficial track record for any single-seater other than a Formula One car.

"I’m really looking forward to working with Carlin, as they are a very professional team and there’s no doubt we can win races together -1 know I can do well this season," enthused Power, left.

The World Series by Renault is an amalgamation of the former Renault V6 Euro Series and Nissan World Series.

The championship is run over nine rounds, starting at Zolder in Belgium in late April, and also includes stops at Le Mans and Monza, as well as a support role at the Monaco Grand Prix.

It's

For more on Power's new deal, please turn to our Interview on page 30.

Real Street Racing A CROWD estimated at 150,00+ lined Melbourne streets last Wednesday to see and hear the roar of FI and V8 race cars.

Two Minardis, one driven by Paul Stoddart, and a BMW.Williams witli Antonio Pizzonia at the wheel, along with Mark Skaife and Marcos Ambrose in V8s, made up the parade. while local hero Mark Webber braved the crowds in an open-top BMW. Over the preceding days,the question on everyone's lips, however. was just how fast did Mark Webber go when he drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge tire previous weekend?

Webber completed 10 passes of the famed landmark in the same Williams FW26B in which Juan Montoya won the 2004 Brazilian GP. To comply with regulations, he was restricted to 90kmh,20 above tlie usual speed limit on the span (and

about 40 faster than traffic usually travels).

But on his final two runs, it appeared that the car was travelling slightly quicker. On Monday's Sports Tonight, Webber said that the car may have hit 91kmh while eyewitnesses (or those who heard liim grab fourth gear) estimated that the car might have doubled that on the final pass!

Of course, FI cars are designed to operate witliin a cooling window at speeds greater than that, and it is conceivable that Webber was acting responsibly to avoid an engine detonation, which would have delayed tlie reopening of the bridge.

Senior Williams personnel Sam Michael and Dickie Stanford were on-hand to oversee the rim but information as to whether they know how fast Webber was travelling is sketchy, at best...

Atkin^r

CHRIS Atkinson is preparing for his first outing as a points-nominated driver when he takes on the Corona Rally of Mexico this weekend..

Atkinson will debut Subaru's new Impreza WRC2005. and says that despite his limited running in VVRC machinery, he . can already detect some improvements.

"It seems to handle bettei." said Atkinson, pictured above dunng testing with fellow

motorsport news

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Family Affair AUSTRALIA'S first driver in the new A1 Grand Prix series will be Christian Jones.

The 25-year-old son of 1980 World Champion Alan Jones is expected to be confirmed in the new-for-2005 series at the launch of the Australian

seat in the series in Sydney on March 30rJones Jr, who has raced in Formula 3 in both Australian and Asia, will line up with the other national representatives at the opening race of the season In other A1 news,A1 Team Pakistan launched its entry into the series in Lahore late last month. The team also confirmed that it entry will be driven by Nur B. Ali, a graduate of the Skip Barber Racing School and

previous Champion of the US-based Formula Mazda series.

A1 boss Sheikh Maktoum drove an A1 car on the streets of Lahore during the launch in front of a crowd estimated at around 15,000 people.

India will also field an entry in the series. The A1 Team Indian franchise has been acquired by the Gupta family, who own the Sahara Computer Group.

"We feel honoured and privileged to be the seat holder for India and believe that A1 Grand Prix brings back the real passion to motorsport where the talent and technique of the driver supersedes tlie machine he is driving," said Atul K. Gupta, Managing Director of Sahara Holdings.

FIA deny FI deal MAX Mosley put out a lengthy press statement in Melbourne which revealed that the FIA has not signed a new Concorde Agreement.

Mosley had previously said that the FIA had an "agreement" with Formula One Management and Ferrari, it seems that this has not been signed nor, in fact, even drafted. This is interesting, as it opens the possibility that Ferrari might switch to join the manufacturers - just as the Italian team appeared to have committed itself to the other manufacturers before jumping into bed with FOM and the FIA, n The Euro 3000 Champion Nicky Pastorelli will be seen this year testing for the Midland Jordan team, assisting Narain Karthikeyan, Tiago Monteiro and the team's third driver Robert Doornbos to develop the Jordan-Toyotas this year. The 21-yearold Dutchman has been tested for Champ Car racing by Walker Racing. n TATA Consultancy Services kicked off a new technical relationship with Ferrari at the Australian 6P. TATA has joined forces with the Maranello team in a multi year, multi-million dollar deal to provide software and automation services. The Indian company is part of the broader TATA group that has helped fund Narain Karthikeyan into his Jordan drive, however the two deals are not related. n Toyota has reorganised its development drivers, with the Toyota Drivers Academy being replaced by the Young Driver Programme. There wiil be only three drivers retained from the old scheme, with Franck Perera continuing to race for the Prema Powerteam in the Formula 3 Euroseries: Kohei Hirate, runner-up in the 2004 Italian Formula Renault championship, moving up to the Euroseries with Team Rosberg: and Kamui Kobayashi having a second season in Italian Formula Renault, Toyota continue to run a driver promotion scheme in Japan at its Formula Toyota Racing School.

Prepares the Sombrero Subaru WRC pilot Stephana Sarrazin.

"It feels like a move forward in all areas - but you always want a bit more."

After debuting on the Swedish snow three weeks ago, Atkinson said that he was looking forward to the gravel of Mexico.

"The roads are mostly mid-tohigh speed roads on a very hard base, which really suits my driving style," he explained.

"While it isn't the same as

9 March 2005

Australia, I think there will be some familiarities between the roads I have competed on before."

Preparations for the Rally started a little earlier than usual due to the special challenges unique to the event.

The Rally of Mexico runs between 2000m and 2800m above sea level, and at that altitude there is around 10 percent less oxygen available than Atkinson is used to.

The 25-year-old arrived in the

region that hosts the rally early last week in an effort to acclimatise himself to the altitude as much as possible.

While Atkinson's performances will count towards Subaru's manufacturers' taliy for the first time, he says that he will approach Mexico like any other

"There's no extra pressure," he said. "Nothing has changed.

I'm just going to go out there and learn as much as I can."

n McLaren has picked up another deal from the old Jaguar Racing team. Steinmetz, creators of the world's finest diamonds, and Team McLaren Mercedes were delighted to announce the start of a glittering Formula One Partnership. The diamond group joined the team as an Associate Partner from last weekend's Australian Grand Prix. n Niccoio Petrucci, the Jordan aerodydnamicist, has left the team to join Mike Gascoyne's design team at Toyota in Cologne. Petrucci made his name at Ferrari in the 1990s before moving to Arrows at the start of 2001.

When Arrows ran into trouble at the end of 2003, he moved on to Jordan.

- JOE SAWARD/STAFF 11

Ready to Process, Dev Another V8 Supercar Development Series is about to kick off and the heavy hitters have come out to play. GRANT ROWLEY assessed theJunior ranks

T

HE sixth V8 Development Series (formally Konica Minolta) kicks off on the streets of Adelaide in two weeks time, and field has taken a 'topheavy shape.

Leading the list of contenders is Paul Cruickshank Racing's Warren Luff, who doubles this year as a Stone Brothers Racing endurance driver. He will steer the BA Falcon

Russell Ingall used to finish second in the V8 Supercar Series last year.

Luff drove for Dick Johnson Racing's main series team in 2004 and finished as Rookie of the Year, but is hoping that taking a step back in '05 will help him jump two steps forward next season.

"1 want to get back in the main series, that's the plan," he told MNews.

"The competition though will be tough and I expect my strongest challenges to come from Dean Canto and Adam Macrow,but having said that, anything can happen."

Luff will be partnered at PCRby Phillip Scifleet in the Falcon AU that Marcus Zukanovic drove last year.

Canto, who'll drive the Gatorz

I DEC NA I

Ready to Spa: Warren Luff will enter the series in the Paul Cruickshank Racing Ford Falcon BA. He has impressive credentials athat will back up his proven machinery.

Racing BA Falcon prepared by DJR, also considers Luff and Macrow his most-likely rivals.

"AU three of us have had a fair bit of experience in the cars so it wiU be interesting to see where we end up," the Sydneysider said.

Canto's team-mate is popular Network Seven weatherman Grant Denyer, who'll drive the

Summit/Jax BA. Howard Racing's Macrow has never contested an entire V8 Supercar program and is looking forward to his first full-time racing gig since his Formula Ford Championship success back in 1998.

"I'll be playing it safe to start with as the reverse grid races can reaUy make or break your championship," the Queensland resident said.

"It wUl be a matter of finishing every race and racking up the points.

It should be a tough year.''

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Macrow joins Mark Howard in two ex-Briggs Motorsport/Triple 8 BAs. When you look at the entrants, it wiU be hard to tip against a Ford Falcon. Former Level 2 team Steven EUery Racing wiU field two BAs for Development stalwart Mark Porter (Hyundai Construction) and Gary MacDonald (Kanga Loaders), j Britek Racing's Jose Fernandez will also be back to improve on his fourth

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JOIN MNEWS IN SHANGHA motorsport

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elop and Succeed Holden to back V8 Development Series?

IT'S unconfirmed at this stage, but MIMews industry spies tell us that Holden is likely to be announced shortly as the new sponsor for the V8 Supercar Development Series.

The series has remained sponsorless following the completion of Konica Minolta's contract at the end of the 2004 series.

However, we hear the General is stepping into the breach. The implication would seem to be that this will be GM-H's contribution to developing young stars of the future, most likely at the expense of its Young Lions concept, for which 2005 plans have not yet been announced.

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With the opening round of the 2005 series part of the show in Adelaide next week, confirmation of the deal can be expected quite soon.

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Bart heads back to Britain for F3 BARTON Mawer flew to England yesterday (Tuesday)for another crack at the British Formula 3 Championship.

While Mawer would dearly love to contest the Championship class, he has his sights set on again competing in the Scholarship Class, where one's budget will stretch much further.

"The car I drove at the Grand Prix is an '04, which is what is now used in Scholarship class," said Mawer.

"I just can’t wait to get over there.

I just loved it last year. The racing over there is just something else."

While Mawer is still searching for a budget to do the full season, he is just as keen to get back over there for the engineering side of things, an aspect of motorsport at which he thrives.

"When the budget ran out last year, I was working for Carlin Motorsport on their Formula BMW team, looking after Bruno Senna's car. It is the greatest lifestyle; you are either at a racetrack, or at the workshop getting ready to go to the next racetrack. I love it!"

Trucks Racing have elected to miss the Clipsal round.

Production Car racer Scott Leadsman will debut his ex-Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VX while Robert Jones wiU be likely to score the odd result in his fried and tested VX. The newest entrant to the Development ranks is New South Welshman Greg Smith, who'U campaign an ex-DJR AU in Fujitsu colours.

The Clipsal round features two races,including the traditional Friday evening twUight race at 6.45pm.

With the influx of Level 1 and 2 teams,TEGAhas mandated a few changes that will make the Development cars slightly different under Ihe skin compared to main series outfits. Most sensors have been removed from the cars, whUe 100 kUograms has been taxed into the cabin. This will make data transfer between the two categories almost void. Many teams expressed their concern with the weight gain and there was a caU recently to, at least, take 50 kg off the car to bring them down from their current 1455kg to 1395kg.

Apparently, the specification of some roll cages would be in doubt subject to the extra weight l but as MNews went to press, the weights would remain the same.

n What's going on in PR land?

Former Holden Motorsport ace Gerald McDornan was recently listed on AVESCO's website as SCAR's new media rep, reuniting with Greg Murphy after a short stint in the US, But just as quickly as his name appeared, it disappeared with Plastic's former sidekick seemingly none the wiser about his status.

Now one of the General's most loyal soldiers behind the scenes could be switching camps; was that McDornan seen emerging from the Britek transporter at .Albert Park?

Come along on the trip of a lifetime when V8 Supercars hit China, in June - tours start from just $2875 per head.

For details: Ticket2Ride (03)5977 2608 or www.ticket2rlde-ls.us

n Mathias Lauda, the son of triple World Champion Niki Lauda, has signed to be the second driver for the Coloni GP2 team, alongside Gianmaria Bruni. Lauda drove for Coloni's second team CMS last year but without any notable results.

-STAFF/JOE SAWARD

place from 2004 in the ex-David Thexton car. His effort will feature support from Fujitsu. Also, Tony Evangelou is set to chaUenge the main game-backed teams in his privately entered Dexion BA. On the Holden front, numbers are few and far between(which is weird, considering the rumour that the manufacuring giant is going to back the series...)

Tony D'Alberto is the man most likely to upset the Ford horde in his exKeUy Racing VY.It will be the 19-year-old's

9 March 2005

third attempt at the Development Series, however, the equipment he has to play with this year wiU give the talented Victoria his best shot yet.

South Australian contender Jay Verdruk wUl be the only other Commodore VY entrant at Adelaide.

Aaron McGUl rejoins the series in the VX that Verdnik used last year.

Both the Holden Yoimg Lions team and Smith's

n Those hard working folk in Formula 3-land got a rude shock while trying to watch their cars race at the Australian Grand Prix.

Being in pit lane, the only screens from which to watch the action were in those technical FI pit wall bunkers. A number of team crews assembled next to a certain red team from Italy's pit wall stand, only to be rudely moved away by the Scuderia's people, the covers shut promptly in their faces.

So what does an F3 mechanic do to watch his car go round Albert Park? Well, the good ol' boys at Williams observed their fellow FI teams' lack of hospitality and quickly ushered the teams in question into their own pit stand, and let it be know they were more than welcome for Race 2,

13

►

Toyota Opens Mount Fuji

FUJI International Speedway, the former Japanese Grand Prix venue overlooked by the spectacular Mount Fuji volcano, has been granted an FIA Grade 1 licence, allowing it to stage events in all track racing categories including Formula 1.

Toyota, which owns a 93.4 percent stake in the facility, immediately confirmed that it is pitching to bring the race back there after the expiry of Suzuka's contract in 2006.

Toyota has completed a major renovation of the 4.6km (2.9-mile) track, including Fl-standard paddock facilities, and marked the occasion last week by rurming Ralf Schumacher on it in a 2004 Toyota.

The new Fuji retains the outstanding feature of the old, namely its 1.5km start-finish straight - thought to be the longest in world motorsport.

Speedway president Hisamitsu Shimda said drat, with the renovation completed, the focus now would switch to an improved infrastructure, particularly to provide transportation and accommodation for spectators.

"We've finally completed the hardware," he said, "and now we have to upgrade the software so that we can stage Formula 1."

Fuji, first built in 1965, hosted the Japanese Grand Prbc in 1976 and 1977, when the fixture was dropped after Gilles Vdleneuve's crashing

spectator who had strayed into a restricted area. The race was absent for 10 years but since 1987 has been held at Suzuka which, like Twin-Ring Motegi, is owned by Honda, -QUENTIN SPURRING

THE Villeneuve legend is to be turned into a movie.

The film will be based on the book 'Villeneuve' by veteran Canadian FI I journalist Gerry Donaldson, i and will follow the career of Gilles Villeneuve from his early days racing in Canada to

MG Rover Group has finally confirmed that it is to enter the DTM touring car series in 2005, racing its ZT260 against Audi, Mercedes-Beru and Opel.

The model is equipped for road use with a Roush-developed, 4.6-Utre, 260bhp V8 (driving its rear wheels), but the 4-litre, 500bhp racing version is

under preparation by Zytek, This company is also building the cars and will operate two in the full DIM series.

"Racing against prestigious brands in DTM is an exciting way to raise the MG profile," said Rod Ramsay, the British company's managing director of sales and marketing.

Ferrari killed a marshal and a

MG makes it four in Ger

Luke gets Stoned

LUKE Youlden has been confirmed as a Stone Brothers Racing endurance driver.

The news, which was first forecast by MNews back in December, will drive for the Champion team in the Sandown and Bathurst long-distance races.

And Youlden's contract announcement with SBR may just have come at the right time, considering Marcos Ambrose's imminent departure to the United States in 2006.

The Stone Brothers line-up this year includes Youlden, Ambrose, Russe Ingall and Warren Luff.

But who drives with whom is still to be confirmed.

Youlden made his Carrera Cup debut for VIP Petfoods Racing at Albert Park last weekend, right, 14

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and impressed the regulars with instant speed. The Victorian was dogged though by myriad dramas over the weekend, including gearbox problems, leg cramps and broken widescreen wipers.

The Tony Quinn-owned VIP Porsche team is also involved in a partnership arrangement with SBR. The two camps, which operate just metres apart in the Gold Coast suburb of Yatala, are planning a program to hone a driver's skills during a year's racing in Carrera Cup, like Youlden will do this year, before letting them loose in SBR's endurance squad.

The teams plan to make this an ongoing arrangement.

- GRANT ROWLEY motorsporinews

NEWS

Nissan pulls Raid, Dakar team NISSAN has decided to close down its Nissan Rally Raid Team, which has failed to win the high-profile Dakar event over the past three years, although it has been successful in other such events in Europe, Morocco and Turkey.

The Renault-controlled manufacturer has placed all its European competition activity under the control of NISMO, the global motorsports and performance engineering division, which it established in 1984. Nissan rally-raid cars will remain actively involved through private teams, some of which will receive NISMO's technical support.

-his death in a Ferrari at Zolder - in 1982. The story will then switch to his son Jacques and his quest to do what his father failed to do and win the World Championship and the fulfilment of that dream in 1997.

The movie will be written by Malcolm Clarke, directed by Christian Duguay and

man Tourers

produced by Gabriella Martinelli, an Italian-born Canadian producer who has worked closely with David Cronenberg to produce movies including 'Madame Butterfly' and 'The Naked Lunch'.

This will be the sixth time that the book has been optioned with producers, none

have which have been able to get the project past a script.

There is no word yet on who will play the major roles though MNews sources suggest that one star taking an interest in the project is Canadian actor, Michael J Fox. Shooting is scheduled to start in March 2006 for release in the first quarter of 2007.

I

'VC

"We see the young audience that the series attracts as key to the growth of the marque across Europe."

MG has not had a factory involvement in touring car racing since the 2003 British series. The drivers and sponsors will be announced at a later date.

-QUENTIN SPURRING

RUM

The Dodo is not Extinct TASMAN Motorsport gave new sponsor Dodo internet a great debut , at Albert Park, with Jamie Whincup, ^ left above with Jason Richards, I running consistently in the top 10.

I The now-two car team, which 9 March 2005

moved to Melbourne from Sydney in the off-season, announced the deal the week prior to the AGP support events.

The deal is thought to be worth around $750,000 for one year.

n Calder Park Racing Promotions Pty Ltd and Calder Park Raceway Pty Ltd, have begun legal proceedings agains CAMS. CAMS CEO confimed the actions by the Bob Jane companies in a statement, saying "CAMS will be vigorously defending its position as the allegations are without substance."

Calder Park Raceway has not held a CAMS Track Permit since May 2003. n Alan Simonsen will be the third driver for the Coopers Racing team in the 2005 V8 Utes Championship.

The Coopers-backed Dane will partner Jack Elsegood and Ian McAllister in the team's stricking green Falcon utes, replacing Luke May. Simonsen will also be racing in the British GT Championship for a Scotish-based Ferrari team, for which he drove successfully last year.

Couple that with the three rounds currently slated for the Coopers Ferrari 550 Marranello in the FIA GT Championship, as well as the the V8 Supercar endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, in which Simonsen will almost certainly compete, and you have one very busy Dane... n If you were unfortunate enough to miss the inaugural round of the Australian Motor Racing Series at Wakefield Park two weeks ago, never fear, the television, corn chips and sour cream is near.

A new and exciting Speedweek format will debut on SBS and Fox Sports on April 3, which includes a new graphics program.

There is over 20 hours of AMRS television coverage planned for the season and you'll be able to catch up on all the latest action nearly every Sunday of the year until Christmas.

So between reading MNews on the weekend and watching TV, you'll have a great excuse to get out of mowing the lawn!

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF 15

Heavyweight Boxer

AUSTRALIAN Carrera Cup will have a new matchbox in 2006 - the 911 GT3, which is based on the Porsche 997.

25 of the German machines are expected to dock in Australia early next year, and teams are already starting to snatch them up.

The current 911s will be eligible for one more year of Carrera Cup competition in 2006, however,the Porsche Drivers' Challenge will be the category that will heavily benefit from the updated model.

The Porsche Michelin Supercup, which supports the European rounds of the Formula 1 circus, will use the cars in its series this year.

Although this information may not be new,the fact that teams that have tested the car in Europe have found early gains of about two seconds per minute. If you do the mathematics, this means that GT3s will be just as quick, if not quicker than V8 Supercars on some tracks.

MNews bets that AVESCO would be none-too-pleased about this arrangement ...

Although the engine used will be the same 3.6-litre boxer engine, improved camshafts will see the powerplant deliver

about 10 more horsepower.

Sequential shift gearboxes will be standard, which is likely to reduced the amount of over-revs(and blown clutches) in the category. Also, the six-speed dogtype 'box features a power shift system, with ignition cut for super-quick upshifting at full throttle. This will help see the cars top over 280kmh down Conrod Straight at Bathurst.

Add to this a larger rear wing, adjustable front wing and enough carbon-fibre parts to make the car a Jenny Craig success story and you've got yourself one very fast Supercar (oops, that's a different category, isn't it?)

- GRANT ROWLEY

Wayne’s World FOR SALE #14 (Max’s too) THE Daytona 24 Hour-winning combination of Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and the SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley held off several late-race surges by Butch Leitzinger/ Elliott Forbes-Robinson to win the Grand Prix of Miami at the Homestead Miami Speedway last Sunday.

The gap between the two at the finish was 1.198 seconds, the second-closest finish in the history of the Rolex Sports Car Series. Angelelli and Taylor had started 10th in the 47-car field.

Angelelli did rather better than the man he manages, Aussie 16

Ryan Briscoe suffering two crashes in his Target Ganassi Toyota in the opening round of the Indy Car Championship.

Krohn Racing/TRG Pontiac Rileys finished third and fourth, with Jorg Bergmeister and Max Papis leading the way over Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson. Luis Diaz and Scott Pruett rounded out the top-five in the No. 01 Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley.

Andy Lally and Marc Bunting won the GT class in a Porsche run by the TRG team, which ran the Australian entry at Le Mans last month.

- PHIL MORRIS

Complete VS Supercar Team established 7 years Inc: Entry & licence AVESCO 2005 Development Series Holden V8 Supercar current spec, fully prep for clipsal Rd 1 Major spares package (car spares, pit/workshop equipment etc All assistance given inc set up/dyno (can supply crew/team, manager etc) For a detailed list phone 0418 55 11 70 Will trade/deals DON’T BUY A DRIVE, BUY A TEAM

motorspon news

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H!ZS More F3 teams switch to Lola BRITISH F3 team PI Motorsport has made a surprise switch from Dallara to a Lola chassis for 2005, with Danilo Dirani the driver.

Team boss Roly Vincini said: "It is not a problem. Danilo can win the title and he wants to do it with us." The Lola chassis won at Castle Combe last season when driven by Danny Watts, and that car will be driven by Charles Hollings this season. n A Chevrolet Corvette looks set to make its F1A GT debut this year, with Mike Hezemans due to drive one

Audi lineups sorted

TEAM ADT Champion Racing has announced the driver trios for the

two Audi R8s that will compete next month in the 12 Hours of Sebring and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

Joining Jj Lehto, above, and Marco Werner, last year's American Le Mans Series Driver Champions, will join six-time Le Mans winner and former ALMS Driver Champion (2002) Tom Kristensen. In 1999, Kristensen and Lehto were partnered in a BMW V12 LMR and along with co-driver Jorg Muller, won the very first American Le Mans Series race, the 12 Hours of Sebring.

One year later, Kristensen put the Audi R8 on the 'sports car map' when he finished first again at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Kristensen's

winning streak at Le Mans,five consecutive wins(four with the Audi R8),should also boost Team ADT

Champion Racing's hope for a win.

Piloting the #2 Audi R8 will be the Audi'works'squad of Emaiiuele Pirro, Frank Biela and Allan McNish.

McNish scored his first victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring last year, driving for Audi Sport UK.Pirro has one Sebring win (2000) and Biela has three (2000,2003,2004).

Collectively, this trio has seven Le Mans wins: Pirro three (2000,2001, 2002), Biela three (2000,2001,2002) and McNish one (1998). Their goal in June will be to give an American sports car team. Team ADT Champion Racing, a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,a milestone that has not been achieved since 1967.

n SPORTSCAR team

Creation has competed its squad for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans by securing the talents of one of Sportscar's most experienced drivers, Andy Wallace.

of the cars with Anthony Kumpen.

Operated by Mike's father Toine under the GL-PK/Carsport banner, occasional LMES outings are planned as well. n Former Veloqx Audi driver Jamie Davies is edging closer to a drive for Maserati in the FIA GT Championship.

LMES Champion Davies is linked to a deal with Michael Bartels's team, a rumour strengthened by the announcement that Bartels's regular co-driver Uwe Alzen won't be involved in 2005. Maserati is keen for a British driver as the UK is one of its biggest markets and Davies would be expected to team up with Fabio Babini who makes the switch from Ferrari to Maserati.

- DAVID ADDISOW

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n opens account Wheldon wins IRL opening round crash-fest as Briscoe has tough debut PHIL MORRIS reports

ANDRETTI-GREEN Racing's Dan Wheldon has begun the IRL IndyCar season on the front foot, with a win in the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead, Miami, his fourth IRL victory.

Wheldon,the runner-up to team mate Tony Kanaan in the 2004 IRL Championship, grabbed the lead from Helio Castroneves in the middle stages of the race and despite many caution peroids, held back the challenges to take what was in the end quite a comfortable victory.

"It was pretty tough," said Wheldon."It's going to be a tough season. You could see how competitive it was. I'm very happy with the result, but it's one race into the championship. One race. If it's meant to be,it's meant to be. I just enjoy winning races."

Second was the Penske-Toyota of Sam Homish Jr. Homish Jr, grabbed second from Kanaan on the final lap, second to fourth finishing spread wide across the line to be separated by only 0.001s. Kanaan was third and fellow Brazilian Vitor Meira, driving

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A Rookie's day out: Ryan Briscoe, above, bad a weekend to forget, with two accidents. The customary blanket IRL finish, above left. for Rahal Letterman Racing,in fourth.

"That was incredible," said Homish Jr's team-mate Castroneves, who had the best view of the dramatic dice,following it home in fifth. "It was a hell of a race.

Everybody seems to respect each other well, and that's what we need."

The race was marred by a massive pUe-up that claimed eight cars in the 22-car field. At a race restart on lap 158,Super Aguri Fernandez driver Kosuke Matsuura ran wide and spun while attempting an outside move on polesitter Tomas Scheckter for fifth.

The chaos tliat ensued eliminated Matsuura,Scheckter, Bryan Herta, Danica Patrick, Scott Dixon, Ed Carpenter, Roger Yasukawa and Matsuura's team-mate Scott Sharp.

"I think we were three wide and, at that time,I was driving outside and got up into the tyre marbles and dust," said Matsuura."I spun and hit Scheckter. I am very sorry for the other drivers that crashed."

Another crash casualty was Australian Ryan Briscoe, making his IRL debut with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Briscoe had been forced to start from the back row of tire grid after switching to his spare car. Briscoe crashed during practice when trying

to enter pitlane, irreparably damaging his Toyota-Panoz.

"I was coming in reasonably fast and I went wide through pit lane and got into tire grass, whicli.got me up onto the track," said Briscoe.

"It's a good thing it happened in practice and there weren't a lot of cars on the track when I went up there. Forhmately I came out of it relatively unscathed."

Briscoe was running witli tire large pack during the race, coming to terms with oval racing experience when on lap 62, he again fell victim to tire SAFER barrier wall exiting turn 4.

"I was running a pretty good race and enjoying myself out there. I had some clean pit stops and was makin g a few positions and just feeling really good out there.

"I was at the back of the big pack and unfortunately, probably due to a lack of experience, I just got a pocket of air over in turn 3 and the rear came out on me and that was it."

Briscoe has his next chance at Round 2 of the IRL IndyCar Series in Phoenix on Marcli 19.

Points: Wheldon 53, Homish Jr 40,Kanaan 35, Meira 32, Castroneves 30, Darren Manning 28, Patrick Carpentier 26.

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IT was all-Suzuki at the opening round of the World Superbike Championship at the Losail circuit in Qatar.

Former World Superbike champion Troy Corser, above left, won the first, twopart race after a rain interruption while team-mate Yukio Kagayama gave Suzuki its first-ever double win by taking Race 2.

With second in the opening race, the Japanese rider, main pic, leads the championship from the Aussie, who was third in the second race behind Regis Laconi (Ducati).

"Today I am a very happy man," beamed Kagayama. "I did not dream that I would win a World Superbike race so soon or that I would be leading the championship after the opening round."

Top Yamaha riders thus proved to be Andrew Pitt(Yamaha Motor Italia) in fourth place in Race 1 and his team-mate Noriyuki Haga, one place behind in the interrupted opener.

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fellow Ten Kate Honda rider (and flu sufferer) Karl Muggeridge was ninth in Race 1 but he was a late starter in Race 2 after a broken chain adjuster forced him to start from pit lane. He later crashed with Kawasaki pilot Chris Walker.

Andrew Pitt was fourth and ninth in the two races, World Champ James Toseland took two sixths while the Petronas pair of Steve Martin and Garry McCoy were out gunned,finishing in the teens.

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No Moscow DTM THE Moscow DTM street race is off, after a lack of time to put track safety measures in place. $8.5 million of work was needed and the Russian Motorsport Association has asked to postpone the race until 2006, therefore.

r

n Adam Carroll looks set to move into GP2 this season after Super Nova Racing agreed to test the Northern irishman.

Carroll, perennially under-funded, is hopeful that his budget may be boosted by the BAR FI team for whom he tested recently, and for whom he will test again later this year. Carroll said: "All my effort is going into getting this drive. I don't have a huge budget, but I could probably buy some sandwiches!" n Ousted DTM driver Peter Dumbreck is eyeing up a seat in the BTCC. The Scot, who went from Mercedes to Opel to unemployment, is in talks with Vauxhail for a drive in the BTCC for 2005 but as yet has not agreed terms. The former Macau GP winner said: "Without any realistic DTM options, the BTCC would be the next best thing." Vauxhail is understood to be keen on having the Scot in a car, whilst F3 racer Rob Austin is also under consideration.

- DAVID ADDISON

Don't need wings, don't need slicks: Pappas will swap his 2004 ride in F3, above, for a Van Diemen Formula Ford.

THE VIP Petfoods Van Diemen will again be seen in this year's Australian Ford Racing Formula Ford Championship, with former Formula 3 driver Daniel Pappas to drive the car, to be run by BF Racing.

Pappas, who last year also tried his hand at Toyota Atlantics co.Tipetition in the United States, sees Formula Ford as the perfect way to keep his driving skills up to scratch.

In other Formula Ford news, F3 outfit Team BRM may be running one of their U-Drive SA '97 Swifts at the opening round of the National

Series at the Clipsal 500. Former Australian Rotax 125 Superkarting champion Shane Wright will be running the Victorian Formula Ford Series with the team after impressing in testing. The team has entered for Clipsal, but are still evaluating whether they will run, in what will be a massive grid.

Four of the likely favourites for the title. Dean Fiore and David Sieders of Sonic Motorsport and Shane Price and Anthony Preston of Borland Racing, all tested at Winton last week.

- CHRIS JORDAN

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Delivered As Promised

GREG Btffle boasted that he would win the February 27 Fontana event before the green flag uncoiled and be leading by lap five.

After taking the lead on lap four he looked right on target - but that was before some strategy miscues from the team and increasing problems with a very loose Roush Ford that saw him drop as far as 23rd before fighting back to deliver on his promise.

Mark Martin and Rusty Vv'allace, both competing in their final Cup seasons, again had good runs.

Martin finished seventh and Wallace 10th, while Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray rebounded from their Daytona wrecks to finish a strong sixth and fourth respectively.

Carl Edwards, who competed a partial season in 2004 replacing Jeff Burton, continues to impress with a fifth placing after leading on three occasions.

Ryan Newman, meanwhile, deserves a standing ovation after overcoming a cut tyre, pit road speeding violation and an overheating issue to rally back from a lap down on two occasions and finish a resounding ninth.

- MARTIN D CLARK

SEVERAL teams appeared to suffer at Fontana under NASCAR's new rules package.

Fontana was the first of the many 2005 races where the cars are impounded after qualifying with limited changes allowed post-race,so teams have to run something pretty close to a race set-up on the car for time trials.

One that seemed to suffer was Dale Earnhardt Jr., right, who ended a run of 70 consecutive races inside the top 10 point standings with a horrible performance at Fontana,starting 40th and finishing 32nd.

He blamed the poor showing on the new rules package.

"I don't think it makes any sense to make the spoiler smaller, and then say it's going to make it better racing side-by-side," argued Jr."Somebody's got to wake up here."

The DEI cars of Jr. and Michael Waltrip had noticeable issues at many of the 1.5 mile tracks last year, and it's looking like with the new softer tyre and half inch lower rear spoiler, these issues could be magnified.

Illume

Final result; Biffle (Ford), Johnson (Ford), Busch (Ford), McMurray (Dodge), Edwards (Ford), Harvick (Chevy), Martin (Ford), Sadler (Ford), Newman (Dodge), R Wallace (Ford).

Point standings; Busch 340, Johnson 335, Martin 301, Edwards 287, Biffie 273, Sadler 272, Stewart 268, R Wallace 268, Marlin 260, J Gordon 258.

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The three cut tyres 'Little E' suffered can almost certainly be put down to the amount of front camber the team was using.

So how and what changes can be made before the cars make the grid on race day at the tracks where impoundment happens?

First, after making a qualifying attempt, two team members and an official are allowed to remove the radio,check tyre pressure, shut off the electrical system and cover the car.

STATESIDE

We Start Them Young ROOKIE Kyle Busch became the youngest Cup pole winner at Fontana, the 19-year-old claiming his first pole with a 188.245mph lap record in his eighth Cup start.

Hendrick stablemate Brain Vickers, 20, was second, making it the youngest-ever front row. n NASCAR are now allowing some flexibility with their new electronic pit road speeding system, having built in a five mph cushion.

"The tolerance is for the difference in cold air pressure and high air pressure," said Cup director John Darby.

Fourteen drivers were slapped at Daytona but only three penalised at Fontana, with Jason Leffler, Michael Waltrip and Ryan Newman the unfortunate trio.

On race morning,again only two team members are permitted to work on the car, and they can add a maximum of four gallons of fuel. No water, oil or brake fluid can be added,but suspension can be adjusted only at the inspection station, and there is a limit on the degree of adjustment.

Spring spacer rubbers can't be added,but track bars can be adjusted, the car cannot be jacked up and no changes can be made to the body.

- MARTIN D CLARK

n While his Roush team-mates dominate the point standings, misfortunes see 2003 Cup champ Matt Kenseth sitting 36th in points after a blown engine at Daytona and a cut tyre late in the running at Fontana.

Don't look now, but Kurt Busch is on top of the points pile again!

- MARTIN D CLARK

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DIDNT take the weekend's BMW Celebrity Challenge too seriously.

I have seen the boys drive and the girls drive - and they are very, very strong. So I said to myself 'just relax and do your best'.

I learnt a lot of things in the driver training last week braking and steering properly. what is understeer and oversteer, and all these little tricks that you don't know, like how to change the gears properly.

You know, before this weekend I hadn’t ever driven a manual at all, so this has all been very beneficial because now if I ever get a manual car for myself. I'll know what to

do.

B

ecause I am very busy with very many commitments, I am not driving myself around.

So I have a driver who has

been driving me around for the last five to six years. I like to travel in comfort and enjoy sitting in the back seat.

But when I am free I like to take my kids for a ride sometimes, but while I have fast cars, on our roads you cannot drive fast.

I am happy that I have never been booked for speeding. ever! This is my eighth year with a licence and I have never been booked for speeding.

I have got some very, very fast cars, like my Bentley, and when you accelerate, they just go! But I am very cautious on the road because I know how dangerous it can be.

In boxing, having quick hands and feet is very important. In the car on the weekend, this helped me ... it really helped me.

It's all about timing and the confidence and experience you can get. I don't have much

experience like the guys that do this all the time, and that is why they are so good. That's why I am not really disappointed at the way I have been driving. I passed five people today and it was good! ^“he driver was not only fun, training it was important for the simple reason that you actually learn how to drive and I recommend them to everybody. The BMW course travels around Australia and when in comes to Sydney I am going to book my wife and my father a place in it, for the simple reason that they teach you to drive properly. I will do it for I will feel safer in myself and I will feel more secure when she is driving that she is safe and that I don't have to worry.

I have learned a lot this week and next time I am behind the wheel I will know what I am doing because I have learnt a lot of things.

I

' m am

'm too busy to follow motorsport too closely. It is great to watch on telly, but here at the track tne Formula Is are too noisy. The V8s are better to watch and they are more interesting, more intruiging. FI is too fast for me to watch and V8s are closer together.

I never really had one person in the group that I planned to especially beat.! was pleased with my result, but I thought I

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would do a bit better than 18th position. But I started far, far behind and I passed two or three people in the first lap and two or three people in the second lap and then ! settled down, which was good.

My next fight is June 5 in England. This race was not a distraction, but the beginning of my preparation. You nave to be fit here and the dfivers that race are fit people, i have been able to train every day and! am happy that I a.m ir, good form, Memaily, you have ic be very, very strong for bath boxing and racing driving have to concentrate end foci*s veo/ hard.

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HE annual McLaren season-opening quiz at The Stokehouse restaurant in St Kilda is always a jolly affair and a most agreeable way to start a new Formula 1 season.

It is only for the brave, because the McLaren team is constantly trying to catch out the trivia-stuffed hacks with questions which include such useful information as the firing order of the BRM V16, the name of the Colombian national anthem, the Australian Touring Car Champion of 1975 and the name of the first corner of the : ninth race of the 1998 World ● Championship!

When we hacks are unable

to find an answer, the best move is to at least make an amusing guess.

The Colombian National Anthem? Obvious, "God save Our Burger King" - a reference to McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya (who for some reason FI people like to think of as being fat). Mind you, the other part of the question was the name of the Finnish National Anthem - which is probably not called "Lapp Dancer!" Sorry Kimi ...

The favourite answer this year, however, which had us ail in stitches of laughter was the firing order of the VI6.

"Easy!" said my colleague.

"One, 15, three, 12, two, 13, four... bang!"

In the history of the sport there have been many, many cases in which over-complication has ruined a perfectly simple concept. A VI6 may sound very powerful, but it was so long that the cars looked like they were towing caravans and thus did not like going round corners.

BRM was an expert in this sort of thing and hit the high point of lunacy in 1966 when it designed H16 engines. They were late, heavy, uncompetitive and no match at all for the very simple and sensible Cosworth DFV, the greatest FI engine there has ever been.

Down-to-earth good sense is worth its weight in gold sometimes.

w

hat Formula 1 needs at the moment, after ail the bizarre political stuff going on in Melbourne, is some good sense. There does have to be a showdown between the teams and the FIA about who controls the sport.

Paul Stoddart took a lot of flak in the papers over turning up in Melbourne with 2004 cars, but the media who reported on that simple story got the whole thing horribly wrong. Stoddart went to Melbourne utterly prepared, with a very carefully constructed plot, to draw the FIA into the necessary legal showdown, without upsetting the sport too much.

Yes, he got a lot of coverage.

KL

S’

V16 ... H16 ... they all went bang! Jim Clark took the H16 BRM-powered Lotus to its only victory in the 1966 United States Grand Prix. Formula 1 ivas less money-driven in those days and all the better for it...

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Stoddapt won and backed down, whHe the HA was left standing like a drunken man,swinging meaningless punches at the world and upsetting everyone"

but Minardi does not really matter in the overall scheme of things. Stoddart went to court prepared to fight every conceivable battle, while the FIA was so arrogant(not a new concept)that it thought it could bluster its way through.

In the end, the only defence was threats. Stoddart won and backed down, while the FIA was left standing like a drunken man,swinging, meaningless punches at the world and upsetting everyone.

It is time for change and everyone in the sport recognises it, except the men in the blazers at the FIA. If you stop and think about it for any period of time, you realise that all the current problems in Formula 1 are. all rooted in one specific cause - the FIA's decision to lease the commercial rights of FI to .Bernie Ecclestone.

This was something that FIA

President Max Mosley was able to sell to the FIA members as providing long term guarantees that the federation would survive, whatever happened.

The FIA should be the guardian of the sport and should be developing it.

Instead,the vast majority of the money raised from FI is going into Ecclestone Family trust funds or to paying a Eurobond which the family benefited from. This is fundamentally wrong.

In its statutes, the FIA is charged with "safeguarding the interests of automobilism in all countries, promoting the development of motor sport and encouraging improvement in the facilities and services of the member clubs." bodies, such as the International Other sporting Olympic Committee (IOC), run

their own commercial operations and their sports profit from that. The IOC distributes much of its profit to the National Olympic Committees. This is used to pay for new facilities and to train new athletes.

If a candidate for the FIA Presidency came forward with a plan to take back the commercial rights to FI and distribute money throughout the sport, there are many clubs which would jump at the chance. The money is there and there is no automobile club in the world that would turn down $1m a year. The man who steps forward and presents that as a policy would win an FIA election ...

All that would be needed is for the FIA challenger to ally himself with the three banks who own 75% of the Formula One company and wait until they win their court cases with Ecclestone. The banks simply want their money out of the sport. They have to plod through the process of winning control of the company in the courts, but

Theirtdijoe Box Seat Sawanf then they would take a $1bn cheque to go away. The FIA could raise that money in the bond market just as Ecclestone did a few years ago. This money would allow the national clubs to develop motorsport in their countries and, in time, would benefit Formula 1 as well, because the money being invested by the clubs would create new possibilities in terms of venues and drivers to create interest and demand for FI in new regions around the world.

Given the cash that FI now generates there would still be plenty of cash to pay for FIA administration costs and pay 10 FI teams in excess of $50m each a year.

Problem solved!

Not nearly as difficult a question as the firing order of the V16 ...

Five minutes with

GiancaNo FIsichella

His pole 1^ may have oweila bit to luck, but Giancarlo Fischeba's Australian GrandPrix victm'y was pime class all hie way.

This is what he hah to say after the race QUESTION: You finally got to stand on the top step of the podium after a race. I am sure you enjoyed it?

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA; Yes, and it was about time I did. It was nice to have the possibility to celebrate my victory from the right position on the podium I It was great. It has been a fantastic race. It was not easier than I expected. I was quite conservative until the last five or six laps when Rubens [Barrichello] was catching me, and I drove faster and I did a reasonably good lap time, and the car was really good, really consistent, from the beginning to the end.

It was great and I am now looking forward to the rest of the season. I know it is just the first race and it is early to say we are there, but we have a very good potential.

Q: How threatened did you feel by Rubens at the end there?

GF: My engineer told me to push a little bit more and I pushed and we had no problem and the car was there I It was quite easy. I did a 25.9, which is not bad. So, last few laps I was a bit worried because there was a Jordan or Minardi that I was catching up and I was a bit nervous but as soon as I overtook him I went to the end and I won the race.

Q: How much were you affected by traffic during the race?

GF; Quite a lot. I lost two laps behind [Jacques] Villeneuve. I don't know why he stopped me.

I lost four or five seconds. This is really bad and 1 was a little bit disappointed by that.

The rest of the drivers were quite okay, but when you are 50 metres behind another car, you lose downforce and it is quite difficult to catch him.

28

"This is great for me, after 10 years in Formula One. I never showed my talent because I u never drove the right car.

Q: Realistically, what's the importance of the rain in this victory?

GF: Realistically, quite a lot. I was really lucky on Friday[ED: He means Saturdayl and we were able to manage the big gap between me and the other competitors, especially this morning in the second qualifying session.

But anyway, even despite that, I was the second quickest this morning and considering the fuel load, it was good. But the potential is there.

We are quick and even without the Friday [Saturday] where I have been a bit lucky I think there was the possibility to fight, to win the race anyway.

Q: Giancarlo, you've waited a long time to have a car this good. Do you feel excited to have the potential to show your talent this season?

GF: For sure, yeah. It's the first time in my life that I drive a car

with a lot of potential, a good car which has been quick and consistent from the beginning to the end.

This is great for me, after 10 years in Formula One. I never showed my talent because 1 never drove the right car.

Yes, I won in Brazil in wet conditions a couple of years ago but the rest of the season was very frustrating, so this year I've a great car and I don't want to lose the opportunity to show my talent and to win races.

Q: How different does this win feel,finally getting to spray the champagne on the right day?

GF: It's completely different, yeah, because honestly it's my first time to celebrate victory on the podium. It's been fantastic.

It's a great experience. I want to do it again.

Q: Giancarlo, on Friday you

said 'I can win this race' and today you won it. Can you fight, can Renault fight for the championship too?

GF: I think so. I guess so, yeah.

We already showed our pace in testing in the winter. We showed today how quick we are.

We still have had good potential to go forward and I think we are the team with McLaren and Ferrari who will fight for the championship.

Q: The car is obviously a pretty special machine. Could you just tell us where you are gaining so much performance?

GF: I think the whole package is really good: engine, chassis and tyres and the good thing for us, for the drivers, is to have a very consistent car from the beginning to the end.

The balance was really, really good and that was even in testing. That's the main reason why we were quick. motorsportnsws

INTERVIEW

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Five minutes with

WillPower

2005is cnmch-time tor WiiiPower. With a WorU Series hy Renauit Orive amfirmeii, wiOi an estabiisheii team,an FI onmrtunity couU he one goon season away. He spoke to CHRiS LAIVKOB\l MOTORSPORT NEWS: You had a provisional deal with an Italian team, which evaporated, and now you've got an even better opportunity with Carlin. How did it come together?

WILL POWER: I did a test for Draco before Christmas and we were talking to them, but in the end it didn't pan out...

MN: It was said that another driver came along with a full budget...

WP: It's true that they did sign up Marcus Winkelhock, who has links with Mercedes and yes, some money, but that wasn't the whole reason why it didn't work out.

MN: Did you have any other options at the time?

WP: There was a stage there where I didn't have any other offer. That was it. But Kerry (Fenwick, Will's girlfriend and manager)spoke to Carlin, who still had a seat available.

We managed to get the support together, from some personal backers as well as the CAMS Foundation, and I did a couple of tests at Paul Ricard and Barcelona.

At Paul Ricard we were quickest all day until one guy went quicker in the last 15 minutes, then at Barcelona we put together a good day, worked on the car and went quicker and quicker and ended up on top.

It was good to work with the team. Regardless of how quick you're going, it's good to know you can work with the team.

MN: That was the next question! It's a team you can fit into?

WP: Yeah. I've been with a lot of teams along the way, and you quickly learn to figure out how they operate. I can pick 'em earlier rather than later now.

30

This is my opportunity and this is when I have to deliver"

W

-Power on his upcoming Worid Series by Renauit season. The cars are a blend of the former Nissan World Series and Renault V6 Eurocup machinery, above.

You have to have a team where everyone in the team is respected - even the truck driver -for their input.

Carlin looks like a professional team. They've proved that in the past, so I think we can work really well together.

MN: Does that make it a category, then,that FI people are going to keep an eye on?

WP: It's been around for three or four years now and had a few FI drivers through it - Kovalainen, Bernoldi, Firman - and it's going to be a strong 34-car field ...

MN: On to the cars themselves. For the benefit of our readers, compared,say, with a Formula 3 car, how are the cars to drive?

WP: They are definitely closer to an F3 car than an F3000 car in terms of driving style - you have to keep the speed up and carry mid-corner speed. That's what an FI is like.

Comparing horsepower and grip, they've got more horsepower than F3 and a lot more grip, especially on fast corners. That's their strength.

It's a genuine race car. I've only driven the old 'Nissan' car and there are better aerodynamics to come with the new package, carbon brakes - it'll be like an FI under brakes - and paddle shift.

More or less a mini-FI car.

MN:So why Renauit World Series rather than GP2?

WP: GP2 is a bit of an unknown, it's quite expensive too - teams are quoting $1.8 million to do GP2; maximum budget for this is under $1 million. So there's a massive difference.

With Renault, most of the races are stand-alone and we've the main act, so you don't have the restrictions of being a GP support category - although we do race at the most important GP of them all, Monaco.

It's the first year of GP2 and I think that people don't really know where they're at with the cars yet. The money made it a no-go for us ...

MN: Do you have the whole bucfget, then?

WP: No, just like every other Aussie going over there, there's still some to find. I have support from Maher Algadri, of course, and the CAMS Foundation. Mark (Webber) is a great help, with contacts and that's been really good.

So there's still some to find, but the ball's rolling. We've got the deposit down and we've been testing. The testing has gone well, which is a big help.

MN: Assuming that all comes together, this is your chance.

This is your opportunity.

WP: Yeah, absolutely. It's good to know what you're doing, to have most of the pieces in place and to be preparing as best you can in every way. Yes, this is my opportunity and this is when I have to deliver.

There are some big incentives.

As I understand it, the series winner gets a Renault FI test.

And of course Trevor Carlin is now heavily involved at Jordan.

One way or the other, there's an opportunity to drive at least one FI car this year... mototsportnews

y

AIDressedupwith I

N motor racing, partings are often sorrow that is anything but sweet.

So, when the news came last weekend that Marcos Ambrose was

soon to abandon his V8 Supercar career for an oval-shaped life in the Land of the Stars and Stripes, there were many who expected no smiles when it came time for the armouncement. But no; in company with Ross Stone of Stone Brothers Racing and Ford Australia's Tom Gorman,it was a case of Cheshire Cat grins all round at Albert Park.

Are they mad? Are they over confident? Why would the dominant driver of the last two seasons be not just allowed to walk away from the world's toughest touring car championship a year before his contract expires but to do so with the blessing of the men who gave him the opportunity to become all that, and more?

Because Ambrose is not just a driver for SBR and Ford, he is a part of their family.

And perhaps an even better question is, why does Marcos want to do this?

"The opporhmity is quite unique," says Ambrose, "It has come together through Ford USA and basically, it is a development program over a twoyear period, starting with some testing this year, with an eye to see if I can break into the NASCAR series, be it Truck, Busch Series or Nextel Cup.It is clearly a massive learning program for me and there is no guarantee of success.

"The Ford USA guys have been fantastic and,so too, Tom Gorman from Ford Australia and Ross(Stone) have both supported me in this process. I am really excited about the chance to try something different."

It will not be a case of simply walking out of the top tier of one championslrip into another. Ambrose will, and knows he wUl,be starting his career all over again. The Nextel Cup will have to wait for now; this year, there will be testing in a Busch Grand National car and his racing teeth will be cut in that class or, perhaps, the Craftsman Truck Series.

"I stress that it is not necessarily a move forward in my career, it is a change," Ambrose continues.

"I have achieved an awful lot in this series and I have reached a lot of my goals here in this country. As a driver, all you cair really do is to try and put yourself in the position to have the best car and the best team 32

behind you. I feel that I have done just that with the Stone Brothers team and I am very seriously committed to try and go for three (championsliips) in a row. If it doesn't work out for three in a row, it is not because the ingredients are not put together.

"I feel that I have achieved all my immediate goals in this coimtry. I want to challenge myself again; that is what got me to this position in the first place. It is what I have done in this country that has given me the opportunity to go over to the States and I am really looking forward to a new challenge.

"One of the most important things when I spoke to Tom and Ross was that, if it was going to work, we had to make it work before the start of the season, to get it out to everyone; the media, the Ford fans as well. They know that I am taking 2005 very seriously, to go for three in a row,I have the chance to create some history with Ford Australia and the Stone Brothers team. With the announcement out in the open,I can fully concentrate on V8 Supercars and not have to worry about rumours or innuendo going around behind the scenes."

One tiling that he will have to learn is how to race on ovals. In the Nextel Cup,there are tw'o road races (at Watkins Glen and Sears Point) and it is there that Ambrose is expected to do well.

"On the road courses, at first, he will give them a hosing," said Mark Skaife last weekend.

Modestly, Ambrose concurs; "As a professional driver, I have an approach to racing that I believe has worked quite weU.I appreciate that the NASCAR way of things is unique; they have success and it works quite well. I am not going to stand up and pretend that I know better than they [do]. Sure,I come from a different angle. I would like to think on the flat-track stuff, I can do some things for them."

As for Stone, this w'iU be the second occasion that the team has lost a driver a year before he was due to leave. Jason Bright exited the team at tlie end of the 2000 season to pursue a career in Champ Car racing.

After a season in the Indy Lights Championship, he returned to Australia and found a seat with the Holden Racing Team.

If Stone has any reservations about losing his ace, he is not letting it show; "When we started talking to Marcos about this, our support was

motorsportnews

V8 SUPERCIIRS

Somewhere to Go

It's the biggest gamble of Marcos Ambrose's career -to walk away from V8 Supercars to pursue a NASCAR dream in the USA. PHIL BRANAGAN details Why he is going and what happens next

Dad, Crusher, I am leaving home: The bond between Ambrose and Ross and Jimmy Stone is obviously close, above, but Marcos has one more season in V8 Supercars in the Pirtek Falcon, right.

behind this 100 percent. Marcos is keen to move on with his career and we are behind that.‘ And,given that Ford has backed all of Ambrose's career, what does its American boss think?

Ford is very much a family company and Marcos is very much a part of the family around the world,' says Gorman.

"When he came to me and talked about it, quite honestly, the first reaction was that not only are we losing a great driver, we are losing a

continued on page 34 9Maroh200S

continued from page 33 great guy here in Australia. In my first year here,I have got to meet a lot of great people here m the V8 Supercar Championship Series and none have been better than Marcos, or Stone Brothers.

"But we are a company that believes that people should get the best out of what they can get in life.

This is what Marcos wants to do and we support that."

The armouncement came with some surprise but it was already known that Marcos had one eye on a NASCAR career. In 2003, he visited the Bristol round of what was then the Winston Cup and had talks with some Ford officials. When he raced a Porsche at Daytona last month,he discussed his ambition's with Dan Davis, who oversees all of Ford Racing's Stateside activities.

So, what next? Ambrose will travel to the USA following the Pukekohe round in April for a seat fitting and return, probably following the Shanghai race in June, to test for the first time. With the support of Ford, he will have the opportunity for further testing at the end of the season before any opportunity to race either a Truck or a Busch car in 2006.

"It is a very different situation right now. The onus is on me to establish myself over there and get comfortable with the cars. I have not sampled a NASCAR of any description so I understand that there is going to be a learrung process before we establish a racing situation.

Ford USA have said,'We are here to support you'. They do not run or own teams but they have teams that they support[see breakout]. We will work that out over time."

And, what if this does not work

Will the I OKAY,so we know when ansd why Marcos Ambrose is heading to the USA. So with which team is Ambrose likely to end up?

Under the direction of Ford Racing chief Dan Davis, Ford has trimmed back the number of teams it supports within all three of the major NASCAR divisions, so we can narrow the 'likelys' considerably.

Ford's players in the Busch Series include Team Rensi, which currently has a two-car team for Ashton Lewis Jr. and Jason Keileii wTio isTrrthe twilight years of his career, so he may be a contender to make way for Ambrose. PPC Racing currently fields cars for Kenny Wallace and exTihamn Car driver Michel

in this countpy.

It I want to

4 Taking on the Americans at their ovm game is tough - very tough.

After a career in FI and Champ Cars, Christian Fittipaldi tried and failed.

Michel Jourdain Jr is in Busch Cup. Several Europeans have had a crack at the USA and come up short.

Whether Ambrose succeeds or not will depend on none of these facts.

It is a hard, hard task that lies ahead of Marcos Ambrose. But he is a hard man. American NASCAR fans love a driver from the deep south and hey,if The Devil Racer was from any further south than Tasmania, he would be a penguin.

"This is not to say that I will not come back and not to say that I am not a proud Australian. I respect that some of them [fans] might be disappointed but don't forget,I am not leaving Ford,I am just changing disciplines."

In the giant scheme of things, Marcos Ambrose is taking, perhaps, the biggest gamble of his career.

When he came to V8 Supercar racing four years ago, he was out of opportunities after racing Formula Ford and Formula 3 in Europe. Since then, he has made every post a winner.

Formula High-end Motorsport.

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How many racers compete to finish last? It's their desire, their will and their machinery that combine to achieve success. Engineered in Schweinfurt, Germany, the world's leading race teams rely on our aerospace technology, FI experience and engineering excellence to enjoy race winning performance. Shouldn't you?

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motorsport news

V8 SUFERCARS

>evil Racer become Johnny Diesel?

Jourdain Jr. and Roush Racing havs one car full-time for Carl Edwards and part-time efforts for Mark Martin, Greg Riffle, Matt Kenseth and Aaron Pike.

Then there's the not-sosuccessful ST Motorsports and BREWCO Motorsports, with drivers Stacy Compton and David Green respectively.

The Busch Series has a series-high 35 events this year, but budgets are typically a third of a top Cup team, with most primary sponsors forking out around US$5 million, of which close to $2 million goes toward the engine lease program. Ford-supported teams in all three series must use Roush-Yates powerplants.

By comparison,the Truck Series is somewhat'relaxed'.

with 25 events for the series that probably sees the most competitive racing within NASCAR. Budgets are lower, although interest is becoming higher, especially with Toyota's presence.

Roush and PPC are the only Ford-backed operations with teams in both series, PPC with Terry Cook, leading below, and Roush with Todd Kluever and ex-Cupper Ricky Craven. One thing to keep in mind is that the PPC Truck is sponsored by Ford Power Stroke Diesel, so could that be Marcos's seat? " Both series are seen as feeders for the Nextel Cup Series, but of late it seems Cuppers are seeing out their careers behind the wheel of trucks, including Ted

THROUGH MY EYES

by Dirk Klynsmith a photographic journey through the last 12 years of motorspoit in Australia An essential addition to your

motorsport library

Through My Eyes by Dirk Klynsmith Forewords by racing legend Peter Brock and legendary FI photographer Nigel Snowdon.

Over 340 images in colour and b/w in 152 pages depicting motorsport in Australia in the last decade featuring FI, V8 Supercars, F3, Rally, Formula Holden, Super Touring, Procar Categories, Indy Car andi more.

The book will be available for purchase at the Clipsal 500 Museum and selected sites in and around the Adelaide Street circuit during the Clipsal 500.

9 March 2005

Musgrave, Jimmy Spencer, Steve Park and Todd Bodine.

Both series receive live TV coverage of the races(and sometime qualifying), Busch on network TV and Trucks on Speed Channel.

It seems likely that Ambrose would end up behind the wheel of one of three Mooresville-based teams Roush, PPC or Rensi. The question is in which division and how much are Ford pushing the buttons to see he gets in top-notch equipment?

This year more than any other, the Busch Series is seeing an influx of Nextel Cup drivers due to the new qualifying rules set in place by NASCAR. At the majority of the events, there is no practice

post-qualifying with minimal alterations to the cars before the race begins.

So, many Cup drivers are running the Busch events to gain all important track time and valuable set up information they can parley between the two cars. It's long been debated about Cup drivers presence within the Busch Series, as more often than not they win the events taking valuable prize money from the under-funded teams.

Some regular Busch teams struggling just to qualify especially with inexperienced drivers, but the regular Busch drivers gain experience in competing with them so the debate goes on.

- MARTIN D CLARK

The book is avdilebb in 3 options.

A 200 copy limited edition carbon fibre covered book vvhich is hand-made to order, individually numbered and signed; a case bound version; and a coffee table version Books are available directly from Dynamik Marketing, T1 Senna Rd Wingfield SA 5013 Ph; 08 8359 6955 or online; www.throughmyeyesbook.com www.graphicdakphotos.com www.teamdynamik.com or by sending a cheque or money order to: Through My Eyes, 22 Kawana Cres koganholme Qld 4129 Ph: 07 3287 9480 Prices as follows Carbon Fibre S350.00(hand-made to order) Case Bound $95.00 Coffee Table $75.00 Postage and handling...

Within Australia including registration $12.95 Overseas AUD$ including insurance AUD$35.00 The official launch of'Through My Eyes” is on Monday 14th March at the opening of the Clipsal 500 20 Years of Motorsport exhibition at the SKYCITY ADELAIDE Casino. The book is to be launched by the voice of motorsport, Murray Walker OBE.

JETPiirr

FOCUS ON WEBBER

Something Old, S I

N fhe end, Mark Webber was a little disappointed with how Sunday afternoon panned out. But points in the bag from a race where the team didn't expect to figure at all isn't to be sneezed at.

Nevertheless, a slightly cautious first corner was to cost heaps. Webber has put in some pretty brisk opening laps in the past, but on this occasion, caution held sway.

Who could have imagined that David Couithard's Red Bull would remain quite so consistent? That Webber would be bottled up behind him for the whole race? Well almost... as you will read.

"There's no doubt that, if we hadn't been caught up behind DC,there was a possible podium there," Mark told MNews on Monday.

"1 think we probably had a good six to seven tenths speed advantage, but to use it I had to try and jump him at one of the stops and it just didn't pan out."

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Indeed, to do that under the new one-tyre regs you have to go at least a lap further than your rival. In pre-2005 spec, a fresh set of rubber would give you a strong lap or two, despite the fuel weight taken on. Now, with

«

i couldn't believe it kept going like it did. I felt sure something would happen! But to be fair to DC, he did a great job tt

- Webber describes how it feeis to be stuck behind a Red Bull for much of the race

no fresh ruibber, he who stops fiirst strugiglies with the extra SOkgs oir so of extra fuel white his rival gets a strong ilaip or two in light trim. iitheir way, it didn't pan out for Webber - despite the fact that, away froim the cameras.

i

FORMULA 1

omething New he actually passed Coulthard really came. There was half a on the in-lap! chance when a Minardi got in "Yeah, I did get him, at Turn the way, but he just managed 9, on the in-lap, but he came in ^ to hang in there, on the same lap and then we "Either way, we - that's the had a bit of a drama with the team and me— learned a lot fuel rig and I came out behind this weekend about the tyres.

We also had some new aero him," Mark confirmed, "i also ended up short-filled, bits and pieces which so we had to come in earlier improved the car considerably - like a reprofiied diffuser, than planned for the second revised brake duets and (see stop. That's all there was to it.

Rubens [Barrichello] and tech talk, page 44) as you saw, [Fernando] Alonso both went a little extra wing at the back. several laps longer before they It all helps.

"The guys back at the wind stopped for the second time, tunnel are doing some good on a light load, and so they work. We've got some more both jumped me there. stuff coming for Malaysia and "Unless he made a big mistake, there was little I'm hoping that we could well have caught up in the opportunity to pass DC. There downforce stakes by Imola. were some other quick guys "It's promising. We're a little further back who got stuck behind slower cars as well - it better off right now than we'd thought- perhaps next in line was simply really hard to pass here." behind Renault, Ferrari and McLaren - and there's plenty So how frustrating was it to to come." be bottled up behind his 'old' car, or at least the one he Frustrating. That word again.

It must be when you're the helped develop through 2004? first driver in FI to ever be "Very! I couldn't believe it kept going like it did. I felt sure fastest in qualifying, yet start something would happen! But from grid three: "Mate,that's the system. It's to be fair to DC, he did a great not perfect, but until it job. changes we've got to live with "He pulled off a good move it. We were a bit lucky on at the first corner. If I'd argued with him,there was always the Saturday with the weather, so we were better off than we possibility of a drama and I'd really should have been." had Patrick (Head) in my ear What else did Webber learn for 10 minutes before the race at the first try-out under 20G5 telling me that whatever regs? happened, I shouldn't risk "Actually, I was impressed going off the road at the first corner! with how well the tyres hung In there, especially later in the "We also have a couple of race. It's interesting though, other little things that added how, in just eight seconds, up to me being perhaps a fraction cautious at Turn 1. during a stop, they can lose significant temperature. By the We're using a brake pad material that I find a fraction second stop, they're pretty thin and the temperature just 'grabby' and that, combined goes! with front tyres which were a fraction cold (thanks to Fisi "I actually struggled with temperature in the fronts late running a slow warm-up lap), meant I had to be careful not in the race and had a couple of little lock-ups. But apart from to lock a front going in. that, just fine.

"DC did and got away with "I was able to nurse the it. But the potential to flat-spot engine a bit in the late stages a tyre, which you're stuck with too, so we're in credit a bit for the rest of the race, is there, in terms of going on to something you have to think about.

Malaysia. It's most likely to be "But like I said, DC and Red pretty hot there, which will make a big difference on the Bull did a great job. I sat there telling myself I'd get him back, engine front. but the ODDortunitv never "It'll be interesting ..."

The morning after the Austmlim Gmm PriXf h'ustration was still the key erm^im at play in Mark Webber's minrL Thi Williams team would0adly ham taker Mh before it got to Melbourne, but in thi end a potential podium went be^ng Mark spoke to CMmS LAMBDEh

I have seen yea on TV. Dad: Webber discusses his maiden outing as a Williams driver with his father Alan last weekend in Melbourne.

Locals at home: Webber gazes into the blurred distance as Sam Michael checks the data in the BMW.Williams garage.

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Winter testing was over. Now, the teams were forced to show their hand. What did they have up their sleeve?

MARK GLENDENNING documented the first FI session for 2005

A

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N keeping with the flavour of the new regulations, the 2005 season got off to a low-key start on Friday.

The two-race engine rule offered little incentive for the drivers to go out and start piling mileage on in the very first sessions of the first race weekend - but conversely, the new tyre regulations put a premium upon getting tyre selection right at the start of the weekend. Get it wrong,and you've got 58 long, painful laps ahead on Sunday.

As the lone Bridgestone frontrunner, this could prove to be a small thorn in Ferrari's side during the season.

"Ideally, we'd be doing 20-lap runs to make a judgement on tyres," Ross Brawn said. "But that's not possible now with the new engine rules."

In short, this is a good year to be able to call on a third driver for Fridays-and with tire exception of Sauber, who is again the only team that is entitled to use a Friday driver but chooses not to - those that had tlie advantage made the most of it.

McLaren occupies the enviable position enjoyed by BAR Honda last year in that they have both a third driver and what appears to be a rather fast car. Thus,.Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya amassed just 35 laps between them across the two sessions before wrapping their engines in cotton wool,leaving former Arrows and Jaguar pilot Pedro de la Rosa to bomb around for

S3!7i

The easy day: Ralf Schumacher, above left, and Mark Webber, right, weren't keen to show their speed too early. a total of 47 laps on their behalf.

During the afternoon session, he set what would be the day's fastest time with a lm25.376s tour, scraping 0.6s out of the lm26s set by Tonio Liuzzi earlier in the day.

The reigning F3000 Champion was spending his first weekend in a Formula One car doing donkey work for Red Bull Racing, and while his afternoon running was curtailed by a spin, the exciting Italian did enough fo keep his new employers happy {see breakout).

But by and large, Friday was hardly a strong selling point for Formula One as a spectacle. Jacques Villeneuve earned the honour of

being the first driver to take to the track in the 2005 season when he ventured the Sauber out for an installation lap, with a handful of others, including Mark Webber, wandering out for similar exploratory tours shortly afterwards.

But 12 minutes in, there had still not been a flying lap. If you were sitting anywhere near the top of tire main straight, you would not have seen a car go past yet. Finally, Liuzzi came to the rescue, banging around the track in lm33.405s. The season was underway.

Gradually,a few more cars began to head out, although the track was stiU ver}' much the domain of the third

drivers. In fact, by the time the session was half-finished, the only race drivers to have completed a flying lap were the Jordan pairing of Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Montiero both of whom,as rookies, needed as much track time as possible(and frankly, neither would not lose a lot of sleep over being docked 10 grid spots if their engure crapped out).

The main players gave their cars .SUrshall Ctiss

1

●i

-S r Making every lap count: Pedro de la Rosa completed 47 laps In the session while McLaren team-mates Montoya and Raikonnen rested their machinery.

40

motorsportnews

FORMULA 1

a.

2L

It ain't as easy as it looks: Zonta, above and Kartbikeyan, below, had different roles to perform on Friday.

SQBiRAM

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'f more of an airing once some extra rubber had been laid down in the afternoon, with most drivers clocking up 15-20 laps each, but the bulk of the work was again left to the Friday drivers wherever possible.

With everybody running different programs,it was difficult to judge much other than most of the pre season predictions had been pretty accurate. The McLarens and Renaults were fast. The Ferraris were quick, but did not look quite as dangerous as last year. BAR was there or

thereabouts, and Williams still had some work to do.

Red Bull Racing did enough to suggest that it had inherited the basis of what would have been a rather neat little Jaguar R6. David Coulthard's RBI ran like clockwork throughout the day, while Christian Klien's running was curtailed slightly by a throttle problem in the afternoon. Both drivers were nevertheless optimistic, and reported that the car was easy to drive and responded well to changes.

Ferrari and BAR were relatively anonymous on the timesheets, however both declared themselves reasonably happy with the opening day's running.

"We nearly completed our full programme,although 1 had a small electrical problem in the morning, wliich meant that I had to pit earlier than expected," said Michael Schumacher.

"It was fixed very quickly, so we did not lose much time. It looks as though our pre-season idea of who

TONIO Liuzzi does not appear to be a ^ man who is easily flustered.

Stereotypes would have you believe that a driver would make the night before their first real ; day on the job with an FI k team as low key as possible |r- n lots of rest, no stress, and early to bed with a cup of Ovaltine.

W At around 11pm in the evening prior to his first day as Red Bull Racing's third driver, ’●Z Liuzzi was on a dancefloor. apparently attempting to start a conga 'T ' line. OK, it was at a Red Bull party and he was required to be there - but the official part of his evening had ended several hours earlier, David Coulthard was long gone.

If he was concerned about the day ahead, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

Twelve hours later, the Italian was steering the #37 RBI onto the Albert Park circuit for the first time. And while the quirks of the new regulations helped skew everybody's Friday running plans, the fact remained that when it was all over, Liuzzi had comfortably topped the timesheets in his first-ever FI session. He was a full 0.5s clear of Pedro de la Rosa, lying in second place in the third McLaren.

9 March 2005

our main opposition would be was pretty accurate -although I was surprised at the pace of the Red Bull and Sauber cars."

But at the end of first day of the first race of the season, everybody was still playing their cards pretty close to their chest. If you spotted someone wandering around the paddock looking excited, you could bet that it was probably part of Stoddy's legal team.

As the cliche goes, though, tomorrow would be another day ...

"I got used to seeing Vitantonio's times at the top of the sheet last year," said Red Bull Racing's Christian Horner, who headed the Arden team that helped Liuzzi claim the International F3000 title last year.

"But there were some impressive nairies beneath him today. It was a positive start ... but obviously, the drivers were working to different programmes."

Shouldering the responsibility of conducting the bulk of Red Bull Racing's tyre evaluation work, Liuzzi completed 19 laps in the first session, but his afternoon running was thwarted on his eighth lap when he skated the RBI into the gravel at turn thme.

"I put a wheel on the grass while I was overtaking another car - one of our own that had just come out of the pus, I think - and spun because I picked up some dirt on my tyres," he rued.

"That ended my day, which was a real shame."

Although his afternoon ended m the gravel, Liuzzi did more than enough to have demonstrated why he is considered by many to be one of FI's most tantalising future prospects - and is part of the reason why Christian Klien, who is on a race-bv-race deal, will have to work very, very narri to stay in the driver's seat.

- MARK GLENDENNING 41

Saturday

Saved by the rain If it wasn't for Melbourne's blistery cold Saturday the AGP would have been a completely different story ...for better or worse

Qualifying 1

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Practice

G

IVEN that his first day as a Formula One driver had come and gone without him actually getting into the car, it was little surprise to see Minardi's Patrick Friesacher take to the track about a millisecond after the pit exit opened for the first practice session on Saturday morning.

It was his first lap of the weekend, his first lap around Albert Park, his first lap in a 2005-spec Minardi(the first ever lap in a 2005-spec Minardi, in fact)- and it was wet. Welcome to Formula One. The rain had stopped just prior to the beginning of the session, but the track was damp enough to keep the drivers on tlieir toes. Mark Webber was one of several drivers to 'transcend' their grip levels, but nobody suffered anything more serious than mild embarrassment.

Only 10 drivers bothered to complete anything more than an installation lap in the first outing, but by the time the second session rolled around the track had improved enough to coax the rest from their caves.

After a bit of early movement on the timesheets, Giancarlo Fisichella had settled nicely into PI - until the sister Renault of Fernando Alonso 42

came along and bumped him back to second with just under five minutes remaining.

Fisi improved again, but then came Juan Pablo Montoya, who declared McLaren's intentions by going fastest in the dying moments.

Alonso responded, but then Kimi Raikkonen drove McLaren's point home by to securing PI with his final lap.

And where was Ferrari? By recent standards, they were off the radar.

Michael Schumacher had been stuck in 10th place for the latter part of the session before improving to seventh with his final run,leaving Rubens Barrichello to settle for 10th.

Elsewhere,Jenson Button was keeping BAR in the himt by going fifth fastest, but the fact that he was move than 2.0s slower than Raikkonen served as a reminder that practice times are to be taken with a grain of salt. Mark Webber was just behind him in a Williams that was still not beliaving to his liking.

There were a few minor wins for the little guys elsewhere in the field, with the Red Bull pair finishing ahead of the two Toyotas, and the Minardis out-doing the two Jordansalthough their cause was helped a little by Narain Karthikeyan's problems {see breakout:).

-MARKGLENDENNING

WELL,it may not have been representative of much,but at least it was sort of entertaining.

That the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella had ended the first qualifying session at the top of the timing screens was not much of a surprise. Most had been expecting the battle for pole to be fought out between Renault and McLaren anyway. But Fisi's success had less to do with an off-season's worth of hard work at Enstone than it did with sheer, dumb luck. The single-lap qualifying system is vulnerable to odd results produced by weather changing during the session, but this time, it was virtually changing by the minute - and the result was one of the most chaotic-looking provisional grids in recent history.

Rain had been falling throughout the afternoon, but although the last shower had cleared up half an hour before the session started, there was stiU a soggy track and stiff breeze waiting for Christijan Albers when he sputtered down pitlane to commence his installation lap.

Tyre choice at this point was a nobrainer, with the volume of water sitting on the track clearly forcing the drivers onto intermediates. The Dutchman's lap was not perfect, and in fact was almost over before it had really started when he got out of shape at the very first comer, but it stood up to team-mate Partick Friesacher's effort a couple of minutes later. Aided by a fast improving circuit, Narain Karthikeyan carved a whopping 4.8s out of Albers' time to go to the top of the sheets, but he was predictably hammered by a further 2.8s when Jenson Button took his turn.

The sky had mostly cleared when Nick Heidfeld prepared to begin his lap, and dry patches were beginning to appear on the circuit. To begin witli, the German made the most of

it, going 1.3s up on Button's time at the first split, but a small error at hum 12 put a dent in his ambitions. He was still in PI by 1.7s when he crossed the timing line, but with his team-mate just about to start his own flying lap,it didn't look like Nick would be there for long.

And so it proved. Mark Webber had done a slightly better job of getting some heat into the Michelins during his out lap than his colleague, and lm36.717s later he was at the top of the timing screens by a full 3.0s.

Wlrile the grandstand went berserk, Webber himself was a little more restrained.

"I was happy with the lap," he said.

"I got my braking points pretty good, which is not easy in those conditions because the track is changing in front of you.Picking,the right tyres, the right pressures, all those tilings are crucial. Nick did make a small mistake,so 1 don't think it is fair to compare (us)too much.

"The weather was good to us. It rained relatively soon after us, and that is why we are where we are."

The I IF you happened to place a bet on Narain Karthikeyan being the fastest Bridgestone runner at the end of Saturday qualifying, then chances are that you can suddenly afford to buy a couple of new cars.

The Indian is a bit of an enigma. Depending upon who you ask, he is either a genuine yet rather unrefined talent, or he is a fast yet scarily erratic driver with enough ability to get results in lower formulae.

fflotorsinitiwiifs

While the track condition at the time of Webber's lap appeared to be improving almost as you watched,he insisted that switching to dries was not an option.

"It was too early for us," he said.

"Jenson was the first Michelin rurmer and he did a 41,1 think,and then there was a bit of a break. There was no way Nick and I could go on grooves. So we thought that inters were the right tyre, and it definitely was for us."

Webber's time survived the best efforts of Christian Klien, but the continuing improvement in the conditions made it a sitting duck for the Toyota of Jamo TruUi, who raised the bar by 1.4s.

After a forgettable lap by David Coulthard at the wheel of a Red Bull Racing car that was not doing anything to his liking, things started to get interesting. Jacques Villeneuve decided to bite the bullet, had a set of dries bolted on,and went out to see what he could do with them. A 360 degree spin through turn five -on his out lap -suggested that he might have made the wrong call, and the Canadian decided to forget about the

heroics on his flying lap and took it easy.

"As you saw,it was shppery on my out lap, but I was fortimate not to hit anything when I spun. After that, I wasn't too aggressive on my qualifymg lap."

Fisi must have been watching with interest. The track still wasn't completely dry, but it was better than it had been all day. The Roman duly ticked around the circuit and set the fastest time by about an hoiu.

"I did a very good lap in difficult conditions," he said."The track was still damp in lots of places and I had to push right to the limit without going over it. Running on dry tyres in 5ie damp always makes it difficult to find enough grip."

As tough as Fisi may have found the conditions, Felipe Massa would have traded places with him in a heartbeat. With the Brazilian commencing his out-lap while Fisi was on his flyer, the Sauber team would barely have thought twice about equipping him with dries. So when it suddenly started dumping with rain literally as he was about to commence his flying lap, the whole

thing suddenly became a lost cause.

The team jumped onto the radio to tell their young charge that they would rather appreciate it if he could bring the car back in one piece, and Massa went to such extraordinary lengths to obhge (in what, to be fair, must have been about the most difficult possible conditions in which to drive a FI car) that Michael Schumacher, who was next out, actually passed the Sauber while it was still nominally on its flying lap.

Michael knew that a reasonable qualifying result was out of the question before he even started his lap. For him the only real decision to be made was about whether the track was wet,or really, really wet.

"I had seen the rain clouds approaching,and I had hoped they would stay away a bit longer," he shrugged."But it didn't happen,and we only just had enough time to fit the normal rain tyres when extreme wets would have been a better choice."

We've all grown rather used to Acts of God falling in the Germans favour over the past few years, but on this occasion nature went a small way towards redressing the balance.

Beyond that, the session was a write-off. Takuma Sato afternoon ended early when he walled the BAR on his out lap, and everybody else plodded around in the wet and tried not to damage anytlring. When the best you can hope for is a time roughly 15s off pole, there is little point taking any risks.

In what was meant to be the first run of the new aggregate quahfying system, the fact that the weather had conspired to determine the grid almost irrespective of what happened in Srmday's final qualifymg session was lost on no-one.

Of the cars that bothered to finish their flying laps, Michael Schumacher was the slowest with a time almost 25s off pole. Not even Michael in a Ferrari can make up that kind of deficit on aggregate, and it was a similar story right through tlie field. The top 10 were covered by a shade under 11s. With no real potential for any significant movement within the grid (unless one of the frontrunners walled their car), Sunday morning suddenly looked rather meaningless ...

-MARK GLENDENNING

<art has come but out of his depth in the big league.

Only time will settle that little debate, but the opening sessions of the weekend showed signs of both. By the end of Friday's second practice session, Karthikeyan had a 1.5s advantage over his fellow rookie team-mate Tiago Montiero, and on Saturday morning he was fourth-fastest overall (although it should be remembered that half the cars didn't bother to complete a lap 9 March 2005

during that session).

You could also make some comparison between the Jordan drivers' times in first qualifying, where they went out one after the other. Narain was first, and managed a lap almost 2,5s quicker than Montiero could summon in the same car and similar conditions.

On the other hand, Karthikeyan played a role in the weekend's first collision when he clipped Pedro de la Rosa's rear wheel during Friday practice

and sent the McLaren spinning harmlessly into the gravel. It could have happened to anyone - but it gives a little bit of extra ammunition to those that find him hard to get excited about.

The jury, then, is still out on Karthikeyan. But given that the two Jordans were rather comprehensively outgunned by the untested 2005-spec Minardis in Saturday practice, Narain's public image may be the least of his problems this year, - MARK GLENDENNING

48

Technical

The Finishing Ton The first race of the season provides a smorgasbord for the technically-minded.

PAOLO FILISETTI checks out the latest tweaks TF105 - extra winglets/profiles

TOYOTA has been the most active team from the technical point of view, having radically developed its aerodynamic layout since the launch of their new car.

This is a sign that something was not right in the original project, and it needed some major work before the start of the season.

On the TF105, additional wing profiles and winglets have appeared in the sidepod area. An additional wing profile (1), featuring a sinuous section, has been placed in front on the top edge of the sidepod, in a very similar way to the element that was introduced last year on the Jordan EJ14.

This device has the main purpose of increasing the downforce in this area of the car, but it also divides into two portions the airflow coming from the front wing. The engine cooling is also slightly improved.

The need for downforce, particularly critical on this car, is made clear by the addition of small winglets (2) on theTop of the flip-ups placed in front of the rear wheels.

These small elements are able

to provide an increased amount of downforce concentrated at the rear axle level. This should help to correct the poor grip of this car.

Williams FW27 bi-plane wing AT the rear of the FW27 it was interesting to see the addition of a very small wing, 10cm wide, right over the rear light support.

This small wing features a

double profile with a very high wing inclination, to add a small but effective amount of downforce. It is uncertain whether this new element could be used on many other tracks it is likely it will be adopted only on slow twisty circuits where traction is paramount.

Williams turning vanes A CRUCIAL part of all modern FI cars is the area right in front of the sidepods.

On the Williams FW27 it is interesting to note how last year's horizontal fins, which connected with the central section of the stepped bottom, have been substituted with an extension of the lower front section of the sidepods, in a sort of knife profile, sporting a

rounded toe, above (1). This element works together with a smaller fin, featuring a slightly sinuous squared section (2).

This device helps in splitting the airflow into two portions, one underneath the car, the other to the sidepod entrance. This increases the cooling capabilites.

IVIcLaren's Horn Wing McLAREN'S distinctive horn wing debuted some weeks back in testing. Aerodynamicist Nick Tombazis confirms that this element not only provides increased downforce, but that it also improves the overall aerodynamic balance of the car.

Kimi Raikkonen was pretty happy about his car's behaviour, saying that this solution has improved the general handling of the car because it is placed exactly at its centre.

Elf Racing Fuels

■I

Congratulations to our technical partners the Renault F1 Team, an outstanding performance ih the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix

eifa

www.racefuels.com.au 44

motorsportnews

FORMULA ONE

ches

}

And what about Minardi?

Front Wing

THE FIA regs required the front wing to be raised by 50mm,to reduce front downforce and, theoretically, make the ear less susceptible to being affected by the airflow from a car in front - allowing cars to get closer without aero being affected.

Rear Wing

TO keep constant aerodynamic balance, the rear wing is part of the rule changes.

It has been moved forward 15cm, so it is closer to the engine cover and there is therefore a loss of efficiency of the main wing profile, thanks to the air flow turbulence generated by the engine cover being closer to it. It is a huge reduction of efficiency -the rear wing loses approx 200 kilos of downforce level.

Diffuser

AGP Tech Data Average fuel consumption in Melbourne: 2.9 kilos /lap Brakes figures:8 braking points.

Percentage of time spent on braking: 18 percent of lap Heaviest deceleration: 310 kph to 1 OOkph at the second braking point Braking distance at this point:140m.

Heaviest deceleration:4.2G Heaviest brake pedal load: 90kg Max. brake temperature: 920°C

THE under-car diffuser limitation is the most stringent downforce reduction ever seen since the introduction of the step plane in 1995.

The side section of the diffuser, below right, is allowed a maximum height from the reference plane of 125 mm, which means that the 'side channels' have a very low angle. In real terms, this means that most of the previous air extraction capabilities have been hugely reduced, in turn reducing dramatically the downforce generated by the rear diffuser, which previously contributed to 20 percent of the total car downforce.

All that said, it is clear that the modifications required were not as simple as just eu-tting pieces off the 2004 bodywork, in particular the rear diffuser.

Additionally, the nose pillars have the fundamental task of keeping the front wing attached to the cat, thanks to

the huge load.

In my opinion, therefore, Minardi must have had most of the elements to make the 2004 spec car eligible for 2005 rules sitting in its garage, which asks the question as to why Paul Stoddart went as far as he did with his case ....

-Ra®L0RiygifTil

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From pole, Giancarlo Fisichella controlled the Australian Grand Prix while, behind him, two cars came out of the midfield qualifying-induced ruck to grab the other podium spots.

JOE SAWARD watched.

G

lANCARLO Fisichella enjoyed his first'real' Grand Prix win on Sunday. He got to enjoy the podium after a calculated and storming drive, measuring his pace precisely to that needed to keep the advancing late challenge at bay.

That challenge came from Rubens Barrichello and Fisi's Renault team mate Fernando Alonso, who both pushed their way through from mid grid starts to take the other podium spots.

48

Mark Webber's Williams came home in fifth, having spent the entire race looking at the rear end of the rear end of David Coulthard's Red Bull, nee Jaguar, which was the revelation of the day. Webber may have rued a cautious first comer, which let DC in, but couldn't have imagined that his'old' car could keep up that pace all day^...

In the days leading up to the Australian Grand Prix, the smart money in Formula 1 circles was on

Giancarlo Fisichella for victory in Melbourne.

Fisichella is one of the most highlyrated drivers in the sport these days and as he said after tire event he has not had a car to win races on a regular basis. Now he has and tlie speed of the Renault R25 was impressive, not just Fisichella's run from pole to chequered flag, but also continued on page 50

Whik ANY chance that Sunday’s qualifying would have some meaningful impact on the grid was knocked solidly on the head by what had happened the day before.

So widely was the field spread as a result of Saturday’s weather, there were very few drivers with any real chance of improving their grid spots which didn’t offer much of an incentive to go out and attack each corner at 11/1 Oths.

In fact, Felipe Massa and Takuma Sato didn’t bother to go out at all. A new Honda had been slotted into Taku’s BAR overnight, which meant a penalty of 10 grid positions something that was hardly likely to cause him much concern, given that he was already PI9 after walling the car on his outlap 20 hours earlier.

Massa, meanwhile, had abandoned his flying lap on Saturday, which meant that he would have needed to take roughly a minute off the lap record on Sunday morning to get off the back couple of rows.

This is not even possible on a Playstation, so the Brazilian opted to look after his engine and take a raincheck.

As things turned out, the Sauber driver was promoted to 18th on the grid courtesy of overnight engine changes for Sato and Michael Schumacher, thus making him the first person ever to pass two cars without even completing a qualifying lap...

Michael’s interest in the session also extended to nothing more than a single installation lap, which left it to his brother to post the first flyer of the day. Ralf was not demanding much from the Toyota - when you are PI7 and have a deficit of about 18s,there is not a lot of point- but he managed to move up one row to 15th. netsKimrtMWS

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For the guys at the front, there was a little bit more reason to push, and particularly for Mark Webber. The BMW.Williams had a 1,7s handicap to Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, which was nominally in second place - a large gap, but one that he just might be able to bridge on aggregate if given the right conditions.

As things turned out, Trulli’s time was too far out of reach, but Webber still managed to clock the fastest time of the session -the fastest qualifying time of the weekend, in fact- by pipping Giancarlo Fisichella by just 0.01s.

Under any other qualifying system on the planet, he would have been on pole. As it was, he was third.

“We knew that yesterday’s session was pretty much the grid, but we knew that if it was dry today, the session was going to be a waste of time,” he said. “It turned out to be pretty much that.”

Webber’s speed came as a surprise to Fisi, who was initially under the impression that he had gone fastest in both outings. But even though he had been marginally outgunned on Sunday morning, the Italian’s cushion from Saturday was still enough to have him on pole by just under 3.0s.

“Maybe I was a little bit too conservative in the first three or four corners,” the Roman reflected.

“But then I did a good lap. I have a good opportunity today, and I’m looking fon/vard to it. I hope to be the leader after the first corner and after that do my race and get to the end in the first position.”

Sounded like a plan ...

Sandwiched between Fisi and Webber, Trulli’s second place marked the first front-row start for Toyota, and the first ali-ltalian front row since the mid-1980s.

Behind them, not much of the grid had changed. A great lap from David Coulthard - a bloke not usually known for thriving in 9 March 2005

the single-lap qualifying format promoted him one spot ahead of Red Bull team-mate Christian Klien for an all-RBR third row, and the two McLarens aiso managed to shuffle a couple of spots higher in the midfield. Juan Pablo Montoya had the edge over Kimi Raikkonen, but it would have been a different story had the Finn not had a big lose while exiting turn 12. It may have cost him a grid spot or two, but his efforts to gather the car up before it found the wall on the other side of the circuit added some colour to what was otherwise turning out to be a very long hour.

Aside from the Jordans slipping backwards, everything else looked more or less as it had the day before.

Christijan Albers broke the tedium slightly when a gearbox problem delayed the Minardi while it was preparing to exit the garage to commence its out-lap, and by the time it had been sorted out the pit exit had closed, leaving the frustrated Dutchman to park the car in the middle of pitlane and wander back to the garage. Given that he was 15th at the time, the problem did not have a great influence on the grid, but it did mean one less Formula One car driving around in front of the punters in the stands.

Saturday’s weather may have created unusual circumstances, but the fact remains that Albert Park was not a ringing endorsement of the new qualifying system.

Spectators were confused, television commentators were confused, some drivers were admitting privately that they had not been trying particularly hard, other drivers were not bothering to complete laps at all, and the fastest driver of the two qualifying session was starting from the second row.

Is this really what we want?

- MARK GLENDENNING

Fastest... but not on pole: Webber's Sunday qualifying lap was sharp and smooth. He started the race from third on the grid.

Australian Grand Prix ^ Qualii^iing 1 2 3

Driver Giancarlo Fisichella Jarno Trulli Mark Webber

4 Jacques Villeneuve 5 David Coulthard 6 Christian Klien 7 Nick heidfeld 8 Jenson Button

Car Renault

Q1 1:33.171 1:35.270 Toyota 1:36.717 BMW.WilliamsFI Sauber Petronas 1:36.984 Red Bull Cosworth 1:38.320 Red Bull Cosworth 1:37.486 1:39.717 BMW.WilliamsFI 1:41,512 BAR Flonda

9 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren Mercedes 1:45.325 10 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes 1:44.997 1:45,481 11 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:44.357 12 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan Toyota 1:47.708 13 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:46.846 14 Tiago Monteiro Jordan Toyota 1:51.495 15 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 16 Patrick Friesacher Minardi Cosworth 1:50.864 17 Christijan Albers Minardi Cosworth 1:49.230 1:57.931 18 Michael Schumacher Ferrari no time BAR Flonda 19 TakumaSato Sauber Petronas no time 20 Felipe Massa

02 1:28.289 1:29.159 1:28.279 1:29,862 1:28.892 1:29.991 1:29,413 1:30,616 1:29.320 1:30.561 1:31.341 1:32.735 1:29.758 1:33,483 1:31.222 1:37.499 no time no time no time no time

01+ 02 3:01.460 3:04.429 3:04.996 3:06.846 3:07.212 3:07.477 3:09.130 3:12.128 3:14.645 3:15.558 3:16.822 3:17,092 3:17.466 3:20.329 3:22.717 3:28.363

49

continued from page 48 Fernando Alonso's drive from 13th on the'grid to third. This on a day when it was clear that the new 2005 regulations are going to make overtaking very difficult indeed.

Even the great Michael Schumacher could not do much.

After the backmarkers let him through at the start he remained jammed in 15th place until the first pit stops. Overtaking was just not an option.

In the end the seven-time World Champion smacked into Nick Heidfeld with 15 laps to go, when his fellow-countryman made a decent run at him on the inside at Turn 3.

Heidfeld is not one to rant and rave pubhcally and said nothing controversial. Michael said that Heidfeld could not be blamed for being enthusiastic, but some felt that Michael had gone back to his bad old habits of driving off those who dared to try to overtake.

That was the only real incident of note in the race. Everyone went for two stops except Felipe Massa,and his decision to go for one was based on the fact that he was starting from the back of the grid, having been caught out in qualifying by a rain storm he could do nothing about. In the circumstances, he did a good job to finish 10th.

Point of contact: The German pair of Nick Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher butted horns at turn three.

The Renault simply has more.

The Red Bull drivers both scored

overtaking was not possible. If Coulthard had not been there,

points, David Coulthard finishing fourth and Christian Klien seventh but the team admitted that it had benefited from the unusual circumstances in

Webber would most likely have been on the podium. He would not have beaten Fisichella, but who knows if he could have held off Barrichello and Alonso.

qualifying. The aim,of course,is to take the opportunities as they present themselves and Red Bull did exactly that. A fabulous effort.

Williams would have had a better result if Mark Webber had got out of the first comer ahead of DC.He did not and spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the gearbox of Coulthard's car. David did not make a mistake and although the Williams was obviously quicker by a margin.

Alonso was the only man overtaking in any meaningful way. He made a couple of places on the first lap, dispensing with Narain Karthikeyan and Jenson Button. After that he was stuck behind Jacques"ViUeneuve for the first 17 laps. Alonso was polite when asked about'VUleneuve's driving but another driver, who best remains nameless,remarked that Jacques was driving "like a granny".

After he finally dealt with Jacques, Alonso went past TruUi to take sixth place and his pace during the pit stop sequences took care of others and so he ended the day third behind Rubens Barrichello. The Ferrari driver drove a blinding race but did not overtake anyone after the first lap while moving up from 11th on the grid to second. Do not think that Ferrari does not have pace this year.

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The big disappointments of the weekend were BAR-Honda and McLaren,but it may be that the teams struggled because of the unusually cold weather conditions seen this year in Melbourne. We need to see the cars running in warmer conditions to find out whether the

fourth place and Christian Klien finished seventh.

Good fortune in qualifying obviously helped the team but Coulthard ran in the top three

Grand Prix of Australia March 6 2005

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MELBOURNE 2005

Jaguar buy-out and it impressed everyone as David Coulthard drove to

Melbourne picture is indeed a tme representation of where things stand.

Malaysia should do that.

13 FA

FOSTERS AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

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STAR performer of this weekend was the Red Bull team. This was its first race in Formula 1 since the

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Podium men: From left, Barrichello (2nd), Fisichella (1st) and Alonso (3rd).

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B DC = D Coulthard

Bj TM = T Monteiro

B CK = C Klien

B NK = N Karthikeyan B PF = P Friesacher

B MS = M Schumacher B FA = F Alonso GF = G Fisichella RB = R Barrichello

B KR = K Raikkonen

B MW = M Webber

B JV = J Villeneuve

B JT = J Trulli

B FM = F Massa

n RS = R Schumacher B CA = C Albers

B JB = J Button B TS = T Sato

B NH = N Heidfeld

JM = J Montoya

20

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i

FORMULA 1

for most of the race, hounded

by Mark Webber, but he held him off all the way.

"I made a good start," said David, "and so I managed to get up into third place but then I struggled with the heavy fuel load and had lots of trouble with traffic and lost chunks of time."

At one point Coulthard had a frightening moment with Patrick Friesacher's Minardi, hitting the

car up the back and was lucky not to damage the Red Bull car.

Despite this David held on and was even able to stop Mark Webber passing him - although the Williams was virtually elbowed onto the grass to do it!

"I spent the whole race behind him," said Webber. "DC did a good job.

"At the first corner he was coming in, whatever. I think he

L n

L

Australian Grand Prix - Race - 57 laps Car Driver 1 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari Renault 3 Fernando Alonso 4 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing Williams-BMW 5 Mark Webber 6 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 7 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing McLaren-Mercedes 8 Kimi Raikkonen 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota Sauber-Petronas 10 Felipe Massa BAR-Honda Ret Jenson Button 12 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 13 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas BAR-Honda Ret Takuma Sato 15 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 16 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota Minardi-Cosworth 17 Patrick Friesacher Ret Michael Schumacher Ferrari Williams-BMW Ret Nick Fleidfeld Minardi-Cosworth Ret Christijan Albers

Laps 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 56 56 56 55 55 55 53 42 42 16

Race time 1:24:17.336 +5.5S +6.7S +16.1S +16.9S +35.0S +38.S +39.6S +63.1 s +64.3S +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +2 Laps +2 Laps +4 Laps +15 Laps +15 Laps +41 Laps

Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso 1:25.683s World Championship Polnis: Fisichella ID, Barrichello 8, Alonso 6, Coullhard 5, Webber 4, Montoya 3, Klien 2, Raikkonen 1 Coniruclors Championship Points: Renault 16, Ferrari 8, Red Bull-Cesworth 7, Williaras-BMW 4, McLaren-Mercedes 4

9 March 2005

would have hit me. On a clear track we had seven or eight tenths on him. But it was impossible when I was behind him. I followed that thing the whole race but, actually, I am happy for the guys down there at Red Bull because I know the shit they have been through.

"I was thinking That car is going to stop, it is going to stop', but it didn't!"

Coulthard reckoned that Red Bull Racing might even have got a podium.

"That was achievable today," he said. "That would have been a dream start for Red Bull and at one stage I was beginning to dream a little, but I can't complain about fourth place. It is much more than we expected."

- JOE SAWARD

Below the Jenson and Co delivered a lesa^thanJnspiring performance BAR-MONDA was the biggest disappointment of the j Australian Grand Prix, by far.

The team finished second in last year's World Championship and much was expected this year but the cars ! lacked performance in the early part of the race as, according | to the team,the rear tyres would not heat up. The team reckoned that this was probably due to aerodynamics.

1 Things were not helped when Jenson Button made a poor j start. \ "I was losing two or three seconds a lap behind Jacques j (Vilienueve)," he said. "I was stuck. I don't know if he was using all his gears! When you are behind someone it upsets the airflow and you cannot do anything.

"It seems more difficult than last year to overtake. When I got out and ahead of him I thought'Wowl The car is not bad at all.'

"We have to sort our strategies a bit. We will be alright. I think Renault is stronger than us but I am not scared by anyone else. It does seem more difficult than last year to overtake."

The team aims to improve.

"Our car performance was not up to the standard that we have come to expect and our technical team must work to find ] more pace before the next round in Malaysia," said Nick Fry. j -JOE SAWARD; 51

Post-race

FI: Expect the Expected ONE of the more unexpected things about the 2005 AGP was that there was a massive outbreak of reliability.

In recent years, Formula 1 cars have been a model of reliability. If it was not for Takuma Sato's efforts, last year would have been grey and dull, as far as watching engines explode goes.

This time around, there were all manner of expectations.

Surely, the new 'two weekend' engines would start expiring?

Tyres, on the final legs, would fall to bits with a few laps left?

Nope, none of that happened.

Two German fellas played dodgem cars at autobahn speeds (both lost), a Minardi ate its 1973 gearbox and that was all. Three DNFs, 17 finishers.

No, not quite. The age-old condition by which GP cars do not have to greet the chequered flag to be classified as a finisher is gone. It is still in the 2005 Formula One Sporting Regulations (Article 158) and still states that cars that complete 90 percent or more of the race distance will be a finisher, whether they cross the line after the winner or not. But, it seems, the rule is not in play

52

any more.

On the Thursday before the race, the FIA's Charlie Whiting briefed the electronic media on the new engine rules. The question was raised whether an otherwise healthy car, which was out of the points, could be parked late in the race to establish its eligibility for a fresh engine next race.(The Sporting regs do not differentiate between an engine-related DNF and any other kind), Whiting said that it could but added a rider that the FIA did not expect such ghastly deeds would occur because even non points finishes, like 10th and 12ths, may count in the final Constructors' pecking order. Fie was about the only person in the room of that mind - and. thoughtfully, the informatics

was not relayed to the print media (officially).

So, in the final laps of the race, the sluggish BAR-Flondas of Jenson Button and Sato-san were parked. New engine in Malaysia? No, they covered 90 percent, was the answer.

Eleventh and 14th respectively.

Then yes, they are not classified. Even Flonda boss Shoichi Tanaka was unsure until the team received confirmation later in the evening that, should the team so choose, engines may be swapped for Malaysia (and, all going well, will have to stay in the 007s for Bahrain).

Once again, a what seemed like a good idea at the time has seen a loophole exploited.

Please, Mr Whiting, can we have our sport back now?

- PHIL BRANAGAN ■TTi

The Wh Jacques

by CHRIS JORDAN JACQUES Villeneuve entered Round 1 of the 2005 Formula 1 Championship as one of only two FI World Champions on the grid.

Sure, his Sauber Petronas was not the best thing to have - definitely not in the same league as the 'other' World Champ's car; Michael Schumacher's Ferrari - but the Sauber by no means is a bus. But according to some of the FI drivers in the paddock post-race, Jacques and his blue machine resembled one during the Australian Grand Prix.

Villeneuve was slow, and he was not easy to pass, both for those who were stuck behind him after the qualifying debacle(Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button), but also for those attempting to lap him. One driver even compared the '97 world champ to a senior citizen.

Jacques has said that the reason he choose Sauber as the team to make his comeback was that they were tire only ones to take his approaches seriously. In reality, it is more likely that it is that they choose him.

Certainly, Renault was none too impressed with his performances in the last three races of the 2004 season. Renault boss Patrick Faure admitted publicly that it was a mistake to recruit Villeneuve to replace Jarno Trulli late last year, and a mistake that contributed in some part to the team eventually losing the fight with BAR-Honda for second in the constructors championship.

While this long season is only one race old, it is possible that after Melbourne,Sauber may be wonderiirg if they too have made a mistake on Jacques,consideriirg a yomrg man tlrey tested late last year

motorsportnews

FORMULA 1

Two cars in the points, but where did the speed go?

leels on I bus by the name of Vitantonio Liuzzi is now the latest hot property in terms of FI young guns, after his stirring performance as Red Bull Racing's Friday driver.

It no longer seems a brave decision to have signed Villeneuve before testing Liuzzi- it is now more of an astonishing one.

NO matter how precisely you can try to plan things, motor races rarely follow the script. ^ Like most teams, McLaren would have torn their "scripts up as soon as the heavens opened in qualifying. But unlike most teams, McLaren’s pre season form had seen them enter the weekend marked as the team to beat (nasty orange team uniforms notwithstanding).

The silvers of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen squeezed onto the fifth row for the race -just about within sight of the leaders. But the team’s luck continued to sour when Kimi stalled on the grid, forcing him to start from pitlane and leaving the team’s hopes on the trimmed-down shoulders of Montoya.

The Colombian had a busy afternoon, but his hopes of a good finish were scuppered by a couple of excursions onto the grass, one of which was assisted by a Jordan.

Kimi, meanwhile, knocked over a few backmarkers and then got held up" behind the Ferrari of

Michael Schumacher until the first round of stops. i He battled on to claim the last point for eighth place, ' two spots behind his team-mate. Curiously, both cars finished the race bereft of one of their reflectors. ' “The positive outcomes of the opening race are i the very good performance from our Michelin tyres ; and that we had the pace to win,” said Ron Dennis. ’ McLaren was not the only team to end the weekend by trying to look on the bright side, but the signs are still that they have rather more to look forward to than some of their rivals. Malaysia, | which has been a happy hunting ground for the ' team in the past, could be interesting ... j ^ mmK GLEN DeNl^lN©'

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Post-race

Mng an alsoH<an Into G UNTHER Steiner is the technical director of Red Bull Racing. He is a man in an odd position because, in 2002, he set up much of the structure at Jaguar Racing but then left when the new management was put in charge.

Now he is back, The Car Formerly Known As The Jaguar R6' is not bad and the team is going well.

At Albert Park David Coulthard finished fourth and Christian Klien was seventh, while the team's third driver Vitantonio Liuzzi wowed everyone with a great performance on Friday morning. The team has strength in depth despite the upheavals in recent months.

After the race, Steiner spoke to JOE SAWARD

MOTORSPORT NEWS: What a fine result, you must be happy?

"Before we had David, theenghwers did not know what an experimed driver can hrfaig hecause they never had one ft

-Bunther thinks DC is the right man for the job GUNTHER STEINER: We are very happy. We were given a chance and we took it. Both drivers did a good job. There were no mistakes at all. David hit a Minardi at one point but the car stayed together. There were no problems at all. Christian did what he had to do. He did a good job and kept Kimi Raikkonen behind him. But now we have to defend our position because the others will not be sleeping.

MN: Having Coulthard is a big advantage?

GS: Before we had David, the engineers did not know what an experienced driver can bring because they never had one.

Mark Webber was a good driver but he did not have the experience. He could not have the experience because he came from Minardi. He did a good job motivating them but now they realise what an experienced driver can bring.

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a contender i

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Diri Klymnitfi

Engineers respect a guy like David, but when a young guy says things, they wonder whether he is right.

MN: Is the result a surprise?

GS: We did well here but to be honest, we are not going to be fourth and seventh everywhere.

Sometimes you are given a chance and you have to take it.

That can be as difficult. You have to learn to go uphill.

If you are always finishing 11 th and 12th, you know how to finish 11 th and 12th but you have to learn how to finish fourth. You have to minimise mistakes and work hard. And that is what we did today.

MN: It must have been frustrating to set up a structure and then leave the team before your work pays off?

GS: It was frustrating but I always look forward. I could ^not work with the people who got the job. I did not like their ideas and so, to be honest, I did not even want to stay. I had a great time the year I was there. I think that what we have now was made that year. After that, it was just stagnation.

I did not go home and get depressed. Life goes on. Life is too short for that. I left in 9 March 2005

January. In FI you cannot get a job at tliat time of year. I spoke to a lot of people but there was nothing and so I said:'OK, I'll do nothing, I will take paid gardening leave and enjoy it'.

That is what I did and then once that was finished I went looking for a job again. And then I got the offer from Opel to do the DTM. That was nice. I enjoyed what I did there but the ambition remained and when they asked me to come back here it was my chance to come back and show that I can do it.

It is also nice that people respect what you have done before and saw that I was booted out when I had done only half the job.

MN:This year's car was built by last year's management.

GS; The car we have now is a modified R4. I employed chief designer Rob Taylor, aerodynamicist Ben Agathangelou and development engineer Mark Gillan in 2002.

The R4 was the car we built and at the start of 2003, it was a good car but after that the car was not developed because they said they did not have any money to do it.

The thing is that Tony Purnell (the former boss of Jaguar Racing) said that he could run the team for half the money.

That was why he got the job, and he was wrong. He couldn't.

MN: Looking ahead, you have hired Mark Smith to lead the design team.

GS: Yes, that is very important for me. We have got good people but what was lost over the last two years was that the company was not run as a racing team - it was run as a company.

I have been doing racing for 20 years, Mark Smith has been' doing it for 20 years, Rob Taylor has been doing it for 20 years.

Ben is younger and does not have the same experience but we all live racing. We know how it works. Coming from the outside, even if you are very intelligent people, is not easy.

They were not stupid people.

They just did not have the drive.

You have to love to do it. It is not a normal job. You need passion

/

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sutlon-imagvs.

and, if you get into this world at 35 or 40 years old, it is very difficult to learn because it is not a normal company. It is racing and it is different.

If you are in racing for 15 or 20 years, you cannot do other jobs. You are unemployable because you think differently.

You always rely on the human being because you cannot ask people to put in 14-hour days.

They must want to do it. They can sit there for 14 hours but they do not produce. If someone works eight or nine hours and then goes off and thinks about the car, that is also work.

To do racing at a certain level you have to want to do it. It is a

hobby, a passion, a job. It is everything.

MN:So where is the team now and where are you going?

GS: We are trying to get the best engine on the market. It is better to pay for a good thing rather than getting a bad thing for free. We need a better engine next year and we need to know as soon as possible. We need to know in April so we can build the car around it.

Right now we are in the upper midfield but I don't know how many top teams there are because some seem to be struggling a bit. 1 guess we are sixth ...

Happy Birth

i 7

Off track beauties: Above, even when the Minardis got on the track, life was not that easy. Top, the sights were as pleasant as the sounds ...

High, low and in between: The Germans got physical, above. Ash Samadi got some hang-time at turn 1, right.

S6

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FORMULA t

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What a great place for a race: A record crowd turned out for Albert Park's 10th Australian Grand Prix. The Supercars, bottom, and the Historic demonstration, below left, were two of the popular support acts.

And maybe the apperance of Nicholas Cage, below, inspired Fisi ...

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9 March 2005

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Something for Evopya No one driver deminated Albert Park's V8 Supercar races, wins fer Tedd Kelly and Mark Skaife sandwiching an fortuitous victory by John Bowe. PHIL BRANAGAN reports

T

HERE was some rain,some sunshine and some smiles for the Holden Racing Team and Team BOC in the three V8 Supercar hitouts at Albert Park.

Todd Kelly looked like the man to beat in Melbourne after taking pole position and a strong Race 1 win but a lapse in concentration spun him out of the lead in the Saturday race, leaving John Bowe and Brad Jones to take a maiden 1-2 for the Alburybased BOC Gases team.

Stone Brothers Racing had,by its lofty standards, a quiet weekend, with both the bound-for-America Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall climbing onto the podium.

Elsewhere,Ford's revival looked to 58

be on-track, with Jason Bright and Craig Lowndes showing speed in their new seats, while of the new generation drivers,Jamie Whincup and Will Davison showed enough to keep the Old Guard looking over their shoulders when the going gets tough in Adelaide next week.

Super Cheap Auto Racing had a scarred weekend, with damage to both its cars, while any number of championship contenders will be glad that the first race of the year is over with some damage to their cars but none to their pointscores.

The races indicated little, save for the already-known fact that this is going to be the fiercest season yet seen in V8 Supercar racing.

Race 1(10 laps)

Tf.

ere is an old motor racing saying _ (usually remembered only by old motor racing journos) that goes,"You cannot win a race in the first comer, but you can lose it."

KeUy made a lie of that theory in the maiden race of the season, after being out-reacted by Bright at the light. The Lion drew alongside the Cat at the first turn, Kelly hung on and got around the outside.

"I was lucky to get past Brighty," he admitted later,"I looked after it pretty well when I was out front."

Kelly was 2.2s clear after a lap.

Bright closed it down somewhat after that but, after his rear tyres started to

fade, there was no way the Holden was going to be caught. At the end of 10 laps,3.3s was good enough.

He missed a great race. Skaife and Ambrose were locked together in the opening laps, while Steve Richards chased hard until he started to run short of braking power,locked the rears and skated across the grass. By the time he got back on terra firma, he was seventh.(The day got worse for Richo an hour later when the Castrol car dropped an oil line.)

That left Tander to take tlie fight to Skaife, the near-identical-looking cars scrapping until Skaife asserted himself, leaving GT to a battle with former team-mate McConvUle. But the red car got out of shape and

metarsiwrtnsws

Lion to the Slaughter: Bowe slid past Skaife to win Race 2, the rest powerless against BJR's choice ofslicks.

Bright lad:Jason Bright, below, led the Blue Oval's qualifying assault but was soon under seige.

dived onto the grass, leaving McConkey to come home fifth behind Ingall(happy with his new car, despite bent steering after a rub with a tyre stack) and Bright.

Radisich was next, the TKR car looking strong throughout, while Ritter followed Richards, an encouraging run for the new FPV car.

Of the rest, Rick Kelly's new season started miserably when he got caught up with Jason Bargwanna, forcing him to pit with a bent steering arm. Bargs was soon out, setting himself up for a Saturday charge, while Brad Jones soon joined him,putting him in position for a belter the next day.

Race 2(19 laps) And then there arethe days like Saturday, where winning and losing of a race are done and dusted long before the start.

When Brad Jones was on the Dummy Grid, he got on the radio to his crew and told them to take the 9 March 2005

wets off and fit slicks.

"Most of my guys thought that I was joking," he smiled later."Har har har. No,I said, take them off and put slicks on. I am serious."

He was almost apoplectic a few minutes later. At the end of the formation lap,Jones was certain he had made the wrong call and said he was coming back in for grooved rubber. His crew advised him that the race was to be run with no tyre changes and that he was stuck with what he had.

Team-mate Bowe noted the weather, asked his crew to do the same and made it onto the grid with seconds to spare -just as it started to

spit. JB's well-documented ability to make bad starts put him even further back while Brad found that, when he grabbed second gear, he was just about last.

"I could see JB," Bradley said after the race,"and I knew he started 11th.

I said,'What happened here?' and they said,'he started on slicks too'.

Great..."

It was great. Ambrose harried Skaife for the lead, after Todd Kelly had sptm at the final comer at the end of the opening lap - by which time the Safety Car was motoring around, waiting for the field to catch up. There had been the usual Albert Park opening-lap gilhooly, which left

the two Super Cheap Commodores, Tratt and Alex D unable to continue.

Manfully,Kelly admitted that he had simply overcooked it and was even a little embarrassed. Skaife, who had the best view of anyone in the field, was a fairly forgiving boss but expect less kindnesses if it reoccurs and points are on the line.

And that was what decided the race. By the time the green flag flew, JB and BJ were both in the 20s but, armed with cars that were as much as seven seconds faster than the 'wetties'(despite compromised set ups) motored through the field. continued on page 62 39

CAT among the Pigeons Former HRT man Jason Bright was the man who took the battle to The Reds in qualifying. PHIL BRANAGAN reports A NEW Year promises much new faces, old faces with new hair and new cars.

Of course, there were also old cars with new paint and old cars with old paint (Kelly Racing is not going to run those colours all season, surely?) And, after 14 drivers swapped seats in the summer, there would be a new world order, one would think.

A little bit yes, a little bit no. It is not odd to think that, at the ^ end of the first qualifying bunfight of the season, a Holden Racing Team car would edge a Ford for pole position. But if you were to bet on Mark Skaife tipping out Marcos Ambrose in that scenario, you would have lost. It was Todd Kelly that took the first gong of 2005 by - get this - Jason Bright.

And by itself, that news told little of the story. Toddler, who the weekend prior welcomed a son to the Kelly Gang, lost most of his first run when, following Skaife, he found himself on a GO

grass-covered track as The Boss skated off backwards in front of him, Skaife recovered the situation somewhat on his second set of Dunlops and lined up third.

"I did an average job," Skaife said later, "1 was half a second up, a good time would have been a low 57. The first run was good but you do not know what the grip level is going to be." ' And, what of the reds' new toys?

"I haven't had a lot of time in it," admitted Kelly, "but it's really nice in every area. The little tiny things [you change] in this car tend to show up a lot."

Sounds like a plan ...

As for Bright, he was in a good decision/bad decision situation, "We did not go far enough [on qualifying set-up, I was having a discussion with [race engineer] Phil [Keed] and he wanted to be conservative, I wanted to go further. We did but we could have gone further again."

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There had been some changes to the car during practice and the reports were all positive. Out of the team that finished 'best of the rest' last year and into one of the disappointments of 2004; second on the grid, first-up.

Brighty, you may just be a genius.

In between slugging it out with Will Davison's 1-Series BMW roadie and Antonio Pizzonia's Williams in the speed comparisons, Steven Richards was fourth, utterly thrilled with the car but unhappy that he had gone the wrong way with changes.

"We are a second quicker than we were here last year," he said, Skaife reporting that his car was almost lOkmh up on top speed since 12 months ago. All in all, a dozen cars were under 2004's pole time, on similar tyres and track surface. These things are getting quick, lads.

It is rare to say that Stone Brothers Racing was also present, with Ambrose fifth and Russell Ingall eighth. There was no undue concern in Stoneland, with the team taking the 'we are here but Adelaide is where it all starts' approach to questions as to why, by their stratospheric standards, things were looking a little on the average side.

The two were split by Cameron McConville, with a smile on his face and not just because he is now being engineered by Phil Curtis, 9 March 2005

formerly of Albury. The other 'man in the middle' was Cam Mac's former team-mate Garth Tander, who looked the better of the two HSVDT cars, Rick Kelly's car looking less than secure on the road while the dual Bathurst winner gave it some. The man who replaced GT, Andy Jones, enjoyed his full-time V8 debut for the first kilometre until his diff cried enough and stranded him at Turn 3, leaving him to play catch-up for the rest of the weekend.

Behind Paul Radisich (see breakout) came Craig Lowndes, who was challenging for fastest Ford status on his first set of tyres before he dropped spots on his second, and John Bowe, whose BOC Barra was back in one piece after a backwards loop (with tuck) into the Winton concrete in testing.

Then came Greg Ritter, whose FPR car was finished only the night before the noise started (hey guys, you made the deadline) and R. Kelly down in 13th.

The other notable performer was the Tasman car of Jamie Whincup. Despite the team's ghastly orange shirts (which are no more repulsive than McLaren's, to be fair) the youngster did a great job to be 16th and in the top half of the field, a great result for a team that has had so many changes/additions/moves in the off-season.

R-TI

mJ

i THINGS are different at the Gold Coast base of Paul Morris Wlotorsport Yes,the Sirromet Commodore looks similar, save for a flaming paintjob, but”' close by now lives the familiar-looking Team Kiwi car. Despite appearances, the Moo Zullanders are now'barraekinffor aibrand-newPIVlIVl weapon steered by ' ;favourite son iPaui IRadisich, who has ended more than a decade in Ford ; colours to become a Holden pin-up boy.

The two fornaer Super Touring champs hadopposite days in practice and> qualifying^.'@n the downside ofthe equatoi,fflonnis's car was in. more bother | than Flash Gordon and,time after time,The iDude skated off at Turn 3, sometimes forwards, sometimes ibackwards.

"We had a brake problem," he said later. "The car was handling well but it , would just not stop."

The team diagnosed the problem and were confident that the worst was over before Race T. On the other hand, what are the odds that a spanking-new VZ driven by a Holden virgin would be one of the class acts of the whole day?

Pretty good, as it turned out. The Rat dominated the opening Q session to the tune of 0.8s and his time stood up for ninth overall. Had there been a shoot-out, Radisich would have cruised into it.

"It ran like clockwork," he smiled. "I just settled into the car, put on a set of new tyres and we had a shot. I still feel a liftle like the car is driving me around a bit but the feedback [from the carj is tremendous."

The new car had not turned a wheel before heading south and the team will give it a thorough test at Queensland Raceway before the Adelaide 500 next week. On the other hand, expect Morris to have a better handle on his new car before he gets to the 500.

61

continued from page 57 picking off as many as tluee cars a lap. To their credits, most of the drivers were sensible enough to realise what was going on and declined to fight the inevitable.

"Some days you look like a genius and some days you don't," mused Skaifey."I saw a couple of cars coming with their lights on and you did not have to be a lawyer to work it out."

On the plus side, Skaife and Ambrose did the best job of making their rubber live on the almost dry track, and finished nose-to-tail on third and fourth.

Jones's only surprise was that a few other drivers starting from the cheap seats did not roll the dice either. JB motored home to his first V8 Supercar win in almost five years, driving the closing laps conservatively("When you get the lead, you do not want to spear off the road and look like a goose".)

Flaming to the left: Lowndes showed, perhaps, a preview of what he might do with Betta Electrical Racing.

Much Ado about Dodo BEFORE the season,there were many suggestions that Tasman Motorsport was going to be one of the teams to watch this season.

After all, they had a new home in Melbourne, sound backing (aided by the arrival of dodo internet money) and some quality people in the paddock, not the least of which is Jason Richards. With all the respect in the world to Jamie Whincup, less was expected of a youngster that was stepping back into the cauldron of full-time V8 racing after a 62

season away.

But, aboard the Tasmanites' older car (Richards was using the brand-new Commodore) it was Whincup who stood out. After a solid 14th in the first race, a smart drive netted eighth in the 19-lapper and, on Sunday, he repeated the trick.

Along the way, Jamie got to battle some of the experienced drivers in the sport, including Craig Lowndes and Jason Bargwanna, and came away smiling.

"Nothing has gone wrong all weekend," he said when it was over.

"The car has been impressing me all along.

"1 would like to do this [run in the top 10] a bit more often. It is a lot cleaner racing up the front, these guys are so professional."

A year ago, it looked like Whincup's V8 Supercar ambitions may have been snagged by a short circuit. With some Tasmaniacs and dodos in his corner, things may be getting a lot better than even Whincup expected.

- PHIL BRANAGAN motorsport news

vs SUPERCARS sometimes the most important thing in motor racing is timing.

Race: 1

Race 3 (10 laps) After thea great shockstart of seeing Bowe make subsided (even JB recognises that he is no Bray when it comes to getting off the line) we were treated to a scrap between Ambrose and Skaife that was settled by one great move.

After the BOC car was dealt with, it looked like the two heavyweights were going to stage another classic battle. But on lap 3, Skaife set up his arch-rival perfectly at Turn 1, switching lines and zooming around the outside.

7

available now, to work in Clayton: Race 2 was not the best for Todd Kelly, top, after walling the HRT Commodore behind the Safety Car. Earlier, Paul Weel made his PWR Commodore, above, look a bit Cheap after a wall swipe while trying to avoid Paul Weel.

Ingall followed Ambrose, with Lowndes a distant sixth. If that sounded like a let-down for Triple 8, the team thought otherwise, absolutely delighted with the performance of both cars, Ellery making it to ninth after starting 15th and supplying the team with plenty of positive feedback.

As the drivers headed for the podium, it was raining lightly. A few minutes later, it was pretty well carpeting down. Just like in comedy

9

Radisidi _ S. Richards Ritter

10 11 12

Johnson Bowe 'Weel

17 18

J. Richards ' Trat't'

19^

Baird'

23_ 24

A. Jones B. Jones

25 26

/White Morris

27 2^ 29

Bar^a^a Murphy Longhurst

DNF DNF

j(nd_e£ Lowndes

DNF

R. Kelly

2:00.0423

' 2:bo.'3056 6

6

'20:25.8784

'' 2:00.02'99 3

_20:278^5 20:'29.9014 20:'30.2383

2:00.37'2i 5 " 2:00.6125' 5 2:00.6262 *3

'2'o':31.l'309' 20;3'2.4838 20:32.8884

' '2j00.3286 5 2^00.2587 5 '"1:59.93M’5

20:42.7923’_^ ' 2:01.0103"3 26:44.1531 2:00.9716 4 20:45.3750 '2:00.7150 "3

'

20':47.9'767

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20:50.1872 ^ 26:*54.'7883

1:58.8730 5 '2:01.2768' 3

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"8 laps _ ' 1:5'9!0476 "3' S laps 1^59.2466 '5’ I lap' ■ 1 S

Bowe

2_ B. Jones_ 3_"' " Skaife 4 Ambrose

2:28.3634" 1 , l_AF»S

48:59.2305 _ 2;04.5296 15 49:0'8i6683 '"2:04.'52Q616* 4_^15.8024 2:08.9267_11 '49:16.3814 "’'2:0'8'.9738''lV 49:3K4‘081 ‘ 2:09.6271 19

5 6

ingall Lowndes

7

Bright Whincup

9

"Eller^

io ' n

R.'Kelly W. Davison

'49:45.1310 " 2:09.6263 16 49:45.967'5 '2:10.0439 10

Bargwanna

49i47.4277 ' 50:01.920'2 '

2:10.5501 U 2:io.'8595'l8

Winterbottom

50:11.9872 ' '50:13.7827

' 2:11.3383 10 2:12.8960 15

12

'

13

J. Rrchards

15

Johnson

16

Longhurst

14

’L.

' 49:40.4726 49:43^5295

2:09.501616' '2:10.'3945'II

4'9:43.9739’’ 49i44.3750

'2^69.8369 10 '2:09^5152 14

18 Tander 19 ’' White 20 21

McConville Seton'

22' 23

S. Richards’’ Radisich

DNF

171aps

3 4

Lowndes

5 _ Bowe 6 __ B. Jones __ 7 Whincup 8 9

Bargwanna Winterboltom

10 'll

j. Richards " S.'Richards

12 13

Seton McConwIle

I

0 laps 6 laps Olaps Olaps

Murphy

Skaife Ambrose

1

__ 2laps ' ’ '2:50.4994 Olaps

DNF _Ira_» _ DNF A. Jones DNF Besnard

1

2:9.0782 14

4 laps "_2:54.65l'2" 1 4 laps ’ 2:56'.7326"Y

DNF Morris' ^ ' DNF "t. kelly ' DNF " Weel "

2

2:12.1595 17 2il2i2042’[7 "2:12.2267 15 2:11.4 276 13

"' 4l3ps ""2:52.9056

A. Davison

Race 3

'50:21.7374 50:22.7124 _ 50:24.4114 56:24.6083

50:30.4695 ' ' 2:12.1278 17 5'6:33i9374 " ' 2:13.4291 11 50:3'79'65'6 ' " 2:13.'948"8'l5

DNF ' Baird

I

1 a L.AF*S

20:10.7909

1:59.6334 6

20:12.0825 " "*1:'59.5218"5 ' 26:12.4853 ' 1:59'.'6231 ’ 6* 20''^2i.843V ' ■ ' l':59_.5614 4 "20:22!966’5 2;‘00,8953 5 20:23.8694 '2;00.6537 4 ‘ 20:29.0598 ' 2:00.8820 9 20i32.4452 ' 2:01.2550 4 20:33.6043 ' 20:34.3552

2:01.4232 ’

20':34.’7924^ _26:37.3i'22 26:37.7222

2i6o.5915 '

8

2:00^9577 6 1

2:01.1243 9 2:00.9476 '5

14

tander

’20:45.6211

2:00.4596 4

15 16

White _ A, Davison

20;46.62"i2 '' 20:47.9822

2:01.9884' 9 2:01.6932" 8

17 I'e 19

A. Jones _ 'Bright Morris

20M.6777 _2:Q2.\bA2 20:54.1259 '' 2':00.28JB

20 Murphy DNF ' R. Kelly " DNF ^ Ritter DNF Johnson =5

20:22.1161 20:23.7087'

20':3'5.6463 ' 1:59.8039' 5 20:41.8370 ‘ 2:01.2023 6'

Race Z

1

J:59.5586 4

20:24.5357_ 2:q6!4330 7 20:25.4025 ‘ 2:bo.228‘o“7

_Whincup

20' _WinterboUom 21 A. Davison 22 Besnard

It was a great move, deftly made and left Skaife to motor home to an impressive win, more than a second clear of Ambrose. Ingall was third, both Stone cars using only a single set of slicks for the whole weekend and meeting their drivers' objectives to complete the weekend intact.

Lowndes was fourth, getting the better of Bowe and Brad Jones (both of whose tyres had already done Saturday's race, remember). Bright followed from Whincup, Bargs and Frosty.

Of the rest, Tander made it to 15th after, like Murphy, starting from pit lane (both Holden teams using the race as a test) while Rick Kelly parked early after his temperature gauge took a liking to red numbers.

But hey, this was only pre-school.

Adelaide heralds the start of High School. It's exam time, kids. Study hard, the questions are sure to be tough this semester. And pack some sunscreen: it will be hot in Adelaide.

Mac Time. Know what I mean? McConville had the better weekend at GRM, with Jones having a bad weekend.

20:170140

15"‘Eliefy"/ _ 16 Seton

DNF

9 March 2005

LAF=S

"20;T7.673^_ 1:58.8315 3 '20:20.1688 2:00.2959 8 20;’20.9416' '2:00^957 7

13* _ W. Davison 14

"I thought that he was on the inside and he did the classic switch back," admitted Ambrose.

"We were both a bit narrow [at Turn 1] and I almost got up his inside," explained Skaife. "So I snapped way outside and came the other side."

Panel Beater wanted. Must be

1 a

PDs I Driver [ Race Time ( Fastest j Lap I T. Kelly 20:03^3064 1:59.0570 4 2 Ambrose 20:06.6157_ ●]:58.7812 '3 3 Skaife _ "20:10.I400_ 1:59.0032 '4 4 IngajI 2b;I2'8765 _ 1:59.0315 4 5 _20:15.1033' ' 1:59.1690 3 6 McConvide 20:15.6772 1:5^.0726 4

DNF DNF

W. Davison _ Longhurst

DNF DNF

Radisich _ "Ellery

5 6

21:01.4239 _ '2:02.33’31 7 21:52.4998 ’ 2:00.1964 8 _ 6 laps 4 laps 2 laps " l lap'

2:01.2350 5 '2;03.40J3 2 2:03.3907 2 "2:\6.467] l'

1 lap

’ 2;18.'390O i 2:19.3307 1

63

irk Klynsatilh

J

F3’s Gold Star debut delivers hot action at Wakefield Park

by GRANT ROWLEY ROUND 1 of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship lived up to its 'headlining act'status during the inaugural Australian Motor Racing Series event at Wakefield Park two weeks ago.

In terms of speed, Astuti Competition's Aaron Caratti and Chris Alajajian were the class of the field. The Sydney team tested at Wakefield earlier in the week and come race weekend,quickly found an ideal chassis balance to suit the category's new Kumho tyres.

Alajajian picked up the Race 1 win before Team BRM's F3 debutant Michael Trimble claimed a slice of the winner'scakein Race 2. The weekend was dominated by the three new Dallara F304s in the field.

At the start of Race 1,former karter Matt Sofi stalled on the line. Marc Williams only made it as far as turn two before beaching himself in the sandtrap. Both these incidents contributed to a red flag.

The restart saw Caratti bolt into the lead followed by Alajajian, Tun Slade, Trimble, Michael Caruso and Chris Gilmour.

Caratti and Alajajian gradually eased out a gap over their pursuers as they tested each other's resolve with pressure racing. It turned pearshaped for Caratti though on lap 16 when he tagged the back wheel of Kevin Miller, who was being lapped for the second time. The West Aussie shot across the grass and handed the first win for the season to Alajajian.

Slade looked good for third place until he dropped a wheel into the dirt late in the race, handing third to Trimble.

Reigning Trophy Class Champion Nic Jordan stalled at the start and was momentarily caught behind a safety truck at turn two! Jordan, who now drives in the Championship class.

64

was able to lap at the same rate as the leaders and eventually finished seventh behind Caruso and a fuel-less Gilmour (fifth and sixth respectively).

Race 2 saw yet more start line dramas. This time, Caratti stalled before the warm-up lap, which forced him to begin from the rear.

Alajajian held the initial advantage over the tight bunch of Trimble, Caruso, Gilmour and Slade before lap nine when Tim Berryman and Sam Abay clashed at the bottom of the hill. Williams spun in avoidance just as the leaders came around to lap them. Trimble slowed and was collected heavily by Caruso.

"He jumped on the anchors and 1 didn't have time to do anything," Caruso said.

"I hit him at full noise."

Trimble was surprised his car was able to continue after such a big hit.

"The yellows were out and cars across the track so 1 slowed down," the former Formula Ford driver said.

"1 was lucky to be able to continue."

After a Safety Car period to clear Caruso's wreck,Alajajian instantly speared off the track at turn two and dropped back as far as fifth before mounting a comeback.

The focal point of the race came with three laps to run. Gilmour passed Trimble for the lead into the final turn before Trimble was able to nip back past on the straight, and the two Astuti cars followed suit.

Gilmour dropped to fourth where he would remain ahead of Slade and Jordan.

Trimble held his nerve to score a triumphant win on debut,and the little man was one happy caihper.

"You can't do much better than getting a win on debut," Trimble exclaimed.

"We had a better set-up in the second race. 1 didn't quite have the pace of the Astuti cars but we were there when the others fell off."

Caratti and Alajajian continued their fight to the finish but stayed in

" I

*

Days of their lives: Astuti Competition's Aaron Caratti and Chris Alajajian, top, were the quick men, but debutant Michael Trimble pinched a race win, above. Michael Caruso, below, bad a not-so-enjoyable F3 comeback.

that order. Both drivers scored a fastest lap in the two races, which means they will head to the second round of the Gold Star at Mallala (April 16-17)equal on 33 points.

Race 2 was tinged with controversy after a number of lapped cars allowed the faster drivers to pass imder Safety Car conditions. At one stage, there was a threat that the top six could have been disqualified, allowing seventh place driver Ricky Occipinti to be promoted to the top of the podium.

Thankfully,sense was made of the situation and no charges were laid.

Berryman survived his Race 2 skirmish to win the Trophy Class ahead of Bill Maddocks.

Tim Macrow was a non-starter due to engine dramas that sidelined him after qualifying.

Points: Alajajian/Caratti 33, Trimble 32, Slade 18, Gilmour 16,Jordan 10, Caruso 8, Sofi 6, Occhipinti 4, Miller/Abay/Cody Liebel 2.

Leader: Alajajian, above, shares the series leads with Caratti.

motorsportnews

FORMULA 3

Mawer or less the best The Bart Man was too good on the streets ofAlbert Park. CHRIS JORDAN reports

BARTON Mawer took the spoils in Formula 3 at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend,taking both race victories.

Mawer, driving the F304 Daiiara of Team BRM,took two classy victories at the Aibert Park circuit in an event he was using as a precursor to another attack on the British Formula 3 Championship this year.

“This was an event for me to raise my profile, get my name out there and importantly, get some miles under my belt after the summer,” said Mawer.

“It was great to win at this event. The car is a really good thing and the BRM boys ran it well and it was all just so awesome.”

Mawer was the winner of Races 1 and 2, as well as being top qualifier in the car to be regularly campaigned this year by Michael Trimble. But it was the controversial Race 3 that many will remember, for all the wrong reasons.

As the cars completed their warm-up lap a rain storm hit the circuit and while most runners had opted to begin on wets, chaos still ensued.

Some cars, including Matt Sofi, came into the pit lane at the start, only to be greeted by a sea of people, due to the extended running of a Pit Lane Walk tour. Back on the grid, Mawer rolled at the start line and was adjudged to have jumped the start.

Mawer, however, never managed to serve the subsequent drive-through penalty as the race was soon red flagged after a major incident on the back of the circuit.

sSSiSSi

9 March 2005

injuries suffered by Gilmour that caused most concerns. The likable Queenslander was extracated from his car by medical crews with a broken fibula, his Dallara’s tub having been '■’ “ punctured by the nose of Sofi’s.

The race was called a non-event.

While a non-championship event, the races I proved a positive form guide for the Astuti —^ I Competition team. Aaron Caratti led most of ■r I the way in Race 1, only to be pipped by Mawer r-rr:?:r-r 1J in the later stages when he picked sixth gear instead of fifth through the fast Turn 11/12 complex.

Wet, wet, wet: Mawer endured a small spin in Caratti also impressed in the second the third race, which was eventually declared a encounter, putting Mawer under heavy non-event after a nasty accident early in the race. pressure after lap traffic was less than co operative.

“You would have to hit some of those guys Chris Gilmour had been one of the few to over the head with the blue flag to get them to elect to begin the race on slicks, but after the notice it,” joked Mawer. downpour, was struggling to keep the car Caratti’s team-mate Chris Alajajian was also straight and as he exited Turn 10, he spun. fast. After a slow start, Alajajian clawed his Sofi, who was carving through the field after way into third in Race 1, only to be one of the pit lane debacle, came through the spray seven cars disqualified when his rear wing with no where to go. was found to be illegal.

“The spray was shocking and I could not This elevated Tim Slade into third, a position see anything,” said Sofi. “So I backed off and he had occupied for most of the race before a was following the rain lights. Then 1 saw a light spin. Slade and Michael Caruso were the pick swing around and before I knew it, he was of the F301 cars with two top five finishes each. right across the track. It is so lucky I had Alajajian again had a troubled start in Race backed off, or I would have hit him flat out 2, but rounded up Caruso and Slade with through there.” some daring driving to be quickly back to third, albeit too far behind Mawer and Caratti.

Sofi’s steering wheel was severely bent after he braced his arms against it. While both The series now heads to Mallala in April for cars suffered major damage, it was the Round 2 of the Championship. ,.J

6S

Three Frem Three Ifyou thought beating Jim Richards in 2005 was going to be easy, think again. GRANT ROWLEY reports from Albert Park

J

IM Richards claimed three wins from three starts in the Michelin Carrera Cup support events at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

The OAMPS Insurance driver led home Fabian Coulthard in each of the eight lap races around the Albert Park circuit, while Jonathan Webb and Charlie O'Brien shared the bottom step of the podium.

"It's a great start to the season," Richards said after his clean-sweep.

"It has given us a boost going into the first round at the Clipsal 500 in a couple of weeks. It will be a tough season with the likes of Coulthard coming through strongly, but that makes the racing really interesting."

Pole sitter Richards was beaten off the line in Race 1 by Coulthard before the cars were forced to trundle behind the Safety Car after ADRAD driver Bryce Washington failed to brake in time for turn one and collected Cameron McLean at the first turn.

Rodney Jane was also involved in the incident, which required a pit stop to fix a rear guard that was rubbing on a tyre.

Couithard held a slight advantage over Richards for most of the race until the penultimate lap, where 'Gentleman Jim' snuck down the inside at turn 15.

Webb drove a smart and sensible heat to nab third place ahead of

O'Brien and category debutant Luke Youlden. The VIP Petfoods driver qualified 10th after dealing with gearbox troubles in practice and qualifying. His early pace is an ominous sign for his rivals this year.

Peter Fitzgerald finished behind Youlden and in front of another Carrera Cup debutant,Alan Gurr.

Race 2 saw Coulthard again jump Richards off the line, but this time, Jim waited just three laps to pounce to take a lead he would not surrender. Coulthard did offer some resistance on the final lap with a brave passing attempt at the final two turns, but the pair fought a very fair contest. One thing that the kiwi

did take out from the race was a new lap record (2m02.1425s).

Youlden improved from fifth to third at the start of Race 2 and held that position until a cramp in his right leg, plus a blown clutch.

Tomkins Tonks'em

Up, up and over: Sydney's Ash Samadi hit the wall at the end of the main straight before the gravel trap helped tip his car over two times.

AUSTRALIAN rowing legend James Tomkins won the BMW Celebrity Challenge at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

Tomkins, a three-time Olympic Gold medalist, beat Ironman Guy Andrews in the ‘best of the best’ race, which it must be said, was taken very seriously by those at the front of the field. Paul Mercurio was third, from Steven Bradbury, Dermott Brereton and first female home, TV personality Michelle Walsh.

Jo Bailey beat home hubby Steven Silvagni, after ‘Sos’ was penalised for a short cut at Turn 4.

- CHRIS JORDAN Siw-iSBlIlLD

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motorsportnews

'fnjuKiita,

Dili Klvnsriv'lh

dropped him behind Webb on the final lap. O'Brien was fifth, Gurr sixth and Fitzgerald seventh.

Richards revelled in Race 3's wet conditions and bolted quickly to a five second lead.

With Melbourne's weather changing by the minute, Coulthard went out on the track with a dry set up and struggled early on,but he fought back to finish just behind Richards.

O'Brien finished a distant third

Dealing with Damage

WITH the start of the Carrera Cup season just two weeks in Adelaide, teams and drivers had two simple instructions: Don't bend the car and don't bend the car.

It was unfortunate then that three of the cars likely to feature towards the front of the field this year did not make it past Thursday's action.

Reigning Formula Ford Champion David Reynolds endured a nasty initiation to Carrera Cup with a heavy impact at turn 16 on his seventh lap in the first practice session. What made matters worse (or better, depends how you look at it), is the fact that Reynolds ended the session sixth fastest, and it was only his second time in the car.

"It was my own fault," he rued after the incident.

"I jumped on the gas too early and spun the car around. It is an expensive lesson to learn and we've missed a lot of track time."

Sonic Motorsport will repair the car in time for the Clipsal 500.

Later at the start of the first race, Bryce Washington missed the braking mark and careered into the side of series debutant Cameron McLean. The pair were instantly out of proceedings.

Washington's car will be fixed in time for Clipsal, however, McLean's car requires a new shell. It will be touch and go whether the car will be repaired in time for Round 1.

- GRANT ROWLEY

ahead of Webb and Rodney Jane. VIP driver(and father-to-be) Klark Quinn and Fitzgerald were conservative throughout the meeting and finished the final race sixth and seventh.

Ash Samadi made a bold attempt at'Play of the Day'when on lap three his Globe Projects Gup Car spun at tire end of the main straight, slammed the outside wall and flipped twice into the gravel trap.

The 35-year-old Sydneysider walked away unharmed.

Oops: Bryce Washington walks away from bis Race 1, turn 1 incident.

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Ed sad after Jury out on new Ir Mitsu splh THE announcement a fortnight ago that Ed Ordynski would be parting company from Mitsubishi after 17 years was clearly a blow to the veteran driver, who has given his heart and soul to the Adelaidebased manufacturer.

While putting on a positive face and describing the split as amicable, it is clear the events of the last year, including Mitsubishi's struggle to stay viable as a car maker, has been tough for Ordynski.

Without funding for a factory team and the need to recruit drivers with their own funding, Ordynski asked to be released from his contract.

"The sad part is actually ending the relationship with Mitsubishi," said Ordynski.

"I'm an Adelaide person and I know how important Mitsubishi is to SA and I have a great relationship with everyone who works there. I did a lot of things for Mitsubishi in a nonmotorsport sense that most people knew nothing about.

"I worked with the company doing driver training with engineers, corporate and fleet drive days, car launches, advised on product planning and was even involved in sales training among other things.

"I could have continued all that work under my contract but that would have prevented me seeking a drive with another team. That work was going really well,so in other words,I had to quit what was going well to pursue my passion, which wasn't going so well.

"It is a tough time for Mitsubishi and I understand the situation they found themselves in, and staying in business is more important."

Ordynski admits he has missed the boat,in terms of drives,for this year and will most probably sit on the : sidelines, apart from trying to put something together for the new NSW round of the ARC at Bathurst along with his home round in Adelaide and Rally Australia in Perth.

"I think there will be 12 professional drives aroimd in Australia next year and I am currently ranked six on the seeding list ahead of Neal Bates,so I believe that I am a shot for a drive," Ed added.

-JON THOMSON 68

WHILE Mitsubishi came away from recent tests in Sardinia filled with hope,Subaru was taking stock after a disappointing week shaking down its 2005 WRC on the Italian island.

It is believed that Fetter Solberg's first test of the newspec Subaru did not go to plan.

Solberg was apparently unhappy with the engine revisions on the new car, which is due to be homologated this month.

The engine power was one of the areas Solberg had pinpointed for the team to work on, in what he admitted was one of the most important tests of the season.

However the Norwegian was impressed with improvements to cornering performance on the new car, which features wide-

track suspension and extended wheel arch flares, taking advantage of the increased maximum width for World Rally Cars.

Solberg's new Aussie team mate Chris Atkinson also took part in the three-day Sardinian test, which was held in cold and damp conditions Solberg is making no predictions for Rally Mexico, the first 2005 WRC to be run on gravel.

I don't know what it is like until the rally. Most of the car Is better," he said.

Subaru maintains that there have been no dramatic changes to the new car.

-JON THOMSON

And thank you for flying Air

SUBARU World Rally Team has launched a new venture to attract more spectators to rounds of the World Rally Championship.

The Japanese maker has entered the travel industry,selling trips to rounds of the WRC that promise customers special access to stages,team dinners

and behind-the-scenes access.

Subaru has realised that the growtlr of the World Championship has turned rally tourism into a thriving business and is keen to attract a piece access as a of the action using special lure.

Known as the Subaru World Rally

Team Travel Club, it the first time a manufacturer has sold trips to WRC events to tire general public.

The Rally of Italy in Sardinia at the end of April will be the first rally trip to be offered by tire new Club, with a laird-oirly component(including tlrree days accommodation)costing around

motorsportnaws

RALLY NEWS

npreza Hyperactive Lance^ MITSUBISHI is set to debut an active transmission on its vastly-improved Lancer WRC in the next round of the World Championship in Mexico this weekend.

With impressive performances in Monte Carlo and Sweden, the Lancer has been tlie surprise packet of this year's title, with the team taking small but continuous steps forward in a bid to turn around the lacklustre 2004 performance.

The team concentrated on refining other areas of the car before introducing the active transmission, which underwent its first major tests in Sardinia in the week following Sweden.

Lead driver Harri Rovanpera believes delaying the new transmission's debut was the best strategy.

"Waiting for Mexico was the right thing to do because both Monte and Sweden would have been too difficult with a whole new transmission," said Rovanpera.

"It is too early to say what the car can be like with the active differential.

"At the moment, there wouldn't be such a big difference in the handling department,compared to what it was like in Sweden when it was still running the mechanical set-up. But we can't stay like we are. Once we have worked with the new transmission for one or two weeks, it will come good."

Technical director Mario Fornaris was happy with the test, saying he felt the Lancer had stepped forward in performance - but he voiced reservations about the system's reliability; "If you asked me today,Td say yes, we will rmi the active in Mexico,it just needs to come through three days of intense reliability testmg to be confirmed."

-JON THOMSON

Pedder and Lowndes?

Atkinson $1200. All you have to do is get yourself to Sardinia.

Similar trips are planned to other rallies, including Deutschland and Catalonia.

Details can be found at www.travelclub.swrt.com -JON THOMSON 9 March 2005

RUMOURS continue to link Scott Pedder with a possible semi-works drive in a car run

by Alan Heaphy's Mitsubishi team and these have gathered momentum since Ed Ordynski announced his departure from the company last month.

Neither Pedder nor Heaphy would either confirm or deny the rumours, although It is believed an announcement is imminent. Heaphy said that he could not say much at the moment but that negotiations were progressing.

"Certainly we are speaking to a number of drivers and Scott is on the shortlist, our main priority at the moment though is to find the funding to run the team first and the rest will follow," said Heaphy.

"We are making slow and steady progress and we're

heading in the right direction, I suppose you could say we are now about a 75-25 chance and moving towards the goal."

Former Mitsubishi works driver Spencer Lowndes could also be in the running for one of the drivers after spending the last year on the sidelines.

Lowndes was dumped at the end of 2003 with Juha Kangas picking up his drive and it is believed Lowndes has pursued some legal action over the broken agreement, which may have given him some funding to finance a drive with the Heaphy team.

A Pedder-Lowndes combination in a strong Evo VIII mounted Heaphy-run attack could deliver some strong results and strengthen what could have been a lacklustre battle In the 2005 ARC. -JON THOMSON

Subaru cops some new talent SUBARU Australia has announced its new co-driver line-up, with Dale Moscatt joining Cody Crocker and West Australian detective Bill Hayes taking up station alongside Dean Herridge.

Greg Foletta abdicated his co driving job with Crocker at the end of 2004 to take over the position of motorsport manager from Nick Senior, who will concentrate on his role as GM of Subaru Australia.

Foletta, a qualified engineer, now oversees the running of the team after having recently managed Subaru Australia's STI operations, Moscatt has been involved in rallying for 13 years and comes to the team after calling the notes for NSW driver Brad Goldsbrough, clinching the Privateer's Cup with him last year.

"Obviously it's a very exciting prospect to be stepping into the number one factory car with the reigning Australian Rally Champion," said Moscatt.

"From winning the Privateer's Cup last year the next step was to move into a factory car this year, and I'm keen to maximise the opportunity and looking forward to working alongside Cody and the Subaru team."

Herridge lost his codriver Glenn Macneall to the Chris Atkinson WRC campaign and has recruited Hayes following the WA policeman's impressive performance with Ross Dunkerton at Mitsubishi last year.

"I can't wait!" explained Hayes, "It's hard to describe the feeling, especially considering there are so few opportunities for a co-driver to make it into a factory team "I've completed a recce of Rally New Zealand with Dean a few years ago but we've never actually driven in competition together. The fact that we are both local to Perth means we can really work on strengthening our relationship which should prove extremely beneficial."

Crocker and Moscatt will team up for the first time next weekend when they tackle a round of China's National Rally Championship while Herridge and Hayes will have their first official rally together at the WRC round in New Zealand with their team-mates. n Constant neck pain has forced Jan Tomanek, co-driver to Roman Kresta in the Ford World Rally Team, to step down with immediate effect.

The 32-year-old Czech, who has partnered Kresta throughout his career, has been forced to rest after 12 years in the sport.

Kresta's co-driver for the rest of the season will be 29-year-old Jan Mozny. He will make his debut in a BP Ultimate-branded Ford Focus RS World Rally Car on next week's Rally Mexico.

-THOMSON/STAFF 69

Thanks to Queenslander Reeve Kruck, Australia now has its very own World of Outlaws Sprintcar team. CHRIS JORDAN spoke with him about his plans

T

HE visits that numerous American drivers have made to Australian speedways over the years have always reinforced one thing - they have the most competitive Sprintcar scene in the world.

This has been further proved by the recently established Outlaws Downunder event, held at Sydney's Parramatta City Raceway. The thinking is simple: the World of Outlaws Sprintcar Championship is the most competitive and gruelling (97 nights, no less) stage for a =

Sprintcar team - it is the pinnacle.

So,for a man from the other side of the planet to decide to start his own World of Outlaws team, people begin to ask questions. Does he know what he is getting himself into?

The answer is, of course, yes.

Reeve Kruck has been an immensely successful businessman and race tecun owner in Australia for some years now. If any Australian is to tackle the Formula 1 of Sprintcar racing (his words),it should be Kruck and his well-established Titan team.

"The main idea for startmg this Djnlel

team was based on the fact that they are the best racers of Sprintcars in the world," said Kruck.

"That was my objective, to say 'let's get over there and race against the best guys'.

"We'll learn more, we'll go faster and that is really the thing m my mind - to be racing against the best guys. It's simple; the Formula 1 of Sprintcar racing is the Outlaws, they are just so much better."

IG-uck is certainly not going about this effort half-heartedly. He realises that an organisation's most important asset is always its people,and he has organised things in a way where Titan Racing USA will run smoothly with or without Iris presence,in a series where travel is extensive and race-free weekends are a rarity.

"About 18 months ago I started thinking about it, but we started in June last year in setting the actual thing up. But I'd been plannuig it for a year before that. I did a whole business plan, with all the costing and the funding, because I nm this as a business.

"1 don't get up in the morning and wonder what we are going to do this afternoon. It's aU planned, it's all calculated. That's how I run my company and that's how I rmr my race cars. It's simple, it's easy and

everybody knows where they're going, what they are doing.

Everybody has a job specification and nobody has got to ask what they are going to do today or going to do tomorrow."

The crew will be a weUcredentialed one, with Australian 'Glenno'Inglis teaming up with a local talent to give the team one of the best crews on the tour.

"Yeah, we have a guy,Richie Wagner, who stayed in America while the rest of us were over here in Australia racing. He used to work for A1 Hamilton and he used to work with Brad Furr and also Danny Lasoski.

"He has been setting every'thing up and he is just an absolute perfectionist. He has set-up the workshop, transporter and everytliing absolutely fantastically.

Every conceivable thing he has done has been spot on.

"Glenno is keen to get back and work witli him,because they get on well. The hardest thing to get right is often having two good crew guys, because they live together nil the time.

They literally become husband and wife, living on the road 24-7. So to get tlie fonction between the two just right is critical, and they get on well, which is really good.

"The driver just comes and goes a

motorsportnews

bit more. But with the crew guys it is critical that they mesh well and know what their jobs are."

I

n the driver's seat, Kruck has decided to stick with a known quantity, and a quick one at that.

American Daryn Pittman, who was the first non-Australian to win tire World Series Sprintcars Championship (driving for Kruck's team) will drive for the Australian team. The 26-year-old is a proven Outlaws performer,having finished fourth in the championship in 2003.

"We picked Daryn because he is really easy to work with and his family are really nice people. We just get on good and we can go right up to the last round entertaining ourselves and getting along well.

Kruck resisted the temptation, and the flurry of offers that arrived on Iris doorstep, to field an Australian driver in the team.

"We looked at a few options and when word got out we were running a team over there we had n lot of people ringing and asking if they could drive.

"But at the moment we haven't got a forward plan of running an Australian guy. Not because we don't want to,just because I'm perfectly happy with the people I've got.

"When we had the open house at our workshop in Brownsburg [Indiana] we had a lot of people say 'we want to be involved with you guys. You look like you are starting this right and tliis is as good as I've seen anywhere'.

"We've got responsibilities to fulfil and a lot of people offered me deals to run them, but just because you offer me a deal, it doesn't mean I am necessarily going to take it.

"At the moment I am perfectly happy with what I have got and I don't want to have two cars rutming around, because that is just a 9Maroh200S

nightmare! It is bad enough in Australia when we run Robbie (Farr) and Daryn together for just a montli and a half!"

It is obvious that Kruck is fond of Pittman, and the feeling is mutual.

All parties involved are in the involvement for success,but the atmosphere around the Titan team at any speedway is always one of professionalism, but while maintaining a unique personality. It is something no doubt passed on and encouraged by Kruck.

"When Daryn wins a World Series round,he will get on the phone to Wade(Aunger, World Series Sprintcars CEO)and say 'that's another five grand you owe me Wade'.

"Daryn says to me'what do you think I do this for, for fun?' It's great, because we actually do have a lot of fun doing it. If it gets too serious and you can't have some fun, then I'll be out of it."

B

ut with the fun comes a serious side - money. To keep up with the Kinsers and Lasoskis of the Outlaws tour, you need seriously good machinery - and lots of it.

Kruck has shown his team his commitment to the task by amassing one of the most enviable inventories of Sprintcars and parts in the world, aU housed at a state-of-the-art facility

at Brownsburg,Indiana.

"We have six Maxim chassis, specially made, with specifications for us with some changes to suit what we wanted. We've got two motors and we have had a new sponsor. Hop and Sack Convenience Stores, who has brought two Wesmar motors onboard with us that they will own and maintain.

"We have three other engines and have seven rear ends. We have 10 wings,lots of radius rods and other the other components for the race car.

"Really, the shop is set-up as a proper workshop. We have all the milling machines,lathes, folders, guillotines, presses, everything you need to build and keep a car going.

There is also a marketing side to the exercise, with Kruck expecting to confirm the expansion of his successful Titan Garages and Carports company to the United States this year.

"We will sell our products into America, eventually. There are some issues my engineers and I are working on at tire moment because our engineering laws for structural strength buildings are different to theirs. So we've basically got to re invent the wheel.

"When I go back to America,I w Ul be looking fairly closely at it because they have an enormous market. When people say to me'what is it like in

America?',I say that you just think of everything we have here in Australia, but just add a nought onto it. Instead of one car going down the highway, there are 10. Instead of 100 people in a shopping mall, there is 1000. That is the only way to explain it."

What is true of the massive American, consumer-driven economy is also true of their racing.

More cars, more money. World of Outlaws is the pinnacle of speedway, in terms of dollars, competition and prestige. So far, the Titan team have not looked out of place for a second, opening the series with tliree top 10 feature finishes.

Pittman topped qualifying at Bakersfield Speedway two weeks ago,setting a new track record. After being taken out and flipping in his heat, he recovered to finish 12th in the A-Main via the B. So, tilings are looking good.

Kruck will be pleased, not only because the results are coming early, but no doubt because an Australian operation in the World of Outlaws is die coming to fruition of a dream for liim.

"You're a long time dead and I don't want to be carted through the cemetery gates saying 'hang on God, I didn't have a proper go!'. This is not a dress rehearsal."

At the moment we haven't got a forward plan of running an Australian guy. Not because we don't want to,just because I'm perfectly happy »r with the people I've got.

W

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-Reeve Kruck, pictured left with Daryn and Mandy Pittman Dame! i

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Graham * Aussie Champ t

by DARREN SUTTON STEVEN Graham finally realised a dream by taking out the GMC Alltools Australian Speedcar Championship at the Kwinana Motorplex two weeks ago.

Graham didn’t put a wheel wrong all weekend and even though there was any number of cars that had the potential to win, it was Graham that will now be known as Australian Champion.

The weekend was the best racing ever seen at the Motorplex from any division and the 40-lap A-Main was simply awesome.

Graham started out of position four alongside hometown hero Scott Glazebrook, who had a stellar weekend himself, with other local Dene McCallum moving through the shootout to grab pole, with Adam Clarke alongside.

Through the first 12 laps of the gruelling event the lead continually changed, with American Tony Elliott, Clarke and McCallum all having a run in the lead.

whilst Graham continued his move to the front.

On lap 13 Graham was into second behind Elliott, and a lap later he jumped to the lead and that was where he stayed.

Whilst everyone else battled for the minor placings - blistering their rear tyres in the process Graham was smooth as silk, lapping cars with ease. Not even a number of late race cautions would allow anyone close enough to challenge the man on a mission.

“I can’t believe it,” said Graham.

“I have wanted this for so long and now I finally have done it. I have to thank my whole family and crew; it’s unbelievable”.

The fight for second was won

by Michael Pickens, who drove a brilliant race on the high cushion after a long dice with youngster McCallum, who was third.

Farr’s romp continues WITH team owner Reeve Kruck stateside watching over his new Titan World of Outlaws operation, Robbie Farr and the Aussie half of the Titan team have been on a tear at Warrnambool's Sungold Stadium.

After winning the Victorian Sprintcar title on a rough and hooky track, Farr then backed that up a week later with the win in the ANZ $10,000 Shootout on a vastly different track two weeks ago.

Farr’s throttle stomping, aggressive nature is not best suited to a dry slick track, but he showed the assembled crowd that he is able to run the distance despite huge pressure from the likes of runners-up Max Dumesny and Trevor Green.

Farr never had it all his own way however, despite starting from pole by virtue of a pair of

heat wins. Lapped traffic played its role-and both Farr and Dumesny were passed for the lead in an instant by Danny Reidy. Just as quickly, Reidy was repassed by Dumesny who was then immediately pushed back to second by Farr.

Farr then resisted Dumesny's every move before starting to pull away over the closing laps.

Dumesny maintained second place in the race to the flag in his Valvoline Maxim and Green pushed his Adrad Radiators Eagle up to third. Luke Dillon was fourth ahead of Reidy, Mike Van Bremen, Greg Wickham, Ken Sartori, Daniel Newnham, Ian Lewis, Grant Anderson, Troy Shiells, Darren Mollenoyux, John Vogels, Phil Johnson, and Quentin Tanner.

- BRETT SWANSON

CCD

Vale: Frank: Oli’ueri AUSTRALIAN speedway is mourning the loss of arguably Australia's greatest speedway owner and promoter - Frank Oliveri- of the famed Liverpool Speedway.

Oliveri succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Tuesday February 22. Oliveri, along with media maestro and good friend Mike Raymond, made Liverpool 'the speedway' and was credited with having many major influences on 'the future direction of Australian speedway.

The Liverpool promotional team were responsible for bringing out some of the sports biggest names from both four and two wheel divisions, including the likes of AJ Foyt,Johnny Rutherford and Jolmny Anderson.

The tour by Anderson was to prove to be a milestone event in Australian speedway history, as it heralded the Oliveri and Raymond-inspired introduction of Sprintcar

racing to Australia. Gough Wliitlam, the Prime Minister of Australia and a good friend of Oliveri, agi'eed to visit the racehack and give liis name to a USA vs Australia Shield Series.

The paved outer oval was ripped up and replaced with clay (another US-led innovation) and the all conquering Steve Kinser-led teams arrived. The first featured Steve, Mark, Kelly and Randy with Karl turning the wrenches on the unforgettable black and gold JPS cars.

"Frank was a wonderful human being who did so much to help the profile of our sport," said Raymond.

Frank Oliveri was 73, and put a lot back into the community ser\Tng three terms as Mayor of tlie City of Liverpool and four as deputy, all as an independent.

- BRETT SWANSON motorsportnews

SPEEDWAY

Little Champion

by GREG BOSCATO

ONE day after his 23rd birthday, Sydney's Troy Little defeated Australian Champ Brooke Tatnell to win the 2005 NSW 410 Sprintcar Title at the Parramatta City Raceway.

Finishing third was an impressive Mark Byton but it was the battle up front between Little and TatneU that was clearly the talking point.

Little, above right, took the race lead around lap 15 after previous leader Adrian Maher suffered front end damage as a result of tangling with Mick Turner at a red stoppage. Little held command,surviving a challenge first from Blyton before Tatnell came onto the scene.

In Heat 2 Tatnell rode over a rear wheel while battling with rookie Scott Darley on the back straight which sent his A#1 Maxim crashing onto the outer wall, destroying his two-year-old machine, pictured below right.

EWT's Peter Johnson, running the ex-Paul McMahan Maxim,offered Tatnell his car allowing Tatnell to continue racing at his final Aussie appearance this summer. The new Aussie Champ started in last position in the 35-lap A-Main but he quickly forged forward and was right behind Little with 10 laps to run.

Tatnell took the lead in traffic but Little fought back regaining control.

Despite a couple stoppages late in the race. Little held onto Ids lead to win the title with Tatnell just behind,followed

by Blyton,Grant Tunks,Martin Lawes and Rodney Bright the top six finishers.

"I'm stoked but it was nervewracking, that's the only way to

Robbie Farr’s hat-trick ROBBIE Farr won the prestigious Australian Sprintcar Masters, re-run at Adelaide's Speedway City last weekend after being rained out late ,last year.

The win gives Farr three big feature race wins from as many weekends, adding to his Victorian Title and the ANZ $10,000-to-win.

Max Dumesny continued his consistantly successful season by finishing second, with local driver Mark Reuter in third. n Round 17 of the Parramatta City Raceway Track Championships was re-run last weekend, with points leader and new NSW Champion Troy Little coming from position eight to . win the A-Main on the now customary slick PCR track.

Adrian Maher pulled a late-race passing move of Mark Blyton to finish second, ahead of Blyton, who battled wing damage after some early race contact.

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describe it," said Little.

Fifty-one Sprintcars gridded up for the NSW Title, witli West Aussie Champion Ryan Farrell making his PCR debut.

The tacky track conditions caught a number of drivers out during the night, with Mitchell Dumesny

flipping over in hot laps while rookie Todd McKittrick also took a tumble during his qualify lap. Arguably the biggest crash of the night occured in the heats, with Craig Brady having a wild crash, pictured below left.

Points; Little 4066,Tunks 3908,Lawes 3834, Maher 3804, Mark Blyton 3754.

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n Rain has put paid to the final of the Cactus Classic at Manzanita Speedway in World of Outlaws competition last weekend.

Craig Dollansky won the preliminary event of the weekend on Friday night, winning the 25-lapper with a late-race move on Danny Lasoski. The final night of the Classic will not be re-run until October 11, Two weeks ago it was again Dollansky who was victorious, winning the first World of Outlaws AMain held at Bakersfield Speedway in 10 years, after the preliminary night was won by Tim Schaffer. n The Krikke Boys Memorial at Bunbury Speedway looks set to be an event to remember, with a formidable line-up of Australia's best Sprintcar drivers all to run at the event on March 19.

Max Dumesny is the latest driver to confirm he is journeying west, joining the likes of Robbie Farr, Phil March (driving for Monte Motorsports) and Trevor Green, who will all be trying to beat the host of fast locals, most notably Ryan Farrell, Michael Figliomeni and the legendary Ron Krikke in his comeback drive.

First prize is a Mitsubishi Triton ute, spectacularly liveried in the colours of the event.

Hoosier Tire Australia 2004 WORLD OF OUTLAWS CHAMPIONSHIP Australian Distributors for

Xoosirr

^^ RACING TIRE

For more Information on Hoosier Drag and SpeedwayTyres call:

NSW;02 9679 1990 l Fax 02 9679 /187 VIC;03 9331 6477 l Fax 03 9331 7444 SA:08 8332 0800 l Fax 08 8364 0296 9 March 2005

Manzinati Speedway Park 21/02/05 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

.. Steve Kinser .. Tyler Walker Donny Schatz .. Jason Sides ... Tim Shaffer Paul McMahan . Daryn Pittman .. Brian Paulus .. Kraig Kinser Danny Lasoski

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

... Jason Meyers ... Dean Jacobs .. Jonathan Allard Randy Hannagan . Dennis Moore Jr. .. Jason Solwoid Toni Lutar . Sammy Swindell ... Joey Saldana ... Keith Watkins

2005 Standings to 6 March 2005 1 Sieve Kinser ..

2 Craig Dollansky 3 Jason Meyers .

4 Danny Lasoski 5 Mark Kinser...

6 Kraig Kinser ..

7 Daryn Pittman ..

8 Donny Schatz ..

9 Joey Saldana ..

10 Shane Stewart

774 768 740 721 720 712 697 693 678 630

11 Sammy Swindell 628 617 12 Paul McMahan 13 Randy Hannagan ...612 601 14 Tim Shaffer ..

589 ISTimKaeding , 589 15 Terry McCarl .

551 17 Kevin Swindell 18 Brandon Wimmer ... 537 530 19 Jason Solwoid 517 20 Jason Sides .

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DRAG RACING REIGNING Top Fuel Champion Tony Schumacher took the series lead in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel series after a win in Round 2 at the 21st annual Checker, Schuck's, Kragen NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

In Funny Car, John Force collected his 115th career win and Allen Johnson creamed the Pro Stock field.

Schumacher's US Army dragster dominated the event and led the final qualifying order with a track record 4.474s pass at 317mph.'The Sarge' beat Bruce Litton, Cory McClenathan, and Brandon Bernstein before dusting Morgan Lucas in the final round with a 4.48s/329mph to a slowing 4.96s/207mph.

Schumacher now leads Pomona winner Scott Kalitta by five points, with Lucas just two behind Kalitta.

Lucas' third final-round showing in the last four national events came at the expense of Rit Pustari, Doug Herbert, and David Grubnic.

The best pass of the day for the Lucas Oil dragster was against Herbert when he posted a 4.51s/324mph.

Force's Castrol Start-Up Ford 'Mustang used a final round 4.80s at 324mph to stop Ron Capps and his Brut Dodge Stratus. Eight of Forces 115 victories have come at Firebird International Raceway, more

.

i

than any other driver.

He started with a 4.74s/329mph against Frank Pedregon,then slowed to a 4.91s/298mph versus '04 nemesis Gary Scelzi. In the semis he defeated team-mate Eric Medlen with a 4.81s/323mph.

Capps opened his card with a win over Tommy Johnson Jr. and then won a pedaling contest with rookie Robert Hight before trailering Phil Burkart in the semis.

Burkart's semi-final showing in Phoenix puts him on top of the points for the first time in his career. He currently leads Force by 12 points.

Johnson's third career Pro Stock win came at the expense of Ron Krisher, who was beaten 6.80s/202mph to 6.88s/190mph.

Johnson was flawless on raceday, running a 6.76s/202mph for a hole shot win against V. Gaines and a pair of 6.77s/202mph passes opposite Jason Line and Jeg Coughlin.

Krisher was involved in the two closest races of the entire day en route to the final. In the opening round he defeated Dave Connolly by just .0035s. He defeated Warren Johnson in the second round then he took out semifinal opponent Jim Yates on another hole-shot, winning 6.78s/203mph to 6.77s/203mph.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Cowin Makes Phoenix Show

by DAVID OSTASZEWSKI ANDREW Cowin qualified for his second event of 2005 at Phoenix two weeks ago.

He recorded a 4.71s/296mph to put the Cowin Family dragster into the field in the 15th spot, where his draw in the opening round would be the second-qualified car of Doug Kalitta.

Cowin jumped to a slight lead at the start, and took a cylinder head torching win when Kaiitta smoked the tyres in his Mac Tools dragster. This set up a round two match against another one of the Kalitta team cars, the Zantrexbacked dragster of driver, and fellow Aussie, David Grubnic.

Cowin again shot out to the early lead, but his 4.71 s/314mph fell to the 4.57s/321 mph of Grubnic.

The team now heads to its new shop in Florida in preparation for its next event in Gainesville.

Edwards Fails Engine Check...

Or Did He? NHRA Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards was one of several Pro Stock drivers randomly checked at Phoenix for adherence to the NHRA's new minimum weight policy for Pro Stock engines.

Edwards failed the random check when the wrist pin was allegedly two grams too light. On the NHRA's scales, it read 133 while engine builder Frank laconic's read 135, a legal weight for this component. The wrist pin was the only part that was too light and, interestingly, the pistons were almost 30 grams heavier than the established minimums set by the NHRA. According to Edwards, NHRA's scale measured one thing and his another. Edwards was docked his points earnt from Pomona and placed on probation for six months. n Top Fuel team owner Bill Miller and driver Brady Kalivoda have parted ways.

Bobby Lagana Jr. will drive the Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel Dragster when the BME team returns to competition at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston on April 8-10. The BME team plans to rejoin the NHRA tour for the fourth round after chassis master Don Long completes repairs to the race car.

Lagana, 27, of Scarsdale, New York, is a second-generation racer who has previously competed in NHRA Top Fuel on a limited schedule with tour different teams. Lagana will continue to campaign his own Top Fuel dragster in match races and selected IHRA events.

-DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

NDRA drags returns to Victona

ANDRA-sanctioned drag racing will return to Victoria next month.

Heathcote Park Raceway will host the Victorian and Ballarat Drag Racing Club's Supercharged Showdown on Saturday 16 April.

The meeting will be headlined by the exciting Blown Outlaws, while other classes set to contest the event in rural Victoria include Modified,Super Gas,Super Sedan, Real Street (for registered cars). Modified Bike, Junior Dragster plus other special guests. Between 100-150 competitors from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are expected to make the journey. It is the first time an ANDRA sanctioned meeting has taken place in Victoria for a long time.

Racing will start at 10am and entry will set adults back $20, while children under 14 will get in for free. For more information, contact Shane Baxter on 03 9460 5630.

9 March 2005

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The northern men are coming back: Ben Gatt will be one of a handful of New South Wales competitors racing at Heathcote in April.

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edited byi

Rowley

Utes come of age

AGP V8 Lite support races offer close racing, great entertainment and a iocal winner

THE debut of the Cleanevent V8 Utes at the Australian Grand Prix has been deemed a success after three exciting races last weekend at Albert Park.

The Utes may have been a novel concept as a support category at such a high-profile event, but the ute competitors behaved themselves on the world stage.

Victorian Marcus Zukanovic claimed two race victories after qualifying fifth in the 28 car field.

The former V8 Supercar driver was thrilled to win the first ute event of its type.

"This is just a dream come true, really," the likeable Zukanovic said.

"It's hard not to get excited about winning races around this great track. I gave it everything I had this weekend and hopefully we'll be able to continue this good form into the season proper."

Former Rugby League player Jack Elsegood won the first race on Thursday after a torrid dice with Zukanovic, Gary Baxter and pole-sitter Kerry Wade.

Elsegood and Wade initially

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76

made a gap on the pack before embroiling themselves in a fierce early dice. This allowed Zukonovic to climb onto the back of them, however, his joy turned sour when he speared off at turn 6 after out-braking himself. He recovered to finish ninth.

Baxter took advantage of Zukanovic's mistake and moved up to third. The former Commodore Cup champion soon moved past Wade and placed immense pressure on Elsegood, but was unable to find a way past him. Series stalwart Charlie finished third ahead of Wade and James Moffat, the son of touring car great Allan.

Category debutant Allan Simonsen didn't make a great impression when he hit and spun out team-boss Ian McAlister. He later confirmed that McAlister had a problem, which he failed to react enough to quick enough.

"1 was right up his arse, but basically, he had a fuel surge and when he went to drive out of the corner, he had nothing and I had no where to go."

Race 2 saw a reverse top 10, which allowed Zukanovic to start

pjicjie

Jack of all trades: Elsegood claimed the Race 1 win at the Aussie GP. right from the front, which he took full advantage of. He claimed the race win from Simonsen, who turned around a disappointing Race 1 to make his mark as a serious contender in this year's championship. Simonsen placed plenty of pressure on Zukanovic but finished just short. Team Brock driver Ryal Harris scored third place ahead of Kovacs, Moffat and McAlister.

Rob Jarvis endured two spins within two corners and failed to finish the race. Worse was to come though in Race 3 when he spun at turn 11 and backed the car over a tyre wall in spectacular fashion.

Zukanovic claimed his second win for the weekend in Race 3, again ahead of Simonsen and Baxter. But Zukanovic had to work very hard for it. The first

lap saw Baxter and Zukanovic swap positions numerous times.

The damp circuit allowed the utilities to run two, three or even four wide on some occasions.

Then, Zukanovic was forced to employee extreme defensive tactics to wade of the challenges from Wade and Simonsen. He did this with success until falling off the track himself on the penultimate lap.

He dropped back to third but fought his way back, passing Simonsen and Baxter on the last tour.

Moffat finished his impressive weekend with fourth in the final race ahead of James Brock, Kim Jane, Wade, Elsegood and Kovacs, who had a wild moment on the slippery grass after being passed by Elsegood. ^ GRANT ROWLEY

HATIONAL SCENE

'Gong Opens PSC The NSW Premier State Cup commenced at Wollongong two weeks ago with 207 karters competing across 12 classes.

With $32,000 of cash prizes up for grabs in the DPE Rotax classes, this category is set to become more cut throat as the season progresses towards the final at Newcastle in November.

Fastest qualifier Jason Hryniuk (CRG)picked up the win in Rotax Light with a last lap pass on Kristian Lindbom (Arrow). Matthew Wall was third.

In Heavy,Scott Simpson(GRG) and Kel Treseder (Monaco)split the heat wins before Simpson won the final. Treseder held on for second ahead of Nick Karmalis.

Simpson had a great meeting,also

picking up the Clubman Super Heavy win.

Lindbom (Top Kart)re-wrote the record books with a donunant run in Clubman Light, setting a new track record for the class.

Peter Lawler put in what many regard as the drive of the day to win Clubman Heavy. The CRG driver, who had qualified fastest, DNF'd the pre-final and started well back in the pack. He was able to make his way to the front and put a pass on Jason Hryniuk in the run to the flag.

Matty Dorado(Top Kart) earned his first big win in Junior National Heavy.

Jimior National Light was oversubscribed and only the top 28 made it through to a final where Dion Fischper(CRG)came out on top.

Dirt Tracker Josh Hunter won

Midgets and another dirt regular, Darryn Piper, was a stand out performer in Junior Clubman. Using a Yamaha engine agamst the watercooled ARCS,Piper almost made a clean sweep of the class. He had to settle for second behind Steel

Guiliana(CRG),above, after the two had a good dice in the final. Other winners were Grant Dyga (Rookies), Daniel Foot(Senior National Light) and Aaron Salter (Senior National Heavy).

-MARK WICKS

Multi-Kart Squad for JT Potential V8 drivers confirmed JON Targett's JT Motorsport is set to be the largest team competing in the Pettaras Press CIK KartStars Championship which goes green at Geelong next month.

JT has signed 10 drivers to compete across the CIK, KartStars and Junior MAX categories.

In CIK, Bart Price will be defending his ICC title and will head up a four kart attack.

Scott Harrison (Old) and Blake Varney (Qld), last year's runners-up, have joined the squad. So too has Matthew Wall (Vic) who has moved from Formula A to ICC. All these drivers will use TM engines on Arrow chassis.

There will be five JT drivers in KartStars; Kristian Lindbom (NSW), right, Trent James (Vic), Brad Tyrrell (NZ), Jessica Golding (Qld) and Zac Schonberger (Qld). Golding is currently the only woman entered in the series while Tyrrell will fly out from New Zealand to compete in each round.

Junior National Light Australian Champion Leigh Nicolaou (Vic) will be JT's sole driver in the new Junior MAX class.

As an added incentive, Targett will offer any of his drivers who place in the CIK or KartStars Championship, a test day in a Minda Motorsport Formula Ford.

- MARK WICKS 9 March 2005

THE final details of the 2005'Search for a V8 Superstar' are coming together.

The competition, which is run in conjuction with the New South Wales Formula Ford Championship, has gained corporate support from Vodafone, Stand 21 Racewear, AirXtreme Art, Cosco, Strathfield Car Radios and Clancy's Signs.

So far, 13 drivers have signed up for a chance to win a test drive with Tasman Motorsport's V8 Supercar team. Drivers include John Martin, Paul Laskazeski, Colin Sieders, Bradley Lowe, Nick Lowe, Dane Rudolph, Dale Wood, Daniel Cotton, Derryn Harrison, Adrian Duncan, John Mostyn, Luke Wood and Wensley Carroll.

Formula Ford teams entered include Vodafone Racing, Workwear Racing, Anglo Motorsport, Mygale, Sonic Motorsport and Borland Racing.

Garwood Gold at Tassie Opener TOP Targa contender Greg Garwood issued an ominous warning to his rivais with an impressive dispiay in the opening round of the Champions of Tasmania Circuit Racing Series for Sports GT (targa) cars at Baskerviiie Raceway two weeks ago.

The Launceston driver got back into the groove of racing, driving his familiar Porsche 911 GT 3 to take the overall honours as well as the inaugural Tassie Top Gun Shootout.

It was his first race meeting since his frightening crash on the North-West Coast at last year’s Targa Tasmania event.

Top gun events will be held alongside selected rounds of the Octagon series and are open to the fastest 10 sedans using radial tyres in any class

during qualifying.

Garwood beat Jeff Keyte, in a Nissan GT-R and defending Improved Production champion Leigh Forrest in a Toyota Celica.

Forrest started his year off on the right note, comfortably outpacing Mazda duo Andrew Reader and Matt Stringer and Andrew Webster’s Holden Torana SLR 5000 in his round of the Champions of Tasmania.

The first round of the state series for under 2-litre sedans, Michael Coucher got the job done, while Andrew Bird sun/ived all the biff and barge in the HQ Holden round to take victory.

A last-ditched manoeuvre from Peter Chopping over Richard Gray ended a thrilling Formula Vee race with Keiren Glover third.

- LEONARD SIRAGUSA W

Sun Shines on S A I

Hang on, that's Eddie Irvine!fohn Bladon's McLaren Mia, above, was the first completely new car Bruce McLaren built in 1965. Top, the spinning Borsches gave the large crowd plenty to get excited over.

3*

It's been to all the great tracks: Americian Bert Skidmore drove Nicholas Colonna's ex-Le Mans/ex-Daytona GT40, above, while the ex-Alan Jones Beatrice Ford, below, was a popular attraction.

HUGE 455 car entry, including 20 special overseas vehicles and a packed 33-event programme of close, largely incident-free racing, made the 2005 Shannons Phillip Island Classic an all-time high-point in Australian historic motor racing two weeks ago.

A record crowd turned out and even created a traffic jam at the end of the day!

The unquestioned stars of the show were the 'powerbrokers' in the capacity Group N touring cars, M & 0 sports car and R Q & R Sports and Racing Car fields, Robert Braune in his potent Valiant Charger and John Mann in his familiar Mustang slogged it out in the Over 3-litre Historic Touring Car races. Mann took first blood in Saturday's opening four lapper, while Braune convincingly turned the tables in Sunday's four and six lap races.

Tony Hubbard (HQ Monaro), Cameron Worner (Falcon GT) and Trevor Talbot (Torana LJ XU1) scrapped over the minor placings.

The Under 3-litre races were just as exciting with the Capris of Steve Land and Barry Seton enjoying an enthralling meetinglong duel. Their battle was mostly ahead of Bill Cutler's potent BMW 2002ti and Greig Malaure's 1297cc Mini Cooper S.

Wayne Park, driving Rob Sherrard's Ford GT40, was unbeatable in the Groups M and 0 races, despite the best efforts of Nick McDonald in his Brabham BT6 and America's intrepid Bert Skidmore in Nicholas Colonna's superb ex-Le Mans/ex-Daytona GT40. Max Brunninghausen's inspired driving of his Chevron B8 and Neville McKay's giant-killing performances in the Mallock U2 Mk8 were highlights.

Outclassed, but great to see in Australia was John Bladon's very special McLaren Mia. The Mia was the first completely new car Bruce McLaren built in 1965 after setting up his own company, with the cars designed to race in Group 7 during 1964/65 and then CanAm from 1966.

Biadon believes this particular car is probably the only racing Mia left in its original form, as most of the other cars were updated to Mib or Mic spec with very different bodywork to race in '66 and '67.

Another fast and fascinating overseas entry was Briton John Monson's pretty BMW-powered Elva M75 that was originally owned and raced by Stirling Moss.

Sydney's Guido BelgiornoNettis moved heaven and earth to get his glorious ex-Michele Alboreto Ferrari Tipo 156/85, above, to the meeting after numerous problems during an engine rebuild. A triple 360degree spin through the field in Saturday's first race (without a touch) certainly focused his motersportnsws

NATIONAL SCENE

hannons Classic Specials, rarities and a record crowd helped the Shannons Phillip Island Classic become an early contender for the best motor sport event in 2005...

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attention and the car then ran strongly throughout the meeting.

The ex-Alan Jones Beatrice Hart - also from the 1985 season - made a return to the race track after a 20 year absence. New owner Ian Ross made an excellent fist of driving the unfamiliar car, despite a mysterious and intermittent misfire.

Bladon's ex-John Surtees/ MikeHailwood Surtees TS9B Cosworth was a fabulous representative of Formula One from the early 1970s, but it was overshadowed

by Louis Sellyei's beautiful Weslake V12-engined Eagle FI that American Dan Gurney built and raced in the 1967 season.

As one competitor said; "it mightn't have run on all 12 cylinders all the time, but it was worth following it to hear it tryl" Also fabulous and very fast was Dean Butler's very original ex-works Lago Talbot Grand Prix car from the early 1950s, which was able to stretch its legs on the PI circuit.

But for some visitors, the real highlight was to be found on display behind the pits, A record 10 Allards, including Steve Schuler's Cadillac-engined J2 that creator Sydney Allard drove into third place in the 1950 Le Mans 24-hour race and a similar J2 raced in Australia by Stan Jones, made spectacular viewing.

The previous largest Allard gathering in Australia brought just four examples together, but their record numbers at Phillip Island became a metaphor for the meeting.

9 March 2005

Treasure this moment: Louis Sellyei drove Dan Gurney's beautiful Weslake V12-engined Eagle FI, above and background, that the American built and raced in the 1967 Formula 1 season.

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Mixed and merry bunch: Whether you owned a touring car, open-wheeler or Sportscar, there tvas room for you at Phillip Island's massive historic meeting.

BIgge MatshdH Cais

Hanging with Mr Cooper Ashley scores surprise first up win as the fast men fall by the wayside

ASHLEY Cooper surprised the regulars in the opening round of the 2005 RDA Rotors Commodore Cup Series at Wakefield Park recently.

Cooper, who had to use Rhett Russell's VH due to his new VS not quite being complete, was instantly on the pace and scored two race wins (his first in the category) and a second place in Race 1.

Brett Holdsworth looked like the man to beat after scoring pole position and the Race 1 win,but completed the meeting second overall after finishing second and sixth in the last two races.

Danny Richert and David Gittus shared third and fourth place in all three races.

Former international open wheel and V8 Supercar driver Stephen White showed quick speed in his Commodore Cup debut,fin ishing fifth in the final two heats.

Reigning Champion Geoff Emery blew a gearbox in Race 1 but battled his way through the 21-car pack to salvage a decent score. He finished second in Race 3.

Marcus Zukanovic showed immense pace, but lunched an engine after taking the second place midway

through Race 1.

The next round of the championship will again be at Wakefield Park on May 15, supporting the V8 Development Series.

Points: Cooper 145, Holdsworth 132, Richert 124, Gittus 120, Bates/Emery 101, Nick Parker

Lowe blow

A close run BRAD Lowe kicked off the 2005 MoPro Challenge in the best possible way at Wakefield Park recently, snaring poie position and taking out two of the three races.

In a small but competitive field, Lowe snared pole position by just a tenth of a second before going on to take out Races 2 and 3 by solid margins to complete a strong start to his championship campaign.

After just missing out on pole position, Simon Arthur passed Lowe on the second lap of Race 1, going on to take a five second victory - his only one for the weekend. Second places in the remainder of the races gave him 80

Marshatleiss

second overall for the weekend.

Andrew Fisher took third overall thanks to a trio of third place results.

Yanis Derums and Chris Oxley had the MGF class all to themselves. Derums snaring the overall points with two wins to Oxley’s one.

- RICHARD CRAILL

JOHN Goodacre took home the first round spoils of the CSA Alloy Wheels Saloon Car Series at Wakefield Park two weeks ago.

Goodacre claimed pole position and scored all three race victories, although it wasn't as easy as it sounds after sustaining some fierce attacks from his Saloon Car rivals.

Goodacre led from start to finish in Race 1 and finished ahead of Saloon Car stalwart Bruce Heinrich, Matthew Lovell, Grant Johnson and Jake Camilleri.

The most interesting part of the race came on lap 11 when Peter Holmes's Commodore lunched an engine while in sixth place and just about all the cars

behind him speared off into the scenery. The race was redflagged due to the rubbish on the road.

Race 2 saw the top five run close, yet a mid-race clash separated the fast front men.

Former V8 Supercar driver Johnson clashed with Lovell on lap eight, causing both to spin.

Lovell salvaged fifth while Johnson was relegated to seventh.

Camilleri, who qualified second in his Castrol Ford, took advantage to take third place, while Luke Flansen finished fourth. Steve Kwiatkowski finished fifth after starting the meeting from the back of the grid.

The battle for the lead, though, moioisportnews

NATIOHAL SCENE

I* s Better DEREK Hocking took first blood in the opening round of the new-look Shannons Australian Production Car Championship at Wakefield Park, near Goulbum,recently.

The Holden VY SS driver scored two race wins and a second place from the three heats. Honda S2000 driver Drew Russell picked up a win in Race 3.

The first race, which was a scratch event,saw Hocking lead home RusseU and a horde of Ford Falcons, including David Ryan,Scott

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was terrific. Heinrich chased Goodarce hard over the course of the race and had just one attempt at passing him, which happened to be at the last corner. Goodacre managed to beat him by the smallest of margins over the finish line, above.

Race 3 was a little more subdued for the leaders. Heinrich took the early frontrunning before transmission problems thwarted his efforts. Camilleri held sway for four laps before the might of Goodacre came to the fore. Johnson, Kwiatkowski, Lovell and Camilleri rounded out the top five.

- GRANT ROWLEY Points: Goodacre 120, Lovell 81, Johnson 79, Camilleri 77, Heinrich 70.

9 March 2004

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Anderson and John Houlder.

Race 2 was the first of the handicap starts. Hocking slowly worked his way through the field, taking the lead comfortably from Shane Baker with four laps remaining. Michael Craig finished third ahead of the Toyota Celica duo of CAMS President Colin Osborne

and Trevor Keene.

The race saw a fierce battle between Daniel NatoH and Leigh Mertens, right, which resulted in a slight clash between them.

In the third race, RusseU snuck through for the win ahead of round winner Hocking,above,and Craig.

-GRANT ROWLEY

Harosir

% ed the opening round TERRY Wyhpon victory of the Gulf Western Touring Car Challenge at Wakefield Park Raceway two weeks ago.

The Ford Falcon AD driver scored the round win over Touring Car stalwart Garry Wilmington and Nissan Primera steerer Adam Proctor.

Wyhoon's win maintains his 100 percent strike-rate in the TCC. He has only competed in one TCC round prior at Winton last year. which he w(5n.

Willmington blitzed the field to score pole ahead of reigning TCC Champion Luke Searle in his BMW 320i.

V8 Super Future Tourer: Former Superspeedway specialist Terry Wyhoon, above, claimed the first round of the 2005 Touring Car Challenge.

Willmington went on to beat the field in the five lap scratch race ahead of Wyhoon and Matthew Hunt. Searle actually took the lead in the race, then clashed with Wyhoon before being pinged for a jump start and forced to serve a stop-go. Sam Dale in his Nissan Primera was the first of the non-Supercars home.

Race 2 involved a handicapped start and Proctor fought tooth-and-nail with Toyota Camry driver Brendon Julius, main picture above. Proctor eventually scored the race win, but only after getting past Julius at turn two on the last lap.

A last lap pass again determined the final race of the day. Willmington moved past Future Tourer racer Andrew Gillespie on what would be the final lap. A Safety Car was need ed for early race leader Rod Markland, in his Nissan Skyline, after he spun at the final turn and could not get his car restarted. Wyhoon also got past Gillespie and claimed second place, even though no points were awarded in that final heat. Mark Telfer won the Future Tourer class in his VX Commodore, while Markland won the Group A battle.

8^

NATIONAL SCENE

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The Allard J2s were masterpieces of their time, despite their lack ofelegance. GRANT ROWLEY did some homework

E

NGLISHMAN Sydney Allard was a keen racing driver who found the perfect balance between driving and exporting cars that beared his own name. Even though his cars might not have been as beautiful as a Porsche or as elegant as a Ferrari, the performance he was able to extract, even on the smallest of budgets, was quite extraordinary for its time.

Allard's claim to fame was the J2, above, which he introduced in;1949. The J2 was a limited production racing car, which found much success using American V8 powerplants.

Allard didn't manufacture his own engines so Ford V8s were the engine of choice. But he soon formed an alliance with Cadillac, and this was where the legend was born.

The 331c.i. Cadillac (later Chrysler) donk suited the J2, which compromised a chassis constructed using smali diameter tubes and an absolutely unquie suspension system, both front and back. A split front suspension configuration was an Allard trademark that allowed for camber variations.

Less celebrated but just as important was the de Dion-style independent rear suspension. The rear end was fabricated from light steel tubing and and a Ford 'banjo' center section. It took rival car manufactures 10 years to develop a system that could rival it.

Most of the car's weight was centred over

82

the rear wheels, and even if the car may have been a bit rough around the edges, it certainly had the speed and handling to make it a popular commodity.

Less than 200 J2s were built, most of which were shipped to America between 1950 and 1954, where Cadillac would install the engine, pass them on to customers and (usually) dominate the local SCCA racing. Customers included Bill Pollock, John Fitch and Carroll Shelby, so it's no coincidence that the Allard and Cobra share a strong resemblance ...

Perhaps the reason why the cars were so popular and widely-used was due to their cost.

At the time, you could pick up a J2 (with engine)for $2900, more than $1000 cheaper than the rival Jaguar XK-120. If you could live without the creature comforts, you couid save yourself a packet and still race at the front!

The car's first major result came when it finished third in the 1950 Le Mans 24 Hour with Allard and American Tom Cole Jr behind the wheel. The only cars that beat the J2 were Talbot-Lago FI cars, which were converted to Sportscars to be eligible. The J2 completed 12 hours of the race with only third gear, a consequence of the engines torque but shear testament to the toughness of the J2.

These days, 16 of the cars live in Australia where they compete reguiarly in various historic events.

Cars of the Century i

s

N.

THE Allard J2 was just a small part of the 'Cars of the Century' celebration at the Australian Grand Prix.

Although the historic cars did not compete, the Shannons Historic Garage saw a great amount of people visit the massive exhibition. motorsportaews

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Rings are available to suit a wide range of applications. The full list of specifications is available in the Rocket Super Catalogue. For your copy.or more information contact Rocket Industries on 02 8825 1900 or visit www.rocketind.com

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CLASSIFIEDS

Classifieds online classifieds 7f A

Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

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your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/ internet classified service. Courtesy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service my105.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25. Yes 3 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25!

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Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

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IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

Sedans/Sports Cars \

=-_t; Hurd/Krause Torana, Chev powered 300KW LX Torana, Freshened Engine. This car has at least 4 National Titles, Numerous State Tltles.Times Phillip Island 1.47, Symmons 1.00.39, Basken/ille 59.4 This car requires a serious driver. $26000. Mark 0408133510 / 0363695416, www.myl05.eom/49063

Porsche GT3, (ex TNT), excellent condition, engine, g/box and diff rebuilt 3 meets ago. Motec eng mgt, on board air jacks, dry break fuel system, too many to list, suit prod sports, porsche drivers challenge, gt, supersprints or rally or put on road (was registered etc) - $145,000. Bob 98997766. www.my105.com/25267

Australia's Fastest 2wd, 97 Australian championship winning car, ex Dean Herridge. Brand new gear box, 4 sets of light weight race rims,heaps of spares!!

Rally Winning P3/F2 EVERY NUT/BOLT ALUMINIUM this car has been built by Maximum Motorsport.Selling because we want a group N. WILL TRADE FOR WRX converted rally car. S26 000 Neg. 305 0425798083. www.myt05.com/26476

Honda Integra "Type R”, As driven by Adam Beechey to victory in last round of 2004 GT Production Championship at Mallala: Buiit by Wayne Park in 2000 from new car. CAMS approved roll cage, profiex shocks, 3 sets of wheels, drybreak fuel system and heaps of spares. Ready to win in 2005 series . $25,900.00 ONO. 308 wvirw.myl05.com/69972

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i GROUP C GEMINI, Gemini tx coupe 1977. group C car. fully documented history inc log books, came 2nd inclass bathurst 1979, raced 1977>1984. very original inc cage, Detroit locker diff, sway bars, engine, Webbers. TE front fitted to run 1983 series.

Little required for CofD, last driven 1989.

Dean How 0408 867 262. $25000 Neg. 305 dean 0359762011 / 0408867262. www.myl05.com/57979

VW Beetle Turbo Sports Sedan, Tube frame, coil over suspension. Avon slicks, mounted wets, hot Subaru RS Liberty Quad Cam, Avo Turbo, EMS Management system, 300 BHP, Kombi box, Detroit locker, spares, trailer, hill climb car, very competitive. $20,000 Neg, John 0417 454 305 402. www.myl05.com/95122

Porsche 993RS, Regular class b winner, enter in nat, Porsche series, prof, prepared to win ciass B, strong motor, uni chip, gonzo exh.,loads of upgrades, lightweight stripped body, big red brakes. Upgrade LSD, 8x18” wheels, spare tyres, proflex shocks, data logger, only raced 2 seasons, contact for full list. $75,000 ONO. Russell 0411724176.

305 www.myl O5.com/1836 Cm 'J

\

1999 GT3 For Sale, Fastest non Cup Car in Aust. Recent body refresh. Recond Bilstein Shock pkge, rebuilt g/box, diff, brakes.

Upgraded ECU, Motec data logging, extensive spares inci 4 sets of wheels.

Ready for Targa or the Porsche Drivers challenge or Aust GT sports cars. All original GT3 Road parts. Road Reg NSW. 307 $150,000. Tim 0409090932. www.my105.com/7999

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MX5 Race Car For Sale, Campaigned in Production Sports Car Championship and CAMS Supersprint Championship, 40+ podiums, including Class/Category wins.

Aluminium flywheel, quad throttle-bodies, adjusfabie cams, extractors. Microtech ECU & handset. Body in near showroom condition, no dents, full respray, full tonneau. Adjustable ride height, Bilsteins, King Springs, Braided lines. Trailer available $2,500. 17,750 ONO, Ed 0418 573 891.

305 www.myl05.com/87322 TOYOTA CORONA, Weil known IPRANSW oar.Driven by Ashley and David Birks.

O.P.S. 51.5 E.C, 1.50.7 W.P. 1.10.4 OPGP 1.21.3 , heaps spare parts, easy to drive, easy to maintain. Call for more details, 305 $10,000. DAVID 0412335573. wwrw.my105.com/60248

6MarGh2005

Near New GT3 Cup Car. Brand new never marked or damaged body, just 3,000klms only competed in 6 events, lncl.2004 upgrade, fully prep, for season 2005.

219,000 inc GST, Russell 0411724176.

305 www.my105.com/98245

Porsche GT3 Cup Car, MY2003 with 2004 update package. 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 for quick sale or swap for MY2002 with 2003 updates. Stephen 0418 685 575.

305 www.myl O5.com/19254

to Falcon XY, Fresh 351, new Avons, Goidtrack LSD, new harness. Hirst shifter, Lincoln calipers. Spare bodyshell also available. Racecar $25,000. Also XY roadcar. $19,000. $25,000 ONO. Tim 02 65835955. www.myl05.com/69283

SPORTS SEDAN, Chrome/Moly Torque Tube Space Frame, magnes uprights, Koni fully adj, Harrop 4 pot,20B Triple rotor Kim Ledger, Hewland Transaxie FGB 200,slick & wets wheels, spares etc. $60,000 Not Neg. Richard 0412320940. www.my105.com/75926

li-

Improved Production Suzuki GTI, under 2 litre NSW Champion 2001, 2nd in 2004, new engine, fresh box and paint, finished every race in top 3, race winner, pole and fastest lap setter in 2004, massive amount of spares. $15,000 ONO. Grant 0410 681 305 562. www.myl05.eom/28021 1991 Nissan Skyline GTR, Targa/Club Car. Option One: 305kw at wheels, wilwood brakes, mines computer, Bilstein shocks, 700CO injectors, many other upgrades NZD$45,000. Option Two; 380kw at wheels, as above with aftermarket cams, pistons, rods etc plus Olin three way adjustable shocks - NZDS65.000. $45,000 NZD. Harry 304 Dodson +64 9 441 3152. www.myl05.com/66773

87

Open Wheelers

14-a.

T ' o

Porsche 73 RSR (replica), Reg.M2 class Winner lightweight panels, HUGE brakes, Motec, Individual Throttle bodies 3.0 Carrera engine recent full rebuild of engine, g'box, diff no expense spared.($45K).

Extensive chrome moly cage . Too many extras to mention. Very consistent performer. 3 sets of wheels /tyres.Excellent Marque sports car. log book. $68,000 Not Neg. michael 97426928 / 0412542910.

307 www.myl O5.com/17232

SEDANS/ SPORTS CARS, RSI600 BDA ESCORT.Cams NC log book.twln cam CK49 body shell,1660cc BDA engine,dose ratio gearbox,LSD, watts linkage, antidive, bilsteins, AP clutch, alloy fuel tank and radiator,world cup crossmember,ect. $45000 ono. Phone Collin: 0438 441 480. www.myl05.com/34924

SAAB 900i 1992, Auto air and steer, fuii S/\AB iog book history, very appeaiing car ABD 73A. $4,350. Barry 0415 683 004. www.myl05.com/62212

2004 OLD No. 1 RX7 FOR SALE,04 OLD & 03 NSW State Champ, Morgan Pk & Hidden Vly lap records, 04 National heats winner. >$100k in parts alone plus Motec data. OFFERS OVER $40,000. Simon 0733496075 304 www.myl05.com/28426

BMW E36 M3, BMW M3 Coupe in Estrol blue with Black leather interior and all BMW original options.

Orginal condition thoughout, no modifications, near new brake rotors, pads & tyres. Always garaged since new. Rego to 6/05. -111,000 KM, Great condition. $60,000 ONO. David 0401

Mitsubishi Mirvac Mirage, Ready to race in Under 2lt Production or Raliy. Great condition, $15,000. Greg 02 9327 6561 / 0414 705 353 304 www.my105.com/21439

EVO 7, Race winning car, ready to race the 2005 season with AVESCO. Many spares.

Garry 0413 879 879 / (02) 9688 3003.

304 www.myl05.eom/28980

Improved Production Datsun ISObsss, 180BSSS Coupe,red/white/blue nat aspirated sr20 wt,5speed,4:1 locked diff,6 point alloy roll cage,koni adjustable shocks,180SX front rotors,hilux calipers,momo race seat & sparco 5 point hamess,4 near new A032R tyres,spare shell,cams log booked,ready to race,3rd under 2lt 2004. 6500.00 ONO, Brett 07 38896583.

303 www.myl05.eom/77059

944 Challenge - Must Sell, 944 Challenge.

Clean & straight with recent respray, 10 laps only on fully rebuilt engine, latest mods including blade adjustable rollbar and race radiator. $34,000 must sell. $34,000. Geoff 304 0418 995 500.

www.my105.com/94843

www.myl05.com/98544

m

FORMULA VEE 1600, Progress your motorsport career by stepping into a top-five running car in Formula Vee, immacculately prepared with comprehensive spares package included, this car represents the best value Fomiula Vee for sale in Australia and has the competition record to prove it.

Far too many feature to list; more info is available upon request. May trade for road car of interest. . $19,000 ONO. Russell 0404 804 859 (after 4pm), www.myl05.eom/75340

’Ik 43

%

Suzuki Swift GTI MK1, Swift GTi Mkl. U2 sports sedan. Full cage, race seat, 4 point harness, 4 wheel disc's, koni shocks and adjustable suspension, 14” slicks. Fresh engine, Autronic, LSD, Grp A Drive shafts etc. Plenty of spares, wheels, engine, brakes, standard seats and trim. Reliable and enjoyable first car. $7500 ONO. Steve 0404 802 901.

304

Locost Clubman, 18RG mtr 120 RWHP. 5/sp Celica g/box, Scorpion diff 3.3 ratio.

4W disc brakes. Wheels 13x10 rear, 13x8 front on slicks 8ths old. Very competitive car built 2yrs ago. Oran Park GP circuit 1.20, Class Champion 2yrs running very reliable car including enclosed purpose built tilt trailer. Priced to sell. $15,500 ONO. Martin 0401 410 657.

306 www.my105.com/84473

For sale or lease 4 Twin Cam Corollas, Troubles Racing offers for sale or lease 4 race ready twincam Corollas, these class winning championship cars are presented in excellent condition, the cars are suitable for Sprints, State Race Series and combined Touring Car Events. Also Endurance drives available. We offer junior development programs and assist in OLTs. To start your 2005 race year contact Michael. 0418 377 303 372. www.m

Historic Formula 2 Kaditcha Group R, 1600CC VW Golf engine and Hewland 5 speed. 2 race meetings since engine rebuild. Comes with light weight enclosed trailer with side annex, nose moulds, spare wheels, spare nose, some spare engine parts and more. Very good package ready to go racing. CofD currently being processed. $27500. Jacob 0417636716.

304 www.myl O5.coml76441

T^MFinrayto sell your gearl From lust$25* lustlog on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my1 Q5.com) Advertising can also be suppiied using thisform ($10/S15 surchageto text oniy/text + pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of: website for three months.

■;.7v.s PiWStherm-1 or.

Please read & cross the desired services and calculate the total.

online classifieds CStCSOnf: □ Sedans

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DJobs

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motorsport nows

CLASSIFIEDS Transporters/Trailers

Engines F:

r— Ralt RT20, Large Number of spares, wings, slicks, wets, suspension, body moulds, PI Dash, Ratio's and three sets of Wheels. All Componentry to fit Formula Holden Engine.

Compliant for Historic Racing or hill climb.

303 $27000 Neg. Michael 0262805972. www.myl05.com/94313

Parts

1994 Chevy Silverado extra cab 1500, 5,7 litre V8, automatic, power windows and steering, bed liner, air conditioned, alloy wheels, registered 6 seater, mid blue in colour, 140 thousand kilometres, excellent condition, original unmodified vehicle, 305 $35,000. John 0425 224 228. www.myl05.eom/27450 l Syntrtr

Simmons wheels+slicks, v5 simmons 15x12 15x10 commodore stud pattem.slicks 290/575 Xl5 +265/570x15. D37m Dun lops.never used. $1,800 ONO. Richard 0439677336 305 www.myl05.eom/22620 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 239 466.

305 www.my105.com/30853

MAN Bus 1979 automatic, Converted as motorcycle raceteam transporter. Carries 3 bikes, equipment, with seats. Ideal for motorhome conversion. Recently Serviced.

RVH208. $25,000 ONO. Joanne (03) 9720 1888, 304 www.myl05.eom/3S055

Two Kart Trailer, Two kart trailer, designed by ex-racer so well thought out and designed, alu sheet over RHS, drop axle, heap of room, 2 front doors and single rear on struts, tows well with low profile. 2950.00 Or Best Offer. Anthony 02 6242 4925 / 0407 407 776.

304 www.my105.com/83104

V8 Supercar Team equipment, V8 Supercar parts, pit equiment, tools, racing helmets, race clothing, hospitality equipment, see items ONO. Jim 0412052489.

304 www.myl05.eom/65036

2 kart frailer, THIS TRAILER HAS BEEN WELL PLANED AND BUILT AND IS EXCELLENT TO PIT OUT OF IT HAS INTERNAL STORAGE COMPARTMENTS IT ALSO HAS A 4INCH DROP /\XEL WHICH ALLOWS IT TO SIT MUCH LOWER ITS ALSO VERY GOOD TO TOW. $8500.00 ONO. dave 0413873483.

304 www.myl05.com/78591

Transporter Nissan UD international N1630 Turbo, 6 speed turbo diesel, 5.5mt pan with storage & tire racks, electric winch, 2000kg Hydraulic Tailgate lifter, 2 long range fuel tanks, /Or conditioned cabin, CD player & tinted windows, near new tyres, this track is in excellent condition. $32,000 Or Best Offer. Rod 0419301087 / 0299679555.

304 www.my105.com/31755

Motorsport Jobs

street/ Super Street Commodore, 3.8L, complete car ready to race or roller in good condition, Plus spares & suitable trailer. Will travel for the right car. Peter 0438452923.

305 www.myl05.eom/43207

Experienced Motorsport Personel, GMC Motorsport Services would like to offer the services of a Experienced MC Licenced Driver for Transporter, hospitality, or merchandising vehicle driving for part-time or contract work. We also have available national and internationally experienced mechanics, engineers and team management. Greg 0402406708. GMC 304 Motorsport Services 0402406708. www.myl05.com/72251 Racing Car Driver Required, 2005V8 Development Series, V8 Development Drive available for lease in ex SBR Falcon in 2005 which includes maintenance and preparation of car between rounds and at events, including transportation of car to all rounds from Yatala based workshop. Lease would be for seven rounds including BathursL Only serious parties please call 0424 496 577. Phillip 0424 496 577, 303 www.my10S.com/63555

Sponsor Seek

For Lease V8 Supercar Transporter for sale. Track only 30k since rebuild. 830k. Three car trailer with hydraulic rear door. Trailer repainted 04. Alloy steers and chrome drives. Excellent condition. Prime Mover $82k Trailer $75k ONO. Jim Morton 304 0412052489. www.myl05.com/47113

Lease Opportunities, available for the Touring Car Challenge' and F4000 - 2005 seasons. Super Tourers, Future Tourers, V8 Supercars and Reynard F4000s. Rod 02 304 6562 7762 / 0412 785 486. www.myl05.com/48007

6 March 2005

B.L:gi TILTING CUSTOM TRANSPORTER, Immaculate tilting transporter built to the highest standards with NO expence spared.

Kitchen, bedding, insulated, generator, compressor, eiictric winch, sink, work bench, and heaps of storage and much much more. Travelled less than SOOOkIm. .More photos available.. $POA ONO. Paul 304 0400933030. www.my105.com/71359

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approved it?

Maybe it was Mark Skaife. 1 think it will confirm in some people's minds that the Holden Racing Team has been running four cars all along.

1 would have thought that a strong individual colour scheme is the way to go.

But it's aU irrelevant anyway, we all know Marcos Ambrose is going to do a 'three-peat'.

Thanks for a great magazine, keep up the excellent work.

Kerry Charles kjcharles@bigpond.com

Looking at all the new liveries, I thought it would be interesting to see what the current V8 Supercars would look like if they were painted in the colour schemes of old classic paint jobs.

Tm sure your computer art department could have some fun with it. Imagine how many magazines you'd sell with a HRT car on the cover in Marlboro colours and Ambrose and IngaU in the classic Cobra colours that won Bathurst.

While it's just a bit of fun, 1 thought it might make for an interesting spread.

Keep up the good work.

John Duvall john.duvall@industnj.gov.au

New V8 cars should stay with front-wheel-drive I was interested to read Terry Carter's letter (MNews #303) regarding a third manufacturer in the V8 Supercar series.

I do agree with his thoughts and think the category would benefit with two more manufacturers (eg Toyota and Mitsubishi). But 1 do not think that the new manufacturers should alter the specifications of their road car to suit the series (ie converting a front-wheel-drive Camry to rearwheel-drive just for the championship).

■Their race car should have the

John Dennehy Bungendore, New South Wales

converter Send us your thoughts; mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax; 03 9596 5030 www.mnews.cc-m.au

ED: Having spoken to PCR Track Manager Steven Green, the situation is as follows.

To get an Outlaws car to the Outlaws Downunder, you have to be at the final round of the previous season, where the cars are all loaded up for the long trip down here.

If you are a new team to World of Outlaws in 2005, then you literally 'miss the boaT to Australia, thus missing the first round. So all drivers at Outlaws Downunder, and those that agree to commit to the full series from

Another thing I look forward to is hearing the informed comment of Bob Constanduros through the on-track commentary. Sadly, this year, we heard little of him, as he was paired with former Channel 10 caller, now Channel Seven man, Matthew White.

He seems a nice guy and he does his television presenting work very well. But he made too many mistakes and said too much while adding little to the on-track race coverage.

And when you have the doyen of race callers next to you, there is no excuse for that. Next year, whoever is next to Bob, could you please keep quiet - you will probably leam something that you didn't know about Formula 1.

Terence Livingstone Caulfield, Victoria

Outlaws fan wants more points

I would like to ask about the World of Outlaws Downunder. We were told it was a point scoring round, which it was, but what they didn't teU us is everyone got the same points.

If 1 was Donny Schatz, Danny Lasoski or Kerry Madsen and the other drivers that put their heart and soul into winning, and 1 ended up with the same points as everyone

round two, all receive 150 points.

Don't be too alarmed, this rule also applies at a US-based Outlaws event - the Knoxville Nationals, no less...

Luckiest man at AGP says thanks to MNews As you know, I was fortunate enough to win the 'Check Out Mark's Place' competition featured in your magazine.

I have just arrived home after a wonderful stay at the Radisson Flagstaff Gardens and a thoroughly enjoyable experience at the Fosters Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

On behalf of my wife and 1,1 would like to express my sincere gratitude to your magazine for the opportunity to attend this wonderful event and also to meet our own Mark Webber whilst having a tour of the BMW.Williams team pits. 1 found the pit tour very informative and found all the pit crew to be approachable and welcoming.

It was the first time we had been to the Grand Prix and we will look back on the occasion with fond memories.

Thank you again for the wonderful trip and keep up the good work with the magazine.

Nick Cooper Hobart, Tasmania

same basic specifications as their road car, as does Ford and Holden. So my question is, would it be possible for them to get a front-wheel-drive V8 onto the grid and if so, could they be competitive against the rear-wheeldrive monsters?

Adam Kerrison adamandpeta@bigpond.com

Bob’s a legend, but Matty ...

$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

90

else, I would be pissed off!

What about the fans, paying a lot of money and told it is a full points scoring round to find out it is not?

Who is the dunce who designed the new livery at the Kelly/HSV Dealer Team? Better still, who

A return to the good old days of liveries

ADMINISTRATION

SUBSCRIPTIONS

HRT and HDT look alikes

ID

As an avid FI fan, 1 always look forward to the Melbourne FI Grand

Prix. Politics aside, it is always great to see those amazing machines in full flight.

It's Skaifey, no. Todd, no ... is it Rick? Actually, this is the HSV Dealer Team's Garth Tander. Reader Kerry Charles is not impressed.

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