Motorsport News Issue 312 - June 29-July 5, 2005

MY FIRST NASCAR TEST

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No. 312 June 29-July 5 2005 Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

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Issue 312

29 June-5 July 2005

www.mnews.conni.au

news and opinion 4

6

Showdown The teams face the FIA in Paris today ...

Headmasterly advice Max warns FI principals

10 Germany Expects BMW moves in on Sauber 12 Le Mans, now Bathurst Kristensen eyes the 1000 18 Team Oz hits the front Tag leads early but Tracy wins 25 Motor Mouth The Force is strong with Luke ... Youlden 26 Box Seat Just when FI looked good, Indy happened 82 Talk Converter Predictably, you mostly hated Indianapolis

foaturos 28 Five Minutes With Sir Frank Williams Is there life after BMW? Or the FIA? 30 Five Minutes With Chris Atkinson Our man is finding things rough in the WRC 32 Mildura meets Shanghai Todd speaks in his new role as a Chinese Hero 36 Black in the USA The potential outcomes from the USGP fiasco 40 The Road to Shanghai Some of the goods, and must-try-harders,from China But did he take the Gecko? Peter Brock makes Goodwood Perfect 46 The Greatest Dane Tom K talks about 7 Le Mans wins, the DTM and bikes SO State of the Union MNews runs the slide rule over Aussie open wheelers

race coverage

54 United States Formula 1 Nope, we refuse to refer to this as a Grand Prix 58 Heat, Dust, Tom Kristensen wins and Loeb doesn't. All the Le Mans news TTTTT 'MN'yi'ir:' 60 Heat. Dust. Seb Do not 26t Monsieur Loeb anfirv, he

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20 Stateside 64 Speedway

66

Drag Racing

23 Bikes 68

62 Rallying

National Scene

75

Marketplace 3

INDY PIASCO

Formula One's FIA calls seven teams to ‘please explain' after Indy Fiasco - but a breakaway series could result...

by JOE SAWARD and STAFF AS Formula 1 heads towards its Paris showdown later today,secret plans are being made for a 'replacement' French Grand Prix this weekend,in case the bulk of the FI teams cannot resolve their differences with the FIA and specifically president Max Mosley.

MNews FI correspondent Joe Saward has discovered a surge in activity around the Bernie Ecclestone-owned Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France, which suggests that FI's ringmaster is covering his bases in case the teams summoned to Paris today (Wednesday) decide that enough is enough.

Since the appalling events, or non-events, at last week's US Grand Prix, the seven Michelin teams which failed to start the race have gone very quiet. In contrast, Mosley - whose intransigence disallowed any of the teams' proposals to actually provide a race in the US - has gone on a PR binge, even releasing his own 'dummy' interview transcript to explain his actions and the consequences (a full transcript can be seen on our website www.mnews.com.au).

The silence from The Seven suggests that a united and coherent front will face Mosley today, which may well result in a vote of no-confidence in his FIA leadership.

MNews understands that the delegation heading to Paris could be substantial and geared to win the PR war - with a number of drivers also likely to be on hand.

And with the French Grand Prix less than 48 hours from kick-off, the atmosphere in Paris will be of the pressurecooker variety.

invalidate the race and lead to cancellation of all FIA events in the US. Rules were rules, the FIA said, instead suggesting, among other things,that the drivers of the affected cars !\ ('■''ii 1k- ■ should simply slow down around the banking ...

With no sensible options on the table, FI headed to its 1 inevitable farce, now labelled s 'The fiasco' by the nine teams - a six-car US Grand Prix. At The US GP problems began one point, a two-car race was on the Friday of the race when on the cards, but with Jordan Michelin discovered a potential racing under pressure from problem with its tyres, Bridgestone, Paul Stoddartfelt following Ralf Schumacher's compelled to compete with deja-vu crash into the Indy them - both teams of course retaining wall. The company earning points that would worked at trying to resolve the otherwise have seemed problems, including flying in unlikely. replacement tyres (vetoed by Crowd reaction was hostile, the FIA), but by Saturday with 'winner' Michael evening, it was clear that the Michelin cars faced serious Schumacher roundly booed on the rostrum, beer cans thrown safety concerns if they raced. onto the track (no Safety Car?) Proposals from the seven and team personnel leaving the Michelin teams, plus Minardi track in civvies to avoid and Jordan, centred around the possible confrontation. adoption of a chicane to slow The media world-wide has the cars through the highbeen swift in its condemnation banked Indy oval section. The of FI, but all eyes now turn to Michelin teams agreed to Paris, where the immediate forfeit all points and even grid future of FI will be decided. position to the Bridgestone runners in a force majeure bid More: Mosley's warning (page 6); to put on a race.

Box Seat(page 26); However, the FIA Move Along ... (page 36 - includes representatives at the track Mark Webber's driver's view) (Mosley wasn't present), passed on the decision that any Paris on Wednesday - pre-French CP news: www.mnews.com.au change to the circuit would How to win friends and...

Ecclestone may have been in the USA but the fans, left, put the blame on the absent Mosley.

Ricar THERE has been some unusual action with hotel bookings in recent days in the Paul Ricard area, in the south of France, particularly amongst TV companies and El teams.

The suggestion is that there may be some preliminary planning going on to host a Formula 1 race this weekend at the circuit, if there are problems with the FIA at today's World Council meeting.

Teams contacted by MNews say they know nothing about any such plans but it is not impossible that if the teams decide not to continue

competing in the 2005 World Championship they will need an alternative. Most of them exist lave ither solely^ race jBeansof suppd^i the^fdo not

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TV7T^

T i

Showdown

WANTED: V8 rounds, early '07 BAHRAIN may not appear on the V8 Supercar calendar until at least 2007 (see page 8i but our sources tell us that even if the year is not certain, the month is almost certain to be November.

The late date is made mandatory by the heat of the Middle East summer and will mean that Bathurst/ Indy and Bahrain will run is reasonably swift succession, so look for some events to be moved to the front half of the season.

d Stands Ready keep their sponsors happy.

If teams no longer want to race with the FIA, they must have an option and Paul Ricard makes a great deal of sense for a TV-only race to fill the airwaves this weekend.

simply not credible for TV companies to justify - as it happened, French TV 'switched off' from Indy soon after the start of the race.

FI does not want to lose its

The implications of such a plan are very clear. Paul Ricard is owned by a company which is controlled by Bemie Ecclestone, the man who calls the shots with FI promotion and does all the TV deals. He has commitments to TV companies around the world and cannot afford to have another disastrous event as

programming deals and so an alternative would be needed. Paul Ricard would get the FI world through another week but, with the British GP planned seven days after France, there is limited time available - although it is possible that Brands Hatch might come to Ecclestone's rescue.

It is unlikely to come to that because one weekend should be

at Indianapolis.

The idea of running an FI race at enough to convince the FIA to do a Magny-Cours with only four cars (if deal to protect the World it came to a split, Minardi would almosLcert go jth the rebels „Champjptshif of ii irest iaWaat d s*ch t(^tich^i tyres) is

the French GP at Magny-Cours is a race which is run by the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile,an organisation led by Jacques Regis, an FIA World Council member and one of those who was involved in last year's political upheavals at the FIA. If his race is under direct threat

n As we predicted some time ago, roof vents are to become mandatory on V8 Supercars. We believe that the ventilation, which has been tested on the ride cars of Stone Brothers Racing and Holden Racing Team, will be fitted to the cars from this weekend's round at Hidden Valley.

- which would put the FFSA itself under financial threat- Regis will not sit back and allow the worst to happen, at least not without a fight.

Whether tlris is real or whether it is a means of applying pressure to the FIA prior to today's crisis meeting is quite another matter.

Although it should be noted that MNews did not learn about the Paul

n Jason Bargwanna will be breaking in a new race engineer this weekend. Greg Wheeler, formerly of DJR, will engineer car #10 while Jamie Wattam will take a more 'technical' role with the Orrcon team.

Ricard bookings from either the teams or from the FOM ...

-JOE SAWARD

n Adam Macrow's championship leading Ford Falcon BA is for sale.

The Betta Electrical-backed HPDC V8 Supercar Series car has been shown a bit of interest, but the team are not keen to see the car leave its shed until after Round 4 of the series at Queensland raceway.

If the car was to sell, Howard Racing would likely purchase another car from Triple 8's spare catalogue.

^^The olner pi

&

n The V8 Supercar National Court of Appeal has adjourned the appeal

by Paramount Motorsport Pty Ltd. (Larry Perkins) over a $10,000 fine in relation to a Steward's finding of a breach of the rules (B6.5.11), providing false information to a Stewards Hearing. The appeal will now be held at a date to be advised.

IMPORTANT: Next week more Motorsport News...

I

NEXT ISSUE on sale NEXT WEEK - from Wed July 6 29 June 2005

JUST a reminder - this is our annual 'one week' issue of MNews, brought about by the need to adjust our schedule (to better line up for major races in the second part of the year).

The next issue of MNews will thus be on sale in 7 days from now-from Wednesday July 6.

5

INDY FIASCO

Max war

FIA President Max Mosley has downplayed the severity of the impact of the UG GP upon the sport's future, and warned the teams that the FIA's governance of the sport cannot be undermined.

"When something like this happens, it can be put right," Mosley told UK newspaper The Guardian.

"It's just a question of who puts it right. A great deal depends on the way it is handled by Michelin, the teams and, even though they're not to blame, Indianapolis. If the teams and Michelin supply the right compensation and Indianapolis distributes it quickly, then there should be another race there in 2006. But every day they delay compensating the fans is very short-sighted."

The Impotence of

Dear Mr President,

That's enough. The camel is in for back surgery. What happened in the USA - rather, what did not happen - was the final straw.

In the 14 years you have been Le Grand Fromage of the FIA, some good things have happened - but the bad things are starting to overtake them. In a sport where evolution means that wise, older drivers are replaced by young, hungry ones, the time has come for the same to happen at the FIA. We are struggling. Under your stewardship.

Formula 1 is in crisis. It has had four sets of engine rules in four years - are you trying to drive the manufacturers out? In the WRC, it is the opposite problem; two cornerstone makers, Peugeot and Citroen, are packing up and leaving, citing runaway costs. Another, Ford, only stayed by the skin of its teeth - but only after killing off its FI program.

We could put up with the FI political fighting if the racing made up for it but, again, on your watch, we have rules that dictate that teams build racing cars that cannot race each other.

FI is now being won in windtunnels and the pits.

You will notice, Mr President, that I refer to FI, not Grand Prix racing. I cannot bring myself to apply that term to this unholy mess.

Fingers are pointed at others now, at Michelin, at the teams. There are salient explanations to exonerate all sides in this affair but the buck stops, or should stop, at your desk. Even if you are right and the rules

Earnest

OPINION

Phil Branagan Melbourne

allowed no way out of the Indy dramas, those very rules are your responsibility.

At Indianapolis, when FI looked for leadership and inspiration, what it got instead was just another lawyer with a rulebook.

With your background, you would probably agree that a common weakness even accomplished politicians may have is the inability to recognise when it is time to leave the stage. The likes of Margaret Thatcher, Bob Flawke and Paul Keating outlived their welcomes and had to be pushed from the top job. They did not choose their time to go; others chose it for them.

Please sir, we could do with some dignity in our sport right now. Leave the stage to others and allow a new hierarchy to move the sport forward. Otherwise, the events on Black Sunday may become catastrophic.

So please go, now, and give the sport back to its stakeholders - the fans.

Mosley reiterated his criticism of the teams that did not race at Indianapolis, and said that he did not believe that the problem with Michelin's tyre was as serious as was being made out. The FIA President also maintained that he did not know for sure that the Michelin teams would not race until the last moment.

"I was only confident the Ferraris would go out," Mosley stated. "I wasn't confident about Jordan and Minardi. But I hoped some would race using the pit-lane option. Only on the warm-up lap did I get a call saying they were probably going to pull in.

"They were incredibly stupid, because there are no winners in a situation like this - except the American lawyers. It was crazy. I felt intense irritation because I also suspected the tyre problem was not as grave as they represented. I felt the situation had been created artificially and deliberately."

"I had lots of calls from Bernie [Ecclestone], [McLaren's] Ron Dennis and [Renault's] Flavio Briatore," Mosley continued. "The interaction with Flavio was difficult because he did not make any coherent point.

"Ron was more rational.

With regard to [the idea of all seven teams] switching to Bridgestone [tyres] he made the valid point that without testing there could be no safety - which was my precise point about the chicane."

Mosley also responded to recent calls for his resignation, singling out Minardi owner Paul Stoddart, who has become one of his most vocal critics.

"Stoddart is a sad case," Mosley told the newspaper.

"I helped him tremendously when the other teams were trying to steal his money. But now my reaction is that he's obviously forgotten to take his medication."

Flowever, Mosley remained adamant that the criticism was not of him personally, but rather that it was merely the

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motorsportnews

ns the Teams a

The governing body will always win

latest in a long-running battle over who should control Formula One. "For me it's not personal," Mosley said. "There is only animosity over who should run the sport. On the one hand I'm saying it's the FIA and they think it should be the teams.

When 1 was one of them I

thought the same.

"But the governing body will always win. So I'm not concerned if they take an antagonistic line. What are they going to do? If they go on strike, they're simply cutting off their nose to spite their face.

That won't happen.

"Only those who don't

understand the system believe they can do it - and that's only two or three team principals.

The rest understand that the governing body has to control the sport; it doesn't have to be me personally.

"If they'd just kept quiet, I would've probably gone already."

A Lesson in Crisis Management

MANY millions of words have been written in recent

days about what happened to Formula 1 at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis 10 days ago.

The FIA issued a lengthy statement, purporting to be a 'question and answer'session, with Max Mosley being subtly pressurised by an anonymous questioner (see www.mnews.com.au). This was very clever but ultimately will not aid Mosley's case, as clever propaganda is not what is needed to find a solution to the problems. A solution can only be found with plain talking and trust and it is hard to see how that can happen if Mosley maintains his current attitude.

The real problem,however,is that even if Mosley does adopt a more conciliatory approach, he is unlikely to win the trust of the teams. Things have gone too far for that.

While the FIA arguments were plausible they do not stand much scrutiny when put into context, particularly in relation to the question of crisis management. The FIA, Toyota,Ferrari, Michelin and the teams all have very valid arguments about why they did as tliey did at Indianapolis, but none of these arguments helped the fans at Indianapolis nor the global image of FI. When it came to crisis management on Sunday morning, the teams and Michelin showed themselves to be flexible and wUling to compromise in a sensible fashion to allow FI to put on a show and avoid the debacle. The FIA was the otily body with the power to impose a solution to save the day. It did not use that power.

Since the debacle Mosley and his helpers have been working hard to ensure that the blame is placed elsewhere but one can only ask why such ingenuity and energy was not employed before the crisis rather than afterwards.

One of ^e major problems is that while Mosley's claims that the sport should be run entirely by the book sounds reasonable enough, that has not always happened in the past. There are a number of precedents when it comes to crisis management,both in FI and in other forms of the sport, and the FIA President's past tendency of abusing team principals in public forums has highlighted the fact that there may be other motivations behind what happened.

The big question now is whether the World Council will support Mosley or whether it will rise up and unseat him.

The best evidence suggests that most of the council members are too reliant on Mosley's patronage to dare to rebel and that even if he was ousted there is no clear candidate to replace him.

OPINION

Joe Saward Paris

The danger is that Mosley will run riot at the World Council and punish the FI teams. It is very clear that any punishment wUl trigger out-andout war between the teams and the federation. The teams have had enough and the result of a punishment will almost certainly be the destruction of the 2005 World Championship and the creation, probably within a matter of days, of a rival series. And with eight teams in the rebel camp,Mosley has no heavy armour in reserve.

Switching to the rebel camp or withdrawing to avoid humiliation are Ferrari's only courses of action in such a scenario. Bemie Ecclestone's best interests would be served by going with the show,rather than trying to promote a championship based on nothing but the legitimacy of the FIA. Ecclestone cannot be happy with what happened at Indianapolis. It was the first time that he was unable to broker some kind of deal to save the day and clearly and, publicly,iUushated that his power is not what once it was.

That will have hurt. Thus the spotlight will be on the relationship between Mosley and Ecclestone. If Bemie stands up before the World Council and asks for a noconfidence vote in Mosley-imthinkable though that may be -it is unlikely to fail.

What happened in the hours before that final showdown may be much discussed when the World Council meets but, ultimately, it is irrelevant because what happened,happened. The race did not go ahead,the fans were left disappointed and angry and FI failed to manage its crisis.

Whatever the details, the World Council meeting on Wednesday is going to be a watershed in the history of the sport. If Mosley backs down he will be weakened politically; if he does not back down,he may be taken out.

In the FI world there is little sympathy for his situation.

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T i

Health questions over FI brakes MIKA Salo has confirmed that a number of carbon fibre particles have recently been found in his lungs.

The Finnish driver says that these are from the dust of the carbon brakes used in FI. Coincidentally, the FIA is beginning a campaign to have carbon brakes banned from the ji sport. The FIA says that it wiil arrange for an independent examination of Salo to determine the possible health risks posed by the dust. n The organisers of the French and British Grands Prix have both issued statements in recent days saying that fans should not be worried about their races, on July 3 and July 10 respectively.

France is particularly worried as this is the period in which it sold a lot of its tickets last year and the organisers are hoping for a repeat to push the sales up to around the 100,000 mark. The British GP has already sold 100,000 tickets. While everyone says that they are hopeful that the racing go ahead, there are no guarantees pending today's crisis meeting between the teams and the FIA in Paris. n The price of shares in Michelin fell by just over three percent in trading on the Monday after the company's controversial decision to warn teams not to race in the USGR Analysts say that the problems at Indianapolis will inevitably impact on Michelin sales in the United States and on its image in general. n Grand Prix Tours Inc., which organises trips for fans to Grand Prix around the world, has announced that it will be crediting the cost of grandstand tickets for its customers who attended the 2005 USGP in Indianapolis, "We want all of our guests to have a positive experience over the race weekend and, until Sunday, the weekend was perfect," said Barry Simpson, president of Grand Prix Tours.

"We feel our tour customers have been let down. Therefore, we will credit guests the full cost of their USGP grandstand tickets towards any future FI tour we offer." n Danica Patrick says that she would be interested in racing in Formula 1 at some point in the future if the right opportunity presented itself. The 23-year-old went to Europe when she was a teenager to try to break into FI by the European route and says that she will consider her options when the time is right.

Patrick did have discussions about doing a demonstration run with a BAR-Honda on Thursday at Indy but that did not happen.

-JOE SAWARD

7

Bahrain inches closer Marci

BAHRAIN took another step towards inclusion in the V8 Supercar Championship calendar after a successful fact-finding mission to the Middle East.

AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane led the delegation, which included board member Mark Skaife and Gibson Freight's Bill Gibson, to what Cochrane would only confirm was "the Middle East".

"We looked at circuits and spoke to lots of people on a range of topics like w television, transport and so on," Cochrane said on Monday. ^ But Cochrane also said that the most likely date 4

for such an event is 2007.

"If I was a gambling man, I would say that the Middle East is a high probability for 2007," he said.

"We are focusing on 2007 and we are not under

pressure. In the meantime, we are focusing on the 2006 calendar."

Cochrane will travel to New Zealand next month . to seek what he called "a last ditch solution" to the problems associated with the NZ round of the series. This follows the breakdown in negotiations to stage street races in Auckland or Christchurch.

"The logic states that it will be at Pukekohe for one or

^ two years but I would like to |K find a package to give me a short and long-term M solution," he said. sutton-images.com

by GRANT ROWLEY

The Big 50 WITH 50 wins now in the bag,the Holden Racing Team will run a special bonnet livery at Hidden Valley next week, which was predicted by MNews last issue.

Todd Kelly, above, was the man who did the business for HRT at China, winning Race 1 and 3, while team leader Mark Skaide picked up pole and the Race 2 win.

And if you think Todd is a bit of alright, see more on page 32.

THERE is a very good chance that an Australian chassis, and four Australian drivers, will compete in the annual Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, England,this year.

Borland Racing Developments (BRD), constructor of the Spectrum chassis, is well advanced with plans to take four of its local built cars across to Brands Flatch to compete in the Formula Ford 'World Cup'

MARCOS Ambrose is back in Australia after testing a NASCAR Truck in the USA. The two-time V8 Supercar Champion ran for two days, firstly at Caraway Speedway in North Carolma, a slightly banked .455 mile oval. The next day he drove the truck at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, a half-mile flat oval in South Carolina at which many teams test at before running the Martinsville race.

Ambrose tested with the Ford R&D team based in Mooresville,just north of Charlotte.

"The truck was pretty much what 1 expected," Ambrose said this week.

"Doing this is another step in the right direction. 1 was able to get a feel for how the truck feels and how the team works and take it from there."

between 21-23 October.

Although confirmation of the trip is still some weeks away, BRD's Mike Borland and Paul Zsidy were hopeful that their plans to enter the highlyrespected Festival would come off.

"There's always been two races I've wanted to do - the Festival and Macau," said Borland. "We don't compete in the cars that run at Macau, so the Festival is something quite achievable. It would be a huge buzz to go there. It would be interesting to do and if it comes

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is/R&D Truck Test Ambrose completes two tests at Caraway and Greenville-Pickens

One thing that impressed Ambrose was not just the way that the truck felt on the ovals but how it responded to changes.

"It is all comparative. It was not a shock to the system at all because I was able to do some research on the cars before I went. At the test, I was able to take my time,do as many laps as I felt I wanted to, use newer tyres and to learn all I could."

Ford's NASCAR Field Manager Ben Leslie, a former Mark Martin crew chief and long-time Roush employee, oversaw proceedings, along with Jeff Campey, who heads up the R&D team.

"He was really serious about what we were doing," said Campey,"and

was really good behind the wheel considering he's never driven one of these trucks before."

Ambrose's 'day job' of racing a V8 Supercar will now take centre stage

though he said that he has options to continue testing in the USA later this season, though no dates have been finalised.

- BRANAGAN/CLARK

at Brands Hatch m October? off it would be good."

Sales Manager Zsidy was optimistic, yet cagey about the exciting prospect of competing overseas.

"It's definitely something we want to do this year," he said.

"We are seeking clarification on several of the UK regulations before we absolutely commit, and we are only a number of days away from taking the next steps.

"It would be lovely if it comes off, but its still early days," If Borland take four cars and the necessary backing can be found.

Shane Price, above, Paul Laskaseski, John Martin and Brett Flobson would be the four mostlikely and competent entrants.

Over 100 entries from around the world enter the annual Festival, with some of Europe's best expected to in make the pilgrimage to Brands's 'Indy' circuit.

"It would be awesome even if we could just qualify for the final," Zsidy said.

One of the reasons BRD has been tempted to attempt the race is the fact that the Zetec Formula Ford engine is unlikely

to be allowed to enter, giving the 1600cc engines complete rein.

The last Australian to take a car to the Festival was Craig Lowndes in 1993, who shipped his championship-winning Van Diemen to England.

Mark Webber is one of many high-profile drivers to taste success in the Formula Ford Festival. In 1995, the current Williams Formula 1 driver finished third on his international racing debut, before returning in 1996 to take victory. The only other Australian to win was Russell Ingall in 1990.

NEXT ISSUE on sale NEXT WEEK - from Wed July 6 29 June 2005

T i

Hillclimb High A VICTORIAN Hillclimb competitor has been found to have breached CAMS's Anti-Doping Policy.

Rodney Moody tested positive to marijuana at a round of the Victorian Hillclimb Championship held at Rob Roy on 20 February. The CAMS Disciplinary Tribunal convened on 1 June at the CAMS National Office in Melbourne and found the breach proven. Moody was excluded from the event, and given a three-month licence suspension from the date of the tribunal hearing. n The Champ Car World Series was quick to derive some goodwill from the debacle that was the United States FI GP. Organisers offered fans with valid tickets to the Indianapolis FI event free entry to the Cleveland Champ Car event the following weekend. n Formula 1 TV audiences have increased compared to 2004. In the United Kingdom, ITVl's live broadcast of the race in Montreal attracted 50 percent more viewers than last year, in part because of the return of a single qualifying session on Saturday, in part because Jenson Button was on pole and in part because we have not seen the same kind of Ferrari domination that drove fans away last year.

Other European countries are also rising, with Germany up two percent and Italy adding 10 percent more viewers in Canada. The Spanish market remains the biggest gainer, however, with an audience which is almost double that of last season.

The Canadian GP figures, produced by Sports Marketing Surveys Ltd, indicate that FI is on the up, despite the fact that the French coverage suffered badly because the live transmission was cut short because of breaking news of the return of French hostages from Iraq. This was, of course, also prior to the US GP fiasco ... n A demonstration run by Alex Zanardi in a Williams FW27 failed to happen during the US Grand Prix meeting not because of the Michelin tyre fiasco, nor even BMW's decision to buy into Sauber, Zanardi confessed: "The Indianapolis run didn't happen because I'm dumb. I was supposed to call Williams to finalize the details, but I forgot all about it. The plans are still up. The idea is to do a few laps at Monza at the start of September." n Seven would-be illegal immigrants to the UK broke into a racecar transporter owned by the DPR team when it stopped at a gas station during its return journey last week from a GP2 series test at the Paul Ricard High-Speed Test Track.

The stowaways were discovered by the team's mechanics and removed

by French police at the port of Calais.

- STAFF/SAWARD/SPURRING 9

Back in the USA?

CAN FI continue in the United States? That's the question as the fallout continues from the debacle at Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway pays around US$15m a year to have the right to host a Formula 1 race.

There is a contract in place for 2006 but there is no doubt that at the moment everything is up in the air.

Indianapolis owner Tony George is deeply unhappy about what transpired and has indicated to fans that he feels he is as much a victim of the situation as they have been.

The fans seem to have accepted this argument.

The problem for George is that if the fans do not get something to offset the pain. they are unlikely to return to the Speedway for FI and indeed may not come back for the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.

The limited market research that is available suggests that the crowds for the three events

Biy^w

are very different but there is undoubtedly some overlap, particularly amongst local people in Indiana.

The only real answer for FI is to give the fans something.

There are suggestions of either a refund or, perhaps better. either another race this year or free tickets to next year's event. All these things cost money but they are the least the sport can do to avoid the destruction of the US market. which is so important to so many FI teams and sponsors.

American track owner Bruton Smith has made the point in recent days that he would be happy to stage an FI event at his Sonoma road course (otherwise known as Sears Point) but he would want money from FI to do it - and not vice versa. Smith argues that if FI is serious about saving face in America, it will take him up on his offer.

It is a cheap shot - but a fair point.

-JOE SAWARD

Is Lexi

\

V. Well, it was good enough for pole: And therein lies an interesting tale. We have spies who swear that Toyota was so confident that the USCP was going to be off that they gambled on a full 'qualifying'set-up at Indy. According to the story, Jarno Trulli would have been into the pits for some Esso three laps into the race - had he started...

10

LEXUS-badged Toyota engines could well provide the horsepower for Williams in 2006, following confirmation of the rumour that BMW is to do its own thing and buy the Sauber team.

The news wasn't unexpected at Williams and,although the team fought hard to keep the relationship going,it proved to be impossible.

Relationships with Dr Mario Theissen and other members of his team have been strained for some time and, without BMW money and the full attention of the motorsport engineers, there is now little obvious reason for Williams to stay with BMW in the future, except as a stopgap measure.

The Williams management knows motorsport news

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Bart again the man in Brit F3

by JOE SAWARD THE management board of BMW has announced that the.company isIndeed buying the Sauber FI team from Peter Sauber, below left, and his partner Credit Suisse.

While BMW is suggesting it can \continue to supply Williams, that is most unlikely, with the Grove team having foreseen this development and investigated other options.

For Peter Sauber the timing of the deal is perfect. At 61 he is coming up to retirement age and was looking at a way to exit the business gradually, without abandioning the people who helped him build the team. As part of the deal the Sauber factory and windtunnel in HinwiI will continue to operate, while BMW will expand its facilities in Munich. Money that was going to BMW's partner Williams will now be diverted to Sauber, which will enable there to be expansion at HinwiI. The deal is a clear indication that BMW wants to further align itself with Formula 1 and it is a major boost for the automobile manufacturers involved in the current struggle that BMW is increasing its involvement at a time when, politically, the sport seems to be falling apart.

Xhe decision, however, remains one with long-term implications because BMW is accepting a step backwards in order to build up what it believes will be a stronger challenge.

That is a considerable leap of faith.

Williams is a very powerful and battlehardened organization and it knows how to win. Sauber has never even looked close to becoming a winning organization, despite using Ferrari engines for the last nine seasons.

BMW Motorsport boss Mario Theissen, below right, thinks he can do better than Frank Williams and Patrick Head and has convinced the BMW board that he should have their support. It is a confident move by BMW but at the same time, the company (and Theissen) may live to regret the decision.

"We do not expect instant success from the new constellation," said BMW's Burkhard Goeschel, "but we are convinced that we have chosen the right path for the long term."

Financially, the deal does not involve the mega-dollars some reports suggest.

As part of the deal BMW has agreed to keep Credit Suisse as an official partner for the next three years. It is safe to assume that this is an important part of the deal, as it is probably 'free' advertising. Credit Suisse spends US$17m a year on FI at the moment and so a three-year deal would mean more than US$50m in value straight away.

There is likely to be more cash involved but this is almost certainly going to be spread out over a number of years, making it difficult for the full price of the deal to be assessed. Credit Suisse owns 63.25 percent of the Sauber shares, the rest belong to Peter Sauber, who also holds all the voting shares. It is likely,

^1 given what happened when Credit Suisse bought the shares, that Credit Suisse will have bought out Peter Sauber and then done a deal with BMW.

IS OK,Mr Webber? that in such a situation it is not going to gain much from staying on with the Bavarians so has been

investigating the other options available. At the moment they are few and far between.

Audi has been looking at FI for a while and might be in a position to step straight in, but it seems more likely that in the medium term, Williams'future lies with an existing FI player.

While there have been rumours of talks with Honda, the win-win situation is a deal with Toyota to promote the Lexus brand. This would open the way for the team to have highly competitive engines and access to cash as well, as Toyota would need to invest in Lexus 29 June 2005

marketing.

Competing brands in the same formula are not a bad idea. The Ford Motor Company did it with Ford and Jaguar and, while some marketeers say it is illogical, they are looking at the problem too closely.

The majority of the world's population do not know nor care that Lexus and Toyota are owned by the same company - they base their purchases on what is a good car at the best available price.

There is a certain amount of logic in Toyota having two top teams rurming its engines, particularly when FI is going into a new engine formula and information needs to be

gathered and lessons learned. The fly in the ointment at the moment is

Jordan as Toyota has some form of commitment if the team comes up with the money to buy its engines for next season.

However,an expected announcement in relation to a 2006

Toyota/Jordan deal did not eventuate at the USGP and there are continuing rumours that team owner Alex Shnaider may put the team back on the market.

While Williams and Jordan are not really comparable in anything other than name, there is a question of capacity at the Toyota factory in Cologne should Toyota attempt to supply three teams.

-JOE SAWARD More -5 minutes with Sir Frank Williams (page 28)

AUSTRALIA'S Barton Mawer has continued his domination of the National Class in the British Formula 3 Championship, Mawer, who had never visited the Castle Combe circuit before, qualified second and was looking good before being turned around in Race 1, recovering for fifth.

In Race 2, it was all Bartman, as he led the National Class field from start to finish, resetting the class lap record in the process. n Jonathan Beikoff will make his race debut in a V8 Supercar at Queensland Raceway in late July during Round 4 of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series.

The youngster will take reigns of the Dieseltech Falcon regularly campaigned by his father, Shane. The team won their first race in the reverse grid heat in the last round of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series at Wakefield Park. n Not content with just throwing money at V8 Supercars, Internet company Dodo will support Team Mitsubishi Ralliart for the remainder of the 2005 Globalstar Australian Rally Championship. n Former Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert won the Le Mans Legends race in Nigel Webb's Jaguar D-Type.

The 1991 Le Mans winner beat the similar Car of Willie Green to finally stand on the top step of the podium at the French circuit: after winning the 1991 24 Hours with Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot, the then Mazda driver was rushed to the circuit's medical centre suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. Herbert is aiming to be back in the main race next year. n Three different winners marked the Oulton Park BTCC last weekend, as Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Tom Chilton celebrated a win apiece, Plato won Race 1 despite a vigorous late race charge from Neal, whilst Neal's Honda won Race 2. Neal grabbed the lead from Plato on lap 7 and as he did so, Yvan Muller’s Vauxhall tried to go for the gap, too.

Muller and Plato tangled (yawn...) and Plato fell to 10th place.

Race 3 started badly for Plato as he locked up at the hairpin and went off the road, whilst Muller tangled with the Lexus of Richard Williams, the damage putting the Frenchman out of the race, Vauxhall's woes continued on lap 1 as Gavin Smith fired his team mate Colin Turkington into the gravel, where Turk's car was hit a lap later by the private Vauxhall of Mark Proctor...

Whilst all this was happening, Rob Coilard led before making a mistake, letting Chilton through for a maiden 2005 win, Neal took second (to increase his championship lead), with Plato recovering to third.

- STAFF/DAVID ADDISON 11

Michelin WHILE the storms surrounding the United States Grand Prix blew off in the direction of Paris, the teams at the centre of the furore returned to some semblance of normalcy when they went testing last week.

Red Bull Racing, right, Sauber, BAR, McLaren and Renault were amongst the teams to take to the track at Jerez last week, with the latter giving some seat time to development drivers Franck Montagny and Heikki Kovaleinen, below right.

AMID the fallout from the United States Grand Prix two weeks ago,the fact that Ralf Schumacher had his second major crash at that corner in two years has almost been forgotten.

Schumacher triggered the panic at Michelin when the left-rear tyre on his Toyota exploded at turn 13, just minutes after the sister car of the team’s third driver Ricardo Zonta suffered a tyre failure elsewhere on the circuit.

FIA Medical Delegate Dr. Gary Hartstein ruled Schumacher out of competing for the rest of the weekend as a precaution, however it seems certain that the German will be fit to drive at the French Grand Prix this weekend. “[There was] nothing severe really,” Schumacher told MNews.

“Obviously I didn’t feei 100 percent, after a crash like that it’s obvious.

It’s a tough decision always to take. Personally I felt quite alright, and I thought 1 might be able to drive, “i will be back for France, that’s pretty clear. It was obviously a safety move not to let me drive under the circumstances. If I had another severe crash like this year or last year, it would have been not very good for me.”

Schumacher also confirmed that part of the reason that he was not as badly hurt as he was after his heavy crash at the same spot last year was that the car had hit the SAFER barrier rather than the outside wall.

“I had a different angle, but I’m sure it made my life a bit easier at that moment. But I don’t have any bad feelings about the track. It was bad luck, I’d say. Let’s try next time, next year, and find out how it works out.”

- ADAM COOPER/STAFF

MEANWHILE,Jordan took the opportunity to give its new Minardi-beater, the EJ15B, its first shakedown at Barcelona, below.

Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Montiero's new toy is a completely new design, unlike the previous EJ15, which was a 2004 EJ14 adapted to suit the new techinical regulations.

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EDDIE Jordan is the latest person to be linked to a deal to run a team in the new A1 Grand Prix series.

With three months to go before the series kicks off at Brands Flatch, the final franchises are now being negotiated and we hear that Jordan will be fronting an organisation to be known as Team Ireland.

It would not be the first time that the former FI team owner has run under that banner, having raced for his own Team Ireland’ when he first entered British Formula 3 back in 1979.

Much depends on the kind of money being asked by the A1 organisation for the franchise, although having someone with Jordan’s profile would give the series considerably more credibility as it would be a very clear link to modern FI, The idea makes a great deal of sense for Jordan, who has in recent years enjoyed being in the spotlight, particularly in his native Ireland.

-JOE SAWARD

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Kanaan to test FI BAR Honda has confirmed that it will be testing 2004 IndyCar Champion Tony Kanaan later this year. Kanaan is driving for the Andretti Green Racing team in IRL and has a long-term contract to race in the United States.

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elipe in Red?

FELIPE Massa is being touted as a Ferrari driver in the noti too distant future.

'Rubens Barrichello has been showing a few signs offrustration this year with Ferra5l,Lin much the same way as his predecessor Eddie Irvine did in 1999.

The implication is0at Rubens might decide to take _ advantage of the offer t^af is believed to be on the table from BAR Honda. Under those circurhstances Fe^ari would be. looking for a new drives and the signs are thaffFfl^at were to happen,^he man most likely to don the red overalls would be Felipe Massa.

Massa is managed by Nicolas Todt, son of Jean TS^'a^d was a Ferrari test drivenn 2003. Massa has had Jinks withjhe Todts since 2001 whenTie won the^'uropean Formula 3000 series at the age of 20. That connection hel-p^ed to ease him into Sauber in 2002 but, while it was clear that he hadfaw speed, ifwas not clear that he^ad the control tlbe a top driver. ^ A year aJP^arkas afest driv^di|||im a great.'feal of good and Todayl^assa is ready for the big5Eime.4His performances with Sauberthis year have been unive^lly good and he has p^Jac^es Villeneuve into t^e shadows.The big qWestion is really what Baifichello wants to do.

-J0ESAWARD

From Mulsanne to Mountain Straight SEVEN-TIME winner of the Le Mans 24 Hour classic Tom Kristensen has declared that he would dearly love to compete at the Bathurst 1000 at some point in the future.

The Dane, who secured a record seventh Le Mans crown two weeks ago and also races for Audi in the DTM Championship, has many contacts in the V8 Supercar paddock, and has expressed his desire to compete at Bathurst.

"I know some people who are working in the V8 teams down there who I have worked with before," Kristensen told MNews.

"One day I would love to come down for it, honestly. But at the moment it is not in the plan for Audi and me.

"I don't know the dates and stuff, but I would love to do it one day. I have never been to Australia so I would love to get down there. I have only heard positive things about it and I want to be there one day. Another thing I would like to do down there is the Crocodile Trophy you have down there for mountain bikes."

- CHRIS JORDAN For morefrom Tom Kristensen, turn to our intervieio on page 46.

29June200S

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n The EuroSpeedway at Lausitz, Germany, will stage a second round of the 2005 DTM series, as the replacement for the cancelled street race at Avignon, France, on 18 September.

A project initiated by former Formula 1 driver and current DTM front-runner Jean Alesi, the Avignon event fell foul of a French law prohibiting street racing (except for the historic event in the town of Pau). The law was introduced after the appalling Le Mans disaster, 50 years ago this year. n Brilliance China Auto will compete in the 2006 FIA World Touring Car Championship, according to series director Marcello Lotti on his return from visiting the company’s HQ in Beijing.

Brilliance cancelled plans to race in the inaugural 2005 WTCC with a racing version of its Ml passenger car, but is now pursuing a different project based on the new 2-litre Zhonghua model, which is to be built in China and Egypt. The racecars are expected to be built and operated for Brilliance by Menard Engineering, using the former TWR Group technical centre in Kidlington, UK, n Chevrolet is being linked to a BTCC campaign next year, with cars being sold into private hands. The Lacetti model currently races in the WTCC but could be raced in private hands next season. However, this would put the car in competition with existing GM brand, Vauxhall. n Ian Harrison, boss of the BTCC Vauxhall team, has asked series organisers to look at switching to alternative fuel to help secure Government funding.

TechSpeed is expected to run a bio-ethanol powered Astra for Fiona Leggate from July onwards, and if teams can tap into the funding supplied by the Energy Efficient Motorsport Initiative, they will have access to some of the $37 million that the UK Government has in its Motorsport Development Fund. n Nicky Hayden may still be looking for his first MotoGP win but the American has received recognition of a different kind. The 23-year-oid has been chosen as one of People magazine's 50 Hottest Bachelors of 2005, joining the likes of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Colin Farrell, Hayden recently appeared in the New Yorkbased Todsy show in front of six million viewers and even took part in version of The Dating Game.

-SPURRING/ADDISON/STAFF

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Aussie to invade NZV8S

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LUKE Youlden will drive a Ford Falcon BA in the New Zealand V8 Touring Car Championship.

The Victoria will drive for Powerbuilt Racing after a deal was brokered by Stone Brothers Racing, who Youlden will drive for in the V8 endurance races this year.

"The great thing about it is that I get to drive over the summer months, which will keep me nice and sharp for next season," he said.

The only problem Youlden has encourtered is that the last round of Carrera Cup clashes with the first round of NZV8. Youlden will more than likely miss Carrera Cup to concentrate on the NZ title.

- GRANT ROWLEY

For more on Youlden turn to page 25

first win at Indianapoiis JAMES Davison kissed the famous yard of bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after winning Round 7 of the Formula BMW USA Championship.

Davison started from fifth place and eventually worked his way into th lead by lap six. He set the fastest lap on the way to a 3.5s victory ahead of Richard Philippe in the 13 lap race.

"1 made a great start," Davison said. "I am delighted with my drive. It was fantastic to hear the Australian national anthem on the podium, particularly after kissing the yard of bricks in front of the huge grandstands".

BMW Motorsport Director Dr. Mario Theissen complemented

Davison after his win.

"It was a clear victory for James Davison who performed superbly today," he said.

James became the second Australian win at indy, the first being his cousin Alex Davison in 2002 when he scored a win in the Porsche Supercup event.

Round 8 held on Sunday morning saw another podium evaporate, when an early collision with another competitior resulted in a precautionary pitstop. After leaving the pits, James proceeded to set the fastest lap of the race but finish well down.

Rounds 9 and 10 of the USA Series will be held at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama in late July.

FOSTER'S

Briscoe sets Watkins iap recordi

RYAN Briscoe may have again failed to finish at the latest round of the Indy Racing League last weekend, but he has again asserted his speed on the category in terms of road course speed.

Briscoe was fastest at the IRL's official test day at Watkins Glen last week,0.0004s ahead of Andretti-

Green Racing driver and defending IRL Champion Tony Kanaan.

Brisoce's time in the Target Team Ganassi Toyota set a new lap record at the venue,bettering the mark set by Bruno Giacomelli in an Alfa-Romeo during qualifying for the 1980 US Grand Prix by 1.5 seconds, before the circuit featured the Scheckter Chicane.

motorsportnews

NEWS

Peugeot targets Le Mans 2007 PEUGEOT is working on an all-new, diesel powered sports-prototype with the objective of repeating its 1992-93 Le Mans 24 Hours {pictured be/ow) victories in 2007.

GREG Murphy will (finally) run a Holden Motor Sport engine - but that is not the reason we are running this pic.

Nope, we just wanted an excuse to quote some Holden PR blurb about the man who went flying in Shanghai earlier this month. TTiey refer to him as'Murph Man': Yes, Murph Man - a strange V8 Supercar driver from another country who went to China with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

Murph Man, who can change the course of races,bend sheet metal in his bare hands and who,disguised as Greg Murphy,a mild-mannered driver for the great V8 Supercar team Super Cheap Auto Racing,fights a never-ending battle for pole positions,race wins and the V8 Supercar title ...

"Having spun a web around his rivals in his Spiderman car when he

won Bathurst last October, Greg Murphy is again finding himself aligned with one of his favourite superheroes, this time Superman

after Murphy's Super Cheap Auto Racing Commodore took to the skies like the man of steel in Race 2 at the recent round in Shanghai, China."

Gray gets F3 ride

LAUREN Gray will join the Formuia 3 grid this weekend for Round 4 of the Kuhmo Tyres Australian F3 Championship.

Gray impressed the Scud Racing last week at test day at Winton, pictured left, and will pilot the team’s F398 Dallara in Trophy Class.

Gray has this year been running a Toyota Echo in the Australian Production Car Championship.

National Formula Ford Championship front-runner Nathan 29 June 2005

Caratti will also be joining the F3 field this weekend, partnering his brother Aaron in David Borg’s team that will run a pair of Dallara F304s.

As we reported last Issue, Sam Abay will also join the field In the new F304 Dallara of Astuti Motorsport.

Two cars that will not be present are the F301s of Tim Macrow and Ricky Occipinti, both citing a lack of necessary budget as the cause of their season’s interruption.

- CHRIS JORDAN

This attempt to become the first manufacturer to win Le Mans with a diesel, and not the much-rumoured World Touring Car Championship programme, will be the mainstream competition activity of the French company, which will withdraw from the World Rally Championship at the end of 2005. The programme will focus on the great French event but will also include the Le Mans Endurance Series, currently comprising five races at Spa, Monza, Silverstone, Nurburgring and Istanbul.

Peugeot has not finalised the specification of the HDi engine, which will be equipped with a diesel particulate filter system, but plans to complete a feasibility study early in 2006. The Peugeot Sport division in Velizy, near Paris, will develop the chassis and engine in collaboration with the diesel technologists in the main PSA Peugeot Citroen engineering department.

"1 hope this ambitious yet completely achievable project will provide us with a fresh opportunity to demonstrate our ability to win," said Frederic Saint-Geours, the managing director of Peugeot, Audi Sport, whose R8 racecars have dominated at Le Mans in recent years, swiftly expressed an interest in Peugeot's new enterprise. Audi is currently developing a replacement LMP1 to the all-conquering R8, which two weeks ago won its fifth Le Mans 24 Hour, but will not be announcing plans until later this year. n The French-owned Total fuel brand is expected to replace Marlboro as the title sponsor of the annual Formula 3 Masters event on the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands.

The Philip Morris cigarette brand has been the title sponsor of the F3 Masters since its introduction in 1991.

Previous winners have included David Coulthard, Pedro Lamy, Jos Verstappen, Takuma Sato and Christian Klien, who all went on to Formula 1.

This year's event was brought forward from the traditional August date to June (before the introduction of the new EU law banning tobacco advertising), to allow Marlboro to sponsor the race for the last time.

-QUENTIN SPURRING IS

YOUNG drivers have struck a blow against the more established names in the latest round of the DTM championship at Motopark Oschersleben.

Englishman Gary Paffett, 24, was victorious at the German circuit, to draw within one point of series leader and defending Champion Mattias Ekstrom, who finished three seconds behind Paffett in the 44-lap race.

Capping off a great day for Mercedes,2004 F3 Euroseries Champion Jamie Green had his best

DTM result, the 23-year-old finishing in third.

Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen wasted no time readjusting to the A4 DTM car, topping first practice and qualifying on pole. But a poor start dented his chances early, dropping him to 19th and leaving Britain's Green to lead the opening stages from fourth on the grid.

After the pit stops had shaken themselves out, Paffett was the leader, leaving Green and Ekstrom to fight for second, with Ekstrom

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winning out after a small mistake from Green.

Veteran Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) was fourth, holding out the recovering Kristensen. The Mercedes of Mika Hakkinen and Jean

Alesi did not figure in the points, but did however make their mark,in amongst the hectic(and damaging) mid-pack scrap.

Points; Ekstrom 35, Paffett 34, Kristensen 26, Hakkinen 17, Alesi 17.

Viva la Alfa in WTCC

THE World Touring Car Championship has completed a successful first visit to the Puebla circuit in Mexico for Round 5 of the series.

Fabrizio Giovanardi was the oniy driver to reach the podium in both races. Alfa Romeo’s Giovanardi and Gabrieie Tarquini stormed away to finish 1 -2 in Race 1, while the Reds were denied a clean sweep when the Seat of Rickard Rydeil passed James Thompson late-race for third. Robert Huff scored Chevroiet’s first points in the WTCC Driver’s

Championship with sixth.

Race 2 went to the Seat of young German Peter Terting, despite the best efforts of BMW’s Antonio Garcia, who finished ciose behind in second. Roberto Colciago drove a steilar race to come from 20th to third, but was penalised 30s post-race for a clash with Giovanardi. ; “It was difficult at the beginning of the championship but now things are reaily improving,” said Giovanardi. “In the second race It was tough at the end, as the tyre

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performance was decreasing. I tried to defend as Colciago made a move but couidn’t and he gained the piace.”

With the WTCC’s success baiiast policy, the championship-ieading BMWs of Dirk Muiier and Andy Priaulx had terrible weekends, but can now look forward to the Alfas gaining considerabie weight for the next round at the uitra-fast Spa Franchochamps circuit.

Points; Dirk Muiier 47, Giovanardi 45, Priauix 42, Garcia 39, Tarquini 38, Rydeli 33, Thompson 32.

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Green award for Le Mans 24 Hour THE Automobile Club de I'Ouest has announced plans for a new Indice Ecologique Award for the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2006.

The award will be presented to the team considered by the AGO to have been the most environmentally friendly and will take into consideration aspects such as fuel consumption, noise and emissions.

To help the teams prepare for the new competition, at last weekend's race, the AGO set up a series of timing and recording points around the circuit to gather data based on those parameters.

Potsche LMP2 breaks d PORSCHE'S new Sportscar has started testing at Weissach.

The new LMP2 car, which will be raced by Team Penske in the 2006 American Le Mans Series, has been shaken down at the Porsche test track in preparation for an exhaustive test program prior to its race debut at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 1. The car will run in the Le Mans Prototype 2 class of the ALMS next year.

The prototype is powered by a new 90-degree V8 engine, fitted with air restrictors complying to ACO regulations, delivering around 480hp from a 3.4-litre capacity. Tire lightweight powerplant features a very low centre of gravity, four valves per cylinder, a dry-sump

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lubrication system and single cylinder throttle valves.

The six-speed sequential constant-mesh gearbox with a triple-disc carbon fibre racing clutch is a structural part of the chassis and is operated by a shift system on the steering wheel.

The brake system mcludes twin master cylinders, adjustable brake balance and internally vented carbon brake discs measuring 380mm at the front and 355mm at the rear. In compliance with the 2006 ALMS regulations, the new Porsche LMP2, which will race on Michelin tyres, weighs in at 750kg.

No drivers have been named for the project, with an announcement regarding candidates expected soon.

n The McLaren Technology Centre in Woking has won the Building of the Year award from the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust. It was described as "the most beautiful industrial building in the country". The building has also won a design prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

- JOE SAWARD

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n Group Lotus has announced that it is building a single-seater racing car to be used for track days and club racing.

The composite-bodied car is based on the Lotus Elise aluminium chassis and will feature a supercharged, variable valve-timing, engine whicn will power the car from 0-60mph in under four seconds. The 'Gircuit Gar' is due to go into production in December at Hethel in Norfolk and it is planned to build around 100 cars a year.

The news marks the return of the Lotus name to single seater competition for the first time since the closure of the Lotus FI team early in 1995.

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by PHIL MORRIS PAUL Tracy has taken the lead in the 2005 Champ Car World Series after winning at the Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland last weekend.

With rival Sebastlen Bourdais only able to manage fifth, Tracy now leads the championship by

a solitary point.

AJ Allmendinger, below left, was second, recovering from a heavy qualifying crash to achieve an equal career-best result and jump ahead of his RuSport team-mate Justin Wilson move to third in the series standings.

Oriol Servia was third, his second podium since taking the injured Bruno Junquiera’s piace in the PacifiCare car at Newman-Hass Racing.

Portland round winner Cristiano da Matta very nearly had back-to-back wins, but while leading, he clipped Team Australia’s Marcus Marshall as he attempted to lap the Aussie, ending the Brazilian’s race.

Marshall recovered to finish two laps down in 12th but it was the impressive performance of team-mate Alex Tagllani that had Team Australia in the limelight as the Canadian led the first laps for the new team before finishing fourth after a late-race splash-anddash fuel stop was needed.

Points: Tracy 128, Bourdais 127, Allmendinger 102, Wilson 95, Vasser 82, da Matta 80, Servia 79, Dominguez 75, Ranger 69, Tagliani 69, Glock 65.

HELIO Castroneves has finally brought some pride to the Toyota camp in the Indy Racing League by winning last weekend at the fast and tight Richmond International Raceway.

Castroneves won the accidentridden race, that was decided by a one-lap dash following the seventh caution period.

But Castroneves was always had the race under control after his Penske team-mate and polesitter Sam Hornish Jr crashed wWle following the Brazilian. Penske dominated the event, claiming the front row after qualifying and leading most of the

i ’ IN only his fourth race since returningi to I Champ Car from formula li, Cristiano da Matta has reasserted his presence On the Champ Car Wbrid Series with a stunning ; win at Portland two weeks ago, . A'S the fli dircusthatda Matta used to : be a part of were 'making fools of ’ thernseives at lindianapolis, da Matta, the 2002 series c'hamipioni, used his speed : and; a; clever ;pit stop strategy to take the 18

wiin, the fiirst wi n for the PKV Raci ng team.

"We knew Cristiano had a good car and he needed an open track so it wasn't ' that big of a gamble," said team manager Jlim McGee of the pit strategy.

McGee, who Joined the team this year, has been a-primary reason for PKV's rise.

By pitting off-sequence, da Matta was able to get to the lead and once there, he ^

^

.

was able to puHi away ffoiTi second place j Sebestien Boupdais. ‘ j Bourdais's second came ahead of hiS’ I rival Paui Tracy, with Tracy's Forsythe team-mate Mario Dominquez if? fourth.

1 Justin Wilson gave RuSport its first ^ pole position and in the early stages, Wilson puned away fromi the field, only to stop with eieetrical !probl,ems.:on lap 47 !

- pPlIL MORRIS

t

motorsportnews

■r.

fmJboro

AM PENSKC

Hello race's 250 laps.

"Today was a fantastic day/' said Castroneves, who was able to perform his trademark Spiderman fence climb post-race.

"Our car was very good, both cars, mine and Sam's, obviously were very fast. I just couldn't ask for a better result."

Two cars able to challenge the pace of the Penske team were fellow Toyota runner and Australian Ryan Briscoe and Andretti-Green's Dario Franchitti.

While rimning in the lead pack, however, Briscoe crashed out on lap 88 as the leaders carved through lap traffic, which it must be said, was very poorly behaved throughout the Saturday night event.

"I'm so very disappointed for the

7\m

Target team as we really did have a good weekend and put the car right up front in third spot on the grid," said Briscoe.

"I came up really quickly on that traffic jam and everyone slowed up more than I was expecting. I had to go wide to avoid (Dan)Wheldon and got up into the marbles and the car came around on me.

"It's really unfortunate because the team put together a fantastic car for me and the Toyota test we had here last week was really beneficial. It was a great race to that point and it was really fun to be battling for position out there on what is a terrific track.

As disappointed as I am with how my race ended,I can sincerely say that we can take more positives out of this weekend than negatives."

iS9i

SCAIE PAD CONSTRUCTION

Briscoe was not the only glum face at Team Target on the night, with team-mates Scott Dixon and Darren Manning both crashing out, with Manning inexplicably taken out with 10 laps to go by the lapped Roger Yasukawa.

Franchitti was second at Richmond, ahead of Patrick Carpentier, giving some confidence to a so far poor year for Toyota-powered Red Bull/Cheever Racing, the threequarter mile Richmond oval seeming to suit the torquey but horsepowerchallenged Toyota engine.

Tomas Scheckter was fourth for Panther Racing, adding wait to the speculation that Chevrolet may do a backflip and remain in the IRL next year. But it could have been even better for the team, when Tomas Enge

was given a drive-through penalty for blocking wliile running tlrird.

While he did come across the front of Carpentier's car on one occasion, it was nothing compared to the way Jimmy Kite was blockmg Enge, and Kite was a lap down! Enge recovered for seventh place.

Wlieldon never had the pace of the front-runners, but so hectic was the race, that the Indy 500 Champ cruised around the carnage to collect fifth. With his team-mate Tony Kanaan having his first DNF in 19 montlrs after clipping fellow AGR driver Bryan Herta, Wheldon extended his series lead.

-PHIL MORRIS Points: Wheldon 292, Kanaan 209, Castroneves 206, Hornish Jr. 198, Franchitti 187, Herta 183, Meira 170,Sharp 170, Scheckter 162.

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19

Tony Turn

^

TONY Stewart took his first win of the year at the Sonoma circuit nestled in California's wine country on Sunday, taking the lead from Ricky Rudd with 11 laps to go.

Rudd ran dry of fuel as he crossed the finish n line, just holding off Kurt Busch.

"It would have been nice to have raced Jeff , Gordon for this win," remarked Stewart.

"He was really good and we were matching him, and we made our car better once his car broke. I feel for bad for those guys. It would have been a lot sweeter to have raced them for the victory."

SeveraTteams suffered gearbox problems, starting with Dale Earnhardt Jr. who lost gears on lap three and hit the wall rearwards after a 10th qualifying effort.

"The transmission must have been made out of aluminum,cause it was tore all to heck," said Earnhardt.

Next up was Jimmie Johnson, who was stuck in third gear, then Robby Gordon suffered the same fate while running third. Jeff Gordon also getting locked in third gear after leading the first 32 laps from pole. The latter three were using the same brand of gearbox and all suffered linkage issues.

Greg Biffle had an off-course excursion during qualifying and started 41st, but his 14th placing was enough to take the points lead for the first time in his career. Another man of the moment.

Carl Edwards, qualified a respectable 23rd in his first circuit event, but was pushed hard into a wreck in front of him by Brian Simo and sustained heavy front end damage.

- MARTIN D CLARK

-V;

Final result: Stew/art (Chevy), Rudd (Ford), Kurt Busch (Ford), R Wallace (Dodge), Jarrett (Ford), Sadler (Ford), Mayfield (Dodge), Fellows (Chevy), Newman (Dodge),Simo (Chevy).

Point standings: Biffle 2250, Johnson 2228, Sadler 2073, Stewart 2052, Martin 2022, R Wallace 2013, Newman 1994, Busch 1978, Edwards 1963, McMurray 1923. sufton^imjges.

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James Bergmuller 9U 76 Colin Sieders

STATESIDE

«

NASCAR Reschristened?

me

NASCAR will make an announcement by the end of July regarding a name change to the Nextel Cup series beginning with the 2007 season.

Nextel merged with ceil phone competitor Sprint in December and has used the name Sprint-Nextel since that point. It's expected the new series name will be the Sprint Cup, but of course that could lead to confusion with the open-wheel Sprint Cars.

%

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ALTHOUGH Tony Stewart lead four times at Michigan on June 19, he again came up one short at the chequers to Greg Biffle who took his fifth win of the year.

"We came up short today," said Stewart."Hie good thing was it wasn't a Hendrick or Roush car tliat dominated the whole day,they just got us at the end. We held our own today."

Biffle elected not to stop during the fourth and final caution with 27 laps to run, while Stewart pitted for four tyres but was unable to catch Biffle once he'd passed the other seven cars on the restart.

"I'd never have believed we would have won a third of the races," remarked Biffle. "We've got great race cars right now and I'm really focused as a driver. I only had few

laps on my tyres and it takes me about 20 laps to get going and I said, 'the only way I'm going to win is to be out front,' and it worked out for us by not pitting."

Mark Martin made a late charge and passed Matt Kenseth on the final lap for third, and with one more lap Stewart could have been his too.

Kenseth, remarkably, recorded his first top five result since September of last year.

Michael Waltrip continues to put together strong runs, with the ex-Dale Earnhardt Jr. crew finishing seventh, while Jr. came home 17th on the lead lap. Others struggling included Jeff Gordon, who recorded a 32nd placing, falUng to 12th in the standings, six points outside the magic 400 cut off point for The Chase.

"We were just lost today/' Gordon remarked after feeling the car break loose several times. Points leader and Gordon's team-mate Jimmie Johnson didn't fare much better, finisliing 19th and giving up a hefty margin to Biffle in the title fight.

The most exciting part of the race had to be the oil fire from Sterling Marlin's Dodge, which erupted when the engine expired. But aside from that and Brian Vickers hitting the pit entrance wall, this 'race' gets the 'most boring of the year' vote - and sends another message to NASCAR to please change the aero rules.

- MARTIN D CLARK

n With a three-year sponsorship extension in place from M&M's, Robert Yates Racing made the decision to continue Eliiott Sadler's contract through the 2008 season. n Valvoline will end its association with MBV Motorsports at the end of the 2005 season, where it has been a part owner of the team since 2000.

Instead, it will very possibly increase its support of Evernham Motorsports, where it is currently an associate backer. Scott Riggs is the present driver of the Valvoline Chevy, but there is no word on whether Riggs will stay on.. A third Evernham team is planned for 2006, but initial speculation has Stanley funding that team.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Final result: Biffle (Ford), Stewart(Chevy), Martin (Ford), Kenseth (Ford), Edwards (Ford), Nemechek (Chevy), Waltrip (Chevy), Sadler (Ford), Kyle Busch (Chevy), R Wallace (Dodge).

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More of the Same(Again)

VALENTINO Rossi won his sixth race of the season when he fended off Marco Melandri at Assen.

The tw'o Italians looked like

fighting out the finish but a late burst from the Yamaha rider convinced his countryman to settle for a career-best MotoGP result.

CoUn Edwards survived a few laterace scares to take third from countryman Nicky Hayden,while Sete Gibemau took fifth place.

However, one of the stories of the weekend was the battle between Melandri and Max Biaggi. The Honda veteran was doing a practice start when Melandri exited the final corner and almost hit him. An upset Biaggi side-swiped his yoimger opponent aroimd the lap and, when Melandri returned to the pits, he was allegedly assaulted by Biaggi's imcle.

The relative has been banned from attending any future events by DORNA while Biaggi was fined for breaking the rules relating to practice starts.

Alex Barros was seventh on his Honda ahead of Shinya Nakano on the increasingly competitive Kawasaki.

Carlos Checa edged Loris Capirossi for ninth, the Ducatis dismal on Assen's famed sweeps.

Troy Bayliss was 11th on his Pons Honda.

Points; Rossi 170, Melandri 107, Biaggi 87, Gibemau 84, Barros 74, Edwards 73, Hayden 60, Capirossi 49, Nakano 48, Checa 40.

SEBASTIEN Porto (Aprilia) won the 250cc race from the Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo.

An eight-rider group became five and then three, Porto forcing his way pact both his rivals on the penultimate lap. Hiroshi Aoyama was fourth on his Honda ahead of the AprUias of Alex de Angelis and Casey Stoner, the Aussie slowed by a hot engine until he managed to clear some race tape from his radiator.

A one-off appearance by Ant West on a private Honda came to nothing when he was forced out with an oil leak. His next race will be at Donington next month when he debuts KTM's 250cc machine.

Points; Pedrosa 143, Stoner 106, Dovizioso 102, Porto 74, Aoyama 71, Lorenzo 70, De Angelis 67, De Puniet 54, Barbera 51, Corsi 44.

GABOR Talmacsi(KTM)won a thrilling 125cc race from Hector Faubel and third-placed finisher Mattia Pasini(both Aprilia).

Alvaro Bautista (Seedorf Racing Honda RS125RW) was fourth, his best finish so far this season.

Points; Pasini and Talmacsi 100, Luthi 89, Kallio 82, Simoncelli 72, Lai 63.

22

TROY Corser still leads the way in the World Superbike Championship but the Misano round of the series underlined that Ducati is back in a big way.

The Italian V-twins scored their fourth successive victories, with Regis Laconi taking the double on his Xerox 999. In searing heat, Corser maintained his 100 percent run of podium finishes with two thirds behind Aussie Chris Vermeulen (Honda).

As if to underline the form of the Ducatis,

James Toseland took two fourth places while Lorenzo Lanzi was fifth in the opening race, with Pierfrancesco Chili taking fifth for Honda in Race 2.

The big loser of the weekend was Yukio Kagayama. Corser's team-mate crashed in Race 1, and partly due to a badly bruised hand, finished Race 2 in 12th, losing his overall second in the championship chase and slipping to fourth overall.

Points: Corser 254, Vermeulen 181, Laconi 162, Kagayama 148, Toseland 124, Haga 88, Walker 87, Chili 86, Pitt 70.

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OPINION /

Klynsmith

■=9*-,

eft©

Bathurst and you ^Ml^' I.F you were going to bemithi ra^e' a1 choose<any teanii td StoneJ^others woiifld'be the one.

-I^have to sa.y'ijSltni very- iffliuieh lookiing fowaird; t® the endiuiranee races aiin,d= it's -v defiihitely inny best chance'ofii'' taking it^out. Regiaiiidll^sS m who I get teainned: wiilf^^lSrnli going to be ia a lead cai;, 1|! think that SB® is uiniiqiue iinthe fact that they don't put two 'ringrims^ iini the second: car.

Warren iuiff and’ iisnyseHf have the saime chaince as anyone else out there.

Testiihgi with SiBR: 'has gone reallly wet. The ears are better than anything I've sampled in the past. They do everv^hing right. The team is really professional, and their test programs are qiuite extensive.

It's good to be able to base your data against the likes of Russell Ingall and Marcos Ambrose.

I've had to learn a new driving technique with their cars. You need a different technique and I'm still developing that... but I'm not telling you any of their secrets!

The real notable difference between SB® and any other team I've driven for is the feeling of winning within the team, it's a funny thing. They go racing to win. I'm sure every team does that, but they seem to have a special fire. The first time I walked into their shop, it was apparent that Ross and

Jirnimy are there to Winj No* I can't telll' y ou who i a m partneriing yet, and: t©; be honest, ill don't reallly have a preference. I don't think there wouild be much between them at Bathurst, so I: believe I'd have an equal chance of winning Sandown or Bathurst with either.

And yes, Marcos is off to America next year, so there is a vacancy within the team. My hand is up nice and high for it!

I just have to do the best job I can and hopefully they look at me. Having just won two championships, it would be tough for them to pick a person who was unproven like Marcos was when he first raced a V8 Supercar. The series is a little bit different now. They are likely to go for an established star, but they've told me to give them a reason to choose me, so I've just got to do the best I can, try and win the Porsche championship and do the business in the enduros.

I

Yn happy with the way the Porsche series has gone so far.

It's fair to say that we didh't have the pace at laslern ^i^reek, but still picked up second overa:l:l. We didn't have a handle on the set-up. I kept my head down and stayed out of trouble and managed to pull a result out when we probably didn't deserve one. The track was changing and we couldn't keep up with it.

The Porsche is really chalk and cheese compared to a V8.

The only similar thing is the speed. You go through the corners at the same speed roughly. They are quite fast, but the feeling in the brake pedal is probably the big difference with the ABS, plus they are left-hand-drive.

In terms of competition and thinking about your driving, Porsche is more beneficial than doing the V8 Development Series. I believe the competition is tougher.

There are probably seven or eight cars that are very competitive, and we proved at Eastern Creek that if you're not quite on the pace, you end up down the order.

It'S a different sort of ' discipl I ne> it gets you thi n ki ng: about It a bit more.

I Touring 'm doingCars the next New year Zealand and . that's exciting. That's come about through the Stone Brothers again through their contacts in New Zealand.

Powerbuilt Racing was looking for a new driver and Ross put my name out there. I went for a test at Ruapuna a few weeks ago and it went pretty well. A great thing about it is that I get to drive over the summer months, which will keep me nice and sharp for next season.

The only problem we've had is that the first round of the NZ Touring Car Series clashes with the last round of the Carrera Cup championship. Tony Quinn has been very accommodating and he gave me the blessing to do the NZ V8s.

What if I'm in the running for the Porsche title? The easy answer is that I'll have to wrap it up before the last round!

FORMULA ONE

Airports, a semi-cow and the Mysteries ofGenetics Y

OU know how sometimes,things just go horribly wrong. There we were, a bunch of normallysane people running around like headless chickens, looking for guidance. Alas,there was no guidance from the authorities.

Perhaps consultations would have been a good idea, but as ●" the clock was ticking and the deadline approached, things became more and more frenzied. Desperation set in.

Would we find a solution to the puzzle in the time available?

Things became more and more confused as people headed off in different directions, asking advice from passers-by. How many people would appear at the crucial moment? Oh my God. This was chaos!

And if you think I am talking about the United States GP at Indianapolis, forget it. I am talking about changing planes at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday! I've travelled the world for 22 years and, it is fair to say, that Toronto wins the prize for the world's most dysfunctional airport.

H

aving said that, and having been a motor racing reporter for 22 years, I have also never encountered a series more dysfunctional than FI Looking back, as I wait for my luggage to arrive, it is fair to conclude that the recent trip to Canada and the United States of America was a time of great contrast.

We like going to both venues, but for different reasons. Once you have eaten half a dead cow at St Elmo's steakhouse on South Illinois Street, there is not a lot else to do in Indianapolis. They say you can try the zoo.

In Montreal, on the other hand, the town offers everything that money can buy.

It's a kaleidoscope of fun and games and a great place to be.

The race tracks are the opposite. The authorities in 29fc??5 2rMIS

w

i do not know what IVlax was up to. I do not care what he was up to but I do know that when it came to crisis n management. Max Mosley failed the sport

Canada have taken advantage of the fact that FI people love the city and do everything possible to get away with sub standard facilities. If I ever hear a member of the FIA or FOM complaining about Silverstone, 1 am going to become somewhat irate (perhaps even abusive).

Montreal this year was a disgrace. Nothing worked properly, the road access to the track was a scandal (if only because it is a scandal that has been going on year after year after year) and every opportunity to take money from the FI circus was used.

Formula 1 put up with it, put on a good show and sent the public home happy.

A week later, worked. in Indiana polis, everything everything was free and everyone was keen and helpful (apart from a few dim Indiana State Troopers) and what did Formula 1 do?

It served up six cars, only one of which was ever going to win. The sport dumped on Tony George and its few fans in the world's largest consumer market. If there were awards going for complete and outright stupidity, FI would have been the out and out winner.

As far as I am concerned, there were valid arguments from all concerned over the question of Michelin's tyre problem - until Sunday morning.

At that point, the only argument that is valid should have been that FI had to put on a show and satisfy its customers.

It could have done that in any number of ways and, apparently, the teams bent over backwards to come up with workable solutions. But

the FIA said no to everything.

I have to admit that I was so frustrated by what I was hearing that with an hour to go I found [FIA boss] Max Mosley's representative Alan Donnelly, wandering through the paddock with the British Minister of Sport, Richard Caborn. I ranted and raved about the responsibility that the sport has for its fans.

Donnelly argued the party line about rules. The Minister listened politely.

With 20 minutes to go I rang FIA Communications Director Richard Woods in England and shouted at him (which is not unusual) but there was no positive response. The FIA was not budging for the teams and it certainly wasn't budging for someone who was arguing for the fans.

And so, I trudged back to the Media Center, knowing that the Michelin teams could not race.

And I watched the disaster unfold.

I man hope of that Tonyvision George is a broad as well as deep pockets. I hope that he will stick with FI in its hour of need, even if FI does not deserve his support. There is still hope for FI in America if Tony is big enough to see it.

I am ashamed of what happened and I will do what I can with the written word to get FI's house in order. I just hope that Tony will give us another chance.

Who is to blame, you might ask?

Well, obviously, Michelin screwed up - but at least they had the honesty to confess. It was a mess and Michelin tried to fix it. The FIA blocked every reasonable suggestion. The speed limit idea put forward by the FIA was, to my mind, a disgrace and makes me

The With BoxJoeSeat Saward wonder-about the motives of sif*anyone who could put forward such a thing.

I do not know what Max was up to. I do not care what he was up to, but 1 do know that when it came to crisis management. Max Mosley failed the sport.

He was the man who had the power to solve the problem. Everyone else (apart from the irtevitable Jean Todt) tried their best to make things' happen for the fans. Mosley just blocked.

For many years I was a Mosley supporter but in recent times I cannot justify it. I do not know why things have gone wrong but I know that they have.

And I was reminded of a passage I read not long ago from a book called Another Self, published in 1970 by James Lee-Milne, a close friend of Max Mosley's father.

Sir Oswald Mosley.

Lee-Milne wrote the following description of Sir Oswald Mosley in the 1930s: "He was, in those days, a man of overweening egotism.

He did not know the meaning of humility. He brooked no argument, would accept no advice. He was overbearing and over-confident. He had in him the stuff pf which zealots are made. His eyes flashed fire, dilated and contracted like a mesmirist's. His voice rose and fell with hypnotic cadences. He was madly in love with his own words."

I was left wondering about the genetics of behaviour...

27

Five minutes wiUi

ama

Sin Frank Williams

it has been a busy iortnwbt tor the WHiiams FI boss, with imlianapoiis anU its attermaUi to beat with ami the news that BMW is to purchase Sauben. JOESAWABD spoke to him MOTORSPORT NEWS: Looking back how do you analyse what happened at Indianapolis?

FRANK WILLIAMS: It is a great shame and very sad for Formula 1 and for the fans around the world. I think that a pooling of minds over the various fences should have headed the problems off in time before the race.

What happened was a blow to Formula 1's ambitions in America, but there was not really any choice. It was not something that we wanted to do. That is for sure. Now I hope that we can find some way to stop things getting worse and can start to build bridges, heal the wounds and work out how to move forward in a positive way.

MN: So what do you think is going to happen at the FIA World Motor Sport Council later this week in Paris?

FW: When I first heard what was going to happen, I thought that there would undoubtedly be blood all over the walls, but now I am not so sure that will happen. I hope not anyway.

I would imagine that if it is in any way possible we will be able to avoid total confrontation with the FIA. I just don't think that anyone is silly enough to go to war like that and I hope that we will all try to deal with the problems like adults.

MN: Do you mean that Max Mosley will back down?

FW: I don't really know what he is going to do, but he has not actually said he is going to punish us.

Fie has made no commitment in any direction so far. Fie has just asked us to go to Paris and give an explanation of what happened to the members of the FIA World Council. That is 28

£

I 5

"We obviously know what has been announced by BMW and we will make a statement in due course when we have worked out our reaction. I expect it will be sooner rather than later" - Frank plays a straight bat over the BMW decision what we are going to do and we will see what happens after that.

I am optimistic that common sense will prevail because we have already done massive damage to FI and all wise men should go out of their way to avoid further trouble, whatever it costs them. We just cannot afford to let this get out of hand.

MN: And while all this has been going on, BMW has come out and said that it is buying Sauber. That obviously is a major blow for the Williams team, which has been partnered to BMW in FI

for the last five years. Where do you go from here?

FW: We have absolutely no comment about that whatsoever. We obviously know what has been announced by BMW and we will make a statement in due course when we have worked out our reaction. I expect it will be sooner rather than later.

MN:So you haven't made up your mind what to do yet?

FW: We will make a statement in due course.

MN: Was the BMW decision a

surprise, because there appeared to be some hope that the BMW board would not go with the plan put forward by Mario Theissen?

FW: A surprise? No, not really.

We have known it might be possible for quite some time.

MN: If you have known for some time that it could end like this, presumably you have been looking a contingency plans for the future?

FW: We have suspected that this would be the outcome for some time, sure.

MN: But you are not going to talk about any plans you may or may not have at the moment?

FW: No, I'm not.

MN: Are you sure?

FW: Absolutely.

motorsporinews

H l

2S]«ie20BS

Five minutes with

Chnis Atkinson

The Austraiian is haif-way into his first season as a MC tinven.

MAilK GLB\nB\iniNG catied him up to find out whether iite as a factory Subaru dnver is aiiits cracked up to be' WIOTORSPORT NEWS: You are now half way through your first year in the WRC. Presumably it is a steep learning curve - how far along are you?

CHRIS ATKINSON; We're still trying different things all the time. Basically, our rallies are testing - we've only had a couple of days testing this year, so it's not easy to come to grips with it for every rally, because every rally is new, as well. So, at some rallies it works well, and at other rallies it doesn't work as well.

MN: Why have you done so little testing?

CA: It's just the way it is at the moment. Basically, the whole team has not done a lot, and we are sort of focussing on the rallies a bit.

MN: Do you have some test days lined up?

CA: Yes, we've got a couple now that we are focussing on tarmac a bit more. We've got a couple of days of tarmac testing, so we'll focus on that, and then we've got some more high-speed rallies coming up. We've got a Finland pre-event test as well. It will be good to have some more time in the car and try some more things.

MN: It will be good to get some miles without the pressure of having to compete.

CA: Yeah. It's always difficult to try things on the rally, because if it doesn't work then it looks like you've had a bad stage time, whereas it's because you tried something different, rather than you not driving well. So that's what we've been doing a lot of the time. And I think we are getting closer with the set-up, but we are always looking for more.

It's when you start pushing that little bit further - we can run at a pretty safe pace comfortably, but we don't want to be complacent.

30

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Mi

'GOLDEN STAIRS RDJI (TOPUHA 12km) 'mREREtu'' 'PAP, 2 Vti

A

MN: Are you at a stage where handling the car has become instinctive, or do you still have to think about what you're doing?

CA: It's still not 100 percent, and I don't know whether that is just more time in the car, or what it is.

But I guess the biggest thing is that every rally is fairly different, and there's a lot to learn and so on.

It will be more when you come to a rally that you've done before that you'll have a bit more confidence.

And I don't think we've got a problem really with where we're at - we've set a lot of good split times, and if there has been a tricky section then we'll take it easy, just to be safe. It's not the time yet to be taking big risks.

We'll just continue along with that progress at the moment, and build up to getting a good result later in the year.

MN: You have had some good stage times, and there have been a couple of occasions where you've been on your way to a good result only to have something turn around and bite you. Are you getting frustrated that you can't convert more of these good performances into points?

CA; It ;'s annoying, and probably more annoying in that if you did get a couple of solid results, which we easily could have, then that could open the door to going harder. Where, at the moment, we have to be a little

conservative just because we haven't had things go our way.

The thing is, it's not like we've been off the road a lot, or rolled cars up into a ball. We've just caught things, even on the line ... just, I don't know, bad luck.

OK,Turkey was a bit of a mistake, but before that we hadn't been off the road since Sweden, so it's not like we're over-driving.

It's just, when you go to a new rally every time and run at a pace close to the front guys, then there is always a risk there that something could go wrong.

MN: Were you surprised to be knocking out front-running stage times so quickly?

CA: I think that was the biggest problem: that we did it so early.

We set good times, and now everybody expects it all the time.

Obviously you want to go as fast as possible, but because there are so many variables and a complete lack of experience with these rallies, it is not always easy to go out and do it on every stage. So you are going to see a fair bit of inconsistency.

And that's the thing - if we can push on the stages that we feel comfortable on, and take it a bit easy on the others ones, then that's the best way to gain experience as well as show that you've got a bit of speed.

MN: Was there a release of pressure in the back of your

mind when you started posting those sorts of times?

Believing you are capable of doing it is different to knowing that you can do it...

CA: Yeah. I definitely think so. To set fastest times against these guys, even though sometimes road conditions or whatever helped, it is still a fastest time over that stage. A lot of people have never done a fastest time, so to be able to do one in your first few events is a cool feeling, and does bring confidence.

We've just got to be careful about how we approach it, and maybe not be too over-confident that we can do it all the time.

MN: Generally speaking, is life as a WRC driver the way you imagined it would be?

CA: For me, it's similar to what I've done over the last few years.

Obviously it's a bit more hectic, but it's just all about the job.

We just base our whole lives around it, as you'd expect. We're not in a position at the moment to have the awesome lifestyle. It's more just train hard, spend a lot of time at the factory, and finding the best set-up and planning the next rally. That is basically what our life revolves around.

MN: I know you've got your hands full dealing with this year, but at what point do you start thinking about 2006?

CA: I guess all we can do is worry about what we're doing now, like you said, and that will lead into itself. With Peugeot and Citroen pulling out, you've got guys like Loeb and Gronholm looking for drives, and obviously the market then becomes a bit overcrowded with drivers.

But all we can do is do out best. We're still young, younger than all the other guys around us, so if we're doing those times and have a few years up our sleeves, then hopefully it will take care of itself.

motorsportnews

Lacked And Loaded

>

Holden Racing Team broke a 12 month drought ofround wins in Shanghai ^ two weeks ago. Was the win a flash in the pan, or the.start of HRTs resurgence? MARK GLENDENNING tracked Todd Kelly down to find out important was the Shanghai win to you in terms of gettirig some momentum behind your season?

TODD KELLY: Well, where I was IMOTORSPORT NEWS: How in the championship before Eastern Creek, we had gotten into a little bit of a rut and we were having a bad run; mainly because we were just getting used to the new chassis that we’ve got.

But as soon as you end up where we were there, people start looking at every aspect of what we do and they start pointing the finger, and all sorts of stuff. Eastern Creek and Shanghai were really important. ^ We didn't do anything special at Eastern Creek, but we got good points.

Going into Eastern Creek we were 14th in the championship, and after Shanghai I think I have come out fifth. So it was really important. We needed a really solid result like that to get us back in the game, and from where we are now we can get back into the normal championship routine.

Dirt KlynsmUh

MN: You've spent all year adapting to the new car, but going to Shanghai, where nobody had any data, must have helped you in terms of levelling out the playing field?

TK: Yeah, it did. We were all pretty excited about that, it was a big challenge for us. We enjoy the engineering side of it, so we put in a lot of work before we got there.

Even when we got there, we walked around the track and made a heap more changes to the car before we went out in it.

As well as that, we actually

learnt a lot at Eastern Creek, and we had a big review of Where we' were with that car before.H^,. , and after Eastern Creek, and I am pretty sure that we have more or less got it worked out now. So over the last two rounds we have really got on top of this car.

MN: Did you hit upon something specific at Eastern Creek that aiiowed you to do tha;t, or was it just ail of the previous‘months of work coming together?

TK: It was just time. When you get a new car with the test days that we have got, which are basically bugger-all, you are learning it as you race. And once you get into qualifying and the race, you don't really want to make huge changes to the car.

So when you get a new chassis, it is just hard to get on top of it. There is no way of learning it other than time, and it just takes a lot of time.

MN: It must be frustrating as a driver to be with a factory team and yet spend half a season turning up to tracks knowing that the car is going to be handful because you can't sort it out in testing?

TK: Yeah, it is. But you need to do that to progress. You can't progress unless you go through that.

The last two or three generations of our cars have been massive improvements from one to the next. And each time we go to the improved car, it will always take two or three rounds, or two or three test days, to get the hang of the chassis. But you need to do it to keep progressing.

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know that it is a factory team, and you would always think that everything would be perfect, but you don't become one of the best teams without going through all of those changes.

MN: You said at the team's season launch at the start of the year that while you had not driven the car yet, it looked like the biggest jump that HRT had made in the time that you had been there. Is that how is has turned out?

TK: Yeah. The potential that the car has got ... engineering-wise. it is good enough to be at the front of the grid at every round.

We just need to do the job The design and everything of the whole car is miles ahead of anything that we've had previously in every little aspect.

There are all these little bits and pieces everywhere that aren't huge, but you look at them and think, 'oh, that's clever'. There are just heaps of those little bits and pieces, and in the end they all add up to a bloody good car.

MN: Can you pinpoint any areas where it has improved?

TK: There's heaps. I don't want to go too much into it, but every aspect of building a car so that you can get what you want out of it has been improved. Not massively, because it's not as if the previous car wasn't any good, but it is just little bits in all 29iiMNZMS

these different places that have been improved and refined, and it all adds up You can't just go, 'there's a tenth in that one thing'. There are probably a hundred things that have all been refined in this car.

MN: Does it feel different when you are driving it, or are the improvements more in things that you are dealing with when you are preparing it?

TK: It doesn't feel hugely different. If you were at a track and you had the old car, and you put exactly the same set-up on the new car, it would feel different. Now that we have a more refined car, we need to refine the set-ups, and the set ups are always different from chassis to chassis.

have, from the last few rounds, a pretty standard difference between the new and the old car. And that was half the thing at Eastern Creek, we can now half-calculate, from the old data, what we need to put on the new car when we arrive at the circuit.

We were struggling a bit with that earlier in the year.

MN:So your old data is pretty much useless?

TK: It is. Well, in a way. We now

continued on page 34

OH Kh nsmilh

33

conlinued from page 33 MN: Obviously you couldn't revert to old data at Shanghai, but will you be doing it in Darwin?

TK: I think we're past that now. I don't think we'll ever go to a track again with last year's settings on the current car. That is sort of what we were tending to do at the start of the year, but now that we've got it sorted it's not the case.

MN: Is the new car more sensitive to changes than the old one? Is there much of a difference in the way that it responds?

TK: Slightly. There is really not a lot in it, but being a slightly different chassis, it does make all of those little adjustments a little bit more sensitive. But you'd be really struggling to get in and out of the two cars and notice it too much.

MN: Do you enjoy the process of sorting a new car out?

TK: I really enjoy doing it. It's just hard when you have to do that during a championship (laughs).

But like I said, you have no choice. If you want to progress, you do it. We could have stuck with the last chassis, which we knew was good and we could be competitive in it, but the longer you do that, the further back you end up. So you need to take a step back and redesign and improve everything.

It's just a natural progression in the sport. It's the same in every category.

MN: But say, theoretically, you could go testing every week, I would have guessed that you would enjoy the mechanical and engineering aspects to getting a new car working, given that you grew up tweaking things in Mildura.

TK: Yeah. Well it would be a lot easier if we had four or five test days. We would have worked out the whole thing at round two instead of round five, or whatever we are up to.

So it would have been a lot easier, and a little bit more on the enjoyment side and less on the stressful side!

MN: How important was the win in terms of giving the team a lift, because it had been a year since HRT last won a round - and that was also courtesy of you, at Hidden Valley.

TK: I think it was really 34

of what goes on.

All of the stuff that I am involved in, just the standard day-to-day issues, I don't deal with Mark. But with the rest of it, I would imagine that he has taken a step back. But you'd have to speak to him about that.

important. It is tough when you are the factory team, and in the past the team has been dominant, you know, they used to go away and win a lot more races than they lost. So to go from that to the last few years that we have had has been tough.

To get a good result - and both cars were pretty quick there, we basically had a clean sweep - for the team, that makes a massive difference.

And for us to do the 50th round win on the same weekend was huge for the blokes.

Momentum has a lot to do with it, I think. That is what the Stone Brothers have had over the past two years. Once you have had a win, and then another win, it just gets easier once you get that sort of momentum. Now that we have got the car worked out and the engine is good, if we can get that momentum going and get

MN: Well, he also said that there were times that external demands had distracted him from his duties at the track.

Have you noticed a change in that area this year?

TK: Well, I never really picked that up. I thought that he always did a reasonable job at the track.

I never really noticed it being a drama in previous years. So I don't know.

Unless it was a drama for him and he'd done a good job hiding it. But I thought he had done a good job right through, really.

MN: Are you still in a position where you can learn }lk

I

m

mh Tul

the morale going, then we are going to have a pretty serious second half of the championship.

MN: How has Mark Skaife's role changed since last year?

He said in January that he was planning to step back and delegate a bit more - have you picked up on much of that?

TK: To be honest, I don't really know what goes on too much.

Between my schedule and Mark's, we are not really sitting at the workshop on a day-to-day basis, so I don't really see much

’ something by watching him, or have you been in the game long enough that you just find1 things that work for you?

TK: You can be doing this for 100 years and you will always pick thing up from your team-mate.

Just with the data, and bits and pieces like that, there are places we go to where he will have a different style or a different line into a corner that will be better than mine, so I will have a look at that and viceversa.

There are places where I might do something a bit weird.

a bit different, and it'might be a bit befter‘,‘A'S long as you are driving a rage car and you are in a team where you have a team mate, you are always going to learn stuff from them.

That's the advantage of having a team-mate.

MN:This is the last year of your current deal with HRT. At what point do you start thinking about next year?

TK: Obviously the thought ha^, crossed my mind a bit to date, but I don't really want to get serious about it until a little bit later.

We are going to have a chat after Darwin at some stage, and that will give both me and the team an indication of what we want to do, and from there 1 will sort of get a little bit more serious about what needs to happen.

But at the moment, the most important thing is, now that we have had a decent run, to concentrate on that. If I go back and start worrying about what is going to happen next year, that's all going to turn to shit. So the absolute number one is to concentrate in winning races and keeping ourselves where we were at China.

MN: Looking a couple of years ahead then, what kind of aspirations do you have? Do you see yourself in a team leadership role, or doing an Ambrose and having a look around overseas?

TK: The situation have got now with one of the top teams is what I wanted to do. Unless there is a massive drama, I don't want to be in a leadership role. I rir .

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think you need to concentrate on your specific role as a driver, or whatever that role is.

As far as teams and stuff, I just want to be with the best, most competitive team that has got the most chance in at the championshii|j. And there is only really two, maybe three teams that are in that position at the moment, so it is want to be really important.for me th> with one of those two or three teams.

Going over to Ford is a massive change - have been with Holden for about nine years now, and with the relationships that I have built up over thal time, it would be a huge thing to just walk away and go to the other side. So that would be ... I don't know, a last resort-type move. would imagine

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MI\J: IMot a complete impossibility. though?

TK: No way. No way. Definitely not. If a few things happen, it would be a big possibility.

But number one is trying to get the situation sorted out here. Especially with the way we are going with the Holden Motorsport side of it, and with Tom [Walkinshaw] coming in and all that. everything here is starting to ramp up a bit.

So I don't really want to do the wrong thing there for the career and take off )ust as it really starts to fire up. But you never know what is going to happen MINI: What about overseas? Neither Rick nor yourself have ever shown much interest in racing outside Australia.

TK: Well, at this level now, it is sort of too late. You can't really just pack up and go away. You get paid well to drive these cars, and it is one of the best championships in the world.

If you wanted to go and have a crack overseas, you would have to bring your own money, and all that sort of stuff.

That's why all these guys from overseas

Dirk Klynsmilh

are trying to get into our category.

Both Rick and I know that it is not worth having a crack at it when we've got it so good here. You could go over there, spend two or three million dollars of someone's money for a couple of years, and then someone will rock up with more money than you and get your drive anyway.

It's not like that here. We are pretty lucky.

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Move Along:There is

L

HAVING the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday evening,the FI circus encountered a lone fan, holding up a sign which said 'Michelin sucks'.

It was a perfect representation of the day's activities.

The fans went to see a motor race and came away having watched a procession involving only six cars.

Two Ferraris and four of the small fry. It was a charade.

Up in the grandstands they did not really understand what had happened. They knew that there was a problem with the Michelin tyres that had caused 14 of the 20 cars to be parked at the end of the parade lap.

There was never a question of a doubt that after that Ferrari would win the race but it was not a real victory, no matter how much the Ferrari team tried to make it sound like a victory. It was a farce. A farce which takes Schumacher to within three points of Kimi Raikkonen in the battle for second place in the Drivers' World Championship and which puts Ferrari second equal with McLaren in the Constructors' title. It is no way to challenge for titles but Ferrari does not seem to care about that.

The fact that the major players 36

allowed Ferrari to win is an indication of the desperate situation that had developed in the course of Sunday morning. Parking 14 cars was madness but, as far as we are concerned, the teams involved really had no choice.

The story began on Friday afternoon when Ricardo Zonta had a big spin in his Toyota. It looked like a tyre failure. A few minutes later, Ralf Schumacher suffered an almost identical problem, but this happened in the high-speed, banked.Turn 13.

Ralf spun once and then smashed into the wall at around 260kmh.It was a big hit and, amazingly, almost

know why and for 36 hours the French tyre men struggled with the problem,running a series of tests to try to replicate the failures, so that they could understand what had happened. By Sunday morning the problem had still not been solved.

During Saturday night nine of the FI teams (the seven Michelin runners plus Bridgestone runners Minardi and Jordan) agreed that they would only race if there was a chicane to slow the cars before Turn 13. This raised the possibility of only two cars lining up for the race. As always Ferrari refused to bend to pressure, apparently not caring whether its

'it became increasingly ciear in the course of Sunday morning that uniess something was done to sort out the probiem,the race was going to be a disaster" a carbon copy of the shunt that put him into hospital last year. Ralf was not hurt but would sit out the rest of the event because of fears of multiple bangs on the head.

The tyres were clearly to blame for the problem but Michelin did not

actions were in the best interests of the sport as long as they were in the best interests of the team.

No-one can argue that Michelin went to Indianapolis planning to fail.

A mistake was made. A bad mistake, but that was not the issue. The issue

was how FI was going to get around the problem. The tyres were dangerous and Michelin found itself in the awful position of being rmable to guarantee the safety of its drivers.

To give Michelin credit, it admitted the problem. There was not really an option.

"The current rules and timescale do not permit the use of an alternative tyre solution and the race must be performed with the qualifying tyres," Michelin said in a letter to the FLA."Michelin has in the sole interest of safety informed its partners that we do not have total assurance that all tyres that qualified the cars can be used unless the vehicle speed in Turn 13 can be reduced. Michelin very much regrets this situation but has taken this decision after careful consideration and in the best interests of safety at the event. We trust that the FIA can understand our position."

The FLA's response was extraordinary,saying that the federation will look at the question in relation to Article 151c of the International Sporting Code. This states that"any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests

moiorsportnews

FORMULA ONE

Nothing to See Here

Formula One became the laughing stock of the sports world after the disgraceful goingson at Indianapolis. JOESAWARD watched and tried to make some sense of one of the darkest days in motor racing history

of motor sport generally" will be deemed as breach of the rules. The letter went on to say that a change of tyres was be a breach of the rules and that the punishment should be "heavy enough to ensure that no team was tempted to use qualifying tyres in the future".

The FLA suggested that a solution was for Michelin cars to stop every 10 laps to change tyres. Later in the day FIA sources suggested that the Michelm teams should run with a self-imposed speed limit in Turn 13.

The suggestion that there should be a chicane was dismissed as being "out of the question".

Michelin responded with a further request to find a way to reduce speeds in Turns 12 and 13.

"We will not compete with these tyres in the current configuration of the circuit," the letter said.

In response, the FIA said there was nothing to add to the previous letter.

This created an impasse. All those involved had arguments that were valid. The FIA said it was trying to uphold the rules, Bridgestone did not want to be disadvantaged, nor did Ferrari. These were fair arguments but it became increasingly clear in the course of Sunday morning that unless something was done to sort out the problem, the race was going to be a clisaster.

Bernie Ecclestone and Tony George simply wanted to make sure that there would be a good race for the paying public. As the quibbling went on in the course of Sunday morning, tens of thousands of people arrived at Indianapolis to watch a motor race for which they had paid out considerable sums of money and travelled long distances to see.

The FI world should have switched into survival mode and begmr working on finding a solution that would ensure a race. It was time for a practical solutions to be enforced.

T A7hat actually happened in the V V course of Sunday morning is a story that is yet to be told but no doubt details will gradually emerge.

Our sources indicate that most of the FI team principals switched into the mode of looking for a solution to save the day. A variety of options

29 June 2005

were discussed including the chicane idea. There were discussions about a non-championship race. Each attempt was apparently blocked either by the FIA or by Ferrari.

One must assume that the warning that the Michelin cars would not race was seen by tire federation as being a bluff because as the minutes ticked away, the FIA maintained its position of refusing to budge from its path, even when it was pointed out that to run a race with just a handful of cars would be a disaster.

We got some explainin'to do: Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier tried to tell the press why the tyres, below, could not be replaced. For once Bernie Ecclestone, bottom, could not get the teams to dance to his tune.

It is clear from talking to those involved that the FIA President Max Mosley played an active part in all the negotiations but he was not in Indianapolis and thus not able to accurately judge the mood. Mosley may have had some valid arguments but that had ceased to be the point. It was time to lay aside the political quibbling and save the sport. But nothing happened. No compromise was acceptable and no-one had the power to impose a solution. Even Bernie Ecclestone found himself powerless.

There areproblems numerous ofof similar inexamples the history the sport, both in tyre war situations and at times when there were tyre monopolies in the given series.

Formula 1 had a similar problem at the German GP m 1959 and so it was decided to run the race in two heats.

The finishing order of the first heat created the grid for the second heat and then the two results were added together to come up with an overall result. NASCAR has had similar trouble on several occasions but the races have always gone ahead.

Champ Car ran into a problem in 2001 at the Texas Motor Speedway where drivers reported that they were suffering physical effects such as dizziness and loss of balance after lapping the 1.5-mile high-banked oval for sustained periods at speeds of 230-235mph. On that occasion the decision was taken to cancel the race because the drivers had reached the limits of physical endurance.

An additional problem that had to be taken into account was the fear of

continued on page 38 37

continued from page 37

on Sunday night that legal action might be an option.

"It's premature to be discussing that right now," Chitwood said.

"What occurred today was something we were not prepared for.

We invested a lot of time and effort in

litigation in the case of an accident if one of the Michelin runners crashed on Sunday. The worst case scenario would be an accident in which spectators were involved. The risk of that was minimal but it did exist and it did not seem to be wise for FI to go into Simday with a loaded gun in its hand. There were however other options which might have saved the

day.

^e fact that the 20 cars took part in the parade lap meant that FI did manage to fulfil its contractual obligations to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - but it does not mean that the sport fulfilled its moral obligation to the crowd. With an average ticket price of $150 and a crowd of 130,000 crowd the issue was one of $20m that had been spent(much more when one considers other expenditures) by spectators. Crisis management should have taken care of that but there was none. The sport stumbled blindly into the disaster.

There is an argument that it was all a game of brinkmanship and that Mosley thought he would win the day with the teams backing down and accepting defeat. Minardi and Jordan were pushed into racing despite their commitments the previous evening - presumably that

preparing this property for a worldclass racing event. The inability to have control over the actions today to say it's a disappointment is an understatement. Everyone here at the I Indianapolis Motor Speedway prides i themselves on producing world-class I' events. The fact we had no control ? over what occurred today is our I greatest disappointment. We feel as victimised as the fans do in what they Just give him the trophy and save some embarassment: Michael witnessed today. We had no control Schumacher waits for the start of the race, with five cars behind him. over the ability to stage an event. The because that was what was written in people who had the ability to control process involved Bridgestone the rules. things today were the FIA,Formula exerting pressure as the tyres are the One and Michelin."

How and why all this happened only common denominator between Out in the FI paddock on Sunday the two smaller teams. But if it was must now be analysed in detail. afternoon the mood was one of There is no independent ombudsman all a big game of poker with the for the FI fans and so the FI media desperation. future of the sport in North America "This was stupid, really stupid," must play that role, difficult though it in the pot on the table, it was a said Mike Mulhern, a reporter from may be. Questions must be asked and reckless game. The FIA and Ferrari the Winston Salem Journal. "There is answers dug out. ignored the warnings. no excuse for not having a Plan B,for It may all end up in civil courts As the clock ticked on inexorably not putting on a show and running towards the start time at 13.00, nobecause it was very clear after the the race. It is arrogance and stupidity one had the interests of the fans event that the Indianapolis Motor that has caused this. It shows no foremost in their minds. And that is Speedway felt that it had been as much a victim of events as the fans. respect for the people watching in the the crime. It was hke stewards telling grandstands and on TV.It is slap in Joie Chitwood III, the President of people on the Titanic that they were the face for the US public." not allowed to run in the corridors Indianapolis Motor Speedway,hinted

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FORMULA ONE

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go "LIKE all the other drivers involved in this, I feel the worst for the spectators who turned up to see a race. It was an absolute joke for them. Not to mention everyone sitting in front of a TV. "I don't have a clue what the repercussions will be, other than there will be some long-term ones - but we have to ensure that something like that never, ever happens again."

According to Mark Webber, Michelin's technical nightmare built up through Saturday, following Ralf Schumacher's major failure, and shunt, on Friday.

"It wasn't just Toyota in trouble. There were several teams in differing degrees of trouble. We seemed OK, but when they cut up one of my tyres to check things out, there were signs there too ...

"Michelin, and the teams, and the drivers, were working flat out, all the way through until about 4 o'clock Saturday to try and come up with a solution."

In an eerie replay of a debate six years earlier, at Le Mans with Mercedes, Webber found himself involved in a crisis pre-race decision-making process: "We absolutely wanted to race and we were tn/ing to convince ourselves that we could. By late Saturday, however, the extent of the problem was obvious, and I was in on a meeting with some of the

3'

I

drivers and the Michelin guys and team engineers, where we couldn't convince ourselves any other way, Michelin tried and tried - possibly for a bit too long - to come up with a solution, but in the end, there was none.

"Toyota weren't going to start, it seemed, and BAR was in a bit of bother too (in fact, we'd heard that Trulli only had three laps of fuel on when he won pole ...).

"At that point, we had to come up with a solution to at least allow a race to go ahead. A chicane was the obvious answer and we agreed to work on that.

The Michelin teams ail agreed to forfeit our points, and so on, with the single purpose of putting on a race for the crowd.

"In the end, the people who could have made it happen didn't. DC was absolutely right in that TV interview when he said what an embarrassment it was that a group of supposedly intelligent adults couldn't come up with a sensible solution.

It was a joke and the drivers were livid.

"In the end we had no choice but to do what we were instructed to do and pull in at the end of the parade lap. To race as things stood would have been inviting a possible disaster..."

-CHRIS LAMBDEN

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39

■r.

The China Syndr Did it really happen? That is the question many have asked since the chequered flag flew at the first V8 Supercar round in Shanghai. PHIL BRANAGAN looks back at the staggering success of the race - and some of the problems

I

T was hard not to walk around the Shanghai International Circuit and not say, out loud,in capital letters,"WOW".

The track is like that. The city is like that. China is like that. The whole experience of travelling from AustraUa to China for the fifth round of the V8 Supercar Championship, the first race to be held outside Australia or New Zealand, was one that will stay with everyone who made the trip for the rest of their lives.

That is not to say that the experience is once-in-a-lifetime. The circus will return, probably for the next four years at least, so the drivers and the crews, and the officials and the media, will become familiar with the track and the city, the same as we are with Brisbane, Auckland and Wangaratta. The fans will return, almost certainly in greater numbers than they did this year; and there will be more local V8 Supercar fans there next season.

But being in thefirst group to travel to China was special - really special.

Zooming around the city in a bus, or roaring around in a cab (usually with closed eyes) is a real experience.

Nothing can prepare you for the first time you see the city, the track, the

people. We cam only hope that the V8 Supercars made a similar impression on the locals - and maybe, that they were also watching the US Grand Prix on television so that their next ticket purchasing decision might be a little easier...

Before wewhat get into the nuts andwhy, bolts of happened and there is some credit to be assigned.

With considerable justification, AVESCO Chairman Tony Cochrane was beaming like a new dad at Shanghai. In the more than two years since TC told an eye-blinking world that the Greatest Show on Wheels was going to play Da Shang, there had been doubters, scoffers and critics. The race was postponed and even, if you believe the naysayers, cancelled. The fact that we got there at all was a marvel; that it aU went so well was stupendous.

Cochrane,a man who never saw a microphone he did not like, justifiably made speeches, and headlines. There is good reason to applaud him. Less has been said of the team behind the scenes who, largely, stayed out of the spotlight.

That team is large; their names and jobs do not need to be detailed here.

But they all made grand efforts to make sure that the event was a success so to all,from the hard working Wayne Cattach down, congratulations.

On the Tuesday after the event, I shared a hotel breakfast table with a senior race official, who asked what score I would award the event on a scale of 1 to 10.

"Somewhere in the nines," I rephed."It was not perfect but the problems were handled with patience and professionalism. And you?"

"I would give it an 11," he replied.

Mathematics aside, I can see his enthusiasm, but there were problems.

Not everything was perfect and TEGA Operations Manager Kelvin O'Reilly is quick to identify the major ones.

"Operational issues aside, there were a tremendous amount of positives," he says,"[but] the three key things that occupy the teams' perspectives are the three Fs; Food, Freight Departures and Flights.

"The food at the circuit, which was primarily for breakfast and dinner, did not work. The freight departure and return point, Melbourne, did not work well for the Queensland teams.

Hopefully, that will change in the

future. And Flights, if you ask the teams,I am sure that they would say that they prefer a different carrier, with tickets issued earlier."

Last thing first; there were hiccups in the flight arrangements. As someone who travelled to Shanghai with AVESCO,it was of concern that confirmation the domestic leg of the flight from Sydney to Melbourne came through only a few days before the off. The original ticketing was to have me sitting on my bronze in Sydney for five hours on the way home, though Qantas came to the rescue and eliminated that.

AVESCO CEO Wayne Cattach is well aware of the ticketing problems.

"The promoters were to supply the tickets and their preferred carrier was China Eastern," he explained."That is fine except that the airline flies only from Melbourne and Sydney,so the cormecting flights were arranged late.

"Some people, like Mark Skaife for instance, flew in separately because he was in Asia the week before the race. So,I believe, was Roland Dane."

Each team was allocated two Business Class and eight Economy tickets per car, with the option to trade the two Fat seats for four Economies. Most took this option.

There were reports that the first post race flight out of Shanghai to Australia was only partially full. That is possible but the vacant seats were, in all likelihood, reserved as full economy fares.

And how is this for a mystery; on post-race Monday,two team managers flew to Hong Kong and found themselves in adjacent check in queues. One was going to Melbourne, then 'domestic' to Sydney, then home to Queensland.

The other went HK-Sydney-

The Dawn of a new era? ^ Has V8 Supercar racing reached its J greatest heights with the first race f at the SIC - or is this just the I beginning of a whole new world?

40

moiorsportnews

ome Both Rick and 8 really struggled with the food over there and could not wait to get hack and have a decent steakin - Todtl Kelly puts the whole Chinese cuisine thing in a clearer perspective

Melbourne, where he lives. If it had been allowed, they would have benefited from swapping bookings and it would have been cheaper.

Put this down as a Year #1 hitch.

Most of the travellers flew with China Eastern Airlines and pre-trip research revealed some horror stories, which it must be said, related mainly related to domestic intraCliina flights. While the cabin staff needed a good course in service, and some of the food looked dodgy, the flights were fine -in fact, my return flight in a brand-new Airbus A340 was first-rate. The flights are cheap and you do get what you pay for but, if it came to it, I would fly CE again.

The track wasSaturday, hit-and- it miss.

Oncatering Friday and was whatever you could get, though Sunday's fare seemed a little more corporate and was comparable to anything you would get at an Australian track.

In the media room ... well, they tried but there is only so much you can do with bikkies and buns. The local KFC shop got a workout and the food was not bad (but we would be interested to know if the C stands for 'Chicken'). Despite Shanghai's reputation as a centre of international cuisine, the title of the best chips in V8 Supercar racing is still held by Phillip Island.

The transporting of athe machinery was handled with minimum of fuss.

"We are lucky to have someone like Bill Gibson," admitted Cattach in China."The whole thing has been handled so professionally; in fact, this

29 June 2005

Paris? Coiogne? No, it's downtown Shanghai or, more accurately. The Bund region on the Huangpu River. end [the Chinese authorities] has been done quicker than they did Formula One [last year]."

Each car was placed on the special aluminium rack and stacked car-oncar by a large forklift. The teams were also allocated one container per car for their equipment. All the racks and containers are owned by AVESCO though the teams built, in varying degrees, their own interiors to pack the containers.

One plan that was on the agenda in the early planning was that there ^ would be two containers of'generic' spares sea-freighted to Shanghai early for the teams' use. The cargo was to have been 'consumables' that aU Fords and all Holdens(and Buicks) share - windscreens, doors, guards,fuel tanks and so on. The stock would have been available to the shareholders, who split the cost of transit to China. And here is the clever bit; the containers would have stayed, ready for use at next year's race.

But the plan was gunned down by some of the smaller teams and will not be practical next season, as the 2007 Commodores and Falcons will be new models. Cattach.also comments that many of the containers were not quite full, the teams underestimating how much they could pack in.

There were a couple of delays on the way back, mainly to do with the paperwork that customs dealt with at the China end. With movement of such things as racecars still a novelty, things slow dramatically when the paperwork does not precisely match

what is being loaded (and in what order). Motor racing people are accustomed to thinking on their feet; Chinese government officials are not.

Again,it wOl be better next year and beyond.

There were several tour groups that travelled to the maiden race and the early mail is that most will be back, bigger and better in the future.

HRT took more than 100 to the race and we believe that there will be a bigger group in 2006. The MNews/Ticket2Ride group had a great time and already more than half the tourists who took the plunge this year have indicated that they need only a date to go again in the future.

Many bf the team personnel and officials stayed over for a day or two, with a lot of them hitting the markets. One team member(no names,I promised) will have a lot of TV time booked to get through the more than 200 DVDs he brought home and, while checking in for the return flight on Tuesday,I have never seen so many traditionally rough headed team members dressed in so many designer labels and packing watches with expensive brands but, probably, less expensive price tags.

Shanghai Round winner Todd Kelly had mixed impressions about the city: "We stayed over for Monday and Tuesday, and went on a tour and stuff. It was an interesting place, it is a really interesting city,just the amount of history. We went to a few gardens and stuff... that was quite amazing.

"But every time I go somewhere overseas, it dways just reminds you of how lucky we are here. In every respect- both Rick and I really struggled with the food over there and could not wait to get back and have a decent steak! But it was fantastic to visit,for sure, and learn about. But like I said, it just makes you realise how lucky we are here."

Ah, you can take the boy out of Mildura but you can't take Mildura out of the boy.

So, it has happened.

We our premier racing series totook the biggest coimtry in the world and it did not just work,it worked brilliantly.

China is not like Australia. In many ways, the two countries are complete opposites. Our political structure is not the same, the judicial systems are much different and our population density could hardly be more different.

China has little motor racing culture, we have much. They do not drive Holden Commodores or Ford Falcons and we do not drive Volkswagen Santanas. Some of their views on cooking,free speech and intellectual copyright are at odds to what we are accustomed to.

But, more than ever, we are linked -and not by just a race. Shanghai was a success and it will continue. And, hopefully, it will never become just 'another' V8 Supercar round. After this start, it deserves much more than that...

continued on page 42

41

IThere See Red, I See Red, I See Red was much to see in Shanghai. Here are some of

the sights...

A little bit of Kentucky: Clockwise from above, American fast food is making some footholds in China, as is General Motors. Long-time PR guru Tim 'Plastic'Pemberton traded his Holden duds for Buick for the weekend and haunted the palatial media amenities. Orrcon Racing may have been looking for a local panel beater after Mark Winterbottom's accident. Some locals, like a window washer on the Pearl Tower, have great views at work - and even if Indy now hates them. Formula One is making its presence felt in Shanghai. And don't Todd look proud of winning a $9 Lolex?

motorsportnews

Marcos Ambrose's last race in Sydney-come and fly the Blue Ova!flag ORAN PARK.

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One ofAustralia’s finest graced the sacrddGoodwood Festival ofSpeed, and there was ho better man to steer thp ship

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HE 2005 Goodwood '■,.tinrte'up'the::hill, reBoftling-the.- f Festival of Speed saw . fastest m preliminary > ● ' some of the world's most runs. > revered cars and stars gather 'Peter l^erfept' also found.^the 12th annual event last time to drrv'e a Vauxhall weekend.

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The theme of this year's referred to.as.'BaBy Bertha, Festival was ''Racing Coloure pictured righi.^he fanped“b^r National Pride and Culture', contested BrjtsJb^port Sedanv^ch celebrated the way the type events ba€lJ in:-theJ970s. v cultures, passions and skills of The T^e^mil'e course on 1 he-nations influenced their parkland roads in the grounds of Goodwood HouseJs one of ^ racing cars and drivers. > And,there was really no the most popular eventsvon better 'man, or car, to represent the UK racing calendar.^ " ● ■i Australia at the Festivai.

I nclement weather halted Nine-times Bathurst winner proceedings on Friday, but and all-round legend Peter Saturday and Sunday dawned Brock strapped himself into his fine and clear and both days Holden Commodore VK, which were sold out. took him and Larry Perkins to Current Formula Tears and

Lots, to seei From-the fop, an AlCP^car, Frank Vela's Audi A4, Formula ^ BMW, the old ft cars of Embassy, Lotus, Ferrari and Williams, plus a ver, jaguar Sportscar, Penske IndyCar and Bruno Senna in a McLaren. f

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MOTORSPORT NEWS: No rest for the wicked, Tom -they have you racing in DTM the weekend after winning the Le Mans 24 Hour! Was there any time to celebrate?

TOM KRISTENSEN: No, no, we had some celebrating!

But obviously with a race like Le Mans, it is a case of 'the kettle can only boil for so long', and after the race, in a two-car team there are a lot of happy faces but there are also sad emotions from people because we had two cars (and both cannot win). The best thing to do at Le Mans is win with a one-car team, because then the party is, for sure, fantastic.

But nevertheless, there was a party on Monday in Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen with around 20,000 people. But this is not as good as the release of pressure that you have when you have a few beers with the team on

Sunday night after the race - and some champagne.

MN: You caught up with Jacky Ickx before the race for a chat, just before you broke his Le Mans win record. Have you caught up post-race?

TK; No. We had lunch before the race. On the Wednesday and Thursday he was at the racetrack.

MN: So how did you feel the race panned out for you? You did an incredibly long stint late in the race to maintain the lead - how did you recover from that?

TK: Yeah, I did four stints in one at one stage there. Late in the race Marco Werner (team-mate) had a slow puncture, which we had had a few of, which sort of was holding us back and was hampering our tactics a little bit.

But we never had a problem

with the car the whole race. The thing was to keep the car moreor-less on the track the whole time. Sometimes we were a little bit off-line and the slow punctures were biting us.

Marco had a slow puncture and shortly after midday Sunday he had another one. As it was shortly after midday the team the decided to put me back in the car because then I could stay in until the finish (ED: that's almost a four hour stint!).

This was the seventh win for me, and my sixth in a row, so basically I have been there nine times and every time I have arrived at the end I have been in the winning car. Seven times ! have arrived at the end and two times I have retired. One of those times was in 1999 when I had the big lead with BMW and JJ Lehto was one of the other drivers. On the podium this year he said 'hey, let's forget about '99 now'.

MN: Obviously a really happy moment then to get win number seven?

TK: I was extremely happy. This one, we simply did a fantastic race. We were disciplined.

Marco, JJ (Lehto) and-myself and the team hardly made any mistakes and we were pushing all the time throughout the race as others felll because of problems and mistakes.

MN: Is it a good feeling to not only get the win to become the record holder, but also to bring your team-mate Marco his first Le Mans win?

TK: Yeah it's really good. Of course it is really good because to be honest, this year it was really quiet between us drivers.

There was not even close to politics at anytime. Everyone was just doing their job and nothing jpise^Eyeryone^ was just

!

The Master of the Tam Mri^emen has won every Le Mans 24 Hour held this century and now has a record seven wins. CHRIS JORDAN spoke with the Dane

sulion-imagcsicom

46

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INTERUIEW confident and ready to go out and fight. It was so easy.

Normally between drivers it can happen that there is a little bit here and there, but I really enjoyed this race and I was a little bit nervous going into it and to come out on top in a race like that is of course unbelievable.

It was the last race of the Audi R8 - our little baby is now going to the museum for its pension.

So in that sense it made the victory absolutely fantastic because since I signed with Audi AG for the 2000 season I won Le Mans every year since then!

MIM; The group of Audi drivers that have had so much success at Le Mans, and also in other events like ALMS, must have a real attachment to the R8. It is arguably the best Sportscar of all time.

TK: Yes, that's no doubt! It's the best because there are a lot of

things to it. It is not just the driving, but its also the serviceability and the way the mechanics can work on the car and if there is a problem they can fix it easily and if there is a crash they can change it in modules and things like that.

It's a well and truly thought out race car, which has now won its sixth Le Mans - and it still won.

MIM: On the same weekend we saw a lot of manufacturers get embarrassed at the US FI GP, we were seeing the magnificent Audi R8 win, in front of a record crowd that were cheering for the car as much as anything.

Audi must be thrilled with the Sportscar program,something you have been a part of for all these years?

TK: Yeah, I mean this is probably a question you need to address to Audi, but I am sure that they are very pleased with what they do.

DIM is growing in Europe and

it's a success as people like touring cars and its very successful.

Obviously, the three best touring cars in the world are DTM, NASCAR and your series {ED: V8 Supercars).

In DTM the battles are fierce and there are fantastic drivers and really good teams and in that sense I am sure that Audi is very pleased to be where they are, and at the same time, show that in endurance and reliability they put out a race car at Le Mans, which is the best way to prove ^— yourself and to brand your image.

Year after year, not just being in it and saying 'we have been there, we have done it, we have won,' but the way to get into the heatt .of .pegplejs to keep doing it and to,keep doing it well, which of course, is a big bonus.

MN:So with the retirement of the R8, you may not be racing at Le Mans next year, unless Audi's new program is ready or you race for another, nonAudi AG team. continued on page 48

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Something different: Kristensen's first Le Mans 24 Hour win came in 1997 in the joest Porsche with Stefan Johansson and the late Michele Alboreto. Right, Kristensen in his 'other'job, driving for Audi's championship-winning DTM squad at Brno, Czech Republic.

Bficord

continued from page 47

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TK: I think I have a very good chance to race at Le Mans. I know

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the Audi people are building a new car and working on it, but will not be ready to announce it until October or November. Otherwise,

and perhaps the Dome-Mugens But in speed and reliability we were very disciplined, we al drove a fantastic race and that's

yes, I have a very loyal relationship with Audi and I want to stay here. as they are great people here But of course, Le Mans is a

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MINI: Ever since you have joined the Audi Le Mans program in 2000, you have won the race. So do the other

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MN: It's a hard question to answer, but does one of the seven Le Mans wins standout in you mind?

TK: It is not a hard question because you are probably number 754 who has asked me about that!

Without the first one, with Joest in the private Porsche in 1997, the others may not have come because that was when I put my foot in the Holy Grail and everyone saw me and a lot of teams asked to employ me for the future.

But every race at Le Mans is very important. It is unique because there is one year

between each race and there is so much build-up for it. So I always remember them very well, but the last one of course means maybe ... maybe the most because it was a fantastic race and we were not favourites and I think I drove myself, except for a small mistake in the early part of Sunday morning, a race without any mistakes.

MN:So how is DTM going for you this year?

TK: DTM is going along well and we are straight into another race so shortly after Le Mans. I could have done with a little more free

time, but that's the way it is.

I am third in the championship, so it is quite interesting. But it's very, very competitive and it's very, very tight, so let's see.

{laughs). Please give my regards to them all.

One day I would love to come down for it, honestly. But at the moment it is not in the plan for Audi and me.

1 don't know the dates and MINI: The undisputed king of endurance races,there is one stuff, but I would love to do it race that I think may interest one day. I have neyer been to you. Have you considered ' Australia’s© I would love ta»g®l; coming down to Australia to down there. I have only heard compete at Bathurst? positive things about it and I want to be there one day.

TK: Oh yes! I know some people Another thing I would like to who are working in the V8 do down there is the Crocodile teams down there who I have worked with before and some of Trophy you have down there for mountain bikes, so maybe I can them used to congratulate me borrow a mountain bike? about this time of the year

Eastern Creek RacewaviSunday10 July HPDC Holden Performance Driving Cen'tre

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Wheels in S far as fostering young driving talent is concerned, open-wheel racing is where it’s at.

Of course, there have always been the odd exceptions that bypass convention and come to prominence through production cars (Warren Luff), off-road racing (Paul Weel) or tractor pulls (!), but there is no better place for a driver to hone their craft and develop their skill than in a competitive, cut-throat openwheel category -‘real’ racing cars.

So why then, is the state of play in openwheel racing formula In Australia so clouded?

Participation numbers in Formula Ford have never been greater, but even this category will have to work hard over the next Jr/ ; few years as it undergoes a raft of changes.

Beyond Formula Ford, we are currently in m dire need of one solid, competitive 'wings and

1’

F

ORMULA Ford racing prepares, nurtures and harnesses the talents of drivers - and has been doing so for 36 years.

To see the success of the category in Australia, you only need to look at the list of Formula Ford champions from the past 15 years. Twelve of them will be driving in the V8 Supercar endurance races this year, and nine are full-timers.

This year's National series is very competitive, with a depth of driver talent seen in very few categories. To add to this, the New South Wales and Victorian championships are attracting 30 cars to each round, and at least 10 are vying for race wins.

But Formula Ford is about to step into the unknown. Having

slicks’ class, where drivers will arguably develop their talent best.

Although the aspirations of young drivers these days are turning more and more towards V8 Supercars, there is no better place to develop as a driver, even as a touring car driver, than with your helmet out in the wind.

But after Formula Ford, drivers are ignoring Formula 4000 and Formula 3 and heading to Carrera Cup (Marcus Marshall, Fabian Coulthard, Alan Gurr, David Reynolds) and even V8 Utes(James Moffat, Ryal Harris, Chris Pither) to make a name for themselves. Even In the case of the HPDC V8 Development Series, there are many drivers in the field who would be better served with an apprenticeship more grounded in open-wheelers before driving in V8 Supercar’s feeder class. . Tough decisions need to be made If the

path for young drivers is to be improved.

Formula Fords do not need wings.

Formula 4000 is past its use-by date and at the moment F3 isn’t on most young driver’s radar. Should Australia adopt a modified (cheaper) class of F3, or is the introduction of a model such as New Zealand’s successful Toyota Racing Series the answer?

We do this not because we are mischievous, but because the current situation is fatally flawed. We know how good things could be, because we see the people involved in this side of the sport regularly and they are some of the best people in Australian motorsport. These four pages are intended to get people talking and thinking for the betterment of all, because it is from here, open-wheel racing, that our next heroes will be groomed.

- CHRIS JORDAN and GRANT ROWLEY 1 11..’;

FFord:LogicalStep

raced with the reliable Kent engine since Day 1, Formula Ford will utilise the power of Ford's 1.6 litre Fiesta donk in the national series next year.

Why change such a known formula, you ask? To keep in line with racing developments overseas, plus to give Ford a marketing tool for the Fiesta.

How will this help the category? Besides the fact that Ford remain happy and keep contributing finiancially, engines will be faster, last longer and become cheaper to maintain.

This all sounds great, but there will be sacrifices for teams and drivers before benefits will be noticed. Not only does the engine need to be bought, but the chassis has to be adapted and a whole swag of components need to be replaced. It is estimated that the cost of changing the engine will be a tad under $30,000 per car.

When Ford announced the new engine, it also revealed that non-aerodynamic wings would be mounted on the cars from

2006 onwards. We are now half way through the year, no chassis manufacturer has seen a wing yet, or tried to adapt it to the car.

Parity tests would need to be conducted, plus safety and speed testing.

But do the cars even need wings? Some may have welcomed the idea initially, but wings are just another part to buy, have spares for, damage and then repair, all for no conceivable gain in what should be a low cost formula - so no wings, please.

Formula Ford is currently buoyant. You can choose to drive for the professional teams (at a cost), or do it off your own back.

As long as Formula Ford is always won by stealth, hot by wealth, it should be the first thing you drive after karts.

ANALYSIS

ttan

MNews investigates the current state of open-wheel racing in Australia. By GRANT ROWLEY and CHRIS JORDAN

II i ThfffeOTriTof operuwheet-.j Overall cost-cutting I sjccessiari in Australia is fi efoudecfe-State Formula Ford, must be undertaken to ’ tijen National, then F3- it seems like a sound prospect, get more front-running Q " but for some reason, F3 has i cars involved" not yet slotted itself into the ! greater scheme of things as was first envisaged.

The series is run professionally, with quality Dirkhlmim teams and quality people the Australian F3 Association winning Formula Ford squads involved. But why then have and owner of F3's crack team. (one state, one national), drivers from Formula Ford, overlooked F3 to enter two Team BRM,is best positioned whether they see their future to answer. cars in Carrera Cup,taking his in V8 Supercar or overseas, "Despite what people say, not used the category more as 2004 Australian FFord they are cost effective," said a stepping stone? Carrera Cup, Championship winning driver Rundle."The engines are David Reynolds with him.

V8 Development series and reliable and they do not even V8 Utes have attracted "I've never seriously looked at Formula 3," said Ritter. "To consume lots of parts. I have drivers after Formula Ford, race engines in cars that have me, it's too expensive for this and in the process, out of done over 4000 kilometres." open-wheel race cars, which is country and the fields have shown it."

Rundle also says that arguably where a driver will With the added contrary to comments by best learn his or her craft. some, F3 would accept a sophistication of an F3 car, Some would say that if F3 control engine regulation if a the cost is always going to be were to be the wings-andmanufacturer was prepared higher than FFord. But it slicks category for Australian to approach the category with would seem that the gap in motorsport, then the top half a sound proposal. of the National Formula Ford budgets is too great.

If the issue is cost, then is it As with all things in an grid would be thinking about open economy, opinions will possible to lower the cost of it as an option for 2006. But F3 racing in Australia? We can count for little. they are not, and this is a run an F3 car at a fraction of "Ultimately, the market will problem. decide," said Rundle.

Sonic Motor Racing Services the cost that they do in Is this a swipe at F3? No, Europe. That's good, but boss Michael Ritter, who this could we do it for even less? definitely not, but currently year expanded his business Bronte Rundle, Chairman of not enough young drivers are outside of his championship-

restrictions and only allows cars that are one homologation period old These are both excellent ideas. and should not be changed.

But can we go further? The South American and Asian F3 series have gone to control | engines in the name of cost cutting. With Asia looking at Toyota as a supplier, could we get in on this deal, or even, could we build engines and other components locally?

Overall cost-cutting must be undertaken to get more front® running cars involved.

If Australia can afford F3, then it's a good fit for what we need. But if Australia can afford F3, why hasn't it worked? Why are the grids small and why do young drivers keep saying that it is too expensive?

All these questions point to one thing - cost. Australia's economy at present is flying, yet most baulk at the cost of our F3. It needs to be cheaper.

If the car count is in the teens now, what would it be like in a recession?

If we can make it work (ie: double the amount of competitive cars, teams and drivers), fantastic!

But if not, see over for alternatives.

Dirk Klynsinith/M.irshitll Cass Digitally altcrcrl

51

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FORMULA 4000, as iit is known these dOyS, hos'hadta good run in Australia. the Gategory owgiiinatlv began in K989 as topmula Brabhawi, which turned into Formula Holden, and' is now referred to as f4000, Powered by Holden. It is the longest^riuininiing,wiings- | and-sic'ks series that Australia has ever seeni,Ibut now, its i time as a genuine development category has ipassedi.

Here are the facts oni Formula 4000. There are about 2# chassis in Australia at the moment, with 14 of them »the Mgihr I nose spec. The youngestca r in the cou ntry is ai 1988 modef Reynard, f4000 irecently liintroducedi a new 3.6 litre en'giine and four of j them are euirently iini Cana, with a further six to be introduced ; at Rouindi I. There are T|Cars entered for the next round at QueenslandMRaeeway. The cars meet FIA safety regulations. ; lutilii ke am thin gs iih'life, nothiimg; is forewer.

Graham WWatson, viGe-president of the f4000 association, : team'owner and ai man with decades of experience iin. the I sport, says there is still room,in Australia for Formula 4000. i "We iknow that ©pen-wheel racing in Australia is fai'llng;, and it always'has;," said'Watson,. "People rave about Formula ^ SOO0, but there wereohlly eight ears, so nothing has changed.

I The problem is not open-wheelers though, it is touriing cars." i : "Formiuil'a ford:is so expensive for what it is. They shouldnT ; be anafenail'seriies-sitneedSit© bea slate series.They shouldI'hawe an- end: of year finale, and the wi'nner of that festival should'get a paidi drive in Formuila'3, and the winneF of:Pormiula S shiouilldl get ai dlriweiniF400O. Now the reason I say that is beeaiuse the dlrivers Who compete in F4000 go overseas ibetter pireipairedi fo:r their careers," said Watson.

This may have been true ini the past, but not any more.

Watson is correct ini saying:that ¥8 Supercars has sucked:up the liion's share of sponsorship funds iin this country, which is even more reason to coincentrate on one strong, viable wings and'Slicks class. Thie ideal time to end a category is when it Is at such 3'low that its demise will affect only a few people.

F4000'is currently Introducing new engiiines, but the time willl SoO:n C0;me where new chassis will also need to be sought -- by no means a cheap exercise. The cars at their peak are 'awesome thiings,, but we have not seen an F40O© race with: mo:re than one or two fast and reliable ears for ai few years now. The cars should be phased into state-level racing car classes or run at billclliimlbs.

CAM'S, you are the government of motorsport in Australia, and should do things for the betterment of the motorsport industry as a Whiolei Time, gentlemen, please.

Where s O,from our analysis it would seem that the core problem in Australian open-wheel racing at the moment is that we are yet to create a class that gives young drivers the chance to stay in openwheel race cars beyond Formula Ford.

For reasons already covered, F4000 is no longer an option, and,in its current form,F3 is also wide of the mark, having attracted some young talent to its ranks, but not enough. If F3 can take off and become that next step after FFord, then problem solved.

But what other options do we have? While many wings and slicks categories operate across the globe, most are too expensive for the Australian motorsport industry, and quite frankly, have problems of their own that we do not need to transplant here.

One that has been growing successfully of late is Formula BMW, and while the category has been mentioned as a potential answer for Australia, the time seems to have passed.

BMW did look at the prospect, but the FBMW concept's expansion from the single German series to four separate championships in the end did not include Australia. Instead, a

series was created m the growing Asian motorsport arena, with the other two in the US and UK. The likelihood of the Asian series running a round or two in Australia and attracting several Australian drivers to compete in the full championship is now the most hkely plan - and why not? it makes sense

Little giants: Formula BMW Asia, above, and Formula Toyota, top, have grown rapidly in recent times. Could one of them fit Australia's needs?

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ANALYSIS

to from here? the possibility of using the formula to restart the once-great Tasman Series.

Just think, accommodated in the Australian summer,teams from both the Australian and New Zealand Toyota Racing Series converge on a championship with rotmds on both sides of the Tasman.

The strength and enthusiasm such a series would create would be so great that it could again bring drivers from Europe. Racing in a capacity field in the summer of the

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as part of Australia's convergence with Asia, in terms of all industry, not just motorsport. It also offers Australian drivers the opportunity to race a season OS,but still live at home. With a restriction on testing, it is not necessary for the driver to undertake the cost of relocation,so often a setback for explorations of ' European or American motorsport.

FBMW Asia - where the series champion receives either a free drive in FBMW ADAC(Germany), or funding to compete elsewhere, for the following year - is already on our doorstep as a springboard to greater things in open-wheel racing.

Therefore, it probably does not need to have an Australian series and further dilute the talent pool in Australia with yet another category.

If Formula Ford were on its knees, FBMW would be a perfect replacement. But FFord is strong,so let's keep it that way, whOe supporting those who venture to the Asian (or other FBMW)series.

N'ow, people: We maydeep havebreath, found the answer.

An open-wheel racing category exists that is a step up both speedwise and technically from Formula Ford. The step, however,is not that much greater in terms of cost. The category: the Toyota Racing Series, which ran for the first time m New Zealand over last summer.

The series is a model for fast openwheel racing at a price that is affordable for the Australian motorsport environment.

29 June 2005

Everything is controlled. The Kiwis have set up their own factory to rebuild all the engines, which are all owned by the category and leased to competitors. The ECUs from each car are taken at the end of each roimd, making the expense of private testing impossible. The only testing is done at cormmmal-type test days, where aU cars are present and the category managers hand back the ECUs for the day. Control parts are bought in bulk by the category management, making parts cheaper.

The Tatuus-built cars are similar to F3 cars, but slightly smaller and technically simpler. Engines are leased from Toyota and,in NZ,the lease cost was in most cases covered by a Toyota dealership, who in turn sponsored the car.

Back to Sonic zsar Michael Ritter: While he dismissed F3,he has nothing but praise for the Toyota formula.

"We absolutely need something viable that is the next step beyond Formula Ford," said Ritter.

"To me,the ideal platform is something like the Toyota Racing Series. If we could ever put something together with Toyota and whoever is required to get that off the ground,I think it's a heU of an opportunity waiting for someone to grab it and run with it."

Graham Watson too,is keen for the series to reach Australia, having worked on Kiwi Brendon Hartley's car in the recent New Zealand series.

Another aspect of the Toyota Racing Series that Ritter alludes to is

Antipodeans would surely be a more alluring opportunity to many drivers preparing for a year in other openwheel championships than say, the British Formula Renault Winter series, where temperatures rarely reach double figures and rain is torrential.

Held at a time of year when V8 Supercar is in its downtime, openwheel racing would be the focus of Australian motorsport once again, with crowds, publicity and most importantly, a worthy showcase for Australia and New Zealand's firstclass young driving talent.

Some have said that it is of great

advantage to Australian motorsport to have F3 cars dose to identical to those

of Europe running in this country,so that when young drivers venture to Europe, they know the cars.

Put simply, yes that's great. But it _ is oifar greater importance to have a’: class affordable enough to have 20+ cars all at the top level in the field, and to have a level of affordabUity that allows the best young drivers in Australia to be involved, not just a couple of them.

We learnt with touring cars in Australia over 10 years ago that a local model can work over an international one. V8 Supercar is now the best touring car category in the world,so there is absolutely no reason why a local category model of open-wheel racing cannot work and become the world's best.

Whether it is a workable F3 model or the Toyota Racing Series, something has to be done (listening CAMS?). And the way to get things done is to motivate people and get them talking.

Hopefully, mission accomplished.

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Power Without A

H yes, the motor race. There was a motor race of sorts at

Indianapolis but there was nothing much to write home about.

When six cars lined up on the grid we knew it was going to be a meaningless event and in the Media Centre there was almost no-one actually watching the race. They were frantically writing about the disaster that had befallen the sport. They were on deadline in Europe and the race would be a single paragraph at the end of a political story. Trust Formula I's biggest story in years to be one that did not happen on the race track!

The sign tlrat the 'race' could not be taken too seriously were the lap times set by the two Ferraris, only a second or so ahead of those of the fastest Jordan. That told you everything you needed to know. This was a reliability nm.In the early laps there were a few bottles and cans to be dodged but generally the crowd behaved itself well.

Tiago Monteiro stayed third to the Ferraris but he was only an also ran.

The one point of Interest came on lap 50 when Michael Schumacher pitted for the second time. After his first stop he had dropped behind Rubens Barrichello because a new

straight through. I am disappointed from my side, because I wish I could have the 10 points, and sad because to see all the cars come into the pits, you know. Sure, they must have some big reasons for that, but it was a big public hearing and as Formula 1 we don't look very, very good already in the US so it is going to be even worse."

battle with my team-mate, a hard fight at the beginning and then I managed to make a gap between us. I wasn't joking, no one on the track was kidding around, there were just less cars. I didn't know what to think,

The whole post-race period was downbeat. Half the paddock had departed by the time the Ferraris finished their charade and both

it was still a podium."

All six cars that started finished as well and for the anoraks this is a

Michael and Rubens seemed pretty miserable. They knew,even if they said other things, that the victory was worth nothing of value. A win without opposition is not a real win.

The only ray of sunshine was Monteiro, who was obviously delighted to be on the podium. He did not care that there was no-one

it was a very weird situation but I'm so happy,so happy for myself,for the team. You should have seen their faces. Even if it was a weird situation

record as well, as only once before in the history of the sport have all the starters finished as well. It really did not matter. Jordan got a bunch of points and Minardi picked up seven and while these are all valuable,

else racing.

"I can't be as sad as the others

everyone knows that they were earned easily.

What was not earned easily by FI in America was respect and after the race at Indianapolis on Sunday, the FI circus found itself back at the start

because you had to finish, you had to be there," he said. "Like them,I had a

with zero credibility and a mountain to climb.

United Stated Grand Prix 73 laps 305.256km RACE RESULT j^HDrivw 1 Schumacher 2 Barrichello 3 Monteiro 4 Karthikeyan 5 Albers 6 Friesacher

Race time

Fast lap Oi

29:43.181 1.522 72 laps 72 laps 71 laps

1:11.497 48 1:11.649 48 1:13.237 44 1:13.370 85 1:13.907 2 1:14.490 43

DNS Trulli DNS Raikkonen DNS Button DNS Rsichella DNS Alonso DNS Sato DNS Webber DNS Massa DNS Montoya DNS Villeneuve DNS Zonta DNS Klien DNS Heidleld DNS Coulthard

0 laps 0 laps 0 laps 0 laps 0 laps Olaps 0 laps 0 laps laps 0 laps 0 laps 0 laps 0 laps 0 laps

withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew withdrew

Fastest Lap Schumacher on lap 48, lmll.497s Drivers' Points: Alonso 59. Raikkonen 37. M.Schumacher 34, Barrichello 29, Trulli 27, Heidfeld 25, Webber 22, R. Schumacher 20, Rsichella and Coulthard 17, Montoya 16, Massa 7, Monteiro and Wurz 6, Villeneuve and Karthikeyan 5, Albers, Klien and de la Rosa 4, Friesacher 3, Uuzzi 1.

Constructors' Points: Renault 76, McLaren-Mercedg^.^d Ferrari 63, Williams-BMW and Toyota 47, Red Bull-Coswonh 22.

Sauber-Petronas 12. Jordan-Toyota It. Minardi-Cosworth 7.

tyre had to be fitted to his car. At the end of the second stint he was keen to get ahead of Rubens and emerged just as the Brazilian was zooming down to Turn 1.

-y?-

"I saw Mm coming and obviously I had to try to keep in front," Barrichello said."But then I couldn't make the comer, basically, and I went

Who cares: The two Ferraris droned around, opposite, the four chasers ... look, we can't even be bothered doing a caption for this. The fans left early, right. F1 is in the poo. Make up your own words. I am going to the pub.

54

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Glory

Formula One suffered one ofits darkest days at Indianapolis when Michael Schumacher won a farcical USGP. JOE SAWARD was brave enough to watch the, er, ‘race'

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HE one event that was to define the weekend in Indianapolis was on Friday afternoon when Half Schumacher crashed on Friday afternoon as he was barrelling along through the banked Turn 13.

The car snapped out of control, spun and walloped the wall rear-end first. It then slid along the wall before sliding back across the road. It was pretty much a repeat of the accident that Half had in 2004, which put him out for several races and it was good to see the German climbing out of the wreck of his car with no apparent injury. Later he 56

would have a little doublevision and the doctors, being wise men, would rule that he should sit out the weekend. As things turned out, that was not quite the penalty it may have sounded.

After the accident we noted that a few minutes before Half's shunt, Ricardo Zonta had had some sort of a tyre failure on his Toyota and so we wandered down to the Michelin garage and asked what was going on. They shrugged their Gallic shrugs.

They were not sure. They would remain unsure through Saturday and into Sunday, despite the fact that back in France, their FI department was working frantically to

not replicate the incident. And that was worrying.

While all this was going on, McLaren was setting the pace and looking very strong. But the on-track action was really the sideshow. The tyre question was an incredibly complex issue given the level of tyre development in these days of a tyre war. It is not just about tyre design but also tyre pressures, temperatures and the suspension set-ups of the different cars. It was only Toyota that obviously had a problem although others quietly suffered signs of similar trouble.

Despite this the Michelin cars were still quick with BARHonda again looking good along with Renault. Ferrari

Michelm still did not know how to explain the problenn although the teams continued to run, the gravity of the problem became more and more clear. A solution could be found,they hoped, and taking part in qualifying was a way of buying time. Toyota took the decision to try to offset the bad publicity by going for pole with a car that was obviously not boasting much fuel. It was Toyota's first pole position in FI and, probably, one that the company would like to forget, given what has happened since.

Jarno Trulli ran in the middle of the qualifying session and his time remained fastest despite the best efforts of the

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drivers who followed. Things did get quite exciting in the final minutes of the session when Kimi Raikkonen went for pole and crossed the line just 0.069s behind the Toyota, but there was then a huge 0.6s gap back to Jenson Button in his BAR-Honda, who was fractionally faster than the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella. Michael Schumacher was fifth fastest, an indication that Michelin's tyre performance had dropped because the teams involved were running the tyres with higher pressures than normal. Fernando Alonso was sixth quickest ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari and Takuma Sato in his BARHonda.

Mark Webber was ninth quickest, the faster of the two Williams drivers on this occasion while Felipe Massa again impressive with the 10th fastest lap.

We have done very limited mileage but we have done the best today that we could II

29 JM 2805

do, trying to guess the set-up, the tyres and everything so I'm really glad about the outcome of today's qualifying," said a delighted Trulli.

"This morning 1 probably only did ten laps, not even consecutive, so we were trying to guess a little bit about the balance and for me the car balance yesterday was OK. We just had to try and get some more grip after the heat because this Indianapolis circuit has always been very slippery. It's very difficult for me to talk about tomorrow's race. We still have to get some data from Michelin and then we will probably understand better what we can do and what we cannot do.

While Trulli was cagey on the subject of tyres, Raikkonen was happy with his Michelins.

"I don't really worry about the tyres tomorrow in the race," he said. "I think they will be OK, and of course, we need to be a little bit cautious with them but we will go as quickly as we can and see what happens."

"THAT was quite a big accident," said Ralf Schumacher when he returned from a trip to Indianapolis Methodist Hospital after his accident in Turn 13 on Friday.

Lightning isn't supposed to strike twice in the same place but on this occasion I guess that does not apply to me. I was approaching the last corner when I felt something go wrong on the left-hand side. I've never had much luck here as a driver!

Last year Ralf had virtually the same accident, but he does not remember anything about that one.

I remember the start of the race," he said. "And then when I woke up in the hospital more or less. That's it."

That shunt left him with two hairline fractures of the spine that kept him out of the Williams team until the autumn.

- JOE SAWARD y/

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United States Grand Prix Qualifying Results

I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 6 10 ( 11 12 13 14 15 1 16 17 I 18 10 20

Jarno Trulli Klmi Raikkonen Jenson Button Ciancarlo Hsichella Michael Schumacher Fernando Alonso Rubens Barrichello Takuma Sato Mark Webber Felipe Massa Juan Pablo Montoya Jacques Villeneuve Ricardo Zonta ChrisUanKllen Nick Heldleld Oavid Coulthard liago Montelpo Christijan Albers Narain Karthikeyan Patrick Friesacher

I FIN 6B I 0 E BR J AUS BR COL CON BR A 0 6B P NL IN A

Panasonic Toyota TT105 West McLapen-Mercedes MP4/20 OAR-Honda 007 Mild Seven Renault R25 Scuderla Marlboro Ferrari Mild Seven Renault R25 Scuderla Marlboro Ferrari BAR-Honda 007 Williams-BMWFW27 Sauber-Petronas McLaren-Mercedes Sauber-Petronas Panasonic Toyota TF105 Red Bull-Goswortti Willianis-BMW FW27 Red Bull-Coswortb RB Jordan-Toyota Minardl-Coswortb PS Jordan-Toyota Minardl-Coswortb PS

Time 1:10.625 1:10.684 1:11.277 1:11.280 1:11.360 1:11.380 1:11.431 1:11.487 1:11.527 1:11.555 1:11.681 1:11.681 1:11.754 1:12.132 1:12.430 1:12.682 1:13.462 1:13.632 1:13.778 1:14.484 57

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Tom Kristensen gave Audi a golden send off with another Le Mans 24 Hour victory.

DAVID ADDISON reports on a historic race

A

UDI wins Le Mans. This is hardly shock news given the way that the Audi R8 has blitzed all comers in recent years, but the 73rd running of the 24 Heures du Mans was a fascinating race run in searing heat in front of a partisan French crowd. As it was,Tom Kristensen drove into the history books with a record seventh win.

The new regulations to peg back the speeds of the prototypes led to equalising the older Audis (built to 2003 regs) and the new Pescarolos, built to the new specification.

In short, the Audis had less downforce, less power and a smaller fuel tank. Pescarolo had the speed, the power and the larger fuel tank. But not the reliability ...

Wednesday qualifying was all but washed out thanks to heavy rain. On Thursday, Emmanuel Collard plonked his Pescarolo on pole (sharing with Erik Comas and JeanChristophe Boullion) while Soheil Ayari qualified the team's second car alongside.

The best Audi was third (Allan McNish/Emmanuele Pirro/Frank Biela) well ahead

of Kristensen/JJ Lehto/Marco Werner who were eighth.

Lehto was glum all through qualifying, Kristensen somewhat anonymous ...

Normally, a man going for seven record wins would be the centre of attention. But with the hype surrounding the Pescarolos (and driver Sebastian Loeb)the pressure never went near the Great Dane.

From the start, Boullion and Ayari scampered away form the Audis and built up an impressive lead until Ayari pitted after just eight laps for

fuel, a much shorter stint than had been expected. The leading car also stopped a lap later. The Audis were able to squeeze another couple of laps out of their fuel tanks, running at a slower but more fuelefficient pace.

By lap 40,though, the picture was changing; the Pescarolos were in trouble.

Comas pitted the leading car with a gear selection problem.

Thirty minutes were lost as the car fell to 23rd place and the McNish/Pirro/Biela Audi took the lead - briefly. No sooner had Pirro taken the lead than a

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The good and the bad points of Le Mans: Left, the victorious Audi squad of Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Marco Werner qualified eighth but ran a faultless race to score victory. Above, this Porsche won't see much racing in the next few months after it hit a tree. Right, Australian David Brabham finished third in class in.his Aston Martin.

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TTiose Pesky Audis: World Rally Championship leader Sebastian Loeb, above left, was impressive, but the car retired when team-mate Soheil Ayari crashed. Their Pescarolo team-mates, above right, claimed second place outright.

Safety Car was needed to help clear up oil poured onto the road by the Peter Owen/Bob Berridge/Gareth Evans Lola, and as the race resumed, Pirro messed up his braking for Arnage and head-butted the tyre wall. He limped to the pits for new front bodywork, but the time lost put Marco Werner's Audi into the lead - a lead it would never lose, while Pirro fell to fourth.

From then on, Audi never looked likely to lose. Werner, Lehto and Kristensen never put a wheel wrong and although they were being caught towards the end of the 24 Hours, you always had the feeling that they could up their

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29Juns20e5

pace if needed. Kristensen drove the last three and a half hours to take an amazing reception as he claimed his seventh win.

Behind the Champion Racing Audi car, the battle for second was dramatic, the quicker Pescarolo was rapidly climbing up the order, helped in part by the sister car retiring with major suspension damage. Loeb had taken to attacking kerbs and then Ayari did the job good and proper up against the tyres, the damage was enough to retire the car. But the Comas/ Boullion/Collard car was helped by Audi, as the French Oreca-run car of Franck Montagny/Stephane Ortelli/ Jean-Marc Gounon was suffering suspension dramas.

Montagny had to avoid a spinning Ferrari of Joe Macari on Saturday evening and just brushed a backmarker. the damage became worse as the race wore on and fourth would be its reward.

But funny things happen at Le Mans, and Sunday morning gave more evidence of this: the track was slippery at Indianapolis corner and an increasing number of cars were going off the road - and

one was the Audi of McNish lying second at the time, the Scot rarely makes an error and blamed a deflating tyre, but the off was enough to put them back to third place.

And so the last two hours and 30 minutes were fought out by the Audi of Kristensen and the Pescarolo of JC-B. To stand a chance of winning, the French star had to pull back seven seconds a lap, but try as he might the metronomic Audi was just too strong and upped its pace to pull out a lead of two laps at the end. For the swansong of the Audi R8 it was the perfect race; for Kristensen, a seventh win was a stunning achievement. One had some sympathy for Henri Pescarolo, though, as he may never come so close again ...

LMP2 was all about surviving, and few of the 12strong entry did. The winning car was the Lola of Mike Newton/Tommy Erdos/Warren Hughes after a catalogue of problems that included gearshift and suspension woes but the RML team forced the car home to a class win.

G

T1 was far more dramatic: Aston Martin versus Chevrolet. All through

qualifying the Astons had better pace, but the GM boys were adamant that they were running to a safe pace and weren't worried. They were happy, too, with their helmet air conditioning units that were lowering temperatures by 30 degrees, where as heat in the aluminium Astons was a real problem. That would become more apparent on Sunday.

From the start, Darren Turner and Peter Kox led the class for Aston Martin, but Turner/David Brabham/ Stephane Sarrazin were penalised repeatedly for corner cutting at the chicanes.

A series of stop-go penalties dropped the car down to an eventual third in class. They recovered and the race entered the last three hours with all four cars on the lead lap.

However, a fuel pick up problem put one Aston out, and the other suffered major overheating problems.

Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/ Jan Magnussen took the win, while Leo Hindery/Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller won a fierce GT2 battle for Porsche.

With the retirement of the Audi R8 the race enters a new phase. The future of the event, and Sportscar racing, is looking very good.

59

Greek Thee

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There was drama at every turn at the Acropolis Rally but none of it found Sebastlen Loeb. JON THOMSON reports

s

EBASTIEN Loeb has re written the record books

again, posting a stunning victory on the Acropolis Rally to become the first driver to win five WRC rounds in a row.

Loeb's victory by over a minute and a half from Ford's Toni Gardermeister underlined his dominance of this year's title and further demoralised an opposition that appears to be resigned to the Frenchman's second consecutive title.

The win is his sixth this season and equals Didier Auriol's record for most victories in a year, hr what was almost a routine run for Loeb, he never looked like losing.

He was fast, made no mistakes, the car ran perfectly and tlie tyres performed as required.

"It has been a perfect weekend, we had absolutely no problem with the car and that is very important," said Loeb.

Despite running first on the road during the opening leg and sweeping the roads clean, Loeb minimised the

60

damage and finished the day with a slender 6.1s lead over Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm.

The opening day was full of drama and controversy but not for Loeb.

The works Subarus and one works Mitsubishi started the day under a cloud after officials found the cars to be underweight following the Super Special in the Athens Olympic stadium.

In a sport where the FIA continually trumpets the need to reduce costs, a $40,000 fine for each car fixed the problem and allowed Petter Solberg to at least compete.

However,the problem had weighed heavily on Solberg's mind and he had a sleepless night before the opening leg, a factor which he blamed for an off early on Day 1. That removed the Subaru's rear spoiler and damaged the suspension. He was never in contention after that,eventually taking a disappointing runth.

"We've had a lot of bad luck lately," said an ever-optimistic

Solberg.

"There's nothing you can do about that, we have driven the whole rally to try to get some points and it's much harder when you start further back. We have to forget this and look forward."

The rally started in the Athens Olympic stadium where 70,000 people, the most spectators ever on a WRC super special, packed in to see a Super Special stage prior to a 2501m transport to the stages proper.

Gronholm dominated Day 1, despite the fact that he had to switch to the manual gearshift in his Peugeot,and grabbed the lead briefly before Loeb posted a blistering final stage to claim the lead heading to the overnight halt.

With better road position on Day 2, Loeb drew away and when Gronholm was slowed by a transmission problem on Saturday, the contest was over.

Put on notice that he might lose his Ford drive, Gardermeister lifted his game to deliver second, albeit on the back of other drivers' misfortune.

While Loeb's win was a blow to the other teams, the back-up of temporary team-mate Carlos Sainz gave Citroen a vital step toward the manufacturer's championship with third place.

"It's great ending with a podium," Sainz said. "I have enjoyed it but 1 had more to lose than win. When you are driving for the team which is World Champion, you have a lot of pressure to do well."

Gronholm's challenge faltered at the end of Day 2 when he slipped to fourth, where he would stay for the remainder of the rally.

motorsDortnews

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Another day, another trophy: Loeb racked up a record five wins on the trot, above, while temporary team-mate Carlos Sainz signed off with a podium in his final WRC event, below left, finishing third behind Toni Gardemeister, below right. And while there may not have been any points left for Subaru, it didn't stop Fetter Solberg from crashing Loeb's post-race chat with the media, bottom right.

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a disappointed Solberg.

"I came out of a corner when the

"We finished so that's OK,but no, it's not good. We had our problems on Day 2, if we want to win it has to be over the next two rallies."

Subaru had a shocking event, with Solberg's problems only compounded by an engine failure for Aussie Chris Atkinson and a rear suspension failure for Stephane Sarrazin, both on stage six of leg one.

Atkinson's damage was terminal and his car was parked for the final two legs, robbing him of a chance to learn the tough Greek roads. Sarrazin restarted on leg two and finished the rally in 13th place, four places behind 29 June 2005

engine made some horrible noises and lost power, to put it simply, there was a hole where there shouldn't be a hole," said Atkinson.

Mikko Hirvonen again showed talent beyond the critics' expectations. The young Finn in a privateer Ford was clearly playing for his career and led the rally for the first three stages, albeit as a result of his good starting position on clean roads. A fine fifth has put him back in contention for a works drive, possibly with the blue oval, in 2006.

Over the closing stages, Hirvonen held off an attack by Hard Rovanpera in the works Mitsubishi, winning the last two stages in the process.

The Mitsubishis both finished well, with Rovanpera settling for sixth after his battle with Hirv'onen, while Gigi Gain took seventh after some impressive times on Day 1.

Despite the fines being paid, Galli's result may change following

the deliberations of the Stewards early next week, when they wiU review the original penalties dished out in the 'underweight' affair.

Markko Martin claimed the last points scoring eighth place, nearly half a minute ahead of Solberg. The Estonian continues to struggle with the 307 and the Pirellis and must be regretting his hasty jump to Peugeot at the end of 2004, particularly given the pace of the Ford in Gardermeister's hands.

The brace of rough Mediterranean gravel rallies are behind now and the championship heads to the smoother, and very different, dirt roads of Argentina and Finland. The question is, will the Loeb/Citroen/Michelin combination continue to dominate?

Solberg, Gronholm and Gardermeister would like to think otherwise, however most believe their optimism is misplaced. Their appointment in Cordoba in a fortnight will prove them either wrong or right.

1 Sebastien Loeb Fra Citroen Xsara Daniel Elena Mon 4h12m53.7s 2 Toni GardemeisterFin Ford Focus Jakke Honkanen Fin 4h14m29.9s 3 Carlos Sainz E Citroen Xsara Marc Marti 4hr15m04.8s 4 Marcus GronhoImFin Time Rautiainen Fin 5 Mikko Hirvonen Fin Jarno Lehtinen Fin

Peugeot 307 4hl5m50.1s Ford Focus RS 4h16m06.9s

6 Hard Rovanpera Fin Mitsubishi Lancer Risto Pietilainen Fin 4h16m38.1s | Ita Mitsubishi Lancer 7 Giggi Galli 4hl8m13.3s Guido D'Amore Ita 8 Markko Martin Est Ford Focus RS Michael Park GB 4h18m31.2s Drivers’ Points: Loeb 65, Solberg 42, Gardemeister 39, Martin 39, Gronholm 37, Rovanpera 16, Stohl 11, Kresta 10.

Manufacturers’ Points: Citroen 84, Peugeot 79, Ford 57, Subaru 47, Mitsubishi 37, Skoda 8.

WRC 8 ACROPOLIS 61

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Bye-Bye Michelin brand departs WRC

MICHELIN will swap the names on the sidewalls of its WRC tyres, substituting its US subsidiary BF Goodrich on its rubber for the 2006 season.

The move mirrors a similar name change in the ARC in 2004, which was reversed this year with the Michelin name being re-instated on the TTR Corollas for 2005.

At this stage. Ford is the only manufacturer committed to using tyres from the Michelin group in the 2006 World Rally Championship and apparently has no problem with the decision to brand the tyres as BF Goodrich.

"We've been assured that technically everything will ^ continue as it is, with very probably even a little bit more' resource put behind the continuing development," MSport/Ford boss Malcolm Wilson said.

"It's a very good move. On Michelin's part it makes good business sense. I think BF Goodrich will do a lot with it and it benefits the sport."

- JON THOMSON

Oh,so that's how you do it: Duval checks out a book about his rather less crash-prone team-mate.

BROKEN ribs, the result of a brush with a tree on the final stage of the Queensland ARC round, have kept Subaru co driver Bill Hayes laid low over the past few weeks to ensure fitness for the next round in Tasmania in mid-July.

"I'm traveling well at the moment and the doctor has reported it is a minimal fracture with a bit of cartilage damage where it has torn away from the bone," said Hayes.

While Hayes has been recovering from his injury, the Subaru team has been hard at work getting driver Dean Herridge's Impreza back in shape after tha imrrar't \A/ith tho trACi \A/hinh c:p\/Arpl\/

The Road To Recovery .^

62

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Another Pug PEUGEOT has announced that it is drafting veteran Finn Sebastian Lindholm into the team to steer a third works 307 on Rally Finland next month.

Lindholm is one of the Peugeot team’s key test drivers and a multiple Finnish Champion, so team director Jean-Pierre Nicolas believes that he can boost the marque’s chances on the Scandinavian event “He is a very good driver, especially in his country, and it puts pressure on the other teams," said Nicolas.

“Marcus Gronholm and Markko Martin will be nominated to score points in Finland as usual, but Sebastien will help apply some extra pressure.”

- JON THOMSON

motorsportnews

RALLYING

lance

Lawsuits aplenty

FRANCOIS Duval has been given a second chance by employer Citroen, and will return to the team at Rally Argentina.

The Belgian was suspended for two rounds and replaced by Carlos Sainz after crashing out of three of the first six rallies of the season. The final straw for the team came when Duval's

car was completely destroyed by fire following a crash in Cyprus in May. However,co-driver Stephane Prevot has held firm to his vow never to drive with Duval again, and will be replaced for the remainder of the season by Sven Smeets, who formerly called the notes for Freddy Lobe.

"In addition to the poor results of the crew since the start of the season, also came the announcement of Stephane wanting to stop co-driving for Francois," said Citroen team boss Guy Frequehn. "hr that case,I had no other choice than to suspend Francois' entries for Turkey and Greece to give ourselves more time to analyse the situation and find the best solution for the next events."

"The misunderstanding between Francois and Stephane had a bad influence on tlieir respective capacities.

"It is important to put Francois back behind the wheel, as I believe is a young driver with good potential.

His comeback should be a chance for him to rise to the missions he has been given: to bring his car to the finish, and score Manufacturers' points. It's the target I set him, that he accepted. I am confident he will achieve it."

Carlos Gets A Volkswagen

TRIPLE World Rally champion Carlos Sainz has signed on to drive a works VW Touareg in the 2006 Dakar Rally.

The 43-year-old Spaniard has long proclaimed his desire to tackle the Dakar, and has been looking for a works drive in the event for the past few months since his retirement from the WRC at the end of iast year.

Sainz has no previous experience in cross-country rallying, but will be paired with the experienced German co-driver Andreas Schulz.

The two will compete together for the first time on the Pharaohs Raily in Egypt in September.

VW already has Bruno Saby, Giniel de Villiers and Jutta Kleinschmmidt under contract and expects to run a fifth dieselengined Touareg for American Robby Gordon, who led the event in spectacular fashion during the early stages of the Dakar this year.

- JON THOMSON

THE woes with Korean manufacturer Hyundai and its World Rally team continue, as the head of its former WRC contractor MSD is set to sue the company for defamation.

David Whitehead is suing the company claiming it has severely harmed his good name and reputation by claims that he did not provide information that Hyundai felt it was entitled to see.

Whitehead has rejected Hyundai's claim that he failed to disclose the financial information it was seeking, which was apparently one of the factors cited when the dispute erupted in September 2003.

The case will be heard at the High Court in London, and comes in addition to a separate long-running case being heard by a court in Germany. n After two non-finishes in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, Toshi Aral finally put some runs on the board in his title chase this year with a win in Round 3 of the title in New Zealand two weeks ago.

Aral had to post a good result on the Rally of Rotorua if he was to maintain any hope of challenging for the title, and took victory in the twoday rally by two and a half minutes from series leader Jussi Valimaki.

The Subaru driver started the second day with a 59s lead in the wet and treacherous conditions, but still had a few minor excursions on the way to claiming the win. Valimaki lost any hope of catching Aral when he went off and damaged two of his tyres.

- JON THOMSON

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Record success for Rickardsson as Aussies struggle

AUSTRALIA’S World Champion Jason Crump is effectively out of the Championship rabe for 2005 having failed to qualify for the final at the Danish Grand Prix in Copenhagen last weekend.

Five-times World champion Tony Rickardsson won the event to open up a big gap at the top of the standings after five rounds.

Crump was beaten into last place, having made the semi-finals as joint leading scorer after the qualifying heats, with 12 points alongside American Greg Hancock.

It meant he was up against Rickardsson, Antonio Lindback and Poland’s Jarek Hampel in his semi, but Crump trailed in last as Rickardsson and Lindback won their way through to the last four.

Rickardsson then went all the way to glory, despite being second to Lindback in the semi.

The 34-year-old became the first rider ever to win three successive GPs and his victory was his fourth in five events this year.

The Swede is now almost certain to go on to win the series and take a sixth world title to emulate the only six times World Champion Ivan Mauger, who incidentally, now lives on

the Gold Coast.

He has established a mammoth 45-point lead over Crump,\who has now failed to make the final in the last two GP’s.

“They watered the track just before the semi-final and, when I chose gate three it proved a big mistake," said Crump.

It didn't work but I will be back again for the next meeting. To be honest, I have felt good in both the last two meetings but the result has been disappointing for me.”

The two other Aussies in the meeting Leigh Adams and Ryan Sullivan, had even more disappointing performances.

Adams scored seven points from his qualifying heats, including a heat win and two second places. Unfortunately, he also had an exclusion and a last place.

Sullivan scored only five points from a second place and three third places.

A place in the top eight will guarantee a place in next year’s series and Crump and Adams both seem assured of making that select band but Sullivan is currently struggling in 13th place.

-TONY MILLARD Points: Rickardsson 120, Crump 75, Nicki Pedersen 68, Adams 56, Lindback 53, Hancock 51, Bjarne Pedersen 46.

CAMERON Gessner has been confirmed as the driver of the #6 Speedflow Maxim for the 2005/06 World Series Sprintcars Championship.

Gessner, below,finished third at this year's Australian Sprintcar Title at Murray Bridge for the Bill Mann-owned team, and replaces Oklahoman Shane Stewart in the car, one of the most competitive in World Series competition.

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molorsgortnews

SPEEDWAY

tnell to Krikke Australian Sprintcar Champ to drive for WA Superteam?

by CHRIS JORDAN WA-BASED Krikke Motorsport is currently in discussion with Australian Sprintcar Champion and World of Outlaws star Brooke Tatnell.

With negotiations nearing completion, Tatnell would join forces with one of Australia's premier Sprintcar teams for an attack on Max Dumesny's World Series Sprintcars crown, as well as other big events.

Tatnell, left, this year secured his first Australian Title in spectacular fashion at Murray Bridge and is close to securing the highly sought-after drive that WA driver Mark Wells occupied last season, above right.

"We are close to having all our plans together," said team boss Shane Krikke.

"We are speaking to a number of drivers, of which Brooke is one. He's expressed interest in us, and us in him."

"I think we would make a very good combination. He's done it hard over the last few

seasons with equipment and budget. We would give him everything he needs to just settle back and drive the car."

Tatnell has long been the driver for the Shell-sponsored team he and his father run.

However, over the last few seasons Shell has only offered minimal assistance to Tatnell Motorsport.

As tempting as it may be for Tatnell Motorsport's to have one

last season with the coveted Australia #1 onboard, the offer from the ultra-professional Krikke team will inevitably too good to refuse.

At this early stage, there is no guarentee a Krikke-Tatnell combination would actually carry #1.

"Everytime I have had #1 on the car we have been jinxed," said Krikke. "But I think Brooke wants to use it."

r off the bench Gessner ran a limited schedule last season, spending his time working the dyno at Mann's Performance Wholesale business. The car will again be crewed by Dave Sharman, who actually lives with Gessner.

"I needed Cameron to focus on the engine building side of our business last year while Shane drove the car in WSS and a lot of other major events," said Mann.

"I know that was hard on Cameron but it was what we always said we'd do. Now it's Cameron's turn to come out on the road. We always planned it this way."

As well as powering the dyno,Gessner spent last year driving Clem Hoffamns car on occasions in the Queensland Comp Cams Series, as well as driving Mann's car in the latter stages of the season.

Reidy returns DANNY Reidy is another driver to join the confirmed starter's list for the 2005/06 Wolrd Series Sprintcar Championship.

Reidy, who hails from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, will again pilot the #5 Darry Orr Earthmoving machine and again be crewed by Dave McFadden. n Another to join the confirmed list for World Series is Rockhampton City Raceway, as MNews exclusively reported in April.

"The whole place is pretty cool actually," said Queenslander and WSS runner Darrell Hodges of the 440 metre speedway.

"We're gonna fly around there in a World Series show - there's room to run two wide for sure."

World Series Sprintcars will kick off on November 12 at Brisbane International Speedway, followed by Round 2 at Rockhamton on Wednesday November 16 and Round 3 at Toowoomba's Charlton Speedway on November 19. n Kraig Kinser has been declared the winner of the Mediacom World of Outlaws Shootout at Knoxville Raceway by virtue of his win in the 20-lap preliminary feature last Friday night, after the Saturday night's racing was abandoned due to heavy ram.

It was Kinser's first win at the famed venue, finishing ahead of Brain Paulus and a trio of legends in Sammy Swindell, Terry McCarl and Steve Kinser.

Australia had a win of sorts, with Brooke Tatnell and Rush Racing again showing pace, qualifying fastest, something that will surely give Tatnell confidence going into the Knoxville Nationals in August, Tatnell was 10th in the Friday night feature.

Australia had extra representation at the round, with many Knoxville Track Championship runners present.

Skip Jackson was able to win one of his heats to get to the feature, while Kerry Madsen had to use a provisional to get into the A-Main.

But once there, Madsen drove well to finish 15th, with Jackson 22nd, Australian outfit Titan Racing had a forgetable round, with Daryn Pittman 14th in the B-Main, just ahead of Australian Jamie Moyle. Lynton Jeffrey was 11th in the C-Main,

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65

Fuel Fail

CLAY Millican won his fourthconsecutive Hooters IHRA national event of 2005 and 41st career win when he stopped Todd Paton in the Top Fuel final of the Mopar Canadian Nationals at Grand Bend, Canada two weeks ago.

After stopping Paul Athey and Bruce Litton in the opening two rounds, Millican and tire Werner Enterprises dragster recorded a winning 4.68s/309mph to defeat Paton, who firebaUed a motor.

Burton Auxier scored an almost unbelievable Pro Mod career-first win at Grand Bend. After losmg to Mike Janis in the semi-finals, Auxier was on his way to putting the car on his trailer and making the long tow back to West Virginia, but Janis failed

the fuel check (see break-out), which re-instated Auxier into the final against Billy Harper. A nitrous explosion at half-track slowed Harper, giving Auxier the first victory of his decade-old IHRA Pro Mod career at 6.32s and 222mph.

Auxier had never qualified for a Pro Mod field before making the show in Virginia two weeks ago. At that event, he was able to collect his first round win, and just two weeks later, he collected an Ironman.

Auxier beat Rick Distefano and Shannon Jenkins before being defeated by Janis, and subsequently given the round win.

In Pro Stock, Robert Patrick took the points lead away from Steve Spiess with his victory over Doug Kirk in the final. Kirk left first and

AFTER his semi-final win at the Mopar Canadian Nationals, Mike Janis was disqualified after an inspection of his fuel.

Janis's fuel failed the specific gravity test and he was ousted from further competition.

A thorough investigation found that one of the fuel jugs was missing an o-ring seal. The missing o-ring, combined with the high temperature and high humidity at the track caused the methanol to absorb enough water to make the fuel's specific gravity too heavy.

The IHRA reported their findings, clearing Janis and his team of any irhpropriety. in the statement from the IHRA, it was noted that while no performance enhancers were found, the fuel was still illegal.

enjoyed a 0.013s lead at half-track, but he got out of the groove and Patrick motored past to take a 6.49s/213mph to 6.57s/210mph win. It was Patrick's first victory of the season.

Patrick earlier used a string of low 6.5s passes to defeat Dwayne Rice, Pete Berner, and Tony Gillig.

Jim Sickles defeated Fred Tigges in the Alcohol Funny Car final to claim his fourth career IHRA victory.

Sickles recorded a winning 5.93s/239mph pass while Tigges spun the tyres.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

Oz drag calendar confirmed THE 2005/06 Australian National Drag Racing calendar has been confirmed.

The Group 1 categories of Top Fuel, Top Doorslammer and Top Bike will contest eight rounds, while Pro Stock and Top Alcohol and Pro Stock Bike will have six.

The season will open with the AC Delco

East Coast Nationals at Western Sydney in September. Round 2 will be held at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway in November for the 40th running of the sport's flagship event, the Australian Nationals.

Top Fuel will hold a meeting on Boxing Day at WSID, and the category will make

just one trip to Kwinana in Western Australia, but Doorslammer and Top Bike make two.

In February 2006,the tour returns to Sydney for the Carline Mufflers Summernationals before Palmyra Dragway in Mackay hosts the Sunstate Nationals in April 2006. The season climaxes at Ipswich for the nowtraditional final round of all championships at the Willowbank Raceway Winternationals between June 9-11.

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All change after Dupuy/Amato split JOHN Stewart will take over the tuning duties on the Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster after Wayne Dupuy and team owner Joe Amato parted ways Sunday night following the NHRA Englishtown event.

By mid-week, Doug Herbert added Dupuy to the Snap-on team. Dupuy' had been working with the Herbert group as part of a tuning alliance between the dragsters driven by Herbert and the Morgan Lucas-driven dragster of Amato.

With Herbert's hiring of Dupuy, and the subsequent departure of Rob Flynn, Gary Densham has hired Flynn as a tuning consultant to work with Densham and lead-tuner Greg Amaral, Flynn will join the team before pro qualifying starts for the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway.

Flynn has spent more than 25 years in NHRA racing and has worked with several drivers, including Pat Austin, Connie and Scott Kalitta, Larry Minor, Whit Bazemore, Jerry Toliver, Ken Veney, Worsham, Cruz Pedregon and most recently Herbert.

Dixon + Father s Day IN what may be the one of the bizarre winning-streaks in Drag Racing, Larry Dixon scored his fifth consecutive win on Fathers Day at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park two weeks ago.

Dixon has not been defeated on the holiday since becoming a dad in 2000, and he beat a tyre smoking David Grubnic with a 4.53s pass at 329mph. Dixon advanced to the finai round with 4.53s/325mph, 4,54s/327mph, and 4,52s/ 330mph wins over Mitch King, Cory McClenathan and Doug Kalitta.

Australian Grubnic piloted the Zantrex-3 dragster past Doug Herbert, John Smith and surprise semi-finalist 'Fast Jack' Beckman to reach his ninth career final round. He posted a low 4.5s against Herbert and Beckman but got lucky in the second round when his tyre hazing 4.93s/312mph was good enough to beat Smith.

This was the ninth final of the year and seventh in a row that featured a car from the Kalitta Motorsports camp. The trio of drivers - Grubnic and Doug and Scott Kalitta - have six wins 29 June 2005

between them.

Del Worsham earned his first victory of the season and the 20th of his career by stopping Ron Capps in the Funny Car final.

Worsham drove the Checker Schucks Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo to a 4,86s at 321 mph to close out Capps, whose Dodge Stratus posted a 4.91 s/315mph.

In the early rounds, Worsham drove past Tony Bartone, John Force and Robert Hight with mid-to-low 4.8s runs, Capps reached the final after taking wins over Tony Pedregon, team-mate Whit Bazemore and Tommy Johnson Jr. Jason Line claimed his second-consecutive Pro Stock victory and third of the season when he defeated Warren Johnson. Line's Summit Racing Pontiac recorded a 6.69s at 205mph for his seventh career win, while Johnson stopped the

timers at 6.71s at 207mph.

Line, above, advanced into his second final in-a-row by stopping Greg Stanfield, Greg Anderson and Larry Morgan, The win over Anderson, combined with Johnson's win in the same round, assured W.J of a return to the top spot in the standings, Johnson's GM Performance Parts Pontiac looked steady in victories over Allen Johnson, two-time champ Jim Yates and son Kurt. n Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Antron Brown won for the first time this season. Brown rode his U.S. Army Suzuki to a 7.16s at 184m,ph, overcoming a quicker start by Karen Stoffer, who recorded a 7.23s at 186mph on her Geico Insurance Suzuki.

Brown became the sixth different winner in six Pro Stock Motorcycle races this season.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

n After four consecutive firstround losses and even failing to qualify for a race, Mateo Teams crew chief Lee Beard has been asked by team owner Don Schumacher to take some time out to evaluate the problems plaguing his race car.

Beard will be replaced by Schumacher Racing tuning consultant Dan Olson, along with Todd Okuhara, who left his position at Don Prudhomme Racing to join the Schumacher camp.

"Lee Beard is a very valuable asset to the Mateo Tools race team and to my organisation," Schumacher said.

"He is definitely not fired. It's just been my experience in the past that crew chiefs sometimes need to take a step back and see the big picture to corrects problem."

Olson, who was hired to tune the Top Fuel car of Tony Schumacher in 1998, tuned the Mateo flopper in Englishtown. Currently, the team and driver Whit Bazemore are tied for seventh place in the POWERade points.

In Englishtown, Bazemore qualified 15th and scored his first round win.since Las Vegas. n Peter Lehman has sold the team for which Clay Millican drives in the IHRA, The team was sold to a group of investors led by Kenny Koretsky, Millican and crew chief Mike Kloeber are part of the investment group and now own a portion of the team, now called Kenny Koretsky Racing, - DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 67

national Dawn of the new Saloon scene

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New Falcon and Commodore tests at Mallala - Level 2 series proposed - and maybe a round In New Zealand?

NEW-MODEL Falcon and Commodore Saloon Cars tested together for the first time at Mallala Motorsport Park two weeks ago.

In cold and wet conditions. Saloon Car stalwart Bruce Heinrich tested the yellow AU Falcon that he built himself, and Shaun Jamieson was at the wheel of his VT Commodore.

Saloon Cars administrator Les Morrall said that he expects to see at least 12 of the models racing next year in a new eight-round series, with more to come on stream throughout 2006.

The old models will be eUgible to compete in 2006 and 2007, but Morrall expects to see them gradually drop down into a new 'Level 2' category, which will be a largely 'state-based' series contested nationally from next season.

The Level 2 series will allow current Saloon Car drivers and

competitors who contest state series racing to drive against other Saloon Car owners,but not at the competitive pace of the Level 1 series.

"People from all over the place want to be involved in the Level 2 series," Morrall said."Each state has a large number of competitors who have all put their hand up for it. It won't be an official CAMS series, 1 can't really see them sanctioning two Saloon Car titles, but that won't matter. It's all going in the right direction."

And there is also the possibility that the Saloon Car category could head to New Zealand in 2006 for a round of its series.

Morrall has had initially conversations with various circuits in New Zealand and expects to confirm the categories plans in the next month or so.

- GRANT ROWLEY

TRANZAM Sports Sedans will hold Round 2 of its national championship at Queensland Raceway next weekend as part of Round 5 of the Australian Motor Racing Series and the national series competitors will meet a strong Queensland contingent.

The locals are led by former Queensland champion Chris Donnelly in his Fordpowered EB Falcon, while regular Tranzam runners Phil Crompton (Mustang) and Jeff Barnes (Pontiac) will be joined by the return of Stephen Voight's Chevrolet Monza.

The John Donnelly Racing team is in hot form at the moment, with Shane Bradford driving well ahead of expected pace at Phillip Island, but Chris Donnelly, the 2003 Queensland champ, will step into the seat at Queensland Raceway while Bradford is overseas on business.

The most anticipated Queensland entry, however, is that of Geoff Gillespie, The 2002 Queensland Sports Sedan Champion is debuting his new BMW at the meeting, which has been under construction for over eight years. Qver 6000 hours have been invested in the car 68

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SO far. It is hoped that this will be the first turbo to challenge the front-running V8s since Keith Carling's 300ZX. It's a BMW E36 M3 with an exLonghurst 2.3 4-cylinder touring car engine," explained Gillespie, "and a Garrett GT30 turbocharger, VGC Hewland transaxle. The suspension uprights. wheels, clutch, brakes, CV and steering rack come from Jaguar XJR Le Mans turbos.

The car, pictured right, has had its first shakedown run at QR and at half boost and short shifting by 1500 revs is already faster than the Graham Smith Fiat turbo Gillespie used to win the Queensland Championship. The team are cautiously optimistic, well aware that this is the car's first outing but there is plenty of development potential.

In other Sports Sedan news, the Wall team will have both cars running after gearbox problems sidelined David Wall at Phillip Island in the team's older Toyota Supra-Chev. The team have installed a new gearbox for the car after problems have plagued the car in recent meetings - MARK JQNES motorsport news

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KEL Treseder made the Queensland Championships his own at Gladstone on the June long weekend.

The Bundaberg driver won three championship classes, one of which was his third-straight Queensland Clubman Heavy title, which actually looked unlikely early in the meeting.

"1 forgot my transponder for first qualifying and missed getting the most from new tyres," he said.

The second session saw him claw back to fifth but the hard work came undone in the first race after his engine broke a crankshaft.

"On Saturday night there was no way this was going to happen," he said of defending his crown.

Starting the final from fifth, Treseder beat home Matthew Rayment and Matt Greenbury with Brad

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29 June 2005

Belcher, who won all the preliminary races, fourth.

Rayment also went on to take the Clubman Super Heavy title.

Treseder's other two wins were more straightforward. Despite pressure from William Yarwood, he won all the Rotax Heavy races and all but the pre-final in Senior National Heavy.

Shenanigans in Turn 1 of the Clubman Light final saw polesitter Bart Price shuffled back to eighth. From there he tailed James Sera through the traffic and as they were catching leader Chris Jeffrey, Jeffrey's chain broke putting him out of the event. Price then made a move for the win with two laps remaining and beat home Sera and speedy local Cian Fothergill.

Junior Clubman honours went to Tommy

Karting Briefs JUST prior to winning three state titles at Gladstone, Kel Treseder made the change from Monaco to Top Kart chassis.

Treseder, who won the 2004 Clubman Heavy National Title on Monaco, said the move was also for commercial reasons with his karting business.

"It presented a business, opportunity because it meant we became the Queensland distributor of the brand and not just another retailer," he said. Treseder's debut with Top Kart was at Lithgow's PSC meeting last month.

■ A Rotax driver that enters all rounds of the newly devised Victorian 5-Track Challenge will win a Hyper Stimulator in a lucky draw.

HyperStimulator.com, which make virtual cockpits for racing simulation computer games, has signed on as a series sponsor. However, there is no series pointscore. All five events are stand-alone race meetings with cash prizes and product totalling $20,000, The win in both Rotax Light and Rotax Heavy is worth $800 per meeting with cash paying back to fifth place. The opening round is at Geelong on July 10.

Quinlan. The Redspeed driver took the biggest victory of liis career with a move on pre-final winner Nick Foster late in the race. Domenic Marciano was third, David Wlritmore won Junior National Light.

Matthew Worling was a deserving winner of Rotax Light, leading home Scott Auld in every race of the weekend. John Grother was looking the goods in Senior National Light but Terry Cobb pipped him by 0.047s in the final.

Mitch L'Estrange and Benjamin Jurczak headed the Rookies final while Matthew Hart enjoyed a big win in Midgets from James Foster, Luke Tliomas and Lucas Ward closely bunched for the minors.

Robin Petersen was undefeated in Clubman Over 40s.

-MARK WICKS

■ The BRM teams have been having a great run in TEKA-sanctioned endurance events recently. For the second time this year, BRM won both the A and B grade divisions, claiming victory in the 6 hour enduro at Raleigh, NSW earlier this month.

■ Raleigh was also the scene of the 2005 Australian Formula Rotax Endurance Titles on June 18-19. The 250 lapper was won by the 'Anstey Homes' team, a couple of laps ahead of 'Rafferty’s Rules'.

■ DPE's much anticipated new chassis for the Rotax classes is due to hit the kart shops mid-July, The first production examples of the B-MAX frame are expected to race on July 910 at Geelong's Vai Findlay Memorial and Oran Park's Premier State Cup round.

■ Coffs Harbour Kart Club hosted the 10th Annual East Coast Over 40s Titles on the June long weekend.

Over 200 'oldies' meandered into town and competed in 15 classes.

The larger fields were broken into various age divisions and the winners were John Lye (Rotax Light), John Anastas (Rotax Heavy 40-46yrs), Allan Purkiss (Rotax Heavy 47+), Tracy Stewart (Rotax Super Heavy), Rod Green (Clubman Light), Greg Martin

,1 _ Coopers Phdtosrsphics |

(Clubman Heavy 40-46), Michael Micic (Clubman Heavy 47+), Phil Middleton (Clubman Super Heavy), Steve Pettaras (Open Light), Garry Coates (Open Heavy), Brian Sciberras (Senior National Light 40-47), Peter Pontelio (Senior National Light 48+), Bernie Learson (Senior National Heavy 4047), John Todd (Senior National Heavy 48+) and John Martin (National Super Heavy).

The meeting has also become a traditional annual gathering for fans of historic karting. This year saw one of the biggest turn outs yet with a number of the old karts - rebuilt Australian and imported machines not only on static display, but tearing around the race track in 'demonstration' runs, above. The historic kart movement is currently lobbying the AKA to have historic karts officially recognised in the rule book.

- MARK WICKS 69

SaysJames Being a son ofone of the sporfs best is a tough gig. Carving your own name into the scene ain’t easy either. GRANT ROWLEY spoke to James Moffat about his career, his famous father and iife as a V8 Utes driver

James on Allan:

I James on Career: j MN: Lotus last year, Utes : this year. Not exactly the ; conventional career path, but is your career on the right track? ! JM: I hope so! There were a lot of people who saw me decide to go and race Utes and thought that it was a j strange decision.

I The best thing though ; about being in the Ute ; series is that I'm driving a i Ford. I agree that this isn't i the most conventional path, i but it's just how things have 1 worked out. > MN: The obvious plan, budget : permitting, would be to step ; into the Development Series ; next year. Correct? j JM: There are things in place : that I hope will see me in the ; Development Series next year, i I want to end up in V8 1 Supercars, and for any young

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progressing from there.

Things are being said, but i at the same time. I'm not going to get too excited until I'm sitting in the car.

I'm too aware of how quickly things can change.

Moff in a V8:James wants to be in Denyer's shoes in 2006. guy, you have to go through the Development series to get to the main series.

I've got a relationship with Dick Johnson Racing and they are supporting me this year. I'll be getting some miles in their Development cars later this year. I had a drive of one of their Falcons last year, which was a bit unexpected and our relationship has been

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WIN: As a driver, are you ready for a full-time ride in a Supercar?

MN:Having a father of such stature JM: We looked pretty j in the sport can be a help and/or a closely at doing the | hindrance. How do you see this?

Development series this | JM: Definitely,it has been a help and year, and I probably felt that as | it has been a hindrance. It's been a a driver I wasn't ready. Coming | big help in terms of some of the from a Formula Ford/Lotus exposure that I've received, but at the same time, there is the pressure that background, I quickly realised comes with it. in my first Supercar test that It's just that fine line of balancing those things require a bit more i the pressure from the media, and finesse, and a completely i different driving style. | then just try and block it out and do the best I can.

I think by the end of the year | What he did throughout his career with a season of Utes behind j was exceptional and if I could do half me. I'll be in a better position, j of it I'd be happy.

I'm the harshest person on myself though, and that's probably a bit of dad in me. He always considered first place the only place to finish, and that has rubbed off on me.

MN: What's the fondest memory you have of your father's career?

JM: When he retired I was only six and it was difficult to appreciate what he was doing at the time, but I've watched all the old Bathurst

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tapes and stuff.

The best memory I have is the Falcon one-two at Bathurst in 1977.

Even as a young kid, watching those two cars, with the chopper above going down Conrod, it was hard not to go 'wow, this is a pretty decent sight'.

The finish wasn't planned, and I've asked him before how they arranged the finish without radios. It would

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MN: .You've come Jnto the Otes category at the right time. Racing on the V8 Supercar bill, great ^television, strong fblYowing, ' and tough competition. Qo you agree with this?

JM: Absolutely. I seem to have come into the series at the right time, given that the series has just come from PROCAR to AVESCO. There's no doubt they have a huge following, and the racing is entertaining. The move for me into this series has been a good one as far as keeping my name out there as well.

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have just been amazing to witness it live.

I also asked what he would have done if Colin Bond had passed him down the straight. And he flat-out said "I just would have driven him off the track!" (laughs).

I also now know the historical

MN: What are some of the other strengths - and weaknesses ^ of the series?

JM: I didn't think it was going to be as competitive as it was.

Last year, you could be three of fourth tenths off the pace and still be in third or fourth, but this year you'd be eighth or ninth.

Some of the weaknesses, I think they need to sort out interpretations of the rules.

There was an incident at Eastern Creek where a competitor was found in breach of the rules but still kept his points. Those sort of things, from a racing and sporting point of view, need to be defined a little clearer.

And that incident was frustrating because it cost us a podium, which would have been good after the disappointment of Adelaide.

significance of what the Mustang means to Australian racing. The car really kick started not only dad's career, but professional racing in Australia. I would have just loved to seen that car, and if I had the opportunity to drive that car I would take it without hesitation. It's a pretty awesome machine.

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29 June 2005

MN: From your angle, has the 'crash-and-bash' tag that was associated with the Lite category fallen away?

JM: I think it is still there to an extent. You only have ask

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It all went wrong at turn one; Moffat (and just about everyone else) was involved in Clipsal's Race 2 crash,^abpye. ^ JM: Well, having been 27l!th'' other people in the-industry and they'll agree that the after the first round; and now j to be fourth, it's a bit of a reputation of the category turnaround. needs to step away from that.

Obviously Damien White and It's easy for someone to run Marcus Zukanovic have a bit of Into the back of you and get a jump on the rest of us, largely past. The people who can get because those two missed past without hitting you are the carnage at Adelaide. the good drivers. And I have to be honest. I've had it done My attitude from Adelaide to me and I've done it to a onwards was to forget about the championship and couple of others, and you concentrate on each given seem to be able to get away round, and the series looks with it which is a bad thing. after itself from there'.

If the officials come down To be fourth after three hard enough on it, they will rounds is a bit of a surprise, stop. The rules just have to been but I'll just keep doing the enforced a little more strictly. best I can. Damien and Marcus need to have one bad MN: You're running fourth in round for us to have any the championship. Can the series be won from here? chance, but we won't give up.

And I have to be honest, I've had it done to me and I’ve rr done it to a couple of others

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^ Moffat details the finer points of passing in V8 Utes

OR Rei Oliver Photography

Sparks and Showers THERE was wintry weather at the WASCC Winter Classic on June 12, with rain storms drenching Barbagallo Raceway throughout the day’s racing.

Mark Douglas continued his domination of the WA Formuia Ford series, narrowly edging out Simon Wheeier for pole in quaiifying. Race 1 started in semi-dry conditions, with Douglas jumping to an eariy iead which he wouid preserve.

The rain started again on iap six and a red fiag quickly followed to remove Adrian Corp’s stricken Van Diemen. Wheeler made a better start to Race 2, leading Douglas comfortably during the early laps before being wrong-footed behind a back marker, allowing Douglas to slip through for the win. The final race was cancelled due to the weather.

It was Claude Giorgi’s day in the Sportscars, the Porsche driver claimed a clear pole before going on to easily win the three races ahead of Walter Epple and George Bradbury.

A string of good results for Ken Coppin in the FIQs has re ignited his championship hopes. After qualifying third, Coppin won the first and final races, finishing seventh in the

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middle event.

It was a successful comeback to Saloon Car racing for Kerry Wade. He grabbed pole in the wet conditions by more than a second. The first two races went according to plan, Wade scoring strong wins. Nathan Callaghan mounted a challenge in the final, leading Wade home by eight tenths. Series leader Paul Fiore charged through to third.

Wade’s day was made even better by some good results in the Street Car races. He qualified on pole, but slipped back in Race 1, with Peter Screen getting the win ahead of Mat Cherry. There were no such slip-ups in the final two races, Wade winning comfortably each time, leaving Cherry and Graham Stones to pick up the minor podium spots.

Derek Burns and Steve Armfield put on a good battle in Formula Vee qualifying, with Burns ending up with pole by just six hundredths. The racing was just as close, with Dean Williams charging through to take Race 1 honour ahead of James Straker and Burns’. From there it was all Jez Hammond, who went on to win the final two heats from Armfield.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

NO less than 11 red flags interrupted proceedings on Sunday at Round 3 of the Queensland State Championships at Queensland Raceway last weekend.

The most serious was for a multi

vehicle accident during Saloon Cars that saw Kandice Cannon (Falcon) sent to hospital after she struck the stopped Brendan Tucker (Commodore)and was hit by Alistair Bell (Falcon)in 'Snake Gully'.

The other notable incident saw Improved Production racer Ian Finglas tip his VK Commodore into a gentle roll at Turn 3 after a pile-up had marred the previous start attempt. Brendan O'Kane's rapid

Subaru Impreza came off worst while Danielle Argiro's Commodore V8 also received damaged.

A massive field of Improved Production cars saw reigning Champion Stephen Thompson(RX7) return to take victory with a third and a win over the two races. Justin Keys(RX3) won the first race ahead of Paul Scott(RX7)and Tliompson, with David Waldon (RX3)second in the Race 2 ahead of John Eddy (Impreza WRX)in a race of attrition after three starts sapped the rotaries reliability.

Gary Bonwick dominated the huge HQ field, pictured right. He took both wins ahead of Mike McCloud. Tony

Superstar in Weste V8 SUPERCAR HSV Dealer Team driver Garth Tander made a surprise appearance in Round 3 of the NSW state series at Oran Park Raceway last weekend,when he competed in the Under 2-Litre Improved Production Class.

Filling in for car owner Phil Parsons, Tander, right,jumped behind the wheel of the #65 Honda Civic for Race 2 and 3 in the under 2Litre Improved Production category on Sunday. Due to not posting a qualifying time, Tander was forced to start from the rear in both events. In his first race, Tander was able to work his way up to seventh, and in Race 3(Trophy event) he worked his

way up to second behind winner Gavin Wilkinson, belozo main, and ahead of third placed Justin McClintock in a tidy drive.

Leanne Tander, the wife of Garth, continued her domination of the

SA Washed Away

THE fourth Top Gear Classic meeting for the year finished early after rain and a nasty accident in the GP Cars Mazda MX5 series caused significant delays.

Jon Hope slithered off the circuit at turn six, slamming into the bunkered Mazda of former series leader Jake Camileri and causing substantial damage to both cars. Camileri was still second for the day, behind the Group 2A MX5 turbo of John Kraschnefski.

Craig Smith(AF2 Sirch 297) won the racing car group from the Supersports Minetti of John Wliitaker and the Future Racer of Mike Kilpatrick.

The Subaru Imprezas of John L'Estrange and John Eddy dominated Sportscars, taking all the firsts and second ahead of the Escort of Aaron Hodges.

The Gemini vs HQ battle was claimed by the Geminis of Ben Singleton and Benn Wilson, with Justin van Twest holding the banner for HQs in third.

Grant Wilson (Chev Camaro) won the other Sportscar group ahead of the Porsche of Andy Balodis.

-MARK JONES 72

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NATIONAL SCENE

I Zone Shank and Justin van Tewst shared the third places.

Visiting NSW teenager Ryan Simpson (Jacer) won both Formula Vee races after weekend-long dices with the top four cars. NSW veteran Bruce Coleby (Jacer) was second both times ahead of Grant Bromley (Jacer) and Ross Loudon (Jabiru).

Geminis staged the race of the year in the Saturday scratch race. John Eddy won a desperate five-car battle, while series leaders Nick Rangely and Ben Singleton shared the wins.

Two seconds to Asliley Jarvis saw him take the round.

Jake Camilleri(Falcon) won the first Saloon Car race but was pinged

for a jump start in the second allowing close rival Jonathan Beikoff (Falcon) to take the round with a second and a win. Tim Young (Falcon) was third in tire first race while Stephen Robinson (Commodore)and Troy Norris (Falcon).

Grant Wilson's Camaro faded in

both Historic Touring Car races to third allowing the Toranas of Simon Phillips and Bruce Dummett to share the wins and seconds.

Sportscars saw Grant Watson (Prosport Mulsarme) dominate with Steve Morcombe (Westfield SEi) and Mike Kilpatrick (Killa Kar-Suzuki) take the minors.

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HQ's Hero: Cary Bonwick dominated the all-Holden class at Queensland Raceway last weekend.

Derek Pingel(Reynard 95D) was too good in Racing cars, leading home Bob Power (Ralt RT23)both trimes while CAMS Rismg Star Ashley Walsh(Van Diemen RFOlZ) dominated Formula Ford.

The 250 Stockman-Hondas of Steven Cloake and Steve Murray raged a great fight to share the Superkart wins ahead

of Tim Philip(Stockman-Honda 125) and Mark Maczek(Anderson-Rotax 250)in each of the thirds.

Bob McLoughlin(CommodoreChev) and Shane Bradford (323Rotary) shared the Sports Sedan wins ahead of Damien Meneguzzo(BMW M3-Nissan).

-MARK JONES

rn Sydney over 2-litre Improved Production ranks in her Mazda RX7. So far this year, Tander has been unbeatable and despite the gallant efforts of Dave Lofhis (Nissan GTR), who would always manage to get the jump on Tander at the starts and lead the opening laps. Loftus drove his heart out in all three races to hold Tander at bay, but it was to no avail as the class of his rival was too strong. Dominating qualifying and all three races, it is going to take some luck or a bit of divine intervention to stop the Tander reign of the winners circle.

The Production Sports Cars put on an impressive display tliroughout the weekend, but in the end it was the Porsche GT3 of Bill Pye who was the most successful after he took out Race 1 and 3 (Trophy event) in solid fashion.

Anthony Skinner (Porsche GT3) claimed the win in Race 2, while the Cobra AC of Iain Pretty topped the time sheets in qualifying.

In the other classes, comprehensive wins were taken out by Ryan Simpson (Formula Vee), Barry Sternbeck, below (Combined Touring), Cliris Jackson (Sports Sedans), Andrew Towndrow (Clubman Sports Cars),Paul Saunderson(AF2/Super Sports) and Jeff Mulligan(HQ Holden's).

-DANIEL POWELL

29 June 2005

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g^lyflS IRisihgi Star liUpIriinatedrRound:3:of the Pottaras Press I Foiimula'Ford Championship by taking!

I Out all three races In dominant fashion.

I John Martim, who led the championship heading into the roumd, had a forgettable day, which started off by qualifying fourth in his I first appearance at the 2.7km Oran Park circuit, I but that aim turned to nothing on the opening ^ lap of Race A collision between Martin and poLesitter Ben Guest saw both drivers spin off the track at the back section of the track.

Martin made slight contact with the tyre wall, whiGh subsequently bent a torsion bar in his front end, while Guest was able to restart.

For the restart Laskazeski powered away to the lead from the outset and was never headed, and took the win ahead of Dale Wood and Guest. That was basically the tone for the remainder of the weekend, with Laskazeski dominating Race 2 and 3,followed by Mygale's Wood, pictured inset, who has also taken the lead of Tasman Motorsport's Search for a Superstar contest. Anglo Motorsport

Junior development driver Brad Lowe finished fourth on both of those occasions.

Martin was able to charge up to seventh place for Race 2 after starting from the rear, while in the final race he managed to work his way to third place before losing power on lap 6.

Martin's hard luck has now handed .

Laskazeski the championship lead heading in to the fourth round at Oran Park Raceway on July 30 and 31. state points: Laskazeski 242, D. Wood 196, Martin 192, Guest 190, B. Lowe 173.

Tasman ‘Search for a Superstar' points: D. Wood 282, Lowe 270, Martin 246, L. Wood 244, Rudoiph 204, i\l. Lowe 196, Harrison 162, Cotton 158, Mostyn 126, Duncan 110.

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Steel Guilianajoined a small but growing number ofAustralian drivers who have climbed onto a podium at an international karting event when he finished third in Round 2of the European Junior Rotax Championships in England recently.

MARK WICKS spoke to the 14-year old as he gets ready for Round 3in Austria next month.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: How did you feel standing on the podium in the UK? STEEL GUILIANA: It felt really good. I think I was the first Aussie junior since Ryan Briscoe to get on a podium overseas. And I felt proud to represent Australia, especially after we have struggled at the other races.

MN: How hard is it to go overseas and race a class that you cannot even go to a track and practise in Australia?

SG: That's frustrating because we can't test or run-in engines here (Junior MAX engines cannot be used outside a KartStars event and Guiliana's licence is too highly graded for him to compete in that series).

But I've already raced on the A1 Speedworld track in Austria (scene for the next round where he competed last year).

MN: After the first round yot tested at the PFI track in England before coming horn Did that help you much?

SG: Oh yeah, a big help. You only get Thursday to work or set-up because you have to qualify on Friday. Normally you don't know the track or set-ups, but this time I was able to have a think about th track before we came back to race.

MN: How would you compa the circuits you've raced on

in Europe to the tracks here in Australia?

SG: They are a bit different, but not as much as I thought they would be.

My favourite track is still Newcastle. It's got some tricky corners and if you can go well at Newcastle, you can go well anywhere.

MN: What are the plans for the rest of the year?

SG: I want to finish top three in the championship to get to the World Rotax Finals.

In Australia I'm racing the NSW Premier State Cup (in Junior Clubman) because there are a lot of top drivers in that. We aren't travelling to Victoria or Queensland to race (this year) because we need the money for Europe.

MN: Have you received much support for your Euro venture?

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AeroCatch is a simple device utilising the existing bonnet pin. The device incorporates a double-locking function and a very simple sliding lock pin that, when closing the panel, an over centre action secures the bonnet pin in the locked position. Then, pressing the protruding lever inwards gives the AeroCatch its secondary locking action, leaving the lever almost flush with the bodywork.

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motorsport news

X

5«»

news

CLASSIFIEDS

Classifieds online classifieds

LLUJ/£=^L£X1J32IID Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

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frtn lust $25

your motorsport vehicle, parts, memorabilia with our all-new combined magazine/ internet classified service. Courtesy of an agreement between Motorsport News and internet classified service my105.com, your advertising will appear in both for as little as $25. Yes 3 months on my105.com AND one insertion in Motorsport News for just $25!

HOW? Just log on to www.my105.com and follow the prompts!

Alternately, you can still use the classified form on these pages (surcharge applies for the service of entering the ad onto my105.com)

LOG ON NOW

IT’S THE SMART WAY TO SELL YOUR EQUIPMENT!

2004 Australia Cup winning Mitsubishi Magnas Two identical cars for sale, fully serviced and ready to rally on gravel or tarmac.Comprehensive spares package with each car. $40,000.00 + GST Neg. Alan 0398953668.

www.myl05.com/16855 Sedans/Sports Cars W !i '^ Mitsubishi Lancer EVO,4wd turbo, welded in cage, Ohiins, Brembos, titan, exhaust, new turbo, box, brakes, raced only once for 2 wins from 3 starts, many spares, immaculate, excellent 3E or 3J car. $35,000 Or Best Offer, moss 0418 971 465.

313 www.myl05.com/9432

m

Morris Cooper S Group Nb, Two top HP engines and gearboxes, each with manifolds, Weber, SC/CR gears and drop gears. Tranex and ZF diffs. Bond alloy cage, race seat, Schroth six point belt. Spax adjustable shock absorbers. All the best bits. Great looking car, ready to race. $19,750. Graeme 0414 232 709.

313 www.myl05.com/14646

i

64 Mustang, Mustang Race Car 1964 Nb, logbook ex condition left hand drive New roller engine over 400 H.P Toploader button clutch twin plate 9" Detroit Locker Alloy Roll cage Kelsey Hayes 4 spot front calipers Koni shocks Very competife & reliable car.

45,000 ONO. Shane 0733926699.

313 www.myl O5.com/14888

MGB, MGB, Group Sb, excellent 64 shell, Rowntree motor done 2 meetings since rebuild, Needham close ratio box, LSD, good history. Many spares available. Over $40,000 spent. Custom trailer $1,800. $18,000 ono. Will trade. Tim 0417-654770 . $18,000 ONO.Tim 02 65835955.

313 wrww.myl05.com/22931

i BMW 320i New Zealand Touring Car, ExInternational Motorsport. Championship winning history. As raced by Craig Baird, Jason Richards and Brett Riley, includes spares package. Spare engine also available. $49,000. Peter Millener 6421399565 / 6494136516.

315 www.myl05.eom/72502

89/^/ Torana XU1 Group Nc, One of Australia's quickest and most reliable Torana's, with times and results to prove it! Professionally maintained, full ground up rebuild March 2005. (Dyno sheets) etc. Immaculate car throughout, spares include gearbox, new wets and rims. Turn key ready to race, just been prepped for the next state round. $38,000 ONO. Mark 0407 801 126 or 03 9572 1376.

315

www^y105.com/9552;[

Datsun Sunny 3J Club Car, Professionally built lightweight race car, CA-16, EMS, Willwood Callipers, Monster Brakes, Fabricated Neg Camber Disc Brake Rear End, Welded 8pt Cage, New Dunlops Fitted, Fully sorted, easy to drive, stops & turns exceptionally well. Log Booked & ready to go. comes with 2 spare engines & spare set of rims. 11,000 Neg, Gavin 0416 065 510.

315 www.myl05.com/3494

29 June 200s

I

group c a9x torana, group c touring car 1977 bob morris 4 door a9x bathurst torana , original gmp&A 4 door race shell 1 of only 10 .fully restored with original cams log books .fresh tate engine, full race and ownership history offers in excess of $110,000 call Chris 03 9725 4441 0407 889 910. $110,000. Chris 0407889910.

313 www.my105.com/16347

VN Commodore, Built in February 2005 with no expense spared, this front running national spec car has raced only two meetings, currently placed third in NSW championship. Reluctant sale due to overseas posting. Spares available. . $19,500. Scott 0418 415 257 / 02 9653 1165.

313 www.myl05.com/84860

Alfa Romeo gtv6, fully rebuilt drivetrain fully welded in cage new sparco seat and harness new momo wheel and shifter to many things to mention all receipts and log books. 15000 ONO. adrian 0416028906.

313 virww.myl05.com/59627

Hurd/Krause Torana, Chev powered 300KW LX Torana, Freshened Engine. This car has at least 4 National Titles, Numerous State Titles. Won Mallala IP nationals in 2000 Times Phillip Island 1.47, Symmons 1.00.39, Baskerville 59,4 This car requires a serious driver, $26000ono.

Mark 0408133510/0363695416.

315 www.my105.com/49063

'I. <

BA FALCON V8 SUPERCAR, Currently leading the HPDC V8 Supercar Championship.Sell as complete car + spares. Can supply assistance and services to purchaser, . Warren 07 5571 6625 or 0414 646 873.

314 www.myl05.com/33651

Porsche 944, Build for 944 Series, 2004 Championship winning car, no expense spared, current spec engine, spare wheels and tyres, Sparco fire system, EC. $35,000.

Kane 0408 103 815.

316 www.my105.com/69044

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, 313 www.myl05.com/95122

79

*>jL\

SI

I

Open Wheelers

'in,

-0 f

U2L Datsun 1200 Coupet, Former U2L state and national championship winning car, still posts competative times. Has been freshened up recently, and is in very good condition. Spare parts package included. $12,500 Neg. Stephen 0412 046 462.

314 www.my105.com/75684

T

SEDANS/ SPORTS CARS, RSI600 BDA ESCORT.Cams NC log book.twin cam CK49 body shell,1660cc BDA engine,close ratio gearbox.LSD, watts linkage, antidive, bilsteins, AP clutch, alloy fuel tank and radiator.world cup crossmember.ect. $45000 ono. Phone Collin: 0438 441 480. $45000.00 ONO.0438 441 480. www.myl05.com/34924

313

Porsche 2003 GT3 CupCar, '05 CupCar specs - great condition lightly raced - ready to race in '05 CupCar or GT Sportscar Championship. Extensive spares package. $170,000 (Inc. GST) ONO. Greg 02 9327 6561.

313

www.myl05.com/58997

r r

Mirage Championship Winning Car, Datsun 1200 coupe. Cams logged. Cams approved rollover protection. Fj 20 and 5 speed. Fibreglass panels MCoy kevlar seat.

Harness, locked C20 disk rear end. 240 k struts and disks. Plenty of spares.

Absolutiely fantastic entry level hill Climb and sprint car at right price. Must sell returning over seas. $6500 Neg. Steve 03 9748 7158. www.myl05.com/61342

313

Mirage Championship Winning Car, Mitsubishi Mirage 2002 Championship winning Car recent engine refresh body A1 and with many parts inci spare gearbox.

18000 Neg. Gary 0419999544.

313 www.myl05.eom/49230

Group C RS 2000 Escort, Ready to race with historic logbook and C of D, no expense spared, top HP engine, c/r gearbox, LSD, Quaife floating rear axle.

Watts link, anti dive kit, AP brakes, stainless exhaust, dry sump, Simmons and slicks, perfonnance & wets plus extensive spares package. $38,000 ONO. Frank 02 9905 5770.

312

Historic Rail RT4 Atiantic, Arguably the most perfect RT4 in the world. Raced in Australia against Prost and Piquet.

Beautifully restored including $5000 rebuild on FT200, new fuel cell, new brakes, new clutch, new paint, fire bottle, rebuilt uprights, new wheels. Original logbook. Fresh Cosworth big valve BDD, No expense spared. Proud ownership guaranteed. $58,000 ONO. Mike Finch 512 577-7749.

312 www.my10S.com/2214

Elwyn 003,1986 with Nissan N/ASR20 240 HP new engine - Autronic ECU. CAMS/iog book perfect condition with many spares Eastern Creek 99 secs Wakefield 62 secs Oran Park South 42 sec. Oran Park GP 73 secs (by a grey old 95kg beginner). $28,000 ONO or as a formula ford roller $22,000 ONO. Spares include coners, panels, etc, 313 Steve 0412 711 481. www.myl05.com/59575

www.myl05.com/43481

SaI Porsche 944 Challenge, suitable for 944 Challenge Series or Improved Production Very good condition. New motor & suspension setup. Very reliable car. . $32,000 ONO. Greg 02 9327 6561.

313 www.myl05.eom/97059

Aussie Racing Car, fast reliable car top 10 finisher in right hands. $30,000. David 07 5531 8270 or 0416 060 452. www.myl 05.com/70946

313

■Vi

Hurd/Krause Torana, Chev powered 300KW LX Torana, Freshened Engine. This car has at least 4 National Titles, Numerous State Titles. Won Mailala IP nationals in 2000 Times Phillip Island 1.47, Symmons 1.00,39, Baskerville 59.4 This car requires a serious driver. $26000ono.

Mark 315 0408133510 / 0363695416. www.my105.com/49063

I

Elfin 620, 1973 Elfin Formula Ford CAMS log book first owner Jack Brabham. With spares. Needs tyres brake 0/Haul. Seat belt. Excellent mechanicals. MK 9 gearbox spare wheels etc. $22,000 ONO. Steve 313 0412 711 481. www.myl05.com/44478

TilifFwaytoseliirourgeari From just $25* lust log on

(*$25 applies to ads entered directly onto my105.com) Advertising can aiso be suppiied using this form ($10/S15 surchage to text only/text + pic advertisements) Advertisements wili appear in next possibie issue of ■/lotorsport ilews PLUS the m;': 05.com websiteforthree months.

Please read & cross the desired services and calculate the total. = $35 t«3 Standard ad and one inlusion into Motorsport News □ Plus Photo Processing fee $5 CStBflOfV: □ Sedans □ Open Wheelers □ Speedway □ Drag □ Jobs ADDITIONAL OPTIONS;□ Parts □ Engines □ Trailers □ Wanted □ Photographs □ Other_ □ Extra issues X $25 per issue Please keep ads to no more than 50 words, plus up to 6 photos if desired. □ Feature ad on Motorsport News and my105.com homepage for $75 per issue

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we are unable to return photographs supplied for use in classified ads. Ads will appear as soon as possibie after receipt. MN/my105.cofn classifieds are (or the sale of private goods and vehicles only, not business advertising Photos marked ‘proor >mII not be used.

motorsport news

CLASSIFIEDS Speedway

Formula Ford, Spectrum 06B, just rebuilt chassis excellent condition, latest factory updates, updated Motec dash/rev limiter, fresh top HP Ritter engine 1 meeting oid, spares, 2 sets rims/tyres, ratios, sway bars, springs, suspension parts, new aiioy floor, nose cones and moulds, quick iift jacks/stands, 2 yo fuliy enclosed trailer, low profile tows well, $36,000 the lot. John (03) 9588 0087 / 0413 327 321.

310 www.myl05.com/44291

Parts

●nanuMJc

A Modified, Brand new XR6 engine, Koni suspension, 9" Dif, Reduction Stearing, Top Loader, WOLF computer, Ali Fuel tank, Storm Covers plus Spares. READY TO GOII, $9,000 Neg. Doug 0409 422 440, 309 www.myl05.com/49582

Transporter, 3 car transporter, Mercedes Actros Prime Mover. Low Km's, Semi-Auto in excellent condition. Custom Built trailer with first class corporate area. See www.supaloc.com.auUruck for details.

Phone Kevin: 0413 943 425 or Matt: 0412 527 869. $375,000 or best offer over 310 $300,000, 0413 943 425. www.myl05.com/51651

Gearbox, Mazda RX 4/5 Gearbox with s/cut gears. 5th Gear 1:1. Splined Cluster Shaft.

3800.00 Or Best Offer. Troy 0419528762.

313 www.myl05.eom/44606 for sate p.i dash, features include , tacho, water temp, oil temp , and pressure , fuel pressure speed, lap timer , beacon.... warning alarms for hi temp , pressure over rev etc, track mapping data logging + other inputs programmable,... complete include sensors, programs and data cable. $2400.00 Neg, John 0417 275 220.

313 www.myl05.eom/66260 EH Holden Hollinger Gearbox, 3 spd Gearbox with Hollinger Gears to suit Historic EH Holden. $1000 Not Neg, Brian 0411115720.

313 www.myl05.com/95143

Wanted RALT RT4, Proven front runner in Histories.

Join this growing category - exceliant racing! Complete package with spares, gear ratios, 2 sets of wheels with drys & wets plus set up data. C of D verifies many updates to '86 improvements. $70,000.

RICHARD CARTER 0409993606.

310 www.myl05.com/89992

supersedan pontiac grandprix, light weight chassis .winters box , woodwood rack with power head, quick change with torque link, griffon ally radiator , rebco guages weld wheels , afeo threaded shocks , new body , car has only done 15 shows, $16000 as roller or with chev 366 bow tie block+heads ,dry sump ,msd ing , fresh engine dyno sheets, trailer also available.

Daryi (03) 5973 6075. www.myl05.com/87272

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Get it seen Get it soid!

81

I'j'ji:I L'jT

■MORROn w ww mn ews. CO m. a u

EDITORIAl STAFF

Editor: Phil Branagan ® editor@mnews.com.au Deputy Editor: Mark Glendenning » mark@mnews.com.au National Editor: Grant Rowley » grant@mnews.com.au Staff Journalist: Chris Jordan ● chrisj@mnew5.com.au

luckily slept in Australia until Sam and only had to watch the last hour of the farce. I like most would be disappointed and frustrated that racing is the loser.

I feel for the Americans and others that were let down

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82

FI farce has hurt sport

^

Like many of motor racing fans I am bemused at the happenings of the US FI Grand Prix at Indy.

No matter what all the parties say as to why the farce occurred, the ultimate loser is the fan. I

because the parties involved have forgot that the most important people are the spectators.

Without them they would not be basking in their millions.

I think it is time they start realising that the punters and ordinary fans are most interested in the racing and not the inflated egos of officials. I as a supporter win think twice about taking time out to watch the spectacle that is suppose to be the premier racing category, even when we have a local hope in Mark Webber. I also hope AVESCO learn that the reason they exist in such strength is the supporters.

Bill McCaskiU williammccaskill@netspace.net.au

FIA a Ferrari puppet?

I did wonder if the 'E' in FIA stood for Ferrari?

Now I know!

Peter Barnes pcbarnes@internode.on.net

Pushing boundaries, litigation and bad rubber

Full sympathy to the fans, viewers and marshals who had anticipated the US Grand Prix only to be let down by faulty rubber - as many young men have been in the past.

Just over two weeks ago, the FIA warned Michelin not to sacrifice safety in its bid to produce a more aggressive tyre, but it seems that this advice was not given the credence it could have been. French arrogance perhaps?

Its solution: To suggest a different course layout, which would suit its deficient tyres better - not a very palatable gesture in reality, but possibly a compromise.

But, unfortunately, the compromise was outside the rules, which everybody had agreed to at the start of the year.

Before everybody goes blaming Ferrari and the FIA, let's understand and accept how it used to be - before television and sponsorship - when Grand Prix racing (not FI) was about pushing to the limit and (sometimes) beyond.

Except this time the teams were not prepared to find a lower limit and forbade their drivers from competing due to litigation concerns

converter Send us your thoughts: mail: PO Box 7072, Gardenvale, VIC 3186 fax: 03 9596 5030 www.mnews.com.au should something go wrong (thanks Mrs Donohue).

So - does the problem stem back to that fateful day in Austria when an American was apparently let down by faulty rubber?

Paul Overell address withheld

FIA to blame, roll on GPWC

It is clear who is responsible for the farce which occurred at the US Grand Prbc ■ the FIA, who introduced the stupid one tyre per weekend rule which is a big safety concern ■ the FIA, who made no provisions in the rules to accommodate for tyre safety-related issues as occurred last week ■ the FIA, who was unwiling to provide any concessions to the Michelin teams ■ the FIA, who has the stupid law where all teams must be in agreement for any changes to occur. Therefore all that is required is one renegade team to hold the sport to ransom. A majority or two-thirds of the vote requirement would have also

prevented today's farcical race. n the FIA, who have not imposed a rule which requires a minimum number of cars on the starting grid for a race to proceed The repercussions of the US GP will be huge. Lost ticket sales, reduced TV numbers, possible cancellation of future events, manufacturers withdrawing from the sport,loss of sponsors: All of these are possible.

But what is certain is that the FIA has signed its own death warrant. The rival GPWC series has just been given a huge boost.

And I say it can't come soon enough!

Simon Dak Endeavour Hills, Victoria

More on the F1 disgrace

After waking up at 3.15am Monday morning to watch the US GP and see this mess that is supposed to be the pinnacle of world motor racing, I hit the record button on my video and went back to bed and watched it in fast forward later. I could not believe what transpired.

Firstly, I do understand for safety why MicheKn pulled the pin and I agree it was the right thing to do for the drivers. However as just a poor spectator, I could not understand how could Michelin stuff it all up so badly. I am appalled that between the FLA, the teams, etc, that no one did anything or agreed on anything to get the cars on the track. After all, the show must go on.

The way the whole thing was handled is a disgrace. Everyone who did nothing or worse, blocked moves to do something about this debacle, should hang their heads in shame.

Laurie Smith lgsmithl@bigpond.net.au

... on the other hand

I believe that all drivers should have raced at the USGP, they let us down.

Turn 13 has created Formula 1 history, as the turn that took away the nerve of Grand Prix drivers.

Nobody would have leaned into the cockpit of Juan Manual Fangio's Maserati 250F prior to racing in the German Grand Prix at the

No fun at all: The United States FI CP has MNews readers fuming.

Nurburgring in August of 1957 and said, 'better not race Juan, it looks a bit risky', and 11 years to the day later nobody would have mentioned puUing out due to risky weather conditions to Jackie Stewart at the same venue. Risk taking is an attribute of a Formula 1 driver.

This incident will surely spell the end for another chapter in GP and begin a new chapter in what conditions Grand Prix drivers decide when they wiU race.

Scott Pryce scopryce@hotnmil.com ED: The drivers had no say in it the teams and Michelin decided.

motorsport news

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