Motorsport News Issue 307 - April 20-May 3, 2005

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U RIDE& RACE WEEKEND WITH LOWND^I THE IX1EW5 BEHKIMU THE OVEWS

No. 307 April 20 - May 3 2005 Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

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20 April-3 May 2005.

www.mnews.com.au

news and opinion 4

Dust, not Gorey, Settles WPS boss on the limiter

6

Will Dick get the Wili? As opposed to the opposite?

Wurz Case Scenario Who drives for McLaren at Imola?

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12 Dickson in Korea Aussie backs Champ Car bid 12 Touring Car Frenzy WTCC, BTCC, DTM and NZVSs(Phew) 25 Motor Mouth Some Good ideas from across the Pond 4 W

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1 features I

26 Box Seat How-to-FixFormula-One-for-Dummies 82 Taik Converter Just for a change, red ink, please?

28 Five Minutes With Paui Dumbreil Crash on Sunday, fly home on Monday 30 Five Minutes With Scott Speed An American in GP2 and close to Formula 1 32 When number 2 is Number 3 Paui Weel speaks on all the changes at PWR 34 Dandenong Happenings Is Mark Roworth happy with Holden Motor Sport?

36 Jarno Laughs Last Toyota's Trulli looks back on the first three FI races 40 FC Speaks Fabian Coulthard, the latest youngster to take the Jum Challenge 42 FI? McGuire? Who? A great yarn about the little-known Brian McGuire 46 Dallara-free Zone Why, and How, Lola is attacking international Formula 3

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race coverage

-ii«r 50 The Readers’ Digest NZ Report Murf! Murf! Murf! Murf! CRASH!!! Murf!

58 Windy, Wild and Fun Trimble and Alajajian on top of Formula 3 after Mallala ra eo Usual Rally Stuff Loeb goes back to winning ways while Atko scares the bejeezus out of WRC’s ‘stars’

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Photos; Cover: Geoff Ridder and John Morris/ Mpix Contents: Ridder. Mpix. Dirk Kiynsmilh and Ford Racing

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Gore Comes Oi FLAMBOYANT WPS Racing boss Craig Gore has set the V8 fraternity alight with an explosive outburst following the huge shunt at Pukekohe, which virtually destroyed Craig Baird's WPS Falcon and the Commodore of Paul Dumbrell.

Gore has put the blame for the incident squarely at the feet of the other driver involved,Paul Dumbrell,and threatened legal action, despite the fact that the motorsport judiciary has yet to finalise its view of tlie shunt.

A WPS press release carried Gore's

frank opinion,saying in part, that: The incident enraged team Principal Craig Gore who planned to seek legal redressfor a situation he described as stupid.

"It was madness. Baird was taking evasive action to avoid another incident and Dumbrell tried to sneak down his inside. It was opportunistic, and I understand that, but it was a stupid move," said Gore.

"I will apply to have his licence removed as he seems to be there in all of these high-speed major accidents."

The series IPO (Investigating and

Prosecuting Officer, Peter Wollerman) looked at the incident and, according to the official CAMS incident report: "Paul Dumbrell, was charged with a breach of the rules, reckless driving (B6.7.3),involving an incident with car #8, Craig Baird. Paul Dumbrell entered a plea of not guilty and requested a Steward's Hearing. The hearing was opened. Mr Dumbrell sought an adjournment to obtain a witness and collate evidence.

"The hearing has been adjourned to a date yet to be set, but not before 26 April 2005. The hearing will

conclude prior to the next V8 Supercar Championship Series roimd in Western Austraha."

That is where the whole thing should and could have ended,for now.

By the time MNews hits the streets, senior AVESCO officials are hkely to have reminded Gore that its licence

agreement doesn't encourage teams to sue other teams/drivers. To aid that philosophy, any team doing so is obUged to stand aside from racing whUe the legal process takes place.

That is most unlikely to happen.

Indeed, MNews understands that

kekohe Lifeline? Back for

DESPITE last weekend's event there being promoted as'The Final Rumble', Pukekohe may live for one more year if a deal cannot be finalised with the Wellington City Council by May 12 for a street race in NZ's capital city.

Despite AVESCO boss Tony Cochrane upping the pressure on Wellington by suggesting that "the reality is we might not succeed in Wellington and we might have to miss a year or two," there is a growing groundswell of opinion that there's absolutely nothing wrong with staying at Pukekohe for another year while the alternates are sorted properly.

Public submissions regarding the Wellington race close today and, by all reports, the Wellington Council has received a huge pile.

Somewhere in that pile could well be trouble, and the current view is that the Council's decision could go either way.

Pukekohe put on a great event last weekend and, 4

WPS Racing is working to repair Craig Baird’s Faicon after the Race 3 incident at Pukekohe iast weekend.

The number 8 Ford has received special dispensation to be air freighted back to Queensland on Wednesday evening where it will immediately be taken to Logan Village Smash Repairs to receive a full assessment. Team manager Keith Evers said the team should know on Thursday exactly what condition the car is in.

“When we initially saw the incident, I thought the car was gone,” he told MNews.

“But on closer Inspection, I think it can be fixed. The floor is

although its contract has now expired, is in a position to take on at least one more event although its future beyond that is complicated by a proposed expansion of the horse racing side of the facility.

AVESCO CEO Wayne Cattach acknowledged the 'pro

Pukekohe' swing at the weekend, but cautioned that any new one-off deal with the Pukekohe promoters would, by necessity, involve an upgrade to air, rather than sea, freight for the teams - adding a further costs element.

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

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It Swinging Gore has already indicated tliat he will step back from his legal threat.

CAMS Motorsport Manager and series Race Director Tim Schenken also threw his weight behind the parties averse to a legal threat: "The sport has its own judicial system," he said on Monday."We've seen this sort of threat before - from

Don’t Hang This On Dumbrell Opinion — by CHRIS LAMBDEN

I GUESS I’d be pretty agitated to see one of my race cars smashed up as badly as Craig Baird’s WPS Faicon was on Sunday, but Craig Gore’s shot from the hip in the aftermath does little except create a brief media flurry and some publicity.

Gore has had some thought-provoking things to say about this sport since he arrived, some interesting, some outrageous, but this time he needed to calm down first.

I’m carrying no particular torch for either Paul Dumbrell or Craig Baird, but on this occasion, the most intelligent response seems to have come from the two drivers concerned.

Baird is an intelligent, experienced, driver and is among the bestplaced to know just how difficult conditions were in the gloomy halflight, in the wet, and coming out of one of the trickiest corners around at warp speed.

In the aftermath he quietly admitted he’d seen the potential drama (with Jamie Whincup’s car sliding wildly out on the grass) and had moved right to avoid getting involved. He hadn't seen Dumbrell, tight on the inside, and why would he - he was pretty busy at the time!

MNews understands he may even have apologised - needlessly - to Dumbrell.

For his part, Dumbrell (also, I hear, coping with power-steering problems) had few other realistic options either and little time to do much about it (as evidenced by the late involvement of Cameron McConville, some cars back at the time).

It happens. Cars get torn up in racing. This was noone’s fault. End of story.

Look at the positives between Oz and NZ, horse racing has buried four jockeys in the past month.

We’ve just damaged some sheet-metal ...

Dirk Klymmilh

other people, not Craig Gore - and it has never achieved anything. If you go outside the sport's judiciary, it opens up a potential pandora's box of problems...

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

{arbagallo creased and everything from the back seat is destroyed. The thing that did most of the damage was the light post on the horse racing track.”

WPS don’t have a space car, which is a fact that Evers has always been wary of.

"We’ve got a new chassis waiting to be completed at Beehag, but It was going to be too much of a rush to get that ready for Barbagallo. There is also the option of leasing a car, although that is not ideal. We really have no option but to hope the car is repairable and that it can be fixed in time. I’m sure, though, the car won’t be a write-off’ - GRANT ROWLEY

CATASTROPHE hit John Bowe in the days leading up to last weekend's V8 round in NZ when the boot of his car was burgled. Missing was couple of bottles of a rather good Pinot Noir - "over $40 each, mate - that's dear for me!". Also missing were JB's race suit, helmet and, importantly, HANS device.

After borrowing stuff for Friday, and a radio appeal, the race-gear was returned after being found alongside one of Auckland's main roads. The thieves, however, kept the pinot. JB was crushed... e n Missing from pit lane was PR heavyweight Brett 'Crusher' Murray after nasty complications followed a recent gall-bladder op. However, the latest reports from the big man of PR were positive, including a comment to a visiting media mate that "at least I outlasted the Pope!"... n Tasman Motorsport had an expensive practice day. Apart from being excluded from the session because the left-wheel parted company with Jason Richards's car, the team copped a pair of $2000 fines (yup, four grand) for failing to have its garage doors fully open during the race fans' pit walk.

Paul Morris, meantime, escaped with a warning for "failing to park at 45 degrees in pit bay", in other fine-related news, both John Bowe and Paul Dumbrell were fined $2000 each for unsafe exits from their respective pit bays. n While the spotlight was on Murph, Super Cheap team-mate Paul Weel recovered from an average qualifying run to snag 11th, 9th and 10th in the races, enough to snare third in the championship points table, two points ahead of Craig Lowndes, who was devastatingly unlucky to have his car fail to fire up after the race three stoppage. n Jean-Paul Messenger has taken up a managerial role at Astuti Competition in the Australian Formula 3 Championship.

JPM,formerly of Carlin Motorsport in the British F3 Championship, will assist David Bord and Sam Astuti in co-ordinating the team's race weekend activities. n The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) has announced that it will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting at Silverstone on May 12 to discuss the role of Sir Jackie Stewart.

A number of club members have demanded that Stewart stand down from his position as president.

-STAFF/ JOE SAWARD 5

20 April 2005 !

Davi

MARGOS Ambrose has - headed directly to the US '{from New Zealand to put Lsome of the pieces in place ^for hi's rmove there in 2006. .

While there, he plans to Ispenditwo or three days ^ehind the wheel of Aussie ^afr-y Sraham's race school ®ASeARs,as a way of paihihg an initial pamlliat;isati:on with both the

cars and running on an oval.

"It's really about putting the first things in place," Marcos confirmed at the weekend.

"I won't be attempting to break any lap records or anything stupid in Barry's cars. But the opportunity to sample how the cars and the tracks feel, at this stage, is obviously worthwhile."

Ambrose hopes to secure a

spot for 2006 in the Busch series, feeling that category to be far more useful in providing him with the tools to step up to NASCAR than the Truck series.

Marcos will be away for about 10 days, "i'll be back home before the (V8 Supercar)cars get there," he quipped.

CHRIS LAMBDEN

i^adical V8 calendar change?

AVESCO chief Tony Cochrane has pre-empted a 'radically changed' calendar for 2006, as the V8 group adjusts its dates around a likely midApril FI Grand Prix.

MNews understands that a

Clipsal 500 date has been set at March 30-April 2 on the assumption that FI will visit Melbourne two weeks later.

Intriguing rumour of the weekend in NZ was that, for 2006 alone, NZ may come

forward to provide the opening round especially if it is at Pukekohe - two or three weeks prior to Clipsal - a race there the least affected by any proximity to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

SEVEN months after his official 'retirement'from racing, Peter Brock is set to pull the helmet back on when he appears at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK on June 24-26.

Brock will drive the Marlboro HDTVK Commodore that he shared with Larry Perkins en route to their 1984 Sandown and Bathurst wins.

"Lord March (owner of the Goodwood circuit) contacted me and asked,'would you like to come over?', said Brock.

"We talked about the car, and when I described the car that was in existence, they thought, 'yep, that's the car that vve want to represent Australia'. So it's all happening."

Brock's inclusion on the programme will mark

his first visit to the worldfamous hillclimb festival.

"It's my first time at Goodwood - I don't know anything about it," Brock admitted.

"But I'm looking forward to it.

Everyone says that it is just the most fabulous motoring event."

After being restored back to original condition by John Van Roosmalen in 2002,the VK and Brock were reunited with each other for a demonstration run at the 2003 Sandown 500.

According to Brock, however.

Goodwood will be another matter altogether.

"I started the car up and drove it around very slowly at Sandown about two years ago, but I wasn't allowed to go over 60 km/h," he said.

"So this is a bit more serious. I went and got my CAMS licence last week, which I wasn't going to do, but I thought, 'it's a long way to go to not drive that car'. So 1 thougljj I might as well do it."

6

WILL Davison looks set to reverse the disastrous turn of events that have curtailed his 2005 racing season with an endurance drive in Dick Johnson's Westpoint Racing team.

Having had his Team Dynamik V8 drive disappear under him,following the purchase of the car licence by Tony Longhurst, we hear that Davison has secured the fourth seat at DJR, alongside regulars Steven Jolmson and Glenn Seton, and development series driver Dean Canto.

Davison's deal with DJR is also expected to include a drive in one of the team's spare AUs in the HPDC V8 Supercar Series.

Nothing is signed, but we hear worthwhile discussions have been taking place.

Watch this space...

Meanwhile, more e

THE race to sign V8 Supercar endurance drivers has been in full swing over the past fortnight.

Tlie HSV Dealer Team confirmed the local pair of Mark Noske and Tim Lealiey will share duties in tlie #16 car.

The HSV team, which has won Bathurst the past two years, used Leahey to great effect last year when he partnered Steve Owen to eighth

Brock's participation in the event is in keeping with this year's theme of'Racing Colours - National Pride and Culture', which is aimed at celebrating the essence of each county's particular racing flavour. Joining him on the bill will be Alain Prost in the 1989 championship-winning McLaren-Honda MP4/5, as well as Stirling Moss, Derek Bell, Jenson Button, Arie Luyendyk, Danny Sullivan and NASCAR legend Junior Johnson.

Also on hand will be a selection of machinery covering the entire spectrum frorn Michael Schumacher's title winning Ferrari (direct from the factory) to a rare Matich Group 7 and a McLaren CanAm car.

Sounds good to us, so over to you. Ford and Holden what are the chances of getting a current Supercar over there next year? _ mark GLENDENMIIMG

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iduro seats get gone place overall. And Noske is also no stranger to the Holden fraternity.

Having started in nine Great Races, Noske has twice finished in the top 10,including a sixth with the Holden Young Lions back in 1999.

WPS Racing is also close to signing off a deal which will see Champ Car star Alex Tagliani drive for the Queensland-based team. But

according to team manager Keith Evers, the deal is only "70 percent", and that absolute confirmation of his drive is not quite assured, although he did admit though that Tagliani is in the box seat.

"It's a possibility at this stage and nothing is set in concrete," Evers said.

Tagliani debuted with Champ Car World Series squad 'Team Australia', which is part owned by WPS boss Craig Gore. One of tire sticking points is that Tagliani could only test after

the Queensland Raceway round in late July.

Another V8 seat that has been snatched up is the ride alongside Anthony Tratt. HPDC V8 Supercar driver Tony Evangelou will make his main game V8 Supercar debut at Sandown and Bathurst in the Toll Commodore.

Evangelou will take on double duties at Bathurst, when he drives his Dexion Falcon in the penulitimate round of the HPDC Series.

lime to get it right Prodrive boss introduces new FPR management team

FORD Performance "We're owning up to that, it's my Racing boss Dave responsibility, and Richards has promised we're now making the "transparency and changes within the honesty" from his team to address that team,following the issue. introduction of his "We were arrogant: revised senior we didn't admit we managemet team to were getting it wrong. the media, in New Zealand.

That's going to change."

Competition Director Richards cited Tim Edwards, Edwards' excellent Commercial Director record at Jofflan, Rod Barrett and Chief Barrett's commercial Engineer Phil Keed Boss in white, boys in blue: From left, David Richards, experience and joined the Australian Tim Edwards and Rod Barrett. motorsport and Kiwi motorsport media at a 'meet the background, and Keed's four years with Prodrive, before returning press' dinner, at which Prodrive boss Richards took to engineer Jason Bright, as the basis for a mon overall responsibility for the team's average successful management team to get FPR to the performances to date. sharp end of the grid.

"We got it wrong. We though we could outTime, as usual, will judge whether Ford's factory innovate the others to get on top of it all, when equipe has got it right this time. what is really required is a deeper understanding of - CHRIS LAMBDEN this class of car," he said.

20 April 2005

Liebel to test Infiniti Pro car LA-BASED Canadian, and Australian Formula 3 driver Cody Liebel is to test for infiniti Pro Series team Brian Stewart Racing this weekend.

Liebei is testing at Kentucky International Speedway in one of the Indy Racing League's feeder series car's to evaluate the possibility of running in the Futaba Freedom 500, the support event to the Indianapolis 500.

Brian Stewart Racing is the team currently running New Zealand's Wade Cunningham, who is currently second in the championship, three points behind leader Travis Gregg. n Adam Wallis has bought the exPaul Dumbrell 2003 championship winning VX Commodore from Marty Brunt's Independent Racing Cars operation to run the FiPDC V8 Supercar Series. The car was last run

by Tony D'Alberto in 2004, Wallis currently lies sixth in the FIPDC points standings after a strong Clipsal 500, where he ran in the Falcon of Rod Lynch Motorsport.

Wallis will not be at the next round at Wakefield Park, but already has the car in Adelaide and will test it at Maliala later this month. Wallis sighted Maliala as the most likely round to debut his new mount, n Mark McNally has purchased the RFOSVan Diemen Formula Ford originally intended for Michael Patrizi to run in the Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford Championship.

McNally ran a Spectrum at the opening round at the Clipsal 500.

In other Formula Ford news, former South Australian CIK karter Troy Woodger has purchased a Spectrum Formula Ford to campaign the Victorian Formula Ford Series. n Ananda Mikola has won the opening two races of the Asian Formula 3 Championship held at the Batangas Circuit in the Phillipines.

Defending Champion, Australia's Christian Jones was second in both races.

Jones shadowed Mikola in both races, waiting until the dying stages to show his hand, but was thwarted on both occasions by lapped traffic. n Nic Jordan missed Round 2 of the Kumho Australian Formula 3 Championship at Maliala over the weekend. Jordan has had a complication arise with his sponsorship for 2005, but will return in the Team BRM F301 Dallara for the next round at Phillip Island next month.

In other Team BRM news, Tim Slade campaigned the team's second ex-Menu Motorsport F304 car at Maliala, both he and Michael Trimble both suffering from brake problems on the newer model cars.

Trimble used his spare engine for the weekend, after a gearbox malfunction led to an engine problem for the team in testing.

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Making sense of Fridays THERE has been an unprecedented outbreak of common sense at the FIA that will allow Tonio Liuzzi to drive at Imola this weekend.

At the unanimous request of the FI teams, the federation has announced a change to Article 58B of the 2005 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations to allow Christian Klien to drive the third Red Bull-Cosworth at Imola this weekend.

The rule had stated that any driver who did testing work on Friday should not have competed in more than six World Championship events during the previous two World Championships. The change means that any driver with an FI Super Licence can now do the job.

The decision has raised a few question marks about how the deal was done. Red Bull Racing got the signatures of eight teams before it decided to attend the FIA meeting about the rules in 2008. The team's sporting director Christian Horner then attended the FIA meeting and inevitably there have been suggestions that there was a deal for the team to get the rule change through before it agreed to sit in on the FIA meeting. There is nothing to back up this theory.

Red Bull was worried about KUen because it wants to stay sweet with the press in Austria, having decided to put Vitantonio Liuzzi for the next three races. The news is also a boost for Liuzzi, because if the rule had remained in place he would have been in trouble later this year once he had competed in six events. The news is, however, bad news for America's Scott Speed, as it no longer seems likely that he will get a chance as the team's third driver in Indianapolis unless either Klien or Liuzzi is shipped off to anotherp team.

The decision of Jordan and Red Bull to go to the FIA meeting is being seen by the other teams as a betrayal but it is probably too late for anything to change now, although the question of the legality of fax votes has been raised in the past by a number of the teams.

Hopefully that will not balloon into an issue this weekend in Imola. Whether Red Bull will be as welcome by the teams as it was before the FIA meeting is another matter.

-JOESAWARD

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Liuzzi in the Sky with Diamonds VITANTONIO Liuzzi will make his long-awaited Formula 1 race debut with Red Bull Racing at the San Marino Grand Prix on April 24.

The highly-rated 24-year-old Italian, who dominated the Formula 3000 championship last year, has spent the first three Grands Prix watching Christian Klien drive alongside David Coulthard. The Austrian has done a decent job, but the

team now wants to see Liuzzi up against David Coulthard.

Klien will stay on as the team's third driver on Fridays (see separate story).

The only difference is that the car is slightly less competitive than it was, as the team has not done as much testing as some of its rivals and so has lost a little bit of the performance we saw in Melbourne.

For the moment, Liuzzi will only be driving for the team for the next three Grands Prix -the San Marino, Spanish and Monaco events.

Then Klien will return to the cockpit, although there is a possibility that Red Bull Racing will lend him out to Sauber, should the Swiss-based team decide to drop Jacques Villeneuve in the near future.

- JOE SAWARD

Jacques SPECULATION continues to mount about the future of Jacques Villeneuve, who has been very disappointing this year as the second driver at Sauber Petronas.

At no point has the FrenchCanadian come close to matching Felipe Massa and the there are dear signs that the team is losing patience.

Villeneuve was due to do two days of testing last week in Barcelona, but I in the middle of the test the team decided that with bad weather expected on the final day,it was best I to put Massa in tire car. This did not

JOIN MNEWS IN SHANGHA 8

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For Boner or Wurz?

Horner^s Arden to run A1GP car ALTHOUGH team founder Christian Horner may be busy running Red Buii Racing in Formuia 1, the Arden internationai team is moving ahead without him.

Horner has put former Jordan FI man Matt Jones in charge of operations while the technical side of the team continues to be run by Mick Cook. The team is looking ahead at a year in GP2, with Heikki Kovalainen and Nicolas Lapierre. it ; has also been announced that the team will be running the British team in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix Championship. The team, which is : based in Banbury, will be testing four British drivers shortly with Adam Carroll, Ralph Firman, Robbie Kerr and Alex Lloyd all being tried.

The team will be run in traditional British Racing Green colours.

Who will drive the second McLaren at Imola this weekend?

THE West McLaren Mercedes team goes to Imola this week with Kimi Raikkonen in one car and no idea who will be driving the second.

The team is waiting for medical reports on Juan Pablo Montoya, who is still recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered while 'playing tennis' before the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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It seems that whatever happens Montoya will be seen in Imola, but it is not yet clear whether he will be fit enough to drive. The team spent three days testing in Paul Ricard last week, and both Alexander Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa were in action in MP4-20s. This means that Wurz is now much more familiar with the car than was the case before Bahrain, as the chassis have been modified to make it easier for the lanky Austrian to drive the car.

In the course of the test, however, de la Rosa emerged fastest and there has been speculation that some in the team would prefer to see de la Rosa in the car again if Montoya is not ready.

However it may not be that easy, as Wurz, right, has been the official third driver at McLaren since 2001 and may have contractual guarantees that he will stand in if one of the regular drivers is out of action.

Obviously the problems with the MP420 chassis meant that he had to stand down for Bahrain, but he has now had considerable mileage in the MP4-20 in testing in Barcelona and Paul Ricard and so should be ready to step in.

- JOE SAWARD

s I s

nd Sauber Plot Thickens go down well with Villeneuve, who issued a press statement.

The logic of this is unclear, as there seems to be little positive that will come from detailing the decision and including information that the team would not normally wish to see published, specifically a brake failure, which Villeneuve described as having been "very dangerous".

There was also implied criticism over the decision to put Massa in the car rather than focus of his preparation work. Jacques predicted that the San Marino GP will be "a

continuation of the first three races", an opinion which is really not designed to motivate.

While Villeneuve accepted that the release would lead to speculation about his future, he went ahead and the only logic in such a move is that he and his management are creating 'a paper trail' to protect themselves in case Sauber decides to dump him.

The documentmay then have some use in a court.

For the time being, Peter Sauber is stiU being supportive of VUleneuve, but there are signs that the attitude is

changing.In a recent edition of the Swiss newspaper Blick, he has been quoted as saying that Villeneuve will be in the car in San Marino but he would not confirm that this would be the case at the Spanish Grand Prix.

There is plenty of speculation about who would replace Villeneuve, the names being mentioned including BAR test driver Anthony Davidson, Williams test driver Antonio Pizzonia, Red Bftll Racing's Christian Klien, Nicholas Kiesa and Jordan test driver Robert Doornbos.

-JOE SAWARD

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.ticket2ride-is.us 20 April 2005

n Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum has announced that China will be the 16th franchiseholder of the Al Grand Prix series.

Al Team China, which will be led by businessman Liu Yu, was unveiled at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a venue in central Beijing which is normally reserved for foreign dignitaries.

The signing of a deal in China is a major step forward, as it increases potential interest in the series and will make Al much more attractive to sponsors, as it should give them access to the vast Chinese market.

To date Al has confirmed that it has franchise-holders from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Holland, India, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey and the United Kingdom. There are likely to be other teams from Europe with France, Italy, Germany and Spain obviously the most likely to join up.

It would be a surprise if there is no team from the United States and from Japan and there are bound to be teams from the Middle East as well, not least from Sheikh Maktoum's home county of the United Arab Emirates.

The remaining franchise-holders and a full calendar will be announced within the next few months before the series kicks off at Brands Hatch in September. n Eernando Alonso's popularity means that the Spanish Grand Prix has already sold out and all attendance records will thus be broken if the ticket holders all show up.

The Barcelona circuit has been increasing its capacity in recent years, with new grandstands and car parks but the crowds are expected to make access to the circuit more difficult than ever. The organisers are recommending that fans arrive early for the event.

-JOE SAWARD 9

BAR Changes D BAR Honda is heading into this weekend's San Marino Grand Prix confident that it has ironed out its early-season problems after a series of successful tests.

After failing to get either Jenson Button orTakuma Sato to the finish line in any of the first three races, the team has been encouraged by its pace and reliability during testing at

Barcelona and Paul Ricard.

"It all looks promising to me now," Button told/^ufosporfAtlas.com.

"It has taken some time to get where we are, but this is where we should have been at the start of the year."

The BAR is expected to feature a revised wing package, diffuser and a new sidepod arrangement when it rolls out at

and grabs Gil

GIL de Ferran is the new sporting director of British American Racing Honda.

The role is new and will see de Ferran being the man in charge of all racing activities, which will allow technical director Geoff Willis to concentrate on his job and give managing director Nick Fry more time to do the work he needs to do. Fry says that the thing the team was missing was someone with winning experience as a racing driver to help guide the team in the right direction.

De Ferran raced between 1982 and 2003 but never had a chance in Formula

1, despite winning the British Formula 3 title and being a championship challenger in Formula 3000. In the end he went to America and enjoyed a career which resulted in CART titles with Penske Racing in 2000 and 2001 and victory in the 2003 Indianapolis 500. Since his retirement, de Ferran has worked a commentator with ABC and ESPN. "1 am a racer at heart and 1 missed the competition side," de Ferran said, "I did not want to leave the sport completely and over the last year the competitive juices were still flowing. This job answers my emotional and intellectual needs. It is an amazing opportunity for me. This type of role is definitely something 1 had m mind when 1 retired from driving and it is coming at the right time. It is going to as huge challenge for me."

-JOE SAWARD

Look!In Pit Lane!Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?

It'S a new Minardi!

FOR the first time in a long time, Minardi took the wraps off its brand-new car at a shakedown at Mugello last week.

The new PS05 is a completely new car and the team is hopeful that it will enable Cliristijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher to take on and beat the Jordan-Toyotas this year.

"There's huge motivation and enthusiasm witliin the team," said Albers after the first shakedown runs of the PS05 at Mugello last week, "I know that we are going to make progress."

Team founder Giancarlo Mhiardi remains a director of the team and he is also very proud of the new chassis.

"The PS05 is yet again clear evidence of the fantastic skills of everyone on this team, and there is still a sense of overwhelming emotion on such occasions, even after 10

I

so many years.

The Minardi team has not had a proper new car since 2002, when the PS02 made its first appearance in the hands of Mark Webber and Alex Yoong.

For the last couple of years the Minardi designers have been designing a new car but the money was never there to build it, so the race team had to struggle on with the old cars. As the cars became less and less competitive, the team was forced to bite the bullet and last year began to build a new chassis because it was felt it was necessary with the new rules being introduced this year.

Tire team could not, however, commit to building the new car m time for Melbourne and had to botch together a solution after the court battle with the FIA in Australia.

-JOESAWARD

I motorsport pews

rection Imola, all of which are aimed at helping to shuffle the cars someone closer to where they were last year in terms of pace.

The team is also confident that its reliability problems have been sorted out, having completed more than 5000km of testing since the disasters of the Bahrain Grand Prix three weeks ago.

Singapore Who needs Max? streets eye FI Teams, makers ponder FIA-free future s

THE nine Formula 1 teams and five manufacturers that are working on plans for Formula 1 in 2008 and beyond met last week in

England.

The discussions lasted several hours, during which those Involved talked about the latest

!.i

t V

FIA the opportunity to be the legislator of the series and

. ^N

that the group may adopt'Grand Prb< Racing' as its official moniker at some point in the future. This name is unlikely in some respects as an emarketing company called Bizware has established a business with the same name,its intention apparenUy to seU the thrUl of Grand Prix Racing to Americans by means of various themed entertainment venues,such kart tracks across the United States.

\

1

the blueprint will involve an operating company that win offer the

developments of the various working groups and came up with a timetable for the completion of their "comprehensive blueprint" for Grand Prix racmg after 2007. As more work is needed,the teams armounced that they were not ready to attend the planned FIA meeting on AprU 15.

There were hints in the statement

6.

We believe that

The group says that it is "a fuUy trademarked and licensed brand" but it is doubtful that there has been time for any trademarking to have been done.

will be paid for the use of the 'Formula One World Championship' trademark, which the FIA does own in some countries.

There wUl be a similar licensing arrangement with FOM over the exploitation of the commercial rights on the World Championship, although this wUl pay FOM a much lower figure than the current situation.

If either the FIA or FOM are not happy with the deal which wUl be offered to them,the group might then do a deal with the iSe and perhaps even with a different regulator, the obvious choice being the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme.

The FIM sanctions motorcycle competitions of aU kinds and also is very active in touring, and a strong argument could be put forward to suggest that the world needs only one Federation to deal with aU motorised vehicles rather than one for bikes and one for cars. It is not in the interest of the FIA to let matters get to that point.

-JOESAWARD

BERNARD Dudot may have left Renault FI but the 66-year-old Frenchman is not stopping work. He was forced to leave Renault by France's mandatory retirement laws but has now taken on the role as head of engineering in GP2, based in Switzerland where retirement is not an issue. Dudot will oversee all technical decisions. n A new downtown street circuit has been approved by the civic authorities in Singapore and Matthew Lee, the President of the Singapore Motor Sports Association, wants to stage Formula 1 on it.

The preliminary layout is for a 3.8km track, but there is the facility to add another 1 km to the lap distance.

"Unlike Monaco, there are enough long stretches, and our roads are very \Mde," said Lee. "But like Monaco, the corners are challenging enough and flanked by great landmarks.

Singapore has the potential to be one of the best and most exciting street circuits in the world."

Lee needs the full financial backing of the national tourism board to have any chance of getting Formula 1, but the track will certainly get to be used anyway, for categories such as Formula 3, All-Japan Super GT and touring cars.

-SAWARD/SPURRING

Like it?

Then make sure you TAG and the AGPC get it regularly!

THE Australian Grand Prix Corporation has got itself into some difficulties following the news that its general manager of operations Jonathan Caughey lost his license for a drink-driving offence.

The event receives a healthy sum of sponsorship money from the Transport Accident Commission, which has backed the race since 1996, to promote its 'Drink, Drive, Bloody Idiot' campaign. Things have been made more complicated by the fact that AGPC chairman Ron Walker says that neither he nor AGPC Chief Executive Tim Bamford knew about the episode until two or three weeks ago.

Bamford had earlier said that he was aware of the problem when Caughey's license was suspended. Caughey is just getting his license back and the media has now surmised that the incident happened about a year ago,as a license suspension of this nature is usually for 10 months. They have also worked out that this was at about the same time that Caughey was promoted to his current job, when Bamford became chief executive.

This means that either Bamford did not inform Walker of the problem or that Walker has forgotten that he was informed.

None of this would matter much were it not for the fact that the AGPC is a publicly-funded operation which has to answer to the government(and thus the people). The TAC has various other sponsorships which have^een affected by drink-drive problems,notably its 16-year sponsorship of the Richmond AFL Club which was terminated in January when player Jay Schulz was caught driving under the influence.

TAC chief executive Stephen Grant said that his organisation had no choice but to end its association because the club had been warned after a similar incident in 2001. The local media has not been impressed by the confusion over who knew what about Caughey and are suggesting that there may have been a cover-up.

-JOES AWARD

20 April 2005

How? You can: (a) subscribe, or (b) place a permanent order at your newsagent for home delivery!

To subscribe EITHER check out our website ww.mnews.com.au - or see page 82 for costs and how to subscribe.

OR Just ask your newsagent to place a regular order for you. It can be delivered straight to your door...

Whatever suits you best, make sure you get your fortnightly fix of Australia’s number one motorsport magazine!

■MorwM

11

Aussie u

by JOE SAWARD THE bid to take the Champ Car World Series into Korea is being headed by long-time motor racing enterpreneur and former racer, Ron Dickson.

Prince Rainer III ofMonaco

,HIS Most Serene Highness j^rince Rainier III of Monaco ;ha^ ified at the age of 81. y He was monarch of Monaco [for;56 years and played a vital ■^olein turning the principality ■jiinto, a playground for the rich amdiampus. He spent much ;of his career trying to improve ihelmage of Monaco, which jhad' previously had a reputation as being 'a sunny place for shady people.' ifainier is perhaps best known, however, for marrying theiHollywood star Grace ollyi Rainier will be ucceeded by Prince Albert of ’Monaco, who took the title Albert lion the death of his ■father. The family has ruled IMonaco since 1297.

Rainier recognised the important role that the Monaco Grand Prix and the Monte Carlo Rally could play for the principality when he came to the throne in 1949.

The Grand Prix, which had been a big event before the war, had been revived in 1948 and in 1950 hosted the second ever round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. After that, however, the event lapsed from the FI calendar until 1955, and has been conducted each year since.

Rainier had a lifelong passion for fast cars and was an avid car collector, and his coiiection is now open to the public in Monaco.

- JOE SAWARD

D3 Motorsport Development, which is owned Dickson and his sons Jeremy and Heath,has been working on the design and construction of a track, which wiU be laid out in the city of Ansan in October this year. D3 has been involved with Champ Car activity in Surfers Paradise, the two Mexicans venues of Monterrey and Mexico City, and will be working on the race in San Jose this year. The company is also working on a design study for a street race in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Ansan event will take place on a 4km waterfront track in a municipal park. This is within easy reach of a subway station which links to downtown Seoul.

The event is to be promoted by a Korean company, which is a joint venture between the Ansan city government and a private business.

There is now talk of a street race in

Japan with the city of Otaru on the island of Hokkaido. The Japanese have long been opposed to any form of street racing, but the success of Rally Japan (this year a round of the World Rally Championship) on the island seems to have opened the way for other projects.

The most important move, however, has come in China, where Champ Car has just done a deal with Beijing Assets Management Company Ltd to hold a race in Beijing in 2006. The event wiU be promoted by BSAM,a state-owned business which wOl oversee the future use of the infrastructure put in place for the Olympic Games.

In order to establish a base on which to expand,Champ Car wiU race at the smaU Goldenport Motor Park in Beijing for three years. But after the Olympic Games in 2008 it wiU switch to a road course, which wUl be laid out on the streets in the

park around the Olympic Stadium.

This means,in effect, that Formula 1 is not going to switch to Beijing in the future as had been rumoured,and wiU now stay in Shanghai for the medium-long term.

Vale

John Porter

LONG-time racecar engineer John Porter has passed away after a sudden illness.

The Adelaide-based engineer, who for much of his life was a regular sight at aimost any race in the country, contracted the fiu foliowing the recent Adelaide 500 and compiications proved to be fatal.

English-born, Porter worked with drivers of the calibre of Ronnie Peterson and Vern Schuppan in Formula One, and with locals like John Bowe, Russell Ingall, Jason Bright, Paul Stokell, Simon Wilis and many others.

Porter's name was linked with Eifin for many'years.

12

firstly with founder Garrie Cooper and then with new owner Don Elliot. He was also instrumental in the success of K&A Engineering and Birrana, where he assisted many drivers during the team's successful Formula Holden campaigns.

Porter was not just a knowledgable engineer but an enthusiast of the sport and a mentor to many competitors.

His contribution to our sport was substantial and, to his widow Margaret and daughters Karen and Jacqui, and his many friends, Motorsport News extends our deepest condoiences.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

I.

[Tour Super

^PER Nova Racing has announced that it will field former F1 driver Giorgio Pantano, above, and rising star Adam Carroll in the GP2 Series, which kicks off this weekend at Imola.

Pantano raced in 14 Grands Prix last year with Jordan before being replaced by Tlmo Glock for the final three races of the season. Pantano has been racing in Formula 3000 since 2001.

He was runner-up to Sebastien Bourdais in 2002 and was third in 2003, and so shouid be a very strong challenger for success.

Carroll is a highly-rated young British driver. The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland won the Scholarship Class in British Formula 3 in 2003 and was runner-up to Nelson Piquet Jr in the Championship Class last year. He has already been tested by BAR-Honda.

The recent GP2 test was topped by American Scott Speed who, in the process, earned the right to carry the #1 on his iSport entry this season.

-JOE SAWARD For more on Speed, see 5 Minutes, page 30-31 motorsport news

ads Asia Push Ron Dickson heads Korea Champ Car planning

mm

T i

Lewis wins, Bart crashes MCLAREN protege Lewis Hamilton leads the Formula 3 Eurocup after a victory and a third place in the opening two rounds of the series at Hockenheim last weekend.

In the first race, Hamilton led his ASM team-mate Adrian Sutil in a dominant display as the opposition self-destructed, with Franck Perera (Prema Powerteam), Paul di Resta, (Manor Motorsport) and Sebastian Vettel (Mucke Motorsport) colliding at the start and then Lucas di Grassi (Manor Motorsport) and Giedo van der Garde (Prema Powerteam) having a big crash while fighting for third. Di Grassi's car somersaulted several times as a result.

James Rossiter made up for a bad qualifying with fourth, and in the second race it was the Signature Plus driver who took the win ahead ol^his team-mate Loic Duval, Hamilton was third. n Meanwhile in British Formula 3, both rounds scheduled for Spa Francorchamps in Belgium were postponed due to heavy fog.

That was probably a good thing for Australian Barton Mawer, who crashed heavily in the early stages of qualifying at the Stavelot corner.

FIA Pushes Ahead 2008 rules discussed at meeting attended by Ferrari, Jordan and Red Bull. Lawyer lick lips as other teams plan legal action

FORMULA 1 looks set to go into a summer of discontent and wrangling following the FIA's decision to go ahead and make the rules for Formula 1 in 2008.

The Formula 1 teams claim that the federation is not at liberty to do this because of clauses in the Concorde Agreement which,they believe, mean that the FIA has to work with the Formula 1 Commission on any rule-making.

The FIA announcement is seen as being a direct challenge to the teams and it may be that they will now decide to go to court to uphold their interpretation of the Concorde Agreement. The teams have been busy formulating their own plans for the World Championship which they had been intending to present to the FIA in August.

The FIA's timetable is designed to pre-empt this and calls for the rules to be finalised by May 27 so that they can be sent to the World Motor Sport Council on June 29. After that they will be circulated to "all the main stakeholders" in FI for their comments.

These must be received by the end of July and then a final draft whl go to the World Council on October 26 and then the FIA General Assembly in Rome on October 28.

The FIA statement made a number of references which clearly indicated that the FLA intends to go aliead on its own,even if the teams do not wish to follow. There was,for example,a reference to "potentially competing teams" being stakeholders, the implication being that this stage of 20 April 2005

consultation will be open to non-Fl teams with ambition.

There is an additional mention of "stakeholders who confirm their commitment" which clearly indicates that if teams do not agree to take part they wUl have no say in the rule-making process.

The FIA document followed a meeting in Paris on Friday which was attended by Ferrari,Red BuU Racing,Jordan and Bemie Ecclestone. The other teams stayed away, despite a letter from FIA Secretary-General Pierre de Coninck which stated that four teams had asked for items to be put on the agenda. This claim was not substantiated and FLA sources dodged questions on the matter.

However it was very clear in the day leading up to the meeting that intense pressure was put on some of the smaller teams in an effort to get them to the meeting, the aim being to break up the group of nine teams which are working on their own plans. We understand that part of this process entailed team bosses being told that even McLaren was going to be at the meeting!

The nine teams stayed in contact with one aSother throughout but in the end Red Bull and Jordan botli decided to break ranks in order to be seen to be impartial. This did not go down well with the other teams as both had signed a document saying they would not attend the FIA meeting.

It is anticipated that the teams will now move towards legal action.

-JOESAWARD

n And at Suzuka, Jonny Ried has placed seventh and fifth in Rounds 3 and 4 of the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship held last weekend. n Enrique Scalabroni, the accomplished Argentine engineer who co-owns the BCN Competicion GP2 team with Jaime Pintanel, intends to take it all the way to Formula 1.

Scalabroni has worked in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari, Lotus and Williams, as well as the Asiatech engine company. He told Autosport magazine: "Formula 1 is the next step, and I believe it could be possible for us to be on the grid in 2008, I'm not yet sure if we would set up the team from the bottom, but it would be easier for us to become involved in an existing team," BCN is based close to the Circuit de Catalunya In Barcelona, Spain, where interest in Formula 1 is at an all-time high thanks to the success of Fernando Alonso. n The pace car at the 2005 Indianapolis 500 will be driven by General Colin L. Powell, the former US Secretary of State. The Chevrolet Corvette convertible will lead the 33car field to the start of the 89th race on 29 May. "I'm very excited about my role at the Indy 500," said General Powell.

"It's a great American tradition and I'm honoured to be a part of it."

- SAWARD/SPURRING/STAFF 13

Jean

WTCC Honours Even

Thompson shares with another Muller at Monza series opener

BMW and Alfa Romeo shared the honours at the

opening round of the World Touring Car Championship at Monza.

Dirk Muller took the opening race and finished right behind Briton James Thompson's Alfa 156, in Race 2 to lead the title points. But Thompson could manage only seventh in the opening race after problems in qualifying, leaving it to Gabriele Tarquini to chase home the German.

"In the first race I was able to break away on the second lap and that resulted in a win for me," said the smiling Muller.

"In the second one I was just aiming to get points but I got a perfect start and jumped orie row, I thought 'this is going to be a good race.' Then the slipstreaming game started and the gap between me and the cars behind closed. That's when the top racing started."

Thompson, above, who already looks at home in the Italian squad after almost a decade in tlie BTCC, looks to be tlie thorn in the side of the BMW squad.

"The second race was fantastic," he said. "I was disappointed with the first one but I knew the car was good and I wanted to benefit from the reverse grid for the second. Finishing seventh in the first race was not necessarily a bad thing."

Spaniard Antonio Garcia was consistent, with fifth and third in the BMW Team Italy-Spain 3201 to head Andy Priaulx (5/4) while Gabriele Tarquini ended the day with mixed feelings. The Italian was second in the opening race but he went off at the Lesmos in Race 2 after a clash with Muller.

It was a tough debut for the new Chevrolet team. A myriad of new car problems slotved the Lacettis but Robert Huff got tlie better of his illustrious team-mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini in Race 1 before the Italian made it to 15th in Race 2, the RML-built Lacettis mostly mixing it with a number of privateers.

Points: D. Muller 18, Thompson 12, Garda 10, Priaulx 9, Tarquini 8, Farfus 6, J. Muller 5, GioVanardi 4, Gene 3, Zanardi 2, Rydell 1.

'●*1

Shaft; not II

TH ERE will be no MGs in the DTM championship this season.

MG Sports & Racing, the competition arm of the MG Rover Group, has followed its British parent company into administration. The satellite has been responsible for the various MG-branded race and rally engines and the new MG ZT 260 racecar project for the 2005 DTM, which has been under build atZytek Engineering.

The original plans were that

£

Honda does Doningif

mtm G

14

HONDA upset the Vauxhall applecart at the opening round of the british Touring Car Championship at Donington.

The Honda Integra of Matt Neal came from behind to pass Yvan Muller in the opening race.

The defending Champion won Race 2 before Neal fought back fn the final race, leading Dan Eaves in a Team Halfords 1-2.

Neal, leading at left, was in top form in the opening race.

"I could see I was gaining on

him", said Neal. "But 1 couldn't work out where. Then I realised that he just couldn't stop the thing," Sure enough, the Honda squeezed past under brakes at McLeans on the final lap to take the win, with Eaves third. In Race 2, Muller took the VX Racing team's new Astra to its maiden win from Rob Collard (MG ZS) and Neal, while Vauxhall's Colin Turkington retired after a clash with Jason Plato (Seat).

moiorsport news

i

t mN

Means Business

iz-fest in DTM: Hakkinen 8tii

THERE was something for everyone at the opening round of the German DTM championship at Hockenheim - so long as everyone loves a Mercedes-Benz.

Jean Alesi emerged at the head of the Benz pack ahead of Gary Paffett and Bernd Schneider. At a circuit where Mercedes traditionally goes well, defending Champion and polesitter Mattias Ekstrom had to settle for fifth, behind even Christian Abt in a year-old A4.

The race was a bit of a mess. Opel's Laurent Aiello spun at the first corner - possibly where the track was damp from earlier rain - Audi's Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello got caught up in the confusion and all three crashed, along with the Opel of Manuel Reuter. To make things worse for Opel, at the restart, Heinz-Harald Frentzen hit the back of Alexandros

leistershaft

the team would miss the first two events on the Hockenheimring and the EuroSpeedway (because its aerodynamic package had not been finalised) and join the championship at SpaFrancorchamps next month.

The English-based team was to be led by experienced team manager Trevor Foster and had been expected to run British driver Tom Chilton and Czech Jarek Janis in the two cars.

- QUENTIN SPURRING

Cold for France, Silver for England and Bronze for the Howe Team: Alesi leads Paffett and Schneider at the Nurgurgring last weekend.

Margaritis' Mercedes at the Spitzkehre.

The round of pitstops saw Paffett's door taped shut and, despite flapping for the rest of the race, officials deemed it unnecessary to call him into the pits. So it finished, Alesi clearing out to win by 5s from Paffett, who just held out Schneider.

On his debut in the DTM,Mika Hakkinen looked good,if not brilliant, and took eighth after a drive-through penalty for speeding in pitlane.

T 1

Formula Ford’s new donk in car THE new Fiesta-based Duratec 1600CC engine that will be run in the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship has broken cover.

The first unit has been fitted to a Spectrum 010 chassis that was acquired by the South Queensland TAFE's Warwick Campus for its Motorsport Engineering students.

The TAFE took delivery of the car last weekend, displaying it at Morgan Park at the latest round of the Queensland State Racing Championships.

"The investment will keep the institute at the forefront of motor sport industry training in Queensland," said Queensland Education, Training and Industrial Relations Minister Tom Barton.

"As a part of the ongoing commitment to motorsport training.

Ford Motor Company has included a generous donation of an engine, spares, accessories and technical s,upport for the racing vehicle."

Borland Racing fitted the engine and also developed the new inlet manifold required for the new engine, which is replacing the 1600c Kent engine that the category has used for the past 30 years. The Duratec engine is also the engine that the British Formula Ford series will be adopting.

2002 Australian Formula Ford Championship runner-up and former Borland Racing driver Mark Winterbottom gave the engine a personal send off from Borland's workshop before the long trip to Queensland, pictured below.

bn Double n

i

Plato led the reverse grid final race early but soon the Hondas came through. Eaves followed his tall team-mate to the flag.

"It's unbelievable," grinned Neal. "With Dan in second as well. A 1-2 for Team Flalfords, what can you say? It's fantastic!"

The next round is at Thruxton on April 30/May 1.

Points: Neal 42, Muller 40, Eaves 31, Collard 29, Plato 17, Smith 14, Turkington and Pickford 10, Hines 9, Proctor and Williams 2.

20 April 2005

Baby,I'm your Handyman

ANDY Booth has made it two titles in a row in the New Zealand V8 Touring Car Championship.

After qualifying his Holden Commodore on pole position. Booth was a man in the right place when series leader Wade Henshaw struck problems in the final race of the series at Pukekohe last weekend.

Booth,above, led the opening race from lights to flag, winning from Kayne Scott and Mark Pedersen, with Henshaw sixth.

But in the final race, Henshaw clashed with Shane Drake and dropped to 28th position. To make matters worse,he had to serve a drive through penalty and was slugged 10 championship points.

Once going, he made it back to 21st but it was a case of tooiittle, too late, Booth cruising home to take the title by 22 points.

John McIntyre won the final race from Angus Fogg, with Scott third ahead of Dean Perkins and Drake.

n Australian Nathan Antunes has acquitted himself extremely well at the opening rounds of the 2005 British Formula BMW Championship at Donington Park.

Antunes was leading the opening race, only to lock-up and spin out of the race. This was soon forgotten however, as Antunes went on to create a stir by dominating the second race, taking the win to the delight of his Motaworld Racing team.

Antunes now lies fifth in the series points standings.

15

wap erupts

HAS the Champ Car World Series featured as the main race at the Long Beach Grand Prix for the last time?

That was the question on everybody's Ups at the famous street circuit two weeks ago as Champ Car's biggest rival, the IRL IndyCar Series, has declared its intentions to try and snatch the race away from Champ Car. With Champ Car's five-year deal to race at the event now expired, the battle for the 'Roar by the Shore'is on - and the fight could get very nasty.

There were lots of rumours buzzing around the pits at Long Beach,including one story suggesting that Champ Car, attempting to trump IRL boss Tony George's bid, has offered to run the race for free, waiving its (reported) US$2 milUon sanction fee. There was also reports that a joint IRL-Grand Am date has also been mooted,and

Infineon and beyond IndyCars test at Infineon - Briscoe on the money THE IRL IndyCar Series contenders recently conducted their first two-day test at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

The 3.9km, 12-turn course'^set in the scenic rolling hills of the Sonoma Valley will be the firstever permanent road course event for the IRL Series. The race is scheduled for August 26-28. The circuit these days is best known for its Nextel NASCAR events.

Dario Franchitti posted the best overall time (1 ml6.4222s) on the second day of testing. This came after Toyota-powered drivers Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe topped the sheets on the first day.

Former Kiwi champion Scott Dixon had an unusual, but remarkably accurate description of the circuit.

"It's actually like Laguna Seca on drugs," the 2003 champ quipped.

Le Mans seat IF circuit racer Stephane Sarrazin can carve himself a career in rallying, it's only fair that someone goes in the other direction - and reigning WRC Champ Sebastien Loeb has taken the job upon himself, after announcing last week that he will contest this year's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Loeb will join fellow Frenchmen Soheil Ayari and Eric Helary in one of two Playstation 2-backed cars to be entered by Pescarolo Sport for the classic endurance race. The other car will be steered by Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Cristophe Bullion and Erik Comas.

Loeb admitted that the planned withdrawal of Citroen from the WRC at the end of this season was a factor in his decision to have a crack at Le Mans.

"If the team were not stopping at the end of the season then I do not know if they would have let me run at Le Mans," he said.

"For sure there is a risk. If I hurt myself, then that could compromise Citroen's season as well as my own.

In the team, though, they understand that this is a good experiment for me and they know me sufficiently well to know that I never take ill-considered risks."

Loeb was scheduled to get his hands on the car for the first time at Paul Ricard later tills week after Citroen completes its WRC testing in Greece. He last tried Iris hand at

(k >■

CITBO^/V

circuit racing five years ago when he competed in the 2000 Nurburgring 24 Hours.

"This is a chance to discover another thing, to take pleasure and have a little experiment in a large car that is very different from a WRC," he said.

another suggested that George has purchased the event outright from Dover Dov^rns Entertainment, the event's parent company.

Clearly, there is much to be sorted in the next four to six weeks, when according to event officials, a decision on who will race at Long Beach will be made.

One influencing factor could be tfee Grand Prix's naming-rights sponsor, Toyota. Toyota has engines competing in the IRL, but not in Champ Car. However,the Japanese giant has declared it will allow the promoters to make the best decision for the future of the race. Toyota has been associated with the event for 31 years, but in only seven of those has one of Its engines participated in the Grand Prix.

Kevin Kalkhoven,co-owner of the Champ Car series as well as a team owner,said he is hopeful of being

TWO of the biggest names in world motorsport- Porsche and Penske - are teaming up for an assault on the 2006 American Le Mans Series.

Porsche Cars North America announced last week that it had: commissioned the parent company in Germany to design and construct a racecar that will be eligible to compete in the LMP2(Le Mans Prototype 2) class of the ALMS. It will be the first purpose-built Porsche factory racecar since the 1998 Porsche 911 GT1.

The new car will make its debut in the final races of the season, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 1 and at Laguna Seca on October 16.

Penske will run the car exclusively until the end of the "06 season, after which production versions of the cars will be made available to teams on a customer basis.

“Our American racing

"It is true that the future in rallying is not rosy, and one does not know too much about where that goes. This experience could be useful for me one day.

"It's too early to say how I'll do, because I've got a lot to learn. The hardest thing is adapting to the high cornering speeds. I'm not accustomed to taking corners at 280kph."

motorsport news

4 If The IRL Comes Here,( Wont

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Straight talker: H^e know where this guy will be if the IRL IndyCars come to Long Beach in 2006 ... back next April. But he did indicate that should Champ Car lose the event, there is already a plan for another rival street race at an unspecified location in the Los Angeles area.

Meanwhile, IRL continues discussions with Canadian town Quebec City to host a street race in 2006.

-PHIL MORRIS

I Team

Wanna hot ride with Craig m? One lucky MNews reader is team at a V8 round near you to do just that! l n fnr this tremendous prize going do to be in the running f ^^raiglowndes.com All you have to ( ■s exciting (below) correctlg, then get check out Craig's on the dosing the entry to us 'II win; out of the bag, you one of the teams entry drawn Betta/Triple 8 Falcon at 3 A ride with Craig in the nearestVS scheduled ride days; ig and the team at your and the team rheck-out the car ’ ^ includes travel and the loti Prize i Supercar round ;: 'team shirt facilities; pit passes the official accommodation. like, but only on times as you cover-dated in /VlNews issues Enter now and as many which will appear 4 and May 18.

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customers have made it clear to us that they would like to move up several levels in ALMS competition, as would we,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, PCNA President and CEO. “We believe this new Porsche prototype program will provide the perfect means to do so and will generate added enthusiasm for sports car racing in America, especially with Penske Motorsports as our partner and initial entrant.”

Penske Racing has a rich racing history with Porsche, highlighted by winning championships in the 1972 and 1973 SCCA Can-Am series when it campaigned the legendary Porsche 917/10 and 917/30 race cars.

No details of the specification of the new car were made at the launch but it appears likely that the racer will use a version of the 5.7-litre VI0 engine used in the roadgoing Carrera GT, which produces 605hp at SOOOrpm.

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(Full competition terms and conditions available on www.mnews.com.au)

20 April 2005

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AFTER 30 laps, you could have been forgiven for thinking that this was the 2004 Champ Car World Series.

Reigning Champion Sebastian Boudais scored victory in the season opening Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach two weeks ago The Frenchman worked his way from fourth on the grid to take the lead on lap 30 of 81. The only threat came from pole-sitter Paul Tracy after a late caution period bunched the field up. ' Bourdais out-sprinted his Canadian rival in the dying >, laps to claim his 11th Chanp Car win and stake an early claim to this year's title.

"I am very surprised," he said after the win.

"I wasn't really expecting to be in the top three with the way the weekend was going, but I got real pumped up // before the race.

The opening laps of the season saw Tracy duel with / Bourdais's team-mate Bruno Junqueira. Junqueira nipped

by Tracy on lap three but after 3 caution period on lap 11 to V remove the stricken car of

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TEAM Australia's debut in the Champ Car World Series has been deemed a success, despite its results not reflecting on its efforts.

Alex Tagliani showed his experience by qualifying seventh and was looking strong for a top 10 finish until gearbox problems dropped him two laps down.

Rookie Australian driver Marcus Marshall acclimatised to his new surroundings with a steady approach, which was ultimately rewarded with 14th, one place ahead of Tagliani.

Marshall had earlier qualified 17th.

Marshall had to contend with a stray drink hose that was wedged in between his back and the seat, but was satisfied with his first attempt in the class.

“I really learnt a lot today - pit stops, cold tyres, full fuel loads - all the stuff that I hadn’t done before,” he said. “It will be great to take all that stuff which I now know into the next race.

“I know where 1 can improve a lot and will go back now and look at the all the data.”

the pair made their final pit stops together and Tracy used his 'option' tyre.

Junqueira scored the last position on the podium after a beautiful turn 1 pass on Mario Dominguez with five laps to go. This extended his streak to seven consecutive podium finishes.

Former Jaguar FI driver

Justin Wilson also passed Dominguez and equalled his best Champ Car finishing position.

Rookies Timo Glock and Ronnie Bremer finished next, in front of A.J. Allmendinger and the PKV Racing duo of Jimmy Vasser and Cristiano da Matta.

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Another caution for a stranded car and the fact that Bourdais opted for the 'option' tyre in the first stop aided his chase and soon grabbed the front running.

From there, he led all the way, and even held off Tracy when I

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GREG Biffle put a lasso around the other 42 cars at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend.

Biffle started at the rear of the field in a back-up Roush Taurus after walling the car in practice, but recovered to take his second 2005 win by over tlvee seconds in front of Ganassi's Jamie McMurray.

Biffle passed Casey Mears on older tyres on lap 311 of the 334 for the lead and never looked back. Mears' Ganassi stable-mates all finished in

Smoke If You Got'Em JEFF Gordon literally bumped his way to his sixth victory at the flat half-mile Martinsville Speedway on April 10 after rallying back from three laps down earlier in the race.

"We never give up," said Gordon. "You never know when you're going to have a car like that and have fortune go against you and then come back and help you. We just never stopped trying to win this race today."

An aggressive Gordon spun Kurt Busch while battling for fourth position and muscled past veteran Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin with force en route to victory.

Gordon took the lead with 36 laps remaining and held off sophomore Kasey Kahne, who started 35th. It was Kahne's sixth runner-up finish as he seeks that elusive maiden win.

Martin had a strong run to finish third.

"We were so close," he said.

"If we hadn't had that next-tolast caution when Kurt got wrecked, I think I could have stayed ahead of Gordon."

Early race leaders Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield were both nabbed for speeding on pit road, Wallace finishing fifth behind Penske team-mate Ryan Newman, who cut a tyre on lap one after contact from first-time pole-sitter Scott Riggs.

Newman was dropped a lap for intentionally stopping on the track to air the yellow flag.

Jimmie Johnson further extended his points lead over Greg Biffle with an eighth placing after struggling early in 20

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the top five, witli Sterling Marhn fifth.

Kasey Kahne and early leader Tony Stewart, who both ran up front early, were subject to problems.

Stewart detonated an engine, whUe Kahne wrecked with 64 laps to run.

Meanwhile, the DEI Chevs of Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt ran well, 'Little E'finishing runth and Waltrip sixth after leading for a spell when he won the race off pit road on lap 124.

In tlie points chase, Biffle moved closer to Johnson and Rusty Wallace,in his final season, is now third following his second top 10 finish in succession.

- MARTIN D CLARK Final result: Biffle (Ford), McMurray (Dodge), Johnson (Chevy), Mears (Dodge), Marlin (Dodge), Waltrip (Chevy), Busch (Ford), Rudd (Ford), Earnhardt Jr.(Chevy), R Wallace (Dodge).

Point standings: Johnson 1142, Biffle 1007, R Wallace 905, Busch 897,J Gordon 895, Marlin 883, Martin 882, Sadler 879, Newman 873, Jarrett 853.

A bard man's game: Jeff Gordon used his bumpers on his way to Victory Lane at Martinsville, top, leaving Kurt Busch to mutter under his breath and tally up bis repair bill, above. the event, while Joe Gibbs Racing continued its uphill 2005 climb. Just as it looked like they would finish one-two Tony Stewart, who led the most laps, had a centre break out of a wheel, and Bobby Labonte (winner of the previous day's Truck Series race) smoked an engine.

"Everybody knows who had the best car today," said a dejected Stewart. "That's the win today for us, I guess."

- MARTIN D CLARK Final result; J. Gordon (ChevyI, Kahne (Dodge), Martin (Ford), Newman (Dodge), R Wallace (Dodge), Marlin (Dodge), Rudd (Ford), Johnson (Chevy), Sadler (Ford), Nemechek (Chevy).

One DoqI Opens EVEN though Sterling Marlin,47, finished sixth at Martinsville recently, he will not be back behind the wheel of the Ganassi Racing | Coor- backed Dodge in 2006.

Marlin's departure possibly leaves the seat open for Ganassi Busch Series rookie Reed Sorenson.

... and another closes PPG Racing has gone a step further from its recent announcement of a switch to a partial schedule.

The team is now basically closing the doors on their Nextei Cup effort for driver John Andretti. The organisation will, however, continue to field two Busch teams and a Truck, Series effort.

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Penske to buy Penske?

WORD around the garage area is that Roger Penske is going to buy out the 48 percent interest in Penske Racing South held jointly by Rusty Wallace and Don Miller (no connection to Miller Brewing).

Wallace has his own Busch Series team set up initially for his son Stephen who, at 17, is competing in the Hooters Pro Cup Series and could run some Busch events later this year when he turns 18.

It's a known fact that Wallace no longer sees eye-to-eye with Miller and has had several issues with his stable-mate Ryan Newman and crew chief Matt Borland.

This could pave the way for smoother times in 2006 at Penske, with Wallace retiring from driving duties at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Greg Biffle is being touted as a possible replacement for Wallace. n Following an issue with a broken wheel on Tony Stewart's Chevy at Martinsville, the higher speed Texas oval saw several teams switch to the 2004-style wheel that is of a stronger design than the later version.

- MARTIN D CLARK

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Bappos ends Dpougfet BRAZILIAN Alex Bartos won his first MotoGP in three years, and the seventh of his career, at Estoril.

After qualifying on pole position, Barros's Honda held out the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, with Honda's Max Biaggi in third.

Sete Gibernau looked to have the race

in his keeping but,just as it looked like the Spaniard would get his revenge for the previous week's race at Jerez, his Honda slid out from under him on the 16th lap of the race.

"It started raining and 1 tried to pressure (Gibernau) a little bit, it was the only way, and he responded," Barros said after the race.

"He braked late and lost the front of the bike. After that 1 tried to just keep a good pace, to go a little bit slower."

Marco Melandri continued his excellent early season form witlr fourth from Calos Checa's Ducati and Yamaha's Colin Edwards.

Aussie Troy Bayliss was 11th on his Honda.

Points: Rossi 45, Barros 38, Melandri 29, Biaggi 25, Ginernau 20, Nakano 19,Checa 17, Edwards 17, Bayliss 15, Capirossi 10,

Camelling along: Barros puts his head down and speeds to victory at Estoril,

No More Mister Nice Guy Rossi elbows in on Gibernau at Jerez ROSSI was a nice guy for the opening laps of the MotoGP season at Jerez but, on the final lap, there was no time to be nice.

After swapping the lead twice on the final lap, the World Champion barged his way inside Gibernau at the final turn to win the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. The Spaniard surfed through the kitty litter before regaining the track in time to salvage second place.

Third place was young Italian Melandri who finished . well, clear of Barros. Shihya Nakano gave Kawasaki's new big-bang engine a great debut with fifth place ahead of Bayliss.

"That was a very tough race at a very high-level," said Rossi after his 43rd premier class win. n "The pace was incredible, almost at the pace of last year's pole time. I'm know that

Gibernau is angry about what happened at the final corner but this is bike racing, it was a hard pass but I did not deliberately run into him. I'm sorry."

BIKE NEWS

Stoner’s Breakthrough AUSTRALIAN Casey Stoner won his first 250cc Grand Prix at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday.

Stoner,19,fought out the race with current 125cc World Champion Andrea Dovizioso and Frenchman Randy de Puniet Spain's 250 World Champion Dani Pedrosa, who won the opening race of the season, was fourth and stayed top of the riders' standings with 38 points to Dovizioso's 33.

"We had a tough last lap with De Puniet but he made a mistake, he went to the inside too much,and I was able to pass him," Stoner smiled after the race.

Stoner had problems with his Aprilia in qualifying, starting the race from 12th on the grid.

PEDROSA was in untouchable form at Jerez two weeks ago.

The reigning 250 World Champion Dani Pedrosa cruised away from pole position to finish 2s dear of Aprilia's Sebastian Porto. Italian Alex de Angelis(Aprilia) was third, a massive 29 seconds behind.

The race was a disappointment for Stoner and de Puniet. Both had

qualified on the he front row but both,in turn, crashed out of third place.

Points; Pedrosa 38, Dovizioso 33, Porto and De Angelis 27, Stoner 25, Barbera, de Puniet and Lorenzo 16.

MIKA Kallio has ended a threedecade drought for Finland by wirming the 125cc race in Portugal.

The KTM rider, who started on pole position, held off Spain's Hector Faubel in a photo-finish to claim his maiden race win in the race.

Swiss Thomas Luthi finished a distant third after dropping as far back as 11th after a clash with KTM's Gabor Talmacsi.

ITALIAN Marco Simoncelli (Aprilia) won a frantic 125cc GP at Jerez with a narrow victory over Kallio.

Third place just one tenth of second behind was Honda rider Fabrizio Lai who lost out to Kallio in a last comer move.

Points; Kallio 45,Simoncelli 31, Faubel and Lai 20,Poggiali and Pasini 21, Luthi 16, Simon 14.

My Brilliant Carrera: Casey Stoner has made up for a disappointing 250 debut in Spain with a win for Aprilia at the second race in Portugal.

Kiyonari wows the Poms RYUICHI Kiyonari has maintained his dominance of the British Superbike Championship with a winning double in the second round at Thruxton.

The 22-year-old Japanese rider has now won all four races this season on his HM Plant Honda. After a 220kmh get-off in qualifying, Kiyonari took four laps to lead the first race to win from Gregorio Lavilla, who is subbing for the injured James Haydon.

Kiyonari leads the championship with 100 points, with Lavilla on 72 and Michael Rutter 69. n The Portuguese Grand Prix got off to a painful and slightly embarrassing start for Kawasaki's Alex Hofmann when he crashed his Ninja ZX-RR during an exhibition ride at Estoril's seafront Casino last Wednesday afternoon.

The 24-year-old German fell off the roadie at around 40kmh and immediately grabbed his wrist. X-rays revealed a broken scaphoid, which forced him to sit out the race. He is expected to be fit for the next round of the championship in China on April 29/May 1.

In the meantime, he has been banned from playing tennis with Juan Pablo Montoya...

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MITSUBISHI motorsport boss Isao Torii has denied the rumours which spread around the Rally NZ service park that it would be out of rallying in 2006 due to budget problems.

Torii confirmed that the three diamonds has secured its WRC budget into 2006 and that the company has made a strong commitment to the sport.

Mitsubishi traditionally allocates its motorsport budget according to its financial year rather tlian the calendar year. Negotiations were expected to be particularly tough this year thanks to the company's serious financial difficulties. Losses this year are forecast to hit 3.3 billion euros.

"I think we have no great restrictions at the moment," Torii commented.

"We discussed the budget,and it seems absolutely clear that we continue."

While the WRC program has been confirmed, the company has trimmed its spending, cutting expenses for management and staff, ordering economy class air travel and cutting its entry back to two cars per event, as it was in NZ and will be in Sardinia next month.

The company's cross-country program has also been approved,including another full-scale attack on the Dakar Rally, an event dominated by Mitsubishi for over 20 years.

-JON THOMSON

AN advertisement on the back cover of the Rally of NZ program has given the clearest hint that Korean maker Hyundai will be back in the WRC in 2006.

Featuring a rear shot of a Hyundai Accent WRC , the ad says, "it may look like we are riding off into the sunset, but you'd better get used to the view because in 2006 we'll be back and the only time you'll see the front of us is at the starting line."

The ad goes on to say that the company's new WR car, codenamed RC, is underdevelopment and is a hatchback using the connpany's new Theta engine.

The company

o declares that it is aggressively recruiting industry talent who will join the staff at the new $A100 million design and technical centre at Russelheim in Germany.

Despite the ad, Hyundai is yet to officially confirm any details regarding the return to WRC. There is a strong belief that former Mitsubishi motorsport boss Sven Quandt has been hired to head up the Hyundai effort, despite the poor performance posted by the Ralliart operation under his I stewardship. ^ - JON THOMSON

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motorsport news

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Winning Formula?

LAST weekend was perhaps the most successful of the five V8 Supercar championship rounds which have been held at Pukekohe.

There were two or three reasons, I guess. The weather (almost) held out, it's a great track for V8s, and the support act was terrific in its own right.

I know I occasionally agitate the heavies at AVESCO, because here at MNews we tend to look at things from a sporting angle more than anything else. AVESCO's job is far more commercial and, occasionally, those two worlds clash.

I'm sure they think I'm some sort of motorsport fossil (damn, I could get an age phobia thing going here), because more often than not I tend to look at things from the sporting, and even sporting heritage, perspective - when Tony Cochrane can quite logically present a contrary view, based on finance and marketing issues.

So,they won't be too shocked when I add my name to the growing pro-Pukekohe club who would actually prefer the V8 Supercar circus to stay at one of the great, traditional, stirring race tracks. Full stop.

Now, I do know that development plans for the place will probably preclude that after one or two more years, but in the meantime, let's not push Wellington too hard. If they're dithering, screw them. It would have to be a damned good street race to match the sheer atmosphere and spectacle dished up last weekend.

As a kid, in '68, 1 watched Chris Amon (Ferrari), Jim Clark (Lotus)and Denny Hulme (Brabham), among others, contest a terrific NZGP there (Amon won). The track was challenging then and, with very few revisions and some resurfacing, it still is. It's tough and you want to avoid going off it - but it's a race track.

Flardlya constant-radius corner to be seen ...

Yes, i know a street race is a more commercial proposition Tony ... but...

The other of impressive element the weekend was the support programme and Australia can learn from it.

Ubiquitous Porsches aside, there were two wellsupported, competitive and attention-grabbing categories" - the NZ V8s and Formula

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Toyota open-wheelers - both coming to the end of competitive and entertaining national series.

NZ motorsport has got itself together, after looking in the doldrums four or five years back. In these two formulae, it has categories that the country, in a sponsorship sense, can afford. Both are very 'controlled' in a technical and cost sense and the racing kept the crowd involved.

The NZV8s have been around for a while now and are an obvious drawcard when Murph isn't trowelling the V8 Supercar boys in front of the home crowd, but what really interested me was the all-new open-wheeler class (and I know this is going to agitate some current open-wheeler diehards).

Formula Ford remains in NZ as the 'nursery'(as it should in Australia), but NZ has taken the deep breath, pushed aside a rag-tag collection of 'other' open-wheeler classes, and come up with a winner.

Modern; quick (lap times equal to the V8s on a fast, horsepower track); not exp^sive; controlled (no testmg -they impound the MoTeC between events). My

Motor Mouth with Chris Lambden NZ colleagues tell me the deal to race is less than Formula Ford can be here.

F4000 here is teetering; even F3 is getting patchy in terms of regular quality and competitiveness. ^ ^ Is it time for Australia to bite the bullet, pension off both categories, and go for it - like NZ has?

BMW evaluated the possibility of its similar Formula BMW here and, in a close decision, opted out.

Maybe they should rethink.

Better still, let's talk to Toyota NZ. They 'invented' this formula; they own it. It has a strong future and, as trans Tasman amigos, it could be good for us both.

F4000 here is teetering; even F3 is getting patchy in terms of regular quality and competitiveness,is it time for Australia to bite the bullet, pension off both rr categories, and go for it-like NZ has?

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LONG fciffiE ago, my first editor ggatfi me some good advice.

He said thiatittte one mistake he had madfe- inlhis Iffe as an editor was to gte too much coverage to ttlieFISA-FOCA War back intttKearly 1980s.

He gave it pages and pages and pages. He gave it so much coverage, in fact, that he bored everyone to death with it.

He was right because it was important for the future of the sport. And wrong, he said, because his job was to sell magazines. People do not care if ortic idiosyncratic multimillionaire screws another Idiosyncratic

FORMULA ONE

ving All Of FI's Problems multimillionaire, as long as there is good motor racing on the television on Sundays from March to October.

And now, looking back, one can sum up the whole thing in three sentences: The FISA-FOCA war was a fight over who should control the promotional rights to FI racing. The battles resulted in the Concorde Agreement in which FOCA (the teams) won the right to negotiate the commerciai deals for Formula 1 races. It did so on behalf of the FIA and the governing body was recompensed with considerable sums of money.

There. That was simple enough, wasn't it?

Twenty years later, I think that the advice my old editor gave me is as good as it was at the time. Yes, alii these political fights are important and yes, we should try to ^understand them, but writing endfess articles about them is

not a good idea. Surely it is better to write about the fact that we have an interesting FI season.

My feeling is that at Imola this weekend, the season will have another dimension added: that may be a Ferrari revival. It might be a BARHonda comeback. It might be a McLaren victory. Any of these is possible. The racing is good and so the sport is healthy. Of course, it could be better. It could be a lot better if qualifying was sensible and the cars were not so aerodynamicaily sensitive (largely thanks to the raised front wing rules).

It could be better if someone had the good sense to invest in television coverage and produce a better show. There is no shortage of action in FI. It is just not covered very well.

The technology exists to produce a much better show.

But that, of course, leads one back to the questions raised in FI politics - the subject we are trying avoid.

So let's faceparagraphs it, and deal-with it in a few and dearths air.

Right now,there are two groups of people preparing different futures of Grand Prix racing. It is the FISA-FOCA War all over again, the only difference being that the men who won power for the teams 25 years ago - Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosleyare now trying to take that power away that they helped to win for the teams. They have become the establishment rather than the rebels. It is actually immensely funny to watch them struggling in the traps of their own creation in the infamous Concorde Agreement.

I have no idea who will win the fight this time around, but what I do know is that I do not want to be writing about it all for months to come.

There is a very clear bottom line in all of this. The warring parties are arguing about what the clauses in the Concorde Agreement mean. I don't care about their opinions because I have listened to too many ranting team bosses and too many political spin-merchants.

The only people I want to hear from are the judges. The learned legal men who can cut through the crap, establish the correct interpretation of the Concorde Agreement and then let the sport sort itself out.

Perhaps the FIA does have a - right to dictate how the rules for 2008 should be made. *--Perhaps the teams have the poweV to impose their own n ’ solutions o« the FIA.

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With Joe Saward

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oes it really matter? Will, the sport be better off? Will money come down from -■■●I above and be given to clubs to help to expand the sport in . countries across the world? No way. So it really does not matter who gets the cash because one way or the other it is not going to be used for A the good of the sport.

If the FIA blazers had any .<1 vision (which they do not)they would find a way to take back ■' r< the commercial rights that ■i they agreed to lease to Bernie ' Ecclestone for a 100,years a, few years back.

Those who agreed to that deal hawked the family silver \ for generations in exchange for a pittance. The money that goes to the Ecclestone family or the banks should go to the clubs, but if they are so stupid that they do not see that, then they do not deserve to be getting the money.

The world of business and the law courts do not suffer fools. In business, a fool is soon left without his wallet, and a crook ends up without any friends. In a court, a charlatan is exposed for what he is.

The best thing for the sport is to let the good businessmen rise to the top and for the quibbling to be sorted out by QCs. There will be battered egos and dented reputations, but the sport will emerge in better health and can look ahead and do things to build for the future.

And we can get on with the racing.

27

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»■

Five minutes with...'

Paul Dumbrell

AtPukekohe,Paui DumbpeiihaU the khniofstmt that you save on vUeo to show the gpmiitkkts. He was feeting a hit second-hami Hie next day, but stitifound time for a chat with MARK BLB\IDB)H\IG MOTORSPORT NEWS: First things first. How have you pulled up?

PAUL DUMBBELL: A bit battered and bruised, and I have a slight injury to my shoulder. But It's just part and parcel with a shunt like that. You are always going to come out pretty sore.

MN: Will you be OK for Perth?

PD: Yeah, physically. I'll be fine.

Obviously there will be a fair bit of work to be done to make sure I'm right, but football players do this week in, week out, and I've got three weeks to get myself right.

Although football players probably don't hit each other at 240 kmh ...

MN:So can you talk us through the shunt?

PD: Yeah, I was just cruising along in the race and then Steve Ellery and Jamie Whincup both went off at turn seven.

1 didn't really see what happened in front of me from there, but Craig Baird got on the brakes down the straight and I obviously had a pretty massive closing speed on him, so I went down the inside.

From his own admission, he didn't see me. I'm not really sure what else there is to say.

It's just unfortunate for everyone on our team, and for the WPS guys, that the last race, in the very late stages, ended like that.

I

MN: It looked like you guys were maybe caught out by a change in the grip level at that point compared to the previous lap - is that right?

PD: No, I don't think the grip had anything to do with it at all. We were still racing flat-out.

The rain, even though it was spitting, it hadn't yet got to the stage where the grip was deteriorating to any great extent.

28

MN: It just seemed odd that a couple of other people got out of shape there about five seconds before you and Baird arrived on the scene.

PD: Yeah. Maybe it was a little bit of a factor. But the whole chain of events started from when Jamie went off, and Baird wasn't quite sure whether he was going to come back onto the track or not, and he touched a brake down the straight.

I'm not sure why he did that, I guess he was trying to make sure that he wasn't involved in a shunt. I came around, I was pretty close to him anyway, and when someone touches a brake on the straight, they are going to lose a fair bit of straightline speed, and that's where I got.my advantage and went down the inside. I just had massive closing speed on him.

MN: Have you had a chance to evaluate the damage to the car?

PD: The boys are over in New Zealand until Wednesday repairing the car, so they'll probably have a bit more of an accurate picture of how it is.

I've got no doubt about the guys at Larry's, they are probably the best engineering and fabrication guys that you can get.

So it's a scenario that will be sorted out before Perth.

MN: You seemed to have a fair bit of speed right though the weekend. How did the car feel to you?

PD: The car was great. To roll it out of the truck on Friday and be in the top 10 in that Friday session ... actually, on the subject of that Friday session, it was a great thing. The two hours was really, really good. It was good for the fans, and it was good for the teams.

You can try a heap of different things, which worked in both Steve (Richards) and my favour.

In qualifying, we qualified seventh - sixth, if you take Garth Tander out- and the car was strong. In the Top 10 Shootout I made a mistake coming on to the straight and lost a bit of time, so it could have been even better.

1 was running strong in Race 1 and then had the guard pushed onto the tyre, which meant a second pitstop and we were back to 26th. But we fought back in Race 2 and were 12th, I think, and had to do a bit of drifting to get out of the way of Brighty, who stuck the cat’ in the dirt down at turn 4.

So that was another close moment for the weekend. It probably would have been even bigger if I didn't avoid that than the actual shunt in Race 3!

MN: You were fast in Adelaide too, which is a very different type of circuit. At the moment, the car seems to be working everywhere you take it.

PD: Yeah. Last year 1 qualified something like 25th, and raced around that all weekend over there. It was fairly different to roll the car out and be in the top 10 all weekend.

So the car has got speed, Richo ^ has shown that over the past I three years. I am probably just I bridging the gap a little bit to him.

I It helps him, it helps me ... and IS' it obviously keeps Larry happy!

MN: What's different this year?

PD: The car has always been good. That's something that Larry has always prided himself on.

Probably my mental approach is a lot different this year. Mid way through last year I went over to the UK, and 1 probably think about things a little bit differently now, and I think that's shown.

From mid-way through last year our speed has picked up, and now it's just about keeping it on the black stuff.

Which I nearly did on the weekend ...

MN:So are you at a point where you are backing yourself to be in the top 10 every time you get into the car?

PD: Well, yeah. At Adelaide, we qualified 14th, so you're only a tenth or so out of the Top 10. We raced around on Sunday and came home fifth.

So the car has got speed, and the team's pitstops and strategy with the new rules for this year have just been spectacular.

We've been pumping put great pitstops all year, which means that you can get past a couple of people in the pits, and that makes your life so much easier on the track.

motorsponnews

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Five minutes with

aaa

Scott Sme

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American wants-ami needs-a Formuia 1 racing driver.

BRAmTROWLFY spoke to the man who is ciosest to giving the United States Hs first driver in the 'major team'tor 12years s

IVIOTORSPORT NEWS: You've been flat-out testing both with your GP2 team iSport International and Red Bull Racing (FI). How has it been going?

SCOTT SPEED: Yeah, everything's going quite well.

The GP2 stuff couldn't be going better really. Of course, the FI test at Barcelona was well above everyone's expectation.

MN: You've scored iSport the number 1 for the season. It won't bring you race wins, but do you think it has some sort of psychological advantage attached to it?

SS: It's just good to keep up the momentum we had in testing.

It's great for the team's moral and we've got quite a big ball rolling in a positive direction, so at this stage, it's all good.

MN:iSport is a new team.

How have you and the team gelled at this stage?

SS: The team is quite nice, we are all getting along really well so I'm really pleased. iSport is a new team, there were a lot of question marks before the season, especially with me coming from Formula Renault.

Some people were critical and said that the step would have been too big. But obviously, so far, we've done quite well together.

MN:The GP2 grid boasts some impressive names, including ex-F1 drivers and some of the best F3 graduates from around the world. Would you agree that being one of the front-runners in this championship will go some way to taking you to the top?

SS: Yeah, it's easily the most competitive field that has been assembled in Europe and the fact that we are competitive is a good sign.

30

Is

for Formula 1?

SS: It's just another race car and another championship. To me it's the same. There are things that go on in Formula 1 that are different to others, but having MN: You are the closest thing America has to a FI driver. seen it, tasted it and know what it will be like when I'm racing it, Does that fact place any extra , then I'm ready. pressure on you?

SS: I put enough pressure on MN: What can you take out of myself. I've come this far and I'm the GP2 cars that translates to so close to the goal now. It's only FI? one or two steps and I'm there.

Of course, there is the added SS: GP2 cars are very similar to a Champ Car in America and pressure that there hasn't been even an IRL car. They are pretty an American representative in close, however, none of them Europe for a while. But to be even come close to a FI car. over here, doing well and setting the mark for future American They are simply pure downforce race drivers means there's is a and performance.

The biggest difference with FI little extra pressure, but nothing is the amount of people it takes like the pressure I place on to get the cars running. You've myself. got people swarming around the MN: You won the first Red cars just to get it out of pits. It's Bull Driver Search in 2002. The a bit intimidating, but once program was designed to get you're out there, the amount of an American into Formula 1. downforce is amazing. You pull some serious g-forces.

You are now right on the brink of making this a reality. Is it MN: Was it a surprise to see exciting or daunting?

SS: Oh it's exciting, no doubt. your name at the top of the sheets in your first FI session?

Everything has happened so SS: It's not really fair to say it quickly in the last three months was a time sheet because it was and it's all very positive. Really, just an open testing day. We it's a feeling of anticipation now. were running the older car and who knows what everyone else MN: Do you feel you are ready

I think. Formula 1 has been the goal for me for a long time and being here is going to go a long way to making it realised.

was doing.

But to be a fair bit quicker than Neel Jani, who was on the same program that I was on, was quite pleasing.

MN: But none of your success can be taken for granted. At one stage in your career, you nearly had to quit due to a restricting medical condition (colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease).

SS: Well, I still deal with it everyday and it's a big part of my life.

MN: Did you ever go to bed thinking that your days as a race driver were over, or did you remain positive throughout?

SS: I kept thinking that it was going to turn around for the better. One of the times I was running in British F3 and it almost ended my career. I had a horrible season and it wasn't due to any fault of my own, just circumstances.

Then the year after, I was still having the same medical problems but was having success and making a name for myself.

I'm able to control it better now, but yeah, it can be very tough at times. motorsportnews

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BOSCH

SPARK PLUGS

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AVING lunch with Paul Weel seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Weely is in his seventh season in the V8 Supercar Championship Series but opportunities to catch up away from tlte track were rare. He lived in Queensland; Motorsport News's I lunch money does not extend to I airfares and overnight stays. But this I' year, Weel and long-time girlfriend ^ Emma have come to their senses and moved to Melbourne to be closer to

around liis plate. "They have been Holden Motor Sport people. Now we are starting to be 'our' people and we can get the people that we want.

"At the end of last year, with Jason [Bright] and [engineer] Phil Keed joining another team [Ed: Ford Performance Racing] and my engineer Craig Spencer deciding to leave the sport, it made it very difficult. Phil told us that he was going to stay - he said that for six months and two weeks before

Motorsport News ... er, PWR's new raceshop in Dandenong. So all we had to do was make the call and wait for a day when he did not suffer the effects of food poisoning.

Oops. When he showed up at the office, he looked like crap. Oddly enough, WeeTs green pallor (courtesy of some dodgy Mexican food) happened simultaneously to an unrelated bout that struck PWR director Mark Roworth (see over page).

Maybe the idea of meeting with MNews makes people ill?

Probably not. There is much to talk about;PWR is virtually a new team this season, with Greg Murphy and Super Cheap Autos coming on board.

Behind the scenes, people have come, people have gone and the team is now standing outside the 'umbrella' of Holden Motor Sport. And with change can come problems.

"I think the biggest problem has been that the people that we employed have not been employed by us," says Weel, pushing calamari

Christmas, he said that he was going.

That does not make it easy and we had to rush around to get engineers.

We were quite lucky with the engineers that we got.

"The disruption of the move to Dandenong isolated us from HMS, we wanted to be more independent from Day One. But that also made it harder than we thought it would. The first year with Brock was an eyeopener and a lesson in how it could be. Peter was probably being told one thing and we were being told anotlier thing. There was a bit of a clash with personality and it was difficult for Kees and Peter; Holden would say one thing and the opposite would happen.

"This year is the first year that we can head in the direction we want to head with the team."

weel Turns PWR has undergone anof/rer change this year, with a new HQ and the arrival of Super Cheap Autos and Greg Murphy With Murf's NZ win and Paul Weel third In the V8 Championship, things look good. Weel spoke to PHIL BRANAGAN 32

/

Not long ago,PWR Racing ran a single car, a Ford. It changed to a two-car Holden operation under the guise of Team Brock for 2003 but the partnership between Kees Weel and

motorsportnews

Weel is in the somewhat unusual position, not just in Australia but around the world,of being a partteam owner who is comfortable in the number two seat in the team. But that does not mean that he is not under pressure to perform.

My name is on the team and I have a stake in the team. If we could get someone better to do the job as a number two driver, we would. Last year, we did not finish five races; throw those out and that is bad. This year, there is a strong focus to finish and get points at every round.

We have had strong starts for the last two seasons; fifth at Adelaide in 2003, this last year, fourth this year.

Last year, we were strong in New Zealand. We need to build on that to reduce the pressure on me as a driver.

The team does not put pressure on me;I am in the fortunate situation of not having to win races to keep the drive. But I put pressure on myself; I have been here for a fair while now and there have been opportunities gone begging where I could have ended up with a good result. I did not do the right things but I have What a difference time makes: Weel 2005 look, left, contrasts with 2003, below left, and 2004, below.

9 £

Peter Brock did not endure. Last year, sponsorship was scarce and PWR itself was the major backer of the team.

"We had hardly any sponsorship and we had to fund it from our own companies," says Weel."A lot of people do not like to put their hand in their own pocket but we did it to keep the team running. "[But]PWR as a brand is bigger and better than it ever was. It cost us a lot of money but it was worthwhile, the brand awareness of the brand is much higher than it was. People asked the question,'What does PWR do?' and it was actually good for the company."

Apart from being an owner,how difficult have all the changes made it for Paul Weel, driver?

"As a driver, it has been difficult. ' 20 April 2005

In the first year,I did not really have an engineer, Ty Anderson was thrown in the deep end. I did not have any experience with those cars so we struggled. Last year,I think we had some good results but we had some shockers too. With Craig, we started to build a relationship but, at the end of the year, we had shockers, as a team. Craig wanted to get out and we moved on.

"My engineer, Bryce Seales, had been in the USA and, prior to that, with Larry. He has a lot of experience and we need to build the relationship, with Murf as well, and that can become strong or you want to rip each other's throats out!

"Murf has to build a relationship with his engineer Steve Henderson as well. But in three years, three different engineers, that's hard. At

HRT or Stone Brothers, they have been able to build that relationship over a number of years. It makes it difficult."

After having Bright as a hotshot team-mate for two years, this year Weel takes on the mercurial Murphy as number one.

"Murf is one of the best drivers in the series, so we are expected to come out straight away and win races. The growing pains are that we have new people and,for two years,Jason and Phil had worked together before. We were probably a bit lucky at the start of last year. We were 12 months belrind other teams; HRT and LP's had a VY 12 months before we did and they had built cars. We were still getting updated cars. In 12 months, we will have a big enough team to do all that ourselves."

expectations are on myself,from myself.

"When I drove with Stones,I think that was a good thing for me. That gave me more confidence in myself and I was driving with Marcos! We were quick at Sandown last year but we did not have the right result at the end of the day."

With that, Weel has had enough of hnkering with the salad. Interview over, time for some off the record yacking. Soon work beckons and it is time to go. WeeTs easy demeanour is sometimes mistaken for a lack of determination but that is far from the truth; he expects much from himself and his team.

PWR Racing was the premier Holden team in the series last year.

Do not expect Weel to give up that mantle without one tough fight.

33

Rowing against the Almost a year since he left Stone Brothers Racing tojoin PWR, Mark Roworth is making his presence felt in the Holden camp

T

HERE was that familiar sense

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supported teams based out of Clayton. The reality when I got here was that there was a fundamental difference in the level of support and the level of focus. It is not HRT and, therefore, it's not worthy.

"You can do one of two things; you can sit dovm and whinge and grizzle about it or you can button down and do the job. That is all we are doing.

We do not expect that we can do the best job that we can right now but we are trying our hardest. We are acquiring some good people to help us build a formdation for the future.

of deja vu as I pulled up outside Super Cheap Autos Racing's new headquarters.

For a first-timer, the only giveaway was that the newly-refurbished reception desk shows signs of history; if you look closely behind the SCA logo, you can just see a large 'G', evidence that Gibson Motorsport once called this place home.

But times have changed and the history of the factory, which once housed Godzillas and the Green-

Eyed Monster,is not all good,as SCAR Director Mark Roworth explained.

"We had the place exorcised," he smiles. "If you trace it back,every single team that has moved into here had its funding pulled or its factory support dropped or the team has imploded in some way. Prior to the team moving in here, we brought in a truckload of priests and made sure all the demons were released."

Evil or not, SCAR's new home is light years away from its 2004 HQ. Okay, the former House of Gibbo is not the gun shop any more, with tlie Garage Mahals of DJR and Triple 8 contenders for that title, but it is way better than tlie mobile offices and portaloos that housed the team last season. Its old Clayton home could politely be described as 'rudimentary'.

The move from Clayton has been both geographical and spiritual. The team needed a bigger home and team principal Kees Weel wanted a facility that would house both the team and the growing PWR Group in Melbourne. At the same time, the team wanted to break away from the restrictive Clayton regime and stop being what Roworth describes as a "catalogue race team".

"It is part of our overall agenda to move away from the Clayton 'umbrella'," he explains,"but [it is] more a process of trying to create our own identity to ensure that we are building a race team that is capable of doing the best job that it can. For too long, we have been getting everybody else's leftovers and our theory is that we can't win races and championships if we are constantly getting the things that the other teams used last year or the year before."

The changes have happened 34

This looks familiar: PWR's Dandenong HQ was formerly the home of Gibson Motorsport and 00 Motorsport. Team Mitsubishi Ralliart lives next door and Britek is around the corner. Below, new technical director Dave Ward get to grips with his new driver Greg Murphy in Auckland.

partially by design and partially by circumstance. For instance,SCAR wBl source its new stock of FTMS engines from Perkins Engineering rather than Clayton but that was due, at least in part, to being able to buy Perkins units, rather than the lease deal FIMS offered. The next step is to move into new cars, which will be bruit around shells supplied by Dencar,in which PWR maintains a part-ownership role.

"We are utilising chassis numbers 46 and 47 at the moment," says Roworth."These are the chasses that HRT debuted in, I think, 2003. It is now 2005 so these are chassis that are now more than two years old.

"There is probably no consistency of apphcation between the relevant teams; HRT and HSV Dealer Team

are using current-spec chasses; ours are two years old. We know that we need to get ourselves on a similar level [but] we don't ever expect to be on the same level as HRT, purely because of the massive difference in funding. We have a limited budget; from my understanding, they have an unlimited budget" The last comment is telling.

Clearly, despite the fact that PWR finished the 2004 as Holden's bestperformed team,but is lower in Holden Motorsport's pecking order than it might expect in those circumstances grates with the team.

"It's immensely frustrating," Roworth continues."When I was encouraged to come across[from Stone Brothers Racing], it was to help build one of the three factory-

"If you think motor racing is fair, you must think that politics is a good career move. The reality is that it is not. The politics involved in this game is incredibly difficult to try and track; we could almost have a full time resource here to try and follow the politics but that does not win you races. Well,sometimes it does because if you suck up to the right people often enough, you might have something that you didn't have before. But I think they are short-term things.

"Ford ignored Stone Brothers Racing for a long time and put aU their funding behind Gibson Motorsport,00 and FPR. The plan is true; if we concentrate on doing the bestjob that we can and build the right infrastructure with the right people, then we can have what I call my Field of Dreams model; if you build it, they wiU come."

Roworth represents one side of the team's brains trust and brings considerable experience from SBR. On the other side, team manager John Panozzo is formerly of HRT and Garry Rogers Motorsport; technical director Dave Ward was witli Ford Performance Racing and,before that, Audi UK;Murphy's list is even longer - Kmart, HRT,BJR/Audi and, of course, a prior stint in the same shop when it was Gibson Motorsport.

"I learned a lot from working with Ross and Jim over many, many years," says Roworth."In turn, I think that Ross,Jim and myself really complimented each other. Tlrey looked at things from an engineering perspective and I looked at them from a business perspective.

"When you look at that right now, I recall suggesting in 2002 that we needed to develop some customeroriented things in order to sustain the

motorsport news

V8 SUPERCARS

Ude

BITUMEN RALLY/ROAD

The reality when I got here was that there was a fundamental difference in the level of support and the level of focus. It is not HRT and, therefore, it's not n worthy

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-Roworth does not mince words on the subject of PWR’s level of support from Holden Motorsport long-term future for Stone Brothers Racing. That was shot down in flames rapidly because that was not the kind of business they wanted to be in. Obviously,times change and now they are a little bit different.

"There are things I learned from Ross and Jim and the continuity of staff is one of them. Everybody talks about it but it is more important than anyone would know. Having people that know the drivers, the equipment and the processes is incredibly important. The thing that we are focusing on is getting the processes right.

"When I went to Stones, they were a team that was capable of winning a race occasionally. They had a great engineering base and they were capable if winning occasionally but they were not capable of winning a championship. Having the right processes around the team,and the right people, adds to the consistency of winning many, many races and a championship."

And what about the team's new driver? After two Bathurst wins with Kmart, Murphy said pubUcly that the reason for his move to SCAR was to win a championship.

"Having someone hke Greg on board from a long-term view is critical," he says."The existing resources, including John Panozzo, Dave Ward and the new engineering team,are critical."

Enter Panozzo and Ward. The latter was the TM at FPR and is a lot happier with his role with he new team.

"My background was the engineering side anyway," says the Brit."At FPR, my role was more operational, which didn't suit me at all, so I am back to where I personally want to be. I am here to do what I can do."

"Dave is handing a fair bit with the drivers as well," adds John P,"I am more operational than anything.

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Instead of doing a hundred hours a week,I will be going 60 ...

"And I will be doing 40!" Ward interrupts.

"It lightens the load," Panozzo continues. "I was trying to do it all previously, and not doing any of it very well. It could have been a lot better."

Better than third in the championship? Panozzo concurs. Yes, SBR had a great 2004 from, clearly, he believes that PWR punched above its weight.

And what about Murph? Highly charged, at times the Kiwi can be an emotional rollercoaster waiting to happen. How have they adapted to each other in the short-term?

"There has been a lot said about Murph," says Panozzo.

"There are a lot of stories around about how he behaves but we can only take him as we find him and the approach he has brought to this team has been nothing short of fantastic.

He is really making a big effort in planning for the upcoming race meetings and I think that he is appreciative of the effort we are putting in to ensure that everything

is right around him. He is fully focused on driving the team as fast as it can go."

Ward agrees: "I am used to dealing with as many as six drivers in any given year.

The experience I have is with getting used to drivers and directing which direction they go in.

"One of the priorities is to remove the obstacles that get in the way of a driver performing. I feel like he [Murphy] was a little stagnant where he was; he is not like that now. Paul's enthusiasm level seems to be pretty high as well."

In 2002,PWR ran its K&J Falcon. A year later, it was two Betta Electricalbacked Team Brock Commodores.

Last year, the same combo was in the hues of PWR and Chandlers. This year,it is the black colours of Super

Cheap.

If nothing else, a little stability on the livery side of things will be a relief for those who watch V8 Supercar racing. Roworth,Panozzo and Ward are working hard to ensure than whatever their paint looks like, it is as close to the front of the field as possible - ghosts or no ghosts.

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35

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HILE Fernando Alonso has been the undoubted star of the season so far, his

former team-mate Jarno Trulli has run him pretty close, both on the track and in terms of the boost to his reputation. Indeed the Italian has probably made the bigger progress, in terms of from where he started.

What a difference six months make.s. When Renault booted him out in September last year, Jarno didn't appear to be in a great shape.

A brilliant start to the .season, including that memorable Monaco win, fizzled out in acrimony as he began to struggle to come to terms with the R24. Was he in some way shafted by Flavio Briatore, did he suffer a loss of confidence, or was it a combination of factors? There are different theories.

Two things ga\ e him some pomfort. He already had the soft jpilding of a Tovota job to go to, and then his replacement Jacques iViHenem e also found that the .■●'R'pnauit was not an easy car to drii e, f and failed to help Renault in its fight [V ,for second place.

-5 Jarno's two Toyota outings in Japan and Brazil began the rehabilitation process, but since then he's silenced the critics with his speed and, at least in the last two . races, his consistence So let's take a close look at how his season has enfolded. ,

Australia orno held the* luck

the driiw in

Australia, and took second place in e rain affected first qualifying. Fie held on to the position on Sunday morning.

In the race he defied expectations bv staving with pole man Giancarlo Fisichella through the first stint, leai ing the rest far behind, although Fisi probably had more in hand. But then he fell away dramatically after the first stop, ei entually dropping out of the points. Bv the end, he was going quickly again It emerged after the race that he'd suffered from a rear t\ i'e problem.

The only real evidence came from a Michelin man who'd looked at it in the stop, because bv the end ei idence of a strange wear pattern had disappeared, which reflected the fact that he'd regained speed.

There was a suggestion that this was the 'same old Jarno', struggling with a phantom problem that made the car not quite to his liking. Even Michelin sources sounded .sceptical, and at the next race Ralf Schumacher gleefully made a point of telling journalists that the tvre had been inspected and nothing had been found. But it was a \ ery real problem for Jarno.

"It was very strange," he recalls.

"The wear of the t\ re, at the end of the race, wasn't anv worse than any

othois. I3ut during the nice I hud u vibration. When I stopped the tyre wos completely cut all uround, blistered or deliimindted, something \ erv weird thuteven Michelin could not exploin. Then they .inuly.sed the tyre <it the end of the race ond snid there wus no problem. But probublv in weoring it out, the problem hns disuppeured. In foct nt the end of the race I w.is going quick ngain."

So was it hard to com ince people that there was really an issue?

"I don't know. I don't care about this. We knew that our race was probably not as good as our qualifying pace, but nevertheless we had a quick car at.some stages, and it was just a matter of making it better for the future."

Malaysia

h at the A Australian lot of people thought tf qualifying performance was a fluke, and FI KiK /iiy told us to take no notice of it, as this is going to he a dismal year for the boys from Cologne."

Jarno's Malaysian weekend got off to a quiet start, but he could see that there was some potential in the package.

"Friday u'asn'ta very good day for me. I had some electrical problems, so I had to stop. But when I was on the track I had a good feeling, and Ralf confirmed it with a very good

TRUE Many daubted Jarno Truili’s decision to leave a potentially race-winning seat at Renault for the uncertainty of Toyota. But the Italian has been the revelation of the 2DD5 season.

ADAM COOPER spoke to him 36

lap time. Then on Saturday morning things went better for me,and I was always topping the times."

He w'as second in first qualifving, and maintained the position on Sunday when some thought Tovota might run him light to gain pole position glory. Instead the team had its sights .set firmlv on what would work in the race.

"We tried to do our best strategy, and things worked out pretty well.

The car was good all weekend,and there was no point in wasting a good qualifving position. The car was competitive all through the race, because the balance was nice, and there were no major pi'oblems with the tyres. Obi iously the wear was high, but I could manage it."

Trulli knows better than most how good the Renault starts can be. The rules are stricter now,and Toyota has it.self improved, but he was still worried that Fisichella would get him.

"Yeah, that was the case. I had to fight, but I think the only person out there quicker than me was Fernando.

Fisichella wasn't a problem at all. I was just pulling awav from him, doing mv ra ce. At the end of the day I think I got a fantastic second position, which was well deserx ed."

So was he surprised that Fisi dropped back the way he did?

continued on page 48

continued from page 46

"I don't know. Surprised or not, I was just doing my race,I was just controlling it. 1 think 1 could have had a similar pace to Fernando,it was just a matter of wanting it or not.

There was no rush. 1 think it was too important, that podium for the team.

Everyone was panicking at the end, slow down,slow down!It was a nice race and a fantastic result. There were no particular problems,and 1 was slowing down quite a lot my midrace to save tyres and engine. That was it."

Bahrain fastest to Alonso in first Once again Jarno was second qualifying. Indeed the gap was small enough for some to once again expect Toyota to run light and deprive Renault of pole. That might have been tempting in PR terms, but in fact he stuck with a very competitive fuel load.

And even after being demoted to third by Michael Schumacher, he seemed pretty happy with his prospects for the race. In contrast Schumi, who knew that pole was his only hope,looked pretty miserable.

"1 was very heavy. 1 had some imdersteer,so 1 lost a bit more time compared to the Ferrari, which 1 believe was slightly lighter than me.

No one knows, no one will know,but looking at the car during the race,I felt like it was lighter. That's why after the qualifying I was anyway happy because I was on the third row instead of the third row, and third position meant that I was on the clean side."

Once again Jarno made a goodo

start, although not good enough to jump ahead of Michael. He nearly did it through the first corner complex, and indeed for a second or two it looked ^ though he might squeeze past Alonso as well, but he wasn't in the right place and had to settle into third.

"1 nearly did it, I nearly got into the lead. The biggest problem was that at Turn 2 we were nearly side by side. Michael went for it because I really believe he was lighter, I believe he wanted to get ahead of Fernando and he took a lot of risks. I really believe that it was the only chance for him to get ahead of everybody,and try and look good for the first part of the race. In the end with the Bridgestone tyres they were struggling a lot, so I don't think I would have had any problems with him.

So was Michael a little bit too aggressive at the start?

"The first comer was OK.At the second comer I wanted to lift off because I remember last year Sato and Ralf Schumacher hit each other because neither of them wanted to lift off and in the end they ruined their race. It was the first comer,it was the first lap,I had the full race to race. I knew I was competitive and didn't want to through my race away."

Although the TV coverage didn't really reflect it, Jarno stayed pretty well in touch with Alonso and Schumacher through the first stint, and he was close to Alonso after the first stops. But as soon as he tried to close the gap, the Spaniard showed that he had something in hand.

"At one stage when Fernando responded to me with very quick laps I said there's very little we can do. Again I was pulling away from Webber,I was pulling away from

First of all we are confirming we are making progress, with the team, with the car. And there is something good in this irr car.

U

-Jarno loves his Toyota TF105 and its designer, Mike Gascoyne, above

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FORMULA ONE everybody. I started to take care of the engine and the guys are very happy because now we have a very fresh engine [for Imola]. I really handled it very well towards the end, I was really dropping, dropping [revs], and I was still very quick.

"I was losing a second only with the engine performance, and we were still competitive. At the end of the day, it was a good result for us. When he wanted to be, Fernando was between 0.5-0.7s quicker than me.

There's very little I can do at the moment. And if we look at the

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qualifying, anyway it was half a second. In qualifying yesterday because he made a mistake I was only 0.15s slower, but again this morning he 0.5s quicker than me.In the end, that was my performance."

I Imola and beyond?

Even Jamo admits that he's been ?! surprised by the results so far: "I didn't expect them to be honest.

Let's say that in Australia we benefited from the conditions, but in Malaysia I think we benefited from good work at the factory, a new aero package and development. We had a good performing car on the track. We didn't expect to be so good, and it will be interesting to see if we can be as competitive in the future. At the moment we are happy."

While Toyota has enjoyed some good qualifying positions in the past, this time, it's been on a level playing field. Two races in a row he's been second fastest on Saturday, when (jlR-ika everyone carries minimal fuel and ' LF AIR pure speed is all that matters. It says a lot about both driver and car.

'rLiUlQI^ ILF AIR

"It's important for many reasons.

First of all we are confirming we are making progress, with the team, with the car. And there is something good in this car, the pace is good. It's

promising. I wouldn't live on these results, because the season is still very long, and our rivals are very strong. But it's nice to see Toyota making some progress.

"Let's say that in Australia we were lucky to start on the front row, but in the race we were very unlucky with one rear tyre, which didn't help my race. In Malaysia we were always topping the times, always in the top five or top six, then in qualifying with the same fuel for everybody, we were again on tlie first row. We definitely have made a step forward since last year."

The big problem Toyota has faced in the past few years in consistency one good race and then the next time, they're really struggling. Do the early results suggest that problem has been addressed?

"There are some circuits where we might not be very good,like Barcelona. It's my first year with tire team,so I don't brow enough about it. But we analysed the Australian race, and understood a lot out of it.

We went to Malaysia, we changed things, and already it was looking better. I think for us it's experience.

Improving things means understanding, first of all. And then progress can be made.

"I cannot say I'm confident, but the one thing you can say is that we wiU analyse things better race by race, and try not to make mistakes and try to be more consistent from race to race. But teams do tend to have one good race or one bad race.

"When you have a very quick car you don't notice it because the car is very quick almost everywhere.

When you've got a car wliich is not completely competitive but is getting better,some times it can be very quick,sometimes it can perform a bit

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were in similar conditions, very hot conditions. I wouldn't say they are similar tracks, but they are tracks which are definitely suitable for our car, our driving style our package.

Now we are heading for two races wlrich I think will be a bit tougher.

"We are bringing a new aero package, we are bringing new mechanical tilings, probably a step with the rear suspension. There are a lot of things coming up. We hope we can improve our performance.

Historically Imola has never been a good Grand Prix for Toyota, that's why I'm a little bit concerned."

One way or another, it will be an interesting weekend for Jarno. Like Juan Pablo Montoya, he is a new father and said this before the baby arrived; "Yes, we're racing again! My baby is expected for the Imola weekend.

I'm really fired up for that and really looking forward to a nice event. I hope I can be there. It's a new experience in life, so we'll see. It will be a tough season because it's 19 races, so I won't be home much. But I'm not really concerned about that, because the mum normally works it out most of the time, and he dad only has to be there when the boy becomes a bit older!"

Trulli Jr was born last week. His was named ... Enzo.

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less well. We've seen it with Renault in the past. Sometimes they were very strong, like Malaysia, and they went somewhere else and it wasn't so good."

Altlrough he's been quick at a variety of circuits thus far, Jarno knows it won't be easy.

"It's starting to be nice, I'm consistently in front. But I still have to keep my feet on the groimd, because these last two Grands Prix

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J

PBtl[0f MOTORSPORT NEWS: Winning the first round of any series sets a good piatform for the rest of the season.

FABIAN COULTHARD: It’s pretty good. We showed that we are strong. I would have liked to win all three races, but I’m confident we’ll have the same sort of speed throughout the year.

TdliketoputaVS Supepcar deal together, but it all hingdh on how I go for the rest of year and if I can prove tnyseir' - Current Carrera Cup Series leader Fabian Couthard

MN: Jim Richards said that he was looking forward to the young guys giving him a hard time. How do you think he feels now?

FC: I think Jim is pretty honest, and I’m the same as him. The more the merrier, you know. The more competition you have, the more recognition the category gets. I’m not too fazed who I drive against in the category. If someone is quicker than you, you aspire to be better than them.

MN: Everyone says that Jim is the benchmark, but do you think it’s fair to say that you have to be consistently faster than him to be looked at as a genuine driving talent?

FC: Yeah, that’s right. You can’t expect to win the odd races here or there. You have to prove your strength right across the year. You have to be capable of beating him, not with ease, but with distinction. If you can master that and finish all the races then you’ll be looking good.

WIN:'You’ve got your Porsche Supercup drive at Indianapolis coming soon. When is your test?

FC: It was supposed to be after Adelaide but that fell over so it might be one or two weeks before the event. p WIN: The model of Porsche you will drive is the car that will be in Australia next year. Have you done some research on it?

FC; Yeah. I know they’ve got no ABS, they have a sequential gearbox and ceramic brakes. You name it, it’s got it. Compared to the current cars, it’s more of a thoroughbred race car.

WIN: Where do you think they’ll be different?

FC: I don’t think you really know until you drive it. Raw speed wise, the Porsche has pretty good speed and balance as it is, so I can only imagine that they’ve improved the whole characteristics of the car. For a fact, Porsche have never developed a car that has been worse than its predecessor. If they’ve kept that up, I’m sure it will be a good car.

WIN: It’s only a one-off drive as 40

I be

Dirk Kly nsmith

part of your rookie of the year prize in Carrera Cup last year, but do you treat it as a one-off or do you look at it as, perhaps, a driver audition?

FC: I would never treat anything as a one-off. These awards don’t come around often so you’ve got to make the most of it.

Again, the class supports the Formula 1, and we had a pretty good showing at Albert Park, so if you’re name pricks up again overseas you never know what could happen.

WIN: Last year you contested the V8 Supercar endurance races with Tasman and you’ll do the same this year. You had a safe, consistent run in the car. What are your personal goals for this year’s races?

FC; I want to improve on what I did last year. It was pretty difficult being a single car team, and the car had to finish. I didn’t want to do anything silly. Jason (Richards) needed all the points and I was just there to do the job that I was told. We did a good job under the circumstances of limited testing.

This year will be different. I’ll know the tracks better. I’ll know the team better and hopefully settle in the car quicker.

I haven’t tested yet this year, though. Any laps that I get before the races will be a positive. The more I feel at home the better we’ll go.

Uirk Klynsrr

MVteefsf

Fabian Couthard’s rise to the top of Carrera Cup to GRANT ROWLEY about beating Jim, racing

i

f Learning the sedan trade: Fabian Coulthard drove the Tasman Motorsport Commodore last year with Jason Richards, above. But before be gets his second endurance attempt, he'll have to knock offJim Richards in the Wright Patton Shakespeare Carrera Cup, below.

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WIN: Alex Davison dominated Carrera Cup last year, but has motorsport news

CARRERA CUP

w

taken a while to come to terms with the Supercar. Do the Porsches teach you anti-V8 habits?

FC: Alex drove Porsches overseas for four years and has extensive experience, so surely it will take some time to iron out those habits. The Porsches are pretty stiff and the Supercars are soft. That in itself is a feeling that you have to get used to.

A lot of it is a confidence thing.

Knowing how hard to press the brake pedal and how not to lock up. It’s all common-sense stuff, but still, jumping between cars is difficult and its something you have to work at. Every opportunity you get to drive one, you’ve got to get as much knowledge out of it.

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1 motion

has been steady and impressive. The Kiwi spoke open-wheelers and his future in V8 Supercars

John Moms

a V8 Supercar deal together, but it all hinges on how I go for the rest of this year and if I can prove myself.

MN: Do you think there is a future for yourself in V8 Supercars?

FC: I’d love to think that is the case. A iot of it is if you’re in the right place at the right time and if people think your good enough.

To make a career in motor racing in this part of the world, you have to be in the V8 Supercars. Realistically, it’s the best place to be. The championship has been around for years, it’s continually growing, it’s not going to fall over, it’s got a solid structure and it’s close to my home.

MN: You had a season in British Formula Renualt back in ’03.

Any regrets about not being able to do more in openwheelers overseas?

FC: It’s always going to be a regret for me.

My childhood dream was to drive single-seaters and get as far up the ladder as possible, but our funding ran dry and that is what sent me home. We wouid have come away with a top six series finish. The team had just started to iron out problems we had at the start and it was coming together, but we just couldn’t afford to go on. It was unfortunate, I would have loved to try F3 the year after.

I was disadvantaged by my height. With extra height, you are disadvantaged a little with your weight and so on. When all the cars are pretty much the same, you are on the back foot straight away.

MN: Is open-wheel racing unfinished business for Fabian Coulthard?

FC: If something eventuates, I’d give it a go, but I’m in a great category at the moment and to be thinking about anything else would be taking my focus away from the job at hand.

MN: So ideally, this is your last year in Australian Carrera Cup? FC: I’d like to think so. If I had nothing else. It would be good to race in the new car. I’d like to put

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Tough business: Coulthard, above, at Donington Park in British Formula Renault in 2003.

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Frank He grew up with a world champion, scored the first-ever win in a Williams FI car, and attempted to qualify for a Grand Prix. Oh, and he was Australian. So why haven't you heard of him? MARK GLENDENNING goes in search of Brian McGuire

H

ANDS up if you know who scored the first victory in a Williams FI car.

Keep you hands up if you think that the answer is Clay Regazzoni, who earned Frank Williams the winner's trophy from the 1979 British GP. Right, to all of you guys, thanks for coming, and we have a lovely parting gift.

Sometimes, history can sneak up and bite you when you least expect it.

Every Formula One stat book in the world will tell you that it was the Swiss driver's stirring efforts in the FW07 that day in Sfiverstone that first put Frank Williams's cars on the map - but the guys who wrote those books weren't at round 10 of the Shellsport Group 8 Series at Thruxton tl-uee years earlier, when Brian McGuire put his Williams FW04 on pole, and then went out and beat the rest of the field senseless.

It was the first time that McGuire had won a race at that level, but it was also the first time that a Williams FI car had taken anybody to the top step of the podium - a fact that did not go unnoticed at the time. And in keeping with what seems to be a Williams tradition, McGuire was an Australian.

So who the hell was he?

Born in Melbourne in 1945, McGuire spent most of his younger years hanging out with another guy who would make his mark on Williams history.

"We virtually grew up together," recalled Alan Jones.

"His father was my old man's spare parts manager at Stan Jones Motors, the Holden dealership. We knocked aroimd as kids.

"We both went over to England at the same time, and tlien I came back for a year. Brian stayed on.

"I then went back to England, and Brian and I shared a house there for several years. We had the odd Formula Ford and used to pull it to pieces on the loungeroom floor and then rebuild it.

"The landlord would have shit 42

himself if he had come in and seen it at any stage..."

It was at the wheel of a Merlyn Formula Ford that McGuire scored his first ever race win at Lydden HUl. After two years in the car he made the step up to Formula 3 in 1971 as a founding member of a new team that he set up with Jones and Kiwi Allan McCully.

The first time I ever met Frank Wiiiiams was at n Brian McGuire's piace!

IV

-Peter Brack

"We wanted to have a team which captured the imagination, and we wanted to give it an Australian flavour," Jones said.

"We had a guy called Allan McCully, and he had a Lotus, and Brian and I had a couple of BT28s, which we had converted into 35s. We didn't know what to call the team, so I suppose - foolishly, in hindsight we called it AIRO, which stood for Australian International Racing Organisation. Which sounded rather grandiose, because it was right up there with Owen Racing Organisation! (laughs). We didn't have any budget as such, but we were always great believers in good presentation."

Virtually all of the time that McGuire spent away from his race car was dedicated to building up his campervan business, and it was this that essentially funded his racing.

"Brian and I were in business," Jones explained.

"When we first started, we used to buy and seU mini-vans and Dormobiles together. We were in business together for three or four years. 1 then sort of concentrated on my racing, and Brian concentrated more on the caravan side of things. He started up a business called Windmill Motor Caravans in Cluswick."

During the time that they worked

together, McGuire and Jones became the first port of call for virtually every Australian or New Zealander that washed up in Europe.

"We used to have all the Aussies and Kiwis come up and either stay with us, or have a party," Jones reflected.

"We'd have things like barbeques in the backyard before they were popular. Any sort of Aussie that was passing by seemed to find his way in to us. They didn't buy caravans, though -it was only the poor, unsuspecting ones that did that."

Among those who turned up on McGuire's doorstep was Peter Brock, who was preparing to have a crack at Le Mans in the BMW 3.5 CSL. "He became a bit of a centre for expats," said Brock.

"Actually, the first time I ever met Frank Wfiliams was at Brian McGuire's pjace. I went over there one weekend and took over a Bathurst 16mm film. We hired a projector and everything else, and had a night there with all these Aussies, and Frank Wfiliams was there watching! He was quite ■■bemused -1 think he was wondering what all these damn Aussies were doing, with their Touring Cars.

"He helped us out with the BMW he stored it, we bludged trailers off him, we spannered the car and prepped it in his shed ... he was great."

Poor health and thehad demands growing business earlierof his forced McGuire to take an 18 month sabbatical from motorsport. But the racing bug was stfil biting, so in 1974 he shelled out for a Trojan TlOl with an eye on competing in the Rothmans F5000 series.

"I started with him around Easter 1974," reflected Peter Bryan, a Kiwi who worked for McGuire in both the caravan business and as a race mechanic.

"I went along as a helping hand, and that was when he had the Trojan TlOl. And then we went to a test day at

Full flight: McGuire at the wheel of the Williams FW04 (later renamed the McGuire BM1) at Brands Hatch in 1976, above. This shot was one of McGuire's particular favourites.

The things you find in the paper: The ad that led McGuire to buy up Frank Williams's stock of FW04, parts and transporter, right. A snap at £14,000 the lot...

Sfiverstone and one of his partners had a drive of it and bent it quite badly.

"So then I went up to the factory and built a brand-new Lola 332 HU40. He ran that for that one season, and then Bob Evans's championship-winning HU36 became available, so he bought that.

"He ran the HU36 that next year, and then he crashed it quite heavily at Mallory Park. We got a second hand monocoque for it, but we never finished it and it was sold to Alfie Constanzo, who took it out to Australia."

With a hankering to continue racing but an empty garage, it was here that McGuire did what any continued on page 44

motorsport news

RETROSPECTIVE

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FRANK WILLIAMS RAGING OFFER

All work and no play ...

McGuire was as passionate about having a good time as he was about his business and his racing. He's pictured here during a lazy day with girlfriend Marion Joyce and another friend, below.

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Formula One Grand Prix Car wilh gearbox £6,500 Chassis number FW 04 No. 1 Avaiiabte immediately Also 1973 Ford 3 car transporter.

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43

"The Thruxton race was the first

continued from page 43 rational person would do - he bought a Formula One car.

"The Williams came straight from the factory," said Bryan.

"We had the Frank Williams Racing transporter - he bought the transporter as well. When Brian did something, he really did it.

"I think it was his real big chance to have a go, but he never really had the money. He blew an engine once and that was 3000 or 4000 pounds, which in those days was a lot of money. So we basically had one complete car, and one spare chassis that was just a bare monocoque."

With no money and no testing, McGuire and the FW04 took some time to get used to each other. Yet despite some indifferent results and a few DNFs("he was very hard on clutches," recalled Bryan), he managed to land sponsorship from job placement company Kelly Girl.

The car was repainted in the Kelly Girl corporate colours of bright green, and McGuire arrived at Thruxton determined to give his supporter some return on their investment.

Start your engines: McGuire (#2t) on the front row of

meeting with the Kelly Girl sponsorship," Bryan explained.

"The team put in a lot of effort into getting the car ready, and we had a V^ry successful test day prior to the meeting. Brian's determination showed up here, as he put in all his effort into proving his ability in front of the new sponsors."

the Oulton Park grid alongside David Purley (#7), right.

The final run: McGuire's car at Brands Hatch on the weekend of his accident, below right. Note the Windmill Motor Caravans signage -

\\

i have no recollection of the celebration so it must have been a good one!"

McGuire's company.

He didn't let them down,McGuire did not have Jones' ability to focus 100 percent on his racing 100 percent of the time, but on this day, he was in the zone. He qualified on pole 0.4s clear of David Purley's F5000 Chevron-Ford B30,led away from the start, and

- McGuire’s mechanic Peter Bryan (pictured below right)on the Thruxton win in the FW04

never appeared remotely threatened.

Indeed, the one vague glimmer of opposition vanished on lap 11, when Purley's car broke its driveshaft.

McGuire finished 40s clear of Damien K.

McGee's second-placed Penske.

"No bull, it really was a ninetenths drive," he told Aiitosport later.

"After he won that race, he was

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taken round the track in a victory lap _ in an open car and 1 drove the Williams I

behind them," continued Bryan.

"There weren't very many people there that were not aware that this was the first time a Williams had won a race. 1 have no recollections of the celebration afterwards, so it must have been a good one!

"Brian was obviously determined to win, as he had arranged for someone to video the race. I remember seeing the video - but where it is now,I have no idea."

1th a win under his belt and a FI car in the garage, the next step was obvious - have a crack at a Grand Prix. Tlie 1977 British GP was on the horizon, but first, tire Williams underwent some minor

dFgaim^

modifications to its bodywork during the off-season and was re-christened the McGuire BMl. Tire team endured a number of niggling problems early in the 1977 Shellsport season, with only a fifth at Oulton Park to show for their efforts.

Nevertheless, they rolled up at Silverstone for the Grand Prix, but the car's vintage (remember, the FW04 wasn't particularly good even when it was new), the team's lack of Lucky colours: A snap of a team during testing at Thruxton prior to the breakthrough win. The green livery was a nod to new sponsor

Wright Patton Shakespeare Aussie Racing Car Series Motorsport that represents Excitement, Performance and Success DRIVER OPPORTUNITIES: cars are fast and exciting andThe theAussie variousRacing levels car C^ago^^isjhe fastest other form of racing at this top level. Participation at the big opportunities for advancement in Motorsport for a cost that is more reasonable than any ^ of all races makes this category very attractive and

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TALKING to those that knew McGuire,there are two themes that keep coming up - generosity, and good times.

"We were testing at Brands Hatch," recalled Peter Bryan.

"Brian came into the pits and said he was having problems changing gears. After inspection I said I could find nothing wrong with it. Brian promptly said, 'well, you go for a drive then'.

"On a damp track, I drove the Williams for 12 or 13 laps around Brands Hatch although pretty cautiously and carefully! I'll never forget that

experience.

"He had this trade-in, this damn ski boat," remembered Peter Brock.

"It was a pretty average thing by trade-in standards, but in England it was quite unusual. ,● So we went up to this gravel pit lake, and it wasn't a hot day by any stretch of the imagination. But we said, 'well, we're Aussies - we're going skiing!' A whole lotof us"; "We towed'it .around, we went skiing, we probably htada ' few lagers .... it was a lo.|;bf . . ■ ■ fun." _ - MARK GLENDENNING

girlfriend Marion (Joyce) and said, 'what's the story?' and tliey just said, 'oh, he's been killed'. They said nothing to the family. It came out on the radio before his parents were told. It was really badly handled. I suppose the media just grabbed it.

"I can remember, I just grabbed his girlfriend and grabbed his car, and just said to the other guys 'just pack it up', and I took it all home and went to see his parents.

"He was a great guy. He was a very good businessman, enjoyed life.

He really had a lot of fun. But he never had the money ... he was trying to run the business and do other things, and he just never had the time to progress like Alan Jones Jones was determined that he was

going to get to the top, and he did."

"It was very sad," echoed Brock.

"He was a fun-loving guy, and a lot of laughs. He was a really fuimy guy."

Obituaries in magazines of the day highlighted McGuire's great personal commitment and love of motorsport - this, remember, was a guy who had built a successful business largely so that he could fimd his racing habit.

One journalist recalled pointing out how differently Jones's career had worked out, and asking McGuire where he had.gone wrong.

"Where did I go wrong?" he bristled. "I'll tell you where I went wrong. I never had the breaks that he had, that's where I went wrong. So I had to get them another way. I had to work for them."

Peter ;ind Jill BryM

budget and testing, and lethargic engines meant that McGuire missed the cut in qualifying.

"Brian's chances to qualify were pretty slim," Bryan admitted. "He knew that only too well, but he would have enjoyed the challenge."

A DNF at the Shellsport round at Donington followed a couple of weeks later, and the team turned its attention towards the next outing at Brands Hatch on August 29. McGuire was driving in the morning warm-up session when the team noticed that something had happened out on the circuit.

"We became aware that something had gone wrong when all the other cars started coming back into the pits and the emergency vehicles started exiting the pits," said Bryan.

approaching the tight left-hander known as Surtees when the fulcrum pin in the brake pedal failed. The car was pitched off the track at full noise and was flung, upside-down, into a marshall's post. McGuire, along with a fire marshall, was killed instantly.

He was 32 years old, and left behind a wife, Anne-Siri, from whom he was separated and who lived in Norw'ay with their son.

"It was so sad," Bryan recalled. "It was badly handled too. I knew there was something wrong, and I went up to the control tower with his

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20 April 2005

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"There was no sign of our driver and car. It soon became pretty obvious that there had been a big accident."

The Williams had been

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45

F

ORMULA 3 is something of an anomoly in the world of international motor racing.

For years, Britain's racing factories have dominated the 'customer' classes of the sport, not to mention that anything other than an English base for a Formula One team is scoffed at by some the deerstalker-wearing members of the press corps.

Remember the fuss they made when Toyota announced it was building its GP base in - gasp! Germany?

For generations, it seemed that the Poms dominated everything, from Formula Ford up. Formula 3 used to be all about the rivaly between Reynard and Ralt but, just over a decade ago, things changed.

On the continent, there were stirrings at the Dallara headquarters in Varano de Melegari, Italy. The factory had already conquered the Italian series, then the French, then the German. Just like it did in the Battle of Britain, England held out but, 12 years ago, all that changed, seemingly forever.

It was April 1993. The two British marques still dominated the grid numerically but, at Thruxton, Warren Hughes planted his Dallara-Fiat/ Novamotor on pole for the new (and underfunded) Arnold Racing Team. He didn't win the race; in fact, he didn't even finish the season. But the writing was on the wall - in a heartbeat, every British car in the field had p become obsolete.

By July, every driver In the Championship Class had a Dallara. And since that day, the steamroller hasn't looked like being threatened. Despite the odd win in Japan for Dome, Dallara ruled F3, taking more than 90 percent of a lucrative world market.

But last season, there was a sign of a fightback. After what had resembled the odd token effort, notably by Ralt three years ago (see breakout), there was a genuine sign of a fightback.

Danny Watts took the Lola-Dome chassis to a single victory, at Castle Combe last season, making history In the process.

It was the first win for a car other than a Dallara for more than a decade. But was it a real threat or a one-off win in a car that just happened to suit one particular circuit?

Lola's entry into the of Dallaradominated market International Formula 3 was akin 4B

to England's cricket teann stepping out on to the pitch: its arse was expected to be given a good whupf^g each time.

Stood to reason, didn't it?

Since 1993, Dallara has dominated F3, particularly Britain, so why should a newcomer expect to take on the Italian manufacturer and win?

F3 is as competitive as it gets, with tenths of seconds covering 10s of cars on a grid. It is a tough nut to crack, especially when you are up against a constructor with FI experience. But Lola came, struggled and is now a proven winner.

When Lola was taken over by Martin Birrane, F3 was targeted instantly as a market to exploit Lola's ability to build winning cars. With Champ Car, Formula Nippon and A1 GP all single chassis categories, this is the last place open to Lola to prove that it can beat the best.

And you would have noticed that last year. Watts won his race in a 'Lola-Dome'. Now it's just 'Lola'. That partnership began in 2002 with the two companies working together to crack the F3 market, but by the end of 2004, each side had taken wins and the partnership came to an end, each company keen to build its own cars.

"That was always our strategy," says Lola's Sam Smith. "The partnership allowed us to split costs, share data and break into the F3 market. Cnee we had done that we both wanted to build our own cars and that is happening: the weekend we won at Donington, Dome won in Japan."

Successfully, too, with Danilo Dirani winning both races at Donington to kick off the British season in his Mugen:Hondapowered car. Formula 3, bear in mind, has never really been a happy hunting ground for Lola, so this project isn't just about selling cars, it is about finally conquering one of the few markets where success has eluded Lola.

Make no mistake, Lola has to work hard. A major problem to any marque taking on Dallara has been the lack of data from so few cars, so it is important that continued on page 38 Not a Dallara in sight: Danilo Dirani takes his Lola B05/30 to two wins at the opening round of the British F3 championship at Donington earlier this month.

The Bui The Poms can't play cpicketbut there are somethings they are good at, like Royal Weddings and building racing cars.

DAViD ADDiSON went behind the scenes at Loia to iook at the car that might end Daiiara's decadeiong stranglehoid on Formuia 3

FORMULA 3

dog Bites Back w

continued from page 36

1 I

there are plenty of the Lola chassis on the grid. Ask if they come at a bargain-basement price to secure deals, and you are politely told that commercial details with customers are "confidential". Flowever, the reality is that Lola wants customers. Lots of them. The car costs the same as the Dallara, although spares are priced a little higher than their Italian equivalents due to the lack of cars around.

And bear In mind that the Lola team, under the guidance of Adam Airey, has started from ground zero on this car - there isn't much carryover from the Lola-Dome project.

"We had to change the monocoque to incorporate the HANS device and extractable seat," explains Airey, "and so that gave us the chance to address some issues on the old car, such as getting heat into the rear tyres. The car has the same track as the old one but a completely new aero package, including new front wing assembly, new sidepods and underbody."

And the development doesn't end there: "The rear wing is a spec profile so that has been carried over and we have a rear impact structure, which is also part of the new regulations these also include an increase in the energy requirement for the frontal crash structure. The new regs have also allowed for an increase in the helmet clearance from the roll hoop. It is now 70mm rather than 50mm so effectively all the roll hoops are slightly higher this season.

"The new car looks different from the outside, with an evolved nose shape. Under the skin there have also been changes, as we now have a multiple choice for the shockers.

We can now run conventional shockers on the side of the chassis, monoshock and also a third option."

And it is in the aerodynamics that the Lola scores. The British company has its own windtunnel and has created a car better in high speed corners than the Dallara. Indeed, some of the lessons learned from Lola's Champ Car success have been incorporated into the F3 car.

Much of the winter testing time was given over to evaluating the PankI six-speed sequential gearbox which, ultimately, got the thumbs up and is now fitted in the car and 48

it's here that Lola's car differs from the Dallara - the Italians go fora Hewlan^j box, which is heavier. The PankI is a derivative of a box used in Sportscar racing.

So far the cars are running a Mugen-Honda powerplant, but it can accommodate any F3 engine, although airboxes can vary in construction. This means that it isn't quite as easy as it sounds to drop another make of engine in the back, but technically it is possible. Lola isn't going to build a car that turns away trade ...

And the F3 market is a big one.

Britain and Europe have the top two championships (the Euroseries piggy-backing DTM for crowds and TV), but there are key markets in Spain and Japan, too, plus South America, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia, as well as the blue-riband races at Macau and Zandvoort. That adds up to a lot of potential sales, around 288, with Lola's short term strategy being to crack the British and European championships.

Lola can now point to two teams running the cars in the UK, last season's winner Promatecme joined by PI Motorsport. In fact, PI had a stab at running the Lola-Dome back in 2003 but struggled and went back to Dallara.

Now, though, it has switched camps to return to the British manufacturer, and that is a great boost for Airey and his team in Fluntingdon near Cambridge. And it is rumoured that PI may have another car on the grid at Croft in May, further enhancing the company's reputation.

Lola's sales force is talking to teams all the time, keen to tempt them away from Dallara. The company is open about its aims: to sell as many cars as possible.

Whether Lola can match the sudden take-over of the category like Dallara did is doubtful, but it is unhealthy as well. The category in Britain is far more promotable on the back of the British underdog constructor taking on the might of the Italian army-and winning.

Championship bosses are keen to see inter-marque rivalry, not a 'one-make race by default'which is what we have had until now.

It's probably a bit early to say that the face of F3 has changed, but it is certainly beginning to.

After 11 years of domination by Dallara, F3 is looking different.

And Britain has found something that it can win at.

Now, about the Ashes Tour ... motorsport news

What about Ralt?

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I Calling All Engineers: You need a good eye to pick the differences between the latest F3

JUST as Dallara has dominated Formula 3 recently, in the 1980s and 90s,the car to have was a Ralt.

Any number of drivers made their name in the British cars, with a number of championships going the way of Ron Tauranac's company. One of the great showdowns in the history of the sport came in 1990 when British champion Mika Hakkinen took on German up-and-comer Michael Schumacher.

The Finn's Ralt looked to have the measure of Schuhni's Reynard at Macau, taking the first race and looking good for the overall victory until the German forced him into a wall in Race 2. This sounds familar, somehow ...

Schumacher took the win and went on to dominate at the next race at Mt Fuji, Hakkinen forced to run a hastily-prepared backup car.

Tauranac sold the company to March and the Ralt marque disappeared from Formula 3

until 2002, when Matt Gilmore appeared in a Mugen-powered Ralt F302 at the season opener at Donington. The beautifully-built car lacked the balance of the Dallaras and proved difficult to set up, ending the season with no major results.

The following season. Diamond Racing took / on the program, with Aussie Will Power in the 3; driver's seat. But the Queenslander left after a .1 few.rounds, admitting that he was "probably trying too hard" to overcome the deficiencies of the car after two crashes at Knockhili. .

Nelson Piquet Jr drove the car in testing j . later in the year before his Piquet Sports team | realised that it would be better served with a Dallara, leaving the Ralt sitting in rhothballs.

At the end of last season, Ralt enthusiast Bill Hall bought Piquet's F302/3 for his son Charles to race in Class B but, despite testing the car at the end of the year, it failed to appear at the opening round at Donington two weeks ago.

cars from Lola, top, and Dallara, above. The Dallara has cut-outs on its front wing endplates while the Lola has more bulge in its sidepods.

These two cars are about as similar as we could find; both black cars have Mugen-Honda engines and even the helmets ofSteven Kane, top, and Bruno Senna are similar!

Well done, laddy boy: After taking pole position at Donington, Dirani gets some love from veteran PI Racing boss Roly Vincini, left.

V

PI 3

How times change: At top, Mika Hakkinen's Ralt, right, slugs it out with Michael Schumacher's Reynard at Macau in 1990. Above, current BMW star Andy Priaulx shakes down March's Ralt F302 at Pembrey in 2002.

20 Horn 2005

49

Nev

It started in sunshine and ended in darkness. Murph won and chalked up a rare One-day win (weii,two then)for the Kiwis.

CHRIS LAMBDEN was there

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LL is well in The Land of the Long White Cloud. Their Prime Minister may have plane problems,the cricket team is crap, and even the rugby team's in a 'rebuilding'phase. But in motorsport, all is well. Murph is back on top.

Even he isn't quite sure how it all works out so well at Pukekohe. It just does. His current car is in fact a rebuild (from the back half forwards) of the Kmart car he drove at the race last year, now in the hands of the team that won the race last year. It just all added up.

Murph's weekend was almost faultless. The two little mistakes he made didn't cost anything and he won three out of three.

It started in brilliant sunshine and when it ended,in almost complete darkness, nobody had left. They love Murph over there. It couldn't have been a better weekend.

Russell Ingall was the best of the rest throughout,second in all three races -and getting closer on each

occasion. He led the second for a while after a demon start, but Murph had the pace when it mattered.

Marcos Ambrose ended up third, and was almost surprised to do it. A couple of incidents and a bit of a struggle with the car from half-way through the second race, he said.

Mark Skaife was in the frame too, but also had a busy weekend, including an engine change and a huge end-of-straight lock-up. But the former champ is getting there.

The rest was pure Pukekohe: a couple of big shunts, a massively parochial crowd, a terrific support show. It'Ll be a shame if it was, indeed, the Final Rumble.

Race 1(36 laps) The opening sprint wasclashes decided, unfortunately, by two both involving Marcos Ambrose which presented Murph with a clear run. The Super Cheap car controlled the pace at the front from there on. able to keep a consistent gap back to

Ingall and Skaife while looking after its tyres.

Murph had pace in reserve. He had actually dealt with Ambrose before the fracas started, so there's no reason to think he still wouldn't have won. It might just not have been quite so easily.

The switch to the higher 3.25 diff increased the potential for a dud start, but most got away cleanly enough, the front row side-by-side around the sweeper, Ambrose poking the nose of the Pirtek car inside Lowndes and ... it ended in tears. The second contact between the two cars could easily have been bad news for Marcos, but he's having one of those amazing periods when everything turns to gold. It was Craig who paid the price and he wasn't too happy.

"There was plenty of room for him, but he had to be there ..." he said. Ambrose apparently went continued on page 54

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Smackdown! The only thing that could stop Greg Murphy's winning ways in Auckland was the Race 3 incident that prompted the red flag. The cars of Paul Dumbrell, above left, and Craig Baird were almost destroyed but after the restart, Murph's Super Cheap Commodore emerged victorious from the darkness, right.

50

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IGNS that things are gelling well at Triple 8 were confirmed by Craig Lowndes, who grabbed his first pole since Canberra 2002, ^ edging out the man of the moment, Marcos Ambrose,to !: set up an all-Ford front row in perfect, cloudless conditions.

There really were hundredths in it, a couple of tenths over the front n two rows after the Shootout, ; which followed a qualifying session that saw the top six cars separated by the same miniscule ‘ amount. Lowndes’ Triple 8 car . was on or near the pace from the moment it rolled out of the truck and half way through qualifying had put in a lap which was second-fastest at the time, and certain to stay in the all-important ’ top 10 for the Shootout.

Most disappointed when the ; Shootout was over was Murph. ' The Super Cheap Commodore was on target for pole (and " national delirium) until he put the n outside wheels on the grass across the climb at the final i; corner.

“Just a bit optimistic on the throttle," he rued. He’d been a tenth up on Craig at the second split “and that last sector was pretty good until then ..."

It cost plenty. Outside row two and it was only a hundredth away from being row three, i Qualifying had been so close that it hardly mattered - three and a half tenths covered the top ten. : So short is Pukekohe that the best times were coming on the ■ second, or even third, lap on fresh : rubber. The Shootout, then, was going to be all about getting some temperature in the rubber and

minimising the losses.

Lowndes,fith in qualifying did it best, only a tenth slower than qualifying, and none of the four foliowing runners could match it.

Murph could have. Ingall was half a second off his Q-time (“i lost a tenth into the hairpin, then a couple more into the final esses”), Ambrose a quarter of a second, Richo four-tenths. It was a desen/ed pole.

Garth Tander did a similarly good job, making a few changes to the HSV Dealer car between Qualifying and the Shootout, only ‘lost’ a tenth and was fifth. Only thing was, the crew grabbed the car from Parc Ferme a bit early to do the work and Garth had to go all the way to the back ... grid 32.

Officially, “working on car without permission from the Category Technical Director after qualifying (D11.4.10).” That’s tough. But them’s the rules.

Paul Dumbrell (despite a big slide in the run-up to the start-line) and Jason Richards pretty much maintained station in the Shootout, while Mark Skaife was a bit mystified after dropping a couple of spots, to eighth: “The first two sectors were pretty good, but it just didn’t come out of the hairpin well enough,” he reported.

The big mover, at least in comparison with Friday practice, was Jason Bright. 24th in practice was, amazingly,just seven-tenths from number one spot- indeed the view appeared to be that it was the tightest session in history - but 24th isn’t where FPR wants, or ought, to be. motorsport news

118 SUPERCARS

Getting it right

Close? ybu’d better believe it A revamped, smooth, Pukekohe produced a blistering qualifying session where huindredths mattered massively- and Craig Lowndes ended up on pole. CHRIS LAMBDEN watched ‘The car was very nervous in the high-speed stuff,” Jason said.

“We weren’t using particularly good rubber either, and the power-steering had a problem, but the changes we made overnight fixed the nervousness and allowed us to push through the quick stuff.”

Indeed, Saturday had brought a much better car and, despite being in the ‘Slowest 50 percent’ group, out first, the FPR car worked its way into the top 10, ninth in the end.

The Shootout promised a further gain but Brighty locked the fronts big-time into the hairpin.

“I didn’t think it was massively too deep - and indeed, we stopped the car in time - but it cost us a tyre.” And several tenths. And a grid spot or two.

The top 10 was, pretty much, what you’d expect the top 10 to be - with a couple of exceptions, Paui Radisich had been ecstatic when the Team Kiwi Commodore finished practice in 20 April 2005

third, but they clearly went the wrong way for the all-important Qsession, dropping to 15th. Things would get better when the racing began.

Todd Kelly struggled for 21st, but on the up-side, Jamie Whincup outlined the Tasman team’s progress by slotting into 14th, just over a tenth off team mate Jason Richards.

Worst off were Greg Ritter and Matty White. Both missed directions to weigh in during and at the end of the session and were excluded. Back of grid, boys. And keep your eyes open in future!

Friday’s single had gained a practice massive session tick from the drivers (see breakout).

Teams were able to complete some proper, meaningful work and most were satisfied that they had a reasonable car by the end of it.

For the record, the order at the end of the Friday session read

Ambrose, Richo, Radisich, Skaife, Tander, Lowndes, Whincup, Dumbrell, Murphy and Morris. But really, there were just hundredths in it, three-tenths over the top ten. And with some running fresher used rubber than others - a handful trying 'greens’ - the real game was on Saturday.

Even so, 10 Holdens in the top 12 did raise a few eyebrows.

Early days. Particularly happy with the long session was Tander, needing to set-up from scratch his HSV Dealer team Commodore, which was new from the screen forward after its big Adelaide hit.

“It was a bit evil first-up, but with the time to change a few things it was, by the end of the session, a good car,” he enthused.

Steve Ellery was in the same boat, after his big Adeiaide shunt, and worked the second Triple 8 Falcon into the low 56s before slotting a 55.8s for 12th in qualifying. A good effort - better was to come.

AVESCO/TEGA have been getting a few things right lately and there was, by and large, a very happy bunch of racers at the end of the first full-on two-hour practice session, on Friday.

To a man,the front-runners were thrilled with their afternoon's work: "Finally," entliused Marcos Ambrose,"finally, we've got a format where we can make changes without timhpressure."

Steven Richards too: "It's fantastic.

We've got the time to experiment, to try things logically, and we got through a really good workload."

Indeed, the Team Perkins number one got through three front spring changes, two rear shock changes, a front shock change and ride height adjustment- with the time to assess it all properly.

At the end of tire session, 21 drivers had gone faster than last year's fastest practice lap (set by Jason Bright) and there were a number of good reasons for it.

Firstly, crucial areas of the track the Turn 2/3 esses and the rim through the fast esses later in the lap - had been resurfaced,in particular taking the huge bump out of the transition from left to right at those fast esses. The contentious tyre bundles,on the apex of the Turn 2/3 esses were also gone. As well, there'd been a diff ratio change. After two (or three) years of complaints about hitting the rev-limiter on the straight, a change,from 3.5 to 3.25. Good work.

Apart from fixing the rev-limiter problem on the straight(and allowing the fast boys to set new terminal speed marks for the circuit),it also, coincidentally, helped the cars through the key corners: "We used to short-shift to fifth through those last esses," reported Richo."Now you're in fourth all the way through, right out to the exit, where it naturally slots into fifth.

Same at the first esses. Some people used to come out of there in third, but it's now spot-on in second."

Win-win-win situation, then?

Pretty much.

-CHRIS LAMBDEN S3

continued from page 50 down to apologise later, but the conversation was a bit stilted.

That, and a great start by Murph, saw the Commodore hone in on the Falcon -some three-tenths quicker,it seemed - until the end of lap six, when the first runners dived in for their tyre stop.

Nobody was taking the four-tyre option, most throwing a pair of leftside tyres on,although SBR opted for a pair of rears. Ingall was in at the end of lap seven. Murph was coming in next time aroimd, but found himself looming in rapidly on Ambrose at the hairpin, slipping by under brakes before peeling in for his stop.

That left Richo on the Falcon's tad and,next time around into the hairpin, he was up the inside too.

Across came the Falcon and the two clanged together. Around the apex, they clanged again. Richo's front-left was crumpled, Marcos was pretty okay, if delayed a few seconds.

Richo, who lost three laps making

Smokey and the Bandit, the Sequel; The Race 2 battle between Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall brought back some memories and ended when Skaife burned tbe rubber at tbe Hairpin, above, and spun, right. He pitted for new lefts straight away and rode a bad flatspot for the rest of the race.

'●> «●V

ftOSCH

V

Comeback Kings: Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards mounted great charges, above, while Garth Tander (and the HSVD Team) had a horror weekend.

MOTORSPORT '86R

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QUEENSLAND Queensland Raceway Champion’s Way Willowbank QLD 4306 Tel 07 5461 9100

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Kostera’s Tyre Service 7 Mead St Kalamunda WA 6076 Tel 08 9293 3500

TASMANIA Fulton Enterprises 41 McKenzie St Mowbray TAS 7248 Tel 03 6326 9199

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Slix Motorsport 147 Sherriffs Road Reynella SA 5161 Tel 08 8387 8233

VICTORIA Stuckey Tyre Service 828 Sydney Road Brunswick ViC 3056 Tel 03 9386 5331

NSW & ACT Gary’s Motorsport Tyres Unit 3,13 Penny Pi Arndeii Park NSW 2148 Tel 02 9676 8655 motorsport news

p

IfS SUPERCARS repairs, wasn't happy: "He locked the rears going in and so I filled the gap on the inside," he explained."He just won't accept the consequences, once he's made a mistake For his part, Marcos just grinned and went with the generic "I guess they both wanted to win the race."

The IPO (Investigating and Prosecuting Officer, as Peter Wollerman is known)and DSO (Driving Standards Observer Colin Bond)looked at both incidents (at some length), but took no action.

Anyway,the race was now Murph's. Ingall was secure in second (of those who had stopped), while Skaife had made good progress for third, having slipped by Jason Richards - impressing in the Tasman car again, Ellery (soUd progress also) and Todd KeUy. Bright, as he often does, had opted to stay out for a while and so had Lowndes,battling through from dead last. Lowndes held out until lap 19, Bright eventually dived in on lap 22.

Up front, little had changed. EUery, rocketing along in fifth, had slipped past Richards (of the Team Tasman type), who was now under pressure from Ambrose on the comeback.

Marcos got through,then Jason spoiled his excellent run by rotating the Commodore back to the midfield.

While the race at the front

remained settled to the end,late attention was grabbed by a contest for sixth and seventh involving a resurgent Radisich and Bright and a frantic dice involving Weel, Bowe,-> Seton,Johnson and Lowndes. There was lots going on and someone (or some)thing had to give. In the end, after a titanic struggle, it was Glenn, who ended up briefly facing the wrong way,having been unsighted when some oil went down at Turn 2.

So ... all rather easy for Murph would Srmday be the same?

Some work to be done;Jason Bargwanna rode the armco in Race 3, above, while Cam McConville also carried some battle damage, below.

continued on page 55

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Battle scars: Jones Sr made it out for Race 3 in the battered BOC Falcon.

And for dessert upside down cake

WHEN Brad Jones pulled inside his nephew Andrew (in Garry Rogers'#34 Repco/Valvoline Commodore)exiting the hairpin and nosed ahead as they accelerated towards the fast esses, he can't have given much of a thought to any possible aggro.

Half an hour later, still visibly shocked by the turn of events, he had still to speak to his brother's son about the punt that sent the BOC Falcon off onto the grass and into the tyre barriers, before bouncing upwards and onto its side. __ "I guess I'll see him tonight," Brad grumbled, "at dinner...

Brad was sure he'd left plenty, of room, but next thing he knew he got thumped.

Andrew didn't want to say much either.

Dinner at the Joneses on Sunday night must have been good, though.

-CHRIS LAMBDEN 20 April 2005

Sparco

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j 55

Red Alert!

This photo sequence, CBugIft by SZshooter Geoff Riddei:, shows whot happened in Raa i _Above, Paul Dumbrell hs already had contact with Cra^ Baird-and has hit inside wall ^ard, with both the front and rear of the Castro! Commodore.

The two cars of Dumbrell and Baird are uiasa^ ffie ftadc behind the Tasmah Commodore of Jamie Whincup, above.

In the third pic, the cars are heading to oppaaiie sides the t^di, and buttum, Baird^s destroyed car heads into the armco on the (Oiside oflam I. 5G

continued from page 55

Race 2(50 laps) Murph again.

Once he'd start by recovered from a rocket Russell Ingall that saw him lead for four laps, Murph went inside at the hairpin and, again, was never really under threat.

Ambrose actually came out of the pit stop sequence better than his team-mate and pushed Murph along for a while until he flat-spotted a tyre - which he nursed to the end,albeit letting Ingall back past for second.

Russell came on strong-ish late in the race and, aided by a Murph missed gear going into the Turn 2/3 esses (and a bit of a 'moment'), wasn't that far away at the end.

Nevertheless, you had the feeling that Murph was ... comfortable.

Behind this trio, Skaife had an interesting race. Again,the HRT car looked quick and early on it was he who was all over Ingall. On lap 11, with the pit window open,he hiurled the car down the inside at the hairpin, locked both fronts comprehensively, but still managed to pull the car up - albeit on the very edge of the tarmac.

He pitted immediately, with the team choosing to stick to its two outside tyre replacement strategy.

That left a badly flat-spotted Dimlop on the front-right, which he pressed on with,locking it a couple more times along the way.

"My luck must definitely be looking up," he reported."Last year it would have blown,for sure!"

As it was,he was able to hang in there for fourth, an advancing Lowndes unable to get close enough in the late stages.

Lowndes had pushed on through from his grid 14 start, to relieve Radisich of fifth eight laps from the end. Bright was part of this scenario, looking quick and comfortable on Skaife's tail with 10 to go until a spin at the T2/3 complex dropped him to 14th with a couple of flat spots. He finished 11th, some few seconds adrift of John Bowe, who at least had a better day than his team owner (see breakout).

The big mover in this race was Richo. Starting 28th after the Race 1 fracas, he stayed out until the Jones crash brought out the Safety Car, benefited from a quick decision to stop, emerged in 13th and fought through to eighth at the finish. We have seen already that drivers are capable of dragging a result from potential disaster but this effort stood out at particularly good work.

So, there was one race to go.

"Time to take a punt," said Russell.

"Murph's only a tenth quicker. Let's change a few things and see what we can do..."

Little did we know what lay ahead.

molorsport news

l!

I

VB SUPERCARS N/BSCS RDUJND 2 PUKEKOHE NZ 1

I

Pas [ driver j RaceTin-<e| Fastest 1 2^ 3

Murplw Ingall ' Skaife

4 5 6

Blefy Ambrose Radisich

7 9

Blight T, Kelly Mcrris

10 11 12 13

Whincup Weel' Bcwe lonnson

34:5:^.7573 34:566.8774

34:5aa,43Q7 _56.2i49_’T8' 35:0:S.i3Q1 J 5’OS24 12' '35:OtS.t337~ "56.fl16_ U'_ 35:G>9.I154 "56.5564'7 '35:0^.5727 56.5‘300 25 35:13,6068 56,3596 35:2-1.5482 _564451 _ 26' 35:2’:1.5669"'56.4'909 13 35:2'5.6003 56.*5317 19 ~35:25>,9536 ''56.6568'"15 35;3M.3W7 56.6673 12 35:311.8602 56.'3300 23' 35:33.2152 56.8231 19 35;3c5.8926 56.7082 5 '"35:345.9979 56.46'32 18 '"3S:3.:8.1690 "'56.3623" 13 '35:43.2426 56.8908 22

14_ bv»ndes_ 15 Viiison 16 17 18 19

with a SMyep

MURPH may have stolen the show, but the rise and rise of Team Kiwi sent the race fans home even happier.

Three sixth places suggests that the TKR Commodore is consistently just shy of the front-running pace, but Paul Radisich was involved in a number of very tight contests and may well have grabbed a few more points on a slightly less action-packed day.

"I'm rapt," the former Ford man said. "The TKR merge with Paul Morris's technological programme is working fantastically well.

"The boys call the car 'Frank' and he's coming along really well ..."

Good name, that. Morris has a long-term li nk with Frank Gardner, while Radisich's dad is also Frank. The car is in pretty good company ...

- CHRIS LAMBDEN

Race 3 (47 laps including restart)

A

s the first rain spattered down, at lap 30, Murph again had things under control. Again it was Ingall pushing him along, but this time it was Lowndes - from grid six heading the rest.

The Triple 8 car had rocketed from row three and went into Turn 1 inside, of all people, Ambrose.

Marcos attempted to hang on around the outside and even crowded Craig a little, but following their earlier contretemps there was an movieesque 'I'm not going to take it any more' look to the Triple 8 car's body language. The Pirtek car shot left onto the grass.

Whatever, Craig reported back to the team that "he just disappeared then reappeared again!"

Indeed, the Pirtek car had rocketed across the grass, back onto the road, and carried on with just a couple of spots lost!

The pit window had barely opened when David Besnard's WPS car beached itself after a tyre failure and wild ride into the hairpin. Everyone anticipated a Safety Car and just about everyone came in.

Both SBR cars came in - so quick . was the team's rear tyre swap on Russell's car that Marcos hardly had to wait, but it cost a few valuable spots. He was ninth when it all shook out. In the end, the Safety Car came a few laps later, for Jason Bargwanna's 20 April 2005

VB BCS POINTS Points: Ambrose 366, Ingall 324, Weel 279, Lowndes 277, Murphy 273, Skaife 264, Radisich 261, Bright 256, T. Kelly 252, S. Richards 225, Morris 218, Seton 204, Whincup 202, Bowe 201, R. Kelly 196, Johnson 195, Tander 184, McConville and Dumbrell 183, Winterbottom 156, Wilson 150, B. Jones 147, Trait 133, Ellery 132, J. Richards and A. Jones 115, White and Besnard 95, Baird 90, Owen 84, Wills 80, Ritter 70, Bargwanna 38, A. Davison 36.

Falcon, stranded at the main straight kink, It took an inordinate time to clear the two wrecked cars, but Murph, Ingall, Lowndes, Skaife, Radisich, Bowe and Richo led the queue at .the green, but most eyes were skywards as clouds rolled in.

It may have been the first sprinkles that caused first Ellery, then Whincup to slide precariously wide out of the final corner, but a following Baird moved right to stay clear, only to inadvertently crowd Dumbrell onto the inside grass.

The resulting touch and high speed shunt (also involving Cam McConville) made all the TV news reports. It was a big one. Armco (and a light pole) were smashed, but both Baird and Dumbrell emerged unhurt.

And there was an immediate red.

The restart, on wets, some 40 minutes later was disaster for Triple 8. Both cars failed to start! Craig's was pushed away, Ellery's pushstarted (incurring a pit visit to show it would start under it own power!).

Up front, little actually changed.

An element of caution dominated in the growing gloom, but Richards was able to slide down the inside of Skaife, Ambrose taking advantage to slip through too - and thereby grab enough points to take the last rostrum spot on a countback.

So Murph it was. Fr^ 20th to .fifth in the championship. His fourth Pukekohe win in five visits - a stunning statistic. If Wellington doesn't come to pass, there's one Kiwi who won't mind one bit...

Lap

56.0781 __12 56.21Y2~ 14'

R. Kelly Tander J, Richards Riltsr

20__Seton 21 WcCbnville 22 B.jones 23 Tratt 24 Wnterbottom

■3^;^7'7"'56.7171 '36:VJQ.I523 56.50'39 35laps 56.6100 35 laps "'57,3264

J3 17 12 '22

3'5laps_ 570207 _15 35'laps "5'6.'9905" 16 35 laps 56.7063 J7 34 laps 57.3735 10

25__ Wtiiie 26 Dumbrell 27 A.lones 28 S. Richards '29 Besnard

321ap^ 5'6'35'5'0 '''iV 32 laps ~"5~6.87r5 '14’ _30lDps 56.9363 19 ^3 laps 50;2335“^ 3' u: 3 laps ■56.'7856'' 5’

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53;2u .m_ 57,23'50 ' 17 '53';2S.7247 57.3537 1'6' 53:ZB:b006 '" 570574'"32 l3:2' *9.1)74 571160' *10

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56,2424

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FORMULA 3 Hairpin. He rejoined the circuit in front of Macrow, who was forced to take evasive action. This let Trimble through, but he too was then blocked by the rejoining Alajajian. Officials deemed Alajajian's actions careless, and he was handed a 10-second penalty post-race, giving Trimble second and Macrow third.

Further back, Chris Gilmour (stiU. limping with a broken fibula) had the better of Ricky Occhipinti and Slade in the battle for fifth.

After making somewing hasty repairs to both his front and gearbox (a stray bolt had worked its way through the gearbox, making for a messy, metal-filled gearbox housing), Macrow stalled on the launch for the warm-up lap.

Macrow rejoined the grid on pole position, won the start and led Ae opening laps, but was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for not starting from the rear.

"The grid officials actually directed me to rejoin at the front of the grid, but you are not supposed to," said Macrow."But I have no one to blame, so I'm fine with it."

Caratti had better luck at the

Macrow's front wing endplate, which left Macrow with an unstable car. As Macrow fought his car, Caruso was able to gain an early gap,clearing out to a race winning lead.

Alajajian was harassing the back of Macrow's car for a few laps before grabbing second with a wild move into turn 7. Brakes locked, car sideways, Alajajian drove around the outside of Macrow, who was struggling as more of his endplate was falling apart.

Trimble was also behind Macrow, but unable to get past until the dying stages of the race.

With two laps to go, Alajajian had an off-track excursion at the Southern

second start, following Macrow until he peeled off into the pidane to serve his penalty.

From there on,Caratti held team mate Alajajian at bay,keeping a tlrree car-lengtli gap between the two.In the

the final lap, meaning the two left Mallala equal on points.

ENDURANCE

Occhipinti was having a good run in the ex-Cressey car, running in fifth imtil running out of fuel on the last lap. Gilmour snuck past the spluttering car of Occhipinti witli two comers to go and tire recovering Macrow also went by under brakes into turn 7, only to lock a brake and rmi wide, allowing Occhipinti to come home sixth, Macrow seventh and local boy Slade in eighth.

Points: Trimble 57, Alajajian 57, Caratti 53, Caruso 43,Gilmour 32, Slade 25, Macrow 18, Occipinti 18.

MP Racewear

layer Nomex®.

2000 STANDARD

final few laps, Alajajian showed his hand and made a dive on Caratti at the Northern Hairpin,but it didn't stick and Alajajian spun,handing Caruso second. Caruso had been making inroads on the Astuti boys,but his engine developed a more serious aUment late in the race. "It was reaUy bad," said Caruso."The temperature went right up and I had to back off."

Alajajian rejoined in third and was able to hold out Trimble's attack on

TECH RACE SUIT Sabelt Racewear TOP Lightweight triple LATEST

THERE is tii>thihg wrong with a 2001 modei Dallara F3 car ^ Maiiaia proved it.

The start of the Race 1 saw two '01 model cars dicing for the lead.

An ’01 car topped both qualifying sessions with Tim Macrow, above, and of course, Michael Caruso won the first race and was runner-up in : the second.

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59

Normal Service Haa Loeb wins, Atkinson impresses ...Just another day in New Zealand, writes JON THOMSON

L

IKE a rubber ball,reigning World Champ Sebastien Loeb came bouncing back into contention for this year's title with a flawless drive to win the Rally of New Zealand.

.1 ‘I

And appropriately, it was rubber that gave the Alsatian driver the edge he needed to take his first win in the Land of the Long White Cloud The Citroen driver overcame challenges from both Fetter Solberg and Marcus Gronliolm to take his second win of the year, thanks largely to his superior MicheUn tyres.

Chris Atkinson again impressed, taking stage wins in a WRC round for the first time before set-up and diff problems slowed him on the closing stages.

Atkinson was in contention for a podium finish, sitting in fifth at the end of the first day just 28s off third, before going the wrong way on set up for Day 2. He dropped to seventh, where he remained to the finish, scoring his first WRC points of the year in the process.

But for Loeb,it was a near troublefree run after bad luck on the last two rounds. He put in a major attack on the long and fast stages of the second leg, all but sealing his victory.

Try as he did, Gronholm could not match the pace of his French counterpart during the latter part of Day 2, and by that time tlie damage was done and Loeb was able to cruise to victory.

Loeb took the lead on the fourth stage, moving past early leader Solberg and then stretching his

advantage to almost a minute on the second leg.

Critical to his performance was a major lift in the handling of the Citroen Xsara, as well as the use of Michelin's new Z9 tyres. The new rubber featured a different construction and was clearly the tyre to have on the challenging Kiwi roads, outgurming the Pirellis on the Peugeots and Subarus.

"It's looking better now. It was two rallies with problems,but now it seems to be good," said Loeb.

Peugeot scooped up the lion's share of the points with Gronholm's second spot and Markko Martin's fifth, but both found it difficult to get the best from the Pirelli rubber.

Before the rally started,Solberg predicted that the best he could hope for was third, and although he had a strong start, his prophecy was eventually fulfilled. Starting first car on the road,Solberg expected to lose almost a minute on the first day, sweeping the road for the cars behind.

The Norwegian led after four stages and was looking strong until Loeb hit his stride and took the lead as the Subaru lost time on its Pirellis.

Solberg finished Day 1 in fourth, 31.7s behind the leader, but was back in third at the end of the second leg.

That he limited the gap to lm9s at the end of the final leg was a credit to Solberg's skUl and persistence.

"It went much better than I expected on the first morning," said Solberg, who won in NZ in 2003.

Citroen boss Guy Frequelin had issued very strict orders to number

two pilot Francois Duval: bring the car home in the points, or else. The Belgian had failed to score a single point so far this year, however his fourth place here elevated Citroen to second in the manufacturer's points, 12 adrift of sister company Peugeot.

Ford's early lead in the drivers' and makes championships may have been overhauled in Mexico, but it was totally obliterated in New Zealand. The Blue Oval's cause wasn't helped by Roman Kresta's indiscretion in the shakedown on Thursday morning. The Czech destroyed his Focus and was out of the rally before it started. The late scratching meant Ford could not nominate another driver, despite having four cars entered.

The weight of Ford's attack fell on Toni Gardemeister, and while he was again consistent, he was simply not quick enough in a car that should be a pace-setter. A shortage of the new MicheUn Z9s on the final two legs meant he finished in sixth, despite a fight to the end with Martin in his Peugeot.

Martin's charge on the final day reflected a new confidence from the Estonian, who admits to having

struggled to get the most out of the 307 until now. He raced past Gardermeister on the final morning to help Peugeot to the top of the standings.

Looking more like rally cars of old, the sideways antics of the Mitsubishi drivers were spectacular but clearly not fast on the flat-out Kiwi roads.

Without an effective active centre diff, the Lancers were far too out of shape and paid the price in speed and tyre wear.

Italian Gigi Galli took eighth in his Lancer, finishing several stages with the tyres down to the canvas, but team-mate Hard Rovanpera failed to finish when his shredded rear tyres failed on the long final transport back to Auckland. The Finn was left stranded as the car's alloy wheels disintegrated on the tarmac, and he was out of the rally despite finishing all competitive tests.

Skoda brought one car home,with Armin Schwarz taking ninth after team-mate Janne Tuohino blew the engine of his Fabia three stages from home,while privateer Citroen driver Manfred Stohl rounded out the top 10.

Cody Crocker was the winner of the Production Car class, taking 12th

fv<*»7 Binckbimnr

Resumed 5i

\ » X" 5«t

outright, but because he is not registered for the championship,the Aussie's performance was not officially recognised. Crocker finished 7.7s ahead of the official winner of the PWRC class, Spanish Mitsubishi driver Xavier Pons. Crocker's Subaru team-mate Dean Herridge battled with Toshi Arai at the head of tire Production Car pack on Day 1, only to go off the road and out of the rally on the first stage of Day 2.

Sardinia provides the backdrop for the next round of the title fight, where much wiU hinge on PireUi providing its runners with a tyre to match the new Michelins on &e loose dirt of the Italian island. Solberg,for one, has his fingers crossed that they can.

1 Sebastien Loeb Daniel Elena 2 Marcus Grbnholm Fin Timo Rautianen Fin 3 Patter Solberg Phil Mills 4 Francois Duval

Nor GB B

Citroen Xsara 3h34m51.6s Peugeot 307 3h35m4t.4s Subaru Impreza 3h36m00.3s Citroen Xsara 3h36m59.1s

Stephane Prevot F 5 Markko Martin Est Peugeot 307 3h38m00.7s GB Michael Park Ford Focus RS 6 Toni Gardemeister Fin 3h38m07.9s Jakke Honkanen Fin 7 Chris Atkinson Aus Subaru Impreza 3h39m28.8s Glenn Macneall Aus I Mitsubishi Lancer 8 Gigi Gall!

3h41.42.1s I Guido D'Amore Drivers' Points: Solberg 26, Loeb 25, Martin 23, Gardemeister 20, Gronholm 20, Rovapera 11.

Manufacturers' Points: Peugeot 43, Citroen 31, Subaru 28, Ford 26, Mitsubishi 24, Skoda 4.

WRC 4 NEW ZEALAND

All in a day's work: Cody Crocker, below, took a moral (if not official) win in the Production Car class, while Marcus Gronholm, above, spent most of his weekend chasing the Frenchman in the 'other'French car

Living Famously Atkinson wins two stages-and r i everyone eise starts getting nervous

i

IF Chris Atkinson was any more laid back, he would have been lying on a sun lounge at a beach resort.

Taking fastest time on a stage of the World Rally Championship is a major achievement only reserved for the most talented and gifted drivers, however the 24-year-old Gold Coaster was Incredibly relaxedt;, about posting his first stage win at WRC level.

J. “Mate, it’s great, but you have to realise that my place on the road ^ today has helped,” said Atkinson. “The test will be winning stages on the second and third day.” n; j In the back of the Subaru compound in the Paparoa Service Park ; Chris’s father John, himself a talented rally driver of the early 1980s, had a big smile on his face. Maybe it was because he could see his. -4 big investment in the rally driving future of his talented son paying \ ' dividends, but more likely it was just pure parental pride.

“It’s good, isn’t it?" Atkinson senior grinned. “There’s still along way^ to go, but he’s getting there pretty quickly.”

Waiting for Atkinson to return to the compound after setting the time, the British TV crews were abuzz.

“The little Aussie battler has got his first stage win,” one cameraman said to another. “You’re joking! Bloody hell, that’ll make Better change his tune,” said the other.

Solberg’s body language certainly changed dramatically after Atko’s achievement was revealed, and he was very aware that, unlike last year, he now had a team-mate that was a potential challenger.

“I am very happy for him, it is great. We are working as a team, and it is very good,” was Solberg’s reaction.

Subaru clearly took a gamble on the Australian this year, but team boss David Lapworth can increasingly see that the former stock market trader and economics graduate is a pretty safe bet for the future.

Setting the suspension too soft for Day 2 proved costly for Atkinson, and is probably down to experience, but the pressure never seemed to faze him. Even on the final day when seventh was the best he could hope for, his nonchalance about the suspension mistake and the car’s diff problems on the final stages makes you believe that pressure is something that the ice-cool Queenslander simply doesn’t feel.

Clearly he has the speed and talent, but it is his cool-headed, analytical approach that will take Chris Atkinson to the pinnacle of this sport - and it aJ may happen a lot faster than many people believe.

- JON THOMSON

Neil Blackboum

20 April 2005

61

Give and

Take

NEALB one pert previous Corolla rally cars rejected and another confirmed, after a special ARCom hearing in Sydney late last week.

I Despite being initially granted some of the Variant Options, or VOs, he had applied for, Bates ; had to front a review hearing after protests from opposition manufacturers.

‘The whole system needs to be streamlined to ensure we don’t waste as much time as this situation has cost us,” said an annoyed Bates.

“Our job is building rally cars, not appearing at hearings and sorting paperwork for weeks on end. Ever^hing is sorted now, but it didn’t have to be as drawn out and complicated as this.

Thankfully, there is a new mechanism being worked on to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“This is never easy but it doesn’t have to be as hard as it has been.”

Bates was originally granted the VOs in a bid to put the Toyota

SOUTH Australia is the first state to declare its hand in the fight to secure the right to stage Australia's round of the World Rally Championship.

SA Motorsport board chairman Roger Cook has said that it is serious about bidding for the right to hold Rally Australia in the Festival State.

Cook confirmed that the motorsport board had been asked to look at the feasibility of staging tlie rally by the SA government's special events company,Australian Major Events.

"1 really have confidence in the Motor Sport Board and its management to be able to run a WRC event," he said.

Former Australian rally champion Ed Ordynski is right behind the move to bring the rally to his home state, and believes it presents an ideal location.

62

Big]

footing with its opponents.

The new freedoms included an active centre differential, larger diameter sway bars and a frontmounted air-to-air intercooler.

The Sydney hearing, attended by four ARCom commissioners and representatives from Mitsubishi, Subaru, Ford and Toyota, granted approvai for the new sway bars and qualified approval for the new intercooler.

Approval for the active centre diff was overturned.

“I am not that worried about the centre diff, we hadn’t tested it and it would have been a few rallies before we could have had it in the car, so in real terms we haven’t lost anything,” said Bates.

The new intercooler will be allowed on the Corolla from Rally of Canberra, but is subject to the verification of inlet air temperature data, both from the Toyota team’s previous records as well as the new intercooler, along with comparative readings from rival manufacturers.

If the submission is not verified, approval for the intercooler may be withdrawn after Canberra.

The new 24mm front stabiliser and 19mm rear bar gained approval and will be used on the Toyota, a move Bates believes will give the car more stability and drivability.

Approval for the active centre differential gained earlier in the year was withdrawn, however Bates will be able to re-apply for its inclusion after June 17, when submissions for new VOs will be allowed.

While Bates and Toyota accepted the decisions, it is clear the reversal of items already approved by ARCom has not pleased the Toyota team, which will clearly have to post some strong results this year to ensure ongoing support for the rally program in 2006 and beyond.

- JON THOMSON

2.

FORD has confirmed the worst-kept secret in motorsport, announcing that it will finally re-enter the ARC after 25 years on the sidelines.

The new team will be known as Ford Team RS, and will initially mount a single car attack using the latest Focus, which is due to be launched here later in the year.

As predicted by MNews in August last year, Michael Guest will drive the Focus along with co-driver Mark Stacey, and they are expected to make their debut mid-way through the Championship, potentially in Tasmania in early July.

The Ford rally effort will be run by Steve Floinville, who has headed the engineering and motorsport team working on the program at the company's s Campbellfield FIQ in Melbourne.

The death of motorsport manager Floward Marsden stalled the rally project, but Steve Floinville championed the cause and the announcement last week is the fruit of his persistence.

"Its been a long time in the making,(so) it is great to have it all out in the open," said Guest.

"Being with Ford, there is a stability and commitment that is very confidence-inspiring.

ARC9

"Rally Australia would be ideally suited to Adelaide and the Northern

£

Hills region around Mt Crawford, given the way WRC formats have moved," said Ordynski.

"WRC events have evolved into a format that no longer suits WA,but it is ideal for here."

Current Rally Australia Clerk of Course Adrian Stafford was in New Zealand in the lead-up to Rally NZ last week,and said that while his main interest was ensuring the final two events in Perth this year and next were the best possible, he hoped that wherever the rally went,it would be a credit to Australian motorsport.

"If the rally has to go and you ask me where I think it should be, then 1 would have to say Canberra," said Stafford.

"There is nowhere m the world that gives you the chance to run rally

stages just 10 minutes from the heart of a city.

"Money will be the issue for the ACT government,and I am sure the Queensland Victorian and SA governments will be in there pitching for the rally."

Ironically, Stafford jetted out of Auckland on Thursday night around

the same time that his Rally Australia predecessor Garry Connelly flew in to fulfil his role as FIA observer.

CAMS has opened the bidding process by calling for submissions with a deadline of May 6, and a decision expected before the end of the financial year.

- JON THOMSON

motorsport news

i

Ed goes Chinese

They commit to something, and they do it properly."

Guest refused to confirm details of the project, but word from inside the Ford rally bunker over recent months indicates that the Blue Oval entry will use a rearwheel-drive configuration initially, and that a four-wheel-drive system will possibly appear in 2006.

With the recent announcement of a performance-oriented Focus ST model, fitted with a five-cylinder turbo powerplant, some believe the T5 engine will be used for the rear-drive Aussie Group N (P) Focus.

The last time Ford ran a factory team in the ARC was in the Castrol Rally in Canberra in March 1981.

In the meantime, it appears that Ford has gained FIA permission to base its 2006 Focus World Rally Car on the ST, the road-going version of which is powered by the straight five-cylinder Volvo engine.

The FIA will allow Ford to replace the T5 with a four-cylinder turbo as used in the current Focus WRC. The new Focus has not yet been produced in large volumes and Ford wi have to meet production totals to secure homologation. However, the FIA is prepared to approve the car on the assumption that the minimum number will be met.

A World Rally Car shell is currently under construction at M-Sport under the guidance of team director Malcolm Wilson, who is hoping that the car will be ready before the end of the season.

- JON THOMSON

WITHOUT a drive in the ARC, Ed Ordynski will get behind the wheel of a Subaru rally car for the first time in competition for more than 15 years when he contests the next round of the Chinese Rally Championship this weekend.

Ordynski will drive the same Subaru STi that Cody Crocker drove to victory in the opening round of the series earlier this year. Crocker is unable to drive the car because of a clash with the Rally of Canberra.

The South Australian will also drive the car in round three of the series three weeks later on the same weekend as the WA Forest Rally.

Here We Come

n A Mexican standoff arose in the lead-up to the start of Rally New Zealand.

The FIA had deliberated on controversial engine change rules and apparently held a vote three days before shakedown was due to start, but did not announce the changes until the pre-rally test had started on Thursday morning.

The near-crisis arose after Citroen and Skoda both paid $10,000 fines to change blown engines after shakedown in Mexico. Ironically, the teams had forked out to get around a rdle designed to ensure teams saved money by using engines for a minimum of two rallies.

Other reforms include the rulemaking process itself. Proposals can henceforth be agreed by the World Rally Commission bureau, a smaller body that will consider ideas put forward by sub-committees.

A batch of changes, most of them minor, were initially turned down by the FIA World Motorsport Council on the grounds that they had not been approved by the full commission membership. They were agreed by a fax vote early in the week before NZ. - JOIM THOMSON

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GRANT Anderson won the battle at a rough and hooky Heartland Raceway when he took out the final round of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Super Sprint Series.

However, it was Simpson Speedster John Vogels, right, who won the war, with a solid third place finish behind Anderson and South Aussie rookie Dylan Jenkin enough to secure him his first Sprintcar championship series crown.

With cooler weather, the track was a far cry from the venue’s opening event, with the track rough but offering plenty of drive.

The feature event was a fantastic final to a brilliant series that saw some of the best feature races ever run in the Garden State.

Vogels was able to use his outside pole starting position to take the lead on the opening lap down the back straight. However, by the time they got to the front straight Anderson was back in the lead, where he remained until the end.

Vogels hadn’t given up and was close behind until the impressive Jenkin closed in and the two

WdPlii Ser Latrobe in Tasmania and Rockhampton in Queensiand to get WSS rounds

lift.'Ton

fought out a tough duel that finally fell the way of the South Aussie.

Allan Barlee,(who had done a fair amount of time on the grader trying to rectify an early track problem and then smoothing the track before the feature) put on a big charge, pushing his Castrol eagle up to fourth ahead of David Aldersley and Mike Van Bremen.

Brett Milburn was running strong having topped qualifying, until the driveline fell out of the car.

- BRETT SWANSON

P*ris_Cf]irles

Ever-growing fan base: Large crowds continually flock to World Series Sprintcars rounds, as seen above at Murray Bridge. Now Tasmanian motorsport fans have a chance to catch the action.

Sidewa]

DESPITE controversy and turmoil, Craig Vanderstelt has defended his Aouth Australian 360ci Sprintcar Championship,held over 30 laps at Murray Bridge's Riverview Speedway.

The race was marred by some spectacular crashes, but despite the race stoppages, Vanderstelt's Cool powered home to greet the chequered flag followed by Dermis Burford and Ross Wright.

- PARIS CHARLES

WA Champ Maiolo 'tlAMIE Maiolo was crowned ~AHG Sprintcar Series Champion after the final round of the coveted series on Saturday night at the Kwinana Motorplex.

Maiolo finished third in the feature, which clinched him the title.

"We wanted to win the senes, said! Maiolo. "That's what the aim was and now we have done it. The whole Kendrick Team have put in a huge effort to win this series and the team's efforts have paid off I'm real happy for them."

Maiolo led home Veronica McCann in the series. McCann wasn't dominant .during the series but

64

the points system rewards finishes and consistency and that is what she did.

"Jt'S great to run second in thi^uality field of drivers, my fanji^ly have been and are a big support and influence and we didSthis together as a te^am," said

The final round of the series was totally dominated by a superb run by Luche Monte.

After starting out of position six in the A-Main, Monte flew to the front and led a non-stop event to the finish. There ^wasn't anyone in Monte's

McCann.

lappingincars at will and League the feature.

He was [consistently ran in the low kl3 second bracket and dropped into the 12s bracket several times.

Monte was rewarded with a new 25-lap track record previously held by'Ryan , Farrell, who himself couldn't ^ I make any ground up and clipped the wall, eventually retiring due to mechanicai fajilure. ^ DARREiKI SUTTON

V . .1^

.’

AFTER finally winning the world title last year, the time has come for Jason Crump to defend his crown, with Round 1 of the FIM World Speedway GP Championship kicking off in Wroclaw,Poland on April 30.

Crump came back to Australia over the summer to recuperate and reflect, but is now ready to go.

Fellow Milduran Leigh Adams was also back in Australia over

summer,but in contrast to Crump, was racing and fine-tuning his riding, clinching another Australian title.

Adams is ever-consistant, but having seen Crump's success, he is pulling out all stops to gain the speed required to be number one.

The third Australian, Melbourne's Ryan Sullivan, had a tough 2004 season. But his huge talent is shll evident, and with the right mix of luck, composure and consistency, he could well repay the series organiser Benfield's faith in giving him one of five full-series wildcards, and become world champion.

Tire Aussies aside, undoubtedly the favourite for the title is five-times world champion Tony Rickardsson.

The Swede was in white-hot form in the latter half of 2004 and with a new Penske bike underneath liim. will be tough to beat.

-CHRIS JORDAN

motorsport news

to hit Tassie

by CHRIS JORDAN

THE immensely-successful Proton World Series Sprintcars Championship will hit Tasmania for the first time for its 2005/06 season.

Latrobe Speedway is currently looking like the venue of choice for WSS's latest expansion, meaning that Australia's premier speedway series is likely to stretch to 19 rounds for its upcoming season.

"We'd love to take the Proton World Series Sprintcars Championship down to Tassie," WSS CEQ Wade Aunger told MNews.

"There are some great young drivers down there in Adrian Redpath, Tim Flutchins and Jason Dawkins, who could really run hard with our guys

around Latrobe I'm sure, so it'd be one hell of a show. Tassie motorsport fans in general are fantastic too, so I have no doubt we'd get the support of Apple Isle Sprintcar fans.

"The logistics of travelling across the water are obviously costly so it's a hurdle for the management of Latrobe to overcome, but Events Tasmania are very proactive when it comes to attracting major sporting events, including motorsport, from the mainland.

"We'd be looking at running two rounds, Friday and Saturday, December 9 and 10, at Latrobe if the promotion there can afford to bring us over. I think it'd be a giant step forward for World Series if it came off but there’s probably a lot of work to do yet.

I think we'd rock the house in Tassie if it becomes a reality."

Proton 'Wbrld Series Sprintcars lisa Iso expected to confirm som the inclusion of a third veniueim Queensland, iin RockharrripBn, World Saies wouldlagain open its champion ship in Queenslandl, with tlheopeniog week of oaiiiipetitioin Hieing a Queensland!'triple-h«ler', with The new IFScffikhampton round Iheld betvween weekeid shows at Brisbanelinternatiomal Speedway and Charta Speedway,Toowooimfca.

“We’re experiencing growring pains at tthemoment,"'said .Aunger. '"Ineryone wants a piece of Luslbut there's only so many dat®savailable and a lot of kilomettres in between."

All bodes well for the highllysuccessfulWorld Series Sprintcars,with more exciting announcements expaled soon.

s Aussies setfor SGP Crump looks to defend world €fown in 2005 2005 FIM S|>eedway CP Une-iip

ukc'pstrick.com

Watching his back: Defending Speedway GP World Champ, fason Crump, above, has finally got the number one plate on his bike for 2005. That means that everyone will be out to get him, including fellow Aussies Leigh Adams and Ryan Sullivan.

Australia 1 Jason CriJifitp Sweden 2 Tony Ricicardsson USA 3 Greg Hancock 4 Australia Leigh Adarnts Denmark 5 Nicki Pedersen 6 Poland Tomasz Gellob 7 Sweden Andreas tfonsson 8 Poland Jaroslaw Hampel 9 Denmark Hans Andersen 10 Bjarne PecUersen Denmark 11 Lee Richairdson Great Britain 12 Scott Nichiolis Great Britain 13 Ryan Sullivan Australia 14 Antonio LindbSck Sweden 15 Tomasz Ctiranowski Poland 16 * wild carcl

Tony Stewart in Outlaws NASCAR great and former Speedway gun Tony Stewart will campaign the #33 Chevrolet In the Busch Series's O'Reilly 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway this Saturday night.

The car is usually run in the colours of the WoO's broadcast partner, The Outdoors Channel.

In other Outlaws news, Steve Kinser has captrued his fourth feature win of the season by winning the main event at Tri-State Speedway. n Expect next year's Krikke Boys Memorial event at Western Australia's Bunbury Speedway to be a two-night affair, held March 4-5.

Despite his new role as Promotions and Marketing Manager at Western Sydney International Dragway, 2005 event promoter Dean Neal is still expected to play a large role in the Krikke Boys show in 2006. n Mornington's Brett Milburn became the inaugural KAP (KnoxvileAvalon-Premier) Sprintcar Champion after taking an all the way win in the 'final 20-lap feature at Avalon Raceway two weeks ago.

Milburn had started the evening only 10 points behind series leader Stephen Bell but when the pair's two worst rounds were dropped, they were actually even and the final would be a winner take all event. n Rain has forced a partial delay of the Queensland Sprintcar Title, with Darrell Hodges looming as the favourite after winning the preliminary feature race.

Rain eliminated Friday night's show with Night One held on Saturday night and Night Two delayed two weeks to April 23.

The World Series rookie of the year was in top form and by night's end it was only a pair of yellow light restarts the brought him back to podium placegetters Robbie Farr and Cameron Gessner.

Drew Kruck had a harsh return to Sprintcars, rolling the ex-Daryn Pittman Titan Maxim in turn 2 during the heats.

Meanwhile, Gessner took victory at the MSAQ Sprintcar Series event held at Toowoomba's Charlton Speedway on Saturday night.

-BOSCATO/SWANSON/JONES

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65

i

Cowin: wait and

DRAG racing legend Graeme Cowin has revealed that his own less-than-pristine health is the primary reason behind the decision to pull back the Cowin Family Racing team from its most recent US foray.

Cowin told MNews this week that reports on a US website that the team faced possible exclusion for excessive 'oildowns', quoted by MNews last week, were incorrect and "just not true."

The drag racing legend is .^struggling with a couple of ifairly serious health issues and telans t® address these before lotting down with his family to discuss the future of Team a^owin in drag racing. r^^«The NHRA has never j^ibreatened us with exclusion," ■S^fowin said, "and I've had '^ffiothina but a few general

Health, not oildowns, behind decision to come home

vifords with (NHRA Top Fuel director) Ray Alley.

"Yes, we had some mechanical problems, which we've now got to the bottom of, but it wasn't as negative as the report suggested.

"After all, we're the IHRA

Hernandez takes Pm Mod Final

record-holder (4.53s) and we managed a 4.57s/324mph in testing at Vegas, so there are some positives there.

"We've got plenty of budget left, but it came to the point where my health has become a big issue and there comes a

1 'i

time when it, and the effect 6m family, has to come first."

V Cowin: wilil concentrate on 1 regaining fitness befoire a 1 decision on the race team is made, but has all but ruled out' a return to the US - at least in Top Fuel. He did however hint that a US Funny Car project: might be an option..

Reading between the lines :j suggests that a fui-omi retuirn ! to racing in Australia is the most likely outcome eventually. Cowin's expansive business. Rocket Industries^ is the primary backer for the team and, as he emphasises, "the profile the race team has is very good for the busimess.

"At the end of the day, we are a racing family, so I guess it's 95 percent likely that we'll be back in one form or the other," Cowin conclud'edL

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JOSHUA Hernandez survived a tyre-shaking, car-skating race to beat Ed Hoover in the Houston Pro Mod final two weeks ago.

Competing in just his second AMS/TLR event, Hernandez drove his blown ‘57 Chevy to a 6.91 s/164mph to hold off Hoover’s 7.63s/153mph in a wild race, which saw both cars survive getting sideways and fighting for control.

The win capped a weekend of consistent performances for Hernandez, who qualified the Dr. Moon's Rage machine fifth at 6.20s.

He then clocked 6.23s/228mph, 6.23s/226mph, and 6.25s/225mph passes in eliminations to defeat Mike Bell, Chip King, and Troy Critchley.

Hoover was handicapped in the final with broken transmission but got there by stopping Doug Palmer, Eddie Ware, and Kirk Kuhns.

Australian-native Critchley, above, looked good for the secondstraight event, qualifying eighth at 6.22s/225mph. A pair of 6.24s/224mph passes in the opening two frames trailered Shannon Jenkins and Frankie Taylor, but his slower 6.33s/221mph in the semis fell to event winner, Hernandez.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 66

LARRY Dixon gave drag racing legend and team owner Don 'the Snake' Prudhomme his 100th career win by defeating Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel final round in Las Vegas last weekend.

The win gave Dixon his 36tli NHRA trophy, ah of which have come while driving under the Prudhomme Racing banner.

Whit Bazemore and Dave Connolly used wins in Funny Car and Pro Stock to move back into points leads in their respective categories.

Bazemore drove around first-time finalist Tony Bartone in Funny Car to retake tlie POWERade points lead from John Force, wWle Connolly's victory enabled the Bullet Motorsport driver to pass Warren Johnson for first place in the rankings.

Dixon used a 4.59s at 326mph in the final to beat low qualifier Doug Kalitta's 4.64s at 319mph. Dixon, the second qualifier at 4.50s, piloted the Miller Lite entry to early round wins over Mike Strasburg, Brandon Bernstein and David Grubnic.

Kalitta's Mac Tools entry defeated Scott Palmer, Jack Beckman, and point leader, Tony Schumacher.

Bazemore, not qualified in the program until the final session, regained his point lead with a final round defeat of first-time finalist, Tony Bartone. Bazemore used a final round shot of 4.97s at 315mph to hold off the close 4.98s/303mph of Bartone.

The Schumacher Racing Dodge Stratus stopped Tony Pedregon, Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon to motorsport news

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Raspirada’s new car fares well

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THE former Connie Kalitta car that Santo Rapirada has purchased made a good showing in Las Vegas, with Kalitta test pilot Ben Marshall at the wheel.

The car opened with a good 4.85s/304mph baseline pass, then made the best pass in the four rounds of qualifying with a 4.61 s/ 319mph blast in the night time session.

An 11 s tyre smoker started the team's Saturday log, with a follow-up final pass of 4.74s/301mph.

In the opening round, Marshall left first and began to haze the tyres around 330 feet, dropping cylinders, but drove through it. Opponent Jack Beckman chased Marshall all the way down the 1320 and just caught him before the finish line, taking the win, 4.61 s/31 Omph to 4.61 s/319mph. n David Grubnic was not qualified going into the final qualifying session, but a last-ditch 4,70s/319mph landed Grubnic into the 14th spot in the show.

In the opening round, Grubnic took out number three qualifier Morgan Lucas, who lost traction, with his best effort of the weekend at 4.59s/327mph. In round two, he used a 4.62s/327mph to dispose of a tyre smoking Cory McClenathan.

A round later, Grubnic's Zantrex-3 dragster also fell victim to a loss of traction and was defeated by Larry Dixon.

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advance into the final round.

Bartone,in Jim Dunn's Got CMKX Monte Carlo scored round victories over Tommy Johnson Jr., Tim Wilkerson and Ron Capps in earlier rounds.

Connolly used a final round 6.87s/201mph to defeat the 6.95s/ 220mph of reigning Pro Stock Champion,Greg Anderson. With Bill 'Grumpy'Jenkins horsepower, Connolly rode a string of 6.8s passes to victories against Anderson team mate Jason Line, Kurt Johnson and Greg Stanfield.

Anderson's Summit Racing Pontiac made it to the final round at l his sponsors' event after taking wins over Richie Stevens, Jeg Coughlin and Warren Johnson.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 20 April 2005

i.TWO vyeeks ago,six-time Pro Stocker champion Warren Johnson clocked a final round 6J1s/205mph in his GM Performance Parts Pontiac to earn his 93rd career Pro Stock victory at Houston Raceway Park.

Johnson, 62, defeated Jason Line, who drove his KB Framers Pontiac to a 6.73s/204mph. He defeated Richie Stevens, Greg Stanfield, and Dave Connolly to reach the final.

Johnson's victory also reset the record for the oldest professional drag racer to win an event, fn Funny Cars, rookie pilot Robert Hight earned his first victory in just his fourth start.

The John Force Racing driver powered to a close final round victory over Cruz Pedregon, who went down in a 4.78s/326mph to 4.81 s/321 mph. After struggling in qualifying, Hight used a steady string of 4.7s passes to defeat Bob Gilbertson, Tommy Johnson Jr. and team-owner Force to reach the final.

Tony Schumacher powered his U.S. Army dragster to a new national speed record (4.50s/335.32mph) blast in Top Fuel as he raced past Cory McClenathan in the final round. The U.S. Army dragster took no prisoners, knocking off Scott Palmer, Rod Fuller, and Doug Kalitta prior to the final.

Im the Pro Stock Motorcycle final, Stoffer claimed her second career victory by racing to a 7.17s/188 mph to defeat first-time finalist Kurt Matte, who posted a 7.20s/179mph.

Stoffer defeated Harley riders Andrew Hines, Ryan Schnitz and GT Tonglet en route to the win at the same venue in where she collected her only other event victory.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

n Defending AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge Champion Mike Ashley got some revenge on Valvoline's Jay Payne when he claimed the rematch of Gainesville finale for his Torco Race Fuels team.

Ashley left the starting line first, and won with a 6.27s at 227mph to stop Payne's 6.36s at 228mph. Their head-to-head final-round record this year is now even. n Brett Stevens currently has $25,000 In donations pledged to his charity effort in aid of the 'Kids with Cancer'- and if the $100,000 goal is met, he has commited himself to chopping off his 20-year-old ponytail.

"The amount of support we have been shown in the early stages of the fundraiser has been excellent with many businesses and individuals putting their hand up to donate and lend a hand," Stevens said.

"The Drag Racing community is one of the most generous and compassionate groups of people you will ever see and I have know doubt we will hit $100,000 mark and I will lose my ponytail."

The most expensive hair cut is set to be undertaken on the June 12th during the Finals of the Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI/STAFF 67

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Home and Abay

Michael strikes in Round 1 of MNews KartStars

MICHAEL Sam Abay has sent a clear message out to his competition in the 2005 Motorsport News KartStars crown - catch me if you can!

Despite some significant setbacks, Abay rose above the star-studded field to win both finals held at Geelong's Beckley Park International Raceway two weeks ago.

Abay was forced to start the heats from the rear of the pack after failing to set a quick lap in qualifying due to a flat battery. The mechanical gremlins were soon forgotten though,as Abay drove superbly to come through the pack in the heats, giving him a decent grid spot for the finals. He went on to win both races.

"I could have done another 34 laps," said Abay after the second final. "It was just going so well! I was just running on adrenalin out there in front."

In the first final, Abay won the start, only to be quickly overhauled by Jason Pringle and Mstian Lindbom. Lindbom then nipped inside of Pringle at turn 1, only for Pringle to return the favour at turn 2, leaving Lindbom wide in the grass and subsequently passed by CAMS Driver Development Program inductee Jordie Lindstrom and Abay.

Pringle and Lindstrom were able to stretch a gap over the field, but Abay was able to clear himself of the second pack to catch the lead two by mid-race distance.

Abay was past Lindstrom for second with 18 laps to go,and then made the race's decisive move to take the lead from Pringle a further seven laps later.

Lindstrom were eliminated on the opening lap at the turn 3 hairpin.

Despite the best efforts of front row starters Abay and Pringle, it was Lindbom who led the field early after a mesmerising start.

After four laps, Abay felt it time to reassert his presence and passed Lindbom into turn 1.

He never relinquished the lead hereafter.

As Abay pulled away,Lindbom,Pringle and Cameron Thorpe fought over the minor placings.

On the final lap Thorpe braked as late as possible for turn 3 and was able to execute a sensational move,sliding past Pringle in a classic out-of-shape,late-braking move.

Round 1 winners: MNews KartStar victor Sam Abay, above, and Luke Ellery, below.

LAST weekend also marked the successful debut of the Junior Max category in Australia.

The standout performance was certainly Luke Ellery, who won both finals in a dominating fashion.

The second final was a sign of Ellery's class as rain hit the circuit mid-race. With the field aU on slicks, Ellery amassed an enormous lead, steering his Arrow kart around in style in the treacherous conditions as others battled for grip.

Bryce Moore was second to Ellery in the first final after a first corner clash between Robert Munnerly, Nicholas Foster and Jono Taylor, with Foster eventually recovering for third.

The second final saw Munnerly take second in the wet,ahead of Foster and Taylor.

-CHRIS JORDAN

Pringle tried a late-braking lunge inside of Abay on both the penultimate and final lap at the tight KRock comer,but was unable to make either attempt stick.

The second final was a short affair for two of the likely frqnt-ruimers. Trent James and Jordie

Tpicki

Daniel Ricciardo won Intercontinental A at Geelong recently.

CHRIS JORDAN spoke with the young West Aussie

MOTORSPORT NEWS: It was your first race in seniors and you won both finals. Did you expect to go so well?

DANIEL RICCIARDO: I did think I would go well, but I didn’t think I would win - put it that way!

With Remo (Luciani, Trulli kart importer) on board and in the Trulli kart, I thought we would be up there. To be on the podium was my aim, but to get first was awesome.

MN: Glenn Powles is very experienced. Do you think it will be a good battle between you and Glenn this year?

DR: Yeah, coming into the round I thought he would definitely be up 68

there. I thought Deepal (Kandola) would have been up there as well, but he seemed to be struggling a little bit at the first round. But yeah, Glenn was always going to be the main guy at the front.

MN: Glenn and third-placed Paul Pittam are all Trulli kart team-mates in ICA. The team atmosphere must be good?

DR: Yeah that’s right. Paul and I pit out of the same tent and we just try to finish al the races and push each other along. Obviously when it comes to the finals it is every man for himself, but we are not going to doing anything stupid.

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MN: Since you moved to Remo’s team you have reaily shown speed. But at the Nationals you were unlucky not to win Junior Clubman.

DR: The Nationals was a bit unlucky. There was a bit of an ... incident. Remo gave us a lot of help though. Every day we were up in the top two, throughout practice and racing.

MN: What else is on the radar for this year?

DR: We would like to come over to the eastern states more. We were going to do the Viccy Open in Formuia 100 but they couldn’t get the entries.

So we are not sure yet. We have been speaking to Remo and he is looking to get some meetings for us to run.

motorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

IN/loffa't's IX/lission Andrew to drive red #9 Lotus

CIK launch

by CHRIS JORDAN BART Price looks in good shape to defend his Intercontinental C Championship, but this year’s gearbox class will be tougher than ever.

Price, above, won both finals, but had to work for it. Young Daniel Erickson led the early stages of both finals, clearing out in his Top Kart to what appeared an aimost insurmountable gap.

It took Price several laps to catch and pass Erickson in the first final after Price was involved in an incident with fellow Arrow pilots Blake Varney and Matthew Wall. Erickson was second and the sole Vortex-engined kart in Jason Burns’s Redspeed in third.

In the second final, Erickson again ied the early stages as the slow-starting Price waited for his kart to come on. But by mid-race distance the Arrow was flying and he took an easy victory, again from Erickson and Burns.

“For these long finals you have to set your kart up to come on as the race goes on,” said Price.

“This year the competition is a bit tougher, so I would expect some of the other guys to be threatening come Eastern Creek.” intercontinental A saw West Australian Daniel Ricciardo put in

a stunning performance at his debut race as a senior, winning both finals.

Trulii karts continued their domination of this class, with 2003 ICA champion Glenn Powles and Adelaide’s Paul Pittam steering the orange chassis to second and third respectively in both finals.

Powles was able to stay close to the back of Ricciardo in both ' races, but did not have the kart speed required to match his younger rival.

After his red-hot form at the Nationals, Deepal Kandola could only manage fourth in the first final and was pushed onto the grass at the start of the second.

After a spectacular save, Kandola retired with a flat rear tyre.

Junior Intercontinental A was shaping as the class to watch early in the weekend, when Amrit Kandola and Josh Scott continued their reputation as the two fastest juniors in Australia throughout the heats.

The battle did not eventuate however, with Amrit blowing a motor in both finals, leaving BRM’s Scott to cruise to victory in both finals.

The Parolin of Richard Rapa v/as second in the first final, ahead of Andrew Gillespie, and Rapa was third in the second final, behind the Trulii of Fergus Symes.

another Golden turnout

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THE second round of Victoria's Golden City Power Series at Puckapunyal last month was even bigger than the first, with 334 entries competing across 16 classes.

Run the weekend after the Nationals, several drivers still hadn't received their gear back from Perth and were forced to run borrowed or old equipment. One such was Clint Cathcart. Having his first race in Leopard Light, Cathcart resorted to an oid-model Arrow and used tyres to take a 20 April 200S

clear-cut win in the class over David Sera and Matt Wail. Mark Cowley took a strong win over Michael Griffiths and Jason Stania in Leopard Heavy.

As per round one. Clubman Light was the domain of the Sera cousins, James edging out David by just a few tenths. Clubman Over 40 had another good field, the experienced Neville Honeychurch, John Pringle and Ross Gathercole filling the podium. The Junior Clubman final was intense. It all boiled down to

^Australian Motor Finance ANDREW Moffat will contest the 2005 Lotus Trophy onemake sports car series.

Moffat, the son of Australian racing champion Allan, will race with number 9 on the doors, as well in red paint, which is a combination Allan brought to prominence in the mid-1970s.

"The Lotus Trophy was by far the most exciting and closelyfought racing in Australia last year and I am looking forward to being a part of it this year," Andrew said.

"My dad has never encouraged me to get involved, in fact, I think he would prefer that I didn't race, but I have demonstrated that I have ability and a passion for motor racing, just as he did."

The 21-year-old university student campaigned a Datsun in the Victorian Linder 2 litre Sports Sedan championship last year, but will step into the revamped Lotus category to further his career as a racing driver. He will again boast sponsorship from Australian Motor Finance.

The move into the Lotus

follows in the steps of his brother, James, who finished second in the Lotus Trophy last year.

Joining Moffat in the Lotus Exiges will be James Harrigan, who takes the step after two seasons in the Aussie Racing Car scene.

Harrigan has retained backing from IMB Banking and Financial services and recently tested the car at Oran Park.

The Lotus Trophy will have two classes compete this year.

Moffat, Harrigan and the likes of David Sieders and Djan Ley will use the new Exiges, while the Elises, which were raced last year, will contest Class B.

the final lap, where Leigh Nicolaou won ahead of Grant Smith and Lincoln Benns while Luke Ellery and Max Carter finished on the sidelines.

Despite throwing himself off the track in the wet pre-final, Rick Pringle came back to win Clubman Heavy while brother Jason had it easy in Rotax Light, winning every race. Under pressure from eventual winner Andrew Budge, Seb Geritz dropped a chain while leading the Senior National final.

After DNFing the pre-final, Jake Chapman put in a heady drive to take out Junior National Heavy

won every race up to that point.

Justin Tate beat Leigh Nicolaou in Junior National Light.

Dale Paterson enjoyed a clear win in Rotax Heavy while Adam Lindstrom continues to top score in Rookies. He might have finished second on the road, but Jay Baxter enjoyed his first big win in Midgets. Top scorer for the weekend, he beat Liam Morey home by more than five second with Cameron Waters third.

Winners of the other classes were Anthony Lantouris (Clubman Super Heavy), Nicholas Brooke (Formula Australia Light), Frank Falla (Rotax Over 40s).

- MARK WICKS

over Lincoln Benns,^ho had

Racing with banks, not on banks; Former Aussie Racer James Harrigan will drive a Lotus in '05.

69

Hocking goes the double The local edge 1

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' SOUTH Australian Saloon Car driver Brcas Heinrich dominated ^the recent second round of the RDA Rotons/ EBC Brakes Saloon Car Championship held at Malla^ ERaceway, crushing an oversubscribed field at the rural 2.6km dirouit.

Loc&J drivers topped the charts in qualifying,Heinrich, above, taking;pole by a mammoth six tenths of a SEcoond over David Lines and Steve Kwiatkowski. As a testament to Hfeinrich’s pace, the other nine cafs in the top 10 were covered by less ttlran four tenths.

Several large shunts and the usual levelleff panel damage seen in the tightly contested Saloon Car ranks punclLtiated Hie meeting’s three races.

Rac^il was red flagged after just half a fep after Dexion dwer David %ge and Brad Fox were ousted in alroavy shunt at turn three., t|& subsequent restart seeing HeiniiEJn take Hie lead and canter w into the distance to eventually retranil a five second win. . Highligifef the race was a stirring drive by WAace Grant Jolmson, who carwd his way through the field to llfcailer being as low as ' 30th at ttmsnd of lap one.

Heinric^femained unchallenged for the isstof the meeting,taking , a clean sw®ep and consolidating his strongcfiiampionship petition.

Steve Kwiatkowski took a trio of second ifiace finishes in he falcon, whilst Matthew Lovell made it threeScamHi Australian’s in Falcons on the podium by posting consistanit: results to finish tre weekend in third overall.

Round 1 winner John Goodacre struggleril ffor pace at Mallala, ending his weekend 10th overall.

- RICHARD CRAILL Points: Heinrich 190, Loveii 166, Kwiatkowski 163, GDcoilacre 151, Camiiieii 124, Johnson 101, Drewer 97, Hansen 81, Harvey 66, JaniiiesiBn 62.

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Derek beats small field in SA

DEREK Hocking has emerged victorious from Round 2 of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship at IVIallala Motorsport Park, taking two race wins from the three races.

Young Drew Russell, right, won the first race after Hocking spun on the opening lap exiting the Northern Hairpin. Hocking was coming through the field as Russell pulled away in his Honda S2000 out in front. Hooking's attempts to get to the front ended when a Safety Car was brought out when John Moulder's Falcon spun into the turn 7 sandtrap and the race finished under yellow.

Race 2's handicap start was of little consequence to Hocking, below, guiding his Commodore

to victory, carving up the smaller class cars with ease. Russell was in close pursuit until his right rear suspension collapsed, and he was forced to retire to the pits for the weekend.

Hocking also won the third race, from Class B winner Colin Osbourne in a Toyota Celica, and Class C winner Daniel Natoli in a Proton Satria.

- CHRIS JORDAN

Smerdon wi

Tyler tames Superkart pack

SUPERKART racing hit the AMRS program for the first time at Mallaia Raceway last weekend and the many slipstreaming battles and close finishes were a highlight of the series’ first round.

Victorian drivers dominated the meeting. Darren Tyler was fastest in opening qualifying before taking a clean sweep of all four races in his 125cc Birrel Rotax. It wasn’t easy for Tyler though, with three of the four races decided by less than 0.3s - the closest being race one where Daniel Bey(CRG 125cc 70

Rotax) rmissed out on the win by a nossEEone at the line.

SAdrfiver Matt Bryant(Monaco 125ccRctax)scored second overall after a consistent weeken-id's racing, taking two thirds,a fourth and a second place firmish over the course of the four racses.

Beya-nded the weekend third a plethEara of top five finishes giving hnim a solid points haul after his narrow race one defeat.

-RICHARD CRAILL Points; Dsarren Tyler 85, Matt Bryant 65, Daniel Besy 56, Ylant Harpas48, Nathan Bey 47.

lames Smith

Close but no cigar: Local driver Matt Bryant, above, came close to overall winner Darren Tyler. motorsport news

SANDOWN Raceway turned on the sun and fun at the second round of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Cham,pionships last weekend.

Mort Fitzgerald was the big winner in the MG class. Rob Whitwell provided some contest up front, even hitting the lead at one stage but even a Safety Car period late in the final race could not halt Fitzgerald. Rosemary Trevethan finished a distant third.

In a last lap tussle, John Martin muscled his way to a Formula Ford race victory, edging out Paul Laskazeski by the smallest of margins. It was not without luck though as early leaders Cade Southall and Dale Wood collided on lap five. The incident also helped Tim Blanchard to finish a handy third.

In Formula Vee, New South Welshmen Ryan Simpson fought hard from 14th place to step on to of the winner's stand. Nicolas Jones was a close second with Terry Kerr finishing third. Drew Beachem's world was turned upside down when he rolled out of the race on the final comer after tangling wheels with Asher Johnston while fighting for third.

Historic Touring cars driver Darren Hill drove his Mustang to victory after a slow start. When HUl eventually found the lead on lap seven, Wayne Purdon and third placed Paul Dobson came together, which forced a Safety Car. A two lap dash

David Stevens blowing a rear tyre down the main straight and almost caused a catastrophe just after the Safety Car had come out for a collision between Greg Doyle and Dean Savage.

Twenty laps of Improved Production saw an epic battle between Tony Floreani's powerful Commodore and Leanne Tender's gutsy Mazda RX7. An abundance of lapped traffic and even a Safety Car could not separate the duo, who fought all the way to the chequered flag. Floreani eventually held out Tander by inches witli a distant third going to Tony Skinner in his Datsun 1600.

Thirty one HQ'Holdens liired up for the 20 lapper,but only 21 finished. Of those retirements were a few prominent front-runners who suffered mechanical gremlins while in a ding-dong affair at the front. All the drama left Rodney Earsman to take the win,followed by Adrian Brown and Daniel Hodge.

The Porsche 944 race was a procession for 16 laps, with Kane Rose in control from Brent Rose and Sam Abay. However, the race turned on its head when Kane slipped down into third place having to conserve a low fuel load. Tyre wear and back markers made for an interesting last lap which saw an unlikely Brent scoring the win over Kane and Abay close behind.

-AARON SHAW

Gone South: Cade Southall led most of the feature race until a clash ended his victory bid. saw Bill Trengrove finish a close second, with Mark Barbour a tight third.

Sports Sedan driver Peter Yates, who passed away last week, was remembered at the meeting.

His Ford Escort led the field out on their warm-up lap along with the front row being left vacant as a sign of respect. Luke Chambers dictated terms out front,leading from start to finish. Terry Hamilton faded in the last few comers but managed to hold onto second from Frank Marches.

D'arcy Russell brought out the big moves in his Dodge Viper,above main,claiming the race rvin over Brett Bedggood and Lyndon Punshon in Sportscars.

The race was not without drama though, with

ns on debut Collins claims Toyota Series CHRIS Smerdon has made a successful debut in the Gulf Western Oils Touring Car Challenge, winning the series's first round outside of NSW and Victoria at his home circuit of Mallala. i

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I 20 April 2005

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Smerdon,driving the ex-Mark Winterbottom/SBR AU Falcon V8 Supercar, had a poor start to Race 1, allowing Terry Wyhoon,also in a Falcon, to get an early lead. Diff problems soon sidelined Wyhoon, giving Smerdon an easy victory, ahead of Luke Searle's BMW and Garry Wilmington.

In the handicapped Race 2, Wyhoon was victorious, ahead of Sam Dale in a Nissan Primera.

Andrew Gillespie's Falcon Future Tourer won Race 3, after both Smerdon and Wyhoon were given pit-stop penalties for jumping the I start. The EL Falcon of Peter Vicary was I second ahead of Peter Kelly's BMW third, i* -CHRIS JORDAN

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BRENT Collins bagged the inaugural Toyota Racing Series at Pukekohe Raceway last weekend.

The 29-year-old scored third place in Race 1 and finished fourth in the second race, which was enough to give him the overall series win.

Local driver Andy Knight trumped the impressive firld in Race 1. Daniel Gaunt, Collins, Chris Pither and Wade Cunningham rounded out the top five.

In Race 2, pole-sitter Gaunt bogged at the start and was trumped by Wade Cunningham. The Kiwi International led only for a few tours before Gaunt made a move and raced on for the win.

Ben Harford, who started from seventh, eventually caught and passed Cunningham to end up a solid second place. Knight was fourth ahead of Brendon Hartley.

Final points: Collins 942, Knight 904, Gaunt 874, Hartley 861, Pither 782, Hamilton 755, Harford 748, Cressey 601, Cunningham 589, Crighton 563.

71

Record numbers A RECORD 70 cars appeared at the second AASA meeting for the year at Queensland Raceway.

Angela Lechner (Escort-Lexus) defeated Damien Meneguzzo (M3-Nissan) in the sedan class in their Sports Sedans with Lester Ervin (Civic-Chev) also picking up two wins.

Saioon Car racer Jake Camilleri won four races in the MX5s on their class debut ahead of Henri van Roden and Jon Hope.

Mark Maczek (Anderson-Rotax) won six Superkart races in the only International. Tim Philip (Stockman-Honda) won the day in the heavily contested 125 division ahead of Jason Smith (Stockman-Honda) and Bob Roberts (Stockman-Honda). Dave Irwin won the Nationai class with Steve Pittman the top Rotax Max. Dave Barram’s Asp Sports 1300 took three wins to win racecars over Greg Couzens (Swift SC93F). NSW racer Ryan Morrow (AF2 Sirch) aiso took three wins.

In Sportscars, Steve Cooper took six wins (Porsche 993 GT2) ahead of Chris Hatfield (DRB GT40) and the Cobra of Warwick Harrison.

- MARK JONES

State of Origin NORTH Queensland's John Martin continue his dominance of the Pettaras Press NSW Formula Ford Championship by taking a clean sweep of Round 2 at Eastern Creek Raceway recently,in a field which included National campaigners Brett Hobson and Joel Spychala to spice up the action.

From qualifying right through to the third and feal race, Martin,20, headed the field despite the close attention from the likes of Hobson, Spychala and Newcastle's Ben Guest.

In qualifying, Martin topped the timesheets with Spychala, Guest, Hobson,Garry Watson and CAMS rising star driver Paul Laskazeski behind.

The opening race was hampered by a red flag for a lap two spin by Anglo Australian Motorsport driver Luke Wood at turn one, which also hwolved Dane Rudolph.

At the restart, Martin got the jump,but was soon passed by Hobson at turn nine. Martin retook the lead on the final lap and held onto win ahead of Hobson,Guest and Spychala.

Once again, a red flag was brought out for Race 2 on the Sunday morning when Jason Liddell spun at turn two on the

UNDER gorgeous skies, the Warwick District Sporting Car Club put on the second round of the Queensland Motor Racing Championships and was rewarded with great racing in almost every class.

The event was marred when new

Sports Sedan benchmark Shane Hart crashed heavily at the Cutting. The RX7 suddenly snapped out of control and the multiple Formula Vee champ ran out of real estate to catch it, clouting the rock bairk. Hart walked away from the accident but the car was heavily damaged,top right. Hart had won the opening race from Shane Bradford (Mazda 323). The red flagged race saw Bradford win from Bob McLoughlin(Commodore VSChev) with Damien Meneguzzo (BMW M3-Nissan) taking both thirds.

Improved Production saw a fight between Adam Uebergang(Mazda RX7)and Justin Keys(Mazda RX3)at the front, with 'Uebies' taking both wins in typical sideways-style. The thirds were shared between Steve Draheim's Datsun 1200 turbo and David Skillender's RX7.

Gary Bonwick dominated the HQ Holdens,taking pole and the first win ahead of Mike McCloud. A Race 2 DNF though allowed Justin van Twest to move from third to first with

opening lap. At the restart, Hobson grabbed the front-ruiming until Martin powered through to the lead on the main straight. Hobson finished third after being passed by

Spychala.

The third race was marred by another red flag. Brett Robinson and Queenslander Sam Sewell coUided exiting turn nine which sidelined both drivers. Spychala hit the front at the restart before Martin moved back to the head of the pack.

For the remainder of the race, Martin kept out in front and went on to score a perfect round.

Spychala was second, again in front of Hobson.

Points; Martin 176,Laskazeski 152,Guest 148, D.Wood 118, LWood 107. ^ Search for V8 Superstar points: Matin 220, D.Wood 174, BXowe 172,L.Wood 169, N.Lowe 136, Ruldoph 130, Harrison 114,Cotton 104, Sieders 76,

john Morns/Mpix

72

Great racing hij

McCloud again second from Rod Boyle.

Former national Formula Ford

front-runner Ash Lowe shook down Derek PingeTs newly acquired exMark Skaife Lola T93/50. The duo (Pingel in his '87 Lola) took a win and second each while CAMS Rising Star Ashley Walsh (Van Diemen RFOl) upset the Formula Ford field in his roolde appearance, taking one of the wins off Trent Usher(Van Diemen RF97). Roman Krumins (Vector MG96)claimed third both times behind the pair.

'Torpedo' Bruce Dummett,above, (Torana XUl)took both Historic

Eastern Clei THE second round of the New South Wales State Series was held at Eastern Creek two weeks ago.

Jeff Mulligan was dominant in the HQ Holden. He qualified on pole and took out all three races.

Leanne Tander was another to take a clean-sweep in the Improved Production over 2 Litre. Tander is now unbeaten after two rounds of this year's NSW series aboard her Mazda RX7. The eight-lap trophy race saw Tander down Leslie Taylor and Scott Fleming but the event was marred by a spectacular crash on lap four when a spinning Peter Hennessy in his BMW E36 M3 was collected by the VH Commodore of William Tyrrell. Tyrell was sent crashing into the wall at the beginning of the main straight which caused extensive damage.

In the Clubman Challenge,Ian Bums was the best of the bunch by winning Race 1 and 3. Andrew Towndrow wrecked Burns' perfect

showing by downing him in Race 2.

In the trophy race Bums got the upper hand on Towndrow,who finished second, with Gordon Campbell third.

Gavin Wilkinson, pictured right, claimed the Trophy event in the under 2 Litre Improved Production category by out-pacing Justin McCUntock. Craig Smith capped off the weekend with third. Bob Jowett was the form driver of the meeting after claiming pole and winning Race 1 and 2. He was unable to complete a golden day with a win in Race 3.

After blitzing the field in qualifying, David Wall had his weekend come to premature end after a non-finish in the opening race.

This allowed Steven Shells to step up to take all three races in impressive fashion. Chris Jackson and Anthony Macready had no answer to the speed of Shells and filled second and tliird respectively in Race 2 and 3.

The smart looking Mitsubishi

motorsponnews

NATIONAL SCENE

mights Warwick WA's'made-off Jarvis in the second,inspiring the

I

Salute'.

Mark Maczek(Anderson Rotax) took three of the four Superkart race wins. Steven Cloak(Stockman spectators to give Wilson the 'Jobs On Honda)claimed the other, while enthralling battles in the 125cc

I division saw the wins being shared l I between John Hedges, Bob Roberts, ® Tim Philip and Matt Heysen in their RS Honda-powered Stockman MR2s.

Jonathan Beikoff was the star of Saloon Cars. The emerging secondgeneration racer took all the points other than the Race 2 win after an ontrack drama. Reigning Champ Troy Norris(EA Falcon) won that race from David Rogers(VN Commodore)and Lindsay Merrit (VN Commodore)with Norris and Rogers chasing home Beikoff in the. , , il opener.

5 Grant Bromley took both Formula Touring Car wins with Kevin Vee wins in his Jacer after race long duels with Ross Loudon (Jabiru). The Heffeman (Torana XUl). Harvey Black (Escort Lotus)filled the minors fight for third was as intense in the in Race 1. Former GT-Production big Vee field with Matthew racer Carol Jackson (Torana XUl)was Mackelden (Jabiru) taking the spot in an excellent second in Race 2 from Race 1, Jason Gomersall (Jabiru)in the Porsche of Guy Gibbons. Darren Race 2. Warwick Bromley (Phoenix) and Paul Manteit(Manta)shared the Borg entertained the crowd,spinning 1200 class wins. at almost every corner while finding the limits of his new Chevy Nova.

Grant Watson (Prosport Mulsanne) Jobs On Motorsport chief Cameron took the Sports Car wins from Peter Wilson took both Gemini race wins Saunderson (Radical) and Steve Morcombe (Westfield) over Nick Rangeley and Ben -MARK JONES Singleton and Singleton and Ashley

THE Auto Trader Trophy was held two weeks ago as part of the third round of the Western Australian state championships at Barbagallo Raceway.

In Sportscars, Bryce Washington enjoyed a good weekend of preparation, setting pole and winning the Race 1 in his Carrera Cup car.

He was caught out by the handicapping in Race 2, which was won by Bevan Anderson in his MX-5. Washington returned to the front in Race 3, winning fronn local Porsche driver Walter Epple in his 911.

Paul Fiore was also preparing during the weekend, this being his last state meeting before his assault on the national Saloon Car series. After qualifying third, Fiore did a solid job to win all three races.

Mark Douglas won all three Formula Ford races to be remain unbeaten in 2005. Craig Jorgensen enjoyed a good weekend with his new Stealth to take second.

The Rotary Shop RX-7s continued to dominate the Street Cars field. Kerry Wade took an easy win from his team-mate Matt Cherry in Race 1. Cherry bounced back in Race 2, before Wade returned serve in Race 3.

In Formula Vees, Jez Hammond was on the pace early, bagging pole and the Race 1 win. Derek Burns took the Race 2 win ahead of Hammond, before the pair staged an exciting drag-race style finish to Race 3, with Burns winning by 0.05s.

Leigh Turner was once again the Historic Touring Cars dominator, steering his Mustang to wins in both scratch races. Garry Francis won the handicap race.

After finishing 18th in the first HQ race. Grant Hill had a great recovery to win the second and third races. Ken Coppin won the first, but slowly slipped down the order from there.

In Historic Racing Cars, Neil McRudden won the two scratch races, with Glen Caple taking the handicap.

The final race of the day was th.g Auto Trader Trophy, where the top six qualifiers from the sedan categories were eligible for the handicap.

Peter Thornell won the race in his Saloon Car, despite heavy pressure late in the race from Mark Anderson's Escort and Kerry Wade’s RX-7.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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20 April 2005

Lancer of Doug Moss held the top spot in the Combined Touring class up until the trophy race when Gavyn Croft, who had fiirished second in Race 1 and 2 took out the win. Paul McLucas snared third.

Ryan Simpson and Ben Porter were the form drivers in the Formula Vees. Simpson took Race 2 and earlier claimed the top spot in qualifying. But it was Porter, who after taking Race 1, returned to the winner's circle in the trophy race.

Bruce Colby and Clem Fama finished second and third, with Simpson finishing well down the order in 10th.

Carrera Cup driver Stephen Bomess cleaned up in the Production Sports Cars by winning all three races. Bill Pye finished second in all three races, with WilEam Adams taking third in Race 1, while lain Pretty scored third in the remaining two.

- DANIEL POWELL

E30 Winton Action BMW E30 racing was the pick of the bunch at the second round of the 2005 Victorian Motor Racing Championships at Winton Raceway two weeks ago.

Neil Anderson qualified on pole and won the opening three races before the exciting Race 4 handicap event. Kylie Patten surprised the pack with a great win ahead of Paul Kertes and Anderson. Anderson went on to claim the final race victory ahead of arch-rival Geoff Bowles.

Under 2-litre Sport Sedans were well supported. Anthony Kosh qualified on pole and raced on to win the first two events before category stalwart Ken Hastings scored wins in Races 3 and 4. Kosh asserted his position at the head of the field again in the final.

After suffering defeat to Phillip Webster in the opening dice, Keith Linnell swept all before him in the over 2 litre Sport Sedans.

The Sedans class was a Max Twigg crushing in his Porsche 933.

73

Targa-ting Tasmania Targa Tasmania kicks off next week, and you are aii invited to five spiendid days of tarmac action

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T'S April. Leaves are falling off trees, crops are being harvested and, in between all of this,fast, exotic and classic cars are buzzing around the Apple Isle's most testing roads and scenic backdrops. Next week,for the 14th time, Targa Tasmania kicks into gear in what is now regarded as the biggest tarmac rally in the world.

Targa Tassie can really appeal to anyone. If you love cars, the almost unlimited extravaganza of machines is mind-boggling. If you like competition, the standard of roads they race on is truly inspiring. Or even if you're the scenic, picnic-type, then Tasmania is one of the v\/orld's most stunning locations.

But this ain't no Sunday drive.

The event is designed to give owners of priceless and timeless cars a chance to drive them how they were built to be driven. As you could appreciate though, the risk that comes with the thrill is very real.

There are four competitions within the event: Historic, Touring Classic, Classic and Modern.

Competitors in the Shannons Historic and Touring Classic Competitions follow a shorter competition route, competing on about six targa stages each day.

They also get a rest day midway through the event. Spectators can enjoy the Show and Shine on this day.

This year's Targa Tasmania starts with the Temco Prologue at Georgetown on Tuesday April 26, followed by 44 stages of timed competition, including some new stages which are likely to test both drivers and navigators. The running order of the competition is decided on the Prologue day held on a closed road-town stage - the slowest will go first, and the fastest last. The total distance traveled will be 2100km (if you complete the rally!), while the competitive stages amass 452km.

Heading the list of the men most-likely is seven-time Targa champions Jim Richards and Barry Oliver.

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Cast of Favourites: The Tasmanian White family, above. Below, 2004 winners Sullens and Rabbett.

Golf great meets road rager: Stuart Appleby, above left, won't have much room in the boot of his Gallardo for his golf clubs. But Appleby has an experienced caddy in Paul Stokell to help him through the finer points of the Targa Tassie layout, see map, top.

After suffering defeat last year to the Subaru combination of Tony Sullens and Julia Rabbett, Richards and Oliver are hopeful of placing their name back at the top of the results sheet in their 2004 Porsche 911 GTS CS. With Richards' undeniable talent and Oliver's local knowledge and solid reputation, you'd be sure that this combo would be the favourites . ..

Enter Jason and John White.

The Tassie team finished second

last year in their 2001 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II N1, only to be disqualified for presenting an illegal car post-race. Having just come off a win in Rally Tasmania earlier this year (and defeating Richards and Oliver in the process). Team White will not only carry the hopes of Tasmania, but will carry the pressure of being the pre-event favourites for this year's race.

Other recognisable entries include the Lamborghini Gallardo

squad of the team's regular driver Paul Stokell and Australian International golfer Stuart Appleby.

Dual Bathurst winner Tony Longhurst has a Subaru Impreza at his disposal, while VIP Petfoods man Tony Quinn will again be partnered by Keith Wenn in their 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo. The pair has consistently improved every time they race together, so expect no less at TT in 2005.

motorsportnews

NATIONAL SCENE

New Challenge Karting Briefs

QUEENSLAND Junior Clubman driver Damian Assaillit has tried out the open wheeler scene - in New Zealand.

The multiple state karting champion competed in a Formula Challenge event at Taupo on the north island of NZ last month. In his debut meeting, Assaillit qualified second and grabbed two thirds and a second over the three heats to claim second outright.

He plans to contest the four round Winter Series ., which runs from June to September.

The Assaillits were planning on competing at the v “ AKA Nationals and then the Junior MAX series, but found the Formula Challenge cars to be a better option..

"We were given the opportunity to go to New Zealand and it worked out to be more economical than to do the Nationals," his father Pat said. "Because Damian has an A grade License, he was not eligible for Junior Rotax."

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Truck falls THEY'RE tough miles, those between Perth / and the east coast...

A number of competitors at the AKA Nationals over Easter had all sorts of drama getting their gear home.

I KAnreoM*The DPE/Arrow truck -i. fell off a road-train and .. , .1 gsustained some rather serious damage. Thankfully most of the contents were relatively unharmed. The same can't be said for the Pro Karting team. A door popped open on their trailer (also on the back of a road train) scattering eight engines across the outback. Additionaliy, NSW's Greg Martin blew an engine in his tow car. Then, after waiting a week to have that fixed, the axle assembly fell out of his trailer approaching Broken Hill!

- MARK WICKS

THE Kandola brothers have pulled out of the 2005 CIK series. The WA duo has decided to change their focus and concentrate on state championships in the domestic classes.

- "The idea (of racing CIK) was to get the boys (Amrit in junior ICA and Deepal in senior ICA) to sharpen their skills and raise the bar so we can race properly overseas" said their father Dalbir. "But the numbers are not there. I'd rather enter them in state championship events and have 20 to 30 entries to fight it out all the time," Despite the change, the Kandolas still plan to race overseas later in the year, but the lack of miles with the specialised CIK equipment will put them behind the eight-ball.

"We will definitely race overseas, Tim Craig (Top Kart) is looking at the options for us now, but it will probably be Japan (Asia-Pacific Championships)."

Due to winning Clubman Light at the Nationals, Deepal will also get to race in an international Clubman-style event later in the year courtesy of Yamaha. n The ARC A1 engine has officially been granted its own class by the AKA: ARC A1 Evolution.

The 10Occ TaG-style engine (electric start, clutch) is comparable in performance to the Yamaha KT100J National engine. The class will run on Dunlop SL1 tyres and while J engines can compete in A1 Evolution, the A1 is not permitted to race in National classes. It is classified as an experimental class and can be run at open and club events but not State or National championships. n Derek Cunningham concluded his foray into the USA with a double whammy at the Jacksonville finale of the Florida Winter Tour recently.

Cunningham won both rounds to easily win the series. Now returned from America, Cunningham and Greg Turner will make up the First-Kart drivers that form part of the First Karts NSW team for the rest of 2005.

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Kyle Clews and Darryn Piper will also race for the team, but aboard Phoenix chassis. n Alex Zanardi's young kart driver, Martin Plowman, was badly injured at the opening round of the Italian Championships last month.

The Brit crashed into a fence during a heat race and punctured a lung when an unidentified object pierced his race suit and rib vest, penetrating his chest. He is expected to stay in Italy for a number of weeks before returning to the UK to complete his recovery. n NSW's Steel Guiliana finished J6th in Junior MAX at the opening round of the Rotax Mojo MAX Euro Challenge in France on March 27.

Driving for the Austrian HochhauserA/anspeed Karts team, Guiliana qualified 16th and placed 13th in the pre-final. Belgian Christian Van Balen won the Junior class, Christiano Morgado succeeded in RM1 and Tristan Oman won Senior MAX. Western Australian engineering company Sniper, who manufacture a laser chassis alignment system, are one of the Euro series sponsors. n On his way home from France, Guiliana tested at the PF International circuit in England, which is the location of round two of the Euro MAX Challenge, The test was to help acclimatise to the circuit. n The 2005 World Rotax Finals will be held in Malaysia. Rotax had delayed announcing the venue for the sixth running of their World Challenge but recently confirmed it will be held on Langkawi Island in November. The circuit, which was used for the Rotax World Finals in 2002, will undergo a number of changes to meet international regulations. n John Whitfield's Wild Digital organisation is sponsoring Junior Clubman at the Canberra round of the NSW Southern Zone series on April 30-May 1. Wild Digital is supporting the class by paying the entry fee for every Junior Clubman driver that competes at the round.

- MARK WICKS

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CLASSIFIEDS

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on in^ o Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at vmw.my105.com

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your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia vifith 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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FOR SALE 03 CUP CAR

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3750 KLM. 170.000 Best Offer. 03 96906866

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Ford F150 XLT for sale I ’ j

( Auto with 0/D. Air con. seats 6 comfortably. ^ Rear seats convert to storage tray. "Roller shutter" lockable lid. 5.4 litre petrol, ual 80 litre tanks. Excellent for towing. Long wheel base and long tray. $37,500 Neg. dean 0412 365 CS 029 / 0412 365 029.

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New Future Tourer, seam welded shell, 308 motec Injected, Richmond T10 4 speed, Harrop brakes and sway bars. Complete spares package available and assistance if 308 required. Mark 0409 846 717. www.myl05.com/80970

VT-X 036 Perkins, ex Porter car 111, First Holden home in 2004 Konica Minolta, Complete spare package available, Mark 0409 846 717 or 08 8284 8087.

308 www.my105.com/79747

www.my105.com/4285O Porsche RSR replica

zero kms after full rebuild of engine, new c/r gearbox. 3.6 L 12 plug race engine, Autronic EMS, Cosworth pistons, Carillo rods, Modena fuel in]., Harrop brakes, coil overs, air jacks, fully caged and seam welded shell, recent repaint, weighs 1000 kgs., 2 sets wheels, CAMS log book, unregd. (previous NSW rego.)

Nothing to spend & sold at fraction of cost to develop, due new project. $69,900. Richard 03 9822 5034 or 0417 370 671.

Cooper S, Reliable and fast Group Nb race car.CAMS log book.NSW championship winning car 2000,2001 & 2003. 2 sets wheels and tyres, LSD. Recent fresh engine. Custom made trailer included.

Asking $16,000 Charlie 0418-692850 / 02308 4984 3327. www.myl05,com/13239

MGB GT, recent bare metal respray with retrimed seat and new carpets. Photos.

Great touring car, effortless performance, 17.2 sec 1/4 mile, from 2100 cc engine including head mods for ULP. Extras include 5 speed gearbox, teles all round, d 15 inch supalite mags, 12mths rego. $17,000. Ivan 03 5281 5490.

308 www.myl O5.com/19627

www.myl05.com/61883 Sedans/Sports Cars «■

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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 377 308 372. Mick 0418 377 372. www.myl05.com/28823

20 April 2005

HQ Race Car #50 Vic, Raced 2004 season with great results.heaps of spares,full set of wets,new Velo Seat and SAAS Belts,great looking car,many wins and poles over 5 years. $7900 Neg. Travis 03 97750466 / 03 308 59785665. www.myl05.com/64659 Porsche 944 race car, 944 just built,never raced,comes with purpose built tandem trailer, log book, data log dash.sparco touring seat,braided lines .foam filled fuel cell,carbon dash,engine has only 16000 ks prior to becoming race car no expense spared,everything new!. $42,000 Neg. john 94876643 / 95804490.

308 www.myl05.eom/76502

Rally/Race Skyline R32 GTSt, Imported as a RALLY CAR - can be conditionally registered but CANNOT ever be road registered...so DO NOT ASK. Apex! adj SUSP, Recaro seat, 3" exh, all acc work drives excellent, rust and crash free. 7,500.

308 Kerry 0417518660, www.myl05.com/51598

Hurd/Krause Torana, Chev powered 300KW LX Torana, Freshened Engine. This car has at least 4 National Titles, Numerous Stale Titles.Times Phillip Island 1.47, Symmons 1.00.39, Baskerville 59.4 This car requires a serious driver. $26000. Mark 309 0408133510 / 0363695416. www.myl05.eom/49063

Under 2 Lt Corolla, 2Litre, Arias pistons, Argo rods, titanium oversize valves (shim under), Motec M4Pro with lambda & logging, Hilux disc rear. Alloy 4 spots, hydraulic clutch, A032R’s, Adjustable koni's with coil overs. Log booked, a quick car as is; Great potential in the right hands. $15,000 ONO. Steve 0755606881. www.myl05.com/2257

SPORTS SEDAN, Chrome/Moly Torque Tube Space Frame, magnes uprights, Koni fully adj, Harrop 4 pot,20B Triple rotor Kim Ledger, Hewland Transaxle FGB 200,slick & wets wheels, spares etc. $60,000 Not Neg. 308 Richard 0412320940, www.myl05.com/75926

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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 looker, spares, trailer, hill climb car, very competitive. $20,000 Neg. John 0417 454 402.

308 www.my105.com/95122

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

MAZDA RX-7 600+hp Circuit/Drift Car, 13B extend ported turbo with 3mm apex seals, balanced and blueprinted, with GT35/40 700hp BB turbo, Tial wastegate.

Microtech ECU, V-mount cooler and radiator, Mazdaspeed twinplate dutch. Zeal coil-overs. Hawk pads. Mazdaspeed MS01 17" rims. Has run 10.9@134mph 1/4mile.

Has Microtech Dash, momo comp strg wheel. Very fast carllllll $35000 Neg. Jason 307 (08)83590500.

Nissan 280ZX, Full weld in cage, Bilstein adjustable suspension (built by Centreline), Willwood brakes with peddle box, 2 sets of wheels, 2 RB25 engines (1 with 6 throttle bodies & 1 turbo charged). Ran 1;50 at P.l.

Plus all spares. $11,000 ONO. Michael 0418139646, 307 www.my105.eom/13791

www.myl05.com/22981

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Falcon XY, Fresh 351, new Avons, Goldtrack 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.

308 www.myl05.com/69283

Mazda R100 Coupe Sports Sedan, Midmount engine, LHD, Full floating rear, all new driveline, fully rebuilt engine, 3mm carbon apex seals, two sets 16x10 wheels, near new Dunlops, guages, extensive fiberglass, liftoff front, 2pac paint, big brakes, Dorian timer, S/V\S seat and wheel, new belts, adjustable Konis, spare LSD and two RX5 boxes, $12,750 Neg. Peter 0410 658 463 / 02 9635 7841.

307

Porsche Carrera, 231 b.h.p model, metallic blue with blue trim, 3 owners since new.

Australian delivered, Porsche Melbourne service history with books. Well maintained dally driver for last 7 years no longer fits the kids in the back! Mark Bisset 0419 332 342. $45,000 Neg. David 03 98657643 / 03 95341426.

306 www.myl05.com/7964

Honda Integra "Type R", As driven by Adam Beechey to victory in last round of 2004 GT Production Championship at Mallala: Built by Wayne Park in 2000 from new car, CAMS approved roll cage, proflex Shooks, 3 sets of wheels, drybreak fuel system and heaps of spares. Ready to win in 2005 series. $25,900.00 ONO. 308 www.myl05.com/69972

1?

www.my105.com/71190

Team Mondeo offers for sale, 2 race ready Mondeo S/T (fresh engine/g’box/brakes etc). Heaps of spares; 18"/19" rims, panels, gear ratios - enough genuine Cosworth/ Ford M'sport bits to build a 3rd carl! Also on offer; 42' t'porter/trir- belly lockers & Tieman tail lifter. Apr.05 Vic rego. $110,000.00 the lot Neg. Peter 0428-117070 / 02-9597-6393.

308 www.myl05.com/25838

1999 GTS 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 incl 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. 3U7 $150,000. Tim 0409090932.

Bolwell mk4. Roadster. Reliable,well maintained,ideal entry to hillclimb, supersprints.gear. Speed on tweed and more. Very quick.great handling. Trailer and many spares. 19,000 Neg. geoff 0419620266.

307

Porsche 993RS, Regular class b winner, enter in nat. Porsche series, prof, prepared to win class B, strong motor, uni chip, gonzo exh.,loads of upgrades, lightweight stripped body, big red brakes. Upgrade LSD, 8 x 18" wheels, spare tyres, proflex shocks, data logger, only raced 2 seasons, contact for full list. $75,000 ONO. Russell 0411724176.

306 www.myl05.com/1836

www.myl05.com/7999

www.myl05.com/62718

IhMFwfayto sell your gear! From lust$25* justlog on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my105.com) Advertising can also be supplied using thisform ($10/$15 surchage to text only/text + pic advertisements) Advertisements will appear in next possible issue of Motorsport Hews PLUS the Qo.cain website forthree months.

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/ZZIlylZIMsrnn online classifieds CStfiflOfV: □ Sedans

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motorsport news

CLASSIFIEDS Open Wheelers

Speedway

Transporters/Trailers

$

Formula Libre Hillcllmb/Circuit car, Current Australian Hillclimb Championship winning car [ 0-1300cc].Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa engine , liquid cooled , fuel injected , sequential 6 speed , self diagnostic engine management , fully adjustable inboard suspension , vented discs , adjustable brake bias , Isd , new 3" FIA harness , carbon fibre body , log book , fast/reliable & ready to race, $19800 ono. brett 03 56625400 / 0419566690. www.my105.com/89270

Hillclimb Open Wheeler, Cheap entry into class outright racing.

300hp supercharged/methanol engine. Brand new sticky Avons, new paint,includes trailer and spares including new fully propped head. $16,000. mark 02 8814 6900 / 02 4729 1865.

308 www.myl05.com/47296

Mantis Formula/Vee, fresh engine, new pistons, rings, valves, manifold heads, exhaust, dizzy and electronic ignition. All new brakes, 4 x spare 3 piece wheels only 4 races old. Long and short box plenty of spares with trailer and winch. $10,000 Neg. Spiros 0418 536 509 or 03 9749 4026.

311 www.my105.com/57167

VAN DIEMEN RF86, Ground-up restoration, new Ritter engine, one race meeting.

Imported by Van Diemen Australia 1989 used as school car most of it's life. CAMS Cat 1 Log Book. First FF driven by Mark Webber. Letter of authenticity from VDA. Best RF86 in the country. Some spares.

Ready to race State historic. $25,000.00 Not Neg. John 0418 130 600, www.myl05.com/73102

Farrell S/Sports car/trailer, second outright SA Hillclimb Champs, 2003-04 outright sports car record Colingarove 13.1600 record. 16-2000 rec, fast and reliable. $20,000. Andrew 08 8373 2820 (wk) 0438 310 943 799 / 08 6357 6485 (ah). www.my105.com/30977

20 April 200s

9

Street Stock, PREVIOUS NOWRA TITLE HOLDER,JUST BEEN FULLY RESPRAYED IN 2PAC INSIDE AND OUT.NO EXPENSE SPARED VERY QUICK CAR,WON OVER 30 1ST PLACE TROPHY'S NOTHING TO SPEND COMES WITH HEAPS OF SPARES!, $4500.00 Neg. TERRY 0405 214038.

308 www.myl05.com/34389

Street Stock, CURRENT NOWRA NO 1, HAS OVER 30 1ST PLACE TROPHY'S, PRO BUILT AND MAINTAINED, NO EXPENCES SPARED HAS BEST OF THE BEST VERY VERY QUICK AND RELIABLEREADY TO RACE AND WINI COMES WITH HEAPS OF SPARES, EXCELENT BUY!!, $4950.00 Neg. TERRY 0405 214038.

308 www.myl05.com/84578

FOR SALE, Formula 500 FBR Chassis Chromoly 4130 cond n tubing Rotax 494 Race ready heaps of spares Ph; Gary 07 4035 5866/ 0412 463 283.

307 www.my105.com/50142

Parts

Enclosed Trailer, 4 wheel electric brakes, break-away system, aluminium floor and roof, one piece ply/fiberglass sides, MDF lined, lift up rear door, tyre rack and storage bench in front, parts rack, foid up workbench, winch, 240/12 voi lighting, 8 ply tyres, $15,000. Anthony 0408 522 124. www.myl05.com/58639

IDEAL TRANSPORTER, FLAT FLOOR, 680 ENGINE 185HP 5SPD SEMI AUTO, 2 SPD EATON 4 DIFF, IDEAL TRANSPORTER . BUS VERY CLEAN AND RELIABLE.REGO 22/03/05. 6,500.00 ONO. DARRYL 041897938 www.my105.com/80773

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.myl05.com/83104

Wanted Racecar hauler - Mitsubishi Canter turbo, turbo diesel - 5 speed - pro. built belly lockers all around body - fold down ramps generator - compressor - fuel storage electric winch - alloy bullbar, with driving lights - 6xcleanskin tyres - tinted windows clean interior - tyre rack - sheiving - diff, axle, wing & exhaust racks - spotlights Vic.reg. - mechanically good, drives well much more! $18500.- ONO. david 0416194763 / 0416194763.

307 www.myl O5.com/16693

Weber 51mm IDA carby, including trumpets to suit rotary. Cash paid if in Victoria. David 0418 358 197 / (03) 9785 3187, 308 www.myl05.com/87785

Karts for sale Rotax/Tony Kart, Quality complet kart for the price of an engine. $3100 Not Neg. Brian 98248162.

308 www.my105.com/92676

Workshop/Pit Equipment

WWW.m9IO5.C8m

Lap timing system, Astra tech complete single car system . Includes in car display, in car sensor and car wiring loom. Track side beacon. Never been used,checked only to verify conect operation. 750.00 Neg. Jeffrey 34022420.

307 www.myl05.com/96561 Engine Dyno, Heenan Froud water brake with stands, tall shaft, heat exchanger etc, will handle well in excess of 1000HP can see running. $12,000 ONO. Michael 03 9793 9113 or 0402 846 418.

307 www.myl05.eom/99960

Sponsor Seek www.sponsorseek.Gom.aLi

For Sale, New Mar 04, used four times, cost $2600 with $600 paint job. $1200.00.

Jim 0412052489.

307 www.my105.com/65083

Sports Sedan Complete driveline, Lola rear uprights, CAE quick change diff, lots of ratios, Jerico gearbox with ratios, Koni 3012,2way shocks, trlppleplate clutch, hydraulic throwout bearing,tailshaft, bigCVs+driveshafts.all arms,AP4spot callipers+lspare, will take overBOOHP.Will seperate Wanted HewlandDG300,complete or not, $13200,. Graham 0412351888.

307 www.myl O5.com/13187

I am very happy with the service I received. Ail three of the enquiries you forwarded were firm buyers and it tvas sold on a first come first served basis.

Again thanks.

I. Hills

Get it seen Gef it soid!

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I.vww.mnews.com^au EDITORUl STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan l editor@mnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Mark Glendenning l mark@mnews.com.au National Editor: Grant Rowley l grant@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Chris Jordan l chrisj@mnews.com.au

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CONTRIDUTORS FI: Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, Gary Watkins, David Addison US: Phil Morris, Martin D. Clark Speedway; Brett Swanson, Julie Pearce, Geoff Rounds, Tony Millard (UK), Greg Boscato, Darren Sutton Rally: Jon Thomson Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Nick Nicholas, Ken Ferguson National: Mark Wicks, Mark Jones, Daniel Powell, Erin McCowatt Photographers: Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Bothwell Photographic, Marshall Cass, Nigel Snowdon & Diana Burnett, API Images, Neil Hammond, Allsport, John Morris/Mpix, Frank Midgley, Peter Bury, Mike Patrick (UK), Chris Carter, James Smith, Paris Charles, Bob Potts Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News - ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Printed by: Offset Alpine Printing Pty Ltd, ~ Lidcombe, NSW. Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted. ●Opinions expressed in Motorsport News are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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82

« New State Racing fan Thanks to an insert in your magazine I attended Round 2 of the NSW State Championship at Eastern Creek on April 10.

We were treated to a packed program with a wide variety of classes and edge-of-the-seat racing all day. A far better day out than the V8s and a whole lot cheaper as well, and not a lawyer in sight!

The only downsides were that programs were only issued to competitors, although once I found out that they were avaOable from Race Control I was given a handful.

Also, the loud speakers were turned off in the grandstand, which had free entry. The race commentator was in his booth behind me and 1 didn't have the heart to tell him that the three or four hundred people in the grandstand couldn't hear a word he was saymg.

With no traffic problems in or out.

I'm going to see more of this racing.

Thanks for the tip!

John BaUantyne jg.ballantyne@bigpond.com

I agree - Hack has no clue I am writing in response to Murray Anderson's letter from MNews #306.

I agree 100 percent with what he is saying regarding Rod Nicholson's comments in the Heraid Sun, suggesting that Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher's careers were on the line in Bahrain.

Rod really needs to take his head out of the horse's arse -seeing that is where his so-called talent for writing comes from - and stick to what he knows. I am sure the Heraid Sun asked him to write on the GP as he was there covering a horse race, but if you don't know your topic maybe you should just do a generalised report and not try to be a GP reporter?

Another thing that does peeve me is how all the headlines are saying 'Ferrari in Crisis'.

you also mention that Davison is a contender for an endurance drive with a Ford team in the next edition. Am I the only one looking for info? Or am I blind and missed the story when reading your mag?

Jon Chant jaguarsearlobes@hotinail.com

converter Send us your thoughts: mail; PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 www.mnews.com.au Where’s Davo, I’m worried!

Hi guys- well done on a great mag, which I usually find has all the information I need.

But one thing I haven't found out from your mag is why was Will Davison bumped from the Team Dynamik seat for the CUpsal 500?

It mentions on your website the sale to Tony Longhurst of one of Dynamik's licences, and goes on to say how Simon Wills will be bumped out of his seat and not Will Davison, due to Davison's contract.

But come Clipsal, Wills was in the seat. How has this happened, and is this just a case of father with money ensures child's drive over someone with talent and a contract?

Obviously Davison has shown more talent in one weekend (Melbourne GP)than Wills has ever shown since he graduated to the main game.

There was not much mention of this in your Clipsal round-up, but

AMRS - the price is not right I have just visited my first Australian Motor Racing Series meeting, and 1 could not help but write to MNews about a few things.

Being a supporter of motorsport of all levels,1 enjoyed the day's racing. VrTdle the cast of categories was small,I was not so worried,as it allowed me and my son to be home at a reasonable hour at day's end.

And while drifting is not my cup of tea, I must admit to having enjoyed watching it, if only for a little while, and it certainly did bring some new people to Mallala.

But my concern was with the ticket pricing. It was $25 dollars to get in and there was no concession tickets for my son,a student. And the crowd was so thin that if you wanted any sort of atmosphere (plus a look at the cars) you had to pay a further $10 to get in the pits!

State level racing offers tremendous value for the spectator-ie: free entry and lots of cars. It is a better day out than AMRS,yet for some reason AMRS is crazily expensive. Who makes these looney pricing decisions?

The AMRS had few categories, small grids and was far too expensive.

I may return to see some state-level stuff at Mallala, but never again will I go to see such a meagre race meeting at such an outrageous price.

Scott Nichoiis Goiden Grove, South Austraiia 5

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Please guys,for how many years has everyone been saying Ferrari need to be toppled, the racing is boring etc.

Well, when they are finally beaten, we unfortunately don't get to read the good news headlines like 'Renault dominates the first three rounds'.

Don't you think we should be giving credit where credit is due?

They have risen to the challenge, made a car that is at present the car to beat and all everyone is saying is how bad Ferrari are doing.

So please let's get off the Webber and Ferrari beating and report what is fact.

Simyne Hunter slmynehunter@hotmaii.com

Cool race dad, pity it cost us 70 bucks! Reader Scott Nicbolls thinks that the prices were a bit rich at the AMRS at Mallala.

motorsport news

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