Motorsport News Issue 348 - November 8-22, 2006

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LOWNDES RISKS POINTS PENALTY IN V8 APPEAL THE NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS

No.348 8-22 November 2006 Australia $6.50 NZ $8.00 inc GST

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NEWS 4 Richards a

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Ultimatum

The CATis outofthe FPR bag -and in is..r

6

VEry interesting Commodore Supercar raises eyebrows

9

Redault?

Webber and DCgetsome French grunt

11 Greening V8s

Supercars goes for iO percentethanol

73 Careful Garth! Zukanovic gets the Tander VZ

OPINION 25 Motor Mouth

Reminiscing about WRCin WA

26 Box Seat

Is the F1 World Brave - or even New?

P 28 Opinion

82 Taik Converter

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Bikes, Lowndes and some Bezzy NASCARS and some wild theories

FEATURE 30 Five Minutes with Worid Champion #7; Andy Priaulx 32 Five Minutes With World Champion #2; Sebastien Loeb 34 The Red Rocket, from the Blue Side of Town Ford's ieading thinkers cast on eye on Holden’s VE 38 Young blokes, cold pizzas, tucked up At home with Will Davison and Jamie Whincup

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42 Falling short of Expectations With Williams behind him, Mark Webber has a chat ' i

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46 My Life in Pictures

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Paul Tracy looks back on some of the moments in his career 52 Bring Sunscreen and Sandais A look at what we can expect to see in Bahrain 56 Holding Down an End With Citroen in hiatus, Kronos Racing stepped up, and how!

RACE 62 Breakthroughs and Letdowns Hirvonen breaks through, Loeb seals title

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL 20 Bikes [

22 Rally 62 International

Photos Cover

64 Speedway

Holden Motorsport James Cormick

66 Drag Racing 68 National Scene

TRADE 77 Race Shop/Industry News 79 Classifieds

Dirk rdynsmlth sutton-lmages.com Contents: sutton-lmages.com Holden Motorsport Cormick Honda Pro Images

WAHT

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#39for IP's boys LARRY Perkins'two young upand-comers are to share a start in the remaining V8 Supercar championship rounds.

Paul Morris has offered the duo the use of the #39 entry while his team recovers its resources after expensive outings at Bathurst and Indy.

Shane Price will drive the #39 Holden Commodore at Symmons Plains this weekend and at the series finale at Phillip Island, while Jack Perkins will get the gig for Bahrain.

Perkins Engineering will supply one of Perkins'current cars to PMM,which will run it.The VZ Commodore will feature Sirromet Wines and Holden Young Lions branding.

Price currently runs second in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and remains a mathematical chance of securing the title at Phillip Island.

"It was great to do Sandown and Bathurst in the main series, but having a chance to compare ourselves at a regular round is an opportunity Jack and I didn't think we'd get this year,"said Price.

The #39 license has previously been used in 2006 by Alan Gurr, Fabian Coulthard, Steven Ellery and Kayne Scott.

In the meantime, Perkins still doesn't have a solution for the fact that, at present, he only has one V8 licence locked in for 2007.

"It's true," he told us on Monday.

"And until that situation is resolved, we can't realistically make a lot of plans - including our driver line-up."

With Steven Richards headed to FPR (deal done,announcement early January) and Paul Dumbrell's position in the Jack Daniels team under review, it has been speculated that LP would promote both young racers to the'A' team next year.

"I nfiake no secret of the fact that my ambition is to'grow my own' drivers rather than get involved in the exorbitant fees that some of these blokes are getting," LP told us,"but until the licence situation is resolved, everything is simply hypothetical."

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New lookfor FPR set to go large with BP Ultimate and Orrcon in 2007.

PHIL BRANGAN brings you the scoop ● ●● FORD Performance Racing will go into the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series with a whole new look after securing new sponsorship deals with Castrol/BP and Orrcon.

The factory Ford team has gained a new sponsor in current WPS Racing sponsor Orrcon, which will be reunited with its former driver Mark Winterbottom, but the big news is that Castrol, which has been a subsidiary sponsor with the team, will step up and become the naming rights sponsor of car #6 - which will be driven by Steven Richards.

The news has come as a shock to most in the motorsport business particularly Caterpillar, which

has backed the team's lead entry since 2003 when Craig Lowndes joined the team.

Lowndes raced in CAT colours for two years and, in 2005-06, the #6 CAT Falcon has been piloted by Jason Bright.

While no confirmation' has yet come from the team, MNews believes that the Castrol deal has been brewing for some time. One oil industry source described the deal as 'significant and inevitable".

"The Perkins [Motorsport] deal grew organically, which is not the way that Castrol goes racing," he said, "it started small and got bigger, and successful, but that is not what Castrol does. Look at its rally program - it's with

Ford's works team and, before that,Toyota's works team. In FI, it was Williams, BMW's works team. In Champ Car,[Dan] Gurney's works Toyota team.

Even in drag racing, it's John Force, which is pretty much a factory Ford team. Castrol likes to associate itself with factory teams, not customers, it's a prestige thing.

"The relationship with Larry was muddied a little when the ownership changed [Ed: Castrol was acquired by BP in 2000] but it ran its course and ended and, even after they said they were going, Castrol said that it wanted to be involved with a works team. HRT has Mobil, so that was never going to happen and FPR had CAT

Lowndes/888:Judgement Day

V8 SUPERCAR Championship leader Craig Lowndes and Triple 8 Racing are risking championship points by opting to front a full CAMS Stewards Hearing on Friday morning, following Lowndes'post-race comments at the Gold Coast Indy race.

The hearing became necessary when Lowndes and his team contested V8SA IPO Peter Wollerman's contention, during a preliminary hearing in Melbourne last week, that he had breached rule B6.5.4(bringing motorsport into disrepute), and imposed fines totaling $33,000 if the matter was not to proceed further.

In a first for such a hearing,the team as well as the driver have been charged, under rule B6.4.2, which states that"the Competitor [ie team] will be responsible for all acts or omissions on the part of their drivers, team personnel and associates, but each of these will be equally responsible for any breach of the Rules."

In any case, Lowndes and Triple Eight did not accept the breach and will face the Stewards as V8 teams assemble for this weekend's round in Launceston.

A guilty verdict could see monetary fines and a loss of championship points.

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Just like old times: The #6 Ford Performance Racing Ford Falcon will don the green, blue and white colours of BP Ultimate, Castro! and Ford, similar to MNews artist James Cormick's impression, above. Steve Richards already knows his way around Castrol overalls, below left, while Mark Winterbottom is also accustomed to Orrcon colours... on the lead car, which meant that Castrol was only ever going to be a subsidiary sponsor - unless Caterpillar disappeared."

While the Caterpillar-FPR arrangement will end in December, MNews believes that CAT's Mining Direcor (Asia-Pacific) Kevin Barrett was told by FPR Commercial Director Rod Barrett early last week that the team's option to continue with the company would not be taken up. That means that there must have been a sponsorship agreement in the wind that made the CAT deal redundant and, since that sponsorship deal is thought to have been in the region of $1.2 tol .5m, it must be substantial.

"It is interesting timing,"said our industry source. "The Orrcon deal was in the bag, then Castrol confirmed, then CAT was told it was, in effect, sacked."

While a works deal is a better fit for Castrol, it will continue other programs in its current guise, which includes its support of the Super Cheap Autos/ PWR Commodore team and the www.mnews.cotn.au

THE big question now is whether Caterpillar will stay in V8 Supercar racing and with which team?

MNews understands that the company wants to continue its successful involvehient in the sport and history dictates that it will stay with a Ford team,if it continues.The company has enjoyed a prominent profile with FPR for its dollar input(FPR supported by Ford to a fair degree),and will struggle to get a similar profile in 2007 for that figure.

Support for a'coming'team may well be the answer.

While CAT and Ford are . not a world-wide pairing (the CAT entry in the Nextel ■'f ● Vt! Cup is a Dodge and will become a Toyota .next

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Autobarn Racing Commodore.

"The Super Cheap and Autobarn deals are retail-based and different [to FPR],"our insider says."Same as Kmart [Racing, which also had Castrol sponsorship]."

A question mark remains over the potential livery of the lead FPR car. Since BP bought the Castrol brand, the BP Ultimate brand has had a particularly high-profile the company is in the midst of

a major retail push of its petrol outlets, which includes a buyerloyalty car that offers customer five percent off all purchases.

With that in mind the car could be branded with the green, blue and white colours featured on the Focus WRCs run by M Sport - or, to be commercially correct,Team BP-Ford.

On the other hand, Castrol itself is having a major push in the oil market with its Castrol Edge brand but, with those colours being prominently promoted already by Ben and Victor Bray in Drag Racing, a combined BP/Castrol scheme seems a more likely bet for the V8 program.

As for Orrcon, the move is not totally unexpected. MNews understands that, earlier this year, the steel company, which is owned by Hills Industries, started looking at possible alternatives after undergoing a transformation from a naming-rights sponsor with Larkham Motorsport to a subsidiary sponsor when Larkham folded his team and bought into WPS Racing.

exceeding $35bn'in>20Q5f^ (,3 does much ofjts AuStfaliajii-r9j business in ruial areas and^.^ Ford appears'to be a better * 'fit'in’those communities^ One option is to folldw'. ‘ . > Bright to Britek. However, MNews believes that last'

month Bright and team; .

- * t manager Chris Jewelh ●●■determined that it would f ' i field only a single entry next ^ season, in FOJitsu colour^^for Bright. If that it true/thWe ' may already be a dea>ir( place for the team's lieehce; to be let to another team is? next season.

However, a potential L'. $1.5m sponsorship injectiop:'V from CAT, and a possible increase in support to cover a second entry from Ford, would appear to make good sense for the team. Under those circumstances, with two Falcons in the V8SCS and two Fiestas for the Australia Rally Championship, Britek suddenly takes on the mantle of a heavyweight team, with an impressive list of multinational sponsors...

That would appear to indicate that a second Britek Ford would not need a driver with budget and that gives Bright - who is known to have an excelient relationship with CAT - a wide choice of talent.

-PHILBRANAGAN

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New Tasman VZ TASMAN Motorsport will wheel out a brand new Commodore for this weekend's Ferodo Triple Challenge at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

Jason Richards will debut the new machine, which has been readied by the team over the course of the last few months but had its preparation accelerated in the weeks since the Gold Coast Indy event.

Despite the V2 Commodore only having three more rounds to go this year before the introduction of the VE for 2007,the team is eager to debut the new car and test out some modifications.

The car will use the running gear from the #23 car driven by Andrew Jones and by Owen Kelly/Mark Noske in the endurance events. This chassis, the first built by Tasman Motorsport in 2004, will become the team's spare.

"The new car is the story of the week for us," Richards said.

"My car has had more hits than Elvis of late." n The Clipsal 500 was launched two weeks ago in Adelaide, where it was announced that Clipsal Australia has renewed his sponsorship of the Adelaide street race until 2015, thought to be worth $1 million per year.

The launch was attended by V8 Supercar drivers Greg Murphy, Steven Richards, Mark Skaife, Mark Winterbottom, Brad Jones and Russell Ingall. n The Clipsal 500 also launched its 2007 advertising campaign.The Clipsal folks have produced a special advert that wl(l only air in Melbourne,taking a swipe at the Melbourne Grand Prix.

The advert reminds punters that if they want to see V8 Supercars,they won't be able to do it in March at Albert Park... n Expect to see Murray Walker back for the Clipsal 500 next year.

The former voice of Formula 1 racing has been a regular guest of the South Australian governments during the popular Clipsal 500 for the past few years. Walker,83, describes the Clipsal 500 as'the best touring car race in the world.' n Team BOC's Brad Jones will celebrate his 100th Touring Car Championship start when he lines up at Symmons Plains this weekend.

"It might have taken me 20 years, but I got there!"Jones said.

6

Hotden

Ford: Less than thrilled with VE THE development of the Commodore VE V8 Supercar continues but some on the Ford side of the fence are less than happy with the way things are going.

A number of leading Ford technical brains have expressed dissatisfaction with the level of information that has been available to teams through the development of the car, which has undergone more aero testing recently.

"I am not that thrilled about what has happened, but I can live with it," said one engineer,"as long as their [Holden] engineers follow the same rules next year [when Ford will be developing its 2008 racer]."

One of the main talking points about the new car is not the aero kit, which is subject to modification should TEGA need to adjust parity, but the very construction of the car. Because the current model Holden road car (and Ford,for that matter) is much bigger than the original Commodore VP and Falcon

EB from 1993,the VE has needed to be modified in order to fit inside the maximum wheelbase and height dimensions allowed under Project Blueprint, in order to fit, the VE has had 93mm cut from its floorpan and rear doors and the whole body sits lower on the floorpan which, made up of boxed sections,'resembles the TEGA Control Chassis more closely than it does a Commodore road car.

One Ford engineer compared it to the cars used in the German Championship: "Have you seen pictures of a DTM car sitting alongside the equivalent road car? Same thing."

The engineers are not writing off the exercise as favouritism', rather waiting for similar guidelines to be applied when their turn comes.

"This is the path that we might be taking ourselves," said one,"but that is for 2008. for more on the technical make-up of the Commodore VE see pages 34-37

Common rear wing?

A COMMON rear wing element is a distinct possibility for V8 Supercars in 2007 - and may give an insight into how Ford's 2008 car will be developed.

In the latest round or aero testing in South Australia last month,a Commodore VE and a Falcon BF took part in straightline testing at Woomera Air Base, under the control of TEGA's homologation committee of Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly,Technical Officer Steve Brow, HRT's Richard Holway and Triple 8's Ludovic Lacroix.

O'Reilly said that the test was the most beneficial yet.

"Everyone involved has described the test as the best we have done to date. We are as satisfied as we can be about the outcome."

During the course of the test, a number of different configurations

were fitted to the cars, which were required to be presented as equal as they could be'under the skin'.

That meant that the cars, as near as could be accommodated, were identical in set-up.

One of the scenarios that could come out of the test is that the rear wing element, which is virtually the only part of the aero kit that can be fitted to either a Holden or a Ford, could be required to be identical on both cars, though it

may be fitted in a slightly different position and manner, depending on the outome of aero tests. Such a wing would be carried over to the aero kit of Ford's 2008 racer, which will be based on the road carcodenamed 'Orion'and due for release in March "08.

The results of the test are now due to be tabled before theTEGA Board, which is due to meet in the middle of this month.

-PHILBRANAGAN

motorsport news

NEWS

New AGP sponsor

The ING AGP has pink tickets with Euro GTS and Aussie Racing Cars!

IN a big week for the Australian FI Grand Prix, the GP Corporation has announced a new primary sponsor, a female-targetting 'pink' ticket deal and will confirm FIA GT3 European Championship as its replacement for V8s on the support programme.

In a three-year deal, ING, the same company which recently announced primary sponsorship of the Renault FI team, has taken naming rights for the Australian Grand Prix.

It is expected that ING may announce sponsorships of other FI races (a number have become available following the withdrawal of Foster's from FI sponsorship) as it expands its marketing effort in FI. At the same time, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has announced a half-price ticket deal for females at next March's GP

(with permission from the Equal Opportunity Commission, of course). Pink tickets will allow women access to an enclosure (should we call it the filly's enclosure?), where they can watch the racing or, presumably, socialise with the young men attracted to the area ...

The replacement for V8 Supercars on the support programme will be confirmed at next Monday's official launch of the 2007 ING Australian FI Grand Prix. MNews understands a pair of two-driver races for European GT3 Championship cars has been organised, with a number of Australian GT category drivers securing co-driver spots in the exotic car category.

Popular local category, Aussie Race Cars, is also expected to be confirmed as an addition to the supporting programme.

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V8sfacefine IN an example of the modern risks of race promotion,V8 Supercars Australia has pleaded guilty to a breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and faces a $120,000 fine. , V8SA appeared in the Industrial Court of New South Wales over an incident that saw two fire extinguishers explode while being refilled at the circuit during the Wakefield Park round of the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series in February 2004.Three men were injured in the explosions.

In the Judgement last week,the Court found that V8SA failed to ensure that its employees and others were not exposed to risks to their health and safety over the recharging of the extinguishers.The judgement also noted that V8SA had no prior convictions for breaches of the Act and that V8SA l^jqooperated with Work Cover's investigations at all '? times and,after the incident, had j:. engaged external experts to conduct V a safety audit at three consequent .;■ J meetings at a cost of $75,000. ' j The Court, which could have . imposed a fine of $550,00 on each of two counts, determined a total fine of $150,000 for the two breaches but discounted the amount by 25 percent, in light of V8SA's early plea. It also 1 awarded CQSjs against V8SA. V There are sdll two charges pendiit^^, i from the incident, against CAMS and^ Trevor Lansdown (the contractor who ● 1 was filling the extinguishers at the : ● track).

Supercar Supports Sorted

GT Perfect: Garry Holt and Co will star on the V8 Supercar support bill in 2007. www.mnews.coni.au

V8 SUPERCARS Australia will confirm its support racing cast for the 2007 season in the coming weeks.

Eight categories will be regular features at V8 rounds.

The Fujitsu V8 Supercars, Carrera Cup, Formula Ford, Aussie Racing Cars, V8 Utes, . HistoricTouring Cars and Performance Cars will be the support acts to the 'main game.'

The inclusion of the Performance Cars is a boon for the production-based category.

Their spot on the V8 bill has come at the expense of Australian GT, who fell out of negotiations with V8 Supercar a while ago.

Australian GT will feature as one of the main acts on the CAMS Nationals Series calendar {seepage 68].

There will be a few one-off support categories at various tracks. Barbagallo Raceway will have a local support act, while the new BMW 120i Sherrin MotorSport Cup

will conduct one of its rounds at Queensland Raceway.

In terms of television coverage, the 2007 season promises to bring the most coverage from V8 meetings ever, as both Saturday and Sunday will have bulk time slots for sprintrace formats.

On Saturday, Seven will broadcast V8 qualifying, followed by the top 10 shootout, a live support race and the first V8 race.

On Sunday, Race 2 and 3 of the V8s will be shown live. In some case, the V8 races will be over before 2pm, depending on conflicting AFL games.

Delayed coverage of the support races will be mainly aired on Saturdays that don't feature V8 race meetings. The Fujitsu V8s and Carrera Cup categories will have their own dedicated programs, while the other categories are likely to share space.

-GRANT ROWLEY 7

Coming to America

FORMER Minardi FI boss Paul Stoddart says that he is now almost certain to enter the Champ Car World Series next season with a Minardi-branded team.

Stoddart is currently not giving much away, but it is clear that his plans involve taking over an existing operation rather than starting something new.There are believed to be three possible deals on the table.

The Australian says that there are also three drivers in the frame, all of them having raced for Minardi in FI in the past.This narrows down ^ the possible list to include such names as Justin Wilson, Nicolas

London CaTling LONDON'S controversial mayor Ken Livingstone has given a clear signal about the city's discussions regarding the hosting of a Formula 1 race.

In July 2004 there was a successful FI demonstration on the streets of the West End with around 200,000 people watching the cars in action - at very reduced speeds.

There was talk of a race track in Hyde Park but Livingstone says that FI is simply not feasible from a financial point of view.

Speaking at the announcement that London will be included on the Tour de France route next year, Livingstone said that a Grand Prix would cost London in the region of US$56m a year - too much to make the idea viable.

IB McLaren Mercedes has done a deal with Spanish insurance group Mutua Madrilena, a sponsor of Fernando Alonso at Renault in recent seasons.

Mutua Madrilena branding will be located on the front wing endplates of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 next year, replacing Mobil, although the US oil company is expected to remain a major presence on the car as it has been for 12 years. n BMWSauberistotest2005 FBMW World Final winner Marco Holzer in Valencia at the end of November.

The test was the reward for winning the formula BMW title in Bahrain but the team has been too busy up to now to give him his prize. n Five years after he lost both legs in an accident in Champ Car racing, Alex Zanardi is to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car with a test of a BMW Sauber being planned at the forthcoming BMW World finals in Valeria on November 26.

The car will have to be altered to allow him to use a hand throttle and a bigger brake pedal and he will have to squeeze himself in to the narrow cockpit but the plan is for a few demonstration laps to give him another taste of FI power and to inspire the youngsters who will be present for the big BMW event. n Dutch brand managers continue to sign up as sponsors of the Spyker MF1 team.

The latest is Philoderm, a brand of skin care products manufactured by Rofil Medical in Breda, Netherlands, while RotoZip,a power tool manufacturer, has signed a multi-season deal.

- JOE SAWARO/QUENTIN SPURRING 8

The Minardi name will thus most likely be appearing in ^ both GP2 and Champ Car next year as Giancarlo Minardi ^Kiesa, Jos Verstappen andPiquet Gianmaria ^ recently bought the SportsBruni.

GP2 team and intends to use his name in the series.

This is possible because the use of the Minardi k brand belongs to different companies, \

^ depending on where the company is registered. n Stoddart owns the name'Minardi FI'but is also 1. allowed to use the Minardi name for BritishI registered teams, while Giancarlo Minardi owns J the right to run teams with his Italian-registered J business.

-JOESAWARD

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The End for Imola?

ANOTFIER nail has been hammered into the coffin of FI tradition with the news that the San Marino GP is off in 2007 and the authorities have been told that they need to make new arrangements if there is to be a Grand Prix in the future.

This will not be easy as, in addition to an expensive reconstruction programme,the circuit will need to find a promoter willing to invest in the huge race fees that the Formula One group is demanding these days.

The historic venue finds itself in a difficult Catch-22 situation: without a Grand Prix there is no need to do the expensive upgrading work demanded but, at the same time, if the upgrading is done there is still no guarantee that there will be a race.

The economic impact of an FI race in Europe on the local economy is reckoned to be in the region of US$60m a year.The fees being charged in FI are between US$16m and US$25m a year.

- JOE SAWARD

- .11, II

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Honda Going Head-to-Head

TFIE battle for the Honda Racing test drive seems to have boiied down to a fight between Gary Paffett and Christian Kiien - who may face a sudden death'shootout'at Silverstone.

Honda is looking at its options as itseeks to replace Anthony Davidson, who is expected to Join Super Aguri as a race driver for 2007. ; Both men have considerable experience in FI cars: Paffett as a test driver with McLaren and Kiien as a racer with Jaguar and Red Bull Racing.

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Kiien is two years younger than Paffett and has 48 FI races behind him,including a fifth place in China in 2005.

Paffett's value is that he has worked in a major team environment and there are probably things he learned at McLaren which would be useful for Honda to understand what it takes to be successful.

Klien's experience is with teams which either failed to prove themselves or have yet to do so.

-JOESAWARD

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motorsportnews

NEWS

Webber in'07 IT has been confirmed that Red Bull Racing will be using Renault engines in 2007 and that Scuderia'Toro Rosso will get Ferraris.

By agreeing to extent its Ferrari engine contract beyond just one year. Red Bull ha5^een able to convince Ferrari to switch its supply of engines from RBR to its second-string team.

It is an outcome which was always going to happen, because RBR designer Adrian Newey has virtually completed final design work on the Renault-powered Red Bull which Mark Webber and David Coulthard will drive

in 2007 - indeed construction of the car is well-advanced.

While horsepower comparisons between engines restricted to 19,000rpm in 2007 show little difference, Newey believes the Renault offers a better aerodynamic option due to its basic shape and better packaging of all the ancillaries, including radiators.

The big question now is what happens with chassis, as there is no doubt that Red Bull is intending to run two very similarlooking cars in 2007:one built in Italy and the other in England.

It is likely that a parallel design

process has taten plac^hile J,he Ferrari/Rerault eiMine deal has been sorted, and^ere wjll \^on has cWanged, with.a be questions(from other teams) ^^l^jor.investment in NASCAR as to the required in(^vi#ality^-' for drivers ^ian Vickers and AJ and exclusivity of de^n of, iji Alliifflendinger and a sponsorship particular, theTorro Rossos. C ^jB||al'in’'cHamp Carw/ith PKV It also remains to be seen whoP ^^rcing for liieel Jani. will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso, It is possible that Red BuJjjgiay with increasing rumours that up its involvement in Charnp Car . the team will end up with Tonio and try to get PKV to run a car for Liuzzi and Robert Doornbos.

Speed as well.

- JOESAWARD If this turnsjiut to be the case it is bad news for Scott Speed.The American youngster For more on RBR/Renault,check. was picked out by Red Bull to race in Europe in the hope that, our exclusive chat with Mafl^ an American- themed racing Webber,page42

Dismantling an Empire

THERE has been a major reshuffle at Ferrari following the departures of technical director Ross Brawn and the head of the FI engine department Paolo Martinelli.

Brawn, who has been with the team since 1997,is expected to spend a year away from the team and then return to run the entire sporting department, while Martinelli is moving to a seniorjob within the Fiat empire.

In preparation for Brawn's as-yetunconformed return, Jean Todt the current general manager of Ferrari and head of the sporting department has been shifted to a new role as chief executive officer.

He has inherited this role from Luca di Montezemolo.

It is obviously a less labour-intensive position than his current job, as Montezemolo found the time to run the entire Fiat empire in addition to being Ferrari's CEO.Todt will remain as head of the sporting department but is thought likely to retire at the end of next year when Brawn comes in to take his place. www.mnews.com.au

Brawn's role as technical director has been handed over to 42- year-old Mario Almondo, who has been with Ferrari since 1991. He has held several different roles but has spent most of his time as the man in charge of FI production at Maranello. A year ago he was moved to human resources, a sign that he was being earmarked for a bigger role.

Martinelli is to be replaced as head of the engine department by frenchman Gilles Simon, who was recruited for Ferrari back in 1994 by Todt,the two men having worked together at Peugeot Sport, where Simon designed the VI0 engines that Peugeot used in the World Sportscar Championship and in FI. Ferrari sporting director remains Stefano Domenicali. He has been at Ferrari since 1991 and became the F1 team manager in December 1996 when he took over from Claudio Berro and was named sporting director in 2002.

-JOESAWARD

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RICK and Todd Kelly are bloody good blokes. They are so good that they recently participated In the Australian Red Cross Blood Service's'Donate with a Mate'campaign.

Australia needs 21,000 blood donations each week and over 2,500 litres per day to keep up with demand from the hospital sector.

"V8 racing is tough but that pales in comparison to the challenges faced by the Red Cross Blood Service,"Todd said.

"They need 21,000 blood donations each week and by donating blood with your mate, you can help save up to six lives." a Targa Tasmania event organiser Octagon has been granted permission by the West Tamar Council to run a street stage through the historic Tasmanian mining town of Beaconsfield in 2007.

For the first time in the 15year history of the event, the small Northern Tasmanian town (with a population of just 1000 people), will host the newest stage to be added to the 2007 Targa Tasmania course, which officially starts from Launceston's Country Club on Tuesday April 17.

Event Director Mark Perry says Octagon's decision to take the event to Beaconsfield was based primarily on the fact that, since April this year, Beaconsfield has been on the lips of all Australians, after miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped in a mine for 14 days.

-GRANT ROWLEY

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gram rowley DEAN Canto and Lee Holdsworth will contest the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series with Garry Rogers Motorsport, after Rogers took up his option with both drivers recently.

Canto and rookie driver Holdsworth, right, will now remain in Repco Valvoline colours for 2007 and beyond.

The veteran team owner told MNews that he has been impressed with his young pairing.

"If you look at our results this year, they are better than the last few years," he said.

"I think we've done a better job in the sprint races. We've always

had good speed in the longer races, but we've done a better job this year getting on the pace quicker in the sprint races.

"Dean has been really good. He has shown great qualifying speed and got some reasonable results, "Everyone forgets that Lee has only done limited motor races. A bit of Commodore Cup, Formula Ford, Developments Series. Lee just gets in and has a go. He is very mature for his age."

Holdsworth, a rookie in the main game, is delighted to have confirmed his deal for 2007.

"I'm very happy to be back with them next year," he said. "The team is on its way forward and we are ready to take the next step."

THERE'S niEVER BEEN WHY?

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NEWS

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Supercars Green Days Ethanol mixture on the agenda for 2007: Avgas to be used in Desert 400

V8 SUPERCARS will be going green and look set to race on an ethanol/petrol mixture next year.

The Touring Car Entrants'Group and its fuel supplier Shell are working towards running all of its events in the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series on a fuel containing 10 percent ethanol mixed with 90 percent petrol.

"We are in dialogue with Shell and the fuel cell manufacturers to make sure that they don't have any compatibility issues," said TEGA Chairman Kelvin O'Reilly this week.

"We are close to determining how will go ahead in the future."

Some team members have expressed quiet concerns over the introduction of the renewable fuel, while others have pointed to the fact that many of the teams or their engine partners were constantly dynoing engines anyway.

In the meantime,there will be a change in fuel specification for the Desert 400 in Bahrain. Due to the needs of the local suppliers, the races will be staged using Avgas, rather than Shell's usual unleaded high octane fuel. At the Shanghai round last year, a local fuel was also used and the teams allowed additional track time to adjust their fuel mapping,so a similar addition in likely in Bahrain.

Green means Go: V8 Supercars is following the world-wide move into renewable fuel sources by including ethanol fuel mixtures in its technical package.

V8s Get Smart with Control brakes ALCON has won the tender to become V8 Supercars'supplier of control brake rotors.

The company, which had its local distribution overseen by PWR Racing, will supply brake rotors to all cars in the V8 Supercar Championship Series from next year.The move, which according to one team boss, would save between $30,000 and $50,000

Brock's Austin 7 foun I

S^S'very first car Pet^Brdck - ever drove has been found ,>after being lostfor 40 years. ' A 1938 Austin 7,which 12-a year-old Brffck modified by I chopping off its body with v^hisTnother's 5xe, has been ^ discovered in the roof of {a Mobrabbih/Melboume ^factory.The car is being ^prepiSfed for this weekend's^ jBrocky's Big Day Out at the > Hurstbridge Pony Club . jThe Austin has been bought by Brock sponsor t n -(RDA Brakes and donated to the Brock FcSundatibn;*;;*^-^ i ^"It was a but like a 1950?^^ style of go-kart,"said Lewis^3 f.Brock, Peter's brother, who ^ ' often 5atirt the back of th? : car holding the battery..

per car per year, is the first part of changes to the eligibility list which will eventually include brake callipers. However,those items will not be phased in until at least the end of the 2007 season.

There will also be a list of permitted brake pads,from which the teams can choose according to preference.

-PHILBRANAGAN

, "It's where he learnt his 4*3^ “ early racecraft as thb thing*®^ ,had no brakes- Peter would a 'just throw it into a huge slide and stop it!'

ui

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11

Zukanovicstepping up Organisersjump ship CITING personal reasons, the organisers of the NGK Rally of Melbourne have announced their intention to discontinue their association with the round of the NEC Australian Rally Championship.

Justin Hunt and Neil Cuthbert announced their decision to end their four-year association with the Victorian event. The pair had originally taken over the staging of the event after the sudden death of long-time promoter Glenn Cuthbert in 2002.

"This has been a very difficult decision for both of us and probably not a decision we really wanted to make, but the impact on our personal lives and the lives of those around us has been significant, and Neil and I feel it is now time to move on,"said Hunt.

The announcement had been pre empted at Rally Australia, where discussion had also focused on the financial viability of the event and concerns over the ever-increasing levels of Government paperwork being imposed on motorsport, especially rallying. n Ashley Cooper got his first taste of a V8 Supercar in one of Sydney Star Racing's VY Commodores at W/akefield Park last week.

"Everything is just totally different to anything I have ever driven," he said.

"The first session was purely getting a feel for the car; the brake pedal,the acceleration, the gearbox."

Unfortunately, his second session was cut short by an oil leak.

Cooper has been keeping himself race fit this year by competing in the Yokohaiha V8 Utes Series and the Commodore Cup Series. n Michael Patrizi is set to test a World Series by Renault car at Paul Ricard today.

The young West Australian has just completed his second GP2 test, and will now sample some different machinery with the Victory Engineering WS by R squad.

"This latest test with Victory Engineering in the World Series

by Renault car is a really great opportunity with a race-winning team,"said Patrizi.

"The two days with the team at Paul Ricard are another opportunity for me to learn and show my skills. The World Series by Renault has proven to be one of the best series in the world."

-RYANLAHIFF/STAFF 12

MARCUS Zukanovic will step into the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series in 2007.

The Victorian is close to securing a deal on a car, and while he has a number of options, MNews understands that he is likely to purchase Garth Tender's current Toll HSV Commodore VZ at the end of the season.

While Zukanovic is excited about the prospect of returning to the Development Series(he drove with Paul

Cruickshank Racing in 2004) he currently leads both the V8 Utes Championship and the Commodore Cup Series, and wants to wrap them up before thinking about 2007.

"I really want to wrap up the championships before anything, he said.

"There's only one round to go for each series. I only have to finish each Corfimodore Cup race to win the championship, but the Utes is different. I have to keep Jack(Elsegood)in my sights."

After this year is over,though, Zukanovic will be 100 percent focused on racing against the front-runners in the Fujitsu V8s.

"I've had a lot more race miles since my last time in the category should put me In a better position. I've got a broader look on things these days with a lot more experience.

That should help me out.

"It's going to be a full-on year.

There will be lots of Holdens out there. I'm looking forward to it."

-GRANT ROWLEY

Brand new carfor Optima FUJITSU V8 Supercar team Optima Sport will build a brandnew Ford Falcon to contest next year's championship.

The Gold Coast-based team has been forced to scrap the shell that was destroyed in the fatal accident at Mount Panorama last month involving Mark Porter and Optima driver David Clark, who continues to recover in hospital.

Optima team owner David MacDougall told MNews that he expects to see the brand-new Beehag shell in his workshop in early 2007, after the team received dispensation from TEGA to build the chassis. UnderTEGA rules, a V8 Supercar chassis must compete in at least six'main'series races before racing in the Fujitsu league.

"TEGA has given us approval to build a new car," he said."We have to replicate the specification of our old chassis. We can't build a 2007-spec chassis, we have to build it around the 2005 model that was destroyed."

The only car sitting in Optima Sport's workshop at the moment

is the Bathurst wreck, but MacDougall did say that he wants to move the team to a multi-car operation, perhaps as soon as 2007.

He has fielded enquires from far and wide about driving for the team next year but hasn't locked in any drivers.

Clark is among the talent which has a chance of securing a drive, but will need to find the budget to secure the deal. Even while Clark is recovering, he is said to be

searching for funds.

The Optima Sport team made its debut this year at the Clipsal 500 and has made significant progress through the year.

The team's highlight came at Queensland Raceway, where Clark raised eyebrows with third on the grid.

"We've built good relationships with key technical partners," he said."I don't think anyone expected us to be in the top 10."

- GRANT ROWLEY

motorsport news

NEWS

Sherrin buys Cup Car CUP Car Australia has entered into a Heads of Agreement with Sherrin Motorsport for the sale of Cup Car Australia and GT3 Cup Experience, CEO Jamey Blaikie announced on Monday.

Cup Car Australia is the Category Manager for the Wright Patton Shakespeare Carrera Cup Australia championship. Its three-member board of directors comprises Blaikie, team owner Tony Quinn and Porsche Cars Australia Managing Director Michael Winkler.

Cup Car also operates a second company, GT3 Cup Experience Pty Ltd, run solely by Blaikie and Quinn, which currently provides DriverTraining and Hot Lap programs in Australia.

The second company is also involved in the potential sale to Sherrin Motorsport, with any purchase expected to be finalised by late November after a 21-day

THE National Association of Speedway Racing has become the first

mvrm.

cooling-off period.

"I am delighted with what Cup Car has been able to achieve in developing Carrera Cup racing in Australia,"said Blaikie.

"Qur local Carrera Cup racing is one of the most successful Carrera Cup series in the world, and having worked very hard for the past four years to get Carrera Cup where it is. It's time for me to

Speedway joins FIA!

move on and find new challenges.'

To ensure a seamless transition across to Cup Car's new owners, Blaikie will remain an employee of Cup Car until December 31, and he'll serve as a consultant until late in the first quarter of 2007. All other existing Cup Car Australia operational staff are expected to remain in their current positions.

international speedway body to achieve ratification from the FIA. "This is a tremendous achievement and I would like to take this opportunity to thank CAMS and in particular the late John Large, Gary Connelly and the CAMS Board and managementfor their role in helping us realise this goal," said NASR General Manager Tim McAvaney.

"The FIA delegation, through CAMS,is a coming of age for Australian speedway racing particularly in . relation to the recognition of speedway racing as a ’ _ Intimately regulated rnotpr J s^ft activity." , i*:',’?

Will Walter Win? Vale:Michael FigliomenI MICHAEL'The Magic Man' FigliomenI, one of Australia's best-ever Speedcar drivers, died after suffering from what appears to have been a massive heart attack whilst in the pit area of the Perth Motorplex a fortnight ago.

FigliomenI enjoyed enormous success both in Australia and America in the Speedcar. He was a quietly spoken, kind and gentle person. Fitting he won the last two heat races

www.Rinews.com.au

immediately before his death.

During his career, Figliomeni won four National titles and seven State titles. He also built and sold his own FIGhter Chassis cars.

He is survived by his wife Valerie and son Tyler.The West Australian Speedcar Drivers Association are currently in the process of holding a number of fundraising events to assist the Figliomeni family.

- DARREN SUTTON

GREG Murphy Racing will expand and move into the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Development Series in 2007.

As predicted by Motorsport News (Issue 346), GMR will run up to two cars in the series, with one drive confirmed for former Lotus Trophy driver Sam Walter.

"Being with GMR has to be one of the best decisions I've made in my career," said Walter, who will drive the Commodore raced

by Jason Richards.

"With the development the cars have had at Tasman, it's going to be a major help for me

as I learn about V8 Supercars."

GMR will use theVZ Commodores currently being used by Tasman Motorsport, which will be phased out next year in the main series by the arrival of the allnew VE Commodore.

Based out of the team's current workshop in Braeside, Melbourne, GMR will continue to be run under team principal Kevin Murphy.

The driver of the second V8 Supercar is still in negotiations, while GMR's Carrera Cup team will continue in 2007 as a twocar operation.

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Frentzenmil^ FORMER FI driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been dropped from the Audi DIM squad after just one season.

HH-F took his first pole of the year at Hockenheim but after an ontrack clash with fellow Audi pedaller Matthias Ekstrom, he parked the car rather than trog rouni This went down like a cup of cold sick with Audi's management,as did an outburst by him on live TVin which he accused the Audi team offavouring his team-mates.

The manufacturer was not amused and has elected to allow him to pursue other options...

However, with a healthy sponsorship deal from Veltins beer, it is thought that Mercedes may snap him up, whilst television channel ARD is also keen to have him in the series. a Bruno Spongier took a fourth win of the DTM season by clinching victory at Hockenheim in the final round of the championship. Spengler also clinched runner-up spot behind Bernd Schneider by overhauling Audi's Tom Kristensen in the points. n The British F3 Championship will race in those well-known colonial states of Romania, Italy and Belgium next year.

The championship, run by Stephane Ratel's company,adds Bucharest, Monza and Spa to its list of venues, which includes Croft and Rockingham both of which make a return to the calendar. Peace has broken out between SRO and British circuit owner MotorSport Vision which means that Oulton Park, Snetterton and Brands Hatch are back on the calendar. n F3 Euroseries team ASM Is looking to grab Oliver Jarvis for next season. The British F3 racer finished second in the British championship this year, but ASM is the crack team in Europe and Jarvis is known to be in talks with the team. n Bruno Senna made his German Porsche Carrera Cup debut at Hockenheim in a bid to learn the German GP venue. Senna qualified 13th but retired after hitting another car which damaged his radiator. n Fabrizio Giovanardi will return to the JAS Motorsport Honda Accord team for the WTCC finale in Macau.

Giovanardi has done occasional WTCC races in addition to winning twice in theBTCCforVauxhall.

- DAVID ADDISON 16

How Besnard wentfrom failing tech inspection to winning NZVSs in one weekend DAVID Besnard's NZV8 Championship campaign got off to a dream start when he took his Hydraulink Racing Falcon to the round win at Pukekohe last Sunday - but his entire weekend was almost derailed before it began.

The team had prepared a brand-new car for the season, and after a half-day test atTaupo (largely spent trying to dial out what Besnard described as 'diabolical" understeer), they arrived at the track for the race.

But the real trouble started halfway through the open track day on Thursday, when Bezzy's car fell foul of the scrutineers.

"They came over to certify the rollcage, and they knocked it back!" Besnard told MNews.

"We thought we weren't going to be racing. It turns out the team had used a stronger chrome moly tube, but it wasn't quite to the size that the rules specify, even though it was stronger.The team did the wrong thing by not being more careful with the rules, but they actually made it better. It was one of those deals.

"There was no getting out of that. At first we thought the car would end up on a scrap heap, but then we were told that if we fixed the hoop and everything to the rear of the hoop, we'd be able to run. So the guys started about five o'clock and finished at about 10 o'clock the next morning. We missed the first session on Friday, but got back out there for the second session."

Wood targets F.BMW NEW South Wales Formula Ford front-runner Kyle Wood is heading to England to test for Carlin Motorsport's Formula BMW squad.

The test is scheduled to take part over consecutive weekends in December at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park.

"I really can't wait, I'm looking forward to getting over there and making the most of it," said Wood.

"Formula BMW Is what we're looking at for next year. If everything goes to plan,then I'll be racing over there.

"But it's all down to budget, and myself and my sponsors are doing everything we can to get the necessary budget together. But for now I'm just going over to do the best I can in and out of the car, and we'll see what happens."

Should a FBMW deal not come off. Wood is looking at the Australian Formula Ford Championship as a back-up.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Disaster averted, Besnard went on to take two wins and a third from the weekend, giving him a 43point lead over John McIntyre. He will get a chance to extend his lead when he returns for the second round at Ruapuna at the end of this month.

"We've got Ruapuna in a couple of weeks," Besnard said."But I'll be back there in a week to test atTaupo again, because we've got to get the car sorted out.

There's still a lot left in it."

- MARKGLENDENNING For Bezzy's thoughts on his NZV8 debut, see 'Opinion'on page 28.

Kristian Steps Up

KRISTIAN Lindbom will make his national Formula Ford debut this weekend at Symmons Plains.

The former Australian karting champion and state Formula Ford driver will steer one of Borland Racing Development's Spectrum 011 s at the Tasmanian circuit, followed by the final round of the championship at Phillip island.

He will contest the round with backing from the CAMS Rising Star program, as well as personal sponsors Linkme.com.au and STS Turbo.

Lindbom will run his traditional #8, which is the number he used throughout his karting career, "i just want to learn as much as I can this weekend,"Lindbom said."All its about is learning. It was a much better idea to make my debut this year. I'll have an advantage over any rookies next year."

In preparation for his debut, Lindbom contested the Sydneyto-Wollongong cycle race last weekend, which is a fundraiser for MS (multiple sclerosis).

- GRANT ROWLEY

motorsport news

NEWS

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DESPITE having finished on the podium in his first Production World Rally Championship outing. Dean Herridge is still no closer to finalising his plans for next, season.

The Western Australian, who has made no secret of his ambition to contest the Production championship full-time, finished third in PWRC and eighth outright at Telstra Rally Australia.

But while plenty of teams have shown interest in his services for 2007, Herridge said

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that everything depends upon funding.

■' "It's so hard;"HerfidgeTold MNews. "We've got teams thafeattvery'intereSfed; butitthe endof the day, that serids does survive on money.

“Next year we lose the event in Australia for at least one year, so you've got to think, what'' value can you give an Australian company in Argentina? You can if they're offshore, but it takes a lot of logistics, and sometimes you've got to spend money to make money.

"If you found the right company it could work exceptionally well, but at the moment

that hasn't found its way.

"But we've kept busy; we've done the Australian championship, which went ;4. ^ extremely well. We were rapt with howit werit being a privateer team. We put togeth'er what program we could and we're happy with what we've been abl^ to^achieve. .* t "Now, we'll have to wait and see.'

Herridge, a former Subaru Team? Australia*. ; driver,'took his first ever ARC round wiii at.

Safari Tasmania in June. ' ; - MARKGLENDENNING .t

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Up In The Air

THREE cars have been excluded from the entire 2006 PWRC after failing a technical inspection at Telstra Rally Australia.

The Rafael Nadal-owned Tango Rally Team entries driven by Marcos Ligato, Sebastian Beltran and Gabriel Pozzo had their PWRC points withdrawn and were excluded from the remainder of the season after an inspection by the FIA Technical Delegate detected an irregularity regarding the turbo inlet air restrictor on the Mitsubishis.

"The Technical Delegate showed to the Competitor of car No. 32 [Ligato] the method whereby the restrictor permitted additional air to enter the engine whenever the restrictor was installed," said a decision issued by the Stewards of the meeting.

"He also explained the rather ingenious method of its removal and fitment of a normal restrictor."

Identical statements were later issued regarding Beltran and Pozzo, both of whom indicated that they had no intention of appealing the decision. The disqualification of the trio will have no impact on the PWRC standings above eighth place.

- MARKGLENDENNING www.mtiews.com.au

Uncertain future for ARC TV coverage

THE future of Network Ten's involvement in the NEC Australian Rally Championship remains up in the air according to sources close to the television network, although a decision is expected within the fortnight.

There had been intense speculation overTen's continued coverage of the ARC following Seven's acquisition of the rights totheVS Supercar Championship, with even Ten crew members admitting that they have doubts over the network's future plans for motorsport production.

"They are giving every intention that motorsport is well down their

agenda for next year," said one source.

Ten has helped to establish the ARC as a regular force on Sunday afternoons since taking over production in 2001. However with ever-increasing production costs biting into the manufacturer budgets, many within the ARC have called for a cheaper alternative.

The scope of coverage has also been widely criticised with the bulk of coverage given to the factory-backed crews, leaving little to no coverage for the upand-coming privateer contenders.

- RYAN LAHIFF 77

Trucks cutback for Chevy WITH money tight in Detroit, Chevrolet has announced that it is to scale back its support within the Craftsman Truck Series next year.

The brand will end its sponsorship of the Morgan Dollar team {driven by multi race winner Dennis Setzer) and cut back on support for the other bowtie teams.

At the same time GM is apparently none to happy with Mark Martin, who will drive a Chevy in the Nextel Cup for MB2 Motorsports next year and who also plans to run a Ford in limited races in the Truck Series next year, Martin has approached Bill Balew Motorsports about running his Truck, which will have to switch from Chevy to Ford if a deal is inked.

Late last month Chevrolet announced a marketing change, switching the branding on the 2007 Car of Tomorrow Nextei Cup cars to Impala SSs. Busch Series entries will continue to carry the familiar Monte Carlo SS label of the most successful car in NASCAR during next year.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Dinger takes off

AS expected,the lure of the Nextel Cup - and a US$3m salary - has tempted AJ Allmendinger to abandon the Champ Car World Series and join the NASCAR ranks.

Toyota announced last week that the 24year-old from California, American's only winner in the CCWS in the last three years, will race the #84 CamryforTeam Red Bull in the world's biggest motor racing series.

"I'm really excited about this next challenge in my racing career,"said Allmendinger.

"To race against some of the best drivers in the world - in front of fans that are as enthusiastic about racing as I am - is going to be a pretty big thrill. I know there's going to be a lot of work in the upcoming months, but I couldn't be happier to do it with Team Red Bull."

Allmendinger has been released immediately by Forsythe Racing, which saved him from the unemployment line five months ago when he was released by RuSPORT. Since joining the blue team, he won five times and currently sits second in the CCWS points, though Justin Wilson can overtake him, if he races in Mexico's final round.

Allmendinger attempted to make his debut at Texas Motor Speedway at the weekend but was the slowest non-qualifier, driving a Bill Davis Racing Dodge.

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Roger,I just wanna try this SAM Hornish Jr has confirmed that he will drive a NASCAR Busch Series car fielded by Penske Racing at Phoenix and Homestead- Miami later this month.

The 2006 IRL and Indy 500 champion will run a full IndyCar schedule next season and has no plans to run Stock Cars full time - yet.

"I just want to see if I can do it," said Hornish, who's won twice at Phoenix and three times at Homestead in open wheelers.

- MARTIN D CLARK 18

/

The Golf CART World Series FORSYTHE Racing will have a completely different look in Mexico City next week, with the sudden departure of AJ Allmendinger to NASCAR and an injury to Paul Tracy forcing a scramble for replacement drivers.

Team owner Jerry Forsythe has dropped AJ from the team with immediate effect in favour of Buddy Rice.

"They [Allmendinger's management] wanted three million dollars a year plus prizemoney, and that's just not realistic,"Forsythe was reported as saying.

"I want AJ and Champ Car wants AJ, but not at that price."

Allmendinger joined the team mid-season as a replacement for Mario Dominguez and made an immediate impact, winning five races.

Rice won the 2004 indy 500, but Mexico will be his first taste of a Champ Car. Meanwhile,Tracy looks like watching the season finale from the sidelines after breaking his scapula in

a ... golf cart accident.

"I was at a party and had a little too much to drink," Tracy told Autosport.

"We thought it was a good idea to go out on a golf cart and try to jump sand dunes with it. We were wrong. It wasn't a good idea. Jumped a sand-trap and ended up with the cart on top of me."

WhileTracy still holds smalls hopes of being able to suit up in Mexico, it looks increasingly likely that Mexican youngster David Martinez, who was preparingfor a one-off drive on home soil in a third Forsythe car, will now be left to fly the team's flag alongside Rice.

Elsewhere along pitlane, Adam Carroll is waiting by the phone to find out whether Justin Wilson, who broke his wrist in Australia, will be fit to drive the #9 RuSPORT car. Carroll has been put on stand-by to replace the Brit should the need arise.

-PHIL MORRIS

moiorsportnews

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S800s REIGN TeamVer^^ FRENCHMEN will be out in force in MotoGP next season. Olivier Jacque, who has spent the last two years as Kawasaki's test and reserve rider, will replace Shinya Nakano at Team Kawasaki, while the Japanese rider will race next season on the Konica Minolta Honda. Jacque, who scored Kawasaki's only MotoGP podium finish in China last season, will test the new 800cc Kawa alongside team-mate Randy de Puniet in Malaysia next month.

B Meanwhile,Tech 3 Yamaha team has confirmed its all-new rider lineup for 2007. Owner Herve Poncharal has confirmed that French 250cc rider Sylvain Guintoli will join Makoto Tamada,who moves to the team from the Minolta Honda team.The duo will race on Bridgestones.

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II Fausto Gresini is cleaning house.

At the same time as Fortuna leaves the Italian-based team,the former World champion has parted ways with Michelin. Marco Melandri and Toni Elias both stay with the team and tested on Bridgestones at Valencia.

B Alex Hofmann will keep his Pramac D'Antin Ducati seat next season. The German wili test for the now Bridgestone-shod team in December after having an operation last week to remove the plate in his foot from his Japanese GP crash.

Minus 68:Honda's newly-renumbered World Champ Nicky Hayden,above,Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, below, and Casey Stoner, opposite top, all got comfy on their new rides in the first big hit-out of the off-season.

VALENCIA MOTOGP TEST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Dani Pedrosa Chris Vermeulen Valentino Rossi Toni Elias Marco Melandri John Hopkins Loris Capirossi Nicky Hayden Valentino Rossi Alex Barros Casey Stoner Jeremy McWilliams Andrew Pitt

PERFORMANCE TYRES

Honda 800 Suzuki 800 Yamaha 990 Honda 990 Honda 990 Suzuki 800 Ducati 800 Honda 800 Yamaha 800 Ducati 990 Ducati 800 llmorX3 800 llmorX3 800

M B M B B B B M M B B M M

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IN SPAIN

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Ducati Corse

THE opening salvos for the 2007 MotoGP championship indicate two things;the competition is going to be tight and the bikes are going to be faster.

In the first serious hit-out for the new-generation 800s, Dani Pedrosa topped the times in a two-day test at Valencia but the opposition - and the Michelin V Bridgestone battle - was very close.

In his first taste ofSuzuki's new 800 V4(which was slotted into a 2006 990 chassis) Chris Vermeulen was only a tenth behind the Spaniard, while John Hopkins was about three-tenths further back.

Yamaha had only Valentino Rossi on hand, as the Italian will miss the next test in Malaysia (which starts on the 15th) because of his Rally New Zealand commitments. Rossi was quicker on the first day, when he rode both the 990cc Ml and the 800.

Colin Edwards will test the 800 for the first time at Sepang.

Nicky Hayden put his party plans on hold to ride the Honda 800cc RC212V for the first time.

and was encouragingly quick.The American traded times with Loris Capirossi, Ducati's GP7 undergoing radical set-up changes during the course of the two days. Casey Stoner also tested the bike for the first time and was an encouraging 0.4s down on the Italian on his first ride on Bridgestone tyres.

Alex Barros, who has signed for the Pramac DAntin team, rode a Ducati 990 on Bridgestones and equalled Stoner's time.The Brazilian will test an 800 in Malaysia.

Aussie Andrew Pit joined Jeremy McWilliams on llmor's X3 and could be in contention to join the team next season. Championship promoter DORNA's deal with the BBC dictates an English rider in the series and with James Ellison parting ways with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, McWilliams is in the frame for a full-time seat. Pommy Superbike stars Shakey Byrne and Leon Haslam may also test the bike in the off-season.

Kawasaki is expected to test its new 800 in Malaysia, while Tech 3, Gresini and LCR are likely to join in with their 800s at Sepang.

Bull Fighters

JOHN Hopkins may have more of a future as a Formula 1 driver than Tonio Liuzzi has on a MotoGP racer.

That was the conclusion after the two swapped rides as part of a Red Bull promotion at Valencia last week. Hopkins, who admitted that the only fourwheeled racer he had driven prior to the test was a kart, lapped around 5s slower than a reasonable FI time in Toro Rosso's Cosworth-powered car, while Liuzzi was impressed by, but slow on, Suzuki's GP rocket.

"It was an orgasm!,"exclaimed the Italian."It was amazingly Gimme Wings: Hopkins, top, started to look comfortabie in the Toro Rosso but Liuzzi, right, left some big margins on the 250hp Suzuki.

cool! It was really great! I've always loved bikes but after today, I love them even more, because the guys who race these are unbelievable and not human."

And, Hopkins?

"At first it was a bit overwhelming, looking at all the buttons on the steering wheel, but once I understood the most important thing is to keep the heat in the tyres under braking then it all got easier. I began to get the hang of braking very late and on my final run I got a feeling for the car moving around underneath me."

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www.mnews.com.au

27

New Kids On The Block Rally Australia's new organisers break cover marieig[endenning

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LARGE on vision but small on the details was the consensus after organisers of the planned relocation of Rally Australia to Queensland met the media for the first time at Telstra Rally Australia in Perth two weeks ago.

Privately-owned IQG Rally Events Australia Pty Ltd [Rally Events] was confirmed as the new promoter of Australia's round of the WRC when it arrives on the east coast in September 2008 to begin an initial five-year contract with two further five-year options.

Rally Events Managing Director Ron Brown said that while those involved with the company had little direct experience with rallying, the company was amply qualified to look after Australia's round of the world championship.

"IQG Rally Events is a privatelyowned company operating out of Brisbane, and its principals have been involved in national and international tourism, trade development and project management,"said Brown.

"A team of over 20 people have been working on the Rally Australia project for three years.

The project has been thoroughly researched and planned, with the supporting documentation developed under IS09000 standards.

"From Rally Events'point of view, while we have some direct and indirect motorsport experience, the directors of Rally Events have not been involved in the sporting or management side of the existing Rally Australia.(But) I am a born and bred West Australian, so I have a passion to continue to provide Australia with the best round of the world championship."

The exdct location of the rally is still yet to be finalised, however Brown confirmed earlier reports that the event will be based in the south-eastern corner of Queensland with a fixed headquarters within a 50 kilometre radius of Brisbane, From here,the stages could be run in any number of surrounding regions, with the possibility that some stages could even cross the border into northern NSW. The base will include an event headquarters, service park, spectator, corporate and media 22

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Rally Australia,2008-spec? The Glass House Mountain region, above,is thought to be in contention to host part ofthe event. ^Joel Stru 3ETiCJ

facilities, and there are plans to construct a permanent Super Special stage.

"CAMS and the FIA will consider a number of route options," Brown continued.

"The FIA will review our options in mid-November, and following that we will announce full details of the route.

"The final decision will depend on a number of factors, not the least of which will be the support of the local communities the event will pass through. It is important that CAMS and IQG Rally Events go through an appropriate consultation process with these communities to that we can achieve their full support for the event 2008 and well into the future."

Brown also addressed the question of Rally Australia's viability without the benefit of government funding.

"Extensive research indicates that an Australian round of the WRC could be made commercially viable using a different operating model that recognises the changing nature of motorsport events in Australia," Brown said.

"The financial model has also demonstrated that the event can be conducted without any government financial contribution."

Brown pointed to the permanent nature of the event's facilities as a key to its viability, highlighting the high costs

In charge;Rally Events Managing Director Ron Brown,left.

associated with using temporary structures such as those seen in Perth. Further income could be derived from hosting club-level events, and possibly even a round of the ARC. "Our hope is that not only will the infrastructure be the best in the world championship, but that we'll be able to use it year round for everything from Australian Rally Championship events right down to grass-roots competition, as well as a variety of other

functions and events."

■Meanwhile, Brown and newlyappointed Chairman of the Organising Committee Garry Connelly said that they will be looking within the ranks of those who worked on Rally Australia in Perth to fill key positions for the Queensland event.

More concrete information about Rally Australia's relocation is expected to be made public when IQG holds a second press conference in February.

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RALLYING

WHILE S^basUen Loeb's absence in Australia didn't prevent him from securing the World ^ Championship,questions remain over Kronos'long-term involvement in the WRC, particularly in 2007 when Citroen returrts with a fuji-factory squad. ^ It has been suggested that the Belgian outfit will return as Citroen's second-string team next year, but Kronos boss Marc van-^

-Dalen said that there was still no deal.

"Unfbrtunatelyjwe have no deal yet, but we're working haro for an M2 team'with twtr drivers with Xsaras,ahd.maybe the C4 later (in. the year)," said .yan Dalen.

In the meantime,the rilease of the VVales Rally GB'program confirmed a three-car Kronos entry for Dani Sordo, Xevi Pons and the returning Sebastien Loeb.

"It would be disappointing to miss theiasr race, because it will be the last time I can drive the Xsara before we switch to C4 for ' next year," he said.

- RYAN LAHIFF rf. for more on Loeb and Kronos, turn to ourinterview with Loeb on page 32, and our feature, on Marc van Dalen,starting on page 56'

Henning switches

HENNING Solberg looks set to join Matthew Wilson in a Stobart Motorsport Ford Focus next season.

Sources suggest that a deal has been done that will see Henning, older brother of Subaru factory driver Petter, move across to the Ford's'B-team', bringing with him significant backing from Expert, a Norwegian electronics retailer.

Solberg has spent this year running a 12-round program at the wheel of a Bozian Racing Peugeot 307,and achieved his best-ever WRC finish with a third place in Turkey last month.

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NEofthe things I like about rallying is that if you are anywhere remotely in the vicinity of an event, you don't necessarily have to make an effort to find it.

Sometimes,it finds you.

This was driven home at Telstra Rally Australia while I was travelling out into the forest to watch Special Stages 3-7,and glanced in my mirrors to find them filled with a familiar red and white double-chevron logo. I wasn't holding up just any old car -1 was holding up a Kronos Citroen.

I drifted over to the left, turned down the radio and opened the window to savour the Xsara's gravelly bark as Xavier Pons cruised past and set off down the road.

The WRC must be the only international championship on the planet that allows - indeed, requires - competing cars to share public roads with fans.The only other time it has happened to me was at the Monaco GP in 2004.

Back then,a lack of real estate around the pit area required the lower-ranked teams to service their cars in a nearby multi-storey carpark,the same facility that was made available for journos to park their rentals.

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It must have been incredibly tedious for the unfortunate teams, but it did allow for situations such as that where I drove down the entry ramp one morning and encountered Nick Heidfeld's Jordan coming the other way.

By the time I returned to the principality the following year the pitlane had been extended to accommodate the entire grid, so the days of narrowly-avoided collisions between a Jordan EJ14 and a Renault Clio are, sadly, behind us.

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nyhow I digress, as usual.

The point is that despite the fact that you occasionally need to drive two hours to get from the service park to the spectator points in the forest, the WRC is accessible on a level that many other professional championships studiously avoid.

Getting time with someone from a team was a doddle - if a fan didn't manage to bump into their favourite driver in the service park or out at the stages, organised autograph sessions offered extra opportunities to add a couple of signatures to the collection.

And from a media point of view, it was simply a matter of

wandering over and grabbing whoever you needed to chat to.

There are weekends when even V8s are not that easy.(And let's not talk about Formula One).

This year's Telstra Rally Australia was my first taste of live WRC,and i'm grateful that I managed to catch it at least once before it left Perth.

Unless you've experienced it first-hand, you may not appreciate how deeply the loss of the Rally to the east coast is being felt in WA. Adelaide watching the Grand Prix move to Melbourne would not be an unfair comparison. In addition to enthusiastic locals, the organisers ofjthe Adelaide GP and Rally Australia in Perth shared a level of innovation and commitment that made their respective events the standards by which others came to be measured.

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ueensland might have a couple of advantages over the west - media coverage should improve, and a more compart layout will draw out a few extra fans who might otherwise have not had the dedication to make a four-hour round trip to watch' a? forest stage.

But in every other regard, the Queenslanders have a lot to live up to. Over the last 19 years, Perth

motor mouth

/uhtnarkglendenning

showed the rest of the world how to run a round of the WRC,and with packed spectator points, a full house at Gloucester Park for the Super Special on Friday and Saturday,and a giant marquee filled with hundreds of emotional, volunteers on Sunday night, it demonstrated its affection-for y -fS Rally Australia right up to the,, ■-W . point where the service park was '^ ●●■dismantled for the final, timp op.;- . " . . t:‘ Monday morning.

Until we are hit with a'glob.ai coffee, wine andtapas festauranf'v; shortage I will refuse to: believe'i-Vi; \ that all good things mustcdnfipto ' an end, and when Rally Austra1ia;is; ● T, reborn in Queensland in 2008; I'll ● li be there with bells on. . . .; .V Butin the meantime, Australian motorsport owes a lot to ; ?● everybody who helped make rt Telstra Rally Australia what.it^vas '' over the past two decades. TaqlJ' ;j,J of the WA promoters, organisefs and volunteers,tfarewell and ● '●v ; thankyou for putting Australia! qn*^" the WRC map.

T

HE dust is now settling.The Schumacher retiring'stories are finished and it is time for the seasonal reviews that will trickle on from now until Christmas. And then we will all start

thinking seriously about next year.The teams already are, but for most people, next year is still a long way away.

One thing we do know is that in 2007 there will be no race at Imola.That's a shame because it was always nice to visit the place, even if the races were never very exciting because of the layout of the circuit.

That means that we lose another European race. Next year we will be down to just one German race as well and, but for the fact that the teams will not do more than 17 races in a year, we would almost certainly have had more non-European races than races inside Europe.

Suzuka is ready and willing to sneak back into the calendar - and let us not pretend that it would be turned down.Interlagos gets into the calendar each year and it is a disgrace in terms of facilities.

It is purely down to money and location.

Suzuka would be back in a flash if the teams would agree.

H

aving more races outside Europe than in Europe may not sound very significant but it is not very long ago that there were 10 races in Europe and just a handful elsewhere in the world.

Does it matter? Is it not more important that FI spreads itself to new markets across the globe?

Perhaps there is an argument for that, but one thing that is clear is that when there is a new race these days, there are not new journalists.

The press office is not filled with Bahrainis, Chinese and Malaysians. It is the same old gang of Europeans and Brazilians, with a sprinkling of Japanese and the odd weirdo thrown in from the US or from Africa.

And all the while the numbers of reporters are quietly thinning out. Maybe only one or two disappear each year but the FI Press Corps is definitely getting smaller as more

and more publications question the logic of sending their people around the world at vast expense to write a few words that they could write from the available sources on the internet.

True, it's not quite the same thing as having a man on the spot, but it is a great deal cheaper.

The lack of new boys is decidedly odd.

The Asians may know how to build things but they don't seem to have developed the passion that exists elsewhere for FI. But then again, can we really expect there to be national journalists until they have drivers to write about and to inspire and even then - as you Australians have discovered there is no way that it makes economic sense to travel the world reporting on FI races unless the number of readers is increasing.

T

he question that remains hanging in the air is: Where will it all end?

Bernie is right to say that in Asia they have bigger ambitions. If you do not travel the world you may not see this. I remember a

OPINION

^VCC %

couple of years ago trying to explain to a member of the British Racing Drivers'Clubthe owners of Silverstone - that there really were circuits in the world that were much better than Silverstone. He just did not believe it.

This year when we set off to go to Nagoya Airport we went on a road that did not look like any road I'd ever been to the airport on before.

It turned out that this was because they had built a humongous new facility called Central Japan Airport. It is when you see such projects - this one cost $7bn - that you understand what Bernie means when he talks about Europe becoming theThird World.

In Asia and the Middle East, they have the money and the will to do things properly. In Europe it is all too much.

A visit to Dubai International Airport or Osaka's Kansai, or Kuala Lumpur International Airport will drum home the point.

When you arrive in Heathrow or at Charles de Gaulle in Paris, you look at the shoddy surroundings and you wonder. Yes, perhaps

in 2008 the new Heathrow Terminal 5 will improve things dramatically but generally speaking, Europe is falling behind. And the racetracks are the same.

Look at Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai and then compare them to Silverstone or Imola.The European circuits are just not in the same league.

"When you see what people are doing here," Ecclestone said on his trip to Asia,"it's quite incredible."

So we will goto Korea.

B

ut let us be brutally honest about this: FI goes to Asia because that is where the money is.

There is no support for El, no sporting infrastructure, no tradition and there are precious few fans who can afford to pay ticket prices - except in Japan.

The fact is that there are governments happy to pour zillions into projects in the hope that they can built up the tourist trade (or whatever it is they are seeking to build) does not make this good for the sport.

Maybe one day the locals will get excited about FI but right now the avwage Chinaman is simply trying to ^void upsetting party members and saving up to buy himself a motorcycle, or a small car. In Malaysia, we said they would come but they are not.

And where will it end? Britain and France are both struggling to pay Bernie's fees. Is there someone in these places who will pay the bills? London won't. Paris won't.

And so you have to ask whether the two most important countries in the history of automobile racing will be thrown on the scrapheap because they will not pay more than some half-baked dictatorship in the Middle East that wants the world to think it is modern and enlightened?

And behind it all there is a point that we must remember: the press corps is dwindling and that means just one thing: people do not care enough about FI to make it important to send reporters. It is easier to do half the job via the Internet.

And that is a sad state of affairs.

Where will it end?

Britain and France are both struggling to pay Bernie's fees

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sutton-image5.com

Different Strokes -■t;-

I HAVE mentioned in these pages any number of times that there are many things about MotoGP racing that I admire.

If you were in Valencia last week, you would have seen a few of them. The day after the final race of the season, a number of mediabike types, with their own leather and/or skills, were invited to throw a leg over some of the world's fastest motorcycles in what has become something of a traditional 'ride-a-GP bike'event. Imagine that happening in Formula 1 ("Flevio, I am just taking the R26 out of a fang, 'Kay?") Then there was the two-day

opinion

with phil branagan

mnews editor

test session. This was fascinating because, right after the 2006 season ended, 2007 started.There was Alex Barros on a Pramac Ducati; over there, Casey Stoner on a factory Duke. OK, he was in neutral leathers and the bike was black, not red, but he was on it despite the fact that his old team, LCR, could have been stubborn and made his wait until the end

of the year before switching camps. But it is not like that; there is a high degree of cooperation between the teams. Professional courtesies rule.

(Mind you, when Valentino Rossi parted ways with Honda for a new home at Yamaha, such gentlemanly understandings were set aside).

Generally, that does not happen in four-wheeled racing. OK, Frank Williams will allow Mark Webber to test for Red Bull before the end of the month, but he could hardly have done otherwise. Jaguar let Webber go to Williams early two years ago so Frank would have appeared

petty had he been stubborn.

But will Fernando Alsono get to drive a McLaren-Mercedes soon?

Noooo. It will be January before a 1 appears on the Mac and Fernando slides into the cockpit. On the local scene, it is rare that a V8 Supercar driver is able to talk about his 'new' (ie, next year's) team while he is still contracted to the one he has now - all the while knowing that, if the team understands he is leaving, it is pretty unlikely that he is going to have a heap of promotional commitments to get through.

Better? Probably not. Worse?

Who can say. Different? Sure is.

inning in New Zealand

TWO race wins and the round win in the Hydraulink Racing Falcon was the perfect start to my NZV8 Championship campaign at Pukekohe last weekend.

I thought that we'd have a good shot at being able to go well. That was the whole idea - I didn't want to go over there and not go well, because I have a bit of a point to prove. But early on, I was really struggling with understeer. In the first race everyone started with a balanced car, but they were using up rear tyres. They were getting oversteer, but as my rear tyres started getting used up, I was getting balance back into the car. So it came back to us a bit. I got from fifth to second 28

opinion

with davia besnard nz touring car driver

behind John McIntyre.

The second race is a weird deal - the grid goes off lap times from the first race. I had the quickest lap, so I actually started off pole, which was strange. The idea is that if you've qualified badly, or been punted off, your weekend's not over. There's probably some good in it, although I think there's more bad than good. But it's the same for everyone, so you just adapt and do what you've got to do.

So in that second race, Angus

Fogg was second and I was on pole. It's a rolling start, and I buggered that up a bit. He cleared out, but I could see that his tyres were going off and my car was coming on. I just kept the pressure on, and he ended up getting a bit crossed up over the top and I shot down the inside.

It was a reverse grid for the third race so I started 27th, and had a dream run. By the red flag after the first lap I had already made three or four positions, and from thereon I was laughing. I didn't get caught up in anything, kept it clean, and at the end I don't think there was a mark on the car. I just charged through.

It was just great to get a

result like that. OK, it's not quite like the V8s here, but it is competitive. In qualifying there were 16 cars within a second.

It's been too long since I had a clear track in front of me like that! I'm used to winning in other categories, and a little bit in V8 Supercars. But it's no secret that the last couple of years have been tough. Last weekend's result was what I needed. I wanted to enjoy my racing. I don't race for money anymore; I've got other things set up in my life where I don't have to worry about that. I race to enjoy it. But at the same time, I don't want to be a trophy hunter. I want a challenge, and I'm not scared to be put up against anyone if I've got the right equipment.

motorsportnews

OPINION

AT Monza,in September,Renault driver Fernando Alonso was subjected to a very contentious stewards'decision. It was claimed he'd'held up'Ferrari driver Felipe Massa during the final moments oftop 10 qualifying and he was dropped to 10th on the grid. It was a very harsh call.

Alonso and his team boss, Flavio Briatore, were incensed. In an interview on Italian TV, Briatore likened FI to Italian soccer(which had just undergone its huge match-fixing scandal) and both he and Alonso used the phrase"FI is no longer a sport.'

The next day, with the FIA threatening disciplinary action, Briatore'clarified' his remarks, suggested they'd been taken out of context and, of course, the FI A wasn't attempting to influence the outcome of the World Championship.

The FIA took no action. Indeed, in a remarkably refreshing comment, FIA President Max Mosley said: "Both let their emotions get to them.

In the heat of the moment they said 1 some impulsive stuff.

In this case,though,there is follow-up action. Lowndes is summonsed to a hearing in Melbourne the following week,during which he refuses to admit to a breach ofthe rules. V8 Supercar IPO Peter Wollerman thus 'decides that the matter will go to a full CAMS Stewards hearing, ih*'Tasmania,this Friday, as teams gather for the next V8 round.

4 ■, This isn't the first time a V8,driyerbas been charged in this manner- former V8champion Marcos Ambrose once copped a , fine and points loss under remarkably similar circumstances, something many thought ; excessive at the time. FIA boss Mosley's "Considering the circumstances, sometimes latest pronouncement may, however, force you need to be tolerant. a rethink.

"I think on some occasions Flavio spoke The bottom line is that Lowndes faces the in an over-excited manner. But, to be fair with him, he subsequently and promptly charge of bringing the sport into disrepute. corrected his quotes.

The key word in the official rule is, in my view, The FIA can punish only If 'reasonably'. Mosley's statement appears the quotes damage the to have put a fair perspective on the word.

The Stewards' Hearing should do the same image of the sport and I don't think it indeed it should never have gone this far.

Headlocking a barman in an Irish pub happened in this case.'

Fast-forward six while you're on tour with an Australian weeks. Craig Lowndes national sports team is bringing a sport into disrepute; being charged and convicted of is upset that he has drunken behaviour, assault, or even sexual been given a drive assault is bringing a sport into disrepute; through penalty during the final being sprung with performance-enhancing Gold Coast drugs Is bringing a sport into disrepute.

Questioning a call in the heat of the moment, Indy V8 race. Postalbeit using strong language, is not, in my race, with view, bringing any sport into disrepute.

S adrenalin I guess we'll see, won't we?

Five minutes with

lll .

1

NDYPRIAUUC

Next week's Macau Guia race will be a maths nightmare,with nine drivers still in with a chance of hoisting PHILBRANAGAN the 2006 World Touring Car Championship.The defending Champion is one ofthem MOTORSPORT NEWS: How do you approach a race like the Macau WTCC finale, with so many drivers in contention to take the title?

ANDY PRIAULX: I think with that many drivers up for the title, you have to look at what you can do yourself and not worry about anyone else.

If you were going into the race with two or three other drivers to worry about, you can try to monitor yourself with them in the races and take the title that way.

But an event like Macau is difficult enough to win anyway, and with nine guys, it is going to require a special performance to win the championship.So my approach is to drive my best race ever; that is all I can do!

It has been a fantastic season for me, probably my best ever. I have had four wins, I have won with 65 kilos of ballast, I have scored 12 points with 60 kilos. From that point of view, it has been a dominant year for me.

The fact that there are nine guys up for the title is really down,to how competitive the charqpionship is but it shows how well the weight system is working - unfortunately!

Have the Alfa Romeos been the surprise of the season? Augusto Farfus is right there in the hunt, despite the fact that the factory pulled out this year.

Not really. I think that the cars are well-sorted and at the start of the season, Alfa wanted to take the cars out of contention for the championship,so they were given a minus 20kg weight break.

That means that at somewhere like Mexico,fpr instance,they were 100kg fighter than me. One hundred kilos!! !n a four-cylinder sewing machine,at a track at 2000 metres altitude, that meant I might as well have been towing a caravan around the track!

I think that the impressive thing is that for the second half of the season, Farfus has been driving 30

suttoiymages.com

from my view, is that the television package in the UK is weak. In Europe, Eurosport's figures are massive; there is something like 260 million viewers for each round. From my own viewpoint, I notice that more and more people recognise me when I travel -1 get n stopped in airports and asked to sign something, or get a photo taken.

If you compare it to Aussie V8s, yes, it has a long way to go.

Mate, you have something very, very special there.To have a

All I can do is drive my best-ever fec“SSn'n^“euT,;a"rLe raCG in Macau

- PRIAULX KEEPS A POSSIBLE STATISTICAL NIGHTMARE REAL really well. He deserves to be where he is at the moment, no questions there, but I think that the weight system needs to be changed.

But was Alfa even in your calculations at the start of the year?

Surely SEAT was there at the start of the year?

To be honest, when I saw that Alfa was not a factory team, I did not discount them.The car is well-sorted; a good chassis and a particularly good engine.

I think with the weight system, you cannot rule out anyone, not even a new team in the championship.There are races where you are 100kg heavier than someone else and others where you have a new kid in front of you and you can't get past him.

How much of a challenge has it been sorting the latest-generation 3-Series BMW? I am very proud of one thing in particular, and that is that the car was strong from delivery.

Obviously, BMW and Schnitzer spent some time pre-season testing the car and for me to turn up to the first race of the year at Monza and put it on pole and win the race proves something very

special.The development has progressed through the season but so has everyone else. But our baseline was good already. Our starting point was pretty good and there is a lot of potential left in the car. That is a good thing to think about regarding the future.

SEAT have been impressive; they hired six of the best touring car drivers in Europe and set up two very good teams to work with, and they all work together.They are committed to the championship, they test everywhere,the cars are always in places like Qatar and South Africa so they are ready for the heat.They are very strong. I do not think that there are many championships much harder than this one.

From this distance, we can see how competitive the championship is, but it is difficult to gauge its profile with the media and the fans. How has that progressed this year?

Much stronger. It is classed as an international series and I would say that the recognition of motorsport in this part of the world is very high. You have World Rally, Formula 1 and World Touring Cars, and people watch all those in varying amounts.

The problem that the WTCC,

there would be great.

Something that shocked me from Australia was reading an English newspaper. Formula 1 was here in one column,something about Michael Schumacher and then there was news about Craig Lowndes winning at Bathurst! It was a bigger story! Amazing. We can learn a lot from that.

Any more Formula ^ testing on the horizon?

I don't know. I have been in a fortunate position of being able to test with some strong teams, I even got to drive the Williams after the team split with BMW and 1 have been grateful for that.

There is some very good talent within the BMW Sauber team at the minute and they have been doing a very, very good job. If there was a chance,that would be great but I am trying my hardest to be a touring car hero at the moment.

Finally, I cannot help but note, Andy,that you are one of three World Champions from 2005 and the other two, Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Loeb, have already successfully defended their titles, Pressure?

I know!You are not the first one to notice; my wife mentions it a bit!

I hope to get some support from Fernando and Seb but all I can do is to drive me best race-ever in Macau.That will be enough for me.

motorsport news

?

www.mnews.com.au

\

Five minutes with

lll

SEBASTIEN LOEB

An hour after winning the 2006 World Rally Championship from the other side ofthe world,the injured Sebastien Loeb gave a video press conference to the media at Rally Australia. Here's what he had to say QUESTION: Sebastien, congratulations, you are the 2006 World Rally Champion.You must be absolutely delighted?

SEBASTIEN LOEB: It is a very strange moment to be the new World Champion and not actually be at the race, driving.

But I am delighted, because there was big pressure on me for the title, and not being able to participate is very difficult. Now, I can concentrate more on my recovery.

You said it was a strange feeling not competing, but how did you keep a track of the results from Australia?

Yes, I was watching the split times on the internet. On Friday I had a lot of radiation and I find it hard to sleep, so I stayed up watching the times.

Also, I had SMS from Kronos from every stage,so I woke up every time - not so good at four o'clock in the morning, but it was important to see.

What did you think when you heard Marcus Gronholm had roiled so early in the rally?

For me it was an opportunity to win the Championship, but for Marcus, he is a good driver, so it was disappointing to see happen.

For me once again though, it was a feeling that I could be World Champion.

What were your thoughts before your accident, because you were finishing first and second on almost every rally?

Yes, of course it was a dream to be doing well, but everybody thought that after Cyprus I would win the Championship - even me.

Now we learn that things can change very quickly, with my accident, and that you can't think you will always win. Now, I know better.

Coming into the season in Monte Carlo, everyone was asking you 32

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Now I only ride a bike in the gym, and it’s not as easy to fall off!

- LOEB OPTS FOR A LOWER-RISK TRAINING REGIME

about the pressure being in a privateer team, but Kronos has proven that it is as good as a factory team.

Yes, for me it was a big change to come into this team.

I think they have all worked very, very hard to make me in the best position to win the Championship and everything went really well.

They have given me a very good car every time and there have been no problems. I am really happy to be able to give victory to this team.

So the only other question now is, will you be back this season and will you be at the wheel of the Xsara, or perhaps the new C4?

When I come back I hope it will be this season, and hopefully with the Xsara.

I hoped [to return] for New Zealand but now with the Championship victory, I think we will let my arm get stronger before I come back, maybe In Rally Great Britain.

Hopefully I will be back with the Xsara to help Kronos and Citroen take the manufacturers'title.

And how is your arm? Is it feeling better?

It is feeling better every day.

Now I am doing radiation for eight hours per day to make it get better faster but [there are] no miracles, so you have to take time.

Flopefully, the doctor will tell me in two weeks it is OK to drive again.

And lastly will you be more careful on your mountain bike?

For sure. Now I only ride a bike in the gym and it's not as easy to fall off!

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Coming Attraction The Holden tech gurus may not be too keen on talking about the VE racer just yet, but the opposition are taking a ciose iook. PHIL BRANAGAN spoke Holden with some Ford bottins 34

moiorsportnews

I

T all started,just under two weeks ago, with a phone call.

As he often does - and has done for decades - Holden PR kingpin Tim 'Plastic'Pemberton reached out to touch base with an Editor of one of the nation's motoring publications - in this case, Motorsport News - regarding his latest edition. And on this occasion, he was not happy.

"No one wants to see pictures of cars covered up," he said, referring to the pic of the Vodafone Falcon (see last issue).

So, what do people want to see?

"The Commodore VE, obviously,"he said commendably (ie, without any irony).

Thereafter followed a discussion re the possibility of us(MNews)running a feature story about the development of the new-for2007 Commodore V8 Supercar. Again, Plastic played a straight bat.

"No one wants to talk about it mate, not now," he affirmed."Not going to happen."

Hmmmm.For once. Plastic was wrong. In fact, he was wrong twice; lots of people want to talk about the VE, it's Just that none of them work for Holden or its teams. And, it is going to happen.

So, here it is. An expert look at the prototype Holden Commodore VE V8 Supercar; some insight into the process Holden has had to go through to create the all-new VE race car - from three of Ford's leading V8 Supercar engineers. With no Holden engineers available to comment on the development of the'E', we asked some of Ford's brains(we will call them

www.mnews.com.au

One,Two and Three)to tell us what they saw, on two conditions; we would not supply any photos that they had not already seen and that their names would remain confidential.

The first thing that was mentioned - by more than one engineer - was the car's size or more accurately, its dimensions. While to the untrained eye it closely resembles the VE road car(okay, even we untrained Journos managed to notice that the rear doors are smaller), our bralns'trust was quick to mention the differences.

"It has been sectioned, both longitudinally and vertically,"said One,"so it is pretty special."

Said Two:"Have you seen pictures of a DTM car sitting alongside the equivalent road car?

Same thing."

Said Three:"It looks Just like a VE road car. Except it's shorter. And lower. And built differently."

One again:"Ford people are asking why this process has happened, why many of us who would like to have seen the car while it was being developed did not get to do so before it was a fait accompli. We are not sure why."

Three also referred to the dimensions, but from a positive angle.

"I am not that thrilled about what has happened, but I can live with it - as long as their [Holden] engineers follow the same rules next year[when Ford will be developing its 2008 racer]."

For the record, the Commodore VE road car, which is based on GM's new international Zeta

platform (which will be used for rear-wheel drive cars from Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick), is much bigger than the VZ it replaces.

The VE's wheelbase is 2915mm,126mm longer than the VZ and 86mm longer than the current Ford - which is right on the edge of the maximum allowed under Project Blueprint, the guidelines that dictate the design of V8 Supercars.

The overhangs are shorter - the front by 90mm,which affects the length of the splitter.

As the road car has grown in the metal, it has gained weight; in base trim, the Omega model is 100kg heavier than the equivalent but its body is said to be 50 percent stiffen So,the car has different measurements to the VE sedan - but why has it been modified the way that it has?

"They had two choices,"One commented, 'Alternative A, which was cut 93mm out of the front of the car, ahead of the A-pillar; or Alternative B, which is leave the front of the car alone and cut 93mm from the floor pan behind the driver, and from the back doors.

"Compared to the current VZ, you would have to say that the front wheels are forward. Instead of moving the front wheels back to the rest of the car, what they have effectively done is move the rest of the car back to the rear wheels.

Then they extended the front splitter forward to make the car fit the dimensions required for Project Blueprint. continued on page 36

35

continued from page 35 "So, what they have effectively done is to move the heavy stuff back in the car - the engine, the gearbox,so on. Other stuff, like the bonnet,the screen,the front panels also come back a little, so that means that the mass is 'moved backwards', and closer to the middle of the car. That lowers the polar moment of inertia [Ed: the resistance an object has to torsion]; there is then less rotational inertia and that allows the car to turn more easily."

Three was quick to point out that he was not implying anything untoward.

In standard form, the Commodore VE is too long and too high to fit within the maximum dimensions required by Project Blueprint. A graphic artist has(above)'replaced'the 93mm taken out of the race car's floor pan and body to show how a 'standard' VE mightlook. Note the longer,'production'rear doors and the distance from the Lion logo to the shut line between the front and rear doors.

To make the car fit within the maximum allowable wheelbase, the body pan and shell were shortened by 93mm,and the rear doors modified to suit. This is the actual car, unmodified.

This is what the car may have looked like, had the 93mm 'slice' been taken out of the car ahead ofthe A-pillar.

Note that the front wheel and leading edge of the front door are much closer together.

36

"Project Blueprint clearly dictates the position of the engine and the gearbox, relative to the rest of the car," he says,"so that part of it is pretty much out of the designers' hands."

The three engineers were in close agreement that the dimensions of the car and the way it is built is the most significant thing about theVE. "The car is lower than the standard VE road car,"said One. "They have made the car lower in the roofline than standard by taking out the sills and fabricating new edges,similar to what happened with the control chassis.

"The body sits lower on the floorpan. Obviously,that allows the car to move through the air better, which is critical because theVE is a biggerthing than the VZ. It also gives the potential to have a lower centre of gravity."

SaysTwo:"lt actually resembles the chassis that they had at Phillip Island [Ed: theTEGA'Control Chassis'] in that they have cut the sills off and welded steel boxes in.

That's fine by itself, but it is going to tear your wheels off your car when you hit them."

But Three sees some advantages.

"It is a bit of a grey area under the current rules but I am not going to say that it's a bad idea.

It is similarto the TEGA chassis, surprisingly so.The sills, the whole floor is changed [to the road car].The potential advantages of having a flat floor with steel boxes is that the car will be stiffer and, potentially, quicker and therefore cheaper to build, "But it is going to look a little like a Land Rover: a body sitting on top of a purpose-built chassis."

With the different-toproduction technique of building the car, particularly its floorpan, there is another potential gain chassis stiffness.

"It's not difficult to see that box

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steel sills are going to make the chassis stiffer,"Three said.

But there was some disagreement on this.

"Body stiffness is a bit of a myth, really,"One explained.

"You can make a body as stiff as you like but the problem is always going to be making the bits you hang off it, like suspension components, as stiff as the body.

Once a car is stiff enough, there is not big gain in making it twice as stiff. Anyway, the gains we make noware incremental.

"The old days, when you would make a new design bodyshell and It was 10 percent stiffer than last year's design, are pretty much history.These days, there are small gains to be made, and we still look for them - like the engine department is always looking for more power - but the gains are pretty modest."

The aerodynamics of any new V8 Supercar are always talked about but the latest round of aerodynamic testing two weeks ago has shown that there is going to be a degree of commonality between the VE and the current Falcon BF. And, for once, there was a small degree of disagreement between the engineers.

"People have made comment about how far back the rear wing is," said One. "But that is okay: the wing is in the same position as it is on the Ford, relative to the centreline of the rear axle. If there are any discrepancies in rear downforce, that is something that can be balanced out with the TEGA aero testing.

"But I believe that the front www.mnews.com.au

splitter may have a potential advantage.The aero surfaces on top of and below the splitter are longer than on the VZ, and they have the potential to make a lot of downforce. That may need to be adjusted, but that can be done fairly easily with the [TEGA aero] test."

Two said that the position of the wing was not that critical.

"It has nothing to do with the position of the rear axle. It's aerodynamic, not mechanical."

And the design of the VE prototype in the photos released by Flolden is subject to aerodynamic testing and, therefore, change, prior to the VE race cars being tested prior to the 2007 season.

Already, after the most recent tests at Woomera in South Australia, there have been changes to the rear wing (and that on the Falcon BF - see news pages) so do not take the version of the aero kit shown here as set in concrete.

But all three engineers agreed that there were positives to be gained from the development of the VE that could be applied, and give benefit to, across the board.

"We now have to look at what has been done with the Commodore and think about what we are going to so when we need to think about Orion [Ed: Ford's post-BF model, due in March '08]," said Three. "This is the path that we might be taking ourselves but that is for 2008.

"We have not yet seen what we have to work with on Orion. But we have not seen the VE in the flesh, so to speak, either. You can believe that we will be having a pretty close look when we do."

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OR CHECK OUT ...www.speedzone.com.auJ 37

MOTORSORT SfWS:You don't often hear about professional sportsmen sharing a house, especially when they come from different teams. Is it really that weird?

JAMIE WHINCUP: No, not really. It all just came about when we both got drives with Queensland-based teams. We've both lived in Melbourne our whole lives, at home,so we both had to move out. We've been mates since we were about 14 or so - we raced go-karts against each other and have been rivals for years, but we've also been best mates for a long time.

We both had to move to Queensland and needed a place to rent, so why not share?

Instead of living in a one-bedroom apartment in West Narang, we're able to share the costs here and are able to live in a decent joint because we're pitching in 50 percent each.

WILL DAVISON:We got through the hard years for any young guy in go-karts or Formula Ford, it's just do or die. When you're young and a bit more immature and you're trying to establish yourself in motorsport, it probably would be difficult.

Now we're at that stage where we're going to race each other hard for years to come, but we're both professionals and we realise that what happens on the track, stays on the track.

We've got respect for each other on the track, and you know that every now and then you're going to swap a bit of paint, but it's not an issue. We both want to win, and we both want each other to do really well, but it's not just me versus him. We're both trying to make sure that we're established in this category for the future.

And it's good to push each other away from the track as well; making sure that we're both

up there hopefully first and second ahead of the other 29 cars. It's a big challenge; trying to establish yourself. But I think it's a good thing.

JW:Yeah. It's OK to be mates with someone you're competing against, I believe.

WD:I've got a lot of other mates out there, but probably not that I'd go and live with. But Jamie and I have been mates for a long time, so it was a pretty natural progression to do this. It's probably not that normal to live with someone you race against, but for whatever reason it seems pretty normal for us.

MN:It hasn't been tested with you guys yet though, because neither of you has speared the other one off the track yet...

continued on page 40

It’s OK to be mates with someone you’re competing against, I believe - WHINCUP CLKARS THE AIR ON WHAT IT IS LUCE TO LIVE WITH A RIVAL PRIVER

38

motorsport news

<

imagine two housemates-one driving for one V8 Supercar team and one for another.A nightmareP A bad US sitcomP No. iust another day in the lives of Jamie Whincup and Will Davison.

MARK GIENDENNING dropped in to borrow a cup of sugar

www.mnews.com.au

39

continued from page 38

Hello? Domino's?

MN:OK,time for the hard-hitting stuff. Who cooks?

WD;We both cook, but the ratio is probably 75:25 in favour of Whincup.

and it's good.You've got to eat good food, have a good routine, a good lifestyle, and we've actually got all of that. We've settled into a good routine, and that's pretty important. I didn't have that so much when I lived MN:You can clear up a long in England. It was a bit harder standing rumour here. Will ...

- I was younger and living on WD:Oh, here we go ... the other side of the world, and everything was pretty new.

MN: What's this about you calling Here, it's a good routine. Go home after you'd been in the UK for a couple of months and to bed pretty early, get up early, train early, good food ... and asking what you could put into we're getting better throughout a toasted sandwich apart from the year. cheese and tomato?(laughter) JW: I find that you've got to be WD; Bloody Alex [Davison, Will's brother], I don't know where he fit to compete, but you've got to be healthy to deal with the came up with that one. He lived demands of the category.You're off Coco Pops for a year and a half for breakfast and dinner, constantly on planes going here, there and everywhere, and a and he reckons I rang and asked week-long race meeting is just what I could put in a toasted sandwich ... intense for five days. You've got to be healthy to get through The good old frozen microwave meals is what I lived those five days, and then be able to back up training the week off(laughter). Chicken, mash and after so that you don't miss a vegies, 98 percent fat free! week,to make sure that you're But this year, we are in better form, in terms of fitness and prepared for the next one.

WD: It's good to have a break, everything,than any other year. though. It's good to live with a And it makes a good difference mate, and know when you have when you have got a busy to work and when you can have schedule and you're racing at this level. You need to be pretty sharp. a night off.That's important.

Dirk Klynsmith

WD; Not yet, no! But as I said, you're a professional driver. I mean, we all make mistakes, and it is pretty cut-throat out there, but generally we know what is acceptable in this category now and what is not. I don't think it is a problem.

JW: I don't take anyone out! (laughs) MN:So it sounds like both of you feel like part oftheVS establishment now. Are you settled in the category?

JW: I feel a little more like that now since a few days ago, when I extended my deal with Triple 8 for the next couple of years. I feel a lot more established, and I feel part oftheVS Supercar scene. I'd like to think I've worked for the position.

I've got one of only 31 spots, and it hasn't all been smooth sailing.

I've had to work pretty hard, and I've got there.

WD:Well, I'm satisfied with my first season to date. I want to finish on a higher note than the way it has been going, but really, when I look at my mid-season report, things have been going pretty well. I haven't got the actual results that I'd like, but I've done enough to prove to myself that I can mix it at the front.

My relationship with the team is great, and everything is going pretty smoothly. I am starting to feel more comfortable racing with the people that I am racing against, and I think I can start consistently getting up there.

MN: Does sharing a street number help in terms of motivation? It's a lot harderto wimp out of going for a run if the other guy already has his sneakers on.

WD; I have to admit that there have been times this year where one of us feels like a sleep-in and the other bloke has forced them to get up and start training. We push each other hard.

JW: We help each other out.

WD: It's definitely a beneficial thing, doing what we're doing.

We were interested to see how it was going to pan out, and it has definitely helped both of us. We both want to do well, we both want to see each other do well, and we've got no dramas. It would be different with some other drivers, but with Jamie I've got no problem chatting about certain things, and training together.

Getting out there and pushing each other hard to try to make sure that we're fitter than anyone else out there.

J

hawest CTatphawesl

4

Dirk Klynsmith

motorsportnews

INTERVIEW

MN:There are different things that you can both bring to each other, i guess. You were mates and raced each other at 14, but after that your careers went in different directions - Wiii went overseas and had a crack at FI, and Jamie went straight from Formula Ford to V8 Supercars. So from the same starting point, you've followed very different paths to end up living under the same roof and racing in the same series.

JW: Well, I haven't done anything that Will hasn't done.

MN:Well, you had to rebuild you career after spending a year without a drive.

Just two lads, having fun: Davison took his career to Europe and British Formula 3, left, and then a test drive with Minardi before his V8 Supercar debut with Team Dynamik, bottom.

Meanwhile, Whincup had a tough 2003 debut year with GRM, below, before he got his career back on track with Tasman Motorsport last year, bottom.

w

DirkKIynsmith

MN: Do you guys spend much time talking about racing?

WD:To a certain extent.There's no need to go into the nitty-gritty of one another's business - there are certain things that are better left to yourself.

JW:We generally watch the replay of each meeting together and look at who did what. We learn off each other by watching the video.

MN:So Jamie, when you watched the Bathurst video, did you keep rewinding the bit where you passed Todd Kelly?

JW: Oh, we do that a bit, yeah. (laughs).Jhat does get annoying.

Will's watching replays of his move, which I think is nothing, but I'm doing the same.'Oh, was that me in the background?'.

Butattheendoftheday we're just genuine mates. We're just trying to help each other out.

WD: It's good at times, because it's a damn tough industry that we're in, and it often feels like there are more bad days than good days.

That's just the nature of the sport, and it's sometimes good to have

training be at home.Whenever I'm having some dedicated home time, my own time, Will's often off somewhere else and vice-versa.

MN:Will, this isn't the first time you have lived with another driver - didn't you stay with James Courtney when you first moved to the UK? WD:Yes. And now he lives in the next street, which makes things interesting!

MN:You've got a small motorsport heartland here...

WD:It is, yeah. Steve [Johnson] is not far away, nor is Marcus Marshall. It's pretty regular that you'll see a couple of the boys around here on one of our weekends off, smashing away on the simulator. Which is good.

JW: It's a bit weird. I can't nick up to the streets in a Dodo Racing T-shirt that I had from last year, because you know someone will see you.

You've got to make sure that you're respectable.

WD:That's like last year, when you used to go running in a GRM Tshirt all the time ...

JW:(laughs)Yeah, you know, you've got to wear out your old gear! When you're at home you should be able to do anything you want, but in this local motorsport

He’s just won Bathurst at the age of 24 and I haven’t finished in the top five yet, so ...

- DAVISON CLEARS UP ANY jMlSTAKEN IDEAS ABOUT EQUAI,IT\'

an elite category, such a different car, and such a competitive industry,the adaptation is probably a bit longer than I went through. I had three years of absolutely cut-throat competition [ED: in Europe]. I suppose it probably helped me to adapt a bit quicker to a V8 Supercar at a certain level, but that last 10 percent is still yet to come. I'm getting there.

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JW:Yeah, and that was tough for me...

WD f/ncredu/ous/yj;"Haven't done anything that Will hasn't done ..."

He's just won Bathurst at the age of 24 and I haven't finished in the top five yet, so ... (laughter) JW: I've had a bit more experience in a V8 Supercar, but Will's probably had more experience in motor racing generally, to date. Once Will gains a bit more experience in Supercars,then we'll be competing equally. But at the moment,I've just got a bit more experience in this particular series.

WD:Jamie coming straight out of Formula Ford ... to jump into such

now,and he's as polished as you get anywhere around the world. If you're at the front in a series like this, then you're doing a tip-top job.

MN:You had the mental side of it down, but it was just the technical element of getting the most out of these cars?

WD:That's right. I'd done quite a lot - nothing fazed me, none of the big names out there or anything like that. I've been in a series this competitive before and I'm used to what this is all about; used to having to extract that little bit more out of yourself and what-have-you. It just took Jamie a little bit longer. But he's there

someone who knows exactly what you're going through to bounce off.

MN:Can there be a downside when you've had a bad day and want to switch off from racing for a while, but you can't because one of the guys you race against is sitting on the couch?

JW: Not really. We've both got a bit of a social life. Our motorsport conversations are only about 10 percent of our general chit-chat.

And to be honest, we don't see each other a huge amount.

It's a pretty busy Supercar schedule, because we've got 13 rounds where we are away for a week, we're at the workshop pretty much the rest of the time, there are always commitments interstate, and we also try to go back home to see our families as much as we can.

So it's really pretty rare that we get three or four days at home where we can just focus on our

community, you've got to be a bit careful.

WD:It's a bit like living in the UK, when I raced over there. You don't get that in Melbourne, but here we're all in this small circle. We're likely to turn up at the same place on a weekend, we all hang around at the same restaurants ... it's quite funny, actually.

JW: About every second run you do, you get a toot from Courtney or [Darryl] Beattie, or someone.So you've got to look alright! Make sure you're running on your toes.

If you need to have a rest, you go off into the trees so nobody can see you!

MN:So how many times has Will made you watch the DVD of him driving the Minardi back in 2004?

JW:Oh,jeez...

WD:Twice more than he's made me watch Clipsal and Bathurst. (laughter) JW:Good call.

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The Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge has three days to go as MNews is published. You can follow the progress ofthe Challenge,and even contribute to the benefitting children's charities, via www.markwebberchallenge.com

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FORMULA 1

The next chapter

Two weeks after his final race with Williams, Mark Webber is putting the disappointment behind him and looking forward to a brand new year with some tasty ingredients

ARK Webber's fifth year in FI just hasn't been what it should have been. When he first signed on with Williams, it was with the aim of winning . races. It hasn't happened - or even looked like it.

Webber's time at Grove has coincided with a slump in fortunes at Williams. It's been pretty well documented. It's happened at Ferrari and McLaren in the past. It Just happens. But for a driver who'd hoped to make the transition to race winner, it has been frustrating and for the first time, in 2006, the weariness showed.

"It was Just how long it went on for," he said. "Mentally, turning up at each race knowing that, generally, you didn't have much of a chance was the hardest part for me. You would recover your motivation through the week, then turn up on Friday but, by the time qualifying came around, even though everyone was working their hardest, you knew it was going to be very tough.

"Competing at the top level isn't meant to be easy, but sometimes it was hard to find some positives, and that can be quite draining in the end."

So what is it that slips a team with so many world championships down the ladder so abruptly? Is FI in 2006 that different from the 90s?

"You might say FI in the 90s possibly wasn't quite as competitive in terms of the number of teams that could threaten. Nowadays, if you're Just a fraction off the ball, you pay a very heavy price. v<v‘v.tuiijsK aaiMCD

"Whatever the processes have been over the last few years, it hasn't gone in the right direction for them - and it's undone the hard work they've done. They were a top team - right now they're not; there were seven better teams this year.

'There were some weaknesses this year. The engine was absolutely superb; Bridgestones turned up quite often; Nico and I on our day did pretty well for the team, but the car just wasn't fast enough in most races. And when it was, and we could have got a chunk of points, we weren't prepared enough on the reliability front."

There were people wrongly pointing to the back end of the car as some of the problem, but Webber won't have that. Indeed, he views the Cosworth engine as perhaps the best part of the 2006 package: "No question. We had the best engine for the first four or five races, by far. A number of teams improved and got to that level as time went by, but it was superb.

You put petrol in it and away you went.

"It was an amazing achievement.

For such a little operation to absolutely embarrass those big manufacturers .... if only people realised what an achievement it was. They should still be out there. What they built was eight months before its time - they had 20,000rpm before Christmas!"

Webber has a reputation as an 'inclusive' racer - spending as much time with his team as anyone, getting involved. Given Williams'history with drivers, it

was perhaps too much to expect such a free environment. When did he first suspect that things would be different?

"Quite early. They approached things differently, pretty much from the start. I thought okay, they've done pretty damn well in the past, we'll see how it goes.

Time showed that a couple of things weren't as effective as they might have been.

"But look, I have no regrets. I've had so many T-Junctions in my career where we've gone the correct way - this one meant we had to tread water for a bit.

"Teams have bad years. No-one at Williams is enjoying it."

And so it is time to move on. It's not so much to a new team as a homecoming. Red Bull Racing occupies the same premises it did when it was Jaguar. Webber knows his way around: "Yeah, I drove straight there for the seat fitting the other day.

Knew exactly where the meeting room was. I don't have to get to know a whole new set-up. While it's mostly new in terms of the guys I will be dealing with on the engineering and management side, many of the faces on the shop floor are familiar ones.

"The tragedy is that I didn't get to know the people at Williams that well, because that's the way it was.

I wasn't as close to the mechanics as I'd been in pretty well all the professional teams I've been with - right back to Mercedes, the AMG guys, Stoddy's boys, and then the Jag guys."

Red Bull Racing is a team which, with confirmation of a Renault engine supply to complement the

design genius of Adrian Newey, might vyell be the surprise packagg ^ of 2007.Was Mewey's presence at Red Bull the primary factor in making the decision to move on?

"It was an obvious attraction!

The amount of races he's won, the number of winning cars he's been in charge of designing, shows that, individually, he's a genius. He has to work hard with a bunch of new guys at Red Bull - but now he's now got the engine he wanted in the car..*.. .. .. _ "He also has some really good people there, some very clever people. But of course it's all about putting it together as a team.

Christian (Horner) is doing a pretty sound Job. "I don't know the intricacies of how it's all working until I get in there and get my hands dirty, but you'd have to say it's looking promising.

"For me, it's a roll of the dice. I needed fresh wallpaper, fresh motivation because, to be honest, I was struggling a bit. I need to go out there and enjoy it, both for myself and my team. That's what I want to get back to doing."

Newey equals aero excellence is it that simple?

"Let's face it, the aero package is the huge part of it; the massive part of it. And it will be even bigger next year when everyone will be on the same tyres, allegedly, and engines will be limited to 19,000rpm and homologated - there's only going to be 15 horsepower either way. This year, for example, even continued page 44

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continued from page 43 though it appeared as a MichelinBridgestone tyre contest, within the brands everyone was using different tyres also -for example, the six Michelin teams were on six different casings most of the time!

"The car itself- and a lot of that is aero - and how it behaves on the tyre, will be the key factor."

With engines expected to be relatively close in performance, why then was the team so keen Newey especially - on securing the Renault deal?

"The theory is that there can be a slight aerodynamic advantage with the Renault engine -the size ofthe radiators,the heat rejection on the engine... all that has an effect on your car.The Ferrari engine isn't too bad - look at the success they've had - but Adrian wanted the Renault for the few percentage points here and there.

"Electronics also.There's not Just an engine and radiators.We're talking about installation of looms, and the whole packaging of the engine into an FI car. It's all part of design.

"As we said, with tyres and engine performance being so close next year,the car itself is going to be critical."

Although the Renault has only Just been formally confirmed, Newey has to have been working on a Renault-powered car for months - at least in parallel with a Ferrari-engined option. Indeed, manufacture must be pretty much under way.Surely Webber has an early inkling of what is in store for'07?

"Yes.There's been a lot of good talk. I have great respect for Adrian - he talks a lot ofsense,and knows the challenge we are up

For me, it’s a roll of the dice. I needed fresh wallpaper, fresh motivation because, to be honest, I was struggling a bit - MARK WEBBER ON HIS MOVE TO RED BULL RACING

against. He absoiutely respects the opposition - he knows we're not going to go out there and totaily smash people.We want to get out there, punch above our weight, and have a really, really good season;show that we are a force.

"I've sat in the mock-up of the new car(not the full layout obviously), we've done some initial seat fittings with David and i and it's looking good.

"As usual, we'll see when the car is on-track. All we want is a iittle Scalextric car really.... that'll do!"

Although there'll be some testing during December,it will be preliminary stuff, whiie the aliimportant new car is finished, "i'm not focussing much on the pre-Christmas stuff. It's Just for me to, operationally, get to work with the guys,do some preliminary work with the new tyres. We won't be doing anything at serious pace until mid-January, until we get Adrian's car out."

That will be a huge day.You

can talk development until you are hoarse, but a good car is a good car the day it rolls out of the transporter for the first time: "Yes, you do have an idea pretty quickiy. In terms of what they've been measuring in the tunnel, it's nice for them to get pretty close to that with the actual car on track.

That's the demanding thing for their department- to nail all the parameters when you're going from a modei to full-scale car, on-track.

"Having taken the amazing decision to stop deveiopment on the current car back in July in order to put the effort into this one,they have been working eight months on it already.The day it rolls out,and those parameters match up will be a big one ..." it will. Webber usually undersells his aspirations,on the basis that results will then be a happy bonus. Given the potential package, is there a case for fair optimism? Podiums?

"I don't want any'free' podiums, lucky results. We nearly achieved what would have been some strong results, off our own bat,this year.That's what matters.

"I could say all the normal warm and fuzzy'thfhgs, but until the car runs it doesn't mean much.The day the car runs is a huge day. And that can be anywhere between bad,average,and exciting!"

In the meantime,Webber is taking serious time out. A week at home in Queanbeyan with the phone off; a week in Tasmania putting himseif- and a group of like-minded sports-people and corporates -through the torture of the charity-driven Mark Webber Chailenge. A long way from FI.; "This is the first season where i've really felt the need to'recharge'.

In the past, when everyone was looking forward to 5-6 weeks off, i wasn't bothered; i didn't need it- i just wanted to press on!

"Especially at Jaguar. We were relentless at team green - we never stopped.

"This was the first season where I've actually started to feel mentally drained.There's a lot goes on which is out of your control, which you can't do anything about.

Of course, you're embarrassed as to how it's going, but that's something any sportsman has to go through sometimes, "i've decided to try something different next year and i know that wili light the fire, "i know i haven't had the resuits I feel I can get in FI. "i'm not saying i can go out and snatch a couple of world titles from Fernando, but I know I haven't delivered on the full potential yet. I want to extract that- and I've got the years to do it. i'm not interested in making the numbers up..."

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FORMULA 1 %

Webber on Michael:We had our differences WHEN Michael Schumacher has been ever present throughout your motorsport career, it's likely that the relationship has undergone substantial change. Mark Webber has seen most sides of the newly-retired seven-times world champion: "I guess you'd sum up the relationship with Michael as being a little frustrating, in the end.

"When I first started Formula Ford racing, he was winning World Championships with Benetton! You arrive in FI after doing your own junior campaign and you know you've got a guy there operating at an absolutely phenomenal level.

"When you first got to race him, on the same bit of road, it was a real, real challenge and pleasure to try and stay with him;to do things he mightn't expect, because you wanted to treat him like anyone else!

"I got to know him better with the GPDA stuff. It's normal that you wouldn't agree on everything. We had some differences of opinion, more on the political side of things, which isn't what the GPDA is about, in my view.

"But the Monaco thing was the real line in the sand. If I'd still been driving for Minardi the relationship would probably not have changed, but when you are in the position of competing and something like that happens, you don't forget it.

"When drivers put their helmet on, things occasionally happen - like the last race, with Nico. People make errors-we all do. I do.That's what racing's about.

"But when you stop on the track in the last moments of qualifying, because you've stuffed your own lap up and there are four or five guys going green [ie putting in best sectors] behind you, you're pushing your peers down the grid on the toughest overtaking circuit we race on ...

"It wasn't just a case of pulling the wool over the eyes of the people watching on, it was an insult to his peers, a lot of whom looked up to him.

"it was a shame - it will always be there and, even though time heals a lot, it's something that will never be forgiven fully It's a bit like Mike Tyson biting that guy's ear - it's not what boxers do.

"That was extreme, and so was what Michael did. It did affect his relationship with a lot of drivers, some of whom were'on the balance' anyway. It was enough to tip them over,for them to say 'if that's what he thinks of usI'That's what people were disappointed with.

"But you know, I don't think he (Michael) is worried.That's fine too ..."

Is that really it for Michael?

"I think you'll see him in the odd test every now and then. He just loves driving, at the end of the day. He's very heavily involved with Ferrari and the sport and the governing body.

He'll be around."

MNews FI correspondent Joe Saward sometimes refers to'Red Car Rules'- the seeming good run that the red team gets with officialdom. Most recently, with a rule stipulating that a manufacturer may only supply engines to one other team, Ferrari has asked and been granted permission to supply two. It has put Cosworth out of FI. Are Red Rules real?

"There were a few things we were disappointed with this year. We couldn't see how it went in a certain direction. If you were in Fernando's shoes, you'd probably be a bit frustrated with some of the decisions which went against Renault. You could say that was something Ferrari got.

"But talk to a Ferrari guy and you'd get a totally clear explanation as to why something was done like that.

"If you put youranti-Ferrari glasses on, you can possibly point the finger at them in a number of areas. But don't forget, it was actually McLaren which protested against Renault on the mass dampers..."

Onetyre:Tfie winners and FORMULA 1 reverts to a onetyre manufacturer format in 2007. Who will be the winners and losers?

"They(Bridgestone) are going back on casing development, purely because they don't need to be‘on the limit'or as aggressive in that sense.

"I've driven on that tyre, duritig the winter of05/06,and have some idea on the Ghjaraoteristics, how the car behaves on that casing. It's basically a 'Ferrari.' casing,an evo'liJfidfrof which is'what they had,most oftheir success with. Ferrari,therefore.

www.mnews.com.au

have the most information in the. talking through theiparse! bank on that tyre ...

"The biggesuhin^ for "Compounds will, in general,, everjraneJaVtF was last year, be a bit conservative, but it's the is how the tyres perform in casings that will be important, winter to how they perform in summer.You especially the front, in'how the car behaves.^; struggle to gS^rtiuph “Overall the tyre won't be as more than 20 degrees 'peaky"in'terrps- ofthewindow track temperature vyithin which it's'“performance . afSarcefona/Jerez etc and then have to head.bff ahd.grip is atiifs maximum.That to Melbourne, Malaysia, and': windovy]wifi be a little wider.

"Th^Michelin teams,to be Bahrain,lA/hich created sonrie -H6nest,.shguld be ableto Qetbn interesting problems,last yean. ; "To be honest,-!,think there'll be. taffSfiT^tty quickly. Putjrthis more testing outsidebf Europe .,’ way,.if they're still rabbiting on about it mid-year,then they're this year." ‘ i

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LIVING ;

iX) -70 ! \T^ Paul Tracy has been through a lot in his 15-year Champ Car career. He’s also done thousands of interviews, which is why MARK GLENDENNING opted for something a little different. Rather than ask questions, MNews selected a series of photos connected to Tracy, revealed them to him one at a time, and recorded his reponses. Here’s what happened

IMAGE 1: GRAND PRIX OF TORONTO, 2006 Fifteen years after his Champ Car debut, is PT still refining his style?

PAULTRACY:Toronto. Looks like this year. I can't even remember where I finished the race - was I second or third or something? So it was a good race, probably one of the highlights of the year. It's important to do well, but after a while all the races blend in to one another. If I don't win, I don't remember it. I have a selective memory!

MOTORSPORT NEWS:You'll rack up your 250th start next year.

After all this time, are you still refining your driving technique, or are you settled in the way you do things?

PT: No, no, I've definitely changed my technique this year - I have switched to left-foot braking.

It's a big advantage,the way AJ (Allmendinger) was braking.

There is a generation of drivers from karting who are all left-foot braking, which is very different to how I was doing it. I always seemed to get by the way I was doing it, but it was clear that it was something that I needed to do.

And coming into next year, the 2007 car is set up for left-foot braking. I have always been rightfoot braking, so I had to switch. It was really weird at first, but I'm slowly getting used to it.

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IMAGE 2: A NEW CHAMPION Tracy wraps up the 2003 championship at Surfers Paradise TRACY:That's '03. One of the craziest days of my life. I kind of went through every range of emotion that you can go through. I qualified really well, got spun out at the first corner, came back through, got in an accident, and then Bruno (Junqueira) got himself into an accident. So to wrap up the championship was just great.

MN:Given how many years you worked for it, was the reality of winning the championship any different to what you'd imagined it would be?

PT: I think it's greater. Obviously being the first time, and also the way I had to work so hard to get it, that first time was just great. I don't know, maybe for Sebastien (Bourdais)the feeling is not the same, having won three titles. I'm sure It's great and everything, but for sure the first title would have to be the best of them.

IMAGE 3: A LONG, LONG DAY Tracy samples long-distance racing at the 2006 Daytona 24 Hour TRACY:Twenty-four hour stuff is pretty fun to do.There's no pressure for me, I can just go out and drive with some other guys and have fun.There are no points to worry about, you're just out there driving. I like that. It's something to do during the off-season.

For some of the other guys it's more serious because it is what they do for a living, but for me it's something to go and do to have some fun.

' PROCESSED BY

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MN:Is it a different mentality in terms of driving to a plan or a lap time, rather than wringing the car's neck lap after lap?

PT: Not so much. You drive as fast as the car will go.The cars are pretty much bulletproof;the Daytona Prototypes being two framed and not so much like a Prototype. You go as fast as you can, and just try not to get into situations with slower cars, or lapped cars.

IMAGE 4: BRIDGESTONE REDS Bridgestone introduced an option tyre for 2006, and PT has struggled to get a handle on them TRACY: Red tyres. Not my favourite thing. We hoped that Surfers Paradise would be better - that weekend we used the street course tyres, which is better than the option tyres.Those ones, I don't really have a problem with. When we go to a road course, the option tyres on a road course, I struggle.

MN:Is that the car, or is it you?

PT: No, I just can't seem to ... we don't get to test on them, we don't get any practice on them,and I just don't think we've got the car set up right. The limit is so varied. With standard tyres you can feel where the limit is, and you can stay on the limit.

But with these things, it's just changing all the time. At least, for me it is.

MN:Lap by lap, or corner by corner?

PT: Corner by corner. For me,anyway. Not for some other guys.

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IMAGE 5: THE BLUE DEMON Faced with a hostile crowd in Quebec this year, Tracy fights fire with fire TRACYiThe Blue DemonIThat was good fun.

Actually, I didn't know that this guy is a real wrestler In Mexico.

They sent a guy from Mexico to Australia with a real mask with his autograph on it, and he wants to meet me in Mexico. He's the grandson of the original Blue Demon.

I found out a lot about this mask - it is from a famous wrestler in Mexico who started wrestling in 1930. He's very famous in Mexico.

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IMAGE 6: NEXT GENERATION Tracy with his son TRACY: My son. He was just with me last week. He didn't get a lot of chance to go to a lot of races when he was younger because it was so hard to have him in pitlane, because you have to be over 16. He's just started racing go-karts. It's good that he's starting to get older now, because he can come along and hang around.

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IMAGE 7: PANOZ DPOl

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Champ Car prepares for a new era TRACY:The new car for 2007. Looks good!

MN:You've been the most visible and most vocal supporter of Champ Car as it has gone through the dramas of the last few years.This car marks a new era for the series - do you feel vindicated at all?

PT: I think it's cool.The series has a lot of growing to do still, you know, it's not back to where it was.

But with every positive step like this new car, and new teams and new drivers, it is building itself back up.This is a new evolution of what we have to work with.The cars that we have now have served their purpose,so it will be good to get into the new car.

MOTORSPORT

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motorsport news

IMAGE a SENNA TESTS THE PENSK Ayrton Senna tests Tracy’s Penske a Firebird Raceway in December 199 TRACY:This is an old picture! Is It 1994? No, it hi to be earlier than that. It was going from 1992 in 1993. Firebird Raceway, Phoer I hadn't been told yet that I was going to drive full tin and Senna was In a contract dispute with Ron DennI; thinkthatthis wasa bit of a publicity stunt to put son pressure on Ron Dennis. I grew up watching Senna, I was my idol. But Emerson was before my tin

Race Engineering IMAGE 9: FOUR WHEELS MEETS TM) A long-time cycling fan, Tracy catches up with Robbie McEwen, three-time winner of the Tour de France green jersey TRACY:That's Robbie (McEwen). I went out for a three-hour bike ride with him the day before yesterday. It's funny. In this picture he actually had a black eye! He was walking home and some guys attacked him In the street. www.mnews.com.au

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IMAGE 10: STE PT gets physical with TRACY; Oh, man.This [pointing at Tag was pretty upset at me,and it But Sebastien [Bourdais] and I c probation at that point, and he ba trying to push me into something In this situation my hands were I couldn't do anything, I would lov couldn't do anything.

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IMAGE 11: A ROOF OVER HIS HEAD Tracy makes his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series at Daytona in 2006 TRACY:The Sportclips car was not a very good car, but it was fun at Daytona. I had fun drafting. I'm not sure what I am going to do next year -1 have got some support from Sportclips to do some more Stock Car racing, but I haven't really laid out what the programme is going to be, other than I am going to run at Daytona. Beyond that.

I'll have to wait and see what the schedule looks like to work out what races I can do.

moiorsportnews

FEATURE

IMAGE 12: THE FI TEST Tracy tests with Benetton at Estoril in late 1994 TRACY;The FI test was a lot of fun. I had an opportunity to race for Benetton, but i faced a similar situation to what many drivers go through. Basically, I was asked to sign a contract where there were no guarantees that I was going to race, no guarantees of any opportunity.

So really, when I did that, I had a contract on the table from Newman/ Haas to go there with a really good salary, or try to do FI and there was no guarantee of anything. Basically, I would be contracted to Flavio Briatore's management company with no guarantee that I would ever get to race, so I decided to go with Newman/Haas.

IMAGE 13: BARRY GREEN Tracy’s boss during the Team Green years, 1998 - 2002 TRACY: I had a really good relationship with Barry Green during most of the time that I was there, but it turned sour in the end when I decided that I was going to go to Player's with Gerry [Forsythe] and not go to the IRLThe relationship kind of turned a bit nasty at the end,so it was disappointing for it to end that way. Barry and Gerry don't get along, and when he decided that he was selling his team and going to the IRL, I didn't want to do that.

They wanted me to do that, and it just got ugly.

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MN;Would he have been cool with you going to a team that didn't involve Forsythe?

PT: I don't know. I Just know that those two don't get along, because they were partners and it ended badly.

IMAGE 14: The 2002 Indy 500 Tracy passes Helio Castroneves just as a yellow comes out for a crash.

Tracy is first across the finish, but officials award the win to Castroneves after determining that the pass occurred after the yellow was waved TRACY: Indy. I mean,obviously it was a good race for me - I won the race, but it kind of got taken away from me.

It was frustrating, but I still came away with a second place, which I guess is better than nothing. It's something that I've forgotten about now. It's not something that I think about, the win being taken away from me. It's just one of those things.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to Indy - probably not, at this point in my career and the way things are going.

So at least I made a stir there!

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The V8 Supercars are preparing to make their first trip to the Middle East.

MARK GLENDENNING offers a look at what they can expect to find

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F the ancient Persians had their way,the V8 Supercar teams would be about to embark upon their first-ever visit to Mishmahig.

Bahrain's location right at the entrance to the Persian Gulf has made it a prime target for invasion over the past few thousand years, meaning that it has changed hands - and names - many times before settling into what it is today.

Actually,'settled'is probably the wrong word, because the place is still changing, and the transformation is happening faster than ever before. Bahrain had been living quietly as a British protectorate for about 50 years until 1932, when someone realised that the whole island was floating on a huge pool of oil.

The Bahrainis started highfiving each other, but it was not until the oil boom in the 1980s that the good times really began to roll. Bahrain had become independent from the Brits in 1971, which meantthat there was nowhere to turn for help when the bottom fell out of the oil market later in the 52

'80s. Fortunately, Bahrain had already started dabbling in other industries and did particularly well out of finance, having picked up a lot of business when the region's previous banking powerhouse, Lebanon, was devastated by civil war.

The demand for oil has recovered, but Bahrain is still looking for new sources of income, and among the areas it has its sights on now are tourism and commerce - which is part of the reason why much of the national capital, Manama,looks like a gigantic construction area with a few mosques and government buildings scattered around it.

When visitors start pouring in, they're going to need somewhere to stay, right?

In fact, there is so much building going on that although the official population of the country is a shade under 700,000, there are estimated to be almost 900,000 people on the island at any given time due to the vast number of labourers imported from the Indian subcontinent and Africa.(And yet Bahrain has a

huge unemployment problem. Go figure).

Walking around the impression youManama, get is that Bahrain is aiming to become the next Dubai.This would seem like a good idea, except that the real Dubai is only a 20 minute flight away, and already has everything in place, right down to an indoor skiing resort.

But for a visitor to Bahrain,there is still a lot to like. It's an easy place to get around - all the locals I met were extremely friendly, and happy to help out a visiting Australian who wanted to know a bit about the area, regardless of whether my question related to directions, history or the location of the closest coffee vendor.

(All three subjects came up frequently).

Like all of Bahrain, Manama is a safe place to travel around, and the only real danger is getting lost.

If you're on foot, you will need a map.

But otherwise, it is a cruise.

News telecasts on commercial networks seem to have

Carl lendenning

instilled some weird ideas into westerners about the Middle East, and particularly the Persian Guif. However, Bahrain is a relatively tolerant country, and has developed a reputation for opening its doors to communities that may not be welcomed elsewhere in the region.

In fact, the only real inconvenience in visiting Bahain is that the entire country shuts down on Fridays (I peered at a lot of mosques and palaces through locked gates on the Friday that I was there), but as Friday makes up part of the V8 race weekend,that won't be a problem for anyone travelling over for the Supercars.

During the rest of the week, there is a bit to see. Manama itself is relatively small, but you get a good chance to see Bahrain as it was running headfirst into Bahrain as it wants to be, with new developments springing up alongside neighbourhoods that have remained more or less untouched for 60 years.

The National Museum and AlFatih Mosque (Great Mosque) are both worth a look, as is the souq

motorsportnews

INSIGHT n

Bring The Noise

The Bahrain International Circuit at Sakir is a very different playground to whatthe V8 Supercars are used to

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We're notin Kansas anymore: The Bahrain circuit, top ieft-just add 31 V8 Supercars.

When all the action on the track is finished, a wander around Manama could lead you to the Al-Fatih Mosque,above, or to funky boat-shaped billboards like this, left. (market), which you'll probably smell before you see due to the proliferation of spice stalls. If you're not after saffron, you might find something more to your liking from one of the cloth, pearl or gold vendors.

Being an Islamic country, Bahrain is not the place to go for a pub crawl. Local shops sell a rather odd non-alcoholic beer that you can buy in peach flavour (each to their own, I guess), but if you're after something a little more sociable then the bar in your hotel will be able to sort you out.

There are plenty of places to go and eat, however if you're not feeling adventurous enough to try something local then'Plums' and 'Nirvana', both at the RitzCarlton, carry the MNews stamp of approval. Bottled water is widely available and cheap, but the tap water is also perfectly OK to drink.

We'il know in a couple of weeks just how Bahrain and the V8 fraternity are going to get along when they first meet. But if there's anything you can say for certain, it's that nobody is going to mistake the place for Winton. www.mnews.com.au

BAHRAIN International Circuit has hosted three rounds of the Formula 1 World Championship now,so even if you haven't been to Sakir, you still have a pretty good idea of what to expect- an unbelievable, ultra-modern racing facility, surrounded by miles and miles of... not much.

It's on the other side ofthe country from Manama,but being Bahrain,this amounts to a 25 minute trip down the freeway through the desert.

The track is one of Hermann Tilke's better efforts, with a nice combination offast, swooping sections,changing gradients, and slower,technical corners.

The best part of the 5.4km Grand Prix track is the section between turn 3 and turn 10; a big romp up the hill that

switches back and sends the cars pitching back down through a left-right-left sequence offast, blind corners.

V8s in particular would look fantastic through there - which is why it's such a shame that it's precisely this part ofthe track that V8 Supercars Australia has opted to chop out.Instead,the V8s will run along what's known as the Paddock Circuit, with 9corners over 3.7km - not as spectacular as the full track, but still better than Queensland Raceway.

And it retains the cool section between Turns 12 and 13(which I guess will become Turns 7 and 8 on the shorter track); a fast right-hander that feeds into a much tighter right hander which spits the cars between the sand dunes and onto the back straight.

Lots has been written about how the dunes surrounding BIC are sprayed with glue to prevent sand from blowing across the circuit, but if you walk onto the track itself, you'll notice that it is covered with a very thin film of silicone.

It's another anti-sand measure,and it means that the track generates a lot of grip.

It will be interesting to see whether this means anything in terms oftyre wear.

Thb*oth’ef main characteristic of BIC is its width. From the cockpit of something like a little Formula BMW you feel like you're in a canyon, but when you have a track that's 22m wide in some spots,even a V8 Supercar has no fear of claustrophobia.

- MARKGLENDENNING

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FORMULA FORD %

Tim Slade

Sonic Motor Racing Services

2006Season to date-Race Wins:5(Adelaide xl,Queensland X 2,Mallalax 2) Podiums:6 DNFs:l Points:232 IT'S been a busy year for Tim Slade and,surprisingly, he didn't expect it.

After a couple of seasons on the fringe, Slade committed to a full attack on the Formula Ford Championship in 2006. So far, it's paid dividends. With two rounds to go, he sits in the lead of the championship,just four points ahead oftitle advisory John Martin.

Leading the series isn't the only thing that Slade has to smile about this year, though.The South Australian landed support from Dexion, and was invited to drive the Dexion-backed V8 Supercar at Winton.Then, out of the blue, he was asked to attend the Toll FISV Dealer Team's rookie evaluation day.

"We didn't plan on doing the V8 Supercar stuff at the start of the year," he said.

"When a deal came about with Dexion,things started to fall into place. My test with Toll FISV was

totally out of the blue.

"Working with the two V8 teams was invaluable.

"If definitly helps to have done the miles in the V8s. In the test with FISV, we were able to overlay data with them and see where we were there was improvement to be made.

"But after stepping out of the V8 Supercar and back into the Formula Ford, it makes you appreciate the handling of my Formula Ford!

While the experience in a V8

John Martin

was handy, Slade isn't necessarily planning the next portion of his career around Supercar racing.

"I don't want to limit myself to thinking about the V8 Development Series next year.

My ultimate goal would be to do something overseas. With our budget, it's not entirely realistic, but I'd like to try and explore all the options.

"At the end of the day, I've just got to go with whatever opportunities pop up."

Before Slade gets too excited

about 2007 and beyond, he has some business to attend to at Symmons Plains and Phillip Island.

"My plan is going to be similar to what I've had all year," he explained."I'm just treating it like any other round and try not let the pressure of the championship get to you. You have to be smart, but you have to have that approach throughout the whole year. I've had really good speed.

You need a bit of luck and avoid driver errors."

Borland Racing Developments

2006 Season to date-Race wins:6(Adelaide X 2,Sandownx 2,Oran Park X 2) Podlums:2 DNFs:1 Points:228 FROM the opening round of the season, it was pretty obvious that John Martin was going to play a major part in this year's Australian Formula Ford Championship.

Fle left the Clipsal 500 leading the championship, and since then hasn't fallen below second in the standings. With two rounds remaining, he is well and truly in the hunt.

Along the way there has been plenty of winning. Following the two race victories at Adelaide, Martin added another two wins to his tally at Oran Park, and another two at the Sandown 500.

But in case winning in the Australian Formula Ford Championship isn’t enough, Martin and the Borland Racing Developments squad took a Spectrum 011 to the British Championship. And first time out at Brand Flatch, they won.

"Winning at Brands Flatch on debut was pretty surprising," www.mnews.coni.au

admitted Martin.

"But it was almost a bad thing to go out and win the first round, because then it was expected all the time. When we first went there the expectations were to try and finish inside the top six, but we won. And that made it worse when we went back and it didn't go our way."

Martin is referring to the second stint in the British series, where, after taking second in the first race at Silverstone, he struggled atThruxton and Castle Combe. Flis overseas adventure finished at

the Formula Ford Festival back at Brands, but despite having plenty a car speed, a crash in the semi final left him out of the event.

While he would have liked some better results, Martin recognises how beneficial the experience has been.

"Flaving gone over there and seen what the environment's like, and knowing how much it rains, and learning a few of the tracks will really help me next year," said Martin, who hopes to spend 2007 racing Formula 3 in England.

"But as for the racing, it's

tough to win at the top of any championship.There's just a bit more depth over there.

Racing at the front over here is the same as racing at the front over there, expect instead of three or four guys racing for the win, there is 10 or 12."

But before he worries about next season, Martin has to race Tim Slade to the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship.

"I just need to win I guess.

"I'm behind Slade, so I need to finish ahead of him.'

Simple.

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INTERVIEW

team coped with Sebastian Loeb's absence?

1

was on car. to get the whole thing X:- --- missing from the cars in up and moving?Australia, so was the lack of a MN:You would have thought MvD: It was unbelievable. People MARCVANDALEN:Wetryto third car budget-related? that winning eight rallies ' can't imagine thejob we did.

MvD: Ohe of the reasons,the survive. It was really unlucky for this year would have made if It's exactly the same now; I us, because everybody knows 'important reasons, is exactly comparatively easy to get some don't know what we're going that the deal for this year was .. that, yes. When,we originally , signage on the car... '●●●to do next year, and every year late, and we are a privateer team, made the deal it was very late - MvD: Yes. But that's why we said is like that It is never easy?You ^ finish the season in December SO we try to do the best we can. it was December last year - so I '—'OK,'two cars is less expensiv e Finally, together with Seb, we ' pushed hard m only one month than three'. It's logical. And that . and then the next season starts could chase victories and that to find some sponsors for the is theprincipal reason yvhy we at the end of January, and " durihg this period a lot of people was fantastic for us. But on the se^on, and I did with Gauloises. didn't go. further wifh'Colin. other hand it was a big disaster Butthat was only for-13 events, : ■ The secohd reason is that are on horidays'and so on, but" we know and understand for us to learn that he had a because they did not have you haveto find the money and’ problem with his arm. But we enoug h money to go to all of the say,look, I have a very good deal that, like I said before, ft is 1-; are fully behind him, and we rallies in the championship. nearly impossible to fight with to propose to you!' have to wait for him to come In between, during that 13 Marcus, because li'e is at the top' It is not easy, It-was a real. back as soon as possible. It is rally period, 1 tried to make situation this year,-Jhat's why we .com'p'ared with thFotherdrivers. contact with some other So we said, 'OK, Xavi (Pons) had a impossible to replace him, that is are at the end of the year with ' the problem. some, let's say, financid troubles. sponsors, butwe are a veryvery good rally in Turkey to finish The level is so high this year small team, and I have so many fourth, he did very good times.

It will riot be easy to keep going other things'l need to do that he knew Australia and the rally, . _ to the-end, but Frey,-that'sjife. . with both the guys, Marcus so we decided that we had to [Gronholm, Ford] and Seb being I didn't achieve my goal and find another one. So that's why 'V, give him his chance to fight MN: Do.you have an update so much higher than anybody we are back in red, because we on how Sebastien is coming else. So this is the problem we along? are working hard with Citroen MN: Di<l you say before that you MvD: Yeah, he is improving only found out last December and they help us regarding the technical side. that you were running the two every day. I call him every day.

MN: You did try to replace him I decided that it was better Citroens this year? in Turkey when you recruited continued oh page 58 . to make the cars red than have MvD: (nods) Colin McRae, but in Australia

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continued from page 57 or he calls me,and it is going better and better. But honestly, it is impossible to say when he can be back.

He doesn't know himself. Every day he makes some improvement, and he gets better and better. We hope,and we cross our fingers, that we will have Seb back for New Zealand. But we're not sure.

MN;So what has it been like to work with Sebastien this year?

MvD: I knew him from the past, butjust to say hello. Just chatting.

I was really surprised, because he is really not like a star. Absolutely not. He is fantastic, not only on the professional side, but also as a human.

We have a close relationship with him now,and also with Daniel [Elena, Loeb's co-driver].

And together, we have done a great job. He takes this job very seriously, and goes right to the end with everything -1 mean, he wants to know everything; every little detail is important for him.

And the rest of the time, he is really like a normal person,like you and me.If you say to him, 'Sorry,there is no mineral water, but you can have a coke', he will just say,'OK'. Everything is normal.

It is very good for us.

And what I appreciate is that when he started the season, he didn't know about the team, he didn't know what was going to happen, but he was really motivated. At the first briefing we had as a team, he said to my guys, 'Hey, we are going to win together'.

This is very great.

MN:And you already knew Dani [Sordo], because he drove for you in the JWRC last year. How has he developed this season?

MvD: I think that what he did at the start was unbelievable. He started for the first time at Monte Carlo,then Sweden,and after only three or four rallies he was on the podium.

But I think that was also a problem for later, because it

was too quick,too early. And also, I think some people in Spain ... I have two Spanish drivers, so I know those guys very well - Spanish people are latin people,so they are very hot and emotional.There were all this people behind him and pushing him,saying'you are the new World Champion'and so on.

Unfortunately he had a crash in Finland,and everybody knows that Finland is very difficult, especially when you drive there for the first time.So he made a mistake, and everybody knows that it can happen. He made it, and then he had a problem with his seatbelts in Japan,and then he had another crash in Cyprus.

So we had a lot of talks with him and worked with him and said,'Bring your pressure down,all we expectfrom you is to learn and come back to what you were like at the start of the season.Come on,get the pressure off'.

We worked hard with him,and now he is back. I saw it from Cyprus - he knows that he just has to learn, and we don't expect too much from him. Even in Australia, it was his first time here and he is third on the road, which is a very bad place to be on this rally.

In the first day he might have been eighth or something, but he knows that that is the price you pay in Australia when you have that type of starting position. He understands that now. He is only 23,and it will take him time to learn.That will be very important.

MN:Has the team's dominance surprised you this year? Eight wins is pretty remarkable.

MvD:Yes. I mean, honestly,if we met in Monte Carlo and you'd asked me about my objectives for the year, I'd have told you that if we won one rally, we would be very happy. Finally we won one, then two,three,four,five in a row.

And then more.

I'm sure that we have the bestever rally driver in the world with us for a while,and he is pushing, we are pushing,and Citroen rents us very good cars. I think we have small budget compared to other

It is impossible to replace Sebastien [Loeb], that is the problem - van Dalen, above, finds that all of the positive aspects of running the most successful WRC driver in history become negatives when aforementioned superstar takes a trip over the handlebars of his mountain bike ...

QBlQirSClMiilHyS

INTERVIEW

5.

7

It was too quick, too early van Dalen points to Dani Sordo's early success as the cause of his mid-season slump

teams, but we have really good quality people working here and together we want to grow,and are pushing hard.

And another point is that Sebastien hasn't made any mistakes. OK, he made one small one in Monte Carlo when he was pushing hard, but for the rest he is pushing hard all the time,fighting with Marcus,and he makes no mistakes. He doesn't know the word 'pressure', it's just not a problem for him.

The other thing is that our cars are really reliable. I think we have only had a couple of retirements this year due to mechanical problems,otherwise we get all the cars to the end all the time.

That's very important in rallying, to have a car that you can drive without any problems;a car where everything is working.

MN:This must have been a really important season for yourself and Kronos as a team, as distinct from Sebastien and Citroen.You have been given a World Champion for a year, you scored your ffrst-ever WRC win in Mexico... .WiWrfilllH'Tt-fQrilQglll

MvD:It's unbelievable. It is a very strange feeling, because on one hand,it is really exceptional for us. When we won for the first time in Mexico,everyone was crying.

We had done so much work to be there and to achieve that, and to have won ...

To win is very difficult,for everybody. Even for us! For everybody, it is so difficult. So when we did it for the first time,it was like a dream came true.

So this season has just been great, with the drivers, with the way the team is working - all the team is working so hard, and everyone worked right through the nights and for days and days to make sure that everything would be ready on time.

It was so difficult regarding the financial side for this year, because like I said before,the deal was so late that it was nearly impossible to find a good amount of money in time.

So on the financial side for Kronos it has been a very, very difficult year, believe me.

And then with the accident with Seb, it was a big problem for us, a big drama. But that's life.

MN:Have you banned Seb,Dani and Xavi from looking at a mountain bike for the rest of the year?

MvD:(laughs) I hope they don't!

A lot of people say,'why was Seb cycling, it is not normal!'But all sports guys at the top level do some cycling, I think. If you say to Seb,'You have to stay there in front of your TV', he'd say,'No, no, I want to go and do things!'. It is his life, and we have to accept it.

MN:How can Kronos as a team build upon this year?There has been talk that you could operate as a'Citroen B'outfit in 2007...

MvD:That is what we are trying to do.We are in touch with different drivers and different sponsors, and one of the objectives is to go further with Citroen, because it is working well and we have trust in each other.

It would be great for us to be there just behind them with a'B' team. But so far nothing has been signed, unfortunately.

MN:So what is Plan B? If you can't do a deal with Citroen, would a failure to secure a

sponsor be the only thing to stop you from returning in 2007?

MvD:Yes.That is the only thing.

It's exactly the same deal as this year, because we ran the cars and we had to find the money to run the team.

The only difference, unfortunately,is that Seb is leaving for Citroen, but we knew that from the beginning. So we have to find drivers and sponsors.

The best way for us would be to find great sponsors so that we can choose the drivers ourselves, so we could probably take some young drivers that will shine for the future.

But you never know. It is never easy to find money for the future.

MN:It would be a shame if you were not able to continue on from what you had done this year.

MvD: I know. If you were to ask me what is my dream, I would tell you that you could say to Citroen, 'you don't have to come back!You can give everything to Kronos and they can do the jobl'f/aug/isj But that was not the deal at the start, and we knew it, and we agreed to it.That's life.

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

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After 19 years, And with atew winner,

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ELL, if Perth wanted a memorable send-off from the World Rally Championship, it certainly got one.

A mature drive in difficult conditions allowed Mikko Hirvonen to become the final name on the rollcall of drivers to have won Telstra Rally Australia in the west, giving Mikko the first win of his career, and Ford its first success in Australia.

The weekend also featured the crowning of the 2006 World Champion - albeit via a video link to a house 14,000km away in Switzerland, where the Injured Sebastlen Loeb secured his third title from the comfort of his couch after Marcus Gronholm's faint hopes of reeling in the Frenchman's points lead were quashed by a disastrous opening day.

Mikko's performance was made all the more impressive by the fact that Ford's emphasis on scoring manufacturers'points put considerable pressure on the young Finn to bring the car home in one piece - a job that was left entirely on his shoulders after Gronholm rolled out of contention just five kilometres into the opening stage of the first Heat.

"The possibility [to win] was there on Friday, when I saw Marcus go off," Hirvonen said.

"I needed to take a few risks; it wasn't easy. I couldn't really control my speed until Sunday.

The rest of the time, I went flat-out."

60

Solberg had to settle for second, more than 37.1 s behind the Focus, but after a shocking year for Subaru, Petter was happy just to be on the podium. Solberg had briefly led the rally early on Friday before being pegged back by Hirvonen, but when he copped the worst of the dust later in the day Mikko was able to pull out a lead that he would defend through to the finish.

OMV Peugeot Team Norway driver Manfred Stohl was a further 3m30s down the road in third.

"I pushed like hell," he said."We had a good Saturday, and at the end of the day I was quite confident that we could make the podium."

Helping Stohl's cause was the fact that Xavier Pons was some distance behind him, and the Kronos driver was under strict instructions to hold station, partly to salvage some manufacturer points for Citroen, and partly to make sure that Gronholm could not recover to the third place that he needed to keep his title hopes alive.

He accomplished his mission when Gronholm crossed the finish line in fifth, but given that the Finn had been a full 12 minutes down after hitting a stone and rolling just five kilometres into the opening stage of the rally, it had been a remarkable recovery.

"I hit a stone and the impact threw the car across the road and I rolled over the bank on the opposite side," said Gronholm.

"The car rolled once and ended on Its roof. We pushed it back onto its wheels with the help of two or three people but then it became stuck on a tree stump, so we had to jack it up to get out. I made a stupid mistake."

M

isery loves company,and by lunchtime on Friday Gronholm had plenty of sympathisers. His misfortune had allowed Chris Atkinson to lead for much of the morning, only to drift slightly wide through a corner and become beached.

Heat from the Impreza's exhaust then started a small brush fire that damaged his car, and eventually led to the cancellation of the stage after a number of other competitors stopped and emptied their extinguishers in an attempt to control the blaze.

Kronos Racing's Dani Sordo fell out of contention early with mechanical problems, while both Stobart Fords were relegated to making up the numbers after sliding off the road on Friday.

All of the decimated WRC field was able to restart under SupeRally regulations with the exception of OMV Peugeot's Henning Solberg, who damaged the rollcage in his 307 with another Friday crash. honours was

The for PWRC no fight less dramatic,; ,and eventually went the way of Jari-Matti Latvala ahead of Mirco Baldacci and Dean Herridge,the latter picking up a

PWRC podium and WRC point for finishing eighth outright at his first attempt.

Reigning PWRC Champion Toshi Arai had been in command for much of the weekend in the works Subaru before crashing on Sunday morning, and another late crash ended what looked like a certain podium for Aki Teiskonen.

So after 19 years, the sun has set on Telstra Rally Australia in Perth for the final time. Nobody, from the drivers to the volunteers, seemed happy to see it go. But if Queensland can do half as good a job when it gets its chance in 2008,then we have some good times ahead.

RESULT!J RALLY AUSTRALIA 1 Mikko Hireoneii Jarmo Lehtinen 2 Petter SolIkjT'i Phil Mills 3 Manfr^ jgH' Ilka Minor 4 Xavier Poiiil Carlos Del Barrio 5 Marcus Gronhotm* Timo Rautiainen 6 Jari-Mataiatvalgl Miikka Anttila 7 MIrco Bali

Fin Ford Focus RS Fin 3:15:11.8 Nor Subaru Impreza GB 3:15:48.9 Aut Peugeot 307 Aut 3:19:10.4 Esp Citroen Xsara Esp 3:19:57.2 Fin Ford Focus RS Fin 3:27:15.6 Fin Subaru Impreza Fin 3:32:21.0 RSM Lancer EVOIX

Giovanni Agnese 8 Dean HerriSi Bill Hayes

]ta 3:32:54.7 Aus Subaru Impreza 3:33:33.8 Aus

Drivers'Points: Loeb 112, Gronholm 91, Hirvonen 57,Sordo 43,Stohl 40, P. Solberg 31, H. Solberg 25, Pons23,Gardemeister 20, Atkinson 17,Gallll5.

Manufacturers'Points: Ford 167, Citroen 151, Subaru 94, Peugeot 73,Stobart FordjT^jkodaTSjj

motorsDort news

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 4f

So near,yetsofar The best of times: Mikko Hirvonen savours the spotlight after his first win, above.

And the worst of times: Early on Friday, Atkinson led the rally. Then his car looked like this, below.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Was this one of those rallies where the final result isn't really indicative of your performance?

CHRIS ATKINSON: I don't even know where we finished in the end. It doesn't really matter. We came here to get a result, and I didn't think we'd be as fast as we were on the first day. But we were, we pushed on with it, and we just got caught out. It was nothing major, but that's how it is in this sport. You've got to get over it and keep moving.

MN: So you surprised yourself a bit with your pace early on Friday?

CA: Yeah, I didn't expect to be that fast. Especially in the second stage; we took a huge chunk of time out of the other guys, and it's nice to do that when everyone is pushing.

MN: Did the car feel significantly better this weekend than it has previously? Did the team cotton on to something?

CA: It was good at the start - it was quite good early on. But Better [Solbergj's car came to him later on, whereas I think mine might have gone away ...

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MN:That was based on set-up?

CA: Yeah, it was just the different set-ups. That's just the way it is.

We are still learning things about this car all the time, and it is still difficult to match the other boys at the moment. But we're getting closer.

MN: Were the conditions significantly more difficult than last year? The attrition rate was amazing, especially on Friday.

CA: Yes, it was quite loose and difficult, especially on the first day's stages.

They were a lot looser than last year, with slower times. It was difficult even down the road; there wasn't that big cleaning effect that you usually expect. It was still quite loose and tricky.

Joei Stricklan;

MN: What was the exten t of the damage from the fire on Friday?

CA: It was just a few of the wiring harnesses and stuff like that.

We actually ended up putting the gearbox and other things that were burnt back in; they were all OK. It was just superficial damage; you just throw a few bits on, make it look pretty again, and off you go. There were no major problems.

MN: Did you start making big changes just to see what it would do over the last couple of days, just to try to learn a bit more about the car?

CA: Ummm ... we haven't had to change anything to be kept on our toes, let's say. (laughs)

Coming off the back foot

MOTORSPORT NEWS: A few dramas, but a good result?

DEAN HERRIDGE: I'm obviously a little bit disappointed that we couldn't fight for the win, but realistically, it's pretty special for us to be here.

It was our last chance to run in Perth, and being a Perth guy, it was an important weekend.

So to finish eighth in the WRC and get a world championship point, get a podium in PWRC and be the first Australian - which means that we win the Possum Bourne Trophy, which obviously means something to us, having been sort of former team-mates - that's pretty special.

But I suppose that when you have a chance ... and even on Sunday, if we'd had our gearbox intact, we could have potentially been in the fight. People like [Toshi] Arai and [Marcos] Ligato had better pace than us, but they obviously didn't make it.

Going into that last group of stages I think we were probably only 23s or so off the lead, but with a broken gearbox for a stage-and-a-half. www.mnews.com.au

you know you can't fight. You've just got to sit back and wait to see what happens.

[Mirco] Baldacci, we thought, would pass us, and he did, but [Aki] Teiskonen went off and that gave us the podium spot.

So although we're disappointed, we lucked into the podium a little bit, so we're also pretty pleased.

MN: Were the gearbox problems on Saturday and Sunday related to each other?

DH: Don't know. We had a problem with fifth for most of the rally -1 think it bent a tooth and then finally gave up the ghost.

We didn't change it - we're a privateer team at the end of the day, and we have a limited budget. The spare box was untried; we had a question mark over it anyway. So I suppose it wasn't a complete surprise.

If we had changed gearboxes early as a precaution, we probably would have found ourselves changing back to the other one anyway. We've made the right calls at the end of the day.

-r

-NeilBBaiBoiirai

67

Action-packed finale at Valencia!

What a weekend - Nicky Hayden becomes Champ,Valentino Rossi falls off,Troy Bayliss wins the race WHEN Nicky Hayden was taken out by his team-mate Dani Pedrosa at the penultimate round of the MotoGP Championship last month, he must have thought his surge for the title was over.

But, as quickly as the momentum swung away from Hayden at Estoril, it swung right back in his favour at the final round at Valencia.

With a handy points gap up his sleeve, Rossi needed only a top two finish. And if qualifying was any indication, where he took pole ahead of the Ducati combo ofTroy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi, then Rossi's title defence was looking pretty good.

But on lap five everything changed when Rossi dropped his Yamaha. He managed to get going again, but had dropped too far back.

Hayden, meanwhile, was having a quiet run in third place. He stayed there for the duration of the race, ensuring his first MotoGp title.

"When you dedicate your life to something and the dream comes true it feels so good," said an elated Hayden.

"When I went down at the beginning of the Estoril race I thought the dream was over but I just didn't give up. Anything can happen in racing and you just keep fighting until the end. I just believe good things happen to

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good people and this is a great day for me."

As if Rossi's fall wasn't surprising enough, Bayliss added some more intrigue to the race by dominating proceedings.The 2006 World Superbike Champ was drafted in as a replacement to Sete Gibernau' for the round, and stunned the field by leading home Capirossi to a Ducati one-two.

Neither Casey Stoner nor Chris Vermuelen finished the race, while

Garry McCoy came home 15th.

and Hector Barbera.

Final Points: Hayden 252, Rossi 247, Capirossi 229, Marco Melandri 228, Pedrosa 215.

Final Points: Lorenzo 289, Andrea Dovizioso 272, De Angelis 228, Hiroshi Aoyama 193, Locatelli 191.

AS expected,Jorge Lorenzo wrapped up the 250 World Championship at Valencia a fortnight ago.

He didn't, however, win the race.That honour went to Alex De Angelis, who took his maiden victory ahead of Roberto Locatelli

HECTOR Faubel took a popular home victory in the 125cc class at Valencia a fortnight ago.

Mika Kallio came home second while Sergio Gadea was third.

Final Points: Alvaro Bautista 338, Kallio 262, Faubel 197, Mattia Pasini 192, Gadea 160.

Alx is Champion...maybe

ALX Danielsson and Alvaro Parente shared the wins at the final round of the World Series

by Renault at Barcelona a fortnight ago.

Danielsson was the first to get a win on the board, launching from pole to dominate the 19-lap Race 1. By the finish he had built up more than 4s over Andy Soucek and Parente.

The fight for Race 2 honours was between Parente and Pastor Maldonado. Parente took the lead of the race after the pit stops, and stayed there until the finish to secure his third race 62

win of the season.

But despite the championship being finished, the champion is yet to be decided. While Danielsson finished the season with the most points, han appeal from Borja Garcia regarding a technical disqualification back at the Zolder round leaves a question mark over champion.

Should Garcia's Zolder result be reinstated, then he will become Champion, earning him the Renault FI test.

Final Points (Provisional): Danielsson 105, Soucek 101, Garcia 99, Maldonado 98, Parente 96.

motorsporinews

INTERNATIONAL

Stewart on a roll CONSISTENTLY good pit-stops helped Tony Stewart score his second win in succession and third in the Chase at Texas last weekend.

Stewart even had time to push the pace car during a caution, leading an unprecedented 278 of the extended 339 laps.

"The first time we pitted we were second,"said Stewart.

"But we never lost a spot after that thanks to the guys on the pit crew. This car was perfect, I've been racing 27 years and

I can count on two hands the amount of times I've had a car as good as this one was tonight.

You cherish days like today."

Stewart held off new pointsleader Jimmie Johnson, who was on four fresh tyres, through two late-race caution periods.The final one was broight out when Kevin Harvick got second placed Scott Riggs loose and into the wall with four laps to run.

Previous points-leader Matt Kenseth spun in the melee, finishing 12th after a rough day.

Four top 10s and counting

MARCOS Ambrose has secured his fourth top-10 finish of the year with 10th place at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend.

Ambrose had a solid race from 18th position, keeping out of trouble to be up to 12th by the final caution period. On the final restart, Ambrose made a bold move to grab tenth spot.

"We just kept digging all night and it is great to come away with a top 10,"said Ambrose.

"The truck was really tight early and 1 just let a few of them go. You are never going to win this race before the first stop.

"The whole team just kept fighting all day. We have had a new crew chief(Michael Cooper)the last www.mnews.com.au

couple of races and that has been exciting, as we have worked things out.

Clint Bowyer won the race ahead of Kyle Busch.

A FORTNIGHT ago, Marcos Ambrose finished 16th at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

With practice being washed out, Ambrose put in a good drive in qualifying to 12th fastest. Having run just outside the top 10 for the majority of the race, he slipped back to 16th when a late set-up change affected his truck's handling.

Mike Bliss won the race.

Points: Todd Bodine 3406,Johnny Benson 33269, David Reutimann 3241,Ted Musgrave 3144, Rick Crawford 3070,(Ambrose 2028).

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall at the halfway point when Clint Bowyer got the Bud Chevy loose.'Junior'stayed on the lead lap despite pitting for repairs, and after restarting 34th on lap 170,finished sixth.

Jeff Burton hit the wall hard when a tyre let go on the front stretch. Burton finished 38th, ending his title hopes along with Kasey Kahne, whose engine expired during the final caution while running second.

A FORTNIGHT ago,Tony

Stewart took victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson continued his charge for the front of the Chase standings,finishing a close second. He was followed

by Chase contenders Dale Earnhardt Jr and Matt Kenseth, with'Junior'getting the better of Kenseth in the closing laps.

- MARTIN D CLARK Chase Standings:Johnson 6157, Kenseth 6140,Earnhardt Jr.6079,Denny Hamlin 6077, Keven Harvick 6052,Jeff Gordon 6000,Jeff Burton 5973,Kyle Busch 5924, Mark Martin 5904, Kasey Kahne 5867.

ALCOHOL will be able to be consumed in public areas at Premier Speedway from later this month.

After repeated requests from members,an extension to the existing liquor licence will allow spectators to drink alcohol while watching racing according, to speedway manager Rob Harris.

"We've always had a liquor licence in the corporate area, in the boxes and in the lounge," Harris said.

"We've had negative comments from spectators saying'Why can they have a beer up there but we can't down here?'The club's been aware of it for a while. Every major speedway in Australia has a similar licence Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Moama and Avalon in Geelong."

Harris fended off criticism that the decision might put some people off coming to race meetings at the Warrnambool venue.

"We will have extensive dry areas to answer that problem," he said.

"We have a responsibility to do it right."

Harris said dry areas would be clearly marked at the venue and the move would prompt extra security at the venue on race days.

Harris added that the club had set specific areas of viewing as alcoholfree zones and would enforce a strict policy of no consumption of alcohol in carparks.

■ DonnySchatz has been crowned the 2006 World of Outlaws Series Champion.

Schatz secured the US$200,000 prize by winning 17 A-Feature races, and two preliminary features.

"There is not much you can say, with the hard work that everyone has put in," said Schatz.

"No matter what happens, we've done it, and now it's time to do it again. We're excited and we are going to enjoy it, because it doesn't last forever. Next year starts tomorrow.

"It's not just the wins, there were a lot of second-place finishes there as well. It's about consistency. There weren't too many nights that we were racing, where we were not fighting for it."

Craig Dollansky finished the season second ahead of Australia-bound Joey Saldana.

Despite missing several rounds, Brooke Tatnell finished sixth in the standings.

-GEOFF ROUNDS/STAFF 64

PREMIER Speedway has been forced to cancel its round of the World Series Sprintcars championship on November 25.

The decision to cancel was made to avoid a clash with a monster truck show in Warrnambool planned for the week before the WSS round.

Premier Speedway general manager Rob Harris said he and the club's board were disappointed, but the

cancellation was purely a commercial decision.

"There is no way known in this economy that Warrnambool can sustain two major events one week apart, a month before Christmas," he said.

"We're sheltered here to a degree from the drought, but it will eventually have an impact.

Money is always tight in the lead up to Christmas and we have to look after the financial viability of the speedway."

Harris said the plan now was to hold a Sprintcar race on November 25 Involving only local entries.

When Premier Speedway announced the November 25 Sprintcar round back in July, it was billed as a major coup for the club.

Premier Speedway's World Series'Sprintcars round on January 1 is unaffected and will ●*, proceed as scheduled.

-GEOFF ROUNDS

Murcott wins Avalon opener

DAVID Murcott has commenced his 2006-07 racing campaign in fine style to win the opening round of the SRA Super Sprint Series at Avalon Raceway.

Murcott won the 25-lap A-Main from the fast finishing reigning SRA Series Champion John Vogels, with Stephen Bell in his 360cipowered machine in third.

Sydney's Troy Little was the top point scorer and started from pole position with Brett Milburn on his outside. Little led the first 10 laps of the feature but it all ended for him when he was forced to retire to the infield with rear-end damage after tangling in lapped traffic.

The demise of Little opened up the door for Murcott, who had raced to second, and from there he controlled the race.

"He (Little) got a bit of a run on us and probably got away a bit quicker from us than I expected,"

Murcott said.

"I kind of sat back and decided to see what would eventuate, so 1 guess it paid off being a bit patient instead if getting mixed up in lapped traffic."

Possibly the drive of the evening was from Vogels, who came from position 12 to second after storming from the rear after

winning the last chance B-Main.

"Running the B-main helps on nights when the track changes a lot throughout, and we changed a lot of things on the car after the BMain and it worked in our favour that's for sure,"Vogels said.

-GEOFF ROUNDS Points: Murcott 404, Vogels 375, Milburn 356, Stephen Bell 341, Carl Ludeman 340.

motorsportnews

SPEEDWAY

Supa Jason is the Master

AMERICAN star Jason Johnson has hit the Australian Speedway summer running, with victory in front of an enormous crowd at the Richmond Heavy Towing Australian Sprintcar Masters held at Speedway City.

Starting from the front row, Johnson got the jump to lead Max Dumesny, Robbie Farr, Garry Brazier and the rest of the field into the opening corner. And from that point forward Johnson found himself leading the entire 35-lap main event, as others fell by the wayside in an attrition-riddled event.

The tone of the race was set from the drop of the green as South Australian drivers Steven Lines and rookie Matt Egel tangled on the front straight. Both cars were unable to restart after sustaining excessive damage, which was extremely

White-wash STEVEN White took his maiden feature race victory in an eventful third round of the Comp Cams Sprintcar Series at Brisbane International Speedway last weekend.

The A-Main began with Stewart Craig starting on pole, with White alongside. White passed Craig in the opening stages, and immediately pulled a gap over the chasers.

The race was marred by a spate of rolls, claiming the cars ofTerry Bracken, Paul Rooks, and Dan Murray and Gessner, whose spectacular roll-over caused the race to be declared.

TERRY Bracken won the feature race in Round 2 of the Comp Cams Sprintcar Series a fortnight ago.

Bracken edged out Andrew Scheuerle by 0.09s to take his first win of the season.

-DARIUS KOREIS

disappointing for Egel, who had showed so much promise earlier in the evening to win his debut Sprintcar heat race.

The race was riddled with caution periods as many competitors feii short of the race distance. With every restart, the field would close up nose to tail, working to the advantage of Johnson who would make the most of a clear track ahead. Dumesny tried hard to run with Johnson, but in the end the Valvoline Maxim proved no match for Supaloc car.

New South Welshmen Robbie Farr and Garry Brazier claimed the next two positions.

Local crowd favourite Phillip March proved to be a livewire, crashing out in his first heat before bouncing back to work his way to a creditable fifth overall.

- PARIS CHARLES

Flyin'Ryan does thejob Farrell takes Motorplex victory from the back ofthe grid REIGNING WA Sprintcar champion Ryan Farrell has pulled off an amazing win at Round 1 oftheAHG Series at Perth Motorplex.

At the start of the A-Main, Farrell was an innocent party in a crash that left his car parked on the infield.

At the re-start, Rick Geneve rode the wall atTurn 2 to bring on the red lights. This time crews were able to work on cars, allowing Farrell back in the game.

Starting from the rear, it wasn't long before Farrell was rounding up the tail markers on the high line.

Up front, Rob Adley was making the most of his front row start with Shaun Bradford working his new open motor right behind. American ace Brock Mayes was already getting the Kendrick-owned 92.9 mount into a winnable position by moving up to third early in the race.

After another stoppage, Bradford, Mayes, and Luche Monte got by Adley. It was then that Farrell made his move,taking Monte before sliding past Mayes. Whilst Mayes was trying desperately to hang on to the back of Farrell he clipped the wall, blowing his right rear.

Farrell cleared out from the pack on the re-start

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and continued pulling away until he greeted the chequer.The rest of the field was shaken up somewhat, with Ken Satori through to secorid ahead of Jamie Maiolo, who had earlier rolled the car in one of his heat races. Monte was fourth and Kent Roberts fifth.

- DARREN SUTTON

WORLD OF OUTLAWS 2006 CHAMPIONSHIP Season Finale Feature- The Dirt Track at LVMS

Australian Distributors for

NSW: 0296791990 VIC: 0393316477 SA: 0883320800

Loc it in, Eddie: Yankee Jason Johnson was too good at this year's Sprintcar Masters,showing the locals how to do it in Adelaide.

F0296791187 F0393317444 F0883640296

Points as of28th October

ust like Formula 1 CowinoutatSerta?

IS Andrew Cowin on the way out at Serta Motorsports?

The Australian drag racer is believed to have spilt with the Scott Griffinowned team, which he drove for this year in the IHRA's Top Fuel class. Cowin is currently on vacation in the United States.

Cowin grabbed a win at Milan, Michigan, earlier this year. n ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton and ANDRA Operations Manager John Westover met with representatives of the Central Australian Drag Racing Association (CADRA) in Alice Springs and inspected the site of the new Alice Springs drag strip.

The CADRA group staged regular drag racing events on a standby runway at the Alice Springs Airport for many years until the site became unavailable in 200S. Earlier this year after lobbying by CADRA,the Northern Territory Government allocated $800,000 for the construction of a permanent venue near the airport, on the site of the start/fmish area for the annual Finke Desert Race.

Located 15 kilometres south of Alice Springs, the site already provides some facilities, including toilets, adequate power and designated paddock areas.

CADRA President Guy Watts said the first stage of the development would deliver an eighth-mile bitumen track with barriers running to the south, with sealed paddock areas and an earth viewing mound on the eastern side.

"We want to be ready to start running events in March 2007."Watts said.

"CADRA is involved with the staging of events in Tennant Creek and we work well with the King Cobra Rod and Custom Club in Darwin. As soon as things are in place we'll be putting a series together between the Territory tracks, and we're looking forward to some interest from racers nearer the coast who can have a great holiday at the same time." n While in the North Territory, Thorton and Westoevr visited the Hidden Valley drag racing facility.

King Cobra Rod and Custom Club confirmed that they have plans to construct a new return road on the left side, incorporating a dedicated burnout pad. This will provide a more direct return to the paddock area.

66

Kalitta"s#3

TONY Schumacher moved back into contention for the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel championship with his fourth win of the year, stopping J.R.Todd in the final round of the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals two weeks ago.

After defeating Mike Strasburg and David Grubnic, Schumacher eliminated point leader Kalitta in the semi-finals and went on to win. His 4.46s at 313mph mph defeated Todd, who posted a 4.55s at 320mph.

"We picked up 44 points today. If we do that again in Pomona, I lose the championship by one point," Schumacher said.

After replacing Whit Bazemore just four races ago,'Fast Jack' Beckman scored his first Funny .

Car win in Just his fourth professional start. Beckman,a cancer survivor and drag racing school instructor, defeated a tyre¬

smoking Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final 4.78s/324mph to a slowing 5.70s/244mph.

In Pro Stock Richie Stevens used lightning-quick reaction times on raceday, posting a stellar .002 in the final to defeat newly-crowned Champion Jason Line, 6.78s/202mph to 6.73s/204mph.

Line's championship was his second overall and first in three years as a professional, as he won the Stock title in 1993.The KB Racing camp will retain the Pro Stock championship for the fourth straight year as Line's team-mate, Greg Anderson, has won it the last three seasons.

Back-to-back defending Pro Stock Motorcycle Champion Andrew Hines regained the points lead, defeating team-mate GT Tonglet in the final, 7.08s/l 88mph to 7.31 s/181 mph.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

POWERade points leader Doug Kalina collected a $100,000 payday after winning the 22nd annual Budweiser Shootout Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway three weeks ago.

Kalina caught and defeated Rod Fuller in the last 300 feet to claim Top Fuel's biggest single-race payout.

Fuller left first with the two cars side-by-side all the way down the track until Fuller's' Valvoline dragster tossed the blower belt past the 1,000foot timer, allowing Kalina's Von Dutch/Mac Tools dragster to take a 4.56s/329mph to 4.66s/266mph win.

"That ride back down the return road on the Budweiser Clydesdales is preny special," Kalina said. n Fuller pocketed $15,000for his runner-up . finish. Semifinalists Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon collected $6,000 each, while first-round finishers David Baca, Dave Grubnic, Melanie Troxel, and Brandon Bernstein earned $5,000.

Champions crowned in IHRA THE 2006 IHRA eMax Drag Racing Series came to a conclusion at the 'Rock'.

Dale Creasy Jr.(Funny Car), Clay Millican (Top Fuel), Pete Berner (Pro Stock), Quain Stott (Pro Mod)and MarkThomas (Alcohol Funny Car) were crowed Champions in their respective classes.

In the races at Rockingham,Jack Wyatt won Funny Car, defeating newly-crowned Champ Creasy.

All Creasy had to do was not oil the track in the final and the championship was his. In the final, he lit the red-light and idled down the track while Wyatt blasted to a winning 5.84s/l 67mph.

Millican won his 50th career IHRA Top Fuel victory.

He clocked a 4.64s/312mph in the final round to defeat Rick Cooper's game 4.65s/315mph.

Scott Cannon ended the season on a positive note with a victory in the Pro Modified class. Cannon clocked a winning 6.05s/226mph, while opponent Raymond Commisso was disqualified when he lit up

the red bulb.

Stott locked up his first Pro Mod title when Glen Kerunsky failed to crack the 6.106s bump to qualify for the quickest field in Pro Mod history.

Pro Stock winner John David OstazewskIj Montecalvo won for the first time since winning the Spring Rockingham event during the 2004 season. His 6.37s/218mph in the final knocked off Rob Mansfield, who shook the tyres.

Berner trailed Tony Gillig in the Pro Stock points chase heading into the World Finals, but his two elimination round wins, coupled vyith Gillig falling to Robert Patrick in the first round, gave Berner the championship.

Thomas put the finishing touch on his championship weekend when he defeated Paul Noakes with a 5.83s/244mph to claim the win in Alcohol Funny Car. -DAVID OSTASZEWSKI ro»-

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Return ofthe Jedi Grubnicand Kalitta will return to Sydney for the USA Boxing Day Nitro Thunder rowlev AUSTRALIAN international drag racer David Grubnic and American Scott Kalitta will return to the Western Sydney International Dragway for the Boxing Day event this year.

WSID CEO Jim Read told MNews that he was excited to have the NHRA Drag Racing front-runners back in the country for the Christmas event.

"They have been very keen to come back," Read said.

"It's going to be a pretty big event.

Against Grubnic and Kalitta, you are going to have Darren Morgan, Phil Read, probably two Santo cars, Pommie Steve Read and the new Westco team. It's going to be big."

Last year, Grubnic and Kalitta

came to the inaugural Boxing Day race at the WSID. Kalitta won on that occasion, and is said to be keen to do it again.

"Scott wants to win again," Read said."That's his thing. He said 'I won last year, I'm the Champion. I want to win again.

Aussie Dave will race one of Jim Read's Fuelers, while Kalitta will step back into the car he piloted to victory last year. It has not been raced since his win.

Grubnic and Kalitta will head back to the USA after the WSID meeting and will not contest the round at Willowbank Raceway in early January.

Grubnic is currently sixth in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Drag Racing Series. Kalitta won the Top Fuel title in

1994 and 1995.

Read also revealed that Grubnic and Kalitta were nearly non-starters.

Melanie Troxel and Tommy Johnson Jr. were originally slated to race, but due to sponsorships commitments, had to pull out.

"It was just one of those things where they had new sponsorships," Read explained."They didn't want to create any dramas for themselves.

Hopefully next year they'll be able to come down."

As a added bonus for fans this year, the Top Doorslammer class will make its debut at the Boxing Day meeting.

The winner of the Top Doorslammer class will receive a cool $15,000.

The event will start on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) and conclude on the 27th.

Back in black: Grubnic, above, and Kalitta, below.

1

Aussie Critchley gets win at Las Vegas LAS Vegas once again changed Troy Critchley's fortunes on the NHRA AMS Pro Modified tour.

The Aussie-born driver of Dave Wood's AMS Staff Leasing Barracuda scored his first points-paying event victory as he clocked a winning 6.09/235 www.mnews.com.au

to defeat newly crowned AMS world champion Jay Payne, who shook and crossed the center-line in the final round. It was one year ago that Critchley scored his only other victory in the Pro Mod Clash,a non point, bonus race for the AMS Pro Mod racers.

"This is an incredible experience,"Critchley said.

'When you work as hard at winning as we do, it's always good to see the rewards of the hard work.This is a hard working team and I am proud to be a part of it."

Critchley qualified second

in the 16-car field with a 6.09s, 236mph.

Critchley's team-mate Josh Hernandez qualified on pol but fell in the semis to Jay Payne.

The victory enabled Critchley to finish fifth in the AMS-RPM Depot NHRA Pro Mod Series.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 67

NATIONAL SCENE Edited by Andrew van Leeuwen

R-Tek F3 set to take on the Gold Star A BRAND-new team will take on the established regulars in the 2007 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star next year.

South Australian-based R-Tek F3 will run a multi-car team in next year's championship, which will begin at the A1GP event in early February.

R-Tek will be led by renowned F3 engineer Ian Richards, who has acquired a state-of-the art workshop in Northern Adelaide as well as a multi-car transporter that will double as a mobile workshop facility for the team at race meetings.

The team has also confirmed its first driver. Current F3 competitor Mat Sofi, 21, will drive for the team throughout the 2007 championship. Sofi has purchased the ex-Asian F3/Christian Jones Racing Dallara F304.

Richards retired from the sport in 2005, but was lured back in 2006 to help Sofi and National class competitor Tim Berryman.

"I had essentially retired from the sport, but after being around the championship this season I recognised that there was a need for a team to provide a service to private car owners to help them get the maximum out of their equipment," Richards said. n A brand-new management committee has been elected to oversee the future direction of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the next 12 months.

Exsisting category administrator Graeme Brown will be joined by newlyelected chairman James Rosenberg, Mark Bundle will be the secretary and Leanne Tander treasurer.

Sam Astuti and technical advisor Ian Richards will also serve as vote carrying board members.

"I'd like to welcome the new board and acknowledge the mix of youth and experience that we have heading into the 2007 championship season,"said n Rosenberg.

"Jeff Mattncr,the outgoing chairman, has put in a tireless effort for this category in the past and we certainly thank him for his commitment and dedication." n John Graham is the new president of the Commodore Cup Racing Association.

Graham,father of Commodore Cup competitor Michael Graham, has taken over the role from David Gittus.

68

THE 2007 CAMS National Series calendar was announced at the penultimate round of the CAMS National Series at Oran Park two weeks ago.

After modest success during its debut season this year, the CAMS Series has angled itself towards a bigger and better year in 2007.

The 2007 highlight will come at the season's finale at Sandown International Raceway, where the Australian GT class will hold an endurance race around the suburban Melbourne circuit.

The 350km race will feature two-drivers in each car and fixed-time pitstops to eliminate any advantages that could be gained in the pits.

Category manager Terry Little told MNews that the response to the event has been extremely positive.

He is hoping to have over 30 cars enter the race, and in turn, making it the category's flagship race.

Earlier in the year, there were plans for the Australian GT Series to support the V8 Supercar Championship Series, but developments since will see the GT class conduct five of its eight rounds with the CAMS Series.The first three rounds of the series will be as support to the A1 Grand Prix, the Clipsal 500 and the Bathurst International Motor Festival on the Easter long weekend.

In terms of the fields expected in the Australian GT class next year, Andrew Smith's Team Lamborghini has made positive noises about returning next year.

Mark Coffey has a pair of new Ferraris earmarked for the series, while two FIA GT3-spec Lotus Exiges and an Aston Martin are likely to see the race tracks in 2007.The news that the European FIA GT3 Series will run as support to the Australian Grand Prix is also likely to have an influence on the Australian GT fields next year.

While the GT category has produced a good calendar for its competitors with plenty of variety, it has lost its place as one of CAMS's'core'categories.

The amount of'core'categories has thus reduced from five to four, with Saloon Cars, Production Cars, Commodore Cup and Formula 3 maintaining their

core status. All four categories will run an eight-round championship.

The CAMS Series, which is pressing towards securing a naming-rights sponsor, released an 11-round calendar, expanding from 10.The final round of the CAMS calendar has been scheduled on the traditional 'Island Magic'meeting date (late November).

Expect to see more of the SuperTrucks on the Nationals bill as well, with five Truck rounds scheduled.The Formula Vee Association will also run a couple of National Challenge rounds, similar to this year's series.

- GRANT ROWLEY

2007 CAMS Nationals Round 1: Round 2: Round 3: Round 4: Round 5: Round 6: Round 7: Round 8: Round 9; Round 10: Round 11:

Oran Park, NSW Apr 21-22 Winton, Vic May 5-6 Queensland Raceway May 26-27 Jun 23-24 Mallala, SA Eastern Creek, NSW Jul 14-15 Aug 11-12 Phillip Island, Vic Wakefield Park, NSW Sep 8-9 Symmons Plains,Tas Sep 22-23 Oct 13-14 Mallala, SA Nov 3-4 Oran Park, NSW Nov 24-25 Sandown,Vic

motorsporinews

NATIONAL SCENE

Production Shake-up for 2007

THE Australian Production Car Championship unveiled its calendar and a new class structure at Oran Park recently.

The series will compromise of eight rounds, with seven counting towards the championship.The non-championship round will be the Bathurst 12 Hour, held in conjunction with the Bathurst International Motor Festival at Mount Panorama on the Easter long-weekend.

The remaining seven rounds of the championship will all be run at CAMS National events and will see the APCC running at Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Oran Park, Qld Raceway and finishing the year off at Sanciown.

In line with the Australian GTs 350km endurance race,see main story, the Production cars are considering a mini-enduro at Sandown to end the season.

The new class structure sees the fledging category expand by one class. The inclusion of a new'eco' fuel class will cater for the likes of gas and diesel-powered vehicles.

All vehicles must comply to the 2007 CAMS 3E technical rules.

Vehicles for each class will be

updated twice a season.

A technical sheet for all competing cars will outline vehicle ride height, racing weight and maximum turbo boost (for turbo-powered cars).

A race-by-race success ballast system will be introduced in 2007 replacing the round-by-round parity sheet. The success ballast

system can be seen as a much fairer way of targeting a driver/ car combination rather than one model of vehicle.

The three-race format will return in 2007 with the first of the three races on the Saturday being a scratch race,followed

by Sunday's two reverse class handicap races for outright

Young Gun WORLDWIDE Carrera Cup history was made last weekend in the first round of the New Zealand Porsche GTS Cup Challenge at Pukekohe Park.

At 16 years old, Jono Lester became the youngest-ever driver to enter a Carrera Cup race.

Lester qualified 10th in the 15-car field, and backed it up with ninth.

TheTaupo driver is the son of former Formula Atlantic driver Richard Lester, who these days runs and owns 'The GT3 Experience,'a drive program in NZ. "I relish the opportunity to race alongside the likes of Craig Baird, Fabian Coulthard and Matt Haliiday,"he said."I hope to learn a thing or two from some of the best in the business."

Lester competes with the #51, as the Lester family has a close relationship with the family of Greg Murphy. www.ninews.com.au

Magic Island Huge Island Magic meeting-and you can win with MNews!

THE final round of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships will run in conjunction with the RDA Rotors and EBC Brakes Island Magic,and Motorsport News is giving you a chance to win double passes to see the event on November 25-26.

Championships are still on the line In a number of categories.

Champions will be decided in Sports Sedans,the MGs,Formula Ford, Formula Vee, Historic Touring Cars and HQ Holdens.

Sports Cars and Sports Sedans will both produce quality fields for the Island Magic meeting, with a special race format set to be run.

For your chance to win one offive double passes to the Island Magic meeting,simply be one of the first to send Motorsport News a quick email. Include you name,address and contact number and we'll get the passes to you right away!

Send your details to comp@mnews.com.au

Championship points.

The Production Cars will enjoy a similarTV package to 2006, with coverage from each round on SBS'Speedweek'and also on the Foxsport network.

An opportunity to expand the TV coverage to include a Channel 9 package is also a possibility if budgets permit.

Close call goesto Bob ENTERING the final round of the 2006 Australian Supertruck Nationals at Oran Park,just two points separated Bob Middleton and John Bomberle at the top of the series standings.

Defending Champion Middleton set the pace early, topping practice before adding another two points to his lead courtesy of the fastest time in qualifying. The lead became six points, after a three second win over Bomberle in Race 1.

With three races remaining,the title could've gone either way, but eventually the tide turned in Middleton's favour in Race 2.

Bomberle was caught up amongst the reverse-grid action and eventually finished ninth, while Middleton picked his way through

to second place.

His points margin now more comfortable, Middleton made it back-to-back crowns with fourth in Race 3 and fifth in the Super Prix final.

"In 10 years of truck racing, it's never been this close at the start of the final round,"said Middleton.

"Going into Race 2 we were only six points in front, but unfortunately for John, he had a bit of trouble and dropped down to the back."

Taking the Super Prix win was Light Truck driver Steve Coulter.

Leading from the outset, Coulter had built a 6s buffer over Daniel Bajema by the time he greeted the chequered flag, to maintain his perfect record in the Light Truck ranks in 2006.

"We had a sensational weekend," Coulter said.

"The main thing on our mind was to win the Australian Light Truck Championship and once we'd achieved that, we decided to go for it and try and win the Super Prix outright."

Steven Zammit held out Middleton for the final podium

position, while Colin Lovett was fifth, ahead of Bomberle, Jeff Mackin and Ben Rose. Rose and Lovett had earlier split the spoils in the co-driver races, with Rose taking the co-driver title.

-MITCHELL ADAM Final Points; Middleton 184, Bomberle 162, Bajema 152,Zammit 142, Lovett 76, Rose 56,Hewatt33, Butler 20.

Z-Man to the rescue THE penultimate round of the 2006 Ebanc Trade Commodore Cup was once again a Marcus Zukanovic show after the versatile driver swept the board at Oran Park raceway a fortnight ago.

After snaring pole by just 0.11 s, Zukanovic promptly went on to lead all bar the first two laps of the final race to extend his championship margin over D'Agostin with just a round to go.

Tony Bates had his best hit out of the season to date, scoring second overall with two runnerup finishes behind Zukanovic.

Bates lead the first few laps of the final race and, whilst

John Morris/Mpi

unable to hold off the eventual winner, went on to elevate himself up one position in the championship order, well,within striking distance of second placed D'Agostin.

- RICHARD CRAIL Points; Zukanovic 950, D'Agostin 839, Brett Holdsworth 780, David Gittus 778, Bates 767.

Walton stars in Falcon Fest THE Supaloc Australian Saloon Car Championship will come down to the final round at Eastern Creek Raceway, after Kris Walton took out Round 6 with an intense battle with reigning Champ Bruce Heinrich at Oran Park a fortnight ago.

Despite winning all three races, Walton didn't have it easy, as Heinrich kept him under the pump from the opening race up until the final race.

Heinrich led stages of all three races, but it was Walton that managed to prevail on each occasion.

Brad Fox was third in Race 1, after third place qualifier Scott Nicholas jumped the start in and incurred a drive-through penalty.

Shaun Jamieson and Scott Nicholas finished third in Race 2 and 3 respectively.

The final round of the Supaloc Australian Saloon Car Championship will take place November 25 and 26.

-DANIEL POWELL

Ryan out in front

TRUE to the form that saw him wrap up the 2006 Shannons Australian Production Car Championship with a round to spare, David Ryan was again too good in the season finale at Oran Park a fortnight ago.

Aboard his XR6 Turbo Falcon, Ryan topped every session and won all three races, taking out the handicap race wins in particularly dominant style.

"It's been a cracker year for us," said Ryan.

"We wrapped up the title in Queensland and still wanted to come out here and do it the usual way.

"We bought tyres, and did all the little things we normally do, and it was the same result."

As has often been the case this year, Ryan's closest challenger was Steve Briffa (Holden Commodore). Briffa was

second in each race, pushing the newly-crowned Champion all the way to the line in the scratch race and setting the fastest lap.

After being pipped for fourth place by son Leigh on the final lap of Race 2, David Mertens (Proton Satria) had the last laugh in the Mertens family battle. He took the final outright podium position Race 3, as part of a dominant weekend in Class C. Amber Anderson (Toyota Echo) was next up in the final, ahead of Rob Rubis(BMW 323i).

Aided by third outright in Race 2, Rubis topped Trophy Class and was the best of the Class B runners.

-MITCHELL ADAM Final Points; Ryan 377,John Houlder259, Nick Dunkley 228, Colin Osborne 202, L Mertens 195.

Points; Fleinrich 620, Walton 576, Clint Flarvey 454,Jamieson 427,John Goodacre 312.

70

molorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE %

Macrow on the double IT'S sometimes said that when a driver breaks through for their first race win,the next few can follow pretty quickly.

Having notched up 25 starts without a win in the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship,Tim Macrow broke through for his first win at Queensland Raceway in September.

In the Oran Park season finale, he continued that form and added another two comfortable wins to his tally.

"It was good to get that first one under our belt at Queensland," Macrow said.

"We had a couple of dramas in the first race and probably should've won both races there, but everything worked perfectly this weekend.

"We were a bit slow on Friday, but we made a lot of changes to the car and from then on the car was fantastic and we were right on the pace."

Having campaigned an older 2001 model Dallara for the first six rounds, Macrow took three wins from four starts in the Cooltemp Racing-owned 2004 chassis, a late season flurry which saw him pip the absent Michael Trimble for second in the Championship.

"We were punching above our weight in the '01," he said.

"It was a great car, but it isn't quite a match for the'04s, and it shows that this was what we needed to win.

"I was hoping [Champion] Ben [Clucas] would be here this

— weekend,so I could prove that we could definitely race with him.

We raced with him in the '01 and wringed the neck out of it, but couldn't quite get up to the '04 pace.

"I reckon this weekend we could have proved that in equal equipment we could have done the business against him,so it's really satisfying."

Behind Macrow in each race was a dice between Chris Gilmour and Stuart Kostera for second.

Gilmour got the upper hand in both races to record his best result since 2004, with Kostera less than

a second in arrears each time.

LeanneTander was the one to catch early in the weekend, topping practice and taking pole position for Race 1 - becoming the first female to do so in a Gold Star race. Sunday was a day to forget,though. She recovered to fourth in Race 1 after stalling at the start, and took sixth in Race 2 following an early spin.

Also in the wars was Chris Alajajian, whose partial season ended with an opening race fluid leak-induced DNF,and fourth in Race 2 after repeating Tander's Turn 5 spin a lap later.

f

Next up was Daniel Pappas, who took a pair of fifth place finishes in his first run in the class for over two years.

Snapping at the heels of the outright cars,Tim Berryman topped National Class and was sixth outright.

Meanwhile, a pair of class wins helped Graeme Holmes snatch the Trophy Class title from seasonlong points leader Lauren Gray, who was second in each race.

-MITCHELL ADAM Final Points: Clucas 249, Macrow 197, Trimble 191, Gilmour 150,Tander 118, Alajajian 82.

Walk in the parkfor Randle THE fifth round of the 2006 Kerrick Industrial Australian Sports Sedan series from Oran Park a fortnight ago was notable for three key reasons.

The first was that the series appears to be on an upward climb, with a strong 20-car field entered for the final shootout.The second was the fact that Tony Ricclardello was back to his brilliant best, and dominated the round. And reason three,the great story of Dean Randle breaking Ricciardello's string of championship victories to win the title for the first time.

Randle was at his consistent best at Qran Park, scoring a trio of top-four race results to seal the title.The feat Is made even more remarkable given his car was all but destroyed in a crash at www.mnews.com.au

Phillip Island in May this year.

Ricciardello was the round winner and dominated proceedings.The West Australian's Alfa Romeo/Chev seemed to do only what it needed to do in each race to assure the outgoing champion of maximum points - and second in the title race behind Randle despite missing the Queensland's penultimate round.

Daniel Tamasi continued his climb to the top with a string of strong results - and third in the championship - while Jeff Barnes (Trans Am)and Stephen Voight(300ZX) were also amongst the thick of it.

- RICHARD CRAIL Final Points: Randle 227, Ricciardello 195,Tamasi 168, Stephen Voight 123, Glen Hastings 95.

James Smithy

71

Newman/Berry win Indy Rally RUSSELL Newman and Mark Berry dominated the 2006 Indy Rally, leading all four days of the event.

The pair were entered to drive a Nissan Skyline, however engine problems forced them into Newman's wife's Mitsubishi Evo.

ALLAN Simonsen overcame a 50-plus second deficit to take victory at Round 2 of the Cue Sports Car Enduro series at Queensland Raceway.

The Danish super-sub, co driving a Ferrari 360 GT with owner Ted Huglin, took over the car on lap 14 of the 40-lap enduro and lapped some three second under the pace to take the lead from Wayne Hennig (Porsche 996 GT2) with five minutes remaining.

Third place was taken by the ex-Le Mans 24 Hour Porsche GT3-RS of Phillip Holzberger.

The meeting also saw the penultimate round of the Queensland State Championships.

Steve Morcombe (Chiron-Toyota) clinched his second Sports Car Crown,taking two wins over Paul Bolinowsky (Porsche 996 GT3 Cup), with lain Pretty (Classic Revival Cobra) and Malcolm Lynn picking up thirds. Gary Bonwick dominated HQs,defending his title ahead of Brad Schomberg.

Controversy erupted within the Geminis with the five-car team entered by dual race winner Cameron Wilson disqualified after 72

one ear was deemed to have an undersized fan. Mike Olsen inherited Race 1 win with Rod Dawson taking the second.

Justin Keys(Mazda RX3) won the first Improved Production race but retired from the lead in the second.Tony Isarasena (Mazda RX7) won the second from Troy Marinelli (EscortTurbo).

Bruce Dummet(Torana XU-1) took both HistoricTouring Car wins with Ron Lange (Torana XU1) taking a third and a second ahead of Matt McGrath (Falcon GTHO).

Michael Uebergang (Falcon AU) won both Saloon Car races but Tim Young (Falcon EA)took the points with two seconds ahead of Lindsay Kearns (Falcon EA).

Shane Hart(Jabiru) took both wins over Grant Bromley (Jacer).

A late spin robbed Jonathan Grant(Van Diemen RF02) of two wins with Martin Swindells(Van Diemen RF04)taking the second Formula Ford race. Colin Smith (Rover-Chev) dominated Sports Sedans ahead of Damien Assailit (ex-Waldock Falcon Supercar).

-MARK JONES

THE fourth round of the South Australian State Motor Racing Series at Mallala Motorsport Park marked the completion of the 2006 championship.

Lyndon Punshon had an incredible weekend,taking victory in the Sports Car class with victory in two of the three races ensuring him the Sports Car Championship.

Punshon also drove his Ford Mustang to a round victory in the weekend's HistoricTouring Car category. After a second place in Race 1, Punshon was able to fend off the competition in the next two races, taking a win in both.

But the 2006 SA Historic Touring Car Champion was Rory O'Niell.The Porsche driver experienced a mediocre weekend, however a 103 points lead entering the round ensured him the title.

Entering the last round of the Saloon Car Championship, Wayne King enjoyed a 140-

point lead over Peter Holmes.

Two wins and a second placing saw King convincingly win the title.

The Improved Production championship experienced a similar situation where James Sutton entered Round 4 with a -eS 127-point lead. After a victory '3 in Race 1, Sutton did not finish ’’ Race 2,and failed to start the third. With such an exorbitant points lead, however, he still claimed the title.

Graham Mason entered the last round of the HQ Holden Championship in the lead and that's where he remained for the duration ofthe meeting.

Bo Jensen was leading Grant Ironside in the 2006 SA Formula Vee Championship by a single point entering Round 4.With victory in two races and a second pace finish, Ironside surpassed Jenson in the points to become the eventual Champ.

-DANIEL JORDAN

Winning Woodger

9

I ●' V

TROY Woodger has dominated the fourth and final round of the South Australian Formula Ford Championship.

Entering the round second in the series, Woodger took victory in all three races, but was unable to advance into the series lead.

The weekend's result means that Woodger won all but one race that he started in this year's championship, however

the Spectrum driver missed Round 1, largely disturbing his championship campaign.

Despite an unfortunate weekend comprising of a third, fourth and a DNF, Jake Chapman claimed the series win.The 2006 Champ drove well throughout the series, eventually leading fellow South Australian Woodger to the title.

-DANIEL JORDAN

motorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

Baird wins,Coulthard stars

Aussie Overseas DAVID Besnard has kicked off his debut season in the NZV8 Championship with a round victory at Pukekohe Raceway last weekend.

The Aussie dominated the opening round of the series, taking two wins and a second place from the three races, and scoring 217 of the available 225 points.

"It's just an awesome effort really and I have to thank Bairdo (Craig Baird)for setting up this deal for me,"said Besnard.

"If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been introduced to Greg (Bellingham)and been given this opportunity to compete in the championship. It's a great team - no egos,so really enjoyable.

"Even though we've had a dream run here today, we need to get more out of the car. This is the first round with six to go so we need to keep moving forward."

Having finished second to John McIntyre in the opening race of the weekend, Besnard

was on form in Race 2,taking the lead with six laps to run and finishing 1.7s clear of series stalwart Angus Fogg.

The downside of winning the second race was that Besnard was banished to the rear of the 30-car field for the reverse grid race, however that proved to be only a minor inconvenience.

By the half-way mark of the 20lap race Besnard had moved into third spot, and with two laps to run, he took over the lead of the race from Fogg. He went on to record his second victory of the day ahead of Kayne Scott.

He now holds a 43 point series lead over McIntyre.

Luke Youlden had a solid weekend,finishing third in Races 1 and 2. He is fourth in the series.

The next round of the NZV8 Championship will be at Ruapuna Park on November 24.

Points: Besnard 217, Mclntyrel74, Fogg 137,Youlden 136, Mark Pedersen 132,Dean Perkins 127,Clark Proctor 123, Andy Booth 101,Paul Manuell 99, Haydn Mackenzie 92.

AUSTRALIAN Carrera Cup series leader Craig Baird has proven he is just as good at driving Porsches on the other side of the Tasman by winning the opening round of the GTS Cup Challenge at Pukekohe last weekend.

Baird's round win came without a race victory. But two second places and a third from the three races was enough to secure sufficient points.

"You certainly can't take anything away from Fabian (Coulthard)," said Baird.

Gaunt back on top NEW Zealander Daniel Gaunt has won the opening round of the 2006/2007 Toyota Racing Series at Pukekohe last weekend.

The defending series Champ made a perfect start to the weekend by qualifying fastest ahead of Nic Jordan and Andy Knight.

He then went on to absolutely dominate the opening race, finishing a handy 4.2s ahead of second placed Ben Harford.

Harford was closer to Gaunt's pace in the second race, however it wasn't enough. Gaunt taking

Westfrom the West GARRY West has been crowned the 2006 Australian Hillclimb Champion after victory at Bathurst last weekend.

The West Australian waited until the final run to make his move,flying across the top of Mount Panorama in 21.62s, 1.2s below the previous record, to win the outright title in his Lola F3000.

"We had the worst weekend until the final run," said West.

"We stripped a gear on the first run, and hadn't had a good run until the final, so to go www.mnews.com.au

"We got the win but we did it with reliability and consistency rather than ultimate pace."

Coulthard looked to be on for round honours after dominating the opening two races. He well on the way to victory in the reverse top-six final as well, but a broken gear selector left his car stuck in fourth gear.This allowed Matt Halliday to take the win.

Alex Davison had an unfortunate start to the weekend,slamming into a barrier following a tyre blow out during Friday practice.

1.2s under the lap record and jump from third to first on the final run is just amazing!"

Current British Hillclimb Champion Martin Groves made the long trek to Bathurst, and was leading the event up until the final run in a Gould GR55B. Groves was unable to improve on his fastest time of21.84s on the final run, but still wound up second outright.

Third outright was Andrew Howell, who was sharing the Gould with Groves.

Peter Gumley finished fourth, while Neil Farr was fifth.

Euan Cameron

the win by just over Is. Gaunt seemed on course for victory in the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy race, however a skirmish with a lapped car left him off the circuit. He recovered, but couldn't do anything about Aussie F3 Champ Ben Clucas who took the win.

11

(

Park the car,take the kart l ll A GROUP in America is promoting karting as an alternative to illegal street racing.

With the slogan 'Stop Street Racing, Try Karting,'the group is aiming its promotion at younger drivers who practice the illegal and dangerous act of racing their cars on public roads.

"I believe that once these street racers are exposed to karting they will be hooked"said program founder Jim Pirzas."(Karting's) acceleration, braking and cornering speeds can only be duplicated in the highest forms of motorsport. Furthermore, karting will educate a driver in skid control and a smoother driving technique making them safer drivers on the road." n Italian manufacturer Intrepid has won the contract to supply the chassis for the Senior MAX class at the upcoming Rotax World Finals.

The kart has been developed significantly over the last two years with input from Australian Team-V driver Ben George. n Scott Speed and TonioLiuzzi will not be competing in this weekend's SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas.

It seems the organiser,SuperkartslUSA, has not been able to get the event onto the international CIK calendar.

As such, the FIA has advised the two FI drivers that if they participated in this non-CIK-FIA event they would risk losing their Superlicence. n The local Gillard karts dealer network continues to expand with the appointment of a key Sydney dealer recently. All About Trailers/Gillard Team Sydney has been established and will carry the latest Charlotte model frames. n KelTreseder was a triple winner at Bundaberg's Queensland Closed Titles last month.Treseder won Titles in Leopard Heavy, Rotax Heavy and Sportsman Heavy.

Nathan Assaillit won Junior Clubman while John Grother and Kane Rowswill won Leopard Light and Rotax Light respectively. n The annual Hambledon Hotel 100-Lap events will close the racing season at Cairns on November 18. , The juniors and senior classes will each have a 100 lap race while the Vidgets/Rookie race will be over 60.

-MARK WICKS 74

All in thefamily

IT'S not often that almost onethird of the wins at a state title go to the one family, but that's exactly what happened at the Smokefree Western Australian State Titles at Bunbury last month.

No less than five state championships went the way of the Kandola family - two wins apiece to brothers Deepal and Amrit and one victory to cousin Pavan.

Fresh from success on the east

coast, Amrit clocked up wins in Junior Clubman and Junior National FHeavy. Deepal won Clubman Light and Leopard Light while Pavan earned the Senior National FJeavy title.

With the Kandola's taking home so many blue plates, there was little else for the rest. FHowever, former KartStars driver Blake Mills had a big weekend claiming, both the Light and Fleavy Rotax Championships. Carrying the number 24 in respect of the

Millard family, Remo Luciani won Clubman Over 40s and was second to Ben Van Ryt in Clubman Heavy.

Victories were also earned

by Jonathan Venter (Midgets), Nicholas Pearson (Rookies), Adam Marjoram (Junior National Light), Marc Pracy (Senior National Light), Anthony Higgs(Clubman Super Heavy), Leigh Boujos (Leopard Heavy) and BD Souter-Dawson (Open Class).

-MARK WICKS

Hyper Sexy Karting WHO says karting isn't sexy?

Jon Crooke's HyperRacer brand will be displaying at Sexpo 2006 in Melbourne later this month, and while a HyperRacer probably won't get you a woman,Crooke's rationale for such a bold non racing related promotion makes sense.

"There's a large audience of 18 to 30-year-old testosterone charged males - our target market" he explained.

But it appears there has been some resistance from within the Superkart community about a family-oriented sport being represented at an adult event.

"My goal at this show is to sell HyperRacers to people with disposable income"Crooke continued.

"Junior age drivers do not have disposable income and therefore

Gympie Grand Prix

do not buy Superkarts. But their fathers do - and they wili be at the Expo."

-MARK WICKS

A NEW karting facility is set to open in Queensland next weekend.

The Gympie Gold KartTrack has recently been completed, and will kick off it's racing this Sunday with a meeting run by the Coolola Coast Kart Club.

Measuring 890 metres in length,the new circuit layout has turned heads with its undulation and variation throughout the 10 corners.

Matthew Worling will be the first driver to take the circuit in a kart, with a five-lap demonstration on Saturday.

motorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

Emotional victory in South Oz

JUST a month after losing his parents in a tragic road accident, Kevin Millard has raced to his first ever-state karting title.

The 22-year old claimed the South Australian Championship in Clubman Heavy at Mount Gambler on October 29.

Having qualified third, Millard (Monaco) won the opening heat and finished second to Jason Pringle in the pre-final. But at the start of the final, Lee Mitchener blasted through from the second row to take the lead. Not to be denied, Millard carved his way to the front by mid-race. After Remo Luciani made an attempted pass on Mitchener with nine laps remaining, Millard opened a gap that he never relinquished. Luciani was second ahead of Pringle.

"I really didn't need to be racing this soon but I was here this weekend for my parents, they would have wanted me to be here," Millard said.

"I've been so close to a title for so long and should have won a few times. It is a pity they weren't here to see my first."

In the junior classes, local ace Scott Pye was the standout, winning two titles in his last appearance as a junior.

Undefeated all meeting in Junior National Heavy, Pye(Arrow) had to work a bit harder in the Junior Clubman heats, Scott McLaughlin throwing out the challenge.

However, McLaughlin retired after an opening lap skirmish, allowing Pye to take a lights-to-chequer win. Jesse Batson came through from the rear for second.

Having swapped the lead with Jacob Witherow, Radovan Pavicevic won Midgets. After seven lead changes, a last corner pass sealed the Rookie win for Cameron Waters.

A gamble of wet tyres on a drying track worked for Paul Sharman (Tony Kart) in Junior National Light. Jordan Ford led at the start before Sharman got through on lap seven. And there he stayed, covering every challenge that Ford made.

Matthew Wall (Arrow) once again went wheel-to-wheel with the Sera cousins in Clubman Light and Leopard Light. After a battle for the lead, James Sera (Monaco) got up for the Clubman win. Wall second.

Contact with fastest qualifier and heats winner David Sera saw Wall off the circuit in the Leopard final, but a handful of laps later he had regained the lead. After a brief battle. Sera slowed with a deflating tyre, handing second to Millard. Nathan Mills claimed a convincing win in Leopard Heavy over Jeremey Anderson.

David Sera (Arrow) redeemed himself in Rotax Light, beating Bart Price to the title. Rotax Heavy went to Nathan Van Es ahead of Aaron Rintoul.

A last lap pass gave Adelaide's Matthew Panella the Senior National Light victory over prefinal winner James May. Remo Luciani was unchallenged in Over 40s. It was a similar deal in the Clubman Super Heavy final for Anthony Higgs.

-MARK WICKS

p ^ -■>-

Stars on the rise LEIGH Nicolaou, Daniel Erickson, Scott Pye and Robert Munnerley have made it through to be the four Entry Level CAMS Rising Star squad members for 2007.

The top six applicants were interviewed recently by a special panel of CAMS

representatives and an Australian Institute of Sport psychologist.

"Although only averaging 17 years of age, they have approximately 35 years of motor sport experience between them," commented Quentin Crombie from CAMS.

The four young karters now face their biggest test - a training camp at the AIS and an on-track Formula Ford evaluation day at Mallala to determine who will receive one of the subsidised drives for 2007.

-MARK WICKS

NATIONAL SCENE

Groeneveld the great AUSTRALIAN Touring Car Challenge newcomer Philip Groeneveld caused an upset by winning Round 7 of the series at Calder Park Raceway two weeks ago.

A victory and second place in two handicapped events was enough to cement the round win over Luke Searle and Brad Lowe.

Groeneveld was awarded the perpetual Peter Brock trophy for the round victory, a trophy that will be handed over to each Calder Park round winner of the ATCC. Brad Lowe was the first to take control of the round when he

bolted to a 1 Os victory in Race 1. He then made ground in the first handicap race and finished fifth. Lowe had to overcome a 45 second handicap in the final, and a slight lose saw him make contact with Terry Wyhoon.

David Krause was also on target for the round win after two podium finishes, however a tail shaft failure in the final ended his race.

Luke Searle scored top five finishes in all three races in his BMW 320i Super Tourer.

- AARON SHAW Points; Wyhoon 825, Krause 725,5earle 566, Bruce Oaklands 431 Dean Neville 415.

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THE penultimate round of the AMRS was held at Calder Park : Raceway two weeks ago.

Derek Pingall won both F4000 races and claimed the round win.Ty Hanger finished a close second, meaning the duo will head into the final round of the series with only a single point separating them.

Frank Marchese cruised to a SuperTT clean sweep as he won ail three races. Even the handicappers couldn't prevent Marchese winning. Mark White finished second overall.

Production Touring Car Challenge honours went to

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Luke Searle who won two of three races.Team-mate Peter Kelly held off Searle to claim the second race.

George Miedecke won Class B and Daniel Flanagan Class C. Tom Drewer blitzed the Thunder Sports field, winning ' all three races. Scott Lyddiard in a Porsche 993,finished second overall followed closely by Paul " Quinn in a Future Racer.

Darren Formosa stamped his authority on the 3.3 Litre Holden class at Calder Park with two race wins and two second placings.

-AARON SHAW

Fax: 08 8363 5633

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ROCKET CATALOGUE RELEASED latest Industries performance parts catalogue Rocket is set to deliver its just in time for Christmas. Available mid November,the 2007 Rocket Performance Parts catalogue features over 270 pages crammed with the latest products from over 130 of the best known brands in the automotive industry.

This year's catalogue has been designed to be more user-friendly and has all relevant parts grouped together with lots of photos to avoid confusion and to represent the full range available.

The 2007 Catalogue is already available for download, or you can order a printed copy from the Rocket web site at www. rocketind.com

REPLICAS Reigning V8released Supercar Russell Ingall has a champion limited number of replica race helmets from his 2005 championship season.

Six months in production, the first 10 helmets have been made available for immediate delivery.

The helmet from the Aral GPS range has identical paintwork and livery to the helmet Ingall wore on the day he collected his maiden title at Phillip Island.The helmet sits in a specially-designed clear case, which includes a unique black carbon-fibre-look base.

RACESHOP autographed and will include any nnessage a fan might want added to the finished product.

The cost has been kept relatively low for such products, at $A2990, plus $A95 packaging, postage and handling within Australia. More information, and order form/ details can be accessed via russellingall.com

vision.Boul

Ail the helmets have been prepared by Craig Goss at Headcase in Brisbane and include original chroming which is one of the most expensive helmet finishes in the market.

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Trevor Sheumack 0418 548 578 orfkt^l dltutkutoj of Michtlln Motoitpon tyres In AuttreliiU

motorsport news

CLASSIFIED_Si^^^

RACE AND PERFORMANCE CLASSIFIEDS

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r. ;?/'7777 online classifieds GET IT^

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Silverado and Daytona Trailer

Find hundreds more race vehicles and parts for sale at www.my105.com

$78,000 ONO. Garry 0413 879 879.

Open Wheelers

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www.myl O5.com/11740 Speedway

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51

350

A

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Formula Vee Historic Formula Vee Elfm Copy. Built by George Reynolds in 1971. Running on original 1970's log book. Car has not raced since 1997 and is complete but requires re assembly.

Engine rebuilt in 1996 and has 8 meetings use. Includes enclosed trailer. 12,500.00 Neg. Rob 0413 303 418.

www.myl05.eom/37970

Transporter / motorhome Hino2000

Detroit Locker Diff Centre 2 Detroit Locker Diff Centres to suit Borg Warner 78 (9 bolt tin piate cover on rear) Professionally modified from ford 9 inch $750. Other unit made to suit the housing (unmodified) very rare $1000. Jeff 0418640495.

www.myl 05.com/31555 349

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Commodore VR/VS

SPIRIT WL06 Mid Coast Ford Racing National formula ford car prepared by Anglo Motorsport & Mid Coast Ford Racing. Comes complete with Ohlins shocks, AIM dash with all logging sensors, 2 sets performance wheels and spares package. Race engine in car + brand new spare engine complete ready to race Top 5 front running national race car. best presented car QLD raceway, Oran Park 2006 Price: POA Contact :Wally 0419993155 . JOEL 0408523151.

Mud gards. Bonnet, Doors, Porter Panels, Boot, Bumper Bars, Lights. $150 each or $1500 for the lot. Contact Robin 0428 195 868.

www.my105.com/42801 Transporters/Trailers

SHOP

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Complete bare chassis rebuild, upgraded body complete with enclosed trailer both in imaculate condition must sell. Call Chris 0411 351 404. $20,000.

www.my105.com/93154 Parts

in

This is a purpose built Point of Sale Merchandise Trailer that cost over $60k to build. It has 3 glass display cabinets, two 18 shelve storage system, adjustable display lights, remote alarm system, electric brakes, reverse cycle airconditioning, aluminium checkplate workways, pull out shade, ramp and stair access, 8 near new tyres, ready to go, used at V8's, Superbikes, MX, FMX and Super and Summer Nats. Assembles in 20min by one person!. $35 000 Neg. Marcelo 0409002503.

Drags

F250V8 diesel 4x4 auto fully loaded with extras, sold with warrenty. 38ft trailer has air con. living quarters, carries two open wheel cars or one sedan. Has all you could possibly need, work benches, vice, bench grinder, 240 generator, tyre racks, independant suspension, commercial split rims & truck tyres, alloy checker plate floor, 240 & 12v power, electric remote controlled landing legs, shower & toilet. Call for full inventory. $155,000.00. RUSS 0408793695 / 0754492860.

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TFORD FALCON 1964 V8 SPRINT Ford 1964 original V8 Falcon Sprint, good solid body, 289 400hp engine, holley carb, mallory ignition, extractors, alloy crossflow radiator with electric fans, 4 speed toploader, lakewood bellhousing, hurst shifter, 4.89 detroit locker, traction bars, frame rails tied, 4 point ss roll bar, disc brakes with linelocker, lots more, can be turned into circuit car, call for more info,. 26,500.0432733832.

www.myl05.com/21047

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349

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Karts For Sale

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\ T h -I X FULLY ENCLOSED TRI-AXLE RACE TRAILER .V

Transporter

$950 each. Joseph 0419 897 217.

ISUZU JCR420 Pan body MR licence. Tare 8580 GVM 12850, 22 Li/IOOKm Full tailgate hydraulic lifter NSW reg 02/07. $55,000. Dave 0418418555/02 4887 1244.

349

349

www.mnews.com.au

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t' if

race seats x 2 (black)

1983 ELWYN 004 FFord with "State spec" Lamer engine, spare set of 4x Performance alloy wheels/tyres, gear ratios, spare nose and spare wishbones mouid etc. 4th o'right last start. All set up info and CAMS Cof D with historic log book . winner in the right hands. (Also available spare "new” complete Lamer engine extra $5,800 FIRM or will sell separately) PRICE the lot $36,000 or $31,000 without spare engine. Robert (02) 9817 5654 anytime or email ibcholdings@bigpond.com.

F250WITH GOOSENECK TRAILER

MERCHANDISE TRAILER

Formula Ford and Enclosed Trailer

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1983 ELWYN 004FFord

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www.myl05.com/39366

Transporter/motorhome Hino 2000 model, lOmtr tray, seats 7, hydrolic tail lifter with ramps, 5 star living, gas water, shower area, microwave, cook top, range hood, flat screen tv, dvd surround sound, fuil kitchen, professionally built, a/c reverse cycle, 2x370 Itr water tanks, 12/24/240 volt, suit long dragster, sedan, ect .fit out 6 mths old, health reasons force sale $125,000 ph 0418 879 611.

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Fully lined: wired 24 and 12 volt fully lit, electric loading winch, super strong chassis - towing arm and park leg, kitchenette, cupboard space and forward living area, secure external lockers, electric brakes on all axles, internal storage, will take any size race or drag car anywhere. $33,000.00 Phone: Josh 0439 731 695. For any email enquiries, please Attention to Josh at info@bcglaw.com

www.myl05.com/72855

350

Midget Kart for Sale Arrow Demon Midget Kart c/w AKA restrictor some spares. Trolley, racesuit, helmet, gloves boots,kidney belt and neck brace also available. Great kids intro package Engine prepared by Ian Saville Karting World Camden. Very Lightly raced (practice only). $2000 Or Best Offer. Mark 0413947952.

www.myl05.com/33663

349

79

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2ZZ7

online classifieds GET IT^

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SELL yoi^^ts,

motorsport vehicle or anything to do with motorsport via our internet classified

Group Nc Mustang

fiartners myl or as little asOS.cqm $35! Yes,3 months on my105.com, plus an insertion here in MNews, all foras little as $35. *(if directly entered onto my105.com)

Either log on to myl 05.com and follow the prompts (photo must be digital, if required) OR you can still advertise via mail/fax ($10 surcharge applies) and send us your car photo if you require one ($10 pic processing fee).

Type/write your advertisement clearly (no more than 50 words), nominate your category and include your pic(s). Mail or email (include credit card and your details) - see addresses below.

Ads without pics may be faxed, along with your details/contact and credit card details.

Currently leading Over 3 Litre SA State Championship.lOth at '06 Clipsal. Won '04 Vic series.

Runner up'03, New 289(dyno sheets). Spare Close ratio Top Loader,2 pairs new rotors.12 wheeis-4 Duniop wets, 4 xl meeting oid Yokohama's,4x4 meeting Yokohama's.

Loads of other spares. 1:20.4 Mallala. $65,000.00 inc trailer Not Neg. Lyn 0417826284.

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CHECKLIST -haveyou supplied:

6\

Honda S2000

PWR v8supercar chassis pwr 03 built 2000. Comes with all pit gear required to run the car including fuel rig and boom, and servicing tools. Has very recently had a full strip down and crack test. Huge spares package will be included, must be sold Car is presently in NZ but ready to ship. Contact Warren Davison 0414 646 873 ore-mail wj_davis2003@yahoo.com.au for any inquirey. $95,000.

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F

350

Honda S2000, winner of Class A in 2005 Australian Production Car Championship.

Ready to race and win in the GTP Privateers Cup - 3 wins from 3 starts in 2006. Car has been maintained with no expense spared, and is available immediately. Start planning your Bathurst 12 Hour campaign and 2007 GTP season (at V8 Supercar events with Channel 7TV package) today. Also suitable for tarmac rallies and club level racing. $39,000.

Call Wayne, 0412 677 786.

www.my105.com/37819

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A Piece Of History

Sedans/Sports Cars; Open Wheelers; Speedway; Drag; Engines; Parts; TransportersArailers; EmploymentPhotographs; Wanted.

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351

FORD FALCON AU V8SUPERCAR

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Mitsubishi Mirage RS Cup Car 19^ Mitsubhl Mlaae fiS Cgs Ca* tsHt by a^rt . RUlIrrirt ciO£ afl& gsarbox. iBIiait LSD. KYB adjust^dE sussnsw & miriBC engine, tesh 3 hours, naui clutch, s«ae spares * wha aiqnrnEnt has. RgBjShIg EQ licztbnd ritra cavistltlua (Bho tBiret SLilt by BladiAurn talers in 04 for «te 4200*1970 with drop anSs aid beax^t «El $3tDO.OO Muai£ flS $ 1.00 ffeL iaer^ (317 ^ / 0417 369 SB

Replica Mazda Rally Team Europe 323, won innaugural Rally Australia, driven by Ingvar & Per Carlsson. Actual car has extensive Rally Oz history dating back to 89. Motec M4; Harnesses tagged for next year; Drummond suspension; Velo seats; terratrip; Terraphone; MRTE light pod and spares. Car signed by Carlsson; Hirvonen; Atkinson; McNeall; Moya; Mills; Guirudet. Own a piece of history which book-ends Rally Australia. $12500 ONO. Glen 0409371715/0895740202.

www.myl05.com/32753

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Porsche 944 Unfinished Project for sale due to work commitments. 944 Challenge Car. RHD Aust del car. Still has Hamiltons sticker on rear hatch. Full Cage by Fabraications, Interior light grey. Ext colour Navy. F/Glass Dash with gauges /switches etc. Perspex side windows/ net. Aluminium door trims and floor panel.

Wolf ECU. Alum radiator. RSR front arms. Lwt alternator bracket.. $20000 ONO. Barry 0409 432 499.

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349

www.myl Oicom/46973

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VP Commodore V8 rally/race/tar Datsun Sunny Race Car Nothing spared on this vehicle, CA16 high comp motor with EMS, New race tech Seat and Sparco 5 point harness. Cams log book, roll cage has to bee seen to be belived, huge willwood brakes ad] brake bias, adj suspension too much to mention but very quick car and nothing to spend. Just get in and race. $12500 Neg. dale 0402318515.

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race preped engine, high energy sump, remote oil fi lter with oil cooler, cold air induction, high torque starter, direct clutch button, 9" with reinforced housing, 31 spline billet axles, detroit locker, 4 spot calipers front/rear, twin master pedal box, bias valve, prof prep suspension, 10 point CAMS roll cage, log book, super tuff and quick, spares inc 4 sets of mags, 3 events old. $ 18500. david jones 07 55 292 366 / 0412498500.

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PRB Clubman PRB S2 - Toyota 4AGE Silvertop 20v standard (dyno sheet available on request). Close ratio T50 gearbox (newly reconditioned) and Isd. 2003 Standard Class championship winning car. Silver, carbon fi bre front guards/nose cone. NSW Road registered (and compliance plated) - 12 months rego. Single axle trailer.

Times: EC 1.43, OP 1.16, WP 1.04. 3 sets of wheels (slicks, wets and new ROH road rims with Dunlop DOl tyres) plus spares, 33,000.

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ready to race and win in the GTP Privateers Cup. No expense spared, car immaculately prepared by Ric Shaw Racing. This car currently leads the Privateers Cup and is available immediately - get in early and be prepared for the Bathurst 12 hour and 2007 GTP season, running at V8 Supercar events with Channel 7 television package. Also suitable for tarmac rallies and club level racing. $32,000. Call Wayne,0412 677 786.

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RT E49 Charger Cams log booked NC, newly completed project, showing potential doing low 1.43 at Winton long track. Very regretful sale, competed only twice at sprint meets, limited spares, some RT items fitted full floating cambered BW diff, all mechanicals new, adjustable bias braking system, car has huge potential for enthusiast wanting completed project. $45000.00 Neg. neville 0414540449.

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By the time this piece is published,Terry would have driven his last NASCAR Nextel Cup race, at Texas Motor Speedway.

It will be emotional, realising that Terry will not be driving in NASCAR's top series anymore.

I enjoyed watching Terry drive.

It always seemed natural, and I almost always knew that Terry would make to the chequered flag,for mistakes were not part of his style. I caught the tail-end ofTerry's career when I started taking an interest in NASCAR, but the man's ability couldn't be questioned.

Two NASCAR Winston Cup trophies; one IROC Championship; 22 NASCAR wins, along with wins in the Busch Series and the think) at Calder and a reputation for being one of the most versatile NASCAR drivers of all time, with wins on all possible configurations that he raced on.

n Contributors

Terry's last win at Darlington in 2003, was a fantastic moment for me.

FIHoe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin D. Clark, Phil Morris Speedway:Greg Boscato, Geoff Rounds, Darren Sutton,Tony Millard (UK) Rally: Ryan Lahiff Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski(USA), Ken Ferguson,John Bosher National: Mark Wicks, Mark Jones, Mitchell Adam Photographers:Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/ Mpix, AF1 images,James Smith,Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn,Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, CBR Photographies, Paris Charles, Bob Potts, Neil Hammond,Joel Strickland, Mike Patrick (UK) Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55125120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Printed by: Webstar Printing Distributed by: NDD Ltd Material published by MOTORSPORT NEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted. ●Opinions expressed in Motorsport Nevrs ate not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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championship hopes by changing the two teams drivers around.

The results showed the move got what it deserved - I think that's known as Karma,Tom. Tom showed he could not care

Send usyQurCfiioughts: PO Box 7072, Brighton,VIC,3186 mnews@m news.com.au

races of participation in NASCAR Winston Cup competition.

I want to take this opportunity to wish Terry Labonte the best in retirement, and best wishes for the future.

Damien Harwood setonfanatic@hotmail.com

Craftsman Truck Series; a win (I

Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au

^uu^aijpfjom

I would like to congratulate Tom Walkinshaw on his deci sion to screw Garth Tander's

categories of motor racing -Terry Labonte.

Deputy Editor: Mark Glendenning mark@mnews.com.au

Australia (mcGST) Overseas (airmail): New Zealand & Asia Rest of the World

What goes around,comes around

^errific Terry ^ould like to pay tribute to wie of my favourite drivers in all

Orchestra? No...

I can't help but wonder if Rick Kelly's win in Race 3 at Surfers Paradise was an orchestrated move by the TWR group.

Todd surely had the race wrapped up. But in Ferrari-like scenario, when the driver who has not yet won a race for the year and is the leading contender for Holden In the championship, then one has to wonder what needed

It was great to see him win, and do that wonderful victory lap.

Terry might be remembered more for his personality, than his driving ability, which is considerable.

He was known as the Iceman, for his cool and calm demeanour, and also as the Ironman,for a

to be done to give Rick a win.

Who would want a champion who cannot win races?

Paul Lister

setting a then-record 655 straight

plister@bigpond.net

Number 101 calling ...

I guess you'll get a hundred letters congratulating WIN Power on his excellent effort at Indy. Well here's the 101st.

Pole position and moral winner of the race is a brilliant effort in what is a rookie year. I hope his career goes onward and upward.

PS: Agree 100 percent with your views on the banning of the warm up lap burnout - what a load of rubbish. And as you say, it comes at a time when grid girls are falling like flies...

Michael Harrison Logan, QLD PT, you're alright with me!

Great effort by Paul Tracy to come out and tell the truth about his

Injuries or any of that crap. Just a good, honest, and somewhat humourous explanation of a bloke having a few too many brews and trying get an golf-cart airborne.

But it is nice to know he won't get in strife from CCWS for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Mark Stephen Ruse, NSW

■

n ^^mnews poll results What was the biggest moment of the Surfers weekend?

Power on pole: 60%

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recent injury.

There was not talk about tennis

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less about the supporters of both Garth and Todd Kelly, many of whom have spent hundreds of their hard earned dollars to buy team merchandise only to be told before two of the biggest races of the year that the drivers they support won't be wearing those colours.

Neil Stratton

The post-race hangover: 5% Goodbye and Good luck: Terry Labonte will be sorely missed.

R Kelly cuts Lowndes's lead: 2%

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